Wednesday Night Skincare Routine

Hello dolls. Did instagram bring you over? :) I get a lot of pleasure and fulfillment out of pampering myself and taking care of my skin, which is why I like a long, layered routine.

So let's go over my routine for tonight.

[ Cleanse ]

I tend to go for a heavy eye with my makeup, so I always pre-cleanse with an eye makeup remover. (Not pictured) The one I used tonight is from Beige, and it's the 3 Seconds Perfect Eye Makeup Remover. This is one of those makeup removers that has two parts that you need to shake together. This stuff works. I literally hold the cotton pad with this on my eye for maybe 5 seconds (instead of 3) and my eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara come right off. I swipe once more over my brows and voila! Eye makeup is no more. You can get it here if you want to buy yourself one.

For my first oil cleanse, I used Re:cipe Rose Petal Cleansing Oil. This cleansing oil has the faintest smell of roses. Its really nice how faint the smell is actually. Super smooth and glides on my skin. I spent about 1-2 minutes massaging my face with this. Face massage + getting rid of all my excess makeup? Heavenly. I splashed my face with lukewarm water and because this oil emulsifies easily with water, it came right off.

Second cleanse was with Missha Near Skin pH Balancing Cleansing Gel. Nothing too special about this one other than it's nice and low pH. I did a pH test on this earlier in the day and found it at a . It lathers up okay. I still get bubbles. I'm just a huge fan of super soft foam but I found foam usually comes at the price of a high pH :(

[ Active ]

I wanted to bring the pH of my skin lower than 5 just because I planned to use an active tonight, so this is where Mizon's AHA&BHA Daily Clean Toner came into play. The pH is around a 4-4.5. Quick swipe of this before, and I actually did a quick swipe after just in case to get rid of anything excess.

I've been trying to incorporate an active into my routine slowly, as I've noticed theres a couple of closed conedomes on my forehead :/ My skin is usually clear and smooth naturally, so for these little guys to be around really annoys me. I'll do anything to get rid of them. Papa Recipe White Flower Clear Up 8% AHA it is. I sat around for 30 minutes while I waited for this to do its work.

[ Essence ]

Missha Time Revolution The First Treatment Essence. This is my baby. I'm almost half-way through with this! I take a couple drops between my palms and press this all over my face. It sinks in quickly. I only need to tap in a few times before its completely absorbed. Since I've used this, I've noticed a huuuuge difference in how my skin feels. I want to try other first essences though, see if theres any difference.

Next is actually another baby of mine, and not really an essence. The Face Shop Rice Ceramide Moisture toner. This thing hydrates my skin like a motherf. Instead of putting it on a cotton pad however, I did the same thing I did with the Missha Essence. A couple drops into my palms and pressed it in to my skin.

Once the toner was all soaked in, it was time for me to add some snail goo. COSrx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence. To be honest, it took me a while to get used to putting this on. I've used other snail products, but this one has PURE snail mucin and my goodness you can tell by the string-y texture. Spreading this can still somewhat feel really gross, but I know it's doing right by my skin and it goes away so I put up with it.

[ Ampoule ]

**MY HOLY GRAIL!** Manyo Factory Ultra Moist Spa Ampoule. Two words: I. Love. This. Stuff. (That was actually four) This is a very runny and liquidy ampoule, so it soaks in very quickly. I always reach for this in practically every routine I do because it's so hydrating and provides my skin with so much moisture. For tonight, I used this all over my face.

Scinic Propolis 95 Ampoule. Ahhh propolis. This serum is so-so. Gel like texture. Haven't noticed anything super benificial to my skin. I put this on my forehead and a little on my chin just cause thats where I tend to get hormonal pimples. Might as well do what I can to keep them at bay.

Yuri Pibu Artichoke Power Essence. It's name says essence.. but this is the thickest of my ampoules/serums. I used this on the tops of my cheeks and nose where my pores are the largest. This is still very new to me so I can't say much about it.

After all this I decided on doing this blog post so I put on a sheet mask. I didn't leave it on for too long though, about 10 minutes.

[ Moisturizer/Occlusive ]

For my final steps I start with my eye cream. Tonight I used a new one, Secret Key Starting Treatment Eye Cream Rose Edition. Since its new, I have nothing to say other than.. such cute packaging.

Next I took the Mizon Snail Recovery Gel Cream and added in three drops of the Tatcha Gold Camellia Beauty Oil. Mixed it up on my finger tips and spread it on my face. More snails, and some camellia oil for that extra hydration because its cold af and I know I'm blasting the heater tonight.

Oh and to keep it all sealed in I used Botanic Farm Black Soybean Milk Pudding Sleeping Pack. I like the jelly texture of this and how it smells. I love the smell of this.

My eyes are getting really heavy and I've sort of skimped on the extra details for the last steps. But I'm tired and I did my best. So there you have it, tonight's long evening routine. I'm off to dreamland now. Goodnight!!

xo ciana

[Review] J. One Jelly Cushion Foundation

Hello loves :) Today I'm giving a review of the J. One Jelly Cushion in no.23. I ordered this beautiful cushion compact from memebox when I was going through my emails and one of memebox's subscription mails had a picture of this cushion along with the new hana cream. I had a vip coupon so I threw it into my e-cart :) Shipping from memebox is quick.

Before we begin, here is a description of the cushion, taken straight off the memebox website:

J.ONE introduces a premium Jelly Cushion that is specially formulated to be lightweight and easy-to-blend while giving the skin full coverage. It seamlessly covers skin imperfections in just a single layer. This makeup cushion is infused with lemon extract, royal jelly extract and sea buckthorn extract to nourish and protect the skin from harsh environmental elements. It also provides superior sun protection with its SPF50+/PA+++ which allows you to enjoy outdoors without worrying about sun damage!

This also came with a refill, so heres hoping I like this foundation! On to my experience.


[Packaging]

The packaging for this is minimalistic, all white with black typing and the J One logo on the front. It pretty much matches the packaging for the Jelly Pack, just compact version. I adore the packaging. And like I said, this comes with a refill!

[Shade]
I think this shade is almost perfect for my skin. Out of all the foundations I have, this one matches me really nicely. For reference, I'm in between NC25-30 in MAC. It is slightly lighter than my natural skin tone, but nothing too crazy. I actually prefer my foundations to be on the lighter side so when I contour it evens everything out.


[Coverage]

Before I put it on!

I found that this is definitely light/medium coverage, but that may be because I don't use a lot of product. I also don't have any blemishes that I need covered however I do have a bit of redness on my cheeks, so I needed to add a second layer to these spots to cover them up.

After! Do you notice a difference?

[Wear]
So for wear, I tried this out in three different ways.

The first day I decided to try this with the J One Jelly Pack underneath as my primer :) I know the actress who created the brand, Ha Ji Won used it as a primer on Get It Beauty so I wanted to test the two products together. This method was definitely my favorite way to wear this cushion. It went on really smooth. I also found that the foundation lasted all day, even through-out my work day. I work in a restaurant, so I can get pretty sweaty as I run around. It held up pretty well until about 10:30 pm, when I finally took it off.

The next time I used this, I was going to try it without any primer. Uh.. that was an awful idea. I wouldn't recommend using this without a primer if you have dry skin. After about 30-45 minutes, the patchiness around my dry areas was RIDICULOUS. It looked so disgusting, and I had to take it off. I still wanted to wear it however, so I tried it with one of my favorite hydrating primers, Marc Jacobs Invisible Under(cover) Perfecting Coconut Face Primer. Again, this cushion went on very nicely and smooth and I didn't need too much. It wore okay, but I noticed after about 5 hours that it wore off completely around my nose.

I wish I had a korean primer to also test this with, but alas I do not have any that has yet made its way in to my collection :/



[Overall]
Without any primer, this cushion sucks terribly for my dry skin. I have never used a foundation that emphasized my dry patches so badly. But somehow, I like this cushion. So far in my korean cushion collection it's my favorite. The only thing is however, I'd probably only wear it with my J One Jelly pack as that seemed to work out best for me.

Friday Morning Skincare Regimen

I'm hesitant to call what I do for my skin a routine, because its always changing depending on how my skin looks or feels. Thats the beauty of the Korean Skincare Routine. You can change it up and there aren't any "rules" really. 

So Friday mornings I can take my time doing my routine, just cause I don't start work until evening time! I have a couple hours of down-time to pass today, and I haven't had much time to mask this week. So I decided I'm going to triple mask! Yayyy. And I also have the time to blog about all my steps in detail, as oppose to instagram, haha.

Starting off with my morning cleanse! Today I used:

The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Oil. This is my first overseas cleansing oil! And so far, it's nice. One of the things I enjoy about this, is the light scent. Very relaxing when I massage this into my face. It's very light weight in comparison to the Burt's Bee's Cleansing Oil I also use. Emulsifies with water and rinses off easily. 

COSRx Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser. Low pH life is the life for me. Ever since I switched my cleansers to lower pH cleansers, my moisture barrier was able to heal. Still a work in progress, but every day I can feel my skin getting better. Initially when I started using this, I wasn't a fan of the tea tree smell, but now I quite enjoy it. Lathers up into soft bubbles if you work it into your palms first, so I definitely didn't have to give up the bubbly foam I enjoy.

Nooni Spring Water Sprout Smoothing Toner. To be honest, I have only used this toner a handful of times since I bought it. So I can't tell you whether or not I love it or hate it. I'm trying to use it more though so I can review it :) Said to be made with naturally carbonated spring water, this stuff is rich in minerals for your skin. Another ingredient in this is a Sprout Complex (Broccoli, Cannola, and Bean Sprouts) which is BHA/AHA and helps in removing dead skin cells. Also, no alcohol in here!  

With my skin clean and prepped, I'm ready for my triple masking!

Mask #1 

Eliza Vecca Hell-Pore Clean Up Mask. I. Love. This. Mask. This peel off mask really cleans out your pores and takes off any lingering dead skin cells that are sitting on your face. My pores feel clean and sort of "open" and ready to take on anything I layer on top of it. Which is why I chose to use this as my first mask, hehe. 

Mask #2 

Anskin Premium Snow White Modeling Mask. I got this modeling mask from a beauteque subscription bag. The type I got is Purifying and Anti-Blemish. I can't find anywhere what this is supposed to do for me, but through the name I can make a guess. I don't have a huge problem with acne or blemishes, but I do get the occasional pimple and lately a couple of closed conedomes on my forehead. I tried this on Monday night, and I really like the smell and how it feels on my face. It's really cool peeling this rubbery stuff off of your face! I definitely want to try more of these modeling masks that are more suited to my skin needs.  

Mask #3 

Ciracle from Jeju Citrus Sudachi Whitening Mask. I wasn't sure what sheet mask to use today. I went through my stash and had a lot of contenders, but ultimately I chose this one from Ciracle. I wanted to test out a new sheet mask, plus I wanted to skin tone to look bright and even. The packaging claims to also be moisturizing, and I can always do with some of that. This definitely has a strong citrusy smell with a hint of floral. I'm not too sensitive to smells though so I don't have a problem with it, but if you want to try this note that the smell lingered the entire 20 minutes I had this on my face. When it came time to take off this mask, the essence that was left on my face was a teensy bit sticky. I pat it in, and let it sit and soak in and the small stickyness is gone. I'm not noticing too much of a brightening effect, but my face does feel pretty smooth and moisturized. I look pretty dewy.

Look at that sheen! 

I gave my face a few minutes while I drank my morning coffee to let all the masking goodness to sink in before I completed the rest of my routine. You'll notice I layered quite a bit of products on top of the masking I've already done. The weather where I am is rainy and, and let me tell you.. Boy is it cold. Storm weather has not been kind to my skin. I've slept with the heater on the past few nights because without warmth I can't fall asleep. So the skin on my face definitely needs and soaks up all the added moisture.



As for my serums/ampoules I layered on 3 different ones. 3 is the magic number I guess. Haha. Yay for triple everything in this damn cold.

dear Klairs Freshly Juiced Vitamin Drop Serum. I got this yesterday. But ever since I placed the order on wishtrend I've been excited to use it. It quickly soaks in after gentle patting, so I was able to layer on top of this without much wait time. I'll probably do a more in depth review once I've used it a bit more, but for now. Me gusta. (I like.)

Manyo Factory Ultra Moist Spa Ampoule. I am so grateful to Margaret from Melodycosme.com (@melodycosme on IG) for introducing this into my life. I LOVE THIS THING, its my holy grail. It's loaded with ingredients from the ocean and my skin DRINKS this ampoule up. It's super light and watery, almost like an essence! Great for layering with me because just like the Vitamin Drop serum, it soaks in pretty quickly with gentle patting. Along with providing moisture, this has ingredients for brightening and also plenty of antioxidants which help in fighting free-radicals.

itS SKIN Hyaluronic Acid Serum. This is a thicker serum, the consistency is almost like a light moisturizer. Spreads easily and you tap it in. I love layering this on top of all my other serums to give me that extra moisture from the hyaluronic acid, and to seal everything I put underneath in.




My last steps are my eye cream, occlusive moisturizer, and even though theres no sun I'm still applying my sunscreen. Does UVA/UVB penetrate through clouds? I don't know, I'm not risking it. LOL.

Radical Skincare Eye Revive Cream. I rotate my eye creams so I don't really know if this stuff helps me with anything. I just like how easily this cream sinks in. It does provide my under eye area with moisture. How many times in this post have I used the word moisture? Anyway, I lightly tap this in with my ring finger and lightly pat it up onto my eyelids.

Mizon Snail Recovery Gel Cream + Tula Hydrating Day & Night Cream. I mixed these together before I spread this on. Makes the consistency perfect. Right in-between gel and cream. Not too thick, not too watery. Just right. ^-^

NeoGen Lab Day-Light Protection Sunscreen SPF50/PA+++. I've posted about this sunscreen on instagram, so theres not much more to say other than I really really really love this sunscreen. I want to branch out and try new ones however cause this little guy is expensive! If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!! Comment down below!

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And that's it for today's routine! It took a while, as expected, but also because I was typing this while I was actually putting everything on my face. Plus making sure I took nice pictures. I still have a good 5 hours before I start work though, haha. I guess its time to put on some makeup on and get dressed. So thank you for reading, and until next time!!


- ciana ♥

[Review] Tony Moly Goat Milk Moisture Toner + Emulsion

Hello everybody! Here we are, my very first full review for my blog! I've been excited about this post since the day I got these products in the mail :)

One night while going through my feed on instagram, I saw that beauteque was giving a free matching toner if you were to buy the Tony Moly Goat Milk Moisture Emulsion. I quickly added it to my cart after reading the description:

The moisturizing emulsion contains the raw milk of goats raised on clean ranches in New Zealand. Goat milk helps make the skin healthy and provides moisture. It does not leave any sticky residue behind. Has a matte, healthy, and revitalized skin finish.

Key words that hooked me: Healthy. MOISTURE! I was sold. The price on the website is $35 which is a bit expensive for when the "bo-goat" deal ends. But considering I got both, it was a pretty good deal. On Jolse's website the toner and emulsion are $24.98 each, and at the time of writing this are on sale for $21.23 each. So with this deal, I saved quite a bit of money, hooray!

Both of the boxes say that each of these products contain 30% goat milk. I've read that the Essence and Cream products in this line have a higher percentage of the extract (50% for the essence and 60% for the cream). 30% is still a pretty good percentage to me, considering these are lighter products.

Toner Description: 

The moisturizing toner contains the raw milk of goats raised in clean ranches in New Zealand. Goat milk, which has the most similar components to human mother's milk, helps make the skin healthy and provides gentle skin-friendly moisture care to the skin. The white color toner containing highly concentrated moisture smoothes out and moisturizes the skin.

Toner Ingredients: 

Water, Goat Milk Extract, Butylene Glycol, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Polyglutamic Acid, Hydrolized Hyaluronic Acid, Ceramide 3, Lecithin, Glycerin, Polysorbate 80, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Anthocyanins, Cyclopentasiloxane, Panthenol, Cetaryl Olivate, Polysorbate 60, Polycrylate-13, Tocopheryl Acetate, Dimethicone/Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Polyisobutene, Pantolactone, Dimethicone, Carbomer, Polysorbate 20, Sorbitan Isosterate, Tromethamine, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Fragrance

Emulsion Description: 

The moisturizing emulsion contains the raw milk of goats raised in clean ranches in New Zealand. Goat milk, which has the most similar components to human mother's milk, helps make the skin healthy and provides gentle skin-friendly moisture care to the skin. It does not leave any sticky residue behind, leaving the skin matte, healthy, and revitalized.

Emulsion Ingredients:

Water, Goat Milk Extract, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Polysorbate 60, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Glyceryl Stearate, Hydrolyzed Hyaluronic Acid, Ceramide 3, Lecithin, Polysorbate 80, Sodium Ascrobyl Phosphate, Anthocyanins, Panthenol, Ceteraryl Alcohol, Biosaccharide Gum-1, Plyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Sorbitan Stearate, Dimethicone, Palmitic Acid, PEG-100 Stearate, Stearic Avid, Carbomer, Tromethamine, Pantolactone, Polyacrylate-13, Polyisobutene, Xanthan Gum, Polysorbate 20, Sorbitan Isostearate, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2-Hexanediol, Fragrance

Okay so theres a couple good ingredients in each, and I like that theres also Hyaluronic Acid and Ceramide included in both of these products.

The packaging is adorable, as it kind of reminds me of old-style glass milk bottles, if you know what I'm talking about haha. They are pretty heavy and I'm afraid to drop them because well, they're glass bottles. The toner comes out really easily, but the emulsion.. man. I'm not a huge fan of the emulsion's packaging just because I need to shake out the product. I accidentally got too much out the first time I used it, and controlling how much product comes out just is impossible. I wish this came with a pump. Or if they made the bottle plastic as opposed to glass so I could at least squish it out. I found smacking the bottom of the bottle helped get this stuff out a bit easier.

Heres a photo of the emulsion, after I tapped the bottle onto my hand to get the product out. I'm the kind of girl who likes ease in her products, and this sort of killed the excitement for me. I HATE this packaging. Maybe I just don't know how to use it correctly? If there is an easier method of getting this stuff out of the bottle that you know of, please. Do tell.

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And now, for the results. :)

My routine using these has been pretty simple. Double Cleanse, First Essence, Toner, Ampoule, Eye Cream, Emulsion, and either SPF or Sleeping Pack. Sheet Mask in between a few times. I wanted to test out how these products would work on their own as much as possible.

  

After the first morning of use! 

Second morning after use. Sorry for the darkness. Natural lighting was off because the weather has been cloudy and rainy.

Day 5 morning after use. Note that I used flash for this picture.

Last day! Day 7 morning after use.

Both of the products did a pretty good job at giving my skin moisture. After I applied these to my face, my skin felt nice and soft. The only issue I found was that I'm extremely dry due to the weather. It's really cold at night here in the bay area, and I sort of need to have the heater on a lot because I'm cold blooded or something and just can't manage to produce enough body heat on my own. Due to that, my face drys up quickly. I think these products will be perfect for me on their own once it warms up. But for now, I think I need extra ampoule and oil to keep the moisture locked into my skin for a longer period of time. 

Overall, I give these two products 3/5. They do moisturize, so I like them. I don't think it's holy grail worthy, and I probably wont repurchase these. But I'll see how I feel about them come summer-time.

Until my next post,

♥ ciana 

[Sheet Mask Mini Review] Esfolio Volcanic Water Essense Mask

Taken from my instagram post:

How cute is this packaging?! It kinda makes me not want to open it up and use it. Says it contains vitamins from chaenomeles sinensis fruit extract and portulaca oleracea extract to increase skin elasticity and moisturization all while scoria water ingredient removes skin waste. the ingredients list is in korean so im slightly skeptical but whatever lets put this on my face.

The fragrance in this is light, kinda floral? I couldnt smell anything as the mask was on my face but you can smell it when you take it out of the packaging. The mask was very slimey in texture and really really wet. The cut of the mask is okay, its a little bit big on my cheeks and of course a little bit to small for my big forehead. I have maybe an inch of bare skin but I tend to have that a lot with sheet masks. #5headproblems 😞 Also, the tip of my nose isn't covered at all. There was a pretty decent amount of extra essence I was able to squeeze out however and put on my forehead/nose-tip and my neck. The adherence is really good as its really clinging to my face. 

The results:
This sheet mask was eh. It added a bit of moisture, yes. And my skin felt pretty supple and bouncy afterwards. But there was nothing that kind of wow'ed me. I did enjoy the cling from this mask. I wish I was able to keep it on for longer because maybe the effects would have been better and more noticeable. I left it on for 15 minutes as I was time-constrained the morning I did this.

Would I repurchase this? Maybe. I do want to see if the effects are more apparent when left on for a longer time, but since I have so many moisturizing masks in my stash, I'm not sure when that would be.


xo ciana

My very first post!

Hello there! (If anyone is actually reading this lol)

I'm going to start by giving you a quick breakdown of how I began my "Omg lets take care of my skin!" journey.

I live in the Bay Area (California) and this winter, the weather change from hot to cold dried the hell out of my skin. I noticed more and more every day how tired and dull my skin was looking. I had to take off my makeup after wearing it for an hour because it emphasized my flaky, patchy, and rough looking skin. I knew I needed to hydrate it. And I had a couple of skincare stuff from Ole Henriksen that I was currently using. Although the products were not bad, they didn't really help with my dryness. Which put me on the path to trying some more prestige skincare. I hopped on QVC. I bought Tatcha next, which.. is a brand I still really like and the camellia beauty oil helped a lot in the hydration department. It wasn't enough to have the oil though. So I bought the hydration kit along with a mask from Peter Thomas Roth, an eye cream, moisturizing cream/night cream duo, more moisturizer. I went a little crazy considering the prices. Thank you QVC for easy pay. My skin was getting slightly better. Not as flaky, but still pretty dull.

I think it might have been a sleepless night on pinterest searching skincare where I discovered a pin on the "top korean beauty products you didn't know existed" which directed me to Amazon. And low and behold, I purchased a couple of products that were reccomended in the pin. Cleansing Oil, and Essence. The first item to arrive at my doorstep was actually Missha's Time Revolution First Treatment Essense Intensive. And oh boy, after two days of using it morning and night with my already have products.. I was hooked. Since then I have bought most of my stuff from Amazon (my cleansing oil I originally purchased first is still on its way from Korea :/) along with a couple other websites which I have found through youtube. I think my new favorite thing to watch on youtube is reviews on korean products, and my favorite person to watch is definitely Morgan from thebeautybreakdown.net (p.s. check her out!! I adore her lol)

Anyway, I know for me when I first began and I was thinking of buying a product, I would google search for reviews and try to read as many as I can to decide whether or not I really wanted to buy the product. Its the reason for why I have the beginning of my skincare wardrobe if you will. (With an exception to sheet masks. I bought one and now I'll buy any sheet mask because I want to try them all lol.)

So this is why I decided to start my very own blog for my own reviews. For the person who has pretty normal to dry skin that also wants to brighten their complexion and have a youthful glow, who isn't quite sure whether or not they want the specific item that might be lingering in their cart. I'm your gal :)

xo

♥ ciana