There are two main points that make me want to try a new skincare or beauty product. First, a cute or special packaging design, and second the ingredients, especially if they are strange like for example snail, donkey milk, or if they are mostly natural and plant derived. The Konad Lila Lily Clear Spa Ellie Essence has fulfilled both points. This clarifying essence has such a beautiful packaging design and it contains 70% of thermal water enriched in minerals as well as 9 other natural ingredients to clean the skin from troubles. Sounds like a promising product!

Konad is a Korean cosmetics and nailcare company, which is exporting worldwide. They have two branches, one focusing on nails, like uv gels and stamping nail art, the other branch is all about skincare and cosmetics which are natural, ecological and pure. Konad’s Lila Lily Clear Spa Ellie Essence is an example for the latter branch.

The first thing you notice about this product is the packaging. The essence bottle comes in a cardboard box and both have a green/blue color, reminding me of a under water scene. The colors are so calming and they reflect the image of a clear and pure environment. The bottle of the essence is made of glass and may be considered heavy, but I prefer glass bottles over plastic because it looks much more elegant. The packaging is really pretty all together!

The description on the cardboard box is also written in Korean and in English, which is great! You can also find the product description on Konad’s official page. The ingredients are listed there, too. I added them to COSDNA and you can look them up >>here<<. The essence contains 70% of Sulfur hot spring water, which is supposed to provide abundant mineral to the skin. Moreover, it contains nutrition from 10 kinds of natural ingredients: extracts of Tremella Fuciformis Berk, Asiatic Pennywort, Sulfur Hot Spring Water and Nacre Protein help relieve various skin troubles. Plankton extract prevents excessive sebum on the skin. Salicylic acid eliminates corneous tissues and dead cells, which reduces inflammation and read spots, and makes your skin smoother by chemically exfoliating the skin. Vitamin complexes and marine collagen provide moisture for the skin and helps to make the skin more elastic. Apart from all these beneficial ingredients I want to point out that this essence also contains PEG/PPG-17/6 copolymer as emollient, which is rated red in COSDNA (the same is for Salicylic acid).

The bottle of Konad’s Lila Lily Clear Spa Ellie Essence contains 50 ml of product, with a shelf life of 12 months after opening. The glass bottle has a metal cap with an attached pipette. In this way you are able to take out the essence hygienically and in small amounts. In order to suck up the product into the pipette you have to push the top of the cap. I discovered it never gets filled up completelly, no matter how slowly I release the bottom. Luckily, the amount which is sucked up after all is the exact and perfect amount to spread on the face (maybe that’s done on purpose?!).

The essence itself is a clear and runny liquid, but nothing like water, and neither completelly gel-like. I was not sure about the scent first, but after using the essence for some time I have come to the conclusion that the essence has a grapefruit scent. Since it contains alcohol, too, you will also notice a bit of that scent first, before the alcohol evaporates. The grapefruit scent doesn’t linger though, and since essence is mostly followed by other skincare steps it won’t be noticeable at the end anyways.

The essence can be used by all skintypes according to the manufacturer.After applying my beloved Klairs toner I put a small amount of essence into my palms and pat it into my skin. Afterwards, I continue to use serums and creams. I didn’t have any problems using it with my dry skin and I didn’t react to the essence negatively. It absorbs quite quickly, but it feels sticky. It doesn’t feel drying on the other hand, which I was really happy to see. I didn’t see any changes towards red skin or small troubles honestly. I didn’t use the essence over a long period of time, yet, there are other products containing BHAs and AHAs which work faster on troubled skin.

In the end, I’m not sure if I would repurchase this essence. I love the packaging design and the way the dropper makes it easy to apply the right amount of product to your skin. I also like the attempt of putting a bunch of natural and benefiacl ingredients into this essence. I’m not too fond of the stickiness of the product and in order to look over that point I would have wished a better effectiveness of the product as a whole on my skin. Since I didn’t see any significant changes I’m not sure if this additional skincare step is something worth adding. People with lots of troubled skin might love this more, than someone with a good skin condition, because probably the results can be seen quicker. I’m not sure about the price for this essence, but since Konad is distributing worldwide you might want to check the stores (if you have any information about the price, I would be happy to hear about it, so I can add it).

This product was provided to me by BNTnews for reviewing. Don’t forget to visit the other BNTGirls Doris, Joanne, Alene and Bella and check out their reviews. And visit BNTnews for the latest Korean news and trends:

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Just as a short reminder: All products mentioned and reviewed on this blog are of my personal opinions. This product here was sent to me for reviewing purpose by http://www.bntnews.co.uk/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.