Etude House Baking Powder - Pore Cleansing Foam

Just a quick post to say I love this stuff! I do tend to rotate my face washes as lot as I find that with my combination, oily t-zone and acne prone skin not all face washes work CONSISTENTLY on me. That is, like shampoo, after a few months my skin (or hair) seems to get used to the one brand and it then gets ineffective. So I switch up my face washes and shampoos every once in a while.

Anyhoo, my usual face wash is the Origins Checks and Balances which I do really like. But I switched to this a while back and it has been fantastic! It feels creamy in texture but foams up really well and feels thoroughly cleansing on the skin. I wouldn't recommend it to dry skin sufferers but it has worked great on my oily/combo skin and has helped reduce the appearance of blackheads (though not gotten rid of them completely).

This was an eBay purchase since there are STILL no UK stockists for Korean brands. It was about £6 which I think is a complete bargain! Great stuff!

My blusher collection

Some people call it Blush, some Blusher. What is it? I'll go with Blusher since I'm British.

There will be mixed reactions here with some being absolutely horrified that this is the collection of one person alone. Others will be thinking more along the lines of: "You call that a collection? That would fit in one of my five blusher draws!" So which side am I on? Well, I'm torn. This is a rather large collection. But then again I use all of what I own, most of the corals on myself and the rest when I do others' makeup, so it is getting used.

I have always been an eyeshadow fan and my collection has always been more on the eyeshadow heavy side. I was never that into blusher because it wasn't an item I wore everyday, unlike BB cream or mascara for example. But recently I have been really into flushes of colour on my cheeks and my blush collection has grown. Laying it all out has really shown me how much my collection has expanded in the last year. (Here is the link to my previous makeup collection posts if you want to see just how much it's multiplied.)

The dominating brand there is Sleek and I must say that for the price (especially with the 3for2 offers in Superdrug - the only time I buy them) they are very affordable and good quality. I also love GOSH as they provide a really natural flush.

I've got tan/olive skin (NC30 currently, NC25 when I lighten up) so I really love peaches and corals on me.

My most recent purchase was a few days ago - a MAC limited edition shade called Ripe For Love from the Temperature Rising collection. I had no intention of buying anything from MAC or from this collection but as soon as I saw it I thought it reminded me a little of Modern Mandarin but Ripe For Love is a peachier, more coral shade. The sales assistant was really useless, when I asked her for it she told me they didn't have a blush with that name and made me walk to the front of the store to prove to her it existed (like I would make it up!). I have heard a lot of stories about snooty sales assistants in MAC but never ones that are completely clueless, haha.

 The packaging is more rubberised and is slightly two toned.

Whilst I was fawning over that blush I decided to go through my collection and choose my desert island picks and what's funny is that in my pared down collection there is NO MAC whatsoever.

From top left to right: Etude House Corset blush in Orange Mango fit, Sleek Suede, Sleek Life's a peach, Sleek's coral, Sleek's Sugar Trio. Middle left shade: imyss blush (a Korean product, doesn't have the shade written on it). Bottom row left to right: Bourjois shade 54, GOSH powder blushers in shades Melon and Flower Power, Creme blush in shade 001 Peachy Rush, Sleek trio in Lace

If I had to pick a few blushers that I could survive on I would choose the above. Apart from 2 Korean brands, and one Bourjois blush the rest are GOSH and Sleek. Most are also matte shades. Only two pinks!

So yeah, I'm on a no buy now because I'm blessed to have a decent collection. But if I was going to buy any more blushers I'd buy a few pinks or lavender-ish shades more to have in my kit than for my own personal use. No need for that right now though.

Blusher is now my official favourite makeup item :)

Just an update + Korean cosmetic haul

Awfully sorry for my lack of posts recently! One of the perils of being a newly qualified teacher, especially around the March-May period, is the stress of exams and a constantly increasing workload. I've got to be careful to stay afloat of my huge piles of essay marking or I can find myself drowning in essays. A good chunk of my Easter holidays were spent simply chugging through my 180 Year 9 and Year 11 essays. I got all those done and this weekend I've found myself stuck with another 90! Great times -_-. Next month I'll be a lot more constant with updates. I noticed last year I was very good around the June-August summer period, I'm sure this year will be pretty much the same thing.

So Korean cosmetics! I'm a sucker for cutesy packaging and natural ingredients so Korean cosmetics always intrigue me. They make a lot of claims and these don't always work out for me but at a few pounds a pop they're affordable enough to try.

I buy from eBay but have recently joined sasa.com which seems a lot more reliable so will most likely use that in future for Asian skincare splurges.

First up - Tony Moly Tangerine whitening hand cream (around £4). My hands are extremely tanned compared to the rest of me and I find it a little off putting. I dislike testing makeup on my hands, especially face products, as I know they'll look completely different on my face so can never judge if they'll suit my skin tone through back of hand swatches. I've been using this cream for a while now and whilst it smells really good and I like the texture, I can't say I've noticed any difference in skin tone. Still, I love the packaging so that's one thing I'll be pleased to reuse!

Next up is the SkinFood Tomato whitening serum (not sure how much I purchased mine for but a quick eBay search shows these go for around £9 now). I bought this for my scarring as I scar super easily and they take ages to fade. So far it's not done much but I've only used it a few times. I'm not sure it will be successful really, so I'll only add some updates if I feel it's newsworthy.

Etude House Secret Beam highlighter (around £7) has some rather large looking particles of shimmer in it. It doesn't do much for my oily skin rather than make me pores look ginormous but I use it when doing others' makeup and it looks good on those with medium skin tones.

Etude House lip balm (a couple of pounds). Pretty ridiculous packaging but it works.

Baviphat lemon lip balm (around £4) is surprisingly good and tastes good too.

That concludes my eBay hauling and will probably be my final haul from there for a while. It's always hit and miss whether I'll like the products and since most of the reviews are in Korean which I don't always understand it's hard to tell if the products will be suitable for me or not. I guess I'll be sticking to UK skincare and makeup from now.

Stuff I've hauled and spiral stairs

Latest haul from Korea (eBay) and cherry culture.

First up - K stuff.

I didn't have high hopes for Etude House's Happy Tea Time Milk Tea face wash. It just seems so gimmicky with its pinkness, silly name and Korean branding. It's also really cheap (less than £6) compared to Origins Checks and Balances facewash which is my usual facewash. Happy Teatime actually surprised me though. See, the Origins wash is over £17 - and it's not like it lasts all that long (a few months, max). So I thought I'd try out some cheaper options and although the Etude House wash is slightly thicker and more stronger scented (it has that baby powder smell a lot of Korean cosmetics have), it has quite a similar effect on my skin as the Origins. I'm liking it so far - I'll be doing a more in depth review after a few weeks if I end up loving it.

Next up: Etude House Missing U Hand cream.

Ngl, this stuff is completely gimmicky and I bought it solely based on the "kawaii" factor. Why else would anyone buy a hand cream that comes in a panda shaped tub?

The panda tub is peach scented and works fine as a hand cream, nothing special really. I figured I would use up the hand cream and then add my own hand cream afterwards.

There's hardly much in there. Those looking for an actual hand cream are better off buying the Nuetrogena one. For me it was all about recycling the panda tub so I'm happy with this purchase. ^__^

Lastly in my Korean haul I got the Skinfood Salmon concealer since it had good reviews online. The name also reminded me of the Eve Pearl Salmon Concealer though I knew the quality of the two would be drastically different (since Skinfood is more on par with drugstore quality in Korea and Eve Pearl is most definitely more high end).

It didn't work all that well under the eyes for me as it creased into all my fine lines. The average person over 18 has some fine lines so thick, sticky concealers like this just don't work for under eyes IMO. I do makeup for my young teen cousins also and tried this concealer on them and it didn't work all that well on any of them (and they aren't exactly riddled with crow's feet so it must be the concealer's fault). On blemishes it was okay. Overall just a bit of a "meh" purchase.

Cherry Culture had 40% off a while back for NYX products only. Since NYX is practically the only brand I ever buy from CC I was happy to see the sale code on the website. I got some glitter (which is more like craft glitter than cosmetic glitter - so awful in fact that I took it to school and let the students go wild making xmas decorations with it rather than put it anywhere near my face), some excellent HD Grinding blushes (will do blush collection mentioning these blushes next week) and the Nude on Nude kit.

The lip colours are not my scene and I bought it only for the neutral shades. It's nice for the most part, but nothing can compare to my Urban Decay Naked palette. I was planning on comparing the Kat Von D Saint palette to the Urban Decay palette but I think I'll just test the NYX one out a bit longer and then compare all three.

Makeup, makeup, makeup. I need to start doing some book reviews again - it's been all about makeup for too long (though I can't say I don't enjoy the makeup posts!). Since I got my Kindle though I've only read the free nonsense just 'cause I haven't got round to the idea of spending £5 on a "digital" book... I need to find a novel that's really worth reading about. 2011 hasn't been a good year for reading really. Unless you can count Diary of a Wimpy Kid books (well, I wanted to see what my students made such a fuss about... turns out they aren't half bad!).

On a random note, I have discovered I hate spiral stairs. I took the stairs in Belsize Park train station the other day (since I prefer to take stairs to lifts if I can). It was a weird feeling though, the stairs seemed to go on and on and I found myself getting dizzy and feeling sick just from looking at them. I guess I'd hate to live in a lighthouse.

Anyhoo, one more week to the two week Christmas holiday break. I have a whole backlog of posts to do so will be posting more then. In the mean time I'll be continuing using the very cheesy but nevertheless lovely Etude House products.

All the latest hauls collected together

I know I've been rubbish with doing actual reviews for a while now. I got the UDBoS IV over a week ago and the truth is I haven't even had the chance to use it yet! I swatched all the colours, cooed over it for a bit, rearranged my makeup drawers to get it to fit and then basically left it alone. It's only the third week back at work and I am pretty overwhelmed hence the reason why all my reviews are on the back burner. I just don't have time to use as much makeup in the mornings as I'd like so I just haven't been wearing much to review. Still, I will hopefully get into the swing of things again soon. I've got lots to test out!

The following items are products I've hauled or been given via a swap I did recently. I know, I know, I have a problem! I'm getting it under control...

I've tried everything at least once so while I'm not doing in depth reviews I'll still include my initial first impressions.

Firstly I'd like to thank Amelia who I did an international swap with. I got all the items I asked for plus loads of lovely samples! I really wanted the Tarte for True Blood palette, not because I like the TV show (not seen it and neither do I have any desire to) or because of the brand (because I'd not heard much about Tarte previously) but because the actual palette just looked like another all-in-one Urban Decay-esque palette and I know how much I love those! I was worried the colours would be too cool toned for me but they turned out lovely, just what I'd been hoping for.

 

The outer packaging is also pretty cool.

And I like all the extras it comes with.

I also asked for three more items: The Mint Julep Masque that lots of American Beauty Gurus rave about, a Makeup Forever eyeliner pencil (as they are touted as the only ones that don't smudge) and another Sonia Kashuk Hidden Agenda Concealer palette as back up since I use my other one so often.

Amelia also sent me some extras and the ones I really loved were the Sonia Kashuk eyeshadow palette (since I luuurve soft shimmery neutrals), blotting sheets (since I am prone to oily-mess-ness) and these mascara shield card samples.

I really like all the Sonia Kashuk stuff I've tried so far. In terms of quality it's great. In terms of finish I find it appalling however. The concealer palette was completely brand new and sealed but it had a big print on one of the concealers which I assume is from a thumb. Gross. I have never seen a brand new, sealed item with a thumb print before. The eyeshadow palette also had an eyeshadow pan that was so loose it completely fell off when I opened it. It also had specks all over the eyeshadow primer.

I love the actual shadows though.

I'll take a moment to say thanks, Amelia, for everything that you sent over. I especially liked the perfume sample - I didn't expect to like it since I'm so picky about fragrances but I loved it!

I tried the eyeshadows yesterday and they were right up my alley. I think this palette will replace the NYX Nude Eyeshadow Kit I've stashed at work for the days when I want to wear makeup quickly. The Tarte palette is the standout item and so far I've used the primer (which did crease on me unfortunately) and the eyeliner (the smoothest eyeliner I've EVER used). I can't wait to play with all the shadows. I say that and I've yet to make a dent in my UD palette but I will! I'm giving away nearly all of the new single eyeshadows I have since I've realised I rarely use singles and prefer palettes so I know the Tarte one will be used a lot in future.

There was a 3for2 sale in Boots so I tried out some Revlon items.

The Photo Ready Powder is a complete bust for me since it has slight shimmers in it which make my oily skin look even greasier. But for some I think this would be fine. I'm guessing it would look awful in sunlight on just about anyone though.

The One Step Compact Makeup thing is rubbish. It's just a greasy cream foundation that showed up all my pores on me. Not even medium coverage. What a let-down. I will still use it as a concealer for slight blemishes, or maybe on other people (those with relatively good skin) but otherwise I'll never be tempted to look at Revlon's foundations or powders again.

I picked up the eyeliner as my freebie and it will stay wrapped up on my desk until I finish all my others (i've got a Rimmel and Collection 2000 one, both are nearing the end of their days) so nothing to comment on yet. But overall I wish I hadn't been swayed by the 3for2 offer. I personally dislike Revlon.

On a separate Superdrug trip I picked up the Revlon PhotoReady concealer because Bubzbeauty raved about it on youtube. I figured since she has skin not too different than mine I would like it but I don't. I should know by now that makeup alley and not youtube is the best place to go for recommendations and useful reviews since there are multiple reviews. Again it's not a complete waste of money since I will still use it but I wasn't wow-ed by it. It's not great for under the eyes which is what I bought it for but as a spot concealer it does the job.

I also picked up a red Sleek Pout Paint since I have peach, hot pink and blue so far and I figured a deep red would be useful. I'm awaiting two more colours and then I'll have my ideal set.

I keep getting spots these days - not a lot but as soon as one disappears another pops up so at any time I always have one single zit. It's also the painful variety of spot that leaves a red mark long after it has disappeared. So I got the Good Things spot clearing gel though I won't admit to having high hopes for it since my spots seem to have a mind of their own. Let's see how it goes.

And finally I received some lovely post today that included the Etude House Tangerine  Sweet Shower Lips lipsticks. I got four shades (minus the bright BRIGHT orange shade from the collection.) I also got two lip tints which I DETEST so I wouldn't recommend those to anyone.

One is called the Follow Me Lip Tint which has horrible packaging (all checkerboards and skulls and odd designs - urgh. It's for those who want to "follow" 2NE1's style which is a joke since I doubt they all use this lip tint every time they're on stage - it's just a selling factor. I'm not a fan of the group but even if I was I still don't think the celebrity branding would have appealed to me. I prefer quality over gimmicks). The Follow Me Lip Tint shade 1 was completely green at first (on the lips it turns a deep pink colour on me), but now it has become all mottled pink in the tube. The other shade is a weird orange that goes on unevenly on my lips and is not flattering at all.

Yes I know, gross gross.

I prefer the Sweet Shower Lips which are more hydrating and have more wearable (though still very bright and vivid) colours.

I still wouldn't recommend them to anyone though because some shades have crazy glitter and others just do not go with my skin tone (and, I imagine, would not suit a lot of people). Still, I will use them as lip balms and going out shades.

No swatches because I don't have a decent camera and any pictures I took didn't show the shades how they look true to life. Lately all my blog pictures have been awful. I think it's a combination of terrible lighting and the fact I've been using my phone camera. But hopefully will sort that out soon.

Lots of makeup but I am on a buying ban and I seriously mean that. I want to do a full collection post soon and that will remind me of all that I need to use up first. I have one more palette that I have been drooling over (thebalm's Balm and the Beautiful palette) but apart from that I can't see myself buying any more palettes for at least 6 months or so, at least till I hit pan on a few. I've noticed that I seem to buy more these days when I've had a bad day at work and the bus is half an hour away (I figure since I have a half hour to kill and Superdrug is down the road I may aswell drown my sorrows in makeup). Since bad days and late buses seem to be all the rage recently I've been stocking up on makeup I don't need. But today I decided that I've got to fight this makeup addiction and it starts from now. ^___^

Let's see how long I can hold back for...

Etude House Precious Mineral BB Compact (General thoughts)

I can't say I'm a big fan of Etude House products. I haven't tried that many altogether, but I've tried different types of products (like an eyeshadow palette which I mini reviewed here, a couple of BB creams and some of their skincare items). I get drawn to their products because they are such a famous Korean cosmetics company. Most of their products come in really cute packaging (which says nothing about the actual product itself I know, but ngl, it does sway my thinking) and the promo pics for their new lines always look so good (especially when they get someone as pretty as Park Shin Hye to be their model).

If only adverts were truthful and products really gave you skin like that.

I bought the Compact from this really awesome eBay seller, lots of people always ask how you can tell if they are good sellers and really I guess you just look at the basics (like if they're a power seller, if they have lots of good feedback and for me, the main thing is to look for the authentic Korean seal - some products like old skin79 stuff used to have certain seals on it so that's how I always knew if they were genuine products, and I also got lucky that the seller was helpful with my questions too).

Anyhoo, there are 3 types of BB Compacts to choose from - Silky, Sheer and Flawless coverage.

They all have different coloured lids to differentiate. The first two didn't seem to have much coverage at all and I assumed they'd have that annoying shimmer in them (rather than a subtle sheen or soft glow). So I got number 3 for flawless coverage.

Also comes with a cute but thin (not very useful) sponge

As expected I did love the box it came in. The actual compact is very sturdy, do like it a lot. It also came with a thin (ish) sponge and then a plastic cover.

I would say this provides medium coverage which is a lot for a powder (most of the ones I've used are transparent apart from things like MAC mineralise skin finishes (the "natural" ones that are like powder foundation). I didn't like the colour of this much and that's why, for me, I didn't like the fact that the coverage wasn't light. That seems like a total contradiction - I wanted a heavier coverage powder to give me that "flawless" look and then when I get it I'd preferred it to be lighter - well it's 'coz the colour is so yellow toned. Like YELLOW. It doesn't look so bad in the pics but when I did try it on my face it was not attractive, it wasn't awful but I can't say I looked natural, I just felt very cakey and it was so obvious I had lots of makeup on.

It also had minute shimmers in it that I didn't notice at first but closer inspection in sunlight showed them up. So for me this would not be a good product to wear in sunlight unless you want to look shiny all over.

I'm not saying it's an all round bad product. But it just wasn't for me. I like foundation and powder to look natural, like a second skin. This does not look natural on my NC25ish skin. I think if you know you have very yellow toned skin this would be a good product (though I will say I thought I was yellow enough for it- but i guess not). Also, if you have normal skin you might like it. On my combination skin I just felt like it showed up my dry patches a little more than a normal powder would.

This was somewhere around £10 for me (with shipping) which is a lot for a mediocre (ish) powder. I'd rather pay less and get a Bourjois powder or pay more and get a Laura Mercier powder.

It doesn't mean I'm abandoning Etude House products completely but I'm going to be very selective about what I buy in future, I'd rather not waste my money "testing" things, instead I think I'll only buy products that have rave reviews all round.

Last BB cream haul and quick Etude House LuciDarling eyeshadow review

My final two BB creams arrived last week. I got the general Missha BB cream in shade 23 coz my old one has nearly run out and shade 21 is way too pale for me (I might just be able to use it when I get lighter in the winter but only with a darker powder).

As usual I purchased from a lovely and well trusted seller on eBay since the UK has not yet discovered the joy of East Asian cosmetics. The seller always gives loads of nice samples and they're always wrapped in really cute packaging. Sometimes it's in cellophane that says "To My Lover" on it (tee hee hee), but random quote aside it's really nice of the seller to package it like that.

And here's what they look like all randomly splayed out. I really like the Super Aqua cleanser. I've had so many samples of it now that I have been using it on-off for the last few weeks. I've also got so many samples of the Missha Signature BB cream that I regret having bought a full size tube since the samples have kept me going for weeks.

 So the final (new) BB cream I got is the Missha Vita Moisture BB cream. I already have the matte version of this which is definitely good for oily skinned individuals. I decided to order the Moisture version when I was going through a horribly dry skin phase. I tried it today and it's definitely hydrating but I think the coverage is very light, it's just dewy but useless for anything else. Hmm, I'll give it a longer trial before coming to a final conclusion.

I counted and in total I now have 14 BB creams to comment on from Missha, Hanskin, Skin79 and some others. I will be doing full reviews on them all once I've given them a full chance (meaning tried them all individually for at least a week or two). I can say now that Missha seems to be my outright winner but it has been changing continuously depending on how my skin has been feeling.

So apart from the BB creams I also ordered an eyeshadow palette from Etude House's LUCIDarling collection. There are a few sets to choose from:

I got set number 3. The seller packaged it like a sweet!

 The actual palette case wasn't as fancy as I'd hoped it'd be, it's just a pink plastic case (that actually smelled like industrial plastic and chemicals - bleurgh). But it had a brown bow opening which is nice.

Here's the back of the palette. I heard that most Korean cosmetics include the production date - so that means this particular palette was produced quite recently :)

I'll make sure I take pics in better lighting next time! But overall, colours really are as boring as you see them here. One thing to note - I think this is a mirror image so keep in mind applicators are actually on the right side of the palette and eyeshadows on the left!

And some swatches of the eyeshadows (on Kleenex!)

Overall I'm not impressed with the Etude House palette at all. I was hoping that the peach shade would be a nice all over lid shade but its just very plain and basic with some ginormous shimmers in it. The browns are nothing special, you'd be able to dupe them from any palette and the highlight shade is too shimmery for use on the brow bone but underwhelming on the eye. Some of the shimmers also fall all over my face a few hours into wear. The texture of the shadows is like butter which is nice in theory (means smooth application) but at the same time it's like one touch with the brush dents the shadows. I also feel like I've used quite a bit up with just my first use so these probably won't last long. It's not a bad palette AT ALL, it'd be okay for someone who hasn't got many shimmery neutrals. But for me it's just too average for the price. I won't be buying any more Etude House shadows.