Korean cosmetics Honestskin
www.honestskin.com
First and foremost, I LOVE THIS PRODUCT! My dry skin has become softer, more hydrated (in a sebumy way), and less flaky—yes, actually less flaky! And unlike other products, the results feel long-lasting, as opposed to being a temporary cover-up (or in this case, temporary moisture.)
This mask was generously sponsored by my long-term sponsor Honest Skin. Thank you to Honest Skin! You can use the code HQ4K6I41U9 for 3% off after signing up.
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Brand: Guerisson (parent brand is Claire's)
Name: Guerisson 9 Complex Cream
Amount: 70g
Expiry: ~3 years (Expiration date is January 2018)
Price in Korea: 25,600KRW at Olive Young
Price at Honest Skin: $23.54 ► LINK HERE ◄
About the product: Horse oil is the latest trend in Korea, with this product in particular doing quite well. Even brands such as Tony Moly and The Saem have made their own mimics of this, all down to the orange packaging.
Like bird’s nest, horse oil dates back to ancient China. And due to its similar chemical composition, it is able to penetrate/absorb into skin well.
As for this particular product, it uses purified horse oil from Germany (although I don't know how much difference the country makes.) It contains high purity ceramide. Ceramide is a naturally occurring skin-identical ingredient, meaning that it helps the skin’s barrier (i.e. moisture and texture.) This product is also said to improve whitening and wrinkles, based on clinical test results. So long story short, this product is aimed at moisture, elasticity, wrinkles, and strengthening the skin barrier.
Ingredients: (typed up myself, please appreciate my efforts T^T)
purified water
glycerin
shea butter
horse fat
jojoba seed oil
butylene glycol
cyclopentasiloxane
niacinamide
cetyl alcohol
cetearyl olivate
beeswax
dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone cross polymer
sorbitan olivate
cyclohexanone siloxane
sodium polyacryloyldimethyl taurate
snail slime filtrate
bixa seed oil
titanium dioxide
peppermint leaf extract
apple mint leaf extract
sage leaf extract
rosemary leaf extract
lavender flower extract
melissa officinalis leaf extract
chamomile extract leaf
monarda didyma leaf extract
betaine
tocopheryl acetate
aluminum hydroxide
hydrated silica
disodium stearyl sulfosuccinamate
sodium hyaluronate
fragrance
centella asiatica extract
green tea extract
ligularia fischeri extracts
carbomer
polysorbate 20
palmitoyl oligopeptide
palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7
sodium ascorbyl phosphate
soybean oil
human oligopeptide-1
lecithin
astaxanthin
xanthan gum
1,2-hexanediol
caprylyl glycol
caprylhydroxamic acid
boswellia serrata resin extract
adenosine
disodium edtac
octyldodecanol
hydrogenated lecithin
ceramide 3
phenoxyethanol
(and how to tell if yours is fake or not)
An important thing to note is that there are a lot of fakes with this product. I'm pretty certain that mine is authentic based on the official announcement released by Claire's, but it's obviously hard to know for sure without being in Korea. But for the purpose of this post, I will go ahead and include a lot of packaging photos—and I do mean a lot!—so that people have something to compare to. If this doesn’t apply to you, you can always skip ahead ^^
It comes like this:
It’s a fairly strong/vivid orange and the cardboard is textured. Fake products will have smooth packaging.
Another thing to note about the packaging is that the words “9-complex” are quite far down and appear right above the dividing line. Fake products will have the words a little higher up.
Here is the barcode on the side:
The bottom of the packaging:
Here you can see that the writing is evenly spaced away about 0.5cm away from the perimeter of the packaging, whilst fake products will have the text right up against the edge. Not only that, authentic products do not have an extra sticker on the bottom like fakes ones do. And lastly, your product should have the text (주) 클레어스, stating that the seller is Claire’s (this products’ parent brand):
Opening up the package, it looks like this:
There is a little compartment for the spatula to stand in. This is what the spatula looks like closeup (quite fancy for an free spatula, I think!):
Also included the following card:
card back:
Here is the jar itself. The jar is made of sturdy glass:
The jar’s logo is slightly 3D. It’s not at all flat when you touch it. Also, the color of the logo is dark like in the following close-up inset:
There is a shiny foil sticker on the side. It’s not clear in the photo, but it says “Claire’s” with a little flower above it, just like in their logo:
Here is the detailing on the back:
The font color is a dark purple brown (almost black), although it may show up a little lighter in the photos depending on your screen. I know my Macbook doesn’t pick up color as well.
Here is the bottom of the jar:
And the cap. The cap should be embossed:
The earlier batches had a smooth and plain cap, but the newer batches have this design instead.
Unscrewing the lid, there was a thin piece of plastic surrounded by plastic tape/seal. I wouldn’t call it a lid persay; it’s just a circular piece of plastic, really.
And finally, here is the product (whew!) I’ll talk more about texture in a bit, but it should look a lot like butter: thick, solid, maybe a little wet, but not at all runny. The color should be pale yellow.
If you’d like to see more side-by-side comparisons between fake and genuine products, you may go here. Although the pictures are unfortunately bad quality.
This is important! The fake versions supposedly smell like detergent. Mine smells of herbs, and fairly strongly at that. That being said, when I apply it on my nose I do get a sliiight whiff of actual fat smell. If you’ve ever cut the fat off pork or beef, it’s that sort of sticky smell. It’s slight and mostly masked by the herb smell, but if you have a sharp nose like me you might be able to pick it up.
Warm room temperature: At warm room temperature (say, if your country is a bit on the hot side), it’s basically like half-melted butter—super soft, spreadable, and a little wet/juicy if you look closely.
smeared:
Regular-to-Chilled Temperature: For all other temperatures (regular-to-chilly), the texture is more like whipped butter. It’s lightweight, soft, and easy to scoop. It's also not as "wet" as before before:
smeared on my wrist:
Personally, I apply it via the palm of my hands. So here is how it looks when I scoop it out and spread it on my palm:
spread on my palms:
How it feels on my skin/Absorbance: The way I apply it, it goes on as a thin veneer of sebum-like balm. Edit: You could say it feels a bit velvety when applying it. It doesn’t feel greasy or oily. It absorbs quickly. However, it leaves behind a slight stickiness that lasts for several hours. It’s nothing like the stickiness you get from sheet masks, though! It’s just a slight stick from the moisture, as if you had recently applied lotion. It doesn’t happen with my hands, though. My hands are incredibly dry and soak it all up without any after feel.
Here is a before and after photo of the application, although it’s mostly for completion since you can’t see much. This is partially because I don’t apply a lot and also because it’s so non-greasy and fast absorbing:
Summary: It has made my skin less dry and more of a “normal” type. My skin feels soft, produces a bit of sebum, and feels moisturized inside out. I also have less dry flakes when I apply makeup(!)
Details: From the very first morning after using it, my skin felt soft—particularly soft. Over the next few days, my skin was suddenly coated in a thin layer of sebum/oil throughout the entire day. Now, I’m not sure if this was the product’s oil or my own sebum coming through, but it certainly felt like sebum. And as someone with dry skin, this was refreshingly moisturizing. (No more of that lacking, barely-enough-moisture feeling.)
After the first week, my foundation looked smoother and dewier. In particular, my nose (which usually looks horribly bumpy and flaky) was finally smooth for once!
As you can see, it’s a lot smoother and less flaky. Let's not forget that the camera also acts as a magnifying glass—in real life it looked almost flawless. ☺
This improvement in softness and sebum continued to grow over a total of two weeks. Around 2 weeks, my skin felt increedibly smooth. I had a dewy glow and even enough sebum to cover a blotting sheet. My skin no longer felt dry; it felt “normal.”
I daresay I even became a bit oily at one point, but that only lasted for a day or so. Because around 3 weeks, my results started to dial back some. It’s still a definite improvement from before, but not quite as drastic as it was during the 2nd week. Nowadays, I maintain a slight coating of sebum on my face at all times. It’s enough to keep me plenty moisturized against the winter air, but not enough to cover an entire blotting sheet like before. And as for softness, most of my face is just as soft, although my nose has begun to develop flakes again. (My nose is my problem area after all.)
Despite this, it has still been a marked improvement from what I originally started with. You can see this in my makeup application. My cheeks are way less flaky now:
Cheek 2:
Notice around the nose in particular!
And really quick, my hands: I apply the product via my hands, so my palms have shown some improvement as well. My hands are normally super dry, but nowadays I find myself needing lotion less often. I still get dry, but at any given moment, my hands look (and feel) better than they used to.
But as with my other skincare reviews, I will revisit in a month or so with another update ^^
All things considered, how do I really feel about it?
I love it I love it I love it!! I would definitely buy this with my own money (and it’s only $23 anyways, wow.) I love it so much that I am going buy the other products from this line. This cream made me want more horse oil in my skincare!
Very few moisturizers are able to tackle my dry skin the way this one did, let alone decrease the amount of flakiness I had with my makeup. See, my problem is that most moisturizers hydrate my skin, but the hydration doesn’t stay. It’s either only moisturizing in the first few hours after applying (after which it dries up), or after about 3 weeks, my dry flakes start to win over again.
But with this product, there is a coating of oil to keep the moisture in. It feels heavenly on my dry skin, too. And even though my sebum has dialed back since then, it has still been a great improvement from what I used to have. The fact that this cream actually lessened my dry flakes, even after the initial peak of results, was amazing to me.
In short, I love this product. And it’s even better to know that it’s popular in Korea as well!
Be sure to use my 3% coupon code "HQ4K6I41U9" for new members!
$23.54 + Free shipping
One more shout-out and thank you to Honest Skin for sponsoring this review!
http://chichibanban.blogspot.kr/2015/03/horse-oil-my-dry-skins-savior-guerisson.html#comment-form
