Laneige Natural Brow Liner Review, aka the perfect color for my Asian brows

I know what you are thinking: Has she gone crazy? Reviewing an eyebrow product?
I probably have, but I wanted to share this with you because I've always had trouble finding an eyebrow product which color is neutral enough to match my coloring. The products I have been using for the past two to three years has not been really natural, and was barely acceptable.

Background Info: Okay, just so that you don't think I'm crazy, I should tell you why I have a strange obsession with finding the right brow products. I never put up a picture of myself on this blog, so you might not know, but I'm half Asian even though I'm born in the U.S. I got my black hair from the Asian side of my family, but also very very fair skin. My hair color is typical of most Chinese girls. They will tell you that their natural hair color is black, but it isn't the jet black kind of color you get when you dye your hair black. It is kind of like a neutral black. Therefore, I cannnot really use the black color of most commercial brow products because it looks darker than my hair. 
Also because of my fair skin, I cannot use dark colors on my face without looking evil. Picture the witches in any fairy tale movie, and you'll see what I look like with dark brows. To avoid the evil look, I usually have to use the lightest or next to lightest color in most commercial brow products. The trouble with those products though, is that they are usually a blonde or brown color with too much yellow or red undertone, which looks unnatural against my black hair.
I was once so frustrated that I even considered dying my hair so that I can finally have slightly natural looking brows. Sanity prevailed, and I realized that I love my hair too much to dye it.
I have been using Anastasia Medium Ash color for the past two years, because it doesn't have much red or yellow undertones. It looks passable, but still clashes with my black hair.


So what do I love about this: I fell in love with this Laneige brow liner because it was the perfect neutral black, and when applied lightly, it fills in my brows, without looking the tiniest bit unnatural. I'm really happy with this result. 
I also love it because:
1. Long wearing time: This thing stays on until I take it off. I used to have to touch up on my brows three times a day, now I just stroke the pencil lightly in in the morning, blend with a spoolie or the attached brush in the back, and then I'm done for the day!
2. Easy removal: This come off with my daily facial cleanser and water.
3. Long lasting product: I've been using it for 6 months now, and I didn't even need to sharpen the pencil once! At the rate I'm going, I can use it for eight years at least!
4. Convenience: It also includes a pencil sharpener that I imagine will fit this product perfectly, even though I didn't need to sharpen yet!

I also bought three for my cousins, and they all loved it as much as I do.

I'm sorry if I bored you to distraction, but I'm just so excited that I found an HG item, and I wanted to share this with any Asian girls out there who also have trouble finding a good brow color
I also bought one more as a back up for myself, but it seems that I won't need it since this product will probably last me eight years. I'm selling it for $17+$2 shipping if anyone's interested. 

VOV Goodbye Eyepender Green Tea Eyeliner Review--a tubing eyeliner!

I discovered this gem of an eyeliner during my second trip in Korea. VOV just started producing this line of green tea eyeliners, and I was intrigued by the green color of the packaging, which I love. I couldn't stop myself from grabbing one, since VOV is known for its affordable price (usually drugstore price) without compromising quality. For those who do not know about VOV, VOV is a Korean brand I love. I find that it has many great color makeup items. While it also has a lot of facial makeup items (e.g. foundation, primer, skincare, and its BB cream is quite good), I was more intrigued by its color collection. Since I've discovered VOV, I've forsaken MAC items, because I found the quality of VOV better. Even though they do not have as many colors as MAC, they mostly develop more "wearable" colors, so I do not mind. Sometimes when I was able to find them on sale, its eyeshadow and lip products are around 3.5 dollars, and has such great quality that I sometimes wear their lip gloss instead of my pricey Dior and Chanel lip glosses. The only downside is that there is no return policy, which I find somewhat essential for most color products, but then, Korea is like that.

So enough about VOV. Let's talk about the eyeliner! Every time I go to Korea, I usually get more than 7 CP requests for it because people who started using it are usually hooked! 

What is special about it? If you have tried tubing mascara like Fiberwig or L'Oreal Beauty Tubes, you know how convenient they are. They goes on like regular mascara, but never smudges. It also stays mostly waterproof throughout the day, unless you go swimming in warm water. At night, when you step into the shower, you can gently slide it off in tubes with warm water. The really cool thing is that it really only removes with warm water when you slide it off. Usually, just warm water wouldn't be able to remove it (you have to slide it off with your fingers), unless there's an abundant amount of warm water. This is also what I really love about it, because I'm a crybaby. My tears are warm, but if I don't rub my eyes, it will stay on.

Guess what? This eyeliner has the same technology. It goes on like a regular liquid eyeliner, albeit with a more gel like consistency, which I neither hate or love. It stays on during the day, with zero smudging, which is a huge problem with me. (I can never wear smudged eyeliner because within three hours, it will travel around my eyes, causing panda like eyes.) But it removes with warm water at night. Even better, it just goes off with no rubbing. 

What do I love about it? Well, I love that I can finally wear eyeliner, even on the waterline! Pencil eyeliner never lasts on me without smudging, so I usually have to resort to liquid eyeliner. However, I don't like to use waterproof liquid eyeliner, because it's really a hassle to remove, and I hate to use eye makeup remover. So if I get up early in the morning, my eyes would be teary, and the liquid eyeliner would melt with the water, making it seem as if I'm running black tears.... I used to hate it when during an early morning class, the whole class turns to stare at me when I would speak in amazement, because I had black tears!

How do I use it? You can use it as you would use a regular liquid eyeliner, but I especially love it for tightlining, since for me, my tightliner rarely stays on with other mascara. I use look up and apply to the base of my eyelashes after I'm done with mascara. 

In case you are wondering, eyepender is a licensed line of item of VOV. It's a mispelling. It was supposed to be eye panda. So together "Goodbye Eyepender" means goodbye to panda eyes! This line of item also has a mascara, and two different liners, one in marker form, and one in a felt tip pen form. Since I'm quite familiar with liquid eyeliner, I chose this one, but if you are not so used to it, the marker or felt tip ones may be easier to apply!

Laneige Brightening Sun Powder SPF 50 PA+++ Review

Hi, girls, sorry I haven't updated in a long time. I went on a short vacation with my SO and his family, and overall I had a really great time! I had a real dilemma on the vacation because I do not dare go outside without any kind of sun protection, and it can be quite tedious to apply sunblock every four hours, since by the third time, your face would become an oily mess no matter how good the sunblock really is.
This is why this Laneige Brightening Sun Powder is essentially a life saver for me. On the Laneige website, it said that you can reapply as frequently as you want, and the sunscreen will only give you a brightening effect, with no color added. As with most Laneige products, this sun powder did exactly what it promised, nothing more, nothing less. I can cake on a thick layer, and the layer would disappear within 30 seconds, only leaving a healthy glow behind! I believe it also acts as a setting powder since as long as I applied this, there is no oiliness on my skin. To me, this is pretty amazing!

As you can see, it comes in a pretty golden compact that is kind of iridescent. My SO's aunt said it looked really princessy and I quite agree! :) Inside, there's some kind of yellowish powder in the middle with pink powder surrounding it. At first, I thought this was really weird, and was afraid that the combination might make me look really weird. However, it really gives no color at all. I asked the SA at the Laneige counter in my horrible Korean, and she told me that the yellow powder at the center is actually Vitamin C, and the powder on the outside is the actual sunscreen, so why applying, you have to really swirl your brush in the compact. 

I found this kind of annoying at first, and wondered why someone would put Vitamin C powder in the middle of a sunscreen, but I bought it nonetheless because I've loved Laneige for a long time. So when I got home, I googled the effect of putting Vitamin C and sunscreen together, and after a while, I found a peer reviewed scientific study that said if you apply antioxidants with sunscreen, it boosts the protection of sunscreen and the effects of the antioxidants. I was amazed! The study was only released on early February, and this product came out in May! Even though I cannot really attest to whether the study is true, and whether the sunscreen really gives that much extra benefit, I can say that this sunscreen leaves my skin bright and gives a glowy matte finish that's very believable.

I lent this to my SO's aunt, and it also gave a lovely glow to her skin even though her skintone is so much darker than mine. However, one thing she found very annoying is that no matter how much she slather on, it offers zero coverage.

In summary: This is a very good sunscreen powder that I like to apply after sunblock, and use for reapplication. It kind of acts as a blotting powder, and leaves after only a glow. There is no cakiness no matter how much you apply, but there is also zero coverage. In addition, this contains Vitamin C, which according to a peer reviewed scientific study released in February, will offer better sunscreen protection and boosts the benefits of Vitamin C.