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!

Horse oil? That's new one. Wow, going to loo that one up!

okey dokey then...

Yep, horse oil. It's a by-product from the horses raised for their meat. I was looking for something to replace my nearly gone tube of 8hr cream & that stuff popped up as super duper moisturising.

You need to watch for DIY sheet masks, lucysmam. My muji cotton pads do this, btw! Much awesomeness.

Also most recent post from SnowWhite... blogger re:K-beauty hacks, has a bit on DIY sheet masks.

Horse oil? Um, ok, if it works!

Saw this pic on Instagram just now - apparently Lady Gaga is a k-beauty fan!

Oops. SWATAP post here - snowwhiteandthepear.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/making-most-out-of-k-beauty-5-tiny-hacks.html#more

I just received my order from Innisfree that cost me £13 in customs charges, all great stuff but no samples. On the other hand, my order from Yes Style came within 4 days, no customs charges and 1 sample per each item ordered!

Just ordered the starfish cream - is it to be used as a moisturiser?

What did you get from Innisfree, FallenAngel? I'm expecting to get stung by customs charges for my package from them too.

Starfish cream is a moisturiser, to be used after essences,serums or ampules. Or all of them, depending on your routine! I have it cued up to try next week - just letting my skin enjoy the tea tree essence benefits at the moment.

OMG. The adverts. The ADVERTS.

Overdose on K-pop stars or what?! SHINee and two f(x) stars!

I'm getting mightily confused with what to use when, I think I've ordered too much in my excitement!! Scrambled, I got tree tree sleeping pack in a tub that was buy one get one free and a load of sheet masks that were buy 5 get 5 free, plus some acne spot pad things. It came to $36 plus the £13 odd in charges! So nothing really exciting!! But I have enough sheet masks to last me until Christmas I reckon.

Oh that advert!!!

The adverts are amazing! I want a magic cushion based entirely on the sparkly pink-ness of that one

Fallen what aspect is it you're struggling with? Maybe we can help

lucysmam, thanks - think it's all the steps and I get confused with essences and serums and toners! I have got that much stuff I think I need to sort it out and try it bit by bit. I have read a few blogs, just seen Skin and Tonics routine, lots of steps in there! I have mainly combination skin but gets really shiny and greasy in the day which I hate. I bought TonyMoly's cats wink compact and it makes my skin even more greasy so bought an Innisfree sebum powder one to try. I guess I just need a basic step by step routine instead of wanting to use everything all in one go....I get seduced by the ads!

I will be back - there's a good diagram of the basics on Pinterest I'll link for you

this one. As far as I can gather, it was made by one of the AB regulars on reddit. Should be made into a nice wall hanging to serve as a reminder...

also a useful ingredient cheat sheet type thing so you can tailor products to your own wants/needs

In the last few days I have tried

Missha Honey mask. Negatives: it smelled surprisingly chemical, although smell faded fairly quickly; it was virtually impossible to eat a Kelloggs Square while wearing the mask and the next day my skin felt a bit bumpy round the jawline. Positives: the DC laughed themselves nearly speechless at how I looked

Missha Super Aqua Marine Stem Cell Renew Eye Treatment. Positives: it has cleared up some flaky red patches at the corner of my eyes. Negatives: my eyes feel puffy, although they only look slightly puffier on the eyelids; the cream isn't doing all that much for the crepey skin under my eyes.

I still have to try some samples of Missha Super Aqua Ultra Waterfull Cream, Missha Super Aqua toner, various Missha masks and some gel eye-patches.

In the near future I plan to order some Mizon Returning Starfish eye cream (as I am so incredibly impressed with their snail repair cream), and a sample pot of Innisfree wine jelly night mask.

My skin doctors vitamin C serum is almost finished so I can replace it now does happy dance does anyone know the difference between the OST C serums? 20 vs 21.5 I think

I've tried my samples of the Missha Super Aqua Ultra Waterfull cream last night and today - I like it a lot, my skin feels soft, smooth and hydrated. I like it a lot, I've stuck it on my watch list on Ebay to treat myself after pay day

Ok answering my own Q found this review here comparing the OST vit C serums

In other news Im using a couple of missha B perfect cover samples and have discovered #23 and #27 mixed provide the perfect shade for me. Not sure if its worth the faff of mixing shades so will see how this wears over the day but so far nice coverage and slight dewy finish which I like

Ooh thanks lucysmam gives me plenty to look at and learn; god I'm addicted to it.

Has anyone tried anything from Lioele? I got a water drop sleeping mask sample and used it last night, it was quite sticky and I didn't notice much difference this morning.

Ack, well it may have been brief, but it was beautiful!

Having looked it up, I've realised that animal testing for cosmetic products is still heavily prevalent in South Korea and Japan, so I will most certainly not be giving them any of my money.

I may well give the skin care routine "method" thing a go though, but just using products from more ethical producers.

Thanks for the advice though!!

Hello everyone I missed out posting on the last thread because I was waiting and waiting for all my parcels to arrive and sulking at all the lovely things people were getting!. Plus work and kids have been very busy and interrupting my MN time, how inconsiderate!

However, everything has now arrived and I am loving my new skincare regime! I actually started double cleansing using my existing products before everything arrived and I cannot believe how much difference just doing that made - my skin is so much clearer and softer! Sadly I have quite a lot left of my cleansers so I'm going to try and be good and use them up before splurging on some lovely new ones! (Although I'm lusting after the Sum37 rose cleansing stick...).

I'm now about a week and a half in to using my AB products and LOVE them. My skin is so soft and feels lovely and hydrated. My only concern is that the Biore SPF seemed to cause some dryness and red bumps around my chin and mouth. I stopped using it for a few days (and managed to catch the sun meaning more redness - idiot) so am trying again today for the first time over an extra layer of face oil to try and prevent any dryness.

I thought it might be interesting to post our routines and compare? I still want to add some more products in and am contemplating adding a moisturising toner (skin?), glycolic pads to try and clear a last few bumps under the skin on my cheekbones (quite tempted by the FAB ones, has anyone tried these?) and possibly a new final occlusive layer to stop the SPF dryness problem without having to use a shiny oil. Also a serum I think - interested in the Bee Propolis one someone mentioned a while ago?

Recommendations very welcome please!

AM

Usually single cleanse with either Avene Lipid Renewing oil cleanser in the shower or Avene Extremely Gentle No-Rinse cleanser (although now I do rinse it off). Sometimes double cleanse if I've used a sleeping mask for example.
Liz Earle toner (seem to have tons of it so trying to use it up)
Mizon Hyaluronic Acid 100
Mizon Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule
Avene redness relief concentrate on my cheeks
Sanctuary eye cream
Mizon Snail Repair Cream
Avene Lipid Renewing Moisturiser (nearly empty so I need to replace this one)

PM

Double cleanse with Avene Lipid Renewing oil cleanser, flannel or muslin to remove (recycled from the DD's baby days!) followed by Avene Extremely Gentle No-Rinse cleanser (rinsed)
Liz Earle toner (seem to have tons of it so trying to use it up)
Mizon Hyaluronic Acid 100
Mizon Snail Repair Intensive Ampoule
Avene redness relief concentrate on my cheeks
Sanctuary eye cream
Mizon Snail Repair Cream
Avene Lipid Renewing Moisturiser (unless using a sleeping mask and nearly empty so I need to replace this one)
Rosehip oil (unless using a sleeping mask)

Then either a Benton Snail Bee High Content sheet mask or Holika Red Wine Sleeping Mask. If I do the sheet mask, I put the Snail Repair Cream and Avene moisturiser on after the mask.

Just marking me place. Anybody have experience of ordering with cult beauty?

I'm loving my mizon snail cream - have had lovely comments.

Also the Missha stick blusher in glam - a lovely highlighter - subtle

Going to order more in different shades so I can try contouring my face

Gouda I think it is possible to find cruelty-free Korean skincare and beauty products, although it is obviously more difficult than just buying this stuff willy-nilly! It sounds like a great idea to use Asian beauty concepts and adapt them to your products anyway. And it looks like they're making a start on the cosmetics industry anyway.

Links for you - www.crueltyfreekitty.com/news/south-korea-implements-animal-testing-ban-will-united-states-follow/

animalrightskorea.org/bad-science/korean-cruelty-free-cosmetics.html

Thanks for the links scramble !