KollectionK | Berries in the Snow

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Innisfree Skinny & Jumbo Dualcara

23. January 2015

// KBEAUTY / MAKE UP / AFFILIATE LINKS //

It is not too long ago that I reviewed the Innisfree Soy Essence Volume Mascara, but I couldn’t resist to try the Innisfree Skinny & Jumbo Dualcara. I loved the idea of having a two sided wand applicator with one small and one thicker brush.

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, but for this mascara I couln’t find any ingredientslist. This dual wand mascara (or dualcara) comes with two different wands and makes it easier to design your lashes this way. The packaging is black and white mostly, with some stripes around. It is simple, but yet doen’t look cheap.

It has some short description written on it in Korean and it also has the production date printed on one side.

I had another dualcara in the past which had one side a white/transparant mascara to volumize and another black side for the color. That mascara had both containers in the middle part and the brushes on each ends. Other than that mascara the Innisfree Skinny & Jumbo Dualcara has the two containers on each ends and the brushes in the middle. The container for the skinny mascara contains 5 g of product, whereas the container for the jumbo mascara contains 7 g. The skinny brush has a diameter of 2.5 mm. This brush makes it easy to reach all your lashes, even the tiny lower lashes in the corner of your eyes. You can also use the skinny brush on your upper lashes to give them a perfect curl and define them nicely. The jumbo brush is thick and has a S-curved shape. The tip of this brush is formed like a ball. This brush gives the volume to your lashes and also curls them.

The formula of this mascara is film-typed. It doesn’t smudge and holds the curl all day. Below you’ll see how my lashes look like without and with mascara. You can see that even the small lower lashes look more obvious using this mascara. My upper lashes appear more curled and thicker, too.

I’m using this mascara almost daily now, because I love the two brushes. It makes reaching the lower lashes so much easier! I can recommend this mascara to you. There are other mascara by Innisfree called Skinny Longlongcara and Skinny Microcara and I saw Pony using one of them often in her tutorials. If you cannot decide wether you’ll like such a skinny brush you could also try out this one. this way you still have the ususal thicker brush in case you do not like the skinny wand. I received mine from KollectionK and it retails 18.23 US$. It is also available for 19.36 US$ at W2Bauty.

What is your favourite mascara?

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Etude House Sweet Idea Bunny Nails

5. December 2014

A while ago Etude House released an adorable nail polish line called Etude House Sweet Idea Bunny Nails. There was a “Sweet Idea” competition called out by Etude House and the fans could participate and send in their suggestions. One of them was selected and realized. I really think this is a great idea to involve the fans of Etude House by such competitions, and I have to say that this line truly is a cute gift idea– or maybe also a treat for yourself….:)

First of all, some words about Etude House: 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 Sweet Idea Bunny Nails set consists of two nail polish bottles, each designed like one half of a rabbits face. Together they form the complete rabbit. There are 5 different sets available, each rabbit face has another facial expression though:

No. 01 Dalmatian Bunny : Black Bunny Glitter + White French
No. 02 Analog Bunny : White Bunny Glitter + Black French
No. 03 Pink Milky way Bunny : Lavender Pink + Silver Spangle French
No. 04 Red Carrot Bunny : Cherry Red + Shimmering Gold French
No. 05 Mint Gold Moon Bunny : Retro Mint + Jewel Gold Pearl Powder

I selected No. 04, because I think the red and gold combination is best suited for the upcoming festative season :)

As you can see, the packaging design is really pretty and everybody loving these cute packaging designs will fall in love with it. Each of the two nail polish bottles contains 4 ml of product. The backside of the cardboard box contains description in Korean and in English, but you can also find these information on the official global webpage of Etude House. You will also find the ingredients there :)

Even removed from the cardboard box the bottles look adorable ♥

The two nail polish bottles come with two different brushes: The red polish has a normal polish brush. The golden polish has a thin brush and you can draw easily dots or lines with it. I really like this idea. I used the nail polish in the picture below and I applied one layer of the red nail polish. As you can see the color is opaque. It also dries in a good time (it is not super quickly drying, but it doesn’t take long time either).

I think the Etude House Sweet Idea Bunny Nails are a cute gift idea. I don’t have any complaints about these and they do a good job as nail polish. The thin brush for one of the polishes makes it easy to do some nail art, if you like, too. I received mine from KollectionK for 7.10 US$, but it is sold out there at the moment. You can also get this from testerkorea for 4500 Won (around 4,50 US$). What do you think of the Sweet Idea competition?

♥ PS: Check out my post on Beautiful AM Moisturizer and PM Vitalizer. There is a giveaway for you, too :) ♥

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

12 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Etude House Help My Finger Part 2

14. November 2014

Yesterday, I introduced to you the Etude House Help My Finger Quick Drop Dry and today I’ll show you the second review from Etude House’s nail care line, the Etude House Help My Finger Nail Finger Pack. This is similar like a sheet mask, only it is designed for pampering your poor old nails and letting them recover from nail polish sessions :)

First of all, some words about Etude House: 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, displaying a nail with a happy face probably relaxing while being pampered. Scalloped pink borders all around the cardboard box frame this to an even more cute packaging. :)

The nail packs come in a sachet divided into two parts, one containing the finger packs for the left hand, the other for the right hand. You can tear the packaging open easily by using the indicated arrows. The backside of the sachet contains detailled product descriptions in Korean and in English. You can find the ingredients listed >>here<<. Mostly, the ingredients are safe and green flagged according to COSDNA. There are some plant and fruit extracts for nourishment of the nails and also Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, which has whitening properties.

Below you’ll see the application on my hand. The first image shows my hand before I used the Etude House Help My Finger Nail Finger Pack. I just removed nail polish and my hand feels a bit dried up. In the second image you’ll see the tip of my fingers coated by the packs. It is like sheet mask socks on each of my fingers. These caps are covering half of my finger, so people with long fingers will also be able to use it. Also, as you can see, there is also space left in each cap for those with bigger hands (any male reader amongst us?!). In the last image you see my fingers after removing the caps (after around 15 minutes).

As you can see, the tips are soaked nicely with essence. The essence is a milky type and smells of fruity yoghurt, which I like personally. Also, the sachets contain a lot of excess essence, you can use it on other days, like a hand cream…if you press on the opened sachet parts it will stick together tightly and be even usable after some weeks (that’s what I discovered at least while tidying up my room ^_^’). The finger packs have a rough and a smooth side. The smooth side is for pampering you nail, the rough side for the other side of you finger. I didn’t know what function it has, except of trying to make your life easier in these 15 minutes while using you hands.

It takes a couple of seconds for the moisture to fully absorb, but your skin feels super soft afterwards. I must say it has a tiny sticky feeling to it though, but if you use it before going to bad it will hardly disturb you. It was a bit tricky to separate the single caps from each other when I took them out of the sachet. Especially the second hand is difficult, if you already hooded your other hand before. But nevertheless it was a nice experience and my nails were happy about the pampering time. Next I would love to try a full hand mask :) I received mine from KollectionK for 1.69US$. I think the price is very reasonable.

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

8 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Etude House Help My Finger Part 1

13. November 2014

My next posts will be about two products from the Etude House Help My Finger line, which are designed to provide your poor and neglated nails some care. If there is a perfect time for nailcare, it must be towards autumn and winter, like it is here in Europe at the moment ;D The first product I’ll review today is the Etude House Help My Finger Quick Dry Drop. Honestly, I never used a nail polish drying drop before, so I’m even more overwhelmed by the power of “technology”, if it might be called like that XD How did I survive all these years using nail polish without such a quick drier?!

First of all, some words about Etude House: 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, displaying a nail with a happy face probably relaxing while being pampered. Scalloped pink borders all around the cardboard box frame this to an even more cute packaging. :) This product will help you to make your nailpolish dry faster. Actually, after some seconds you can already touch your nails.

The cardboard box contains a lot of description, mostly it is written in Korean, but on one side you’ll find the English description, ingredients and directions, too. The product itself contains 10 ml and can be used for 12 months after opening. The ingredients of this product are safe according to COSDNA. You can check it up >>here<<.

The bottle of the Etude House Help My Finger Quick Dry Drop is made of clear (I think it is) glass with a cap which is a pipette or dropper at the same time. The nob for soaking in the product is made of a harder plastic and you need to sqeeze it some times until you know what pressure it needs. The solution of the drier is a clear one. You need one drop per nail, maybe two if you use it on your thumb.

As soon as you drop the solution onyour polished nails it spreads on the whole nail super fast. The nailpolish dries and you can use your hands again without being worried about strange marks on the nail polish. Usually, this always happens to me, because I’m not very patient with nailpolish, so you can gues what a big discovery this was for me.

Apart from being amazed about the magic work of a nailpolish drier it is also nice that the nails do not feel dry after using but moisturized. I’m really happy about the product and I can recommend you to get your own Quick Dry Drop :D I received mine from KollectionK for 5.82US$ which is quite affordable for being such a time saver :)

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

7 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Etude House Princess Happy Ending Belle Rose Cheek Blusher

27. October 2014

I showed you the Etude House Princess Happy Ending Lipsticks a couple of posts ago and here is another product from this line, the Etude House Princess Happy Ending Belle Rose Cheek Blusher! This collection called Princess Happy Ending is dedicted to the different Disney princesses. Here you’ll see the blush from this collection dedicted to Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

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…The cardboard box of this blush again confirms how much love for the details they put into their packaging ♥ It looks like a fairytale book with ornament roses matching the story of Beauty and the Beast. Not only the front site looks beautiful, but also the other sides of the cardboeard box. You even see the silouette of each princess above the barcode of the product.

The product description on the cardboard box is in Korean and in English. The blush comes in two shades: Pink Shine Rose and Coral Shine Rose. I selected the Coral Shine Rose Verion, No. 2.

On the side of the packaging it says “I want so much more than they’ve got planned”, resuming up the ideas of Rose when she dreams of having her adventures. It is really cute. :) The ingredients are written in English, too:

Talc, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Sterate, Nylon-12, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Magnesium Stearae, Isopropyl Myristate, Cl 73360, Tocopheryl Acetate, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Caprylyl Glycolm Cl 77492, Cl 15850:1, Fragnance, 1,2-Hexanediol, Rose Extract, Propanediol, Cl 77499, Illicium Verum (anise) Fruit Extract

You can find the list on COSDNA, too, and check for the single ingredients. Most of them are either green or yellow flagged. The good point is, that the blush contains titanium dioxide, which works as a sunscreen/ sunprotection.

Like the paper packaging, the packaging of the blush is beautiful, too. It comes in a plastic container in pink, with the same rose ornaments like the rest of the packaging The backside says which shade the blush has and also has the production date printed on. If you open the plastic lid, you’ll find a beautiful rose shaped powder blush underneath. The coral color contains a golden shimmer and looks really, really pretty. Unfortunately, the lid doesn’t have an included mirror for application on the go and it doesn’t come with a brush either.

Let’s have a closer look at the powder blush and how it looks swatched on my hands:

As you can see, the blush has a nice pigmentation. The golden shimmer looks really elegant together with the coral shade and reminds me of NARS Orgasm swatches I saw on various blogs (but I don’t own the blush myself, so I cannot make any direct comparison). The blush can be blended in easily, too, so you can only create a soft look if desired. I can only repeat myself and say, that I adore the design of this product line from Etude House. Below you can see all my three products together. ♥

If you are looking for a golden/coral powder blush you might wanna try this blush, especially if you also love the theme of the product line. I’m also very happy with the coral color and I think that I prefer it to the pink version of the blush. (Of course this depends also on your personal preferences.) You can get this at KollectionK for 10.99 US$.

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

8 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty KollectionK PR Sample review

Review: Skinfood Rose Essence Soft Cream Blusher

14. October 2014

I was planning to write this post later, but I’m so in love with this blush that I have to share my thoughts about it with you: I’m talking about the Skinfood Rose Essence Soft Cream Blusher! This blush is from Skinfood’s spring collection from this year and considering the point that new products appear out of nowhere every month this might already be considered old and not up-to-date, but nevertheless this is my new everyday blush since I received this from KollectionK one week ago ♥

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 Rose Essence Soft Cream Blusher liptints, nailpolish, make-up remover and a make-up fixer were offered.

The Rose Essence Soft cream Blusher is available in 6 different shades. I picked No.6 called “Edge Rose”. According to the promotional pictures it is probably the boldest color of the 6 shades. Let’s look at our beauty again from the top and the back:

The back side contains a short description and the number of the shade. It also has the production date printed on it. If you open up the lid you’ll find that the complete backside of the lid contains a large mirror, which is very convenient. The material of the container is made of sturdy plastic and although the color of the plastic is a light pink it doesn’t appear like cheap quality. The lid closes properly, too, and will not easily flip open, so it is safe to carry in the handbag. The first thing you’ll notice when opening the container is the scent: it is AMAZING! It smells of roses and you know that I’m a lover for rose scent. If you hate scents, you’ll not like the product, if you love the scent of roses get yourself one of these quickly! I’m so in love with the scent that I sometimes only open up the container of the blush to smell the scent XD …okay, that’s a bit weird, but anyways….

The blush itself is a cream blush, so it has a soft and creamy texture which is easily to apply with only using the fingers (this might be considered as not hygienic for some of you and is the only negative aspect of this blush that I could find after all). I don’t have any problem applying it with my fingers. By the way, for those of you that are afraid of putting bacteria on your face when using your fingers I found a super interesting product on Wishtrend called “OMG Spray it” from Chica y Chico which allows you to sanitize your products frequently (if you consider to buy it you have to check out the Promotional Wishtrend codes for October, because you can receive a free Klairs Be Clean Soap!!). Back to the Skinfood Rose Essence Soft Cream Blusher: the pigmentation is great, it is buildable but also blendable super easily, too, so you can choose by yourself if you want pigmented cheeks or only a light color. Also, the creamy texture turns into a matte one when blended in. It looks very natural and lasts all day. So, as you see this is a super quality blush and I’m really thinking to get all the different shades, because it is so georgeous. You can get this at KollectionK for 11.08 US$.

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://kollectionk.com/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

18 Comments