Cath Kidston Alpacas Hand & Lip Tin

Got given this as a gift and loved it so much I bought myself another one. The hand cream had a lovely scent that is a bit different and smothers on nicely. The lip balm stays on really well although if you have long hair you need to make sure to keep it back as it will stick onto the lip balm. These products are my little treat during long 12.5 hour shifts.

Gave as gift.

The tin for this Christmassy set is very pretty and cute, with an embossed design of cream coloured happy Alpacas traveling in a ski lift together. The tin is a nice keepsake, reminiscent of button tins my mum used to have, only with a more modern design. The tin is worth a couple of pounds for the novelty of it.However, overall, this is being sold for £12 and this is where the issue arises... it is not worth anywhere near £12 not even with the contents, which are worth another couple of pounds at most. This should not be being sold for more than £5 in my opinion and it is a rip off to say the least at £12.The lip balm comes in a tube, with a gel liquid in it, that you squeeze out and smooth on with the lippy shaped end of the tube. The tube only contains 10ml of product and I had to squeeze well over half the tube before any gel even came out... so there isn't much in the tube, compared the the size of the tube. The tube has a pink label with an Alpaca on it, but it was very poorly stuck on and was off centre and peeling off, so it just looked cheap! It was supposed to smell of vanilla and eggnog, but it just smelt very mildy of a sweet sickly vanilla.The hand cream also comes in a tube, decorated with a sticky label version of the tin, with Alpacas in a ski lift. It contains 50ml of product, but still feels half empty for the size of the tube. The hand cream had a seal over the cream and I was expecting a scent of coconut and juniper, as this is some of the listed contents, but again, I could barely discern a smell (don't know if something is effecting my sense of smell at time of review, but I couldn't smell anything). The cream does leave hands nice and soft and it absorbs well, without feeling sticky and is enriched with vitamin E and shea butter, so it is good for dry skin.Whilst the cream is okay, the whole set is just a big let down really and I think you expect more for £12 than this set offers, it is just disappointing really and really not worth it.

Heathcote and Ivory have produced this Cath Kidson winter-themed gift set, packaged rather surreally in a cute (very nice quality) tin with an illustration of some llamas in a ski lift on the lid.CONTENTS:1x Lip Balm (10ml)1x Hand Cream (50ml)Upon opening the tin, a guff of queasily-sweet aroma escapes, enveloping everything. It's like being buried in a pile of novelty scented erasers.1. LIP BALMThe source of this sweet stench turns out to be the 'Creamy Vanilla and Eggnog' lip balm. I really wouldn't have been any the wiser knowing that. I prefer to know it as 'Custard Vanilla-Vom'. I'm sure young children will love it, nevertheless.It's the squeezy tube type rather than the stick. The balm is gooey, rubbery and quite thick - it takes quite a squeeze to get out of the tube - and there's a slightly bitter taste to it.Method: 'apply to lips as desired'Contents: Polybutene, Paraffinum Liquidum, Ceresin, Shea Butter, Beeswax, Aroma (flavour) - (what on earth does this actually specify?) - Cocos Nucifera Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Tocopheryl Acetate, Cinnamyl Alcohol.2. HAND CREAMDescribed on the tube as 'Christmassy scents of pine needles and cedarwood, alongside notes of red berries and candied sugar - it's sure to leave you with that festive feeling'.Er - no it won't! Up until this point, I wasn't even aware that this was supposed to be a Christmas gift set, so understated are the references to the event. Interestingly, I wasn't reminded of Christmas or a pine tree when I first tried the smell.It's a thick cream, smooth in texture and easy to absorb - the skin is soft and smooth, and feels less dry. The smell is difficult to ignore and won't go away afterwards. I keep sniffing my hands even though I don't like it.Method: 'Apply desired amount and massage into hands'Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Isopropyl Myristate, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Paraffinum Liquidum, Cetearth-25, Dimethicone, Fragrance (again unspecified), Shea Butter, Glyceryl Stearate, PEG-100 Stearate, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Carbomer, Phenoxyethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Triethanolamine, Tocopheryl Acetate, Limonene.OVERALL: The artificial smell overpowers everything. It's sickly sweet and makes everything about the balm and cream feel artificial too. Had I been able to remove the aroma, these products would have been a pleasure to use.

This is a very prettily embossed festive tin from Cath Kidston showing four cute alpacas in a ski lift. Perfect for giving as a Christmas gift.The tin contains the following:A 10ml tube of hydrating lip balm 'Vanilla and Eggnog' flavour. This lip balm is quite thick and sticky but it does leave lips well moisturised and hydrated. It has a sweet scent of vanilla and candy (I can't really smell the eggnog)A 50ml tube of moisturising hand cream. This hand cream has a very sweet scent and contains oils of Juniper, Shea butter, coconut oil and vitamin E. This cream is also thick although it does absorb into the skin quickly leaving your hands scented and smooth.The festive tin measures 15.24cm x 10.16, it is a very good quality tin and beautifully decorated. In fact it is a very useable tin, perfect for bits and pieces.My only reservation is the price (£12 at the time of this review) which I feel is a bit on the expensive side.