Category: Korea

Korean skin care and makeup hauls, reviews, swatches, and how-tos.

  • December 2016 Empties Report

    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!

  • Review: Olivarrier Dual Moist Hyaluron Essence

    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…

  • Fiddy’s Flops: The 2016 Dud Report

    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…

  • 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: K-Beauty Gift Sets for Beauty Lovers in Their 20s and 30s

    Happy Black Friday and welcome back to the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide series, hosted by me and my friend Christina Hello! In our first installments, I gave my skincare gift recommendations for Asian beauty product beginners, while Christina focused on K-beauty makeup intro sets. This time around, we’re talking gift giving for more seasoned beauty lovers, specifically…

  • Sulwhasoo & AmorePacific Gift for Fifty Shades of Snail Readers

    Just a quick one today to alert you guys to a special gift that one of my favorite K-beauty brands (and one of my potential future favorite K-beauty brands) is offering to my US readers!

  • 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: Skincare Gifting Dos and Don’ts & Gift Ideas for Asian Beauty Beginners

    Holiday gifting season is almost here (AGAIN, wtf, where did the year go?). If you’re anything like me, you’re feeling the temptation to use the gifting season as a reason to spread the love…of skincare! Be warned, though. Gifting skincare can be hazardous, especially if you’re giving it to a skincare newbie. It can be…

  • Playing Devil’s Advocate with My Face: The Treeannsea Liquide Mousse Foam Review

    There are very few skincare “rules” in my little corner of the Internet beauty community. For the most part, we advocate YMMV. There’s no point being dogmatic about most skincare choices, since everyone’s skin is different. But there are a few recommendations so common and so well supported that they come dangerously close to being rules. One of those…

  • My Fast Morning Skincare Routine

    I originally planned to title this post “My Busy Mom Skincare Routine” but changed my mind because you don’t have to be a parent to want your skin to look its best yet rarely have time (or energy) in the morning for a multi-layered AB routine. My morning rush is dictated by the need to…

  • My Top 9 Sheet Masks on Amazon Prime

    While recording the Snailcast a while ago, Chel and I got to reminiscing about the early days of AB life. Just a couple of years ago, hauls were major events that demanded planning, patience, and possibly a Hangul cheat sheet. These days, US-based Asian skincare fans can get a solid routine and plenty of extras, like…

  • Do You Need Actives, Part Deux: Sulwhasoo x2 (A Double Review)

    A couple of weeks ago, I talked in a general way about how to decide whether to introduce actives into your skincare routine. Now, as promised, here are a couple of examples: one product that just didn’t have enough oomph to get the job done, and one that doesn’t need anything more than what it…