Purito Centella Unscented Toner and Serum review

13 July 2020

This post is sponsored by Purito. I reviewed the Centella Green Level line from Korean brand Purito last year, and the most common question was if there were versions available without essential oils. Purito then released an unscented version of their popular organic sunscreen which I reviewed here – now they’ve followed up with unscented, essential oil-free versions of the …

Purito Centella Green Level Review

18 August 201925 April 2019

Centella asiatica is a really popular ingredient that shows up in lots of “cica” products, both in Asian and Western brands. I recently had the opportunity to try out three products from Purito’s Centella Green Level line, which contains very high levels of this trendy skincare superstar ingredient. What Is Centella Asiatica? I’ve talked about the science behind Centella asiatica …

Video: How to Fix Dry and Dehydrated Skin (Winter SOS Skincare)

18 November 20212 December 2017

We’ve just gotten out of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, in time for cold weather to hit the Northern Hemisphere, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about dry and dehydrated skin again and how to treat it. I actually have dehydration-prone skin all year round, so this topic is almost always on my mind! I’ve …

Hydrating Toners Review: Klairs, Shu Uemura, Clinelle, A’kin

17 October 2017

If you have dehydrated skin like me, you’ll love hydrating toners (if you haven’t already collected a massive stash!). These watery products contain humectants which hold onto water and slow down evaporation. Confusingly, they aren’t always labelled as toners – you’ll also find them called essences, waters and lotions, and while there are minor differences in texture and performance, they’re all pretty much the same category. I apply these before or after actives, and I haven’t really found a big difference in the effect either way.

After applying the toner, you can seal the watery concoction in with something heavier on top, like a moisturiser containing emollients and occlusives. This method of layering has done wonders for keeping my skin hydrated and bouncy.

Since my last set of hydrating toner reviews, I’ve tried out some more hydrating toners: Klairs Supple Preparation Facial Toner, Shu Uemura Tsuya Skin Refining Vita-Glow Lotion [Moist], Clinelle PureSWISS Hydracalm Lotion and A’kin Hydrating Mist Toner.

Klairs Supple Preparation Facial Toner

Klairs Supple Preparation Facial Toner ($21.99 USD for 180 mL, Amazon, Wishtrend) is a cult product in the K-beauty community. After Wishtrend sent me this to try, I can see why! It’s super hydrating but doesn’t feel heavy, and because it’s so light it’s very easy to integrate into a routine. As well lots of humectants (butylene glycol, betaine, sodium hyaluronate, dimethyl sulfone, natto gum), it has some caprylic/capric triglyceride, a purified form of coconut oil. In terms of actives, there’s Centella asiatica extract which promotes healing, and licorice root extract which is anti-inflammatory and fades hyperpigmentation. Natto gum can also work as an antioxidant. Dimethyl sulfone can potentially reduce sebum and reduce inflammation, but there isn’t much evidence so it’s more of a bonus.

Ingredients: Water, Butylene Glycol, Dimethyl Sulfone, Betaine, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Natto Gum, Sodium Hyaluronate, Disodium EDTA, Centella Asiatica Extract, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract, Polyquaternium-51, Chlorphenesin, Tocopheryl Acetate, Carbomer, Panthenol, Arginine, Luffa Cylindrica Fruit/Leaf/Stem Extract, Beta-Glucan, Althaea Rosea Flower Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Hydroxyethylcellulose, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Lysine HCl, Proline, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Acetyl Methionine, Theanine, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil, Pelargonium Graveolens Flower Oil, Citrus Limon (Lemon) Peel Oil, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Peel Oil, Cananga Odorata Flower Oil, Copper Tripeptide-1

Shu Uemura Tsuya Skin Refining Vita-Glow Lotion [Moist]

Shu Uemura Tsuya Skin Refining Vita-Glow Lotion [Moist] ($72 AUD for 150 mL) is a glycerin and butylene glycol rich toner. There are a few unusual ingredients as well, like bis-PEG-18 methyl ether dimethyl silane and methyl gluceth-10, which soften and hydrate skin. There are a bunch of actives at low concentrations too, like salicylic acid, adenosine and hyaluronic acid.

There’s alcohol in this, which would normally run the risk of being dehydrating. But I haven’t had any issues with it at all. It’s far enough down the ingredients list, and it’s overwhelmed with enough humectants that it doesn’t seem to make a difference. The alcohol is very slightly noticeable smell-wise, but I suspect it may actually be beneficial in helping the humectants penetrate deeper into the skin. There’s also a “Fresh” version available that I’ll be trying out over summer.

Ingredients: Aqua, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol Denat., Bis-PEG-18 Methyl Ether Dimethyl Silane, PPG-6-Decyltetradeceth-30, Methyl Gluceth-10, Phenoxyethanol, Hydroxyethylpiperazine Ethane Sulfonic Acid, Phenylethyl Resorcinol, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Polyglyceryl-5 Laurate, PEG/PPG/Polybutylene Glycol-8/5/3 Glycerin, Sodium Methyl Stearoyl Taurate, Salicylic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Tocopherol, Rhamnose, Disodium EDTA, Pentylene Glycol, Sodium Hydroxide, Faex Extract, Adenosine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Paeonia Albiflora Root Extract, BHT, Paeonia Albiflora Flower Extract, Parfum.

For Beloved One Hyaluronic Acid Moisturising Series Skincare Review

22 July 201826 August 2016

Today I’m reviewing the Hyaluronic Acid Moisturising series from For Beloved One, a popular Taiwanese cosmeceutical skincare brand that’s just been launched at Sephora Australia. I haven’t had much experience with Taiwanese skincare (apart from My Beauty Diary, the brand that produces the super popular and affordable sheet masks), so I was excited to try these out!

For Beloved One’s skincare products contain a laundry list of patented ingredients that, while not all supported by independent peer-reviewed evidence (which, let’s face it, very little skincare is), have plausible mechanisms for what they do – in the case of the Hyaluronic Acid Moisturising range, hydrate the heck out of your skin.

Here are some of the featured ingredients in the range:

Hyaluronic Acid

Hyaluronic acid is a humectant moisturiser that’s the absolute bee’s knees at hydrating your skin by grabbing onto water and keeping it from evaporating. In its usual form (as high molecular weight hyaluronic acid), it’s a long chain molecule made up of thousands of sugar units. This makes it too large to enter the skin, so it can only effectively hydrate the upper layers.

There’s also low molecular weight hyaluronic acid or hydrolysed hyaluronic acid, where the hyaluronic acid has been broken up into smaller fragments, which means it can penetrate and hydrate deeper in the skin. It also seems to have a signalling role, and can decrease wrinkle depth, I’m guessing through hydrating the skin. For Beloved One’s products use Hyalo-Oligo as their source of low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, which has an average weight of 7 kDa (7000 Da), along with high molecular weight hyaluronic acid.

GHK-Cu (Copper Tripeptide-1)

There are only a few peptides with multiple published studies to show that they will actually act on the skin, and GHK-Cu is one of them! This peptide is made up of 3 amino acids (glycine-histidine-lysine) and has a strong attraction for copper. When applied to skin, it increases the production of collagen, an important substance in the skin which gives it its plumpness (the skin’s collagen content decreases with age and with sun damage). It also promotes the production of other important skin components elastin, proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans, keeping the skin firm and plump.

GHK-Cu is thought to mostly work by carrying copper into cells (as a carrier peptide), as copper is an important part of the enzymes that make collagen and elastin. Some of the products also contain malachite extract, which has copper and zinc.

PatcH2O

PatcH2O is an interesting mix of water-holding humectants – there are the long-chain humectants algin (from the cell walls of algae) and pullalan (from a fungus) as well as hyaluronic acid that can be thousands of atoms long, mixed with small humectants like urea, glycerin and serine. Together this makes a humectant film that slowly releases humectants to be absorbed deep into the skin (at least according to its manufacturer BASF), and claims to be able to sustain this hydration for 48 hours.

Here’s the full ingredients list for this ingredient: Water, Glycerin, Trehalose, Urea, Serine, Pentylene Glycol, Glyceryl Polyacrylate, Algin, Caprylyl Glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Pullulan, Disodium Phosphate, Potassium Phosphate.

NoTS 28 Remedy Perfect Solution Set Skincare Review

15 May 20169 May 2016

NoTS (“Noble Through Skin”) is a luxury Korean skincare brand. I was sent the NoTS 28 Remedy Perfect Solution Set by Q-Depot, a Korean beauty distributor. The set contains a cleanser, toner, serum and cream, and is intended for sensitive and acne-prone skin. I tried out this set on my skin exclusively for two weeks.

NoTS 28 Remedy Acne Pore Cleanser claims to cleanse deeply while leaving the face bright and moisturised, soothe damaged skin and balance skin moisture. It’s advertised as a KFDA (Korean Food certified cleanser with clinical trials to back it up – back up what exactly, I’m not sure. It has a thick texture, and is quite thorough, but it left my face a bit squeaky – I’m not sure if it’s due to it stripping the oils from my skin, or if it’s leaving a squeaky residue (some cleansers do this on purpose since some people like the squeaky sensation). The pH of this cleanser is 7 which is on the higher side, but my skin didn’t feel overly dry or dehydrated after using it for two weeks, so it’s either not stripping, or the other products compensate for it!

Water, Glycerin, Palmitic Acid, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Myristic Acid, Potassium Hydroxide, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Cocamide DEA, Propylene Glycol, Beeswax, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Glycol Distearate, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Salicylic Acid, Sodium Chloride, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Tocopheryl Acetate, Disodium EDTA, Methylparaben, Butylparaben, BHT, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract, Daucus Carota Sativa (Carrot) Root Extract, Allium Sativum (Garlic) Bulb Extract, Centella Asiatica Extract, Hedera Helix (Ivy) Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Betula Alba Juice, Carum Petroselinum (Parsley) Extract, Butylene Glycol, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract

NoTS 28 Remedy Balancing Toner is meant to hydrate, remove excess sebum, improve the complexion, slow the formation of wrinkles and heal pimples and pigmentation. It has niacinamide as one of the top ingredients, which can do all these things, but unfortunately it doesn’t say how much there is, so I’m not sure if there’s enough to be effective (from the ingredients list order, it looks like there is). There’s also adenosine, which is less well-studied, but it seems to have anti-irritant and wrinkle-reducing effects. There are also a whole bunch of botanical extracts in the ingredients which don’t have many/any good studies to back up their benefits, but there are probably some antioxidants in there too. I generally don’t use toners for actives, but it looks like this one could have beneficial effects. The texture is a watery gel which sinks in quickly. Its pH is around 5, so it would likely also help restore skin pH after the high pH cleanser.

Water, Methyl Gluceth-20, Alcohol, Niacinamide, Butylene Glycol, Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Bark/Leaf/Twig Extract, Beta-Glucan, Betaine, Glycerin, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Triethanolamine, Methylparaben, Allantoin, Chlorphenesin, Colloidal Sulfur, Melia Azadirachta Extract, Opuntia Ficus-Indica Callus Culture Extract, Human Oligopeptide-1, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Rosa Centifolia Flower Extract, Centella Asiatica Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Lactobacillus/Soybean Ferment Extract, Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Extract, Cinnamomum Cassia Bark Extract, Origanum Vulgare Leaf Extract, Chamaecyparis Obtusa Leaf Extract, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Brassica Oleracea Italica (Broccoli) Extract, Solanum Lycopersicum (Tomato) Fruit Extract, Vaccinium Angustifolium (Blueberry) Fruit Extract, Allium Sativum (Garlic) Bulb Extract, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Juglans Regia (Walnut) Seed Extract, Spinacia Oleracea (Spinach) Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa (Oat) Meal Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Fruit Extract, Salicornia Herbacea Extract, Citrus Paradisi (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Sophora Angustifolia Root Extract, Adenosine, Disodium EDTA, Salicylic Acid, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil, Propylene Glycol

Avène Cleansing Foam and Mattifying Toner Skincare Review

4 December 20161 May 2016

Avène is a French skincare brand famous for its thermal water, which has a bunch of cool effects. Avene’s skincare products are based around their famous thermal water. There’s a focus on gentle skincare for sensitive skin that doesn’t overly irritate or strip the skin. I recently tested Avene’s Cleansing Foam and Cleanance Mat Mattifying Toner. Both products have Avene thermal water as the main ingredient.

The Cleansing Foam is recommended for normal to combination sensitive skin. Its ingredients are:

Avene Thermal Spring Water (Avene Aqua), Water (Aqua), Sodium Cocoamphoacetate, Sodium Cocoyl Glutamate, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Disodium EDTA, Fragrance (Parfum), Glutamic Acid, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Chloride.

The Cleansing Foam contains the surfactants sodium cocoamphoacetate and sodium cocoyl glutamate. Sodium cocoamphoacetate is an amphoteric or zwitterionic surfactant, whereas sodium cocoyl glutamate is an anionic surfactant. Anionic surfactants are quite damaging to skin as they are very good at stripping oil and denaturing skin proteins, but they’re also great at getting you clean and foaming. However, in combination with an amphoteric surfactant, they cause a lot less damage, so this surfactant combination makes a lot of sense in this cleansing foam.

The foam also comes in a foaming pump, where the product is mixed with air before it comes out so you don’t have to lather it. I love these pumps because it means the product doesn’t have to contain as much damaging anionic surfactants to still get a foam that’s easy to use, plus I end up using a lot less product.