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beauty

Valentine’s Day Special: Kissable Lips in 3 Steps

12. February 2016

// AFFILIATE LINKS / LIPS / VALENTINE'S DAY //

Valentine’s Day: Some love it, others hate it utterly! Either way, I have some pampering tips for you today, no matter if you celebrate Valentine’s Day or not: I will show you my 3 steps routine for achieving soft and smooth lips. ♥

There is nothing more bothering than dry and flaky lips. Especially in cold or very dry seasons almost everybody has made experience with dry and chapped lips. Not only does it feel bothersome, but also does it make any lip color makeup much more difficult. I hate it when special colors accentuate any dry flake on your lips! But apart from drinking a lot of water and using lip balm you can follow some easy steps to make your lips smoother and give them a nice pampering session.

First Step: Scrub Your Lips

First, you have to get rid of all the dead skin cells. Using a lip scrub is the most convenient way to do this. You can either buy a lip scrub, or make a simple DIY lip scrub using honey, sugar, and olive oil. I’m using the Missha M Soothing Care Lip Scrub and the Shara Shara Kissing Sugar Lip Scrub at the moment. I love the lip scrubs which come in a tube like the one from Missha, because you can take them with you while you’re showering and give your lips an occasional scrub. I’m using my fingers for scrubbing over my lips, but you can also use a tooth-brush (maybe another from the one you are using for your teeth…). The best way is to use circular motions to get rid of most of the dead skin.

Second Step: Lip Mask Patch

The second step gives your lips deep nourishment and moisture: Lip Mask Patches are hydrogel masks designed for the area around your mouth and for your lips. I love the lip patches from Pure Smile, but also other brands have these kind of lip patches. The Pure Smile Choosy Lip Patches have different types of essences: milky, fruity, honey, herb, peach, and many more! They contain Vitamin E, Collagen, and Hyaluronic Acid, which will make your lips soft and hydrated. The best part with lip patches is, that it looks ridiculously funny while wearing them, because the patch is shaped like an oversized lip.

Third Step: Lip Balm

The last step is the one we probably use mostly: Every woman has some lip balm somewhere in her handbag at least…or too many different lip balms which makes it difficult to decide which to use. After you scrubbed your lips and boosted them with a lip mask you can use a lip balm to seal them and keep them hydrated. My favorite two lip balms at the moment are the Tonymoly Mini Peach Lip Balm and the Classic Carmex Moisturizing Lip Balm. I also do love the Smith’s Rosebud Salve, but my jar is almost empty and the tin is so worn off that you cannot read the label anymore :D.

When using these easy steps of lip care on your lips they will be like new! Smooth and hydrated lips, perfect for your Valentine’s Date or any other occasion you want to – or even just for yourself, to feel even more pretty than you already do! ♥

Where to get the products mentioned above:

Missha M Soothing Care Lip Scrub – W2Beauty for 10.43 US$, Missha Germany for 7.80 €

Shara Shara Kissing Sugar Lip Scrub – Testerkorea for ~5 US$ (currently sold out)

Pure Smile Choosy Lip Patches – Amazon.com for ~5 US$, also on ebay

Tonymoly Mini Peach Lip Balm – Qdepot for 8.99 US$

Classic Carmex Moisturizing Lip Balm – Amazon.de for 5.79 €, Amazon.com for 6.98 US$

Smith’s Rosebud Salve – several stores for ~6 US$

What are your lip care remedies? Do you have any favorite products or DIY tips?

8 Comments

beauty beauty boxes

Unboxing: MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No. 4

17. December 2014

When I received and reviewed the MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No. 1 I ordered MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No.3 and 4 shortly afterwards. I was a bit dissapointed with No. 3, although it really contained some products which I use and like, but it simply didn’t give me the impression of being a “cute” box. Now, it’s time to show you the content of the most recent MeMebox My Cute Wishlist No.4, although it arrived some weeks ago:

MeMeBox is a box service company, offering a wide amount of different beauty boxes. Unlike most western beauty boxes which have to be subscribed for on a monthly basis, MeMeBoxes can be preordered but that doesn’t force you to buy more than the desired box. They ship to many countries and the products they send in their boxes are mainly Korean. Apart from their monthly Global Boxes, they also have a huge amount of themed boxes, MiniBoxes, Boxes where you know what is inside, so called Superboxes with a higher value and so on (check out the links at the end of the post)…just check out their online store and you’ll find a huge selection of different boxes. Since they have become very popular within the blogger community they sell out pretty fast, but they bring up new beauty boxes so fast, that you cannot keep up with them anyways. That was at least my experience during this year. At the moment they seem to be focusing on their own brand and some collaborations with well-known blogger in the asian beauty blogger community. At the end of this post I will make a list of all the discounts they offer at the moment, too.

“We bring you, the latest edition of our Meme-fans’ most favorite series, My Cute Wishlist #4!

For endless days and nights, we scoured through the entire country searching for the cutest, most lovable beauty products in the world! We went through a deluge of beauty product wonders and carefully selected only the best to bring you a box packed with whimsical – and effective- beauty products that will once again make the My Cute Wishlist series a Memebox fan favorite!

Loaded with some seriously adorable and hard-to-find beauty loot—straight from the hotbed of cute beauty products – this My Cute Wishlist #4 will make you ridiculously giddy with excitement!

Who else does cute like we do?”

According to the description, this MeMebox should contain a huge amount of super adorable products, which are partially not well known to the Korean beauty lovers. A first peek inside the box reveals that this box is far more fit for the My Cute Wishlist theme than the previous one- yet the amount of unknown products is kept at bay because surprisingly it contains some of the well known brands like Tonymoly, Holika Holika and even Etude House. Two other brands in this box are at least a name to the frequent MeMeBox buyers like ddung and the japanese brand Pure Smile. The only brand I didn’t know about is Yadah.

According to the product card, which comes with each box, the MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist contains 8 fullsized products. I did some research on the Yadag creams, which have a fun design and I liked them from the first glance and I discovered that the creams are availbale in 50 ml jars. I don’t think that these two 5 ml jars are fullsize products, but rather deluxe samples. Anyways…let’s take a closer look at the content:

1 & 2. Yadah Vita-Whitening Aqua Gel and Puregreen Moisturizing Cream (fullsized product, each 5ml for US24)

I was happy when I saw these cute jars with the fun design. Since I didn’t know the brand I was curious to test them right away and both creams seem nice and feel moisturizing when tested on the back of my hand. I will make a more in-depth review once I tried them properly. Although described as fullsized items they are not. You can find the fullsized jars of the cream on the official brand page for 21000 Won (50 ml), which is around 21 US$. The two tiny sample jars here are worth 3000 Won (~3 US$)!

3. Tonymoly Apple Red Tox Honey Cream (fullsized product, 80ml for 12 US$)

This product from Tonymoly has a lovely design. I really adore the apple shaped container! This cream smells so nice of sweet apples and is not comparable to artificial apple scent. Also the structure of this yellow gel cream reminds me of apple purée…just it is more fluid :D It comes with a spoon and I love to use it over night as sleeping mask. I have no complaint about this one so far ♥

4. Etude House Sweet Recipe Candy Stick (fullsized product, 2g for 5US$)

Unfortunately, I received one of these already with the MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No.1. At least it is not the same, but another shade called seedless strawberry candy. I didn’t open it because I have a lot of lip balms at the moment. It fits for the Christmas season at least.

5. Pure Smile Snail Hand Cream Milk (fullsized product, 60g for 5US$)

This hand cream has a cute design and it contains snail mucus. So I like it although I only tested it once so far. I will use up my other hand creams before I start with this one, but at the moment I’m using hand creams often because it is so cold here. It is good to have a tube in backup. :D

6. Tonymoly Egg Pore Nose Pack (fullsize product, 7ea for 4US$)

Since the moment Tonymoly renewed their packaging of the Egg Pore line I wanted to try a product from it. I think the design is very pretty although simple and the egg makes it somehow even cute. ♥ It is great that they included a whole box of these containing 7 pieces :)

7. ddung Liquid Eye Liner (fullsized product, 5ml for for 15 US$)

I use eye liner daily and it is great to have one in this box, especially since this box is mainly focused on skincare. I will use this for sure although the packaging design is nothing I would buy personally.

8. Holika Holika Pig Nose Clear Blackhead Steam Starter (fullsized product, 30ml for 6 US$)

I love this packaging! I don’t have a lot of Holika Holika products either, which makes me even more happy to receive one with a MeMeBox. The pink tube with the dots and the pig snout looks really cute and I’m looking forward to try it :) ♥

9. Pure Smile Choosey Lip Pack Milk (fullsized product, 1ea for 1US$)

I received one of these lip maks in an earlier box and it was fun to try. Also, this time the essence is milk type so I’m curious how the two versions compare. Maybe I make a review on both, too :)

Below you’ll see all the products of the box:

All in all, this box is a nice one, although probably not the best one I received so far. MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No.4 has its focus on skincare mainly. The variety is nice, too! The products selected fit to the topic of the My Cute Wishlist and it contains products from some brands which are well known for their cute packaging design like Holika Holika, Etude House and Tonymoly. From the description of the box I would have expected some unknown brands, too, but the only real unknown treassure I found is the Yadah creams, which come in sample size jars -although claimed to be fullsized products by MeMeBox. I think this box would have a much more possitive feedback if they would have included a real fullsized product from this new Korean natural cosmetics brand. By the way, the brand name stands for “Young Adults with Determination to Achieve Happiness”. I’d like to see more products of this brand in future boxes…

What do you think of this box? Any product you love?

– receive 5 US$ OFF for purchases above 30 US$ in December using the code 5IO9V5.

– using my affiliate link or the code AFFILIATE-7711-I8PV5-MWLL will get you $5 OFF discount on any orders above $100 (shipping charges not included, can be combined with other coupons)

– using my affiliate link or the code AFFILIATE-0319-ZKQVT-DBNX will get you $10 OFF for orders above 150 US$ (shipping charges not included, can be combined with other coupons)

– $5 off on entire order when purchasing over 3 Memeboxes: MEMEBUNDLE3

– $8 off on entire order when purchasing over 4 Memeboxes: MEMEBUNDLE4

– Free shipping on orders above $70 from Memeshop: FREESHIPPING

You can also read my previous unboxing posts:

MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist No. 3

MeMeBox GetItBeautyBox Global No. 15

MeMeBox Nakedbox No. 24

MeMeBox Diet Box

MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist

MeMeBox Oriental Medicine Box

MeMeBox Scentbox Bundle

MeMeBox 10 Minutes Box

MeMeBox GetItBeautyBox Global No. 11

MeMeBox GetItBeautyBox Global No. 10

MeMeBox GetItBeautyBox Global No. 8

MeMeBox GetItBeautyBox Global No. 6

16 Comments

beauty empties

Graveyard: September and October Empties

6. November 2014

I completely forgot to make an empty post for Septmeber and here are now my product empties from two months. Again, I’m really trying hard to use up all my opened products at the moment and it starts to show some progress slowly. I didn’t keep the sample sachets or sheet masks though…It would be too much of a mess. Nevertheless, I hope you’ll have fun reading!

1. Dita Von Teese Rouge Body Lotion – Repurchase? Yes.

I love the scent of this line by Dita. I tried all the perfumes and the Rouge Line is my favourite scent and at the same time this body lotion smells great. The scent lingers on the skin for a long time and it absorbs fast and makes the skin feel nice. I will repurchase this (I still have the shower gel in use atm…*_*).

2. Naobay Protective Shampoo and Shower Gel -Repurchase? No.

This was part of one of my older Glossyboxes. I used it as shower gel only, so I cannot say anything about the quality as a shampoo. The scent was not my favourite scent but it wasn’t bad either. Nevertheless, it didn’t convince me in a way that I would repurchase it.

3. Illi Fresh Moisture Body Lotion – Repurchase? Maybe.

You will find my review >>here<<. This was part of one of the Global MeMeBoxes. It is a citrus scented moisturizing lotion. I liked that the citrus/lemon scent was natural and not like bathroom cleaning products. It absorbs quickly, too and was not sticky at all. It was a tiny bit to runny for my tasting but I could imagine to try one of their other lotions.

4. The Faceshop Face It Auro Color Control Cream- Repurchase? Yes.

I really do like this CC cream from The Faceshop. It has a nice coverage and lovely finish. I’m sad that it is emptie now, but there are refills available. As soon as I have used up 2-3 of my other BB/CC cream tubes I will repurchase this. I also like the fact that you can buy refills for it. See my review >>here<<. I’m sorry, that my older posts have blurry images…this is because of the switch I made to my new domain. I’ll try to fix all the older posts as soon as I have some spare time. :/

5. CaoLion Mool Pool Deep Cleansing -Repurchase? No.

Actually, I didn’t like this too much. It didn’t remove everything, it had a almost watery consistency and I didn’t like the scent.

6. Balea Diamantentraum Bodylotion – Repurchase? Yes.

Balea is a German drugstore brand, which is easily available and has fair prices. This bodylotion was a limited edition and I liked the scent. It made a nice feeling of the skin. Since it is affordable I would definitively repurchase their bodylotions, but maybe another version, just for the variety.

7. Kneipp Hautöl Mandelblüten Hautarzt – Repurchase? Yes.

Another German brand :) This almond blossom oil has such a nice scent. It is perfect for dry skin and delivers deep nourishment. I enjoyed using it, and I have a second travel-sized version of this oil still in use.

8. Pure Smile Muddy Girl Charcoal Face Mask – Repurchase? Maybe.

This charcoal-type mask pack from the Japanese brand Pure Smile was in my first MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist. It has a heartshaped packaging and contains enough product for 2 times usage. It is a mud-type mask which dries on your face. It has some cooling effect and I heard that some reacted to these pacs, but luckily I just experienced the cool feeling and a tightened skin. I would like to purchase other masks from this brand just to see how they compare.

9. Secret Key Starting Treatment Essence – Repurchase? Maybe.

Since I tried samples from Missha’s Time Revolution First Treatment Essence and was overwhelmed by it I wanted to get the essence. Unfortunately it is not the cheapest product. I found some reviews on Secret Key’s Starting Treatment Essence and read that it was comparable with the one from Missha, and even cheaper. So I decided to get the travel size. I enjoyed using it- but I enjoyed the one from Missha even better. Especially since the effects were much quicker visible and the scent of the Missha product is much nicer.Nevertheless, considering the price, I might buy the one from Secret Key again…

10. The Body Shop Vitamin E Nightcreme – Repurchase? Yes.

I love this cream! It was only a tiny sample jar, but it lasted for quite some time. This rich and nourishing night cream has a wonderful flowery scent and a perfect consistency for a night cream. It absorbs fast and makes the skin silky. I used it in combination with the Vitamin C serum from Tunemakers (see below).

11. Tunemakers VC-3 Serum – Repurchase? Maybe.

This stabilized vitamin C serum is a good alternative to O.S.T. Vitamin C Serum because it is mild and suited for sentitive skin, too. Unfortunately, the bottle is not large, but it lasted for 2,5 months. In general, both of the products from Tunemakers that I tried ( the toner and this serum) were nice products with few ingredients only. This brand is worth a closer look.

12. Shiseido Ibuki Protective Moisturizer – Repurchase? Yes.

I had quite some samples from the Ibuki line and I like the scent and the effect of the products. This emulsion is really great. It absorbs super fast into the skin and makes ist feel soft and moisturized without any stickiness or greasiness. If I had the money for it I would buy it immediately.

12. Only You Green Tea Jamine Bodyscrub – Repurchase? Maybe.

I didn’t know this brand but I received a set of products as a gift. I love drinking green tea and jamine, so I was very pleased about the scent. It is a milder body scrub with shower gel. I’m still using the shower gel and the body lotion, which have the same nice scent.

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

8 Comments

beauty beauty boxes

Unboxing: MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist

26. August 2014

When MeMeBox released their first box named with the words “My Cute Wishlist” I knew that I have to get this box, despite the fact that I was planning to use up my current products first before buying new ones :D I was so happy about receiving this MeMeBox and I want to share my excitement about unboxing this box with you ♥ Let’s take a look inside this awesome box:

MeMeBox is a box service company, offering a wide amount of different beauty boxes. Unlike most western beauty boxes which have to be subscribed for on a monthly basis, MeMeBoxes can be preordered but that doesn’t force you to buy more than the desired box. They ship to many countries and the products they send in their boxes are mainly Korean. Apart from their monthly Global Boxes like the ones I reviewed previously (check out the links at the end of the post), they also have a huge amount of themed boxes, Mini Boxes, Boxes where you know what is inside, so called Superboxes with a higher value and so on…just check out their online store and you’ll find a huge selection of different boxes. Since they have become very popular within the blogger community they sell out pretty fast, but they bring up new beauty boxes so fast, that you cannot keep up with them anyways.

The MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist contains a selection of cute products with a beautiful or special packaging. The description of the box says:

“We’ve searched and scoured through the Korean beauty scene to find you all the beauty things adorbs and irresistibly cute! From miniature beauty trinkets to cute face makeup kits and skin care potions, these precious little beauty finds will make you “oooh” because of its trademark Korean charming packaging and “aaahh” because of how cute it makes you look. Carry around these beauty treasures wherever you go and make your friends green with jealousy!”

When I fell in love with asian makeup and skincare products it was mainly because of the beautiful and very girly packaging compared to western brands. This box is perfect for everybody feeling the same or having the same reason to buy products. The first thing I saw when opening the box was the product card with the description of the products inside (in English) and a sqeaking sound of joy when seeing the content:

Here is the content of MeMeBox My Cute Wishlist and it is a lovely content:

1. Pure Smile Neko Punch Point Pad Hibiscus & Lemon Grass (17 ml x 2) – box contains fullsize product worth 2 US$ each

These are moisturizing and sebum controlling pads enriched with a bunch of beneficial ingredients like hyaloronic acid, vitamin E, Collagen etc. You just put them on the areas of your face which need some extra care and leave it for a couple of minutes. I didn’t try these yet but I can imagine that it looks cute having some cat paws on your face :D

2. Pure Smile Muddy Girl (15 g) – box contains fullsize product worth 1 US$

This is a wash off type pack from mud and clay to smooth and purify your skin. It is in a heartshaped packaging and looks nice, but I didn’t try it. there were two different types which were randomly chosen for each box.

3. Beauty People Snow White Special Edition Season 2 (1.6 g x 5) – box contains fullsize product worth 54 US$

A adorable metal box conatining 5 creamtype eyeliner pencils. Each of the pencils is worth around 10 Us$ if you divide the the price among the five pencils. The color range is beautiful, because it is black, brown and gold and they contain some glitterparticles. The swatches I took were pretty long lasting despite washing my hands, so I’m looking forward to make a seperate review for this box. They also added a sharpener for the eyeliner pencils :)

4. Etude House Missing U Hand Cream (30 ml) – box contains fullsize product worth 5 US$

Finally, an Etude House product ♥ But if not in this box, where should it have been else?! :D The boxes contain randomly one of these four adorable hand creams. I received a pink dolphin with rose scented hand cream. since I love rose scent, this is exactly the perfect choice for me. There is a seal, a penguin and a panda, too. I would love to have all of these, just because of the packaging…and I would definitively reuse the packaging and transferr new handcream inside, if this one is empty :D ♥

5. Etude House Sweet Recipe Candy Stick (2 g) – box contained fullsize product worth 5 US$

These sweet lip balm remin me of christmas because of the sugar cane shape. The boxes contain one of three different versions. I received the “Oh! Orange Candy”. It has a orange scent and taste and feels like a good every day lip balm. It has a soft tint, too.

6. Kocostar Split End Therapy (8 ml) – box contained fullsize product worth 6 US$

This is a leave-in hair treatment and it has included a dotted ribbon for tying your hair, which makes it a worthy product for this box. I will review this item, too :)

7., 8., and 9. a;t fox Whitening Capsule Cream. Lifting Cream and and Moisturizing Gel Cream (10 ml x 3) – box contained fullsize product worth 6 Us$ each

These are my favourites of the box, apart from the Etude House handcream. The three mini creams have cupcake shaped containers, each in another color. Each of these is themed with another kind of tea and has a special purpose. I cannot wait to try these and I could imagine that these are great for travelling, too.

I’m really happy about this box because it fulfills all my expectations. All the products are fullsized, which is great, and there is a nice variation in products, too. The packaging of the products is adorable and I love the Etude House Missing U hand cream and the cupcake shaped creams. The colors of the pencil eyeliners is beautiful, too. I’m really happy and I do not regret that I broke my ban and bought this box. The “My Cute Wishlist” boxes seem to sell out quite fast, because at the moment they offer the MeMeBox My Cute wishlist No.3 for 23 US$ (it is out of stock at the moment, but maybe they restock it in the next days). I preordered my box already ♥

If you are curious about MeMeBox and their products, aswell as their enourmous selection of different beautyboxes check out their page >>here<<. Check out the value sets and the possibility to upgrade to free express shipping, too. MeMebox has also a couple promotions, so you can receive 2 MeMePoints worth 2 Us$ by signing up at the moment. Also, by using my affiliate link or the code AFFILIATE-7711-I8PV5-MWLL you’ll get $5 OFF discount on any orders above $100 (shipping charges not included). For orders above 150 US$ you’ll get 10 US$ off using my affiliate link or the code AFFILIATE-0319-ZKQVT-DBNX. These can be combined with other coupon codes aswell! There is a referral-only page aswell, where you can get up to 2 MeMePoints by purchasing through this link >>here<<.

Other promotions:

$5 off on entire order when purchasing over 3 Memeboxes: MEMEBUNDLE3

$8 off on entire order when purchasing over 4 Memeboxes: MEMEBUNDLE4

Free shipping on orders above $70 from Memeshop: FREESHIPPING

You can also read my previous unboxing posts: