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.

Nail Art Escapade No.1

Guess what? haha. I am so inspired by Pretty Beautiful's pretty and beautiful DIY Nail Art, that I made an attempt on DIY nail-art as well!

I believe a lot of you might have stumbled upon her beautiful nail art already. But do check it out, if you haven't already done so. She has really nice reads on other beautiful things too. =)

Here's mine: (Caution! I have ugly fingers and toes.)

The Sweet Snow Cake nails. Done with Rainbow White, O2 Skin Pink, and Revlon Cherry Rush.

My SO commended me for this one!! He thinks I did a really good job, and he likes the sweet colours too. Compared to when I only had the pink on, he didn't even notice the pink on my nails. LOL.

But I feel I can definitely improve my techniques. See the pain on my index finger? It's overlapped wrongly. I didn't mean to overlap.

The Simple Flower Red nails.

My SO just likes the Revlon Nail Enamel in Cherry Rush, with or without flowers. haha.

Overall, I am really very happy at my 1st time results. Much easier than I thought DIY nail art would be. And the colour combi that I chose works out well.

I did do a practice for the Sweet Snow Cake one, and I had to wipe of everything the first time. But I soon got the hang of it. Like the length of white to put, how much I should dip for each nail polish, whether I should overlap the colours or not, etc.

Yup, it's pretty easy. Actually, you just pain whatever you see in those pictures, and try to find the right tools to pain them.

Here is what I used: (Nothing fancy. No branded nail polish and all.)

From Left to Right: Rainbow, O2 Skin, Revlon Cherry Rush, Clatty, O2 Skin Base Coat, O2 Skin Top Coat.

I also used the round ends of toothpicks to dot the dot. Dirt cheap, and it works. Change a new stick about every 4-5 nails. As the dots will get bigger and bigger, then not nice.

I will review the Rainbow White Nail Polish. I actually bought it because there were many recommendations that does the job well, and is only $2.

O2 Skin nail polishes are really cheap and good. I have two shades of pink, and this is one of them.

Clatty is a $3.90 brand from Venus. I think some of you who frequent Venus might have seen it. It's no good. So don't buy. (Which explains why I am only using it for the dots.)

Revlon Nail Enamel is the ultra good one. =))) It's my 2nd time using it, though I have bought it for quite some time. It's the colour that is on my toe nails. And the good news it, I did this nail art 3 weeks ago, and my toe nail colour is still fully on!!

Revlon Nail Enamel in another colour has been reviewed by My Women Stuff too:
Revlon Red Hot Tamale for the Sexiest Toes Ever!

Yep, hope my noob attempt at nail art may inspire other girls to try DIY too! I am sure you all know it saves quite a sum of money. Plus, I had a good time relaxing myself, and having fun Me-Time while I was doing that.

Things Can Crank Up

I am really quite frustrated right now about my latest online purchase - MBD masks from Sunnanz.

Don't get me wrong. Asides from slightly late post out of my items, I don't think it's their fault. It should be the postman.

I ordered boxes of MBD masks from Sunnanz on Monday night, made the payment and filled out the paid form. And I am supposed to receive confirmation of my payment after that. Sad to say, I didn't.

However, I was pretty confident that Sunnanz will deliver my items no matter what, so I didn't do anything.

But until yesterday, which is the Monday 1 week after I placed my order, I still have not received my registered parcel.

Thanks to the help of some forumers, I emailed Sunnanz about it, and the in-charge actually called/sms me about my items.

Apparently, Singpost has sent it out on Friday, 09/10/09. But on my side, how could that be??? Since I did not receive the failed delivery notification card that would direct me to collect it.

I am not happy with the postman. Because this way, I would be waiting forever for my items had I not checked. Moreover, I wouldn't know where my parcel is if I don't take all the trouble to ask Sunnanz for the article number, and then go to Singpost website to check it, and request a redelivery.

All these troubles when I thought online purchase should actually be comfortable, pay, sit down, wait, and receive your items.

Disatisfied.

Many forumers say they would receive within 2 days of order. But mine? Being a first time customer, Sunnanz only allowed it to reach my doorstep on Friday when I ordered on Monday. 4 days. Double of what others get. Really bad impression right now, even though the missed delivery isn't their fault.

I saw some websites that sell the masks at $1.20 instead of $1.30 by Sunnanz. What am I paying that extra $0.10 per piece for if they don't provide better service and assurance? Furthermore, their tagline is "The Right Choice". What an irony.

Sorry Sunnanz. Try harder next time. I am most likely transferring my orders for MBD masks to other sites. No doubts, they have other things on the site too, which is still worth looking at.

My Sunnanz, MBD loot!

EDITED: Hi girls, haha. By the way, I went down to the post office personally to retrieve my package. 4 types of masks here. All the limited edition ones.

The much loved chocolate that was out of stock, for whitening, brightening and firming.
The also popular Japanese Cherry Blossoms, for brightening, soothing, and regenerating.
Strawberry, for brightening, improving fine lines, and oil control.
Mixed berries, for brightening and firming.

Looks like all are good for my skin! The other time, I bought Apple for my SO, which is more for acne skin. So I didn't use at all.

I will try and review them asap! =)))

PS: Bought 10 of each, will last me a long, long time.

EDITED AGAIN: lol.
Shi Wei from Sunnanz told me they sent out my items promptly on the 7th. Haiz. But I don't know. Not sure what to think. I don't want to malign Sunnanz, so I am posting this part to say that I may be wrong about what I posted earlier on.

I guess, perhaps, yes, they do deserve a second chance. Since Shi Wei did tried to call me 2 times, and then sms me when they receive my query email. For this, I am very happy. Yup. So a second chance it is. I hope things don't crank up again. =)))

Happy Belated Mid-Autumn Festival!

This is so late right? I have been so busy and fell very sick with blocked nose, runny nose, headache, body aches, and very mild fever over the weekend. Still trying to recover now, having cough and sore throat. And still will be busy with school... ... Just finished a test yesterday. Yep, I had to study despite feeling so sick.

So, Happy Belated Mid-Autumn Festival!

I don't usually celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival, although I eat mooncakes every year. But this year, my SO happened to have two tickets to a concert on Saturday itself. So we went for it of course. =)

The faces below are pretty recognizable right? For people who listen to Mandarin songs. They are Zheng Zhong Ji and Su Yong Kang, from Hong Kong.

The opening screen, took while I was waiting for the concert to begin.

This is my first time going to a concert. I have been to several dramas, but not a music concert. The ticket says 730pm, but we had to wait till 8pm before it began.

I actually didn't understand 80% of what went on, as I totally don't know Cantonese. I didn't understand the songs, the speeches, and the jokes. To me, all those were just some sounds, which are more strange to me than Japanese.

So I guess, if you don't understand the language, and don't really like the singers, better not go to something foreign. hahaha.

I think I had a good time scrutinising their clothes, skin, build and all. hahaha. Both have really smooth skin! Or maybe it's powder? But I don't think so ehz.

Both really keep fit. Quite old already still have very good figures.

Yup, I guess that's all. Hope you all have eaten enough mooncakes, eaten very delicious ones (like I did), and enjoyed your Mid-Autumn Festival. =)

Say Goodbye

There is always some kind of sadness in me when I have to throw away my skincare product bottles. Today, it is time to say goodbye to two more bottles, my first pimple cream, Decosmet Acne Cream, and my first eye cream, Evarro Eye Treatment Essence.

I am quite a hogger, and I practically keep everything and anything. lol. Especially skincare bottles. They are so nice, and so useful for traveling.

My two beloved bottles of creams.

I always take so long to finish these things, and they end up expired. Both are at least 2 years' old... ... They both smell sour.

I tried to wash out the creams so that I can reuse the bottles. But even with detergent, a lot of cream was still left sticking at the bottom.

So no choice. Must throw.

PS: The bottles look exactly the same. Actually they were sister brands. But have now split up.

What do you normally do with finished tubs/bottles of skincare? Do you wash and keep any? Or everything just goes into the bin?

If you do keep them, like I do, what do you use them for?

If you throw, does it sadden you? Especially if you have been using the product for months and months... ...