Moreish Skincare Review

Moreish is a new skincare brand that’s just launched exclusively in Priceline. Hailing from New Zealand, the brand’s tagline is “Superfood for Skin”, with their key ingredient argan oil in every product across the impressively comprehensive launch range. The brand is of the organic/natural variety, with no parabens or phenoxyethanol, no artificial colours or fragrances, no sulfates, and no mineral oil or petrochemicals (except in the plastic packaging I would assume!).

Marketing

Before we continue, I need to have a little rant about this brand’s marketing. This is the text that appears on the insert for all the products:

“We are what we eat. We are therefore also what we apply to our skin.”

This makes no physiological sense to me. Firstly, we are made up of stuff we eat, but not everything we eat ends up in our body – that’s why we poop. Secondly, I have no idea how that second sentence follows on from the first – if we were what we apply to our skin, why haven’t I absorbed my pillow through my skin yet??

This statement is (I think) alluding to the myth, pushed by many natural companies, that we absorb 60% (or some other high, equally arbitrarily selected percentage with zero research to back it up) of what we put on our skin, which is not the case at all – human skin has evolved to be very good at keeping stuff out. So good, in fact, that only about 19 drugs can be delivered effectively through the skin – which sounds like a lot until you remember that the FDA has approved about 1500 drugs.

While it’s nowhere near the worst myth-pushing I’ve seen (and unlike a lot of other natural companies, there aren’t any dodgy claims being made about what the products do), it still doesn’t sit quite right with me, which is a pity because the products themselves are pretty solid.

Packaging

Moreish’s packaging is stunningly gorgeous, with nature macros in dreamy muted colours on the side panels, and a pretty pale blue theme throughout. The brand doesn’t use jar packaging, which is great – even if preservatives are keeping the germs at bay, it’s pretty offputting when you see bits of dust in your moisturiser. The evocative names remind me of Antipodes, another New Zealand brand.

Products

Most of the products have a light citrussy fragrance, similar to the scent of Sukin moisturisers. I’m not sensitive to fragrance, but it’s worth noting that there are a couple of fragrance-free options.

The range is divided into four groups:

Cleanse & Purify: 2 cleansers (a cream one called Euphoria and a foaming one, Liberation), a clay mask (Emergence) and an exfoliator scrub (Anew)

Moisturise & Hydrate: 3 moisturisers – sensitive (Empathy), day cream (Daily Redemption) and night cream (Dream), and an eye cream (Reawaken)

Treat & Restore: Argan Oil (Liquid Gold), Facial Serum (Glory)

Body & Replenish: Hand cream (Resurgence)

Cleansers

The two cleansers in this range are both really good, workhorse products that are effective without trying too hard to be fancy, which I like. They’re both gentle and don’t leave your face dry and prone to dehydration. They’re advertised as suitable for any skin type. As well as the standard humectants (glycerin, aloe vera gel), they contain plant oils (argan, grape seed, sweet almond) which keep the skin from getting stripped.

Euphoria (200 mL, $14.99) is a gentle cream cleanser. It’s surprisingly effective for a cream cleanser, but left a thin but noticeable film of oil on my face after rinsing – I think it’s the sweet almond oil. The film stops being noticeable if you blot your face dry with a towel.

Liberation (200 mL, $14.99) is a foaming cleanser. It doesn’t bubble up a lot – it’s more of a gel than a properly foamy cleanser. It doesn’t strip the skin, but it’s still cleansing.

Moisturisers

There are three moisturisers in the range. They all come in air-free pump bottles, which means they won’t go off or start growing bacteria.

Daily Redemption Day Cream (50 mL, $29.99) is marketed for normal to dry skin. It contains a bunch of oils that are good for skin: sweet almond, argan, grapeseed, avocado and olive oils make an appearance, along with water-retaining glycerin and emollient glyceryl stearate citrate.

Empathy (50 mL, $29.99) is a moisturiser for sensitive skin. It’s fragrance-free and is based on ingredients that are neutral on the skin – sunflower and meadowfoam seed oils, glycerin and squalane. There’s also small amounts of soothing chamomile, aloe vera and cucumber.

Dream Night Cream (50 mL, $29.99) is a bit heavier. It has a bunch of plant oils (olive, avocado, jojoba) near the top of the ingredients list, as well as some glycerin and occlusive beeswax.

All three moisturisers are in the medium-weight range. They would be a good option if you like the results of moisturising with oil, but you prefer something a bit lighter in texture and less shiny in appearance. However, since they do all contain a good dose of oil, they’re not as good for oily-skinned people in the daytime – you’ll end up an oil slick unless you have really strong powder game.

Treatments

Glory (30 mL, $29.99) is a concentrated version of the moisturisers and comes in an air-free pump, while Liquid Gold (30 mL, $29.99) is pure argan oil in an amber glass dropper bottle. Argan oil contains a lot of omega-6 (linoleic acid) – there’s been some research recently that suggests that linoleic acid may be useful in treating acne.

There’s a single exfoliating product in the range, Anew (75 mL, $14.99), which is a creamy scrub containing lots of tiny jojoba wax beads. These are gentle on the skin and environmentally friendly (no microplastics).

Emergence (75 mL, $19.99) is a kaolin-based clay mask. It didn’t irritate my face, unlike a few other kaolin masks I’ve recently tried, and it feels pretty thick and substantial, not too watery.

Resurgence Hand Cream (75 mL, $9.99) has as its main ingredients manuka honey for moisture, and shea butter and sunflower seed oil for smoothing. It isn’t too greasy or sticky. The final product is Reawaken Eye Cream (15 mL, $19.99) – I personally don’t use eye cream so I can’t really comment on its effectiveness or formula.

Pricing and Ingredients Table

Verdict

Moreish is a good addition to the mid-priced natural skincare market in Australia, incorporating a range of oils that many skincare addicts swear by. My favourite products from the range are the two cleansers, Euphoria and Liberation, and the kaolin mask Emergence. The moisturisers would be quite good for someone with drier skin, and the air-excluding pump bottles are fantastic. I do wish they’d change their marketing message though – I think a lot of consumers these days are educated enough to see the problems with it.

Have you tried this range yet? What did you think?

These products were provided for editorial consideration, which did not affect my opinion. For more information, see Disclosure Policy.