Review: Innisfree Green Tea Seed Cream

My second Innisfree product I'll be reviewing! I bought this the same time as I did with the Innisfree Soybean Extract Essence, and this was during early spring. Weather was still cold back then and I was looking for something to moisturize my super dry skin. But since summer is here, I hope this product still works for me.

I think Innisfree definitely beats the crowd in terms of packaging. And I LOVE packaging! Because Innisfree runs based on a philosophy of using only eco-friendly containers, the box they used is recyclable paper! The tub is recyclable too! Super proud of this company and what it's doing for the environment.

Innisfree believes in using natural products so this one is 100% organic green tea water from Jeju. And it's supposed to provide excellent moisturizing and anti-oxidant effects on your skin.

This cream has a wonderful scent to it. It's my favourite scent among my skin care range, and it really makes you feel really relaxed. It's texture is almost velvety, making it non-sticky making it really easy and enjoyable to apply to your skin. It really made my skin soft immediately too. The cream's consistency is kind of light but heavy as well, I don't make sense I know. Light as in your skin absorbs this really easily but heavy at the same time because it's really moisturizing. Although, I only use this at night because it seems too thick for the day especially when sunny days are ahead where my skin tends to get oily. However, during the early spring, I was still using it during the day.

My skin feels really moisturized and I haven't been experiencing any dryness or flaking. I feel like my skin has even cleared up a bit since using this. Mind you, I am still using my snail cream together with this. I must admit that this broke me out at first, but after awhile it went away and I'm really enjoying using the cream.

You can get it from Korea Depart at $19.13 or Qoo10 at $19.80 for 50ml, which is pretty reasonable for a cream seeing how it'll last you for 4 to 5 months.


Also, Merry Christmas guys!!!! Toodles.

Review: Biore Marshmallow Foaming Facial Wash

I recently went on a trip to Bangkok and decided to stock on my Essential Shampoo products in Watsons. I'm a really big fan of Biore's Oil Cleanser and I just happened to see this super cute facial wash! I normally stay away from foam cleansers because I don't like that squeaky, clean feeling because it tends to strip off all the natural oils from my skin. My skin is really dry during the colder seasons and when I use the foam cleansers, it makes my skin even drier after I pat my face dry and it'll start flaking. It's a nuisance. Rant over.

So since I was already a Biore Oil Cleanser enthusiast, I thought may as well give this a shot since I was looking for a new cleanser besides my normal Eucerin Milk Cleanser (which I have been using for years). Soft like Baby Skin! Marshmallow Foam! Seeing how adorable that marshmallow foam character, I knew I just had to buy it. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm a sucker for cute stuff. Sigh. Damn it, marketing tactics.

The labels are all in Thai, so I can't understand anything. But the ingredients doesn't list any of the Parabens, so YAY!

That's how much I use each time. I don't push the whole pump down because a little of it is all you need for your entire face once you lather it up with water. The scent is rather enjoyable and it just makes me feel like my day is over and I'm finally winding down.

I feel clean and really refreshed after I wash it off with warm water. There's no stripping, clean feeling which I dislike. It leaves my skin feeling moisturized and somehow just soft and supple. Truly it stands to what it says, soft like baby skin! I've never experienced such a nice facial wash before and it's off the counter. This is the main reason why I look forward to taking my make up off and washing up these days. I WAS IN LOVE AFTER THE FIRST WASH! 

I don't know if this is available in Malaysia, but I hope it is, because I would definitely repurchase this again and again. It should be stocked up in Singapore. Sigh, what a pain that Australia doesn't have the Asia range. WHY  D:

If you guys happen to find this, try it out and let me know!


Toodles! 

Melbourne's Night Noodle Markets 2014

Night Noodle Markets were back again and this time it was so much bigger! And honestly, I only went again this time because I thought it was a lovely activity for a date and I just wanted pictures of the lanterns. 

Last year, I went when stores were kind of closing and it was a rainy day I remember, so it was pretty muddy. Plus, when I went there weren't many stores around. But this time round, the Markets decided on a new location, Birrarung Marr, not very far off from the original one really. There were more than 50 stalls serving Asian food over three levels. This year was so much bigger, livelier and so much more crowded. The lines for food were ridiculous. I couldn't even get the chicken skewers that my friends were recommending about. More like I didn't have the patience for it. Heh. Prices were a tad expensive too, but I guess it's for the experience. 

The panda balloons were at certain places. I couldn't figure out what they were indicating but my guess was for toilets. 

I ended up lining up for Chin Chin and got almost everything from the menu (because I just didn't want to line up for anything else). 45 dollars for 3 dishes plus Chilli popcorn. The popcorn was the closest I could get to Caramel popcorn, till to this day I don't understand why Australia doesn't sell it in the cinemas. 

Food was splendid and I really enjoyed the entire time I was there. My friends got some Gelato from Messina for me. I forgot to take pictures of it and the rest of my food because I was uh, a little impatient and hungry by then. Maybe next year, I'll go earlier with more friends so we can gather more food. 

Toodles! 

Review: Laniege Water Sleeping Pack EX

This is Laniege's BEST SELLING PRODUCT and I don't know why I haven't written a post about this. I've been using this for 2 years now and I AM STILL ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT. During the drier seasons, especially winter, my skin dries out and it flakes if I don't moisturize enough.

The Laniege Water Sleeping Pack takes care of that. I first started using this end of 2012 and I just started getting into Korean skin care products (the influence of Kdramas tsk tsk). This is the first product I bought actually and I never stopped using it since then. This is my Holy Grail and I don't think I can ever go without this anymore.

The packaging is in a dusty blue sturdy plastic tub, and it comes sealed. Laniege is kind enough to provide a spatula for you hygiene freaks out there. I just turn the closed tub upside down so the product sticks to the lid and I use the product on the lid. To be honest, I'm quite lazy to use to spatula since I'm using the product almost every day.

The Sleeping Pack is of a aqua blue/green gel-like consistency. Apparently the colour may differ depending the harvest of the ingredients such as the rose oil. The gel is really light and is really easy to spread it over your skin and it doesn't have that sticky feeling like most moisturizing products have.

The smell is wonderfully pleasant. Not overpowering, but a very nice relaxing type of scent you would want to smell at the end of the day. The aromatic essence is developed by Amore Pacific known as the Sleepscent. It apparently helps to relax your mind and body to promote good sleep. Sleepscent comprises of essential oils from Orange flower, Rose, Ylang Ylang, and Sandal Wood. Laniege encourages you to dab the some product on your face and just enjoy the smell before evenly spreading it out. Once you spread it out, the smell kinda disappears.

I apply a pretty generous amount of the sleeping pack covering my entire face as my last step to my skin care routine and I spray Avene Eau Thermale Spring Water to seal the moisture in. This is perfect because I don't need to worry about washing it off until the next morning when I start my day. What I love so much about the product is how cooling it is when you put it on your skin. It makes my skin feel so refreshed which will definitely help soothe any red or aggravated areas.

The next day, I wake up to a brighter, softer, moisturized face. Washing it off feels like you're washing a layer of goo off, nothing disgusting. It feels refreshing in fact. I proceed with my daily routine after that. I love how my skin feels every morning after I use the sleeping pack.

Laniege recommends to use it once or twice a week, but they encourage to use more the recommended amount when your skin is particularly dry. My skin is super dry during winter so I use it almost everyday then. When summer comes up, I use it once every two days depending on how my skin is. Sometimes when I get sunburnt, I use this at night just to cool the skin down on top of my aloe vera gel. Or when I feel like my skin is stinging from a product I used, I apply this to calm my skin. Or when I find that my skin is really red during the day because I did something stupid like exfoliating my skin a little too hard the night before, I use this to cool down. There's no precise usage of how many times you should use it, I say just use it when you need it or feel like it.

It never broke my skin out in the 2 years I've used it. It still remains my Holy Grail to this day and I really don't think I can ever leave this out of my skin care routine. I never had flaky skin till this day. I've recommended to a few of my friends and those who have sensitive skin also never complained about anything. Basically, everyone I know that uses it raved about the product.

One tub lasts me about 6 months since I use it very frequently, but it'll last you about 10 months if you use it as recommended. Repurchase? I'm currently on my 5th tub LOL. I always get mine from Qoo10 at $18.70.


Toodles!

Review: Innisfree Soybean Energy Essence

I've been wanting to give Innisfree a shot since I've been hearing about so many wonderful products they have. Plus, Yoona is the ambassador, I kinda got sucked in.

First product I decided to purchase was the Soybean Energy Essence. I've been looking for something to use in the morning since I don't really want to use my Estee Lauder Advance Night Repair Serum during the day.

It says that the essence is made of 91% of fermented Jeju's indigenous green beans which helps to create healthy and vital skin. Other ingredients include, Japanese apricot extract, oat kernel extract, lotus extract, adenosine. Adenosine helps with preventing wrinkles, increases blood flow to the outer layer of the skin which will then improve damage repair and cell volume resulting in a fuller appearance (RGCell Time Slip Solutions, 2012). And apart from that, I don't see any signs of paraben! A plus!

It's a pretty small bottle, I thought it would be much bigger after reading several reviews and the pictures on Qoo10 misled me to think that it was a pretty big glass bottle. When it came in the mail, I was surprised to see the packaging LOOKED like it was glass but it was actually a plastic bottle. I think it's perfect for traveling though.

The essence had a really faint, sweet smell. A few drops onto your hands or cotton pad would suffice for your entire face. I usually like patting products directly onto my face instead of putting them on a cotton pad cause I feel it's wasting the product. Sorta sticky, like how an essence/serum would normally be. I would then continue with my creams and everything else after.

I didn't notice anything within the first few days. I broke out though after 2 weeks. A little history on my skin, I break out easily. I wasn't too sure if it was the stressful period during exams or it was my menstrual cycle or the food. I decided to stop using it for a bit. One month later, I started using it again  for about 2 to 3 weeks. And...I broke out again. I stopped again and I stopped breaking out. Yeah, it was probably the cause of my break out.

I was quite disappointed though. I really liked it. The consistency, smell and everything else. And reading so many other reviews about this, they all loved it. Maybe I'll try it again but I'm currently testing out other products, which I can't wait to share it with all of you!

Korea Depart is selling it for $33.48 for the 150ml whereas Qoo10 is selling for $19.80 for 80ml.


Toodles!

Review: Jaminkyung Crema Caracol Snail Cream

I've been using snail cream ever since I discovered it, and all this while I've been using Mizon All in one snail cream. But recently, my friend visited Korea and decided to buy me a bottle of snail cream cause it reminded him of me >. > He randomly picked one out of the hundreds of cosmetic brands.

I'm obviously going to compare this with the Mizon one, so bear with me.

Crema Caracol has about 90% snail mucus extract (Mizon is 92%). It contains other ingredients such as lanolin and caviar extract and EGF (epidermal growth factors). I'm not too sure if it has paraben in it, but seeing how it doesn't state it as a main ingredient, I guess not or maybe, I don't know. But I'm not too bothered about it. I always joke that my skin needs its paraben to look good. Lol. Oh, did I mention that it is Hypo-allergenic too! That means those of you who have sensitive skin will be happy to use this!

I can't show you guys the original packaging it came in, cause it was all squished when it was given to me and it was all in Korean anyway, so I had to gather my information through their website. The tub is plastic and pretty light. I've carried it around with me when I travelled and it seems to always leek out. Probably because it's so runny, it leaks through. My advice is to just pack it into another small bottle when you travel to avoid the risk of spilling it everywhere.

The cream is not really a cream, more like a runny, sticky substance. It's certainly more gooey than the Mizon one. I wasn't quite used to it at first. The smell was pleasant, but it was a little too pungent for me at first. I got used to it.

In the beginning, it was a little too sticky for my liking. But, the cream absorbed right into my skin the moment I pat it on. Remember, pat it onto your skin for the best results! The after feeling felt kind weird cause it felt like I didn't have enough on my face because it was such a thin layer.

I did break out when I started using it, but like my previous experience with Mizon, I was pretty sure it was bound to happen. My skin healed over time and break outs have been minimal. It gives the same effect, less break outs, faster healing of the break outs and acne scars. Well, comparing Crema Caracol with Mizon, I think Mizon wins on the after results. Mizon will always be my first love. I'm still using this one until I finish it though!

Would I repurchase it? Yes, if Mizon doesn't work out for me anymore or if Mizon discontinues their own line.

So since this was given to me, I'm not sure how much it is but Korea Depart it's $15 for 60ml. It's definitely cheaper compared to the Mizon (80ml). For my fellow Malaysians and Singaporeans, Qoo10 is selling it for $12.90. 

That's all for now, toodles! <3