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.

  • Naruko Narcissus Repairing Mask Review

    I listen to you guys. For example, reader “DanielMattPhotography” left a comment on my review of Naruko Snail Essence Intense Hydra Repair Mask praising the Naruko Narcissus Repairing Masks as “some of the best masks I’ve ever used,” which is why I requested them when the brand reached out to see if there was anything they could send me to try. If…

  • 2016 Sun Care Megapost: Fighting Wrinkles with After-Sun Skincare

    Yesterday was a hideously beautiful SoCal day, so I dragged the family to the beach for a few hours. Lord Fiddy came home with a vibrant sunburn (“Hey look! I got some color!”). Young Master Fiddy and I were, of course, wearing sunscreen and remained Unburnt. I was, however, sandy and desperate for a shower, so I did…

  • Naruko Snail Essence Intense Hydra Repair Mask Review: Welcome to Snail City

    There are a lot of sheet masks out there, and most of the ones I consider great have a lot in common. And then there are masks like Naruko Snail Essence Intense Hydra Repair Mask, which I bought with the assumption that they’d be pretty similar to other Taiwanese snail masks I’ve tried and liked, but which…

  • Spring/Summer 2016 Flops and Faves, Part 2: The Best and Worst Ginseng Skincare I’ve Tried So Far

    Part 1 | Part 3 It’s a hard life, beauty blogging. Much like the hunter-gatherers of prehistoric times, we bloggers enjoy periods of plentyof awesome new beauty finds but also suffer through long spells of hungerfor great skincare. And much like those Paleo nomads of ancient days, we record our victories and defeats for posterity. They did…

  • Mid-Year Megapost: Fiddy’s Faves and Flops of Spring/Summer 2016, Part 1

    This is my skincare basket. It’s the sturdy workhorse that carries everyday essentials chosen out of my much more extensive skincare wardrobe. The contents of my basket change on a fairly regular basis. But I recently realized that some things never get banished from the basket, even for a night. That got me thinking about the ways my…

  • Review: Innisfree Jeju Lava Seawater Cream, + Springtime Day and Night Skincare Routine Building

    I’m not normally a fan of single-line skincare routines, since they tend to be redundant and reduce opportunities for your skin to benefit from a wide variety of actives and beneficial supporting ingredients, but when I have a good experience with one item in a line, like, say, Innisfree Jeju Lava Seawater Essence, it makes…

  • Of Moms and Miracles: A (Somewhat Maudlin) Beautibi Unboxing and Review

    If there is an afterlife and it has Internet access, then my mom is about to be either really amused or really annoyed when she finds out it’s her fault I’m a skincare fanatic who can’t sleep if I don’t at least remove my makeup and moisturize every night and cleanse and wear sunscreen in the morning. I…

  • Beans vs Blossoms: The Botanical Anti-Aging Serum Showdown

    In my last post, I talked about how serums are among the few skincare product types that can be expected to deliver real skin improvements, since serums can be formulated to target a single, specific problem, without the limitations that primary functions like cleansing or moisturization would impose. I’m nothing if not good at pretending like…

  • Review: Innisfree Jeju Lava Seawater Essence, aka Mermaid Potion

    If mermaids were real (but not fish-faced Lovecraftian monstrosities), would they have nice skin? They’re always luminous beauties in the stories and legends, of course, and would benefit from the skin benefits of seaweed and possibly other marine substances too, but at the same time, you’d think they probably get a fair amount of sun exposure…

  • The Reigning Heavyweight Champ: A Beautibi Beauty Box Review

    I’m not a beauty box person. I’ll read unboxings and reviews on the blogs I follow, but no box has tempted me since the great Oh Sheet Mask! debacle of 2014. Most of the beauty boxes I’ve seen are nothing but a bunch of samples (which I already have about 5,000 too many of), products destined to gather dust in my linen…