Tag: Press samples

  • Review: Naruko Jingcheng 60 Actives Youth Activating Enhancer

    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…

  • January 2017 Empties Report

    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…

  • Review: Swanicoco Fermentation Snail Complex Care Serum

    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.…

  • The Best and Worst Skincare I Used in 2016: A Holy Grail Skincare Routine

    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…

  • Review: Sulwhasoo Radiance Energy Mask

    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…

  • 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…

  • Review: Naruko Dermalane Intensive Brightening Renewal Treatment 20% Mandelic Acid AHA

    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…