I’m still trying out all things snail (with a break for some hyaluronic acid, yo), so I picked up a few few products from Missha earlier in the year. One I liked a lot, one is just OK.

I actually got the Sleeping Pack first – my mother really liked the samples of the cream, so I went halfsies with her and bought the set; she got the cream, I kept the pack. It’s only 20 mL, so enough to get about a dozen uses out of it, which I guess is enough to figure out if you really like something or not. I was a little wary of buying this, because Missha products can be really heavily perfumed, but honestly, it’s not bad at all. I would call it a floral cucumber, actually; it reminds me of the fragrance of Estee Lauder’s Daywear Creme.

The texture is that of a white butter; it’s very creamy and thick, and feels wonderful going on my face. I like to put on a quarter-sized amount about half an hour before I sleep; by the time I get into bed, the mask has already partially absorbed into my dry skin. When I wake up the following morning, I look really lovely and hydrated – honestly, I can and have skipped my morning wash-up when using this the night before. So I did, in fact, repurchase it when I ran out, and I would whole-heartedly recommend it for those people who need a little extra moisture at times.

I’m a little less happy with the Skin Treatment from the same lineup. I had purchased it during the same sale to replace my essence step when my Benton Snail Bee Essence ran out. It finally ran out mid August, so I made the change – it was the only change in my routine until the MCRS ran out in mid-September, so I had a pretty good look at how it affected my skin compared to the Benton essence. The Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Skin Treatment comes in a large, translucent colored bottle. The packaging feels nice and solid – I really love using it, actually, it just feels like a pump ought to. It’s definitely very attractive, and the product itself ain’t so bad, either.

The first thing I should state: you get a lot of product for the money. It’s a 150 mL bottle, and even after using it twice a day for nearly 4 months, I’m only halfway done with it. So it is definitely a good buy, even at full price. I got it on sale for about $20, so I can’t complain about that feature at all. At my current rate of usage (and I don’t stint when it comes to essence – I use about 4 pumps each time), I will need to purchase a replacement snail essence by April 2015.

Sadly, I will need a replacement product; this has not reached HG status for me, and I don’t plan to re-purchase. The product takes the form of a non-greasy serum that quickly absorbs into the skin; so far, so good. However, there are some little side-effects that I didn’t appreciate so much. The serum itself has a very strong herbal scent, and it doesn’t smell anything like the Sleeping Mask, to my eternal disappointment. The fragrance is very sharp and offensive to me; when I initially started using it, I worried it might be a migraine trigger. Thankfully, I was wrong; the scent is just hard to handle, so I continued using it, but it’s irritating enough I wouldn’t want to re-purchase based on that fact alone.

The second issue was one of side-effects: like the Benton Aloe BHA Toner, every time I applied the product, I would have an unpleasant prickling sensation on my face, only abated by the application of heavy moisturizer. I’ve edited my review of the toner to note that I didn’t repurchase for this very reason; I don’t plan to re-purchase the Missha Skin Treatment as well, as the sensation hasn’t abated in four months. I foolishly threw out the box with the English ingredient listing, so I’ll have to look on Cosdna to see if there are any shared ingredients between the two products.

Finally, the last issue was one of product effect: It just wasn’t as good as the Benton Essence. My skin had somehow reached a rare nirvana of skin health by using the full Benton Snail Bee Line + the RMCS. I rarely had major flushing incidents and the general ruddiness of my skin had decreased quite noticeably – I was rarely wearing foundation out, which is nice because I’m lazy. After about two weeks of using the Skin Treatment, I began to notice more flushing incidents, and also more ruddiness in general. It wasn’t as bad as the period previous to using snail treatments, but the results sure weren’t as good as when I was using the Benton product.