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!

Urm, I forgot to put my vit c serum away this morning...do you reckon it'll be ok with it having been so warm? Or best to make another batch tomorrow morning after I take the girls to school?

lucy check the colour. If it has gone yellow/orange bin it.

Thanks bigbuttons, I wasn't sure so put it back in the fridge. It has a very slight yellow tinge to it so I'll sling it and start afresh tomorrow

Oops the Mizon snail recovery cream, Holika Holika white wine sleeping pack, a Tony Moly eyeliner and a lip balm appear to have just gone from my watch list to purchased

Is anyone else using the Benton Snail Bee? It seems to have gone up in price on eBay

I ordered samples of the snail bee essence and steam cream last week. Will be bloody annoyed if they've gone up - I've dithered over them for weeks and was hoping for good things so I could order full size once I've tried them for a while.

I never even thought when I was looking for something to use up my change - I wanted to try the Holika eyeliners . Maybe I ought to highlight it on my wishlist as the next 'random' thing to buy when I buy something else.

Hi all, glad to see everyone is still getting along well.

Myself, not so much today. Joined the retin-a club and I've had a huge reaction to it. I put it along my jawline and on cheekbones where I get most cystic spots. I've peeled all day but Jesus Christ - started routine and my skin is raw, burning and letting nothing touch it. I managed to cleanse with oil, apply Benton essense but when I put the snail gel on

Oooh, I have just had a thought - this weather atm is the perfect time to try out one of the facial mists I was unconvinced by in the first thread!

Do any of you know any UK high street shops where I might find one? Or a range of ones to experiment with?

Cornwall, I think you have to build up your retin-a useage iirc from discussion upthread somewhere? Maybe once is enough for now & your skin needs time to adjust to it? What sort of mask are you using? I tried an aloe one last night after Rainbows fried my head, it was very cooling and soothing straight from the fridge.

Hopefully your face will calm down soon

I paid £9 free delivery for the Benton small bee essence - is it more now? That was a couple of weeks ago.

Another random one (sorry) ! I didn't think my feet were going to peel after my cheapy foot peely socks. there has been no sign of peeling at all in the week since I did them. But, tonight, I have peely toes, the balls of my feet are looking like they're going to peel and my left heel has started peeling! I'm now impatiently waiting for those to peel properly as well as for the postie to bring my Hada Labo

Cheapest I can see is £9.35. I don't recall it being much cheaper - it was one of the pricier (to me) things I first looked at

Cornwall what strength Retin A did you use?

lucy I am a week into my foot peeling! My entire feet are peeling , tops as well. It's really fascinating. I will definitely do another one soon!

cornwall you could try and buffer the retin with an oil if you decide to use it again. What strength are you using? Some people can't tolerate retin. You could try a retinol product if the retin is too much. Metanium nappy cream is bloody brilliant for burnt sore faces. I have had to use it on a couple of occasions when I've overdone the chemical peels. It takes aware the heat and the redness.

bigbuttons, that isn't fair! Did you use proper Footner socks or cheaper ones? I just randomly clicked some £1 ones as one of my random things to try. Maybe more expensive ones would have resulted in quicker peeling Who knows!

.1% News & big. Too strong?

When you say buffer, do you mean dilute? Yeah, I think a retinol based product may be better once I've got over the horror of today's fiasco

I'm not a retinA expert but .1 is the strongest isn't it? I think most people start on 0.025 a couple of times a week? I think that's right. I have only tried retinol in LRP redermic and even that made my skin really sore and sensitive, I took a few days off everything and used Caudalie SOS serum as recommended on here by wombat which was lovely, along with an oil and lots of moisturiser. I hope it calms down for you soon!

reddit link sing-sing-girl has stopped shipping to the UK.

cornwall that is really strong. I use that and my skin is tough and I still have to tread carefully! Most peeps start with 0.025. When I was reintroducing it I mixed it with emu oil.
lucy it was a sea cheap one from Amazon. I didn't peel for ages, thought it wasn't going to work.
If you have started peeling though have no fear. The bottoms peeled first and worked their way outwards!

OMG Cornwall poor you! Have you tried retinol before? I started on La Roche Posay Redermic and then moved onto Retin A 0.025% off eBay, so a fair bit weaker than yours. Have had barely any reaction - perhaps a bit of dryness but no redness.

Lucysmam it's not AB but I love La Roche Posay Serozinc mist. It's calming and hydrating but great for acne and such a fine mist - lovely in the heat! I buy mine off eBay.

ooooh, there is hope for good peely results then Thanks bigbuttons.

Thanks Wombat, will go have a look now

It says it's a toner, is that the right one?

Thanks bigbuttons I think I will go verrry slow with the retinol going by other people's reactions - and I agree using it with moisturiser is better than not using it at all if your skin reacts badly to it. I quite enjoyed using the vichy retinol until I used it sans moisturiser :/

I am finishing up a trial size of liquid gold which is doing nothing much for me atm and next week ease into retinols

Lucysmam I use evian spray which is just water but feels soo nice in this heat, too many hydrating mists contain alcohol which can be irritating to the eyes

Bigbuttons you are a bad influence1 I may have just bought the Sulwhasoo Capsulized Ginseng Fortifying Serum samples too - Mazzo-whatsit must love me!

Frugal thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at the little pots on ebay and muji in a minute.

Now I'm trying to be a bit more focused in what I'm buying to actually target my concerns - SF/blocked pores, beginning to age, dry skin, occasional peeling (hormonal?).

So SF - cosrx blackhead liquid
old age /dryness - sulwhasoo stuff

Is there anything else I need? Vitamin C? Retin - A? AHA? I'm thoroughly confused (and spending a fortune!)...

Thanks mowglik, that might be more the type of thing I'm after at the mo & then if I like it I can start to look for other things in it.