Today’s Word of the Shay is SKINCARE. How we take care of our skin is something very personal, one person’s holy grail product is another person’s trash. Skincare routines vary greatly from person to person, because everyone’s skin is different and reacts as such. Then how does one find their best routine, their most beloved products for their skin? Trial and error!
The trial this time around is the Sea Pure line from H2O+ sea-derived skincare. These products were sent by Beauty Stat for me try out, but I assure all opinions are my own and based on my firsthand experience with the products.
According to the makers, this line is designed to uncover healthy cells and naturally stimulate your skin's cellular renewal cycle to fade age-related imperfections. It's described as sea pure natural anti-aging.
I tested five different products for two consecutive weeks, including the creamy facial cleanser, gentle refining polish, renewing prep tonic, deep moisture cream, and perfecting eye cream. I’ll talk about each product separately and finally do a round up of my overall opinion of the line at the end. Also, keep reading for a coupon code towards the end!
To start things off, I feel it’s important to describe my skin. My skin type is normal to dry, most areas of my face are “normal” but I do get dry flakey patches here and there. Currently those dry areas are my upper lip, my forehead (between my brows) and around my nose. The cold weather of the fall and winter months make my dryness more of a problem during this time of year. In addition, I have a tendency to break out, the last year or two my skin has suffered from many blemishes and right now my skin is trying to recover from a breakout of tiny bumps over my forehead. If you have a similar skin type or issues, hopefully this review will be helpful for you.
This is quite a long review, as there is a lot to cover, so that being said, on with the show…
The first step in this routine is to cleanse using the Sea Pure 98% Natural Creamy Facial Cleanser, the directions tell us to massage onto damp face and work into a lather, then rinse. It claims to remove makeup, surface debris and environmental impurities with amino acids, apple proteins and sea moss. Below are photos of the product on the back of my hand, and in use, lathered upon my face.
The creamy facial cleanser lathers quite well into a light foam that feels nice on the skin. It’s not super bubbly, but as you can see in the photo, it has a type of frothy lather that seems to work well. Personally I like this, since I prefer a cleanser that lathers over those that do not. The creamy facial cleanser left my face feeling fresh and clean, with no residue afterwards.
One of the first things I noticed about this product was the scent, not because it was overly strong, but because I really liked it. It has what smells to me like a sweet soft lemony smell. Not a strong lemon that’s reminiscent of floor cleaner or disinfectant, but rather like the lemon filling you’d find in a lemon cake or pastry.
Next I used the Sea Pure 98% Natural Gentle Refining Polish, this one I was surprised by, I haven’t tried a product quite like it before. H2O+ tells us this product is made to massage away dull surface cells and reveal visibly brighter, smoother, glowing skin with bamboo extract and sea moss. It’s the “scrub” type product in this line, used for exfoliating the skin’s surface. This is a breeze to use, the directions tell us to massage over damp skin in a circular motion and rinse. The polish has a similar citrus smell (like the cleanser), but a little stronger, still very pleasant.
Below are two photos of the product, the first shows the polish straight from the tube, and the other spread out a little (to better show the texture), and lastly I’ve included a photo of the product in use.
I’ve tried a few scrubs in my day, but this one was different. I’ve used harsher, once a week type things to exfoliate, (like St. Ives Apricot scrubs), which have large rough particles, and I’ve use gentle everyday scrubs that have much smaller rounded bits. This product isn’t quite either, in my opinion it combines the best of both worlds.
The polish has a nice creamy consistency and the particles used to exfoliate are extremely fine granules, but unlike other daily scrubs, they’re not rounded. For me, this is perfect, the refining polish is scrubby and abrasive enough to remove the dead skin and get rid of any dry flakey patches, but since the particles are so very small, it remains gentle enough for daily use without irritating my skin.
The toner in this line up is the Sea Pure 96% Natural Renewing Prep Tonic. One of the great things about this toner is that it’s alcohol free, this is great for those of us with dry skin. Alcohol can strip the skin and leave it feeling dry and tight. The tonic is supposed to revitalize skin and enhance the effectiveness of moisturizers with cell-renewing amino acids, alpha hydroxy acid and sea moss.
I absolutely love how this product smells, I’ve smelt something similar before, a facial cleanser cloth I believe. I can’t really put my finger on the scent, it’s hard to describe, it’s a little bit sweet, but not overpowering.
Below is a photo of the tonic poured into it’s bottle cap, just your standard clear liquid, and also the bottle’s pump dispenser. I personally prefer having a pump for my toner than any other type of packaging. Directions state to sweep over cleansed skin using a cotton pad.
I used this tonic after cleansing and polishing my skin with the other H2O products, but I also gave it a try on my skin after using only a facial wipe to cleanse and remove makeup (to really test it out), and I was impressed by how much it managed to pick up that the cloth had left behind. The renewing prep tonic left my skin feeling refreshed and not tight or dry at all.
After prepping with the tonic, I applied the Sea Pure 98% Natural Deep Moisture Cream. This cream claims to help visibly repair damaged skin and stimulate healthy cell growth with cell-renewing amino acids, jojoba seed extract and Atlantic sea flora. It aims to smooth and maintain soft, supple skin.
This again has the same citrus/lemon scent as the facial cleanser. Below are two photos of the Deep Moisture Cream, (in the jar and on the back of my hand). As you can see the cream is quite thick and will stand in peaks. Although it states it’s gentle enough for all skin types, oily-skinned readers be advised that since it’s on the rich side, it might be too much for you.
This is a pretty thick moisturizer, rich and nourishing, but not super heavy. It’s not as heavy feeling on the skin as for example Cetaphil normal-dry moisturizer, which I’ve used before. This leaves my skin feeling a little tacky, it’s definitely one of those moisturizers that you know is there, it doesn’t disappear completely into the skin, even hours later my skin still feels freshly moisturized.
The cream works well for my dry skin especially now that it’s cold out, but still be careful not to use too much, you need very little to cover your entire face.
The last product I’ve been testing out is the Sea Pure 98% Natural Perfecting Eye Cream. This product is made to visibly repair and refresh the delicate skin around the eyes (again with cell-renewing amino acids, jojoba seed extract and Atlantic sea flora). They tell us the targeted formula fades the look of wrinkles and helps tired eyes appear bright and refreshed.
As far as scent here, it’s a similar citrus scent but it’s very light in this case and takes a backseat to a typical cream product smell. See below for a photo of the product.
This eye cream is much lighter feeling than the deep moisture cream, it absorbs fast and leaves the eye area very moisturized and nourished. I quite like the texture and it leaves the delicate tissue of my eye area feeling nice with absolutely no irritation.
You only need a TINY amount of the cream dotted along the under eye area. The above photo shows far more eye cream than you would actually need to use, you could probably do both eyes three times with this amount.
Now for a little information, you can purchase these H2O+ products and more at www.h2oplus.com, here’s the round up of how much product your getting and the pricing.
*H2O+ Sea Pure Creamy Facial Cleanser 118mL/4 U.S. fl oz $20.00 U.S. *H2O+ Sea Pure Gentle Refining Polish 75mL/2 U.S. fl oz $30.00 U.S. *H2O+ Sea Pure Renewing Prep Tonic 210mL/7 U.S. fl oz $18.00 U.S. *H2O+ Sea Pure Deep Moisture Cream 50mL/1.7 U.S. fl oz $40.00 U.S. *H2O+ Sea Pure Perfecting Eye Cream 15mL/0.5 U.S. fl oz $32.00 U.S.
For the amount of product you receive, how little of it you have to use daily, and the quality of the goods, I think these are a pretty decent value. They’re definitely not a steal ($40 for a moisturizer isn’t cheap), but they’re not overpriced either. I’d consider these reasonably priced. (Here’s a bonus: H2O+ has also been kind enough to supply us Beauty Stat bloggers with a coupon code to pass onto our readers, so if you’re interested in trying these products, keep reading till the end).
This line of products first intrigued me because of how natural it is (96-98%) and I think the more harsh chemicals and nasty things we can avoid putting on our skin, the better.
After only two weeks of use I can’t comment on any of the anti-aging aspects of this line, but there is a lot about it that I do like. When using all the products together daily my skin felt clean, refreshed, and hydrated. Visibly my complexion looked fresher, brighter and just plain better overall. During this time I was recovering from a breakout and even though this line isn’t designed to clear up blemishes, it didn’t agitate my skin or make it worse, it allowed my troubled skin to heal and clear up on it’s own.
PROS:
-Left my normal-dry skin clean, fresh, bright and hydrated
-100% vegan, biodegradable and cruelty free. Made from FSC Mixed Sources (well managed forests and other controlled sources)
-Free of parabens, synthetic fragrances, petrochemicals, phthalates, and sulfates. 96-98% Natural ingredients
-Scented nicely without being too strong or overwhelming
-Good amount of product
-Nice quality packaging
CONS:
-Availability, you may purchase these products online at www.h2oplus.com, but finding them in person might be a little difficult. (Here’s a tip, if you’re in Canada, check your Sears they just might be one of the 71 across the country to carry it)
-Not sure how well the products, specifically the moisturizer would work with oily skin (if you have oily skin and tried these out, let me know!)
-The pump on my particular bottle of toner sticks and squirts a little too forcefully, which can make a mess and waste product, if not careful
VERDICT: BUY!
I definitely consider this a successful experience with the H2O+ Sea Pure line of products. And I would recommend them to anyone who has similar skin to mine or who is interested in trying a line that’s focused upon being natural.
The real test of a product, in my opinion, is whether or not you would repurchase after finishing your initial item, in the case of the H2O+ Sea Pure line, I would. If I were only able to buy one product from the range, I would purchase the H2O+ Sea Pure Gentle Refining Polish, it really worked wonders for my skin.
If you’d like to try one or all of these products, here’s something to sweeten the deal for you: Get $10 off your H2O Plus purchase of $30 or more when you enter promo code 100275 at checkout. But act fast, this coupon code will expire on 11/20!
I’ll be continuing to use this line and will update further down the road when I feel enough time has passed to be able to comment on the long-term effectively of these products. I hope this review has helped out anyone looking to try something new with their skincare. Thanks for reading!
