Review: Organic Surge Refreshing Toner

I was introduced to Organic Surge as a brand several months ago through a beauty box which featured one of their cleansers which left me pretty impressed. I soon ventured online and ordered this toner to go alongside it in my skincare routine.

And just like the cleanser, this toner really made me look twice. It's a very light, refreshing liquid that doesn't sting nor does it leave your skin sticky in any way. The rosemary and lemon oils it contains make for a very refreshing scent and although it doesn't linger, it just adds to the experience making it a pleasure to use morning and evening.

As for skin benefit it's a tricky one to judge. I never found toners to make a huge impact on my skin, but I feel like this one has just very nicely slotted into my usual skincare regime and seems to make other products work just a bit more effectively.

The only thing stopping me from repurchasing it at the moment is the fact that you have to buy Organic Surge products from their website directly - I prefer being able to just pop into a shop and grab something or make bulk online purchases from more than just one brand. On the plus side, they constantly seem to have some sort of discount going on and at £6.50 a pop, it's certainly affordable and a great price for the quality you get!

Have you tried anything from Organic Surge?

Beauteco Box June 13 - A new kid on the beauty box block

After last month's incredibly disappointing Birchbox I thought that was it - I was done with beauty boxes and the slew of same old samples, mixed with the bitter disappointment that personal beauty profiles seemed not to be taken into account at all. I was done wasting my money.
Then Beauteco popped up on the market, with a whole new concept. Rather than make you fill out lengthy profiles, only to ignore your input completely when the boxes were packed, they let you choose one of three variations for yourself, before it gets delivered.

At first, I was unsure. Getting to pick a box completely destroys the element of surprise, which was the main thing I loved about beauty boxes when they first launched. But when I took a peak on their website to see what was on offer, I couldn't help but feel a little excited, so I selected box 2 out of 3 and handed over my hard earned cash.

I cannot help but say a few words on the packaging of this box. At first Glossybox seemed to get it spot on with their luxurious packaging with plenty attention to detail. After a while, however, I just didn't know what to do with all those hard cardboard boxes - they were too pretty to throw away, but a girl only needs so many pink boxes in her life. Birchbox packaging on the other hand didn't appeal to me at all. A tiny brown box with this random drawstring bag that nobody needs in their life - it went straight in the bin as soon as it arrived.
Beauteco Box seem to have hit the nail on the head. There's no "box within a box" inception going on here, just one outer packaging which is filled with some pretty tissue paper and the products. No clutter, no unnecessary random bits, but still enough prettiness to make this feel like a treat. I'm impressed.

Now, while I knew pretty much exactly what would be in my box, I still couldn't help but feel rather excited about unwrapping it and inspecting each and every item. Here's the selection I went for.

1) Organic Surge | Gentle Cleansing Lotion

Full size: £5.99 for 200ml

I opted for the lotion over the cleansing wipes or the moisturiser, as I felt that this is what my skin will get on with the best (that and I just bought a really disappointing cleanser, so was in dire need of a new one). This is a full sized product, so I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of it. It has a very refreshing herbal scent - you can really, really smell the rosemary, but it's not unpleasant. Two things I'm not a great fan of is that it's quite hard to get out of the tube and I can see myself struggling to get the bottom bits out. The instructions also say to wipe this off with a tissue or cotton pad and I much prefer to wash my face with something I can just rinse off with water rather than littering my bathroom with bits of cotton.

2) Headline Colors | Glamour Nail Polish

Full size: £9 for 10ml

Two items in and I've already made my money back on this box with another full sized product. Granted, the bright blue colour from box one would have been much more "me", but I'm sure I'll still enjoy this one as well. While I have plenty of blues in my nail polish collection, there's not a single gold colour, so it's going on my nails pretty much straight away!

3) Amie | New Leaf Skin Exfoliating Polish

Full size: £4.95 for 75ml

Woah, there - it's another full sized product in my box! This product was available in all three boxes, but I'm still very happy I got it. I love a good grainy exfoliator and this one looks like it fits the ticket perfectly. And the smell - oh my god, the smell. It smells like an even more delicious version of a Solero ice cream and makes my mouth water every time I get a little whiff. Cannot wait to try this out.

4) Balance Me | Wonder Eye Cream

Full size: £20 for 15ml / Sample value: £13.33

Though this is the first item that's "only" a sample size, it's still an incredibly generous sample which I'm sure will last me a long time. This is exactly what I have in mind when beauty boxes promise "luxury samples" and I would have still been happy if there were no full sized products, but all samples were this size.

Balance Me are a brand that has been popping up in beauty boxes before, but never in one I've had. I've never read a bad review of any of their products and they appear in loads of "Favourites" type posts, so I was dying to give them a go. This is another product that appeared in all 3 versions of this month's box.

5) Eve of St Agnes | Body Balm

Full size: £6

Here's me complaining about multi-purpose balms and then I go and pick a box with a body balm over a moisturiser or a nutritional supplement. Truth be told, I'm not quite sure yet how and when I'm going to use this. I imagine it will be of much more use to me in winter, when my skin can get quite dry, but at the moment a normal body moisturiser does the job just fine. This does have an amazing rose scent to it, so I'm thinking I might just use it in small amounts after showering and see what it does to my skin. Did I mention it's another full sized product?

Total value: £45.94

Overall, I have to say, Beauteco Box have simply blown me away. With four full sized products and one very generous sample - all of which I'm going to get some sort of use from, the box feels like a real treat to me. I didn't miss the element of surprise at all, but instead got rather excited about getting a box full of goodies that I know are tailored to my needs. 

Though none of the brands featured were luxury brands, I still made my money back both in mathematical, as well as perceived value. The fact that the focus is on natural and organic beauty means I get to try out loads of brands I've never used before.

Most importantly, however, Beauteco Box have managed to do something other subscription services have failed to do for the past couple of months: To really get me excited about beauty boxes once again.

Spa Organics Gentle Cucumber Cleanser Review

Welcome to the New Year everyone. I hope you had a great New Year's Eve and had a good time, even if like me you didn't do anything fancy.

For the first post this year I have a product I've been meaning to review for a while now, but haven't got round to till now: The Spa Organics Gentle Cucumber Cleanser*.

Spa Organics are a new cosmetics brand delivering (you guessed it) natural and organic beauty products at affordable prices. Their range isn't particularly big, but all products are well thought out and you can see the time and effort that has gone into creating each and every one of them.

I wouldn't be saying that just for the sake of it - the thing that made me take notice was that along with the cleanser I received a comprehensive list of ingredients for all their products, including an explanation what exactly it was doing in there. I don't know what half the ingredients in my beauty products are, not to mention what they're actually supposed to do for me, so this was truly a breath of fresh air. There isn't a single chemical nasty in their products, a lot of ingredients are locally sourced and the products aren't tested on animals either. So far, a big thumbs up.

The Gentle Cucumber Cleanser comes in a 150ml plastic pump bottle. It dispenses easily and the pump has a well functioning locking system which means it travels well without any spillages. I use about one pump in the mornings and one and a half in the evenings, when my face is grimy and dirty from make-up and, well, all that other mucky stuff you pick up during the course of the day.
The packaging may not be particularly fancy, but it's a new company we're talking about, after all, and it's the inside that counts. (I've had my fair share of brightly coloured, elaborately packaged products with lots of witty slogans printed all over them that turned out to be rubbish)

The thing that surprised me the most is just how creamy this cleanser is. I haven't tried an awful lot of all-natural cosmetics, but my experience with them so far was that the texture is somehow lacking without the use of silicones, making for products that are very difficult to spread and apply. Not so with this - it feels thick, smooth and luxurious on the skin, though it's creamy richness means you have to be extra thorough when rinsing it off.

I feel that the scent is definitely worth mentioning, so take note if you have a sensitive nose, please. This smells. Not in a bad way, but it has a very intense cucumber scent. It doesn't linger and disappears as soon as you rinse off the cleanser. Personally, it doesn't bother me - I associate the scent of cucumbers with freshness and cleanliness which fits in perfectly with the whole idea of a cleanser. Yet if strong scents bother you or if you have an aversion to cucumbers, this might be a point worth considering.

As for the skin benefits I would agree that this is particularly suited to sensitive skin. It was gentle enough and did not cause any of that pulling tight feeling that some harsher cleansers leave on your face. It's not meant to be used on the eye area, but if a little bit gets in through too vigorous scrubbing (I am often guilty of that) it won't leave your eyes red and sore.
At first, the cleanser wasn't quite thorough enough for me in the evenings and I'd still find a bit of dirt and make-up on my cotton pad after toning, but when I increased the amount I used from one pump to one and a half that seemed to solve the problem. After that, the cleanser served me well and did what it was meant to do in a gentle, skin friendly manner. The beautiful texture made me perk up and often stopped me from rubbing my face like a dirty old rag and to treat it kindly instead.

The cleanser retails at £10.95 for 150ml which is more than justified in my honest opinion. You'd be hard pressed to find natural, organic products at such a price and I find you get good value for your money.

You can pick up this as well as other products in the range on the Spa Organics website, which also includes the comprehensive list of ingredients used that I talked about earlier.

All in all, a great find for those who want to venture into organic skincare without having to break the bank or compromising on quality.

*PR sample sent for consideration

Bourjois Bio Detox Foundation Review

I cannot say that I've always been particularly open to experiments when it comes to foundation. I found my perfect match in MAC and wouldn't buy any other brand for years due to traumatic mis-matching at other brands' counters. However, about a year or so ago, I decided it was time to branch out a little. I tried some Chanel which I've rambled on about enough already, but I'd also heard some good things about Bourjois foundations. As they're drugstore they're a lot easier on the wallet and there was nobody there to argue with me about the right shade for my skin.

I eventually went for the Bio Detox foundation - not out of choice, but because this was the only one that came in a shade light enough for my NC15 complexion.

I have to state from the very beginning, that the shade match was the only reason I bought this foundation. The fact that it is organic was a bonus, but it is not something I actively seek out when purchasing cosmetics (as opposed to when I buy food). Having said that, it is pretty impressive that such a mainstream brand has brought out a product that deserves the Ecocert badge. Ecocert carries very strict criteria and at least 95% of all ingredients must be natural or of natural origin, so you're guaranteed a fitting product if this is something that's important to you.

The product is housed inside a plastic bottle that is made to look like glass with a milky white cap. The packaging looks fairly elegant apart from the lid which is a bit flimsy and tacky looking. Nevertheless this is certainly not a product I would be too embarrassed to have on display!
It houses 30ml of product which is a very good amount - more than I was able to use, but more on that later. The foundation also comes with a pump dispenser which gets a big thumbs up from me for hygiene and also making it easy to get the right dose of product. The tip of the pump does tend to get clogged a little from time to time, but this wasn't a major issue for me, as it just needed a pump to squeeze out the blockage.

The actual foundation itself is quite a thick liquid, though it is by no means greasy. Unfortunately I found this product extremely difficult to blend. I could practically forget using any kind of brush with this foundation, as it would just leave a horrible streaky mess. It fared a little better when blended in with my hands, but still took a lot of attention. I just could not rush application or otherwise I'd be looking in the mirror at a later point only to find streaks of foundation all over my face.
Since buying this product I have found out that this problem occurs due to the fact that this foundation contains no silicone. I won't pretend that I know an awful lot about this (Lisa Eldridge made a fantastic video about organic and natural make-up in which she explains all about silicones here), but basically silicone is responsible for that lovely smooth feel that makes some foundations just glide over your skin.
Here are some swatches to show you just how difficult it is to blend:

Bourjois Bio Detox straight out of the pump

Blended out a little

Blended out more....

Blended out "fully" though you can still see some lines

Due to this problem I had to be extremely careful, as improper blending would only highlight pores, dry patches or expression lines.

Now, I don't really want to give this product a bad review because of this. After all it prides itself on the fact that it contains mainly natural ingredients, so this is the result you're going to get (and I'm sure you could do a lot worse!). It's a bit like ordering a vegetarian meal at a restaurant and then sending it back because it doesn't contain any meat.

However, I would like to note that this also impaired the product's longevity. After about six months it became so thick that I struggled to get it out of the tube, by which point I knew it was gone off and had to chuck it in the bin, despite the fact that there was still a healthy amount of foundation left in the packaging.

Finally, I would recommend this foundation only to those who are serious about their natural beauty and skincare products. If you're a fan of melt-on make-up like I am and just want to try out something different, then by all means do, but chances are you're not going to get on with this. But if you are one of the former, then this will be great as it's so easily accessible and the price is very reasonable as well.

This is available for £10.99 at drugstores, supermarkets and some pharmacies.

Have you tried any natural/organic foundations? What are your experiences?