I heard about this brand through various skin care blogs and youtubers, but I was never able to try it out until now. Funny enough, Omorovicza is a Hungarian brand (hi neighbors!), but now it’s no longer produced in Hungary as far as I can tell, which is too bad.

Hungary’s thermal waters were famous at least here in the area for at least thousands of years, so in the 1800s the Omorovicza family built a thermal bath, the Racz Furdo, on the site of an Ottoman bath established in the 1560s. One of the Omorovicza heirs, Stephen de Heinrich de Omorovicza met an American diplomat named Margaret and after they became a couple, they came up with the idea to create a line of skin care products that would contain the beneficial effects of the thermal waters.

With the help of a well-established Hungarian laboratory of dermatology, they started created the first products, using the “Healing Concentrate”, a complex able to deliver the therapeutic minerals to the deepest layers of the skin.

I got my first Omorovicza product as a travel size in the Lookfantastic advent calendar.

Packaging:

The packaging is really fancy, even for the travel size, like you would expect from a high end skin care product. It comes in a glass matte jar, with a silver lid. I liked the jar so much that I kept it to put my face cream in it when I will be able to travel again. The full size contains 50 ml.

Texture:

The texture of this face mask is very similar to the one of a vaseline-based cream as it’s thick but it doesn’t feel oily on the skin. It’s a little bit weird and not what I expected, but once applied the mask turns white and after you leave it on for a while, it looks like it absorbs into the skin.

Ingredients:

Glycerin, Aqua, Glycolic Acid, Niacinamide, Cetearyl Olivate, Propanediol, Sorbitan Olivate, Saccharomyces(Hungarian Thermal Water) Ferment Extract, Sodium Hydroxide, Salicylic Acid, Lactic Acid, Parfum (Fragrance), Colloidal Silver, Xanthan Gum, Behenyl Alcohol, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), Leuconostoc/Radish Root Ferment Filtrate, Phospholipids, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Stearyl Alcohol, Protease, Subtilisin, Geraniol, Citronellol, Linalool.

The first ingredients on the list are glycerin, water, glycolic acid (an AHA), niacinamide (vitamin B3 – it reduces the appearance of blemishes and congestion) and cetearyl olivate (an oily ester of cetearyl alcohol and the fatty acids from olive oil). There is also propanediol, Hungarian thermal water, salicylic acid, lactic acid and colloidal silver in there, all good ingredients for acne-prone skin. The only ingredient that could cause some issues is the shea butter, but I also tend to get breakouts and I never have a problem with shea butter.

The formula is designed to help problematic skin, especially blemishes and breakouts, as well as to unclog pores. There is also fragrance in it, put personally I don’t mind when products contain fragrance as long as it’s not too potent.

Price and accessibility:

Omorovicza products are available in a few online shops here in Romania, so it’s not so hard to obtain them. However, the products are expensive. This mask for example retails for 99 US dollars (the full size), so it’s definitely something for those who have a generous budget available for skin care products. However, I do think that it’s a high end product that at least really has some noticeable effects on the skin opposed to other expensive skin care that doesn’t do that much for the skin.

My overall opinion:

The products contains ingredients in high concentrations, so the recommendations are to leave the mask on for 5 minutes for the first time and work your way up to 15 minutes. I did it like that and I didn’t experienced any redness or irritation. I did noticed that the blemishes were reduced after using this and those tiny pimples I got here and there especially in the chin area would dry out until morning if I applied the mask at night. Also, a little goes a long way because you only need a thin layer of this and I used it sparingly, applying it only on the problematic areas. I liked the mask and if it weren’t that expensive I would definitely purchase it. However, I would recommend it to anyone who has oily or combination and acne-prone skin and the money to spend on high end skin care.