Tag Archives: skincare

Innisfree Rose & Rose Hip Eco Finger Mask review – need a helping hand?

Posted on May 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

As regular readers of this blog will know, I suffer from extremely dry hands – a problem that’s mostly kept at bay thanks to the world’s best hand creams. Even so, my thirsty paws can’t resist an extra bit of TLC every now and again, so I thought I’d give Innisfree’s Rose & Rose Hip Eco Finger Mask a try.

Korean beauty brands are like the Willy Wonkas of the sheet mask world, making a veritable pick n’ mix of options for your face, eyes, lips, hands and feet – yep, they’ve pretty much got your whole biology class covered!

What makes the Innisfree Eco Finger Mask a bit different from the usual sheet hand masks is that this one is literally only for your fingers – so rather than covering your whole mitts glove-style, you get ten individual thimble-esque pads full of moisturising goodness. This was great news for me as that’s where my hands really suffer, with the pads of my index fingers, thumbs and cuticles often cracked and peeling (being a beauty blogger is really sexy stuff).

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Tagged Beauty, best hand sheet masks, best sheet masks, cuticle care, dry cuticles, dry hands, finger mask, hand care, hand mask, Innisfree, Innisfree Eco Finger Mask, Innisfree Hand Mask, Innisfree Rose Finger Mask, Innisfree Rose Hand Mask, Innisfree sheet masks, Innsifree Rose & Rose Hip Eco Finger Mask, Korean beauty, Korean beauty brands, Korean beauty brands Hong Kong, Korean cosmetics brands, Korean sheet masks, peeling cuticles, review, sheet mask, skincare, where to buy Innisfree in Hong Kong

Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration moisturiser review – he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother

Posted on January 26, 2015 | 3 comments

If you thought that living in Hong Kong meant you got to avoid the vagaries of winter weather, think again. The only difference? Unlike the UK, we’re just vastly unprepared for it!

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things you can buy to lessen the pain. Millions of Uniqlo Heattech tops. A mini convection heater to tote around wherever you go. And a really really good winter moisturiser. Which is exactly where Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration comes in.

Add dry weather to drying conditions (hello that beloved convection heater!) and you end up with pretty parched skin. Given that Hong Kong’s usual climate of heat and humidity is the exact opposite of this and you can see why a change in your skincare routine is most definitely called for! So it’s out with light, gel-based moisturisers and in with heavy-duty hydrating creams. However, what’s amazing about Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Intense Hydration Cream is that whilst it’s heavy-duty, it does so without actually being heavy. Which has to be some sort of make-up miracle.

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Tagged Beauty, best face cream for dry skin, best face creams, best moisturiser for dry skin, best moisturisers, best winter face cream, cosmetics, Enriched Hyaluronic Acid, face cream, Kiehl's, Kiehl's HK, Kiehl's Hong Kong, Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration, moisturiser, review, skincare, Ultra Facial Cream Intense Hydration, where to buy Kiehl's in Hong Kong

Essentials by Cinci handmade soaps review – land of soap and glory!

Posted on October 20, 2014 | 6 comments

For me, soap is something old people use. It sits on your soap-dish for ages looking unattractively scummy, it doesn’t lather up properly and it leaves you feeling almost too squeakily clean. Suffice to say, I’m a shower gel girl all the way.

However, bringing the humble soap into the 21^st century is Essentials By Cinci EC Soap. The brainchild of qualified Chinese medicine practitioner Cinci Leung, these soaps are handmade in Hong Kong from all-natural ingredients – and look absolutely gorgeous to boot.

Before you start imagining Leung as some wizened bearded old man concocting noxious-smelling brews in a ye olde style apothecary, let me tell you that she’s actually a bright young woman with a more modern approach to Chinese medicine – a philosophy which is totally reflected in the Essentials by Cinci soaps themselves.

Leung explained to me that many shower gels are formulated with ingredients that end up stripping off your skin’s natural oils as well as the dirt and sweat we want rid of. Her soaps are much milder and have been created to both cleanse and moisturise – sudsational stuff!

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Sabon opens in Hong Kong – Lavender Apple Shower Oil and Delicate Jasmine Body Lotion review

Posted on July 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

UPDATE: Sabon has since opened lots more stores in Hong Kong – full list of locations at the bottom of this post!

Beauty junkies in Hong Kong are enjoying something of a purple patch (insert preferred colour of choice here) right now. Whilst the influx of new beauty brands here has included many I was already familiar with (like Kate Somerville or the new arrivals at FACESSS), there have also been plenty popping up that I hadn’t heard of – including Israeli skincare brand Sabon, who have just opened their first stores in Hong Kong, in Tsim Sha Tsui’s Harbour City and Tai Koo’s Cityplaza.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to make the store opening (which has its very own wishing well made from Jerusalem stone… skincare was definitely never this swanky in Nottingham, I tell ya!), so Sabon very kindly sent me a few of their goodies to try – and on the basis of these, I’m already sniffing out my next Sabon purchases.

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Tagged best shower gel, best shower oil, best shower products, bodycare, Delicate Jasmine Body Lotion, Harbour City, Lavender Apple Shower Oil, Ocean Terminal, review, Sabon Body Lotion, Sabon HK, Sabon Hong Kong, Sabon Shower Oil, skincare, Tsim Sha Tsui, where to buy Sabon in Hong Kong

THANN Eden Breeze Collection – Aromatherapy Shower Gel, Body Oil, Body Scrub and Body Butter review

Posted on June 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

Now I love me a spa day as much as the next lady-of-leisure, but sometimes time – let alone bank balance – simply are not willing. In which case, don’t listen to that Mohammed fellow and simply let the mountain come to you… via some lovely spa-tastic skincare products instead! Case in point: the THANN Eden Breeze Collection.

THANN is a Bangkok-based beauty brand that boasts award-winning, uber-relaxing THANN Sanctuary spas dotted all around the world, including Hong Kong. But for a little taste of spa-style luxury in the “comfort” of your own home (i.e. smaller, nowhere near as nice smelling, and with inquisitive puppies often crashing your zen), their line of body and skincare products totally do the trick at injecting a luxurious dose of pampering into your general beauty regime – even if they don’t come with your own personal Thai masseuse (rats!).

THANN’s beauty products are largely based around essential oils and aromatherapy properties, meaning they all smell blooming gorgeous and nicely evocative of a sensuous spa day – and the latest Eden Breeze Collection, based around jasmine and rose essential oils, is no exception.

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Tagged Beauty, bergamot, body products, bodycare, cosmetics, Eden Breeze Aromatherapy Shower Gel, Eden Breeze Body Butter, Eden Breeze Body Oil Spray, Eden Breeze Body Scrub, Eden Breeze Collection, jasmine, pampering, review, rose, skincare, Thann, THANN Eden Breeze Collection, THANN Hong Kong, where to buy THANN Hong Kong

Kate Somerville ExfoliKate review – your new favourite exfoliator

Posted on May 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

May I introduce you to your new favourite exfoliator? She’s called ExfoliKate, she’s all the way from America and she will turn you into a one-scrub-only woman!

Renowned American skincare brand Kate Somerville recently arrived in Hong Kong at Lane Crawford – and I was thrilled to be invited to their launch party (where I met the lady herself!), where I managed to get my mitts on some of their hero products. First on my to-try list was the Kate Somerville ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment… and I soon understood why Somerville has earned her reputation as the “guru of glow”!

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Tagged Beauty, best exfoliators, best facial scrubs, cosmetics, exfoliator, ExfoliKate, ExfoliKate Intensive Exfoliating Treatment, Kate Somerville, Kate Somerville skincare line, review, scrub, skincare

Clarins Blue Orchid Facial Treatment Oil review – pure liquid gold

Posted on March 31, 2014 | 5 comments

Hong Kong weather has been going a bit haywire recently. One minute, it’ll be so cold that you’re forced to dig out that long-lost mini convection heater whilst wearing seven layers of Uniqlo Heattech… the next it’ll be so muggy that even with dehumidifiers ramped up to the max in every single room of your apartment, water still streams down your walls like the Niagara – and on a couple of occasions, Hong Kong’s freaky ecological bubble has somehow managed to produce both conditions all at once!

The point of this story is – all this meteorological madness can play total havoc with a girl’s skin. But one product that I have fallen in love with recently to help combat the strange ecosystem that is my complexion is Clarins’ Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil.

Now I know what you’re thinking… I have a greasy nose/chin/forehead/face (delete as applicable), why on earth would I add yet more oil to the mix?! Trust me sistah, I hear ya – and as the owner of a troublesome t-zone, it’s exactly why I’ve previously steered clear of facial oils. But be not afeard my child, for Clarins’ Blue Orchid Oil is friend not foe, I promise!

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Tagged Beauty, best face oils, best treatment oils, Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil, Blue Orchid Oil, Clarins, Clarins Face Treatment Oils, cosmetics, face oils, hydration, make-up, moisturisers, review, skincare, where to buy Clarins in Hong Kong

The best hand creams ever: Physiogel A1 Cream, Cetaphil Intensive Moisturising Cream & Herbacin Wuta Kamille Glycerine Hand Cream

Posted on February 4, 2014 | 9 comments

Think you have dry hands?! Think again! I’ll show you some PROPER dry hands…

Actually, I won’t. My hands had reached such Sahara states of dryness that frankly, they were not fit for public viewing. Upon catching sight of my shedding digits, people would “ewww” entirely unprompted. There was talk of steroid cream. I genuinely had no fingerprints left.

[If you think I’m exaggerating for comic effect, Hong Kong ID Cards use fingerprint recognition machines at immigration; thanks to my fingers being a lovely combination of burn-victim raw red patches and papery dry cracks and ridges, my fingerprints no longer registered. So there!]

My beloved Sebamed Hand & Nail Repair Cream had halted further deterioration but didn’t seem able to actually rescue my skin. I had begun to make peace with the fact that I would be a reasonably preserved twentysomething with the hands of an ancient medieval peasant. But thankfully (!), I had to go to the doctor’s with yet another bout of gastroenteritis (welcome to Hong Kong!) and thought I’d get the good doc’s verdict on my hands whilst I was at it.

Lo and behold, he recommended me a couple of amazing hand creams that performed minor miracles. So I thought I’d spare you the $300 consultation fee and share my three handcare saviours: Physiogel A1 Cream, Cetaphil Intensive Moisturising Cream and Herbacin Wuta Kamille Glycerine Hand Cream.

These hand creams aren’t sexy. They don’t smell delicious, or feel luxurious, or look dressing table worthy. But they bloody hell do the job!

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Innisfree Hand Cream Collection review – Green Tea Pure Gel Hand Cream, Tangerine Blossom Perfumed Hand Lotion & Canola Honey Hand Butter

Posted on November 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

This is one review I never thought I’d get round to writing.

I have long had to make peace with the fact I’ll never manage to blog about every single piece of make-up I want to; however, after trying the Innisfree Hand Cream Collection, I was so pleasantly surprised that I felt the need to share the good news with you all!

Innisfree is a Korean beauty brand that opened its first stores in Hong Kong (in Causeway Bay and Mong Kok) earlier this year. Unlike other Korean cosmetics brands like Etude House and Tony Moly that concentrate on the cutesier side of beauty, Innisfree has a much fresher, cleaner feel – they’re all about natural pure ingredients found on the Korean volcanic island of Jeju (a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, doncha’know). Forget hand creams shaped like penguins or make-up ranges themed around princesses – Innisfree’s packaging is simple, chic and eco-friendly; both the store and its products give me a Body Shop vibe but with an Asian twist.

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The Saem Mint Foot Treatment Mask review

Posted on December 3, 2012 | 7 comments

Feet are just intrinsically rather gross, right?

People that post pictures of their pedicures… sorry. I. Just. Cannot. Even princesses and fairies probably have manky feet. Hey, I can cope with seeing the beatific Princess Kate’s boobs… but the thought of copping a glance at her feet – no thanks!

Suffice to say, my feet get very little love, hence explaining why they’re dry rough gnarled specimens that are kept in socks or slippers at all costs. (I still shudder thinking about how I had to go barefoot at school for gym.) So in the effort to try and make my feet bear less resemblance to those of a mountain goat, I decided to give this The Saem Mint Foot Treatment Mask a go.

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