Hygge, lagom, glögg, and the minimalist Ikea aesthetic are just some ways in which the Nordics (in particular Scandinavia) have entered the capitalist consciousness. Given the sucess of the aforementioned, it is no surprise that this nature-y, earth-y-with-a-Skandi-touch brand aesthetic is also making its way into the cosmetics aisles. On a recent tour of Åhlens (a big department store in the centre of Stockholm), I couldn’t help but stumble upon a few brands that claimed to have distilled and bottled this down to earth, woolly-sock-wearing foresty essence.

And did I mention it’s (might be) good for your skin, too?

Two brands stood out: Björk and Berries and Estelle & Thild, the latter bottling up some of that Scandinavian closeness-to-nature, the other banking on popularised-by-Ikea minimalism. I picked up a product from both, but in this post I’ll only focus on the latter.

Midnight Sun - must be good for your skin?

The name Björk (which is Swedish for birch tree) and Berries evokes a very Swedish “midsommar” dream. A picnic under the birch trees eating strawberries…

I picked up one product from Björk and Berries - the Forest Extract Moisturisers, good for daily evening and morning use. The back of the bottle claims the cream “is enriched with a fine blend of vitamins, hyaluronic acid and a potent forest extract”. The first two are probably familiar to skincare enthusiasts - after all they make a frequent appearance in most skincare products, the last one is a bit more exotic. What exactly is a forest extract? I perused the Björk and Berries website to find out what this mysterious forest extract could be and it seems that one of the active ingredients in the cream is Organic Beech Bud Extract and I suppose beech trees grow in forests - hence the forest extract.

The moisturiser has a very silky, milky texture. It almost feels like a makeup remover, easily gliding on the skin and forming a very light layer on top of the skin. The smell is a bit hard to describe. I almost want to say it smells like “avocado but better”, but that would not be exactly it. It’s hard to pinpoint, but not a strong smell by any means.

I’ve been using this cream for about a month now and I do think that my skin feels softer after application, but I can’t be sure how much of this is due to other skincare products I’ve been using vs how much is due to this cream. Would I buy this again? Perhaps, but first I’d like to explore some other products from the range.