Review: SK-II Facial Treatment Essence

If you remember this post here, YES, it has been quite some time since I've bought and tried out the SK-II Facial Treatment Essence. I've been meaning to share my thoughts here. However, interestingly for this product, my opinions only formed on my second bottle of product and after more than 6 months of usage.

Even without much further introduction from my end, I believe many would have already heard about this product from the aggressive advertisements everywhere. This product claims to have the benefits of boosting texture refinement, firmness power, wrinkle resilience, radiance enhancement and spots control. From the website, it claims to contain more than 90% of Pitera which helps to maintain the skin’s natural renewal cycle to its optimum condition to allow skin nourishment and helps balance skin’s pH and sebum moisturization.

Too much information to handle? Well, in summary, this is known as the ‘Miracle Water’.

I guess before I jump right into this review, it is imperative to give you some background on my skin. I am currently in my mid-20s and have combination oily skin type. My pores are normal sized (though I do wish that its’ even smaller) and I rarely have any break outs. The only real skin concern for me is my hereditary pigmentation, uneven skin tone and dull skin. To most people, my skin condition is often regarded as clear and good. Therefore, some may question the need of me using this treatment essence, but hey, who doesn't want flawless & perfect skin right?

Prior to taking the plunge to purchase the product, I contemplated for a very long period of time due to the high price point (SG$99 for 75mL is no joke). But after seeing significant changes on my elder sis’s overall skin conditions, I decided to give it a shot since I was also looking for a new skin serum in the market. 

To be honest, while using my first bottle, there really weren't much changes with my overall skin condition. My skin continued to looked the same as before thereby making me really disappointed and decided that this product was over hyped. I stopped using the product after finishing the first bottle within 5 months and went on with trying out other products.

The real deal breaker came about a month and half ago when I got really stressed out with work and life. I had many sudden breakouts due to the stress and crazy traveling schedule I had at work (I was traveling about 2-3 weeks month for work) and my skin was looking dull as hell, not to mention that my pores were looking the crappiest I had seen in my whole life. I have also noticed a sudden lose in firmness in my skin and really, everything was haywire.

Being lazy to hunt for a new skin product (and frankly desperate to get my skin back to balance), I decided to repurchase SKII about a week ago at duty free after flying back to Singapore from a work trip. I bought the special 250mL at SG$183 and this has proven to be one of my most well worth recent purchases.

After reusing this for about a week now, I have seen significant changes on my skin this time round. Most visibly, my skin is definitely more radiant now than before. My pores are also going back to the normal size and the firmness seems to have regained its former balance. Instead of using a cotton pad for application, I pour a few drops on my palm and gently pat it all over my face after toner this time round. I find that this is the most effective way of using the product without wasting any bits of it.

Whilst I still find it peculiar that the first bottle did nothing to my skin, my theory is that significant effects from the product can only be seen on either mature or problematic skin type. I wouldn't recommend this for younger skin however, if you are in your mid-late twenties and is looking for a skin booster, definitely give this a try.  

xx