TN Beauty & Gifts That Don’t Suck: Phytomer Skincare Review and Giveaway!

I am not an experienced lady. I suppose I should rephrase that a little: I am not experienced being a lady. Most of my girlfriends learned about proper makeup and skincare from their mothers. I don’t think I saw my mom ever wear makeup aside from under-eye concealer. Just under-eye concealer and nothing else. I didn’t even realize that’s not how it’s done until my early twenties. I learned about makeup from my male best friend who went through a pretty heavy goth phase in high school. And even though to this day he applies better makeup than me, I still can appreciate his guidance in my formative years.

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Now that we live in the land of YouTube tutorials and a million clickbait-y BuzzFeed articles telling you “you’ve been moisturizing all wrong for years!”, I’ve been making a concerted effort to up my skincare game. As part of my journey to being a real grown-ass woman, I took a much-deserved trip to a spa this past year. When I left, the aesthetician was nice enough to give me a handful of samples of the products she used that day. This is how I was introduced to the Phytomer line of skincare products. I ended up loving one of the samples so much that I splurged and bought a full-sized replacement. Speaking as someone who up until very recently still used the same face wash she used in high school, this was a major step in improving my skincare routine. I loved their Vegetal Exfoliant product so much I shared my experience in a recent TN Beauty post. After sharing my feelings of joy at finding something that can exfoliate my skin without irritating it to all hell, I was lucky enough to have the company send me some additional product to try out!
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About Phytomer

So, the whole Phytomer deal is about what you’d expect from a high-end skincare company based in France. They make delicious smelling, beautifully packaged, luxuriant products made with seaweed and other sea-based ingredients sourced right in their own backyard. I’ve never been one to care about the backstory of my moisturizer, but I’ll admit their website had some pretty cool info (and it doesn’t hurt they’re located in a part of the world that lends itself to beautiful photography). All of their products are made with “marine biotechnology” which sounds nice and fancy – and we all need a little fancy in our lives. The products I tried out this time around were the Hydra Original Thirst-Relief Melting Cream, Hydrasea Thirst-Relief Rehydrating Mask and the Peeling Vegetal. They came in this lovely little gift tin, too. Gift idea alert! And as an added holiday surprise – you can win something free from Phytomer too here on TN! We have a Seaweed soap to give away so you can scrub away all that dead, winter skin and smell lovely. See below for more info!

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We want THIS under our tree!
Since most facial care products require more than a few weeks to see any kind of results, I’ll have to just share my first impressions with y’all.

Hydra Original Thirst-Relief Melting Cream

This moisturizer is thinner than what I typically use but it still feels super smooth and hydrating when applied to the skin. As with everything I’ve tried from Phytomer, it smells incredible. If they made a candle that smelled liked their skincare products, I’d totally buy it and daydream all day about being at a spa and not in my messy living room. This moisturizer also works really well under makeup too! But I did notice I had to wait a little longer than my regular moisturizer for it to really soak into my skin before applying makeup. It feels really lightweight and not greasy at all, which is huge plus living in a warmer climate.

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Weird Observation: This stuff looks and feels identical to vanilla yogurt. Not the thick Greek- style stuff, but the thinner, full-fat kind. I’m sure a person more skilled in the art of skin care products would have a less food-related descriptor, but here we are. Everything is food related in my world, folks.

Hydrasea Thirst-Relief Rehydrating Mask

I’ll break it to you gently – this is not one of the fun masks. You don’t apply it and peel it off in one giant sheet once it dries. You don’t open a slim pouch, unfold the mask and lay it across your face like delicate, slimy shroud. This mask is more like a super-moisturizer that you leave on for 5 – 10 minutes then rinse off. Lack of fun aside, this stuff was a majorly welcome treatment for my parched skin. It’s recommended that you do this once or twice a week, but I’ve totally cheated and done it 3 times. I’m headed up to the Great White North tomorrow so it’s a given I’ll do this treatment a 4th time this week. I have hard time following rules, apparently.

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Weird Observation: The copywriters for the Phytomer website are on another plane of existence than the rest of us. Their product descriptions toe a fine line between ridiculous and poetry. I mean, “After two weeks skin is perfectly irrigated, as if its thirst is quenched” and “Restructure your skin’s water reservoir”. Just amazing. Respect.
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Peeling Vegetal

Since I’m already an avid fan of this product (see the aforementioned TN Beauty post), I was stoked to get some backup when my bottle runs out. This has made a permanent spot for itself in my life. My sensitive, rosacea-prone skin loves this stuff.

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Bottom line is, I long for the day where I can be one of those ladies that say I have a “skincare regimen”. Perhaps sticking with the Phytomer stuff will get me there. While I wish I could spend $250 on a moisturizer (it looks amazing), I think I can swing a couple of Phytomer’s products to make me feel like I’m doing what I should have been doing with my skin all along. Too bad I can’t go back in time and tell 20-year old me – might have saved me some sun damage and wrinkles.
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Thanks to Phytomer for sending us review samples. Now, YOU can win some Phytomer and kiss non-irrigated skin goodbye! Enter below!

Phytomer Skincare Seaweed Soap

 

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