Review: Sulwhasoo Herbal Soap

An Aritaum store opened up in my city recently and so I finally have an official retailer to get mid to high-end Korean cosmetics from! My wallet weeps at this news.

I wasn't really looking for a cleanser, since I'm quite happy with Skinfood Egg White Pore Form that I use in my morning skin routine. But I bought the Sulwhasoo Signature Kit, which comes with small versions of their "Signature" items as well as full versions of the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum EX (EX is the renewed version of the original Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum) and the Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream.

Doesn't it look grand

Inside the box

The signature kit containing small versions of the Essential Balancing Water, Essential Balancing Emulsion, Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream, First Care Activating Serum, Overnight Revitalizing Mask, and Herbal Soap

I originally just wanted to buy the Sulwhasoo Ginseng Renewing Cream, but of course I got sucked into buying a set that has 6 other things I can try out instead! I'll be doing reviews for all of these as I go along.

Review: Sulwhasoo Innerise Complete Serum

This is an anti-wrinkle product line from Sulwhasoo. I'm not exactly at the age where I have wrinkles yet, but I do have fine lines over my forehead. I mostly wanted to try this product out because it claims to improve skin radiance, texture and contour (well, not the contour because no cream can change your skin contour..or else plastic surgery would be out of business)!

Review: Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Foam

I'm back! I've been trying out this cleansing ever since finishing my trial of History of Whoo Gongjinhyang Foam Cleanser. After trying out a variety of cleansers, I realized that my original Morning Routine cleanser, Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam, was not as great as I thought it took awhile to wash all of the cleanser off. I've been more interested in trying out other cleansers and this is my first cleanser from Sulwhasoo.

Review: Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Line

After trying out History of Whoo Seol Whitening line (I've separated my review for the CC Sun Cream from the same line here), I switched to try out its biggest competititor, Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Line. I used it for a month. Reading reviews, I've heard better things from History of Whoo, but personally I've had better success with Sulwhasoo products so I still wanted to give it a try. 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'm always into trying new products, especially whitening products. Give me my white pearly skin!

I actually tried out the Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Eye Treatment first before I tried the rest of the line so I've posted a separate review of that here.

My Night Skincare Routine

And here is my night skincare routine. For those who are interested in my morning skincare routine, you can check that post out here. Basically, in this post I'll be talking about the skincare products I use at night and summarize how the product is effective for me. If you're interested in getting more details or to look at the product description, I've already written a separate review for each of these products and I will provide their respective links below.

And if you're wondering...the green elephant at the bottom of the photo is to hold the yellow sample up :D

I should mention that this is my skincare routine during fall, winter, and spring. During summer, I need to use a whitening line to try to revert my tanned skin back to its original color so my night routine is totally different.

Before I delve into my routine, let me tell you a little bit about my skin as these products are targeted towards my skin's problems. I have oily/combination skin and large pores. If I ignore my large pores, 2-3 of them like to transform into pimples especially when it is that time of the month. In addition to the pores on my cheek area, I have some dark pigmentation and little bumps from the crazy acne I had 3 years ago. My skin color is very dull and has this jaundiced, unhealthy yellow tan. I also have very dark circles under my eyes and many fine lines under my eyes. As a result, my eyes look much older than the rest of my face.

Review: Sulwhasoo Snowise Ex Whitening Eye Treatment

My second Sulwhasoo eye cream. This is from their Snowise line, which is their whitening line. Now, the whitening for eyes is a bit different than the usual whitening for the face. The whitening for the face is for tan lines, but the whitening for the eyes that I'm looking for is to "whiten" my dark circles. I'm actually trying The History of Whoo's whitening line right now, but unfortunately they don't have an eye cream from that line, so I decided to try out Sulwhasoo's instead.

If I were to summarize my eye creams until now, for my dark circles, Skinfood Salmon Brightening Eye Cream has been the most effective (doesn't remove it completely of course..for details you can read my review here).

Review: Sulwhasoo Essential Rejuvenating Eye Cream

My 12th eye cream since starting this blog! Who knew finding an eye cream for my dark circles and under eye fine lines would be this hard. Good thing most Korean products have samples that I can buy so I can try so many without being broke.

If I were to summarize my eye creams until now, for my dark circles, Skinfood Salmon Brightening Eye Cream has been the most effective (doesn't remove it completely of course..for details you can read my review here). For fine lines, nothing has really helped consistently. The Face Shop Smim Fermentation Concentrate Eye Cream has been the most effective, but I have recently realized that the sample I've tried may have been just the normal face cream and not the eye cream (lost in translation).... I have since bought the full size of the eye cream which I will be trying next. That's when I started thinking maybe Skinfood's relatively inexpensive eye creams are not strong enough for my aging eyes (sad, I know) and that I needed to explore the higher-end brands like History of Whoo and this one, Sulwhasoo.

Review: Sulwhasoo Skin Clarifying Mask

Its name isn't very indicative but this is actually a peeling mask. I bought this while I was in Korea. For those who are unfamiliar with Sulwhasoo, it is one of the two famous Korean brands that is separate from Skinfood, Missha, etc. that have only recently gained international exposure due to the popularity of BB cream. Their products are mostly for mature skin, but there are two products that are used with great praise for younger, 20-30's skin. One of them is this. The other is the Sulwhasoo First Care Serum.

My face has been looking a bit dark and uneven despite using Missha Super Aqua Detox Peeling Gel every two days and I had a new pimple pop up. Not sure what's wrong with my face this week.. maybe the stress is coming along. So I decided to try something new for my face and opened this mask.

Review: Sulwhasoo First Care Serum

I read that Sulwhasoo is one of the two famous Korean brands that is separate from Skinfood, Missha that have only recently gained international exposure due to the popularity of BB cream. Their products are mostly for mature skin, but there are two products that are used with great praise for younger, 20-30's skin. One of them is the first care serum. The other is the Sulwhasoo Skin Clarifying Mask, which I also bought, but I haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. This thing is pricey, I think $80 for 60ml? But I've heard such great reviews about it so I decided I would splurge and give it a try.