I woke up at 3am last week hot. Properly throw-the-doona-off hot, which might not be weird for some people but I’ve been a cold sleeper my entire life. I lay there for the better part of an hour waiting to fall back asleep and doing the maths on what else has shifted lately.
My skin's been on the list for a while now too. Every time I've reached for vitamin A this year, retinol, retinal, doesn't matter the form, it's turned bumpy and irritated within days. I don't think it's a verdict on retinol itself. I think my skin is sensitised right now, hormonally, in the same way my sleep apparently is, and pushing through it felt like a bad idea.
Retinol's always been the gold standard, so losing access to it felt like a real penalty.
I wasn't ready to give up on actives altogether though. So I went looking for something that could do what retinol does without doing what retinol is currently doing to me.
That's how I found Wildcrafted Organics latest launch. The brand’s founder, Nicole had sent through some information on her Bio Retinol Crème, and I was intrigued before I'd even opened the jar (which I was pleased to see is a proper 50g Miron glass one, the kind that actually looks like it belongs on a shelf rather than hiding in a drawer.)
What to look for if you're in the same boat? A formula with ALGAKTIV RetinART (a bio-retinol derived from microalgae rather than synthesised from vitamin A) and bakuchiol, the more familiar retinol alternative. Both have had lab interest for gentleness, tolerability work on the raw ingredients found them far less irritating than retinol while still promising on texture and tone. That's early, ingredient-level research though, not proof about this particular cream, so I went in curious rather than convinced.
The cream itself is a pleasure to use, key when you’re dealing with a sahara-dry perimenopausal dermis. It's hydrating rather than thin and watery, sinks in properly, and doesn't leave that tight, waiting-for-the-sting feeling I've come to associate with anything labelled active. Three weeks in, my skin has stayed calm the whole time and I've noticed it looks somehow more even and bouncier in general.
Nicole built the brand on exactly this premise, skincare that's as potent as it is pure. She trained in nutrition and botanical medicine, worked as a herbalist in Bondi, and eventually moved out to the Mudgee countryside with her husband and two boys, where she started wildcrafting her own botanical infusions to use in skincare.
“Having an understanding of nutrition’s vital role in skin health has helped me create products that literally feed the skin,” says Nicole.
The range has picked up more than fifty industry awards at this point, including two wins for Best Organic/Natural Brand AU/NZ at the Beauty Shortlist Awards. The Bio Retinol Crème itself won Best Product Launch there the year it came out.
“I was disillusioned by the lack of innovation and scientifically proven, results driven natural skincare that was on the market,” she told me. “So I set out to create a skincare range that combined natural, skin loving nutrient rich plant extracts with evidence based, clean beauty botanical actives.”
Nicole created the Bio Retinol Crème specifically as a replacement for retinol, and says she “was going through perimenopause” when she did. “Every ingredient has been added to help deal with all the issues perimenopause brings to the table.” Alongside the bio-retinol and bakuchiol, the formula includes astaxanthin and a complex of three Australian wildcrafted botanicals.
Nicole’s own skin has changed too. “My experience the last two years has been a real eye-opener,” she says.
“I feel like my skin was perfect for the whole middle part of my life.”
“And now the hormones are going crazy again. In my 40s, I was using 10% vitamin C, 10% niacinamide, really active skincare, and now I’ve had to reassess completely. I still use my bakuchiol, but only three times a week, and on a day when I won’t use any other actives.”
She says the cream was created for sensitive skin with a compromised barrier, which happens in menopause because oestrogen drops. “That’s why it doesn’t have any essential oils and has the ceramides.”
There's a third ingredient I was impressed by, too: a peptide called Juveleven. It's had a lot of attention in cosmetic science circles, the kind of thing I'd expect to find headlining a much more expensive serum. The research behind it is early and was done on the ingredient itself in a lab, but I’m excited to see what it can do in Nicole’s formula.
You can tell this cream was created by someone who was in the midst of hormonal changes themselves and, as with all Nicole's formulas, she's focused on the sensorial just as much as the practical. My verdict a few weeks in? My skin is looking brighter and more even, my makeup is sitting better, and it hasn't been irritated once. Sounds like a small thing but there's often nothing bigger at 3am.
Paid partnership with Wildcrafted Organics.
