Fifty Shades of Snail
Finding the best skin care products since 2014. Started with a focus on Korean skincare and grew from there. Skincare tips and beauty tips that work, maybe some hamster butts too
recent posts
- Protected: Fluorescent bulbs and SPF
- How I Grew My Thinning Hair Back Thicker and Stronger Than Ever Before (with no drugs or medical treatments)
- Sponsored: The Best of Skin1004
- How to Ask for Skincare Advice Online, Part Two: What Questions to Ask to Get Helpful Answers
- How to Ask for Skincare Advice Online, Part 1: What Not to Ask
about
Category: Reviews
Want to know whether you should try a product? Read my reviews to help make a decision. I evaluate products not only based on my subjective experiences with them, but also based on objective analysis of ingredients and formulations, and I promise to always give my honest assessments. No shilling here.
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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…
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They may not be as exciting as serums and ampoules, but hydrating toners are some of my favorite Asian beauty products. One such hydrating toner is the very clearly named Naruko Jingcheng 60 Actives Youth Activating Enhancer. Personally, I think we should all know from the name exactly what this thing does, but just in case you’re…
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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…
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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.…
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I’m fighting the visible aging process tooth and nail to make up for decades of bad decisions, as you’ll notice if you make it through even a couple of posts here or on my Instagram. So I’m often asked about my recommendations for the best anti-aging skincare products. My first answer will always be sunscreen, but…
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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…
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December 28 update: I’ve been told that the spatula may not be real jade. Checking on that now. Precious gems in skincare tend to leave me cold, since the skincare benefits of ground up jewelry are, at best, both questionable and temporary. But I have an irrational reverence for jade. My first piece of real jewelry was a classic plain…
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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!
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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…
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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 