Review: History of Whoo Seol Whitening Line

After 40 days, I'm finally finished trying out the History of Whoo Seol Whitening line (I've separated my review for the CC Sun Cream from the same line here). My skin gets tanned very easily even when I put on sunscreen so every summer I absolutely have to use a whitening line or else I look like potato skin when class starts. Last year I experimented with my own made up combination of Hadalabo Shirojyun Whitening Essence and The Saem Chaga White Liposome Biocellulose Sheet, which worked, but I've been hearing great things about History of Whoo's whitening line so I thought I'd give it a try. Since I'm reviewing a whole line this time I'm going to change the formatting of this post a bit.

My Impression:

History of Whoo Seol Brightening Gel

This is a chemical peel, so it peels away the dead skin using plant extracts and so on without physical beads that roughly grind your skin away. I've always liked chemical peels ever since I first tried one and I have been using Missha Super Aqua Detox Peeling Gel. I've played around with this brightening gel, using it before my cleanser on a dry face and using it after my cleanser on a wet face. Either way led to similar effects. I use it once a day at night and it does effectively removes the dirt that I accumulated during the day, thus brightening my face and leaving it smooth. I don't think it's any better or worse than Missha Super Aqua Detox Peeling Gel though, just that it may be milder since I could use it everyday and my face didn't appear red/inflamed and my pores were not enlarged after washing my face.

History of Whoo Seol Brightening Cleansing Foam

I used this cleansing foam twice a day, in the morning alone and at night with the brightening gel above. Before this, I was using the Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam in the morning and Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam at night. This cleanser cleans well, leaves the face feeling refreshed (like it doesn't leave some residue on), doesn't feel like it's stripping my face of all its moisture and it has a very, very mild fragrance which I like. But it didn't really help my pores and the black heads on my nose, which I used my two Skinfood cleansers for previously. And I can't attribute much of the whitening effect to solely the cleanser. It's not a bad cleanser but it just doesn't suit my needs.

History of Whoo Seol Whitening Essence

This essence is what most people rave about. It's very light but is all I needed as someone with oily/combination skin since the dry winter weather hasn't kicked in yet. I am conflicted about this essence. I found absolutely no whitening effect while the sun was still out and I was using this at night and putting on sunscreen in the morning. But once the sun wasn't so bright and I was back in class, I felt like this essence started to "work" and I could see my face whiter. Now...is that due to the essence finally working, or just that my face isn't getting the UV damage anymore? Also, along with my combination skin, my pores have always been a problem for me. This essence worsened my pores. They were visibly larger every morning and the cleanser above didn't really do much to make them smaller. As a result, while using this for the past 40 days, sadly, I've seen my pores getting larger and larger.

History of Whoo Seol Whitening Intensive

This was actually sold out when I bought the other 4 samples, but fortunately I was given one free sample with another order. I read that you are supposed to use this after the essence. I actually found this very powdery and left your face very matte at the end. I'm usually a matte fan but even this was a bit too matte for me if I were to use it in my morning routine before I go out. Unfortunately I couldn't see any significant overnight whitening effects with just a one-time use.

History of Whoo Seol Whitening & Moisture Cream

I had less samples of this than I had of everything else, so there were times when I only used the essence. I must say I didn't find that this contributed much to the overall effect. I didn't see a difference when I used it with the essence compared to when I only used the essence. I think this is more of a moisturizing cream for those who want to use this whitening line but have dry skin since the essence isn't too rich. Because the only thing I saw out of this cream was the enlargement of my pores :\

Overall:
This line whitens only. It does NOT brighten. My face unfortunately needs a little brightening as well as whitening because it always looks really jaundiced and yellow due to my dark under eye circles. But even with regards to their whitening effect, I'm unfortunately one of those people who didn't see much of an effect using this line. I think it did whiten a small bit after 40 days of usage but it's very, very minimal.

Grade: 3.5/5 because it didn't really whiten that much, didn't brighten at all and enlarged my pores.

Value: N/A because I bought these samples through GMarket and they were $5 per pack of samples..I don't think I can ever afford to pay the full price for these products :(

Repurchase?  I doubt I will be buying this line again for next summer. I also bought the Sulwhasoo Snowise Whitening line so I'll be trying that next.