Is beautyblender worth the hype?

beautyblender $20.00
I don't think I need to write an in-depth review about this cult beauty product, because you all are aware it's one of the best selling beauty products in the world and there is a possibility that you are fed up on hearing about it. But I thought to write a quick post about my thoughts on the REAL beautyblender -what make it so special that spending $20 on a makeup sponge doesn't seem to be such a bad idea.

I have used some makeup sponges in the past. I like applying my liquid foundation with a brush, but I definitely need a sponge to make sure the skin looks flawless, without any streaky lines or patchiness. I've tried some Japanese ones including Tofu sponge, Dior one and Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge. For years and years I've heard beautyblender is the best sponge ever, but I couldn't justify myself for spending that much money on a makeup sponge. It's not even a brush, it's a makeup sponge, think about it.

But then, I finally got fed up on using crappy makeup sponges that didn't satisfy me at all. I decided to purchase beautyblender online, as it's not available in Japan. I bought the one comes with a mini size of the solid cleanser, because I heard someone washed her beautyblender with a shampoo or something that completely ruined the texture. I thought it would be safer to get the cleanser too.

The sponge expands quite a lot when it's damp. And this is when I realised the biggest different between the dupes and the real beautyblender. It's elasticity. That is it. Everything else is the same -it looks identical to the sponge from Dior that I used to use, but the texture is completely different.

The one from Dior was very hard and didn't change the texture at all when damp, whereas beautyblender becomes softer and much more spongy once it soaks up water. The key here is that you must wet it properly. I squeeze my beautyblender at least 6-7 times under running water, so that it's completely wet. Then pat dry with a towel then with tissue paper as well, otherwise it feels too wet on the skin.

It's so bouncy and soft on the skin, and does blend everything seamlessly. As mentioned earlier, I apply my liquid foundation with a brush (my favourite is Sigma Flattop Kabuki) and basically bounce this sponge all over my face. Then apply concealer, blend with a brush, then bounce this little black one again. When I want more coverage on my pores, I add a bit of my foundation over the cheek and dab the beautyblender. It blurs my pores completely and it never looks dry or patchy.

Overall, this sponge does wonders for sure. I have no idea if elasticity of the sponge is connected to its blending ability, but it does do an amazing job. I cannot go back to Miracle Complexion Sponge from Real Techniques anymore, and I do not mind spending $20 on a sponge at all.

My last note is about the solid cleanser. I first thought it would be ridiculous to buy a bar soap just for a sponge, especially when the soap is more than $15 or so. But now I am not against the idea as much as I was before, because it's pretty good actually.

Mine is a mini and the tin didn't come with the soap itself, so I keep it in the lid of the plastic package of beautyblender. It smells of lavender which is lovely, though I wish the scent was a little more stronger and lingering. It's a little awkward to swirl the sponge on the soap, but it lathers well and keeps the sponge nice and clean. The great thing about this sponge is that it lasts forever. I have used this solid cleanser multiple times in the past 2 months, but it looks exactly the same size as when I bought it. Which means the full size solid cleanser would last for months or possibly for a year if you take a good care of it!

If you haven't tried the REAL beautyblender, give it a go. In my opinion it's better to get one beautyblender than getting 10 dupes.

Recent Empties -Haircare and Bodycare

Every Colour Treatment in Grey
I colour my hair every 3 months to maintain beautiful ashy brown. It gets yellowy and brassy after a week, so I'd always used purple shampoo and conditioner to reduce the brassiness. But it didn't work as much as I wanted it to do, so I switched my purple conditioner to this one. This is not a tinted hair treatment, it's more like a rinsable hair colour. I picked grey instead of purple to maintain the ashy tone in my hair -and it does wonders to my hair. I apply it all over my hair once every two weeks, and put the hair up and leave it for an hour to two. You are supposed to rinse it off after 5-10 minutes, but I leave it as long as I can. It makes my hair look super ashy but not too green or grey. They have various colours you can pick depending on your hair colour, such as red, pink, blue, green and purple.  I of course repurchased and am currently using my 2nd tube.

Fearful Hard Keep Oil Spray
I've used up about 5 of this spray. I always get this small tin rather than the big one because it's handy to have in your handbag. It doesn't make your hair crispy at all but hold everything in place. I use it to  smooth fluffy hair, or lock everything in place when I wear my hair up. It smells lovely, and works really well. I repurchased another tiny tin, and then finally got a big one recently to use at home.

KEBELO Clarifying Shampoo 
I got it in my lookfantastic beauty box which is one of the best beauty boxes I've ever tried. This clarifying shampoo is very intense that you are supposed to use once a month. I use it once in every two weeks to clean my scalp, it's refreshing and soothing. I like the subtle grapefruit scent as well.

L'Oreal Extraordinary Oil Hair Mask
I LOVED this hair mask! It smells divine, and makes my hair feel so smooth without weighting it down. It's affordable and effective. There is no reason not to repurchase!

TRESemmé Perfectly (un) Done Sea Form
I got it as a freebie when I got ELLE magazine in the UK last year. I didn't expect it to be good at all, but it was actually impressively good. I take the foam on my palms, rub them together and lightly apply it on my hair focusing on the roots and sides around my years where I want the most volume when my hair is still bump. Once it's completely dry, you'd notice your hair is voluminous and kind of squeaky and tangly. It doesn't sound so good now that I described as squeaky and tangly, but believe me it does give the most natural volume. I use leave-in treatment in conjunction with this product though, to minimise messiness.

Bath&Body Works Hand Soaps
The only hand soaps I use are the ones from Bath&Body Works. I have at least 5 in stock no matter what. (For those who are wondering where I get them from, I usually buy them from Rakuten or Mercari) Lemonade one was OK, it smelt more like watermelon than lemonade. I LOVE Black Cherry Merlot very much that this was my 3rd or 4th bottle. I'm not a big fan of cherry scent usually, but this one is just heavenly.

Soap&Glory Clean on Me
I always want the bigger size, but my luggage is always overweight that I pick up this mini size instead. I simply love the smell of this shower gel, it's not overpowering but good enough to boost my  femininity. I have one more bottle to go, and will be repurchasing tons when I'm back in the UK -which is very soon!

Soap&Glory Breakfast Scrub
It's SO old that it might have been off. It's now a part of the smoothiestar range, but it used to be just Breakfast Scrub. This is the best smelling body scrub ever, that I hope they never stop manufacturing.  It smells like maple syrup, brown sugar and vanilla. It's also a very good body scrub that gets rid of dead skin cells without scratching the skin. The only downside is that it stings when my skin is a little sensitive, because it contains salt. I wish they would switch it to sugar, so that you can use it on damaged skin too.

Jo Malone Peony&Blush Suede
This is my signature fragrance for sure. I now have the big bottle and I cannot get enough of it. It's even more expensive in Japan than it is in the UK which is ridiculous, but Jo Malone is definitely the queen of fragrance. This scent is a mixture of femininity and masculinity. Who would come up with an idea of mixing peony and suede? Genius.

I hope you enjoyed it! One more empty post to go!

Popular Japanese Drugstore Makeup Removers under 1,000yen

I feel bad whenever I get asked by some followers to recommend them some Japanese drugstore products, because I don't use Japanese products much unless they're given. I only have a couple of products I can recommend, such as RAFRA balm cleanser and Love Liner. So I came up with the idea of doing 'Popular Japanese Products' series on my blog, to give myself an opportunity to try more Japanese products, and you guys get to read my reviews at the same time. How efficient!

Today's theme is 'makeup remover'. In Japan, micellar water isn't as popular as it is in the western world and I guess the reason is because Japanese people hate rubbing their face to remove makeup. Asian skin is said to be thinner than western skin, thus we are prone to pigmentation caused by friction. And also it simply irritates sensitive skin. You would be overwhelmed by the number of cleansers displayed if you visited Aintz&Tulpe's basement floor where they have skincare products. I had no idea which one to pick, but I managed to choose 3 popular makeup removers to compare.

To test how they remove makeup, I used these products. From left, Mis"el Ady Liquid Eyeliner aka one of the hardest liquid eyeliner to remove, Kesalan Pathalan Smooth Lips, Nudestix Magnetic Eye Color and Anastasia Brow Pomade.

Shiseido Senka Perfect Watery Oil  980yen
Their face wash Perfect Whip became popular more than a decade ago, and still is one of the most popular cleansers. I used to be a heavy user of the face wash until I became more fussy about skincare products in my mid-twenties. It was my first time to try out their oil, and I must say I was pretty impressed.

The consistency is pretty watery as the name suggests. The top ingredient on the list is mineral oil, which I believe most of you hate. I self-studied dermatology to get to know more about skincare when I was into natural and organic beauty products, and I believed mineral oil was bad for your skin, but also found information that claims mineral oil back in the day contained impurities and irritative, but nowadays impurities are all removed from the oil and nothing is wrong with using the oil on the skin. It's completely up to you what to believe, but I don't care too much about it because my skin doesn't hate it anyway. To cut the long story short, I just wanted to mention that it contains mineral oil.

The good thing about this cleanser is that you can use it with wet hands. Normally you need to apply cleansing oil to completely dry face with dry hands to dissolve makeup, sebum and dirt. But this one can be used in the shower, when both face and hands are wet. How convenient.

It instantly removed everything besides the eyeliner. See, I told you this is pain in the butt to remove it! Apparently this cleanser contains 'mascara remover' which makes it easy to remove waterproof mascara. Well, it didn't remove the waterproof eyeliner though.

I love the floral scent which isn't too overpowering at all. The texture is very smooth just like normal cleansing oil, and it rinses off quickly with warm water. No need to use muslin cloth, Japanese oil cleansers are designed to be removable with warm water.

It leaves moisturising feel to the skin, which is perfect for dry skin yet not too heavy for combination to oily skin. A bonus point is that it contains hyaluronic acid too.

Softymo Super Point Makeup Remover  647yen
This remover was recommended by Sami from Makeup Wasteland when I mentioned Mis"el Ady Liquid Eyeliner would never come off completely. This gel consistency eye-makeup remover is neutral just like your tears, which makes it less harsh to your eyes. The thick formula removes your eye makeup instantly that you don't need to rub your eyes which is the most sensitive area of your face.

As you can see, it's pretty thick. If you put this cotton pad directly to your eyes, it might go into your eyes and causes irritation. I make sure the makeup remover is soaked completely into the cotton pad, then place it on the eyes and leave it for a couple of seconds without rubbing.

Sami mentioned it would remove the eyeliner easily, but for some reason it didn't work as good on me. It could be the combination of the eyeliner and my skin -no idea what that means but hey, something could be wrong with my skin- but it takes two cotton pads to remove my makeup on one eye.

It's fragrance-free which is suitable for sensitive skin, and it's also oil-free that's perfect for those who hate the oily residue some eye-makeup remover leaves on the skin. Hyaluronic acid and provitamine B5 protect your lashes. I use it to remove my eye makeup only when I'm wearing heavy makeup but it does shorten the makeup removal process which I appreciate.

Bifesta Bright up Cleansing Sheet  550yen 
Bifesta is famous for their micellar water -which I believe is the most popular drugstore micellar water- and this is the face-wipe version from the same series. They have 3 different types of makeup wipes you can choose depending on your skin type. I picked up 'Bright up' one which contains AHA and moisturising vitamin C to clear up the complexion. There are 'Moist' and 'Enrich' ones as well.

It was very hard to capture how wet the wipes are, but can you see the small pool around my finger? It's pretty wet which reduces friction and irritation caused by the harsh material. I like how soft the wipe is, it's not irritating at all on the skin which is always a plus.

Another good thing I must mention is that this packaging is genius. The most annoying thing is that when you try to take one wipe, another comes with it and you have to put it back in. Worse is that the wipe gets dried out the next day -and the worst case scenario is the whole pack gets dried up. Bifesta's makeup wipes never do that. This genius packaging allows you to take only one wipe each time. Also the lid is actually plastic, not a sticker that loses stickiness after 3 uses.

The wipe is 15cm x 20cm which is pretty big. Use on dry skin start from wiping the whole face gently. Then I fold it and sandwich my eyelashes to remove my mascara, then wipe around my eyes even more gently. Because it's pretty wet, it's not harsh on the skin. It removes not only makeup but dirt and dead skin cells, which is of course a plus.

So, I placed a wipe on the skin covering the half of the area I put makeup on, and waited for 10 seconds. Then, gently wipe the skin off trying not to rub the skin.

You can see the only product it removed completely is the lipstick. The traces of brow pomade and eyeshadow are visible although the other two I mentioned earlier completely removed them. As for the eyeliner, words are not needed to describe how disappointed I was. I added 10 more seconds to the test after taking this photo but it didn't make a big difference.

I don't think this is a perfect makeup remover to use on its own, but in combination with other cleansers, I actually find it convenient. I usually remove my makeup and cleanse my skin at the same time with RAFRA cleansing balm. It does remove my makeup very well but sometimes I have panda eyes after rinsing my face. That's when it comes in very handy. I fold the wipe into four, then remove the makeup left around my eyes using the edge. It works better than using the eye makeup remover with a cotton pad because it's thinner and edgier. I also use it to remove a part of my makeup in the morning when I screw up. I don't recommend to rely on it, but it's handy to have for sure.

Phew, I wonder why my posts are freaking long all the time. I wonder if there is someone who's read it all, but if you did thank you so much and hope you enjoyed!