Cherry Blossom Shampoo

I bought this out of whim during Sasa sale a while back. They were having a promo, purchase the big bottle (1000ml) and you get a small bottle (400ml) for free at the price of RM16.90.

What really attracted me what the simplicity of the packaging (alright, another sucker point for me here).  I quite like its simple see through bottle and the fonts used on the label of the bottle.  Easy for me to either recycle or reuse it for other purposes.  The pump is quite good, dispensing a decent amount.  Now that I have short hair, I don't use a whole lot and I find the pump to be quite good in terms of controlling the shampoo.  Must be a good spring attached to it eh? =D

The shampoo works decently.  If you need a simple shampoo, I'd say it's a good buy.  It kept my hair nice and well managed pretty much 2/3 of my day.  I'd say that it does its job as a shampoo.  Given that I have oily hair that can turn pretty oily in half a day's time, it works well to keep the oil from weighing my hair down at least 2/3 of the day.  By evening though, I could feel the oiliness and my hair being weighed down.  Still, it doesn't bother me too much because I'm already home by then and I tend to clip everything up by then.

The two bottles lasted me for more than a year!  I'd have to say that it really is a good buy =D

Will I repurchase?  It depends though, because although it is a decent shampoo, it is a normal shampoo.  I'm hoping to find one that could help curb the oiliness a bit longer.

Organic Aid Vitamin E Moisturising Cream

I usually tend to avoid cream products as I have oily combination skin and creams tend to break me out.  However, due to some strange reason, my skin was getting rather dry and it was a painful experience because I was breaking out due to the dryness!  Saying I was at loss was an understatement.  I'm still trying to figure out the cause of the break out but I was more active in trying to look for a product that would help me overcome the dryness.  I'm pretty sure that once the dryness give way to being moistured, the breakouts will cease.

On the other side, I do know that Vitamin E is good for the skin to help the skin.  I've read here that some of the other benefits of Vitamin E are these:

• vitamin e products help reduce the appearance of stretch marks
• vitamin e can help prevent the appearance of age spots
• it helps maintain the skin’s oil balance during the cleansing process
• it reduces transepidermal water loss from skin and strengthens the skin’s barrier function

Based on this, it would seem that Vitamin E does function well when applied onto the skin.

I noticed this Organic Aid product for eons, but because of my aversion to cream products, I never did get my hands on it.  That is, until recently (so you could imagine the desperation that I have to resort to creams due to the dryness and tightness of my skin).  I am thankful that they do produce two sizes, so that I can grab the smaller one to try.

Here's the description:
New vitamin E moisturizing cream with amino acids is a  gentle and effective skin-care product that contains vitamin E to promote and maintain a healthy, radiant complexion. And amino acids to help restore nutrients to rough skin. Our special formula also includes natural emollients for added softness, plus moisture replenishing humectants to protect against the sun and wind. One application of Vitamin E Moisturizing Cream will soothe and refresh dry, rough skin and leave it creamy-smooth and naturally beautiful.

And here's the ingredients:
Deionized Water, Glycol Monostearate, Propylene Glycol Monostearate, Diglycol Stearate, Triethanolamine, Hydrolized Amino Acids, Vitamin E (1000 I.U. d-Alpha Tocopheryl) and Fragrance.

I did a check online and found that their main website does not contain anymore skin care, rather, only their hair care and hand care sets.  I guess they are phasing out?  Not very sure though.

It's stated on the bottle that it's non-sticky and non-greasy, which to me, is quite rare given that it is a cream product.  We all do know that there is some level of greasiness and stickiness when it comes to a cream product.

 However, to my surprise, Organic Aid Vitamin E Moisturising Cream really is as it claims.  The initial feel of this product is that it feels thick and a little hard to apply.  It seems to be absorb to the skin right immediately, unlike other creams and lotions which you would need to massage them to get your skin absorb it.  There seemed to be a layer of film during the initial few seconds (or minutes?) but right after that there isn't any stickiness or greasiness, as said earlier.  I am rather impressed by it.

After a couple of weeks of consistent application day and night (seriously, I had to use it during the day cause my skin was that bad), I find my skin is getting better.  I look more refreshing and was regaining the fair and unblemished look.  Alright, there are still a bit of scarring on my skin that has yet to fade off from the breakout, but it's good to say the least that I don't have crazy breakouts anymore, except those that tend to pop up during that time of the month.  My skin also feels smoother and softer.  I quite like touching my skin nowadays... haha.. crazy I know.

I find that my skin is not as oily as last time too, which is good because I don't have to keep wiping my face to get rid of the oil.  Looks like the Vitamin E is working eh?  I am truly happy with this Organic Aid Vit E Moisturising Cream.

I will definitely re-purchase this item once I'm done with it.  For RM14.88 (or less during promotion), it is worth the purchase.

Daiso Make Up Cleansing Wet Tissue

Another round of walking around Daiso can be harmful to my pocket, although the items are at RM5.  The number goes up rather quickly when you start picking a few things along the way.  It's those by the way, oh I think I need it that tends to hit me and before I knew it, I'm paying for them already.

Let me digress, ever since I purchased Biore's cleansing tissue, I find myself wanting to try others!  I know, it's rather weird right, it's as though a button was pressed in me to try to see if there are others.  Well, lo and behold, I saw this paper written stating best selling item and it's none other than Daiso's very own cleansing tissue.  

At RM5 for 30 pieces, I thought it would do no harm in giving it a try.  

What's more, the wrapper had it in English stating that it contains natural herbal extract.  What could be so wrong right?

Well, I'd definitely could never be so wrong ever!  Besides the fact that it is quite a big piece of cleansing wet tissue, I don't have a fair bit of good things to share...

For one, it's thin.  Literally, utterly, obscenely thin.  Look at the picture below and you will understand how thin it is.

Not only it is thin, the material is rather harsh to the skin.   It's ok if you wipe it once, but because it doesn't do too much of a decent job, I'd have to run it over my skin 2 to 3 times to ensure that it's clean.  When you do that, it felt harsher to the skin.  I guess over-rubbing it with harsh materials is definitely a no-no.  I'd only use it on days when I am only having my sunscreen and a layer of compact powder on my face.  So, you can guess how good a job it does eh.

This is definitely not a re-buy.

Daiso's Beeswax Lip Balm (Beeswax + Peach Fragrance)

I'm not a very consistent person when it comes to lipstick, lip balms and lip gloss.  I can do my eye make up and leave my lips bare naked.  That, I have to admit, is my regular look =p  However, the past few weeks my lips has been acting on and off; whereby it gets rather dry on days that the skin's peeling.  That really look quite miserable when I caught myself in the mirror.

So as I was browsing at Daiso after my session with my Chiropractor, I saw this little lip blam.  What attracted me was the Peach fragrance.  I'm a sucker for peach and I love to eat peach.  I definitely cannot eat this lip balm, but I thought it would be interesting.

It does look like any other lip balms around.

It states on the label that it's Made in Taiwan.  Somehow, I always think that stuff from Taiwan looks good and does work a fair bit for me.  One thing that made me laughed out loud when reading the label was this:

Warning: Stop using if lip affections develop after use.

Now, I thought one uses it to look good and for those who kisses others (ahem, family also can kiss the cheeks right!), it looks like this lip balm doesn't work for you? Haha, anyhow....

I like the fact that this lip balm does not have that clinical smell, as well as no overwhelming smell too.  It carries more of the vanilla smell and it's quite pleasant.  If you don't fancy vanilla smell, I don't think this is for you though.  That aside, the stick itself isn't those soft and wobbly ones.  I quite like that it glides on your lip quite well.  I don't have to worry about smacking it on my lips too hard and have it broke on me, nor do I have to worry that the stick is too hard to the point where I need to press this lip balm onto my lip.

It does leave a bit of a heavy feeling after putting on, but then again, because I am one who does not like to have anything on her lips, you can take it with a pinch of salt eh. 

Now, does it work to keep my lip from cracking further?

It does, but not as immediate as I wish it to be (need to learn that nothing happens in an instance, gotta be patient).  I usually apply it overnight if I could remember.  Else, it will be a dash of it before I dash out of the door.  Works on well and last me till lunch time and I don't exactly feel it on my lip.

With so many choices out there, I guess it'll be a while before I revisit it again.  But I do think at the price of RM5 for a lip balm of normal size, it does a fair and decent job without having to suffer through some odd smelling balms.  

Review: Sally Hansen Strengthening Nail Polish Remover

  

This was a random buy a while ago, when I ran out of nail polish remover.  Seeing that it's Sally Hansen, I decided to give it a try.  To be honest, I don't like the smell of it.  It carries quite a strong smell of alcohol denat I presume? and so everytime I use it, my room will smell of it.  It does get quite overwhelming.

One thing about it is that, it will ask you to press the cotton soaked with the remover onto your nails for a while before removing it.  It does a fairly good job if I do the pressing, otherwise, it does require a few times of wiping before my nail polishes comes out.  

However, although it states that it is gentle, I realise that it does harm my nails.  Sometimes when I use it I noticed that it seems to remove a layer of my nails.. eeppsss... It's quite scary.  It's quite a big bottle and so it does last for quite a fair bit.

Will I re-buy?  Not when I have other alternatives like the one I bought from Nature Republic.

Review: Life Code Review Part 1

It was truly a privilege to be selected by Miu Miu from Plus Size Kitten to join her to review on this new technology that's touched the shore of Malaysia.  It's really my first to join us activities, so do bear with me if I seem to have left out something ya.

Well, it was a slight rush for me that day as church ended a little late, but I managed to get myself there on time.  When I arrived, our host, Chris, has been such a darling and so welcoming in making sure that all of us are comfy and all.  She even serve us drinks! Talk about service =D  (sorry, sucker for good service!)

this greeted me as I arrived.  Was rather stunned by it.. haha

lovely lobby/ waiting area

Well now, once Plus Size Kitten arrived, Chris starting taking us around the whole place. Chris informed us that the whole building is owned by her boss and all the businesses in it is under him.  One of the place she showed us Asia Spa.  What greeted us was the lovely smell of spas! Oh, how I love that smell.  he took us to have a look at the spa area (oh yea, they are sharing the area with Asia Spa, lovely I tell ya).  There's the ginger tea at the spa's lounge area.  Cosy is the word to describe the place.  Check out some of the photos below:

this greets you when you enter Asia Spa

the lounging are after you've done your spa

cutesy stuff

lighting is much nicer when you are there. trust me, i wanted to lie down when i saw the massage bed... ooooo

After the round ups done by Chris to get our attention of the spa area (haha, we were all over the spa rooms! I think we so wanted to have a spa session by then), we were all ushered over to the designated area for what we are supposed to be trying out for.  What greeted us was this nice walkway....

please excuse the person in the picture and just focus on the walkway ok!

Ain't it grand?  It's such a welcoming feeling I tell you. At the end of the walkway (short one only la) we were directed to the ladies' area on the left (men's on the right).  

Well, to be honest, I felt that the changing room is a little small. There's 12 of us, and it's kinda cramp, considering that we are all to change and get ready to go into the sauna room.  It kinda took us all a while to be ready to go inside.  According to Chris, the sauna room can hold 12 people and each session takes about 1 hour (30 minutes in the sauna and the rest is for you to change before and after and to take a rest before you go off).  So if there are 12 persons on normal days, I guess the changing room may be a bit cramp?  Just a thought that hits me as I was getting ready to change.  But overall, the place is kept tidy and well, so it's cool in that sense. But then again, this is because we are going there in a big group, so let's just say you are going there and you somehow clashed with another 11 people, different people goes in at different time, so I doubt there's clashes.. oops, contradictory me =p

Okay, so we've all changed into our towels and in we go to the room.  Here's a view of it:

It looks like a normal sauna room, of course with a slight difference.  Chris, our host, came in along with us (she's fully dressed in her work cloth I tell ya! Salute her) with the room on full blast of heat just to explain to us what the room is about.  One thing that really caught my attention was the fact that we don't have to shower once we are done.  Beat that! We were all quite in disbelief when she said that.  I mean, come on! You go into a sauna room, with heat and all, and you sweat.  And then you say, no need to shower...  Well, apparently the sauna room emits some herbal thing that would help to burn the fats and the stones in the room is to lighten our skin.  That's the uniqueness of this sauna room, it is to whiten our skin.  Interesting eh?  Well, we were in there for about 30 minutes, trying to sweat more and chatting away.

These are tourmaline stones that covers a number of space in the room.  It's recommended for people to lean on it.  I did a search online and here's the benefits that I extracted from it:

Tourmaline helps you reduce levels of stress, anxiety and confusion. It calms your nerves, removes toxins from your bloodstream, reduces lower back pain, relieves migraines, helps with constipation, heals burns and reduces arthritic pain and swelling. Individual colors of tourmaline have additional healing properties

Essential Herbal Mist Quantum Therapy.  Check out the list of things that it's supposed to help =D

Guess what, although we sweat buckets (probably about there with all of our sweat combined!), we seriously don't smell sweaty nor feel dirty.  There weren't any sticky feeling on our skin at all.  We can literally change and walk off.  Woah, isn't that cool.  What a big difference from the normal sauna that we attend.  

Did I enjoy myself? Definitely! This is part 1 by the way.  Following this the intro of the make up essentials and techniques by Chris.  More to come!

Fasio Power-Stay Mascara 3D+ Curl Long

I got mascara for a bargain! It only costs me RM10 during this sale at Isetan (can't remember what sale dee) at Lot 10.  Thinking that it looks good, I grabbed it and pay.  The one I got is the Fasio Power-Stay Mascara 3D+ Curl Long (long hor the name??) in Brown.  Was thinking that since I don't have a brown mascara, it'll be fun to give this colour a try.  Also partly, all my mascaras are in black (yes, I keep buying 'em black!).

I love the fact that their 3D Curl! It's so easy to apply and I don't have to worry about it smearing my nose (yea, my nose bridge is kinda high, so when using mascara, I tend to smear it... sigh, but it's a blessing still to have a high nose bridge! kaka). Also, because of the curl, it makes it easier to reach those short lil' eye lashes....

Besides that, I think it's quite cool cause it helps to curl my eye lashes naturally.  I don't have to use the curler to curl it and to shape it.  As it is curl long, it helps to make my lashes longer and it curls up naturally.  Neither does it appear clumpy.  It looks rather natural, I would say.

All in all, I'm quite satisfied with it =) So I've been using it quite frequently too! I've got others of course, which I use on and off along with this.  But hey, I'm looking into more new ones too.  Any to recommend? Is the Maybeline Magnum good??  Tempted, tempted...

The Body Shop Super Volume Mascara

A few months back (quite a while back) I purchased a travel pack from the Body Shop.  Some of the items included in the pack is the Camomile Gentle Eye Make Up Remover, and their Super Volume Mascara.

To be honest, I'm not really a fan of mascara cause I've always have difficulty removing them.  But recently, I've been experimenting with eye make up and realised that mascara makes a difference to how I look!  Thus, on and off (whenever I'm not lazy!) I'll apply eye shadows and mascara.  This tube comes in handy because it's small! It's meant for travelling, given the size is only 2.5ml.  It's good enough. 

Because the tube of mascara is small, it makes the bristle looks like it's huge!  But not to worry, it isn't really when you bring it close to your eyes. 

What I love:

1. I don't actually have to curl my lashes!  It curls up on its own.  I don't know how it does it, but it works for me =)
2. My lashes does looks fuller.  Sorry, camera sucks, thus, no pictures of it.  But it's the au naturel fullness kinda look, not overly dramatic.  Just full enough for office look.  If you want your lashes to be fuller, you can apply double layer.  But make sure you use a curler after that for the effect.  Else, it may probably droop a little due to the weight.
3. It's so easy to apply, you just need to slightly touch it to your eye lashes and the colour sticks!  Simple and easy.  It doesn't clump too!  I guess the bristles help to separate the lashes nicely and makes it looks fuller.
4. I loveeeee the packaging of it.  It looks uber class okay.  Simple yet stylo.
   

What I dislike:

1. It smudges after half a day.  I guess it's probably due to proneness of oil on my eye!  I gotta run to the toilet to make sure that the smudge doesn't get out of hand.  It's more like, after half a day, you got to keep checking it.
2. It's just too small! Haha, okay okay, I know.  It's a travel set!

In overall, it works for me.  I guess when I'm done with it, I'll get a new one depending on the price (not sure the price).  Most likely something I would use when I go for dinner event rather than day time.  I'm kinda lazy, so running to the toilet and needing to keep checking on my eyes is something that I tend to forget! That's sooo exactly what happened today.. urgh... What a face to show in the office =.=

Next review coming up, Fasio Curl Mascara (brown)!!!! Oh something of that sort =p

Body Shop: Camomile Gentle Eye Make-Up Remover Review

What should I say about this item?  I got it as part of my travel pack from Body Shop.  They were selling it rather cheap, less than RM100 for a mascara, the eye make up remove, day and night moisturiser, and a body gel. I tend to wear some eye make up when I attend wedding dinners, but these few weeks I've been rather playful and decided to do up my eyes!  Ops, on goes eye shadows and mascara on my eyes.  And thus, this review, since I need to remove those beauty stuff from my face!

What I love?
I love the bottle!  The use of white and the simplicity of its design is, oh so darling! Okay, I'm a sucker for simple things, so its design works for me. 
The size is good too, since it's for travelling, thus it comes in handy.

In terms of its use, it really is a gentle eye make up remover!   It doesn't sting my eyes at all and it feels like I'm applying water onto the eyes, so light and gentle.  That aside, it does well in removing my eye shadow.

What I don't like?
It doesn't remove my mascara! Not even a little.  I was rather disappointed with it, cause I was expecting something slightly more on this.  I guess probably it was too gentle for mascara?  What I ended up doing was trying to rub my eyes to get rid of the mascara (which I know is bad for the skin around my eyes =(  ) Anyhow, after a few times of attempting to remove the mascara, I kinda gave up. 

I guess, if you are just merely using eye shadow and doesn't do much of heavy make up or mascara, this may work for you.  Otherwise, it's better to keep your money for something better. 

Need to scout for a good eye make up remover now just to make sure the mascara goes off good!

p/s: Body Shop mascara review next!

Daiso' Lip Gloss No. 7

Oh! I found the lip gloss colour that I really want!!! Honestly, I have problems with finding the right shade of lip gloss/ stick because I don't really know what I want. All I know is that I want it to be as close to my lip colour as possible and that it would look as nude and as natural as possible.
And now, I found it! And it's cheap! Everyone knows that it's only RM5 per item in Daiso, and I never really thought that I would be able to find the colour that I want. What's more, it comes in the lip brush format, making application simple and easy.

What's more, I like the fact that it's recycable. I know, I know, everyone says, it won't make much of a difference right? Well, I would think that if one person does recycle, it does make a difference to our environment.

I think I shall scout for more things soon in Daiso. Too bad the Eyeliner Coat is sold out. Else, I would've bought it! I saw the eyebrow coat, but don't think I need it though.

More to come, more to come. Gosh, I've bought so many items and I've yet to actually write about them. Definitely need to spend more time testing them and writing about them already!!