Retinol, also known as vitamin A, is an essential nutrient which serves a number of different purposes in your body.

When used in skincare products, retinol helps to stimulate the production of collagen, a protein which is one of the natural building blocks in your body.

By stimulating collagen production, retinol helps to speed up the production of new skin cells and the shedding of older skin cells, revealing brighter, younger-looking skin.

In this way, retinol can also help to reduce the appearance of fine lines, pores, and dark spots.

SPF is included in lots of moisturisers as it offers protection from the harmful UVB rays in sunlight.

UVB is responsible for skin damage in the form on sunburn and blistering, so by including SPF protection your daily moisturiser can help to protect your skin from the sun on days where you wouldn’t usually think to reach for sunscreen.

When your skin is dry you may experience scaly or flaky skin or skin that has fine lines or cracks.

If you touch your skin, it may feel rough and sensitive or even a little painful.

There are many factors that can cause dry skin from the weather to spending too long in the shower Whenever we leave the house, our skin is exposed to the elements, from UV rays to freezing temperatures.

Our skin is at particular risk during the winter months, as temperatures plummet and humidity is reduced, which dries out our skin.

Again, in winter, we are more likely to turn up the thermostat or light the fire, which may feel lovely after a day out in the cold, but sources of heat in our homes reduce the moisture in the air, which can cause our skin to lose hydration.

Taking hot showers and baths with harsh soaps or detergents, can damage our skin through dehydration and stripping the skin of its natural oils.

Spending lots of time in chlorinated water, such as swimming pools and hot tubs can also strip our skin, leaving it dry.

Olay makes every effort to ensure that their products are cruelty-free, however, they do not claim to be cruelty-free on their packaging.

This is because their products are still legally required to be tested on animals to be sold in some countries, meaning that they must submit these products to labs which carry out animal testing.

Olay does not believe that animal testing is necessary and their parent company has invested $410 million into developing alternative methods of testing for their products, for example, using “lab skins” which have similar physical properties to natural skin for their testing.

They have also partnered with Humane Society International to support their #BeCrueltyFree campaign, which aims to ban animal testing for cosmetics in all major global beauty markets by 2023.