Tuesday, November 29, 2016

[Review] Skinfood Beauty In A Food Mask Sheet Review: Bird's Nest and Snail Review

Price: 10,000won for 20 pieces
(About RM40 or ~$10)
Verdict: 0/10
Repurchase: Hell no.

Price & Shop


I bought these Skinfood Masks from a Homeplus Market in Busan, Korea. Busan, Korea! Ahhh. It still marvels me a little that I can cross that off my bucket list. I've been to Korea! ^^ Anyways, there was a deal for buy ten get ten free, which was how I ended up with twenty of these Skinfood Beauty In A Food Mask Sheets. It's odd, but these masks were inside a market where they sold erm... vegetable and other groceries. Mini-stores like Skinfood, It's Skin, Innisfree, ect, do have individual counters though, so payment has to be made at the counters. 

Fit & Ingredients

The fitting of this mask wasn't very good, as evident by the way I had to snip off the middle of the mask to get my nose moisturized. I don't know why I even bothered. More on that later. It didn't smell horrible, which, sadly, was the only thing going for it. The essence is creamy and white, which is odd, but not unheard of. The Saem masks have creamy essences as well. The texture of the mask was cotton, I believe, but they weren't very good at keeping the moisture in the cotton, which was a shame. 

I found the ingredients of the Bird's Nest on cosdna but not the snail. Nothing too scary. For some reason there's... cholesterol in these though... which makes me feel... fat? I don't know what to feel. There's also alcohol and shea butter for those of you sensitive to those. 

Performance


I tried their wash-off masks, so admittedly, I had high hopes for these masks. After leaving the mask on for ~15 minutes, my skin was left with a sticky finish that was uncomfortable enough for me to wash off the extra residue with water. One look in the mirror was enough to let me know that my skin wasn't moisturized at all, which was just ridiculous. Even the horrible Elizavecca masks that I've tried were at least a little bit moisturizing. These masks sat on my face and did absolutely nothing. They weren't irritating, which was good, but neither of these masks did anything for my skin. I'm massively disappointed. What a waste. 

Price: 10,000won for 20 pieces
(About RM40 or ~$10)
Verdict: 0/10
Repurchase: Hell no.

[Review] Malaysia Subscription Box: Cubecrate November Box

Price: RM35
(Given a free in exchange for an honest review by cubecrate.com) 
Verdict: 7/10
Repurchase: NA

It's no secret that I'm all for surprises. Cubecrate is one of the few surprise subscription boxes available in Malaysia. For a price of RM35 per box, cubecrate sends you a variety of local products ranging from beauty to decor and handmade items that you wouldn't think to try out on your own. For three months, the subscription is RM90, so it's cheaper to buy more, as is with most things online. XD


Disclaimer: I received this box in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, as usual. ^^ 

November's Box


I'm a little lost on November's Box's theme. It could be Autumn, judging from the leaves in the corner of the description paper, which I really enjoy reading cause it gives me some insight on the items I received. The box arrived with  the familiar sight of Oishi Green Tea, a pleasant, slightly sweet tea brewed from 100% organic tea leaves. Flavor of the month is Lychee Green Tea, which I'm normally not a big fan of, but this is pretty nice! 

There was a handpoured candle by CandleNuts By Nadia. This boasts to be the first handpoured candle in Malaysia that uses palm wax as their wax source. True to it's claims, there was much less soot produced with this candle compared to the other candles I've tried. This particular candle was for calming, which kinda worked since it helped calm me down during a power outtage earlier last week. It smelled pretty nice too, nothing too overwhelming and left a lingering scent in my house for a while. ^^ The candle burned for a little more than an hour with still some life left to it. 


The granola snack pacakge is from Alys The Bakerland. This is founded by Alyson, who aims to provide healthier breakfast granola. It boasts to be 100% natural with organic ingredients as well as no artificial flavoring or coloring. I particularly enjoy that thie 50g pack came with nutritional facts as well as a list of it's contents: almonds, cashew nuts, pumpkin seeds, raisins and granola. Yum! I haven't tried this out yet, but judging from the list of ingredients, it promises to be yummy! 

There was also a coupon for RM10 off RM100 for Posie Style, which I'm not a fan of, at all. It will go unused for me. I don't think it's fair to offer a coupon code for a store as an individual item instead of an add on for the box, since I doubt everyone will be able to make use of the coupon, especially since it's asking people to spend more. Posie Online Fashion Store was founded in August 2016, so still a baby by all rights and seems to be selling exclusively from Facebook for now. While I'm a huge fan of dresses, I'm not confident that I can judge how well a dress would fit on me in person. 

There's also a mini notebook directly from cubecrate, which is a sweet add-on. This month's box is a little lackluster compared to last month's Halloween-themed parcel. In terms of value for money, I don't think this particular box is worth the asking price of RM35. I hope next month's box will pick things up. I wasn't keen on the Oishi green tea in the beginning, but now find myself looking forward to each month's flavor. XD 

Price: RM35
(Given a free in exchange for an honest review by cubecrate.com) 
Verdict: 7/10
Repurchase: NA


[Review] Malaysia Subscription Box: Cubecrate October Box

Price: RM35
(Given a free in exchange for an honest review by cubecrate.com) 
Verdict: 10/10
Repurchase: NA

It's no secret that I'm all for surprises. Cubecrate is one of the few surprise subscription boxes available in Malaysia. For a price of RM35 per box, cubecrate sends you a variety of local products ranging from beauty to decor and handmade items that you wouldn't think to try out on your own. For three months, the subscription is RM90, so it's cheaper to buy more, as is with most things online. XD


Disclaimer: I received this box in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, as usual. ^^ 

October's Box


October's Box was Halloween Themed and featured the Oishi Green Tea. Love is, Ilsa Soap Wagon and Stickwithme. There are all Malaysian-based companies or new startups that have flown under my radar completely and I'm pretty happy to be introduced to them. 

The Oishi Green Tea flavor of the month is Lemon Ice Tea, which I'm a huge fan of. ^^ Oishi green tea seems to be a common theme in Cubecrate boxes. It was also present in last month's box but a different flavor. I'm looking forward to November's to see what flavor it'll be! ^^ 

In addition to the green tea, there's also a handmade soap from Ilsa Soap Wagon. These handmade soaps are made in small batches to ensure the quality of each soap. I'm not sure what this particular soap is made of but I pH-tested this and it sits at about a pH of 8-9, which is too high to be a facial wash, but should work plenty well as hand-soaps. It's not too stripping, but not super gentle either, so use with caution. 


I have yet to make myself open this adorable skull bubble bar to use because it's so adorable. It's also wrapped ina layer of plastic that I think will keep it fresh for a while yet. It's pretty small and is designed to compliment bath bombs or used on its own for a soft, foamy experience. It's from LoveIs, which is also available in The Cubez Store, Sungei Wang Plaza. The bath and body products sold are locally handcrafted with ingredients from all over the world. Instructions said to crumble the bubble bar under running water, soak and pat dry. I love that the ingredients are all given. CostDNA didn't show any of them as acne/irritants, but I wouldn't use this as a face soap. In fact, I don't know if I'll ever use it at all. >< It's too pretty! 
The last item in the box is a StickWitMe sticker pack. It's super cute, which seems to be the theme with this month's box. XD Maybe I just think Halloween is cute. These stickers are apparently made of leather and can be used as decorative stickers on bags. ^^ 

Overall Impression:

I'm quite impressed with this month's box. It managed to introduce me to not one, but two local soap startups that I had fun learning more about in addition to a sticker store. RM35 is a fair price for this month's box seeing as how the stickers and soaps aren't cheap if bought on their own and it's worth supporting these local brands. I'll rate the box at 10/10. ^^ 

Sunday, November 20, 2016

[Review] Neogen Dermalogy Sur Medic Hydro-Hyaluronic Mask

Price: NA 
(Given a free in exchange for an honest review by Amabie.com) 
Verdict: 7/10
Repurchase: No

Fit & Texture

The fit of this mask isn't very good. The mask is made of cotton, which is apparently hypoallergenic, non-irritating and holds a good amount of serum. The serum was actually dripping the entire time I was wearing this, but the mask itself is so soaked in serum that it wasn't really a problem. That said, there's 23g of mask in this sheet, which is fairly standard.


Ingredients

Ingredients: Water, Glycerin, Butylene Glycol, Alcohol Denat, niacinamide, Trehalose, Sodium Hyaluronate, Phytosqualane, Laminaria Japonica Extract, Undaria Pinnatifida Extract, Phaseolus Radiatus Extract, Etula Platyphylla Japonica Bark Extract, Rumex Crispus Root Extract, Adenosine, Hydrogenated Lecithin, Dimethicone, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Disodium EDTA, Xanthan Gum, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Tromethamine, Ethylhexylglycerin, Phenoxyethanol, Fragrance

Running the ingredients through cosdna shows the Alcohol Denat as a possible irritant (5). It also contains Butylene Glycol. Other potential irritants are xanthan gum and fragrance. I know some people's skin react badly to niacinamide, so be careful with that. 


Performance

This is an intensive hydrating solution, hyaluronic mask is a dual function, brightening and anti-wrinkled treatment that penetrates deep into dry, flaky skin plumping up rich moisture while building a hydro-coating barrier to keep skin's moisture balance.

The mask tingled while I was having it on, but there was no redness and it wasn't really too uncomfortable. Sort of like having a tea tree mask on even thogh there's really no tea tree in the ingredient list. Despite the mild tingling, I kept this on for about 20 minutes before removing it. Even though I wasn't a fan of the fit, it was actually fairly comfortable to have on, which came as a surprise for me. The eyeholes were a little too small, but that just meant the area around my eyes got plenty of moisture too, which is a good thing. 

It left my face with a sticky finish. It wasn't particularly brightening, but was very moisturizing. My skin wasn't too dry to begin with, but the area around my nose has gotten quite flaky and irritated from having the flu and blowing my nose for more than a week and this mask really helped calmed the irritation there. I'm fairly pleased with the effect of the mask overall despite the sticky finish!


Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Moisturizing

Cons

  • Tingles a little
  • Leaves a sticky finish
  • Not brightening

Verdict: 7/10
Repurchase: No