[Sofina] – Long Keep Base UV

 Hi peeps! I am just on a roll with reviews! I have so many things I’ve tried but never reviewed, it’s kind of insane LOL. Today is something that has been my HG since the beginning of the year, and I have already used up one bottle of this and am on my 2nd bottle. I purchased this item when I went back to Taiwan in the beginning of this year. My cousin was the one that introduced me, I bought one to try, and loved it so much that I hoarded 2 more bottles before I came back. Normally what happens to my hoarded items is that I find something else I want to try and completely ignore the fact that I hoarded these things. But this one is different. I’ve never tried a primer so good! Yes! this is a primer!

It is a very light weight primer, with a hint of pink in it to brighten up skin. It not only aids in the longevity of your makeup, but also brightens and evens out skin tone all in one go. Nowadays, having to wake up at 530am, I often don’t have the energy to put on makeup, so what I’ve been doing a lot is using this primer and just this primer. It does enough to give me enough courage to walk out my door LOL.

All you need is about the size of a quarter, it spreads so easily and disappears on your skin, but you know it’s there because your face just got brighter!

 

Here’s a swatch of it, I actually did a swipe and a blended out portion. If you look very carefully, you can see the skin just below the knuckles is slightly brighter than the rest of the hand, it’s not lighting, it’s this stuff!

The effect is every so slight, there’s no colour difference but it just does something to the skin to make it look more refreshed.

To conclude…

Colour: it’s pink, but doesn’t really show up on the skin

Texture: very liquidy, blends super easy

Coverage: there really isn’t any…

Scent: I honestly don’t smell anything other than the typical sunscreen smell

Sun protection: SPF 25 PA++, again always add another layer of sunscreen under this

Price: I got this in Taiwan for about $13 CND per 25ml bottle, they don’t come any bigger. But one bottle lasted me until Jul (? cant remember) from beginning of January, and I basically used it everyday

Mine is made in Japan. It was sold in Taiwan in original Japanese packaging. I heard some people had bought ones that were made in Taiwan, but I’ve yet to see them.

Overall: 5/5 I will definitely be repurchasing these over and over. The quality of this product is probably similar to the high end primers that are out there, but at $13 per bottle instead of $50. I just wish it came in a larger size!

 

 

[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 🙂