beauty review

Mani Monday: Orly Green with Envy

lifeintheme beauty, Holidays, Mani Monday, Movies, nail polish Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Happy Pi Day, everyone! Did you eat any yummy pies? I had both grasshopper pie (mint chocolate chip) and razzleberry pie (mixed berry). Mmm…  😛 

Anyway, since both Easter and St. Patrick’s day coming up, I decided to do a pastel mani with a green base. The green color here is Orly Green with Envy. I thought it would be a creamy pastel, but it is actually a weird sheer green. It took four coats to get this opacity. I do not recommend this color not only because of its sheerness but also because of its short wear time. I dotted two other Orly colors onto my nails, Lollipop & Snowcone (lavendar and sky blue, respectively). They have an even worse wear time than Green with Envy, so I don’t recommend them either. I have tried them with both the Orly bonder base and an OPI base. There was no difference in wear time when I used the same brand’s basecoat with these polishes. It could just be the pastels though. These are the only Orly polishes I have ever tried. I also used two Colorstay polishes from Revlon. These polishes have a decent wear time for drugstore nail lacquer, but the brushes on all of the Colorstay polishes are cut unevenly (including ones I did not picture in this post). This makes creating a nice manicure nearly impossible. The colors I used are Provence & Coastal Surf (gray-lavendar and french blue). Have you ever tried these brands? Did you get the same results I did?

 

From L-R: Lollipop, Provence, Green with Envy, Coastal Surf, Snowcone

Well, I have some news for people who refuse to love math and celebrate Pi Day. Today is also White Day! No, white day is not a day where we celebrate white people. It is a holiday made up by confectioners in Asia to sell more candy. No, seriously, it is. I don’t know which countries celebrate it other than Korea and Japan. However, both countries make the girls give the boys they like candy on Valentine’s Day. A month later on White Day, the boys respond in turn. We don’t usually celebrate White Day at our house, but we decided to try it this year. My husband surprised me by taking the day off to do fun things with me all day! So far I have gotten two bouquets of flowers, seen a movie, gone shopping, and eaten pie. Pretty good day, right? What have you been up to today? Let me know in the comments!

Danahan Anti-wrinkle Set Review

lifeintheme beauty, Korean Beauty, Skincare, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

I am always excited when friends come to visit me. I like to take them to Koreatown to eat desserts and shop Korean beauty products. One of my friends gifted me this nice sample she received while we were at a beauty shop, and I promptly forgot about it until I ran out of moisturizer while I was sick. I really didn’t feel like running over to Ulta when just cooking dinner exhausted me. I rummaged through my beauty drawers (ok, a plastic storage unit) and found these beauties. 

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This set of emulsion and skin toner is from Danahan’s Anti-wrinkle line. I wasn’t too impressed with it until we ran out of Kleenex. My husband and I were both too tired to go to the store (we didn’t leave the house much), so we used toilet paper to blow our noses for about a day and a half. I usually buy Charmin ultra soft, but my husband had recently bought Charmin ultra strong. Do not blow your nose with Charmin ultra strong. Before I could get to the store, I had developed what looked like a big red callous underneath my nose. It was like a speed bump underneath my nostrils.

Unfortunately, we had an engagement right after the Charmin ultra strong incident. I moisturized as usual. While combing my hair, I noticed that the redness and swelling underneath my schnoz had gone down. I’m pretty sure it was because of these two babies. 

I’ve been using these samples for exactly a month now, and there is still a teeny bit left in them. I think my wrinkles look slightly better, but you must take this observation with a grain of salt since I’m barely out of my twenties. I also use this in conjunction with Estee Lauder Perfectionist [CP+R], although I haven’t been using it on the regular while I’ve been under the weather. I will review Perfectionist another time though. It is an interesting product with many pros and cons for me. 

Anyway, I give Danahan’s Anti-wrinkle line a big thumbs-up as a mild moisturizer. The skin toner* absorbs quickly, and the emulsion is lightly moisturizing. If you have dry skin, then you will need a heavier moisturizer. Also, if you have sensitive skin, you may not like the faint floral scent. However, if you need a redness or puffiness reducer, this set is your friend. 

*Note for K-beauty newbs: Korean toner is not an astringent like American toners. It is not used for closing your pores. Instead it is used to correct your skin’s pH level after you use a cleanser because many cleansers are alkaline.

Have any of you tried Danahan yet? Let me know in the comments.