The Past 18 Years... Birthday Reflection

When you're reading this, I'll already be 18. I decided that I wouldn't write this post on the day because I know I'll be busy...but today is the 25th June. You'll be reading this on the 28th June. On the 28th I'll have been on the earth for exactly 18 years. In England that makes me officially an adult.
I couldn't decide what to do for my birthday post...I wanted to do something special because I'm only 18 once...but then I decided I'd just share some pictures with you guys! I found a couple of childhood photos - that sounds odd to say, I'm only 18 and I'm already having to refer to my childhood in the past tense - so I thought it might be interesting to see how I've changed!

Hopefully none of you have seen these photos before! I tried to pick out some new ones so this post is actually worth something! My favourite photo out of them? Second row and the one on the left. 

The only one I hate is the one against the brick wall. Meet Middle School me, as you can see my hair and makeup style...and clothing for that matter weren't really up to scratch were they? But this experience made me who I am today so I'm not going to deny it's existence. If I hadn't experienced what I did then I wouldn't be who I am today so I'm proud of that I guess!

Middle bottom (yep, I don't really have any order here do I?) is obviously a cosplay...I didn't go dressed as Misa as a daily outfit. Nope, I've not read the manga...no I haven't seen the anime the whole way through, but you all know I love my dramas and live-actions. I base my love for Death Note on that so yeah that's all there is to that one. I wore this to a manga course. Yeah. I went on one of those. Time's have changed haven't they?

Moving to the left...as far as I remember this looks like year 10 me. That makes me about 15 in this picture...after one of my surgeries and also before my weight loss. This I suppose is the pre-me photo. Sure all of these are (this photo is the most recent in the collection) but this one has a special attachment to me. I didn't really take any photos during my weight loss. I've taken photos my whole life, my hard drive is pretty much a photo representation of my life story...but I have just over a 6 month gap in 2011...This is just before then. This photo and the ones that come after this...mean a lot to me :)

Bottom right is just one from a spa trip as far as I remember? This just shows you how long I've had this camera! This pink camera is the same one I use on my blog photos today! Just with different settings on it and better lighting. Shows you don't need a great camera I guess.

The last one I'm going to talk about it the top left picture. That's me at my heaviest. As you can see...some stupid part of me thought if I had big hair, people wouldn't notice how much I was weighing. Being 4 foot 11...I put on weight easily. And you're reading this on my birthday so I'm not going to hang on to the weight thing...but I'm just glad I put that part of my life behind me now!

This shows how much I go to Center Parcs as well....I just selected 9 photos at random...4 of these at least I know were taken there. They're each taken different years, different months for different occasions. As far as I know I'll probably spend some time there again this summer...and for all the summers to come.

I've changed a lot over the years. I'm just putting that out there. I'm not the person I was when I started lower school, middle school, upper school...or even the same person I was two years ago when I started college/sixth form. I'm probably not even the same person I was the day I finished college. The thing is, I'm constantly changing, we all are. Even though I may look similar, I talk similar, I may have some of the same habits...inside I'm a different person.

I just wanted to get that out there. 

I'm now 18. That makes me an adult. From September I need to somehow fend for myself and cook, clean and work for myself. At this moment in time, I don't even have a job. It should be really interesting to see how this pans out and I hope you guys stick around with me to see it with me. If there's one thing that has stayed the same recently it's my readers. It's great to have you guys and I'd love to be able to share this change in my life with you all, my graduation, moving out~ all of it! I'm going to share it all with you guys. So stay tuned because it should be great.

I suppose this should be the part where I tell you I'm going to try and be more responsible and everything? Well I'm not. I'm going to tell you the complete opposite. I've spent my entire life playing roughly around the rules - and even when I haven't...I've not been caught xD - so I'm going to announce that I'm going to start playing my way now. If there's something I want to say then I'm going to start saying it. I've spent too much of my life without confidence or anything and I'm honestly pretty bored with it. 

Let's all try something new, be someone different and live life on the edge. 

Have you changed since you were a child? Has that changed you? Do you hold any regrets from your childhood?

Me? No. I've got no regrets. Sure there's things I wish I hadn't done, more than enough people I wish I hadn't been friends with and places I wish I hadn't been. But if I hadn't done that I might not have been sitting here today writing this for you. And I'm happy where I am now. I wouldn't change anything in my past. 

Stay beautiful guys and I'll be back later for more beauty based stuff. And don't worry! The diet section is coming! It's taking a while to compile photos and everything that's all ;D

(Note: this post breaks a pattern. In case you hadn't noticed, I have an OCD about the timing of my blog posts. Until now I've been posting at 12PM GMT. This one was launched at 9AM. This is because I was born at 9AM GMT. I thought it was significant enough for a change :D)

My Storage #1

I thought today I'd share some of my storage collection. You may know that I've recently become insanely organised! Everything seems to have a place but I don't have one place I store all of my skincare and makeup...it's all around the different places I need it! My regular skin care stuff I use every day sits next to my sink, my everyday makeup sits next to my mirror...but today I'm sharing some of my sample, mask and nail collection!

So I'm going to share with you this small section of my storage to see whether you want to see more of these kind of posts :D

The first drawer of this storage is masks. Here I just keep all of my sheet masks. I've actually organised them so I just need to take the next one off the pile, I rotate my masks so I don't use the same ones over and over and forget about the others. So next up is this lemon one! This is at the top because I actually still have to review it for you :')

Next it the sample drawer...which is overflowing honestly...I've already put a lot of samples into my travel bag and makeup bag...but there's still so much in here! I should really use some of them!

I also keep blackhead patches and other sorts of patches in here. So the collagen patches are also in here.

There's also some masks which aren't sheet forms, there's a couple of rice ones and a olive oil one I think?

Here's some colour nail varnishes...A couple of colours I actually use...the others I've put in here to force myself to use them! I have two gold colours that I've never used, the same with that Rimmel pink colour in the bottom. I've also never found a use for a purple like the one in the middle! I think I need to experiment more with my nails, but I never know how to...so that's why these last two drawers have nail polishes. I have to keep them in sight to remind myself to use them!

Here's my everyday regular nail polishes, this is my go to drawer! It's got my favourite base/top coat - the Sally Hansen one - some whites, beiges, peach/manicure colours and some bronzes. This drawer is one of my favourites. I used up a lot of bronze colours...so I'm trying to use up a lot of these colours. I'm not really the sort of person who collects nail varnishes to just use them a couple of times and then add to my collection...I do use the ones I buy a lot and therefore these are probably half of my collection here? The rest are packed away with the other makeup and skincare products I don't use so it doesn't clutter up my space!

What I'd love to know, is where do you store your collections? Do you keep all of your products together or spread them out? And are you like me where you have to put products in sight to remember to use them?

Have a great day and stay milky!

Skin Food's Egg White Pore Foam

My sample stack was over flowing. Let's just leave it at that. One of the products I had a couple of was Skin Food's Egg White Pore Foam! Kate and I had both heard quite a lot about this product and when she came for the weekend we tried out this product... I'm sorry this took so long to reach you, but here's what we thought of it!

Skin Food seem to have something against putting English on their products. This sample is no exception to that~ as you can tell from my previous tutorial last week, I can read Hangul but don't speak Korean...so this would have been a bit of an issue if it wasn't just a standard cleanser. So point down to Skin Food for that. If this was the first cleanser you used, this would be a big turn off in my opinion. (I'm assuming the full size also has just Korean? :/)

Just a quick picture with the cleanser on. It's personally too thick for my liking. It felt a little sticky and left my skin feeling "squeaky"? I just wasn't a fan of it honestly. It just dried out my skin and left me pretty unsatisfied. Sure it felt clean, but not in a pleasant silky feeling that some of my regular cleansers leave me with!

Kate on the other hand seemed to really like it! Too be fair, I think this cleanser just didn't suit my skin type. This is probably one of my first negative reviews, so it's a good thing to have Kate's positive half to balance me out! Her skin felt really great afterwards actually! 

All I'm going to say is try it at your peril! xD You'll either get my result and hate it, or Kate's and love it. Basically try the testers first! 

Kate stole my favourite skin guys. This is my most favourite skin in the whole house. It doesn't have a mirror staring at me when I'm trying to wash my face so I love this one. And she stole it xD 

I took the kitchen sink in the end xD I tried to get an action shot for you, but it didn't really work out! Instead you can see a small section of my kitchen!

Let's pretend you totally haven't just seen the clock behind me. We weren't washing our faces at 11pm. Of course not... okay I guess we were! Blame it on films. 

This probably hasn't been the best review out there. But I know so many people who love this cleanser. I just wanted to put out there that it's not perfect. It really didn't work on my skin and dried it out and left me feeling sticky and gross. I just wanted to put that out there to pre-warn everyone! 

Of course I only used this cleanser once so it's not an in depth study of the product! I've only tried it once and that was honestly enough for me. I still have some more samples of the stuff...but I kind of just put them in my mum's bathroom instead xD

I hope you all have a great day and stay milky!

Has there been any product so far you really haven't liked?

Should we be whitening or tanning?

I'm a blogger talking about Korean products most of the time, one of the main aspects of Asian cosmetics and skincare is whitening and brightening chemicals. One of the main problems I face living in Britain is the debate between whitening and tanning. In Britain it's almost unheard of to whiten your skin, tanning is so central and even when I was planning this post and watching whitening documentaries, tanning commercials appeared on YouTube.
In the West we're flooded with tanning instructions, we can only be beautiful if we've got a "healthy tan". In the East it's the opposite. That's the simple break down anyway. But how healthy are these methods? Which do I opt for and which side is right?
Unfortunately neither side is right, stay in the sun too long you're likely to develop skin diseases such as skin cancer...and stay out of it too long you'll be developing vitamin D deficiency pretty soon.
I'm not going to claim that I know the answer to any of these methods, all I want to do in this post is spark some discussion between both sides. Please stay civil and don't bash anyone, none of us really have a definite answer - just opinions!

How healthy are they?

Let's face it. Only the extreme methods pose real risks. Tanning beds and bleaching creams are probably the biggest offenders. Whereas gradual tanning sprays and instant tans are usually pretty safe options, tanning oils are usually a no-no but most people are moving away from oils. Being someone who prefers whitening over tanning I'll admit I'm biased towards finding the faults of tanning compared to whitening products and I'm finding it much easier to demonstrate the faults of those methods.

I managed to find this from one of my spa blogs that I never posted...
I guess I'm pretty pale aren't I? xD

Hey Asia, having fun whitening?

I can't speak for India and their whitening culture. But the Indian definition of whitening compared to China and Korea's definition is very different. Extremely. China and Korea take the stance of whitening as brightening, more as a form of evening out the skin tone and creating flawless milky skin. The skin doesn't go any lighter than the natural colour. This form I don't have any problems with. I'm fine with products such as My Beauty Diary's White Truffle Fantastic Whitening Mask or Skin Food's Broccoli Whitening Ampoule (both products I actually used today...xD). Although they use the word "whitening" it's not in the same context as India. 

India appear to focus more on the actual action of altering the skin colour, this I do have a problem with. The men and women using these creams are insecure about their skin colour and use the creams as a means of achieving a successful career, love life and confidence. The word "whitening" really does mean whitening. They want to completely alter the colour of their skin. Although I'll admit I do find the women who use the whitening creams more beautiful on magazine covers, there's so many dangers associated with these methods that it really does just put me off. I've watched a number of documentaries covering India's perspective on whitening - mainly because I don't have much experience with this form! - and it does worry me. Not as much the actual actions themselves but their reasons. I'm totally fine with the whole "whitening because that's what rich people did historically" almost every culture seems to hold a similar view to this. Britain and Europe used to use this reasoning, Asia still do. However in a number of documentaries, some of the women interviewed blamed colonialism as the cause of their whitening concerns. They whitened their skin to look like the British and European colonisers in history. This form of idolisation is worrying. Now I'm British and I'm admitting that we as a nation weren't all that great to India...so I honestly can't see where this coming from... but I'll leave the whole colonial thing out of it!

Here's an example of a whitening mask! This one is by My Beauty Diary.

Criticism Time!

And this is the part where I get angry...personally I don't care what you do. Just take care of your skin and look after yourself. If you're pale like me then embrace that and feel free to use whitening/brightening techniques to even out your skin tone. If you're tanned then embrace that! Go for it~ make yourself as golden brown as you can!

We're born with a colour that suits us right? Don't get your skin whitened like Michael Jackson and I'm fine with you!

But the issue comes up when people have a problem with whitening masks and sun creams and everything. Recently - and back when I was doing my skin whitening series as well - I've been faced with a lot of criticism. Once I'd even walked passed the sun care aisle in a drugstore - where the self-tanners are also kept - and someone picked up one of the gradual tanners and handed to me. Just said "Think you need this love" and walked off. Wow. Thanks. This is the 21st Century? But still we've got issues like this occurring? Sure, in this case it's my choice to stay pale...but what would have happened if it wasn't? What if I was insecure or had a medical condition? I'm comfortable with my colour and hey! I'm not the "milky skinned" blogger for no reason right? There's a reason why I was happy to call myself "milk" even in my blog name! I like myself like this and therefore tanners seem a little irrelevant from my point of view!

Why do you think it's your place to judge me on my skin colour? Just because I'm white doesn't mean it's okay to criticise me. I don't comment on people's tans or anything so don't feel like you've got a right to judge and criticise me on my pale skin. I personally love it.

But at the same time...I'm comfortable with my skin now and regardless of what the world says, I'm staying this colour. My worry these days isn't anymore about myself, it's for girls younger than me. To all of those young pale (or tanned in countries like China, Korea and India) girls who are in their teenage years and insecure...who perhaps can't handle the criticism because they're not yet comfortable in their own skin.

I'll address you guys now. 

To all of you who are whitening or tanning in a country that isn't supporting you? Hang in there guys. It'll be okay! Eventually you'll learn to ignore them. Love yourself because until you love yourself, no one else can right? Stay strong and protect your skin. If you're whitening, remember you still need to go outside and get your vitamins! If you're tanning please remember to apply some sun cream - just apply a lower SPF...please don't leave the house without any! I love you guys and hang in there okay?

I do want to stress the importance of encouraging and supporting the younger generations, although I'm obviously still a younger generation myself, I really want to support those even younger than myself. This issue can only be addressed by starting from the bottom. The older generations are excused because they've grown up with this judgement and it's honestly too late for most of them!

Tanners, are you wearing SPF?

That's right! I went there! How many of you sit and sunbathe and don't apply SPF "because you want to tan"...now I'm not going to tell you about all the awful things that is going to happen if you don't....let's just say... let's not risk it! Please go out with at least SPF 15 on. It's low sure, but at least you've got something on! Cancer will be a lower risk if you put your sun cream on properly! It takes 5 minutes, so just go for it guys.

Plus...whilst we're on topic, if you're going to tan~ we all know how awful tanning beds are these days! So keep out.

I'm not going to pretend I know much about tanning. Other than the fact I've been force fed it for 18 years and I will for another 18 more years. Britain loves tanning. We live in a country that probably has about 10 days of decent sun, so I can understand that we all want what we don't have. It's pretty much impossible to get the level of tan that Americans get just from staying in Britain - especially if you're Scottish ;D. 

I think I'll leave tanning there...mainly because it's just turning into a rant. 

Someone else who really appreciates whitening. Kate. Please don't kill me now xD
...Actually she probably didn't even realise this photo existed...
(This is from the SkinFood review you'll be seeing pretty soon!)

My opinion?

Well you're probably sick of my opinion now! But all I'm going to add is. LOVE YOURSELF. Don't tan because you're insecure. Don't whiten because you're insecure. You're your own biggest critic. If you don't feel comfortable in your own skin - literally - then we're not going to get anywhere. At risk of sounding like one of those adverts...please just embrace who you are and although I'm not going to tell you not to improve yourself...remember you're enhancing not faking.

Do you tan or whiten? 

I'd love to hear all of your opinions on the subject because this is a topic that I know we've all got an opinion on! Do you follow the advice of your society or are they criticising you? 

Do you think we should criticise others colours and preferences?

Have a great day, and I know these sorts of topics can get heavy at times...but let's stay safe, enjoy the sun and remember love yourself and respect others! ♥

The Liebster Blog Award: Second Nomination!

Wow! So this is the second time now I've been nominated for The Liebster Blog Award, this time by Camille. I really love this award/tag and it's great to be able to do it again! So thank you so much to Camille for nominating me for this...Isn't it strange that the first time I did this tag I was "sakurapikuseru" and now I'm "milkeipure"!

The great thing is that all of you new readers who joined me after the name change, we can take this time to learn more about each other okay? ;) So let's move onto the tag itself!

• You must link back the person who nominated you. 
• You must answer the 10 Liebster questions given to you by the nominee before you. 
• You must pick 10 bloggers to be nominated for the award with under 200 followers . 
• You must come up with 10 questions for your nominees to answer. 
• You must go to their blogs and notify your nominees.

Camille's Questions:

What made you decided to make a blog and what do you love the most about blogging?

I can't even remember honestly! I think I made this blog as a new year's resolution one year! But I only really count my "blog" starting from last year. That's when I really started to blog like I do now! I started blogging then because I had bought some Korean cosmetics and I had been reading lots of reviews before buying products so I wanted to sort of give back to everyone by reviewing some of my products as well! I think that's still my policy today really! Without older bloggers and youtubers, I don't think I'd be able to wear clothes, do my hair or makeup or anything! So I want to try and help other people who were like the younger me!

That's also the thing I love the most! Getting a really sweet comment, tweet or email...the ones that you just sit there and think "Yep this was all worth it!" I've lost count of how long I've spent on this corner of the internet now...but probably too long for somewhere that's not a job considering I'm a student ;D But blogging makes me so much happier than any job would in my opinion! It's the readers I love the most... and sitting editing photos obviously as well! I have so much fun with that sometimes!

What is your motto?

"내가 제일 잘 나가"! It means I Am The Best and is also the title of my favourite 2NE1 song. I really love this phrase and it's written on my bedroom wall, in my scheduler, everywhere! I think it's really important to remember yourself!

Like most teenage girls, I used to suffer from really awful confidence! Even now I'm not great! But seeing this written everywhere and remembering that I'm the best really makes me go for opportunities 100%. It's important to remember you're the best "you" there is and no one else can do that as well as you can! :)

How many times do you check your blog? 

Oh this is an embarrassing question! ...Too much! Sometimes I just sit here and look at it...I don't do anything...just stare at it! I find looking at my blog really helps when I want to change something, when I was changing fonts I just stared at my blog for a while and waited for it to come to me xD

Occasionally when I'm in the Apple store or any computer store where you've got access to them, I'll set my blog as the webpage on the devices and then walk out the store! It's interesting to think of what the next person will do when they see that open! I'm not really using it as a form of promotion...I don't think that would work anyway...but it's a really fun idea to think about right?

If you could be someone else for the day, who would you be? 

Probably Maggie Q! I always say her...but it's true! She's so multi-talented and perfect. She's so pretty, but at the same time she's a martial artist. There's not many women famous for martial arts in the way Maggie Q is and I just find her really inspirational! It would be really fun just imagining how she thinks and everything and seeing how her views differ from mine. Our views are genuinely relatively similar, except perhaps she's on the more extreme end of things, so that would be really fun!

Do you have any specific fashion style? 

Honestly? Nope. My clothing style changes from day-to-day. I take the small amount of inspiration I need for my outfits from so many places... from K-pop idols to Youtubers and everyone inbetween I think I've got a pretty out of place style. I never really seem to fit into a fashion category and I always focus more on my face than on my outfits. 

I never seem to consider my clothes and I just place them as the last thing on my checklist! When I get dressed in the morning clothes are the last thing to think about and when I go on holiday...clothes come after makeup and hair tools and everything as well! 

Fashion never made the same impact on me that makeup has! I think I blame that on the English education system! I've just got out of schools which force me to wear a uniform for so long, that I'm now not sure what to do with myself when I'm out! I've had to just focus on my hair and makeup rather than my outfit so it was never a priority before now.

What is the one brand, clothing or makeup, you couldn't imagine life without? 

Before I would have said Innisfree or Tony Moly...and as much as I love those brands for colour makeup~ I think actually for basic items that are essential to my everyday use I'd have to go with Missha! My Holy Grail BB Cream and Cleanser are both from Missha and therefore I don't think I can really get through a day without using a product by Missha. I wouldn't say I'd need these stranded on a desert island - although the SPF coverage in the BB cream is pretty high so on an island I might be needing that! - but it comes pretty close to that. If I could only take 3 beauty products out with me then 2 out of them would be by Missha! (The other would probably be Etude House's lip balms!)

Although Missha don't have the most creative packaging, their formulas work perfectly on my skin...So definitely Missha here!

What beauty thing are you rubbish at? 

Moisturising! I'm awful at it. I'm so great at cleansing - so great I managed to fill up the whole of the first section of my latest series with the stuff. I'm alright at applying toners and serums...but when it comes to moisturisers, my skin just feels so clogged and I'm so bored by that point anyway!

I love my skincare routine and everything, but half an hour into it and it's coming to the end and I'm supposed to apply my moisturiser...I do it in such a bored manner that it all seems largely pointless!

I'm starting to get better now (the lemon mask from The Face Shop seemed to have dried out my skin for all of eternity now!) because my skin is drier so it just seems more necessary now...but it's taken so long for me to see the importance of it. I still don't really I think...

What is your biggest obsession? 

Sun care! Anyone who knows me in real life knows that the second the sun shows any intention of coming out, I'm forever hounding you telling you to put your suncream on. If there's one thing that annoys all of my friends more than anything, I think it's probably my need to remind everyone to wear sun cream. I've been like this for as long as I can remember! My mum taught me to always wear a high SPF coverage and to apply it regularly throughout the day even if it says all-day...and I think that was so drilled into my brain for so long, that now I'm just obsessive over it!

Luckily, there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with this!

What is your biggest goal in life? 

It sounds so cliche... but I just want to be happy more than anything! These days it's so easy to surround ourselves with people who just put us down.. For so long I was around people who made me feel awful and I really wasn't very happy at all. So now I think I value happiness over everything else in life. When I'm happy now it really means more to me. I used to want a great job, huge house...all of those things. Now I'd be pretty happy to just get by but be happy. 

I do also want to make something out of my life obviously. I'd love to go into the beauty industry somehow...but how I'm going to do that I'm still clueless about. Honestly I've really got no involvement other than through my blog, I don't take any college courses in beauty or fashion or any degrees or anything. I'm a philosophy student! So it'll be interesting to see how that's going to pan out! I'm definitely going to make it happen though! ...I'll just admit that if it wasn't for all of your support then I probably wouldn't even think of it! I'd asked a number of you what you thought of my goals before and everyone was really supportive and sweet about it so that was really encouraging! So thank you ;D

How do you feel about being nominated?

Great! :D This is my favourite award, it really highlights some of the important things I think about blogging and I'll be checking out all of the other people Camille tagged as well, so it's a great way to find new blogs! It's not only a great way for you all to get to know me and the people I'm going to tag, but I can also find new people! I hope you all enjoyed this post as much as I have writing it! I really enjoy these sort of question and answer posts because I know I'm answering questions that people genuinely want to know the answer to as well ;) Sometimes I feel like I'm just blogging to a brick wall if that makes sense? I never know whether people will care about what I have to say....

Thank you so much for reading this! Now I think it's really onto my own nominations! First I'll share with you my 10 questions for my nominees!

My Questions:

1. Grab your bag and pick 3 things out of it! What are they and why are they in there?
2. Do you have any regrets in your life? Is there anything you would have done differently?
3. Give one tip to your readers that sums up your philosophy/beliefs!
4. Is there any beauty/style tips that you just don't believe?
5. Where do you see you and your blog in 2 years time?
6. How often do you spend reading other people's blogs?
7. Name one blogger whose blog theme/layout you really love!
8. Have you found any of your HG products yet?
9. We all have one scent that we hate, what's yours?
10. What's more important: Makeup? Hair? Or fashion?

My Nominees:

Mincho from A Korean Doll
Zy from Dollzy
Eva from Bunny Kiss
Li Su from Liva Su Life
Mea from Miss Mewar
Crystal from Sujeongi
세라 from Mirukuseki
Lauren from Little Porcelain Princess
Yomi from Gwiyomi Style
Daphne from Peanut Butter and Chocolate Life

I love all 10 of these girls and please go and check them all out if you've got time...if not...make time ;D aha~ Thanks to Camille for giving me my 3rd award~ and an excuse to share 10 more of my favourite bloggers with you all! I feel like some of the blogs I read are certainly underrated and the Liebster award gets us sharing and just being great so please share this tag!

Also if I haven't tagged you but you've got under 200 followers and want to try it, then please feel free and leave a comment in the comment section below with a link to your post!

Have a great day everyone and look after your skin in this weather! It doesn't seem particularly sunny these days, but looks can be deceiving!

Edit!!
I've been nominated for some more Liebster Blog Awards so I'll just add any more recent questions into this post so you all don't have millions of tag posts coming into your subscription boxes.

From Y-oonyee

I really love Sandy/Y-oonyee...both as a blogger and just as a general person ;) She's so sweet and a great girl :D There really needs to be more people like her in the world because she's great so please check out her blog HERE

And here's my questions from Sandy!

Would you rather have perfect skin or perfect hair?

Perfect hair! I don't think my skin is that bad ;D So if someone asked me now to improve my skin or my hair it would definitely be my hair! But if I had to start over again and I'd had to choose only one...skin is always important to me!

If you could meet anybody in the world, who would you choose?

Lindy Tsang AKA Bubzbeauty! She's such a great role model and inspiration to every female in the world and it would just be an honour to meet her because she's so great. We're also the same height and wear the same clothes size xD so I could steal her wardrobe :L

Who are your top 3 favourite YouTubers?

As you might have guessed from the previous question, Bubzbeauty is top. Without Bubz I don't think my hair would look anything like it does today...and the same with my face and clothes. She was my favourite YouTuber when I started on the internet and she still is today. But coming in really close second is Beautifymeeh! She's so sweet and Yunwoo and Aiden are so cute as well. 

Finally I'm going to pick Nayoung/BlueOiseau/Osieau88! She's so pretty and one of my main inspirations to get perfect skin. Even though she's not uploading as many videos or anything any more, I love her skin and style - and her house ;D

When did you start using make up?

I started wearing it everyday when I got into High School so I would have been about 13/14 then but I was a dancer until about a year ago and I had to wear stage makeup since about 3/4 then I guess? I've been able to do my own makeup and hair since I started school, my mum's pretty useless at all of that and I had to do my own hair and makeup for ballet anyway so by the time I was wearing it every day I don't think I was that bad at applying it actually!

What are your makeup essentials?

BB Cream all the way. I can't leave the house without it. That's all. I can leave the house without everything else but not without BB cream. It gives me enough coverage whilst looking natural and also acts as suncream so it's the ultimate perfect product.

What song do you love right now?

CL's The Baddest Female. I could sing that song in my sleep...in fact I probably do! That's how much I've listened to it recently. It's just the perfect song and CL's great :)

Where is the one place you want to travel to, and why?

South Korea! I've figured I'd spend way too much money if I went. Most people would come up with some normal reason for wanting to visit a country...I just want to see Etude Stores in real life and go to Korean coffee shops. Korea is really different from England...but it's still more similar than Japan and other Asian countries... 

Do you have a role model regarding fashion and beauty style?

Bubzbeauty for beauty all the way. Without her I don't think I'd be bothered to keep going with the whole skincare thing everyday. She always somehow guilts me into following through with my routines. Stylewise I really love Jenn Im. She's so pretty and although you guys can't see how Jenn inspires me because my style isn't that similar...it's more of a confidence thing honestly!

Also K-pop idols obviously ;D Looking at those guys constantly it would be impossible not to be inspired by them!

How do you find inspiration to write?

Other bloggers! I love just sitting on Bloglovin' for hours and reading everyone elses posts. I actually write a lot more than what gets published because I get halfway through a post and give up xD But other bloggers is the main thing that keeps me going honestly! That and getting new products!

Magazines or books?

I really love looking at magazines...but books all the way. I say this though but the only books I've been recently reading have been school ones... Ah the life of a student!

What is your favourite quote you live by?

As I said previously "I Am The Best" ;D But also I like the phrase "even monkeys fall from trees" when I'm studying. I turn into a bit of a perfectionist sometimes but this one makes me realise that everything doesn't need to be done perfectly all the time. I can sometimes fail or not do great and everything is going to be okay. Everything happens for a reason! Like at the moment I'm waiting to see whether I've got into university, if I haven't then that's okay! Sure I'll be sad, but a ton of new opportunities will come whether I go or not so that's not really an issue, we just need to enjoy life and that's all that matters!

Thanks Sandy again for tagging me and giving some great questions there! ;)

Korean Eyebrow Style Tutorial

Welcome back! I hope you're all enjoying my new found time as much as I am! :) Today I'm back with a tutorial for you to add to the Ulzzang Skincare series! My first tutorial was on the popular Lip Gradient using Tony Moly's Tony Tint.

I'm going to teach you how to sort out your eyebrows now! In Korea the eyebrow trend either has a small or no arch. They're quite full and youthful looking! Unlike American and European style, there's not much of an arch, so we need to basically straighten our eyebrows out!

Honestly this can't be done in one go and you can't just go from arched eyebrows to Korean style! It took me about a month to get to the style I've got today - and I'm happy with everything other than the length of my eyebrows...

So without further ramblings...let's move on with the tutorial! (I also apologise in advance for the zoomed in pictures, it's just easier to see the details!)

Let's start off first by cleansing our face! Today I'm using the Simple Vital Vitamin
Foaming Cleanser and my face exfoliation tool to remove any dead skin and create
a smooth base around the eyebrows to work on!

Here's a quick before picture! I had to resist the urge to sort these out, I was growing
them out for a couple of weeks to make this tutorial. As you can see there's a lot of
stray hairs and some of the hairs are too long!

The easiest place to start is the middle! Take your tweezers and pluck the
small hairs that make it look like you're attempting to grow a monobrow xD
(and if you don't have them? luckyyyy~~~)

Please be careful...

When you're taking out the hairs using tweezers please pull in the direction the hair is growing! If you pull the other direction this can cause ingrown hairs or you might not take out the full hair properly. Please be careful!

Now we've sorted that out we also need to take the hairs from underneath,
some extra hairs grow under the eyebrow which can cause it to look messy!
We need to take these out! 

Next up...hang in there with me on this one! We need to now brush our eyebrows
upwards!

Why brush eyebrows up?

Well then, as you can see from the picture above, it makes it easier to see which hairs are too long. By trimming or shaving these it just tidies the presentation and will make it more even when we're filling in the brows later with our pencils!

Grab some small scissors - these are nail ones but I don't use them on my nails,
just for my eyebrows don't worry! - or an eyebrow razor if you have one! I'm scared
of them! xD And trim the longer hairs, just be careful you don't trim too far down
otherwise you'll get bald patches!

Now we just need to clean up! You might have some small hairs still within your
brows after you've trimmed them which are now loose. We also want to calm
the redness of the area down... so take a cotton pad and some toner and wipe
it over your brow area!

I know! This is gross, but here's my pad! As you can see these short hairs were
still around my eye area!

Filling Brows

I'm using The Face Shop's Design My Eyebrows in the colour #04 Brown here and I've also reviewed this product!

First we need to make sure we've brushed the brows done after trimming and
cleaning up! Your brows look more youthful if you brush the front section
forward/upwards...I personally don't think this suits me but it looks really nice
on some people!

Now just go in with your pencil! Remember small strokes and build the colour
up gradually, you can always apply more easily but it's harder to take some off!

And there we go! The look is complete! (I really need to not use the flash on
these sort of tutorials...it does make the product washed out...) Your eyebrows
should now be a lot straighter than when you started!

If you're wondering what toner I used, at the moment I've been using the
Simple Soothing Facial Toner! I really like it and it was only £2 in Boots so I
don't feel bad about using it often!

(Although it may look like it, I haven't been sponsored by Simple in this post! I just really like their products and they're great for younger skin. 

On Get It Beauty, Suzy from Miss A recommended that younger/teenage skin should use less harsh products and simpler products to keep the skin looking great! Suzy has really pretty milky skin, so I decided to take her advice!)

How do you groom your eyebrows? Do you prefer a Korean straight style or the Western arched style brow?

Have a great day everyone and stay milky!

My Beauty Diary: White Truffle Fantastic Whitening Mask

WARNING: This post is image heavy!

I'm not even quite sure just how long it's taken me to use these masks (I say these...but I've actually only used one of them so far...but I still thought it would be worth reviewing them now!) Well the original packaging pictures are in the April folder and it's now June! But hey, I've used one now! 

I suffered lots of breakouts from stress during finals season and now they're finished it's time to correct all of that and relax and give my skin a break right? I'd been getting lots of redness and puffy skin from eating lots, so I thought I'd give whitening a try and see how it worked out!

(Check out the 시트 마스크 tag for all my sheet mask reviews)

The Packaging

Here's the actual packaging, as you can see it's the "White Truffle Fantastic Whitening Mask" by My Beauty Diary, S인니 brought it back from HK for me, and these are the first MBD masks I've tried...and I'm totally sold! If anyone has a favourite MBD mask then please leave the name in the comment section at the end, I'd love to try loads of them out!

As you can see here's the instructions! Although they're in Chinese we can tell that...you need to put the mask on xD It recommends leaving on the blue plastic until you've put it on your face...I did not. Which is probably why you later see a picture of it ripped xD

I uploaded this picture for those of you who speak Chinese... I think I seem to
be in the minority that can't here... xD

Look at how pretty the packaging is! Guys, I'd buy this just for the packaging! It's so pretty and it looks like a book/diary as well :) It's so cute!

And again here's the back of the individual masks, mostly in Chinese but there's
the ingredients in English as well, click on the picture to enlarge it.

The picture of an individual mask, even the lettering is cute!

The Mask Performance

I'm honestly not sure why I included this photo...but I was taking a bath with this mask on and...well the bubbles looked weird~ so I took some pictures xD And NOPE I'm not sharing any photos of me and the bath together xD

A couple of before pictures quickly! As you can see I have redness under my nose, on my jawline and under my cheekbones. I've also got a little on my forehead. I'm so glad finals are over now! Look at my dark circles as well -_- School has completely destroyed my skin!

Here's what the mask looks like when it's out of the individual packet! As you can see there's the white plastic and then the blue one. They recommend you keep the blue one on when applying...I'll try to remember that next time!

...And here's the remains of the packaging xD Oh my photo skills are great aren't they?

As you can see, these masks are a lot thinner than The Face Shop series I reviewed previously! (I also apologise for my eyebrow hair...it's really out of control in these pictures isn't it? xD)

I ripped a section around my nose area! Considering how much thinner these masks are actually I think I did quite well not ripping the whole mask!

It actually fits really well! As you may know, I have a Choi Minho sized face :L Meaning most masks don't actually want to fit my face! If you take a look back at my series on The Face Shop masks, the size difference is insane!

I honestly usually delete these photos...I can't ever take blog photos without taking one with my face puffed up...but I decided for once to share it! So here you go! xD

I totally apologise for the angry sheet mask face...but we all do it!

Forwards 30 minutes and it's time to take the mask off again! As you can see it's almost completely dry now and the colour is slightly different because the essence is now soaked into my skin! It really feels like it's worked if that makes sense? You know when you can literally feel the product working? Well I really could with this one!

The aftermath of this mask. The only thing that makes me sad is the amount of
packaging they've included! MBD should be more eco-friendly!

And finally here's my skin after one use! Comparing it to the before picture of this area of my face, a lot of the redness has calmed down. There's still small areas which are still red, but from the amount of problems I had before I used it...I really shouldn't expect perfect milky skin after one use! That's why it's sold in a pack after all!

Final Rating

So far after one use I'm already giving it a 5/5! That sounds impressive...but I love whitening products that actually work! And this one definitely does, if you can get hold of this mask then go for it! It worked really well, the packaging is pretty and the sizing is really good!

Thanks My Beauty Diary for curing my finals skin problems and making me happy again ;)

Also, if anyone has any MBD or any mask recommendations go ahead and leave them in the comment box below!

Have a great day and look after your skin! ♥