Lactacyd face wash

I've had a few nasty cases of breakouts.

I had my first major breakout when I was 15. Zits all over my face. Went to see a dermatologist and was prescribed antibiotics and Lactacyd face wash. This combination cleared up my skin. However, I stopped using the Lactacyd cleanser because I found it too harsh - the skin on my palm peeled off after continuous use.

The next time I experience a bad breakout was when I was around 23 years old. I tried MAC Studio Fix Liquid foundation and got a bad reaction from using it. I went to the same derm and she prescribed me antibiotics and Cetaphil cleanser for oily skin. I continued using the cleanser for about a year, until it reached a point where it did nothing for my oily skin.

Then at age 24 I broke out again, this time because of Sephora mineral foundation. I went back to the same derm, and this time she gave me antibiotics and Lactacyd cleanser. Prior to the dermatologist visit, a colleague told me that she swore by yoghurt cleanser to maintain flawless skin. Lactacyd's active ingredient is lactic acid which comes from milk so I was excited to try the cleanser again. Oh, and did you inow that Cleopatra used milk as part of her beauty regime? I didn't plan to use it for a long time though, because based on my experience, it's abrasive.

Surprisingly I've been using Lactacyd for almost 2 years now. I guess they changed the formula because it is no longer harsh on my skin. Another thing that I like about this cleanser is that it doesn't contain a lot of chemicals. It has very few ingredients, with the main one being lactic acid.

This is how the Lactacyd face wash looks like:

Image Googled

The manufacturer has changed the bottle design for the Lactacyd feminine hygiene wash so consumers won't get confused with the face wash.

Actually this Lactacyd cleanser is not just for face, you can also use it as body wash and shampoo. But right now I'll just stick to using it as facial cleanser :-)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0

I already have an iPad 2. My husband gave it to me as my 25th birthday present. Now I'm experiencing some technical difficulties using the iPad. One of the problems is that the browsers cannot open a lot of websites :-( Recently I got promoted (after 2 years in the company! Yeay!) and I decided to reward myself with a new tablet. I'm planning to buy it next week. So excited!!! I'm thinking of getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 because of these awesome features:

1) It has a voice assistant feature like Apple's Siri
2) Smart Stay feature that detects eye movement
3) Multitasking feature that allows multiple windows to be opened at a time!
4) I saw a Youtube video that shows that you can take a screenshot just by waving in front of the screen!
5) The camera has beauty mode. I know, I'm so vain
6) It has a microSD slot
7) Reasonably priced. The wifi model is RM 1099
8) Samsung has some sort of deal with Trip Advisor so for this tablet there are travel wallpapers installed. Cool!
9) The speaker is Dolby Surround!

Wish I can fast forward one week!

Tips for travellers

Last week I went to London for a holiday with my husband. Today I'm back in Malaysia and still recovering from post-holiday blues (the feeling right after you come back from a holiday is the worst feeling ever! It's like...you have nothing else to look forward to) so I decide to write a short blog entry on travelling.

Here are a few tips which (I hope) all other travellers out there might find useful for your future vacations:

Cropped jacket vs Long Coat
If you intend to travel light to a cold climate country, try to bring one jacket only. Preferably a cropped jacket instead of those long trench coats to save space. Oh, and if you're petite like me cropped jackets will suit you better. Long coats will just "drown" you and this will not look flattering in photos.

Small flexible tripod
It's good to have a small flexible tripod that you can mount anywhere (well, almost anywhere) to take photos. Then you don't have to rely on strangers to take your pictures and you'll take less self-potraits too. I love taking self-potraits but when I'm on holiday, I want to capture the scenery as well.
You don't have to buy expensive tripods. Daiso sells good and reliable small flexible tripodsfor RM5 only.

Foldable tote bags
I'm the kind of traveller who carries a backpack from home-airport-hotel and vice versa, and uses handbag while I'm shopping or sightseeing at my holiday destination. Usually I would pack a large bulky handbag in my luggage but recently I've developed a liking for Longchamp bags. Simple design, nice colours and most importantly, foldable.

Ensure all liquid bottles are less than or equal to 100ml
I always got my contact lens solution confiscated because I forgot each time that the 100ml rule is based on the bottle size, not the amount of liquid. If the amount of liquid is less than 100ml but the volume of the bottle is, say, 120ml, then the liquid will be confiscated by airport security.

Travel pillow
Last but not least, bring a travel pillow! I forgot to bring mine during the recent London trip and totally regretted it!

26th birthday

Just like my wedding anniversary, my birthday fell on a Monday.

I took leave on that day and on Tuesday as well. No way I was gonna work on my birthday and be depressed about going to work the next day.

Hubby couldn't take leave on my birthday so I went to my parents' house to spend some time with my mum. First thing in the morning, the parents gave me a birthday card.

For my parents, birthday card is a must for each birthday. Clearly they don't really mind about not preserving the environment.

I spent my birthday shopping at KLCC with my mum. Initially I wanted a Pandora bracelet as a gift but then there's none of the design that I like. I ended up choosing a gold-plated Swarovski bracelet instead.The bracelet has a timeless, classic design and I just love the 3 crystals on it.

After my husband came home from work, we went out for dinner at Subang Parade and he bought me the Panasonic Ionic Facial Steamer which I've always wanted:

I'll do a review on the facial steamer in a future post.

My office is just 5-minutes walk to Sephora...

...which is why I always go on impulsive shopping during lunch break!

Just to share 3 products which I've purchased from Sephora recently:

1) Urban Decay Naked Basics eye palette

Initially I was skeptical about spending RM90++ on an eye shadow palette (I can get cheaper ones at Watsons & Guardian) but it was the good reviews and peer pressure that motivated me to buy this. A lot of people are raving about the two Naked palettes by Urban Decay. I didn't buy the original 2 Naked palettes because a) it's RM 179 and b) I don't use all the shimmery shades. When a colleague told me that the smaller Naked Basics palette was out and how good it was, I headed straight to Sephora and bought 1 for myself.

What I love about the Naked Basics eye palette:

- small size, perfect for travelling
- matte eye shadows only! Perfect for my everyday office makeup.
- highly pigmented
- when I use it with the Urban Decay eyeshadow primer, my eyeliner stays dark and last for the entire day!

What I dislike about this palette:

- it's hard to open the case
- it doesn't come with a brush

2) Bare Minerals concealer

I need a concealer to cover my acne scars. I have sensitive skin so I can't just simply use any concealer or else it will clog my pores. I've been avoiding those creamy and stick concealers and gave this Bare Minerals concealer (which is in a loose powder form) a try. It's unusual for a concealer to be in a loose powder form. Surprisingly, the Bare Minerals concealer provides a pretty decent coverage (and buildable, of course). I got mine in shade 2B: Summer Bisque (it's the second lightest shade). I can't remember the price but I do have the ingredients list (FYI for those who have sensitive skin like me):

Ingredients: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Zinc Oxide, Bismuth Oxychloride, Iron Oxides.

3) Too Faced Primed & Poreless Powder

Another downside of having sensitive acne-prone skin: you cannot just use any primers.

I'm glad I found this powder from Too Faced. It's a 2-in-1 skin smoothing priming powder AND finishing veil.

It comes in a cute vintage packaging. Downside - it's hard to open the container and everytime I twist the top, it will make this annoying squeaky sound.

Ingredients list (all natural!): Silica, Populus Tremuloides Bark extract, Honeysuckle flower extract, Water, Mica, Iron Oxides, Bismuth Oxychloride (no silicone like all the other primers in the market!)

Product description on the box:

Primed and Poreless Skin Smoothing Priming Powder and Finishing Veil turns any foundation into high definition makeup. Our silky, translucent primer and finishing veil adjusts to any skin tone while minimizing the appearance of pores and fine lines. It can be worn alone or under and over foundation to prep skin, lock down makeup and control shine for a complexions-smoothing, flawless finish.

My review:

Don't expect this powder to miraculously turn your makeup on HD makeup (considering the natural ingredients) but I'm loving this powder because:

- it gives my complexion a nice glow
- pores are minimized (though the effect is not as good as normal primers)
- helps control sebum and minimize the need to use facial blotters

The price is RM105, quite expensive but hey, you're getting both a primer AND finishing powder! :-)

New clothes!

You know you're getting old when...

1) you start buying all your clothes at Marks & Spencer because the stuffs at Forever 21, Cotton On etc. no longer appeal to you.

2) your casual wear = office attire

Today I went shopping at M&S Sunway Pyramid. Bought a red long-sleeved top and a black jacket.

Roadtrip to Alor Setar

On 30 Jan 2012, Mr.Y and I went on a roadtrip to Alor Setar, Kedah for a friend's wedding.

This was my first roadtrip to Kedah. Usually, "roadtrips" for me means 4-hour drive to my kampong in JB. Kedah is even further away from KL as compared to JB so this recent roadtrip took us about 5 hours! Can't imagine people driving back to Kedah during festive seasons. Just an advice -- save up some money for a plane ticket. Haha.

So finally, after the long drive, we arrived in Alor Setar. The wedding was held at Ukir Mall. It's a handicraft mall + hall for weddings & special events. It was a nice wedding, the emcee was not bad. He could make people laugh and the next moment make people cry. The power of psychology :-)

Here's a photo of the bride & groom which I managed to capture. The groom, Suhail, was our classmate in Uniten. The best man, Hafzan, was also our classmate and the bridesmaid, Aisyah, was my housemate during second year :-)

After the wedding, we checked in to Hotel Grand Continental. We booked through booking.com. We trusted this website. We booked the hotel for our Stockholm trip through this site and the entire process was hassle-free and the hotel turned out to be amazing. No such luck this time. Yes, the price for Grand Continental was reasonable and the reviews seemed OK. But the actual state of the hotel was very much different compared to those photos posted on booking.com!

It was an old hotel. Really, really old. It's like one of those hotels you see in Pudu.

OK, the photos do not really reflect how old the hotel is. The last photo -- we prefered to keep the curtains closed at all time because this is the "breathtaking" view we got if we look outside:

 

The bathroom was similar to the one back at my hostel in Uniten:

Even though the toilet looked like a hostel toilet, the hot shower was working fine and I was so grateful for that!!!

Another bad thing about the hotel was that -- no joke -- there was no power socket to charge your gadgets! I had to move the cabinet a bit and unplug the refrigerator so that I could charge my phone:

On top of that, Celcom coverage in Alor Setar was reallyyy bad so I had no Internet access and got stuck watching Planet of the Apes on Fox Movies. By the way, Fox Movies was the only interesting channel available there.

For dinner, Mr.Y and I planned to find Mee Abu but Waze betrayed us and we couldn't find the place. We wanted to try the local food but there were only stalls, no proper restaurants so we ended up eating Domino's pizza.

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel. On our way to the lift, there was an awful smell in the hotel corridor because a guest left a bunch of room-service food leftovers outside their room and none of the hotel staffs clean it up. Yuck.

As expected, breakfast at the hotel's coffeehouse was disappointing. The only thing I could swallow was baked beans. The fried rice, fried noodles and other food were horrible.

After breakfast, we immediately drove back to KL. Once we arrived, we had ayam penyet for lunch. Goooooood foooooood....

Note: Parking at the hotel was very limited. I wonder how they can cater for guest parking during peak season...

Wedding anniversary

Our 1-year anniversary was on 21 Jan 2013, fell on a Monday (my least favourite day of the week). After work, we went to a Thai restaurant in Subang Parade for dinner. Food was great, but the service was slow.

The next day, we had dinner at Holiday Villa. One of our wedding receptions was held at that hotel so we got a complimentary anniversary dinner as part of the wedding package. Food and service was excellent. Bread, salad and tomato soup for starters, main course: salmon for me, lamb for him. Dessert: banana parfait for me and tiramisu for him. We didn't take pictures with each other because a) the place was dark and b)I felt really chubby and unattractive on that day. We took pictures of the food only. After all, isn't that what people always do during special occasion these days? Take pictures of food?

Y doesn't want anything as anniversary gift. He asked me what I wanted. I said I want a kebaya (can't fit into the existing kebayas that I have!). So yesterday, we went to Amcorp mall and I picked a white kebaya with purple batik. White kebaya is a wardrobe staple, you can pair it with any colours of sarong.