SkinFood Pineapple Peeling Gel

My first entry in what may become a series heralding my love for Skin Food. Korea is the home of wacky stuff but this is something that the country got right. Koreans are OBSESSED with their skin. You can find a square mile anywhere in the city with about 5 different stores aimed at vain Korean women and girls who will splurge on anything claiming to make your skin whiter and brighter.

I scoff at most of these stores and stalls in the subway, but ain't no one getting between me and Skin Food. I saw Skin Food commercials during my first round in the ROK and couldn't tell if they were advertising actual food or not. This store puts both Bath & Body Works and the Body Shop to shame (though the Body Shop is stiff competition for Skin Food here in Seoul).

Skin Food offers the following and more: Cappuccino body scrub, celery gel wax, Gold Caviar collagen cream, broccoli sunscreen, papaya yogurt mask, black sugar face scrub, goat milk and lavender sunscreen (for babies), and, of coursem tomato whitening cream.

I've sampled a few of their products (which merit future reviews) but I'm excited about this product:


Recommended to me by my friend, Gina, SkinFood's Pineapple Peeling Gel sounds whack but pineapples contain AHA (alpha-hydroxy-acids) which aid in removing dead skin (increasing cell turnover = bright shiny new skin). When we think of peels we usually think of this:

Samantha after an unfortunate session with a skin peel.

But after I emerged from the shower my face was silky smooth.

The surprising part: There are no microbeads or exfoliating balls in the gel, unless they are microscopic. But after rubbing the gel on my face I noticed that it was actually taking off the dead skin!! Those of you who have gone to the jimjilbang for a scrub down will know what dead skin looks like, and I definitely had it when I was rinsing off my hands and face after a few minutes of massaging the gel.

Those of you lucky to be in Korea, I highly recommend this product!!!