Familiar ground

Hi ho, I meet my Blogger and Flickr account again after so long!

Well, I could have blogged more often if not for my photoshop not being on this macbook (now 2 years old). The free photo editor (gimp) has served me a good while but the interface was just user-unfriendly :(

I found out just minutes ago that PhotoScape has a new mac version - which is a savior! I used Photoscape eons ago with Windows and never really needed Photoshop besides shaping my face (oh yes, that little evil liquify tool) which I don't use now because I can't be bothered at this age to look good on screen. With all the instagram and dayre going on, I wonder who's still reading blogs. I just find that blogging on a laptop is easier (i hate touchscreen blogging) and dayre just isn't good for backtracking entries because it stays on mobile, and the entries are dated so you can't search it by title.

Dropped by yesterday to the Night Festival and was excited to check out the faces on the trees.. It was a rainy evening so my shoes were soaked in mud. Not the best place to be at, really. It started off at the area opposite Cathay (Handy Road?) with stalls of food (eg. Windowsill pies were there with a booth) and also $4 Ramlys. Couple of beer booths as well which sort of reminds me of the time I was in Vienna, for sorta wine fest! Gosh, I still can't find nice, sweet whites as the ones I had in Vienna ( somehow the brand Sterling came to mind).

These are 2 out of 4 less freaky ones (the other 2 looked pretty freaky, I told JS it looked like some halloween party we're at)

Pretty amazing how trees become canvases when light is shone on specific areas.

Also did a round of shopping and colored my hair to a darker shade.
It looks black now before it fades to a lighter shade of darker brown. I'm quite sick of going for hair sessions ( well I did rebonding/treatment/dye/treatment) and it took up so much time during weekends :'(
This should stop for another 3-4 months.


Quite happy with the shade! Lined my eyes with my newly purchased Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner in dark brown, smartly purchased with Dash (which JS & I signed up for and had $20 credit).
I just had to top up $8 for my eyeliner after my Koi BBT purchase!
Will do a review on the eyeliner after some use.

& for my craze over cushion foundation (and yes I'm still using them daily)

Here's my very own Hera UV Mist Cushion
I've probably used it for a couple of months now.

But I haven't used very much of it.

My thoughts on this product
- Great coverage, if not better than Iope.
- Cooling sensation as of what other CFs offer
- Sets in well and does not require much touchups in the day
- Matte texture
- Casing's much smaller and lighter than Iope's

The only reason why I am not reaching out to Hera as much is because my skin is still pretty dry now (I'm on Accutane) and this doesn't give me the moisture I very much need. However, I really like the entire packaging and will consider purchasing Iope refill just to fit this dainty looking case!

I've also read couple of articles on fake CFs so I do encourage that you read seller reviews if you choose to purchase online (like I do!) :)

And here I upload 2 videos that pretty much round up my Phuket trip in late June :)



My next travel's gonna be Hong Kong in October to meet friends and attend wedding, perhaps have some good old Hong Kong food (I haven't been there for close to a year)!

Till next Saturday - I'll probably do a weekly weekend update :)

Accutane - my 2 1/2 months update

If there's someone whose acne condition worsened after consuming Roaccutane, man, that's me.

You won't believe how many clogged pores I have now and looking into the mirror is just depressing :(  I wish I could go on about how Accutane changed my life, but as of the 2.5th month, it hasn't done its magic yet. Tons of comedones and thanks to the alcohol the other night ( I know I shouldnt have had - but I gave in), I slept with makeup and the next day, I had a thousand more of them!!!

What a b*tch :((((

My derm has stepped up the pill intake to once every alternate day, and people have emailed me regarding Accutane every day or other, so here are some side effects to share through my personal experience these 2 months.

-----

1) Dry and cracked lips - I have experienced chapped lips but nothing major for me ( some people had dry lips that bled).

 I have a chap stick ( I use pawpaw / carmex and when I was in Taiwan I had Vaseline with me. 

2) Dry skin - I try to moisturise the dry patches on my legs if I remember but yes, it did cause me to have dry skin.

3) Increased sweating - OH GAWD YES. I feel like I sweat more than I did previously, not that I could do anything about it than to keep myself cool.

4) Mood changes and depression - Nope, not that I feel any differences before and after I took accutane. You do feel upset when Accutane does its course of purging but nothing more than that. 

I find this article really comprehensive and if anyone is thinking of seeking help through course of roaccutane or has been referred to consider so should read this:

http://www.dermnetnz.org/treatments/isotretinoin.html

Hope this helps! :)

Day 3 - Bali - Kudeta (I)

Ah gawd, I havent been updating my blog for a long, long time.

Primary reasons are

1) my skin is still purging so i dont feel like taking photos

2) i haven't got to get my photoshop (so im using a freeware photo-editing software)

Takes a lot of effort to update a blog post but since I'm free and webs are growing here, so here I am!

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2nd Month - Accutane

My second prescription of Accutane saw lesser huge bumps, but more of comedones where you could see white heads ( and the itchy fingers are there to pick....)

Since my skin's really drying especially at the chin area, my dermatologist reduced intake of 3 pills to 2 pills a week, and steroids to control my outbreak. Well, my skin's definitely not clear at the moment so I  did not refuse the steroids.

Will be back for more updates. Probably gonna see her again for a third dose with hopes that my condition stablises by then!

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Day 3 - Bali (I)

I'm such a slacker that I stopped at the second day, so here's half of what I did on day 3. I edited like 40+ photos and I gave up hahha, there's quite a few good ones this time done with my SLR... and since we had JS' colleagues and friends whom were with us, it was fantastic taking tons of pictures!

The peach muesli that JS and I fight for every morning.
There are 4 choices for breakfast every morning - japanese, healthy, western, and indonesian. It's a 3-course ala-carte breakfast that we picked with the room selection when we made our booking.

 We would always fight for this fruit muesli that comes with the healthy breakfast meal!

JS' starter was miso that day with tofu cubes.

Having a good breakfast really helped and this is one of the best breakfast I had besides the ones at Westin Munich and Westin Sao Paolo. Ala carte breakfast is awesome here!

To sidetrack, Westins are my favorite hotels for buffet breakfasts due to their wide and fresh selection of breads and breakfast items.


JS' salmon with rice and my omelette and scrambled english breakfast.

Since it was still early, we went walking around streets of Bali for some light shopping and massage appointment before meeting the guys in the afternoon for lunch and Kudeta.
Staying in central Seminyak rocks because the street shopping is just round the corner of our hotel!

Lost my aviators in Dubai so here's my new gold rimmed ones which I loved!
I still wanted new aviators but not for the moment.


Heh, bag of the trip was my Longchamp Le Pliage in navy, bought in Nice Airport. Hung a craftholic multi-colored polka dotted rabbit charm off a boutique in Shanghai. It was really nice a year back, where I shopped wherever I traveled, so these are little momentos I bought.

My massage was done at Jari Menari, the massage place we always visit and it's the place to go. I've been to another massage place this trip and I tell you, you pay for what you get here! :)
You get a clean shower before the massage and the masseuse's skills are good. I always fall asleep while having a session here.


It's quite hard to get an appointment if you don't pre-book before your trip (we usually pre-book 2-3 weeks in advance) and you have to be comfortable that there are only male masseuses here. My friends and I have been here umpteen times so don't worry about it. You could check out tripadvisor's reviews, they're one of the tops!


Met up with the guys who were leaving late evening that day, caught up for lunch at the little local cafe near the hotel.
They said they haven't had true local indonesian food, so we popped by this place which we saw when JS and I did street shopping.


Mee Soto soup wasn't any good, but it was CHEAPPP. Like less than a dollar SGD.... I think it was 6-7,000 rupiah.

Bakso is a must try. Meat ball soup with fried wanton, egg, taukwa and glass noodles. A dollar SGD.


Me and my favoriteee teh botol! It's jasmine tea but better, and I had my first-go at it when I was in Jakarta, a local friend introduced me to it! I heard JS say that you can find this in a store in Lucky Plaza.

Vintage bottle somemore.

Mee Goreng.


Nasi goreng and a cute couple :D
Nick and Alice are getting married next year in Hong Kong (Alice's Hongkonger) so we are going to attend the wedding! I'm sure it's gonna be a partyyyy since both of them are such fun-goers!

If you like what you see, you put a ring to it.
Nick just proposed 1 month ago in HKG.... :)

Groupie lunch shot!


Nick ordered a black coffee and it was BADDDD hahahah!
It was unfiltered coffee and I am thinking if Balinese coffee is indeed made this way :O

The tags with indicative prices are what we will bring to the cashier to make payment with. We ordered so much cos it was so cheap :-D

It was a 15 minutes walk to Kudeta so we took a quick stroll.

Straw hat buddy.

My weird poly friend, Teddy HAHAHA.

We settled with 2 sunbeds @ Kudeta's. I'll let pictures do most of the talking cos there were SO MANY of them taken, not that im complaining, really.

I wore a TTR top, and I loved how the chiffon material went with the wind :)
Togas are my favorite thing!



I just realised we were the only girls among the guys!


The boys found a flag to pose with. I think men of their generation will always be boys, and that made it really easy to hang out with. I mean, I act like a kid all the time, hyper active and excited over everything, and these boys don't find it annoying LOL.

The WONDER BOYS - always wondering what they're up to.

Made teddy my poly friend and best photog of the group do some pictures for both of us.
I like the feel of the sand, beach and sea and would love to do a casual shoot next end year (which JS and I did come to discuss) with a pro-photographer!

It would be nice to mark that 6 year then! :-)
Venue unsettled, but should be overseas.

My single friend, Teddy. He's smart and kind at heart.
If keen, please email me :p


Cocktails for the beach!


Nick knows how to charm his girl the right way... by using the flag pole?

JS took really nice shots of them I can't bear not to post :))))
Sweet, it's such a nice feeling to see a nice couple ending up together!

Well, a good group shot before the guys pack to the airport. We stayed a little longer at Kudeta, taking our time to slack and a nice italian dinner, I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Bali's such a lovely place you can't help but want to go :-)

new toy!

Well, officially it's JS' but I got him a good deal through my friend Yan (thanks girlie!) so this new iPad with retina display (also known as iPad3) is ours!

 

Can't wait for it to arrive today, latest tomorrow!

We thought of getting either the iPad 2 or this one, 'cos we are not fans of the mini as I've a note2, so we finally settled for the iPad3.

and my journey with Roaccutane (week 1)

 

 I'm having breakouts on my chin and left cheek as I am reaching week 2 of taking this pill. I've been hearing that it will look worse than it is, before it turns for the better so I'm hoping that by week 5-6 I'll be able to see slightly clearer skin.

I'm still not blogging or instagramming much but I'll follow up on my Roaccutane story! Will upload a few reviews on some cafes I've been to recently by mid week!

Have a good week all :p

 

Roaccutane - Week 1 / Day 1

 

OKAY....

So I have always been complaining about my skin... how terrible it is and how it affects my whole confidence level ( in fact it plunges to a new low).

 

They always say that your makeup requires a good canvas, and what the general public meant by that quality of canvas means if you have stable and clear skin. I think it doesn't mean you can't have scars, but if they're not pitted, they can be covered up by light foundation. While I always envy people with nice glowy skin, I know that some people like me aren't born with it.

 

Working In Dubai

I went from slightly depressed (I was in HongKong last year for work when my whole face saw lots of whiteheads and papules (read this guide to know the types). I had to warn my best friend who was meeting me that my skin was bad, as compared to the stable skin I had previously (not perfect but nothing serious). So the whole time I was in Dubai, I had to deal with clogged pores and many of my colleagues did recommend me treatment solutions - eg. diane35 (super cheap in Dubai drugstores- sold over the counter), proactiv 3 steps treatment, benzoyl peroxide, tea tree oil, etc.

 

I didn't have a dermatologist in Dubai, so I went over-the-counter to purchase benzoyl which in my opinion, did help my condition a little. My forehead began to clear up but without oral medications, it just wasn't seeing results - they came back due to the bad sleep patterns and stress. I was in different time-zones and different weather conditions while traveling, and even the aircraft condition was giving stress to my skin. So I came back to Singapore with an acne problem to treat, and I needed to treat it fast.

 

No more maple clinic, no more Kovan clinic?

In the past one year, I've visited both these clinics. Dr. Chan from Kovan did work for me, but his course of treatment excluded sunscreen and moisturiser, which wasn't helping me at all because I was in Dubai and you know the drastic desert weather there. I had peeling skin and I think his treatment did work for me with the humid Singapore conditions when I was still home.

 

Maple clinic was good for me for the first 2 years I've been with Dr. Ong. I had clear glowy skin but when I went back to her recently, the medications didn't work as well as before as I realised, some of the products made my skin ultra sensitive. So I decided to seek a new clinic after reading reviews, though it does mean that a portion of them are sponsored.

 

To date, I would still recommend the two doctors to friends who have outbreaks, as the consultations and products are more reasonably priced.

 

drx

Joyce went to Dr. SK Tan for her consultant and I texted her to ask her how she felt before going for it. I did know that a trip to drx @ tong building would cost me a bomb (literally my first bill was close to $700) but I ran a search on their products, and the most expensive product MaxC is collagen-based. It's a very expensive-looking clinic, and they have staff attending to every patient, a 'tai-tai' environment. Since it's appointment-basis, I was spared from the queues Dr. Ong had.

 

Dr. Tan is a nice, friendly man and was the first doctor I consulted, also the most senior in the clinic. Prescribed me the ever-familiar antibiotics, doxycycline and a suite of facial products to complement the oral treatment. I returned to Dubai with these products and oral medications to take and they did clear up my come done-filled forehead and my cheeks. The stubborn area is always the chin.

 

Singapore

When I returned to Singapore, my condition flared and since my medications were running low, I went back to seek Dr. Tan's help. Another course of stronger antibiotics was in the next line, and he introduced a Vitamin A product to the regime. My skin didn't take it well and it took for the worst (chin area). It might be due to my makeup products but I hardly put them on after this flare.

 

I began to see more cystic acnes, large painful bumps, I would also say they are inflamed. You don't see "heads" on them, and if you do pick on these, you see pus. So it's pretty obvious it's a cyst.

 

I saw Dr. Yanni yesterday (changed my doctor to a younger, prettier doc) whom I find speaks my lingo and understands my situation better. Dr. Tan introduced her to me last visit and I was kinda sceptical but we got along well.. so :-)

She went on telling me to read on Accutane (which I did) and yesterday was the first day she put me on it. I knew the side effects by the way, that it was a drug with serious (might be detrimental) side effects but honestly, if you were me, you would consider this option. I've been on antibiotics for almost two years and I want a single solution.

(picture taken with pimple-concealer cream that dries up your pimples, so my actual condition is worst than this. I have 3 cysts now FML)

I want to stop using my hair to hide my face, and I want to be able to step into the brightly lit makeup stores without feeling.......... inferior. I don't even feel like dressing up due to plagued skin. "Nice dress, but wah what happened to your face". GRRRR..

I would really love to return to a stable skin where I could appear my makeup better, and where I can take self portraits without returning to filter or MTXX it.

 Me, 2 years ago.

Accutane

 I know it should be the last course of treatment. People who have not taken it, dissuaded me and portrayed me the most drastic side effects, recommended me things I have heard of. People who have taken it, tells me it's a miracle drug but they have also mentioned it would be the last step to take and they would have tried everything before this. It is also the most expensive pill I have taken to date.

So with the help of acne.about.com, I bring you pointers of side effect. It's not comprehensive but should include:
- dryness of skin and mucus membrane
(as drug shrinks your sebaceous glands, combat using moisturiser and lipbalm)

-  miscarriage and severe birth defects
(you should have no childbirth plans ahead for the next 6-8 months after the entire course of accutane)

- depression and suicide
(stop the drug if your partner senses you having one and consult your derm)

- photosensitivity
(use sunblock)

- other problems that past users complained of include: bowel problems, thinning hair, fatigue, liver failure (blood test will first be conducted)

I have informed my family and my boyfriend ( I prefer to call him my partner somehow) and they will be the best people to watch over my progression with Accutane. Speaking with people who has gone through Accutane gave me better insights to this severe drug, and for most of them, it did help improve their lives which at one point of time had acnes acting as a burden.

It is still too early to tell my thoughts on this drug and the whole treatment process, and I am hoping that in time to come, I can share my thoughts better through this platform.

 

 if you have similar stories to share with me, drop me an email at prettyrednails@gmail.com