After the review on the toner and essence, time for the cream to make an appearance! ^_^

I’ll be comparing this with Loreal Hydrafresh Aqua Gel, because both of this are similar to each other, just like Loreal’s Hydrafresh Essence and Garnier’s Essence.

Texture wise, it’s slightly thicker than Loreal’s gel cream. Although I think most people would think that both are pretty much the same in terms of texture, testing it on the hand I will have to agree, but on the face not so.

Loreal’s runnier and hence, easier to spread, while Garnier is a wee bit thicker but it still spreads out nicely, just that it’s a bit thicker. The smell of this moisturizer is just plain delicious! And the yellow toned light green is lovely too! Haha! Being a little artistic here

With Garnier, I notice that it gives me a slight glow and dries down to a semi matte finish in about 5 minutes? It’s not oily or sticky either. While using Loreal, I do notice the drying time to a semi matte finish is slightly longer and uh, it still remains a wee bit sticky. But no complains here!

I usually use this together with the Essence as I am someone who’s in the aircon room from 8am till 7pm, and I am always worried my skin dries out. My heels are, really. >_< So with both essence and moisturizer, I feel much safer to know that my skin is moisturized and hydrated properly.

This gel cream goes RM17.90 and it’s much cheaper than Loreal!

By the way, no alcohol denat here!

So, other than the Garnier Aqua Defense Fresh Non Stop Moisturizing Body Lotion which totally sucks (at least for me it is!), the whole range is definitely worthy of our hard earn money! Well, at least for the toner, essence and moisturizer.:)

Anyone tried their Eyes Roll On or the facial wash? Let me know if you did try it!

Maybe you can tempt me? Tee hee!

Sorry about the extreme flash used on the picture

After reviewing Garnier Aqua Defense Refreshing Toner last week, I promised to review the two moisturizers which I bought from the same line.

After using close to 1/2 jar of it, time for a speedy review.

Paris and Bee has both gave positive review about the Essence, with Paris even comparing it to the famous H2O+ Face Oasis!

For me, I don’t own any H2O+ Face Oasis, so no comparison from me. However, I would make a quick comparison between Loreal Hydrafresh Aqua Essence Gel

For starters, let’s look at the similarity.

To those who DO NOT want to have any Alcohol Denat in their skincare, please AVOID both this essence and Loreal’s Hydrafresh essence!

For those who is okay with having Alcohol Denat in their skincare, read on ya!

Both comes in a frosty glass jar. Loreal’s jar is slightly wider and not as narrow or deep as Garnier’s. While we are it, both essence are green in colour, cool to the touch and it’s jelly-gel like, with Garnier’s slighty runnier than Loreal’s.

Both essence are really lightweight and sinks in really fast! However, Loreal tend to be a little sticky slightly longer than Garnier’s. Once Garnier sinks in, all it leaves is just soft supple skin, with a glow to the face!

While using the essence, my skin is relatively oil-free whole day, of course I use Biore to help mattify my face, but even if I feel lazy and skip the sunblock, my face isn’t as oily as compared to days I skip moisturizer and everything! *gasp! bad example don’t follow!*

The best part for me, while both Loreal and Garnier contains Alcohol Denat, I do notice that Garnier has never even stung me once but Loreal’s essence did for the first time when I used it. >_< Maybe my skin was really really dehydrated that time.

And I love the price tag! RM19.90 for 50ml, RM10 cheaper than Loreal’s! With such a good price and both works the same, why would I even want to waste RM10 on Loreal? Did I mention that Garnier’s essence smells delicious and fresh? It’s like apples!

Clearly we have a winner!

Am at work and am juggling between a myriad of stuff, which blogging isn’t always in the picture.

Jeepers. Bad girl am I.

I love my current job (at least at the moment I really am!), but I also need a wee bit of a time off, my head would go bursting if I am at office from 8 to 7 everyday.

Um, back to the toner. Ah yes.

Introducing new Garnier Aqua Defense Refreshing Toner with pure anti-oxidant fruit water to help you lift off impurities and intensively hydrate your skin. Skin is instantly fresh, hydrated with a healthy radiance.

My lighting is a little off due to bad lighting at home, and I had to use flash in order to get a decent picture. Warm yellow lights doesn’t help in this type of photography session. In fact, it makes everything worse!

So, this toner (man, I am good at jumping tones!) is performing like what it promised. It hydrates my skin without the sticky icky feeling, absorbs fast and has this delightful scent! My skin does look fresher and it is well hydrated. Apart from that, that is all this toner gives.

Let’s take a look at the ingredients!

694579-1-Aqua/Water, Glycerin, Vitis Vinifera/ Grape Fruit Extract, Pyrus Malus/ Apple Fruit Water, Sodium PCA, PEG-60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Methylparaben, Polyaminopropyl Biguanide, Parfum/ Frangrance, Butylphenyl 3 Cyclohexene, Carboxaldehyde, Linalool Benzyl Salicylate

I don’t see any alcohol in it! Bweee! Usually, I don’t care for the ingredients, since I don’t have any reactions (I think, thank god!) with those commonly known as allergic reaction triggers (forgive me my bad English), but I do know some of you are very particular with the ingredients!

So, I use this as my facial mist too! I decant some into a spritz bottle and tote them around, but usually I spritz my face with it when I am in the office. I am in the office for 11 hours straight, how drying it is! Perfect little thing I tell you! My skin is very happy!

And I use this as a mask too! I bought those DIY paper sheet mask and eye mask from Daiso, I think you can get them from Jusco too, and soak them into the toner. Once done, put them on your face or under your eyes for maximum hydration Easy peasy no? If you don’t like the idea of buying those sheet mask, use your cotton pads! I think that’s easy enough?

So, for RM17 or so, you get to use this as a toner (duh!), a facial mist and/ or a mask! What a sweet deal!

Coming soon would be reviews on the essence and moisturizer from the same range!

Very very quick.

This lotion, smells really good. Really fresh and summery. It can make your hot and humid mornings a little livelier with such a lovely refreshing smell.Heck, I even love taking whiffs of it when my mood is a little down! And the texture, is very light! Lovely for hot humid days!

But I said yucks on my title didn’t I?

Well, you bet! Because despite the lovely smell, this bloody lotion has got nothing else to offer!

City pollution, daily stress and ever changing indoor-outdoor climate dries up your skin moisture even faster. Breakthrough Garnier Aqua Defense Fresh Non Stop Moisturizing Body Lotion: its refreshing texture instantly quenches the skin. The formula is enriched with anti-oxidant and pure fruit wate that helps blocks out external agressions. Moisture is locked in.

I shook my head as I type every single word.

It doesn’t deliver any of those! All it does is just sit on top of my skin, and does nothing.

When I apply this in the night after my shower, I head to bed. Normally, lotions would have sink into the skin by the time I got up and no slippery residue. But heck, this lotion, NO. When I wash off, a slight slippery film can still be felt on my skin! And it was like a good 8 or 9 hours ago when I applied the lotion.

I thought I used too much, so I reduce the amount used. But no, same thing happen. I got angry, wash off everything, slab on some body butter on one hand, another I put some of this lotion. The next morning, when I wash off, the body butter had totally sink into my skin without much slippery residue, but this lotion, still the same! Yucks!

Body butters have a much thicker texture but it doesn’t behave this way at all. I subsitute with Johnson’s baby cream, baby lotion, those body lotion from The Body Shop and even Garnier Brightening Lotion and the other Garnier Firming Lotion,  and non of them turns out this way.

I don’t really want to make a fuss out of the slight slippery film left behind on the skin, but after using it for days, I still don’t see any moisturizing results from the lotion. So, I have this conclusion…

Lotion that does not sink into skin = Doesn’t moisturize the skin = Garnier Aqua Defense Body Lotion = YUCKS!

It’s a let down from Garnier as I had hope this would be a nice body lotion to use for the day. I guess, I am saying goodbye to this.

Anyway, here’s some quick swatches for you guys to take a look!

Maybelline Eyestudio Diamond Glow (Limited Edition) – RM33.90

The one labeled as Black and Brown are the gel liners. Fresh Green is one of the eyeshadow palettes.

Blue gel liner which is a metallic blue. Has a nice metallic like sheen. Limited edition unlike the Black and Brown gel liners. Those are permanent.

It’s much more pigmented actually, but I guess due to the place I place the colour on and with the lighting, it washes out the colour a bit.

I find Lilac Mauve to be a bit more chalky and powdery than the rest.

Look at the Copper Brown! Beautiful isn’t it? Same goes with Wine Pink!

I did a little test with the gel liners to see if they are smudge proof and water proof or not And they did not disappoint me!

I rub it off first with Watson’s wet tissue and then gently dab a little Inuovi cleansing oil it. The purpose of the cleansing oil is to actually emulate (not sure if it’s the right word) my oily eyelids. It stayed on pretty well huh?

My thoughts on these?

The colours are pretty much the same as Majolica Majorca Jewelling Palettes. In fact, I do think that MJ Jewelling Palettes are like dupes of Maybelline this time! I swatched all of them although at different time, but I like the colour payoff of Maybelline slightly better than MJ. Texture wise I think they are both more or less the same. MJ is a little more towards subtle shimmer, while Maybelline has a more metallic kind of a finish with more shimmer. The name Diamond Glow says it all.

I honestly think that Maybelline should justd DC ALL the other palettes and make this permanent! Really, this is one of the best eyeshadow ever! And at the price, not even Kate or MJ can beat it!

And I bought these too!

Am gonna try them out and report about them after using them for a bit!

Gentle exfoliation and using the right body lotion will grant you your wishes!

And I found something that economical (cheap doesn’t sound very nice, feels very degrading ) and yet it works!

After reading Paris’ review, and given it a much deserve long thought, I finally caved in and bought my 123456789 (okay, I am just exaggerating )  of body scrubs. I’m glad I bought this!

It smells citrusy, rather refreshing and the scrubby bits aren’t too chunky or harsh. Whenever I use this, I feel like I am doing a sugar scrub, which you gently dampen your skin first, apply it, gently scrub and then it will slowly dissolve/ emulsify and then you can rinse it away!

Your skin becomes  smooth! And it’s not drying I like how I smell after using this, but the bf thinks otherwise. I guess the smell isn’t for everyone?

After a good body scrub, I put on lotion/ body butters. Given the horrible warm weather we have now, putting on any body butter is a killer, at least to me it is. >_< I like to go for light lotions so I don’t feel stuffy and sticky all over.

The lotion is a little thick, not as runny as other lotions but still it absorbs rather well. It has this light citrus smell, the same as the body scrub, which again, may or may not be well received by some people. In my case, I quite like the smell.

Does both items helps to whiten my skin?

I think it does brightens and evening out the skintone, as it removes the dead skin cell, and my skintone is a bit more even compared to before using both scrub and lotion. As for whitening, to a certain degree it did helped. I notice the line between my upper arms and lower arms, I hope you know what I mean, isn’t as noticeable anymore. The darker portion now is a little closer to the skin colour of my arms that’s forever sheltered under the sleeves. Tee hee.

Like Paris has said, the whitening effect isn’t very noticeable, so if you want to be drastically fairer, I doubt that will happen. Go bleach yourself if you want to be crazily fair. LOL. I am happy enough if my skintone are even all over and it isn’t dull or flaky.

I’m not asking for too much, right?

Body lotion retails from RM9.90 (150ml) to RM23.90 (250ml), while the body scrub is sold at RM19.90 for 150ml. Easily available in most pharmacies and supermarkets.

It’s on my repurchase list, but let me finish my other body scrubs and lotions first

My Beauty Diary mask

My Beauty Diary, or known as 我的美丽日记, is very popular in Taiwan right now. It’s pretty cheap over there, but when come into Malaysia, my god! The price tag went sky high!

This mask is a competitor of My Scheming Beauty aka 我的心机面膜/心机美人. My Beauty Diary is a little more expensive than My Scheming Beauty because it is advertise heavily in magazines, while My Scheming Beauty don’t have any advertisement on magazines. At least that’s what I see from my own stack of Taiwan magazines.

This mask is only available in Guardian, selling at RM16.90 for a pack. Each pack contains 2 pieces of the sheet mask. I myself find that this is a little pricey because I can get really cheap price by buying it online. >_<

Another item that pop into Guardian just a week ago is a new item from Garnier. What amazes me was that this item is sold in the market almost around the same time as in Taiwan! Cool eh?

Let me introduce you to the latest addition of the Garnier family!

This is sold in Guardian for now, and I think it will be in Watsons soon. Sold at RM24.90, I think the price isn’t too bad. I quite enjoy the slightly cooling sensation when I gently roll the pen over my eyes. It’s quite lightweight so I doubt millia seeds will pop up. However, given that this is pretty light, those who have really dry eyes won’t be getting enough moisture from this.

This pen-like eye cream is meant to reduce dark circles and puffiness, I haven’t seen much result for dark circles though I have been using it for a few days, so I will wait a bit more before doing a review on this.

I think I want bring this around with me in my bag and just roll it over my eyes whenever I fee like, since it doesn’t leak and is travel friendly. I stare into the PC so much nowadays that I think my eyes deserves a little more TLC, don’t you think?

If they can come up with eye cream put into a a pen with a roller that massages the eyes as you roll it over, why don’t they have something similar for the lips? Lips need some massaging too, to give you a really nice, soft pink pout!

One more new item on the shelf in Watsons and Guardian is Revlon’s Beyond Natural Skin Matching Makeup foundation and primer. I tested both items and here’s a quick review.

The primer goes on smooth and leaves your skin matte. Really matte. It has this light fruity/ citrus smell which is quite nice. I think it contains sillicone but I can’t be sure. It goes on transparent and provides absolutely no coverage.

For the foundation, I tested Light Medium on the back of my hand. It is white in colour, with little black beads and when gently pat onto the skin, it transforms into a goldenish brown colour! Amazing! It goes on smooth, not oily and leaves the skin matte. However, I notice it did not do much for my skin. It didn’t brighten up nor provide much coverage. >_<

I tested using it after the primer and solely using the foundation alone, but honestly, I find that there isn’t much of a difference. Maybe I should buy it and use on my face instead Then I can review it better.

Retailling at RM55 for the primer, and RM59 for the foundation, I think it’s slightly expensive because I think it didn’t really perform that well. However, I might buy the foundation and give it a try in the future. I’m waiting for the discounts!

Hope you have enjoyed the little news bit!

Garnier Light Whitening Infusion Tissue Mask

I took this picture after I tore the packaging and suddenly remembered that I should take a picture and post a review. Forgive me my silliness. Hehe~

I like this because the sheet mask fits my face rather nicely. The smell is the usual Garnier Whitening range smell. Lemon-y, citrus-y.

The essence is quite alot. Because after putting on my face for 15 minutes, the mask is still wet from the essence! I use it to apply on my neck, knees and elbows.

The whitening effect? So-so. My face didn’t quite brighten up a lot. It’s just a little more radiant than usual. But I give it a thumbs up for not leaving a sticky feeling.

But it does moisturize well. I like! Skin is supple and moist without the sticky feeling.

I didn’t break out from this, but I am not sure about other skin types.

Overall, I don’t think I will repurchase this. For the price and the effect, don’t we all have better options?

Another sheet mask failed to catch my interest.

The other sheet mask I will not buy again:

Pure & Mild White Brightening Treatment Mask

Lifecella Essence Sheet Mask With Vitamin C & Kiwi Extract

Garnier Brightening Scrub Wash

I just posted a review on Laneige Strawberry Yogurt Peeling Gel a while back and Chian Li asked what other scrub is cheaper and works just as well as Laneige, so I suggested a few brands, and this scrub that I’m going to review is a part of them!

The packaging is not very pretty. Maybe you can call it ugly. Yes, I think ugly’s the word. But don’t judge a scrub by it’s packaging right? And so I bought this. I’ve used Garnier’s Brightening Facial Wash before, but before I started this blog, I’ve finished it and threw it I think. Maybe it’s in my hometown. I’ll go check!

Anyway, I kinda like the facial wash itself, so I think the scrub’s worth a shot. And yes, I like it!

The texture is runny. It’s yellow in colour with very fine black particles. I don’t know what are those particles, but it’s not harsh at all. In fact, mixed with some water it turns kinda foamy like and you gently massage it onto your face. Rinse off, yay! Smooth skin! I like! <3

Skin appears to be brighter, but I doubt on making you look fairer. But as you know, once dead skin cells are gone, skin always look brighter.

The smell is of a citrus-y note, I love citrus-y notes but not this one. I don’t hate it, neither I like it. Smells just weird to me. >_< Those who are particular of smells, please avoid this. I don't think it's a very nice smell actually. I hope they can improve the smell. :)

It’s easy to buy, always on sale and it’s cheap in nature, I don’t mind repurchasing this until I get bored!

Oh yes… Back to the review. Today I’ll be reviewing another mask which I quite like, and considering it an item on my re-purchasing list. Read on for the reasons!

I love this mask. Seriously.

The mask is of a thick, creamy consistency but easily spread on. It’s greyish purple in colour and has quite of a strong scent, but I am fine with it.

Once applied, your face feels really warm. It is really soothing, and you really feel like going to sleep right away. I nearly doze off while having this mask on because the warmth is so comfortable! The warmth don’t just linger only for a short while, but lasted throughout the 3 or 4 minutes on my face.

Now for the effects. Man, I love this part! I find my skin relatively smoother, my pores seems smaller and the best part, my toner and serum and moisturizer seems to be able to sink into my skin faster and better!

Then I go to bed. 8 hours later, yes, I must have at least 8 hours of sleep otherwise my temper isn’t to be played with the next morning! Okay, back here, my skin feels refreshed, less oily and feels much better!

I can’t quite find the right words to describe the feeling, but yes, the mask left me feeling good.

For approximately RM6 for 2x application, I think I can ditch my other deep cleansing clay mask and head straight for this. Anyway, it’s goes on sale quite often. Oh, did I forget to mention, even for 1 satchet the content is quite substantial. You can even do a purifying neck mask along if you like!

Enough said. Cheap stuff do work wonders… at times.

So go and get one and share your opinion!