Review: Ah Yuan Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears Soap

Have been using Ah Yuan Organic Soap in Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears (or in other words, green beans and barley) for almost 2 months. The results were most obvious when I started out on it. Subsequently, my skin complexion showed improvements but of course there's a limit to how much it can do.

Initially it takes a while to get used to the smell. Now, it reminds me of tau sha pia (-.- Chinese pastries with salty green bean paste). What I did was chop the soap up into smaller pieces for fear of it melting super fast. I would wipe my hands dry before using the soap to swirl in my palms. After that, I would add some water to lather and use. This is to minimise water in contact with the soap. The soap lathers pretty well. Cleanses pretty well. Try to make sure it is washed off thoroughly. I noticed if I didn't, it makes my face itchy.

The soap is really gentle. I do not find it drying on my skin. When I first started out, I found it moisturising instead. I do not get that dry tightening effect as with other cleansers. It just felt normal and maybe even moist on the skin. For acne, it appears to dry up the acne areas. After a while, nothing much really happened to my acne.

After several uses on a daily basis, I realised my face had gotten brighter. I am not kidding about this part. I do have uneven skintone problems and even whitening products do not seem to help much. My forehead used to be much darker than my cheek areas. Now, after using this soap, my skintone has lightened quite a bit. And my skintone is no longer uneven. I would say this soap has lightening properties.(barley and green beans are good for those who wanted to whiten. If you watch Taiwanese shows, they are always talking about eating green beans and barley soup (not soap!) for whitening complexion) So if you have uneven skintone problems and would like a solution, do give this product a try. I would highly recommend this.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this product. My complexion have shown improvements. More radiant, less tired looking, no more uneven skin tones (Hurray! :D). I think I did get a little bit fairer because my mineral makeup shades which I used don't suit me. I was a little worried that mixing non-organic cleansers (like example, The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash) would cause a breakout but so far, nothing happened to me.

Pros: Non-drying, makes your skin radiant, no harsh ingredients
Cons: Organic soaps have a shorter shelf life, tendency to melt easily (common complaint by others)

If you want details of where I got it, refer to my older post here.

Review: The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Wash

source: http://www.thebodyshop.com.sg/en/ProductDetail.aspx?ProdID=956&SubCateId=85&CateId=4

I have been using this for a while, along with Ah Yuan Organic Mung bean & Job’s tears soap as my daily cleansers. I had to add this into my skincare routine because although Ah Yuan improves my skin complexion, there is a limit to how much it can help with my acne problems or blemishes since after all it's a gentle cleanser.

The Body Shop Tea Tree Oil Facial Cleanser did not disappoint. I purchased a sample bottle during their atrium sales and have been using this for almost 2 months.

This facial wash lathers very well. I love that it lathers really easily because it makes me feel that the face is super cleansed. The smell is a little unpleasant though. I have used other tea tree oil (TTO) products before and I have to say The Body Shop TTO cleanser smells really bad, like some disinfectant or insecticide. (Ew..) For this product, I had a little difficulty in ensuring that it's completely washed off with water. There was this slippery feeling after washing. Try to go over with a face cloth after thorough washing.

After using this for a while, I realised that my blemishes had lightened quite a bit so I'm super pleased with it. It is a tard on the drying side so it's only recommended for those with oily skin. Personally, I don't see the need to use the TTO toner along with their TTO facial wash for it will just make you skin super drying.

Pros: Cleanses well, the tea tree oil helps with clearing blemishes.
Cons: Can be drying for skin.

E.L.F Warning

This is another entry about E.L.F cosmetics. I wished to share this piece of information with E.L.F users in case you happened to miss it.

I happened to be checking up HSA website for the list of recalled products in Singapore. And I found that 2 E.L.F products were been recalled in February 2009 and noone seemed to know it. The two products confiscated were the Brightening Eye Colour in 2003 Silver Lining and their Feather Proof Moisturizing Lip Liner 1905 Spice.




You can read up about it here and here.

I got a little worried and decided to pen a little email questioning whether the products are still safe to our dear E.L.F Asia distributor Pixie Cosmetics (which I never had a good impression of, because they blocked Singaporeans from buying E.l.F products online off the USA site by directing us back to the local website. And it's not like their website is updated.).

Instead of providing me with an answer, they insisted that I call up their office to "chat". Apparently, enquires made through emails are not accepted. And they need to verify my identity because they don't trust gmail or hotmail. And it was part of their procedure to do so. So in the end, I did not get a reply. I got pissed.

When things like these happen, shouldn't they be advising us consumers instead of questioning our identities?


If you are holding these two products, please just ditch them out.

It's not funny.

Especially when the brand doesn't care about your safety.

Maybe some companies don't test their products on animals, because they test it on human instead.

New Hauls and Reviews: More E.L.F again...

This is my second E.L.F haul. I forgot to take pictures of the STUDIO brushes as I sent them for washing. Overall, I'm rather pleased with the brushes I've gotten. Especially the complexion and powder brushes which were just amazingly soft. I think they are really value for money. I also purchased their concealer brush and eye precision brush. They are really small, probably even smaller than other brushes of the same kind from other brands. If you are interested in the STUDIO brushes, I would say just get the bigger brushes. They are more value for money as they have a whole lot more bristles. The smaller brushes are all right but I just get the ripped off feeling whenever I looked at them thinking how tiny they looked.

Here are some of the other random items I've gotten.



I got the All Over Cover Sticks in Fair, Light and Medium. Shades look true to picture except Fair is really lighter (the cap makes it look darker). These are cream bases or concealers. They smell of orange sugar. First impression. The "Orange Sugar" smell gave me a headache.
Fair - Very fair light beige colour.
Light - An orange beige colour (very obvious it's an orange.)
Medium - Darker beige.

Sorry, I'm terrible with colour descriptions. The textures of the 3 color sticks are somewhat similiar but the colour stick in Light is extremely greasy. I bought the 3 of them hoping to have a variety to blend as my undereye concealer. My verdict? They are ok. They cover quite well compared to normal drugstore concealers. However, I would not recommend as they are greasy. It's probably my first time looking at my undereye areas and it's slightly covered (I tried the orange one for undereye circles) but it's super greasy. The greasiness is such a turn-off. Fair was totally too fair for me. But I managed to use it as a eyeshadow base or primer. It wasn't too bad.

Pros: Covers all right, easy to blend, can work as eyeshadow base.
Cons: Can be greasy, orange sugar smell can be annoying after a long while.



I also got the Duo Eye Shadow Cream in Butter Pecan and Mocha Swirl. These are cream eyeshadows that are not sheer, they are pigmented. However, these were a disappointment for me. Found them to be very greasy. Eyeshadows do stick but if you don't like greasy eyelids, don't get these.

I had better luck with the All Over Cover Stick as eyeshadow base than these.

Pros: Can be used alone as eyeshadows as these are pigmented.
Cons: So greasy if you just use them alone.



Not reviewing the Brightening Eye Color in Butternut as I just bought it to restock.
Got another Natural Radiance Blusher in Innocence. The colour looks true to picture. If you have never tried their blusher, I think their blushers are worth trying. However, the packaging is cheap to the touch. You have to slide it open and I don't like it. Innocence appears as a natural flush on the face.

Pros: Cheap and good (if it's USD $1). Recommended shades: GLOW
Cons: Cheap packaging. Some of the colours lack depth and can be uninteresting.



Ok, lastly I got the Under Eye Concealer & Highlighter from E.L.F Studio Line. This is in Light/Glow. It looks small in real life. If you are wondering about the material of the packaging, the material's like made of rubbery frosted plastic. I don't like touching it at all.

The concealer shade is a light beige colour. It did nothing for my undereyes (it was too light so it looked ashy). As a concealer, it was not too bad. Very easy to blend. Think it's an illuminating concealer as it looks brighter and light seemed to bounce off (so that people wouldn't notice the scars concealed) after blending. The highlighter shade is a opaque white shade. I have no idea what to do with this part as I'm not really interested in the white liquid.

Pros: Easy to blend. Illuminating is a bonus.
Cons: Cheap packaging. Container seems small so I doubt it will last long.