Check-in #2

For this fortnight's check-in, I'm happy to announce that I finally managed to save the final $50 for this month, because I found about $700 in duit raya while I was cleaning my room. Syukur Alhamdulillah for small mercies. 

1. Winnow through my closet

I've done many more small rounds of clearing since, and I finally created enough room - the entire top shelf of one cupboard - to put my bags. I also cleared out most of one drawer and put my sports bras in there. Also, I cleared out the rest of my room while I was at it. 

I admit that I could stand to lose another 30 - 50% of stuff, but I think I'll save that for when I'm moving out, or something. :) 

2. Finish up one foundation

I've been using foundation daily for work, which is about five times a week, and I've been using the KVD one most of the time. I did try to work in the Hourglass sometimes, but it just doesn't last all day, especially when I'm rubbing my face, so, I dunno, naturally I keep reaching for the KVD. 

I'm actually falling more in love with my Infallible Matte foundation the more I use it. It feels so lightweight on my skin, but the coverage is excellent and the finish is more matte than KVD, which, like, wow! My forehead doesn't get shiny till late afternoon, even with all the sweating going on, which is more than I can say for the KVD. I wish I could repurchase it more easily, but I don't care - I'm gonna use it up anyway, if it comes to that. 

Oh, also I threw out the L'oreal Mineral Powder because let's be real, it was doing nothing for me and I haven't touched it in a year. 

Once I finish up one foundation, and if it happens to be the Infallible which I can't repurchase yet, I'll try the Laneige Pore Control BB Cushion. 

3. Low-buy

I messed up a little here. After my massive decluttering, I decided to reward myself with a bunch of organisers from Muji. I ended up spending about $120 on five PP drawers, three smaller PP containers, one PP carry box (for my skincare), and my prized possession - an acrylic drawer for my (considerable) lipstick collection. Ah, it looks so lovely. I'm so happy. I don't regret a thing. It makes my skincare routine much less kecoh, which is great. 

I also made my planned purchases for the month, which was the four Cosrx items I'd listed earlier. 

I did also mention that I wanted to try something from Pyungkang Yul, right? But the shipping from Ohlolly (clearly their exclusive retailer) was like $20-$30 (USD!), so that was an easy no. I'll survive on my Belif and maybe try a Muji travel size, thanks Ohlolly. 

4. Ride out once a week

Sorry, I really don't think I can keep to this goal. The inclement weather doesn't help my kemalasan. I can do a once-a-fortnight thing, if you will. 

5. Fun lip colour once a fortnight

Well, this is an easy one, I guess. Even with my chapped lips situation, I have the cream Vice in Venom, so I wear that like, every other Friday or so. Or whatever dates I can squeeze in. I wore it yesterday! Thank the Lord for traditional cream lipsticks. I may allow myself to buy one more next pay. 

6. One blog post a week

Still on track, as you can see! 

7. $1k to MKK fund

As I mentioned in my first para, I've saved the required $350 for this month, yay! I mean, Syukur Alhamdulillah. Two more months of $350 to go! Let's do this! 

Rants and raves

I'd mentioned my chapped lips in one of my earlier posts. And I'm sad to announce that they're back! It's my fault. I was reading on one of the subs (AB or SCA) that someone put the Hada Labo Gokujyun HA Lotion on their lips before an occlusive, and woke up with nice plump lips. So I decided to be gatal and try that. Yeah, one and a half days later, my lips started chapping again. This is even worse than the first time, because it's spread to my lower lip, and quite a large surface area, too. Lipstick looks horrible on now, even the cream ones I'd been exclusively wearing during Ramadhan. 

I'm sad and bingit sendiri because I love wearing my liquid lippies, and I miss them so much, especially L.U.V. Please wait for me, guys! I'm slathering lanolin as liberally as I can, and praying for the health of my lips too. Lesson learnt: Don't be slathering any kind of acid on your lips. 

In happier news, my skin seems happy with the changes I've introduced, which was mainly the Cosrx Pimple Clear Pads. So far, I've only done two rounds of that, about 2 days apart. Granted, my cheeks have gotten drier, but the whiteheads? white bumps? CCs? on my chin have all but disappeared. I can't believe I agonised over them for months and even tried to squeeze them out at lower points in my life, when this solution was just a subreddit away. Okay, yang lepas tu lepas. 

So with my dry cheeks, I have to be more careful to use a heavier moisturiser on those areas, and then seal them in with lanolin. Otherwise, I have no complaints! 

I'm itching to try my BHA and AHA Power Liquids, but I'm gonna give myself another 2 weeks on the Pimple Clear Pads before I introduce the AHA. 

Oh oh. I have to admit that I picked up some brushes at Sephora last week to up my eyeshadow game, and I regretfully got a Supergoop Defense Refresh Setting Mist after I met Holly and she excitedly demoed some of the products on me. I only realised, back at the office, that the reviews of the product were not-so-rave, and the tester spray really did leave odd beads of residue on my eyebrows and eyelashes. So there's no way I was keeping that. 

Thankfully, I managed to return the Supergoop today, and get the NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer in Caramel. Yes, I like to make like I'm darker than I really am. I don't think it looks odd. In fact, I don't think my foundations oxidise on me - they seem to get lighter the longer the wear time. I guess my skin chemistry makes the stuff reduce, then. :P

Well, till next fortnight, or earlier!

Check-in #1

Quick check-in on my Summer Lovin' Goals!

I haven't bought anything yet, but I have a Sephora mini-spree (for brushes) and an OhLolly mini-spree (Cosrx and one Pyungkang Yul item) planned for this billing cycle. I'm really proud of myself because I was at Tangs with Nat on Friday and there were some nice Alia Anggun tops in my size, and on sale, and I didn't even try them on! Also I was at Sephora twice this week and didn't buy anything, just swatched lots of stuff. So keep it up!

Next, I managed to put away $300 to my MKK fund. That's short of $50 for this month. Not too shabby, considering this month I had to renew Ferb's insurance and road tax!

Also, I didn't manage to ride Ferb last week because I wasn't feeling well, but I rode out for my brow appointment today so that's great!

I'm well on track to using up one foundation. I'm focusing on the KVD and the Hourglass Vanish stick.

Till next fortnight!

posted from Bloggeroid

Chapped lips

We're just entering the fourth and final week of Ramadhan, and it's been a pretty challenging one for me. Or rather, my body isn't reacting the way it normally does during a fast. 

Last week Monday, my lips started chapping, and they were raw by the time I got home. I blamed it on the Peripera lip tint (Ink Velvet) that I wore that day. Lip tints are the most drying of all lip cosmetics, right? So the next day I went back to a "normal" liquid lipstick, but my lips refused to heal. So I just had patches of raw skin - no flaking pieces of skin or anything, just raw open "wounds"? - which hurt like heck, especially since I couldn't hydrate myself throughout the day. Even reapplying copious amounts of my Vichy Aqualia Thermal every half hour or so didn't work. I went crazy last week trying to find something that would work. My Fresh Sugar Lip Scrub, Bite Agave Lip Mask, random Belif Rose Oil.. Nothing worked. On Saturday I was heading out for a date and removed my protective layer of Bite Agave to put on my Huda Beauty liquid lipstick in Famous. I reasoned that Huda Beauty's liquid lips are the most hydrating, from my past experience and also they don't dry down, so I'd be safe. But God no, my lips started stinging the moment I swiped the doefoot applicator on. That was upsetting. I immediately wiped it off and smeared on my UD Epigram. That didn't hurt. Cream lipsticks ftw when you have sad chapped lips. 

I don't believe this has ever happened to my lips before. It must be part of getting old or something. Usually when my lips dry out, they just start peeling. So you slap on a scrub, remove the dead skin, and you're good to go. But yeah. None of the usual remedies worked. 

So on Tuesday I got off work early, so I dropped by Mothercare at Tampines and bought a tube of Lansinol HPA Lanolin. It's actually marketed as a nipple cream, but because it's pure lanolin, you can use it for similar skin concerns, I suppose.  It appeared to be the top remedy from my r/skincareaddiction searches. I was a bit bingit at having to shell out 30-some bucks for a lip salve, but on hindsight, it is 40ml of product, so it's a lot cheaper than Bite Agave, even. And it's so thick, you only need the teensiest bit to put on your lips. That tube'll probably last me till I actually need it for my nipples, insya Allah. 

Anyway, I was really impatient to see results, but it's been slow-going. Sigh, this internet age, making us want more things faster. (Fine, okay, I won't try to shift the blame.) However, I think that it is working quite beautifully. My lips no longer sting when I eat pedas food, so that's a step ahead. And I've been using cream lipsticks religiously (I miss you guys, liquid lips!) to avoid exacerbating the problem, so I'm gonna try and put on a liquid lip tomorrow, and see how it goes. Then I'll go back to cream for the rest of the work week, so that I'm ready to rock an intense liquid lip on 1 Syawal. 

Watch this space!

Baaaack!

Hello, I'm back and with a skincare obsession and some real #goals! 

So I've joined the MakeupRehab subreddit, which has been really helpful and given a new, healthier perspective on my latest obsession. There was a post today on Summer Lovin' Goals, so I came up with some and I'll post them here, because I'm too shy to post on the sub. 

Duration: Now, 6 June to 3 September. 

Check-ins: Every Sunday

Here goes!

1. Winnow through my closet

I've done 2 - 3 rounds of this so far, this year. But I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, because I have so many clothes now that they're stacked to unsustainable heights. So I really want to do one giant, focused one this time. 

Guidelines:

• Mouldy, ripped
• Never wear it
• More than 2 sizes up or down

2. Finish up one foundation

Here's a list of the foundations I currently own: 

• KVD Lock-It in 62 (45% left)
• Hourglass Vanish Stick in Golden Tan (60%)
• Tarte Amazonian Clay Mineral Powder (no idea, you can't see through the container!)
• Maybelline Fit Me stick (98%)
• Nude by Nature BB Cream (90%)
• L'oreal Infallible 24-HR Matte (80%)
• L'oreal Mineral Powder (75%?)

That's way too many for someone who doesn't wear makeup half the time, thanks to Zumba. Soooo.. Let's try to finish up one of these soon! I'm favouring the top 3. I love the first 2, but the Vanish isn't long-wearing at all, and is more dewy (i.e. shiny on me), of course. And the Tarte one just doesn't do much for my face, so once I get rid of that, I will not repurchase. 

3. Low-buy

From here on out, I'm on a low-buy mode. This applies to clothes, makeup and skincare. It explicitly excludes date expenses, Uber, and food. I'm only allowed to buy replacements for whatever's used up or damaged (ripped pants, anyone?), and the following Cosrx items, because I plan to add them to my routine:

• Pimple clear pad
• Acne Master Patch
• BHA Blackhead Power Liquid
• AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid

4. Ride out once a week

Since I don't ride to work anymore, Ferb is tragically underutilised. I'll make sure I bring him out once a week, whether it's to the shops or the park, or on a date. 

5. Fun lip colour once a fortnight

I wear my brick reds, peachy nudes, and pinky nudes on the daily, whether it's for work or dates. I've almost forgotten how much I love my bright purples, dark purples, and vampy shades. I even bought a fresh tube of KVD's L.U.V. last month, but I haven't had a chance to open it. So I think that I'll have to make a conscious effort to work them into my makeup routine. Since I'll only be able to wear them on Fridays (if there are no meetings or interviews) and weekends, there's not much room to include them, so I've made it easy by putting fortnight as the frequency. 

6. One blog post a week

Starting with this post, I'll endeavour to put up one blog post a week, whether here on Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress, or even Livejournal. As long as there are words accompanying the post, it's counted!

7. $1k to MKK fund

I saved the most ambitious goal for last. I'm hoping to save another $1,000 this summer for my MKK fund. I really do want to marry Cutes, and I want to be financially ready for such a commitment, so this would help immensely. This means I'll have to put away $350 each month, or thereabouts. 

Go Ain!

Well, that's it for my comeback post. I'll try to check back in the next couple Sundays or so! Toodles!