Have a Good Weekend with this Sampar skin care kit

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We’re having a love affair with French products lately, aren’t we? Well, don’t expect it to end anytime soon -Vive La France! 

Today it is my great pleasure to introduce you to the Parisian company Sampar, and their exclusive line of skin care products. Their team of scientists have spent 20 years researching the use of phytoaromatic active elements (that’s a mouthful!) to protect and correct our skin from toxins in city air like carbon monoxide, lead, and nicotine. 

To revitalize dull and tired skin, every Sampar product uses high levels of natural active ingredients and their own unique Urban Active Complex: a combination of natural extracts of shea butter, mint leaves, and plant and milk sugars. These elements work together to reduce inflammation caused by environmental and “bad” bacterial toxins, while increasing our “good” bacteria –yes, we DO need certain bacteria in and on us to be healthy!

Sampar comes in four product ranges: Essentials for daily use, Pure Perfection for oily and problem skin, Age Antidote to slow the effects of aging, and City of Light for clarifying treatments and anti-age spots.

petit, mignonne!

We tested The Good Weekend Kit ($25) from the Essentials line. This perfectly sized travel kit contains five 4ml bottles designed to get you through two nights of your skin care regimen, as well as airport security! This product is ideal for its intended use – a weekend. My only disappointment is that I didn’t get to test more from Sampar! I got between one and four uses from the five products and now I’m hooked and can’t wait to try more from this line. The kit includes the following from the Essentials line:

Velvet Cleansing Milk – this silky cleanser contains lime blossom and rosewater to fight free radicals and leave skin feeling soft and refreshed. The thickness is typical of a milk cleanser and smells divinely rosy and fresh!

Skin Quenching Mist – this alcohol free mist, rich in natural essences moisturizes, refreshes, and detoxifies the face while soothing the skin. The pump let this out so heavily and quickly, I barely got a use out of it, but it was completely refreshing – I loved it!

Equalizing Foam Peel – contains a potent combination of the Urban Active Complex, essential oils, and natural Alpha-Hydroxy Acids to actively fight skin suffocation by gently removing dead skin cells and stimulating new cell growth. This was my favorite product by far! I could feel the tingly work it was doing and my skin was incredibly soft, and visibly smoother and tighter after using.

Nocturnal Lifting Mask – Contains 95% active ingredients (that’s an almost unheard of amount of active ingredients!) Skin is firmed, lines and wrinkles reduced and features become clearer. This acts during the night, plumping and tightening the skin, ensuring you awake looking your best. This feels thick going on but soaks in fairly quickly. It did not feel greasy through the night or in the morning, and my skin did indeed look better in the morning.

Ultra Hydrating Fluid – strengthens the skin’s natural restructuring mechanisms, thickening the stratum corneum (your outermost layer of skin), and reducing water loss by up to 19.5% after only 48 hours. The mint and white lupin make this smell wonderful, and it soaked immediately into my skin when used alone.

Because we are a site with a weekly column dedicated to green beauty, it’s worth noting that Sampar does use synthetic parabens in their products. As you probably know, parabens can cause allergic reactions in some people and studies have possibly linked them to causing cancer. Being a science teacher, I would love to write pages about this topic, but in my humble and abbreviated opinion, until more research conclusively links parabens with cancer, I personally won’t rule them out in my skin care routine. Parabens do have benefits, they preserve products against bad bacterial contamination. So if you have a product you’re going to keep for more than a couple months, it may be more beneficial to have that paraben in the product than to use a contaminated natural product. Moderation when possible is the motto I like to go by!

So, I’m sold on Sampar and can’t wait to get my hands on more of their products. This little kit is an affordable way to check out their products and with my 5 star rating, I highly recommend it!  Any other Sampar fans out there?

You can find The Good Weekend Kit and other Sampar products at SkinStore.com and use code: SAVE 15 for 15% off $75! (Please note: this newly revamped, smaller packaging isn’t online yet, we’ll update the link when it is. Until then, get a slightly larger version for $40.)

Disclosure: This review includes products that were provided by the manufacturer/PR firm for our consideration. It also may contain an affiliate link, a link that gives us a small commission if you purchase the item. For more info, or any questions, please see our disclosure policy.

Author

  • Mel

    Mel is a Mom, an avid makeup junkie and a junior high science teacher. Beauty and brains; just what we want in a we heart this author!

15 Comments

  1. I got to test the Sampar Good Weekend kit and let me tell you- I really put it to the test!
    I recently went on a cruise and for anyone that has ever been on a cruise you probably know that the experience can be pretty taxing on the skin. Imagine: cold, dry New England onto a dry airplane. Get out in nice temperate Miami, drive to the port. On to the cruise ship and off to the Caribbean! On the ship it’s humid and warm outside, but dry and air conditioned inside. My skin was getting confused by the constant changes!
    I knew that taking the Good Weekend kit was a good idea for space saving and airport security but who knew it was going to be such a life saver for my skin? The Ultra Hydrating Fluid quickly became my favorite because not only was it light enough for the humidity of the Caribbean but it was heavy enough to really protect my skin while in the AC. Who ever designed this product is a genius! Before coming back to the cold New England weather I used the Skin Quenching Mist. It was perfect for the long flight and I’m convinced it’s the only reason my skin didn’t start to flake immediately upon return to Boston. My skin felt just as good getting off the plane as it did getting on, and that’s really saying something!
    The only product I wasn’t a huge fan of was the Velvet Cleansing Milk. I like my cleansers to be on the foamy side. That said, I have used some cleansing milk products that I’ve enjoyed but I didn’t feel like the Velvet Cleansing Milk quite did the trick. I wasn’t sure my skin was actually clean when I used it alone.

    Overall I really enjoyed the Sampar Good Weekend Kit. The size is perfect for a short trip (I got a week’s use out of it easily!) and fits easily into any overnight bag. I give Sampar 4 out of 5 stars because 4 out of 5 products were wonderful.

    Great review @Melinda , and thanks for the extra info on parabens!

  2. I really enjoyed this kit. It first I was not sure what to expect with the packaging. I wondered how far five 4ml bottles would get me. (They were supposed to last two days.) I got them to last longer than that by being kind of frugal with my portions. I found these products to be very concentrated and a little went a long way. The smell was heavenly and packed with essential oils. I LOVED this high quality French skin care. My sensitive combination skin did too

    My favorite item was the “foam peel.” It really gave my skin an extra glow. Frankly, after trying this great product I want to try everything in the SAMPAR line.

    5 stars for me

  3. French? Paris? Sign me up! That peel sounds intriguing. I’ve been needing away to brighten and freshun up the dull winter complexion!

  4. @Melinda–I’m going to apologize ahead of time for getting on my grammar soapbox (and I might sound very teacher-ish), but it has to be done:

    In French, things are either masculine or feminine. You cannot make something both masculine (petit) and feminine (mignonne); it doesn’t exist in French. Therefore, you must either put “Petite mignonne!” or “Petit mignon!”

    Considering you are talking about a bottle (la boutielle), everything would be in the feminine form. Your caption would read “Petite mignonne” with no comma! If you want to sound really French, you could say, “Petite mignonne, n’est pas?”

    These kits sound fabulous. My list of things to try keeps getting longer and longer and longer. Ack!

  5. @mandaleem – I am so glad that you got to put the kit through the ringer like that! And how impressive that it held up in all those different situations. That’s the perfect testing scenario – and I’m jealous I didn’t get to too!! I also was not real impressed with the cleansing milk, but I’ve never been a fan of that type of cleanser so I’m not the best judge of that one. Thank you for such a thorough review!

    Holly – I totally agree with the peel being the standout member of this bunch – it was my favorite, too! And thank you for pointing out that it was good for your sensitive combo skin. It was for mine too, and I think I forgot to mention that in the main article.

    Katie G – this is right up your alley and I wish you could’ve tried it too!

    Katie – as a teacher myself, I always love a lesson! I haven’t had French in almost 20 years, so I remember pretty much “n. rien”

  6. @Melinda-I’m glad you didn’t think I was preaching. Some people think I get too preachy with grammar, especially English grammar. (It’s “if I were.” The “if I was” thing drives me completely nuts.)

    Oh, and if you need help with the French, I’m a note away. I had pretty much what you would call the French Grammar Nazi when I was a senior in high school so I remember most of the grammar rules! I cheat with conjugating…I have the French 501 verb book (ha ha ha!).

  7. That peel sounds wonderful and I love that this is the perfect size for traveling.

  8. @katezena – I am the grammar slayer, it’s my fault! I looked it up on Google. Had @Mel added a caption to my photo, I’m sure she would have got it right.

    Wouldn’t it be great if every company did weekend kits? It would be so fun just to grab one from your cabinet and jet set off somewhere!

  9. @stef–It’s okay, it’s just something I had to point out. I’m sure someone would point out if there were a glaring grammar mistake in English on here. I just happen see the same thing in French too. (Please don’t mind any glaring grammar mistakes in here. I got about 10 shots full of numbing stuff and a mild steroid injected into my head at th neurologist for a migraine at 1:45 PM. My brain is functioning, but it feels really strange still having about 1/3 of my head numb 10 hours later. Freaky.)

  10. I have to agree with @mandabear – that is some adorable packaging! Why is everything cuter when it’s little?

    I’m also now dying to try the Equalizing Foam Peel, just typing the 3 words has me excited!

  11. This sounds lovely! Lime blossom and rosewater, mint and white lupin…yum!

  12. These look wonderful! I love travel packs and it’s a good way to try a new line! Thanks for the great review Mel!

  13. I was gone all last week to Alt Summit, so I didn’t get a chance to post my comments! I also got a Good Weekend kit, but mine was a little different; I had two Velvet Cleansing Milks, a Equalizing Foam Peel, Ultra Hydrating Fluid and a Nocturnal Line-Up Mask.
    All were just as adorable as they look in the pics, and with the exception of the Cleansing Milk, I thought all worked really well! The Hydrating Fluid and Line-Up Mask were lovely; not greasy and smoothed on easily. The Foam Peel was not drying, but I don’t think there was enough for me to see any real effects.
    My only problem was the Velvet Cleansing Milk. Since I had two, I was really able to give it a good try, and I did not like it at all. My greasy skin was too much for it and it felt like I was just moving the makeup around on my skin rather than cleaning it off.

    I do think these work really really well as a great travel kit (though when I travel I don’t think I would use a foam peel. But I’m a lazy traveller!) but the cleaning milk just dulled my enthusiasm. I’m giving it 4 stars!

  14. I was looking cruising the internet tonight on Guilt.com — They happen to have a sale on SAMPAR. I remembered testing this brand and how much I loved it. You know — it make a big impression when here it is more than four years later!!

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