Make 8 your skin's lucky number with Elizabeth Arden

My little sister has long been a very vocal fan of Elizabeth Arden's 8 Hour Cream. She's feckin' kilt trying to convert everyone she meets to the stuff, and at this stage is a proud possesor of everything in the 8 Hour stable. Original skin protectant? Check. Lip balm? Check. Hand cream? Check. Body treatment? Check.

Products from the 8 Hour line were the only things she owned that were never in danger of being pilfered when I lived at home. The appeal of the it by-passed me completely and I was completely mystified at the repeated accolades it picked up in magazine awards; it was orange and it stank to the high heavens, like!

And then... and then. I won a big 50ml tube of 8 Hour Cream in a raffle at a Beaut.ie brunch (prior to becoming the Midlands correspondant, I hasten to add) and wondered how in the name of Chanel I was going to use it up. It sat in its box for weeks and weeks on end until I somehow managed to run out of lip balm, handcream and cuticle oil all in the space of one wintery weekend. In desperation, I cracked open the 8 Hour Cream and now it's a permanent fixture in my handbag. Not once during the winter did I suffer with chapped or even dry lips - a feat none of my previous, sometimes stupidly expensive lip balms had managed to accomplish. My raggedy cuticles were a distant memory, and for the first time ever my nails grew really, really long without peeling or splitting - and I had been religiously using a variety of well-regarded cuticle and nail oils 'n' balms that didn't do anything so impressive.

Now, I'm still not over the smell of it, and it kills me to admit that the little sis was right, but there is just no arguing with totally brilliant results like that!