A/W 2014: Morning Skincare Routine (Mini Reviews)

You'll probably be surprised to see that my skincare routine doesn't comprise mostly of Korean products! This is mostly because I decided to swap stuff around for university, and plus most of my newly bought Korean products just arrived back home from Korea.
My night routine will feature more Korean products, so stay tuned for that!

Products will be listed in order of application.

Say hello to my new coworker.

The Canon Powershot SX50 HS!

Tada!

In a situation where I am low on money and in dire need of a new phone - that doesn't take a minute to load up appplications, a new bridge camera was purchased instead.
Take note that at the same time of needing a new phone I was also in dire need of a new video recording device to replace my 5+ year old Sanyo Xacti, which produced below average video quality compared to the standards of today, and was clumsily dropped by my foolish hands numerous times throughout the years. Additionally, the constant change of colour tones most noticeable in my videos agitated me greatly.
Although I dislike the sudden invasion of the American Black Friday sales in England, it was admittedly a great opportunity to scout for my muchly needed discounted technology. And that was how I discovered the new camera.

October Music: Korean R&B

I have been terribly out of the Korean music loop recently.
Occasionally I see the odd update on my Facebook feed, but I haven't been solely actively seeking everything out.

I've been busy with university commitments, watching The Return of Superman (슈퍼맨이 돌아왔다) and The Apprentice. The former is so damn time consuming because of it's 1 hour 30 minute episodes, and the previews always makes me want to crave for more baby/toddler action! Meanwhile the latter has been making me double think about my career decision to dabble into the world of marketing. Earlier this month I attempted to do some job hunting at the graduate fair but unfortunately they're all very London/city based which isn't ideal since I live in a small town. I do have friends living in said cities, but it's actually quite burdensome to ask someone if you can stay at theirs for a long period of time. I'd rather start out small and then move onto the bigger things.

Anyway, enough of that depressing future career stuff. Let's sit back and admire these two new recent releases:



As One: For the Night
This is an incredibly sexy soft tune for the evening. Their voices are so lovely and light that it makes me wonder why I haven't attempted to actively search for their other releases after falling completely in love with their Awkward Love track -gulps- last year... Wow, time really does fly!
The MV is like something out of a softcore porno, rich muscular business man and a voluptuous maid. I very much enjoy oggling over the male lead's body though, yes. Apparently he's a member of TROY - I only know of Bumkey and KANTO in that group.




Crush: Sofa
Crush, my boo. Although I do like this track, I still very much prefer the older ones because they make me want to body roll and break out singing. Only the chorus makes me want to body roll and yell "SOFA!" so far. Haha, sofa, so far...
-ahem-

Alright, I'm off to do some readings about Lacan, Zizek, and Baudrillard for the rest of the day.

The Great Korean Make Up Haul

I think I bought less make up products than I did with skin care. Then again, make up products look smaller than skin care, maybe that's why *shrugs*
Additionally, it appears that I've garnered a handful of Japanese imports too, because sometimes the prices are very decent and not crazily overpriced.


The list of products I bought in Korea/featured in this video is listed in the description box on the YT page.

The Great Korean Skin Care Haul

Filmed the video in Korea, editted a month later in England.

Made me miss browsing skin care stores in Korea. It's always fun because almost every product in store had a tester for you to try out before buying, which was amazing. Ever since I got back I've been grimacing everytime I wanted to test a product out at Boots or Superdrug, to find out there is no tester.
The struggle is real.
Korea's skin care culture has spoiled me.

The list of products I bought in Korea/featured in this video is listed in the description box on the YT page.

CLIO Lipnicure in #3 Crime Pink Review

CLIO Lipnicure #3 Crime Pink

Up until now I never had a bad lip product experience. That's right, CLIO's Lipnicure disappointed me a lot.

During Autumn, CLIO released a line of lip laquers titled 'Lipnicure'. The packaging looked sexy, and so did the colour range. The price was not so sexy, retailing at 16,000₩ (almost £10). 
Not knowing much Korean, I guessed that its selling points were that it offered vivid matte results and long lasting colour. 

Clio Gelpresso Pencil Gel Liner Review

During my first few weeks in Seoul, I passed a small Clio store whilst shopping around in Myeongdong. On that day, I didn't take my 'Korean cosmetics shopping list' with me, but I did vividly recall wanting to try out the Gelpresso liners after reading numerous positive reviews of it online. So I went straight in and headed for the eyeliner section.

The staff there didn't know much English. So when I asked one of the female assistants if they sold any non-glitter/shimmer ones she had no idea what I was talking about. My friend helped out by saying "Bling Bling" and that was then that they understood! I should of said matte because then one of the male sales assistants proceeded to loudly say "MAT-TAY! MAT-TAY!". The female SA then started plucking out all the brightly coloured matte pencils and started making swatches on my hand. Unfortunately, there were no matte black liners available in the Gelpresso line, only Golden Black which was a black liner with gold shimmers.

CLIO Gelpresso Mini Liners in Beige Shine, Golden Khaki, Star Purple, Dark Choco, and Golden Black

John Frieda Precision Foam Colour: Extra Light Ash Blonde 10A Review

Late hair dye review post, but I think it's necessary that I tell you all about my lovely experience with John Frieda's Extra Light Ash Blonde foam dye. In short, I love it just as much as Prettia's foam dyes!

John Frieda: Extra Light Ash Blonde 10A. Mini picture on the right is the foam solution.

I bought the box from Boots back in early June 2013 when it was on sale for around £6, and ended up using it in early August before my 1 year-long study abroad adventure in Seoul, South Korea.

Freshlight Hair Dye: Melty Cherry Review

I thought I was going to die just hours into my birthday because of this dye's fumes! Yes, I was dying my hair when the clock struck midnight, marking the beginning of my 21-year-old years. I began my 21st by dying my hair with Freshlight's Melty Cherry foam dye.

Originally I wanted to try out Rose Macaron because it was a lighter pink, but unfortunately it appears that Korea does not sell it. I've tried browsing numerous Olive Young and Watson branches in Seoul, before I dyed it and even after dying it, but still I can't find it. I think the Korean market prefers having medium/darker hair colours, and if they really wanted a light colour it would be blonde.
At one point I was searching up other brands' reviews online, one of them being Palty's foam dye. I was deliberating between the Palty's Raspberry Jam and Freshlight, but chose the latter in the end because people online had said that Palty foam tends to fizzle out quickly and you are left dealing with a pile of gloop when you're halfway through application. In Korea, they only sell Beautylabo, Palty, and Freshlight dyes from Japan. Beautylabo had mediocre reviews also. I also ventured into looking at Korean foam dyes, but reviews online were limited and I never heard anything special about Korean foam dyes anyway. Plus, a Korean friend did NOT recommend trying out the Mise en Scene Hello Bubble dyes since they dried out her hair big time.

CLIO Waterproof Pencil Liner in Killer Black Review

Hope you all had a great new years! *laughs nervously*

So I may have accidentally abandonned this blog for a long while since my last post in early October. This is because I wanted to focus on updating my Korea blog more as well as be able to balance a social life and uni work. I know, I actually have a social life in Korea *le gasp*
But now that it's Winter break, and a majority of my newly made friends have now left me forever since they only came to study for one semester (*cries*), I now have time to update you guys on my latest experiences with Korean cosmetics! Huzzah!

So let's start off with a product that I have a love-hate relationship with. The CLIO Waterproof Pencil Liner in Killer Black!

CLIO Waterproof Pencil Liner in Killer Black. The black end of the pencil is the sharpener.