A REAL NATURAL BEAUTY

New to these shores from Italy is affordable skincare brand

Florena (it’s under the umbrella of Beiersdorf, which also brings us Nivea, Eucerin and La Prairie). Florena is a Cosmos-certified natural and vegan brand with a focus on flower and fermented ingredients and a mission to prove that natural skincare can be efficacious.

The face oils are definite hero products and contain flower extracts – obtained by heat treatment rather than any chemical process – and feature suspended petals in the jars, too. I like the boots.ie), which features both pink helichrysum, a flower used since the 19th century for skincare, and fermented safflower oil to hydrate and brighten skin.

The face creams follow similar lines. The Anti-Wrinkle Day Cream (€32.99), another hero product, includes hydrating hyaluronic acid, fermented honeysuckle (to reduce oxidative stress which can cause inflammation and break down collagen) and fermented olive oil.

Why fermented ingredients? Essentially the fermentation process boosts the efficacy of the ingredients and changes their molecular structure so much that they require a different ingredient name. So that olive oil, for instance, once it has gone through the fermentation process, has ten times more antioxidants than in its normal state.

The range also has an environmental focus. Packaging uses recycled materials and can be recycled. More than that, sizing has been stripped back to the minimum so that a normal 50ml pot almost looks like a sample size and weighs around 7g instead of a more usual 40g.

The ingredients are fermented to make them more effective