Reviews and Other Stuff

Tatcha Bestsellers Set Review

May 1, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Why Hello There! If you’re looking for the perfect skincare set this Mother’s Day or in any other occasion, I truly recommend this limited edition Tatcha Bestsellers Set. All the products contained in this set are absolutely perfect and are also very useful for traveling.

Tatcha is an American luxury brand that promotes Geisha (Japanese) inspired beauty rituals or beauty products. This is my first time trying out Tatcha’s skin care and my first impressions are very positive. The products are generally mild and innovative. The scents are not overpowering and my skin seems to like their products quite well. Additionally, it has a whole k-beauty feel and quality to it and pretty much neck in neck with Sulwhasoo or SK II. Also, their pricing varies a lot depending on the size of the product. Some are pretty much affordable, while some can be just really pricey. It’s always good to try some starter sizes to see if the product works for you.

Let’s take a look at what’s inside their Bestsellers Set:

Pure One Step Camillia Cleansing Oil (0.8 oz: $15, 5.1 oz $48) – This is a mild makeup remover and facial cleanser at the same time. It’s basically a lightweight camellia oil that totally removes all traces of makeup. Then you add some water to create a foam and it cleanses your face just like a normal facial cleanser would do. It’s basically like double cleansing but with just one product. For me, I really enjoy using this. It saves time and effort on my skin care routine and it’s mild for daily use. Love the pump of the glass container as well.

Polished Classic Rice Enzyme Powder (0.35 oz: $15, 2.1 oz $65) – This product is nothing like I’ve seen before. It’s almost magical. It comes off as a plain white powder that you put on your palm and as soon as you add a few drops of water on it, it becomes a foamy scrub that smells and feels like little bits of rice or rice water. It exfoliates the face mildly and it doesn’t irritate. The result is a smooth skin without the harshness of most facial scrubs. Love it.

Supple Moisture Rich Silk Cream (1.7 oz: $120) – This is a gel-like cream that feels like silk and is also non-irritating on the skin. It’s ideal for combo to dry skin, but I think it’s also very perfect for oily skin due to its gel consistency. In fact, this is very similar to Belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb, both in scent and texture. It’s almost hard to tell the difference between the two. This silk cream is an ideal moisturizer base right before any makeup product and it feels very lightweight. Wish it had Spf though.

Luminous Dewy Skin Mist (1.35 oz: $48) – Probably the best face mist in the market to use during dry or winter season. It’s slightly oily so it’s ideal when you need maximum hydration on the face, like when you’re traveling or during the cold months. It may be too much for the summer as the effect of this face mist could make you look very dewy. The pump feels robust and it releases very fine mists. Also, the scent is divine.

Verdict: Tatcha makes award-worthy products and they’re really fun to use with. Every application of each product is an experience that is worth your time and has a very relaxing feel to it. Their Bestsellers Set is really worth it as each product delivers and their sizes are very versatile. The Luminous Dewy Skin Mist is definitely a holy grail for me, and I could see the Camellia Cleansing Oil and Rice Enzyme Powder as now part of my daily skin care routine for a very long time.

This Tatcha Bestsellers Set is available exclusively at: Sephora.com

Hello May!

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Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer & Eye Colour Contour Review

April 27, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Hiya, I don’t own a lot of Burberry beauty products but my experience with the few that I own have been really great. The thing I seem to love about Burberry beauty products are their robust packaging wearable formulations that embody that whole effortless and casual chic vibe. So Brit-ish. They also seem to put some innovation in their products and add attention to details.

Anyway, here’s two Burberry products that I love and I’m definitely looking forward to adding some more of these soon.

Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer in 02 Sepia ($33): I’ve been using this right from the beginning that it was released. The first of its kind, way before Anastasia’s Brow Definer came out or Benefit’s Goof Proof Brow Pencil was introduced. The texture is waxy on this brow product and I like that it’s not super pigmented upon first stroke so that there’s room for blending and for easy correction if ever you made a mistake. Also, this has a very natural effect on the brows and the Sepia shade is very versatile. It’s like a light grayish brown that could work on any light to medium skin tone. I love the thick and robust metallic double-ended packaging as well as the durable and useful spooley. It’s also long lasting and it fills the brows really well. The only caveat is the price, but there’s enough product in the tube to last a long time.

Burberry Eye Colour Contour 104 Almond ($29.50): It’s hard to find a matte cream eye shadow in a sea of pen-style eye colors. Fortunately, I found this gorgeous midtone shade of matte brown from Burberry and I really love it. It goes on smoothly like a butter and it’s waterproof plus it won’t budge. I love the versatility of this shade and it’s ideal for layering with other colors, specially for a daytime look. I love how it contours my lids and creates a naturally soft smoky eye makeup. This is definitely a great eye color pen to have and in the same caliber as the Laura Mercier Caviar Stick or the Marc Jacobs Twinkle Pop Stick Eyeshadow.

These two products from Burberry are really worth trying given that they help enhance your eye makeup game like a breeze. I do have my eye on the Effortless Eyebrow Definer in 04 Malt Brown and the Eye Colour Contour in 108 Midnight Brown and 112 Rosewood.

The Burberry Effortless Eyebrow Definer is available in: Sephora, Net-A-Porter, Saks & Burberry.com

The Burberry Eye Colour Contour are also available in: Sephora, Burberry.com, Saks, Net-A-Porter & Nordstrom.

Whatcha think of these?

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Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum & Snowise Brightening Water Review

April 26, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Setting my personal SK II beauty regimen aside, I embarked on two new facial products that I’ve been constantly using for more than a month now. I’ve been putting into test the Sulwhasoo Snowise Balancing Water as my facial toner, and the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum as my daily facial serum. I know that the First Care Serum is the bestselling product of Sulwhasoo and a lot of people swear by it, so I was naturally intrigued and wondered just how good the product is, or if Sulwhasoo’s skin care line warrants a cult-following given the price of their products.

Sulwhasoo is high-end Korean skin care brand owned by Amore Pacific, and it’s much loved by a lot Koreans. The brand’s philosophy believes in the concept of beauty and harmony of energies, combining traditional medicine with modern science. The main ingredient of most of their product is Ginseng, but it’s not just any other Ginseng, it’s the best kind of Ginseng thought to be found only in the Korean Peninsula. Ginseng, when used as a skin care, has a lot of potential benefits. One being good in the anti-aging department and it also has brightening properties.

As a general observation of the two products I purchased, they both are in heavy glass containers that depicts a whole authentic Korean aesthetic vibe. The bottles are not necessarily too big or too bulky, and they’re both opaque, so you won’t be able to see how much product is left inside. Both the Sulwhasoo First Care Activating Serum and the Snowise Brightening Water smells very herbal-like, but it’s not overwhelming to the senses, instead, it’s pretty invigorating.

Sulwhasoo Snowise Brightening Water (4.22 oz: $63) – This slightly hefty toner is meant to be applied with the palm of your hands and pat starting from the center of your face. With Broussonetia Kazinoki, a Mulberry extract known to brighten and soften rough skin. The toner is meant to prepare skin for other Snowise products like the Snowise Brightening Cream and Brightening Serum. However, I didn’t plan to use this toner for that purpose, instead, I just wanted a good toner that can help brighten my dark spots or post-acne marks. So far, in my experience, this toner feels like a gel and it’s tricky to use a cotton pad with this, as the consistency seems a bit too thick for a toner. You might really need to use your palms when applying this, but I prefer to still use a cotton pad because I want my toner to take off excess makeups that didn’t rinse away after washing. Fortunately, the formula spreads very easily and it feels very soothing. As far as the benefits and changes I’ve noticed, this product did not irritate my skin and it keeps it plumped. Didn’t notice any brightening effect so far, but my acne scars seemed to have not darken further.

Suwhasoo First Care Activating Serum (2 oz: $84) – With Milkvetch that promotes skin circulation and Dwarf Lilyturf with Licorice to restore skin’s radiance. This bestselling product is meant to restore the skin’s moisture and nutrients. The serum has golden brown color and smells like Ginseng with some other herbs. It feels like a gel and it spreads easily onto the face, which then the skin absorbs easily and also has a relaxing feel to it. I truly love the consistency of this serum and a little bit goes a long way, perhaps 2-3 pumps will work per application. I also love the cap since it’s very easy to take it off or replace it whenever you use the product. When it comes to its effect, I do notice an overall evenness of hydration on my face throughout the day. I no longer have dry patches around my mouth and my skin’s not secreting too much oil. It’s still oily-prone, but not as much, and it looks my skin’s regulating the sebum production well. This serum seems to work to balance the skin’s chemistry, no wonder a lot of people have fallen in love with it.

Bottom line, I like Sulwhasoo a lot and I’m planning to try more of their products soon. They’re really pricey, but you could sense that they put a lot of value and effort on their products. They feel luxurious, soothing, traditional, and there’s an element of care and wisdom to it. Compared to SK II, I definitely feel like they’re neck and neck with each other. I also like SK II a lot and will always be using them, but these two products from Sulwhasoo would be great add on.

The Snowise Brightening Water is available at: Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus & Bergdorf Goodman

The First Care Activating Serum can be found at: Nordstrom, Bergdorf Goodman & Neiman Marcus

For more skin care stuff, follow moi on Instagram: @reviewsandotherstuff