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! (more…)
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
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I use my Instagram account partly as a public skincare diary. I take and post photos of my morning and night routines to show how I put all those things in my beauty stash together on a daily basis. With my evening routines, there’s almost always a mask involved. That has led to many people asking me one particular question:
Fiddy, why do you use your sheet mask after your essences and serums and not before?
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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 a smart thing for a blogger to do, so here we are, with a new product from a new brand, representing a new risk.
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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 my face. Here are some of the more notable duds I’ve pulled out of my beauty stash and won’t be putting back.
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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 those in their twenties and thirties. Christina’s got the makeup covered. As always, I want to talk about skincare! (more…)
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I have a complicated relationship with AHAs. They’re some of the most proven actives around for my skin concerns (brightening and anti-aging), but over the past year, I’ve looked for ways to pull back on them rather than go harder. Thanks to prescription tretinoin, I generally seek out products to strengthen my barrier rather than further thin it out. But AHAs have clear benefits (and I was bored of weak acids), so when Naruko’s US office sent me their Dermalane Intensive Brightening Renewal Treatment 20% mandelic acid serum a couple of months ago, I whipped out my pH strips and whispered to myself, “Let’s do this.”
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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! (more…)
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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 done and I do it all the time because SKINCARE!, but there are a few concerns to keep in mind.
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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 recommendations is that your water-soluble cleanser (as opposed to oils and balms) be at a lower-than-neutral pH. Extensively researched and clearly presented by my good friends Cat from Snow White and the Asian Pear and Kerry from Skin and Tonics, the idea is that the high pH of alkaline cleansers substantially weakens skin’s naturally acidic lipid barrier. This can lead to increased dryness, sensitivity, and susceptibility to breakout-causing bacteria.
I’ve happily lived the low-pH cleanser life for years. In fact, I believe it’s responsible for the dramatic improvements I saw at the beginning of my skincare journey. Sometimes, though, I find reasons to try higher-pH products. I’d hate to miss out on some exciting, effective, yet miraculously skin-friendly cleanser because I’d rejected it based on pH alone. This FOMO is how I ended up putting Treeannsea Liquide Mousse Foam on my face every day until I couldn’t anymore.
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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 get my tiny dictator ready for school and then take him there on time, but you might be in a hurry to get to work or to your own classes or wherever else your presence is required during the dark nighttime hours before noon. The reasons don’t matter, only the results. Who doesn’t want a few more free minutes on a workday or schoolday morning without giving up their hard-earned glow?
Fifty Shades of Snail 