[DIY] – Do It Yourself BB Cushion

 

 I’ve seen a few articles/videos floating around on the internet about DIYing your own BB cushion. Normally, I don’t DIY much makeup/skin care things, mostly because (if you haven’t noticed yet) I like to try new products, and I mean I REALLY like to try new products. But staring at my hoard of BB creams that I likely won’t ever use up, I thought maybe this would be a good way to make use of my BB creams. So that I can finally finish them and have reasons to get new stuff to try!! *evil laugh*

I went mainly by this video from Meejmuse

I know there are some people on amazon/ebay that sells new cushion and containers that are made just for this, but I didn’t really want to spend any money on that. My Missha BB cushion just dried out, and so I decided to clean it up and reuse the material to make my own BB cushion. Here’s what I used:

1. Skinfood Red Bean BB cream
2. Sofina’s Primavista Ange – Long Keep Base UV
3. Biore UV – Aqua Rich Watery Gel SPF50 PA++++
4. Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair 
5. Naruko Calendula Soothing & Calming Toner

I just started adding stuff to the container and mixing it. The Skinfood BB cream was already a match to my skin tone, so I wasn’t too concern about the colour. The texture of BB cushion is more watery than BB creams, so I knew I had to water it down, so I added in some serum and toner to get to the more watery consistency. Then added the primer (“long keep base”) for a brightening effect and also longevity. The sunscreen was a bit of an after thought. The BB cream already had SPF, it just wasn’t strong enough. I honestly didn’t put in much thought into this, instead of colour I was more concerned with the consistency, so I added products that would help it get to the consistency I wanted.

So I ended up with this:

I did a swatch compare of the BB cream (further from wrist) and the BB cushion I made (closer to wrist).

You can see the colour of the cream on it’s own is definitely darker, and there is more coverage. The BB cushion didn’t seem to have much coverage, and the colour is on the lighter side.

I used this BB cushion on a test run today, it doesn’t cover much, but I can layer without feeling heaviness. It does even out skin tone, so if you are just looking to even out skin tone, and don’t have too much skin issues, this would be good. It could be the serum, but it felt pretty amazing on my skin 😀 I am loving this!

Maybe this will be the only way I can finish up all my BB creams.

That is all peeps! Until next time 🙂

 

[Estée Lauder] – Day Wear BB

I know I said no more BB creams, but I didn’t actually buy this one? So that makes it ok right? XD

I was browsing in Sephora, as I often do, and ran across this BB cream while I was looking at the Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation (which BTW I did not like on my face), and out of curiosity, I asked the sales for a sample of this. The reason? Well, for one, I like trying out new things, hence why I have SOOOO many BB creams that I will probably never finish in my life time. And two, I’ve only ever tried Asian BB creams (Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean), so I thought why not give this European turned American brand a try. Well, obviously, they don’t know the meaning of BB creams.

Colour: There are two colours for this BB, light and medium, obviously I got the light, the medium was quit dark. And even for my skin ,which is considered tanned for Caucasian folks but pale for Asians, the light was still too dark. When I first apply it, the colour is not far off my natural skin colour. But after a bit of time, it turns a bit more yellowy than I would have liked.

Texture: This BB cream is actually quite thick, and I feel like it’s got a lot of oil in it. It feels fairly slick on the skin, feels like it can slide off my face at any time. It kind of just sits on top of my skin, and has a very thick feel to it. It doesn’t blend well into the skin.

Coverage: I don’t know if it’s the oxidation of the colour or something, but it doesn’t feel like it covers much. On the contrary, it makes my skin look yellowy and sickly. It also seems to magnify my pores. For a BB cream to be thick but without coverage is like buying $200 flipflops, it just doesn’t make sense.

Scent: I don’t know how to describe the scent . It’s almost medicinal, and I don’t enjoy it very much, and it doesn’t disperse very quickly either, lingers there for a while before it’s gone.

Sun Protection: SPF 35, no PAs, cause that’s an Asian thing.

Properties: it’s suppose to be anti-ageing, because it’s got all these anti-oxidants in it. I don’t know if that holds true, I won’t be using this to notice the difference. Estee Lauder website also states that it’s “oil-free hydration for all skin types,” I find this hard to believe, especially considering how oily it feels on my skin.

Price: Well of all things, this is probably the biggest difference there is between this BB and my other BBs. $45CND for 30ml (or $39USD in USA). The most expensive BB creams I’ve ever gotten was $20, and that’s for a 50ml tube.

I don’t have the bottle, but I am going to guess this is made in USA, as most Estee Lauder products now are.

Overall rating: well you just know I won’t give this a high rating. There’s pretty much nothing I like about this BB cream, and it sure as hell is over-priced. 1/5. The 1 for the possible anti-ageing properties that I will never know about.

Here it is with flash.

And again in natural light. You can notice the oranginess of it when it blends out, and this is light! I can’t even imagine this on folks with pale skin. 

If you want to read more on the other BB creams I’ve done reviews on, here are a few links:

MOAR BB Creams! (4 different BBs)

InnisFree Eco Natural Green Tea BB

Skinfood Red Bean BB

Etude House Collagen Mistfull BB

All About the BB Creams (6 different BBs)

 

[Estée Lauder] – Advanced Night Repair, Synchronized Recovery Complex II

Hellos! So I finally did it! I finally threw down the money on this really really expensive serum. Crazy, I know, but it’s just so good!

So the story goes, I’ve always wanted to try out this serum, because I have seen SOOOO many reviews on it, and none are negative. Well, except of the price obviously. Estee Lauder is an expensive brand, everyone knows that. The most high end I have gone is Biotherm, hummm…maybe Clarin’s is a bit higher. In any case this beats all of them hands down. A month or so back, I finally got a sample of this baby from Sephora. As most Sephorians will tell you, Sephora is pretty generous with their samples. When I was there the bottle was pretty much empty, and the sales girl literally dumped every drop out for me. I was able to use that sample for a few weeks before it ran out. And I was pretty amazed at the result of a few weeks of usage. It took me another few weeks before I could get this. Because I wanted to redeem the shoppers points I had to buy this. Of course Estee Lauder is not found at any Shopper’s Drug Mart, they are only available in Murale stores (correct me if I am wrong here). The only Murale in good old Vancouver is about an hour bus ride away from where I live, so to make the story short, it was sorta hard to motivate myself to spend $8 of bus money and do the 2 hour to and from trip just for a bottle of serum. Luckily (or unluckily), my family doctor is located in the same mall. And since I had been sick for the past week, my mom wanted me to go get a check up, just in case. So on my doctor trip, I went and exchanged my points for this little guy. I got the bigger 50ml bottle, because it just made more sense. Without points it came to around $117 after taxes. I forked over $85 worth of points, and paid $30-ish to bring it home.

I am sure I don’t need to introduce this product too much, I would say it”s pretty well known. Estee Lauder claims this to be an anti-aging serum, and helps repair your skin while you sleep. The idea is that our skin does repair work of it’s own at night time though a process call catabolysis (this is why people who sleep late have horrible skin). And this serum helps support that process, essentially making the repair work less work with a technology Estee Lauder calls ChronoluxCB.

Because of how expensive this product is, you’ll have to excuse me for not posting a picture of it on my hand. I did, however, managed to take a picture of the product dripping from the dropper. The consistency of the serum is fairly liquid. It has a very very slight gel texture, but a little bit goes a long way. I’d probably be able to cover my face with a couple of drops.

The serum also has a slight colouring to it, yellowish, but not very visible when it’s only a little bit, and obviously it doesn’t show up on your face when you put it on. The scent is a bit of a herbal floral mix, a bit more herbal than floral. Not an overpowering scent by any means, and disburses quite fast after application.

Here’s the list of ingredients:
Well, I am sure some of you are wondering what it did to my skin to make me feel like I need to spend this kind of dough on this serum. Well, some of you might know, after my return from the humid weathers of Asia, my skin has been drying out. While Asian, and especially, Korean weather/humidity has been good to my skin. I’ve had less black/white heads, less dryness. My skin felt pretty plump and hydrated on a daily basis, and I wasn’t even watching what I was using on my face. I didn’t use an eye cream, and didn’t have lines under my eyes. That all went to shit after I came back to Vancouver. Obviously, Vancouver, with its rain is a bit more humid than other parts of the country, but it just wasn’t enough for my sub-tropical body. My skin started drying out, lines under my eyes were becoming very very visible. My make up, especially foundation would “float” on top of my skin, and refuse to be blended. I’d get dry patches of skin flaking off on parts of my face (nose and forehead especially). I added eye cream to my nightly regime and it did little to nothing. So I decided I needed a serum, but didn’t know which to use. I used a few different serums, none really stood out, Vichy’s Aqualia Thermal serum was the only one that sort of helped. I went through 3 or 4 bottles before I stopped purchasing it because it was a bit costly ($40 a bottle if I am not wrong), and I had to use a lot of it. A 30ml bottle only lasted me about 2 months or so. With the points I had saved up from Shoppers, I decided that I would like to try the Estee Lauder serum, since it had so many good reviews. But me having sensitive skin, and it being high on the price rage, I thought I should get a sample to try out first. Murale refused to gave me a sample, and the tester they had on display has also gone bad (it smelt like glue…), so when I saw it at Sephora I was quite excited, I quickly asked for a sample and went home happy. Once I started using it, I saw pretty much immediate results. I was still sleeping late (yeah I know I am terrible), but fine lines reduced under my eyes, my cheeks didn’t feel dry and was looking dewy and plump again! SO EXCITING! I didn’t notice any change in the amount of blackheads, but when I use my Diaso Charcoal Peel Mask, it did end up pulling out more blackheads than it did before, and I felt my skin smoother after the peel. Where as I’d still feel roughness before (meaning the blackheads weren’t cleared out). So it was all positive!

Ok…that’s a lot of sharing…haha. I will update with more if this serum ends up disappointing me in the end, but currently it’s getting a 10/10 (especially with the price I actually paid for it).