Review: Shiseido Aqualabel Whitening Jelly Essence

I am writing this while wearing a hydrogel mask with my newly purchased Daiso silicone mask cover! Mask + Daiso + glasses = me looking like an overly studious and botoxed serial killer. It is for this reason I have waited until the rest of my house has gone to bed before applying the slippery hydrogel onto the skin, so as to prevent any impulsive 911 (well, 191 here) calls should someone walk in to see me like dis. Anyway. It's been approximately one month since I started my relationship with the Shiseido Aqualabel Whitening Jelly Essence, so I can finally review it!

Apologies for the blurry photo! I only just noticed this after uploading.

The following information is paraphrased from the ever-informative, Ratzilla Cosme: The Shiseido Aqualable Whitening Jelly Essence is supposed to be a 4-in-1 product: an astringent, hydrating lotion, serum, and moisturizer. Its main function is to prevent dark spots. The main active in this is m-tranexamic acid. I became interested in this after this post on Reddit about actual pore minimizing ingredients. The poster mentioned this product as an affordable option for the ingredient, glycylglycine, and what do you know, I managed to find it in stores on sale a few weeks later! So I bought this for the pore minimizing abilities, but became pleasantly surprised at the overall results.

PERFORMANCE

Packaging

This comes in a 200mL light blue clear plastic-y bottle. It has a hole on top that allows you to squeeze out a bit of the product (or, if you're like me, a bit too much due to impatience and overzealous squeezing).

Ingredients

Shiseido Aqualabel Whitening Jelly Essence ingredients

The ingredients list is pretty short. As you can see, alcohol is a second ingredient, so if you're sensitive to that, avoid this product like the plague. From the COSDNA analysis, the only worrying ingredient seems to be tocopherol or Vitamin E. It is the last thing on the ingredients list though, so it should only be present in trace quantities. However, there are a couple yellow flags in terms of safety, namely from PEG/PPG-14/7, phenoxyethanol, and disodium EDTA. Sodium metabisulfite, a preservative, has a red flag in terms of safety.

Smell

It smells kinda minty and alcohol-y at the same time. I guess menthol-y? However, the smell dissipates after you pat it on.

Texture

As the name implies, the texture is very jelly-like. I think it's slightly less viscous than, say, aloe gel that comes in those tubs, but otherwise. G/Jell-ayyyy.

Application

I personally squeeze out a little dollop out of the bottle then pat it directly on my face. It spreads easily, and after applying it doesn't feel sticky at all. There's a slight cooling sensation, which I assume is from the menthol. For me, it provides a surprising level of hydration, even with its high alcohol content. I use it after my toner step, and before my ampoule at night. I can get away with using this as my only moisturizing step in the mornings (mostly because it's been so hot and humid here!).

RESULTS

Day 1

Week 2/Day 15ish

Week 4/Day 28ish: Some acne decided to come out and play, which is why I have more marks now, sigh.

My friends, I was pleasantly surprised by this product. It not only (slightly) reduced the size of my pores, but also helped brighten my complexion. This is my first experience with tranexamic acid, but I think I have found my brightening/whitening jam. I have used several products where niacinamide was one of the top ingredients, and it didn't do much for me. This baby, on the other hand, phew! I noticed brightening effects a couple weeks into using this. They weren't dramatic, but noticeable. I noticed some persistent PIH marks were fading a bit faster than usual, and it helped my skin calm down a bit more. This was a bit surprising, because I thought the alcohol content would aggravate it more! A little less noticeable were the effects on my pores. I had to compare pictures to see that indeed, these did help reduce the size of my pores, even by a little.

VALUE

Normally, this retails for about 650 THB (approx. $20 USD), but I managed to find it on sale for 490 THB (approx. $15 USD). At full price, the product costs 3.25 THB/mL or $0.1 USD/mL. I find this to be a good ratio: other essences like Missha cost significantly more for less product!

SUMMARY/TL;DR

Score

Application: 10/10 Sinks in quickly, plays well with other products. Slight cooling sensation too!

Performance: 8/10 Brightens complexion, some lightning of PIH marks, some pore size reduction

Value: 8/10 Solid value product, especially considering the performance, and its ability to be a 4-in-1 product (for me). 

OVERALL: 8.7/10

All in all, I find this to be a pretty solid product if you aren't sensitive to alcohol (or the other ingredients). It brightens my complexion noticeably (more than Missha's First Essence ever did!), helps my pores look a touch smaller, and does it all for a reasonable price. I wouldn't consider this my HG, but it's something I would definitely look into repurchasing - though, let's see how long it'll take this product to finally run out..

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Would you try this product? Have you? If so, let me know! :)