Skincare, beauty, mental health, productivity, and hamster butts
One of the more confusing steps in a Korean skin care routine, essences can be either light, watery, and intended for use immediately after cleansing, or thicker and more gel- or serum-like in texture. Either way, essences deliver a skin-quenching boost of hydration and a healthy dose of actives to improve skin health both immediately and with long-term use.
Lately I keep thinking about how long I’ve been using and writing about Korean skincare. It’s been a looong time. Almost ten years, to be exact. I wandered into Reddit’s Skincare Addiction community sometime in 2013 and very quickly followed the mysterious mentions of “Korean snail essence” to the much smaller but already fervently dedicated [...]
You know how I know 2021 is going to be a better year than 2020? Because it's January and I not only remembered that I want to write a best of 2020 roundup, but am actually doing it instead of pushing it aside for so long that it becomes pointless to even publish it (who [...]
How does the new COSRX Advanced Snail Radiance Dual Essence compare to the beloved Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence?
Skincare products come and go, but these regularly repurchased holy grails are here to stay.
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 [...]
Christopher Walken once said that Winston Churchill once said that "the eyes are the windows of your face," and I've been thinking about that quote a lot lately as I've gathered my notes for this review of Amorepacific Intensive Vitalizing Eye Essence. The product reviewed in this post was provided by a Fifty Shades of Snail [...]
2016 was a pretty wild year in a lot of ways. Even my face got a taste of the turmoil. I tried a lot of different products from a lot of different brands this year, and while some of those products were truly great (and I appreciate the opportunity to try them all), others...weren't. I took [...]
My skincare closet is overflowing with bottles and jars, and not all of them have stuff in them anymore. It's time for a purge! Some of the products in this post were provided by Fifty Shades of Snail sponsors and are disclosed individually in the text. Affiliate links are marked with an asterisk(*). Holy grail [...]
Lately I've felt conflicted about new beauty brands. They simultaneously attract and repulse me. Attract because who doesn't love a new shiny? But repulse because there are just so many duds out there that I mostly want to hide in a cave lined with Sulwhasoo and Naruko and COSRX and forget the world. But that wouldn't be [...]
Amid the love and positivity of the holiday season, I think it's important to remember that everything is not, in fact, awesome. Actually, for every one stellar skincare product out there, there are probably about twenty duds. As hard as I try to avoid those duds, sometimes they land on my doorstep and then on [...]
Fifty Shades of Snail 