Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic Review and Ingredients Analysis

Pixi's Glow Tonic has been a cult favourite skincare product, and if you've heard about the brand at all, then chances are, you've probably heard of Glow Tonic. This cult product has raves from virtually every blogger out there, with people excited over how it is both cheap and effective, so I figured it's high time I got around to review it!

Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic: This is THE cult skincare product from the Pixi brand

In case you're wondering why the Pixi Glow Tonic is such a fabled product, in part it's becuase the 5% glycolic acid, which is pretty rare in a product at that price point. So I do get why it lives up to the hype, with people claiming that it works to give them that glow, even for sensitive skin!


Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic: I've been seeing so many rave reviews for it, so I've decided to see how it stacks up!
So, does the Pixi Beauty Glow Tonic actually live up to the hype? Well, let's dive in and find out! Of course, we'll start right at the ingredients list!

Mega Empties Post Part 1: Acne Skincare, Lotions, Cleansers, Oil Makeup Removers

It's been a while since my last empties post in October last year, and since them, I've accumulated a loooot of empties to show you guys! To be clear though, not alll of these are my empties, there are a few bits and bobs in there that are contributed by my mother and sister, because they do help themselves to some of my skincare products from time to time! I'm happy to let them indulge though, because to be honest, I obviously have way more skincare than I can ever use up!

Oh yes, look at all the empties I've accumulated!

The products I (with a little help from mum and sis) have used up really run the gamut - every step of the skincare and makeup routine is covered here! But because this would be too long of a post, I've split it up into two. For today, we'll just cover the acne skicare (unfortunately this is all mine, my mum and sis have way better skin than me, sigh), lotions and toners, as well as cleansers and makeup removers.

Who's been a good girl and using up all her skincare before opening a new one? Yours truly!

So, without further ado, let's get started! I'm officially going to cram a bunch of mini-reviews together into this blogpost, so let's hope this doesn't end up being too long!

Skincare Empties Part 1: Cleanser, Makeup Remover, Lotion, Toner, Sunscreen, Moisturizer

Yes it's another empties post! And this post is pretty mega, hence the two-part split. And that's just for skincare - the makeup empties post is a separate post too, to make sure the individual posts aren't too long. So yes, I have indeed been a good girl and using up my products and not wasting them (a perpetual beauty junkie problem it seems)!

Tons of skincare empties this round to share with you guys!

Above you can absolutely see the mess of empties, running the gamut from sunscreen to serums. I could probably do all those empties in one sitting, but the post would just be very long. So this time, we'll just be focusing on oil cleansers and makeup removers, normal cleansers, face masks, sunscreen, lotions and toners, and moisturizers! In other words, we'll just be looking at the stuff in the photo today, which is still quite a lot.


Empties: cleanser, makeup remover, lotion, toner, sunscreen, and moisturizer
I realized that quite a few readers seem to like my empties posts (and you can see all of them here) - perhaps, it's because with all my science-y skincare reviews, some readers are curious to know what exactly remains in my stash and gets used up at the end of the day. I suppose the idea here is that if I used up something, then it must be really good! The truth is that it kind of depends - some of these empties I've had for a long, long time, and for various reasons take longer to use up, and some were very quickly made favourites or staples and get used up much faster. As we go through the products, you'll see which is which!

Etude House True Relief Review: Moist Cream, Mist Toner, Emulsion, and Ingredients Analysis

Etude House's True Relief skincare line consists of 3 products - the Moist Mist Toner, Moist Emulsion, and Moist Cream. As the line indicates, this is supposed to offer "true relief" for sensitive skin, without irritation. This certainly is pretty unusual as compared to Etude House's typical skincare range, which tends to be geared for a pretty young age group, as it seems geared towards a broader age range. So this is actually a fairly unusual step as far as Etude House skincare goes, and I'll be taking a look at how this fares!

Etude House True Relief Skincare Range: Meant for dry and sensitive skin

If you've read some of my Etude House reviews, you'll probably know that while I do love their makeup products in general, their skincare tends to be something I'm more ambivalent with - in fact, my last Etude House skincare product review wasn't exactly a positive one. This is perhaps because at nearly 30, I'm slightly older than the typical Etude House customer, and a lot of their skincare products are really best for very thick and oily skin. So, I was kind of interested to see if finally, there was a skincare range from the brand that made more sense for my skin type.


Etude House True Relief Moist Toner, Emulsion, and Cream: Slightly different from the typical Etude House skincare products
And as usual, for each of the products - the True Relief Moist Mist TOner, Moist Emulsion, and Moist Cream, we'll start off the review with a look at the ingredients list! We have three products here, so it might be a tad (just a tad, don't worry) longer than the average review, but I'll try and keep it as short and sweet as I can!

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!

Biotherm Life Plankton Essence Review, Ingredients Analysis and Q&A

Biotherm's Life Plankton Essence was launched last year, and is billed on the Biotherm website as a "Fundamental Skin Treatment". The description for the product goes on to say, "For the first time, Life Plankton is infused at its highest concentration within Life Plankton Essence (5% for anyone wondering). In 8 days, see and feel a new-born skin: more radiant, more even, smoother, hydrated, with greater resilience and fine lines faded. Immediately, the skin is soothed and softened." So essentially, this is a lotion-style essence product, with a high concentration of Life Plankton. This is meant to be used before other skincare products, like moisturizer.

Biotherm Life Plankton Essence: A lotion that claims to improve skin in 8 days

The Biotherm Life Plankton Essence was launched end of last year to much fanfare and raves, and this year has continued to get a steady stream of attention from both mainstream press and bloggers. So I figured it's probably a good time for me to finally get around to reviewing it! How does this product work, and what is inside the product? What is this Life Plankton, anyway?


Biotherm Life Plankton Essence: Contains the highest concentration of Life Plankton at 5%
To answer those questions and more, there's only one place to start looking - the ingredients list! Biotherm has also very kindly helped to answer a few of my questions on the product, to fill in some of the gaps and questions I had when analysing the ingredients list, and I'm really happy that they did - I mean, I'm just a random blogger, not Anna Wintour or anything, and I'm sure the PR people have lots on their plate, so I really appreciate it when I get to ask questions and they get answered! For this review though, I've incorporated some of the answers into my review, rather than having them as a separate standalone section, in order to keep the length of the review shorter and the flow less disjointed, but where the information has been provided by Biotherm, you'll see me mention it (e.g. "Biotherm/the company/the brand informed me that" or something similar). So, without further ado, let's jump right into the review!

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!

La Roche Posay Serozinc Ingredients Review and Analysis: What Does the Science Say About Zinc Sulphate?

La Roche Posay Serozinc has been making quite the waves on the blogosphere, and many bloggers seem to be raving about this product, and following a twitter conversation with Ling, who has her own blog, I got the idea that, in light of all the raves Serozinc has been getting, it would be good for me to take a more analytical approach to the product. La Roche Posay claims that the product "cleanses superficial skin irritations" on their website, and the product is promoted as an anti-blemish toner. You apply it to cleansed skin, wait for a while, and then continue on with the rest of your regime.

La Roche Posay's Serozinc is highly anticipated and highly raved (Source)

Escentual's site promotes Serozinc as "created with just three ingredients: La Roche-Posay’s ultra-soothing thermal spring water, healing zinc sulphate (0.10%) and astringent sodium chloride (0.75%). Together, these three ingredients target blemishes, marks and excess oiliness, ensuring your complexion feels fresh and comfortable at any time of day." So I guess we already know what the product is made of, and what the claims are. A lot of the rave reviews for Serozinc seem to have come from the fact that it is so simply formulated, which I suppose must be refreshing in a sea of products making complicated ingredient claims.

Serozinc is really getting a lot of hype despite the simple formulation (Source)

But before I start, I must clarify that I have never actually tried this product myself personally. Although ideally a more complete "review" (in the sense of a blog review) would have my own personal experience with the product woven in (as I do with my normal reviews), for the purposes of this post, we are looking at what the science says about the usefulness of Zinc Sulphate, which will in turn help consumers (like you and me!) decide whether it's really worth spending your hard-earned money on the product. So just take this as me doing your science homework for you, to help you make an educated decision before you buy the product! So, without further ado, let's take a look at the ingredients in the product!

The Face Shop SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Treatment, Toner, Emulsion Special Set Review and Ingredients Analysis

The Face Shop, the Korean brand known for its skincare and makeup, has released a few sets for Christmas, and one of the sets (which I predict is is going to be pretty popular, if it isn't already!) is The SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Special Set ($69.90), which consists of bottles of The SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Total Treatment, The SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Toner, and The SMIM Ferementation Concentrate Emulsion. If you're wondering what SMIM stands for, it's apparently a shortened way of the Korean phrase "seu-myeo-deul-da", which means to absorb and penetrate, which is what the products are advertised to do. The SMIM product line consists of Yeast Ferment Extract, which apparently is the feature ingredient here.

The Face Shop SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Special Set: Just in time for Christmas, too!

And apparently, I've been told by other bloggers at a previous Face Shop event sometime back (and documented on my Instagram) that apparently, The SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Treatment is very similar to the fabled SKII Facial Treatment Essence, although I've no idea if that is true or not. I suppose that is where all the similarities to SKII come about - after all, SKII has their story about Pitera too (I have to file that Pitera thing for another post - I've been getting some friends asking me whether pitera really works).


The Face Shop SMIM Fermentation Concentrate Special Set: With Treatment, Toner, and Emulsion
But in any case, you can see why the product set is going to sell well - aesthetically speaking, these are lightweight, lotion-formula products that feel great on the skin, and the Yeast Fermentation concept, are definitely attractive to consumers. The comparisons to SKII can't hurt either! So, I thought it's high time I did my review on this, seeing that Christmas is approaching. I've been so caught up this holiday season that I haven't been blogging about the Christmas things as much as I'd like, but I thought this was worth a review!

And of course, we're going to review this my style, and start at my favourite part of the product - the ingredients lists!

Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner Review and Ingredients Analysis

Etude House's new Wonder Pore Freshner (yes it is actually spelled wrongly, as in "Freshner" not "Freshener" (which would be the correct spelling) - don't ask me why!), billed as an "Ultra Pore Solution" with "10-in-1 benefits" already seems to be getting a lot of interest from people. Etude House claims the new Wonder Pore Freshner is an improvement over Etude House's existing Wonder Pore Product (also called Wonder Pore Freshner, but with a mere 7 in 1 benefits instead of 10), and the moment I posted about this on my Instagram and Facebook, I immediately got comments on both sites asking me how it was, and how did it compare to the original Wonder Pore Freshner. So I suppose there's no better time for a review than now!

Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner: New and improved with 10-in-1 benefits

Etude House's Wonder Pore Freshner (gosh I just want to type "Freshener" sooo badly throughout this review!) comes with pretty high expectations which the product sets for itself. The blurb on the back of the product claims that it is a "total solution product", and there's another line that says, "I'm the Wonder Woman for Your Pores, More Powerful!" (again, this is me quoting verbatim from the product - I'm assuming something got lost in translation, but you get the point). You're supposed to use this much like a toner - after cleansing, but before other skincare products, you apply this to a cotton pad (Etude House also sells this in sets with a special type of cotton pad that has holes on the surface to better exfoliate the skin), and you do this twice a day, and it's supposed to help your pores.


Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner: Not sure if you can see it from here, but the cotton pads have special holes in them to aid exfoliation
Sounds like a lot for one product, right? I guess if it even does half of what it says it will, it would be quite an interesting product. But let's take a deeper look at the product itself, and see if it lives up to the hype!

Kiehl's Oil Eliminator Review and Ingredients Analysis: Moisturizer, Face Wash, Toner

Kiehl's Oil Eliminator is the latest in its Men's Skincare range, and it consists of three products - a Deep Cleansing Exfoliating Face Was For Men, a Refreshing Shine Control Toner For Men, and a 24-Hour Anti-Shine Moisturizer For Men. And as you might expect from a range called "Oil Eliminator", the cleanser, toner, and 24-hour moisturizer are meant to keep your guy's skin (or your skin, if you are looking for oily skin products) oil free and shine free for longer. You may even have heard about the brand's advertising claim that they have NASA space technology in their products - in particular some technology called Aerolite, which is based on aerogel technology. In fact, Kiehl's did this entire advertising stunt where they literally sent their product into space, and this magical ingredient is supposed to absorb more than four times its weight in oil.

Kiehl's Oil Eliminator For Men Skincare Range: Now with aerogel technology inside!

Skincare for guys has always been tricky, and not just on the technical, "men's skin is different" front - my personal belief is that the factors that contribute to a good skincare regime (e.g. use a good retinol product, which I've blogged about before, use sunscreen, which again I've also blogged about, etc.) are the same, whether the skin belongs to a guy or a girl, because the skin is very similar. The only exceptions are that men's skin tends to be thicker and oilier than women's skin, so brands often have to accomodate this. (And as we shall see in this review, Kiehl's has done a really good job of doing so.)

But beyond that, men's skincare is tricky because men are also surprisingly picky about skincare. It turns out that guys are actually quite hard to win over as skincare users, as a number of company PR and Marketing people have told me at various blogger/press events. Turns out, guys are picky about their skincare in the aesthetic or cosmetically elegant sense - the moment they have to put something on their skin and it feels the slightest bit sticky or oily, or leaves a bit of residue, then most guys will not continue to use it. (I'm sure any woman who has had to purchase skincare for her guy, only to see it go untouched after the first few tries, knows what I mean.) So formulating a skincare that is aesthetically pleasing for the male customer is also important as far as men's skincare is concerned.

Kiehl's Oil Eliminator For Men Skincare Range: A set of three products for a complete guy's skincare regime

So with that said, let's see whether Kiehl's has managed to placate the ever-picky male skincare customer. I think in both cases - formulating for thick, oily skin, and making sure the skincare feels cosmetically elegant - Kiehl's has done a pretty good job. And we'll also get around to talking about that fancy Aerolite/Aerogel technology (exactly what is it, you must be wondering). But for me to explain that more fully, we'll have to start at my favourite place for skincare products - the ingredients list!

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Gel Cream, Cleanser, Toner Review and Ingredients Analysis

Kiehl's Ultra Facial range has launched a range of summer-friendly skincare products for oily skin. There's the Ultra Facial Oil-Free Gel Cream (essentially a moisturizer but in a gel form), the Ultra Facial Oil-Free Toner, and Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser. With a cleanser, a toner, and a moisturizer, Kiehl's obviously has all 3 basic skincare steps down.

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Gel Cream, Cleanser, Toner: Just in time for summer

This is going to be a fairly long review, because you know how I get all long-winded with ingredients and stuff, and furthermore, there are three separate products to review! So, without further ado, let's hop straight into the meat of the review - we certainly wouldn't want to waste any time on more preambles now!

Vichy Normaderm Review: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, Toner

Vichy has launched their Normaderm range of skincare products, which is meant to help acne-prone skin (aka my type of skin!). It consists of four products, namely the Normaderm Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel, Normaderm Imperfection Prone Skin Lotion, Normaderm Tri-Active Anti-Imperfection Active Care, and Normaderm Hylauspot, covering all your skincare bases: cleanse, tone, moisturize, and spot-treat. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to try this range. And after having used it for a few months (because I'm sometimes slow on reviews like that), I have to say I think the range is pretty effective at what it claims to do.

Vichy Normaderm: Hylauspot, Active Care, Cleanser, and Toner

In general, I found the entire range to be pleasing to use. In general, the products, sink into skin and absorb fast, and leaves skin feeling clean and dry but not stretched out or dehydrated. The fact that efficacious ingredients like glycolic acid and salicylic acid are included really help two - those two are some of my favourite ingredients ever for my acne-prone, oily skin bits. The range also strikes a good balance, using glycolic and salicylic acid to target acne and oily skin, but yet at the same time having rather moisturizing formulas. And, the packaging is pretty sensible as well - all plastic flip tops and pumps, or squeeze tubes or other form of tubes. You .

But now, let's go into each of the products one by one, and you'll see what I think about the individual products!