Showing posts with label beauty gadgets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty gadgets. Show all posts

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Sephora and Asian Beauty Haul


First up is my free mini Sephora haul. Just went there to redeem my beauty points! I feel so proud of myself for not spending any money in Sephora. I always end up buying new toners or blushes whenever I go to Sephora. Ever since I heard about the Josie Maran Argan Essentials beauty insider rewards, I've been trying to get it. I just couldn't find it at any Sephora stores I went to. For the longest time all the rewards they had didn't appeal to me. I have over 1,500 points sitting in the beauty account with nothing to redeem. The last time I redeemed my points was for the Philosophy skincare set which was at least 2 years ago. I've always wanted to try Josie Maran products so I wanted this set badly. I've been to the Sephora at Eaton Centre, Bloor Street, Fairview and Yorkdale, they were always out of this set or their stores haven't received it when I went. I never expected I would be able to find this reward in store. I thought of ordering the SK-II mask in lotion so that I can redeem my beauty points.


There are four products in this beauty reward. The sizes of the products are quite generous when it comes to the 500 points rewards. I still remember the 100 points rewards used to be so tiny that I wasn't interested in redeeming at all.

There is facial wipes, cleansing oil, Pure argan oil and lip treatment in the beauty reward with the lip treatment being a full size product. I haven't tried any of the products yet but I will try them soon. I will probably try the Bear Naked wipes first. I love face wipes. I use them on my lazy days which is at least once a week.

I use japanese cleansing oils when I remove my make up but I would love to see if the argan cleansing oil is better.

Pure argan oil that could be used as a daily moisturizer. I've never tried using oil on my face as a moisturizer as I don't have dry skin and I'm afraid of having break outs but I will try to see if I like it.

Lip treatment, I do like it as it's a full size product and I like the scent of the lip treatment but I hate lip products that come in a jar. I don't dab my finger in my lip balm or any other products, I always use a brush or a spatula. I will have to use a lip brush which means this won't be a product I carry around with me.

I also used my points to redeem a Bliss the youth as we know anti aging cream. it's a deluxe sample with 10ml. I love products from Bliss. I love their mask so I would love to try their face cream. The cream I'm currently using had been discontinued so I'm searching for a face cream.

I received two packages in the mail today and they are things I've always wanted to try.
Give & Give skin care serums. Will these two products become my holy grail skin care products? 
I've first heard of Give & Give about half a year ago. It's a product from Japan and I went to Japan last year but couldn't find it at all in Sapporo. It was available in two other cities in Hokkaido but not Sapporo. From their Japanese site, they don't ship outside of Japan so I had to get these products through their Taiwanese dealer. 

They are both all in one beauty skin care serum. You can use it to wash your face, not for removing your make up, more for using as the last step of cleansing. You can also use it for massaging your face, use it as a toner and a serum.  For the venus serum you can also use it as a facial mask. 

The main ingredients in the serum include EGF, hyaluronic acid and collegen. Both contains EGF, it's just that the pink bottle has a higher EGF content level. There are two other serums from this company. I will try them if I like these two serum. 

From the guides they sent me, I'm supposed to use it to wash my face in the morning to remove the dirt and oil on my skin. And it's supposed to make your skin feel soft, smooth and healthy glow. Yes, they suggest you using serum to wash your face. I've never thought of using serum to wash my face. But I will give it a try.

The next item I received in the mail is the Iony cream booster. It works like the Talika cream booster but it's 1/3 the price. This is an ionotheraphy device that uses micro current to deliver the active ingredients into your skin. It makes it faster for your skin to absorb the cream. It also vibrates at a rate of 8000/min that helps improve blood circulation. There is also another function- to test out which part of your body is dry. There are no switches on the Iony. You hold onto the metal part and once you put it on your skin, the device turns on automatically. However, if your skin is too dry, it doesn't turn on. I used it to test out the moisture level on my skin. My face and neck both passed the test without problem. But my body didn't pass the test and I think it's because I never have the habit of using body cream on a regular basis. I only use body cream when my skin is very dry. I guess its telling me I need to start using body cream on a daily basis now! 


 

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hokkaido Trip 1

I went to Hokkaido for 10 days last year. Didn't expect to go to Japan as I always planned on going to London again. I never get bored of England, I can go there every year and never get bored. I decided to go to Japan as I haven't been there for over 10 years. Last time I went I was 14 and I went with my parents. I chose Hokkaido over England was because of the food. I just love all kinds of Japanese food.

Hokkaido is in the northern part of Japan. I chose Hokkaido as the food is fresher than Tokyo. The seafood in Hokkaido is the best in Japan. I only went to the central part, western and southern part of Hokkaido. But I heard the northern and eastern part have better seafood. I will go back in a few years time. The northest part of Hokkaido, Wakkanai ( 稚內市) they have the freshest and best uni ( sea urchin) but for that city most of the shops only open during the summer months. most shops only operate during the months of April- September!!!

Even though I have 10 days 9 night in Hokkaido, it's still not enough. I wish I went for a full two weeks.

Day 1- Nov 18, 2012
I left Toronto on Nov 17 and it took me 18 hours to arrive at Sapporo. There is no direct flight to Sapporo so I had to change flights at Tokyo. With all the flying, flight delay at Tokyo and time zone difference, I didn't arrive at Sapporo until late at night. So one day wasted.

Day 2- Nov 19, 2012
This was a day dedicated to shopping. There is just so much stuff I want from Japan. With the limited suitcase space, I had a hard time choosing things to buy. Skincare products, I can find most of them easily in Toronto so I didn't buy much skincare products. I didn't buy any makeup products as I always ended up wasting them. I buy too much and never use them fast enough! The main items on my list were beauty gadgets. I picked up the Hitachi Hada Crie cm-n1000 cool and the MTG refa Carat. I also had my eyes on the Panasonic ion face steamer but there were too many kinds so I had problem choosing one. I'll leave that to my next trip to Asia.

Hitachi ion cleansing device!

comes in 100v power supply. Can use it in Canada without an adaptor 

MTG Refa Carat Vs MTF Refa Pro


Clothes I didn't buy much from Japan. The clothes are just um.. too Kawaii for my taste. they do have some lovely coats but none were made for Canadian winters. I only bought a cape/poncho and restock on pants from uniqlo.

Food was the main reason for going, so I tried my best to try out as many different restaurants as I can.
I love ramen or I should say I love soup noodles. It's my comfort food. So I chose to have ramen for my first actual meal in Japan.  As all shopping was done near the JR station, I chose to go to the Sapporo Ramen Kyowakoku 札幌ら~めん共和国トップ for lunch.  There were only 8 restaurants and I still had a hard time choosing. In the end I chose to try ひるがお for their shio ramen. 


Their famous Shio Ramen in chicken broth

Shio ramen with egg

Is their ramen that good? Compared to Toronto, it's better than a lot of places. But I find Sansotei's ramen better than this store. From the noodle texture to the broth, Sansotei taste better!

For Dinner, I stayed in the JR area. This time I chose Japanese BBQ.  Why don't we have it in Toronto? They have it in Vancouver and other American cities. All we have is korean BBQ which is something I hate. 

Gyukaku, they have it in a lot of north american cities but not Toronto. We don't even have anything similar. >_<

the meat for table cooking

veggie plate. All the veggie portions are relatively small. No wonder they have all kinds of veggie supplements.

beef tongue. 

Table cooking stove. The temperature is a lot hotter than Korean BBQ. 


After this meal, all I can say is the meat quality in Japan is so good. I never knew pork could taste so good!