Skincare, beauty, and occasional mental health, productivity, and hamster butts
Da real MVPs of the Korean skin care lineup, ampoules and serums deliver high concentrations of actives in formulations made to layer. Unless they work as chemical exfoliants, apply ampoules and serums after any acid, toner, and light essence steps in your routine, then seal in with a moisturizing emulsion and/or cream. Don’t get too hung up on the difference between an ampoule and a serum. Technically, an ampoule is more concentrated and potent than a serum, but in practice, the terms are pretty much interchangeable.
This review has been a long time coming. Not just because it typically takes me at least one or two months to determine whether a "serious" (e.g. anti-aging or spot fading) product actually does anything for me, but also because I've had a bias against Deciem brands for the longest time. Especially against NIOD, the [...]
Trendy skincare ingredients come and go, but truly great ones (like ginseng, snail, and propolis) stay in my routine forever. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've found a new contender for favorite ingredient. My skincare ennui was part of the reason I accepted a sponsorship offer from CBD beauty brand Cannatera. Could these weed-adjacent [...]
After all the salt I spewed over the weekend, I'm glad to have something positive to talk about. The Year of the Dog is almost upon us, and that means Lunar New Year promotions and specials. Sulwhasoo's LNY promotions feature several of my longtime favorite skincare products, which I'm already determined to get onto as [...]
Find out why I detest Klairs Gentle Black Deep Cleansing Oil. Sunday Riley C.E.O. Rapid Flash Brightening Serum, and Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix.
Amorepacific Time Response Skin Renewal Serum is a high-end anti-aging serum that does have visible effects. The question is whether the effects are worth the price.
Today I opened my skincare closet and a massive pile of empties fell out, so I decided to divert some time and energy from the reviews I'm working on and write (some of) those empties up. Affiliate links are marked with an asterisk(*). Some of the products featured in this post were provided by Fifty [...]
After blogging for a couple of years and using Asian beauty products for a couple more before that, the vast majority of products I've tried have become a big shiny blur. Generally only the really great and really dreadful products stand out. But sometimes, a product sticks in my mind even when I didn't love [...]
For just about as long as I can remember, I've had a reverence for the Japanese cosmetics brand Shiseido. The 144-year-old(!!!and no wrinkles) company was pretty much the only Asian brand that was well known and widely available in the US when I was growing up. Shiseido became shorthand in my head for luxury and [...]
It's a new year, but I still got the same old face, and that face still needs to have things put on it and cleansed off of it on a regular basis, so I've got another batch of empties to show off! There are some classics in here, some new (to me) items, and one [...]
You may not have noticed, but I really like snail mucin in my skincare. So when my new friend Kevin from Korean beauty brand Swanicoco asked me which of the brand's products I'd be most interested in trying, I put their Fermentation Snail Complex Care Serum right at the top of my (probably unreasonably long) listof demands. [...]
