New Year Eve, End of 2012

Happy New Year Eve. 

Let's look back what I did in 2012.

- Survived my 2nd year 1st semester. Glad I passed my finals.
- Dining in Beverly Hills, Moscow for the first time
- Spent winter holidays in Moscow.
- Cirque du Soleil, Zarkana! 
- First Bubble Fest in Moscow. 
- Back to Malaysia!!! Had lots of fun back home
- Went to the beach with the family
- Back to Moscow
- Start of the hectic 3rd year, basically locking myself in the room to study daily
- New year 2012. I haven't cleared all my credits.

New Year Resolution.

- Lose weight, around 10kgs? (as always!)
- Finish my 3rd year peacefully

My best-of makeup items

The 9 Makeup items I really like this year.

Missha Misa Cho Bo Yang BB Cream, L'oreal Lumi Magique Foundation, Lush Color Supplement in Light Yellow, Maybelline TheMagnum mascara, MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural, MAC Studio Finish concealer, Garnier 2 in 1 Corrector, Maybelline Color Sensational Popsticks in 020, Tony Moly Lip Tint

Honorable mentions :
Catrice Mono Eyeshadows, Etude House Drawing Eye Brown Pencil, Etude House Nymph Aura Volumer, Dr. G BB cream, Skin79 Hot Pink BB Cream, Jill Stuart Jelly Eye Color N, Jill Stuart Blush Blossom, Essence Stay All Day Long eyeshadow in For Fairies

Haven't post a FOTD for a long time.
Swearing by natural brown circle lens and highlighting my bottom lash line.

A white christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Picture speaks a thousand words. 

Body Shop Christmas buy

Merry Christmas Eve!

TheBodyShop is having a christmas sale up to 50% off, there are lots of things I still wanna try from the TheBodyShop thus, I took this chance and got a few items.

My items are all on 30% off.

Tea Tree oil, Tea tree skin clearing lotion and Vitamin E Illuminating moisture cream.

I'm still finding a cure for my problematic skin and at the same time trying to cure my dry skin.

My friends who have used this tea tree range has raved about the products, so I picked out some to try, the lotion and the oil.

I got sold by the word "skin clearing" for the lotion.

I used to use tea tree oil to cure minor breakouts but I left it for my sister to use at home. 

It comes in a 50ml squeeze tube which is really hygienic.

From what I had tested, the lotion is really light weight and it doesn't feel greasy at all. It absorbs into the skin really fast.

Great for those with oily skin.

Tea Tree Oil comes in tiny amount of 10ml.

10ml last for a long time for tea tree oil unless you are splashing it all over your face which is a must not because tea tree does dry out the skin.

Just dab it on huge acne and it will sort of subside the acne but won't completely disappear it. Nothing is a magic potion. 

Vitamin E Illuminating Moisture Cream.

Despite having some breakouts, my skin is actually very dry. I had tried the Vitamin E facial oil, so far, I had seen some improvement on my dry skin. 

So I also opted to get the moisture cream. I chose the illuminating one because I am into everything that gives me a healthy glow.

A glowy skin gives the illumination of a healthy skin. 

It is a pink cream with subtle shimmers. 

Little Winter Things

it's the 15th again! It's haul time, mini haul to be exact.

Before this, I went to the store and saw the Catrice new collection, I was deciding whether to get it or not and my friend told me not to, so I listened to her and guess what?

It's now on clearance sale for 99rubles each. That's a huge drop!!

So my itchy hands picked up 3 items from the collection.

Isn't the packing mighty gorgeous. I fell for the packaging.
It's so classy.

It comes with a detailed packaging. It is very hard to take the picture of all the details.

The colour combination for this palette is pretty weird with the red. I doubt I would use the red but the rest of the earth colours are so pretty, especially the champagne.

The packaging of the lipsticks are really pretty too.

The two colours I got, Nude Warm and Cherry Bomb.

The lipsticks are totally matte. I am more of a fan of cream lipsticks but it is no harm trying these matte lipsticks since they are currently so cheap.
This is Nude Warm. Just like its name, a matte nude.
This is the last piece, I am glad I manage to dig it up from the pile.

Cherry Bomb.
A matte coral colour. This is the prettiest colour out of the bunch.
There's a matte red colour which I didn't get.

The Body Shop had a 30% sale storewide, I just grabbed an item.

The Vitamin E facial oil. I needed a facial oil since I left my Palmer's one at home.
I spilled part of the oil already and I am sad.
I used it a little and I don't really like its consistency, it is really oily and doesn't absorb well into the skin.

12.12.12

It's 12.12.12!

It would be a waste if I don't something on such a beautiful date.

It is really cold today outside, it's like -12 Celcius over here. I pretty much almost froze to death walking to university today but the temperature fits the date!
Yes, I celebrated 12.12.12 by attending classes and studying.
My life is really boring, I tell you.

I had Starbucks a week ago.
I just want to posted how cute is the Christmas edition cups.

I had the limited Christmas blend. It taste sooooooo good.
The after taste is just so aromatic.

A triple layer chocolate.
It's so rich and good but tad too sweet.

Productive Saturday

I finally got to go out after a long time not really stepping out of my hostel due to my hectic schedule.

First, I am gonna talk about a coffee house, Kofe Haus. This is a Russian chain coffee house.

It is available almost everywhere. Every section, every corner.

I ordered, their hot caramel latte , ice blended caramel latte and hot chocolate marshmallow.

Caramel Hot Latte

Ice blended caramel latte

Marshmallow hot chocolate

I would say I am not a fan of Kofe Haus. Their coffee is way too diluted and there's isn't any aroma in the coffee.

It just feels so bland drinking their coffee, especially the ice blended, it was like drinking water. 

Staff service was slow especially on returning change. It is like a Russian thing? 

We went away without our change because we couldn't stand waiting for the change. 

I would recommend Starbucks over Kofe Haus anytime. 

I did some mini purchases along the day

I went into Lush. Lately, Lush has been like one of my favourite brands. 

Got two items from Lush.

The Colour Supplement in Light Yellow and Mask of Magnaminty.

It is a green paste with rough seeds.

It smells pepperminty-ish with some weird undertones. I don't know how to explain it.

I have used it yesterday, so far, I like this mask eventhough I haven't seen any effect of it on my face. I will use another few more times to re-ensure if  I really like this mask.

My friend really like this so I jumped on the bandwagon and got one for myself.

I was matched to the colour light yellow by the Lush assistant. 

Jackie Oats was too light for me and Light Pink was too dark and it look orange on me. 

I like the texture when I tried it. 

It is not like a foundation, it is somewhat like a moisturizing makeup base texture with the ability of a foundation.

It feels extremely light. Sounds like a good foundation for the summer,

Accessories I got.

Winter gloves!

This is how it looks on my hand.

I got this glove because it is convenient for me when I use my phone. I do not need to take out my glove everytime I wanna use my phone.

Super cute winter beanie! I feel in love with this upon seeing it at first sight.

It is just so cute!!

Me with the beanie. So in love with it. 

The quality is really good too.

FOTD

Me in my current favourite drugstore foundation - L'oreal Lumi Magique. 

My colour is in N1 Pure Pearl, the lightest shade in the collection and I am not the lightest skinned person around, the last time I checked I was a NC20, I might be lighter now since I live in the land of snow now and I used to live in a tropical country.

Can you see how luminous it is. It is so gorgeous.

snow and mini haul

It has been snowing really badly over here. Feels like a great challenge to actually travel and walk to classes.
It is so hard to walk, it is shuffling to classes daily.

It's winter wonderland.

NOT. winter in real life isn't as nice as what you see.

Also, did a mini haul this time.
I intentionally went there to get another pimple cream but I came out with more items, like usual.

I got 3 items and one is a impulse repurchase. L'oreal Lumi Magique Foundation, Catrice Allround Concealer Palette and Essence Pure Skin SOS Spot Killer.

Yes, the spot killer is the main purchase. The concealer is kind of a important purchase since I have lots of hyperpigmentation and redness right now and I am going out on this weekend.

L'oreal Lumi Magique is an impulse repurchase, I still have quite a lot left in my previous bottle but this was on 50% off and in this country, sales on cosmetics are hard to come by. And something told me I just need a backup before the sales end.
and oh! This is current favourite drugstore foundation. I recommend it for people looking for a dewy finish with medium coverage this winter.

The colours of the concealer palette. 

Green - to neutralise redness, Pink - to neutralize dark circles, beige of different tones. The 2nd from right is my exact match.


I hate the artificial lighting in my hostel room. It is from my study lamp.
The big issue I have over here is lighting, there's hardly any sunlight over here and lighting is pretty iffy.

Acne Talk

Finally bought a temporary laptop to use over here till I go back home to get a better new laptop.
So I am back full force.

This December, I wanna tackle an issue faced by most. Acne.

I don't have the most perfect skin but I grew up having pretty much the perfect skin, when people started to have their pimples at 12-15, I am pretty much the one with fair clear skin. I thought it was in my genes for not having acne since my mum said she never broke out in her life, but till I was 16 where I started to break out at my forehead. Just my forehead, nowhere else.

That time I wasn't too worried about it I thought it would fade away as a grow older, but I did try my best to eliminate them all.
First I tried to follow a regime I found online, I used Cetaphile Face Cleanser, Alcohol-free toner and Oil-free moisturizer and also applying all sorts to topical creams on the acne areas, I tried from Benzoyl Peroxide, Salicylic Acid and the also antibiotics - Streptomycin.
Streptomycin was a wonder it eliminated most of my forehead acne and by the time I was 18, it pretty much was all gone.

I was happy.

I has been some time since I posted an FOTD, why?

I have to announce, I broke out again. From my standard, it is pretty bad, although most told me it is fine.
I broke out at my cheeks area, a place that I never had pimples before in my whole entire 21 years of life.
I find this really depressing and I just have no mood to do anything to my face other than saving it with lots of skincare, now most of my money goes to skincare.
I hardly spend on makeup anymore since I hardly use them since the break out.

What is worse, it is that cheek acne leaves scars.
I have some pitted scares on my face now.

Here are some pictures in HD.
I never took pictures of my skin in HD before so beware what you are gonna see.

My terrible left cheek where most pimples started. It has pretty much calmed down since it started in September. 

This is considered the better days of my skin.

As you can there is a stubborn red spot which refuses to go off with lots of hyperpigmentation around.
There are some scars here but it is not really that visible.

My right cheek, also the better cheek.
There is a few breakouts in this side of the cheek but nothing too major. One of the pimples left a scar.
I think you can see the scar if you look closely into the picture.

My skin as of today,
but I think it got more blemished after washing and my itchy hands picking.
I must always remind myself not to pick my face!
Never pick your acne!

not a pretty sight as the skin started to flake due to my topical medications but it did help a lot in drying up all  most of the pimples.
Lots of hyperpigmentation on my skin.

My face routine now is pretty intensive with all kinds of essence and serum.
I also apply all kinds of topical cream on my face which had made my face VERY flaky.
I can literally peel the dry skin off my face but to get rid of my pimples, I am willing to go through this phase.

I apply Nixoderm (which is an ointment with benzoic acid, salicylic acid and precipated sulfur  I consider this the most potent cream of all), Benzoyl Peroxide, Salicylic Acid and Tea Tree solution.
and I always apply sunscreen/sunblock before I go out eventhough it is winter, I just don't wanna risk my hyperpigmentation getting darker.

The suncreen I use is the Biore UV Aqua Rich SPF50+ PA +++ or Etude House Glow Base Sunguard SPF36PA++.

I hope that my skin can calm down before next year.
I will post my skincare routine soon.