REVIEW: MASKS FROM PRIMERA

Primera is Amore Pacific's most high end brand, previously only available online or via door-to-door salesmen. Primera uses natural bean oil to print out letters on their packaging to save natural resources. Primera's products are suitable even for the most sensitive of skins, including those who have eczema! I saw that they also have a line just for babies!!!

1) Primera Lift-Up Seed & Sprout Energy Mask - Sugar-Apple Seed

Material: Thick, silky cotton blend, soaked completely in essence, but unlike other masks, the essence inside this packet is white, like a creamy lotion. The mask is also not pearl white in colour, but a creamy white with small black dots on the mask (the evidence of using organic cotton). There was still a lot of essence left inside the packet for me to apply a thicker layer over my mask as well as on my neck!
Scent: Sweet, but not perfumey nor overwhelming, quite nice
Shape: The shape was okay - the hole around the eyes and mouth fitted just right, but it didn't cover the sides of my nose too well.
Effectiveness: There was still a lot of essence left on my face after removing the mask, so I massaged it into my face. It left my face very smooth, but I felt that there was a layer of something left on my skin afterwards (but I didn't wash it off). I felt that my face was very moisturised and that it had helped soothe redness and irritation (from extracting my pores).
Price: HK$18-25 per mask
Rating: 8.5/10

2) Primera Emblica Lifting Hydro Gel Mask - Indian Gooseberry Sprout

Material: Gel-type mask
Scent:
Shape: It's a 2-piece gel mask - the top part covers the forehead, eyes and nose; the bottom part covers the mouth and chin. The mask is a little small as it doesn't cover my face (the upper forehead and the jaw) entirely, the hole around the eyes and mouth is a little big, and it does not cover my nose entirely, but it was easy to put onto my face. Again, I don't really like gel-type masks, because of the slimy feeling when putting the mask onto my face!
Effectiveness: The mask did not leave a sticky feeling after I removed the mask. My face was slightly more moisturised, but the effects were not as obvious as the cotton blend version of the lifting mask.
Price: HK$29 per mask
Rating: 6.5/10

3) Primera Cresswhite Brightening Hydro Gel Mask - Watercress Sprout

Material: Gel-type mask
Scent: I can't figure out the smell for this actually, but it's a little flowery and it slightly makes my nose itch
Shape: It's a 2-piece gel mask - the top part covers the forehead, eyes and nose; the bottom part covers the mouth and chin. The mask is a little small as it doesn't cover my face (the upper forehead and the lower chin) entirely, the hole around the eyes and mouth is a little big, and it does not cover my nose entirely, but it was easy to put onto my face. Again, I don't really like gel-type masks, because of the slimy feeling when putting the mask onto my face!
Effectiveness: The mask did not leave a sticky feeling after I removed the mask. My face felt slightly tight afterwards, but I saw that my pores appeared to be slightly smaller.
Price: HK$29 per mask
Rating: 7/10 (because I still prefer cotton masks over gel masks)

4) Primera Clear-Up Seed and Sprout Energy Mask - Linseed

Material: Cotton blend, soaked completely in essence, but there is no essence left inside the packet. The mask is also not pearl white in colour, but a creamy white with small black dots on the mask (the evidence of using organic cotton). The mask reminds me of a gauze, and the mask is not as smooth as other masks.
Scent: It kind of smelled like a citrus scent when I opened up the packet, but as I continued to smell it, it had a slight chemical/medicine smell.
Shape: The shape was okay - the hole around the eyes and mouth fitted just right, but it didn't cover the sides of my nose too well.
Effectiveness: There was still some essence left on my face after removing the mask, so I massaged it into my face. There was originally a pimple on my face, but after removing the mask, my pimple had gone down by a lot, and it was hardly red and swollen anymore. It did, however, leave a slight sticky feeling on my face.
Price: HK$18-25 per mask
Rating: 8/10

5) Primera Moist-Up Seed and Sprout Energy Mask - Lotus Flower Seed

Material: Cotton blend, soaked completely in essence, and there was some essence left inside the packet. The mask is also not pearl white in colour, but a creamy white with small black dots on the mask (the evidence of using organic cotton).
Scent: It smelled of lotus flower, but it wasn't a perfume type of smell that would irritate my nose. It was also mixed with some chemical/medicine smell.
Shape: The shape was okay - the hole around the eyes and mouth fitted just right, but it didn't cover the sides of my nose too well.
Effectiveness: There was still some essence left on my face after removing the mask, so I massaged it into my face. My face felt moisturised and my pores appeared smaller; however, it did leave a slight sticky feeling on my face.
Price: HK$18-25 per mask
Rating: 7/10

Overall, I'm really impressed with the masks from Primera, especially the Primera Lift-Up Seed & Sprout Energy Mask - Sugar-Apple Seed!! I have continued to buy masks from Primera, despite the high price tag.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!!!

ABCDEat RECIPE: Matcha Steamed Egg Pudding Dessert

I absolutely love drinking the Organic Soya Milk with Matcha by Green Dot Dot, a local Hong Kong brand. They are slightly pricey, due to the fact that they're "organic", but that hasn't stopped me from repurchasing them, because they are just so delicious!

I normally just add hot water to the powder, stir, then serve, but recently, I've been making Chinese Steamed Egg Puddings again, and I suddenly thought of experimenting with different flavours.

Today's post will be on how to make the
Matcha Steamed Egg Pudding Dessert

Steamed Egg Pudding is a really easy to make dessert - it's a very smoothly textured pudding made of nothing except egg white, milk, and sugar. There is another version of the Pudding which uses egg yolk as well as egg white, but since we will be adding Matcha Soy Milk Powder into this specific recipe, we will only be using the egg white to avoid the strong egg flavour.

Things you'll need:1 bowl (needs to be quite steep)
tin foil or a lid/plate to cover the bowl with
1 wok (steep enough to put your bowl into and cover with a lid)
1 packet of the Matcha Organic Soy Milk Powder
1 egg (only the egg white will be used)
1 teaspoon of sugar
200-250ml of milk (full cream milk is desired, but it's up to you)

How to make it:1) Pour the Matcha Organic Soy Milk Powder into a cup.

2) Add a little bit of hot water into the cup, and stir until the powder dissolves. While it is still warm, add 1 teaspoon of sugar into the Matcha Milk, and stir.

3) Add in 200-250ml of milk into the Matcha Milk, and stir.

4) In another bowl, separate the egg white from the egg yolk.

5) Slowly add (while stirring occasionally) the egg white into the Matcha Milk.

6) Pour the mixture into a bowl. After you pour the mixture in, make sure there is still around 2 inches above the mixture, so that it won't overflow when you steam.

7) Cover the bowl with some tin foil or a lid/plate.

8) Boil some water inside a wok, and when it is boiling, put the bowl inside and cover with a lid

9) Leave it to steam for about 12-15 minutes on high

11) After 12-15 minutes, remove the bowl from the wok, and leave it to cool (with the lid on) for a few minutes before serving

As I couldn't find any other steeper bowl, my matcha pudding overflowed while steaming. The taste is delicious, but the presentation is ugly. The original steamed egg pudding looks great though!

I treated my mother-in-law to have the other bowl, and she finished hers in no time!

The total time for making this dessert is around 30 minutes.


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Thank you for reading, and if you have any questions, feel free to comment below!