You can’t think about the major hitters in Korean beauty and skin care without having Innisfree bubble up to the forefront of your brain. Owned by conglomerate Amorepacific Group — whose other brands include Best of Beauty winners Sulwhasoo, Laneige, and Mamonde — Innisfree has a massive lineup of products and product lines centered around specific ingredients (orchid, soybean, and volcanic clusters, oh my) and was the first Amorepacific brand to open a U.S. flagship store. Located in New York City, the shop’s walls display close to 10,000 plants in an attempt to transport customers to Jeju Island (located off the coast of South Korea), where the green tea from one of its most popular product lines, is sourced from.
One particular green tea product, the Intensive Hydrating Serum, which the brand says is sold every five seconds around the globe, just received a big, eco-friendly upgrade. As part of Innisfree’s larger, ongoing “Less Plastic” initiative, the brand launched a jumbo-size Intensive Hydrating Serum Paper Edition that’s 100 percent recyclable and made with 52 percent less plastic than its predecessor. Ringing in at $39 and 5.4 ounces, it saves you $15 as opposed to buying two regular-size, 2.7 ounces bottles at $27 each. A great deal, if you ask me.
It’s still the same, beloved formula made with Jeju green tea extract and Jeju green tea seed oil, grown and extracted from Innisfree green tea farms, to hydrate and maintain skin’s moisture barrier.
To recycle your bottle, you simply remove the green paper label, remove the two halves of the molded paper shell, and then recycle the paper parts separately from the inner, soft plastic layer — as demonstrated below. Innisfree also offers an Empty Bottle Program, so customers who feel comfortable with stepping inside an Innisfree store can drop off their beauty empties and earn loyalty points. Or you can recycle your skin-care goodies through TerraCycle‘s zero-waste boxes.
Personally speaking, the Innisfree green tea serum has been a staple of mine over the years. The clear formula is impossibly lightweight and absorbs upon contact with my combination-leaning skin, so there’s no heavy, goopy feeling at all. I not only reach for this whenever my skin feels dry and tight during the winter, but it’s also fantastic for humid summer weather, as it plays very nicely under sunscreen and makeup.
Lately, I’ve been upping my exfoliation routine at night to keep rouge pimples at bay, and this is the perfect follow-up product to keep my skin soothed, softened, and glowy. I’m not even a tea drinker but the leafy scent is so lovely — and while it’s definitely noticeable, it’s not overpowering.
Kassy Rose Makeup Artistry 