Heres to one of the longest overdue and most requested reviews to date (well not really, maybe like only 10 out of the 1.8k Instagram followers that I have). Yes, I am a horrible person to keep one's curiosity for long. The reviews are here now, I try my best to be detailed as possible. Here you go, have a pleasure reading!
So sometime around 22 weeks ago in June 2016, I received these babies that I used from a gift card giveaway that I won in IG. This Tres Amigos Sampler Set costs USD 24, I used the gift card that was worth USD 25 and only paid for the shipping to Brunei, which was around USD 5. If you are an avid AB(Asian beauty)-er like me on Instagram then I am sure you are familiar or 've stumbled across the Holy Snails account.
The set includes:
Shark Sauce (without the actual shark fyi) - 5ml
Perseids Oil - 5ml
Snowbang Essence - 6ml
For those who have never heard of them, well here is an extract taken from their About us page:
"Chel is a skincare blogger over at Holy Snails and has a passion for DIYing and coming up with things. (Read: She's a nerd.) She has a background in Chemistry and Biology, and after she discovered Kbeauty, it was just a matter of time before she tried to tinker with it. Chel hangs with her Snailbaes over at the Snailcast Kbeauty podcast, where they talk about all things Kbeauty. She makes all of the products for the shop, and is constantly writing new recipes, which is why we made the Snail Mail program so she could get feedback to better develop and refine the products.
We are proud to say we are now a mom and pop shop! Hubby Snails has joined the team as the overworked and underpaid intern. He likes woodworking and metalworking, and he's got his own 4(ish) step routine too! He handles all the shipping for the biz and some of the customer support.
We started out as a little Facebook group running on Google Forms. The batches would sell out within 30 seconds and it was a mad frenzy. To make the process more streamlined and easier for people to use, we eventually opened the shop on a small platform. New product releases would actually crash the shop, so...here we are!"
Holy Snails is a homemade business that makes Kbeauty inspired products.
"Great Ingredients. No Fillers.
Why water down a serum with boring fillers when we can give it some nutrient-rich Fermented Sea Kelp or delicious Avocado Oil instead? Our products have star ingredients at known, useful concentrations, so there's no need to guess, and every ingredient serves a purpose.
Through our Snail Mail program, we are constantly testing new ingredients, such as Donkey Milk and Snail Secretion Extract. Only those prototypes that are beloved by the testers get considered for our lineup.
Handmade & Made Fresh.
We make all of our products in micro batches, which allows us to effectively use powerhouse ingredients that have shorter shelf lives such as Ceramides to restore your skin's barrier, or Borage Seed Oil which has the highest amounts of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) in seed oils.
But Why?
Our ideas for products all come from the need to fill a gap. How do we know if a product has enough niacinamide? Why are all hanbang (Traditional Oriental Herbal Medicine) products so heavy and heavily fragranced?
From those questions, we created Shark Sauce (which has 5% Niacinamide) and Snowbang Essence (which has over two dozen botanical extracts, but is featherlight and the scent comes only from the extracts themselves). We are constantly developing new answers through our R&D program, Snail Mail." - source.
It was a real fate to get these babies especially the Shark Sauce because I swear I always see it whenever I logged in into my IG. I thought it looked small and cute and I also saw positive reviews on it, many people are liking it too so of course when a majority likes and uses that one product, I develop the need to try the product as well. I emptied all of the cuties now so I can share my final thoughts of them.
The contents may be little (5ml to 7ml). I first thought it wouldn't last me long but I was wrong. They lasted for weeks, especially for the Shark Sauce (I documented my journey with it below), it lasted me about 6 weeks despite using day and night daily.
Packaging
Body of the Snowbang Essence and Shark Sauce are plastic that I can squeezed with ease, all of them comes with a twist cap that requires you to push it down first and then turn clockwise to release the cap. Body of the Perseids Oil is plastic too but harder, it was a bit hard to squeeze.
All of them came with the most tiniest dropper ever, even the droplet is a micro. It is a good dispenser because it saves the product from coming out too much, considering that the actual content is already a small amount. The bottles are definitely great for travels due to its small size and I don't think it will spill since the caps really secures the content.
I am starting my review with the Perseids Oil first, then Snowbang Essence and last one is Shark Sauce because I documented it.
Perseids Oil
"Perseids Oil is a facial oil blend rich in antioxidants. It has Tocopherol (Vitamin E), a powerful oil-soluble antioxidant, Bisabolol, an anti-irritant that comes from chamomile, and Squalane, a skin-identical emollient, along with many delicious fruit and nut oils.
As this is made fresh in micro batches, we can use great ingredients that have shorter shelf lives such as Evening Primrose Oil, Rosehip Oil, and Borage Seed Oil. Refrigeration is not required for this product, but would help extend the effectiveness of some of these ingredients.
Suitable for: Dry to Normal (Those with Oily or Combination skin might want to consider a sample sized bottle first, as this might be too heavy for them.)" - source.
Texture is yellowish-like-of-an-oil color, runny, has a light coconuty smell. Since it is runny, I thought that it wouldn't be thick, and then after I massaged it, it felt like a light facial oil. I personally think that it is not too heavy. When my skin was dehydrated, I even applied this twice at night. It absorbs into my skin and left an oily feeling that is not greasy, you know how it is like when you apply facial oils. 3-4 drops was enough to cover my whole face, a little goes a long way.
This makes my skin all moisturized and hydrated. It didn't break me out at first but then after not using it for awhile, it broke me out, probably because since the mentioned ingredients above have a shorter life shelves, but its life expectancy after opening is 6 months...so I don't know. I regretted that I didn't refrigerate it and didn't try it under my eyes for some nourishment.
This would be a great product for those who have dry skin or dry patches. I have an oily skin and I do not think I will be needing this, also since my skin gets easily clogged from using heavy things. Using this made my skin felt nice when I woke up in the morning though.
Snowbang Essence
"Snowbang Essence does not contain snow. It has pre-snow though (or post?). It was named after one of our muses, Snow White & The Asian Pear, and her undying love for hanbang (Traditional Oriental Herbal Medicine) products, as this was originally created for her.
Snowbang Essence is a featherlight essence with 5% Ceramides Complex to keep your skin's barrier healthy, and a smorgasbord of two dozen hanbang/herbal extracts to feed and soothe your face. The Hydrolyzed Oats is what gives it that silky soft finish, and helps to hydrate your skin. This essence is chock full of extracts, but to name a few, Ginseng, Horse Chestnut, Chamomile, Centella Asiatica, Calendula, and Licorice Root are prized extracts for their soothing and brightening abilities.
Suits for all skin types" -source.
Snowbang Essence is featherlight indeed. It actually has a very faint yellow color to it, but it looks clear in the photo. It is runny and smells like spices(or was it cinnamon?) that are pleasant and not itching to the nose.
Life expectancy of Snowbang Essence after opening is 6 months.
Life expectancy of Snowbang Essence after opening is 6 months.
I first used it alone and I needed 10 drops to cover my whole face, it felt wasteful so I switched to mixing it into my serums and ampoules with only 1 or 2 drops. When used alone, it fully absorbed into my skin, left my face matte and provides a bit of moisturization. I needed to follow up with an extra moisturizer. I applied day and night for a few weeks.
Refrigeration is recommend and I regretted that I did not do that because I was unaware of the directions *slaps self*. Maybe it could have shown better results on me. I unfortunately did not experience any soothing nor brightening abilities as it claims to. I just thought my face felt healthy throughout using it. The ingredients list are great though sigh.
Shark Sauce
"Shark Sauce™ does not contain sharks, shark extract, shark wings, or any other shark derivatives. Its name comes from a nickname of one of our muses, Fifty Shades of Snail, for whom it was originally created.
Shark Sauce™ is a hydrating serum that contains 5% Niacinamide (Vitamin B3) and 3% N-Acetyl Glucosamine, which work together synergistically to fight hyperpigmentation. They, along with Panthenol (Vitamin B5), also work to help improve your skin barrier.
Licorice Root and Green Tea Extracts soothe and brighten skin, while Hyaluronic Acid and Sodium Lactate (the sodium salt of Lactic Acid, a popular AHA) hydrate. The Sea Kelp Bioferment is the result of sea kelp fermented with Lactobacillus, which breaks it down into more bioavailable compounds for your skin to use. It is a natural film former, and functions as a great oil-free moisturizer.
Suitable for all skin types" -source.
I was looking forward to use this one the most because it is related to my skin concerns, which is PIH, it claims to help to fading it. The texture is like of a thick serum, clear and not runny, it does not have a scent. I only applied it to the targeted areas only which are my dark spots/acne scars/PIH. One drop of it goes a long way since the texture is thicker. After applying onto the areas, it took awhile for it to be fully absorbed, I waited for 10~15. Why wait? Because it felt a bit sticky and it seemed like I cannot continue layer more skincare above. It absorbed fully after the wait with a matte finish. I applied day and night for 5 weeks.
Life expectancy of Shark Sauce after opening is 12 months.
Life expectancy of Shark Sauce after opening is 12 months.
This was my skin condition when I first started using the Shark Sauce which was on 4th September 2016. I wanted to do a documentation to see if it is really doing its job and so that I won't be imagining things like 'it really did help fading my PIH!". As you can see my skin condition was not at its best during that time fucking bumpy. September is like the worst skin month for me this year because I tried and tested new products that broke me out badly >< I recently saw a comment on Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends MV that says, "bad things always happen in September". I agreed with that for this year.
So here is the documentation of my 5 weeks journey with Shark Sauce. I focused on fading that one nasty deep red PIH near my jawline.
♥After using it for a week, I saw no difference on dates 12th and 18th September 2016.
♥The right red raised a bump and turned into acne on 19th September 2016.
♥The acne calmed on 25th September 2016 but the red spot beside it burst into acne, it was its turn next ><
♥The redness started to fade on week 4 on 2nd October 2016. I also had a third PIH friend joining me (the reddest spot) and it only took one week for its redness to be reduced (maybe because I implemented an extra whitening product in my routine that time. Can't remember).
♥I emptied the product sometime on 6th October 2016. The last photo was taken without using the Shark Sauce because I finished it and thats the end result of fighting my PIH with Shark Sauce that contains 5% Niacinamide.
After trying this product, it is confirmed that niacinamide does not do a good job for me in terms of fading PIH/brightening/whitening. My skin reacts better with acids like Citric or Ascorbic where it only took a week for the acne scar to disappear.
If your skin reacts well with niacinamide in terms of whitening, this might work better on you than on me. The amount of niacinamide added is generous which is 5%.
I kind of hate my steel skin sometimes (by means products react slowly or zero on me). I should become the woman of steel.
My Final Thoughts
It is unfortunate that these awesome self-made products with greatly chosen ingredients did not work well on me :( If you wanted to give them a try, they have the sample sizes of each available. You can check out the prices and buy them here: Holy Snails Samples. They ship worldwide.
These products are not that cheap. The sample of the Shark Sauce (5ml) costs USD 7, it is understandable since they are handmade. If you are on a a budget/broke student like me there are always samples to try before jumping into the full size wagon,
Disclaimer
Photos, reviews and experiences are my own, always honest and true.
If you wanted to know more about Holy Snails, you can check them out and follow them for their latest updates on new products or sales.
Thank you for reading!^-^ Now I am eyeing on the Lemon Shark by Holy Snails because it contains Lemon Peel Bioferment~ my skin and me do love some alot of citrus.
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Follow me on Google+: Finn Wafiy
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