Review: Ole Henriksen's 3-step Power Bright At-Home Facial System

As much as I love skincare, I have to admit that I can be a bit of a curmudgeon. Why, you ask? Because so often skincare lines promise you the world and simply don't deliver. And when you spend bazillions of dollars on products waiting for them to do things that they, well, don't, you start to become really tight-fisted with your money, and dare I say, even afraid to shell out and try new things.

Since I'm a part of the Influenster community, I sometimes get the opportunity to sample products for free, and I recently qualified for an Ole Henriksen VoxBox, which I was excited, but you guessed it, also skeptical about. I had heard of the Ole Henriksen brand, but couldn't remember having tried anything from them.

When I got my box, I was pleasantly surprised to not only see two deluxe sized samples, but also this nifty little 3-step, at-home facial system called Power Bright. 

Now technically, ALL of the products I was sent are part of the Power Bright "system" but truthfully, I found the serum and moisturizer to be similar to any other serum or moisturizer I might use (and by that I mean, nothing too out of the ordinary). That said, I was sort of blown away by the magic stored within those three little pods.

According to their literature, the system is supposed to be "brightening." Truthfully, I didn't really notice much of a brightening effect, but what I did notice was this: touchable, smooth and REALLY soft skin without any added moisturizer AND visibly reduced appearance of pores. 

So how does the system work?

You start with Step 1, a brown-sugar colored polishing scrub with a light citrus scent. After applying it to clean damp skin, you let it sit for ~10 minutes, then massage with warm water and rinse. The scrub is pretty chunky, and interestingly, I noticed an immediate warming sensation when applying it (although there was no caution around this in the pamphlet). It wasn't bothersome and dissipated quickly...I actually enjoyed it...but something to be aware of. 

Rinsing off the scrub, my skin felt really smooth, although I'll admit that I found the "massaging" instructions challenging, because most of the sugar bits that you'd use to create a massaging sensation had dissolved after the 10 minutes and use of warm water on my hands.

Step 2 was the "brighten" step, and here I sort of felt like I was slathering my face with cake icing. It had the same sort of color and consistency, and even the scent reminded me of cake batter. You only leave this on your skin for 2-3 minutes, so it's a much faster step, and even though the mask starts to dry and set a bit, your face doesn't feel hard (like with some masks), nor do you feel like you're covered in a goopy, uncomfortable mess.

Step 3 involves applying a "glowing" cleanser (they call it a melting cleanser for some reason unknown to me) directly on top of the vitamin C concentrate from the last step. The instructions say to blend it in evenly over your face and then leave it on for ~15 minutes. Here they mention to expect a gentle tingling sensation, but I didn't experience this at all. After your time is up, they suggest using one of the provided complexion sponges or a warm wash cloth to swipe away the product.

Let me say that I had one of those childlike, pleasant surprises when I dunked the itty bitty, basically flat wafer of a sponge into the water and saw it puff up into a real, full sponge. As someone who has used sponges before, I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I was, and it made me happy. However, I will say that the sponge was not really all that effective at completely rinsing the product from my face. I swiped several times using warm water, but still felt like there was some residue, so I also splashed my face with my hands. Frankly, that didn't do a perfect job either, and I still felt like there was a film leftover on my skin, so I just turned off the water and patted dry. 

And that's when the miracle happened. Maybe it was just the film left on my skin, but I'm telling you my skin felt baby's butt soft. And as someone who routinely deals with acne and those annoying, rough, under-the-skin clogged pores, this felt amazing. I was tempted to skip my evening moisturizer altogether because my skin didn't even feel like it needed it (although I caved and applied, just for good measure). I was also impressed to see that I had enough product left in each of the three steps to be able to give myself this fun facial again later this week (you can use up to 3 times a week).

All in all, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the experience and the products, and I was also surprised to see that this is not shockingly expensive. For $55 at Sephora.com, you can get 6 of the 3-step system packages, and if you consider that you can get two uses from each pod, that's 12 facials or roughly $4 per facial (I dare you to try to find a salon that can beat that price). Just for good measure, I'll also mention that this product is free of parabens, sulfates and phthalates, so it's something you can use on your skin with confidence.

Have you tried the Ole Henriksen Power Bright system and did you enjoy it too? Any other products from this line that you'd recommend? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Til next time!

*Note: I received these products complimentary, courtesy of Influenster. I have not been compensated for this review.