The Cooling Resilience of Seaweed | Some By Mi Spirulina Soothing Sherbet Mask Review

Some By Mi has dazzled the world with their soothing, herbal remedies that use plant extracts to soothe, refresh and repair skin. They hit records with their 30 Days Miracle Line, which is rich in tea-tree, witch hazel and refreshing peppermint to quickly tamp down redness, acne and irritated skin for clearer, calmer skin. Their long-time favourite is the 30 Days Miracle Toner, which also contains brightening papaya and lifting swiftlet nest extract for a softening, refreshing application every time. Another beloved is their Galactomyces Vitamin C Glow Serum, which combines 75% refreshing galactomyces with brightening vitamin C and niacinamide, to lift dark spots, even skin tone and infuse a lasting glow. 

They have been a player for a longtime- but have been a little quiet on the front of new product-lines. Until now! Their new line takes inspiration from the deep ocean, using PDRN extracted from spirulina (a blue-green algae rich in vitamins and minerals). Their sherbet, soothing mask contains 10 kinds of seaweed extracts blended with soothing PDRN (extracted from blue-green algae) to help heal and restore your skin. It also contains a cooling effect, forming a lightweight, sherbet mask that vanishes redness and irritation in just 10 minutes.  

It’s an exciting new product; and given Some By Mi’s previous high-quality products – we had to give it a try. Can it cool redness in 10 minutes? Is it acne safe? Let’s find out! 

Spirulina PDRN: as mentioned, the starring ingredient is their PDRN extracted from algae. It’s tiny fragments of DNA that absorb into skin cells to boost the healing process, creating refreshed and more youthful appearance. 

Seaweed extracts: with 10 different kinds melded together, seaweed is rich in vitamins and minerals to enrich, moisturize and soothe the skin barrier. Improved hydration lifts fine lines, whilst also calming and reducing acne spots. 

PHA: gentle exfoliating acid that melts away dead skin cells to soften and refresh the skin barrier, without stripping moisture. 

Centella asciatica extract: soothing herbal extract that helps calm redness and deeply moisturize skin barrier to boost healing. 

Pear extract: rich in natural antioxidants, pear extract provides protection against environmental pollution and UV radiation, whilst also soothing redness. 

Damascus Rosewater: soothing floral extract that helps cool skin distress, helping calm irritation and itching from damaged, dry or broken skin. 

Melon extract: rich in antioxidants to help hydrate and protect skin, improving cell renewal and healing of skin barrier. 

Ivy extract: used in traditional medicine, ivy extract helps reduce bacteria on skin, as well as calm inflammatory response to reduce redness and swelling. 

Pine tree extract: bark oil extract that helps boost natural hydration and calm inflamed appearance for softer, clearer texture. 

Evening Primrose extract: soothing extract that helps prevent water loss to maintain skin shine, whilst infusing fatty acids for healing and improving appearance. 

Hibiscus extract: is a famous floral extract used for fine lines and boosting moisture, rich in phenols to reduce wrinkle depth and nourish skin. 

The mask starts off as a fine powder that you mix with water – made of corn starch, sodium polyacrylate (to form a jelly-like texture) and silica. All of these form the base to make the thick texture of the mask, ensuring it adheres to skin and the above ingredients can absorb. 

The thing my research couldn’t find is what could cause a cooling effect. The advertising for the mask says it can reduce skin temperature by 10C, due to its sherbet texture. But poring over the ingredient list, there’s not a single one that actively causes cooling. With the #Cryo mask – I was really expecting menthol or mint, but there isn’t anything here to actively cool your skin. 

Rather, there’s a large variety of polymers, designed to attract and hold water to your skin barrier, so it’s likely the most cooling is from the hydrating polymers, seaweed and floral extracts. 

This is a very gentle, soothing mask that has very little room to irritate, offend or hurt the skin barrier – so unless you’ve a specific allergy to one of the extracts or seaweed, this is a very safe mask for general use. This mask is perfect for irritated skin, redness and acne-prone skin (as a wash-off pore mask, it’s safe for acne use and helps calm inflammation). 

It does have an artificial blue color (to get the vibrant-green sherbet hue) so if you have a sensitivity to artificial colors, it might cause irritation. 

I have combination skin and acne – and therefore am a massive fan of pore masks, that help reduce sebum and calm your skin barrier. I also naturally have skin that is always a little red, due to irritation, the weather or just when it feels like. So a good, cooling mask is always welcome – and this one seemed perfect. With a variety of soothing seaweed extracts and healing PDRN, I was excited to test it out! 

The box contains 10 sachets of powder for 10 sessions of mask, with a little mixing cup and spatula. In my evening routine, after cleansing and drying my skin, I poured water into the cup and then mixed the sachet. Immediately, the powder rippled and became jelly-like, then further mixing formed a powdery sherbet that stuck together. The amount of sherbet that one sachet makes is more than enough for two people to share a soothing mask session, or you can add it to any rough patches (think elbows, knees) for a whole-body soothing. 

For the first few minutes, I couldn’t even feel the mask on my face. It is incredibly lightweight, that after applying – you don’t really notice it. After about 7 minutes of application, I did feel a light tingling as if the mask was cooling down. It was far from a dramatic, chilling effect – but it was a pleasant, calming effect. I couldn’t figure out what ingredients in the powder was causing it, it must just be the matrix of polymers holding water to the skin and letting it cool. 

After 10 minutes, it washes off easily (no stickiness) and in that time – I noticed a quick calming of redness and irritation on my skin. It’s not a dramatic change, but enough that you can see the effect that the ingredients has. It helped reduce redness, increased skin hydration and helped my skin feel a touch softer. It was a very lightweight mask and I would really recommend it if you can’t stand sticky or heavy, occlusive face masks as this one was incredibly light and easy to apply. This mask would be ideal for sensitive and oily skin types (due to it’s combination of ingredients helping balance oils) and is good for helping calm and soothe acne (especially if other masks cause you to break out). 

Although it wasn’t the frosty blast of our dreams – this mask does help cool and soothe your skin. It’s not going to be a dramatic change, but if you are in need of a gentle touch of hydration and calm, this is a useful addition to your evenings off to relax. It’s incredibly lightweight and soft and has a variety of exciting extracts to help refresh and soothe your skin – making it a great addition to irritated, red or upset skin barriers.

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