~Subscription Box Review: Yume Twins~

Hello everyone!! I know introducing a new blog post segment isn't the best way to get back into the groove of blogging but I was just SUPER excited to show you all this! I'm not signed up to a lot of subscription boxes but I tried out Kawaii Box by Japan Crate and I've been wanting to try out the Ipsy box since a few of my besties have tried it out and a lot of the products look promising!!

It's kind of funny because I actually found out about the Yume Twins subscription box from a Facebook ad and I usually despise those hahaha~ But I was just scrolling past when I saw a burst of rainbow pastel and I had to click on the link *__* Just like Kawaii Box is under another main brand (Japan Crate), Yume Box is under the main brand Tokyo Treat!

Here's what the front page of the website currently looks like:

If you're not familiar with subscription boxes, basically they're specially curated boxes of goodies that you sign up to receive usually once a month like a magazine subscription (only better IMO haha!). Depending on the type of subscription boxes you could get anything from foods, items, pieces of clothing etc. There are TONS of subscription boxes out there!! So if you're a collector of things and you don't mind paying money for what's basically a giant box of surprises once a month or so, I high recommend trying one out!

So what do I mean when I say you get a box a month? Well if you've ever subscribed to a monthly magazine in the mail or something similar you know you have to pay a certain amount of money either for a whole year's worth of magazines to be delivered or maybe only for a couple of months. For this box and the Kawaii Box these were the options I was given:

As far as I know there is no option to buy just one box to try out on it's own for Yume Twins or Kawaii Box. However, the way I try it out is I buy one monthly plan which will get me a box for the coming month and then right after I contact Customer Service and cancel my subscription. This way I've paid for one box for one month but I won't be charged for the next month's box! Some people like to go for the three month plan so they can get a feel for a range of products the box delivers. As you can see it's a bit cheaper to subscribe to as many months as you can but not by much so try to only sign up for as much as you can handle financially!!

One tip I have for subscribing to these sorts of boxes, since they tend to be pricey and also a surprise (think of it like a giant gashapon you get once a month!) it can sometimes be either a hit or a miss, is to follow the company on social media for hints about the boxes. For example, I follow both Kawaii Box and Yume Twins on Instagram. Although Yume Twins is still very new (so new I'm reviewing their grand opening box!) they have hinted at the theme of the July box already! And it's great to know the theme of an upcoming box so you can consider whether it's worth it to pay $30 that month or save it until they have a box you like. I have found that in the past I have gotten items I didn't like all that much in a box and maybe only one thing I did like, which is a big downside of subscription boxes. But if you have a little extra money and are feeling adventurous they can be really fun and it's so nice to know you have a surprise package of goodies coming to you hahaha ^.^

Alrighty so now that we have the basics of subscription boxes covered, let's get on to the June Box Yume Twins unboxing and review!! :3

*sparkle sparkle*

This box came with 8 items of varying themes. There was no theme announced for this first box since it's so new but one thing they did promise was that there would be a limited edition Sailor Moon plushie! The overarching vibe I'm getting from this package seems to be magical girl though. Half of the items in this one were related to some sort of magical girl anime so I was STOKED lolol~


Let's look at the magical girl related stuff first, shall we? ^__^
Which Sailor Moon plush did I get??

Took her outta the plastic packaging, She's in perfect condition!

SAILOR PLUTO!! YAYYY!! One of my favorites :3

Yay for licensed products!

One of the things I noticed people were concerned about when Kawaii Box released their first box was that some of the toys and knick knacks were not officially licensed products (aka knockoffs). One thing Yume Twins directly advertises on their website is "fully licensed merchandise from Japanese brands," and so far they've delivered truthfully! Yay!

Anyone know which anime this is from? 

This is one of those cute and also functional items that come in every subscription box it seems haha. The texture of this cloth is kinda rough but I still use it on my face to dry it off anyways >.<

*__* 

When I first opened the box, besides the Pluto plush this compact looking thingy was the first thing I saw :0) It's so cute!!! I had a feeling it was a candy dispenser type thing like the ones they sell at Uwaji:

YUP! Candy dispenser!! Haha ^__^ 

I don't usually eat the candies that come with these sorts of things but I ended up eating these ones. Not that they were good or anything, they kinda tasted like really hard skittles or something, they were just cute so I ate em haha. I didn't even put them in the dispenser >.<

Look how cute!! And the candies are in that little sachet. 

Right now I'm using this to store bobby pins so they don't get lost in my purse. It's a decent sized compact (it fits in the palm of my hand, it's pretty thick though) and could probably hold mints, loose purse change (if you like the jingly noise haha), safety pins etc.! It's made of plastic so if you take it around with you in a full backpack or purse it might crack so I still suggest you be careful with it!

Next up:

OOOOOOO PRETTYYY~

All the pretty magical girl stuff makes me weep uhuhuhu T__T This is just another one of those blind box type things with gum or candy and a small toy. Mostly meant for kids (hence the small size of the ring) but still cute nonetheless!

I got the pretty golden ring. So far I've been very happy with the selective pieces in this subscription box! I tend to have bad luck with these types of things hahaha >.<

The ring fits my pinky finger but I prefer to display these small toys than wear them anyways haha. 

Now for the non-magical girl related items!!

GUDE GUDE GUDE!!

I love how many blind boxes there were in this subscription box! Gudetama items are becoming more and more popular these days so he's a bit more of an accessible character to get merch for. Still, I can't resist a super cute keychain!!

Next to a bobby pin for size comparison!

I got the mustache one and it's soooo cute!! And it perfectly pairs with the next item I got in the box:

MORE GUDE!

I don't know if you guys know my love for coin purses. Perhaps I'll make a coin purse appreciation post and show you all my ~excessive~ collection hahaha >____<

Look at the cute lil butt!! AHH!! 

Ya don't have to use this as a coin purse of course but it's just a nice little pouch you can use to store small things that might get lost in your bag! Super cute and very handy :3

Last but not least! Stationary type items!

Funassyi! Japan's favorite fruit mascot! haha

At first I thought this was some sort of poster that comes with gum or something, but actually:

Wowie wow!!

It's a cute little 3D popup card with Funassyi puffy stickers!! I'm probably gonna end up sticking these on the front of my journal or something, they're so cute!!

Last item!

Cute little panda!

This was the item I was least excited about but it's still very useful and adorable! It's a small notebook with two different paper designs. I think this is a San-X character.

That's all 8 items~

This box and the Kawaii Box both came with cute little booklets that tell you what the different items are and sometimes they even hint at the next box! I forgot to take a picture of it here but if I remember later I'll show you all what it looks like!
TL;DR:

Was it worth it?: Since these are licensed products and some of them can be quite pricey (the Sailor Pluto plush seems like it would be the most expensive in this box) I would say, yes! This was quite worth it! Some of the little items like the notebook and probably even the sticker set are probably considered to be on the cheaper side, but please know that when you order pretty much any subscription box little items like these are a given! They're simple "filler" pieces that still fit in with the items of the box and add to the item count and whatnot, but usually they're useful so it's ok!

Quality: The quality of the items were perfectly fine. None of the boxes were squished up or anything and the plush was nicely wrapped in it's plastic still. The only thing that wasn't inside plastic or a box was the cloth but it still had a sticker on it so it wasn't used or old looking or anything haha.

Shipping: This box shipped faster than I expected! And actually the box became so popular that originally the company was going to make this their July box but instead it became their June box because of the high demand!! The box they shipped it in is super cute too ahhh!

Will I re-subscribe?: Since I'm following them on social media and they release hints about upcoming boxes I think I'm gonna try out another box when they have one that interests me. Their July box is apparently Sanrio items and I have quite enough of Sanrio stuff already haha.


Thanks so much for reading through this review! I hope you found it helpful! Lemme know down below if you have any questions about the products or the ordering process, I'll try my best to help! As always I wasn't sponsored by Yume Twins to do this review but if I'm ever sponsored to do reviews in the future I'll let you all know beforehand! And being sponsored will NOT change my opinion on any items I review! I'll always give my honest opinion on my orders!


xoxo Abby

~Online Store Review: Korea Depart Makeup Haul!~

Hi hi hi! How is everyone? I'm super excited for today's review/haul!! I know I've just been doing a bunch of beauty reviews lately so instead of reviewing the actual products themselves in this post and make it super long, I'll just be focusing on the online shop Korea Depart (English website linked) and things like their service, shipping, quality etc. And I'll review each thing I got in this haul in a separate post sometime in the future!! Ready? HAULLL TIMMEEE!!

Oh wait pause...First a bit about Korea Depart!

So I have seen a BUNCH of things from Korea Depart in the past and just a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to try and order some stuff from there! Korea Depart is basically an online marketplace for tons of Korean goods that come straight from Korea. They have clothing and food categories so you can buy some snacks and even some cute clothes if you want to! But today I'll only be reviewing their makeup since that's the only thing I bought from them this time around ^.^

I have no idea why I never tried to order from this website before, but I think it was mainly because I was worried it would be a Taobao or Aliexpress situation and I might not get all of my items or something >.< eeeek! But after looking through the website and browsing through some of the items I was convinced I wanted to buy a few things! Such is the life of an impulse buyer...LOL!

I actually saw some Doraemon makeup products on someone's instagram post (I totally forgot who though oops!!) and I convinced myself right away that I NEEDED THOSE PRODUCTS. Hahaha~ And so right away I searched up where to buy some and Korea Depart came up. Since I had heard about it before I imagined it was a legit website so on that same day I placed an order for a bunch of things T__T lol. Yep I did the bad thing and didn't do copious amounts of research before buying from an online shop, and a OVER SEAS online shop at that!!! Don't ever do what I did guys!! Hahaha! But did I have a bad ending from my poor foresight this time around? Read on to find out! ^__^

One of the first things I recommend you do if you plan on ordering from this website is to set up an account! I know it's kind of annoying and you have to keep track of everything blah blah blah, but it will make the check out process much easier later! Not to mention you'll be able to see the status of your order in your account section if you sign up, you'll rack up some points from your order, and you are able to quickly and easily contact KD with questions about anything through your account as well! So trust me on this one, your life will be a lot easier if you just set up an account before getting started shopping! >__<

If you set up an account you can keep track of your stuff like so! Even if you don't pick the tracked option for shipping you can at least kind of know what's going on? [but def. try to get tracking if you can afford it (read more about shipping below)]

I placed my order on Feb 7, 2016. YEP. Right before Lunar New Year. GOOD JOB ABBY. Hahaha~ I knew that there was definitely going to be a break period and I was totally fine with it because I wanted my order in ASAP. On the website they advertised that they would be on break for three days I believe? Feb 8-10 I think it was! So I was prepared to wait at least another week until they shipped out my order.

I ordered six things in total:

A screenshot of what the order section of my account looked like after my items were shipped!

I started with the Doraemon items and discovered all the other character products from there *__* Hahaha I knew I had to slow down though because my cart was really filling up and I knew I didn't want to spend *too* much on this first order. But I still ended up making quite the expensive purchase for my first time...and here's why...

SHIPPING IS CRAY YOU GUYS. Ok I'm honestly not all that surprised that shipping was a beast because it's overseas and this website does their shipping by weight so the heavier your products are (in total with their packaging and everything) the more expensive shipping will be! And as you can see from my order, everything I ordered had large plastic cases, cushions, refills, and liquids! These things all really added up when it came to the shipping weight! Lol~

Another kind of interesting thing they do is they allow you to place an order and pay for it later! Not completely later but you are allowed to place your order and if you don't pay the cost of your order+shipping within two weeks they cancel your order automatically! So if you send the order form but don't pay and decide you don't want it anymore, you don't have to sweat it! They even tell you how much more you owe, so I think you might even be able to pay in increments as long as you get the payment in within two weeks!

One downside I found on this website though is that if you place an order and it's fully paid and everything but you decide you want to cancel it, they get to keep 10% of the cost of your order. And apparently if your package gets shipped back to them for some reason (you missed the pickup and you didn't get it at the post office so it got sent back for example) they won't refund you the cost of shipping it the first time and I think you might even have to pay for shipping it to you all over again?! I didn't run into this problem but I read it in someone else's review. Definitely do you research for people who ordered from KD in your country guys!! It will save you a lot of future stress and hopefully there won't be as many (bad) surprises! LOL

More about shipping: You've got two options- Registered Air Mail and EMS

Here's where things get me$$y! Hahaha see what I did there?

Registered Air Mail is like basic shipping when you purchase on any website. Since it's overseas I always think this type of mail takes FOREVER, not to mention there's no tracking for this type of mail! And I am not about that no tracking info life hahaha. I like to micromanage things so I'm a tracking type of gal hahaha. I highly recommend you get tracking because some people have actually had a lot of trouble with Korea Depart and shipping in the past! And I only know about this because I actually started researching reviews for Korea Depart after two weeks had passed and the status of my order remained on the "Ship Estimated" status. A lot of reviews said they had to jump through quite a few hoops to get their stuff including driving three hours to their customs place to claim their package and pay duties and whatnot. But pretty much all of those that I read that had that problem lived outside of the US! Apparently we have this thing with Korea where we don't need to pay an import tax if we buy from there. Nice. Still once I saw that my packaged shipped and I checked the tracking and it said my packaged checked into customs in CA I was worried.

Luckily my package arrive two days after it checked into customs and it was cleared right away!! YAY! (Oh man the anxiety of that was unbearable though when I first saw it lemme tell ya...hahhaa). So reading about all those issues really made me nervous about buying from here again. But I patiently waited for my package to arrive...

Once in the country you live in, EMS passes your package  on to your local shipping agent, for us it's USPS! One of the cool things about USPS is you can get them to send you emails or text messages of where your package is without having to go to the website all the time~ So I tracked it that way and found out that my package had arrived!! But when no one was home...hahha darn. No biggie though right? They said they left a note at the door that said which post office it was at so it could be picked up. That was on Feb 26! It was a Friday so I was home a bit late-ish and I asked my mom if there was  a note on the door about my package and if we could go to the post office to retrieve it. Yeah there was no note on our door, in our mailbox, or at the manager at the office (where the mailboxes for our apartments are). Soooo at that point I was very concerned and anxious about the whereabouts of my package. But I didn't stop there! I remembered there was a redelivery option that USPS does so I rescheduled my deliver for Feb 27 (that Saturday) aaaaand...

I actually opened the package upside down lol

Hooray!! It arrived! The post-person dropped it off at the office and I got the notice so I went and picked it up! Right away I looked at the address to see if there was anything wrong with it. I previously checked on the Korea Depart website on my account to see if I had accidentally put my address in wrong but it was correct so I was confused. On the USPS tracking info for some reason it had a different zip code where they tried to deliver my package and I was so confused. When I took a look at the package I saw that my zip code had been blocked out for some reason??! LOL? What?!

A very thick layer of bubble wrap protects all my precious products *_* hahaha

That was the only weird experience of this order for the most part. I have no idea why they did that or how that happened but if you have shipping problems it might have something to do with your address. And it's not always your fault! I'm just lucky they used USPS and all those options were available for me to use! YAY! Not everyone is so lucky with their orders 3: Sorry guys! I have no idea what that issue is all about but it was weird haha.

Yayy! It's so well protected by bubble wrap I'm impressed!

Alright! Now that I have retrieved this glorious package let's see the quality of everything shall we? ^.^
Real Quick! I forgot to mention Korea Depart does little events sometimes where they give you items with your order besides the usual free samples. Since it's Feb they had a Valentines Event going on!! *_* And I only found out about it when I was checking through my order after I had placed it an a few things were added on! So let's see some of the freebies I got!

Chocolate and hand cream! Yay!~

I find that whenever I order from a website that specializes in selling overseas makeup products they provide lots of nice samples! Korea Depart is no exception and they gave me a nice variety of things to try out~ I gave the serums to my mom and the whitening stuff to my sister. And for the Valentines Day event they gave everyone who ordered some Ghana Black Chocolates and Milky Hand Cream! They're both so cute and also kind of Halloween-y looking? Lol! But the hand cream smells so yummy and the chocolate is delicious! Should I include a review for the hand cream in my other post? Maybe I will ^__^ Hahaha

I haven't tried any of these yet! But those BB creams look quite promising! ^.^

OK, nowww we can move on too see what I actually bought!! Everything came very nicely packed and wrapped so they wouldn't be damaged. I found that a lot of the packages were actually slightly opened? I was wondering if that might have been from when customs checked though it? I don't know what their process is but that's my best guess for why some of the packages looked a bit wonky haha.

LOOK. HOW. CUTE.

Aren't they beautiful??? I focused on only buying character products this time even though they had a lot of stuff on there I've been wanting to try~ I think since shipping is so high I might just stick to buying the limited edition products from this website and everything else I'll look for on Pretty & Cute or Amazon or something haha. Do any of you have a good place where you buy your Korean/Japanese makeup products? If you have a reliable website I'd love to know about it! Please lemme know down below!


Overall:
Shipping cost 2/10 (but understandable): I already pretty much talked about this above but the shipping prices are ridiculous whether you get RAM or EMS! EMS is worth the extra payment in my opinion, not just because I'm impatient but also because I didn't want to lost my stuff haha.

Price of individual items 8/10: Yeah actually the prices of everything I bought was pretty good! Half of the items I bought were under $10 and the rest were kinda pricey but worth it because they come with refills! (Specifically the Doraemon cushion foundation and Moomin foundation were the pricey ones) but everything else was very well priced! And again the low prices made sense because of the high shipping cost, in the end it all balances out hahaha.

-Shipping time (EMS): Once we got through Lunar New Year and I didn't count the weekends and my package finally arrived to the states, it was actually pretty quick! I was surprised at how quickly customs went through it and it got shipped to me! Then again, the promise for EMS is that it'll come to you in 4-14 business days or something so I'm not surprised it came quicker than I expected! Usually when it says something like 4-14 I expect to get it on the 14th day but it only took about 5 days (including the USPS fiasco! lol) It felt like a really long time when I was actually waiting for it but looking back on it now it actually wasn't too long! Hooray!

-Ease of use (website navigation) 8/10: It's pretty easy to look up the products and scroll through and whatnot! I had no trouble finding all the stuff I wanted and the website itself is very simple and clean (cue music!! LOL). The only thing I found weird was that you can't "select" anything with your mouse? You know when you want to highlight your order number and copy and paste it into your notes to keep or something? Yeah I couldn't do that and it was a little weird haha. Other than that, it was fine!

-Customer Service 10/10: I did actually try out the Q&A section of my account where you can directly ask their service department questions and they answered me back within a few hours! I emailed them late at night (around 11 west coast time) and they answered back an hour later when I was asleep! So I was pretty impressed with that regard. Their answer to my question about when my item would be shipped was very straightforward and they actually were just about to ship it on the day I sent that question in lol I'm just impatient oops hahaha ^.^ No problems there!

That's about it for this review! Thanks for reading all the way through! Hahaha~ Please keep an eye out for my future post about how these products actually work :D Stay tuned <3 Please let me know if you have any questions about KD that I didn't address here!

I <3 Doraemon so much!!~ (pic from my Insta here!)

Hope you all have a terrific week! This spring sunshine is making me so happy :3

xoxo Abby

~My Skincare Routine AM/PM + Everyday Makeup Routine!~

Hello everyone! Busy busy week for me this week T^T Decided to take a break from it all and finish this post! LOL I've had this post queued up for so long that my makeup/skincare routine has actually changed since I first edited this! Wow! Originally I was going to do two separate posts for my makeup/skincare routine, then I realized they all kind of go together so I might as well just make one long post like I always end up doing! Hahaha~ So let's start with some skincare!

AM (total of about 20-30 minutes for skin/makeup and 10-15 for breakfast and clothes!):

When I wakeup in the morning on weekdays one of the first things I do is plug in my (Hello Kitty!) straightener that I got from one of my besties for Christmas...three years or so ago??? HAHAHA! It's super cute but it takes a bit for it to warm up :3 (I know you don't read my blog cuz I haven't told you about it cuz I'm lame but thanks Christina!! <3 I'm finally using the straightener!! LOL) And I definitely need it now that I have cute bangs ^0^

When it's warm enough I curl my bangs and put it up in curlers to keep the curl. On weekends if I have time I curl the bottoms of the rest of my hair too and it looks super cute!! *__* I also keep the straightener on so I can re-curl my bangs right before I leave because sometimes the curlers make my bangs a bit wonky >.<

After that I use the commode (tmi I know sorry lol) and now we can actually get the skincare routine started!

Throwback! Old pic from one of my past skincare posts LOL

In my last skin routine post I believe I talked about how I steam my face before washing! Not only does this help open up your pores but for me it actually wakes me up a bit too! If you don't have a face steamer (I don't but I plan to maybe invest in one at some point kekeke!) just use a face towel soaked in hot (not scalding though!) water and wring it out. Then hold it on your face for a few seconds~ This is nice and relaxing in the morning as well haha~

AC Control Mousse Cleanser by Lioele!

My recent favorite combo for AM cleansing is my Lioele A.C Control Mousse Cleanser, which I bought from Pretty and Cute's online shop! I'm usually pretty skeptical about anything that claims it will clear my acne because nothing has really worked for me in the past. I bought this on a whim to try my luck anyways because many reviews claimed it worked really well and wasn't drying on the skin! And that was a really important aspect for me because if you read one of my past acne treatment reviews for the Bye Bye Blemishes  it used the drying method to get rid of acne and I really didn't like it :/

The first time I tried it I thought it made my skin feel tight and dry. After the next use I tried using a bit of my favorite cleansing oil as a follow up to this cleanser and my skin felt soooooo GOOD! It felt clean and fresh as well as moisturized! I actually use the Lioele alone sometimes and it no longer gives me the tight/dry feeling for some reason? Really it depends on whether my skin is behaving or not that day. Overall, using a cleansing oil after this is my current fave method!

It comes in hot pink or red!

It even comes with a nifty lil hook to hang the brush on to dry! 

I use this soft face brush I bought at Daiso and pump one pump of the Lioele on the brush and gently scrub my face, then rinse! The handle of this brush has a cute heart shape, which I've also discovered is good for face massaging! Cute and functional! YAY! Hahaha~

Gently run the rounded edges over your cheekbones and under your eye to loosen puffiness and increase circulation~

Make strokes (with a bit of pressure) down and away from the face. I also go across my brow bone to the temples and down the sides of my face as well~

Lastly I go down my chin using downward strokes.

Some people like to do facial massages before bed or after a long day at work and it's relaxing~ I find that sometimes when I wake up in the morning my face feels tired and little bloated, so if I have time I use the handle and massage out parts of my face to help me wake up a bit! Doesn't work for everyone, but if you haven't tried it yet I recommend you do! They even sell little doo-dads at Daiso specifically for this purpose but some people even use those dim sum soup spoons too! Here's a tutorial if you want to try it out~ The first place I found out about this method was from Bubz Beauty!

To make sure I don't strain my skin while massaging it I massage my face with the cleansing oil first with my hands and then with the handle ^.^

Clean and refreshed ^0^

After massaging I rinse with lukewarm water and pat dry with a clean washcloth. Typically I change my face cloth two or three times a week depending on how good/bad my skin is behaving lol~

Now this is where we start to get into both the skincare/makeup routine together~ If you read my previous post about Glossier I'm sure you could tell I'm pretty obsessed with their skincare products at the moment! Right now their Priming Moisturizer (which I blogged about here) is my "holy grail" (as they say ;-)) products! It's so nice and light and moisturizing and it sinks into my skin SOO well and leaves me with a dewy look :-D I haven't found anything I can replace it with yet :0

MY FAVE

Just a few dabs in each area does the trick~

I layer on my face and eye primer and sometimes I use a bit of my Benefit Porefessional primer on my t-zone (especially my nose) because those parts get oily easily and as great as the Glossier primer is for the majority of my face, my t-zone isn't having any of that LOL!

The Estee Lauder Eyeshadow Primer I use~

TIP! I let each layer dry at least for a minute or two while I eat breakfast so the moisture can settle in and my makeup won't look so streaky! In total I wear two to three layers of makeup for my daily routine ^.^

After breakfast it's time for layer two!
MAKEUP (total 15-20 minutes without skin routine on weekdays, 30-35 minutes on weekends lol):

Pictured here for makeup L to R: Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette in Milk Chocolate, Galaxy Chic Eyeshadow Palette from BH Cosmetics, Benefit Porefessional Primer, Estee Lauder Dual Lipgloss/Double Wear Concealer, L'OREAL Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream Anti-Redness in green, Estee Lauder Sumptuous Bold Volume Lifting Mascara (white tube), Innisfree No Sebum Mineral pact, Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-In-Place Eyeshadow Base (small blue put), Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint in Dark, Glossier Priming Moisturizer, Magic Cover BB Cream from The Face Shop. 

First I dab concealer around my nose area and anywhere where I have major redness and blemishes. I use a Estee Lauder Double Wear concealer from my mom (she doesn't use concealer but it came with a bunch of stuff she bought I guess lol) and I like the color but I don't like the dippy-stick type concealer. I prefer the squeezy type and dab with a brush or something~ Any recommendations for squeezy concealer that comes in lots of shades?

I blend the green and concealer at the same time together so it all looks like one even first layer :0)

The concealer and BB cream I use! If you remember from my old post on this BB cream you know that this stuff is very liquid-y so I was surprised at how long this lasted me! Hoorayyyy!

Next I use my L'OREAL Paris Magic Skin Beautifier BB Cream Anti-Redness in green that I blogged about ages ago here! When I first reviewed it I thought it was just ok, but now I think I actually quite like it! Even though it's super runny it's light and build able as well! I'm almost out so I think I might actually run to Walmart or something and grab another? Or maybe I should try a different one? Hmm...

This is the big rounded brush? Not sure if I'm using this properly but it does great for blending!

Here are all the BH brushes I got from Angelina my secret santa <3 And yes I do my makeup by the window to try and get it as even looking as possible! If you do your makeup in the most natural light it will look even nicer in dim/low light situations, which is what I spend most of my time in at school LOL~ Well at least that's how I think about it! HAHA

I use this brush from a brush set by BH Cosmetics Ange got me for Christmas (thanks Momma Bee!!! <3) to blend everything out! Again I let this layer dry while I brush my teeth!

On a good day I go with this look and add setting powder and eyeshadow and then I'm good to go! When I get to school I often put on my eyeliner and/or mascara :^) Read on to see my third layer for more coverage (a look I use on weekends or when my skin is being weird lol)

If it's a good skin day or weekday or I'm lazy I'll just stop at this point for skin makeup and add my eyeshadow and powder. BUT! For today's purposes I'll also show you the third layer I add which gives me a lot of coverage!

One pump of the BB cream comes first! Sometimes I'll add a bit more of my Atom Sunscreen/BB cream or a different foundation depending on the day. But 99% of the time I use this!

I usually do 15-21 drops and it really makes a difference for the dewy look as well as the color match aspects!

Here's what they look like mixed together!

Here is the beauty blender I used! In the picture above you can see I already dipped into the color with the blender LOL. The pack I got at F21 comes with three in three colors and three different shapes including this, a 'sharper' version of this, and the 'classic' teardrop shape!

Third layer is a mixture of my Magic Cover BB Cream from The Face Shop+ Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint in Dark (about 20ish drops!! :O) This combo gives me a shade that fits my skin nicely because on it's own the Glossier is a bit too dark (even though it blends well and is quite translucent haha), doesn't give me enough coverage, and finishes very dewy, and the Magic Cover is too light and powdery but gives me a TON of coverage and smells beautiful~ I mix it on the top of my left hand and apply with a pre-soaked/squeezed beauty blender! They sell these three packs of beauty blenders at Forever 21 and since I'm a newbie I thought I would start with a cheaper version and then get a nice one once I've mastered the technique! I'm really liking the coverage beauty blenders give me so far ^-^ This gives me an overall dewy yet covered look!

Very nice for smoothing out any areas that look a bit uneven. I especially use this down the bridge of my nose and in between my eyebrows (basically down my t-zone) and around my nose.

I go in with a smaller flatter brush around my nose and in the lines of my face to smooth out a few of the streaky parts a bit. But I usually only do this if I have time hahaha.

I like to go in with another flat brush to sweep powder in those same areas I took care of with the brush mentioned above! This helps seal the makeup in those tricky areas that tend to get a bit sweaty and/or oily throughout the day.

Whether or not I add this third layer I always finish with some sort of setting powder. On this particular day I used my Innisfree No Sebum Mineral Pact and applied with a smaller brush (TBH I don't know if I'm using any of these brushes correctly but the way I'm using them works so oh well! LOL) mostly because I couldn't find my Peach Sake powder, which I pretty much always use to set my makeup.

Whoops! Didn't realize this pic was blurry until now lol my bad! I use the light brown color in the top row to "contour" and the large pink rectangle on the bottom third row at the end for highlight! Recently I've taken a liking to using the gold color in the third bottom row to highlight as well!

I use this large angled brush to blend out the contouring.

Next I "contour" just to slim my face a bit I guess? I can't even tell if it actually works but it only takes a few seconds and I love the smell of my chocolate palette~hahaha. I use these two colors from the choco palette and this angled brush. I use this color down the sides of my face and under my chin.

For the highlight I use this smaller puffy brush!

See the brighter areas on my nose and on my cheekbone? Also, not sure why the inner part of my face looks red in this pic, but it definitely looked fine in the end so thats a bit odd lolol.

Lately I've gotten into trying out the highlight style with this sparkly color also found in my chocolate palette! It adds even more of a dewy look to my makeup! I add it to my cheekbones, temples, a dab on my cupids bow, thin streak down the middle of my nose, on the center of my forehead, and a bit on the point of my chin!

Last step for makeup (at home) is to apply eyeshadow! Lately I've been obsessed with Aphrodite--a pretty pink color from the Galaxy Chic palette Ange also gave me for Christmas <3__<3--and I apply just this or this plus another one of these top row first four colors on this palette! I say "at home" because I usually end up finishing my makeup at school and apply my mascara and eyeliner there because I don't want my eye makeup to get messed up while I sleep on the bus in the mornings LOL.

BEAUTIFUL palette *__*

Top row of this palette is LOVE. I use these four colors allll the time! Right now I'm obsessed with the fourth one Aphrodite. And not just because it's Feb :-D LOL

Loook how pretty! It's a mix between pink/red and I LOVE it! You can also see that highlight in this picture as well ;-D

Since I took pictures for this guide during the weekend (so I have more time) I did my eyeliner and mascara at home but usually I do this in the HUB or a building that isn't busy in the morning LOLOLL. I used up most of my brown eyeliner from Drew Barrymore's Flower makeup collection and it was my faveeee brown eyeliner 3: When I wanted a bolder look I would use this old Revlon eyeliner cuz it's a very dark black color and has a strong tip to make sharp wings! But now that both of those are spend I had to dig out some of my other cuter eyeliners and right now I'm using this!

Look how pretty the packaging is lol. I talked briefly about this a long time ago and I thought it was weird how the tip has two different thicknesses. I couldn't get a hang of it so I put it away until I knew how to handle eyeliner better ^-^

If turned this way you can make a super thin line! Good for creating bottom lashes or a super precise wing!

If you use it this way you can create a thicker line! This isn't a double ended eyeliner or anything, it just has different thicknesses depending on how you hold it! It's weird to explain >.< If you have any questions about it lemme know! 

When I first tried this one out I wasn't digging the two different thick/thin line options. But now that I'm a bit more use to applying eyeliner and things I love it! I might even buy this in the dark brown color as well *0* The one I'm using here is just black.

I keep this one at home because it basically does the same stuff as my They're Real! Mascara by Benefit.

Eye makeup done!

My mascara choice is always changing but when I'm at home I use this Clinique one because it gives me nice long lashes and doesn't clump up! At school I use They're Real! Mascara by Benefit, for the same reasons. When I'm feeling extra saucy I use Better Than Sex Mascara by Too Faced and add a layer of either They're Real! or the Clinique one over it for an extra BAM! Hahaha~

My makeup from inside the H&M fitting room LOLOLL

Take allll the pics in the dressing rooms kekekeke!

As for my lip color...That changes ALL.THE.TIME. since the largest part of my makeup collection consists of lippies...LOL. On this day I wore my TONY MOLY Bunny Gloss stick in the red angry bunny face color >.< That's one of my current go-to colors because 1) It has a good amount of red color 2) Applies like a chapstick so it's hydrating! 3) Easy to take with me w/o fear of spillage in my purse (like milk or juice tints :0) 4) It's super cute!

And that's about it for my complete makeup routine! The only thing that's different between my light/heavy makeup days is that third layer and whether I wear one or two layers of mascara. Other than that they're both the same! Throughout the day I'll add a bit of powder and blot my face with those blotting tissues to get rid of the excess oil that builds up. I carry my Too Cool for School compact with me for my t-zone mostly!

Back to skincare!
PM (total 5-10 minutes pre-shower; 15-40 minutes of masking time (40 minutes=20 minutes for each Glossier mask if I do both!)):

Pre face cleansing! Gotta put my bangs up so I can get to my forehead hahaha.

It actually works pretty well! I have a full review on this here!  In this review I also mentioned how not-so-great the packaging of the micellar water is--YEP. Can you all see the scotch tape "fixing" the crack on the top of the bottle? I didn't even drop it hard! I dropped it on the carpet a foot off the ground! LOL oh well...

I focus on removing the eye makeup first because that's the toughest usually and if I don't clean it well my eyes get irritated and I end up with a black ring under my eye in the morning LOL!

Compare: My face on the left side of this picture has makeup, the right side of this pic has less makeup!

I'm surprisingly not one of those people who takes care of their skin routine right when I get home. I'm a night showerer so that's when I take it all off :3 I don't own any water proof makeup really but the Magic Cover BB cream can be kind of difficult to scrub off with just any soap! And my eyeliner usually leaves me with  a ring of black around my eyes if I don't wash it out thoroughly so I start by removing as much as I can with my Garnier Micellar water and a few cotton pads first before I move on to actual cleansing!

My absolute FAVORITE cleansing oil! This is my second bottle LOL~ I completely finished the first one already ahha. Review for this here!

Time to rinse this cleansing oil off in the shower!

Once I have that top layer off I go into the deep cleanse with either my Softymo cleansing oil (same one that I mentioned up above that I use in the morning) or if I have a TON of makeup on I'll use the Snowflake cleanser I talked a bit about here! And then I just rinse off in the shower with warm water. Sometimes I give myself a face massage at this time too but I mostly take care of that in the morning~ While cleansing my face I focus on any dry areas or places with acne to make sure I get those bits clean! The great thing about cleansing oils is they don't strip your skin of any moisture and actually add to it!

Straight out of the shower I pat my face dry with another clean face towel and apply one of my favorite masks! If my skin is going haywire I use my Glossier Galaxy Greens mask pack which is AMAZING and actually gives me some soothing results!

During the holidays Glossier was selling the mask packs in sampler pods so you had an individual serving of mask in each pod! I never used an entire pod on my face though so for me these pods lasted a long time! One pod was about three uses for me for both the Moon and Greens masks. The kit came with 5 Galaxy greens and 5 Moon masks I think? And one Glossier headband ^.^  

The Galaxy greens is the mask I go to for bad skin days! It's super soothing and it tingles a bit? A little numbing around the mouth which I'm not sure is normal...but it hasn't given me any negative effects otherwise so I love it! It has little exfoliating bits and most of the results come in the morning.

If my skin is a bit dry or lackluster I use the Glossier Moisturizing Moon pack! I also use this right after washing off the Galaxy Greens pack because they work super well together! And if I'm just in need of something cool and simple on my face I use any of the My Beauty Diary masks we have on hand. The thing about all these masks is they kind of give me the immediate results of soothing and moisture, but most of the magic happens the next morning!

These little pods are so cute ^__^

This mask is completely smooth and milky and does wonders for hydrating my skin and helps it feel SOO SOFT in the morning! It also feels really cool and fresh on my skin as I'm wearing it. This also takes 3-4 uses for me to finish!

The last thing I do right before bed when I brush my teeth is I use the Lioele and my face scrubber again. For increased effectiveness I would use the Lioele twice a day! I did this the first week or two to see if it would actually make a difference and over time it really did! Although my face still has redness and spots (especially before my period) there is significantly less! Lately though I've been finding that I don't actually need to use it more than once a day (day or night either one) for it to keep my acne at bay! Only when my acne is really bad do I use it twice a day ^.^ And I don't really like to sleep with any creams or things on my face but when I'm feeling a bit dry I will apply a bit of Cetaphil on those patches and I ALWAYS put either the Balm-Dot-Com from Glossier or Vaseline on my lips at night after brushing my teeth for smooth hydrated lips in the morning :D If anyone can recommend a good sleeping pack that isn't sticky to me in the comments below that would be lovely!!

Once more right before bed (yes this is the same pic as up above, I'm a lazy gal ok? LOLOLL) seems to help any incoming or present acne calm down by the morning! For really big pimples it at least lessens redness and by two to three days the pimple is usually gone and has not left scars if I'm using this constantly! I'm so surprised it has actually been working for me haha.

PHEW! It seems like I put a bit of work into my skin/makeup routine huh? This is actually not as long a process as you might think! A lot of people actually have a few more steps in their routine ^>^ It took me a very long time to figure out what works for my skin so keep experimenting until you get combos you like! My routine is always changing to suit my time and my skin's needs ahhaha. What is your skin routine like? Have you tried any of these products I have mentioned? Lemme know down below!

Hope you all found this tutorial to be useful! <3 Thanks for reading lovelies!!

xoxo Abby