The Buzz Off: Skincare So Sweet It'll Give You Dia-Bee-Tus, Part I: Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule

Sunday, September 6, 2015

In the immortal words of JYP, the Jason Derulo of South Korea...


Oh honeeeeeys! Mmmmmmuuuuah!



I'm buzzing with excitement today because I'm kicking off the first of my honey, royal jelly, and propolis skincare reviews! I'll be reviewing 4 products revolving around bees and there's a 5th mini-review over the course of the week. ^^ If there's any interest, I can also show you a little DIY mask I like to use from time to time, too. :) Just let me know in the comments below!





Not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, probably not, because it sounds a bit weird to say - but I come from a big bee family. You're probably like uhhhhhh - okay? So your family's big, and full of busybodies that like to hover over and around one another?

But actually, I mean we're a literal bee family. One of my uncles owns a health foods, supplements, and skincare company called Y.S. Health that's employed almost everyone in my immediate family at least once (picture me in a hairnet filling and labeling jars of honey.... oh manual labor, why must you always go hand in hand with hairnets). You may have seen some Y.S. Health products stocked at your local Korean supermarket or H-Mart.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review
honey, propolis, and royal jelly for your tummy - the rj and propolis taste a bit foul as many things that are good for you tend to do :*( cinnamon honey is amazing for tea, not so much for the face, PSA

They began with a single bee farm in Arizona, long before the days of urban rooftop beekeeping. Nowadays, they've added a farm in the Amazonian rainforest, and source from other farms all over the world. Due to their bee-centricness , for as long as I can remember, we've always had stashes of all different kinds of honey, royal jelly, and propolis around the house. So the recent surge of bee byproducts in skincare has got me feeling sentimental...





Bee Byproducts in Skincare - Honey, Propolis, Royal Jelly *no Bee Venom, to be tried and discussed at a later date

Honey - bee, human, and bear food
In skincare, H is for Honey and Humectant. Humectants prevent moisture loss and some (including honey) have the ability to attract moisture from the water vapor in the air to your skin. It also contains vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to nourish the skin, and has antibacterial properties to combat acne. The antibacterial properties are thought to come from its superpower to suck the lifeblood/water out of microbes. Honey's anti-acne properties are most potent when used in its pure food form, time to whip out those DIY mask-making skills, boys and girls. Also good to know, is that not all honey is created equal. Manuka Honey from the Manuka trees of New Zealand is thought to have the most potent antibacterial properties because it contains methylglyoxal.
Fun fact: Honey is super stable and scientists have found stores of ancient Egyptian honey that are still 'fresh' and viable for human consumption after thousands of years.
What It's Best For: skin softening, hydrating, anti-acne if using undiluted food form

Propolis - resinous honeybee house-building material, human health supplement
Propolis snuck its way into skincare by being an excellent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredient, great for laying the smackdown on acne, rashes, fungus, etc. It's a sealant by nature since the bees produce it to seal the hives from the elements, which is also part of the reason why it's so great at keeping out acne-causing bacteria.
It's got a distinct, pungent (to put it mildly... real talk, it reeks) smell that most skincare companies tone down by adding some botanical extracts to the mix. As a health food supplement, it's thought to combat allergies.
What It's Best For: anti-acne, calming irritation

Royal Jelly - QUEEN bee, human, and bear food, bee equivalent of a 3 Michelin star meal
Royal Jelly is much higher in nutrients AND ANTIOXIDANTS than honey. Royal jelly contains proteins (royalectin), minerals, vitamins B, E, and 10HDA. The high density of nutrients in royal jelly is what turns ordinary bee larvae into queen bees, who are larger, stronger, and live eons longer than the hoi polloi worker bees. (At birth, all bee larvae have the potential to become queen bees, only those fed royal jelly actually do). Some of the components of royal jelly are also humectants, aiding the compound to attract and retain water in the skin.
What It's Best For: nourishing, skin-softening, hydrating



Personally, I'm kind of an old soul and I like oldish smells, so in skincare, I prefer propolis and royal jelly products because they don't smell as sickly-sweet as honey, but I tried them all out for this week's feature. So if you're ready to discover some buzzy skincare and maybe get some dia-bee-tus, read on!

A word of caution: Bee byproducts can cause contact dermatitis. If you are allergic to bee stings, you may also be allergic to bee byproducts. Make sure to patch test these ingredients. Before pulling the trigger on any of these kinds of products, you can try testing out some honey from the fridge to see how your skin responds.




Today's Flavor of the Day: the Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95, 30 ml

This nourishing ampoule had hands down the best ingredients list I found while searching for propolis ampoules to test out. It features 95% propolis extract, and is flanked by niacinamide, royal jelly, honey, and a host of anti-inflammatory non-fragrant botanical extracts with some antioxidant firepower to boot.

Scinic as a brand has this annoying habit of releasing dupes of HOT skincare products, but remixing the ingredients lists to be MUCH better than the original for a similar price point.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review


Ingredients: Propolis Extract, Niacinamide, Royal Jelly Extract, Honey, Chrysanthellum Indicum Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Adansonia Digitata Seed Extract, Yeast Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Polysorbate 80, Punica Granatum Fruit Extract, Ficus Carica Fruit Extract, Morus Alba Fruit Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Nut Extract, Hordeum Vulgare Seed Extract, Cucumis Sativus Seed Extract, Nelumbo Nucifera Seed Extract, Panax ginseng, Punica Granatum Seed Extract, Lactobacillus/soybean Ferment Extract, Salix Alba Bark Extract,  Cinnamomum Cassia Bark Extract, Origanum Vulgare Leaf Extract, Chamaecyparis Obtusa Leaf Extract, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Carbomer, Borago Officinalis Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil, Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil, Helianthus Annuus Oil, Brassica Campestris Seed Oil, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Trideceth-6, PEG/PPG-18/18 Dimethicone, Adenosine, Curcuma Longa Root Extract, Triethanolamine, Disodium EDTA, 1,2-Hexanediol, Caprylyl Glycol, Illicium Verum Fruit Extract, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

Ingredients analysis: The Scinic presents itself as 95% propolis extract, which is among the highest concentrations found on the market. I broke down the benefits of propolis, royal jelly, and honey in my little blurb in the intro.

It also contains...

Niacinamide: Vitamin B3, among the most well-studied anti-aging ingredients. Great for fighting hyperpigmentation caused by acne and the sun

Botanical Extracts with anti-inflammatory, skin-conditioning, and antioxidant properties: Chrysanthellum Indicum Extract, Anthemis Nobilis Flower Extract, Adansonia Digitata Seed Extract, Yeast Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate, Punica Granatum Fruit Extract, Ficus Carica Fruit Extract, Morus Alba Fruit Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Nut Extract, Hordeum Vulgare Seed Extract, Cucumis Sativus Seed Extract, Nelumbo Nucifera Seed Extract, Panax ginseng, Punica Granatum Seed Extract, Lactobacillus/soybean Ferment Extract, Salix Alba Bark Extract,  Cinnamomum Cassia Bark Extract, Origanum Vulgare Leaf Extract, Chamaecyparis Obtusa Leaf Extract, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Portulaca Oleracea Extract

Richly emollient Non-Fragrant Oils: Borago Officinalis Seed Oil, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis Oil, Macadamia Integrifolia Seed Oil, Helianthus Annuus Oil, Brassica Campestris Seed Oil

Whitening/Brightening agents: Niacinamide, Morus Alba Fruit Extract, Dipotassium Glycyrrhizate

Those watching out for acne triggers should note the Niacinamide. Those with bee allergies may need to avoid this product, and those watching out for health triggers will want to note that there are Triethanolamine, Disodium EDTA, and Phenoxyethanol in the formula. Those with sensitive skin should note that there is fragrance in the formula, as the last ingredient.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review

How to Use: I used to use 1-2 drops of this product twice a day. I would use it in the morning after cleansing, toning, and actives as one of my day moisturizers. While winding down at night with my nighttime skincare routine, I'd apply it after double-cleansing, toning, actives, and a sheet mask. Bonus tip - if you want to really calm some irritation and/or test out the acne-fighting powers of this product, you could apply it before sheet masking. The act of draping your face with a physical barrier forces your skin to absorb the product more fully.

Packaging: It comes packaged in a little clear, yellow GLASS bottle with a dropper on top. My dropper was a bit annoying as it sometimes felt like it would stick a bit when I tried to suction the product, but I think it may be an anomaly because I asked if others who owned this product felt this way, and they said they didn't. The glass makes it non-ideal for traveling, but I really enjoy the weight and the fact that glass recycles more easily than plastics. Besides, the bottle is not that big as it carries only 30 ml of product (which is very standard for an ampoule by the way, it lasted me about 2 months). Below is a closeup of the dropper.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review

Product: The ampoule is virtually clear, and the texture is like a thick essence. It globs onto the skin initially, but spreads out so thinly and easily, that if you closed your eyes, you would mistake it for an essence. It absorbs within seconds and is not TOO sticky for a bee-derived product. The finish doesn't make you look too shiny, but rather dewy. It also feels a bit cooling as it goes on. I honestly don't know why.

I mentioned that propolis smells a bit nasty in its purest form, but Scinic mercifully added some brightly herbal and floral scents to the formula.

The ampoule has a pH between 6 and 7.

Below are some product shots.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review

Performance: Propolis is more known for being anti-acne and calming irritation. There are also a host of moisturizing and brightening ingredients in there so here is how I felt it performed in each of these categories. 

Anti-acne - undetermined, as flare-ups are pretty rare for me.

Anti-irritation - <3 <3 <3. My skin always looks less red and more even after using this product. I also use it to calm my skin down when I've accidentally overexfoliated. It happens, especially since I've been loving the retro feel of physical exfoliators lately.

Brightening: brightens a bit, but not as much as my My Scheming masks with arbutin in it, nor my Niacinamide night treatments - the Pocketderm Anti-Aging concoction I'm on and my bottle of HolySnails Shark Sauce. Full review at BeautyandtheCat. And adding to the confounding confusion is the fact that I'm a religious user of vitamin C - currently using SkinActives.

Moisturizing: I never really relied on this as my sole moisturizer when I had it around. (I emptied the product a little while ago.) Once my skin analyzer arrived and I was able to test it out, I understood why. It raises my skin's water content by about 5% on average. So it's a decent hydrator, but there are better out there. See my CosRX Snail 96 review for another benchmark. It doesn't do a whole lot boosting my skin's oil content, so I reckon those with oily skin may really enjoy this product.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule Ampoule, Royal Jelly in Skincare, Propolis in Skincare, Honey in Skincare. Benefits of bee products in skincare.Scinic Propolis Ampoule 95 review

My final thoughts on the product are that it is a great value buy for those with sensitive, easily irritated skin. It also softens the skin without adding too much oil to it, so oily skin types may really enjoy it. 

I really like how sleek and cosmetically elegant the formula is for a bee byproduct-based skincare product. I think that if you enjoy bee byproducts in your skincare, you'll find the Scinic is one of the better ones out there. As someone with really dry skin, I don't consider bee byproducts to be the best in terms of effectiveness for hydration/moisturizing, but they are really enjoyable to use. These products aren't staples in my dry skin care routine, but I like to treat myself with them every once in awhile. 



Rating:  of 5 possible etude-kitties (amazing at calming skin irritation, decent at brightening, great value, 1 mark off for not being as moisturizing as I'd hoped.. Those with oily skin may love it.)

Try It For Yourself
Get It Cheap - 12000 KRW (<$12) at GMarket
Get It On eBay also for Cheap - $14.87 at blueprint21 / same as Unique4U so lots of samples
Get It at YesStyle for $20.27
Get It On Amazon - $28.00 Shipped Free

Are you into propolis in skincare? What have you tried so far and did you like it?


Disclosure: Bought it, some affiliate links. If you're curious about my policy on press samples, affiliate links, and sponsors, see my disclaimer and policies.

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