Mestiza Soap: Review

I first came across this product while going through random youtube videos. Well, you know me. When I have nothing to do, I just go through my subscription list. I wasn't looking for anything in particular. I was merely video hopping when I saw a video by Joyce Sola where she mentioned this particular product. She mentioned it was good for back acne and I was instantly sold.

Holika Holika Egg Soap Special Set: Review

Happy Easter everyone! I may not have easter eggs to show off but I have this- Holika Holika Egg Soap Special Set. Holika Holika Philippines was kind enough to send me this for review. I've tried some Holika Holika makeup but not skin care. I figured it's about time that I do so which is why I wholeheartedly accepted the offer.

They have an ongoing promo where a purchase of any egg soap product, whether 2-pc or 4-pc, will get you a Jelly Cleansing Puff which retails for PHP165 until supplies last.

I searched online for existing reviews on this line and surprisingly, it has good reviews. This set comes in four variants- white egg, green tea, red clay and charcoal. The white egg soap is for pore tightening, green tea is for moisturizing, red clay is for removing dead skin cells and charcoal is for sebum control. I have oily, acne prone sensitive skin and we all know that April is the start of summer here. The temperature gets warmer and warmer plus the humidity makes us sweat more than ever. This is the reason why I chose to try the charcoal soap first.

Olay Natural White Healthy Fairness Body Bar

It comes as no surprise that many Asian countries prefer fairer looking skin and Philippines is definitely not an exception. The trend has been around for such a long time and it is here to stay. In fact, out of all my blog posts, my most commented and viewed entry would have to be on a whitening product which just proves the desire of Filipinas to get lighter skin.

There are so many skin lightening options out in the market these days but I've only been comfortable with using whitening soaps. The problem is, there's a huge selection of brands out there so choosing one out of the many could be a chore. Also, most whitening soaps have strong chemicals that causes redness, peeling patches and sometimes itchiness.

Klairs Be Clean Natural Soap | WISHTREND: Giveaway

Hi guys! I'm back with another giveaway!!! I'm so happy to be writing about this post, you just don't know how giddy I feel inside. Today is a Wednesday and just a few hours ago, I received an e-mail from Wishtrend and they informed me that I can host a giveaway for you! Wishtrend is the same company that brought to us one of my favorite skin care sets, CELLBN. So before anything else, let us take this moment to give Wishtrend a warm round of applause. *clap, clap, clap*

In this giveaway, a few of you will have the chance to win a Klairs Be Clean Natural Soap of their choice. If you didn't already know, Klairs is a well established Korean brand that produced great products such as the Klairs Illuminating Supple Blemish Cream and the ever-so-popular Klairs Rich Moist Soothing Mask. This is the very reason why I feel good about these natural soaps that are up for grabs.

Before I talk about the mechanics, I would like to give you a little bit of an overview of the the said product. Klairs Be Clean Natural Soap has 5 types. There's Hasuo Healthy Shampoo Soap (Hair), Rich Moist Facial Soap (Face), Manuka Honey & Choco Body Soap (Body), Teatree & Hinoki Hand Soap (Hand) and Peppermint Cooling Foot Soap (Foot). They help keep you clean from head to toe. If you want to know more about each of the product, make sure to click on the links as it will lead you to Wishtrend's page which has more in depth information regarding its ingredients and to whom each product is recommended for.

To expound more on the giveaway, I am pleased to announce that there will be not one, not two but THREE (3) lucky winners who will be chosen to receive one (1) Klairs Natural Soap of their choice. The giveaway will last for a week and I will try to announce the winner in all possible methods I can think of (social media, blog, youtube).

This giveaway will mainly run through youtube so you at least have to have a youtube or google account to join. The rest of the mechanics will be listed below:

1. You must be subscribed to both my youtube channel (sweetkissesbyanna) and WishtrendTV (www.wishtrendtv.com).
2. You must have or create a Wishtrend.com account. Registration is free. You can use my invitation code: 192094803 to get 5USD voucher upon signing up or simply go to this link: https://www.wishtrend.com:48598/?s=192094803 :)
3. You must leave a comment on the youtube video (below) saying which soap you would like among the 5 and the reason behind your choice. Leave your wishtrend account (e-mail used to sign up).
4. Optional: Follow my blog (bloglovin) and social media accounts (linked on my blog banner). This is not required. This will just help you keep track with the winner announcement.

 Giveaway will last for one week until September 13, 2014 at 2PM GMT+8.

HERE'S THE LINK. :)

That's it! It totally doesn't cost a thing to join this giveaway so I'm definitely encouraging everyone to participate and you just might be chosen as the lucky winner. Make sure that you do all the required steps to avoid disqualification.

Good luck to everyone and let's all give thanks, once again, to the good people behind Wishtrend. Remember: I am only able to share this happiness with you because of them. Kamsahamnida, Wishtrend! :)

Belo AcnePro and Hygienix (Sample Room): Review

Another Sample Room haul! Yay! I don't know about you but I always feel like a winner whenever I chance upon available samples that I like from the Sample Room website. For new readers out there who haven't read any of my Sample Room posts before, click on this link to enlighten you on what the site is all about.

 

Even after about more than a year of sampling, I only have limited amount of Sample Room points. How I wish I was a partner blogger or a VIP! But despite that, I am still able to get samples that are quite useful, not just for my blog content, but also for my day to day life.

My most recent snag before this was a cosmetic product, a lip product to be more exact, from the brand called Colour Collection. This time, however, I jumped on and tried this new skin care revolution from the brand Belo. I got both the face wash and toner. And with the little number of points I had remaining, I also got a handy dandy sanitizer spray from Hygienix, all included in just one shipping. Yay!

I was very excited to try this out as my previous post about Belo has got to be one of my most viewed posts. While I tried hard not to expect so much from the products (my previous review didn't exactly sing on a positive note), the promise of this bee venom technology that I only used to see in Korean skin care sets made me walk on blind faith. Without having any experience on any of the products from this line, I claimed that this product would be nothing but epic! I was convinced that this was the cheaper alternative to the organic skin care set I'm using or the dermatologist prescribed products I was using before. With many good reviews and being the editor's pick of the month (of Sample Room), I was very excited when the delivery man dropped this package off our doorstep.

 

 

I thought it was love at first use. I particularly liked the scent, the consistency and how it left my face after lathering/applying but my oh my, the disappointment it has caused in the form of acne. It started at the edges of my eyebrows and at first I thought it was the result of an unresolved hormonal imbalance from a previous monthly visit. But the more I used the product, the more pimples it creates. Yes, it does have a little bit of a calming effect-- to the person not on the zits! You see, the scent is just oh-so-divine. It's the perfect combination of powdery and flowery scent. I simply love it. But you know how they say "Sometimes love ain't enough."? I think I may have solved the mystery behind it by the use of this.

This product hates my face as much as I love its scent. While I would normally not give up after just a week of usage for a particular skin care set, I will make this an exception as I already had a not-so-good experience with the brand before. I don't want to linger on this set when I know my organic skin care takes better care of my skin.

To be fair, however, the line didn't dry up my skin. In fact, it left it soft and well moisturized. The only problem was it was causing more troubles than relief. And so I have decided to just let this go, just like Elsa's song. I passed both products (face wash and toner) onto my sister who offered to continue using it. If I get the chance to, then I might go back to this entry and update you guys with what happened to my sister's skin.

For now, I would say that this is a good product. A good product for someone else. For an acne prone, oily, sensitive skin person like me, I wouldn't recommend this as it broke me out like no tomorrow.

As for the sanitizer spray, I don't really have any complaints whatsoever. I like that it's compact, easy to use and gets its job done. Other than those, I have nothing more to say.

Have you noticed that most of my posts recently are skin care related? Haha. I'm not sure why but I have so much skin care stuff left for review. My next skin care post will be about a product that works well for cystic acne so be on the lookout for that! In the mean time, watch out for my next post, which will most probably be a makeup or hair product, just for a bit of a change.

SoTrue Lavender Oatmeal Castile Soap: Sample Room

Okay, so I'm not really scheduled to have a post today but since I am feeling extra diligent today, I'm writing down a simple post to cut down my long list of back logs. I'm writing this down on a Friday so I might as well do a "Flashback Friday" post today.

I got this particular product almost exactly one year ago from Sample Room. I got it along with other Sample Room products, I'm just not sure exactly which one. I only needed 20 points to get this so I took advantage of the situation and sampled this too.

Timing couldn't be more perfect because during that time, I was having some skin troubles. I was diagnosed with Acute Urticaria and I couldn't just use any commercial soap. I was advised to only use oatmeal soap as it is best for irritated and dry skin. So aside from the fact that it only costed 20 points, I was being a good patient and followed my doctor's orders.

I feel that this product helped me get over with my skin problems as it was very gentle on the skin and very moisturizing. I'm really glad I came across this product.

Normally, since I already made my point, I would end the post by encouraging you/ discouraging you to purchase this product. But since I want to catch up with my drawn-out back logs, I will be squeezing in a face mask feature. Don't worry though, as it is just like any other Korean face mask I've tried and I already made a thorough post on that over here so you won't have to read through it again (if you already did). The problem, however, lies if you haven't read that post yet. Well, I guess it is still your prerogative, if you want to read it or not. Am I right? ;)

 Tony Moly Essential Mask Sheet Pack- Cucumber

 PHP58.00 from Watsons

Watson's Beauty Spree + Backne Gets Better

Hi everyone! So yeah, I went out this Monday and got the chance to look around Watson's in SM Makati. It's been quite a while since I actually got the chance to look around the place. Anyway, I got myself a Pure Beauty Super Brightening Eye Gel (PHP 183.00) which I've been using for a few days. Too early to give it a verdict so I'm gonna use it some more before I give it a review and I also got a Wet n Wild Lipstick in 529B (PHP 119.00), which I'm thinking of giving to my mom or best friend (not sure who among the two yet).

Anyway, going to a completely different topic, I had this bad case of backne a few months back. I even went to Flawless to get some back cleaning. But to my dismay, unlike facials wherein I actually get to have at least 1 week of feeling pretty (LOL), the back cleaning thing did not do me good for long. So 2 weeks ago, I've been going around Teentalk forums and there was this thread about C.Y. Gabriel soap. I wanted to know what the fuss was all about so I decided to get one for myself.

And yes, you guessed right! C.Y. Gabriel improved my backne significantly. I am left with no to little pimples and my scars are gradually fading. There are a lot of variations of this soap. I bought mine from Watson's (again) and I got the Special Pink one. I haven't used it on my face and I only started doing so last night.

Kojie-san Skin Lightening Soap: Review

I have never been the type of person who worries about skin color. Let's just say that I was born with a tan. I think in most (West) countries, tan is something that they actually want. But here in Asia (specifically: Philippines - where I'm staying), people long for white skin. Thus, a lot of skin whitening products are readily available all over the local market.

I have heard about Kojie-san in facebook because Alodia Gosiengfiao is the endorser of the product. But as I've mentioned above, I was never the type of person who worries about skin color so I didn't try it... until my best friend recommended the soap for me to use.

I immediately bought the soap to try. I have never been this satisfied with a soap in my life. Kojie-san is a skin lightening soap and it really does lighten skin! In just two weeks, my friends have been noticing a change in me although at that point in time they couldn't point it out. But after 1 month, they've noticed that my skin has lightened and that I looked "blooming".

The soap is orange in color and I love the "citrus-y" scent. I'm sorry I just don't know how to describe the scent. In Watsons, this soap usually comes in two's (although you can also buy it separately) for only PHP 50.00. The bigger soap also has a pack of two wherein you get 50% off on the second soap.

If I'm not mistaken, Kojie-san whitens through micropeeling. So you would be peeling but it would not be visible to the naked eye. BUT (according to other users) since you are peeling, you will notice that when you use the soap or when you apply toner/moisturizer on your face, there's this stinging sensation. I imagine it's the same feeling I get when I avail of chemical peeling with my dermatologist. Oh, and I'm just imagining it because in my case, I did NOT feel the stinging sensation.

When using this product, you should of course, scrub your skin (but not everyday because it would harm your skin) to aid removal of dead skin. I scrub myself every other day. You should also NOT forget to apply sunscreen and lotion. If you don't you will definitely be left with burns and your skin will get dry, get itchy and have patches/ flakes.

If you want lighter skin, I suggest you use this product. For starters, do not use it on your face. You could try using it on your foot at first and if there's no negative reaction, you may also use it on your face. 

I have been using the soap for 5 months now and not only did it lighten my skin, it has helped me look 'younger' (No, I am not old. I'm only 21.) in a sense that my skin looks glowing. It has also helped me with some of my pimple scars. Oh, and speaking of pimples, I had no major break outs while using this product. In fact, it has minimized the formation of pimples!

If only I knew I would be reviewing this product, I would have taken before and after pictures. Sadly, though, I didn't.

Over all, I would like to say that this product is actually WORTH IT.

Pros:

- cheap 

- nice smell 

- actually whitens/lightens skin tone in at least 2 weeks 

- helps diminish pimple scars 

- controls pimple formation (true to my case)

- available in most stores locally 

Cons:

- the soap easily runs out (melt). to minimize this, you can cut the soap in sections. it will last you a longer time before it completely runs out. (thanks to RealAsianBeauty for this tip!) 

- tends to dry out the skin if you're not using lotion 

- stinging sensation from micropeeling (for other users) 

April 5, 2014 UPDATE!!!

F.A.Q.s (Frequently Asked Questions):

1. How often should I scrub?

- I personally scrub myself every other day. I'm not sure if there's an exact number of times one should do it but I just don't do it everyday since it might be too harsh for my skin and damage it.

2. Ever since I started using this soap, my (insert body part here) turned red. What should I do?

- Your skin might be irritated. Try lessening the amount of usage. Try using the soap every other day only. If it still doesn't get better, you might be allergic to it or the formula may be too much for you so I suggest you stop it. Oh, and if you're not using sunscreen, that's probably the reason why your skin is so red.

3. Is this advisable for a/an (insert age here) year old boy/girl?

- I just want to clear that gender doesn't really matter but age might be a factor to consider. I'm not an expert. I always say ask a dermatologist/ doctor for this question. Why? Since this is a whitening product, there are chemicals that may not be suitable or not advisable for younger skin. But then again, there are people who have tried using this at an early age and didn't experience any adverse reaction. It all comes down to how sensitive your skin is.

4. Should I use lotion?

- Yes. Definitely. It helps in keeping your skin from being dry and flaky.

5. Where did you get this item?

- Watson's.

6. Does it really help with pimples and blemishes?

- It doesn't claim to do so but it helped me back when I was still using it.

7. Is this better than (insert another brand) whitening soap?

- So far, I haven't tried any brand that's better at whitening than Kojie-san but for future reference, you can type "lotsofgirlstuff (Insert Brand/ Item Here)" on google to check if I have a review on it.

8. I stopped using it and I got darker. Why?

- Probably because you stopped using whitening aids. Sorry, I don't think there's no other reason beside this.

9. What sunblock can you suggest?

- This is actually depending on what skin type you have. I personally use at least SPF 50 sunblock cream type on my face lately. But if you ask me, SPF 30 is my lower limit with no ceiling number.

10. What happens when you get chemical burn?

- Usually, you get red and your skin darkens or you form patches. Another reason why you should always use sunscreen and avoid direct sun exposure.

I am personally happy with the response to this blog post. It currently has around 95,000 views and over 200 comments. Thank you so much to everyone taking an interest in this product and this review. I'm glad that you trust me enough to ask me those questions. Also, thank you to everyone who shared their experiences in the comment section. You probably helped another person decided whether this product is for him/her or not.

Useful Links:

Kojie-san Web

(I bought this product with my own money and I am not getting paid for this review. Note that these are just my opinions and I do not guarantee that what I say would hold true in everyone's case.)

NOTE: As much as possible avoid direct exposure to sunlight and ALWAYS wear sunscreen when using whitening products!