Purpletale was not a brand I had heard of until Young-ji, creator of the company, reached out to me. I love hearing about new brands and seeing what they have to offer, so I picked a couple of their products to try out and to let you guys know how they worked out for me! See my disclaimer if you have any questions about my collaborations with brands- I accepted this product free of charge from Purpletale in exchange for my own, honest review.
Who are Purpletale?
They are a K-Beauty brand based in South Korea. If you visit the website you can get a good understanding of Young-ji’s mission- to empower, and celebrate beauty. The words and rhetoric are sweet, and definitely have the romantic feel that many Korean companies, both beauty and others, go for. I can appreciate the romance, and the names and packaging of their products reflect the romantic vibe: for example ‘Setting the Scene Treatment Essence’, ‘Once Upon a Neck Cream’ and ‘Fairytale Beginning Beauty Balm’, all packaged in pretty purple and white.
5 Steps to Lovely Skin
This product caught my eye because it’s a handy five-in-one facial for on the go, and also happens to be the brand’s bestseller. It includes a foam cleanser, an ampoule, a sheet mask, a face cream and a neck cream. Purpletale claim that it is “a complete facial solution that will leave your skin feeling deeply nourished and looking absolutely lovely”.
So here’s my breakdown, step-by-step. I used the 5 Steps twice in one week to evaluate it.
(All ingredients images are taken from the Purpletale website)
The foam cleanser
I loooooved the scent of this cleanser. It foamed up into a rich lather when I added water and I liked the creamy texture. I haven’t got pH testers right now (sorry my new order is taking so freakinggggg long to arrive ugh and I wanted to post this this week, I will edit when they arrive), but I do think that with such a rich foam, the pH is most likely gonna be higher than is healthy for skin. I mention the pH because of reading Snow White and the Asian Pear blog, and I suggest reading her hugely helpful post about the importance of pH in cleansers if you haven’t already, which explained everything very clearly for me. As this wouldn’t be a product I would be using everyday- it’s a one off treatment- I wasn’t too concerned by the potentially high pH this time, because I actually really liked the cleanser, and my skin didn’t feel stripped afterwards. If I was using this more frequently or as a daily cleanser, I would consider the high pH as a no for me.
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Ampoule
I really liked this- after the sheet mask it was my favourite product of the set. It was much lighter than I expect an ampoule to be, and actually had more the texture of an essence IMO. The texture was very smooth, it felt like a great light hydrating water, and my skin drank it up. It definitely added a moisture zap before applying the sheet mask.
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What disappointed me with the ampoule was the alcohol denat. listed as the third ingredient. That’s particularly high on the list, and whilst I am not opposed to alcohol and it has never caused me problems I’m aware of, it’s not an ingredient I’m necessarily happy to see, especially in third place. When I tried the ampoule a second time, I definitely got a whiff of alcohol in the sweet scent of the liquid. Again I think for some buyers this would be a turnoff. For me, like I said, I loved the feel of the ampoule, so I can’t say it affected my opinion hugely. The smooth texture and hydrated feel of my skin after using it won me over.
Sheet Mask
Ok, the shining glory of this pack. I’m going say that in terms of fit, this is the best sheet mask I have ever used. Seriously. It fitted my face like a hand fits a glove (is that the right expression…?! ha). It comes in two parts, and both parts are covered with gauze type material on both sides. It’s a bit of a messy affair getting this into place, but the fit is worth it. The pieces are dripping in essence, so my method was to take the excess essence from the outside of the gauze material and pat in on my face first. Then I removed one side of the gauze material, and pressed the mask onto my face, before removing the other side. I scraped all the essence off the throwaway material before I chucked them, patting it into my neck and arms.
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The bio-cellulose felt so smooth and clung to the contours of my face wonderfully. The actual essence felt smooth and soothing, and had the same light sweet scent of the ampoule. There are a number of nice skin conditioners and emollients high up in the ingredients list of the essence. I was a little disappointed that the star ingredients they advertise the mask with (centella asiatica extract, various peptides, and ginsenosides) were all at the bottom of the list. I’m not, and definitely don’t claim to be, an expert ingredients analysis, but in my head I feel like they can’t be doing thaaaat much good so far down the list and (presumably) in such small quantities? But I don’t know. This didn’t affect how much I loved the mask, it was just an observation. The mask was fantastic and I actually wish they sold it separately as I’d use them frequently! When I removed the mask my skin felt soothed, calmed, and I have to say, radiant. I’ve been dealing with more redness recently, and you can see how calmed my skin looked after the mask. I always expect masks to moisturise at the very basic level, but this definitely achieved intense hydration as it claimed on the packaging. I want more of these!
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The Facial Cream
I’m a little conflicted on how to report back on this one…my concluding thoughts are that for my skin type, normal/combination, and at this time of year, hot and humid climate of Korean summer, this cream is not for my skin. This is not to say it’s a bad cream- in fact I feel like at night, in the notoriously harsh dry winter here, I’d love the cream. But for me it just isn’t the right time for an emollient heavy, richly moisturising cream.
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You can see the number of moisturisers and emollients in the ingredients list, and if you’re looking for a rich cream, I’m sure you’d be drawn to this. It felt lovely and buttery and and my face did feel highly nourished. It was just a little too heavy, and didn’t sit too comfortably right now. I’ll definitely be happy to edit this post when the dry season comes, as I don’t want to bash what I do think will potentially be a great moisturiser for some skintypes, at certain times.
Neck Cream
This is a really unusual product, in my opinion, to include- but I like it! I never give my neck much thought. I do apply my products to my neck when I remember, but after Purpletale specifically giving me a neck product, I’ve given it much more thought. Whilst anti-aging is something I do think about, it isn’t my main priority right now, and I think that’s why I forget about how important neck care is. The skin is so thin and fragile, and is one of the main body areas that shows true age! This cream is thick and actually fairly similar to the face cream. It moisturised my neck thoroughly, and the next morning I could still feel that moisture.
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The ingredients, again like the face cream, include lots of great emollients and moisturisers. I did really enjoy the neck cream and it’s actually a product I would consider buying separately. I surprised myself with this because honestly, it was the product I was least interested in out of the five. But my skin felt so nourished and healthy, and I’m considering my neck skin much more now, which will hopefully benefit me in the future (here’s hoping).
Concluding thoughts
I really enjoyed this mini facial! There are aspects that could be improved, but overall I was impressed. I think the sheet mask really won it for me, but the other products were all impressive too, despite not all being perfectly suited to my skin right now. I tend to use low pH cleansers these days, so the cleanser wouldn’t be great for me with consistent use, but as a one off I enjoyed it.
The set costs $8, which, whilst isn’t dirt cheap, is definitely affordable for one time use. For me, the appeal of the 5 step packet is for weekends away. It’s so easy to pack, the packaging is durable (tip- have scissors on hand to cut the packets, I couldn’t open them without!) and it includes almost everything I would need for one night. I’m saving my last packet for my next little weekend trip, and I’m pretty certain I would purchase more in the future, as they’re just so easy and enjoyable.
Have you tried these 5 Steps to Lovely Skin? What did you think?
Thank you again to Purpletale for letting me test out this product.
