A cream is basically a very fine mixture of oil and water and is a convenient way of applying oil to the skin. If you put a lot of oil into a cream it is better for the skin but it can take a long time to soak in and can be sticky and inconvenient to apply. For this reason, a cream that is going to be used during the day will be formulated to have a relatively low level of oil. At night you can apply more oil as you will have all night for it work.

That is it in a nutshell.

Poppet,

There are a couple I would recommend though you should try them first. Boots E45 is a good all round cream and is very reasonably priced. The only drawback is that it contains lanolin - though very very few people are allergic to lanolin in reality. Oilatum Cream is very similar to E45 but doesn't contain lanolin. Of the two I would say that the lanolin in E45 makes it better if you aren't allergic to it. If you want to try something that I formulated Artful Teasing (www.arttulteasing.com) do a Nourishing Face Cream and an unscented bath oil both of which I modestly believe are very good, though the price tag might be a bit high for regular use.