asian cosmetics | Berries in the Snow

Review: Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Cushy Blusher

14. March 2015

// KBEAUTY / MAKE UP / AFFILIATE LINKS //

I’m totally in love with the Too Cool For School Dinoplatz line and can you imagine how happy I was when I saw this Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Cushy Blusher in my MeMeBox Mystery Gift Box, which was my last order with them. Apparently, the main reason I’m so in love with this line is the product design. It is so unique and creative, showing dinosaurs in different situations. It is so funny to look and discover the hints on the packaging. This liquid blush is no exception!

Too Cool For School is a Korean brand, known for a unique packaging design. Their products are in the mid-pricey region and slightly more expansive than Etude House for example. The Dinoplatz line has a characteristic design showing dinosaurs in different scenaries. The colors of the packaging are white and a mint color. Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Cushy Blusher is a liquid blush, which comes in a tube with a cushion applicator. It is available in three different shades, being 01. Beach Break, 02. Surfs Up, and 03. Lava Martini. The last one is the shade I will show you today. Below you can see the georgeous packaging of the cardboard box:

It looks like a beach house and you can actually open the window and take a peak into the box, where you will discover a surfing dinosaur. On one side of the house the shade of the blush is written, on the other sides you will find some information on the product. The description in written in Korean and also the ingredients, which is why I cannot make any remarks about that. However, the key ingredients for the blush are damask rose oil, gamguk flower extract, and madonna lilly flower extract.

Inside the cardboard box you will find the tube of the blush and one additional cushion. Since this blush comes with a cushion applicator it may get dirty and unhygienic more easily as other blushers. Therefore the idea of putting an additional cushion ist great!

It is easy to take of the cushion and replace it, but not that easy that you might have to fear for it to get loose.

The backside of the tube contains some information on the product again, like the shade and the volume. The tube contains 20 ml, which is a lot! It has a shelf-time of 12 months after opening. The production date is imprinted on the tube, too, but was written at the bottom of the cardboard box aswell (I didn’t take a picture of it).

When pressing the tube for the first time you will see how the cushion absorbs the blush. When pressing the cushion a couple of times on your skin it will be soaked completelly and it is ready for application. The shade Lava Martini is the darkest shade of the three available ones. It looks like a rose/pink color in the advertorial pictures. On my swatch below you can see that the applied color is much lighter. It looks very natural on the cheeks. The blush has a moist consitency and feels moist while applying, too. In contrast to my TCFS School Art Class Blusher, which dried off powdery, this one has more a shiny/creamy finish (The review is quite old, and the images are blurry after I uploaded my blogspot blog to wordpress, are you interested in a new review or comparison for this?). The application for this blush is a bit tricky, at least that is my impression: since the color is very light I encountered that it can also be easily blended away by the cushion if you tap if several times. You have to find the perfect pressure on the tube and amount of dabbings for yourself to create the desired pigmentation. Once this is settles, the blush looks very natural and since it feels so moist and has a nice finish it seems a nice blush for summer. About the longlivity of this blush: since it is very sheer I didn’t have the feeling that it was lasting all day. The swatch on the back of my hand was rubbed away easily, too, so don’t expect to much lasting power here. The blush has a soft floral scent to it.

This TCFS Dinoplatz Cushy Blusher has pros and cons, but in general it delivers a natural finish and feels moist and nice. People with dry cheeks will like this blush therefore. Also, the idea of having a cushion blusher is nice and makes this a good friend for travelling. The product retails for 20.83 US$ at W2Beauty or at testerkorea for 9800 Won (~10 US$)…I don’t know why the price difference is so high this time…

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

16 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint

12. March 2015

// KBEAUTY / MAKEUP / AFFILIATE LINKS //

This product has probably been reviewed dozends of times in the blogger comunity, nevertheless I would love to share my opinion about it with you. The Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint is most likely one of the best known and still best selling products from Etude House. Koreans love their lip tints and if you like tint you’ll find so many different ones. And although I love tints, too, I did not purchase too many yet, simply because this is the only lip product I actually seem to use up after a while :D By the way, is anybody interested in a lip product collective post? :D

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. As the name says, the packaging is covered with cherries all over. The design of the cardboard box is kind of pinup- vintage style and really lovely. There are four different shades for this tint and each of them has packaging colors fitting to the color of the product. The Etude House Fresh Cherry tint I bought is in shade RD301, Cherry Red.

Apart from the cute cardboard box packaging the liptint itself comes in a cute bottle, too. The description on the cardboard box is in Korean and in English. The lip tint is supposed to offer moisture and shiny lips. It is a cream/milk type tint, in contrast to watertype tints like Benetint, for example. You can find the ingredients of the lip tint on Etude House Official. According to COSDNA there are no harmful ingredients.

The bottom of the bottle and the top of the cardboard box reveal the shade of the lip tint. On the bottom of the bottle you’ll find the production date printed, too! When the Etude House Official Online store opened a lot of customers were confused with that, because they thought it is the expiration date.

The cap of the bottle comes with the applicator brush. The tint itself is creamy and feels moisturizing. It gives the lips a nice glossy and plumping effect. The Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint smells and tastes fruity and I love that point. colorwise it is less cherry red but more cherry pink toned. I had some samples of this tint before, so I knew about the color.

The tint looks pretty on the lips. As you can see in the pictures below the color of the tint is more visible in the center of my lips. I encountered this with many tint products. Nevertheless, it gives your lips a nice pop of color and the stain is lasting some time, too. As usual, it won’t stay as you apllied it after eating/drinking, but a hint of color will remain.

This tint has several advantages: it is cheap, it gives a nice pop of color to your lips, it smells and tastes delicious! Moreover, I didn’t feel that the lip tint is drying on my lips. The downside may be that it tends to gather up in the inside of the lips, so some won’t like the way the lip tint applies. If you love lip tints you need one of these in your collection! I bought mine from Etude House official online store. It retails for 6 US$ there, but shipping is high and I would recommend you to wait for some free shipping event and make a larger purchse. You can also get this from W2Beauty for 4.50 US$ or from testerkorea for 4300 Won (~4.50 US$).

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

12 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick

11. March 2015

// KBEAUTY / SKINCARE / AFFILIATE LINKS //

Now, this is really a long time in my draft! I bought the popular Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick before it was sold out the first time. Since it was sold out I decided to postpone the review until it is back in stock :D The product is now back in stock, but it took me months to finally finish this review :D. Most of you will have probably heard about this cleansing stick and I guess a lot have been intrigued to try it. So did I and here is my impression:

This is the first product I’m trying from the high end brand Sum 37. This Korean brand focusses on products with natural fermentation ingredients which are on top artificial scent free, artificial color free and compose preservatives free. The brand is part of LG Household and Healthcare. The name is derived from the Korean word for “breathe” and by using good ingredients the motto of Sum 37 is to make the ‘skin breath happily’. The design of the products is mature and luxurious looking, which fits with their pricetag. The Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick is a facial cleansing product containing fermented rose flower extracts. It not only helps you to clean your skin, but in the same time makes a good facial massaging product.

The Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick comes in a cardboard box. The paper feels already luxurious and sturdy, with a matte finish. The name of the product and the description is made with golden color. since these parts are reflective it was a bit hard to take a picture. The box I show you was sold during Christmas-time, which is why you have the snowflakes printed on the packaging. The description is written mostly in Korean, with some pictures displaying how to use the stick. It contains a short description in English on one of the sides.

The pretty cardboardbox reveals a pale pink stick of sturdy plastic. It has the logo printed on it in golden letters. On the backside of the stick you’ll find some Korean description again. The top of the stick is a simple cap and the bottom can be rotated in order to push the stick out, similar to a lipstick or lipbalm.

The bottom also has the expiration date printed on it. The stick itself has a size which fits good into the hand. The volume of the product is 80 g.

The cleansing stick is a cleanser in a solid form. It contains coconut oil as one of the main ingredients, which makes the product solid at room temperature. As soon as the stick gets into contact with warmer temperatures, like our skin, it melts. The second key ingredient for the Sum37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick is the fermented damask rose extract. You will even find rose petals inside the cleansing balm (similar to the Rosemine Floral Remedy Cleansing Foam, only that this one is a foam cleanser). Apart from these two key ingredients all the ingredients listed for this product are safe according to COSDNA. It contains also a couple of other plant oils and extracts, so if you have any reactions with specific plant extract you might want to check out the ingredients list first.

When using the Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick you first have to wet you face, then you push up the stick by turning the bottom. You do not need to push it out fully, 1 cm is enough, I even need less. Then you massage the stick over your skin. Afterwards you can soak and lather the product on your skin. It won’t create a lot of foam like most of the foam cleansers do, but it will clean away most of your makeup. In the picture below you see that it cleans off all the makeup and simply a light trace of the orange pencil liner remains. Since most people use some kind of makeup remover for eyes and lips before cleansing, it is of less importance. But even if you do not use any makeup remover before, you’ll be able to take of most of your makeup efficiently with this cleansing stick. The scent of the product is nice and of course you can smell the roses! The pH of the product lies between 5-6, so it is a weak acid and your natural skin barrier is protected while cleansing.

What do I like about the Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick? First of all, it is super travel friendly, since it is a cleanser in a solid form. Then, I love roses and rose scent, but I know that some people don’t like the scent or have sensitive skin that has problems with rose extracts. Another plus is the ingredient list and the point that it contains fermented ingredients and has the perfect pH for the skin. You really have this spa experience while using this cleanser, first giving yourself a facial massage and then cleaning it thoroughly. It does not only have the label of a high end brand but it also feels like one. The pricetag for the Sum 37 Miraacle Rose Cleansing Stick is high and that is the major disadvantage. This is also the reason I can not make myself to use it everyday, but rather use it occasionally. Another small downside is, that some product melts to the sides of the stick, so if you would simply put on the cap after using you would have a lot of cleansing balm messed around in the cap. I take the excess melted balm with my finger and use it on my face, or reduce the amount of product I push up from the beginning. Would I recommend you to buy it? Yes, even for the pricetag it is worth at least to try it once. I don’t know if I will be able to repurchase it ever again, but I love my cleansing/spa experience with the Sum 37 Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick and I would love to try other products from this brand. This one retails for 36.50 US$ at W2Beauty.

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

16 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review Wishtrend

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! ♥

6 Comments

advertorial other Wishtrend

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.

10 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

2 Comments

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.

14 Comments

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.

22 Comments

Older Posts

Newer Posts