Facecreams my cat likes - number 1:

Ole Henriksen Herbal Day Creme

The ones that are so good she'll lick them off my face.

Really.

At the end of 2012 I spent a couple of months travelling for work. Naturally, this meant loitering in airports, sometimes with access to the business lounges (Amsterdam's good) and sometimes with nothing but a cheese roll and jelly beans to eat. (Cork.)

Best of all was Copenhagen, because it was full of stuff the like of which I've never seen before or since. (Well, to be fair, not since I was last in Copenhagen 20 years ago.) As well as the licorice flavoured fudge, licorice flavoured chocolate and salt licorice flavoured pastilles, Denmark produces some interesting scents, colour cosmetics and skincare. To be honest, I wasn't overwhelmed by the scent. Maybe next time.

But Ole Henriksen's skin creams are gorgeous. 

About the cat. The more natural ingredients there are in a cream, the more our cat likes them. I'll be sitting quietly at my desk, or tucking myself up in bed, and along comes Mocha, silently sneaking close. She'll pretend to be friendly, then sniff a little, whip out her sweet little sandpaper-textured tongue and exfoliate my cheeks. The technical ones with brand new scientifically developed age-defying epidermis-penetrating credit card maximisers, she ignores those. 

Although Ole Henrikson's stuff isn't cheap. I'd have bought more, but they came in at quite a few Danish Krone so I chose two of them and called it a day. Mine both have sunscreen SPF15. I'd watched that programme with the posh beautiful British Indian dermatologist talking about sun damage and decided it was time to take more care when I step outside.

This one is the Herbal Day Creme. I like it because it's lovely and thick, and it smells of orangeade mixed with an Avon cream I used to use then my mother wasn't looking. It gives you the instant flexibility that makes your skin feel ready to go out and show itself to the world. It says it's for normal/combination skin. I've got oily/sensitive skin but I really don't care what it says on the box. I buy skin cream for the way I want to look and feel.

Why does the cat like it? Sunflower oil, shea butter, soybean oil, grapeseed oil, chamomile (but not so much that you can smell its daisies-in-the-mud fragrance), lemongrass and comfrey. It's got the usual list of stuff I suppose I ought to look up but would really rather not.

Now, I do think that if you're writing the name in English you ought to call it a cream. Creme is just French for cream. When you're Danish, writing in English, call it a cream why don't you? Perhaps Ole's American customers like it like that. One side of the box is in English, the other in French, and they both call it Herbal Day Creme. THere's nothing in Danish. Then again, it's made in the US and distributed in the EU by a company in Berkshire. Ole himself is based in Hollywood now, trained in London, inspired in Indonesia, but Denmark seems pretty proud of him, what with giving him two whole shelf units in Copenhagen's beautiful new airport.

Mind you, it turns out you can buy Herbal Day Creme in Selfridges for £31, somewhat less than you'd pay when they've been flown from the US to Denmark, via Berkshire. 
Harvey Nichols and John Lewis stock his stuff too. Click here for Ole Henriksen stockists.

So don't buy it in Denmark. But if you value the views of a posh cat with good taste - or me - get some. It's lovely, and who doesn't want to smell of orangeade. Perhaps he'll bring out one for the Danish market that smells of licorice. Really. It's good for your skin.