GIVEAWAY: Missha Super Aqua Ultra Refuel Limited Edition Set

Thank you so much to everyone who subscribed!! I selected a name randomly, and emailed the person who won my giveaway. Hope 2015 is going great for everyone!

Missha Super Aqua Ultra Refuel Limited Edition Set

Happy New Year!! 明けましておめでとう!! To celebrate the New Year I’ve decided to do my very first Korean skin care giveaway!

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Review: Missha Near Skin Inner Moist Moisturize Emulsion – and a little lesson on why solid carrier oils may be bad for your skin!

Missha near skin emulsion

Oh, Missha.  How could you do my skin so much wrong?  I had so much optimism for this product!  Even though I knew of the possibility that it would break me out, I still thought that I should give Missha’s Near Skin Inner Moist Moisturize Emulsion a chance because of all the amazing skin-repairing ingredients in it.  Unfortunately, it did break me out.  Horribly.  And has confirmed to me that I am indeed extremely sensitive to a certain type of carrier oils (and I’m sure I’m not the only one).  But for other people this might be their holy grail moisturizer.

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Review: The Face Shop Real Nature Sheet Mask

It’s snowing again in Chicago as I write this, and it’s so pretty outside.  My favorite time in winter is when the snow first hits the ground, softly blanketing the trees and streets in a thin veil of white.  The shoveling and dirty sludge that inevitably comes later, however, I can definitely do without.  And of course, I can also do without the incredibly dry air.  But this year, despite the dry air of winter, my skin has been saved by the discovery of Korean sheet masks.

Face shop real nature sheet mask

And my favorite of the several brands of sheet masks that I’ve tried is The Face Shop’s Real Nature Mask.  They’re inexpensive, great quality, and come in a variety of different ingredients (I almost wrote “flavors”! Ha!) to address many types of skin concerns.

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Updated Review: Skin Food Egg White Pore Foam

So in a previous post, I reviewed both the Skin Food Egg White Cleansing Oil and Egg White Pore Foam.  Overall, I found that the Foam cleanser was a little too drying for my skin, and since then I’ve avoided it.  I’ve since tested the Pore Foam with my pH strips, and the results were a little shocking.Skinfood Egg White Pore Cleansing Oil Foam

Instead of just including the results in my previous post, I decided to write an updated review because I need to totally change my score.

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Review: Shara Shara The Veiled Beauty – AKA The Most Amazing Product Ever!

So for my first review of 2015, I wanted to go *big* with my most favorite skin care find ever.  I’ve only used this product for a week, but I’m so amazed by the results  that I couldn’t wait to blog about it.  This product is truly unique, and delivers some amazing moisturizing and skin protecting results.  So what is this holy grail product that I speak of?  It is… *drumroll please*…

Shara share the veiled beauty sleeping mask

The Veiled Beauty Sleeping Mask by Shara Shara!  Yup, I never heard about it before I ordered it, either.  But when I saw it on en.koreadepart.com and looked up the ingredients, I realized that this product was truly unique.  And with the hope that it could be amazing, I ordered it.  And sure enough, this product amazed me with crazy immediate results!

I seriously think that this is my best find (so far) in my skin care journey, and I can’t believe that this product is so underrated that I haven’t heard about it before.  So let me be the first to yell from the rooftops about how amazing this product is!  Read my review, and do your skin a favor by purchasing this product.  This is an absolute *must buy* product for every skin type, every age,  and I’ll explain why…

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Weird Science: pH Strips Have Arrived!

PH strips

I am so weirdly excited about this!  I was always terrible at chemistry because I just never gave a damn about the little experiments that we did in class.  But I love the idea of putting on my mad scientist apron and testing each of my skin care products to make sure they’re at a good pH level for my skin!

For each product that I review (and reviewed), I will include info on the pH level of the product, just in case anyone else is interested.  Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be updating my previous posts so keep an eye out for it!

New Year’s Skinsolution: 10 Things to Try This Year for Better Skin!

Happy New Year Akemashite Omedetou

Happy New Year!! 明けましておめでとう!!  I hope this blog finds everyone happy and well in this new year!

As a child in Japan, my favorite holiday was New Year’s.  I always had so much fun visiting my Japanese family, playing special New Year’s games with my cousins, and eating good food, which always included lots of mochi!  Oh, and of course receiving otoshidama (little envelopes filled with cash) from my family and my mother’s friends and coworkers wasn’t bad either!

In Japan, like everywhere else in this amazingly wide world, New Year’s is a time for reflection, gratitude, joy, hope and excitement for what the future will bring.  And it’s because of this sense of hope and excitement that I always make a New Year’s Resolution every year.  Even if I don’t keep the resolution for the entire year, I think that it’s a great way to make (or attempt to make) positive changes in your life, and what better time to do it than at the beginning of a New Year?  So the following are my skin care resolutions – Skinsolutions – that I’ve decided to do in 2015.

My skin has already improved SO MUCH in these last few months, and I hope to continue to see more improvements as I continue to follow these skinsolutions.  I hope that they’ll help your skin too!

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Review: Missha All-Around Safe Block Soft Finish Sun Milk

After reading a couple of reviews on Missha’s “sun milk” sunscreens, I was curious to try the “soft finish” one since one of my biggest pet peeves is using a sunscreen that leaves a shiny and/or white cast.  Also, I was on the search for a nice sunscreen that could also double as a primer or makeup base.

Missha all around safe block soft finishe sun milk

I had a few problems with it not working well under my BB cream, but after I learned how to blend it together properly, I really learned to love Missha All-Around Safe Block Soft Finish Sun Milk.  I know I’ll be trying out other brands when I’m done with this bottle, but I’ll probably go back to this since I really love the way it works with my BB cream to give me a natural, even skin tone and finish!

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Review: Skin Food Black Sugar Strawberry Mask

Warning: The product that is the subject of this review is NOT food.  Do not eat, lick, or taste it, no matter how wonderful it smells and how hungry you are.

Skinfood black sugar strawberry mask

I felt the need to warn everyone because every time I use Skinfood Black Sugar Strawberry Mask, I want to lick it out of the jar!  It smells like the most delicious strawberry jam, and I love smearing it on my face.  This mask makes me hungry for strawberry rhubarb pie, and as a bonus it’s a really gentle exfoliating mask!

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