Thursday, January 29, 2009

Shiseido The Skincare Purifying Mask $29


I use this mask about once a week after cleansing and steaming. It's a Marine Mineral Clay mask that you smear onto your face for 5 minutes and it absorbs the impurities and sebum from your pores. After rinsing this off with warm water, I follow it with a toner and finally moisturizer.

The Verdict
I like how the mask does not harden or dry so you can still make expressions easily. My skin is a lot more supple after this and my pores look clearer too. I feel like this is gives a deep DEEP cleanse and I really like the results I get.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Shiseido White Lucent Brightening Mask 6pc $68


I LOVE facial masks. I dunno why but it's this obsession I have. I think it's because since I was a little girl I watched my aunt (she's the girly girl of the family) put on masks as part of her beauty regimen.


Anyways I was given a sample of 2 of these by a Shiseido SA last spring. I really loved the results and I've been using them ever since. The mask has a pleasant calming scent (I dunno what it is) and it is soaked in the White Lucent brightening liquid. The liquid kinda reminds me of an emulsion lotion but richer. The liquid contains Asian plant extracts to help with moisture balance and a high dose of Vitamin C to brighten dark spots and even skin tone. I always cleanse and tone before putting this on. I like how the mask has little flaps so that you can use them on your eyes too. It feels cool when applied and you just let the liquid soak in for 10 minutes. After that just remove and you're done. You don't have to rinse off this mask and I never apply any additional moisturizer after this as my face gets super saturated from the mask.

The Verdict
I love love love this mask! It mask is so hydrating and it really diminishes any dark or dull areas and gives you a radiant look and even skintone. Since you don't wash off the mask, I feel like it leaves a bit of a dewy film that is a little bit sticky as it dries but I don't mind it. I treat myself to this once every 2 weeks and before any special event.

Shiseido Skincare


I use the Shiseido skincare line for my daily 3-Step cleansing regimen. All their skincare products have a light fragrance that I find calming and pleasant. I can't place it but they smell wonderful!

Cleanse

The Pureness Deep Cleansing Foam $21 is my all-time favorite cleanser! It really deep cleans gently without making your skin feel tight. All you need is a little dab of this mixed with water. As you wash your face there are little blue scrubbing beads that dissolve once the cleanser has emulsified. I use this as a sign that it's time to rinse this off. I like to just splash my face with warm water until all the cleanser is completely rinsed off. I find this cleanser really washes away all traces of dirt, oil and makeup.

Tone

I follow with the Pureness Balancing Softner Alcohol-Free $23. I love how this is alcohol-free and doesn't dry out my skin. I used to think that a good toner draws out ALL the oil from my face - boy was I wrong! The toning step has 2 purposes: it removes any traces of residue from your skin that your cleanser may have missed and it preps your skin to soak up moisturizer fully. I like to soak a cotton pad and wipe this all over my face. I use 1 side of the pad for half of my face, then I use the other side of the pad for the other half of my face. The important thing is that you always wipe in 1 direction and not back and forth (you'll just wipe any residue that is picked up back onto your skin). I also tone before putting on any kind of mask that doesn't require rinsing off.

Moisturize
I use 2 different moisturizers: one for daytime and one for nighttime because during the day I look for a moisturizer that contains SPF or will help mattify my skin. At night I usually want something more hydrating.


I started off using the Pureness Matifying Moisturizer Oil-Free $32 during the day and the Pureness Moisturizing Gel-Cream $32 at night. Both these products are really great for oily skin but I found that they weren't moisturizing enough for my temples and cheeks as I have combination skin (oily T-zone and dry cheeks).


The great thing about Shiseido products is that you can combine the lines to customize for you own needs. This being said, I started using moisturizers from The Skincare line. The Skincare Day Moisturizer Protection SPF 15 PA+ regular $39 and The Skincare Nighttime Moisture Recharge regular $41. These are also wonderful and fast-absorbing.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Too Faced Eye Products


I thought I would post these together becuase they're both eye products and they're both from Too Faced. I've been looking for a good eye shadow base because my eyelids tend to get oily and I have a small crease one under each eye starting from the inner eye and extending down/outwards. Eye liner always runs into these creases and I just end up looking like a mess. I read a bunch of reviews and it was between Urban Decay's Primer Potion $17 and this. I decided to go with Too Faced Shadow Insurance $17 because the bottle is more pratical to dispensing the product and they are the same price-wise and in effectiveness (at least according to user testimony).

The mascara is a sample size Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara that I received from Nordstrom during a promotion way back in September '08. I had never used it and opened it probaby once so I figured it's not expired and still good (I'll let you know if all my lashes fall out). Anyways the purchase of the Too Face Shadow Insurance motivated me to dig this guy out of it's makeup grave and that how it ended up on this post :)

The Verdict: Too Faced Shadow Insurance $17
The very first thing I noticed when I opened this was the smell. It's got a funky smell, kinda like the smell of lotion that's gone bad. I actually thought I had gotten an expired bottle and went back to Sephora to exchange it only to discover they just smell bad. I was a bit discouraged but I gave it a try anyways. I ended up really loving this stuff! Although it is tinted, it goes on pretty sheer. It really makes any eye makeup you apply stick and my greasy creases were gone!

The Verdict: Too Faced Lash Injection Mascara (Sample Size)

The bristles of this brush are really long and the brush itself is really bushy. I've poked myself in the eye quite a lot because I just can't seem to judge how close it is to the base of my lashes. I hope this is just a learning curve. Since the bristles are close together it is easy to "comb" your lashes as you're applying the mascara and it's doesn't clump. I did not notice any flaking either after 8 hours of wear. I get a natural look - it looks like my lashes are a bit more dense. It doesn't really add any length or curl. All in all it's a pretty decent mascara but I'm still on the hunt!

Friday, January 23, 2009

Conair Facial Steamer $22



When I was a little girl I always remembered my mother and my aunt using a facial steamer in their beauty regimen. After seeing cutie patootie youtuber Lindi use one I got the itch to get one too! Check out her site at http://www.bubzbeauty.com/ or you can find her on youtube too. I love her hair/makeup tutorials plus she's got this awesome Nor-Ireland accent <3>


So I bought this guy off of Amazon along with another gadget a Panasonic Pore Cleanser $30 and got super free shipping - woot woot! At first I was hesitant to purchase this steamer model because I read the reviews on Amazon and there were 2-3 comments about the steamer not being wide enough to fit your face in it. I don't have a particularly GIANT face but I was worried that it would turn out smaller than I expected. So when I took this out of the box, I started laughing hysterically! The opening for your face is quite adequate for any normal human face so I dunno if the reviews were written by human bobble-head people or not.

The Swag
But back to the steamer! It comes a lot of baggage. There are 2 attachments: a large one to steam your whole face and small one to aid nasal decongestion. With the small one you can add a bit of menthol oil to the base where the water is added and you just breathe in the medicinal steam. It even included a little beaker to measure and pour water into the basin. I have not used the beaker thingy once - I just put the basin directly under the faucet and fill.


It also came with a bad Clarisonic knock-off which also has 2 attachments: one is a brush and one is a sponge. I haven't tried the sponge attachment yet but I probably should as the bristles on the brush are too harsh for my skin and I got splotchy and broke out after using it.


How to Operate

The steamer is really easy to use. You just fill it up with with water and hit the "ON" button. Once the water is fully heated and ready for steaming it gives you a beep. You set the timer dial (0-15 minutes) to how many minutes you want to steam and hit the "TIMER" button. Start steamind and once the set time has passed it gives you another beep. The dial itself doesn't move or tick after you set it so there's no annoying motor sound.

The Verdict
I love using this before applying mask to really open my pores. The unit is very lightweight (probably 1 lb at most) and compact so I can carry it anywhere. I mainly bought this for facial steaming but the fact that it came with the nasal steamer was a bonus as I know I would use this on the days when I have a really bad cold. I'm not thrilled with the weird cleanser tool or the little beaker because I'm not getting any real use out of them.

Hello World

I have two great hobbies and that's eating baked goods and beauty and that's how I came up with the name for this blog. I'll be sharing all me dessert and beauty finds and I hope you all enjoy!