Fighting Acne - The Unconventional Way

Prevention is better than cure.

I have read countless posts on how to treat acne/pimples/cysts. Extremely helpful as they may be, the take home message that I always get is that, prevention is better than cure. (I am very thankful for some of the articles, like Splendicity, and Viva Woman's.)

If in the first place, I don't have a pimple to begin with, then what for would I need a pimple cream, or tea tree oil (lol. I invested in a 100% pure one from Thursday Plantation, and it's left on my shelf collecting dust now.), or honey, or go through painful needle extractions during facial?

So after concluding from some of my observations, I decided that one of the best ways to fight acne, is by the "torturous", maybe time-consuming, but very beneficial way - A Healthy Lifestyle.

Leading a healthy lifestyle is the indirect, frequently overlooked, unconventional way of stopping all that unpleasant zits from popping out all over. And I have many athletic friends who can "prove" it. I am always so envious of the guys' baby smooth face. And even more envious when they say they use nothing but normal soap and/or water to wash their faces.

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So how did I go about trying to lead a healthier lifestyle?

In my opinion, I feel that this can be divided into 2 big catergories, that is exercise and diet.

Exercise
1. DECIDE that you want to lead a healthier lifestyle. (I wouldn't say healthy, just aim for moderate, healthIER lifestyle)

2. Start moving.
I started off with the little exercises that one kind friend devised for me. That includes things like leg bend, calf lift, squats, cruches, and swimming. Very simple, at low intensity, low repetition.

Then I also added in cycling.

Subsequently, I cut out magazine articles and start to follow them. This is very good! Just grab any girly mag, like Seventeen, Cleo, Women's Weekly, sure to see a page of healthy lifestyle.

3. Increase the repetitions and intensities as you go along.
I just increase after around 1 week, then 2, because by instincts, I feel that I am stronger, and can do more times. So this is up to individual to judge for yourself.

4. Stick to whatever movements you are doing for 4-8 weeks to see results.
Then you might like to change, e.g. your aerobic exercise can change from cycling to jogging, swimming, dancing/workout, ball games with friends.

Anyway, by that time, the next issue of magazine would have come out with new ideas, so just keep a lookout.

Diet
I don't mean go on a diet, starve yourself. I find it torturous to feel hungry. And I am against being extremely underweight, anorexic, bulimic etc. (My reasons range from being unable to donate blood, lack nutrients/hormones to have baby, bad fatless dry and hairy skin and more.)

Diet simply means change the things and way you eat, not don't eat.

1. Start by replacing one meal.
I chose lunch. Instead of just eating any amount of whatever I want, I choose boiled stuff, soup stuff, vegetarian, such as brown rice.

Also, take in protein from soy, beancurd, eggs, nuts, instead of meat. I don't abstain. Just take less. Cos I believe we should eat from every catergory.

Then for dinner, I also try to cut down on the processed food.

I am aiming to replace my peanut butter bread breakfast with banana, milk and oat by this week. (Here is a fellow beauty blogger's post on banana breakfast.)

2. Be on a calorie deficit
haha, actually this is for losing weight. But oh well, having a smaller waistline is part of beauty right. hehe.

Calorie deficit simply means eat lesser calorie than you use in one day. Normal sedentary lifestyle adult should be around 1500 kcal - 1800 kcal a day.

***It's very important to include the calorie from your drinks!!!
Simply don't take sweet drinks, you should be fine with this part.

3. Take vitamins the right way. Eat fruits, eat dark green leafy vegetables. Kiwi, banana, brocolli, mushrooms, all these are good food.

This is very important. Because it is quite common for people to think that going on a lean diet means cutting everything. You need to cut the bad things, but increase the nutrients. So that's why choosing is important. Choose the nutrients dense stuff.

The following is a simple list I can type off-hand:
Wholegrains/Carbo (oat, barley, brown rice, wholemeal bread)
Good fats (salmon, sardine, mackerel)
Vegetable (brocolli, spinach)
Fruit (kiwi, banana)
Protein (soy bean/milk (lactose free), plain boiled beancurd, eggs, skim milk/cheese/yohurt)

The idea is to cut fats/saturated fats. Protein makes us feel we are full, so we eat lesser. They are also used to build our DNA, bones, everything. Carbohydrates are to make us think we are full. We crave sweet things, and carbo, so if you cut carbo totally, you will just keep thinking you are so, so, so hungry. As for fats, the latest article I read says a normal adult only needs less than 50g a day.

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THE RESULT

A healthier, prettier, happier you!

Asides from my skincare, I do think that this change in lifestyle has contributed significantly to the fact that I don't need to touch the pimple cream for weeks already.

Not only for the face, but I read that if you suffer from body acne, diet also helps a lot. But I am unable to testify for that, as I only get one or two body acne if my clothes are too tight, and I fail to bathe quickly after sweating (during chalet).

I know, this post is so long. But I sincerely hope it can help someone out there. Signing off here. =) Bye.

Latest Beauty Discovery to Share!

I think some people already know about this, but I think it would still be good to share what I've just discovered for myself.

My eye gel can be used for removing laugh lines. Hooray!! =)))

Laugh lines are the lines that normally begin from the nodes of your nose down to the sides of the mouth. It is where the skin folds when you laugh, and sort of defines the cheeks. And the appearance of these lines will make you look a lot older than you actually are.

If you have dry or dehydrated skin like I do, you will notice that these fine lines appearing, even at a very young age. Mine has been slightly visible since around 3 years ago. And they have recently becomes a crease that doesn't goes off even when I have a straight face.

I personally think laugh lines are fine for middle age ladies as I am all for graceful aging, but it's just not fine to see it on someone still schooling.

So you can imagine out freaked out I was when I see that my lines did not go away. I have two, because I laugh evenly, I only laugh when it's really funny, I don't sly smile. hahaha.

I've heard that you can just have one. And if it's on the right side, the person is a sly and cunning one. If it's on the left, the person is a meek, shy one.

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Yup, so I needed to find a quick remedy, and I thought, hey, since eye cream is for smoothing out fine lines and dark circles, why can't I use it to smooth out my other fine lines???

So I tried.

And tadaa! I am so glad to announce, and I believe many of you will be so glad to hear, that it works!! And it works very well.

Within two days of apply my eye gel to my laugh lines, I can safely say that it disappeared. Now my laugh lines spring back, and doesn't stays as a crease.

So I continued using it to maintain that part as hydrated as possible. (Fine lines form because the skin is not hydrated enough.)

I am fine now. =))) And I now believe that eye gel is more hydrating than normal moisturizer, and that mine works. LOL. Cos I always thought that my eye gel is rubbish, as it doesn't do much for my eyes. But now, I think, it's the undereye fine lines that are beyond hope. Just too deep.

So, I hope this will help somebody out there. If you have laugh lines, don't fret. Quickly try your current eye cream/gel on your laugh lines!! All the best!

Cleaning My Brushes

I finally got down to cleaning my brushes after 3 whole years! haha.

When I bought my first brushes from Make Up Store (in October 2006), I was a real greenhorn, and did not even know that makeup brushes have to been cleaned.

My mother never cleaned her brushes all her life. And she was quite surprised when I took mine out to wash. The reason being that she uses cheaper brushes, and basically just threw them away and buy new ones when the bristles start to get messy and fall out.

It was only until I started to take more interest in makeup, and found this thing called Brush Guard, that I discovered that we have to clean our makeup brushes, quite frequently actually.

I did not buy any Brush Guard, as I feel that I have no need to wash my brushes too frequently, and neither do I soak them in water.

All one has to do is pour a 1-cent coin amount of body gel/foam/(whatever you are using) onto the middle of your palm, and swirl the brush on the gel. Keep swirling and swirling until one is satisfied that enough colour has come out. Then wash the dirtied gel from your palm first. Do not put the brush under direct running water to prevent soaking it and loosening the glue on the bristles. Turn down the tap, and let a small, gentle steady stream of water onto your palm. Swirl the brush in the little puddle of water until the foam bubbles stop coming out.

If you feel that the brush is still not clean, just pour another 1-cent coin amount. I prefer to wash in a staggered way, rather than pour a lot a lot of gel at one time. So I repeat this step a third and forth time if I still feel the brush is not clean. For foundation brushes and blusher brush, which are bigger, you can pour a 50-cent amount.

You can roughly gauge whether the brush is clean or not by looking at the colour. If no more colour comes out into the gel when you swirl, means it should be alright.

Double check that the brush is clean by using kitchen towel (thick tissue paper) to blot it dry. No colour trace should appear on the tissue if it is clean. Also, blotting dries the brush faster, so that you don't have to air/sun dry it too long.

By rights, if you makeup everyday, you should wash the brushes every fortnightly to once a month. And especially if you feel that the brush gives you pimples or is too hard because of the dried up makeup on it, like for eyeliner brush and lipstick brush.

I am currently using The Body Mango Shower Gel to clean the brushes, as I really like the mango smell while I doing this chore. haha. I use Dettol for daily shower, but I feel Dettol may be too strong for my brushes, and I definitely wouldn't want them to smell of Dettol after that. lol.

There, you have it. =) Clean brushes that will not give you pimples.