Hello my lovelies, I thought I would do an in-depth review of the Missha Signature Real Complete BB Cream SPF25PA++ that was in my Top 10 Asian Cosmetics In 2011 list.
I was inspired by beauty bloggers Winnie and Jamilla who said great things about this Missha BB cream.
I’ve always hesitated from buying Korean BB creams (although I’m such a BB cream freak) because of their grey undertones and overly rich formulas. But Winnie and Jamilla have similar colouring to mine so I took a chance and got a tube in shade No.23. I’m an NC25 so this fits me to a tee.
The strangest thing about this BB cream (and some Korean BB creams, I heard) is that it may look grey but when you put it on your face, it oxidizes very quickly and looks more like your skin tone. But I must add that the grey cast in this BB cream is quite mild compared to other Korean brands.
What also drew me to this product is that it says it is hypoallergenic (also fragrance-free) and has healing benefits which I thought would be great for my sensitive skin. the ingredients list looks awfully long for something that is supposed to be gentle on the skin, but after using this consistently for a couple of months now, I can declare that my skin loves it. No reactions at all — just a dewy natural finish with medium to full coverage.
I’m not sure if this BB cream would take to humid weather well. I wore this at in autumn when it was still quite humid in Tokyo and I thought my skin did look a bit weird and cakey at the end of the day. But this BB cream works like a dream in winter and it’s one of my favourite BB creams ever.
It comes with a pump (very hygenic!), and although it is in a tube form, you can’t squeeze the hard casing at all, so it retains its shape. For 2800JPY (USD36), you get 45g of product and I feel like it is a lot for a BB cream compared to many Japanese BB creams. I like the fact that I could easily go to a Missha shop in Shibuya because many other Korean brands are not available in Japan and I like swatching base makeup first, rather than guessing from online pictures which are not reliable.
Have you tried Missha BB creams before? What do you think of them?
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If you have long hair like me, you would appreciate a good quality shower cap when you travel. I know hotels usually stock a token shower cap but those are quite hopeless in my opinion!
I want my shower cap to have a comfortable but firm grip and it shouldn’t tear. My hair is long and thick so when it’s all bunched up in a flimsy hotel shower cap, it would sag and the cap wouldn’t cover my head completely due to the weak elastic band — it just becomes a mess.
So, I always bring my own shower cap when I travel. I love this cute pink polka dotted one I got from my local Tomod’s drugstore and I always take it with me. I actually don’t use a shower cap to keep my hair dry but I use it when I condition my hair. My skin is quite sensitive so I prefer to bundle up my hair in a shower cap as I condition it.
It’s a small thing, but I like to have products that work, even if I’m just on holiday and can put up with slight inconveniences temporarily.
Do you bother with bringing your own shower cap when you’re travelling?
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One of the gripes I have about living in Japan is the lack of affordable good creamy nail polish. You can find lots of shimmery and pearly nail polishes at the drugstore, but creamy, not so much. How I wish Essie and OPI are at reasonable prices here. Essie costs 1890JPY (USD24) and OPI is 2000JPY (USD26) in Tokyo — exorbitant, right?
So I turn to cheaper alternatives like Paul & Joe which is 1500JPY (USD19) per bottle. Jill Stuart is also similarly priced but they only seem to have very shimmery or glittery polish. RMK is another option but somehow their colour range right now doesn’t appeal.
I love this warm light beige colour in 28 that has the right hint of pink and it’s great as an everyday nail polish.
The quality of Paul & Joe is not the best unfortunately. It’s quite runny and I needed three coats to get a fully opaque finish. Now this is quite substandard where nail polish goes — I think two coats is a sign of a good polish. I’ve read other reviews that said the same thing (e.g.:London Makeup Girl) and it took quite a long time to dry. In terms of chipping, it took three days for nicks to appear, which is the same as Essie and OPI for me.
But it is still better than a couple of drugstore brands that I’ve tried here (Majolica Majorca, Visee, and Canmake) which chip or the tips fade the very next day. The Paul & Joe one doesn’t lose colour at all in the three days before it chipped.
My conclusion is that this is something very pretty to have but don’t bang on any high performance from this nail polish. I think Paul & Joe has very lovely shades and it’s probably the only thing going for its nail range — oh, and the bottle of course because it’s so girly and sweet to have on your vanity table.
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Happy New Year, my beautiful readers! I’m probably on a sunny beach somewhere in Vietnam. As you can probably guess, I’ve pre-written a bunch of posts to be published while I’m on holiday. How was your New Year’s?
I was inspired to do a series of posts on finding good Japanese cosmetics below 2,000JPY (USDD25). When I first moved to Japan, I found it very challenging to find brands that were affordable and kick-ass. I was also afraid of trying unfamiliar brands because I might break out and the overall shopping experience at the drugstore was just confusing and I felt so lost.
Furthermore, counter cosmetics are really expensive, local and foreign, due to the strong yen and imported products are just generally astronomical. Case in point, a MAC eyeshadow is three times the price in Japan, compared to North American rates. Even SKII, which is made in Japan, is cheaper to buy in Singapore than in Japan.
So, I made it my personal mission to check out cheap and good cosmetics at the Japanese drugstore that I think are stellar and worth looking for. Some of them are well-ranked at Cosme, Japan’s answer to Makeup Alley, which is a guide I always reach for to see if anyone is talking about a particular product in question.
To make it more challenging, I’m also leaving out more expensive drugstore brands, like Esprique, Maquillage, Aube etc., as they don’t really have that “cheap as chips” price tag although they are only sold in drugstores. To me, they are not exactly “pure” drugstore brands because of their price point. An eyeshadow palette from Esprique is 2940JPY (USD37.80) which is actually more expensive than some high-end Western brands like Too Faced, or comparable to Urban Decay’s Box of Shadows palettes, to quote an example.
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To kick things off, I’m going to start with lip gloss and you might guess what is up my sleeve…
Canmake Candy Wrap Lip (also featured in my November Faves video) is one of the best drugstore lip glosses around. At the time of writing this post, it was standing at number three after Dior and Maquillage. Though it might be above brands like Chanel, please don’t think it’s naturally better than Chanel. It’s not but I think its friendly 600JPY (USD7.70) price tag helps to boost its ranking, plus it is a great lip gloss.
It has medium pigmentation, is non-sticky, fragrance-free, and quite long lasting for a gloss. I ate a bowl of oats after slicking it on to put it to the test and there was some gloss left on my lips. The only downside is that it only comes in four colours and I got two — a cherry red and a warm pink. The others on sale were a coral and a cool pink. Canmake, please make more shades!
The only other thing I could think of that would stop people from buying this is that Canmake is a very teenagery brand and I know that is a turn-off for some women. It’s probably okay to say you use Canmake in your 20s, but beyond that, it’s a little weird in Japan (I obviously don’t care) where being age-appropriate is very important.
Another brand that is more “neutral” in terms of branding is Visee. It’s still for younger women but it doesn’t have that cutesy image like Canmake. I’m a huge fan of Visee and think not only do they have solid products but their image is quite pretty and veers to being a bit edgy with their various fashion collaborations (you can read about the Smacky Glam limited edition lip gloss and eye shadow palette here).
I loved the Smacky Glam lip gloss in Bitter (right) so much that I bought another one from their permanent collection in BE304(left) which is a pinkier nude than the Bitter one. The texture is more like MAC’s lip glass but is less sticky and less shiny. The pigmentation is on the sheer side and it’s more of a lip enhancer than something you would wear on its own. I could wear the Canmake Candy Wrap ones on their own because there is more colour to them. Compared to Canmake, Visee has a bigger range of colour and they are usually wearable shades suitable for everyday.
Visee lipglosses are about 1,400JPY (USD18) each but I always get them discounted without even trying. They seem to be on sale a lot of the time and I usually pay 1,100JPY (USD14) at Matsumotokiyoshi (for those unfamiliar with this drugstore chain, it’s the one with the bright yellow sign with stark black characters).
Do you have any other products or brands to recommend for drugstore lipglosses?
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It’s the last day of 2011 and it’s time to reveal my favourites for this whole year. I shopped for beauty products a lot these past 12 months and learned about the ins and outs of Japanese cosmetics brands. I rely on Japanese cosmetics ranking site, Cosme, and magazines like Biteki and Voce for recommendations and I found a few gems that I’ll definitely use for a long time to come.
Here’s a quick summary of my favourite Asian cosmetics products (I coined the term “Asian” because almost all of these products are either Japanese or made for the Asian market, plus I have the lone Korean product):
#1 Paul & Joe Face Powder N 03
#2 Jill Stuart Smooth Silk Foundation N 105
#3 Hada Labo Moist BB Cream SPF32PA+++ Natural Ochre
#4 Addiction Emotional Blush
#5 Missha Signature Real Complete BB Cream No.23
#6 Jill Stuart Mixed Blush Compact Sweet Lock
#7 Lunasol Modelling Eyes Beige Beige 01
#8 Visee Smacky Glam Limited Edition Glossy Nude Rouge Bitter BE305
#9 Paul & Joe Eye Gloss Duo 05
#10 Kate Designing Eyebrow N
I was inspired by Beauty Broadcast’s My Beauty Evolution tag video (via cosmeddicted) and it’s my first time doing something like this. I also thought it would be a fun year-end video to show you guys and to get to know my makeup story as well. Hope you are having a great holiday season!
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I thought I would share with you my supplement regime because I think it has really made such a difference to my skin. But before I plunge into it proper, I would like to preface this by saying that I didn’t take any of these under any medical guidance, I just did some research on the Internet, and gave it a go. Also, I think the cause of my acne was due to the fact that I stopped taking birth control pills (which I had been consuming for over 6.5 years before I stopped in late June 2010).
My skin is still far from perfect but I stopped getting monstrous breakouts and it has stabilized and is much more predictable. I still get some acne during the time of the month but my skin has been pretty alright. I don’t think it would ever return to its acne-free state when I was on the pill because I think the pill actually decreases sebum production so I think what I’m experiencing now is my natural state — oily, dehydrated skin.
Anyway, in order to help keep zits and hormonal changes in check, I take the following:
♥ Zinc: If you are familiar with getting acne, you would probably know that zinc helps to prevent and heal acne. I only take a 10mg tablet per day and I have read that zinc works great with vitamin C which also helps stave off the flu.
♥ Dong Quai: This is actually a Chinese herb that has been used for centuries by women facing fertility problems. This herb helps to regulate your hormones and I picked this up in forums where women who stopped the pill recommended taking dong quai to get their cycles back on track. Though I need to point out that my cycle has never really been out of whack so I took this to just balance out my “raging” hormones.
♥ Vegetarian Acidophilus: Now I know I’m a veggie gal and you might think I’m recommending this just based on the fact I don’t eat meat but I have actually read that dairy can make acne worse because it contains a load of hormones. Even before I knew that, for years I tried not to consume dairy not just because I’m mildly lactose intolerant but also because I noticed a decrease in getting skin conditions like eczema and other various mysterious bumps and rashes on my body. So I go by the rule of thumb that too much dairy can stress your skin so I try to avoid it as much as I can.
♥ Milk Thistle: I think this herb combined with dong quai has made great strides in improving my skin. Apparently, milk thistle increases the production of bile which helps to break down the amount of testosterone which causes acne.
On top of taking these supplements daily, I also pop a multi-vitamin tablet that contains vitamin B which again helps to prevent acne by way of reducing inflammation in the skin. All in all, I’ve been taking this combination for almost a year now and it took about two months for my skin to show visible signs of stabilizing — I still got some acne and it took another few months on top of that for my skin to stop breaking out twice a month (I’m not sure why but it happened every two weeks). I felt like I had everything pretty much under control by June this year.
Another dietary change I made was to cut down drastically on refined carbs and gluten, but I didn’t do that specifically to target my acne, but as a general health strategy for skin and weight maintenance, as I feel that gluten can be the root of many skin conditions (you can read about the link between acne and gluten here).
I hope you found this useful and do you have any supplements you would like to share that is great for skin?
*Please note I’m not an expert on this topic and these conclusions were based on my personal experience and research.
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Hello my lovelies! My post on “Do You Always Wear A Bronzer?” garnered such a lively debate that I thought something similar would interest you…
Do you always use a highlighter?
For me, the answer is a resounding “YES!” I think a highlighter is one of those makeup products that can subtly change your look from a flat matte face to a glowy one with a few strokes.
I used to think I only needed one highlighter and didn’t care about the quality or the shade. Just some shimmer was enough, thanks! But I realized that yellow or golden undertoned highlighters look best on me and the texture is so important too — so far I prefer the traditional route of powder highlighters.
But if a powder highlighter doesn’t impart much shine, you could find yourself swiping on too much powder which makes your face look cakey or too powdery in certain areas (culprit: Bourjois Delice de Poudre Highlighting Powder). I also prefer a highlighting powder to be pressed because I have a mineral highlighting powder in loose form and it’s such a pain to shake it onto a separate surface (I usually use a tiny glass plate) before using it.
But I still got the big daddy of all highlighters….I’m obsessed!
NARS Albatross…
It looks very white here but when swatched it has a lovely subtle gold tone and the shimmer is very finely milled. My only complaint about this highlighter is that it’s way too easy to be heavy handed with this and you can look too glowy — I’ve actually had to put on more finishing powder to make myself look less weird, so I always swipe my contour brush very very lightly on this palette before I highlight my face.
I’ve never explored liquid highlighters except YSL’s Touche Elcat which didn’t do anything much for me and I suspect I have the wrong shade for my skintone too. I have this preconceived notion that liquid highlighters wouldn’t show if I dust on finishing powder over it and I wonder if can they work over powder…?
Now it’s your turn…
Do you use a highligher? If so, what type and tell us why!
Hi my dearies, I hope you enjoyed reading my Top Fave Youtube Beauty Gurus Part I post, because today I’ll talking about the next five beauty gurus that I love watching. I know this is going to look a little weird as all of them are from the UK but there’s a reason for this coincidence. Besides one guru, all the rest are linked in some way or another as they are friends in real life and they have appeared in each other’s videos before so that’s how I got to know them. So here goes…
Celebrity makeup artist Lisa Eldridge needs hardly any introduction as she is so well-known on Youtube and in the world of cosmetics period. She’s got that teacher streak in her and explains her tips and tricks so clearly. She also makes makeup sound smart and technical, too. I learned a lot from her videos on application (one of my faves is her video on Anti Ageing Makeup Tips) and even bought products based on her recommendations (e.g. her video on A Few High Street/ Drugstore Make-up Favourites). Her years of experience show in her tutorials and she has such an artistic flair (e.g. her Audrey Hepburn — Breakfast At Tiffany’s Inspired Makeup video was just amazing!).
I love Fleur’s bright and animated way of presenting in her videos and she’s quite trendy without coming off as utterly unrelatable. She features things that I like, e.g. Urbay Decay, MAC, perfumes, H&M, Forever 21 etc. In fact, she did a perfume collection video and I’ve actually got a few of the same ones as her. She’s clearly makeup and beauty obsessed so she knows her products very intimately and gives very precise descriptions and opinions. Many gurus tend to say, “I’m really bad at describing XYZ (usually with perfumes)…”, but Fleur never cops out and she would definitely have something clever to say.
I think it’s quite cute that she does videos with her boyfriend, Mike, and I find them highly entertaining to watch. She shows a bit of her personal life which I enjoy, e.g. her room tour, and displays a candidness which is very refreshing, e.g. she said in a blase way that she uses a boob cream to moisturize her face.
Tanya’s channel is actually known as pixi2woo on Youtube but you’ll see why I wrote her name and not her channel in the title. I actually discovered Fleur and Tanya at the same time because Tanya was in a video of Fleur’s and they all seemed kind of mad about makeup.
Tanya is actually an aspiring makeup artist, so while Fleur’s channel is more about hauls and reviews, Tanya’s has a strong focus on makeup tutorials. She comes across as a sweet girl-next-door who is very sincere while her looks are wearable and she’s very deft at doing her makeup. I learned how to use a bronzer from her videos (she likes bronzers a lot so her videos have no shortage of bronzer application) and her skin colouring is quite similar to mine (NC25-30) so it’s always interesting to see what colours she uses on her face. Her reviews are thorough and she takes the time to test out products in her regular Makeup Your Mind Mondays series.
Pixiwoo is a pair of sisters, Sam and Nicola, who run a makeup school in London and write a beauty column in The Mirror, one of the English newspapers. In a nutshell, they are talented and witty so therefore a joy to watch. Their channel has everything between natural/everyday to dramatic/exotic looks and they tend to use celebrities, like Kim Kardashian and Kate Middleton, to inspire them which is very popular with their viewers. They also do “live” reviews, as in they would use a product they’ve never tried and tell you what they think as they put it on themselves. Besides Lisa Eldridge, they are among the few accomplished makeup artists who are on Youtube.
A few weeks ago, I spotted Ruth Crilly in one of Pixiwoo’s videos and I thought it was quite curious a fashion model would have a Youtube channel so I clicked over to see what she’s got. She is incredibly smart, funny, thorough, down-to-earth, and the complete opposite of a model stereotype. It’s probably got something to do with the fact that she is pursuing a Masters degree in creative writing, but intellectual stuff aside, Ruth has got a natural journalist’s flair for picking out what’s newsworthy and the essential points of a product.
Her glamorous jet-setting lifestyle and the occasional behind-the-scenes video at photo shoots are also a draw but she never lets any wankiness drip into her videos. She’s quite adventurous where beauty products are concerned and opens up her routine for all to see — and it’s bloody hard work being a model (plus she uses a ton of products) so you don’t get the feeling that models are slim and good looking just because they are, e.g. her detox diary series showed her struggling with less-than-perfect skin and losing a bit of holiday weight.
Hello my dears, sorry if I have been a bit absent online lately (late in responding to comments, commenting on blogs, Twitter etc.) but I didn’t have internet access since last Thursday when I moved house and I can get online on my mobile phone but there is only so much one can do on the internet on a small hand held device. Hope you can understand that I may not be here but I’m definitely thinking of you guys and hope to get online during my holiday occasionally.
The end of the year brings out the list fiend in me and I’ve to say that 2011 has been a year of growth in terms of learning more about skincare and cosmetics. I used to just go by instinct and did things “my way” but with the plethora of Youtube beauty videos coming under my radar, I couldn’t help but absorb new tips and tricks and find out what’s hot in the beauty world. You can even say a day doesn’t go by without watching at least a video or two on Youtube and my love for Japanese dramas has even taken a back seat. There’s only so much time in a day!
Let’s get into my list of top ten favourite Youtube beauty gurus now, shall we? It’s not in any order of preference and even narrowing my list down to just ten was so hard. The only parameter I went by in picking these ten was my degree of excitement when said guru uploads a new video. I love so many gurus on Youtube but these ten are the ones that I can’t wait for the next “episode” to come on and I like them all for various reasons. Some I’ve been following for a long time and some I’ve only known for just a couple of months.
Emily Noel is actually a morning show anchor at her local TV station so she’s absolutely confident in front of the camera and her videos feel a bit newsy (which I actually like). She’s definitely got her journalist streak in her as she investigates and tests products with lots of dedication and diligence, but most of all, she loves makeup and you can feel her bubbly enthusiasm for it.
I love checking out Holly Ann-Aeree’s videos for detailed reviews and she has a strong focus on lipsticks, foundations, and blush, which are what I like, too. She seems to like drugstore and high-end makeup equally — she could rave over Chanel and Revlon in the same video.
She comes across as someone who casts a very critical eye on a product and draws comparisons to similar products so you can get a very vivid picture of what she’s reviewing. She does live close up swatches as well which makes me think she is very careful about her reviews. In terms of personality, she comes across as expressive and relaxed so watching her is easy. She does have a bite to her though and it makes me laugh — once, she mentioned that her boyfriend liked a particular lipstick on her and complimented her, and she goes, “Yeeeah, I know what I’m doing!” and rolls her eyes.
It’s easy to dismiss Elle Fowler as a live blond Barbie Doll who was a sorority girl in college and is all fluff and no substance. At first, I only watched her to be entertained as I do have a morbid fascination for American shows with high school cheerleaders and football stars (Vampire Diaries, anyone?) but she is a huge MAC fanatic and I’ve gone through her archives to look at MAC reviews from eyeshadows to brushes. She has been using MAC for many years so she knows what she’s talking about.
I think she gives pretty good advice for the teen/college set, e.g. Starter Makeup Kit For Beginners, School Glitz: Packing For College etc., and she also does pretty good makeup tutorials, like her Blair Waldorf Inspired Makeup Tutorial. Her older videos contain more practical cosmetics tips while her newer videos have more lifestyle pointers for decorating, choosing candles, and healthy eating. She’s actually a lot more down-to-earth than what her first impression might give, i.e. if you just watch one video randomly.
The first guru I started following was actually Fuzkittie two years ago so I’ve a soft spot for her channel. I only watched her, Michelle Phan, and Bubz Beauty until this year. Her videos are not the slickest nor are they always very focused. I like her makeup tutorials as they are geared towards Asians and since she is Taiwanese, her face shape is more similar to mine than a Western guru’s. I learned how to tight-line my eyes with a liquid eyeliner and I tried Koji Dollywink black liquid eyeliner because she said it was her HG eyeliner.
Her hauls are always huge and varied in terms of brands and her outfits are fun to look at too as her taste is for wearable clothes for work or play that’s never too out there. Recently, she has been buying more designer togs and bags, and for makeup, she’s definitely a fan of brands like Dior, SKII, SUQQU etc., so her channel does have that “wow” aspirational factor. You can relate to her but yet you sort of wish you had her stuff – lol!
Lindy, aka Bubz, is a Chinese girl from Ireland who is one of the top beauty gurus on Youtube is extremely entertaining and her beauty tutorials are pretty awesome. I think I’m drawn to her channel because she doesn’t promote any particular brand, i.e. she just encourages you to use similar shades, and her DIY tips are practical (I was inspired by her green tea apple cider vinegar scrub which I blogged about here) and useful. She also comes across as a hybrid of girlish femininity and a tomboy with a predilection for potty humour. She runs a comedy channel, Bubbiosity, which always leaves me in stitches with her Cantonese parodies.
To be continued…
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