beauty,
What I have used and loved/hated
Facemasks
Korean beauty products- Facemask edition
What I have used and loved/hated
Living in Korea for so long it was inevitable getting their
beauty products, and I have heard about them for a long while now, even before
all this craze started. I have had Korean friends that sent me products a long
while back and whilst I did not think them amazing at the beginning, I thought
they were good. Things have long changed since then, and most of all now I had
the freedom of choice.
Living in the UK, it is not as easy to get Korean products
here, mostly I would have to buy them online, and to pay £13 for a pack of 10
facemasks, when I could get them in Korea for as little as £6 makes no sense.
Thus I bought them once, loved them, cherished them, but never purchased them
again. Now, with going to Korea, I got to go crazy- well as crazy as my budget
allowed me to go. Before I left home I had it all planned, there was no use to
lug beauty products with me when I could buy and experience new ones. I have to
admit though I did go with my essentials in tow- I can never go anywhere
without my John Frieda Frizzease. My hair does not allow me any other products.
The rest of them? Left them home happily.
Now, I will have to say though, Korean products are mostly
engineered for their skin, meaning, you can find many products that are good
for sensitive, breaking out, dry skin. But since my skin is very close to
breakout free and not that sensitive or dry, but rather oily, I found products
with much difficulty. Moreover, Koreans tend to use a whole range of products
that were very unfamiliar to me. I am talking toner (which I have tried to use
before this but my skin does not take lightly to it so I stopped), emulsified
cream (which is a lighter version of a full on cream), serum (once again a
whole category on its own- much lighter than the emulsion) and cream (here is
the trick, their creams are thick! Unless you get a watery based one such as
cucumber, green tea- mostly creams for oily skin). And they use them all. In
one go. As much as I love using face
products, there is a limit to it, and my skin is not as thirsty. Thus, too many
products make me feel like I tried to drown my face in oil, which make it
produce more oil, which make me breakout.
So I stopped with only face washes, facemasks, cream, and
the occasional use of samples, because lord knows when you go into a beauty
store in Korea you buy two products and leave with a houseful of samples-I am
not complaining!
As beauty brands go, you have again a variety- from high end
ones like Hera (the Nicholas Kirkwood collab was amazing) to not so high end
but still pricey like Etude, to decently priced ad good ones like Nature’s skin
and itsskin etc. I can’t say I have tried them all, but I have tried a few of
them. I will post separate posts on them however. Should be too ashamed to
admit I have tried too many for one blog post but I will admit it proudly.
Facemasks
A great brand that I have found for affordable and good
facemasks is The Face Shop( Online orders here). They have a variety of facemasks for different
types of skins or areas you might have problems in. These are the ones I ordered
for a ridiculous amount and loved. You have Green Tea, Kelp face masks for oily
skin and clearing up, you have lemon and rice for brightening, you have
pomegranate, blueberry for antioxidants, you have cucumber for hydration etc.
There is a wide variety to choose from. The only problem is that they sell them
in 10s and very rarely can buy individually. Now that wouldn’t be a problem if
not for the fact that you get 10s of the same one. If you don’t have a
favourite one, it is a bit inconvenient. What if you don’t like the one you got
and you still have 9 to go through?
Some other brands that I have liked when it came to
facemasks have been a very weird knockoff brand that looks very similar to Soap&Glory
products. Faith in Face is a company apparently set up by experts from Canada,
Korea and UK. However, it appears to be a brand based in Hong Kong. I could not
find it in the UK, I could only find it in Korea and to order from Yesstyle and
their own website (here). They are not pricey at all and you can only find them in
Korea at a store similar to Sephora (or for UK people Superdrug or Boots)
called Olive Young. They have different type of facemasks that are good for
exfoliating, cleansing, purifying etc. I have used them the most ad I have to
admit they are amazing.
For a more casual type of facemask I would say, ones that
once again I have found in that store, Olive Young, Ariul 7 days Mask. (here )
I have to add though, Olive Young sold only foreign
products, so technically it is not exactly Korean, but I found it in Korea so
it doesn’t count. I have found these products online as well so I will put
links to everything I found. However, some of the products, more specifically
the very Korean ones I could only find on Amazon, Ebay or Yesstyle for a bit
more than I got them.
Another facemask that I have loved is the Shingmulnara mask.
It is a brand that is owned by CJ and can only be found in Olive Young. I liked
them for the handy packaging and the fact that their masks are ‘portion size’
and clear masks. For me that was a saver on the plane. I used them on my
flights to and from Korea. Easy to carry around and to put in a Ziploc bag for
security purposes and it being clear it is easy to apply on the plane and leave
it in for those 8 dreadful hours and it will leave the skin pampered and
refreshed. Of course without getting weird looks from your in-flight
neighbours. As I stated in my previous blog post, on long haul flights I enjoy
pampering myself and taking care of my skin. Makes the time pass faster plus it
is a good way to not feel so Debbie Downer once you land.
Miscellaneous masks that I have used and decently hated I would
have to admit were some of the masks from The Face Shop, before I realised the
masks were for different types of skins I have used majority of them, and some
for example the overly hydrating ones such as the cucumber ones and the
blueberry one my skin hated and broke out the second day. Another one that my
skin did not appreciate as much but it fared better than with the previous ones
would be the TonyMoly Goat Milk Moisture Mask Sheet. These smelled amazing, I will
have to give them that, however my skin did not like them. They are highly moisturising,
maybe a tab bit more than my skin needed. My skin felt overwhelmed with all the
moisture that it did not know what to do with it and transformed it into shine
for at least two days after using the mask. For a natural glowy look those
would be amazing, I am more the matte type of girl though.
These would be all the facemasks that I have used and
loved/hated. Wished I have tried on more than that, however I cannot load my
skin with product or else its response would’ve been more forceful than I was
ready to take.
Lox
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