October Haul + Mini Reviews

Earlier this month, I decided to amp up my skin care routine by adding facial masks, pore strips and undereye patches. Check out these stuff I picked up from Watson’s shelves at SM City Iloilo:

Among the multitude of facial and eye zone masks and pore tapes displayed, I picked these because they were the more affordable stuff. I haven’t tried all of them yet.

PureDerm Collagen Eye Zone Mask

I like using the Collagen Eye Zone masks whenever my eyes feel tired. You’re supposed to leave the product on the under-eye area for 15-20 minutes and you’re done. It does soothe my tired eyes, and helps reduce puffiness. I hope it does help lighten my dark under-eye circles with continued use. However, if some of the essence gets into my eyes there’s a slight stinging sensation so I try to avoid that. Product description says: Enriched with Collagen, Vitamin E, Green Tea Extract and tropical fruits. Provides intensive hydration and diminishes the signs of aging. Helps reduce eye puffiness and dark circles. For all skin types. There are 30 sheets inside a resealable plastic packaging. It costs PhP 89.75. The downside? The packaging is kind of messy. It’s rather difficult trying to get just two sheets out of a small package while all the sheets clump together. So that’s not very convenient. But at least it’s resealable.

Beauty Buffet Facial Masks

I’ve also tried the Charcoal and Cypress facial mask from Beauty Buffet and I like how it sort of relaxes my tired skin. It’s like having a facial spa at home. The instructions at the back of the product say everyday use is recommended, but I intend to do so only weekly, or every two weeks, or whenever I feel like my skin’s so tired it needs to absorb some relaxing facial mask essence. Haha. The Beauty Buffet masks are super affordable, too, at only PhP 39 each. And the packaging is so cute, I love smiling cloud graphic.

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Etude House Happy Teatime Lemon Tea Cleansing Cream

One of the makeup blogs I follow is The Kikay Chronicles by ChinChin Vito. I read a review of this product at her blog and after learning that it only costs PhP 198, I told myself I really had to grab one. It’s the Happy Teatime  Lemon Tea Cleansing Cream from Etude House. There are two other variants: Milk Tea for dry skin and Aloe tea for… I don’t know, normal skin? Sensitive skin? I forgot! 😀 I have oily skin so Lemon Tea is the flava for me. It’s so cute and affordable, and all this time I thought all Etude House products were at the pricier side.  Plus, I didn’t use makeup removing creams in my cleansing routine before, which I realized was a big mistake and became a factor on why I would break out a lot. I learned from YouTube beauty guru Cassandra Bankson that washing your face with water and a facial scrub/foaming cleanser once really isn’t enough. Your face may look squeaky clean but it just partially removes the makeup. You have to do it as much as 4 times if you want to make sure your face is completely free of makeup. When I’d use toner after washing, I can actually see on the cotton ball that there’s still some makeup left on my face. Snoozing with even little makeup on can cause breakouts because the pores get clogged at a time when your skin should be naturally rejuvenating itself during sleep. I learned that the hard way as I’ve been suffering from acne during college and I was so insecure with my skin that I felt the need to cover up my blemishes with foundation/concealer/powder. I still even get pimples every now and then because I get lazy.

Using a cream cleanser to remove makeup really does the job of erasing every bit of it. What I do is apply this all over my face, wipe with tissues, and off comes the makeup. Then I do the usual routine of washing and toning until skin is squeaky clean. I also followed ChinChin’s tip of using a spatula instead of dipping my fingers into the jar to avoid contaminating the product.

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Max Factor Pan Stik Foundation in Bisque Ivory

Aside from skin care products, I also bought makeup, yay! Since I was disappointed with the LA Girl concealer I bought last month (as mentioned in my September Haul), I decided to get myself the famous Max Factor Pan Stik Foundation in Bisque Ivory. And again, I first heard about it through The Kikay Chronicles. 🙂 Do visit the blog to read a really good review about it. I was impressed, its concealing power was super nice and the shade which the Max Factor SA picked for me blends very well with my skin tone. It’s PhP 455 at SM City Iloilo — a bit pricier than drugstore brands but you get the quality you pay for. This became an instant favorite.

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Etude House Dear My Blooming Lips in BE 101

Lastly, here’s another instant favorite! This is my newest lipstick which my little sister bought for me just a few days ago. It’s a gorgeous peach (the shade is BE 101) from the Dear My Blooming Lips line at Etude House. I am gonna do a separate review for this one soon.

So that’s it for now. Happy Halloween and stay pretty everyone!

P.S. I might get a domain soon. Keeping my fingers crossed. 😉