Nature Republic: Botanical Green Tea Primer

Primer!

It has taken me months to write this damn post because I either keep losing my photos or forget to update it lol.

Steve went to Korea in October because his grandma died and he bought me some random stuff, I asked him that if he could, could he buy me a cleanser and a primer "the cheapest one, doesn't matter" lol that's what I told him. Then he came back with like 5 cleansers >.< LOL I was like only 1! he was like "I didn't know which one to get you.."

Primer with a pump

I wasn't really sure what type of primer this was (moisturizing, matte, etc) since the box didn't really indicate but I assumed it was a moisturizing one since it has green tea in it, I didn't really want a moisturizing primer (since I am a oily skinned girl) but I tried it anyway to see if it would break me out.

Thick and Smooth

This primer has a light lemon scent and is nice and smooth. When I first put it on my face I knew right away this is too moisturizing my foundation is going to melt off. I think this primer is best for those who have dry skin.

My face this day

Face before and after

Sorry for the blurry photos

 For me the primer didn't really cover/fill my pores and lines that well it made my skin feel smoother/softer and more moisturized but that's about it, it didn't really boost the look of the foundation on my skin or make the foundation last any longer, it actually did the opposite for me.

 Oily and shiny by the end of the day

Yep I was right. This primer isn't for me, by the end of the day my foundation was literally melting off my face >.< Could be a great primer for the winter but for the upcoming summer months, not so great (for me at least!)

Overall, great product design (the bottle) I like the pump and feels like you get a lot of product its probably best used in the winter months than in the summer months, not really sure if it has SPF in it or not as the bottle and my box doesn't really specify.

Not really sure where you can buy it online perhaps sasa? but as far as I know, they don't really sell a large variety of Nature Republic products.

I noticed recently that there has been some actual Korean beauty stores here in Vancouver, The face Shop opened in metrotown a few months ago but the prices are a bit higher here in store, but I can order the same products online for a cheaper price and Tony Moly has opened in Richmond. I'm not really sure if they are legitimate stores or not though lol.

Sana: Pore Putty BB Cream

Japanese BB Cream!

I've seen this product on sale at T & T supermarket in Vancouver (specifically the metrotown location) but I never thought about buying it, plus they jacked up the price on this product so its a good thing I ordered it off Sasa.

 Its actually quite a small bottle

Only 30g.. its quite a small, cute bottle but a little goes a long way with this. 

 Oh man gotta do the nails.. lol

No pump >.< but it has a nice dispenser and also dispenses cleanly. The BB cream has SPF 50+  in it and it doesn't claim to have any anti-wrinkle ingredients or whitening effects but it is nice and creamy, as far as I know there's only one shade available on Sasa (I'm not entirely sure if there are other shades..) it has pretty good coverage (I would say its medium coverage but buildable)

 From makeup free, to bb cream on, to the end of the day

Ok! So I decided not to use primer with this BB cream because I wanted to test it without a primer, the first few hours were fine but throughout the day I felt my face become more and more oily (I have oily/combination skin) I did set the BB cream with powder. I feel like if you do use a mattifying primer this bb cream would be amazing. It covers my redness really well, as well as, a few blemishes I have on my skin.

I'll have to give it a go again with a mattifying primer hopefully I'll have better results at the end of the day.

If you don't have oily skin then I think this would be great for your skin :) give it a go!

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Laneige: Pore Deep Clearing Foam

A mild foaming cleanser with a dense lather to purity pores and inhibit sebum secretion

(Description from the Laneige website)

 

I've gone through two tubes already! As much as I like this cleanser I thought I'd give myself a small break and I've temporarily switched to a different cleanser for the time being.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LANEIGE!!! As much as I love the brand its just too expensive for me but I'm thinking of investing in some product to see if it really is worth the price.

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Onto actually talking about the cleanser!

I really like this cleanser, although there are some times during the year that I do find it drying for my face (especially in winter) It has never made my skin feel tight after washing which is good.

 

It has a light scent and lathers really well. After my skin is cleansed it feels really clean and refreshed, it has a creamy consistency and has no beads so its all smooth, the down side is that it doesn't really exfoliate.

As for actually controlling sebum secretion I don't really think it works mainly because I think I have to purchase the whole line for it to have an impact on my skin. But overall a good cleanser. 

 

I'm curious to try some of their other products so maybe I will consider investing into a line... my skin has been overly sensitive lately and is prone to breaking out/excessive oil secretion at the moment since the weather is getting hotter so I have to switch up the morning routine.

 

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My Acne Story

Holy smokes my skin has broken out pretty bad lately. I haven't seen my skin like this in like 10 years o.O When I was a teenager I had HORRIBLE acne. There wasn't a place on my face where there were no pimples, seriously and nothing I used helped it. I started breaking out when I was 13/14 and it was really sudden and really bad. Prior to that I never used skincare products until I had acne which gets me to thinking, what age did you start using skincare products? I think bad acne runs in our family because Ashley used to have pretty bad acne when we were young but it wasn't as bad as mine, plus some of our cousins have pretty bad acne too.

It also didn't help when every Chinese auntie or my mom's stupid Vietnamese friends would point to my skin and be like "Your not washing your face enough!" or tell me how bad my skin is >.< YOU DON'T THINK I KNOW!? FUCK lol. I also hated it when my mom would randomly make some gross soup and be like "drink this, it'll make your skin clear you're too Yeet Hay" I drank it once and it tasted like crap lol and never drank it ever again apparently her soups cure cancer now LOL.

For those who don't know what Yeet Hay is I'll give you the jist of it, the literal translation is "hot air" and a lot of my cousins don't believe in it, what it means is that if you eat too much sugary or greasy/fat foods you will have too much hot air in your body and your skin will break out. I believe in it to some extent but my mom also says that if you don't wear a coat/jacket then cold air will get into your stomach and then you will die from cancer -___-' so.. some of it I don't believe in lol. Maybe some of you Cantonese people will understand lol.

By the time I was 15/16 years old my skin had started to clear because I was using proactive which I used for many years but it always left my skin oily. It was this year when I stopped using proactive all together I used only the repairing lotion and a whole bunch of other random products with it.

I'm not really surprised I broke out but it pisses me off LOL. I've been exposing my skin to a lot of dirt/dust and cooking oil lately. I cleaned the house REALLY WELL the other day so a lot of stuff has been flinging up into the air and I still have to scrub the crap out of the floor lol.

I'm doing a little experiment to see if any of the products I use in the next few days can clear them up for me. My skin is also super oily right now too -___-' This is what my skin literally looked like when I was in Korea for the first week (due to the heat/humidity/pollution) and it also looked like this in Hawaii too, heat and humidity is not good for my skin.

My skin broke out last night really unexpectedly too (hence the pictures above). During the day it was fine a few blemishes here and there but later on in the evening my skin felt really oily and felt sensitive (slightly burning) so I went to look at it in a mirror and I was like OMG WTF my whole forehead had small pimples everywhere and I had a few large pimples too >_< I brushed my teeth and washed my face as well as exfoliated with the St. Ives apricot scrub and used my regular skincare routine but my skin still felt oily >.<

This is 12 hours after the first few pictures

tried to get a photo with goodish lighting but ended up blinding myself LOL

The next day I went to the gym to work out and I also drank tons of water and green tea. I have to admit I don't drink water/green tea as much as I should but it never has really effected my acne anyways. Food doesn't really affect my skin that much anyways but I do think that green tea does help my skin quite a bit.

I didn't change my regular skincare routine the next day (morning) either cause I figured my skin is overly oily anyways the Skin Food Peach Sake line makes my skin matte and less oily so it should help a little. That night I was contemplating whether or not I should use a clay mask or a aloe pack mask for my skin. Ended up using the aloe pack mask :D which helped loads. By then most of the little pimples had almost disappeared anyways but still had a few of the bigger blemishes >.<

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Anyways my skin has basically cleared :D it only took 4 days >.< lame! lol but I was surprised on how fast the small little pimples disappeared, basically like a day!

Some blotchiness but its mostly clear now

We're going to visit Ashley this weekend ^__^ I wish I wasn't so broke though so I can buy some stuff lol but Steve said he has to go back at some point to get wheels or something because the store that he was going to get them from didn't hold them and sold them so they have to order them again and it'll take like a week >.< and I get to see TRIXIE! (Ashley's Yorkshire terrier lol)

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L'oreal Hydrafresh

Its been a while since I've posted anything skincare related.

I bought the L'oreal Gel-creme about a year ago at the local drug store because I thought it was the same as the anti-shine one. I saw lots of beauty guru's on youtube saying how amazing it was at mattifying their skin and how it made their skin stay non-oily during the summer.

It did not work for me. They were both good moisturizers in the summer because they weren't heavy but they did not mattify my skin and my skin became oily after a few hours.

Gel-Creme

I actually prefer the Gel-creme over the anti-shine because it has spf and it is slightly more moisturizing but not mattifying whatsoever.

Anti-shine Gel

if you are going to wear makeup with spf then I would use this but otherwise prepared to get super oily >.< I think maybe because my skin lacks enough moisture to be able to use this properly but that's just my assumption.

My Thoughts

I think if I had ok skin to begin with these two products would work well for me or if I wore mattifying makeup. But because I don't wear makeup I think using it as a general moisturizer didn't work for me. 

I even took this with me to Korea during the summer to which it did not do anything whatsoever lol. I'm glad I actually found the Skinfood Peach Sake line because it actually did mattify my skin, I was really surprised. I thought that no toner/serum would ever mattify my skin but that line proved me wrong.

I wouldn't buy this again just because I know I can get something better for a better price as well... but everyone is different so if it doesn't work for me it doesn't mean it won't work for you.

Where Can You Get This Product?

I bought the Creme-gel one at the local Shoppers Drug Mart you can probably get it at Target or Wal-mart.

I bought the Anti-shine gel on Sasa for about $18 at the time. You can probably buy it on ebay because I couldn't find one.

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Skin Food: Peach Sake Toner and Serum

Post by Amanda

I bought this product when I was in Korea in August. I had seen it before on Sasa and I really wanted to order it because I have really really oily skin but it was always sold out.

I bought the L'oreal Hydrafresh Anti-Shine Gel (will post on this later) earlier in the year because I had watched a few Youtube guru's claiming that it mattifies the skin so I was intrigued to buy it. I have to say it did not work for me. I wore it for a few hours and then would get oily, just goes to show not everyone is the same.