A Year of Surprises & The End of the K-Beauty Decade

This year has been a plot twist that I never saw coming. Yes, this is happening: a post, on my blog, shambling out of a dusty corner of empties and snarled with torn webbing of sheetmask silk.

Even though this year has been non-stop and the most transformative and momentous period of the decade for me, I couldn't let this year pass without an update +  some thoughts about the past and future of K-Beauty.

The pacific northwest is so much more beautiful than any photo can convey.

Many of you have sent me messages and emails asking what I've been up to, why I haven't been posting, and if I'm going to be posting again. Here it is, and this year has been wild.

In this post:

• What I've been doing instead of blogging aka "The Year Life Yanked Me Out of One Timeline and Shoved Me Into a Totally Different One"

• What hooked me on K-Beauty & why my loins are no longer aflame about it

• What soured me on the K-Beauty scene & beauty blogging

• Where I think K-Beauty is going in the next decade if it lasts

Have you ever had the experience of having the next, say, 5-10 years of your life plotted out, and you're minding your own business, living day to day, and then suddenly, something happens that snatches you up by the nose hairs and hurls you, metaphorical pants around ankles, into a completely new reality?

(Seriously, drop me a comment if you have had this happen to you. Because, wtf, man.)

4 Minute Morning: My Quick 6-Step K-Beauty Routine

How long does it take to do a multi-step Korean beauty product routine? A lot less time than I thought, as it turns out. Gone are the old days of lazy 20+ minute AM routines, where I could leisurely apply layers of products between answering emails and sipping my coffee.

My AM routine now consists of potty dancing in front of my mirror as I slap on products while my puppy chirps and whines to be let out of her crate. It's easy to slap on a bunch of products as fast as possible, but it's trickier to have them absorb in time for your sunscreen to safely adhere to your face.

It's fast, it's fervent, it's done on a full bladder: it's my 3 minute and 47 second K-Beauty morning routine

It's also as hot and humid AF right now, which means my sunscreen wants to slide into my eyes as soon as I step out the door, resulting in me staggering around my yard trying to wipe my burning, streaming eyes like a freshly maced frat boy. I need my products in place and locked down against the summer heat, and that's a lot harder to do in the time it takes for the puppy to lose patience and start chewing her bed.

In this post:

• It's all in the timing; a simple change made a big difference
• Which 6 steps are necessities
• A full face with +2 minutes extra

Trying to get all this stuff done in stages, in between her AM potty break and AM playtime, just wasn't working for me. Instead of popping outside in a hat, doing the thing, and zipping back indoors for my next step, anything less than a fully ready face resulted in me chasing her around the yard trying to dig rocks, sticks, and occasionally my shoe out of her mouth, without sun protection. Hat + chasing down a speedy tinydog = unplanned sun exposure.

Necessity was the mother of inventing a workable AM routine so fast I decided to time it to see just how long it took for me to roll out the door, ready for puppy potty & playtime in the summer sun.

Take My Money: Swatches, Sulwhasoo Balancing Water First Impressions, & Beautytap Review

You know those shops that you always have on your radar, yet somehow never purchase from? That was me with Beautytap (née W2Beauty); it's been around for years, quietly part of the Korean-based shop landscape, a site I'd often check for new releases but ultimately bail on my cart, usually due to the high price tags and lack of distinction from the many other options I had for buying K-Beauty.

That changed when W2Beauty changed; all of a sudden they started doing smart things like bringing on top K-Beauty bloggers (like Coco Park of The Beauty Wolf and Sheryll of The Wanderlust Project) for their new Editorial section. Instead of the usual thinly veiled "advertorial" in-house blogs run by shops to shill their wares, they started publishing original content that was good, written by people who knew what they were talking about.

W2Beauty was always legit, but once it turned into Beautytap it seriously upped its game, and I started plotting out my second order before I even received the first.

Once this SWS water went on sale, it was tiiiiiiime

They also hired people who knew K-Beauty; they brought on Fiddy Snails (of Fifty Shades of Snail and The Snailcast podcast) who unleashed terrible things upon the unsuspecting K-Beauty community, like daily flash sales of fancy products that gave me flares of grabby-handitis and made my wallet weep.

All sorts of products that I'd regulated to the "if I ever won the lottery" wishlist are now regularly appearing in their daily deals, and I need Snesus because they're trying to kill me.

This was some friendly fire, y'all.

In this post:

• Am I affiliated with Beautytap?
• Shopping experience: pros, cons, & why I'll continue to shop there
• Swatch & first impressions: Peripera Ink Airy Velvet #10 Dry Rose Brown
• Swatch & first impressions: Sulwhasoo Essential Balancing Water EX

You might wonder why I'd bother doing something as old-hat as a haul post/shop review, but 1. the world always needs more swatches, and 2. there's a lot more to say about a haul from Beautytap that I definitely want to cover. Plus, hanbang. Haaaannnbaaaangggg.

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!

First Impressions & Swatches: Make P:rem Blue Ray Sunscreen

Good all-physical UV filter sunscreens are hard to find. "Physical" filter (also known as "inorganic") sunscreens  are sought by people with sensitive skin and/or reactions to chemical UV (also known as "organic") filters, such as yours truly. The most common recommendation request from phys-only sunscreen hunters is for a high protection rated sunscreen with no white cast.

Sadly, with phys-only sunscreens, that just doesn't exist. One of the two options, Titanium dioxide, is literally used as white pigment. Think back to your trusty tube of Titanium White in art class. That's your sunscreen filter bro giving your paints the "whitest white" and also making your sunscreen search hell.

When my former favourite all-phys sunscreen was possibly reformulated (it's not, but more on this later) and I was blown away by a chemical sunscreen I could actually use from Make P:rem, I needed to get my ass in gear and test out some new all-physical options, stat. But I can't review the (orange cap) one I've been using. More on that later too.

So here's a first impression of the Make P:rem UV Defense Me Blue Ray Sun Cream SPF50+ PA++++. That's right, four PA ratings.

Our backyard wild bunnies were displeased that I plunked this down in their bun buffet patch.

(Incidentally, if you'd like to see one of the bun patch bunnies in action, I tweeted a short video of one that visited during this post here.)

In this post:

• Why this is a first impression instead of a full review, aka I'm lightly brined by unfortunate developments
• Differences between the orange (Natural) and blue (Blue Ray) cap versions
• First impressions of the Blue Ray Sun Cream
• White cast swatches on NC10 and NC30 skin tones
• Is it worth it & where to get it

I was initially put off buying this version because I'm highly suspicious of anything "cooling" because that usually means either 1. massive amounts of alcohol, or 2. added menthol, which can be highly irritating.

Just give me a high-rated sunscreen with physical (inorganic) filters that's pleasant to wear, doesn't break me out, and has minimal white cast. So how does the Make P:rem Blue Ray Sun Cream stack up?

Weekend Travel Essentials For Lazy Summer Skincare

I don't travel well. Or rather, I don't prepare for travel well. I always feel stressed out of proportion about the packing stage, and having a multi-step skincare routine complicates even a simple weekend trip by car. Rather than fuss with what skincare to bring, I just grabbed necessities off my sink.

Does anyone else have issues with the sudden appearance of skin troubles during travel? It's like one's cycle; always picks the worst possible time to visit. With that in mind, I prepared for a skin rebellion just in case. They say that what you prepare for doesn't happen, after all.

I managed to snap these in between intermittent summer showers.

It fit in a ziploc, at least. A large one.

In this post:

• Sunscreen
• Double Cleansers
• Clear Pores & Soothe Skin
• Brighten & Moisturize
• Nullify Blemishes
• Cushion and Concealer
• Mist because it's @#^$# hot out and heat makes me crabby

Also, these photos will not only feature "Skincare I Brought With Me to My In-Laws' House" but also "Random Items I Pilfered From My Bemused Mother-In-Law's Decor For Photo Props" and "Gifts Of Quirky Things She Correctly Thought I'd Like, Such As Old Books And Shiny Things" because hey, you work with what you have on hand when you're travelling. It's ... a metaphor. Something about necessity, or something.

Anyway, here's what I brought to keep me safe, sane, and with as few surprise pimples as possible.

Feelin' Fancy: Sulwhasoo Hydro-aid Mist Review

Summer skincare usually consists of cleanser, chilled sheet masks, maybe a BHA chemical exfoliant to battle my oily and sweaty pores, and mists. Lots of mists. 'Tis the season for mists, because it's hot and humid and everyone is miserable, and mists are light and most importantly, refreshing.

Benefit of photographing a mist: you can use it in between shots to cool off. Which I dd. A lot.

Although this is a fancy full size bottle, I've actually used (and emptied) a travel size of this mist before. You might recognize the travel size from posts such as K-Beauty & Portion Control: Why Sometimes Good Value Can Be a Bad Idea, and Winter is Coming: Plotting My K-Beauty Skincare Routine for Colder Weather.

In this post

• Product details
• Ingredients
• 4 ways I use mists
• Where to get full and travel-sizes
• Final thoughts

Unfortunately, I have no idea where my travel size bottle has gotten to; it's probably sill buried in an unpacked box somewhere, like 99% of my post-move beauty stash. However, during the recent snail rout in NYC, I received a gift bag of goodies from Amore Pacific and conveniently a full size of this mist was in it.

So while bottle in these photos is from Sulwhasoo, it's a product I've already purchased and used on my own. It's no longer sold on their US site regardless. I haven't opened this one yet, but I'll happily commandeer it for photos.

Chemical Love: Make P:rem Capsule Sun Gel Review

Yes, the Make P:rem UV Defense Me Capsule Sun Gel SPF50+ PA+++ is an all-chemical/organic sunscreen. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill: this a chemical sunscreen review, on my blog.  I know, I can scarcely believe it either.

If you told me two months ago I would be writing a review on a chemical sunscreen with anything to say but "it made my face break out into burning pimples of angry rage" I would never have believed you. All my life, chemical sunscreens have made me want to claw my own face off. It's been all-physical/inorganic sunscreens or bust for me.

When you're that friend who brings a tray and their camera to Sunday afternoon dinners because they need to take photos while the light is still good. #bloggerfriendproblems

It's fitting that the combined enabling powers of the HolyFan duo from The Snailcast are to blame for this unexpected development. During our first ever live snail rout in NYC, we converged on Fanserviced-b's HQ loaded with travel-friendly sample sizes and decants.

After wearing this sunscreen on my neck and chest without incident, I was willing to risk it. Drunk on the spirit of yolo (or maybe it was the White Girl Rosé) I patch tested it on my face, expecting the usual burning, itchy reaction. Nothing untoward happened, unless you count our decision to try freezing the dregs of the wine in an adult novelty mold. Which I don't. 🍆

In this post

• Product details
• Ingredients & UV filters
• My theories on why this isn't destroying my face
• Swatches
• Final thoughts, wear time, and how it plays with makeup

On the final day, I recklessly wore this sunscreen all over my face, determined to test it as much as possible in the time we had left. To my amazement, my skin didn't protest and I made it to my PM routine without incident.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! A chemical sunscreen! On my face! I have some theories on what might be going on, and after chatting with a few others who have the same sunscreen woes, there may be hope for us yet.

First Impressions: 5 K-Beauty Sunscreens for Summer

I get asked "what makes Korean beauty products better?" all the time, and the answer is always the same: they're not somehow magically better, because you can find good, bad, and mediocre products anywhere. They are quite innovative however, and where Asian cosmetics (including Korean beauty) really shine (in my eyes) is sunscreen.

If I could send a message to myself 10 years ago, before I moved to the US and into the desert, I'd tell myself about Asian sunscreens. I used to think I couldn't wear sunscreen, period! It gave me terrible skin reactions and felt unbearable. I got away with skipping sunscreen due to the relative weak sunlight in my region of Canada, but when I moved far south to an area of Texas that gets sandstorms, premature aging from epic sun damage happened fast.

I've rudely plunked my tray in the middle of the local wild bunny buffet

If I'd known there existed cosmetically elegant sunscreens that wouldn't cause my skin to erupt in painful breakouts within hours, I'd still be enjoying the same wrinkle-free smoothness the women in my family normally have until their 40's. Not to mention a lowered risk of, y'know, skin cancer.

In this post

• First impressions of 5 sunscreens from Goodal, Innisfree, & Make P:rem

I have reviewed one of these already, and I'm currently testing some of the others. Full reviews will come in the future, but after people on my Instagram expressed interest in a first impressions post, here they are!

Goodal Mild Protect Natural Filter Sun Fluid SPF50+ PA++++ Review: When You Need to Express Your Inner Mime

Sunscreen: like a seat belt, it's something we endure because the alternative possibly leads to death or disfigurement. Wearing it isn't optional, so the best one can hope for is that it's as unobtrusive as possible, but at minimum the seat belt doesn't mash your bosom when you wear it. This sunscreen isn't it. Sunscreens should be cosmetically elegant, meaning light and comfortable on the skin, and they should have full-spectrum high sun protection (SPF 50+, PA+++ or higher), with minimal white cast.

I was definitely feeling the hanbang-inspired packaging this came in

This is pretty easy if you use chemical (also known as 'organic') UV filters, but as they cause skin irritation and reactions for many people (including yours truly), many people with sensitive skin can only use physical (also known as 'inorganic') UV filters. Some of which are white. Literally white pigment. Nanoparticle forms of physical filters are supposed to have less white cast, but there's some debate about their safety. The point of this dry paragraph is that physical sunscreens with minimal white cast are very rare. People like me hunt them in murky corners of the internet and have underground swap networks for decants.

In this post:

• Product details
• Ingredients
• Swatches on NC10 and NC30 skin
• What I'll repurchase instead
• Final thoughts & why I'll use it up

I had high hopes for this one, because I loved the Goodal Mild Protect Natural Filter Sun Cream SPF50+ PA+++, so surely this almost-the-same-name-but-one-more-PA-rating sunscreen should also be good? Are you looking for the perfect undead base makeup-and-sunscreen combo for your daytime Hallowe'en beach party or possibly playing Marley's Ghost in an afternoon matinée of A Christmas Carol at an outdoor theatre?

No? Then the Goodal Mild Protect Natural Filter Sun Fluid ain't what you're looking for. I'm a Mac NC10 and it looks white as hell on me. I had to double check that it wasn't meant to be a brightening cream. Re-reading the marketing copy while writing this review, I'm beginning to suspect that "light finish" isn't a reference to the texture, it's an invitation to a vampire cosplay. You'll see what I mean. *cue ominous organ music and the flapping of bats*

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.

Korean Buying Service Haul: Jung Saem Mool, Make P:rem, & Pretty Bottles

As much as I love how accessible K-Beauty has become, there's nothing quite like getting an order of hard-to-find products straight from Korea.  This haul had a rocky journey getting to me, especially when I thought I spotted a car speeding away after thieving one of the boxes off my porch, but everything arrived safely at last, and I've accepted that good light for photos is something I won't see again until the season changes, so here we are.

'Tis the season for the Haul-idays?  Also, check out that adorable panda note! :3

This package arrived in two boxes, one of which came more than a week after the first one, which itself was a few weeks delayed, leaving me sweating over their whereabouts.  As usual, I ordered my goodies through Amy of Boyah Shop, who remains both the best and the cutest buying service I've ever worked with.

I also made my first purchase through AliExpress, because my thirst for gorgeous Hanbang-themed packaging for my decants overrode my nervousness about ordering from the site.

In this post:

• Jung Saem Mool Beauty: Colour correcting palette, blushes, & sample swag
• Make P:rem: Cleansing water, cleansing foam, & cleansing ... pack??
• About Me: Ginseng mask pack & disaster
• AliExpress: Hanbangin' mist bottles
• Sulwhasoo: Perfecting Brightening #11 & Evenfair Perfecting #11 cushions, & sample service galore

If you aren't familiar with how a buying service works, here's a quick recap: 1. you tell your buyer what you want, 2. they invoice you for what it will cost them to buy your goods + a small fee for their service, 3. they receive the goods and prepare them for shipment, and invoice you for the actual shipping cost, 4. you receive your package and squee.

If you're looking for more details on how to find what you want, check out this post: Guide to using a Korean buying service when you don't know Korean, ft blogger Kahime , which covers everything from copypaste-able keywords and brands in Korean, shopping sites, search engines, and an automated calculator to estimate the KRW currency conversion and your final costs.

The perks of using a buying service is that you can get products that aren't readily available through regular K-Beauty vendors, and/or skip huge retail markups.  I've mostly done the former in this haul, but I've had posts where I've detailed the crazy savings you can pull off depending on what you purchase.  Let's get to it!

Multiple Skincare Steps: Neither Vanity nor Virtue

I've had a lot of thoughts percolating around in the last week about skincare and the relative virtues of a minimal, or maximized, skincare routine.  I'm not sure why people are getting caught up in debunking a multi-step routine lately, but sometimes it takes on an odd tone.  I think it's understandable that we are so quick to assign virtue (or vanity) to skincare, especially in those groups who have been influenced by a "skincare first, makeup second" philosophy, which is a key concept in K-Beauty.

It's not surprising that things veer into subconscious bias pretty quickly-- cosmetics are pretty intrinsically linked to vanity, and that gets caught up in societal constructs around attractiveness, worth, and virtue.

Sometimes skincare is just skincare, though, and I don't think we need all the baggage with it.

Neither of these routines are a measure of virtue or vanity.  They're just skincare.

To this day, we repeat tales of Cleopatra's supposed cosmetic excesses as the pinnacle of legendary vanity, even as we add sheet masks with donkey milk and honey essences to our carts because hey, if donkey milk and honey were a favourite of hers, it's worth checking out?  As a counterpoint to makeup, which has always had connotations on the virtuousness of the wearer, skincare falls on a wide spectrum between the most basic of hygiene to the most expensive of indulgences, ensuring there's always going to be a sweet spot for everyone.

In this post:

• Skincare first, makeup second: K-Beauty influence in western makeup
• The 10+ step routine myth - it doesn't matter, let it go
• Self-care, treat choself, and mindful spending

It seems as complex skincare routines become more common, what was once a necessary chore has achieved the same infamy as its cosmetic cousin, with judgements about vain excess and the backlash of virtuous minimalism cropping up beyond just makeup.

Tower of Empties: Empties, Discards, and Pretties

Last week, I mentioned in What's In My Stash: Forgotten Finds & Organization Overhaul that one of the last tasks I had on my to-do list was to tackle a giant box of empties.  I wasn't kidding; this thing is so massive it deserved its own post!  Behold the dragon, unslain:

Just imagine how big this box is, if my phone looks that tiny.  Click for huge size.

I admit I was a bit daunted, but I was determined get my office to 100% organized, so this box needed to be dealt with.  It contained a mash-up of empties tucked back in their boxes, packaging for products I'm currently using, empties orphaned from their boxes and boxes orphaned from their empties, products banished to the discard pile, and gorgeous product packaging worth keeping regardless of how I felt about the products inside.

There was also a staggering number of sheet mask boxes, which I haven't included in the photos because there would be no room for anything else.  That reminds me, I still need to inventory my sheet masks ... oh dear.  Still not at 100%  Another day, then. *shakes fist at the sky*

So without further ado, here's the Tower of Empties (at least what would fit) precariously perched in my office:

It looks like so much less when it's all tidily arranged, no?  Ah wait, that's right, this is all that would fit without falling off.  Click for huge size.

Mmm, so many empties.  I've taken close-ups of each tier, and will be calling out some notable products from each.  They'll be numbered for ease of  "what the heck is that one 4 places from the left?!" identification.

In this post:

• The "would not repeat" tier
• The "gone but not forgotten" tier
• The "so pretty I'm hoarding it" tier

Of course, now that I've managed to assemble this house of cards boxes and bottles in order to take photos of it, I need to pack it all away because our struggle has reduced my office to rubble.

Onward to the goods!

What's In My Stash: Forgotten Finds & Organization Overhaul

This weekend I finally battled my stash, and I believe I've succeeded in wrestling it into submission.  I may have ragged fingernails, skinned knuckles, and more bruises than I want to contemplate, but after a weekend of hauling around boxes, sorting piles of products, and late-night furniture assembly, I've finally managed to properly set up my stash!

By that, I mean that I wanted a way for me to visually see my skincare stash at a glance instead of having to go digging through drawers and boxes, because I have a lot of interesting things that I just don't pull out and ogle nearly enough.  Like these:

IOPE, why did you have to change your refill inserts right after I bought this limited edition case for a giveaway?

I'm not usually too concerned with the state of my stash organization, because I have it organized in a spreadsheet that keeps track of it all for me, but my home office had become overrun with partially-unpacked orders, various photography trappings, and a thriving colony of packing materials that seemed to be breeding in every corner.

I'm good at keeping track of what I buy (that spreadsheet, yo) but I somehow manage to forget to enter the things I receive as gifts, either from friends or "gifts with purchase" which arrived in store orders.

In this post:

• The result: behind the scenes in my home office & tamed stash
• Interesting finds from the depths of my stash: "Oh hey, I should totally use this!"
• Adventures in stash wonderland: inside drawers, shelves, refrigerator, & my bathroom counter
• What's left on my to-do list

I was amazed at how little space it took up once I sorted through everything and pulled out all the empties, boxes, and discards-- I have no idea how large the average beauty blogger's stash is, but compared to the jaw-dropping stash videos I've seen, mine is downright tiny!  Bless you, spreadsheet, for keeping me in check, even if you can't display all the pretty packaging.  Time for lots of photos!

Winter is Coming: Plotting My K-Beauty Skincare Routine for Colder Weather

It's hot right now.  Humid.  Muggy.  Sticky.  Sweaty.  My current routine has 2.5 steps, because I can't stand moving around a lot while I cleanse, and forget product multi layering.  I haven't posted a summer routine this year, because there's been very little routine to post.  I've been using a cleanser, a BHA exfoliant, and sometimes when I'm extra motivated, a chilled sheet mask.

Essences, serums, hydrating toners, rich sheet masks, creams, oils?  Urgh, I'm feeling slimy just thinking about them, yet that's exactly what I'm doing - thinking ahead.  Even though it's still 80+ degrees with ultra-high humidity that leaves me waking in a puddle of my own sweat, I've been plotting and planning my autumn season skincare routine.

The only sign of the coming colder weather is shorter days and rapidly fading light.

Planning ahead allows me to leisurely research and contemplate what products I might like to try, figure out where they would go in my testing schedule, comparison shop, and mull over the contents of my cart.  I'm big on mindfulness when it comes to beauty, and this is the equivalent of shopping while you're full, instead of waiting until you're hungry and just want all the things.

In this post:

• The seasonal skincare approach
• New products I'm adding into my routine
• Cleansers, actives, hydrators, creams, sleeping packs
• What I'm looking to add to my routine
• Sheet masks, mists, and sunscreens

I have no idea how many of these are going to work out, but it feels good to have some new product testing on the horizon, instead of endless repeats of the same minimalist routine.  Bring on the cold weather, I am beyond ready!

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.

Milky Dress Vita C+ Powder Review & It's Time to Get Nerdy About Vitamin C

I'm a fan of acid.  For someone who used to view chemical exfoliants with fear and distrust, I've certainly done a complete about-face on the subject; if I was at a cosmetics convention and you slid up to me whispering "Pssst hey Snow, I've got a new form of BHA derived from a kind of tree in northern steppes of Europe, and it's got twice the efficacy with half the irritation of Salicylic acid.  It's the coolest thing to happen since Mandelic changed AHAs.  It's under this trench coat, meet me outside if you wanna see it." I very well might blithely follow you, excitedly chattering about whether it's also pH dependent and whether it's commercially available yet, trench coat notwithstanding.

In addition to having AHA (Alpha hydroxy acid) and BHA (Beta hydroxy acid) in the "actives" category of my Skincare Wardrobe, I also have in my stable of acids a form of Vitamin C, called L-AA (L-ascorbic acid) and if you're a skincare fan, you've probably heard of the anti-aging powers of Vitamin C.  You've probably heard of the ridiculous $160+ price tag of some serums and expensive creams, the warnings to keep them away from light, air, and heat, making them difficult to use and prone to spoilage.

The version I use is a tenth of that cost, but it's just as annoying to use-- shuttling back and forth to the fridge, decanting small portions into other bottles, forgetting to use it for days on end because I do both my AM and PM routines half asleep, it's all aggravating.  It's tempting to latch onto other forms of Vitamin C which promise to provide the same effects but in stable formulations that won't have you pondering a mini-fridge for your skincare.  Lured by a demonstration on Korean beauty show Get It Beauty, I snatched up this powdered Vitamin C (SAP, aka Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate), amazed at how convenient it looked.  A powder that could be mixed into any, yes any, current skincare product without worrying about pH dependency, wait times, or oxidization?  Yes please!  Get in my cart!

Except that it sucked.

On the left, the watery serum in which I mixed the powder, and on the right is said powder displayed on the spatula.

(By the way, if you are wondering what that gorgeous bottle is, you can read more about it here: The Bottle That Stole My Heart: Sooryehan Hyo Biyeon Concentrated Brightening Essence Review.)

In this post:

• Product Details
• What's the fuss about Vitamin C?
• What I'd rather use instead

Like many things that seem too good to be true, this powder was highly disappointing although I'll freely admit that it may work really well for others.  Sadly I wasn't able to test it's long-term hyperpigmentation fading abilities vs a traditional L-AA serum, and while I certainly quickly formed an (irate) opinion on the product,  I felt so grumpy toward it that I wasn't ready to devote the time to research it properly.  Now that I've spent several nights squinting at PDFs and getting cockblocked by paywalls, I'm ready to get this off my to-do list.

Is K-Beauty for Everyone? Perspectives on Appropriation and Marketing

I have a confession: I've been in a bit of a skincare funk.  For a long time, I've blamed it on overwork-- working 60 hours a week has left me little time for luxuries like brushing my hair showering daily sleeping more than a few hours a night an elaborate skincare routine, but I've come to realize that it's much more than that.  I'm in a K-Beauty funk, meaning that I've been feeling conflicted and troubled every time I go to wash my face.  It's time for some soul-searching.

As K-Beauty has become more and more mainstream in the west, it's gone from being an ignored niche interest to a widely-marketed source of $$$ from all levels of the beauty industry, shifting from hipster-y hobbyists to an oversaturation of US-based resellers cannibalizing ideas while mega retailers like Sephora and Target stock sheet masks and snail creams.

You might think this is another one of those tired tropes of aforementioned hipster grumpy over their obscure finds becoming mainstream, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Actually, I'm absolutely thrilled that K-Beauty is in such international demand that Sulwhasoo recently launched a whopping 7 shades ranging from #11 to #33, a move which completely shocked a Korean friend of mine as she pointed out that most Korean brands feature only two shades (#21 and #23) and don't address [in her opinion] the shade needs of Koreans in Korea, let alone anyone outside of Korea.

Image from Sulwhasoo's KR site

I'm quite happy that K-Beauty has grown so much in the 4 years that I've been blogging about it, because it's seen exponential growth and it's a totally different scene since the days where I had to use Google Translate to figure out what I was buying.

What troubles me is how it's being marketed, talked about, and presented.

In this post:

• The trouble with K-Beauty marketing
• Why I write about K-Beauty
• 5 Korean women share their thoughts about K-Beauty on the global stage

There's nothing wrong with a little soul-searching to examine one's own motives and reasons for doing, well, anything.   But more important than what I have to say about it, is what the Korean women I know have to say about it, and I'm fortunate enough to have several sources just an email away for me to ask!