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Friday, April 2, 2010

Faceshop boxing day haul

Boxing day.. that was a longlong time ago, but nonetheless I still have all my items I bought then still with me! The prices were already jacked up, but luckily on boxing day, the prices go back to as it normally would in Korea. But sadly, the items are apparently expired T_T. But anyways! moving on.

Doesn't look like a lot, but I forgot to take photos of the peeling day exfoliator and I gave away another lip balm to my friend.

Skinfood BB Cream comparison, cleansing water

Skinfood Mushroom BB cream and Green Gingko BB cream

I got both quite some time ago, so they've lasted me for quite a while. I got the Gingko one in no.1 and the Mushroom one in no.2 LOL (I got the mushroom one because it was pretty cheap, otherwise I would've gotten no.1 in colour)

The Mushroom has a scent of grass(?) and has SPF20 PA+ and claims to whiten and have anti-aging properties. The Green Gingko one smells like soap to me, but in a pleasant way, and it apparently helps correct skintone.

^The one on top is the mushroom one and the one on the bottom is the gingko one.
They don't seem too different until you spread them. The mushroom looked like it wasnt there, because it matched my skin and blended in and I wasn't sure if I even blended in any at all. The Gingko one has a much paler cast on my face before I blend it in, but when I do, It looks about the same as the mushroom, just a bit fairer.

They both look similiar, but the Mushroom one has a more grainy dry feel after several hours of wear, especially on the nose. And both oxidize.

Mushroom bb cream side

Gingko bb cream side


Skinfood Black Sugar Cleansing Water

Im not a big fan of cleansing water, since they sting my eye when I try to remove the makeup off my eye. But I gave this one a try.

This one actually works really well! Usually water based cleansers have alcohol in them or something like that, but I cant detect any smell of alcohol in this, it smell JUST LIKE the skinfood black sugar scrub. It's a bit sticky but it REALLY does remove makeup, even mascaras (just not japanese waterproof ones) and it made my face initially sticky, but soft afterwards. I love this as well lol. And the best part is, it DOESNT sting my eyes at all, so it's completely safe to use as a eye makeup remover, well to me it is.

Shiseido Perfect Rouge

Shiseido Perfect Rouge PK 307

I got this as a sample quite some time ago, but I decided to swatch for you guys. It's half the size of the regular lipstick, but lasted me for quite some time. It's in PK 307 Tourmaline. I'd say its a pink with purple undertones. And I finally now why it's worth the price. (It's about $30 CAD here)

It really has all the qualities that people want in lipstick. It's moisturizing, long staying, pigmented, and isn't matte at all. The consistency is like a solid lip gloss, made into a lipstick! I love it!



Skinfood Black Raspberry Eye Cream

Skinfood Black Raspberry Eye Cream

After hearing so many great reviews on this eyecream, I had to get it for myself. Also, I thought the packaging was super cute!
many Asian herbs and black raspberry. When I first opened it, it had a smell of herbs.. and I got addicted to it lol. My mom HATES the smell, whereas I love it, weird isn't it?
But nonetheless, the product itself is a thick cream that REALLY does moisturize, I only use it at night though.

And it does reduce the fine lines under my eyes (premature aging I guess? =/) So its really worth buying! And it's not expensive either, compared to many other eyecreams (including ones that don't even work)

Sunday, March 28, 2010

LG ~ the cosmetic line

LG?! Yes THE LG, the phone manufacturer, the TV manufacturer. Yes, that LG, which apparently makes cleansers and shampoos, which I never knew of. If you've heard of Elastine, the shampoo, then you should know that LG does make it.

Elastine Commercial with Jeon Ji Hyun


So when I saw some LG items at my supermarket, I couldn't help but want to buy some, so I did end up buying some items. (They're all gone now too)

LG SAY Apricot Scrub


This has to be one of my favourite facial cleanser/scrub I've ever used. It's pretty much like the St. Ives apricot scrub, except wayyyy more gentle, more pleasant smelling, and actually works very well as a cleanser. It foams up pretty well, and it gently exfoliates your face. My whole family loved it. It gave my face a pretty slippery feel though, but it washed off pretty well and gave me a REALLY soft face. However, I probably wont repurchase, and I'll explain why later.


LG SAY Red Vinegar Foam


The first time I saw this item, the thing that caught my eye was the actress on it, Han Ji Hye. I've liked her for a long time, so the presence of her on the box really lured me into buying it, but then again, the bottle is pretty cute. (LG probably uses celebrities to lure people to buy products, but it works.) But anyways, the box came with the pump bottle 180mL and a refill of 80mL. It's pretty nice, I think all of LG's products are HEAVILY fragranced. So if you don't like fragrant things, you definitely wont like these items. The vinegar foam is supposed to exfoliate my skin while clearing my skin flakes... I guess it does its job. It's a bit drying, but thats because it's a acid based cleanser and it's supposed to be drying, so it's best for oilier skin types. Then again, I won't repurchase, and I'll say why later.

LG Double Rich - Black Recipe


So this is a shampoo and conditioner set that claims to help damaged hair, give shine, and blackness to hair. Pretty much the same as the Lux shampoo, but did it work? Once again, it contains a strong scent, much more strong than the Japanese shampoos and somewhat sweet smelling. The shampoo and conditioner smells the same, unlike the Lux, and the shampoo is a gray gel with lots of sparkles in it. I guess I mean that the sparkles are alot larger than the ones in the Lux, which seem more fine. After shampooing, there wasn't any shine at all T_T. The black effect wasn't really noticeable, and all there was to it, was a nice smell. (I don't think it helps damaged hair very much at all!). I dont mean to say it's a bad shampoo or anything, it just is like a regular shampoo, nothing really special except the sparkles lol.

Now my major rant about these items. It's the packaging. Ok, I absolutely LOVE how the products look, so what could possibly be wrong with the packaging? The BACK SIDE. Now I never really got a chance to take pictures of the back, but I can tell you, it's the reason I wont buy it again. I'm VERY picky with my products when it comes to packaging and durability. The durability of the packing ruins it for me in a way. All of these items are meant to be in the washroom, and probably get wet some time or another. Sadly there's a terribly horrible paper sticker on the back of the products, which lists the ingredients, the usage, and what the product does, so I thought it's pretty useful. But knowing that paper will dissolve in water, I tried to take off the paper sticker. to my surprise it was STUCK to a STUBBORN, STICKY, UGLY tin foil thing on the back of the product. So pretty much the paper was double sided, with the other side containing this ANNOYING tin foil thing that would NOT get off the product. Though I managed to rip it off on the vinegar cleanser, but it ripped off the bottle's own design! so the bottle became ruined :( As for the shampoo and apricot scrub, the foil was half stuck and half off, so it looked TERRIBLY horrid as there was one big piece of foil and tiny bits stuck everywhere. The product I still loved, but the packaging was just terrible. I really wish LG didn't have to do that, since I'm quite picky. Lol sorry for the long rant hahaha. So that's all the LG items I got. I'd still recommend them if you want to try!

Tsubaki vs Lux

Now, I'm going to do a comparison between two Japanese shampoos that I've had for a while. The first one I owned was the Lux shimmering black shampoo, and afterwards I got the highly popular Tsubaki shampoo.

Tsubaki


Of course when I saw it on sale, I had to try Japan's most well known Shampoo. Was it so popular because of the commercials? The Brand Shiseido? Or the fact that it actually worked well? But from what I've heard, it's quite over rated, though it smells very nice. So I bought the whole set, but I never got to use the treatment, since I sold it. Apparently Tsubaki is supposed to moisturize your hair with camellia oil which is supposed to work very well. I heard that a lot of people have really oily hair the day after they use the shampoo, so I wasn't sure what would happen to me. Well, I used it, and honestly, I didnt find it AMAZING or anything lol. Nor did I find the smell AMAZING either. The smell, just didn't really appeal to me that much. As for the shampoo and conditioner, it felt heavy on my hair, and my hair is REALLY difficult to create a shine on, so as for the shine factor, not so good. Though my hair didnt get oily the next day or anything, but I'd say the shampoo is just too heavy for my tastes.


Lux


Lux is supposedly made by a company called "unilever" which I never heard of before. Compared to Shiseido, many people would choose the popular one over the one that they dont really know of. But I saw this shampoo at my supermarket so I decided to give it a try. I remember someone saying that Lux pales in comparison to Tsubaki, but I'd have to say the opposite. The shampoo itself is really interesting to look it. It's a really dark gray-black color and contains little sparkles in it! I fell in love the moment I saw it. It didnt really smell good though, it DID have a smell, just a weird one that's hard to describe. But the conditioner looked like a normal one, but it actually smelled good, maybe better than the Tsubaki. It resulted in shiny blacker hair. That's right, it made my hair blacker. When I saw it, I thought I was imagining it, but when I went out with my friends, one of them asked me if I dyed my hair black. I said no, and then realized it was my shampoo! I loved it, but now its all gone. Though the shampoo smell doesnt really make it any nicer, but overall, I think I did like it

So in conclusion for me, Lux wins. In most people's cases, it would be Tsubaki, as it is more expensive and such. But I think it really depends on the state of your hair and what you're looking for, whether if you want shinier hair, moisturized hair, or anything at all. They both help with damaged hair quite well, so having them both doesnt make too much of a difference.

First post!

Welcome! This is my first post! And for my first post, I decided to do a review on a few of the items that have been long finished. I thought that I should do a review on all my old products first before I move on to the newer ones.


Skinfood Black Sugar Mask Wash Off

So, as many of you know, this is one of Skinfood's best selling items, a black sugar scrub. When I first heard about Skinfood, I wanted to try THIS product first, since so many people raved about it. But I think I just wanted to try products from Skinfood itself, since the concept of food in your products was appealing to me at the time, and my face would be getting all the nutrients from the products as well.
So I got the mask, with high expectations and not sure what I was going to get out of it.


The first time I tried it... I didn't like it AT ALL. It was harsh and it felt almost worse than the St.Ives apricot scrub. But luckily I realized when I rinsed it off, the sugar particles in the mask began to melt. And then I realized that the mask was better off used on a wetter face than a dry one. The next time I used it, I quite liked it better. The sugar melted as I exfoliated (as gently as possible) my face. And after leaving it on for a while, I rinsed if off, and it really did give me softer skin, and got rid of some of my blackheads. I would show you how it works but all that's left is an empty jar.



Kiss Me Heroine Mascara - Volume & Curl Mascara

I wanted to try a japanese mascara, but the price of the Majolica Majorca mascara was raised by 300% here, and I was not able to shop online (not that I am able to now), so I just decided to get the Kiss Me Heroine mascara, which alot of people reviewed on. Apparently the anime character on the box is supposed to be this character named "Georgie" but I really have no idea what show that would be. The mascara itself is supposed to either give your longer lashes or more volume while keep your curl up. The brush itself looks pretty standard and usual.

I actually REALLY liked this mascara. The first few times I used it, I didnt notice it giving me much "volume" in my eyelashes, but later, Im not really sure why, but It began to REALLY give my eyelashes volume and some length. It was really nice. For a fiber mascara I didnt seem to mind it much, there was only one problem though. It is the most difficult thing to wash off. I had to put 2-3 layers of laneige cleansing oil on my lashes before it was completely gone. The mascara is supposed to be waterproof, but it was so hard to get off compared to other waterproof mascaras. I would show you how it looks on me, but it expired a few months ago, and to be on the safe side, I decided not to use it lol. This chemical scent in it is really really strong now, so I wouldn't use it anyways.




Laneige Trial Kit

I bought this I think last year or so. I found out about Laneige from Song Hye Gyo's commercials, not from any reviews or user videos or anything. The fact that it was a water/snow type product really really made me fall for it. (I LOVE water/snow concepts) Like they say, try before you buy. So I got this set (luckily they had it) but it was the older stuff, not the EX stuff. So I got the refiner light, balancing emulsion 2, Waterbank essence, Waterbank cream, and jelly wash-up foam (I have no idea if they still have this anymore), and 2 Waterbank masks! It came with the really nice blue/white makeup bag and a small sample of iope suncream.

Since it wasn't the EX versions, the scent was slightly different. It was the usual Laneige scent, but at least 10x stronger. Most people prefer unscented over scented, but I love anything that smells good, even if it's a bit strong (I know its not good, but I can't help it). I used these products during the summer when my skin was super oily and gross... The trial kit I got was meant for combination to oily skin. And I can't say I didn't like it or that I did like it. The jelly wash-up foam had a lemony-dish washing soap like smell, at first I didnt like it, since I'm not too fond of lemons, but after a while, it really grew on me, and I really love that smell now. The product itself was quite nice, unlike Japanese cleansers, which I find too harsh and drying, this was really gentle and nice on my face, and It foamed up alright, it isn't a dense foam, but it did it's job. The refiner (a toner), emulsion, essence, and cream lasted me for 3-4 months! And theyre not even close to full size. But then again, I was being cheap, so i used MUCH less than I was supposed to use. Due to it being the summer time, my skin had a harder time absorbing the moisturizer since it was so hot and my skin was already sweating. So my face ended up being super shiny every morning. My mom even once said to me "what did you do to your face?! It's all oily!". The stuff itself didn't really make a BIG difference in my face, but it was better off than before I guess. But sometimes, when I woke up, my face wouldn't be oily at all, as if the moisturizers kept my face moisturized the whole night. The advertisements did say the essence was supposed to keep your face moisturized for 8-9 hours. I was pretty satisfied with the purchase, but I moved on to buy the hydra solution range for winter.

I think that's all I'll write for this post! Till next time!