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!

Yay I love it when there is a gap in my routine so I can spend time days researching the best products

I've finally bought a Bb cream after trying out all the million samples I've received - I love the BRTC gold caviar cream but it's relatively expensive, so have gone for the missha perfect cover in 23 which looks good. Am waiting for my diy cushion to come (which I ordered weeks ago, everything else comes within 1-2 weeks ) and I will try making a cushion bb with it

I'm quite happy with my first step cleaners, acids, serums, sheet masks and sleeping packs - need to look at essences and ampoules and foaming cleansers now to complete my HG routine

We should make a list of products we love so others can have a gander

Urgh! Someone tell me which honey, royal jelly or propolis product to buy! I'm having a major dither over this one while writing my list - it'll be the most expensive skin care item I've bought for years so don't want to get it wrong

A list of loved products is a good idea mowglik for referring to.

My HG asian products (ones I will be repurchasing):

Cleanser: DHC deep cleansing oil
Acids: OST 20.5 vitamin C serum, Cosrx blackhead power liquid
Sleeping packs: laneige water, sulwhasoo overnight and daiso hyaluronic
Sheet masks: my scheming, MBD and Balhyo Jinjeong Troubled Skin Healing Mask (green)

Would love to see what has worked for others

lucysmam I see the Shara Shara honeybomb one reviewed a lot for what it's worth and pictured in hauls on reddit. Are honey products good for oily skin too?

Yes, I've seen the Honey Bomb reviewed well a lot.

I've found the sample sizes of things containing honey/royal jelly/propolis really soothing and calming on my acne prone skin. They've helped take down the cystic ones that would have become huge lumps & hung around forever. They haven't made the oily-ness any worse than it usually is either.

Maybe I should stick with ordering the A-sol for the moment, I can always upgrade when I get past the dithering over spending more than a tenner on a single item

I'm going to introduce the dragons bloody essence mid-week and see if the niacinamide content does help regulate oil production.

So this is what I'm doing so far (and planning to do once the rest of my items arrive - I swear my snail products arrive by snail it's that slow).
Black sugar cleansing oil.
Leftover nivea gloaming fash wash (will replace with something).
Clearasil acid pads.
Bravura ginseng toner (soon to be replaced with cosrx a-sol toner).
Paula's choice resist vitamin C serum.
Paula's choice 2% bha cream (night time).
Mizon snail repair intensive ampoule.
Mizon snail recovery gel cream.
Mizon gold starfish all in one cream.
Biore sunscreen.
Mizon good night white sleeping mask OR missha super aqua water supply cream (night time).

I am not sure where to fit in these products. I'm trying to use them up. Not sure what to use when that happens.
Paula's choice 10% AHA weekly treatment
Bravura 10% glycolic acid treatment
Paula's choice resist retinol serum.

Do you think this routine seems ok? Should I add anything?

I'd slot the weekly aha in on say a Sunday night, after the bha.

Then use up the bravura, since that's also an aha

No idea about the retinol though.

The snail gel cream needs to be the last moisturising layer, so after the starfish - it has some occlusive properties

(sorry for multiple little posts again!)

I've been using the Banila Co Clean it Zero as the first cleanse and then either a sample of the ohui white foam or the Sum37 rose cleansing stick as the second.

I'm not sure about the scent of the rose cleansing stick - it is a little too strong for me. I think I prefer unperformed or very lightly perfumed products.

Phantom I prefer to leave the oily/balm cleanser to the first cleanse, so I use Cerave hydrating cleanser as a second cleanse it has a reasonable ph 5 too.

Grin perhaps you use the retinol in the same way as Retin a, so night time only, thirty mins after cleansing and then another gap 30 - 60 mins before the rest of your night routine. Every third or second night. Then use the Bravura 10% Glycolic and the Paula's choice AHA once or twice a week in the evening but not on the same night as the retinol. I'm doing Retin a and also have the Bravura glycolic treatment and the toner and have had to leave them out for the time being, so take it easy. Take it slowly and gradually increase.

Eek, snail gel is almost empty & second tube is not here yet

That makes sense. Thank you!

I wash my face with honey quite frequently. It's bloody amazing stuff. I just smear it on, leave for a couple of mins and wash off. Gives me the softest skin ever, seriously.

Any particular sort of honey bigbuttons? I'm going to try the honey & milk mask Scrambled (I think) linked to on youtube ages ago at some point.

Lucysmam have you tried creating a honey diy sheet mask to see how you get on with honey? I've ordered miss flower and Mr honey hydrogel mask to see how I can on with honey as a skincare ingredient

No, any old honey. I prefer the manuka type though, for consistency. The runny honey doesn't stick to my face. I'm sure it's the sugars that help to soften the skin.

mowglik, I've tried samples of quite a few honey and propolis products - not actual honey though so I've added some to my shopping list to try it

I have a manuka honey sheet mask that I'm looking forward to trying.

Woke up to pimples this morning in the sunglasses region on my cheek. I wear glasses every day though so I. Don't think that's it I my case.I'm really hoping it's not the benton essence as I really like it otherwise and I'm sure the scars on my chin have faded already after just 4 days. And the missha longer name is making my face much brighter in the mornings. I'm really pleased with both of them.
I wonder if the pimples could be to do with overdoing the moisture last night. I used hada labo, a very very wet rice innisfree sheet mask for 30mins, benton essence, missha ampoule and cerave pm. Maybe all too much? Although I do still have dry areas around my nostrils so maybe it's not that. Who knows!

Woke up to lovely skin again after meh for a week, and trying to figure out what it was. My pores look much much smaller and my skin is finally glowing again. I did leave retinol on my skin for 2 hours by accident (always do 20-30) and followed up with hado labo, cerave pm and Bioessence Aqua sleep mask. I've used all these before the only thing I did different was retinol for 2 hours.

Either the good skin is just a cyclical thing or I need to up retinol time on my skin!

I had a look at the roseroseshop (rubyruby76's online shop) and everything looked so cheap - shipping was $20. Just thought I'd have a look at the total if I ordered individual products from eBay at cheapest prices and it came out £4 cheaper inc shipping! Will stick to eBay from now on

My aloe and egg (curiosity purchase) sheet masks have arrived - and another konjak sponge I don't remember ordering another one but it's green this time rather than black so maybe that was another curiosity purchase.

Dp's turn to buy brekky for the lads out on bikes this morning so will have to stop dithering and make my mind up about my next proper purchase!

I have dd1 off school poorly today, she looks very miserable so think it'll be a sofa day and I'll do some more research into products I want to try alongside household stuff and being with her (although she is snuggled up atm so hopefully will drop off to sleep!)

ohohohohoh! I may be just a little bit excited We have a smallll amount of unexpected money to split between us...I'm going to treat myself to a couple of the more expensive items I've been looking at and dithering over buying!

Just back from the hospital with DD1. She fell over at school and cut her chin, deeply enough to require glueing. She's fine, was ever so brave and the only thing that upset her was the thought that she may not be able to go back to school today. We took her back, happy as anything - it's not classed as a head injury so all ok. I'm emotionally wrung out but will be fine after a cuppa.

We're supposed to be sorting out the house for the move, I should really get off my bum and do that before I have to collect her again.

Oh, Goodal Waterest Lasting Water Oil arrived today, along with 4 (4!!!!) samples. A nose patch boo, and Liole sleeping pack, Dollish Veil and Dr Ampoule pore clearing thingumy. Really want to try the Goodal, but I still have a week or so to test the Cosrx A-sol trying very hard not to call it Asshole and don't want to break up my testing regime.

Are the little Benton sample bottles (the green ones) too small for making vit c serum in do you think to avoid wastage? I'd have to break down the recipe to teeny quantities but think it would maybe be better for my wallet (even though it's cheap to begin with).