Long standing favourites for their natural toiletries with yummy scents, Organic Surge have gone premium with the launch of their luxurious Extra Care range.

The formulations are a delight to use with fine textured oils and silky serums that feel like they should cost a whole lot more. The entire range is suitable for sensitive skin but caters to all other skin types too with an Ultra Light oil control lotion for combination and oily types, and a feather light Facial Oil that dry skin will adore.

Here are our recommendations for how to incorporate the range into your day and night time routines and really give your skin care an Extra Care boost.

Day:

1)      Cleanse – Even if you cleansed before you went to bed, skin secretes toxins overnight so a morning cleanse will help to remove these. Take your cleanser into the shower if you’re short on time.

2)      Serum- Use in place of a traditional toner to leave skin soft and velvety. Extra Care Serum restores radiance and relaxes skin to give a visible improvement in lines and wrinkles.

3)      Facial Oil or Oil Control Lotion – to help bring the skin into balance adding extra moisture to dry skin and counteracting oil in greasier skin types. Oil control lotion gives a perfect matte base for make up too.

4)      Eye Cream – To protect the areas prone to first wrinkles.

5)      Moisturise – The final step to ensure skin has the moisture and hydration it needs and provide a good base for makeup.

Night:

1)      Cleanse – the night-time cleanse is crucial, removing all traces of makeup and pollutants allows skin to breathe and prepares it to receive extra moisture.

2)       Serum – Aloe vera and hyaluronic acid provide skin with intense hydration which helps to minimise the appearance of fine lines as skin feels plumped and firmed.

3)      Eye cream – Pat on gently with your ring finger to minimise drag

4)      Night cream – Take advantage of being able to use a rich cream without your make up sliding off. Extra Care night cream is rich but not heavy. Enriched with Argan oil renowned for its anti ageing properties.

 

With the Autumn underway, and nature all  around us transforming into every shade of gold and brown, now’s the time to give a thought to changing our make up to shades to suit the season. Gone are the days of summer pastels and holiday brights; this time of year calls for golden brown and smooth chocolate shades to echo nature’s autumnal palette. Lilac and purple are popular autumn make up shades too.  

Without the summer sun to give us a glow, many of us find that blotches and uneven skin tone are more of a problem in colder weather.  To even things out and restore radiance a foundation is a better bet than a tinted moisturiser and mineral foundations allow you to build up coverage as much as you like without ever feeling heavy or caked.  Lily Lolo Mineral foundation is a real find. The finish is as good, if not better, and the application is as easy as any other mineral powder foundation we’ve tried (and we’ve tried a lot!) and the price is just a tiny £14.99 a pot.

You really need a kabuki brush to apply mineral foundation. The super kabuki from Lily Lolo is £15.99 and works really well, the silky bristles feel wonderful on the skin and are vegan friendly too.

Blend together eye shadow shades of gold, brown, bronze and taupe to set the autumnal tone for your look. Lavera eyeshadow quattro's in either Indian Dream or Cappuccino Cream are ideal and from only £12.50 for 4 beautiful shades are ultra affordable too.

Choose eyeliner to complement your eye shadow shades; Lavera for soft and smudgy, and Dr Hauschka for something slightly firmer (but certainly not hard) to enable you to draw a more precise line.  Finish off your masterpiece and frame your eyes with good mascara. Our top picks are Dr Hauschka Volume Mascara in black for maximum definition and build, and Lavera Volume mascara in black or brown to lengthen and separate lashes with silky sheen.

In colder weather, a good lipstick can help protect your lips from the elements whilst finishing off your look perfectly. Organic Lipsticks are a real treat to use; they glide on silkily to leave lips soft and smooth with colour that really stays. For a glossier finish the Lavera Brilliant Care lipsticks are heaven, they feel just like wearing lip balm and come in 4 gorgeous shades all of which complement the autumn colour palette beautifully.

Revive your make up bag for autumn and get a Free Make Up bag worth £14.99 when you spend over £30 on make up while stocks last.

Warmer weather and holiday sun can often make skin feel greasier that usual and your regular skin care routine might need a few tweaks to ensure clean and comfortable summer time skin. When the heat is on you need light as air formulations to instantly hydrate without a hint of greasiness and fresh cleansers and toners to leave skin feeling clean and clear.

Here’s our top picks for a summer routine to leave skin feeling fresh as a daisy.

If the warmer weather has you reaching for a face wash rather than your regular cleanser, Trilogy Balancing Gel Cleanser (£22.50) is a great choice. Although best for combination skin types its gentle formula won’t strip and can be a good summer choice for drier types too. 

Don’t rule out toners altogether though, as there’s nothing to beat the refreshing spritz of a gentle organic toner when summer weather’s left you hot and bothered. Barefoot Rosa Fina Facial Spritz (£17) is an exquisitely scented treat and as it’s a handy sized 30ml can even be taken as a carry on. Trilogy’s toner (£17.50) is beautiful too and comes in a bigger 100ml bottle to help your budget go further.

Much as we love the sun, it’s important not to forget to protect skin from its damaging rays and in summer a moisturiser with an SPF is a must. New for 2012 is Lovea’s SPF50 face cream (£15.99), which will give your skin ultimate protection in a certified organic formula. If SPF50 is a little too high for you, our perennial best seller is Green People Day Solution SPF15 (£14.95). A best seller for good reason, this is an organic beauty classic that suits all skin types and offers great value for money.  In the evening or when you want a break from your SPF cream, summer calls for ultra light moisturising lotion to hydrate your skin without overloading it with oil, as the warm weather causes us to perspire more and our skin can feel a little oilier in summer too. 

With the all important summer facial routine sorted you might want to consider summer options for body care too.

We love the new certified organic sunscreens from Lovea Bio with SPFs from 15 to 50, tanning sprays and after sun they have the complete package for the whole family at a great price. And for summer picnics, plane trips and other times when you might not have access to water to you’re your hand, Bentley Hand Sanitizer (£3.05) is a perfect handbag standby.

Lavera’s 2 in1 hair and body wash (£6.45) is a brilliant holiday buy to help downsize your bag but don’t forget that after the ravages of sun, sea and sand your hair might need a little extra TLC so why not treat it to a hair mask for either normal or dry hair?

And at the end of the day in the sun, it always feels so good to smooth on some body lotion and treat skin to much need moisture boost. If your budget can stretch the Dr Hauschka Body Moisturisers (from £22.95) are a real delight. Light fluid formulas that absorb instantly but leave skin as deeply hydrated as much heavier creams. 

Don’t forget if you need any advice on choosing the perfect products for you just contact us or call on 020 8465 5600, our skin care experts are always happy to help.

Happy Summer!

New Year, new you?
It’s that time of year when we all decide things are going to be different as we set out on the road to good intentions.

Here are my simple beauty resolutions from my skincare routine that are easy to keep up with - and you will quickly see (and feel) the benefits!

Always cleanse at night…
Cleansing properly every night is the single most important thing you can do for your skin. Removing grime and make up before going to bed allows skin to breathe and enables your skin’s natural night time renewal process to work as it should.

Skin that is free from air borne pollutants, and make up residues can work on restoring its natural balance during the night. The most important thing is to cleanse daily with something that suits your skin.

I remove all cleansers with warm water and a muslin flannel, as it gently exfoliates leaving skin super soft and using water helps to give a really deep clean feeling too.

Muslin face cloths are a great way to save money as you can wash and reuse them, unlike cotton wool, and the gentle exfoliating action might mean that you could drop a product from your routine too. £3 each, or 5 for £12.

Exfoliate regularly…
Exfoliation for the body is one of the things that is so easily forgotten and dropped from your body care routine, but one that pays huge dividends if you do manage to remember to keep it up.

Although they still seem far away, the bare-skinned days of summer will be upon us before we know it and if you’ve started early with the buffing and scrubbing, when the sun takes us by surprise again on the those first glorious days of late spring sunshine, you will be able to bare your arms with pride (and only a hint of smugness!).

Make regular exfoliation your New Year’s resolution and come summer you’ll be so happy you kept it up. Little and often is the best way to exfoliate, you want to polish your skin to a gentle glow rather than scratching it with harsh, rough granules.

For dry skin, my all time favourite body scrub is the Acorelle Body Scrub - it's a bargain at just £12.99 for 200ml. Based on crushed olive stones and apricot kernels blended with nourishing aloe vera this certified organic body scrub leaves skin beautifully soft and smooth as well as deeply moisturised with theinvigorating scent of lemon.

Exfoliating in the morning is a great way to give yourself a boost of energy for the day too, and if you dare to finish off with an icy blast from a cold a shower you’ll really boost the circulation!

So it's time we must accept summer is truly over and the frosty morns of Autumn are within weary sight, but that's no excuse to jump into hibernation just yet.

In fact, now's the best time to give your skin a quick lift, to shed the dry cells of those fading summer tans and re-boost and re-energise with some much needed beauty treatments and tender care.

Here are a few quick tips to do just that:

 • Mist It: Toner sprays are terrific to revive the face with a spray of fresh nutrients. Toners, such as Dr Hauschka and Madara are particularly nourishing as they offer the added boost of antioxidants and moisturising properties. Leaving your face damp with toner and applying your moisturiser straight on top aids absorption too, you'll find heaver winter creams sink in much faser with this simple tip. 

• Scrub It: Exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate! Using body scrubs helps the body to shed dry and dead skin cells - which after a summer of intense UV rays (well for those who holidayed in the Mediterranean at least) and drying out will be just what the skin doctor ordered. Using broad strokes towards the heart will help boost circulation, pumping blood faster around your body to keep you a little warmer as those chilly days start to creep in. Lovea and Laidbare both offer really affordable yet effective options, the Laidbare one is gente enough for your face too! 

 • Hydrate: Central heating can really sap skin's moisture levels levels it feeling dehydrated. Use an extra hydrating moisturiser susch as SOS by Madara, or add a serum to your routine, we love Green People's Hydrating Firming Serum.

• Eat more berries: Increase your intake of foods that are loaded with antioxidants like raspberries and blueberries. Mexican and red kidney beans are also very high sources of antioxidants, as is green tea. These will not only strengthen your immune system they help to brighten and lift even the dullest of skin. 

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