Before I begin my review, I just want to mention that photographing these products was hopelessly impossible. They have this shine to them that would cause blind spots if taken in the direct sunlight, and if I took them in a darker setting, then some of them just came out too dark! You can probably tell from the photos above that there are variants of red. That contributed to my difficulties, too, so I had to do a lot of photoshopping to try and capture the actual colors of each product.
Another noteworthy mention is that this highly anticipated review was written for my mother as she absolutely loves this set. (Hi, mommie!! I hope you enjoy the thorough review!)
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Packaging:
- Toner: It comes in a red plastic bottle (30ml) with a twist-off gold cap.
- Essence: It comes in a much smaller red plastic bottle (7ml) with a gold cap that pulls off to reveal an air pump to dispense the product.
- Emulsion: It comes in a red plastic bottle (30ml) with a twist-off gold cap.
- Cream: It comes in a small, red plastic jar (10ml) with a twist-off gold cap.
Price: The value of this miniature set is $40 USD, and it cannot be bought on any of the Missha websites because it is a VIP freebie gift. The average prices for the original products are as follows:
- Toner: $43 USD (Missha US) | $42 CAD (Missha CA)
- Essence: $45 USD (Missha US) | $47 CAD (Missha CA)
- Emulsion: $46 USD (Missha US) | $47 CAD (Missha CA)
- Cream: $46 USD (Missha US) | $45 CAD (Missha CA)
Consistency:
- Toner: As you can probably tell from the photo, the consistency of this toner is quite watery. It sinks in quickly and a little seems to go a long way. The finish is not sticky.
- Essence: The consistency of the essence is semi-thick. I tend to use three pumps for my whole face. The finish is a little sticky, but my face feels well hydrated.
- Emulsion: Due to the nature of the bottle and the consistency of the emulsion, it’s difficult as hell to get this stuff out! I have to use a q-tip for ease of access. That being said, it is easy to actually spread on your face once you get it there, and the finish feels quite nice and smooth. In my case with combo skin, I do find that this emulsion feels a bit rich and prefer to use it in the PM rather than in the AM.
- Cream: I use a spatula to get to this product, but you could just as easily use your finger because the jar is wide, thankfully. This cream feels very thick and rich, but even with my skin, I am in love with it! Of course, I do only use it in the PM as well, but I realized that this cream effectively seals in the moisture from all of the products I used beforehand, and it does not simply dissipate from my skin come morning like some creams and sleeping pacts tend to do. I love this as a night cream.
Scent: All four of these products smell exactly the same: herbal and medicinal. The scent is on the stronger side and does linger a bit, but I enjoy it. If you are the kind of person that is sensitive to stronger fragrances, this may not be the product line for you.
Ingredients: All four products contain the star ingredients as shown in the helpful picture below.
Image Source: Missha US
In addition, these products are also advertised as containing the following helpful ingredients:
- Black Ginseng and Rehmannia Root - Intensive skin nourishing benefit
- Ginseng Glycan - Protects hypersensitive skin
- Phellinus Linteus - Firms skin
- Nelumbo Nucifera - Removes impurities
When I took a look at the ingredient lists for each product, one thing I noticed was that alcohol was present in the toner (6th ingredient), essence (5th ingredient), and emulsion (16th ingredient), but not in the cream. This did not surprise me because as I used these products for a month, I already knew that the toner and essence in particular would be products better suited for spring/summer due to their somewhat drying nature. I experienced mild peeling from the toner and essence; when I used the emulsion or cream alone, the peeling issue resolved.
All four products contain niacinamide which can be found in the beginning of each of the ingredient lists. Using these products consistently helped fade some of my acne scars and I’m not surprised due to the high niacinamide content!
One thing that did disappoint me a little was that the ginseng included in all four products were listed near the bottom of each ingredient list. Some of the most effective anti-aging creams contain ginseng in much higher concentrations and are always found at the top of their ingredient lists. (I’m thinking of you, expensive Sulwhasoo-branded products!) But this doesn’t mean that the MISA Cho Gong Jin line is totally ineffective in light of its anti-aging features; it just means that people using them should expect results after more prolonged and consistent use – not immediate, like most would hope for.
Still, the ingredient lists are quite impressive and contain a lot of nice extracts for your skin. I think they’re well worth trying.
Overall Review: The MISA Cho Gong Jin line was formulated for those with more mature skin (+40) so these products are meant to feel richer (and they definitely do) than Missha’s others, though I do believe anybody of any age might benefit from some of these. As mentioned earlier, I loved the cream despite its heavier nature and despite the fact that my skin is the combo type. I think these products work really well together, but would probably best suit drier types of skin as long as they go light with the toner and essence. I can’t speak for the anti-aging claim unfortunately, but I can definitely say that these products have helped fade some of my acne scars and made my skin feel nourished. 4/5.
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