A while ago I reviewed Laneige Strawberry Yogurt Peeling Gel, and at the end I dropped the bomb that it’d been recently discontinued, and some of you yelled at me a bit (cough)… so I’ve been exploring alternatives, because I love you all, yes I do! 🙂
A reminder of the sort of peeling strands Laneige’s Peeling Gel had:
First up – TheFaceShop’s Smart Peeling Water in Pomegranate.
Packaging
Just a normal flip-top soft-bodied tube, like the Laneige gel.
Effectiveness
This is a clearish gel with red beads. While the Laneige was gloopy and pulpy, this is smooth and watery. Unfortunately, this means less cellulose balling up and scrubbing. I needed twice the usual pea-sized gel dollop to get the same effect. It’s a bit cheaper, but since you use twice as much it’s false economy.
After drying, my skin felt soft, but not unbelievably can’t-stop-poking-myself-in-the-face soft. When I tried it on wet skin in the shower, I barely got two hairs’ worth of cellulose strands.
Scent
The sweet strawberry scent of the Laneige product was one of the biggest wins for me – unfortunately this one smells kind of weird and plasticky.
Overall verdict: Disappointing.
(I’ve since noticed that there are several types of TheFaceShop peeling gel – I haven’t tried them but they might be a bit more effective, since this is for sensitive skin.)
Skinfood Pineapple Peeling Gel
Packaging
This comes in a cute container with an oval twist top – way less flimsy than the usual flip-top tube, doesn’t have the scratchy corners on the top and has a little nozzle tip, which is way neater than the usual flat openings. And because the lid is oval, there isn’t the problem of trying to twist a circular lid off when your hands are slippery. I guess when I use it up, it might be hard to get the last bits out of the sturdy container, but for now, I love the packaging.
Effectiveness
Pulpy texture – check! Unlike the other two gels, this has no capsules, which I thought were just a gimmick anyway.
The nozzle tip makes it so easy to dispense (the number of times I’ve squirted precious Laneige gel onto the floor/wall/in my mouth is frankly embarrassing. No, it does not taste as good as it smells).
And it works wonderfully! It might even be better than Laneige. I couldn’t stop poking myself in the face – it felt like poking a marshmallow. Mmmm, marshmallows. (I’m on a diet.) It works quite well on wet skin in the shower too.
The main difference is that it’s a bit rougher than Laneige – it has tiny grains the size of caster sugar (mmmm, sugar) or fine egg timer sand. I love this, since it’s pretty much a perfect 2-in-1 product (lazy girl high-five!).
Scent
This is the other difference: it smells nowhere near as nice as the Laneige. It’s vaguely citrusy and slightly artificial, and I swear I’ve smelt it before but it eludes me.
Overall verdict: It might actually be better than the Laneige gel. But why can’t it smell like strawberries? *has a sad*
TheFaceShop has branded stores around the world. Skinfood has branded stores around the world too but not Sydney, though you can buy it from various Korean shops, including Bloom Cosmetics which is generally in places where Asians shop (in Sydney CBD, follow the kids with extravagant hair and bubble tea to World Square and Sussex St). Cheapest for both is probably online (SaSa, eBay etc.).
Ooh I tried a peeling gel cleanser today from Emani, but I’m not convinced that it made my skin any smoother.
@Michaela – Once when I was walking through QVB, one of those skincare demo women grabbed my arm and rubbed a peeling gel on it, asking, “Feel that! Cant you feel the difference? Isn’t it so much smoother?” And I was like, “…No?” She gave up quickly after that…
In my opinion, peeling gels aren’t all created equal – it depends on the concentration of the peeling ingredient (that FaceShop one just didn’t cut it), what the peeling ingredient is (I think the skincare demo one was gelatine-based) and the other stuff that’s in the gel (most of the Asian ones have some sort of fruit-based AHA ingredient which is supposed to help the dead skin lift off – not sure if it works that quickly though).
Tbh I wasn’t really a believer until one day I woke up during a cold with a nose covered in horrible flaky skin, and no amount of gritty scrub could get rid of it… then I used the peeling gel and it seemed to rip all the dead skin off just at the junction between dead and alive (hee Pete Burns). I still need to test this with the Skinfood one!
I’ve been using the Ginvera one for years! Not sure where you can get it here though, my mum literally ships them to me from Singapore.
@Nicole – I read about that brand in my research, and everyone seems to like it – I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for it!
Even the pineapple peel is d/c-ed here in the Philippines.I tried their Chlorella, it seems to work pretty well but it didn’t have that nice smelling scent. Bummer.
I stumbled onto your blog looking for products with horsetail extract- I am sure you know how it goes to lost researching skincare! Anyway, I saw this post and there is another strawberry peeling gel you could check it- I haven’t tried it myself :
http://www.amazon.com/Peeling-Strawberry-Yogurt-Beauty-Types/dp/B006TOB320/ref=sr_1_10?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1356693668&sr=1-10&keywords=peeling+gel
Ohh the pineapple one looks yummy!! haha
Sarah| Beauty and Lemonade xo