Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Korean masks so far

Masking, masking, masking, oh how I love doing it ♥ Fun to do and moisture session for skin :D I regularly use masks, both sheet and washoff! For regular sheetmasking, I guess I'm not very particular about the mask, as long as it softens, brightens and doesn't cause any skin irritations. (none so far thankfully). And most also as long as the essence isn't so runny that I can't sit and use the laptop without the essence dripping down my neck. If it doesn't meet these criteria I probably won't purchase again. Of course, nice scents are an added bonus! :D

I love Korean sheet masks (: Not only are they easy on the pocket, they're also of top notch quality and you can be sure that (well, most of the time) they don't compromise on it! So these were some masks hauled from Gmarket a few weeks ago. After using them nearly everyday, it's time to do a review! Most of these are Purederm masks, from the seller purederm on Gmarket. The VOV washoff masks are from the seller Blue Ocean.

Clockwise from top left: Aloe, Cucumber, Strawberry, Rose, Tomato.


First up, these were the five kinds of "regular" line sheet masks I picked, received 10 of each. (You can pick out of their many different varieties, but they give you 10 of each. So you can order max 10 varieties, you can order just 5 types but 2x10=20 of each, but you can't pick 20 types and ask for 5 of each! )

Generally I love cucumber and aloe masks because at least from all the brands I've tried before they seem to hydrate and soothe/fix my skin when I have the occasional zit/dehydration lines/pick zits too much haha. So for normal days I don't really use them, more so for when I need "fixing".

The tomato has a unique smell. It's not sweet or fruity or citrussy, and I guess some would hate it. It's not pungent or smelly or chemical-reeking in any way, but it's different from anything I've ever smelt before and I like kind of it though! In general they moisturize and make my skin softer so no complaints. No irritations or breakouts experienced either! These have a generous amount of essence in them, 23ml, but it doesn't drip off your face like some lousy brand ones do, so kudos to them.

These are the 3 washoff gel masks I got: Tomato Yogurt, Aloe, Strawberry Yogurt. The strawberry one is exceptionally yummy smelling! They come in a box of 15. Directions: Spread pack evenly on face while avoiding eyes and mouth areas. Leave on for 5~10mins then rinse off with warm water.

Best of Purederm! Clockwise from top left: Raspberry Collagen, Chamomile Collagen, Lavender Collagen, Illuminating Arbutin, Jung-an Korean Herb. These five are from the "premium" line, meaning that the sheet for this is alot thinner than that of the regular line. What this means is that less essence is absorbed by/stuck to the sheet and more can be absorbed by your skin instead (: It also means the feeling of wearing the masks is now really really lightweight, truly like a second skin!

While regular sheet masks look white on your face (the cotton sheet), this one is made of pulp so fine it's a bit transparent on your face! Really love using these as they make the experience of masking feel greater! With normal masks sometimes I feel like I can't smile or move my face due to the thickness of the mask sheet, but with these I don't have that problem anymore! ♥

IMO, these are better than the regular line, they really really make skin feel softer after use. The lavender has an awesomely soothing lavender smell, perfect for wearing the mask to sleep as the scent is absolutely heavenly! The arbutin one really brightens and softens skin after usage, you can always see the difference after you take off the mask, go try it! The camomile has a somewhat calming effect on my skin, noticed reduced/disappearance of redness (if any) after use.


Instructions and ingredients list in English on the back of the Illuminating Arbutin and Jung-an masks. Purederm masks can be kept up to 3 years from the date of manufacturing, and as you can see the seller gives quite recently produced ones so no worries of old stock!

Collagen eyezone patches, says to be "enriched with collagen, green tea extract and tropical fruits to provide intensive hydration and diminish signs of aging, reduce eye puffiness and dark circles". These are under-eye masks in the shape of kidney beans? They come in packs of 30 (15 pairs) in a resealable blue ziplock bag. I use these while studying late at night or days after I've stayed up late, they really do seem to reduce the appearance of my fatigued eyes and even brighten them. They're actually quite huge in size, so they stretch from near the bridge of my nose to the ends of my cheekbone!

The package says to leave on for 15~20min but I usually just leave them on till they dry up and fall off or till I remember to remove them haha. Good eco-friendly packaging rather than having individual packaging for each pair, but sometimes they're so stuck together that they're hard to separate when I want to take out one piece ^^

VOV washoff mask pack in Volcanic Powder, I absolutely love this! It really clears up my skin after use, and makes my skin brighter and even gives a glow! ♥ It has a slight scent, not really chemical and not unpleasant. Something like salad? I don't know, but I kind of like it!

VOV washoff mask pack in 17 Cereals. Effects are similar to that of Volcanic Powder but to a lesser extent for me. However it does makes my skin softer than the Volcanic Powder one does. Has a scent too, different from the Volcanic Powder one but not unpleasant either. If I had to choose between the two I'd pick the Volcanic Powder!


Etude House masks! First of all I have to say I really love the packaging! Clockwise from top left: Moistfull, Green Tea, O2 White, Pomegrenate. Okay, I used to quite love the moistfull ones. You can't purchase these individually, they're only given as freebies sadly. They really moisturize skin deeply. So I use these for "fixing" skin only too, when I have really dry skin or when dehydration lines start to show. Or after staying up multiple nights cramming for exams. And cos I've got a limited number of them and they can't be purchased, I use them sparingly too ^^ Why I say used to is because the essence does leave a rather sticky feeling after use, so that's something I can't really stand anymore. So now I use the Neutrogena Deep Hydrating Masks if I really need deeper moisturizing. The O2 White ones really do not really whiten, more like brighten. Like the moistfull, these are also freebies only. I somewhat enjoy using these too, but sparingly as well. The Pomegrenate and Green Tea are so-so, they smell quite nice too, so they're alright for everyday/non-special need usage. However at $2 a pop I'd rather use Purederm or Chungjungmiin!

So that's it for my masks post so far :D Yes I have a ton of them, Chungjungmiin, My Beauty Diary, Purederm, Etude, The Face Shop, Lioele, Hermius, Dermal and Skin Food for sheet masks, VOV, Purederm and The Body Shop for washoffs. For washoffs my absolute favorites are The Body Shop Honey Oat and Seaweed Clay ones! Yummy and effective! ♥ What about you, do you mask often? Which ones are your favorites?~

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HOW TO ORDER

Since I frequently get emails asking how to order from purederm, figured I'd just add it here:
On the page itself, it doesn't really matter what you put in that blank box in the options. It most likely cannot fit all your choices anyway. What you have to do is just add the item to the cart, and when you check out, there'll be a "note to seller" section. Search for the box for purederm. In that box, write down which masks you want and how many of each (:

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

2nd Gmarket Haul ~ Headbands Galore!

Days after receiving our first order G & I ordered from Gmarket again! They just have too many things we want :D So guess what came in the mail a few days ago~ This time we spammed more hair accessories from the seller 루미네(Lumine), her accessories are of great quality and very pretty. They're handmade and have beautiful finishes. It may not be a great deal to lots of people, but all the care the seller takes to tuck ribbon ends neatly and make sure glue/threads aren't sticking out is really appreciated by us. It also reflects good craftsmanship and better aesthetic value. And despite our large order she shipped it out very, very quickly. So four thumbs up! Also ordered leggings (they were on sale! 1,900won each!), stationery, necklaces, but mainly ALOT ALOT of hair accessories!


This time round the whole order was shipped quite quickly! Ordered on Sunday and items reached doorstep on Saturday. However along the way a clothes seller cancelled 2 items we ordered. The annoying thing is that that first, the seller just cancelled one. And the other order was left on request for another few days. And after that the seller cancelled again. So the overseas shipment was pending a few days only because they were waiting for items from that seller. Oh by the way, one thing with sellers cancelling your items is that you lose credit points. ("What??" you ask. Don't worry, shall address Gmarket's credits points, gstamps, mileage, cash balance, shipping etc issues in another post soon (: so please wait for it~


And of course for us who have hauling tendencies, we had to squeeze our order into the cart which holds a maximum of 30 items, so we cut back on other stuff. And in the end when the seller cancels we feel a bit cheated because it feels like we could have ordered something else and actually gotten it! But at least we were able to get our other items really really quickly!


Part of my haul~ The yellow/blue things's a skirt. Not shown in the picture are a pink canvas backpack (with a cute white rabbit keychain) that G got from Lumine, a set of 10 mini multi-colored leopard-print bear keychains also from Lumine, 4 leggings and 6 other headbands (ahem Miss G!) also from Lumine!


Such lovely headbands. Of course we got more! In total we ordered 10! The yellow and the mint are called "Sherbet Ribbon Band" [샤베트리본밴드] in Korean. The pearly one is "Lorelei Band" [로렐라이밴드]. See what lovely names all the items have!


A dot chiffon hair pin and the sherbet ribbon pins in all 10 colors! Black, gray, violet, light pink, dark pink, red, orange, yellow, mint, navy. Each sherbet ribbon pin was only 500won, that's a steal~ The adorable little doggie was one of the freebies we got from the seller (:

A flower hair tie, also from Lumine~ The lighting is this picture is bad, doesn't do justice to how beautiful the coral color really is!


When worn, it's really a lovely coral pink color, I really love wearing it! Perfect accessory to spruce up an outfit or to bun up hair on bad hair days ^^

More ribbon bow pins, this time from seller 쎄핀. This seller has over 1000designs of hair bow pins to choose from~ And they're lovely and big and hold a lot of hair. Of course there are smaller ones too. I think she has 6cm, 8cm and 10cm pins. These 2 are 10cm ones.


Their width when worn~


So other than hair accessories we got stationery! Stickers and postits and cashbook were from the seller 스타일지존2. There were 16 sheets in this pack, all so pretty and great for decorating diaries, notes, letter etc. Can't wait to use them!

Cashbook and mini diary. Really compact and portable, with pretty pictures too! The Bonjour Paris mini diary is from the seller 바보사랑친구. (And so is the ubercute puffy pen below!)


Close up of the top of the pen. The fluff is a mix of white, dark pink and light pink, it's quite firm so it doesn't go out of shape. And below the fluffball is a pink ribbon bow with white polka dots. Love the detail! The body of the pen is covered with pink leopard prints ^^ The word on the side says "Lollipop" and yes, this pen looks yummy enough to be a lollipop. Sadly the ink only comes in one color, black. Would be great if they could have other colors like blue or pink ink!


The cashbook has a very handy ziplock which you can put your receipts in. This is just perfect for travelling~ The brand of the pen is Sakox, they have a wide variety cute colorful lollipop fluff pens! Not just leopard prints ^^ It's really well-made and I love the multi-colored pink fluff and the little bow ribbon detail under it! Feel so happy when I write notes with this~

Interior of the cashbook, so many columns for recording your inflow and outflow hehe.


Also got an adorable post-it set, they come in many shapes and sizes and have lovely designs of shots of Paris on them.

This is the monthly page of the Bonjour Paris mini diary~


Free gifts from 스타일지존2. The lipstick is actually a pen! How adorable is that? :P


So all in all it was a very satisfying order! Didn't feel like much though! Yes, I know, how many heads do we have? But a girl can never have too many hair accessories! ♥

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

First ♥♥

First order from Gmarket, lesson learnt: online shopping is very addictive!

Necklaces, masks (100!), lipglosses, hair accesories, diary, ziplocks, dress. It's not really a lot right? :P

The big 8kg box that came in the mail. I felt like a little child opening presents on Christmas day ♥ Pop-pop-pop goes the bubblewrap when you play with it!

After taking everything out. I must say I really love the pink dress (in the corner)! The seller is여우plus on Gmarket. This one's called Monaco Satin, cute name! It's floral and really light in material ♥

G's haul!

Ahem, we ordered 100 masks each from purederm . I also got 2 boxes of VOV washoff masks (the uber cute smaller bottle shaped ones!)

3 rather well made necklaces from Nymphet. 3,900won each! The earrings and silver ring necklace were freebies.

2 VOV Showcase glosses and HELLO KITTY from Etude House! The hand cream has a yummy citrus smell, and the gloss has a delish strawberry scent. The charm of Hello Kitty holding a lipstick is just too cute! Really can't bear to use them! The post-its were a freebie from Etude house, they're lovely to use ♥

Ziplocks from soboro. This is Airmail Pack Ver 1, it was 5,500won. The ziplocks all have adorable illustrations of clothes, shoes, postmarks etc and are perfect for organizing luggage while going on a trip! They come in 5 different sizes and there are a total of 14pcs altogether. Also comes with 2 pvc cases with 3 compartments useful for storing small accessories like earrings, rings etc.

Mini ziplocks from the same seller! This is Airmail Pack Mini and costs 3,800won for 21pcs in 5 different sizes. These are colorful and come with sheets of stickers for labelling ♥ They come in an adorable triangular box and are useful for organizing and storing toothbrush/toothpaste, pencils/stationery, money/cards, jewellery, mp3 player, camera battery etc while going on a trip too! ♥

Also got a diary which came with free 20 sheets of stickers! (seller was having promotions of sorts I guess?). Got hair accessories as well, I love ribbon bows! Actually ordered another haul a few days ago, should be reaching by this Saturday! Till then~ ♥♥