Week 1: The Haul

Hello all~

As I promised, I returned this week!   I've been working on this post bit by bit over the week as I added new information, but somehow, I ended up deleting the entire entry!   I don't know how "undo this one thing I just did" equals "erase everything that you've done over the last couple of days".  From now on, I'm doing my entries on a document page and copy/pasting it over.  I'm so sad!  I'm glad it happened early in the day rather than right before the post was scheduled!

Anyway, I've been super diligent in doing my regimen twice daily, and I've noticed a huge improvement in the past couple of days.   My acne has greatly reduced, and a lot of my cysts have either come to a head for extraction or just gone away.  My skin doesn't get super oily like it usually does by the end of the day, and a lot of current scars came off.  By day two, a whole bunch of gunk came out of my pores!  Much of it looked like it had been in them for a long time.  Once I got it all cleared out, it never happened again.  I still have a few pimples come up, but they are smaller than usual, and I still have a few the cysts I've been battling on my jawline for the past few months, but they're coming up a little more every day.  There's a lot of work to be done, but I'm finally headed to healthier skin! 

So let me show you all the things I got to try!

- Tonymoly Clean Dew Apple Mint Cleansing Oil
- Tosowoong Tea Tree Natural Pure Mist
- Skinfood Royal Honey Essential Toner
- Missha All Around Safe Block Soft Finish Sun Milk
- Missha MISA Geum Sul (Gold Snow) Essence Booster
- Missha MISA Geum Sul Sleeping Cream
- Mizon AHA & BHA Daily Clean Toner
- Mizon Water Volume EX First Essence
- Mizon Steblanc Black Snail Repair Ampoule
- Mizon Black Snail All In One Cream

I ordered all of those from RoseRoseShop.   I had a lovely experience with them, and because my order was over $100, I got 10 samples of their new product Neulii (a play on 'new leaf'?).  I received their Teatree BHA serum, which I just finished yesterday, and their Snail Bee Anti Wrinkle serum, which I'll be starting this week.  I'll do my mini review of it below.  And yes, a lot of my stuff is Mizon.  As of this entry, they are running a free shipping deal on Mizon products, as well as having a huge sale on their items.  My Steblanc ampoule was 80% off! 

Many of the things I purchased were at a huge discount, and everything was packaged wonderfully.   I'll be glad to order from RoseRoseShop again.   They're also known as RubyRuby76/RubyRubyShop on Ebay.

I also have one more item coming, the Skinfood Royal Honey Propolis Essence.  I wanted to purchase it with my order, but they sold out a few days before I could get to it.  A lot of the things I got are geared towards hydration and repairing, since my skin is so dehydrated and damaged.  I hope they work!


Anyway, the toners I got performed their jobs super well.   I've owned Mizon's AHA 8% Peeling serum for a couple weeks prior to this haul, and had a positive effect, but it wasn't doing as well as it could.  Since the soap I use is so alkaline, I either had to wait some 20 minutes after washing my face for it to work, or not wash my face at all.   Neither were good choices, so I got its matching toner.  The difference was noticeable the next day.  My skin was brighter, I didn't have any flaking, and a bunch of scars lifted off.  As for the Skinfood toner, it's a fairly hydrating toner.  Since my only lotion has SPF I don't need on my skin as I sleep, I didn't want to use it.  I ended up using the Skinfood toner as a makeshift lotion, which actually worked.  Don't know if I would go out and spend an entire day only using the toner for hydration, but for overnight, my skin was fine with that.  There was no extra oil in the morning, and my skin didn't feel tight or dry.  I'll eventually start using my sleeping cream (and hopefully it won't react poorly to my skin), but in the meantime, this regimen is working out. 

The Tonymoly cleansing oil testing was a success! 
I was actually using it wrong the first two times I tried it.  I know someone must be saying, how can you use a cleansing oil wrong?  The first time I applied it, I just kept rubbing for a minute, and it started gaining a waxy feel.  I got worried, so I damped my fingers and tried to rub it off.  It didn't budge.  Turned out I wasn't using enough water to try to emulsify it.  One review mentioned that it turned white when it was emulsifying, but at the time, nothing was happening.  I ended up just washing it off straight away with soap.  I tried again the second time, not rubbing for as long beforehand, and still, nothing happened, so I covered my hands in water like I was washing them, and tried again.  My skin felt so clean and soft!  I ended up putting it into the rotation on day four.  I know it must be cleaning everything, because the soap I use afterward foams up so nicely on my face.   The only thing I don't like is the smell.  It starts off with this apple scent, but has this bitter scent afterward.  However, the smell doesn't linger at all, so it's not even close to something that deters me from using it.  There's no poor reaction at all, just a clean face.  I'll definitely purchase more! 

As for the Neulii Teatree BHA Serum... eh.   I didn't really notice anything change on my face using it.  No significant reduction of acne or really anything.  It smelled really nice though, like a sweet herb, and spreads on the face easily.  It has a thin consistency that doesn't drip, and it absorbs super well.  It's meant to go on before toning, like a first essence, but because my soap is so alkaline, any BHA it may have is cancelled out immediately, so I had to use my Mizon toner before it to get the best out of it.  Still, I didn't see much of a difference for anything, and I'll know for sure by seeing what changes now that I'm out.  I'll be trying the Snail Bee one this week.  From the ingredients on the website, the "bee" part is actually propolis, not bee venom like I was thinking, so even though I'm not the most concerned with wrinkle care at this moment when I have all these other problems with my skin, I think this could still be good for my skin. 

All in all, it was a very productive week.  I was worried I would lose motivation quickly, but I ended up looking forward to it when I got home.

This Week's Product Lineup
Day: Cleanser, Skinfood Royal Honey Essential Toner, Lotion
Night: Tonymoly Clean Dew Apple Mint Cleansing Oil, Cleanser, Mizon AHA & BHA Daily Clean Toner, Mizon AHA 8% Peeling Serum, Skinfood Royal Honey Essential Toner
Test: Neulii Snail Bee Anti Wrinkle Serum (day), Missha Misa Geum Sul First Essence Booster (night)

I'm super excited to try my Geum Sul.  It looks so luxurious!