You'd want to squirt this on your scrumptious cupcakes if you didn't read the full name on the bottle.
Finally, my first feature on My Beauty Diary! If you've never heard of this brand before, My Beauty Diary is a Taiwanese brand and is today still synonymous with facial sheet masks, despite countless other Asian brands offering similar masks on the market currently. The brand has a cult following, especially in the Far East.
But okay, we'll talk about their sheet masks some other time. Let's take a look at the My Beauty Diary Vanilla Soufflé Face Scrub.
This is what the brand says (excerpts):
This fun formulation of foaming facial scrub with moisturizing Vanilla Mousse contains natural papaya enzyme synergized with multiple plant ingredients to moisturize and condition dull and tired skin.......The accummulated dull and old skin cells will disappear and new cells will restore the delicate and smooth surface of the skin........it absorbs excessive oil........
Ingredients
Finally, my first feature on My Beauty Diary! If you've never heard of this brand before, My Beauty Diary is a Taiwanese brand and is today still synonymous with facial sheet masks, despite countless other Asian brands offering similar masks on the market currently. The brand has a cult following, especially in the Far East.
But okay, we'll talk about their sheet masks some other time. Let's take a look at the My Beauty Diary Vanilla Soufflé Face Scrub.
This is what the brand says (excerpts):
This fun formulation of foaming facial scrub with moisturizing Vanilla Mousse contains natural papaya enzyme synergized with multiple plant ingredients to moisturize and condition dull and tired skin.......The accummulated dull and old skin cells will disappear and new cells will restore the delicate and smooth surface of the skin........it absorbs excessive oil........
Ingredients
There appears to be at least one printing error on the list. There is one item that says just "seed extract" and as the crucial name "Carica papaya" is nowhere to be found on the rest of the list, I think that that is the papaya enzyme that got missed out in the blurp.
The product does contain alcohol and parabens but I am quite impressed that it contains many plant extracts, some of which are native to Asia:
• Japanese elm root extract
• centella extract
• fig fruit extract
• cnidium root extract
• licorice root extract
• Chinese peony root extract
• purslane extract
• kudzu root extract
• aloe vera leaf juice
These plant extracts have been used for generations in one way or another in traditional medicine to treat various ailments. Many of them have anti-inflammatory properties, a couple have antioxidant capacities and one, the Japanese elm root, is said to be as moisturising as hyaluronic acid and is good for cell regeneration.
Those are not the words of My Beauty Diary. I've been doing my own little research and I thought I'd share it here. It all sounds good but the thing is, we wouldn't know how much of these plant extracts actually is in this product to be beneficial enough to the skin, would we?
How To Use
• Wash your face with your usual facial cleanser, lightly dab dry.
• Shake the Vanilla Soufflé bottle really well, squirt the product onto your palm with the bottle turned diagonally upside down.
• About the size of a golf ball would do.
• Massage onto face in circular motions for about one minute. Don't forget the neck area.
• Rinse off with water.
The product does contain alcohol and parabens but I am quite impressed that it contains many plant extracts, some of which are native to Asia:
• Japanese elm root extract
• centella extract
• fig fruit extract
• cnidium root extract
• licorice root extract
• Chinese peony root extract
• purslane extract
• kudzu root extract
• aloe vera leaf juice
These plant extracts have been used for generations in one way or another in traditional medicine to treat various ailments. Many of them have anti-inflammatory properties, a couple have antioxidant capacities and one, the Japanese elm root, is said to be as moisturising as hyaluronic acid and is good for cell regeneration.
Those are not the words of My Beauty Diary. I've been doing my own little research and I thought I'd share it here. It all sounds good but the thing is, we wouldn't know how much of these plant extracts actually is in this product to be beneficial enough to the skin, would we?
How To Use
• Wash your face with your usual facial cleanser, lightly dab dry.
• Shake the Vanilla Soufflé bottle really well, squirt the product onto your palm with the bottle turned diagonally upside down.
• About the size of a golf ball would do.
• Massage onto face in circular motions for about one minute. Don't forget the neck area.
• Rinse off with water.
Complaints
Before I get on with what I think, I should let you know that there have been complaints by other ladies about this face scrub, such as:
• It smells strongly of alcohol, which was enough to put some ladies off already.
• It stings.
• It's too drying for the skin.
• It can cause breakouts.
For some reason, my experience with this face scrub has been very different, which goes to show that everyone's skin is different.
My Thoughts
Scent
To me, the Vanilla Soufflé Face Scrub smells quite like a sweet cookie/dessert. Whatever alcohol smell there is (my nose can't detect it) must be dominated by the sweet coconut-ty scent. Gah, where's the vanilla, really?!
Texture
The words soufflé and mousse are used interchangeably here. The face scrub is like your everyday hair mousse. It comes out white and the mousse is light, fluffy, foamy and super velvety smooth.
Before I get on with what I think, I should let you know that there have been complaints by other ladies about this face scrub, such as:
• It smells strongly of alcohol, which was enough to put some ladies off already.
• It stings.
• It's too drying for the skin.
• It can cause breakouts.
For some reason, my experience with this face scrub has been very different, which goes to show that everyone's skin is different.
My Thoughts
Scent
To me, the Vanilla Soufflé Face Scrub smells quite like a sweet cookie/dessert. Whatever alcohol smell there is (my nose can't detect it) must be dominated by the sweet coconut-ty scent. Gah, where's the vanilla, really?!
Texture
The words soufflé and mousse are used interchangeably here. The face scrub is like your everyday hair mousse. It comes out white and the mousse is light, fluffy, foamy and super velvety smooth.
Exfoliation
Scrub. Hmmm, that's another inaccuracy in the name. It contains no granules, so you won't really be doing any scrubbing. If anything, it offers chemical exfoliation, as in an enzyme peel, supposedly with the papaya enzyme.
As you massage the mousse on your face, it begins to dry and you'll end up with white bits and rolled-up slivers on your skin. Keep massaging it on the face for one minute. Add a few drops of water if it gets too dry or if your fingers encounter resistance.
Scrub. Hmmm, that's another inaccuracy in the name. It contains no granules, so you won't really be doing any scrubbing. If anything, it offers chemical exfoliation, as in an enzyme peel, supposedly with the papaya enzyme.
As you massage the mousse on your face, it begins to dry and you'll end up with white bits and rolled-up slivers on your skin. Keep massaging it on the face for one minute. Add a few drops of water if it gets too dry or if your fingers encounter resistance.
At first sight, one would be inclined to think that the white bits are dead skin cells. Wow, right?
However, the lowdown: Nope, it's not necessarily dead skin. For the most part, they are really dried up, rubbery, stretchy bits of the mousse itself. I've inspected some of the bigger pieces and you can pull these bits apart like pulling apart stretchy bread dough.
I've also noticed that some of the mousse that is still on the nozzle of the bottle does dry up after a while and turn, again, into the same kind of white stretchy bits. That's why I say that what I end up with on my skin is mostly the mousse and not necessarily dead skin cells. However, maybe some of the dead skin cells have been incorporated into these white bits. I can't say for sure.
Efficacy
For the past three months, I've been using this "scrub" once every 7-10 days (My Beauty Diary suggests 1-2 times per week). I do find my skin somewhat smoother, softer and less dull after each use but I won't claim that it's changed my world.
After rinsing off, I dab dry and go right ahead with the next step. That usually involves using a My Beauty Diary sheet mask. It's the perfect next step because, after the so-called peel, the skin should be ready to take in all the nourishment that the mask has to offer.
However, the lowdown: Nope, it's not necessarily dead skin. For the most part, they are really dried up, rubbery, stretchy bits of the mousse itself. I've inspected some of the bigger pieces and you can pull these bits apart like pulling apart stretchy bread dough.
I've also noticed that some of the mousse that is still on the nozzle of the bottle does dry up after a while and turn, again, into the same kind of white stretchy bits. That's why I say that what I end up with on my skin is mostly the mousse and not necessarily dead skin cells. However, maybe some of the dead skin cells have been incorporated into these white bits. I can't say for sure.
Efficacy
For the past three months, I've been using this "scrub" once every 7-10 days (My Beauty Diary suggests 1-2 times per week). I do find my skin somewhat smoother, softer and less dull after each use but I won't claim that it's changed my world.
After rinsing off, I dab dry and go right ahead with the next step. That usually involves using a My Beauty Diary sheet mask. It's the perfect next step because, after the so-called peel, the skin should be ready to take in all the nourishment that the mask has to offer.
As a side note, I'll tell you why I bought this Vanilla Soufflé Face Scrub in the first place:
• Curiosity
I don't usually fall for kawaii-cutiepie-koochi-koochi-cute things but I have been curious about My Beauty Diary for a looooong time.
• Convincing sales promoter
I'm very wary of pushy, smooth-talking sales promoters, especially those in Asia, but this young lady, even thoough she was a smooth-talker, she offered me a lot of useful advice on how to make the most of the products.
• Demo
She did a demonstration of this Face Scrub on my arm and lo and behold, when she rinsed it off, I swear I could see a brighter patch of skin compared to the 'unscrubbed' skin! I wish I had taken a photo of that then.
I tried replicating that at home the other day but I couldn't. I then realised that I had a tan back then due to exposure to the fierce tropical sun and so, the difference was very obvious. Now, back in the sun-less low lands, I've lost my tan, hence my failed at-home demo. Sorry!
Conclusion
You could say I'm ambivalent about this face "scrub". I don't hate it, I don't super love it and I won't say it's a must-have. I quite like it in that I haven't had issues with the alcohol content, it doesn't break me out and I think it's a subtle (very subtle!) exfoliator that serves as a good-enough prelude to the My Beauty Diary sheet masks.
I won't be buying another bottle when this one finishes. There are other exfoliators that I would like to try and which I'm sure would also work well with the facial sheet masks. Easy access to this brand is also another issue. I bought this in Kuala Lumpur and paid about €15 for this 120ml bottle. While the brand is Taiwanese, it says on my bottle that the product is made in Korea.
My Beauty Diary website:
English
Taiwanese Chinese
I looked around on the internet and here are a couple of places where you can buy My Beauty Diary products:
Sasa.com
Soy Fashion
CP Cosmetics store on Amazon.com
Amazon UK
• Curiosity
I don't usually fall for kawaii-cutiepie-koochi-koochi-cute things but I have been curious about My Beauty Diary for a looooong time.
• Convincing sales promoter
I'm very wary of pushy, smooth-talking sales promoters, especially those in Asia, but this young lady, even thoough she was a smooth-talker, she offered me a lot of useful advice on how to make the most of the products.
• Demo
She did a demonstration of this Face Scrub on my arm and lo and behold, when she rinsed it off, I swear I could see a brighter patch of skin compared to the 'unscrubbed' skin! I wish I had taken a photo of that then.
I tried replicating that at home the other day but I couldn't. I then realised that I had a tan back then due to exposure to the fierce tropical sun and so, the difference was very obvious. Now, back in the sun-less low lands, I've lost my tan, hence my failed at-home demo. Sorry!
Conclusion
You could say I'm ambivalent about this face "scrub". I don't hate it, I don't super love it and I won't say it's a must-have. I quite like it in that I haven't had issues with the alcohol content, it doesn't break me out and I think it's a subtle (very subtle!) exfoliator that serves as a good-enough prelude to the My Beauty Diary sheet masks.
I won't be buying another bottle when this one finishes. There are other exfoliators that I would like to try and which I'm sure would also work well with the facial sheet masks. Easy access to this brand is also another issue. I bought this in Kuala Lumpur and paid about €15 for this 120ml bottle. While the brand is Taiwanese, it says on my bottle that the product is made in Korea.
My Beauty Diary website:
English
Taiwanese Chinese
I looked around on the internet and here are a couple of places where you can buy My Beauty Diary products:
Sasa.com
Soy Fashion
CP Cosmetics store on Amazon.com
Amazon UK
