I have used ONE Primary Raw product and that was their wonderful flagship skincare moisturizer which I reviewed here. I really love that cream and was sad that I couldn’t find retailers that would ship to the USA for their products. I saw Primary Raw expand their line, with an azulene summer gel cream and other products, such as toners, and really wanted to try them. A couple of weeks ago, the USA online shop, cupidrop, announced that they were carrying Primary Raw items and of course, I had to take a look!! I purchased Primary Raw Doyou Soy Milk Ferment toner and Doyouganic cleansing soap, which will be in one of my upcoming testing reviews. I also purchased a couple of these 2-Step Face Therapy products, which are facial sheet masks with a pre-step involved. Doyou means soy milk (두유) in Korean and Primary Raw Doyou line is made with soy milk (soybeans).
I am doing an InstaReview on the 2-Step Face Therapy as it is a sheet mask, I can give you some impressions of how it feels, ingredients and would I repurchase. Facial sheet masks are an inexpensive way to ease into a line of a new brand as well, and enables you to decide if you wish to purchase more of their line or not.
This is a 2 step mask, where the first step is an AHA treatment ~ AHA Milkpeel Cotton Ball, which is just an oversized Q-Tip (or cotton swab) soaked in an AHA solution. You apply this AHA treatment on your nose, forehead and chin ~ also any where you want mild exfoliation on your face. There is a lot of excess essence in the baggie, so just gently squeeze out the liquid and apply on your face. It has a slight scent to it, a bit medical, but not unpleasant. There is a slight stinging sensation when I first apply this, but it quickly goes away. This is actually good, because it tells me that the AHA’s are working.
Key Ingredients
- Aloe Vera is a powerful moisturizer that doesn’t leave your skin feeling oily or greasy. It soothes, treats inflammation, helps speed up skin healing and also has a plethora of antioxidants ~ beta-carotene, Vitamin C and Vitamin E, which help improve your skin’s firmness and keeps your skin moist and hydrated. It also contains over 75 different nutritious ingredients, including minerals, enzymes, amino acids, salicylic acid and much more.
- Glycerin helps with healing of wounds, is an humectant, sealing in moisture, maintains the skin’s water balance on an intercellular level, which makes the skin look healthy, moist (not dry and scaly), soft to touch, and is also an emollient, leaving your skin looking radiant and supple
- Niacinamide is a powerful antioxidant that acts as an anti-inflammatory, improves your skin elasticity, enhance the skin barrier function and also it helps to even out skin tone and reduce post-inflammatory hyper-pigmentation.
- Lactic (milk) acid, Pyrus Malus (apple), Citric acid, Glycolic (sugar cane) acid are all AHA’s (alpha-hydroxy acids) which will gently exfoliate your skin, increases cellular turnover, removing dead skin cells, bringing new skin cells to the surface of your face. This will result in a fresh, bright skin and help fade hyper pigmentation. They also can help reduce acne breakouts and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
Ingredients: water, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, glycerin, lactic acid, sodium citrate, butylene glycol, niacinamide, pyrus malus (apple) fruit water, citric acid, glycolic acid, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, illicium verum (anise) fruit extract, 1,2-hexanediol, scutellaria baicalensis root extract, foeniculum vulgare (fennel) fruit extract, ocimum basilicum (basil) leaf extract, citrus limon (lemon) fruit oil, chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract, houttuynia cordata extract, althaea officinalis root extract, lavandula angustifolia (lavender) flower extract, rosemarinus officinalis (rosemary) extract cosDNA.com analysis
images from cupidrop.com and primaryraw.com
After applying the AHA product on my nose and chin, I then took the mask out of its pouch. This is a microfiber mask, so it is thicker than cotton, but it is not rough to its touch. It is silky smooth and I could have worn this all day! The mask is soaked in a thick essence, so it doesn’t drip off my face and the microfiber absorbs the essence, so there wasn’t any excess in the bag. The fit of the mask was fairly good ~ it didn’t cover my nose as well as I would have like it too and the eye holes were a bit strange, but I felt that the mouth and chin area were exceptional for coverage. Many times, the piece between the nose and mouth is so thin that it doesn’t cover that area at all. I have a lot of “space” between my nose and upper lip!!
This mask also contains glycerin (moisturizing) and nicacinamide (whitening) along with some key ingredients:
- Hyaluronic Acid (Sodium Hyaluronate) is an intensive moisturizing ingredient which bonds water to keep skin hydrated. It is a natural substance found in the human body and it made up of amino and uronic acids, and helps retain 100 to 1,000 times its own water weight in our skin cells.
- Swiflet Nest Extract is rich in vitamins and proteins, it will help brighten your skin tone, normalize your skin’s cellular turnover and help assist in forming collagen. Swiflet nest extract is made from the spit of these little swifts when they make their nests.
- Panthenol (Vitamin B5) is an excellent hydrating ingredient for your skin
- Glycine Soja (soybean) oil 200 ppm of this precious oil is in this mask. Soybean is a skin-softening ingredient that is a very intensive moisturizer and it also seems to help with treating blemishes as well. Soy is an anti-inflammatory and due to its high concentrations of Vitamin E, is a powerful antioxidant and can combat free radicals and reverse skin damage. One of its compounds is genistein which is reported to help with production of your skin’s collagen. I find that soybean is an ingredient that works well with my oily, aging skin.
This mask also contains a plethora of herbal plant extracts, full of antioxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties ~ green tea, licorice, chamomile, rosemary, aloe vera, centella asiatica, Japanese pepper, lichen, skullcap, Japanese knotweed and Korean pasque extracts.
Ingredients: water, glycerin, butylene glycol, propanediol, niacinamide, sodium hyaluronate, swiflet nest extract, hydrolyzed collagen, panthenol, allantoin, glycine soja (soybean) oil (200ppm), centella asiatica extract, polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed) root extract, scutellaria baicalensis (skullcap) root extract, camellia sinesis leaf extract, glycyrrhiza glabra (licorice) root extract, chamomilla recutita (matricaria) flower extract, rosemarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, zanthoxylum piperitum (Japanese pepper) fruit extract, pulsatilla koreana (Korean pasque flower) extract,usnea barbata (lichen) extract, hydroxyethylcellulose, adenosine, carbomer, tromethamine, PEG-60 hydrogenated castor oil, fragrance, disodium EDTA cosDNA.com analysis
images from primaryraw.com
images from primaryraw.com
Selfie Time!!
My Mona Lisa Smile
A running joke with me and my mom is that up until the 6th grade, in school photos, I always smiled with my mouth shut ~ what she dubbed “my Mona Lisa” smile. In 6th grade, I smiled widely, showing my teeth.. well, what teeth I had, as I was missing my 2 front teeth, as they had just fallen out! My mom was not that amused at the time, but now we laugh about it! Don’t I look like I am blissfully hiding a secret?
Okay, back to the mask ~ after 20 minutes, I removed the mask. I could have left it on a bit longer if I wanted to, as it is was still moist, but better to remove it somewhat moist than dry. I waited 5 minutes and used my new toy, my digital skin analyzer (review here), to take a reading on my face. I decided to do masks after 5 minutes, as I consider any hydrating benefits from masks to be temporary. I am still learning with my digital skin analyzer, so any helpful tips or hints would be appreciated.
Not bad!! My moisture level is at 53% which is fantastic. I can say this is a good hydrating and moisturizing mask. My face was initially tacky after I removed this mask, but by the time I took my reading 5 minutes later, the essence had absorbed into my skin, leaving it very soft and supple.
I have one more of these masks on hand, but I have the feeling I will be making another purchase at cupidrop to get more. I do like the silky feel of the mask and the ingredients list is exceptional to me. I give this mask a big seal of approval!
I hope that cupidrop will carry the azulene summer gel cream from Primary Raw as well. If you are interested in purchasing this item or some of Primary Raw’s other items, check out cupidrop’s selection here.
Unboxing Beauty 