Review | Nature Republic The First Essence

The first essence I've ever used was the one from IOPE and I really liked how it felt on my skin, and how it improved my skin texture so much. I did a review on it so you can click HERE to find out my thoughts on it.

Because the IOPE one is a tad pricey compared to essences from other Korean brands, I wanted to try other brands to see if the effects of all essences were about the same or did the price difference also warrant difference in the effectiveness of the essences.

When I went to Nature Republic, I picked this baby up and it is The First Essence. This costed about 32,000 KRW which is nearly half the price of IOPE's (60,000 KRW).

It claims to be formulated with 90% saccharomyces ferment and this undiluted essential essence makes skin clear and transparent.

How to use: For the first step of skin care, dispense liberally on a cotton pad and apply it to the entire face.

This huge frosted bottle contains 150ml of liquid which is slightly lesser than IOPE's 168ml.

So firstly, the packaging is similar to IOPE's where it comes in a frosted glass bottle. Once again, the packaging isn't the lightest or the most travel friendly. Whenever I travel, I find myself leaving this behind simply because it's too heavy and bulky to bring along with me.

The opening has a plastic stopper once again to prevent too much product from coming out at one go. However, this opening is on the bigger side so I find myself having to be careful about pouring out too much at a time anyway. I typically use essences after my toner so I don't soak a cotton pad with it but instead pour some out on my hands, then pat it all over my face.

The liquid itself is transparent and feels exactly like water. My skin pretty much absorbs it almost immediately because of how lightweight it feels. It doesn't feel sticky, or greasy or even heavy on my skin at all.

There is a slight herbal-floral scent to this but it's so mild that I wouldn't have notice it if I weren't sniffing out for it.

Overall:

PROS:

• Lightweight texture
• Skin absorbs quickly
• Non-greasy, non-sticky
• Smoothens skin texture
• Skin feels softer
• Mild scent
• Does not break me out

CONS:

• Heavy frosted bottle 
• Doesn't help with acne

How I feel about this product is that it doesn't do anything drastic for the skin, so if you're hoping for something life changing, then this will definitely disappoint you. But after using this for about 2-3 weeks or so, what I can say is that my skin feels a lot smoother even without exfoliating and it feels softer as well.

It helps control the bumps on my face a little as well but that seems about it. I don't notice it lightening my acne scars or reducing acne Time Revolution Essence from Missha so I'll reserve my final judgment after I start using Missha's. But for the fact that Nature Republic's essence is half the price of IOPE's, I guess I cannot complain.