This is actually a mixed bag of pans, some holy grails, some I could careless about, some I'm so surprised I actually made that much progress on!!!
Product list + reviews + VERY long side stories. If you only want a summary of my thoughts in convenient emoji form, go to the comments, I will make one with emoji ratings & whether I would repurchase or not there.
1/ Only the bottle is BioDerma, I'm too cheap for BioDerma, they're very expensive here in Vietnam. The micellar water inside is actually the Bioré Makeup Remover Brightening Micellar 'Acne Solution' (I think?). Bioré has had a factory in Vietnam for decades, so for us Bioré products are super affordable, they're a household name. Anywho, the micellar water actually came in a 350ml green-themed refill pouch. I distinctly remember for certain it's the version for acne prone skin. I bought the refill pouch with a 300ml bottle of the pink Soften Up version on promotion, wanting to try both formulas. Well that was a waste of time because the 2 products ended up being pretty much identical. They're both decent enough micellar water, but they're not good at controlling my oily skin. After using it, my skin would start to get very oily immediately and in no time, it's a field full of grease, I'm so surprised the US hasn't started manufacturing consent to bomb again. It also has a nasty bitter taste, whenever I used it to clean my lips I always get a taste in my mouth no matter how much I tried to avoid it. I ended up rarely using it to clean my skin, or if I do, I have to avoid my lip area. I mostly used it to clean swatches on my arm, and boy do I LOVE doing swatches, it's just so fun. I'm going to finish the pink Soften Up bottle the same way. I never want to repurchase this product ever again 👎 The BioDerma bottle on the other hand will stay on to serve me, forever.
2/ Garnier micellar water Salicylic BHA version for acne skin. I still have a bit left in the bottle, but it's going to run out after a couple more uses soon. I still count it as a soon-to-be pan & include this in the post just for convenience sake. When it runs out I'm just going to toss it and completely forget about taking a photo, might as well do it now. This is also very affordable in Vietnam & Southeast Asia in general, because they have a factory in Indonesia. I've used many different versions of it and all of them are always very efficient & pleasant to use on my oily skin, leaves no taste on the lips & leaves my skin soft & comfortable. My skin won't start oiling up too much for a little while after using this. I pretty much got this also on a clearance sale to use instead of the Bioré. Love it, highly recommend, will repurchase 👍 The ONLY thing I don't like about it is the packaging, the bottle cap cannot be radiated off, it's anti-reuse. L'Oreal also does this with their micellar water bottles, which irritates me to NO end. This shit should be illegal, and they most should be fined for pulling this shenanigan, the unmitigated NERVE 🙄 I hate intentionally made to be obsolete packaging so frigging much.
3/ A facial moisturiser made of a mix of the Nivea body lotion in Aura Orange with Avocado Oil & the Nivea cream in the tub. The lotion is limited to Asia and also limited edition, can't get it anymore. I have a regular size bottle I'm still using, and a 350ml bottle as a backup. I already ran out of the regular size bottle once and loved it so much, I repurchased regular size bottle in a supermarket chain and the 350ml bottle from a shop specialised in imported goods from Thailand as a backup (we don't get the 350ml & 500ml bottles of the Oil in Lotion series here in Vietnam). I use it for my face because I'm a cheapskate to my bones & in my soul. I love it so much, the scent is a sweet citrus that's not too strong, it moisturises my oily prone, dehydrated combination skin well without evaporating away in 3 minutes, leaving me high and dry. The Nivea cream in the tub is rich & also moisturising, without being too occlusive, but using it alone or too much makes my face oily, it just sits on top of my skin without being able to absorb, adding to the quickly building grease. Nivea is also very affordable in Southeast Asia for me because Nivea has a factory in Thailand, right next to Vietnam. I love it here 💕💕💕 I use only the lotion for summer, and a mixture of the lotion & the cream in winter. My under eye is extra freaking dry year round now so I also use a mixture of the Nivea cream & the CeraVe cream (a sample, l need so little I still haven't finish it) only under my eye to seal in the moisturiser mixture. The CeraVe cream is 2 steps away from being basically Vaseline, so it's mega occlusive, I get pimples if I happen to spread it too far onto my oily skin area. Oh god I lost the plot. Back to Nivea. I cooked up the lotion & cream mixture to use when it was still winter, the tub is a generic I got off Shopee (our Amazon/Temu/Shein, except it's much better & faster for us because Vietnam & China are right next to each other). I thought I was so slow to use it up because I have ~1-2 months where I just completely neglected my skin because I was so drained & exhausted from my chronic illnesses, I didn't even wash my face or put anything on for those 2 some months, just wiped my face with micellar water and called it a day. My face was both so oily and caked with dead skin, it was horrible. But I picked up my favourite oil controlling toner recently, the Dickinson's Witch Hazel toner (blast from the past anyone? 😆), And oh my god I'm so back. I still don't wash my face because it makes me wanna hurl whenever I bend over forward into the sink, but after wiping my face with this stuff, it obliterates my facial oil, I have a clean, fresh face with no oil for a good 30 mins after, I feel so fresh and so good. I remembered why it was such a fave of mine for years ❤️ Then I start to put on my mixture of face moisturiser again, which makes me go through it so fast. The mixture is solid enough that it doesn't move in the pot, so my pan is real pan. You can see where I marked is where the amount of cream gradually went down & down as I used it up, then my finger hit pan yesterday. I was shocked, but was so happy. It's gotten too rich for my skin as it's gotten well into summer this close to the equator, it's starting to make my skin so oily, so I'm not going to finish it. I'm going to mix more lotion in this tub so it's thinner and absorb more into my skin. I will update when I hit pan once again. 10/10 will repurchase both the Nivea body lotion in this version of I can, and the Nivea cream 👍👍👍
4/ Rohto Mentholatum Medicated Lip Stick: this is a legend that needs no introduction. This is the ONLY lip balm that actually can moisturise my pathetic truly dry as paper lips, AND STAY ON without completely being absorbed and leaves nothing behind, or is so balmy/creamy that it keeps sliding towards the inside of my lips and then into my mouth, leaving my lips naked and afraid. My lips are truly wrecked, the skin there can't hold ANY moisture anymore, as a result of a horrible allergic reaction that lasted for over 2 some months, until I recognised the allergen & stopped rubbing it against my lips multiple times on a daily basis (metal objects & any alloys). My lips are really, really paper that will shrivel up like just like dead leaves, without being coated in an effective, moisturising, long lasting lip balm. This Rohto lip balm has been my only saviour, out of so many lip balms that I tried over the years. Not the other version of this in a slightly different packaging & name (Mentholatum Medi Lip Stick, which is rich but slides right into my mouth and into my stomach), not Vaseline, not Maybelline Baby Lips. The Nivea, or its clone, Labello, is rich & works well without ending up in my stomach, but it's price has become too much for me to afford regularly, considering its richness depositing a lot of product on my lips thus running out much faster than the Mentholatum Medicated lip stick, which deposits less product on my lips so it doesn't feel as heavy & slippery, thus it lasts much longer. And again, living in Asia, products from other Asian countries are always cheaper for me than from Western brands. It has a pleasant mint scent that's not too overwhelming. It feels a bit cooling on the lips which is such great relief (Nivea/Labello doesn't have a mint feel when applying). I can smell the faint minty scent when I wave the stick past my nose briefly during application, but after that I can't smell it on my lips at all, the minty feeling in the lips also fades away pretty quickly. But the balm layer can last for hours on end unless I eat a messy meal, or accidentally rub it away. These aren't the first ones I finish, there were more before them. The shorter stick is going to be finished soon, I can only push it down against my lips after applying. I won't dig into the base for product after I level it, it feels miserable, I always end up never using it when it's such a bother. Maybe I will put it in a small contact lens container for use at home, but again, if it's inconvenient it's likely I won't use it up. I have another 2 pack ready to go already, when I pop them open I will also repurchase another 2 pack or more, just to be safe. Rating: 👍👍👍❤️❤️❤️, 100% will repurchase 💕💕💕
5/ Joocyee Glazed Rouge lipsticks in all but 1 of the shades that I own!!! Another absolute HOLY GRAIL 🏆🏆🏆 It's a moisturising, film forming, transfer resistant, long lasting lipstick. This is the ONLY other lip product that's so nourishing to my lips and LASTS for so long unless I eat an oily, messy meal. It's so, so, so good that I wear it in place of a lip balm to sleep and it's even better than the Mentholatum lip stick at keeping my lips moisturised. Unless I accidentally rub it against my pillow case or blanket VERY VIGOROUSLY during sleep, it's still completely intact, zero fading, fully juicy , mirror-like GLOSSING when I wake up the next morning. I just talked to someone who I converted into my Joocyee Glazed Rouge cult 🤣 just yesterday, and they also own 10 shades, just like me 😆 They also wear these Glazed Rouge lipsticks to sleep in place of a lip balm, just like me 😆😆😆 It's THAT good. Get on the bandwagon now and be another comrade with us 🤣🤣🤣 Lately I have been neglecting them because I have been forcing myself to wear a couple inferior but way more expensive products from Joocyee for the last couple months. I've been spreading myself thin over several products, so they don't have enough wear to be showcased in this post, but WOW, from the moment I got them, I seriously put some serious dent on these lipsticks 💕💕💕💕💕!!! Most of them are 1/3 of the way down, 507 in particular is over 1/2 of the way down 💐🎉🎉🎉 Well done to me!!! I'm so proud of myself, I've almost never got this far down any lipsticks I own 🥹🥰 other than a couple Revlon lipsticks I used to love! Needless to say, an underrated gem I've been proselytising about for a year everywhere I go 🤣 and a HOLY GRAIL 🏆🏆🏆 Not only will I repurchase my top favourite shades (507, 510, 523, 540), but I'm also eager to try out new shades too. They just put out 2 new shades in the Children's Day collection that's just become available in Vietnam officially, and there's 4 shades only sold in their Singapore locations I wish I could get 😭😭😭 If they're anyone in Singapore willing to become my accomplice, please get in touch with me, my legs I meant my inbox is open 😭
That's it, thanks to anyone who have been patient enough to read til the end of this post. I'm so glad I've made way more progress on many different products than I thought!!! Many pleasant surprises. I never thought I could make enough progress on anything on my collection to make a post in this sub, being so sick & tired all the time I haven't been able to put together a full, complete face of makeup for such a long time. I will just keep chugging, until I find enough of these small surprises for another post 💕
by icalledyouwhite