Love Me Low [pH] & Gently: Make P:rem Safe Me Cleanser Review

You know what I should be doing daily? Washing my face with something other than puppy slobber and the occasional half-hearted swipe of BHA exfoliant on a cotton square. Somehow, though, that hasn't quite always worked out as I planned, much like my plans to raise a perfectly trained, polite dog that doesn't jump on people's faces to greet them and isn't plotting diabolical schemes to procure bits of steak on demand.

That had quite a bit to do with why I'm reviewing the Make P:rem Safe Me Relief Moisture Cleansing Foam, but I'll get to that shortly.

Sure it says it's pH 5.5, but is it really? We've been mislead and our wallets waylaid before.

As it turns out, puppy slobber can be pretty irritating, or perhaps it's just the combination of noncon puppy tongue baths + the winter elements when it's 11pm and -18C** and you're outside huddled in your jacket chanting "go potty, go potty" like some sort of scatologically-obsessed cult member. Wind chapping is no joke, I'd almost forgotten what real winter weather is like after a decade outside Canada.

**That's just below zero Fahrenheit for my non-metric peeps out there.

It turns out that skin savaged by winter like the twitterstorm that obliterated that article about the "skincare con", isn't thrilled about the application of products. Especially cleansers (even low pH ones) gamely trying to strip the last remnants of lubrication out of your moisture barrier.

While digging through my stash (much like my dog in our doomed garden, except with less mud and no eating of unknown objects) I realized I had a full tube of the Make P:rem Safe Me Relieving Moisture foaming cleanser waiting to be used. I had bought the full size after going through several sample sachets, and remembered liking its gentle, mild foam. It's also low pH (as proclaimed proudly on the packaging) and into my bathroom it went, standing like a lone, forlorn soldier against the tide of unholy bacteria no doubt marching across my face.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients
• Does it foam, though?
• Cleansing demo
• Overall thoughts

I suppose not everyone is as concerned with the qualifications and performance of their cleansers as I am, but everyone's got their kinks. Mine is for low pH cleansers that snuggle my skin's horny layer with soft suds and sultry scents, and I'm not ashamed. Let's roll!

Cosrx Low pH Gel Cleanser Review & Demo: My Acid Mantle is a Cheap Date

There's little not to like about the Cosrx Low pH Good Morning Gel Cleanser; it's low pH, it's cheap, it foams, and it comes in a huge tube.  I'm into that.  It's not a perfect product, but the flattened carcass of my current tube is a pretty eloquent testament on its own:

I've wrung every drop out of this tube.

It's also popped up in many routine post on my Instagram, in my Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types series, and in several posts.  I've been living the low pH life since diving into the studies on pH in Why the pH of Your Cleanser Matters back in 2014, but low pH is just the first criteria needed to earn a spot on my sink.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients & gel 1st cleanser demo
• Review & foaming 2nd cleanser demo

After I had to engage a bunch of whacking, flapping, squeezing, and scraping to get it out, I realized that I was rapidly running out of product with which to photograph for a review.  Time to get it done!

Skincare SOS: My Recovery Routine When I've Been Bad

I'm in the dermal doghouse.  My skin is in crisis: dry and greasy, flakes everywhere, clogged pores overrun with sebaceous filaments & blackheads, dull & uneven texture, every wrinkle in sharp relief, and coated in a disgusting shell of dead skin mixed with sebum and who knows what else.   I'm sorry, skin; I know I've done you wrong.

Today, as I apologized to my skin for neglecting it for ... weeks, really, it occurred to me that rather than reviewing the cleanser I was about to use in my "bringing my skin back from exile" routine, I should talk about that instead.  So today's post is all about how to bring skin back from the brink of despair.

Farewell, lovely things on the right, until this skincare penance is over.

Obviously, everyone's skin is different, and what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, but it's not the specific products which are important, but their function, so anything that fills that role will work!

In this post:

• Routine to recover from long-term neglect; illness, depression, or skincare ennui
• Cleansing, re-balancing, and dealing with breakouts
• Products I avoid while I'm nursing my skin back to health

As tempting as it is to go hard with every problem solver in your Skincare Wardrobe to bring your skin up to speed, resist the urge for instant gratification.  It will only bring woe-- and breakouts, more flakes, and possibly permanent damage.  We're playing the long game, and patience will be rewarded.

Glossier Milky Jelly Cleanser Review: We Tried, But It's Time to Break Up

Yep, that's right, a review of the low pH non-foaming Milky Jelly cleanser from Glossier.  Your eyes do not deceive you; this is a non-K-Beauty, non-Asian product, despite my overall efforts to keep my blog content consistent.  I do try, and use, western products regularly, I just rarely post about them.  Since I'm all about that low pH cleanser life, and this cleanser was getting good reviews from other K-Beauty fans, it's been on my radar for quite a while.

We're visiting family out of state, who are bemused at me hauling around a giant white table top for photos.

While hemming and hawing over whether to grab it, my fellow Snailcaster Tracy of Fanserviced-b offered to send me a bottle since she had some spare store credit, I thought, why not?  Let's see what the fuss is about.  Now that I'm almost halfway through the bottle, it's time for a review!

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients & thoughts on the hype
• Demo as a dry & wet (first and second) cleanser vs double cleansing
• What I'd rather use instead

This review is going to be fairly photo heavy, because I had to pack a lot of stuff to work on this review while we were out of state for the long weekend and then felt obligated to use it, haha.

Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask Review: Tested & Detested

Mid-week is the perfect time for a mini-review of the famous Elizavecca Milky Piggy Carbonated Bubble Clay Mask.  (Update: my word counter tells me that "mini" review is a lie.  Eh, everything's relative!)  This mask is old news; it's a classic example of skincaretainment, and the product is more well-known for its entertainment value than the actual effects on the skin.  That's partly why I've avoided it until now, but it's summer and my skin is a slimy mess in this humidity so it's very ready for an occasional clay mask.  Why not one that inflates into a comically wide cloud of foam while on your face, making you look like a pixar character while doing double duty of first cleansing and clay mask style deep pore cleansing all in one go?

There is an inner jar lid/seal to keep air from reacting to the product.

Sounds too good to be true, right?  Plus, lots of people have used this mask, including fellow Snailcast podcaster Fifty Shades of Snail, so I purchased a jar of it and give it a try.  Then I dropped all irritants out of my routine and tried it again.  Sometimes, you have to just have to hurt yourself twice to confirm something is bad news.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients
• What it did to my face
• What I'd rather use instead

Before using this mask the second time, I skipped anything that would compromise my moisture barrier for at least a week: no acid exfoliants, no manual exfoliants, no tretinoin, nothing to weaken my skin barrier or make me more sensitive.  I wanted to make sure there was no chance the culprit was just piling clay on top of sensitive skin.  Unfortunately, it still left my skin screaming for mercy and I smothered its cries with snail gel to recover.

Hada Labo Gokujyun Foaming Cleanser vs Medicean ER Nature Cleanser Review: Low pH & Fun-Free

It's taken me a long time to review the Hada Labo Gokujyun Super Hyaluronic Acid Foaming Wash, and not for interesting reasons.  It's hard to write reviews of unremarkable products-- sometimes products are really good or really bad, but most of the time, they're just bland.  Such is the case with the two self-foaming cleansers that I'm reviewing today as my newest "Dirge of Duds" post.

This outdoor image brought to you by SPF 50+ PA+++ sunscreen.

Ironically, my last Dirge of Duds post (linked above) also featured a Hada Labo product, but unlike the Hada Labo Gokujyun Hyaluronic Lotion which I actively disliked, I actually emptied the entire bottle of the cleanser, which is a pretty amazing feat considering that I've got a lot of cleansers in my rotation.  Part of it was just determination to empty a cleanser so I could purchase something fun that excited me more, and part of it was that it was an easy sell for my husband's nascent skincare routine, being both utilitarian and unoffensive.

Still, both of these cleansers were so boring that they added to, instead of mitigated, my ennui towards cleansing and that resulted in me skipping my routine more often than I'd like to admit.  I purchased these with the intention to try a very famous cleanser (the Hada Labo is a favourite of adoredee and many others) and to compare it against a similar Korean product (the Medicean) which was a relatively rare animal-- an openly low-pH Korean cleanser.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients
• pH results
• How they compare
• Final thoughts

Before we jump in, I'd like to take a moment and remind people that skincare doesn't work the same way for everyone; many people don't care about Skincaretainment and just want their products to do the thing they're supposed to do.  I'm just jaded and can't get it up for bland products these days-- I need my products to motivate me to drag my exhausted backside into the bathroom and start my routine.

Both of the cleansers work just fine, and they're good options for beginner cleansers, which is why the Hada Labo cleanser appeared in my Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types series, which details 4 really simple beginner routines with only 5 products for a variety of skin types.  I just need excitement in my bathroom, and not the kind that evokes dead grandmothers and ignores safewords.

Sulwhasoo Herbal Soap Review: The Day I Hanbanged Too Hard

It's finally happened.  I've always been one of those reckless, flirt-with-danger, no-such-thing-as-too-hanbang, hanbang-me-harder types.  There are so many proverbs and fables that warn of this foolhardy approach, but I didn't pay any attention, seeking greater hanbang highs with every product, until it all culminated in traumatizing regret.  I'm talking about the venus flytrap of Hanbang products, the Sulwhasoo Herbal Soap set.  Don't be fooled by it's comely appearance; this product has no concept of boundary limits or safewords.

It looks so pretty, so enticing, so ... innocent.

It was only a matter of time before it happened, to be honest.  My endless thirst toward all things Hanbang is even something I'm known for; the Hanbang tag on my blog is a deep, deep rabbit hole ... the kind that smells of rich earth and ginseng.  Hanbang (한방) is traditional Korean herbal medicine, and has its roots in TCM (traditional Chinese herbal medicine) but with its own local herbs and fermentation-heavy preparation methods.  Many people aren't into the intensely herbal scents of Hanbang, but dried herbs, teas, and tinctures were all forms of torture commonplace during my childhood and I find the herbal notes in Hanbang products an irresistible alternative to the sickly-sweet synthetic florals that pervade most K-Beauty products I've tried.

In this post:

• Regrets

Also includes: product details & ingredients, but mostly regrets.  Also, this review is going to be firmly NSFW so if you're unamused by concepts like safewords being used in a humorous context, turn away, this is not the review you are looking for.

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #4 - Normal, Hyperpigmented, & Aging Kit

The last post of the Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types series is here!

This week's kit is in honour of my mother-in-law (and aunt-in-law) who I've been slowly luring into K-Beauty over the years-- she had a nonexistent routine and a very unfussy approach to self-care, so it's been all about baby steps.  That is, until she realized the products I've been gifting her have been fading the sun/dark/age spots she's started to develop in the last few years, and now she's on board.  I'm now working on my aunt-in-law; soon she too will be serum-ing and sheet masking with abandon! *shakes determined fist at the sky*

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

As a reminder, the products and routines in this series are actual routines and care packages that I've put together for actual real people (not usually all at once) as gifts or recommendations if they've expressed interest in my hobby.  I am not a medical professional and I am not 'recommending' things as a treatment for others; this is me letting you all behind the scenes into what I personally gave as gifts, etc, for personal friends and family.

In this series:

All starter kits will feature 5 items or less, what they're for, and how to use them.  All lovingly selected with thought and care, because when I make kits for my friends and family, it's a box o' love.  Obviously not everything works for everyone, patch testing is necessary, etc etc.  (Two weeks between new products!)  These are just my personal picks.

• Starter Kit # 1: My college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 2: My college-age friend with dry, stressed skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 3: My mother's sensitive, dehydrated, aging skin kit (link here)
• Starter Kit # 4: My mother-in-law's normal, hyperpigmented, aging kit (you are here!)

• Bonus Kit if I haven't thrown myself off a cliff from creating all these visual (yes, visual) kits:  My personal kit if my house burned down and I had to start over with nothing but Amazon gift cards, which won't be simple, less than 5 items, or anything else straightforward.  No promises. Done! K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

Once these posts are live, I will link them above.  Done! As I mentioned in the original post, these items will be from Amazon for accessibility reasons as a counterpoint to the more internationally-focused From Beginner to Expert Mode: Where I Buy K-Beauty & Asian Cosmetics post.  K-Beauty should be accessible and affordable for everyone; it might have a steeper learning curve at first but it's not a pretentious, elitist thing and there's options for everyone no matter your taste or budget.

Accessibility is an ongoing theme in discussions with the podcasters of The Snailcast and my decision to create this series inspired by the amazing K-Beauty routine that Tracy of Fanserviced-b posted for normal skin types, which you can check out here: Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon.

My mother-in-law has normal, non-reactive skin that does not require any products to stay balanced; she has been doing a simple soap-wash-in-the-shower for years and only started exploring skincare when I explained it could help fade the hyperpigmentation spots she was getting from a lifetime of not using sunscreen.

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #3 - Sensitive, Dehydrated & Aging Skin Type

Today's post is the third kit in my Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types series, which is a 4-part set of ultra-simple, 5-product 'starter kits' I've put together for the K-Beauty fans-to-be in my life-- by that I mean my hapless friends and family members who I am attempting to convert to The Way of the Snail.

This week's kit is especially near and dear to my heart, because it's the kit I put together for my mom, who is the apple (of wisdom) of my eye, and who I've sadly been unable to see much in the last almost-decade, seeing as I hied off to a foreign country thousands of miles away.  If I cannot shower her with love and affection in person, then by golly I'm going to shower love (and beauty products) on her from afar, with care packages selected with love and padded with wistful longing.

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

 As a quick reminder, the care packages from this series are actual care packages that I've put together for real people, based off their skin type.  I am not recommending any of these items as a 'treatment' for any skin type or condition; this is just me sharing the personal mini routines I've put together for friends and family.

In this series:

All starter kits will feature 5 items or less, what they're for, and how to use them.  All lovingly selected with thought and care, because when I make kits for my friends and family, it's a box o' love.  Obviously not everything works for everyone, patch testing is necessary, etc etc.  These are just my personal picks.

• Starter Kit # 1: My college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 2: My college-age friend with dry, stressed skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 3: My mother's sensitive, dehydrated, aging skin kit (you are here!)
• Starter Kit # 4: My mother-in-law's normal, hyperpigmented, aging kit (link here)

• Bonus Kit if I haven't thrown myself off a cliff from creating all these visual (yes, visual) kits:  My personal kit if my house burned down and I had to start over with nothing but Amazon gift cards, which won't be simple, less than 5 items, or anything else straightforward.  No promises. Done! K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

Once these posts are live, I will link them here.  Done!  As I mentioned in the original post, these items will be from Amazon for accessibility reasons as a counterpoint to the more internationally-focused From Beginner to Expert Mode: Where I Buy K-Beauty & Asian Cosmetics post.  Accessibility is an ongoing theme in discussions with the podcasters of The Snailcast and my decision to create this series was kicked off by by the straightforward & complete K-Beauty routine that Tracy of Fanserviced-b posted for normal skin types, which you can check out here: Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon.

This routine was made for my mother's aging, dehydrated, sensitive skin and as it's made for my mom, it's heavily Hanbang (aka traditional Korean herbal medicine) focused, because that's what I am the most excited for her to try.

Boyah Shop Korean Buying Service Review + Haul of Hanbang & Sheet Masks

I use Korean buying services a lot, probably more than your average K-Beauty fan, for reasons ranging from "I'm a spreadsheet nerd who likes to min/max my costs for the best deal" to "I'm dangerously close to being a K-Beauty hipster looking for the next obscure thing" to "I like putting weird things on my face."  I've used 3 Korean buying services to date, and liked all of them, and today I'm going to review Boyah Shop.  I'm also going to post some haul photos, as peeps requested on my Instagram.

My buying service order has arrived! My heart sank when I saw a giant leak or possible rain damage on the box, worrying that my preciouses might be damaged. But thanks to the stellar packing skills of @boyahshopkr, my products were safely sealed away from what turned out to be massive rain damage.😱☔💧💧💧 I also received a sweet note and I'm a little 😭❤😭 over how amazing this service is. I'm not even sure if I want to write about it on my blog, because I don't want her to be buried in an avalanche of thirsty #kbeauty fans looking for their buying service fix (RIP @Dowaja, you were not long in this world), but spoilers: this buying service is amazing. AH-MAZ-ING. I just ... I can't even. The responsiveness, the customer service, the cute ... so cute. A++++ 😍😍😍 I need to find something I want just so I can use her service again and bask in the cute. 😍😍😍 (in addition to great service, obvs) Working with her is like hugging a pile of kittens, but without allergies involved. #koreanbeauty #koreanbuyingservice #hanbang #haul #cremorlab #jungsaemmool #sheetmasks #snailunit #rasianbeauty

A photo posted by Snow White and the Asian Pear (@snowwhiteandtheasianpear) on Mar 14, 2016 at 3:44pm PDT

I suppose the caption of this is a bit of a spoiler, heh.

In this post:

• How a buying service works
• What Boyah Shop offers
• My experience with the ordering process
• What I bought
• Would I recommend their service

Also featuring some gratuitous unboxing photos of my goodies, because that's how I roll.

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #2 - Dry & Stressed Skin Type

Here's the second installment of my Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types series, where I share the actual suggestions/gift selections/starter care packages I have selected for 4 real people as their beginner's intro to Korean beauty products.

Historically, I've avoided recommending specific products for my readers (and still do) as I'm not licensed to be giving skincare advice and I'm very adverse to veering into Dr. Internet territory, but I realized that even though I can't recommend products to people, I can share the products that I've assembled as starter packages for K-Beauty beginners in my life.  By that I mean my family and friends who continually get beauty products for their birthdays and holiday gifts as I attempt to get them hooked on the good stuff.  I'll get my mother into snails one of these days, mark my words!

This week I will be sharing Starter Kit #2, which was for a college-age friend with dry, stressed skin who needed something simple that would give her a huge boost in moisturization without interrupting her studying and would also soothe her skin.

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how much people seemed to like the first kit (link here: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #1 - Oily & Acne-Prone Skin Type) but as fellow Snailcaster Fiddy of Fifty Shades of Snail pointed out, sometimes it's easy for skincare nerds like us to forget that not everyone is a skincare hobbyist.  (I actually wrote an entire post about having skincare as a hobby, in fact!)   I tend to shy away from simple, because the endless possibilities in customization is what excites me about K-Beauty, but it's a good reminder that not everyone feels that way!

Making K-Beauty more accessible is something The Snailcast discusses quite a bit (our podcast episodes frequently touch on this topic as a recurring theme) and this series was inspired by the excellent example routine that Tracy of Fanserviced-b posted: Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon for normal skin types.

In this series:

All starter kits will feature 5 items or less, what they're for, and how to use them.  All lovingly selected with thought and care, because when I make kits for my friends and family, it's a box o' love.  Obviously not everything works for everyone, patch testing is necessary, etc etc.  These are just my personal picks.

• Starter Kit # 1: My college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 2: My college-age friend with dry, stressed skin (you are here!)
• Starter Kit # 3: My mother's sensitive, dehydrated, aging skin kit (link here)
• Starter Kit # 4: My mother-in-law's normal, hyperpigmented, aging kit (link here)

• Bonus Kit if I haven't thrown myself off a cliff from creating all these visual (yes, visual) kits:  My personal kit if my house burned down and I had to start over with nothing but Amazon gift cards, which won't be simple, less than 5 items, or anything else straightforward.  No promises. Done! K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

Once these posts are live, I will link them here.  Done!  As I mentioned in the original post, these items will be from Amazon for accessibility reasons as a counterpoint to the more internationally-focused From Beginner to Expert Mode: Where I Buy K-Beauty & Asian Cosmetics post.

Time for soothing skincare!

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kit #1 - Oily & Acne-Prone Skin Type

Earlier this week I mentioned that I was going to be doing a series of K-Beauty Starter Kits, which sounds all fancy and deliberate, when in fact it's a matter of me telling you all about actual starter routines that I have given (or recommended) to real, live people.  Although I still can't recommend a product for you, nor can I give you specific advice as I would need a license for either, I can, and I am, going to share with you the care packages I have made for family and friends to introduce them to K-Beauty.

I want to get them hooked on my skincare obsession, but beginners want a routine that looks like the leftmost routine in the background of this image, not the rightmost:

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

As I mentioned in the last post, this idea was inspired by the discussions The Snailcast has been mulling over on how difficult it is to simplify something that is endlessly customizable.  Tracy of Fanserviced-b posted a fantastic Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon, and I hope to build on that by giving examples of starter routines I have given actual people.

Let me recap last week's post explaining how came to a place where I'm comfortable with talking specifics, since that's a thin line:

I still can't make recommendations for you.  (No, seriously, I can't.  No blogger can.)  But, if you'd like to see what I would personally select and put into a "routine in a box" for my personal friends and family members who are interested in this skincare obsession of mine but can't be bothered with all the research and customization and ordering things from Korea.  I can hear my mother now: "This is too fussy, I'd rather just mix up simple things in my kitchen." NO, mom!  Not unless you actually have a background in science when you're DIYing skincare like Chel of Holysnails, please just ... let me send you some stuff.  In a box.  You don't even have to do any work, just use them in the order I put on the letter, ok? 

Then I realized ... if I can pick things to put in a box for my mother and others, and in fact have already done so, why can't I share them with my readers?  After all, I am not recommending that people buy these products to treat a skin condition, I'm just sharing what would go in my care package for that person, based on their general skin type, needs, and most importantly, are simple.  All of the kits will have 5 items or less!

Lemme tell you right now, the 5 item limit is tough when a routine can easily have 15-20 steps in it.  I am determined to stick to it, though, because although are limitless places that you can take your customization, it's good to start simple first.

In this series:

All starter kits will feature 5 items or less, what they're for, and how to use them.  All lovingly selected with thought and care, because when I make kits for my friends and family, it's a box o' love.  Obviously not everything works for everyone, patch testing is necessary, etc etc.  These are just my personal picks.

• Starter Kit # 1: My college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin (you are here!)
• Starter Kit # 2: My college-age friend with dry, stressed skin (link here)
• Starter Kit # 3: My mother's sensitive, dehydrated, aging skin kit (link here)
• Starter Kit # 4: My mother-in-law's normal, hyperpigmented, aging kit (link here)

• Bonus Kit if I haven't thrown myself off a cliff from creating all these visual (yes, visual) kits:  My personal kit if my house burned down and I had to start over with nothing but Amazon gift cards, which won't be simple, less than 5 items, or anything else straightforward.  No promises. Done! K-Beauty on Amazon: Rebuilding a 15+ Step Routine if My Stash Caught on Fire

Once these posts are live, I will link them here.  Done!  As I mentioned in the original post, these items will be from Amazon for accessibility reasons as a counterpoint to the more internationally-focused From Beginner to Expert Mode: Where I Buy K-Beauty & Asian Cosmetics post.

Let's get going with the first one, for my college-age friend with oily, acne-prone skin!

Beginner Friendly: Simple K-Beauty Starter Kits for 4 Skin Types

I meant this to be one megapost, but as it grew longer and longer and the delay was getting longer and longer, I realized it was better for me to break this up into a small series of posts, and get this show on the road!  This post is meant to be a follow-up/expansion post on Fanserviced-b's fantastic post Easy Starter K-Beauty Skincare Routine for $100 on Amazon-- and in fact the podcasters at The Snailcast have been chatting lately about the struggle to simplify what is, at it's heart, capable of infinite complexity.  Actually, that's why we like it!

K-Beauty is like cooking; there's so many ingredients (products) and ways to use them to suit your taste.  Sometimes that can get a little frustrating for people like us who are trying to help, because answering "how do I cook" doesn't really have a simple answer, right?

Cooking can be simple, or it can be complex, and K-Beauty is the same.  It can be either, like these two examples:

Left: simple. Right: eeeeek!  Both are examples of the daily routines I post on Instagram.

The problem with answering "what should I buy?" and it's variants such as: "I bought this list of products, what do you think?" and "Here's my cart of items, are they good?" and "What do you recommend for acne/aging/hyperpigmentation?" is that we quite simply can't.  As in, legally can't.

On the other hand, learning does require a progression from "simple to complex."  How to make it simple?  Tracy's post outlined a simple, fun, and inexpensive routine for normal, non-sensitive, non-troubled skin, and kept things wonderfully simple and beginner-friendly.  So what's the next step, without getting too complex?   As we were discussing all this last weekend, I realized that I had made similar "K-Beauty Starter Kit" recommendations to friends and family members, including care packages with a simple starter routine.

Aha!  Lightbulb flash!  Could I share these starter kit boxes with people, since it's not specific advice?  Why not?

Lazy Morning Staple: Su:m37 Skin Saver Cleansing Water Review

If you follow me on Instagram, where I often post my daily routines, you may have noticed that the Su:m37 Skin Saver Essential Cleansing Water has been featured pretty heavily lately.  After I realized that I had only used my favourite foaming cleanser of 2015 just once in the last two weeks, because I had been reaching for this cleansing water every day, I figured it was high time I reviewed it!

Mmm, this packaging.  The opalescence of the bottle cap is so hard to capture!

This is the third cleansing water I've tried to date, and so far, I like it best of the three although I'm not passionately in love with it- hence why it did not make it onto the 2015 in Review: My Favourite K-Beauty Products of 2015 list.

That's not to say that it's merely the best of the available evils; I quite like this, and it's been my "dear saint snail I'm freezing my ass off and my bathroom is cold as hell and I don't want to wash my face because the chance of getting water on myself is too damn high" cleanser of choice.  It's also my "there had better be coffee when I sloth out of this bathroom like Jabba the Hut" cleanser, and my "I can't feel my fingers" cleanser, and also my "I've lost fine motor control functions because I'm wearing 8 layers to stay warm" cleanser.  It's the first real winter I've experienced after 8 years in the desert, and needless to say, I'm feelin' it.  Especially in the morning, when I look like one of those "before and after coffee" memes and I try to walk through walls and doors that have somehow leapt out to obstruct my path. Jerks.

So if you're like me and you 1. hate mornings in general, 2. hate cold mornings especially, and 3. can't manage to wash your face without splashing water all over yourself, cleansing waters are great.

In this post:

• Product details
• What is a micellar/cleansing water?
• Ingredients
• Packaging
• Demonstration
• Final thoughts & why I like it

I'm going to demonstrate this product's ability to remove makeup as some people use it as a first cleanser/makeup remover, but that's really not what I use it for.  I use it as a gentle, convenient, super-quick AM cleanse for mornings where I am super lazy and/or hate the world and everything in it because I haven't had coffee yet.

2015 in Review, Part I: My Favourite K-Beauty Products of 2015

This year has been definitely been an exciting time for K-Beauty and Asian beauty product fans; long-time fans have seen what was originally a grassroots niche become mainstream.  We've seen the advent of products carried in Sephora, Amazon, and other major retailers, regularly featured in major magazines like Vogue and Allure, and even book releases on the subject- K-Beauty and AB (Asian beauty products) has really come into its own this year, and it's the time of year for 'best of' posts, so here's mine!

The amazing scent of this wreath makes up for the needles everywhere.  Mostly.

There will be two parts to this post, the first a light-hearted rundown of products, and the second a more reflective discussion of the themes, concepts, tips, trends, etc, of 2015.

In this post: Favourite Products of 2015

• Favourite Cleansers of 2015

• Favourite First cleanser

• Favourite Foaming Cleanser

• Favourite Travel Cleanser

• Favourite Cleansing Tool & Honourable Mention

• Favourite Acne & Anti-Aging Products of 2015

• Favourite Skincare of 2015

• Favourite Toner

• Favourite Essences

• Favourite Serum

• Favourite Cream (and overall top pick for 2015!)

• Favourite Sheet Masks

• Favourite Sunscreen

• Favourite Makeup of 2015

• Favourite Base Makeup

• Favourite Lip Product

The more serious-toned Part II is here: 2015 in Review, Part II: My Favourite K-Beauty Tips, Concepts, & Trends of 2015, and includes:

• K-Beauty goes mainstream: does it have to be Korean to be K-Beauty?
• The most influential concepts of 2015
• Healthy habits: things I adopted and let go of in 2015, for the better
• Top tips from 2015: things that made my life easier
• Trends I loved in 2015 and will continue to love in 2016

It should go without saying that this is just my personal list of top picks; please don't be offended if your favourite isn't here!  This year has seen a lot of interesting developments beyond just the products, so rather than just focus on the tangible products, I'll also be giving a shout-out to the intangible developments that excited me the most in Part II- now finished and linked above.

Powder Cleanser Comparison Review: Tosowoong, O'slee, Su:m37, & Tatcha

As I've mentioned before, it's really easy to write reviews of products that you either loved or hated, but it's harder to write about things which are simply mediocre.  Those bland reviews still have value, even if there's little to say about them, so I like to knock out a few at a time and compare them to other products if possible.

Today I'll be doing a comparison review of 4 powder cleansers I've used, and why only one of them has a spot in my cleanser wardrobe.

Secret weapon to create better foam with powder cleansers: konjac sponge or foaming net!

Powder cleansers are relatively new to me (as in, the last year or so), but I became interested in them when I discovered that many of them are actually low-pH as well as being super fun to use.  Since my dive into the research behind low-pH skincare was so compelling as to convince me to give up my old HG cleanser, I've been on a bit of a mission to find cleanser options that thrilled me in addition to being low-pH, since that's simply not enough on its own.

In this post:

• What is a powder cleanser?
• Tosowoong Enzyme Powder Wash review
• O'slee Rosehip Hydra-White Cleansing Powder review
• Su:m37 White Award Enzyme Powder wash review
• Tatcha Polished Rice Enzyme Powder review (sorta)

Before we jump in, I'd like to remind folks that skincare is the ultimate YMMV (your mileage may vary) so what worked best or worst for me is totally dependent on my skin and experience, and it doesn't necessarily mean that your skin will react the same way.

Let's do this!

What's In My Skincare Wardrobe: Cleanser Edition

One of the ongoing themes that I've been championing for a while, and it's also favoured by other diehard Asian skincare devotees with serious skincare stashes, is the 'Skincare Wardrobe'; the idea that you can have a 'closet' of options to select from rather than wearing everything all at once.

This week, I'm going to be featuring the cleansers currently in my 'Wardrobe', because I have ... 7 cleansers (+1 I am testing, for a total of 8) currently on rotation and they all see regular use.  Shocking, I know!  But would it be so strange to have 8 different styles of shirts, ranging from tank tops to winter sweaters?  Nope.  Hence, the concept of the 'Skincare Wardrobe', and we're going to peek into my cleanser 'closet' today.

So many cleansers!  Can you really use them all?  Spoilers: yes.

Last week in The Painful Path to K-Beauty Wisdom: 7 Mistakes Beginners Make, under the section 'Buying 'cult' products that don't suit your skin type', I mentioned this concept again:

I look at my products as a 'wardrobe' of options; I may have items in my closet ranging from bathing suits to winter coats, but that doesn't mean I'm going to wear every piece of clothing I own at once.  However, having a range of skincare options is actually a good thing, in my opinion, because it populates your wardrobe with options that you can mix and match depending on the 'weather' that day.

This is a really important concept to keep in mind when you're reading tall tales of the supposed number of products used in an Asian skincare routine; even routines I have posted, such as the Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine: Winter/Spring 2015, Part II: Current Products, featured a staggering 30 products in its lineup:

Image from: Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine: Winter/Spring 2015

Sure, it looks like a lot.  The thing is, real routines don't actually look like that; if you check out my Instagram, you'll see typical AM and PM routines that I actually use, on a daily basis.

Here's a random selection of two AM routines, one featuring body lotion, and a PM routine complete with a mask pack:

Left to right: AM routine ft a sheet mask, AM routine ft body care, and PM routine ft mask pack.

As you can see, there are some consistent products, but even though I didn't deliberately pick these to illustrate my point (I only realized after I had collaged them together, haha) these routines all use different cleansers, which makes them perfect for today's post.  (Gotta love that serendipity.)  There's a pump-foamed cleanser, a cleansing water, and a foam-with-water cleanser.  They're all part of my Skincare Wardrobe, and I pull them out on different occasions.

That doesn't mean that I use it as an excuse to have a million things open at once, so there's no hope of using them before they expire, but it does meant that I have the flexibility to customize my daily routine to perfectly suit my skin's needs that day, and that's what the multi-step Asian skincare hype is all about, in my opinion.  Customization for the win!

In this post:

• Cleansing waters
• Cleansing wipes
• Oil, balm, cream, and gel oil cleansers
• Cleansing powders
• Self-foaming cleansers
• Water-soluble foaming cleansers

I will also mention, before we jump in, that all of my cleansers are low pH.  pH is just one of the considerations that goes into my choice of cleansers- as you're going to see from all the rejects I've 'purged' from my closet like outdated shirts and ratty jeans.

Beginner Friendly Korean Buying Service: A Dowaja Review

Today's post is going to feature some of my favourite things: snails, hanbang, pH testing, sheet masks, nerdiness, spreadsheets, and buying services.  Also lots of haul eyecandy of all of the above.

The haul in all it's "please don't start raining until after I finish this photo" glory.

There's no haul quite as special as a buying service haul; when your grabby hands get a hold of goodies that would otherwise never be within your reach.  The thrill of trying new, strange things is something I'm absolutely addicted to, and buying services help me supply that habit.

In this post:

• Korean buying service 101
• A sad update
• My experience with Dowaja vs other buying services
• The goods: what I bought, where I bought it, and what it cost
• Final thoughts

I had to call in a complaint on my new USPS delivery person to get it, but this haul is finally here and there's snails, hanbang, pH strips, and sample swag waiting.  Let's do this!

Dirge of Duds: Reviews of Mizon Almighty Cold Cream, Acence Blemish Control Gel, & Good Night White Sleeping Mask

This week I'm going to be doing something a little different, because different is interesting and St. Snail knows I need "interesting" to get through this backlog of products that need review.  Why the backlog?  Because they bored me.

It's really easy to write reviews of things that you either loved or hated, but it's a lot harder to review things that are on the scale of "didn't really like it" to "sorta bland."  I can summon the burning fires of bloggerly rage about things that my skin violently rejected, but mediocre is tough!

Today's batch of boring products: Mizon edition

Then I feel guilty for being so behind on reviewing things long since discarded or even emptied, but I can't bring myself to spend all weekend writing about something that doesn't interest me.  So here's the Dirge of Duds: a series of mini-reviews to clear the backlog of products that I mildly disliked, felt ambivalent about, tolerated, or had tepid feelings about them one way or the other.

In this post:

• Mizon Acence Blemish Control Soothing Gel Cream Review
• Mizon Good Night White Sleeping Mask Review
• Mizon Almighty Cold Cream Cleansing & Massage Review

I'll be providing details, ingredients lists, and brief thoughts about each.  Onward to slay the Dragon of Dullness!

Low pH & High Luxury: Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Cleansing Foam Review

I'm current locked in an epic struggle between our cross-country moving company, the city permit office, and our local moving company; it's throwing me off my blogging game as I try not to throw myself off a cliff.  It's difficult.  People things need to be thrown and I need to throw them.

But I'm taking a moment to unglue my phone from my cheek and stop rage-throwing things to unveil a new low pH foaming cleanser contender: the (unsurprisingly) luscious Sulwhasoo Snowise EX Cleansing Foam.

Sulwhasoo: when even samples are fancy

One of the things that I really appreciate about Korean products is how readily available they are in sample sizes, at least compared to traditional western offerings.  That's how I stumbled across this low-pH cleanser hidden in my stash; I was packing my stash for the move, and my pH strips were handy.

If you are new to the low pH cleanser life, click here to read about Why the pH of your cleanser matters.  But low pH cleansers are rare and hard to formulate, leaving very few options that are enjoyable to use.

In this post:

• Product details
• How well does it foam?
• Ingredients list
• Final thoughts

As you can see, I have yet to purchase this in full size, although I do have a heck of a lot of samples; and at 4ml per pouch, I've managed to snag myself a good amount of product without committing to a full size.