Review: Lioele Secret Pore Rich Balm

Hey guys! I'm back with another sample review from Lioele. Granted, my last experience with Lioele wasn't the best in the world, but it'd be a shame to judge a brand based on one product alone. This time I'm trying out Lioele's Secret Pore Rich Balm which has been raved about quite often on the net. I received a sample size from Lioele giftpack I won a while back and have been meaning to review this a long while back.

The sample sachet comes with enough product for one full-face application or 2-3 target zone applications and costs 50php if you get it at a boutique The full size however looks like the picture below and comes in a small container which contains only 20-mL of product, pricing in at 1250PHP. A bit on the pricey side if you ask me.

I don't particularly have problems with this though it is somewhat unhygienic if you have to dip your hands repeatedly, even more so if you don't wash your hands beforehand. Also, people with long nails might find this type of product packaging somewhat troublesome: case in point, the picture below.

The product has a consistency similar to what I would describe as Etude House's Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Stick if it were mushed up and ground into a fine balm. In that sense, it's somewhat of a fusion between an essence primer and a stick primer when it comes to filling in fine lines and pores. It has a waxy powder-velvet texture and looks white but applies transparently onto the skin.

From the Lioele Philippines Website

I think one thing to note is that this product has silicone in it, which for some people irritates their skin. I've had bad reactions to gel-based primers with silicone in them before, but this one didn't irritate my skin, so I was thankful for that at least haha.

This product claims to fill in both pores and fine lines, but since I don't have too many wrinkles or fine lines on my face to test it on, I tried it on the back side of my thumb which is rather wrinkly and scaly looking to start with. Hahaha you should've seen the look on my face when I found that the fine lines were fore the most part filled in and the back of my thumb felt so smooth after I spread the product.

You can somewhat tell from the picture above how the product works as it fills in the lines and at the same time reflects light so that you can't exactly see the shadows that the fine lines cause. So where lines and wrinkles are concerned, this product packs a punch.

Next was to test it on how well it covered pores. I'll admit, I don't have super large pores to begin with, but the skin between the mass of my cheeks and my nose is rather problematic when it comes to bumpiness and uneven texture, so I concentrated the use of this product in that area.

It did a pretty good job IMO, and the pores the pores that were there were filled in quite nicely. It also reduced shine upon preliminary application.Because the product is transparent and only reflects light appropriately in different angles, you can still see some of the pores and the dents they make on your skin, but if you layer on your BB cream or foundation on after applying this, you should have a clean, smooth-textured, air-brushed look to your face, sans the pores and unsightly wrinkles.

Compared to Etude House's Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer stick, this product is more buildable and can be applied generously as needed. But if you apply too much, it may tend to make your foundation slip. At the same time I found that it didn't do much of a job suspending the oil production on my face, so that after a few hours, my face had that shine to it even if initially it looked pretty matte.

So if you're looking for long time oil-control IMHO, Etude House's primer still wins it for me, but if you're looking for that porcelain smooth texture Lioele takes the trophy.

FOTD using Lioele's Secret Pore Rich Balm

So in summary:

Pros:
Covers fine lines and pores very well
Buildable
Pleasant smell
Non-irritating and didn't break me out
Goes on matte and reduces shine

Cons
Pretty expensive and only 20-mL of product in a full-size package
Hard to get considering there aren't very many Lioele Boutiques near me, but you can also order it online.
Packaging is rather unhygienic.
Doesn't control oil on my face over time and sometimes makes foundation slip.

All in all I guess you can say this is a so-so product. Some people are utterly blown away by this, and I can say that it really does work for people with more uneven texture on their skin. But on my skin, it didn't really make much of a difference for me to justify getting a full-sized bottle of the stuff. Again, this is my experience, and I'm sure it's made a more drastic difference for people with different skin than mine.

Have you guys tried this product? How well did it work for you? Feel free to tell me about it :) I'm really curious.

Ada, signing out.