You know how most girls (and guys) are into editing their photos with all the beautifying effects using photo editing software or apps? Have you ever notice why your friends photo are blurry with soft focus-like effect? The secret is adding soft focus effect by blurring skin imperfection.

Kiehl’s recently came out with a brand new product – Micro-Blur Skin Imperfector and boy I was over the moon with this one. I don’t normally use a new product on my face without doing some research prior. However the product name itself hit me on the right spot and I find myself using the product within the next five minutes of receiving the parcel 🙂

I notice that pores is number 1 first world issue for most women, regardless if they have smooth skin or they have orange-like skin. Women just like to complain about their “large” pores. I have annoying friends with porcelain smooth flawless skin who is forever looking for a product to shrink their pores. Read between the line – porcelain smooth flawless skin. Whenever these girls start to complain about their pores (which doesn’t even exist on them), my inner self starts to shrink and I always see myself shrinking to a mouse size, you know…just like the movie Alice In Wonderland? I felt exactly like that. My statement is supported by research done by Kiehl’s whereas the finding proves that pores are a key skin issue for women regardless of age GLOBALLY.

Let’s focus back on girls who really suffer from large pores and imperfections. These skin issue will become more prominent as skin is exposed to daily aggressors throughout the day, resulting in a rough and uneven texture. Thank goodness Kiehl’s chemists notice that so they had a different mindset and created Micro-Blur Skin Perfector. It is an innovative new solution that instantly smoothes skin, providing a ‘soft-focus,’ more uniform appearance while delivering lasting skin-perfecting benefits.

I like that Micro-Blur Skin Perfector is well-packed in a small and compact tube. It’s small enough to carry in a wristlet and it doesn’t take up too much space on the vanity table. Kiehl’s maintain it’s clean and simple design just like every other Kiehl’s product. I especially love product that comes in white. I feel that white packaging for skin care gives me the confidence in terms of quality 😀

Kiehl’s Micro-Blur Skin Perfector is designed to treat immediate and long-term skincare concerns with one product. Clinical studies done by Kiehl’s shows an immediate and visible improvement after application. Now, most product nowadays do claim immediate result after just one application. Some works on me, while some don’t. Remember earlier I was telling you that I was over the moon with this new product? That’s because I was shocked to see how smooth my skin was after applying Micro-Blur Skin Perfector. No joke. This doesn’t come from someone with flawless and poreless skin. It is not a secret that I do have real, visible large pores. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough you would have at least closed the review page down several time after seeing my bare naked face 😛 😛 . Kiehl’s also said that the number and size of pores will be significantly reduced after only four weeks BUT since I haven’t been using the product for a full month and the fact that I do slack off every other day, I cannot comment much on this.

Micro-Blur Skin Perfector comes in a light beige cream consistency. It’s brilliant to have it in such color than the usual white. It’s not thick, not oily at all and it smooths out satin velvety, which reminds me of Benefit The POREfessional. Benefit one is more drying but this one is not. After all it is a water-based emulsion 🙂

The formula also contain light reflectors to visibly transform skin, creating a smooth, pristine complexion. It is infused with 3-key ingredients such as Lipo Hydroxy Acid (LHA) and Lentil Extract. Such ingredient and formula provides long-term results, helping to refine skin texture, diminish lines, and reduce the appearance of pores when used daily.

• Lipo Hydroxy Acid (LHA): An ingredient known to provide gentle exfoliation; used in this formula to leave skin radiant and smoother.
• Lentil Extract: Helps to strengthen and tighten pores when used in the formula, providing a nearly poreless appearance over time.
• Bark Extract: From the Guyana-native Bootlace Tree (Eperua Falcata), helps to smooth texture of the skin.

One thing I notice that once the product is smooths out, it gets lighter in color and somewhat matches my skin tone. I don’t have to worry that I’ll over-apply. I would say it is a cream that dries down velvety satin matte. Yes, matte! I usually will just use this product alone without any bit of makeup when I’m out for errands as it does give a tinted moisturizer finishing but matte to my skin.

The result on the back of my hand is amazing. To be honest I never expect THIS on my hand. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was going through all the photos yesterday on my notebook. As I said before, Kiehl’s Micro-Blur Skin Perfector gave a cast of velvety satin and matte layer on my skin. But I never expect that the product will also even out my skin tone and slightly brighten up the complexion. The fine lines on the back of my hand? Gone. Well, actually not completely gone 😀 . Skin imperfection is diffused and blurs away.

You’d think I’d get away with the review without any Before and After on my face eh?

Sooooo, I know my large pores is really horrible so bear with me lol. As you can see from below photo, the left side (your left) is more severe than the right side. Add all the acne scarring from my teenage years to the large pores and this is how it looks like. To show you what I meant by “soft focus effect”, I applied Micro-Blur Skin Perfector on the left side. I would normally avoid using that side for review because it is impossible to prove any product efficacy with that kind of scarring. Once again I ran into problem while taking the After photos. I couldn’t understand why all photo appears blur. After 15 minutes of trying, then only I realized. It wasn’t because my camera refuse to focus properly. It was focusing properly and every other part of my face appears sharp on the photo. It’s because the product that I applied on the left side of my face creates a blurry finishing to it, which is also referred as soft focus effect.

I’m using this as makeup base nowadays. Micro-Blur Skin Perfector is not necessary to be used by those who have skin imperfection. After all it is a skin care. It can be used as pore refiner, skin mattifier, makeup base, invisible foundation or even as wrinkle filler. It has to be used as the last step of skin care during the day over UV protection and it also can be used after a BB Cream. Surprisingly it can also be used at night. I don’t use this at night though as I’m not sure how I would feel having all my pores closed up like that although it is non-comedogenic and it will not clog pores. I just prefer my pores to breath when I sleep 😀

Now that we’ve come to the end of the review, I can just end it with how much love I have for the product and that you should too try it out. But I’m not done yet. I was on the top of the world when this product worked so well on me and I can see myself running to Kiehl’s store to repurchase this, which I will as I’m already half way down the tube. Then I ran into a problem with the product…

… It produces water inside the tube. I think it was just two days after I started my new job that I notice that the product is very watery when I shake the tube. When I squeeze the content out, lots of water and the cream oozes out together, creating a mess on my hand. It was really odd and I couldn’t put my thoughts on it as it was fine for the first two weeks I had it. At first I am pretty sure the tube I had was a faulty one but after giving it some thoughts for the past one week, I suppose I can conclude on why my tube had so much water in it. Since I’m working means my room is not air-conditioned the whole day and the weather is rather hot beginning this May. All the heat ventilating in the room must have caused the product to produce water, afterall this is a water-based emulsion. I spent the night of last Thursday sitting in front of my vanity table with a few pieces of tissue paper and start squeezing the water out. It took me 4-pieces of tissue paper to soak up all the water. The next morning the tube waters up again so I repeated the process and again the next day and again on every morning. I really do wonder how much water can the product produce LOL.

Does the small water issue affect my love for Micro-Blur Skin Perfector? Not even a bit. It was just a glitch that was caused by the hot condition in my room. The issue was nothing that cannot be solved. The product still perform as good as it was before on me and it works just like what it was designed to be 😀

Here is the full ingredient list.
Dimethicone, Aqua / Water, Glycerin, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Methyl Methacrylate Crosspolymer, Isononyl Isononanoate, Alcohol Denat., Vinyl Dimethicone/Methicone Silsesquioxane Crosspolymer, Butylene Glycol, Lauryl Peg-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Boron Nitride Silica Silylate, Phenoxyethanol, Peg/Ppg-18/18 Dimethicone, Perlite, Magnesium Sulfate, Capryloyl, Salicylic Acid, Caprylyl Glycol, Menthyl Lactate, Lens Esculenta Seed Extract / Lentil Seed Extract, Bisabolol, Parfum / Fragrance, Dextrin, Dimethiconol, Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499 / Iron Oxides, Ci 77891 / Titanium Dioxide, Synthetic Fluorphlogopite, Eperua Falcata Bark Extract, Farnesol, Limonene, Disodium Stearoyl Glutamate, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Citronellol, Aluminum Hydroxide. 

Disclaimer: Product was sent to me for review consideration. This doesn’t affect my judgement in the review in any way.