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Announcing Jini Beauty

Remember when I imagined curating my own Asian beauty box?Well, that dream has become a reality!Shortly after publishing that post, my friend Sunny reached out to me with a proposal: why not form a Korean beauty subscription box service?At first, I wanted to laugh. This had to be a joke, right?But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. With our collective passion for Korean beauty products, my technical skills and her business acumen, we would make one heckuva team. Besides, Korean beauty is everywhere these days...

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Some More Product Raves

Let's start the week off with some product reviews, shall we?Whamisa Organic Flowers Creamy Foam CleanserI had been eyeing this item for a while because I ❤ Whamisa products and I had read some especially good things about the cleanser. I picked up a bottle when Glow Recipe was having their July 4th weekend sale, and WOW have I been impressed!There are a bazillion facial cleansers out there, so what sets this apart from the rest? It is a low-pH cleanser (read here to see why the pH of your cleanser matters) that has the textural consistency of a high-pH cleanser. In other words, it is lush and foamy and cleans incredibly well...

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Shangpree Mega-Review

A few weeks ago, Korean beauty e-tailer Peach & Lily reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in trying some of their products.

Um…yes please? For, you know, *cough cough* research purposes. Can I have them all?

All kidding aside, I have shopped from P&L in the past and I love their product offerings. And while I would’ve loved to stock up on some tried-and-true items, I asked if they wouldn’t mind sending me an item from Shangpree, a brand that had intrigued me since I first spotted it on their website.

Here’s some background info on Shangpree from the P&L brand page:

Seoul’s highly demanding spa-going elite have been flocking to the iconic Shangpree Spa for a first-class beauty experience for 25 years now. Every Shangpree esthetician must complete an incredibly lengthy and rigorous training process to ensure that they embody the spa’s high standards (even an esthetician with 20+ hands-on experience is required to train the Shangpree-way for 3 years before being able to provide client services)— and when Shangpree launched their product line, that same level of perfectionism was expected in every formula.

P&L hand-delivered an incredible beauty package to my front door, and I was delighted to find not one, not two, but three Shangpree items nestled among its contents.

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First up is the product that excited me most: the Shangpree Bitgoa Hue Essence Toner.

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As you can see from the picture above, the Bitgoa Hue Essence Toner comes in a luxurious pump bottle. It’s not glass, but it’s weighty and solid, with a beautiful pearlescent white finish. I personally prefer transparent bottles so that I can see how much of the product is left, but I have read that many beauty companies forgo this route because it can lead to oxidation of the product.

On the Upside…

I've been battling some health issues as of late. And with the addition/subtraction of various meds and therapies in an effort to properly treat the problems, I've predictably been in a bit of a funk.I've made no efforts in the past to hide my struggles with depression, and I am not about to now. However, at this present moment, my situation is precisely what I've described above — a funk — and not a relapse into depression. The reason I wanted to bring up depression, however, is to point you to an article penned by one of my favorite beauty bloggers, Fifty Shades of Snail aka The Crazy Snail Lady, titled "How My Elaborate Korean Skincare Routine Helps Me Fight Depression."Research. Controlled...

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