SK-II Real and Fake Counterfeits

I'll admit I had it coming. I kinda bought it knowingly in those internet selling/buying places. If I'm lucky I get a real one, if I'm not, I don't loose much anyway. I was curious. Would I be able to tell the difference??

I have not seen much fake comparisons on the net for SK other than some YouTube which were a tiny bit hard to see, so here's my comparison. FYI, I use SK-II, and I buy it from their original site https://www.sk-ii.com    Can't ignore those nice samples they give you.

First thing that hit me was the smell though. My god. It smelled like a very cheap generic cream with a strong floral smell you would smell in... your grandmas? drawer.... =/  That's how my fake smelled, but I've smelled ones that were less horrific. 

SK-II has a very distinct smell. 

Their Pitera essence has a distinct smell. (Not exactly the most pleasant) 

Their creams and serums have another distinct smell (rather pleasant) that is shared.  

Best bet is buy on the SK-II site a small sample set. Then you'll know. I would guess it can vary alot depending on who makes the counterfeit. The smell was so off, it was laughable. This one also had a very heavy consistency. As you may see in one of the photos I made a 'cream mountain'. The real SK-II is too smooth to make such a tall mountain. 

As you can see the red color on the glass is already stuck to the fake box and all.

Can you see the difference in the "SK-II" lettering? Authentic SK is white for the RNA Power brand. (btw the newer authentic SkinPower has a cloudy red top and a cloudy silver lettering) I don't remember if my older jars had a silver lettering at one point in time, but the last few years are white.

You can also see the fake one has a bit of a see through white used on the R.N.A POWER lettering.

Caps are rather shoddy too, look at how the ring of red shines on the authentic cap. =O

The top white cap is a little harder to distinguish. The cloudy middle is a bit messy on the fake one.

Oh yeah the consistency. With the smell, I thought it was a bottle of perfumed lard or something...

Its a cream mountain!

Don't forget folks, the authentic ones have this little barcode on the glass and on the paper box.

So far I've seen a bit of empty bottle switching and odd put-togethers. Like one other seller had a fake box, real red top screw, real white under cover, fake glass container. The red cover kept turning around and around and didn't close unless you put some pressure on it.  Some of the little kinks you want to watch out for.

The SK-II cream should also have a consistancy near to that of an essence. On the japanese jar, instead of 'cream' it states 'essence', and understandably the consistancy of this cream is always 'flowy'. You should not be able to skulpt a cream mountain nor should the cream stick to the container like the shape of a washroom basin like some kind of shoe polish.

The end :3

Bright Flower

I like their song...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nvejmuu5ic

Koe ni dashite tsutaeru one love
(one love I relay with my voice)
Konna watashini ni saita flower
(a flower that blooms for one such as me)
Wanna see your smile
and I'll sing for you

Open Beta has arrived!

Yes! After failing multiple times signing up for the closed beta (both NA and JP ones mind you), a chance at open beta has arrived! I guess it was 2 years or so? that I semi-retired from FFXI, hearing that the Online 14 was coming out 'soon'. Apparently it wasn't soon enough and I had immersed myself in another F2P (free to play) game called Perfect World International. Unlike FFXI where gil buying was *gasp* a sin, these F2P games have cash shops so its 

1) EXTREMELY convenient if you have the money to buy these bonus items, and 

2)If you know how to use the market and merchant, its actually possible to make a CRAP load of coins. I had been cash shopping at first but my friends showed me how wonderful (and free) merchanting was. 

Needless to say I've started that method too. Compared to my FFXI times, I am hoping my (still novice) merchant skills I've learned from PWI will help me in FFXIV. I remember how these crafters were doing so well in sales and boy was I envious of them! Anyways, as most beta testers have experienced for themselves, as have I, the download time is hell. I understand FFXIV has been long awaited but WTF? O_O The torrent (last 4 gigs) shows a whopping 3 days time of DL while the direct upload shows 10+hrs atm. I had to take down my windows firewall to speed it up and its still a good 10hrs. WOW to the pple who actually are playing the game at this very moment. You guys are super lucky. I shall probably have to, and most likely will leave my main PC online to finish this DL process and hope that the PC itself doesnt catch on fire like it did this afternoon. I turned on the PC when I came home from work today and *sniff sniff* wouldn't you know it, something smells like its burning... I look to my left and lo and behold I see a tiny flame burning happily INSIDE. The connector to the diskdrive has caught on fire! LUCKILY. I had my PC fully open on the side since its a screw on type, and with half my fan broken I cant afford to let air boil inside. Its scary to imagine if I had it screwed on shut.... Thankfully the damage is minimal with a soft charred spot on the disk drive and the next door cable still seems alive.... My guess is that some dust must have sparked and caught on fire??? I still need to get a replacement for this before the official FFXIV game gets mailed to me. =/ Countdown to my DL currently @ 10:49:xx hrs, oh boy.

End of the Mission

Well at last several days ago I was able to clear the Aht urghan mission. For this mission I've actually had about 7? last boss fights, 2 for me and the other 5 for a friend. Both were close calls but I guess we had some luck during my own run and it was just all out smoother.

During my friends run PLD/RNG/RDM/BLM/BLM/BRD. Had some trouble with the BLU fight since we tried the stun method. So many close calls, one shots, and excess time on the BLU. The end fight we had only 17 min. on Alexander, and won with say... about 15 sec left with the BLM using a vile elixir+1, and 2 nukes. It wasnt what you would call the smoothest fight but it was downright exciting, especially in that last 15 secs

My own run went rather smoothly on the other hand with PLD/BLU/WAR/WHM/BLM/RDM. I was the PLD but it felt rather funny since I had not been on it for about nearly a year. My PLD gear was all in sandy, and I was lucky enough that I hadnt muled the important ones. The first run had some bad luck when the BLU one shoted the WAR and PLD(me) continuously. So the WHM used Repose(?), slept him and we all warped out. Next fight went smooth. I cant say how much our BLU's stun, the BLM's stun, and especially the WHM's Repose helped us out. I'll have to try out Repose myself next time.
So the BLU fight is past and we go on to Mr. Alex. Got rid of that first stage fast enough and the last stage starts. Everything goes smooth and I'm rather surprised at how much hate I am able to keep, considering I get hit alot (regardless of my self curing) and the BLM is nuking alot. Alex spared us alot of his AoE's I think, tho I'm not quite certain due to my filters. Most of the decreasing HP was either me(pld), BLU, or the BLM.

Sanction, refresh, the parade gorget, and that convert-dmg-into-mp earring also did big time on my MP, which almost never ran out. (LoLElvaanMP) Overall went smooth but again we had like only 5min. till time ran out. Why so little time left when it went so smooth? This was due to the BLM dying once and freezing upon reraise. So he was like stuck there dead unable to RR, and finally had to restart his PC, this which took about a whole 10min. The BLM was the main DD next to the BLU, so about 10 min. passed where all we did were just try to stay alive while the others hacked away miniscule HP from Alex. Overall it was fun but after doing it 7 times or so it seemed alot of luck played into this. >.<;

Whats goin on in Vana

'Piss-me-off-less', was actually the title of this RDM pic lol. I hate being RDM, but their costumes are sooo drawable its nice. And they both qualify for melee and magic poses, it gives the artist a wider range of imagination for their poses.^^ I think I like the sword and shield concept which is also available for PLDs but they seem to have a more 'bulky' image so I prefer the sleek RDM over PLD if I had a choice to draw. (heh maybe its my seeker loving nature >.>;;) I still havent drawn alot but I was angry at the time of these drawings so anger helped a TON. Very interesting.

Decepticon ring

"Art Clay Silver 650 Slow dry" for the silver. I beleive you can probably buy this on ebay sometimes, or if not do a search on the net for any online retailers. This turns into 99% silver after you bake it so its not that cheap. The single pouch in the pic cost about 40-55$ but I cant remember for sure, since I bought it in Japan a few years ago. They sell as single clays and also as make-it-yourself kits. I bought the kit (about 75$) cause it came with all the neccesary tools and manuals.

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The 'former' design I had in mind. It wasnt long before I found out the clay was a bit hard to mold. It dries quickly, gets sticky easily with a small dab of water, and sticks all over the place. Good thing about it is as long as you dont bake it, you can turn it back into soft clay with some water. (I later used one that was dry and hard for a year, ziplocked it with water, and was ready to use after 2-3 days again)

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The ones with straight lines, like the insignia, I rolled flat and cut the shapes out like a cookie cutter. The curvy ones were balled up into a near shape and carved/shaved out.

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Wings, cut out and carved out on the inside. It dries fast so you can carve it out in about 30 or so minutes. I think I dried the clay about 1 day before I started carving any of them just to be on the safe side. It can crack and break if you drop it from high but its still rock hard when you carve them.

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Front part of the ring put together. Its still looks and feels gritty since its not smoothed out.

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Back 'ring' was done about 1.5 years after the front part insignia part was made. I was very busy, also didnt have the environment to play around with clay. The front part didnt turn out as I imagined so I at least wanted to get the best environment I could for the rest of the piece. The band here is not smoothed out yet.

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After you bake it, it turns white. You can see if you compare with the previous pic. I put it over a normal oven fire first to dry the ring of any moisture lest it crack under higher heat later. Then used the little gas burners and heated it till it got all red hot, for about 5+ min. If you under heat it, it will most likly get brittle and break later on due to the silver not solidifying inside.

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Scrape off the white layer (crystallized silver) with those bristly metal brushes and you get the melted silver underneath. Drop it lightly and we can see if its solid, it makes that metal sound.

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I failed to take a pic but there was a process where you dip the ring in this liquid for a few minutes to give it the black rusty look. (its the orange tube in the pic) The surface of the whole ring turns into a blackish, rusty, oily metalic color...

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After you get the black rusty oily ugly color, here comes the silver polish. You basically wipe the whole ring with it to give it the silvery shine. The black gritty color will stay in the deep crevices to give it the whole 'heavy silver accessory' look. If you have a solid ring you probably dont need to wipe as much since there arent as much hard to reach places. For this one I basicly 'washed' the whole thing with silver polish, wiping it everywhere cause there were so many curves and cracks. It still took around 1hr of wiping though, to get the color right.

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The final piece. The curvy things in the front didnt turn out exactly as planned but oh well... Decepticon insignia, and wings represent seeker wings. The band in the back are suppose to look like metal wall like things that gradually lead up to 'rubble' behind both wings (can anyone say 'war'?). I really wish the curvy things turned out better but it was my first time and I wasnt use to carving them out. By the time it was ready to bake, I got the hang of it but it was way to late to do over. If I ever do get a hold of more clay in the future, it would be fun to make another one hopefully of better design. At the moment still wondering if I should wear it or give it away or something :p hee

Elvaan RDM

I swear the female in the RDM AF have it that short >.>

RDM AF with Genbu sheild, only thing thats actually different is I added high heels to the boots.

Now if only I could get a close up shot of how Hauby looks like I'd want to draw more pics with action :x My own elvaan (male) is too big and most of his body parts dont show close up...at least on PS2. The neck and shoulder areas seem a bit complicating so dont wanna mess those parts up. I should try to nab pple to pose their armour for me >.>

Too much FFXI, so little time drawing. Seriously need to get back to my art roots. Will draw for Gil!! LoLz =p

...what to draw next...