I felt so bad about me ragging on this product so I wanted to do a review on this product right away with my revised opinion and experience ^^ There is actually a whole line called the Pineapple Peeling Line but I've only tried the Peeling Gel.
Cost: I picked up the Skinfood Pineapple Peeling Gel in Korea for about 11000W (~$10, I think). You can get it on YesStyle.com for $12, though it's OOS right now.
Scent: Strong, rather sharp scent of pure pineapple. It's not a sweet scent, it's pineapple with an edge. Not bad though :) Very fruity.
Texture: It's a smooth white gel with little white eraser shavings floating in the gel. You can barely see the "eraser shavings" when you first squeeze it out so it may appear that it's dead skin coming off your face but I don't think it is (more on this later).
Ingredients:
Besides Pineapple and Apple extract (hence the tartaric acid), there is also Aloe. As for other peeling agents, there is Lactic, Citric, Glycolic, and Malic acid (lactic acid is one of the "trendier" chemical peeling agents nowadays, it's found in the Philosophy Microdermabrasion set). These acids are pretty frequently used in chemical peels nowadays.
Tartaric acid was something unfamiliar to me so I had to look it up. It's an AHA and primarily found in grapes, apples, pears and tamarinds. It has anti-aging and smoothing properties, and works as an exfoliant. It unclogs pores and stimulates production of collagen and elastin which helps in formation of fibers over the skin layer and prevents the skin from sun damage and aging effects of skin. It is the best natural chemical for people who are concerned with uneven skin texture, blotchy or uneven skin tone, the way the skin feels, and aging gracefully. Tartaric acid is most recommended for almost all skin types, including those with sensitive skin or those with certain skin conditions, such as rosacea or eczema can consult with their dermatologist or physician.
There's alcohol in this product so it may be a bit drying. This also contains parabans and preservatives for those who are sensitive to such things. Overall, there are a surprising variety of chemical peeling agents in the ingredients, which makes for a rather effective peel. I suspect the cellulose acts as a manual peel as well (more on this below).
This is my foot btw ;)
After massaging for 10-15 minutes (until all the slickness of the gel is gone), I rinsed my face. My face had a soft glow and my face felt remarkably hydrated and smoother. I can't comment on my pores because I don't have enlarged pores. The one thing I wasn't crazy about was how I felt it left some kind of oily residue behind.
My brother has used this 2x and I've used 3x (once before the allergy incident, twice afterwards to help slough away my flaking skin after the allergy). This works exceptionally well on my brother - he seriously gets 1-2 shades lighter and his pores seem smaller. He's quite a bit tanner than me though, around an NC35+ if that makes any difference. He has some acne but overall his skin is decent.
As for me, I was impressed most by how moisturizing it was despite having so many peeling agents. It's surprisingly gentle and my face felt very moisturized. It did get rid of some flakiness I had but I did not feel "refreshed" after washing my face because I felt that there was some kind of residue. In the end, for me this was not amazing. My face felt soft but I don't think anything had been peeled off my face - maybe just gently exfoliated...if that makes any sense. It did not get rid of my blackheads at all.
Note: Your face has to be clean but dry. I once used this on a damp face because I forgot and the peeling wasn't half as effective.
Overall
For $12 it's a good price; the bottle is quite large and it does seem to work. The scent is strong but not unpleasant. I have sensitive skin and I did not react to this so I would say it's gentle enough. "Peel" always makes me think of heavy duty exfoliating and this is not heavy duty at all. This also does not get rid of blackheads as far as I can see. I would say this is good to try since it's fairly cheap but this is not a favorite of mine and actually just let my brother use it. I only recommend this to people with sensitive skin, no blackhead problems, and looking for a gentle exfoliater.
For a gentle chemical/manual exfoliator, my favorite is actually the Tony Moly Appletox Smooth Massage Peeling Cream. It smells like granny smith apples, does not leave a residue, and still leaves my face very soft and moisturized. It's very gentle (I can use it as often as I like) so this does not get rid of blackheads either but to me, I would rather use this over the Pineapple Peel. For a more effective manual scrub I really like the SkinJourney Microdermabrasion Scrub, which I reviewed here. For heavy duty peeling the Boscia Luminizing Black Mask is excellent. Fuzkittie gave this excellent reviews and I agree. It's very powerful though and should be used maximum once every 7-10 days but it gets rid of blackheads and whiteheads like no other. The downside is that if you have a lot of acne the Boscia mask will be too harsh, it will peel off the top of pimple, bleed like crazy, and you will get a scar (plus it hurts like a mofo) :\ I know this from experience >< If you have only a few pimples though, you can just go around them ^_^
