Benton Snail Bee High Content Essence

One of the more popular Korean skincare ingredients right now is snail mucus, which sounds completely bonkers at first, but snail slime actually contains many skin benefits. The biggest is probably hyaluronic acid, which attracts and traps moisture in cells, effectively plumping and hydrating the skin. Snail mucus also contains exfoliating enzymes and glycoproteins to promote cell turnover (cell turnover = younger looking skin, science lesson over). The snail slime trend has taken over so much that overseas, snail facials are now a thing you can get. But what if you don’t want a half a dozen snails roaming all over your face for an hour a week?

Enter Benton’s snail-y concoction. An essence is just a badass version of serum, and this one contains a healthy dose of both snail mucus and bee venom, which sounds scary, but really only does very slight damage to your skin to stimulate your skin’s natural healing process (it all comes back to cell turnover). The snail- and bee-based ingredients actually make up about 90% of the formula, which really gives you some bang for your buck!

I do have to be upfront about the one major drawback though—this stuff smells like a snail fart. Seriously, it’s not the best smelling stuff. I typically avoid putting it on the skin under my nose, because ew. But the benefits really do outweigh the smell. This essence leads to positive results and helps to reduce breakouts, moisturizes, and enhances overall skin health.

 

Jeju Sparkling Mud Foam Cleanser

Though the name of this cleanser is complex, it’s definitely worth remembering because this stuff is magic! It’s a mud based cleanser that is particularly good at taming oily skin and deep cleaning your pores. For those like me, with large pores and oily skin, it’s practically a Godsend.

The formula contains French mud (ooh la la!), and jeju sparkling water, to give the cleanser its signature foaminess. Other ingredients include extracts of seaweed, damask rose flower, lavender, and rosemary—all ingredients with astringent properties to clean and disinfect your pores.

The cleanser looks like a mud-based cream when first squeezed it out, and a little goes a long way—I use no more than a dime-sized amount. Once you start rubbing it in, however, it turns into a rich, creamy foam that you massage into your skin and then rinse off, just like any other cleanser.

The result is amazing—my skin is always left feeling super clean, but not overstripped. I regularly use a glycolic acid scrub right after cleansing in the shower, and my skin has never come away irritated. Though I use the Jeju cleanser twice a day, people with sensitive or dry skin should probably start out slower and work their way up.

This product is a fantastic daily cleanser that really goes the extra mile to get the gunk out of your pores, and I highly recommend it, particularly for those who struggle with oilier-than-average skin or clogged pores.