The Beauty of Clay

I am not talking about,

I meant clay as in clay mask.

Clay has many types, what I'm using now is Glacial Clay although I'm also using Camelia Rose's Rose Clay, Goats Milk & Shea in soap bar form and LOVING IT !!!

Clay mask in general is an awesome product, basically what it does is: the mask goes inside our pores where all the nasty gunk & dirt hides, once it's dried, it pulls away the impurities and dead skin cells away from your skin, so when you wash it off, those bad stuffs & dead skin also being taken off of your skin.

Glacial Clay is also full of protein & nutrients for skins which is great for rejuvenation (lighten up discoloration of my acne marks). I have been using this mask after I ditched my Queen Helene Mint Julep mask, it contains fragrance and I just didn't feel comfortable slathering fragrance on my acne-prone skin.

Another thing I like about it is it's pretty hydrating so even after I wash it off, my face doesn't feel tight. I noticed Mint Julep mask does dry up my skin a little bit.

I purchased mine at Garden of Wisdom, and they're pretty damn cheap. My glacial clay costs $4.75 for 2 oz in powder form. So what I do is mixing the powder with liquid in small dish until I meet my desirable consistency.

The liquid that I use is Spring Water, which is quite basic. Some people use Hydrosols, Aloe Vera Juice, Aloe Vera Gel, Yogurt, and sometimes mix other stuffs inside with Honey, Manuka Honey, or Seamollients.

How much liquid, you may ask? well it's all up to you, I like mine to be lotion-like consistency, not as thick as toothpaste (found it hard to smear around) or too watery. I leave my mask for 30 minutes before I rinse off to give it time to barging into my pores & do the job. I use mine 1x a week (every Sunday) but you can double the dose to 2x a week if you like.

Some other great clays worth trying are: Blue Clay, Dead Sea Clay, French Green Clay, Kaolin Clay, and Red Kaolin Clay (all from Garden of Wisdom)

GoW also offers a Clay Sampler, basically a 12 ounces of various clays for $20.05

I took these today:

I love Glacial Clay!!! . What? Green face is out of date? . Aaron just called me HULK :(

I really recommend you to try clay mask, it's pretty awesum!

Garden of Wisdom & Lippy Hunt

My 3rd order from GoW is here !!!

I'm so happy to see them inside my mailbox, my neighbor must have thought I was crazy for grinning widely in front of mailbox LOL

I got:

• Rosacea Serum
  
• Mandelic Acid 10% alcohol
• Glacial Clay
• Fruity Exfo Cleanser
• Melissa Lemonbalm Hydrosol
• Veggie Base Cream

Yup, no free sample this time =( but it's ok, I'm happy enough with these stuffs, it is about time I start new routines including MA and Veggie Base Cream to help with my purging.

I went to watch Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian, ohhhhh it's great...i like it 100x better than the first one,

not to mention the eye candy who plays Prince Caspian *wink wink*

I stopped by Walmart and grabbed these stuffs:

N.Y.C Lipstick Mousse, it's a matte nude lippy which I've been looking for !!! and I got it for $1.99 :D
N.Y.C Lipshine Au Naturel, a nude brown, great shine & not too sticky, also $1.99
WnW Mega Slicks Bronze Berry, a nice bronzy mauve, very unique shade..not care too much for the smell tho, $1.74

Travel Container, I figured I would need it to store my Glacial Clay mask or something in a future, $0.97 (not bad huh)

The Reason I Hide My Face...

Hehehe ok it's not as bad as it sounds but the reason I haven't posted any FOTD's is because.....


I'M PURGING !



What is purging?

Purging is a period when your skin breaks out as a reaction to a new and better product, it could be anything, your new gentle cleanser, moisturizer, or the whole new routine you apply to your face. In my case, it's the last one.

If your new cleanser has the 'glycolic acid' ingredients, it cleans your pores deeper.

So why are you breaking out?

of course your skin takes a consequences when it's CLEARING UP the impurities and it will brings all the bad stuffs to the surface which will cause zits, that's why EXFOLIATION is very important because you need to unplugged your pores and let the gunks out.

Using natural oils and moisturizer will loosen your gunk but without exfoliating, you can still get big cystic acne cause you basically 'trap' the bad stuffs inside. Don't do halfway! :)

I've been using my GoW products, this is my 7th day actually, been patiently (and slowly) trying the stuffs one by one on every 4 days, so now my routine would be:

AM

Calamine Bar Soap
Red Wine Vinegar Toner (I made it myself with Jen's recipe ^_^)
Immortelle HA + Grapeseed Oil (mix it on my palm, apply all over face)
Pineapple Mist (spray)
B.P 2.5% (4 days/week)

PM

Calamine Bar Soap (or Takrai Lemongrass Cleanser 3x a week as Exfoliator)
Red Wine Vinegar Toner
Mint Julep Masque (2x a week, but looking into more natural mask)
Pineapple Mist (if I wear mask)
Rosacea Serum
Pineapple Mist
Immortelle HA + Grapeseed Oil
Pineapple Mist

It sounds alot I know, but I'm really positive about this for the long run, coz natural skincare is no joke, it works! Although I'm purging pretty bad at the moment (slowly weaning off from B.P also contributes, I bet) I'm patient and hope to see the good end for my skin rollercoaster (or Rock'n'Roll coaster LOL) ride. I try not to get too close to the mirror tho, it's frustrating to see those tiny bumps all over my foreheads, nose & cheeks (even under my eyebrows...ain't that wacko? hehe) and I think it's better for me to not over-scrutinizing my own skin coz I know I could give up halfway if I freaked out.

Wish me luck, ladies!

Onto the good things :)

Haul !!! Today I received package from LaurEss where I got 4 blushes from.

and Yuko from Vox also sent me blushes samples (the blue envelope) ^_^
She's so nice!

From LaurEss
They gave me free samples of Radiant Tan which is definitely too light for me :( I have no idea what am I gonna do with it...

Swatches
I included Persuasion from Yuko, it's gorgeous !!!

Exhilaration & Attraction is matte blush, which is very pretty and I think it'll look the healthy 'blushing' cheek. Both Uninhibited and Decadence is from their Candle Light blush line which has very beautiful shimmer, definitely for summer : )

Another surprise is from Wal-mart, I didn't even remember what it could be but apparently they send me a tester pack from John Frieda Collection, I recall filling in some sort of questionnaire from Wal-mart website couple of weeks ago (maybe a month ago if I'm not mistaken...geez they took so long LOL)

Will try them and of course, come back to you guys with reviews!

Toodles !

Garden of Wisdom Haul 2nd Order

Yay!

Today I was sooo happy when I made a visit to the mailbox and found the box sent from Markey Martin !!! woo hoo !!! my Garden of Wisdom stuffs have arrived ! I ALMOST ran back to my room and open the package:

What I got:
1. GoW Cleansing Oil
2. Melissa Lemonbalm Hydrosol
3. Rosacea Serum
4. Immortelle HA Serum 1%
5. Chardonnay Seed Oil
6. GoW Manuka Honey 15+
7. One small dropper (for my oil)

and Markey threw in free sample of GoW Oats, Milk, and Honey Cleanser :D hurray!

My New Love

hehe I dunno why I'm so effin' excited about these, I guess because I am purging at the moment and have been waiting for a good trustworthy natural treatment for my skin, so these stuffs are like a heaven-sent! :)

Later on I went to Don Quijote to check on some stuffs and ended up buying two more NYX Lipstick (I'm so bad), the color is Hermes and Chambord. When I compare the two, they look so similar, only Hermes is a matte color. But when I swatch them, I totally see the difference :) The reason I bought these two is because when I do swatches yesterday I realized I have mostly pink lipstick and I thought one or two more nude/brown color wouldn't hurt, now would it?

... LOL yeah I'm just making excuses to shop! so excuse me, ladies...

The Brown Sisters

The Swatches

Later!

EDITTED

Here's some lip-test :D

I paired it with Cherry Culture Lipgloss for a kick :)

I paired Chambord with Kirkland Roseberry, I love the sparkle

Note: I didn't apply chapstick or anything prior so excuse the slightly dry lips :)

Product Review: Garden of Wisdom Takrai Lemongrass Cleanser

Someone asked me to do review on this new products I've got a while ago but I was thinking I had to give it some time in order to make a wise judgment. I've used it for more than a week now and I guess it's time for me to rave about it. So here we go...

Price: 5/5 ($9.80 for 4 Oz)

Packaging: 4/5 (comes in big jar, I only wish it also provides some kind of spoon to dig up the cleanser since it can be pretty messy)

Result: 4/5 (left softer and smoother skin)

Overall: 5/5 (I adore this cleanser/exfoliator!)


Application: Open the lid, take approximately one small spoon of the product out, wet it with water, rub your hand together to dilute it and apply it on your damp face.

This is how it looks like:

How much I use per application:

Love:
- The smell, it's so refreshing, makes me wanna drink lemonade every time I wash my face.
- Markey, the GoW owner, just added Pearl Powder to the ingredients, and as we all know Pearl Powder helps with acne and is very mattifying & calming for skin.
- The price is pretty decent for the amount and quality, you can only purchase it on GardenofWisdom. This is the biggest one they got, if you're not sure whether or not you're gonna like it, you can try the smaller size which costs $2.90 for 1.Oz I went ahead and got this big jar since I've never heard anyone who purchased this cleanser and not liking it, and I can see why :D
- My skin feel sooooo soft after I use it.,I personally use this as an exfoliator, twice a week

Loath:
- You have to provide your own spoon to scoop out the products, but it's not a bigga deal.

Inan sez:
- First time I open the lid, I was pretty shock on how dry this cleanser looks, I've seen it many times in other people blogs and it doesn't seem so dry, so I asked around in Garden of Wisdom forum to make sure if it was supposed to look like that. Apparently since it is handmade, every batch never look the same, some may look more watery, some are dry like mine, so nothing to worry if yours look different than others.
- I use it mainly in the evening, twice a week as a substitute for my Calamine bar soap.
- My skin seems to love it, it's very calming and the grain doesn't feel rough at all, that's probably the only thing that bothers me about exfoliating, if the scrub would hurt my face, but this feel actually good against my skin ^_^
- Definitely a staple for my natural skin care and will repurchase if I ran out.

So if you guys are looking for a harmless yet effective exfoliator, makes sure you give this one a try, I can guarantee you'll like it just like I do.

Mixed Feelings

Ok, I'm totally feeling uneasy right now.........coz I can't find my I-phone !!!! arghhhh I dunno where it is, I just realized it this morning when I noticed there was no alarm ringing ... The last time I remember I had it was yesterday when I went for Dimsum with Aaron and his mom. It coulda been inside their car, I was pretty sure I grabbed it from the table in the restaurant and I also clearly remember Aaron handed it to me after he played around with it outside the restaurant, on our way to the car. But there's nothing I can do now, I'll just have to wait for couple of hours til his mom comes back to work (we were using her car).

I just hate the waiting, you know...

Ok, on to the happy news!!!! My packages came today, from Garden of Wisdom, Pure Luxe, and Ebay.

I ordered from Ebay: 20 of 5 grams clear sifter jars for transferring my samples baggies
My full size Calamine Soap and 2 sample pigments ($1.00 each) Indigo (dark denim blue) and Bad Girl (purple) from Pure Luxe
and of course, GoW goodies:
L-R: Takrai Lemongrass Cleanser, Pineapple Hydrating Mist, Chamomile German Hydrosol, and a free sample of Hand Sanitizer :D

I didn't open the Lemongrass cleanser yet but I smelled both the pineapple mist & chamomile hydrosol...the mist smells like pineapple ^_^ but the hydrosol smells kinda funny, almost like a tea......it's not too pleasant I must say, but then again, I have a huge tolerance for this natural smell hehehe

So to get my mind off the missing I-phone, I decided to moved all my The She Space baggies and two other Taylor Made Minerals to the new jars, geebuzzzz if I compare between those two...TMM gives A LOT more, it's double the quantity The She Space gives.

yeah I was craving for grapes...

Anyway, I'll hope my I-phone will show up somewhere somehow eventually...coz I've just had it for a month or two T_T *hix*

Catch you guys later!

I'm in love....

...with Pure Luxe Calamine Bar Soap !!! I've been switching from my beloved Purpose (by Johnson&Johnson) cleanser to this little baby for a week now and OHMYGOSH i love it. This soap really moistened my skin without the 'tight' feeling and although the smell is kinda funky, i believe that's all because the natural ingredients which didn't go through chemical process. Well, in my book, that's good :D

Having said that, now i kinda want to branch out and try out natural soap bar out there, recently I visited Garden of Wisdom (GoW), and I have to say....God bless GoW. I seriously read their sites for a one full day and every single click to their product I was like "oh...i think i need this one too"
(-_-') They offer this finished product and after hearing raves about some of them, I decided to order:
1. Takrai Lemongrass Cleanser 4.oz
2. Pineapple Hydrating Mist 4.oz
3. Chamomile German Hydrosol 1.oz

It cost me around $21.60 including shipping. not bad, but I kinda wanna try SOAP BAR and since they don't have that, I searched some sites which carry natural soap bar. Northwest Orca closed down so I was a little bit disappointed, they mentioned Pure Luxe will continue carrying some of their soaps but when I checked Pure Luxe sites they said Calamine Bar Soap was OUT OF ORDER.

So I did some more searching and I ended up with these two sites:
Etsy and Chagrin Valley

They have humongous variety of handmade soap and they're cheap !! I haven't ordered anything yet coz I wanna make sure of WHICH ONE TO GET.

Anyway, today I went out with my bf and met another friends of ours who's gonna go back to Japan tomorrow. I decided to try out my Silk Natural foundation again, and oddly enough, it looked a little bit too dark today. Maybe I didn't get enough lighting yesterday or something, but after I put on the perfecting powder, it blended in nicely.

Face:
EDM Intensive Medium (under eye)
SN Ebony-Warm Gold mix
SN Climax Blush

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion
NYX Hot Pink (inner corner up to the middle lid)
NYX Purple (middle lid to crease)
Rimmel Soft Kajal Kohl Pencil: Jet Black
Maybelline Full n'Soft mascara
Ardell Heated Eyelashes curler

Lips:
Wet'n'Wild Lipliner #712
NYX Beige