Battle of the collagen creams: Elemis ultra smart night genius vs Olay regenerist peptite 24 cream

The cream is presented in a large silver box, complete with a small spoon for application, while the large jar the cream is housed in is equally as impressive and screams luxury, which we’re proud to place on our dressing table.

One of the ingredients for the cream is padina pavonica – a brown algae, which is found on the Mediterranean coast and helps with hydration – and it also uses the brands night restore technology, which helps to promote antioxidant activity and restore the skin’s natural recycling processes overnight. Both of these ingredients are said to increase the natural collagen in our skin.

Elemis states that the cream, which is suitable for all skin types, has been put under extensive clinical trials, with the results proven to reduce the appearance of deep-set lines and wrinkles, while improving the skin’s firmness and elasticity.

You’re advised to cleanse the skin before you put the moisturiser on and, even though we haven’t worn make-up, we still cleanse the skin to remove any dirt of pollution from the day and so we see the full effects of the cream.

It’s a light silky consistency that rubs into our skin with ease but also feels quite luxurious. The lightly-fragranced cream, which smells of bitter orange, primrose and jasmine, has a beige colour to it and sits on our skin well, giving it a conditioned feel and an instant glow. It does feel a little sticky next to our pillow as we get into bed but after half an hour it sinks in.

Waking up the next morning we can see a healthy glow to our skin, it looks more hydrated than normal and less tired. However, it’s the result after a few weeks that impressed us – we woke up looking like we’d drunk gallons of water the day before, as our skin felt so hydrated and friends even mentioned how it looked brighter.

As we have combination skin, we sometimes get dry patches on our cheeks but now our skin constantly feels smooth and conditioned. The best part though is the anti-ageing effects – some of the lines underneath our eyes and forehead look less prominent, our skin looks plumper than it has in a while and the hydration is noticeable, not just when we wake up, but throughout the day.

Olay’s offering, although the same 50ml amount, looks tiny next to the Elemis cream, housed in a small plastic jar, it’s probably two-thirds of the size. However, the jar has a silver translucent shimmer to it and a silver screw top lid, which looks attractive.

The cream, which when it first launched in January was so popular that it sold one product every minute, is infused with collagen peptides. This ingredient is said to penetrate up to 10 layers of your skin’s surface, meaning it works on brightening the skin from below. It’s ingredients also include vitamin B3, which is known to intensely hydrate skin.

The white cream disappointingly has no fragrance to it but we loved the way the thin cream coated our face, instantly making it feel hydrated and moisturised. Once on, it does feel a little sticky as it takes time to dry on our skin and we also found we had to thoroughly massage the cream in, otherwise, it would leave patches of white on our face.

The cream is designed to be worn all day and night, however, we loved the effect of the cream when we wore it while sleeping, as it gave us visibly brighter and more hydrated skin by morning. We also applied the cream in the day but it didn’t play well with other products, namely when we applied make-up over it.

After a couple of weeks, our skin started to look plumper and more hydrated. The cream always gave our skin a nice moisturised feel and it never felt dry. However, it didn’t give us the anti-ageing effects we were hoping for and left us reaching for the Elemis cream again.