The Science of Seaweed
Maybe you've had a seaweed wrap at a spa, the kind where you leave feeling like your skin has been fed something real. That feeling has a name. Kelp and red seaweed, two ingredients in our facial care range, are just a couple more examples of nature-led solutions to everyday skin needs, where that old spa-day intuition and the current research actually line up.
Off the coast of Alaska, Macro Oceans harvests the kelp we use from cold, clean water, traceable back to the exact spot it was cut. Kelp protects itself in open water with complex sugars called polysaccharides, mainly two called fucoidan and laminarin. Research on these compounds has found they can outperform hyaluronic acid for holding moisture in skin, and has linked them to reduced redness, better hydration, and lower inflammation. The plant built its own defense system first. We just learned to use it.
Our red seaweed tells a different story than the kelp. It isn't native to British Columbia's waters, it took hold along the coast after arriving from elsewhere in the Pacific. Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds, a BC-based company, harvests it using regenerative methods. Because it doesn't belong in this ecosystem to begin with, every harvest works in the ecosystem's favor rather than against it, a different kind of good than our native kelp restoration, but a real one. The seaweed itself still carries real benefits for skin: antioxidant compounds and a long record in the research for brightening and holding moisture.
What we keep coming back to is that seaweed asks for almost nothing to grow. No fresh water, no fertilizer, no land. While it grows, it absorbs carbon, helps reduce ocean acidification, and gives marine life somewhere to live. It's one of the rare cases where the ingredient that's best for skin and the ingredient that's best for the ocean are the same thing.
That overlap is also why every facial care purchase funds kelp forest restoration along the BC Pacific Coast through our partnership with veritree, work done alongside local First Nations. You can see the actual restoration sites your purchases support on our impact page.