Review and comparison of soothing sleeping masks: Sulwhasoo and Dearpacker
Today I'd like to continue talking about hits and misses that I had while trying out various sleeping masks. Last week I reviewed moisturizing sleeping masks (here), today I'm going to talk about soothing sleeping masks (Sulwhasoo Trufresh Soothing Mask and Dearpacker Alaska Glacier Soothing Pack), and next week I'm going to finish the list of what I've tried so far. This post is not sponsored in any way, shape or form; I purchased all products myself and all opinions are my own. Also, I'm not going to discuss the packaging; however beautiful it might be,
it does nothing for my skin. I'd rather talk about the ingredients and
the results I got after using those masks. If I'm less than happy with your favorite mask, please don't take it personally; everyone has different kind of sensitive skin, and what works for one person might send another to dermatologists office... YMMV.
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| Sulwhasoo Trufresh Soothing Mask and Dearpacker Alaska Glacier Soothing Pack |
Sulwhasoo Trufresh Soothing Mask is one of my longtime favorites. You can check out the full ingredient list either on Sulwhasoo official website (here), or on CosDNA (here). It's one of very few products that contain alcohol that my skin not just tolerates, but loves. It has some questionable preservatives, pigments and perfume in it, but overall the ingredients list is rather clean; it has honey in it, which I'm allergic to, but it listed outside of top 10 ingredients, so I guess the total amount of it is low enough for my skin to ignore it. Overall, I never experienced any allergies or other issues with Trufresh, rather the opposite.
I got a sampler of the mask a while ago with other Sulwhasoo products and liked it so much that I ordered full size before the sampler run out; I'm almost out if it now and I'll be reordering it soon. It always worked for me; no matter how tired, aggravated, exhausted, and mad at the world my skin felt, it'll be calmer and more manageable the morning after I used Trufresh. Usually I try to mix and match sleeping masks during the week to get better results, but I make an exception for Trufresh - if I'm suffering from seasonal allergies, or of I had to spend long time outdoors in polluted city air, and my skin really needs help, I use Trufresh for a few days in a row until my skin calms down. Trufresh has light texture and absorbs fully in less than a minute, making it perfect for workaholic like me; I don't have to wait for it to absorb after a long day at work, I can just slap it on and go to sleep right away. It has almost no smell; it comes out as semi-sheer green cream, but it leaves no color or tint on my skin, so theoretically I can use it during the day under my sunscreen. It's a lifesaver in summertime; my skin does not tolerate heat that well, and it gets really hot and humid here in NY.
When I saw Dearpacker Alaska Glacier Soothing Pack for the first time, I knew I just have to try it. Dearpacker is a new skincare brand that specializes in masks only. It belongs to Korean behemoth LG that owns well-known brands like The History of Whoo, O HUI, Belif, and many others (more on their site here). At first glance Alaska Glacier appeared to be a budget-friendly version
of Trufresh made by a rival corporation (Sulwhasoo belongs to Amore
Pacific, another Korean multi-brand). They both claim to be tailored at protecting skin from overheating, and cooling and hydrating it in hot summer days. I have to mention that neither of the masks has any TPF (Thermal Protection Factor) listed, so I'm not entirely sure how they can substantiate their claims about heat protective properties.
TPF is a very interesting concept that is relatively new to skincare. Essentially, it's an index, much like SPF and PA, that shows the percentage of blocked heat. I can't find the original research to link it here, but it seems that at some point Sulwhasoo sponsored a research at Seoul National University to study the effects of heat on the skin. They found that skin temperature rises after sun exposure (no surprise here), and it can reach temperatures over 40C, or 104F, more that 10 degrees over the normal average 31C, or 87.8F. Supposedly, that change in skin temperature affects blood vessels, resulting in permanent redness, as well as production of collagen-decomposing enzymes, resulting in destruction of collagen and therefore wrinkles, skin sagging, etc. There are some quotes from the study over the blogosphere, but I would love to read the original research to see what model they were using, and what measurements were actually made; if anyone happens to have a link to any of their publications, please share in comments below. If TPF-related ingredients in Sulwhasoo products are mostly herbal (as it appears to be the case from very limited description on their website here), I wonder how they actually work on cellular level; did the researches try to raise thermotolerance to prevent damage, or to slow down the heat-induced damage. There are some interesting articles on PubMed (such as this one, dating back to 1987, and this one , published in 1996, or this one , published in 2007), but they're only somewhat relevant to the research in question.
Currently, Amore Pacific owns both patent and trademark for TPF (link here), but they did not chose to list it on Trufresh. I tried comparing herbal ingredients that are featured in another Sulwhasoo product that has TPF, Renodigm EX Dual Care cream (CosDNA here), with those of Trufresh to find if there are any similarities between them. Turns out, there are quite a few ingredients that they have in common. Both have Ophiopogon japonicus extract, Nelumbo Nucifera (sacred lotus) seed extracts, Chaenomeles Sinensis fruit extract, Pinus Koraiensis (korean pine) seed extract, Glycyrrhiza Uralensis (licorice) root extract, and Prunus Mume (japanese apricot) fruit extracts; it looks like most of Trufresh herbal ingredients are also on Renodigm EX list, and the last one is featured as one of the main herbal ingredients in Renodigm EX. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a full ingredient lists in English for Alaska Glacier, and I can't read Korean; all I got is Dearpacker PR pictures, and here is the most descriptive one:
It seems Trufresh and Alaska Glacier have some limited similarities in herbal ingredients; they both have pine and lotus extracts in their ingredient lists. Trufresh has Nelumbo Nucifera (sacred lotus) and Pinus Koraiensis (korean pine) extracts, and Alaska Glacier has snow lotus extract and pine tree oil (no Latin names provided). Also, they both list roses in their ingredients, but while Trufresh has Rosa Multiflora, Alaska Glacier lists Alpenrose, which is actually a rhododendron shrub (wiki here) that does not look anything like a classic pink rose that they put on their PR pictures. I hope Dearpacker will remedy the situation soon and add ingredient list in English to their packaging and their website.
Texture-wise Alaska Glacier pack is quite different from Trufresh; it's an almost transparent gel with tiny off-white capsules in it. Dearpacker describes them as "moisture capsules in cooling gel". The mask's texture reminds me of HERA Aquabolic mask; it also has capsules with active ingredients in them, but Aquabolic's capsules are much bigger than Alaska Glacier's. The capsules dissolve on contact without producing any noticeable sensation; actually, I did not notice any cooling sensation at all. The mask does not absorb well on my skin; perhaps people with dry or normal skin will not have this problem, but on my oily skin it forms a sticky layer and stays sticky until morning, transferring to both my hair and my pillow. The mask has almost no smell, which is a bonus for me. I've been using it for over three months, and it didn't break me out. It feels less soothing than Trufresh, but it gives me decent hydration the next morning. I was thinking about reviewing it with hydrating sleeping masks, since it does not do much more than that for me; however, since it claims to be soothing mask with cooling effect, I thought it'll be fair to compare it to my favorite soothing mask. I'm not going to repurchase it, even as hydrating mask, since the hydration I get the morning after using it is less noticeable than my favorite The History of Whoo Hydrating Overnight mask gives me; on my skin Alaska Glacier mask is about as hydrating as HERA Aquabolic, but Aquabolic absorbs much better and never leaves a sticky layer that lasts overnight.
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| Dearpacker Alaska Glacier Soothing Mask's official PR |
TPF is a very interesting concept that is relatively new to skincare. Essentially, it's an index, much like SPF and PA, that shows the percentage of blocked heat. I can't find the original research to link it here, but it seems that at some point Sulwhasoo sponsored a research at Seoul National University to study the effects of heat on the skin. They found that skin temperature rises after sun exposure (no surprise here), and it can reach temperatures over 40C, or 104F, more that 10 degrees over the normal average 31C, or 87.8F. Supposedly, that change in skin temperature affects blood vessels, resulting in permanent redness, as well as production of collagen-decomposing enzymes, resulting in destruction of collagen and therefore wrinkles, skin sagging, etc. There are some quotes from the study over the blogosphere, but I would love to read the original research to see what model they were using, and what measurements were actually made; if anyone happens to have a link to any of their publications, please share in comments below. If TPF-related ingredients in Sulwhasoo products are mostly herbal (as it appears to be the case from very limited description on their website here), I wonder how they actually work on cellular level; did the researches try to raise thermotolerance to prevent damage, or to slow down the heat-induced damage. There are some interesting articles on PubMed (such as this one, dating back to 1987, and this one , published in 1996, or this one , published in 2007), but they're only somewhat relevant to the research in question.
Currently, Amore Pacific owns both patent and trademark for TPF (link here), but they did not chose to list it on Trufresh. I tried comparing herbal ingredients that are featured in another Sulwhasoo product that has TPF, Renodigm EX Dual Care cream (CosDNA here), with those of Trufresh to find if there are any similarities between them. Turns out, there are quite a few ingredients that they have in common. Both have Ophiopogon japonicus extract, Nelumbo Nucifera (sacred lotus) seed extracts, Chaenomeles Sinensis fruit extract, Pinus Koraiensis (korean pine) seed extract, Glycyrrhiza Uralensis (licorice) root extract, and Prunus Mume (japanese apricot) fruit extracts; it looks like most of Trufresh herbal ingredients are also on Renodigm EX list, and the last one is featured as one of the main herbal ingredients in Renodigm EX. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a full ingredient lists in English for Alaska Glacier, and I can't read Korean; all I got is Dearpacker PR pictures, and here is the most descriptive one:
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| Dearpacker Alaskan Glacier Soothing pack - the company's info concerning the ingredients; unfortunately, they do not provide full ingredient list in English anywhere online, and the box's text is about 95% Korean. |
It seems Trufresh and Alaska Glacier have some limited similarities in herbal ingredients; they both have pine and lotus extracts in their ingredient lists. Trufresh has Nelumbo Nucifera (sacred lotus) and Pinus Koraiensis (korean pine) extracts, and Alaska Glacier has snow lotus extract and pine tree oil (no Latin names provided). Also, they both list roses in their ingredients, but while Trufresh has Rosa Multiflora, Alaska Glacier lists Alpenrose, which is actually a rhododendron shrub (wiki here) that does not look anything like a classic pink rose that they put on their PR pictures. I hope Dearpacker will remedy the situation soon and add ingredient list in English to their packaging and their website.
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| Sulwhasoo Trufresh Soothing Mask and Dearpacker Alaska Glacier Soothing Pack |
Texture-wise Alaska Glacier pack is quite different from Trufresh; it's an almost transparent gel with tiny off-white capsules in it. Dearpacker describes them as "moisture capsules in cooling gel". The mask's texture reminds me of HERA Aquabolic mask; it also has capsules with active ingredients in them, but Aquabolic's capsules are much bigger than Alaska Glacier's. The capsules dissolve on contact without producing any noticeable sensation; actually, I did not notice any cooling sensation at all. The mask does not absorb well on my skin; perhaps people with dry or normal skin will not have this problem, but on my oily skin it forms a sticky layer and stays sticky until morning, transferring to both my hair and my pillow. The mask has almost no smell, which is a bonus for me. I've been using it for over three months, and it didn't break me out. It feels less soothing than Trufresh, but it gives me decent hydration the next morning. I was thinking about reviewing it with hydrating sleeping masks, since it does not do much more than that for me; however, since it claims to be soothing mask with cooling effect, I thought it'll be fair to compare it to my favorite soothing mask. I'm not going to repurchase it, even as hydrating mask, since the hydration I get the morning after using it is less noticeable than my favorite The History of Whoo Hydrating Overnight mask gives me; on my skin Alaska Glacier mask is about as hydrating as HERA Aquabolic, but Aquabolic absorbs much better and never leaves a sticky layer that lasts overnight.
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