Monday Muse is one of my favourite skincare brands for their simple, gentle and effective skincare formulas, and they don't launch new products very often so I was really excited to see they were adding a moisturiser to their collection. The Cocktail Eternal Cream* | £47 | promises lightweight hydration and revitalisation for the skin, but I really wasn't sure what to expect in terms of texture or how this would work for my drier skin type. So, let's dive into the formula, ingredients, texture and how I got on with it... Since this is the only moisturiser the brand does, I'd imagine they were trying to cover off a fair number of bases with this formulation and the texture is truly unique. This comes out looking almost like the medium orange oil-based Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream, but as soon as you touch it, it interestingly melts down like a lotion-to-gel. It has a hydrating look and feel on the skin but it doesn't leave a kind of glossy excess on the skin or anything like that. And the dewiness is pretty mild, so won't leave you looking shiny, since it's a very water-based, hydrated kind of glow (rather than being from richness or oil-based ingredients). I was a little dubious as to whether this was going to be any good for my drier skin, since it felt very light, but honestly; my skin hasn't felt dry at all since I started using this. Admittedly, I do apply this as a day cream because I just want something a little richer and more comforting for the evening routine now we're in autumn. Possibly it wouldn't be enough to counteract dry skin and overnight water loss, but I was impressed given the texture how well this hydrated my skin. Let's talk about the ingredients next. The formula contains Palmitoyl Tripeptide-38 (a form of Matrixyl, which you may have heard of), which has some really promising research behind it in terms of helping to smooth fine lines and peptides (short-chain amino acids) can also help to plump and hydrate the skin. Rock Samphire is included in this moisturiser too, which is branded as 'natural retinol'; a claim I'm never fond of, to be honest! Yes, it would be nice to have a gentler, photostable and pregnancy-safe form of retinoid, but none of these alleged retinoid-like plant extracts have a fraction of the evidence for their well-ageing benefits. That being said, it's certainly not a bad ingredient to have in a moisturiser; at the very least it's going to have antioxidant properties. Another ingredient that will help protect the skin against free radical is the microalgae included in the formula, which also has anti-inflammatory benefits to help keep sensitive skin happy and redness under control. There's oat oil within this formula that's going to moisturise and soften the skin but will also feel lightweight and non-greasy (as is squalane, a skin-similar plant oil included in this moisturiser). Glycerin is the second ingredient here; it's the less-popular but lowkey more impressive sibling of hyaluronic acid, i.e. it's a powerful humectant that can pull hydration into the skin. There's also a tiny, everyday-friendly amount of salicylic acid to help clarify the skin, clear congestion and keep blemishes at bay. It's fragrance-free and very unlikely to irritate the skin,