I have done a post mentioning my favorite Skincare products but it's been awhile and I switched up the products so why not make an updated one. I have been contemplating for a little too long whether or not I should post about this because I have always been very passionate about this topic and I will always venture on. Skincare has always been my passion, but lately I have been obsessing so much over makeup, though I'm not one to wear makeup on a daily basis (considering I only go out 3-4 times a week, since I only have to go to class twice a week). But still, only recently that I understood the fun in makeup and I started trying out new makeup products that I never thought I would get my hands on.
I've been going a little too obsessed with Korean skincare lately and I started purchasing a bunch of skincare products to test out. For me, skincare routine is not only about making your skin at its best condition possible, but for me the process of doing my skincare routine really puts my mind at ease and the way I see it is, it is a mini relaxation and I always feel happy whenever I'm doing it, and it's always the one thing I'm always looking forward to everyday.
Anyways, let's jump right into my current skincare favorites:
1. Clinique Liquid Facial Soap - Oily Skin Formula
This is a great cleanser as I have extremely oily skin. It is just a basic gel cleanser that lathers up pretty nicely as you rub it onto your face. This cleanser is formulated without fragrance or harsh chemicals, and is infused with menthol which gives a nice cooling and tingly sensation. It gets the job done at removing the dirt and gunk on my face without stripping my skin. I used to love the super tight feeling after I cleanse my face, but ever since I got so hooked on Korean skincare, I learned that it is not good for the skin and I started to focus on hydrating and moisturizing my skin even more rather than using products that are geared towards acne-prone skin. Also, I received this cleanser from my boyfriend's mother which is very nice of her :D
2. COSRX One Step Clear Pimple Pad
COSRX is the Korean skincare brand that has been popular in Korea and based from what I have read on the internet, they have really great products for sensitive skin. One of their most popular product is this Pimple Pad and obviously I was curious to try this out because a. I have acne prone skin. b. i need some chemical exfoliating done since I haven't tried it and c. I'm just a skincare junkie so I had to get my hands on this product. You can find a lot of COSRX products online, but I just so happened to buy mine at Watsons Singapore for around SGD17? Whereas if you buy online it'll cost around IDR200.000.
This product comes in 70 pre-soaked cotton pads. This is supposed to exfoliate your skin gently as opposed to physical exfoliators. I use this pad every other day because I don't think I really need an exfoliation every single day. This would be my second step of my night time skincare routine. I cleanse my face, exfoliate using this pad, then continue with the rest of my skincare products. Instead of leaving a tight feeling, it leaves a moist feeling on your skin which is not what you would expect from a chemical exfoliant. But overall this just helps with brightening my skin and smoothing out my skin texture.
3. Bio Essence Bio White Advanced Whitening Refiner
This is basically a hydrating toner instead of that typical astringent type of toner, which what I was used to using my whole life. I bought this product in Watsons Singapore, they have every range from Bio Essence, since it is a skincare product from Singapore. It retails for about SGD17, which is not crazy expensive.
This was the first product that I bought after 4 months of using topical creams from my dermatologist. I started using this and for the first time, I realized that it felt really good using a hydrating toner, my face is left a little bit moist instead of that super tight feeling. Also, this product gets rid of traces of dirt that was left on the skin pretty damn well. I can see on my cotton pad that it's still a little bit dirty. I use around 6 pumps of is on a cotton pad and swipe is across my face, down to my neck, the back of my neck, my ears, the back of my ears, and even chest. I use this everywhere until the cotton pad is almost dried out. You don't want to waste product.
I don't notice a dramatic difference using this product, but I love it because it's really gentle on my skin, provides a good amount of moisture and helps to cleanse my skin even more. I even have a backup one because it's not accessible here in Jakarta, they only carry very few ranges from the brand and this range is not available, even online.
4. Benton Snailbee High Content Essence
I haven't been using this product long enough to give a solid review, but so far it hasn't broken me out and the consistency is decent as if sinks into the skin quickly without a sticky feeling and this has no scent at all. As the name says, this essence contains Snail mucus. There is not a single drop of water which I guess makes this product very potent?
From what I have read from the reviews, this essence is highly raved, and is great for people with acne prone skin which is what I have. This contains hyaluronic acid which happens to be a common ingredient to have in a a skincare product nowadays, which basically is meant for repairing the skin, and I guess brightening it? I use this essence after my toner and before my moisturizer. You can get this product online, and the price is quite reasonable.
5. OST C20 Pure Vitamin C Serum
I was intrigued to purchase this serum because it has great reviews and my face is a giant acne scar mess, so I thought this would be the perfect product. This serum contains 20% of pure vitamin C, which is apparently the highest percentage of vitamin C you can find in a skincare product, that's what I've heard, therefore it should fade acne scars much faster. About the price, this is a very affordable serum, ranging about IDR 180.000-220.000 online, which is a pretty good deal for a very potent serum with a decent amount of product in it.
The consistency of this serum is sticky, so it's not the most comfortable product that you can put on your face, but if your skin loves this, then it's always worth it. Products containing vitamin C, oxidizes and gets bad quite easily, so it is advised that you store this serum where no sunlight can be exposed to the bottle, and when product is used, it is best to not leave it opened for too long. All in all, take care of the packaging as carefully as possible.
Now I have read online that vitamin C can break you out, but nevertheless I was still persistent in wanting to try this out. Little did I know, this product did break me out. How I figured out that this broke me out, is because I apply this serum on certain areas on my face where I have really dark and obvious acne scars. A few days later, I noticed pimples were showing up on the are where I applied the serum, because I don't use this entirely on my face. But because I don't want to waste this product by not using it, I continue to use it on my neck. I use this serum on my neck morning and night because my neck is much darker than my face, so I'm doing everything that I can do to make it as light as possible.
6. Innisfree Green Tea Seed Cream
Okay... This might be my favorite skincare product. First of all, the scent is amazing. It is strongly fragranced yet this has a very calming green tea scent. It's always very relaxing to apply. I had always been interested in innisfree green tea or green tea seed line, and I thought this product was perfect. They have different ranges for oily skin, combination skin, dry skin, and so on. Since I have extremely oily skin, I was thinking about getting the green tea fresh line, but when I was in the Innisfree store, the green tea seed line has 5 times more antioxidant, which is great, and antioxidant is a good ingredient for acne prone skin (yes, not only benzoyl peroxide an salicylic acid), because it provides deep hydration.
The consistency is obviously very creamy, a little gel-like but more on the creamy side. A little goes a really long way so you only need a little bit for the rest of your face. The finish that it gives is dewy, not completely matte but not greasy. It doesn't break me out and moisturizes my skin really well. I love this product.
7. Origins Ginzing Refreshing Eye cream
I had wanted to buy this eye cream in particular for so long, since I look like I have really tired eyes and my eyes always look tired and dark for some reason, even though nowadays I always have a long rest throughout the night. I can sleep for up to 12 hours almost everyday, and for some reason I still look exhausted. I can go out feeling very fresh and I'm wearing makeup, and someone still told me I looked really tired when I wasn't. Which was really pathetic.
So when I had the money I purchased this eye cream, since Origins products are expensive, especially this eye cream. I got it in the duty free in Singapore, which is much cheaper compared to the products in Sephora. This eye cream retails for about SGD 42 in Sephora, and I got this for around SGD 34/35? Which is much cheaper.
This eye cream has a tiny bit of shimmer in it, not to the point where it is noticeable, but it does give that instant brightening effect and that's it. It does leave a bit of a refreshing feeling underneath the eye, but again, it's just about giving the eyebags a cooling feeling and makes you a little more awake, as opposed to actually brightening your under eye. It is comfortable to wear, not greasy or drying.
8. Innisfree Perfect Protection Sun Cream - SPF 50
Another Innisfree product that I love. Only recently that I started using sunscreen because of Korean skincare. I had always noticed the importance of sun protection, but never really bothered to use it. I searched for a simple physical sunscreen that simply protects my skin from the sun and has a decent number of SPF in it, and also affordable, and so I was geared towards this sunscreen. I honestly don't have high expectations for sunscreens, as long as it protects my skin and doesn't break me out, it's all good. I'm not really picky about it, I don't care if the texture is greasy.
I love this sunscreen. It has a decent amount of product with such an affordable price. It has that typical sunscreen consistency and white cast which again, I'm never bothered with. It's a little sticky, but spreads out really easily. Also can we talk about the scent? It has that typical sunscreen scent, plus a bit of a floral scent which I absolutely love.
I can't put all sheetmask pictures that I love cause I used most of them, but my favorite brand is Leader's Insolution. They have the most amazing and potent sheet masks I have ever tried. They also have a lot of varieties for different skin concerns. The one I love is this one and the tea tree for irritated skin. Not only the essence that is really good, but also the material of the mask itself. The texture is somewhat between cotton and gel, and sticks really well onto the face. You know those sheet masks where you try so hard to make it as flat as possible without bubbles poking through, but no matter what you just can't. With this sheet mask, it applies almost perfectly. Not only that, it has the most generous amount of essence in a single sheet mask. When I take the mask off my face, a lot of essence still remains on my face. Everytime I use this sheet mask, it always seem to give a brightening and hydrating effect on my skin afterwards.
A tip on using a sheet mask; after you place the mask on your face, use the excess essence in the packaging. There's still a lot more that you can use on your neck, maybe put some more on top of the mask, use wherever you want. Just. Don't. Waste. It.
Another Sheet masks that I quickly wanna mention that I enjoy are the one from Sexy Look, Innisfree, and The Face Shop. I really like the Real Nature and Solutions line, but I don't have those with me right now.
10. Kiehl's Turmeric and Cranberry Seed Energizing Mask
I've always loved Kiehl's Masks because they always give really good results and never disappoint considering their price range is more on the expensive side. I had wanted to buy this mask for so long but I couldn't get my hands on it till recently. I have the dullest skin out there and it's always looking tired no matter what. When I saw this mask being released, knowing the main ingredient is turmeric, I was intrigued right off the bat.
Turmeric is a kind of spice that is the perfect ingredient for brightening and clearing the skin from acne. Though this mask isn't geared towards acne prone skin and doesn't claim anything that has to do with acne, I still find works well on my acne. Turmeric is also has anti-inflammatory properties which means it reduces redness and swelling, which has definitely been proved by my own experience in using this. This mask is supposed to give you the radiant and glowing look and just more awake, which it definitely does.
The texture of this mask is thick and creamy, similar to a clay mask. This contains cranberry seed as a gentle exfoliator when you rinse this off. It has a yellow color, which of course the color you would expect from a turmeric based product. You put this on for 5-10 or till it's dry after cleansing the skin, and rinse it off while the cranberry seeds help to gently exfoliate the skin.
Immediately, it gives me radiant skin like no other. It's just much brighter and overall looks healthier. I had a really deep giant cystic acne that was really red and inflamed, so I tried to apply a little bit of this mask as a spot treatment, and I noticed the redness was reduced. After a day of using it, the pimple got smaller. It's almost a week of me using it as a spot treatment and it's almost completely gone, which is a miracle for me, because giant cystic acne can last for weeks for me. I tried spot treatment and my apple cider vinegar, but nothing worked. If anything it just
made the pimple more red. So that's saying something about this mask.
11. Neutrogena On-the-Spot Acne Treatment
If you have really tiny pimples which are hardly noticeable, or eve tiny whiteheads, this spot treatment is good for that. In my experience, it doesn't really work well with giant cystic acne. It doesn't reduce the size of it, instead it dries it out and makes it more red. I had very small pimples that were hardly noticeable even by myself if I didn't look at my skin that close. I apply this spot treatment on those areas and the next day it was gone. But for the small pimples that are quite noticeable and red, it takes a few days for it to completely gone.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have quite an overwhelming amount of makeup products to talk about so I'm just gonna jump right into it:
FACE
1. Elf Acne Fighting Foundation (Beige)
I was constantly on the hunt for the perfect foundation shade but never seemed to find the right one as they were always too light or pale for my skin, because as I mentioned before, my neck is much darker. So I always end up looking like a ghost. But thankfully I found this foundation. There was 3 shades available at the place where I bought it, and I had to guess what shade was perfect for my skin because they had no tester for this. It turned out that this matched my face really well.
As in the "acne fighting" effect, you really can't expect anything from this foundation to make your acne less worse, but I did buy this foundation hoping it is safe for my acne prone skin, I didn't bother about the salicylic acid that's contained in this foundation. And it's true, it doesn't break me out.
The texture of this is definitely thick, but as it is blended onto the skin, it doesn't feel greasy or heavy at all for my super oily skin. It provides high coverage and lasts for a decent amount of time. If you read online, a lot of people say throughout the day this foundation oxidizes meaning it turns yellow which I do agree, but it is hardly noticeable so that rally doesn't bother me. This is officially my holy grail foundation and for the price, it's very affordable for such a great foundation. I highly recommend this for people with acne prone skin that don't want their skin to freak out or worsen the acne. Pleas try this out!
2. Bourjois Loose Powder (02 Rosy)
This is really just a nice setting powder that has a smooth texture and doesn't leave my skin super greasy. It definitely doesn't reduce the oil production on my skin (heck, nothing does), but it does give a nice finish for my makeup.
I got this in the shade Rosy, which is a little lighter than my natural skin tone but it is just perfect because my foundation shade is just a little bit darker than my skin tone, so this powder kind of balances it. One thing about this powder is this is a very messy loose powder. Meaning when you bring this powder everywhere, it spills everywhere through those tiny holes. So what I recommend doing is getting a smaller loose powder container and putting some of the powder from the original packaging to bring everywhere you go. So the big tub stays at home, and bring the small powder case, and you can always refill when you run out.
3. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer (Medium)
This is by far my favorite undereye concealer that blends really smoothly and actually covering my dark circles instead of making them look lighter but you can see the really dark undereye underneath which makes me look really tired, if you know what I'm talking about.
This is a pretty affordable concealer since this is drugstore. The applicator comes in a sponge which might scare some people as it seems a little unsanitary but its really fine. As for the coverage, it has medium to high coverage and you can always build it up. I even use this concealer on my pimples and it covers them pretty well. Highly recommended.
4. 3CE Back To Baby Pore Velvet Primer
This was the first time that I bought a face primer. I got this primer from Sephora, though you can find it for much cheaper online. I was always skeptical about getting a primer, since I had no hope in mattifying or reduce the shine on my face because my face is just a giant oil slick. But I thought rather than being curious all the time and end up not knowing what a primer can do to my face, I decided to find a good primer and ended up purchasing this one. The packaging is really cute and straightforward. It has my favorite color on the packaging, pink.
This is not an amazing primer. It does extend the longevity of my makeup, but I'll still end up looking very shiny eventually, which I had expected that to happen. This texture is quite silicone-y, which might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm not picky about face primers. It is also strongly fragranced of a baby's powder, as the name suggests "back to baby". It applies smoothly on the skin, but don't put too much because instead of smoothing out the pores and making your skin shine free, it can even make your skin look more oily. So less is more when it comes to this product.
5. 3CE Blush Cushion (Coral)
This might be my favorite makeup product that I ever own. They come in 6 different shades and I got mine in the shade Coral. Each color of the packaging represents the actual color of the blush itself. First of all the packaging is to die for. I'm always a sucker in really simple makeup packaging with a hint of cute in it and 3CE always does a good job on their packaging. I was also really interested in the idea of a blush being in a cushion form so when I saw this product online I was immediately in love with it and wanted to purchase it right away.
It comes with the usual cushion puff and a mirror which I really appreciate, and you get the usual separator of the puff and the actual product itself. It comes with a decent amount of product inside. This is basically a liquid blush in a cushion form, which makes it really practical to use. This feels really cooling when applied to the skin and it's very pigmented, so a little goes a long way.
6. Etude House Lovely Cookie Blusher (Grapefruit Jelly)
I got the shade Grapefruit Jelly which I expected to be more on the peachy side by looking at the pictures online, but it turned out to be a pink shade which I really don't mind and still looks nice. This is just a basic blush but the thing that makes me love it even more is the packaging. It really cute and small and it also comes with a puff that is SO soft. The size of the puff fits inside the packaging perfectly so you don't need to bring a seperate brush for it. As for the blush itself, it's really blendable. The puff picks up a decent amount of blush so you don't have to worry about putting on too much blush.
EYES
1. Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer
This is one of the most highly raved product from Etude House and what's great is that this is very affordable. The texture is thick and has a sheer tint to it which disappears as soon as applied to the eyelids. This makes my eyeshadow staying matte and doesn't crease, which is a basic job that an eye primer is supposed to do. You can also apply this underneath the eye under your concealer.
2. L'oreal Miss Manga False Lash Waterprooof Mascara
I never really pay attention with mascaras therefore I'm not sure which one is better and which is so-so or even bad. Everytime I use this mascara with the help of eyelash curler, my lashes are lengthened like nothing else. It also has a nice staying power but sometimes a little difficult to remove.
3. L'oreal Super Liner Black Lacquer
I'm not good (almost terrible) at using liquid eyeliner but I couldn't help buying this when I saw how dark and opaque this is. I was swatching a bunch of different black liners and this was the one that caught my attention. It doesn't smudge a bit even after you apply it. Please please try this out if you want an amazing black liner!!
4. Etude House Proof 10 Auto Pencil (BR401)
Lately I have been into Korean style makeup and what I noticed that the trend is using brown eyeliner for a more subtle and natural look. So I picked this pencil liner online. Pencil liners are the best to use for beginners but doesn't stay as long as liquid liners. This is nicely pigmented and very affordable. Worth to try.
5. Siklygirl Funky Eyelights Pencil (Rose Gold)
I actually have an obsession with rose gold color, it's a serious thing. This was a recent release from Silkygirl and when I swatched it, I immediately I had to buy it. It's really pigmented, has really smooth texture, and the color is beautiful. I only swatched it once on my hand and it looked like I put lots of layer of it. This is a versatile product, but I use this underneath the eye and sometimes on my waterline, and inner corners of my eyes to highlight them.
6. H&M Double Duty Highlighter
I was super excited and was kind of hyperventilating when I saw H&M's makeup line. It's available in H&M Somerset in Singapore, but I believe they don't carry the makeup line in other smaller stores. Anyways they have HUGE selection of makeup, it's kind of ridiculous.
This is another versatile 2 in 1 product, which you can use for highlight, eyeshadow, probably liner, and it says concealer. But I don't believe you can use it as a concealer. The colors are really subtle and I like to use the rose gold shade as a highlighter and the other as an eyeshadow base.
LIPS
I'm a little bit obsessed with lip products, that's why everytime I see a lip product I can't help but to buy it. Here I chose my favorites, and I have swatched them on my hand. The kind of shade that I gravitate towards to the most are kind coral or peachy shades, with a hint of pink in it. I'm always going to be on the hunt for the perfect pinkish coal shade with a subtle hint of brown in it.
From left:
H&M lipstick in "Chestnut Cream"
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in "Double Dare"
Etude House Dear Darling Oil Tint in PK001 "Salmon Oil"
Colourpop liquid lipstick in "Airplane Mode"
Revlon Ultra HD Matte Lip Color in "Seduction"
NARS Velvet Lip Pencil in "Cruella"
Etude House Dear Darling Water Tint in "Strawberryade"
