Dermatologist Review of Sponge Skin Care

Sponge Skin Care is a long established product line from Greece that has been recently made available to the international community. Currently headquartered in New York, Sponge traces its inspiration back almost 40 years to a Greek OB/GYN from Athens who developed a leg cream specifically for pregnant patients. Years later (around 13 years ago) his nephew, Markos Drakotos, decided to create an improved version of the leg cream (now called Anti-Fatigue Leg Cream) and develop a complete skin care line in keeping with the principles that made the initial leg product so exceptional. That skin care line continues to be formulated and made in Athens and is now known as Sponge Skin Care. Sponge been available on a limited basis in North America since the Summer of 2008.

Sponge gets its name from the island of Symi in the Aegean where sponge harvesting has gone on for generations. Much as the Aegean sponge soaks in nutrients from the sea, skin analogously soaks in nutrients placed on its surface. This clever analogy is certainly in keeping with the product line’s Greek roots in terms of formulation, manufacture and natural ingredient origin. The name also relates to the favorable ability of Sponge products to absorb well and not leave greasy residues.

Sponge products’ unique properties arise to a great degree from plant and herb extracts selected from the best fields in Greece. The company takes great care to optimize each extract via careful selection of organic material and detailed attention to and customization of the chemical-free slow extraction process. The formulations rely primarily on natural extracts; the art of Sponge is how the extracts are put together in such a way as to provide a pleasant and beneficial experience for the user.

Sponge products are, generally speaking, a mix of highest quality first press extra-virgin olive oil and organically grown herbs and plant extracts. The unique extraction process protects the essence and integrity of each plant species. There are no artificial colors but the products do naturally darken over time without losing their essence or potency. The products are hypoallergenic, paraben free and clinically tested for safety but not animal tested.

The Sponge product line presently consists of ten products. There are three aromatherapy mists, three face creams, a leg cream, a prenatal cream, a body milk and a face and body oil. In addition to these products Sponge has an eye gel, eye cream and herbal cleanser in the works that should be released in the near future.

I have had the opportunity to experience the Sponge product line and am favorably impressed. From the branding, packaging and labeling down to the look, feel and smell of the products, Sponge has created an excellent offering.

The poroducts come in completely biodegradable packaging consisting black boxes with color coded product names. Inside these boxes the glass bottles are bubble wrapped to protect from breakage during shipping. The nicest thing about the packaging is that everything works harmoniously. The bottles are all of the same simple but elegant style light blue-grey glass. The glass color, parenthetically, is meant to hark back to the water color in the crater of Thira – Santorini to us Americans – site of the mythical lost city of Atlantis. The tops are also consistent – black caps over black pump dispensers. The nice thing about these products is that despite the cohesiveness of the packaging it is very easy to tell one product from another from a distance due to the unique color of print assigned to each product, the different colors of the products themselves and the different container sizes. This makes for discretely classy packaging that sits nicely on essentially any countertop. The products are all pump dispensed which helps limit natural oxidation and maintain formulation integrity with minimized preservatives.

As for the actual Sponge Skin Care experience, it is very nice. I’m typically not partial to fragranced skin care but enjoyed these products. The formulations glide on smoothly and soak in exceptionally well leaving a moist healthy feel. Each product has its own unique natural herbal fragrance. I found the product fragrances to be pleasant and well balanced. I especially liked Anti-Fatigue Leg Cream which felt particularly pleasant after a day spent sightseeing on foot. This cream contains mastic extract (from the Greek mastic tree) which seems to add something special to the product in addition to being a natural preservative. I also found the Sweet Basil Aromatherapy Mist to be a treat and enjoyed the Krema Triantafillo.

Sponge Skin Care brings a clearly unique and enjoyable high quality offering to the skin care world. Its Greek roots are unmistakable and add to the line’s mystique. I tend to view Sponge Skin Care products as, in a sense, ‘lifestyle’ products with a propensity to engender consumer loyalty. They are both skin care and at the same time, a lifestyle experience. These products are certainly worth a try for anyone looking for something different in their personal skin care, especially if clean natural fragrances are desired as part of the skin care experience.