Review & haul: Jolse, online Korean beauty shop

This post has been in my to-do list for while now...Sorry for the delay! Anyways, this is my first time shopping with Jolse, an online Korean beauty and cosmetics shop. It has many popular Korean brands like Etude House, Skinfood, Tonymoly, Innisfree, and Mizon. They have great reputation for their quality of service and for their pricing! Plus, they have free shipping for all purchases!!

Jolse Homepage

Jolse always has good deals, and during Black Friday (when I made my purchase >__<), there were plenty of great sales! Currently They have some 2+1 deals and 10% certain brands every week (currently Innisfree and Skinfood)! Each order also comes with so many samples! My order came with 8 samples~~

My entire Jolse order

My two purchases - snail creams! 

Order made: Nov. 27, 2014
Date shipped: Nov. 28, 2014
Date arrived: Dec. 15, 2014
(arrived 18 days after purchase)
Moreover, Jolse has great customer service. I got sort of impatient and after 15 days of waiting (13 business days), I decided to email them regarding when my order. They replied in 2 days and were very courteous~ They mentioned the date my order was shipped and told me that shipping to the US takes 10-20 business days. 

When my package arrived, the two creams were wrapped in layers of bubble wrap! The package itself came in a very sturdy boxy. My items came safely without any mishaps! Overall, my experience with Jolse was great~

Review: Holika Holika Red Wine Therapy Sleeping Mask

Hi all! I have a review for you all! This is my first time trying a Korean product, so I'm pretty excited! The product is called Wine Therapy Sleeping Mask by Holika Holika. I purchased this product from Ebay by Makozzang, who has a 99.5% positive rating. S/he sells many samples, which is perfect for testing whether I would want to purchase the real thing. It's always good to try a sample first before purchasing a huge bottle/container of the product. 

This is shipment. It came quite fast, considering that it was shipped overseas. The package was well packed--it came with lots of bubble wrap, so I felt assured that the items I ordered were nice and safe!

The package came with 8 samples of 5ml sleeping mask, costing me a total of $3.86 with free shipping. While this is more expensive than the whole 120ml in terms of dollars/ml, I didn't have to try the product for a $17. I'd rather spend almost four dollars to test a product~ Call me stingy :P

With the purchase, I received a free sample! I haven't tried it yet, but it seems fun :) Every purchase from Mokzzang comes with free sample(s) depending on how much is purchased--how exciting! Since I fell in the 0-$10.00, I received one free sample. Of course, the more you spend, the more samples and/or masks you receive!

PACKAGING. So, this is what the container of the sample looks like! It has a wood-grain look to it, which is pretty cute. Sadly, since this is only a sample, there's no way to really preserve it for multiple uses until you have a small container to store it in.

DETAILS. So here's what the product claims!

• Contains red wine extract, adenosine, and organic herb water 
• Enhances skin elasticity while sleeping
• Effective against wrinkles
• Makes skin smooth and moisturizes

TEXTURE. After opening, you see that this product is pink and jelly-like! It's pretty cool to touch! After removing a little of it, it actually smooths back to its original texture (see last photo). 

REVIEW. This product is pretty nice and is soothing on my skin. I know other reviews have stated that the product becomes a little sticky as it dries, however, for me, it didn't feel sticky at all. It absorbs very nicely into my skin, and by the next morning, my skin feels very smooth and elastic-y! I can't really say much about the anti-wrinkles aspect, as I'm (probably) too young to be experiencing such phenomenon. 

However, there is one down side to this product...the smell is extremely strong. Rather than smelling like (red) wine, it smells strongly of artificial grapes. This smell lasts a long time, as I remember falling asleep to the scent. Of course, by morning it's gone, but I don't quite enjoy trying to sleep with such an overpowering smell!

PROS.

- Makes skin feel smoother and firmer

- Fun texture

- Small amount goes a long way (used one sample, 5ml, for a couple days)

- Washes off easily

CONS.

- Strong smell of artificial grapes

- Price

Overall rating:     

Purchase the real deal? Sadly not. I can't stand the smell. 

Repurchase from seller? Yes! S/he ships fast (considering it ships from Korea), and I can get some pretty good deals from the samples.

Confession of a shopping addict: shoes anyone?

Ever since I got my own part time job, I been using much more money. This is bad...But whenever I see something nice on sale, I just can't help but to think it's a good investment. My excuse is that I needed new summer shoes (+ one pair of closed-toed shoes?)! Each pair was purchased from Little Black Bag for ~$11 after considering the cost of shipping.

I ordered these a couple weeks ago. Little Black Bag has this thing where after you purchase, you can have a week to trade around your items. However, I didn't end up doing any trading. I just wanted these shoes. I could have just shipped them right away, but I forgot. Thus they arrived just a couple days ago.

I was super excited to receive them--totally sick of wearing socks and canvas shoes during this 90F weather. It was torturous! I was happy that these shoes came pretty legit--in a shoe box. I really didn't know what to expect.

The lace pattern on this was totally unexpected. On the website, I didn't notice the pattern at all. It's a super cute shoe. It seems pretty comfy as well. However, I got a size 7 and I usually purchase size 7, but this pair of shoe was way too large. There was like a 1/2 inch of space between my feet and the heel of the shoe. I was so disappointed...so sad...this was the pair that I really, really wanted to wear and use.

I really loved the extra little pizzaz on this flat. I love how it appears so chic and formal. It's a size 7 and fits better than the one above but definitely still a little too big. I could fit a finger behind... I would keep it if it were a snug fit, but since it's a ballet flat styled shoe, if it doesn't fit, it's going to flop around when I walk.

It looked a lot better on the site. I didn't really like it even when I saw it. After trying them on, I just disliked it more. The top is too wide. It makes my already slightly wide feet look monstrously wide. The concept is nice, the colors are nice, but the fit just doesn't work.

I'm sad, but I don't think I'm keeping any of these shoes. I want to return them right now, but sadly Little Black Bag is transitioning to Pose, and they haven't been very contact-able...I'm trying to figure out how the whole return process is going to work, but I'm also busy with finals...Soon though, I'll try calling and/or emailing again.