Etude House Sweet Recipe Baby Choux Base #2 Berry Choux

Hi everyone! I have for you review of a super popular and super cute product from Etude House. Enjoy! ^^

Porduct description: This light and fluffy choux cream-like makeup base creates baby choux skin with its moist inside and soft smoothness on the outside. It works as a make up base + primer, fixing skin tone. Dandelion extract and cotton extract cares for your skin. SPF25 PA++.

The product used to be in a well known jar packaging with spatula - now it's a tube. Size stayed the same, 35g.

The Baby Choux Base is available in three colours:
#1 Mint Choux - to correct red skin tones.
#2 Berry Choux - for pale skin tone , to give it more life.
#3 Peach Choux - to brighten up dark skin tone.

The sample I was testing out was a free gift, so I didn't have a choice in colour. If I was to choose myself, the Berry Choux probably would be my last choice, as my face is naturally quite pink. However it turns out that it worked quite well for me!

The texture of the product is really nice, smooth and fluffy, just like in description ;) it has sweet, but very subttle smell. Aapplication is smooth and easy, it blends realy nicely into skin. Becouse it's a tinted base, there are two ways of using this product: you can use it as a make up base, or on it's own. I was actually very surprised how good my face looked with only base on. I have very uneven skin tone, my temples, neck and ears area are very bright, almost white, my cheeks are rather pink with some dark and a bit purplish spots (old acne scares) and my eyes area is shady (it's genetic, got it after my dad and it's not influent by the amount of sleep I get). This pink base managed to even out my skin tone, nicely covered all the purplishness (the spots were still visible, but much less). I tested it out with three BB creams:

• Etude House Precious Mineral Bright Fit BB - together products lasted on my face all day long :)
• Tony Moly Dear Me Petite Cotton BB - lasted all day long as well, after 8h shift at work and then fitness class, my face was still nicely covered, not cakey, just needed a bit blotting.
• Lioele Dollish Veil Vita Natural Green BB - it was a pore cover dream team!

There was only one thing I didn't like - this base really hooks up on a dry patches and any irreguralities. Even though I use a peeling gel every day it still managed to find some irrs on my forhead, what the hell. The dry bits was especially visible when used with EH Precious Mineral BB, the best for covering them was Tony Moly Dear Me BB.

Price: from £6 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ leaves skin silky smooth in touch
+ a little goes a long way - sample leasted me easily for three applications
+ makes make up last longer
+ evens out skin tone good enough, to be used on it's own

Cons:
- it makes any dry patches and irregularities in skin texture more visible

Generally I don't like having much on my face, mostly because I got oily skin and I am afraid that each extra layer of cream/make up will make it even more oily, so I was never using any primer before. I thought I don't need it at all. This product convinced me, that base can actually help me out, by making make up last longer and covering my spots. I am thinking about getting full size of this product and since I am convinced that it's good to have a primer on, I can't wait to test some other brands as well :) If you haven't try this product yest, get yourself some samples, it's worth it! :)


Ingredients: Water, Caprylyl, methicone, cyclopentasiloxane, ethylhexyl mexthoxycinnamate, titanium dioxide, ethylhexyl salicylate, cyclohexasiloxane, glycerin, dimethicone crosspolymer, butylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, cetyl ethylhexaoate, cilica, cetyl peg/ppg-10/1 dimethicone, ethylhexyl trazone, butylene glycol, caprylyl methicone, sodium chloride, dimethicone/vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, peg-12 dimethicone, quaterium-18 bentonite, triethoxycaprlylsilxane, gossypium herbaceum (Cotton) extract, taraxacum offinale (Dandelion) Rhizome/root extract, carthamus tinctorius (Safflower) Seed oil, lincolei acid, linolenic acid, salvia hispanica seed oil, ethylhexyl olivate, sodium potassium aluminum silicate, mica, alumina, disodium edta, phenoxyethanol, caprylyl glycol, ethylhexylglycerin 1,2-hexanediol, fragrance, CI 77491, CI 77492 
 

Skin Food Pineapple Morning Peeling Gel

Hello!^^
Today I would like to review for you Skin Food's peeling gel. The Asian peeling gels differs from well known in Europe scrubs. They don't contain any scrubbing grains, they are either completely smooth like Ginvera Marvel Gel or contain cellulose like this one.

Product description: This deep peeling gel containing cellulose particles and AHA from apple effectively exfoliates dry skin and eliminates sebum in pores. Pineapple, aloe, and purslane extracts make skin clear and blemish-free.
How to use: After washing and towel-drying, massage onto face in a circular motion, and rinse with warm water.

Because it doesn't contain scrubbing grains you may wonder how it actually works. As you massage product into your skin the moisture texture of it starts to dry out and the cellulose bits are starting to roll up on your face with all the impurities from your skin. You can imagine that your face is a sheet of paper, impurities are pencil marks and peeling gel is an eraser.

Peeling gel before massaging.

Peeling gel after massaging into skin - cellulose rolled up with impurities and dead skin cells.

Because this product contains cellulose you may think that it doesn't really collect anything from your skin and just rolls up on it's own. To check that out I've done a little experiment.

I've put some gel onto clean plate and start rubbing it in clean, rubber glove.

After a good minute of rubbing into a plate gel haven't roll up.

I think this proves that somehow gel reacts with sebum and skin impurities.
I can also confirm that it works by observing my skin - after each use my skin is a little brighter and the pores are tighten. After a two weeks of constant use I can also see that my blackheads are much smaller or gone, however you have to use it regularly to see that effect. I wanted to hit hard my blackheads, so I use it AM & PM - it is gentle enough for twice a day use.
I actually owe this gel from May last year, I was using it constantly for two weeks. Then I stopped when I had a massive break out on my face (it wasn't fault of the product, I just stopped taking my acne antibiotic and my acne came back twice as bad as it was before the antibiotics) and just probably forgot about it, lol. I came back to using it last week, I am using it constantly for two weeks now, and I am in the middle of the tube, which means it last much longer than Ginvera Marvel Gel, which I reviewed earlier on.

Price: £6-8 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ nice, fresh scent
+ minimise pores
+ fights blackheads
+ gentle for use even twice a day
+ good value: not too pricey and goes a long way

Cons:
- because it's very gentle it may take a good couple of uses to smooth out some dry patches


Overall I really like this product and I would re-purchase if I wouldn't want to try couple of other peeling gels. If you never tried this type of peeling gel before I definitely recommend you to give it a go :)

Caution: If you have an acne prone skin you may experience breakout after some time of regular use. I figured out that it must be some impurities from depths of the skin coming out - I experienced breakout after week of twice a day use, stopped using for couple of days until spots healed and then come back to use once a day - my skin looks great! Scars faded a little bit and some of the under skin bumps smoothen out. So if you experience some breakout don't give up completely on this product :)

Ingredients: Water, Cellulose, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol, Panthenol, PPG-26-Buteth-26, PEG-40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Carbomer, Triethanol amine, Allantoin, Ananas sativus, Pyrus malus, Portulaca Oleracea Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Lactic Acid, Citric Acid, Milk Acid, Tartaric acid, Glycolic Acid, Disodium EDTA, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, CI 19140, Parfum 

Etude House Moistfull Collagen Cream & Moistfull Enriched Collagen Cream

Today I have for you review of a little duo! :)

Moistfull Collagen Cream

Product description: Moisturising and tightening cream improves complexion look and feel with concentrated Baobab Tree Extract and Collagen formula.

The full size product is a 50ml jar, I was testing out a 1ml sample sachet.

 

Product is an opaque gel-cream, with nice fresh scent, a bit citrusy and floral I would say. It's not greasy, but kind of light and rich at the same time. It absorbs quite quickly and I could feel straight away how well it moisturised my skin, but it wasn't too heavy. I have an oily/combination skin, which tends to be dehydrated, so what I'm aiming for is some light, preferably mattifying cream for the daytime and something well moisturizing and possibly wrinkle caring for the night time. I applied this product in the evening and it seems to match my PM cream requirements perfectly. In the morning my face was moisturised, but not too greasy, nice and smooth. The moisture level was just right, as if it would be too heavy it would break my out like Nutrifull Shea Butter Cream.

Price: around £10 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ quickly absorbs into skin
+ well moisturises
+ not too heavy- didn't break me out

Cons:
- leaves face shiny
  
This sample lasted me for two applications, so I can't say anything about it's firming properties. 
But I am really happy with the moisture level it offers - well hydrating, but not greasy. 
I am considering buying the full size product, but there is a few more samples I would like to try 
first, to make sure I found my perfect PM cream. I would recommend this product to all skin types 
- for more dry/normal ones as universal cream (if you don't mind the shine for AM) and for 
combination/oily as a PM. 
  
Ingredients: Hydrolyzed Collagen, Water, Butylene Glycol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Adansonia Digitata Fruit Extract, Glycerin, 
Cyclohexasiloxane, Glyceryl Polymethacrylate, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Hydrolyzed Adansonia Digitata Extract, 
Betaine, Cetyl Ethylhexanoate, Glyceryl Stearate, Hydrogenated Polyisobutene, Stearic Acid, PCA Dimethicone, Dimethiconol, 
Cyclomethicone, Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate/VP Copolymer, Silica, Dimethicone, Polyethylene, Sodium Polyacrylate, 
Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Hydrogenated Polydecene, PEG/PPG-20/15 Dimethicone, Phenyl Methicone, Ethylhexylglycerin, 
 PPG-5-Laureth-5, Carbomer, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance, Yellow 5 (CI 19140), Red 33 (CI 17200). 

Moistfull Collagen Enriched Cream 

Product description: With whip cream type texture, this cream supplies moisturizing relief on dry, rough and sagging skin with abundant moisture and nutrients, containing enriched collagen and baobab seed oil.

Again the full size product is a 50ml jar, but I was testing out only a 1ml sample, which lasted for two applications.

As the name suggest, this product has richer consistency than non-enriched Moistfull Collagen Cream, not gel-like, but really creamy. The smell is pretty similar. It absorbs into skin quite well, leaving it a bit shiny. Just as with previous sample, I used this cream before going to bed - in the morning my face was well moisturised and soft. As it's slightly heavier I was afraid it may break me out, but it didn't :)

Price: approx. £10 on e-Bay.

Pros & Cons will be pretty the same as with non-enriched Collagen Cream.
However I think I would have to be more careful about this cream, because of rich consistency 
I think it could break me out after few applications. As in the description of the product, I would 
recommend it to people with really dry skin.

Etude House Precious Mineral Bright Fit BB Cream

Hello!
Another day, another sample to test out :)

Product description: 
- Avocuta* - It prevents the skin from being oily and dull by controlling the sebum balance.
- Natural Antioxidant Powder - makes the vivid and clean skin tone by preenting discoloration of powder by Oxidation.
- Pearl Extract 16.5% - Excellent Whitening and Moisturising Effects of the pearl ingredient prevent melanin from being accumulated and help to make the skin tone look brighter and clearer.
- Seaweed Extract Complex - contains Abundant Nutrients and Minerals, deep moisturizes into the skin and make the moist, smooth and healthy skin.
- Soft Fitting Effect and Excellent adhesion of Melting Powder and Special Mesh Layer maintain the clear and elastic skin texture all day.

*Avocuta is an original patented active ingredient derived from avocado pears which combats the excessive sebum secretion characteristic of greasy skin and hair.

The full size product is a 60g tube with pump applicator, I was testing out only samples. This BB is available in four shades: N02 Light Beige, W13 Natural Beige, W24 Honey Beige and W15 Sand Beige. My samples were in Natural Beige. It has SPF30 PA++.

Precious Mineral is quite runny, so I applied it with fundation brush (often I just like using my fingers :P), using similar amount as on the pic - because it's quite runny I ended up using a bit more than with thicker BBs. One sample lasted for two applications. Product has very subtle smell, hardly noticable. The coverage is nice - made my skin looking even and refreshed, but natural at the same time. Some of my acne scars were still visible (I learnt to live with that long time ago...), but all the redness was toned. The glow effect is just perfect - giving the face healthy glow, but not too shiny. I followed it with mattifying powder only on my nose. Sebum on my oily skin started to show up after approx. 3h, which is my standart time. BUT! After a little touch up with blotting tissue, the BB seemed to be completly untouched on skin. It didn't get cakey, didn't roll up in my wrinkles. Skin was still smooth and even. When I am writing this review is over 12h since I have it on, and all it needs is another touch up with blotting tissue and I could go out again - which is absolutely amazing, usually after the whole day at work I would have to completly redo my make up to go out in the evening.

Price: approx. £9 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ beautifully evens out skin
+ looks natural
+ doesn't roll up in wrinkles
+ looks good all day long

Cons:
- a bit runny, so I have to use a little bit more than some thicker BBs.

Summing up, this BB was a very nice surprise. I was a bit anxious on the begining, because of it's runny consistency - usually runny BB's tend to just disapear from my face after few hours. However it stayed on my face looking just fab for the whole day, needing just some blotting. Awesome! I definetely add it to my "need to buy full size one day" list :)

Ingredients: Water, Pearl Extract, titanium Dioxide, Dipropylene Glycol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Phenyl Trimethicone, Hydrogenated Polydecene, Butylene Glycol Dicapraylate/ Dicaprate, Butylene Glycol, Ethylhexyl Olivate, Arbutin, Cetyl PEG/PPg-10/ 1 Dimethicone, Sodium Hyaluronate, Polyglyceryl-4 Isostearate, Hydrogenate Vegetable Oil, Sorbian Isostearate, Hexyl Laurate, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Beeswax, Sorbitan Olivate, Dimethicone, Calcium Stearate, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Silica, Hydrogen Dimethicone, Butyl Avocadate, Trimethysiloxysilicate, Dimethicone/ Vinyl Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Adensine, Tocopheryl Actate, Propylene Carbonate, Mica, Alumina, Manganese Dioxide, Lauroyl Lysine, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Pearl Powder, Codium Tomentosium Extract, Ecklonia Cava Extract, Gelidum Cartilagineum Extract, Hizikia Fusion Forme Extract, Disodium EDTA, Caprylyl Glycol, Ethylhexylglycerin, 1,2- Hexandiol, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance, CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499

Ginvera Green Tea Whitening Marvel Gel - does it really work?

To keep our skin bright and smooth we should regularly help it in regeneration, by peeling off dead skin cells. However, if you have an ance prone skin - like me - you should be very carefull with traditional scrub, or even avoid them - because of rubbing "grains" in traditional scrubs we can open up some pimples and transfer bacteria from them all over our face causing new spots. A good option for acne prone skin is an enzyme exfoliator - it works like a face mask, you just need to apply it on face and wash off after 10-15min, it very gentle dissolves dead skin cells. But because enzyme peels are so gentle, sometimes when my skin was dried out and fleaky (usually after some intensive acne treatments) there were not good enough. Since two of the most popular exfoliating methods were not quite working out for me, I decided to look for a different solution. That's how I came across Ginvera Marvel Gel. I already used up two tubes of this product, it just took me a while to finally do a review ;)

Product description: (as on the back of the packiging)
10 Benefits in Marvel Gel:

1) Removes blackheads easily and painlessly in just one step

2) Helps soften the cornified layer and gently remove the dead skin barrier to instantly reveal a brighter finer  complexion.

3) Regulates and helps control sebum secretion for a shine-free complexion whole day long.

4) Whitens and evens out skin tone. Effective in helping to fading pigmentation, spots and acne scars over time.

5) Refines and contracts the appearance of pores to reveal finer, smoother skin.

6) Deeply cleanses pores and helps prevent the onset of skin problems like pimples and blemishes.

7) Helps remove oil seeds

8) Changes dull and rough skin to a smooth complexion, allowing makeup to glide on easily and adhere better to the skin.

9) Helps stimulates skin metabolism, skin looks younger and more supple

10) Allows better and faster absorption of skincare products that is applied subsequently.

 Seems like a lot of promises, doesn't it?

The product is a smooth, semi-transparent, green gel packed in 200ml tube. It has very subtele smell, hardly noticable.
To use, we have to apply some amount on dry skin and start rubbing in circural motion. When you think about it, it may seem weird to you to apply it onto dry skin, but this gel has quite runny and wet texture, so it slides on skin very easily. As we rub the product into our skin it will start roll up, taking all impurities and dead skin cells away. When the gel is completly rolled up we can just wash it off with warm water.

I have quite smooth hands, so I applied some foundation on my palm before using Marvel Gel.

I know that usually people are getting quite suspicious about the whole rolling up process, thinking that product just rolls up itself, without any dead skin cells. To check that out I've done a little experiment.

I've squeezed some Marvel Gel onto clean plate....

...and using clean rubber gloves I rubbed into plate for a while.

As you can see, the product didn't roll up on the plate at all. So it is NOT true, that it rolls up itself. It does actually  rolls up among with the skin impurities :)

Now how did I find it on my skin?
Straight after use the skin is a brighter and smoother. On the begining I couldn't get myself to use it on regular basis, so I seen only a little effect, but when I started using it every day the effect really pleased me - it removed some of my blackheads and tighten pores a little bit, my skin tone was more even. Great! However if we have a make-up on (so there is more to "roll away" from our face) we have to use quite a lot of product, so I was using it only in the morning. Unfortunatelly even tough I was using it only once a day, the tube lasted only for 2 weeks of everyday use. If I could just go to the shop and buy it straight away it probably wouldn't bother me much, however I usually have to wait approx. 2 weeks for a parcel from e-Bay, which means that I would have to pile up on product, to make it worth the hassle.

Price: from £9 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ brighten up skin
+ removes blackheads
+ tighten up pores
+ evens out skin tone

Cons:
- lasts only for 2 weeks of everyday use, what makes it quite pricey

In general, I really like Marvel Gel, it works great and I would strongly recommend to anyone to give it a go :) However because it runs out so quickly, I decided to test out some similar products of other brands and then see if I can find something what would work as good and last a little bit longer. If not, I will come back to Ginvera and just start buying it in bulks ;)

Ingredients: Deionized Water, Cyclomethicone and Dimethiconol, Carbomer, Panax Ginseng Root Extract, Lycium Barbarum Fruit Extract, Angelica Archangelica Root Extract, Oldenlandia Diffusa Extract, Natto Gum, Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Ginkgo Biloba Nut Extract, Ampelopsis Japonica Root Extract, Tribulus Terrestris Fruit Extract, Perilla Frutescens Extract, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Extract, Royal Jelly Powder, Fragrance, Imidazolidinyl Urea, Menthol, CI 19140 & CI 42090, CI 19140. 

Missha Complexion Coordinating BB/CC Cream

Good afternoon everyone and Happy Valentine's Day! :) I hope you had/are still going to have an amazing time! <3

Product description: Complexion Coordinating BB Cream SPF43/PA+++ gives you a clean, even more natural look! No.1 Pure Complexion is a skin brightening white cream that adjusts to a natural tone when applied for clear and glowing skin.

You can have this product in two sizes - 20ml tube or 50ml cylinder container with very interesting applicator. It's sealed from on the top with only a little slot - when you twist the top part small amount of product would be dispensed from the slot. It so cool and must be so comfy to use with foundation brush! Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to use te applicator myself, as I was testing out just the sample sachet.
Product comes in two shades: No. 1 Pure Complexion (white & gold packiging) and No. 2 Flawless Complexion (black & gold packaging). As you can see on pics, I was testing No. 1.
It has high filter: SPF45 PA+++.
This product, althought it only has a "BB Cream" in name, is actually classified as a BB and CC in one. It's one of this products, that change colour during application, like Lioele Dollish Veil Vita BB or Tony Moly Live Aura CC. Even though it's called a "complexion coordinating" it doesn't really magically just change to your skin colour - it contains a colour capsules, that break when you rub it into your skin releasing tint into the cream.

No. 1 is basically white before application. (No. 2 is beige).

When all colour capsules are broken and cream is a bright beige with pink undertones.

On a textured paper a lot of color capsules are breaking at the same time, making it look much darker than it looks on skin.

Now for the performance. I think this product is much closer to the CC Cream than a BB, to be honest. It gives the skin beautifull glow - my face looked so fresh and dewy after application. However this effect i quite strong and because I live in the country where the matte look is still the desired one and I have a very oily skin which has "shine" of it's own, I had to spoil this glow with mattifying powder. Which is a shame, as that's the biggest advantage of the product. It doesn't really offers much coverage, hardly covers some blackheads. And what's worse - after approx. 4 hours it's almost completly gone. It's like my skin sucked it up or something. There were only traces left around my dry patches (had some acne emergency recently, so my skin is dried out in some places), which wasn't looking good at all.

Price: approx. £8 for 20ml or £15-17 for 50ml.

Pros:
+ gorgeous glow, making skin look fresh
+ really cool applicator in 50ml version

Cons:
- very low coverage (but it may be an advantage for someone)
- after few hours it just dissapears from the face
- makes dry patches more visible, rolls up in wrinkles

Well, I guess that if you don't need much coverage and like quite significant dewy effect, you may give this product a go. But I would recommend to use it with some primer, as it just doesn't last. For me it's a definite no-no, sorry Missha!

Ingredients: Nelumbo Nucifera Flower Water, Cyclopentasiloxane, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891), Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, Phenyl Trimethicone, Ethylhexyl Salicylate, Zinc Oxide (CI 77947), Glycerin, Cyclohexasiloxane, Niacinamide, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Lauryl PEG-9 Polydimethylsiloxyethyl Dimethicone, Methylpropanediol, Butylene Glycol Dicaprylate/Dicaprate, Sodium Chloride, Punica Granatum Extract, Sansevieria Leaf Extract, Opuntia Ficus-Indica Flower Extract, Nelumbo Nucifera Flower Extract, Jasmine Flower/Leaf Extract, Lilium Candidum Bulb Extract, Iris Versicolor (Blue Flag) Extract, Nymphaea Alba Flower Extract, Leontopodium Alpinum Flower/Leaf Extract, Rose Extract, Freesia Refracta Extract, Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus (Daffodil) Flower Extract, Melissa Officinalis Leaf Extract, Malva Sylvestris (Mallow) Extract, Achillea Milleforium Extract, Alchemilla Vulgaris Extract, Cowslip Extract, Mentha Piperita (Peppermint) Leaf Extract, Veronica Officinalis Extract, Sorbitan Isostearate, Pentylene Glycol, Methyl Methacrylate Crosspolymer, Disteardimonium Hectorite, Tribehenin, Dimethicone, Isoamyl P-Methoxycinnamate, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Glyceryl Tribehenate/Isostearate/Eicosandioate, Aluminum Hydroxide, Dimethicone Crosspolymer, Stearic Acid, Polyester-1, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, Silica Dimethyl Silylate, Water, Adenosine, Ethylhexyl Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Dipropylene Glycol, Sodium Palmitoyl Proline, Caprylyl Glycol, 1,2-Hexandiol, Polysorbate 20, Sodium Hyaluronate, Hexylene Glycol, Palmitoyl Oligopeptide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-7, Carbomar, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxy Ethanol, Perfume, Mica, Iron Oxides

Etude House Nutrifull Shea Butter Cream

Greetings everyone!
Recently I've done couple of orders, so I have loads of freebies to test out! Let's crack on with this Etude House's cream!

Product description: healthy skin by containing more than 50% of moisturising ingredients, offering powerful adhesion and skin protection film for dry & weak skin.
Main ingredients: Organic Shea Butter, Natural Claud Berry, Safe 5 Free: No Paraben, No Benzophene, No Mineral Oil, No Artifactial Colour.
Note: It should be kept in room temperature - as it gets colder it may get grainy due to characteristic of organic Shea butter.

The full size product is a 60ml jar, I was testing the little sample sachet.

I have an oily/combination and acne-prone skin, which tends to dry out and feel tense from time to time, especially around eyes, on the forehead and around temples. I use light-weight creams for the daytime and for the night I am looking for something more moisturising, I also do a mild scrub approx. twice a week, followed with some moisturising mask/sleeping pack. Because I suspected that this cream may be a bit heavy I used is after scrub, despite of the mask and left overnight. Here is how I found it.

The cream has lovely, fresh, a bit soap-like smell. Nice! The texture is rich and thick, bring Nivea's or Dove's classic creams to mind. It is also a bit greasy. My face was really shiny after application, but I didn't really mind since it was nighttime - it didn't left my face sticky, so it was fine. Because of it's thickness the sample wasn't very efficient and lasted only for one, but quite generous application on face and neck area.
When I got up in the morning, my skin was nice and soft and a bit greasy, which is normal with my complexion type. I would be quite happy, but unfortunately quite a few zits appeared in my nose and chin area, which means that this cream was too heavy for me.

Price of full size product: approx. £13 on e-Bay.

Pros:
+ nice smell
+ very nourishing indeed
+ leaves skin soft

Cons:
- not very efficient
- leaves skin shiny
- too heavy for my skin

This product doesn't really work for me, but I don't want to criticise it, as it's clearly not for my complexion. An oily/combination skin needs moisture but without oilness, when the dry skin needs both. I think that it may work out quite good for people with dry skin, especially for the nighttime. If I ever got the samples of this product again, I'm quite happy to give them away to some dry skin owner, to see how they find it :)

Ingredients: WATER, GLYCERIN, CYCLOPENTASILOXANE, CYCLOHEXASILOXANE, CETYL ETHYLHEXANOATE, SQUALANE, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII (SHEA) BUTTER EXTRACT, DICAPRYLYL CARBONATE, DISTREADIMONIUM HECTORITE, CETYL PEG/PPG-10/1 DIMETHICONE, BUTYROSPERMUM PARKII (SHEA) BUTTER, HELIANTUS ANNUUS (SUNFLOWER) SEED WAX, LIMNANTHES ALBA (MEADOWFOAM) SEED OIL, PEG-10 DIMETHICONE, RUBUS CHAMAEMORUS SEED EXTRACT, SALVIA HISPANICA SEED EXTRACTLAURYL PEG-9 POLYDMETHYLSILOXYETHYL DIMETHICONE, SODIUM CHLORIDE, ETHYLHEXYLGLYCERIN, PENTHYLENE GLYCOL, POLYSILICONE-11, DISODIUM EDTA, PHENOXYETHANOL, FRAGNANCE

The Face Shop Mango Seed Cleansing Butter

Hello!
Today I would like to review my first product from The Face Shop - a free sample I received some time ago.

Product description: Mild butter type that cleanses skin impurities and makeup clearly. Contains natural mango seed to create smooth and radiant skin after cleansing.
Directions for use: Apply a moderate amount and massage all over face. Cleanse with a tissue. Rinse off with cleansing foam.

The full size product is a 200ml jar, I was testing out a 2ml sample.

First of all the Mango Seed Butter has absolutely gorgeous smell of mango :) it reminds me of The Body Shop's mango series, but I would say it smells even better!
Butter, as you can guess from the name of it, has very thick and creamy texture and slightly yellowish color.

On the beginning of application it may be a little bit hard to spread on skin, however after few seconds as it warms up from the body temperature application is smooth and easy. It reminds me a bit products like leave-on face mask, massage gel etc. I decided to test it out slightly different that what the manufacturer recommends and I didn't use the tissue, just rinsed it of with water. It leaves an oily residue on skin, so using the face foam is necessery. If you like two stages cleansing (like with cleansing oil), you may really like this product, I'm always in a rush, so I prefer just using one product to wash my face with. But I must say that the necessary usage of two products rewarded me with an absolutely fabulous skin! So nice, soft and smooth in touch. Actually I was afraid to use the toner afterwards to not spoil that effect! 0o

Price of full size product: approx. £10 on e-Bay

Pros:
+ lovely smell
+ mild cleansing
+ leaves skin very soft and smooth

Cons:
- it has to be used with another cleansing product like foam or gel

Overall I liked this product :) I decided to have a little nuzzle  around it and I found the whole Mango Seed series, which is huge! On e-Bay there are two types of auctions: offering Mango Seed Cleansing series (except of butter we can also have: foam, oil to foam, bi-phase eye & lips make-up remover, tissues) or the whole series (creams, lotion, essence, eye cream, lip scrub... lots of products!). I couldn't find any auction that would offer the butter only, but when we go to any of the series auctions, we can choose a single product from drop menu (so there is no need to buy the whole series). This series is recommended to all skin types.
The Mango Seed series also have a sister - Chia Seed, which offers "Moisture Holding" products and Sebum Control Products. If I find any samples I will definetely give it a go! :)

What you should be careful about when buying Asian skincare products on e-Bay?

Hello everyone!
You may wonder where do I get all my Asian (mostly Korean) cosmetics from, since I live in Europe. Well, I am notorious e-Bay customer. Even though there is a lot of websites specialising in Asian skincare, e-Bay always wins with prices and choice. However, if you want to buy foreign stuff on e-Bay, there is a few thing you should be careful about.

Country of origin

Most of the stuff I review here is Korean. If you're interested in any particular product, try to find out where the brand is from and then when you are looking for it on e-Bay make sure seller is from that particular country. It still may not give you 100% certainty that product is genuine, but I think that when you buy Korean product from China the risk of getting fake is much bigger.

Some time ago when I was looking for one particular item I noticed that one seller was selling it much cheaper than others. A moment later I realised that this seller was from Hong Kong and I asked myself a question - why Chinese seller would sell Korean product cheaper?

Feedback

When you click on seller's nick you will see a complete profile including information like: where are they from, how long are they e-Bay members and feedback statistics.

After clicking "See all feedback" we can read other users opinions about seller/buyer. Usually there is loads of positive ones, so I always focus on the most recent negative ones.

It's important to look closely into comment's content. Sometimes the person who wrote comment makes mistake, and for example posts positive comment as a negative. Also quite often you can see people giving negative opinion on product's effect - which in my opinion is unfair when we talk about cosmetics product - seller doesn't manufacture them, so can't be responsible for item's properties. Instead we should judge thing like product description, time and quality of postage etc.

Shipping

A great deal of sellers offers us free economy postage. From my experience, economy postage from Korea may take approx. 3-4 weeks. Standard shipping costs usually $2,50 - it offers us tracking number and arrives in approx. 1-2 weeks (my record order from f2plus1 took 5 days to arrive). There are also express services available, but they are quite pricey $20-$30. It's always worth checking if seller offers combined postage, so we pay fixed price for the postage, no matter how many things we order. I always order few things at the same time to make it worth waiting ;)

Caution: some time ago when I noticed that one seller had two auctions for one product with two different prices. The difference was the postage price - the product that was a few pound cheaper had postage priced at... $100. What's weird on the search results there was "free postage" next to product, after I went in auction page the $100 was shown. I think it was some kind of mistake (auction is not there any more), but I always double check the postage price since then.

Freebies

The last thing on my checklist, not very important, but if we can get something for free then why not? ;) The majority of sellers adds some freebies to our shopping as a "thank you" gift, but not all of them. Once I ordered quite a few things from one seller - five full size products - and I was super exited for my freebies (usually the more you order, the more freebies you get), but I didn't get a single one. Fair enough as seller didn't promise any in the auction - I just assumed I will get them, which was my mistake. Since then I always check if seller offer some free samples.

Freebies form seller f2plus1 added to order of three full size products.

Freebies from seller Sing-Sing-Girl added to order of one full size product and three sets of samples (three samples in each set).

That would be pretty much it, if anything else will come to my mind I will edit the post. If you have any questions feel free to ask :)