I’m trying key well-aging products to see how they work and, after many months, I’m ready to write my review of this Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum.
Lots of my reviews address well-aging as extracts in a lot of K-Beauty products have well-aging effects. For some ingredients – known as actives – there is a significant body of research that testifies to their effects.
Whilst prescription products have the best effects, I wouldn’t want to run the risk of irritation – and there’s no way I could use it on my sensitive neck…
However, as this article points out, retinal is the most promising alternative for a non-prescription ingredient.
So there are a lot of reasons that this product is often sold out on UNBLEMISH!
Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum Ginseng + Retinal
Texture
Of all the retinol, retinal and retinoid products I’ve tried, this has the best texture by a long way.
The tube and pump works really well to dispense a good amount of product plus you don’t have to do a full pump because it’s responsive so you can easily pump out what you need.
I suspect half a pump is more than enough for a decent layer under the eyes. Really, 1.5 pumps is the perfect (generous) amount for my face so I usually do two for a thin layer across my face, neck and chest.
It’s slightly yellow in colour, this is very common for a retinal product: it looks like buttercream to me – I absolutely enjoy products that have a fun colour!
Application
This gets an entire section of its own because there’s something extra special about how this serum behaves.
I recently talked about finding the Mary & May dropper bottle serums more cosmetically elegant and more quick to absorb than Beauty of Joseon’s dropper bottle serums.
That statement does not apply to the Beauty of Joseon pump serums because they’re completely different! Beauty of Joseon has this retinal and also their brand new Light On Centella + Vita C.
I’d describe this as a very light gel cream in texture. There’s zero heaviness to it, I was very happy applying two whole pumps to my face (but I’m sharing with my neck now so I feel I have to be sensible!)
It absorbs very nicely, I don’t feel it on my skin and my moisturiser absorbs well over the top, regardless of which one I use.
There’s a particularly cool thing about the texture: if I use something that could be a bit sticky underneath or something a bit oily over the top, the Beauty of Joseon serum dries it down with no stickiness.
I notice this especially when I’ve accidentally pumped out too much Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power essence serum or layered several oilier creams – if I’ve used the Beauty of Joseon serum, it just fixes that wet feeling. I think it must be really well formulated to have such an impressive effect – and that is just the texture, wait, there’s more!
Experience
When I started using this, I was also using a western retinal serum that has a slightly higher percentage of retinal (0.05%).
Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum has a 2% retinal liposome-stabilised complex including 0.02% of retinal itself. The brand states that it’s formulated to minimise skin irritation.
You may have seen retinol advertised at 0.2% in comparison but you need far less retinal to have an effect! If you check out the study above, they reference 0.025% as the threshold for efficacy which is pretty much what you’re getting here!
So, first off, retinal works well for me. It reduces fine lines and makes my skin look plumper – not just temporarily.
It can take a month of regular application for the results to show and you’ll likely lose that plumping after about a month if you stop it – that’s my experience, not a scientific fact!
I didn’t notice any loss of benefits when I switched from my stronger serum to the beauty of Joseon. And I much prefer the texture of Beauty of Joseon, especially because I know how much is left – with my western serum, it was a solid bottle, not a tube so it was hard to judge.
Don’t forget to smooth the tube from the end and really squeeze it when you’re running low – I got over a week extra usage out of the tube by doing this.
Is Beauty of Joseon Revive Eye Serum good for sensitive skin?
I’ve said before that I don’t use strong actives on my neck: it’s too sensitive and I don’t want to risk triggering irritation now I’ve got it under control.
My neck gets nice gentle daily products, like the Benton Aloe BHA skin toner and the Isntree C-Niacin Toning ampoule.
However, despite how good these are, I’ve been noticing that my sleep lines around my neck and chest are getting deeper – which is a problem with being a side-sleeper, especially as you get older.
My face feels that this Beauty of Joseon seems like a nice hydrating serum – zero irritation, no dehydration from it at all.
So I decided to try it on my neck: very, very cautiously! The first use was fine but I’ve overdone it with actives before and learned my lesson so I waited a week.
Twice a week was also fine – no irritation, no dryness. So I slowly built up to most nights with no issues.
But go slow if you haven’t used actives before and don’t use it with other actives at first to be safe (such as acids and vitamin c particularly, as well as higher percentages of niacinamide). Listen to your skin and don’t forget about skin cycling, which Safina explains here.
Final Word
I am pleased to report that Beauty of Joseon’s Light On has the same texture: it feels and performs the same in terms of application.
However, I’ve just only started using it so I don’t know how good it is yet. But even if it’s not so effective and it’s “just” a moisturising, hydrating serum, I love the texture so I’ll stick with it.
The retinal definitely works for me so I have high hopes for the Light On!