The Face Shop: The Therapy Deluxe Kit

~ stashy

For the road trip, I brought along 2 of the items from this 3-pc kit, which I got for $5 as a purchase with purchase last year when I bought some skincare at The Face Shop.
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The kit includes:

• THE THERAPY Essential Formula Emulsion – $40 for 130ml (Deluxe sample is 32ml, worth $9.85)
• THE THERAPY Secret-Made Anti-Aging Cream – $45 for 50ml (Deluxe sample is 10ml, worth $9.00)
• THE THERAPY Essential tonic treatment – $35 for 150ml (Deluxe sample is 32ml, worth $7.47)

The total value of the kit is $26.31, which is definitely worth the $5 I paid for it.

The packaging describes The Therapy range as “an anti-aging cosmetic line that embodies a two century-old European natural blending method from Marche, Italy.”  There isn’t a whole lot of technical information about this line available – I was able to find a press release dated Dec 2014 which provides vague information about processing techniques, blending theories and botanical ingredients (marigold, olives and bay leaf).  From their Facebook page, it lists the following benefits [brackets are my added comments]:

• provides radiant and supple skin with a natural oil and moisture layer
• Marche handmade anti aging blending formula
• formulated without 10 additives [no surfactants, silicone, paraben, acrylamide, mineral oil, artificial coloring, animal-sourced ingredients, benzophenone, triethanolamine, sulfate]
• main active ingredient adenosine [apparently adenosine is a good anti-inflammatory ingredient]

I’ll review these in the order in which I would normally use each product:
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Essential tonic treatment
I used this as my post cleansing, pre-moisturizing toner. It has a thicker liquid consistency, similar to that of the Body Shop Vitamin E toner. While it did leave my skin soft and supple feeling, it’s good, but not amazing. There’s a faint floral fragrance – I’m guessing the marigold?
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Essential Formula Emulsion
This is a puzzling product. The texture is kind of like gooey gel lotion, but not in a bad way. I used this product in two different ways: one way was to apply a thin layer pre-nighttime moisturizer, like a serum, and the other way was to use it as my daytime moisturizer.
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I preferred it as a daytime moisturizer – it provided the good amount of hydration but can leave the skin a bit shiny.  The 5th and 6th ingredient in this are palm and canola oil – I don’t recall ever seeing those in skincare before but apparently they’re good for the skin and alternatives to mineral oil.
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Secret-Made Anti-Aging Cream
This cream has a whipped butter quality to it – a little bit of this goes a long way. I made the mistake of apply too much the first few times I used it and my face was super greasy looking.  This is best used as a nighttime moisturizer as it is a bit rich for daytime.  The scent of this was very calming and faint.  In the morning I wake up with soft, supple skin.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by this range from The Face Shop!  I would say this line is more geared toward normal to dry skin.  Out of the 3 items from this kit, I would definitely consider buying the full size of the cream and maybe the emulsion. They are definitely contenders to eventually replace some of the Shiseido products I currently use.  The Therapy collection also includes an item that wasn’t part of this kit: Oil-Drop Anti-Aging Serum ($45 for 45ml) – which I’m very intrigued by!

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Ingredient list – click to enlarge.  All 3 are made in Korea.

Pros:
• absence of additives
• not heavily fragranced
• skin calming and hydrating ingredients (glycerin, glycol, adenosine, olive oil, honey, oat)

Cons:
• may not be readily available in North America
• a bit more expensive than drugstore prices

Stash worthiness: 8/10

22 thoughts on “The Face Shop: The Therapy Deluxe Kit”

    1. Yes, their sheet masks are quite good and they often have deals on them! We’re lucky we have access to them ever since they started opening stores in Canada. 🙂

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  4. Oh yeah, sheet masks indeed!
    I’m a little confuse about emulsions, it’s a mix of oil and water which in this case the canola and palm right. Korean calls it their light moisturizer, but how can it be when it leaves your skin shiny? Or is it how it’s suppose to be?
    Anyways, they are still a good deal. 🙂

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    1. I’m not sure about emulsions either – interesting you say that it’s a mix of oil and water, that’s exactly the consistency this has! This one is quite greasy considering how light weight it feels. I think it’s probably better suited for winter time for me. I’m glad I got to try this range at such a good deal!

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  5. Holy moly what a deal! Five bucks! Since you said it’s greasy looking and for dry/normal skin, I wouldn’t get this for my oily skin. Doesn’t “The Face Shop” sound so luxurious or is it just me? 🙂

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    1. It’s funny, when they first opened I was so in awe, I felt scared going in but they have a full range of price points and a mix of food cutesy products and ones geared more toward older clientele (and more pricey). A typical store looks like this:

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        1. Yeah it DOES look similar, doesn’t it? No, it’s not related to Body Shop. The Face Shop is owned by LG Group from Korea, and they bought up the chain Fruits & Passions which is kind of similar to the Body Shop – when they bought Fruits & Passions, they closed up most of those locations and replaced them with Face Shop. I’m glad we have access to Face Shop now but I do wish they kept some of the Fruits & Passions stores, now I can’t find any to shop at anymore.

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          1. What did you get at Fruits & Passions? Body scrubs? BTW what is your fave body scrub? I am running low on my current one and would like to branch out of The Body Shop (my go to!)

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  6. I’m so glad you reviewed some of their products! Every time I go in there, I come out empty-handed because I’m so overwhelmed by everything.

    Actually, the first time I saw it, I only went to check out the nail polish at the front 😀 But they didn’t appeal so I didn’t venture farther in.

    I’m gonna have to muster up some courage and go in there one day!

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    1. I’ve only ever bought 1 Face Shop nail polish and only because the shade looked like one I was trying to find a dupe for which was limited edition… I do not like the bottle design of their polishes! The quality was just ok.
      I mostly buy sheet masks and my konjac sponges there but I’m starting to venture out with cleansing oils and micellar water – will do more reviews coming up! 🙂

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  9. Hello, during my trip to Korea , I’ve got this same set of therapy products. Sorry to ask a very stupid question, but can you please tell me how I can get the Emulsion out of its bottle ?
    The Tonic is watery liquid so I just pour it out, the other products are contained in tubes so I just squeeze it, but the Emulsion is another story. It’s fluid lotion while its bottle is not pump, spray nor mist type, I can’t squeeze or make it out by pulling it upside down. The only method I’m thinking of is using a very small spoon to take it out, but isn’t it inconvenient ?
    @@
    I’m completely at lost.

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    1. It’s an honest question! I actually had to squeeze the bottle slightly to get it out. First, close the cap and then shake it hard so the product goes to the opening, then squeeze the bottle and it should ooze out a little. It won’t just pour out since it’s a weird gel glue consistency so you have to use your fingers to wipe it off the opening! I hope that helps a little. 🙂

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      1. thanks a lot for your reply. I tried to use my both hand to squeeze the bottle, while placing my little finger under the bottle opening . By this method finally I can catch the milk oozing out . It’s really tricky after all ~v~”

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