Etude House Petit Darling Matte Eyeshadows in #1, 2 and 4

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I didn´t own more than a handfull of matte eyeshadows as I just prefer shimmery shadows =) However recently I felt I wanted some matte shadows just for adding definition to my eyes without shimmer....maybe to make a shimmery colorful liner pop or something.

I found some very neutral and wearable colors in the Gmarket store of Etude House (etudegmark for those interested to check them out).
These shadows are really inexpensive (I want to say less than US$4/each?)... and come in cute little compacts.

The texture these eyeshadows sport is very silky and not chalky like you might expect from many matte eyeshadows. The color pay-off is decent, sheer to medium and buildable. These are a bit hard to blend but not to the extent of being un-blendable.

#1 is a pale cream shade which blends into my natural skin-tone so it´s almost invisible but still it brightens my eyes. Makes a great highlighter especially to counteract a shimmery lid color!
#2 is a creamy peachy beige shade great for crease-definition
#4 is a deep charcoal color good as a liner or crease-definition. Btw I don´t think this works well with the other 2 colors, I should have gotten #3 which is a deep brown shade

Overall these are nice little shadows to have around if you appreciate a matte natural eye look.

Rating 4/5

P.S. I am going to our beach house for the next 4 days or so so it´s highly possible I have no internet there. So probably no new posts until Sunday or Monday =(

Etude House Apricot Stick in #1, 2, 3 and 8

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The Apricot Stick lipsticks from Etude House caught my attention back in July when I placed a Gmarket order.
These are very cheap (like US$3 or so), come in an array of 8 bright colors, most of them in the red/bright pink/orangey color scheme.

The Apricot Sticks look like regular pencils from outside but when you remove the cap you just have to twist out regular lipbalm-like lipsticks tinted in the same color as their packaging.

These lippies have a nice unobtrusive fruity peachy scent (or apricot but to me this smells more like peach) and are quite pigmented (at least these are super-bright on my lips).
Wearing #2:

The colors I got are #1 (hot pink), #2 (bubblegum pink), #3 (reddish pink) and #8 (a very bright juicy red).

To be honest again I don´t like any of the colors. They are all super bright and have a slightly dull finish so they look uneven and weird and I just don´t feel comfortable wearing these colors. These are fun colors for younger girls or whoever can pull off brights (think many deeper skin-tones than mine) but for me these just don´t look really sophisticated or wearable.

Overall rating for me is 2/5 as these are cheap, look cute and smell nice but overall I dislike these but as I said, others might just love these!

Etude House Golden Ratio Designing Conté

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The Golden Ratio Designing Conté is a really interesting product, unlike anything else I have seen before.

The Golden Ratio line (which, as I understand, came out at least last fall so it´s not the most recent release) features products to contour and define one´s face to reach a most perfectly balanced facial ratio.

The Designing Conté is a duo of face "pencils" (as EH calls them) that look more like pastel chalks.
They are wrapped in plastic which should be only removed in half as not to stain your fingers everytime you use them.

I furthermore recommend to keep them in the box incl. padding and cover to prevent these pencils from crumbling or staining other things.
You get 2 colors, one is a shimmery light beige and the other one is a deep chocolate brown that´s matte.

The lighter shade should be used for highlighting the cheeks, forehead, ridge of brows etc. whereas the deeper color is  intended to be used for defining the brows, hairline etc. Both could also be used as eyeshadows.
Both sticks have a densely pressed powder texture with a good color pay-off.
The lighter shade has a glowy/pearly finish and can be blended quite nicely. For me unfortunately the warm beige shade is too dark to be of use as a highlighter and I for contouring it´s too yellow on me so I can only use it as an eyeshadow and the color is just not perfect for me. More tan ladies can probably enjoy this stuff really well, though!

What´s interesting about the deeper color is that once applied it stays absolutely put so smudging or blending is next to impossible however this is probably the most perfect brow powder I have ever used. It´s dark, lasts perfectly, doesn´t crumble and doesn´t fade or smudge. I think the idea of using this to define one´s hairline is interesting but I am not really doing that :P
Applied with a thin angled brush this could also make a good eyeliner but I haven´t tried this yet.

The sticks aren´t scented and cost me 8000 Won (around US$7something). I got them from etudegmark on Gmarket (item 193822952). I am sorry but right now it seems this item is out of stock.

Rating 3.5/5... the darker stick alone totally gets 5/5 however the lighter color drags the rating down a bit.

Tony Moly Mini Bunny Hand Cream Sweet Pink

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Tony Moly released cute little hand creams and since they were out in pretty much all the drugstores in Hong Kong, especially in Sasa stores, I had to buy one!

What made me buy this Mini Bunny Hand Cream Sweet Pink was definitely the sweet pink tube with the bunnies =D I think there was at least one other kind available but I am a pink lover..

There isn´t much to say about this hand cream: it smells nice and feels moisturizing and did I mention the tube is so cute hehe =D
If you check the ingredients below you´ll notice that there are a lot of good ingredients in this cream like shea butter, urea, banana, papaya, mango etc. etc.

I carry this along with me in my purse all the time and it´s a really nice little gem to tote around!
Just be careful, the small cover can come off easily so be sure to screw it back tightly.

Rating 5/5 as there is nothing wrong about this stuff but on the contrary, it´s really nice!

Skinlite Intensive Recovery Hair Treatment & Hair Cap VS Lucky Hair Treatment & Hair Cap (Rose)

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There seems to be a new kind of product coming from Korea: intensive hair treatment and special hair cap for intense hair nourishment. The Koreans really come up with "masks" for everything =D

I found 2 of these new hair treatments on Sasa so I ordered a few packs of each and will do a comparsion respectively VS post comparing them.

Products:
-Skinlite Intensive Recovery Hair Treatment & Hair Cap - Made in Korea

-Lucky (Japan) Hair Treatment & Hair Cap Rose (name is written in Japanese so I don´t know the proper name) - Made in Korea

Where to buy/price:
-Skinlite: Sasa (click here), US$2.10 for a single treatment
-Lucky: Sasa (click here), US$6.30 for a single treatment

Contents:
-Skinlite: 20ml treatment and cap (contains some liquid inside, too)
-Lucky: 20ml treatment and cap (contains 7ml liquid)

How to use:
Both treatments work the same way: Wash hair, apply treatment, cover with cap for 10-15 mins and massage hair and scalp, rinse off



Texture/scent:
-Skinlite: A thick dense cream with a sweet honey scent
-Lucky: Medium thick slick cream, much like conditioner, unobtrusive floral scent (but not a rose smell like you might expect)

Cap:
-Skinlite: The cap is made of a plastic and a soft layer (I guess) and is covered with liquid inside. The fit is good, the elastic isn´t too tight nor too loose so all hair stays inside well

-Lucky: The cap is very wet, inside and outside and is made of a soft material (I guess some sort of soft paper cloth similar to the other cap). The fit is poor, the elastic is much too loose so my hair starts to slip out at the back if I don´t keep it up with a clasp.


Result:
-Skinlite: My hair gets soft but honestly most of my Japanese conditioners do a better job and it needs quite some time to rinse off the treatment.
-Lucky: It´s easy to rinse off the treatment and I get soft hair though still nothing so exciting, most Japanese hair masks and/or conditioners do a better job

Does the cap really have any use?
To be honest..I don´t know! To me the overall result isn´t that exciting and the wet cap probably doesn´t add much to the effect of the treatment.
So all in all for me this is a gimmick.

Overall result:
I don´t think either of these treatments is worth it. They are relatively expensive for a single time use and quite wasteful considering the cap and packaging etc.
I recommend getting a tub of Kao Essential hair mask for better results/as a way more economical choice.

Rating:
Skinlite: 2.5/5
Lucky: 2.5/5

Holika Holika Hello Holika! Blush compact in 01

I thought this Hello Holika! blush with the kitty was so cute so I purchased it with my Holika Holika Gmarket haul.
 
The compact is black with a kitty printed on which reminds me a lot of Cathy Cat cosmetics.
The blush consists of several pastel shades with a bright pink tangerine in the middle shaped like the kitty on the compact.

There is a layer of fine glitter dusted on top of the powder but it disappears with a few swipes. The blush itself is still quite shimmery like the majority of those Korean brands who are targeted towards younger ladies.
The blush is good to use as a blush and as a highlighter as the shades around the cat are all pastels thus more suitable as a highlighter. To me the blush seems quite pigmented and shows up very well on my skin.

I like to swirl all colors together for a softer pinker shade. I think it is slightly scented but nothing that bothers me hehe.

I don´t remember the exact price but definitely not more than US$13-14. I got mine from Gmarket.

Overall a good blush though the color is a bit bright and it´s quite a shimmer bomb.


Rating 4/5

Holika Holika Peach Cream BB Cream SPF37 PA++

The Peach Girl BB Cream was the other BB Cream I purchased from Holika Holika a short while ago.

This is actually a very nifty product as the BB cream also contains a universally flattering peachy shade of cheek/lip cream and a mirror housed in the cover of the tube!
 
The peach colored tube is quite cute but the sticker might come off if you handle it roughly.
This BB cream comes in 2 colors so I chose the lighter one. I suppose the cheek cream should be the same shade but since I don´t have #2 I can´t compare them.

The texture is like the typical silicone-y BB cream texture but like the other Holika Holika BB cream I reviewed recently it dries down to a nice lightweight and smooth finish so it doesnt feel heavy or makes me sweaty.
My skin gets very soft and doesn´t feel dry at all so I am not sure about the oil control this provides.

Color #1 is a light peachy beige which blends into my skin perfectly and evens it out nicely. Coverage is about medium so it´s a bit less than the other Holika Holika BB cream but it´s still enough to cover up all my little skin woes. I prefer to only top this with an ultra-light dusting of loose powder or no powder at all as otherwise the BB cream can get cakey and the nice dewy glow disappears that way, too! 
Lasting power is decent, about 4-5 hours before reapplication is necessary or a bit longer when wearing a bit powder.

The cheek/lip cream is a pretty shade of a pink grapefruit/peach color. It´s quite pigmented and looks really gorgeous as a blush! It blends very well so it looks quite natural. When wearing both I get a real peaches-and-cream complexion so I really love it!
For me personally it´s too dry as a lip color and on my lips it looks somehow matte and weird unless I top it with gloss.

This product is lightly scented and didn´t cause and irritations on my skin at all.
Removes easily with cleansing oil and foaming cleanser but I recommend not skipping the cleansing oil/milk/cream step as otherwise the cleansing result might not be sufficient. 

Overall a really nice product and very handy for a quick mini makeup in the morning!

So far Holika Holika has really wowed me with most of their products however the lipsticks are so-so and I´ll review them soon!


Rating 4.5/5

Holika Holika Moisture Petit BB SPF 30 PA++

The Moisture Petit BB SPF 30 PA++ was a freebie from Holika Holika as I hauled products worth more than 60000 Won (around US$55). That´s quite a good freebie if you ask me as the tube is a 30ml size, so possibly full-sized.
 
I think the tube looks cute, I really like that cat and the purple colors used.
To be honest I was quite out of the BB loop in favor of regular foundation as most foundations just look better and many BB creams have the tendency to get clumpy or cakey when topped with powder. Also the color match wasn´t always ideal and the heavy silicone feeling turned me off, too.

Anyway, the Moisture Petit BB is a thick smooth cream with a distinctive floral scent. It´s rather strong but fades some minutes after application (or my nose gets used to it...whatever). It offers incredible coverage even for a BB cream so a little of this stuff gives me almost flawless skin covering all the redness and small freckles on my cheeks.

The color is very light with a slight yellowish tone. It blends in perfectly with my skin and dries down to a smooth but not greasy finish within a few minutes taking the heavy feeling out of the cream.

Lasting power is good, when I wear this on my lazy no-makeup days without powder I reapply this after about 4-5 hours (if I am out in the sun).
Like most other BB creams this doesn´t like to be combined with powder as it can look cakey and blotchy but since it feels very comfortable without powder and has this gorgeous dewy glow this is a nice product all in all.
Before:

After, when wearing the BB cream

Rating 4.5/5

Etude House Bubble Hair Coloring in #1 Deep Black

Jumping on the Japanese bubble hair dye bandwagon Etude House released their own version offering 4 colors of foaming hair dye. I picked up the red and black ones but won´t be using the red one any time soon.

Currently I love my hair darker, if possible a deep ashy black so the Bubble Hair Coloring in #1 Deep Black looked right up my alley.

Here are the contents of the kit:

You get a bottle, a bigger sachet with the 2nd agent you have to pour inside the bottle, hair treatment (I believe it´s a leave-in type but haven´t tried it), instructions, gloves and cape.

This hair color contains "Micro Bubble Booster" which helps in creating a very dense and fluffy lather and in my honest opinion that´s quite true, this is one of the finest bubble hair dyes I have tried so far, giving me the feeling that the texture of the Prettia dyes is a bit outdated.

This is used like most other hair dyes: mix the 2 agents in the bottle, don´t shake, only gently tilt the bottle a few times, put on the gloves and cape, apply bubble dye to dry hair evenly coating all your hair, leave on for around 30 mins, rinse color, wash with shampoo and conditioner/treatment and dry.

To me the dye feels quite mild, there is no overly pungent smell and my hair feels quite soft and nice after dyeing and washing. Staying power is quite good, I re-dyed my hair with the same color about 5 weeks after the first as my roots started to show.

Overall a good hair dye though honestly there isn´t much a company could do wrong about black hair color! Love the super fine foam and ease of application as there is absolutely no dripping or mess during application.

I got this on Gmarket for around US$7 from etudegmark.

Overall this gets a 

Rating of 5/5 for the #1 Deep Black color