Current skin care routine

I have had some major changes to my skin care routine, but this is my current one. I think I am at a point where most parts of my routine has stabilized, however, I am always looking for new and better things to try (not to mention cheaper). For the most part, though, I think I have found what works best with my skin.

1. Cleansing
This is one of the parts of my routine that is forever changing. For the most part I have not yet found a great foaming cleanser. The Clean & Clear cleanser (in purple) was given to me by a friend of mine, it didn't work for her. I had previously purchased it, it wasn't all that wonderful, but it was usable, I will be searching for something better after I empty this one.
The pink bottle is a DHC oil cleanser, it removes EVERYTHING, and I do mean EVERYTHING. Including waterproof mascara (which I cannot live without). This is supposedly the more mild version of their ever popular oil cleanser (which I have used samples of). I am going back to the regular version, as this mild one actually stings my eyes a little, and I don't see any difference in the ability to remove make up. Both versions of the DHC oil cleanser are wonderfully amazing. It goes on greasy like cooking oil, but with one splash of water, the skin becomes squeaky clean (and you can actually feel the squeaky-ness of it!)


2. Scrubbing
Also something I am still searching a HG for. Both these scrubs doubles as cleansing masks as well, however, I don't really see any results for using it as a mask. The pink tube is Kevin Beauty Maker (Taiwan brand), the consistency is a bit watery, but it smells great. The scrub granules (or whatever you call it) are fairly minuscule, I can barely feel any scrubbing with it. As a mask it doesn't do much either. The Garnier one had pretty good reviews on Make-up Alley, but was not good for my skin. It is SUPER drying. I can physically see my skin flake off after using it as a mask. As a scrub the granules are much larger and I can indeed feel the scrubbing action. I actually like the Garnier more the the Beauty Maker one (if I had to choose). Garnier one I can put it on as a mask, and when I am washing it off, it acts as a scrub. Whereas the Beauty Maker one, if I use it as a mask, the granules melts away with time, so there is not scrubbing benefits while washing it off (although it does not leave my skin super dry). I hardly use either of them, because Garnier is so drying and Beauty Maker is so useless.



3. Masking
I have quite a collection of masks (one of those addiction problems I have). These ones in the picture are the left over ones. The white tube in the back is Origins' Drink up. It's a moisturizing mask (as are most of these in the picture). I don't use it a lot because I don't really see any results with it. I purchased Origin's Clear Improvement (charcoal mask) a few months after I got the Drink up and I've already finished that one last year (that by the way was really good).

The black tube is a pore peeling gel. It smells kinda nasty (like glue), but it works wonders. The instruction says to apply the gel on the nose (I apply it to the chin and forehead as well), let dry than u rub it off. It rubs off like dried glue, but I can visibly see that my pores are smaller. Although I would not recommend it for people with skin that is not that elastic (i.e. if you are old-er)

The 3 little tubs in front is a brand call St. Clare (Taiwanese brand again). The green one has tea tree in it and suppose to prevent pimples and oily skin. Pink one is rose, suppose to brighten the face and moisturize. The purple one is lavender suppose to help with sleep and calms sensitive skin. These are call "good night masks" so you actually apply and sleep in them, than wash them off in the morning. I got them in a set (these are trial sizes) with a bar of hand made soap. The consistency is jelly like. They are definitely not wonder jelly, they didn't do much for my skin.

Last but not lest, the box of green in the back. These are sheet masks from My Beauty Diary (Taiwanese brand yet again), and these are in green apple. They have a bunch of "flavours" my favorite one is the apple and red wine. These are wonderful! I can see immediate results after taking them off, and I get these on sale so they are not too expensive either. The only thing I have against them is that the essence is a bit sticky, but I compensate that by using a toner. (also a word of warning, don't try the white pearl one, I got a bad reaction from it)



4. Day
I am not a big fan of using sunscreen on my face (cannot stand the greasy-ness of it) so all my day lotion must have SPF (my base make up also has SPF). I am currently using the Clarins Bright Plus. This is my 2nd time using this lotion, I loved it so much the first time so I thought I'd give it another try. This time the result wasn't as amazing though. The first time I tried it was 5 years ago, the bottle was made in frosted glass, and the price was $60. This time the bottle is in plastic and the price hiked to $65. It's not a terrible lotion, but definitely not worth the price. I have an Estee Lauder cyber white line SPF 50 (only available in Asia) as back up, so won't be looking for anymore until that's used up.

PRE is a local (Vancouver based) skin care line, short for Pure Radiant Energy. I use their toner. I use to use Kiehl's Calendula Herbal Extract toner, but it was wayy too pricy for my wallet, and then my friend introduced me to PRE. This 240ml bottle of toner is 16 dollars, compared to the Kiehl's 250ml bottle for 52 dollars (in Canada). But I still find that I use too much of it, and it's still costing quite a bit... I think I will skip the toner step once i finish this bottle and see how that goes.

The smaller jar is an eye cream, it's a Japanese brand call Ishizawa Labs. Suppose it's got urea and Hyaluronic acid in the formula and it's uber moisturizing, I am still in the process to see amazing results, but so far I like it better than the Kiehl's Avocado eye cream that I use to use (and still have)

The larger jar is another Taiwanese line, it's by the same creator as Beauty Maker, but it's call Vin Vin. It gas a jelly consistency, and works like an essence for day time. It's not too bad, and I love the cooling effect it has when applied.


5. Mid-day
On a normal day, I get home from work I will take off my make up right away, during this time and the time I take a shower and sleep, there's about a 4 to 5 hour gap. So between this time I will need something to keep my face moisturized. But since I'll be washing it off in 4 or 5 hrs, I refuse to pay over 20 dollars of this in between moisturizer. So I got this 9 dollar moisturizer from Garnier. Not the best moisturizer I've used (drug store or not), but good enough for the purpose.

6. Night
So this is probably the most important part of my skin care regiment. I also use the PRE toner at night (I just didn't put it in the line up). I start with the toner, than I put on the Vin Vin moisturizing serum (pink bottle), than I use the eye cream (same as the day time one), and move on to pimple spot treatment (the blue tube), this is DHC again it's got sulfur in it, which seems to work well on my skin (nothing else has worked this good). Then all over the face I use my Biotherm age fitness night cream. This is my 2nd jar of this stuff. It started out as a sample and then I just had to buy it. My skin has never been so smooth in the morning. But I pay a price for it ($62 CND). I have recently purchased another jar on HaulteLook for half off, and also got 2 bottles of Skin Vio line for my mom. Previous to this I was using Elizabeth Arden Good Night's Sleep, which did not do anything to help me sleep.


7. Body care
Lastly, the cheapest skin care I own, my body care items. I have been using St. Ives lotion for YEARS, it's the only lotion that's not sticky and is not overly greasy and yet moisturizes enough for me. For feet, I use vasline and special foot cream, because I have crazy rough feet! There's nothing much I can elaborate on for body care..hahaha

First English Blog + Blush Holisim

I have actually been blogging for a while, but have always been typing in Chinese (if you can read Chinese please head to 多喝水 ). A few friends who knows I do beauty blogs have suggested that I start a blog in English, so I am trying that now. Hopefully I can keep this up. I will try to post as often as I do with my Chinese blog. I am still figuring out some of the formats and such with blogspot, so please bear with me, while I am still a newbie. So here goes nothing!
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I am a bit of a blush-holic, I wasn't always a blush-holic, but in recent years I have fallen IN LOVE with NARS blushes. My first blush ever was a NARS deep throat. I purchased it because my friend had recommended it when I asked her what brand of blush to get. She actually suggested MAC and NARS, I wasn't a big fan of MAC back then so I decided to go for NARS. Originally I was deciding between the colours deep throat and orgasm (the most popular colours), and went (obviously) with deep throat. And so started my crazy descend into blush-holism. I currently own 5 NARS blushes, and a few other brands (including MAC).

5 NARS blushes in Deep throat, Angelika, Torrid Dolce Vita, and my newest NARS Mata Hari (obviously the ones with NARS on them)
1 Kevin Beauty Maker in pink (white round one with a bow on top)
1 MAC Ombre blush in Vintage Grape (the pink and purple gradient one in the back)
1 DHC in OR02 (the champagne one up front)
1 Physicians Formula, I have no idea what the colour is called, I got this from a friend (the round one in silver)

Here they are again opened up, and swatches are to follow

Here are some swatches of the blushes

Kevin Beauty Maker one is the more cooler tone pink (on the right), the more orangy one is the Physician's Formula they are both matte
This is the DHC blush, it's very very VERY light orange. from the left to right, it's from the darkest to the lightest, and at the far right it's the mix of colours (if you can even see). It's got a pearly sheen to it, but it's almost un-noticeable on the face. It gives quite a lovely hint of colour to the cheeks.


This one is the MAC, on the left hand side (going vertical) is the purple and pink blended together, the top right is the pink, bottom right is the purple. This is actually a pretty hard blush to use, because every time you mix you get a different shade of pink. Plus I prefer more pink than purple, so it's even harder to get the same tone of pink. Though I still love this blush (it's sooo pretty to look at!)

Here are all my NARS blushes! I love them sooo much! From left to right Deep throat, Torrid, Angelika, Dolce Vita, and Mata Hari. The first three all have glitter, deep throat and torrid's glitters are less obvious though (which I like). Angelika has very obvious glitter, but I love the colour. Dolce vita is matte, and very red, it's not my go to blush for sure. Mata Hari is my current favourite. The pink is slightly redder than angelika, but no glitter (yeh!)
I honestly don't know when and why I started to have a collection of blushes. I use to only buy eye make up (which I also have a huge collection of). When I first started using make up, I thought blushes were the most useless make up item ever! It wasn't until I started using foundation that I realized how important blushes are, even then, I thought one blush would be enough, boy was I wrong. The colour of the blush affects the entire look of your make up (or that's just an excuse for me to buy more blushes! haha). For me, cool pink-toned blushes give a cuter girlier look, and should be paired with lighter eye make up (such as my Mata Hari/Angelika). Darker, red-toned blushes are better paired with more mature make up (such as my Dolce Vita). And warm orange-toned blushes are for a more natural look (such as my deep throat/DHC). That's my take on blushes. I also have an urge to collect all the NARS blushes, but recently I have been introduced to Giorgio Armani, which is apparently better than NARS (but twice as expensive). I have been able to resist purchasing it, but I did touch the blush, and it is sooooo smooth! The GA brand does not have as many colours as NARS, but there are a few that look like NARS, but I think I will stick with my NARS. 28 dollars is more affordable than 50 bucks!