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Showing posts with label Skincare routine. Show all posts

NIVEA Delicious Drop


Nivea Delicious Drop in Pear
I was not interested in Nivea at all before because I knew that the brand used harsh ingredients which are not ideal to put on your skin. But when I found the Lip Butter in the small round tin when I went to England, I couldn't resist to pick some up. I ended up buying the raspberry one and the caramel one and I'm so in love with them.

So when I found this lipbalm at a local drugstore here in Japan, I didn't hesitate to buy it this time. Because it's got a scent of pears. In addition to that, it has this special technology which creates a layer of the scents if that makes sense. So basically, it smells of pears when you apply it. Then after a few seconds, sweet vanilla appears and creates this amazing combo of pears and vanilla.




I didn't find this unique-shaped packaging better than a normal one much, but it looks cuter actually.

 

Ingredient wise, it's definitely not an ideal lip balm. It has vaseline, mineral oil, silicone and artificial colouring. But I cannot deny the fact that I've been really enjoying the scent. It has this fresh scent of pears, then when it's mixed with vanilla is even more amazing. The scent is subtle but pretty long lasting for a lipbalm. It doesn't dry out my lips or anything but at the same time it's not too moisturising either.


It's not a kind of lipbalm that I usually go for but I'm totally in love with the scent. What's your favourite lipbalm? I'm a lipbalm junkie so please share your favourites! :)

Alba Botanica Hawaiian Facial Mask


Alba Botanica Hawaiian Facial Mask $8.69
Recently I hear a lot of YouTubers / Beauty Bloggers talking about chemical exfoliation. It sounds pretty scary but it can be less harsh than a physical exfoliation because it doesn't physically scratches the skin surface. What it does is to dissolve dead skin cells sitting on the skin surface with the result of brightens up your skin tone.

This particular facial mask is from a brand called Alba Botanica, and it doesn't contain any harsh ingredients to irritate your skin. This mask has "Papaya and pineapple enzymes gently loosen and dissolve dull skin cells and impurities to reveal fresh, vibrant skin", how yummy does it sound? :)



It looks yummy like jelly, doesn't it? It sits on the skin without sliding off if you know what I mean....and the scent of tropical fruits is pretty soothing and relaxing.  It does have a tingly feeling which I don't like, but it doesn't irritate your skin so don't worry. I heard some people like the feeling but I personally do not like it at all because it makes me feel like it's burning my skin!



I usually wait for 5-10 minutes before rinsing it off. It makes my skin soft and smooth like any other face masks do, but the most amazing thing is the skin on the next morning. When I looked into the mirror I noticed that my skin looked not only softer and smoother, but brighter and in a much better condition. I was like "Wow my skin looks nice today, what did I do...?" and then remembered that I used this face mask the night before.



Even though it's such an effective and addictive face mask, I only use it once in 10 days - 2 weeks just because I don't want to overdo it to mess up my turn-over cycle. When you exfoliate your skin too much, the skin underneath does not have enough time to structure and it causes many troubles.


But it does make a huge difference on my skin and I just cannot wait to use it next time! My mum uses it with me and she likes it too. If you are looking for an effective yet mild chemical exfoliation, you should definitely try this one out. Or if you have a favourite, please let me know!! :)



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NIVEA Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose and Caramel Creme


NIVEA Lip Butter in Raspberry Rose and Caramel Creme 
£1.99 each at Superdrug

These products are the ones I was looking forward to trying out for a few months as I'd read many good reviews about them. It was sold for £2.5 at Boots but it was £1.99 at Superdrug. I was lucky to find it out after returning the ones I bought from Boots as they were used, I ended up saving about £1! Boots was pretty rude about me returning the used products, so I assume it happens all the time and people would check inside before they buy something. I didn't think of the possibility that the products are used, I thought it was rude to open the products I haven't paid for -maybe that was too Japanesey and silly. Anyway, after I returned the used-products, I found that they were cheaper at Superdrug when I dropped by so I bought them without hesitation.



Caramel Cream smells divine. It smells like caramel popcorn, with this nutty fragrance I love. It doesn't have any perfumey scents some lip balms have, which taste disgusting when you lick your lips accidentally. 


 And this Raspberry Rose was a little bit of surprise for me as I didn't think I would like the scent from the name of it. I love raspberries but don't like rosy-scented lip products just because I prefer sweeter scents on my lips. But this one doesn't have a strong rosy scent at all and instead it smells of raspberry candy. I love the scent so much that I keep re-applying every 5 minutes just to enjoy the scent.

They both have this soft and kind of oily texture. It stays on the lips rather than sinking in quickly, which made me worry that it wouldn't be nourishing and moisturizing. But no need to worry, it IS moisturizing. I read some reviews saying that it's not moisturizing and it doesn't do anything except smelling good but in my opinion it's quite good lip balm. I recommend you to try it out if you're into those scents, it's not going to destroy your bank as it's only £1.99!

Have you tried this product? What's your thought? 

PAUCE Cleansing Butter


PAUCE Cleansing Butter  3129yen

Today I'm going to talk about my favourite Japanese beauty product! I didn't know anything about this brand (I guess it's pretty new) but believe me, this cleansing butter is just amazing. First of all, let's be honest. The packaging is not pretty at all. It looks cheap and old-fashioned, it wouldn't catch my eyes if I didn't know anything about this product. I think it would look much nicer if it was in a glass jar or something, that would make it look more expensive and luxury.

This cleanser doesn't contain any petroleum-derived ingredients, paraben, and artificial perfume. It has α-Hydroxy Acid which melts the old dead skin cells on your skin and makes it smooth.


As you can guess from the name, it's got this buttery texture which turns into oil once I put it on my palms. It has a subtle scent of orange essential oil which doesn't cover the smell of the ingredients. I wish the scent was a little bit stronger so that it would have another effect; relaxation. 



Now I would like to show you how well this cleanser removes makeup.


You can see the cleanser is melting the lipstick.



Ta-da!! You only need about 30 seconds to massage then voila! Even my waterproof mascara is completely gone. There's no trace of makeup. Since I started using this cleanser I haven't used Bioderma to remove my eye makeup just because this cleanser removes everything. When you wash it off it leaves my skin pretty oily, as if a very think layer of oil is on my skin. But once the skin is dry, it becomes really soft and moisturized. 

I love how easy it is to remove my makeup with this cleanser. I wish it smelled nicer and the packaging was more sophisticated, but other than that it's such a nice cleanser. I won't buy it myself (did I mentioned that it was sent to me as a PR sample?) because it's pretty expensive and I would prefer buying Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish in the bigger tube if I had 3000yen to spend on cleanser, but I have been enjoying this cleanser very much. 

What is your favourite cleanser which removes all the makeup easily?

January Empties 2013

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It's February already! I'm so happy that winter is almost finished (in my head) and Spring will come very soon! In Japan Cherry Blossoms will start blooming from the end of March and that tells me that Spring has come. I can't wait for Spring, because it's my favourite season of the year! Anyway, because I didn't do Empties post in December, I have a quite few empty bottles here for you!

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Caudalie Gentle Cleanser
This is such a nice cleanser! This milky formula which smells divine removes dirt and makeup on the skin really gently as the name claims. It leaves my skin soft and moisturized, it doesn't feel dry even 5 minutes after I've washed my face. It lasted pretty long as I only needed a tiny amount to wash my whole face. My favourite part of this cleanser was the scent, I cannot describe it well but it smells very clean and fresh. I totally recommend this cleanser if you're looking for cleansing milk. I also think it's more suitable for dry skin more than oily and combination skin.

Caudalie Cleansing Water
I got it for free when I purchased some Caudalie products on feelunique. It does the same thing as Bioderma does, but less effective. Bioderma removes makeup much more easily. With this cleansing water, I had to rub my eye areas with a cotton pad quite strongly, and that irritated my skin. It still didn't remove all my makeup off, which I don't mind too much because I wash my face with another cleanser afterwords anyway. It smells really nice just as the cleanser does, which makes me feel relaxed whenever I use it. I don't think I would purchase the full-sized one, just because I think Bioderma does better job.

HANA Organic Floral Drop (full review)
I'm not sure how long I took to finish this product. It's basically Rose Water with some essential oils in it. It smells absolutely fantastic and I love the concept behind their products. Their toner (this product) and moisturizer (here for the full review) are designed to use in the evening because it repairs your skin during sleep because that's when your skin barrier becomes weaker. It's pretty expensive and I don't think I would buy it (I received it as a PR sample a long time ago) just because I have other products to try out.

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Aussie 3 Minutes Miracle Deep Treatment for Coloured Hair (full review)
I LOVED this product. I usually keep switching over my haircare products depending on my mood but I couldn't resist using this one every single day until I finished it completely. I enjoyed using this product so so so much and I'm hoping to get some bottles when I come to the U.K. next time (which is pretty soon actually!).  I wasn't a big fan of the scent which was too peachy and artificial, but I loved how it made my hair so soft, smooth and voluminous. With this hair treatment I didn't have to worry about styling my hair at all. It's a magical product seriously! I don't care the fact it's packed with silicone and polymer, it worked really well on my hair.

Redken Scalp Relief Shampoo (full review) This is another fabulous haircare products! When I was using this product, I didn't think it was anything special. Yes it did kill itchiness on my scalp but I thought that was because my scalp became less sensitive and calmer. But once I finished the first bottle, my scalp started itching again. I repurchased it from lookfantastic.com because somehow feelunique didn't allow me to buy it from Japan. Thank god lookfantastic did allow me to, otherwise I was going to have to live with my itchy scalp. Once I started using this product again, my scalp became calm again.

Tocca Laundry Delicate
It's not a beauty product but I had to include it here! Is it even popular in other countries? I believe it's from the U.S. but I've never seen anyone talking about this product outside of Japan. It's a laundry soap from the brand Tocca, and this small bottle costs 2500yen or so. I always buy it online so that it's much cheaper, but still it was 1300yen or something like that. The reason why I keep buying their laundry soap is because of the amazing scent. There are 4 different scents and my favourite is this "Florence" one. It smells like "In Love Again" perfume from YSL for me, and the scent isn't too strong but not too subtle. I don't use it to wash my clothes but my pillow cover, tights, underwear and my makeup brushes (I'm not sure if that's OK to do so but they're not animal bristles so should be OK). I use a tiny tiny amount at a time and this bottle lasts for more than 6 months. I already repurchased two bottles. One is Florence and another is Cleopatra. I will talk about them another day!


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Caudalie Lip Conditioner (full review)
I have repurchased this product twice or three times already. It's moisturizing enough for my dry lips and I also like the subtle vanilla scent of it. I'm not going to repurchase this time just because I have EOS one which I've been enjoying using recently.

URIAGE Lip Balm
I got it from my local drugstore, it's pretty expensive (1,040yen) for a tiny lip balm but it really works. I'm sure I spent more than 20,000yen on this lip balm in the past because this was the ONLY lip balm which worked for me before I met Caudalie and then EOS. It's got a vanilla scent too which I like.

Aveda Invati Shampoo and Conditioner
These were just small samples I got when they launched this series in Japan. It's supposed to
refresh your scalp and remove the daily build ups, and I think it works OK. The formula is really loose and looks like curry, which was a little bit gross. But fortunately it smells of herbs so please don't worry, it doesn't smell of curry. I liked both shampoo and conditioner but am not going to purchase the full-size ones just because they're pretty expensive and I have better ones for cheaper prices.


iMPRIME Repair Method
I got the whole set of the range in small bottles as a PR sample. You wash your hair with normal shampoo, then pat it dry with a towel and spray the "Base 0" all over your hair. Then apply Repair method 1 which is in the red bottle, then apply Repair method 2 which has two different formula, one is called α which is in the green bottle and another is called β which is in the blue bottle. α is for a smooth finish, and β is for drier and more damaged hair. They all smell AMAZING, I loved the scent so much. It smells like a salon if that makes sense, I think it's grapefruit and some herbs which bring out this fresh scent. It really worked and made my hair silky and soft. I don't think I would purchase them ever because when I buy them in bigger bottles, it costs about 10,000yen in total. I simply cannot afford them, but I really really love the products.



I hope you enjoyed it! x

Reviva Labs Firming Eye Serum



Reviva Labs Firming Eye Serum $8.89

I purchased this eye serum from Vitacost.com a while ago. I had not heard of this brand "Reviva" and of course I didn't know anything about this eye serum. But apparently this eye serum is one of the best selling products on the website, and a lot of people seem to be loving this product according to the reviews. I was just looking for a good eye cream, so thought to give it a try.

It says "Reduce the appearance of eye-area wrinkles, puffiness and dark circles...as you protect against future signs of aging. Our new Firming Eye Serum, with its special base and precise blending, penetrates the thin skin around eyes for quick absorption" on the description bar. It sounded like it's a perfect eye serum as it prevents wrinkles, puffiness and dark circles, and also nourish and moisturize the eye areas. Perfect!




I like this gel-like-consistency very much as it's easy to spread on my skin. It's not thick and heavy at all which is good under makeup. It absorbs very quickly so I can use it in the morning right before applying foundation and concealer. When I used a thicker eye cream I had to reduce the amount to apply or I just didn't apply in the morning because it caused concealer to crease. 

It doesn't have a scent which is a little bit boring for me as I'm obsessed with  scents. But it's a simple and effective eye serum which I can rely on. Since I started using this product I don't have too worry about my concealer getting caky under my eyes. It does work surely without any irritation or discomfort which is good. 


The original retail price is $19 but it's 53% off on Vitacost! It's pretty big for eye serum (29.5ml) so it will last pretty long I guess. If you ever shop at Vitacost, you should definitely add this item to your basket. No harm in trying!
 
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My Skincare Routine - Morning


Today I would like to share my morning skincare routine! Hope you enjoy :)


Shigeta Awakening Radiance Mousse

I wrote the full review here if you're interested. Shigeta is a Japanese brand which was actually launched in France first. They only use natural and organic ingredients and are against animal testing. This cleansing foam contains fragrant rose water and rose essential oil which give a heavenly scent to it. It comes out as foam so it's very easy to cleanse your face and I just like to use it in the morning because it doesn't remove makeup and also the scent is perfect to awake my skin.

Caudalie Grape Water
This is basically just water. It's fragrance free 100% grape water. Apparently grape water is good for your skin but to be honest I haven't noticed any difference since I started using it. I just like to spritzing this fine mist after I wash my face to refresh.



Aveda all sensitive moisturizer  34GBP
I'm not going to talk about how amazing this product is here as I've written enough already before, basically I cannot live without this product. The end.

Weleda Wild Rose Smoothing Day Cream 13.95GBP
I received this product from lovely Zanka from Zanka talks cosmetics, and I've been loving it so much. It's the perfect day cream which is light and yet moisturizing, with this amazing rosy scent. It moisturizes my skin just enough and I love it!


Devita Solar Protective Moisturizer SPF 30   $14.15
Read full review here! I love this creamy texture so much, it's easy to spread and feels like it gives a thin veil over my face to protect it from the sun. But recently I realized that my waterproof eyeliner transfers to my eyelid when I put this cream on my eyelid. So if you're considering getting this cream avoid your eye area otherwise it ruins your makeup! And the reason why I use Weleda's cream before this one is because it dries out my skin a little in this colder season. It might be too light for dry skin.
 
Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream 20GBP
 Full review is here.  This is my favourite eye cream ever! I love the pump because I don't have to scoop using a spatula like I used to do. The pump bottle makes it much easier to apply eye cream a few times a day. This cream is perfect under the makeup because it's very light-textured and does sink in quickly. It makes the skin around the eye area very smooth which prevents a concealer to get cakey. I also love the lovely scent in the morning :)

What are your morning skincare essentials?


My current skincare routine -Night


Today I'm going to talk (write?) about my night skincare routine.
These items are the ones I use every day. My skin is quite dry and sensitive, but recently I feel my nose is a bit more oily than before, so I try not to put too much cream around the area. 

And i just realized that I seem to have forgotten to include my cleanser here. So let me skip the cleanser for now. (I know, what type of post is this?)


1) After I wash my face with a cleanser, which I will talk about another time, I spritz Caudalie Beauty Elixir. This is my 2nd bottle, and I absolutely love this product. I have to admit that I thought the smell was too strong at the beginning and it bothered me a bit, but now I cannot live without it! The only negative part is that it's expensive. And I finish this big bottle within 1.5 months roughly, that means I have to spend more than 200 pounds a year for this lotion. That's ridiculous!! I need to find a cheaper lotion, please let me know if you have any recommendation.



2) Then  I apply Aveda All Sensitive Moisturiser. This item is another one that I cannot live without (my full review is here). I wouldn't recommend it if you're looking for a moisturizer which makes you relax and feel happy, because it's quite boring -the packaging is not pretty, and it doesn't smell good particularly. But if you're suffering from continuous breakouts or blemishes,  try this one. It works.



3) Here is my favourite eye cream! Skin Blossom Organic Eye Cream. I got it from Planet Organic in Notting Hill. The official website says "Revive and restore skin around eyes with this moisturising antioxidant cream containing a special blend of Green Tea, Eyebright and Buckwheat extract. Made with 85% organic ingredients and certified to the strict Soil Association organic skin care standards, also vegan products registered. The gentle formulation of this organic eye cream make it suitable for all skin types, including sensitive skin."

And guess how much it was? It was only 4.95 pounds. I got it without any hesitation. And it lasts quite long, because I've been using this since the beginning of June. I cannot tell how much is left because of the white bottle but I guess it'll last a couple more weeks.

Since I met this cream, my dark circles are gone. And my skin around my eyes are hydrated and it doesn't make a foundation or concealer cakey. It doesn't smell good either though, but that means it's suitable for those with sensitive skin as it doesn't contain any essential oils.



4) This is optional, but when my skin feels dry I add this oil at the end of my routine. This is a pure Argan oil (full review here) which you can use on your face, body and hair. It doesn't contain any essential oils in it either but it smells fruity / nutty which is the natural smell of Argan oil. I love it because it sinks in very quickly and doesn't make my face all greasy. Such a light but moisturizing oil, I love love love this. You can purchase from here if you're in Japan, not sure about international postage.


Well, I sometimes add a face mask and a facial scrub into the routine, so I will write about my special care soon! Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you think!