10 Things No One Told Me About Pregnancy

Here I am.. Waiting for my 2^nd baby to come out.. 7 days to go and I’m about to witness God’s wonderful creation coming out of my tummy again. I was thinking- why didn’t I blog about this during my 1^st pregnancy? Why just now? Then I realized that even on this 2^nd pregnancy with only 2 years apart, I have experienced things that I haven’t during my 1^st. I know very well that I have read multiple books and articles about pregnancy- both me and my hubby actually. Though we are aware of the weight gain, the change in the appearance due to enlarged nose and bloated face, the possibility of stretch marks, the sleepless nights and breathlessness, as some of the so-called “normality in pregnancy”- Things become very different when you experience it yourself at an intensity you could’ve not imagined. So let me share with you some experiences that I have encountered during this new chapter in my life that are both exciting and scary. :)

FRIENDS WITH BENEFIT: A review of Porefessional, Bella Bamba, Hoola, Boiing, That Gal, Stay Don’t Stray, Sun Beam, Browzings

I said I was so into make-up these past few months and it started when I went to Sephora and stayed near benefit to get my brows done. In all fairness, I love how the lady waxed my brows. It was very clean and not-so-painful. She did it fast but she was so precise. After doing my brows, she offered me some other items that she said is BENEFIT’s top-rated products.. and because she did well with my brows, I refused to say No to her in whatever she offered me. =P So I gave in and bought a few of their products.

Benefit Cosmetics is based in San Francisco and was founded by twins Jean and Jane Ford in 1976 as per my source Wikipedia. It was also mentioned that Benefit was initially for quick-fix makeup dilemmas and has soon branched out into different units that includes the “brow bars” world-wide. What surprised me is- Benefit is now a subsidiary of LVMH (a conglomerate for the luxurious brand and my favorite brand Louis Vuitton).

I find their packaging really quirky and cute and it was love at first sight when I encountered their products. Though it is a bit price-y, I stayed on track as I’d love to try their make-up line. After months and month of usage, I’d like to give you a fair review of all the benefit products I’ve used and hope this will help you save and splurge on the right products 

1. THE POREFESSIONAL: It claims to be a PRO Balm that minimizes the appearance of pores. It claims to be lightweight, oil-free, translucent, and silky. I bought the packaging with 22ml at Sephora ION for almost SGD40 dollars if I’m not wrong. Though price-y, I’d say that it is really worth the rave! This is the bomb.com! It really lived up to its promise “Now you see it, now you don’t” (referring to the pores). It is so true! Super oily skins, like me, has enlarged pores that are very visible. Because concealers and foundations cannot cover-up the large pores on my face, I decided to take on a PRO. And there I fell in love with the Porefessional. This product is one item I cannot live without. It will really make your face fresh and vibrant. Though translucent, I noticed that it has very little shimmer that is not-at-all oily that makes the face radiant. This is one of the best products that I believe Benefit has come up with. This is also my favorite product and I highly recommend the POREFESSIONAL to all the girls out there. =)

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

2. BELLA BAMBA:  Packaging claims that Bella Bamba is the triple dimension of pink. It says, it is brightening, sculpting, and defining. The directions encouraged us to sweep on the apples of our cheeks and dot at the hairline for a total thrill of dimensional color. Once again, Benefit created a revolutionary blush with Bella Bamba! This is so pigmented so the investment of almost SGD40-SGD45 for an 8.0 g is a money-well spent. The packaging of almost all Benefit’s blushes contain small but good quality of brushes that works well with their products. A little sweep using their brush can already cover both sides of your cheeks. You should control the amount as said because I warn you, if you’re not planning to wear nude lipsticks, then Bella Bamba can make your face so-pink that can make your red and pink lipsticks look very funny. This is another favorite product of mine although I am not really too dependent on it at all.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

3. HOOLA BRONZER: Direction says- Lightly brush this soft bronzing powder across cheekbones and forehead and anywhere you’d love to look tan. If there’s again another product that I cannot live without for now, that is my Hoola Bronzer. This Benefit product sculpts really well. It is 2-3 shades darker than my skin tone so I carefully use it to contour my cheekbones and hides unwanted fats on my face. ;P It is really good in pictures and it makes your face look slimmer. It is as pricey as the Bella Bamba. It also has the tiny brush inside its package so it is very handy. It is a matte bronzer so it doesn’t make your face look shiny, specially for oily face such as mine, I do not prefer anything that will give me the shiny effect.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

4. BROWZINGS: This product changes the way I look in pictures, really.. I have been using pencil liners before for my brows and since I am not good in drawing shapes, it really doesn't achieve the effect that I want my brows to look like. Browzings made it possible, especially after the brow wax. The palette includes 2 shades in it- the darker color is creamy while the lighter one is powdery. It also has 2 tiny brushes- the other one is an angled brush and the other one is a small flat brush. The creamy side helps you to achieve the brow shape you like by sweeping the angled brush on it and using the entire side of the angled brush to create the illusion of arched browse. Don’t worry if it the color didn’t reach the end of the browse since the 2^nd shade and the 2^nd brush will do its work. The powdery part is meant to fill-in the browse. After shaping it, you need to fill in the gaps along the brow hairs and you can use the tip of the flat brush to complete the look. For me, this is one product that I will continue to buy. Again, the price is about SGD40 but for me it’s worth it. It is long lasting even when I used it on the beach. It doesn’t smudge but I have to admit, you have to retouch the browse at least once/twice for the entire 10 hours for again--- super oily skin like me.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

5. BOIING CONCELER No. 2: It claims to be industrial-strength concealer which I agree. It has full coverage and it blends well with my skin. The only downside of this concealer is the reliability. It doesn’t stay so long in my super oily skin and I need to retouch the concealer at least 3x a day. It is not so handy as since you have to open it up like opening a bottle of pickles (I was comparing it from my previous body shop pencil concealer where I only need to open it and a single hand can already operate). They said that Benefit also has a different concealer line which is more handy. My fear is, will it have the same industrial strength as Boiing does? For now, I plan to stick with this before I try the other Benefit concealer line. Though I am leaning towards going back to my Body shop concealer 60% of the time. Let’s see..

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

6. THAT GAL Brightening Face Primer: I got a sample of this face primer so I got excited in trying it. It has a bubble-gum pink color in it though it does not make your face look pink. I agree that it really brightens your face but again- - for super oily face like me, this product lost its magic. It doesn’t stay as expected and it doesn’t control oil. It makes your face bright for an hour and gone after that. It also doesn’t blend well with my foundation so I really don’t notice that this primer is on my face. I don’t recommend this primer for super oily-type girls out there. Might as well invest on a primer that will suck up the oil in your face to make your cents worth it.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

7. SUN BEAM HIGHLIGHTER: It is a golden bronze complexion highlighter as it says in the package. I also got this as a giveaway when I bought a lot products from Benefit Sephora. I’ll go straight to the point, for oily skin like mine and for a fair complexion, I don’t think the Sun Beam Highlighter is good for us. It might work well for girls with warm skin-tone as it will really highlight the top of your cheeks but for fair-skinned ladies, it won’t work for you. Might as well try the high beam.. though for me, the best highlighter I’ve tried is still Body Shop.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:

8.  STAY DON’T STRAY Eyeshadow Primer: It claims to be a stay-put primer for concealers and eyeshadows but sorry that it didn’t work for me. My Naked 2 Palette smudged after using stay don’t stray. It follows the lines of my eyes and the colors stick on the corners of my eyes. It didn’t keep the color nicely and it didn’t make it stay. =( I eliminate this primer from my list and bought the Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer (which I will review later on) but I can already say that the switch was so worth it.

MITCHIKO’S VERDICT:  

'Till the next post ladies! :)

Foundation Day! A Make-Up Review on- Clinique, MUFE Mat Velvet +, Revlon Colorstay, Missha BB Cream, and MAC Studiofix

I have been loving makeup lately and have been lured into watching and reading different reviews and makeup techniques just to find the best suitable makeup wear for me and my super oily skin. =P Every make up starts with a good primer and a foundation (at least for me). So I was in the look-out for the best foundation there is and I’d like to give you a review of the 5 make-up foundation that I have today:

1. CLINIQUE Perfectly Real MakeUp (64) Crème Beige (G): I went to Sephora at Ion Orchard and have asked them for a foundation that will mattify my oily skin. I guess my mistake was I didn’t exaggerate the word “oily” to “super oily” so they gave me Clinique Perfectly Real Make up. For me, this foundation has a light coverage but is reliable until 4-5 hours for a super oily face I have. That for me is not bad already. Have I said that I blot almost every 2 hours? And since Clinique sits on my face for 4-5 hours, then this is somehow good already. Please see the first swatch from the left. I believe I bought this product to close to SGD50 for a  30ml package so it is a bit price-y for a light coverage foundation.

MITCHIKO’S RATING:

Coverage: 3/5

Long lasting: 3/5

Mattifying effect: 3.5/5

Price: 3/5

Over-all Rating: 3.12/5

2. MAKE UP FOREVER PROFESSIONAL MAT VELVET +: It says here that MUFE Mat Velvet is Oil-Free and Water resistant which I agree. This foundation is a bomb. It has full-coverage that really hides the imperfections in your face. Some reviews said that they’re like wearing a mask on their face since the consistency is really thick. For me, it is really bearable and wearable since it mattifies your face up to 5 hours, blot and it’ll still be there. It also doesn’t make me look cake-y. It doesn’t clog the pores as long as you use make-up remover. As for me I use Nik’s Orange Make UP remover which I will be reviewing later on. It is also long-lasting for me until 8 hours and I use this whenever I have client meetings or gala. The only down-side of this foundation aside from the cost (which is really expensive, I guess more than SGD50 for a 30ml package), I notice that it is super mattifying taking out the natural glow in my face. They said that I can use highlighter to do that anyway, but thing is, when I started to produce oil, it oxidizes so much and it makes my face darker than usual. I don’t know if it’s just the color since Sephora ION gave me the lightest possible for my color already. I even chose this over another (a bit darker) so I don’t know what’s causing the dark color still. Nonetheless, it is quite acceptable as long as I blot and retouch immediately once it’s looking oily.

MITCHIKO’S RATING:

Coverage: 5/5

Long lasting: 4/5

Mattifying effect: 4/5

Price: 3/5

Over-all Rating: 4/5

3. REVLON COLORSTAY (180) Sand Beige: This drugstore foundation garnered very good reviews for Oily/Combination skin so I decided to give it a try. The scent is really nice and just like MUFE, it dries very quick on your skin so you have to immediately blend it all over your face. I will categorize its coverage to medium-high since unlike MUFE, which has thick consistency, Revlon Colorstay is a bit lighter than MUFE but thicker than Clinique. It doesn’t really mattify your face just like MUFE, but it reduces the oil. Having an everyday summer here in SG and in the country I came from, I notice that in pictures, I can still see the shiny look. The good thing about this though is the price- as it is a drugstore make up, I only spent half of what I spent in buying the first 2. It is priced at SGD29-SGD30 at Guardian or Watson’s. Another good thing is its reliability as it stays on your face for 8-hours. It claims that it can stay on your face for 24 hours. But I for a super oily face like mine, I doubt that it can. 8 hours is reasonable for me to gauge since I just blot and I don’t need to retouch it with powder anymore since the foundation is still on my face. So this becomes one of my everyday make up.

MITCHIKO’S RATING:

Coverage: 3.5/5

Long lasting: 4/5

Mattifying effect: 3.5/5

Price: 4/5

Over-all Rating: 3.75/5

4. MISSHA M PERFECT COVER BB CREAM No. 23: It claims to offer novel skincare concept with BB cream, which lightens skin tone by healing visible wrinkles and blemishes with excellent skin-cover ability, and prevents skin-aging through effective whitening and anti-wrinkle properties (as per the exact wordings from Missha’s packaging).

I’ve been using Missha for 2 weeks now and I can say that it’s really good for the skin. It truly lightens skin tone, what’s even best is it has SPF 42 PA++ that protects your skin against harmful UV rays. I even use this as a sunscreen when I went to Boracay just this month and it gives me a good coverage, protection, and of course great pictures. =) At first I was scared to use BB cream since I read that BB cream is not a friend to oily skin. But I guess, I kept numb on its ineffective oil-control that it never claimed anyway, and I focused on the other benefits it offer like sun protectant, lightens scars and skintone, and the coverage.. It’s one of the best coverage I’ve seen in BB creams. What’s even good about it is it stays on your face for up to 5 hours. Again, for a super oily face like me, this is again considered fantastic! It makes my face looks healthy, glowing, and though oil-attack still peeps in, I just have to blot and it still keeps my face radiant-looking. It retails for SGD30-SGD40 at Missha store in AMK Hub B2.

MITCHIKO’S RATING:

Coverage: 3.5/5

Long lasting: 3.5/5

Mattifying effect: 3/5

Price: 4/5

Over-all Rating: 3.5/5

5. MAC STUDIO FIX Foundation NC40: Because I read a lot and they said that liquid foundations won’t work for oily skin like me, I decided to try the MAC Studio Fix Foundation that everyone is talking about. This is a light coverage foundation that if you have to conceal some imperfections, this foundation is not the most suitable choice for this job. I tried it before with a concealer and it somehow sit on my face for 2-3 hours. It mattifies my face on the first 30 minutes-45 minutes and it produces oil after that when I blot, it automatically alerts me to immediately retouch since both the foundation and the concealer are gone. I really wouldn’t recommend this product for super oily skin-type like mine. I bought it for more than SGD50 in Sephora ION so it is really price-y. It also look cake-y on my skin. It cannot be a face powder for me since it’s too cake-y and it cannot be a foundation for me since it’s too light. =(

MITCHIKO’S RATING:

Coverage: 3/5

Long lasting: 2/5

Mattifying effect: 2.5/5

Price: 3/5

Over-all Rating: 2.625/5

So here is my personal review of these products. Hope this helps super oily-skin people in choosing their foundations well. Swatches of these are below. Good luck ladies! 

(From L-R: Clinique Perfectly Real Make Up, MUFE Mat Velvet +, Revlon Colorstay, Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream)

Oiliness is next to Ugliness: A review on Phillip's Milk of Magnesia and Monistat Chafing Relief Powder Gel

I am pretty sure that I am not the only girl in the world who's experiencing this non-stop blotting within an 8-hour shift. How many times have you used oil-blotting paper? Guess how many times have I done it? About 5 times: 8 hours. Hate it! If there’s someone who blots every hour, then welcome to this blog. This is really meant for you! They said that having an oily face helps to avoid wrinkles. I guess this is right since I notice that most people in my family still look young amidst their age and I guess that same effect goes with me. =) Nonetheless, I still hate the fact that make-up cannot reside in my face for long. So I decided to start the quest to battle oiliness. 

I’ve been searching for the right combination to tame the oil in my face and have landed to multiple pages and youtube reviews about these 2 most coveted products in  Amazon, Ulta, Target, Ebay, and everywhere else in the US- Phillip’s Milk of Magnesia (MOM) and Monistat Chafing Relief Powder Gel.

In the reviews I’ve seen, they claimed that Phillip’s MOM can mattify your face for more than 8 hours and can really avoid being oily all throughout the day. They also said that Monistat Chafing Relief Powder Gel is the best primer comparable to Smashbox Photo-finish Primer. And hey, the reviews I read are countless and they are of all praises to these products. So I jumped at the bandwagon of these products and since both of these are not available in Singapore, I went ahead and ordered this via Singpost Vpost at Amazon.com for less than USD 15 each.. and Voila! After 1 week, I finally got the MOM first, followed by the Monistat. I was so excited to try it out since I also have a planned trip and I don’t want my make up sliding all over my face (just as what’s happening now). Unfortunately, because the Monistat came late and my flight came earlier than the package, I was left trying the Phillip’s MOM first all throughout my trip.

So I tried it.. After washing my face with Nik’s Product and putting on my Nik’s regimen as advised by my dermatologist, Dr. Eileen Lew of Maple Clinic at Block 925 Yishun Central 1 #01-221, I put on the Phillip’s MOM. At first, it really mattifies and I was like “Yes! This is really taking its positive magic” So I immediately put on my Sephora primer, my foundation, powder and continue the rest of my make-up. Just before I left the house, my face was already dewy. So I was like “That’s fine, dewy is positive. Oily is negative” I didn’t realize that the Dewy-look is a prelude to the Oily-look I was trying to avoid. So Phillip’s MOM failed me! I was so sad and found out that it doesn’t work for me.

When I came back to Singapore, I found my Monistat Chafing Relief Gel resting on my bed, so I had a high hope that this perhaps can change the way I deal with my oiliness everyday. So I tried it yesterday. After washing my face, I put on Nik’s regimen and after all those derma-stuffs I put on my face, I blot (just to make sure that the “primer” won’t sit in an oily face) then I put on the Monistat “primer”. There again..my fear started.. Just as I was preparing to leave the house, I already noticed the dewy-effect again so I ignored it again. When I reached the office (after an hour), I tried to blot (which is what I do everyday even before the Monistat era) and have seen less oil so my hope-mometer rises in the faith that this will work for me. Unfortunately, come lunch time, my face is pouring out oil. Unexpected amount of oil that really shocked me. It was like I put on an entire Vaseline Petroleum Jelly on my face! Worst is, a pimple started to come out (Thank God that it’s just a pimple and not pimples!). So although that was the first try, I decided not to take it again today. I was scared that this pimple might give birth to another.

MITCHIKO’S ADVICE: Though these products might work for many people of all races as shown in multiple social media sites, it doesn’t work for super oily skin like me.. or perhaps it just doesn’t work for me at all! For those of you out there who’d like to try it, please do so.. I ordered both for less than USD20 dollars I guess but I spent almost SGD40 for delivery so if you’d like to budget around SGD60-SGD80 to have both of these, please feel free to order these at Amazon or Vitacost. Or if you have friends in the US, just ask them to buy those for you or you can simply order it online and have those delivered to your friend’s house so they can carry it back in SG. I might try this again, perhaps after my next derma session and if still doesn’t work, then prepare yourselves ladies as I’d post it on sale, definitely! Hope this helps. 

Taking time to realize..

I honestly don’t know why I created this blog and where in the hell do I find time to do this.. perhaps because I am too bored with my work and I feel that in the past 5 years, all I do is work and be lifeless. One long leave brought me to ask myself, “What do you really want to do? What do you really want to be? How do you see yourself 5-10 years from now?” I paused.. then I began to seek for answers by praying. I hate it when all I do is work and though I find time to take my vacation, it seemed so uncomfortable. I still worry about work, I still respond to emails, and I am completely hooked to my job, sometimes ignoring hubby’s requests just to get my stuffs done.

My 10-day vacation gave me the answers; I want a restful increase where I don’t need to worry about work all the time. I want to have a business of my own someday where I can share my passion (bags, shoes, clothing, make-up) to the rest of the girls out there. I want to do what I love to do and not love what I need to do. Though New Year has not started yet, this is a resolution I want to continue ‘till I grow old. I want to be responsible but not busy. I want to be successful but not stressed. I want to know myself more and explore possibilities. I want to spend time with my aging parents. I want to give more attention to my hubby.. know him more and pray with him together. I want to see the world with him and look at it in a positive and stress-free perspective. I want to bond with friends and share things I want to do. I want to rekindle my relationship with my siblings who have been too far from me since the day I worked and went up the corporate ladder. I want to share my passion with all the girls out there who just started to get curious with the world of beauty and fashion. So, let’s begin to explore this complicated but exciting dimension and I hope that this blog can somehow give you light as we enter the space we thought can never be ours.. Cheers!