It feels a bit like I wound up with a whole new routine this month, but given how I’ve renewed my skincare practice with new vigor, I suppose that makes sense. My skin has gotten even thirstier than usual with the shift towards spring in Colorado (though leaves are only hitting the trees now, in May), so many of the products I opened this month were all about restoring hydration and sealing it in to my dry, dehydrated skin.

Essences and Toners

🍃 Barr Centella Calming Ampoule Toner

The Barr Centella Calming Ampoule Toner is the third product from Barr’s calming line I’ve tried (the first being the moisturizer, currently in use, and then the essence, emptied in April). Like the other products in the line, this leans into calming with centella (water and extract), panthenol, ceramide NP, heart leaf and jojoba seed oil. I don’t find it to be particularly hydrating, which was a problem I also experienced with the essence — this is likely due to the willow bark extract balancing the humectants and oils in the formulation. But it’s not stripping, and I don’t mind layering on some extra calming power.
Price: $22 USD / 200 mL

🍶 Cosrx Galactomyces 95 Tone Balancing Essence

My adventures in galactomyces essences continue with the Cosrx Galactomyces 95 Tone Balancing Essence. I’ve tried all of the first essence dupes for SK-II at this point, and my favorite has been (spoiler alert) the Missha, but I figured I was remiss if I didn’t try this. The Cosrx essence … is not a dupe. Most importantly, it’s not a first treatment essence, and that’s where the lack of dupe-ness comes from. This doesn’t have the light, watery texture of first treatment essences, but rather than thickness of a classic essence. It dries down sticky and almost feels drying on my skin, rather than deeply hydrating like first essences do. It’s too soon to say how well it works for brightening, or for pore control, though with the addition of niacinamide in the formula, I’m hopeful.
Price: $24 USD / 150 mL

🐌 The Klog Snail Mucin Energy Essence

I finished Cosrx’s cult classic snail essence last month, so it felt appropriate to immediately follow it with The Klog Snail Mucin Energy Essence (do y’all want a Face Off on the two? Let me know! I can make that happen). This essence has snail mucin at 90% — while snail might sound gross, it’s a great hydrating, healing and anti-aging ingredient, and this essence notably lacks the stringy texture that characterizes snail. In addition, this has yam root extract, which is considered to be the vegan snail mucin alternative. Yam root is making a bit of a splash in k-beauty at the moment because it does have similar hydrating and healing benefits to snail, all while, well, being vegan. This has slightly more weight to it than the Cosrx, in my opinion, but I’m excited to see how yam root works for me.
Price: $17 USD / 100 mL

Serums

💧 Byoma Hydrating Serum

Byoma is a relatively new brand making some waves with their cute packaging and ceramide-centric products, and their Hydrating Serum is one of several serums they arrived on the market with. Despite its name, this is not what I think of as a typical hydrating serum, with a watery or gel-like texture, and strong emphasis on various humectants. Instead, this is really what I think of as a skin-barrier supportive serum — it even has the skin barrier trifecta of ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acids. This includes squalane, cholesterol, ceramide NP and phytosphingosine (a ceramide precursor), as well as glycerin, lactic acid at hydrating levels, and vitamin e. It’s a creamy serum that doesn’t add any heaviness to the skin.
Price: $16 USD / 30 mL

🍹 Peach & Lily Power Cocktail Lactic Acid Repair Serum

The Peach & Lily Power Cocktail Lactic Acid Repair Serum is a great, gently exfoliating serum. It has 10% lactic acid, which is enough to exfoliate but also hydrate, and in the case of my skin make it fine for near-daily use. In addition, this boasts ginseng root extract, green tea extract, various fermented extracts and other nice extracts. To amplify lactic acid’s hydrating qualities, this includes glycerin, polyglutamic acid and multiple weights of hyaluronic acid. To offset the exfoliation’s potential irritation, it has ceramide NP and several peptides — formulated to not denature. This one has come up twice on Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty, so it’s probably worth holding out for that rather than paying full price (that’s what I did).
Price: $51 USD / 30 mL

Creams, Moisturizers & Sleeping Masks

🌵 Isntree Aloe Soothing Gel – Moisture Type

The Isntree Aloe Soothing Gel (and the rest of Isntree) has undergone a redesign since I bought it, but this is the Moisture Type. Though the Fresh Type is pretty much pure aloe, the Moisture Type is 80% aloe, and a lot more besides: centella, green tea and licorice root extracts, multiple weights of hyaluronic acid, polyglutamic acid and more. I had originally purchased this to use with my NuFace, which I still do, but I’ve also taken to using it as a serum layer within my routine, in part because the toner and essence above have me longing for more hydration.
Price: $14 USD / 150 mL

👁 Clinique Moisture Surge Eye 96-Hour Hydro-Filler Concentrate

The Clinique Moisture Surge Eye 96-Hour Hydro-Filler Concentrate is definitely a bit of “skintertainment”, as Youtuber Kelly Driscoll would call it. This has a lightweight gel texture, with little balls that burst on your skin during application. These balls are encapsulated antioxidants like green tea leaf extract, algae extract, caffeine and more. This also includes niacinamide and cholesterol for supporting the skin barrier, as well as acetyl hexapeptide-8 and palmitoyl hexapeptide-12 for anti-aging. This does include some artificial colors in it, ergo its pretty pink hue.
Price: $37 USD / 15 mL; shown in a sample size

🧬 Allies of Skin Peptides & Antioxidants Firming Daily Treatment

Allies of Skin Peptides & Antioxidants Firming Daily Treatment is the sort of moisturizer I could see myself “settling down with” someday, when I stop experimenting with skincare and don’t cringe at the thought of $130 for 30 mL of product. (In Allies of Skin’s defense, they DO run frequent BOGO sales — note to future self.) Allies of Skin claims this is a 5-in-1, and to look at the ingredient list I do believe it. This has Teprenone complex, which ostensibly stabilizes telomeres (aka helps pause the internal clock our cells have) while generally improving cell function. It also has a variety of peptides, including palmitoyl tripeptide-5 for promoting collagen production and reducing TEWL, and palmitoyl tripeptide-8 for redness reduction. On the antioxidant front, this includes niacinamide, caffeine vitamin c derivative tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate (THD ascorbate), astaxanthin, glutathione and a variety of extracts. Other fun, skin barrier-supportive ingredients are lactobacillus ferment, honey, ceramide NP, sphingolipids, phospholipids and various nice oils. A little goes a long way with this, though it is a very nourishing, nearly-heavy cream.
Price: $129 USD / 30 mL; shown in a sample size

🐝 Cosrx Full Fit Propolis Honey Overnight Mask

The Cosrx Full Fit Propolis Honey Overnight Mask has been overdue making its way into my routine, given my love of Cosrx, propolis, and sleeping masks. This has 70% of the “bee trifecta” — propolis extract, honey extract and royal jelly extract. I love this combination for the glow it gives, as well as lightweight healing and moisturization. In addition, this has panthenol and allantoin for soothing, and glycerin and sodium hyaluronate. It’s a lightweight gel that I use as my last step in the evening, but they recommend also using it as an AM moisturizer, or as a wash-off mask — neither of which I’ve tried, but I probably will! I anticipate it will feel refreshing as we head into summer in Colorado.
Price: $18 USD / 60 mL

Lip Care

🌹 Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm

This is my third time opening a Biossance Squalane + Rose Vegan Lip Balm and I like it the best this time — because now they have it in a tube, rather than a tub! This is a fairly sticky-textured, occlusive lip balm, so having to dig into a tub was messy and undesirable. As part of the repackaging, they also reformulated. I don’t recall what the formula was previously, but worthwhile callouts in the new iteration are wakame algae, ceramide NP, THD ascorbate (the vitamin c derivative), rose flower wax (whatever that is), and nice oils like squalane, grape seed oil and jojoba.
Price: $16 USD / 15 g

💋 Rohto Mentholatum Water Lip Balm SPF 20 PA++

I go through a lot of Rohto Mentholatum’s lip spfs, in part because they’re so wearable and in part because, frankly, actually emptying a lip balm rather than losing it is a serious accomplishment. The (unfragranced) Water Lip Balm, which is SPF 20 PA++, is my latest exploration with them. This is a legitimately nice lip balm which sticks around and makes the lips feel smooth and soft, and protects from UV without any funky sunscreen taste or white cast. It uses new generation chemical filters, and has a near who’s who of occlusive lip ingredients: vaseline, lanolin, mineral oil and microcrystalline wax. It also has two forms of hyaluronic acid, as well as collagen, aloe extract, squalane and honey.
Price: $4 USD / tube

Other

🧼 Rhonda Allison Foaming Peptide Cleanser

I put off opening the Rhonda Allison Foaming Peptide Cleanser for quite a while (I received it for Christmas in … 2021?) because of the “foaming” in its name (and, in fairness, because of how slowly I somehow go through cleansers). I should not have — this is not foaming, and not stripping at all. Indeed, it’s really more of a milk cleanser, which is what they claim on their website, and leaves the skin feeling very soft. This literally does have milk in it — goat milk and yogurt extract — as well as hydrolyzed protein, which is where the peptide claim presumably comes from. I’m definitely not disappointed!
Price: $14.50 USD / 30 mL (not pictured because, frankly, I forgot to grab it)

☀️ Dr. Ceuracle Hyal Reyouth Moist Sun

I received the Dr. Ceuracle Hyal Reyouth Moist Sun for free through the YesStyle Influencer program in exchange for a review — which this is not (I still need to write it and post to Instagram, oops). The first few times I used this, I hated it. It simultaneously felt drying and heavy, which is a pretty unexpected combination. This also has a fragrance to it which gives off “oh yeah, I’m putting on a sunscreen now” vibes. In this sunscreen’s defense, however, it’s incredibly ligthweight and liquidy (the applicator helps control it), is chock-full of various weights of hyaluronic acid, and uses the newer generation chemical filters. I’ve found ways to make it work for me now — mostly by significantly cutting down my AM routine while keeping a heavy moisturizer, but I actually prefer it as a body sunscreen, where it really seems to shine because it feels weightless.
Price: $19 USD / 50 mL