What Is It:

There’s a reason this boosting serum is this prestige skincare line’s bestselling product. Meant to be used immediately after cleansing, before any other product, this boosting serum immediately hydrates and treats skin, prepping it to better absorb and enhancing the effects of following treatments. With a lightweight but substantial texture, the formula is rich in Korean hanbang ingredients, including milkvetch to promote circulation, dwarf lilyturf and licorice extracts to enhance the synergy among the formula’s many herbal extracts, and green tea extract to brighten, fight free radicals, and soothe.

In order to balance and harmonize the skin, Sulwhasoo utilizes its JAUM Balancing Complex™. This complex was born after countless trial and error formulas. From over three thousand Korean herbal ingredients found in ancient studies, just five precious herbs were carefully selected to formulate the JAUM Balancing Complex™. It takes 18-hours of pure dedication and expertise to make each batch. This perfected formula is now 180% more concentrated than ever before, bringing you even more stunning results than expected.

The First Care Activating Serum EX restores the glowing radiance that the aging process robs from your skin. Fine lines are plumped and filled in, dry skin is rejuvenated and nourished, and balance is restored with this delicate combination of precious herbs and botanical extracts. Your skin will be firmer and healthier than ever before once you unlock the power of Sulwhasoo’s First Care Activating Serum EX for yourself!

Need yet another glowing recommendation for glowing skin? Here’s what skincare blogger Jude Chao from Fifty Shades of Snail had to say about this special serum:



What my skin gained from the First Care Activating Serum EX (and then lost when I cut it from my routine, and then regained when I welcomed the product back into my life) was a youthful radiance that I don’t think I’ve had since I was seventeen.

Our insight:

Beautytap Director of Marketing Jude Chao considers this a holy grail. Back in 2016, she reviewed it on Fifty Shades of Snail and said:



“As we age, our skin isn’t just losing firmness, elasticity, and evenness of tone. Many of us also experience a gradual dulling of our skin over time. … I’m generally just not a rosy-cheeked person. Even when I feel good enough about my skin to go without BB cream or cushion, I’ve always felt compelled to use at least a touch of blush to avoid that DOA look. The First Care Activating Serum EX puts some rosy color in my cheeks, perhaps due to some of the extracts in the product stimulating increased circulation in my skin. After a couple of weeks of using the First Care Activating Serum EX, I found myself happily going blush-free without looking like a fresh-ish corpse. That is a huge deal in my world and well worth the investment I put into the product!”



How to use:

Pump the First Care Activating Serum 2-3 times, and apply to thoroughly cleansed skin. Help skin absorb the serum by gently massaging cheeks in circular motion with your fingers.

For an extra treat, use your middle and ring fingers to massage smile lines and around the nose, avoiding the eye area. Next, use all fingers to smooth out the forehead; follow by massaging upward, starting from the mouth area and following the jaw line up to the temples.

Ingredients:

OPHIOPOGON JAPONICUS ROOT EXTRACT, GLYCYRRHIZA URALENSIS (LICORICE) ROOT EXTRACT, WATER, BUTYLENE GLYCOL, ALCOHOL, GLYCERIN, BETAINE, CAMELLIA SINENSIS LEAF EXTRACT, PAEONIA ALBIFLORA ROOT EXTRACT, NELUMBO NUCIFERA SEED EXTRACT, POLYGONATUM OFFICINALE RHIZOME/ROOT EXTRACT, LILIUM TIGRINUM FLOWER/LEAF/STEM EXTRACT, REHMANNIA GLUTINOSA ROOT EXTRACT, CHRYSANTHEMUM MORIFOLIUM FLOWER EXTRACT, PAEONIA SUFFRUTICOSA ROOT EXTRACT, CITRUS UNSHIU PEEL EXTRACT, ADENOPHORA STRICTA ROOT EXTRACT, LYCIUM CHINENSE ROOT EXTRACT, COIX LACRYMA-JOBI MA-YUEN SEED EXTRACT, ANGELICA TENUISSIMA ROOT EXTRACT, HONEY, ASTRAGALUS MEMBRANACEUS ROOT EXTRACT, BIOSACCHARIDE GUM-1, NATTO GUM, BETA-GLUCAN, SODIUM HYALURONATE, JUGLANS REGIA (WALNUT) SHELL EXTRACT, PORTULACA OLERACEA EXTRACT, ZIZYPHUS JUJUBA FRUIT EXTRACT, THEOBROMA CACAO (COCOA) EXTRACT, PEG/PPG-17/6 COPOLYMER, GLYCERYL POLYMETHACRYLATE, BIS-PEG-18 METHYL ETHER DIMETHYL SILANE, POTASSIUM CARBOMER, PEG-60 HYDROGENATED CASTOR OIL, DEXTRIN, CELLULOSE GUM, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN, CHONDRUS CRISPUS (CARRAGEENAN), PHENYL TRIMETHICONE, PROPANEDIOL, HYDROGENATED LECITHIN, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, DISODIUM EDTA, PHENOXYETHANOL, FRAGRANCE

Brand info:

This prestige beauty brand, focused on hanbang ingredients indigenous to Korea, is as highly respected in its native land as it is abroad. Proof? Locals say its Ginseng Cream is something you’d gift to a potential mother-in-law. In its earliest iteration, that ginseng cream was what launched Sulwhasoo over 50 years ago. While helping his mother’s camellia oil business, Sulwhasoo founder Suh Sung-whan came to appreciate the power of traditional Korean herbs. Working with Kyunghee University of Oriental Medicine to blend traditional Korean medicinal herbs and methods with science-backed research, Suh founded the company that would become Sulwhasoo in 1966. All of Sulwhasoo’s ingredients are meticulously cultivated in AmorePacific’s herb farm, from the saponin-rich ginseng to white lily to East Indian lotus. Its signature formula of jaumdan, which consists of five potent herbs, targets the body’s Yin energy to fight dryness, dark spots, and inflammation. In 2004, Sulwhasoo became a best seller in Hong Kong, and in 2010, the prestige skincare line made its North American debut at Bergdorf Goodman.