EMMA'S KOREAN SKINCARE HAUL
Obsession might be a harsh word, but that’s about the only way I can describe my feelings towards Korean skincare products. It all started when I saw an article on Into the Gloss about the best Korean skincare products for oily skin (my one true skin woe), and I was immediately hooked when I saw that a lot of the products were made with all natural ingredients. I have been slowly trying to detoxify my skincare routine for quite a while now, so this was great news to hear. I checked out Peach & Lily, a site that ITG recommended that sells solely Korean skincare products, to see what they had to offer. The site is organized into categories of skin type, which made looking for products that would fit my needs SO much easier. I decided to go easy my first time around in the Korean skincare market, so I decided to buy two products to try out: a toner and a face mask. Keep scrolling for some rave reviews. ;)
Be the Skin’s Botanical Pore Toner is what I call my “holy grail” product. I read countless articles featuring toners of all kinds, but a. I had no idea which would work best for me and b. I didn’t really know what toner even was. After a bit of research, I found out that toner is basically a post-cleanser cleanser. This sounded pretty good to me so I went on the hunt for the perfect toner for my skin. All roads led to Be the Skin, since I was looking for something that would clean my skin and reduce my pore size (more on that later).
I have been using this toner for a few months now and I’ve noticed that my skin is much brighter and definitely looks more clean and refreshed after a wash. I incorporated this toner into my morning and night routines by putting some on cotton swab after I wash my face. Oh, and did I mention it smells amazing? Try imagining a garden of pomegranates + freshly cleaned sheets x a million. This is way toner is my favorite part of my new routine. ;) My only complaint is that the “pore-reduction” part isn’t really true, but I don’t mind because I know that my face is getting cleaned. I also use this toner any time before I’m about to put on a face mask to quickly refresh my face. Speaking of masks….
Kaolin’s Original Pore Mask is a wonderful option for my pore-sensitive people out there. I personally believe that mine look like craters on my face, but others beg to differ. Anyways, when my face is looking particularly pore infested I love to whip out this magic mask. It’s a pretty strong formula, so I don’t use it all the time, but trust me I would if I could. One of it’s main ingredients is volcanic rock ash (which sounds like a gimmick, I know), but I’m pretty sure that’s why it’s kind of an ugly ashy color, as well as super tingly when you put it on your face. Whatever it may be, it’s pretty incredible.
I typically put this mask on only the parts of my face with the most pores (where a pore strip would usually go on my nose and a little bit of both my cheeks), but feel free to use it wherever you’d like. I only use a tiny bit of the mask, and a good measuring tool would be the little spoon/shovel tool they include in the box.I would say use one little spoonful for each area you want to cover.
Within 10 minutes the mask is dry and ready to be washed off. Use cold water to take this mask off because warm water will open up the pores you just spent some time closing! I saw results within minutes. I love using this mask right before I have to put makeup on since it gives your skin a nice matte finish as well.
I feel really lucky that the first two Korean skincare products I bought both ended up being super successful. My skin has never felt better in my whole life, and I feel better as a person knowing that my beauty regime is slowly but surely getting more natural. I just bought a whole bunch of masks from Peach & Lily recently that I’ve been wanting to try out forever, so I’ll let you all know how those work out. Until next time. ;)
xoxo,
Emma