Christmas Beauty Haul Part 2 (Gifts & HKC Plaza)

Following on from Part 1 of my Christmas haul, this is part 2 which includes beauty-related gifts I received and some I treated myself to.

Christmas Gifts:

The following were Christmas gifts mainly from my sister. I gave her an Ebay Christmas wishlist with some skincare and makeup products that I wanted from Korea and then she randomly picked these. I gave her the seller iamLove-shop and she said it was a good buying experience. It came very quickly, well packaged and provided very generous samples including a sheet mask. I like their ebay shop too because they have a large variety of products from different beauty companies.

O.S.T Original Pure Vitamin C20 Serum

This was top of my wishlist so I’m super happy to have received this. I’ve been wanting to try a Vitamin C serum for awhile now as it has a multitude of proven benefits. Most importantly, it is a potent antioxidant that protects the skin from free radicals that can cause premature ageing. It boots collagen production for firmer, younger and healthier skin, reduces sun damage, inflammation and irritation and fades post-inflammatory hyper pigmentation.

Since Vitamin C in the form of L-ascorbic acid is quite unstable and oxidises quickly when exposed to light and oxygen, I’m keeping it in the fridge and haven’t opened it as yet because I’m currently adding acids into my routine and don’t want to introduce too many new things at once.  Should hopefully start trying this towards the end of the week.

MISSHA M Soft Blending Stick Blusher

I believe these soft blending sticks are fairly new from Missha and I really wanted to try them. I have the highlighter colour but they have 5 other shades in the line: 3 blusher colours and 2 contour colours. Swatched this on my hand as soon as I opened it and fell in love with it immediately! I love the application – has a beautiful sheen, so creamy, pigmented, soft and easy to apply and with a brush to blend on the other side. I’m increasingly looking for makeup that is convenient to apply and this is definitely one of them. So glad it’s not a sheer highlighter. I can see myself picking up the rest of the colours for sure.

Sheet Masks

A couple types of sheet masks I wanted. I really like the Innisfree ones because because they fit really well and I chose lime as it contains niacinimade to help with bright and clear skin. Never tried Skinfood ones before but I went for tomato since it contains Vitamin C and will help to smooth and purify skin. The hyaluronic mask from Etude came as a free sample and I’ve used this particular one before and it’s my absolute favourite for how awesome it makes my skin look and feel.

COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid

This along with the other COSRX product I got were from my dad. So this is my very first time using a Beta Hydroxy Acid and I got interested in trying it after reading about it in many other bloggers’ skincare routines. While acids sound scary and harsh, this is actually a very effective chemical exfoliant to dissolve the dead skin cells and clear out the pores. I mainly wanted this as it helps to reduce excess sebum. I’ve only tried this the past 2 days and so far so good. I like it’s not too drying and it hasn’t irritated my skin so far. It’s consistency is very similar to the Innisfree Soybean Energy essence.

COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence

I’m eager to try other COSRX products and will eventually get more but apart from the BHA, this essence was next on my must have list from COSRX. It’s got 96% snail extract! I’ve had good results from the Mizon Snail Repair Cream so I’m eager to add more snail products into my skincare routine. Haven’t yet tried this as I’m currently testing a different essence.

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3RD Order: HKC plaza

So the following products are from my order with HKC plaza that are based in Singapore. There was a post on the Asian beauty subreddit forum last month about how they were selling LeeJiHam products for insanely cheap prices and though it seemed too good to be true I placed an order for these three items that I’d been keen to try – especially the essence which is highly raved about. I had originally put off buying them for now because the original prices didn’t warrant an impulse buy (and I didn’t really need tea tree/acne care products), but since it was heavily discounted I decided why let such a good offer pass!

Many people were actually doubtful of whether the company was genuine or not because there were some issues of orders not being updated, bad customer service, no response, slow delivery etc. I can say however that my experience was a positive one. Patience is definitely needed with HKC plaza but I don’t fault them for being slow because I’m sure they got inundated with orders after that reddit post went up.

My whole order took about 3 weeks:

1st Dec: Placed my order

3rd Dec: Got a confirmation email that order had been received

7th Dec: Email that order being processed

9th Dec: Email that order had been shipped

18th Dec: Parcel arrived

My parcel arrived in this white plastic bag rather than the usual box but was very tightly bound in bubble wrap to protect from damage. Only 1 box got slightly dented in the corner otherwise everything was fine.

I would order from them again because they give a lot of samples, sell legitimate products (if you’re looking for the more obscure, less popular brands) and have free international shipping with no min. purchase/or free registered shipping if you spend over £15.

LJH Tea Tree 90 Essence 

This is probably what the company LJH is most known for. Heard many have had good results from this and I was especially intrigued by the fact that LJH was founded by 3 doctors. I’ve only tried this a couple times so far when I haven’t had any spots or blemishes and it’s surprisingly very soothing and moisturising considering its 90% tea tree. I’m almost anticipating getting a pimple just so I can test this out on it haha. It is meant to speed up the healing process, brighten the skin and decrease inflammation and irritation. Best thing about this is that it usually sells for average £22 online and I’ve even seen it on Ebay for £40. I got this for £7. Bargain.

LJH Tea Tree 80 Cream

I’ve heard less about the cream but it was selling for £8 instead of the usual HKC plaza price of £28 that I figured my boyfriend could try this with the essence to give a stronger boost. I’ve never really had acne (just lone pimples here and there on my forehead) but I think this would be useful for my boyfriend who has more sensitive acne-prone skin. His skin is more dry than mine too so this Tea Tree line is more suitable in that it will treat his problems without stripping his skin of its natural oil and still keeping it hydrated.

LJH Tea Tree 30 Cleansing Foam

Lastly, this cleansing foam was originally £18 which I got for £5. I haven’t tried this yet but it is meant to be very gentle for skin with a pH of 5.5. This is perfect for sensitive skin since cleansers with a high pH tend to give you a squeaky clean feel and strip your skin of its natural moisture which is harmful in the long-term.

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So that’s all for my Christmas 2015 haul! Eager to try everything out properly and I hope to do more in-depth reviews of these products in the new year.

Happy holidays. 🙂