Archives for March 2018

Cushion Foundation Week 3 Day 2 : Clarins Everlasting Cushion Foundation SPF50 PA+++ is impressive for a Western brand cushion

March 27, 2018 Paris B 2 Comments

Day 2 of the Cushion Foundation Week 3! If you missed the earlier featured cushions, find them all here.

This week, the cushions are a mixed bag, featuring a Japanese brand, a couple of Western brands, and featuring some Korean brands too. The categories will be kept as per previous posts, so you can refer back to them all and it’ll look fairly familiar. The difference will be in the products featured. Also, I will do a round up at the end of the week, just to give closure to this week.

Cushion Foundation Week 3 Day 2 features one of the newest brands to the cushion foundation game – French brand, Clarins. Honestly, yes I was surprised they went there, although not too surprised. It is a growing trend that doesn’t seem to be dying, and it pays to jump on board and strike while the iron is hot!

I will say this. I had experience with Clarins foundations back when they were first around, and I found them quite good. I had tried their Everlasting Foundation in particular, which is a longlasting foundation. Considering that this is the Clarins Everlasting Cushion Foundation, my guess is that it is part of this family.

Cushion Foundation Week 3 Day 1 : Shiseido Synchro Skin Glow Cushion Compact blows away its competition!

March 26, 2018 Paris B 28 Comments

Last week on Instagram, I told you I was prepping something huge for this week. Well, here it is – Cushion Foundation Week 3! Honestly, I can’t believe I’m doing this again LOL! I undertook Cushion Foundation Week 1 and I did the K-Beauty edition in Cushion Foundation Week 2 back in 2016 and honestly, I thought I was done.

However, since then, a few new cushion foundations have found their way onto my desk. So, I decided it was best to just deal with them all together. So you get Cushion Foundation Week 3! Brace yourselves for a whole WEEK of blog posts, and all about cushion foundations! Yay! Or maybe Nay! LOL! To catch up, find all the cushion foundation reviews here and look out for the round up at the end of the week!

Today is Day 1 of Cushion Foundation Week 3. This week, the cushions are a mixed bag, featuring a Japanese brand, a couple of Western brands, and featuring some Korean brands too. The categories will be kept as per previous posts, so you can refer back to them all and it’ll look fairly familiar. The difference will be in the products featured. Also, I will do a round up at the end of the week, just to give closure to this week.

Alright then, here we go!

Cushion Foundation Week 3 kicks off with the Shiseido Synchro Skin Glow Cushion Compact. This was launched back in 2016 I believe, but I received it only fairly recently. Do correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see many Japanese brands on the cushion foundation bandwagon. (I discount Shu Uemura as a Japanese brand because their direction isn’t very Japanese – but that’s just my impression. That said, I did try their first “cushion“)

Well, blow me down. I’m IN LOVE with this Shiseido Synchro Skin Glow Cushion Compact! Seriously, I am! Well, you would too, if what you’re looking for is coverage, because boy! Do you get some serious coverage with this one! 😀

Genaissance de La Mer Infused Lotion – a hydrating Treatment Lotion but on steroids

March 23, 2018 Paris B 12 Comments

Some of you may remember that one of my favourite hydration lotions is the luxury branded La Mer The Treatment Lotion. I still enjoy using it, and a few people who have tried it on my recommendation have reported good results with it too. It always makes me happy to know that a product I love is also enjoyed by others, and last year, it was my pick for my MWS10 Anniversary basket.

But if the price tag of that lotion made you balk, best look away now, because the Genaissance de La Mer Infused Lotion is like The Treatment Lotion, but on steroids! And that includes its price tag.

La Mer first launched its Genaissance de la mer range about 2 years ago. It started out with just the Genaissance Serum Essence. I had a bit of a slow start with it. I didn’t quite think very much of it until very recently, when I found that using the Genaissance Serum with Sunday Riley Luna oil gave me the most amazing skin – soft, smooth, and all-round good skin. People said I was crazy. I thought so too LOL! 😀 The reason is because if you thought La Mer was expensive, Genaissance sees you expensive, and raises you. We are in the realm of super-luxury here. This is not a range of skincare products that you will just pop out to buy on a whim. It must be a calculated purchase.

By way of refresher, the Genaissance de La Mer range uses Crystal Miracle Broth™, an essence obtained from the discovery of pure crystals forming in La Mer’s trademark Miracle Broth formula. It also contains the Genaissance Ferment, which is said to be a pure concentration of the Miracle Broth made by using a fermentation built around the Pom Pom Red Algae and combined with wavelengths of natural light.

In late 2017, they expanded the Genaissance range with The Infused Lotion and the Eye and Expression Cream. I love the packaging of the latter (the magnetic metal eye massaging tool is genius!), but the product itself doesn’t wow me. But much to my surprise, I fell head over heels for the Genaissance de La Mer Infused Lotion.

Reading Ingredient Lists – Sometimes a little knowledge isn’t always a good thing

March 21, 2018 Paris B 21 Comments

One good thing that has come out of the recent awareness of using proper skincare, is the importance of the ingredient list. At one time, it was nigh impossible to find the ingredient list of any product online, unless you buy it, and get it off the packaging. Today, most websites will list their ingredients, or if not, one of their retailers will. That said, today, there are still brands (I came across a local one during a product launch) that do not print their ingredient list on the box. Needless to say, I will not use their products for the simple reason, I won’t trust a brand that isn’t up front about what’s in their products. I’m not even sure that it’s legal.

Consumers are becoming more savvy and educated, and retailers are recognising this. To me, this is a good thing. It is always good for us to know what is in a product before we buy it. Perhaps you are aware of an ingredient that your skin is sensitive to. You will want to avoid it, and knowing that it is in a particular product helps you decide whether to purchase it.

It is very much like reading the ingredient lists of packaged food and drinks. What is in there can be educational. A 100% fruit juice carton sounds like it could be freshly squeezed juice, until you look at the ingredient list and realize that it’s made from concentrate and enhanced with flavouring. It isn’t technically wrong, but it can be misleading. Or perhaps, a sugar-free product makes you think it’s healthier, but it contains sugar substitutes like aspartame. In skincare, we will usually see words used like “Dermatologically tested” or “Hypoallerganic” What do they mean? Very little, to be honest. It all lies in what’s in the ingredient list.

Ingredient lists help us make a more informed choice. So how is it I’m saying that it could be a bad thing?

Archives for March 2018

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