Amileamila, a Japanese x Korean drugstore brand…

Amileamile is a crossover cosmetic brand. Amileamila apparently meant Prince and Princess in Arabic. Their makeup line is produced in Korea and their skincare line is produced in Japan. You can also get it from Momo Shop in Taiwan. Generally, I don’t risk my skin with drugstore skincare as I think it is rather unsafe to be used on skin, but I got my own reason for trying

I have my own way buying makeup, other than bulk buying when I am overseas, I also order from the internet. I only purchased from gooddealer once and I general buy from a few individual sellers. I buy my BB cream from a wholesaler in Hong Kong. She always buy some random brands for 3 months and switch to another. I bought my Elisha Coy BB cream and Lioele cosmetics from her, and she’s usually USD$4-$10 cheaper than other sellers. She only charged me the exact amount she paid for postage and refund me the rest, quite trustworthy. She emailed me to say she acquired AmileAmila for wholesale purpose and asked me if I’m interested. I told her I shall try it first before making a verdict if I shall buy more, thinking I’ll be in HK, I ordered a few skincare for the humid and hot weather. Here’s what I picked from the collection: From left to right:
Shining White Toner(3800 yen)
Rose Emulsion (1700 yen)
Rose Cleansing Gel (1600 yen)
Shining White Whitening Essence (4200 yen)

I got my reason why I am giving a very full review, here’s why:

Price: (absolutely the only reason why I buy this)
See I put the original price above as comparison..
here’s the Japanese yen conversion on the actual price
I bought
Shining White Toner (1070 yen from 3800 yen, £7 or $11.2 USD)
Rose Emulsion (1000 yen from 1700 yen, £6.6 or $10.6USD )
Rose Cleansing Gel (880 yen from 1600 yen, £5 or $8USD)
Shining White Whitening Essence (1140 yen from 4200 yen, £7.5 or $12 USD)

You might be thinking, this is crazy, how you can buy it 1/3 of the original price?

Expiry date: My seller told me that the reason why Amileamila is selling so cheaply is because it is produced last year. They do not want to stock last year products so decided to sell it very cheaply. She tells me generally cosmetic company put the expiry date as 3 years from the manufactured date, so these products in fact only expire in 2011, but being a Japanese company, they are very particular and therefore they have these stock they want to get ride of.

My Verdict:
Shining White series: Beautiful packaging from the start. The toner is so-so but I quite like the essence. I see my complexion brighten up after applying it, but I doubt if it’ll help brightening at all in long term. I always come across product that brighten initially but does not help to brighten the skin in actual fact. I say the Shining White series can be skipped in general.

Rose Series:
Absolutely surprised!! I have tons of cleansing product in HK because of the bloody Biore Cleaninsg Gel, I have also Ponds Facial Scrub and Mary Quant Cleansing Gel (I secretly bought the Shu Uemura Cleansing oil but not using it yet). What of all of them, Amileamila cleansing gel is the best out of all. Firstly, it cleanse my makeup off, secondly it is not too dry. £5 = a cleansing gel that works. Bargain!

The emulsion surprised me more. I have been struggling with the hot and humid weather. I bought the Clarins sample I got from my haul, but the humid weather makes both the Day and Night lotion extremely sticky and oily on my skin, and it takes a very long time to be absorb. I truly feel there’s a different for skincare produced for the cold weather and hot weather. I apply the emulsion using my fingers and circular motion until my skin absorbs it. My skin took 1 day to adjust because it is still resisting to absorb after the clarins episode. After that, the emulsion is totally absorb once I apply to my skin, and my skin feels supple. The acne problem on my forehead is gone (of coz, I blame it on BB cream) and it suits this humid climate. Plus it is 100ml, so I think it’ll last me a long time.

My seller told me she loves the smell of the Rose series, and in fact, the rose series is Amileamila’s star product. I don’t have a particular liking to the smell but it is not dominating. This is my saviour in my HK trip. No blotting needed whole day. She gave me a pricelist of all the products. The makeup line is also available in 1/3 of its price, but the expiry date is in late 2010.

Their lipgloss cube is very pretty

If anyone is interested buying, please send me an email, my seller is a funny person, if you’re a first time customer, she charge you more.

If any European bloggers want to get hold of this as well, I am happy to do this as a spree thing so that no custom tax to be paid ( I’ll bring it back with me from HK) Check out the website, and see if anything interested you.

http://www.amileamila.jp/products/care/rose/

Vichy Aqualia Thermal Light + UV SPF 15 Review

(I did this post during the wkend but it is taking me longer, so 2 post in a day, weee!)

Been thinking what I should blog about for the next post. Well, I spent 3 hours today kneeling (yes!! Kneeling!!) at Boots, and my bf patiently helping me holding my shopping from Primark and Marks and Spencer. I got some leggings because of spring (I have horrible eczema on legs and can only wear leggings with skirt), a pair of in-house pants (lol, the enjoyment of working at home.. staying in pajamas all day), some hair rubbers (I wanted to make a ballerina bun, my obsession atm). Still hesitating over the bargain bargain bargain Primark makeup bag (it is 3.50GBP compare to my Muji make up bag which cost me over 10 quid, but there's no separate holdings other than a mirror compartment.. reminder: should blog abt the makeup bag)

Back to the Vichy. I've been using this more than 1 year. I bought and stocked and swapped away, because I thought it didn't suit me when I had my first fine lines under my eye. And spring came and I'm in love with it again. I've recommended by my friend who said this is best for combination skin.

Where to buy:

Pharmacies, and recently bigger store Boots. Vichy is doing a roadshow so if you manage to find your vichy roadshow, they give you a free skin consultant. I had my consultant, and I swear she's totally independent from Vichy. She won't recommend a single vichy product but tell you what type of skin you are and what you need to know. When I tested, because of the heating in the shopping centre, she said everyone is a bit dehydrated. Once you had your skin consultation, you're moved to have a consultation over which vichy product to use. And upon receiving your consultation card, and if you buy 2 Vichy products from Boots, you get a free travel pack. I think they're in Bromley next.. so watch out!

Price:

Aqualia light 13.50 for 40ml in UK. $185 (roughly 16gbp) in Hong Kong

Aqualia UV roughly 14.50 for 50ml in UK. Unsure if they sell this in Hong Kong

Verdict:

Vichy Aqualia Light

If I tell you I bought already 3 tubes in the past, what can you say? I took it with me to Moracco, France, up and down in UK (when I was on my acrobat tour) and it is brilliant. I find it best at before applying makeup because your skin absorb it sooo quickly. It is not oily and it doesn't leave a leave that you've applied it. I didn't have break out unless I use it in the winter months. Probably I will use this between March to Oct, when I switch on the heating again. It is just a good base prior makeup, and would recommend it to anyone with combination skin

That's on my hand before rubbing	just taken seconds After rubbing

I recommend this to people who are in the summer countries with drier weather. I have not try this in Hong Kong but I think it might not suit humid weather. HK are also raving about this product so I'll take it with me to HK to try out (so to Japan if it has not run out by the time)

Aqualia UV

I bought this in France last year because I was just stocking up the whole range. It has UVB + UVA and SPF 15 + PPD 18. It says it is a 24 hours hydrating care. The texture is different to light. It is thicker probably because of the sunscreen property, and it takes the skin longer to absorb. I recommend to apply and wear it on its own rather than pre-makeup. I probably won't repurchase as I go out with bb cream with UV anyway.

Before rubbing	After (do you see it is slightly thicker?)