Review: Etude House Wonder Pore Corrector

I've always used Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence as the last step of my Morning Skincare Routine to control the oil production on my face throughout the day. I've been noticing though that it works well during dry winters, but when I'm putting on high SPF (i.e. oily) sunscreens, the oil control isn't strong enough. But I've always been a fan of Etude House's Wonder Pore line (I'm still using their Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner toner) So this time when I saw this in Seoul I decided to buy a tube to try.

Description (from en.koreadepart.com):

• White gold cooling tip enables pore care for widened pores without hands
• Light and moisturized gel type of nutrition essence offers resilience to pores
• Tannin from red wine creates smooth skin
• Offers enriched moisture to skin to create bright and energetic skin
• Controls face to be soft pH 4.5 slightly acidic skin
• 6 free system (artificial colors, animal ingredients, mineral oil, talc, silicon oil, sulfate surfactant)

My impression:

While I'm "comparing" this to the Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence, I don't want to confuse anyone: they are completely two different things.  Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence is a primer, so it's a base for foundation and also has some color in the primer itself to help even out skin tone. This one is purely for pore minimizing. You would find the primer by the makeup section in Etude House stores, but this one you would fine with the rest of the Wonder Pore line. But I use Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence a bit differently since I rarely put foundation on, so I use it purely for oil control and the evening out my skin tone with the little pigmentation that the primer has. So this blog post is really comparing the oil control effects of this product and  Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence.

I don't use the cooling tip because I use this over a big area rather than as a spot corrector so the tip would take forever. I've never found much great pore minimizing effects with these cooling tips anyway. When I first put this on, it actually stung my face slightly, which I think is from the alcohol. However, it does have much better oil control than Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence. When I was in Seoul, I was using La Roche Posay SPF 60 and my face was shiny in 3 hours. But with this corrector, it was still pretty matte by mid-afternoon.

I can totally see this being too drying for me in the winter though. And other people who are sensitive to products with alcohol may want to back away from this. Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner contains alcohol too but I never feel any stinging sensation, but I definitely did with this product.

Finally, this corrector has a really sour, acidic smell when you put it on. I assume that's what they mean by pH 4.5 slight acidic skin. When I put this on after my sunscreen, it smelled like I just went to the gym and didn't shower. Fortunately I think the smell goes away after a minute. At least, nobody has told me why do I smell like I'm full of sweat...

Summary:

Face still feels quite matte after putting SPF60 sunscreen on in the hot and humid weather of Seoul
Slight stinging upon application on face due to alcohol
Smells acidic when first put on face
No pigmentation on even out skin tone, just purely a pore essence
$18 for 25ml at w2beauty.com

Quality: 4.5/5 because it controls sebum production very well

Value: 3.5/5 like the Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence definitely on the expensive side..especially if you use it for big patches of your face more than just as a corrector

Repurchase? I bought an extra tube but due to the price factor I don't think I'll use this except in the summer when I use SPF50+ sunscreens that need strong oil control