I'm back with a product review that I’ve been trying
for awhile. And now it’s the turn of a brand that has been so popular lately,
which is COSRX. COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum to be exact.
Why
am I trying this?
The main reason is because I have huge pores
that is really difficult to conceal with makeup. I often ask myself why is it
so difficult to conceal my pores eventhough I’ve tried so many pore minimizing
primer.
Then someday I read a review in an online shop’s
instagram page that written by someone who already used this serum. The user of
this serum said that her pores has minimized after using this serum. And that’s
it, I attracted to this serum then I bought it.
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| The Claim of COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum |
What’s
The Claim?
Based on what’s written in the box, COSRX BHA
Summer Pore Minish Serum claims:
1. COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum is a
pore-tightening serum that brings strong tightening effect to widening pores
due to excessive sebum for oily-complex skin types and drying of the skin for
neutral-dry skin types. Notes: Don’t ask me what the meaning of
oily-complex skin types is, I don’t know anything about it either :( It is
literally what’s written in the box.
2. COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum is an
astringent serum that removes clogged sebum and old cornification in the pores
with natural BHA ingredients to clean them, and helps with sebum control and
pore-astringent effect. Notes: If I Google it, the meaning of cornification
is a slow, coordinated process in space and time that allows the formation of
dead cells (corneocytes) layer to create a physical barrier for the skin.
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| The Ingredients of COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum |
Ingredients
COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum contains 0.5%
of Betaine Salicylate that is one of BHA form. The full ingredients of this
product is: Salix Alba (Willow) Bark Water, Alcohol, Butylene Glycol, Betaine
Salycilate, Sodium Hyaluronate, 1,2-Hexanediol, Centella Asiatica Leaf Water,
Cassia Obtusifolia Seed Extract, Ethyl Hexanediol, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor
Oil, Arginine, Panthenol, Carbomer, Zinc Oxide, Xanthan Gum, Menthol.
From the full ingredients, we can see that the
main ingredients of this product is Willow Bark Water. Willow bark water known
for its astringent, anti-inflammatory, soothing and conditioning properties.
Willow bark extract can also used to treat headache, and other ailments due to
its aspirin-like effect and also act as antiseptic. Willow bark extract
contains Salicylic Acid which is a natural exfoliant that helps treat acne
because of its ability to help shed dead skin cell and clean pores. It also
helps to stimulate new cell formation. Willow bark extract also contains
Phenolic Acid, such as Salicin, Salicortin, Fragilin, Populin, Triandrin, and
Vimalin as long as Flavonoid Tannin, and Mineral that can help skin
rejuvenation. Wow, it got so many benefits, huh?
The second ingredients of this product is
alcohol. This ingredients really draw my attention because alcohol tend to be
sensitive for skin. As we know, alcohol could dry up the skin. Sadly, because
of its characteristic that could dry up the skin, alcohol tend to be considered
as an effective ingredients that need to be included into products for oily
skin.
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| The Box |
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| Brief Information about Product's Type |
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| The Pump |
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| Left: The Product before Shaken. Right: The Product after Shaken. |
Packaging, Volume, and Consistency
The packaging of this product is a clear plastic
bottle with black pump and clear cap. This product comes with white box and
black font product description. The pump of this products isn’t so good,
because eventhough it has a pump, the product comes out spurt. So we need to
draw the cotton pad or the hand that we use closer to the pump. The product
also comes out just a little for one pump, so I need to pump it between 5 to 6
pumps to wet my cotton pad and apply it easily.
A bottle of this product contains 100 ml. Sadly
I don’t write a label about when I start use this product for the first time,
so I don’t exactly know how long that I’ve been using this product. But I
manage to find the information about when this product come to my mail, which
is in April 29th 2017. So it might be that I’ve been using this product since
May 2017 and until now (July 25th 2017 when I write this review, which is
almost 3 months of usage), the product still contains about 20 ml. It’s quite a
long journey to think that I use many pumps everytime I use.
The consistency of this product is so watery
just like regular water. It’s a little bit strange since the title of this product
is “serum”, whish is usually serum has thick consistency because of its rich
ingredients. This product contains 2 parts, so we need to shake it well before
use. The top part of this product is a clear liquid with a little bit of orangey
tone, meanwhile the bottom part is the sebum absorption powder with white color
that will come alongside the liquid when we pump the products out. The powder
will leave white dots in the skin when applied.
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| Left: The consistency of this product. Center: Product after blended. Right: Product after absorbed. |
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| How to Use the Product |
How to Use and The Effect on the Skin
On the packaging of this product, there’s
instructions to shake this product before use so the sebum absorption powder
that sunken in the bottom of the bottle can be mixed with the water on the top.
Then apply this product in the morning and night on serum/essence step and
concentrate the application on the nose area with blackhead, greasy forehead,
and area with larger pores such as cheeks, chin, and all over the face. Gently
tap with the tip of the finger to help the absorption of the product and leaves
the skin powdery outside but moist inside. It also recommended to refrigerate
this product to help the pore-astringent effect and keep the moisture (and I just
realize that I never refrigerate this product -_-).
The watery consitency of this product confuse me
at the first time I want to use it. As we know, the very basic rule of skincare
layering is start from the most runny products to the most thick one. While
before serum step, usually I use hydrating toner with thicker consistency than
this serum. But in the user instructions, it is recommended to use this product
in the serum or essence step, both is after hydrating toner step. Confuse,
right?
Usually I apply this product using a cotton pad,
but it is likely you can also use this product directly with your finger. I
only use this product in the night because I use other serum treatment in the
morning. I concentrate the application of this product around the nose because
that’s where my large pores are. But I also wipe this product all over my face.
After I applied this product, my skin feels cold because it contains menthol.
There are also white dots from the sebum absorption powder that I mentioned
earlier. This products is easily absorbed without any feeling left except the
cooling sensation. This cooling sensation stay quite long, about 15 minutes or
more I would say.
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| Tips and Caution |
Tips and Caution
This product also give tips and caution to the
user, which is:
1. Keeps all the cosmetic products in order but do
not make haste, this lessens effect, and leave the products to absorb (sorry
for the english, I copy-paste it from the box :D)
2. Keep the nose special! Use a cotton pad for nose
area for sebum particles, and use a new cotton pad to apply Pore Minish Serum. (Hmm...I think what they meant is the first cotton
pad we use to clean the nose before we apply the product with the second cotton
pad). Use from top to bottom and clean off the round
sides of the nose and the tip of the nose. Give special care. Put a cotton pad
on the nose for a moment then wash out.
3. Betaine Salicylate content is 0,5% for your use
in every morning/evening. However, for people with sensitive skin, it may be
better to use only in the evenings or 2-3 times a week.
Does this product works as it claims?
Yes and no. As I used it for almost 3 months, I
see the change on my pores, it becomes shallower. As my pores becomes
shallower, it seems from the surface of my skin that my pores is tightened. The
truth is, the pores aren’t minimized or tightened, it’s only shallowed. To
conceal the pores with makeup has become easier too. The foundation which once
could not blur my pores, now it could. I don’t need to avoid shimmery blush on
anymore because my pores isn’t really visible anymore. Yay!
But the sebum reduction effect doesn’t show up
at all in my skin. Instead I feel like my skin become more oily when I wake up
in the morning (since I only use this product in the night), especially on the
chin area. This effect made me doesn’t want to use this product on the day
time. I suspect that high level of alcohol in this product made my skin a
little dehydrated so it produces more oil.
Sadly, I cannot attach the picture of before and
after the usage of this product because I don’t plan to write this review
before. I’m so sorry :(
Overall Review:
+ Product is easily absorbed.
+ Quite descent packaging with pump and cap.
+ Doesn’t leave sticky feeling.
+ Quite affordable price with large volume (The
price in Indonesia is between IDR175K to IDR190K (about USD13,13 to USD14,26)
with 100 ml volume).
+ Quite significant visible result.
+ Eventhough the instructions is a little bit
confusing, but the product’s informations is quite comprehensive.
+ Balanced pH (according to my Google results,
this product’s pH is around 6 to 7)
. – The pump ia little bit terrible, it makes the product come out spurt.
– High level of alcohol.
– The alcohol smell is so strong.
– Cooling sensation that stays too long.
– Can trigger more oil production.
– We need to buy it
online in Indonesia.
– Confusing instructions.
– The runny consistency for a serum that made me confuse about the
application.
Ranking? 3/5
Repurchase?
Definitely not. Well, the pore-tightening result could be really
visible. But I can’t hold the strong alcohol smells and the cooling sensation
that stays too long on my skin.
That’s it for this review. Apology for all the mistakes. I hope this can
help you :)
*Further reading and link
http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0021583.html
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