Will This Fizzing Face Mask Give Your Dull Skin a Glow?Radical Skincare’s Instant Revitalizing Mask is gonna Snap! Crackle! Pop! all over you

What do you do when your skin looks blah—maybe it’s PMS; maybe you’ve just been awake for too many hours—and yet you need to push on and somehow look halfway decent for the evening?

You do a pre-game face mask, that’s what. Something to get the circulation going; to gently exfoliate and hydrate so that you don’t need to solely rely on a high-coverage foundation to fake good skin. Like a quickie facial, if you will.

Yes, you can do this in two steps (see my “Peel, Mask, Moisturize” mantra). But likely, if it’s the end of a weekday, ain’t nobody got time for that. Which is why I thought Radical Skincare’s Instant Revitalizing Mask, above, sounded like the ultimate. You might’ve noticed this new beauty brand popping up at Sephora lately and getting coverage in magazines. Their whole deal is high-potency, high-performance skincare that gives you “radical results”—hence the name. Had to admit, I was intrigued.

The Instant Revitalizing Mask promised to, well, revitalize my face. And who wouldn’t want that? It’s meant to soothe, hydrate and boost radiance… but they also use beauty BS terms like “teaches skin to breathe,” “stock up on energy,” etc. Well, whatever. If it left my skin glowing, they could say what they want. Obviously, the other cool part was that it foams, pops and fizzes on contact. Fun!

Here’s the hygienic pump container:

And here’s what the mask looks like—slightly yellowish and you can see it’s starting to fizz.

Unfortunately, three separate testing attempts later, and I’ve yet to manage leaving the stuff on my face for longer than 60 seconds. They’re not kidding about the high-potency ingredients. On my sensitive skin, it stung like a bitch! Just so itchy and irritating that I couldn’t even stand it.

BUT! This doesn’t mean it’s a crap product. It’s just crap for people with sensitivity. I got my mom to try it, to see if it was just me who couldn’t tolerate it—and she was totally fine. In fact, she loved how it felt and smelled, and thought it did make a real difference in giving her face a glow. If you have pretty resilient skin, then I think Radical Skincare’s is the mask that’ll give you the most results.

Me, imma gonna stick with Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask, which also has a bubbling action, but doesn’t irritate me at all:

Watsons Moisturising Facial Mask with Cucumber Extract

 Watsons Moisturising Facial Mask with Cucumber Extract

Hello lovelies, how are you?

It's been raining for almost a week here but thank God, the sun finally came out today. This week is supposedly my exam week so I've been studying non-stop but since the weather is very bad, my university decided to move it until next week. The rain and the studying pretty much kept me up all night which led to huge eyebags and bad skin>.< so I decided to use Watsons Moisturising Facial Mask with Cucumber extract that I bought at the start of the week.

As written on the back of the mask, "This specially formulated mask contains cucumber extract and natural collagen nutrients to tighten your skin and improve skin elasticity. Leaves your skin firmer and more supple"

The smell of this facial mask is very refreshing, it's not overwhelming. Just enough to calm your nerves and make you relax. It also has a lot of essence but it doesn't drip which is a plus point for me! After about 30 minutes on my face, it still has a lot that I used it for my neck and my hands. I massaged it and let my skin absorb the essence. It had an instant effect. It made my skin smoother and softer like a baby's skin hehehe ^o^ which made me really happy oh and it smells divine <3 Also I can feel that my face is a bit firmer than before. I am definitely in love with this mask. 

The only bad thing with this mask is after about 10 minutes of absorption into my skin. I notice a bit of itchiness and rashes on my chin and neck but after about 15 minutes, it was gone. I'll give this mask another try and see if the rashes came back, if it did I'm gonna stop using this. 

Overall Rating: 4/5 (-1 since it gave me itchiness and rashes but that's just me)

Repurchase: Maybe. I bought two sheets so I'm gonna try that one again. If there's no rashes then Yes definitely, a repurchase is in line but if it still appears then bye bye .

Have you tried this product? Did you have itchiness and rashes too or does it work well for you?

See you soon~

SUQQU Frame Fix Cream Foundation [Review]

SUQQU Frame Fix Cream Foundation is one of the various goodies that I purchased while in Japan. My first impression was that it’s a very special foundation indeed – dozens of applications later and I can confirm that it is unlike anything I’ve tried.

As the name suggests, SUQQU Frame Fix Cream has a creamy, dense consistency – somewhat similar to that of Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer but far more pliable (and not as heavily pigmented, obviously). A pump would be useless and a waste of product, hence it is housed in a glass jar. Not my favourite packaging but the performance… totally worth it.

Token SPF emerges once again, 25 in this case. Either a pro or a con depending on your tastes, I couldn’t care less.

Comprendo? Me either. If you have an ingredient list in English, be a sweet and let me know!

At a whopping 100USD for 30 grams, you’ll be wanting to scrape out every last drop of product. That figure is for those lucky enough to purchase in Japan, international buyers can purchase online at Ichibankao for 127USD. It’s a pretty penny…. and still worth it.

Let’s talk about shade range. Diagram courtesy of Ichibankao.

Shades preceded with a 2 are considered to have a pinker undertone, 1 being a happy medium, while 0 depicts yellow shades. The final digit denotes depth, 1 being lightest and 3 being deepest. Pretty simple, no?

I was advised time and time again that I would match 102. I dotted my chest with shade 002 and whatayaknow, seamless match for my slightly olive, winter NC20 skin. I’m just contrary like that.

I have a little anecdote regarding application. I first trialled this foundation while in Japan, patting it on with my fingers because a) I wanted to get to know the foundation, make friends with it and b) my brushes were on the other side of the globe. I deduced that it was a full coverage foundation with a dewy texture that seemed to emphasise the pores on my nose. So once I was home, I did something I never do – I buffed that foundation into the skin. I have always been under the impression that buffing is poor practice, it kicks up flaky skin and the brush eats all the product anyway. Well, I backpedal with my tail between my legs because sweet baby cheeses, this is PERFECT.

Look at that. No primer, powder or concealer. What you see there is less than half a pea sizedamount of SUQQU Frame Fix Cream buffed into the skin with a Real Techniques Buffing Brush. The illusion of porelessness rivals my holy grail Armani Lasting Silk (the finish of which I described as angelic). Guise, I think this is my new favourite foundation.

I’m excessively excited and getting ahead of myself. Here’s what you need to know about SUQQU Frame Fix Cream Foundation:

- It’s a high coverage foundation. I prefer a sheer coverage yet gravitate to high coverage bases. Why? Because I can thin the layers down to almost nothing, which is far less detectable than piling on the tinted moisturizer (nothing against those, FYI).

- It’s a dewy finish foundation. Luminous but never greasy. Greasy is bad.

- It’s bloody long wearing. If sky-high Japanese humidity isn’t the ultimate test of longevity, I don’t know what is. A dewy foundation that stays put? Mind blown.

Well that sounds wonderful, any cons?
As with all dewy foundations, I notice a minute amount of settling around the nose towards the end of the day, I view this as a testament to my fussiness as opposed to a downfall of the product. Oil control will always be an issue with luminous bases- I do have a bit of breakthrough shine on the nose after about 6 hours. Surprisingly, any oil seems to disperse elegantly with no caking or migration.

I took the liberty to explore an array of primers and powders to mitigate these two issues and address the concerns of my oilier ladies and gents. My findings are as follows.
Primer wise: Armani Fluid Master Primer and Hourglass No28 Primer Serum performed poorly, with no oil control benefits (no benefits at all, to be frank). Rouge Bunny Rouge Mattifying Primer is a godsend, keeping my nose matte all day and diminishing any settling.
Powder wise: MAC Mineralized Skinfinish Natural proved to be a powdery mess over SUQQU Frame Fix Cream. Guerlain Meteorites imparted the skin with beautiful luminosity but provided no oil control benefits. SUQQU Loose Powder in Natural topped the list as a match made in heaven – airbrush finish that kept nose oilies in check.

OverallWhile the SUQQU Frame Fix Cream works well by itself, it stuns me when paired with a bit of primer on the nose and topped with a powder. A bit of extra effort and completely worth it.
I can’t adopt a lazy approach and use my fingers but again, worth it.
It’s a bit hard to find, pricy and not so travel friendly (don’t forget the qtips!) but for me, totally worth it.