Review: SK-II Stempower Cream (SK-II’s 10-day Challenge)

Hi all!

 

I was recently offered by SK-II to take on a 10-day challenge, using their new Stempower products.

NEW SK-II STEMPOWER is an essential daily moisturizer designed to make you feel radical firmness in 10 days. By focusing on the source of skin beauty, the milky lotion tackles primary signs of skin ageing such as dryness, pores, texture, radiance and lack of firmness.

SK-II’s worldwide search for ingredients that work on epidermal root cells has led to the discovery of a unique plant-derived ingredient – Stem- Acanax – taken from the root of Siberian Ginseng, which is harvested from an organic farm in the heart of Korea’s Jeju Island. SK-II has combined its signature ingredient PiteraTM and Stem-Acanax to create the SK-II Stem-Acanex Complex.

In tandem with the discovery of a new radical firmness of the skin, SK-II has developed a new measure – the ‘Ageless Vector’. SK-II’s Ageless Vector measures the angle of sagging or lack of firmness: the larger the Ageless Vector angle (closer to 90 degrees), the lower the radical firmness of skin. In fact, SK-II’s longitudinal skin study – the landmark Akita Study – found that each degree of change indicates approximately one year’s loss in visible firmness.

To measure our Ageless Vector, SK-II has come up with a Magic Ring Counselling machine (as seen above) that can measure 5 of your skin’s qualities:

1. Radiance Enhancement
2. Spot Control
3. Wrinkle Resilience
4. Firmness Power
5. Texture Refinement

Before I have my skin analysed, we were to fill up a form that determine our skin areas that we want to see improvement, skin care regime as well as our skin allergies.

The Magic Ring consultation will also calculate our actual age of our skin and so it is required for us to enter our age into the system.

The beauty consultant will then take a picture of our skin using the red machine as shown above. She will then proceed to map out of face before the machine analyse our results!

So here is my overall results with a poor score of only 49%. Glad to know, the actual age of my skin is 21 years old. I knew my skin has never been perfect but it was still surprising to see a low score for firmness power and wrinkle resilience when I am still so young. My score for spot control is perfect as I always stay indoors and apply sunscreen most of the time. Texture refinement score is disappointing due to my dehydrated / dry skin.

With my skin being analyzed  I changed my skincare regime using the new SK-II Stempower products, namely the Stempower Cream as well as the Stempower Rich Cream.

This Stempower comes in two sizes. Each tub contains a significant amount of product which can last you for nearly 6 months. To use this cream, all we need is a 1cm in diameter of the cream and massage it into our skin. The cream is to be used after cleansing of the face, toner and essence.

This milky cream-gel texture has no significant fragrance and it feels really comfortable on the skin.

Ingredient list:

This lightweight gel like texture does not leave any oily residue. It is light enough to have foundation applied over the skin. This moisturizer is said to firm, hydrate, minimise pores, reduce fine lines and wrinkles as well as to even skin tone. While I find this moisturize less hydrating than some richer ones I have tried (remember how dry my skin is?), this cream does a fair job at reducing fine lines, and wrinkles. You will know why from my second Magic Ring consultation.

SK-II Stempower retails at $149 for 50g and $219 for 80g.

Available at all SK-II counters in leading department stores.

 

NEW SK-II STEMPOWER Rich Cream is formulated with a high concentration of the SK-II Stem-Acanax complex to address multiple skin signs of ageing to see radical firmness in 10 days. Stempower Rich Cream is powered by the SK-II Stem-Acanax Complex which contains Stem-Acanax and PiteraTM and has 49% more1 of skin conditioning ingredients that helps to protect skin from severe environment conditions and skin signs of ageing.

Featuring a rich yet non-greasy texture, the cream contains an SK-II exclusive natural soft fragrance, Olive Olive Natural, for a gentle yet luxurious experience. Because of the much richer texture (as seen below), this cream is recommended for night use. Depending on your skin type, I find this more useful when used in the morning because my skin requires that much moisture. To me, the rich cream is more hydrating than the normal Stempower cream.

SK-II Stempower Rich Cream retails at S$209.

Available at all SK-II counters in leading department stores.

 

Now, here are my latest results of my Magic Ring consultation comparing to my previous results.

Before I show you the results, there is something I need to clarify. I had a bad case of allergies (probably  due to the consumption of seafood / shellfish) in between two of my Magic Ring consultations. This allergy had significantly affected my skin that resulted in my body being dehydrated. My skin was so dry that I had to keep reapplying my moisturizer every 15 minutes just so that it won’t hurt. That being said, my skin has since recovered and I headed for my SK-II consultation a few days after the recovery. As such, this set of results might not be what it ought to be (from the using of Stempower) since my skin had suffered from my allergy. It could have been better. Nevertheless, here are the results!

During the time of my consultation, my skin had suffered from two pimples on my cheek. My skin was terribly dry from the allergy.

Despite the bad case of allergy, my skin has an overall improvement, from 49% to 54%! Even though it was not a huge jump, I had to bear in mind that my results could have been much better due to the allergy. Stempower is very much recommended as an anti-aging or a wrinkle tackling product – designed to make you feel radical firmness. I understand my radiance, and spot control has dropped due to my pimples as well as my recovery from the allergy. As my body is still quite dehydrated, dehydration of the skin is also the main issue, causing texture refinement to be low. However, wrinkle resilience and firmness power has improved, thanks to the Stempower products!

To increase my texture refinement (hydration of my skin) as well as radiance enhancement, my SK-II beauty consultant has recommended me to use Cellumination Essence EX (for hydration plus radiance) and Facial Treatment Essence (for hydration).

I would like to thank SK-II and the PRs for putting me up to their Stempower challenge. From the Magic Ring consultation, I have learnt much more about my skin and the problem areas that I need to focus on from now on (hydration and radiance). If you have a chance to, I truly recommend you trying the Magic Ring Counselling! The BAs from SK-11 are very friendly and approachable! Throughout this entire challenge, I have approached Beauty Consultant Vivian from Raffles City Robinsons. Do look for her if you want your skin analysed! She is sweet and friendly.

Read More: The best anti-aging creams from SK-II

 

Thanks for reading ~