Back From Korea w/ Tons of Goodies (Part 1 - Makeup & Skin Care)

Hey Everyone,
I made it back from Korea! Seoul and Busan are both amazing cities, each with its own character. If I were to pick between the two I would definitely choose Seoul because inside this island girl's heart is that of a city slicker. :) I just loved how using public transportation was so easy and it got us around to all the major spots in the city. There is just so much to see and do, a big benefit of living in a huge metropolis. The food of course was incredibly delicious and inexpensive. Susan and I took many pictures of our wonderful meals. But I know everyone is waiting for my breakdown on the shopping and makeup. I LOVE shopping in Seoul. Whether it be for clothing, makeup, house hold good, etc Seoul has so much to offer with so many places for you to shop. It took Susan and I a couple of days to hit up the major shopping areas.

First up is my makeup breakdown. As many of you know I am huge fan of Korean skin care and makeup lines. Majority of the products I use come from Laneige , a Korean skincare/makeup company.  I didn't pick up any staples from Laneige because the places we found it at didn't carry the complete Sensitive line. Plus there wasn't much of a price difference between purchasing it on yesstyle.com versus in store. The next store we hit up was Etude House. Susan and I both love Etude House for facial masks, lotion, eye shadow and nail polsih. Their prices are very reasonable and the products are good quality. I picked up a staple there for my makeup bag i.e. the Proof 10 liquid liner. This has got to be one of the best liquid liners around and I use it on the regular. I also picked up some fun nail polish colors as well. Hey for $4/bottle you can't go wrong.

My Etude House Nail Polish

We also visited Tony Moly, Skinfood and the Face Shop. Tony Moly came out with an Ice Queen line and I think I may have found another staple to my skincare routine. This line is said to be very good for sensitive-red prone skin. Perfect for someone like me who has rosacea. I bought their Ice Queen Green Tea Cooling Pack and Multiplay Creme SPF30.

Tony Moly Ice Queen Items - Aren't the containers the cutest!

The line actually has two other products a Tropical Moisturizing Mask and Whitening Mask but both had too strong fragrances for my taste. I've tried the Green Tea pack and I think I am falling in love with it. It really took the redness away and made my skin very soft.

The Green Tea Pack

I haven't tried the Multiplay Creme yet but if it lives up to the product hype I will no doubt love it as well. It is so supposed to protect your skin from free radicals, UV rays, calm any redness, brighten the skin and moisturize...no one it is called Multiplay ;)

Multiplay Creme

Feels so light & frothy

I also purchased Tony Moly's Shimmer Love Cube in Pink. It reminded me of Bobby Brown's color block but it is much less expensive. Tried it out in the store and it really gave my cheeks a nice soft glow. At the Face Shop, I found an awesome iridescent quad brown eye shadow. I used it up in Korea and every one loved the colors.

Shimmer Love Cube & Quad Eye Shadow

Pink and Brown - Such Pretty Colors!

The other skin care item I purchased was Skin Food's Rice Scrub Mask. Bubz Beauty recommended it alot on her youtube videos and I thought why not give it a try. I tried it out and it really helped relieve the congestion my skin had after being in the horrible Korean humidity. It wasn't at all abrasive and left my skin feeling clean but still moist. I will definitely keep using it to see if it really works and if it does it will become another staple for me.

As for the makeup trends in Korea, Korean woman love to rock the "No-Makeup" makeup look for the day time. It's all about having beautiful, fair glowing skin and wide awake eyes. This means the following:
1. Using foundation sparingly. Only cover problem areas.
2. Enhance cheeks with soft pink or peachy shimmer blush to get that glow.
3. Add a little bit of white or off white iridescent shadow to the top and bottom inner corners of your eyes to attract light.
4. Tight line your upper lash line to fill in gaps. Don't make it defined.
5. Curl lashes and use dark brown volume waterproof mascara.
6. Brush eye brows and use clear gel to set it.
7. Finish the look with using a light gloss or in my case I used rosebud salve for the lips.

Here I am rocking the look on our train ride to Busan

When they go out at night or if you are a pop star, they love smokey eye or cat eye look. Majority of the videos and music performances we saw on TV showed their pop stars love both looks. It is on trend with what is going on for Fall and Winter.

(Part 2 - Clothing and Bags!)