I Tried This Luxe Moisturiser That Promises More Radiant Skin in a Week
Sarah Tarca is a beauty journalist, writer and co-founder of Australia’s first dedicated beauty newsletter, gloss etc. Her skills involve applying lipstick without a mirror, bullying people to wear sunscreen and procrastinating washing her hair. She loves her kids, skincare and potatoes in equal measure — almost as much as she loves SkinCeuticals CE Ferulic. Almost. Find her on socials @tarca
I’ve slapped a few thousand moisturisers on my face in my time as a beauty editor, from those that cost an entire pay check, to ones that cost little more than a coffee.
I generally gravitate towards the latter because I don’t expect much of my moisturiser aside from it, you know, mositurising the skin, softening it, and hydrating too if possible, please and thank you.
Usually I delegate the heavy lifting work to the serums, and this is also the advice I dish out to my readers.
So needless to say when someone hands me a spendy moisturiser I trial it with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Like ok moisturiser, you’re an emollient, but so is Sorbolene you gotta earn my money!
And then I tried Dermalogica’s new Phyto Nature Oxygen Cream, and OK, OK, OK Dermalogica you win.
I don’t like being wrong, but in this case I’m happy to take it for the greater good of beauty.
Because this is a moisturiser that punches well above just smoothing the skin.
What Is the Dermalogica Phyto Nature Oxygen Cream?
Dermalogica earned my respect a couple decades ago and I’ve been a loyal customer since.
They pour so much into R+D (research and development) and their entire business is skincare (always a good sign) and providing professional-grade, personalised solutions and education.
It’s never one-size-fits-all with them and they never wheel out products just because.
Everything has a purpose, the innovation is real.
With the Dermalogica Phyto cream, they’ve tapped into the powers of —you guessed it — oxygen and how it impacts skin.
See, alongside sluggish cell regeneration and loss of collagen and elasticity, another fun thing that happens as we age is that our skin can’t take in oxygen as efficiently – and oxygen is what helps give it some of its vibrancy.
Combine this with all the external aggressors like pollution, stress, diet and lack of sleep, and, the skin gets burdened by the load of it all and starts to get sluggish an be less resilient.
And the way it reacts to that stress? That’d be through fine lines, dullness and tired looking skin.
So how does one fix that?
Well Dermalogica has found a way to utilise oxygen-optimising botanical actives to help the skin better absorb the good stuff (oxygen) so it can be stronger, firmer, smoother and plumper.
Basically, to wake it up and look more alive.
If you want skincare for dull skin you might want to consider adding this to your routine...
Dermalogica Phyto Nature Oxygen Cream Ingredients.
So what exactly are these miracle plants actives in this Dermalogica face cream?
A lot of them are rare, and all are premium (hence the price tag) but they’ve all been specifically selected to help the skin function better.
They include:
- High-altitude Ligustrum Lucidum seed (a plant that thrives in a low-oxygen environment).
- Glycogen (for antioxidant and pollution protection).
- Hand harvested Nasturtium Flower to help hydrate and oxygenate the upper layers of the skin so it looks smooth.
- There’s also adaptogens to help with resilience and tightening, antioxidants to fight free radical damage, plus my personal favourite — squalane to plump up the fine lines.
So basically it’s got all bases covered especially for an ageing skin care product (and perfect for dry dull skin).
Dermalogica Phyto Nature Oxygen Cream Review.
Because it’s Dermalogica, naturally they’ve done a bunch of clinical testing and one of the claims is that skin looks firmer and more lifted after one week.
Given it takes me a week to get my kids dressed and out the door I was keen to put this to the test.
The texture, which they call a liquid moisturiser, is unlike anything I’ve tried.
It’s almost gel-like in its viscosity and while it reminded me of icing sugar, it laid down like a serum-cream on the skin—without any tack.
The smell is refreshing in the way that botanicals often are, and since I was using it morning as night (as directed) I can report it played well with both my sunscreen and my makeup.
Now onto the good stuff: The smoothness was immediate. It gave a bounce and obvious hydration in the way that something like a hyaluronic acid usually would.
It didn't weigh my skin down, and I often found that I couldn’t remember if I’d applied anything at all because there wasn’t that obvious “just-been-moisturised” feeling of having cream on the skin.
Instead the skin had bounce, like it had been drenched in a sheet mask for 20 minutes.
The plumping also definitely helped to smooth out some of those fine lines, and while it didn’t give immediate glow, a couple weeks into the trial I just began noticing that my skin looked… healthy.
Like, full of life, strong, maybe had been to the gym and done a HIIT class.
Final Verdict...
Did I suddenly lose my jowls? No, but did my skin look great? Absolutely.
And that’s enough for me to keep coming back.
Keen for some more of the best anti-ageing skin care or well-ageing skincare products and reviews? Check out these BIQ articles:
