Today, I want to talk about skincare products, and my favorites.

my skincare regimen.

First, the short version of my boring beauty backstory...(alliteration~)

I was skinny as a rail as a kid, and once I hit puberty and we moved across the country, I gained all this weight, and I felt hideous. In an effort to actually lose the weight and start feeling better about myself, I turned to the internet (way after puberty, mind you...this was actually after college) and decided that a good place to start with my transformation would be to start taking better care of my skin and perhaps even wearing makeup. /end of boring story

OK! On to the good stuff!

One of the first beauty blogs I ever started following was Bubzbeauty (blog | youtube), and I was particularly inspired by her skincare regimen video (found here) to start buying nicer skincare products (I mostly used drugstore brands before that, and was much to embarrassed to go the makeup counter and try to learn something from a salesperson...>.<;;)

I couldn't afford all of the products that she recommended, but I did give the pore trouble skin refiner and the perfect renew essence a try and LOVED THEM!

This was all about a year or two ago, and since then, I really became more confident (and lost some weight..not at my goal yet, though...agh!) and can go to the makeup counter (not so shy now, eh!? lol).

Also, I have developed an interest in all kinds of beauty products, so I decided to start this blog as a kind of outlet for that.

So anyway, on to the way interesting stuff, yeah?

I used to just use Laneige multi cleanser, pore care skin refiner, and then the perfect renew essence. After awhile, I decided to invest in a bottle of Cure, which is an amazing exfoliant gel (aka peeling gel).

Then, when I was visiting family in San Francisco over the new year, I stopped by Japantown to scope out the makeup shops! I did find one Laneige retailer (after I had already spent my money, so sad!), but before that, I happened upon this little Korean beauty retailer where the shop assistant helped me to find some products that would work for me. That's where I picked up my current face wash (which I can't seem to find online, and since I threw away the box, is becoming more and more of a mystery...). It says Pierre Cardin Paris on the front, but the text on the back of the bottle is Korean, so...your guess is as good as mine. Actually, you know what? Here's a picture:

I really love this product! Too pad I can't find it anywhere. :(

It's a really creamy mousse that foams up even better than the Laneige Multi Cleanser, so I think I'm going to give the Laneige Foam Cleanser Moisture a go after I run out of this awesome Pierre Cardin product.

I'm still using the Pore Trouble Skin Refiner (which is apparently discontinued? I can't find it on the Laneige website...), followed by the Perfect Renew Essence. Then, for eye cream, I actually use a gel by Skin Peptoxyl called Intelligent Dark Circles Eraser (you can actually get this cheaper @ SaSa, but I felt like the YesStyle page for it was more informative). It is crazy expensive (FIFTY DOLLARS?! FOR 30ML??) but I will not lie...it works! I want to get a more "everyday" type of eye moisturizer because I don't get dark circles all the time anymore (vitamins ftw!), but when I do have to close at work (we close at 2am), I almost always have circles for a couple of days after, but this definitely helps to reduce that! It feels so nice to massage it into the eye area too! I love to do it right before I go to sleep because it's soo relaxing! And I will say that you barely have to use any product at all, so it does seem to last forever! I've had mine for over a year...

Then, I follow all of that with a product by Juju Aquamoist called Collagen Moisture Milk, which I got while in Japantown, San Francisco at the Nijiya Market. I really really love this product so much! It's really moisturizing and has collagen and hyaluronic acid for moisture and increased skin elasticity. My mom loved it so much she tried to steal mine! >.<* My skin feels so soft and more springy after using it!

As for exfoliant, as I said earlier, I mostly use Cure, but I also picked up a product (again, in Japantown) by Coréana called Perfect Clean Magic Gel AD. I actually received a bonus size product of 150ml when I bought it, so yay! I basically use it whenever I can't find my Cure (lol), so it's not my preference, but it's still a good product. I feel like it works really similarly to Cure, but I think Cure works better. So, if you can't afford to get Cure, I'd say go for the Coreana product...but if you can afford it, get Cure, because it's great!

Today, I want to talk about skincare products, and my favorites.

my skincare regimen.

First, the short version of my boring beauty backstory...(alliteration~)

I was skinny as a rail as a kid, and once I hit puberty and we moved across the country, I gained all this weight, and I felt hideous. In an effort to actually lose the weight and start feeling better about myself, I turned to the internet (way after puberty, mind you...this was actually after college) and decided that a good place to start with my transformation would be to start taking better care of my skin and perhaps even wearing makeup. /end of boring story

OK! On to the good stuff!

One of the first beauty blogs I ever started following was Bubzbeauty (blog | youtube), and I was particularly inspired by her skincare regimen video (found here) to start buying nicer skincare products (I mostly used drugstore brands before that, and was much to embarrassed to go the makeup counter and try to learn something from a salesperson...>.<;;)

I couldn't afford all of the products that she recommended, but I did give the pore trouble skin refiner and the perfect renew essence a try and LOVED THEM!

This was all about a year or two ago, and since then, I really became more confident (and lost some weight..not at my goal yet, though...agh!) and can go to the makeup counter (not so shy now, eh!? lol).

Also, I have developed an interest in all kinds of beauty products, so I decided to start this blog as a kind of outlet for that.

So anyway, on to the way interesting stuff, yeah?

I used to just use Laneige multi cleanser, pore care skin refiner, and then the perfect renew essence. After awhile, I decided to invest in a bottle of Cure, which is an amazing exfoliant gel (aka peeling gel).

Then, when I was visiting family in San Francisco over the new year, I stopped by Japantown to scope out the makeup shops! I did find one Laneige retailer (after I had already spent my money, so sad!), but before that, I happened upon this little Korean beauty retailer where the shop assistant helped me to find some products that would work for me. That's where I picked up my current face wash (which I can't seem to find online, and since I threw away the box, is becoming more and more of a mystery...). It says Pierre Cardin Paris on the front, but the text on the back of the bottle is Korean, so...your guess is as good as mine. Actually, you know what? Here's a picture:

I really love this product! Too pad I can't find it anywhere. :(

It's a really creamy mousse that foams up even better than the Laneige Multi Cleanser, so I think I'm going to give the Laneige Foam Cleanser Moisture a go after I run out of this awesome Pierre Cardin product.

I'm still using the Pore Trouble Skin Refiner (which is apparently discontinued? I can't find it on the Laneige website...), followed by the Perfect Renew Essence. Then, for eye cream, I actually use a gel by Skin Peptoxyl called Intelligent Dark Circles Eraser (you can actually get this cheaper @ SaSa, but I felt like the YesStyle page for it was more informative). It is crazy expensive (FIFTY DOLLARS?! FOR 30ML??) but I will not lie...it works! I want to get a more "everyday" type of eye moisturizer because I don't get dark circles all the time anymore (vitamins ftw!), but when I do have to close at work (we close at 2am), I almost always have circles for a couple of days after, but this definitely helps to reduce that! It feels so nice to massage it into the eye area too! I love to do it right before I go to sleep because it's soo relaxing! And I will say that you barely have to use any product at all, so it does seem to last forever! I've had mine for over a year...

Then, I follow all of that with a product by Juju Aquamoist called Collagen Moisture Milk, which I got while in Japantown, San Francisco at the Nijiya Market. I really really love this product so much! It's really moisturizing and has collagen and hyaluronic acid for moisture and increased skin elasticity. My mom loved it so much she tried to steal mine! >.<* My skin feels so soft and more springy after using it!

As for exfoliant, as I said earlier, I mostly use Cure, but I also picked up a product (again, in Japantown) by Coréana called Perfect Clean Magic Gel AD. I actually received a bonus size product of 150ml when I bought it, so yay! I basically use it whenever I can't find my Cure (lol), so it's not my preference, but it's still a good product. I feel like it works really similarly to Cure, but I think Cure works better. So, if you can't afford to get Cure, I'd say go for the Coreana product...but if you can afford it, get Cure, because it's great!