Review : Aromatherapy Associates Balance Shampoo and Conditioner

Shampoo Description
Aromatherapy Associates Balance Shampoo is a gentle effective shampoo with pure essential oils to optimise a healthy scalp and hair. Suitable for all hair types.

Conditioner Description
Aromatherapy Associates Balance Conditioner is an enriching conditioner with pure essential oils to maximise smooth and glossy hair. Suitable for all hair types.

I bought the travel pack from Cosme at US$8 for a 40ml shampoo and conditioner set early this year as I like essential oils and thought I would just try this out.
I actually quite like the scents of both the shampoo and conditioner as its filled with lovely essential oils. The shampoo is filled with rosemary and ylang ylang while the conditioner is filled with ylang ylang, geranium and pathouli.

The shampoo, in its clear gel form is a gentle cleansing shampoo, while the conditioner, in a creamy white form does a normal conditioning job.
In summary, there is nothing much to rave about both products. I did not find that I have smooth or glossy hair and my hair still get tangled easily. Using the shampoo alone, made my hair kind of dry and adding in a conditioner made my hair much better. ( note : any conditioner works fine )
However, the shampoo does contain Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS) which may not be welcomed by some users.

Shampoo Ingredients

Conditioner Ingredients

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Review : Neogence Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Mask

Product Description
Neogence Hyaluronic Hydrating Mask provides deep hydration in an easy and effective way. It enhances the degree of water replenishment. In addition to hyaluronic acid, it also contains nourishing ingredients. The rich essence of moisturizing ingredients plumps the skin at a time, restoring skin radiance from within.

Main Ingredients :
Hyaluronic acid, algae extract, beta-glucan

I brought along 2 sheets to my recent Taiwan trip which I bought for a mere $1.95 at Sasa. I usually like to bring hydrating masks on trips, regardless of short or long duration but typically, I use 1 mask per night, in order to hydrate my skin. Reason being, my skin can get pretty dehydrated under unpredicatable weather overseas, hence hydration is key for good make-up in the morning. Sometimes, it works sometimes it doesn't. I try to hope for the best by selecting what I think it may works, based on my own experiences.

My skin was pretty flaky and bad during my summer trip in Las Vegas back in 2008 and my Neutrogena
hydrating masks, while worked fine in Singapore but its not able to cope with the harsh summer condition in Las Vegas. Hence, that was a wake-up call for me, to bring along better masks for trips.

Funnily, HA doesn't work all the time for my skin such as this mask. I had great expectations of anything with HA, afterall, its meant to be for hydration and it should deliver hydration to my skin at its minimum.
This mask, while heavily soaked in essence has virtually almost no scent as far as my nose is concerned. Less irritants which is good. It comes with eyeflaps which is a bonus when you want to relax in the hotel with air-conditioning and just napped for a while.

However it failed to soothe the flakiness on my cheeks while in Gaoxiong, Taiwan. I was kinda disappointed.
I probably won't be picking up this mask, else its definitely value-for-money if it works but too bad, it doesn't.

Source : Sasa

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Review : Adin Collagen Essence Mask

Product Description
Enriched with collagen in high concentration, which is the essential element for making skin eleastic and moist, it makes the skin healthy and smooth while improving skin elasticity. Formulated with Vitamin E, collagen and Hyaluronic Acid, it maks the skin moist and elastic and also reduces tension in the stressed skin and has astringent effect. It is especially suitable for use when special care is needed such as when the skin looks dull or dry, it comforts skin through providing nutrition and moisture immediately as as well as calming.

A close colleague of mine passed 2 sheets of this mask to me, as she found it to be pretty efffective on her skin. She bought it at quite an affordable price in Hong Kong, if I remembered correctly.

The material of the sheet is very soft, too soft, in my personal opinion, thats its totally 'collapsable', if there's such a word. Its very wet and adhere to the skin very well, probably due to its 'collapsable' material and its sticky wet essence.

During my first sheet usage in the first week, I was not WOWed by it, but during the second week, when my skin has some flaking bits, I saw the effect almost immediately after removing the sheet.
It moisturised my skin very well such that all the flaking bits have disappeared. I was definitely impressed.

But atlas, the impressive effects were temporary as the next morning, I saw some flakiness back again, but its definitely much better than not using the mask. Not all flakiness were back, but its definitely in better condition.

Do note that Triethanolamine is at the 4th last ingredient which is known to be harmful to the lungs and eyes. More information can be found in Truthinaging  or EWG .

Alternatively, you can refer to EWG Safety Guide for shoppers or David Suzuki's Guide .

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Review : Shiseido Perfect Cleansing Sheet

I picked this up from a drugstore in Japan and since its all in Japanese, I am unable to describe any of the description to you. Pardon my poor language skills. Surprisingly, I am also unable to find any information on this cleansing sheet online.

Anyway, here's my take on the cleansing sheets which I brought with me to my Taiwan trip recently.

Coming from Shiseido, I have some expectations from it but I am actually quite dismayed with the experience.

With 11 sheets, the adhesive on the packet is still strong enough to withstand at the end of my 11days usage, unlike some of the drugstore brands I owned before. Each sheet is also pretty generous in size, more than enough for my whole face, including eye make-up, although I still need a separate eye make-up remover to remove my eyeliner. 

The sheets are not that wet, in fact it feels abit dry which made me wonder if the plane cabin air during my Japan flight and Taiwan flight made it worse. Nevertheless, it is still able to cleanse off my face make-up. Its less effective on my eye make-up, so I still doubled up with an eye make-up remover followed by my regular cleanser. The smell is the worst. The alcohol scent is just too strong and I really dislike it. Even though it did not make my face dry but I shudder at the consequences of long term usage. It also made my eyes itchy which hardly happen to me, when I used other brands.

In summary, its definitely not something I would ever buy again.

Review : Dermalogica Sebum Clearing Masque

Product Description
Purify and help prevent breakouts with this cooling, deep-cleaning, clay-based masque
For Acne/Breakout-Prone Skin. Dermalogica Sebum Clearing Masque is a cooling, refining and deep-cleaning  Kaolin and Bentonite clay masque that purifies, absorbs excess surface oil and prevents future breakouts. Dermalogica Sebum Clearing Masque inhibits the growth of acnegenic bacteria while stimulating the skin's natural antimicrobial agents for clearer, healthier skin. Contains no artificial fragrance or color.

I have 2 sachets of this masque which is enough for 7~8 times of usages as I only use it on the T-zone or zits-affected areas. 

I used to use a clay based mask once a week when I was younger for deep-cleansing but as age crept up and my skin becomes drier, I limited it to times when zits occured, which is usually before my monthly menses. Recently, my T-zone seems to be quite oily so I used this mask on my T-zone once a week, then lately zits started to occur on my upper lips and chin so I used it on those affected areas as well.

Main Ingredients
Salicylic Acid : exfoliates dead skin cells and clears congested follicles to minimize development of future comedones and breakouts.
Kaolin and Bentonite clays : absorb excess oil.
Spiraea Ulmaria Extract : inhibits bacteria by stimulating the skin's natural anti-bacterial agents.
Niacinamide, Yeast Extract, Horse Chestnut, Licorice, Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5) and Caffeine : regulate sebum production and soothe inflammation.
Zinc Gluconate and Caffeine : help regulate sebum production and help control bacterial metabolism of sebum-reducing inflammation.
Cinnamon Bark : blend inhibits bacterial lipid metabolism and degradation of enzymes while eliminating bacteria and providing astringent properties.
Oat Kernel, Bisabolol and Licorice : help soothe irritated skin.
Farnesyl and Panthenol (Pro-Vitamin B5) : strengthen follicle membrane.

When I used it on my T-zone on clear but oily skin, it is refreshing and minty (probably due to its several menthol derivatives ) but I did not find any improvement in my level of oiliness. The next morning, my T-zone is still oily on the 3 times I have used it.

Moving on, I used it on my zits-affected area recently and found an improvement in the reduction of my inflamed zits. Less inflamed and the zits feel and look better. The zits become smaller within 2 days and it become less red and less obvious.
Note that the dry areas, when applied with this masque may cause flushing hot sensation, as in the case of mine.

The active ingredient is Triclosan at 0.2% which may not be welcomed for many users as its not deemed to be safe by some organizations. 

You can check out the rest of the reviews at Makeupalley with 57% of the 14 users willing to buy the product again.