This product was sent to me by StyleKorean for review purposes. I was not paid for this post but please note that affiliate links are used on my blog. These go towards supporting Oh My Stellar and future content.
I honestly thought that Heimish could do no bad – not after how much I loved their eye shadow palette and lip products – but unfortunately this is a product that really disappointed me. This is the Refresh Water that I was gifted to test by StyleKorean and, considering that this product had good reviews online and because the ingredients list is actually really clean (aside from alcohol and I have no sensitivity to that), I was really excited about this. According to StyleKorean :
This product clears all remaining dirt and old keratin from the skin, and boosts the effectiveness of other skin care products applied subsequently. The mild enzyme extracted from soybeans works with AHA and BHA for maximum skin exfoliation and moisturization. It contains more than 20 active natural ingredients that amazingly soothe and balance facial skin while providing it with moisture.
In a way, I figured that this product would be similar to a toner – ‘refreshing’ my skin and improving the effectiveness of other products. Unfortunately though, this product didn’t work for me at all! In fact, my skin had negative reactions to the product and I ended up with terrible skin and break outs for two weeks or so; so bad that I had to break out my Medicube concealer and cushion because I was worried about using normal make up.
I was so disappointed about this product, so I had to write this review. Read on for details, as well as suggestions on other products that – in my opinion – work a lot better.
One thing that I will give product is that I love the design of the packaging. The box looks really pretty and elegant with a blue and green water colour painting (which refers to this being a water product, I assume) and gold foiling. I’m a sucker for packaging so, from this, I thought that this product would be – should be – really good. The bo states that this is a ‘clean up peeling toner’ so, aside from being a toner, it should also have light exfoliation properties.
To use this, you water a cotton pad and swipe it over your face. It is supposedly good to use at the beginning of your skincare, as well as before make up, to clean off all impurities and such.
The bottle is fairly large at 345mL and has a light green colour with a matte finish. It’s a fairly standard shape, but it does stand very easily and it looks great. It is also easy to use and dispense. The only downside (packaging wise) is that this bottle is fairly big and wouldn’t be suitable for travel unless you decant it, and these bottles can be difficult.
I wish that I had a better photo but all I have is an outtake from a product review shoot that I did. See the state of my skin half recovered already! This is under heavy make up and concealer too and I usually do not need that.
As I was using this product, I noticed that it was heavily perfumed – a little bit like soap actually, and I began to question whether this was actually a cleanser. However, I checked the ingredients and with that reassurance proceeded to use it as a normal toner. It left a very slight stickiness after I used it which isn’t actually very uncommon with these products, but it did absorb fairly quickly soon after. It seemed to be very hydrating and suitable for prepping skin before make up but goodness… I was wrong.
Within two days of using this product, I had to immediately discontinue use because I was completely breaking out on one side of my face. I got large comedone pimples (one of which has left a dark scar) and a lot of red, inflamed patches that seemed to be clogged pores.
It took around two weeks for my skin to soothe and calm down, during which I used a lot of Medicube products, as well as COSRX, Innisfree and Laneige. I couldn’t even take photos or make videos during this time because my skin looked so bad.
All in all, I don’t recommend this product at all! Seeing some other good results, I think that maybe it does work well for other skin types? However, I can’t say anything positive considering how terrible my experiences were. Instead, here are a few other similar products that StyleKorean is selling that I would recommend or consider trying instead instead: Innisfree Green Tea Moisture Skin, Thank you Farmer True Water Deep Toner*, Pyungkang Yul Essence Toner, Etude House Moistfull Collagen Skin*
WHERE TO GET IT FROM
The Refresh Water is available at StyleKorean for USD$19.80 if you still think that this product is for you. Otherwise, click the below banner to go to their homepage and check out all of the other products they have for sale instead:
