Review: iUNIK Black Snail Restore Serum

Here’s another iUNIK skin care product! It’s iUNIK Black Snail Restore Serum. In the beginning, when I was using iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum, I was very impressed with that serum that I went out and purchased the Black Snail Restore Serum. Don’t forget to check out my full review on the Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum! Also, my review on iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Eye Cream! So the purpose of this serum is to nourish, brighten, fight wrinkles, restore moisture, and lift. Lift? I’m guessing some sort of face lift. But, that seems too drastic for a facial serum. Anyways, haha, I’ve had this serum for half a year. Here are my thoughts on it!

My experience

This serum is clear. It feels sticky upon touch. It is a snail mucin product after all. In other words, it’s snail slime. Snail products are always sticky. Some are stickier than others. In my opinion, iUNIK Black Snail Restore Serum is a lot stickier compared to Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence. When the serum is first applied to the skin, it has a sticky texture to it, but that sticky feeling disappears within a few minutes. Just pat the serum into the skin. It sinks into the skin nicely and feels lightweight on the skin. It’s not heavy at all. Didn’t leave a weird film or residue behind after application. Doesn’t pill. It works well with other skin care products in my routine and also underneath sunscreen. No issues here. What stands out the most about this serum is that it is very moisturizing. It leaves the skin feeling super hydrated. It left my skin feeling soft and supple, especially the skin around the eyes. Smooths out those dry areas very well. It helped to diminish some fine lines and wrinkles too due to the hydration that it provides. This serum is all about restoring moisture (as the product states). And it does just that.

So I really liked the way it left my skin feeling, looking softer and smoother from the hydration, but it didn’t do much for skin brightening. I haven’t noticed a brightening effect from using it. It feels like it’s just a very hydrating serum that helps with a few fine lines and wrinkles. Nothing drastic with the wrinkles. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about the results. After months of using this serum, unfortunately, it didn’t work out in the end. It clogged my pores. Much worse than the Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum. Let’s check out the ingredients…

Looking at the ingredients, it does contain beneficial ingredients, such as centella asiatica leaf water, niacinamide, sodium hyaluronate, rice extract, licorice, and so much more! But it also contain ingredients that aren’t compatible with my skin, such as ferment extracts (my skin can’t stand them! breakouts galore!) and methylpropanediol (more breakouts!). Perhaps, 1,2-hexanediol too. My skin seems to have issues with those ingredients. Plus, it’s a snail product. I haven’t had success with any snail product yet. I had to stop using Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence. 👈🏻 Go here for more details!! So, I might have to stay away from skin care products with these ingredients and snail products. They seem to break me out so far (from the products I’ve used). Last but not least, did it lift my skin? Uh, no, as I expected, lol. I’ve used so many skin care products that I haven’t noticed any lifting from any one of them. I mean, skin care products can do so much. But, I wish it would happen one day. Maybe somewhere in the near future when skin care gets more advanced than it is now. HAHA. But this is just a serum that provides a lot of moisture. Since I developed breakouts from it, I stopped using it.

This is what the serum looks like…

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Moisturizing
• Contains centella asiatica leaf water, niacinamide, sodium hyaluronate…
• Smooths out some fine lines and wrinkles, hydrating

❌ Cons

• Breakouts
• Didn’t lift the skin, lol.
• Feels sticky but it is snail mucin

Conclusion

iUNIK Black Snail Restore Serum didn’t do much for my skin besides moisturizing. That’s what I noticed most about it. It did help smooth out some fine lines and wrinkles, but it wasn’t anything major. Any skin care product that moisturizes the skin would do the same. Overall, I didn’t see anything special about it. I was hoping it would brighten my skin, but that didn’t happen. Also, in the end, it clogged my pores. Seems like this serum is way too moisturizing for my skin type. Plus it contains ingredients that my skin doesn’t seem to like. Here goes another iUNIK serum that didn’t work on my skin! Moving on…

Go here for more reviews on iUNIK skin care products

Review: iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum

Here’s another iUNIK skin care product I have. It’s iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum! Don’t forget to check out my review on the iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Eye Cream! So this serum is infused with Propolis Extract (70%), Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Extract (12%), and Centella Asiatica. The purpose of this serum is to soothe, nourish, revitalize the skin while reducing redness and calming the skin. From my experience, centella is amazing at reducing redness from acne and all-over skin redness. It’s really good at that. And it works. This serum also helps with dry, damaged, dull skin, and hyperpigmentation. Delivering minerals, vitamins, and amino acids to the skin. In turn, it helps to prevent irritation, acne, breakouts, and wrinkles. It’s ideal for sensitive skin, fragrance-free (yay!), hypoallergenic, and non-comedogenic too. But these are just claims. Let’s see if it works! I’ve had iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum for about 6 months now. Here are my thoughts on this serum!

My experience

iUNIK Propolis Vitamin Synergy Serum comes in a 50 mL bottle. It’s golden in color. I thought the color of this serum was quite intriguing. It’s gold, bright, and glowy. So I used it in the morning and at night. Just a few drops of this serum and gently pat it into the skin. It feels a little bit sticky at first, but that feeling eventually disappears when it absorbs into the skin. It feels lightweight. Very hydrating and made my skin appear smoother, dewier, and more glossy. There was a nice sheen to my skin. My skin looked very moisturized and healthy. Even though it is fragrance-free, it has a subtle sweet smell to it. The smell is barely noticeable. Maybe it’s just my nose, haha! The smell vanishes and doesn’t last long, so that’s not something to worry about. And yes, fragrance-free products can have a smell to them. Be it from essential oils or other ingredients in the product. In this case, this serum contains bergamot oil. That must be the sweet smelling scent. You know, I actually really do like the smell of bergamot oil. It smells pretty good. But this could be a problem for people that are sensitive to essential oils or fragrance.

After months of using this serum, I decreased my application to once a day, since the serum became too heavy on my oily skin. It started to feel more sticky and too much for my skin. Perhaps it was the change in weather. And the fact that I do have oily skin. Or it’s just too moisturizing for my skin type. Even with using it once a day, I started noticing little bumps along my jawline and forehead and stopped using it immediately. So I think the breakouts had to do with one of the main ingredients in this product. Ahem, propolis. Propolis is a waxy substance. That explains that strange film it left behind on my skin every time I used it. When this happens, it’s trapping in sebum, dirt, debris into the pores. This is definitely a huge no-no for my skin. Much like beeswax. I can’t use skin care products with beeswax either. As for skin brightening, in the beginning, I noticed a little bit of brightening but not much. I didn’t think this serum was that great at brightening the overall complexion. It didn’t help with hyperpigmentation or acne marks either. It didn’t do much for my skin besides hydrating it. Seems like this serum would work better for someone with dry or normal skin. My oily skin didn’t like it in the long run. I wished it worked because it does have some nice ingredients in it, such as sodium hyaluronate, niacinamide, licorice. Well, that’s too bad it didn’t work out. Oh well, haha. Moving on…

This is what the serum looks like. A drop of serum.

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

• Contains Propolis Extract, Hippophae Rhamnoides Fruit Extract, and Centella Asiatica
• Hydrating
• Made the skin appear dewy
• Soothes the skin
• Fragrance-free
• Breakouts

❌ Cons

• Doesn’t brighten the skin
• Didn’t help reduce redness in the skin
• Didn’t do much for hyperpigmentation
• Can’t tell if it did anything for wrinkles but it is hydrating
• Left a weird film on my skin
• It is fragrance-free but contains bergamot oil. If you’re sensitive to fragrance or scents, this may be a problem.

Conclusion

I was really looking forward to the results of this serum. Many claimed it brightened their skin. Helped with wrinkles and so much more. I thought it was only good at hydrating the skin. It didn’t help to brighten my skin tone or help with hyperpigmentation or acne marks. Well, on my skin, nothing changed but the hydration. But, unfortunately, I had to stop using this serum due to it breaking me out and leaving an annoying thin film on my skin that felt waxy. Trapping sebum, dirt, debris into my pores. That’s what it felt like on my skin. It looks like propolis just isn’t for my skin type. This may work for others, but it didn’t work on my skin. It’s best for me to stay away from products that contain this ingredient. The eye cream also contains propolis, but it worked because I only used it on my eyes. I’m happy that I didn’t try it on my face. That would’ve been a disaster.

Go here for more reviews on iUNIK skin care products

If you’re interested in eye creams… 👈🏻