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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Etude House Play Color Nails

26. April 2014

// KBEAUTY / NAILS / AFFILIATe LINKS //

It’s been a while since Etude House released their Play Nail Polishes. They introduced so many different colors and styles, that is was quite difficult to decide which ones to pick. I chose two nail polishes at that time, them I received two other ones in a giveaway, so I decided to make a collective post for all four nail polishes at once.

The shades I’ll show you today are No. 55, 118, 132 and 52 from left to right. Each of them represent a different type/style of nail polish.
On the label of the cap you’ll find the numbers and a letter code. The letter code represents the type of nail polish, meaning M for matte, P for paint, SG for Syrup and Glitter and PS for Paint and Syrup. (That’s at least what I could conclude. Feel free to comment if it is not correct :D).
The design of the tiny bottles is cute and they have a perfect shape to be stored and collected. They beautified the bottles with a lace art ribbon on the upper rim. I personally loved the old shape of the nail polish bottles from Etude House more :D They were more princess-y *_*…
All in all the quality is quite descent for the price. But you need two layers of polish to receive a nice coverage. Another downside is, that they need quite a time to dry, especially if you use two coats of polish. Other than these points, these nail polishes are really nice. Etude House offers us a huge variance of different colors and styles and probably you’ll find every thing you’ll need. Unfortunately, the matte nail polishes were limited, but I hope that they will return for autumn :D…
No. 55
No. 118
No. 131
No. 52 
Which one is your favourite? Did you try any of Etude House’s Play nail polishes?
 
You can get these nail polishes almost in every online store which is selling Etude House products, for example:
 
Twofacemall for US$ 5.13 ( free shipping option) – They are currently on sale, normally they cost 18.28 US$
 
W2Beauty from US$ 4.64 onwards (free shipping option. You’ll get a 5$ voucher upon registration with this link, which is usable for orders of minimum 30$)
 
Testerkorea from 2000 Won onwards (around 2 US$) (shipping depends on weight)
 
Also check out ebay!
 
 
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asian cosmetics beauty review Wishtrend

Review: O’SUM Aloe Vera Soothing Mist

24. April 2014
Slowly the temperatures are getting warmer here in Germany and I’m really looking forward for summer these days. I also discovered that my skin is not as super dry as it is during cold winters anymore, but it slowly regenerates to be dry to normal skin. Time to get a little change in my skincare routine. First of all, I love using products containing Aloe Vera during the warmer seasons. I was overly happy when I received my first MeMeBox (review >>here<<) which contained O’SUM’s Aloe Vera Soothing Mist and it is now part of my skincare routine.
O'SUM Aloe Vera Soothing Mist

This is the first product I tried from O’SUM, an “organic skin care line based in the Jeju Islands” as it is written on the product. This travel friendly Aloe Vera Soothing mist comes in a green colored see-through plastic bottle with a spraying nozzle. The packaging is plain and sticks to a green color scheme, which fits to the image of being a natural/organic product. Other than that the design is simply clean and doesn’t have anything special about it (I personally do not mind a simple design, as long as it does not look cheap, and this is definitively not the case).
O'SUM Aloe Vera Soothing Mist
The fact that it is a mist makes it easy to apply. Furthermore the mist is super fine (a lot finer than the mist by Recipe by Nature Spray Essence >>review here<<). It has a cooling and thus refreshing feeling while applying. And it absorbs quickly into the skin without being sticky. The scent is typical for Aloe Vera products, but not too intense either. The ingredients list is short and the only potential irritant is Benzyl alcohol. My skin didn’t get any irritated since I’m using it. Here are the ingredients:
Water, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Inositol, Propanediol, Scutellaria Baicalensis Root Extract, Decyl Glucoside, Limonene, Dehydroacetic Acid, Benzyl Alcohol, Hydrolyzed Jojoba Esters, Sodium Benzoate, Potassium Sorbate
O'SUM Aloe Vera Soothing Mist
The description of the packaging is mainly in Korean. The front side has a brief English description though, which is better than nothing.
I integrated it into my beauty routine as a replacement for a toner and it works out nicely. You can also use it for refreshing yourself during the day and it is also usable on makeup and works as makeup fixer, too. Honestly speaking, I have nothing negative to say, except of, that you have to order in online in most countries. But don’t fear if you missed the MeMeBox and are longing to try this: You can also get it from Wishtrend. If you use my invitation cod17939205 upon registration or use my invitation link >>here<< you’ll receive a 5 US$ voucher immediately. The O’SUM Aloe Vera Soothing Mist costs 17.50 US$ on Wishtrend and contains 80 ml, which really go a long way. And you’ll find a more detailled product description etc. on their web page.
 

 

beauty empties

Graveyard: January to March 2014

24. April 2014
As you can see I’m a bit late for this post, but I thought I’ll put it up anyway, since I already edited the image for it :) Here are my empties for January, Febuary and March…(I also used a bunch of samples and sheet masks which I didn’t keep).

1. TheBodyShop Strawberry Body Polish- Repurchase?Yes!
I love this showering gel with the tiny strawberry particles. It smells divine and it foams up nicely too. Plus, you have these strawberry grains for a soft peeling effect. This is the second time I bought it and there will be a time when I will repurchase this again.
 
2. Nivea Supreme Touch Cream Shower- Repurchase? Maybe.
I love the scent of Nivea products. This one is no exception. Other than this it is a regular showering product. I like it, I would rebuy it, but I prefer testing other shower creams/gels.
3. Lush Dream Cream Hand and Body Lotion- Repurchase? Yes!
I was in love with the scent while using it and I really liked the feeling it left behind on my skin. I think I used this jar within a week and I would definitively rebuy it (but it is quite expensive compared to other body lotions…;_;).
4. Skin79 Super BB and Super Gold BB creams – Repurchase? Maybe.
These are both nice BB creams and if I would not have so many other BB creams and if the market would not keep up making new versions, I would rebuy those because they do a quite nice job- not perfect, but nice. I reviewed these in the past (>>here<<).
5. The Face Shop Mango Seed Line – Repurchase? Yes!
I really loved using these products from the MangoSeed line. If you are interested read my review >>here<<. I want to repurchase these for winter, when my skin is in need of a lot of moisture.
6. Great Length Daily Moisture Shampoo – Repurchase? No.
This Shampoo did not overwhelm me. It was not even giving me the feeling of having more moisturized hair, so I wouldn’t repurchase it.
7. Laneige Water Sleeping Pack – Repurchase? Yes.
I loved the scent, I loved the effect and there is nothing more to say. See my old review on it >>here<<.
8. Missha M Perfect Cover BB cream – Repurchase? Yes.
This is my last hoarded tube of Missha’s Perfect cover BB ;_;. I love this cream, it works super well with me, it did improve my skin so much during the first year I used it. I would always repurchase this BB cream…but I have o get rid of all the other BB creams I hoarded first ;_;  See my old review >>here<<.
Did you try any of these?
I’ll try to do the next empty post earlier than after 3 months :D Hope I can keep up to my words now :D
 
 

 

beauty beauty boxes

Unboxing: Get it Beauty Box by MeMeBox No. 8

23. April 2014
Here is the second Get it Beauty Box I ordered from MeMeBox. This time it is box No. 8. :)

What is MeMeBox? It is a monthly beauty box for mostly Korean makeup and skincare products. Unlike most beauty boxes it is not a monthly subscription box, instead you can order all boxes which are available and you want to order. They sell out quite fast, especially since they gained a lot of popularity in the blogger community. They stopped shipping internationally for some weeks, but know they are shipping to a lot of countries again, including Germany, which made me really happy :)
And here you can see what I received in my MeMeBox:
Flower Men Energy Factory Moist Boosting Sheet Mask- Hyaloronic Acid (25 g / US$ 4) – box contained fullsize product
This funny sheet mask comes in a fun packaging showing PSY’s face. You can use this as a real mask, too…for example if you want to give your friend’s a heart attack jumping out of nowhere while wearing this mask. I already tried it and it is a nicely moisturizing mask. Nothing exceptional, but nice if you love using sheet masks.
Hairich Vedacell Hair Program Shampoo (340 ml / US$ 23) – box contained product with 100 ml
This shampoo is free from sulfates, silicon and synthetic dyes and made with natural preservatives. I didn’t try this one yet, but I’m looking forward to do so, because I love testing new shampoos.
Tonymoly BCDation SPF 30 PA++ – Pink Beige (50 g / US$ 27) – box contained a 7 ml tube and a 1 ml pouch sample
I was really happy about this, because I saw it the other day online and I wanted to try it. This is a BB+CC foundation and could be thus a time saver for those using both CC creams and BB creams. I tried it already and a review will follow.
Heart Face Ultra Pore Care Sleeping Pack (100 ml / US$49) – box contained 20 ml jar
this Sleeping cream is supposed to moisturize your skin, minimize pores and control sebum production. I used it once and although I thought that it might be drying because of the pore care effect my skin felt smooth the next day. I will continue using it and write a detailed review on this.
 
Secret Key Snow White Cream (50 g / US$ 21) – box contained fullsize product
I wanted to try this cream for a year now and here it is. I’m so happy about it. this is a brightening cream, which is free from mineral oils, benzophenones, phenoxyethanbol and artificial pigments. It contains Niacinamide. I used it daily since I received it and I like it. There will be a review soon, too.
MAX Clinic Caviar Massage Oil Form Cleanser (110 g / US$ 73) – box contained fullsize product
So, just by chance my foam cleanser was empty and this one arrived to replace it. It is already integrated in my nightly routine. It is made from caviar oil and is supposed to clean your face from make-up and dirt.

I’m happy with this box. I use both the fullsize product daily and I’ve used the other products as well (except of the shampoo) and I’m absolutely happy. I ordered some more boxes and I cannot wait for them to arrive.

These regular boxes cost US$ 23 and US$ 6.99 for standard shipping but they offer a lot of different other boxes recently, so I would recommend you to definitively check out their web page: www.memebox.com/

What do you think about the box? Any product you like most?






 
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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Wish Formula Panda Eye Essence Mask

18. April 2014
I love using eye masks, when I feel my eyes are tired and I recognise puffiness around my eye area. The cooling sensation directly makes me feel relieved. Since there are a lot of those eye masks, I’m currently trying several different ones. That is how I stumbled upon Wish Formula Panda Eye Essence Mask from Wishtrend.

This eye mask comes in a black sachet with a cute panda bear on it smiling at you :D. The ingredients are written on the front directly, and in English, too. Each sachet contains two eye masks, one for each eye.
Here are the ingredients of the eye mask:
water, ascorbic acid, saccharomyces, Viscum Album (Mistletoe) Ferment extract, butylene glycol, saccharomyces/Imperata cylindrica Root ferment extract, sodium lactate, lactobacillus/soybean ferment extract, black strap powder, arbutin, 1,2-Hexanediol, bacillus ferment, centella asiatica extract, aspergillus/Saccharomyces/Glycyrrhiza uralensis root extract ferment filtrate, PEG-60 hydrogenated castor oil, xanthan gum, arginine, tocopherylacetate, backhousia citriodora leaf oil, adenosine, honey, phenoxyethanol
The ingredients are really nice and no harmful ingredients are contained. Yeast fermented extracts are one of the main ingredients. Also, it contains Vitamin C and vitamin E. You can check the ingredients on COSDNA >>here<<. On the back side of the sachet the instructions are written on Korean only, but the image of how to wear the eye mask are sufficient enough for using the mask.
This eye mask is supposed to hydrate the skin around your eyes and provide nourishment with different extract in order to prevent the skin from aging effects. As soon as you open the package you should use it right away, so that the vitamin C does not oxidise. The color of the essence is yellow. The eye mask sheets are not separated by an additional plastic foil but stick together. The sachet also contains a quite amount of leftover essence. I used the leftover essence by its own the days after using the mask itself.
The eye mask delivers a proper amount of moisture for the skin around the eye area. Also, it gives you a cooling sensation, especially if you keep it in the refrigerator before. After using it my eyes look less tired and puffy. Since the ingredients are really nice and the effects of both vitamin C and yeast fermented extract are known, I’m sure, that these eye masks will show some kind of longterm effect (see my review on OST Vitamin C serum if you are interested >>here<<). I really want to try more of these eye masks. You can get these masks from Wishtrend for 2.99 US$ each or in a box with 10 sachets for 18.99 US$. If you are not yet registered on Wishtrend you can use the promo code 17939205 or my invite link to receive a 5 US$ coupon before making your first purchase.

 

 
As you can see I’ve changed my rating system. I’m using a scale of 10 points for the categories design, application, ingredients, hygiene, effect and price. The average points build total rating. Hope you like this way better than it was before :)
 
 
 

 

asian cosmetics beauty Born Pretty Store PR Sample review

Review: Lace Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker ♥sponsored♥

16. April 2014
Here are the second  Nail Art Water Decal Transfer Sticker I’ve received from BornPretty. This time I’ll show you some lace pattern water decals. If you are interested in my previous post on the lotus flower decals click >>here<<.


Each set of the water decals comes with 20 stickers. This time the stickers are not as large as a typical nail would be, but smaller. If you have normal/short nails, You’ll only need one sticker per nail. If you have longer nails I think that you can use two of the lace stickers on each nail. But you’ll have to try it by yourself. I only used one sticker per nail.

I used a pink colored nail polish as base polish. This time the sticker were much less transparent than the lotus flower sticker I tried last time.
The application of the stickers was similar easy as the water decals I described before. You have to soak them in water first, then adjust them on your nail, remove the excess water, wait until it is dry, add clear nail polish on top, wait until it is dry, remove excess water decal by simply peeling it off. Again, the instruction on the back of the package says, that you should blow dry the water decals water application and also blow dry the top coat. I didn’t do this…actually, I only dried the nails after the application of the stickers with help of a tissue and continued with the top coat directly. The sticker itself lasts pretty long. This time the longwearability is dependent from the nail polish, because the sticker doesn’t cover all the nail, but only parts of it.
It is super cheap and there are so many different motifs to choose from. One sheet of the flower nail art water decals costs US$ 2.86. You can get it from BornPrettyStore (>>here<<  for the direct link) and they offer free international shipping! Now, the best part  is this: You can use the coupon code KBX31 for an extra 10 % discount!

 

I think these water decals are worth a try, they are cheap, long lasting and they have a lot of different styles available at BornPrettyStore. I will definitively check out some more.
 
Rating:
Just as a short reminder: All products mentioned and reviewed on this blog are of my personal opinions. This product here was sent to me for reviewing purpose by http://www.bornprettystore.com/, which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.
 
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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Too Cool For School McGirly Good Morning Rice Wash

9. April 2014
It really took me long to write up a review on Too Cool For School’s McGirly Good Morning Rice Wash. First of all, it took me ages to start using it after I bought it. Then I finally did use it, took some pictures, but since then it remained unnoticed in my folder with the unreviewed photos.

The Too Cool For School McGirly Good Morning Rice Wash came in three sachets, each of them containing 2 g of the rice wash powder. I don’t know if it is available in larger quantities than three. For using it you have to pour the powder into a bowl with clean, lukewarm water. Mix it a bit until it is dissolved and the water will turn milky. This does sound a bit complicated for an application in the morning and this was also the reason why it took me so long to review it :D
Honestly speaking, I was a bit underwhelmed by this powder wash. It is not a real cleanser, and I would not recommend to try to clean makeup with it. I think this is nice for people with sensitive skin. If you have cleaned your face in the evening thoroughly, you could go for this face wash in the morning. It is mild, smells nice and feels refreshing. But other than that it does not really work for me. It is too complicated to use in the morning. Also, I don’t think that this will brighten up your skin tone anyway. On the other hand, if you are a person having a lot of time in the morning you might enjoy this step and look at it as a kind of pre-toning your skin.
You can buy 3 sachets at testerkorea.com for 1500 Won (around 1.5 US$). It is not that expensive if you wanna give it a try. The shipping costs depend on weight.
Rating:
 
 
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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Holika Holika Love Fantasy Blush No.01

2. April 2014

// KBEAUTY / MAKE UP / AFFILIATe LINK //

I didn’t review any blushes for quite a while. Time to change this again :D Here is my review for Holika Holika Love Fantasy Blush No.01. This bush is available in 5 shades in total. By the way, I’m sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I’m working on my thesis at the moment. I’ll be done in about a week, so stay with me, I have some really nice upcoming reviews (^_^).

Somehow, I rarely buy any cosmetics from Holika Holika. Although they have quite a couple of things I would love to buy. This blush comes in a small metal jar. First of all, the packaging is beautiful and super girly. The tiny jar is so cute, you have to fall in love with it, when you are a fan of pink and ornamented items XD.

The jar is sealed with a sticker with the color of the blush written on it. This one is a pink blush.
When you open it, you’ll discover that a cute puff with an attached bow is included inside the blush.

The puff is super soft and feels smooth on the skin. The actual blush is separated by a clear plastic foil from the puff.

As you can see, the blush has a nice ornament imprinted on it. It consists of three colors. All of them are different pink shades.

Below you can see a swatch on my arm. As you can see it is not pigmented. I applied it with the included puff and with a brush, but there is not much difference. the color stays very subtle.

Apart from the lack of pigmentation (which could be a pro for those who want a soft blush effect), another downside for me is the metal jar. The lid doesn’t close properly anymore after the sealing sticker was removed. Normally I would say that it has the perfect size for travelling, but in this case, since the lid keeps opening, I wouldn’t dare to put it inside my bag…
You can get these blushes from Holika Holika here:
 
W2Beauty for US$ 15.39 (free shipping option. You’ll get a 5$ voucher upon registration with this link, which is usable for orders of minimum 30$)
 
 
Rating:
 
 
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asian cosmetics beauty Born Pretty Store PR Sample review

Review: Flower Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker ♥sponsored♥

27. March 2014
I didn’t post any nail art or manicure at all for quite a while. Somehow I stuck with unspectacular red nails for the last weeks, because I was too lazy for experiments. But today I’ll have something new and special- at least for me: Nail Art Water Decal Transfer Sticker! I’ve wanted to try water decals for quite some time, but I simply couldn’t decide what to buy, but the flower water decals were on my list at the top. So here is my impression on BornPretty’s flower nail art water decals:


Each set of water decals comes with 10 stickers in different sizes, so they will match you fingers. I would say they fit a regular sized finger nail, at least for women…I don’t think that the sizes would fit my boyfriends nails XD.

I chose a set with lotus flowers on it. Originally, I imagined it to look really pretty together with red nail polish (yes, I know, it seems my mind does trail around this color only XD). But, as soon as I tried the first water decal on my red painted nails I discovered that the print of the sticker is somehow transparent and the colors became too dark on top of the red nail polish. I quickly removed all the nail polish and painted my nails again, this time I chose a nude shade and it worked out perfectly.
The application of the stickers was easy, too. You have to soak them in water first, then adjust them on your nail, remove the excess water, wait until it is dry, add clear nail polish on top, wait until it is dry, remove excess water decal by simply peeling it off. First I thought that you would have to rasp away the unwanted water decals, but as soon as you put the clear nail polish on top of the water decal the uncoated water decal can be easily peeled off. Also, the instruction on the back of the package says, that you should blow dry the water decals water application and also blow dry the top coat. I didn’t do this…actually, I only dried the nails after the application of the stickers with help of a tissue and continued with the top coat directly. And it worked super well...I’ve also to say, that it lasts super long. I washed my hands, took showers, opened packages, all those things making your nail polish chip off, but this one lasts…after four days I still don’t have a single nail with chipped off nail polish (normally it takes one day for me!!!). I’m pretty amazed.
It is super cheap and there are so many different motifs to choose from. One sheet of the flower nail art water decals costs US$ 1.99. You can get it from BornPrettyStore (>>here<<  for the direct link) and they offer free international shipping! Now, the best part  is this: You can use the coupon code KBX31 for an extra 10 % discount!

 

I think these water decals are worth a try, they are cheap, long lasting and they have a lot of different styles available at BornPrettyStore. I will definitively check out some more.
 
Rating:
Just as a short reminder: All products mentioned and reviewed on this blog are of my personal opinions. This product here was sent to me for reviewing purpose by http://www.bornprettystore.com/, which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.
 
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asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water

25. March 2014
This product was featured in my MeMeBox No. 6, which I showed previously (click >>here<<). It is a Spray Water Essence from the brand Recipe by Nature. You don’t find a lot of information about this brand on the Internet and honestly I only could find the products sold on MeMeBox shop (English) and on the brands homepage www.recipecosmetics.com, which is in Korean only. Nevertheless, this was the first product out of the box that I tried because I really love the packaging design.
Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water
As you can see the packaging design is very clean. The card box has a sketch of the spray bottle on it and the colors are yellow and white. The box only comes with Korean description unfortunately, except on the front part (click the image below to enlarge if you can read Korean and are interested) .
Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water
On the homepage of Recipe by Nature I gave Google translate a try in order to translate the ingredients at least:
 
Water, Macadamia Seed Oil, PEG / PEG -17 / 6 copolymer, jojoba seed oil, meadowfoam seed oil, big sassi oil, bergamot fruit oil, olive oil, lemon peel oil, wanggyul peel oil, orange peel oil, Atlas Cedar bark oil, lavender oil, Scented geranium flower oil, lavender water, rosemary ipsu, kkotsu chamomile, peppermint leaves, flower oil, evening primrose oil, lime oil, basil oil, barley jissi oil, Brazil nut seed oil, sweet almond oil, orange oil, ylang ylang flower oil, sunflower seed oil, Laban Dean oil, horse chestnut extract, fennel fruit octagonal / seed oil, jasmine oil, rose flower oil, wormwood extract, galvanic num resin oil, Western cheukbaek leaf extract, argan tree kernel oil, orange flower oil, balsam peru oil, glycerin (palm extraction), castor oil, PEG-60 Hydro Painted jeniyi, Butylene Glycol, rengeul pentyl glycol, squalane, arginine, by Osaka Ride sword -1, glyceryl rilka Frill rate, tocopheryl acetate, resins, balsams kopayi bar, Carbomer, ethanol, phenoxyethanol, benzyl alcohol, acetic acid dehydro
It is a water spray containing additionally to water a bunch of different natural oils as you can see in the ingredient list. It is 8-free, which means that it doesn’t contain 8 unwanted ingredients like mineral oil, synthetic fragrances synthetic dye, triethanolamine or parabens. The front of the packaging also says, that it has a water phase of 91.6 %, containing celtic water and glacial water and 4 % natural origin skin conditioning agents. The other percentages must be from the PEGs and alcohol derivates. It contains all in all 6 kinds of Charabot’s natural essential oils and 12 kinds of natural ingredients (Charabot is a company providing essential oils for the perfumes) . If you go to the product page >>here<< you will find some illustrations on the ingredients. Since it also contains oil you need to shake it before use, you’ll see how the two layers will separate and form tiny droplets within the bottle.
Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water
The actual spray bottle looks like the sketch on the packaging.
Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water
The bottle is made of sturdy see-through plastic, so you can say how much is left in the bottle. The cap is transparent and protects the spraying nozzle. When you use it it provides your face/skin with a pleasant drizzle. The spaying plus the light citrus/herbal scent  makes it feel very refreshing while using. I used this as a toner as first step of my routine and it goes well with other products. It doesn’t make the skin look greasy at all and it is nicely moisturizing.
Recipe by Nature Spray Essence Water
All in all, this is a nice toner and mist. I will surely be sad when I used this up, especially since MeMeBox stops shipping internationally at the end of this month. also, I’d love to try other products from this brand, but I couldn’t find any other shop selling these.
You can buy the 140 ml bottle at www.memebox.com for US$ 9.00 (additional shipping costs will occur).
Rating:
 
 
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