2017 S/S K-Beauty New Product Report
It’s summer. Most of the products for spring/summer season comes to market around late April and I finished adding them to Masksheets.com’s vast collection already but due to the even faster product cycle in Korean beauty industry, I have to admit that there are quite a lot of new products that just on the market right now. I have prepared 1 st new product update for 6 major road shop brands.
1. Innisfree : My Palette Series
Believe it or not, Innisfree had major update in its makeup product section. I mean it is surprising, since Innisfree is heavily skincare centered brand. They standardized size of most of their colors such as eye shadows, contour, concealor, eyebrow, blusher, high-lighter and color corrector into rectangular and square cases, so they can be assembled into a beautifully designed palette.
Of course, single products are also packaged into proper cases for the people who don’t want to buy few items for completing palette. There are major update on pink, coral and orange toned shadows since they are the major trend in Korean eye makeup.
They currently expanded the most selling No sebum powder line into the skincare, with No sebum toner, lotion and priming cream. It doesn’t seem to draw too much attention, so let’s see.
2. Skinfood, Major update on Summer Skincare Line
Skinfood successfully launched firming / hydration Aqua Grape Bounce line (caulerpa racemose.) With caulerpa racemose contents and deep-sea water, it gives deep, non-sticky hydration with refreshing texture. They added hydrolyzed collagen and acetyl hexapeptide-8, intensified firming property of this light textured product.
The famous peach-sake line was updated into Peach Cotton Line. But most tempting new products are Skinfood’s Soothing Gel line, made with 90% extract of fresh Apple and Yuja extract.
They claim fresh apple is made for pore tightening and Yuja is for brightening with vitamin C precursor. Well, I am not sure the claimed function but high extract contents soothing gels are always welcomed for the summer, right?
3. Etude House, Not so much but many minor update
Unlike many other major roadshop brands, Etude House seems to be passive this summer. They introduced special summer edition of existing Dear Darling Water Gel Tint, packaged in cute designed bottles.
They launched My Ideal Body Glow Lotion – a pearl strobing product for body. This type of product is quite unconventional in Korean brand, so if you were looking for glowing body lotion, this product will satisfy you.
More interesting product is Monster Micellar Cleansing Water, that is similar to Garnier’s Bi-Phase Micellar Cleansing Water. Etude House’s Micellar Cleansing Water does not contain poloxamer 184, so if this surfactant concerns you, Etude House can be a good substitute for Garnier. The pressure to release dispenser is just so convenient to be used with cotton pad as well.
4. Nature Republic... concerned
After the CEO’s gambling and bribery scandal in 2015, Nature Republic doesn’t seem to be a very good player in the market. They launched Clay Mask line with 3 varieties – Ginseng & Coconut, Lemon & Ginger and Peppermint & Seaweed.
It looks very similar to the products from Lush and made clay texture with ingredients such as kaolin and bentonite. The ingredients are not disappointing but because of its “just grinded” look, I thought extract contents would be much higher than 990 ppm. (It’s practically like a drop in a two-liter bottle.)
Canadian Whistler line is a predictable cooling iced sherbet line using high pressure gas. It has been on the market for past 15 years and I haven’t seen a single success. I have no idea why people keep introducing these products. Sigh, Come on, Nature Republic.
5. TonyMoly, More refined ingredients
Tonymoly introduced EWG green grade toner into the market – Wonder Rice Soothing Toner. It contains only EWG green level ingredients, suitable for the sensitive and allergy prone skins. Rice ferment filtrate and fruit extract complex moisturizes and clarifies the skin.
TonyLab Return Ato Cream is centella asiatica product with good amount of TECA help regenerate damaged skin while protecting acne scars with its anti-inflammatory property. I mean generally for the easily breakout and acne prone skin, centella asiatica is one of the best ingreidnets for wound healing and clarifying.
The light textured, low-priced brightening line, the White Tea Brightening Line were updated and introduced again in their product lines.
The magnun size (100ml) of the Chok Chok Green Tea Watery Cream came out, allow us to excessive use this amazing light textured hydration cream. By the way, it is a HwaHae Award Winner in cream/gel section.
6. It’s Skin, All about Centella?
Again, they expanded their already successful Crème d’Escargot line. They launched Prestige Crème d’Escargot : Propolis Edition. I like the texture of this cream but I wish it could be a little cheaper than 60 something USD. I know you spent lots of money for the diamond looking, high quality container but, still $60 is NOT CHEAP.
They also introduced Gold Foil Peeling Pad, Gold Foil Mask and Hair Mask from the Prestige d’Escargot line but I wish they recognize that making new products and use their well-selling label everywhere is not a solution for the success.
The Tiger Cica line is centella asiatica based, consists of two creams, tone up pact and cover pact. Both Gel Cream and Moisturizing Balm are based with centella asiatica and contains decent amount of additional hydration ingredients.
The interesting product is Tone-Up Cushion. The centella asiatica base and titanium dioxide base sunfilter is a hypoallergenic and gentle for your skin and the texture formula is very refreshing.
