Midweek Peek: The Minimalist Skincare Routine for the Very Busy Bee

Along with being stuck in a makeup rut when I’m super busy, I also tend to tone down my skincare. I still make sure that I remove all traces of makeup carefully, but I use a lot less products when it’s a choice between that and sleeping an extra 10 minutes.

After cleansing, I’ve been using the Mario Badescu Glycolic Acid Toner – this feels quite mild after I’ve been used to Liquid Gold. I then follow it up with Hydraluron, which I’m very nearly done with. Then a good strong moisturizer – the Aesop Perfect Facial Hydrating Cream, and an eye cream – For Beloved One Polypeptide DNA Resilience Lift Eye Cream.

There’s 4 products – to some people that’s quite a lot but I’m a skincare junkie and that’s about half of what I would do if I had the time and energy. Surprisingly, my skin has been behaving relatively well! It’s not at its best but not as bad as I imagined. Phew!

Empties #22: June 2015 – Part 2

I was expecting to go through a lot more than I did this month – I had these large, full-size bottles of skincare that are on their last legs and I thought finally, I’ll be done with them in June! But no, they just keep going and never runs out! They’re like magic or auto-refilling or something! That said, I did use up a good amount of makeup! Skincare products are usually easier to run through, so I’m always doubly happy when I do use up a makeup product!

Empties #20: April 2015 – Part 1

April was… oh, actually I have no idea what this past April was like because I was so crazy busy that I can’t remember what happened! It’s really been an insane month – tons of work, wedding planning, lots of gym sessions so that I can fit into my gowns later; I was so shocked when I saw my empties bucket filled – I thought there was no way I could have used up so much stuff in such a short time, then I realised that it’s the end of the month already! Anyway, let’s take a peek at what’s in there!

Empties #19: March 2015 – Part 2

After a very small Part 1 empties blog post earlier, here’s a much bigger Part 2! Most of these are smaller items or mini/travel sizes of skincare, plus a good number of sachets. I also managed to use up a number of makeup items and that makes me really happy – I always finish up skincare but it’s much harder to use up makeup as I love switching them up!

Review: Aesop Purifying Facial Exfoliant Paste

I love a good face scrub but a good face scrub is also one of the hardest thing to find, at least for me anyway. Because I am very particular about the size of the granules, the hardness of the granules, the ratio of the cream and the granules. In short, I am a very fussy face scrub buyer. Too hard, and it will be downgraded to a body scrub. Too soft, and I don’t get what the whole point is for.

I picked up this Aesop Purifying Facial Exfoliant Paste some time ago after the salesperson practically dragged my arm across the sink and insisted that he tried it on me. I wasn’t even looking for a scrub but 10 minutes and a hand scrub later, I had a scrub in my bag and S$67 poorer.

Midweek Peek #16: Moisturizers I’m Currently Using

Being a beauty fanatic, I’m constantly trying different products. At any given time I have a huge load of new products that I’m currently testing; some will eventually turn up in a review, and some of it will be forgotten. Some products I will actually love so much that I use them up even before they appear anywhere but an empties post. So, I wanted to quickly show all of you a peek of some of the moisturisers that I’m currently using and testing before I finish them up or forgot about them!

Aesop Perfect Facial Hydrating Cream
I bought this recently in Australia – I don’t know why since the price difference is not great. I was recommended this by the sales assistant for very dry skin. Lately my skin has been so dry and tight – not sure why, but this so far has been doing a great job. It’s still early days to tell if there are any side effects, but I’m loving how hydrating it is. I’m not a big fan of its strong frankincense scent though!

Belif The True Cream – Aqua Bomb
A good size sample – very light in texture, given that it’s a gel. It’s cooling on touch and sinks in really quickly. I’ve just started using this but I’m liking it for use in the day so far.

Oilatum Cream
I got this after watching Nic from Pixiwoos use it all the time in her videos. She has dry skin too so I thought this would be something suitable for me as well. As can be seen from the bottle, I’ve used a good amount of it. I like it on days that my skin are extremely parched, but not for wear during the day as it can be very oily and heavy. It’s a very cheap, unpretentious thick cream for extremely dry skin.

Algenist Overnight Restorative Cream
Another good size sample. This is a very thick but not-so-dense cream – if you get what I mean. It’s kind of like thickened whipped cream. There’s some kind of ‘air’ in it but the texture is definitely more cream like. It’s so hard to explain. Another product for the night because of how thick it is.

I should be doing a full review on these items as I try them out more and have a better feel for them. Have you tried any of them?

Haul: Aussie Beauty

So there was no way that I could go on a holiday – even one to escape from everyday life – without doing some beauty hauling! I didn’t think I got as much as I planned; everything was so much more expensive than I expected and some of the items that I wanted, like the Kora Organics skincare, were nowhere to be found. Anyway, it’s probably a positive since I’m going to Korea soon so I can save up my money for an all-out haul there! Meanwhile, let’s take a look at what I’ve got from Australia!

Review: Aesop Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque

A really talked about product on the blogosphere in the last few months was the Aesop Parsley Seed Cleansing Masque. Being me, I just had to pick it up to try for myself whether it lived up to all that hype!

Claims on website:
A clay-based masque to deeply cleanse and refresh most skin types, particularly sensitive or dry. A gentle yet thorough deep-cleansing treatment that extracts impurities clogging the pores, to smooth and refresh the skin.

Ingredients:
Water (Aqua), Kaolin, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Bentonite, Alcohol Denat., Glycerin, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Oenothera Biennis (Evening Primrose) Oil, Rosa Canina Fruit Oil, Phenoxyethanol, Ormenis Multicaulis Oil, Carum Petroselinum (Parsley) Seed Oil, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Linalool.

The texture is much thinner and more watery than the average clay mask. What I do is apply a thin layer all over my face after cleansing and leave it on for 15 minutes. The mask slowly hardens and dries in funny patches, as I show in the picture above where a big hole appears after the mask dried.

After washing this off, my skin feels a little tight but I also find that it looks clearer. I have been using this about once a week or whenever my skin feels congested for the past few months and I must say that it has worked a treat. Because I have very dry skin, I usually try not to use clay-based masks too often but this mask doesn’t make my skin feel dry or cause any dry patches. I find that whenever I get extra spots, a mask session with this tends to keep them well controlled, and surprisingly shrink them by the next morning.

Personally, I love this. It looks like a small tube in its toothpaste-like packaging, which I actually think is quite cute, but it has lasted me a very long time. At S$51 for a 60ml tube, I think this is well worth it and I will repurchase again and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 4.5/5