HAULS: March 2017

Another month and it seems like my "low buy" promise completely went out of the window... Maybe I've gone complete crazy. My mum came back from Thailand and gave me a lot of skincare from Thailand.  And I dunno, I suppose I'm stockpiling for Sweden? In a few months I won't have as easy an access to most of these things.

I also learned earlier this month that Korean & other Asian skincare products in brick & mortar stores here in Singapore are sold at exorbitantly marked up prices, and that it's just cheaper to buy things online shipped directly from Korea, though of course it depends on knowing which websites to buy from. BAH! Anyway, I guess the good thing is that I can go to the physical stores, try on the products and then buy online :D. Best of both worlds!

LUMENE Hydration Recovery Oxygenating Gel Mask - Lumene is a Finnish cosmetics & skincare brand and from what I can see from their skincare range, they seem to blend western & eastern skincare concepts using Nordic ingredients. Interesting and I can really get behind this concept! Loving the look and packaging too.  I picked this up on my trip to Sweden.  This mask can be used as both wash-off mask and sleeping mask.  It was on sale at Åhléns for 159 kr (~SGD$25) for 150 ml of product, which is extremely generous considering most creams and sleeping masks that I can find over here are from 50 - 100 ml and many of those are more expensive!  I expect it to last a long time but I haven't tried it yet.

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Aloe Mask Sheet Moisturizing - FINALLY! Bought into this hype of Tonymoly masks. I've been wanting to get it for a long time and I can see why it's so popular - the packaging is so different and very attractive, not to mention that the illustrations are super cute and quirky! I don't really know why I haven't bought it until now, but maybe because I thought it was kind of expensive, but when I went to a Tonymoly store I saw it on offer, 10 for $12, so I got 10!

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Broccoli Mask Sheet Vitality - Yes the packaging is attractive enough for me to even pick up something that contains broccoli that will be marinating on my face! Yikes. I'm just trying to console myself by telling myself that sheet masks have 90% of the same ingredients and these extracts that they advertise are probably very tiny...

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Red Wine Mask Sheet Pore Care

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Lemon Mask Sheet Brightening - And even lemon! I heard that it's an awful idea to put lemon on your face since it's phototoxic.  

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Pomegranate Mask Sheet Elasticity

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Makgeolli Mask Sheet Skin Purifying - Had to look up what makgeolli is, apparently it's some sort of Korean alcoholic beverage.

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Avocado Mask Sheet Nutrition - sss

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Tomato Mask Sheet Radiance - sss

TONYMOLY I'm REAL Seaweeds Mask Sheet Skin Purifying - Yeah, again, I love seaweeds in food, but on my face...uhm. I tell myself that sheet masks are slimy anyway. Just hope I won't see seaweedy bits.

LANEIGE Water Sleeping Mask - I'm so late to the party but better late than never, right? This is Laneige's iconic product and the product that I see bloggers rave about. In fact I've yet to see a negative review of it (though tbf I haven't look around very much) and I dunno, it's built up so much that I'm almost scared to try it. Like what if my expectation around it is too high now from all the hype?  Also it comes with literature which is always nice to read.  It mentions 'garlic acid' which I'm definitely sure is a typo of something, but I don't know what. I'm not taking the piss just really curious, like, could it be gluconic acid or glycolic acid?  Can't figure out from the ingredients list either.

ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Facial Mask Sheet - On my way to trying everything from the Moistfull Collagen line! This is surprisingly expensive for such a seemingly basic sheet mask - $4.50! What!

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Lotus  - I haven't tried this particular one but all of the 0.2mm masks that I've tried are good.

ETUDE HOUSE Honey Cera Wrapping Mask - I bought this when Etude House had a 20% sale and I thought maybe I'd pick up something I'd never otherwise try and I thought this was a sleeping mask at the store but I was so mislead! Argh! Anyway I'll try it...

ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Sleeping Pack 

BELIF The True Cream - Moisturizing Bomb - Picked this up, along with the other Belif products below when they had a 20% sale. I've been wanting these for a long time but omg the price is so eye-watering.  Even after 20% off it's still quite high, but I really wanted them.

BELIF The True Cream - Aqua Bomb 

BELIF First Aid Aqua Rush Mask - I would have never picked this up if it wasn't for the 20% sale.

PHYSIOGEL Daily Moisture Therapy Dermo-Cleanser - My mum gave this to me. 

KIEHL'S Rosa Arctica Lightweight Cream - My mum gave this to me too. It was actually given to her by my sister, which she got for free from an event she went to.  I was so curious about this for a long time. I see this sold in Kiehl's in Scandinavia but not here in Singapore, but couldn't justify buying it because it was so expensive (even by Kiehl's standard!) and it didn't smell so good from the sample I tried at the Copenhagen airport, so it was such a surprise to see it here.  The one that mum gave me doesn't smell bad at all - just faintly of lavender, which makes me wonder if it only smelled bad because it had so many fingers poking into it, introducing bacteria so it went a bit off.

INNISFREE Green Tea Moisture Skin - Bought this at the Singapore airport duty-free, which is about $5 cheaper than buying it at an Innisfree brick & mortar store in Singapore. Just nice to know that I'll have another chance to go through the Singapore airport duty free.

INNISFREE Green Tea Sleeping Pack - I meant to buy this one for my boyfriend. I ordered it from online which is cheaper, but the package was delayed so in the end I had to rush off to an Innisfree store to buy it on time for my departure, so now this is mine to use.

INNISFREE Green Tea Balancing Special Kit - At least one perk of buying at physical stores here is the gifts with purchase, but I doubt it's worth it.

WHITE FORMULA Super Moist Toner With Hyaluronic Acid - Got this when they're 25% off. Heard they're supposed to be dupes of Hada Labo. Anyway they're so cheap that I can just soak DIY sheet masks and cotton pads to make DIY lotion masks.

 WHITE FORMULA Super Moist Light Toner With Hyaluronic Acid

SNP (SHINING NATURE PURITY) 99% Snail Soothing Gel - for a product that claims to be 99% snail it has a surprisingly huge ingredients list. Do the rest fit in 1%? :O and also, it smells very strongly of alcohol (not necessarily a bad thing IMO - I'm not opposed to alcohol in skincare), so I can't believe that such a supposedly small amount of alcohol can smell this strongly.  But it feels very refreshing on my skin.

 ABHAIBHUBET Bua Pai Khao Day Cream SPF 30 - Given to me by my mum from her trip to Thailand this month.  Bua Pai Khao just means lotus, bamboo and rice respectively, signifying the main plants that are used as ingredients in this cream. Apparently they're supposed to nourish, strengthen and soothe the skin.  What makes me a bit anxious is that it doesn't state if it has a PA rating, if any.

ABHAIBHUBET Emblica Plus Facial Cream - Also given to me by mum from her trip to Thailand.

CRABTREE & EVELYN Lily Body Lotion - Given by mum again! So nice of her.

SCENTIO Avocado Sherbet Body Scrub - scrubadub

HAULS: January 2017

This month's haul had a rapid head start, due to John Little at Plaza Singapura closing down and it had a closing down sale, but slowed down after that. Most of my purchases for this month were sheet masks, hydrators and tools that facilitate hydration such as DIY compressed sheet masks and peelable cotton pads to up my hydration game.  This is because there was a sudden drastic change in my skin type, and I'm talking about in the period of 1 month. It used to be massively combination-oily, to the point where I had to use two primers - pore smoothing and mattifying and tons of powder and even a setting spray and my face still oily enough at the end of the day that I'll soak up an entire sheet of blotting powder and now my face is so uncomfortably tight and dry that by the end of the day when I smile I see fine lines from dryness that never used to be there.  I turned 30 in that period, but I don't think hitting 30 would so instantly shrivel me up!  My main suspect is the retinyl palmitate that's in my Hada Labo Lotion and Milk, which I started to use at the beginning of this month.  I also wonder if starting to properly take care of my skin and actually focus on hydration is also making my skin balance itself out and stop producing so much oil? Never used to believe that.

MUJI Face Lotion Sheet - First time I'm using this!  In fact I wasn't even aware that this thing exists until earlier this month! It just looks so wondrous and expands upon contact with liquid and it just feels like magic!

MUJI Peelable Cotton - Ushering me into the new world of Japanese/ Chizu Saeki method of Japanese lotion masking.

BABY FOOT - bought it at the John Little closing down sale.

WATSON'S Red Wine Antioxidant Facial Mask

WATSON'S Black Pearl Smoothing Facial Mask

MY BEAUTY DIARY Antarctica Glycoproteins Mask

MY BEAUTY DIARY Alps Edelweiss Mask

HADA LABO Shirojyun Arbutin Milk -  I've tried the lotion many years ago (my mum gave me). I'm looking forward to try the milk.

HADA LABO Gokujyun Alpha Lotion

HADA LABO Gokujyun Alpha Milk - I accidentally bought two bottles. The bottles are bigger than the Hada Labo milks in other lines so I assumed this was a lotion.

MEISHOKU Declear Bright and Peel Facial Peeling Gel

Some DIY mask eye patches.

KIEHL'S Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate - Second bottle!

KIEHL'S  Double Strength Deep Wrinkle Filler - Sigh, the un-glam reality of trying to turn back the clock.

KIEHL'S  Smoothing Oil-Infused Leave-In Treatment deluxe sample

KIEHL'S Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Eye-Brightening Concentrate deluxe sample - Something I got to try to stave off having to buy another bottle of the Vitamin C eye serum, which I think is overpriced and the efficacy isn't worth the money.

KIEHL'S  Cilantro & Orange Extract Pollutant Defending Masque samples

KIEHL'S  Clearly corrective Dark Spot Solution samples

KIEHL'S Smoothing Oil-Infused Shampoo - MEH. I don't know why they keep plying me with these things. It smells nice but nah, no cigar.

KIEHL'S Smoothing Oil-Infused Conditioner samples - same as above.

KIEHL'S  Powerful Wrinkle Reducing Cream sample - I don't think I have that much wrinkles around my eyes yet but I guess it's nice.

KIEHL'S Pure Vitality Skin Renewing Cream samples 

KIEHL'S Damage Repairing & Rehydrating Conditioner samples - Just no.

KIEHL'S Damage Repairing & Rehydrating Leave-In Treatment - No...

KIEHL'S Damage Repairing & Rehydrating Shampoo - Your attempts at converting me hasn't worked Kiehl's, but I ain't gonna say no to free stuff!

HASK Argan Oil Repairing Deep Conditioner - My sister bought this for me for birthday/ Christmas.

HASK Macadamia Oil Moisturising Deep Conditioner - My sister bought this for me for birthday/ Christmas.

HASK Keratin Protein Smoothing Deep Conditioner - My sister bought this for me for birthday/ Christmas.

GARNIER Micellar Cleansing Water - The first time I ever used micellar water in my life! Wanted to know what the hype was all about!

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Collagen

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Hyaluronic Acid

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Green Tea

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Snail

ETUDE HOUSE 0.2 Therapy Air Mask - Manuka Honey - Got this on impulse because I won $8 at Etude House's spin the wheel thing.

ETUDE HOUSE Dr. Ampoule Dual Mask Sheet - Vital Care - Got this on impulse because I won $8 at Etude House's spin the wheel thing. The two-step care is SO unbelievably rich and nourishing and moisturising!

ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Half & Half Cream - I couldn't resist the customizable moisturisation level - one can use either, mix or match or layer both, the last of which I have been doing a lot because my skin is so crazy dry these days. It's the best but also the driest it's ever been since I was a teen.

ETUDE HOUSE Moistfull Collagen Eye Cream - I love the bouncy textured eye cream.

ETUDE HOUSE sample freebies - Contains BB cream, cleansing foam, lip colour, toner, emulsion and water jelly cream (which is actually a gel).

ETUDE HOUSE sample freebies - a whole bunch of stuff I'm not really interested to try but hey, free stuff so YOLO.

PS Contour and Strobe Crayons - my sister bought me this from the UK for Christmas/ my birthday! It's so sweet of her! I didn't know Primark makes makeup now. Oh well!

OST Original Pure Vitamin C20 Serum - the cult beauty favourite!

ESSANO Rosehip Oil - It's the most trendy beauty product right now apparently.

WHITE FORMULA Sunscreen SPF 50+ PA+++ - Sunscreen is always essential! I'm trying out all the Asian sunscreens to see which I like best. So far I love them all! Such a pleasure to wear.

BIORE UV Perfect Spray SPF 50+ PA++++ -  Bought this out of curiosity...so far not terribly impressed.