Beauteque BB Bag July 2015 Review

July 2015 Beauteque Bag contents

I received the bag a little late, around the beginning of August. I was actually supposed to get this bag around June because this was actually a gift from one of my friends for my birthday, so it was bought in late May using the gift setting. However, the person buying it for you is supposed to put in your e-mail when they check it out, so Beauteque could email you to claim it. My friend never put in my email, so I was never able to claim it... He e-mailed their customer service and managed to get it for me later though. I'm actually glad I got this bag instead of the June one. It also came with a paper revealing all the contents of the bag.

About Beauteque:

It's basically a Korean beauty monthly curated box. Each month has certain themes. I think July's was picnic themed. The yellow picnic cloth-looking bag was perfect for this. Contents sometimes don't really match the theme though. The more bags you buy at once, the more you save. You have to pay shipping on the bags though, which is annoying as most Korean beauty bags these days give free shipping. Shipping is $3.95 a month to America.

I received:

Yeon/Jeju Hallabong Special Peeling & Pack Mini 4 Set ($10 value)

I already tried the peeling gel & thought it was pretty good. Less gentle than most peeling gels I've tried, and I remember it being very heavily citrus scented. Hallabong is some type of Korean citrus fruit, so it makes sense it'd smell like this. This pills up A LOT more than other gels. Also, one of the capsules lasts for 2-3 applications. I suggest putting them in the fridge after one application for the next. I haven't been able to try the live pack yet as I'm currently trying out other ones.

Secret Key Aloe Soothing Moist Toner ($19 value)

Also haven't been able to try this toner. I have a toner I already like with a low pH, so I don't think I'll be putting this to use. I was hoping for the witch hazel one, but I got aloe instead. Gave this to a friend who's new to Asian beauty products.

Tony Moly Crystal Blusher ($8 value)

A really natural, peachy-pink blush. I'm lighter than most Asians, and this color is very suitable for my skin tone. It doesn't take much for it to show up (on me at least). This is in color #03.

Beauteque Blending Brush ($15 value)

This brush isn't that great for me. It's kind of stiff... You're supposed to use it after putting on foundation to give you that "flawless finish," but this brush is kind of unpleasant to use... Kind of like using a paint brush on your face. Maybe it's supposed to be like that.

Holika Holika Golden Monkey Glamour Lip ($6.99 value)

Saving this for the winter months when my lips are all dry and chapped and need some lovin'.

Etude House Milk Talk Body Wash ($12 value)

I got this in strawberry which is what I wanted... I love the color pink. Bottle is small and cute. Smells really nice, like a fresh strawberry yogurt. It smells a lot like strawberry milk candy that you get at Asian grocery stores. Foams nicely with a loofah. Smells good. Think it has some added claims like evening your skin tone, but I haven't really seen much results.

Bonus: Hanaka Aloe Vera Mask

Haven't used this yet either. Not familiar with this brand. Pretty cute & unique packaging though.

Value:

Beauteque is the pricier of most K-beauty bag subscriptions.  I'm not sure if it's actually worth coming up to almost $30 a month. The values for the bag were determined using what Beauteque gave me, but I'm pretty sure I could find most of these items (all of these items except the blending brush) for 1/2 the price elsewhere. Literally. I like the items they give out, but not enough to continue subscription. Maybe a bag here and there once in a while for fun.

TONYMOLY AC Control Whitening After Spot Treatment Review

What the packaging looks like.

Ingredients.

Actual product.

This product is packaged in a tube, similar to how most Asian eye creams are packaged. When first dispensing this product, a thick, white cream comes out. I use this in my PM routine on my scars from cystic acne. You shouldn't use this during the AM though, as it leaves a very noticeable, strong white cast on the places it's applied. As for its effectiveness, I am too embarrassed to show pictures, but I'd say it's faded my cystic acne scars relatively well in a short amount of time. It's also decreased the diameter of the spots somehow. Not holy grail status though and not significantly amazing results, but it does what it claims.

I haven't seen many reviews for this product. I bought this off eBay for $7.59 from rubyrubystore here. Really cheap & worth the price.

Klenspop Store Review

Just wanted to give a short little review on Klenspop, an online circle lens store that has actual stores based in Korea called Lenspop! Klenspop is more for their international buyers though.

I placed my order at 4:33 PM on August 1st, 2015. When did I receive my order? August 10th, 2015. From the time it shipped until now, it took only 7 days for me to receive my order. Considering it came all the way from South Korea, and I bought 6 pairs of lenses, this service is impeccable. When I first placed my order, I realized I forgot to leave my prescription in the memo which is a -3.00 for three of the lenses because some of them don't give you the options for your prescription and tell you to leave it in the memo.  I pretty much freaked out after realizing this and sent them 4 messages and realized that Korean time is different, and they probably wouldn't get back to me until later. It was already the next day, and the order changed to "preparation in process," so I started panicking more and left more messages. Towards the end of the day (August 2nd), I received an e-mail saying that they'd mail out my lenses in -3.00, so hooooooooray! ^____^ I was partially really worried because customer service when buying internationally isn't always the best, and occasionally there is a language barrier, but they got to me promptly.

First  look at what's inside the box.

The lenses came double bubble wrapped, along with six contact lens containers, six tweezers, and a free 15 mL bottle of contact solution. Excuse the crappy lighting, it was raining. :x

Packaging of the vials say crazy lens in it.

 Was this packaging meant for those costume lenses?

I think they changed their packaging. Before, they had vials inside a wider rectangular box with a girl on it. This was literally what was inside the bubble wrap, no girl or anything. Just six boxes containing the vials inside. Maybe I bought too many lenses?

From left to right, Bunny Color Brown, Exy 3 Color Green, EOS Jewel Brown, Bunny 3 Color Grey, Magic Eye Skinny Brown, and GBT 2 Tone Brown.

Here's what the lenses look like from the bottom. From left to right, Bunny Color Brown, Exy 3 Color Green, EOS Jewel Brown, Bunny 3 Color Grey, Magic Eye Skinny Brown, and GBT 2 Tone Brown. Took a bit of time doing this as some of them kept falling. >:c Individual reviews will come later!

Here's what the free goodies look like, the lens cases, tweezers, and solution!

Overall, such a pleasant experience buying. I"m relatively new to circle lenses and actually only bought my first pair late June of this year also from Klenspop. I think their shipping then was pretty prompt too. Their lenses are some of the cheapest I've been able to come across. Cheap lenses and I've found nothing wrong with any of them, good service, you pretty much can't go wrong. I only bought two pairs my first time, and needless to say I felt like I should've bought more, so here they are. I'm not too into the whole anime look and don't want my eyes any bigger than it already is. I've been using these just to experiment with looks. I prefer natural looking types of contacts if you haven't noticed! Very glad that Klenspop was my first supplier of circle lenses because I literally can't find a problem with anything. Will buy again!

My Skincare Journey

Unlike most people, I started getting acne at a rather early age. I started puberty a bit earlier than usual (around 3rd-4th grade), at 9-10 years old. It started out with some whiteheads on my forehead and blackheads on my nose. Puberty hit me like a truck (a fucking big ass U-Haul truck going at 150 mph local that couldn't see where the fuck it was going). During elementary and middle school, no one ever correctly guessed my age. I always looked older due to my skin. During middle school (my school only had 7th and 8th grade, so I was 12-14 at the time? I don't recall correctly), I started looking for a change and getting into beauty. I watched countless videos on YouTube where it seemed like the only beauty-bloggers that were well-known were Ricebunny (aka Michelle Phan, who I've been proudly following since her Xanga days) and Bubzbeauty. I mean, I've always loved beauty-related things, but I never actually took a charge and bought any beauty related items except for drug store face cleansers. I had very oily skin. VERY oily skin. I could make an entire sheet from edge to edge of one of those Clean & Clear blotting papers transparent within 30 seconds. I used to never wear sunscreen, and the skin tone on my body versus my face had a very huge difference because my legs, chest, and shoulders never got to see the light of day while my face was always exposed. My face beginning highschool I would say was around NC25-NC30, but my body would be at an NC10. No, I am not Caucasian. I am actually northern Vietnamese (my parents fled to the South before the war) which tend to be lighter-skinned.

I started wearing moisturizer with SPF in it. 7th grade was where I bought my very first sheet mask. I remember very clearly, a box of My Beauty Diary sheet masks off of Amazon. They were a gift from my brother that I asked for when he visited. I continued buying them off of Sasa. At the time, Korean brands weren't as popular as Taiwanese (Naruko or My Beauty Diary) or Japanese brands (Hadalabo) in the Asian beauty world yet except a select few (I remember Skinfood's rice mask being super popular and increasing in popularity as soon as Bubzbeauty's skincare routine video was up, along with the Laneige products that she used) . My very first cleanser was Neutrogena's Oil-Free Acne Stress Control Power Scrub bought in 5th grade (I'm not very good with the whole what age I got/did this sort of thing, so I can't tell you the exact age), and it worked well for my skin at the time. Minor acne on my forehead, and the salicylic acid in the cleanser helped it a lot, along with the microbeads that was gentle enough for daily exfoliation. Highschool happened and I found myself with even more acne, so I went to my general practictioner and got put on antibiotics (Doxycycline), and benzoyl peroxide. Turns out, Doxycycline is too strong of an antibiotic for me and continued to make me throw up. A lot. I have a really strong stomach and I don't throw up easily, but Doxycycline managed to help me do it. Oh, I also found out I am very allergic to benzoyl peroxide and continued using it for over 2 months which fucked up my skin to its entirety but wouldn't stop using it because apparently it's supposed to make me break out in even more dry and painful blistering cystic acne, and I was told it would eventually get better. It didn't. It didn't get better until I stopped using it and was put on a Minacycline topical gel. To make matters worse, I went to my general practioner again a year later to check up on everything; he said my skin was a lot better and he tried putting me on BP again, completely forgetting I was allergic to it until I mentioned it to him, and that he was the one that diagnosed my allergy. My acne was so severe, causing my skin to look like a big, blistering, red mess. There was so much damage to it that I just started looking older than I was and could pass for late 20s when I was barely into my teen years.

I'm 20 years old now. People now guess that I'm younger, usually around 15, rather than older. It could be due to me taking care of my skin or genetics. I have a sister that's a year younger than me, and most people guess that I'm the younger one (including my own relatives such as aunts/older cousins who haven't seen me in years because growing up in an Asian family typically means you have some relatives you'll only see once within five years because your family is so large). I am no longer in highschool. I found myself with some spending money as I got my very first job. I still struggle to take care of my skin. I'm in college now, and I am now a very broke college student trying to make some money to feed her skincare hobbies and pay for her education. The websites I used back then to get my fix of Asian beauty were Sasa, iMomoko, Cosme-de, amd BonjourHK (these are ones I used because they were cheap and I didn't mind waiting times, but there were also sites like Adam Beauty which I never used). There are now many overseas sellers on Ebay and especially from Korea since the Hallyu wave started. Some of these sellers have their very own websites now that Korean cosmetics have come a long way & gained a larger audience, such as Jolse, RoseRoseShop, TesterKorea, KoreaDepart, Beautynetkorea, & Cosmetic-Love. Things are different now, to say the least. So many things have changed. Michelle Phan became sponsored by Lancome and is now viewed as a beauty-guru legend, and her video quality has gone up a lot to say the least. Bubzbeauty is now married, with a chubby little child (I really want my kid to come out chubby... so adorbs. -gawks-).

How did time pass by so quickly... I've upgraded/ventured from Neutrogena's Acne Stress Control Power Scrub to stuff like Clinique's Liquid Facial Soap and Shiseido's Perfect Whip (I learned a lot about pH breaking the skin's natural barrier and stuff of that sort, but I still use this once in a while when I want to have that squeaky-clean feeling). I actually still like that Neutrogena cleanser a lot. I don't use it anymore, but occasionally I'll take a whiff of it in drugstore aisles (I'm strange, don't judge me), and it'll give me nostalgia. As soon as I started wearing SPF, my face gradually crept to a true NC15 during the summer, and in between an NC10 and NC15 in the winter, and the skin on my face for the most part matches the skin on my body. My sister on the other hand, would probably be in between an NC5 or NC10 (do they even make these colors anymore?) year round until she went to Florida in May and got a tan and would now be an NC15 (if she ever wore make up). Very Irish looking skin without any redness or freckles of the sort. I give her some of my masks from time to time and try to get her to start a skincare routine, but she's too lazy to even wear sunscreen (she just never goes out). My blackheads have turned into lighter, unoxidized sebaceous filaments, & my oiliness is now more tamed, but has turned into combination skin. My cystic acne began clearing up towards end of 9th grade and was cleared up until... I stayed over a friend's house and had a pimple on my jawline. She told me to use her Murad spot treatment and... it had benzoyl peroxide in it. My fault for not looking at the ingredients. I managed to clear most of my cystic acne within a month or so and am now dealing with scars.

I am not a beauty expert. No. FAR away from that. Honestly, I don't care enough to be a beauty expert. I just want to share what works for me and works on my skin that I've read works on others. I enjoy snacks, & EVERYTHING beauty related. I also started getting into circle lenses, & bought my first pair a month ago (I'm actually fine with the size of my eyes, I just like playing around with them). I also recently discovered an Asian beauty subreddit and was pretty shocked because well, I never really thought about Asian beauty being Asian beauty. I'm not usually one to be lurking around forums. To me, it was always just beauty. They were just beauty products that happened to be made in Asia, like how French pharmacy brands happen to be made in France, or like how the chair I'm sitting on or how the iPhone I'm holding is made in China. These people on the Asian beauty subreddit take care of their skin way more than I do, and in Asia, beauty is not a privilege but a right. Thanks to them, I learned about actives like BHA and AHA which act as chemical exfoliants. You can get excellent products for the price in Asian beauty. As for me, I'm a sucker for cute packaging and I like what I like, western or eastern. My emails from Allure quite randomly mention Korean skincare secrets like they're an exotic mystery from far away that'll do miracles for your skin. While yes, it can do heaps of help for your skin, it is just what it looks like, a product. Not a miracle. Do not expect a miracle. Things like this takes time. The things I've seen mentioned in these emails are of items I've never even heard of that're always really expensive... Quite frankly, I don't think the brands they recommend are actually as popular as western marketing makes it out to be. Unless you've been living in Korea for a while, don't tell me what you think Korean trends or fads are because for the most part, the closest people get to Korean fads are K-Pop news networks which I see heavily catered to international fans. Being a broke college student, I'm not looking into buying those items when I could probably get more for less.

Currently, I have combination, slightly troubled & red skin. I am currently healing from a cystic acne outbreak due to the Murad spot treatment that's left scars and trying to treat it. I've bought several products online that I don't see too many reviews for, so I'll share what items I'm using and its results to you guys later (if anyone is reading this, lol)!

Japan Crate Japanese Snack Subscription Box (June 2015)

Japan Crate's Premium Box

It's odd that my first review on this blog is about a Japanese snack subscription box, right? I was planning on having something beauty-related as my first post, but whatever floats my boat, I guess. Onto the review.

As most of you can probably already tell, it is August.

I got this box in June.

June 6th, to be exact, & yes. I finished all of it within a couple weeks of devouring eating it.

Why am I reviewing this, you ask? I just started this blog to use up some free time until I have to go back to school (which is in a couple weeks). Since I'm reviewing this late and I ate it all (because I am a hungry Asian girl), I have no pictures of the individual products except the one listed above.

Japan Crate's subscription boxes come in three sizes: mini, original, & premium. Original box includes the mini contents, Premium box contains everything in the mini and original box's contents. Everything came to me in a red box with the snacks on top of some red tissue paper. It also came with a little Totoro toy! I really regret not taking pictures of this. :c sigh. Next review of my next snack subscription is going to be picture-heavy... if I ever get enough money to get another snack subscription box. This one was actually gifted to me as a birthday present by my friend Henry (thank you Henry!).

Mini: Ramune Marble Gum, White Chocolate Big Bar Z, Little Gang Grape, Red Potion/Black Potion, Soy Sauce Mochi/Snow Pea Chips
Original: Choco Kinako Mochi DIY, Kirby Blend-Blend Mix Gum, Matcha Green Tea Pejoy, Talking Puppy Chocolate
Premium: Kawaii Ramune, Magic bubble Jelly DIY, Happy Paws Gummy, Choco Banana Pocky, Matcha Green Tea Kit Kats

Mini Contents Reviews:

Ramune Marble Gum: candy-coated ramune flavored gum. Coating was not as hard as a regular gumball, but it was nice. A lot easier to bite and chew on. Texture was really melty soft. Tasted pretty spot on to original flavored ramune (basically a lemon/lime flavored carbonated drink with far less ingredients than regular soda, also kind of has a Hubba Bubba bubble gum flavor) 3/5

White Chocolate Big Bar Z: What an interesting name. It's a big wafer (think middle of a kit kat) soaked (I mean SOAKED, not covered. SOAKED, as in there was no air in this wafer, the spaces where air is supposed to be is filled with white chocolate). The wafer had the texture of styrofoam, not in a bad way though. It was crispy and light, but also really sweet. A little too sweet for my tastes, but it was pretty good too... 3.5/5

Little Gang Grape: This was pop rocks gum. Basically, pop rocks that turn into gum after a while. This is probably fun for little kids. I on the other hand, thought this was a bit hard to chew and all the little bits kept getting stuck in my teeth. Really strong Japanese artificial-grape flavor. American grape-flavor tastes like medicine, but Japanese grape is always really good... It tastes more like real grapes. :x 2.5/5

Red Potion/Black Potion: Came in a packet with two sticks in a plastic container. One red stick and one black stick. The red one would of course, turn your tongue red while the black one would turn your tongue black. Cola flavored this time. Flavor was pretty strong, lasted about 15 mins for me. It was pretty... juicy? Loads of flavor in this one. Texture similar to Hubba Bubba gum. 3/5

Soy Sauce Mochi/Snow Pea chips: I received the Snow Pea chips and this was my favorite out of the box... I like savory snack/chip type snacks. The brand is from Calbee, and they actually make a version in America too with less MSG I'm guessing. They're actually rice and snow peas grinded up together and molded into the shape of a snow pea. I couldn't resist eating the whole bag. The Japanese one tasted better for some reason... probably due to the MSG. 5/5

Original Contents Review:

Choco Kinako Mochi DIY: This was.... not a good idea. Doing this DIY was not a good idea. I followed the instructions on the back by pictures alone as I can't read Japanese. I thought you were supposed to mix the white mochi-discs and somehow they'd turn into a cream. I was wrong. Horribly wrong. I was wondering why it wouldn't turn into a creamy mixture, and thought I had to add more water. Even more wrong. Well, I realized I was supposed to only soften the disc, dip it into the brown graham-cracker like mixture, and then dip it into the chocolate. It was.. okay... Not something I'd eat again. 1.5/5

Kirby Blend-Blend Gum: Why does it have blend twice? because each individual color of gum has its own flavor, and you're supposed to mix them to create special flavors. Blend flavors to create a unique special flavor. Flavors weren't really anything special. For example, I mixed apple and ramune flavor together, and the taste was like... apple. And Ramune. Put together. Not really an APPLE RAMUNE flavor, but separate individual flavors that have been mixed. Like I stuck a bunch of pieces of pineapple inside my ramune and drank it like boba/bubble tea where the pineapple would act as the boba balls. 3.5/5

Matcha Green Tea Pejoy: Pocky's cousin, Pejoy. Basically an inside out Pocky. Green tea flavored. Nom. The green tea note was pretty mellow, not too strong, not too light. Chocolate was dense, a bit gritty like Hershey's. Toppo is a similar brand of inside-out Pocky. Toppo's chocolate is denser, and its biscuit is more pretzel-like, whereas Pejoy's is more biscuity. 4/5

Talking Puppy Chocolate: A less sweet version of Nestle's Crunch bar. Chocolate with puffed rice inside. Texture was a bit creamier than a Crunch bar. 3.5/5

Premium Contents Review:

Kawaii Ramune: Sangaria brand. Tasted like what it was. Ramune (lemon-line & hint of bubblegum soda). A little sweeter than most I've had.

Magic Bubble Jelly DIY: bad bad idea. Very very bad idea doing this DIY. Was incredibly messy for me, stirring it and all... The candy was basically... a grape flavored... gelatinous foam... That is the best way I can describe it. Not the tastiest. 0.2/5

Happy Paws Gummy: Pink paw shaped peach flavored gummies. Really juicy & juicy gummies. Sweet with some tartness to balance it. Flavor was really nice. I prefer my gummies a little more dense and firm though. My sister liked these a lot. 4/5

Chocolate Banana Pocky: Chocolate biscuit covered in very artificial banana cream coating. I liked it, despite it tasting super artificial. Chocolate flavor was almost nonexistant. Just artificial banana tasting. This is the thing with me. I don't care if it tastes artificial, as long as it tastes good. Like fusion food, a lot of people won't eat "inauthentic" Chinese food because it's inauthentic. I however, don't care if it's inauthentic or not because Americanized Chinese food tastes good, so I'm going to keep eating it. 4/5

Green Tea Kit Kat: Gritty green tea chocolate cream covered wafers; similar Pejoy's green tea chocolate. Green tea chocolate is sweeter in this one though. Chocolate coating on this is a bit more gritty/powdery though. Really good. Japanese Kit Kats are my favorites.

Overall

Some of these items are very familiar, considering I grew up in an Asian household and grew up around Asian supermarkets all my life. I think snacks in Japan are known for their novelty and making eating fun. Japan Crate is a nice starter for someone interested in Japanese culture and want to try a variety of different Japanese snacks including some staples and some new items. It's also curated with weather in mind, so during the warmer months, they tend to give things that melt less such as chocolate. So thoughtful! While this is the only Japanese snack subscription I've tried, I'm looking to try more later on. It really just brighten up my day to see some snacks with adorable packaging in the house (sucker for cute packaging). I recommend this not only to those interested in Japanese culture, but to anyone that just wants to try something new and don't feel like getting out of the house. This is a good suggestion. Be adventurous without venturing outside your house because you're lazy like me and scared of the outside world.