Asian Skincare & Makeup BonjourHK Haul Part 2: Berrisom and Holika Holika

Yes, more Kbeauty skincare and makeup goodness! This is the second post on my most recent BonjourHK haul, just because there was too much to blog about in one post without making it super long and photo-heavy. (That said, I do think my previous post on Part 1 of the haul was indeed quite long and photo-heavy, but at least I tried!)


Yes, these all came in one package!
Yesterday, we took a look at the skincare products - there was cleanser, face/body gel, skin analyzers, and masks of various sorts. Today, we're going to be looking at the lip products! One is a makeup product I'm pretty excited about, while another one is a multi-step lip mask pack.

My second haul from BonjourHK, a retailer that carries a lot of Kbeauty brands

Let's jump right in!

Asian Skincare & Makeup BonjourHK Haul Part 1: Holika Holika, Secret A, Cos Beauty and More

Some time back I hauled from Kbeauty shop BonjourHK, my second haul since my previous one I blogged about some months back. As always, the draw was the array of Kbeauty items, including both makeup and skincare! And it is quite a haul too!

My second haul from BonjourHK, a retailer that carries a lot of Kbeauty brands

As with the last time, my haul arrived quite speedily - within 2 weeks, if I recall correctly, and everything was nicely packaged and nothing was broken. The haul includes skincare products from some mainstream Kbeauty brands, such as Holika Holika, as well as more niche ones, such as Berrisom, Secret A, and also other Asian-but-not-Kbeauty brands, such as Cos Beauty. And the products range from


BonjourHK Haul: Holika Holika, Secret A, Cos Beauty, and Berrisom
Since this haul has quite a lot of stuff, I've broken it down into two posts, so that it won't be too long. In this first post, I'll deal with the face cleansers, skin lotions, skin analyzers, and other face and skin stuff. In the next post, I'll deal with the lip products! So let's get started!

BonjourHK Haul and Mini-Reviews: DHC, Hada Labo, Dr Bauer and More!

I'm always discovering new ways to buy more makeup and beauty products from, and recently I was introduced to BonjourHK's onlince website! I'm actually somewhat familiar with Bonjour, as it is a chain of stores across Hong Kong selling beauty products at accessible prices, much like Ulta (if you're in the US), Watsons, Guardian or Sasa (if you're in Asia). When I visited Hong Kong 3 years back, I stepped into quite a few Bonjour shops, although I didn't buy anything (I ended up with the smallest haul ever - sigh!). But the thing I liked about Bonjour is the eclectic mix of brands and products - there's everything from mainstream brands to niche Asian beauty brands I've never heard of before.

My BonjourHK Haul: A whole bunch of skincare and makeup items from various Asian brands

I actually never realized that Bonjour had an online website, but they do! And the website has pretty cheap shipping (which is free if you buy above a certain dollar amount threshold), and they ship internationally, too. And of course, the range of brands and types of products are just as varied as ever - there's everything from skincare to makeup to skin devices, and the brands range from fairly mainstream Asian brands (like DHC and Hada Labo) to more niche ones (like Choosy and Yu Mei). I was super excited when the package arrived, right on time within the 7-21 days window stated on the website.


My BonjourHK Haul: Includes brands both fairly well-known, as well as some undiscovered gems
The mass of products above, as well as the fact that I actually want to do a mini-review for each product rather than just run through the haul, means that this post is going to be pretty long (and photo heavy). So if you're going to read onwards, don't forget to buckle up before you go! And if you're all ready, let's just head straight into my product-by-product quick review!

BeautyAsia 2015: Highlights and Hauls: Skincare, Brushes, and Nail Polish

BeautyAsia came to town a couple of weeks back, and it's one of the largest scale beauty trade shows in Singapore, so I couldn't miss it! I also took photos of some of the highlights that I'd like to share with you guys! There were tons and tons of things to see (over 100 booths!), so I thought I'd just give you guys a quick view of some of the highlights, and what I bought!

BeautyAsia 2015: One of the ever-popular nail polish displays

As you might guess, this year's BeautyAsia had a pretty big crowd, as always. And, just like last year's BeautyAsia 2014 and BeautyAsia 2013, some of the perennial favourites were there - Hakuhodo was there with their gorgeously soft (if expensive!) brushes, and the nail polish distributors were there too. So, without further ado, let's take a dive into what I saw there!

Coastal Scents Haul: Silica Powder Spheres, Hot Pots Eyeshadows (Taupe!), Loose Powders

Coastal Scents had a 40% off storewide sale after Christmas (don't worry if you missed it, they typically have a 50% off Black Friday sale as well as the end-of-year sale, and other various discounts throughout the year), and I just had to haul this time, even though shipping was a killer, because I was in desperate need of my staple, the silica powder spheres! I'm nearly running out of my big bag of silica powder spheres, so I thought this was a good opportunity to replenish! And being the beauty junkie I am, I couldn't just stop there, so I ended up getting some of the Coastal Scents Hot Pots Eyeshadow Pans as well, since I've been hearing good things about them!

Coastal Scents haul: Silica powder spheres, eyeshadows, and other loose powders

So yes, this is my complete haul! I'll admit that I just got what I wanted, so the volume of stuff I got is a lot, but the variety is small - I really just stuck to my loose powder staples and eyeshadows! But hopefully next time I haul, I'll buy a bigger variety of stuff! Although shipping was around US$27 or US$28 or so, I have to say that I didn't mind, giving the weight of the powders I was ordering (2.5lbs, or 1.25-ish kg). I used Fedex (at those package rates it was the cheapest option), and my order arrived in 5 days, less than a week! It definitely arrived faster than I thought it would!

Coastal Scents haul: Shipping was not cheap, but my haul arrived in 5 days

Anyway, enough of my ramblings, I'm sure you're more keen in taking a closer look at what I actually bought. So let's dive right in, and start with my favourite item of my entire haul!

Etude House Haul: Highlighter, Lip Tint, Nail Sticker and Steel Balls!

You guys know by now that I own quite a number of things from Etude House, and that I like their makeup and nail polish products. I do tend to have a soft spot for some of their products, so when there is a sale, I usually can't help buying a few things! This time, I was pretty good with the self-control and walked away with just a few items!

My little Etude House Haul - it was all on sale too!

I got a liptint, a highlighter, some nail stickers, and steel balls! And I think I got these for under $20, so that made me doubly happy too!

Beauty Asia 2014 Haul: Hakuhodo Brush and Nail Polish!

Beauty Asia 2014 was held for 3 days in February last week, and I am excited to say, since it was in a central area, I managed to head down during my lunch break to take a look! And of course, I couldn't resist hauling! This time, unfortunately, unlike last year, I missed the guided tour meant for press and media, so I guess I'll just focus on the hauls that I had this year!

One of the highlights of Beauty Asia 2014: Hakuhodo brushes!

Tiny Étude House Haul: Lipstick, Nail Polish, and Skincare

This isn't a huge haul by any means, but Etude House, the Korean drugstore brand known for its cute packaging and products, was having a sale, and I picked up a few items that I couldn't wait to share with you guys!

My Tiny little Etude House haul! The skincare isn't pictured in this photo, though.

This time, the haul includes lipstick, nail polish, and skincare!

Haul: Two Pretty Neutral Eyeshadow Palettes

Oh yes, it's yet another haul post! I know that I've been hauling lots recently, from the Illamasqua sale, the KATE sale, a Sleek haul (no sale, though). So why am I still hauling? Because it was on sale, duh!


The Body Shop Smoky Moonstone Palette - Gorgeous Metallic Frosty Neutrals

KATE Makeup Haul: Eyeshadow Palettes and Lip Products (And a Related Ramble)

Kanebo, the Japan-bases parent company of KATE (drugstore cosmetics brand that I've swatched before), Lunasol (upscale cosmetics brand), Freshel, Impress, and Blanchir, had a sale just a couple of weeks ago. And you know me - I just had to check it out! I do have a fondness for both KATE and Lunasol, so it would have been understandable if I had emptied my wallet into Kanebo's coffers. Fortunately, I was a good girl, so I did some planning - I set myself a budget, rationalized all my purchases, and revised each item before proceeding to the checkout counter. And, this was what I finally ended up with!


Who doesn't love a cute Asian cosmetics haul? And it's KATE, too!

Illamasqua Haul: Nail Polish and Eyeshadow!

Illamasqua recently had an Easter sale (which took the form of an easter egg hunt), and of course, I HAD to order something. So, look at my loot! Ta-da!

Illamasqua haul! Yay!
Now, I know that I do have more than enough makeup and nail polish, but you guys shouldn't judge me for my beauty product acquisition illness. I mean, it was a sale! 45% discount with an extra 10% discount on top of that, guys! One does not simply pass up an Illamasqua sale!

Come on, who can pass up an Illamasqua sale?!
Yes, one does not, indeed. But if you did, Illamasqua's two big sale seasons are Christmas, and Easter. I'm guessing there are a couple more, but I'm hanging on til the end of the year to see what's up then. Anyway, you want to see what I bought?

Sleek Haul: Mostly Blushes and one Eye Dust!

I hauled from the Sleek Makeup website sometime back, and now I'm the proud mama of four Sleek blushes and one Eye Dust! I'm pretty excited! I actually really liked ordering from the Sleek website, the swatches provided on skin really helped to visualize the products (although there are already tons of Sleek swatches out there, including mine). But it was the delivery that was a little bit problematic. I have no idea what went wrong, but the order had to be shipped out three times before it got to me. Fortunately I was third time lucky! But all this was back at the end of last year, so I hoped whatever caused that snafu has been cleaned up.


Anyway, let's get to the haul. My previous experiences with Sleek blushes have all been good, so I was really very excited to get ahold of these babies! I'm just going to spend some time drooling over these now, because they just look so gorgeous. The photos below are provided for you to join in the gratituous drooling! Take that, overly-expensive, crappy makeup! Sleek's got your ass kicked!

Beauty Asia 2013: Highlights and Haul!

Beauty Asia 2013 just happened earlier last week, and it was three days of excitement! Occuring somewhere in the early part of the year, this annual event showcases some of the latest and greatest in beauty. This year, when I went for Beauty Asia 2013, there was a lot of salon equipment for nails, hair, and so on - it was exciting.

There was a lot of highlights this year, featuring all manner of items - from UV protective clothes to hair wax to home sauna systems, so I just zoomed on the ones which interested me the most. First, Hakuhodo brushes. These are the Rolls Royce of makeup brushes, and a brush is not cheap! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), these weren't available for sale. Instead, these were just demos, which had super soft and dense bristle quality, and no weirdo kinked or bent hairs. Every bristle on the brush was perfect. The company appeared to be looking for a distributor. I hope they come to Singapore soon!



Another of the highlights for me includes Niks Cover Cream, which is a highly pigmented camouflage cream that is meant for covering scars, moles, tattoos, and so on. The amazing thing about it is that it comes in a range of 18 shades, which is pretty cool. I mean - how many concealers do you know which have 18 shades? Cool!


There were also Novalash lash extensions. I'm not big on this area, but from what I can tell, this booth was quite popular. They were apparently doing free demos.


More highlights. This is PureGel, a gel-based nail polish with organic ingredients. The star product being showcased was the base coat. This still requires curing under a UV or LED lamp, though the product is supposed to be better to your nails, and easier to remove.


And, Denman has brought out scented hair brushes! There are various scents - strawberry shortcake, lemon sherbet, wild dewberry, green apple, and so on. It was a bit gimmicky to me, but the idea is that the brush makes your hair smell nice. Ideal if you have skipped a hair washing session, I suppose!


I guess for me as a beauty fanatic who doesn't own a salon or do nails freelance, perhaps the most interesting thing for me was the nail polish! They were cheaper than buying retail, so lots of girls were zeroing in on the nail polish and just buying their fill!


I bought Deborah Lippmann's Ray of Light (OMG! Blurple! OMG! Jelly! OMG! Flakies!) and Across the Universe, which has been a long, long lemming of mine.


I also bought Zoya's Adina (another old lemming), and Faye, which has a gorgeous glass-fleck type duochrome.


I also got China Glaze's Glitz N Pieces, which stunned me in the bottle with its funky glitter! And also some pRecision brand colour called (I think) Sage.


And, and, and, I absolutely HAVE to show you this kit I bought, from Sur Co. Ltd., a Korean company specializing in nail art and nail care items. They had all kinds of cool stuff in their booth, and I was really impressed by it all! But what struck me most was this Nail Transfer Set. They call it "Printing Nail Polish", and the crown jewel of this set is a nail transfer solution, which alllows you to transfer any printed design (printing with laser printer is preferable) onto your nail! Basically, you paint your nail with the transfer solution, and place your desired printed design over the nail, printed side down. You paint another layer of transfer solutiom It's super cool, and I can't wait to try it out!


Anyway, that was my experience at Beauty Asia - fun, entertaining, and eye-opening. Beauty Asia 2014 will probably be occuring in February next year too, so stay tuned for that!

Étude House Warehouse Sale Haul!

Happy new year everyone! I thought I'd ring in the new year by showing you a recent haul from an Étude House warehouse sale. You guys know me, I was all over it! Since all the items were SGD$10 and below, I probably bought a little more than I should have, but hey, this is all stuff I will use, and they were so cheap!

First up, I got five bottles of nail polish! Only four are pictured here, though, as I accidentally left out one when photographing! These were $2 each, and the colours are fab! The colours are (in L-R order) GD011, BL019, WH001, and 04 (sorry for not listing the full names, they're in Korean, and I didn'thave time to track down the full names).


Next, nail art stuff! These were $1 each, so I got a set of stickers and faux clear crystals (always useful for nail art!).


I also got makeup! I got one blush - I actually wanted to get more because the packaging was just so pretty, but most of them were too shimmery for my taste and had abundant chunky glitter, so I only got one single matte blush. This is a Face Color Corset Blush.


I also got lipstick and lipgloss! There was a large abundance of shades, but again, most weren't up my alley (a lot of so-pastel-it's-unflattering pinks) so I picked the shades that were a little more wearable. Let's take a look.


I got two Lucidarling Fantastic Rouge Glosses - a nude cream colour and a gorgeous red with shimmer!


I also got a Lucidarling Fantastic Rouge Lipstick in a gorgeous pinky-brown shade with a cream finish. I love this shade - it's a very universally-flattering shade that would work on most skintones.


So that's my haul from the warehouse sale! All in all, this cosy me just under SGD$35, so I'm pleased with my ability to shop on a budget! What hauls have you guys made lately? Tell me!

Make Up Store Small Haul: Tanja and Doreen

For those who haven't heard yet, Make Up Store nail polished are buy-one-get-free for OCBC credit card holders. I don't have an OCBC card, but my friend did, so I dragged her down so that I could take advantage of the deal!


The polishes are SGD$22 each, so a BOGOF deal makes them $11, which is not expensive, but not super cheap either. Anyway, I found the colour selection somewhat limited, despite the large number of polishes they had. With the exception of some glass-flecked polished and holos (which are similar to the China Glaze holos I already have), nothing much stood out to me. So I only ended up getting two polishes.

The first is Tanja, which was love at first sight for me. It's a gorgeous military green, with a fine light green shimmer that is visible from the right angle. I was sold on this colour just for the shimmer - it just made colour so much more complex.


The second colour I got was Doreen (which is cute - I actually know a Doreen in real life!), a pinky-coral glass flecked polish. I love this shade. The pinky-coral shade looks good on all skintones, and I love a good glass fleck polish.


So that's my tiny haul! Did anyone get anything from the promotion?

Hong Kong Haul: Lavshuca and Revlon (Yes, Revlon)

I recently spent 2 weeks in Hong Kong, and I really enjoyed it there. The food is awesome, you don't need a car to get around, and there's something for everyone - shopping (both high-end and low-you-must-bargain-at-markets-end, sight-seeing, scenery, plenty to do both day and night! I totally ate til I was stuffed! The only thing is that the houses and apartments are really small (so by extension your hotel room won't be too large), and that not everyone there has a good command of English, so if like me you don't know any Cantonese, it can be a little daunting. But I loved it, and I have a small haul to show you!

Now you know I rarely do the huge hauls, because I already have a looot of makeup, but I can't resist adding to my collection every now and then. So here you go, a small haul! (I have to tell you. I am so, so proud of my self-control. You know how much self-restraint it took to not buy up everything in sight, huh? Huh?)

First, I got a couple of Lavshuca items. Lavshuca is one of the subsidiary brands under Japanese skincare and cosmetics brand Kanebo, but targeted at the drugstore market. You gotta love the pretty packaging! It was soooo hard picking just a couple of items, but I did it!

The first item I got was the Lavshuca Cheek Color in RD-1. They had 4 shades in all (PK-1, OR-1, RD-1 and RD-2) and this was my favourite. Although the name might make you think it's red, it's actually not. I'd call it a soft pink-coral. Very pretty. Best part? This was less than SGD$10 (~US$6-7), so it was a great deal!


The next Lavshuca item I bought was the Custom Selective Eyes Duo in BR-2. Lavshuca has so many eyeshadow palettes, but a lot of them had excessively glittery, unpigmented shades I knew I wouldn't use. And I didn't want to buy a palette knowing I'd only use half the shades in it. But then I saw this little baby, and it was love at first sight.

The Custom Selective Eyes Duos come in a sliding mechanism, so you can slide the entire lid off. What I love about BR-2 is that it's got both lovely colours, and the shades have gorgeous texture and good pigmentation. The first shade is a light antique golden brown, the second is a deeper brown. Now this is love at first sight!


Other than the makeup, I also got nail polish! I know it seems weird to get Revlon nail polish in Hong Kong, but these colours never reached Singapore, and they were discounted, so they were super cheap at only SGD$4 (~US$2-3). I know the US girls are used to picking up cheap drugstore makeup from Costco or the Dollar Store, but in Asia the makeup sales are extremely miserable by comparison - if you're lucky the drugstores give you 20% off, that's it. And this is not even considering the fact that US brands tend to jack up their prices in Asia, sometimes quite recklessly. So sometimes, even with the sales, it's not that great a deal compared to what folks in the US are paying. But anyway, enough with my ranting.


I got Whimsical (the Deborah Lippmann Glitter In The Air dupe), Naughty (Chanel Paradoxal dupe), and Popular (not a dupe of anything, but so pretty!). Yes, I know these have come and gone in the US, and are in the discount bins in Hong Kong, but they haven't even reached Singapore yet (and probably never will). See how sad my life is?

Aaand, now for the non-haul stuff: sightseeing! For the food photos, I actually took those on my iPhone instead, so if you want to see those, do follow me on Instagram as I'll be putting up my food pics there (like I always do)! This was the best photo I could get of the Hong Kong night scene. This was at Victoria Harbour, near Star Avenue.


We also went to Ocean Park, one of the theme parks there. I skipped Disneyland because I've already went to the one in Anaheim, and if you've been there, the other Disneylands are just pale copies of the original (not to mention all the narration for the rides are in Cantonese, which I don't understand). This is Ocean Park from the entrance. Those mascots are kinda scary ugly looking, but it looks a lot better on the inside!


And there we are, inside Ocean Park. I did tell you the inside was much nicer than the outside right? There was a lot of fun stuff to do here - rides, look at animals (they have like a mini-zoo inside there - there). I really enjoyed it!


Photo of a panda at the Asian animals exhibit. I had to stalk Mr Panda while he was eating for quite awhile to get this shot, a lot of the other shots were blurry. I'll be posting the animal photos on Instagram too - you can see the goldfish pic I already put up!


And, a view of Victoria Harbour from Victoria Peak. Here you can really see how crowded Hong Kong is! I'm definitey a city kinda person, so I don't mind it :)


Lastly, a photo of the Star Ferry at Central pier. Remember when OPI put out that Hong Kong collection and a shade was called Meet Me On The Star Ferry? Yeah, this is the Star Ferry! (PS - I don't think anyone actually wants to meet on the Star Ferry. For one, it's not exactly a cruise liner and not that comfortable to meet someone on. And for another, the ride is like, 5 minutes? So I'm not sure how long you'd get to actually meet someone for on that ride...)


And that's it for this post! Hope you enjoyed it!

Recent Hauls (aka Stuff I Instagrammed)

If you follow me on Twitter, or follow me on Instagram, you would have seen a lot of hauling over the past couple of weeks! This is because I was in the USA during that period of time, and of course I had to hit up the local Walgreens and CVS to get my drugstore makeup fix!

Being a budget kinda shopper, I really just targeted things that were on sale. In addition to Walgreens and CVS, I also looked at the Marshalls, Nordstrom Rack, and Ross stores around the area. Sometimes the makeup is really banged up in those stores, but you do get some good buys. Seriously. You gotta dig to get to the gold, I guess.

Anyway, here are my Instagrammed shots of my hauls. This is the first haul. Basically it was just stuff that was on sale - which happened to be Covergirl (I finally got that Covergirl Tapestry Taupe eyeshadow, which is one of those cult products, although lesser known since it's not a fancy brand), and Essence of Beauty (those red-and-black things are the EOB Crease Brushes, which I've reviewed before on my blog. I think they re-packaged it or something.) and a bunch of other stuff. I shop makeup like I shop clothes - I just make a beeline for the stuff that's on sale, and work from there. Yeah, I'm cheap like that.

Oh oh, and I'm so happy that I got some of the Sally Hansen Gem Crush nail polishes. I don't know what's wrong with Sally Hansen, but outside of the US, their product range is really, really, really dull. Here in Asia, all they have is a bunch of pinks, sheers, nail treatment products, base coats and top coats and stuff like that. Even the more "wild" colours we get in Asia aren't that exciting, e.g. shimmery forest green. All the exciting launches in the past few years (e.g. the HD nail polishes) never make it out of the USA. I had to go to extreme lengths to get my botles of Opulent Cloud, Mystic Lilac, and my HD DVD and HD Spectrum. I mean, come on Sally, not all of us here in Asia like to wear pinks and sheers, you know. I'm dying for more colour over here! Bring in the holos! The duochromes! The good stuff! But I digress. I was happy to get these, because I'm pretty sure I'll never see them here in Asia.

And here is the second haul. I finally, FINALLY, managed to get my hands on one of those legendary Wet n' Wild #666 lipliner pencils. When I was living in Chicago, my local WAGS was always out of stock of these babies for all 3 whole years that I was there. Seriously, it must have been a conspiracy or something. I never got my hands on these in Chicago, but for some reason the #666 pencils are a lot more plentiful in California. Sheesh. You West coast guys get all the good stuff. Come to think of it, even the Marshalls and Nordstrom Racks had better make up here in the Bay area than in Chicago. In Chicago the downtown Nordies Rack mostly had really dug into Stila and Smashbox (on occasion you would get Trish McEvoy and Shu Uemura in tiny quantities). You guys get Urban Decay. Wrapped up in plastic so noone can dig their grimy fingers into them. Life's not fair, really.

Also, I got some more Sally Hansen Gem Crush nail polishes. I felt like getting more of them, but some of them looked kinda similar to colours I already have, or were just colours I wouldn't wear, or looked less exciting (e.g. pale pink glitter - yawn). Anyway, I got a couple more colours, so yay me.

Also, while I was at a Tanger Outlet mall, I got this baby! Lancome Le 54 nail polish - yes the name is Le 54 (no idea what it means - French for "The 54", maybe? Who knows what these fancy French names mean) and it was a polish from Lancome's Spring 2011 collection. It's a sheer light purple sheer (photo makes it look darker than it is IRL) with exciting dark blue glitter. Fantastic. I would wear this alone or layered, and I'm thinking maybe a jelly or glitter sandwich may be perfect with this shade, non? It would be tres chic!

Annd this! I know, you guys in the USA have had it for ages. But I finally got a hold of Revlon Scandalous! This is a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance, so I'm excited to get my paws on this, since Lippmanns are usually beyond my budget. I like dupes! I was trying to find Revlon Whimsical too, but I checked in every single Walgreens and CVS, and they didn't have it.

Anyway, this was what I instagrammed. I actually bought more than that (I got an elf eyeshadow palette, and a couple of Essie polishes, also from 2011 Spring, but at the awesome price of US$3+ per polish, as well as some clothes and shoes - but this isn't a clothes/shoes blog, is it?), but I haven't gotten around to instagramming any of them yet, because I had to do other less important non-makeup related things, like sightseeing, traveling, and actually spending time with my family (I know, I know, how dare I have a life outside of this blog). But here's the whole shebang, all the beauty-related stuff (makeup, skincare, nail polish) that my mum and I hauled over the past 2 weeks. No clothes, shoes, or bags. I got most of the makeup and nail polish, my mum got most of the skincare. Good times!

And apologies for the craptastic picture quality, these were really taken with my iPhone on the fly. And on my tiny iPhone screen, these sure looked a lot better. Shucks. Anyway, you'll be seeing some of the new stuff around the blog, with better photos and actual reviews soon, and I hope you'll like it - I can't wait to share them with you!