The Face Shop Herb Day 365 Cleansing Foam Review

I've updated my blog twice in one day and this is going to be the third. Wow.

It's been probably a little under two years since I've been using The Face Shop's Herb Day Cleansing Foam and I have to say, I really like this product. Smells good, feels good, tastes good. LOL not really. Tastes like soap because that's what it is!

Before I start going off about this great product, THIS IS NOT MEANT FOR DRY SKIN. It will get rid of any oil on your face and will make it squeaky clean so if you have dry skin and most likely combination skin, I wouldn't recommend it even if it says for all skin types. If you still persist on using this product, use a really rich moisturising cream to balance it out.

Now that that's out of the way, let's begin~ ^__^

Mmmmmm peaches

Firstly, before I say anything else, when it says foam it does not mean the light and fluffy kind of foam. This type of foam is more of a thick creamy consistency that only spreads well once wet or applied on wet skin.

Look at that packaging. Lovely. Just kidding. It's plain and is one of those things that would slip out of your sight even though you're staring right at it. However, that aside, this is an amazing product. So I purchased this product from Sasa, which is the same store as the place I got my Etude House BB Cream from except this product was purchased online. I was indeed looking for a nice face wash whilst on the website when I came across this. The only reason I bought it was that it was from The Face Shop and costed between AUD$5-10 (it was on sale but I don't quite remember the exact pricing). I wanted to purchase the lemon one but it turned out that it costed around AUD$12 which sucked, but hey. You gotta live with it. This was the cheapest one so I bought two bottles/tubes.

When it arrived, I was pretty excited because my current face wash at the time was pretty bad and didn't help my skin that much at all. The moment I washed this stuff off my face, there was no oil (which is what I wanted since my skin is VERY oily) and it left a very pleasant smell as well. I don't really know what peaches smell like, but the face wash smelt sweet. If you want to know how to use face wash, there are a set of instructions in both Korean and English (ermergerdddd):

"사용법: 적당량을 덜어 물로 거품을 충분히 내어 얼굴 전체에 마사지하듯 가볍게 문지르고 맑은 물로 충분히 행구어냅니다.

Directions: Massage over wet face and rinse off with lukewarm water." 

Great instructions. Very helpful as well.

I'm not sure whether this was a whitening face wash or anything as there was nothing in English that mentioned it (there was plenty of Korean text on the back of the bottle/tube but because my Korean understanding is very limited, I couldn't translate it) but my face has gotten whiter over the past year and a bit. I'm not sure whether it was because of the BB cream (which was in fact whitening), the face wash or a rice mask I was using. It could even be all three factors, I don't know. What I do know is that my complexion has improved greatly. Maybe it's just puberty finally passing but right now all that's left on my face are break outs and a couple of small pimples here and there. Early-mid last year there was so many pimples and a lot of them were swollen and gross. Great improvement and I'm really satisfied.

I also must warn you, when this bad boy gets in your eyes, it feel like your eyes are being attacked by...fire? It just burns a lot. The way I prevent this suffering is that because I use tissues to wipe my face, I don't open my eyes until I've thoroughly dried the eye area- especially the opening to your eyes.

This is a really great product in general and it's better if you wait for it to go on sale but if you're really desperate or impatient then by all means, don't let me stop you there.

Overall rating: ★★★★★
Origin: South Korea
Price: $9.70 (on www.sasa.com)

So yeah, thank you so much for reading this! If you have anything else you want to know about this product or any others I've reviewed, go ahead and ask :)

Nature Republic Magic Remover Makeup Gel Review

HELLO EVERYONE <3 I am back with more beauty product reviews and today I am here with one of the best makeup removal products I've ever used!

Okay, so let me tell you a story. I was walking in a shopping centre in Malaysia earlier this year and in the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of an EXO poster. Yes, I know, I'm a little obsessed with them. I knew that it was a store called Nature Republic, as EXO were the 'faces' of the store at that moment of time. I decided to take a little peek inside and see what was available. Now being me, I'm very single minded. I stuck to really popular stores like Etude House or The Face Shop because let's face it, almost every Asian who knows of Korean culture shops there for cosmetics. Looking around, I saw this beautiful looking product:

Pretty packaging that caught my eye

I decided to buy it since there was a promotion (buy 2 and get 1 free) and I needed a new makeup remover. I tested it and the moment I squeezed some onto my hand an overwhelmingly nice fragrance hit me. I can't explain the exact smell of it, but it smelt so amazing I had to get it.

So thing is, if you've read my review on the L'oreal 24 Hour Gel Liner, it would have said something about how to remove it by using this liquid makeup remover. I really struggled to remove waterproof products with that remover but with this Nature Republic goodness, it takes a few gentle swipes to get rid of the stuff. There are instructions on the back of the bottle in both Korean and English:

"사용방법: 절을  적당량  화장솜에  묻혀  퍼지도록  하여  화장을 지울  부위에  약  5초간  올려둔  후  부드럽게닦아냅니다.  또는  화장을  지울  부위에  절을  편발라  부드럽게  마사지  하여  메이크업을  녹여낸  다음, 미온수로  깨끗이  씻어내고  찬물로  마무리해  줍니다. 

How to Use: Dispense an appropriate amount of gel onto a cotton ball, place over desired area for about 5 seconds and gently blot out the makeup."

Great stuff, Nature Republic. Great stuff.

Three basic everyday makeup products (from left to right): lipstick, mascara, gel eyeliner

As you can see from the collage above, the makeup remover is quite effective. The second picture shows the samples after a little more than a few gentle strokes with the remover. [The part of the gel liner that wasn't affected that much was the starting point of the line, meaning that that section of the line was thicker than everything else.] With a little more force, everything came off. Despite the light pink stain left by the lipstick, everything came off perfectly fine.

 Note: I didn't use the pencil liner because I couldn't find it but both the eye products used are waterproof and smudge-proof. 

The only thing I have to complain about it the pain you get if you get it in your eyes. If you've gotten soap in your eyes, it's the exact same feeling only a little worse. This stuff is pretty strong so when cleaning your eyes be careful not to get any in them because it may cause severe irritation.

"Cautions: For external use only. Avoid contact with eyes. Discontinue if signs of irritation or rash appear. Keep out of reach of children. Replace cap after use." 

Look at that, they even warn you LOL. But yeah, I think that overall product is very good and I definitely recommend it. One thing though: if you decide to just remove your makeup and not wash your face (which I hope you do wash it right after), your face will be left feeling sticky and all even if you leave it for a couple of minutes. Once that thing dries it's gonna feel funny on your face.

Overall rating ★★★★½
Origin: South Korea
Price: MYR$37.90

In my opinion, I believe that this is quite cheap considering I've seen makeup removers worth AUD$20. If you convert the price of this product into AUD it would turn out to be around $10 (give or take a couple of dollars). Like I said, it's a really good product and I would definitely recommend it.

Thank you so much for reading this review and I'm sorry my terminology and descriptions may be far from normal or common but I don't pay particular attention to a lot of makeup products so please excuse the awkward words~ ^^

Overdose [Luhan Edition]

More art to share~ ^___^

So the other day, I found a screencap of Luhan from the beginning scene in the 'Overdose' teaser and well, I decided to draw it because he just looked so damn fine.

The early stages of the painting

 Looking nice with that moustache Luhan ;) HAHA When I was painting his eyes and eyebrows, I felt like I was actually putting makeup on him. I also had that sudden realisation that Luhan had better makeup than I did and that's really sad, considering I'm a female.

Final product (with strange colour alterations)

I have no idea why, but the final product's colours are slightly off even though the actual file isn't like this so if you want to see a more accurate colouring of this head over to my DeviantArt page and if you enjoy my art, please be sure to spread the love; it'll mean so much if you did :)

So yeah! I've also done a couple more drawings that I haven't uploaded, mostly because I'm not satisfied with it but if you're interested to see let me know and I'll consider uploading it ^__^ That's it for now, thank you for all of your support if you've been following my blog (or at least reading this junk) and I hope you'll continue to do so.

Program used: Paint Tool Sai
Equipment: Wacom Bamboo Pen tablet, an old Windows computer
Reference picture: EXO's Overdose Music Video Teaser (Chinese Ver.)

EXO's Comeback + Leakages

The first thing I write about this year turns out to be a rant. Great.

So if you've been living under a rock for the past day or so, you wouldn't have noticed that EXO's teaser MVs were released yesterday. However, there was something else that was revealed- and it was not at all planned by SM Entertainment.

If you follow some K-POP pages such as Allkpop, there was a report that SM was pressing charges for the leakage of EXO's comeback song and dance practice video. WHY YOU PEOPLE LEAK EXO'S HARDWORK?! WHYYYYY D: I have to admit though, I tried looking for both of them and to my surprise, it's still up on the internet. I obviously won't link it but I have listened to the song. I was tempted to watch the dance practice but I decided not to since once the MV comes out the dance wouldn't have the same dynamics, I suppose.

So if you are one of those people who are spreading the videos/audios, STOP GIRL (in the name of love~). Seriously though, think of all their hard work. There's only 3 more days until their comeback showcase so please be patient and don't be like me! ;__; Also, try not to download any albums or songs. I know that "everyone does it" and what not, but believe me, you have no idea how much it means to them when you purchase their stuff. Not like I would know or anything >__> But support them as much as possible by buying their merchandise! If you can't afford it, it's okay. I understand. #lifeofapoorfangirl

I'm sorry for ranting but it's over (for now)~ I'll be posting a lot of my recent drawings soon since it's the holidays and I'm free for a bit so please look forward to it ^^

Photography Session Around Perth

I haven't been updating in a while and I'm sorry but here's a short one before I go on holidays. So I've been taking photos of places I've been to in the past month or so and well, I just thought I'd share some. Bare in mind that this is photography of an amateur with a really nice camera LOL.

Subiaco Food Festival
Margaret River Chocolate Company
Christmas Dinner

Subiaco Food Festival

A Japanese food store

Different cuisines on one street

A crazy-ass ice cream van

Outside the ol' Subi Markets

A long street full of stands plus a random lady

Deep fried potato swirl

Delicious pizzas

Some Moroccan dish I don't remember but was delish

The interior of a crepe store

Savoury ham crepe

Chocolate crepe that deserves two uploaded photos

Margaret River Chocolate Company

(Swan Valley Store)

A bunch of random chocolates that cost a lot

More ice cream

Christmas gifts at the ready

Fondue kit anyone?

The dessert section

The lunch (?) section

More chocolates

Christmas chocolates

Christmas Dinner

The Christmas Ham plus some side dishes

Haha, only one of the Christmas dinner before everything was consumed. Well, there's still ham since only eight people were there but still. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed those photos and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year~! I'll be back later in January to blog about my lovely holiday but for now, goodbye :D

Lee Taemin "Everybody" Fanart + Merry Christmas

HEY THERE EVERYBODY. OMG. IT'S BEEN AGES. I'M TERRIBLY SORRY. BUT MERRY CHRISTMAS. HERE'S A CHRISTMAS PRESENT FOR YOU.

Part 2 of the SHINee "Everybody" Collection :3 I really love this one because, well, I added some colour to it. I think the face was really well done compared to Jonghyun's so hurray~ Here's a comparison shot to the original:

Sorry for that weird blue line. I didn't know how to get rid of it so I left it. I didn't want to take apart the layers like I did for Jonghyun's drawing because I erased some of the lines on the sketch layer and it looked funny so I didn't bother. That anchor on his hat was quite a bother but hey, turned out nicer than expected.

The next one I'm working on is Key's but right now I found something else to draw so I'm putting that one on hold for now. My friend told me about this challenge on DeviantArt where you had to draw something using only the five colours given. There are a total of six blank "canvases" and all you have to do is draw! Decided to do some portraits and I've currently done 2 out of the 6. Slowly getting there. Hopefully I can finish that before I go on holidays on Tuesday but my days till then are pretty packed so I'm not sure whether I can.

Anyway, a happy Merry Christmas to everyone out there and enjoy the rest of 2013! Hope you guys accomplished any resolutions you made at the start of the year and if you didn't make any, make some for the upcoming 2014 :) 

Best wishes, Melissa.

SHINee's Comeback [Everybody] + Kim Jonghyun Fanart

WHOOO SHINEE'S COMEBACK IS SOON. I forgot which date though...well. I guess I'm not as excited since they already came back with 'Dream Girl' and 'Why So Serious' so I'm not particularly screaming with joy. Plus, the teaser pictures weren't exactly the most attractive in my opinion. I mean, look at those hats .__.

But I have to admit, they all looked stunning in the pilot uniforms. Minus Minho. His outfit looked like dress. 

Anyway, to commemorate SHINee's upcoming release I drew a picture of Jonghyun ^^ It's a little different from my usual style but I've done it before (like, last year?) and well, I'm really proud of it!

It looks like the actual picture with a funny outline :') I decided to keep the outline, just because I did it last time and I thought it'd look really 'sketchy'. The creases came out really well and I'm really proud of what I've done. In total, it took me less than a day but I spanned it out over two days. Oh man, last night I spent up to 1.30am just to get this finished >__<

I also put together the different individual layers so you know that I actually painted it LOL.

So the left is the reference picture which I turned to black and white (the very original one was coloured). Middle is obviously the outline layer where I traced the reference picture (call it cheating but I wanted to get the exact shape and whatnot). And lastly, the painting layer! The colours aren't as bold as the original but oh well. Couldn't be bothered fixing it.

And there we have it ^^ I'm wondering what black and white painting I should do next so if you have a suggestion or a nice picture then pop the link in the comments and I'll check it out :) Alrighty, I hope this makes up for both the lack of art and lack of posts lately! 

XOXO Kim Jong Dae (Chen)

OMG IT'S BEEN TOO LONG SINCE I'VE DRAWN SOMETHING REALLY NICE.

If you didn't know, I took a break from drawing portraits because, well, I got a little restless. During my break, I've been observing other people's drawing process via "speed-drawing" (a drawing being sped up). The thing I needed to work on the most was the hair so that's where I put most of my focus on.

It's slightly more difficult to see, but the amount of detail I managed to put in the hair in this drawing was amazing. It took me a lot longer, but it was definitely worth spending so long on it. My shading improved a lot too. You have no idea how proud I am of this drawing. Planning to draw the rest of EXO from the XOXO poster but it might take a while...

Oh, just so you know, I am willing to sell this drawing. If you're interested, e-mail me at melissa_tan1@hotmail.com (no junk mail or spam please). It looks a lot better on paper as well. Trust me.

Popular Korean Diets

So...I was meant to blog about this a while back but for some reason I kept pushing it back. Well here it is, at last~!

I bet everyone's been wondering what sort of diets K-POP idols take to stay so skinny. Sure, there are a few people here and there practically starving themselves, but majority of the idols restrict the amount of food that they eat (not to an enormous extent). So in this post, I'm going to be listing a few of the diets I've heard some idols have or are currently 'on'. Now, enough of the intro. Let's go~

1. The Danish Diet

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
1	A cup of coffee with sugar	Two boiled eggs, 400g (14 ounces) of spinach and a tomato	200g (7 ounces) of beef, green salad with oil and lemon juice
2	A cup of coffee with sugar	255g (9 ounces) of ham and yogurt	200g (7 ounces) of beef, green salad with oil and lemon juice
3	A cup of coffee with sugar and a slice of toast	Two boiled eggs, a slice of ham and green salad with oil and lemon juice	A boiled celery stick, a tomato and a fresh fruit
4	A cup of coffee and a slice of toast	A glass of orange juice and yogurt	A boiled egg, a carrot and 255g (9 ounces) of cottage cheese
5	A large carrot	200g (7 ounces) of boiled cod with lemon juice and a teaspoon of butter	200g (7 ounces) of beef and one celery stick
6	A cup of coffee with sugar and a slice of toast	Two boiled eggs and a large carrot	Half a chicken and green salad with oil and lemon juice
7	A cup of tea without sugar	A lot of water	200g (7 ounces) of lamb chops and an apple
8	A cup of coffee with sugar	Two boiled eggs, 400g (14 ounces) of spinach and a tomato	200g (7 ounces) of beef with a salad
9	A cup of coffee with sugar	255g (9 ounces) of ham and yogurt	255g (9 ounces) of beef and a salad with oil and lemon juice
10	A slice of toast and a cup of coffee	Two boiled eggs, a green salad and a slice of ham	A boiled celery stick, one fresh fruit and a tomato
11	A large carrot	200g (7 ounces) of boiled cod with lemon juice and a teaspoon of butter	255g (9 ounces) of beef and a celery stick
12	A large carrot	200g (7 ounces) of boiled cod with lemon juice and a teaspoon of butter	255g (9 ounces) of beef and a celery stick
13	A slice of toast and a cup of coffee	Two eggs and a large carrot	255g (9 ounces) of chicken with salad

Oh my gosh that took so long to type :< So that's basically the plan for the Danish Diet. To be honest I don't really like the sound of this diet because there's a lack of carbohydrates. I NEED MY RICE D: Without it I'm nothing </3

Next diet...lol.

2. Watermelon Diet

The name says it all. All you do is continuously eat watermelons. You still eat your normal meals, but most of those meals would contain watermelons. So what eating plenty of watermelons does is that it keeps you full for longer for lesser (or no) calories at all! It's amazing, I know. 

That's about it. A lot more simpler than the Danish Diet, that's for sure!

3. The Paper Cup Diet

Okay, so basically, for each meal you have three paper cups (no you're not eating it =__=). One cup if filled with brown rice, one filled with side dishes and one filled with fruits. This diet is catered for mainly people who use Asian diets (not "losing weight diets", the other one) because the main food of each meal is the rice, not the vegetables or meat. Also, the side dishes being something healthy; not fried chicken or something LOL.

This diet is actually very basic, but the real challenge is whether you'll be able to withstand this amount of food, especially if you're a big eater- i.e. eating two big serves of rice or two steaks <-- don't know whether people eat two steaks since I don't eat them ._.

A bit brief, but that's the end of the post ^^ I know there wasn't much information but I was planning to be brief from the beginning (minus the Danish Diet). If you want to know more about the diets, I suggest you do some more research. Prior to writing this post, I researched a little information about each of the diets but the Watermelon Diet was the one with the least info, that's why I didn't write too much about it.

Something else I'd like to point out, taking up a particular diet is one thing, but having a healthy lifestyle is another. You might be following the Paper Cup Diet but eating like that may not be having much effect if you're just going to sit on the couch all day watching Korean dramas. You need exercise~ The standard amount of exercise is 30 minutes (half an hour) of physical activity everyday. I can confidently say that I don't do that. I tend to cram all my week's worth of physical activity into a couple of days. I'm pretty sure it's a bad thing for many different reasons that I can't list.

That aside, I hope this sort of gave you a basic outline of the popular diets in the K-POP industry. Or rather ones that I've heard of. Thank you for reading~ ^^

"She's My Lady."

I've been playing on Photoshop again~!

So today, I decided to test out a few brushes on Photoshop and I found one that was like a pencil texture. Then I decided to draw Kai dancing. Long story short, I was watching a rotoscope of one of Kai's debut teasers and dayum I was in awe. Got inspired, decided to try out rotoscoping the first of Kai's teasers when I have the time. This was more of a practice of the style I'm going to be doing. 

On the side note, I think today was the best day of the whole school term! My EXO posters arrived, I got to eat sushi in my Japanese class, and this guy on Deviantart called Ry-Spirit (superb artist)  accepted my friend request on Skype and he started talking to me and I'm starting to fangirl so I'll stop there. Oh man, I hope another day like this is going to come by soon. 

That's about it! Don't forget to visit my sites ;) While I've been away doing all sorts of stuff, I created a couple more sites so don't forget to check that out too.

Deviantart: ukissmecrazy.deviantart.com

Twitter (that I hardly use anymore): www.twitter.com/ukissmecrazy

Tumblr: ukissmecrazy.tumblr.com

Soundcloud: www.soundcloud.com/kayomori

Ask.fm: ask.fm/kayomori

Thanks guys <3