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Ilia's New Milky Essence Will Save Your Winter Skin

Meet Base Face Milk.

By

Published on 01/10/24 02:35PM

Product image of a model dropping a drop of Ilia's new Base Face Milk onto her hand — Getty images

Featured in nearly every It Girl's "Get Ready With Me" on our For You page and most certainly in every K-Beauty aficionado's medicine cabinet is a milky toner or essence. The staple in South Korean skincare has just started to pick up steam in the States, and with their ultra-hydrating formulas, it makes sense. As of January 9, a new one from Ilia has hit the market, generating tons of buzz and plenty of glowy-skin selfies.

Ilia—the brand behind the fan-favorite Limitless Lash Mascara and just as viral Super Serum Skin Tint—has been in the skincare game since their eye cream launched in January of last year. However, even before then, the brand has always had a skincare-first approach to beauty—for example, their skin tint has SPF 40, and most all their products are infused with skin-loving ingredients.

Product image of Ilia's new Base Face Milk — Courtesy of ILIA

Obviously, for a brand focused on skin health as much as it is the fun of makeup, a milky moisturizer that looks just as cute on your vanity and in a GRWM as it is packed with hydrating, repairing ingredients, makes perfect sense for their first launch of 2024.

The Product

Enter the Base Face Milk ($58), a new milky skincare and makeup prep product that promises to instantly hydrate and reduce redness, smooth texture, and strengthen the skin barrier over time.

Sasha Plavsic, Ilia's founder says that "as we enter 2024, the skincare landscape continues to get more and more crowded. Consumers feel overwhelmed by complicated, multi-step routines and an endless barrage of product offerings." That's why the brand created the Base Face Milk, for "simplicity and ease" in our beauty rituals—providing everyone with a skin-enhancing step that will help you skin shine under makeup and over time.

The Formula

The Base Face Milk goes to work with four key ingredients well known for their hydrating properties. First? Hyaluronic acid, a skincare superstar and one of the most universally beneficial hydrators on the market. It can help with anything from reducing wrinkles to healing wounds and boosting cell moisture.

There's also Ilia's Barrier Renewal Complex—a combination of skin-loving fatty acids and lipids that can help rebuild your skin barrier. Barrier repair was one of the biggest skincare trends in 2023, and Ilia seems to be betting big on the trend going into 2024.

After the barrier complex, the next major ingredient is microalgae extract. The brand says this "skin superfood" helps nourish and revitalize the skin. But that isn't all it can do; the seaweed-derived ingredient can also help brighten the skin and provide some antioxidants while it does so.

The last ingredient is one that may become just as much of a trend as skin barrier repair: prickly pear extract. Derived from cacti, prickly pear is an A-list hydrator that will help fight inflammation and boost your barrier. Plus, it is naturally super high in vitamin E, which is a tried and true when it comes to hydration.