Review: Namu Life Snail White Cream

First review! Let's do dis.

Look at that cute little snail sticker!

Today, I’m reviewing this exceptionally popular cream from Thailand Snail White Cream by Namu Life. It is well-advertised around the city, and apparently quite popular. In fact, it is so popular that there are apparently fakes of it floating around.

What is Snail White? || Source: www.namulife.com

SNAILWHITE Snail Secretion Filtrate Moisture Facial Cream: Innovative anti-aging cream formulated with snail secretion filtrate to ensure efficacy of the cream. Simultaneously protects skin from future damage. Skin transforms to a more youthful beginning, reduced fine lines and wrinkles, improved firmness, brightness and rehydrating the skin.

TL;DR, basically this cream claims to be a miracle worker.

I didn't pay too much attention to this face cream at first, because I was busy coveting Benton. However, after the whole Benton debacle with their aloe toner and snail bee essence, I didn't feel comfortable endorsing a brand that not only had widespread contamination issues in its products, but also refused to listen to a small group of customers who were trying to report another possible contamination. Also, I didn’t notice any terribly amazing effects with Benton, so I was more willing to switch it out. Hence, my search for a new face cream/moisturizer began.

I was perusing for face creams around my local Boots drugstore when I decided to give Snail White Cream a closer look. The ingredients list looked rather promising. Plus, there are a lot of glowing reviews for this cream on Thai forums (most of which is in Thai, of course). However, there were fewer reviews of it in English, and significantly fewer reviews in English that were thorough. So I figured, why not! I'm in the market for a snail cream as is. Let's give this one a go!

PERFORMANCE

Packaging

Pressing down to dispense the cream

I will admit- this is the first time I've had a cream that came out of such a dispenser! I was super intrigued with this method of dispensing at first. As such, I promptly took apart the dispenser to see how it worked (sadly forgot to take pictures of this, oops!). Thankfully, it's a pretty simple system, and so I was able to put it back together with the dispensing system still intact.

This method of dispensing is supposed to get around the "unhygienic" aspect of jar packagings without changing the jar packaging itself. However, it can still be unhygienic since your hands sweep across the area where the cream gets dispensed. The plus side to this is that you can clean it a bit easier with some alcohol, if you'd like!

Ingredients

As I mentioned earlier, the ingredients of this cream is what really drew me to the product. Below is a picture of the ingredients from the box:



When running this through CosDNA, there were only two red flags: the carbomer, which can be a possible irritant (rating: 1), and the triethanol amine, which can be an acne trigger (rating: 2). All other ingredients were rated as 0 for both acne and irritant. Find a complete breakdown of the safety of each ingredient here.

Some notable ingredients that pop up for me are the snail secretion filtrate, butyrospermum parkii, and niancimide BP (vitamin B3). The snail secretion filtrate is the second ingredient, which is always nice (the higher up the active is in an ingredients list, the more of it is in there!). Butyrospermum parkii, also known as shea butter, is in there, which acts as a nice moisturizing component. Also, niancimide is in there, which is a whitening agent - perfect for evening out skin tone!

Smell

I will preface this by saying I am pretty terrible at dissecting smells. However, this one smells overwhelmingly of ginger. Okay, not overwhelmingly, but as someone who hates ginger, it seems very strongly ginger-y. You definitely smell it when you first dispense of it, but the smell does disappear upon application so it's not too bad. Though ye who dislike fragrances, be warned!

Texture

The texture of the cream is almost what you’d expect a cream to be: as in, it’s not terribly thick, but it’s still a step above a gel-like viscosity.

Application

Source: www.namulife.com

The instructions say to apply the cream as follows:

Apply twice daily for a smoother, firmer, bright and denser appearance. For best application, waken the cream between your fingers and gently pat onto the skin.

I tried following these instructions for the first few days and couldn't be bothered, so I just slathered it on to my face right out of the packaging. I figured it's warm enough in Thailand without me needing to warm up the cream even more.

RESULTS

To preface, I have oily/dehydrated skin. My skin used to be more acne-prone and sensitive, but it's been less so since I've been smarter with what I eat, and actually established a skincare routine. However, as you can see, I still have a problem with redness, and was battling some super fun stress/hormonal acne on one side of my face before I started using this.

I used this cream only at night, because it's too heavy for my oily/dehydrated face in this hot and humid climate otherwise. I tried using it during the day, but felt that it left a bit of a filmy residue that didn't sit very well under my makeup.

One pump from the dispenser was more than sufficient for my entire face. In fact, sometimes it was too much for my face, and I had to relegate the rest to my neck instead.

Left: Before - Day 0 aka before I started using the cream
Right: After five weeks of usage

As you can see, my face is a little bit less red. The spots I had before are fading five weeks after, and it's not leaving as much scarring as it normally does.

However, it's not doing an absolutely amazing job for my skin. It helped keep my skin decently hydrated, helped calm down some redness, and looks like it's helping with acne scars, but it's only doing a satisfactory job. Definitely not rave-worthy.

VALUE

I really like math, so bear with me :P

I got this on sale for 990 Thai Baht (THB), which is roughly $30 US Dollars (USD). Normally, this retails for 1,190 THB or almost $40 USD for 50 mL of product. This means this product, per liter, retails at 2,380 THB/L or $80 USD/L. Rather pricey compared to the Benton Snail Bee High Content Steam Cream that I was hoping to replace. Benton gives you 50 mL of product for approx. 540 THB or $16.50 USD (based on TesterKorea prices, which was where I bought my Benton products from). This comes out to be 1,080 THB/L or $33 USD/L, meaning that the price of the Snail White Cream is 2.67 times greater than Benton.

I've been using this since mid-November 2014. It ran out around early February (9-10ish February 2015). This means with nightly usage, this cream lasts a little under three months. Also, the dispensing system is starting to break/get stuck.

Given that it took me approx. three months of [mostly] nightly use to use up most of this 1,190 THB or $40 USD product (while it was still functioning), this means it costs 13.22 THB/day or $0.44 USD/day to use (1 month = 30 days, only for easier calculation). This is probably an underestimate because, as you can see from my dates, this actually lasted under three months with one pump per night.

SUMMARY/TL;DR

I am kind of disappointed in this product. After all the advertisements, Thai reviews, and etc., I thought it'd be better. Alas, it is not to be! However, my face is really stubborn and doesn’t tend to react to anything (which is both a good and bad thing), especially skincare products people rave about, so do take my disappointment with a grain (or several grains) of salt.

I didn't find this product overly hydrating, especially in my super dry/dehydrated areas, so I would definitely use this in conjunction to other, more moisturizing products. If you have normal-to-oily skin and enjoy the smell of ginger, you might want to give this a shot.

Score

Application: 7/10
Sinks in quickly, but does leave a filmy residue. May not sit well under makeup and/or with other products.

Performance: 5/10
Minor lightening of acne scars, some firmness and plumpness, sort of helped calm down redness

Value: 4/10
This product retails at 2,400 THB/L or $80 USD/L. It took me approx. 3 months to use most of it up with once a day application, meaning it costs 13.22 THB/day or $0.44 USD/day. Considering its performance, I don’t find this to be the most cost-effective product. 

OVERALL: 5.3/10

Alas, my search for an adequate face cream/moisturizer continues! Do you have any suggestions? If so, please let me know! I’m always on the look out for something new and cost-effective that may become my holy grail! :)