Archive for the ‘General’ Category
Is me
Posted on: August 23, 2012
- In: General
- Comments Off on Is me
This year has been very momentous and I was experiencing massive emotional fluctuation.
Goodbye to my 8 years relationship in February, stepped into hectic corporate world again after 7 years in March, moved house twice in April, rushed back for my dad’s funeral in May, moved house again in July, demise of my very old grandpa and deepest condolences for tragedies of friends in Aug …
I hope these reasons explained well why I was absent from blogging for past several months.
I couldn’t concentrate on blogging.
I have many plans to revolute my life.
My days were filling by both blissful and miserable moments, which I considered myself blessed, sometimes surprised.
Cherish the moment.
Love, b. —- ♥
Taking a break……
Posted on: March 10, 2012
- In: General
- 4 Comments
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To those visiting my blog regularly, THANK YOU.
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I was having a drastic change in my life. Really need to take a break from blogging…. then come back with full energy to share my lots of review.
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Got this picture when I saw The Big Dipper outside the window, it was a midnight flight. The seven stars were tranquilly sitting on the black canvas, very clear and very near, seemed to be touchable… beautiful. It remembered me another flight that I saw the soft glaring, fully illuminated moon above clouds, that may be the first time I was so close to the moon… stunning.
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STAR = HOPE ; FULL MOON = FULFILL
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This is the road map ahead me, I hope I can get pass the bewildering, amazing, challenging road maze soon, with the guidance of God.
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Valentine’s Day Special
Posted on: February 10, 2012
- In: General
- 4 Comments
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✿ Valentine’s day is just around the corner, does it mean something to you? ✿
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✿ For two single ladies, my best friend and I had named it Friendship day instead ✿
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Remember the OMG makeup tutorial I shared in my Missha BB cream review? Yes! I came across the original author blog accidentally and can’t wait to share with you all. Inspired? Or terrified? Click here to see her step-by-step tutorial (use online translator).
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A little bit of hair-do?
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Nail is too small for my painting but I like to see other flipping their creativeness on their finger tips.
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Dress your style, be yourself.
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Sweet temptation
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Ahh…the rainbow rose reminded me of lollipop
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A gift is not just for the day
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– ✿ – Have a good day – ✿ –
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Casual days in beach town
Posted on: December 22, 2011
I moved from hustle bustle central Bangkok to a popular holiday beach town this year and I really loved the move.
Though I no longer enjoying abundant good books in Kinokuniya at Siam Paragon, though I no longer being up to date of various workshop/exhibition in major shopping malls, though I no longer having easy access to very authentic Chinese cuisine in the city; but fresh seafood, slower lifestyle pace, less traffic jam, less stressful and beautiful beach are already made up the absence.
We were celebrating coming Christmas in warm climate here. Here is some pictures of few local seafood restaurants that we enjoy most of our weekend there. We can never get bored of the beach! And food.
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My favorite Thai food
Many watercrafts are passing by… our view is not bored
Very strong wind, we sit indoor to avoid getting wet
A cottage linked to a restaurant
Enjoy delicious food under coconut trees
Must come earlier to seize the seaside seat
Dog is the most common animal I’ve seen on beach
The tree, the beach, the sunset remembered my old school holidays
Be a pouch potato with a glass of champagne, good food, good view, good service plus steep price
Many scenic seafood restaurants are actually hidden in small fishing villages
These seats are on reservation only. What a nice seaview lazy chair after dinner.
Sand zone, my SO said we are liked in Italy in picture (>< b)
A four-tier resort style seaside restaurant
Some Thai families could just spend few hours for their dinner time in this restaurant
I can never predict the colour of sunset
Sometimes atmosphere is more attractive than food
Another nice restaurant in a fishing village, side seat need earlier booking or try our luck
Now you know why their seafood is super fresh
Going home earlier because of high tide
Sabai Sabai ~ one of my favorite Thai song too ~
~ Wish you all have a wonderful weekend ~
Aha ~ My new hairstyle
Posted on: August 31, 2011
- In: General | Hair Care
- 8 Comments
Image credit here
Hi all, I just said bye to my long hair recently. I got exactly airy, pear-shape, medium-length hair as shown in above picture now!
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Hmn… a little bit too short than I expected. My new hair stylist moved his scissor before we finalized the length (!!), surely I got to be more alert and well communicated with him next time.
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In order to create the “bob” and light effects, I had Japanese perm (梨花烫) at hair tail and coloured the hair to brunette. Surprisingly my SO liked my new hairstyle very much, though I personally still preferring long hair (“b). Only thing is that this new hairstyle did require proper makeup to compliment the overall look, so basically I forced to have proper eye makeup on when I stepped out the house.
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My hair stylist taught me step-by-step how to blow my hair (after shower) at home, hence I can easily create the volume and thickness in just 10 minutes, with just a hair dryer and my fingers! It was pretty easy to manage I must say and the hair didn’t get tangled in strong wind too (haha). However, the hair did get slightly flattened after an overnight sleep. Dampen the hair a little bit and take a quick blow normally can fix the issue and restore the fullness. Besides, I noticed the hairstylist applied a little bit baby powder (talc) onto my hair when he blew my hair to dry at salon, it gave the hair more volume but in the meantime, my non-oily hair got more drying. Good tips for greasy hair but definitely I won’t do that for my hair.
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(Left: Haha, I can still tie up the hair!)
(Right: hair is slightly flattened when woke up in morning)
This new hairstyle can last for 6 months, so my hairstyle may be re-styling in this way (as shown in below picture).
Wanted to share a little bit trivia about my new hair stylist here. He is recommended by my sister (he is my sister’s hair stylist too), owned his own salon in a residential area and constantly upgrading his skill by attending various hair courses. During the four hours’ time spent in his neighborhood hair studio, I asked him a lot of questions and here are some interesting info that I got to know from him. Be warned, I didn’t study and verify the info with trusty source particularly in more detailed chemical explanation, hence welcome to leave a comment if you obtain different opinion from your hairstylist or you think his answer is untrue. (“v)
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Hair is dead tissue?
I read somewhere before that our hair is dead tissue, that sounds really odd actually. According to him (the hair stylist), it was correct for rebonding hair only because the extreme heat to straighten the hair had destroyed the inner hair structure, hence rebonding hair looked like “paralyzed” and remaining absolutely straight and flat in all circumstances, until you cut it off. Colouring, perming, curling, styling don’t change the inner hair structure, so these hair are still alive! (Glad to know my hair is not dead tissue!)
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Oily hair and dry hair, which is better?
I saw few whitish flakes came off from hair scalp and he told me they were dead cells of hair scalp, which normally happen to dry hair scalp. Oily hair scalp tends to loss hair compared with dry hair scalp. According to him, the most troublesome and tricky hair work was always associated with boldness because it was very difficult to create a nice hairstyle for the customers who have boldness issue. (My goodness! I haven’t thought of boldness yet…)
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Is hair treatment necessary?
I believe all hair stylists would tell hair treatment is necessary. With no exception, he said it was worth to invest in periodical hair treatment for healthy balanced hair scalp. Hydrate the hair with nano-technology product and seal in the moisture with oil or silicone based product. We can DIY at home but hair salon has proper equipment, hence the result may be varied. (So we still can have treatment done at home with good product …)
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Silicone bad for hair?
He also advised me try to avoid silicone-based product if possible because silicone builds up and accumulates on hair over the time (silicone has ability to bond to hair), which resulting limp hair and might obstruct treatment ingredients to be absorbed in hair. Moreover, a new hair colour won’t be easily pigmented on hair (Does this means silicone also prevents bad ingredients to be absorbed by hair then??). Generally silicone-based product is helpful to keep the hair more manageable. (I actually pondered if this was the reason why my normal drugstore hair care lost their softening effect after using for a while as most budget drugstore hair conditioner/mask were heavy silicone-based)
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Should I wash my hair everyday?
I asked him this question because I was a little bit worry if I over-cleansed my hair since I shampooed my hair every day. He told me to wash the hair everyday to prevent oily scalp in tropical climate and also remove the silicone build up from hair styling product and conditioner. Nevertheless, he told not to leave on the shampoo on hair scalp for too long because the detergent wasn’t good for hair scalp. He/the assistant actually washed my hair in quicker way comparing to other hair salon, no 3-step washing (shampoo, conditioner, treatment) and no head massage too. (Ya… I always not shampoo my hair more than a minute because I wasn’t a miner worked in mines)
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Dying the coloured hair?
I just dyed my long hair at home with Garnier kits nearly 3 months ago, of course the dying was uneven and not even meet a professional hair-colouring standard. Ehm… my main intention was to hide the grey hair, after all not many (any??) women can tolerate grey hair despite the hair stylist said I don’t have to worry about my minimal grey hair yet. Forget the harmful hair bleaching, professional hair stylist with hair-olouring qualification able to work with colour system and mixed a custom-blended colour. That means, in order to create the colour C as end result, the new custom-blended colour A will mix/swatch with customer existing hair colour B then come out the desired colour C. As this was my first-time dying the hair in hair salon, so I never knew hair stylist needs to have special qualification for this. I think next time I should just leave the hair colouring to my hairstylist if I wasn’t sure the end-result of DIY hair dying. (Or I just stick with the DIY hair-colouring kit that worked fine for me)
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Treatment is essential after hair colouring?
I always thought treatment after hair colouring was aimed to repair & strengthen the coloured hair or to protect the new colour. However, he only used a lightweight ampoule to massage on my hair scalp after hair colouring. He told me the ampoule aimed to balance the alkaline pH from hair colouring chemical in order to maintain healthy growing environment for hair root. (When I DIY at home, I always avoid the dye chemical contacted with hair scalp)
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What is the difference between normal shampoo and shampoo for coloured hair?
Interestingly he said the only major difference between normal shampoo and shampoo for coloured hair was the pH. According to him, shampoo for coloured hair was non-alkaline or less alkaline than normal shampoo because alkaline-pH cleansing product has stronger cleansing power which wasn’t good for maintaining hair colour. As conclusion, using pH gentle hair care can prolong the hair colour, not necessary must grab a shampoo for coloured hair. (So we should question what is the “special ingredient” next time when product marketing department told us their shampoo has “special ingredient” to protect the colour treated hair)
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How long the colour will fade?
Among the colour base, red, purple and blue colours were the easier to colour fading. So if you want to have long-lasting hair colour, avoid these three colours series. Colour fading doesn’t mean to reveal the original hair pigment because the original hair pigment had been changed during irreversible chemical reaction of hair colouring. In fact the fading dye will look dull and less attractive. (I see…let’s wait and see what happen to my brown shade after few months)
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At the end of the chatting with my hair stylist, I found there was a lot of similarity between hair care and skin care, after all the main component of our hair, skin and nail were protein. At this moment I was still using normal drugstore shampoo because that was what I can afford but I started adhering to natural botanical-based conditioner/hair treatment since several months ago because I had seen the difference. The bottom line is, when you are the user for 365 days per year, you can speak from your own experience what is good for your hair.
~ Have a nice day ~
Customize your cleansing routine
Posted on: August 9, 2010
The day I was strolling in Daiso Japan store, I spotted this floral facial wash lather net. It meant to facilitate lathering process for facial wash, some of you might have known that using different lathering technique, you can have different kind of cleansing outcome.
It is in the shape of a stalk of flower. It knitted together with the white-colour-net, flip it out before use
I’m not sure how many of you are doing the same way like me, I usually take an adequate amount of cleanser on palm, then add a little bit water to mix with it, rub in palm to lather up before massage the lathers onto face. On the other hand, Japanese beauty experts always advise to use lather net or puff in order to create abundant lathers, which most probably, they think any loose and sparse lathers are impassable for cleansing.
Let’s look at below four tests (A, B, C, D) for clearer idea. I used soap-free Kanebo Kracie Purenavi cleansing gel for Test A, B and C; a soap-based cleanser for Test D.
::: + Test A + :::
By using hand. This is what I normally did, simple and quick. This is also the best I can foam it up.
::: + Test B + :::
Squeeze an appropriate amount of facial cleanser onto the net. Add a little water from time to time to generate lathers.
By using lather net. The Daiso floral lather net is not really user-friendly but it did help the foam up.
::: + Test C + :::
Squeeze the appropriate amount of facial cleanser onto the puff. Add a little water from time to time to generate lathers.
By using Fancl facial puff. The puff can easily generate rich lathers, better than the Daiso floral lather net.
::: + Test D + :::
By using Fancl facial puff with soap-based facial cleanser. The lathers are rich and dense.
There are few reasons why I tested the method with soap-free Kanebo Kracie Purenavi cleansing gel and a soap-based facial cleanser here:
- the Kracie Purenavi cleansing gel itself is difficult to foam up, using a tool can make dramatic difference.
- any soap-based facial cleanser generally is very foamy. I can create a “snowman” with soap-based’s.
Did you know the cleansing result also varies with the technique you applied? From my experience, if I follow the Test A to cleanse the skin, my skin could be easier to prone to dryness but it has better or stronger cleansing ability; whereas if I follow the Test B, C and D, the chances to get dryness after washing is much lower but the cleansing ability is weaker but still cleanse well. So my question is, do we really need a “strong” facial cleanser?
In my opinion, we don’t need a “strong” cleansing in morning because we only wear “non-waterproof” skin care product overnight, on the other hand, we should use an effective makeup remover instead of “strong” facial cleanser in evening. I had mentioned before that even a mild facial cleanser is capable enough to remove minimal makeup residue from makeup removal.
Nevertheless, if you don’t wear any makeup, there might be a reason for you to use a “strong” facial cleanser in evening since our skin could be very “polluted” after being outside with all the pollutions and excess sebum excretion along the day. In this case, I think it’s not a must to stand by different cleansers or to get a makeup remover, you can save your money and just change the technique.
My piece of Fancl washing puff is still in good condition actually, I bought the Daiso floral facial wash lather net on whim, in fact I wanted to be more discipline to follow the Japanese cleansing method.
Customize your cleansing routine today, without changing your favorite cleanser. No extra money needed but it does require a little bit extra time, a little bit good patience and a little bit more skin care passion from you. (“V)
- In: General
- 6 Comments
I’ve a strong reason here to call this post as final episode of Kanebo Beauty Analyzer 21AD. Read on if you’re interested in knowing why, else please ignore this post because this is mainly for my own reference and it might be confusing to you.
To get the skin analysis with Kanebo Beauty Analyzer 21AD, the beauty assistant first inputted my age, then used the handheld electronic reader to read my skin on cheek, inner cheek, forehead and undereye separately for different analyzing aspects.
The system is in the mid of an analyzing
Let’s look at below picture A and B, there are different outputs that I got at different Kanebo counters in the same day. By the way I only slept on 3 AM and had 5 hours sleeping time on the night before the checking. The different analyzing results confused me initially but everything were getting clear after I read the analyzing result of my SO that shown in picture C.
Picture A
Picture A: My Ist checking in noontime
Picture B
Picture B: My 2nd checking in evening
Picture C
Referring to picture C, I was totally amazed this is the result of a person who never worn sunscreen in his entire life, basically no skin care habit and only use a Utena facial scrub and a clay mask once a week at most. BUT, he has consequence to suffer, his skin age is older than his actual age.
Therefore, the six main checking points (cleansing, exfoliation, whitening, metabolic regulation, Moisturizing, UV rays protection) are meant to analyze how strong is the skin structure. For instance, my SO skin is considered healthy and has high resistance against UV rays, thus he scored the high mark in UV rays Protection aspect. Whereas my skin is thin and sensitive that has low resistance against UV rays, so I scored the poor mark. However, I could score higher mark when my skin was healthy and stable. Meanwhile, the poor rating gives Kanebo beauty assistant strong reason to sell you a sunscreen.
Summary of four analysis
After went through my four analyzing results of 2009 and 2010, I concluded:
- the device only analyzes your skin condition at the time of checking
- the device doesn’t consider our specific skin condition such as sensitivity, allergy…etc.
- the system criteria tend to rate drier skin as older, oilier skin as younger.
- our skin condition varies from time to time, take the analyzed result as reference only.
- trust your eyes for visibly skin improvement.
- The device is helping the beauty assistant (and yourself) to identify which product that you need most.
Eventhough the system had rated me oily skin but as you can see, my skin is pretty close to Normal zone actually.
As such, I’ve drawn my own conclusions in these aspects:
Cleansing – Stick to gentle, soap-free cleanser no matter what.
Exfoliation – As long as the skin is smooth, improved moisture and pores are refined visibly, I know my regular exfoliation works.
Whitening – Whitening skin care would help as I used whitening stuff when I scored higher rating.
Moisturizing – I certainly need intensive hydra-care in dry season.
UV rays protection – Sunblock is necessary everyday.
Metabolic Regulation – Basically I’ve no idea what is this about in the analysis of Kanebo Beauty Analyzer 21AD.
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