Review | Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream (plus bonus candle-making session!) | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

26 December, 2014

Review | Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream (plus bonus candle-making session!)

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Calling all K-Beauty fans: I have a review of a facial cream with lots of interesting ingredients for you today! Meet Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream, a skincare treat made with soy bean extracts, soy milk ferments, rice water, galactomyces and other nice stuff. Mm-mm good!

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox

Some of you may have seen this product before—it was one of the items featured in Memebox Special #61 Green Food Cosmetics. But it's now available for purchase on it's own in the Memeshop, so probably worth of a review, eh?


Product description:

Primary Raw Seoul, a natural cosmetics brand promoting use of ‘primary’ and ‘raw’ ingredients straight from nature, has launched its first Do You Cream (‘Do You’ means ‘Soy Milk’ in Korean). Enriched with soy bean extracts, soy milk ferments, rice water, galactomyces, and other grain extracts, this Soy Milk Facial Cream is deeply hydrating, gentle in formula, and brightens up uneven, dull complexion for a clearer and healthier glow.

The product comes bundled in an adorable cloth bag:

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox bag

Classy. Ingredients list:


Fermentation skincare is hot right now, so I was very intrigued when I saw how many fermented extracts were in this cream. There are also a few other interesting ingredients of note, namely niacinamide (great for skin brightening!) and snail secretion filtrate (snail goo). I'm relatively inexperienced in the ways of snail goo, but a lot of people swear by it as a nourishing and repairing skincare ingredient.

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox review

On first glance, the texture of the cream kind of reminds me of yogurt. But while it looks very creamy, the texture actually feels more gel-like to me. Like school glue but not as sticky. Thankfully it doesn't smell like glue—the scent is vaguely reminiscent of fresh soy milk (sweet and earthy), but a touch more floral. It's pleasant without being totally overpowering.


I was surprised at how light this cream is—it looks like it would be straight-up thick, rich creaminess. But nay! It's a creamy gel. Best of both worlds?

I would generally describe my skin type as combo, but in the winter it gets really, really dry. Painfully dry, sometimes. Speaking as someone who is seasonally dry, I don't think this cream is quite rich enough on its own for very dry skin types, but it does layer nicely with other moisturizing serums. I think this would best suit combo skin types under normal circumstances—for very oily skin types this would probably suit best as a nighttime cream, as it's a bit richer than your average gel, and for very dry skin you would need to supplement it with something else. But for combo skin? Juuuuuust right. At least I think so.

As for myself, I've been using Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream for over two weeks ago and haven't experienced anything negative as a result—no breakouts, no soybeans growing out of my face, no snails coming to haunt me in my dreams. I don't think I would repurchase this in the winter months for the reasons I mentioned above, but I do think it's a nice cream overall so I might be willing to try it again once the weather gets warmer. Overall rating: Good!

While I'm still rambling about this cream, have I mentioned yet how adorable I think the packaging is? It reminds me of old-school yogurt jars. It also came with a nicer-than-usual spatula for dispensing the product:

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox spatula

It's the little things, people. The Memebox product page says that the jar can be "emptied bottle can be utilized as a candle holder, candy/jelly jar, etc for decorative and practical use." The shape of it is quite pleasing, so I agree! But I guess they really wanted me to put that statement to the test, because they also sent me an extra empty jar and DIY candle kit:

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox DIY soy candle kit

Let me tell you something nerdy: I LOVE making candles. When I was a kid, I even had an entire birthday party themed around making candles. Eight-year-olds and several vats of hot wax? Obviously a recipe for success! I'm still here to tell you about it, so clearly my juvenile candle-making skills were awesome. Or non-lethal. Anyway...

Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream memebox DIY soy candle kit

The DIY candle kit came with a big chunk of soy wax, scented oil, and a wick. I like soy wax candles—they tend to burn evenly and they definitely don't produce as much soot as paraffin wax candles.


I cut my brick-o-wax into smaller pieces so it would actually fit into the jar. One could also grate the wax, but since soy wax is rather soft that would be a bit difficult to clean up until the wax is cold. Just saying.

My contact at Memebox sent along instructions for the DIY candle kit in English, so here they are for reference:

  1. Prepare the empty Do You Cream bottle: Soy Wax, wick, and essential oil.
  2. Pour 100ml of water into an empty pot.
  3. Place the empty Do You Cream bottle into the pot, and warm.
  4. Fill the empty Do You Cream bottle with the Soy Wax, and mix with a wooden stick until mixture is smooth.
  5. Turn off the heat, and wait until the mixture has slightly cooled, and mix in the essential oil.
  6. Place the wick in the center of the mix and hold it in place using a wooden stick.

I was a bit nervous about heating up the glass jar (shattering = BAD!) so I decided to take a slightly different approach—steaming the wax. I boiled some water in a kettle, put it in a pot, then placed the (warmed) jar filled with the wax chunks into the pot. Hot water bath. Put a lid on it and let nature do it's magic.


Note: If you use this method, it's a good idea to put some plastic wrap or something over the mouth of the jar so condensation doesn't fall in.


After a couple of minutes, the wax started to liquefy. I gave it a stir to break up any persistent chunks and put the lid back on. A few minutes later it was 100% liquid.

At this point you're supposed to wait until the wax has partially cooled and mix in the fragrance oil. Once that's done, you place the wick. Here's a tip: Replace that hot water bath with a cool water bath and the wax will harden more quickly, making the process of placing the wick far less annoying.


Once the wax is semi-solid, the wick should stand up on its own. Tracy at Fanserviced also made this kit and suggested using chopsticks to keep the wick 100% upright—very good suggestion! Do that, because it really helps.


Hey look, it's a candle! Obviously you should let it cool and harden for at least a few hours and trim the wick before using it.


Overall impressions:
I think the Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream is nice. Not 100% right for my skin type, but definitely nice, and worth trying if you think the consistency would work for you. The DIY candle kit was also fun—Memebox doesn't seem to carry it in their shop at this point, but if you want to do the same with your empty jar it's easy enough to find candle-making supplies at craft stores and whatnot.

Where to buy:
You can purchase Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream from the Memebox Global Shop. It's normally priced in the $40-$45 range, but right now it's on sale for just $19—yay. And make sure to check out my Memebox Sales & Coupons page for any discounts you might be able to use on your order.


What do you think of Primary Raw Seoul DoYou Soy Facial Cream? What would you do with the empty jar?


Disclosure: The Primary Raw facial cream and candle kit featured in this post were provided to me for review purposes, however any opinions expressed above are honest and my own. I did not receive any other form of compensation. This post contains affiliate links. For more information, check out my full disclosure policy.

9 comments:

  1. haha looks like someone didn't do the "lazy way" afterall! ;)

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  2. Haha, true enough. The prospect of cleaning hot wax out of my microwave scared me off. Boiling water in a kettle and then letting the jar sit in it for a while wasn't exactly torture though...

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  3. I like your candle! Haha To be honest I don't really know what to think of this cream. On one hand there weren't any negative effects, but on the other hand it didn't have any positive ones either other than not breaking me out and doing its job as a moisturizer. I have to agree with you on the packaging though, it's just too adorable and looks exactly like this French yogurt that a local supermarket sells!

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  4. The packaging is SO cute! I think I would try it out for $19, but probably not for $45.

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  5. I agree. It's pretty unlikely I would buy any moisturizer for $45 without at least trying a sample first though!

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  6. I would love to make my own candles!

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  7. I love the idea of reusing the jar to make a candle! That's kind of genius.

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  8. I've heard of snail slime being used in skincare, but I haven't tried something with that ingredient out yet. The gel/cream consistency sounds like something I would enjoy. I love that they sent you supplies to make your own candle. That looks like so much fun!

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  9. Haha yes, it was a fun surprise! Snail is a really popular ingredient now... seems like most Korean brands have a snail skincare line.

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