Organic Surge Blissful Daily Moisturiser

...down to was chance. The Organic Surge range was one I first encountered in the big Boots in Leicester while I was still at university and I'd tried a few different items (shower gel, conditioner, bath liquid etc) and decided I really liked it and wanted to carry on using it, partly because the range - then better known as Think Happy Organic Surge, I think? - is made with minimal chemicals and based around natural ingredients and extracts, so I thought ...
...must have been something about Organic Surge that made me decide to part with £7.99 for a 50ml jar in about three minutes flat. Oddly I'd been browsing the company's website www.organicsurge.com and spotted a new item, the Blissful Daily Moisturiser (it's also £7.99 on there) and thought that something intended to be that gentle might at least soften my skin without aggravating it. The jar suggested that it "softens, nourishes and rehydrates ... more

My skin and I don't often get along. I've been in the "teenage skin" phase for about fifteen years (so, since I was nine!) which is a pain in the neck because it's always made me think twice about putting anything on that will irritate it or make me go blotchy . . . the quickest way for people to panic me is to offer to do my make-up with their stuff because I never trust my complexion to tolerate it. Lately, I've been after an effective, gentle, not-too-greasy moisturiser to balance out the effects of my Clarins exfoliating scrub. (It's a brilliant product but after a couple of months with no moisturiser - not a bright idea - my face was a bit too dry and I decided I needed something that wouldn't irritate me. I've used the Dead Sea Spa Magik range for about ten years but it's suddenly started to irritate me - whether because my skin has change or because the ingredients have, I don't know. I just know my face doesn't like the moisturiser now!)

So why did I choose this one? What it really came down to was chance. The Organic Surge range was one I first encountered in the big Boots in Leicester while I was still at university and I'd tried a few different items (shower gel, conditioner, bath liquid etc) and decided I really liked it and wanted to carry on using it, partly because the range - then better known as Think Happy Organic Surge, I think? - is made with minimal chemicals and based around natural ingredients and extracts, so I thought I'd give my skin a change. Naturally, by the time I came to replace the things I'd bought, Boots had discontinued it. That was two years ago and I'd even been as far as Liverpool trying to find it with no luck, so I certainly wasn't expecting it to be in my local (tiny) branch of Boots.

But it naturally follows that there must have been something about Organic Surge that made me decide to part with £7.99 for a 50ml jar in about three minutes flat. Oddly I'd been browsing the company's website www.organicsurge.com and spotted a new item, the Blissful Daily Moisturiser (it's also £7.99 on there) and thought that something intended to be that gentle might at least soften my skin without aggravating it. The jar suggested that it "softens, nourishes and rehydrates with skin-loving ingredients" and I'm a sort of latent "alternative" shopper - if it's easy to get hold of and I find it works for me, I'll buy it!

Being only a 50ml quantity, the jar isn't actually that big - a short (maybe 2cm high), wide (about 5cm) clear glass jar topped with a translucent yet opaque clear/white plastic screw-on lid. The glass makes it seem weighty but the much lighter plastic lid counteracts that slightly and it looks neat even if it feels heavy. There is a "pink" theme to the branding, with a pearly dusky pink circular label on the top and a long thin wide one around the wall of the jar, with contrasting bright (not quite neon but almost!) pink highlights as a secondary colour, yet the bright pink never seems garish because it's used sparingly and there is an additional colour thanks to a tiny section of leafy-looking green. The label says the cream contains organic rosemary and lemon essential oils and I'm into aromatherapy so I've picked up a few Latin names and I certainly spotted Rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) and Citrus limonum (lemon) in the ingredients. There are various other Latin terms on there and a surprising - if reassuring - relative lack of scientific-sounding additions with 20-odd letter names.

I don't make a habit of trying beauty products out in the middle of the high street but for some reason, I couldn't resist trying a bit. The first thing I noticed was the fragrance - it reminded me of an essential oil farm shop I know of where the aromas hit you as soon as you walk in. Although I'd never presume to say the Blissful Daily Moisturiser was perfume-free, I'm inclined to think that what fragrance there is has to come from the plant extracts. I don't think there is one particular scent that stands out - it's more a general botanical/plantlike/almost herbal scent although I did pick up a note of something citrus. It looks just like a typical moisturiser - a white, slightly slippy cream of a similar texture to antiseptic cream but it smells much more appealing. (There's one of those slightly annoying plastic inner lids with a little tab that you lift to get to the cream, but that's the only irritating thing about it!)

I've applied the moisturiser about three times a day since I bought it, using perhaps a third of a teaspoonful each time. I won't go as far as to say it has made my skin feel completely smooth - with my "needs mild exfoliating every two days at the most" complexion, I'd need a miracle to get that from it! - but it has certainly made it feel moisturised and soft. It hasn't irritated me and the scent is most obvious when I rub it in, but fades afterwards so it wouldn't clash with perfume - although personally I don't wear much perfume anyway. I do like the fragrance and I think that factor is also making me want to use it (always good!) but I imagine that, although subtle, it might not suit everybody.

Since exfoliation is my "necessary evil", the day after I bought it I put this moisturiser to the test and applied it straight after using my facial scrub, which stopped my face from feeling drier. At first I thought it felt a bit "heavy", but I don't think that is to do with the cream so much as the fact that I've gone so long without a moisturiser and it does sink in quickly without leaving any sort of "greasy" feel - again, I don't know whether this is what it's supposed to do or whether my face is so desperate for moisture that it's taking anything it can get! Even the drier patches on my face seem more comfortable and less irritable at the moment. I'm trying to apply it once in the morning after using my facial scrub and then again at night (only using a small dot on my forehead, cheeks, nose and chin) and this seems to be enough to last all day.

Assuming luck is with me and Boots don't discontinue the range (again), I am pretty sure that I'm going to buy this again. Even if they do stop selling it, I think I'd just go to the Organic Surge website and buy it online if I had to. I think it could have some appeal both for those with sensitive skin and the green-minded shopper. 

...less