|REVIEW| 1. Half Moon Eyes Milky Jelly Toning Essence: How to Get CHOK CHOK Skin

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMON, MAKE LEMONADE
It's been three weeks since my last post on TST's new counter in The Garden's Mall! I wish I could post more often in the past three weeks but my work has really kept me very occupied. I've had my ups and downs in the first six weeks of work and I thought it'd be interesting to talk about them. So, I'm planning to have a new series talking about work which I will share here. If you ever wonder how it's like to work in one of the big four audit firms, stay tuned!

Experienced set for RM118

OILY OR CHOK CHOK?
Enough said, let's get down to what we're here for: how to get chok chok skin. Although the trend is now evolving to the more extreme 'glass skin', most of us are still slowly embracing the soft dewy (also more subdued) chok chok look which implies youthfulness and moisturised skin. Some people despise it because they think it makes their skin appear oily and shiny but honestly, I'm a big fan of this look. So how to do it to avoid the oily and shiny look?

DO IT WITH HALF MOON EYES (HME)
Can't say I didn't have a motive when I wrote that how-to title HAHA! Besides a guide on how to prepare your skin in the morning, I also include a review of these half moon eyes product. So, here's a 2-in-1 hehe. But before that, let's get to know HME a little more. It is a Korean beauty brand created by the beautiful Lee Seung Hyun, but, why did she name it HME? The reason is simple: Lee Seung Hyun has a pair of half-moon shaped eyes herself. So far, there are only three skincare products under HME and I will be reviewing them one by one below.

For each skincare routine, the first product that we always use after cleansing our skin is toner. Therefore, let's start with the Half Moon Eyes toner.

HALF MOON EYES MILKY JELLY TONING ESSENCE + COTTON PAD

Half Moon Eyes Milky Jelly Toning Essence (RM65 for 180ML)

Introduction
Phew, that's a long name! This for-all-skin toner is a 3-in-1 babe. It claims to have the ability to refine, balance and hydrate our skin. That's why other than calling it a toner, it has also been labelled as a booster as well as an essence. Looking at the picture below, you can see it has a clear layer on top and a layer of some milky stuff below.

See the milky stuff at the bottom?

Ingredient List
The three most highly marketed ingredients for this toner are fig, silica powder and tea tree.

(Skincarisma)

Water, Melaleuca Alternifolia Leaf Water, Sodium Hyaluronate, Ficus Carica Fruit Extract, Silica, Centella Asiatica Leaf Extract, Avena Sativa Kernel Extract, Allantoin, Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Water, Adansonia Digitata Fruit Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Nut Extract, Morus Alba Fruit Extract, Punica Granatum Fruit Extract, Illicium Verum Fruit Extract, PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Sorbitol, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, *Butylene Glycol, Trideceth-10, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

Note: Bolded are the star ingredients in the product whereas underlined are those flagged as 3 & above under 'Safety index'. Safety index ranges from 1-9 and the lower the number means the less hazardous. Those with asterisks (*) are more likely to cause acne than those without.

Tea Tree
The first bolded ingredient is what we commonly know as tea tree leaf water. If you are constantly battling with acne, you should get to know this great friend of yours. It has the ability to dry out acnes and help soothe inflammation. Having this in it and being the second highest item, the HME toner sounds like a good idea for acne skin.

Fig
Moving on, we see Ficus Carica Fruit, which is also known as fig. Figs are rich in antioxidants and has anti-collagenase effect. Hence, it is commonly used for anti-aging products. Some studies of fig even claims that it is able to decrease skin melanin, trans-epidermal water loss, and skin sebum significantly, thus able to hydrate our skin. This plays an important role in HME's 3-in-1 toner to help hydrate our skin and giving us the chok chok effect we're dying for.

Silica Powder
Looking at both the W.Lab Sebum Out Finish Powder and Althea Petal Velvet Powder that I've reviewed before, you'd notice that they have the same main ingredient, i.e. silica. Adding in google research and studies, this gives us the assurance that silica powder is indeed great for covering up pores and controlling sebum. And that's the milky stuff you see at the bottom of the toner as well.

Everything at the back of the package is in Korean 😭 (I translated for you though hehe)

How to Use
Being a 3-in-1, you can use this toning essence in three ways. Note that for all three, make sure you shake it well before you start pouring the essence/toner out. This is to make sure the silica mixes well with the rest of the solution and that you get all the benefits from this toner!

(1)
After cleansing, pour a small amount of the toner on a cotton pad and pat into skin. It will remove dead cells and hydrate skin.

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Cotton pads are included when you purchase the toner!

How to Use (Contd.)

(2)
Pour some of it into a mist container (you can easily get one in pharmacy stores like Watsons, and Daiso as well) and use it as a mist. You can carry it around more easily and slip it into your handbag while you travel.

(3)
Before you do your makeup or night skincare routine, soak a mask sheet (you can tear your cotton pads into layers and use them as a mask sheet!) with the toner and use it as a mask.

My Opinion
Realising that it has a pH of around 5 (our skin's pH is around 4.2-5.6), it definitely balances my skin as it promised. I noticed that my skin has reduced bumps and random irritation caused by prolonged use of sunscreen if I have this underneath. Not just that. Every time I put on this toner, my skin feels instantly hydrated and is also slightly less oily (sadly, I still need my powder) at the end of the day.

My skin looks dull and dry so it's time to feed it with the 'water' it needs.

Shake before you pour!

How much I use each time for my face.

After one wipe, my pores look smaller. I can feel that my skin is instantly hydrated and revitalised. Now looking at the pictures, I even think that it slightly brightened my skin!

My Opinion (contd.)
Other than those, I haven't seen any reduction in acne formation or any significant change on my skin texture after using it for three weeks. But my skin has always not been particularly reactive to tea tree products so that could be the reason why. By the way, if you're worried about the smell, fret not. It's not tea tree-alike at all. Instead, it has this soap smell (seriously, I think it smells like my organic hair shampoo haha) which in my opinion is pleasant. It doesn't irritate my skin at all in spite of the smell.

Another thing I've realised when using this toner is that it is not sticky at all (thanks to its watery texture?). Although I'd still say it takes some time for my skin to absorb, it drinks it up almost entirely leaving a fresh base for me to continue with the second step of my routine. So far I've only been using it in the morning (p.s. I've already used up 30ml LOL) and it fares well under Malaysia's hot weather even if I layer more products on it.

Frankly, I'm not a fan of the need to shake it every time before use because I often forget to shake mine. But I do love that it comes with a ruler for me to gauge how much I've used!

Recommend?
Yes if hydration is your main goal because starting from the early step (toning) is key!

LET'S SEPARATE
Since the post is getting waaaay longer than I expected, I've decided to separate the three reviews into three posts to reduce my post length. I will be reviewing two more HME products in my next two posts and link them back here so be sure to stay tuned!

Read Step 2 - Half Moon Eyes Pink Fruity

Read Step 3 - Half Moon Eyes Milky Moisture Cream

I'm also including all of the details of where you can get them below for your early reference in case you can't wait for my reviews: 

Half Moon Eyes Milky Jelly Toning Essence + Cotton Pad - RM65.00

Half Moon Eyes Pink Fruity
1 for RM7.00
3 for RM20.70
5 + 1 free for 35.00

Half Moon Eyes Milky Moisture Cream - RM67.00

If you're into getting the whole set, I'd suggest you go for the experience set for a much cheaper price:

Experience Half Moon Eyes Set - RM118.00
From what I see in Althea's pictures, this set contains all three of the products above. You should double check with Althea before you make any purchase with them.

You can get RM20 off your first purchase from Althea by signing up using this link: https://www.talkable.com/x/wnCNUp. Only available if it's your first purchase though. :)

If you want to buy from Althea but this is not your first purchase, you can still save money (save 7% for every purchase) by using Shopback. Just sign up using my link: https://www.shopback.my/referred-signup-bonus?raf=OxeI66, and you'll be rewarded with RM5 immediately, followed by RM5 when you make your first purchase through Shopback. That's RM10 in total! It works in the form of cash back which you can cash out to your bank account. You'll can learn more on their website here.

Thank you for reading, see you in the next post!

I post new contents on skincare every Tuesday and Friday. Follow me on Bloglovin' so you won't miss it when my next review is up!

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The product is sent to me for review purposes. Special thanks to the best mamasan ever, Tammy for granting me this opportunity! As usual, the review is 100% my personal opinion of the product after personally trying it out. Please make sure you consult whoever is selling you the product and ask for samples if you can! Please read my disclaimer here.

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