Sophie K is a girl who loves the outdoors, she moved to Malaysia a few months ago from a land Down Under and absolutely loves everything about life in Malaysia, from the food to the fact that she can spend lots of time exploring Malaysia’s fascinating towns but all these outdoor activities Sophie K indulges in wreaks havoc on her skin as she is prone to developing pigmentation and in her excitement to discover all that Malaysia has to offer, she occasionally forgets to apply sunscreen. So she turned to her blogger friend, Juniper J for help. “What can I do to improve the appearance of the dark spots on my face?”, she asked.
Well Sophie K, you are in luck because Juniper J recently attended a presentation by SK-II’s Country Trainer, Denise Loong who introduced a group of bloggers and SK-II customers to their No. 1 whitening series. The star products in this series are the Cellumination Essence EX and the Whitening Spots Specialist, the powerful duo against dark spots.
Cellumination Essence EX & Whitening Spots Specialist
These 2 products have the highest sales numbers within SK-II’s whitening products and Cellumination Essence EX is the first product within SK-II to achieve the aura effect, i.e. a brilliant translucent aura that redefines spot free bare skin beauty.
After hearing about these products from Juniper J, Sophie K wanted to learn more. She’d never used any SK-II products before even though she knew many famous people endorsed the products and who doesn’t want to have beautiful glowing skin like internationally acclaimed actresses such as Lee Sinje, Tang Wei & Cate Blanchett? When these ladies appear on any Red Carpet, they are immediately the centre of attention.
Before I go into some detail on the differences between the Cellumination Essence EX & Whitening Spots Specialist (Sophie K was dying to know what they are), no introduction to SK-II is complete without mentioning SK-II’s worldwide bestseller, the ‘Miracle Water’ or Facial Treatment Essence.
The road to crystal clear skin may be a bit long but with diligence in using the products recommended by SK-II, the end result can be achieved. The Facial Treatment Essence is THE ONE product from SK-II which has been on everyone’s lips ever since it was first introduced. It helps improve the 5 dimensions of skin:-
- texture/refinement
- firmness power
- wrinkle resilience
- spot control
- radiance enhancement
To apply, saturate cotton with Facial Treatment Essence and gently pat all over face and neck. Any excess can be wiped over elbows. It can also be used as a mask by soaking cotton pads or a compressed mask in Facial Treatment Essence.
Cellumination Essence EX
The most talked-about whitening essence from March-June 2012 on SK-II’s official webpage, this essence is designed to help create refined and radiant skin to the extent that skin looks translucent as if wearing a light foundation. Its Aura Bright Cocktail with Pixel White™ evens out texture and tone from a microlevel on top of treating spots or freckles as well as epidermis plumpness and collagen glycation. In one week, consumers who used this product can feel the healthy radiance. Four weeks later, 91% of women feel that the product makes them like their bare skin.
Cellumination Essence EX is applied to the entire face day and night. The Aura Bright Cocktail’s key ingredient, Pixel White™ suppresses the stress receptors that affect skin’s overall aura. Pixel-White™ blocks the stress receptor key hole in melanocytes, effectively protecting them from stress substances. This prevents over production of melanin, and improves micro tone issues. Pixel-White™ also works with the other key ingredients such as SK-II Pitera™ to act on keratinocytes, and improve skin turnover to produce a beautiful horny layer and therefore remedy micro-texture issues.
To apply Cellumination Essence EX, place 2 drops on palm and use finger tips to dot on forehead, cheeks and chin. Then using finger tips, spread and tap all over the face to emit aura.
Whitening Spots Specialist
The Whitening Spots Specialist adopts a dual approach to fighting spot formation, targeting both hidden, as well as visible spots, the Whitening Spots Specialist is specially catered to women who seek a solution to spot darkening. SK-II’s Whitening Spots Specialist Program helps bring women closer to experiencing never-before-achieved clarity by reducing stubborn spots at their roots.
Think of this as a product that dives deep to the root of the problem to reduce dark spots by cutting and loosening their roots. In other words, Whitening Spots Specialist nips the problem at the bud or targets the source of the problem. According to Denise Loong, for every visible dark spot we see on our skin, there are 5 dark spots beneath the surface of our skin waiting to emerge. You can imagine Sophie K’s consternation when she heard this but no worries, SK-II has it all covered. As a preferred option to laser treatment, the Whitening Spots Specialist aims at macerating five-year old stubborn dark spots in just four weeks with results varying between individuals.
The evolved Whitening Spots Specialist efficacy has raised the bar for removing stubborn spots with its two active cocktails – Root Complex and Rich Melano-Discharge. The Root Complex is specially designed to cut spot chain reaction of normal spots and hidden spots by cutting the root of the spots beneath the skin’s surface.
The gel-type Whitening Spots Specialist caters to both morning and night use. For best results, use it morning and night. When you apply the moisture serum over the entire face, the active ingredients penetrates deep into skin to cut “the root of dark spots”, which is the root cause of dark spots. Alternatively, it can be applied to just the areas of concern, where dark spots are most apparent.
For additional efficacy, the Whitening Spots Specialist can be complemented with the Whitening Spots Specialist Concentrate. When you apply this concentrate serum on spot areas, richer concentrate of active ingredients clings to the pillars of spots and slowly loosens stubborn spots overnight and consequently helps to remove spots. The recommended regime for Whitening Spots Specialist Concentrate is to spread it thinly and evenly across the face every night, after applying the Whitening Spots Specialist.
Sophie K wanted to know what other products there were in SK-II-s Cellumination range so that the process of diminishing her dark spots could be sped up. No worries Sophie K because SK-II has all you’ll ever need to achieve crystal clear skin that will be the envy of all.
Check out SK-II’s Cellumination Day Surge UV Touch Up with SPF30. This is a moisturiser cum sunscreen and can be used to touch up makeup:-
- Softly touch the area where your makeup is uneven with tissue.
- Take one push of Cellumination Day Surge UV on a clean puff and apply it to the area where makeup has come off, shading off the border between the uneven area and even area.
- Finally, finish the makeup with a powder or foundation or makeup items of your choice.
Then there’s the Cellumination Essence-In Foundation which we have all seen a lot of in magazines. More than just an ordinary foundation, this one contains the same beautifying skincare ingredients in their Cellumination range to give skin a translucent finish.
Sophie K’s too shy to show you her skin analysis results at the SK-II counter when she went for her consultation so I’ll show you mine since I have gone past the embarassed stage for anything.
SK-II is the first to invent the in-store Magic Ring™ test to see through skin and educate on the science of whitening. This is unlike any skin analysis machine I have ever seen. It’s quite big and looks like a steamer or one of those detox machines for vegetables! The consultant held it against my skin to test the 5 dimensions of skin – texture/refinement, firmness power, wrinkle resilience, spot control and radiance enhancement.
Every time I have gone for such skin analysis at other beauty brands’ counters, the results have been less than positive so I was expecting the worst like sagging skin, loss of resilience, fine lines and wrinkles, dryness and such similar findings which leave me feeling despondent for days after the analysis but to my surprise, these are my results from the SK-II ‘Magic Ring’ anaysis.
Yes, the overall score is quite high at 88% and I had a perfect score for wrinkle resilience and firmness power. I came close to 100% for spot control (96%) and radiance enhancement (98%). The only dimension in which I failed miserably was texture refinement at 47%. Ooops! Time to improve on the pores, methinks. The results left me feeling as happy as a lark and had me literally skipping away from the counter.
Apparently, I have the skin of a 37 year old. How flattering and totally unexpected. Such good news. In future, I think I will only have my skin analysed by SK-II because I have never had such positive findings from other brands’ analysis machines. ♥ you SK-II for making me feel much younger than I actually am!
So Sophie K has been using the Cellumination Essence EX, Whitening Spots Specialist and some other SK-II which she purchased after her consultation. I have no doubt that she will love the progress the products will bring to her skin and soon she will look like this:-
SK-II’s No.1 whitening series of Cellumination Essence EX and Whitening Spots Specialist are available at all SK-II counters in all major department stores nationwide.
SK-II Cellumination Essence EX
RM499 (30ml); RM709 (50ml)
SK-II Whitening Spots Specialist
RM419 (30ml); RM609 (50ml)
Sophie K promises to take better care of her skin with the help of SK-II products and is already loving the texture and feel of Cellumination Essence EX & Whitening Spots Specialist on her skin. She will stick to her SK-II whitening regimen wherever she may be and will never, ever leave home without applying Cellumination Day Surge UV Touch Up again.
