Starting Treatment Essence.

"Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence. I declared this to be my all-time favorite Korean skincare product. [...] Absolutely love it. [...] If you want hydration, if you want plumping, if you want great hyperpigmentation boosting, this is the toner for you. It's inexpensive. It costs like £10 versus it's the dupe for the SK2 essence which is like £100. Same product. I like the rose one. They do a plain one as well. Absolutely love this."

"This is amazing because it contains that ferment. Fermented skin care is great for boosting luminosity, helping to fade dark spots and discoloration. And galactomyces is one of the most potent of the ferments. This is amazing. It's also super inexpensive. If you've heard of something called the SK-II treatment essence, that's a viral sensation but costs like $100. For $10, you can get the exact same formula without breaking the bank. Use this at the start of your skincare routine. You'll get that extra hydration, but it'll definitely help boost the efficacy of the rest of your hyperpigmentation routine without breaking the bank."

"This has been in my collection for four, five years, definitely since I started experimenting with Korean skincare. This was one of the first Korean skincare products I bought, never looked back. Phenomenal. It's the exact dupe for that bougie SK-II Essence that's like 150 dollars, this is 10 pounds. It's packed full of Galacoside ferment, so it hydrates and it's going to even out your skin tone. I'm not a big fan of toners, I don't like the texture as much as I like serums. I'd rather pack my routine with serums. Toners are an afterthought. However, this is the one toner I really make an exception for. I would use this every single day and I very rarely miss it. It hydrates, it plumps you up. You could even put this in a spray bottle in summer, keep it in the fridge, and then just mist throughout the day for a bit of cooling and a little extra hydration."

"I use this just to dampen the skin down after cleansing. It calms, it soothes, it hydrates, and those galactoices definitely kickstart your hyperpigmentation routine. This is an absolute must."

"I apply just a little across the skin before my serum steps. [...] After you've cleansed, just use a little of this to dampen up the skin, put your serums on and all those serums are going to deliver a little extra. You get more bang for your buck. For the price point, I think this is worthy of addition in any top 10 list. I just think it's absolutely wonderful and a holy grail for sure."

"My favorite of the two is the Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence. This contains lactic acid, which is going to be one of the hottest ingredients in skincare this year. It's great because it hydrates but it also calms skin and fades hyperpigmentation. So if you're someone that's seen that celebrity endorsed SK-II essence, you know the one that's like $200, and you want an exact dupe, this is it. It hydrates you to the gods, fades your hyperpigmentation, plumps out the skin. This one's everything, one of my absolute favorites."

"If you want to go for a slightly fancier option something in the Korean skincare market, this is the Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence. It works with galactomyces ferments. It will add some hydration, some moisture that those humectants can grab on to, but it also has a nice range of different ingredients to calm and soothe. This is a great all-rounder. This is great if you've got particularly sensitive skin. I use this every day without fail and I love it. Quick spritz on in the morning, going with your hydrating serum afterwards, and you'll see instant results. It's super affordable, so I would genuinely say this is a sort of product that everyone should have in their skincare collection. Affordable, works really well."

"The Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence is a toner that's great for fading hyperpigmentation and hydrating the skin. It contains galactomyces ferment which is great for adding some additional hydration but at the margins also supporting with the eradication of excess pigment. If you're someone who is trying to fade their hyperpigmentation this is a great toner to slot in alongside your other actives. It's a [...] great option if you're looking to shop drugstore and affordable but want a little extra boost to your hyperpigmentation fighting and some extra hydration. I absolutely adore this one."

"This is the secret key Starting Treatment Essence. This is a product that I go back to time and time again. I first tried it four years ago and I thought, nothing special. I'm not a big fan of toners in general. This nothing special. I finished a bottle and thought, do you know, I can actually see results. I think this is helping with my hyperpigmentation. My skin is less dry cuz I started using it in the cooler winter months when my skin is very dry. It was less dry. It was less sensitive. And so I thought, okay, I'm going to get one more bottle because give it a fair test. I grab another bottle and ever since then I've never been without it. I think it's just one of those products that maybe doesn't wow on first application but your skin suddenly learns to love it and you're just like actually this is my skincare best friend and I don't think I've been without it for the past four years. It is genuinely stunning. I love it. Really inexpensive. The last time I bought it one lasts forever as well. So I buy one every six months. I think I paid £14. So not expensive. Doesn't break the bank. It's glass, so it feels bougie and luxury. It's got galactomyces in here, which are going to help to even out the skin tone, help you with hyperpigmentation, which I love. It's also super hydrating. They do a rose version and a plain version. I like the rose one. It's uplifting, smells gorgeous."

"This is the Secret Key Galactomyces Essence. I love this. Great for hyperpigmentation, wonderful for just additional hydration, and it smooths the skin out so well. I go in with like five drops. This is so affordable. You could use as much or as little as you want. It's like a drink of water for the skin. I absolutely love the feel of this. I could instantly feel my skin just drinking that in and giving that extra dose of hydration. This is a great way of just prepping the skin to receive all the other great steps."

"The galactomyces in here will absolutely improve tone and texture on the skin. It might take a little bit longer to see those types of results, but that is why you're going to see with a lot of the galactomyces based products [...] some other helper ingredients that kind of lift it up within the formula. An additional brightener that's added into this product is arbutin, which is a really effective ingredient for dark marks on the skin. If you have hyperpigmentation, if you're really trying to fade those spots, arbutin can be a really nice accelerator to fading those spots. It's a fantastic brightening ingredient. [...] The formula of Secret Key has changed slightly since I did a previous video on galactomyces products, and the little bit of criticism that I gave it a couple of years ago actually doesn't stand anymore. The one ingredient I didn't really love in this they actually took out, and I find the texture even more hydrating and pleasant than it was before."

"I really like the essences from Secret Key as well as from Sinic, they don't break the bank, they give you back to my SE ferment, and if you're struggling with dull skin or maybe just starting that brightening journey or looking to kind of boost those glowy results, do consider adding this ingredient into your routine."