June was characterized by our 2.5 week working roadtrip that took us out of Colorado up through Wyoming (right during that storm that basically broke Yellowstone), to Montana and some epic glamping, all the way to the lakes of Idaho. Traveling can always be tricky for skin, and while I picked up more sun damage than I would have liked (glamping basically equal sun exposure all the time, even on video calls), my skin managed to mostly stay in good shape. I brought basically all my skincare routine — more on that adventure in a later post — but here’s what I opened and in June.

Toner & Serums

🌸 Rovectin Clean Lotus Water Calming Toner

Rovectin just recently expanded their Clean Lotus Water line to include sheet masks and a toner, and I am onboard. This uses nelumbo nucifera flower water itself at almost 40%, plus extracts from the leaf, root and flower. The main reason to use this type of lotus is its main antioxidant, kaempferol, a type of flavonoid, but it’s also, in my experience, deeply hydrating. This is a fairly lightweight toner that layers up beautifully for seven skins, and it’s at a surprisingly reasonable price point. This is unfortunately not free of hyaluronic acid, but the formulation is good enough that in this dry summer my skin is just drinking it up.
Price: $22 USD / 200 mL

🌚 Klairs Midnight Blue Youth Activating Drop

If you, like me, have been looking for an EGF peptide serum that doesn’t break the bank (cough cough Kate Somerville), allow me to introduce you to the Klairs Midnight Blue Youth Activating Drop. This includes sh-Oligopeptide-1 and sh-Polypeptide-1, which are two epidermal growth factor peptides. There’s a lot going on with epidermal growth factor peptides and frankly it’s been half my life since I’ve taken a biology class, but the too-long-barely-read take is that these peptides help with ATP synthesis, which drops off as you age, and signals all sorts of skin regenerative functions. The “midnight blue” of this comes from guaiazulene, which is used because it makes things look cool, in part, but also because it has anti-inflammatory benefits.
Price: $30 / 20 mL, but frequently included in Wishtrend bundles

7️⃣ Hanskin Seven Layer Ceramide Serum

I don’t know if you knew this about me (okay, you should if you’ve read more than one post), but I love ceramide serums — so the Hanskin Seven Layer Ceramide Serum basically grabbed me by the arm and yelled “add me to your cart” when I saw it on SokoGlam. These seven layers refer to the 7 ceramides (NP, NG, NS, AP, AS, EOP and the synthesized bispalmitamide MEA), but it also includes phytosphingosine, a ceramide precursor. But wait, there’s more (I told you it yelled at me): there’s panthenol, prebiotics, cholesterol, beta glucan and urea to support the skin barrier, as well as a variety of plant extracts for an antioxidant boost. The texture is hydrating but creamy, and the pump makes it super convenient.
Price: $28 USD / 50 mL

Sunscreen

🌾 Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun : Rice + Probiotics

Beauty of Joseon has a cult following for a reason, and their new Relief Sun : Rice + Probiotics sunscreen has a hype that is well-deserved. Tested as SPF 50+ PA++++ in a variety of labs, this sunscreen touts 30% rice extract, plus rice germ extract, green tea extract, and a variety of ferments and other yummy extracts to make a sunscreen that could totally pass as a great AM moisturizer that also delivers great protection. If you’ve been debating taking the plunge into k-beauty sunscreen, you won’t be disappointed with this. Is a rebuy already on its way to my home again because we plowed through this on our trip to Wyoming, Montana and Idaho? Yes.
Price: $18 USD / 50 mL

☀️ Isntree Hyaluronic Acid Airy Sun Stick

I’ll admit, I was as confused about sun sticks as the next person, but since Isntree does great sunscreen and the sticks seemed super convenient for reapplication, I had to give their Hyaluronic Acid Airy Sun Stick a try. My thought was that it would be super convenient while mountain biking, because we could easily reapply without needing to remove our gloves or generally worry about rubbing in grime. Well, it works for that but it’s also so convenient literally all the time. Sitting outside at a barbecue? Reapply. On a boat? Reapply. It glides like a deodorant but without the awful deodorant texture, plus in addition to the great newer generation chemical filters, it also has good skincare ingredients like pinus pinaster bark extract and bamboo extract. Is it already in my YesStyle basket again? Yes.
Price: $21 USD / 22 g

👄 Rohto Mentholatum Water Lip Balm

Rohto Mentholatum lip sunscreens are, in my experience so far, the only kind I like, and the Water Lip Balm style is my favorite to date. This one, the “Milky Pink”, has a nice texture and no notable taste or fragrance to me, which is great — sometimes chemical lip spfs are so gross-tasting that they’re unusable. The sun protection isn’t as good as an actual facial sunscreen, as it’s SPF 20 PA++, but since it’s so easy to reapply, has no white cast (a common problem with mineral sunscreens generally and mineral lip spfs specifically — I’m looking at you, Vanicream) and doesn’t dry out the lips, constant reapplication to ensure protection isn’t so bad.
Price: $4.50 USD / 4.5 g

Other

🎂 I Dew Care Cake My Day Hydrating Sprinkle Wash-Off Mask

I Dew Care’s zone of genius is absolutely masks, and the Cake My Day Hydrating Sprinkle Wash-Off Mask is totally darling. Open it up and it just LOOKS like frosting, with a white creamy base and a bunch of rainbow sprinkles mixed in. It’s not the most hydrating or moisturizing of their masks — probably because of the kaolin clay — but it’s totally cute and fun. Unfortunately the sprinkles don’t burst or do anything wild, which would make it some serious skintertainment, but it’s still fun! Definitely strongly fragranced to amplify that frosting mood, though.
Price: $25 USD / 100g; shown in the 10g size from the Mini Scoops set

🍑 Peach & Lily Transparen-C Pro Spot Treatment

After all of the hype around the Peach & Lily Transparen-C Pro Spot Treatment, I had to try it when it was half-off in an Ulta sale. This is 20% of an ascorbic acid derivative, plus licorice root extract, vitamin E, ferulic acid, tranexmic acid and kojic dipalmitate to promote brightening, all in a nice oil base of sunflower, macademia, meadowfoam and jojoba oils. This is intended to just be applied to dark spots, but I’ll be honest — the mechanics of dabbing an oil onto just a few spots is a bit weird. To that end, I’ve probably made the dubious financial decision of just treating this like a facial oil, taking three drops and patting it all over. Because it’s a derivative rather than 20% ascorbic acid, I’ve been playing around with using it AM and PM in this fashion. So far I haven’t seen improvement, but we’ll see how I feel once it’s empty.
Price: $43 USD / 20 mL

👁 Mizon Snail Repair Intensive Gold Eye Gel Patches

Under-eye patches have become my new “stressed out at work” go-to, and since work has been a bit of a bamboozler I opened the Mizon Snail Repair Intensive Gold Eye Gel Patches. I do legitimately find that under-eye patches help reduce eye strain, so although I don’t like using them mid-routine, mid-day is a-okay. These are pretty goopy, however, which causes them to slide down, and the use of carob and xanthan gum does make the remaining goop ball up (incidentally part of why I don’t like eye patches mid-routine). On a skincare benefit front, this does have snail secret filtrate, of course, as well as niacinamide, hydrolyzed collagen, mushroom extract and a variety of peptides. In keeping with the gold name, this does have gold at .89 ppm.
Price: $18 USD / 30 pairs