Real Nature Mask Lemon from The Face Shop

"A brightening mask sheet containing fresh lemon extract with vitamin C to densely penetrate the skin and brighten dull skin tone while maintaining its translucence"

Surprisingly, this will be the first mask I've ever used in my lifetime, though probably not the last. This product is obviously a Korean product, as seen by all the Korean writing on the packaging. I bought this from The Face Shop in Megamall. The packaging has a description and instructions on the back, written in Korean in the top half and an English translation on the bottom half. The mask claims to contain 1000mg of fresh lemon extract. I've seen from other website that lemon extract or lemon juice is very effective in getting rid of dark spots and brightening the face.

So when I first take the mask out, it is folded into a little square. It is definitely soaked with the solution. I mean, this mask was drenched. The solution is very thick, reminds me a lot of syrup. Interestingly enough, the solution does not smell like lemon despite being made of lemon extract. I thought that was weird.The mask itself is very large, large enough to fit everyone I guess. They eye holes were very large. The hole for the nose was kind of weird. There was a flap of some sort but the flap was much bigger than my nose but the hole for the nose is pretty big. Since the mask was so large, there were quite a bit of flaps of overlap. Even the lip hole was very wide, but maybe I just have tiny lips.

The instructions said to keep the mask on for 15 - 20 minutes. Since the mask is so drenched with solution, I left it on until the mask became relatively dry. That took way longer than 20 minutes, more like 45 minutes. I didn't want to waste the mask which is why I did that. So the question is did the mask do what it is supposed to? I do think it brightened my face and with the amount of solution in the mask, it did penetrate my skin very well. I don't think it made my skin oily unlike I thought it would. I do think my skin looked better and brighter. Would it have had the same effect if I kept it on for only 20 minutes? I don't know. But keeping it on as long as I did, it definitely worked!

Soothing my Sushi Craving

One of my favorite foods that I don't think I will ever get sick of is sushi. Ahh if I could live a life on sushi and chocolate, that would be so wonderful. However, sushi is kind of expensive and not very friendly to my college student budget. Whenever I get to have sushi, it's always a treat because it means I didn't spend as much as I allotted for and I am able to spend on food much more than usual. So here are some of the sushi places that I have been to recently because I have just had a really bad sushi craving these past two months.

MoCA Asian Bistro
I go to this restaurant a lot when I'm at home. Not only is it the closest to my house, since it is actually inside my neighborhood, but it also is super freakin delicious. I always try to get my parents to bring me here when I have a craving for sushi. They are easy to convince because they love sushi too and luckily, so does my little brother. A lot of children nowadays don't seem to like sushi and raw fish so I think we lucked out on him. So yeah, this place has a nice ambiance. It's pretty small and doesn't get a lot of people except for the weekends. I always go during weekdays or the middle of the day so I don't encounter many people. They are pretty fairly priced and I always get their "Sushi and Sashimi for 2" or "Love Boat" (shown above) when I'm with someone. It's a pretty good deal for how much food they give you. Check out their store here!

Sumo San
This place is my favorite sushi place to go to when I'm at school. It's located in downtown Richmond and I'll admit, it might be a little sketchy for some people to handle. I remember when I took my parents there, they were giving me this look like "where the f*** are you taking us?" It's a tiny place and you have to park on the street. But gosh, this place is good. Not to mention, they have pretty awesome prices for their sushi. On Wednesdays, they even have a sushi happy hour where certain rolls are only $3 each! Now that's a great deal. Check out their site here!

I usually get their caterpillar roll (shown above) and it has great plating and presentation. Some other sushi shown above is the california roll, salmon roll, tuna roll, and eel roll. During the sushi happy hour, those three rolls are $3. The place is pretty cool with a whole art piece by the sushi bar made entirely of paper cranes. It even has this delicious dessert with some fried bananas and ice cream!

Kanpai Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar
So I've only been to this place just once and that was very recently. My roommate and I have been looking for alternatives to Sumo San because, although we love the place, it is just so far now from where we live. It was much easier when I lived on campus but now it's kind of a hassle to drive all the way down there. This is much closer to us, located by Short Pump. Now, this place looks pretty darn fancy. The outside looks like some Japanese building and the entrance is large wooden ornate double doors and just the whole environment is so fancy schmancy Japanese. However, don't be fooled. Their sushi prices are actually about the same as Sumo San's, which is very reasonable. They also offer hibachi and other things. They come with complementary soup for anything you order and this place is great for large groups. Check out their site here!

Other Places
Another place that I liked up in North Virginia is Hooked in Sterling. That place is pretty good. Some other sushi places I've tried in the Richmond area are Sticky Rice by Carytown, Carytown Sushi, Sakura by VCU, and Kenji. After all those, Sumo san is still my favorite. Sticky Rice is more hype I think since all the students seem to love it (but it is more accessible to them than other places). Carytown sushi was ok, not the best. Sakura was cheap but not the best either. Kenji is mostly a steakhouse and although they do advertise that they sell sushi, it's a very limited menu and it tastes just ok. A place I would love to try in the future would be Umi by Short Pump. They are kind of expensive though. Perhaps when my parents visit?

24 piece brush set

I have been looking for a brush set for forever. I just wanted a cheap starter brush set since I am just a beginner makeup user but most brush sets I cam across were expensive and I just did not want to dish out that much money for brushes that will barely get used. So, of course I looked for a set in Divisoria. Most places there were selling 24 piece sets for around 700 php or so. My aunt managed to haggle with this one store owner so that I was able to get my 24 piece brush set for only 500php while she got two 12 piece brush sets for 250php each.

It's quite nice that the set comes with a black carrying case that keeps everything together. I do like how everything is black. It definitely looks more expensive than it actually is. Because of that top flap, the brushes don't fall out when upside down except for that one big brush to the right that is not under the flap. That brush tends to fall out if held upside down. It looks leather but the bag is more of some leather plastic blend, I think. Anyway, it doesn't feel like real leather.

The brushes themselves are all black with black plastic bristles. The brushes say MAC on the side because they are MAC knockoffs. But believe me, you would never be fooled by these knockoffs. The bag is one indication of it being cheaply made. If you feel the brushes, they are definitely not as soft. The little details like how the bristles are attached to the brushes and you can see how things are glued together also give it away.

Being so cheap, the brushes do shed a lot at first. Though it didn't shed so much that I pretty much lost half the brush so I would say it did a moderate amount of shedding. Also, some of the brushes were not well glued together, as you can see above. Four brushes broken out of 24 is a pretty significant number. It was nothing serious though that my glue gun couldn't fix.

All in all, for the price I got this set for, I'm pretty content with the quality. It truly is hard to find anything cheaper. In Divisoria, there were some 32 piece sets being sold but they weren't as cheap as this set when you do the math of how much per brush. Plus, I didn't need 32 brushes anyway. So yes, though the quality isn't all that super great, the price can't be beat. Overall, I'm content with it.

FLEBEAUTE White Crystal Diamond Peeling

So I got this goodie as a freebie for buying a certain number or dollar amount of items at the Face Shop in Megamall. I'm not really sure what the promotion was exactly because my dad had bought it for me. Oh well. I just love getting freebies. I'm not sure I saw a big bottle of this being sold in the store though. But I wasn't really paying attention so there may have been one. I'm not sure.

So this product is an exfoliator that claims to have fine powders of diamond. I'm not sure if that's entirely true since this was a freebie and something with diamonds doesn't seem like something you would just give away. You can apply it to wet or dry skin but it seems that it is more gentle when you apply it to wet skin. The directions say to gently massage the product in a circular motion for about 1 minute. Then rinse thoroughly with tepid water.

For my routine, I try to use this on my face before I shower so that I can just rinse it off in the shower. The texture is quite odd. It almost feels like damp fine grains of sand and so imagine rubbing wet sand on your face until it dries. The product does come out a little liquidy but it dries really fast so I'm not exactly able to massage it for a full minute. I'm not sure where those little dust particles of diamond are but I'm not sure I feel it.

After first use, my face doesn't really feel any cleaner than it usually does after the shower. I was expecting better exfoliation from something that had the word "peeling". My face does not feel any drier than usual, which is something I would expect from something that exfoliates. I don't really think it did anything. After a bit of longer use, my face doesn't look any clearer than it usually does. Overall, I'm not sure this did anything. I'm not too disappointed. After all, it was free.

Etude House Oh m'Eye Line

I got really excited when I first saw an Etude House shop in Alabang Town Center because I have always heard such good things about the brand. I had left my liquid liner in the U.S. so I decided to go buy some liquid liner that day. I was, of course, very excited to see lots of Korean makeup and face product shops in the Philippines. This liner cost 198.00 Php.

I'm not sure why this product wasn't in a box or super sealed or anything. Kind of sketch in the part of the store. When I asked the lady at the shop if this eyeliner was waterproof or sweatproof, she said that it was not. I was disappointed by that but when I actually swatched the eyeliner on my hand, it was pretty darn resistant. I was rubbing it off and it was hard to get off, even with water. When I put it on, it was pretty resistant to sweat and I was sweating quite a lot in the Philippines.

So I was pretty skeptical at first about this eyeliner but it is now my new favorite. This eyeliner lasts for a long time and even when using my makeup remover. This is pretty hard to remove. In the above picture, I had been in a wedding. It was hot and sweaty that day and then it rained and it was kind of a long day but somehow, my makeup stayed on. I'm not sure if the eyeliner is tear proof but it did not come off during the event that my eyes did water a bit. So far, Etude House did not disappoint.

Kimchi Bambi Grey

I was eager to get these lenses because they looked so beautiful. I had a hard time choosing between this one and the Princess Mimi Sesame Grey because they looked so similar. Well, since it was Christmas time and Uniqso was having such a good deal, I decided to get both. Then I can see for myself which one I liked better. Another lens kind of similar to this is Dolly Eye (EOS) Cookie Grey. The price per piece was $10.90, making a pair cost $21.80. The brand Kimchi is also known as SUNnBON or Vassen apparently. I had never heard of them before so I was a little apprehensive of getting these lenses at first but I decided I might as well try the brand.

Color&Design
Oh my gosh, these lenses are so pretty. I was a bit skeptical at first because the color looked so sheer in the vial and I didn't think it would show up nicely on dark eyes. I was wrong. These show up wonderfully on dark eyes and are definitely eye catching. I've had a lot more people compliment me about these lenses in public compared to my Princess Mimi sesame grey because they really do beg to be noticed. When I was thinking of purchasing these lenses, a lot of people told me that the golden brown part in the middle is a lot brighter and more noticeable than the princess mimi. I thought it would overpower the grey but it doesn't. Both colors are very noticeable. The top picture is in the daylight without flash while the bottom picture is with flash.

Enlargement
It is listed to be 16mm but I don't really believe that any lenses are 16mm. When I try to look up these lenses, I usually come across Vassen Bambi Queen Grey, which may or may not be the same thing but they do look the same in the pictures. Those lenses are listed as 14.5mm. The bottom picture is comparing the lens to GEO princess mimi sesame grey, which is 15mm. I do believe the two are the same diameter.

Comfort
These lenses are very comfortable. I can wear them all day without trouble at all. They have a much higher water content (55%) than most lenses I've tried. I've been told that these higher water contents are better for those with dryer eyes. I don't have dry eyes so I don't see much of a difference in the comfort than my other lenses. However, the golden rule of comfort for me is that if you can't feel them, then they are working correctly. I think if you can feel your lenses, there might be something wrong.

In my opinion, these lenses offer the best combination of vibrant color and enlargement. All lenses are usually comfortable for me but in many cases, vibrant color is sacrificed for enlargement and the most enlarging lenses usually don't have vibrant designs and colors. These are the most enlarging vibrant lenses I have tried and might just be my new favorite.