Review (1/5): Heavy, tacky, clogs pores, leads to breakouts
I am a 27 year old female Filipino, with combination skin (oily nose and forehead, dry cheeks and chin). The gel quickly became tacky on skin, making it difficult to spread over the entire face. Even after trying to pat it in and wait a few hours, it still wasn’t absorbed and just sat on my skin in a sticky layer. So I tried only using it at night, either over bare skin or as a sleep mask over my usual skincare. After just a few days, it clogged the pores all over my face, and caused milia on my eyelids and patches of pimples and whiteheads. This was the only new product I had tried in months and the first breakout I had had all year. As soon as I switched back to my usual moisturizer (Kiehl’s Calendula Water Cream), I saw an immediate difference overnight and my skin cleared up in about a week. Being advertised as an “all-in-one toner-essence-moisturizer”, I had hoped it would have a similar texture and absorption rate as the Hada Labo Gokujyun All-in-One Gel (very lightweight and easily melts into the skin, but still provides a good amount of hydration without excessive oiliness). However, it very much is more of a sleep mask (if your skin can tolerate it) or body lotion. As I won’t be using it on my face at all, it’s now become a $35 hand cream (for some reason, it absorbs and finishes completely differently on my hands and is quite nice).