Product Review: Shills Pore Minimizer Clarifying Toner

It's one minute to 12am, and I'm no Cinderella, but I'm gonna try to rush this post out before it's too far gone from midnight. (Trying to get 8 hours of sleep is no easy task when you're easily distracted~!) For those reading this in the dead of the night, please get to bed soon~ (o･д･)

Chiharu and I attended the Shill's event at Tampines 1 last Saturday with Teacher Judy Lin. Before we blog about the event though, here's a teaser post for you guys!

Each of the bloggers got a goodie bag filled with Shills' products, and this is one of the items I got:

The tiny illustration on the box reminds me of a white carrot with a black mushroom hair wig. Or maybe I'm just a tad too hungry. And of course, not forgetting the ingredients list at the back...

There's algae extract, calendula flower extract, vitia vinitfora seed extract and cucumis sativus in this thing. For those who have actually read the ingredients list for my previous post, you might have remembered cucumis sativus as being... cucumber. The ingredients are actually rather plant-based despite the relatively harsh-looking packaging.

Like most toner, the product comes in a (standard-issue) plastic bottle with a small opening when you open the cap. However, for this toner in particular, because of its ingredients, there may be powder sediments at the bottom of the bottle. Do not panic, as this is normal. What you have to do is simply shake the bottle, like so:

I lied -- I didn't actually shook the bottle in this picture... or it would have been blurry.

And then you pour some onto a piece of cotton pad and gently apply it to a cleansed face, as with your usual toner. I'm not sure if my camera was able to capture the details, but if you look closely enough you can probably see some of the whitish powder in the droplet of toner.

Overall, this is actually better than I thought it would be. It wasn't as harsh as the packaging made it out to be, though people with dry and sensitive skin should do a patch test first. Most powder toners are a little too drying for me though (I've got dry cheeks), so I personally wouldn't use them much. It should be good for people with oily/combination skin type though. Besides minimizing and tightening your pores, it also has pretty decent oil-control properties.

So on to the ratings:

Effectiveness (pore minimizing, clarifying): ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Hydration: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (It is, after all, a powder toner. People with drier skin should take extra care.)
Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (Doesn't feel powdery after application.)
Scent:  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (A mild minty, powdery scent... reminds me of camomile lotion)
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Pretty decent~)

Signing off,
Ringo

Disclaimer: This product is given to me by Shills. Regardless, it does not affect my review in any way.