REVIEW: Hanyul White Chrysanthemum Powder Serum

If you're looking for a gentle way to lighten dark spots, uneven skin tones, or acne scars, this is a product I highly recommend you try.  The Hanyul White Chrysanthemum Powder Serum has worked amazingly for my skin and I've recently just finished a bottle.  Within the first 2-3 weeks of using it, I noticed an overall brightened complexion and by the 8-10 week mark my freckles have begun to fade significantly.  

Another additional benefit was how soft it made my skin feel.  Although I was using many other products in my skin care line up at the time I was testing this, I could tell that the softening benefits were directly from this Hanyul serum because if I skipped using it for a couple of days, the effects were noticeable for my skin. 

English Front

Korean Back

What makes this serum worthwhile of praise is not so much its white chrysanthemum content, but the skin brightening and dark spot correcting ingredients.  Interestingly enough, I couldn't find any information substantiating Hanyul's claim that white chrysanthemum had natural whitening functions, but nonetheless it has many other skin benefits! It also makes the serum smell so lovely.  

Notable whitening ingredients include: 

Kojic Acid

Mulberry Leaf Extract

Cnidium Officinale Root

Adenosine

Shiitake Mushroom Extract (contains kojic acid) 

Notable ingredients with anti-oxidant properties include: 

White Chrysanthemum Extract

Peony Extract

Phaseolus Angularis Seed Extract

Caffeic Acid

Notable skin-conditioning ingredients include: 

Ginger Extract

Apricot Kernel Extract

Soybean Seed Extract

There are a few ingredients that have scored either a 1 or 2 on CosDNA as potential acne or irritant triggers; however, I haven't noticed anything negative on myself while using this and I have acne-prone combination skin.  For the full ratings, please see this page: http://www.cosdna.com/eng/cosmetic_8c1f142359.html

Although I've finished one bottle, I will not be repurchasing a second one for at least another 12-16 weeks so I can let my skin rest.  Why rest? The serum contains mulberry leaf extracts which has high levels of beta-arbutin - the main skin whitening component of the ingredient.  Beta-arbutin is the less stable form of arbutin and is more likely to react with your skin's microflora and pH levels to release higher levels of hydroquinone than alpha-arbutin (a synthetically produced compound). So the take away information here is that both arbutin forms release hydroquinone by hydrolysis, but beta does it in a less predictable and stable way.  

Although arbutin is considered safer than hydroquinone, long term use is still not recommended since hydroquinone can lead to some amount of skin irritation and - IN VERY RARE CASES - serious side effects such as ochronosis wherein your skin turns a bluish-black or you begin to develop dark pigmentation patches.  Although ochronosis is very rare, it does happen, especially for individuals with darker skin.  In short, any kind of slow release hydroquinone will still have some amount of long term effects on your skin and some studies have found that it is carcinogenic and toxic at high doses.  But there is probably not enough beta-arbutin, or mulberry extract even, in this serum to really have any long term side effects for your skin.  So don't worry! I still highly recommend this product to treat sun damage, dark spots, hyper-pigmentation and uneven skin tone.

If you're interested in learning more about arbutin, however, here's a very good EU commissioned study on the effects of beta-arbutin on both human and rat subjects. EU Commission Study on Beta Arbutin: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_sccp/docs/sccp_o_134.pdf

Full list of ingredients:

Cnidium Officinale Root (Cnidium) Extract, Angelica Acutiloba (Angelica) Root Extract, Butylene Glycol, Pentaerythrityl Tetraethylhexanoate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Propanediol, Dimethicone, Octyldodecyl Myristate, Hydroxypropyl Cyclodextrin, Kojic Acid, Chrysanthemum Extract (White Chrysanthemum 1,000ppm), Mushroom (Corthellus Shiitake) Extract, Peony Extract, Ginger Extract, Apricot Kernel Extract, Coix Seed Extract, Mulberry Leaf Extract, Lithospermum Erythrorhizon Root Extract, Safflower Seed Oil, Barley Extract, Rice Extract, Phaseolus Angularis Seed Extract, Soybean (Glycine Max) Seed Extract, Mung Bean Extract, Bacillus/Soybean Ferment Extract, Adenosine, Cyclopentasiloxane, C14-22 Alcohols, Inulin Lauryl Carbamate, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, Dimethiconol, Hydroxyethyl Acrylate/Sodium Acryloyldimethyl Taurate Copolymer, Cetearyl Alcohol, Caffeic Acid, C12-20 Alkyl Glucoside, Xanthan Gum, Carbomer, Glyceryl Stearate, Water, Stearic Acid, Disodium EDTA, Tromethamine, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Polyglyceryl-4 Methylglucose Distearate, Methoxy PEG-114/Polyepsilon Caprolactone, Mannitol, Trehalose, Polysorbate20, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance. 

	Efficacy	Price	Formulation	Design	Total
Hanyul White Chrysanthemum Powder Serum	5/5	3.5/5	4.5/5	5/5	18/20

You can purchase this product from the following, trusted e-shops: 

W2Beauty - $69.21 USD (free shipping)**

Koreadepart - $55.96 USD (shipping extra)

Roseroseshop - $63.83 USD (shipping extra) 

**If you are a first-time buyer at W2Beauty, you can enter in my sponsor code 25809502 when you register an account, and you'll receive a $5 discount towards your first order!