Sasa Haul

God, don't you just love it when a package you ordered arrives when you're in the midst of a big spending/haul ban? Well, not necessarily a ban per sé, more like I don't really have the allocation of funds for a self-absorbed hauling. I originally went browsing on Sasa searching for raved about mascaras as I thought it was a bit pricey to splurge on the YSL Baby Doll Mascara in this moment of college-student-poorness (pre-spending and -haul ban, mind), and what caught my eye was the KOJI Lash Specialist Volume mascara. And, of course, I went through the "clearance" section and "new" section like I usually do whereby I spotted another interesting mascara by FITS called Megaholic Wax Curl Keeper WP and the cute Suki Moisturize CC Cream. 

It had been a while since my last Sasa purchase, so I had a couple items still waiting in my favourites until I gave in and put them in my cart such as the Tony Moly Broccoli Sprout Cleansing Cream and also waiting until a previous favourite came back in stock like the Skin Food Peach Sake Toner. Well I guess the stars aligned, because this "casual browsing" was turning more and more into "confirm payment".

Tony Moly Broccoli Sprout Cleansing Cream

Does Tony Moly not have the cutest packaging ever? Mind you, it's also pretty ridiculously large and sometimes inconvenient... or misleading like their Egg Pore series which, considering the size of the packaging, is mostly empty. This product, however, is pretty damn weighty at 200ml and packed to the brim. I purchased this as, well, a cleansing cream as the name implies, to remove the makeup off my face before I do a full cleanse. 

Skin Food Peach Sake Toner

I love their entire Peach Sake line. It smells wonderful and works wonderfully too. This was my favourite toner, and when I sadly finished it, I went back to Sasa to repurchase and it was no longer available, neither on other sites - so hard to find! Luck was on my side, however, what timing I would check Sasa after such a long period and it be back on the site. 

Suki Moisturize CC Cream in Shade 01

I've never actually heard of the brand Suki and searching around the interwebs for the review of this product were not too helpful. Simply because there weren't many at all! It wasn't all that expensive, and I'm very much in love with the idea of a CC cream and I really quite liked the shape of the bottle... So here's hoping that my faith was not misplaced in this mildly adventurous product.

FITS Megaholic Wax Curl Keeper WP mascara

Good god, can you say ridiculous packaging? Do you see in the picture where the mascara is? And next to it? That's a big flipping piece of plastic packaging attached. But it's cute, and thin, so maybe forgiveable. Honestly, what grabbed my attention was not really the goofy cute illustration of the woman with bazongas and ridiculous mutant eyelashes, but that it's a wax mascara. I mean, I know mascaras have wax in them, so it made me curious why the wax in this one was so important. Oh and the "WP" in the name is for waterproof.

KOJI Lash Specialist Volume mascara

KOJI has never let me down, despite not having a heap of products by them. So this mascara intrigued me what with the numbers (apparently a 4.3mm is the size of the brush?) and the unusual square brush. So what the hey, might as well test another mascara out, nevermind the other mascaras I have that I still need to try. But again, look at the ridiculous packaging. And the brush wand itself is like, two thirds of the entire mascara. That's not what I mind so much, just something to keep in mind. Expectations of what you'll get and what not.

I've ordered from Sasa a buttload of times (to use the medical term). My packages have always arrived in a timely manner and each product well handled (comes in a box with packing peanuts and products are wrapped in bubblewrap). I've even made it to VIP status, giving me a discount on each purchase I make (as well as VIP-only specials). And yeah. I guess Sasa is a nice starting point for those interested in (mostly) Asian skincare and makeup, everything ships nicely and in a timely manner and, in my experience, I've never had anything go wrong or any issues. So here's hoping the products themselves are just as good.

Elderflower and Trees of Tea

I popped into The Body Shop on my lunch break today, on the intention of having a look at their new line of lipsticks that I've been reading about on certain blogs. Well, it turns out those UK blogs I've been reading have clearly blogged about UK releases and so I was too early for those precious lip products, but it had been so long since I last went into The Body Shop, there were a number of things catching my eye. Alas, as the time for my lunch break is limited, I only played with a few things, and what I humbly settled on was the Elderflower Unperfumed Eye Gel and the Tea Tree Skin Clearing Toner. Had I more time to browse, I would have picked up a body oil and probably some skincare for the hubby, as they had quite the range of male skincare products what with father's day nearing and all.

I've never actually had a lot of products from The Body Shop, be it skincare or bodycare or makeup. But I have had a couple of products from each section, and while they all did their job pretty damn adequately, they never super-wowed me or maybe it was due to my younger self not realizing that these products were actually decent considering the prices for them. I don't know what really enticed me to pick up these two products, but I guess I needed a new eye cream and I always love toner. 

This Tea Tree Skin Clearing Toner is interesting, in that you have to "shake to activate". I chose the tea tree toner out of all their others, simply because tea tree has done wonders for my skin in clearing up any acne and it's an anti-bacterial too. I used this sucker tonight, and oh boy, it cleaned up my face like nothing before. It was really gentle on the skin though, with a very lotion-y scent of course with a hint of tea tree, but that cotton pad had so much dirt (embarrassingly) after I swiped it all over my face. So I swiped another pad with the toner on it all over again, and it was still very nice; my skin didn't feel stripped, but it was clean and toned and just nice.

The eye cream, or should I say gel was a pretty easy pick. I saw it on the shelf, with the nice clear jar and the nice black lid and I love simple packaging. It's unperfumed and practically odourless (besides a faint smell of elderflower, which is faint in itself) and so ridiculously lightweight, I'm guessing most of the weight comes from the jar itself rather the product. A very smooth gel, I swatched this on my hand in the store and it absorbed in really, really nicely, a tad sticky that went away, and my skin felt smooth where I applied it and, again, just nice. It really feels like the perfect gel.

I will clearly be popping back into The Body Shop sometime soon. I mean, I must have missed so much stuff since the last time I was there. And if the rest of their range, especially the tea tree range, is as promising as what I tried out tonight, then I will definitely be going back to pick up some other skincare essentials such as cleanser and moisturizer. Probably pick up some goodies for the boyfie too!

Skincare baby haul

I just couldn't help myself. I went to pick up my contact lenses today and thought, while I'm here, might as well pop into Priceline to pick up a dye set to refresh my hair. Turns out, I was a day too early for my hair dye (20% is starting tomorrow for Solfine), but I was just in luck to browse the 40% all skincare and my eyes zoned in on a few products.

The first thing I came across was the ever-popular nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. I have not really looked into this much, but the claim is that it's so amazing, one is sold every nine seconds in the UK. Which, fair deuce, if something gets enough hype, yeah, it's going to sell. So I thought I would give in and give it a go. I may be young, but I love smooth skin and would do an immense amount to achieve it. In the same section, I was considering the eye cream by the same company, but decided I needed to finish my current one (okay, two) first. So my eyes trailed over to hydraluron. I can't quite remember whether it was a video or a blog, but I remember someone saying that they applied this under their makeup and it worked wonderfully as a moisturizing primer. Due to it being winter, I'm getting a bit of case of the dehydrated oilies on my T-zone, so I'm hoping that this product will give it a bit of pep. And finally, as I was wondering around the aisles, wondering what else I could possibly add that I also didn't need, I saw a single shelf of La Roche-Posay products. I've heard this brand mentioned a number of times, but again, have not really looked into their products; I didn't even know that I could purchase them from Priceline. So I picked up the one that I've heard of most about: Effaclar Duo. I thought that this was a product pretty much just to help sensitive skin, which intrigued me, but as I read the packaging of the product, I had to have it, considering "corrective and unclogging anti-imperfection care" and all. 

So far, my first impression of La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo is that it smells... herbally. I have not tested this on my face as of yet, but the product is an almost-clear gel that feels very smooth when blended into your skin (at least on my hand). I've got high hopes for this product, corrective, anti-clogging AND anti-imperfection? This baby better live up to its hype. Especially considering on the back, this product is for "skin with severe imperfections". Tear. 

Okay, biggest claim out there, "look up to 10 years younger in 40 seconds" given by nanoblur by Indeed Laboratories. With that, you would assume there are some silicones in there, and, I checked, yes, there are. So who knows whether this is just superficial and won't do a whole lot in the long run. But if that's the case, it would probably at least smooth out your face a bit, maybe acting as a primer...

...Which is why I purchased hydraluron, also by Indeed Laboratories. This one is a "moisture booster with the purest hyaluronic acid" which basically translates to increasing the hydration in your skin as hyaluronic acid can hols up to 1000 times its weight in water. It seems a bit of a pain to have to do a couple layers of moisturizer in the morning, though I love the finish it usually gives me; hopefully this product will knock out a couple steps and keep my face fresh all day long. We'll see.

But for the time-being, I thought I would include a little demo of using nanoblur. I just had to test it out as soon as I got home. A little tip that I learned from a Benefit sales assistant, was when trying some product that is to smooth out your skin, apply it on the (wrinkly) skin between your thumb and forefinger. Most people are unlikely to have wrinkle around their wrist or the top of their hand, which is where swatches are generally done, so this is an effective way of actually testing out the smoothing claims of the product.
 

Before. No Product.

Little dab of nanoblur

Blended in. After.

Soooo, I am quite pleased with this texture. So smooth, so easy to absorb, and just based on the hand test, it seems to work pretty okay as you can see in the pictures. The name is very telling, it quite looks like it blurred the lines and wrinkles. Can't wait to test this out on my face, just curious as to whether this will have a long-term effect.

And that's my little skincare haul for the day! I should probably stop spending. Coming up soon.