Product Review : VOV Daily Fresh Mask in Ice Aloe, Sake Nori and Sakura Honey

Hello Domokies! Long time no review :/ But but I've been hardworking and taking piccies so I suppose more will be up soon~

For now, I'll be sharing several masks reviews with you, starring the Daily Fresh Masks from VOV. Do note that as I'm compiling 3 different masks reviews in one, it will be quite picture heavy.

First up, the VOV DFM in Ice Aloe.

Basically this is just supposed to be a hydrating and soothing mask. We all know the properties of Aloe by now don't we?

Here you can see how to use it. I personally leave my DFM masks on for 20 minutes. Do take note that this mask contains alchohol and fragrance so if you have sensitive skin you might wanna be more cautious. I did not experience any stinging sensation whatsoever and the fragrance was just a light floral scent.

The mask comes with the eye flap thingy so it's a bonus that you don't have to use a separate eye mask? The mask fits almost perfectly on my face, except for my bulbous nose :(

If you wanna continue surfing the web like me, you can always just fold the flap downwards like so.

Here's a picture of the serum from this mask. It is very thick and gel / jelly like. Upon contact with skin + rubbing / massaging, the gel like consistency becomes watery and absorbs fully into the skin without any sticky or oily residue.

L - Before / R - After

Skin felt soft and smooth after usage. The leftover essence was easily massaged into the skin and as mentioned earlier, no oily film or residue. No stickiness detected either. However, the skin around my cheeks felt a little tight. I am unable to explain why but my skin did not feel dry or agitated. Tight feeling disappeared after following up with my usual skincare routine.

Texture : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Absorbs quickly)
Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (It did what it was supposed to, just a star off for the weird tight feeling.)
Scent : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (A very acceptable scent, neither extremely appealing to me nor overwhelming.)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (A decent mask for almost all skin types, not sure about those with sensitive skin though.)

Now for the Sake Nori Mask.

Basically a brightening mask!

*Not sure if this is true but I've once read that sake agitates those with sensitive skin. I however do not have that and thus am unable to confirm for you.

L - Before / R - After

I apologize that my pictures do not do this mask justice :/ If you can see, the lighting for both seems a little different and I am still working on it. This mask in reality made my complexion brighter, softer and smoother! If I'm not mistaken, my dark eye circles are a little less red / puffy? The serum for this mask is the same as the aloe once so I'm not going to repeat the picture. The absorption rate is also the same as the aloe one, with no sticky or oily feeling. The scent is also something floral... (What a relief cause I ain't no want my face smelling like sake :/)

Texture : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Absorbs quickly)
Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (I love the brightening effect :D)
Scent : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Floral is too meh for me.)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (It's quite a good mask! Worth a shot.)

And lastly, the Sakura Honey one. I was most excited about this one due to the beautiful pink packaging!

Sooooo pretty and girly and appealing!

Mask shape is the same for all "flavors" in case you're wondering.

A different texture for the essence! This one is a little more runny than the previous two masks but still quite thick.

L - Before / R - After

Love this brightening and soothing mask! If you squint at the picture, you'll notice a little spot on my left cheek. It's alot less red after using this mask and face was brighter! I personally felt that this was even more moisturizing than the previous two masks as it took awhile longer to sink in and my face felt more... Nourished. I was hoping for a sweet honey kinda scent but sadly, this is once again floral. I have nothing against floral scents! I just prefer fruits~

Texture : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (Absorbs well but takes a longer time to sink in completely.)
Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Brightening as well as soothing.)
Scent : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Floral again...)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (Y)

SUMMARY

I've always loved the VOV masks even before I was sent these for reviewing. I'm however guilty of purchasing only the fruity ones like the Strawberry / Tomato / Grape(Am not sure if it's called grapes, forgot alr). I super heart the strawberry one in particular because it smells sweet and amazing~ Recommended if you're a fan of sweet fruity scents. I was also sent a pomegranate one to review but I didn't have time to use it till the 7th month and honestly I'm a lil afraid of taking pictures of myself in case something (someone) else shows up.

Out of these three I've reviewed, I'd recommend getting either the Sakura Honey or the Sake Nori one as they're more unique and they hydrate my skin as well. I prefer my masks to have a whitening / brightening effect as my complexion is always dull. The aloe one is probably more for people who want to soothe agitated skin only.

These are available at Watsons for $2 each and they come in 15 types! So choose according to your skin's needs :D

P.S. You can find their FB page HERE! Also, they'll be having a buy 5 get 1 free promotion at Watsons from 15-28 August!

Love,
Domo ❤

Disclaimer : These masks were sent to me for reviewing purposes by Essential Nature (Thank you!) but do not affect the honesty of the review in any way. Please remember that not everyone has the same skin so effects will vary.

Product Review : Vichy Thermal Spa Water

A few days ago, I blogged about the Vichy's Spa Water and 80th Anniversary workshop. I recommended ya'all to purchase THIS on Domokie's FB page.

Yes, that's the normal packaging for the Vichy Thermal Spa Water I tried at the workshop. And you all should know this. I used to think that such water spray thingies are like some kinda scam, it's like asking us to pay for a spray with water in it. Before I thought of such water sprays as scams, I bought a few and tested them out. To me, those were just water. I didn't see any effect at all so yes, for the rest of my life, I classified them as plain water.

However, after attending the Vichy workshop and trying it out...

I bought it!!! I bought the limited edition packaging one so it looks different from the first picture. Now the best thing to prove that I love and recommend a product is when I buy it after testing it. This is now my 神奇水, AKA my newly found Miracle water. Before I start babbling more, let's take a look at the usual, ingredients list!

Yea... Once again I recall my previous thinking of the plain water spray thing...

Not just the plain water you can get from your tap ;) I know the difference now, this water actually has heaps of minerals that our skin requires!

This water's actually from a Spring in a town called Vichy. Here's a continuation for the cool facts! Cool fact #3, the Spring from which this water is drawn from has been declared a public health spring in 1846! Vichy is like... A really really ancient and old grandparent. This miracle water is 100% natural of course, from the spring itself and EFFECTIVE at the same time! I myself have seen some strange special effects when using this so I'm about to share it.

This water is what I call, 万能. Super multi-purpose.

Ta-da! So many uses~ But I have one more to show you and that's my absolute favorite!

Also, I will not be telling you what Vichy says because for stats and info, you can ask from the BA working at the counter. Sharing my experience is a different thing.

My favorite way to use this is as a mask. You'll have to get your own compressed mask from SASA though.

There's no before picture but can you believe that this was taken at about 8pm, after 8 hours of work excluding travelling time? I've had my make up on since around 7am in the morning and it's been more than 12 hours. This is what sparked me to get this can of miracle water.

Also, I did not blot my face before taking this picture or prior to using the mask. It ALL magically DISAPPEARED. There was no cakiness, no nothing, except for my blush being somewhat eaten away. My face was super bright too. Catherine saw the difference too, so I swear you have to do it to witness it for yourself.

I did a mini test the next morning, I woke up with a mega greasy face and proceeded to spritz a good amount of this miracle water all over my face. I then waited for about 10-15 seconds before dabbing it off with a tissue. Guess what? I became shine free! I was super amazed so I told Ringo, which was why she suggested drinking this after eating a heavy meal to get rid of the oils. This water is sweet too =) It can be drunk but I don't think you'd wanna spend your money just to drink this. NOT that I intentionally spritz this in my mouth, I accidentally sprayed on too much one day and it trickled into my mouth =/

We were not sponsored the 150ml set, Ringo, Catherine and I bought a set each though. Our actions speak a lot louder than this post. I'm not sure if this limited packaging set is still available but I think the normal one is, so get one from your nearest Vichy counter today :) It is that good! Besides, it costs only 14.90 for two cans of this if I'm not wrong, so why not try it out once?

Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Soothes, brightens, hydrates, miracle!)

Scent: No scent detected.

Texture: Like how your water would feel.

Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (It's cheap, it works, sensitive skin can use it, so why not try it?)

Love,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : I bought the 150ml twin pak myself.

Product Review : Kiehl's Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol Free Toner

どのように誰もがやっている? (  How is everyone doing? )

I haven't posted in awhile due to work... 私の仕事は私を疲れされている. But anyways, let's continue with the review and skip the ranting! The star product for today is the Kiehl's Calendula Herbal Extract Alcohol Free Toner!

A little information about the product first.

Kiehl's claims that this toner, formulated with select herbal extracts gently cleanses and soothes normal to oily skin types. It contains no alcohol or harsh synthetic drying agents. It may also be used to soothe and improve problem areas.

Cool Kiehl’s Fact: The calendula petals in our unique formula are still inserted by hand in the Kiehl’s apothecary tradition to assure the most efficacious formula. *As taken from Kiehl's official website*

I own the deluxe size of this product which contains 40ml of the product. This is how it looks like.

                          

As you can see, the bottle really does contain flower petals, hand plucked or not, I can't really tell. Just believe the website! The picture below will show you the ingredients of this toner.

The key ingredient in this toner is obviously the Calendula which is the oil extracted from the Marigold flower. Kiehl's website says that this ingredient has really mild properties that makes it ideal for oily skin types or even sensitive skin. It's supposed to soothe the skin and be especially beneficial for delicate skin.

Another key ingredient would be the Allantoin, which is a compound that is found in Comfrey Root. The comfrey plant is a hairy perennial Eurasian herb long used in herbal medicine. Known to be a bacteria inhibitor, Allantoin can soothe and reduce inflammation in various product formulations or in this case, the toner.

The last key ingredient would be the Great Burdock which is a gentle, natural ingredient known for centuries to help improve dry skin.

* All descriptions and/of key ingredients are taken from the Kiehl's official website

At this point, some of you may be confused. If it's meant for oily skin, why would it contain an ingredient meant for improving dry skin? It's basically because there's two kinds of oily. One is what we know as simply, oily. The other oily is caused by dry skin. And precisely because the skin is dry, "it" would "think" that it needs to secrete more sebum to protect "itself" hence the oiliness! I'm sorry if my explanation is unclear  but any queries can be directed to our email.

MY take on this product?

I have been religiously using my deluxe sample for quite awhile now and I've almost finished using the entire bottle. To be honest, it really is very very soothing. I am quite sure that people with more irritated and red skin would love it. I have a combination skin that leans more towards being oily and I have to say that this toner doesn't help in controlling oil at all. I don't break out often nor do I have sensitive skin. After using this toner, I haven't seen any significant results but I really did like the soothing scent of this toner that smells particularly like herbal tea. The pleasant kind, not the bitter ones!

To appreciate it, I think you'd need to have sensitive skin or skin that is very prone to having redness or breakouts. I suggest trying a sample from Kiehl's first before purchasing. Do note that this sample is rather hard to come by but you can always try your luck! I will continue using this product especially when it's towards that time of the month to see how well it works. I'll do an update if necessary.

UPDATE!!!
It does help a little in keeping my skin clear but I honestly cannot justify forking out a whopping $110 for a toner... If you can, then I suppose you can try it! You can see the current promotion of Kiehl's in the recent Kiehl's post that I did up~

Scent : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (I really like the scent!)
Texture : ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Really lightweight, absorbs easily)
Effectiveness : ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Did nothing for me so far)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (2.5 stars actually. An average toner? It does hydrate like any other toner would.)

Also, take note that this toner comes in three sizes, 125ml, 250ml and 500ml. It costs $58, $78 and $110 respectively. Am not really sure but will double confirm again! I really wouldn't recommend the smallest size because it's really too pricey for a toner. I wouldn't be able to justify my purchase. Get a sample or get the biggest bottle!

Cheers and goodnight,
Chiharu ❤

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Disclaimer : This is not a sponsored review so there's no need to state anything here!.