St. Ive's Green Tea (Naturally Clear) Cleanser and (Blemish Control) Scrub: Review

There's only 3 days left to join my ongoing giveaway! I will be giving away a hair dye from the Japanese brand called Dariya Palty in the shade Milk Tea Brown, which happens to be one of the popular shades they have. It is open internationally so everyone is encouraged to join. :) (You will probably see this introduction in most of my future posts up until the giveaway is over. I hope you don't mind the post by post plug. ^^)

Hi everyone! Once again, I missed a post yesterday. This is due to the fact that we've been out of electricity for more than 12 hours yesterday. From 3AM to approximately 8PM, we had no electricity, no internet, not even water! There was a typhoon that hit the Philippines and the strong winds caused damages that took quite a while to fix. By the time the electricity was restored, I was in no mood to write a review up. But I feel all hyped now so I'm writing one now.

One of the products I've tried to get rid of my acne is this duo from St. Ive's. It's from their Green Tea variant which is formulated for acne prone skin. It claims to clear breakouts and reduce redness. It contains salicylic acid and green tea, ingredients that are known to help battle acne.

Honestly, I've had high expectations of this product because before buying one, I read a lot of good reviews regarding it. A few beauty gurus I follow also include this in their skin care routine so there was really no hesitation on my part when I decided to get these from the Watsons shelf.

My sister was particularly happy with the purchase as she was very fond of its 'green tea' smell. I personally don't think it smells exactly like green tea. It's definitely more fragrant but with a green tea (or leafy) aroma. Anyway, I got both the cleanser and the scrub because my sister pushed me to buy both.

Unfortunately, neither of the two proved to clear my breakouts and reduce redness. It didn't do anything much on that area but it does cleanse and scrub well. It didn't break me out either.

I use the cleanser as an everyday face wash and the green tea scrub twice a week for gentle exfoliation. There was really nothing different about the cleanser. It lathered really well and came in a really nice pump packaging.

The srub, however, I found to be quite nice. The beads were very fine, giving me a more subtle approach whenever I scrub my face with it. It doesn't feel as abrasive as other scrubs I've used and proves to deeply cleanse my face.

Although it didn't do much with breakout control, the duo still proves to be nice products, especially if you don't have that much of a problematic skin to begin with. The smell is nice and performs well as a gentle face wash and scrub. I got both from Watsons in SM Sta. Rosa. The cleanser was priced at PHP 224 and the scrub was priced at PHP 187.

I wouldn't recommend it to people with moderate to severe acne. But for those with just mild conditions, I think this product would suffice.

Have you tried this product before? What are your thoughts?

Tony Moly Kiss Kiss Lip Scrub: Review

There's only 6 days left to join my ongoing giveaway! I will be giving away a hair dye from the Japanese brand called Dariya Palty in the shade Milk Tea Brown, which happens to be one of the popular shades they have. It is open internationally so everyone is encouraged to join. :) (You will probably see this introduction in most of my future posts up until the giveaway is over. I hope you don't mind the post by post plug. ^^)

Talking about lip care is so rare for me. Honestly, my lips aren't really high maintenance. For the past 24 years of my life, my lips have been very good to me. They're almost always well moisturized and needed nothing but a good lip balm to keep its state. There are days, however, when my lips just go a little bit rebellious and become dry and flaky. It's most apparent during summer season whenever I forget to hydrate myself well enough. But rainy season isn't an exception either. Occasionally, I would experience this dilemma and find that my regular lip balm isn't enough. In times like this, I turn to use my Tony Moly Kiss Kiss Lip Scrub.

This PHP348 of goodness comes in a very cute lip shape plastic packaging. I don't know about you but I am really fond of its shape. To add things on top of that, the packaging is in a nice coral pink shade which I absolutely adore! That is why when me and my sister came across this product in SM Mall of Asia Watsons, we didn't hesitate to buy it.

This was originally intended for my sister who was suffering from extreme lip dryness due to the use of an acne medication that rendered her skin dehydrated all over, including lips! Her lips, back then, were flaky and wounded, with cuts in between because of the said dryness. She was really having a hard time then and we decided to take action. We wanted to buy a product that would be gentle enough to exfoliate the lips while leaving it well moisturized to keep it from further cracking.

 A lid to protect the product from contamination is present.

This particular product has vegetable grain scrub that makes it an effective product for peeling. This helps remove the dry flakes on the lips and leave it smooth. It also has honey to nourish the skin and leave it moisturized. After using it once, my sister was in love with the product. Because her lip condition was very bad during that time, it took her a couple of usage before her lips dramatically improved. Nevertheless, she was very impressed with the product.

Shortly after that, I also experienced the same problem, only my condition wasn't as bad as my sister. I noticed that my lips were cracking a bit and no amount of lip balm was helping with the case. This pushed me to try the same product. At first, I was really pleased with the scent as it had a cherry-like smell that I really like but after all the process of lip scrubbing, I found myself totally in love with the whole product itself as it left my lips (almost) perfectly soft and smooth with just one use!

Honestly, this is the first lip scrub I have ever tried and I have never tried another brand of lip scrub again. I would highly recommend this product for those of you who wants to give your lips some love.

For more details on the product, you can visit Tony Moly Philippine's website or facebook page. You can also follow them in twitter. This is not a sponsored post. I bought this product with my own money.

Clinique 7 Day Scrub Cream (Rinse-Off Formula): Review

Before I go on with the formal content of this post, I would like to invite everyone to join my ongoing giveaway. I will be giving away a hair dye from the Japanese brand called Dariya Palty in the shade Milk Tea Brown, which happens to be one of the popular shades they have. It is open internationally so everyone is encouraged to join. :) (You will probably see this introduction in most of my future posts up until the giveaway is over. I hope you don't mind the post by post plug. ^^)

Can anyone guess who the handsome guy in the background is?

Clue: ******* (Winner gets bragging rights, of course. Comment down below if you know the answer!)

What happens when dead cells build up on our skin? That is the question. Sadly, not everyone is aware of the answer to that. For people who took time and effort to search and 'study', they know the horror that follows after such event.

A little over three years ago, I had no interest in beauty related things. Surely, I use products that are advertised to cater to my acne prone skin but I never really understood the science behind them. During that time, I didn't even know the importance of facial scrubs. I initially thought facial scrubs are just the same as face wash, only more intensive as it scrubs away deep seated dirt. I was really unaware why other people had to use them. I know the reason is not complicated but I was young and (that) oblivious. Thankfully, I grew to love beauty related things so now I know more about different beauty products like makeup and skin care.

To simply answer the question above, I will use this particular paragraph. It won't take long as the answer won't even exceed three sentences so allow me to take a few seconds of your time. When dead cells build up, it clogs your pores and causes oil (and dirt) accumulation beneath it. When this happens, normal face wash cannot remove the impurities fully. This, then, causes the formation of what we call pimples and blackheads. And that, is the very reason why we need to use scrubs.

With the use of facial scrubs, one is able to remove the unneeded (dead) skin cells by sloughing it off through friction. Do take note, however, that anything too much is not good. So one must be cautious in choosing a face scrub. I like to choose ones that have enough beads to get the job done and remain not abrasive and harmful to the skin. I've tried a couple of scrubs like these before but so far, the best would have to be Clinique's.

This rinse-off 7 day scrub cream from Clinique is the perfect product for my acne prone sensitive skin. It functions well as my skin feels nice and clean after its use. It isn't harsh on the skin and in fact, makes my skin soft, supple and moisturized afterwards. It doesn't have any smell and is gentle enough to be used everyday, hence its name. But despite that claim, I don't use it 7 days a week. I only use it for about 2 times in a week and I'm good.

It has really helped me maintain my 'better' skin condition and I'm really glad I got this tube from a package that my aunt sent me. (Thanks Tita!) I highly recommend this product to everyone out there. It is suitable for all skin types so you need not worry. :)