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: Innisfree Eco Safety Perfect Sunblock SPF 50 PA+++

Summer is here and that means it's time to try out new sunscreens! I have naturally somewhat dark skin (not the Asian pearly white skin I'm afraid), and I get dark without even trying. I've tried a million sunscreens, and none have prevented me from getting darker. Granted, that's not the point of sunscreens either. A girl can dream, right?

Anyway, so my goal for sunscreens is that its ingredients are safe (doesn't get absorbed into the skin) and effective. My second goal is that its in a consistency that I can tolerate putting on for the whole day. I was extremely impressed with Innisfree Eco Safety Aqua Sun Gel SPF 30 PA++ in that it didn't feel like a sunscreen at all. It wasn't even greasy! The only thing I didn't like was the ingredients. It didn't use the two "barrier" sunscreen ingredients, titanium oxide or zinc oxide, which is good for UVA protection (more on that later). So I decided to give this one a try.

Review: Etude House Skin Mal:Gem Toner - Smoother

It's been a long time since I've changed toners. The Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner has served me well. It got rid of the pimples I kept getting from clogged pores, and it's been in my morning and night time skin routine for the past 3.5 years. But around half a year ago, I started getting pimples again. Nothing big, maybe 1-2 clogged pores that turned into pimples on the sides of my face, but there was always one there! I was hoping Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner would save me, but unfortunately, it didn't do anything this time. And then I remember one of the previous commenters (sorry, I forgot which post it was or else I'd write your name here!) suggested I try Etude House's mal-gem line of toners.

Review: Innisfree Apple Juicy Emulsion Lip & Eye Remover

I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've last blogged! I haven't forgotten about this blog, in fact, I think of it from time to time and have been taking photos of new products that I try! Just that it took me awhile to get my life settled and back on track. A little summary on what's happened the past year (if you don't care, skip this paragraph): I've finally graduated and am now working as a medical resident at the hospital. I've had to move to be closer to the hospital I'm employed at, which explains the change in background! Everything's quite new to me, finally being independent and all. To be honest, I do miss my old home with my parents but fortunately it's not too far away from where I live right now. And I'm glad that I finally don't have to pay tuition and get a salary! About time! I'm 28!

I ran out of the Innisfree Apple Juicy Lip & Eye Remover and was about to buy my refill when I ran into its emulsion version and thought, why not? So I gave it a try and I actually have converted to using this now as my go-to eye makeup remover.

Review: Innisfree Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask

I ran into this mask when I went to Korea last summer. I was only familiar with the Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask as it was the original product. I didn't do any further research to find out that it has a counterpart because I didn't really like the Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask. I found it too weak. It didn't brighten my face and it didn't tighten my pores. It didn't really seem to suck much of the impurities that clay masks are known to do. So when I saw these two clay masks side by side, I asked an Innisfree store attendant what the differences were and he told me that Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask was for drier skin whereas the Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask was for oilier skin types who needed more pore refinement. So I took the plunge and bought one to try!

Review: Belif Hungarian Water Essence and Belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb

First post in a long time. I apologize for the long absence. It's been a tough few months. My face can be full proof of that as it's been out of control lately. I've experienced problems on my face that I never expected to see. One of them is dry spots. I've always been a combination type skin, and if I had to choose between oily or dry, I was definitely the oily type.

When I got my 2 dry spots on both my lower cheeks during my cold a few months ago, I thought it was going to go away once I felt better and was more hydrated. Well, be it stress or ageing, those two 5cm diameter spots never went away. So when I bought the full sized version of Belif Creamy Cleansing Foam Moist from Sephora and needed to stack more things for free shipping, I decided to try Belif's two famous hydrating creams. I got a sample of the Belif Aqua Bomb shown here on the right (the other, more powerful Belif Moisturizing Bomb, I will review later). I also happened to get the Belif Hungarian Water Essence sample back when I was in Korea. Since they were both for hydration, I decided to use them together.

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: Benton Snail Bee High Content Mask Pack

I finally have the motivation to try this line out. In general, I'm a bit lazy to use masks. But I suffered from a huge cold last month and my face was so dry. My nose looked horrible with dry flaky skin from blowing my nose too much. So I decided to use this for some intensive restorative and moisturizing therapy.

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: Sulwhasoo Innerise Complete Serum

This is an anti-wrinkle product line from Sulwhasoo. I'm not exactly at the age where I have wrinkles yet, but I do have fine lines over my forehead. I mostly wanted to try this product out because it claims to improve skin radiance, texture and contour (well, not the contour because no cream can change your skin contour..or else plastic surgery would be out of business)!

Review: Belif First Aid 360 Eye Care Mask

My last review from the Korean brand "Belif." My eyes have 3 big problems: dark circles, fine lines under the eyes, and super puffy under eyes. Put all these things together and you have eyes that look 10 years older than they're supposed to. I've had some success with eye creams so far, namely Sulwhasoo Essential Rejuvenating Eye Cream for my dark circles and puffiness (though it's only mildly effective for puffiness) and The Face Shop Smim Fermentation Concentrate Eye Cream for my fine lines.

Review: Belif First Aid Overnight Brightening Mask

Finally getting to review the last two products that I bought from the Korean brand "Belif." My face always has this unhealthy dark tone, kind of like I haven't had adequate sleep and food for a week, even though I've been sleeping and eating perfectly fine. I also have some red spots and bumps every once in awhile. That's why I always need to use a brightening cream. So I decided to try this brand's brightening product.

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: Belif First Aid Deep Pore Care Mask

This is my third product review from the Korean brand "Belif." This summer when I went to Korea again a friend of mine recommended this Korean brand called "Belif." I've actually never heard of this brand before but when I went to the Lotte Duty Free floor I found a small booth selling Belif products...and impulsively bought like 5 products from them.

Review: Belif Anti-Dark Circle Eye Serum

The second product that I bought from Belif back when I was first introduced to this brand when I was in Korea this summer. Those who have been following my blog will know that my dark eye circles are the bane of my existence. I am willing to travel far and wide to find an eye cream that will get rid of my dark eye circles. So far, the most effective for me has been Sulwhasoo Essential Rejuvenating Eye Cream, but you can definitely still see my prominent dark circles so I'm always on the lookout for dark circle eye creams.

Review: Belif Nose-Shine Boy Blackhead Remover Oil Balm

This summer when I went to Korea again a friend of mine recommended this Korean brand called "Belif." I've actually never heard of this brand before but when I went to the Lotte Duty Free floor I found a small booth selling Belif products...and impulsively bought like 5 products from them. I was on vacation mode! That's my justification...

Review: Kate Super Sharp Liner vs Etude House Drawing Show & Proof 10 vs L'Oreal Lineur Intense

This is probably the oddest (in terms of the brands I selected) eye-liner comparison of all blogs. But I thought it would be a waste to not review these four eye-liners and I was too lazy to do four different posts so I decided to do a comparison. I'll be comparing a Japanese eye-liner: Kate Super Sharp Liner (far left), two Korean eye-liners: Etude House Drawing Show (second left), Etude House Proof 10 Gelquid liner (third left), and a North American eye-liner: L'Oreal Carbon Black Lineur Intense (right).

Review: Etude House Wonder Pore Corrector

I've always used Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Pore Primer Essence as the last step of my Morning Skincare Routine to control the oil production on my face throughout the day. I've been noticing though that it works well during dry winters, but when I'm putting on high SPF (i.e. oily) sunscreens, the oil control isn't strong enough. But I've always been a fan of Etude House's Wonder Pore line (I'm still using their Etude House Wonder Pore Freshner toner) So this time when I saw this in Seoul I decided to buy a tube to try.

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.