Oh hey there, as usual season inappropriate post! Or is it?

I know that there is a lot of people who don't use sunscreen at all or if they do they only use it during the summertime/holidays/sunny days. I on the other hand (together with many others) use sunscreen daily no matter the weather or season. After all, sun rays penetrate clouds and looking like a vampire takes a little bit of work. 

My favorite type of sunscreens are still Japanese ones. I haven't tried one that has let me down yet (unlike its Korean counterparts) and am still expecting to one day get a dud since not all can be great. I got this specific one for Mother since she wanted to cut down her routine, skip the moisturizing step and replace it with a sunscreen only. This is a good way for people who are looking for that moisturizer + sunscreen kind of product to shorten their routine. According to science, the moment you have a two in one product the efficiency suffers. This is the reason why products that include sunscreen are not reliable with their sun protection. So if you still want to save some morning getting ready time, you can just grab a hydrating sunscreen instead.
And yes they exist!

I did some digging in the online universe of never ending pits of knowledge and wisdom, and came across two (to me available) sunscreens that are said to be more hydrating than most. After all, the variety of sunscreen finishes are endless, starting with the mattifying anti-oil type to dewy and moist.

Mother's skin is quite normal so the moisturising factor didn't have to be super duper strong unlike if she would have dry skin. But to be honest I think most people with dry skin could not get away with skipping a good moisturiser. 

The bottle is pretty plain with most of its writing in Japanese. It is functional and easy to use though, which is all that I really want from it. The tip is very small which makes it easy to extract an exact amount of sunscreen. It is neither too thick nor runny and I find the texture quite pleasing to be honest. Most sunscreens are either incredibly goopy or super watery and to me both of those are hard to apply properly to my face.

Once you start rubbing in the lotion it gets moist and velvety which makes it pleasant on the face. 

It definitely feels moisturising with a touch of wateriness that you get in so many Asian products. 

It absorbs quite fast and dries down to a semi satin finish. Yet instead of making your skin dry (like the sebum absorbing type) or feel exactly the same it does give your skin some sort of moisturized bounciness. To me it feels quite pleasant especially since the smell is subtle and disappears fast.

With my desert skin this sunscreen could not replace my moisturiser but I do love using it in the winter when my skin is super dry even after having applied an extensive skincare routine. 

For anyone with normal or combo skin this might very likely be able to replace your moisturizer.

The great thing about it is that it isn't heavy at all so even if you would like to use it on top of any cream you still absolutely can without drowning yourself in moistness.

I quite like this sunscreen and would absolutely repurchase if there wouldn't be so many more that I want to try!

Ingredients: Here

Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha

Purchased at Alphabeauty

Available on Ebay

A little while ago a makeup brand that is surrounded with quite a bit of controversy and scandal that-shall-not-be-named released a very popular eyeshadow palette in which the shades centered around reds and burgundies calling them the new new-trals. This was received by me ( a burgundy shadow fan since it is my favorite color) with interest and curiosity. Not that I would give that brand-that-shall-not-be-named any money, the price of the palette was simply outrageous. 
I do own some burgundy eye products and have been toying with the idea of creating my own custom palette for a while, but I am lazy and cheap, so it simply never happened. After all, I do my makeup about once every three months (yeah practically only when testing products and taking blog pictures) and for that I already own much more than I can use. Either way I do love makeup and I do love applying it. I just hardly do it at all. 
So I continue buying it in small increments trying to not get most of the things I actually want.

This is my second shadow purchase of 2015 (or did I forget any others?) and I am quite happy with it. 

Makeup Revolution is a super duper budget makeup brand from the UK, which I have heard really good and bad things about. I guess it depends on your standards and expectations really. 
I find the palette is cheap and accessible, but the quality of the shadows varies widely in the palette itself.

The 6 shades on the lower left are unfortunately inaccurate since they look much lighter in the photo. The above palette represents the colors accurately

The shades are suppose to be a dupe of the above mentioned palette not so secretly alluded by the inclusion of the word newtral in the title.  Basically the upper row is composed of “New-neutrals” including a lot of Burgundies, and the lower rows shades are classic neutrals such as browns and beiges. 

I have to say most of the shades look very appealing to me, the only beef I have at first sight is that there is much more glittery and shimmery tones than I would like. I don't use them at all so they are kind of unnecessary for me. But it is a personal preference so this inclusion might make most people very happy. 

Now some of these shadows are a lovely quality for the price but some of them are pretty useless. Maybe with a really good primer and more patience these could work better but I honestly don't want to have to do more than just apply-and-go with my own eye makeup.

The swatches were done without primer using one swipe with a shadow brush. I apologize for the wonky lighting in the photos. It is winter time and getting light is quite difficult (not even speaking about decent and consistent light). The actual swatches are accurate representations of the colors, any shade discrepancies will be mentioned.

Bias

Did not really show up on my skin. That is partly because of the shade but also because it simply did not pick up enough pigment. With one swipe it did close to nothing and I had to swipe around four times to get it to show this little in the photo. As you can see on my finger (after swiping it around for what seemed ages) it is a pearly golden beige. 

I got this much on my finger after digging around the pan a little

Neutral

This is a really lovely matte greyish beige. It leans into mauve territory but barely really. It applies nicely and the color to me is very pretty.

Personal

Is another shimmery color that did not apply well at all. It was hard to get to show up at all and most of it was shimmery particles. I think a matte version of this shade would have been really great in terms of color harmony.

Vogue

This is a slightly pearlised pink that applies much better than the other shimmer shades but does not impress me due to its pretty common color and average application quality. Useable nonetheless.

Trend

This turned out to be a little more brick red than I like but still in the burgundy family. It is matte and applies well.

Newtral

This looks much more fuchsia when applied than in the pan. I expected it to be darker but it is still a pretty color. It is also matte and it applies as well as the other mattes.

Tone 

My favorite color of the burgundies added to this palette. It is a true burgundy and thankfully matte. It is very pigmented and easy to apply. The problem is that it is very soft. As you can see it got much more indented than the other shades upon swatching due to its texture. Still super pretty though.

Ignore the colors since they are super inaccurate, but you see that Tone on the left got used up much more than Custom on the right even though I swiped just as much.

Custom

This is much more purple than I thought. It is a pretty color that is very useful to use but the pigmentation of this is not as good as the other mattes. 

Cool

I thought this was going to be matte as well but for some reason it applied almost like a pearl shade. It is similarly weird in terms of quality like Custom, but I think still useable. After all it is a neutral beige that is very convenient to use.

Style

This is almost a foil type glitter shadow. It is very soft and had the potential to be very pretty but unfortunately it does not have the quality to do so.

It applies slightly patchy but still manages to show up quite well.

Partial

This could have been a lovely shade too. It is easier to work with than Style but the intend to be a foil type shadow falls short. The muted vintage rose color is lovely though. 

Mode

Another failed foil color which shows up as a mediocrely patchy gold.

Adapt

I really like this shade. I would love to have a color like this as a lipstick. It is matte and thus the quality is far superior compared to all the shimmery shades on this row. The color is an ashy, muted, vintage, mauve, medium brown. Hard to describe but it looks like it does on the photograph. I like using this as a stand alone color just building it up on the crease. I love how it looks with my skin tone too and it reminds me of my beloved Blackbirdcosmetics shadow in Imogen.

Buff

Pearly copper brown that is ok in terms of application quality. 

Suit

Warm medium matte brown that applies well.

Strong

Dark brown that technically applies well but somehow someone decided to throw shimmer in there which does not work at all. The reason being that it looks like a matte shade when used yet there is some stray glitters that occasionally show up. It does not look on purpose but rather that you either did not take away your previous eye glitter or that some stray ones got lost in the shadow instead. Usable but clearly not well executed. It also does not look purple at all like it does in the pan.

I used Cool, Adapt and Custom on the eyes, Skinfood blush on the cheeks and The Saems lipliner on my lips

In conclusion this palette is still worth it in terms of price since you get (if we are generous) 13 usable shadows for 10$, or 7 (if we are more critical) decent-good shadows for 10$. That is under 1$ per shadow which is very cheap indeed. You also get some shades which might be a little harder to find in that low price range so I do think that if you are a fan of burgundies the palette might be worth a buy (unless you have those shades already). Personally I think there are a few mistakes that have been done in this palette in terms of color selection, not even speaking about the quality. 
It would have been better if all of them would have been matte since they had the best quality in terms of application and pigmentation.

In the end I would only really need/want 5 of these so I think if I would have swatchable access to let's say an Etude House I would make my own palette with some of their shadows. There is quite a bit of Korean brands that have lovely quality shadows available for around 2$ and I think a custom palette with them would be perfect. Unfortunately I have no opportunity to swatch them and getting shadows based on the very inaccurate promo pics is too risky for me. In the meantime I will make due with this palette.

Burgundy eyeshadow for the win!

Sorry for the crappy quality, either way I used  Neutral, Tone, Custom, Cool, Adapt on the eyes, Skinfood blush, Zombie CC and VDL Lip Cube in 105 on the lips

Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha

Very decent palette for the price, that has some interesting shades that might be harder to find. A good selection of shadows to try out some different shades instead of buying them from more expensive brands before knowing if they are suitable for you. 

Available on Makeuprevolution

First off, let's just take 15 whole minutes to appreciate even the idea of a bubble cleanser. 
Like what! 
A bubble cleanser ha! 

And now let's take another 15 minutes to mourn my disappointment upon finding out that bubble cleanser does not mean tiny bubbles float out and cleanse your skin while singing a tiny bubble cleansing song all under the stern but cute orders of the giant bubble leader, Bubble Subtle Muddle Puddle the Third. 

Regardless, this bubble cleanser was still pretty alright I guess. 

I liked that it was like whipped cream foam. It brought back many memories of being a clown and having whipped cream pies thrown in my face. (I lie) 

The way I liked to use it is spraying it on a konjac sponge, it's pretty cute.
I don't know why but it is, it's just pretty cute.
You smash all that cuteness on your face, then wash it out and let it die cold and alone in the drain. Soooo cute 

I felt like it did it's job, it served it's purpose, which is sadly all we humans care about. MY face felt smooth and clean and did not fall off. 

Overall I give it a 4 because it felt like my face was actually being cleansed and I like that..

Cute and fluffy foam!

Mois thoughts:

This cleanser was freaking adorable! The packaging was cute and the foam was cute too. I have no idea how foam even manages to look so darling but it really does.

So you see that is my main atraction to this product. Also Johnny wanted to give ready made foams a try.

The cleanser does a good job cleansing but was no good at removing makeup. It is suitable for people who wear no makeup or as a second step cleanser as well.

It smells soft and fresh a little like powder but very faint and the foam is just like shaving cream which I personally love.

Even though it has a super high Ph it didn't dry out my skin more than other foam cleansers. I did not use this long term so I can not comment on long term drying effects but Johnny did not notice any himself. 

I am still looking for a ready made cleansing foam that has a lower Ph since all the low Ph cleansers I find are not as convenient to me as a can. That being said I have used many great low Ph cleansers that performed better than this that I don’t have to go chasing mediocre cleansers around just because they are cute.

I think this is an ok cleanser that is something suitable for people that do not care about Ph or makeup removal powers but want something convenient, cheap and non drying.

Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha

Ingredients: Couldn't find any

Ph: 10

Purchased on Testerkorea

Available on Kpoptown

While working in a cosmetics store I was lucky to try a lot of products. I tried all kinds of price ranges and types but I liked testing some of the very high end items just to see if the price was justified at all. So when Chanel's Sublimage line came out, which costs more than just an arm and a leg, I couldn't resist trying it out. The masque was the most expensive item in the lineup then, and with super dry skin, facial masks are always welcome! 

The most interesting part then was that it is not a wash off mask. This is something that was kind of unheard off six years ago. 

At least in Europe. 

Now of course sleeping masks are being sold in more and more places here thanks to the popularity of Korean Cosmetics. 

Besides the fact that you could just apply the Sublimage masque and then go to sleep it was also one of the most luxurious masks I have ever tried. It felt amazing applying it and my skin felt pretty good afterwards (not miraculous of course but good). I have been trying to find a similar budget mask since and have come up with nearly nothing until very recently. 

And in comes the Mediheal Midnight Capping Pack.

I saw this in Kosmeshop while putting together my goodie package and thought, tiny masks are always welcome! As usual I love samples and travel sets since they enable me to try more things in a shorter time.

I didn't have high hopes for this, especially since I only chose it because of the weird gooey texture on the package.

The first time I applied it though my skin sang the songs of a thousand angels. 

My goodness it feels nice on my face! 

It immediately reminded me of how wonderful the Sublimage masque texture was. It is hard to describe but it is thick without being overwhelming, just the right amount of lusciousness to be honest. 

So creamy and smooth it applies like a dream, yet the skin feels refreshed and soothed after application. 

It is quite viscous with a touch of stringiness but it does not translate to sticky on the face. 

In fact the pack sinks in surprisingly fast but in the fashion of a sleeping pack.

The scent is faintly floral and very subtle. Nothing intrusive at all.

The results for me were average. 

The thing is that somehow sleeping packs dont do much for me (no not even Channel's either). 

Some of them do nothing and some of them simply do a little bit. I don't blame the masks though since my skin is finicky, difficult to please and much too dry for almost anything.

The results with the Mediheal mask are above average compared to other sleeping packs though.

My skin is more hydrated and softer but just not in the miraculous way I would hope/other people report on getting after using sleeping packs. 

With its amazingly pleasant texture and nice results this has quickly jumped to being in my top two sleeping packs I love, and would-recommend-list. Now I just hope I can find a full size of this. Meanwhile there are still the super cheap tiny sachets which are quite full, having lasted me almost two weeks of daily use.

Ingredients: Couldn't find any

Rating: 1.Blegh  2. Pff  3. Meh  4. Oohh  5. Awwyeah 6. Wooha



Available at Kosmeshop

Disclaimer: This product was sent to me for review purposes. That fact does not alter my review or opinion in any matter. For more information read my Disclaimer page.