Author: Jude Chao

  • Review: Naruko DermaLane Zero Dark Spot Brightening Renewal Mask

    I don’t break out often, but when I do, I’m off to PIH City for weeks afterwards. That’s just how skin rolls. (Straight to PIH City.) Then again, a ticket to PIH City gives me a chance to really put “brightening” products to the test. So when my experiments with a 20% mandelic acid serum convinced a clog…

  • August 2016 Empties Report

    There’s a bin on a shelf in my beauty closet where I hoard my empties until the bin is full. Then I take a picture of the containers before I recycle them. Usually that picture goes on my Instagram, but this time around, I felt I had more to say about the products I’ve used…

  • My Eyelash Extensions Review + Lash Extensions 101

    (Beauty) dreams do come true! At the age of Almost 37, I’ve acquired the long, lush, always curled, (semi)permanently fluttery eyelashes of my wildest (beauty) fantasies. My eyelash extensions are my absolute favorite thing right now, and I’ve been dying to tell you guys about them!

  • My August Skincare Hauls and Holy Grails

    After a couple of low-buy months, my wallet’s vacation has ended. My favorites need restocking and my new address apparently puts me in an Amazon Prime Free Same-Day Delivery Zone(!!!). While I normally share my hauls over on Instagram, this month’s skincare purchases revealed so much about what I’m loving these days that I thought I’d…

  • Fermentation, First Essences, and that FTE Glow: Secret Key vs. Naruko Facial Essence Review

    Years ago in a meeting room in faraway Asia, hardworking cosmetics marketers discovered that the story they’d spun, of peasant sake brewers with mind-blowingly soft and youthful hands, could sell bottle upon bottle of the novel new skincare product they were tasked with promoting. And thus, the first essence (or fermentation essence, or facial treatment essence or first…

  • On Actives and Extracts: My Anti-Aging PM Skincare Routine Explained

    Getting older is a natural, inevitable, and wonderful thing. Getting older shows that we’re surviving all the crap that life throws our way. I have very few problems with getting older and only a couple of problems with the concept of my own mortality. I just don’t want my mortality to show up on my…

  • Sulwhasoo Innerise Complete Mask: The Sad Fiddy Review

    I distinctly remember telling someone, not too long ago and somewhere public, that I hadn’t yet found a Sulwhasoo product I didn’t like. Well. Joke’s on me, because now I have. Try not to fall over in shock as I introduce you to the Sulwhasoo Innerise Complete Mask.

  • Casual Sunday: My Morning Skincare Routine Explained

    The skincare routine post is a staple of AB blogs, and I’ve done my fair share. Routine posts are challenging for me because my own routine changes constantly as I choose what my skin needs the most from my unreasonably large beauty stash. Most of the time, I prefer to document what I’m using on my Instagram instead of…

  • Oh My Snails! The COSRX Holy Moly Snail Mask Review

    It’s here! The COSRX snail sheet mask that COSRX snail lovers like me have been dreaming of ever since our favorite kooky-clinical-affordable-whimsical K-beauty skincare brand let me announce it all the way back in May is finally here! I’ve had mine since Saturday, and I’ve been busily masking and thinking and second-guessing what I’ve been thinking. Now down to just a…

  • Holy crap. It’s time! (Time for me to dig a backpack out of the closet and start packing my skincare routine for two nights in Los Angeles.) If you’re going to be at KCON LA, I’d love to see you! I’ll be on the Korean Skincare Panel with Beauty Experts on Saturday from 12:30-1:30 pm in…