Review: The Face Shop The Smim Pore Finish Essence

I’ve noticed a lot of traffic to my Upcoming Reviews page from people googling reviews on The Smim Pore Finish Essence by The Face Shop. And so, a review. Of that. For you.

First things first, I love The Face Shop. They make my current favorite BB cream (or at least the one I use most frequently), Clean Face Oil-Free BB Cream. But that’s a review for another day. Today it’s all about The Smim. It’s a fermentation line made with a bunch of natural ingredients. Instead of getting all scientific on you, I will simply point you here if you want to know more about it. I’m just going to focus on this specific product.

Pores.

I hate them.

I have tried so many serums, essences, minimizers… you named it. Even everyone’s holy grail, Benefit’s The POREfessional doesn’t do it for me. Sorry y’all. I really tried to like that one. But I digress.

The Smim Pore Finish Essence actually kinda works for me. Kinda. Some days it does, some days it doesn’t. The days it doesn’t I’m gonna blame on whatever moisturizer or other prep stuff I used beforehand… either that or it doesn’t agree with whatever BB cream settles on top of it. Who can say? Not this girl.

It has an essencey-serum texture, creamy, watery, and lightweight. Super easy to blend, and absorbs extremely quickly. A little goes a long way, especially for me, since I only use it on my nose. Why aren’t I using my nose as an example? Because my pores are hideously large right now, and I’m embarrassed to display them on the internet. Deal with it.

This pore essence absorbs up oil and has an excellent matte finish, making makeup application smooth and easy. I can’t say the oil control lasts for long with me, but what does? Sigh. Still, this product is a lot better than the others I’ve experimented with (I’m looking at you, Skinfood Peach Sake Pore Serum).

Pros: Easy to blend, absorbs immediately, actually works (most of the time). Semi-decent oil control for me, probably above-average oil control for you. Sexy bottle.
Cons: This stuff is slightly pricy. You’re looking at ~$40 USD on Amazon and eBay. But you get 80ml, and for the amount you use I say it’ll last awhile. I keep putting off buying it because I have some large samples and I don’t use it every day.

Final Verdict: I dig it. I’ll probably invest in the full-size product eventually. I definitely recommend this one to my fellow pore victims. It’s not a long-term pore-fixer, but it’s a decent primer and minimizer, and those are hard to come by in this day and age.