Etude House Any Cushion Pearl Aura Review and Ingredients Analysis

Etude House's Any Cushion Pearl Aura (full name Precious Mineral Any Cushion Pearl Aura) is the latest BB cushion to come from the brand. The Pearl Aura Cushion is, as the name suggests, infused with a brightening liquid for "pearl aura", or a highlighting effect. The idea is that the "pearl aura" will give you the glowy skin finish that is so popular in Asia, particularly Korea. As an additional benefit, the Pearl Aura Any Cushion also comes with SPF50+/PA+++ for sun protection, too!

Etude House Any Cushion Pearl Aura: The latest addition to Etude House's Precious Mineral Any Cushion line

I kind of have to admit, despite the popularity of glowy skin, I've found it to be something I have mixed feelings towards. While I love the idea of glowy skin - I mean, nothing says youth like radiant-looking skin, right? - when you live in a hot and humid climate, as I do, sometimes the "glowy" finish really verges more into "sweaty, and really gross looking" instead. It's rare to find a product that has enough glow to be noticeable, but still subtle enough to not look too glittery or overdone. So, I decided to put the Any Cushion Pearl Aura to the test, and see how it fares on me!


Etude House Any Cushion Pearl Aura: The idea is to give a "pearl aura" glowy finish to the skin
Etude House's Pearl Aura Any Cushion comes in only two shades, "Light Pearl Aura" and "Natural Pearl Aura". I have the shade Natural Pearl Aura for review today. There's so many questions we have to answer: What's the finish of this really like, glowy or gross? How does it fare on your skin? And what exactly is the "Pearl Aura" made of, anyway? So, let's get to the review!

Biotherm Life Plankton Essence Review, Ingredients Analysis and Q&A

Biotherm's Life Plankton Essence was launched last year, and is billed on the Biotherm website as a "Fundamental Skin Treatment". The description for the product goes on to say, "For the first time, Life Plankton is infused at its highest concentration within Life Plankton Essence (5% for anyone wondering). In 8 days, see and feel a new-born skin: more radiant, more even, smoother, hydrated, with greater resilience and fine lines faded. Immediately, the skin is soothed and softened." So essentially, this is a lotion-style essence product, with a high concentration of Life Plankton. This is meant to be used before other skincare products, like moisturizer.

Biotherm Life Plankton Essence: A lotion that claims to improve skin in 8 days

The Biotherm Life Plankton Essence was launched end of last year to much fanfare and raves, and this year has continued to get a steady stream of attention from both mainstream press and bloggers. So I figured it's probably a good time for me to finally get around to reviewing it! How does this product work, and what is inside the product? What is this Life Plankton, anyway?


Biotherm Life Plankton Essence: Contains the highest concentration of Life Plankton at 5%
To answer those questions and more, there's only one place to start looking - the ingredients list! Biotherm has also very kindly helped to answer a few of my questions on the product, to fill in some of the gaps and questions I had when analysing the ingredients list, and I'm really happy that they did - I mean, I'm just a random blogger, not Anna Wintour or anything, and I'm sure the PR people have lots on their plate, so I really appreciate it when I get to ask questions and they get answered! For this review though, I've incorporated some of the answers into my review, rather than having them as a separate standalone section, in order to keep the length of the review shorter and the flow less disjointed, but where the information has been provided by Biotherm, you'll see me mention it (e.g. "Biotherm/the company/the brand informed me that" or something similar). So, without further ado, let's jump right into the review!

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate Review and Ingredients Analysis

The Body Shop's Drops of Youth Concentrate is a new skincare product, and according to The Body Shop's website, it "works to help boost surface skin cell renewal", so that your "skin feels immediately moisturized and instantly softer". For those who like such products, it also claims to be silicone-free and paraben-free, with "99% natural ingredients".

The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate: Part of the Nutriganics Line

With such a description, I was very curious to check it out and see exactly how it works! I mean, even the packaging has a whole list of awesome things the Drops of Youth Concentrate does - smoother skin, firmer skin, more even skin, fresher skin. What more could a girl want, right?


The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate: Advertised skincare benefits include smoother, firmer and more even skin
With that in mind, I decided to take a look at the product's ingredients list first, in order to really get a sense of how it works, and whether it lives up to its hype.

Too Faced Love Flush Blush Swatches

Too Faced's Love Flush Blush is the new release from the brand, and these seem to be all over my Instagram account - I keep seeing all these pretty previews on my Instagram page, and I managed to actually swatch these at an event, so here are the swatches!

The Too Faced Love Flush Blush comes in 6 shades, that cover both light pinks, nudes, and deep intense plums, and the shade range accommodates deeper-skinned ladies as well as fairer girls. The shades are decently soft, and really pigmented - I think these are best applied with a stippling brush or some brush with less dense bristles in order to avoid a colour overdose! The packaging is also really pretty - each of these comes in a heart-shaped case, with really pretty embossing, too.

Anyway, without further ado, let's look at the swatches! Apologies for the indoors lighting!

Instagram Giveaway: Open Internationally, Last Few Days

If you aren't following me on Instagram, then you won't have seen the news about my Instagram giveaway, so if you missed it, then here's the news!

This giveaway is for 3 products from BonjourHK, some of I have previously reviewed in this blogpost:
1. Dr Bauer Pobling Pore Sonic Cleanser
2. DHC Cleansing Oil
3. Hada Labo TamagoHada Face Wash

The Pobling Pore Sonic Cleanser and DHC Cleansing Oil were both products that I've tried before and liked, and I hope you will like them too!

Basically the rules of the giveaway are already in my Instagram giveaway post, but all you have to do is follow myself and Bonjour.HK on Instagram, repost the image with the hashtag #bonjourmusicalhouses (that's how we keep track of entries), and tag your friends.

I know usually my giveaways are not limited to any particular blog platform (usually as long as you follow me on one platform you're in), but the format for this giveaway was decided by BonjourHK, so I apologize if you don't have Instagram. Don't worry though, there will be future giveaways!

Giveaway is open internationally, and ends on the 24th July, so if you're interested, don't wait too long to check it out!

(Giveaway prizes are provided by BonjourHK. I am not affiliated with/compensated by the company.)

Stuff I've Used Up: Lots of Empties and Pans!

It's been a few months since my last empties post, so here's a check in on what I've been using! I'm happy to add, I have a lot of empties to show you! I don't know about you, but since I'm a beauty hoarder (one of the problems of being a beauty addict, I suppose!), I have way more product than I can ever use up in my entire life (that might not, by the way, be an exaggeration), so I get overly excited whenever I do actually use up something!

Empties! So many empties, including skincare and makeup items of all sorts!

This time round, I have a lot more empties than normal because I decided to consciously use up some of the products that were starting to run low, especially for colour makeup, which I don't always do. I actually set a blush that looked like I could hit pan on it to be my "everyday" blush until it actually got used up, and I couldn't be prouder of myself, haha.


All my empties! Look at how much stuff I actually use up!
Anyway, let's start taking a look at these empties! Empties this time include both makeup (eyeshadow, blush, foundation, lipstick, and more), and skincare (moisturizers, pimple products, eye cream, sunscreen), so there is a lot to cover! Most of these are products I like, probably because I wouldn't even use up products I hate. So I think that the fact that I used all these products up says something!

The Face Shop Ink Lipquid Review and Swatches

The Face Shop Ink Lipquid (with the really cute portmanteau in the product name) is the Kbeauty brand's latest lip product, and it is marketed as a cross between a lipstick, lipgloss, and lip stain/liptint. The selling of the Ink Lipquid, according to the Face Shop, is the combination of moisture and staying power. I don't have the website, but reading off my phamplet, the Ink Lipquid promises "moist lips with 70% water base", and a "vivid color lasts on lips for 12 hours" (gotta love that slight Engrish over there, but you get the idea).

The Face Shop Ink Lipquid: Advertised as a cross between a lipstick, lipgloss, and lip stain

There are 12 shades in the range, and like most Korean brnds, the colours range from brights to pastels, and cover a fairly good array of colours. I have 3 of the shades today, PK03 Shah Pink, OR02 Orange Some, and RD02, Red Sing.


The Face Shop Ink Lipquid: Gives a long lasting stain, while not drying out the lips
Alright, let's get on with the swatches and reviews! I've got both arm and lip swatches, as well as an (accidental) staining test!

Kiehl's Iris Extract Activating Essence Review, Ingredients Analysis and Q&A

Kiehl's Iris Extract Activating Essence is one of the brand's major launches for the year - it's a brand new product, rather than an extension of an existing line, so that's pretty cool. According to the Kiehl's websites, the Kiehl's Iris Extract Activating Essence is an "essential 'first step' anti-aging treatment to maintain skin’s youthful texture, reduce fine lines, and activate radiance", and a "multi-action treatment essence for youthful, radiant skin".

If you're familiar with the concept of lotions (which have been very popular in Asia and beyond over the past few years), then the Kiehl's Iris Extract Activating Essence is essentially a similar product - basically, a light, watery lotion that you can apply on your face before heavier creams and treatments, like face creams and so on. Kiehl's claims that applying this lotion first "optimizes penetration of subsequent skin treatments", and I've seen similar claims made by other brands which sell lotion of their own.



As with all my other skincare reviews, this review starts off with the ingredients list, only this time, I've also managed to get answers from Kiehl's too, which is pretty exciting! Since not every brand is as open to answering questions about their products (especially questions like mine, which are more about the ingredients and formulation, rather than things like "is this better for oily skin or dry skin", which can be tougher to answer), I'm really happy and thankful that Kiehl's didn't shy away from answering my questions. In fact, I think they've got some pretty good responses, as we shall soon see!