Skincare review: Tony Moly "I'm Real" Broccoli Vitality

When I lived in Seoul, I may have dispensed a rather ridiculous amount of my discretionary spending on sheet masks, then gone through the bother of hauling them back in my hilariously (and expensively) over-stuffed luggage. If you've never heard of them (are you living on Titan?), sheet masks are face-shaped cloth or paper masks saturated with serums and ointments meant to give your skin an intensive dose of healing goodness. There seem to be as many sheet masks in existence as there are sea shells scattered along a beach, each purporting to be the best at whatever it claims to do. Need a brightening super-dose of vitamin c to wake up your skin? There are countless options. How about some snail mucin to soothe anxious, irritated skin? Boy howdy are you in luck! Every skin care/cosmetics company in Korea seems to be in on the sheet mask game, and compared to what I'd have paid for them stateside they are SUPER cheap to purchase when in Korea. When in Seoul... 

Each company throws out new and innovative products trying to get an edge on the competition, so you'll often find some surprising inclusions in the serums. Snail mucin is old news and not particularly shocking to me- in fact, it's an ingredient my skin seems to absolutely adore, so I seek it out. Broccoli essence is a little more novel... but does it work?

Tony Moly is one of the more well-known Korean Beauty brands in the US, or was one of the first I was introduced to through beauty blogs, at least. They have adorable hand creams shaped like bananas or Pokemon, and their aesthetic seems a bit more young and youthful than some of the other brands. That can be a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for. As much as I love clever, cute details in the packaging of products, if it's not doing it's job or serving practical purposes I'm not going to love it. This sheet mask, as you can see in the photos above, didn't fit my face very well. It clung on my forehead and cheeks alright, though it tore near one of my eyes when I tried to adjust the fit slightly. The serum was very watery, which I didn't particularly mind because the serum itself felt nice and soothing on my skin. I woke up with a nice, calm glow that wasn't greasy, so the serum worked well enough. The mask itself felt cheap, though, and didn't add any real sense of luxury to the self-care ritual. Also, that package is kind of obnoxious to me. I get the uniqueness and shelf-appeal of having the unique shapes jutting from the top as opposed to the standard pouch, but it makes it harder to store. I like to keep my sheet masks in the fridge because they feel that much nicer going on chilled, and I imagine it helps to preserve any volatile or less shelf-stable ingredients. It gets hot in Vegas, and even with our air-con on it doesn't prevent our bathroom from getting warmer than I really care to make my cosmetics. Fitting this in with the rest of my sheet mask horde means that there's a weirdly shaped end sticking out somewhere, and makes it longer/taller than my other masks, so some of the places the others would have fit no problem can be meddlesome with this shape.

As far as this mask goes, I don't think I would repurchase it. You can find a set of Tony Moly sheet masks with this one included for about $18 on Wal-mart's website, which isn't a terrible price for 11 masks. If you're looking for an affordable way to pamper your skin and get into the sheet mask game, it's not the worst possible place to start, but it's not the best, either. 

💙💚

Overall I'd give it a 2 out 5.

I like the serum, but the mask feels cheap and doesn't adhere to the face well. Any adjustments to the fit once it's on could cause it to tear or lose adhesion, and it never really clung to my jaw to begin with. There are much better options out there.

Thanks for stopping by!

💖

XOXO,

NAU

Organization: Closet Deep Cleaning

Before!

And after!

We moved into a fairly small space last year- "we" here meaning Antho, myself, and our two rat cages full of squeaky little sweeties. This meant consolidating two fairly full wardrobes into one small closet with a few additional drawers and cabinets thrown in for good measure. When we first moved in together back in 2015 we had a two bedroom townhouse with two stories and a garage, so we had a TON of space for just two of us! We converted our spare bedroom into a walk-in closet with one wall for each of us to hang all of our clothes...and something about all that space made us feel compelled to try to fill it. We'd go to thrift stores and have a lot of fun picking out  furniture, new ensembles and finding things that we might not have shelled out the cash for brand new... and while that was all fun, it was really quite expensive. Not only did we have to pay for all the clothes and STUFF we bought- which, while relatively cheap enough having been purchased primarily at thrift stores- but all that additional space we "needed" every month. It really added up! And really, we barely used most of it. When I moved to Korea to pursue my art for awhile, we decided that the financially wise thing to do would be to have Antho move in with his grandma so that he wasn't shelling out all that additional cash for all the empty space we weren't utilising. She had gone through a tragic loss around the time, too, so our intentions were for Antho to help her out around the house and with the bills while saving cash until I returned... It didn't quite pan out that way, but such is life.  That process started us towards reducing our accumulation of stuff, however, as we went from having an entire townhouse to ourselves to having a corner of a garage, a single room, and a little bit of backyard space for our tie-dye, which meant condensing.

 While I was in Korea I pretty much lived out of a single suitcase and a small closet in the room I rented from my employer. I ended up paying about $350 a month for a big comfy sofa to sleep on and a closet with access to a kitchen, bathroom and laundry. It wasn't a bad deal, all told, and I really enjoyed my stay. Food is amazing and affordable in Korea, and transportation is reasonable and efficient, too. Having moved overseas several times now (first to Japan, then back to the US, then to Korea, then back to the US) I've found it really refreshing to re-appraise my attachment to material things from time to time. I always feel so much more refreshed and at ease when I have less, which seems counter-intuitive. I was in Japan for over two years and while there accumulated a lot of stuff to fill my little apartment with, and when I left I had to spend quite a bit of money shipping all that stuff back to myself. It was expensive and inconvenient, but I guess for the most part I'm glad that I went for it as I've accumulated a collection of Japanese fashion and cooking magazines from that time that I hope to eventually translate and share. While in Korea I stocked up on cosmetics, skin care and sheet masks because they are bountiful and affordable...but again, this is an accumulation of stuff, which it is quite beneficial to sort, organise and purge several times throughout the year. We have a goal of eventually living out of our van and traveling, so we'll need to get rid of quite a bit more before we can do that. I'm viewing 2018 as my year to reduce, use up, and reappraise my things.  While I've bought a few skin care items (sorry, not sorry) I'm trying not to indulge in any of the new makeup or stationary pretties I might want and reduce my overall shopping. I want to use up the sheet masks I have taking up residence in our fridge (rather than food), use up my insane collection of pens, use up all my BB and CC creams, so on and so forth. I'm grateful for the bounty and the opportunities that availed me the possibility of acquiring so many things, but I think it's high time to trim the fat. I like the Mari Kondo (aka KonMari) approach of asking whether each item sparks joy in you before deciding what to do with it, but to each their own. Whatever organisation method works for you is the one to use!

When I first began condensing my clothes, I wrote up an inventory list of all the things going into the tote so I would have an idea what was in it should I go hunting for a specific item. I like to be organised and stay on top of all my things, which is generally an uphill struggle, but I try.

For this particular session, I sorted all my sheet masks and sorted through my clothes until I filled three large garbage bags with donations. I could still donate more, but this was a step in the right direction and some advancements taken in the right direction are better than none, right?