My Taiwan Mini Haul

Here's my small Taiwan mini-haul, I call this mini because it's nothing comparable to the haul I got in Hong Kong this January. My Taiwan trip was mainly searching for plastic wares and food processing machineries so it's understandable there's very little time to shop around.

Nevertheless I'd like to share these brands and items with you in case you're going to Taiwan, you'd be more familiar with the products and brands there. ^.^

I got these from a friendly neighborhood hypermart Tsia Le Fu or Carrefour, PoYa and Jmart that's located in a wet market. Did I get anything from Watson's? =/ No I don't think so...

I'd be creating a different post on where to find beauty stuffs in Shu Lin, Taipei County, Taiwan ^.^

First on the list are Neutrogena oil free Acne Stress Control Power Foam Wash and Neutrogena Pore Refining Toner.

Neutrogena products are scattered everywhere and I got these from Carrefour.

These are from PoYa

I originally got two boxes of Nexcare acne care (the peach colored boxes) and surprise surprise it was on a promo! Buy a set and you'll get another box for free. Sweet deal ^.^

I wanted to try My Beauty Diary Face masks first before buying a whole big box, luckily I found out there are smaller boxes with 2 mask sheets inside so this is a pretty pragmatic deal for me too

I got these from Jmart.

Due to my cousin's ravings I got Biore Cleansing Gel, I got this from PoYa

I love that it removes makeup instantly but if I have extra strong mascara AKA Majolica Majorca so I need the aid of cleansing oil or Etude House Mascara Remover One Shot Clean

My Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunblock with SPF 30 is almost running out. I wanted to buy the same sunblock in Taiwan but I find the prices jacked up compared to the Philippines. I think I got my bottle for Php400+ but in Taiwan you'd get it for NT$400+ too! That's roughly around Php600+

So I got Biore instead, I'm not sure if this is lightweight like Neutrogena but it might be worth a try too! I got this at Carrefour.

I got this cute fruit nail art at Jmart for NT$59! 

Here's a close up

There's apple, orange, watermelon, kiwi, dragon fruit, strawberry and so much more! ^.^

This is a breather from the usual gemstone nail art I always see... I'm not much of a nail polish person but this is too cute I have to get one when I'm in the nail polish mood.

Perhaps the only thing I can consider as makeup from my haul is Majolica Majorca Lash Enamel Glamour Volume Mascara I got from PoYa =p

This is the latest mascara released by Majolica Majorca for their Spring 2010 collection.

Mentholatum Acnes Medicated Sealing Jell I got from Carrefour is a lil bit of a disappointment for me considering their creamy medicated facial wash works wonders drying up my zits but nevertheless the Jell works slowly but surely in drying my zits up ^.^

My aunt from Taiwan gave me this fringe clip, it's actually my cousin's spare fringe clip she got for free when she bought Mod's volumizing shampoo. They gave it to me so I could save a few NT$ because it's around NT$30-40 in Jmart.

Here's a close up; I'm not sure if you're familiar with this one but you use this to aid reshaping your side swept bangs when you're blow drying your hair. You clip this on your fringe and blow dry your hair so there are a lot of holes in this clip and the shape is curled inward. I have stiff straight bangs that go awry sometimes so this is a great aid for me.

Mystery Product #2: Shiseido Eau de Carmin de Luxe

 Here's another Shiseido product I can't find much information in the internet

This is called Shiseido Eau de Carmin de Luxe

I bought this myself in Taiwan before, like the Shiseido Acne Lotion, it's also similar to Mario Badescu's drying lotion and it smells similar too. Perhaps this might be an acne treatment too?

I don't know why I snapped this up, but I think it's because of the pretty frosted glass bottle =p

Here's the information at the back.

Shiseido Acne Lotion- Has Anyone Encounter This Product Before?

Last night my mother gave me her bottle of Shiseido Acne Lotion, she forgot where she acquired but

But I think this was acquired when we went to Taiwan since the accompanying instructional paper is in Chinese.

I would like to use this but I don't know any product details on this one, I tried Googling it but nothing is coming out. I think this is one of Shiseido's exclusive products to Taiwan, I saw a lot of Shiseido products unavailable here and it's hard to find information of such products when you Google it in English.

Here's the Chinese version of the bottle label.

I know it says lotion but like most Asian products, they usually refer toners to lotions. I tried it yesterday and it's a strong drying toner actually but the good news is that my pimple inflammations are lessened today. I just might use this for spot applications since it stings my skin.

**********

You know what, this reminds me of Mario Badescu's Drying Lotion since it has the powder on the bottom and liquid on top. It smells medicine-like which is the same with Mario Badescu. 

I also have Shiseido's Eau de Carmin, another product I can't find much info when I Google it in English, I'll post it tomorrow perhaps you gals might be able to help me! ^.^

Kiehl's Lip Balm#1

I bought this in Harbor City in Hong Kong, there's a Kiehl's store inside the mall.

When I first went in there, the first thing I noticed is that the SAs are very nice, the one who assisted me is named Joey. She was very patient when I was taking a look inside their store and picking up products then putting them down. When I saw the Kiehl's lip balm # 1, I thought to myself I need to try this because I have been using Philosophy Kiss Me lip balm for several years now and I wanted to try another lip balm.

I wanted to get the mint variant but Joey told me it was out of stock so I picked another flavored one and it was still out of stock. I had a run down of all the flavors and all are out of stock! Haha! So I just picked the original unflavored one. I asked Joey if she could call the other Kiehl's branches in Hong Kong to check if they have other flavors and she patiently did, unfortunately all the other flavors are depleted in the entire Hong Kong that fateful day of April 7, 2009! Amazing! (I can't even forget the date =p)

So I settled for this one, I bought this for HK$75.00

Like it's outer packaging, the design is very simple. There's no applicator, just a simple hole to squeeze the product out. The first time I used this though oil came out instead of the thicker consistency lip balm usually has but that is understandable especially if the stock has been around for a while.

Patting this on my lips is heaven! I am a lip balm junkie but I have never felt such moisturizing and conditioning to my lips until this came along. I would use this at night to condition my lips and when I wake up in the morning my lips are very soft and supple- plus the lip balm still stays put all night long! I have not experienced this kind of lip balm in my entire life. A good metaphor would be this is like butter melting on your lips!

There's no weird petroleum jelly smell; it just smells like nothing so it's a plus point for me especially if a lip balm does not have any flavors at all. I also use this on top my lipstick to condition my lips.

However I find the formula quite runny and it will go around your face if you put too much so I resolved this by just patting a bit on and smack my lips to distribute the lip balm. This method saves you more lip balm and it would not make your lipstick bleed too! =)

Just to show you how nice Joey is despite the stuffs I asked her to do and then just buy one product, she even gave me a freebie of Kiehl's Yerba Mate Tea Toner sample to compensate not having the mint flavored lip balm I want! She's a local Hong Kong but talking to her is a breeze despite the language barrier, I am Cantonese by blood but I grew up here in the Philippines so I am more fluent in Fookien, Filipino and English (and a bit on Mandarin and Cantonese), I talked to her in my barok (crooked) Mandarin (mixed with a bit of Filipino, it just comes natural haha) but she still understood me! Then she was talking to me in her barok English just so we could communicate =p If only I could see ourselves talking, it's so cute! =p I do not mean to insult her that she speaks in barok English, I also make fun of myself when I can't speak in straight Mandarin haha!

So if you're in Harbour City just check out Kiehl's and look for Joey if she's still around =) She's one of the nicest Hong Kong person I know and she's very pretty too!