Korean skin care review: Sidmool and Innisfree

I've forgotten to post up my gmarket hauls when i got these items in January 2012. But anyhow, here are the reviews of 3 items from my haul.

Sidmool's enzyme cleansing gel.

I've been using this since January on a twice daily wash. This item foams up like a foam cleanser but is very gentle and does not strip your skin dry.
In addition, it can remove mild makeup, bb creams, sunblock too.
I've been using this as my sunblock remover in the evening and so far so good. No breakouts from clogged pores, so i  suppose this cleanser does remove and clean your pores from sunblock.
The trick is to wash your face twice with the cleanser. The first wash, there won't be much foam, but on the second wash, it'll be easier to swirl all the foam around your face and massage it gently.

As i have sensitive skin, i try to use natural stuff on my face as much as possible, and am trying to cut out most of the chemical nasties. This item is great and does not aggravate my sensitive, prone to redness skin.

Rating: 8/10, good for sensitive skin




Innisfree ecosafety no sebum sunblock
7-free, oil control 100% mineral filter,
SPF35PA+++
with organic sunflower oil and green tea

This sunblock, hmm, i was attracted to it because it says 100% mineral filter. Which suits my preference now for natural skin care. Chemical filters are supposedly very bad for the skin. Mineral filters are physical blockers like titanium dioxide and zinc oxide which are not supposed to absorb into your skin. They sit like a protective barrier on top of skin and gets washed off by sweat, wiping, foam cleansers etc.
There is slight nude tint to it but when you smear it on your face, it gives a slight whitish cast which most mineral filters will as they are physical blockers and they are white in solid form.
I'm fine with the slight white cast as it sorts of give me "better" looking skin.
However, this sunblock is quite drying for me. Perhaps its because of the "oil control" factor that gives this dried out feel. I use this when my face feels extra oily.
I don't have the ingredients in english though.

Rating: 6/10, suitable for very oily skin




Innisfree eco natural suncare bb sunbalm
with sunflower. SPF50PA+++
Enriched with organic, sunflower, and organic lavender, organic chamomile , eco natural BB matches your individual skin tone.

As you can see, i have reached the bottom of the pan already.
I really like the feel of this on my skin. It does smoothen skin out a little, but what i like about it is the feel. It does not dry and pull and tug at my skin, instead it leaves my skin feeling hydrated and comfortable. This it the number one thing that i look for in skin care -- comfort and hydration. It does leave me looking oilier than the no sebum sunblock, but i can deal with it by just blotting my skin with tissue.
I much prefer this over the no sebum sunblock.
The tint is for darker skin though. As i do not have fair  skin, it suits me quite well. On certain days it does make me look a little darker, but mostly , it suits my skin colour quite well.
I wish i could get the ingredients list in english, i want to see if they have any nasty chemicals in there. I'm trusting that chemicals are a minimum since the title of the item is "eco natural suncare".
So far, no breakouts from this item or sensitive redness or itchiness.

I'll be restocking this item for sure.

rating: 9/10, good for sensitive skin

Gmarket haul 12

Gmarket haul 12~~!! tadah.....
i had so much i wanted to purchase but i could not purchase them all.
**Please note that i got this haul almost at the same time as haul 11 .


Gmarket EMS box, crushed down again! Such soft board material.

From coreana , eco36.9 nokdu pure mask, 5 sheets. I've used this before and found it quite good for me. It has a neck area mask sheet too.

These masks are not for those with oily skin/combi-oily skin types. It is highly sticky but i find it very moisturising, great for my dehydrated skin. Skin feels more plumped and lubricated after each use. Not bad.
However, the manufacturing date on these seem to backdate till 2009!!! i wonder if i've been scammed!
but when i opened one sheet of mask to use, it feels fine, looks fine, smells fine, and works fine too! so i'll quickly get these 5 sheets over and done with.




I got some su:m 37 wrinkle correctors, a large bunch of 'em.

The texture is very very creamy . Colour is yellowish like retinol creams. I tried to search for active ingredients, but found none. So i wonder is this has retinol in it.

This one is not for oily skin types. It is very creamy in texture! it even feels a little on the heavy side and leaves a greasy look. So only for dry and normal skin types.




More from sooryehan. The bichaek pure whitening essence:

A pearly white serum :

Feels pretty on my skin. No adverse irritation of drying out of skin. i'm liking it. Let's see if this works like whoo's jinaek program...........




History of whoo's Hwanyugo. 2 pretty gold embossed boxes. they have this look of stature and luxury........ aren't they pretty?

Texture is as expected, highly luxurious!

Samples from the seller, actually, i got them mixed up so i'm not sure which seller these came from.

This seller had a cute sense when sending samples. She stapled one ohui sunscience sunblock on a piece of pink paper. The sad thing is i did not understand the writing on it at all.

Sooryehan's Soo's chunsam sanghwang set:

Very pretty packaging, and makes me feel all high-classed. The essence, eye cream and face cream.

Manufacturing date of 2011 may, that's great! very recently manufactured.

This is a view on the essence, both pic taken at different times of the day with different amounts pumped out:
1. day time small amount pumped out.

 2. night time larger amount pumped out:

The colour of the essence is yellow with a cream texture. The texture is very very rich and it even proved a little too rich for my dehydrated skin type. I could not use the serum and the cream together. The serum is more like a cream for me so i can entirely skip the face cream.
The face cream is very rich too. I find it too rich for me. Perhaps this line is more for those in their 40s and above.


Here's the chunsam sanghwang cream. Looks like a paste and is yellow beige in colour. This one must be melted in your palm or between your fingers before you can apply it. If not you'll look like a grease ball in no time.

A box of collagen hydrogel eye patches. comes in a set of 5.

This doesn't work very well. Will not repurchase.




Stuff from Re:nk. I've just tried these and have now fallen in love with re:nk!! i'm definitely gonna get more re:nk products to try, the texture and absorbality is great.

Their Face up lifting line. The serum in samples of 5ml tubes.

Texture is a transparent serum, easy to spread, quite light and its absorb-ability is good.

Re:nk's face up lifting cream in 3 tubes of 5ml.

The texture of the cream is light and easily absorbed. Very nice cream. Feels good on the face. It's light weight and more for my less dehydrated days.

20ml sized Re:nk time lab softerner. The toner from the time lab series. Very good texture and provides ample moisturisation, perfect for my dehydrated skin. It's almost like the hadalabo toner where the texture is thicker than normal toners and not as liquid. It takes awhile to be absorbed thought. and the fragrance is a little strong. I did not like the smell of it.

From sidmool: another bottle of their Gold Lift Mela Bye SVC 20.
It's a vitamin C serum with gold powder in it.

you can see the gold powder in the dropper:

20% Vitamin C serum with gold and CoQ10 added. This is not for oily skin as the texture can be sticky. But i find it pretty good as it makes skin bouncier.





Sidmool is very generous with samples and i got a whole lot of it. The bad thing is that their samples are written only in Korean so i have a hard time trying to know what is what.

 sidmool Mask sheets, 5 of them from sidmool, all free.

A whole load of other sidmool samples and even a full sized tube of product , all Free! So very generous of them.

The full sized tube is a water gel: Nano platinum mineral water/aloe. For all skin types . 100ml

Nicely sealed for hygiene purposes:

Texture is a clear gel, like aloevera gel.

These samples are from a different seller, i think the one from Re:nk. Again, i have no idea what these are as the packages have no english for me to decipher the contents.

This one is a sample from the sooryehan seller. Camellia body cleanser.

Well that's all for now.............. til the next time of gmarket hauls........toodles.

Gmarket haul 9

It's time for another haul! hooray, i love hauls..


Crushed down EMS box:

Oww, this time the box is big . However, it has been heavily crushed.


Inside of the box:

Plenty of smaller packed boxes by the individual sellers.




More sooryehan products:

More sooryehan fermented vinegar essence, 3 mini bottles.
These have managed to help the problems in skin aging. Feels more moisturised, bouncy and plumped.
The other 3 sachets are gifts.



As i mentioned earlier in my snail cream review, i have not given up on snail creams. So i purchased the Graymelin Vintage, Smiley Tonight, Nutry Snail cream.

This was a steal! I got it for only 8900wons which is a big discount to its original price of between 17000~20000 wons.


It comes with a mini 5 piece trial kit.

Sample sized tubs: White Balance cream, Matt Pore Primer, Hydro skin cream, SMiley Tonight nutry snail cream, white balance waterful toner.


A closer look at the snail cream:

Comes in a glass tub with aluminium/steel screw cap. Pretty neat!
"Highly concentrated cream that contains mucus 70% of snail, it is deluxe repairing cream that protects your skin from getting dry or rough".
This contains other emollient ingredients for better moisturisation. Also contains some anti-aging ingredients such as centella asiatica.


The texture is a white gooey cream, typical of snail creams:

Sooryehan Hyo Fermented skin care sets of toner and emulsion:

10 sets of trial sets with toner and emulsion at 6ml each.




A closer look. Maroon bottles with gold caps:

Products from Charmzone, in particular, control creams:

NewCon cream, New Control Cream, Deage trial set, a large packet of NewCon samples.



NewCon cream:

"A product for maintaining a clean, balanced and lively skin."
This can be used daily and may even take the place of a peeling gel/exfoliator. It also helps in removing oil and sebum and other impurities from the pores of the skin. On top of that, it , moisturises. This is simply a multi functional product. I'm liking it so far.




A large bag of NewCon samples given by the seller:

Charmzone's New Control Cream:

Two tubes in a box: 200g + 50g. This works the same as the NewCon cream above. A multi functional cleansing/exfoliating/nourishing agent. However, i'm not really sure what the differences are with this one and the NewCon above. What i find is that this one is less emollient than the NewCon and i would recommend this for oily skin types.




Charmzone's DeAge red wine sample set given by the seller:

Essence, cream, emulsion and toner. Will try this out soon.






More from Berrisom:

Lipstick, Skin recovery blemish balm, peptide serum, total eye perfector (eye cream),



A small array of samples given by the berrisom seller:

This included the HD lifting and tightening pore mask which i wanted to try, so whooppee! i get to try it before purchase.



In each and every Berrisom product, the ingredients include their antioxidant power AO5 formula which contains a blend of berries and flowers for high potency antioxidant oomph.
This Skin Recovery BB cream is no exception. Packed with antioxidants it is a triple function bb cream. It's main functions are anti-wrinkle, whitening and sun protection (spf 21)

Click to enlarge the picture below for a more detailed description on the bb cream:

So far, i've tried it and i really really like it. It contains camphor tree extract to soothe and nourish.
Colour tone is perfect for my skin colour and it gives me a dewy look. Loving it so far.



The bb cream is on a promotion with free gift on Berrisom's antioxidant lipstick:

The colour is a sweet pink colour and feels smooth. This lipstick itself costs about 12000wons on Gmarket.




I also bought the total eye perfector which performs a 6-in-1 function. Anti-wrinkle, whitening, dark circles, smoothing of expression lines, lifting, anti-oxidant.
It comes in an elegant silver packaging and it looks quite grand on the dressing table!

By purchasing the total eye perfector, the seller has included this full sized peptide serum FREE! For anti-aging purposes.With copper peptides and their signature AO5 formula for anti-wrinkle solution.

I have been loving sidmool's natural care products so far. No irritation at all.
More from sidmool to try:

Jojoba lip care essence, Pore ampoule, Aloe Essential gel, Aloe Herb shampoo



An array of face masks and samples given by the seller:

6 pieces of sheetmasks, vitamin C sweets and 3 pieces of natural hand made soaps.




A closer look at the Jojoba lip care essence:

10ml tube. contains other moisturising ingredients like vitamin E. Upon application, it makes lips beautifully full and juicy! love it!



A closer look at aloe gel:

a large tube of 165ml aloe essential gel with peptides. This comes in 2 formulas, one for oily skin and one for normal-dry skin types. I've chosen the normal-dry skin type.
This tube is so huge i'm not really sure how we will manage to finish this!
So far, this product has received many a good review and comment in the sidmool forum. Seems to be their best selling item!


 The gel is a clear transparent gel:

 Texture is lovely and spreads easily with no greasiness or any feeling of heaviness. So far feels just right and it seems to provide a burst of moisture too.




More on Pore Care, Sidmools does have a few varieties on pore care ampoules. I've simply chosen this EverMat Pore Ampoule:

It manages sebum flow, pore size, skin shine and for pore tightening purposes.




The ampoule is like an emulsion serum :

White in colour. Totally fragrance free and spreads easily. However, i find it quite hydrating. It does not zap away oiliness to the extent that skin feels tight and dry. Nope, it feels gentle on the skin.
 This is suppose to help sebum in the pores, and within 28 days, results should be seen.





Aloe Herb Shampoo:

Wonderful product! It leaves hair soft , manageable, lively and light. My hair felt tamed and soft and shiny after one wash.
It moisturises the scalp and cleanses gently with aloe and other oriental herbs.
Pretty good i would say.



That's it for this haul! Hopefully we can manage another haul before the month ends. My cousin is even butting in now to join our hauls........ she has been plagued with the Korean skin care disease too!