adoredee

Smarter Shopper: The Seasonality Heuristic.

This is the first installment in my Smarter Shopping series, unlocking the consumer science behind the ways companies try to part you with your money! Today we’re talking about Seasonality and how companies use it to motivate us to purchase. I’ve posted the introduction below, and if you’re interested in reading further, please click the…

Mr. Selfridge

Netflix is a wonderful service. It’s opened up a world of movies and television to me that I never would have even looked at before. What drew me in was this wonderfully rich world of fiction that mixed in some truth that aimed to dazzle and wow you at every turn. I don’t watch shows…

Happy Valentine’s Day!

View this post on Instagram Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your day was as filled with love and happiness as mine was 😍😚 행복한 발렌타인데이! 이 꽃 은 아름다운 하지? #love #valentinesday #사랑 #발렌타인데이 #꽃 A post shared by Deborah (@adoredee) on Feb 14, 2016 at 11:34am PST My day was super lazy and super…

Missha Time Revolution Clear Toner

Introduction Although my routine is a category based routine, where I place more emphasis on product function over brand name or type, I realised that there are certain products that I always gravitate to. It’s just that they’re not always available cheaply, or even at all so I’ve set out on a quest to try…

January 2016 – The Weekends

Happy Wandering Wednesday Thursday! One of my goals this year was to do funtime activities each weekend that would give me lots to talk about every Wednesday. What’s actually been happening is that I’ve been spending my weekends spending time with the people I care about, not always doing things that fit nicely into an…

Blogging about Asian Beauty for a Western Audience.

Happy Media Monday! Today was going to be a review on 4Minute’s new song Hate, but then something came up so that’s not going to happen. Oh well, okay if you must know! The song is okay, not as good as their previous release Crazy but after a while the weak drop (and it is…

Song of the Moment: Dalshabet – Someone like U

딱 너 같은 사람 딱 너 같은 못난 그런 애 만나 내 맘을 니가 알았으면 해 ❤ Happy Media Monday Tuesday! Had I written this post when I was supposed to, the song of the moment would have been Stellar – Sting, but I didn’t so here we are! This song is fun, peppy and just…

Week 4 Tracker – 2016

sigh. This week just absolutely flew by and I was incredibly overwhelmed with it all. I spent the first two days at work in back to back training sessions and the rest of the week in and out of meetings frantically trying to solve problems that as it turns out didn’t really need much solving….

2015 Movie Stubs

In 2015, I went to see seven movies in the cinema. Actually, there might have been more (lol, memories), but I only kept seven ticket stubs, so seven is our magic number! I prefer to go into movies sight unseen, meaning I actively avoid trailers. The only ones I seek out are teaser trailers at the cinema…

Week 3 Tracker – 2016

The first and second week were a bit of a bust, I didn’t really track anything. By the time I’d gotten home, I’d forget to do it and it’d just drag on and on, till nothing was written. So! I decided to carry the chart with me to work, and I’d fill it in when…

Review | Cremorlab Aqua Essence Water Fluid

Hmm. Ever wanted to try a brand so much that you ignore the negative reviews and your better judgement because packaging? No? Let me introduce you to Cremorlab. Why I was excited! Have you seen the packaging? I mean, seriously, look at it. Look at how classy and sexy it is! Have you not eyes?! I…

Delta Air Lines In-Flight Movie Reviews

If you’ve been following me on social media you’ll have seen many of the pictures I posted online about my amazing trip to Illinois. But before I got there, I had to travel and part of that travel were two very long plane journeys. -x- As much as I love sleep, I love movies, and…

Battle of the Self-Foaming Cleansers

Although my routine is category based, where I place more emphasis on product function over brand name or type, I realised there are certain products that I always gravitate to. I’ve associated effects I want with the products themselves. In some cases this is fine as they are easy to acquire, in other cases, they…

2015 Blog Recap & 2016 Blog Goals

2016! It’s here, how utterly exciting *waves arms around wildly*, and 2016 is going to be so much better. My motto for 2016 is Do More, and that absolutely applies to my blog goals too. I spent a lot of 2015 just talking about beauty, and while that is a passion of mine this was…

2016, Do More.

January is the month of reflection and goal setting. I’m looking back at the highs and lows of last year, celebrating the good things and vowing to do better in the next. 2015 in Review 2015 was the year of being brave, I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and start doing…

#TravelGoals – My cousin travels all the time

At the start of this year, I saw this video and instantly thought of my cousin. She’s not as insufferable as the lady in the video, but she does travel everywhere and I’m like how?! How do you get to go to all these amazing places all the time?! My jealousy knows no limits. Now she’s…

Organising skincare into Product Categories

I decided to manage my skin care routine and finances more efficiently when I went through my product stash and realised I didn’t have a sensible selection of products for my actual needs. I had like four different moisturisers in various states of use, one cleanser I didn’t like very much and a toner I was ignoring…

Review | Serendi_Beauty Sparkling CO2 Mask Pack

Why should brides have all the fun? ❤ You know? I know very little about this brand. I kind of appreciate that there’s no great lore or epic story (in English anyway). As far as I can tell, this is a home spa brand, they only have two products available in the West and I…

The Undupeables: My Seven Skincare HGs

I’m writing up my current routine (I know, it’s finally happening!). It took me a while to figure out how to lay it out because I don’t really go by product, I go by product category or function. So, if I want to wash my face depending on what time of day it is, if…

Boycott the Bus: Day 1

I woke up very excited to get up and walk to work. You see, due to roadworks in my city and what seems like a serious failing in the logistics department, I have to be at the bus stop at least an hour before I need to be anywhere. What should be a simple 20-25…

Brand Review | Hada Labo

Hada Labo is ❤ There really isn’t much to say that they haven’t already said. Hada Labo appealed to me because of it’s ultra simple approach to skincare in each product. In a marketplace where it seems like a product has to be everything and do anything it is refreshing to find a brand that says,…

Song of the Moment: Red Velvet – Dumb Dumb

praise be to the red velvet gods! unf. This song. I’ll be totally honest with you, it’s not something that I loved first listen, but that’s because I found the video just okay. Yeah there’s a lot of interesting visuals, but credit goes to the fx (lol, get it) team for being super badass. They…

Quiz Time: Do you speak English?

As an English lady, navigating the internet sometimes can be a big mess of confusion. A lot of the media I consume is created for Americans by Americans, so there are times when the jokes, references or stereotypes they go way over my head. Most of the time its fine, I pick things up with context…

Review | L’Occitane Crème Divine

Is it really so wonderful? -x- This is an old review that’s been sitting in my draft for two years. So I thought, why not publish it? Did you know that beauty brands have flagship products? Because, I had no idea. This product is such a big deal to L’Occitane, this is reportedly their number…

Wait, is there dairy in this?

Guess what? I have a lactose sensitivity and it sucks so bad. A few months ago, I collapsed in intense agony and couldn’t get out of bed. Luckily for me, this was a week where I exclusively cooked all my food so I could rule out food poisoning. I’m a great cook! I started going…

Review | Clabiane W-Line

Cla- who? A few months ago, I discovered that a friend of mine in Korea started her own company as a Korean cosmetics retailer. We started talking and she asked me if I would consider blogging for her site Kokofash. I said sure! And she sent me the items over. However, due to the reasons…

Organised July 2015

July! How is it July already holy crap, I can’t believe it’s already July and it’s mid-July at that! First of all, great news! I got a job! Not in an agency like I wanted, but in a nice company that will not be named (a girl has got to have some mystery!) that I…

Buying Asian Beauty in the UK

I do most of my Asian Beauty shopping online, but customs charges mean I’m limited in what I can buy. Even if the seller has sales, and does offers on shipping I have to be mindful that I’ll be hit with customs charges if I go over a certain limit. It doesn’t matter if they mark…

Six Types of Bad Movies.

I love love love movies, I love watching them at home curled up under a blanket and I love going out with friends to see them on the big screen. The whole experience is everything to me, but no matter how much fun I have with the experience, the movie needs to be worth watching….

Jolly June 2015

June is here and let me tell you guys, I really need to focus on being happy. May was a rollercoaster of a month. Full of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows. I learned so much, had some amazing experiences but I ended the month in a really low place. As a…

Blogger Boundaries ft. Snow White and the Asian Pear

There have been some really awesome thought-provoking discussions flying around the International Asian beautyblog community, sparked by posts like: How My Elaborate Korean Skincare Routine Helps Me Fight Depression by 50 Shades of Snail, Skincaretainment: Connection & the culture of Korean Beauty by fanserviced-b, and Thoughts on Hauling Responsibly, & Skincare as a Hobby by Snow White and…

How to Beauty Haul responsibly.

I know this is a party pooper topic that no-one really wants to talk about, but it really is important. I know from experience how easy it is to get yourself swept away. It’s so easy to reach for your wallet to spend spend spend when you see rave reviews, first looks, unboxings and the like from bloggers or…

Make It Happen May 2015!

May is here and it is time to make things happen! April was a wonderful month, in the last week I was overwhelmed by wave after wave of awesome news and opportunities that presented themselves. One of those things was an amazing writeup on fashionista.com that listed me as one of 14 Best Blogs and Websites…

Vodka Tasting with My Boyfriend

Vodka. Ugh. That was always my typical reaction to vodka. My introduction to the wonderful world of alcohol was through vodka during my first year of university. Being young we had no idea what we were doing and always opted for the crappy cheap paint-thinner-esque bottom shelf vodka. So it is absolutely no wonder that I…

Figuring out your skincare triggers.

The hardest skincare lesson I’ve had to figure out is that you never stop figuring out your skincare triggers. You just don’t. Your environment changes, your diet changes, your body changes, you’re in a constant state of change, so obviously your skin will change. There is no easy way to figure out what your triggers…

Easy How To Event Free Samples from Innisfree World.

This promotion is no longer active. About a month ago, I heard that Innisfree was giving out a free sample set though their “Easy How To” event, you can find the link here. It is a really easy to do tutorial, but can be a little finicky, so if you have an add blocker installed,…

My Cushion Foundations for Dark Skin.

Hello to everyone that found my blog from My Asian Skincare Story’s post! Welcome to my blog. I’m sure you’re interested in which cushions for dark skin I’ve tried and how they’ve worked for me so far right? Obviously! Here’s a compilation of the cushion foundation products I have tried for dark skin. For reference, my true to…

DIY | Missha Magic Cushion & YSL Foundation

I finally bit the bullet and ordered the Missha Magic Cushion case (their DIY cushion case, not their filled bb cushion) and filled it my old YSL Perfect Touch foundation. Oh, how I had coveted this foundation. I loved the idea of the convenience of it all as it came with an inbuilt brush. You can…

Review | COSRX Natural BHA Skin Returning A-Sol.

Propolis? I was a little surprised to find an effective BHA in Asian Skincare due to the strict regulation of Salicylic Acid limiting what can be sold in over the counter products. But! Excited as always to try new things, I gave this a go. Claims

Review | Lancôme Miracle Cushion 06 Beige Moka.

My goodness! It’s arrived, the cushion is here! I planned to buy it at Boots to collect the points, but the nice lady at Debenhams was so charming and helped my mother and I work out some discounts so thought we’d give the sale to her. The power of customer service! This is the first…

Review | Holika Holika Pro:Beauty Bloody Oil Tint

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always thought of Holika Holika as the Urban Decay of Asian Beauty. I think that impression comes from their use of a similar shade of purple, and the cool and edgy vibe that they both give out. This is my first product from them and so far, I’m super…

The last 5 memorable movies I watched.

As always, there be spoilers below! I’ve tried to pick trailers that don’t give away too much of the plot by having scenes in random order or just relevant clips, but you never know so be careful! Begin Again (2013) I honestly thought this was going to be a sappy, love conquers all movie. It…

Review | COSRX Galactomyces Alcohol-Free Toner.

All ferment, no niacinamide. COSRX are a brand that have been on my radar a little bit for a while now. They’re really exciting because they’ve brought out a few acid products that seem to be effective (right percentage and pH). I got a few samples in a recent RoseRoseShop package, so I thought I’d…

Cushion Foundations: Kiko & Laneige

I’m following up my First Look with Kiko Cushion with a more indepth in store review. Ultimately, I decided not to buy it, but although it isn’t right for me I think it’s a fantastic product that holds it’s own well next to the original. With my Laneige Cushion in tow, I walked into Kiko…

First Thoughts: Kiko Cosmetics CC Cushion in Neutral 90

What?! Another Cushion Foundation for PoC? I’m tripping out everywhere. This one really took me by surprise because I know Lancôme is releasing a Cushion Foundation with a darker shade that I have my fingers crossed for (read that review here) but I had no idea anyone else was making cushions for darker skin tones….

Dealing with an owie.

I don’t really watch EYK anymore but this video really hit home for me. I had an accident in early 2011 I think, doing what I do best, being active and I was put on high doses of painkillers, (tramadol being one of them). For a while I was great, but the side effects became just too…

I blog when I have something to say.

2015! What’s my plan for this blog? Well, the same as I’ve always done really. I only want to blog when I have something to blog about. That sounds obvious, but it really wasn’t to me for a long while. I thought that I had to talk even when I had nothing to say, which…

Review | Etude Dust Cut Mist & Finish Cream.

Yellow Dust is gross and inescapable, which is why Etude House developed the Dust Cut range to combat it. They aren’t the only company to do so, but I saw their segment on Get it Beauty and Picoprince’s review and I was sold. The idea of the range is to create a barrier between your skin…

2014 in Television

2014 has been a great year in television for me! You can see what I’ve been watching and talking about over the past year with my Television Tag here. I seriously have too many favourites (where do I find the time?!) to have a general top five, so I’m going to list my favourites in each genre…