Quick Post: Etude House Shini Star Clear BB Lotion SPF 20 PA++ Whitening & Shini Star Clear Pact in Lavender 2

Leave it to Korean cosmetic brand to slap boy band as their brand ambassador and succeed… just see Etude House and its Spring 2012 release. Seems like the favorite Sandara Park is taking a lil break and SHINee, a Korean boyband is taking the helm now! Come ShiniStar collection! And I am excited!

Now, I don’t even know how SHINee sounds like… but I am positively in love with the packaging! Look at these baby-tiffany blue compact and bb cream packaging… and those diamond illustrations are just pretty. I honestly don’t need another BBCream or compact powder… but I just brought it for its sheer prettiness. 

The full ShiniStar collection itself consists of Clear Pact(available in 2 Lavender & 1 Peach), Clear BB Lotion and 5 tinted lip balms (each color is picked by each member of the band). I only picked the BB lotion and Clear pact, as I don’t fancy tinned lip balms. 

I haven’t tried these products yet…but I can tell you (again) I love the packaging design! The BB lotion/cream has pump mechanism and I find very easy and convenient to use. It gives me sheer coverage.

The compact powder/Clear pact is made of light plastic-but thanks to the finishing touches, the compact feels more cute than cheap. The features generous sized mirror inside and a puff. The powder color is shimmery lavender. 

*Update: I've tried the Clear pact here!and the BB lotion here!

My Beauty Diary - 2 Step Autumn Repair Pack

Yes, Spring is coming… but I still own few mask from Autumn by My Beauty Diary. I am so loving sheet masks from this Taiwanese brand. 

This 2 step repair pack contains of 1 Snail Mask and 1 Snail Repair Cream. This mask set is supposed to make my skin more moisturized and plump. 

I have to admit, those snails on the package are cute… yet again, every time I open this pack- I cant help but imagining having slimy snails running around to get their slime harvested! Ha!...

So, naturally, I dig the ingredient list and the synthetics aside- I saw arnica monatana flower extract, mushroom extract, hydrolyzed milk protein sweet almond oil, sambucus nigra flower extract, soluble collagen, grapefruit extract, sugar maple extract, aloe leaf juice, cantella asiatica extract, orange fruit extract, leon extract, gentian lutea root extract, licorice root extract, rice protein, laminaria digitata extract, mallow extract and sugar cane extract. Sooo glad I didn’t see any thing that sounds like snails in the list.

The cream attached also looks like it doesn’t any snail in it…but it does contain mineral oil.

The snail mask has soft fragrance, not strong at all. I cant smell it anymore once I put the mask on. The essence got absorbed nicely on my drier skin area, but it got sticky on my more oily T zone. I end up rinsing my face with water to lighten up the stickiness. While it is not so suitable for my skin now, I think this would be wonderful for autumn or winter.

The Snail Repair Cream included is rich and creamy without any discernible fragrance. It gets absorbed easily, yet it feels slightly slick… may be it’s the mineral oil in it… may be it is just the whole formula. 

Bottomline…

I don’t like this…too moisturizing for me, especially the cream.

Shopping in Taiwan…

Disclaimer: I am by no means a Taiwan-shopping expert. Just happened to drop by Taipei for a few days, and would like to share spots where I got my hauls…

I totally love shopping in Taiwan for beauty products. They are sensibly priced, they have wide range of Japanese brands, be it department store brands or budget friendly drug store stuff. And this country, is filled with cute stuff… Hello Kitty masks, Rilakkuma creams, Little Twin star stuff… packaging junkies-be warned, prepare your money & that credit card limit!

I will save the introduction, and just goes to the details… for department store beauty brands, look no further than Shinkong mitsukoshi. This is actually a complex of shopping malls, 4 buildings to be exact. The beauty department in ground floor of few of the buildings offer international brands like Dior, Chanel, Guerlain and such. There’s quite extensive offerings of Japanese brands: shiseido, coffret d’or, kose, esprique, dr ci la bo, shu uemura, paul& joe, anna sui. I do think it is worth to mention they also have NARS there! Needless to say, if up scale department store brands is your cup of tea, this is your heaven. At night, usually you can find street artists performing in the alleys between the buildings.

When I was there, there’s even donation / adoption drive for doggies. These are not your usual mongrels, these dogs are actually well trained and they are good breeds- golden retrievers, jack russels… so heart breaking to see some of the dogs got injured. Those who cant take care of dogs, really shouldn’t get dogs or cats… and those who already have one, please neuter your pet – don’t force urself to send your pet’s offspring away to impatient and clueless (or even cruel) hands…  Ahem… now, back to beauty stuff…

How to go there? Take the MRT (metro) line to Taipei City Hall, it takes 2 -3 minutes walk from the exit. (I recommend buying the easycard for NTD 200 –that’s NTD 100 for refundable deposit and NTD 100 worth of value. Makes your MRT ride a breeze , no need to queue for your tickets everytime!).

For more budget friendly stuff, go to Watson’s. this drugstore chain is ubiquitous, I am sure anywhere you stay in Taipei, it wont be so hard to find one nearby.  They sell, my favorite shiseido’s tsubaki hair care line, ma Cherie, some happy bath day range. And alley full of masks!!! I love Taiwanese sheet masks!!!  The drug store staples such as Maybelline (find your Asian special editions here) and L’oreal is here. Japanese brands: Media, canmake, nature &co. and many more. And loadz of BB cream brands!

Wonderful thing about Watson’s is they seem to always have special offers and discounts on various stuff. Lovely! When I was in Taipei, they even have buy 1 free1 for certain mask range.

Asian brand lovers must be familiar with sasa.com. do visit the real store here! They are easy to find in shopping spots. They have majolica Majorca, kate & Revlon stands there. They also offer selected range of Heroine Make, Pupa, Dolly Wink, My beauty diary, eos  (how nice to find eos in asia!), seabreeze and many more…and lots and lots of false lashes too!

I do recommend shopping in Taipei City Hall area, they have a few malls, watson’s & sasa around the area. And of course, you get the visit the famous Taipei 101 tower! which hosts shopping mall with small beauty hall inside.

One surprising place to find beauty stuff is 7-11! I found decent offering of My beauty diary face masks there, Sexy Look line (okay, never mind the cheesy-cheap sounding brand name, but they have Hello Kitty line! So cute!), Simply (This brand offers Rilakkuma themed cosmetics!)

Those are places where I find most fun to shop! Have fun shopping in Taiwan. Do inform me if you have additional recommendation where to shop!!!

Skinfood Red Orange Sun Pact SPF 50+ PA +++

For some reason, I just adore SkinFood’s red orange series. The combination of orange and rose-gold colored packaging is just appealing! Plus… it has SPF of 50 and PA+++. Good for me! Red orange series feature regular powder compact, facial spray and gel textured BB cream (which I also purchased, but haven’t tried).

I adore the outer design, and also the inner design! The compact features large mirror and puff anddd…. A plastic layer (not that flimsy film, but window-like clear hard plastic) to separate the puff and the powder. Ahh… hygiene comes first when it goes to powders! I love love love this design!

Skinfood says this clear pact (means compact powder, really) will give me bright and lively skin, plus it has sebum absorbing property. Okay… this powder is not really clear- I have to blend properly if I don’t want to look ashy and powdery. So, absolutely not for deeper toned beauties! And dry, flaky skin patch, beware! This will accentuate those pesky flaky, dry patches! It has ultra light orange scent-nothing too strong. I can only detect the scent if I sniff the powder compact very closely.

I used this as touch-up powder in the middle of the day, and need to blot and re-apply after appox 2hours. i say this compact doesnt give oil control as much as i wanted it to.

bottomline...
i dont like this as much-excecpt for the genius compact design. the powder is too bright at times, and  it doesnt control oily skin as much. this, might be treasure for very fair ladies with normal skin.

Etude House Wannabe Perfumed Syrup Nails

Part of the lovely and chic Wannabe collection from winter 2011! To be honest, the whole Wannabe theme made me purchased this one. If they were sold as single polish-I wont be so interested in these!

From Wannabe collection, I also got the Style Making Kit make up palette, Lipsticks and Lumiball Highlighter.

The kit come with 3 matchy polish- glam pearl (for base color), sparkling silver (middle color) and bling bling rose (tip color). This set is meant to make the famous gradation style nail color. Very easy to use and make!

All three colors are has clear base. Glam Pearl has clear base with hologram tiny glitter and silvery-pearly shimmer. Sparkling Silver is silver glitter with round rose gold big glitter suspended in clear base. Bling Bling Rose is silver glitter and medium silver hologram glitter in blue-pink clear base. I don’t think these are available as single polish in Etude’s permanent collection

I made these nails by applying Glam Pearl all over my nail, then Sparkling Silver in the middle-top part of my nails and Bling Bling Rose on tips of my nails. No need to be very precise like making French manicures here- the base colors and glitters blend nicely to make pretty gradation effect. Top coat is necessary to make my nails feel smooth without glitter particles poking out. 

I adore the girly-breezy look it created on my nails…

Drying time is average, nothing to shout about. Too bad these chipped easily-even with my favorite Poshe base and Seche top coat! On 1^st day of use, I can see chips already-even though not so visible-as the whole clear glitter thing makes it look normal. 

I don’t get the ‘perfumed’ part though… I can smell sweetish scent, but very vague. And I cant say I like this ‘perfume ‘ so much…

Bottomline…

Nice kit for those lazy days. Unfortunately, it chipped so easily. If you can get it at retail-it is worth it, but not if you need to pay jacked up prices.

Banila co. Very Kissy Lip Plump in Envy

Banila co. is Korean brand- I’ve stalked this brand for its always chic seasonal make up collections. When I finally manage to purchase some products from Banila co., I grabbed this one along. 

I’m not sure from which seasonal release is this gloss (or is it part of their permanent collection?). Banila seems to have a few lips plumping product. Very Kissy is in gloss form.

Envy is blue toned clear pink with silver and gold fine glitter. Swatched on my hand, this appear like a normal clear gloss with silver and gold shimmer. Not very disco-ball, but still shimmery. Applied on lips, it looks clear and glossy-the shimmer is not really visible unless I looked closely. 

I can say this gloss is pretty heavily scented – sweetened fruit scent. When applied, it gives tingling feeling on lips- feels like mint flavored lipgloss, only much stronger tingle. It does have light minty flavor, but nothing to make me want lick my lips all the time. Kinda surprising, Since the fragrance is sweetened fruits, I was expecting sweet taste.

Even though it looks like a clear gloss, it does give my lips stained look after a while. Magenta-pink kind of stain, very subtle, but I noticed it right away. This lip swatch is taken after 1-2 hour wearing the gloss…see the difference in color. It is not as glossy actually, since I just realize the color change (and took picture subsequently) when I re apply the gloss after all my snacks and tea sipping. 

Bottomline,

Definitely not for sensitive lips- it is heavily fragranced and stings a little. For me, it is not very worth it- as it doesn’t plump my lips very much.