Although I’ve played around a little with THEFACESHOP‘s makeup, I’d never had an opportunity to try their skincare products out before now. THEFACESHOP‘s White Seed range is intended to brighten your skin – removing dullness and boosting radiance.

The White Seed Brightening Toner is a “translucent, brightening toner helps brighten the skin and clear away dullness without leaving a sticky residue.”

The White Seed Brightening Serum is a “smooth, brightening serum effectively penetrates into skin, giving it a boost of radiance and brightness.

Both products contain “a compound of brightening ingredients (White Lupin Seed, which contains a natural brightening substance, and White Daisy Flower extract, which helps reducing dullness) makes skin look bright and clear. This White Seed Complex is formulated without 7 additives: parabens, tar colorant, animal-sourced ingredients, mineral oil, talc, polyacrylamide, paraffin.”

In general, I’m quite skeptical of toners because more often than not they’re an added step that doesn’t always give me any kind of results. (I’ve even read multiple articles over the years that indicate they’re not actually doing much of anything.) However, a lot of people use them as an extra step in their routine and I know for me, the only time I’ve experienced a toner doing its job was when it removed itchiness on my face (seriously). I’ve gone off on a tangent here, but bear with me! So suffice to say, I’m incredibly skeptical about toners. However, I did *actually* notice brightening of my skin when I was using this in conjunction with the Brightening Serum. As my skin starts to tan in the summer, I can often be left with a slightly dull looking face just from the added pigment not looking as bright as “normal” for me. I was honestly a little bit shocked when I woke up the morning after having used this for the first time and found that face did indeed look brighter. I can’t explain it, as I definitely do not know the science behind the ingredients, but I did SEE a difference and for me that’s really, really rare with skincare. Added bonuses: pump top, lovely clean scent and it comes with a pump guard that you can pop on top of the lid in case you’re travelling with these items!

Now, the other side worth mentioning is that I don’t feel that the Brightening Serum was hydrating enough for me. It may say serum on the bottle, but it has the consistency of a normal moisturizer and not oil-based as I had expected. (Is it just me? Doesn’t serum imply oil?) I did find I was having to use an oil at night to keep my skin hydrated, even during the summer when I’m producing far more oil. Just something to keep in mind if you’re going to pick this up!

Let me know if you’ve tried these products out by THEFACESHOP, or any other skincare by them!

The products featured in this post were sent to me for review.