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My first basic DIY Facial Moisturiser. gonna record it down my diy experiences. My 3rd time applying it this morning. it's really quite good IMHO and cheap! Makes my skin soft and smooth.
2 TBSP Fresh Aloe Vera Gel
10 drops Vegetable Glycerin
3 Drops Jojoba Oil
Aloe Vera Gel -- can find it at NTUC/Cold Storage/Market/Sheng Shiong. Cost me about $1.30-$1.50 for one piece. Sheng Shiong sells $2.30 per kg/ NTUC, $2.50 per kg. fresh ones the best. instead of commercial gel. use a spoon to scrape off the transparent flesh/fillet of the aloe plant. it's GEL. tried blending into juice before. it's not as effective as the gel. Cut out the portion that you need so that can keep the plant longer. Aloe vera is the hydrating agent here. soothes the skin.
Vegetable Glycerin -- ordered it from online local shop but would be much cheaper to get it from iherbs/garden of wisdom/mountain rose herbs. Helps to retain moisture in the skin. long shelf life, store in dry / normal room temp area. Veg Glycerin here is food grade, derived from plants oil. Guardian sells Glycerin BP which is pharmaceutical / Cosmetic grade which is different can be synthetic or derived from animal fats. I prefer the organic way.
Jojoba Oil -- pronouced as HO-HO-ba oil. suitable for all skin types. very lightweight oil. Can get it from Guardian. again iherbs/garden of wisdom/mountain rose herbs is cheaper. This oil is supposed to be very similar to the oil produced from our skin, regulating our sebum production. Extracted from plant. This oil here is to prevent rancidity as well.
This quantity makes about 30ml. Can last about maybe 3-5 days? if use day+night. Can last a few months. best to make weekly.
Takes about 5 minutes to be absobed.
If this mixture abit dry for skin, add more Glycerin.
If your skin still feels oily, add more aloe.
My Routine now: cleanse > tone > moisturise > sunblock
Experience:
- my skin felt abit tight after it absorbed the mixture during my first application but after i used my sunblock the tightness was gone. Skin felt soft and smooth. Face was slightly red at first after awhile it was gone. Felt like my pores shrunk when i checked at the end of the day
-Effects on my combination skin: T-zone not as oily and cheeks not as dry :D No more flaking skin after long hours in air con.
- Blackheads/whiteheads still there
Conclusion:
- Really very basic facial moisturiser for hydrating purposes. Will add in Vitamin E oil for some anti-wrinkle property after my skin adjusted to this formula.
Other things that i'm planning to DIY:
- Vitamin C serum: good for uneven skin tone, sun spots/pigmentation, anti-aging, skin brightening, adjusting PH level of skin
- BHA + AHA Exfoliator: to get rid blackheads and whiteheads
- Oil Cleansing: probably the last i will try. Cos the thought of using oil to wash my face is still not quite appealing.computer
ranting okay. rantingggggggggg. one of the unusual days. yea unusual days.
totally bored shit at work i dun feel like doing the irritating measurements.
it's just so frickin tedious. not difficult at all. just tedious. arghh.
been on a reading streak about natural skincare stuff and i'll officially switch to being a diy-er after my moisturiser&coy are used up. 've came across alot of raves (and in fact not much rants) on using natural ingredients. Rants, if any, are prolly the wrong choice of ingredients so just look for another one luh duh. Yea. Dunno how did i start on this but i'm quite excited about experimenting. just like how i was crazily reading up on photography. that's kinda history. uh. haha. digression aside, basically i'm sick of having to spend so much money on buying products that are useless. The facial auntie recommended me shiseido's drugstore line, aqualabel whose cleanser is making my skin so dry that it flakes if i dont slap on my moisturiser right after that. YES. AWWWFULNESS. I bought almost all the products for the red-colour range but feels kinda useless. I think it was okay when i used initially but recently only, i noticed my skin developed some sensitivitiy to the product which i dont know why. Plus, at the end of the day my skin actually flaked!! like flaked?? when it's supposed to be hydrating. WIN. No hydrating, no skin improvements or anything. waste my moneyy! before aqualabel i bought bioessence. the product also claimed to be hydrating but my skin feels tight after applying the gel moisturiser in the end i gave it away. hope it's useful for my friend.
Actually, if the product is useless prolly it's still okay. maybe we have to give credit to the product for maintaining the skin and not worsening it. that would be more saddening. yeps.
First experience with natural ingredient was lemon. read that lemon has brightening effect, can help remove blackheads and etc. hmms. using guesstimates, honey+lemon juice+sugar as face scrub. Honey made my face feel soft and hydrated and yes! i feel that my skin did seem like it brightened up. Was for the sugar it was for exfoliating purposes but felt that sugar grains felt quite coarse so using the fine ones would be better! not so harsh on the skin. Recently i just used honey+salt cos salt was finer. Much better! honey makes my skin soft! love it. heart loads. lemon is used for whitening too. think i'll use more. need to whiten the pigmentation spots
My holy grail now would be fresh aloe vera gel. Awesomest of the awesome. It's kinda goo-ey and it smells but the gooey part is the essence of it. That's the gel. after cleansing just apply it directly. after that i apply my moisturiser with it. did it every day and night for a week. awesome! my skin feels soft and smoothhh. love it. aloe is supposed to calm/soothe the skin, anti-inflammatory properties. i've got some redness after applying..after that it's okay..not sure if it's sensitive to aloe but i'm gonna use for sometime. felt that the gooey aloe gel tightens my skin a little bit when it dries without the moisturiser so i added my moisturiser to it. it also helps to lock the moisture in skin i think. still think that aloe vera gel is awesome! Downside about fresh aloe is it cant be kept for too long else it'll lose it's potency.
The second time i bought the aloe i mixed it in the blender and added vitamin e oil (more later). vit e supposed to act as a preservative for the aloe. after mixing the aloe in the blender, it became a semi whitish liquid with foam on top..and it still smells. after adding vitamin e oil it actually turned milky yellow. still very viscous. runny like water. hmm. my guess would be cos of oxidation. idk. or some degradation. my mum applied it on her hair she said it felt smoother! yes aloe juice is used as hairspray too. i tried applying on my face..effects not as good as the gel state so i'll stick to the gel form. All these should be kept in the refrigerator..! I split the juice+vit e into three bottles. 2 in the freezer and 1 outside. after half a day. the 1 left outside smells like some corn soup. ZOMG. went into the bin.
Pure Vitamin E oil. Two kinds.D-alpha-Tocopheryl acetate and Dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate..the latter is the extracted from plant naturally whereas the latter is a synthetic one. Read that the skin absorbs the natural one more readily than the synthetic one. that's why the price is helluva difference. I saw at mustafa two brands. 50ml for $26 vs 28ml for $39. Guess which one is for the natural plant extract one? haha. learnt that you'll have to read ingredients carefully. one letter difference makes uber loads of difference. ME got vitamin e oil because people use it to reduce wrinkles and your skincare products..if you see tocopheryl acetate, that's the vit e component. chemical name for it. Vitamin e oil is very thick liquid. It takes sometime for skin to absorb. Mixed methods of application. Some people say not to apply it directly but mix with other ingredients. Some people just apply it directly. i guess whichever rocks your boat. and YES. i'm getting older. hate the lines beneath my eyes. UI or IU is the unit of measurement for Vit E oil. stupid me thought it was the potency. zz. The labels will go like 28,000 UI in 28ml or 50,000 UI in 50ml. i guess it's to tell you that there's no dilution or whatsoever? so you get like the oil, oil itself and not with water or some other alien ingredients inside. Oh yes. Vit E oil is supposed to get rid of stretch marks too! nuff said.
There's no use if it's just pure reading and nothing done. So! The most awesome thing today is i'll be collecting my first batch of ingredients! whee-ness. after waiting for a week or so. yay-ee! Why dont drugstores like watsons and guardian sell these ingredients? sigh-ness. this is the only local online store that i found sells so many yummy ingredients. i feel like grabbing everything. bwahaha. down side is it's expensive. sadness. good thing is you can order in small quantities to try out. cant wait!
Rose Hydrosol / Distillate as a toner. Vegetable Glycerin + fresh aloe vera gel+vit e as my moisturiser. and last one is a vitamin C serum. DIY-ers make vitamin C serum because it is wayyy cheaper than buying counter brands. Thing about vit C is it oxidies easily so it's hard to keep it fresh so manufacturers try very hard to stabilise it. Vit C in the form for L-ascorbic acid powder oxidise easily (unstable) that has high potency in brightening/whitening skin. It can come in other forms too which are more stable less potent. By the time you buy the Vit C serum i'm not so sure if effectiveness is still there. So! Yes. Doing it yourself ensures the freshness of the serum. ((: The simplest formula that i've come across is L-ascorbic acid (LAA) + vegetable glycerin but it's not stable (ie. oxidises and turns bad) so i found another famous formula that mimicks skinceuticals' vit C serum. skinceutical's formula has 20% (based on their website) this formula has 15% tho. gonna try it out and see how! LAA + Veg Glycerin + Vit E + Jojoba Oil + Ferulic Acid + Vodka + Aloe vera. Muaahaa. Took this formula cos there's aloe vera. jojoba oil helps to prevent rancidity so it helps preserve the formula, has moisturising properties too. Funniest of all is vodka. i was like WHAT? vodka is used to dissolve the ferulic acid. Aloe for moisture. Vit E for the wrinkles prevention. Trying out tmr!!! muahaha.
Anyway, best thing about DIY is you can control the percentage of the ingredients to suit your skin type, control the TYPE of ingredients you want to suit your skin needs and dont have to worry about the harmful alcohols and preservatives inside the product. customised exactly to your own skin. PLUS it is cheeapppper and higher effectiveness. muahaa. BUT. it's just very troublesome. as the saying goes, there's no ugly women on lazy women.
Possibilities are endless..this is due to the thousands of different types of ingredients available. from oils to acids to hydrosols (distillates) etc. etc. madness.
Just read something new today. Oil Cleansing Method. The first thought that comes to my mind was EWW. but apparently many raves again. so i'm gonna try it out. just need to add one more oil to my collection!
Total DIY convert. call it my new hobby too. bwahaha.
nice. i feel better.
last friday was kinda hilarious.
the aunty-ish looking nutzels with camel brown backpack and red dumpling bag arrived at central mall around 615pm. met koi and we actually cut the exact same hairstyle (cept the fringe) without planning it together! omgosh. what freaky coincidence! telepathic? lol. both of us were equally surprised with each other! broke out in laughter lol. we concluded that short hair is much better. i mean fuss free. dries faster, lesser shampoo, LESSER hairdrop. hair fall was the most annoying issue when my manes were below-shoulder-length..i dun wanna have hair balding problems in my later years.
went for facial at this beauty salon. shall be called 'GC' for short. not a very good experience. we bought the deal at $48 for facial + manicure. the lady did microdermabrasion followed by a masque and ultrasound. She explained that the microdermabrasion was to remove the dead skin cells at the surface of my skin and showed me the tonnes of dead skin that i had. During the treatment, there was pain felt due to the scraping of skin which made me feel kinda uneasy about it because there wasnt sucha thing based on my previous experiences. Did a quick check on the internet and almost all websites stated that microdermabrasion should be painless. winn. the lady told me to bear with the pain. whattt. minus point.
next, i was trying to seek her advice for my usual skin care regime like what i should do on usual days to prevent blackheads etc. she simply just brushed me off and told me i did not have to do anything instead just go for facial. That is total bullshit. She kept trying to stress the importance of facials and told me what would happen if i dont do it. But she also did advice me to drink more water and eat more fruits. I'm half half on this cos usually it's advisable not to squeeze blackheads yourself because i tried and ended up causing skin inflammation so it's prolly better to leave it to the professionals. Well, drinking more water and eating more fruits, okay, that's true. But i believe basic daily skincare is still necessary to reduce skin conditions (blackheads, whiteheads, dead skin etc.). Hmm. there was no hard selling of any products/package during this time which is good. But i was abit turned off by the painful experience moments back.
Next was the manicure. Honestly, i'm not the mani pedi kinda person because i find it a hassle to paint nails and then my nails grow out. even cutting nails are a hassle what more mani/pedi. lol. Anyway, the mani was quite a painful experience too. First she used a scrub for my hands but it seems like the beads were very rough i did not like it after that followed by the mask. next she used some cream to scrap off my nail cuticles which was fine after that she started using some tweezers to pluck them off! omgoshh. that was painful my middle finger was about to bleed if she plucked any deeper. minus points! during the whole time she tried to promote the packages and services it wasnt hard selling more like persuading so i did not feel like i was forced to buy anything. But i mentally did a comparison with karen's prices + service. karen wins hands down. told her i din want to paint my nails so she just buffed it for me. Told me that the shine will last for 1-2 weeks..? koi said afew days later gone alr. ahaha. shrugs.
The hard selling came after all the services were done. we tried to escape by telling her we would like to consider first but she told us to sign up for the package first and then cancel it if we were to change our minds. why would people tie themselves to something first? and why should she be so eager to tie us if she was confident that her services was good? -.-! anyhows took us about 10-15minutes? after that we left the shop. The lady became abit impolite but was not nasty in general.
My skin took afew days to recover as redness was expected for the treatment. I did not think she did a thorough job cos i had some small zits. but my it did made my skin smoother at the expense of painful abrasion? I guess not.
Just what i've learnt.
I always felt that love is a choice, a choice to commit to your partner and to have a marriage as a long term goal when you enter into a relationship and commitment is all that matters..love = commitment. but is commitment just the only ingredient required for a relationship? i guess i have been too narrow minded. very very narrow. I realised that there is so much more that meets the eye with just one word 'marriage'. noob noob. It is the union of two beings who have values, opinions, lifestyles etc. Any man and woman can come together and be in a relationship but to be able to unite together as one in marriage is definitely not easy. I wasnt able to appreciate this in the past but now i can understand a little bit more why marriages fail or people always say a good marriage requires alot of effort.
There's something that i wanna add on to the list of ingredients: Understand. Two aspects to it: Being Understanding and To Understand. I think i've failed in the latter. I guess i've missed the point about understanding my man first to give him what he wants not giving what 'i think' he wants. It is to give based on what he thinks is important and not what i think..Understanding your other half allows better communication also..to know his dislikes and likes. By this i mean not just the tangible likes and dislikes but also the intangible things like values etc..
Next: Appreciation. Appreciation can refer to appreciating what your partner has done for you and appreciating your partner as a person.. I have totally missed this point and have taken a not-so-good perspective to this. It's a myraid of reasons which i shant elaborate. This perspective spilled into me not complimenting people. But everyone wants to be complimented and be appreciated of the things they've done..and more importantly as a partner, I should be able to let my man know that i appreciate him more than anyone else just as how he appreciates me. Now i think that that is how your other half can feel loved. Words of affirmation and admiration..also one of the four languages of love. Believe that this is something that i have to work more on.
I believe that there are other things that i have to learn...respect, supportive just to name afew.
then soon after the headache camee. i sulked all the way to my office. :((
dead bored at work. cos tender closed already. like whatt? Actually it's quite fun to call the quotations cos i get to learn new stuff... i thought there would be more revision to the tender documents and more extension of time..which would become a dread cos it would be just repetition of work.. soooo in the end don't have. yay! whatt. i din even think the tender documents were well prepared by the consultants. shsshhsh. nvm. due to some changes in the team make up, i think my coy prolly wont put me in this proj..that is, if we get it. not like i want to..after knowing it's not my team that is gonna take over. noooo. i dun wanna go over to the other team. ^_____^!!
took 2 bots of po chai pill and 1 panadol. the headache is going away. yay. was contemplating MC. hahaa. think dun need alr. yayee. i'm listening to classical music to make me feel better. idk. helps for me hahas.
was going around blogs and and every most recent post was about vday! hahass. awwws. hope everyone had an awwwwsome vday..and super thanks to my sweetest darling for making it special for me! melt melt <3 <3
just being random, whatever happened to stella's blog. you changed blog title again? faints.
stomach still achingggg. zzz. i just want darling now. :(
Listening to Diddy - Coming Home.
I'm coming home
I'm coming home
tell the World I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
tell the World that I'm coming
let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday?
Taylor Swift - Back to December
I'm so glad you made time to see me
How's life, tell me how's your family
I haven't seen them in a while
You've been good, busier than ever
We small talk, work and the weather
Your guard is up and I know why
Because the last time you saw me
Is still burned in the back of your mind
You gave me roses and I left them there to die
So this is me swallowing my pride,
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I'd go back to December all the time
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mine
I'd go back to December, turn around and make it alright
I go back to December all the time
These days I haven't been sleeping
Staying up playing back myself leaving
When your birthday passed and I didn't call
And I think about summer, all the beautiful times
I watched you laughing from the passenger side and
Realized I loved you in the fall
And then the cold came,
The dark days when fear crept into my mind
You gave me all your love and all I gave you was goodbye
So this is me swallowing my pride,
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I'd go back to December all the time
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mine
I'd go back to December, turn around and change my own mind
I go back to December all the time
I miss your tan skin, your sweet smile, so good to me, so right
And how you held me in your arms that September night,
The first time you ever saw me cry
Maybe this is wishful thinking
Probably mindless dreaming
If we loved again I swear I'd love you right
I'd go back in time and change it but I can't
So if the chain is on your door, I understand
But this is me swallowing my pride,
Standing in front of you saying I'm sorry for that night
And I'd go back to December
It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you
Wishing that I'd realized what I had when you were mine and
I go back to December, turn around and make it alright and
I go back to December, turn around and change my own mind and
I go back to December all the time
++++++++++++++++++++
This song struck a chord in my heart..
let's not take people for granted if not you'll only live to regret wishing that you'd go back to the past and change things. you might not have a 2nd chance.
i dun wanna live to miss your love.
start cherishing your loved ones if you havent!
happy vday <3
crazy about this scent.
usually i'm quite hesitant about EDT. but i bought it!!! mad love. <3
light, fresh! for day use ((: hopefully its lasts on my skin.
this is my faveeee tooo. sweet floral scent. just bought my 2nd bottle. love. preferably for night use. ^____^
i bought burberry brit sheer. but i tot it's so so only -.-! doesnt last on my skin. i'll prolly just spray it after bath or sth.
till the next time,
Hazel <3
