Margate, England. Not exactly a skincare capital — more like a seaside town with really good fish and chips and a sky that can’t decide if it’s moody or magnificent. That’s where Haeckels grows the seaweed inside this cleanser. Like, literally grows it. Off the coast.
The founder started this because he was a surfer with salty, wrecked skin and no interest in lab-made goo. So he just… harvested the ocean. That’s it. That’s the whole origin story.
It’s a solid cleanser — £22 — shaped like a smooth pebble. You wet your face, rub the stone between your palms, and it melts into a soft, foamy lather. The claim that got me: it’s refillable, which means you buy the pebble once and the refill cartridge forever.
Plastic-free shell
The outer casing is made from seaweed and plant waste. It dissolves in water. I tested it in the sink. It just… left.
Refill cartridge
Slides in like a battery. You’re not throwing away a plastic pump every month — you’re saving it from a landfill.
Actually cleans
Not a gimmick. It removes SPF and city grime without that squeaky-tight feeling that means your skin is now screaming.
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
The hero is bladderwrack seaweed — harvested by hand from the Kent coast — plus a few botanical extracts that do real work. No fragrance, no sulfates, no nonsense.
- Bladderwrack seaweed: mineral-rich, calms redness and feeds the skin barrier
- Sea salt: gently exfoliates while you massage
- Glycerin: pulls moisture in instead of stripping it out
- Chamomile: anti-inflammatory for reactive, stressed skin
Photo: Poko Skincare / Unsplash
First impression: it smells like the actual beach — briny, not floral. The lather is dense but light, like whipped sea foam. It rinses off clean in about 15 seconds, no residue, no film.
Week three: I stopped needing a separate morning cleanser. This one pebble does the job alone. The surprise? My skin looks less blotchy. I didn’t expect that from a cleanser — I thought that was serum territory.
Photo: Rosa Rafael / Unsplash
My pores look smaller — or maybe just less full of dead skin. Redness around my nose calmed down noticeably. It didn’t fix my hormonal chin breakout, but it didn’t make it worse either. That’s a win.
Photo: engin akyurt / Unsplash
This is the cleanser I didn’t know I needed — a plastic-free, seaweed-powered rock that actually cleans. Weird, effective, and kind of poetic.