Carol's First Week With The Winter Box!

Skin Type and Location:

Hi! This is Carol and my skin type is combination oily. I live in Singapore and it is hot and humid throughout the year.

General Impressions

I was very excited to receive the box as I have gotten some of the new products viaBackstage Pass and I have since finished using the travel sizes and I cannot wait to be reunited with them! There are the Milk Cream Mask, Botanical Gel Mask and the Coffee Hair Oil!

That being said, I have never triedBamboo Cleansing Balm before and even though I heard that it smells exactly likeBamboo Foaming Cleanser, I was still very pleasantly surprised at how nice it smells!

Next up is the Day Spa Body Cream that is completely new and I have never tried that before. I am putting it on record that anything that smells like Nourish, Day Spa or Sake and Rice Sleeping Pack? I am sold. Needless to say, this is my immediate new love because EXCUSE ME? DAY SPA?? And a full sized jar?

As for the Burgundy Lip Tint? Suffice to say that I am not a make-up person in real life because I tend to perspire and everything slides right off my face, so I feel conscious if my lips are coloured but the lip tint is so natural that I just may wear it on my bare face!

Changes I’ve seen

Since getting the Winter Box, I have been slowly switching out the products (all SB now) in my daily routines (more on that later!). I have always been usingVacuum Cleansing Oil as a first cleanse and now that I have tried Bamboo Balm, the first thing I notice is that skin feels very soft after rinsing off the balm. I still love VCO, but with Bamboo Balm, the extra fresh scent is like a special treat of aromatherapy when I use it at the end of a long day!

I have gotten and tried both the Milk Cream Mask and Botanical Gel mask before. With the Milk Cream Mask, skin is always soft and smooth after using and I love how it smells. But the whopper is the Botanical Gel mask! I have really been looking forward to getting it again somehow ever since I finished my last dollop because this is the mask that made my skin drinks in all the serums that follows! To elaborate, I used to feel ‘meh’ aboutLotus Serum Mist because it just sits on my skin after application. I just did not get all the hype and did not understand why everyone loves it (and yes, I did not love it even when I reviewed it during Spring Box, unlike all the other reviewers, which is why it was not one of the product review items I did as I had NOTHING to say LOL). That being said, imagine my surprise when I saw the travel size spray sitting on my counter and EVERYTHING was absorbed and my face was matte when I used it after I did the masking with Botanical Gel Mask! To prove that this is what works, I did the mask again the next evening and slathered on MANY layers of serums. And they absorbed beautifully. My skin has never been able to take all the 10 steps of the K Beauty routines but with the Botanical Gel Mask, I feel that my skin is ready to absorb all the goodness I put on it now!

With the Day Spa Body Cream that I am indulging in every evening before bed, I can see that the horribly dry skin on my legs (to the extent that it looks scaly and flaky) is finally getting the moisture it craves. The scaliness is less obvious now and you know how sometimes when you drag a nail across dry skin and it leaves a white mark behind due to all the dead skin cells? Well, HELLO TO HYDRATED SKIN because no more white markings!

I have been usingSnow Sleeping Cream as a final step in my evening routine and I dare say my skin when I wake up in the morning, looks plump and hydrated even when I sleep in air-conditioned room the night before.

AM Routine & PM routine

AM: VCO,Rose Foaming Cleanser,Maple Essence Toner,Coconut,Donkey Cream,Bright Eyes,Pearl, Sunscreen.

PM: Bamboo Cleansing Balm,Rice Against the Patriarchy, Milk Cream Mask/Botanical Gel MaskBotanical Acid Toner/Strawberry Cocktail Exfoliating Toner,Radiance Serum,Anti-Aging Eye Gel Oil, Snow Sleeping Cream and Day Spa Body Cream.

Any changes I’ve made

Prior to starting on using the Winter Box items, I had a more or less fixed AM routine. So I am slowly incorporating the Winter Box by starting with Donkey Cream. Instead ofRed Wine Pressed Serum, I am replacing it with Donkey Cream (refer to my AM routine above). The rest of my AM routine still holds as I find that these products work well in keeping my face oil free throughout the day. If I am confident that I can use Rice Against twice daily without issue (it does feel a little grainy and is great at exfoliating skin! But I am building up my skin to handle using it twice daily), then I will switch out Rose Foaming Cleanser in the AM with Rice Against too.

For PM, I do like usingPumpkin Spiced Latte Serum orDorian Gray Serum but I am replacing both of that with Radiance now. It has been a case of so far so good! As for night creams, I have been sealing all my beauty oils in withDonkey Milk Gel Sleeping Pack previously but now I am using solely Snow Sleeping Cream and so far, it has been working well, not to mention the soothing scent of Snow seems to make me sleep better!

Overall thoughts

Personally, I feel the Winter Box is like a nice smelling blanket that cocoons me in love. So far, I am loving all the individual scents of the products, and definitely how they feel on my skin after I’ve applied them. I have a lot of stress daily from my work and family, so I am very happy that these luxurious scents ground me and helps me sleep better (for me that’s a plus because it’s no longer just skincare). And as a skincare routine, it is definitely working some magic one week into using them, so I look forward to using them for the next few weeks to come!

Click to watch Carol's Winter Box Unboxing Video!