Shiseido Perfect Whip and Kose Deep Cleansing Oil Review

      If you've stopped by my blog, chances are you've seen my blog post about how my oil cleansing attempt wrecked my skin and the COSRX BHA became my savior. Now, I got these two items because of the raves I read on how well they cleaned makeup off and out of your pores and skin. The fact that these were many people's HG products also helped. Please do keep in mind that your mileage may vary!

       Anyway, at that point, I had absolutely no idea about the importance of pH levels in cleansers and its effect on the skin's protective moisture barrier. Basically, if your cleanser is within a pH of 4ish-6ish your skin should be fine. Too low your skin will be irritated, too high and bacteria (like acne) can easily thrive.

       Ignorant of the fact that the Shiseido Whip was a whopping 8 at the time of purchase, I was so excited to use it. I mean the commercial had the girl making that huge foam bubble thing with her hand, how could I resist?

        As for the Kose Deep Cleansing Oil, I had never tried a cleansing oil before. I chose this one because after my research I decided to order these two in conjunction (both from Japan) for the sake of convenience.

         This was a recipe for disaster-- the oil clogged my pores and gave me painful pimples while the Perfect Whip absolutely destroyed my skin's barrier. My face went from relatively clear to complete comedone/pimple city within the first two weeks, and stayed in that condition until January (I received the COSRX).

         Performance wise, they are incredible for getting off dirt/sunscreen/makeup. The oil emulsifies and rinses off well and the Perfect Whip smells really nice. The oil smells a bit like orange oil though, and has a pretty runny viscosity (it's very thin). Also, when you use a foaming net (I used a piece of a shower loofah net) it's super fun to work with because the foam gets so bouncy. I think it's because of these fun aspects that I didn't pay attention to my skin, and it just worsened as I kept using it.

        Sadly since they didn't work for me, I keep them around for cleaning makeup tools, on which they're also very effective. All in all, I don't recommend the Shiseido Perfect Whip, but you may want to try out the Kose Deep Cleansing Oil if your skin handles comedogenic ingredients better than other people. And please, patch test. Don't be like me!

I hope my post was helpful somewhat.

Thanks for reading!
Emi

Neo Dali Viit Circle Lenses + Klenspop Review

      I don't normally wear circle lenses on a daily basis, but since I had a couple of events coming up I figured the extra pop to my eyes wouldn't hurt. I just bought daily disposables because I don't plan on keeping it after the event to wear-- it'd just sit and collect bacteria *shudder*. Since I knew about the Neo Dali series's reputation for being extremely comfortable, I decided to give that a go. I ordered it from Klenspop.

      I'm writing this review because prior to purchase I could not find any detailed ones, so this is for anyone else who was in my position when deciding.

Product Review:

I ordered 5 pairs and after opening up the shipping box, it came in a smaller box as shown here with the print of the girl's face. It really is tiny, I put a poker card for size comparison. But hey, it's the perfect size for only 5 pairs anyway. :P

 The back of the box:

The individual contact lens wrapper with all the information:

A small cute instructional and informational leaflet! This is the front and back side by side. The english amused me:

 Finally, here it is on my eye! You can see here that it's very natural. You can still see a sort of halo effect under my real iris (the part of the circle lens covering my whites).

          I have gotten other daily disposables before and was quite shocked about how close to nothing this one felt. The lens itself is quite fragile: one tore right when I took it out so now I have like 4 pairs and a half ;_; But that also speaks for its comfort. Just be very delicate handling them! Please do keep in mind that I personally am not a daily contact lens wearer by any means, so my eyes fatigued about 4 hours in with no eye drops. But if you do wear contact lens daily, I'm pretty confident these will be really comfortable for you.

Overall Rating 4/5

Would I reorder? Sure, but probably not next time only because I'll probably want to try out the Neo Dali Natural daily disposables :)

Service Review:

      Before I decided to purchase it, I had to contact them regarding a specification on the customs declaration-- I didn't want it to be marked lenses but rather something more general, like "cosmetics" because of personal anxiety about the US regulation of lenses, and I wanted my package to come in safely. They emailed me back very quickly and assuredly (yay!). However, when it arrived it still said "contact lenses" to my disappointment. But this was just a small personal issue though. Otherwise everything came in the mail fine and dandy, safely bubble wrapped and neatly packaged. And if you need to contact them, I'm sure they'd respond as quickly as they did with me. For the delivery time, I'd say it took about two weeks.

Overall Rating 4.5/5

Would I buy from them again? Yes, recommended!

COSRX Blackhead Power Liquid Review: the best thing I've come across!

             Storytime guys: Last year August-September-ish, I decided to try the Asian double cleansing method that I came across on the Asianbeauty subreddit. After all the raves I read and the videos I watched, I thought I'd be okay. Needless to say I stupidly purchased the Shiseido Perfect Whip and the Kose Deep Cleansing Oil immediately in hopes of perfecting my skin without patch testing. That ended horribly, you can click the reviews if you're curious.

             What ensued was a horrible flare up of closed comedones all over my face. (I know for some people this might be nothing, but for me personally it was a nightmare as my skin has never been this bad). Every time I washed my face I would just feel bumps throughout the entire surface area of my face-- it was so depressing. For the next two months, I tried so many other things. The home remedies helped, but not dramatically. I tried going back to a more simpler moisturizer (an ex-HG) but it just aggravated it. The bad skin stayed for a good 2 months until I finally started treating it with the COSRX BHA (beta hydroxy acid) product in January. Pictures ahead!

Sorry about the blurriness. The clusters were actually a lot denser than you can see here. My forehead before went from clear to this within a short frame :( I had this skin from September until January when I started using it.

          To resolve this mess I made with my skin, I used nothing but the COSRX BHA and their Snail Mucin Essence. Over the next month, not too slowly but surely my face was beginning to unclog and purge. I remembering having grits come out here and there every day during my "recovery". As of current, I still have leftover Post Inflammatory Erythema from this traumatic event in my skin history *sob*

By February, I had already forgotten about my 4 month long period of being depressed about my skin.

            Conclusion: Seriously, COSRX is amazing. I just finished my first bottle of the Blackhead Power Liquid and repurchased it right away along with their Salicylic Acid exfoliating cleanser! I use the BHA for daily maintenance and I find that it definitely helps keep my nose relatively free of blackheads. After this experience they've practically stole my heart now. I give it a 5/5, it's a staple for me now.

I also think they might have reformulated the BHA somewhat. The first batch I bought in January was made several months before that, and it smelled stronger (it smells like rubber tires, you get used to it) and had just a tad thicker viscosity to it. The new version I received in the mail has a very subtle yellow tinge and is more watery. It still works just as well! I appreciate the lack of an odor now :)

My empty bottle next to my new one <3

So, If you have any problems like mine, I totally recommend trying them out. I got my first bottle from Roseroseshop because during winter they had a sale. The second bottle I got from Jolse on ebay, but you can also purchase from her site Jolse.com (Haul review to come!).

Thanks for reading <3
Emi