Holy Grail or Holy Fail? Why One Girl's Treasure Is Another’s Rose Cleansing Stick

Don’t feel left out just because that seemingly universally loved beauty product left you itchy, spotty, or just meh. It happens to the best of us, and by best of us, I mean K-beauty pros like Jude Chao, Sheryll Donerson, and Coco Park. Read on to see them (and other K-beauty lovers) duke it out over their holy grail or holy fail products.

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It's got tons of positive, unbiased reviews online, the gurus love it, the shops sometimes can't even keep it in stock, you finally get your hands on it and — womp womp.

You don't have to pretend that my holy grail wasn't your holy fail. Don't worry about following the crowd — it happens to all of us!

I reached out to Beautytap’s K-Beauty Squad and my Facebook crew and asked them what popular product just didn’t work for them, and they didn't hold back. I got some surprising answers!

Right out of the gate my fellow squad member Jude hit me with a bomb:

"Unfortunately. My face HAAAAAATTTESSSSS Su:m37 with a passion. I've had multiple incidents now where I've used a Su:m37 product and my entire face breaks out in this itchy, bumpy, irritation rash. It goes away after I discontinue use of the product, but sometimes it takes a week or two for the bumps to fully subside. It's AWFUL."

Oh. My. God. I felt like someone just insulted a family member! But then I remembered, I've had the same reaction to some people's favs, so I had to check myself. But then again Su:m37 is pretty sacred to me! I wasn't alone.

Sheryll Donerson, our other squad sister, had a similar reaction to mine:

"I am devastated. Nooooo Jude!!!!!!!!"

Sheryll and I pretty much built blogging careers off of the sudden success and popularity of the Su:m37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick [editor's note: which, btw, has been discontinued, according to Su:m37], with Sheryll being one of the first bloggers to ever put it on the international radar.

Jude was almost apologetic, following up with:

"I really, really want to love Su:m37. It's luxury and it's hanbang, so it seems right up my alley. Also, Sheryll loves some of their products, and that makes me want to love them even more, because I usually love whatever Sheryll loves."

And that brings up an important point: We sometimes think that because our peers have rapturous experiences with certain products and ingredients that we certainly will too, and that's just not the case. Sometimes we even swallow our dislike of a product and keep it under wraps in the hopes of not offending the ones who do love it. But c'mon guys, it's OK to speak our truths! Our skin are as unique as our personalities, so we're not all going to experience things the same.

I wanted to continue exposing this taboo, so I posed the question to my personal Facebook. It's pretty telling that this was the first comment (and my response):

Coming for someone's favorites can sometimes be seen as a personal attack! But it really shouldn't. As the comments came rolling in, there ended up being a lot of commiserating and support as my friends came forward with their fails — and no product was safe!

Tiffany Gustavson: This is a broad category and I'm about to piss everybody right off but — sheet masks. I don't *hate* them but they never seem to give me results that are worth all the trouble. They don't feel good to me, they slide around my weirdly shaped face, and they always leave too much serum except that one time I squeezed one out too much and it was too dry

Tracy Teel: Oh, this is going to hurt someone's feelings. The Beauty of Joseon Dynasty Cream was an epic fail for me. I tried to love it, but it never seemed to dry down and always stayed tacky. I didn't even like using it on my arms or legs. Dumped 50% out and repurposed the jar.

Maggie Kim-Bunuel: The rubber masks. But does everyone love them? I just know I don’t

Aaaand bingo! Finally a product I had to chime in with in agreement. Maggie reminded me of my utter and total contempt for the famous rubber masks. They do absolutely nothing for me. But when they were making the rounds in all the blogs and publications, I was certain they would be the greatest thing, but they were a total dud. My friend Asia had a more horrifying experience:

Asia Hadeel Al-Massari: One of these f**king rubber masks ripped half my eyebrow off when I used it.

LOL omg, poor Asia! I guess I should be glad I was just left disappointed and not with a snatched brow.

And wouldn't you know it, look what popped up again:

Dionne Ukleja: The rose petal cleansing stick that was sold out forever a few years ago. It broke my face out so bad that even [my husband] commented on how bad it was.

OK, OK, breathe Coco — this isn't about you.

Cheska Black: Yes, this is the worst product I've ever tried. It dried my face out so badly and I could never figure out how it was supposed to be gentle.

Gina Darling: I had this. Broke me out. Shame. It was so pretty and smelled so good

Dionne Sharp Ukleja: I wanted to love it so hard and but it made my junior high breakouts look adorable in comparison. And you know I am a W2 die hard shopper. That's where I bought the stock from lol!

I was laughing, but at the same time I wanted to go grab my precious Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick and be like:

But it's not a fight that needs to be had! There are certain products and ingredients in the K-beauty world that seem to be sacred. It's not that the hype around them isn't warranted; it's that humans are not a monolith. We're all unique individuals, and we're going to have different experiences. I thought this little exchange summed it up nicely

I'm glad Cinnamon's fail found a more suitable home. I hope her trash became her friend's treasure.

What beloved or popular K-beauty product has been a holy grail or holy FAIL for you? Don’t be afraid to speak out — there’s probably a lot of people who agree with you!