A YouTube Reviewer Says Influencers Lied About eskiin. So I Tested It Myself.
My daughter's skin gets angry after bath time, and my ends snap at the brush. So I bought the eskiin and the cheaper heads his commenters swore by, and tested them all in my own shower.
We live on the Connecticut shore, and our water is hard and full of chlorine. You can see it everywhere, from the white spots on the glass door to the crust I scrub off the faucet every Sunday.
You can feel it too. My highlighted ends snap at the brush and feel like straw by Friday, and my skin is tight the second I step out. What really gets me is Lily, my 10-year-old, who comes out of the bath with dry, itchy patches on her arms.
So when eskiin started showing up all over my feed, I paid attention. Everyone I follow seemed to swear by it, and I was this close to buying one.
Then a water-filter reviewer on YouTube posted a video called “Content Creators Lied to You About the Eskiin Shower Head.” I hate being sold to, so that title stopped me cold.
To be fair, he had a point about the demos. I'd watched plenty of brown filters held up to the camera, and I'd never once asked myself what they proved.
So there I was with $139 on the line. Do I buy the thing everyone loves, or listen to the guy? I decided to find out myself, with my own money.
His comment section was full of cheaper picks, so I bought the two I saw named most, the AquaBliss inline filter at around $35 and Hello Klean at around $100. I added a no-name filter head for around $25, since one commenter swore it did the same job. Then I put all four through the same shower for six weeks.
Myth 1 · From the influencers
“If the filter turns brown, it's working.”
The question in my head: was I about to pay for a magic trick?
What I saw
The no-name head has a clear chamber of beads that tumble around while the water runs. It looks busy, and it proves about as much as a brown filter does.
A filter turns brown from rust and sediment in the pipes of whatever house it's in. Chlorine has no color, so you can't watch it leave. The eskiin keeps its filters out of sight in the handle and the tip, so there's nothing to watch there either.
The honest truth
The skeptic was right about this one. A brown filter tells you about the pipes, and nothing about the chlorine.
So the brown filter clips were out. But the skeptics had a big claim of their own, and it was the one I couldn't stop thinking about.
Myth 2 · From the skeptics
“A shower filter can't touch chlorine at shower speed.”
Could a filter catch anything with the water rushing through it that fast?
What I saw
I bought chlorine test strips at the pharmacy. For each head, I filled two cups in the same minute, one from the tub spout and one through the head. The tub strip came up dark pink every time. The eskiin strip came up almost white, and the three cheaper heads landed somewhere in between.
The honest truth
eskiin's own number is 98.7% of chlorine and heavy metals. My strip pointed the same way, and none of the cheaper heads got as close to white.
So the eskiin was catching the chlorine. What I really wanted to know was whether I'd see it in my hair, since that's why I started all this.
Myth 3 · From the influencers
“One shower and your hair looks brand new.”
I wanted this one to be true more than any of them.
What I saw
Day one, the water felt gentler on my skin and my conditioner rinsed out cleaner, but my hair still looked like my hair. The real change took weeks. Around week four my hair felt softer and my ends stopped snapping at the brush. Lily's arms looked calmer after bath time, too. None of the cheaper heads changed anything I could feel.
The honest truth
Anyone promising you new hair overnight is selling you something. Mine took about a month of ordinary showers.
So it worked, just slowly. That left the skeptics' other worry, and it was the one Jack, my 13-year-old, cared about most.
Myth 4 · From the skeptics
“Any filter will kill your water pressure.”
Would a filter turn our shower into a drizzle? Jack would never let me hear the end of it.
What I saw
I timed each head filling a measuring jug, with the tap at the same spot every time. The no-name head sputtered. AquaBliss sits behind your old head, so I just got my old weak spray back, and Hello Klean ran about like my old head too. The eskiin filled the jug faster than my old head ever did.
The honest truth
eskiin's claim is up to 2.5x stronger spray. It was the only head of the four that beat my old one.
Which brought me to the claim all over his comment section, and the one that could have saved me the most money.
Myth 5 · From the comments
“A $25 filter does the same job.”
If a $25 head did the same job, I'd be crazy to spend $139.
What I saw
The no-name head was leaking at the joint by the end of the first week, and AquaBliss adds extra joints behind your old head, which just means more places to drip. Hello Klean went up easily and never leaked. The difference from my old head was small, though.
The eskiin is a different build. Its two filters sit in the order the water hits them, KDF-55 in the handle first and calcium sulfite in the tip last, for 15 layers in all.
The honest truth
A $25 filter does a $25 job. Hello Klean was the only cheaper head I'd call fine, and it still did less for my hair than the eskiin.
So the eskiin won every round. Before I decided to keep it, though, I wanted to know who I'd really be buying from.
eskiin Under the Microscope
What held up
It went onto our old shower arm by hand in a few minutes, and six weeks in it hasn't dripped once.
I can aim it right at the back of my neck, where conditioner used to hide, and it clicks back into its holder when I'm done. The cheaper heads went back in their boxes. The eskiin stayed.
The one thing I didn't love
It sold out once while I was still deciding, so I joined the restock list and waited. That's my one real complaint, and believe me, I went looking.
Who's behind it
eskiin belongs to Wes and Maddie St. Amand, a brother and sister, and they're real people you can look up. I did, before I trusted a word.
Wes is the one who had eczema.
Maddie was the one losing her hair, and she was dealing with perioral dermatitis on top of it.
Neither of them could find a filter that cleaned the water and kept the pressure, so they built their own over about 30 prototypes and started eskiin in 2023 in Beaverton, Oregon.
Orders ship from their own warehouse in Idaho, where real people pack every box. They list exactly what's inside, and their 60-day money-back guarantee is one I actually read all the way through. That's a company that wants you to check its work.
My Side Test With the Cheaper Heads
I only set out to check the eskiin. But his comment section kept pushing cheaper heads, so I lined those up against it in the same shower. Here's how my little side test went, in case you're eyeing the same ones.
| What I checked | My pickeskiin | Hello Klean | AquaBliss | No-name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strip came back almost clean | ||||
| Strong spray, no drizzle | ||||
| Softer hair by week four | ||||
| No leaks, no extra joints | ||||
| Still in my shower |
Final Thoughts
Six weeks ago I had that video paused on my phone and the eskiin sitting in my cart. He was right about the brown filter clips, and I'm glad he made me slow down and check for myself.
What I found was a lot quieter than the videos on either side. There was no big reveal, just a test strip that stayed close to white and ends that slowly stopped fighting my brush.
We kept it for the small stuff, honestly. Bath time is calmer at our house, and Jack finally has nothing to say about the water pressure. I set out to catch it lying, and it ended up being the one I kept.
$139 felt like a lot when I hit buy. Six weeks later, it's the one thing in our bathroom I'd buy again tomorrow.
How to Get Your Hands on One
If you're a mom in the same spot, phone in one hand and that video in the other, I get it. I ordered mine straight from eskiin's site, since that's where the Early Black Friday price and the five free gifts are.
All five gifts came with my order, and the 60-day guarantee meant trying it was never much of a gamble. Just don't wait too long, because it already sold out on me once.
eskiin Handheld Filtered Showerhead
Available in Black, Chrome and Brushed Nickel
$139+ 5 free gifts worth $156, including free shipping
- 60-day money-back guarantee
- Removes 98.7% of chlorine
- Fits 99% of US showers
- Packed in their Idaho warehouse
Selling fast. When the sale stock is gone, so are the gifts.
Comments
9 comments
I saw that YouTube video too, and he had a fair point about the brown filter clips. This is the first review I've read where someone actually tested it instead of arguing about it.
41
Same. The test strips convinced me more than any video did.
9
My son gets the same dry patches after his bath. A slow change by week four sounds a lot more believable than overnight.
18
Our two kids share one bathroom with us, so I need something that goes on fast. Did it fit a normal shower arm, or did you need tools?
7
It went onto our old arm by hand in a few minutes. I didn't even have to call Jack.
12
Got mine a few weeks ago, after almost buying the $25 one from that comment section. Being able to aim it at my scalp between my braids is something my old head could never do.
26
Short hair here, so I'm mostly in it for my skin. Are the five gifts really included at $139, or is there a catch?
5
No catch. All five gifts came with my order at $139, and Lily has already claimed the detangling brush.
3
I came here ready to hate-read this. My long hair takes forever to rinse, so I'm ordering one anyway, since there's 60 days to send it back if you're wrong.
33