Beauty Products Emptied in August 2016 + Link-up

Beauty Products Emptied in August 2016 + Link-up

Vitamin C Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, August 23, 2016

I may not be able to post later this week, as I'm travelling, so I decided to do the monthly Beauty Empties post a little earlier than usual. This time, I have a bunch of favourite face care products to show you, especially my favourite Vitamin C and Snail products. Keep reading!

Scroll down for a look at the beauty products I used up in August 2016, and my quick impressions of each.

YesStyle Top 10 Korean Beauty Products 2016: Review, FOTD

YesStyle Top 10 Korean Beauty Products 2016: Review, FOTD

Unboxing Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, August 18, 2016

Korean and Japanese Beauty retailer YesStyle has put together their curation of the Top 10 Must-Try Korean Beauty products for 2016, featuring the bestselling products on their website. I am a regular @YesStyle customer and have reviewed one of their beauty sample boxes here.
A word about YesStyle - they are Hong Kong-based, ship worldwide tracked free for orders above US$35, and offer free samples with every purchase. 
YesStyle's Top 10 Must-Try K-Beauty set comes in the same cute packaging as their sampler boxes. The #YesStyleTop10 are a nice mix of makeup and skincare, and include famous K-Beauty brands such as Etude House, Tony Moly and Laneige.

Scroll down for a look at YesStyle's selection of Top 10 Must-Try Korean Beauty Products for 2016.

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FOTD: Wycon Olive Green Eyeshadow, Korean Cosmetics

FOTD: Wycon Olive Green Eyeshadow, Korean Cosmetics

Wycon Cosmetopia Digest   Monday, August 15, 2016

A few days ago, I received a fun Korean beauty box, which I will show you later this week. I have been playing with the contents of the box ever since. This is a makeup look I did with some of the products, supplementing whatever the box lacked with other cosmetics from my own stash.

Scroll down for a full-face makeup look using olive green eyeshadow, Etude House BB Cream and other Korean cosmetics.

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Etude House My Beauty Tool Secret Face Makeup Brush 121 Review

Etude House My Beauty Tool Secret Face Makeup Brush 121 Review

Tools Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, September 17, 2015

Ever wanted to try out an oval makeup brush, but hesitated to spend on those gorgeous-looking Artis Elite brushes? Korean cult brand Etude House has an affordable solution.
The Etude House My Beauty Tool Face Makeup Brush 121 is a small toothbrush-like, oval-head brush with a gold plastic body. It comes with a removable head and comes with a sponge attachment as well. The only makeup sponge I swear by is the Beautyblender. Everything else is latex-y, and the sponge attachment of this brush is no exception. So I will be concentrating on the brush attachment.

Scroll down for my experience with the Etude House My Beauty Tool Secret Skin Face Makeup Brush 121.

Valentine's Day Lace Nail Art with Etude House

Valentine's Day Lace Nail Art with Etude House

Valentine's Day Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, February 14, 2015

A handy kit for hassle-free lace nail art.

This Valentine's Day, I wanted to avoid the regular red and hearts for my manicure, and try something different. I've wanted to try out lace nail art for a while, and my first attempt, with cotton lace, was an unmitigated disaster involving little bits of fabric all over my black sweater.
I came across the Etude House Rose Flowering Nails kit on Jolse.com. There are two shade options, Watery Rose and Velvet Rose - I chose the latter. This set contains two nail polishes; a dusky pink and a deep maroonish red, and costs just $7.58. There are 20 bits of black fabric lace for the nails, in two designs. The kit seemed like a better idea than further experiments with lace from the sewing kit, so I gave it a try yesterday. At first glance, the lace in the kit seemed like adhesive wraps, but the fabric peels off from the glue. The lace is thicker and stiffer than I expected.

Check out my Valentine's Day lace nail art with the Etude House Rose Flowering Nails kit.

Etude House Hand Bouquet Rich Butter Foot Mask review

Etude House Hand Bouquet Rich Butter Foot Mask review

Skin care Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, January 24, 2015

Etude House Hand Bouquet Rich Butter Foot Mask gives you an overnight pedicure.

My feet feel really warm at night and I get up to reapply foot cream several times to cool them down. The constant application of foot creams keeps ruining my bedsheets.
I love how innovative Korean cosmetics are, particularly their skincare. They have mess-free, convenient sheet masks for everything - face, neck, chin, feet, hands, nails, hair and whatnot. The ones for the feet go on like socks and contain hydrating lotion. These foot masks are now an integral part of my regimen - I cannot recommend them enough.
The Etude House "Hand Bouquet" range comprises a foot mask, a hand mask, hand cream and heel cream. The products in this range contain shea butter and a mix of fragrant essential oils and hydrating emollients.

Here is my review of the Etude House Hand Bouquet Rich Butter Foot Mask.

Etude House Princess 360° rotating makeup storage organiser review

Etude House Princess 360° rotating makeup storage organiser review

Tools Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, June 17, 2014

I have a dedicated, if small, vanity with drawers and shelves for my makeup and skin care stash. However, a number of sample and full-sized products that need trying out or using up, or that I use in my daily routine, end up scattered on my desk, and I hate to see them lying around. Worse, I tend to misplace vital tools such as stampers, nail art pens and hair brushes. That is where tabletop cosmetics organisers come in. I have the Lori Greiner Rotating Cosmetics Organiser, which holds everything I use on a daily basis. But that is for another post.
On May 15, 2014, Etude House released a rotating cosmetics organiser of their own, which they named the Princess 360° Makeup Table Organiser. While my trusty Lori Greiner holds all my daily-use products, I still needed something for all the samples, the to-be-tested products, and things I want to finish up soon. That, combined with the sheer cuteness factor of this storage pod, made me snap it up on the spot. Purchase details are at the end of this post.

Take a detailed look at the Etude House Princess 360° Makeup Table Organiser.

Etude House Rosy Tint Lips swatches, review

Etude House Rosy Tint Lips swatches, review

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Monday, April 14, 2014

I had received a sample of the Etude House Fresh Cherry Tint along with a Korean makeup haul and was eager to get some full-sized lip products from the brand. I settled on the Etude House Rosy Tint Lips, which were launched last Fall, because this range had shades I thought would suit me best, and the reviews were great. I could not find any vampy shades and the roses on the packaging screamed spring/summer rather than fall to me.
The Etude House Rosy Tints come in eight shades. I bought #3 (Rose Petal) and #7 (Tea Rose) off W2Beauty, which is my favourite Korean cosmetics website because of the sheer amount of samples Alice (founder and owner) sends me and because she also sends candy!

Here is the review and swatches of Etude House Rosy Tint Lip colour.

Rose Rose Shop Secret Box review, unboxing: International beauty box

Rose Rose Shop Secret Box review, unboxing: International beauty box

Unboxing Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, March 13, 2014

It was the lovely Amanda of  My Pretty Distractions - she is great for a chat about beauty boxes and Korean cosmetics - who showed me her Rose Secret Box from Rose Rose Shop, thus propelling me into ordering one straightaway. For those who haven't heard of it before, Rose Rose Shop is a website that sells Korean cosmetics at wholesale rates. They have a Rose Secret Box for $25, $50 and $100 - each contains two, five or eleven full-sized items respectively, a pair of earrings and various samples, all worth double the value of the box. The $100 box also contains "one clothes". Don't look at me, I didn't order or write it.
No two boxes are exactly alike. Worldwide tracked shipping for the Secret beauty boxes is absolutely free, though if you order something apart from the box, you pay extra, based on weight.

Here is my review and unboxing of the Rose Rose Shop Secret beauty box.

Etude House AC Clinic Intense Pink Powder Spot acne treatment kit review, usage

Etude House AC Clinic Intense Pink Powder Spot acne treatment kit review, usage

Treatment Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, March 11, 2014

In December, Lancome Dream Tone made such a mess of my face - which had just become acne-free after Lancome Visionnaire - that no treatment could stop the painful cysts - you must have seen some of the nightmarish photographs on my blog's Facebook page. That was when I turned to Korean skincare.
There were way too many acne treatment options and I decided to pick Etude House, the most famous of Korean brands. I had heard so much about the effectiveness of the Etude House AC Clinic range and I found the maximum number of raves for the Pink Powder Spot kit which seemed to put paid to major cystic acne. I must say that buying this kit was one of the best decisions I've made for my skin and I've just bought my second box of this wonder kit from W2Beauty.

Here is my review of the Etude House AC Clinic Intense Pink Powder Spot acne treatment kit.

Etude House Milky You One Step Cleansing Foam review

Etude House Milky You One Step Cleansing Foam review

Skin care Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, February 11, 2014

As anyone with super-oily skin can attest, foaming cleansers tend to make skin feel a bit tight and pulled back. I tend to give them just the one try before passing them on or binning them. I received a packet of Etude House Milky You One Step Cleansing Foam with my W2Beauty haul as a freebie and read up a bit about it online and the claims were impressive, so despite my disdain for foaming cleansers, I decided to give it a try.

Here is my review of the Etude House Milky You One Step Cleansing Foam.

Glitter NOTD with Etude House Play Nail polish over China Glaze Flyin' High

Glitter NOTD with Etude House Play Nail polish over China Glaze Flyin' High

Swatches Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, December 15, 2013

Whoa. It isn't just Korean cosmetics that rock - it is their nail polish, too! The Etude House Play Nails in #121, hauled from W2Beauty, has wowed me so much so that I'm going to haul a bunch of Korean nail polishes in January. It just goes to show that you don't have to look the indie way for your glitter fix - mainstream polish manufacturers such as O.P.I., China Glaze and others can produce amazing multi glitters in a variety of shapes, colours and textures as well. Oh, and I've cut myself with the cuticle remover on the ring finger. Argh!
This manicure is Etude House Play Nail #121 worn over China Glaze Flyin' High nail polish.

Beauty products used up in November 2013 and thoughts on each

Beauty products used up in November 2013 and thoughts on each

Tony Moly Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, December 01, 2013

I found some must-have beauty and skin care products in November 2013, and some rather meh ones. Unfortunately two "empties" I used up while travelling are missing thanks to some haphazard unpacking after my break - Shiseido SPF 50 Sunscreen Lotion, which I now love, and Est-Lab. Sunshield sample from my September Glamabox. Ah well. I'll write about those when I find them.

Here are the beauty products I used up in November 2013 and my thoughts on each:

Haul: Korean beauty shopping from Cosmetic Love, including Etude House, Innisfree and Nature Republic

Haul: Korean beauty shopping from Cosmetic Love, including Etude House, Innisfree and Nature Republic

Skin care Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I spent the better part of my money in October hauling Korean beauty products from four websites. You've already seen the ones from Jolse (here) and Wishtrend (here). Here's my Korean cosmetics haul from Cosmetic-Love.com.
I had compared the prices of each item across all the websites, going in for the cheapest from each. Shipping is free but if you want registered post, you need to pay $2 which I did. I received my order in late October, a mere week after I placed it, along with some nice freebies.

Here are the Korean beauty goodies I bought from Cosmetic Love: