Skinfood Black Sugar Perfect First Serum + Black Sugar Perfect First Serum Cotton Pad Review

Skinfood's Black Sugar line is one of their best selling lines. I purchased two of these serum and cotton pad sets back in Christmas 2013 and promptly used them up in the first half of 2014. 

This is a first essence meaning you use it straight after cleansing. It's supposed to help your skin absorb your other layers (e.g., serum, essence, cream) better. This formula contains niacinamide as the fifth ingredient for brightening! Alcohol is the third in list, so you may want to be careful if you are sensitive to alcohol.

Front...

...and back.

Serum

What they say: (Skin-Brightening and Anti-Wrinkle Effects) A first serum that provides exfoliating, brightening, wrinkle-smoothing and hydrating benefits in a single formula. Use daily for soft, smooth skin.

Contents: 120ml in a brown glass bottle. Looks like it should be for a bottle of barbeque sauce in the kitchen!

Application: Immediately after cleansing, pour a generous amount onto a cotton pad and wipe over face.

Extra information: Emollients may settle at the bottom of the bottle, but that does not affect the product's effects. Just shake well before use.

Cost: 7350 won for a set of the serum and cotton pads from Testerkorea (Christmas 2013). The same set now retails for 19,300won (without shipping).

A very invisible swatch. It's a little bit thicker than water.

Cotton Pad

"Wipe and Pat Skin" How to Use Black Sugar Perfect First Serum

Contains 60 pads

• Use immediately after cleansing. Pour onto a cotton pad.
• Using the cleaning side of the pad, gently "wipe" skin to remove dead skin cells and impurities.
• Using the absorbent side of the pad, gently "pat" the skin to absorb the serum remaining on the pad.

You can see that there is a 'rough' side for you to pour the serum on first to gently wipe over your skin and exfoliate then. Afterwards, you are supposed to flip it over to the smooth side and pad the remaining serum to absorb it into the skin.

Rougher side for exfoliation.

Smoother side to pat in serum.

My Thoughts

Each bottle comes with a little stopper at the top, so you don't have to worry about the product spilling everywhere before you open it.

It took me a month and a half to finish each bottle. I used extremely sparingly. When the cotton pads ran out, I just poured it into my palms and used the warmth of my hands to help the product absorb into my skin. I guess the exfoliating effects are lost this way, but the brightening effects still stands! It smells nicer than the wash off mask. It smells sweet with a hint of citrus, rather than the full on lemon detergent smell of the Black Sugar Wash Off Mask.

I did really like this serum and my face did look visibly brighter. However, it gave me lots of closed comedones on both sides of my cheeks where it used to be smooth. It took many months for them to disappear again:( Therefore, I would say the product does what it claims but gave me undesirable side-effects. Of course, I can't comment on the anti-wrinkle claims but it did brighten and made my skin smoother (to some extent). 

TL;DR: Great product for exfoliating and great brightening effects! It gave me closed comedones though:/ Might be worth a try if you want a first serum to help your other products to absorb better. I found it to be moisturising.

☆☆☆/ 5