I swear TJMaxx has the most overstimulating atmosphere. Today I decided to visit one in my college town because it had been a while since I last went. I feel like the TJMaxx in my city always has a lot of K-beauty items, I’ve recently found JUNG SAEM MOOL products at a different location, but I did not anticipate the sight I was about to behold.😭
They had like 5 giant gondola shelves overflowing with just Korean and Japanese skincare. By “overflowing,” I mean the shelves were literally packed to the brim. Honestly, it was a pleasant reminder of how bad waste in the beauty industry can be. I only came because I had an e-gift card and wanted to search for 2AN products and Dinto tints, but I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff to dig through.
I’m familiar with unknown K-beauty brands making enormous claims on their packaging especially at outlets like TJMaxx stuff like “KOREA’S #1 TONER” or “BEST SELLING EYE CREAM, OVER 15 MILLION SOLD” from a brand you’ve never heard of in your life. More than half the time, those brands are just duping already popular Korean skincare products and trying to pass them off as something revolutionary. I’m one of those people who has to look up reviews before buying anything, so I easily spent an hour in there (and probably would’ve spent even more if I didn’t stop myself).
I was really shocked by the variety of brands they had this time around. There was a surprising amount of Kose, I’m From, some House of Hur skincare, a lot of Skinfood, Beauty of Joseon, and APLB. They also had the usual TJMaxx-essential Korean skincare brands but in much larger quantities than I’ve ever seen before: Mixsoon, Round Lab, Haru Haru Wonder, Innisfree, and Torriden.
As for K-beauty makeup, it was mostly the regular selection of bright red and orange tints. lots of Cosnori products and tints. I wasn’t drawn to those since every Cosnori product I’ve tried has been disappointing to say the least. I did find a Holika Holika tint or two, some Milk Touch and Banila tints, DearCloud, and a few Touch in Sol tints. But all the shades were super bright warm tones, and I’m past that phase of buying lippies that don’t match my undertones.
The real shocker was unearthing some Dinto tints off the racks. I’ve been dying to try them for a while because I’ve seen so much about them on Japanese beauty Twitter. YesStyle doesn’t carry Dinto, and Olive Young is too pricey, I can’t justify $25 for one tint. At first, I only found the pearl tints, but right before leaving, I unearthed one of the regular enamels. The amount of self-restraint it took not to buy every shade of the Dinto tints… but I wasn’t sure I could trust a glittery tint formula.
In the end, I left with 2 Dinto tints (shades London and Wendy), a Mary & May eye cream gift set, and Skinfood toner pads. My Beauty of Joseon eye cream has been stuck in customs for over a month, so I decided to give the Mary & May one a shot, $7.99 for 54g of product is a steal, expired or not. I’ve never tried the Skinfood toner pads, but I’ve read great reviews for years, and at $12.99, I figured why not give her a try. The best deal was the Dinto lip tints at $6.99 each.
My first impressions of the tints: they’re nothing to write home about or worth dropping an obscene amount on. The pearl tint is much sheerer than I anticipated, and the glitter is very subtle (which I’m actually happy about). Unfortunately, one started leaking onto the packaging on the way home, meaning the components must be pretty fragile. Despite that Wendy is a beautiful shade, I’d definitely recommend it as a nice cool tone pink.
by Aestheticallergies