Favorite Skin Care Products of 2010!!!!!!

Favorite Skin Care Products of 2010!!!!!!

Happy New year!!!

Here are my FAVORITE skin care items of the year! Please comment on your favorites too, I'm already searching for new stuff for 2011! :)

When I was writing this I realized, I haven't review a lot of these items.... *shame* But this week, I will get FULL reviews for all of the ones up! Those already reviewed by me, I have included links for :)

Cleanser

It's a TIE!

Etude house Yogurt Peel in Apple vs Nature Republic Apple Fresh foam cleanserBoth are apple foam cleansers. The Etude house one has scrub particles, but both are gentle enough to use every day. 

Both are soooo gentle, and both make my skin feel fresh and soft, but not dry. They even smell similar!
But the Nature republic cleanser was less than $4!

Toner

Holika Holika Cooling tonerNot only does this toner come in an adorable bottle (Think witches potions), but it's a gel!!! So I don't need cotton pads,  or any thing but my hands to apply it! Plus it's light, cooling, and gentle!

Mask/ Treatment

Skin Food - Papaya yogurt mask - wash off

Notice how I didn't pick a sheet mask as my favorite? I love sheet masks, they are fun, interesting and convenient. But they aren't very good masks. I find wash off masks, or sleeping masks SO much better.  And I have tried Tons of different sheet masks.

The skinfood papaya mask is not pretty, but it makes my skin feel so soft and moisturized, even the next day! Plus it's cheap and lasts for ages!

Serum

Skin79 - New turn therapy serum trio!

I love a good serum. I feel it allows me to customize my skin care. Have this great moisturizer, but you need wrinkle care too? You don't need to settle for a moisturizer that doesn't do either well. Instead combine a serum, wtih targeted needs, and a moisturizer that targets those needs....  What do you think? Multi purpose product (it does simplify), or two products which are great at what they do?

That's partly why I picked this trio of serums. In the winter when the cold weather makes my skin feels dull, I have White Vita C serum to brighten everything up.

When my skin is in sorry shape, I have the repair amino acid serum.
And for all other situations wrinkletox collagen serum
It's an awesome trio. Plus on g-market for the 3 they were under $20!

Facial Moisturizer

Detclear - Moon Night Gel

This is the moisturizer that made me fall in love with gel moisturizers. It absorbs quickly, and makes my skin feel plump and moist. My skin literally feels years younger after using it.  It doesn't have anything that treats wrinkles, it really doesn't multi-task, but it is an outstanding moisturizer.

Body Moisturizer

Etude House Peach Chou Body oil

It is this body oil that has converted me.  I went from hating body oils, to being a little bit in love!
It's certainly messier than a cream, but after a shower, or before bed this body oil offers unprecedented body softening! Plus it smells absolutely Divine!

Sunscreen

Anessa- Perfect UV sunscreen EX
SPF 50+ PA+++

At 47 to 50 dollars for only 60ml, this sunscreen is SOOOOO expensive.
But it is honestly worth it.  My skin is sensitive to sunscreen, and this is so gentle. Plus it makes my cheeks feel like a baby's butt. So smooth, so lovely.  I've tried countless different sunscreen options, for many different countries, and this beats out all of them. It goes on smoothly,  doesn't leave a white cast, is NOT oily or greasy, doesn't clog pores, and last forever.
LOVE IT!

Sunscreen/ Eye brightener
UV Magic Shield by Holika Holika

SPF 50+ PA++

This is a roll up eye brightener stick, with added SPF. I usually don't like eye brighteners, they tend to look obvious, or clump, or are really expensive.

This is a multitasker, it's a gentle eye SPF, it is pink toned, and helps with dark circles, and it works great as a base for BB creams and eyeshadow! 

Coming up NEXT - My favorite Makeup of 2010!!!!!!

BB cream comparison I

BB Cream comparisons 1!


I Love BB creams. They are light, blend easily, moisturizing, and contain sunscreen! Plus a lot of them have whitening, or clarifying, or other benefits! I've given up all other forms of foundation.
With that said, here is a selection of swatches, and a quick comparison of a few Korean BB creams.

Prices:                                      
Frigga: $5                                                  40g
Skin79 Super Blemish Balm: $30           40g
Elisha Coy Shiny Pearl: $27                   50ml
Elisha Coy Always Triple: $27                50ml
Elisha Coy Always Nuddy:$27                50ml
Skinfood Aloe: $9.90                               50g
Etude House Precious Mineral: $8        60g

From the picture you can see pretty well that EC Shiny Pearl and Etude's precious Mineral are the darkest.  

Color wise, Skin79 is the best, followed by Skinfood's Aloe, and Elisha Coy's triple.


Frigga-

I don't like at all :( See my review


Skin79 

I absolutely adore the Skin79 Super Blemish Balm, it was my absolute favorite until I discovered the skin79 Absolute total BB(which is of course more expensive!)It's just super smooth, blends well, stays on all day, and makes my skin look good even without makeup! I use the skin79 stuff all the time. Even though it's really expensive for a BB cream. Here in Korea they generally range from 8 to 20 dollars.
That's reasonable to me. I actually use less, and get better results with a BB than traditional foundation.


Elisha Coy

My second favorite out of this bunch is the Elisha coy Shiny pearl. Even though it's not a great color match. It blends really well, it's beautifully smooth, it has a subtle pearly sheen, and lasts beautifully.

I like it better than the Elisha coy Always Triple, even though it's closer to my skin tone. The always triple is, I think, meant for heavier coverage. It's thicker and more opaque. A bit closer to foundation


The Elisha Coy Always Nuddy I only received in tiny samplers. It's smooth and nice. The color is a bit on the yellow side.


Skinfood Aloe BB

I Adore skinfood, or their skin care, as for their makeup.... But in this case, the Aloe BB is a solid competitor. It's a really good color for Caucasian skin. It's pink toned, but not too pink, and it's quite light. It does come in too shades though for anyone darker. The BB is also light, but tends a bit to the runny side. It's fine for me, I do like sheer coverage.


Etude House Precious Minerals 

Out of all the BB creams I've swatched here, this is the most yellow.  It lightens up considerably when applied. However it is my third most used BB cream. It's cheap, super cheap really at only $8! It lightens up quite well when applied, and as long as I blend a bit around my jaw and neck, the color difference isn't at all noticeable. It has a very neutral very matte finish. Which I find most BB creams do not have. They tend to have a bit of a sheen. Which is fine sometimes, but I like to use this BB on hotter days, when you really don't want a sheen, or when applying a highlighter, so it looks more natural.

Skin 79 BB creams sampler

Size 4x 5g tubes

Price: $11.60 US

Skin79 is a Korean brand with both skin care and make-up. I haven’t used very many Korean skin care products, them being not commonly available in Japan. But since I got a job in Ulsan, I’m going to have to start...

So since I added the skin79 miniature set to a mini order I was doing on Adambeauty.

It comes with 4 mini BB creams.

BB stands for blemish balm. But what BB creams really are a super tinted moisturizers. They are the rage over here in North America...

Anything that eliminates a step from the make-up routine.

So the skin 79 BB creams are basically the same idea. They are tinted moisturizers, most of them with SPF with one or more additional features.

It’s really the additional features that sell me!

I got

Super+ BB

Its UV protection SPF25 Pa++ (considering most tinted moisturizers here are Spf15, or 20 at most, 25 is pretty awesome)

It also claims to be whitening and wrinkle free (whether that means wrinkle minimizing, wrinkle preventing or wrinkle hiding I’m not sure..._

Super + BB – the gold collection

Uv 25++, whitening and Wrinkle improvement

It sounds about the same as the previous one, but the Skin79 website shows a ton of added ingredients, like arbutin and adenosine (both are good for whitening), Q10, phyto complex, Gold and Caviar...

But the full sizes are both the same price... So...

BB diamond collection

It doesn’t say it on the sample tube but it too has Uv 25++, whitening and Wrinkle improvement

according to the Skin79 website.

But apparently this is the newest... It contains many similar components to the other two but it now contains EGF! Which is epidermal growth factor. It’s supposed to help increase cell turnover. (By increasing the growth rate not by removal of dead skin cells.)

BB diamonds collection – Pearl

it’s the same as above, but with added “pearl”

I’ve wanted a BB cream for ages. They seem like the perfect solution to minimize my skin care routine. Now I currently apply a light moisturizer, sunscreen and foundation separately.

I don’t use a tinted moisturizer with all 3 because of the really low SPF (15 is so not enough for me).

I use SPF 50 on a daily basis.

Plus all the ones i’ve tried either have a weird color (too dark or too orange, since tinted moisturizers rarely have more options than light medium and dark) and they tend to irritate my skin. So component in sunscreen actually makes me break out in a rash. For some reason this happens more often with North American brands... It’s horrible. Though I was using the Clinique super city block for a while, but the tint was a little too dark for me, so I had to carefully blend it in.

Anyway... I predicted that the SPF in many BB creams would be better, since BB creams are super light (and it seems to be the heavier the sunscreen the more it irritates me), plus Japanese sunscreen works for me...

The result; I am madly in love with All of the skin 79 BB creams.

Seriously LOVE!

They are all super light, they spread easily and the give light coverage.

As you can see the Super BB and the diamond BB are slightly different in color.

With the Super(s) being slightly darker, and the Diamond(s) slightly more orange,

But once they are spread out they are light enough to blend in perfectly even though they appear to be slightly darker than my skin tone. Honestly once they are on I couldn’t tell you the difference between them (except for the pearl of course.)

It’s the same coverage as the Cover girl trublend I’m currently using as my foundation!

Plus, as you can see from the swatches, there isn’t much color variation between the samples (I expected at least a couple to be totally wrong/ too dark/ too orange.)

But they all are pretty close to my skin tone, and blend like a dream!

They also last well, as good as or a bit better than my CG foundation.

As you can see though, applied they are all basically identical, except for the Pearl.

Sadly it’s not a subtle glow like my Anessa pearly sunscreen. It’s more of a small sparkle.

It’s not quite subtle enough for me for day.

A little too much sparkle when applied all over the face.

But 3 out of being Perfect *Smiles*

Now I just have to decide which one I want in the full size...