You see me talking a lot about SK-II here in Street Love but how well do you know about SK-II’s miracle ingredient – Pitera™? Most people don’t refer Facial Treatment Essence as Facial Treatment Essence or FTE but most people called it the “miracle water”. Either way, it is the same product that was developed 35 years ago and the formula have remain unchanged till to date 🙂

I talked about Pitera™ in my recent SK-II Facial Treatment Essence review two months ago. You can read my review on THE iconic product or you can stick around for more here!

Following the discovery of Pitera™ by observation of the youthful hands of aged sake brewers, it sparks an inspiration for SK-II’s discovery of Pitera™, which is a precious ingredient legendary for its transformative powers. SK-II introduced its first beauty innovation – the Facial Treatment Essence back in 1980, launching a brand new category of beauty essences and took the beauty world by storm.

10 Things You Need To Know About The World’s FIRST Beauty Essence

1. Beauty Game-Changer: The creation of Facial Treatment Essence in 1980 launched a new skincare category of beauty essences that infuse the skin with nutrients and moisture.
2. Flying Off the Shelves: Somewhere in the world, a bottle of Facial Treatment Essence is sold every 28 seconds, with over 20 million bottles sold to date.
3. Only Product with the Highest Concentration of Its Active Ingredient: Facial Treatment Essence offers the purest and most direct delivery of Pitera™ – more than 90 percent of the formula is composed of Pitera™.
4. Au Naturel: SK-II’s Facial Treatment Essence is fragrance-free.
5. An Unchanging Secret: The formula of Facial Treatment Essence has remained unchanged for over 35 years because of the unique balance in each drop of Pitera™… and not all of Pitera™’s benefits have been uncovered!
6. Award-winner: To date, SK-II’s Facial Treatment Essence has won 104 beauty awards1 globally and is SK-II’s most internationally-awarded product.
7. Loved by Celebrity A-Listers: Celebrities from across the globe including Cate Blanchett, Kaori Momoi, Kate Bosworth, Lim Soo Jung and Tang Wei swear by SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, and were all loyal users before becoming SK-II brand ambassadors.
8. A 23-Year Relationship: Japanese director and actress, Kaori Momoi, is the very first ambassador of SK-II, and has put her trust in SK-II for the last 23 years, being the face of the brand since her 30s.
9. Crystal Clear on Beauty: Facial Treatment Essence is the only essence in the world with the power to transform the five dimensions of skin – wrinkle resilience, texture refinement, spot control, radiance enhancement and firmness power – to crystal clear.
10. Winning Over Beauty Experts: Nearly 8 in 10 beauty editors in Asia (79%) would highly recommend a beauty product like Facial Treatment Essence which is proven to work on all five dimensions.

We also did two different experiment during the workshop.

Penetration Demo

The first experiment is on SK-II Facial Treatment Essence penetration / absorption power with the comparison with Water and Essence X onto three different 3-layer chamois leather.

Each chamois leather is dropped with equal 3-drops of Essence X, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence and lastly Water.

Surprisingly we thought water would be the lightest and easiest to penetrate into anything in no time but that’s not how it is in this case. On the first chamois layer, SK-II Facial Treatment Essence seeped in completely, while water stays mostly on top of the leather and Essence X is 50/50 of both. On the second layer, Essence X was spotted with a hint of wetness on the leather while SK-II Facial Treatment Essence was down completely to the third layer.

You can watch this video for the full demo 😀

Banana Demo

The second experiment is the banana demo. I’m sure you have watched this video somewhere. This demo is all about witnessing the power of Pitera™. Many people wonder how Pitera™ works. This is how.

Take the same thickness of banana slices (preferably from the same banana), coat each slice with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence, Essence X and Water respectively and soak into the liquid on petri dishes.

This experiment will take 90 minutes to see the result as oxidisation is a slow process. As you can see from the result below, the banana slice that was coated and soaked with SK-II Facial Treatment Essence is still pretty much fresh, while the most oxidisation happens on the banana slice that was with just Water. There is also oxidisation happening on the banana slice that was soaked in Essence X. So the winner is still SK-II Facial Treatment Essence 😉

Here is the demo video for banana demo.

Craftsmanship of Pitera™

Now that we’ve read about 10 fun facts on Facial Treatment Essence and we’ve seen two interesting demo on the power of Pitera™, let’s get to know more about six artisanal steps in crafting that precious ingredient, from the starting culture to every bottle of Facial Treatment Essence.

1. Cultivating the Power of Pitera™
   The yeast strain discovered out of 350 different types is cultivated in its precious form in a strictly-controlled environment. The environment prevents any favorable bacteria growth from occurring to enhance the power of this rare ingredient.
2. Enhancing the Culture
   The yeast is added to a precisely calculated culture solution, providing “food” and nutrients and enhancing growth. As the yeast cells multiply, the yeast is eventually moved to the production chamber.
3. Perfecting the Balance of Pitera™
   In the chamber, the yeast is cultivated in a tank filled with a generous amount of culture solution. As the yeast absorbs the nutrients and multiplies, it diffuses precious elements that have beneficial impact to skin’s beauty – a metabolic fluid which comprises a delicate balance of vitamins, amino acids, minerals and organic acids.
4. Refining the Solution
   Upon completion of the fermentation process, the metabolic fluid is then intricately filtered to form the stock solution of Pitera™.
5. Revealing the Miracle
   Water is removed from the stock solution, giving birth to the powerful Pitera™.
6. Encapsulating the Essence
   Pitera™ is bottled after formulation, giving birth to SK-II Facial Treatment Essence. Facial Treatment Essence is the only beauty essence with over 90 percent Pitera™.

SK-II Five Dimensions of Crystal Clarity

SK-II uncovered the five dimensions most critical to crystal clear skin at any age – texture, radiance, firmness, spot control and wrinkle resilience. Conducted in Akita (a prefecture renowned in Japan for its beautiful women),  the landmark study has paved the way to a new paradigm in helping women diagnose with pinpoint accuracy specific skin concerns. Facial Treatment Essence is powered by over 90% Pitera™, which acts directly on the five dimensions. This has been proven time and again with third party trials conducted by well established institutions including a most recent collaboration with Ellead Skin Research Centre from Korea. llead is fast gaining global recognition for its work in the research and testing of cosmetics, cosmeceuticals and functional foods. Since its inception in 2001, Ellead has become a leading research institution and centre of excellence led by dermatologists and field experts.

You can read about my first Magic Ring Skin Analysis Experience by clicking on the link provided 😀 . Magic Ring made me a very happy girl by showing me that my skin age is younger than my actual age.

Not sure about you but I was wondering why and what makes SK-II wanting to make Akita their research ground location. There’s actually a full infographic on it. In a nutshell, Akita is well-known for their legendary beautiful women.

There you have it! Everything you need to know about SK-II’s miracle ingredient – Pitera™, from how the secret was discovered to artisanal steps in crafting that precious ingredient, all the achievements and awards, proven demo, results and many more.

I hope you enjoyed this info-full post on Pitera™ and hope it helps you to understand more if not better on SK-II’s signature ingredient that was over 90% infused in the world’s first beauty essence – the SK-II Facial Treatment Essence.