Makeup, Beauty and More: L'Occitane Amande Velvet Youthful Body Balm

L’Occitane's Amande/Almond line of bath and body products are among my top picks that I’d reach out to when I want a luxurious shower treat. New to the Amande line is the Velvet Youthful Body Balm ($62; usa.loccitane.com), a rich, silky balm for continuous hydration that also helps smoothen and even out skin tone on the body with use.

It can be used all over the body, especially massaging it well around the thighs, chest, arms and tummy. I love, love, love the scent of the product and the weighty glass jar it comes it. It is rather quick absorbing for a thicker product and feels absolutely luxurious while massaging it it. There’s no greasy residue or trace of product once it sinks in, which is does pretty fast and the scent does linger around for a bit, which to me, is a soothing, calming scent that isn’t too strong. It is a pricey cream , but I have been using it generously for the past three weeks or so and haven’t used that much at all - not even 1/4 the way through the jar yet. The Velvet Body Balm claims to refine skin tone and smoothen fine lines on the body - I can say that it does a fabulous job of moisturizing and keeping skin feeling plump, but I’d have to use it much longer to see fine lines smoothen out visibly. Rich, but weightless is what I’d describe the texture to be, which is just what I look for in any body cream. Overall, the L’Occitane Almond Velvet Body Balm gets a huge thumbs up for how soft, silky and plump it leaves my skin feeling after a shower and two thumbs up for how beautifully fragranced it is!