kbeauty

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!

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

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

Too Cool For School, Dinoplatz Dear Brachiosaurus Blotting Paper Review

April 16, 2017 / FASHION & BEAUTY / 0 comments

Anybody with an oily-prone skin knows that it’s crucial to have a blotting paper in your purse no matter where you go. It’s one of those necessities if you want to look fresh and not like you drowned in Crisco cooking oil. Hahaha. Trust me, it’s so hard to look shiny and greasy all the time. I’m not talking about the highlighted or strobed kind of look, but more like when the sun shines literally from your T-zone, blinding everyone around you. Oh my…

All blotting papers are created for the same purpose of blotting away oils from your face, but not all of them are created equal. Though they’re all made of paper, there are actually different kinds of paper out there and some are uniquely designed with additional bells and whistles. Gone were the days when blotting papers just came in tiny cardboard packs or having your fingers getting oily from rubbing the sheets to your face. Now, I’d like to introduce you to Dinoplatz Dear Brachiosaurus Blotting Papers, by Too Cool For School.

As to why the name is quirky and unique? No, it’s not because it’s meant for oily Dinosaurs like us, LOL, it’s just how the brand came up with the name when they collaborated with a Japanese artist for this specific product line. Yep, they’re really Too Cool For School and too cool to come up with such eccentric and catchy name for their blotting papers. Speaking of these blotting papers, there are 3 kinds; the Mulberry blotting paper, Green Tea and the Mattifying Charcoal. Each came in a cute and convenient carrycase complete with a mirror and a sponge/puff with adhesive to grip each blotting paper in order to blot them easily on the face while not disturbing the makeup, great idea isn’t it? Additionally, there are 50 pieces of blotting papers in each case and they’re all naturally made.

Mulberry – Made of Korean Mulberry paper, each sheet absorbs oil instantly without the need for rubbing it on your skin. Just use the sticky sponge and tap-tap to see the difference. You could see that the paper is clearly saturated with oil.

Mattifying Charcoal – Made of Chinese Yam Paper and infused with charcoal to detoxify the pores and mattify the skin. This feels a bit cool on the face and also absorbs oil fairly easily, though due to the color of the paper, it’s slightly difficult to see whether the oils have already transferred on the paper or not.

Green Tea – Also made with Chinese Yam Paper, this one is infused with antioxidants to soothe the skin and is ideal for problematic skin type. This type of blotting paper also absorbs oil from the face and doesn’t cause any irritation.

If you ask me which type I prefer among the three, I can definitely tell you that it doesn’t really matter, they all kinda work the same and I couldn’t really tell the difference among them. But if you really really ask me on which one I might prefer, I think I sort of like the one made with Korean Mulberry Paper because it seems to absorb the oil faster than the others. But it could be just me, you know. Compared to most blotting papers, The Too Cool For School Dinoplatz Dear Brachiosaurus Blotting Papers are definitely my favorite blotting papers so far. It eliminates the need to rub and swipe the blotting paper on your face using your fingers, thus there’s no tugging on your precious makeup. I always keep one in my purse because it’s very practical to have. I love the handy, lightweight and multipurpose carrying case. The design is cute and I love having the mirror and the sticky puff which you can reuse for other purposes. The sponge may lose the adherences of its adhesive tape with time, but you can peel it off to reveal more layers of adhesives. Additionally, there’s also available refills that you can purchase for when you run out of these blotting sheets. Awesome!

Whether you choose the Dinoplatz Charcoal, Green Tea or Mulberry, you know you’re keeping your oils at bay while having your makeup uninterrupted. These Dinoplatz Dear Brachiosaurus Blotting Papers by Too Cool For School are truly an oily girl’s best friend.

You can find these blotting papers at Sephora

Happy Easter!

Follow on Instagram: @reviewsandothestuff

follow @reviewsandotherstuff

reviewsandotherstuff

1,670