Creme de La Mer Launch The Hydrating Facial; Aisling Road Tests it by Chanelling Hannibal Lecter

She ate no one's liver with a nice Chanti and some fava beans but what Aisling was in fact doing in that bizarre pic we blogged earlier in the week was road-testing Creme de La Mer's November-launching The Hydrating Facial, €225.

At that price, she wanted to not rate it. No, she felt like she needed to dislike it intensely.

For your cash, you get six packs of thick, unguent-soaked sheets in a lovely presentation box, which effectively works out at €37.50 per go. So far, so La Mer. I do have a total soft spot for this brand and I will hand-on-heart say I think its original creme is a fantastic product if you're over 30; have very dry skin; suffer sensitivities; are very rich - or are all of the former.

Anyway, that said, like all brands, I don't love everything the company does - it has its duds as well as its successes -  and I had just one pack of these to test as opposed to the full box you'd get as a paying customer. One pack comprises two sachets banded together elegantly - one contains a sheet for the top part of the face, and one for the lower. I'm not entirely sure of the reasoning for that, as it happens. I generously allowed Aisling to be the blog's guinea pig for this experiment - yes, I am utterly selfless. Utterly.

These are very generously infused - I've used sheet masques in the past that were little more than a wet wipe and did about as much - and they are thick, fat pieces of waffly, soft fabric. Eight minutes is what's required for the best at-home facial pick-me-up you've ever had, so away we went. Ok, we left it on a little over time, hamming things up and taking snaps, but once the sheets came off and Aisling came back out of the bathroom post-removal, what did she think?

Grudgingly, she agreed that "this makes skin really soft."  Oh yes, I inquired, anything else? "Yes," she said, warming now to her theme. Wine may have been involved. "You don't actually need to wash off the residue, you can just rub in the remaining cream," she said enthusiastically touching her face in manner of lady in Luxe advert from the 1980s. But, she frowned, undoing all the good hydrating work, "it's so expensive, and you can get other products to do the same."

However, she wasn't yet done pondering. "The thing is, while I don't love the whole sheet masque thing, they really do keep the ingredients locked down." Here she paused to glug some Sauvignon, finishing with, "so basically, if you have a million quid, then this is lovely and you should buy it."

And there, dear readers of Beaut.ie, endeth the review.