Most “marine” serums are just lab sludge in a blue bottle. Phytomer literally harvests its own phytoplankton from a single private bay in Brittany — the water is so clean the French government monitors it.
This isn’t marketing. They own the bay. They dive for the stuff. The serum smells like low tide in the best possible way — briny, not perfumed.
It’s a £62 concentrate (30ml) that claims to “reprogram” dull, dehydrated skin via Oligoforce — their proprietary plankton ferment. I bought in because my skin was tired of being tired.
Oligoforce™ Ferment
Live phytoplankton fermented for 72 hours — think kimchi for your face, not a preservative.
Seawater Base
Real filtered Brittany seawater as the solvent. No alcohol. No drying denatured nonsense.
No Scent Cover-Up
Zero fragrance. It smells like the Atlantic. Some people hate this. I love it.
Photo: Content Pixie / Unsplash
Four ingredients doing the heavy lifting. No peptides, no hyaluronic acid copy-paste formula — just marine biology you can’t fake.
- Plankton Extract: Feeds skin bacteria — microbiome food, not surface gunk
- Glycerin: Humectant that pulls water from the seawater base, not the air
- Seawater: Trace minerals that calm inflammation faster than most snail mucins
- Xanthan Gum: Light suspension — gives it that silky slip without silicones
Photo: Laura Chouette / Unsplash
It’s a watery gel — think slippery oyster juice. Absorbs in 8 seconds flat. No tackiness. My T-zone didn’t rebel.
Week 2: My forehead stopped looking like a topographic map of the Alps. Week 3: Someone asked if I’d gotten facials. I had not. The unexpected win? My rosacea flare-ups halved. I did not see that coming.
Fine lines stayed the same. Pores shrunk by maybe 20%. But my skin stopped looking like parchment — it actually bounced back after pinching. That’s new.
It’s not magic. It’s just really good marine biology that actually does what it says — rehydrate from the inside out. My skin drinks it. Yours might too.