[REVIEW] PHYKOLOGY Bright Tomorrow Guardian Cream

Hello, hello dear friends! I’m finally back on here and wanted to share a product I have been using a lot lately and has been part of my evening routines for these couples of weeks now.

Introducing… the PHYKOLOGY Bright Tomorrow Guardian Cream, this cream is specifically formulated to strengthen and hydrate skin moisture barrier. Winter in Canada has been a brutal time for me and I can honestly rely on a cream with ceramides in it. This cream naturally enhances the skin’s strength and defends the skin to stay moisturized, soft and remain plump throughout the day. As you can see, this cream is on the thicker side for creams and I absolutely love that for winter. I can’t get away with a simple gel based cream because winter here, is extremely dry. Temperatures drop low as -45 degrees Celsius here. The moment I get home, my skin feels numb and all the moisture has been zapped out. I find this cream is able to quickly restore my skin’s texture and feel when I use it.

PHYKOLOGY Bright Tomorrow Guardian Cream
50ml ~ $33.37 USD / $43.72 CDN

| Phykology Facebook | Phykology Instagram| PHYKOLOGY Official Website|

Check out the ingredients below:

The star ingredients that I liked from this product:

Undaria Pinnatifida Extract – This is the very first ingredient of the list and I always appreciate brands that don’t use water as a filler ingredient. This ingredient is a brown algae potent with antioxidants, provides the cream and formulation a thick+dense texture and provides skin hydration.

Centella Asiatica Extract – is a plant-based ingredient that has multiple healing properties. The extract is rich with amino acids, fatty acids and etc that can help treat and prevent acne, calming down skin inflammation and promote collagen growth.

Beta-Glucan – is a polysaccharide sugar derived from yeasts/oats. It has skin soothing and some antioxidant properties that are fantastic to improve the skin’s appearance by reducing redness and any signs of inflammation.

Ceramide NP – Ceramide are lipids that assist and protect skin barrier by retaining skin moisture and they protect the skin from any environmental irritants. They can also improve the look and feel of dry skin instantaneously.

* PHYKOLOGY is also vegan. 

You can see how dry my hand is and the texture of this cream is dense enough to restore and repair my skin’s lost moisture. I only need about a pea size amount of this cream on my face and it usually does the trick. I always go in with my skincare steps prior to apply the cream and I seal everything in with a facial oil of my choice. The facial oil I have been using a lot lately is the Teami Blends Soothe Facial Oil. It’s formulated with Blue Tansy (anti-inflammatory) , Lavender (purifies) and White Sage Leaf (wrinkle prevention and reduction). If you’re interested in purchasing it, please feel free to use my discount code: DORK15 and get 15% off your purchase!

TIP: dispense a pea size amount of the cream and with clean hands, massage the product to breakdown the thick consistency into a creamy, smooth texture. This allows easier application rather than applying the cream directly onto the face and massaging it. The warmth from your hands will make a huge difference in the product’s texture.

Overall thoughts:

I’m impressed with PHYKOLOGY as an overall brand choosing to be one of the very few k-beauty vegan brands and they are focused in creating quality products. Their minimalist packaging is absolutely gorgeous and very travel friendly! You can purchase this cream here: Bright Tomorrow Guardian Cream

• Texture: 5/5 – Dense, creamy and spreads wonderfully on the face. It does not dry down sticky or tacky on the face. Comfortable to have on and perfect for cold weather conditions because it’s able to recover your skin within a short period of time.
• Scent: 5/5 – No detectable scent, perfect for those who are sensitive to scents.
• Price: 3/5 – It is a bit on the pricier side but varying in your budget, I would reccomend this to those who would like to try out new products and need an excellent winter cream. Also, do keep in mind this is a vegan product.
• Performance: 5/5 – Fantastic, I have no complaints here. It works exactly how it claims. My moisture barrier has been slightly damaged from the terrible weather conditions here in Canada and I know I can rely on this cream to save my skin overnight. I would apply this right after my hydrating serums and ampoules for the best results!
• Packaging: 4/5 – The standard aluminum tube that looks similar to medical topical creams/gels packaging. Aluminum tubes are easy to dispense product out, look and feel nice! This is small enough to travel with and you don’t need that much to cover your entire face.
• Overall: 4/5 – I did enjoy this cream and had no negative reactions/skin irritation from using it. I will continue to use this cream.

This product was kindly gifted to me in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. I am pleased with this product and I look forward to share with you further ways how I like to use it in my routine. Be sure to stay tuned for my instagram story posts and feed posts. I always post daily :)!

Have yourself a fantastic day!

[REVIEW] Iunik Black Snail Restore Serum

Hello, hello friends. It has been a VERY hectic little bit for bit I’m managing my time wisely today to share this wonderful serum I have been anticipating to share my thoughts on this serum I have been using consistently in my evening beauty routines. The reason why I don’t always share all of my products in my photos because it can quickly get all congested and look too busy. As well, I wanted to use this a fair amount of times to develop and actual opinion on this.

I was kindly gifted this product from Iunik in exchange an honest review.

Iunik Black Snail Restore Serum – 50 ml

Available on: Unique4U | Yesstyle

• Prices may vary where you purchase the serum from. It ranges between $20 USD -$23 USD

Product Claims

1. Nutrition: Contains 70% of black Snail extract instead of purified water to nourish the skin’s natural strength
2. Anti-Aging – Contains 5 Black Super Foods (black beans, black sesame, black rice, kelp and eggplant) to help with anti aging.
3. Skin trail relaxation – Incoperates Centella asiatica extract to help alleviate traces
4. Facilitate skin recovery – Contains patented Natural HG ingredients to help tired skin recover
5. Whitening/wrinkle improvement – Confirmed as a pharmaceutical functional ingredients by KDFA Contains niacinamide and adenosine to improve whitening and wrinkle.

Key Ingredients

• Snail mucin is shown to have antioxidant properties as well the ability to promote collagen production and increases wound healing. It is packed with hyaluronic acid, which is humectant ingredient that is able to retain moisture within the skin.
• Centella Asiactica is a plant-based ingredient that has multiple healing properties. The extract is rich with amino acids, fatty acids and etc that can help treat and prevent acne, calming down skin inflammation and promote collagen growth.
• 5 Black Super Food ingredients all have something in common, they are all rich in antioxidants, have natural dextoxifying properties and rich in Vitamins (B & E). Kelp in particular helps calm, soothe and nourish the skin.

Here is how the serum looks like when applied on my hand: 

My thoughts

As you can see as the demonstrated photos, this serum is very lightweight and watery. It leaves no sticky/tacky residue behind and absorbs into the skin seamlessly. It can be layered with other products as desired. I have combination skin however it’s quite dehydrated even in my oily regions. I also have some acne scars on my cheeks. I would mix this serum into a skincare cocktail with my vitamin C serum and would notice my skin is not only brighter the following day but within a month of continuous usage, I noticed my acne scars were less red and prominent. One thing I really appreciate about iunik is that there is a generous amount of product and their dropper is high quality Their dropper is sturdy and allows you to control how much you want.

Overall:

• Texture: 5/5 – Lightweight and perfect for layering with other skincare products, can be used in skincare cocktails.
• Scent: 5/5 – There is no scent at all to this, which is fantastic for everyone since fragrance is unnecessary to have for skincare products.
• Price: 4/5 – Standard pricing for serums and there’s a lot of product in this so you won’t need to repurchase for a while.
• Performance: 5/5 – I’ve used this consistently every single night consistently for 2 whole entire months and I am impressed. Initially, I didn’t see any results on my skin because it was too short of duration for my product trial to even have an opinion of it however as I used this. I noticed a huge difference in my skin’s texture and overall moisture levels. Usually during the winter seasons, I would struggle with very dried and damage skin but with this, I feel like it’s protected my skin from the Canadian cold and harsh winter days.
• Packaging: 5/5 – Packaging is simple, easy to read and you can visibly see how much product is left inside so you know when to repurchase. The dropper is sturdy and well made where you can control how much serum you want to apply onto your skin.
• Overall: 5/5 – I have nothing to complain about this. This is another fantastic iunik product and I highly respect this brand for it’s reputation and quality. They honestly are the very few brands out in the market that care about their ingredients. See on Cosdna with the breakdown ingredients. There are no harmful filler ingredients and it’s completely free of silicones and parabens. Did I mention that they are cruelty free? I’m so blown away with iunik and I’ve been using their products even when I first started getting into skincare. I recommend this everyone because it’s such a beautiful and versatile serum that can be used in all skincare routines.

Thank you again for swinging by and reading my review on another fantastic skincare product. Cheers to beautiful skin days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: I was given this product in exchange for an honest review. All views and thoughts of this product are my own. What may work for me, may not work for you so please keep that in mind.

PRODUCT FLOPS

Hey, hey friends!
I am starting a new blog series called “Product flops” aka Products that did not work for me. I posted on instagram asking if anyone was interested in hearing my thoughts on products that just didn’t work out for me and I recieved a positive feedback on my comments along with dm’s.

Disclaimer: What may have or may have not worked out for me doesn’t mean it will apply the same for you. Everyone’s skincare type is different. These are my personal experiences with these products..

I no longer own many of these products because I tend to declutter and give away products that did not work for me to my family members and close friends. For consistency, I will be posting a photo of these products I found online with the description and experience I had with it below.

Guerlain Lingerie de Peau Fluide Foundation in 02N

A couple of months ago, I was on the hunt for a new foundation to try out and I wanted one that had medium coverage and felt weightless on the skin. I saw quite a few bloggers post about this particular foundation and I quickly went to grab it at my local Sephora. The weird thing was, I swatched this foundation at the store on my hand it somehow turned orange within 10 minutes so I thought maybe the tester went bad and went ahead to grab it anyway. If it doesn’t work out, I can just return it, right? I went home to test this foundation out and to my surprise, I turned into an oompa loompa. Even wiping this foundation off with a makeup remover cloth, you can visibly see that it is full blown orange. Thank god I did not go out looking like that because I’m sure many people would find it amusing. It also has a really bad floral scent to it. I am not even sensitive to scents and I didn’t find the scent pleasant at all. Out of all foundations I own whether it’s from the drugstore or high end, I have never seen any of them oxidize the way how this oxidized on my skin.

Colourpop Amber Crystal Collection – 3 pc – mist, lip balm and liquid highlighter

Something I quickly learned about Sephora “sale” items are that they USUALLY are on sale for a reason. This was when Sephora had Colourpop for a month and then took them off the shelves for some reason. The highlighter was a fail and was just an oil with shimmers in it. It would constantly seperate with the shimmers at the bottom while the oil fluid ontop. It wasn’t even buildable and was a fail for me. The mist smelled horrendous, it smelled like a bitter herbal scent. The only thing that I enjoyed from the scent was the lip balm for it’s beautiful red orange tint, sweet and soft mango butter scent and performance for lasting throughout a long day. I normally love colourpop products but the liquid highlighter and mist was a total fail for me. I’ll stick to their fantastic super shock eyeshadows, pressed shadow palettes/singles and concealers!

 

Too Faced Born This Way Foundation in Ivory

*FYI – I purchased this foundation when the shade range was much more smaller back then.
This was my very first high-end foundation and was also the only foundation I swore by working at my first job. It has a medium to full coverage.
The consistency was perfect for me since it wasn’t too thick in formula nor was it too watery but how it performed on my face was a different story. As I played around with more makeup, I started to realize that this foundation does not work for me for various reasons. It oxidized into a Simpsons yellow on my face, it clung to all my dry patches and emphasized my pores and has a very odd paint scent to it just like the UD Naked skin foundation and Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation has. Luckily it did not break me out but I definitely would not repurchase this foundation even in another shade.

Urban Decay Naked Skin Foundation in 2

This was either the 2nd or 3rd foundation I tried when I got into makeup and it was awful. Urban Decay was reputable for their fantastic naked palettes, perversion mascara and the OG 24 hour glide on pencil eyeliners but this foundation was terrible for me. So terrible that I threw it out and did not think twice to give it to pass it on to someone else. First of all, it had a horrendously strong chemical scent between a spray paint x accetone and it had a strange thin, watery consistency and everytime I dispensed it out from the container, the product would have air bubbles in it. When I applied it on my skin, it dried up pretty fast but within an hour my face started to look extremely dehydrated. I’m not sure what was in this foundation but was bad news for my skin… I broke out on my forehead, cheeks and chin and if any of you know me, I don’t break out unless my skin reacts negatively to a product, hormonal or too much sodium in my diet.

 

Etude House Tint My Brows Gel in Gray Brown

I’m sure quite a few of you are shocked by why this product did not work out for me considering the fact this is raved and loved by many influencers and was featured on social media for quite a long time. This product is effective however it has a bad side to it. It has a very odd chemical scent to it. I’m not sure how people found it pleasant. I have repurchased this product over 4 times in different shades and my feelings about it have not changed about it. I always thought maybe I got a bad batch, maybe I’m using it wrong. My brows are tinted beautifully after every application, my problem is that I can’t use any face masks or wash my face because the tint will easily come off. The shade I have been using more frequently is Gray Brown but after a few days, the tint on my eyebrows turn into this strange forest green colour… If any of you are on the hunt for a good brow tint, I strongly suggest you to try the clio duo brow pen.

Alright, that is all for today. There are more products I wanted to share but we’ll leave that for another time. Til’ next time, friends.

Toodles!