The Body Shop Drops of Youth Review: Eye Concentrate, Bouncy Sleeping Mask, Essence Lotion, Cream, Youth Concentrate

The Body Shop's Drops of Youth collection of skincare products has launched, and this range targets the first signs of ageing and delivers hydration to skin. It is a surprisingly comprehensive range, with a Essence Lotion, Eye Concentrate, Youth Concentrate, Youth Cream, and Bouncy Sleeping Mask. So yes, a total of five products are being launched!

The Body Shop Drops of Youth: A skincare range to target the first signs of aging

Some of you may remember my old review last year of The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Concentrate, which is part of the Nutriganics Line. And while I didn't review it last year either, the Nutriganics line also had a Bouncy Sleeping Mask too. The packaging of the products in the Nutriganics line is slightly different - the "older" Bouncy Sleeping Mask, for example, has a white cap rather than a black one, while the Concentrate had a different lid and dropper.


The Body Shop Drops of Youth: Five products, ranging from lotions to concentrates to masks
Anyway, we'll be looking at all these products in the Drops of youth collection - Lotion, Eye Concentrate, Youth Concentrate, Cream, and Bouncy Sleeping Mask, and as always, we're going to take a closer look at how these products work! Since there are quite a number of products to go through, this post is going to be a tad long, so buckle your seatbelts, and let's get starte!

SK-II Facial Treatment Essence Dupe Part 1: 10 Possible Dupes with Pitera

SKII's Facial Treatment Essence, with the acclaimed Pitera as the main ingredient, is one of the most famous products in the world of Asian beauty. It's got a cult following despite the high price, and people swear by it.

A year ago, I reviewed the SKII Facial Treatment Essence (together with the Clear Lotion and the Mask), I talked about the science behind Pitera (aka Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate), and also tried the product on myself. Once the review was up, I had a number of questions on whether there were any dupes for the SKII Facial Treatment Essence. Of course, I had to go and investigate myself!

SK-II Facial treatment Essence Dupes: Some of these products are said to be dupes for SK-II

Initially, when I started in my dupe hunt, I thought it would be an easy task - maybe a handful of products, and that's it. It wouldn't take long to do or be a lot of effort, right? Turns out, I was wrong! Upon closer investigation, however, I found that there were really many ways to make a similar product. There are products that try to mimic the formula almost exactly, while others bank on selling the star ingredient, Pitera, instead. Perhaps it is the popularity of the Facial Treatment Essence that prompts so many brands to create similar products. In fact, I found so many dupes and similar products that I ended up organizing them into categories:

Category 1: Close Dupes of the SKII Facial Treatment Essence
Category 2: 100% Pitera/Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate products
Category 3: Partial Dupes, retaining Pitera as the star ingredient, but don't closely follow the SK-II formula
Category 4: Dupes of the "Older Version" of SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence, with Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate instead of Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate

SKII has something of a cult following, particularly with its Facial Treatment Essence

That's quite a list! Clearly, even when brands don't put out a close dupe, they do put out tangentially SK-II inspired products, and that's fine by me - the more options the merrier! As for Category 4, I'd like to clarify that while there isn't an "older version" of SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence in that the key ingredient, Pitera, hasn't changed, P&G (the parent company of SK-II) had previously mis-characterized Pitera as Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate, and later changed it to Galactomyces Ferment Filtrate upon further analysis (you can read more about it in my SK-II review I posted previously). Despite this error, it seems a lot of companies were inspired to create products with Saccharomyces Ferment Filtrate that seemed close to SK'II's formula, so I thought they might be worth a mention, too, for the sake of completeness.

So, as you might guess, we've got a lot to go through! Hence the "Part 1" in the title of this post - I don't know how many parts we will have eventually, but I do know that we'll need more than one post to go through all these!

Etude House Wonder Pore Tightening Essence, Black Mask Sheet Review and Ingredients Analysis

Etude House's Wonder Pore skincare range is a pretty popular one, targeting the concerns of oily skin and enlarged pores which are common among young women. Now, Etude House's Wonder Pore range has expanded to include two new products - the Wonder Pore Tightening Essence, and the Wonder Pore Black Sheet Mask. I had previously reviewed the Wonder Pore Freshner, which is one of the key products of the Wonder Pore range, so I decided I had to follow up and review the new additions too!

Etude House Wonder Pore Tightening Essence and Black Mask Sheet

Etude House makes some interesting claims about its Wonder Pore Tightening Essence and Black Mask Sheet. It claims that the Tightening Essence "tightens pores for smooth and firm pores", while it claims that the Black Mask Sheet "controls sebum and cleans pores with its black sheet containing oak tree charcoal cooked in a kiln with temperature over 1,000 degrees". So just like the rest of the range,


Etude House Wonder Pore Tightening Essence and Black Mask Sheet: New additions to the Wonder Pore skincare range for oily skin
I decided to review both products, and while I don't quite have the young, oily skin these products are geared for (I do have some oiliness, but a lot of oil-control skincare is too harsh for me), I figured I could still break down the products and see how they worked, in addition to just sharing my experiences with the products. So, of course to do that, we start at the ingredients list!

Vichy Ideal White Review: Essence and Emulsion (with lots of Ingredients Analysis!)

Vichy's Ideal White range of skincare is quite possibly the brand's biggest launch this year, and, as the name "Ideal White" suggests, this is a range that aims to brighten and even out the skintone. Vichy claims that Ideal White is a "holistic whitening range with exclusive whitening complex to correct melanin dysfunction for spotless skin with healthy rosy glow", and the range is indeed holistic - they do have an impressive array of products, from sunscreens, to essences, emulsions, eye creams, and spot products. So whether you're looking for something targeted, or whether you want to build your entire regime out of a single range, I guess there's something for everyone!

Vichy Ideal White Essence and Emulsion: The brand's biggest launch this year

Vichy's Ideal White range apparently also comes with some novel technology behind it that gives the product its whitening and brightening properties. The featured ingredients in the range are resourcinol, which I'm told is supposed to be more effective than Vitamin C at whitening, Ellagic acid for exfoliating, and Adenosine for anti-wrinkle properties. I'm told that you would need about 1-2 months to show some effect on the skin. That does sound pretty exciting, doesn't it?


Vichy Ideal White Essence and Emulsion: With Ellagic Acid, Resourcinnol and Adenosine
I've got the Ideal White Meta Whitening Essence and Meta Whitening Emulsion to review, and of course we'll start off with the ingredients list for both products! Vichy has also been very kind to answer some of my burning questions about the formulation and the ingredients of the products, so for those looking for a more in-depth exploration of the product, I hope this post will be what you are looking for!

SKII Facial Treatment Essence, Clear Lotion, Mask Review and Ingredients Analysis (on Pitera)

SKII (also written SK-II) is a Japanese brand of skincare and beauty products, and is famous for incorporating the ingredient "Pitera" into its products. In particular, its star product, the Facial Treatment Essence, has been massively popular in Asia. As a result, SKII has become something of a cult brand, with lots of fans swearing that it gives them skin that looks everything from younger, to fairer, to bouncier (I'm not making any of these up, by the way - I actually have real-life friends and colleagues who really swear by this). So, I was pretty excited to try this out for myself, and review it!

SKII has something of a cult following, particularly with its Facial Treatment Essence

The products I have are SKII's Facial Treatment Essence, the famous cult product, as well as SKII's Facial Treatment Clear Lotion, which is something akin to a toner (you also apply it with a cotton pad and swipe it on your face like a toner). Also, I have the SKII Facial Treatment Mask. You're supposed to apply the Facial Treatment Clear Lotion, and then the Facial Treatment Essence, as part of your daily routine, with the Facial Treatment Mask being more of a periodic treatment as opposed to part of your everyday routine.


One of SKII's claims to fame is their use of "Pitera" in all their products
Even before I began this review, I had multiple people asking me about "Pitera", and whether it really worked or not. I had been contemplating a review of the science on Pitera for awhile, and I figured this would be the perfect way to start the post!