Sorry, guys! I was planning to write a Post-Turkey Panic Shopping guide this weekend, but there’s a topic that’s been stuck in my mind for a while now, and the only way I’m gonna purge that clog is to talk about it, so that’s what you’re getting from me tonight.
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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
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Nobody’s perfect; nobody can pick a winner every time. And when outside factors like boredom or general GrassIsGreener Disease creep into the mix, the chance of picking a not-winner increases significantly. But enough about the questionable romantic decisions of my long-gone twenties. We’re here to talk about the Skinfood Honey Black Tea Cleansing Cream!
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“I don’t accept skincare as a chore. If the aesthetics of the product don’t bring me joy, then the results have to, or I’m going to drop it faster than you can say Beauty Product Policewoman’s Preference.” Why I love Glow Recipe, written to celebrate their first birthday.
One of our favorite K-beauty bloggers, Fifty Shades of Snail, wrote us a sweet birthday letter in the form of a blog post! Read on as Fiddy waxes poetic about Blossom Jeju, LJH, and Glow Recipe-ness. Thank you Fiddy, we ❤ you!
Man. A lot can happen in a year, can’t it?
It’s only been a year since Glow Recipe first opened its virtual doors to the growing global mob of K-beauty consumers, but Sarah and Christine have already established their store as one of the most interesting and unique K-beauty shops around, and one of my favorites to watch. There’s just something about Glow Recipe that holds my attention. After Christine approached me about writing for the Glow Recipe blog, I started trying to figure out why. And I think I’ve found their secret.
It’s not about all the press they get from magazines like InStyle and Elle
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For a Taiwanese American sheet mask lover who’s been using Asian skincare almost exclusively for nearly two years now, I sure did take a long time to get into Taiwanese products. Yeah, I’d been using My Beauty Diary since nearly the beginning of my AB life, but I remained oblivious to all the other amazing products coming out of the land of my people.
Welp. That’s been changing. The hype around Taiwanese sheet masks has been growing for some time, with bloggers as diverse as the awesome Tracy of Fanserviced and cbiancardi of Unboxing Beauty talking T-beauty masks both in blog posts and on social media. (Yes, that is a tiny sample sheet mask. I got one, too.) Taiwanese mask brands often use ingredients you don’t see in Korean and Japanese brands, something that appeals to my hunger for the new. The characteristically lively, colorful, friendly-feeling designs on the packaging don’t hurt. I finally gave in. And as you’ve probably already figured out, when I give in, I give in hard.
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Here in boringly sunny southern California, the temperatures have finally dropped, the leaves on the few trees that are not palm trees have started to kind of change color, the humidity has plummeted, and my struggles with winter-dry skin have begun. My Curology prescription is absolutely crushing my old sunspots and slowly but surely smoothing away the fine lines I’d started to see. It’s so great. It’s also surfacing fresh new skin more quickly than my barrier can keep up with. Here’s how I’ve been keeping the flaking and peeling at bay when all my skin wants is to shrivel up and fall right off my face.
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It’s here! The Fifty Shades of Snail/COSRX snail value set that I announced at the end of last week’s COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence and Advanced Snail 92 All In One Cream megapost has scooted and slimed its way onto Memebox US, complete with original Triangle Studio artwork, the fabled COSRX sticker sheets, and, of course, all the pure, clean, snail-slimy goodness your face needs to get soft and smooth and supple as a baby snail’s butt!
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I’ve never been particularly good at keeping up with trends. And that is not a hipster humblebrag. The truth is that I can barely dress myself, which is why I tend to stick to my basics and neutrals and classic styles. Harder to go wrong.
I’m a lot more experimental and forward-looking with skincare, obviously, but even there, I tend to have my tried and true ingredients that I go back to over and over, because they just work for me. They’re the perfectly fitted charcoal gray tee of my skincare wardrobe. Snail is one of those ingredients, as you might have guessed–and lately I’ve been having a serious snail revival. That may be why my Scinic Snail All In One Ampoule gets more use than all of the All In One ampoule products I still own. After two months, I’m already halfway through the jumbo-sized jar of the stuff and ready to talk about it!
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One of the products featured in this post was provided for review by Memebox US. I have since repurchased that product several times over.
Updated May 27, 2016: Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence and Snail 92 All In One Cream ratings adjusted to reflect how I now feel about them after very long-term use.
There are two kinds of skincare enthusiasts: those willing to smear purified snail goo on their faces, and those who find the idea totally repulsive. Think you belong to the second category? Hear me out. Plenty of your fellow topical molluscophobes have gone from noisily dry-heaving at the thought of snail mucin on their faces to enthusiastically slathering themselves in snail. It’s kind of hard not to, once you see what snail goo can do for you.
Also, they’re cute. I named my blog Fifty Shades of Snail and adopted the blogger name Fiddy Snails (Chel at Holy Snails started that) because I belong to the Snail Clan. Let me see if I can recruit you, too.
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Updated 9/9/2019: The version of the cream reviewed below is discontinued, but I’ve got my hands on the new version and will review it soon!
So I was going through my face cream drawer the other day, fondling all the jars and wishing I had more than one face so that I could use more than one of my favorites a night, when I had a stunning revelation.
You guys. I never got around to reviewing the incredible Banila Co. Miss Flower & Mr. Honey Cream.
I’ve already made a public spectacle of my love for the Miss Flower & Mr. Honey hydrogel masks and given the thumbs up to the Miss Flower & Mr. Honey Essence Oil. And I’ve raved so much about the cream here and there and everywhere that it just sort of became assumed, I think, that I’d already given it an official positive review. (I mean, that’s what I assumed. Whoops.) But I didn’t. So let’s make it official now.
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The products featured in this post were provided for review by Memebox US. All opinions and recommendations in this post are my own unless otherwise noted. Learn more about my rules for store partnerships by checking out my sponsorship policy and sponsor list.
The first step I made towards developing a solid skincare routine was to start double cleansing to gently but completely remove sunscreen, makeup, dirt, oil, and other impurities from my skin at the end of each day. In my opinion, getting that sparkling clean (but never stripped!) canvas is vital to maximizing the effects of your nighttime products.
In the past couple of years, I’ve tried many different first cleansers, reviewed a handful of them, and decided that I most definitely prefer balm cleansers to cleansing oils. My longtime favorite, Botanic Farm Grain Ferment Cleansing Sherbet, is a balm cleanser. Balm cleansers are solid in the jar and therefore travel well, and they don’t drip or splatter the way cleansing oils can. Now, thanks to a box full of cleansers that Memebox sent to me to check out as part of the KIB squad, I’ve got a new balm cleanser to show you–and a way to get your hands on it–before it even launches! Let’s get to know Nooni Snowflake Cleanser. (We’ll also take a look at swatches of the new Pony x Memebox Pony Shine Easy Glam eyeshadow palettes and a couple of Memebox I’m Eye Shadow singles while we’re at it.)
Fifty Shades of Snail 