I don’t have anything against Shu Uemura but it seems that they have released quite a few misses and I’ll be talking about a couple of them. No worries though, I have nothing but praise for one of their products, which I will feature very very soon.
Shu Uemura Under Base Brightening Mousse SPF 30 PA+++
I wonder what Mr Uchiide-san, Shu Uemura’s International Artistic Director, was thinking when he greenlit the Shu Uemura Under Base Brightening Mousse, because if you just slap it on your face like one of the Under Bases already offered right now, you are going to end up looking like… Like…
Uncle Fester!
Shall we get technical here? Purple counteracts yellow tones; and since most East Asians have yellow undertones in their skin, adding a little purple can help brighten up this yellow undertone, but when there’s a -bit- too much purple, you may completely counteract the yellow in the skin and end up with an ashy face.
Not very attractive. The problem is the amount you will need to use on your skin to achieve its purpose as a UV and make up base and still avoid looking like a corpse is pretty tough. Good luck if you happen to be tanned. All I can say is… Use only a little of this if you absolutely need to and remember to bring it down your neck and any exposed chest area. Apply your regular sunscreen because this product will not be sufficient in small amounts as an effective sunscreen. Also, unlike the other Under Bases which you can simply use without foundation, I strongly suggest otherwise for this, as that is the only time I can see this product not turning anyone into a pseudo-geisha-uncle-Fester.. *shivers*
Concluding statement: Maybe save yourself some trouble and just don’t buy this at all!
Shu Uemura Whitessential Intense Whitening Essence
Oh the things I put on my face for this blog might just kill me one day but I’ve gotta warn you against this particular product. Sorry Shu Uemura, you have let me down once again and I’ll have to blast you for this! Claims to have some strange ‘Mito-white complex’ thing that I don’t see anywhere on the list, which also barely has anything else that will whiten you up as promised. First on the list is the Shu Uemura famous ‘Depsea water’ which is basically some water from some Japanese sea, the second product is simply water. That is a lot of money to be shelling out for water, darn it! And then we have two hydration ingredients followed by dimethicone- this is silicone and will only give the illusion of smoother skin.
The Whitessential Intense Whitening Essence also contains a big bunch of fatty acids and esters that should really rightfully, in my honest opinion, belong in a moisturizer and not in a serum, because it makes the product very heavy and hard to absorb. That was exactly the case in my experience; I found that the product was very creamy and would never completely sink into the skin no matter how long I left it. And then I definitely found that instead of hydrating my skin, this actually made me feel like my skin was shriveling up. Stick with me here on the ingredient mumbo-jumbo…because this serum contains alcohol and alcohol dries your skin. Enough said.
Additionally, the only whitening agent I spotted on the ingredient list is pretty low in concentration (my freckles are not happy) and the fun fact is that it requires an alkaline solution to dissolve in. Shu Uemura tossed sodium hydroxide in a facial serum to make it alkali. What?! Remember your skin’s pH is around 5.5? Meddling with the pH, which is naturally acidic to have antimicrobial properties, is not a smart move at all.
Concluding statement: This product belongs in the bin.
And I am so frustrated from writing this post that I shall head off to bed 
Goodnight. I’ll post about my favourite lip products the next time I pop in, because I can actually write favourable reviews ha ha!!