Four nourist products received an award. Our Eye & Lip Cream won the Excellence Award at the European Natural Beauty Awards. At the Global Green Beauty Awards, our Bright'n Up serum won silver, our Deo Balm took bronze and our Skin Savior serum was highly commended.
Two different awards, with two very different ways of judging. In this blog we explain what each of them looks at, why they matter to us, and the stories behind the four products. Because every one of them started with a real person and a real problem.
Two awards, more then two ways of looking at skincare
The European Natural Beauty Awards
The European Natural Beauty Awards start with one question: is this product truly natural? Before a product can even be nominated, the organisation checks every single ingredient on the list. If something doesn't belong in natural cosmetics, the product doesn't make the selection.
That ‘pre selection’ is exactly why the nomination alone already felt like a big moment for us. At nourist, we always ask you not to take our word for it. Read the ingredient list, ask questions, trust your own skin. Having an independent organisation go through our formula line by line and confirm it's clean was a kind of recognition we don't get every day.
Then came the part we had no influence on at all. We sent more than twenty samples of our Eye & Lip Cream to a jury all across Europe. More than twenty jury members used it on their own skin and compared it to the other eye creams in the competition. Their verdict? The Excellence Award. (So proud of this!)
The Global Green Beauty Awards
The Global Green Beauty Awards are an international programme, based in the UK, that celebrates clean, ethical and sustainable beauty. Where the European awards start with the ingredient list, these awards look at the bigger picture.
An anonymous panel of independent experts, with backgrounds in formulation, skincare education, beauty journalism and sustainability, tests every entry. They judge how well a product performs, and how responsibly it's made: where the ingredients come from, what the packaging is made of, how it's produced.
That last part matters to us more than we usually say out loud. Our airless bottles are made from recycled ocean waste plastic, our ingredients come from reliable sources, our packages are prepared and shipped by a social enterprise, and all formula’s are made in the Benelux. It's good to know that kind of care doesn't go unnoticed.
Here, three of our products were recognised: the Bright'n Up Serum with silver, the Deo Balm with bronze and the Skin Savior Serum with a highly commended.
But you might wonder, how do you decide what product to make?
Imagine you're running a skincare company. How do you decide what to make, how to make it, and which product deserves your time, energy and resources? And, perhaps most importantly, which product is worth making next?
For us there’s no big master plan. Most of our products start with a question, a problem from our community we want to solve, or something we wish existed ourselves. Then the research, experimenting and formulating begins.
The Eye & Lip Cream: the one Marion didn't believe in
Here's something you might not expect from the founder of an award winning eye cream, for a long time, Marion didn't believe in eye creams. To her, they felt like an extra step the beauty industry had invented to sell one more product. She simply didn't see what it could do that a good moisturiser couldn't.
That changed when a friend kept asking her to make one. So Marion did what she always does. She started reading, researching and looking at what the skin around your eyes actually needs. And she found that it really is different. It's thinner, it has fewer oil glands, and it moves all day, every time you blink, smile or squint at your screen. It dries out faster and shows tiredness first.
We developed the formula together with a nurse who worked a lot of night shifts. Her sleep was rarely what it should be, and she had eczema around her eyes. She was looking for something for her dark circles and fine lines, but anything too strong made her eczema flare. So the brief was clear, a cream that works on the things most of us notice around our eyes, and is gentle enough for the most reactive skin.
The result surprised all of us. Her dark circles looked softer, and the eczema around her eyes calmed down until, in her words, it was simply gone. And Marion? The eye cream she didn't believe in became a step she no longer skips.
So what's inside our Eye & Lip Cream, and why does it work? Fine lines and crow's feet are usually the first thing people mention when they talk about the skin around their eyes. That's where pea peptide comes in. Peptides are small chains of amino acids that support your skin's own collagen production, which helps the skin stay firmer and smoother over time. Rosehip oil adds essential fatty acids that support skin renewal.
Dark circles and a tired look are a different story. Kokum butter nourishes deeply and helps soften dark circles, while our algae complex, a blend of brown and red algae rich in minerals and antioxidants, helps the area look brighter, firmer and less puffy. Eyebright extract, a herb traditionally used around the eyes, adds to that calming, depuffing effect.
And then there's the base, the part that made it right for our nurse. Ceramides are lipids your skin makes itself, the mortar between your skin cells. When there are too few, moisture escapes and irritants get in more easily. Ceramide NP helps rebuild that barrier, Ectoin protects your skin cells from environmental stress and holds on to hydration, and Roman Chamomile Water soothes. No fragrance, no essential oils. Only what the skin around your eyes and lips can actually use.
We hit our mid-30s and started noticing deeper lines. So we created Bright’n Up.
We don't say ‘anti aging’ at nourist. Your skin isn't something to fight against, and getting older is a privilege. We prefer slow aging! Caring for your skin so it stays healthy, supple and bright as the years go by. If you want to read more about that, our well aging guide goes deeper.
The Bright'n Up Serum was made for exactly that. Marion wanted a serum that does a little more for skin that's starting to show the years: fine lines, pigmentation spots, an uneven tone, and that glow that seems a bit harder to find than it used to be.
The heart of the formula is Bakuchiol, a plant based alternative to retinol. It works on wrinkles and pigmentation spots, without the redness and peeling retinol often brings for sensitive skin. Azelaic acid gently helps even out your skin tone and fade dark spots and redness. Water kefir PHA, a mild vegan exfoliating acid, smooths and refreshes the surface while supporting your barrier, rose hydrosol soothes and baobab oil keeps moisture in.
Use it in the evening, and give it some time. What you get is skin that looks more even and fresher, with a glow that comes from healthy skin rather than a highlighter.
Discover the Bright'n Up serum
Our Deo Balm, developed for (proud) stinkers
The Deo Balm is one of the very first products Marion ever made, long before nourist existed. It started in her own kitchen, back when she was experimenting under the name Marion Maakt.
She needed a deo, and she couldn't find it. Marion has very sensitive skin. Conventional deodorants gave her a rash. The natural ones she tried weren't much better, because most of them contain baking soda or other ingredients that irritate sensitive underarms. Going without wasn't an option either. Marion is, in her own words, a bit of a stinker.🤭
So she set herself a challenge that took years… Create a natural deodorant without baking soda that is still strong enough for people who need a little extra. That combination is harder than it sounds, and she's still fine tuning the formula today.
Instead of baking soda, the balm relies on magnesium hydroxide, which neutralises odour without irritating the skin and absorbs moisture for drier underarms. Rice starch takes up excess sweat. Triethyl citrate, a plant based ingredient, stops the bacteria behind body odour from growing, without blocking your natural perspiration. Coconut oil softens the skin and has a natural antibacterial action, and zink protects. Strong on odour, kind to your skin.
Skin Savior Serum: for the days your skin needs a bit of everything
Some days your skin feels dry. The next it's red or unsettled. And sometimes it's all of that at once. The idea behind Skin Savior was a serum that meets your skin wherever it is that day, in one bottle.
It's a face and neck oil serum made from 100% organic cold pressed oils, each chosen for what it brings. Prickly pear seed oil, often called nature's retinol, is rich in antioxidants and fatty acids that help firm and brighten. Rosehip seed oil is a natural source of vitamin A that supports skin renewal and helps fade scars. Red raspberry seed oil and Bisabolol calm irritated skin, while Kahai oil helps improve elasticity and soften fine lines.
The formula is non-comedogenic, so it won't clog your pores, and it contains no fragrance. Use a few drops in the morning after cleansing, before your face cream or mixed into it. In the evening, it pairs beautifully with the Bright'n Up serum.
Discover the Skin Savior serum
Loved long before the awards
Awards are lovely. But the opinion we value most has always been yours. Long before any jury got involved, these four products had already found their way into many bathrooms, and into a lot of kind reviews. We read every single one of them.
You were our first jury, and you still are.💛
Love,
Marion & Sil
