Initial Impression: Etude House Must Have Travel Item Set

I was rummaging around some of my old makeup stash a couple weeks ago and stumbled across this Etude House Must Have Travel Item Set. I was given this by a friend a couple years ago because her aunt received it when she was in South Korea but didn’t want it so she thought I’d like it. I’d since forgotten about it but was happy when I found it again because there were product here that’d I’d been curious about and was considering buying to try out. I generally like Etude House. They have affordable skincare and makeup with really cute packaging that gives off a cute feminine and girly vibe. They are especially popular among teens and young women.

I like the idea of this travel set as it contains deluxe samples of full size products so you can easily take it on the go. It also provides a way of trying some of Etude House’s more popular products before investing the money on the original sizes. I really wish Western companies would take a leaf out of their book because it’s so beneficial to both the consumer and the company.

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This 5 item travel set contains (from left to right):

• Moistfull Collagen First Essence 15ml
• Precious Mineral BB Cream All Day Strong #2 8g
• Petit Bijou Cotton Snow Moisture Body Lotion 30ml
• Baking Powder Pore Cleansing Foam 30ml
• Petit Bijou Cotton Snow Soft Body Wash 30ml

Note: I haven’t tried these products long enough to do an in-depth review so this is just my initial impressions from using them a couple of times. Also, this particular travel set was released awhile back in 2012 I think, so certain products may have been changed, discontinued or reformulated since then but I am just going by what I have in this set.

1 . Petit Bijou Cotton Snow Soft Body Wash 30ml

I wasn’t aware of this body line by Etude House but it includes the body wash, body lotion and intensive cream. I love this body wash. It smells exactly like talcum powder and babies. The smell might be too overpowering for some people but I love it! It is formulated with milk protein and ivy extract to soften and relieve stressed skin. It has a semi milky clear colour, is very moisturising and doesn’t give me a squeaky clean dry feeling.

2. Petit Bijou Cotton Snow Moisture Body Lotion 30ml

This body lotion has the same powdery fragrance as the body wash and I can’t get enough of it. Slathering my whole body in this? Oh yes. This is formulated with some lovely soothing ingredients such as lavender and chamomile. Since it’s a lotion, the consistency is a lot thinner and watery than a cream but not to the point of being very runny. It doesn’t have the full moisturing thickness of say a body butter but I prefer the feel of this because it is easy to spread, absorbs quickly and I still feel very moisturised without the sticky heavy feeling atop the skin. It’s great all year round I think but I do have very dry legs in winter so I would probably need a more occlusive moisturiser than this.

3. Baking Powder Pore Cleansing Foam 30ml

This is a 3 in 1 cleansing foam for deeply penetrating pores to give a thorough cleanse and remove dirt, makeup and sunscreen. The benefits of baking powder in skincare are well known – anti inflammatory, mild antiseptic properties, absorbs oil to prevent clogged pores, fights acne and blackheads and improves overall skin complexion. However, I really disliked this product. Way too harsh on my skin, had the squeaky clean feeling and stripped dry of moisture. After I dried my face I felt like I desperately needed to throw every essence, serum and moisturiser I had to replace the lost moisture. My skin is usually oily prone too, so the fact it felt horribly drying I can’t imagine what it would be like for someone with dry skin. This likely has a very high alkaline pH. I don’t even care if it worked amazing on my pores and removing dirt, just the fact it destroys my moisture barrier makes it a bad product.

4. Moistfull Collagen First Essence  15ml

Etude House now has a revamped Moistfull Collagen essence (of which I have samples to try) so this ‘first essence’ has actually been discontinued by the brand so I won’t go into too much detail other than I liked it had 90% hydrolyzed collagen in it and was fairly moisturising applying after my toner. However it had a very slimy consistency and was very sticky applying to the face. It took a few minutes to full absorb into the skin after which it was fine, but I did not like the initial tackiness to it.

5. Precious Mineral BB Cream All Day Strong #2 8g

 

Etude House have a few BB creams under their Precious Mineral line (including BB cushions) but I think this particular ‘All Day Strong’ version has been discontinued because I can’t find it on their website. They do have the Precious Mineral BB Cream in 3  liquid variations –  Blooming/Cotton/Perfect Fit but having never tried them I can’t attest to how similar this one is to them. Regardless, this is a nice light coverage BB cream that just about covers the thread veins in my cheeks and around my nose area. This comes in No.2 Sheer Glowing Skin. It works better for skin that doesn’t already have lots of imperfections to cover and to create just an overall even skin tone.

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So despite 2 of out of the 5 products having been changed/discontinued, I still wanted to do my impressions on this travel set because it contained items I was interested in buying but didn’t know if I wanted to commit to the full size version. In particular the Baking Powder Pore Cleansing Foam. What a fail. Popular products within the Asian Beauty community, definitely don’t mean it will work for everyone and I’m just glad I was able to try a sample and not waste money on it.

I do however, love love the Petit Bijou Cotton Snow body wash and lotion and I would certainly purchase them in full size. They are moisturising and the talc smell is just nostalgic of my childhood  – my mum used to apply a lot on me as a little kid cos I always had irritable rash-prone skin.

As for the BB cream – it’s not amazing but it’s not bad. Just your usual BB cream. I’m all about foundation/BB cushions these days anyway so I won’t be getting this. I feel the same with the First Essence. It gives me a good idea of what the reformulated Moistfull Collagen Essence is like as it contains the same ingredients but I won’t purchase because I don’t like it enough and there’s other essences I want to try.

There are different types of Etude House travel sets and kits containing minature versions of their products and I think this is such a great idea not only for being able to try out a bunch of stuff, but they make great gifts and are perfect for travelling.