Skincare binge~Naruko and My Beauty Diary

My skin has been super erratic lately so I decided to indulge in some new skincare items. My friend has been trying out a few night jellies from Naruko (a skincare line from Taiwan) and had a positive experience so I decided to give the line a shot since there were a few promotions going on the Taiwan website. My friend had acquired the night jellies through the Taiwan website since Sasa.com was not selling the line at the time (Sasa does carry a few items now).

I cannot read Chinese so google translate was a great help, my bf was a minor help. My friend had experience with the site so she was also kind enough to give me the basics of how to navigate on the page. The Singapore website for Naruko also provided some info in English although the layout is different from the Taiwan website. I placed my order on a Friday, it shipped on Wednesday and I received my order the following Saturday.

Price wise, items on the Taiwan page was cheaper compared to Sasa.com. It was also nice that you could order sets of things. However, the big drawback is the cost of shipping (I think it is based on weight), although EMS is used so your order arrives quite fast after it is dispatched. Overall, my order contained 18 items and shipping ended up being around $70.

So this is what I ended up with:

Rose Basic Toner (x2)
Narcissus Total Defense Fundamental Serum
*Narcissus Total Defense Night Repairing Dew (x2)
Narcissus Total Defense Moisturizing Night Repair
Narcissus Total Defense Night Gelly
Niaouli & Tea Tree T-Zone Blackhead Remover
*Niaouli & Tea Tree Acne Toner
*Niaouli & Tea Tree Balancing Moisturizer
Marjoram and Lavender Brightening Serum
Magnolia Brightening and Firming Night Gelly
Job's Tears Whitening and Cooling Night Gelly

Not pictured:
*Narcissus Total Defense Mousse Facial Wash
*Narcissus Total Defense BB cream
*Facial Spa Massage Cotton Pads (3 packs)
Facial White Illuminating Cotton Pads (3 packs)
*Celestial White Moss Shower Mousse

Items with an asterisk (*) are the things that I'm currently using. The facial items have been pretty nice so far. Nothing has any offensive scents or residue. The BB cream is very sheer and light but works nicely as a primer for me. The shower mousse is not very remarkable and the bf described the scent as the kind you smell when you're in the bath aisle at an Asian supermarket here in the states -_- I kind of have to agree, it's pretty generic. Thankfully, the scent isn't very strong and doesn't linger much. The mousse is moisturizing enough so I'll most likely keep it in my rotation of shower items.

A niffy feature of the Naruko packaging is that it can transform into different types of containers as a means of promoting recycling.

Flatten box and instructions

Here's a few final products:

The box/container depends on the size of your item

My other skincare indulgence has been sheet masks. I'm ending up with a bit of a Pokemon syndrome and trying to catch all the My Beauty Diary varieties that have been released but I only have one face, so I'm trying to start using up all the masks that I have before acquiring anymore. However, I couldn't resist the new Hello Kitty collaboration ones. Each kind comes with 3 different sheet mask wrappers:

Top: Strawberry Honey
Bottom: Strawberry Milk

So cute, I almost don't want to use them

The other My Beauty Diary mask to recently land in my lap are the Earl Grey Tea and Macaron kind. I'm curious as to what this one will smell like.

I hope to report positive skincare results soon!

Adventures in Depotting

I use to think that the task of depotting eye shadows was a bit daunting and tedious; thus, I was hesitant to give it a try. There was also a question of how to store my depotted goods. Around Christmas time, I was finally motivated to start this project since 1-a friend had gifted me with 2 Unii palettes and 2-New York was hit with a snow storm so I needed some kind of indoor activity.

I used the heat method to take apart my eye shadows. The general process was I would heat the bottom of the case with a candle lighter for a few seconds to soften the glue holding the metal pan. Then I would pry out the interior pan (I used a screw driver meant for eye glass screws). Any glue residue was cleaned off with rubbing alcohol and a piece of magnet (included with the Unii palette) was stuck on.

Unii palettes in Eggplant and Snow

I decided to take consolidate my Nars eye shadow duos. I had a few casualties while depotting them. These are pretty soft shadows so while trying to pry the pans away from the casing, the shadows would crack. I tried to re-solidify them with some rubbing alcohol with mixed results. Another hindrance was that some shadows would have a ton of glue holding the pans to the casing.

Nars Duos
Top row: Cordura, Kuala Lumpur, Silk Road
Bottom row: Brousse, Isolde, Hula Hula


Left: 9947 palette (One shade missing)
Duos: Top-Tzaeine, Melusine; Bottom-Egea, Eurydice


Empty Nars single case

I also depotted my L'oreal Hip eyeshadow duos that had such cumbersome packaging. These were definitely easier to take a part than the Nars Duos and other than a few minor chips; the shadows were all perfectly intact. For these shadows, I used a Japonesque empty palette to store them.

Top: Mystical, Charming, Precious, Sculpted, Perky, Animated
Bottom: Platinum, Enchantress, Moon Goddess, Gilded, Gunmetal

I just received additional Unii palettes in Black, Pomegranate and Twilight.


During my Christmas depotting marathon, I had also taken a part my Shiseido Luminizing eye shadow singles. No heat were required for these. The plastic pan popped out of the case quite easily.


VI720 Ghost, PK319 Peach, PK305 Peony, GR222 Fondant, BL223 Sky, VI399 Amethyst



Now that I realize depotting isn't all that bad. I hope to consolidate even more items together. Here's the next few items to be depotted soon:

Becca Halcyon Days Palette

The Becca Halcyon Days palette makes me anticipate the arrival of summer with it's golden tones. It's an exclusive to Henri Bendels in New York.

l->r: Mai Tai lip gloss, Bougainvillea lip/cheek creme


l->r: Faille shadow, Muslin shadow, Chamois shadow

The dry swatches of the shadows do seem to blend in with my hand a bit. They definitely work better on the eyes and with the help of primer, of course. Overall, they are very nice and smooth. It's my first experience with Becca palettes and I look forward to checking out the other ones available. Although I have to admit one con for me is the case-it's a similar to Nars packaging so it's an annoying dust magnet. If you're in New York, Becca is available at a few Duane Reade drugstores. I can't recall if the whole line is there but I think most of the permanent line is stocked.

Becca Halcyon Days Palette-Preview pic

I was able to get this one pic of the Becca Halcyon Days palette before my camera battery ran out:

L->R: Mai Tai lip gloss, Bougainvillea lip/cheek creme, Faille shadow, Muslin shadow, Chamois shadow

Will post more pics/details soon!