Mature Skin - My Anti-Aging Skincare Routine

I was shocked to read back my old posts on skincare routine. I could believe that I had used so much of different products back then to overcome my acne problem when I was younger. As I grow older now, at the age of 28, I do still get pimples occasionally and also a lot of blackheads on my nose. Another skin concern for me now at this age are fine lines and wrinkles, especially under and around my eyes.

There was one period that I had stopped oil cleansing method as I find it too tedious having to steam and wash my face every night with the washcloth. Another thing is my wash cloths are smelly due to the oil residue no matter how much I wash them off. Probably because of stopping OCM, my skin aged faster and I began to notice fine lines around my eyes. I started to panic as I'm not that old to get all these fine lines.

After stopping my OCM, I used normal snail cleanser, and moisturize with simple scar serum by Bio Essence and that was it. Maybe because I was lazy from my daily chores of taking care of my baby and my husband, I took my skincare routine for granted. *my bad! and I regretted it!*

I immediately started back my OCM the past few days and end my skin care routine with my usual Simple Toner, and DIY Facial Oil as my moisturizer and eye serum. I think these are the most simple skincare routine we can adopt.

I still decided to go back to DIY facial oil and OCM because oils really clean my face and it helped a lot previously giving me the glow that I wanted. Additionally, as my skin begining to age now, I think oils will help to keep my skin plump and firm.

What I use for my OCM and Facial Oil & Eye Serum?

For my oil cleanser:
1) Castor oil
2) Grapeseed oil
3) Lavender essential oil
4) Tea tree essential oil
5) Eucalyptus essential oil
6) Rose geranium essential oil

For my Facial Oil & Eye Serum
1) Grapeseed oil
2) Rosehip oil
3) Lavender essential oil
4) Tea tree essential oil
5) Rose gerannium essential oil
6) Eucalyptus essential oil

I'm going to make a separate eye serum after I get my newly purchased sweet almond oil. Sweet almond oil is said to be able to reduce dark circles due to its high concentration of vitamin K. Additionally, I can also add sweet almond oil to my oil cleanser as my current oil cleanser is finishing.

We shall see how these oils will combat my wrinkles.  *fingers crossed* that my belief in oil will prove me right!

Photon Ultrasonic Facial Massager with LED Light - New Beauty Gadget

Hi fellow beauties out there. After my few posts of my holidays, I'm going to write a review of a new beauty device which I had just purchased. I'm sure a lot of you have seen, read reviews and even may even tried it on yourself. What I'm talking about here is this Photon Ultrasonic Facial Massager with LED Light features. I bought mine from Lazada.com.

One thing about this purchase was - it came without a box. I was like O.O How come a device delivered without a box, only to be wrapped with bubble bag? Bad service. Thank god that my device came in good condition!

Alright. What's in the BOX: It comes with a hand-held ultrasonic facial massager, one eye goggle in case, instruction manual and a electricity adapter. The device I bought is not rechargable, but there are those massager which are rechargeable. It doesn't really matter to me though.

This device comes with 2 main features - the Ultrasonic wave and the LED light features which can be used simultaneously or separately. The details of these 2 features are as bellow (I quoted this from JenniRainCloud's review on the same device):

LED Photon Therapy

• RED Light - Stimulates collagen production, reduce puffiness and pore size. 

• BLUE Light - Kills bacteria that causes acne and tighten the skin.

 

• GREEN Light - Brighten the skin

 

 Ultrasonic Therapy

This device also comes with Ultrasonic Therapy, there are 3 settings to be selected - low, medium or high. The silver panel is the ultrasonic waves generator that delivers the ultrasonic waves deep into the skin. Please see picture below (adopted from beautygadget4u)

 

This is the actual panel on the device

  This is my own device

How to Use ?

Just a shown in the picture, the operating of the device is pretty simple :

1.  Clean your face from make up, dirt or oil.
2.  Prep you skin with your favourite water-based gel/ serum. Facial oil can be used as well. I personally have used both version before using this device, but I find the 'pricking' sensation was more intense with facial oil compared to using gel.
3. Turn on the power switch.  
4. For ultrasonic therapy, press the 'Sonic' button once for low setting, twice for medium setting and thrice for high setting. Always start with low setting first and adjust accordingly. For myself, I felt tingling and slight 'pricking' sensation with low setting. I dare not go higher setting until I feel comfortable. (See this step in picture below)
5. For LED light therapy, pree the 'Photon' button once for Red LED, twice for Blue LED and thrice for Green LED. (See this step in picture below)
6. You can use both at the same time by selecting both setting, but if you want to use either one therapy, simple follow step 2 or 3. 
7. Apply a bit of the serum/ gel on the silver panel and gently glide it on the face from the chin upwards to the side of the face for lifting effect. (See image below)
8. The device is set to work for 10 minutes, so use it 5 minutes on each side of the face. I like to use 2.5 minutes with Red light and followed by 2.5 minutes of Blue light. This is entirely up to you.  

Below is the massage steps for lifting of your skin.

 

This device has been a great help to busy mummy like me to have some spa like treatment at home and gives effective results to my skin. My husband noticed my skin is more radiant the next day after my 1st treatment. Amazing.

It's a affordable beauty gadget investment and hope this review helps!

Love,

Grace

Oil Cleansing Method (OCM)

Hi Beauties!

Today I'm going to write down my experience with Oil Cleansing Method. This post in fact is related to my previous post on Hormonal Acne and My Acne Condition.

As you can read from my Post-Birth Control Acne post, I had suffered from massive breakouts and after continue using Benton Snail Been High Content Essence and Hyaluronic Acid serum for layering skin care, I think my skin got even worse after the 1 week. In the first week, my redness subsided but I noticed I started to get many tiny white head bumps below the skin and it hurts me when I washed my face. My face was rough and bumpy.

After I went for my detox facial, my beautician suspected my face was sensitive to products and she told me to stop using all products and see if the pimples subside. I also stopped wearing make up altogether to let my skin heal. I was pretty sad and afraid to reveal my red marks and bumpy face to my colleagues. But for the benefit of my skin, I be brave and let my face go naked. Till now, it's near to 3 weeks without make up and layering of products on my face. My face started to heal. Those bumps had lessen a lot. Now, my face is still not pretty with all the dark marks from the pimples.

I started to go natural with my skin care when I was at Genting holiday. There was warm water sink so I decided to start Oil Cleansing Method with face steaming (I had stopped doing this for long time ago). I was relieved that time because the first oil cleansing had make my skin felt so soft and clean. I was thinking that probably I should go back to basic skin care with just Grapeseed oil and Rosehip oil. I had used oil cleansing for about nearly a week now. During the few days at Genting, I did twice oil cleansing during the day and night. I noticed that my skin started to feel dry (probably due to the frequency). Thus, now I only oil cleanse once a day at night and in the morning, I will just splash my skin with water or wash my face with honey and moisturize with my face oil.


What is OCM?

Oil Cleansing principle comes about from the idea of oil dissolves oil. Oil can be used to dissolve the oil that has hardened up on your skin. The steam from the warm cloth will open up the pores to help these hardened oils to come out easily, leaving your skin soft and smooth.

 

The whole idea about oil cleansing it that washing our face with the soap cleanser (with lots of chemical ingredients - some you would not even know how to pronouce or even know it), will remove all the oils from you face. You face will need oil for its normal function. If your skin's natural oil is removed, your skin will counter this by producing even more oil. If the excess oil produced coupled with dead skin cells, then your skin is more prone to clogged pores and with inflammation, you'll get acne.

OCM is a cleansing method with oil to help  remove the dirt and excess oil gently without stripping off the skin's natural oil. In addition, by choosing the right oil, you can trick your skin that your face has enough of its natural oil, and it will also reduce over production of face oil. OCM will eventually make your skin oil balanced out. Your face will not be as oily as before OCM. This, I totally agree as my face now is not as oily as last time when I used moisturizer like lotion or serum.

 Ok! Let's talk about my Oil Cleansing Oil Blend.

I have read lots of different articles and reviews on OCM. Some wrote that castor oil is a must for OCM, while some said castor oil is a no-no as it causes purging and some oil was not produced the right way-causing toxicity?! I had used my oil blend with castor oil before but when I noticed a little breakout, I stopped using oil blend with castor oil but only grapeseed oil. I will try again with castor oil once my breakout subsided to see if castor oil is the culprit. FYI also, castor oil is a cleansing and drying oil. So, watch out for the ratio is your skin is drying out.

My own oil blend:

• Pure grapeseed oil - great for acne prone skin
• 10-20 drops of lavender and tea tree essential oil - anti bacterial and reduce acne scars

 I mix these oils in a pump bottle and shake it up real good before use.

IF you want to use castor oil, then the ratio is as below based on your skin type:

      Normal skin = 1:1 Castor oil to carrier oil
      Oily skin      = 2:1 Castor oil to carrier oil
      Dry skin       = 1:3 Castor oil to carrier oil

The ratio of castor oil to carrier oil to use for your old blend is pretty much depending on your skin. There's no fixed ratio. Let your skin tell you; if you feel your skin is tight, the probably you need to adjust the castor oil ratio lower and increase your carrier oil. If you started breaking out, you might want to stop and retest to confirm if the oil is causing the breakout. You might need to consider the Comedogenic Rating of Oil (the higher the rating, the more likely it will clog pores and cause breakout).

I have read some good articles of choosing the right carrier oil for acne prone skin by Minimalist Beauty. She talked about oil composition higher in oleic acid (Omega 9) and linoleic acid (Omega 6). Acne prone skin should use oils higher in linoleic acid, she said.

How I Oil Cleanse My Face?  

To Oil Cleanse, I will need things below:

•  My oil blend
• Soft microfibre face towel
• Warm/ hot water
• A bowl ( I got no hot tap at my sink, so I boil water and put in a bowl at the sink)

The OCM steps:

1. On a dry, dirty or  make up face (yep- OCM can also help to remove makeup -2in1 step), pour a small amount of my oil blend and massage it gently all over my face to remove dirt, makeup and oil.  
2. Then, warm up the microfibre cloth with the warm/hot water (you adjust your own temperature, not too hot as it can scald your precious face). Wring off the water and quickly put the cloth to cover my face. The steam will open up the pores to help those clog oils easier to come off.
3. Then, very gently wipe off the excess oil. Do it gently to avoid hurting the face. Check out the benefit of using of microfibre cloth in OCM HERE. Repeat steaming and wipe-off if necessary
4. DONE!
5. If I feel like my skin need extra moisturizing, I will just use a few drops of my favourite grapeseed oil for moisturizing. I use grapeseed oil for my face and dab a few drops of rosehip oil for my eye wrinkles. If your skin is fine without the extra oil, then after OCM, that's it!

Note: I'm now using Dermatix Scar Gel for my scars. Dermatix really lighten scar very fast.

 My grapeseed oil

 I add this essential oil into my old blend for extra benefit

 My rosehip oil for face scars and eye wrinkle

This is how rosehip oil looks like.

I'm going to reveal the face progress after I started on OCM. My skin still bumpy but it's not because of OCM. OCM in fact made my skin heal faster and smoother. After I had my detox facial, I broke out crazily as the detox process improved. It's normal to breakout after detox facial my beautician said. I will continue to update this post to show the progress with OCM.

MY CHIN

 MY LEFT CHEEK

 MY RIGHT CHEEK

My Acne Story & Updated Natural Skin Care Routine

Hi. This is going to be a long blog post about my acne and how I improve it. I’ve read quite a number of stories from people who shared their experiences on battling their acne, what they have done to improve their skin condition, and also read a lot on DIY remedies to heal their skin. In this blog post, I’m going to share some of my own experiences and what I have gone through to improve my skin.

Just a little bit of my skin background first; I have oily/ combination and acne prone skin. I started to have acne when I was in secondary school at the age of 17. That time, I was depressed and stressed with my own skin condition. I envied my classmates who have flawless and spotless skin. I cried and I dare not take any pictures as the acne was all over my face. My face was bumpy, red and painful. Do not believe me? Take a look at the picture below. Scary isn’t it?

I was very sad with my skin condition and I had begged my mother to bring me to see a skin specialist. I’ve seen dermatologist, Dr. Henry Foong in Ipoh. I was given some skin care products and also antibiotic for my acne. My mother had spent over RM1000 for a few consultations with the dermatologist. My skin had improved after that but then, it came to a point when I started to wonder, do I have to rely on the antibiotic for clear skin? I’d started to default the appointment and medication. My skin condition turned back to square one; acne came out again. I knew the drug is not a long term solution and thus, I’d decided to go for another alternative, which is visiting a beautician. 

The beautician I visited was my classmate’s aunty. She’s really good. The facial session had helped my skin to improve a lot after that. She had also introduced some oil balancing cleanser, antibacterial toner and blackhead serum. The serum is not working for me, it did not help with my blackheads as all and it made my nose super oily. But the cleanser and toner were really good. I’ve used the same cleanser all the way to university life when I was 19 years old. After the cleanser finished, the beautician had changed my cleanser to a normal skin cleanser as she said my oily skin had normalised. This cleanser was not that good as it made my skin drier and tight. At this period in university, I had started to try on MANY types of products. Yep. All sorts of drug store products, from Garnier, Clearasil, Oxy, Neutrogena, Simple, Nano White, Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Gel, St. Ives Scrub, Naruko, Olay, Himalaya, Hada Labo and etc. You name it!

Out of all these products, Garnier’s night cream, Simple’s toner, Aloe Vera Gel, St. Ives Scrub and Himalaya’s Neem Mask were good products that I’m still using now.  From university life till now, my skin condition was ‘on-and-off’, sometimes clear, sometimes bad. So, I’m not very sure is it the products causing it, or is it my hormone. 

Anyway, I had started to use Grapeseed oil as part of my skin care routine early of this year, but I had stopped using it after the oil had finished. Back then, my skin was at the best state, clear, smooth and glow from within. See my face in the picture below. 

 

But, as the oil had finished, I was ‘itchy’ and switched to Juju Aquamoist product. I bought the whole set from groupon at RM100 for 5 items knowing that it’s cheap. The product was really hydrating and calming. But, after using for around 2 weeks, my skin started to break out crazily…! OMG! Yes, crazily. I had acne everywhere on my skin… and my beautician had a long time extracting all the white heads and cysts. Yes. It’s cystic acne everywhere. I was very sad and cried on the spot. My beautician was concerned also that I used concealer to cover the acne marks and redness. She had asked me to stop concealing the acne. Let my skin heal itself. I could not take it at all. 

The next day, I had wore a face mask to cover my skin (as if I’m sick) for I was afraid my colleague will be asking me what happened to my clear face. They do not know all these while I use make up to fake my clear skin. I had told my beautician about using grapeseed oil for removing make up and as my moisturizer previously. They had commented my skin was glowing back then. So, they had asked me to try to use back my grapeseed oil to see if the skin is better.

 I had started back my grapeseed oil as makeup remover and also moisturizer, so far, it had helped my complexion a lot and the scars had faded dramatically. I still have to use some concealer for obvious scars but those light scars, I had left them naked. 

At the same time, I had started back on my Himalaya Neem Face Pack for spot treatment at night before sleep. I am determined to go natural with my skin care now. I’m going to omit those chemical cleansers and creams once and for all. I’ve decided to start of a new DIY skin care regime for my skin. 

Make up remover = Castor oil (1/3) + Grapeseed oil (2/3) blend

Cleanser = Honey/aloe (morning), Oatmeal (Night)

Toner = Rose & green tea toner

Moisturizer = QV lotion + Sunscreen (Day), Grapeseed oil (Night)

Eye serum = Few drops of Grapeseed oil/Rosehip Oil

Spot treatment & Mask = Himalaya Neem Mask

Scrub = St. Ives Blemish Control Scrub/ DIY Sugar Scrub

Eyelash serum = Apply castor oil to eyelash in the morning and before sleep using mascara applicator

I will start and stick to this natural skin care regime from today and follow up to see if my skin condition will be better with this natural skin care routine. During the day when I have to go for work, I will still wear some concealer for my acne marks but I’m using it with limitation; just a small dot on the scar and use my finger to smudge the concealer around the scars. I will ensure the first thing I do after I come back from work is to remove all the make up with my DIY makeup remover (castor oil & grapeseed oil). These oils work wonder on my skin, they remove all traces of make up from my face. I will use about 2 pumps of the oil, gentle rub it between my palms and then rub it all over my face. Using circular motions, I massage the oil over my face about 2-3 minutes. Then, using a clean tissue paper, I gently wipe off all the excess oil with make up from my face. Sometimes, if I had worn heavier make up with foundation, I will do this process twice to ensure all make up is removed. Then, I will cleanser my face with my DIY honey & aloe vera cleanser. This cleanser is to remove the excess oil which the tissue paper did not take off. After cleansing, I will quickly rub on 2-3 drops of grapeseed oil as my face moisturizer.  

Below are pictures of my naked face with quite a number of acne scars on my chin and jaw line on 30^th December 2015. The picture was taken fresh after removing make up and with grapeseed oil moisturizer. The acne marks on my cheeks had faded DRAMATICALLY…. Now only left the scars on the chin and jaw line.

     

I'm very lucky that my scars and acne are not that visible from far!

My Current Natural Skin Care Routine Previous skin care routine

Day Routine :

1) Cleanse my face with my aloe vera & honey cleanser

2) Tone with my rose  green tea toner

3) Moisturize with few drops of grapeseed oil + my sunscreen lotion for both face and neck. Apply a drop of grapeseed oil below my eyes for the wrinkles.

4) Treat acne with tea tree gel (Thursday Plantation)
5) Apply eyelash serum (castor oil) using mascare brush & Q-Tip. 

6) Simple makeup by concealing the acne marks, draw my brows and eye liner. Apply Vaseline on my lips to moisturize it.

Night Routine :

1) Cleanse my face with oatmeal

2) Tone with my rose green tea toner

3) Moisturize with few drops of grapeseed oil. Apply a drop of grapeseed oil below my eyes for the wrinkles.

4) Treat my acne with Himalaya Neem Face Pack.
5) Apply eyelash & eyebrow serum (castor oil) using mascare brush & Q-Tip.

Weekly Routine :

1) Scrub my face 3x a week with either honey sugar scrub or St. Ives Blemish Control Scrub

2) Apply a face mask 3x a week after scrub. My choice of mask: aloe vera gel mask, honey mask, Skin Food Rice Mask, Himalaya Neem Face Pack, Freeman Black Sugar mask, green pea mud mask, dead sea mud mask.

Now, I'm looking into customizing my own face oil blend. I had read Cruncy Betty's post on Simple Homemade 3-Ingredient Face Oil, so I thought of getting back my previously loved 'Rosehip Oil'. I should have another 15ml left but I had accidentally spilled it till zero left. Sobz. It's an expensive oil and I had wasted it. Crunchy Betty's facil oil blend will need 3/4 carrier oil, 1/4 nourishing oil & 7 drops of essential oil.

Thus, I think the best oil bled for me will be Grapeseed Oil (my favourite), Rosehip Oil &Lavender Oil. It was stated that both Rosehip Oil and Lavender Oil are great of acne prone and scarred skin. *fingers crossed, hopefully it works for my scars*

Oils are so expensive, especially nourishing and essential oils. They come in small amount and usually very expensive. It's not easy to get 'over the counter' and most of the time, I have to buy it online. I got both my castor oil and grapeseed oil from Natural Wellbeing Malaysia. Their products come in various volume and sizes and their products are not very expensive compared to other websites in Malaysia. I got some of my oils from Lelong as well when I see the price is not what I wanted! =P

 Ok. Let's have a look at my recent picture taken about 2 weeks ago.

 

 The skin is clearer with some scars only. ^^

For now, on and off I still get cystic acnes but it's not as crazy as before. Mostly the cystic acnes appeared along the jaw line on both sides. No idea why is that so. But, I just try to apply frequently the tea tree and lavender essential oil and rosehip oil. My skin care routine is very much the same but I have started to incorporate back my QV lotion blend with the face oil before applying to the skin. The lotion healps to heal the dried up acne scars and helps the 'dead skin' peeled off easily. Face is less patchy! Pray hard that the current routine will help my skin to be clear again like before!

Just to update,  I had changed my routine a bit as I tried for 1 month plus the previous natural skin care routine did not work well for my skin. I still suffer from breakouts again. I just recently discovered the root cause of my massive breakouts which I will share in another post. Thus, I has changed my skin care routine a bit to treat the problem:
  

My Current Natural Skin Care Routine My NEW Skin Care Routine

Day Routine :

1) Cleanse my face with myPhysiogel Gentle Cleanser

2) Tone with my rose green tea toner
3) Apply Snail Bee Essence from Benton + Hyaluronic Acid Serum from MingShuang

4) Moisturize with few drops of QV lotion + my sunscreen lotion for both face and neck. Apply a rosehip oil below my eyes for the wrinkles.

5) Treat acne with tea tree oil
6) Apply Dermatix Scar Cream (this is verrryyy good)
7) Apply eyelash serum (castor oil) using mascare brush/ Q-Tip. 

8) Simple makeup by concealing the acne marks, draw my brows and eye liner. Apply Vaseline on my lips to moisturize it.

Night Routine :

1) Cleanse my face with Snail Cleanser/ oatmeal

2) Tone with my rose green tea toner
3) Apply Snail Bee Essence from Benton + Hyaluronic Acid Serum from MingShuang

4) Warm a few drops of Rosehip oil and pressed in all over my face

5) Treat acne with tea tree oil
6) Apply Dermatix Scar Cream (this is verrryyy good)
7) Apply eyelash serum (castor oil) using mascare brush

Weekly Routine :

1) Scrub my face 3x a week with either honey sugar scrub or St. Ives Blemish Control Scrub or Peeling Gel

2) Apply a face mask 3x a week after scrub. My choice of mask: aloe vera gel mask, honey mask, Skin Food Rice Mask, Himalaya Neem Face Pack, Freeman Black Sugar mask, green pea mud mask, dead sea mud mask.

 

This was taken on 9th March 2016. As you can see, large cystic acne are not so prominent, but I still have lots of small white heads all over my face and I hope that this condition will improve soon..!

Wish me luck!
 

My little secret to keep skin healthy

Hello readers. I am back with another post about skin care. I’m currently back to Ipoh and I cannot go online due to zero internet connection. I went out with my besties last week and she hunted for cleanser for her blemish-prone skin. She asked me for suggestion, but some skin care products appeared to be a little expensive for her. But anyway, this post is for me to share out some of my experiences with acne and how to deal with it.. So long story begins now:

1. My skin type

My skin is blemish-prone, with oily T-zone and upper cheek but dry at the corners of my lips. I’m not sure is it considered as combination skin or totally oily skin. My skin can be really shinny after 3-4 hours.

2. History of developing acne

I started to get pimples and acne around my teenage years (about 13 years old) but it was well-controlled with products. My acne problem worsen when I was 17 years old. The pimples were spreading to my whole face and it was red, bumpy and painful. I remembered that there were no clear spot on my face back then. I was ashamed to look into the mirror for my reflection. When I look at people, I did not look at them in the eyes.

People around me keep suggesting me this and that for my skin. Until one day, my classmate suggested me to go to dermatologist for help. I went to a skin specialist and he gave me some product to be used, and also some antibiotics. I spent about RM1000 after 3 treatments. It did helped my skin to start clearing up, but after I stopped taking antibiotics, my acne came back. So I’d decided to stop the treatment as it was pretty costy for student like me.

Then, another classmate suggested me to go to beautician for beauty therapy. Well, the products really helped my skin and my skin turn out to be better since then. However, when I joined university, my skin started to become worse again. I started to develop pimples and acne. Although I tried various products but non of it helped.

Until recently around age of 23, my skin started to be better after using certain products.

3. My knowledge on skin care and how to deal with acne

A) Skin type

I must say that after battling acne for so many years, I’ve considered myself to be knowledgeable on skin care. To care for our skin, first, we need to identify our skin type: Oily/Dry/Combination/Sensitive/Combination of different skin types (eg. dry + sensitive/ oily + sensitive). Identifying your skin type is crucial as it is the basic step for you to determine the suitable products for your skin. For example, if you have oily skin, then you should be using products which can control sebum production while if you have dry skin, then hydrating products will be best to nourish your skin back. Choosing the wrong products for your skin type can be a disaster as it can worsen your skin problem. Take for example, if you have dry skin, but you are using a product that controls oil production. This can cause your skin to be drier. Therefore, before choosing any products, consider your skin type first and what is your main concern of your skin: dryness? ance? oily? sensitive?

B) Right skin care products for your skin

After identifying your skin type, then you can free to choose your skin care products. The most basic skin care for all skin type is cleanse, tone and moisturize. I stress again, it’s for ALL SKIN TYPE. Many people have misconception of skin care steps especially for oily skin type or acne-prone skin. You might think that your skin is oily enough and therefore you may skip toner and moisturizer, but just cleanse instead. With just cleansing, but not moisturizing your skin, your skin can be dry due to constant cleansing and this will lead to excess sebum production to compensate the dryness due to cleansing. Excess sebum can cause clogging of pores, leading to ance, pimples, cycts and black or white heads.

Thus, no matter what skin type you have, you must cleanse, tone and moisturize according to your skin type. For example, if you have oily skin, then use cleanser of gel consistency or with gentle exfoliator (microbeads) to remove excess oil and dead skin cells. Such cleanser can remove oil and impurities to prevent pore clogging. But if you use cleansers that of cream based or hydrating cleanser, this is more likely to make your skin even oilier. The same goes to sensitive skin. Choose cleanser with less chemical and fragrance. My choice of cleansers nowadays are Hada Labo AHA BHA cleanser (night) and Naruko Narcissus Total Defense AA Foaming Wash. They both work well on my skin to remove oil and dead skin cells at the same time keeping it moist.

As for toner, always use toner without alcohol or fragrance. I believe many people said that using astringant can shrink down the pores, and reduce sebum production. Well, the fact is that alcohol tends to dry out the skin (a no-no to dry skin) even though you use it on oily skin. When the skin is dry, you are more prone to excess sebum production to regulate the dryness, thus, leading to more breakout and pimples. Therefore, use a toner which is gentle on your skin. I personally like to use toner by SIMPLE because it does not have any alcohol or fragrance. It keeps my skin supple and soft.. =)

Then, you must moisturize your skin. For dry skin, you can opt for cream based or hydrating moisturizer. If you have sensitive skin, stay away from products which are harsh (eg. Clearasil, Oxy, Proactiv), and opt for products without fragrance and more gentle (hypoallegic). But, if you are having oily skin, try to use moisturizers which are lighter, oil-free and hypoallegic. Try not to choose cream-based moisturizer because these products can be too rich for your skin, making it oilier. I use moisturizer by Naruko Tea Tree Oil Out Balancing Moisturizer and Clinelle’s Moisture Glow Moisturizer. Both of these controls my sebum production and treats acne. After using these, my skin turns out to be really clear. =)

These are just the most basic steps to care for your skin. There are some additional steps your can do to further treat and care for your skin.

C) Treating your skin like a baby

Our skin cells will die and new cells will be produced to replace the dead ones. Dead skin cells will stay on our face if it is not removed, and sometimes, it can build up and clog our pores. With bacteria living on our skin, these culprits can cause inflammation and infection in our clogged pores. Then, acne or pimples formed. So, if you want to keep your skin clear, you have to remember to get rid of these dead skin cells as well. Exfoliating your skin weekly (2-3 times a week) is crucial to get rid of these dead skin cells. Exfoliator can come in many different forms (eg. with microbeads like Eucerin, larger beads like St. Ives, peeling gel from Laneige or Naruko and chemical exfoliant like alpha hydroxy acid (AHA)) and you can choose it based on your skin types. I am not very sure which is suitable for dry and oily skin but those larger beads are not so appropriate for sensitive skin as it can be too harsh on the skin. I personally use Laneige strawberry yogurt peeling gel or St. Ives apricot scrub weekly prior to mask. Just love to exfoliate because your skin can be really smooth and clean afterwards.

After exfoliating, you can always treat your skin with masks. There are many many types of masks available in the market (eg. sheet mask, sleeping mask, clay mask, hydrating mask and etc). Choosing a mask for your skin type is also very important because it helps to treat your skin according to your skin problem. For oily skin, you can opt for exfoliating mask or clay mask because it can help to remove dead skin cells and draw out excess oil and cleanse your pores. If you have dry skin, then hydrating masks (sheet mask or those masks with aloe vera and olive oil) are what your skin need. If you need extra treatment like whitening or anti-aging, you also can have mask once a week. Mask can be done 2-3 times a week after exfoliating because it can absorb into the skin much better and gives maximum effect to the skin.

Aside from the basic skin care steps: cleanse, tone, moisturize, you can add more steps in your skin care routine by using serum or essence, eye cream and sleeping mask or night gelly. Choose essence based on your skin type as well. Most serum in the markets can be very thick and rich and some of it are not suitable for oily skin at all. I know that Naruko Tea Tree line has their serum which is light in consistency and does not clog pores. Perhaps this is a better choice for oily skin. Eye cream or gel is necessary for all skin types because it can helps to reduce dark circles, puffiness and fine lines. Sleeping mask or night gelly is the final step for your night routine because it helps to seal in all the products that you have applied to your skin.

      

4. Lifestyle to beautiful skin

Well, enough of products. To achieve beautiful and clear skin, we do not just rely on skin care products. But beauty comes from the inside as well. Remember to eat more fruits and vegetables for antioxidants and various vitamins and minerals for skin health. Secondly, reduce intake of fat and sugar because these can cause excess sebum production. Also, drink lots of water because it can help to keep your body hydrated and cleanse away toxins from your body.

If possible, try to get enough rest and exercise because these can balance out our hormones and makes us feel good. When we feel good and happy, we will be less stress and eventually, our skin will be better.

I’ve learnt all these from many beauty guru’s in YouTube. And the video below has helped me a lot to understand my skin and what I can do to improve my skin problem.


 At the end of the day, all we need to do to keep our skin healthy is not simple and it’s not that hard at all. All we need to do is lead a healthy lifestyle and choose products based on our skin type and finally, be confident that ‘You ARE BEAUTIFUL’.

With love,

Lai Peng

Updated skin care routine

Hello everyone. I am back with another post about my skin care routine. Again, I must say that I am a person who loves investing on skin care products. So as you can see below, I've laid out all the skin care products that I use on day-2-day basis. These are what I used daily..

I follow the basic steps of skin care: 1) Cleanse --> 2) Tone --> 3) Moisturize --> 4) Eye cream

The products that I use:

1) Cleanser: Hada Labo AHA BHA cleanser

2) Toner: Simple Soothing toner (sorry bout the picture, this is my travel size toner in Clinelle's bottle)

3) Moisturizer: Naruko Oil Out Balancing Moisturizer

4) Eye cream/gel: Skinz UV white eye gel

5) Night gelly (for night routine): Naruko Oil Out Night Gelly..

The picture above shows the texture and consistency of the products that I used for my skin. Based on the color of the circle, you can differentiate the different texture and consistency of those products. So, the moisturizer is the most runny texture and my favorite of all. 

My take: The moisturizer is easily absorbed and leaving no sticky feeling at all. Very light and moisturizing. It somehow helps my skin to balance out the oil production. My face is less shinny now. Really love it! 

The night gelly is very good as well. It claims to be able to control sebum production over night. Well, I must say that is did no really control sebum production. My skin is still shinny the next day but it is not as oily as before. 

My take: The night gelly is easily absorbed as well. It smells so good (tea tree herbal scent). The texture is just like gel and it does not leave any stickiness after application..=) Perfect for oily skin..

Do check out these Naruko products online at these websites:

1. Naruko Malaysia

2. Naruko Singapore

Ok..so long for this time

Take care everyone

Love,

Lai Peng <3