3 Things You can do to keep Your Oily Skin Moisturized

Having oily skin, word ‘moisturizing’ doesn’t exactly sound friendly to me, rather, it’s intimidating. At some point in our life, we’re guilty of skipping moisturizer either at night or in the morning. Still, keeping our skin hydrated is a must since not applying moisturizer could trigger our skin to produce even more sebum. Now the dry season has already settled, this becomes a dire need. If you’re still struggling to find the right way, here are a couple of things and products you could try.

Use Light-weight and oil free day moisturizer

Lots of moisturizer right now cater more to wide variety of skin, including oily skin. Words like ‘oil-free’, ‘clarfiying’, and ‘mattifying’ easily lure us in, and whereas there’s nothing wrong with it, make sure to do thorough research, because sometimes, they could be  either ‘too rich’ or ‘too mattifying’. I find watery or gel formula to work best in maintaining the moisture without making my skin looks greasy later in the day.
You can also try: Laneige Light Balancing Emulsion, Clinique Dramatically Different Moisture Lotion

Pick the right sleeping mask for night care

If moisturizing at day is too much for your skin, then you can compensate it by pampering them at night. After cleansing your face thoroughly, put your moisturizing mask of choice. I love to wear sleeping mask, the one you can wear to sleep, and greets you in the morning with fresh, dewy skin.  Not only plumping, they also helps restoring and brightening your skin. Extra thing to pay attention to is the scent, most of them now comes with heavenly, relaxing smell that helps you to have better sleep as well.
You can also try: Laneige Water Sleeping Mask, Jurlique Rose Moisture Plus Moisturizing Cream Mask

Try facial oil

Oil on oil sounds like a nightmare, but trust me, the right oil can make a difference. Facial oil actually maintains the natural fat in the skin which helps skin to properly moisturize itself. The right oil also balances and regulate sebum production in the skin, neat, right? Make sure you use lighter oil in summer, and turns to heavy ones when needed in winter.
You can also try;  Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate, Pai Rosehip Biogenerate Oil

How do you keep your oily skin moisturized?

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Brand focus: Kiehl's

Kiehl's might be a brand that I just discovered this year, but has quickly became my firm favorite for skincare. The reason is pretty simple; they work. They deliver what they claim without any mumbo-jumbo promise. Each products I bought had helped me tacking all my skin issues; from acne-scars to dull, oily skin. While some product took time to show its wonder, some just worked instantly. In this post, I'm going to introduce you some Kiehl's products I've tried.

Ultra Facial Oil-Free Toner; while some people find toner to be a moot product, that's not the case with me. Having oily skin, a toner is a must, both to remove dirt residue and refresh my face, it also promises removal of excess oil which is what my skin needs. This toner is both paraben and alcohol free, so, it clarifies my face without drying them. I think this can work for dry and normal skin as well, seeing as the gentle formula is so universal.

Ultra Facial Oil-Free Cleanser; Trivial as it is, I'm a believer of same series product work well together, so, when I ran out of my Perfect Whip Cleanser, I picked this up. I love my cleanser to be creamy without drying, and this does exactly like that. Enriched with imperata cylindrica that helps skin to retain and store moisture effectively, this cleanser is even suitable for sensitive skin.

Blemish Control Daily Skin Clearing Treatment; was the very first product I bought from them and what made me their follower. This cream treatment is formulated with Sulfur for acne-clearing and Vitamin B3, it helps reducing acne scar without stinging nor drying. After I started using this, my acne scar faded a lot faster than before (2 months from the usual 4 months). After 5 months of usage, my skin becomes so clear to the point I feel comfortable without makeup. Nowadays, I'm not using it every night but only after I had period acne.

Midnight Recovery Concentrate; this cult favorite reigns supreme in my skincare stash for it's amazing ability to brighten, clear, and improve my skin at the same time. This oil works by replenishing skin at night when it is at its most receptive. I religiously massaged three drops of this to my face every single night without fail, and wake up with fresh looking skin. I don't think I will ever try another facial oil, seeing how effective it works on me, I literally noticed a change on my skin in a week!

Facial Fuel No Shine Moisturizing Lip Balm; while this is actually marketed toward male audience, I picked this up for it's non-glossy finish which is friendly for matte lipstick. A couple of post ago, I mentioned how difficult it is for me to find a lip balm that works, and this is one of the rare ones that do. It's not thick and doesn't feel like a film of moisture sitting on my lips, dries fast after application without actually drying them.

Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque; actually, I'm slathering this all over my face while writing this. Clay mask is something that is always recommended for oily skin for its ability to absorb oil and dirt from your skin. While clay mask can be drying sometimes (I'm looking at you, TBS old clay mask), this one is enriched with aloe vera to prevent it from happening. It's very huge, so it can last you a really long time.

What do you think of Kiehl's? Do you have any favorite from them?

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New in | July's Beauty

I know I just hauled some pretty great things back in June, what's with Japan trip and all, but I could not resist to dump my money and get the economy rolling this month, because; a) it was sale, practically everywhere, b) I went to Singapore and their Sephora carries more than local Sephora can carry (at least at the moment, I'm still waiting until Sephora Indonesia carry as much). In conclusion; I did not resist.

Nars Contour Kit in Paloma; I justify this purchase because I still don't have any contouring product in my arsenal. Which, for someone who writes beauty blog, should be considered a crime (no?). My thought on this? Still can't say anything because I've only tried this a couple of times (maybe 2 or 3), but I've learned to use this with light hand and under natural light, not my room light (in case you're wondering, yes, there was a disaster).

Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Custard; not pictured, great, so smart, me! Anyway, I bought the travel size instead of full one, which was funny since I regretted not getting it back in Japan. I guess it can be attributed to some mixed reviews about this concealer, some says this great, some says not really. Hence the mini size, it's perfect for travel and popped inside my makeup pouch for on the go, and this way, I won't be wasting too much money if I ended up not liking it.

Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment Ruby; this is totally 'bloggers made me buy it' purchase. I keep on reading about Fresh everywhere, and as someone with desert-dry lips, it's only natural that I'm itching to get my hands on it (pretty packaging aside, oops, did I just reveal myself?). Like two products above, I haven't use this as much to give a proper judgement, mainly because I'm trying to use up my MAC Cosmo lipstick.

Kiehl's Ultra Facial Oil-Free Toner; I ran out of my Laneige's toner one morning and freaked out, because how am I supposed to sleep tonight without toner? Luckily, mom decided to go shopping on the afternoon! I visited Kiehl's counter instead of Laneige (because it was closer to Starbucks and I got free beverage coupon with me), spent 5 minutes choosing between this and blue herbal ones, before decided to go with this one. This smells a little bit iffy for me, but other than that, there's no major issue.

What did you purchase this month?

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How I deal with my oily & acne-prone skin

Growing up, I don't remember I ever take proper care of my skin (or myself, really). I was one of this kid who hit her puberty late (around 18), and by then, my skin was already damaged; uneven skin tone, bumpy skin, acnes, large pores, white & black-heads, oily, lots of sebum (and grease), dull skin. I didn't have the healthiest of diet either (lots of fat, grease, nuts, lack of exercise). The problems are piling up and for nearly 5 years I was struggling to find the right products for me. In the beginning of the year, I vowed myself to up my skincare game, and 6 months later, switched my skincare routine to Laneige and Kiehl's products, and my skin has never been better. I still have some acne scars left, they're hormonal so I cannot stop them, but they're healing fast. My face is brighter and more even in texture!

After cleaning my face, I pour deliberate amount of Laneige White Plus Renew Skin Refiner to cotton pad, and swipe it around my face. This refiner is supposed to 'refine' my face, balancing the PH, so my skin is ready to drink the next product and makes it work better. This also helps getting rid of dirt residue, plus brightening my skin. In the morning, I use Laneige Light Balancing Emulsion in place of regular moisturizer for day-time. It's very light-weight and absorbs really fast. For night-time, I gently massage three drops of everyone and their mother's favorite; Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concetrate. Then apply Kiehl's Blemish Control Daily Skin Clearing Treatment to problematic areas, especially the ones where I get pimples and acne most often to finish the routine.

When I feel like pampering my skin, I use Laneige's Black Head Melting Gel, which helps me getting read of pesky white/black head easier, followed by Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque before continuing with regular routines. I do this at least once in a week.

After starting this routine, I immediately noticed the difference. I used to have bumps and uneven skin between cheeks and ears area, around my temple and the chin, but in about a month, they are gone. My skin feels very smooth, soft, and plump every morning, and it gets better by day. As for acne, it is hormonal thing, so it is impossible to get rid of it completely from outside. However, this routine manages to keep them at bay, plus making the acne scar fade faster. Every month I got at least 2 acne (5 when it's that worst). My acne scar usually fade after 4 months, but by then, another acne had popped, so it's like an endless battle. However, now the acne I got is reduce to 1-2, fades easily, and the scars they left only last for a month and a half.

It can be stressful at times to find that I still pops some acne or two, but take a deep breathe, release, and be thankful that I have find products that work to help me dealing with my skin. Do you also have oily & acne-prone skin? What products you use to deal with them?

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What do I bring to Japan | Skin, Hair, Body Care Edition

Welcome to the second installment of What do I bring to Japan! As promised, this time it's going to be about skin, hair, and body care (in case the title is not self-explanatory enough). Like the makeup, I'm keeping everything simple by not bringing my complete skincare products, compromising in some area such as not differentiating day - night skincare. I mean, when you're traveling and tight on space, you just want to bring as compact as possible, right?

 

Skincare

Traveling doesn't mean I'm skipping my routine either, but I'm downsizing what I bring by, as mentioned above, compromising day - night routine. For me, cleansing is the most important part of the routine, so I'm not going to play with this one. I got the travel size of Bobbi Brown Soothing Cleansing Oil a couple of months back, perfect for this chance but I know this won't be enough for 5 days trip so I'm planning to buy the full version of Shiseido Senka Perfect Liquid since I'm running out the one I have at home. For cleansing foam, I'm taking Shiseido Senak Perfect Whip with me. Now for the actual skincare, I'm going to bring Laneige White Plus Renew Skin Refiner as toner and Kiehl's Midnight Recover Concentrate in place of my usual moisturizer. I know MRC is supposed to be night-time skincare, but I tried using it in the day before and got no trouble at all so it should be fine.

 

Haircare

I thought it'd be impossible to compromise with this one because my hair is absolute mess with no styling, but I guess I actually managed to downsize the products from my usual routine (which includes three to four products aside from shampoo and conditioner). I bet it all on Living Proof Prime Style Extender, this does all from nourishing and smoothing, protecting my hair from heat, to maintaining my hair will stay in place throughout the day. To fix my hair in case of emergency, I will be using Jill Stuart Hair Treatment Mist which works both as fixer and treatment for my hair, I have the full-sized ones but this one is the travel size that I got after hauling Jill Stuart somewhere last year. Since I cannot live without hair straightener, of course I cannot leave my hair iron which is from Philips. It doesn't get temperature setting but it's compact and travel friendly, plus it got this cute hot-pink plate on it!

Body Care

Confession time, I'm utterly lazy when it comes to body care. I cannot count how many times I forgot using my body milk or lotion before I leave the house (or, really, sometimes I intentionally skip it). But I have this travel size of Jill Stuart Body Milk in Tuberose & Rose sitting very very lonely in the back of my drawer, and it's very light in texture, so I figure it'd be suitable for Tokyo in June. I'd love to bring my full size perfume but let's be real, they're in glass bottle, which is heavy, and I'm not risking that, so L'Occitane Roll on Perfume in Reines et Roses that is. Rose can be heavy but this one is fresh enough to be summer appropriate.

Some of these products will be deposited to travel size bottle that I have scattered around the house and packed inside the pouch I received from Zoeva, some other will go inside zip lock bag (because I'm that paranoid). The next installment will be about what I bring in my bag - travel edition, or something like that. See you next week!!

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May Favorite

It's time for another monthly favorite! I didn't buy any new makeup product this month, so makeup/skincare-wise, I was just religiously staying to my routine up until now because they've given me satsifying result so far! I know I keep saying this, but I swear; my skin has never been better since I'm starting this routine. While I will share about them somewhere around July (oops, long, I know), I will mention one product that I think is the 'culprit' behind this. On to my May Favorite!

Kiehls's Midnight Recovery Concentrate

The infamous cult's favorite and 'the culprit'. I purchased this back early April, two months later, all bumps bid goodbye to my face and the periodic acne is minimized to one! I can understand why people swore by this, this has proven to live up its claim! I still remember when I first asked the tester of this, the SA told me, "Comeback with your healthy skin!", and he was right. I used three drops every night as the final product in my routine, and two months later, it barely show any sign of diminishing. I must say, I'm a firm Kiehl's believer right now, none of their product has disappoint me, and I get the result they promised in a month.

Masami Shouko Eyeshadow Brush

Back when I was just starting to dip my toe into the world of beauty and makeup, all bloggers recommend this brand. Cheap as chips, this brush is the second one I bought from Masami Shouko back in 2012 (the first one was an angled brush). Back then, I still don't know a cent or two about applying eyeshadow but now I'm more (a teeny wee bit) experienced, I finally do this baby justice. I've been exclusively using this brush for my makeup this whole month, useful for depositing color all over the lid, crease color, and blending too. Very handy especially since I went to gym pretty much everyday this May, not exactly having luxury to bring 10913 brushes just for my eye makeup.

Living Proof Style Lab Straight

I shall sing my praise up to the moon. This hair spray helps keeping my wild and unruly hair from being wild and unruly. I bought this back in November but at the time I wasn't using it the right way so my impression of this product fell pretty flat. However, I finally figured that this really works wonder when sprayed on wet/damp hair before blow-drying. I'm about to run out of this one but still considering whether to buy the full size or the travel size again like this one (practicality, anyone??)

Jill Stuart Nail Polish Horoscope Nail in Observant Virgo

O, Jill Stuart and their pretty nail polishes.  I don't have much nail polish but if I have to buy one, I wouldn't want anything that's not Jill Stuart. They usually last about 2-3 days until beginning to chip (but I play around with my nail a lot, so far no polish survive perfectly intact in 2 days), but this one is a though one. Their horoscope nail line is all about mimicking starry sky and constellation, hence the overflowing glitter/shimmer in it. This one is particularly chunky and gritty (very obvious when you paint them), hard to remove but since this stay relatively without bugging and is drop-dead gorgeously pretty, I'm willing to spend 30 minutes scrubbing it off.

Stradivarius Platform Sandals

Stradivarius has officially become my favorite retail store; from t-shirt to formal wear, from wallet to shoes, did I mention 80% of fashion-related items I bought this year is from Stradivarius? While I'm familiar with their clothing, I haven't had a chance to try their footwear (my pickiness level when it comes to footwear is like, 10 times of clothing) until I tried this on the store when I was looking for comfortable yet stylish platform footwear that's great for traveling. This was okay, not exactly my size (I'm 40-41, this is 39), but comfortable enough. Mom decided to buy this for me and I haven't stop wearing this ever since. I like the 'resort' feel that comes with this, and the (surprising) comfort that it gives me make this all the move love-able for me.

Captain America Civil War

Ho boy, no explanation needed. I saw this twice. If only I had time, I'd watch it thrice. Carry on!

Jonghyun The First Album 'She is'

Of course I will mention this, my favorite singer-songwriter (lyricist, composer, novelist, dancer, radio dj, human rights and equality supporter) ever! I don't have any song that I do not like in this album, everything is jam-worthy, so, please don't ask me to pick favorite. I've been hearing that this album is more appreciated in western-music market for its 'modern-sound' (or so they said, I don't know fancy musical words, I'm sorry). As his fans, I sincerely think this album represents 'him and his sound'. Ever since this was released, all I wanna do is hijack gym's music playlist and play this album because, God, will this get everyone pumped. The title track 'She is' is described as electro-funk, addictive chorus and repeating "Oh, she is" that will surely stuck in your head after first listen. I reckon you give it a try even if you don't understand a bit what he's saying (psst, I don't too ;) ).

That has been my May Favorite. What is your favorite things this months?

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New in April

April just began but look at what I added to my growing collection. It's truly mind-blowing, I blame this on the very convincing SA who doesn't stop mentioning the promo when I was at Kiehls' counter. As I've mentioned previously, my goal 2016 is to improve my skin condition so 3/4 of my wishlist is full with skincare but with these purchase, I think I can say I already have it completed (hopefully). Here are new items I bought this April;

Laneige Pore BB Cushion; Laneige has three variation of BB Cushion in their line. I tried my mother's cushion (the normal one) and it turned out too rich for me. I saw they have one targeted for oily/pore-troubled skin and I didn't even think twice when visiting their counter. This one is the darkest color and while it has that grayish tint that all BB Cream seems to have (and honestly, I do not fancy), it looks really natural on me.

Stradivarius Card Holder in Mint; my current My Melody Card Holder is barely holding on together. I originally had my eyes on Kate Spade's similar looking card holder but then I stumbled upon this in almost exactly same color but only 1/10 of Kate Spade's price. Of course I did not think twice when snatching this and proceeded to pay.

Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate; I had this infamous concentrate in my wishlist since January. I didn't plan to purchase this until 10th but then the SA just had to told me they're having this promotion and I bid tearful goodbye to my money. I've been using the sample version of this one since March 21st and my skin has been looking amazing every since.

Kiehl's Rare Earth Deep Pore Cleansing Masque; is another Kiehl's item I had in my wishlist. The only mask I ever own was The Body Shop's Seaweed Clarifying Clay Mask. I might have shared it previously but TBS's products sting my skin alot. That particular mask was the worst, it left my skin tingling but no apparent effect at all. But I trust Kiehl's for I have only good experience with them and purchased this one. I still cannot judge this product, hopefully once May comes, I can give my two cents about this mask.

Facial Fuel No-Shine Moisturizing Lip Balm; oh my god, what a mouthful name. I just bought this to make the promo valid, but I don't think I will even buy this if my L'Occitane Lipbalm isn't running out either. This is actually designed for men but the SA told me this gives matter finish, and the twist-up application is more appealing than the tube ones for me. This lip-balm has slight mint taste that makes my lips tingle on first application but it does moisturize well, I think I just need to get used to that sensation.

What did you bought so far this April?

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This Skincare Routine Works

I decided that 2016 will be my 'Year of Skincare' so I tried to step up my skincare game by slowly incorporating new product to my regime at least 1 new product each month. For so long, my skincare routine only consist of double cleansing + toner + moisturizer. Starting last January, I began adding treatment product and you wouldn't believe the wonder it did to my skin.

Enter Kiehls' Blemish Control Daily Skin-clearing Treatment, it's supposed to clear any blemish and marks on my skin and I attest to you; this works. I suffer from hormonal acne (every period). It used to take 3-4 months until they fade (not completely), but this one shaved it to about 2 months or less. Now I even hesitate to take up concealer in fear of irritating the fading marks for everyday wear and settle with foundation-under eye concealer-powder only.

I also tried changing my way of using my favorite facial foam, Shiseido Senka Perfect Whip, which produced the most dense and cushion-y foam ever. I ditch the foaming net and go with my bare hand. It doesn't foam anymore but it feels very creamy and refreshing as opposed to the usual soft foam. I'm surprised with how I actually feel more cleansed compared to when I used it as dense and thick foam. To be honest, I cannot say if this small change really affect my skin at all but I can say the left side of my face feels smoother than ever.

Other staples in my routines are Shiseido Aqua Label Acne Care Toner and Laneige Balancing Emulsion Light. The first one had been my go to toner for a year. I started using Laneige for three months and noticed it had give a significant improvement to my skin as well. Excited to try more Laneige product since all of them had never broke me out before.

What's your current skincare routine? Have you altered your routine and find it working?

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