Spa at Home? Dr. Dennis Gross Steamer Solution

I do notice that my skincare, especially clay and mud masks, seems to go deeper and are more effective when I use them right after a hot shower, so I get the idea of steaming. It helps to unclog pores, reduces nasal congestion, moisturizes the skin and helps skincare  to absorb better. Putting your face over a bowl of water seems like such a hassle and I’m perfectly happy with my $7 Innisfree Steam Towel so I really had no intention of purchasing this R2D2. But then I got an email about the steamer being 50% off for only one day ………… well……..

But anyways, what is done is done, so work your magic, R2D2! The machine is about the size of a large blender with a 5ft long cord. There are a lot of confusion about how to use it. Turns out they remodeled it, where the old version had slightly different label on the button and can only be used with distilled water while the new version I got uses tap water. I’m a little doubtful about blasting tap water on my face for 10+ minutes so I compromised and went with filtered tap water.

Foreo Luna Review, and Comparison to Clarisonic

Foreo Luna or Clarisonic? That was THE question I’ve been pondering for the whole summer before deciding on a Clarisonic first, then Foreo luna later if I have the chance. Well, I enjoyed using the Clarisonic because it helps to cleanse and exfoliate at the same time. However, there were some annoyance (that I will talk about later in the comparison) and my skin was getting drier and more sensitive in the winter. Just as I was thinking of getting the Foreo Luna from Sephora with the 20% off, I saw the Holiday Cleansing Collection with Boscia products online. So of course I ordered it.

Then 3 days later, there was a GIGANTIC shipping box of 1ft by 1ft by 2ft by my door. “What the hell did they put in it??? I’m pretty sure the items in my order were only palm sized…” Well, turns out the holiday packaging is a long box where all the products are laid out side by side. It looks more festive/impressive as a gift I suppose. I went with the set because I’ve already tried Boscia Purifying Cleansing Gel and Boscia Tsubaki Beauty Oil and knew I like them. I was actually contemplating on getting them in the next few months before this.

I have not tried the Vitamin C Brightening Hydrogel Mask yet, but I’m much more eager to try Foreo Luna, so the mask review will have to wait. As for the Foreo Luna cleansing device, it looks like they just grabbed a full size in all its packaging and put it inside the holiday collection packaging. The Foreo Luna came with a polyester/microfiber feel pouch, registration card, user manual and a usb charging cord. I was kind of annoyed that it didn’t come with a wall plug. Granted, there are a lot of usb to wall plug nowadays, but for a $200 device, it seems rather cheap/petty to not include a complete charging set.

With that said, how well does Foreo Luna perform is what actually matters. The device needs to be charged before it can be used, and it only took ~45min to 1hr for it to be fully charged. Then it’s time to put it to the test! All the beauty blogger reviews I’ve read prefer this to Clarisonic, so now amazing is this?

Sephora Play October Edition: A subscription box review

It feels like everybody and their cousin have a subscription box. Some are too expensive, and some consist of too many drugstore stuff I won’t use. I got an email from Sephora about their Play box subscription months ago. It is currently in its beta testing phase so it is invite only, but Sephora carries pretty nice brands and it’s only $10, which is a pretty good deal. I didn’t get the September box, but after taking a look at what’s in it on Beauty by Jellybean, I decided to opt in for the October box. I’m not big on makeup but dewy skin totally sounds like my type.

You get billed for the box at end of the first week of the month (Oct 9th ish) and it ships the third full week of the month (just got it Oct 23rd). Sephora will send you email with teasers during that time, altho this month’s teaser wasn’t entirely accurate. The teaser mentions hottest Korean beauty and upon first product reveal they listed Becca highlighter instead of Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin skin tint, but I suppose that’s why it’s beta and they are still working out the kinks. As for the products themselves, they are pretty nice.

Korean Skincare Trinkets: silk ball, steam cloth and cleansing stick?

Korean skincare is the current craze and everyone knows about cushion compact and sheet masks. However, there are a lot of other fun and interesting things to check out as well. While I wasn’t adventurous (or rich) enough to try the truly strange, I did find some interesting trinkets with positive reviews online, so I went for it.

By this point a lot of people are familiar with konjac sponges, but another all-natural exfoliant cleansing tool that’s kind of popular are silk cacoons? And I admit, I just bought Innisfree steam towel because it looks amusing and because I need a few more dollar of things to get free shipping on kcollectionk (BEST use of $7 this year). While I’m not familiar with the brand Su:m37, there seems to be a very dedicated following for the rose cleansing stick especially and everyone either LOVE it or like it.

Skincare Journal, July: Finally got myself a Clarisonic

So after years, YEARS of debating, I finally got myself a Clarisonic Mia 2. There’s all these miracle stories about how Clarisonic changed their life, then all these horror stories about the unending breakouts and broken capilaries. Well, my skin was feeling crappy since I was sick and I figure it can’t get any worse *knocks on wood*. When I talked with a Clarisonic rep before, she confided to me that the sensitive brush head is really the one that’s appropriate for normal skin and using it once a day is usually enough. I brought myself a delicate brush head just in case, but so far so good.

I’ve been using the sensitive brush head with Clarisonic Mia 2 on the lower speed setting every night for a week. I didn’t use any scrubs or peels during that time since it gave enough of a thorough but gentle surface exfoliation that I didn’t feel like I have any grime or flaky skin that I need to scrub away afterwards. It wasn’t miraculous but it did clean and exfoliate very well within the 1 minute of use. As for the breakouts, I did notice that it brought the underskin acne to the surface, so I did get a bit of breakout where I usually have acne. However, it did not give me breakout where I usually don’t have acne and what I do have goes away faster (2-3 days). Of course I used makeup remover beforehand, made sure to shake out the water after use and used toner on my skin to make sure I’m not spreading bacteria around.

Worth it? It will cleanse your skin better and give you a good surface exfoliation, but if your underskin bumps are not due to clogged pores/dull skin, then a Clarisonic will not fix it and some sort of acid or peel might be better. It will bring under the skin gunks to surface, so if you have any then you might go through a purging period (but don’t confuse it with breakouts and irritation from overuse). What I did like about Clarisonic is that… it actually shortens my cleansing time. I usually spend forever at sink, paranoid about not washing everything off, but Mia 2 have a timer that warns me when it’s time to move onto a different part of the face and turns off after 1 minute, so I can’t overcleanse but my skin is definitely soft, smooth and clean afterwards. And you can skip using scrubs if you are using this every day, so it may save you time and amount of products you need. Now I’ve done my duty and joined the group of 1092494894 bloggers that have reviewed the Clarisonics so far. Moving on to skincare journal….

Test Test 123: Spongeblob…Konjac pants?

Ok, that title didn’t really work. Was trying to be catchy. #fail.
hmmm……*poke*poke*squish*squish*….oh hai! Erm, I am definitely not playing with my skincare I swear! *cough*

Being a skincare addict, of COURSE I’ve heard aaaaalll about the Boscia Konjac sponge. Last time I was at a Sephora in JCPenny, I spotted the Boscia Sponge tester, picked it up excitedly, saw black dots (mold) on the bottom, and put it down immediately. I’m not a clean freak, and my sinkful of dirty dishes can attest to that, but bacteria, bad smell and mold? Nuh uh. It did turn me off for a while, but ultimately I cannot resist my curiosity. The Boscia sponge does seem overpriced to me, so with doing it for the blog in the name of better skin as excuse, I got it along with 2 others that I’ve seen people recommending.

I first tried them without cleanser, then with cleanser. I also took note of the drying time since that seems to be a problem for some people/sponges. And the drying time is why I picked different shapes for the sponges, because Konjac is Konjac, so I think the drying time has more to do with the shape than the type of Konjac.