The two Skinfood items were purchased two years ago, when the KBeauty wave was hyped to the top in US. Knowing that Skinfood is having financial troubles oversea, I suppose it's time to review them before it's too late. As you might or might not know, the brand has filed for bankruptcy back in early Fall, due to overzealous oversea expansion.
Let me have a (short...maybe not) rant first, from the several English language sources I have read, the company stated that it wasn't doing well because it expanded too quickly in the wrong place at the wrong time. That place is China, where some people were boycotting Korean brands and branches to protest the installation of THAAD. THAAD is the long range missile from US that keeps an eye on North Korea. It just happens to covers most areas of China.
Politics aside, I mean, they make it sound like "China didn't like us because of silly political reason" not because they
(Korean companies) actually have to face competition from local supermarket brands from China, drugstore lines from Japan, America and Europe on Ecommerce platforms.
On the other side, a lot of Chinese hold hatred for Japan (mainly their denialist and revisionist government. Heck I hate them too after visiting the post war museum) but that never stopped middle age women from hoarding heated toilet seats (among other things) when they travel to Japan.
Back to the product shall we? I first noticed this on Instagram, where people started posting pictures of the gorgeous glass bottle. I really like the geometric shape, ombre glass bottle and clicky pump dispenser. Everything feels so solid and cute in an unique, non-plastic way.
The Royal Honey Propolis serum is a light (maybe there was a weak scent?) gel that moisturizes and protects. I feel the texture is somewhat hydrating but leaves a mildy tacky residue. On colder day it adds a bit of moisture that doesn't really stick around long. Since the last two winters have been quite humid, it really didn't do much aside from hydration.
After using it for 10 times or so, I got really bored and switched back to Niacinamide serum from Stratia (which hydrates better and evens out skin tone, for a mere 14 bucks). The Skinfood serum is cute and all but not worth being an extra step. I could splash water and seal with oil and get better effect.
Another (why do they call everything) serum is Black Sugar Perfect First Serum. The "serum" has alcohol high on ingredient listing and came with small box of scratchy cotton pads...They should just label it what it is, an astringent.
The perfect first serum has a sugary wine smell that's quite pleasing, but given the high alcohol content. It was quite harsh on my skin and caused redness, scratches and increased sensitivities (more irritation zits). I gave up after a few days and found a perfect use for it : Clean and disinfect the Bikini area during period. This is just a perfect substitute for rubbing alcohol! It still stings but at least it smells nice.
Overall, they are more or less useless for the Amazon price (16-20 bucks each), at their regular retail, these are utter junk.
Loool I love the description "useless"
ReplyDeleteI was actually interested in the Propolis line, good to know
It's kind of soothing if people use it as part of 10 step skincare routine and if you can get it at a low price it doesn't hurt. I swear the pr folks who came up with that idea (plus seven toner method) just so that newbie consumers would buy a dozen of products, each with specific/basic function that's...ahem,borderline useless.
DeleteAnd my personal opinion regarding "natural" brands ingredients is that in a small country with scarce natural resource, why would they put a bunch of those "natural" stuff on a low end skincare brand?