CC Cream

The IT Cosmetics CC Cream lives up to its promise of making it look like your skin but better

March 2, 2017 Paris B 21 Comments

I’d been teasing you with pictures of the IT Cosmetics CC Cream for quite a while now, and when I identified it as one of my ‘ang pow saver’ picks, someone actually said “A CC Cream? That’s a surprise coming from you!” And you know what? She was absolutely right!

Anyone who’s read my blog long enough would feel the same way as this reader did. I used to be quite outspoken against BB and CC creams, the alphabet creams, I called them. To be fair, the ones I started out using sucked for me. I never liked them (they were Korean hence my prejudice against Korean base makeup despite their improvements since) and they were just so bloody gimmicky, claiming to be moisturiser, sunscreen, primer, foundation and everything else you could think of. Bleh.

While I’ve since made my peace with BB Creams, I never understood CC Creams. I suppose I tried too hard to understand them, when I should have just treated them all as makeup! It’d be much easier getting my head around them then 😛

So, enter IT Cosmetics CC Cream, the one that promises to be your skin but better. I’d come across so many raves online from the time it was launched, but it’s actually hard to get IT Cosmetics online (before it was available). It wasn’t until a friend visited the USA that I managed to get my hands on it from Ulta. Not long after that, it was brought in by Sephora. <insert rolling eyes emoji> Such is Murphy’s law 😛

But you know what? In this instance, I’m in full agreement with the hype over this product. Yes, ladies and gents, the hype is real! 🙂

8 beauty products you may want to save your Lunar New Year ‘ang pow’ money for

January 27, 2017 Paris B 18 Comments

The Chinese Lunar New Year festivities are upon us once again, with the Rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing its way in this year. It’s quite early this time around, coming hot on the heels of a brand new year and the year end festivities that ensued. I’m not even sure most of us (and our wallets) have recovered yet!

It is during the Chinese New Year that, as kids, we stood to make a little money LOL It’s tradition to give out lucky red packets (or what we call ‘ang pow’ or in Mandarin ‘hong bao’) with cash it in, for good luck. Chinese, luck, prosperity and money always go hand in hand LOL!

While most of us will be on the giving end, as opposed to the receiving end by now, I nevertheless thought I’d share with you 8 things you could spend your ang pow money on. Not all on once, naturally, but if you’re looking for a little treat to kick off the year, or to welcome in the Year of the Fire Rooster (or what I’d call Roast Chicken Year LOL! 😀 ) here are some personal favourites.

Some are new and coming soon, I got them as a preview, and some I’ve had a while, but are now available here. So, just quickly (because I don’t want to take you away from family time – or perhaps you relish this little time away eh? 😉 ) here are the 8 items I picked. Chinese like the number 8 ok – it’s lucky LOL! 😀

Do I need a separate sunscreen or can I just use cushion foundation?

August 2, 2016 Paris B 26 Comments

You know what? You will not believe the number of times I’m asked this very question. Do I need a separate sunscreen or sunblock if my cushion foundation or foundation is already SPF50? Goodness peeps, please don’t fall for the damn makeup-as-skincare hype!

As much as I risk repeating myself, having written about this about 3 years ago (I foresaw problems LOL!) I thought a refresher course was in order.

Also, I recently did a little experiment (reluctantly) where for some reason, I ended up not carrying my usual skincare arsenal with me. I had some random bits and bobs of cleanser and moisturiser on hand but when I dug around desperately the next morning for sunscreen, I had none. No sunscreen! HORRORS!

I’m afraid to say that toiletries pouches aren’t a Mary Poppins magic bag of tricks 🙁 No matter how hard I rooted, I couldn’t unearth any sunscreen! I was very reluctant to head out anywhere without any sun protection so I did the next best thing – I used cushion foundation which had SPF50. How did that work?

Paris Picks! The CC Cream Edition – 3 CC Creams I’ve been using recently

October 20, 2014 Paris B 22 Comments

You know, it took me a long while to warm up to BB Creams and it wasn’t until I eventually found some that actually worked for me that I actually warmed up to the idea of using them. By that time, CC Creams had come on the scene and I had a headdesk moment. I was going to have to re-learn the whole notion of alphabet creams again!

CC Creams, or Colour Correcting creams claimed to be an improvement on BB Creams. They boasted a lighter texture, and colour correcting pigments instead of mere tint. If you ask me however, barring some truly colour correcting creams that are basically primers to correct sallowness or redness in skintone, there is very little to distinguish BB or CC Creams. So you know what? Don’t bother. Just use whatever you like, whatever it may be called. Even if it be a GG (Glamorously Gorgeous) Cream which isn’t yet invented but which just might be 😛 Remember however, it is first and foremost a makeup item, not skincare so please clean it off accordingly and please do not attempt to sleep in it.

But because everyone loves labels, I thought I’d share with you 3 CC Creams I’ve tried that I actually like and use pretty often. It might surprise you that a popular CC Cream that was said to have started the whole trend isn’t here in my list, but you know, that’s life 🙂 I just found myself preferring these. So let me quickly share them with you because I’ve never reviewed them individually before this and I’ve got a tip for making these CC Creams work better for me! 😀

CC Cream

The fun and previews happen on Instagram @parisbmws