OIL CLEANSING - Miracle Treatment for Acne Prone and Oily Skin

Throughout my life, I have suffered from moderate to severe acne, and as everyone who has experienced this knows, this can be a time when we feel much insecurity. Not only did I have acne prone skin, but that was coupled with oily skin and medications which exasperated the problem. It was only after coming into my 20's that this problem has greatly reduced..sadly they have left traces of their former existence, but it's such an improvement I really can't complain.

Oil cleansing has been one of the four main contributors to this improvement. It's rather simple actually and it makes sense. Oil cleansing is a double action treatment, it cleans your skin while moisturizing, which is vital to keeping skin supple and glowing, while slowing down the formation of wrinkles. Our skin produces natural oils called sebum, we need oil, but some people have overactive oil secretions, which lead to "greasy" looking skin.

Huh..why put oil on skin that is already oily?

This is the funny part. Contrary to popular belief, using harsh soaps and chemicals on your face, that strip away all moisture ,leaving it  completely dry are bad bad bad (lol).
 The fact is, oil cancels out oil, so massaging these oils onto your face will remove the excess oil on the surface, clearing pores, while still managing to moisturize and heal.
When doing oil cleansing there are two oils I would recommend, " Olive Oil and Castor Oil." I use equal amounts of both are store in a tinted sealed bottle away from sunlight , which reduces the potency.

How do you use it?

I shake the mixture first of all, and pour about quarter (25 cents) amount into my palm. I then rub this over my entire face and massage gently, but firmly over problem areas for a few minutes, the longer the better. After this I soak a wash cloth with hot water (not steaming!) squeeze out the excess, and let it rest on my face until it cools. This is repeated about 2 to 3 times and then I wipe my face gently with the wash cloth. Since I began this method I have edited to fit into my new routine incorporating black soap. Instead of using the wash cloth, I just wash my face twice with black soap (but that's another blog post on the benefits of black soap)

This method also completely removes all makeup, including waterproof products (but that's also another blog post :)

This website OCM  provides great information about the Oil Cleansing Method.

Thanks for looking

JOHN the LEGEND! Outfit of the Night

I attended the first and hopefully not last John Legend Concert in Barbados a little while back. The concert was amazing, from the beautifully dressed gymnasium full of people, to the backup dancers/singers and entertainment. I was not feeling very well that night, in fact I felt terrible, but after popping some meds down my throat and putting on a good face, I decided to venture out. I got there late unfortunately and missed quite abit of Masala 7's performance while waiting in the long line outside. I wondered who were these people singing Lady Antebellum's "I need you now"?. They sound really really good, I thought to myself. It wasn't until I finally got inside that I realized just how good they were. Barbados has talent, that's no doubt and Internationally worthy talent at that.

 After Masala 7 left the stage, there was a short intermission of about 20 - 30 minutes while the stage equipment and instruments were set up. I was just about to get up and go to the bathroom when John suddenly walked out on the stage and the crowd started to scream. Now what can I say about John Legend. Handsome, check. Smooth Sexy vocals..oh yes indeed. Not only did John look the part in slim fitting pants, black skinny tee shirt coupled with a gray vest, but his singing and performance really moved me. I knew many of the songs, and everyone sang along to the popular songs "Ordinary People" and "Everybody Knows", and many of them I also heard for the very first time, but every single one was good.  Now I could not sing along like everyone else since I lost my voice and be jumping up and down like they were, but I enjoyed myself immensely. I can still hear that song "Good morning...good morning love" in my head.

Oh what a night.

The "warm" outfit I wore that night.

I did not get many pictures that night unfortunately, and the camera had a mind of it's own.

Thanks for looking :)

Skin 79 Hot Pink Super BB cream on Black/Dark/Tanned skin

So..all of my friends who know me personally, know how much I love Korean dramas. Therefore it is not surprising that I am also a fan of their jewelry and beauty products. Now I have been hearing about BB cream for over a year now and even though it is marketed for very fair white skin (i.e Korean girls), I figured I could work some magic and get it to work. BB cream is all the rage in asian countries right now, especially in Korea. It is praised as a triple action sunscreen,foundation,whitener. I'm not looking for it to change my complexion, but if it can fade my acne scars..Yeahh!

When I received the bottle, first thing I had to do was verify it's authenticity, just to make sure I was not getting a counterfeit version, and yup it's real!

The packaging is so cute, and fairly sturdy so I am sure if I drop it everything should be fine. The product itself is very  soft creamy and extremely easy to blend. I tested it as soon as I got it, and one press of the bump gave a nice pea sized amount. The cream was a off white color with a slight grey tint, and I feared I would look quite ashen and sickly, but alas it blended in fairly nicely to my skin, but did appear 'brighter'?. The next time around I tried mixing equal parts with Revlon Colorstay foundation in Cappuccino. Now I love this foundation, but the color is abit dark and red for my skin, so I figured why not mix with this. Well the result was an almost identical match to my skin, and it gave me an extremely dewy appearance. It was cute, but I think the dewy finish looks better on people with flawless skin without acne scarring so I dusted a little of Mac's Mineralize Skin Finish  over it.

I am going to test it out for a week and review with photos later. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it softens and generally  improves the look of my skin.


There are other BB creams out there, some darker than others, but all are usually within the beige range, so anyone darker than a Mac NC 45/ NW 45, or Nutmeg in Black opal will need to mix with a foundation to avoid a gray cast.

Thanks for looking :)

Red and Black - Barbados Music Awards

I'm a few months late, but better late than never.The Barbados Music Awards has been held in Barbados annually since 2005, and this would have been my first time going to this event. Now I knew this would be a "dress affair" and all the ladies shined in their gorgeous $600 dresses, dripping jewels and 5 inch heels. I confess I felt a tad bit under dressed lol, but I still loved my outfit. I had this little gem of a Torrid dress stored away for two years. I bought it knowing full well it was a size or 2 too small, but I liked it so much I had to have it for when it finally could, and I so happened to try it on this time around and it fit. FYI the bust of the dress was stitched up about 3 inches as this was a very low cut dress.

The show was very well done. I did not know many of the awardee's and I confess to never hearing some of the singers before, but everyone seemed deserving of their respective awards and performed very well .Faith Evans was the guest performer and she sang some of her most popular songs from the past,and even though she did not dress the part, her singing was awesome! Maybe I'll be there next year and hopefully Tamia will come next time as was promised.

 and of course I had to include a photo of how I did my nails and the bling lol.

and here's a blurry pic of Faith Evans singing, unfortunately this was the best shots I could get.

Thanks for looking!

Bon Voyage Miami - Some outfits from vacation

So you may be thinking, hey she's uploading posts very often, but I'm trying to make this a routine so that in a few weeks my blog will not be stagnant. due to my forgetting I decided to put up some photos of a few of the outfits I put together for the trip I went on awhile back to Miami. It was a wonderful trip and the cruise was the icing on the cake. We passed through Cozumel Mexico, Hondorus, Belize, and the Cayman Islands. The food was pretty good..especially the ice-cream/yogurt  which I ate every single day, sometimes twice a day. I have lots of photos of different areas I could put up, but for now, this will just be about fashion. My favorite pieces came from MADRAG, Forever21, Marshalls, Rainbow, and dots. You will notice the black shorts (my first shorts ever!) quite often, I loved these so much, I bought 2.
 

















































I loved this top from Rainbow so much! It was cool and so comfortable in Miami's hot weather. The sides also had a drawstring so you could adjust the length of the sleeves. I got the cute bow headband from forever21. I'm still mourning the loss of the purple one I left at the hotel :(.
    

      

Forgive the wet spot, spilled some water ;) I got this comfortable top from Marshalls in a lovely teal color. The earrings are threaded earrings I got from a shop in Barbados.

  

 Yup, I'm wearing them again, coupled with a beige jacket and pink tank from Dots.

Ok..I know..the lipstick is a no no. This was the first time I ever wore pink lipstick..and it was pretty bright, but after I got the tan..well...I won't make this mistake again lol.

I got this dress from Torrid. I love this especially paired with a wide belt. It's so girly!

\

   

There is a story behind this animal print dress that I wore to a night of Karaoke on the cruise. I bought it from Torrid, and I knew I would not wear it the way it came, since it was too long and I like having sleeves. Solution? a few inches were cut off the bottom of the dress and added to the sleeves :)

and finally..what I wore to the Captain's ball. My favorite evening dress, by Adrianna Papelli.

Thank you for looking ;)

Fräulein 8 Colors GeL Cream Eyeliner Eyeshadow.

   When I first came across these Fraulein gel liners on ebay, I knew US $13.30 for 8 gel liners was too good of a deal to pass up, and good thing I did because the next day the price went up. Gel pots usually sell for US$6 each. All 8 gel liners are creamy, vibrant colors, and most of all waterproof. The colors stay on all day and work great as not only eyeliners, but eyeshadows and bases!

They came in these adorable tiny purple boxes and the jars were all sealed.

 Except for the turquoise gel liner, all of these are true to the colors in the pots. The turquoise came off as a shimmery silver with a minimal hint of blue..not what I was expecting. My favorite colors, would have to be the fuschia, gold, purple and blue. These 4 colors are the most pigmented and stand out beautifully on my darker skin tone.

This picture does not show the full vibrancy of the colors!

LEFT            RIGHT
purple                 white (matte)
gold                    fuschia
cobalt blue           turquoise
silver                  peach
                        






I am wearing cobalt blue on my lower eyelid which is a close dupe for MAC's Paintpot Electric Sky.





These are definitely a keeper and can be purchased at fraulein. I have also seen similar versions to these on ebay, coming from Hong Kong such as from notebook.edge.


Thanks for looking, and please follow my blog for regular updates :).

Dinner at Hilton Hotel - Some of favourite outfits from the past. (Part 3)

Dinner at the Hilton. Now this is what we call a dress affair here. As long as you hear dinner at the Hilton, expect to see all the ladies and gents decked out in their finest, sparkling from head to toe. Even I tried a little thing or two, but I kept my bling to a minimum as expected. I had won this adrianna papell dress awhile back on ebay, and while I did not LOVE it, there was something about it that called to me. When I first tried it out..it was soo blahh..but then I had an idea..why not cut the bottom layer of the dress and make flutter sleeves? I'm short anyhow, standing 5 feet 2.5 inches (I must claim every inch I can lol), and doing that was the perfect solution. Before the dress fit like a sack with no shape, and was a tad too long. After the simple alteration I was in love, and wished I could find this style in every color.

So first of, I am going to show you what the dress looked like as advertised on Nordstrom. Looking at it now..I see why I got it for a mere $30US on ebay.

Now here is what it looks like on me, after the last layer was cut off and added to the sleeves. I felt beautiful that night, and was even brave enough to try these green shoes I borrowed from my mom. I bought them as a gift for her, but they did not fit..they fit me..but..after an hour I was nearly dead. My feet never hurt so bad and I breathed a sign of relief when the dinner was over and I could take them off and sit down lol.

I probably would have worn different shoes then knowing what I know, but everyone loved them, so I guess the unusual torture was worth it?

Close up of the shoes, bag, and the feather clip I made to match with the shoes.

lol, my nails and ring were matching too.

 

 

Thanks for looking! :)