Obsessed with Asian/Korean stuff - taking your skincare to level 3!

[FrugalFashionista]

Asian and Korean skincare products are big thing right now. We love them!
Tailor your multistep skincare routine here! (or see this pic)

Some of our favorite products so far...
Biore UV Aqua Rich Watery Essence SPF 50 Sunscreen
Missha Magic Cushion BB Cream #21
Lioele Dollish Veil Vita in Purple
Holika Holika Petit Jelly BB Cream
CosRx Returning A-sol
Scinic Propolis Serum
Mizon Hyaluronic Acid Serum
Missha Time Revolution Night Repair Science Activator Ampoule
Missha Super Aqua Cell Renew Snail products & trial kit
Mizon Snail Repair Cream
Mizon Returning Starfish Cream
Mizon Good Night White Sleep Mask
Innisfree Wine Jelly Sleeping Pack
My Beauty Diary Imperial Birds Nest and Hyaluronic Sheet Masks
Innisfree Trouble Care Sheet Masks
Innisfree Real Squeeze Sheet Masks
Tony Moly Avocado Mask
Nexcare Acne Patches

Our favorite sellers:
UK-based Bits and Bobs of Beauty
EU-based Missha.ee, Missha.de
Korean Innisfree
On eBay f2plus1, sing-sing girl, Iamlove, blueprint21
Orders from outside the EU: £15 or less are VAT free!

Blogs and other resources
Reddit Asian Beauty, Fifty Shades of Snail, Snow White & Asian Pear, Skin & Tonics
more resources here...
Vol 2 of this thread here and Vol 1 of here

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

Oooh, that's interesting Frugal

Saying that, I lashed out on the Sulwhasoo Perfecting Cushion as I thought I'd love it based on my experience with all of their skincare products... its ok, but not a patch on the very much cheaper Holika Holika Aqua Petit Jelly BB which makes my skin look amazing! The coverage is light and dewy, but nothing special, of course this could just be down to my skin.

So far, my favourite products are:

• Aforementioned Holika Holika Aqua Petit Jelly BB
• Biore Aqua Rich Watery Gel Sunscreen
• Sulwhasoo Essential Balancing Water and Lotion, Concentrated Renewing
• Ginseng Cream and the Rejuvenating Eye cream (bought samples of all)
• COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid

The following sellers were good in that all orders arrived in around 10 days (though concerned to hear that there have been reports of fake products):

• iamloveshop
• sing sing girl
• rubyruby76

I've ordered more Sulwhasoo sample packs from the following sellers, they're taking flipping ages to arrive:

• topinkgirl
• prettycosmetics

Have also bought a few Korean things from Strawberrynet, its more expensive, but handy if you have patience issues

I'd love to try the Sum37 Cleansing Balm, but struggling to work out where to buy it.

I must have had a weird moment last night. I don't own the Hado Labo lotion! I have the Innisfree No-Sebum powder though and that can join the list of wins (with my little TBS eyeshadow blender brush, of course). How odd of me

I would love to buy the Holika Holika pencil eyeliner in #4 Purple Amethyst but it's out of stock everywhere. I hope it's not discontinued.

Hada Labo. Blasted phone.

Just place marking for later

Wow great start, so helpful having everythig together!!

What I'm loving:

• CosRx BHA liquid
• C20 Serum
• Mizon Starfish Cream
• Mizon Good Night Mask

I also want to try out the red wine sleep packs and some sheet masks...

Oh, interesting about Dior and Amore Pacific! I can't wear their foundations anymore either, Frugal, how strange. I wonder if they changed the ingredients?

Off out for lunch today at a restaurant next door to a Muji! Am going to pick up some spatulas and black cotton buds for makeup. Was wondering whether to get a soap net too for the Su:m37 rose stick. Or should I get a konjac sponge online instead? Decisions..

Jocasta, I gave up trying to smuggle stuff past my dp - it's kind of taking over a bit! The cheeky so-and-so is enjoying it too though; stolen my snail gel and now started carting my Missha green tea face wash to the shower

I've got a thread running on reddit atm & thought I'd ask the same here - what's everyone's favourite packaging or novelty item so far? The Holika sleeping pack wine barrel and appletox apple make me happy when I see them

I ordered the Etude house zero sebum powder on Friday so it'll be interesting to see if it's as good as some of you are finding the Innisfree one to be.

I'm struggling a bit with the whole ph business, I read somewhere that you need a pre toner toner.

Yay, another bright, shiny new thread! I have had lots of parcels the last few days much to the posties amusement! However I'm thinking my Tonymoly peach hand cream maybe fake. I got it from eBay from sing sing girl but there is no branding on the pot it the inner plastic cover. Plus the smell is a bit strange;peachy and fresh on application but smells a bit like cooking oil when dry. Anyone else got this item?

Was just doing a search for cushion compacts in my shade and it looks like Lancôme already does it?? How did that happen without us becoming aware of it?

www.lancome.co.uk/_en/_gb/make-up/face-makeup/foundation/miracle-cushion-29201v.aspx

You're a star frugal, what a handy list!

My Mizon snail cream is working wonders on my few fine lines. I've never had a product make such a difference before. I'm not introducing a new product until I have had two weeks with the last one, so I'm on starfish eye cream and snail gel only. My skin won't like six products at once and would def break out. Cosrx bha next.

Now, I don't wish to be an enabler buuuuuut for all of you on no-spend months, Saintsbury's/ Nectar are doing an offer where you can swap your Nectar points for eBay vouchers. You then get half of the converted points re-added to your Nectar account. Which basically makes it free money so doesn't break any no-spend rules. You have to spend the vouchers on transactions of £10 or above and they last a year. Offer ends on 25th I think.
Thread on HUKD here with all details: www.hotukdeals.com/deals/convert-nectar-points-ebay-vouchers-recieve-50-points-back-from-nectar-2230163
Just converted £87.50 and am expecting £43 to land back in my Nectar account

Hello again all!
Thanks Frugal for the OP, that is really useful, I have been rather awol with maturita' and 3a media and have a lot to catch up on!
My Misscha Bb was too light for me . so am about to ebay it and pass on the Korean vibe and order the next shade!

I had a sample of the O Hui extreme white foam in one of my little parcels and I really liked it. It foams into a really dense lather and feels really silky. Does has anyone else tried it?

Scrambled - re the possible fake products you've read about...

What were they and who were the sellers, if you can remember?

I hope none off products are fake but because I've never bought any before, I am not sure how I would know. What do I look out for??

Scrambled, could you tell me where you got your LJH tea tree essence from? Did you have to pay customs?

Generally lurking but still waiting for lots of goodies. Plus my reactive skin means I can only try one new product a week.

Have just ordered the Laneige water-drop lip balm in pink-peach though - look forward to reviewing that, my lips react to most normal lip balms save Fresh's Sugar Rose which is very expensive!

Enormous- thanks for that, I'm very tempted.

Hope this does not sound like a conspiracy theory but I read somewhere that certain dirt-cheap Korean products sold on eBay might not be fakes but seconds or products that cannot for some reason or other be sold in Korea. I think this could explain why a product might be rancid or a bit off. So if something is really super cheap, there might be a reason for that. When we lived in South America, we sometimes ordered food and wine from Europe. The products spent months in customs warehouses - by the time they reached us, some wines were 'cooked' and many foodstuffs had moths and maggots in them It was pretty awful, we had waited months for those shipments and usually had to bin half of what we got.

I've been pretty lucky so far, none of my products have seemed strange or off. However, fearing that my Benton serum and CosRx stuff won't survive the journey

I saw on Reddit that RoseRose / RubyRuby offer free international shipping for their eBay items. I added quite a few on my watch list - I really prefer small parcels to huge hauls.

Sangria sorry about the bad color match! I am super pale (MAC NW5-15 depending on season) and the two palest Missha shades (#13 and 21) match me so they might be a tad pale for many other people. I think the Missha is best for cool/pink/pale/ashy skin tones, the Holika Holika Aqua Petit Jelly might suit warmer skin tones better. I haven't tried it myself but I've seen some comparison swatches and based on them it might not be the right undertone for me (but Petit Jelly users please correct me if I am wrong). A friend has pale olive toned skin and she swears by Klairs BB cream.

I was reading something about fakes the other day on reddit - am just about to bath the girls and bake buns for pack-ups for the week but will have a look for it later on and link.

The gist of it was the packet colours were slightly different/writing slightly offset or not in quite the right place type things.

I'll be back with a link when I find it

wicked, I need to know how the Holika bb cream suits you when you get it, please! I'm trying to narrow down which to try so I'm not inundated with a shedload of bb creams I can't make use of

Here you all are!
Great op frugal!

Hi knittingbat, I got the tea Tree Essence from blueprint21 on eBay. It has two different costs for some reason - I got mine for under £20. However the first search I did ended up as about £22 from the same seller

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Leejiham-Tea-Tree-90-Essence-Serum-50ml-Brand-New-Free-Shipping-/141130597396

I didn't get stung by customs fees though - it was marked as a low value gift. So that was nice