It’s that time of year again.
The time of year that always wreaks absolute havoc on my skin.
Winter, obviously.
I love Winter because I love cold weather (my body tends to run hot) but I hate what it does to my skin. Especially since I live in an extremely dry place, this Winter in particular was really bad, especially with that arctic weather that blew in and dropped our temperatures below freezing on top of super high wind speeds.
I was looking to add another toner (or a few toners) into my skincare routine and was coincidentally at Marshall’s when I noticed a bunch of Korean skincare they had on display. I was really tempted to get one of their Laneige holiday packs but skipped over it because I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. They had a lot of brands there – innisfree, It’S SKIN, Cosrx, etc. and I was surprised honestly to see how much variety there was. I’ve seen tons of those posts about what Korean skincare people get from Marshall’s/TJMaxx/etc. but never really saw that much variety at my own stores.
There were quite a number of It’S SKIN products and I picked up this hyaluronic acid toner since I was in desperate need of something hydrating. I also picked up a few other toners – the Dr. Jart Teatreement Toner, the Isla Toner Balance Elixir, and then I also received my package for the Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Essence Toner which I bought on sale on YesStyle I think.
I bought this product with no background information on this and just kind of hoped for the best.
The bottle is quite hefty – it’s a decent size at 150 mL, and I think the price I paid for it was $6.99, and the product comes in a nice quality frosted glass with a purple cap. It’s honestly a really nice bottle considering it was only $7 LOL.
The toner itself is not watery at all, and is instead a bit more thick and viscous – almost serum-like. It also has a REALLY strong scent – I don’t really know how to describe it but if you’re sensitive to smells you’ll despise this product. I don’t have many scented products in my line-up so luckily the scents don’t really mix or overlap, but it is pretty strong in scent in my opinion. At least, it is compared to the banila co. cream I have and the Laneige Water Bank Blue HA products.
The first night I used this, I immediately noticed a difference the next morning. It’s a thicker product but dries down pretty quickly and sinks into the skin really beautifully. My skin was noticeably more hydrated the next morning, and as I continued to use the product, I can definitely see the difference it’s made in my skin.
My T-Zone is not nearly as oily as compared to before, and I never really get the feeling that my skin feels dry like I usually do during Winter.
I liked the way this product worked on my skin during the few weeks I used it independently, but when I introduced the Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Acid Essence Toner, it really boosted my skin’s moisture even further. The two products work really well together and I feel like the little bit that I was missing from my routine was completed as soon as I added these two products in.
On the days that I exfoliate before using my skincare products, I use the Dr. Jart Teatreement Toner to help prep my skin quickly for the rest of my products. That product also has a scent – like artificial tea tree, unsurprisingly – and I don’t really particularly like the scent. I haven’t had the time to use the Isla toner yet, but I might switch it out with the Dr. Jart toner the next time I exfoliate since it’s also a balancing toner for pH like the Dr. Jart toner is.
Overall though, I have to say I’m super satisfied with this product. I was originally just playing around when I bought this product and didn’t expect anything from it, but dang, now I think I have to keep this product as a regular line up in my Winter routine! The price is just unbeatable and the results have been great. It probably helps that I came in with no expectations, but I was seriously blown away by how much better my skin felt after using this product. It’s also pretty easily and readily available at my local Marshall’s, so I plan on stocking up for the Winter months and then I may remove it during the Summer as I don’t need nearly as much during Summer compared to Winter. But I guess we’ll see!
As usual, thanks for reading and I hope everyone had a great holiday break!
{ Honey + Bunny } 