Somang Lavender Moisturizing Mask

Somang is Korean, but that's about all I know of the brand :) That makes the Lavender Moisturizing Mask is my first Somang product. Actually, I've been eyeing it for months now and never went through with the purchase. The reason being I've heard different opinions on using lavender directly on your facial skin. Some say it's good because lavender is healing, soothing, etc., and some say it's bad because lavender can be too harsh and can provoke a reaction, especially for those with sensitive skin, etc. Oh well, I figured I'll never know whether it's too harsh for my skin if I don't try it. Testing out stuff on my fragile facial skin is not a smart thing to do, but I was curious enough, and I don't have sensitive skin, so let's just hope for the best... +.+



First, a rant. Sorry. Had to get it out. I was kind of, okay fine, I was really ticked off by the packaging of this mask. It was HUGE, freakin' gigantic! Almost twice the size of your average sheet mask packaging. Yes, I know, there may be tangible values in bigger sizes, but there are definitely more aesthetic values in smaller things. To be blunt, I hate big anything so please don't super size my stuff. To make the matter worse, the mask inside was folded, so it actually took up, like, a third of the pack - what's the point here, folks? If you look closely at the picture, you'll see a faint raised figure of a standing rectangle in the middle of the package. Yeah, that's the actual mask.

Anyhow, Somang just doesn't stop. There was a plastic tray inside, in which the mask sat neatly folded. I think they were aiming to contain the essence serum, so that when you open the package it doesn't drip anywhere. The only problem is that this nice idea isn't at all practical (or realistic). You guessed it, the box of sheet masks is handled the way all boxes are handled: it is laid side up, down, here, there, everywhere. So when I opened the package, it wasn't just the sheet mask that was dripping, the whole tray was dripping!!! Grr...*smacks Somang, "Which idiot came up with that idea, huh?"*

Anyways, at least they got something right (phew!) and the mask itself was very nice. The 30% lavender essence was a bit frightening since I wasn't sure I was supposed to put lavender on my face to begin with, let alone so much of it. But it turned out to be a very soothing and calming experience, and my skin didn't react to the lavender content at all. The scent was nice, even though it was more of a spiced lavender fragrance that reminded me of some herbal medicine :D My skin was comfortable afterwards and I didn't need to apply extra moisturizer.

Silk Whitia Collagen Moisturizing & Nourishing Eye Mask

I've never ever heard of the brand Silk Whitia before, but I was browsing Sasa.com several weeks ago, and a bunch of their masks were on sale, buy 1 get 1 free, so I thought, heck, why not? I'm always open to trying new stuff, and these masks had decent reviews on Sasa, so I bought one of them to try - the Silk Whitia Collagen Moisturizing & Nourishing Eye Mask.



The packaging is the same size as a face mask's, so I was curious to what this eye mask would look like coming out of the pack. Well, let's just say it's a mask for entire eye area, not just the under eye area - think the mask of Zorro. Yeah, it was probably the biggest eye mask I'd ever seen :D

That's not to say I didn't like it. It had a nice scent, not too perfumy. It stayed on pretty well and easy to apply, no slippin' slidin' here. However, I should mention that it should be removed before it completely dries, after 20 minutes or so. If you let it dry completely, it will dry to a hard, glue-like plaster and will stick tight to your skin, sort of like the Biore nose strip. And while there's nothing wrong with the Biore nose strip, just remember that this Zorro mask goes over your entire eye area, eye brows and all, so unless you want to let this mask reshape your arches, I don't recommend letting it dry completely and remove it while it's still damp.

Over all, the mask was okay, nothing too impressive. My eye area was comfortable enough afterwards, although since it was so dry in my apartment I applied some eye cream anyways. May be this is a mask meant for use during the humid summer and not so much the dry winter if you have dry combination skin like me. Also, I'm guessing Silk Whitia going to be similar to Skin Lite and their masks are hit and miss. There are a dozen or so different Silk Whitia masks so you'll have to try them all out until you find the one you like. I think I'm going to get a few whitening ones for my mum if they're still buy 1 get 1 free :D

Etude House Peach Tint Blusher

Finally, a post after almost 3 weeks! Sorry guys, been so crazily busy over here...

These Etude House Peach Tint Blushers are so freakin' adorable I wanted to get them all, but since G-market doesn't like my Powerbook, I had to get these on Ebay, which means I paid 2-3x the prices plus shipping, which means I had to settle for only one. At least for now. Sigh. Pouts.

Anyhoo, these Peach Tint Blushers were a part of the Etude House Peach Collection from last summer, I think. They come in short chubby rounded tubes in a pale fleshy peach packaging, and they twist up just like a lipstick. Oh, and there is a clear plastic cap at the mouth of the tube, which leads me to think this tint blusher will dry out if it's not recapped tightly after each use.



There are 3 colors available:
- 01 Watery Rose
- 02 Watery Peach
- 03 Watery Pink



I am reviewing #01 Watery Rose today. Unlike #02 and #03 both of which are shimmery, #01 is a translucent red without any shimmers - totally a plus for me, although I must admit #02 and #03 are really pretty as well. These are scented with a light peach fragrance, nothing overwhelming so it didn't bother me at all. Upon application the blush imparted a cool sensation that quickly dissipated - a definite sign of alcohol content. It left behind a sheer light tint of watermelon red. Yes, this blush was rather sheer and while I actually prefer that, you might be bothered by the fact that you'll have to apply several layers to get the desired shade.



Still, I like this blush enough to want to get the other 2 colors too, although they'll be further down my shopping list, thanks to the Ebay bloodsuckers >.<

May FOTN

Went a movie date tonight with hubby so I did a quick FOTN :)



Face:
- Shiseido The Makeup Luminizing Color Powder L1 Translucent (t-zone only)
- T'estimo Color Lighting EX-11
- Etude House Peach Tint Blusher 01 Watery Rose

Eyes:
- Victoria's Secret Beauty Rush Luminous Shadows in Miami Ice, Go Platinum, and Jet Set (will review these soon)

Lips:
- Lancome Color Design in Work It (will have to do another lipstick post soon...)
- Lancome Juicy Tubes Jelly in Bolole (I made an unflattering mentioning of it on my very first Lancome Juicy Tubes post, but apparently things have improved since. Will do another Lancome Juicy Tubes post later for the new acquisitions.)

Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour Part II

Couldn't help but posting about another color after my update of Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour in Platinum.

So I'm finally a tiny little bit closer to fulfilling my ambition of owning all the colors! Muahahaha!!! Well, may be not all the colors because I don't like them all, but the ones I have my eyes on are just breathtakingly beautiful! Yes, I'm totally drooling over these at the moment. Since Platinum, I got a hold of Gold (another GWP) and Alloy too, but so far I've only tried Gold.



- Gold: metallic, low intensity. According to the Laura Mercier website, this is a "taupey gold," but in my opinion it's more of a burnish gold with hints of bronze. And on the back of my hand, it does show up taupey as described, but on my lids, the bronze was very apparent. In fact, on my lids the cream shadow turned into a golden bronze and became somewhat flat and less metallic. But man, you know those ubiquitous glistening bronzy makeup in the summer editorials? It gave me that look. I didn't think it makeup like that would ever work on me but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Since it went flat a little bit, to fix this I pressed a dab of KATE Loose Eye Shadow GD-1 on top and -poof- lovely sparkling bronze shadow to go!



See my previous Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour post.

KATE Loose Eye Shadow

After Victoria's Secret terribly disappointed me with their false claim of nonexistent "High Sparkle," I feel I must introduce their Beauty Rush Sparkling Shadow to its conqueror: VS, meet KATE Loose Eye Shadow. I hope you will be acquainted and learn to sparkle a little more from her.

Of course, I must be fair to at least acknowledge that sparkles are not something many non-Japanese eye shadows care for so much because, I suppose, their target market aren't really into sparkles in general. The Japanese made eye shadows, however, do some serious sparkling business, and I absolutely love what they do. There's a huge difference, literally, between sparkles and gawdy glitters, at least to me. There are my T'estimo eye shadows, which are extremely sparkly but at the same time silky smooth, blendable, not chunky, chalky, or over the top. I would wear eye shadows like that anytime, day or night. And then there are clumpy eye shadow with gawdy chunks of glitter. For the tweeny boppers, may be, but not for me. And admittedly, some people rock those looks, but not me. I'd get snickered at for trying too hard if I can even bring myself to try it to begin with.



So where in the spectrum of Sparkles vs. Glitters does Kate Loose Eye Shadow fall? Somewhere in the middle, but more towards the sparkles side. I am only reviewing the color GD-1 today.



- GD-1: metallic, completely translucent yellow gold sparkles. Imagine very finely milled metallic gold glitters, and that's what Kate Loose Eye Shadow GD-1 is. It is intensely sparkly but is a tad coarser than the usual silky smooth sparkly eye shadow. That said, the shadow is not thick and chunky at all and therefore can't really be called glitter, so that's why it's somewhere in the middle of the Sparkles vs. Glitters spectrum, leaning more towards Sparkles. Did I mention it is intensely sparkly? It is, and being completely translucent, press this loose shadow on top of any eye shadow to warm it up and add instant gold diamond-like sparkles. Wow.

Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour

Update May 1, 2009

I still haven't finished my tiny little GWP tube yet, but I already bought a full size for backup :) Yes, I like Platinum that much.

Oh, and here's the swatch for you, since I didn't post one in the original post. The swatch doesn't look sheer, I know. But I had to goop the stuff on just to have this nice big blob for you to see how beautifully metallic it is. Love, love, LOVE.


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Original post Sunday, January 12, 2008

I don't pay much attention to Laura Mercier's products, that is, until I got this Metallic Creme Eye Colour as a GWP at Sephora's. Let's just say it's the best cream eye shadow I've tried since Lancome Colour Dose! The Lancome ones have nice texture, waterproof, and doesn't budge all day, but it also doesn't blend very well and most of the colors don't work on my skin tone. The Laura Mercier Metallic Creme Eye Colour, however, is different. It does everything the Lancome Colour Dose doesn't do and then some! Needless to say, I must now own all the colors, at least all the ones that work with my skin!

I currently have Platinum: metallic, very sheer, a beautiful wash of champagne peach. At first I was a bit disappointed it was so sheer, but then the sun comes in through my window and that sheer wash literally lit up my eyes! Wow! I love the sheer sparkling look and this is THE most perfect sheer sparkling shade I've been searching for!!!

The GWP tube I'm currently using.