SkinFood Lettuce & Cucumber Emulsion

I was a bit apprehensive to try the SkinFood Lettuce & Cucumber Emulsion, after all, the Water Jelly Cream didn't quite satisfy and the Water Drop Essence totally missed the ball park. But thankfully, the Emulsion doesn't disappoint too much. While it's not excellent and far from perfect, it's definitely much much better than the other two!

The Emulsion comes in a huge glass bottle, a whopping 135 mL, and for only $13-15 plus shipping, it will probably last for months and is a deal even for Ebay! If you can get it for retail, probably around $8-9 or less, I'd jump on it if I were you :) The bottle is made of the same pretty glass as the rest of the line, with an aluminum twist off cap. It didn't come in a box but was factory sealed.

Thanks to Clarissa from Beauty Unfolds, I got the list of ingredients for the Emulsion and was able to determine that it is a moisturizer containing argan as well as sesame seed oils. But fear not, the oil ingredients did not affect its light texture. The emulsion is on the thin and runny side, but it's not as watery-crisp as the Water Jelly Cream. It's not as fast absorbing as the Water Drop Essence either, but it still absorbs pretty fast, leaving my skin with a dewy finish that lasts for about 5-10 minutes before it completely dries up and doesn't feel like anything there after.

I started out using it over the Water Drop Essence, hoping it might somehow make a better combination than with the Water Jelly Cream. Unfortunately, the combo still wasn't enough and I still got lots of dry flakes around my chin and mouth, with or without layering on sunscreen. Anyway, being patient with a product I decided to tweak things around some more to see what happens - I decided to use Emulsion just by itself underneath the sunscreen. And what do you know, it worked a whole lot better! I still got some flakes here and there on the rounds of my cheeks and the corners of my mouth, but at least I wasn't feathering like a growing duckling anymore around the entire nose, mouth, and chin areas! I guess it's just like the Water Jelly Cream in that it didn't quite satisfy my super dry skin, but how weird is that?

So I thought, hmm...would I still get flakes if I were to slather it on like crazy? I tried that, and it turned sticky on me, so yeah, gooping it on is a big no no. Instead of tipping the bottle upside down and dumping a whole gunk out, I now tip the bottle sideways and 2 small dollops make an adequate amount for my face. If you live in a hot and humid environment and/or your skin isn't dry like mine, I wouldn't recommend using more than 2 small dollops or you'll risk some stickiness.

And here is where it dawns on me - underneath sunscreen, while both the Water Jelly Cream and the Emulsion didn't stop all the dry flakes, the Water Drop Essence was the true offender all along in worsening the drying and flaking of my skin. I couldn't use it by itself, and in combination with the Water Jelly Cream or the Emulsion it was good without layering sunscreen over. But as soon as I layer sunscreen over, poof, I flake and peel like crazy!!! I have some guesses as so why that is. Just take a look at the ingredients for the Emulsion below - Alcohol is the #4 on the list! I don't know the regulations in Korea, but here in the US, manufacturers are required to list the ingredients in the order of concentration. With Alcohol being #4 for this Emulsion, layering Allie Comfortable Sunscreen EX Watertouch on top which also has Alcohol as the #4 ingredient, it makes perfect sense why layering 2 products chock full of alcohol would still give me some flakes! This makes me think Alcohol must be pretty high up there too for the Water Jelly Cream because it also gave me some flakes underneath Allie. And crap, Water Drop Essence must have Alcohol as it top 3 ingredients to deep fry my skin the way it did underneath Allie!

Of course, until I actually get an ingredients list for both the Water Jelly Cream and the Water Drop Essence, this is all pure speculations. But I have to admit, as dry as my skin is, it can put up with a lot of Alcohol before giving in to flaking. So if your skin is sensitive to alcohol to begin with, you might want to proceed very carefully with these products.

Lettuce & Cucumber Emulsion:
WATER, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, GLYCERIN, ALCOHOL, CYCLOMETHICONE, ISOSTEARYL NEOPENTANOATE, BIS-PEG-18, METHYL ETHER DIMETHYL SILANE, CUCUMIS SATIVUS (CUCUMBER) FRUIT EXTRACT, C14-22 ALCOHOLS, C12-20 ALKYL GLUCOSIDE, GLYCOL STEARATESE, BETA-GLUCAN, LACTUCA SCARIOLA SATIVA (LETTUCE) LEAF EXTRACT, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, CETEARYL ALCOHOL, STEARIC ACID, HYDROGENATED LECITHIN, METHICONE, STEARYL GLYCYRRHETINATE, ARGANIA SPINOSA KERNEL EXTRACT, SERENOA SERRULATA FRUIT EXTRACT, SESAMUM INDICUM (SESAME) SEED EXTRACT, DIMETHICONE/VINYL DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, VIOLA TRICOLOR EXTRACT, TOCOPHERYL ACETATE, ALLANTOIN, STEARYL GLYCYRRHETINATE, DISODIUM EDTA, IMIDAZOLIDYNYL UREA, METHYLPARABEN, CI 42090, CI 15985, PARFUM.
***List of ingredients provided by Cacaopack - thank you Clarissa!