Fifty Shades of Snail

My days of wildly hauling huge quantities of unfamiliar products are ^mostly behind me, but every once in a while, the urge strikes and then things like this happen:

I’m set for months for new products to test and have already tried a few of the many things I hauled. Some have been winners that I’ve already reviewed; some were duds that I’ll be dragging for your enjoyment soon enough. And then there’s Goodal’s Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack, a product which sounded like absolute heaven.

Purpose: The Goodal Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack is a nourishing sleeping mask that claims to firm skin texture and improve elasticity.

Best suited for: Dry, dehydrated/dry, and/or aging skin.

Do not use if: You are allergic to bee products or sensitive to fatty alcohols, coconut oil derivatives, or anything else in the ingredients list.

When and how to use: As the last step of your evening skincare routine, scoop a small amount of product out of the tub and smooth over face.

Goodal Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack ingredients:  Water, glycerin, butylene glycol, caprylic/capric triglyceride, butyrospermum parkii (shea) butter, cyclopentasiloxane, cetearyl alcohol, beeswax, honey extract, lactobacillus ferment, glyceryl stearate, cyclohexasiloxane, royal jelly extract, propolis extract, hydrolyzed ginseng saponins, hydrolyzed collagen, dioscorea japonica root extract, natto gum, theobroma cacao (cocoa) seed extract, stearic acid, PEG-100 stearate, palmitic acid, dimethicone, glycol stearate SE, acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer, xanthan gum, polyacrylate-13, tromethamine, polyisobutene, laureth-23, hydrogenated lecithin, tocopheryl acetate, sodium polyacrylate, adenosine, polysorbate 20, sorbitan isostearate, benzophenone-5, disodium EDTA, phenoxyethanol, chlorphenesin, caprylyl glycol, ethylhexylglycerin, CI 19140, fragrance

CosDNA analysis

Notable ingredients: If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you already know how much I love honey products. And propolis. I’m a pretty big fan of royal jelly, too. So of course the ingredients that first jumped out at me in this list were the honey, propolis, and royal jelly extracts, which here may gain extra effectiveness due to the fermentation process, which breaks compounds down into smaller and more absorbable components with theoretically increased benefit to skin. But the goodness doesn’t stop there. Caprylic/capric triglyceride, shea butter, and hydrolyzed collagen provide abundant moisturization for parched or winter-weary skin, while ginseng and a couple of other botanical extracts deliver antioxidants to protect against cell damage and premature aging.

This isn’t a sleeping pack for the very acne-prone or those sensitive to coconut oil derivatives or fatty alcohols, however. Beeswax helps to increase the product’s occlusivity but may be problematic for some complexions, while caprylic/capric triglyceride and palmitic acid might cause trouble for those who can’t use straight coconut oil (though that’s not always true–just patch test first if you suspect you have issues with coconuts besides their weird texture and gross taste). I just got done talking about self-reported fatty alcohol sensitivities in my review of Primera Smooth Cleansing Cream, so I won’t go into those again. If fatty alcohols break you out, you’ll want to sit this out.

Performance

Thank the Great Snail that I’m not sensitive to any of the ingredients I talked about above, because holy crap is this sleeping pack the perfect thing for me, especially with winter supposedly upon us.

Goodal Firming Sleeping Pack is a very thick, stiff, smooth cream with that stretchy, “chewy” texture so popular in Korean moisturizers. It spreads easily over my face and the fragrance is nothing short of incredible. The only products I’ve tried that even come close are the Banila Co. Miss Flower and Mr. Honey hydrogel masks, cream, and essence oil (makes sense, since that line is also based on fermented honey), but even they fall a little bit short of this rich, sweet, complex deliciousness. It’s a fragrance that demands Smell-O-Vision, because the words don’t exist to properly convey its magic.

(Oddly enough, Mr. Fiddy thinks it smells like McDonald’s apple pies from back when they were deep fried and artery-bustingly amazing. That’s apparently his way of saying that yes, it smells like his idea of heaven.)

The first few times I used the Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack, however, I didn’t do it right. I’m used to applying my creams with a very heavy hand. What can I say? I like getting nice and goopy before bed. When used this way, the sleeping pack would give me bright, soft, wonderfully moisturized skin after I cleansed in the morning, but made my face uncomfortably sticky and oily-feeling all night long.

After a few nights, I finally wised up and started using as little product as I could get away with at a time. That turned out to be the trick.  Using a very small amount at a time tones the richness down to a manageable level; the product dries down fast, and the occlusive film it leaves behind doesn’t feel sticky or oily at all.

One of the main purposes of sleeping packs is to seal the juices into your skin all night long. At that, the Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack excels. I tested it out every night and morning with my trusty digital skin analyzer doohickey thingamajiggy. Impressively, my morning readings remained consistently close to my bedtime readings, with the biggest drop recorded being a mere 2% after an extra-arid night. I wasn’t too surprised, however. The occlusion this product provides is tangible. After drying down, it leaves a waxy rather than oily feeling on the surface of my skin, and I can still feel it repelling water when I go to cleanse my face in the morning. I can’t wait for the weather to get colder and our heater to come into play, because my skin’s not going to be suffering a single night this winter.

The results I see after cleansing in the morning are as awesome as you’d imagine, given the ingredients in the sleeping pack and its ability to hold pretty much all my hydration in my skin overnight. After a few nights’ use, my skin began to look noticeably smoother, plumper, brighter, and prettier in the morning immediately after cleansing. While the Nature’s Solution Firming Sleeping Pack doesn’t give me quite the same QQ, chok-chok ¡¡BOUNCE!! as the COSRX rice sleeping pack, it more than makes up for it by delivering even and firm-toned skin that I can see even at my bleariest and most tired time of day.

Conclusion: As you might expect, I love this sleeping pack. I love it even more because having to use the smallest amount possible at a time means that the tub will last me approximately forever. It isn’t as versatile as other sleeping packs I’ve tried, being far too rich to use as a day cream, but it delivers everything it claims to and smells like pure happiness, too. If it weren’t for the handful of possibly problematic ingredients it contains and the slight fussiness of having to ration it out a tiny bit at a time, I’d consider it a Holy Grail.

Rating: 4/5

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