Obsessed with Asian/Korean stuff - taking your skincare to the next level!

[FrugalFashionista]

Asian and Korean skincare products seem to be a big thing in skincare and beauty right now.

Interested in the following?

• finding a great sunscreen
• tailoring a multi-step ritual to your skincare needs
• talking about geisha beauty rituals
• learning what snail slime, bee venom and starfish have to do with beauty
• plumping up your skin with sheet masks and sleeping masks
• experimenting with essences

Please come here and share your questions, experiences, links and best shopping tips!

hmmm, I've found the page. She uses more ingredients than I thought - rosewater, witch hazel and an EO as well as the vit C and glycerin. (xovain.com). Do you think I could skip the witch hazel and EO? And just try the vit c, rosewater and glycerin?

Ooh my biore sunscreen arrived today too! And I too tried it on my hand and I can absolutely confirm what annarose says - it's so light and easily absorbed - a lot better than the la Roche posay spf50 gel cream I bought in boots in case the biore failed to arrive in time for my holiday. I am daring to wonder if I will actually not break out from wearing SPF. How exciting!

Am loving the photo of frugal's cabinet shelf - lots of Korean goodies.

What do the pandas do? Is there a special panda step in the Korean regime? Am presuming that even Korean skincare does not contain panda claws or whatever - I think starfish might be as adventurous as I get on that front (though am considering 'birds nest' sheet mask, whatever that is...keep reading good reviews on Reddit...)

VeganCow, thank you so much! The Aqua petit bb cream is exactly what I have been looking at! I shall place my order this week.

I am on my second night of the Hylauronic sleeping mask, so far, no itching or other side effects. I can't wait to try more of these products but want to take it slow for my skin and budget's sake.

lucy imo, it IS well worth investing in all those ingredients anyway. You will use them again and again in diy. They are dirt cheap too. Amazon, ebay or your local chemist will have them.

Super excited by everyone's new items - really looking forward to hearing more about Biore and all other new finds! I've always disliked applying facial sunscreen - breakouts, shine, white cast, makeup melting or going patchy - but have totally changed my mind and it is one of my favorite steps now!

Slept without a sleeping mask last night - probably for he first time in a month. Hydration is okay (layered on Super Snail lotion + cream from the Missha trial kit) but I am missing the smooth silkiness and slight plumped up feel. It is really like a kettle, without the lid the water evaporates. This could be totally different for a different skin type but I am totally hooked!

Vegan I am super pale but the elusive shade #13 is a dream come true. So far the best BB cream for my skin tone I've found is Missha Signature in #13; I think the shade #21 is usually the lightest shade in Korean ranges but some ranges do these extra pale shades. Both my Dr Jart creams are slightly too dark on me but I love their texture too. I'm sure other alternatives are just as good, these just were something I was able to pick up during my travels.

Wombat and Play no freeze-dried panda parts I promise! The pandas are just there to make everyday rituals a bit more satisfying

Lucysmam sounds great! Many people can tolerate mild acids daily but my advice is to start slow, then increase the frequency if needed. I've scaled back - don't want to risk increasing hyperpigmentation with glycolic and drying up my skin with salicylates and am scared of overexfoliating - but they have really brightened up my skin. You'll soon see what your skin needs!

It's that time of the month for me now but no acne cysts or jawline breakouts! Finding makeup, exfoliants, moisturizers, and suncreen that match my tricky skin have really helped to clear it up!

One of my freebies with my mizon package was a banana hand cream. It smells divine. I am a sucker for perfume and buy tonnes of the stuff.
The handcream is like spreading banana milk shake on your hands. Those of you familiar with banana nesquick will know what i mean!the milk sleep mask is good, my face stills feels hydrated this morning.
I see caroline hirons has reviewed some new muji skincare stuff on her blog!

Silver taking it slow is really smart! I love hyaluronic acid, hope you see some results! If you like that, the Hada Labo lotion Bigbuttons uses is a smart idea too. For anyone interested in this here is a blog post that gives less pricey/more active-intense alternatives to Hydraluron. Button's powder is of course the most cost-effective!

Ooh Buttons loving the Banana Nesquick hand cream! And really happy that Ms Hirons is reviewing something that is a bit more realistic budgetwise...

Mr Postman's just been

I now have missha bb cream and snail serum....
I am expecting great things

Damn you all...I'll be poor by the end of this

Linking to the Muji post as it is intriguing - was there this weekend but did not see any skincare, but it sounds great. Imagine if they started doing suncreen too Found the lotion masks but they were mislabelled as blotters I love Muji stuff, beautiful and practical.

A few Muji Product reviews here and some of their nifty beauty routine staples reviewed too.

I've caved. I bought a set of My Beauty Diary imperial birds nest sheet masks, a set of Innisfree propolis sheet masks, and a CosRX fermented essence thing. All from eBay.

Am tempted by a sleeping pack but worried about getting sticky stuff on my pillow - do you actually apply it like a normal mask? Does it look like a face mask or like you've just applied another moisturiser?

Thanks for the overexfoliation link Frugal. I am definitely guilty of over doing it in the past but it's been quite a revelation that just a couple of times a week is enough. I'll use up what's left of the scrub so it doesn't go to waste before I think about an exfoliating toner and concentrate my search on a hydrating one for now.

Banana milkshake handcream sounds lush big, I have a wishlist coming along nicely so will add some samples to that

I'm ordering some compressed masks later this week to try the cucumber mask (cheapest on my list) and will start gathering ingredients for the others over the next few weeks, a bit at a time.

Might order a different type of sheet mask too though, depending on spare cash, to try out or a mask of some sort.

Bloody hell haven't read this thread in much detail but just wanted to say I am coming to the end of 6 years living in Asia and I can't WAIT to get back to Boots and House of Fraser beauty hall.

Everything here seems to be full of whitening ingredients, including a brand of "feminine wash" that whitens your fanjo! All the major bands have "whitening" ranges that never see the light of day in their European product ranges. I am peely wally enough without that nonsense and I dread to think what is in it.

However I'll save to have a read later and see if I can find at least one good product to stock upon before I come home.

Jessie the whitening products don't actually whiten, there is an African American beauty blogger who doesn't want to be white and she is happily using some... The tradeoff of living in Europe is the tyranny of fake tans and salesladies who want to 'warm up your skintone' With brightening products, after weeks or months of diligent use you are super lucky if you can get rid of a freckle, and that could be natural fading too (my hyperpigmentation always vanishes during winter). I'm a milky pale natural blonde and Asian pale stuff matches my skin much better than what I can find here. But I understand your feelings - I'm in Italy and bored by Kiko and L'Erbolario and that pale shades are routinely omitted from this market - when we move, I will probably start hoarding that stuff!

Wombat the birds nest mask sound absolutely lovely, I've seen that they are a cult favorite! Sleeping masks/ packs are not like our face masks, more like a moisturizer (or a barrier product): I slap some on, it is absorbed immediately almost completely, no gunk, mess or blocked drains, and I wash it off in the morning. I've never been able to use night creams or oils so they fill a gap in my routine. But if you are lucky you might get some sleeping mask samples with your purchases, so you might also wait a bit...

Just wanted to say that Missha Germany have sorted out the product mixup in my shipment and I am officially a happy customer! My orders from Japan and Korea are stewing in a customs warehouse somewhere, the average clearing time is 10-15 days and can often take a full month, so I really appreciate EU-based shops!

My snail gel has arrived. Had a rubbish day at work so finding a little package from Korea waiting for me at home has made my day!

I also have a lioele waterdrop sleeping pack sample and a missha SPF sample to try :)

I tried the coppertone SPF this morning. The initial colour and feel on my finger put me off at first but when I put it on my face its fantastic. I would say it feels better on than my super drug one and I thought that one was a keeper.

What to order next......

The whitening, it doesnt alter your skin tone, it reduces the redness and discolouration from spots, sun damage, scars etc.

I am of you all with parcels arriving, even though my handbag organiser arrived today.

I wore the Coppertone suncream again today. No-one passed comment that I looked pasty or under the weather & I've been up at school doing an activity with the girls all afternoon so I've come to the conclusion that maybe I just looked 'off' yesterday for some reason.

So long as there are no comments for the rest of the week I'll pick up another bottle. m0gz, was it the 99p shop with 3 for 99p?

Frugal your comment to Jessie made me chuckle after reading about whitening fanjo wash...brightening is conjuring up some amusing images in my head

Yes lucysmam, my local 99p shop had them on offer 3 for 99p. I'm sending dh out for more tonight.

Dh looked when he realised the snail gel was snail secretion. Not sure how he would react to brightening fanjo wash appearing in the tablets search history after the other night

Thanks, I'll add it to my list

Oh and I nearly forgot, what handbag organiser did you get? I have a few too many handbags and I always end up forgetting to swap something over

You'll know I've truly lost it when I start gushing about miraculous fanjo whitening products... Here is a great interview on whitening vs. brightening

Lucysmam those sound like great purchases!
m0gz my sympathies - work has been tedious here too as it is super hot - definitely going to do a sheet mask later today. Your samples sound intriguing!

I did a bad, bad thing - I've been dying to try a BB cushion, saw some at 50% off, may just have ordered one

m0gz, I ordered this handbag organiser for now to see how I get on with it.

It's got plenty of little pockets and two zip compartments but I haven't got round to actually putting it in my bag yet