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Oh, Sample Sunday! To remember thee! I used to crank these out weekly back in the day (i.e. a couple of years back), and then after leaving both Korea & Malaysia, my beauty shopping slowed down considerably… and so did my samples.
However! I have since done enough *spots* of shopping to warrant some lil’ samples, and so thought I would bring this series back from the dead abyss and do a wrap up of these samples I’ve tried. Without further ado!
First off, we’ve got the Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cleanser. A cult favourite, yes. Kiehl’s is a brand I don’t have too much familiarity with, except for their Midnight Recovery Concentrate a little while back. Thinking about it now, I actually loved that product, and am not sure why it took me so long to even try another… but here we are!
Like many of Kiehl’s products, in my opinion, this one is not too remarkable… and that’s why I like it. Kiehl’s seems to do classic, simple products really well, and doesn’t deviate from that formula. Speaking of formula, this one was actually quite moisturising upon application, and only foamed gently with water. You can see here:
There’s not really much fragrance (good thing!) and after cleansing, my skin didn’t feel stripped at all. This can often happen with foaming cleansers, and I would say this one is somewhere in the middle. Kiehl’s are also known for their Ultra Facial Cream, which would be nice to couple this with, but alas, it’s evaded me today.
Next on the list was the Skinfood Royal Honey Essential Eye Cream. Yep, Skinfood — it’s been a minute! One of the most iconic K-beauty brands, Skinfood was something I loved back when I was in Korea, and their Strawberry Black Sugar Mask Wash Off in particular was my *jam* (get it?!). I’m not much of a believer in eye creams, but as I’m of the age to start experimenting with them, I still was curious to give this a go.
First of all, the creaminess! I took these pics in my bathroom btw, when I was applying said products to ma visage, and then I reshot some of the pictures, hence the different lighting. But the cream — it’s creamy. And lovely! It didn’t have much of a scent either, just a light honey fragrance (which I appreciate), and it felt lovely on my delicate under-eye area.
Again, I’m no expert on eye creams, and don’t really know how much good they do regarding wrinkles/ageing, apart from being ultra moisturising. Which is always a good thing, in my opinion! It was a beautiful cream, and I would be keen to purchase this full-sized, or even to try the face cream.
We all know I like honey/propolis/bee tings, as I mentioned a few days regarding the Wishtrend Quad Active Boosting Essence, so I thought it would be my jam. However, looking at the ingredients list, there’s a lot going on in there, which isn’t always great. Long story short, I’d definitely look into using this in the future, if and when I decide to pick up an eye cream on a regular basis.
Side note: With Sample Sundays, the whole point is obviously to test samples, which are teeny tiny lil’ things, so testing and reporting on the efficacy of eye creams isn’t going to happen today regardless!
Lastly, we have the IOPE Super Vital Cream Rich. I used to love the IOPE Air Cushion — the original and the best, by the way — and was excited to have this doozy in my hot little hands. First thing I noticed? The scent! Super strong for my sensitive lil’ complexion. Making up for the simplicity of the first two samples!
The texture is lovely, and rich, as you’d expect — IOPE is quite a luxury Korean brand, after all. I mean, it’s like upper-mid tier; upper middle class, if you will. The kind of brand where you’d expect attractive packaging, and this line in particular is more pricey. Sometimes I find these brands pump in more fragrance/silicone/filler than other, simpler brands, like French pharmacie brands such as Avene or La Roche-Posay, to meet that luxury ~vibe~.
Upon application, the cream felt luxurious but I think I did have a bit of a reaction to the fragrance. It wasn’t great for my skin, tbh. It has a creamy, almost sticky (?) texture, and feels quite rich. This is clearly meant to be a deeply hydrating cream, and it did leave me feeling nourished, which is always a plus.
But after a look at the ingredients list, I was quite surprised to find coconut oil amongst the rest. Coconut oil was once the it ingredient, it seemed, until its benefits on the skin (face in particular) were debunked and it was banished to our collective basement, never to return. Until now!
Here’s a quick post on what coconut oil does to the skin. To be fair, this cream is intended for dry/ageing skin, and coconut oil is given a pass to be used sparingly only on this skin type… but it’s not really advised. Again, surprised to find this in a luxury cream, really.
I thought I’d be more over the moon about this cream… but I’m not! Considering its hefty price tag, I wouldn’t be in a rush to pick this up. Again, this is a first impression blog post… but I do feel there’s other rich creams on the market I’d be more interested in. And as I love IOPE, I’m not happy about that!
That’s it for today… how about you? Tried anything new lately? I’m determined to spend this quarantine time sifting through my samples and putting my thoughts on this here blog… so stay tuned for more!
Steph x
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