After introducing the Skin Food brand, its pros and its cons, let’s try out some of the products it has to offer.
Three out of five received my seal of approval. Guess which ones are the black sheeps and win them.
Oh wait.
In this post, find a review of the Black Sugar Mask Wash off, the Egg White Pack, the Rice Mask Wash off, the Argan Oil Silk Hair Mask Pack and the Shea Butter Body Rich Cream.
The Black Sugar Mask Wash off
Is it a scrub? Is it a mask? Who cares, it works.
Ah, the Black Sugar Mask. Skin Food’s n°1 bestseller in the year 2013, and for a reason. I’m crying bitter tears as I write this but… this “scrub” makes my skin almost as soft as my Chanel Precision scrub (which is 6 to 7 times more expensive). Yes, you read that right. To be fair though, I think that the instant feeling of super smooth skin is not only due to the scrubbing action but also to the composition of the product. Look at all these natural ingredients:
Candellila wax (obtained from a small three), lanoline (wool fat), macadamia seed oil, caprylic triglyceride (coconut/palm oil), meadow foam see oil and shea butter, no less (and other artificial crap, but very few I swear).
This mask is mainly made of sucrose, or sugar. It’s literally sugar grains that you rub on your skin. The big grains and hard texture might not be to your liking, but I’d like to point that these grains quickly melt in the water and are therefore very easy to clean off (I have a long history of hours lasting battles against the last grains of scrub). If you’re afraid that this mask might be too aggressive for your skin, fear not: you can either mix it with water/toner or choose the foam version that offers a softer texture and smaller grains.
Black Sugar Mask – pussies edition.
This mask smells a little bit like lemongrass to me. It’s not my favourite sent, but it’s bearable. If you really don’t like it, there’s a strawberry essence version. This product is part of a very popular range which includes a serum (Black Sugar Perfect First Serum) that I will make sure to check out.
The Black Sugar Mask comes in a 100 gr pot and costs ₩7.700, which is a pretty good deal considering how well it works (for me at least).
The Good: smoother skin instantly, affordable price, natural ingredients.
The bad: inconvenient texture.
The Meh: lemony smell, must leave on for 10-15 minutes, bland packaging.
Would buy again? Yes.
The Egg White Pack
I tried to hide the comic sans with the sheets.
A friend recommended me this pore cleaning pack. It comes in a vintage-y paper bag with a cute bowl of white eggs. There are ten sheets inside, five for the nose and five for the forehead and chin. This pack can be used once to twice a week, but never one application right after the other (your skin would not survive that, believe me).
There are detailed English instructions on each sheet. Basically, you wet the skin, paste the sheet, smoothe the air out, wait 10 to 15 minutes depending on how oily your skin is, gently peel it off and then marvel at the yellow oil and black heads stuck on there. I personally was disappointed by the total absence of dirty body fluids on my sheets. Maybe my pores aren’t as dirty as my friend seems to think.
However, I can feel that if I had blackheads and oily skin, this would work quite well. After removing the sheets, my skin was extremely smooth (and dry) and my pores were somehow a bit less visible? And it killed the burgeoning pimple on my chin! But oh dear, did it hurt when I peeled it off.
The sheets are a bit too small and didn’t cover my chin well so be strategic when placing it. I would also advice you to be careful when placing the forehead sheet between your eyebrows. I had a feeling it could potentially tear it off and boy was I right. This thing does a better job than my wax, my between-eyebrows area is smoother than a baby’s butt cheek now. What a nice bonus.
At ₩4.500 for 5 applications, this pack’s price is average.
The good: small hair waxed, clean pores, pimple is dead, affordable price.
The bad: small sheets.
The Meh: hurts like hell (or maybe it’s just me).
Would buy again? Yes (if I needed it).
The Rice mask wash off
It’s white and fluffy inside.
With only rice bran water, caprylic triglyceride (coconut/palm oil), hydrogenated jojoba oil and sucrose cocoate (coconut fat and sugar), this mask contains less natural ingredients than the Black Sugar one. That doesn’t stop it from smelling like heaven. This mask’s scent is fresh, clean, natural and strongly reminds me of Avene’s signature smell.
The texture is a bit weird to me, as it mixes cream with… cooked rice bits? I mean it’s not bad, but it’s tedious to wash off (I wasn’t joking about the long battles). I think that it would feel perfectly fine to most people though.
After trying this mask a few times, I didn’t obtain any spectacular results. Actually I didn’t really obtain any result at all. But the mask feels really relaxing and smells like awesome and happiness.
The Rice Mask comes in a 100 gr pot and costs ₩7.700, which is standard pricing for this kind of product.
The good: fresh smell, relaxing, affordable price.
The bad: absence of actual effect on skin.
The meh: texture, must leave on for 10-15 minutes, bland packaging.
Would buy again? No (it’s smells nice but that’s about it).
The Argan Oil Silk Hair Mask Pack
Not a fan of the packaging.
I bought this mask instead of the Moisture Egg Hair Pack I was going for because the Skin Food lady recommended it. I will never listen to that lady again.
This hair mask works well, really well. I would almost put it at the same level as the Garnier avocado and shea butter hair mask in terms of efficiency. It smells kind of powdery, like a old woman’s perfume or makeup. The texture is thick and creamy (I don’t end up with half my scoop in the shower drain like with Garnier’s mask) and even if the packaging looks cheap and I can’t seem to close the cap, it’s a good product.
So why the hating on the Skin Food Lady? Well, this mask made me lose a ton of hair. I swear, the shower floor looked like a hair cemetery was vandalized. It kept falling and falling. It’s not just a coincidence or my hair that’s reacting funny to this product. I read other reviews that related similar experience.
A nice alternative that I should check out.
On top of that, this mask needs to stay on for 5 minutes (with Garnier’s, 2 minutes is enough), it makes my scalp itchy and my hair look flat. I also noticed that I had to wash my hair a day early because it became greasy faster than usual.
This hair mask costs ₩9.000, which is an average price for a 200 gr pack.
The good: hair is slick and smooth, easier to comb and product has a thick texture.
The bad: argan oil ranks only 11th in the list of ingredients, hair is greasy faster, hair looks flat, scalp itches, made me lose hair.
The meh: packaging looks cheap, cap won’t close, old lady smell.
Would buy again? Never (I like my hair on my scalp, thank you very much).
The Shea Butter Body Rich Cream
I’m currently debating putting it on my face.
I won’t lie to you, I bought this cream just because it said “40% shea butter”. And yeah, it is 40% alright. This body cream work very well and keeps my body moisturized in the winter (I especially use it as hand cream). The stickiness doesn’t last long and my skin feel incredibly smooth after use.
And the smell. Oh, the smell. It’s natural and sweet and a bit sugary. If I had to mistakenly eat one of Skin Food’s products, it would be this one. And I would regret nothing. I don’t really know what more there is to say. This feels good, smells good, looks good. Buy it. There.
On top of the 40% shea butter extract, in the body cream you get: caprylic triglyceride (coconut/palm oil), hydrogenated coconut oil, pure shea butter and honey extract (and alcohol, perfume and synthetic stuff).
This cream costs ₩10.000 for 200 gr, which may be a tiny bit more pricey than average but the natural ingredients inside justify it in my opinion.
The good: sweet sweet smell, non-sticky, moisturizes well, natural ingredients, affordable price.
The bad: come back later, I need to think about it.
The meh: actually, don’t come back.
Would buy again? Yes (and ship home tons of it).
ninety degree east 