OK, so I’ve just written up a post on my main blog, Nothing Spaces, where I went on and on… and on about Aromateria. Aromateria is a local brand that makes solid perfumes. I was such a big fan of LUSH’s solid perfumes, annoying packaging aside, and I particularly liked Dirty, which is incidentally such a clean and fresh scent. I first heard about Aromateria from Sheena, who Instagrammed a few scents two years ago. I know both Eliza and Wiji are fans, too.
Introducing New Old Face, in which I test out new products in conjunction with old favorites that I came back to. Here’s t first “New Old Face,” feat. NARS Dual Intensity Eyeshadows and a MAC Lustre Lipstick that has been a longstanding favorite. (I seriously don’t know why people don’t talk about this shade more often.) NEW BASES I’ve got a new base and concealer in use here: the Happy Skin Cosmetics Zit Zapper Second Skin Cream and the Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Dark Circle Eraser. The Happy Skin cream only comes in one shade, which was too light for my liking when I first got it a a few months ago, and I have the Maybelline concealer in Medium.
Two of my purchases from Seoul were these Glam Rock Urban Shadows from Too Cool for School. I got a dirty olive in a satin finish (13 Viva Green) and a frosty light peach (3 Peach Glow). They are very easy colors to wear, apply, and pair together. The texture of the shadows is smooth, but not so soft and buttery that it goes all over the place. They crease on me without a primer, but so do all other eyeshadows, except for Ellis Faas Creamy Eyes.
I’d been wanting to try Ellis Faas for the longest time and was fortunate enough to have received three shades of their Hot Lips range (review) as well as some base products (Skin Veil and Concealer review). However, the thing I was most excited to try were their Creamy Eyes Liquid Eyeshadows. After a favorable experience with their brand, I decided to take the plunge and get two of shades of the Creamy Eyes and one shade from their Creamy Lips range. I got the Creamy Eyes in E106 and E113—a lilac taupe and a navy blue respectively. I was obsessed with trying them out because I heard of their no-budge, no-smudge, no-crease formula, even without a primer! The range, however, is kind of pricey, so I settled on two that I think were unique enough and still wearable. I also got the Creamy Lips in L102, a deep plum wine.
Étude House is one of the first Korean brands I was introduced to, the other one being The Face Shop. The branding is very girly and princessy—something I don’t usually gravitate to, but I heard a lot of good things about their Play 101 Pencil range. Unfortunately, I was so overwhelmed by the sheer number of shades, I ended up with only two lip-friendly shades, both in the “glossy” finish. source They used shades 54 and 55 on the “looks” I saw by the display and I loved how both looked so much. I think these are new colors from their holiday release. 🙂 It was so hard to move around the stores because they were always so full of people, but now that I can see the colors from the Play 101 line, I kind of really want all of them. Because I’m crazy.
So, apparently, horse fat in creams is a thing in both South Korea and Japan. The last product in my BNT Girls Box is the Claire’s Guérisson 9-Complex Cream* which has horse fat as its main ingredient to fight the evils of aging and the settling in of those pesky wrinkles. According to several listings of this “miracle product,” horse fat greatly reduces scarring and that the Guérisson 9-Complex in particular is a natural formula that’s suitable even for babies to use. The fat is rendered from horses from Germany, free from steroids, preservatives or “flavorings.”
The Amaranth Ultra Hydrating Cream* is quite a light cream used for “smoothing face,” which I presume means that it gives the wearer a visibly smoother visage. “Pave your way to beautiful & healthy skin,” the pamphlet says. “It meets your needs.” It “gives elasticity and moisture” to the skin using vegetable moisture water drops that contain Rosa Centifolia Flower Water or rose water, a common skin care ingredient, Panax Ginseng Root Extract which is one of Korea’s main crops, and Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Flower Extract. These ingredients help with soothing irritated skin. The Aramanth Ultra Hydrating Cream is the first of the AMC Special Care Series, which is a four-step process. It’s considerably shorter than a lot of the typical Korean skin care lines, with this product as the basic hydrator. This is used after cleansing and toning.
Softly Sometimes 