[Skincare Cream Review] Bella Monster APA Cream

Price: $11.27 on BBcosmetic

(Use affiliated coupon: C10T190S3 for 8% off) 
Verdict: 9/10
Repurchase: Maybe

Price & Bella Monster APA Cream

I've been curious about this BellaMonster APA Cream ever since BBCosmetic made it available on their shop. I purchased this for $11.27 on their shop, with an additional 8% off with my code:  C10T190S3 applied during checkout. The reason why I was so  intrigued was because this peeling cream is supposed to encourage skin turnover with it's use of porous natural compounds in the form of fine needles extracted from sponge, a primordial marine creature living in the clean sea, and it is obtained by refining irregular needle-shaped structure. Needles!

The description on BBCosmetic says this: 

APA Cream hurts when you apply.

That got my attention instantly. A cream that hurts upon application? Call me a masochist, but I'm game! In the name of chok-chok skin, bring the pain! This is supposed to promote dead skin cell's elimination through skin renewal. The micro needle penetrates into the skin with the cream and helps restore the skin's 28-day rhythm. In addition to it's exfoliating properties, it's moisturizing and whitening. 

Packaging & Ingredients

I very much prefer tube squeeze packaging like this compared to the open-mouth tubes that basically have me contaminating the entire tube with every use. The tube is sealed tight, but there's 40ml of the cream in this tube, which is, honestly too big for it. There's a lot of air in the tube and the bigger tube gives the impression that it's not filled, which isn't a big deal, but to give you an idea, this tube is bigger than the full 50ml squeeze tube of the a'pieu that I purchased at the same time. 

In addition to the exfoliating properties of the sea sponge's microneedles, it has moisturizing and whitening ingredients as well. Unfortunately, I can't get ahold of the ingredients of this cream in english, which makes me wonder what other chemical exfoliating ingredients may be present in the cream, and what exactly would allow the brightening and whitening. There is, however, this picture description that I found! It appears there's centella in the cream, in addition to papaya and what appears to be some sort of pea... extract? XD Your guess is probably going to be better than mine. That means there's calming and moisturizing ingredients.

Instructions & Performance

Instructions says to apply this as the last step of the skincare routine, avoiding the eye and lip areas. It also warns that skin flushing is natural, which means no wait times, like my other actives, which is convenient.

I applied this originally on my wrists and felt the stinging straight away. It wasn't too bad though, sort of like rubbing sand to my hand. There's a slight flushing that went away almost instantly. You can't really tell in the picture below, but the stinging effect lasted a long, long while! Brushing my hand over my arm would trigger the stinging sensation, which is like pinpricks from sitting too long. XD 

What really brings this apart from my other actives is that it claims to be able to moisturize the skin instead of dry it out, which is something I can attest to. I didn't feel any drying sensation from applying this to my skin. However, trying to apply anything else after using this cream is like rubbing cactus all over my face. It was really interesting, but super prickly and the sensation lasts a good day after using it. I've tried using clay masks the day after using the cream and the prickling sensation doesn't go away, which makes me believe in the power of the cream, in that it works deep in the skin.

I used this pretty consistently every third day for a month and while it's always odd to find my skin prickly, I eventually got used to the sensation. On the other hand, I didn't find that it did much for my skin other than moisturize. Then again, consistent use of cosrx aha and bha didn't do much exfoliation for me either, so I wasn't too surprised when this didn't exfoliate much. This might work for others, but it didn't really work for me. I'm not really upset, since it's fairly cheap at $11.27, and most of the reason why I got this in the first place was because of the tagline. XD 

It does do a decent job moisturizing, and the prickling sensation lets me know that it continues to do it's job days after application. There are, of course, lots of other things that moisturize without pain, so while this was very fun, and I don't really regret buying it, I'm not too keen on repurchasing. 

Price: $11.27 on BBcosmetic

(Use affiliated coupon: C10T190S3 for 8% off) 

Verdict: 9/10

Repurchase: Maybe

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