Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux Base (Mint) Review

Despite having super high hopes for this base (due partly to the adorable packaging) I'm not amazed with it... :/ More after the jump!

Where to get it:

kocomall.com - $11.88

roseroseshop.com - $11.00

f2plus.com - $12.88

koreadepart.com - $10.89

testerkorea.com - $9.81

Description: Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux Base is a creamy skin-correcting base that perfects the look of any BB cream. It absorbs quickly and leaves the skin feeling hydrated and soft with a silky smooth finish. This base comes in three different shades to meet the needs of all skin tones.

I chose the 'mint' color, because it's supposed to correct redness. There are two other shades as well- Peach and Berry. Peach is meant to 'correct' more yellow or sallow skintones, and Berry is for brightening pale tones!

Claims:
 UV Protection
 Three 'shades'
 Absorbs quickly
 Hydrating
 Light

Ingredients: Water, Caprylyl, methicone, cyclopentasiloxane, ethylhexyl mexthoxycinnamate, titanium dioxide, ethylhexyl salicylate, cyclohexasiloxane, glycerin, dimethicone crosspolymer, butylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, cetyl ethylhexaoate, cilica, cetyl peg/ppg-10/1 dimethicone, ethylhexyl trazone, butylene glycol, caprylyl methicone, sodium chloride, dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, peg-12 dimethicone, quaterium-18 bentonite, triethoxycaprlylsilxane, gossypium herbaceum (Cotton) extract, taraxacum offinale (Dandelion) Rhizome/root extract, carthamus tinctorius (Safflower) Seed oil, lincolei acid, linolenic acid, salvia hispanica seed oil, ethylhexyl olivate, sodium potassium aluminum silicate, mica, alumina, disodium edta, phenoxyethanol, caprylyl glycol, ethylhexylglycerin 1,2-hexanediol, fragrance, CI 19140, Chromium oxide greens, ultramarines

Packaging: This is going to be out of date, since Etude House recently changed the packaging of this product to tube form~ Having it in a tube is much more hygienic, which was one of the big complaints I had with this. It is without a doubt AMAZINGLY ADORABLE and sweet and cute and delicious looking, but... not hygienic. They do give you a little cosmetics spoon to use with it, so atleast there's that! The jar is made of glass, which lends a high-quality feel to it but also makes me paranoid about dropping it.

Scent: Veeery mild scent, not sure how to describe it. I can't smell it when applying it, only when sniffing the product in the jar directly. Light, non-offensive.

Swatch: So, I dunno if this was just me but this is really hard to blend in. I just used my fingers, so I might try using a different brush but yeeeaaa. It's a nice medium-weight cream that doesn't feel hydrating in the least, despite the marketing claims... once it's fully blended it does make my skin feel soft and silky though!

Matte Finish

Results: I have mixed feelings about this base. In addition to being hard to blend and coming in an unhygienic jar, I felt that it highlighted dry patches and made me look a bit ghostly-pale without any BB cream on top. :/ I definitely couldn't wear it by itself without looking sickly.

On the other hand, it does a really good job of covering my (giant) pores and reducing redness. The brightened/whitened thing could be great for those with dull skin, but I just don't think it looked great on me. As a base, I didn't notice it helping reduce shine- in fact I think it kind of made my skin 'shinier' than usual after a few hours. I'm okay with that since I have dry skin, but those with oily skin might want to watch out. I will say that my BB cream looked quite nice on top of it- better than usual!

However, I wouldn't repurchase it simply because I don't like having dry patches highlighted and find the texture to be hard to work with. I'm curious about the other colors, but I'm in no rush to buy them.

Before

1 Hour After (No BB Cream)

I changed into pajamas...

Conclusion: Final Score 3.7/5

Pros

• adorable packaging
• decent UV protection
• reduces redness
• makes skin look brighter/whiter
• reduces appearance of pores 
• soft/smooth finish
• looks nice under BB cream

Cons

• unhygienic packaging (corrected in the new tube version!)
• hard to blend
• matte finish that highlights dry patches
• made me look kind of ghostly without BB cream on top / can't use by itself

Have you tried this base out? How did your experiences compare?