My Stylevana UK haul for August. It was August and I was deep in my K-beauty era. Like, embarrassingly deep. The kind where you have a whole spreadsheet of ingredients and you’re reading Reddit threads about niacinamide percentages at midnight. Stylevana sent me a haul to try out and I reviewed everything honestly. Use code INF10NEVE for up to 25% off – full details on my Stylevana discount code page. The other thing people ask me constantly is whether the site can be trusted, so here is whether Stylevana is legit, based on five years of my own orders.
If you want to see the other Stylevana hauls I did, the March haul, April haul, and June haul are all on the blog. And if you’re going down the K-beauty rabbit hole for reactive or seb derm-prone skin – which honestly is a rabbit hole with no bottom – my Malassezia safe moisturiser post is the most useful thing I’ve written on the subject.
What was in the August box
This box was built differently to the others. Instead of a handful of individual products I got two gift sets and one standalone item, which meant a lot more to get through.
Skin, for reference, because I always forget to say it at the start: combo to oily, oily t-zone, dehydrated cheeks, mild rosacea on those same cheeks. So the thing I’m watching for with everything is whether my cheeks go red, whether it turns into a flare, and how long the redness sticks around.
The Haruharu Wonder box
Six pieces in this one: the Black Rice Moisture Soft Cleansing Gel, the Black Rice Hyaluronic Toner, the Black Bamboo Mist, the Black Rice Hyaluronic Anti-Wrinkle Serum, the Black Rice Facial Oil, and a travel size of the toner.
I’ve already reviewed the toner and the mist elsewhere, so I’m only covering the three that were new to me.
Black Rice Moisture Soft Cleansing Gel
My favourite thing in the entire box, and I want to start there because it deserves it.
It’s slightly acidic at pH 5.5, with naturally derived surfactants from coconut and fermented black rice extract. The gradient packaging is gorgeous, which is not a reason to buy anything, but I noticed.
It’s a gel that foams up lightly and it’s genuinely gentle. No dryness, no redness, no irritation, none of that tight unpleasant feeling you get off a heavy stripping cleanser. No scent I could pick up either.
One thing worth knowing, and this is the bit I’d flag to anyone reactive: as far as I can tell it’s the only product in the range that doesn’t contain lavender oil.
It won’t take makeup off, so it’s a morning cleanser or a second cleanse. I double cleanse at night with an oil or balm first and then this. In summer, when I wake up feeling sweaty and generally icky, a light gentle cleanse is exactly what I want and this does it. Out of everything here, this is the one I’d tell you to try.
Black Rice Hyaluronic Anti-Wrinkle Serum
Comes in an odd little puck of a bottle. It’s 95% natural ingredients including the fermented black rice extract, which carries polyphenols and flavonoids meant to protect against free radicals like UV and pollution and help skin regenerate, plus aloe vera leaf extract and hyaluronic acid.
Two things to flag before anything else. It contains alcohol, though it’s near the bottom of the ingredient list. And the scent is lavender oil, which is quite potent on application, though it doesn’t hang around long.
If you’re avoiding alcohol in skincare or you react to lavender, skip this one. That’s not me being dramatic, it’s just the two things people ask about.
For what it’s worth it didn’t feel drying on me, it sank in fast on damp skin, and it left my skin soft and lightly hydrated. No redness on my cheeks either. I need longer with it before I say more than that.
Black Rice Facial Oil
The blend here is black rice bran, camellia, jojoba, macadamia, sunflower and sweet almond, and the claim is baby soft, dewy, balanced skin.
This one is properly fragrant and it lingers. If that’s a problem for you, skip it. The scent reminds me of the Clarins facial oils, the lotus one I think, though I could be wrong about which.
First way I tried it was neat at night, two or three drops into my palms patted over my face, and my skin went a bit red on application. It also felt greasy in that typical oil way. So I switched to mixing one or two drops into my moisturiser instead, and that was much better, less redness and it applied far more nicely on combo dehydrated skin.
The redness didn’t carry over to the next day either way, which I was pleased about. Mornings after, my skin felt softer and there was a nice glow. I’d guess this suits dry skin better than mine, and I’ll keep testing it.
The Beauty of Joseon x Stylevana Clear Skin Set
This one is adorable. It comes with the Glow Serum and the Calming Serum in mini sizes, both of which I’ve reviewed separately already, so again I’m only covering what’s new.
I’ll say up front that I’ve loved every Beauty of Joseon serum I’ve tried so far. Their Calming Serum was my outright favourite thing in the March haul and I meant it when I said I’d repurchase.
Sets like this are a good way in generally. You get enough of each thing to work out what you’d commit to in full size, and they travel well.
Green Plum Refreshing Toner with AHA
A hydrating and exfoliating toner with 3% glycolic acid and 25% green plum water. It comes out as a foam, and there are micro bubbles in it that are meant to help lift dead skin. Also in there: rice bran water to brighten, portulaca oleracea to soothe, honey extract for hydration.
You’re supposed to use it on a cotton pad. I found it easier to pump the foam onto my fingers and pat it in.
It stings. Every single time, not just the first. It’s a light sting for a few seconds and then it’s gone, and it isn’t painful, but I want to be upfront that it happens. I went and looked at other reviews afterwards because it surprised me, and it seems to be common with this one, not universal but plenty of people mention it.
I got right up to the mirror looking for irritation in the spots where it stung and I couldn’t find any. No redness, nothing, on skin that is genuinely sensitive.
And my skin looks clearer and brighter for it. I’m already halfway through the travel size, which tells you something.
Dynasty Cream
I’ve already ordered a full size of this and I’m waiting for it to arrive. That’s the review, really.
It comes as sachets, seven of them I think, though I started using them and lost track of the empties so it might be ten. Ginseng root extract, niacinamide, rice bran water and squalane.
I assumed it would be far too heavy for combo oily skin. It isn’t. It’s slightly tacky when it first goes on and that disappears quickly, and then my skin is soft and plump, which is everything I want from a moisturiser.
I’m keeping it to nighttime while it’s this hot, but I can picture using it in the morning once autumn and winter come round and I’m not melting.
On the fragrance question, because other reviews raised it: some ingredient lists show no fragrance, others have it last, and the Stylevana listing says it does contain fragrance at the end. I kept putting it on my hand and holding it up to my nose trying to find a scent and I got nothing. If it’s in there it’s very subtle, at least to me. No irritation either.
Skinfood Tomato Tone Up Sun Cream SPF50+ PA+++
The standalone item, and a combined chemical and physical sunscreen with tomato extract, protecting against UVA and UVB. It’s a tone-up cream, so it’s white and it’s meant to brighten a dull complexion.
If you haven’t come across tone-up creams, they’re tinted creams in a pale shade, usually pink or beige or yellow or white, designed to brighten your skin as they go on.
And this is where I run into trouble with the whole category. I apply sunscreen liberally, three or four finger lengths of it, because that’s what you have to do to get the protection on the label. Apply that much of a tone-up cream and I look ghostly. Sickly, even, and I blend it down my neck.
Under makeup it’s a different story. As a sunscreen and primer it’s lovely, it adds a glow, and the whiteness isn’t nearly such a stark contrast once foundation goes over it. I’d happily wear it that way.
There’s fragrance in it, though that goes fairly quickly. What replaces it is a strong classic sunscreen smell that does linger, and that part doesn’t bother me much.
It isn’t my favourite sunscreen. But take that with a pinch of salt, because I’ve only ever tried one other tone-up cream and that was also an SPF, so I’m hardly an authority on the category. If you’ve found one you love I’d like to hear about it.
That’s four Korean sunscreens across four Stylevana boxes now, and none of them stuck. What I actually look for in one, ingredient by ingredient, is in The Best Korean Sunscreen Is the One You’ll Actually Reapply.
My favourites from the August box
Two of them. The Haruharu Wonder cleansing gel and the Dynasty Cream. The cream I’ve already bought again, and I’m rationing the sachets until it turns up.
FAQ
Where is the best place to buy K-beauty skincare in the UK?
Good options include Stylevana (code INF10NEVE for up to 25% off), Skinsider (code NEVEEN15), Olive Young Global (code NEVEEN20), and YesStyle (code NEVEEN15). All four ship reliably to the UK and stock a wide range of Korean and Asian skincare brands.
What is the Stylevana discount code?
Use code INF10NEVE at Stylevana for up to 25% off your order. No expiry date, works on repeat orders.
More Stylevana hauls and skincare
- Stylevana K-Beauty Skincare Haul & Review March
- Stylevana K-Beauty Skincare Haul and Review: April
- JUNE STYLEVANA K-Beauty Skincare Haul
- Stylevana discount code INF10NEVE – up to 25% off
- 6 Malassezia Safe Moisturisers That Don’t Feel Like Grease
- The Anua Azelaic Acid Serum Review: Fine. It’s Fine.
- 10 Korean Skincare Products That Helped My Rosacea
