I sometimes watch Dr. Dray, a dermatologist, on Youtube and two tips I remember from watching a few of her videos really stuck out to me and I thought I’d spread the word for other people who’ve never heard of these tips.

1. Use water resistant sunscreen during the winter months with harsh winds because sunscreen that’s water resistant will stick better to your skin. (Dr. Dray said this in her “10 Tips for a Winter Skincare Routine video and its tip #6)

I personally use the KissMe Mommy! UV Aqua Milk. I really like its texture and I bought it during the end of last summer thinking I’d have to wait until the summer again to use it but actually it turns out I can use it during the winter too!

However this sunscreen also stings my eyes really bad if it’s rubbed in too close, soooo…

2. Use chapstick with SPF around your eyes if your facial sunscreen makes your eyes water. It’s gentler than your facial sunscreen and probably wont make your eyes sting.  (Don’t remember which video I got it from though)

This is a tip you can use all year round actually. I like to use the Aquaphor Lip Repair with broad spectrum SPF 30, but its in a gel like texture so I think if theres anyone considering buying a chapstick SPF, maybe check out the stick version instead. This tip changed my life!!! No white cast and no burning. I used to do this until I found a sunscreen I can rub around my eyes without any issues and that’s the skin1004 hyalu-cica sun serum. 

I hope this helps out skincare newbies out there ❤️

Sunscreen Tips for the Winter

About a year ago, one of my skincare addict friends recommended I tried CosRX’s snail mucin, so I got the Advanced Snail 92 All in One Cream. I have combination skin that leans oily, and I also saw that so many people on Tik Tok recommended this cream for my skin type so I felt hopeful this would be a good product for me.

I did a patch test on my forearms and it felt fine, I liked the texture and slipperiness of the snail mucin. I did my night routine: cleanser, adapalene gel, and then used the CosRx cream on my face. Used a more than I needed to because slugging was big at the time and I wanted to try that.

When I woke up, my face had a bunch of tiny red zit looking bumps on it, looked irritated, but nothing painful or itchy and they went away relatively fast but the experience freaked me out so bad I never used the cream on my face again. 

Also, I didn’t like how the cream felt on my skin after it had absorbed on my forearms, it feels slightly moisturized but also theres this matte grip on my skin where the mucin has dried? I don’t know how to describe it but I’m not a fan.

Anyways I was bummed out that the ingredient everyone was raving about didn’t work out for me, but then I got a Tik Tok talking about a correlation between people being allergic to dust mites also being allergic to snail extract. I searched it up and found scientific articles and reddit users talking about the correlation too.

I actually am allergic to dust mites, but I didn’t get any hives with the snail mucin on me, so I’m thinking am I actually allergic to snail extract or did I use too much snail cream that it clogged up my pores? Or something else entirely? Maybe it reacted to my Differin adapalene gel? Wanted to post this to get people’s thoughts on what happened as well as an ingredient warning for people unaware that snail extract can cause a reaction for people with dust mite allergies.

TLDR; My face didn’t react well to using CosRX’s Advanced Snail 92 All in One Cream, I used adapalene gel before it and I also have dust mite allergies which have shown to have a link to snail extract allergies. Did I have a bad reaction because I used too much cream and clogged my pores, was it my dust allergies that led to my bad reaction, or was it because I used too much snail cream and it clogged my pores?

Thank you in advance to anybody knowledgable enough about ingredients to answer this for me.

Whats the Cause Behind My Bad Experience with Snail Mucin? + ppl with dust mite allergies beware

I have these small bumps that show up sometimes on my skin and theyre really annoying to get rid of because theyre kinda deep under the skin. I think its clogged pores bc u dont really see them normally but when my face stretches you do see them. I do have oil cleansers and chemical exfoliants, but they dont seem to really help with getting rid of them. I end up picking at it and squeezing it to get rid of the clog underneath but i’d rather not traumatize my skin anymore. Anybody know any tips? I typically double cleanse any time i know ive sweat a lot and chemically exfoliate 1x a week. Also these clogged pores pretty much only show up around the area under my nose.

1st pic is me pressing my lips together to reveal the clogged pores. 2nd pic is how it looks when my face is relaxed. 3rd pic is the same as 1st pic but with different lighting.

Tagging the chemical exfoliant and oil cleanser i use below. Maybe theres better ones out there that can get rid of these?

How to get rid of clogged pores?

I recently got a full sized bottle of the Tia’m Vita B3 Source serum as a gift with my skincare order from Stylevana. Although I’ve heard lots of good things about this serum and the niacinamide could def help me with my acne scars, I’ve been hesitant to use it because I don’t want to destroy my skinbarrier or irritate it as I’ve never used niacinamide in such a high percentage.

I use the Some By Mi AHA BHA PHA Miracle Toner which has 2% niacinamide in it but thats it, and even then I only exfoliate usually once every 1-2 weeks. 

The Tia’m website says you can reduce risk of irritating the skin by mixing the serum with your moisturizer, but how many drops should I put in my moisturizer? One? Two? Also is it okay to mix the niacinamide in with any moisturizer? I want to mix it in with the Illiyoon Ceramide Ato Concentrate Cream and put it on at night. Anybody with experience with niacinamide, please let me know.

I Need Help Incorporating Niacinamide into My Routine

As much as I love kbeauty, I’m trying to spend less on my skincare products right now. I’ve done my best to replace products I like that come in 60ml bottles to products I also like but are cheaper and come in bigger bottles. I mean lots of 60ml kbeauty stuff is already pretty affordable, but spending $15 for a moisturizer that only lasts 1-2 months can add up.

I thought I’d share the switches I’ve done and make a place for other people to share their favorite kbeauty bulk budget products too, so please comment down your cheap faves if you have some (Any products that are $10-15 and are 80ml+ or are much bigger in size compared to the usual size its competitors are)



Old Daytime Moisturizer: Rovectin Lotus Water Cream, 60ml, and currently $17 on Stylevana

Current Daytime Moisturizer: Bonajour Green Tea Water Bomb, 100ml, and currently $13.69 on Stylevana

Old Nighttime Moisturizer: Axis-Y Cera-Heart My Type Duo Cream, 60ml, and currently $14.79 on Stylevana

New Nighttime Moisturizer: Illiyoon Ceramide Ato Cream, 200ml, and currently $10.19 on Stylevana

Your fave budget bulk kbeauty products?

Red bean is an ingredient supposed to help control sebum but I didn’t notice a difference in my oil production after using this gel, and it also doesn’t keep your skin moisturizer all day. After applying in the morning, I felt like by the late afternoon my skin needed more hydration. If you pair this moisturizer with a nice hydrating toner, it might make putting on this moisturizer a better experience but I’d rather just get a more hydrating moisturizer. This is an okay product overall that I got as a gift with my Stylevana order, but I wouldn’t buy it again on my own.

Lives up to the name water gel, the gel itself is stiff but spreads easily, hydrates and moistures a bit. The gel is lighhtweight so I most definitely recommend this for combo-oily, to oily skin.

Cons: i personally ended up not liking the matte finish. I bought this because I thought a matte moisturizer would be good for me to have under sunscreen so that I didn’t end up looking too shiny. After applying the moisturizer, I felt like my eyebrows were a little tight, as if they were glued together. Not a big deal because I can rub in the moisturizer in that area to make the feeling go away, but the other con about this is that it makes my sunscreen pill REALLY bad. I have combination oily skin, my Tzone is oily while my Uzone is balanced. Even then my tzone is only slightly oily, so if you have skin like me I wouldn’t recommend this product, this feels more for people who are super oily. I use the skin1004 hyalu-cica sun serum and after using it after the LRP moisturizer, I noticed around 30 min to an hour later that I was flaking more than parmesan against a cheese grater, ive never experienced pilling THAT bad. I used this sunscreen both right after the LRP moisturizer had absorbed, and also after waiting 10 minutes before putting on the sunscreen. No difference in results, I still pilled horribly afterwards. Its a shame because I really wanted to like this moisturizer but I rush in the morning and I dont have time to wait forever in between layers of skincare. I would have not minded the matteness as much if it didn’t make my sunscreen pill so bad. Returning this product soon so Im reviewing it while I still have it.

Pros: nice gel like texture that moisturizes and feels cool to the skin. Absorbs and dries quickly. i can never remember what certain ingredients do but for ppl who care theres niacinamide and ceramide-3 in here and stuff that helps control oil and sebum production. Lots of product, 75 mL for $21 when usually my korean moisturizers are priced around $20 for 60 mL. Probably really good for very oily people, feels matte within minutes. If you’re looking for a moisturizer without shine, this is definitely it.

P.S: in pictures, my arm without bracelets is the arm after the moisturizer has absorbed and my arm with bracelets has no moisturizer on. 

❌👎🏻Cons:

Unfortunately, the niacinamide percentage is too high for me. It made my skin very sensitive so I had to quit all my actives because it burned putting on sunscreen and adapalene gel when I never experienced irritation with those products until I started using this serum. I even tried mixing 1-2 drops into my illiyoon moisturizer at night to dilute the potency of the niacinamide and only using it once a week, but it still irritated my skin. And it wasn’t easy mixing it into a moisturizer either, especially if you’re using a moisturizer that’s on the thicker and creamier side. The serum mostly just sat in a pool around the moisturizer in my palm. Also, the dropper leaks even if you don’t squeeze it. I definitely don’t recommend this unless you know your skin can handle high percentages of niacinamide. Otherwise, I recommend people stick to using a serum that only has 2-5% of niacinamide for the same results and less chances of side effects.

👍🏻✅Pros:

Was gifted this in my order from Stylevana. The texture of this serum was light and watery. It absorbed into my face quickly and layered with my moisturizers nicely as well. And the niacinamide definitely works, it made my acne scars much lighter in just 2 weeks.

I do tend to be heavy handed when I use this product so I think using too much can make you experience a little bit of itchiness on the face. Not like your whole face, but sometimes like a spot on my nose feels itchy but I just pat on that area until the feeling goes away. Its definitely not an allergic reaction or anything negative! Other than that, nothing negative about this sleeping pack. This product has lots of pros and is definitely worth trying out!!!! Highly recommend for both dry skin and combo-oily girlies!

I bought this sleeping pack a long long time ago on a whim. I was looking for a replacement for the La Roche Posay Cicaplast B5 Balm and decided to buy this instead because they both had cica. I have always repurchased it since and have been through multiple bottles! I realized cica was the best for my skin when I slathered on the LRP Cicaplast balm on my face at night and woke up with soft skin with no redness. But since the cicaplast balm is pricy for such a tiny bottle, purito’s sleeping pack is a great replacement (with a better texture for the combo-oily skin girls too)!

The sleeping pack has a very nice deeply moisturizing feel but without a heavy cream texture. The cream itself also spreads easy and  has a light-medium weight feel to it. Don’t be afraid of this product if you’re someone who leans oily, especially if you use active products at night that dry you out (like retinols/retinoids), definitely give this a try. 

You can use it as a moisturizer on its own or use it on top of a moisturizer like I do! Either way is fine. 

This bottle is also really great on hand whenever your skin barrier is irritated. There’s been times where I experiment with my skincare routine, and when I go too far this bottle is THE BEST at soothing my skin from redness and irritation. Redness goes away within an hour.

This definitely keeps your skin moisturized ALL night. You will feel it and see it in your skin when you wake up. I always wake up with smooth looking skin because its still moisturized with no redness!

Also, no scent.

-strong scent. Smells very herbally, I like my products non scented or with a faint scent. 

-i believe the lavender oil/fragrance irritated my skin. Right after putting it on, it made my skin feel uncomfortably warm, and becoming slightly red. When I touched my face it didn’t actually feel warm to my fingers, but I could still feel the warmth in my face. No itching or burning, just warmth. It went away after a couple of minutes but this disturbed me. I’ve never experienced that kind of sensation before, so I washed this off afterwards. 

Thankfully it didn’t break me out but I wouldn’t recommend this product for people with sensitive skin or sensitive to fragrances. 

Got this as a gift with my order from Jolse.

-Cute packaging
-Liked the texture of the cream, didnt feel greasy at first and absorbed relatively quickly.

ctskin