Elizabeth Arden - Eight Hour Cream

For years I've heard beauty bloggers and YouTube makeup gurus raving on and on about the amazing cream that is Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream. As you can tell, mine's a bit old now (the packaging has been updated), but it's still the same formula.

I have had this for months and never really used it. Partly because I wasn't sure what to do with it at first (while I'm all for them in theory, multi-purpose products always take me a little while to figure out). But mainly? The smell. MY GOD the smell. It has lanolin in it - which, for those of you who don't know, is an oil that is naturally-occurring on sheep's wool and is an excellent moisturizer and barrier to lock in moisture - which has quite a gamey scent. On top of that it has a 'herbal' smell, and the combination is killer.

According to the package instructions (above), you can use this anywhere you have dry or chapped skin, including the lips. Seriously? No WAY would I put this anywhere near my nose. I'm guessing that with a smell like that, it wouldn't taste too delicious either! I've heard beauty bloggers on YouTube say that it works wonders on dry lips. In fact, Tanya Burr, whose videos I love, carries it in her purse:



And I'm sure it works well. But I don't think I'd be able to handle it that close to my nose, no matter how well it worked!

So what's the verdict, you ask? Well, while I'm not about to be slathering this on my kisser anytime soon, I can say that the shit works. I suffer from diabetic dry skin, which means that (particularly in winter) the skin on my hands and feet dries until it cracks - painfully. I have found that applying this to my cracked heels, letting it sit for awhile, soaking up the excess with a tissue and then applying a regular foot cream does do an amazing job on softening my heels. So for that it's great - but not really worth the price. There are plenty of intensive and lanolin-based products on the market that will do the same thing for half the price - and that smell better!

I believe there is a scent-free version of this, which I haven't yet tried. If you have, share your thoughts! Is it really scent-free? Does it work as well as the original?