Review: COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream
I feel bad about not getting this cream sooner, because if I had, I could have tested it for long enough to write a formal review. Unfortunately(?), I’m so stocked up on creams that I could never justify the purchase of yet another cream, and I ended up receiving this one without enough time to fully evaluate. Memebox sent it to me when we first began discussing our snaily snail collaborationkeep reading a couple of weeks ago. I have been using it nearly nonstop since I got my jar, however, and I know my skin well enough to feel confident that my first impressions accurately reflect what the product does for my skin.
Purpose: COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream is a medium-weight moisturizing cream.
Best suited for: Normal, oily, and dehydrated/oily skin types.
Do not use if: You are sensitive to snail secretion filtrate, coconut oil derivatives like caprylic/capric triglyceride, olive oil derivatives like sorbitan olivate, fatty alcohols, or anything else in the ingredients list.
When and how to use: After all the cleansing, toning, essence, serum, and ampoule steps in your skincare routine, smooth a thin layer over face. Follow up with a sunscreen during the day and, if desired, a sleeping pack at night.
COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream ingredients: Snail secretion filtrate, betaine, caprylic/capric triglyceride, cetearyl olivate, sorbitan olivate, sodium hyaluronate, cetearyl alcohol, stearic acid, arginine, dimethicone, carbomer, panthenol, allantoin, sodium polyacrylate, xanthan gum, ethyl hexanediol, adenosine, phenoxyethanol
Notable ingredients: Think of the COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream as the Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, but thickened up into a cream. Because, as you may have noticed from the ingredients, that’s pretty much what it is. This cream contains 92% snail slime (the same amount, by the way, as the generally well received Mizon Snail Repair All In One Cream). The rest of it is moisturizing ingredients–emollient and occlusive ones as opposed to the additional humectants in the essence–and preservative. Once again, it looks like COSRX aimed for simplicity in a bid to keep the risk of irritation low and the focus on the snail strong.
Product comparisons: There are plenty of other snail creams on the market. The three I’ve used the most (as in, 1 or more jars finished) are Missha’s, Benton’s, and Mizon’s.
I don’t really count the Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Cream as a snail cream, though. My least favorite snail cream, the Missha product seems to me to be way too little snail and way too much silicone and perfume. So forget about that one for now, unless silicones and perfumes are your thing.
As with their snail serums, Mizon and Benton pile on the extracts and pseudoactives in their snail creams. In addition to the botanicals, Mizon’s snail cream contains a couple of different peptides; Benton’s thicker, richer snail cream doubles up on the brightening ingredients, offering both arbutin and niacinamide. And once again, while those extras can be great for some, for others, they just raise the chances of irritation. Plus, let’s be honest. The point of a snail cream is the snail, right?
Performance
If you want some snail, COSRX’s snail cream delivers in pretty much the same way that the essence does. The first time I opened the jar and scooped out a little dab of the scentless, smooth, goopy, ever so slightly translucent cream, I could tell that it was made from lots and lots of snail secretion and very little else.
Much like the essence, COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream is a simple, single-minded product. Its purpose is to nourish, moisturize, and protect skin, the same way snail secretions protect the skins of snails. Have you ever seen a snail with flaky skin or wrinkles? Has any snail ever complained to you of feeling dry and tight? No. Ever wondered why? Now you know the answer.
Over the course of my many, many experiments with face creams, I’ve become attuned to the subtle differences in effect between different ones. Some are more firming, others are more occlusive, some brighten without moisturizing all that much, etc. The effect the COSRX snail cream has is to make my skin unbelievably soft, like seriously, you have no idea how soft my skin feels when I use this stuff. Soft like a baby’s cheek. Soft like fresh flower petals when the flower hasn’t yet figured out that it’s been picked. So soft I can’t stop touching my face or forcing Mr. Fiddy to do the same.
COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream does all this softening without making my skin feel oily or look shiny at all. On average, it increases my skin’s hydration by 10%, just like the essence, but it also increases the lipid content within my stratum corneum–the outermost layer of skin–by 5%. These are lipids that make its way in between the cells, not lipids that sit on top of the skin. They smooth and soften skin’s texture, not turn it into a shiny mess.
This light and non-greasy formulation makes the Advanced Snail 92 particularly suitable for oilier skin types and really great for oily/dehydrated skin types that need moisture but don’t want extra shine. Compared to the kinds of creams I normally go for, however, COSRX Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream isn’t the most moisturizing. Dry skin types may want to use this product as more of a whipped essence, in the vein of the Mizon snail cream, rather than as a standalone moisturizer. I did a stupid thing earlier this week and followed up a chemical peel with my usual Curology tretinoin, and while my skin is definitely nice and smooth now, it’s also feeling much drier than usual. I still find this cream enough for daytime if I use my moisturizing Senka sunscreen on top, but at night, I’ve been topping it off with either a COSRX overnight mask or my Goodal fermented honey sleeping pack for best results.
Conclusion: I mean, I really didn’t need another cream in my collection, considering that I have over half a dozen already, but I’m really happy that I have this, and I’m actually positive I’ll purchase another jar when this runs out. Very few things make my skin feel as soft as this product does while simultaneously not making me oily or shiny at all. There are times when I wish it were slightly more moisturizing, but for oilier skin types, that’s probably not going to be an issue at all. Update: I have now purchased two or three jars of this product myself. I love it and apparently can’t live without it. Rating changed accordingly.
Rating: 4/5 5/5 HOLY GRAIL
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