Which face cream is best? We rate brands from budget to luxury

CREAM of the crop or a fly in the ointment?

Aldi is well-known for its award-winning Lacura beauty products and today it releases a new range all based on CAVIAR.

It might sound anunlikely beauty ingredient, but one luxury brand, La Prairie, has its own caviar range, with one cream costing a whopping £292.

Aldi’s version of the super-expensive range is as cheap as chips, with a day cream costing just £6.99 and the dearest product in the range just £12.99.

Experts are predicting they’ll be a sell-out.

But, with a bewildering array ofbeauty choices on the shelves of chemists and supermarkets, what’s worth buying and what should be left on the shelf?

Our testers tried a range of products, priced from £1.99 to £33.

Is dearer always better? Are our testers looking 10 years younger?

There were some interesting results

Day CreamThey should protect your skin from the elements and give you a base for make-up. Is it worth spending over £30 or can you get the same results for just over a fiver?

Budget: Lacura Caviar Illumination Day Cream, £6.99, Aldi Fragrance: Not the least bit fishy! Results: Our testers described their 40+ skin as softer and “less haggard”. Got to have it? **** Fantastic value. Mid-price: Avon Anew Reversalist Complete Renewal Day Cream SPF25, £21.60 Fragrance: Floral. Results: A quality range. One tester with oily skin found it too rich, but for drier skins it worked a treat. Got to have it? **** Luxury: Blisslabs UV Protect SPF30, £33 Fragrance: Slightly medicated. Results: Our testers loved it as a smooth base. Recommended as a ‘top coat’ after moisturiser, but those with oily skin found it enough on its own. Got to have it? **

Night CreamBeauty gurus will tell you that your skin is most receptive to treatment while you sleep. But will any creams make you look as fresh as a daisy?

Budget: Cien 24-hr cream, £1.99, Lidl Fragrance: Highly floral. Results: It’s rich and fluffy and one of our testers described it as being like “comfort food” for her very dry skin. Got to have it? ***** Unbeatable value and great results. Mid-price: Garnier Ultralift Night Cream, £9.99 Fragrance: Not too strong. Results: Our testers thought that it was a good buy for a tenner. One felt it left her skin sticky but it did soften her nose-to-mouth lines. Got to have it? *** Luxury: Vichy Idealia Skin Sleep, £26.50 Fragrance: Rosy. Efficiency: Claims to rid your skin of that dullness you get when you don’t get enough kip. One tester is addicted, saying the smell alone helps her to sleep! Got to have it? *** Expensive, but a treat. SerumA few years ago, serums were few and far between. Now experts consider them essential. A beauty must-have or just another way to get you to part with your hard-earned cash?

Budget: Lacura Renew Q10 Multi Intensive Serum, £3.49, Aldi Fragrance: Floral. Results: Pleasant to use, but split our testers. One said she’d be “as well using butter”. Another, with more oily skin, found it suited her. Got to have it? *** Mid-price: Nivea Q10 Anti-Wrinkle Serum, £10 Fragrance: Quite highly perfumed, but might not suit sensitive skins. Results: Delivered the goods in that our testers all thought lines were softer. Got to have it? *** Luxury: No 7 Lift & Luminate Day and Night Serum, £24.95 Fragrance: Very faint. Results: Lift & Luminate is a multi-tasker for lines, firmness and wrinkles. One tester said it was a “miracle in a tube”. Got to have it? ***

CleanserPart cleanser and part exfoliator, hot cloth cleansers are a great way of getting rid of all the grime of the day and giving your skin a gentle buff into the bargain.

Budget: Nspa Hot Cloth Polish, £7, Asda Fragrance: Slightly chocolatey. Results: Did a good job of getting rid of make-up and grime. Testers said their skin looked fresher and less tired after a week. Got to have it? **** A great budget buy. Mid-price: M&S Formula Time Defy Radiant Cleanse Brightening Hot Cloth Cleanser, £10 Fragrance: Fresh. Results: Claims to remove all traces of make-up, even waterproof mascara. Guess what? It really does. Got to have it? *** Luxury: Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser, £15.50 for a starter kit. Fragrance: Fresh. Results: One tester thought she slept better after use. Another claimed her sensitive skin has improved. Got to have it? *****

BlurProducts that claim to blur and ‘fill’ fine lines have taken off in popularity in recent years. Think of it as airbrushing in a jar. But are they any good?

Budget: Revitalift Magic Blur, £8.66. Fragrance: Subtly floral. Results: Mixed results. While it has a definite ‘soft-focus’ effect, one tester found it flaked off and said her skin looked like it had putty on it! Got to have it? ** Mid-price: Nanoblur Fragrance: Fragrance-free. Results: Think of it as a way of scaling back imperfections for when you want to look your best. Also great for “old lady” hands. Got to have it? **** Super soft-focus. Luxury: Eucerin Hyaluron Filler Concentrate, £31 Fragrance: Has a faint ‘medical’ smell. Results: Our testers used it for weeks but only saw the faintest softening of lines. Got to have it? * A lot to spend for little return.