After hearing lots of great things about Korea’s skincare products, I went ahead and bought my first trial skincare kit online from Etude House. It’s the Moistfull Super Collagen trial kit, and after using it for 5 days, I can finally conclude about my findings on this product! Etude House has an entire line for the Moistfull Collagen set, but I only opted to get these 3.

I got the trial kit from cosmetic-love.com, which is a Korea beauty retailer. The box came beautifully shipped and included several skinfood samples as well! As of the writing of this post, they offer free shipping worldwide and have a special 20% off sale certain brands.

The Moistfull Super Collagen set is supposed to “experience the moment of skin elasticity” and boasts of having products that contain “collagen and baobab mucin that protects your skin from dryness”. We’ll see if it lives up to its claims! Collagen is a connective protein that is commonly found in both plants and mammals, but it seems like the Moistfull set only takes collagen from trees (perhaps specifically the baobab tree)?

Absolutely adorable paper pink packaging with a little diagram in Korean. Sadly, I can’t speak Korean, but I was able to find a set of instructions in English on how to use these three products. I used these products for 5 days straight before I went to bed. I’ll review them in the order that they came in.

#1: Moistfull Super Collagen Ampoule Essence 25ml

According to the instructions, the ampoule essence is supposed to be used right after “basic skincare” (aka cleansing your face and moisturizing it). It contains a whopping 90% collagen according to the online instructions! It’s also supposed to “give smooth and elastic skin with intensive tightening care” and “sticky formation gives you feeling of moisture and elasticity”. The English translation wasn’t that great.

With such a small bottle, you have to shake it a few times for it to get out of its bottle. It is a clear, slightly viscous liquid. But it still pretty fluid and moves around easily. It also has a very faint, citrus / clean scent.

It absorbs semi-easily into the skin. It gave my skin a shiny glow for a minute or two as it settled into my skin. A lot of it can be spread over your face, so I didn’t need a lot of product in order to cover my entire face with it. It felt cool on my skin, and afterwards my skin felt a bit sticky, but cool and soft at the same time. It didn’t exactly make my skin feel any more “elastic” though!

#2: Moistfull Super Collagen Cream 10ml

The super collagen cream is supposed to be used right after you put in the ampoule essence. Make sure your skin is dry before putting it on! This boasts of having 63% collagen and is supposed to “double the elasticity of your skin” (many mentions of elasticity here) and is supposed to moisturize your skin.

This cream is very thick and difficult to scoop out with your finger, so I definitely recommend buying a small spatula or spoon to help scoop it out! It also applies quite easily to the skin and has a faint citrus / clean scent. Overall it feels like a normal moisturizer, but feels a bit heavy afterwards. It also makes my skin feel a little tight (“elastic?”) and keeps it feeling very moisturized, albeit in a rather heavy way. I have oily skin, so I would recommend this moisturizer for those with dry or normal skin. It definitely kept my skin moisturized for the entire night!

You can tell that it’s really thick and hard to spread out / scoop out!

#3: Moistfull Super Collagen CC Cream SPF 32++/PA++ 5g

This is very much like a regular CC cream, except it contains 30% collagen and is supposed to “give moisture all over your tightened skin” boasts of improvements of “whitening, wrinkle improvement, sunblock”. It gives pretty decent coverage and covers most of my flaws — it is a lot like a regular CC or BB cream. It still has that nice citrus scent though! Although compared to other CC creams, this isn’t much different, but has SPF and medium coverage. It’s a pretty nice CC cream but it only comes in 2 shades. It blends very easily and very little goes a long way.

CONCLUSION:

After using this set for 5 days straight, this is what I concluded. It is a set that is VERY good at moisturizing your skin for up to hours at a time! It also makes my skin feel very clean and soft after I apply the products, and it smells very nice too (although it scent disappears after you apply it). I wake up in the morning and my skin is still moisturized. The ampoule essence by itself can make my skin feel a little “tighter” and it does brighten my skin although the effect is only temporary. As for the “elasticity” that is so claimed, I didn’t notice anything significant.

However, this is a very heavy moisturizing cream set. I do not recommend it for people like oily skin like me because I found that halfway through the next day my oil production was off the roof! I had to constantly blot my face to keep my face from looking excessively dewy and oily, but I can vouch that it is a great moisturizing set and keeps your face feeling moisturized all day.

I also have sensitive and acne-prone skin, so I can happily say that after using it for 5 days, it did not make me break out at all. Score!

I have done some research as well and found out that the collagen in the products don’t actually do much. They don’t get absorbed into your skin or fuse with your skin’s natural supply of collagen. Instead, the collagen in the products mostly stay on top of your skin since it is too large to penetrate the skin. However, studies do indicate that it is great for moisturizing, which is on track with my findings!

PROS:

Excellent for moisturizing!

for moisturizing! Very affordable (managed to snag the set at only $7!)

Little goes a long way

Did not break out

Lovely, faint citrus / clean scent

CC cream contains SPF and offers medium-decent coverage

Skin feels soft and clean after applying

CONS:

Did not notice any “elastic” or “tightening” differences as claimed

Not good for oily skin — the moisturizing was too heavy and caused lots of uncomfortable oil production

Difficult to get out of the bottles and containers

All in all, I think this is a lovely product if you would like to moisturize your skin. I believe the cream would do the job just fine by itself, since the Ampoule essence and the CC cream seem like regular products. The ampoule essence did make the cream be absorbed easier however. I would not repurchase because it isn’t suited for my oily skin. I’ll stick with my regular light moisturizers! However, I’ll keep using a little bit of the cream and essence when my skin feels dry, and the CC cream is lovely as well.

I think it’s a good thing to buy the trial kit to see if it’s right for you! It’s not an earth-shattering or revolutionary product like it mostly claims to be. It’s just average, but if you’re looking for a moisturizer, this is the thing for you. This was a great kit to get started into Korean skincare and I’ll be purchasing more trial kits in the future, so stay tuned!