Yesterday, my friend Jacinda joked that she needs a Geek in Heels beauty subscription box. I was super flattered to receive the comment, and it got me thinking about what I'd include in a box if I could curate one...
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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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This webstrip made me LOL today because I can relate all to well! You know you're pale when a friend makes a remark about your pale legs and you show them your tan lines to prove that this is your tan skin.In all seriousness though, I've learned to accept my pale skin and now wear sunscreen every day, even when I don't go out. I always tell my friends that Asian — especially Japanese! — sunscreen is the way to go, because the sun protection technology is more advanced, with better formulas that are usually a lot cheaper as well.(Don't believe me? Go read Why You Shouldn't Be Buying Your Sunscreen in America.)My favorite sunscreen, the Innisfree Eco Safety No Sebum Sun Milk SPF50+/PA+++, has sadly...
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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.
First up is the product that excited me most: the Shangpree Bitgoa Hue Essence Toner.
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.
Earlier this week, I received my IOPE Air Cushion XP Matte Finish in the mail. I had been pretty excited to try this new offering from the IOPE Air Cushion line, since it was the cushion compact that had started it all — selling a unit every 30 seconds in Korea at the height of its popularity — and I had found the original too dewy for my tastes.
The trend in Korea for the past couple of years has been dewy, bordering-on shiny skin. As such, I held off on buying a cushion ‘pact at first because they would only leave my combination/oily skin a greasy mess by the end of the day. So imagine my delight when both Innisfree and Laneige released matte (at least by Korean standards), long-lasting versions of their popular cushions last summer: the Innisfree Long Wear Cushion and the Laneige BB Cushion Pore Control.
And since I already own both, I decided to face them off against my new IOPE Matte Finish!
As you can see from the photo above, all three cushion compacts are of similar sizes. (And although I haven’t a picture to show you, they’re similar widths too.) However, I have read that while the Laneige and IOPE refills can fit in each others’, as well as in other cushion compact cases made by their parent company AmorePacific, the Innisfree refill can not.
Just based on product packaging alone, I would crown Laneige the winner. The case is sturdy and feels luxurious, and although the IOPE case is just as fancy, I personally prefer the light blue, incased-in-glass look of the Laneige.
Open the cases and you won’t notice much of a difference either. Each compact comes with the typical blue cushion applicator. (I clean my sponges weekly with the Daiso Detergent for Puff and Sponge. Nothing else gets these sponges this clean for so cheap!) The sponge holder acts double-duty as a snap-on lid for the makeup-soaked cushion.
The texture of the cushions may look different in the photo below, but please be assured that they’re very, very similar. The Laneige cushion looks a bit weird because it was upside-down in my bag, and the texture of the IOPE cushion is what’s typical of a new cushion ‘pact. (In other words, it will look more like the Innisfree cushion with continued use.)
