~End of the Year Recap/Blogiversary!~

HELLOOOO!!! AHHH! Sorry for starting out yelling at you guys! I'm just so excited! I remember (vaguely) at the beginning of 2015 last year when I decided I wanted to start my own blog :3 such fond memories. I just wanted to do a short little appreciation post for everything and everyone of this past year ^.^

Last year I said I wanted this space to be a place I can record my thoughts and share interesting things and whatnot! I think I really did achieve that goal (though not very consistently but nobody's perfect, right? LOL) and I can't wait to experience all the fun things in these next fresh months to come! I hope you are all looking forward to great things in your life (and on this blog :3) as well ^__^

Shout out to my friends (especially Kim who keeps up with all my posts :')) and family (who I don't actually read my blog or know about it but I'm just going to keep it that way lol) who have given me unconditional love and support through this year >__<

And last but not least, thank you to all my lovely lovely readers out there! Thanks for taking the time to scroll through my blog and comment and everything! It truly means a lot! I don't really mention this but perhaps if you enjoy reading my posts and want to keep up with them you can subscribe to my posts and get notifications in your email? I have two totally awesome followers accounted for right now but I know there are people out there who follow my blog consistently and aren't signed up, that's totally ok too! I appreciate all of you! Even you one timers :D I'm truly truly grateful to all of you!

Here are some posts you can (hopefully) look forward to seeing here in the next couple of weeks!:
-Blogger appreciation posts (some of my favorite bloggers!)
-My AM/PM skincare routine
-Updated daily makeup routine
-More beauty reviews (hair, lips, cheek, skin)
-fashion DIY's!!

If you're thinking about starting a blog like I was at the beginning of 2015 last year, I definitely recommend it! It's a great place to collect memories and it's easier to manage than a diary (in my opinion at least lol). You don't have to do it for anyone else, it could be all for you! Or it can be one that helps others! Whatever! Just be careful about what you put out there online about your life and yourself, as always <3

Thanks so much for a great year and see you all in 2016!! Wishing you happiness, clear skin, and peace of mind (that's what I want anyways hahaha) ^__^ YAYYY!

xoxo Abby

~Online Shop/Makeup Review: Glossier Priming Moisturizer and Perfecting Skin Tint~

Hello everyone!! Finals and fall quarter are done for me and I can BREATHE again!! Hoorayy!! Get ready for a bunch of new posts!! :-D Today I've got a super cool double purpose review for both the online shop/makeup section of this blog ^>^

If you haven't been following any of my previous makeup or skincare posts, lemme just say, I absolutely loveeee anything skincare! Masks, toners, creams, etc. I think they're all fabulous! I usually put skincare before anything makeup related so I will sometimes skip makeup days when I think my skin really needs it. So today I'm super excited to do a review about this company Glossier which was started by a fellow beauty blogger Into The Gloss! Perhaps I'll do a post about all of the blogs I've been following over the years that have inspired me to become a blogger? For now I'll just say that I loved scrolling through ITG and looking at all the beauty and skincare tips! And I still go on there and browse the new posts and things when I have the time hahaha ^.^

The idea behind a lot of their products is the 'natural cool girl' kinda thing where the packaging is minimal but still cute and the ingredients are all natural and apparently not tested on animals! Cool! This post was originally going to be about their Mask Set Duo but I ended up taking pictures for their Phase 1 Set first so I'll do the masks for the next post lol~

The website itself is set up pretty nicely and easy on the eyes. They really go for that minimalist style and focus on pastels, especially their signature light pink! I ordered from them twice, once to get the Phase 1 set and Mask Duo Kit (as well as an extra Soothing Face Mist for my sister because she loves face mists ^.^), and a second time to get another mask duo set as a gift for a friend :3 The first time they were having a Black Friday thing going on so it was 25% off the whole site and I also had a referral code from someone (I have one at the bottom of this post for all you lovelies! <3) and got another 20% off so I ended up paying around $70 for all my stuff in the first order plus free shipping! Right now on the website it says free shipping for over $50 but I'm not sure if that's just because right now is last minute Christmas shopping is happening and they want to get all of their orders out ASAP. When I ordered I had free shipping with no minimum so that was awesome!

Now onto the makeup review!

The Phase 1 Set is supposed to be the ultimate makeup kit for people who want a very natural no-makeup-makeup look. In particular I'll be talking about the Priming Moisturizer and Perfecting Skin Tint! I'll discuss the Balm Dot Com and Soothing Face Mist with the masks in the future skincare post!

I actually received a free sample of the Priming Moisturizer in the mail when I found they give samples on the Into the Gloss website! Unfortunately that sample must've been squished and squeezed along the way because by the time it got to me it was a sticky mess and all the primer had been squeezed out of the tiny packet T___T saaaaad faaaacceeee~ Each order comes with a sample of the Priming Moisturizer and some stickers though! So I used up the other sample before breaking open the actual tube. OH YEAH. Did I mention they give you these super cool stickers?! I love free stickers lolol~

Also sorry in advance for the poor lighting throughout this post! I was getting ready to go to the movies with my fraaans and I decided to do makeup review shots in the poor lighting of my window on a very gloomy day lolol~

Tube of Priming Moisturizer! See that pretty pastel pink? 

Before makeup shot! I don't have a lot of actual acne right now, most of what you see is scarring 3:

OK I have crazy eyes here lol >.< Oh well

From Glossier's website: Priming Moisturizer info!

The primer claims to be a build able moisturizer type thing. And it really is build able! What does that even mean??? Sometimes when I put on primer or just moisturizer on my face I find that it doesn't sink all the way in and just sits on top of my skin. This primer sinks in and moisturizes while leaving my skin smooth and prepped for makeup! This is actually my most favorite thing of the Phase 1 set! The Smashbox primer I mentioned in previous posts was smooth but it left me feeling really oily in the t-zone and sort of sat on top of my skin. The Benefit Porefessional was great on my t-zone but too dry for the rest of my face, which gets dry and flaky from the acne treatment I had been using.  This primer is just like putting smooth lotion on my face and it isn't sticky or too thick and it doesn't irritate my skin at all! Super!

This is about how much I use for first application on my face! I usually only put one layer on and then add a tiny dab more if I need it for especially dry areas on my face.

The directions say blend up and away from face haha~

After using any priming or moisturizing products I like to wait 5-10 minutes to let it sink in! I've noticed doing this has helped my makeup look less streaky and it stays put throughout the day a lot better.

BAM! Done priming!

Now the Skin Tint!! Skin tint?? That sounds...weird. What is it? This was the product I was most interested in trying out from the Phase 1 set >.<

Like I said, this is a veryyyyy natural look they are going for here! The idea is to enhance the look of your natural skin! I would totally be down for this personally if I was confident with my face and skin, but I'm just not there yet :3 And that's ok! But they do tell you that this tint isn't full coverage at all and all the little things on your face are going to show through! So if you're a person who has freckles and redness and you like the former just not the latter, this kit is nice because it reduces redness while letting your cute freckles show through! Yay! For people like me with acne and acne scars though, this isn't so yay if you don't want those blemishes to be seen! Still, in a ton of reviews on Youtube and on blogs a lot of the people using the Phase 1 kit didn't seem to have my kind of skin that had tons of unwanted marks and whatnot. I'm not saying they had flawless skin and that this product should only be used for people who have flawless skin, buuut with a lot of the reviews I wasn't able to tell how much coverage or change this tint actually did because their skin already looked pretty nice compared to mine. So I had to test for myself how much red this reduces and how much actually shows through:

I did the Shade Finder on their website and it told me I was a Dark! Which is nice because a lot of the Korean beauty products I have are a bit too light for me so I was hoping I could mix them to get the right shade *__*

Warning, the lighting changes in these next few pictures for whatever reason T__T I'm sorry you guys lol. And I changed while waiting for the primer to sink in lol.

It's a dropper bottle type thingy and it reminds me of those bottles we use for some chemicals in chem hahaha

It's even thinner than my L'OREAL green BB cream!! 

Face: me thinking "OH NO this is too dark I've made a big mistake lolol"

Blend up and out with fingertips:

I put it on just this side of my face first to compare. Not much change huh?

Now it's on both!

AFTER!

BEFORE!

I checked in the bathroom mirror and a bit of my redness was gone. Mostly it just made me look a shade darker (not in natural lighting apparently but in the bathroom light I looked tanner than usual!). I think my green BB cream does a better job of anti redness as well as giving me a bit of coverage though :P I'll probably use this tint more in the summer when it actually fits me and my skin tends to be better in the summer anyways hahaha ^__^ I did end up putting foundation over this for a fuller coverage!

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Primer pros and cons:
PROS: Buildable. Light and not greasy. Moisturizing. My makeup doesn't look streaky or ashy by the end of the day! Doesn't irritate my skin!

CONS: It smells like old yogurt kind of? Or dusty milk? If you buy it on it's own it's $25...still kind of expensive for a nice moisturizer IMO.
Would buy again?: If I'm feeling spend-y and desperate and I haven't found anything to replace it lol.

Tint pros and cons:
PROS: It's rather translucent so it feels like you're putting nothing on your face! And even if you get the wrong shade it's hardly noticeable at all!

CONS: It feels like you're putting nothing on your face! It's hardly noticeable at all! $26 and comes in only 5 shades. (But hey, they used to have only 3 shades so I guess two more is somewhat better!)
Would buy again?: Nahh

Webshop pros and cons:
PROS: Easy to navigate website. They give lots of information about everything and are pretty open about their company goals and ingredients of their products and whatnot. Quick and easy to reach and friendly customer service! No complaints with customer service! Hooray!!

CONS: $$$ Like with most independent and natural brands you're going to be shelling out quite a few clams, if ya know what I mean hahaha. Once you set a certain coupon sometimes that is the coupon it makes you use which I thought was kind of weird on one hand (what if I find a better coupon and change my mind?!) but also kind of handy (I don't need to type the code in every single time!)

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Overall: The Phase 1 set is not really worth it personally for the amount they sell it for on the website ($80!!??) ;__; If you are confident with the look of your skin and are very minimal with your makeup routine go for it! The only thing I think is worth it from this kit is the Priming Moisturizer, everything else is just kind of ok. And if you do buy anything at all from here I suggest you use a code and/or wait until they have one of their (very rare) sales so you can discount stack (they allow external codes to be added on top of any automatic website discounts) because that's the only way it's worth buying to me tbh.



Thanks so much for reading lovelies!! Like I said up above I have a referral code that gets you 20% off your first order! And I doooo get $10 if you buy something with my code so it's a win-win for both of us ;-D
Referral Link: here! <3

xoxo Abby