Friday 13 February 2015

ASIAN BEAUTY HAUL FROM TESTERKOREA + BEAUTYNETKOREA

It's my first asian beauty haul on this blog! I bought one item from BeautyNetKorea and a couple items from TesterKorea. It was my second time shopping from BNK and my first from TK, so let me share my experiences with them and my haul! Yay! 

My TK order was purchased on 24/01/15, shipped 02/02/15 (9 days later) and received 13/02/15 (11 days later), so a total of 20 days. My BNK order was purchased on 21/01/15, shipped on 22/02/15 (1 day) and received on 13/02/15 (22 days) so a total of 23 days (shipping to Australia). They both arrived today and it made me super excited! Let's get on to the items!


TonyMoly Appletox Smooth Massage Peeling Cream. So cute right? ^-^



















I only bought one item from BNK, and that was the TonyMoly Appletox Smooth Massage Peeling Cream. It came in a cardboard box, individually bubble wrapped like the last time I ordered. The product comes in this ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE green apple packaging which makes so super happy because I'm and absolute sucker for packaging. Even the little 'leaf' makes me so happy! *smiles with glee* 

It smells like apples, but not an artificial asian candy scent. More like fresh, crisp apples. It comes with a plastic lid inside the cute packaging to keep the product from transferring on the lid and into the grooves of the lid. Only thing is that the lid kind of screws on unevenly, so I don't know if that's just mine. Also, it didn't come with a little spatula thing which means hands, and makes it less hygienic. But the packaging is so cute, that it can be forgiven.



TesterKorea items all packaged up nicely!


















My TK order came in this yellow box, kind of a plastic-cardboard? I don't know. It came with a layer of bubble wrap on the bottom, top and these foam thingies in between the products. A bit of a nuisance when all I wanted was to grab all my products and inhale their scents as well as slather them all over wherever they go, but I restrained myself otherwise. At least they kept my items well cushioned! 


L-R: Mizon Water Volume Aqua Gel Cream, Skinfood Wash Off Rice Mask,
Innisfree Green Tea Pure Gel Hand Cream, Etude House Dear My Wish
Lipstick in BE102, Aritaum Honey Melting Tint in 02 Sugar Syrup and
Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliner in 15 Burgundy Garnet.





















The Mizon Water Volume Aqua Gel Cream comes in this pretty blue tube and box, which the colour alone makes me feel happy. The product feels light, moisturising and quite like a serum. It's got a gel texture that's quite thin, and it has a slight fresh scent. I haven't used it long enough (since I got my order today) to give a full on review, but I like it so far!

I've heard heaps about the Skinfood mask line, and after reading a couple reviews, I wasn't sure if the black sugar mask would be too abrasive for my dry and sensitive skin, and if the rice mask would be too gentle and not scrub enough. I figured that it would be better to be safe, and if it doesn't exfoliate enough I can always buy the black sugar one another time! It doesn't come with something to get the product out, making it lose points in the hygiene department. It comes with a plastic lid with the brand name like a lot of asian skincare products so that the product doesn't make the lid all messy. It has a faint floral-ish scent which I don't mind, it's nothing too harsh though.

The Innisfree Green Tea Gel Hand Cream is 50ml and comes in a foil sealed green tube. I love the packaging, 'cause it has similar packaging materials to the L'Occitane and the Crabtree and Evelyn hand creams and that makes me feel rich! I haven't used it yet as it's a backup for my current green tea gel hand cream, but it smells divine! 

I was debating which lipstick to pick up from the Etude House range, since I'd heard heaps about their lipsticks (and wanted to limit myself to buying one, since I have waay too many lip products), so I chose the Dear My Wish Talk in BE102, since I heard that they were creamier and smoother than the Dear My Blooming Talk lipsticks. The packaging is very sturdy, and EXTREMELY, BEYOND MYSELF CUTE. I CAN'T GET OVER IT. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL. The actual product is extremely smooth, creamy, pigmented and moisturising. I had some swatches, but I realised how horrible the lighting was and that it didn't represent the shade properly in real life, so I skipped on them, as by that time it was too dark to take more pictures (and I wanted to get this post up asap). BE102 is a pink-nude and is a MLBB on me. 

Aritaum Honey Melting Tint is one of my favourites. It smells sweet, almost slightly fruity. Not only is the colour super cute (a nice medium pink with hints of coral shade) but the formula is super pigmented, super moisturising, and feels like a balm. The packaging may not be as cute as the Etude House products, but the product inside is definitely a love!

Holika Holika's Jewel Light Waterproof Eyeliner is the smoothest, creamiest eyeliner I've ever tried! It glided on my hand like butter, and is really waterproof! I thought that my Rimmel ones I was using were creamy, but they pale in comparison to these! They're also super cheap, half the price of some of the Rimmel ones (in Australia at least). Only problem is that I'm pretty sure that it is retractable, but when I opened it the retractor didn't work...?

edit: I forgot to write about the eyeliner, and only realised when I woke up T_T



Samples bought: Skinfood Royal Honey Hydro Essence, Innsifree Green
Tea Serum, TonyMoly Intense Care Dual Effect Sleeping Pack and TonyMoly
Red Appletox Honey Cream.





















TesterKorea has the cheapest and widest range of samples than any other website I've known of, so I picked up quite a few. The Skinfood Royal Honey Hydro Essence and TonyMoly Appletox Honey Creams were just impulses since they were quite popular and I had heard good things about them. The Innisfree Green Tea Serum was something I wanted to try, but didn't exactly want to purchase it just yet, so samples were the way to go. The TonyMoly Intense Dual Effect Sleeping Pack is something I bought for my mum. I've heard of quite a lot in terms of it as a good anti-ageing product, and although the samples might not do much, it would be good to make sure she's not allergic to any ingredients before purchasing a full size.


Skinfood brush I bought for use with the mask, which I forgot to
photograph in the overall haul.

The Skinfood mask brush I bought for my Wash Off Rice Pack for better hygiene when dispensing the product out, and for spreading it on my face. I can also wash it and use it for some of my other masks which is great!


The free samples included! Left is BeautyNetKorea and right is TesterKorea!

I received some TonyMoly I'm Real sachets and a TonyMoly Panda's Dream Eye Patch from BeautyNetKorea (as they have this deal where every purchase gets a Panda's Dream Eye Patch). I got an assortment of other samples from TesterKorea. There's a The Face Shop Concentrate (a toner I'm assuming..?), Missha Super Aqua Snail Moisturiser, Missha Timeless Revolution Toner and a Missha Gold Snow Emulsion (I think).


So yay, that's me for my haul! Hope you enjoyed reading! Now I'm about to oogle at my lipstick's packaging and sniff my Appletox cream all day!

- Jess xo



Monday 9 February 2015

JANUARY LIP BUYS 2015

So as my little bio to the side says, I may or may not be extremely addicted to lip products. I am, as it says, a firm believer that one can't have too many lip products, so I'm starting this series (or whatever, call it what you will) lip buys. If I think that I've purchased a sufficient amount of lip products in one month, or two or three, I'll make a blog post displaying all my buys with swatches and reviews! Hope you'll enjoy!


L-R: Red Velvet, Tiramisu, Devil's Food Cake






















First off is the NYX Cosmetics Pure Decadence Butter Gloss set. It's one of their limited edition Valentine's Day sets, and especially since they had 25% off all NYX at Target until this Wednesday, I got this for around $10.45, making them around $3.50 each. Considering their RRPs are $9.95 each, they're definitely a steal! They come with three shades; Red Velvet; what I think is a blue toned cherry red on my skin tone, and what the NYX website says is a 'deep red'. Tiramisu; a pink toned nude on my skin tone, and what the NYX website says is a 'brown', which I definitely don't agree with. You can see in the swatches below that it does look brown, but it has pink tones, and not a brown brown. Devil's Food Cake is my favourite out of them all, as it's a dark plum purple, and what the website says is a deep plum which I do agree with. I like wearing it with a sheet wash over my lips, and building up the colour as well. I'd been wanting Red Velvet and Devil's Food Cake for a while now anyway, and even though I already own Tiramisu, it can be a great gift anytime! The formula smells HEAVENLY and are so smooth and do glide on like butter on the lips (without the taste and the oily feel) and set well. They do need touchups like any gloss, but they're one of my favourite formulas. Not too sticky, and not too slippery. Only drawback is that after a while (2-4 hours) they get quite sticky and gather in the lines of my lips which can be noticed close up, and clings to the inside of my lips which is where my lips start to flake first, and I end up picking it off. Other than that, I'm up for a great deal, anytime.



L-R: 107, 111, 103

Next up are the Kate Moss by Rimmel Lipsticks. Chemist Warehouse were having a 50% off all cosmetics a couple weeks back, so why not take advantage of that? I picked up two of her matte formulas in 107 and 111, Kiss of Life. I also picked up one of the regular formulas in 103. 107 is a nice dark, vampy berry red on me, 111 is a beautiful cherry red shade, and 103 is a nude on my skin tone. The formulas are beautiful - smooth, creamy and moisturising. 107 and 111 are extremely moisturising as far as matte lipsticks go, and although some people hate the smell, I honestly don't mind it. The matte line is more transfer proof than the normal ones, and wear like normal lipsticks. If you were to wear them for a while with eating, sometimes they cling to dry patches and stain unevenly, so it's better to reapply. They're great buys and I definitely recommend! The shade range is pretty good too, and definitely more affordable than Revlon Matte Lipsticks when they're 50% off too!



L-R: Maybelline Colour Elixir in Raspberry Rhapsody
Rimmel Apocalips in Apocaliptic

My next two buys were also a result of the 50% off all cosmetics sale at Chemist Warehouse, and they were the Maybelline Colour Elixir in Raspberry Rhapsody and the Rimmel Apocalips in Apocaliptic. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more daring with my lip colours (as I tend to gravitate towards the rose-pink, natural and brown shades, the MLBBs), and I quite like the purple trend. I'm not that into pinks, as I feel they don't really go with my skintone and I just don't really care for pinks. If I were to go bold, I'd go red or purple, or a deep shade. The Elixirs have a lovely scent, are moisturising, glossy, not too sticky and are great. Raspberry Rhapsody looks like a beautiful purple shade, but it looks pink with a hint of purple on my lips. I like it, not too purple (like the Vision in Violet shade they offer), and not too pink! The colour is also extremely buildable, which I like. Only downside is that the security seal ruined one of the sides of the shiny silver lid, and after a while (4-5 hours) when it starts to fade away and dry, it becomes sticky and the pigmentation clings on to the dry flakes of my lips that start from the inside, so it looks like I have bright pink inner lips. Not the best look, so it's better to wipe off and reapply often. 
The Rimmel Apocalips is like a liquid lipstick - smooth, moisturising, extremely pigmented with a semi-matte finish. Apocaliptic is like a pink-red shade, and it's beautiful. The scent is just like the Rimmel Kate Moss Lipsticks. Only problem it's not transfer proof, and transfers easily and doesn't really stain the lips. If it were to be somewhat transfer proof, I'd love and wear it to death. I haven't tried setting it with transluscent powder though yet, so maybe I'll try that. But other than that, I love it!



L-R: NYX Butter Gloss in Red Velvet, Tiramisu, Devil's Food Cake, Rimmel Kate Moss
Lipstick in 107 (matte), 111 (matte), 103, Maybelline Colour Elixir in Raspberry Rhapsody
and Rimmel Apocalips in Apocaliptic

As you can see with the swatches, I added in pictures of the applicators for the various products (minus the lipstick as theyre just regular bullets). NYX butter glosses are typical doe foot applicators with a spongy feel. Maybelline Elixirs have a slanted tapered applicator with a pointy tip which is perfect for getting in the cupid's bow and the corners of the lips. It also feels super nice on the lips, and it's my favourite applicator to apply with because of how it feels. The Rimmel Apocalips have a doe foot applicator with a well in the middle to pick up more product and also has a spongy feel. The Maybelline Colour Elixirs have the best neck of bottle to take off excess product.


I hope you liked this lip product and haul/review! 

Love, lipgloss and heaps and heaps of lipstick,
- Jess xo