Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Warning: LONG review – My skin is EXTREMELY oily, cystic/hormonal acne prone and sensitive to boot. I have been using the Skinfood Peach Sake skincare and make-up line for approximately 2 months now and here are my findings: I purchased all of the products through k-beauty and the products are authentic and shipped fast, usually less than one week. I usually have to wait 2-5 weeks for my products coming straight from Korea, which is not great when you run out of something your skin loves. The line smells fantastic, softens skin and does a great job of controlling shine/oil/sebum. There seems to be a lot of confusion about the skincare line and what the products are, what they do, and how to use them. First of all let me point out that description/name of products that are used in different countries have totally different meanings/functions – case in point is the ‘toner’. American ‘toners’ or astringents are extremely harsh and drying on the skin and contain a massive amount of alcohol. In my opinion, they are awful, no one should use them, and they are too harsh for ANY skin. People generally think because you have oily skin you must punish and strip it of all oils to ‘cure’ it and make it ‘normal’, when all you are doing is damaging your skin, making it freak out that it’s so dry, and forcing it to overproduce even more sebum and exacerbating your problem. Korean skincare products are generally applied lightest texture to thickest texture. For the Peach Sake products they should be optimally applied in this order: Toner – Serum – Emulsion. If you have combination skin, I think you can skip the serum. If you have extremely oily skin mostly in the dreaded T-zone, the serum may only need to be applied in this zone to work best for you. I live in New England, where we are having an especially cold and dry winter, the serum made my face dry and ashy on cheeks and around my mouth. I then only applied it in T-zone, and have put it on hold to wait for more hot/humid summer weather in case I need it. The Toner and Emulsion have been working just fine for me, even with my extreme sebum production. All of the products have moisturizing properties, along with different skin benefits, that deliver the ingredients to different layers of your skin. It is important to wash your face properly every morning and evening before applying the products. In the evening, if you wear make-up, you should do a ‘double wash’, which means you use an oil based make-up remover cleanser (especially if you wear BB creams. I use DHC cleansing oil), and then a ‘normal’ face wash to make sure all make-up/impurities are removed from your face. Some people are saying it is hard to get the products out of the bottle. I find it is hard to control the product and make sure you only get out what you need, which is a VERY small amount. There is a rubber stopper, with a central rubber knob that pops out, in both the toner and emulsion bottles. I am wondering if some people are not realizing that the central rubber knob needs to be popped out to use the product. If you use the Korean ‘tap-tap’ method, you will also only need a very small amount of product to cover your whole face and neck. I have been using the products for two months and still have half of the Toner and Emulsion. I have run out of the Serum and re-ordered another bottle that I am saving for summer in case I need more oil control then. After washing your face, PAT dry with a towel, a couple pats will do, your face should only be ‘damp dry’ – please do NOT rub at your face with your towel! Cup you palm and dab about a dime sized in circumference amount of the Toner in your palm. Rub your palms together to warm the product, press you palms vertically against both sides of your face/over your cheeks, then horizontally across your face with one hand across your forehead and the other across your mouth. I also press my palms into my neck/throat, then GENTLY pat all over my face (please, no slap-stick Three Stooges moves, don’t knock yourself out, ladies!), you can also gently tap your fingers as you go like you are lightly tapping on piano keys. When the product is absorbed (your skin will still have the feeling of being slightly moist), you can use 1-2 pumps of the emulsion, smoothing it onto your T-zone and either gently spread or tapping it from the center to the outside of your face until absorbed. Your skin will feel cottony/powdery soft and dry after this product is absorbed. Lastly, cup your palm again, tap out about a dime-nickel sized in circumference amount of the emulsion, rub your palms together again, and apply just as the toner described above. When absorbed, your face will feel powdery soft, smooth and moisturized (not as cottony dry as the serum). You can and may still need a moisturizer after the emulsion. I have been using Laneige Water bank Gel during the winter, afterwards I use a skin finisher, which I cannot find anywhere in the US. A skin finisher is NOT a moisturizer, primer, BB, or CC cream. I have been using the Sulwahsoo Luminature Essential Finisher which I will review later. I am just mentioning this because this is my normal skincare routine: wash – toner – emulsion – moisturizer – finisher. Speaking just on the Skinfood Peach Sake Toner, Serum, and Emulsion line alone – it has worked for me better than anything else I have tried for oil control without freaking out my sensitive skin. Does my skin still get oily, yes it does. However, I have gone from using 6-10 blotting sheets a DAY with reapplying powder 3-6 times a DAY, down to ONE sheet of blotting paper mid-day with MAYBE needing a dab of powder in my T-zone, but not always. A HUGE improvement to say the least. My makeup applies a lot easier and smoothly since Skinfood Peach Sake, stays in place and looks just as good at the end of the day as when I freshly applied it in the morning. The only con I have for this line is that although it has helped immensely with controlling sebum, it has not PREVENTED new acne from forming. At the same time, it has NOT CAUSED acne break outs or skin irritation. I still got my normal hormonal acne break-outs. Yea, I wasn’t really expecting it to help with that, as nothing but BC has controlled the whole hormonal cystic acne break-out nightmare, but I was hoping with the oil control that it wouldn’t be so bad. All-in-all, great line to try if your main concern is overproduction of sebum and oil control. I have delegated this line to my morning routine and have recently started a tea tree oil skincare regimen for nights to see if that helps the acne side of my problem, which so far has been having good results for me (again, I will review that later after more time, but I am using a combination of products from both Skinfood and the Body Shop).