[ this post is an honest review of gifted products from Style Korean & About Me ]
A big thank you to Style Korean for sending me a beautiful box set of About Me products to trial. I'm always a big fan of Korean skincare... with a few purchases already on my shelf. I've been incorporating these gifted products into my regular am and pm skincare routines for a couple of weeks to see how they fare, and below I'll be sharing my completely honest thoughts on them throughout this blog post. The products gifted to me were...
Skin Tone Up Massage Cream
Red Recipe Milky Peeling Gel
Real Skin Fit Collagen Mask
Collagen Firming Up Neck Mask
I wanted to start by saying that the gift box it all comes in is so lovely, and it's all tied together with a silver bow! Once you get into the box however it all becomes a little miss-matched. The massage cream's packaging is a bright yellow, the peel gel's packaging is white and red, and the two collagen products definitely look like a set together - but the items could, on first impressions, come from different brands. It's not a huge problem, but if you feel like you're used to a certain look from a brand and you go hunting for other products by them, be prepared for a variety of packaging.
Another thing that I noticed is that whilst there are English words on the box, there are no instructions or ingredients written in English, nor can you really find any of this information on Style Korean's website (you can only find ingredients for the two collagen masks). I understand completely that they're Korean skincare products, and made for the Korean market... but if you are selling them to the rest of the world, we should probably at the very least be able to know what's inside them.
Now let's get into the products themselves and how they fared with my skin...
M A S S A G E C R E A M
The Skin Tone Up Massage Cream (there's no current listing on Style Korea's website for this product, so I can't link you to it unfortunately) is meant to remove dead skin cells whilst brightening your skin tone. It's a clever cream and oil combination, which is suggested to provide two actions to your skin with a few parts to its method of use! These are the steps that the brand recommends...
• after cleansing, apply a generous amount of the massage cream to your face
• massage the cream in a circular motion for 3 minutes
• once the massage becomes less creamy, wait 10 seconds for 'waste produce' to lift from your pores
• use a sponge or cloth to remove the 'waste produce' and non visible dead cells
• rinse with water to finish
...it's a bit of a process, but this method is said to be the best way to utilise all the benefits of the product and to see the best results on your skin!
[ my experience ]
I followed the above steps and after a few moments of massaging the product into my skin I started to see some mild rashes forming and felt my skin becoming quite itchy - on my neck especially. I've never ever experienced skin irritations from products (hugely fortunate, I know), and so I thought it may be a one off. I decided to give the product a second chance, but unfortunately the same instant issues occurred again. On both occasions I gave the product its full time, but had to hurry the rinse-off process and ended up having to fully cleanse my face and use a soothing moisturiser to help resolve the irritations.
It does have a lovely lemony fragrance to it, and I did think my skin looked a little brighter after use, but with the rashes and itching... it's very sadly not for me.
I may wait a couple of months and try it again, in case my skin was feeling a bit sensitive - but I use BHA's twice a week and don't have any issues with those, so one of the natural ingredients within this cream sadly mustn't agree with my skin.
photo by thosemomentsofmine
P E E L I N G G E L
The Red Recipe Milky Peeling Gel is meant to gently exfoliate the skin without irritation and without drying out your skin, thanks to its milk base and milk derived lactic acids. It also utilises a combination of both chemical and physical exfoliation. There's hardly any information on this product online, and I couldn't find a full list of ingredients, but these are the steps that the brand recommends...
• after cleansing, apply to skin and massage gently
• when all dirt and dead skill cells have lifted, wash off with warm water
[ my experience ]
I wouldn't say the name 'peeling gel' is quite accurate, as it really is more of a light weight creamy texture that you massage in and wash off. You can definitely feel some minute exfoliating beads within the product as you're using it too, but I don't feel that they're over-abrasive to cause damage to your skin. As I was massaging the gel into my 'pain points' (my t-zone is super oily, and I thought this would be the best place to test the product) the product seemed to split - some massaged well, whilst a lot began to clump together and became fairly difficult to spread. It almost ended up like a soft sugar scrub consistency.
Lots of people have mentioned that they visibly saw dead skin cells lifting and their pores clearing, but I haven't experienced that as of yet. I did use this in place of my BHA, so I wasn't using double the exfoliation at once - this was to make sure my skin barrier was happy and healthy, but also to give the peeling gel a chance. It could be that my regular BHA is doing such a great job that I didn't have much to lift off. It did however leave those massaged areas feeling very soft.
I will give it another chance as I do have a whole tube to use, but I do tend to find that when I use physical exfoliants it encourages my skin to produce excess sebum. We'll see how that fares!
C O L L A G E N F A C E M A S K
The Real Skin Fit Collagen Mask has four masks in each box, and each mask comes in two parts - one part for your lower face, and a second for your upper face and nose... and this is meant to allow a better fit universally. This mask is suggested to provide a long-lasting moisturised effect, help restore elasticity to your skin, smooth wrinkles and lines, and gently even and brighten skin tone with continued use. Another benefit to this collagen mask is that it's supposed to have an uplifting affect. These are the steps that the brand recommends...
• after cleansing, apply to face
• allow mask to sit for 30 minutes before removing
[ my experience ]
I was really looking forward to trying this mask, as I had tried collagen eye patches earlier in the year and was happy with the results... but sadly I had the some skin reactions to this product. As I mentioned above within the massage cream review, I've never ever experienced skin irritations when using products (Korean or otherwise), and so I was really stunned to see the reactions that this mask caused.
Whilst using the product I had no issues other than a slight tingling, and happily sat watching part of a movie for the full 30 minutes, but when I removed the mask I could immediately start to see and feel problems. I did give it a chance to settle, but as the itching worsened I had to wash the remaining residue from my face and neck.
My face felt hot, my cheeks were covered in red blemishes, the pores across my entire face were far more visible than ever before, the follicles on my neck were also enlarged and incredibly visible, I had large red, itchy blemishes across my lower cheeks... and in the morning I woke up with more blemishes and irritated bumps than I've ever seen on my face. Thankfully the itching subsided after I washed the excess product from my face and cooled my skin with a wet cloth, but it didn't feel overly comfortable all night.
I also found that the mask didn't fit around my eyes very well, even though it's made in two parts to better fit faces universally. I have small, almond shaped eyes, but found that there really wasn't enough space on the outer edges around my eyes, and I had to keep pulling the mask away from my eyes so that the product wouldn't get into my eyes.
This is sadly not one for me at all. You can find a full list of ingredients for this one here on the Style Korean website. I'd perhaps recommend a patch test for this one by using some of the excess serum from the packets.
photo by thosemomentsofmine
C O L L A G E N N E C K M A S K
The Collagen Firming Up Neck Mask can be used alongside the collagen face mask or on its own, and as has the same suggested benefits as the face mask - a long-lasting moisturised effect, help restore elasticity to your skin, smooth wrinkles and lines, and gently even and brighten skin tone with continued use... and as the name suggests, it's also meant to help lift and firm your neck. These are the steps that the brand recommends...
• after cleansing, apply to face
• allow mask to sit for 30 minutes before removing
[ my experience ]
...I'll be entirely honest - after the results I experienced from the face mask version, I understandably didn't give the neck mask a try at all. My poor skin was irritated enough, and I didn't want to destroy my skin barrier entirely.
photos by thosemomentsofmine
...and there you have it, my very open and honest review about the four About Me products I was kindly gifted try and test.
I'm so very gutted about the outcome, and would have loved to have found another incredible set of Korean skincare products to cherish and utilise, but in this instance it sadly didn't work out... and I'd be worried to gift the remaining products to my mum or sister.
I'm so very gutted about the outcome, and would have loved to have found another incredible set of Korean skincare products to cherish and utilise, but in this instance it sadly didn't work out... and I'd be worried to gift the remaining products to my mum or sister.
However it doesn't mean that my results would also be your results... always do patch tests first, especially when you're unsure of the ingredients. I've heard great reviews from others who were also lucky enough to receive the products. If you try any of these products, do come back and let me know how they fared for you!
Claudia xo
. . .
