🥀It’s produced by an independent creator in the United States, so shipping internationally is quite expensive.

🥀If you find your skin loves really rich moisturizers full of butters and oils, this product probably isn’t for you. 

🥀If you want a moisturizer chock-full of extracts or actives, you’ll also want to look elsewhere. I like to have those ingredients in my serum step and finish off with this, but if you want it all in one step you might find this ingredient list too simple.

Oh, how I love this moisturizer. 

🌹This moisturizer was created by f.c., the blogger behind Simple Skincare Science. The blog is perhaps most known for the Fungal Acne Treatment Bible, a compilation of the science surrounding malassezia folliculitis. This moisturizer was specifically formulated to be fungal-acne safe, but even if you don’t have fungal acne I would recommend this moisturizer. 

🌹To give some context about my skin, I have normal to combo skin that is particularly prone to dryness since starting 0.05% tretinoin a couple of months ago. I had a bout of malassezia folliculitis&#47;fungal acne in the past, which has completely cleared and hasn’t reoccurred. I try to keep my routine fungal acne safe out of precaution and because it seems to agree with my skin and help with my regular breakouts. 

🌹I would describe the texture as a creamy gel. It spreads easily, so you don’t need a lot. It doesn’t sit in a thick layer on top of the skin. It leaves my skin feeling soft, supple, and velvety. My skin looks just a bit dewy, but not shiny or greasy. I use this as both my day and night moisturizer, and my skin loves it. It doesn’t break me out at all and it helped my skin get through the dryness and peeling I got when I started tretinoin. I used to used to use a different moisturizer containing urea, but this one has overthrown it.

🌹Urea is a superstar ingredient that I deserves so much more love than it gets. It’s  part of our skin’s natural moisturizing factors, and has been show to have properties that are keratolytic (mildly exfoliating), hydrating, and increase permeability—all of which add up to great things for the health of your skin barrier. You can check out the “Urea for Skin Explained” post on Simple Skincare Science for more information, it really gets into the scientific studies surrounding urea. This formula also contains hyaluronic acid, glycerin, allantoin, and capric&#47;capricylic triglyceride for moisturized and soothed skin. It’s fragrance-free and great for sensitive skin.

🌹It’s packaged in an aluminum tube for environmental sustainability. It also makes it quite easy to get every last bit of product. It’s not the most luxurious packaging, but I don’t mind.

🌹This formula is simple but effective, and I love having this as the anchor of my skincare routine as I experiment with more ingredients and actives in the other steps of my routine. I find myself buying multiple tubes simply because I don’t want to run out. I love being able to support an amazing creator and an amazing product.

🥀This may not be the toner for someone with very oily skin who needs sebum-control as part of their toner step.

This product is a relatively new discovery for me, but it has quickly cemented itself as a personal holy grail.

🌹First, I want to thank Dear, Klairs for releasing an unscented version of this product. It’s so great to have a brand respond to consumer feedback and make versions of their products so they can be used by everyone, including those with sensitive skin or simply those that prefer to keep their routine fragrance-free. I hope to see even more brands follow this example.

🌹The packaging is nice, a thick plastic that feels substantial. You get a good amount of product as well.

🌹The ingredient list for this toner is truly incredible. Centella, licorice, panthenol, aloe, copper peptides, SAP (a vitamin C derivative) and so many other hydrating, conditioning, skin soothing and evening goodies. There are some extracts—luffa cylindrica, green purslane—in this that I haven’t found elsewhere in my (too large) collection, which is impressive. 

🌹The texture of this toner is just a bit thicker than water (I’ve heard this texture described as “fat water,” and I think it fits). In my opinion it’s the perfect toner texture, as it can be easily applied by hands without a cotton pad but still absorbs easily into the skin to prepare for the rest of my skincare routine. Despite being a hydrating toner, I definitely don’t feel that it adds too much of a layer to my skin, and I can still add serums and essences to my heart’s desire.

🌹I’ve never been one to say that toners are a necessary step in a skincare routine. They’re nice, especially if you’re a skincare enthusiast, but unless you’re not using a pH-balanced cleanser you don’t really need one. This toner shakes that personal belief. I’ve recommend this product to friends who aren’t even that into skincare, that’s how good it is.

🌹The first time I tried this toner, I noticed that my skin was visibly less irritated and more even—and my skin was adjusting to tretinoin at the time! This is one of the products that I notice when I don’t use it. It just gives me that “good skin day” feeling. As I’ve continued to use it, I’ve noticed lasting long term effects as well. My skin barrier is healthy and hydrated and some of my PIH is fading (this is in conjunction with other products, but I do feel that this toner contributes).

🌹I also have acne-prone skin and this product has never once broken me out. On the contrary, the skin-soothing and barrier-repair effects have been great for breakouts. SAP also has some data behind it that suggests it helps with acne, so that may be a factor as well. This product is fungal-acne safe as well (I’ve only rarely had a problem with FA, but it’s a nice thing to know!) 

🌹If you have sensitive skin, particularly dry sensitive skin, this is an absolute must have. If you are just getting into k-beauty and want an amazing toner, I highly recommend this one. I’m on my second bottle of it and will certainly be repurchasing.

🥀Some might find the texture too watery&#47;not substantial enough. 

🥀I do find myself using other serums and ampoules that have a more dramatic result. I have a lot of products that contain centella that also have other hydrating, soothing, or skin evening components, which I will often choose over using this. 

🥀This is designed to be a 100% centella ampoule, so I’m not going to complain about the simplicity of the ingredients list. That being said, if I had a limited number of products to choose from I would not prioritize this. It’s a nice addition to my routine, but not essential. If I stopped using it my skin would not be dramatically different, especially with the other products in my routine. That’s what holds this back from being a holy grail for me.

🌹My skin loves centella, so this product has been quite excellent for me. I wanted a 100% centella ampoule for my skincare arsenal and this is a very good one. 

🌹I do find it has a lovely soothing effect on my skin, characteristic of centella. I do notice decreased redness and irritation when I use this product. If your skin likes centella as much as mine does, this might be the right product for you.

🌹The texture is very thin and watery, more like a toner than a serum. It absorbs into skin very quickly. As a result, it can be very easily layered with other products.

🌹The packaging feels expensive. It’s a hefty golden glass bottle with an angled dropper and an elegant label. I love displaying this product, it looks beautiful on my vanity. I would honestly choose this over other 100% centella ampoules simply because the packaging is so nice while the product is still at a very reasonable price point (around $20 USD for me). 

🌹You also get a lot of product as the bottle is quite large at 100 mL&#47;3.8 fl. oz. It’s actually big enough that’s it’s not really ideal to travel with.

🌹Due to the simplicity of the ingredients list (100% centella extract) and the thin texture, I find this to be a perfect product for layering with other ampoules and serums. I’m not worried about it interacting negatively with other formulas or adding too much product to my face.

🌹Overall, I am very pleased with this product and look forward to trying more of Skin1004’s products when I get the chance.

🥀The texture is kind of weird and gooey before you apply it to the skin. You use it, and it feels like you’re using snail mucin, because you are. This might bother some people. 

🥀This serum isn’t going to deliver much more than hydration, a happy skin barrier, and soft skin. There aren’t any powerful actives, it’s all about the snail goo :)

🥀For obvious reasons, it’s not vegan. That being said, unhappy snails don’t produce mucin in high enough quantities to collect for cosmetic purposes. As a result, the snails kept for their mucin are actually kind of spoiled, then put in a special terrarium that allows the mucin to drip down for a short amount of time. No harm comes to the snails, they actually live a very good life.

🌹I had a friend ask me how my skin was so soft. It’s always fun to see the look on people’s faces when I say that it’s in large part because of snail goo.

🌹This is an essence, with the snail mucin being the star ingredient and a few other lovely supporting players. The ingredient list is pretty short, with 96% of the formula being snail mucin, but there are still a few other ingredients of note—sodium hyaluronate, allantoin, and panthenol—which add to the hydrating, skin conditioning, and soothing properties of the formula. 

🌹The packing is CosRx’s standard pump packaging, which is always nice. It’s very convenient. 

🌹I was suffering from the “retinoid uglies” after starting tretinoin—my skin was dry and irritated, with some scaly dry patches. There are a few products that helped my skin heal from that stage, and this is possibly the biggest one. When I use it, my skin feels so delightfully soft and supple. 

🌹This has become the final hydration step that I use right before moisturizing. I don’t like to go without it. I don’t find that it’s too heavy for daytime use either. It works really well with almost any other product I’ve tried, due to the simplicity of the ingredient list. 

🌹It’s fungal acne safe, if that’s something you care about (I’ve only rarely had problems with FA). I do have acne-prone skin and this product doesn’t break me out.

🌹The texture right out of the bottle is kind of gooey and sticky, but it doesn’t at all feel that way on the skin. You don’t need a lot of product, it spreads really nicely. I’ve even used this on my body when I had areas that needed a little more hydration. 

🌹I’m on my second bottle, I really didn’t want to run out. It’s a great product for anyone who wants a boost of hydration.

🥀It’s too heavy for an all-over moisturizer for me (my skin is more normal&#47;combo than true dry skin, but tretinoin has made it lean more dry). 

🥀I’m acne prone and this does clog my pores when used on larger areas. 

🥀This should also not be labeled fungal-acne safe. It contains shea butter, which is known to promote the growth of malassezia.

This is my dry-skin savior.

🌹I when I was adjusting to tretinoin I got a painful dry spot at the corner of my mouth that wouldn’t heal for a couple weeks because it would crack whenever I opened my mouth. In my efforts to heal this patch, I purchased a tube of Cicaplast baume and applied a thick layer to the spot, reapplying frequently. It was completely healed in two days. I couldn’t believe it. 

🌹If I have any scaly dry patches, this is what I  will turn to, every time. It’s outstanding.

Penrose