Summer Wishlist 2015

Hi to any of my readers left. I figured I would get back into blogging slowly, with a simple wishlist post! The past year I've neglected my skincare a lot, and that combined with dissertation and exam stress has lead to my skin being significantly worse. Looking over my old blog posts, I was amazed at how good my skin used to look.

So, without further ado, here is my wishlist for the upcoming summer.

GMarket Haul #1 (Sulwhasoo, Su:m37)

Sometimes you just get in the mood to haul. And sometimes you just got some money and want to try out nice brands. And sometimes you finally figure out how to use Gmarket. Sometimes...

Anyway yea, that's basically why I did this. It was an interesting experience, and I didn't even have to pay import fees!! I got the Sulwhasoo products from the same store, and the Su:m37 one from a different store. If anyone wants the links just let me know.

 
 The package!!

The package is opened!!!

My Skincare!!!

Left to Right

Sulwhasoo First Care Serum

Sulwhasoo Essential Balancing Emulsion

Sulwhasoo Essential Balancing Water

Sulwhasoo Essential Firming Cream

Su:m37° Miracle Rose Cleansing Stick

You might have noticed that there are uniform, deep scratches on the Sulwhasoo products. They also did not come with any packaging. I asked on Reddit's r/AsianBeauty community, and someone suggested that it was to prevent them from being returned to a brick and mortar store, since the products were slightly cheaper than retail. I obviously did not know that when purchasing, so I am a bit disappointed since it kind of ruins the initial fancy experience.

But I'm okay with that. The Su:m37° product was packaged and in perfect, new condition. No complaints there. I've been using all of the products for a few days (I know I should patch test first but I don't have sensitive skin and I was excited...) and omggg they're amazingly magical. My skin is so soft and glowy. A proper review will be out in roughly a month's time, so look out for that. :)


Also I bought 20 packages of instant ramen.

Sasa and Ebay Haul!

At long last, an update! I'm very sorry for how long it's taken me to write up another post, but I promise that I'll start updating more regularly again. Despite having a looong list of products I need to review, I thought I would ease back into blogging with a simple haul post! 

I purchased these products from Sasa and Ebay seller AlphaBeautyUK, who sells a lot of Japanese products at a reasonable price. I'll list out the products and give a brief description where neccessary.

Skincare

Left to Right

1) Mentholatum Skin Aqua UV Moisture Milk SPF 50+ PA+++

I'm constantly on the search for the perfect sunscreen! This one is alcohol free and quite gentle, and so far I like it a lot.

2) Kracie Naive Naive Deep Cleansing Oil (Olive)

It was cheap and simple.

3) Avene Retrinal+ 0.1 Cream 

Not Asian, but I've been wanting to incorporate retinoids into my routine for awhile. Unfortunately, I won't be able to book an appointment with the dermatologist until I'm back in Texas this December, so I got an OTC product instead. This was purchased at Dermstore.com

4) Juju Aquamoist Vitamin C Toner

I wanted to get my Vitamin C in a different skincare step, versus my previous serums. Cheap and has great reviews :)

5) Hada Labo Gokujyn Hyaluronic Acid Lotion 

It's getting colder and dryer here in Norway, and this is cheap but works sooo well so far. Really happy with it!

6) Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream

Omg this cream is so good so far. I wanted the benefits of ceramides, but I hate the texture of popular ceramide creams like CeraVe. 

Makeup

Left to Right

1) Majolica Majorca Lash Enamel Glamour Volume on

I was tired of being unsatisfied with my cheap but unremarkable mascara, so I finally coughed up the $15 for this. So far I really like it.

2) K-Palette 24hr Real Lasting Eyeliner (waterproof) 

I just realized that I accidently bought the waterproof version haha... oh well. So far it's quite nice, I'll write a comparison post between this and Dolly Wink eyeliner later.

3) Canmake Lasting Creamy Liner (black) 

I didn't have a pencil eyeliner, and everything is expensive in Norway.

4) Kate Designing Eyebrow N

My current eyebrow pencil was too dark for my hair, so I got this. I really like it so far, though it's a lot smaller than I expected.

Recent Buys

Hi y'all!! <3 I wanted to share some of my recent purchases~ For clothes, I'm trying to buy warmer things or layer-able items, since I'll be in Norway for fall, winter, and spring. Unfortunately almost everything in Texas right now is more summery, but I was able to get some nice deals thanks to July sales. I've also included some other small items I've got, like stationary and makeup! Please note that I bought so much stuff at once because stuff in Texas is like 1/2-1/3 the price of Norway, so I wanted to stock up for the year!

Also- I tried taking my own pictures of everything, but they ended up really inconsistently lit and it just looked sloppy, so I hope this is okay! ):

Reddit Beauty Exchange (aka why the internet can be awesome)

Exciting stuff! In late May I began arranging a sort of beauty penpal exchange with a lovely girl living in Korea- on a website called Reddit~ There's a small subreddit for Asian Beauty which has an active and nice community. I sent her some British beauty products she couldn't get in Korea, and she surprised me with lots of lovely Korean products! C: I plan on reviewing all the BB creams, the masks, the foam, and the two small Etude House products. If you want any of the other samples reviewed, just let me know! 

June Misc. Hauls (Sasa, Ebay, and more!)

I thought it would be good to show y'all all the products I've bought in the past month that haven't come as huge hauls. This has been the accumulation of a few things here, a few things there, etc. I'll try and say where I bought each item in the descriptions, but I had so much stuff that I couldn't fit it into one large picture... oh well. Also- I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I rummaged around my house for a camera, and found an old one from Middle School/High School that takes nice pictures. I also found a place with better lighting, so hopefully my picture quality will improve now! :)

TesterKorea Haul!

Second haul of the month, this time from a lesser known store- Testerkorea.com! I heard about them from someone's blogpost, and they're really great! They have similar prices to KoreaDepart but with slightly cheaper shipping, and you can buy samples from tons of different brands in sets of 10, which is fantastic for trying things out without buying the full size! :) 

They also gave me lots of sample! I got three of those 'Thank you' sample packages, and the Skinfood cotton pads were free as well! They're very soft, I use them to remove my eye makeup!

Ordered: May 8

Shipped: May 10

Arrived (Texas): May 22

I heartily recommend TesterKorea, the prices are great and the variety of brands and samples they carry is dangerous(ly awesome).

KoreaDepart Haul

The first haul post of the month... and what an excellent haul it is. I found out about KoreaDepart awhile ago, but put off ordering from them because I was intimidated by the ordering process. It's genuinely not bad, and the prices and really great once everything's done and refunded. Here's the order details for anyone interested in KoreaDepart:

Ordered: May 3

Shipped: May 5

Arrived (Texas): May 15

Also, they package very well! All of the items were individually wrapped in bubblewrap, like so:

If anyone has any more questions about my experiences with them, just let me know!

Item details after the jump!!

Taobao Haul & Pruany Review

Hi there! Sorry for relatively slower posting lately, I had my last exam yesterday and I've just been super busy with stuff. Good news, though! My Taobao order finally came in!!! It took ages cause one of the sellers took like 6 weeks for it to ship to my agent, but now it's okay cause everything is WONDERFUL! I chose to use Pruany for my agent, as I had heard good things about them and they apparently were slightly cheaper. Skip to the bottom if you want a more thorough review. :)

My Taobao order consisted of 7 items- 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 2 sweaters, 2 cardigan. I hope a few of you find this atleast mildly useful!!

Liz Lisa knock-off dress in pink
Taobao Picture

My Pictures

Liner!
Buy here
I'm in love with this dress. It unfortunately took forever (6 weeks, bs) to come arrive to my agent, but I do think it was worth it. It's made a quite good material and fits me well without being too long or too short. I'm so excited to wear it out! 

Pretty white dress

My Pictures

Lining

Buy here

Very cute dress, it fits well and is quite flattering! Unfortunately it got very wrinkled on its way over. I need to steam it before I wear it out- so keep that in mind if you order from them. Also- it's not quite but dangerously close to see through, so I definitely have to wear a slip with it. Not awesome, but understandable.

Basic black miniskirt

I forgot to take my own pictures, but it looks exactly the same (:

Buy here
Surprisingly good quality for the price! Unfortunately I don't think I'll wear it in public due to it not quite working on me. I'm 5'3 but my butt is fairly prominent in comparison to the rest of my body, so while if I had a small butt this would be short but cute, with my body the way it is it's just a bit too revealing for me (i.e. i can't bend over or go up stairs without being immodest woohoo).

Sweaters

My pictures

Buy here
Super happy with these! They're not made with the best quality materials everrr, but for the price I'm okay with that. They're cute and perfect for a lot of different looks. I can wear them over dresses or with skirts or with jeans or anything really. 

Liz Lisa knock-off cardigan in white

My Pictures

Buy here
Honestly really good quality for the price- I have absolutely no complaints. It looks absolutely adorable with the Liz Lisa knock off dress above, surprisingly good quality, just purrfect.

Peter-pan collar cardigan w/ detachable collar in cream

My pictures:

Close up of collar! Decent quality lace!

Buy here
I have a couple of small complaints about this- 1) the material is almost a bit shiny? Like it has sparkles knit into it. I wasn't expecting that, but it still looks pretty nice. 2) One side of it is slightly baggier than the other, which can look a little weird if you're aware of it. Most wont be able to notice though. It is a very soft and fairly warm cardigan though, and good quality.

All in all I'm pretty delighted with my purchases. I'm really looking forward to wearing them out and about, especially with the weather warming up in Europe a bit. I'm planning on ordering some more stuff from Taobao soon, so expect another haul post in a couple of months! (:



Pruany Review

Okay- first thing is first. I went with Pruany because I read that they were cheaper than other agents. Their website isn't the best, but it works. I had some initial confusion with paying for my order, but they responded very quickly and in good English so yea. It took me a few days to realize how they respond to you- on your order there will be something that say 'message' and it just allows you to comment/ask questions/respond to stuff on each individual item. As an example, my first Liz Lisa knockoff dress took forever to come in. They let me know it would take awhile. Unfortunately they said it would take 2 weeks. Then 4 weeks. Then another few days. But it ended up taking 6 weeks. That was lame, but not their fault I guess. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with my experiences, but I'll try a different agent next time just to see what else is out there.

RoseRoseShop and Sasa Combined Haul

Some of you may be familiar with the ebay seller Rubyruby76- they have a webstore as well that sells the same products. I can't be bothered with ebay, so I just bought it off of their webstore. Anyway, my RoseRoseShop and my Sasa orders arrived within a day of each other, so I figured that I would write up a haul post for both at once!

Everything, plus some samples!

Quick Mini Nyx Haul!

I know this is a primarily Asian-focused beauty/fashion/whatever, but I got some new stuff in from Nyx that I thought I would share. If anyone is interested in a review, please let me know! I got it b/c I'm thinking of trying out the Gyaru look, but I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on MAC lipsticks or anything.

For a quick run through:

Eye pencils- good

Lip glosses- really good

Pink Nude lipstick- really good

Pure red lipstick- poop

New layout and a KoCo Mall Haul + Review

I'm not sure if anyone checks my blog regularly enough to notice, but... new layout! I downloaded a trial of Photoshop and had some fun coming up with a layout. Please let me know if you have any feedback about it, positive or negative! I also have a bright sky blue version that I can use, if this one isn't popular. C:

Anyway, on to the haul + review!!

Someone linked to this new website KoCo Mall on a Asian Beauty 'forum' I frequent, and... the prices. It was just too much for me to resist. I caved.

From what I understand, KoCo Mall is just the online shop from what was a popular and reputable Amazon seller Seoulglamour. Seoulglamour closed their Amazon store in favor of creating their own website. All of the products I recieved are real as far as I can tell right now, but just comparing the Tony Moly gloss bar to one I got from Yesstyle, I see no reason to worry that they're fake! (:

Anyway, I'm just going to do a quick review on my experience shopping with them, then post haul pix.

So, the website is nice, professional, well organized, and has a variety of popular Korean brands. They currently have a $5 voucher when you sign up with them, which I used for my purchase. I think you have to spend a certain amount of money befor eyou can use it ($10 maybe?) but still, $5 covers quite a few products at those prices, so it's definitely worth taking advantage of!

Something I really liked was that they shipped out so fast- my product was shipped within 12 hours of me placing an order, which was really awesome. I also recieved the package quite quickly- it shipped out on the 22nd of March, and I recieved it on the 2nd of April. That's like 6(do saturdays count?) working days, which was pretty damn good from my experiences.

Their English is pretty good and I had no issues with communicating with them. They use Korea Mail for their packages, aaaaand they definitely helped me avoid customs fees, if you knowww whaat I meeaaan. ;) I really appreciated that, especially since I've been hit with stupid fees the past few times (£12 customs fees on £12 worth of stuff, what?). So yea, I would definitely recommend KoCo Mall for ordering from in the future. A lot of their prices beat Sasa, and they have some things that Sasa doesn't!~

And now for the haul!!

No box, which isn't awesome but it's not terrible. Considering the prices of the products, I'm not complaining.

It was definitely well wrapped, so atleast that was nice (:

They included 10(!!) free samples of all sorts of cute Korean products, which I really appreciated. There will definitely be some mini-reviews coming up for some of those!

Etude House Missing U hand cream, in their peach version! 

It smells like HEAVEN and is sooo cuuuute. The container is reusable as well! Super happy with it.

Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail Sleeping Mask

I've heard so many great things about this, so I'm really looking forward to using it. C:

 Tony Moly Petite Bunny Gloss Bar - Juicy Cherry

I've used this already and I'm really happy with it! It's a bit pinker than I wanted, but still a really good color. A review of this and my peach one will be up next week ~

SkinFood Salmon Brightening Eye Cream. 

I have really dark undereye circles, and all the reviews I read said that this was actually really effective, so we will see! It smells amazing, so atleast there's that if nothing else!

So yea, that's about it for now. Have you ordered from KoCo mall or tried any of these products? If so, what have you though? I'll be posting another review later this week, so look out for it! 

Sasa Haul #2 !!

Another Sasa haaaullll! Filled with MY BEAUTY DIARY FACE MASKS!!!! And some cream. I'm irrationally excited.

All the stuff! Super excellent image quality.

Sana HADANOMY Collagen Cream 

I tried some out as soon as I got it, and just from the one time I've used it it seems like a really good cream. It moisturizes well and sinks in quickly, and has a small brightening effect. I'm excited to keep trying it out! :)

My Beauty Diary Black Pearl Mask (Box of 10)

Hurray! Super excited to try these out! I've only heard good things about them.

My Beauty Diary Earl Grey Tea & Macaroon mask (x2)

Such cuuute packaging! We shall see if the masks themselves live up to the high standards their packaging has set! 0:<

My Beauty Diary Pearl Powder Mask (x1)

I wonder how much different these are from the Black Pearl masks...

My Beauty Diary Bulgarian White Rose Mask (x1)

I actually tried this out about an hour ago- I'll post a review in the next day or so. It does what it advertises. ^^

My Beauty Diary Mixed Berries Mask (x2)

I've also heard really good things about this one ~

My Beauty Diary Red Vine Mask (x2)

Antioxidants and stuff?

My Beauty Diary Sake Yeast Mask (x2)

I was reading earlier about how yeast apparently has anti-aging properties? We shall seeeeeeee

My Beauty Diary Arbutin Whitening Mask (x3)

Got one for free with some quick Sasa deal thing. Look at how science-y it looks!