[REVIEW] Wonder Woman x Missha The Style 4D Mascara

Finding the perfect mascara is the bane of my makeup life. Unlike an eyeshadow or a lipstick which performs similarly from person to person, mascaras are fickle! I've rarely met anyone with less wimpier eyelashes - fitting right into the stereotype of an asian with short, sparse, straight, weak eyelashes. Eyelash curlers + lash primers are my best friends.

Recently, Missha collaborated with Wonder Woman to create a set of limited edition packaging.

Price

Missha The Style 4D Mascara ~ 3 - 4 USD

Brush

The brush is straight and about 3cm in length and 0.5cm in width. It's got straight classic bristles all around. 3cm for a straight length brush head is not ideal as it's too long and makes reaching the corners of the eyes uncomfortable. Using the tapered end of the brush to reach the bottom lashes is also difficult since the product is quite thick and wet. 

Formula

Out of all the mascaras I've tried, this has to be the thickest and waxiest formula I've ever seen. You can kind of see how thick it is at the tapered end of the brush. It's hard for the brush to comb through my delicate and wispy eyelashes because the formula is just so thick.  It's also quite wet so if I look up before the mascara has a chance to dry, there's a bit of smudging. However, once it dries, it doesn't really smudge at all.

(Sorry for the closed eye pictures. I don't want to scare you with close ups of my eyeballs. Taking the picture from a selfie distance is also pretty useless because my eyelashes won't show - oh the frustration).
This is with two coats of mascara. It layers pretty well.

Performance
Before applying any mascara, I curl my eyelashes. Right after applying the mascara, I can see my curl sinks quite a bit. The wet, thick, waxy formula is simply too heavy for my lashes. The 4D mascara adds a bit of volume and a bit of length - but nothing really outstanding. For my lashes, I need both. I need my eyelashes to be visible. Sadly, on its own, this mascara isn't giving me any stellar performances.

(With the help of my current fav. lash primer, Etude House Dr. Mascara Fixer, it does much better. The fixer individually coats each lash making them more separated while holding the curl. This allows the 4D mascara to better coat each the eyelashes. I will do a more in-depth post later on. )

After 10 hours, there's no smudges - that is until I rubbed my eye and a bunch of black bits rub off under my eye.

Overall, it's hard to say if this is a good or bad mascara. I know I've said that it doesn't perform that great for my lashes but you must understand, hardly any mascara works for me and many people love this mascara. Regardless, I hope to have at least provided some insight and information to you.

Thanks for reading!

4 comments mascara, missha, review

[HAUL] Snoopy x Skinfood, Missha Korean Cosmetics Haul

For some reason, ever since the Christmas season came around I've been watching Charlie Brown on replay so when I saw the items in the Snoopy x Skinfood collection, it was an immediate "MUST BUY" moment for me. I've rarely ever been as excited for a Limited Edition collection as I've been with the Snoopy x Skinfood. I think the last time I was excited must have been when Skinfood released their Milky Rose collection which really made my jaw drop when I saw it.  Skinfood is one of my favorite brands for skincare. Unlike some of my favourite brands like Etude House, Innisfree, and Aritaum, it's not owned by Amore Pacific. I believe someone told me that Skinfood was actually one of the oldest cosmetic brands still around. There's just something very special about it. That being said, I love their Skincare products but not so much their colour cosmetics.

When my package came and I saw all those Snoopys, I was beyond excited. I placed my order on TesterKorea and I'm glad everything fit perfectly in the box and none of the paper boxes were crushed. 

This is everything that came in the box - minus the vase and flowers of course. 

All the loose items were placed in plastic bags and the cushion was bubble wrapped so that it wouldn't be damaged when shipped around. 

What I Ordered

Aritaum Fresh Essence Mask x 5: These are one of my favourite sheet masks. 

Skinfood Black Sugar First Serum 2X Essential: I have reviewed the Skinfood Black Sugar First Serum (Gold Edition) here before and I love it. I remember it really help brighten my skin and I've been meaning to repurchase for a while now. I couldn't find the original so I'm guessing Skinfood has replaced it with 2X Essential and Essential Light version. 

Missha x Wonderwoman 4D Mascara: I've tried the 3D and sadly, it didn't work that well for me. I think my eyelashes are just too wimpy for it. Regardless, I'm trying the 4D now because it's cheap and the packaging is really adorable. Originally I ordered only one mascara but one of the items I ordered was out of stock, so I replaced it with the 4D mascara since they were at similar price points. It was either that or store credit. 

Missha Eye Fit Stick Shadow (Dry Lavender): I was really excited for this because the promotional pictures show it as a cool tone taupey colour. I've used it now and I have to say, it's actually got a lot more red in it then expected. I think this colour might work on some people but it makes me look like I got an eye infection as most warm tone colours do. On the plus side, it glided on stayed all day. 

Royal Honey Bounce Cushion [Snoopy Limited Edition]: This item is what propelled this haul. Korea knows it's all about the cushion cases now and tons of really beautiful cases are coming out. Even though I currently have a few cushions open, I really wanted this purely for the case.  I'm so glad that the picture is imprinted into the case - won't have to worry about that scratching off! Of course, hopefully I will adore the Royal Honey Bounce Cushion as well. 

Skinfood Royal Honey Good Moisturizing Cream [Snoppy LE]: Skinfood has said that this can be used on the face as well as the body. Although I was expecting to really love this product, the scent threw me off a bit. It smells a bit like olive oil mix with spoiled milk or just plain repulsive.  Did I get a bad batch or does this product really smell like this? Someone please confirm. Skinfood skincare usually smells amazingly delicious and this is far from delicious. Reviewed Here.

Skinfood Snoopy Dry Decal Nail Stickers: These were just way too cute. I should have got the black and white ones too. 

Samples: everything here is something I want to try. 

That's it for my haul! Happy Holidays everyone! 

10 comments Aritaum, cushion, haul, Korean, makeup, mascara, masks, missha, Skinfood, snoopy, testerkorea

[REVIEW] Online Shopping at TesterKorea

Although Korean cosmetics online stores are popping up everywhere these days, it's hard to find a lot of information on them.  TesterKorea is the only site I've ordered from so far, so sadly at this time I cannot compare it to the services of other online stores. I can only review it from the services I've had so far. I've been really enjoying other people's reviews on online shops so I think with the incoming of my haul, it's a good time for me to give my opinion to help other shoppers as well.

*All products are purchased by me and I am not sponsored nor affiliated in any way. 

This is the Home Page. The tabs are pretty straight forward and easy to navigate.

They sell various products from MANY brands

Besides beauty products, they also sell fashion items and food.

You can also just buy samples to try things in the Sample Shop.

The cart and the process to check out. 

Before you can go further, you have to create and account or log on. 

There are many shipping options. Usually I go with register mail. K-Packet is only available for small purchases, I believe.

and many payment option. 

After confirmation of payment, the order is processed and shipped!

Reasons why I shop at TesterKorea

The website is easy to navigate

The prices are low

They sell recently released items relatively fast. 

Frequent sales and discounts.
Prices are comparable to in store prices.

Some things I don't like about TesterKorea

Prices can only be paid through baht or USD. (With the continually dropping worth of the Canadian dollars, it's hard to estimate how much the total would come out to be after paying in USD and then having it converted to CAD. Though, I'm sure that this is a problem that's going to occur with most online store so I don't fault TesterKorea too much for that. It just means I probably won't be online shopping in USD anytime soon.)

Shipping isn't free (understandable since prices are low. It's usually one or the other with all stores)

My Order Details

It took roughly about a month from the moment I placed my order to the time my order arrived. I always choose register mail because it's usually the most affordable, aside from K-Packet which is slightly cheaper.

A week after I placed my order, I was notified that one of the items was out of stock and because it was limited edition, it cannot be back in stock. I believe that this is an unusual case since I have not encountered it in my previous order experiences. They allowed me to choose another item to replace it. The difference in the prices were credited back into my TesterKorea account.
* I placed this order during their sales event so sales volume was probably higher than normal and thus it took a week to process. In the previous three times I've ordered, it took roughly around 4 days to process and ship out.

3 days after that, my order was shipped. They did warn me that replacing the out of stock item would take a few days delay versus just having the item go to store credit.
*Edit* I've placed another order and it seems each time, it takes longer and longer to be shipped out... Perhaps it's just TesterKorea adjusting to more and more shoppers?

3 weeks later, my order arrived. I'm pretty impressed with this as it's the holiday season. Normally it takes about 3 - 4 weeks for my online purchases to arrive anyways. I live in Canada so it's normal for anything and everything to take a while to arrive. (Except Sephora - they say 2 day delivery and it happens!)

My package arrived in a study, plastic box. Smalls things were packaged in clear little bags and loose items are wrapped in bubble wrap. Sometimes the paper boxes are slightly crushed but so far none of them items arrive dirty or damage.

Overall, I enjoy shopping at TesterKorea. Recent releases are accessible, things come clean and quickly, and prices are decent.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions, let me know :) I will try to answer them to the best of my knowledge.  My haul post is here.

*All products are purchased by me and I am not sponsored nor affiliated in any way. 

4 comments review, testerkorea

[MOTD] Falsies + Berry Lips with Bite Beauty Kir Royale

Back in university, I used to be obsessed with falsies. It was when I first started using makeup and I was so shocked by how different my eyes could look with falsies. One of my friends who loved makeup at that time wouldn't leave the door without the Shu Uemura Farfallina daily. Unlike her, I didn't have the guts, and still don't, to wear falsies everyday. I also couldn't afford to bust out $20+ for it. So I started small with the drugstore Ardell lashes and progressed onto Quo lashes. Eventually I started accumulating so many pairs that I started storing them in a box. The fact is, I don't ever wear falsies unless it's a formal event and over the years, I haven't been to that many - at least not as many as the pairs of falsies I have.

Today, I decided to bust a pair out and just let my makeup crazed self go cray cray with the shadows and the falsies and as you can see - even at cray cray level, it looks pretty neutral. Normally I would have hid the lash band with a black liquid liner but my Kat Von D Tattoo liner just went out of ink today.

(*Ops almost forgot the star of the show - Bite Beauty in Kir Royale. )

Products Used

I'm wearing a pair of falsies I got from eBay many years ago. I can't remember exactly which seller I purchased from nor what the style is called. All I remember is that it was ridiculously cheap compared to how much I was paying per pair in the drugstore.  Here is a link to something that looks similar - falsies.

On my lips is Bite Beauty's Luminous Creme Lipstick in Kir Royale which I got using my Sephora Reward Points last month. Although the pictures are picking out the pinks in it, it's definitely more red in real life. If you missed out on the Kir Royale mini kit, don't worry, I heard that they will be releasing a full size. I applied using the bullet and then smoothed out the edges with a brush. For a more accurate colour swatch, please take a look at this swatch. 

Additional Products

Aritaum Shine Fix Eyes in #13 Brown Bunny

Aritaum Shine Fix Eyes in #2 Pink Oyster

Innisfree Ampoule Intense Cushion #21

Nature Republic Botanical Cake Eyebrow

essence eyeliner in Teddy
Nars Laguna Bronzing Powder
Nars Orgasm Blush
Tony Moly Circle Lens Mascara
Darkness Lash Glue

2 comments Aritaum, Bite Beauty, essence, Innisfree, motd, Nars, physician's formula, Tony Moly

[New In 1st Impression] Physician's Formula Primer Argan Wear Argan Oil with Coconut Water

I'm a HUGE fan of Physician's Formula, especially their Ultra-Nourishing Argan Oil as you might know from my review of it last month. So when I saw that they've released a new line of products from the Argan Wear line, I knew I had to try something out.  The item that caught my eye was the Argan Oil with Coconut Water. 

Light, refreshing and ultra-hydrating blend of 100% pure Argan Oil and 100% pure Organic Coconut Water provides priming, hydrating & brightening benefits all-in-1! 100% Pure Argan Oil, can improve skin's brightness, tone, texture and elasticity. 100% Pure Organic Coconut Water rebalances and rehydrates skin.

Exotically scented ultra-luxurious primer absorbs instantly creating a beautiful even canvas that rejuvenates and revitalizes your skin so you can apply your makeup flawlessly.

Shake well to mix. Close eyes and spray onto face prior to makeup application or alone for a moisturizing treatment twice a day. Use after makeup to set and add a dewy finish. Can be used on face, body, hair and nails. Let product dry completely before getting dressed.

Hypoallergenic. Gluten Free. Cruelty Free. Paraben Free. Non-comedogenic. Dermatologist Approved. 

Source:   Physician Formula Website 

As you can see the Argan Oil with Coconut Water is packaged almost identical to the Ultra-Nourishing Argan Oil. It wasn't until I checked my receipt that I realized this is actually a primer and not only is it a primer, it's a primer in a mist form.

Although the bottle has a gradation with the top part tinted in the same caramel colour as the Ultra Nourishing Argan Oil, you can still see the contents inside with the top half oil and the bottom half coconut water. Before using the product you must shake to mix these two.

The bottle has a standard nozzle top that's provides a pretty decent mist. At first I had to mist myself 5 - 10 times to really get the hang of it. Now I just need 2-3 spritz.  

The mist comes out clear but it does have a bit of oil to it. After leaving it on for a few mins, it sinks into the skin. 

To test this product out, I sprayed this product to half my face and applied the same bb cream - Innisfree Ampoule Intense BB Cushion - to both sides.  Lately, I've been so busy and tired that I haven't been applying my regular routine of skincare and as a result, dry patches have formed on both sides of my cheeks again. My daily skincare consist of slapping on some sleeping pack before knocking out.

 WITHOUT

WITH

Although I was skeptical of what 2-3 spritz of a mist can do, there was actually a difference. Upon application, on the side misted, dry patches were not as noticeable as the side with the BB Cushion. People can still see the patches up close but it's not as obvious as the side without the mist primer.  However, as the day wore on, the dry patches became more noticeable and I had to mist myself again to touch up. Foundation sticking to dry patches is not attractive at all and lately none of my primers seem to be able to get rid of that. 

As a facial treatment, I don't really notice a difference in the feeling of my skin unless I spritz quite a few times. It seems more effective when I spritz before applying other skincare on top rather than randomly spritzing in the middle of the day. Doing the latter half seems to make no difference in how my skin look. However, this is a first impression and how I feel about the product may change later on. 

Now onto some of the things I don't like about this product. With mists, a lot of the product do generally get wasted as it doesn't all land on the face and with only 30ml, I can see this primer won't last long. I've already gone through 1/6 of the product and it's only been a few days. As a primer, you can get away with 2-3 spritz but as a facial treatment, I didn't notice a difference in my skin unless I spritz it around 5 times. Also, I was really hoping this would smell nice because the mists generally envelop your face and you get a really big whiff of the scent. Argan Oil with Coconut Water smells slightly... sour. It's not citrus, coconut,  or anything I can pinpoint. I'm really not a big fan and I feel almost dreadful when I am about to mist myself. I don't know if my skin is just too dry but my skin stings a little bit whenever I mist myself. This stinging feeling lasts for a few minutes.  Lastly, although it says on the box that I can use this on my hair, I've notice that my hair actually gets a bit solid when I use this, as if it got coated with hairspray. 

Overall, I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this product. I wanted this to be a quick fix for my dry skin but it's not. I will have to follow my skincare routine more diligently. With a rebate sticker for $9, I think this is really affordable and definitely worth a try, especially since the winter is so dry.  It doesn't hurt to have a bit of more hydration. It's an interesting concept and that's what I really like about Physician's Formula. They always come out with innovative ideas. Other things I'm looking forward to try from this line is the nourishing oil glosses and the translucent powder. I'm still waiting for a good sale to get those.

Argan Wear Ultra Nourishing Argan Lip Oil Duo

For those who have never used a rebate sticker before, it does work. Usually it takes about 3 months for my cheque to get back to me though. Just remember to fill out the rebate form from their website and mail that in with the pink sticker and original receipt. 

7 comments argan oil, drugstore, physician's formula, primer, skincare

My Bronzer and Contour Collection

Finding a good contour shade is a true mission for any beauty enthusiast such as myself. I'm constantly on the lookout for the perfect shade that will give me those cheekbones. Part of the reason why its so hard is because we constantly use the words bronzer and contour interchangeably. It wasn't until I brought all my bronzing/contour stuff together that I realize there is a clear difference between something that's meant to contour and something that's meant to bronze. Bronzer to me is something that makes you look like you've got enough sun and contour is for creating shadows out of nothing.

Looking at my collection now, I can see what kinds of colours suit my skin and the shades I should gravitate more towards for future purchases.

Clio Touching Apple Cheek #05 Land Brown: This is probably my second favourite bronzer. It's the only cream contour in my collection and despite having a bit of red in it, it's cool toned.  I love how I can apply it without a brush. It's easily bendable - however over blending will lead to the product disappearing.  The only thing I don't like about it is that it doesn't twist up. Once I flatten the dome, its done.

Etude House Aloha (#02 Sun Pink/ Cherry Brown): I've made a dent in this product which is saying a lot. Cherry Brown despite its name is not overly warm nor cool and it's not too soft nor too powdery dry. With a gentle hand, it blends out easily and wears beautifully. I consider this a contour product. 

Nars Laguna Bronzing Powder (Mini Duo with Orgasm Blush): This is cult favourite is a beautiful warm brown with a golden sheen. It can add depth to the cheekbones but it will also add that golden sun kissed glow.

Tarte Off the Cuff Palette (Park Ave Princess): This is a highly pigmented warm tone bronzer. A little goes a long way! It's got a bit too much red for my liking.

Urban Decay Naked Flush (Native): Although I love the pigmentation and texture of this bronzer I'm not a fan of how it looks on me. My skin tone brings out the orange in this product which can result in me looking like an oompa loompa if I go a bit heavy.

Physician's Formula Nude Wear (Light Bronzer): When pictures of these cute little boxes were taking over Instagram, I went out and purchased this along with one of the blushes. However, this my least used bronzer. This product is meant to be used as a glowy bronzer to add that sun kissed look all over the skin. My skin's a bit pale for that to look natural so I rarely use this.

Tony Moly (#5 Brown Sugar): Although this is really too light to do any serious contour with, it's alright as a buffer shade. When I've got time, I add this first and then apply a darker contour shade on top. When swatching the bronzers together, I found that it's really similar to the Physician's Formula Nude Wear Bronzer.

Too Cool For School Contour: This is a really popular contour palette in Korea. The three different strips allow me to contour different sections of my face naturally. It's also cool toned which really suits my skin.

Phew~ I'm glad I finally have a post up again. Even though it's only been about a week since my last post, I really felt a void not doing this and it made me appreciate blogging so much more. Blogging  is an important creative outlet for me and the only space where I can really spend some "me" time-s selfish as it sounds. No one is ever kidding when they say "me" time is important, I'm just glad that I have that moment and also be able to contribute information to all the beauty enthusiasts out there at the same time. 

Thanks for reading my little blog. I really love interacting with you guys!

2 comments bronzer, Clio, collection, contour, etude house, Nars, physician's formula, tarte, Tony Moly, too cool for school, Urban Decay