The History of Whoo Gongjinhyang: Seol (Whitening line)

Posted by: beautyknot on: November 13, 2011

• In: Lotion/Toner | Moisturizer | Product Review | Treatment/Serum/Essence
• 64 Comments

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Being LG niche skincare, The History of Whoo is an oriental medicinal skincare based on secret royal court ingredients – Gongjinhyang (拱辰亨) with modern cosmetics technology. Seol (雪) literally means ‘Snow’, is Whoo’s whitening line. According to Whoo, Seol uses oriental herbs to treat the hidden speckles under the skin, producing internal glow from the depth of the skin. LG has revamped some of the product in Seol line in early 2011, adding new whitening ingredients Seolgamsan (雪感散) and Chilhyangmibaeksan (七香八白散)..

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I must admit the whitening line is immensely pricey! The most expensive whitening line that I have used to date. Seol has been received good reviews online and I was tempted to splurge! I had known places like Korea Gmarket is selling high-end Korea cosmetics samples at incredible cheap price but I didn’t buy from them at the end because I was unable to differentiate between authentic and the fake one, later my Korea counterpart told me that KBS had broadcasted the fake cosmetics crackdown program on TV (source), which involved both high-end and popular Korean cosmetics. Anyway, I finally purchased a gift set in Korea with normal retail price because the gift set was not available at the duty free.

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These were the whitening products I used – Whitening Pure Essence (5ml), Whitening Lotion (20ml), Whitening Skin Balancer (20ml), Whitening Soft Toner (100ml), Brightening Cleansing Foam (40ml), Whitening Intensive (20ml) and Whitening Cream (10ml).

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This is going to be a long post, so please bear me some patience (“v). I will do a separate review for full-size Whitening Intensive because I wanted to see its long term effect, so I would need another few months before I conclude my final thought on it. Therefore, please note this review is mainly based on trial set that enough for approximately 1.5 months (Sept – Nov) use. My skin was generally oily-combination in Sept to Oct and combination-normal-easily dehydrated in Nov, weather temperature averaging 28-30°C and humidity ~ 50-70%.

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Whitening Soft Toner ( ￦65,000/100ml )

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Having sensitive skin, I rarely use toner. I had only purchased three toners (Muji, Eucerin and Vichy) in past several years and they are all formulated for sensitive skin. Toner in my beauty lexicon is mainly meant for purifying and clarifying, which sometimes could be too harsh for my naturally sensitive skin especially my early years of skincare had proven the fact. I splurged this on whim and regretfully, it didn’t work for my skin either.

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This whitening soft toner said to tone the skin, creates a clear and smooth base, and helps increase absorption of herbal elements. The clear watery content is absorbed quickly into skin, it isn’t hydrating that I need to apply the skin balancer as soon as the toner dried on skin else the skin would feel tight. I only sensed the mild tingling skin on 2^nd or 3^rd day and thought this was the culprit since I didn’t start using all the Seol products together. Having said that, I do think toner is useful to help skincare ingredient absorption, you can read my review of Eucerin Skin Balancing Toner that I had performed a simple test to tell the difference. The problem is, this Seol whitening soft toner isn’t suitable for sensitive skin.

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Update @ December 2012 : Whoo Seol Soft Toner

Ever since I live in Malaysia, I notice my skin dryness has improved tremendously by itself. Thanks to the warm & humid weather here, I am going to save a lot on cosmetics. Considering of more balanced & stable skin here, I decided to give second chance to Seol Soft Toner, a whitening toner that irritated my sensitive skin before but too painful to discard it.

A little bit more about the packaging. The glass bottle is very heavy, I think it can be a very sturdy vase too, of course it can only hold a stalk of flower..haha. The spout allows precise dispense, though the opaque bottle has no way to tell how much it left.

The clear watery toner turned slight yellowish after storing in a very warm room for a period. However, I had not experienced any skin irritation this time, it hydrated my skin nicely and brightening effect was noticeable.

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Whitening Skin Balancer ( ￦55,000/130ml )

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You might notice most Korean skincare have non-watery consistency for their skincare “primer”, often called skin balancer or skin refiner. This is to be used after the whitening soft toner. In the pamphlet, it said to be used after using Cheongan Brightening Water, well, I couldn’t find a product called Cheongan Brightening Water in Whoo’s 2011 brochure and their website, it seemed that the product has been discontinued. (“ c)?

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What Whoo says about this, exotic oriental medicine-based chilhyang palbaeksan ingredients and gemguksu, a simmered and cold-processed wild chrysanthemum essence, are absorbed deep into skin to make the skin as clean and clear as a white gem. It enhances the effectiveness of skincare products used in subsequent steps. (So, this also helps absorption and the soft toner isn’t that important in the routine actually).

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As you can see, it’s a milky fluid. It’s very lightweight yet feeling moisturizing for my combination skin. I take a small amount on palm and apply with fingers, the milky fluid is absorbed into skin rapidly! It was quite moisturizing when my skin was on oily side but when my skin felt slightly taut after facial cleansing, this was very comfortable to soothe and hydrate. I really love this.

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Whitening Lotion ( ￦70,000/110ml )

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I think this whitening lotion and the whitening Skin Balancer are good combination for the combination skin. The emulsion has abundant tiny granules as shown in my below picture. I didn’t sense those granules upon applying as it just smoothed on like normal emulsion. I warm the lotion in palms prior to applying, then lightly press the palms on skin to facilitate absorption. My face is shiny and wet right after the application but it actually quickly dried on skin after several minutes, feeling non-oily and no stickiness, it just moisturized adequately although I still wake up with oily face next morning.

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When I first started the skincare routine with Seol, I only used the whitening skin balancer and this whitening lotion because the Seol line is completely new to me, by trying them step by step, it would be easier and helpful to identify which product has caused problem at later time. Totally surprise. I saw a radiant skin in the first week! The result was simply remarkable and I was so glad I have found another whitening skincare that delivered translucent skin tone other than the blue-bottle Kose Sekkisei. Most whitening products I have tried do give me radiant and even skin tone too, but not the type of translucent, soft illuminating, rosy skin tone that I always admire. Besides Kose Sekkisei is probably more irritating to sensitive skin, I love this Whoo basic care imparts glowing skin from within. Nice……

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Whitening Essence ( ￦140,000/45ml )

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I think this essence is the most emollient stuff among the Seol line although its consistency is lotion-like, it is too greasy for oilier skin. From the user manual, it should be applied after using the whitening skin balancer and before the whitening lotion. It said made by precious medicinal herbal and secrets from courts in ancient times, manages dark skin blemish and help to provide balanced and transparent skin tone.

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Like the whitening Lotion, it loaded with many soft granules and it does require quite a while to be fully absorbed for combination skin, skin also looked quite shiny. However when I tried it in early Nov, it absorbed more easily and didn’t look very shiny. In order to see its effect, I had tried both routines [ Skin Balancer + Lotion + (with or without Essence) ] and I did notice the skin glowed more intensely by adding the essence into the routine but I didn’t see appreciable lightened freckles. I was wondering if it was due to my lightened skin tone that reflected the freckles more obvious (??). Probably only an electronic skin analysis device can answer me.

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Whitening Cream ( ￦150,000/50ml )

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I actually bought the full size of this whitening cream first before I discovered the gift set. This whitening cream is the revamped 2011 formula. With new ingredients Seolgamsan (雪感散) and Chilhyang Palbaeksan (七香八白散), it said to enter deep inside the skin to create bright and clear skin like porcelain. It is advised to be used after the whitening lotion.
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The gel-cream is feeling lightweight and hydrating, it imparts cosmetically glowing skin as most gel-cream did. There is no greasy and sticky touch. In term of texture, I liked this more than the whitening lotion particularly when skin turned drier, however this most probably contains silicone ingredients that acne-prone skin might want to avoid. When my skin is oilier, using the entire Seol line caused me minor bumps on next morning eventhough I used a small amount of this whitening cream only. When the skin turned combination-normal and easily get dehydrated especially the dry season is approaching here in November, the whole line worked really great for me. After finished the whitening skin balancer and lotion, I used this whitening cream together with the Whitening Intensive (treatment),  they have been kept my skin moisturized adequately day & night. No tingling skin even I didn’t wear the Clinie mask in morning. However, it won’t be sufficient for very dry skin in harsh climate.

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Generally I’m highly satisfied with the whitening effect. In fact I’m amazed by the powerful effect of oriental formula. Whoo only lists the ingredient list in Korean in the pamphlet, nonetheless thanks to this blogger has posted the English ingredient lists here. The Seol line also contains alcohol. I understand from a cosmetic ingredient expert that certain oriental herbs need to be dissolved in alcohol but I wasn’t sure if this applies to Seol line too.

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As a whole I would say the Seol line lives up to its whitening claim, though skin texture seemed to remain unchanged. Sometimes skin was still experienced dullness especially when I was glued to chair long hours in the day but normally the skin returned to naturally glowing tone the next day. After seeing the beautiful whitening effect of Seol line, I was disappointed they performed limited to those stubborn freckles. Together with sun care, the freckles appeared slightly lightened after a month use but they are still quite visible in my eye, that is main reason of why I wanted to give the treatment – Whitening Intensive a longer try despite I already tested it on a dark spot of my hand and it had shown lightening effect. May be just my wishful dream to vanish the 22-year-old freckles, especially when clinical IPL treatment also did nothing much to my freckles.

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