Review: Missha HBK01 Nail Polish

Today's review is on a nail polish from Missha, a korean based company that specialises in a full range of beauty products.  I found a seller on ebay who was selling Missha and got this imported from Korea.

The bottle is in the shape of a curved heart

Kind of cute, but might be cuter if the heart wasn't clear, maybe a coloured cap would be cuter.

I really had high hopes for this polish.  In hindsight, I didn't see many swatches of this polish, and now I know why.   I really hate to say this, but I don't have one positive thing to say about this polish.  

Firstly, the size of the brush is just ridiculous. It's too big for the opening, and when you try to put it back in, it gets caught and eventually over time, that will deform the brush.  I believe the intention was to create a brush that would take one stroke to cover the entire nail, but you have to factor in that some people have narrow nails and all I got was massive nail polish runs on my cuticles.

The formula was thick and gloppy.  It dried off to be very gritty, and all the beautiful holographic & prismatic shimmer that you see on the bottle completely disappeared on the nail.  I was very disappointed in the loss of holo, since that is why I bought this.

Also, I did this manicure late last night, it took forever to dry even with my fast drying topcoat by Poshe.  Not only that, this morning I woke up to major tip wear. So there is another problem I'm having with this polish.

I really wanted to try another Missha nail polish, but now I'm really hesitant to import another one, especially if the formula is going to be like this.  Missha is a bit higher end among the Korean cosmetic brands, even my Skinfood (which was essentially half the price) wore better and was better for your money.

I am just so disappointed, this was suppose to be my solution to not having the original OPI's My Private Jet.  I guess my search for a black linear holographic nail polish continues.

The only saving grace for this nail polish is that perhaps I need a proper aqua base to make the holo shine through, but the black is just so dense that I doubt that would even help.

I don't recommend this nail polish.

July's Top 10 Favourite Products

It's that time again. Another month gone, wow. So this month has been the month for pulling out the old products that I've had and frankly need to use before their shelf-life expires.  So there are some new products, but definitely some oldies.

My top 10 favourite and most reached products of July 2011 are:

* Missha Signature Real Complete BB Cream

* Make Up For Ever Glossy Full Couleur lipgloss in 4

* Lorac Behind the scenes eye primer

* Lorac Front of the Line liquid eyeliner in black

* N.Y.C. Color wheel Mosaic Face Powder in Peach Glow

* NARS Okinawa eyeshadow trio

* Dior Diorsnow Whitening UV Spot Corrector

* MAC Seriously Hip Nail Polish

*Chanel Peridot Nail Polish

* YSL macara singulier

* W7 Mega Matte lips 

NARS OKINAWA

 

I usually shy away from matte eyeshadows, but these are not chalky at all and completely blend-able.  I just love the great pigmentation as well.

NYC Blush & Lorac liquid eyeliner

 

I reached for this blush quite a bit this month. Not sure why, I think I liked the neutral look of the pink/peach shade.  It wasn't too glitzy, just a nice matte colour for my cheeks.

The Lorac eyeliner is great.  I hate how some liquid eyeliners really drip and apply super heavy in the beginning and then tapers off to nothing, but as you can see, I was able to control my strokes.

MAC & CHANEL NP's

 What can I say, I loves these two polishes so much.  As I previously mentioned, the colours are wonderful and unique and the formula is superb.

Make Up For Ever lipgloss

 

It looks quite bright and bold in the bottle, but it is very sheer on the lips.

This gave me just enough brightness to liven up my face this month.

 YSL Mascara

I got this back in January as a gift in an exchange, and I didn't use it until this month.  The brush is one of my favourites to date. Doesn't clump and gives an even distribution of formula on the lashes. No spider eyes here :)

 Dior concealer and Lorac eyeshadow Primer

 

 I didn't knw if I could believe the hype about the Dior concealer actually lightening up my scars, but it does.  At least for me. I've noticed a slight lightening of my scars. Now I'm not sure if it's the concealer that's doing it or my BB cream, but whatever it is, it's ligthening up my face and I couldn't be happier!

The Lorac eyeshadow primer is just as good as my usual urban decay primer potion (which I ran out of).  It really helps keep my shadows on :)

W7 LIpgloss

 

As I mentioned in a previous post. I love this little cheapie lippie. It suits me, goes on wet, dries matte, but doesn't leave my lips dry either.  I am contemplating going back and buying more of these!

These are my most reached products this month?

What is your number 1 product you reached for this month?

Share please, I'd love to see what everyone is using xx

Missha Signature Real Complete BB Cream & My naked FOTD

My sister in law rocks, she got me this BB cream recently and I absolutely am obsessed with BB creams lately.  Who wouldn't right? It's a moisturizer, skin brightener, spf sunscreen, and primer all mixed into one.  I'm lucky that I haven't had any adverse reaction to any of the BB creams (granted I only tried two) and I'm having some good results ever since using them.

Now most people use BB creams as a substitute for moisturizer and although I think BB creams would work as a moisturizer, my skin has been awfully dry lately so I need to pack on the moisture.

So with further ado, here is my new Missha BB Cream

Missha has a plastic case on top of the bottle which at first glance looks like something you would want to squeeze.  

It's a pretty package, but a bit wasteful.  But I suppose if you are going to charge a lot of more, the packaging should be a bit luxurious and elegant looking.

This bottle is a reverse pump bottle, instead of it sitting upright. You push down on the nozzle and basically it comes out.

Before I forget this Missha product can be found on various places starting from $10 - all the way up to $40.  Please be careful in purchasing BB creams on ebay, since there are a lot of fakes floating around.

 

These are the two BB creams that I currently own.

 

Skin79 is on top and the Missha is on the bottom

Honestly when it comes to comparing BB creams,

I really wanted to be able to you all that there was such a huge difference in these BB creams considering they are priced at different brackets, but I honestly can't tell you I noticed a difference.  The only slight different that I noticed was obviously the colour and the finish.  Skin79 left a dewy glos and Missha was a bit more matte.

I have read a lot of reviews and the one complaint that a lot of people had was that they couldn't find a BB cream that was their perfect colour. It was either too bright or too dark, and lots of bloggers recommended to search for your perfect colour.

I guess I don't feel it necessary to do so, unless you plan on wearing nothing but the BB cream.  If you are warm toned, a lot of the BB creams will flush you out, since they are very pale and meant to be a skin whitener. 

Since I wear foundation over my BB creams, I don't worry so much about finding my perfect match really.

Having said that, I am in between colours right now, I'm like a fair/medium, because my Miami tan has definitely faded :(

but in Missha I currently wear No. 21 light pink beige.

I am 31 and my skin has been going through a tons of change and I could bang my head up against the wall screaming, WHY ME? WHY ME?

Or I can embrace it. 

That's what I'm trying to do these days.

I want to nurture my skin and try to give myself the opportunity to age gracefully and believe me, I wouldn't love to have my skin again in my 20's, but that's life right? What can you do.  I also know that losing weight helps with your skin condition as well, and 

that is another one of my lifetime battles I'm fighting with.

Now my skincare routine has always been sporadic, and that's probably why I'm not optimizing the results, but here is what I use on a daily basis:

1) Clean face with Clarisonic - I am always changing cleansers, because I can never find one that I absolutely love so much. The closest I came to finding a cleanser I love is Clarins Gentle foaminc cottonseed cleanser.

2) Toner - currently using Dior Matifying Toner

3)  Moisturize - currently using various samples of high end products (cle de peau, guerlain, chanel, la mer, la praire)

4) Eye cream - currently using various samples of high end eye creams as well

5) Lip balm - Currently using La Mer the balm - my absolutely favourite lip balm

6) I use BB Cream as my last step in my skincare

so with much hesitation....

I am showing you all my naked FOTD.

I have nothing on my face except for my usual skincare routine and BB cream.

The picture isn't great, but you can tell that I have dark circles around my eyes,

discolouration on my cheeks and believe me....I have acne scars, but the camera didn't pick them up (thank god lol) and clearly I need to die my hair again ugh :( 

haha

but this is me, naked.

I will say, since using BB creams, a lot of my discolouration has definitely faded.  I doubt that the dark colouring under my eye will go away, but that's why I always moisturize with eye cream and try to keep that part of my face moisturized always.

My goal is to repair the damage on my face and to lose weight and be healthy weight again, so I hope to do periodic naked FOTD to show you all how I'm progressing.

Who loves or hates BB creams?