[Review] Daughter - Intensive Hydrating Serum (女兒-保濕菁華露)

 

Skin profile, Climate: NW25, anti/well-aging, dehydrated normal to dry living in a coastal desert
Current AM Routine:

• Cure Aqua Peeling Gel
• NACIFIC Fresh Herb Origin Toner
• Sansim YangMyungSoo Toner
• Daughter Intensive Hydrating Serum + 3 drops of KISO Fullerene10
• Anessa Day Serum 
  

Ingredients: Water, potassium azeloyl diglycina[te] [combo of azelaic acid and glycerin], hydrolyzed honey, trehalose, sodium citrate, xanthan gum, essential oils, phenoxyethanol

Scent: smells like Tide in a pleasant way. It's "clean", but not exactly what I would normally associate as clean in a traditional fragrance sort of way because it's almost chemically "clean", but not nearly as unbearing as that would suggest. It disappears immediately once applied.

Texture: incredibly clear and watery. You could easily mistake it for water .

TL;DR: WRP, but I wish it was easier to buy.

The Story of Longing

The sub is very kbeauty and jbeauty centric (which is a whole thing that I don't want to get into in this review), so when I was looking for other brands to introduce in the Best & Worst of, I came across 女兒(Daughter), and after I quick glance at its IG account, I wanted it badly in the worst way possible.

 

Screenshot from their Instagram that doesn't do them nearly enough justice.

 

I will fully admit I am a sucker for good advertising/marketing. I know how hard branding is and if you can convey a good story about your brand that imparts a genuine feeling to me without coming across as fake or unbearable, you've intrigued me. And there's something incredibly calming, sophisticated, understated and no-nonsense about their whole image that I love.

 

It's from my homeland. I love the name (it's so simple and hey it's me! I'm a Daughter!). And it's an independent, family-owned business. I had asked my mom if she ever heard of them and she had not. Apparently I intrigued her enough for her to go digging and she found a video that began with the son introducing their family business and something about that seemed more hilarious to me: the fact that the son is working at his dad's company named for his sister. The bratty sister in me: GIMME.

 

Screenshot of the siblings at the manufacturing "plant" from the video my mom found.

He was also shown interacting with customers, so it's a truly small, family business.

 

But you know, Covid and Taiwan with it's ridiculous amount of quarantining measures...and unlike Korea which has its skincare export game locked down, it wouldn't be easy to get, so I waited about half a year until my mom finally went.

She asked me what exactly I wanted and...I didn't know! I just wanted something to get to know Daughter and see if product and brand messaging lined up. I looked through the catalogue and with my routine mostly transitioning to luxe (which Daughter is not)...nothing in their lineup particularly jumped out to me as a possible replacement for something else.

The only step in my routine that I had thought might change out soon is my NACIFIC Toner, so I asked her to get me this Intensive Hydrating Serum. Despite it being called a Serum on the product itself, the PINKOI English site calls it an Essence, and it looked watery enough that I thought they might actually have meant a Toner or FTE. I wasn't intrigued by what was in their actual toner (witch hazel, loofah extract, natto🤷🏻‍♀️) .

Acquiring

This was probably the most excited I have ever been to tear into a product when my mom came home and I got my grubby hands on it. Both the packaging of the exterior box (thick, matte red paper) and the bottle (frosted glass) continued the brand image experienced on IG.

 

 Look at that frosting! I love that the ingredients are on the bottle. PAO: 6 months

 

I even made a video of a 360 of the box, but it's a big file and frankly not very interesting. The bottom of the box does include the batch number and the date it was made (2022.11.03, LOT 2207 for mine) which I thought was a nice touch.

General info on the back of the box. Shelf life of 3 years.

 

It came with a simple pamphlet that introduced their other products and just everything about the texture of thick paper (quality) to the design (attention to detail) to the inclusion of texture shots 

(thoughtful) rounded out everything I had loved about the brand. 

 

The pamphlet. The red logo tab fits nicely into the little hole to keep it locked up

 

The pamphlet contents (Top: front, Bottom: back)

 

Since I had approached it as a toner, I wasn't thrilled that...what is this kind of applicator called? The kind where you shake it out heavy droplets come out. It's the same as the SK-II bottles, but at least it comes out a little quicker than SK-II's. My NACIFIC Toner that I decant into a spray bottle has this as well, so it wasn't a deal breaker. Just slightly disappointed.

 

It's those flat plastic applicators with a big hole so you have to shake out product

 

It was even more watery than I thought it would be. It's completely clear and looks and feels almost exactly like water.

 

Runs almost exactly like water

 

The scent immediately reminded me of Tide. It's not my favorite smell, but middle class girl having been raised on Tide, it oddly works for me. I can image and understand some people might be turned off by it though.

 

It wasn't as hydrating as I thought it would be - it sunk in, evaporated almost immediately and felt way more moisturizing than hydrating (possibly the work of the hydrolyzed honey). Since I have two toners, I tried different variations of trying to get it to work in my routine as a toner. But it wasn't hydrating enough to replace the NACIFIC and whatever umph the Sansim Toner gives my skin, this couldn't replicate.

So I thought...okay, maybe Daughter knows what they're talking about and I'll use it as my AM serum. Despite my routine's transition to more luxe products, I settled on the idea that my AM serum's main purpose is to be a carrier for my fullerene, so this could work. I really wanted to pan my Timeless Coenzyme Q10 Serum before testing that theory out, so the Daughter Serum hung out in my cupboard for a while.

 

Now after about a month of use, I can comfortably say I really enjoy it as an AM serum! And I've hardly put a dent in it! 120ml (roughly 4oz) isn't a lot for a toner, but for a serum? It's basically the same size as a large Timeless Serum and cheaper.

I can't say I'm huge on azelaic acid. What it's most commonly known to help (redness & acne), my skin doesn't really have a problem with. But I enjoy being able to use some sort of derivative of azelaic acid in my routine so I don't feel completely left out of skincare trends.

 

In terms of brightening...I'm in a good place with how bright my skin is. As long as my skin's not dull and the brightness doesn't look too fake or over the top, it's not something I really notice and frankly not something I chase. So at the very least: my skin's brightness is maintained on this serum. My PIEs and PIHs usually heal in their own time (currently ~2 months) so I also can't say this has particularly helped in that regard either. But I can tell this serum is pulling decent moisturizing weight because my AM routine is pretty short and ends at this step most days. And we're talking about dry summer heat right now.

 

I just enjoy using the product. I love feeling up the weight of the bottle. Smelling it takes me back into my childhood garage where we kept our washer (weird! I know!). I'm a dehydrated person in love with watery products so I love handling it and enjoy that it finishes on my skin like a thicker serum would. I do wish it was a little more hydrating to match how moisturizing it is, but frankly hydration is the toner's job.

 

And it's just so satisfying to see it on my counter! Despite it not being a luxe product, I think it stands up pretty well packaging-wise next to my other luxe products. I love that the frost doesn't get rubbed off with handling, so the quality is good. I don't usually keep empty bottles or jars of skincare, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep this around. I keep thinking it'll look beautiful with a single flower sticking out of it, like a poppy!

The Bad

I HATE HOW HARD IT IS TO GET. I can write a whole thing about how the Taiwanese government needs to step up and help its other industries besides tech on the global stage, but not in this review post. 

 

The PINKOI site linked from their IG ships internationally, but it's not something I've used and frankly I stopped looking into since the added cost of buying it on PINKOI vs in Taiwan directly is horrendous. The Daughter website sells it for NT980 (roughly $30 USD) and the PINKOI site has it for almost 50% more.

Daughter's website sells it for NT980 vs the PINKOI website linked from their IG for $44.

To add to the insult, it's one of the few skincare brands I follow on IG, so I know they go on sale, further exacerbating the price difference.

 

The Daughter website says they deliver to the US, but shipping is by weight and the glass bottles are just going to needlessly add weight and $$$. It's just going to be something I haul back myself (or more likely: my mom haul back for me). Realistically, I'd probably only buy two at a time with how long it's going to take me to use up and save room for other things I'd want from Taiwan too.

When in Taiwan

My mom bought this at eslite, which seems to carry quite a few home-grown brands. She went with a friend who had a membership discount there which applied to Daughter as well, so definitely hit up a bookstore in Taiwan if you're into skincare!😂

 

The shelf at an eslite bookstore. Has 23.5N, Daughter and APOMAN.