Spring 2016 Favorites

This spring has been pretty amazing for beauty finds for me. It's tax season, or hood Christmas as my boyfriend calls it, so he decided to spoil me a little bit.

He let me order from Jolse and Etude House to get some things that I've been lusting over for a while.

I think I've posted everything from my hauls, and each order has had some great products but these are my favorites. 

Hair

I found this Silk Scarf Hair Treatment when I was looking for a hair treatment from Etude House. In their hair dyes they include a little packet of hair treatment - it's not available on the website. I'm not sure if it's been discontinued or if they just don't carry it anymore. It smells like frangipani and gave me mad memories of childhood and getting those cheap bath sets from my family at Christmas. 

In comparison, the hair treatment is much thicker. It is more like a deep conditioner. Silk Scarf has a thinner texture that is in between regular hair conditioner and a serum. Like the treatment this has a very floral scent, I just can't place what flower. 

After washing and conditioning, put this in for three to five minutes and rinse. Perfect healthy looking hair is the result. 

I generally do this about once a week. 

I got this from the Etude House Global site for around $11.

Moisture

I've been so in love with sleeping packs lately. With winter still not sure what it's going to do (for real , Florida, hot or cold - pick one) my skin has gone pretty haywire. When it gets it's driest and has flakies I tend to use this before bed. 

What I like most about this sleeping pack is it isn't extremely heavy like most sleeping packs tend to be. It's got a very gel like texture and absorbs very quickly without leaving much stickiness behind. That is another thing I generally don't like about sleeping packs, that they leave me sticky and I'm terrified I'm going to pick up every bit of lint, dander, and hair as I roll around in my sleep. 

It contains arbuten and adenosin so it's perfect for aging skin. I don't have many signs of aging yet, thank blob, but why wait when you can nip it at the bud? It helps whitening (skin tone evening) and collagen building. 

Scent wise it's not bad at all. To me, it smells like men's cologne. After it absorbs the smell doesn't linger, unlike the banana sleeping pack (which is awesome, too, just too thick for my skin).

I got this at Jolse for about $15, though there is a sale right now. 

For a good product, this is an amazeballs price for what you're getting. I'm used to spending an arm and a leg on a good moisturizing cream. With this I got the best of both price and product.

I also use this product on my elbows when they are feeling particularly scratchy.

This is the Joseon Beauty Cream and it's bloody amazing. 

I've heard so many things about it, and for the longest time the only way you could get it was ordering direct from Korea or having someone send it to you. 

It's got a nice and smooth texture yet at the same time it has a bit of stick to it. Crunchy, maybe? It's definitely not sticky so I don't want to use that word for it. I wish I could think of a great word for it. 

This cream is all based in traditional Asian skincare ingredients for both whitening and anti-aging. It's got orchid, honey, and ginseng for nutrition, dry radish greens, rice bran, and gourd for moisture, safflower seed for vitamin e, ceramides for elasticity, adenosine for whitening, and niacin amide for wrinkle care. 

I could definitely tell a difference after the first few times I used this cream. It gave my skin moisture and bounce. Chok chok!

Smell wise it's very pleasant, a little herbal. 

It can be used as a plain moisturizer, under makeup as a primer,  or even as a sleeping pack. So many purposes!

I got this from Jolse for about $20. 

In all honesty, I think this is my holy grail moisturizer because of how it makes my skin feel.

This is my last moisture love for this weird weather. 

It's got swiftlet nest extract as well as another number of fantastic ingredients, and a sheet of gold across the top of the jar. 

This is EXTREMELY thick, so make sure that your skin is the proper type before purchasing this. To be perfectly honest, if you don't have dry or aging skin it might be best to skip this product. I have combination skin and it can be a little weird for my face on my places that aren't dry. I generally use it at night and if I'm not careful it will make my oily spots even oilier. If you have combo skin like I do I'd only recommend using this on your dry patches or spot treating places where you have worries that this cream will target.

The nest ingredient is rich in amino acids and protein, which makes for lovely skin. 

Gold ingredients is one of the hottest things in Korea right now. It is supposed to help with circulation and skin clarity. 

It reminds me of an ointment in terms of texture. You take the included spatula and get both gold leaf and cream and melt it with the heat of your hands, which takes it from a weird ointment feeling to more smooth. 

It doesn't absorb as quickly as the Tony Moly sleeping pack because of the texture, though when it does absorb it leaves lovely soft skin behind. 

It can also be used as a sleeping pack. 

Given that my only experiences with Holika Holika are through moisturizers and skincare, I will go out on a bridge and say that they have kick ass skincare lines and would recommend them if you're looking for a moderately priced cream that will treat your skin well.

I got this at Jolse for about $50, though I cannot seem to find it on there anymore. Beautynet Korea has it right now for $56. I haven't bought directly from their site before, just from their Amazon store, and their service is spectacular. They also included a few samples of Tony Moly products I've yet to try. 

Lips

I'm totally obsessed with lip products. My lips are one part of my face that I love no matter what, so I like to pamper them. 

A few months ago Etude House started really pushing these stick type makeps. Everything from foundations and concealers to lip products. 

During my last haul, they had the pencils on sale so I added one just to try it. I wasn't fond of many of the colors. 

This is the Balm + Color tint in shade #3. For some reason my image came out more coral, but the tube itself is a strawberry red as you can see in the second image. 

I really like that this is dual sided with both color and balm, and the fact that it's very long lasting. 

The two sides make a gradient lip super duper easy. I suck at gradient so I generally just wear one side or the other. 

The light pink balm is my total favorite part of this product so I tend to use it more. It comes off very natural on me so I choose it for everyday wear. 

Again with the camera being wonky. The top color, the balm, is much more pink than that and the color is much more red. 

It does have a decent bit of moisture with the color. 

I got this from Etude Global for just over $10.

 

Let me tell you about the experience I had with this fucker. Just kidding, I love it long time. 

So when I did my Berry Delicious haul from Etude House this was the only lip color I ordered. Out of all of the colors, to me it looked the prettiest and most everyday wearable. I generally go for pinks and more muted colors for everyday and more color pop for special occasions. 

Anyway, I was sooo excited. My mail carrier actually came by early to bring me the package because I'd been wating soooo long. (Not really, it was only about three weeks.)

I checked through all of my products to make sure everything I ordered was in the box, to make sure there was no damaged product, etc, and get this - my tube of lip gloss was empty. EMPTY!

Like never filled in the factory empty. No color anywhere, even on the doe tail. 

Long story short, they only offered me my money back rather than replacing the product altogether. 

So I got pissed and ordered on Amazon from BeautyNet Korea. I ordered two of them to make sure I had at least a 50/50 chance of getting my product. 

Long story short, I got it in eventually and was in love with it. 

The beauty of this product is while it looks very much like the other products in the Color in Liquid Lips line, it's a tint. 

It has various berry extracts in it and smells good enough to eat. It's not flavored. 

It comes out green and goes on lavender, and eventually darkens to a lovely pink. 

I left the swatch on, and two hours later it's a really great pink that works well with my cool skin tone. 

The last time I used this it lasted almost all day with minimal touch ups. 

I paid around $12 for this. 

EDIT: When I started this post two days ago (4/3), I didn't think that this stuff would last. I've since washed my hands god knows how many times, bathed, etc, and I still have a faint pink stain on my skin. I even went to the doctor with it yesterday and got weird looks. That should be a testament to it's staying power.

Nails

In addition to being addicted to all of the colors in the Berry Delicious collection, this product is proving to be a savior.

This is a keratin strengthening treatment with kelp to assist with growth. 

Since I've been using this it's made my nails so much stronger and they grow really fast. 

I would compare it to Sally Hansen's Hard As Nails, which I swore by for years. 

While this is tinted pink, it doesn't really come off that bright on your nails. It gives a very natural look to the nail bed, very similar to the pink tinted Hard as Nails, in my opinion. 

As a comparison, I'd say this is a little thicker than the Hard as Nails formula, but it dries much faster. As in a minute or two tops. It's pretty righteous if you want to use it as a base coat because of the dry speed. 

Eyes

I'm already moderately obsessed with Curl Fix! as it is, so when I saw this being released with the Berry Delicious collection I knew I needed it.

The bottle may be boring old brown, but the color is anything but. There is a gorgeous hint of red to it to go with the chocolate and berry theme of the collection. 

There is good news and bad news with this baby: 

Good news - lasts forevah

Bad news - lasts forevah

I have yet to find a good makeup remover that will take this off easily. I keep meaning to get their curl fix mascara remover thinking that maybe it will do the trick, I just either forget or it's sold out completely. 

I also got these two palettes during my last haul. Between orders and winning a contest, I actually ended up with three of the Berry Delicious Strawberry Fondue palettes, which thrilled the fuck out of me because I absolutely adore the shades that are included. I ended up giving my step-daughter one of them because she's starting to get into makeup hardcore.

The Juice Bar was on sale, like $10 off, so I had to have it.

This picture of the Juice Bar does not do the colors justice. There is so much sparkle and shimmer that I went nuts when I opened it up. 

This palette offers quite a few colors that were already a part of their eye shadow collection, with three new colors (which I've noted below). 

From left to right: 로우 카카오 (Raw Cocoa) (NEW), 생자몽 타르트 (Fresh Tart Grapefruit), 말랑 복숭아 (Soft Peach) (NEW), 오렌지필 (Orange Peel), 머슬 마니아 (Muscle Mania), 오렌시 비앙코 (Orange Bianco) (NEW), 피버 오렌지 (Orange Fever) , 키싱미 키싱구리미 (Kissing Me Kissingurami) , 새로운 레시피 (New Recipe), 향초켜고 거폼목욕 (Herbal Bubblebath - I'm not comfortable with this translation, if it's wrong let me know!)

 I fell in love with this palette from the moment I saw it. A lot of these colors are things I use already, particularly the reds, so I knew I had to have it. 

Colors from left to right: hazelnut chocolate, berry milk chocolate, sugary butter, cheese berry, fresh strawberry, dip! dip!

I am absolutely head over heels for sugary butter. It is so beautiful when it goes on, very shimery and golden. It's not very opaque unless you do a lot of layers. 

If you follow me on tumblr, I posted swatches of these on my fandom blog there when I first got it. 

Random Loves

With spring, I have favorite things that aren't makeup related, yet make me happy, so here's my list!

- My Italy cloth 

- Time to plant my summer garden!

- All of my flowers blooming

- Rainy season

- Pleasant weather

- All of the birds coming back to Florida

- Baby animals!

Those are my spring loves and favorites. Tell me about yours!

Until next time,

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