Body Merry Retinol Surge Moisturizer – Anti-Aging Face, Neck and Eye Cream with Hyaluronic Acid – Cruelty Free Hydrating Facial Skin Care for Fine Lines, Wrinkles and Dark Spots, 3.4 oz

I'm getting close to 30 and haven't been super gentle with my skin. Crow's feet and laugh lines were starting to develop. I used this every day for a week straight despite having never used retinol before.Firstly, this stuff is freaking magic. I've starting taking vitamins for my skin as well, but this moisturizer obviously made a change. In the first few days, I could literally feel a smoother texture under my fingertips. This was after washing but before applying the cream, so I know it was my actual skin smoothing out. After a week, my lines were softened like I had rewound 5 years. In all fairness, I'm already young and my lines aren't bad, so a 50% reduction in lines for me would be almost unnoticeable for someone decades older. The reduction is still there for them too, but may be noticeably better after a few months.Secondly, if you haven't used retinol before, don't use it every day. I dove right in, like an idiot. After that first amazing week, my skin starting flaking off like crazy. Apparently your skin adjusts over time so that the retinol doesn't irritate it or dry it out, so you're supposed to do once every 2 or 3 days and slowly increase to doing it daily (or twice daily if desired). I live in a dry, freezing climate so my experience was bad. I had to stop the retinol and was putting Palmer's stretch mark body butter on my FACE twice a day for several days to stop the peeling. I've been applying the retinol every other night now and using an additional moisturizer in the morning to prevent any future peeling.Retinol is a derivative of Vitamin A. It breaks down fast, so wash gently before applying and use it at night. Even sunlight will break it down faster, rendering it less effective. Applying it on fresh skin at night will get you the biggest bang for your buck.The other ingredients are total treats for your skin. Hyrolaunic acid is actually produced by your body to retain moisture and one gram can retain up to 6 LITRES OF WATER, so it's actually one of the most potent moisturizers that exist. This helps the cream stay moisturizing despite the retinol. Vitamin E is proven to help heal scars and spots, and Vitamin C is a big deal in your body creating collagen.This amount of lotion with this combination and percentage of ingredients... At this price? As long as this is on the market, I'll be using it. I even bought some for my mom and had it sent directly to her house. This product is wonderful.

I was reading In Style Magazine last year and there was a feature on what women need to do to take care of their skin at different ages. It said that a retinol cream is a MUST after 40. I didn't know that! I was turning 42 in November of 2015, so I thought I better jump on that bandwagon. Since I already owned Body Merry's eye cream and loved it, I decided to check out Body Merry's Retinol Surge. What I love about Body Merry is that they use safe, plant-based ingredients. I have changed my life (in my older and wiser age;)) to be conscious of what is going into my body both in my food, as well as what is absorbed through the skin. I have changed almost all my products so that they are plant-based and free of toxins. Body Merry is one of those amazing companies that not only use safe ingredients, but the products are also effective. (Sometimes you don't have both, but with Body Merry, you do.) I LOVE the retinol cream. I have been using it now for about 7 months and I have seen a difference in my skin. What retinol does is it boosts collagen so that your fine lines are smoother. The cell turnover is faster, so your skin appears smoother and more even. I am so glad I read that in In Style because I swear my skins is glowing more than it used to! My husband notices, too! What I do for my nighttime routine is I wash my face (exfoliate a few times a week), I use a Vitamin C/hyaluronic acid serum, then I put the Retinol Surge Cream on. It makes my skin SO smooth from the moment's go! I also add on a night cream afterward. This may be overkill, but when I wake up in the morning, my skin is plump and glowing. I definitely started noticing my skin more after I added this retinol cream to my regimen (I find myself checking my face out in the mirror a lot more and being impressed by it!). Highly recommended!

I first purchased this product in 2015. You heard me right. It had what looked like a hand printed burgundy label which evolved into a black and silver little bit more professional label to what it is now. I was 34 at the time and was just starting to get a little bit more serious about skincare. I knew I wanted to have retinol but I have very sensitive fair skin and I was nervous about having a high concentration like everybody was telling me I should have for preventative reasons.I found this product on Amazon and at the time it had a ton of reviews. Which to be honest with you for a newer company I was nervous about because a lot of companies would just give out a product for free and in turn you write a review. But I got the product regardless and I was super pleased with it from the very beginning. Thus now evolving into an eight your journey with this moisturizer.Over the years I have swapped it out here or there to try a different product but I always come back. It's very gentle on my skin and even around my eye area. you obviously don't want to get it super close to your eyes because trust me once you get it in there it will burn like heck because of the retinol but for the most part the scent is pretty fair it's not a floral scent it's more of what you would expect of a face cream. I do not have any burning from the retinol even after I've just scrubbed my face. I've never had breakouts from it and I'm 42 and everybody tells me that I don't look like that at all. I guess that's in the eye of the beholder but I'm not doing anything special to my face.I use a very basic sensitive skin face wash and I use this moisturizer twice a day and I stay out of the Sun as much as possible and I wear sunscreen all the time. When I use this I only put on the amount that I feel my face needs to not be dry. I don't do anywhere near a full pump I don't do a dime size I wouldn't even say I use a pea size. I just squeeze a little bit put it on my face that doesn't feel like enough I'll add just a little bit more. So my recommendation is to just start with a little work it into your face and see how it reacts if you're getting this for the first time. You're going to want to vary the amount that you use also if you're putting on a sunscreen after this.Which brings me to something I wish they'd be able to do. Years ago I asked if they could make this moisturizer with SPF in it and they said they were working on it and I haven't seen anything since. So would be great to finally see this with SPF in it so I don't have to add that into my routine. So that's why I give this four stars instead of five.Overall though like I said I've been using it forever I have switched to a couple of other things including much more expensive products and this just really gives me all the bang for my buck. I don't see an increase in wrinkles in my face but again that could just be because I stay out of the sun and I stay hydrated. I'm not making claims that this is doing anything but it's also not not doing anything if that makes sense. I wouldn't have kept using it for this long and I would have graduated to a higher amount of retinol or coverage for my age if I felt that I needed to. And I simply don't. I love the way that this feels it's not greasy to me I have combination skin in my T-Zone and it doesn't make me extra oily it doesn't make me itch it's just really good. Also back to the sun really quick any dermatologist will tell you that none of the products that we use on our body for moisturization should have a scent. Adding floral or fruity sense things like that is just an irritant to your skin. So you might not like the smell of this but to me it's just a scent of a plain ingredient if that makes any sense. Think of a lotion that you bought for your hands that just kind of smells like lotion. That's what you're getting here and you should be happy that's what you're getting. You don't want to smell something all day on your face because it's just going to end up irritating it. This doesn't do that.If you want to change up your routine or you want to just start out with something with retinol and a lot of other good ingredients I would go with this.

As a first time Retinol user I’m very impressed. This moisturiser feels sooo good on my skin, it looks great under my makeup and definitely to touch my face is not so dry. I have no signs of irritation and as it’s early days I’m only using this product every other day and at night as directed. In time nightly then daily. Definitely will continue to use this product.