AHA Archive | Berries in the Snow

asian cosmetics beauty PR Sample review Wishtrend

Review: By Wishtrend Mandelic Acid %5 Skin Prep Water

4. October 2017

// PR SAMPLE / AFFILIATE LINKS / KBEAUTY //

A while ago I received the new By Wishtrend Mandelic Acid %5 Skin Prep Water for reviewing purpose by Wishtrend. I’ve tested it for quite some time and I’m almost through the bottle and I’m positive about this product so far.

Probably, you know that Wishtrend does not only sell other Korean brands but also has a step in the beauty industry itself. Apart from known brand names Klairs or Jungle Botanics they also have products named under the brand “by Wishtrend”. Well-known products from By Wishtrend are the Vitamin C 21.5 Advanced Serum or the Natural Vitamin 21.5 Enhancing Vitamin Mask. The Mandelic Acid 5% Skin Prep Water is the newest addition to the By Wishtrend product family.

Mandelic Acid

Is this a toner? Yes and no! It is a hydrating liquid to treat your skin after cleansing and acts as mild chemical exfoliant. This prep water uses a low concentration of mandelic acid for exfoliating your skin. In contrast to harsh AHAs and BHAs Mandelic Acid is a mild AHA with a large molecular size, so it is better suited for people with sensitive skin or people who want to start incorporate chemical exfoliant into their skincare. It has antibacterial properties and helps to reduce pigmention of the skin.

Apart from the key ingredient, which is mandelic acid, this product contains some more beneficial ingredients:

Water, Mandelic Acid, Butylene Glycol, Beta-Glucan, Panthenol, Glycyrrhiza Glabra (Licorice) Root Extract, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Fruit Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Sorbitan Sesquioleate, Centella Asiatica Extract, Houttuynia Cordata Extract, Sorbitol, Dimethyl Sulfone, Chlorphenesin, Sodium Citrate, Arginine, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Ethylhexylglycerin, Hydrolyzed Collagen, Carbomer

Panthonol, Beta Glucan, and Sodium Hyaluronate are acting moisturizing and hydrating. Centella Asiatica Extracta acts regenerating on damaged skin. Licorice extract helps to even up the skin tone and acts soothing. You can check out the ingredients analysis on Skincarisma, too.

I use the By Wishtrend Mandelic Acid %5 Skin Prep Water after cleansing my skin. I pour the clear and watery liquid on a cotton pad and swipe it over my face, especially over my T-zone. Afterwards I continue with the rest of my skincare routine. Sometimes, I also add a toner after using the Skin Prep Water to add some additional moisture.

I discovered that this mild exfoliator doesn’t irritate the skin at all, but yet it makes the skin feel softer and smooth. When I started using this again after my vacation I felt that it made my freckles disappear really quickly. It doesn’t have any special scent to it and absorbs quickly, too, without any trace of stickiness. I use the By Wishtrend Mandelic Acid %5 Skin Prep Water in the evening almost every day. During day I use a Vitamin C serum. I’m wearing sunscreen during day aswell.

I came to like the By Wishtrend Mandelic Acid %5 Skin Prep Water very much. It is a mild exfoliation and a perfect start to get your skin to like AHAs. It makes the skin soft and smooth and can be used along with my regular skincare routine without any problems (if you are interested in what products I’m using you might want to check out my Instagram account where I share my skincare from time to time.

If you are curious about the Mandelic Acid 5 % Skin Prep Water , too, it retails for 22.00 US$ and is available at Wishtrend. Also keep in mind the friend-referral program from Wishtrend: You can receive a 5 Us$ referral coupon if you use my invitation code 17939205 upon registration and you’ll receive this voucher immediately. There will be a specific field in your registration form called “friends invitation program” where you can put the code mentioned above. This way new customers can safe 5 US$ which is a great possibility to safe some money. Also, Wishtrend has a Free-Shipping Area, were you can find products that can be bought with free shipping. Check out my post on the current Wishtrend Coupons. Until end of October you can try out the Skinmiso Spot Repairing Serum worth 24.99 US$ for FREE (you only have to pay the shipping costs) with the code >> SPOTFREEOCT <<!

What is your opinion on chemical peeling of the skin? Do you use AHAs/BHAs? Would you consider Mandelic Acid as an alternative?

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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.wishtrend.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

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asian cosmetics beauty PR Sample review TesterKorea

Review: Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack | TesterKorea

18. February 2016

Now, this is not a newly launched product like the two previous reviews, but a product with a good reputation in Korea: The Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack, a multifunctional product for exfoliation, brightening and lifting on the same time. As I announced via Instagram I’m honoured to be part of TesterKorea’s Real Tester, who offered me this product for reviewing purpose, amongst two other products, the Etude House Tint My Brows Gel and the Missha Super Aqua Ice Tear Cream.

First, some information about TesterKorea: if you know me and my blog for some time you will know that TesterKorea is my favorite online retailer for larger Kbeauty hauls. I’ve purchased products from them many times and they never failed me. Also, they are quite popular for offering many free samples and having a LARGE variety of samples for sale aswell. If you do not know a specific products and you want to test it first the place to recommend is TesterKorea. Also, they have a huge amount of different products from many brands, so you can be sure to find what you are looking for in most cases. Unlike other online retailers they do not offer free shipping, though, but their shipping is based on weight. The cheap prices of the products themselves totally balances the shipping costs in my eyes – especially for larger hauls. They even have a specific topic where you can request a product, if it is newly launched. They are also quite fast in listing the latest products from most brands. Considering the fact that I know they are a reliable retailer and have a good reputation makes me even more happy that I’m part of the 17 members of their 1st Real Tester round-up

The Korean brand Proformula was new to me up to now. The name is made up by the two terms “Skin Professional” and “Formulation”. Proformula has a 3-Step System. The first step is to examine the active ingredients, the second step is the dermatological test, and the third step is to provide an optimized solution for the skincare concerns. Proformula doesn’t have many products, but all I saw on the official page were skincare products. The packaging design is simple black and white with no frills or pretty illustrations, simply text. This can be professional looking and attract customers this way. The Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack comes together with a brush for applying the mask. Both come in a cardboard box containing mostly Korean, but also some English description.

The cardboard box states that the product is free from parabens, synthetic fragrances and dyes, minerals, benzophenones, silicones, propylene glycol, triethanolamine and SLES. If we look at the full ingredients list we see that there are no harmfull ingredients included. According to COSDNA almost all ingredients are green flagged. Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack contains 7 % of AHA and is a mild chemical exfoliation. The AHA used is Lactic Acid:

Lactic Acid: Lactic Acid is an AHA (Alpha hydroxyl acid). It is derived from sour milk that hydrates the skin by sloughing off old dead skin cells. It has whitening properties and is an astringent.

Also, a couple of plant extracts and fruit extracts have skin conditioning properties and help the exfoliation and make the skin feel smooth. Another two key ingredients are Niacinamide and Adenosine:

Niacinamide: Niacinamide is a water-soluble form of Vitamin B, which has a firming effect with anti-inflammatory properties.

Adenosine: Adenosine is known for having anti-aging properties and providing for healthy skin and elasticity.

Hyaluronic Acid and Aloe Leaf Juice provide the skin with moisture. Furthermore you will find a couple of other moisturizing chemicals in the ingredients lists.

Some words about Peptides in Cosmetics:

Also, according to the description the formulation uses peptides for elasticity and a lifting effect. The three peptides used are Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, and Acetyl Hexapeptide-8. I know that many of you do not know what peptides do and if they can do anything at all when applied topically on the skin. Peptides are chains of amino acids. Usually, the name of the peptide tells us how many amino acids are part of the peptide. A tetrapeptide is made from 3 amino acids for example. Our body uses peptides for messaging, that means a peptide is a molecule which sends a signal to a cell. Let’s think about collagen for example: the breakdown of collagen forms peptides, which give the signal to make new collagen. By applying this specific peptides on our skin we might be able to tell the skin to produce new collagen.

The Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack comes in a sleek tube containing 30 g. The included brush has a good length and is used to apply the product on your face. The formulation of the Lifting Pack is a lightly yellow colored gel with a high viscosity. It’s similar to glue and very sticky. The product has a slightly bitter scent with a hint of fruityness.

The bristles of the brush are very soft, but once you start to spread the pack with the brush it becomes sticky and makes the application a bit harder. Nevertheless, I still think it is better to use the brush than to use your fingers. It is recommended to use the pack 2-3 times a week. You apply the pack in a thin layer from the inside of the face towards the outside. After 15-20 minutes the pack dries and you can wash it off with luke-warm water.

Below you can see the process of using the pack on my skin. First I applied a layer of the Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack. After 15 minutes the mask dries. You will feel how the skin tightens up. It really looks frightening, because your face looks suddenly so wrinkled and dried…almost as if you were dying :D This was the moment when I decided that it was time to wash off the pack. My skin felt smoothed and firmer after using the mask. Nevertheless, my skin was feeling dry, too. The pack contains some moisturizing ingredients, but this was not enough for my skin. I have dry skin, so the experience might vary for people with oily skin. If you have dry skin like me I would recommend to add an especially rich cream to your skin after using this pack.

The Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack convinces with a good ingredients list and is perfectly suited for people who want to start to incorporate AHAs into their skincare routine. I liked using it and I do feel that it is lifting and smoothing out the skin. It leaves my skin a bit dry after all, which is why I can only recommend you to use a rich cream or oil after this pack if you have dry skin. This mask has also some creepy side-effects, since it really looks horrifying on your skin after 15 minutes. The skin looks so wrinkled up and old, as if the pack wants to tell you how you will look like if you do not use it, haha. You can get the Proformula Skin Reset AHA 7 Lifting Pack from TesterKorea for 30400 Won, which is around 25.51 US$. What’s your favorite AHA containing product?

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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://testerkorea.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

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asian cosmetics beauty review Wishtrend

Review: COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner

28. May 2015

// SKINCARE / KBEAUTY / AFFILIATE LINKS //

Finally, here is my review on the famous COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner. I’ve read so many reviews about it that I knew I had to try it! I loved my Klairs Supple Preparation Toner, but since I emptied it quite quickly there was time for a new product to try.

COSRX is an affordable Korean brand “offering good quality beauty items for 10 years”. The brand name is composed of COS for cosmetics and RX for prescription. Brands like Ciracle and C20 (yes, the famous vitamin C serum) are also part of COSRX. One of the rather popular skincare lines from COSRX is the AHA/BHA skincare products. I’ve also bought the COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum and the COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch.

The COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner is an astringent toner with exfoliating properties, which prevents whiteheads, blackheads, and blemishes. The toner is thereby not only addressing troubled skin types, but also dry skin types promising hydration and exfoliation in order to fight flaking skin. The toner comes in a typical packaging for COSRX products. The packaging design is simple: the toner comes in a milky plastic bottle inside a cardboard box. the cardboard box contains very clear descriptions in English and Korean. I really appreciate the list of advice they put in English!

The ingredient list for the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner is quite short and all the ingredients are listed on COSDNA and are safe to use (click >>here<<). The toner contains willow bark water and apple fruit water as main ingredients. Both have a concentration of 10%. The willow bark water has astringent and anti-inflammatory properties, so it is really a useful ingredient. Apple fruit water on the other hand only has fragrance properties. It would have been great if there had been 10% of apple fruit extract instead of water because the extract has skin conditioning properties! Glycolic acid (an AHA) and Betaine Salicylate (a BHA) are the two ingredients which are giving the name to this product. BHAs and AHAs are chemical exfoliators, which work their wonders in low pH. But, these two ingredients are only in a 0.1 % concentration each, so the exfoliating effect is not comparable to high concentration BHA/AHA products.

As you can see above the concentration of the AHA and BHA is written on the label of the bottle. The bottle contains 150 ml and according to the description on Wishtrend the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner has a pH of 3.9 (I measured a pH of 4 with pH strips). The production and expiration date is printed on the bottle of the tube.

I’m using this toner in the mornings and evenings by spraying it on a cotton pad and blotting the cotton pad over my face, especially over my T-zone. After applying the toner I use Vitamin C serum or other BHA/AHA products.

I do love the spraying nozzle. It sprays a fine mist of the product, and it helps not to use too much of the toner accidentally. Also, it is very hygienic to use, because neither your hands nor the cotton pad touches the nozzle. the toner is a watery, clear solution with a hint of a fruity scent which disappears immediately. The toner also absorbs fast into the skin and does not feel sticky. It works super good with the OST Vitamin C21 serum, and after using it for a month I feel my skin around my nose and forehead feels smoothened. Since I don’t have a lot of troubles or blackheads/whiteheads I cannot say anything about its effects on those problems, but I feel that it works well with my skincare routine. And most important, the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner didn’t break me out either.

I’m personally very happy with this toner, and it looks like a perfect addition for my skincare routine. I love the feeling of it being not sticky and I like the short ingredient list. Also, it works great with my vitamin C serum and makes my skin feel smoother. If COSRX would change the apple fruit water to apple fruit extract I would love this even more! You can read another positive review on the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner on Moi Sanom’s blog 35th Of May >>here<< (interesting for troubled skin types). Also, take a look at this comparison review between the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner and the Mizon AHA BHA Daily Clean Toner by Cat from Snow White And The Asian Pear >>here<<. I didn’t try the Mizon toner myself but seems that for her the latter works better. It is a good product worth trying, but as you can see it can be different from skin to skin how good this works. The COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner retails for 16 US$ Wishtrend and Beautytap. Also check out my page for coupons and discounts >>here<< to save some bucks!

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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: A’Pieu Apple Acid Visible Peeling Gel

30. January 2015

// KBEAUTY / SKINCARE / AFFILIATE LINKS //

Did you like my review about the Meishoku Peeling Jelly? Then you might be interested in A’Pieu Apple Acid Visible Peeling Gel, too. Similar to the product by Meishuku this peeling gel works with apple acid extract and other fruit extracts to chemically exfoliate your skin.

First of all, some words about the Korean brand A’Pieu: The name comes from french language and is supposed to mean “basic”. The brand is targeting a younger audience and providing the elemantary steps and products for your skincare routine in the 20s…but I think you can also use it in your 30s or whenever you want :D The packaging of their products is cute and adorable, without being to princess-y, like Etude House, for example. Here, the packaging of the A’Pieu Apple Acid Visible Peeling Gel is rather simple, but by having some apples printed on the front it gives it a bit of a cute twist. The peeling gel comes in a simple tube containing 100 ml.

The backside of the tube contains Korean description only, which makes it difficult to understand the directions or know more about the ingredients. Like most peeling gels it is supposed to be used on the dry and clean face. After massaging the gel into the face it will form crumbs/ agglomerated product which help to create a peeling effect. This product uses apple acid and other fruit extracts for chemical exfoliation. These fruit derived acids are also known as AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids). They exfoliate old keratin off your skin, which becomes smoother this way. This has the effect of a brightened up dull complexion, too. It also helps to free blocked pores and to help dry and flaky skin to get smooth again. The crumbs you get with these peeling gels are no dead skin cells, it is just the way the formula of peeling gels work. The result of these peeling gels are therefore not correlated with the amount of peeling crumbs while using. You will feel the effect in the smoothness of your skin after using such peeling gels.

The A’Pieu Apple Acid Visible Peeling Gel has a gel type and milky formula. The color is a very light green and it has the scent of green apples. I would have preferred sweet apple scent instead of green apple scent, but I know there are some lovers for this type of scent. The product itself feels a bit grainy on the skin when you massage it and soon enough it forms some peeling crumbs.

After using and washing the peeling crumbs of the skin feels softened and clear and the product does a good job in general. Comparing it to the Peeling Jelly from Meishoku I like the one from A’Pieu less. I had the feeling that the Meishoku Peeling Jelly was less drying and also more convenient to use since it could be used on wet face, too. I also did like the scent more. But if you want to try an affordable peeling jelly or it is your first time using AHAs in your skincare the A’Pieu Apple Acid Visible Peeling Gel is a nice product. It retails for 15.61 US$ at W2Bauty.

What is your favourite chemical peeling product?

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