Review: Skinfood Mushroom Mult-care BB Cream

BB or blemish balm creams (and not beauty balms as some brands have called it) are the hottest beauty product in Asia that have started to make their way into the mainstream western market and seem to be taken the cosmetic world by storm.

BB creams shouldn't be confused with tinted moisturisers as their primary function is a makeup, not a skincare product and the coverage from BB creams are fuller than the sheer colour that tinted moisturisers provide.

The concept is that blemish balms are a combination of skincare and makeup, made to even out skintone and give excellent coverage so is suitable for all skin types, even those with acne or problem skin but without the heavy mask-like effect of heavy foundations and also has skincare ingredients that will improve skin's tone and texture over time.

I wouldn't say I've had too much experience with the plethora of Asian BB creams in the markets because

1. they are not readily available in Australia, and the local Asian beauty boutique that stock them sell them at highly inflated prices compared to their retail prices in Asia 
2. there is generally only 1 or 2 shade available for the product and they generally gravitates towards the lighter end of the spectrum (the Asian consumers like their faces as white as possible, even if it means it's significantly different than their natural skintone whereas I prefer a natural looking shade). 
3. the ones I've tried have made my skin look grey and ashy and generally quite ghastly-looking which disheartened me to try the other BB creams for a good 2 years. 

It was upon the ravings of the MBBE ladies about the Skinfood Mushroom BB cream and how it would not look ghastly grey on skin that I decided to give BB creams another try. And of course I can never go wrong with the advice of MBBE because even with my limited experience in BB creams, I know a gem when I come across one. 

Skinfood Mushroom Multi-care BB Cream SPF 20 PA

Hailing from Korea, Skinfood is a brand that has a huge following outside of its home country within the east Asian region and appeals to consumers with its use of natural food and produce in its original form as ingredients in its products.

Description

This triple-function BB cream provides UV protection and deep moisturisation to skin with aloe and mushroom extracts, while arbutin and adenosine make skin clear and resilient. 

Whitening, Anti-aging, Sunblock. 

The Mushroom BB cream come in an easy to dispense 50ml tube and a cardboard screw cap. I'm not a fan of the cap as I find it hard to twist it along its groove after use, but have not had the cardboard warp or break on me so I guess I can live with it. 

It comes in 2 shades 1 or 2 as indicated on the back of the tube packaging in the brown circle. I knew I would be #2 from previous experiences of going for the darker shade whenever there are 2 options as it's more natural looking on me (incidentally shade #1 is called radiant skin and #2 is natural skin).

As for the product, it is quite fluid, almost like a moisturiser in consistency but is very easy to blend. It has a soft scent. 

Using a brush gives a good blended finish but it does not really meld into the skin to give the fused look that one wants from their makeup (ie. not heavier sitting on top of skin). 

Interestingly, it spreads and blends best with finger in a smearing action outwards from the centre of the face, then blending the product on the nose, jawline and the forehead. The finish a soft dewy look that makes skin look and feel very hydrated (thanks to the aloe). And because it feels so comforatble on skin, I don't feel bad on days when I'm in a rush and skip my skincare treatments and just apply this straight on.

Coverage is excellent and almost as good a full coverage foundation with imperfections and dark circles easily covered and concealed. Extra coverage just needed another layer of the product patted into the specific area of skin. I finish by setting with loose translucent powder and the coverage lasts all day, even in hot humid weather. 

Shade #2 is very natural looking, and although slightly lighter than my summer skintone, adjusts well on skin and does not leave me looking too pale or washed out. Rather, I have a fresh healthy subtle glow (non-shimmer induced) and there is no white cast effect from the SPF 20 to be found. 

NC30 skintone - this BB cream adjusts well once blended into skin

This BB creams photographs amazingly well as seen in the photo below (please excuse my bare face with no eye makeup or other products on at all). My dark circles are not present, skin evened out and smoother with a slight dewiness on the side where I've applied the BB cream. You can also see that it is also slightly lighter my my natural skintone but is still very natural looking. 

I like the fact that I'm also helping to maintain my skin whilst applying this makeup and my skin always feel soft and smooth after taking off the product and facial cleansing afterwards. 

L-R with Skinfood mushroom BB cream, bare face

So thanks to my gurus at MBBE, I've finally found my first favourite and possibly HG BB cream. Having said that, BB creams are not for everyone - due to the fact that if you are NC/NW30 or above, you will look unnaturally pale using these products without a bronzer to bring colour back to your face. If you are lucky enough to be able to use the this or the lighter shade (which would suits NW/NC15-25), then you would be nuts not to try this BB cream.

50ml approx US$13 online by e-tailers. If you are after convenience and instant gratification, you can pick it up locally at Asian beauty boutiques for A$29.

Review & Comparison: Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner & Kate Super Sharp Liner

I am terrible at lining eyes. With my shaky hands and unsteady strokes, I make mistakes all the time when trying to draw and line my eyes. Adding to my woes, I have a small eye crease space so I steer clear of thick eye lining techniques as it can unintentionally give me the goth look.

And if that isn't bad enough, my oily eye lids mean no eye makeup stay on for long without massive effort and copious amounts of priming and prepping the skin beforehand so understandably I often forgo lining the eyes to avoid smudges during the day.

Types of eye liners for clean sharp lines

Pencil liners are great for blending out to create the smokey eye look but tend to only give sharp fine lines from freshly sharpened pencil so liquid or gel liners are more dependable for clean sharp lines.

Having narrowed down my choice of liners, I only have the product staying power to contend with when looking for eyeliners. Today I'm sharing with you two products that meets these demanding needs.

Packaging of Kiss Me and Kate by Kanebo eye liners

Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner
I came across this brand when I was visiting an Asian beauty boutique in Box Hill, an eastern suburb of Melbourne a few months ago. The sales assistant swore by this product so I decided I must try it myself to see if it meets the needs of my very fussy eyes.

This Japanese brand is one of the most popular drugstore brand in the Asian market and I can see why as the quality rival those of luxury brands. 

• Pen type packaging - it reminds me of a good sharpie felt tip pen. It boast a fine 0.1mm tapered felt tip, giving you alot of control and is capable of drawing medium or very fine lines depending on the pressure and angle you apply it against your skin when drawing. 
• Beautiful rich black colour - just the deepest opaque black shade you want from your everyday eye liner and it only fades slightly after 8 hours. 
• The ink flow beautifully out of this pencil and makes drawing lines effortless - it glides on smoothly with no bleeding on the sides and even improved my clumsy drawing skills and is practically idiot proof - I love it alone for making me look like I'm a pro with lining eyes meaning that I can now master drawing wings and flicks with the fine tips - see exhibit below for proof. 
• It promises tear-proof, sweat-proof, oil-proof stay-put colour once dry and I'm happy to report that it delivers on all these promises. I don't get any smudging on it when lining the top lids and only the slightest smear after a good 3 hours when I do use it to tightlining work from my watery eyes (i.e line the water line or inner rims of the eye). If you don't have watery eyes, you will have no smudging problems with this product at all. 
• Comes off fairly easily with eye makeup remover.

Lined eye using Kiss Me Heroine Make smooth liquid liner - check out fine flick at the end

Kate by Kanebo Super Sharp Liner

Kate is mid range Japanese cosmetic brand from Kanebo who is reowned for his leading luxurious skincare products. I was introduced to this liner over a year ago by a girlfriend who had lived in Japan for over 3 years and is equally obsessive at finding the best beauty products.

• This is another pen type ultra fine liner with also with a 0.1mm felt tip (are you sensing a theme here?) so is great for any detail work you want to do on your eyes/face. Flicks at the end of eyes are also very easy to control with this pen liner. 
• The ink flow of this liquid liner can be a bit finicky at times and needs going over your strokes a few times to even out the thickness of the lines and achieve good opacity sometimes but thankfully the fine lines means multiple layering doesn't add too much thickness and also helps to deepen the colour. 
• The colour is a deep black shade but I find that by the end of the 10 hour day, it does fade to a dark grey shade so the formula is less superior to Kiss Me's . 
• Is also non-bleeding, smudge-proof and tear-proof and stood up well against the majority of liquid liners out in the market. I find it again to not be as good in weathering my oily lids as Kiss Me's at the end a long day. It stood up well if you only need it to stay on your eyes for 5-6 hours. 
• Comes of easily with eye makeup remover.

Comparison of both liners - look how fine the tips are

Final thoughts
I love both liquid liners and use them both interchangeably depending on how long I need to have my makeup on for. I find that the tip of the Kate eyeliner is less firm than the Kiss Me one, so can be slightly harder to use as I don't have a steady hand. For the working day, Kiss Me is the fail-safe option and for a night out, I'd happy draw away with Kate.

Is Kiss Me Heroine Makes' eye liner worthy of HG status? I think so as I've tried many liquid liners over the years and most fall short of the staying power or ease of application. It is now my benchmark liner when comparing all other liquid eye liners and at such an affordable option, I can't recommend this product enough.

Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner 0.4ml RRP US$12 at Sasa.com | ~A$25 locally at Asian beauty boutiques
Kate Super Sharp liner 0.7ml RRP US$12 at Cosme De | ~A$25 locally at Asian beauty boutiques