Review: Sulwhasoo Herbal Soap

An Aritaum store opened up in my city recently and so I finally have an official retailer to get mid to high-end Korean cosmetics from! My wallet weeps at this news.

I wasn't really looking for a cleanser, since I'm quite happy with Skinfood Egg White Pore Form that I use in my morning skin routine. But I bought the Sulwhasoo Signature Kit, which comes with small versions of their "Signature" items as well as full versions of the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum EX (EX is the renewed version of the original Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum) and the Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream.

Doesn't it look grand

Inside the box

The signature kit containing small versions of the Essential Balancing Water, Essential Balancing Emulsion, Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Cream, First Care Activating Serum, Overnight Revitalizing Mask, and Herbal Soap

I originally just wanted to buy the Sulwhasoo Ginseng Renewing Cream, but of course I got sucked into buying a set that has 6 other things I can try out instead! I'll be doing reviews for all of these as I go along.

Review: Innisfree Apple Juicy Liquid Foaming Cleanser

I got these samples from an Innisfree store. I don't trust buying samples anymore ever since we've had an Aritaum store open up in my city that actually sells high-end Korean cosmetics and I've noticed a difference in scent and texture in some of them. So from now on I'll only review (and use, quite frankly) samples that were given to me at a retail store.

Anyway, I'm not a particular Innisfree cleanser fan. I tried the Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam but it was nothing compared to the Skinfood Egg White Pore Form that I use in my morning skin routine. But I do quite like the Innisfree apple juicy liquid line as I use their makeup remover Innisfree Apple Juicy Emulsion Lip & Eye Remover now in my daily routine. So I thought I'd give this cleanser a try.

Review: Belif Creamy Cleansing Foam Moist

I got this complimentary sample last summer in Seoul when I bought my first batch of Belif products to try at the Lotte Department Store. I just finished reviewing Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam and once I decided to throw that cleanser down the drain (well, I'm going to use it as my body soap from now on) I started using this one. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much because most foaming cleaners I've tried so far work well, but nothing really stood out except Skinfood Egg White Pore Form in that it visibly decreased my pore size. However, I was happily surprised with this product.

Review: Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Cleansing Foam

This is the cleanser version of their famous Innisfree Jeju Volcanie Pore Clay Mask. I've got large pores that tend to clog and becomes comedones or worse, inflamed pimples. I was quite impressed by Innisfree Jeju Volcanie Pore Clay Mask so I wanted to try their cleanser and see if it will help with clearing out my pores and thus minimizing their size.

Review: Clarisonic Mia 2 Cleansing System

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent today and talk about a cleansing system rather than some kind of cream or mask. I'm sure everyone knows what this is, and there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of reviews about this already. I finally decided to take the plunge and buy this product back in Oct 2014.

Review: Innisfree Apple Juicy Lip & Eye Remover

I've been using Skinfood Milk Shake Point Make-up Remover to remove my eye make-up when I wear glasses for the past few years. So basically just the concealer to cover my black circles and the black eyeliner. It's inexpensive, doesn't sting my eyes and removes it well. But now I'm on holidays (although it's ending in 2 days...sigh), I tend to put on Freshlook Illuminate Contact Lenses (because they're expiring soon...*grumble*) instead of glasses and put on more make-up on my eyes (basically just the Koji Dolly Wink Mascara). And I've started to notice that it takes a few more wipes to get all the mascara off my eyes, to the point where I have to tug around my eyelashes a bit and my eyelid gets a bit red and swollen the next day. So I did some research and decided to buy this when I got to Seoul.

Review: Sulwhasoo Gentle Cleansing Foam

I'm back! I've been trying out this cleansing ever since finishing my trial of History of Whoo Gongjinhyang Foam Cleanser. After trying out a variety of cleansers, I realized that my original Morning Routine cleanser, Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam, was not as great as I thought it took awhile to wash all of the cleanser off. I've been more interested in trying out other cleansers and this is my first cleanser from Sulwhasoo.

Review: History of Whoo Gongjinhyang Foam Cleanser

I've been trying a lot of cleansers lately and I've started to realize that my usual Morning Routine cleanser, Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam, may not be as great as I had originally imagined. I mean, it works well and prevents me from getting pimples but I find that I have to wash it off multiple times to prevent any residue on my face. I've read that History of Whoo cleansers are known for giving your face a very refreshed and clean feeling without stripping all the moisture from your face. My first History of Whoo cleanser was from the History of Whoo Seol Whitening line, which did make my face feel refreshed but didn't stop my pores from enlarging when I was trying other products from the same line. Let's hope this one gives me better results!

Review: Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Line

After trying out History of Whoo Seol Whitening line (I've separated my review for the CC Sun Cream from the same line here), I switched to try out its biggest competititor, Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Line. I used it for a month. Reading reviews, I've heard better things from History of Whoo, but personally I've had better success with Sulwhasoo products so I still wanted to give it a try. Last year I experimented with my own made up combination of Hadalabo Shirojyun Whitening Essence and The Saem Chaga White Liposome Biocellulose Sheet, which worked, but I'm always into trying new products, especially whitening products. Give me my white pearly skin!

I actually tried out the Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Whitening Eye Treatment first before I tried the rest of the line so I've posted a separate review of that here.

My Night Skincare Routine

And here is my night skincare routine. For those who are interested in my morning skincare routine, you can check that post out here. Basically, in this post I'll be talking about the skincare products I use at night and summarize how the product is effective for me. If you're interested in getting more details or to look at the product description, I've already written a separate review for each of these products and I will provide their respective links below.

And if you're wondering...the green elephant at the bottom of the photo is to hold the yellow sample up :D

I should mention that this is my skincare routine during fall, winter, and spring. During summer, I need to use a whitening line to try to revert my tanned skin back to its original color so my night routine is totally different.

Before I delve into my routine, let me tell you a little bit about my skin as these products are targeted towards my skin's problems. I have oily/combination skin and large pores. If I ignore my large pores, 2-3 of them like to transform into pimples especially when it is that time of the month. In addition to the pores on my cheek area, I have some dark pigmentation and little bumps from the crazy acne I had 3 years ago. My skin color is very dull and has this jaundiced, unhealthy yellow tan. I also have very dark circles under my eyes and many fine lines under my eyes. As a result, my eyes look much older than the rest of my face.

Review: History of Whoo Seol Whitening Line

After 40 days, I'm finally finished trying out the History of Whoo Seol Whitening line (I've separated my review for the CC Sun Cream from the same line here). My skin gets tanned very easily even when I put on sunscreen so every summer I absolutely have to use a whitening line or else I look like potato skin when class starts. Last year I experimented with my own made up combination of Hadalabo Shirojyun Whitening Essence and The Saem Chaga White Liposome Biocellulose Sheet, which worked, but I've been hearing great things about History of Whoo's whitening line so I thought I'd give it a try. Since I'm reviewing a whole line this time I'm going to change the formatting of this post a bit.

Review: Skinfood Black Sugar Cleansing Cream

The pin is for size comparison because this photo makes this tub look small. This is a cleansing cream for removing makeup. I actually bought this back in January but didn't get a chance to use it until when I went on vacation in June because I don't usually put foundation on (I usually only put on eye makeup which I remove with Skinfood Milk Shake Point Makeup Remover).

Review: Missha Super Aqua Refreshing Cleansing Foam

I've tried another cleanser from the same Super Aqua line, Missha Super Aqua Oxygen Micro Visible Deep Cleanser, and was very impressed with its truly "deep" cleansing compared to the other cleansers (details in my blog post here). However, the only problem was that you needed to wait for this cleanser to bubble, which is impossible for me because I'm always in a hurry in the morning. So when I got this sample with one of my orders, I thought, maybe this will give me the deep cleansing without the wait time?!

Review: Skinfood Lemon Tea Salt Mask Foam

I was sick for the latter part of last week so I didn't get much blogging done on the weekend. But after sleeping 17 hours out of a possible 24 hours (by skipping class ha ha ha...), I feel much better so here I am! I usually don't buy things I haven't tried before in full size. The reason I made this an exception was because I've had great success with Skinfood's Black Sugar Scrub Foam, and somehow I thought that since the sugar worked so well, maybe salt would work just as well if not better! Yes, it makes no sense..I know.

Review: Missha Super Aqua Oxygen Micro Visible Deep Cleanser

This was the second and last complimentary sample I got from buying my Etude House Drawing Eye Brow Pencil Refill. The first one was my previous post, Missha Time Revolution Immortal Youth Cream. I think this is the first time where I've gotten 2 samples where both actually wow me enough to consider buying the full product. Usually at least one of them is going to be some inconsequential hydrating fluid or aqua base cream that only moisturizes my skin (if only that was the only problem on my face)! And to think that I got these 2 great samples from buying a $4 eyebrow pencil refill!

Review: TonyMoly Clean Drew Broccoli Sprout Cleansing Cream

This is a cleansing cream for removing makeup. I haven't had a chance to use this cleansing cream until now because I haven't been putting foundation on my face (I usually only put on eye makeup which I remove with Skinfood Milk Shake Point Makeup Remover) until Christmas holidays and all those Christmas dinner parties!

Review: Skin79 BB Cleanser

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a great 2013 :)

Christmas holidays, with dress-up dinner parties, are one of the few times where I put foundation on. I've had this sample for awhile now...but I never used my BB cream foundation until this winter holiday. And what better chance to try out this sample than now.

Review: Etude House Lip and Eye Remover (makeup remover)

Is it just me, or does this look like Lancome's Bi-Facil makeup remover? They even share the same blue/clear colors! I've used Lancome's Bi-Facil before with good results, but it was a bit expensive at $27 for 125ml. After that, I decided to try Skinfood Milk Shake Point Make-up Remover, a cheaper alternative. That one was as effective at removing my eye makeup as Lancome, except it gave me blurry vision (since it's not clear, so whatever goes in is like milk going into your eyes). So I decided to try this one out.

Review: HadaLabo TamagoHada Daily Foam Wash (cleanser)

I got this awhile ago when my face was exploding in acne. This one has two versions, a cleansing cream and a cleansing foam. I chose the cleansing foam mainly because I had oily/combination skin so I thought I would buy a foaming cleanser rather than a cream cleanser.

Review: Etude House Baking Powder Cleansing Foam Moist

I got this as a complimentary sample on one of my bigger Skinfood purchases. I've been on a staple routine of using Skinfood Egg White Pore Foam in the morning and then Skinfood Black Sugar Scrub Foam at night. I've been satisfied with those two products and have already ordered another one of both. But it never hurts to try new products and I always like to believe that there's something better out there.