beauty | Berries in the Snow

Review: Confume Argan Treatment Oil

10. March 2015

The weather is warming up these days and just in time for spring I’m collaborating with a couple of georgeous bloggers in an awesome springtreat Instagram loop giveaway. If you didn’t check it out yet, it is definitively worth doing, since you can win 180 US$ paypal cash plus 80 US$ store credit on Wishtrend! This leads me to my newest review today, which is about Confume Argan Treatment Oil purchased from them, and I will tell you right away that I love this product! ♥

Confume Argan Treatment Oil is produced by Welcos, a Korean company. This oil was one of the first Korean hair products I personally heard about. I read a couple of reviews raving about the oil and this made me very curious. It took me about a year nevertheless to finally buy this Argan Oil from Wishtrend and since then I love it and use it almost daily. The design of the argan oil bottle is simple, but induvidual. I can tell it is Confume Argan Treatment Oil from afar, because of the green plastic bottle and the image of the argan tree twig on the front label. The 120 ml bottle comes with a travel sized bottle containing 25 ml. This is awesome if you are either travelling or want to have some hair oil in your handbag for frizzy-hair-days.

Both bottles arrive in a plastic packaging. On the backside you can find the description for the product in Korean, but not in English. Luckily Wishtrend provides us with detailled product description >>here<<, but even from the images on the description you can see that this oil targets hair, body and hands.

I mainly use this product on my hair, but if I poured out too much oil I also use it on other body parts or my hands instead. That may be my only little downside, too, because the product has a normal screwing cap. A pump would have been far more easy to use. Some of the other hair products from Confume have a pump dispenser, so I’m hoping that they will change the bottle sometime for the Argan Treatment Oil, too. The ingredients are few and safe to use and you can look them up >>here<< on COSDNA if you are interested. The main ingredients is the argan oil as the product name already tells us. This oil obtained from the kernels of the argan tree is highly moisturizing, even more than olive oil, which makes it a very popular ingredient these days.

The product itself is a clear colored oil with an amazing scent. Actually, I gave away my travel sized bottle to a friend because she liked the scent so much! You can use this oil either in you towel dry hair after you washed you hair, or on your dry hair. It makes your hair dry fast and protects it in case you blowdry your hair. It makes it also easier to brush your hair. If you use it on dry hair, use it mainly on the ends of your hair (this is for all hair oils). Moreover, as soon as the oil dries off and you comb you hair there is no greasy residue left! Your hair looks shiny and lustrious and smooth…♥

So, I have curly and dry hair, which was very long, but also damaged at the beginning of 2014. Back then I decided to cut it short and let it regrow again, taking additional care in order to prevent the previous state of my hair. This was last year in May, I guess, and since then I used this oil regulary and I love it. My hair looks healthy and I rarely have any splitted ends anymore. It also helped to improve the dryness of my hair! Of course it is not only the oil, but a combination of my whole hair care, but I’m sure that this oil helped a lot! I’m almost through with the bottle and I already put a new one in my cart, so I can repurchase this with my next order on Wishtrend. The Confume Argan Treatment Oil retails for 18.45 US$ at Withtrend and it comes with the small travel sized bottle. I made a post about the promotions from Wishtrend for March >>here<<. Also, keep in mind their friend-referral program: You can receive a 5 Us$ referral coupon if you use my invitation code 17939205 upon registration and you’ll receive this voucher immediately. There will be a specific field in your registration form called “friends invitation program” where you can put the code mentioned above. This way new customers can safe 5 US$ which is a great possibility to safe some money.

Do you have any HG hair care products?

♥ PS: Don’t forget to take part in the Instagram loop giveaway! ♥

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Wishtrend March 2015 Promotions

6. March 2015

Spring season starts soon officially and the new months also means new promotions and gifts for our shopping experience at Wishtrend. If you don’t know Wishtrend, but love korean or asian cosmetics and skincare products I can recommend you to check out their online shop, especially for one of my favourite products, the O.S.T. Vitamin C Serum (they recently upgraded this serum and I’ll be reviewing it soon). You’ll also find some products sold at Wishtrend on my Top 20 favourite product list for 2014, like the Klairs Gentle Black Deep Cleansing Oil. Also, they have listed the brand COSRX, which is gaining a lot of popularity these days. I bought two products from their AHA/BHA series and I’m looking forward to try them! Here are the coupon codes for March:

As usual, I’ll start off with the 5 Us$ referral coupon you can receive if you are a new customer. The principle is easy as this: If you use my invitation code 17939205 upon registration you’ll receive a 5 US$ voucher immediately. There will be a specific field in your registration form called “friends invitation program” where you can put the code mentioned above. This way new customers can get 5 US$ off, which is a great to save some money on your first order.

Second, there is also a 10% discount coupon available for February. Below, you’ll find the coupon code for this:

Coupon Code: WISHMAR2015
Requirement 1: Shopping cart order must be 55 US$ and over to be able to use the 10% off coupon
Requirement 2: Coupon code cannot be combined with any other discount or voucher code.
Only valid until the end of March 2015

The second promotion code is a special gift you will receive by using the code below. The voucher is only valid on any orders at Wishtrend! You will receive in addition to the free samples you’ll normally get a 1 Full size IPOO Smell Cover Oil in Baby Powder scent worth 8.99 US$.

Voucher Code: WISHGIFTMAR2015
ANY ORDER
Until the end of March 2015

I would advice you to check out their “Free Shipping Area”, so you don’t have to spend the saved money for shipping costs. They have quite some nice items available there, changing from time to time. At the moment they are providing the OST Vitamin C serum for 14.99 US$ in their free shipping zone! I did a couple of reviews on various Wishtrend products in the past. You might like to check these out, if you are interested in purchasing these:

Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion

Klairs Rescue Moisture Kit Part 1 and 2

Berrisom My Lip Tint Pack

CareLab Powerful Pudding Mask

Klairs Gentle Black Deep Oil Cleanser and Sugar Facial Polish

Rojukiss Multi Vita Cleansing Powder

Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Sheet Mask

Damoae Therapy Shampoo and Tonic

Skinmiso Rice Foam Cleanser

Klairs Illuminating Supple BB Cream

O.S.T. Pure Vitamin C20 Serum

Wish Formula Panda Eye Essence Mask

ONL Saladit Essential Juice Sheet Masks

Do you have any favourite item from Wishtrend? What would you love to try from their products?

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Skinfood Milky Rose Vita Color Lip Lacquer

5. March 2015

Although I didn’t like the Etude House Color Lips Fit too much I didn’t give up matte and moussy lip products. I decided to give a try to Skinfood Milky Rose Vita Color Lip Lacquer, which was released together with some of my favourites. the Skinfood Rose Essence Blusher and the Rose Shake Point Makeup Remover. This product is a mousse type liptint and lipstick in one and it comes in the shape of a pen.

Skinfood is one of these brands which are competing with Etude House in terms of design– in my opinion at least. It is a Korean brand with vintage appearing design of their products which occupied my heart very quickly. The products are using the beneficial effects of ingredients, which are familiar to us in terms of “food” like vegetables and fruits. Their motto “Food that is good for your health, is also good for your skin.” reflects this brands’ ideology nicely. Their spring make-up collection of 2014 was called “Milky Rose”and the design of the products offered within this collection is beautifully selected,showing vintage-style rose drawings and pastell pink packaging. The design is really beautifully chosen and fits perfect for a spring collection. Apart from the Skinfood Milky Rose Vita Color Lip Lacquer nailpolish, blusher, make-up remover and a make-up fixer were offered.

As I said, this lip lacquer comes in a pencil shaped packaging. It has a brush tip similar to the Missha The StyleTinted Jelly Lips where the product comes out when pressing the bottom side of the pencil. The material of the pencil is made of plastic, but it doesn’t feel easily breakable. I chose shade CR02 “Milky Coral” out of the 9 available shades.

At the bottom you’ll find the button to press in order to make the product come out of the brush tip. The instruction says to push it 2 times. Depending on how much product you want you can also click less or more. When swatched the product comes out as a shiny,creamy tint. It tends to feather around the edges into the fine line of the skin. After a while it dries of matte.

While applying the mousse feels very soft and velvety, similar to the Etude House Color Lips-Fit. It is not drying but moussy in the texture. It has a light scent of ginger/citrus to it. The color looks like a mixture of orange and red, whith a peach undertone. Not exactly as the color I expected from the swatch, but this maybe due to my skincolor and lipcolor. Since the color is bright it will be visible in your lip lines more, if you have darker pigmented lips. If you have dry lips you should definitively exfoliate before using this lip product (and also with other matte or semi-matte lipsticks). Unfortunately, the Skinfood Milky Rose Vita Color Lip Lacquer is not transfer or rub proof. It smears easily and is not longlasting either.

Do I prefer this over the Etude house Color Lips-Fit? Yes, I do! It feels nicer on the lips and feels less drying. Also the brush tip makes the application very easy. I prefer to only use it as gradient lips using a small amount of the product. Nevertheless, I would not claim this as my new favourite lip product. I’m still on the hunt for a good mousee/matte lip product. Maybe I would have liked this in a darker red shade more, than in this light shade, because of the color accumulating in the fine lines of my lips….who knows?! If you want to give it a try it retails for 5400 Won (~6 US$) on testerkorea.

Did anyone try these lip lacquers? Or do you have any recommendations for moussetype or matte lip products? Feel free to write a comment below :)

10 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Rosemine Floral Remedy Foaming Cleanser

3. March 2015

I reviewed the Rosemine Plumpy Tint a while ago and here is my review for the Rosemine Floral Remedy Foaming Cleanser, which was part of the MeMeBox Rose Scentbox, too. This is one of my favourite foam cleansers so far and I’ve almost used it up.

The brand Rosemine is made by the Korean cosmetic manufacturing company called “EVAS”. The name is not chosen randomly, I think, because they stress the point, that their brand is wants to “give people clean & safe lifestyle (by Christian principle)”. I’m feeling a bit discomfortable if a cosmetic brand or company also makes religious remarks, since skincare and cosmetics should be reaching beyond religious aspects…Apart from my critisism towards the brand’s philosophy I want to point out that I really do like this cleanser. Ilove the floral packaging design, and also the Rosemine Plumpy Tint did convince me design-wise. The cardboard box the foam cleanser comes in is printed with a floral pattern and looks very pretty.

Unfortunately, the cardboard box only contains Korean description, but from the images of the products webpage I could conclude that this cleanser contains a bunch of different flower extracts, especially rose extracts. It also smells of roses, which is really nice if you love rose scented products. Moreover, you’ll find rose petals within the foam, which reminded me of the Sum37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick (I still am planning to do a review for it…>_<). The cleanser also contains coconut, which is a beneficial ingredient aswell. The foaming cleanser comes in a tube which has a matching design to the cardboard box. It looks really girlish with the flowers and the pink and white stripes and the baby blue cap.

The backside of the tube has some short Korean description printed on, too.

How does the Rosemine Floral Remedy Foaming Cleanser perform? First of all, the product comes out as a beige, shiny and yet creamy product. It contains rose petals (unfortunately, in my shot there is none XD), and creates a dense and full foam. If you love foam cleansers you will like the foaming ability of this cleanser. You only need a small amount to create enough foam for the whole face, especially when using a facial brush/electric facial brush or a foaming net, like I do use in the picture below. I use a chickpea sized amount of the product usually. The cleanser has a pH of 7, which might be not acid enough for some people.

I usually use this cleanser as a second step after I use the Klairs Cleansing Oil, but even on its own this cleanser performs great and removes almost all makeup products. In my test below you can see that it cleansed away everything and just some very light stains from the lip products remained.

I have mostly dry skin and some foaming cleansers might additionally feel drying on my skin, but I didn’t have the feeling here. The skin doesn’t feel squeeky, but simply clean and refreshed afterwards. I would even call this an alternative for the Sum37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick, if you love it because of the rose ingredient. It retails for 18900 Won (~19 US$) on the product site. If you would like to try it I would recommend you to ask at testerkorea at their “want” section.

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beauty empties

Graveyard: January and February Empties 2015

28. February 2015

I tried to use up as much as possible, before I by new products in 2015, and for the first two months I did a good efford in also emptying my sample stash. Here are my product empties for January and February and a quick impression on each product. As usual, I didn’t include any sample sachets or masks.

Frizz Ease Shampoo & Conditioner for curly hair- Repurchase? Maybe.

I used and liked the fullsize of this in the past quite often (these are travelsized tubes), but atm I’m in love with my Shiseido Tsubaki Shampoo, that I don’t want to go back to any western brands :D Within the western drug store brands these are still my favourites.

Iope Super Vital VIP kit- Repurchase? No.

I used up the complete items of this kit and I’m really proud I did without changing to another line inbetween. You can find my review of this highly nourishing and moisturizing line >>here<<.

Secret Key Snow White Cream- Repurchase? Yes.

I loved using this. It gave a nice finish to the face and it smells great! The packaging is very pretty, too! Read my review >>here<<.

Mizon Multi Function Formula Snail Repair Eye Cream- Repurchase? Maybe.

I used this eyecream during daytime because I think it is not moisturizing enough to be used at nights. I like the size of this eyecream and the fact that it is really affordable and can be used up in a realistic period. I could imagine repurchasing it, but I would rather try other eye creams first :D Find my review >>here<< .

SXM I Value Body Amoule- Repurchase? No.

This was part of the MeMeBox Diet Box and I was really curious about this ampoule. You take some drops and put it to the desired regions of your body. I could feel the skin being somehow tightened while applying but it did not show any longterm effects for me.

Shiseido Benefiance NutriPerfect Day Cream- Repurchase? No…sigh

This creamy cream is rich in its consistency and hydrates skin nicely. It also contains SPF 15. I enjoyed trying out this tiny tube, but since it is an expensive brand I don’t think that I’ll be repurchasing.

Welcos Confume Argan Treatment Hair Ampoule- Repurchase? YES!

I’m in healthier-hair-heaven since I bought Confume Argan Oil and Confume Treatment Hair Ampoule! My hair has been frizzy and dry since forever, but these products are amazing! This is the first of 5 tiny bottles and I love it! This indeep hair treatment doesn’t need to be rinsed out. It is mixed by a bit water and turns milky and warmer….can be used on wet and dry hair…I will buy more definitively! and I’ll be doing a review for both the argan oil and the treatment soon!

Only you Green Tea Jasmin Moisturizing Body Lotion- Repurchase? No.

I think this was a gift and came together with a shower gel. The scent was really nice. The bodylotion took a bit longer to absorb, though.

Lancome La Vie Et Belle shower Gel- Repurchse? No.

This was a gift with an order. I like the scent, but other than that there is nothing special about this shower gel.

Kneipp Almond Blossom Oil- Repurchse? Yes.

I used up the fullsized bottle of this last year and I loved it and this tiny version is no exception. The scent is soooo nice and it makes the skin feel very soft.

L’Occitane Karite Handcream -Repurchase? I would love to.

This is a rich and nourishing hand cream with a nice scent. There is nothing negative to say about this and I would love to try more handcream from L’Occitane.

Kerasys Moringa Miracle Essence- Repurchase? Yes!

A very nice smelling and softening hair essence which I loved to use. It is not as super effective as the Confume Argan oil, but it is nice for everyday use without making your hair greasy!

Do you know any of these and did you try them yourself? What is your opinion on these products I showed above? I’d be happy about your comments ♥

4 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Hanskin Bio Origin BB Creams

26. February 2015

Finally, I had some time to make a comparison review for the Hanskin Bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB cream and the Hanskin Bio Origin Royal Ampoule BB cream. Both these Hanskin Bio Origin BB creams are in deluxe size, so keep in mind that the fullsized products may look a bit different, mainly in size :D

The Korean brand Hanskin claims to be the first brand having released a consumer used BB cream and thus to be the original BB cream creator from Korea. They have a lot of different types of BB creams. The price of their products is in the midrange, so they don’t retail for super affordable prices. The packaging design of their products is simple and mature, kind of elegant, too. The Hanskin Bio Origin BB creams I’m showing you today have a characteristic dark purple color of their packaging. The brand and the name of the product are written on them in simple letters, too.

The Hanskin Bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB cream comes in a regular tube packaging, as most of us are familiar with for BB/CC creams. Unfortunately, it is a simple tube, even for the fullsize and not a pump dispenser, like Missha’s full size BB creams has, for example. The Hanskin Bio Origin Royal Ampoule BB on the other hand comes in a tiny bottle with a pipette attached to the lid. You can use the dropper for taking out the BB cream. This is possible, because the BB cream contains ampoule, making the consistency of the BB cream more liquid.

The Hanskin Bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB cream is supposed to offer wrinkle improvement, brightening and sun protection. It has SPF30 PA++ and contains titanium dioxide and zinc oxide therefore. It also contains hyaluronic acid and hydrolysed collagen as key ingredients for reducing the appearance of wrinkles. The ingredients are listed on COSDNA >>here<<. They are safe to use and no red flagged ingredient is contained.

The deluxe sample tube comes with a regular screwing cap and has the expiration date imprinted on the tube. It was sometimes hard to control the amount of BB cream when pressing the tube and I mostly ended up in having a mess all around the winding of the tube and in the inside of the cap. I hope that you don’t have this problem with the fullsized product!

The deluxe sample of the Hanskin Bio Origin Royal Ampoule is really cute on the other hand. I would not have expected them to make a bottle with a dropper for the sample product. However, this gives you an idea on how the fullsized product works. At the beginning, it was very convenient to use the dropper. The BB cream is not totally liquid, so you will have BB cream around the glas part of the pipette, but in general it is easy to use. As soon as the amount of product gets fewer and the bottle is almost empty things get harder. The dropper doesn’t word anymore and you can use it either to get some BB cream out by smearing it against the inside walls of the bottle, or you take a spatula or similar to scarp out the BB cream from the walls of the container. The ingredients of the Royal Ampoule BB cream are listed on COSDNA, too, and also here, there are no red flagged ingredients. The BB cream has SPF 30 PA++ like the Wrinkle Talk BB and it contains also titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. Additionally, it contains ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate for sunprotection.The key ingredients for the Royal Ampoule BB cream are Honey and Royal Jelly Extract. It also contains Hyaluronic acid and some plant extracts for skincare benefits.

When we compare the two BB creams swatched on the back of my hand, you can see that the Royal Ampoule BB cream has a lighter shade than the Wrinkle Talk BB cream. Both shades are called natural beige though. The Wrinkle Talk BB cream has a creamy texture and feels thicker upon application compared to the lighter Royal Ampoule BB cream. This makes the Royal Ampoule BB easier to blend into the skin.

Since the Royal Ampoule BB cream contains ampoule it tends to get more oily than the wrinkle talk BB cream. In general both have a medium oil control only. The pictures below were taken one hour after applying the BB cream on the blotting paper.

Below you can see how both BB creams look when applied on the face. The finish may be a bit hard to see, but the Hanskin Bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB cream has a more matte finish than the Royal Ampoule BB cream. On the other hand, because of the thicker consitency, the Wrinkle Talk BB cream is harder to apply and leaves streaks if you do not blend in properly. Both have medium coverage. I would say, that the Royal Ampoule BB cream is better suited for layering, because of its texture.

All in all, both the Hanskin Bio Origin BB creams are good BB creams. If I would have to decide which of these two I would repurchase I would decide for the Hanskin Bio Origin Royal Ampoule BB, since it didn’t look streaky and was better suited for my (dry) skintype. I also do like the idea of applying a BB cream with a dropper, but I can imagine that the fullsized bottle has the same problem like the deluxe size has. As soon as the product nears to get empty it is hard to use the dropper. The idea of using a BB cream combined with ampoule ingredients is great, and I love the idea, which is why I ordered the Innisfree Ampoule Intense Cushion recently (and I love using it!). In terms of wrinkle improvement like promised by the Hanskin bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB cream I didn’t notice any visible changes. If you want to try any of these items you can have a look at Koreadepart. I’ve personally never ordered with them, but I know a lot of people do. Both BB creams costs around 35 US$ in fullsize (Wrinkle Talk BB 40 ml, Royal Ampoule 35 ml).

Rating for Hanskin Bio Origin Wrinkle Talk BB

Rating for Hanskin Bio Origin Royal Ampoule BB

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asian cosmetics beauty review Wishtrend

Review: Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion

25. February 2015

You read it in the title, this product contains donkey milk, the key ingredient of Cleopatra’s beauty bath! Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion is supposed to be a nutritious moisturiser for all skintypes leaving the skin silky by balancing the moisture and oil on the skin. I’ve been curious to try a donkey milk product since forever- no I’m kidding, actually it was brought to me by the korean beauty industry who started to use this ingredient more often in the past months (?). When I saw that Pongdang has a whole skincare range containing donkey milk I took my chances and ordered the emulsion from Wishtrend.

Pongdang is a Korean brand by people’s. It has a small product range with simple products focussing on the ingredients as it seems to me. They have a webpage >>here<< but it is in Korean. The products have a clean design, which is what was most obvious for me for this brand. You can find their products on Wishtrend.

The Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion comes in a surprisingly cute cardboard box. From the images on Wishtrend of the bottle itself I didn’t expect the cardboard box being prettily designed with a donkey illustrated on it. Another surprise for a not internationally well-known brand is the description on the cardboard box which is detailled and not only in Korean, but in English, too, displaying also the ingredients. I checked out the ingredients before I ordered via COSDNA and tis product has a short and good ingredients list. It contains shea butter, various plant oils and donkey milk as main ingredients. Donkey milk is rich in Omega 6, Casein, Hyaluronic Acid, and Betaine which makes it beneficial for skin nourishment and hydration. you will also find all the details on Wishtrend >>here<<.

The emulsion itself comes in a plastic bottle with a simple design. Although the amount in the bottle is huge (it contains 200 ml) the material of the bottle is leightweight and doesnt add much to the weight, which is good.

The back side of the bottle contains some Korean description and some details, displaying again an illustration of a donkey. The expiration date is printed on the bottom of the bottle.

The opening is a simple dispensing hole. You have to squeeze the bottle in order to dispense the product. I think it would be more convenient for such a large volume to have a pump dispenser, like the Pongdang Donkey Milk All-In-One Cream has. There is also a toner from the Pongdang Donkey Milk line! The Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion has a milky consistency. It is not a creamy cream and rather light, but not runny like some other emulsions. It has a nice scent. I would describe it as sweet, milky scent. I know the scent reminds me of something, but I don’t know what exactly. I do like the scent- luckily, because lingers quite some time and is strong. The emulsion absorbs quickly and leaves the skin silky soft and is not sticky at all.

The Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion retails for 19.99 US$ at Wishtrend. This might sound expensive, but when looking at the size, which is 200 ml, I think that this lasts for a very long time. Most Korean emulsions have 120 ml volume and retail for 15 US$ or even more, depending on the brand. Looking at the volume and the ingredients and also the scent I absolutely love the Pongdang Donkey Milk Emulsion. The application could get easier with a pump bottle though. The only downside I have to remark for this product, or rather the product packaging, is the print on the bottle starts to flake off. The Korean letters for Pongdang on the front are halfway gone already…but this is only a downside of the packaging and not the product itself. I can recommend you to try this product. I can imagine that also people with oily skin might like this, because this emulsion is not heavy or super oily. It also works well with other creams on top since it absorbs fast. I made a post about the promotions from Wishtrend for February >>here<<. Also, keep in mind their friend-referral program: You can receive a 5 Us$ referral coupon if you use my invitation code 17939205 upon registration and you’ll receive this voucher immediately. There will be a specific field in your registration form called “friends invitation program” where you can put the code mentioned above. This way new customers can safe 5 US$ which is a great possibility to safe some money.

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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Innisfree Creammellow Lipsticks

24. February 2015

// KBEAUTY / MAKE UP / AFFILIATE LINKS //

I’m a little behind with this review since the Innisfree Creammellow Lipsticks were released last year in fall/autumn, nevertheless I would like to show you these, since these are my most used lipsticks at the moment. These lipsticks claim to be moisturizing and leave a glossy finish. For someone who doesn’t wear lipgloss often because of its stickiness, I was really curious about these lipsticks. Moreover, I really liked the previous Innisfree Color Glow Lipsticks, which I reviewed before (see >>here<< and >>here<<) and I will show you a quick comparison at the end of this review.

Innisfree is an eco-friendly Korean skincare and makeup brand focusing on natural ingredients and recycle packaging. The design of their products is simply and neat and nicely reflects the ideology of the brand. Innisfree products are ususally free from harmful ingredients. The Innisfree Creammellow Lipsticks are packed in a cardboard box out of recycled paper printet with soy ink. The description on the box is mainly in Korean. One side of the packaging states some facts about this lipstick in English, namely that it contains Camellia Oil, provides a smooth coating, great fitting and a pure glossy color.

The Innisfree Creammellow Lipsticks are available in 10 different shades from which I chose No. 8 “Glossy red” and No. 10 “Latte brown”. You might think I have too many red lipsticks already, but this one looked so great and glossy in the promotional pictures that I couldn’t resist. :D

The lipstick packaging is simply white whith a colored plastic part at the bottom, so you see which color you grab. I think the white Innisfree lipstick packaging is very elegant. The only downside is, that it gets easily dirty if you carry it around in your handbag.

The lipstick bullet is protected by a rosegold colored metal part. For the Color Glow Lipsticks this part was silver. I really like the rosegold color better than the silver one. It simply looks much more elegant and pretty.

You only need to push up the lipstick bullet for a few millimeters, this prevents the bullet from breaking, since the consistency of the lipstick is very soft and creamy. The colors of the two lipsticks are shown in the swatch below. I only used one stroke for the swatches and you can see that it already looks pretty glossy, but also the color is not too strongly pigmented.

Using more than one layer you can even achieve a very pigmented look as you can see below. Both lipsticks are very soft and creamy and easily to apply. They remind me of lipbalm and they don’t dry out your lips. No.8 is a georgeous red, which also can be applied as a light reddish tint-like tone, but I prefer the full coat. No. 10 is a very pretty, nude-ish shade which is almost like my normal lipcolor. So the term “My Lips In Better” might be best at describing this shade. These lipsticks don’t accentuate dry lips or flakes and are suited for people with dry lips. The lighter shades might be more unforgiveable, but so far I didn’t have any problems with these two shades.

As I said, I already loved the Innisfree Color Glow Lipsticks I reviewed in the past and also mentioned in my “Top 20 Asian Cosmetic Products 2014“. I will show you below a comparison of the swatches from those two lipstick lines. The Color Glow Lipsticks were already shiny, in my opinion, but seeing the Creammellow Lipsticks next to it, I can clearly see that these new lipsticks from Innisfree are far more glossy. Also the Color Glow Lipsticks felt more like lipsticks on the lips, wereas the Creammellow Lipsticks feel like a moisturizing lipbalm. The pigmentation of both lipsticks is great, but for the Creammellow you have to apply more than one layer to achieve the pigmentation shown in the promotional pictures. After rubbing the swatches I realized that the stain of the Creammellow Lipsticks is more visible than the Color Glow and I also experienced that the staying power was better while wearing them, especially for No.8.

All in all, I’m super happy about my new experience with Innisfree lipsticks and I totally recommend these to you, even for thoise who don’t like lipsticks :D. The color selection is nice and the feeling these lipsticks leave on your lips is great, too. I bought my Innisfree Creamellow Lipsticks from W2Beauty. They retail for 16.50 US$, but I think they are not available.

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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Laneige Water Bank Essence

21. February 2015

// KBEAUTY / SKINCARE / AFFILIATE LINKS //

This review was in my draft for quite a long time and it is only a short one, nevertheless I would like to share it with you, since I know that some might be interested in products from the Laneige Water Bank line. This review is about a deluxe sample from Laneige’s Water Bank Essence. I reviewed the Laneige Water Bank Eye Gel a while back and it is one of my favourite eye creams in terms of hydration so far.

Laneige is a Korean brand, part of the Amore Pacific Group. The brand name comes from the french word for snow which is “la neige”. The brand name reflects the beauty of young women between 24 and 32 years by focusing on water as source of life. Therefore the products design is more mature and clean, reflecting the image of moisture obtained through water. I’m only showing pictures of the sample sized product, but the full-sized Water Bank Essence comes in a blue glass bottle and looks exactly like that mature and clean product. The deluxe sample has a simple plastic packaging in light blue and doesn’t look anything special.

Although it is a sample product it comes in a pump dispenser like the full-sized product. The deluxe sample contains 15 ml in contrast to the 60 ml full-sized bottle. I’m always very happy about pump dispensers, since it makes the application always more easier and it is more hygienic, too. I needed two pumps from this essence each time I used it on my face. This essence can be used in the morning and in the evening after cleansing and before using your regular moisturizer and it is supposed to give your skin more and long-lasting hydration for the whole day.

The sample product doesn’t come with much description. The back side of the product contains some information in Korean, but other than this there are no more details here. You can find an English description on Laneige’s official US homepage >>here<<. Note, the essence is called serum here…I don’t know why. Also, if you buy this from Korean suppliers, there are two versions, the Water Bank Essence and the Water Bank Essence EX. The latter is the improved version of this essence and doesn’t contain alcohol as second ingredient, so I would recommend you to use the new version. The main ingredients for this moisturizing essence are Hydro Ion Mineral Water, Quinoa extract, Olive Squalane and Tilandsia Extract. You can find a list of both the Water Bank Essence and the Water Bank Essence EX ingredients >>here<<.

The Laneige Water Bank Essence is a milky, runny liquid, which can be spread easily and gives your skin a light moisturized feeling and a velvet-y finish. I really liked how the essence makes the skin feel on its own. If it absorbs it is not sticky. Moreover, it has the typical fresh and nice Laneige scent, which I liked for all the products I tried from this brand. If you have dry skin like I do I would not only rely on this essence for moisture, but also add some cream afterwards. All in all, this is a solid and nice essence and I would love to try the full-sized product in future. The downside is, that it is more expensive brand than regular drug store brands, but I say it is definitively worth a try. 60 ml retail for 46.01 US$ at W2Beauty for example. If you use my affiliate link or enter the code 088505 in the registration form you’ll receive a 5 US$ voucher, which can be used immediately for purchases over 30 US$. What is your favourite essence at the moment? Did you try any products from the Laneige Water Bank Line?

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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Etude House Missing U! Hand Cream Pink Dolphin

16. February 2015

Here is a quick review of the well-known Etude House Missing U! Hand Cream in Pink Dolphin. I received this item as part of a MeMeBox and I was very delighted to see this product at this time. In first place, the packaging was absolutely lovely and I wanted to try one of Etude House’s hand creams anyway.

Some words about Etude House to start with: Etude House is one of the best known Korean brands for cute packaging. If you are a lover of cute, girly and pink packaging, reminding you of being a child and the princess you always dreamt to be, THIS is your brand. Their packaging is usually so adoreable that you cannot keep yourself from impuls-buys – only because you saw the packaging…Also here, the packaging design looks lovely. The Etude House Missing U! Hand Creams are no regular tube hand creams, but they are packed in a container. There are four different types, each shaped like a specific animal. The hand cream I’m showing here is supposed to be a pink dolphin, although I thought it is a duck or something like this. The other animals available are a seal, a penguin and a panda. Each of them has another scent symbolized by a flower held by the animal. The Etude House Missing U! Pink Dolphin shows a rose shaped flower.

Apart from the container even the cardboard box is beautifully designed and displays an island and palms and ocean. The description is in Korean and English. The cardboard box is made from recycled paper and is printed with soy ink, too. The ingredients are mainly shea butter, herbal extracts and olive oil in order to provide moisture to your hands. The full ingredients list is also displayed on the cardboard box and you can have a look at it on Etude House Global site too. According to COSDNA the hand cream contains safe ingredients.

I really do like the container of the Etude House Missing U! Hand Cream, but I musst say that the volume of it, being only 30 ml is quite few compared to drugstore tube hand creams. The hand cream has a shelf life of 12 months after opening. On the bottom of the container you’ll find the production date of the cream.

Etude House Missing U! Hand Cream is a cream type hand cream. It has a light structure and feels watery upon application. The cream has a rose scent which is lovely.

Each of these Etude House Missing U! Hand Creams retail at 4.50 US$ on the official Etude House store. I personally think the price is quite expansive for a hand cream of this volume, but it is most likely a result of the cute container. Actually, after emptying this container you can still use it for either other creams or anything else you want…or just as decoration.

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