Friday, July 31, 2009

Kiss Me Heroine Make Mascara Remover


Continuing with the Heroine Make series, I decide to review this mascara remover. I must say, I'm on a love and hate relationship with this as I'm not sure if this is something I recommend to buy. So here's my little review (making this post short and sweet)

Kiss Me Heroine Make mascara


Use:

To remove mascara (dough!) but more precise to remove Heroine Make's mascara as I was told you can't remove it without using this. This is the only thing that can remove it.


How to:

that's where it gets tricky. You see I never use anything that apply on the lashes only. So you take out the wand, and wipe it on your lashes, wait until the mascara melt and apply cotton wool to remove.


My mini complain:

this is where I don't really like it. You see I religiously follow the instructions as instructed by my friend in removing the mascara. I took this remover only with me on my trip to Liverpool and Wales, and I use the MM Mascara base, Lash Expander Plus mascara and Clarins Double fix. Ok I am excessive but eye make up is sooo important to me.

It takes me at least 10 mins, yes 10 mins (is a very long time for me) to take it off. First, before I do anything, I apply the Heroine Make remover on my lashes, I then go and read a comic book then apply cotton pads, not to wipe, but just place on eye to remove. Later, another coat of remover apply repeat the process, so by the time I completely remove my mascara, I probably finish watching BBC News (not the 24 hour channel but the normal 10 o'clock news) and proceed to removing the rest of makeup with cleansing oil during my local news.

Some say (very Jeremy clarkson saying) you should remove the mascara together with the makeup cleanser and it will make it easier to remove the mascara with Heroine make remover. But if it doesn't remove my mascara in 1 go, why I should use it? When you take off your make up you want to do it asap, but taking your time.


Is it clean?

Of course, with my effort. It is very clean.


Any pros?

If you resist from wiping your eye with cotton pad, I must say it should do less damage than normal eye makeup remover because you are applying it on your lashes not the whole eye.


Also it is easy to carry, especially travelling. You don't need to bring a bulky bottle of eye makeup remover anymore, you only need this wand and some cotton pad then you're ok.


Have you tried it on other mascara?

Nope. After trying many mascara, I'm most happy with my macara combination. Therefore I cannot say if it works well. But hey, if it can remove my makeup base, mascara and clarins double fix altogether, is pretty good right?


Will I buy it again?

Only as a travel use product, but I rather buy Boots No.7 Eye makeup remover. Cheap and Cheerful (hence the bulky bottle)

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Kiss me Heroine Make masks


Finally a beauty review. It seems this is one of the very few masks review in English. So I'll try to be as thorough as possible.


Kiss Me Heroine Make is a brand I used to stay away, I never trust overly pretty packaging, as I feel it is a way to hide their weakness. My friend K, who travelled with me to Fukuoka, recommended these masks to me. She said, 'you must try' and threw me a mask. Her comment was 'these mask are stars, for emergency use only, if in case you think you can' t put any makeup the day after (i.e. heavy drinks late nights) put these on and you'll see miracles', at that time, I saw miracles, yes it cost 450 yen each, which is rather expensive.


So why did I stock up? For the 'miracle' purpose. There are days when your skin says enough is enough, and that's when you bribe your skin. So lets look at it:


Use + Ingredients:

Moisturising mask with various ingredients

Red: Pearl Powder + hydraulic acid

Blue: Aloe Vera + Cactus

black : artichoke + ursolic acid (only mask claims for whitening purpose)

white : birch  + ursolic acid

Green: Peach + caffeine + collegan


Price:

450 yen each that's 4.5 USD per mask


Comments:


Due to the expensive nature, I actually only used the red (original) and the Black mask. All masks has 27ml of moisturising liquid/serum in it, so I manage to spread all the serum on my neck, and both arms! (yes both arms!) there's plenty if you want, you can store it up in a little jar to use for next time with your own mask.


The mask are very very thin, thinner than the expensive version of beauty Dairies Mask, I broken the Black mask once and need to be extreme careful.


Miracle?

It is one of the most moisturising mask I ever used, perhaps because it is soak with serum. Of course comparing it to Beauty Diaries Mask is totally unfair, pricewise they are on two different planet. I probably recommend these mask for those girls who have important dates coming up. i.e. if you are dating someone and want to look your best, use these mask beforehand, and it guarantee your face is moisturise for all the makeup to be put on to it. Also, to be used after a flight journey as your skin will cry for moisturiser.

Another use are those people who have oily skin. One of the reasons for oily skin is that your skin is not moisturised. I will recommend if you want to splash out, buy 10 of these mask, and to a treatment every other day, it should dramatically improve your skin. (I did the same thing a few years ago, splash out on a very moisturising mask and did a treatment for over 1 month, and my oily skin is completely gone)

other bloggers comment that if you have dry skin or aftersun exposure, these mask are great to help as well.

My friend has compare this mask to the SKII mask, both are called the skin saver.

Which one to buy?

I recommend buying the black version, as it has whitening purpose. Other bloggers recommend the white version and the original version is also very good as well. The blue version is a bit sticky afteruse so unsure if anyone want to try it. Unfortunately, the green is a LE so it is difficult to get hold off (once you're addicted to it)




Wednesday, July 29, 2009

New Design! New beginning

New design! New Beginnings


Did you notice something different? Oh yes, a new banner featuring Dao dao(he is fine btw, just kept meowing and jumping on me to be let out) and new background colour.


I have not been on communicating with nearly everyone just coz I need some time to settle again. It took me a week to draft up a plan for the next 6 months (featuring 2 journal article, 1 JLPT exam and my thesis of course) I decided to take things just a bit slowly. Suffering from daily asthma attack is not a great thing as I didn't have any attacks for more than 6 years as well (not sure if it is dao or spider webs hmmm)


I need to think of a new way to blog and upload at the same time. I managed to find a upload now function on my openoffice software, but still need to upload pics one by one. Anyone got a good solution?


Friday, July 24, 2009

Japan Haul + Nutty's Generous Giveraway





did I hear a scream somewhere when you saw that first pic? That's right, that's the collection of Japan Haul...

Now lets go through it together:


[Fr Left to right]
Heroine make mask x2
Borghese Blue Hydrating Mask
Borghese Eye masque (for overnight or 15 mins use)
Dr Ci:Labo Dark BB cream (jeez coz me 44 USD, the most expensive BB cream of all time)


Dr : Labo Super Keana series (cleanser, cleansing oil)
Water Angel (Mizu no Tenshi ) Q10 5 in 1 gel
Heroine Make mask
DHC Acerola Lotion (Mask use)
Nanoce BB cream (just have to buy it to stock up)
L'occitane Shea butter Cream (bought in Bicester from Wales to Home)
L'occitane Lavendar Hand Cream


Heroine make Mask
Kose Paper Mask
Heroine Make Mascara
Heroine Make Mascara Remover
Foot Massage Pad (It helps me so much during my Japan trip, now, where's my pressure socks?)


Dr Ci:Labo Super Keana Whitening Lotion
Borghese Cleanser
MM Mascara Base
Heroine Make Mask (I think this is the latest version)
Black Black Head nose strip
Visee Eyeshadow x2 (bought with NicNic)
Marie Claire Eyeshadow

[From 1st row up and left to right]
MM blush (it was marked for 800 yen but they only charge me 500 yen)
some Borghese samples (whitening mask, toner, lippies)
Eye drops
Lycee Eye drops

Finally, nutty and I met up and she was doing a generous random gift to strangers (am I right?) so I am a very lucky girl to received these. Thank you so much Nutty.. I love meeting you in person..

From roughly left to right
Neutrogena Cleanser
Keihl's Body shampoo
Keihl's Lavender hair Shampoo (both I used in my trip to liverpool and Wales)
Prada tinted moisturiser SPF15
Prada cleansing milk
4 x Paul and Joe Face colour powder
Dior Foam up Cleanser
Clarins SPF 40 sun block
Molton Brown lip liner
2 eye shadow brush
face powder

phew! What I post..

if you want me to review anything just let me know.. some of the products I have already opened..

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tokyo japan Tour (Final)

Hi girls... I am finally settled again from my touring life. Every year due to whatever reasons I toured around UK, this year it was for a conference in Liverpool and I went to Snowdonia in Wales. So perhaps rather than beauty reviews, there're more travel blogs coming. (I have a Frane trip in 2 weeks time so not quite settle yet) I wanted to round up my japan tour before move on to UK tours. My tokyo tour is splited into 2, one the day I arrived in Tokyo and the other during yet another conference in TUFS. I stayed in a Business Ryokan,

ooo just being bored: I decided to go to Odaiba and Tokyo Tower and went to the place where Yumeko mentioned, the fake/traditional place. I thought it was interesting (the shops) which they are, unfortunately, to stay away from Chinese food, I had a crap dinner (all you can eat bbq except they run out of nearly everything)

the view at Odaiba (unfortunately i can't find the Fuji TV tower..)
Anyone for Love Vacation? that's where it took place

the station for Odaiba



one of the shop in Odaiba shopping mall

the night view of Odaiba before i left for Tokyo tower

after 3 days in Fukuoka I went back to Tokyo. I met Nicnic before I need to checked in to the hotel, it took us ages as there's several West Entrance in Shinjuku :) but yet we found eachother in the name of Godiva (thank god Godiva didn't become an international superchain and owns more than 2 branch in Shinjuku.. if not we're stuck) so we went to have a japanese lunch and did more shopping!

Her blog post about our meeting:
http://dailybeautybuzz.blogspot.com/2009/07/blogger-dates-hauling-one-long-post.html

Nicnic treated me ice-cream in this funky ice-cream shop. Until today, I still really wanted the music they played. I think it is in the genre of cute girly hosue music , and something like what the girlband Perfume will play. Hmm...


I thought this rubbish bin is quite funky as well

I stayed in Kichijoji which is a surburb in Tokyo. It is halfway point between Tokyo and TUFS (Tokyo university of Foreign Studies) and I did the rest of my shopping there. I didn't go out much as I got a presentation to prepare and as usual I was changing my presentation slide the last minute. I managed to sneak out for half day tour in the famous Park (where the j-drama Last Friend took place) and had a Okinawa lunch as well.

This okinawa set lunch is sooo cool. My favourite is the bitter melon stir fry egg.a band that we met at the Inokashira Park

So that's all really from tokyo. My souvenir from Toyko has also arrived (there's too much of them) i'll make sure I take time to make a post dedicated to my japan haul.

What's this? a teaser for next post (a day-trip in CHester)

Friday, July 17, 2009

Dr Ci: Labo skincare series review




hi guys.. I think I've starved you long enough for a beauty review. Reason for not updating asap? I'm actually in Liverpool attending a conference, so I have been busy preparing my presentation regarding my research area.

I heard about Dr Ci:Labo through my research in Nanoce, it seems both brand are classified into the dermatologist type of skincare. Of course we all know the star product of Dr Ci:Labo, which is the 5 in 1 aqua collagen gel, so it holds the function of toner, moistuirzer, essence, makeup base and whitening/anti-aging. Sounds good huh? Except Dr Ci:Labo is on the expensive side. I decided to buy their travel pack and try to see if it justify the cost.

The travel pack contains (All Super-Keana Series):
cleansing oil
cleansing gel
whitening essence
hada cream

Price: 1050 yen

Here's my mini review

Dr Ci: Labo background:
a skincare line that is created by a dermatologist. Strong skincare line in acne and basic care. One of the rare Japanese brand that is also available in US (via Amazon)
It is expanding and we see it has counter in Hong kong as well.

The products
I bougth the Super Keana range plus whitening essence 1050 yen
Super Keana is the series which helps to tighten the pore size

Super-Keana cleansing:


gd cleansing oil at least comparable to shu uemura. It is very clean and removes all trace of makeup. only available in Taiwan and Japan

Price: 20 USD for 110ml

Super Keana Washing

a washing foam, easy to foam up. I find it is less dry compare to my Lancome Pearl cleanser.

Price: roughly 20 USD for 200ml

Super Keana Moisture White

very fluid if you consider it as an essence. Again I don't see any significant function to this.
Price: 40 USD for 50 ml

Super Keana Hada Cream

please do not mistake with the 5 in 1 aqua collagen gel. It is not. Although it is not creamy but closer to gel texture. The good thing I like is that the skin absorb it very quickly, so by the time I walked out from the toilet, my skin has totally absorb it (unlike lancome hydro zen, or Shiseido white lucent cream)
Price: 50 USD for 60g

Final verdict:
Everyone can easily skip the Dr: Ci Labo range, and all products. I think they're rather basic and also on the expensive side. Everything is ok, but nothing surprisingly good, in particular the price is not something that is affordable.

Dr Ci Labo position itself as a dermatologist type of product but I rather buy La Roche Posay instead. Both very basic but La Roche Pasay is at least 1/3 of the price of Dr Ci Labo. And made in france as well

I was curiously about the 5 in 1 product but I managed to find a drugstore replacement and 1/3 of the price as well. So hopefully i'll be reviewing this next:


Mizu no Tenshi (Water Angel) 5 in 1 moisturing gel 1
Price: 17 USD for 50ml or 40 USD for 150ml

Friday, July 10, 2009

Fukuoka Part 2 -super photos heavy




thanks everyone. I feel welcome back to the blogger world with your comments.

You might think it's funny to pick a place to go to, when it is 2 hours by flight away from Tokyo. But for me, I treated this as my last chance to travel as a single (yet engaged) so I picked a place which I won't normally, that's Fukuoka.

Started my day with a trip to Daizaifu, a famous temple for academic success. We got very lost in the transport system as there's at least 2 fukuoka station (for different network) and we took the wrong trainline.

Me reading the map how to get to Daizaifu

Then we're there, in the middle of the heavy rain, we had a great shopping on traditional souvenir and food there, and I just love the envirnoment. Traditional yet friendly.


We then spent our evening shopping!!!

2nd day in Fukuoka

so we met up with Ushida at the hostel, and he asked where we want to go. I said Fukuoka Tower!! but seriously its boring,

so boring that only the robosquare, featuring Aibo and Hello Kitty robot is worth mentioning


so we took a green bus, and met a Mainichi Shinpun (Everyday Newspaper) reporter so he took some photos of me for his article.


Photo for Reporter.. a diligent tourist trying to read up

then we went for udon :) yummy


after that we toured around fukuoka for the float. This is a special feature at the fukuoka gion festical, there are 13 float dotted around the city, each sponsored by the area. And each told a different stories.

We also went to a buddhist temple

see the buddha? They are wrapped up in towels only during the festival

and finally ended up at a tea garden


and of course, how can we missed Yatai? The famous street food in fukuoka?



You see the woman with white face, apprently she's a famous enka singer..


so that's all from Fukuoka..

I should really do a beauty post very soon what do you think?

Thursday, July 9, 2009

First blog post – Tokyo travel and haul

i'm back.. do i look the same after 1.5 month outside UK?

finally, back to the lovely London and the very tolerable weather. I have been out of bloggin coz I have been really busy. Secondly, my Compact flash card failed on me so all my data for my china trip are all gone, and i've been on beauty diet since then (all for japan)

first to say, I met up with nic in Japan. Although we're both very lost (we re-enact lost in translation?) but we found each other by the name of Godiva. Who guess Godiva is a landmark in the shinjuku station?

My japan trip is rather hectic, sponsored by university, I first stayed a night in tokyo before heading off to Fukuoka for Gion Festival. I decided to go because I thought of going somewhere which I won't go once I got married. And coincidently, Fukuoka had a festival running from 1st July to 15th July every year. A friend decided to come with me from HK 2 weeks before my trip, so it is all perfect.

Fukuoka compare to Tokyo is cheap. To name an example, my favourite milk tea (the afternoon tea,午後の紅茶) is only 93 yen in Fukuoka compare to 140 in Tokyo. Ouch I say. Cosmetics of course is cheaper, I managed to buy my dhc acerola lotion for 389 instead of 598 in Tokyo. I regret not to shop more … but hey, I have a big stack.

Where's the beauty stuff? Well.. this is very little collection, as the rest is going with a friend to Amsterdam then to London (she offered to carry my things for me because I originally wanted to mail them)

here some teaser:


MM Blush (which you buy the blush, case, and the brush individually)

and these are my haul overall in japan
Bihada mascara remover DHC Lash tonic Mizu no Tenshi (Water Angel) 5 in 1 moisturiser gel Visee eyeshadow No.1 Marie Claire eyeshadow clip your fringe styler

Kiki's Delivery fan
i'm joking, that's not it, most of them are on the way by air as they're very heavy

To those who are planning to visit japan on your own or with a friend, speak japanese or none, I totally recommend the Goodwill Guide service. They are a group of volunteers who speak English and give up their time to take visitors around their city. I arrange a guide to take me around Fukuoka, and I must say this is the best decision ever make.

me and mr ushida in Fukuoka

Ushida used to work in Walt Disney and was the head of the regional branch in Kyushuu, after retirement he became a Goodwill Guide. He told me there's less tourist now because Hong kong ceased to have direct flight to Fukuoka. But he's very happy to meet me and treat me as his granddaughter. He kept paying for his share, when according to Goodwill Guide guidance, you bear the cost of his lunch and travel. I kept fighting to pay for him.

He took us around Fukuoka and answered many questions. When we were on the tourist bus called the Green Bus, there was a Mainichi Newspaper Reporter on board and I was interviewed. Ushida helped with the translation but I managed to answer some questions with my poor Japanese. Here's some photos that should come up in the newspaper.

Fukuoka is small but has everything. There's this underground shopping street and is forever long, and since we're there in the discount season, we managed to bag some bargain.. I bought some clothes as after 50% discount, they're giving 20 % extra in line with the shopping street campaign, pay before 6.45 and you get 20% discount on top.

I might stop here as if not there's too many things to write, next will blog about the Festival :)

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