Fall Essentials #1 Beauty

It's that time of the year where one applies thick cream moisturizers and liquid foundation but not me. My beauty essentials remain the same except for the sunblock where i have changed it to cream type.

(L-R clockwise)  Chanel Hydra Beauty Gel Creme, Estee Lauder face brush, YSL powder foundation, L' Occitane hand cream, La Roche Posay Anthelios XL sunblock cream, and BonBon Lipgloss.

The Chanel Hydra Gel Cream was an unplanned purchase. As been told before, Laneige has become my holy grail moisturizer for day and night at any season but due to an order gone wrong, i needed an emergency replacement because my face as per experience reacts badly without my reliable moisturizer. My seller wrongfully shipped me cream type instead of gel type. All the necessary actions from my part and theirs, my goods have arrived a few hours before this post was published. 

For two weeks, I was scrimping on the remaining little gel inside my last jar of Laneige and on night time, i apply Chanel. Though it does not make my face as radiant as Laneige does, it did not cause me breakouts. The flowery scent reminds me of old lady perfumes did not bother me at all though i was afraid that it might generate adverse effects on my face. Price is expensive. For one 50g jar of Chanel equals to two 50g jars of Laneige. Good thing the Chanel effect was average for I don't want to make it a habit. 

Summer Essentials #1

I found Laneige by chance while spending Summer in 2010 at Ulsan. At the time, I recently recovered from a bad skin crisis that made my ex-HG moisturizer ineffective and led me to go back using Clinique moisture surge. But being a bum at that time, I went searching for a less costly alternative and found Laneige. The price difference is very minor, actually. 

But what I like about Laneige is that it does not just sit on my face unlike Clinique moisture surge and others. It sinks, reduces redness and non-greasy.

Since having left Korea for Japan in December 2012, I changed my moisturizer to L'Occitane because Laneige is not available here. For a year, my face went through hell and back so when I found a seller of Korean cosmetics at Amazon JP, it has become my supplier for Laneige and my skin somehow managed to behave.

I normally order in twos considering it takes about 2 weeks for my parcel to be delivered.

Just recently found that there has been a change on their packaging and noticeable change in the gel's color.

Left: old, right: new. Even the spatulas have changed (in photo: not placed on the correct jar. Too lazy to retake). The new packaging is heavier, feels like twice the old. And honestly, old packaging looks better. 

Left: new, right: old. Other than the packaging, the old version has more scent and color was almost transparent. The new version barely has scent and of white-ish color. I have yet to see for any differences in results though I have started using the new for less than a week now.

Along with this, my Summer beauty must haves are pretty basic which suits well for a busy working mom. 

Clockwise from top left: 

Anna Sui lip balm, Laneige water bank gel cream, Revlon Just  Bitten Kissable balm stain in Honey, La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL, YSL compact powder and Estee Lauder face brush. 

The La Roche-Posay was a recent discovery after reading a lot of beauty blogs, LOL! It's a famous French drugstore brand that is (thankfully) available in Plaza (a wasteland of cute and assorted things) and Tokyu Hands (mother wasteland of cute and assorted things). I love this stuff because unlike others, it does not leave a white cast on my face. Initially it does but disappears after few minutes. I used to combine it with moisturizer but found that it's better to let the moisturizer sink in first, then apply sun protection. This is liquid, spreads easily and non-sticky so it's very suitable for Summer season.