I am pleased to introduce you to a new skincare brand called Steambase. Steambase uses the idea that skincare is like architecture, buildings that protect people from harmful UV rays, pollution while providing space for resting and regaining strength. Steambase Skin Architecture embraces the energy of nature and science, while keeping your skin healthy and glowing. I received so many great items from Steambase and I am ready to finally review their RoseHerb line.
Some products were complementary to review and was not paid. All reviews are my own honest opinion and I never have been asked to write copy for a brand. This blog post might contain promo codes, affiliate and referral links, which using my links will help generate a small commission that helps support my blog at no extra cost to you.
Skin Type/Concerns: Oily, aging, hyper pigmentation, fine lines/wrinkles, pores, blemish prone
The first line that Steambase has produced is RoseHerb, which is basic skincare line, building the foundation for healthy skin to moisturize, providing nutrition, resulting in radiant skin. It uses Onsen-sui, thermal water, to help plump up skin and retain the moisture balance. The RoseHerb skincare line has 4 products: toner, emulsion, serum and cream and they all have a lovely herbal scent. The RoseHerb line is great for oily and oily/combo skin, you can actually skip either the emulsion or cream. For drier skin types, use all 4 items or layer with other moisturizers.
Common Key Ingredients
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Onsen-sui, thermal water, from Onyang hot springs, which is the first hot springs in Korean history, known as “Ongung’ for the Emperors of the Chosun Dynasty. It has a 1300 year old history of being used as a natural lotion, due to its optimal ratio of minerals that deeply moisturize your skin.
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This is called RoseHerb due to three ingredients that have the word rose in it: Rose geranium (.03%) is part of the geranium family with a herbal rose scent and is known to help balance oily skin, improves skin elasticity, calms and soothes irritated skin, heals blemishes and other skin issues, as it has astringent and antiseptic benefits. Rosemary (.03%) has anti-septic and antimicrobial properties, supports collagen growths and has anti-oxidant properties that will combat free radicals. This herb also helps prevent bacteria from infecting pores. Rose hip (.03%) contains vitamin A, which promotes healthy skin cell rejuvenation, repairing scar and sun damaged skin, helping with fine lines and wrinkles. It also contains brightening antioxidant vitamin C, hydrates your skin and doesn’t clog pores
FDA approved brightening ingredient niacinamide (vitamin B3) is a powerful antioxidant that acts as an anti-inflammatory, improves your skin elasticity, enhance the skin barrier function and also it helps to even out skin tone and reduce post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. From the mint family, perilla has anti-inflammatory benefites, helping to soothe, calm and heal skin while reducing acne, redness and swelling, making this good for sensitive or blemish prone skin. Kava (piper methysticum) has been used as a folk remedy for thousands of year in the South Pacific for skin issues and speed up wound healing, while retaining moisture in your skin, as it forms a moisture barrier on your skin.
Evening primrose hydrates and soothes skin, providing high levels of antioxidants to help smooth roughness and reduce fine lines and wrinkles. KFDA approved anti-wrinkle ingredient adenosine is a yeast derived compound that will strengthen the power of your skin to regenerate and has anti-aging, anti-wrinkle and anti-inflammatory properties. Another anti-inflammatory ingredient is burdock root and it provides skin soothing, antioxidant benefits.
Ceramides made from fermented yeast and are lipids (fats), very important in helping to repair and protect your moisture barrier. They will keep your skin hydrated and plump as they retain water. Ceramides are found naturally in your body and you lose the ability to produce as you age, so adding them to skincare products helps with anti-aging. Squalane has the ability to penetrate the skin quickly and completely, which makes it valuable in skincare products, as it is a powerful antioxidant, UV damage preventative, prevents hyper-pigmentation due to age, promotes cell growth. Polyglutamic acid is made from fermented soybeans (natto) and helps moisturize and exfoliate old skin cells. It can penetrate to the deepest layers in your skin, locks in moisture and helps increase the production of NMF (Natural Moisturizing Factor). Lysolecithin is actually soy lecithin, but has been modified and this emulsifier is used to keep products lightweight, without being greasy or oily while providing smoothing and hydrating benefits
Sodium hyaluronate is an intensive moisturizing ingredient which bonds water to keep skin hydrated. Hydrolyzed hyaluronic acidhelps supply nutrition and strengthen your cell barrier and will penetrate deep into your skin, while retaining moisture. Fourth generation moisturizer polyquaternium-51 (lipidure) retains moisture better than beta-glucan ~ speaking of beta glucan, this ingredient is also in here ~ helping to condition skin while repairing, moisturizing and stimulating the production of collagen, speeding up wound healing, soothing and calming skin due to its anti-irritant and strong anti-inflammatory properties. Inositol has water binding properties and helps prevent dryness in skin while acting as an anti-inflammatory .
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Anti aging peptides acetyl hexapeptide-8 helps bind water to your skin, helps regenerate skin cells and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while palmitoyl pentapeptide-4 (aka Matrixyl; originally known as palmitoyl pentapeptide-3) is a mixture of fatty and amino acids, stimulates collagen and elastic production, helping repair damage to your skin and reducing deep wrinkles and line.
All of these products contain alcohol, but it isn’t the top ingredient. Alcohol is used to help thin out a product and isn’t necessarily a bad ingredient. You have to look at the rest of the ingredients as well ~ and the RoseHerb line is very much a hydrating and moisturizing line, with ingredients to back that claim up.
More Things in Common
All of the items in the Steambase RoseHerb line come in these beautiful frosted light jade colored glass containers with black plastic caps. The products has matte black lettering and white labels ~ the bottles and jars are very heavy and substantial. All of the products have the same heavenly herbal floral scent ~ this is coming from the rose geranium ~ which has spicy floral herbal notes to it. It isn’t overpowering and disappears quickly.
Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Toner is the first item in this skincare line ~ it is a lovely thicker than water cloudy liquid that has almost an oily feel to it. However, it isn’t oily at all ~ it absorbs beautifully and dries down quickly ~ this has a firming, tightening effect on my skin due to the peptides while leaving my skin feeling soft and supple. This has a pH level that is right under a 5, making it mildly acid and skin balancing; Increases my moisture level by 44% and decreases my oils by 34%.
For my oily skin type, this is a great all year round toner, due to the fact it leaves no greasy or sticky residue and isn’t dewy. The applicator is a a pin hole one and there can be some confusion with this bottle and the Emulsion as they look exactly the same. The difference, besides the label, is the pin hole size. The toner has a smaller opening than the emulsion bottle. I will show them side by side further down.
Ingredients: onsen-sui, methylpropanediol, water, butylene glycol, 1,2-hexanediol, glycerin, niacinamide, raffinose, perilla ocymoides seed extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) flower extract, rosa canina flower extract, pelargonium graveolens extract, arctium lappa root extract, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, oenothera biennis (evening primrose) oil, sodium hyaluronate, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, hydrogenated lecithin, glyceryl stearate, neopentyl glycol diheptanoate, disodium EDTA, lysolecithin, lecithin, beta glucan, alcohol denat., cyclopentasiloxane, ceramide NP, ceteth-20, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl ethylhexanoate, sodium polyacrylate, squalane, steareth-20, stearic acid, adenosine, acetyl glutamine, acetyl hexapeptide-8, ethylhexylglycerin, inositol, carbomer, coceth-7, tocopheryl acetate, tromethamine, triethylhexanoin, panthenol, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, polyglutamic acid, polyglyceryl-10 myristate, polyglyceryl-2 stearate, polysorbate 20, polyquaternium-51, PVM/MA copolymer, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, PPG-1-PEG-9 lauryl glycol ether, hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, fragrance, phenoxyethanol cosDNA
Steambase RoseHerb Perfect Build Up Serum is another favorite of mine in this skincare line. This comes in an adorable squat little bottle with an eye drop applicator and it dispenses he product nicely ~ the eye drop applicator is very well made and you do not have to fuss with it.
The texture is a very watery gel and it is very lightweight with no sticky or greasy residue. However, it packs a hydrating punch ~ 65% increase in moisture while reducing my oils by 22% and really keeps my skin hydrated and smooth. This is the one that I would say everyone should purchase if you are looking for a hydrating, tightening serum.
Ingredients: onsen-sui, glycerin, methylpropanediol, peg-400, water, 1,2-hexanediol, niacinamide, raffinose, butylene glycol, squalane, panthenol, perilla ocymoides seed extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) flower extract, rosa canina flower extract, pelargonium graveolens extract, arctium lappa root extract, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, oenothera biennis (evening primrose) oil, sodium hyaluronate, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, hydrogenated lecithin, neopentyl glycol diheptanoate, disodium EDTA, lysolecithin, lecithin, beta glucan, alcohol denat., ceramide NP, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl ethylhexanoate, stearic acid, adenosine, acetyl glutamine, acetyl hexapeptide-8, ethylhexylglycerin, inositol, carbomer, tromethamine, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, polyglutamic acid, polyglyceryl-10 myristate, polyglyceryl-2 stearate, polysorbate 20, polyquaternium-51, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine, hydroxyethyl acrylate/sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate copolymer, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, fragrance cosDNA
Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Emulsion is excellent for those of us with dehydrated skin. If you have dry skin, you would use this before your last moisturizing step ~ for oily skin folks, this is enough on its own and I do not recommend adding the cream over this as that would be too much. This emulsion has a pin hole applicator just like the Toner, but the opening is much wider. You can see below the side-by-side comparison ~ Toner is on the left and the Emulsion is on the right hand side.
The emulsion is a thick liquid type product but make no mistake, this is VERY moisturizing. Too much of this on oily skin and you will have very sticky, dewy and glossy skin ~ so make sure you experiment with how much you need to use. Once I found that I only needed a few dabs of this product, my skin looks glowing without looking greasy or tacky. This emulsion was testing my limits on the oil/moisture tests ~ it increased my moisture levels by 35% but also increased my oils by 43%, so you see why oily skinned people need to really be careful about how much product they use.
Ingredients: onsen-sui, cyclopentasiloxane, glycerin, 1,2-hexanediol, methylpropanediol, butylene glycol, hydrogenated poly(c6-14 olefin), niacinamide, cyclomethicone, water, polysorbate 60, hydroxyethyl acrylate/sodium acryloyldimethyl taurate, copolymer, betaine, dimethicone, perilla ocymoides seed extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) flower extract, rosa canina flower extract, pelargonium graveolens extract, arctium lappa root extract, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, oenothera biennis (evening primrose) oil, sodium hyaluronate, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, hydrogenated lecithin, neopentyl glycol diheptanoate, disodium EDTA, lysolecithin, dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, lecithin, beta-glucan, alcohol denat., ceramide NP, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl ethylhexanoate, squalane, stearic acid, silica, adenosine, acetyl glutamine, acetyl hexapeptide-8, xanthan gum, carbomer, creatine, taurine, trehalose, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, polyglutamic acid, polyglyceryl-10 myristate, polyglyceryl-2 stearate, polysorbate 20, polyquaternium-51, hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, fragrance cosDNA
Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Cream is the last item in this skincare line and it is a lightweight cream. It is also the most occlusive of the lot as well ~ it does contain shea butter, which contains a rich source of concentrated natural vitamins and fatty acids ~ oleic, stearic, palmitic, linolenic ~ and is highly moisturizing and nourishing. It helps repair your skin, as well as reduce skin inflammation and it also smooths your skin to protect it from drying and it strengthens your skin over time as it helps aid in the collagen production. It comes in a jar and the cream is very soft, slick and slippery and its texture reminds me of a lotion more than a cream. This leaves a very glossy finish on my skin, so I do have to be careful about how much product I apply as it does take a while for my skin type to absorb it. I like to use this as a night time moisturizer because of that and just use the emulsion during the day time. If you have drier skin, you will REALLY love this cream. I think with the combination of the emulsion and cream, you will have more than enough moisturizing for your skin.
Believe it or not, this actually performed better in terms of the moisture/oil tests than the emulsion ~ increase of 47% in moisture, while decreasing oil levels by 34% ~ however, the emulsion works better on my skin. Go figure!!
Ingredients: onsen-sui, hydrogenated poly(C6-14 olefin), glycerin, caprylic/capric triglyceride, butylene glycol, 1,2-hexanediol, niacinamide, dipropylene glycol, betaine, water, dimethicone, butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, perilla ocymoides seed extract, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) flower extract, rosa canina flower extract, pelargonium graveolens extract, arctium lappa root extract, piper methysticum leaf/root/stem extract, oenothera biennis (evening primrose) oil, sodium hyaluronate, carthamus tinctorius (safflower) seed oil, hydrogenated lecithin, glyceryl stearate, neopentyl glycol diheptanoate, disodium EDTA, lysolecithin, lecithin, methylpropanediol, beta glucan, alcohol denat., ceramide NP, ceteth-20, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol, cetyl ethylhexanoate, squalane, steareth-20, stearic acid, adenosine, acetyl glutamine, acetyl hexapeptide-8, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, ethylhexylglycerin, carbomer, tromethamine, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4, polyglutamic acid, polyglyceryl-10 myristate, polyglyceryl-2 stearate, polysorbate 20, polysorbate 60, polyacrylate-13, polyisobutene, polyquaternium-51, PEG-75 stearate, hydrogenated phosphatidylcholine, hydrolyzed hyaluronic acid, fragrance, phenoxyethanol cosDNA
I did a quick swatch video on my IGTV channel which you can watch here
Final Thoughts
These products are designed to provide intense moisture to your skin, while providing nourishment and enhancing your skin barrier I found that this was the case with these products ~ they were very hydrating but not too heavy. The key to using these products is to allow the dry time between steps, otherwise, my skin will be very dewy and take forever to dry down properly. For an oily skinned person, I would either use the cream or emulsion and not both of them at the same time as that was too much for my skin type. My preference is the emulsion as it was rich enough for my skin to give it moisture without being oily. The toner and serum really showcased their tightening abilities on my skin without leaving my skin feeling dry. This line is not a mattifying line, but a hydrating line.
I really loved the packaging and the scent of these products as well ~ the ascetics are just beautiful with the light jade green shade of the heavy glass bottles and jars. I totally recommend the following products and I will purchase them ~ the Serum and Toner. Deciding on whether you get the Emulsion or Cream really depends on your skin type ~ for me, the Emulsion is better suited for my oily skin, but the cream is also very good as well. These products have been a lifesaver in terms of moisturizing my winter-dehydrated skin. Have you tried any products yet from Steambase? You should!!
Where To Purchase
Beauty Tap is the only place that I know of that sells Steambase ~ you can use my affiliate code of UNBOXING15 to get an additional 15% off as well! This coupon is good until the end of March 2019. Beauty Tap sells internationally and their shipping is a bit costly, but it is free once you reach a threshold ~ I recommend doing some hauls with your friends!! For the USA, it is $70.00 and for other countries, it is $120.00 ~ but they do ship DHL or EMS, so you will get it sooner. I am not sure why they went with such an expensive shipping service, as that means less people will purchase items. I will have reviews of their facial sheet masks and cleansing water soon.
- Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Toner 150ml $31.00
- Steambase RoseHerb Perfect Build Up Serum 40ml $41.00
- Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Emulsion 150ml $31.00
- Steambase RoseHerb Build Up Cream 50ml $35.00
[ disclaimer: products received for review purposes. blog post contains affiliate links ]