Innisfree Long Wear Cushion BB (Review/Swatch)

Hey everyone! I've decided to go on a 'BB cushion challenge' because I've accumulated way too many over the past couple of months (3 omg! And... I have an existing one from Laniege that hasn't been used up). 

I decided to use them because as you know, keeping the makeup for too long isn't really very advisable so I thought I'd make good use of them and write some reviews for everyone. Then you can decide if you want to pick them up locally or purchase them while in Korea :)

So my idea is to test each product out daily for a week and even if it sucks (touch wood!), I would have given it sufficient time to figure out how to work the product to my skin.

This is how I will test out the other BB cushions along the way. You can follow me on IG (@paulalogy) to see what I will be testing out week after week.

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My first new BB cushion is from Innisfree - Innisfree Long Wear Cushion in No. 21 Natural Beige.

They actually landed on our sunny island not too long ago (it was launched in Korea in May 2014) and I had seen advertisements of them from the Innisfree Singapore Facebook page so when my cousins went to Korea at the end of May/early June, I told them to pick it up for me in No. 21 because that is the colour I usually use for BB cushions.

One thing to note is that all the brands in Korea usually have shades in the same numbers i.e. 13, 21, 23 etc and they are usually the same colour skin tones across most brands. 

My usual Laniege BB colour is No. 21 in Natural Beige so I told my cousin to pick No. 21 for me from Innisfree. Wrong move, you'll see why later on!

pic cr to Innisfree Singapore

Picked the Long Wear type over the Water Glow option because I've naturally oily/combination skin. The Water Glow is more geared towards providing hydration so those of you with dry skin types should try that instead of the Long Wear version.

Here's the BB cushion pact. It comes with a mirror in the compact and a plastic cover attached to over the cushion area for you to place the sponge on top of it.

I've always thought it was an ingenious idea to have the design of the lid in this manner actually! Kudos to whoever who thought of it in Korea haha!

When you open the cushion pact for the first time, there would be a sticker seal over the cushion area to indicate that it's a brand new product. I already threw mine away by the time I started taking photos for this entry so, will try and keep that in mind for my next BB cushion next week! :D

This is how Innisfree advises its customers to use the BB cushions:

pic cr to Innisfree Singapore

 

I typically just take the flat sponge puff, press it into the cushion once and then slowly pat the product all over my face.

One thing that I've noticed from using this Innisfree cushion pact is that the cushion sponge is really tough and I really had to press quite hard into the sponge to get the product onto the puff.

My Laniege one is much softer and less 'tiring' to use lol! Ok, I'm really just plain lazy :x Use makeup also need to use strength simi logic leh? :/

  

Hand swatch in natural daylight

The colour was actually a tad too light for me :( On hindsight, I should have gone down to an Innisfree store to try the colour but I was lazy to go all the way to town just to try the colour haha.

Imagine the shock of my life when I first applied the BB cream on the first day.

My colleague told me 'Wah lau why your face so white huh' when I reached the office OTL

I thought it would oxidize on me so I happily left home looking like that. Sobs.

I learnt my lesson after that first day and after which I used my Chanel Les Beiges Healthy Sheer Glow Powder in No. 30 which is 1 shade darker for my skin after applying the BB cream to balance out the colour.

My final thought of this product - I like it! Even if the colour didn't match me lol. 

It lasted as its name suggested for a long time and each day when I used my makeup wipes to wipe off the product, there was alot left on my face actually. 

And the oil control is really superior compared to the Laniege one I used in the past (it's the Laniege BB Snow Cushion FYI) because I only found myself blotting about 5-6 hours after the application and even then, my face wasn't as oily as compared to when I'm using other face products.

So given that we live in such hot and humid weather conditions, I think they really formulated this BB formula very well for Southeast Asian countries! And SPF 50+/PA+++ too! Protection against both UVA and UVB rays wohoo!

Innisfree's Long Wear Cushion & Water Glow Cushion BB compacts retails for SGD$34 and KRW20,000 each. Does not come with any refill packs unlike most higher end Korean brands like Laniege and IOPE etc.
Refills sell at SGD$20 and KRW 10,000 each.
Hope this review helps and stay tuned for the next BB cushion review.
(Edit: Here are the reviews for the IOPE BB cushion!)
I will continue to file Korean brands under this label 'K-Beauty' so you can check those out if you're heading to Korea soon. I have a ton of Korean makeup goodies to share with you guys actually hoho!
Alright, annyeong for you! :)

My 25th Birthday :)

I thought I'd better do this before July is over HAHAHA! I cannot believe it'll be August so soon leh wah lau. How did time fly so quickly?!

So.... yeah a few weeks ago I finally turned 25 years old. Quarter of a century and.... OH EM GEEEEEE D:

I am still in denial even now lol.

My birthday celebrations started about 2 days before the actual day in the office.

We had durian cake as per our office norms because we all love the home made durian cake that my colleague bakes :D

Nom nom nom!

 

Please pardon my bare face lol. It was a horrible day cos we had meetings in the morning and by the time we finished up everything it was lunch time. Hungry die me then lol.

I brought home about another 3 slices and devoured them over the weekend, the start of cake weekend cos I was eating cakes non-stop the entire 3 days!! THE HORROR.

Next day was a Saturday so as usual, headed for dance class haha.

Yup, #motd #makeupmess here with the bare essentials really. Usually I try and apply less stuff on my face when I go for dance lessons because they all go away by the time class ends - makes me look even more cui wtfffff D:

 

At night went out with the bf's friends and gang to the airport for 4Fingers.

And erh, they ended up treating me to a matcha lava cake at a cafe in Bedok85 because it was almost midnight then so yeah, actual birthday haha.

I'm sad to say that not many knew it was my birthday the next day (sad truth of life to be honest...) but nevertheless, still happy to have been surrounded by close friends ya esp when the bf is not around.

It was still fun at the cafe, FaceTiming the chao bf who was at the club that night (insert eye daggers).

 

And this is the birthday cake that I bought for myself HAHAHAHAA

Yup, puking rainbows that whole week - my third rainbow cake in fact.

Doesn't it look so colourful and yummy!? I swear this store has the best rainbow cake in Singapore!

I first tried Lynda Ann's rainbow cake through Trevor who bought it near the guys' Sunday soccer area. Somehow, I tried it and fell in love. LOL! Kept thinking about it and decided to just eff it and order my own cake for my birthday.

I mean what century already right? Why can't I buy my own cake leh? LOL even though it is quite sad from another point of view but nvm... No bf to buy for me what to do :(

I actually went all the way to Bedok North Ave 3 to get it the day before my birthday and painstakingly took a bus home with it because there was no atm around and the chao cab driver that I flagged down didn't have a NETS machine in his taxi. 

Happy birthday to me! :)

Went to church that Sunday and after that had dim sum brunch with my family and grandmother.

Overordered too much food and couldn't finish everything lol. So my dad refused to cut the cake at the restaurant so I brought it back to my grandmother's place after that meal and chilled for awhile before 'cutting' it.

With the 2 beloved ladies in my life - grandmother and mother!

I always think that we should be grateful to our mothers on our birthdays because even though it is a happy occasion, she went through hell and contractions to give birth to us. So thank you Mummy for enduring all that shit 25 years ago that day! SARANGHAEYO :D

 

With le brother and my maid who brought me up as a baby

Group pic together with my cousin here too.

Yay! Noms rainbow cake wohoo

Typically, rainbow cakes just taste like food colourings or have this really synthetic feel in the mouth once consumed. I blogged about this previously how I hated that rainbow cake from Dean & Deluca.

But this, everyone, is just.... awesome. Lynda Ann's does their cakes with the right amount of cake to give the person the actual 'Hey, I'm eating a cake!' feeling than those who bake measly flour portions that when you into it, you're basically eating air only lol. I hope my descriptions are making sense ah! (Totally not a food blogger clearly...)

Yeah and the cream cheese that accompanies the cake is sugared to the right sweetness and not overwhelming at all.

Basically, just go and try it and you will never find another other rainbow cakes in Singapore that tastes better than theirs!

Ok, enough gushing about rainbow cakes.

Spent the afternoon with the bff, Jace and Stella who came over to use my nail polishes and makeup.

LOL I never envisioned girly bonding time to be as such because.... I basically did manicures for them -.-" and whose birthday was it actually? /raises an eyebrow/

All dolled up and ready to go sing us some karaoke!

Left the house about late afternoon and I drove us all to Cineleisure because we were having buffet dinner at Kbox hahaha.
Singing karaoke wohooo!!!~

My surprise cake with my fav Woodstock HAHAHA

The way they brought the cake in was epic funny! I was getting kinda bored because Jace & Stella disappeared for a really long time on the pretext of going to the toilet.

Turns out they walked to 313@Somerset's Charlie Brown Cafe despite a branch at Cine's level 4...

I got suspicious because they weren't coming back after a super duper long time. Then I got thirsty and wanted to go get myself a drink.

Super good timing because I walked out before Wanjun and Sinhui could stop me and found the other 2 outside the door bringing the cake in LOLOLOL.

But nevertheless, thank you my gzbs!! :D

 

I am so not crying because I was touched. Stella blinded me with her camera's flash and it was so darn painful!!!!!! T.T

Our pri school memories lol - shit we do when we run out of Korean songs to sing hahah

Ended the night at 10pm and we all went home because sad working adults like us had work the next morning boohoo.

They bought me a charm from Pandora :) The mouse on the far right.

My birthday month usually comes with alot of perks who try and make you spend even more during your birthday month - Juyin always says nevermind just spend because it's your birthday, super good excuse to use lol!

Went to Laniege a few days later to utilise my 20% discount during my birthday month. I got really lucky and was picked for their birthday treat actually. Will blog that in another entry!

And then my chao dongsaeng Xuanzhi treated me to Yoogane the following weekend for dinner lol.

I should really update that entry I wrote about Yoogane because I feel like the service standards have dropped since :(

Really sad because I find the F&B service standards in Singapore to be really below par compared to other Asian countries.

I love eating out in Taiwan because they really know how to treat their patrons/customers well.

But oh wells, that's life!

Anyway, if you read this then lucky you hahaha! Please note that Yoogane requires a min 2 portions for the food to be served in the pan yah.

No one told me that on my first visit -.-" Or maybe I didn't hear it la. But yeah, found this only at the menu that they placed near the entrance of the restaurant.

The staff when taking our orders did not offer this information till I asked about it so... tskkkkkk!

Ordered the usual chicken dakgalbi and a portion of fried rice + cheese. Yum!

Helloooooooooo dakkies! (Dak is chicken in Korean)

Took this to send to Carol via Instagram HAHAHAAH! Evil la us lol. I also made XZ drink a bottle of makkgeolli with me that night too even though he was still a little hungover from the night before.

Fried the rice and cheese when we were done with the chicken! YUMMMMMMMMMY!

Thank you XZ for the treat haha! Noona will be nicer to you in future wahahahaha~

Ending this post with my Disney nails, design by Janelle (/elleandish on Youtube). You can link the tutorial here. I spent the whole afternoon doing them painstakingly (clearly not enough gong fu lor haha) but it's okay, I'm quite pleased with the outcome of it.

Well, that marks the end of my birthday celebrations. Nothing really special now that we're entering August soon (boooooo gotta wait another 11 months till next year's birthday HAHAHA) but I hoped you enjoyed reading this.

BYE! ^^

Taiwan Travelogue: Tips to buying makeup/beauty related items in Taipei

Hello! Oops sorry for the lack of updates recently lol. Will finish up my entries on Taiwan with something that I have an immense interest in - MAKEUP! :D

Taiwan, being near to Japan, is usually the country to get first dibs on Japanese products hence if you're like me who is damn poor and cannot afford to go to Japan to buy Japanese makeup items, head to Taiwan I say!

I would first like to place a disclaimer that all this is my own personal opinion hence if you have better tips to score makeup etc please feel free to leave it in the comments below - I would be glad to learn of such tips from you :)

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First up, my favourite haunt to get Japanese & Taiwanese drugstore brands in Taipei - Watsons.

I visited 3 different Watsons outlets this time round and.... I left them really broke rofl. Usually when I visit foreign countries, I tend to head to their local Watsons to see if I can buy their drugstore beauty items at a cheaper rate than Singapore's. FYI, SG's Watsons sell all the imported items at jacked up rates :( poor us!

So can you imagine how excited I am to go to Watsons in Taiwan? The bf called me crazy and kept telling his relatives his crazy Singapore girlfriend likes to go to Watsons wtf -.-"

Anyway, Watson in Taiwan usually have crazy sales and luckily while I was in Taipei, most brands were on sale like Integrate, KATE Cosmetics, Majolica Majorca etc.

15% off Integrate items because it was a new brand added to that store (even though I am pretty sure this was there ages ago la...)

I picked up one eyeshadow palette from here

If you're really lucky, the US brands may have some discount as well compared to SG prices like these Revlon scented polishes.

I recall it being around $10 or something along those lines... okay maybe lesser BUT I am pretty sure that the price of NT148 is definitely cheaper than the SG price.

And then there are like a gazillion brands available there in the outlet next to SOGO Zhongxiao branch! Psssst it's also 24 hours so after shopping at SOGO you can head there. It's 3 storeys filled with goodies!

I purchased the Sailormoon eyeliners you see in the pic on the left above because there was a promotion going on and when it is selling for NT300+ (sorry, I lost the receipt argh!!) compared to $23.90 , my first instinct was.... BUY! Think later lol.

And.... here's another reason why heading to Watsons in Taiwan is good - you get stuff you cannot buy from Singapore!

This is an exclusive KATE Cosmetics collection only for that particular outlet I visited (SOGO Zhongxiao one FYI) and... I haven't seen them in the local Watsons store to be honest. My friend visited another Watsons outlet in Taipei but was unable to locate this collection as well so it might only be available in certain major outlets la.

Last reason why Watsons is awesome - they have alot of sales/promotions!!! I bought the Biore set from above, the one with the orange and blue tube and it was only NT389! LIKE WTH RIGHT!? Go where find?! That's Puff Kuo a.k.a Heechul's 'wife' on WGM Global by the way lol.... She's the endorser for this brand I suppose? Not too sure hahaha.

In summary, visit Watsons in Taiwan if you are 'makeup siao' like me. Or if your makeup crazed girlfriend asked you to buy something for her on your trip to Taiwan lol.

You will be able to find Korean brands, Taiwanese brands like Dr Wu & Naruko & My Beauty Diary etc and of course.... Japanese makeup brands from those you see in Taiwanese magazines! 

They have alot of ongoing promotions somehow (or I'm super lucky la lol) and I even managed to get like NT400 instant rebates due to an ongoing event. Like... where will you ever get the opportunity to do so in Singapore huh? NEVER I tell you.

So you can just browse through the Watsons website as I've linked above to check out the brands available in the Taiwan outlets.

Next up, my next favourite place to get departmental brands is.... SOGO!

If you've read my Taiwan travelouges, you'll know that SOGO in the Zhongxiao area has 2 branches - Fuxing branch and Zhongxiao branch.

At the Fuxing branch, you will be able to find brands like:

• 10/10 HOPE
• AHAVA
• ALBION
• benefit
• Biotherm
• C.Dior
• CLARINS
• clé de peau BEAUTÉ 肌膚之鑰
• CRABTREE&EVELYN
• ESTEE LAUDER
• GIORGIO ARMANI
• GUERLAIN
• Jo Malone London
• Kanebo
• L`OCCITANE
• LA MER
• la prairie
• LANCOME
• LG后
• MIKIMOTO
• Odile Lecoin
• PAUL&JOE
• SHISEIDO(東京櫃)
• SHISEIDO(國際櫃)
• shu uemura
• SISLEY
• SK-II
• YSL

All located at B1.

Which are the counters you should head to? Paul & Joe of course lol! Because that's what I did. Why you move out of SG huh Paul & Joe?!

And Albion but Albion is also available in the Zhongxiao branch too. Psssst Albion is slightly cheaper in Taiwan compared to Singapore and when they have special promotional sets, the deals are usually pretty awesome!

I would say that the Fuxing branch housed more international brands and you can try buying Giorgio Armani here although I do not know whether it is cheaper compared to Singapore's price. I bought my GA stuff at HKIA btw lol too cheapo to buy in Singapore oops >.<

The Zhongxiao branch houses more Japanese brands like ettusais here which can be found at B1. 

Other brands found in B1:

• Model's Own
• The Body Shop

Just a comment from my past experience with ettusais. I have bought their products from Singapore, HK and Taiwan before and out of all these 3 countries, I find that Taiwan has the cheapest price followed by HK and then Singapore. See what I mean when I say Singapore's makeup is expensive?!

I have since moved on to other brands, occasionally going back to ettusais when they have very unique products (currently using their Quick-Fix Powder that I purchased from the recent Shiseido sale).

When you head up to Level 1, that is where makeup heaven is!

Here are the brands available at SOGO Zhongxiao branch:

• ALBION
• ANNA SUI
• BIOTHERM
• BOBBI BROWN
• CHANEL
• CLARINS
• clarisonic
• cle de peau BEAUTE 肌膚之鑰
• CLINIQUE(倩碧)
• COSME DECORTE(黛珂)
• DARPHIN
• Dior
• Dr.Ci:labo
• Elizabeth Arden
• ERNO LASZLO
• ESTEE LAUDER
• GIVENCHY
• GUERLAIN
• IPSA
• JILL STUART
• Kanebo(U)
• kiehl`s
• KOSE
• LA MER
• la prairie
• LADURÉE
• LANCOME
• LANEIGE
• laura mercier
• MAC
• MAKE UP FOR EVER
• NARS
• ORIGINS
• Philosophy
• RéVive (麗膚再生)
• RMK
• SHISEIDO(資生堂東京櫃)
• SHISEIDO(資生堂國際櫃)
• shu uemura (植村秀)
• SISLEY
• SK-II
• SOFINA
• THREE
• 雪花秀

I went to my usual counters that are not available in Singapore (Jill Stuart, Albion cos it's cheaper here but no promo then boo) and then I walked past the Laduree counter.

Taiwan is the only country for now out of Japan and France to carry this line of cosmetics!!! EEEEE :D

Blushes galore!

Hello beauties ^^

Scented soaps for sale anyone?

I'm ashamed to say that despite knowing how Laduree products are 'nice to see but not very good in quality for the price', I left with a blush D:

I almost fell for the powder but it was too bloody expensive to be bought! It was NT5220 for 1... But sooooooo finely milled. Ok, I sound abit obsessed right now haha.

I also popped by the Lunasol counter to grab one of the 15th anniversary eyeshadow palettes.

The prices here are cheaper than Singapore plus if you spend above NT3000 in a day, you can head to their VAT counter to claim your 5% tax back hahaha. Yes, instant cash! Just remember to bring you passport and it's only valid on day of purchase.

Inform the beauty assistants that you would like to get tax refund and they will fill up the forms for you :D

Tip! If you are in the Taipei 101 vicinity, you can head to Shinkong Mitsukoshi to find these brands as well although they may be housed in different branches. The Taipei Main Station branch is quite small in my opinion so you can give that a miss honestly. 

For a one stop, grab everything in a same place, my advice would be to head to SOGO. And.... tell your bf/husbands to go grab a coffee at Starbucks lol.

And for Jill Stuart, I find that sometimes if you cannot find the limited edition items, try and head to the airport earlier and go to the duty free section. I didn't pick up any from SOGO this time but I went home with a blush from the Summer 2014 collection, lipgloss trio set which is a DFS exclusive and eyeshadow palette from the Spring 2014 collection from the airport's DFS despite being late for my boarding time. Oh and... I also picked up another JS blush from China Airline's duty free section because it was a CI exclusive!!! WTF JS~ Will share when I finally open them from the packages haha.

I'd like to end of this post with a picture of this Taiwanese brand that I found in Taipei 101 mall at B1. I love the packaging of these sheet masks! I came back with a few of them so maybe when I've used them I will review them (if I'm not too lazy hahah!) but they are pretty pricey compared to those you find at drugstores like Watsons or Cosmed.

Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading where I get all my makeup buys haha!

Please share if you have other tips as well on where to get cheap and good makeup items in Taiwan generally because I visit Taiwan on a regular basis so it'll be nice to know.

Bye! :D