Antipodes Hosanna H2O Intensive Skin-Plumping Serum

I'm sorry (kind of) for another skincare post. Frankly I've barely worn any makeup lately due to a rather flustered mix of hot weather and being effectively shackled to my dissertation, but I promise there will be a whole week of non-skincare posts very soon. I'm also on a bit of a writer's retreat at my parents' house and only brought the bare essentials and a couple of products to test with me. One of these products is a serum from New Zealand brand Antipodes. Continuing Saturday's theme of dehydrated but slightly oiler summer skin, Antipodes Hosanna H₂O Intensive Skin-Plumping serum* is water-based, so hydrating without feeling heavy. 

The serum is even runnier than the other hydrating serums I own, REN Max Moisture and Caudalie SOS Thirst Quenching, and the water-based texture means it doesn't feel as immediately hydrating as those two and I definitely need a moisturiser on top. What it does seem to do more effectively is smooth and plump the skin, and it works particularly well applied alone along the orbital bone in the morning to wake up the under-eye area and smooth out fine lines. Antipodes' Global Brand Trainer, Stephanie Simeon, said she likes to mix the serum with a little mineral foundation to use as an under-eye concealer, which isn't something I've tried yet but sounds like a great idea.

The scent is quite strong, the primary ingredient is lavender flower water, which might not be for everyone but it hasn't caused any skin irritation for me and I find it calming and refreshing. The serum also contains Antipodes trademark grapeseed extract to protect against pollutants, and mamaku black fern to foster healthy cell renewal. Antipodes say Hosanna serum can stimulate the synthesis of Type I collagen (the one that decreases as we age and is important to skin repair) in human fibroplast cells by up to  72%, which to be honest blinds me with science a little, but they do receive a huge amount of funding for research (and conduct their tests on human skin cells in the lab) which is something a lot of our organic brands in the UK are lacking.

Antipodes Hosanna H₂O Intensive Skin-Plumping serum £27.99 / 25ml

Ingredients: Lavender augusifolia distilate (lavender flower water)*, cyathea medullaris (mamku black fern) leaf extract, vitis vinifera (Vinanza Grape) grapeseed extract, naticide (natural preservative), caprylic/capric triglyceride, xantham gum, essential oil fragrances of French rose oil and cardamon: Benzyl benzoate+, cinnamyl alcohol+, citral+, citronellol+, d-limonene+, eugenol+, farnesol+, geraniol+, linanool+.
* = Certified Organic ingredient; + = Component of essential oil

I thought I'd take my photos outside today to make the most of the sunshine (if I'm going to be too hot to sleep, I want some benefit from it) and my mum's awesome hot pink hydrangeas. Unfortunately I also splashed my camera with water, which my photographer's assistant (the dog) started licking off the patio like it was some kind of youth elixir. She has a big bowl of water in the house obviously, but to be fair if I was a dog and saw a human pouring jugs of water over a bottle of serum whilst attempting one-handed photography, I'd probably think there was something special going on too.