Slowly Coming Back

It's a progress, the fact that I am bloggin here once again.  Work has been crazy, and it seems to continue to go crazy for me.  Although I've been rather quiet here, I've actually been feeding on my passion for travel and all things beauty.  Thoughts have come and gone and I figured, it's pretty much time to once again allow myself to have an outlet here.

So, do be on the lookout as I begin to explore writing and sharing my passion here once more!

Travel

Travelling has always been one of the things that I do every year without fail, but it a short trip to one of the local states or be it overseas.  One of the most frequent place that I do go to is Singapore.  I'll be sharing a little bit more of my travel stints here, so be on the lookout for it ;)

2015 Decluttering Exercise - Clearing of my Beauty Products

In the beginning of 2015, I made a decision whereby I decided to log every item that I finished or every item that I gave it to someone else.  This is because I wanted to know how many items have I cleared in a year and whether it is worth purchasing so many things.

What I realise from this exercise is that I clear skincare products rather quickly, but most of my make up products are either thrown away cause they've expired, or they take super long to finish.  I find this a rather enlightening exercise, because we tend to buy and keep and store them but honestly speaking, how often can we really finish our make up stuff?  I am still trying to clear the eyeliners or the eye palettes that I got beginning of last year, I'm still trying to finish up my face powder from the year 2014 and many more.

I've gained a lot from this exercise and I've decided to continue to practice it this year too, albeit, I'll probably spend some time taking pictures of what I've finished instead of chucking them away immediately.  It is immensely satisfying to be able to finish what I have before buying new things.  A llife lesson for me.

Below are the list for your viewing: 

January Finished Goods!
1. Contact Lens Solution
2. Loreal Paris Lucent Magique BB Cream
3. Bioderma Cleanser
4. Cetaphil facial wash
5. Kose Softymo Cleansing Gel

February Finished Goods!
6. Neutrogena Hydro Boost Essence
7. Catrice Eyeliner in Grey
8. Hada Labo Hydrating Lotion (Big bottle)
9. TheFaceShop Arsainte Eco-Therapy extreme moisturiser
10. Tony Moly Lip Stain
11. Nutri metics fruity nail polish
12. Elianto colour studio gold
13. Artistry color palete
14. Beautymate Purifying & Whitening Nano Lotion

15. L'oreal Hydrafresh Supreme Emulsion

March Finished Goods!
16. 3W Clinic Intensive UV Sunblock Cream
17. Optifree Contact Lens Solution
18. Be Sorborlene Cream (gave to ppl)
19. Loreal Moisturiser Aqua Gel (gave to ppl)

April Finished Goods!
20. Cotton pads
21. Maxi Format Bourjois Paris Micellar Cleansing Water

May Finished Goods!
22. Stila Lip Gloss
23. Nivea Lip Balm
24. Be smooth night cream
25. Loccitane the bergamot tea hand cream
26. Optifree contact lens solution 
27. Avocado Olive & Basil Ultra-Moisturising Hand Therapy

June Finished Goods!
28. Nature Republic Super Origin CC Cream
29. L'oreal Hydrafresh Supreme Emulsion
30. Stage Blusher - snapdragon
31. Jelly Pong Pong Teint Sublime the complexion cheater 
32. Divinia ultralight watery uv base for face 50spf

July Finished Goods!
33. Nivea Extra White Firming Body Serum SPF33
34. Maybelline EyeStudio Black Forest Cake Palette
35. TheFaceShop Nail Polish PK110
36. Nature Republic Nail POlish (reddish pink)
37. Optifree contact solution 
38. Complete blink n clean eye drop 
39. Schwarzkopf restore and repair shampoo

August Finished Goods!
40. Optifree contacts solution
41. Soap & Glory scrub your nose in it facial clay scrub mask

September Finished Goods!
42. Loreal Super Emulsion Day moisturiser
43. Bioderma Sensibio H2O Make-up removing micelle solution
44. Entia Aqua Plus White Essence
45. 3W Clinic intensive UV Sunblock cream

October Finished Goods!
46. Watsons Facial Cotton
47. Kose Softymo Speedy Cleansing Oil
48. Hada Labo Retinol Red Milk (small bottle)
49. Kose Softymo Point Make Up Remover
50. Etude House Proof 10 Eye Primer
51. Biore UV Perfect Block Milk Moisturiser
52. Tony Moly Prestige Carat Essential Tinted Moisturiser SPF50 +++
53. Loreal Hydrafresh Deep Boosting Essence 15ml
54. Placenta Sunblock (Sold 2 tubes!)

November Finished Goods!
55. Nutox Serum Concentrate
56. Jelly Pong Pong Shadow Taffy
57. Loreal Mineral Blusher - Pinched Pink
58. Maybelline Mineral Blusher Soft Mauve
59. Maybelline Eye & Lip Make Up Remover
60. Optifree Pure Moist Contact Lens Solution

December Finished Goods!
61. Optifree contact solution
62. Elianto Activewear Mascara in Brown (throw)
63. Jelly Pong Pong Dual Ended Eyeliner
64. Cotton On Look Me In the Eyes - Eye Crayon - Splash
65. Loreal Super Emulsion Day moisturiser
66. Nature Republic Balancing Toner sample
67. Nutox Serum Concentrate
68. Loreal Hydrafresh Supreme Emulsion
69. MOR Body Butter Marshmallow
70. Clinique anti blemish solutions gel
71. 3 stage lipgloss
72. Optifree pure moist travel bottle
73. Eubos feminine wash

Oslee Rosehip Beauty Solution Advanced Formula III

I don't even remember where I got this.  Vaguely, I think this was a birthday gift from one of my girlfriends a while back and it has been sitting in the cabinet for a while now.

Now, some of you may know that I have an issue with my skin, where it can get quite dehydrated without any particular reason.  I was reading about this product online and figured that it's supposed to add some moisture to my skin.  My face was feeling a little tight recently and I decided to give this a try.

Honestly, it's a hydrating toner.  I don't expect it to work like a moisturiser, and it doesn't.  What it does though, it adds another layer of moisture to my already dry skin.  When topped up with hydrating essence and moisturiser, my skin does feel a bit more hydrated.  On days where I was rushing and skipped it, I do feel that my skin is slightly tighter than usual and I usually have to add another layer of moisturiser instead.  With this, one layer of hydrating essence and hydrating moisturiser works.

I won't say that it's an awesome product, but it helps a bit and I don't mind that at all.  Will I repurchase?  I honestly don't know.  I'm not crazy over toner and I can be quite lazy when it comes to adding stuff onto my skin.  We shall see how it goes later after I finish this.  Unless of course, there's something else out there that might help my dehydrated skin?

Do let me know if you think I ought to give some other products a try :D

P/s:  as you have noticed, my blogging has been sporadic.  There are some stuff happening in my life at the moment and I'm still trying to play catch up with life.  Thanks though, for being so patient with me.

Himalaya Herbals Protein Shampoo Daily Gentle Cleansing Shampoo

A habit of mine when it came with hair products is to change them after using a couple of bottles.  This is partly because I want to allow my hair to "rest", if you know what I mean.  So when my organic shampoo was running low, I went scouting.

When I was browsing Watsons a couple of weeks back, I saw that the Himalaya Shampoos were on sale and decided to buy a small one to give it a try.  I got the Himalaya Gentle Cleansing Shampoo as I washes my hair everyday and wanted something that doesn't dry up my hair.

My hair is oily in texture, so typically it tends to be heavy by mid-day and flat as it gets oilier.  Also, because I do color my hair, the bottom part tends to be frizzy and dry.  Also, the bottom part tends to be frizzy.  I realised that if a particular shampoo contains more chemical, my hair will become frizzier.  The combination of heavy and frizzy would tend to weigh me down and makes me feel less comfortable.

I was a little taken aback when I first use this Himalaya Gentle Cleansing Shampoo.  The first pour reveals itself to be a transparent orange tinted liquid.  It truly is the first time I use a shampoo that's not opaque, so I wasn't very sure how it will fair.  Somehow, I had this thought that it won't bubble much because of it.  However, I was proven wrong as it does lather quite well and works to go through every strand of my hair too.

After having use this shampoo for a month, I find that my hair feels lighter and it's not as dry and frizzy as it used to.  Best part is, it is more manageable than previously with the other shampoos.  I like the fact that I don't really have to use hair conditioner to get it to look pliant and soft.  As for oily hair, it seems to be at bay now!  That is a serious plus point for me given how flat my hair would look as the day progresses.  This has done a great job for me.

I pretty much have decided to stick to this shampoo and will probably explore its different ranges to see how they fare.

On the side, I find it interesting to note that there are two levels of ingredients and as such I'm not so sure sure which one has a higher percentage as the natural ingredients and the chemical ingredients are split into two:

Micellar Water

Sorry for not posting last Monday.  I was away that week and wanted to post while I was on the road, but sadly, I fell sick and was just too brain dead to even form proper sentences to speak.  Not only that, I lost my voice as well, so it's quite a mind numbing experience.  At the moment, I'm still coughing and my voice is totally hoarse.  Hopefully, I will get well soon.

Nonetheless, I was in Singapore last weekend for a short trip and I have to say this, it was such a good trip.  I was shopping on my own and it's great fun too.  I went crazy with the Micellar Water and I bought a few varieties of them to try.

(from left to right)

Japanese Brand Cleansing Lotion

I was exploring Beaute Spring when I saw this selling for SGD22.90.  It's definitely cheaper than Bioderma and I couldn't resist getting it for I wonder if it'll be a good alternative to Bioderma.  It's listed to be for Sensitive Skins, which is good for me as I realised that I skin does skew towards that.  For the life of me, I don't know the brand because it's all in Japanese!  Honestly, it's labelled as Cleansing Lotion, so I'm not very certain it is Micellar Water, but I guess, one needs to try in order to find out right? hehe

Bourjois Paris Micellar Cleansing Water
I literally just grabbed and go when I was this.  I have no idea whether it works, but I was on a Micellar Cleansing Water hunt and I just had to, you know, grab it! Hahah... I saw this at BHG in Bugis and it was selling for SGD14.90.

Bioderma Micellar Cleansing Water
This needs no introduction.  I'm running low on it and it was on sale at Watsons for SGD39.90 (normal price is SGD59.90) so of course I'll grab it.  You can read the review here.

I'll blog more about them when I start using them, which I would think is soon as I am down to quite a little of my existing Bioderma Micellar Cleansing Water now.

Aiken Tea Tree Oil

This is my current life saver.  My skin is prone to acne/ pimple around my lips, chin and jaw area and it tends to pop up during the time of the month.  It really does get to me, and I struggled with numerous products before I settled on this.

To be honest, I used to use the Body Shop Tea Tree Oil when I was in my uni time in an attempt to control those annoying pop ups on my skin and I found that it actually caused me to break out even more.  I wasn't sure why but I just stopped using it then.

During the period of last year, when I had a massive breakouts, I was really searching and trying to find something to overcome it and in my desperation, I decided to give tea tree oil a try again.  I settled for the Aiken Tea Tree Oil as it was cheap and it only contains one ingredient, which is the Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil at 100%.  What can go wrong if it's 100% right?

I have to say that this is a life saver product.  What I do is after I wash my face and run through my face with a toner, I then dab this onto the spots.  I leave it on for a minute or so before I put on serum or moisturiser, or both, depending on the texture and how my skin feels for that day.  What I noticed was that, for most period, if it's a pimple with a head, it will shrink after about 2 days.  If I've pressed and cleared the gunk off the pimple, it will take about 3 days to heal properly.  Although it does leave a red spot on the said area, it's cleared of anything. I tend to continue to apply the Aiken Tea Tree Oil onto my spots even after that to ensure that it doesn't recur.

Please be aware that this product does sting a little, so if a pimple is near your eye area, I'd suggest you to avoid applying this.  I realised that if a particular spot where I applied is about to have bumps or already have slight bumps, the sting is stronger.  I reckon it is "killing" all the bad bacteria... hehe...

It's been a year since I started using it and I have to say that it works every time.  It's definitely a good purchase.  I think it costs me only RM10 back then.  I'm not sure what's the price now though.

However, one thing is that it does leave the bottle sticky after a while or if you've encountered leakage (as you can see, it looks icky ;p).  I've been carrying it along with me when I travel and it does have a bit of leakage.  What I usually do is I put it into a plastic bag or ziploc before I pack it into my make up pouch, just so that it does make a mess with my other stuff.

This is definitely a good buy and I'll definitely get a new one when I'm done.  Totally cost effective.  After almost a year, I still have a quarter left in the bottle.  Am loving it.