skincare routine: summer

Time again for an updated routine, fueled by the move down South and lots of hauling.

Top products are from Jolse, bottom is from RRS. Not shown are my Taobao haul (mostly restocking basics) and the copious amounts of samples that both shops sent. I'm actually not keen on receiving tons of samples, since 95% of the time they're for products I'm not interested in. Same reason why I don't buy subcription boxes.

Thanks to /r/asianbeauty, my purchases are more informed by active ingredients than pretty packages and anecdotal reviews. The next step would be to learn more about formulations, which I plan on doing through some DIY once I get back to Toronto and can mooch off my mom's lab environment (because I can't be bothered to sanitize my table). For now, here's a feature of Scinic Honey AIO's amazing ingredients list, and CosRx's application instructions:

(click to zoom, do it because the ingredients are actually that amazing)

Onto my summer routine, which features many familiar faces as winter:

Hada Labo forever.

The routine has 3 general phases: cleanse, actives, and treat/hydrate.

Cleanse (opps photo shows them in wrong order):

• Nursery Yuzu Cleansing Gel: remove makeup / sunscreen. At first I was skeptical of the gel texture, but now I appreciate it because it makes washing at the sink so much easier. Also very effective at removing makeup, so no complaints. It's hard to source this outside of Asia, so I'll be switching back to an oil cleanser after it's done.
• Hada Labo Foaming Cleanser: low pH, self foaming pump, refillable. I see no reason to switch to anything fancy since it stays in contact with your face for such little time. 

Actives:

• CosRx 2% BHA: haven't been using this long enough to see visible results, but I feel that it is helping reduce the SFs on my nose in conjunction with the clay masks. 
• Mizon 8% AHA: second bottle, enough said.
• Melano CC: switched from OST20 because I wasn't a fan of how sticky it felt, but I'm not a huge fan of this texture either. It feels like a dry oil. Still on the look out for a good Vit C sigh.

Treat / Hydrate:
Most of the new additions will be in this phase, such as the fermented goodness (CosRx Galactomyces) and honey products (Scinic, Tosowoong)

• CosRx A-Sol: 95% propolis plus other goodies such as tea tree extract, aka miracle worker. It's absolutely fantastic at calming down acne that's yet to surface / come to a head. I want to buy 3 bottles of backups immediately. 
• Hada Labo shirogyun lotion: good ol' staple.
• Benton Snail Bee essence: another good ol' staple that played a big part in fading my PIH. Switching this out for CosRx snail essence next, but there's nothing wrong with it at all. Will repurchase.
• Hada Labo shirogyun milk: yeah HL forever. Actually switching this for Mizon's snail repair gel because I'd like a lighter texture last step because Atlanta humidity kills. But I've got refills of this ready to go. 

That's it...for now. Routine is definitely going to expand once I manage to test out the new products.

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Since I've got to be more presentable for work than school, here's my makeup routine that I'm sacrificing 15 mins of sleep everyday for:

Quick thoughts:

• Innisfree no-sebum powder is great at oil control.
• Not completely sold on cushions only because it's a pain to clean the puffs every week. 
• Aritaum honey melting tint is amazingly long lasting.