review | Berries in the Snow

Review: COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner

28. May 2015

// SKINCARE / KBEAUTY / AFFILIATE LINKS //

Finally, here is my review on the famous COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner. I’ve read so many reviews about it that I knew I had to try it! I loved my Klairs Supple Preparation Toner, but since I emptied it quite quickly there was time for a new product to try.

COSRX is an affordable Korean brand “offering good quality beauty items for 10 years”. The brand name is composed of COS for cosmetics and RX for prescription. Brands like Ciracle and C20 (yes, the famous vitamin C serum) are also part of COSRX. One of the rather popular skincare lines from COSRX is the AHA/BHA skincare products. I’ve also bought the COSRX BHA Summer Pore Minish Serum and the COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch.

The COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner is an astringent toner with exfoliating properties, which prevents whiteheads, blackheads, and blemishes. The toner is thereby not only addressing troubled skin types, but also dry skin types promising hydration and exfoliation in order to fight flaking skin. The toner comes in a typical packaging for COSRX products. The packaging design is simple: the toner comes in a milky plastic bottle inside a cardboard box. the cardboard box contains very clear descriptions in English and Korean. I really appreciate the list of advice they put in English!

The ingredient list for the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner is quite short and all the ingredients are listed on COSDNA and are safe to use (click >>here<<). The toner contains willow bark water and apple fruit water as main ingredients. Both have a concentration of 10%. The willow bark water has astringent and anti-inflammatory properties, so it is really a useful ingredient. Apple fruit water on the other hand only has fragrance properties. It would have been great if there had been 10% of apple fruit extract instead of water because the extract has skin conditioning properties! Glycolic acid (an AHA) and Betaine Salicylate (a BHA) are the two ingredients which are giving the name to this product. BHAs and AHAs are chemical exfoliators, which work their wonders in low pH. But, these two ingredients are only in a 0.1 % concentration each, so the exfoliating effect is not comparable to high concentration BHA/AHA products.

As you can see above the concentration of the AHA and BHA is written on the label of the bottle. The bottle contains 150 ml and according to the description on Wishtrend the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner has a pH of 3.9 (I measured a pH of 4 with pH strips). The production and expiration date is printed on the bottle of the tube.

I’m using this toner in the mornings and evenings by spraying it on a cotton pad and blotting the cotton pad over my face, especially over my T-zone. After applying the toner I use Vitamin C serum or other BHA/AHA products.

I do love the spraying nozzle. It sprays a fine mist of the product, and it helps not to use too much of the toner accidentally. Also, it is very hygienic to use, because neither your hands nor the cotton pad touches the nozzle. the toner is a watery, clear solution with a hint of a fruity scent which disappears immediately. The toner also absorbs fast into the skin and does not feel sticky. It works super good with the OST Vitamin C21 serum, and after using it for a month I feel my skin around my nose and forehead feels smoothened. Since I don’t have a lot of troubles or blackheads/whiteheads I cannot say anything about its effects on those problems, but I feel that it works well with my skincare routine. And most important, the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner didn’t break me out either.

I’m personally very happy with this toner, and it looks like a perfect addition for my skincare routine. I love the feeling of it being not sticky and I like the short ingredient list. Also, it works great with my vitamin C serum and makes my skin feel smoother. If COSRX would change the apple fruit water to apple fruit extract I would love this even more! You can read another positive review on the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner on Moi Sanom’s blog 35th Of May >>here<< (interesting for troubled skin types). Also, take a look at this comparison review between the COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner and the Mizon AHA BHA Daily Clean Toner by Cat from Snow White And The Asian Pear >>here<<. I didn’t try the Mizon toner myself but seems that for her the latter works better. It is a good product worth trying, but as you can see it can be different from skin to skin how good this works. The COSRX AHA/BHA Clarifying Treatment Toner retails for 16 US$ Wishtrend and Beautytap. Also check out my page for coupons and discounts >>here<< to save some bucks!

16 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty Born Pretty Store NOTD PR Sample review

Review: Peacock Feather Water Transfer Nail Stickers from Born Pretty Store

27. May 2015

In my last nailart I showed you the dotting pens from Born Pretty Store and how to create a simple cherry blossom nailart. Today, I’m showing you some Peacock Feather Water Transfer Nail Stickers, which I received from Born Pretty Store, too. I’m not a pro considering nailart, but I liked the peakcock feather design of these water transfer nail stickers.

As mentioned above, I received this set of double-ended dotting pens from Born Pretty Store. Born Pretty Store is an asian based online store selling very affordable products, reaching from accessoires to make-up and beauty products. They have a super huge amount of all kinds of nailart products and tools. This Water Transfer Nail Sticker is available in different patterns. Butterflies and flowers are also available for this specific product number. Each sheet contains 20 stickers, so you can use it twice. The feathers have different sizes, so you can put the larger stickers on your larger nails, like thumbs, and the smaller ones on the other fingers.

The backside of the water decalls shows the description on how to use them. Basically it is very easy: You have to soak the stickers 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 (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. 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.

As you might know by now, I’m pretty obsessed with red nails and lips, so I tried the decalls on my red painted nails. I’ve used one coat of Etude House Play Color Nails Polish in shade 52. afterwards, I added a sticker on each nail and sealed it with top coat. Here is the result:

The peacock feather design is really pretty, but it doesn’t show off nicely on darker nail polish shades. I would advice you to use sheer nail polish, although I would have loved to see the design on red nail polish, too. You can get this Peacock Feather Nail Art Water Decals Transfer Stickers for 0.99 US$ per sheet from Born Pretty Store. I think it is super affordable! You can also use the promotional code KBX31 for 10 % discount on your order. They do offer free international shipping by the way. 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.


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.

7 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty PR Sample review Wishtrend

Review: I’m from Honey Mask

20. May 2015

I’m a fan of all forms of masks: sheet masks, gel masks, packs, massage packs, wash-off masks, leave-on masks, DIY masks…and all these other great deep treatments for your skin. When I heard about the I’m from Honey Mask I was directly temped to try, but I hesitated to buy one of these. After a while the I’m from Honey Mask started to become super popular and it seemed to be appearing everywhere. When Wishtrend offered a sponsoring opportunity for their affiliates I was participating right away and luckily I was selected to review this mask. Unfortunately, the mask kept being out of stock due to popular demand and I didn’t receive the mask until around three weeks ago and I’m loving it since the first time I tried it!

I’m from is a Korean brand with the motto “a good cosmetics with a good ingredient”. They are using natural ingredients in their cosmetics and want to be honest and quality provider. They have three promises to their customers, being 1. open composition, which means known ingredients, 2. Honest Farm, meaning honest ingredients with true origin, and 3. being free of harmful chemicals. The I’m from Honey Mask is packed in a cardboard box with a simple design. The paper has the pattern of honey combs imprinted, which is a cute idea. If you look closely (or click and enlarge) you will see the pattern on the cardboard box.

The description on the box is written in Korean only, but you can find very detailled English description on Wishtrend. So what is so special about this mask? Since honey has been one of the trends lately in Korea, there were released quite a bunch of honey containing products. The I’m from Honey Masks points out, that it differs from other honey containing products in the point that it contains 38.7 % of real herbal honey from Jiri Werl-peyung vill. In contrast to other products using honey essence, this product uses real honey as a whole ingredient. That means 38.7 % is real honey, which means three tablespoons honey per each I’m from Honey Mask jar (120 g). 61.3%, that means the other parts of the masks are ingredients which help the honey to better add its nutritions to the skin. These ingredients are Lotus Water, Macadamia Oil, Beeswax, Sophora extract, snail slime filtrate, jojoba seed, sunflower seed oil, grapefruit extract, bamboo water and so on. Below you can see a full list of the ingredients including their safety. You can also look up the ingredients on COSDNA >>here<<.

If you are curious about the Korean description you can enlarge the below image to have a closer look at it.

The mask itself comes in a glass jar and looks like the jars you get when you buy honey. The I’m from Honey mask looks like those thick and sugary honeys, rather than the clear liquid honeys. Since most of the products are natural the ingredients might separate after a while. When I opened my jar for the first time I observed this separation, but after stirring it, the consistency becomes homogenous again.

The I’m from Honey Mask comes with a spatula to scoop the mask out of the jar and it has a plastic lid separating the lid of the jar with the product. Unfortunately, the plastic separator is not closing very densly, which is why my mask was leaked out a bit, when it arrived. Since the mask has a honey consistency it is also similar sticky (because of the sugars) to honey and it was a bit of annoying to clean it up.

The color of the I’m from Honey mask is golden, with a creamy consistency. As said before it is similar to honey and therefore has a sweet honey scent and it quite sticky. Since it is a wash-off mask the stickiness is important, because it helps the mask to stay on your face instead of dripping down the whole time. After washing off the mask (I recommend lukewarm/warm water) the skin feels very moistuized and glowy and really super soft and nourished. Below you can see a swatch on my hand, and how the product looks once spreaded in a thick layer. after washing it off (I used it for around 10-15 minutes here) the skin on the right side of my hand looks much more healthy and glowy than the other side. A very light and pleasant honey scent remains on the skin, too, and upon touching the skin you will feel the difference between the skin where you used the honey pack and the untouched skin. It feels like you’ve used a good hand cream and makes the skin very smooth in these areas.

I also heard that honey has good anti-inflammatory properties and reduces redness of the skin. It has been used in ancient times, by the pharaos in egypt for example (one of cleopatra’s beauty secrets maybe?!). I luckily don’t have too bad skin at the moment, but nevertheless I can show you how the mask effects the skin in my face after using the pack for around one hour. The longer you wear the mask the more you can benefit from the ingredients inside. You can click on the image below to view it enlarged. My skin is more of the dry type, although as summer comes closer it tends to be normal (that means oilier) on the T-zone for example. My cheeks are regulary the driest parts of my face, so I show them below. I don’t have much of redness at the moment, only a few small dots, but nothing too grave. After washing off the mask you can see that the skin looks more healthy and glowy. It is noticeably softer when touching it and the skin feels less dull and firmer.

I would love to know how people with more troubled skin experienced this mask. For dry skintypes this one works magic. By the way, the longer you wash it of the less glowy the effect is, because you wash off the oils. So if you are concerned about oilyness I can recommend you to simply wash it off longer.

Honestly, I’m obsessed with this mask. I love the touch of the skin afterwards and it is the perfect pampering for dry skintypes. The scent is super lovely and makes it really tempting to eat the product. For dry skinned people it is definitively a must! But I think it has a lot of benefits for troubled skintypes, too, because of the known anti-inflammatory effects of honey for example (if anyone has made such experience feel free to leave a comment :D). After all, I really like the ingredients used for the mask, especially since I didn’t expect it to contain snail filtrate for example. If you are allergic against beevenom or honey, or in general natural ingredients you should check the ingredients before using it and/or make a patch test. I’m sure I will repurchase it once it is finished…to be honest, I’m almost half through the mask. Luckily, I have a bunch of sheet mask reviews ahead, so I will have to stopp using the I’m from Honey Mask until those reviews are done, haha. Since the I’m from Honey Mask is so popular it is discounted on Wishtrend to 28.43 US$. You can also chose an option to get the mask together with a silicon brush for applying the mask. I used the spatula and my fingers, which works fine aswell. Check out the May promotions on Wishtrend before grabbing those. Also, keep in mind their friend-referral program: You can receive a 5 Us$ 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. And if you have a blog/vlog yourself you should check out Wishtrend’s affiliate program! They are offering monthly sponsoring opportunities for their affiliates.

11 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: The Skin House Face Calming Galactomyces Cream

12. May 2015

My last review on a daily moisturizing cream lies months back (Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Cream, btw), but today I’m back with another moisturizer I used after I finished the previous one: The Skin House Face Calming Galactomyces Cream. This cream contains galactomyces fermented extracts and is designed to sooth the skin.

The Skin House is another Korean brand which was founded in Seoul in 1979. The brand is committed to produce “honest and high quality cosmetics” using natural raw materials. The packaging design of the brand’s products is also simple and pure. The Skin House Face Calming Galactomyces Cream comes in a simple cardboard box with white and salmon/pink colors. There are three types of this kind of facial moisturizer from The Skin House which have different colors each: the Ultra Firming Collagen Rich Cream (yellow), the Hydro Papaya Moisture Cream (blue), and the Face Calming Galactomyces Cream (salmon/pink). The Galactomyces Cream has thereby not only soothing properties, but also gives moisture and has anti-wrinkle properties.

The cardboard box contains the descriptions of the product in English and Korean (click on the image below to enlarge). The Skin House has an english brand page, too, but this product is not listed there (I don’t know if it is not popular or if it has been discontinued). The key ingredients of the cream are of course galactomyces ferment filtrate and yeast extract, but the cream also contains hyaluronic acid and glycerin for moisturizing. Moreover, the cream contains mango seed butter and a couple of other plant extracts. You can check the full ingredients >>here<<. There are some potential irritants, so if you have specific allergic reactions make sure to check the ingredients first.

The cream comes in a regular plastic jar, which is very lightweight and contains 30 ml of product. I was really suprised how light the jar was actually, and I think it is perfect for people who travel a lot considering the weight. The lid is nothing special, but a white plastic lid, but the cotainer of the jar is made of a milky kind of salmon/pink plastic which looks quite pretty.

The jar is sealed when unopened and contains Korean descriptions on the side and the expiration date on the bottom of the jar.

When removing the lid you’ll find a plastic separator, which prevents the cream from leaking out and onto the inside of the lid. The cream itself has a light orange/pink color and and a soft creamy texture. The scent is a flowery one, but not too heavy.

The cream feels very soft and is easily to spread. It melts easily into the skin, leaving it moisturized, but not too heavily. Actually, if you have very dry skin it won’t provide enough moisture, but for oily, normal to lightly dried skin it is enough, especially when wearing this cream during day time and having other moisturizing steps like essences, serums, emulsions and so on. For regular use you don’t need a lot of this cream to cover your face. At night I preferred to slap on a thicker layer of the cream on my face, because it made the skin feels super soft on the next morning. And although using a thicker layer it absorbs comparably fast into the skin. The skin also felt more bouncy afterwards, which was a nice experience.

I’ve used the Skin House Face Calming Galactomyces Cream for several weeks now and I’ve just finished the jar and I was really happy with this moisturizer. It made the skin feels soft, but not greasy, absorbed fast, and worked with my makeup.

There are no negative points I can make for this cream. Probably, all skintypes can use it, because it is not super matte, not super oily. It contains some great ingredients, makes the skin feel great afterwards and also can be used below other makeup steps. The best part of it: it is not expansive! It retails at testerkorea for 9900 Won (~10 US$) and on ebay for 12 US$. This cream is totally recommended!

♥ Check out my current giveaway >>here<<. You can win a bottle of Amazingly Beautiful Body Moisturizer and Revitalizer, a spraying body oil made from all natural ingredients! ♥

9 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review Wishtrend

Review: Boutique Bebe Hair Salon Concentrate Protein

11. May 2015

Do you know that moment during online shopping when you put all the items you need in your shopping basket and discover that there are some last dollars missing for free shipping? Usually that is the moment when I grab some mask sheets but on other occasions I also try new items, like the Boutique Hair Salon Protein Concentrate. These are two protein hair treatments, one for leaving in your hair and one for washing it out.

I discovered that asian hair products really work for my fine, dry and frizzy hair. Therefore I’m always interested in different brands and items I find during my shopping experiences. I got these Boutique Bebe Hair Salon Concentrate Protein treatments from Wishtrend quite a while ago, but somehow the review took me quite long. If you are curious about the Korean online shop Wishtrend please check out my post >>here<<.

About the Korean brand Boutique Bebe I do not have much information, but obviously they are retailling some haircare products. Since the brand is not very popular the description on the product’s cardboard box is written in Korean only.

As I said at the beginning, these hair treatments are available in two types, a wash-off type, which has a white packaging, and an essence type (can be lefton the hair), which comes in a black packaging. Each of the two cardboard boxes contains a plastic seringe (also either black or transparent) with the hair treatment product. The plastic seringe is bottle and applicator of the hair treatment on the same time. You will find a long description about these two products on Wishtrend, too. They also list the ingredients of the treatments, which contains mainly oils like camellia japonica oil, argan oil, almond oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, etc., so all the important and nutritious oil you can use on your hair. Apart from these oils there are a bunch of plant extracts included (lavender, rosemary, olive, grape, peppermint, rice, soybean….and many more). Other good ingredients for your hair are biotin, keratin and niacinamide, which you can also spot within the ingredients. So it seems that these are super beneficiual for dry and damaged hair.

The two treatments also differ in the product. The essence-type leave-in hair treatment has a white color, where as the wash-off treatment has a yellow color. Both treatments have a creamy and rich consistency and are not runny or anything similar. Each seringe contains 25 g and depending on your hair length you can use one seringe for 2-5 times. I used both of them three times each for my (a bit over) shoulder length hair, but I used quite a good amount of product each time. I guess I could have used each of these 4 times at least if I would have taken a bit less product each time. Due to the seringe packaging it is easy to get a specific amount of the product on your hair or in your palm. I really liked that kind of packaging. First it was something new to me and second it was useful to use aswell.

The Boutique Bebe Hair Salon Concentrate Protein have a soapy scent, which had a typical salon scent for me. The leave-in essence was super easy to use, since you only put it into your hair and it is done. I would recommend you to use it in the length of your hairs mainly, because otherwhise you’ll have a kind of stiff-looking scalp/top hair. The essence first makes your hair feel stiffer after it dries off, but once brushing the dried hair through the hair feels soft and it is not that stiff anymore. The wash-off treatment makes the hair fluffier than the leave-in treatment, simply, because the essence doesn’t stay on your hair. The leave-in essence treatment makes our hair a bit more heavy. Both treatments leave your hair super soft, easiler to brush and are nourished! I can imagine to repurchase these treatments, since I liked the scent and the softness of my hair afterwards. Also, the ingredients are great in both treatments. These Boutique Bebe Hair Salon Concentrate Protein retail for 3.50 US$ each, and when buying both you only pay 6.20 US$ on Wishtrend. Check out the May promotions on Wishtrend before grabbing those. There are also some mother’s day special prices and gifts until 17th of May. 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. And if you have a blog/vlog yourself you should check out Wishtrend’s affiliate program!

5 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty review

Review: Etude House Dreaming Swan My Blooming Lips-talk

8. May 2015

// KBEAUTY / MAKE UP //

Here is the second product I bought from Etude House’s Dreaming Swan collection, the Etude House Dreaming Swan My Blooming Lips-talk. I also bought the powder brush from this collection and you can have a look at the review >>here<<.

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 new Dreaming Swan collection is fully dedicted to the topic of ballerinas, with light colors and a beautifully designed packaging. You will find pretty illustrations of ballerinas, ballerina shoes, tutus…The collection consists of lipsticks, eye and cheek blushers, powder pact, nail polish, cushion cases, cream multi shadows, a pouch and a powder brush. I chose the Etude House Dreaming Swan My Blooming Lips-talk in shade PP501, which was the darkest shade from the collection. I’m always doubtful about brighter shades on my lips, because they tend to settle more obviously into my lip lines than darker shades. The Etude House Dreaming Swan My Blooming Lips-talk comes in a cardboard box packaging displaying one of the illustrations from the Kerry Hess, the collaborating illustrator. Let’s enjoy the sight of this beautiful packaging first:

I really like the ballerina theme, although it is super girly actually! The cardboard box also displays the Korean and English product description and ingredients. You can also check out the ingredients >>here<< (it is for one of the other shades, but it only differs in the pigments. Thanks Evelyn for adding it to COSDNA ♥). Good thing: the ingredients contain titanium dioxide for UV protection. The lipstick itself comes in the typically shaped Etude House lipstick containers It has a light pink color and a white bow at the bottom. You can remove the bow and use it as a ring for example.

The bullet is protected by a metal part, which is illustrated with bows and ballet shoes. There is also a typical Etude House emblem imprinted on the bullet. On the bottom of the lipstick you’ll find the manufacturing date of the product.

PP501 is a pink/ rose shaded color. According to the promotional pictures it looks less pink than the other lipstick colors from the Dreaming Swan collection. There are 5 shades in total. Below you can see how the lipstick looks when swatched on the back of my hand and how it looks on my lips. The lipstick has a light rose scent, which is not noticable once applied on the lips.

Honestly speaking, I’m not liking this lipstick too much. The formula is very difficult to work with. If you have dried and chapped lips don’t use it at all! My first picture for this lipstick looked terrible and the lipstick was settling into all the lines and looking patchy and just not nice. The only way I can wear this lipstick it either using lipbalm before, which means that the lipstick is not lasting at all, or as a base color for some gradient lips. I love the packaging! And I like the rose scent. But that’s it! The Etude House Princess Happy Ending Lipsticks had a far better formula than these. These don’t glide as smoothly and make the lips feel dry after a while. I would not recommend you to buy these, unless you want to collect them because of the packaging. There are still some available on ebay. On the official Etude House Global Store I couln’t find the lipsticks anymore. I bought mine from W2Beauty, but they are not listed there anymore. The price of these lipsticks lies around 10 US$.

♥ Check out my current giveaway >>here<<. You can win a bottle of Amazingly Beautiful Body Moisturizer and Revitalizer, a spraying body oil made from all natural ingredients! ♥

14 Comments

advertorial announcement Wishtrend

Wishtrend May 2015 Promotions and call for Wishtrend Affiliates

6. May 2015

It is time for the new May promotions and gifts for our shopping experience at Wishtrend, and moreover I’m making a call to all the fellow beauty bloggers who are interested in working together with Wishtrend. And there are some mother’s day special gifts until 15th May, too. 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. 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. Recently they have even added Mizon products! Here are the coupon codes for May:

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 April. Below, you’ll find the coupon code for this:

Coupon Code: WISHMAY2015
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 May 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 FREE Berrisom Animal Mask Sheet!

Voucher Code: WISHGIFTMAY2015
ANY ORDER
Only valid until the end of May 2015

There are also some extra vouchers for mother’s day, which can be used until 15th of May:

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!

Now, here is the part where I’m calling my fellow beauty bloggers: Wishtrend is looking for new affiliates. You can sign up to their affiliate program here and take advantage of their affiliate program, which is one of my favourite affiliate programs so far. Here are the benefits from being Wishtrend affiliate:

1. Monthly contests, where you can win a product for reviewing or a giveaway sponsoring for your blog

2. Between 4-10 % comission. The payouts are made via PayPal and you can request a payout already for small amounts like 10 US$

3. You’ll have access to affiliate banners and to affiliate exclusive newsletters

4. You have the chance to upgrade to advance affiliate (more commission) as soon as you did your first sale, which brings you a shopping 25 US$ voucher for Wishtrend

I can really recommend you to join and check out their affiliate program!

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:

COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch

ElsihaCoy Aloe & Lavender Mask Sheet

Berrisom My Lip Tint Pack and Lip Tint Cleanser

OST C20 Pure Vitamin C21.5 Advanced Serum

Confume Argan Treatment Oil

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?

2 Comments

asian cosmetics beauty BNTnews PR Sample review

Review: Too Cool For School Art Class by Rodin

5. May 2015

// PR SAMPLE / KBEAUTY / AFFILIATE LINKS //

I saved my favourite item from April’s BNTbox for last, and here it is, the Too Cool For School Art Class by Rodin contouring powder! If you have read my blog previously you will know that I’m a huge fan of the Korean design cosmetic brand Too Cool For School. They have the most creative packaging design and illustrations. When I saw this product I was absolutely in love from the first moment! ♥

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 packaging design of the Too Cool For School Art class products is dedicted to the arts. I reviewed one of the art class cream blushes in the past, which came in a tube packaging, similar to the tubes painting colors are packed. Below you can see the georgeous packaging of the cardboard box of the Too Cool For School Art Class by Rodin contouring powder, or in french “créateur du contour”:

This contouring powder helps you to shade and sculpture you face, as if you were August Rodin himself. The french sculptor Rodin was the progenitor of modern sculpture and is the inspiration for this product from Too Cool For School. The powder comes in a usual compact, wrapped by transparent paper and labelled with a “by Rodin” sticker. Too Cool For School makes all efforts to show how much love for the detail they put into their products. ♥

The cardboard box has written Korean and English instructions on the backside, suggesting to either mix the three colors of this contouring powder or use them separately to shade the facial features like nose, cheeks and hairline. The inside of the cardbox reveals the story behind this product labelled “by Rodin”. I especially like the idea of giving some information about the concept of the design of a certain product by hiding them inside the cardboard packaging.

Let’s have a closer look at the contouring compact itself:

The compact has the same design like the cardboard packaging and looks super pretty on its own. The back of the compact displays the shelf-time of the product and the production date.

I was looking for a contouring powder for quite some time, but I had the feeling that the shades were either too dark or only came in one shade alone. This contouring powder contains three different shades, reaching from a light one, to a darker shade. The compact comes with a mirror in the lid which is protected from the fall-off powder by a transparent plastic sheet labelled with the word “artclass”.

The shades fit light to medium skintones and are not too yellow-y, neither too pink, which I like especially. The powder is very light and transparent, especially once blended into the skin. I needed a couple of swatches to make the colors show properly on the back of my hand. In order to have a natural contouring effect it is important to have not too pigmented shades, because it makes it easier to blend in. Also, if you are a contouring newby like me, you can make less mistakes in that way.

When I’m using the Too Cool For School Art Class By Rodin contouring powder I make use of all three shades. I use the darkest shades for accentuating the arch reaching from the beginning of the eyebrow to the bridge of my nose. I mix the darkest and the middle shade for contouring the nose and use the middle shade to blend it into the sides of my nose. I also mix the middle and the darkest shade for drawing a line at my cheekbones. For the hairline and trhe sides of my face and my jawline I mix all three shades and use them there. You can find some nice images on Too Cool For Schools official site were the areas you can use the powder are shown.

I’m totally happy with Too Cool For School Art Class By Rodin and my search for a contouring powder has finally ended! And I’m definitively recommending you this contouring powder, if you are looking for one and the shades in this palette suit your skintone. Too Cool For School Art Class By Rodin retails for 12800 Won at testerkorea, for 13.02 US$ at KoreaDepart, and for 21.01 US$ from W2Beauty.

This product was provided to me by BNTnews for reviewing. Don’t forget to visit the other BNTGirls Doris, Joanne, Alene and Bella and check out their reviews. And visit BNTnews for the latest Korean news and trends:

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And here is my rating for the Too Cool For School Art Class By Rodin:

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.bntnews.co.uk/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

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asian cosmetics beauty BNTnews PR Sample review

Review: Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence

4. May 2015

// PR SAMPLE / KBEAUTY / SKINCARE //

The trend in a lot of asian cosmetic products goes towards natural cosmetics and additative-free products, and I must admit that I observe myself to be more excited to try such products in favour of other products with no or less natural ingredients. One of the brands I heard good things about is the Korean famous natural brand Isoi, especially since I read some reviews about their Bulgarian Rose Line. Todays review is not about the Bulgarian Rose Line though, but about Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Controll Essence from the ACNI Dr. line, which was kindly send to me by BNTnews. This essence cares troubled and irritated skin, delivers blemish care and treats oily skin.

As mentioned above, Isoi is a Korean brand which is focussed on natural ingredients and skinfriendly chemicals in their products. Thereby, the brand name Isoi stands for “I’m so intelligent”. The Isoi ACNI Dr. line is designed for acne prone people with oily skin. The products from this line help to care and relief troubled skin and prevent it from new breakouts. Therefore the design of this product line is very simply and rather medical. The cardboard packaging of the Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence has simple blue and white colors. The name of the line is written inside a medical cross. All in all, the image of this product line is very clean.

Apart from the simple design the cardboard box contains Korean descriptions on the sides. It also displays a sign that this product doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals. It is free of parabens, synthetic colors and frangnances, PEGs, mineral oils, propylene glycol, silicones, EDTA and cinnamate. Since the product only contains natural preservatives it should be used up once opened within 6 months. The bottle of the essence contains 50 ml and when used day and night this should definitively be more than enough for this period of time.

I found the rest of the ingredients listed on COSDNA, but I’m not sure if this is the complete ingredients list. you can check out the ingredients >>here<<. Most ingredients listed here are natural plant extracts, like white willow extract, chestnut extract and bulgarian rose extracts. It also contains rosehip oil. I know that some people react to rose ingredients, so I thought I should point that out. According to KoreaDepart, which also lists the plant extracts within their product description, the essence also contains salicylic acid and triclosan, as chemical anti acne ingredients. In my previous review about the Mediheal PDF A.C-Defense Hydrogel mask I talked about triclosan. This antibacterial chemical is often used in cosmetics, but I wouldn’t consider it necessary nor healthy. It won’t be harmful when in low concentrations, but I think, since the brand image of Isoi is a natural one, they should not use this ingredient anyways.

The Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence comes in a clear glass bottle with a pump. The protection cap of the pump and the pump itself are made of plastic. The essence itself has a white color, so you see how much product is left inside the bottle after using it for a while. The pump is easy to use. The first time you have to pump a couple of times before the product comes out of the pump. After that, it is super easy to use. One or two pumps are enough to get a good amount of essence for using it on your face.

Normally, I’m used to clear and very runny, almost watery essence, but this one has a white and almost creamy texture. It is kind of gel-type in its consistency, but when spread it feels and turns clear and watery. It feels smooth and leightweight on the skin and absorbs after a couple of seconds. Unlike the Konad’s Lila Lily Clear Spa Essence this one is not as sticky and feels nicer on the skin for me. It has a very light scent of roses, which is nice, too (if you like rose scent).

The Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence is directed towards people with troubled and irritated skin in first place. Since my skin is not really troubled at the moment, I couldn’t observe any improvements of my skin. I didn’t have any problems with the product although designed for people with more oily skin, either. If you are looking for a essence for acne-prone skin you might want to give a try to the Isoi ACNI Dr. line. The ingredients of the essence look promising for people with irritated and troubled skin, since it contains not only anti-inflammatory and astringent ingredients, but also moisturizing ones. The Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence retails for 30.92 US$ on KoreaDepart.

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And here is my rating for the Isoi ACNI Dr. 1st Control Essence:

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.bntnews.co.uk/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

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asian cosmetics beauty BNTnews PR Sample review

Review: SNP Bird’s Nest Aqua Eye Patch

30. April 2015

// KBEAUTY / SKINCARE / PR SAMPLE //

Since my last sheet mask review about the Mediheal PDF A.C-Defense Hydro Nude Gel Mask, I am super excited for every mask product with hydrogel structure and the SNP Bird’s Nest Aqua Eye Patch totally satisfied my cravings for some good hydrogel product. This hydrogel eye patch comes not in single sachet packs for one time use like other eye patches, but in a jar perfect for daily use. Apart from the quantity, we have swiftlet nest extract as the key ingredient here. I tried sheet masks with bird’s nest extract in the past and I’ve been really liking them, which made me even more curious for these eye patches.

SNP is a Korean brand developed by dermatologists and focusing on the creation of functional cosmetics combined with the knowledge of scientific cosmetic research. You may have heard from this brand before, mainly because of their sheet masks. The SNP Bird’s Nest Aqua Eye Patch is an eye patch designed to treat dry eyes by delivering moisture and energy to the skin. It promotes the skin’s elasticity and firmness and eases fine lines around the eyes. Like almost all mask products it will provide a cooling sensation once applied, too. The eye patches come in a blue jar, which was delivered in a cardboard box of the same color. Both, the jar and the box display the illustration of a bird and its nest and thereby refer to the key ingredient: swiftlet nest extract! At first, this may be gross to hear, but similar to snail mucin, also bird’s nest extracts contain beneficial ingredients for the skin. Swiftlet nests contain sialic acid which is supposed to be 200 times more nourishing than royal jelly. The swiftlet nests are made from the saliva of the birds and therefore are rich in minerals like calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium. Its vitamins help to recover tired skin. The proteins in the swiftlet nest extract contain EGF components that are beneficial for the skin, too.

The cardboard box of the SNP Bird’s Nest Aqua Eye Patch contains descriptions in Korean only. The ingredients are written in English though. According to COSDNA they are safe to use and various plant extracts are included in this product. Moreover, the eye patch essence contains hyaluronic acid and titanium dioxide, some of my favorite ingredients. Hyaluronic acid is great for moisturizing dry skin and titanium dioxide is a chemical sunscreen and gives UV protection.

The eye patches are dispatched in a simple plastic jar. They are made from hydrogel material and have (unlike the hydrogel mask I reviewed from Mediheal) a light blue color with shiny particles. When reading the ingredient lists you will see Sapphire Powder listed, which is probably responsible for the shimmering effect. The jar of eye patches also comes with a little plastic spatula to take out the patches as hygienically as possible. The jar contains 60 hydrogel patches in total and they can not only be used under the eye, but also for your smile lines for example.

In general, there is no rule whether to apply the patches with the narrow part at the inside of the eye or the outside. I have seen advertorial pictures showing it in that way or the other. I tried both but I feel more comfortable when the wide part is showing to my cheekbones. I feel I cover up most of my wrinkles in that way, haha. As you can see in the image below I have dark circles below my eyes and I’m having them since I can imagine. I tried brightening eye products, but most of the effects are short term, so I’m just living with the fact of having dark circles and use concealer when needed :D The patches are well covered with the gel-type essence and if you tilt the jar of the patches you will see that there is a lot of essence at the bottom jar. This prevents the patches from drying out. Using the spatula I’m taking out the patches, apply them under my eyes (or on my smile lines) and leave them there for around 20 minutes. You can see from the before and after pictures that the skin below my eyes looks relieved and moisturized. Some of the finer lines are less visible, too. Because of the cooling sensation, my blood circulation was promoted and the area under my eye looks a bit less dark (but this is only temporarily) and healthier. The scent of the patches is lightly fruity and pleasant, neither too strong.

Altogether, I love these eye patches! I’m keeping them in my bathroom and use them frequently, either in the morning as fresh up, or in the evening when I have the feeling that my skin around the eyes feels drier than usual. I even have used them in combination with a sheet mask for the whole face on top. It works great, too! Out of the five items I received for April from BNT this is one of my favorite products and I can recommend you to try it if you have the chance. The jar containing 60 patches retails for 16.66 US$ from Amazon.com.

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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.bntnews.co.uk/ which doesn’t influence me in providing my honest opinion on the products.

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