The Painful Path to K-Beauty Wisdom: 7 Mistakes Beginners Make

This weekend's post is going to be fairly short and sweet, because I am determined to finally unpack and put away the entirety of my product stash, and it's going to a monumental task requiring lots of coffee or possibly adult beverages to survive the endeavour, but it needs to be done.  And purging- of the skincare, not skin, variety - does anyone really need a mountain of uninteresting samples of unknown vintage?

There are unused samples lurking in every box.  Also: how much of this do you think I can fit in that as-yet unassembled drawer unit?  Because I am about to find out, and I think like many things in this post, I'm going to find out the hard way.

Clearly since most of my samples are unused and cluttering up my stash, the answer for me is no.  Naturally this has me pondering some of the mistakes I've made, and seen others make, over the years.

In this post:

• Buying all the things
• Ignoring skincare triggers
• Testing all the things - at once
• Buying 'cult' products that don't suit your skin type
• Avoiding or Hoarding Samples
• Writing off all K-Makeup
• Treating makeup as sun protection

Some of these I'm guilty of, others are things I've seen crop up time and time again as things that people have done and regretted, or are doing currently and don't realize that it's something they need to reconsider.

K-Beauty & Portion Control: Why Sometimes Good Value Can Be a Bad Idea

I know, it sounds a bit crazy.  Good value is good value, right?  Who doesn't love value?  As it turns out, me-- at least some of the time.  This is an idea that has been floating around in my head for a few months, peeking out in posts here and there, and finally I decided I was going to push aside a lackluster review that was too boring to write and explore this idea in earnest.

Many tiny things; full-size sheet mask, cushion, toner, and lip balm for scale.

This is not a traditional or "authentic" Korean beauty concept (after all, I'm not Korean; I do believe that K-Beauty is accessible to everyone), it's just something that's been percolating around my head for a while, with roots in both Korean beauty and the international K-Beauty community.  The evolution of ideas that take root and then flourish into countless branches of inspiration and personal discovery is pretty fascinating, after all!

I've been really captivated by the concepts that have evolved naturally from the international K-Beauty community in the last year.  For better or ill, the international K-Beauty scene is as much of a force as the trends that are coming out of Korea itself, in no small part due to deliberate and official incentive from the Korean government for brands and shops to market only overseas instead of within Korea.  But back to the point, which is that the international K-Beauty community generates some very interesting ideas and concepts, as well as endless variations in approach and personal skincare philosophy.

I think it's important to give oneself room to evolve; ideas can stagnate and then become be perceived as the only "right" way to do something; skincare is so complex and there's just so many factors involved that there's no truism more apt than YMMV aka "your mileage my vary" and there's so much room for figuring out what works for your unique skin.

A lot of these concepts also work synergistically; for example, one can be a proponent of both the Skincare Wardrobe concept and also the Hauling Responsibly concept, by practicing mindfulness when making purchases.  The one I'm going to talk about today works well with both, even if it's going to sound a little crazy at first.

In this post:

• The seed: Go Hyun Jung's skincare tips
• Seasonal Skincare: not just capitalism at work
• Portion control: in your hauls and on your face
• Putting it together: Good value is not necessarily a good thing

So what's today's concept?  The idea that getting a great value on your purchases may not actually be a good idea, or sustainable.  I know, nuts, but hear me out.

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!

Sometimes I Never Learn: 3 Things I Always Regret Purchasing

A while back I wrote a post about The Painful Path to K-Beauty Wisdom: 7 Mistakes Beginners Make, which covered some of the most common beginner mistakes that I see people make over and over.  Some of them were mistakes I made myself, some ones I've observed are common in general.

What about mistakes that I keep making, even though I'm dangerously close to being a K-Beauty hipster who keenly remembers the days when BB creams could only be bought directly from Asia,  Korean skincare hadn't yet caught on, and snail filtrate was still unthinkable?  (Ooo, I can feel myself growing a curled-stache & glitterbeard at the very thought.  Quick, get me a Portland craft beer and a pair of suspenders!)   Surely I should know better by now, right?

Sigh.  Somehow, there are a few mistakes that I keep making, despite really knowing better by now, and I'm going to 'fess up.  For someone who is as seriously interested in mindfulness in purchasing and self-care, it's awkward to to talk about the things that I still struggle with but, I'm going to do it anyway!

One Shade to Flatter Them All: Clio Tension Lip #7 'Some' Review & Swatches on Fair, Medium, and Deep skin tones

Time for more fall-appropriate makeup adventures!  I'm quite excited about this post because not only do I absolutely freaking love this lipstick, thanks to the help of two lovely fellow K-Beauty bloggers, I'm going to be able to show how it looks on skin tones other than mine!

I not only love this lipstick, but it's been my go-to shade side I started using it in ... July?  (Seasonal appropriateness be damned, I love plum shades.)   I made a summer haul from Clio's official US site which included this lipstick, and was very excited about it as it was sold out on the site from which I'd been hauling, but to my sadness it didn't survive the trip.  When I opened it, the lipstick was nowhere to be found- it had melted and slid into the lid.  Nooooo!   I let Clio know about a (sunscreen) hiccup in my order which was my fault, I mentioned what happened to the lipstick, and to my delight, they offered to send me a replacement!

My pristine replacement tube, finally ready for photos.

When the weather cooled off, I contacted Clio to arrange to add my replacement lipstick to an order I was making- which is how got my hands on the new eyeshadow palette from Clio; you can check it out here: First Look & Swatches: Clio Pro Palette

In this post:

• Product Details
• Lip Swatches on NC10, NC35, and NC/NW45 skin tones
• Comparison swatches with other red/pink/purple lip products
• Final Thoughts

One of the drawbacks of looking for makeup swatches online is the swatcher may not have a similar skin tone as you- this is especially an issue with K-Beauty and deeper skin tones, which are distressingly underrepresented.  So for this post, I reached out to some friends who are both PoC K-Beauty bloggers on Instagram, and they agreed to test it out for me for comparison's sake!

Amazingly, all three of us absolutely love the lipstick despite having very different skin tones.  Swatches ahoy!

5 Thought-Provoking Korean Beauty Blog Posts That Changed Everything

As I run around this weekend trying to find things without half-unpacking every box underfoot, I've been reflecting on changes- I assume this is a typical mental state when one is undergoing mega life changes a decade in the making- including the evolution of this blog and the overall Asian/K-Beauty landscape.  The latter has definitely undergone huge changes in the years I've been observing (and blogging about) it!

With K-Beauty being everywhere in popular/mainstream media and hitting big bloggers and youtube gurus, it can be hard to imagine the days when snail filtrate was freakish and exotic, and BB creams were only available online from Asian companies.  Over the years, I've personally undergone profound development of my skincare philosophy, knowledge, awareness, and review style, but that "didn't happen in vacuum", as they say.

The western interest in beauty products from Asia has really been a grassroots movement made possible by the internet and social media; as a result, there is a strong community network of people who love the products and love to share and discuss them with one another.  As a result, now and then an earth-shattering post comes along that spreads like wildfire in the community, changing the communal landscape.

This is a short list of a few posts that, in my opinion, profoundly impacted the K-Beauty and Asian beauty landscape, reaching far beyond the tight-knit community to the larger public, influencing trends, curation, inventory, and even new product development.

2015 in Review, Part II: My Favourite K-Beauty Tips, Concepts, & Trends of 2015

In Part I: My Favourite K-Beauty Products of 2015, I listed what I consider to be the best products I've used in 2015, but the products are only part of the story.  As a counterpart to the simple shout out to the tangible products that caught my eye in 2015, this post is about the trends, habits, concepts, and thoughts I have on K-Beauty in 2015.

It's a different beast than it was in the early days of this blog; K-Beauty is now available in Sephora, Target, Amazon Prime, even outlets like TJ Maxx and Marshall's, making it readily available in mainstream shopping venues.  K-Beauty has also evolved and shaped itself to meet the needs of international customers, and the international Asian beauty product fan community has produced some fascinating discussions in the last year.  So this post will be the intangible best of 2015, to balance the light-hearted and unashamed consumerism of the 'best of' product list.

In this post: My Favourite Tips, Concepts, & Trends of 2015

• 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

If you don't care for long swaths of rumination, I'd recommend bailing out now for 2015 in Review, Part I: My Favourite K-Beauty Products of 2015, and here's a Chinchilla sipping tea for some cuteness as you escape.  If you're down for some heavy discussion of some serious topics mixed in with the fun bits, let's do this!

Enjoying my Afternoon Tea🐭😘

A video posted by BuBu The Chinchilla (@cute_bubu) on Jan 30, 2015 at 7:42am PST

This tea-sipping Chinchilla speaks to me on a philosophical level, at least the part of me that loves tea and small furry cute things.  Let's roll!

Beginner's Dilemma: Getting Organized & In Control of Your Stash

As I mentioned in my last post Beginner's Dilemma: Overwhelmed on the Order of Your Specific Products? I was inspired to switch up my plans for another post and instead focus on some of the most frequently asked questions I've been getting lately.  The focus of these posts is not to give you yet another in-depth guide like the ones you've no doubt already read, because chances are you've already read them and you're still confused.

These posts are short, to the point, and tactical in nature- last week I gave a simple 3-step method of figuring out where your specific products go in order.  This week I'm going to hit up how to get your stash under control, so you don't feel overwhelmed by your spending, your storage, or your lack of organization.

"How do you store/organize your stash?"

Answer:

You don't have to, at least not physically.  You can organize it, and control it, without having to constantly be re-organizing your drawers and shelves with the same resigned dread one normally reserves for deep-cleaning one's shower stall or refrigerator.  You just need to re-think your organizational methods- and you'll have a great opportunity to do some exploration of your personal philosophy while you do it.

I personally use a spreadsheet, but that's not the only method.  I've also overhauled my spreadsheet, so that it's even more observer-friendly- any time you want to see exactly what I'm up to and which products I'm using for what step, just head over here and take a peep.

No one should feel overwhelmed or negative about something that's ultimately self-care.  Skincare is enough of a journey on its own without evoking feelings of loss of control, so time to put that stash in its place and show it who's the alpha here!

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.