Banila Co. Miss Flowers & Mr Honey Cream review
I had been eyeing this cream for ages. I love honey products and had been eyes several of Banilas products for a long time since they looked quite interesting to me. I never took the plunge due to the higher prices and no reviews. I think my first Banila product I purchased was the Blacks sleeping pack. It was on sale and Samplehime actually quite liked it so I took the plunge into the deep dark waters of near black sleeping packs. I have since used a few more of their products without being wowed to be honest. Something that is always disappointing if you are lusting after a specific brand for a while. When Kosmeshop offered me sponsorship I immediately inspected their shop for products I could either not afford, had been wanting to get for a long time, or anything new to tickle our collective fancy. I quickly spotted The Ms Flower and Mr Honey cream and knew I had to get it since it fulfilled all three of these categories. That being said my expectations were quite high especially after seeing how much Jude from Fiftyshadesofsnail raved about this moisturizer.
I have to admit I came out a little disappointed. That is my own fault though. I should not put great hopes into recommendations of people who don't have extremely dry skin for a solve-all-dry-skin-problems-miracle-moisturizer. I also need to stop thinking that any new cream I try might come even close to my ferocious passionate affair I had with Ladykins Vanpir cream (seriously this stuff is the closest I have come to moisturising magic yet). Both these thoughts can really influence my views on some products I review but the least I can do is mention them to you, dear reader, so you can make your own biased opinion about it yourself (aren't we all a little biased?).
Enough with the lengthy intro let's get to the good stuff first.
I honestly understand why one would get a little bit of a crush on this cream, after all it has two big things going for it that can be very influential. Smell and texture. I mean those two are so important that people will stop using products that work well just because they aren't happy with either of those categories. When it comes to scent this cream wins quite a few happy nose points. It smells like creamed canola honey. If you don't like the scent of honey you will likely not like this, so stay far away. That being said the scent is not strong (neither is most honeys either) and doesn't really linger. The other good part about it is that it smells like true honey, not an artificially scented honey or honey approximations that I have smelled in other honey related products. I have honestly no idea how they got the smell so right. I mean I have a good nose and I am very scentsitive and they could fool me with this. If I would have to smell this during a blind test I would swear it was honey and promptly eat it (not something I have done. Yet?)
The other plus is the texture. First I thought the texture was also just like honey (not a good thing honestly) but I realised I was just being blinded by how much it looked and smelled like creamed honey. The texture is like a balm. At least when you touch it with your fingers. It applies much lighter than a balm but it is definitely heavier than most Korean creams I have used. That being said the texture feels very luxurious. It is not like pure Lanolin or 8 hour cream balmy in the sense that it is super thick and difficult to spread, but more like a very lightweight balm that feels very pleasant to use.
If you wonder why I was disappointed I am getting to that just about now.
There is really two main issues I have with this product. The feeling it leaves on my skin and the efficacy on my specific skin type.
As I have elaborated here, I have some sensory issues when it comes to cosmetics (and everything really). One particular issue I have is with products leaving any kind of film on my skin. It is not that I expect to apply a moisturizer and have my skin in the exact state it was before (why would I use it then, right?) but I don't want to actually have any kind of layer on my skin.
Unfortunately this cream does just that. I wish Jude would have mentioned that earlier, than the review she uploaded recently, since she does mention that particular issue on her blog. I might have still bought the product or maybe not, who knows, but likely not. It is not bad enough for me not to use it but I will certainly not repurchase since I don't find it very pleasant on my face. Johnny, who has similar sensory issues, was not a fan of this either. He mentioned it once or twice but continued using it regardless.
I did not have issues with shine but my skin also drinks up anything that isn't nailed to the walls.
The other issue I had was that it just didn't do that much in terms of moisturizations. I mean it was lovely cream, that is for sure, but I have very huge standards of performance due to my skin-that-hates-everything-and-everyone.
As I have said time and time again my skin is like the driest desert of all the deserts, it is a sebumless freak of nature that seems to be unsatisfied with 95% of products I throw at it. Believe me I have tried a lot of things and the products that actually work to keep my skin happy for 8 hours straight is near null. Working in a beauty store and working my way through all of the goodies from cheapest to most luxurious I have only found 2 products that seemed to help even a little bit and that is pretty sad considering the sheer amount of hydrating and moisturising products I threw at my face. And that was years before I started blogging of course.
So is this cream bad or ineffective, not at all. It is quite lovely I believe but if you have super duper dry skin which is not happy with almost any moisturisers you have used this will likely not be your miracle cream either. If you have normal or regularly dry skin than you will probably enjoy this quite a bit (unless you have film issues too of course, or a honey phobia).
Since the application process of this is very pleasant, the scent makes me all kinds of hungry and the ingredients look promising I did somewhat enjoy my testing period. I have used it for a month and a half now and still have a quarter jar to go since this thing seems to be a never-ending pit of product. I have given some to Mother to see what she has to say. She has normal to dehydrated mature skin and no issues with films whatsoever. Who knows maybe it will become her HG. I will update when I have more info.
I will happily finish the rest of my jar but am still a little sad that this adventure has not started my next skincare romance.
Rating: 1.Blegh 2. Pff 3. Meh 4. Oohh 5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha
Ingredients: Here
Available at Kosmeshop
Available on Ebay
Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for review purposes. That fact does not alter my review or opinion in any matter. For more information read my Disclaimer page
