Haul and Reviews – CosRX, Daiso, Sephora, and Arome

Hello, interwebz!  Time for another random beauty and skincare haul and my reviews of the products I impulsively bought at great prices!  Let’s dive right in, shall we?

First stop – Daiso.  I really love this place.  I decided to try the Cocoon Balls and DIY Face Masks.  The cocoon balls are supposed to be made of either spider silk or silkworm silk and are collected, dried, and sent to you for to help your beauties.  You soak the cocoon ball in warm water for about 10 minutes and then wipe it around your face.  It both exfoliates and moisturizes.  I was able to use one every day for a week before I finally tossed it, so I thought it was a pretty good investment.  It didn’t make a huge difference on my skin, but it did help remove dry skin while adding some moisture.  Not bad.  I still haven’t tried the DIY face masks.  I’m waiting to use this with my peppermint toner from my June Kira Kira crate.  As far as I can tell, you soak one of the masks in the toner or essence of your choice and then open up the mask to use it the same as any other fabric mask.  I think this was $1.50 for 5 masks, so there’s not much to lose in trying.

I also finally got the soap foamer.  I started using my foaming face washes on my body, but thought that they might go further if I used this.  I tried using a brush and sponge, but they were too rough on my skin.  This foamer has worked on my foaming face washes, regular body washes, and bar soap as well.  You add a bit of soap, a bit of water, and then basically churn the two until bubbles form.  I like to just smear the bubbles on my body, but they also work better as shaving foam this way.  I get more use out of the products and my skin likes this better because it’s lighter and airier than just slathering myself in soap.

CosRX One Step Original Clear Pads – These are the bomb!  I didn’t really start seeing true progress on my face until I started using these.  The acne and dry patches just started disappearing.  Instead of having a bump on my face that turned into a patchy sore, I just started to have skin and some white heads.  That’s not ideal, but it’s improvement that I hadn’t see so rapidly since I started my new eczema – acne skincare journey.  These BHA pads break down gunk in my pores over night.  I go ahead with my normal skincare routine otherwise – essences, lotion, cream, etc.  In the morning, I wash with water and go with my normal skincare routine.  I have seen and felt so much improvement to my skin and its texture!  I’m finally starting to move into the post-acne treatment phase of skincare.  Yay!

Sephora – I ran into the store at the mall while my husband and daughter looked at other things.  I wanted to pick up the Murad acne spot treatment to use during the day, but it had salicylic acid, which bothers my skin a bit.  I used to only use salicylic acid, but I think I may be allergic now.  Next too the Murad area, I found the Peter Thomas Roth Acne Spot and Area Treatment with sulfur and colloidal oatmeal.  Yes!  These are products my skin likes nowadays.  This was also a few dollars cheaper than Murad.  I use this on any blemishes and whiteheads that I see in the morning.  It smells a bit like sulfur (aka farts), but nobody around you can smell it and it works wonderfully.  I’ve smelt worse with less benefit.  I grabbed a Green Tea Sleeping Mask to try because they had been out for over a month.  This was supposed to clean your pores and moisturize while you sleep.  It was okay, but it was way more than a single application.  That means that you have to find a way to seal it each night.  The consistency is of gel rather than the cream that I was expecting.  It did a good job of moisturizing, but I’m not so sure about clearing out my pores.  The Sephora Honey Lip Scrub was a good deal.  I thought it was lip balm, but was pleasantly surprised to see it was a lip scrub, since I have been looking for a cheap lip scrub.  This stuff does the job for a fraction of the price of most lip scrubs.  When I got to the counter, I also had enough points to get a sample size bottle of Supergoop! Setting Mist so I can tote it around California when I’m on vacation.  You spray this on your face over your makeup to reapply sunscreen throughout the day.  Brilliant!  If you haven’t tried any Supergoop! products and you are the type of person who, you know, has ever been outside, then go try this stuff now!  Supergoop! is probably my favorite non-Asian sunscreen maker.

Arome Her Indie Soaps – Roaming around the mall, these girls stopped my husband, my daughter, and me to try to sell us some handmade soaps.  I’m kinda biased towards handmade soaps since one of my BFFs, Cathy, used to make them.  She gave me high expectations for handmade soaps.  Well, this stuff is good for your skin, money goes to help orphanages, yadda, yadda, yadda…I ended up buying the patchouli and charcoal bar for me and the milk and oatmeal bath bomb for Averie.  Holy Moly!  The bar of soap is so wonderful!  I use it on my face and body.  I have used it with the foam maker from Daiso to shave.  It’s amazing.  I even wrapped it up to take on vacation to California because I figured that no matter how my skin may react to all of that sun, sand, and saltwater, this soap would calm down and repair my skin.  Each of these was only $5 too, which is a killer price for anything handmade and sold at a mall kiosk.  This is the next best thing to having a friend who makes quality soap products for you!  The only problem is, I can’t find them online.  So, if that little kiosk in the mall disappears, I won’t be able to get any more of this stuff.

Alrighty, that’s all for now.  Let me know your views on these products, if you’ve tried any.  Have you ever gotten addicted to something that you bought at a mall kiosk?  Have you used anything patchouli since high school?  What’s your favorite sunscreen?  Leave your answers below!

Unboxing – Kira Kira Crate June 2018

Hello, Interwebz!  It’s time for a post that I thought I already did!  I was preparing to do the unboxing post for my July 2018 Kira Kira Crate and realized that I never did the unboxing post for June.  Whoops!  So, let’s get to it.

June’s box contained quite a few items that I couldn’t wait to try, but mostly items that I have to wait to try.  Womp, womp, womp!

I was surprised to get a giant bottle of peppermint toner, but I am worried that it might be too strong on my face.  Now that my eczema and acne are clearing up, I think I can start trying to use it soon, though.

I have used the nose brush, which I thought was pretty unique.  When washing your face, you are supposed to use the brush to get in the weird angles of your nose and really scrub out all the gunk.  I didn’t feel like it was doing anything other than irritating the skin around my nose, so I only used it once or twice.  The mask looks super luxurious, but my skin goals right now are just to clean and calm.  So, I will be gifting this mask to my sister as a little treat when I see her next.

Then, there is also lemon skin oil and hair pads for reducing static.  These are all things that I can use, but haven’t used yet.  The body oil will wait until it’s a bit drier outside.  I want to really test it to see how it works then, as opposed to when it’s 100 degrees F with 40% humidity.  I could use the hair static things all day every day, which means that I haven’t used them yet.  I guess I’m waiting until I meet the Queen of England or something.  The Little Twin Stars blotting papers are so cute that I don’t even want to use them!  I want to wallpaper my bedroom walls with them, but my husband would get creeped out.  My walls wouldn’t be oily, though.

Wow, that was a quick unboxing!  Let me know if you’ve tried any of these products and what you thought about them.  Aren’t Twin Stars just the cutest?  Do you think a brush is the best way to wash and exfoliate around your nose?  When do you most want to remove the static from your hair?  Let me know in the comments below and thanks for reading!

Haul and Review – Gifts From Christina

Hello, interwebz!  Today, I want to share some thoughts and reviews on products that one of my BFFs, Christina, has given me.  She is much more knowledgeable about beauty than I am and has been really supportive of my efforts to find beauty and skincare products to help my “new” skin.  Also, I found out that her mom has eczema.  So, I’ve been swapping stories and suggestions with her mom as well.  Hooray for supportive friends and family!

Christina was kind enough to share some Kat Von D products with me.  I have never tried the brand, but have heard alot of good things about them.  I immediately smothered my mouth with the Studded Kiss Ultra Violet lipstick and loved it!  I had never worn a purple lipstick as an adult, but it looked better on me than I thought it would.  I tried the red a few weeks later and it was VERY red.  I liked it, but definitely need to do a full face of makeup to balance out the VERY red lipstick.  The third color was a nude that worked whether I wore makeup or just sunscreen.  Christina also gave me a Tattoo Liner that I tried a few times before washing my face.  I am not very skilled at eyeliner, so I mostly use it just before washing my face because I’m trying to get better at applying it.  I wore it once in public and kinda messed it up, but I managed to mostly remove and cover the mistake with alot of eye shadow.  Mostly.  Either way, I love this eyeliner because it’s a very smooth application, the brush is fine tip, and the color is rich.  It stayed through puddles of sweat in the Texas heat, and that’s the highest compliment for any eyeliner!  These products are also vegan and not tested on animals.  Wearing this makeup made me feel a bit more glamorous than normal because I knew they were designed and approved by Kat Von D, who is a completely badass!

At a time when I was using foaming face washes that burned the sore spots on my skin, Christina gifted me with Pacifica Quinoa Sensitive Super Gentle Face Wash.  Guess what!  This stuff actually works!  It calmed my skin while also cleaning it.  There is a scent, but it’s not strong or perfumey and has not bothered my skin or sinuses.  I started using the other foaming face washes on my back and chest and I use this on my face.  Since switching, the eczema on my face has calmed down quite a bit.  Yay!

In my late teens – early twenties, I used Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Lotion like it was going out of style.  I was self-conscious about stretch marks all over my body from gaining and losing weight all the time.  I figured that if Palmer’s worked for pregnant women, it could work for me, and it did, but it was too rich to use in the summer.  (I don’t think they even sell it now because they have so many specially formulated products, but this may be it.)  However, they recently came out with coconut oil products.  Christina’s mom gave me a bottle of Palmer’s Coconut Oil Body Lotion to try and I love it!  I use it every night on my hands, legs, and feet.  My heels are so dry right now, even during this sweaty summer.  This lotion keeps them pretty well exfoliated and smooth and has taken care of some cracked areas around my fingernails as well.  This is definitely a must try for anyone needing deep moisturization in high-humidity areas.

Christina also gave me some Acure Ultra-Hydrating Shampoo to try on my eczema-ridden scalp.  It doesn’t irritate my scalp, but it doesn’t work quite as well as the Korean stuff that I have been using (post on that to come!)  That being said, since this shampoo is organic, sulfate free, and paraben free, it works better on my hair after I have used hair dye than the Korean stuff.  The Korean stuff I have just heals your scalp and prevents hair loss.  This stuff heals your scalp (a bit more slowly than the Korean stuff), makes your hair smell nice (light almond scent), and protects your hair (and any dye on it).  So, I’m alternating it with my Korean stuff as needed and am very grateful to have just the right arsenal of hair products at my disposal in the shower.

Those are not all of the things Christina has given me over the past few months, but those are all of the beauty products!  Thank you for reading this post and let me know if you’ve tried any of these products.  Are you as in love with Kat Von D makeup as I am now?  What do you use on your dry heels?  Any other suggestions for gentle face washes?  Let me know in the comments below!

Unboxing – June Ipsy

I debated doing a post on this since there was some controversy around Ipsy last month. I didn’t hear about it until after I got the shipment, though. So, just a quick summary and we’re good to go!

I really do look forward to my Ipsy packages! The mailers are pretty and I like the products that they’ve picked for me so far. The little blue makeup bag is sturdy and cute! I can’t organize enough, so they’re always handy. Getting two masks in one package was pretty exciting! They are both from The Saem, a Korean skincare company. One is apple for smoothing and brightening. The other is a acai berry and is to moisturize and firm skin. This time, I found my Luxie small shader before I tossed the packaging into recycling. Now that my skin is starting to clear up, I’m looking forward to learning how to do makeup like an adult!

I guess now’s a good time to talk about the makeup from this package. The K Voss macaroon lip balm smells good, but not particularly macaroony. I usually don’t like lip balms in tubs either, but I guess I can keep this in the bathroom so that I can wash my hands before each use. I also got some M.A.C. Lipglass that I can take with me on the go! The color name is Nymphette, but the color just looks like a shiny copper. I guess Nymphette sounds more interesting than “shiny copper”. Other than the skincare masks, I’m most excited to try the Pretty Woman nail polish in Vacay (aka very pale pinky cream). Pretty Woman polish is supposed to guarantee no chipping, cracking, fading, or peeling for up to 10 days. We shall see. Either way, I think this is a perfect light color for the summer and will polish the heck outta my nails with this!

So, that’s the quick breakdown of what came in my June Ipsy package. Have you tried any of these products before? Did you like them? What do you think macaroons smell like? Let me know in the comments below! Also, I started a YouTube channel. So, make sure to check out scarletloser on the YouTubes and let me know what kinds of videos you’d like to see. Thanks for reading!

Haul and Reviews – a.c. care

Hello interwebz! First off, go enter my giveaway if you haven’t already. There are still a few days to enter to win a page of XOXO Prints penguin stickers! Now, I wanna tell you about my second trip to Little Korea for skincare products.

I wanted to get full size bottles of a.c. care Bee Venom Serum and the BB Cream. I picked up more of the Ekel masks that I love in different varieties (20 for $10!!!) and got some sample size bottles of the a.c. care Lotion and Pure Skin Toner. Everything was about $100 and I nearly passed out, but I remembered that it was for my skin that is painfully falling off my face. I already tried some cheaper stuff and this worked better. Skin is the largest organ of the body, so you have to take good care of it! That being said, the full size serum ended up being completely different from what I got in the sample container and the sample stuff worked better. The sample I had said it was specifically for acne and the full size bottle didn’t, but there is only one bee venom line, so I don’t really know what’s what. I am on the lookout for a better way to treat this acne since the full size serum was disappointing. The b.b. cream is different too, but in a good way. It actually looks better after it sits on your skin than the samples did. So, I will likely be buying more of this b.b. cream, but not the serum.

We went by Tony Moly for the first time. So much cute stuff! They also had some fancier products that I hadn’t seen before. I grabbed a few cheap things for $1 – an eyebrow trimmer (for Ben), an eyeliner pencil sharpener, and lip tint. When I got home, I realized that the lip tint said it was not for resale, which made me wonder if that was directed at me or the store since none of the other products had that warning. *shrugs* I found a cheap container to use my witch hazel toner in so that I didn’t have to use the giant bottle on my bathroom counter. I also grabbed some single use pimple extractors. I used a few of them, but the pimples left terrible sores that healed more slowly than the ones I do with my fingers. It was also more painful, so I was sure that I did something wrong and have stopped using the extractors until I can figure out how to use them correctly. My favorite purchase there was The Chok Chok Green Tea Essential Soothing Gel. The sales lady at the store asked if she could put some on the store areas of my back and I accepted her offer. Immediately, my back felt cooler and less painful. I’ve been using this magic potion on my face, neck, and back ever since. It is made with green tea instead of water and is just wonderfully soothing to the skin.

We finally made it to The Face Shop this time! Since I had already loaded up on my skin supplies for the next month, I didn’t need anything. I did get some face cream for Ben. He has very sensitive skin too and his skin stays red and irritated after shaving. He hasn’t used it yet, but he did take it out of the box after a couple of weeks. We got some samples of other face products for both Ben and me. The Dr. Belmeur Lotion has panthenol. So, if Ben doesn’t use the cream by the time I need more, I will be trying Dr. Belmeur for myself! We also got some various product samples. I tried the Daily Repair Ato Salt Cream and it was literally life changing. When I have some more money, I am going back to get some more. It cleared up almost my entire back in one use while I was in the countryside! Normally, I have to use my steroid creams to get results like that after visiting the countryside. The Salt Cream has no steroids and no side effects that steroid creams have. If you have eczema , this is more than worth the money- no redness, no dry skin, no desensitizing. You just get soft, healthy skin.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you’ve tried any of these products and what you thought of them. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway while you still have time!

Haul and Review – Marshall’s, Ipsy, and Pimple Patches

Hello, interwebz! Today, I’m going over a few products from a few different places. I got these products in May and have had plenty of time review and test most of it.

First up, was my trip to Marshall’s. As I said in a previous post, I got a crappy brush for my hair the last time I went to Marshall’s. So, I tried a new one. The Swissco Pro Vent Brush works very well on my hair. I only brush my hair before I wash it (2-3 times per week) and have no idea how it works as an actual vent brush since I don’t blow dry my hair. It does remove tangles easily, pulls stray hairs from my head, and massages my scalp as I brush.

The Skinfix Gentle Lotion was intended for babies with eczema. (That’s me!) In all seriousness, I absolutely love this lotion! It soothed my skin right away. My back is slowly improving from using this. I tried using it on my face, but it healed eczema while creating pimples. So, that was a bit disappointing. This lotion has helped me stop scratching my back in my sleep, and for that I am grateful.

I bought the Alba Fast Fix for Undereye Circles after using their fast fix tinted moisturizer spot treatment. This did work well as a concealer, but didn’t last all day. However, it didn’t bother my skin. So, I still like it. If you have sensitive skin and are looking for a concealer, try this one.

Ipsy is an online subscription service that offers five full size beauty and skincare products for $10/month. If you want your products sooner or want to know which products you’ll be getting, then you have to hassle friends on social media to get them to sign up too. If you’re patient, you can get the goods and keep your friends. For every dollar you spend on the site, you get one point that you can use towards ordering other items on the site. If you like the products in a specific bag, you can order more of them on the site, often at a discount. Leaving reviews on things helps specialize the items that you get each month. May’s glam bag had a super cool travel-themed makeup bag, NYX Soft Matte Lip Créme, Elizabeth Mott Pop! Goes the Shadow eyeshadow, Grace & Stella Dead Sea Mud Mask, Eyeko Eye Do Liquid Eyeliner, and a SLMISSGLAM eyeshadow brush. (I thought that the eyeshadow brush wasn’t included in my set, but I found it in the bag the stuff shipped in after I wrote and edited this post. I edited the post again, but didn’t retake pics.)

I loved the bag because I love all things travel. The eyeshadow and lip créme match and are both colors that I use, but I didn’t try the eyeshadow yet. The lip créme was soft, but I didn’t see much of a change to the color of my lips. I have never been able to put on my own eyeliner, but I tried the Eyeko eyeliner a few times before washing my face at night and really liked how smoothly it went on, even over the dry patches on my right eye. I can’t speak to it’s staying power since I immediately washed it off my face. The mud mask is great! I loved how clean my face felt afterwards without feeling too dry. I will say that any open sores on my face stung a bit, but that was to be expected. Otherwise, it felt like the mask did a decent job at both cleaning and shrinking my pores. If you’d like to try Ipsy, you can use my referral link. I get 250 points, but I’m not sure what you get. Maybe a discount? I wish the site were clearer on that.

Now, the part I have been waiting for *drumroll please*. Medca M Universal Acne Patches vs CosRX Acne Pimple Master Patch. I tried CosRX first and was pleasantly surprised at how well they stuck to my face and how much junk they pulled from my pores. I tried the Medca patches because they were a bit cheaper and I knew I’d be going through lots of acne patches. The Medca patches were nowhere near as sticky as the CosRX patches were. If you got them to stay in place, then they would pull a decent amount of gunk from your pores. However, you couldn’t touch any part of the patch without losing both the stickiness and the effectiveness of the gunk pulling. Since you apply the patches with your hands, I couldn’t figure out a way to guarantee that the Medca patches didn’t fall off my face before I even made it to bed. I am now on my third package of CosRX patches and am leery about trying any other brands for fear of disappointment.

Those are a few things that have been helping my eczema, acne, and desire to try new things. Have you ever tried Ipsy? What was your experience like? Do you recommend any other brands of pimple patches? Let me know in the comments what kind of shopping and skin experiences you’ve been having! Thanks for reading!

Review – a.c. care Bee’s Skin Care 2pcs Set

Hello, interwebz! In the last part of my skincare saga, I began a skincare routine to deal with severe acne, pimples, irritation, eczema. After about four days, I switched out products to an even more gentle routine.

This was when I tried the horse oil toner that worked so well. I also used CosRX Acne Pimple Master Patches, which is what really started making a difference on my cystic acne around my nose and chin. Afterwards, I realized that my problem was less of a pimple issue and more of an irritation issue.

I went to the Shiseido store and picked up some cotton squares that don’t fall apart the way the dollar brands do. They didn’t have anything to treat acne or eczema, but I got some samples of products to help with moisture and color spots. I also got an Esfolio Banana Mask to see if it would help. It was amazing! The mask immediately calmed my skin and took away the redness from anything that wasn’t a scab or sore. It smelled like a banana milkshake and the fragrance didn’t bother my skin or nose. Shiseido sunscreen has also been the only sunscreen that I’ve tried so far that hasn’t caused breakouts, has no scent, and withstood my constant sweating in this Texas heat. I used a sample, but will be buying a full size container soon.

Near Shiseido was another Asian beauty store that sold a brand I had never heard of before – a.c. care. I was told that this is what all the teenagers with acne buy because it’s on sale often, whereas Dr. Jart never goes on sale at that store. a.c. care products are supposed to be made with bee venom and other natural ingredients. Buying the treatment set meant that I also got the face cleanser, trial kit, and samples for free. Along with the “buy 10, get 7” masks deal, I believe everything came to a little less than $94. I had never spent that much money on beauty products in my life! I have always tried to stick to the $5 and under range, but I was desperate. Ben ended up buying it all for me as my Mother’s Day gift and we joked about me getting a new face for Mother’s Day.

Now, you may be thinking, “Hey idiot! How is bee venom any better than horse oil?!” It’s not. When the sales woman said, “bee venom”, I thought, “bee spit”. It might be a little gross, but that’s basically honey, and I knew that honey was good for my skin. Stupidity is no excuse, though.

When I read the ingredients lists, most of the products had bee’s venom at the end of the ingredients list. That made me feel better because we were basically paying for the words on the box and not the actual venom. However, I did decide to write up the first five ingredients in every product and link them to reports on how good or bad the ingredients are (see the end of my post). Some of the links provided are easier to read and understand than the actual research papers I read on them. Most of the ingredients actually weren’t very natural and has questionable side effects. I didn’t want horse meat on my face, but I was willing to try butylene flycol and denatured alcohol to see if they might give me some relief.

***None of the photos of myself have been edited in any way other than cropping.  This is me in all of my inflamed skin glory.***

After three weeks of using this stuff, I do think it’s helping. Pimples aren’t really an issue anymore, just the inflammation, texture, and sores. The eczema is all over my neck, chest, and back too. I even have spots of it on my fingers. So, I think the heat is aggravating my eczema all over. I have seen improvements on my face and neck in terms of calming new irritations. I have no new cystic acne and have slow improvement on parts of the eczema. I have a bad habit of picking at my skin during the day and don’t even realize what I’m doing until my hands are bloody. So, that is not helping. Mostly, I am trying to be consistent and patient. Surprisingly enough, my new skincare routine seems to be working.

***I only researched the first five ingredients on each list because they will be the most concentrated. Afterwards, you’re usually looking at ingredients in the 1% or less range. That is a negligible amount unless you are highly allergic to a specific ingredient.***

Two Piece Set plus free Cleanser

a.c. care Bee’s Pure Skin Ingredients: Water, Butylene Glycol, Propanediol, Alcohol Denat., Glycereth-26

a.c. care Bee’s Moist Lotion Ingredients: Water, Butylene Glycol, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Glycerin, Cabbage Rose Flower Water

a.c. care Bee’s Foaming Cleanser Ingredients: Water, Stearic Acid, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Lauric Acid

a.c. care Bee’s Trial Set

Contents of set: Bee’s Foam Cleanser, Bee’s Water Essence, Bee’s Spot Serum, Bee’s Control Cream, Bee’s Shield B.B. Cream

Bee’s Water Essence Ingredients: Water, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol Denat, Propanediol, Glycereth-26

Bee’s Spot Serum Ingredients: Water, Alcohol Denat, Butylene Glycol, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer

Bee’s Control Cream Ingredients: Water, Dimethicone, Cyclopentasiloxane, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin

Bee’s Shield B.B. Cream Ingredients: Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Dimethicone Copolyol, Titanium Dioxide

Skincare Haul & Review – Silicone Applicator, Guerisson 9-Complex Toner, Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam, and Ample: N Hyaluron Shot Cream

Hello, interwebz!  I am addicted to Korean skincare and the multi-step skincare method.  In this post, I’ll show you what I did to deal with the acne breakout that happened after I used BB cream that my skin did not like.  Eventually, the pimples turned into eczema and it has become a whole disaster that I’m trying to deal with in the cheapest, yet most effective, way possible.

***None of the pics of me are touched up in any way.  I just cropped them so that you can focus on the natural anger of of skin.  With irritation like this, who needs blush?***

Here are some products that I ordered for this post.  Because my skin is so fussy, I try new items one at a time so that I can see how it works before incorporating a grander scheme.  Only the cleansing foam was actually used the night the photos were taken, but I do include my reviews below on the other products.

I got the applicator for less than $2 from WalMart when we were visiting my in-laws.  I ordered the Guerisson 9-Complex Toner, Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam, and the Ample: N Hyaluron Shot Cream on Amazon.  These were some of the first Korean skincare products that I’ve tried and I started, as always, with the cheapest stuff.  Everything from Amazon was under $10 with Prime shipping.  After a week of using the Guerisson toner, I realized that it was made with horse oil, which is not like tiger balm or horse shampoo.  Horse oil is not made from plants and is not used on horses, but is a byproduct of processing horse meat.  The Guerisson toner worked better than the toner I used in this post, but I couldn’t continue rubbing horse innards on my face.  I also found out that something in the Ample:  N Hyaluron Cream irritates the skin on my eyes.  I used it for three nights and my skin was okay, but my eyelids were puffy.  My right eyelid was so puffed up that I could only open my eye halfway and I eventually developed eczema on that eye.  So, I’m not sure if the eczema was in reaction to the cream or if it was already there and the cream made it worse, but I have put the Hyaluron Cream aside for now and will try it again when my skin clears up completely.  I haven’t actually used the applicator on any face masks yet, but I have used it on every cream and lotion that comes in a tub.  I’m paranoid about adding germs to the creams and changing the way they work, so this $2 solution was great!

Here is my face before I washed it.  You can see the biggest pimples and quite a bit of redness.  I should’ve taken a picture of the side of my face too because it was red and irritated.  I also needed to dye my gray hairs, but wanted to try to soothe my skin a bit before I added harsh chemicals to my head.

Here are the items that I actually used for this post.

For the last year or two, I have basically been washing my face with water and putting aloe gel on it before bed or any time that it starts feeling dry.  I knew I’d have to change things when I started wearing makeup, but I didn’t anticipate having such a crazy reaction from my skin so soon.  The Korean skincare system has been the only thing that seems to work right now, and this was my first attempt at most of the steps.  This video from Beauty Within, this one from The Beauty Breakdown, and this one from Gothamista are some of my favorite skincare routine videos.  I have the products above in the order that I used them.

1. Kopari Coconut Cleanser
2. Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam
3. Sephora Pink Clay Mask
4. Dickinson’s Pore Perfecting Toner
5. Aura Cacia Tea Tree Oil
6. Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
7. Sample of Avon Anew Clinical Eye Lift Pro Dual Eye System

First, I cleansed with an oil to really break down any goop, sweat, moisturizer, sunscreen, etc.

Then, I used the cleansing foam to really clean everything off of my skin.  When I first heard about double cleansing, I thought it was crazy, but now I get it.  Two different cleansers for two different reasons.  The green tea cleanser comes out rather creamy and you work it into a foam by adding water to your hands and rubbing the cleanser between them.  The instructions didn’t say this, so I tried to put it on dry skin without anything else first.  It worked much better after adding water.

The cleanser was supposed to be calming, but it stung a bit since I had so many open sores on my face.  However, I didn’t feel squeaky clean afterwards, which meant that it was not stripping my skin of essential oils and would not tell my skin to overproduce sebum for more pimples.

I followed up the foam with a clay mask to try to pull extra junk from my pores.  I just want all the junk out so that I am not piling good ingredients on top of pimple goo in my pores.  The mask is something that I only use once or twice a week.  I used it instead of an exfoliator because it was less irritating to my skin than a physical or chemical exfoliant would have been.  This specific mask doesn’t dry either, which I have noticed my skin likes more than the ones that dry on your face.

Instead of rinsing off the mask over the sink, I went ahead and took a shower.  I like to take showers at night because it helps cool down my body in these brutal Texas summers. (It’s technically spring, but when you’re hitting 100 degree weather, it’s summer no matter the date.)  Washing off the mask during my shower meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting it all out of my hair or getting the mask on the bathroom counter.  Win-win!

Next, I put some toner onto a cotton pad and swiped my skin lightly with it.  This step is supposed to prepare your skin to accept the active ingredients that will be treating problems.  This toner is super cheap and works well, but it wasn’t doing much for my eczema issue, so I switched to something else a week or two later.  After the toner, I patted tea tree oil onto my pimples.  Normally, you’re supposed to use a carrier oil to dilute the tea tree oil so that it’s not so strong.  With the giant pimples I had, I did not want to add any extra oils that were not going to work specifically towards clearing my skin.  I don’t use the tea tree oil unless I have crazy pimples like this, so it didn’t really bother my skin, but it did nothing to help my eczema on my cheeks.  As a moisturizer, I used coconut oil.  I used the silicone applicator to spoon out a little oil and pat it all over my face and neck.  Overnight, it soaked into my skin to moisturize and calm my skin while treating acne (or at least pulled the gunk to the surface to remove from the pimple).  Finally, I tried my samples of Anew eye cream for night.  I don’t think it did any good, but it didn’t do any bad, either.  I didn’t have an allergic reaction and my skin was smooth.  So, I guess it worked well.

Overall, I think you can see how much calmer my skin was at the end of the skincare routine than it was at the beginning.  If you are looking into Korean skincare or even just trying to calm down angry skin, then the items used in this post should work pretty well for most people.  Even though I have very sensitive and combination skin with eczema, none of the items I used were bad for anyone with dry, oily, combo, or sensitive skin.  You always have to try things out for yourself to see.  I definitely saw a difference in my skin after doing this routine for a couple of days.

Thanks for reading this long post!  Have you tried any of the products mentioned in this post?  Do you think you’d try skincare products made with horse oil?  What are your favorite tips for calming down angry skin and clearing up pimples?  Let me know in the comments!

Beauty Haul and Reviews – Sephora, Target, Daiso, and Marshall’s

Hello, interwebs! Let me begin this post by saying that I do not have a lot of money and did not get all of these things at the same time. This is stuff that I got over the course of about two months from various stores. Also, I got all of this stuff before I went to Daiso the last time, but the pics were originally lost. With my sensitive skin, there is a lot of trial and error, mostly error, so I thought this post would still be beneficial to anyone wondering where to find skincare products for sensitive skin, how much they cost, and if they work.

This Caudalie set was actually my free birthday gift from Sephora last year, but I never used it. I still haven’t tried it, but will soon because it fits into the Korean skincare routine. I only add one new product to my skin regime at a time, so I may try these in a few weeks.

Christina gave me this gift set of Soap & Glory Heel Genius and Hand Food. The foot cream has urea, so the smell bugs me. I slather it on my feet before bed and put on socks, though, so I don’t really smell it. I really like the hand cream, even if the grape seed oil bothers my nose. It doesn’t help the eczema on my thumb and forefinger, but it doesn’t make the eczema worse either. As far as softening your skin, both products do a pretty good job. These do contain parabens and sulfates in addition to the urea, so I won’t be buying them when I finish these. I am grateful for the quick relief on my sore skin, though. They are available at Sephora, Ulta, Target, and Amazon for under $10.

After deciding to try the Korean Skincare Routine, I figured that I should stop at Daiso. Why start with the expensive stuff if the cheap products will work? I got a beauty blender because I wanted to try it when I start working with liquid makeup. I thought it might only take a few weeks to heal my skin and then I’d move on to finding the right makeup for my skin, but I was wrong. The first thing I tried was the coconut mask and it was amazing! It soothed my skin, healed some sores, and moisturized. It didn’t remove the giant pimples even though it brought them closer to the surface, making them easier to treat with other products. I use the charcoal wipes when I get home from work or any other time that my skin is itching and hurting. I start picking at my skin if I can’t soothe it, and the wipes have been good for calming my skin between washes. The concealer stick was okay. It’s the exact same color as my skin and blends easily. It doesn’t make blemishes or the circles under my eyes disappear, but it doesn’t settle in wrinkles, lines, or pores either. Most importantly, it does not break out my skin. I’ll keep using it for now, but will need to find something better later. I haven’t tried the vitamin E mask or charcoal blotting papers yet , but I’m sure they will be fine. Overall, I was surprised with how well these Daiso products worked, considering none of them was more than $3.

On a shopping trip at Target, I picked up some Biore Charcoal Pore Strips on sale ( box of 6 for $5.99) and Shea Moisture Smooth and Tame Treatment Masques on clearance. I’ve used Biore pore strips before, but not the charcoal strips. I think the charcoal pore strips I got at Daiso worked better than these. The other kinds of Biore strips worked better for me than these too. The box I got came with a single packet of Biore Charcoal Self-Heating One Minute Mask. I had tried the non-charcoal mask before and liked it, but I’m not sure if the heat was good for my eczema. My face always feels clean, but soft after those masks, though. Using the masks before the strips actually works better. I think the heat opens your pores, making it easier for the strips to grab gunk from them. I haven’t tried the Shea Moisture hair treatments yet because I prefer to use them after dyeing my hair. These were on clearance for $.64 and I couldn’t pass up such a deal! The Shea Moisture packs have no sulfates, parabens, pthalates, don’t test on animals, etc. This is more like the type of beauty products I try to buy when I’m not desperate for solutions to my skin problems.

When Sephora had their VIB sale in April, I went with Christina to check out the deals. I found a Sephora Pink Clay mask that was $8 for 4 treatments. I thought the pink clay might help soothe my skin. Christina ended up buying it for me, along with “the best beauty blender on the market” and a mo fo Glam Glo Glittermask!!! I argued with her about buying all this stuff, but she said that she wanted to treat me. I have only used the pink clay mask so far, but it does a decent job of calming my skin.

For all of the birthdays and holidays in May, I stopped by Marshalls to try to find some nice gifts at low prices. While there, I picked up a few things for myself. I bought the Jeunesse Anti-Aging Treatment ($5.99) and the Mon Amie Rose & Collagen Face Serum ($5.99) as items to try for moisturizing steps in my new skincare routine. Collagen is known for helping your skin retain its elasticity and rose oil is a mild moisturizer. I haven’t tried the Jeunesse moisturizer yet, but the rose & collagen serum works well and doesn’t seem to clog my pores. It also seems to calm my skin well. As much as I have loved that oil, the Earth Therapeutics Bamboo Natural Bristle Paddle Brush ($4.99) was a huge disappointment. That brush is trash! The bristles fell out on the first use and were not able to reach my scalp. I will admit that the brush did not make my hair frizzy, but I only brush my hair before I wash it (2-3 times a week). #CurlyHairGirlRules If it can’t even reach all my hair, who cares about pre-bathing frizz? I’m going to use this one on the cats.

Overall, I spent less than $40 on all of the products above even though they are worth more than that. It helped that Christina bought the most important things, but she also gets to enjoy all the bonus points! Have you bought any new beauty products lately? Do you try multiple new skin products at the same time or do you tend to ease into new items? Let me know in the comments section!

Review – L’oreal True Match Naturale Mineral Foundation Powder & L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream

Hello, interwebz!  First of all, I’m very disappointed as I type this because I lost a boat load of photos for the blog and had 20 minutes of video for my first vlog post.  I did manage to rescue some of the photos, but all of the videos are gone, including one of my son’s spring band concert.  The last two photos on this post were taken last minute on my iPad in crappy lighting because my other photos were lost.  I’m trying to focus on the bright side of things and decided to work with what I have so that I could still put up a post I’ve been working on for awhile.  So, slap on a smile and here we go!

The Short of It:

L’oreal True Match Natural Mineral Foundation Powder worked great with my eczema even while in the humid Texas heat.  L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream tore my skin apart.

The Long of It:

***None of the pics of my face have been touched up in anyway so that you can see the true dorkiness and skin conditions.***

I decided to try some new beauty and skincare products one at a time so that if anything bothered my skin, I would have an easy time figuring out who was the culprit.  So far, Kopari face oil worked well on cleaning my face without breaking me out or bothering my eczema.  I was ready to move on to a foundation since that is what goes under all other makeup.  I had heard good things about L’oreal True Match Naturale Mineral Foundation Powder and was eager to try it.  I tried color Nude Beige (W3) since I have yellow undertones and the color matched pretty well.  The kabuki brush that comes with the powder worked well for a couple of weeks, but hairs started falling out of the brush after that.  I tried a few brushes that my friend, Christina, gave to me and finally found a good one in the Real Techniques brush.  I cannot believe that this brush is so cheap and readily available at Target!

After using the face powder for a couple of weeks with no issues, I was pretty happy.  In fact, just as I had heard and read in many reviews, it actually improved my complexion, helping blemishes and eczema sores heal faster!  What are you oh magical power of mine?!  At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about L’oreal face products and decided to try the BB cream.  (Here’s a good YouTube video about the purpose of  BB and CC creams.)  I went with L’oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream in Light 812.  I applied the BB cream the way I’d seen so many people do  in video tutorials and was okay with the results.  I mean, I still had blemishes and eczema, but they were blurred out a bit.  It also seemed to even out my skin tone and soften my skin texture.  So far, so good.

After two weeks of using BB cream in the Texas heat, I came to understand that this stuff wasn’t going to be my makeup BFF the way my mineral powder was.  I broke out like crazy.  I saw some new blemishes here and there, but though they were just a result of my oil cleansing pulling things to the surface.  One day, I wore BB cream and spent alot of time outside instead of in the office like usual.  You could see a line of deep and red blemishes every place where my fingers applied the BB cream – my forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, and neck.  From the initial touch zones, the blemishes spread out.  It was a literal map of how I applied the BB cream to my face and neck.

I spent the next two nights washing my face with coconut soap, treating with tea tree oil, and calming with thick layers of aloe gel.  The coconut soap is my body wash (Alaffia Everyday Coconut and Coffee Berry Body Wash) and is pretty gentle on skin, but maybe not on my face.  I was just desperate and wasn’t thinking.  I used Aura Cacia tea tree oil from Target (on sale!)  Normally, this stuff is too rough on my face, but these were giant cysts and were painful.  I wanted them gone.  The tea tree oil worked, but dried all the skin around the blemishes.  After a night or two of that, I switched to cleansing with Kopari and doing a Sephora clay mask.  After washing the clay mask off,  I finished each night with a layer of aloe gel to kill the bacteria, calm my skin, and moisturize my skin.  It worked well.

After a few days of that, I switched to washing my face with pure coconut oil.  Coconut oil is the same PH as skin, fights bacteria, and moisturizes.  I always have a jar of Trader Joe’s Organic Virgin coconut oil.  You need something that has barely been processed so that all of the good stuff is still on the oil to help your skin.  First, I scooped out some oil into my hands.  It was solid, but melted as I rubbed it on my skin.  I rubbed it in circles all over my skin and neck, concentrating on the most problematic areas of blemishes and eczema.  Normally, I would place a warm rag on my face and lay down for 10 – 15 minutes, but this time, I didn’t want to lay in the bed with the wet rag on my face.  I repeated this as I made my way around my face and concentrated on the parts with the worst blemishes and eczema.  The goal of this was not to get all of the coconut oil off, but to take some of it off, while easing things out of my pores.  I think you may want to do something to close your pores afterwards, but this time, I wanted my pores open so the coconut oil would soak into my skin overnight.  I went to bed and woke up with a much calmer face.  You could still see plenty of blemishes and eczema, but the redness everywhere else was gone.  I rinsed my face with water and put a thick layer of aloe gel over, adding a bit extra to the problem areas.

I’ve been doing this routine for a few days now and my skin looks much better.  Where all of the blemishes and eczema were are now just spots that are healing.  Your skin heals from the outside in, so it takes time.  Aloe gel and coconut oil also helps brighten skin so that the sore spots fade quicker.

While going through all of this, some other health problems came up and my skin hurt all over my body.  After doing the treatments with coconut oil and the wash rag, my face felt better, even if the rest of my skin and body hurt.  That reminded me why I spent so much time taking care of myself in years past.  I have looked into the Korean skincare routines and decided to give it a whirl.  So, stay tuned for my reviews on that!  Also, I haven’t given up on BB Creams yet.  I may try another kind in another month