Etude House - Angel Kiss Lip and Cheek

Etude House - Angel Kiss Lip and Cheek

Price: 7500won (~$7.5)
Color : Darling Angel (Peach/pink)

Are you obsessed with cream blushes??? I am, they look so bright and young and fresh, and blend so easily! (that was a lot of 'ands')
But first the name.... Etude House - Angel Kiss Lip and Cheek in Darling Angel - That is a serious mouthful! Why in the world does the name need to be so loooooooooong!!!
I feel bad for the Koreans trying to translate it!

And the packaging.... eww. I'm not really into angel motifs. It's both too plain (just a clear jar with a pink cover and no style) and over designed (the useless 'angel wing' wrapper and the ugly picture on the cover.)

What do you think? I normally like Etude's packaging, even if it tends to be overly pink and frilly.

Inside, is ALOT of blush. For a cream blush. It's kind of huge, and deep.
It's also made of Glass, for anyone who wants to buy it, so it's kind of heavy to ship.

So the actual blush.
You can see that the color is a pale peach/pink. I used to be obsessed with peach/pink blushes, mostly because I had warmer toned skin and hair (I am am even paler now, if that's possible).
Now, I am not as keen on peach pink, because it doesn't work with my coloring. However this is a nice color. It is in between light pink  and peach, so it is a more flexible color, with good range. For a peach, it has a slightly cool tone. It applies a bit more peach than it appears.

The texture itself  is really nice, soft and creamy. It feels like one of those cream foundation compacts, as in thick and dense, but smooth and creamy.
It is also Super pigmented!!!!
It blends really well, but I have to be careful in application, its really easy to take too much. I have to use about 1/4 of what I would for a Canmake cream blush.  Again, it really does blend well, so just be careful!

So between the giant size, and the super pigmented, it's really good value for the money.
It also lasts well, for a cream blush. Better than I am used to.
oh.... and as a lip product - It's useless. But really when is a cheek product ever good on the lips? Really????

All in all, the product is really solid, I really want another color, maybe just pink!

Conclusion

Most Loathed products of 2010

Most Loathed products of 2010

Living in Korea, buying things can be hit and miss. I don’t speak enough Korean to read all of what’s on a label, or to ask many questions about an item. So often I buy things that really don’t work out.  But honestly, I have been far more successful buying skin care and makeup here, in Korea, than I ever was back home.

Honestly, I find Korean Makeup and skin care to be of better quality, more inventfull, and just generally more awesome.  But there were a number of products that didn’t just suck, items that I truly hated.

 Nature republic – Eau de Shine

 What in the world this is? I don’t know. I thought when I bought it, it was a blush. It just looked so pretty.

The four colors are bright, vibrant and interesting!

It’s not a blush. It’s not pigmented enough. It turns almost white on the skin. 

Which made me think it might be a finishing powder. But if it is, it sucks. 2 of the colors are sparkly, very sparkly. So it’s far too sparkly to be a finishing powder, plus it does have some pigment, and looks odd.

Worst of all, the price I paid 16,900 won (almost $17!!!!!!). *SIGH* it was such a depressing waste. Plus, they have now repackaged the same product in a new box. Don’t be fooled! It still sucks!!!!!!!

The second worst nail polish ever!

The face shop - Triple finish 

This nail polish looks gorgeous in the bottle, chunky shimmery flakes at the bottom, a layer of pink, then a layer of clear.

I wasn’t precisely sure what it was. It came in a box, that proclaimed at the top Triple finish.

So I suspected it was a top coat.

I brought it home,  shook it up, and tested it out. It went on very clear, with a hint of shimmering flakes. So I was certain it was indeed a topcoat, there wasn’t enough pigment to be a polish.

I did 3 coats, I really liked the shimmer, and I wanted it to show.

I went to bed, my nails looked lovely in the morning, shimmery with a touch of pink. Then I went off to work the next morning.

It wasn’t until lunch time I noticed something, my finger nails looked funny. All dark and grey.

I went to the bathroom and washed my hands.

It wouldn’t come off. The dirt and grime of working with kindergarten kids had attached to the nail polish. Turning my nails grungy and grey (they looked like lint).
They looked SO Dirty! It was gross. And, worse, it wouldn’t come off!!!!!!!!

The nail polish is so weird. It isn’t smooth or slick at all, so all the dirt attaches to it, then won’t come off.

I removed all the nail polish immediately when I got home.

Yuck.

Skinfood – Carrot Cleansing oil

This is the first product from skinfood I have ever truly disliked.

It’s a cleansing oil, as you might have guessed by its name. It even does an excellent job at cleansing, removing make-up cleanly and thoroughly.

But, it’s terrible none the less. I made the mistake of using it to remove my mascara. I find oil makeup removers usually do a much more thorough job of removing makeup than anything else, and are my preference for removing Majorica Majolica. But the carrot cleansing oil stings, and makes my eyes red for days. Ugh it’s horrible.

But, I admit, my eyes can be sensitive to make up removers. So I continued to use the carrot cleansing oil on my face, just not around the eyes. For the eyes I use the WONDERFUL eggplant eye makeup remover by skinfood. But after a few days, I noticed my skin breaking out! It never does that!

It was the stupid cleansing oil.

And a co-worker, whom I dragged to skinfood because it is so amazing, and we bought the carrot oil together, found the same thing!!!!

The worst Nail Polish EVER!!!!!!!

Let me tell you a harrowing story. One day, excited to try out my new The Face shop polish, I failed to base coat my nails. I have ever so many polishes from the faceshop, and they have always been gentle on my nails, so that day, because I was in a hurry, I failed to base.

I covered them with a thick coat of Matte yellow. So mustardy, so modern. I was thrilled.

The finish was ok, a bit rough, and uneven, but the color was something. Wow.

I went to work, and went about teaching children English. It was lovely, until I noticed my nails chipping. Not a big deal I thought, until I looked closer. And my nails looked yellow, even where the polished had chipped off.

At the end of the day, I rushed home, cleaned off my nails, only to discover, they were bright mustard yellow. I tried everything. The color would not go away.
For months I cleaned and buffed. But in the end, I had to wait, 5 months, 5 long embarrassing months, for the color to finally grow out.

So that marks the end of my most hated items of the year.  There were many more I disliked, or wasted money on, or were just bad. But for some reason, these were the ones that bothered me the most.
I have posted full reviews of all of them.

 And I would Love to hear about your most loathed items!!!

Nature republic - Eau de Shine - Prism blossom Powder

Nature republic - Eau de Shine - Prism blossom Powder
Price 16,900 won ($17)
Size : 20g

Ah Nature Republic, how I hate thee.

It was payday, and I was on my way home. Heading the long way to pick up something from the Bakery for breakfast, when the shiny newness of the local Nature republic pulled me into it's depth. A dire mistake.

Usually I don't blow money on things that I honestly have no use for. Generally I try to be sensible, and not wooed by pretty packaging.

I try at least.

But on this day, my will power was weak. It might have been the long day of work, the fact I hadn't eaten since noon, or the flush of money my once a month pay day instills. Whatever it was, I spent $14.50 on this piece of junk.

It's a plastic container, albeit shiny and sleek, containing four seperate loose powders, in pale peach, purple, pink, and a brighter more intense pink.

I brought it home, only to discover that as lovely as the loose powders look to be in the package, they are woefully un-pigmented. I swatched tehm on my arm, in the picture they look pale, but I put like 5 coats on, to get them to show that much color. It doesn't work as a blush at all. 

They are far more like a finishing powder than a blush. Not even shimmery, so unusable as a highlighter.

I've considered it might be a finishing powder, even though the box says blush. And so I've attempted using it as such, with limited results. It can be used as a finishing powder. It does work.... It's certainly pale enough. But it's not a very good finishing powder, and the peach colored section contains sparkles. I personally don't like sparkly finishing powders.

This stupid container was a complete and utter waste of money.

Etude house - Peach Beam blusher

Etude house - Peach Beam blusher

                          

The whole peach line from Etude house is WONDERFUL! But sadly it only contains a handful of items. This is the newest addition, a two tone blusher. The style is very similar to a lot of companies in Korea, a lot of eyeshadows and blushes are showing up in this crescent moon shape. In fact I adore the similar looking eyeshadows from Holika Holika.

I can't be certain, since it does not say on the package, but I am fairly certain it is a BAKED blush. It has the mounded shape, and the texture of a bake powder.

The blush comes in three choices.  I picked #3 Peach beam.

It contains 2 colors, a peach toned pink and an orange ( contrary to the name this half is more orange then peach.)

Swatches- The middle is the two colors blended!

Both colors are very pearly, which I find weird since the lighter color is meant to be a highlighter(in which case it makes more sense for the blush to be matte, or at least less pearly.... Don't you think?) 

Not only is it pearly but it's sparkly too! It has tiny golden sparkles. It is definitely a very Young looking blush!

I am willing to bet that this alone would put off a lot of you reading this.  But the truth is the colors are lovely! They are soft, and beautifully coordinated, the  blush is soft and fine, and of medium strength.

So really, I think it's very wearable. Especially since blush is usually very subtly applied. I feel that with a light hand, The Peach Beam blusher is lovely. It's warming, and softening, and just gives a face light.

I adore this blush, I really should have picked up all three colors...

As you can see the blush is pearly, but the sparkles are barely noticeable. It can be lovely and subtle!

Canmake Cream Cheek

Canmake Cream Cheek -
Price 600yen ($6+)Most people familar with Japanese cosmetics will be familar with the drugstore brand Canmake. I generally don't pick up their things, because they always look so tiny for the price. But after hearing that the cream blush is good, and being entranced by the pretty peach color, I picked it up last time I was in Japan. The packaging is really small, it's bigger than a dollar coin, but not by much....
Inside is a dense cream blush.
A dense, BEAUTIFUL blush.

This is my absolute Favorite blush ever! It is just gorgeous. Seriously gorgeous. It's super pigmented, but super blendable. I take the tinest bit on a finger tip, and rub it ontop my cheeks. I can totally build and adjust the amount of color to my liking. 
And oh the color, it's just gorgeous, it's bright, but not too bright, it's sweet but not childish. It's peach but not orange.
It's jsut too beautiful. I'm tempted tp buy 5 and hide them away, in case this color is ever discontinued. It is just that gorgeous. Everyone should have one.

Tony Moly Green Lip tint

Tony Moly - Greeeeen lip tint???
Price: 3500 won ($3.50)

Last week I posted an entry on my V-day Haul :). And it was requested that I post a review of a couple of the Tony Moly products. So, I bumped it up on my to do list :)

I'm not sure what in the Hell this thing is supposed to be. It's a lip products, and it's green.... But whether is's a gloss, a lip treatment, a lip tint, or something in between, I'm not sure.
I checked out the Tony Moly website, but translating the info on the product really didn't give me any answers.
Ah well, It is too cool not to buy!.
The lip tint( What I've decided to call it...) comes in a BORING black and clear tub. I hate lip gloss tubs.
I don't mind using a lip brush, but I never seem to have on around when I need one.
I find this sort of packaging is typical of Tony Moly, they have 3 styles of packaging
1. Completely utilitarian, often in black, or one or two colors, not pictures or designs.
2. Packaging decorated with old (1930's style maybe?) images of women. - which is pretty but not my style
3. Fruit.... As in life size plastic replicas (tacky but cute).
Utilitarian is fine by me, as long as the stuff works.

So inside the boring tub is a green gel, that looks exactly like a jelly sort of dessert...
And smells just lightly of fruit. I really like the faint but tasty scent!!

Application of the tint is easy, dab a brush or finger into the pot, and rub.... The stuff is super thick, so fingers actually work far better than a lip brush...
It loosens up with heat.
The green immediately starts turning pink.
Bright pink. 80's pink.

There are two other colors available at Tony Moly, a clear pot and a pink one. Both turn Pink. When I swatched them in the store they did appear to be different shades, with the clear being the palest.
It takes a really light hand to apply this without over doing it. With that said though, when applied lightly, its a very young, very sweet look.
The finish on the lips is somewheres between a tube lip gloss (think lip chap or Bonnie Belle), almost matte, with just the barest shine, and a lip tint.  It does stain the lips, but it also rubs off...

The color changing thing made me thing of O-Glow/ O-gloss thing by Smashbox. So I immediately proceeded to rub it onto my cheeks. And... WOW.
It looks amazing. It's a super natural, easy to blend, cheek color! And in fact looks almost precisely like O-glow (which long long ago I use to love, but gave up on the price and lack of versatility).
How awesome is that????  as a cheek color, it's not sticky, or shiny at all. It blends in just like a cheek tint ( so it's not like applying lip gloss on your cheeks)
Plus since O-glow is like $26, and this is like $3.5.... um... thats a huge price difference....
Therefore as a lip product, its cool, and works really well for 'nude but better' lips. But as a blush, its Perfection!

Skinfood Apple Can Multi Blusher

Skinfood Apple Can Multi Blusher

Hidden in a little orange can is a fluffy white poof, a nice sized mirror, and a 3 colored blush.

Skinfood thus far hasn't wowed me with their cosmetics, not in the way they have with their skin care, but this little blusher, in it's atrocious can is a lovely product.

The three colors are pale peach, pink-orange and pale pink. All 3 colors are lightly shimmery.

The stripes of color are wide enough that if one were to use a small brush, each could be used.
And oddly if you use the giant puff that's included, it will pick up two of the three colors distinctly.
The poof is actually too large to swirl inside the deep sides of the pan, and the only real way to use it is to have distinct lines of color. I'm not sure if this was intentional on the part of skinfood. It is quite odd in my opinion. Especially when the product itself is so shallow....

If you look at the colors in the can, the middle color looks intense, and very on the orange side.
Once applied, whether swirled or not, its a beautiful soft peachy pink.
It's one of the most natural looking peach-pink colors I've come across.

There is a bit of shimmer, but its super subtle.
Over all it's a lovely blush. Lovely enough I might pick up some other colors....

Beauty Credit - Lovely oven blusher -01 Pink

Beauty Credit - Lovely oven blusher -01 Pink

Price: 13500 won ($13)
Beauty credit is a makeup line I just recently discovered here in Korea. I thoroughly dislike the little rocking horse mascot on most of the products, too cutesy for me. But otherwise the brand is quite exciting.
The prices are cheap to reasonable, the packaging is pretty, and there seems to be a good selection.
The Lovely oven blusher was really really cheap for a baked blusher at only 13500 won ( $13). Generally anything oven baked goes for closer to $20.
The packaging is pretty but simple, in a black compact with iridescent flowers, and no rocking horse (yay!)

Inside is a nice quality brush. A lot of Korean included brush are of really nice quality, and actually worth using.

There is also a little fold out tray to keep the brush separate from the product.
The blush itself is in 01 Pink. The line includes 3 colors in total with the other two looking very orange and, very brown.
Even this is a mix of white pink and a brown almost terracotta.
Unlike most marble blushers, this one looks barely marbled. Which I find odd. The testers of the other colors looked more like what one would expect a marbled product to look like.
But since you swirl it all together in the end, it doesn’t matter to me.

The blush in the compact look quite sparkly. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the product is both shimmery, and sparkly.
I don’t like sparkly blushes. Shimmery yes, sparkly no.
When applied the color is beautiful, It’s a sheer natural pink that builds easily into a very natural color.

And when applied, even somewhat heavily, the blush is not at all sparkly.
There is a very obvious shimmer, but in a work appropriate way.
It looks like I’ve taken the time to apply both blush and a good highlighter.
The effect is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
It gives me a flushed glow.
I love love love this blush.
Between the inexpensive price, and the expensive look it creates, I will definitely rebuy!

Missha - Shimmering Oven Blusher

Color:  No. 11 Shimmer Blossom

Price: 17800won ($17) But it was on sale for $8!!

The author of the Lotus Palace Blog seems to adore baked shadows and blushes.  Since she is so often right about  these things I’ve been itching to try some myself. But since Oven baked products are usually twice as expensive as regular blushes and eyeshadows, and since I rarely use blush…. I haven’t been buying.

But then of course, Missha was having a sale, and their beautiful Shimmering Oven Blusher was 50% off!!!
I couldn’t possibly resist.

The packaging is beautiful. The blush comes in a surprisingly large shiny purple compact. The top is decorated with raised circular bumps and a clear crystal in the center. Pretty, but not frilly.
I am perplexed by the physical size of it. It’s nearly an inch and a half thick, and the blush is less than half that size. It’s nearly double the width of other baked blushers….
Weird.

As soon as you open the compact, the scent of the product wafts up. It’s far more scented than most powders I’ve used here in Korea. Which is saying something because Korean products generally do have some scent.
That being said the scent is not unpleasant, a very fresh rose scent (different than they cloying rose scent commonly thought of in North America).
And when wearing the product the scent is not noticeable.

Inside the compact is the rounded brush you get in just about every blush of this style.The brush is of surprisingly cheap quality, and too rough for me.

Below the brush is a cheap, throw away plastic separator. Keeping the brush from the product.
This is bizarre for a Korean blush, since generally compacts come with a solid plastic shelf to keep the brush on.  A flimsy throw away one is not what I’d expect from a nice brand like Missha.

The product itself is 4 colors, dark pink, very light pink, yellow tan and white.
There is some sparkle evident , but it appears to be minimal and finely milled.

When swatched, the product is not a blush at all!!!!!!
*sigh* it’s a highlighter.  I thought it was a blush. So in that respect I’m disappointed.
As a highlighter, it’s super pale, and very very low impact. It takes a lot of the product to show up at all.
Like it takes 3 or four heavy swipes to even create a super subtle effect.
If I drag my finger along the top, I can barely tell there is product there!!!

Can you see the swatch in this image? No? It's not the photo believe me.

3 photos, in decent lighting, but nothing. In real life, it looks the same. And all the pictures had like 4 or 5 heavy heavy layers.

Once it’s applied heavily enough to be visible, the product is let down by  the density of sparkles…
They are very finely milled, and for sparkles they are quite subtle, but by the time there is enough product on the face to be visible, you end up with a good layer of sparkle.

As it is, this is more like a baked body sparkle dust than a highlighter or a blush.
It’s quite disappointing.

Conclusion : Even on sale this was not worth it! It’s going to sit in my make up collection, un-used, collecting dust.

Missha Show powder blusher

Missha Show - powder blusher

Price: 8000won/ $8 (On sale 3500won/$3.50!!!!)

Color: Tyra 

Beauty bloggers out there seem to have an consensus on stamp style blushes, they suck.

Here in Korea, Stamp blushes are everywhere.  

I have tired them personally, with not very good results.

But when I saw this blush by Missha, it was so pretty and the blusher color so perfect, and the price, unbelievable, I had to snap it up.

With stamp blushes I usually just remove the stamp sponge (most screw off) and use the blush like a loose powder. Not an ideal solution, but better than having two stamped circles on each cheek.

The Missha blush is encased in shiny silver and clear plastic. Making the packaging gorgeous, though a smudge magnet.

Inside is the basic sponge top.

The blush itself is a pinkish peach with gold sparkles.

In the store I fully expected this to be an occasional use blush. Big gold sparkles are too much for me to wear to work.

To my delight, when applied the sparkles are surprisingly subtle.

The sponge applicator is also better than other brands I’ve tried. It deposits only a small amount of color with each pass, making it easy to create a natural look, and preventing two circles of color.

The blush is also sheer to light. Making it build-able.

In all honesty this is the first time a stamp blusher has worked in such a way as to be useable!

Plus the color is gorgeous.  Its pink enough to go with my Caucasian skin tone, and peach enough to be warm and super flattering with green eyes.

I really really like this blush. Enough that when I run out I will probably go out and buy it at regular price!