Does a moisturizer enhance your skin or worsen your skin?

I have done a small experiment based on an article that I have read a few months ago .

It teaches us how to differentiate the ingredients used in the skincare products that are common in our facial routine.

One of it is on how to differentiate whether the moisturizer  we use actually helping us to hydrate our skin or just contain petrolatum / mineral oil that will clog our pores.

The method of testing is firstly , get a paper and dab a small amount of the moisturizer on the paper and for it to dry. Next, check and see whether the part where the moisturizer is dabbed is wrinkly or slightly translucent.

If it is slightly translucent , that means it contain petrolatum/ mineral oil. 

On the other hand if it just turn wrinkly , that means the product helps to hydrate the skin without the use of petrolatum

I did this experiment based on a few moisturisers that I have been using . These are :

 

BIOTHERM AQUASOURCE (normal to combination skin )

FRESHEL (BY KANEBO ) WHITENING UV GEL

ZA TOTAL HUDRATION AMINO REFRESHING GEL

NARUKO ( by Niu Er)Magnolia Brightening and Firming Night Gelly EX 

NARUKO白玉兰雪耳钻采紧致晚安冻膜

SKINCOLOGY (by Niu Er)ADVANCED HYDRATING CREME EX2 玻尿酸全效循環保濕水凝霜

And it turns out that  

1.biotherm contain quite a high amount  of petrolatum

2.freshel contains the most ( I am not sure whether it is due to the UV protection function of it )

3.Za has a minimal amount

4.Naruko negative traces of petrolatum 

5.skincology  negative 

KEeeeraizy... FISH ( crazy fish @ Solaris Mont Kiara review )

Everyone kinda went, eeeeeeewwwww........ When I told them I recently found a place that does live octopus. For people who've known me for a while I've been dying to try it out so I was beyond excited when I found out.

I was so excited when I found the place in Solaris Dutamas. It is a single shop lot in the middle of a lane filled with many many cars. Expect to double park unless you are willing to walk all the way from a different building. 

So, on to presentation, it was a simple dish with just a few leaves of lettuce for garnishing. I personally was expecting the live octopus to be trying to crawl out of the plate but I was kind of let down. We had to squirt some soy sauce on it for it to start moving but, it was to be honest very exciting. The dish itself was quite simple. Just soy sauce, sesame oil and sesame seeds. Simple but as it was still alive, it was good and fresh... Hahahaha how much more fresh can it get.

Taste wise, the octopus was quite salty. Not chemically, salty but it tasted like the ocean. Furthermore, I might have over did it with the soy sauce, trying to make it move. Texture wise, it was no different than eating squid sashimi. So in the end it was a once in a lifetime experience, but taste wise it was nothing out of the ordinary. That being said it was still good. So I. The end I give it an 8/10 for taste and that is great.

For the price point however, it was quite high. Rm70 for two small octopus is very expensive, but I guess it was a good gimmick so I guess it wasn't too bad. For this I give it a 5/10

In conclusion, it is worth trying out if you want to have a new culinary experience, but the taste definitely will not be anything out of this world

Crazy Fish

9-G, Jalan Solaris 3, Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur

Open daily for lunch & dinner, except the first Monday of each month. 

Tel: 03-6211-7313

Number 76 style @ bangsar 2 review

As I have mentioned in the previous post , I have a total of Rm 40 voucher to be redeemable in 3 months.

This time I went to their Bangsar 2 branch which located at the same row with the post office .

I made an appointment with Amy for hair cut, usually I will not spent such money for hair cut . But since they have a 10% discount on hair cut and I have a rm40 voucher , why not give it a try.

I like the design of their boutique , it reminds me of a coffee shop. 

What I have realised through visiting Number 76 Style is that their directors are quite good but the assistants are bad . I don't know whether is a miscommunication or what , but I don't think their assistants are professional enough . The lack of supervision of the directors ( hair stylist ) makes the problem worst . This is because the directors are always busy, they might serving 2-3 customer at the same time .

Amy is a friendly person . I mentioned that the Ultrasonic hair treatment doesn't really work on my hair . Once she heard about it and looked at my hair condition, she thinks that there might be some problem during my treatment last time as the condition is not normal for a treatment after 1 week plus .

So she decided make an appointment for me to redo the Ultrasonic hair treatment for free 

On a side note , I realised that the very nice scent left on my hair after the treatment actually come from the Shisheido Luminogenic treatment which cost Rm 105  for a 250g tube. 

Update

I have redone my Ultrasonic hair treatment on the following week at their Mont kiara branch

This time they ask another assistant to do the treatment for me . The result is far better than that of the first time . 

However , since it can only last for a maximum of 3 weeks , I think it's quite costly to maintain . However , do note that you could redeem a free Ultrasonic treatment on your birthday month if you are a member if Number 76 style 

Tonkatsu by Ma Maison @ Isetan One Utama

So we were walking around 1 utama looking for something to eat. She was thinking of going to that ramen store in Isetan. I was not feeling like having ramen so I was trying to encourage her to have something else. hahahaha.

we walked around the back and this sign that said they were giving free refills of rice, miso soup, cabbage and barley tea. That seems to be too good to be true so we decided to walk in and have a look around.

The menu served fried everything, by that I mean that they had deep fried pork loin, pork fillets, jumbo prawns and one dish that served deep fried fish. I normally move away from deep fried anything but this restaurant seems interesting. They specialise in their pork chops. They advertise their specially aged meat and their very specific cooking method that results in a crispy but not oily result. I was intrigued so I ordered the extra large pork loin chop. My other half ordered the mixed fried which had deep fried pork loin, prawns and fish. (this is the only dish that had fish in it)

Before the main dish arrived, we were given an appetizer in the form of grated radish. This was to be eaten with a special sauce. Looking at it, we didn't really know what it was for but the waiter was kind enough to point out how we were to eat it. The sauce was an interesting mix of sweet and salty and the radish was refreshing to the palette.

When my dish came, it was a good looking. the gold skin on the pork loin seems crunchy but it was not dripping in oil. In fact, I found that the whole dish did not feel oily at all. It was just nice and crunchy. The meat was cooked just right that it was still very tender and juicy and it was seasoned very simply. The unlimited salad was just raw cabbage, but the fact that they took the time to slice it so thinly that it did not feel at all like I was a rabbit eating vegetables. With the sauce the salad was good. Then there is the miso soup. With most of the dish being good, I had high expectations for the soup but I was very disappointed. There is a weird saltiness to the soup that seems to rub me the wrong way and this I believe can be attributed to the type of miso that they use to make the soup. I feel there is a very 'processed' taste to the soup and I didn't like it.

Going back to the meat of the article, (get it?) they info graphic that was given to us showed that there was three ways to eat the fried pork. The first way was to eat it with salt. This was just plain and simple salt. if you like salt you will like eating it this way (hahaha so 'duh' right?). The second way was to eat it with a spicy sauce. This was just BBQ sauce with a different name. It didn't taste self made, so I could only assume that it was the store bought kind. The third way was to eat it with a sweet sauce. This tasted like the spicy sauce but minus the slightly spicy edge.

All this was to be served with rice. Unlimited glorious rice. hahahahah. There were two choices to the rice. Plain white rice, and multi grain rice. I looooove rice. I had the white rice while she ordered the multi grain rice. Although people encourage more consumption of multi grain everything.... white rice is my guilty pleasure. putting everything together resulted in a very warm sensation in my stomach. Like I was being cradled in the arms of my mother. the sourness of the sauce and crispyness of the pork worked well together. This coupled with the fresh crunch of the salad made it into a very balanced and comforting sensation in my mouth. I believe the best compliment I could give to this dish is that it is comfort food of the ultimate level.

Moving on to the other dish, there was deep fried prawn, fish and pork. The pork is the same as mine, so we shall move on to the prawn. This was not the tempura kind although it was still deep fried just like everything else they serve at the restaurant. It was fresh and bouncy like prawns should be. The fried fish was just as fresh and just as tasty and this was a wonderful surprise. I half expected the sea food to taste fishy and lacking, as most restaurants do not serve good tasting fried seafood. This was different in a very good way.

In conclusion, this was serendipity as i did not at all expect that it would be a good experience. Now i have a new place to go for comfort food and i believe that this is a good thing. If the miso soup tasted better, i would give this shop a higher rating but as is i give it a 8 out of a perfect 10

Arsainte Eco-Therapy Crystal Water O2 Mask review

My skin has been getting more sensitive and dry after i came to the uk. after i search through my stack of skincare that i brought from malaysia, i found this!

Arsainte Eco-Therapy Crystal Water mask

before

bubble started forming

end result: (sorry for the shadow)

Arsainte Eco-Therapy Crystal Water is a product of a korean skincare company The Face Shop. it is design for people with dry skin condition.

Description

• A reactivating mask that infuses the skin with oxygen and brightens the skin tone

• Moisturizing effects - Mannitol

• Calms skin irritation - Panthenol

• Deep detoxifying effect – Oxygen carrier ingredient

how to use: 

• apply after toner 
• wait for 1 minute for the bubble to form.
• pat bubble into skin
• wash with warm water 

Review:

i like the bubbling effect that it gave and the fact that it does not sting my face during application. 

it did left my skin feels abit hydrated . the reason i use 'abit' is because my skin still feel dry and tight after application. i am not sure whether it is because my skin is too dry or its because the product is not so effective.
  moreover since my skin tone is uneven , having a brightening effect is a plus point! however the effect is not really that obvious

p/s: this is my first time doing a review. please leave comment on ways to improve.