My Scheming Silk Protein and Caviar Extract Masks

If you see this post on another site than lotuspalace.blogspot.com it has been stolen and used without my permission. I only allow reposts with proper credits for my work (please contact me first!)!
My Scheming is a (new?) brand of sheet masks from Taiwan. I got couple of mask packs from Hong Kong (the Double Lifting series which came in boxes of 5 pcs) and recently I got 2 of the 10-pc packs from Sasa as they were really cheap (US$7.60 per 10pcs), however the price has gone up to US$12.60 which is a little weird!.

I got the masks in the Silk Protein and Caviar Extract versions.
The masks are made of super soft and rather thin cloth which is cut to fit excellently. Furthermore each of them is saturated with 30ml of a liquid gel-like essence which is quite a lot but due to the great cut and thin well-adhering material it doesn´t slip.


Like the majority of sheet masks this is a refreshing treat which makes my skin super smooth and soft and gives a certain brightness to my complexion.
The masks are lightly scented but with a pleasant not overly heavy fragrance.
Effect-wise I don´t notice a difference between Silk Protein and Caviar Extract.

Overall these are high-quality masks, are affordable and mild to my skin, brighten my complexion and feel refreshing.

Rating 5/5

Anosa Skin Care Spa Series Job´s Tears & Licorice and Calendula Body Lotion

Anosa has the tendency to release their products in duos which usually makes them good value for money since this is a really cheap brand overall.

Sasa recently listed new items from Anosa incl. the Skin Care Spa Series Job´s Tears & Licorice and Calendula Body Lotions. Of course I couldn´t resist picking up this duo for around US$8 from there.
 
Like the majority of Anosa products the packaging is quite non-descript and simple however I somehow like the bottle design. Seems their bigger sister brand Shills is getting all the cute designing...
The lotions come without pumps and the bottle is a bit hard so pushing the lotion out isn´t that easy...which results in shaking the lotion out (and pouring it over my floor =X).

Anyway the lotions suck for me. They have the moisturizing power of water to me, they are very runny and super lightweight so maybe someone with really oily body skin and/or living in a very hot and humid climate might enjoy the lotions however for my dryish skin they aren´t at all interesting.
Both lotions have a light scent which is barely detectable...something citrus-herbal maybe?

Also the ingredients are exactly the same except for the last few ingredients. Hmmm...for some reason I can´t seem to find Job´s Tears and Calendula extracts...maybe the "essential oil" listed at the end of the ingredients??

Actually also the price for this duo isn´t that good.... $8 might sound right for 2 body lotions, however each of them contains a mere 120ml. I´d rather buy one 250ml PDC Famy Moisturizing Body Lotion from Sasa at around the same price than the Anosa set.


Rating: 2/5

Shills Whitening Oxygen Mask (Anti-Sensitive Formula) & a few Egypt pics

Since I wanted to take many new things to Egypt to have plenty to review I tried out the Whitening Oxygen Mask from Shills which has been sitting in my backup shelf for some time now.


There are 2 versions, a green one for acne-prone skin and a pink one for sensitive skin. Naturally I got the pink one as my skin is quite sensitive.

Shills is a brand I am inwardly split about.... on the one hand it has some amazing cool stuff on the other hand there are quite a bunch of seriously useless products available.


I really love Korean oxygen masks...they start out as a gel which you apply to your face, then leave it on for a few minutes... Within this time the gel foams up and stays foamy all the time, tickling my skin a bit and leaving it glowy and soft afterwards. Even if you wipe off the foam it will magically come back until you wash this stuff off.

Here are Shills´ promises regarding this product:


This comes in a rather pretty pink pump bottle containing 50ml. When you push the pump a light pink gel with a strong rose scent comes out.

This mask only foams up when I apply it to my skin. Right after I stop massaging the foam disappears and the mask starts to dry down to a tight sticky film on my skin. Not really comfy but I wash it off after a few minutes anyway.
It totally lacks the fun experience of foaming up and tickling and all that but it feels rather taut and weird and not fun at all!


I also feel my skin feels a little stressed or something like that afterwards. Not really an irritation but just an uncomfortable feeling overall. Away from this there is no effect I can see when using this mask. My skin looks the same, no bright or smooth result I can detect whatsoever.


So unfortunately this is totally useless for me and I doubt I´ll use up the bottle I have since it´s a rather uncomfortable thing all in all.


I thought of sharing some pics of my trip, it´s just a few really!

Here are couple of pics of a small part of Alexandria, taken from the balcony of one of my husband´s aunts. It looks rather beige and depressive to be honest though I still consider Alexandria to be one of the prettier Egyptian cities, especially the older areas that still radiate some charme from more glorious decades of this city (think 30ies-50ies).
My biggest pet-peeve about this city or Egypt in general is the overload of junk on the streets. Seriously, someone from Singapore coming to this city would probably die from a heart-attack seeing all that junk!


Oh, yesterday we were invited to a really cool villa (or should I say palace?) for barbecue and this cute little furball is the newest member of the owner´s family.. so tiny and so cute! She purred all the time when I had her on my lap and she fell asleep quickly!

Sam Tin Cracked Heel Cream

My feet are usually in a good shape with smooth skin not much callus as I moisturize them well, usually twice daily and I exfoliate them regularly.
My favorite foot cream is the 10% Urea Cream for Hands & Feet from Shiseido but I ran out of it before I left and forgot to reorder so I packed the Cracked Heel Cream from Sam Tin (a Taiwanese brand) and hoped it´d be nice, too.


The Cracked Heel Cream comes in a generous 120ml squeeze tube and costs a mere US$3 (I paid US$2.80 due to my VIP discount) on Sasa right now.

The cream has a really lovely scent, fresh and light and very pleasant. It´s a very rich and moisturizing cream which makes my feet incredibly soft and smooth. It takes time to be absorbed though so best to apply it before bedtime or in the morning before you wear socks.
I am not sure if this would be strong enough to really cure super cracked heels but I can say that it´s a fantastic foot moisturizer for daily use and will definitely help solving any dry skin issues.

This contains Tranexamic Acid, Shea Butter, Lanolin, Urea and Hyluronic Acid so this mix alone should make a potent moisturizer.


Definitely good product and highly recommended. I think the Shiseido 10% Urea Hands & Feet Cream is still even more heavy duty but this product from Sam Tin is definitely fantastic value for money and a really awesome product!

Inexpensive Beauty Find: Shills Avocado Eye Cream

Hmmm...this product might look familiar to you as a known US brand has an avocado eye cream in a very similarly designed pot... (*cough* KIEHL´S *cough*).
Shills loves to get "inspired" by other brands so this doesn´t astonish me hehe =)


Anyway, for around 8 bucks you can get a 15ml jar of Shills Avocado Eye Cream from Sasa and I recommend doing that if you are in need of a very rich moisturizing eye cream.

Sasa writes about this stuff:
"Enriched with high nourishing vitamin E, natural avocado oil extract, giving ample moisture to the delicate skin around your eye. Hence, it enhances the flexibility of the eye area. Formulated with a unique "Dual Moisturizing Whitening Mechanism"— it is enriched with licorice resin and Chamomile extract to improve uneven skin tone, so that skin around the eyes is supple with a translucent glow. The use of Shea butter, Hawaiian nut oils helps retain nourishing ingredients within your skin. By the moment the cream touch your skin, it will transform to a watery texture, its innovative texture allows better absorption than other eye product, giving you maximum benefit without burdening your delicate pericular area."


The pot this comes in is not cute or even pretty in my opinion. Shills has so many cute items out so they could have chosen a more beautiful design but I think they wanted this product to be more "inspired" by the other product mentioned above hehe =)


The Avocado Eye Cream is very rich and thick and a little goes a long way. It´s very mild as it doesn´t sting or burn and it doesn´t irritate my delicate eye area at all. On the contrary, this stuff is really an excellent moisturizer as it makes the skin around my eyes so smooth and soft and smooths out very fine lines caused by dryness.


I only use this at night as it´s so rich and the weather is hot now but I think in fall/winter I can also use this during the day as it will help to protect from the harsh cold wind and weather in general.
This cream is scented, the sort of soft avocado-scent you might know from other brands but which actually doesn´t smell like real avocados at all =)


Overall a great little product for a good price. The jar should last ages as you only need very little per application.

Face Q Sheet Mask (various)

Sasa recently listed those ubercute sheet masks from a Taiwanese brand called Face Q. The box of 10 cost about US$12 for 10 pieces so I quickly grabbed 3 boxes of different sheet masks... I wish I hadn´t!


Face Q is produced by PPC Life, a Taiwanese pharmaceutical company... when I saw the website addy printed on the back of the box it looked familiar to me but I couldn´t remember which product I tried before from the same company...

Well, I tried on the Red Grape & Green Tea Mask and it was very nice, with an excellent fit and feel. The sheets are made of natural pulp instead of cotton so they adhere and adjust to the face shape very well.
I washed the essence that was left over on my face off and used my usual skincare before I went to bed.
I woke up in the middle of the night to notice that I had a very swollen, red and itchy face..so I assumed it must have been the mask as I didn´t use any other new things that day.


The next day I checked the website ppc-life.com.tw and to my horror found out that it´s the same company producing My Beauty Diary! I had a horrible allergic reaction to the masks form MBD some time ago (maybe couple of years?) and seems the same irritant must have been used in the Face Q masks, too!
Had I checked the website earlier I probably wouldn´t have tried the masks *sigh*.


Anyway, if you are sensitive to MBD I suggest staying far away from Face Q but if you like MBD you might just love Face Q.


I am selling the boxes so if anyone is interested, please let me know. The boxes of Luffa & Adlay and Red Pomegranate & CoQ10 are still sealed whereas I took 1 mask from the Red Grapes & Green Tea masks. If you are interested please email me (lotuspalace@gmail.com).

MuGu (Muli Guli) True Story Makeup Palette

I recently found a blog sale on this blog and was delighted to find a makeup palette from the cute Taiwanese beauy brand MuGu (Muli Guli) for sale.


MuGu seems to have lots of cute items but I wasn´t sure about the quality etc. so I was happy to take the chance to try out a complete makeup kit from this brand.


The MuGu True Story palette looks like a fat sweet pink book when it´s closed but opens to reveal 18 eyeshadows, 2 blushes, 2 powders and 4 lipglosses.
More like children makeup to be honest but it´s a Taiwanese brand and I love cute things, right? =P

My review will be mainly focusing on the shadows and blushes... didn´t really try the powders and glosses and not intending to do so honestly.


The eye colors are all on the lighter and colorful side. There is no deep defining eye color in the palette which is a bit of a lack in my opinion...at least a dark gray or a black shade for adding definition would have been a good idea.
The texture to my surprise is rather silky though the shadows have the tendency to be crumbly thus could fall onto your cheeks during application. That is quite annoying but since I do my eye makeup before my face I can live with crumbly shadows.


The pigment is decent in most colors but not very strong overall. You need to layer a bit to have a color show up better. And that´s where my problem starts: the more you layer the more you wipe off. The shadows are the kind that don´t really cling to your skin (or eyeshadow base... I always use one and the Coffret D´or one I stick with currently is quite good with 99% of the eyeshadows I use!) so on my lids the color can look somewhat uneven and boring after attempting to get the colors to show up better!


Also to me the shadows look a little dull as the finish tends to be on the matte-glittery side (like matte base with sparse glitters).
The palette is a good thing to play with colors or to use occasionally but the overall quality is not the best.
I also would like to add that half of the colors in the palette are nothing for me (like the yellows, brown, blues) but I am not into such bright colors in general.
The shadows seemed to irritate my eyes as they were tearing slightly all day long (something I nearly never experience with my eye makeup).


The 2 blushes are quite pigmented and have a shimmery finish. The pink looks quite nice but the other color is too strong/orange for my skin-tone.
The powders seem to offer minimal coverage and come in a very light and a light-medium color and the 4 glosses are sheer with glitters. I didn´t swatch them though so can´t comment on lasting power, finish etc.


For this EOTD I used shadows No. 4, 6 and 18. I attempted to define my creases and outer lids with #15 but it wouldn´t adhere to my lids.
Mascara is from Majolica Majorca, liners from Kose Cosmagic (inner rims) and Dolly Wink (upper lid):

Simply Duo Anti Aging Mask Q10 & Platinum

Maybe you remember my review of the Sexy Look masks I wrote recently. It seems that Sexy Look is a brand under Simply, a Taiwanese brand, of which I purchased the Duo Anti Aging Mask Q10 & Platinum from their Anti Aging Program.

It´s not that I have wrinkles at age 29 but I think the best is always to prevent rather than repair the damage =P Well, any excuse is valid if it´s about trying cool new sheet masks hehe!


The Simply Duo Anti Aging Mask is designed like the ones from Sexy Look with a stretchable mask for the face and a part for the chin, both to be attached to your ears with holes cut in the sides. The cloth is very soft and silky and comfy to wear.
The cut and fit to my face are just superior and the mask can easily stay on for 30 minutes without sliding off or getting on my nerves despite the whopping 30ml essence lotion content!


Check the ingredients list below to see all the good stuff in these masks. There is Q10, platinum, blue algae, fermented milk, vitamin K, ceramide, urea, vitamin E, vitamin D, hyluronic acid etc.

The masks don´t irritate my skin at all and make it very smooth, soft and glowy and there is a temporary lifting effect around my chin, too (at least I believe so hehe).
No idea how well these masks would fight lines and wrinkles but they´re an excellent moisturizing and lifting treatment and it´s just a pleasure to use them.


The masks are lightly scented but nothing heavy or cloying at all. When I have a mask on I barely notice the scent at all.


All in all these masks are fab and I will continue to use the masks from Simply... I will give a try to the Duo Whitening Mask eventually.
The box of 10 masks set me back around US$12 only and I got them from Sasa.
I actually think the shiny pink box and purple packaging for the masks are really pretty! =)

Shills Amazing Grace Foot Cream

Ah, how I love thee, Shills! I can´t explain but I am just loving that sweet but totally gimmicky brand but something is just calling my name all the time!


The Amazing Grace Foot Cream is one of those small but totally adorable items from Shills that just make me happy. This is one of the retro-look goodies =D


This stuff is solid and feels like (and mainly contains) wax which melts into my skin as I apply it and my skin gets very soft with a light silky sheen (no shimmer or so, just shine from the wax) but it doesn´t really feel moisturized to me, more a silky feeling just on the surface of the skin.


I think this is not really a foot cream but the perfect quick fix for your feet when you need to wear sandals but don´t have time to do a pedicure so this tiny tin of foot wax could be your saviour for that =)


It has a light scent, something powdery in my opinion.


This contains 30mls and costs US$6.50 on Sasa. Not the cheapest stuff in my opinion but pretty convenient to get sandal-perfect feet in a flash.