Product Review : Bihada Ichizoku Kurobarakamen Sheet Mask (Brightening)

Mask mask mask. In the end I always have reviews on masks. Why so?! I just like to pamper my skin often and feel like a tai tai. Or at least for my skin to feel like a tai tai's skin anyway. For my non mandarin speaking readers, tai tai means something like a rich lady who can sit at home and do nothing all day. Pardon me if I sound a little eccentric in my post today because I'm feeling woozy from low blood sugar or something. Can't eat at night if you wanna avoid the fatties!

Anyway, today I'm going to be reviewing a mask that I bought quite awhile ago and forgot to blog about :X I have too many folders so I must have missed this one.

Behold, the Bihada Ichizoku Kurobarakamen Sheet Mask! The name's really a mouthful ;) The picture is a little misleading though, initially I thought this was an eye mask. So all, please take note, this is a face mask :D

How can I forget? The description, how-to-use and most importantly, the ingredients list for all sensitive skin babes!

If you are from Singapore and reading this right after I publish it, I shall warn you now about the scary picture you're about to see.

Brace yourself for the impact!

YES IT IS A SHEET MASK THAT IS BLACK! It's not a big deal because Ringo reviewed one HERE too but it's the first time I'm using a sheet mask that's black in color~  Also she took her photo in the day but mine's at night so it's horror factor +10.

Instead of the usual colorless essence you get in a mask, this one's slightly yellow.

Bihada Ichizoku says
The secret behind Kurobara's mysterious, alluring beauty! Sparkle like a gem against the midnight sky with this black sheet mask, formulated with charcoal to hydrate skin and tighten pores. Reveal brighter, fairer, translucent skin.

Bascially, this mask is for brightening. So ya ready to see the effects yet?

L - Before / R - After

The lighting is slight different even though I took both pictures in the same place with the same conditions. No photoshop was used to enhance the effects. No lies. Brightening, it is definitely there. My skin felt more plump and bouncy after the usage of this mask. So if you're talking about results, sure you'll be getting it. This mask also contains hydrolyzed collagen and that makes it easier for your skin to absorb the goodies! It's an awesome ingredient. Honestly though, I'm not an expert in every single ingredient so if you want a really thorough description on each ingredient, I'm afraid google will have to be your best friend.

The down side? I really don't like the smell of this mask. It was a little overwhelming when I had the mask on. Luckily it doesn't linger after I remove the mask so I just have to endure 15minutes of the smell. The mask is also slightly too small as it cannot cover some areas of my forehead. It could just be because I have a big forehead though. Preference of scent differs with everyone so maybe some will like it? It's a strange floral smell that I didn't quite like.

This mask is soaked and dripping wet with essence when you use it. So there will be a lot left on your face after you remove the mask and it takes quite a long time for the essence to be fully absorbed. Your skin will also feel pretty sticky while that is happening. You have to wait for everything to be fully absorbed before you can feel the smoothness of your skin and how plump it is.

This mask is also a little more pricey than most. It costs a whopping $8 per piece and is available at SASA and BHG Bugis/Clementi. The question I will present to you is whether you're willing to spend $8 a sheet of mask. I bought this to review but sadly I will not be purchasing it again. I still love my MBD masks, like the Hello Kitty one, the Chocolate truffle one, those are my favorites because of the lovely scent and the fact that they work well!

Texture : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Absorbs really slowly!)

Effectiveness : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (Quite plump and smooth)

Scent : ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (Me no likey :X)

Overall : ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (One star off for texture, one off for the scent and one off for the price!!!)

Love,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : I bought the mask myself so that I can review it for all of you <3

Product Review : Queen Helene The Original Mint Julep Masque

I wasn't intending to review this product so soon, but it would seem like many of you are interested in knowing more about this product. So once requested, we'll try our very best to do it :D

After a grueling day at work, I came home, scarfed down my dinner and took these pictures + edited them immediately! (Watching TV as I go along so it's delayed somewhat)

Proudly presenting...

My two tubes of Queen Helene The Original Mint Julep Masque! Just to show how much I love it, can you see that the tube on the right is almost completely flattened? The white part is yellowing from old age too :( I've had it for nearly two years already so I'm going to trash that and start on the tube beside!

Simple green and white packaging.

The main purpose? Dries up those irritating zits, rinse away your blackheads and shrinks your pores! By that, I have to once again clarify that it only does so for the appearance. For the explanation, please refer to THIS ARTICLE.

The ingredients list for all those who're worried about the contents! Also, I was presented with a question that I did not reply in detail, here it is along with the answer!

"Parabens, harmful on the skin and in the body?"

This is a question that has been raised over and over, not only on Domokie, but on other beauty blogs and basically, everywhere! I'm only answering with regards to Methylparaben here. Methylparaben is actually produced naturally. In fact, they're found in the fruits we consume! Of course, I don't think most of us know that because fruits don't really come along with an ingredients list. The purpose of the Methylparaben is to help kill the unwanted dirties in your skincare / food. Examples of the dirties can be fungi, bacteria and all the unseen things you can think of.

There has been tons of arguments and research done on this ingredient and contradicting results have been found. There are those who will NEVER touch this and describe this as a potential health hazard. There are those who think that this is harmless. Results from different studies have shown that indeed, Methylparaben can possibly cause damage to the skin yet it is still declared safe to use by the FDA. Perhaps that is because the negative impact(s) caused by Methylparaben isn't backed up sufficiently with enough research / results to be known as a fact? However, Methylparaben, if ingested, will be passed out as urine instead of accumulating in our bodies.

The fact about Methylparaben would be that it is actually a non-irritating ingredient that's great for sensitive skin. People who experience adverse skin reactions to this ingredient is because they are allergic to it. According to Wikipedia, this ingredient is "not carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic or embryotoxic; additionally, it is negative in the uterotrophic assay." To know what an uterotrophic assay means, kindly google for yourself as I do not want to lengthen this answer any further! In short, I probably will not be avoiding products that contain Methylparaben like a plague.

The full description of the mask.

Here's what it looks like! A strange, green and grey clay!

This mask is a dream for those zits that have the white pus on the surface! It really shrinks them well and kicks the pus out of them. For those angry red ones, I am apologetic to say that this mask will only soothe the redness instead of purging the entire thing. To use this as an acne treatment, put a nice blob on your zits, like you would do with a spot treatment, leave this overnight and wash off the next morning. xteeener, one of my favorite youtube gurus adores this product as well!

Personally, I feel that this mask only works for extracting very light blackheads. By light blackheads, I'm referring to those that have yet to harden and become a solid form. Those can be sucked out easily with this mask. If your blackheads belong to the hard and stubborn category, a pore strip or a peeling mask would be more advisable. Kindly refer to the article on Pore Problems for more information. To remove blackheads with this mask, apply this over the affected pore areas for about 15-20 minutes to let it dry.

Apply a nice thick layer such as this.

And it should look like this when it starts drying up. It should start looking all crackled and wrinkly. The lightest whitish green is the area that is completely dried.

Really, at the end of the mask, your skin will feel smooth and tight in the good way. This mask has a nice minty scent at the beginning but the smell turns a little wonky as it starts to dry up. You will also feel a slight cooling sensation upon the application of this mask. It will go away in a few minutes as the mask starts to "tighten" your skin while drying up!

Sadly, despite how good it sounds, it is NOT readily available in Singapore. There may be little beauty shops that sell these but at a marked up price. There's one store that sells this in the Yishun Shopping Mall near where I stay. Please note that Yishun Shopping Mall =/= Northpoint! Alternatively, you can spree these in from Drugstore.com.

Scent: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (From mint to wonky, not really my kinda thing~)
Effectiveness: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (Wonderful wonderful product! Cleans my pores really well and kills those zits!)
Overall : ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (One star off simply due to the scent, nothing else to penalize!)

Nothing much to judge on hence there're only 3 factors!

Also, remember to submit your entry for our GIVEAWAY HERE by 23.59 TODAY if you haven't already!

Cheers,
Chiharu ❤

Disclaimer : I bought both tubes with my own money!

Beauty Snippets : Pore Problem?

This is a problem faced by many. I've never addressed it before so here it is now. I hope this tiny article will help those facing this problem :D

Firstly, how does our pores usually gets enlarged?

Image via embarassingproblems

I hope this diagram helps you in visualizing what I'm about to describe. We all start from the pore size we were born with. Without proper care, the above will happen. The opening of the pore can be clogged by dirt or sebum and that will result in the formation of pimples. If you notice, pimples are generally swollen and painful to the touch. That is because all the pus has been building up thus causing your pore to expand AND swell.

Yes, you can burst it / poke it / heal it / squeeze it but what happens is that you'll get the dirt / pus out yet the pore remains enlarged. My main point here? They first key to solving pore problems is PREVENTION. To save yourself from pore problems, you have to keep your skin clear and healthy.

One way to do so is to use deep cleansing clay masks such as this.

Image via Queen Helene Masque

I own this green mask and I love it :D Use it twice a week to suck out all the oilies and dirt in your pores to prevent them from clogging and expanding! This one's hard to get though, I'm lucky the little beauty shop near my home sells these.

But what if, it's too late? 

Not everyone starts a proper skincare regime from an early age. What if your pores are ALREADY clogged? This is the next step to getting rid of your pore problems. If your pores are clogged, UNCLOG them. I call this step, EXTRACTION. You've heard of those pore strips right? Here's an example of a very popular one out in the market.

Image via iOffer

The Biore Nose Strip Pore Pack thingy. You know, the cloth thing that you first wet, place nicely over your nose, wait for it to dry and peel off with a satisfying but painful feeling? If you haven't used it, it's time to get one. But my problem with nose strips are that they're hard to put anywhere else except your nose. You can cut them up but they're not going to cover those hard to get places. The good thing is that these are always easily available at Watsons / NTUC / beauty shops.

So alternatively, one can always use something like this.

Image via hazel-yap

That product in the middle will be your savior. It's the kind of extremely stick mask that you have to slather all over your pores and let it dry before peeling. Personally, I think this extracts blackheads a lot better if you know how to use it well. It will be great if you pair it up with those two little bottles you see at the side. First you "soften" your blackheads, then the mask to extract them and the last bottle to "close" up the pores after extraction.

Imagine your pores being expanded by those dirt / sebum / pus, after you remove those dirty stuff, they'll automatically appear smaller because it is no longer being stretched. I hope everyone understands me till this point because it is really hard to explain without pictures. Imagine a lumpy wet cloth, after you squeeze all the water out, it looks smaller / more shriveled up right? Same theory applies.

This product is harder to find though, I believe Shills has a similar one that I mentioned before HERE.

Minimizing them

After you've done all of the above, your pore should be free of nonsense. Yet it still looks big. WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? This is something I've mentioned over and over again. I cannot stress how IMPORTANT it is to EXFOLIATE. Wait what?! How will exfoliating help in minimizing pores?

Here is an extremely ugly picture I have drawn in hope that it will help all of you better visualize my explanation. Don't laugh okay, I honestly am not an artist and this is the best I could do with paint.

Get it? Get it?! No really, don't laugh. I'm serious. Exfoliating helps in minimizing the APPEARANCE of your pores. When you remove the upper layer of dead skin, the "opening" becomes smaller hence the pores will all look smaller ^____^ A gentle, effective yet affordable choice can be the Meishoku DetClear that I'm using! See the review for it HERE~

Here's the harsh reality. You can NEVER really shrink the pore itself /.\ You can only minimize the appearance of pores. This is why you MUST remember the 3 key points to NOT having pore problems. Prevention, extraction and exfoliation.

I hope this helps those who don't know what to do with their pores. And as always, should any of you have a question, feel free to post it on our Facebook wall or email to Domokie@gmail.com! Also, please understand that you don't have to use the items I've specified, similar items that do the same job will do!

Love,
Chiharu ❤

Product Review: Shills Pore Minimizer Clarifying Toner

It's one minute to 12am, and I'm no Cinderella, but I'm gonna try to rush this post out before it's too far gone from midnight. (Trying to get 8 hours of sleep is no easy task when you're easily distracted~!) For those reading this in the dead of the night, please get to bed soon~ (o･д･)

Chiharu and I attended the Shill's event at Tampines 1 last Saturday with Teacher Judy Lin. Before we blog about the event though, here's a teaser post for you guys!

Each of the bloggers got a goodie bag filled with Shills' products, and this is one of the items I got:

The tiny illustration on the box reminds me of a white carrot with a black mushroom hair wig. Or maybe I'm just a tad too hungry. And of course, not forgetting the ingredients list at the back...

There's algae extract, calendula flower extract, vitia vinitfora seed extract and cucumis sativus in this thing. For those who have actually read the ingredients list for my previous post, you might have remembered cucumis sativus as being... cucumber. The ingredients are actually rather plant-based despite the relatively harsh-looking packaging.

Like most toner, the product comes in a (standard-issue) plastic bottle with a small opening when you open the cap. However, for this toner in particular, because of its ingredients, there may be powder sediments at the bottom of the bottle. Do not panic, as this is normal. What you have to do is simply shake the bottle, like so:

I lied -- I didn't actually shook the bottle in this picture... or it would have been blurry.

And then you pour some onto a piece of cotton pad and gently apply it to a cleansed face, as with your usual toner. I'm not sure if my camera was able to capture the details, but if you look closely enough you can probably see some of the whitish powder in the droplet of toner.

Overall, this is actually better than I thought it would be. It wasn't as harsh as the packaging made it out to be, though people with dry and sensitive skin should do a patch test first. Most powder toners are a little too drying for me though (I've got dry cheeks), so I personally wouldn't use them much. It should be good for people with oily/combination skin type though. Besides minimizing and tightening your pores, it also has pretty decent oil-control properties.

So on to the ratings:

Effectiveness (pore minimizing, clarifying): ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Hydration: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ (It is, after all, a powder toner. People with drier skin should take extra care.)
Texture: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ (Doesn't feel powdery after application.)
Scent:  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (A mild minty, powdery scent... reminds me of camomile lotion)
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ (Pretty decent~)

Signing off,
Ringo

Disclaimer: This product is given to me by Shills. Regardless, it does not affect my review in any way.