Product Placement

My other half and I have been known to go out for a sherry or two together. These days, thanks to Offspring, it’s a rarer treat. But when it does happen, I find that during the evening, our tastes are remarkably similar. We both like a reassuringly expensive lager or two. Tops, if you don’t mind. And neither of us would say no to a famous bourbon with an equally famous cola-flavoured mixer, if you know where I’m coming from. All, obviously, in strict moderation, and never – ok, rarely – descending into any kind of consumption of the mutually venerated aniseed flavour liquor that’s usually drunk from small shot glasses.

It’s the next day that our tastes differ wildly. Feeling a little toxic, I can’t think of anything nicer to put into my battered constitution than some really fresh, healthy food. It feels like it’s only fair. I’ve done the crime, now I need to eat wholemeal toast with organic grilled tomatoes and poached free-range eggs. Thankfully, there’s no fighting over the hob. That’s because hubby is happy to pull from the fridge the likes of a Ginster’s Buffet Bar. It’s a kind of penis-shaped Scotch egg, with the egg part substituted with coleslaw. Seriously.

Such purism has started to creep into my skincare regime of late. Gone are my Clinique-loving twenties, when if it smelt like it was made in a lab it was good enough for me. These days, like a lot of us, I’m looking for something a bit more natural. And if it’s kinder to the environment – bonus. Luckily, there are a whole load of new, organic ranges out there to meet this demand, and I’ve been giving a few of them the once-over in the last couple of months, just so you don’t have to. Aren’t I nice?

Organic Surge is one of these very ranges, and a new kid on the block doing very well it seems. Available at Boots, Superdrug, and Sainsbury’s amongst others, it’s got a cheerful look to the packaging, a good selection of products and is pretty reasonably priced. It’s like organic made easy. I tried the Daily Care Face Wash (£4.99), which was very rose scented but rather nice, and the Skin Perfecting Polish (£5.99) which did the job pretty well too. Not fancy, but not bad either.

Next up was Naked, who are getting right amongst it with a Facebook campaign and claim to be ‘97% natural and 100% transparent’. It sounds a bit like maths. Anyway, they too go with the whole, ‘don’t put chemicals on your body’ pitch, and I have to say I was very impressed with their Be Smooth Naked Cocoa Butter Body Cream (especially as it was only £3.91 for a massive tube). It didn’t smell like the normal, overly chocolatey cocoa butter products that I’m not keen on. I guess it’s like when you buy organic salmon and it’s not bright pink. Kind of. I also tried their Naked Colour Protection Conditioner (also £3.91) which did a valiant effort for that price, but bear in mind my hair is ‘special’, and not in a good way.

Now for something more expensive – Korres. Love them. And right on cue, they have developed a fabulous organic certified range called Materia Herba. The packaging is gorgeous, using old-fashioned botanical drawings. And the stuff is LUSH. I tried the 3 in 1 Cleansing Emulsion (£20), the Anti-ageing Cream for normal to dry skin (£36) and the Moisturising Cream for normal to dry skin (£32). No fancy names here. Just lovely-textured, fresh smelling creams that I will be sorry to run out of.

Finally, to celebrate the Soil Association’s Organic Fortnight, Superdrug’s organic range Purity (which I’ve already raved about before so won’t bore you with again) will be offering customers a third off the range from August 30th to September 20th, as well as a free online gift with purchase. Don’t say I’m not good to you. And don’t ever be tempted to try a Ginster’s Buffet Bar.