What I got from The Face Shop’s Oil Free BB Cream

Last Monday, while shopping for a client’s order from The Face Shop (TFS), I chanced upon TFS’s sale rack. Their Clean Face Oil-Free BB Creams were 50% off! A BB Cream for only PHP 150.00 is a hard thing to resist. So I got one!

This BB Cream is supposed to contain Chamomile extract to calm irritated skin. The main ingredient is something that’s codenamed as “Quick n’ Clear Complex” which treats oily skin quicky and effectively.

I was excited to try the BB and thought that if this turned out to be good, well, I’d push this to clients who are in need of oil-control BBs below the PHP 500.00 price range.

So I used this for four days straight, with no change in my skincare regimen. And this is what I have to say:


The only thing I got from TFS’ Oil Free BB Cream is a bad case of breakouts. Okay, so that might be an overstatement. But I have not had a pimple for quite a few months and my skin is far from oily. It's winter here, which means my skin is at its driest and most behaved condition i.e. not much oiliness. So when I suddenly get two, big, cystic pimples three days after using this BB cream I cannot help but curse myself for being such a cheapskate and falling for the 50% discount thing.

Too bad, because, honestly, the coverage is pretty good. It definitely had more coverage than the Lioele Waterdrop Aqua Makeup that I normally use (the Lioele Waterdrop is more like a tinted moisturizer than a foundation/ BB cream). But there is something in the TFS’ formulation that’s making my skin act up. Vitamin E, perhaps? After the two pimples popped, I tried the BB for another day and I noticed that my cheeks were starting to get itchy too so I stopped. Sad, it would have been great if it worked ---Another good BB Cream at an extremely affordable price. But it was not to be ☹

For me at least, this BB does not live up to its promise.

P.S. Do not misunderstand, I am not saying pointblank that TFS Oil-free BB Cream causes pimples. It might work for others, but there is something in it that has triggered my long dormant acne. As is always the case with cosmetics, different strokes for different folks. In my case, this supposedly oil-free BB triggered the oil and acne machine in me and now I have to wait for the two pimples to dry out and be gone :-(

Missha Watery BB Cream: Why We Will No Longer Offer This Variant at the Store

I've mentioned this two years ago in one of my blog entries at my multiply store and have informed clients about this unfortunate problem when they do encounter it. In fact, for a while there, we even stopped accepting orders for this BB cream.


But we've had so many bad reviews from this BB cream that I figured, enough already.



We will no longer offer Missha Watery because of its problematic formulation : Missha Watery deemulsifies.
We all know it is water-based. The culprit is the water which is lighter than the cream (foundation) part of this BB cream. So, remember our elementary chemistry? fluids of different densities would separate into layers. In some tubes, the lighter one (the water), settles on top of the heavier (cream) layer. What then happens?

Here are descriptions of this problem from Make-up Alley:

-After a few uses the cream would separate itself from the color.

-very runny. Yesterday when i opened it water came running out of it... wonder if it ever happened to you?



It is something that sellers like me cannot control. I personally purchase our shop's items here in Korea at the Missha Retail outlets, and yet as early as 2009, when I started selling Missha Watery, clients would either be lucky enough to not encounter this problem, get one which has separated already, or buy one that seems okay but after sometime would encounter the dreaded deemulsification. I would often explain that the only way around it is to shake the bottle hard. I could not do anything about it because I bought them as is from the actual Missha stores in Korea.

Three years on, one would expect Missha to have fixed the formulation, but no, just this weekend I got a complaint again: A longtime client, who specifically requested for a tube of Missha Watery, got her tube recently and complained that her Missha Watery seemed to be expired because when she opened the tube, runny water came out. The BB cream's deemulsified. The sad thing is, I seldom stock up on Missha Watery but because she requested for one, I bought one for her and brought it with me on my recent trip to Pinas. The thing is, in most Missha stores in Korea, Missha Watery is no longer offered. So I had to get the tube in the Missha store in Myeongdong, Korea's fashion strip, where most tourists flock, to get a tube. Good thing this was not a new client. She, being a longtime buyer, knows how we try to be honest and forthcoming with our business, even accepting our mistakes if needed be. Imagine if a new client ordered this and found the item deemulsified, do you think she'd wholly believe my explanation that it is an inherent product flaw?


That it deemulsified was a sad thing but it was totally out of our shop's control. Sure, the client, being a longtime one understood. But the hassle and dissapointment such a bad product gave is well, unforgivable. So hear me when I say, we will no longer get any new stocks for Missha Watery even if a client personally requests for it. One, we do not want to be at the blaming end when the tube the client gets is deemulsified.
Two, I've had it with this product. That must be the precise reason why this is no longer sold in all stores here in Korea. I say, better for them to totally scrap this dud.

And please, a bit of a plea to clients who preorder, much as we try to give you information about the products you request, please, please do your part too in researching your items (a little googling takes only a minute or so). As we all should know, an informed consumer is the best consumer.

Cheers!

P.S. Sorry if my first blog post of the week isn't too perky but I feel that I have to say this so that others would be informed.