Review: Skinfood Black Sugar Perfect First Serum

Annyeonghaseyo! :D How was your weekend? As I was busy throughout the weekend, I did a little shopping today. hehe what a way to encounter the unhappy feeling of Monday! LOL

Anyway, I've been getting messages to review my current serum from my December Haul last year and I did mentioned before that it's better to use the product for more than a month before reviewing it. 

Finally! After almost 6 weeks of using this product (not including given samples and miniatures), I decided to review it so say hello to Black Sugar Perfect First Serum from Skinfood!  

Check out the infographic below!

The ambassador for Skinfood, our Lee Min Jung unnie! She's so pretty, right?? *fangirl-ing mode*

First, let's go to the basics..

Product Description:

Black Sugar Perfect Serum (Skin Brightening and Anti-Wrinkle Effects)

A first serum that provides exfoliating, brightening, wrinkle-smoothing and hydrating benefits in a single formula.

Use daily for smooth skin.

How to use:

Immediately after cleansing, pour a generous amount onto a cotton pad and wipe over the face.

Emollients may settle at the bottom of the bottle, but that doesn't affect the product effects. Just shake well before use. 

Vol.: 120ml

I think I mentioned this before in previous posts that I was looking for a serum (and my Instagram too, to those who're following!) and I'd like my serum to give solutions to my skin problems which are dull, dark with the acne scars... sigh. A girl's nightmare! My previous essence is quite okay but one of my 2014 New Resolution is to look for safer and healthier products so that's why I ditched that and looked for another serum. 

As this product claims that not only it offers brightening effects (my opinion is that brightening and whitening is different whereby brightening is more like lifting your dead skin cells and revealed brighter and more radiant skin while whitening is more like attacking your melanin from the inside and inhibit it from forming on your skin), it also offers anti-wrinkle effects as well. I'm about to enter my mid twenties so I have to start going for this kind of products! 

As it's said in the product description, this is a first serum where according to my understanding, 'First' means to use right after cleansing, i.e. washing your face and BEFORE toner. While I was using this product's miniature, I used it AFTER toner and see the promising result but when I got the samples (before using the full-sized product), I used it BEFORE toner like the BA told me but after 2 weeks, I didn't see anything. 

So screw it, I'm using it on the serum step i.e. AFTER TONER and see the result that I was expecting. . 

Packaging:

Basically the product comes in this kind of packaging, with included special cotton pads. 

   

Honestly, not only I'm a minimalist myself, I love vintage stuffs as well. So this kind of packaging is definitely easy to my eyes. Looks like an old vintage wine packaging too, right? Though I don't really get the connection between the main ingredient of this product to the vintage style of packaging, I'm gonna let it slide and say it's cool. hehe 

      

There's the ingredient list on the side of the box so after reading a long discussion focusing on ingredients on this product from one of my favourite beauty blogger here, to my own judgement, I guess all is good. Especially the part of using Phenoxythanol as preservative. 

The product is housed within this bottle. Just love its brown colour contradicted with creamy label with that vintage-styled fonts. :)

   

There's a basic info at the back of the bottle so your lil' bro won't be mistaken this for anything even if you put this near the kitchen counter by mistake. hehe it just happens that our bathroom is nearby our kitchen.. LOL

Along with the vintage style, of course it had to be a screw cap. Though this kind of opening doesn't really appealing to me  as I need to hurry especially in the morning but me myself couldn't think of better ways to match with the packaging theme. hmm. let me do some sketching to figure that out. 

   

I took the photos about a month ago, this product is sealed with a stopper, which can be re-used as long as you keep it to prevent from spillage in your travel bag. :)

Now, the cotton box! The box is similar to the serum's box, brown, with vintage style as well. :)

   

Even if you didn't see the demo by Lee Min Jung, no worries as  it included on the back of the box, in English. :)

So that's the cotton pads. It's better to keep using these pads and not use other cotton pads as these don't really absorb the product as much and of course it's special with the textured or netted side and the smooth side of the pads. 

   

  

Left: netted and Right: smooth. :)

Verdict:

 

That's how the product look like on the pad. It's brownish colour I bet originated from the caramel and that's how much I usually use (sometimes I put more if I wanna include my neck area as well). 

  

Can you see the dead skin cells? Not the black things, it's probably some dust I collected between taking photos and I probably touched my clothes and then my face accidentally. I meant the brown colours which I'm assuming the dead skin cells.. 

Overall, I love love love this product! It’s free of six harsh chemicals as it's formulated without mineral oil, benzophenone, silicone oil, sulfates, acrylamide and definitely NO paraben! 

I totally see the result myself though I only realised that after few friends noticed my skin and said my skin is brighter than before. Not only that, I noticed that my skin is smoother compared to before and less black heads as well. My pores appeared to be smaller probably because it's really moisturise well my skin plus use of other moisturisers along with this one. 

I honestly can't think of anything that I want to complain about the product so all is good, it's working greatly with my skin, it doesn't irritate or anything, no break out as well! 

I love the sugary scent too! :) Though to some of you who don't like alcohol in your products so you might wanna try a sample to see if it really does sting to your nose. 

In my opinion, it's fine even if you're using skincare from other brand for your toners and moisturisers, as throughout the time while I was using this up, I was using Etude House Wonder Pore Freshener, and some samples from TheFaceShop for my emulsion. Though I only used with products from Korean brands that usually are natural-based and not highly chemical. 

Final verdict: 5/5. I love it! It's works awesome so definitely gonna repurchase this! Actually I have a surprise (well, it's a surprise for me) but I'll reveal that later! hikhik 

It's cheaper compared to my previous toner as it retailed at RM110.90 (you can get this at mere around RM65 (21,000KRW) online not including shipping) and as you guys seen the first photo above, this is included in the Sweet Christmas Set so I got the whole set for only RM138 plus Black Sugar Strawberry Wash-Off mask (worth RM44), Black Sugar Perfect mask sheets, and Skinfood headband! Totally worth it! 

So I guess that's all! Hope this review helps for you who are deciding on getting a serum. hehe do share your thoughts on this product if you ever tried it or if you have similar product that you want to recommend. :)

I'll see you guys next post! Au revoir!