Hi Pickies!

We all know about the usual big K-Beauty brands people recognize like Cosrx, Dear Klairs, Laneige, Innisfree and Etude House, but what are some other, lesser-known K-Beauty brands you like or have tried before? 

For me, one less-known brand I'm curious to know more about is Muldream. They're a Vegan Society-certified, Cruelty-Free (I e-mailed them to check) skincare brand based in Seoul. I found them on the shelves of a K-Beauty store in Zurich and haven't seen any of the big K-Beauty online retailers here offer them. I tried their SOS Hyaluronic Acid mask and really enjoyed it! I have their Vegan Green Mild Fresh Cream, which I'm really curious to try once I finish my current day cream.

Other lesser-known brands I've seen and am curious about are rootree and House of Dohwa. Rootree has a very interesting "hybrid creamy toner" that I'm unsure if it's supposed to be a toner or a moisturizer 😅 While House of Dohwa's rice products look very promising with minimalistic and elegant packaging!

Little Known K-Beauty Brands you like!

Hi Pickies!

Last time I asked people about the lesser known K-Beauty brands they've encountered and/or liked, this time I'd like to ask about any local (national, or state in case of US-based Pickies) brands that you like or know!

I'm Swiss, so a lot of our Skincare brands that people internationally recognize are either money-out-the nose premium expensive or natural cosmetics/"clean" beauty (I could rant all day about the nonsense of "clean beauty" but that's neither here or there). Here are a few:

• Weleda: Natural cosmetics since 1921, everyone's probably heard about this. Claimed Cruelty-Free since Inception, they have everything from skincare to haircare to toothpaste without Fluoride!
• Rausch: Herbal haircare from Switzerland, also cruelty-free with a line of specialized shampoos and body care products depending on your hair and skin needs and type. What I really like about them is that they have mini-sizes of their shampoos and conditioners for trying so you don't have to commit to a big bottle right away! I believe their Volume shampoo was very popular on OliveYoung a few years ago.
• Louis Widmer: A local Dermocosmetic brand. Also Cruelty-Free, they're priced in the same range as La Roche-Posay and other Dermocosmetics brands and widely available in every pharmacy and drugstore around the country. They offer everything from skincare, to haircare and bodycare, and also have a matte day cream I've been eyeballing.
• Ultrasun: Sunscreen-specialized Dermocosmetic company. They're on the higher-end in terms of pricing and offer several types of body and facial SPF sunscreen products. Easy to find in most local drugstores.
• Sherpa Tensing: A more recent addition to the sunscreen industry here, Sherpa Tensing is a more budget-friendly Swiss sunscreen company which you can find in almost any big grocery store or department store here.
• La Prairie: One of the crème de la crèmes of luxury skincare. Looking at La Prairie products fills me with a deep sense of dread for the fact that many of their skincare items would break my bank and set it on fire. Extremely premium with offerings of skin cream with caviar(?) and other mysterious, otherworldly ingredients I know nothing about.

What are your local brands? :D

Talk about your local brands!

Hello Pickies!

So, I like talking about brands, whether that's asking about foreign brands, small indie brands, or big conglomerates. This time I'd like to ask about brands you personally dislike or are put-off by, whether it's their marketing strategies, how their products affected you, or the way they present themselves.

Two brands that I personally find rather iffy are Drunk Elephant and Bonajour:

• Drunk Elephant is very, very pricey and from what I've seen of their customer service, just plain condescending if you aren't using their products the "correct" way.
•  Bonajour's English marketing blurbs always make sure to include that their price tag is high because they use "only the best natural ingredients", and it's worded in such a way that I find pretty patronizing, almost as if they're implying that synthetic is yucky and gross and that you're silly for wanting cheaper natural cosmetics.

In addition, any brand that puts "miracle" or "instant results" in their marketing makes me give them the instant side-eye (Charlotte Tillbury comes to mind).

What brands do you dislike or find unpleasant/ineffective?

Brands that you find off-putting or dislike

Hi Pickies!

Today I'd like to ask what sort of silly or downright weird skincare gimmicks you've seen recently. Admittedly I started thinking about this after seeing Cosrx trying to imitate The Inkey List and The Ordinary with their new line of "The [Insert Ingredient Name] Serum" stuff, but then I remembered the whole Horse Oil thing that was hot in KBeauty a while back and needed to know what other weird or outrageous things you've seen in skincare!

Silliest/Weirdest Skincare gimmicks and products you've seen!

Hi Pickies!

With Summer fast approaching I'm looking into getting a new sunscreen after finishing my current one. I have combination skin with an oily T-Zone and I'm looking for a cruelty-free sunscreen that doesn't have an overly-glassy or dewy finish. I prefer semi-matte to matte finishes and don't like having too much white cast. :) Does anyone have any recommendations? Many thanks!

Cruelty-Free K-Beauty Sunscreen Recommendations for Combination Skin!

❌️ Cons:
• This. Is. Not. Matte. Absolutely not. It was sticky, greasy, and tacky on application, and after 20 minutes it was still sticky, greasy and tacky. The finish was very dewy and slick on me and made my face look like an overly oily fried donut.
• To add to that, on my oily combo skin it took a good while for the sunscreen to absorb. I have no clue why it took so long but checking 20 minutes later I could still feel the sunscreen sticking.
• It left a greasy, unpleasant film on my face, which felt especially uncomfortable around my eyebrows (I have thick, bushy brows).

👩‍⚖️ Verdict: 😬 I hate to say it, but I have absolutely no clue what Purito were smoking when they advertised this sunscreen as matte. As the target demographic (Oily/Combo who prefers matte finish), you'd think this sunscreen would perfectly check all of those boxes, right? NOPE. It's sticky, greasy, and tacky on my face, and so it's really disappointing that this sunscreen has none of the desired effects that it advertises. I'll still use it up or give it away, of course, because I hate waste and sunscreen is sunscreen, which in terms of protection this product is still really good at (And I have no reason to believe they would willingly try and mess up a sunscreen again); However, in terms of advertised cosmetic elegance, this sunscreen swung and missed me so badly that the bat flew out it's hands and right out the window.

After the great K-Beauty sunscreen scandal of 2020, Purito opted to discontinue the sunscreens they sold at the time and came out with a Community-driven program to help create entirely new sunscreens that would deliver the SPF their previous sunscreens failed to provide.

This Sunscreen is half of that promise.

Purito's new Daily Soft Touch Sunscreen came out in the spring of 2023 and was made available at local K-Beauty retailer Niasha at the beginning of Mat 2023. It promises a lightweight, silky and fast-absorbing texture for oily and combination skin with a matte, non-sticky finish, no whitecast on the skin and 5 different ceramides.

☀️ List of UV-Filters*:
• Diethylamino Hydroxybenzoyl Hexyl Benzoate
• Ethylhexyl Triazone
• Ethylhexyloxyphenyl Triazine
• Methylene Bis-Benzotriazolyl Tetramethylbutylphenol

*Ingredients taken from puritoen.com

I asked Purito on Instagram who manufactured the sunscreen and whether it was registered as a functional cosmetic in Korea. They informed me about a week later that it was manufactured by a company called The One Cosmetic (주)더원코스메틱. Big shoutout to Odile Monod for her informative content on how sunscreen and cosmetics are regulated in South Korea.

💅 Skin profile: 
Combination skin with oily T-Zone and drier U-Zone, semi-humid temperate climate (Central Europe), 3x Retinal usage per week.

📦 Packaging: The Daily Soft Touch sunscreen comes in a recyclable plastic tube with a screw cap that contains 60ml of the product. It has very minimalistic packaging and design, with it's design elements (Sun and accents) coloured blue to differentiate it from the Daily Go-To Sunscreen, which is yellow and marketed towards dry skin types. My sunscreen came from niasha.ch, one of the three big online K-Beauty specialty retailers in Switzerland (The others are coree.ch and sooyou.ch) at 22.90CHF.

Interestingly, the packaging on my sunscreen did not include the words "기능성 화장품", which denotes it as a functional cosmetic in Korea. This means the sunscreen I bought was probably manufactured for export only, which is an odd quirk. 🤷‍♀️

🫙 Texture and Scent: This is a fragrance-free sunscreen, though when I deliberately smell on it it DOES have a hint of that typical sunscreen-y smell  It has a thick, lotion-like consistency that makes it a bit more lightweight without being too runny. On my combination skin it initially applied very tacky and sticky. Unfortunately, even after twenty minutes it stayed tacky and sticky, particularly around my eyes, and it dried down to a very shiny, greasy and oily finish on my skin (See pictures). I've been using this sunscreen for more than two weeks every day using the two-finger method and have worn it to geological excursions and particularly sunny days, where it held up surprisingly well in terms of protection (I use a sunstick for reapplication).

✅️ Pros:
• Good protection that held up to constant sun exposure before reapplication.
• Not as runny as my previous sunscreen, which made it easier to apply to my face.
• No white cast on the skin, so this is suitable for deeper skintones too.

❌️ Cons:
• As said, this is a gentle cleanser. You won't get any miracles from this if you're looking for something stronger. (YMMV)
• On some days where I was particularly dehydrated I could feel this cleanser stripping my skin a little bit.

This Cleanser is a gentle, sensitive skin-friendly product, which I generally prefer as my routine can get pretty active heavy. She's simple, she's basic, she won't break your bank, but if you ask me the packaging and the product appearance itself give it a little more 'pizzaz' if you like looking at pretty packaging. Just don't expect any miraculous results if you want the Madagascar Centella Foaming Ampoule to rescue you from blemishes or uneven skin tone - save that for the actives.

👩‍⚖️ Verdict: A fine, reliable, if basic cleanser for any routine!

With Skin1004 really taking off in the west, especially their Madagascar Centella line, I was curious about the gentle foaming ampoule that came with it and decided to buy it as my first K-Beauty cleanser as I'd heard a lot of good things about it. The Skin1004 Centella Foaming Ampoule cleanser promises to soothe and hydrate, as well as remove make-up, without stripping the skin.

🌿 Notable Ingredients*:
• Centella Asiatica Extract (claimed 33%)
• Glycerin
• Cacao Extract
• Sodium Hyaluronate
• Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)
• Sodium Chloride (Salt)
• Coptis Chinensis Root Extract

*Ingredients taken from skin1004.com

💅 Skin profile: 
Combination skin with oily T-Zone and drier U-Zone, semi-humid temperate climate (Central Europe), 3x Retinal usage per week. I rarely wear make-up and prefer going out bare-faced, so there will be no comparisons on it's make-up removing abilities.

📦 Packaging: 
The cleanser is packaged in a small cardboard (I assume upcycled) box depicting what I assume is a brown Madagascar mountain range against a white background. The middle of the package has a small textbox showing the brand's name and product name in a very minimalistic style. The product itself is contained in a 125ml brown transluscent plastic tube with the brand and product name on it, through you can see and gauge how much cleanser you have left. This tube was brought from niasha.ch at a price of 18CHF and has been in use since the beginning of April 2023 for my PM routine. I used it together with a Beurer FC 49 Deep Cleansing Facial Brush (silicone).

🫙 Texture and Scent:
The cleanser itself is thick when squeezed out of the tube, a mix between a gel and a cream cleanser, though I'd personally put this on the creamier end in terms of texture. It has a glossy brown colour with a velvety sheen under light. Thanks to the presence of surfactants like Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate, the addition of water makes the cleanser foam up into a rich white lather, losing the brown colour in the process. It has a peculiar earthy scent when first opened, though I quickly got used to it and wasn't bothered by the smell. According to Skin1004, the cleanser has a pH of around 5.

✅️ Pros:
• Simple, gentle cleansing that does what it's advertised without my skin getting stripped. For me it's pretty good at getting off the excess sebum my nose tends to suffer at the end of the day.
• See-through tube means I can see how much product I have left.
• No added fragrances or essential oils that could be potentially irritating to skin.
• Rich, foamy lather and the colour of the cleanser does give it a slightly more 'luxurious' feel in my eyes.

❌️ Cons:
• No wrinkle smoothing. I have small fine lines under my eyes and didn't really notice them fade or anything.
• The pump dispenses WAY too much product for both eyes. I have to do an awkward half-pump two or three times to get the right amount of cream.
• It's a bit tacky after being rubbed in and takes a while to absorb.

👩‍⚖️ Verdict: I like this cream! It feels nice and plumping, hydrates the drier parts of my eyes, and helped fade my dark circles when I had them from lack of proper sleep. I will say though, despite promising to tackle fine lines and wrinkles I haven't noticed any smoothing out of those, and the high price point is a bit of a turn off. Would I repurchase? Maybe, but I feel like I'd need to test a lot more eye creams to make an actual comparison. Still, I have no huge complaints with the cream itself, it does the job - it's the packaging that irritates me the most.

Today I'm reviewing a product from a company that has a long and storied history in the west: Cosrx. Everyone knows Cosrx. They're THE K-Beauty company that first broke through the western entry barrier and really put Korean beauty on the map in Europe and the US. Their snail mucin products and AHA/BHA toners are popular throughout the Anglosphere and Europe for gentle and effective skincare. The product I'm looking at, the Advanced Snail Peptide Eye Cream, claims to target dull, dehydrated skin, fine lines and wrinkles, dark circles, and puffy undereyes.

🌿 Notable Ingredients*:
• Snail Secretion Filtrate
• Helianthus Annus (Sunflower) Oil
• Niacinamide
• Panthenol
• Sodium Hyaluronate
• Copper Tripeptide-1, Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1,
Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7

*Ingredients taken from cosrx.com

💅 Skin profile: 
Combination skin with oily T-Zone and drier U-Zone, semi-humid temperate climate (Central Europe), 3x Retinal usage per week.

📦 Packaging: The eye cream comes in a hard plastic bottle with a transparent cap and a black pump top dispenser. The packaging is minimalist in black and white and yellow to mark it as part of the snail series, which is primarily designed with a yellow colour scheme. The bottle comes in a 25ml and was bought at Jolse.com at a discount price.

🫙 Texture and Scent: This eye cream is white and gloopy with just a slight bit of stringiness from the snail mucin. It isn't as stringy as the other snail products I've seen around Instagram and turns slightly more liquid and watery when it's rubbed into the skin. It has no scent for those averse to fragrance and feels hydrating but slightly tacky under the eyes after immediate application. I began by using this in the morning two months ago, but have since switched it into my evening routine instead.

✅️ Pros:
• It's hydrating and refreshing on my eyes! I like putting this around my eye area.
• The dark circles around my eyes did fade a lot after using this consistently, which really helped me look less tired and dead in the mornings. 🤣
• It has a nice plumping effect and kept the eye area moisturized, especially my eye corners which can get a bit drier than the other parts of my eyes.

❌️ Cons:
• I didn't really notice any skin smoothing effect on my oily T-Zone. My most stubborn areas still persisted in being bumpy even after consistent use.
• The liquid is deceptively runny and can get pretty messy if you're not paying attention.
• It can sting open wounds, so be careful when applying to open/healing wounds or cuts.

👩‍⚖️ Verdict:
This was the toner that made me realize just how dehydration-prone my skin is, especially with Retinal added to the mix. It's luxurious, hydrating, and plumped my cheeks so that they no longer felt perpetually dry and rough to touch. Unfortunately it doesn't quite smooth out my oily parts and the rest of my face, but otherwise I adore this toner and consider it potentially Holy Grail-worthy for the sheer hydrating and skin-plumping effects it had on my skin. If you want something hydrating for drier areas that badly need water, give this toner a go. 

Thank You Farmer is another one of those K-Beauty Brands that achieved cult popularity status in the west and it's not hard to see why looking at marketing and branding - an emphasis on raw materials, "natural skincare", and donation to good causes. Their Rice Pure Essential Toner is one of those products that takes advantage of this marketing by highlighting the origin of it's raw ingredients from the (allegedly) pollution-free Gyodong Island near the DMZ. It promises to hydrate, smoothen the skin texture, as well as soothe and protect the skin barrier.

🌿 Notable Ingredients*:
• Oryza Sativa (Rice) Extract
• Niacinamide
• Centella Asiatica Extract
• Ficus Cariga (Fig) Fruit Extract
• Glycerin
• Ceramide NP

*Ingredients taken from thankyoufarmer.co.kr

💅 Skin profile: 
Combination skin with oily T-Zone and drier U-Zone, semi-humid temperate climate (Central Europe), 3x Retinal usage per week, dehydration-prone.

📦 Packaging: The Rice Pure Essential Toner comes in a hefty 200ml hard transculscent PET bottle with a white screw cap. The brand's label is featured in both Hangul and Latin script on the front with a stylized logo of a rice plant in gold. I bought this bottle from Jolse.com at a discounted price point.

🫙 Texture and Scent: With nary a scent to detect or any unpleasant essential oils to substitute for fragrance, the toner's contents come out as an odorless, watery, milky liquid. It absorbs quickly onto my skin and leaves a velvety, almost dewy finish. The liquid itself feels luxurious and pleasant to rub in despite the watery texture, and it left a nice, hydrated feeling, especially on my cheeks which are my dry areas. I've consistently been using this toner twice a day for more than 3 weeks, shaking the bottle each time before usage as advised.

✅️ Pros:
• It absorbed pretty fast into my skin and didn't feel tacky after application.
• Very hydrating and nourishing, especially on my drier cheek area.
• Elegant and beautiful packaging for people who like having minimal but still aesthetically pleasing products to display on their shelves.
• It has a good plumping effect on the parched areas of my skin and did well to combat dehydration.
• No scent, which I generally welcome in my skincare products.

❌️ Cons:
• I'm not a fan of the glass packaging, which is a bit unwieldy and not very travel-friendly. Using glass seems like a one-ticket stop to broken shards on your floor and heartbreak if you ever drop this.
• The finish was slightly tacky, but I can forgive this since you're not (usually) meant to finish your skincare on just serum.
• ~31 USD is pretty pricey. I'd get this on discount to save!

👩‍⚖️ Verdict: This is my first Isntree product and I quite like it! It feels hydrating, pleasant, and does a good job at regulating excessive oiliness on the parts of my skin with lots of sebum, while hydrating the drier areas of it. While I'm not super crazy about the "Clean Beauty" marketing and the EWG rating nonsense, this is a product that I do think works as advertised and feels nice on my skin. I'll be looking at and testing other serums in the mean time, but if you're a combo-oily gal like me looking for something to degrease without drying you out, I'd give Isntree's Green Tea Fresh Serum a look. Just keep in mind the initial asking price and see if you can't get it on discount somewhere.

Isntree is a brand most will probably be familiar with - one of the most prominent K-Beauty brands in the realm of vegan and cruelty-free cosmetics. Their Green Tea Fresh line is specifically marketed towards Oily-Combination skin with a host of ingredients promising to moisturize, hydrate and soothe oily-combo skin. The serum of this line, the Green Tea Fresh Serum, features a patented ingredient called Anti-Sebum P(tm) and EGCG to help control oil production.

🌿 Notable Ingredients*:
• Camelia Sinensis Leaf Extract
• Niacinamide
• Squalane
• Epigallocachetin Gallate
• Adenosine
• Glycerin

*Ingredients taken from en.isntree.com

💅 Skin profile: 
Combination skin with oily T-Zone and drier U-Zone, semi-humid temperate climate (Central Europe), 3x Retinal usage per week.

📦 Packaging: This serum comes in a hefty brown glass bottle with a dropper and an easily removable, leaf-shaped brown sticker with the product name and brand label for easy recycling. The dropper is made of hard plastic with a round bulb tip to dispense the product. With 50ml of serum, it retails for $31.30 on Isntree's english website - I got mine from Jolse.com at a discount price.

🫙 Texture and Scent: Upon opening the bottle, I was greeted with a pleasant green tea scent and a surprisingly brown-coloured liquid. The liquid itself is very viscuous and has a nice, velvety texture and feel on my skin when applied and rubbed in, which then gives way to a nice hydrating feeling. It's fairly sticky and slightly tacky after immediate application and dried down slightly tacky with a slight bit of shine. I've been regularly using this serum both day and night for little more than a month.

✅️ Pros:
• Hydrating, pleasant feeling on the skin without feeling greasy or too wet - I can feel my skin drinking this up very quickly!
• A light green tea scent that I enjoy without being too overpowering on the nose
• Decent sebum control - for the most part I do notice less oiliness in my T-Zone when applying this to my whole face in the morning, even after a few hours. At night, it hydrates my drier U-Zone (I use a different serum for my T-Zone at night).