Beauty Repurchases (Will Continuously Be Updated)

When you find products that you love because it just works (don't you LOVE those moments?!), you naturally never want to be without it, and it goes right on the repurchase list! Here's a list (that will regularly be updated as see fit) of my beauty (skincare, body care, makeup, etc) loves that have been repurchases already or will be repurchases in the future.
List after the jump.

2016 Beauty Wishlist (Skin, Hair, & Bodycare)

It is probably a little late in the year already to start a 'wishlist', but regardless, a lot of beauty brands & products have peaked my interest and been on my radar for a while, & thought I'd share just some (the list is so huge I have it in an Excel spread sheet to keep track of it all) with you all! I will separate it all by brands alphabetically to make it a bit easier.

Influenster Box: SK-II Facial Treatment Essence & Facial Treatment Mask Reviews

I'm a real sucker for the Influenster programme and have been lucky enough to have received 2 other boxes prior to this new *SK-II one (you can read my other 2 posts here & here). They send out products from really great, high-end brands from skincare to makeup to try for testing and reviewing purposes. Here are my reviews from their latest box, with SK-II's Facial Treatment Essence & Facial Treatment Sheet Mask. 

Review: Biologique Recherche Lait VIP 02 Oxygenating Cleansing Milk

I've found my new favorite cleansing milk that may just replace my sadly discontinued Sunday Riley Charisma Creme Cleanser, it's the ** Lait VIP 02 Cleansing Milk by Biologique Recherche. I've raved about another product from the brand previously, the infamous cult classic of ** P50 1970 (pictured). 

This cleansing milk is slightly thicker than SR's CC Cleanser, but not as thick in comparison to Lait U, which is another cleansing milk (more like a cream) from BR. I don't detect any scent really from this; its wonderfully gentle. Squeeze a little out of the tube, apply to dry skin (second or morning cleanse) massage gently, emulsify with water, and then rinse. It's supposed to illuminate the skin, while helping the skin protect itself from the everyday aggressors of air pollutants. It throughly cleanses, ridding the skin of left over impurities from the first cleanse or sleep, leaving no residue behind and no tightness once its rinsed away.

It's a bit of a splurge for a cleansing milk, but right below cleansing balms, milks are my next favorite type of cleanser so sometimes its worth investing in something that works for your skin and that you enjoy using. 

I have only been using this cleanser in sample sizes, so I have been trying to savor as much as I can having gone through about 2-3 of these cleanser samples; pictured above is my last full one that I will have to savor a bit as well, though I am going purchase the full size of this cleanser once I run out of my sample size.

You can shop Biologique Recherche products over at Toska's European Spa, which you can find the direct link to their website here , as well as more information on their spa and services that they provide. 

My BR P50 review and information post can be found here, as well as find more information about Toska European Spa.

** Disclaimer: The product(s) mentioned in this post were kindly gifted to me by Toska European Spa. All opinions & comments about the product(s) & spa are from my own personal use and experience with them. I am not being paid to talk about the product(s) mentioned, unless stated otherwise.

Highend vs Drugstore: The Melting Gel Cleansers

  Ah, the debate continues...to splurge or to save? This post, as the title echoes, is about which melting gel cleansers are the best from highend beauty or drugstore: Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel or Yes To Coconuts Ultra Hydrating Melting Cleanser. They are both makeup removal/second cleanse contenders, and they both claim to do the same thing: hydrate, remove makeup, & leave skin feeling clean and hydrated. They both actually do all of these things and well, but they do have their slight differences that set them apart from each other...so which is better?

Let's start with highend: Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel has been, like other Clarins products, a cult favorite from their range; its scent is of the regular Clarins kind, a nice splash of herbal/medicinal and gentleness. This cleanser does it what saids on the tin, and then some for me. It removes every inch of makeup during the first round, including the eye area, which it is super gentle on. As you massage the gel onto the skin, it turns into an oil with impeccable slip, and emulsifies into a light milk once hit with water, no film left afterward. The skin is removed of all impurities and makeup, leaving it soft, hydrated, and calm. I always feel I can skip the second-cleanse step when using it (& I don't, but I have been closely tempted somedays...). It's another Clarins win for me, & I hate to admit that I had not tried this sooner; its developing into a staple for the long skincare roads ahead.

Drugstore: Yes To Coconuts Ultra Hydrating Melt Cleanser also does what it claims on the tube; a gel that turns into another great oil with slip to match, removes all makeup, yet advises to avoid the eye area...bummer; this won't be suited for the simplistic because you'll need to go in with another product to remove the eye makeup. The scent for me in no way matches the Clarins one, because it's a mix of coconuts and sunscreen. If you love both of those scents, this could be a year-round winner for you, but coconut isn't really my thing. Not to say that its not a good scent, but if I want a 'food' scent I enjoy a more spicy, herbal, or citrus aroma. I'll take a coconut drink, candle maybe... And the fact that it reminded me of washing my face with sunscreen everytime? Kind of a turn off...I enjoy sunscreen itself, slather it on everyday, but I don't need that fragrance in a cleanser, even though I'm just going to wash it down the sink and it doesn't linger.  Is that a bad reason to not enjoy a cleanser, despite doing it's duty well, is to naysay it because of its scent? 

As it were, these cleansers are both unique, yet the same, and both get the job done very well. The winner for me is the Clarins Pure Melt cleanser, because  I enjoy every single thing about it, and it can go all over the face, which isn't said for the Yes To Coconuts one. Yet, Coconuts still isn't a bad choice to pick either, especially if you love coconuts.

Respectfully, you can find Clarins Pure Melt Cleansing Gel for $37 to purchase here & Yes To Coconuts Ultra Hydrating Cleanser for $9.99 here

Review: Darphin Orange Blossom Oil

Why has this magical oil never been in my routines until a few months ago?? Oils are taking over the skincare game in all the right ways, and next to Clarins & Sunday Riley, Darphin is another great brand to look into if you're seeking out facial oils for your routines.  They have 7 different types of oil elixirs for every skin concern and need; the one I'm reviewing in this post is the Orange Blossom Aromatic Care for Normal Skin. 

It's claims to help brighten, smooth and purify the skin, which it does exactly that, and then some. I don't know what's in this that makes it do the magic that it does, but it also helps calm down redness from blemishes and essentially, help get rid of them almost over night. Again, I really don't know if its even supposed to do that, but it does, and I'm not complaining!

The citrus-orange scent is just so calming and comforting when massaging into the skin; great after a long, winded day. Whenever I'm struggling with spots, I use this alone as my nighttime moisturizer after my Biologique Recherche P50 1970; its super hydrating and just settles into the skin beautifully; my skin never feels tight and upon morning, its soothed, clear, and bright, all from this little bottle.

I do wish the bottle had some sort of pump or dropper, because at $80, having to pour a little out in my hand each time can cause you to accidentally over indulge a little bit and use more than you need; other than that, this has become one of my new favorite oils to use during the evening, alongside my MUN No. 1 Aknari Brightening Youth Serum. 

You can read up on more of Darphin's oils and purchase them here 

#PerfectPores Campaign & Kit with Peach & Lilly!

The Korean Skincare Specialists over at Peach & Lilly have started a campaign against pores! Some of us are blessed with tiny, beautiful, clean pores while others, including myself, deal with big pores that can get congested quite easily; anything and everything just wants to sink right into them! And while you can't erase pores from your face permanently, no matter what anyone tells you, you can help clean out the gunk and disguise them down to where you have perfectly clean, almost-poreless skin! Thats where the #PerfectPores campaign comes in.

To get those unnoticeable , pristine clean pores, Peach & Lilly, along with the Korean beauty brand Caolion, teamed up to create a set that is supposed to do just that: Freshly Chitosan Foam Cleanser, Blackhead Bubble Pore Pack, Pore Original Pack, and the Pore Tightening Memory Sleeping Mask.

Now, according to their product page and PR e-mails I exchanged, you're supposed to use all of these products right after the other, in the order I stated them above and below; you will find my reviews of each product of from the * Perfect Pore Kit:

Freshly Chitosan Foam Cleanser: The bottle looks cool, the cleanser stripped the hell out of my skin, which is why I don't use foam cleansers in the first place; they are very drying and strip the skin of its natural oils. Now, while I don't recommend using foam cleansers in general, if you have oily skin, this may actually work for you. I'm not really getting any kind of scent to this, so if you have oily skin with sensitivities, this may actually work in your favor.

Blackhead Bubble Pore Pack: What an unusual product, definitely have never used a product like this in my routines before! It literally does what it saids: it bubbles...but the bubbles, oh wow, it feels so weird. I had a bit of anxiety at first when I felt my whole face start to bubble up with this pack on but upon washing it off, came great relief and joy for my skin. The skin was left soft and clean, not stripped-clean, like all-the gunk-came-out-of-my-face-right-there clean! It was refreshing.

Pore Original Pack: I don't know what the heck I did wrong or where this product went wrong, but about a minute after I put it on, my face was burning, badly. The directions say to keep it on for 10-15 minutes, I don't think I lasted 3! It smells straight-up of clay and menthol (which I'm assuming was the burning-face culprit) and it looks like a clay mask; but never again is that going on my face. After I had taken it off from the 3 trying minutes, my face was red and sore...I was cringing to try the last step...

Pore Tightening Memory Sleeping Mask: What a relief! Now this smells of straight up menthol, not my favorite, very strong and the smell doesn't really go away. The upside, this gave my red face much relief, almost instantly, and cooled everything down. It's a bouncy-sleeping mask: meaning it reverts back to its originally form moments after you scoop some out to apply it to your face...not going to lie, definitely played around sicking the little spatula in and out just to see the magic work! A little goes a long way with this one.

Alright so, 2 out of 4 isn't so bad; yes, I would probably have enjoyed this more if all the products worked, but I still see results with just using 2 of the 4. I can do without the Foaming Cleanser and definitely do without the Pore Original Pack; but the Blackhead Bubble Pore Pack and the Pore Tightening Memory Sleeping Mask were fun and honestly, worked really well on my skin. I have continued to use those 2 products together in my nightly routines, and notice that my pores have developed less blackheads and appear more clean and have appeared to be less 'large-and-in-charge' and more 'imma keep to myself'. 

You can purchase the Perfect Pores Kit in its entirety on Peach & Lilly's site here, and it retails for $84 for the all products. (at the time of this posting, the Perfect Pores Kit is currently sold out, though you can sign up using your e-mail to get notified once its back in stock). 

* Disclaimer: The products mentioned in this post were kindly sent to me by Peach & Lilly and Caolion for their #PerfectPores campaign & reviewing purposes. All opinions & comments about the product(s) are from my own personal use and experience with them. I am not being paid to talk about the product(s) mentioned, unless stated otherwise.