First impressions: Sooryehan The Black Single Essence

This will feel like a big of a negative review but it'll get better!

Cost 

$27.44 from KoreaDepart (plus shipping, no taxes)

Introduction

I got this to do a full routine of The Black range and hoping it would help with redness, like The Black Serum originally did.

I thought using all four products - essence, serum, moisturiser and cream - would be delightful as a routine.

I suspected that the products wouldn't be siliconey enough to help with sleep creases, knowing the cream was actually quite light. 

And knowing the essence would be watery, I potentially felt that I would be annoyed by it because I find watery products annoying to apply and take ages to absorb.

Packaging

It's interesting that the serum, even the 60ml, comes in a plastic bottle, where as the essence and moisturiser are both glass bottles.

The essence has an open top with one of those plastic covers so it doesn't just pour out but it does still just pour out because it's super watery.

Regardless of that, the tall glass bottle with The Black range branding does look super sexy and classy!

Texture

Eh. It's watery.

I expected that from the ingredients list.

It's not as watery as really basic toners from Mixsoon and One Thing, or high end thin essences like SK-II, but it's still definitely much more watery than I'd prefer. 

However, whilst my initial reaction is "eh", the eh may come from user error, to some extent, which I'll expand on below.

Ingredients

Well, this is possibly the shortest ingredient list for something from a luxe brand that I've seen, ignoring the SK-II essence and toner.

I do have a packaging insert but it doesn't have the ingredients in English. I went by the Yesstyle ingredients list and it's short, only really the liquorice extract as notable.

Fragrance

I feel cheated by the fragrance.

The Black Serum is my top favourite product fragrance ever, as much as I also love the fragrance of the now discontinued Sulwhasoo Timetreasure serums.

The Sulwhasoo doesn't have any specific notes I can detect with my paltry sense of smell but it's the archetypal perfume smell in the absolute best way. It would be too heavy for me to wear as a perfume because I like fresh citrus smells as perfume but if someone gave me that fragrance bottled, I'd wear it and feel very fancy. 

For the Black Range fragrance, I'll quote Odile:

“The Black Essence Moisturizer” contains fragrance. It’s a beautiful earthy fragrance with fresh, green notes of pine. The fragrance is very subtle, doesn’t linger and makes the product smell very refined and sophisticated. The serum has an amber floral fragrance that smells subtle and refined at the same time.

https://themonodist.com/anti-aging-korean-skincare-routine-fusing-tradition-innovation-sooryehans-the-black-line-ad/

I've said that the serum smells like a walk in the forest at night and I stand by it. The Moisturiser and cream are deeper, richer variations with, as Odile notes, more earthy fragrances.

The essence though? It smells of alcohol initially to me, although it's not a super strong fragrance in and of itself.

I think my issue with this is that I can't detect any floral or woody notes, no sweetness either.

It seems cold, slightly herbal and slightly earthy to me but mostly it smells of aniseed. I think that's why I'm picking up an alcohol aroma. 

But wait, you say, aniseed is kinda like liquorice and this product is all about the liquorice extract! That may be so but the internet tells me that liquorice has sweetness and this has zero sweetness as far as I can tell.

Whilst I do prefer the cooler smell of the serum to the creams, this is too cool.

I'd hoped I'd get more of the key notes from the serum, just maybe lighter or modulated somehow, the way the moisturiser and cream are similar but distinct.

Boo. 

On the upside, it barely lingers and is easily overwritten by the fragrance from the other products.

I'm not going to score the fragrance because there's no point, it's all aniseed and I cannot detect anything else! Maybe you, dear Reader, can and if so, please point out where I'm going wrong!

What Step?

I use this as a toner.

In my The Black range only routine, I use all four products plus my 10% niacinamide serum and sunscreen. I might add in some Cosrx 96 because I have two open (thought I'd got a fake, got another from a trusted shop and it was identical so I have two open lol).

I don't always do the Black range only, it does vary because I have a lot of open products but I'll still often do a

For PM, I tend to replace the cream with something heavier because even with using the cream and adding thicker products for my eyes, it doesn't work as well. 

The cream is beautiful as a day cream though, more on this below, so I save it for that slot.

Experience

It seems like I'm really down on this product and in some ways I am.

I do think watery products are a pain to apply and I'm very underwhelmed by the fragrance.

That being said, the fragrance has been growing on me. I am never going to love it the way I love the fragrance of the other products in this line that I've tried but that doesn't make it bad.

There's something interesting in a skincare product that smells so odd and unlike anything I would associate with nice skincare, especially something from a luxe brand. 

I should stop going on about the fragrance and move on. Consider me moved on but I retain my right to complain more about it further down the page.

So, the fragrance is growing on me and I found two solutions to the annoying watery texture.

Fix 1 (AM): ensure I only tip the bottle like I'm applying a dash of bitters to a gin & tonic. I say "I'm" which is a blatant lie because I drown my G&T in bitters but it's how most people would apply it: basically turn the bottle like 120 degrees and then straight back up again.

The fix ensures I'm only pouring a little into my hand which I can pat onto my face easily and so it dries very quickly, as opposed to simply quickly. What I want is for it to dry by the time I'm dispensing the second layer into my hand. That's pretty much how it works with the other luxe toners and so I've been spoilt.

However, dispensing the right amount means it does dry as I wish.

Fix 2 (PM): toner pads! This makes it more fun but does not improve drying time. If anything, it takes longer to dry but I can get more on my skin and it avoids the stupid fancy water running down my hands which is annoying and doesn't actually do my hands any good because I am suffering with super dry hands and my luxe face skincare isn't helping, it stings. 

More fun means I buy into it and I'm more likely to use it - I am sucker for novelty and toner pads are novel. Maybe I'll do a short review of them once I've tried them with some other products.

What I do like about layering this up is that it definitely feels more hydrating than thicker toners. It may be true, it may be perception based on the wateriness. 

I switch around my products a lot and I certainly don't notice any hydration issues with the Sooryehan. 

Do I think the redness reduction stacks like I used to?

Maybe.

My skin is so variable I just can't tell and as much as I promised myself that I'd give the Black range a really good, consistent test, I did not do that.

I have a lot of products open and I enjoy skipping between things as my whim dictates so that's what I do and my routine is not at all consistent.

Final Thoughts 

I like it, despite my many complaints - it's a good product and I think it'd be a cautious win if I wasn't adverse to watery products or moving on from LG generally.