Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash

Hi Guys! I'm sorry for the long break ( I do tend to do this a lot don't I). I've had some old friends just come back so doing plenty of entertaining... and catching up on sleep. Boy am I tired out, I don't even feel like 23 anymore. 

Because I didn't have time to take photos, I've decided to review something that does not require pictures of my bigass face. That is the Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash! Prior to this, I was using the Biore Marshmallow Whip Face Wash due to the influence of many bloggers in Singapore (damn...too naive...sucker..., will probably do a review soon on that), and it was just... meh. Wasn't doing much for me. 

Back in Sweden I used Neutrogena face wash, scrub and mask (because it was the cheapest) and I really liked the range. So I decided to get this Acne line here in Singapore. I think it was just over SGD$10, pretty decent imo, cheaper than the Biore rubbish anyway. 

The bottle comes with a pump which I like over squeezing stuff out of bottles. It seems to be a generic pump however, and not designed specifically for usage of this face wash because one pump of face wash is wayyyyyy too much to wash just your face. So be cautioned. 

The texture of the liquid is between a gel and a liquid, almost like the Bodyshop shower gels. Anyway, the texture is nothing special.

Upon cleansing, I find that this removes plenty. It removes make up quite thoroughly, though I still would suggest using a separate make up remover as I've seen the horrors of what improper cleansing can do. Also, it contains 2% salicylic acid to treat acne. Even though it's 2%, it's only a face wash so that probably won't do much for severe acne. What I find it does is that every time I use this wash, I find the dry skin on my healing acne coming off, so it performs well as a mild exfoliater. 

What I like to do during my shower is to use this as a form of a mask. Technically it's too liquid to do that but before I shampoo and soap, I like to put some of this on my face first to let the salicylic acid do more work. Then after shampooing and soaping, if most of it is on my face, I'll just lather it up and rinse everything off.

After cleansing my face feels soft and not tight or dry as when I used the Biore wash. It also feels extremely clean. 

I have dry skin but oily skin on my cheeks. I don't really know how to describe it, but when it's dry, I am able to see my pores, and my pores seem to have some form of clog, or it might just be a hair follicle. Beats me. But when I moisturize well enough, these pores disappear. So I honestly do not know whether those things are good or bad. But! After about using this wash for a week, those pores seem to be less drastic. So maybe the clogs are being exfoliated by this cleanser? You be the judge!

I have nothing bad to say about this cleanser, except that people without acne may not like it. If you have dry skin, then please, do not be kiasu (greedy?) and try this, it will do more harm than good. My review is from the point of view of someone with oily and dry skin with current acne and acne scarring, so please do take that into account! 

Summary:

Pros:

- inexpensive

- has a pump

- 2% salicylic acid that helps with mild exfoliation

- removes makeup and dirt very thoroughly

- seems to lessen clogged pores 

- face feels clean yet not tight and dry after washing

Cons:

- pump is generic pump; one pump is too much cleanser

- only for people with acne prone skin, may be too harsh on normal skin

Majolica Majorca Lash King Mascara Review

I have recently been into this whole smokey eye only with eyeliner thing. My sister tells me it makes my eyes so big it's scary, but I'm kinda lovin' it. But with that look, it makes my eyelashes look non existent, and I'm not the type of person who would spend the time to put on false eyelashes everyday. I also really hate mascara that makes my lashes clump, and essentially look like I have mascara on. Yes, I'm hard to please.

I think though, that the Majolica Majorca Lash King mascara is pretty damn close to what I am looking for. 

It retails for about S$25.90 at Watsons, I got it at 30% off during one of the sales, so for $18 bucks it really is worth it. 

I have to put a disclaimer here saying that I know nuts about mascaras. I am not a mascara fiend because I'm actually quite lazy to put on mascara in the day. Therefore, I have not given myself the opportunity to try many mascaras (thank goodness if not I'll be spending even more money). I have tried the older mascara from MM with a comb instead of brush though.

First up. WHAT TACKY PACKAGING. I absolutely hate the fake gold/metal cover. For goodness sake, plastic is not whimsical in any way. At least use a spray painted metallic paint to make it look like proper metal, not some cheapo plastic. At least that way, it'll feel a little bit more expensive. Owell, on the plus side, tacky plastic does not flake I guess. 

That aside, I guess it looks quite good from afar so make sure that you're standing in a deserted corner of the toilet if applying mascara in a public toilet. 

This mascara is a fiber based mascara, unlike its older counterpart ( or at least the one I tried, can't remember its name anymore). It looks quite scary when the wand is drawn out of the tube because the fibers look so long. I was very afraid that it would fall into my eye when I was applying, but it applied very easily. Also I had my doubts about the fibers looking sleek on the lashes when applied because they're so damn long, but I was pleasantly surprised at how natural this applied.

The brush works great in separating the lashes, unlike the comb mascara which i found actually caused my lashes to stick together cos the formula was kinda sticky. This formula is way drier so no sticking there! Also, this differs from the comb formula in that it's not a glossy formula. So lashes don't look as black and shiny, but more fluffy and real.

I really think that this picture does all the talking. I believe that this mascara is promoted to add volume to the lashes, but I find that length is really its strong point. This works decent at volume, but unless you're into the super clumped up look, this will not work. This really makes lashes look like lashes, but better.

I was honestly shocked at how this mascara did not leave those unsightly clumps on the lashes that have to be combed out later with another comb. I really loved it. Then I stupidly went to add another coat. NO. THIS MASCARA ONLY WORKS WITH ONE COAT. ONE. 2 coats spoil anything. This mascara teaches you not to be greedy. 2 coats will cause the brush to get stuck when combing through the lashes, and cause clumps EVERYWHERE. You have been warned. ONE.

I don't usually curl all my lashes, but I do sometimes curl my outer lashes because I like the lift. I found that this mascara does not hold the outer curl very well, though they don't straighten out.

Absolutely waterproof, though I found that when I laugh a lot or blink too hard, I do get slight smudging under the eye at midday. Pretty negligible in my opinion. It really lasts at least 12 hours, and even then, quite a chore to get off if you use a water-based remover. That's the price to pay for something that's so permanent. I have taken a bath with this mascara on and it looked exactly the same. No streaks then, so I gather the transfer is more from rubbing than tears.

It really is a winner if you, like me, are a fan of natural looking lashes. It also helps to save time because you know there's no way in hell you can put on a 2nd layer. ^_^V


Summary:


Pros:

• Super natural looking formula
• Lengthens like crazy with just one layer
• Decent volumizing properties
• Waterproof
• Lasts forever

Cons:

• Transfer to under eye slightly
• Does not hold curl very well
• Cannot put more than one coat
• Hard to remove

Kate BB Gel Cream

Good weekend everybutty!

It's been 2 weeks of working for me and weekends are so precious now. Also, weekends are the only time that I can take photos because there's no other time I'm home when there's sunlight. Makes me wish I had times when summer days stretched till 10pm. Here we have summer heat, worse than summer humidity, and only limited summer sunlight. Bah. 

Anyway, now that I have to wear makeup for such long hours (8am when I start putting it on till at least 9pm when I get home, or longer if I have dinner with friends), I started to feel uncomfortable with using full coverage foundations, and so have been on the look out for something more lightweight with coverage. Yes it's never possible to satisfy a girl. The aim is to have nothing on the skin and still look absolutely perfect, but I'm not perfect. Bopian (no choice)....

So just the the other day, I managed to convince the boy to stand by the Cure station to play with the gel and rub dead skin off while I browsed Watsons, and got the Kate BB Gel Cream on sale. It was S$25.90 originally, but I got it at 30% off! Worth it! I haven't even used it a full week yet, but I was so excited from the moment I tried it I had to blog about this first. 

So this picture has my part of my muji make up storage system included in it. I just wanted to share it because this was a gift from the boy for my birthday 2 months ago. It means so much to me because most guys would not want to encourage anything to do with make up (in my case it was more of a GET ORGANIZED). It works like a dream and I have no desire to get it messy ever just cos it looks so good. So this picture is just to share and say THANK YOU!

So this is how the Kate BB Gel Cream is packaged. It's a matte black squeeze tube which is honestly, quite ugly. Especially with the BB gel cream printed so large. But being matte, it doesn't attract fingerprints which is a plus point. 

Looks deceivingly small, though larger than the Aqualabel foundation. It holds 30g of product, which is actually even more than what you get for a bottle of MAC foundation. Props for value for quantity!

I really love squeeze tubes because it's so much easier to control the quantity of product that comes out as compared to a pour bottle or even a pump. 

This BB Cream gel supposedly has "the function of a beauty serum, moisturizer, sunscreen, makeup base and sheer foundation. It contains "double effect mineral powder" to protect the skin and cover visible pores, while the blend of olive, jojoba and sweet oil oils moisturize the skin. It also has light-diffusing pigments that reflect away imperfections, even skin tone and add lustre to skin"

That's up to you to believe. I obviously don't, but I believe the part about sunscreen. This has spf30! I still put normal sunblock before this, but 30 is technically quite decent enough to skip that. On lazy days perhaps...

It also boasts being alcohol and fragrance free, which is a plus point for those with sensitive skin.

credits: http://karlasugar.net/2009/07/mac-studio-sculpt-foundation/

On to the BB gel itself. What I love the most about this BB gel is that IT HAS SHADES TO CHOOSE FROM. Most BB creams come in a disgusting ashy grey that is supposed to magically suit any skin tone. BULLSHIT for darker girls. At the display, I saw at least 4 different shades for this. There were 3 in the OC range, with OC-D being the darkest. It says 3 on my tube though, contrary to the stand where it said OC-D. There was also one from the beige range if I'm not wrong. 

OC-D as you can see, is almost almost an exact match for mac NC30. It is only a slight tinge lighter. It works for my face because unlike the studio fix, it is not orange on my face, and also sheers out more than the studio fix. 

The texture of this cream is more cream than liquid. If I had a blob of this on my hand and turned my hand over it would not slide. Despite it being so thick, it is easy enough to blend into the skin. It also covers up pores (true to its description hooray!), and doesn't crease into any fine lines on the face like my laugh lines. Unfortunately, it still gathers into my under eye wrinkle line (no idea what to call it) but there hasn't been a product that doesn't do that.

One thing that bugs me though is that I seem to have to use such a lot of product, probably double that I use of normal foundation. It seems to get absorbed into the skin or something like that. Though it doesn't feel like I have much on my face, which I guess is a good thing.

The finish of this BB Gel Cream is... matte. I don't fancy matte finishes too much, so I've been using it mixed with the Ginvera Green Tea BB cream for a little bit of a dewy look, or an illuminator. In the photos I've used it on its own, and I've decided it's really quite a nice matte finish. 

The coverage of this is probably the best of any BB cream I've used. People say that the skin79 one is awesome, THIS one is even better, plus with a colour choice! Only my serious blemishes could not be covered up with just this BB cream as you can see. It works well as a thin layer, also works well layered for more coverage, it's really really just awesome. (Btw, pardon the eyebags and center parted awkward hair, I'm still trying to settle into the working routine)

Lasting power is good. I've seen some reviews that say this lasts 5-6+ hours. Honestly, if you're not one to fuss over tiny imperfections peeking through at the end of the day, this will be good enough. It controls oil to the extent that I don't have to blot till around 5pm. Yet, despite its matte finish and oil control, it doesn't leave my face flaky nor feeling dry at the end of the day. In fact, I actually find my skin feeling very soft at work.

I'm going to be using this for a long long long time.


Summary:

Pros:

• value for money
• alcohol and fragrance free
• spf 30
• colour choices up to nc30-35
• fantastic coverage
• creamy and easy to blend
• covers up pores 
• doesn't settle into fine lines
• good oil control yet does not dry out face
• lasts pretty damn long

Cons:

• matte finish (but I guess there are quite alot of people who consider this a pro)
• seems to disappear on the skin, hence I have to use so much each time