Review: Beauty of Joseon Cleansing Balm 🎎🇰🇷🧼

Today I wanted to review and tell you Beauties about a fabulous and yet affordable cleansing balm 🧼💦💙💜 I won this cleansing balm way back now (maybe a year ago?) on Instagram. Since then it’s been a staple in my bathroom and yet I keep forgetting to tell you about it! So we will change all of that today 😊

Beauty of Joseon is a Korean brand and their brand name refers back to a period of Korean history. History buffs will get a kick out of the name and brand philosophy, just as I do! For some context, the Kingdom of Great Joseon existed from 1392 until 1897. That’s 5 centuries!!! 😲 The Joseon period has left a substantial legacy on modern Korea; much of modern Korean culture from it’s etiquette, societal attitudes, social structures, norms (including embedded Confucianism ideals), modern Korean language & dialects, stem from the Joseon Dynasty.

I love the woman Joseon woman depicted in the illustration above, she looks like she has some serious attitude 😅😎😝

That’s it for my history class today lol 😆 Let’s get to the balm and why I love it!

The sherbet-type cleansing balm contains ‘rice water’ and ‘grain fermentation ingredients’ to smoothly dissolve and remove makeup from pores, giving a moist and bright finish without tugging. Rice water rich in minerals brightens skin while grain fermented extract help enhance skin elasticity.The rice water, called ‘Migam-su’ most commonly used by women in Joseon (as according to ‘Gyhapchong Seo’, the book of knowhow and tips for daily life in Joseon) contains an abundant amount of vitamin B and minerals, so it fills skin with moisture and liveliness. The sherbet-type cleansing balm is softly melted by the temperature of skin.It has rice, rice bran, bean 3 fermentation ingredients, so it cleans softly and fills the skin with nutrients.There are 4 gracious plants; plum, orchid, chrysanthemum and bamboo. Chrysanthemum has been added as it is buxom with a delicate elegance. It contains vitamin A and B1, improving the complexion; skin self-propagation and calms skin down from environmental stressors.How to use:1. Apply proper amount of cleansing balm onto dry fingertips and gently spread it on all over face. 2. Gently massage to melt down eye and lip makeup and overall makeup. 3. Rinse off with lukewarm water (or cleansing foam if necessary) when makeup is melted.

The texture of the balm really is sherbet like! It’s like the balm has been whipped and made airy, before being compressed into the packaging, so it still has a light consistency despite being a balm (and thus oily). I use it for removing makeup specifically, when double cleansing. I find it works brilliantly for this purpose and really does remove every trace of makeup and residue!

It doesn’t really have a scent per se; instead the balm smells soapy, which I actually like. I love that the directions tell you to use ‘a proper amount’ LOL Korean to English translations for the win! 😂😂 I get a pea sized amount or so (using the spatula provided, like in the photo below) and I warm the product up in my hands before massaging it over dry skin. It really does start to melt thanks to the warmth of your skin, so you could just as easily apply a few spots to your skin and then work the product in. I like to have it all over my hands to then be able to massage it into my skin – every nook and cranny! Because it is so emollient and melts into an oil essentially, there’s no need to rub or pull at the skin. Using your fingertips around the eye area, gentle move the product around to get rid of concealer, mascara and eyeshadow. No tugging allowed! If you need to, use more product so that you can work with it easily and experience the balms full effects.

In about a minute (or less, but I like to give myself some time for luxury 😉) everything will have dissolved thanks to this balm. Rinse with lukewarm water and voila! It does emulsify a little on contact with water, so it’s probably best to keep working that product around so you can get it all off at the same time. Once all rinsed off, your skin will be left feeling soft, smooth and makeup free! It really does remove everything and so SO easily! Not a trace of makeup is left on my face. Because it leaves no residue behind, it’s also the perfect first cleanse in a double cleansing routine.

There are three main ingredients in this cleansing balm; rice water, fermented ingredients (from rice, rice bran and beans) and chrysanthemum extract. The rice water is also from rice bran (Oryza Sativa) which is a great antioxidant! I believe Korean women (as well as other Asian women) rinsed or washed skin using the cloudy water which is left over from rinsing rice because it was said to lighten skin (typical lol) and keep it clear. I’m not sure if this is true in practice of course, but they clearly noticed that it was doing something beneficial for their skin! Its a shame that the fermented ingredients are far down the ingredient list, but this doesn’t bother me too much because it is a cleanser that is washed off the skin and not a serum or moisturiser (so I can overlook this in this case 😉). Interestingly, the ingredients also contain beeswax, lavender water, chamomile extract and clary sage extract (to calm and soothe skin). All in all, I think the formula is great because it works!

The packaging is simple and practical. A white plastic tub, which is sturdy and doesn’t feel cheap. It’s supposed to emulate the white porcelain pots that Joseon women used to keep their precious lotions in. I don’t think the product would leak from this tub in hot weather, if you were thinking of travelling with it. In saying that, I haven’t tested this out myself 😜 You receive 80g of product.

Beauty of Joseon doesn’t have an incredibly long list of products available – I guess they must be expanding their range slowly and formulating their products carefully before releasing them. Well, that’s what I’d like to think so! 😜 They have a quite well known moisturiser, Dynasty Cream🧴, an apricot peeling gel, a sleeping mask and cleansing foam. The products are all really well priced and the Cleansing Balm retails for $28 Aus dollars on the YesStyle website, while on the Beauty of Joseon official website, it retails for $24 US dollars. Very comparable I think!

I love this balm and will be going back to it time and time again! 😊🙌💜🧼💦💙

Let me know if you loves balms as much as I do, and which one is your favourite at the moment!

Catch ya next time,

Beauty Bee~

Please follow and like us:

#Kbeauty #chrysanthemumextract #Makeupremover #ferment #oryzasativa #BeautyofJoseonCleansingBalm #cleanser #oilcleansingbalm #ricewater