So a little while ago I reviewed their Omega 6 healing cream (here) which I quite liked but the main reason I wanted to try this brand was for its retinol gel. I am by no means an expert on retinol since I have not used that many so far. I am an expert on my own skin though and I have realized that it is hard to find information on how retinol acts on my kind of skin type. 

It almost seems like retinol is not too recommended for dry, reactive/sensitive skin. I really get why but that doesn't mean I want to miss out on its benefits. Retinol is one of the few cosmetic ingredients that have a definite scientific backing to being actually effective. It is a great product that helps with acne, sun damage and fine lines. And I want in on that.

Since my skin is such a finicky thing I did approach this retinol adventure slowly. Yet I managed to over exfoliate of course! But I must confess only because I didn't use the product as recommended (by using it 3 days in a row). So it was my own fault. Know I know that it is quite powerful though and I proceed with caution. That being said I think this retinol gel (more like balm!) is very well suited for my type of skin.

This is a faint smelling non-scented balm. Yeah, I said it. It's a balm. I don’t know why it is called a gel but it is definitely a balm. I find this the best feature about this product, to be honest, and I think it should be advertised as such.

Like the afore mentioned Omega 6 cream, it is a balmy texture that starts melting upon contact with the skin. You only need a tiny little bit to spread it onto your entire face and neck/chest area. If you use too much it can get a tad greasy. And to be honest it leaves a little bit of a film on my skin, but strangely one that feels good instead of bothersome. It feels soothing to apply and this way the dreaded waiting time for very dried skin people such as me is eliminated. I could even get away with using it as my only product if I would choose to do so.

The thing is this stuff is powerful! It is advised to use every 3 days only and I really recommend to follow that regime. I used it 3 days in a row to test what would happen and I overexfoliated big time. Well, nothing was visible. My face was barely pink. But it felt the same way than when I used stronger wash off exfoliants before. I had to baby my skin for an entire week before it went back to normal. So now I use it twice a week and it is going really well. It has been about 8 weeks now and my skin is happy. I still get a bit of flakes after about 3 days but it is manageable. 

I got a little bit of gunk that came to the surface when I started but since I only stopped using retinol for a month beforehand, so my skin was quite clear already.

Above was taken in October and below was after 6 weeks of using the gel

I really like this balm since it is very pleasant to use and feels good on my skin. It does not make my itchy skin itchier and is a wonderful moisturizer in case I feel like skipping the rest of my routine on the days I use this. It is also quite convenient for people who are lazy yet want the benefit of an active. Since it is so effective even when used 1-2 times a week it cuts down on quite a bit of waiting time and added products.

With its short ingredients list, it is also a possible product for people who have skin sensitivities since the chance that one of the culprits is contained in this are smaller.

So as long as you follow the instructions this is a really solid and effective retinol product.

Sun damage and wrinkles au revoir!

Available on Truth Treatments


Here is an affiliate code "havethetruth13" for you to save 10% on your order.

Joe versus the Volcano

1990

Directed by John Patrick Shanley

Starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Ossie Davies, 

I knew about the existence of this film but never really heard anyone talk about it. When I started it I thought it was going to be a regular 90s comedy with Tom Hanks. Little did I know that it had quite a big of expressionism and surreal macabre humour through in to boot.

The expressionistic art work is seen in the first scene of the film and carried throughout of it. 

I also loved Meg Ryan's role in this even though the L.A part was my favorite. I love her accent there. All in all it was a funny and delightful comedy that also please my artistic side with interesting and strange sets and backdrops. Even though I found the “Polynesians” a little cringe worthy I still think it is a “hidden” (more like ignored or forgotten) gem, that one who is inclined to the darker side of life might enjoy.

If you have read some of my past posts on oils you might already know that for most of my life I considered oils a necessary evil. With my super dry skin oil was simply always in my routine and inevitable when creams just simply don't cut it. Unfortunately, I have some sensory overload beef with most oils and really hate using them just so they can sit on my skins surface tickling and bugging the heck out of me for the next hour/s.

Thankfully nowadays there are many more oils, and oil mixes available besides the good old almond/olive/coconut oils from days past. And the moment I discovered Korean facial oils has been a day of big celebration in my household. I still try out western facial oils regularly but whereas most of them are simply unpleasant on my skin Korean oils, wow me one after the other.

I keep discovering pleasant to use and relatedly non-oily oils and it makes discovering new ones even more fun.

Todays oil stood out to me for its scent.

Boy does this stuff smell good!
I generally prefer non scented products but if you get it soon right like the Mamonde team did I would take it over unscented any time.

This stuff smells like straight up dessert. But not in a overwhelmingly sweet way but in a subtle delicious way, like spreading really smooth lemony cream bars all over your face.

Doesn't sound delicious maybe but it certainly feels that scrumptilicious!

The scent is not strong at all and dissipates fast which is unfortunate to me since it smells so delectable. It is good news for people who dont want to run around smelling like pie though.

Not only does this stuff smell positively addicting but the texture is fantastic too.

It is a relatively dry oil comparable to Graymelins 100% Facial oil. It is light sinks in fast yet you can clearly feel that your skin is more nourished. It is probably the driest oil I have tried so far and it can even fool Johnny who is the biggest facial oil hater I have ever encountered. If you mix this into another product you will likely not notice that any oil is even in there (well, he didn’t). Applied on its own it feels like luxurious and high quality stuff that you just want to keep massaging into your face but suddenly it is completely absorb while making your face smooth and soft.

The only downside is that I feel that you go through this stuff fast since you want to use it all on your face. When ordering samples I usually take forever to use them up since each sample can be used what feels like a gazillion times on my tiny face (yes I can wear children hats).  With this oil I would have run out in quarter of the time if I would have used the amount I wanted on each application. Instead I was frugal and tried to savour it for as long as I could to have a decent testing length. The reason why I want to use so much is that the oil is so dry and delicious that two or three drops simply dont cut it for me unlike most other facial oils. I want to use double that and spread it on my face by itself instead.

Next time I will buy the full size and see how it goes but seeing that it is only 15ml it might be the same.

I liked to use this by its own as a layer before my moisturiser at night, and during the day I would mix it in with either my emulsion or my cream.

I loved it whichever way I used it and am looking forward to getting more soon.

As you see I really liked this stuff. Not because it is the best facial oil I have used. I really got lured into loving it with its marvellous texture and irresistible scent. It just shows that if you have a goo product you can always make it better by pleasing the senses.

Ingredients: Here


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

Purchased at Testerkorea

Available on Ebay

What is your most indulgent skincare product?

A little while ago I was contacted by a representative of The Truth Treatments. I admit that I wasn't too interested at first until I had a closer look at their product line. The reason why I accepted their offer of sending me some products to try are the following:

1: I have been struggling with itchy facial skin for over a year now and their Omega 6 Healing Cream sounded like it might be able to help in those regards.

2: I am currently testing a bunch of retinol containing products and their version sounded very suitable to my needs

3: I am broke and I couldn’t afford their products even if I would try to save for the next 3 years

Today I am talking about Omega 6 Healing Cream only since I want to write a separate review for their Retinol Gel.

So for a little back story on my itchy face. 
I always have had incredibly dry skin, dry to the point were hardly any potions I use are rich enough to soothe my skin. It just keeps staying dry and scaly even when I combine products that are both hydrating and greasy rich.

The problem started about a year ago when my face started to itch a lot more than usual. At first, I thought it was a pregnancy thing, but alas, it is still going on. It did calm down a little during the summer time but is back full force now that it is chilly outside.

My face is red and hurts on top of the usual dryness and sometimes the itchiness wakes me up at night. 

So you can imagine why this cream sounded so interesting to me since I have been using anti-itch and healing products without great success for the past year.

The reason why this is a mini review is because I was only able to use a one week supply. Which is just enough for a first impression of the product but not enough to give you a definite review.

The first thing I noticed (besides the adorable tiny jar) was how balmy the product really was. It really isn’t a cream texture at all. It is a true balm. Not oily though just very soothing. It is semi hard in the jar and once applied to the skin it starts melting away. It is very pleasant actually and it makes me yearn for more balm like products. It is rich and slightly oily but it doesn't leave a greasy film on my skin. I can still feel the product for a while after applying it but it feels more like a pleasant protective film than actual oil.

The cream ( I should really say balm from now on) is unscented and smells like a neutral skincare product. An attribute I appreciate since I don’t like most scents they add to cosmetics. 

My skin was quite happy during the week that I used this. The itching went down as well. 

It seems to be the best product I have used so far against the itchy redness but I can not say for sure. Usually, I test the products in different conditions to make sure it wasn't some kind of other factors that made my skin wonderful. I would love to test this out more thoroughly to make sure it is as promising as it seems.

This product does have Holy Grail potential for people who have painfully dry skin as me.

I would love to hear from anyone who has used this cream for a longer time or anyone who has a similar skin type and the products that have helped.

Available on The Truth Treatments

Here is an affiliate code "havethetruth13" for you to save 10% on your order.

It is quite exciting when one of your favorite Korean stores you have been shopping at for years all of a sudden release their own line of skincare! And this is exactly what happened with Roseroseshop. A few months ago they announced their new line of serums which I was lucky enough to get to try. I have tested the snail and the tea tree serum but today I will just talk about the tea tree one.

Unlike what some people might think this is not an exfoliating type serum. The BHA content is used for its anti-inflammatory properties to soothe spots and damaged skin. Together with the tea tree extracts, panthenol and allantoin this serum is meant both tho fight the spots and also soothe the skin at the same time.  

I didn't have any spots at the time but I still wanted to test the serum to see how it reacts with my dry skin. I am happy to say that it didn't dry my skin out. It didn't really give me any moisture but it is not meant to do so. I did also feel the soothing properties but I did not get any miraculous results either (Which ones anyway?).  Then I gave this serum to Johnny since his skin was being a little irritated at the time. He was also getting 1-2 new spots every other day and thus the opportunity to test the serum was perfect. One thing that I noticed immediately is that it didn't irritate his sensitive skin. That is always a huge plus in my book (if it would irritate his skin he wouldn't use the product anymore of course!) since his skin is even more fickle than mine and one never knows how it reacts. The next thing I noticed is that he did indeed get fewer spots. The ones he had looked less inflamed and smaller and the ones he might have gotten seem to have fled before even setting up shop on his face. After a few weeks, his spot count went down to only about one to two a week. I think the reason he even got any at all was the fact that the moisturizer wasn't entirely suitable for his skin. But he stopped using it and we shall see.

So basically if you do have spots this serum will likely help you to either diminish them or soothe the ones you have to become less visible. If you have no pimples the snail serum is better suited for you and I will talk about how that went for me next time.

I am definitely happy with the results I saw in Johnny's skin and together with the paired down ingredients list it is a product that I might get him again. The bottle actually lasts forever though so he might still have enough serum for the next four to five months!

Ph: 4.2

Available at Roseroseshop

Available at Jolse

I have been wanting to write hair reviews for years now.  I have been saving packages and taking pictures for so long my hard drive started getting clogged with all this unused stuff.

The reason why I haven't written any is probably because I have never written about hair (besides this one post here) and that it is quite hard and complicated to do so. Also, I am not a professional hairdresser and giving people advice about bleaching and dying hair is a tricky subject. 

I get asked about my hair so much though and instead of repeating my methods and experiments over and over I thought I should just write about them. So these are not necessarily instructions on what to do but explanations of what I have done. I like experimenting with hair and have been doing so since I was a teen. I usually have great results but making mistakes is part of the project. So I will share those mistakes with you as well so that hopefully you don't have to.

There will be quite a few posts which I will announce below in case you are interested in one but not the others (aka it saves you some reading time!). 

Today I will ease into the subject by simply having hair color swatches. I say simply since it is less complicated than the other posts but describing hair colors is anything but simple.

The reason I bought crazy colors in the first place was that I was not happy with Directions. They were much more expensive in Germany than the US and their lasting power is not too good on my hair. Besides I wanted to try out something else and Crazy Colors has a shade selection that I found more appealing than Directions. 

I really liked working with this brand but I confess that my favourite Vegetable based dye brands are Special Effects and Stargazer. The reason why I didn't use them is that they are either too expensive or too hard to find. Also, thy are so excellent since both brands are so pigmented that you can get a good color result on darker hair and they are also the most long lasting vegetable dyes I have ever used. Since my hair is bleached to an 11 base (the lightest you can bleach your hair to) I really didn't need/want a strong dye.

I wanted my hair to be white most of the times and occasionally color it in powdery hues. TO achieve that you need very very light dyes that also wash out relatively fast (not after one wash though) so that I can switch the colors around and not stain my super porous hair to the point where it won't go back to a clean white.

Now you may wonder why I have stronger colors in my arsenal. Well, first off you can mix the colors with conditioner to create pastel hues and secondly I also dyed Johnny Clyde's hair who had stronger colors for a while.

So here are the swatches and my feeble attempts to describe the colors and the results.

Unfortunately, I don't have any strand test to show you since I never used the colors straight on our hair and have thrown out the strand tests I did myself ( I know how could I!), the other reason is that I also don't have enough dye for some of them to do a strand test. 

These shades can be used on a medium to dark base (6 - 11)

More of a blue purple than just a purple. I really like this color and when mixed with conditioner it creates a lovely periwinkle shade.

Sky Blue

Looks practically like Capri Blue and I honestly did not see much of a difference. It is meant to be lighter but I thought it was more or less just as bright. It also looks to be quite purplish but fades to Aqua green as well. Both these shades do not wash out ever once they get to the Aqua stage.

Is a medium to dark bright blue. Even though it looks to have quite a bit of a purple hue it has a green base and fades to an Aqua color. 

These can be used on a medium to light base (8-11)

Candy Floss

A bright pastel pink. I bought this after I realized that Marshmallow was too light to mix. It is a pastel shade but is definitely bright when freshly dyed. It is not suitable to be used for a powdery hue unmixed. It is a neutral pink shade. 

Honorable mention Lilac

I don't know where my Lilac color ended up so I can't swatch it here. But I had it and used it quite a lot so I thought I should include it here. It is a bright pastel purple shade with a string blue base. it is very pretty and does not fade to green. It is a good shade to use when your hair is a little too yellow since it can counteract some of the orange, and counteract the yellow without going green. 

These have to be used on the lightest base (11)

Platinum

It looks grey on the website but I found it to be almost like a white toner but a little stronger. Depending on your base shade it can go either white or silver but it is a very light faint silver color. 

Silver 

To me, this is their white toner. Even though I have had completely white hair I was never able to achieve an actual silver (aka light grey) color with this. It only works as a white toner for super duper light hair only.

Marshmallow

I am not the biggest wash off mask fan (because I am lazy and I avoid water) but I still have one in rotation since I religiously use it when I shower (reasons here). So when I was offered to try this mask a few months ago I said yes since 
A: I was low on my regular shower mask, and B: the packaging is incredible, just look at it.

Yeah, I know sometimes I can’t say no to pretty packaging either.

Luckily, that has worked out quite well for me so far.

The first thing I noticed (besides the pretty box!) was the interesting smell of vintage cola candy. I am not sure why some Korean skincare smells like coke candy but it really does. This one is definitely the product that smells the most like it. Fortunately it isn't very strong or overpowering when wearing the mask.

The consistency is pleasantly gel like. It is refreshing on the skin and thick enough to stay put where you apply it.

It has tiny little specks in it that represent tea leaves that just add to its pretty look.

I have used this mask two ways, one as a sleeping pack and the other as the intended wash off mask.

To use it as a sleeping pack I simply applied a small quantity to my face, let it dry somewhat and slept. It was dry enough to not smear on my pillows but still formed a protective film that left my skin hydrated by the morning. The only downside to this is that you will have tiny black specks on your face, but my husband is used to weirder things than that, so I don’t really care about it.

Otherwise I simply add quite a thick layer to my face and neck, let it sit 5-10 minutes and then wash it off in the shower.

The mask is easy to wash off even when applied thickly and protects my face well from the harsh, hot shower waters.

I like the way my skin looks and feels after using this mask. It feels fresh and looks smooth and glowing. It certainly somewhat diminishes some fine lines I have from dehydration.

All in all I like this mask quite a bit. I would love to try some of their other products since I saw some quite promising ones in their line up online.

I think due to its wash off nature it is suitable for any skin types since one can adjust its usage as well.

Ingredients: Here

Available on Amazon

Available on BBCosmetics

You can get a 8% discount with code R3B2R1R81BW on your BBCosmetic order.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliated links and codes. That fact does not alter my review or opinion in any matter. For more information read my Disclaimer page.