Oriental Beauty Experiments

Because I have a baby, I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of baby wipes and one of the most common brands most easily available almost everywhere is the Johnson’s Baby Soft Care Wipes.

This product is quite pricey but I can understand why because it is first of all, Johnson’s, a leading old timer in the baby business; secondly, the wipes are humongously large as in, you could wipe a really large bum from it; and thirdly, it’s made out of very thick material. It’s also very soft so you can be guaranteed that you won’t be sandpapering your precious baby’s bottom!

Personally, I find it too large in size as my baby has a very small bottom. I also don’t like that it’s very wet. Every single wipe comes out very wet and soapy, so whilst it may be a good substitute for times when you have no soap and need some clean hands, I don’t find it useful for my baby’s bottom. I’d like to use it to clean a public table, for example, but I wouldn’t pay that price for it if I was going to wipe a public table with it!

Sorry, not for me.

A friend of mine who has a lot of freckles told me that if I didn’t start using sunblock for my face early enough, I’d start growing pigmentation spots when I hit my 40s, just like that. Without warning. That’s what happened to her. She never had freckles and discolouration on her skin before but when she hit her late 30s, they came almost overnight.

Whoa! That got me running out in search for a face sunblock. She also told me that in order for it to be effective, that it had to be at least SPF50. If you are familiar with sunscreens, there are not many face sun protection products of SPF50. Seriously. Not in KL anyway. But Lancome is one of them so I decided to give it a try.

‘Many times awarded, continuously acclaimed by women, the legendary UV Expert SPF 50 beauty shield protects your skin’s fairness and youth for 12 hours against UV rays, and fight against pollution,‘ the product claimed.

Can’t go wrong there!

It contains anti-darkening technology to protect collagen fibres down to the dermis for a visibly bright, youthful skin and this is really true for I noticed that my face was very even toned when I used this product. Lovely. But I didn’t like it’s somewhat thick, oily texture although the product claims to be feather-light.

The product also preserves skin from causes of environmental stress, such as pollution and sun with a further in-depth prevention in the form of a protective moisturizing barrier against the deepest causes of hyperpigmentation and premature ageing, even at the dermal layer. I think it’s a star product but I still didn’t like the texture. Perhaps it needed some getting used to. And to be fair, I didn’t use it everyday because I didn’t go out into the sun everyday! I only use sunblock when I know I’ll be coming out of the car. It also stung my eyes every time, which I found annoying. You have to apply very little very far away from your eyes but what protection would my eyes be getting then?

For it’s price, I’m still undecided if I would buy this product again. There is another Japanese Hawaiian product I’m waiting to sample and once I do, then I’d be able to make a more firm decision.

I know we don’t have autumn in Malaysia but we still follow the trends, right? Well, the fashionistas do! According to British Vogue, this season sees many designers going for pastel eye colours accented in black. Yes! What a contradiction!

But I like it! It’s a play between sweet and innocent versus black gothic vampish style. In fact, I love it.We usually see black mixed with grays and browns and dark blues and dark greens but to contrast it with pastel pink? To me, it is soooooo Chanel. Though it was first caught on Stella McCartney’s catwalk.

See, when am I going out next? Oh, this Saturday I have an 80′s disco party to attend and this is exactly how I will wear my eyes. I’ll take pics! What do you reckon? Can you imagine pink and black eyes (with black/brown eye balls!) with black hair? It would be quite a sight, I can’t wait.

It’s almost a summer winter blend. Sounds like a drink smoothie, doesn’t it? MMmmm……..

This year I splurged on this beauty after not buying any make up for a long, long time. I’d heard that Giorgio Armani and Laura Mercier do some really good compact powders but GA had closed shop in KL and LM was not easily available so I went for the next best thing. Well, my cousin from Oz uses Chanel and she’s been a loyal Chanel powder user for years so I thought I’d give it a try.

WOW!!! It cost RM198  for a 13g casing and powder (refillable at about RM90 thereabouts) that comes with a white sponge applicator and a smooth brush applicator, then packaged in a beautiful velvet black fabric casing. Lush……It was beautiful!! The product, not the packaging. Seriously, this Chanel powder gives my face a certain glow and gives good coverage for quite a long time, probably 8 hours? Every time I went out and came home, my face was still flawless and non-oily. It also brightens up my face significantly and makes it look radiant like a blushing bride (ahem). It gave me heaps of confidence! It really is a premium quality product that I’d highly recommend. My pores were all covered with this very superfine powder and my face looked really, really smooth.

It has light illuminating qualities and SPF10. My colour is B20 Beige. Well, what do you think? I love it! I really do! I’ve tried many brands of compacts including Shiseido, Clarins, Estee Lauder, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, MAC and all the cheap brands and I MUST say this is the absolute BEST that I have tried so far. I’m still yet to try Laura Mercier but for now, I am very happy with Chanel…..

Some people find the Chanel sales girls very snobbish but if you go to Jaya Jusco at Mid Valley, the Chinese girl there is a peach. I bought a few hundred worth of products from her, because she was really so nice and helpful.