[purchase] Cutting short a long story of booking myself onto a gold work embroidery class as part of London Craft Week in which it turns out to be abundantly clear that my future career in couture embroidery has stalled, I ended up walking up Charing Cross Road. I was (slightly) late for my class because I got so waylaid by the arrival of a Japanese skin care shop, Reiwatakiya, and a Korean skin care shop, PureSeoul, within doors of each other. I couldn’t not go in to both (and the Korean food shop where I once found Hello Kitty loo roll and I have to check it every single time I go near, just in case re-supplies have appeared).
In Reiwatakiya, I bought these Layered Cotton Pads (similar HERE) – they’re not impossible to find, but these are beautiful quality and each piece separates out into five fine layers. These are very useful if you use essence because you can soak the layers with your said essence, place on the face and leave for a few minutes to get a deeper essence experience that acts as a quick pick-me-up face mask. I know that the UK struggles with the concept of essence (I come and go on it) but if you’ve found yourself with excess essence, this is a wonderful way to use them up. We’ve got Tatcha arriving in style which I think might boost interest again.
In PureSeoul, I bought a tiny La Neige Lip Sleeping Mask, a tiny Heimish All Clean Balm and an Unleashia Pretty Easy Glitter Stick. To be honest, both these stores show up our home-grown beauty shops. In both, the spaces are very clean and inviting (small), the staff are discreet and friendly and in PureSeoul I was given three samples of skin care. The person in front of me, as a regular customer, was given a token for the machine on the wall that dispensed a little beauty treat if you spent over £40. She also got a complimentary sheet mask and lots of samples.
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Unleashia is a brand that we don’t have easy access to in the UK – it specialises in glittery make up. I’m not a big glitter fan but the products are refined and as far away from chunky sparkle as you can imagine. I bought the stick (in No.3 Brave) because I know I can use it as a fine line of sparkle above my lashes and I probably wouldn’t wear anything else at all other than mascara.
The sticks have that kind of twinkly sparkle that you can go as large as you like with, but for me, it’s just a tiny line that makes the most impact. The twinkles are gold, pink and silver set in a peach base. If you wanted to use over the whole lid, I’d do a single line and blend it across because they’re very sparkle loaded – you won’t need more unless you’re off to an Abba tribute in which case, knock yourself out :-). Very fun and pretty – and a snip at £11.90 HERE. There are seven shades – all pastelly like this one but if there was one in black I would snap it up in an instant.
I don’t think my swatch does it justice – sparkles are always hard to capture. But, trust me, it’s a swoosh of twinkles that lights up your lids in the least fussy way possible. No dropping, no wrangling with cotton wool under the eyes to catch the powder and virtually no blending if you are using just a single line. Bliss!
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