Packbox Aqua Water Bomb Sleeping Brush Pack Review

MiniB Beauty’s Social Media Campaign reached out to me asking if I’d like to work with them by testing out products and sharing reviews of some Korean brands that are hoping to sell stateside. (check out their instagram @minibbeauty)Since I do that, try things and post reviews, already on my own this worked out for me and was made sweeter in the fact that it comes from mah people.

Part 1: Paintbrush arrival.

After receiving the Packbox sleeping pack brushes I proceeded to immediately patch test them and figure out the best method of application. From MiniB I also received the product info which is in Korean and I didn’t have time to translate it out fully, but I figured it would be good to share!

What the product claims to do

It’s a sleeping pack so it’s meant to be applied as the last step of your skincare routine before you go to sleep. The goal of this pack in particular is to seal in water and they highlight a couple of ingredients in the above brochure: Centella asiatica as well as hyaluronic acid.

How it works

You squeeze the handle to dispense the product and then wipe it across your skin. Please enjoy my product squeezing images.

The Silicone paddle is soft and spreading the product is quite easy. Notice how little of the product is left on the paddle after swiping.

My experience

Overall I really liked it. I found that it applied well, and dried to a nice non-tacky finish, very smooth. There wasn’t much of a scent to me either (whatever the scent is, its so light I forget it’s there). I think that as a sleeping pack, it does its job to help boost moisture as an occlusive and that’s what it did.

As far as the application method, I found it easy to use and due to the flexibility and softness of the silicone paddle I was able to spread a nice even layer of product across my face.

Cons: obviously this won’t spread product well on the sides of your nose and around the eye, for this i would just squeeze some product out and apply it by hand. The only time I found the paddle was picking up product, i.e. was having issues staying dry after a swipe was when I applied the sleeping pack immediately after applying several layers of product including a lotion/emulsion and a cream. If I wait a little bit and/or maybe apply hand cream/cuticle oil then I find that my products have dried enough to allow the sleeping pack to glide on effortlessly.

I could already anticipate people feeling as though the packaging might be wasteful, I did check to see if I could open the container and….

Lastly, if I could make any changes to this product (not considering ingredients) I would:

1. Make the spatula out of silver impregnated silicone to add additional antibacterial benefits in the sense that I wouldn’t have to worry about cleaning it
2. I really want to use this for travel, but if the handle is squeezed product will leak out. I wish it came with a hard-case to protect it.

Part 2: The Ingredients

Initially I didn’t have an ingredient list upon product reception since it hadn’t been translated. But I did get one, and even uploaded it to CosDNA! Be warned, Korean ingredient lists aren’t in the same order as American lists (i.e. greatest to least concentration) so take it with a grain of salt.

I’ve copied the list from CosDNA so you wouldn’t have to go back and forth (Praise be to CosDNA)

Ingredient	Function	Acne	Irritant	Safety
Water	Solvent			1
Glycerin	Solvent Moisturizer	0	0	2
Silica	Viscosity Control
Hydrogenated starch hydrolysate	Moisturizer			1
Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/ VP Copolymer	Surfactant Emulsifier			1
Behenyl Alcohol	Viscosity Control			1
Sucrose polystearate	Emulsifier			1
Hydrogenated lecithin	Emulsifier			2
Cetearyl Alcohol	Surfactant Viscosity Control Emulsifier	2	2	1
Cetearyl Glucoside	Viscosity Control Moisturizer Emulsifier			1
Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride	Fragrance			1
Caprylyl Glycol	Moisturizer Emollient			1
Glyceryl caprylate	Emollient Emulsifier			1
Ethylhexylglycerin	Moisturizer			1
Fragrance	Fragrance			1 ~ 4
Arginine	Antistatic Moisturizer			1
Chlorphenesin	Preservative			2
Phenoxyethanol	Preservative			4
Prunella Vulgaris Extract	Antioxidant
Fucus Vesiculosus Extract	Anti-inflammatory Emollient			1
Human Adipocyte Conditioned Media Extract	Emollient
Oryza Sativa Bran Extract				1
Butylene Glycol	Solvent Moisturizer	1	0	1
Hydrolyzed collagen	Antistatic Moisturizer Emollient	0	0	1
Adenosine				1

*I did notice that the advertising focuses on centella and hyaluronic acid, am getting some clarification on either my mistranslation or if they’re accidentally missing from the ingredients.

Looking over the list I was glad it was on the short side. I always feel a little hesitant outright recommending products to people when I know the ingredient list has around 50 components and/or is full of more plant extracts than they knew were possible. Smaller lists make it easier to people to know what they react to. I also had a feeling there was silica in it, had that velvety feel. It was also nice to see only two flags pop up from CosDNA.

And of course the Human Adipocyte Conditioned Media Extract caught my attention

My mind instantly went here… and then to fight club. Man I love Futurama.

I did get clarification from the company that they did in fact add human stem cells to their sleeping pack. I’m not sure about my readers, but I never thought I would ever have an at-home product that contained human stem cells. Just the usual useless plant stem cells. (which I assumed were scrapings off the literal stem of a flower). If you follow the CosDNA link over to what info they have on the human adipocyte conditioned media extract, you’ll notice Packbox isn’t the only brand to include it. The Dr. Jart+ cellwake line also features the same stem cells.

Now if you’re feeling worried or confused about stem cells or the fat etc.

1. No you aren’t rubbing human fat on your face… but you can rub horse fat on your face or sheep sebum! See Guerisson cream and Aquaphor respectively. We put all sorts of animal products on our skin, at least if you’re not vegan.
2. No, these aren’t from fetuses, these are cultured (i.e. grown) from donor cells. Kind of like how human hair wigs/weaves/wefts are grown … and subsequently donated… except these cells cost waaaay more to isolate, grow and maintain. Please enjoy this Wikipedia link on stem cells for more info : Stem Cell Wiki
3. Even though yes they said it has stem cells, the ‘conditioned media extract’ is most likely the stem cells + media that have been killed off so we can collect the deliciously effective cytokines, growth factors, cell signaling molecules etc.

 So why include these stem cells?

Things are getting interesting! So we know that stem cells generally speaking, can ‘grow’ and multiply into any cell type in the body. So the idea is, you have an injury = cell death/damage and then you apply stem cell –> and they replace the dead or damaged cells. Now would stem cells survive in a cream? I don’t think so, but I also don’t think they need to. And here’s why.

• I found a study that used Human Adipocyte Conditioned Media Extract (see reference 1). They isolated the stem cells from liposuctions and grew them in a rich media (good old FBS if any of you out there are fellow lab rats). After killing the cells, the applied the media + dead cells to patients who all had the same skin damage. The results showed increased wound healing.
• There are studies showing that putting stem cells live into wound sites do show wound improvement (2) but that the secreted factors from the stem cells themselves seem to be effective at signaling cells at the wound cite promoting regeneration.
• In lay terms, in order for cells to work together, they secrete molecules to communicate. The stem cells seem to be producing communication molecules that promote cell growth therefore, introduce those compounds to wound site and you get bonus cell growth.

I will be honest, I was prepared to bash the company a little bit for putting in an ingredient I thought was going to be ineffective and expensive. Now that I have seen the studies showing its potential at improved wound healing, I really want to get some blemishes and apply the sleeping pack over it. It sounds weird, but it’s true. The only part about the addition of the stem cells, that made me sad, was that it was listed as only 0.01%, I wanted more, but I’m already bracing for a high price since the Dr. Jart+ cellwake line is up there.

This is such a new product that I don’t even have a price or retail location to send you to. But once I find out I’ll update this post. *I’m crossing my fingers that each brush is under $10*

I hope you enjoyed my review of this Packbox sleeping pack!

Cheers

References

1. Zhou B-R, Xu Y, Guo S-L, et al. The Effect of Conditioned Media of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells on Wound Healing after Ablative Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser Resurfacing. BioMed Research International. 2013;2013:519126. doi:10.1155/2013/519126.
2. Pawitan JA. Prospect of Stem Cell Conditioned Medium in Regenerative Medicine. BioMed Research International. 2014;2014:965849. doi:10.1155/2014/965849.

These sleeping packs were received free for review from MiniB Beauty’s Social Media Campaign. My thoughts and review reflect my own, personal opinion.