The Face shop - Matte Yellow Nail polish

The Face shop - Matte Yellow Nailpolish

Price : 4000won (~$4)

Matte polishes tend to be disastrous.... I like the look (sometimes), but it works out better with a mattifying top coat, then buying seperate matte nail polishes.

So streaky and so Neon!!

This color, kind of sucks. It has the weirdest texture!!! It is thick and CHALKY and flaky. It is actually really horrible to apply.

You have to put a lot on (since it is so thick), and the finish is really bad, unless you apply it perfectly.

Ugh, it's awful.

Indoor light - looks pastel!

On the plus side, It is neon. Really neon. Under florescent lights, it looks like something from the 80's. The color is kind of awesome. This is a color that REALLY changes in different lighting, you can see in the pictures it can look pastel, bright, or Neon. It's weird.

But the polish is terrible...

On the plus side, it didn't stain my nails!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!!!!!!!!!

Pass or Buy :

The Face shop - Matte polish in Neon Yellow!

The Face shop - Matte polish in Neon Yellow!

Price : 4000won ($4)

Are you ready to hear something stupid???

I bought another Matte, yellow polish from The Face shop. Does anyone remember my DISASTROUS encounter with a yellow matte polish last year???
If not, go read my post! My nails were YELLOW for 6 months!!!!

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this Neon Yellow.  I bought the Neon green too.

I think it's the fact they are Matte, and Matte are so hard to find! I'm not sure If I even like the look of matte polish....

Do you like Matte Nail polishes?

So the Neon yellow, as you can see, it is bright. Under florescent lighting, it is blindingly bright.

The color is really cool. It is so different. I have never before, and never again since seen a color quite like it.

The polish itself is creamy, and super thick. It's like paste, and goes on like glue.
This is quite possibly the worst Nail polish to apply. No definitively, I have never encountered a worse nail polish.

I bought it when It first came out too, so it's not like it is old and dried out. It started out nasty and thick.
It's really really hard to get a smooth coat.  If you look at a closeup of my nails, they look uneven and streaky, it is just that thick.

It also stained my nails. Even with a base coat. Mind you, it was only a slight yellow tint, like day old highlighter, but what a pain!! Not to mention, it is expensive (for a Korean polish, they are generally 1-2$.)

Verdict, AVOID Face shop's Matte polishes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Face Shop -Face it – Nail Quick dryer

The Face Shop -Face it – Nail Quick dryer

Price 7000won ($7)

I know a lot of you out there are fans of the Face shop.  But for me, it’s a brand that has been a bit hit and miss. 2 of my MOST HATED products of last year, were from the face shop. One was a nail polish that stained my nails SO bad, I had to wait until the stain grew out! It was HORRIBLE!!! But on the other hand, 2 of my favorite polishes, 1 of my favorite eye shadows and a few other lovely products have come from there….. It’s totally hit or miss.

The Nail Quick dryer is unlike anything I have ever seen before. I know back in North America there are Aersol quick dryers for nail polish. But honestly, I’ve never used them.

So the Nail Quick dryer is kind of the same idea, it’s a spray, which helps set your nail polish faster.  The difference is, it’s not an Aerosol! Which is good for so many reason. Mostly Aerosols are bad for the environment, but more specifically for my situation, you can’t travel with them…..

The spray itself is easy to use, just a quick squirt on wet nails. It has almost no smell (or at least after the smell of nail polish I can’t smell it!).

As for how well it works…. It’s probably not going to blow your mind….
It does work. Really. But if you spray it on wet polish, it seems to do nothing. It doesn’t instantly make it go hard (tee hee).

What it does, is make the nail polish less… soft.  I HATE it when I’ve spent ages getting my nails perfect, waiting quietly for them to dry, think they are dry, then doing something, only to have the nail polish bunch up. You know, when it’s set on top, but all the layers haven’t quite set yet.

I found I was having this problem often. Not because I didn’t wait long enough in between layers, but the heavy top coat I was using seemed to melt anything already dry. (so I could put the top coat on day old nail polish, and it still will smear….)

So the Nail Quick dryer helps all they layers dry more solidly.

Since I am obsessed with the Konad system, and I now put so many more coats of nail polish on then I used to, the Nail Quick dryer is awesome.

It still takes me just as long to do my nails, but once they are done, they don’t get messed up!

So even though the quick dryer is like $7, it is worth it to help protect works of art. Plus it seems to last FOREVER! :D

The Face shop - Prorance – eye shadow

The Face Shop - Prorance – eye shadow

Price : Forgotten... But it was between $4 and 6

So this little white eye shadow is a bit of an aberration. The face shop has lots of different eye shadows, in lots of different packaging. But his white eye shadow was the only one in the whole series. I noticed it not long after it came out, sitting next to all the other types of eye shadows, in very different packaging. Every other line of eye shadow at the faceshop has Numerous colors.  They even have a sample board, with one of every color de-potted on it, for testing (rather than having the single pots you open yourself). This wasn’t part of any of the color lines, any of the eye shadow lines, it wasn’t on the sample board.

Sure there was lots of the white shadow, but no other colors.

I just found it really odd.

So, I had to buy it. Without testing it! Something I almost never do!

And it is exactly as it appears, a white eyeshadow. With a pressed diamond imprint (which is different from the pressed pattern on all the other shadows!)

But truly, the white shadow is unlike any I’ve encountered. It is VERY white. It is VERY opague. It is the perfect white shadow. I find white shadows are often soft, so when applied to the corner of the eyes, they blend in, or it takes coats and coats to get it to look really white.

This is the perfect white for in the corner of the eyes, or lining beneath the eye. It does have a bit of a pearly sheen to it, and some white sparkle, but since I never use it as an all over shadow, the sparkle is minimal, and the pearly sheen is lovely!

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!!!

The Face shop Matte polish 매트

The Face shop Matte polish

 YL701매트

Price : 4 or 5 something….

So last summer when Matte nails were just becoming fashionable in Korea, The face shop released a small line of Matte Nail polishes! It even says, right on the little label 매트  (matu). Tee hee!

I was ecstatic! I had so wanted to try Matte, but couldn’t find anything in Korea up until that point. Face shop only had four colors at the time, a green, a yellow, and two others(I can’t remember. Does anyone know?) I picked the yellow. It was just so lovely and mustardy.

I didn’t try it right away, I don’t have many clothing options that coordinate with mustard. But finally one night, I painted my nails and had to use it.

I was in a hurry for some reason, and I didn’t base my nails first. I usually do, but I had never had a problem with Korean Nail polishes.
The finish was… ok. It was very matte, and the color was nice, but the texture of the polish was too thick, and it turned out uneven. Plus, since Face shop didn’t release a Matte top coat, I couldn’t top coat it.

I went to work the next day, my nails chipped and flaked, but that’s understandable when you consider there was no top coat.

But then I noticed something odd, where the polish had chipped of, my nail still was colored. My nails looked yellow.

I went home and stripped off the nail polish. It came off easily, but beneath it, my nails were mustard yellow.

I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to remove the stain. Nothing worked. I scrubbed, and buffed and cleaned. Nothing.
So for the next 4, or 5 months I was stuck with yellow nails. OMG it was awful!
I love nail polish, but I was teaching kindergarten, and polish just isn’t practical. It chips after a hard morning with the munchkins. But the yellow was so noticeable! People commented.

I was ashamed.