Tag: somebymi

BEST K-BEAUTY SKINCARE PRODUCTS FOR FUNGAL ACNE

Been to Seoul, South Korea and what I saw there was really eye-opener. If you see the K-Drama and all the actors & actresses have flawless, poreless and unblemished skin, trust me, those who sold street-food as a living in Seoul, have exactly the same skin. They are fortunate to have such a blessed skin, it’s in their genes.

ME IN SEOUL (CAN YOU GUESS WHERE I WAS?)

However, I do have to admit that their K-beauty skincare products are the best and highly-effective for toners, essences, hydration and sunscreens. They are also great at super fast innovation (new ingredients) and good-looking packaging. As for actives, personally I’d prefer the western brands, (again) based on my experiments.

So, here’s my round up for K-beauty skincare products that are safe for Fungal Acne prone skin.

ESSENCE: AMORE PACIFIC VINTAGE SINGLE EXTRACT ESSENCE, I’M FROM MUGWORT ESSENCE

TONER: SOMEBYMI AHA BHA PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE TONER, DEAR KLAIRS SUPPLE PREPARATION UNSCENTED TONER

CLEANSER: HEIMISH ALL CLEAN GREEN FOAM, PYUNKANG YUL ACNE FACIAL CLEANSER

AMPOULE: CNP LABORATORY MUGENER AMPOULE, LEEGEEHAAM GROW VITA PROPOLIS AMPOULE (RENAME TO DR CEURACLE ROYAL VITA PROPOLIS 33 AMPOULE)

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA

COMPARISON REVIEW: SOMEBYMI BYE BYE BLACKHEAD 30 DAYS MIRACLE GREEN TEA TOX BUBBLE CLEANSER & CREMORLAB O2 COUTURE OXYGENIC PEELING MASK

IT’S NO MIRACLE: But it’s multi-function, not just a cleanser, it’s also a scrub and a mask.
PACKAGING: dark green (see through) hygienic pump bottle.
TEXTURE: Like liquid gel with tiny pieces of green tea leaves and smells like mint.

WHEN TO USE? Personally, I use this once a week, only as a mask because it contains BHA.
BUBBLE EFFECT: Bubble up pretty fast in about 3 minutes (for full face bubble effect).
HOW TO USE? On clean dried skin, wait till it bubbled-up till 5 minutes, wet your hands and start scrubbing before rinsing thoroughly with lukewarm water.

RESULT: Love how it made my skin feels very clean and cool. Pore feels tighter. However, it didn’t eliminate blackheads instantly, so don’t hope too much.
FUNGAL ACNE SAFE? It is safe for fungal acne.
PRICE: IDR 160K for 120gr

PEEL WITH OXYGEN: This is a peeling mask, formulated with Marine Oxygen Plasma, which helps oxygen penetrate further into the skin.
PACKAGING: White Opaque hygienic pump bottle.
TEXTURE: Light blue gel and smells like the ocean.

WHEN TO USE: Once to twice a week as a mask.
BUBBLE EFFECT: Bubble up faster than SOMEBYMI, so therefore need to apply as fast as you can. It produced light and fluffy bubble, like mousse.

HOW TO USE? On clean dried skin, wait till it bubbled-up till 3 minutes, then rinse with lukewarm water.
RESULT: Delivers brighter skin tone in just one time use. Skin also looks clearer.
FUNGAL ACNE SAFE? Unfortunately not.
PRICE: IDR 550K for 100ml.

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR HG PRODUCT STOPS WORKING?

ALTERNATE, people.

Is it just me? Or lots of you experienced the same thing as me? My skin easily got immune, usually after finishing two of the same skincare product. Weird but true.

That’s why I found a way to alternate between products, just to make sure their effectiveness on my fungal-acne prone skin. So, after finishing one product, I usually move to another brand with similar ingredients and purposes. Then, I’d move back to the old one.

EXFOLIATING TONER

HADA LABO MILD PEELING LOTION & SOME BY MI AHA BHA PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE TONER

The similarities: both are fungal acne safe and contain water plus butylene glycol.

The difference: Hada Labo only has 7 ingredients, while Somebymi has 22.

Thoughts: they are both mild enough to use everyday as exfoliating toner, but I try to use it every other day to avoid over exfoliating. And usually I just use exfoliating toner at night time.

BOOSTER

PAULA’S CHOICE 10% NIACINAMIDE BOOSTER & 2SOL FACIAL RECOVERY BOOSTER

The similarities: both are fungal acne safe and contain niacinamide, panthenol, sodium hyaluronate and allantoin.

The difference: 2Sol only has 19 ingredients, while Paula’s Choice has 24.

Thoughts: They both will be better if mixed with ampoule or moisturizer, as they might be sticky if stand alone. Both have same clear watery texture.

ESSENCE

COSRX ADVANCED SNAIL 96 MUCIN POWER ESSENCE & BENTON SNAIL BEE HIGH CONTENT ESSENCE

The similarities: both contain snail secretion filtrate, panthenol, betaine, arginine, butylene glycol and allantoin

The differences: Cosrx only has 12 ingredients, while Benton has 25. Corsx is safe for fungal acne, while Benton (unfortunately) has polysorbate 20 (known as one of fungal acne trigger) in their ingredients list.

Thoughts: Cosrx is more gloopy (literally like snail mucin), while Benton is less gloopy. Unfortunately Benton reformulated this and added Polysorbate 20 in their new formula, so it might not be safe for fungal acne.

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA

REVIEW: SOMEBYMI AHA-BHA-PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE SERUM

After their viral miracle toner that I’ve tried (click here for the review), this Korean brand came up with some new stuff online. This serum is just one of them.

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Of course, they named it (yet, again) the Miracle Serum. Unlike the toner with AHA, BHA, PHA + Niacinamide 2% on the ingredients list, this serum contains AHA, BHA, PHA + 14,5% Centella. They both have high dose of Real Teatree 10,000PPM. And being a devoted fan of centella and tea tree, I don’t mind the addition of Centella as one of the ingredients into this serum.

Packaging: 50ml dark green droplet bottle, just like the toner. And I guess this is my first plastic serum bottle (usually serums come in glass bottle).

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Texture: a mixture of oil and water, so it has to be shaken well before each use. I warned you, this looks oily once applied (I use 4 drops as recommended on the entire face). It didn’t absorb well, instead leaving an oily layer on top of the skin. Therefore, I only use this as my night serum.

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After using this serum for about 3 days, two big zits popped out on my chin and upper lips (unusual spots for me to grow pimples). Oh no, I experienced breakouts not purging. And I believe this serum triggered Malassezia on my cheeks (yes, fungal acne is a freaking biatch!). Then I deep dive on cosdna for ingredients. Olive Oil is one of the main 5 ingredients! No wonder my skin reacted so badly. Another lesson learned, never buy anything before deep diving on ingredients.

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Final Verdict: After two weeks, I decided to cut this serum out of my skincare regime. And the after quitting effect was quite drastic. My skin was recovered quickly after just two nights of quitting using this serum.

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PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA

 

REVIEW: SOMEBYMI AHA-BHA-PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE TONER

If you followed my IG (@shintarosvita), you will know that I purchased this under the influence of their super heavy rotation ads on Instagram, randomly on local online shops.

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So, I thought what the heck…it’s not expensive (I bought this for IDR 180K), if it caused me purging or break out, the worst that can happened is I loose my faith in local online shops.

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Initially I was skeptical about this so called ‘miracle’ toner. 4 reasons why:

  1. It contains AHA and BHA. Trust me, I’ve had my experiences with these two and they were not a good ones.
  2. It also contains high level of real tea tree, one ingredient to avoid that specifically mentioned by my previous dermatologist.
  3. This is my first encounter with PHA, oh nooo….after A, B, now P? Can my skin handle this?
  4. They recommend to use this twice a day as regular toner. Whaaaatttt???? After my skin got angry with me because I over-exfoliate (here’s the post), the last thing in my mind is to exfoliate.

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Thankfully they also contain Niacinamide, which is acceptable on my sensitive fungal-acne prone skin. And since they claimed this is a low PH toner, I decided to give it a go. Anyway, how would you know this will work unless you tried, right?

Surprise…surprise….it didn’t cause me any purging or break out! Let’s just see my skin improvements for the proof.

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From my experience with this toner, I believe:

  • This works well for bigger acnes, not for closed comedones and blackheads.
  • It just lightened the redness left behind by acne scars (PIE: Post Inflammatory Erythema). Don’t expect this to erase PIH, too.
  • It made my skin tone and (ooopsss) my embroidered eyebrows lighter too! (might have to touch up soon).

Of course, this is not the only thing I use to make my skin clearer. I read online, those were people who expected this to work miraculously as it claimed, but only use this and nothing else. People, you still need to do your skincare regime before and after you applied this toner. I also didn’t use this to compress my skin, I just wipe as I would with my regular toner, and pat to absorb. Even after double cleansing, my cotton pad still looks this dirty!

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I use 5 drops each use, morning and night after face cleansing regime and before anything else. I don’t like to use more because it can turn a bit foamy. It smells like tea tree and a bit minty, with no sting sensation when applied. The 150ml bottle is enough for 30 days of use for me. The big question is: do we have to continue using this exfoliating toner after 30 days? Anyway, below is my skin condition on day 30 after using this miracle toner religiously.

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I’m just writing my thoughts about the product, as I personally know that finding the right skincare products for your skin needs is like finding a soul-mate. It might have worked for me, but not necessarily for anyone else.

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA

‘ANGRY SKIN’ AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

Just when I thought my fungal acne is getting better (sigh).

Actually they are quite calm now, but suddenly bigger acnes popped out of nowhere, on my temples only! Stressed? Check! Lack of sleep? Check! Too much dairy and sugar? Definitely! Oh man, like seriously nothing helped at this point of my skincare journey.

I can’t believe I posted this before-after picture, when the after picture looked worse than the before (I so hate my life right now).

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On those horrible days, I’ve tried almost everything from Benzoyl Peroxide, Azelaic Acid, Niacinamide, BHA, AHA, Lactic Acid, Centella Asiatica to heal those two spots. Unfortunately, none worked! I assumed, I might have been over-exfoliating and my skin became confused by too many active ingredients. So, I decided to completely cut down my skincare regime, morning and night. I also limit my chemical exfoliation to once a month, rather than twice a week like I used to do. And I tried sulfur as spot treatment, using a local brand product. Why? Because according to simpleskincarescience.com, sulfur can treat fungal acne because it produces penthationic acid which is toxic to fungi, and it may also directly inhibit malassezia (read: my nightmare).

Without further adieu, here are my (much) shorten skincare routine.

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AM ROUTINE
Cleanser: COSRX LOW PH GOOD MORNING GEL CLEANSER. Not very foamy with quite heavy tea tree scent. I was worried that it’s going to cause purging, but it’s not. Pheeww!!!

Toner: SOMEBYMI AHA-BHA-PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE TONER. I (sort of) ditched my regular toner (Nacific Calendula) for this. Thanks to their super heavy rotation ad on instagram, I am sold. So far so good, no purging. I will keep you updated, because they claimed this toner will bring miracle if used continuously for 30 days. Fingers crossed!

Serum: DR JART+ CICAPAIR SERUM. This is quite an expensive serum (must be the packaging price). I just tried to empty this bottle, even though I believe it didn’t show any magic result on my skin. But at least, it didn’t cause me any break out. I wouldn’t repurchase this, will try other serum (I am thinking Lee Gee Haam).

Moisturizer: SEBAMED CLEAR FACE CARE GEL mixed with THE ORDINARY 100% PLANT-DERIVED SQUALANE. To reduce the tackiness of the gel, I always mixed it with squalane oil. Squalane also add glow to the skin and not worsen my fungal acnes.

Sunscreen: SKIN AQUA UV MOISTURE GEL SPF 30 PA++. It’s not a clear gel, for sure. Milky white when poured, but luckily no white cast when applied. Easy to absorb and feels very light on skin. Best of all, did not cause any break out.

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PM ROUTINE
First Cleanser: BIODERMA SENSIBIO H2O. Long time favorite of mine, long before they legally sold in my local drugstores. Been trying this and that, but always go back to this (it’s da best, what can I say)

Second Cleanser: KRAVE BEAUTY MATCHA HEMP HYDRATING CLEANSER. Don’t expect too much foam if you use this, but trust me, my skin never felt cleaner and healthier.

In the shower mask: BLITHE PATTING WATER PACK SOOTHING & HEALING GREEN TEA. It’s a genius product, I might say. Who has time for facial mask to dry these days?

Toner: SOMEBYMI AHA-BHA-PHA 30 DAYS MIRACLE TONER. Yes, again in the evening. After swiping on face, I apply this on my neck too. Never neglect neck!

Spot Treatment: ACNE FELDIN LOTION. Local skincare product with 1% camphor and 6.6% sulfur as main ingredients. It smells weird at first and the super watery texture is a pain the ass to apply directly with finger on spots, but I got the hang of it. I also applied this on my temple where the fungal acnes are. Make sure to tap until they dried down.

And after 8 days of cutting down my skincare regime to the above routines, this is how my skin looks.

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Those two humongous zits are flatten (but still left red marks), some black heads are still there (one popped out in the shower accidentally-causing an open red wound), but I know it’s getting better. But it’s still day 8, so I will check back in 22 more days, just to see the efficacy of my skincare routine and the products I am currently using.

CONCLUSIONS:

  • Never ever over exfoliate. Just pick one acid that suits your skin.
  • Find one active ingredient that suits your skin the most and stick with it (trying periods are the worst, it’s like finding your skin soul-mate).
  • Avoid skincare overload. Less is definitely more, do not let your skin get confused (too many products = too many ingredients).
  • Being bombarded by so many new skincare products is hard (I know right). Search well about the ingredients and reviews before any purchases.

PHOTOS: SHINTA ROSVITA