skincare routine: almost 2019

Previous iteration

There's been pretty much no change aside from trying out samples of Sulwhasoo. This post is mostly planning for 2019.

Core Products:
Forever sticking with my Hada Labo trio of cleansing foam, toner, and lotion. Also will keep repurchasing my Sunkiller suncreen, DHC lip balm, and Shiseido moilip. Make-up wise, just bought several back-ups of the K-palette tattoo eyeliner, which is about the only thing that doesn't smudge on my eye lids.

Looking for HGs:

• Cleansing oil: so far I've mostly used Kose's speedy oil, which is perfectly adequate. However on occasions that I travel, I switch to a variety of Shu cleansing oils. I've previously used up a small bottle of their porefinist (pink), but now it irritates my eyes. The blanc (purple) seem to be better than Kose at dislodging grits, but the price difference is too much for me to switch. Still have both the anti-oxi (green) and ultime8 (brown) in my stash to try, hurray for buying a travel set at duty-free years ago. Will bring those to ATL, and then try the Muji cleansing oil when I'm back. I've also tried Sulwhasoo's, which smells perfect. It is actually the smell of perfection. Unfortunately it doesn't fully remove my eye make-up ughhh. Will hopefully have found a favourite by the end of 2019. 
• Travel-friendly second cleanser: was previously using Tosowoong's powder cleanser, but it's finicky trying to pour out the powder while preventing water from entering the bottle. Thinking that a stick cleanser would work better. Will try to Neogen green tea cleansing stick.
• Vit C: been really liking the Melano CC this time around. So far I've gone through half a tube and have seem noticeable results (should be causation rather than correlation since I wasn't using other actives). By using it after toner rather on bare skin, it no longer feels greasy, although it might still be too much during summertime.  I have a long list of products I'm interested in trying, will report back. 
• Oil: I've consistently said that I want to try blending my own facial oils, and came sooo close to clicking the order button in UK, but alas I have not done so. Have only tried rosehip (so far the best), sea buckthorn, and rice bran. I wonder how big (if any) of a quality difference there is between branded single oils (eg. TO) and supplier sites (eg. GoW). I'll probably also try some pre-blended oils too (eg. Stratia's fortify). 

Want to Try:

• Retinol: the other well-researched active with a ton of different implementations. This is gonna take some solid weeks of reading to decide on a list. 
• Cica serum: been thinking of what ingredient I want to dedicate my serum to. I've done honey, snail, and tea tree previously. Will continue to keep a tea tree serum on hand for when breakouts happen, but will try cica as the daily option.  
• Higher strength acid: instead of a daily low % acid, I'd like to use a higher % combined AHA & BHA as a weekly peel. 

Also hair care. Mark my words, 2019 will be when I figure out how to finally make my hair look good.

rise

Talking about clothes part 2:

I suppose its a blessing that the types of clothes that I like to wear haven't really changed throughout university to now. Middle / high-school is a dark period better forgotten, but I think by university I've mostly settled on a stable "style". I recall writing a post calling it luxuriously simple or something along those lines.

An exercise for myself, here's a list of clothing types that are "me":

• around the knee length pencil skirts
• stripe tops
• silk shirts
• backless dresses
• dresses with clinched waist
• black ankle boots
• variety of coats

In other news, I notice myself with these changes:

• wearing cardigans less
• preferring long sleeve tops more
• liking midi length skirts
• warming up to non-skinny pants
• needing a couple of fitted tops to balance more voluminous bottoms
• being drawn to lilac, blush pink, orange-y red in addition to my usual colours of neutrals, blues and greens
• considering wear more jewelry daily

I wonder how much I actually care about sustainably and/or ethically produced clothing. I lean more towards consuming less rather than supporting the sustainable/ethical brand when I do shop. There's obviously the excuse of many of these brands are online-only and shipping / returns to Canada is often pricy, but like this is a case of when throwing money at a problem is probably a solution. I say probably because no one has ever post studies or even less reliable information on how the environmental impact (and social impact too, since shipping / warehousing employees rarely get good treatment) of ordering and returning compare to buying less of conventional stuff. 

But gosh I still really want to fly to London and order bespoke clothing, carbon emissions be damned ;_; For now I'll stick with buying less, since the money saved will be going towards those bespoke orders. 

2018 Clothing Purchases

Not buying clothes doesn't mean not talking about clothes :D

Here's all the clothing that bought in 2018. This time I was smart and wrote this post as the year went by so I did't have to dig through 12 month of credit card statements at the end of the year.

1. MIISTA Nicole cream gold mid-heels (Jan): aka my default special event footwear since my loafers have passed on and I'll probably never find a pair of Gucci Delphine sandals.
2. H&M navy skirt (Apr): a midi-length full skirt that keeps its shape pretty well for 8GBP is a good find! Just fancy looking enough that it can be worn regularly but also for special occasions. 
3. Off/On apron linen dress (Apr): the solution to my lack of summer dresses in UK. This counts as my first online MTO experience? I was surprised that there's no surcharge for custom sizing. 
4. H&M white ankle-tie heels (May): they look very pretty, that's all. I guess a non-basic heel is useful to have for special events, but this was definitely a want and no where close to a need. Also another fast fashion purchase, oh well I'll forgive myself. 
5. HOPE Mac Bootin (Jun): been eyeing these forever, and actually do need to replace my old favourite boots, so a much more rational purchase than the shoes above.
6. Charlotte Olympia Mid-Century Kitty Flats (Jun): this is also a grail purchase, been looking for a pointy toe version of the kitty flats for quite some time and luckily the '18 cruise collection had the style. Good thing the mid-century kitty isn't very popular and the leopard color went down to 46% off on ssense sale which was too tempting not the snatch up even without trying on the size. 
7. ASOS lilac tank  (Jun): I've regressed to the point that I don't know how to deal with a sunny 27˚C day. A loose tanks should suffice? I'll actually be committed to not buying any fast fashion from this point on. 
8. Bravissimo bra (Jul): see here
9. Everlane cotton long sleeve tee (Aug): lured by a free $20 credit, got this for $12 after duties (ugh duties). Absolutely an impulse purchase, but is consistent with my A/W goal of adding some long sleeve tops 
10. Another Taobao Order (Oct): a beret and a long sleeve top. Continuing the long sleeve pursuit, and a cheap way to try out a beret. 
11. Lingerie sets (Nov): indulging in my love for lacey things (y) Also because shops in Asia actually stocks band size < 32 in store
12. La Canadienne Sindy books (Dec): 40% off from Town Shoe's closing sale, I bit. Was set on setting SW's Reserve boots, but this ended up being ~400CAD vs ~600USD and looks pretty darn similar. I suspect that La Canadienne is better quality, or at least designed with awful weather in mind. Bonus points for supporting a Canadian brand?

The clear trend is...I'm buying too many shoes. Welp. Yeah 2018 is definitely the year of shoes.

The total is 12 purchases, which...iuno, is good? is bad? Let's settle for is a benchmark. Later edit: opps I just noticed that I also bought 12 items during 2017, so same performance haha. Next year I'll try to cut it down to 10. I suppose that fits nicely with the french wardrobe challenge of 5 pieces per (fashion) season. It should work with how my 2019 is going to progress, half in Atlanta which might need a couple work pieces and sandals, and then half in Toronto which I'll probably all save up towards the two month long shopping craze that's November & December.

Out of the 12, some are definitely high wear count items (winner: HOPE boots, seriously these have been amazing, best buy of the year hands down) and some are special occasions (eg. Miista heels). I have been tracking my wear counts this year, but not with the same system so I'll refrain from posting those stats. Will most seriously track next year and report back with some seasonal numbers.

Ivanhoe

I participated quite a bit in 11/11 so skipping out on Boxing day. Instead let's catch up on the few books that I've read this year.

Due to primarily my laziness, and secondarily to the lack of fiction in UoB's library, I read very few books in 2018. Going behind China's great firewall was a good opportunity to catch up on some classic novels (because gutenburg.org) on my kindle (the only screen that I'll read at lengths on).

First up: Ivanhoe

iirc, I was chatting with a stranger that stumbled across this blog a month prior to my previous trip to China and he mentioned that this was his favourite novel. If not, then it was Don Quixote and I have not gotten to it yet despite also having it on kindle.

I don't think this is super great, entertaining definitely. It's enjoyable the same way that a superhero movie is enjoyable. Although I must credit it for motivating me to learn more about England's history. Surprisingly wikipedia is not blocked in China, so I was reading about Saxons and Normans for a good two afternoons.

Surprisingly, the subplot that I was the most invested in was Bois-Guilbert and Rebecca's unfortunate courtship. It contains pretty much the themes of the novel as a whole. Although this ship was sunk from the beginning ah ha...

Otherwise, this quotation sums up the invisible hand of the plot:

Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives!—Fight on—death is better than defeat!—Fight on, brave knights!—for bright eyes behold your deeds!

another one that I noted but can't remember where its from:

A moment of peril is often also a moment of open-hearted kindness and affection. We are thrown off our guard by the general agitation of our feelings, and betray the intensity of those, which, at more tranquil periods, our prudence at least conceals, if it cannot altogether suppress them.

...

Also finished two short Dostoyevsky books: Poor Folks and his short story collection White Nights & Other Stories. Not much to say aside from "White Nights", which wins for the most feeling inducing story out of all his works that I've read.

Joyeux Noël

Onion soup, carrot salad, pot au feu, roasted veg

panna cotta with cranberry & candied orange compote, madeleines 

grin

Always nice to sit down and have tea :)

Having a LiuBao from YS. Not sure what to expect as this is probably the first LiuBao I've drank (oh perhaps I had it once at Fang's Tea years ago). I thought it would be a texturally heavy tea, but it wasn't very viscose. The first couple of steeps were meh, but the middle steeps had a clear, mild sweetness that was very pleasant. No bodily or mental reaction, unlike when I drink shengs on an empty stomach ah ha...

There's another bag of LiuAn in my stash, should open it and compare. Am also interested in getting YS' heicha sampler, but am also pretty determined to not buy any tea in 2019.

tile

I think buying less shoes is as futile of a goal as exercising more for me heh...

Found this Montreal based shop that I'd like to throw my money towards:

(aesthetically) better than both the Everlane boss boots and the Acne jensens

 a lot better looking than my bean boots

fun loafers

garden

New (to me) Toronto eats:

Beerbistro: lunch is always good in the financial district

 Rustle & Still Cafe: interior goals for a den, the food is also delicious. Definitely coming back to try the drinks

Magical Taste of China: Jeff's new Chinatown fav

snow

Jeff got an instapot and this is what we made first:

Taiwanese beef noodle soup via The Woks of Life

I love braises, definitely the best flavour value for the least effort, cost...and time now with the instapot.

Muji

Found an interesting magazine at the Chengdu Muji store with each issue featuring a different brand. The one I picked up is obviously about Muji :p

Some interesting quotations:

Muji for me is like white rice. By itself, white rice doesn't look like anything special - but it tastes delicious when you combine it with different side dishes. I can eat it everyday and never get sick of it. Luxury brands, in contrast, are like steak. Steak is a food hat possess flavour and of itself. It's delicious. But it doesn't go with everything. You can't eat it every day.

"Opinion: Professor Ken Kusunoki"

the idea of having 'enough' entails not only consuming and owning less but being enough at ease to give myself free space and free time, and being aware of what I really need

"Muji style: Paris / Maud Lepetit"

It's about taking care to choose something good for you, then treasuring and loving it and keeping it by your side for a long time.

"Muji style: Seoul / Jung Eun Yang"

I've started to orient my days around my role as father of a 4-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son, and as husband to my wife. When I'm spending time at home with my family, eating with them, or out walking with them, or playing in the park, I'll sometimes get ideas or inspiration for a project. That's when my day as a designer begins. When I'm working on something and know there's not going to be more progress or the rest of the day, or I suddenly miss my kids - that's when I get the sense of "enough". Repeating this kind of daily routine as a designer, I've learned moderation, and through this moderation my life has taken its current shape.

"Muji style: Berlin / Uli Budde" - work-life balance goals?

Muji is a company that satisfies one of humanity's two conflicting desires. People are always whirled around by various urges. There's an urge to move towards more excitement and violence, and there's an urge to return to more decency and to the basics, to a quieter place.

"Advisory Board: Naoto Fukasawa"

We often talk about our "huge strategy," which, for our company, is "to serve a purpose."
...
Around the time Muji was launched, Seiji Tsutsumi had the thought, "Do all (women) wear makeup because they want to?" After all, there are probably people who don't want to wear makeup. Every day on TV, we're being shown celebrities who've had their makeup done and been made to wear dresses and hold designer bags. Humans, being by nature greedy animals, see this and want to compare ourselves to others. The consumer society exploits this mentality in extremely commercial ways. Even people who want to live true to themselves and their own aesthetic will find it easy to get swept up in the currents of society. Muji was created to protect t the freedom of such people.
...
The people who started Muji didn't have commercial outcomes in mind. Muji was started with pure - even naive - intentions.

"Masaaki Kanai"

kao

Back from my latest trip back to Chengdu, hurray for another month of rest before I pack up my life again ;o;

I stuck with the purpose of visiting family and stayed in the city the whole time. This always means that I literally turned on my camera twice, but all the photos that made it on the internet are from my phone. As usual, food & their commentary are over on facebook.

Otherwise my trip consists mostly of telling the same life updates to everyone that I meet; thinking, or rather being confused, about what family means to me; hearing stories of student life with some mixture of horror and amazement; being reminded, often with irritation, of the cultural differences; reeeeaallly annoyed by the cigarette smoke everywhere but especially indoors (except for malls, I don't recall anyone smoking inside malls); and feeling pretty cold until aircon was installed.

Hurray for central air conditioning, better air quality, and a more sane education system here.
Boo for insane cellular plan costs.

river

It is definitely more bearable to visit in the early winter times, although the sky is almost always some variation of grey depending on the pollution levels. To be fair I did see the blue sky twice, maybe thrice, and the temperatures were fairly high. There's still flowers blooming despite the season.

stream

My only touch is suggesting a fix for the mosaic

orchid

I don't think I personally have any photos of the apartment with its previous appearance :(

At least the views outside haven't changed.

fish

Off to China for some time, see ya later!

mules

goals

stem

Well, its bound to happen. After cooking for all these times, my first serious kitchen injury: chopped ⅓ of my nail & some skin off my left ring finger. Fucking squash "orz

Surprisingly it didn't hurt for the first 30s or so, was fine enough to toss the offending piece of squash and my cut-off nail into the compost before body started feeling shock. Very light-headed, both hands were numb, and body temperature increased. There was a lot of blood. But what actually hurts the most is when the disinfectant was applied, that really hurts ;_;

Unfortunately the first set of gauze that was applied stuck to the wound surface, so ripping that off couple of hours later caused a lot of bleeding again "orz And then some more bleeding throughout the night, surprised that the blood haven't clotted by now. Overall a lot of blood "orz

Lesson learned is to buy non-stick dressing. And will be stocking a first aid kit wherever I live.

yakult

Since Easy Go is no more, Coco's grapefruit yakult is my new favourite bbt. It's especially refreshing after eating too much bao:

Juicy Dumplings: unappealing lighting but delicious 生煎包

...

Cookings last week:

I finally made miso soup properly, with soaking the dashi ingredients and adding in miso at last. Unlike my usual and absolutely opposite method ha... It does taste different, more like the sea and more clarity in the flavour.

A meal of pork & fennel polpette from Polpo on spaghetti, salt-wilted brussels sprout salad, french lentil salad and bouikos from Honey&Co.

Peanut butter paprika cookies...I read the title of the post and instantly decided to make it due to the flavour combo. It's good but not mind-blowingly so.

The scones...are not a success. It taste fine and its tender, so it passes as a scone at least but I think I under-baked them so they're too fragile. They're also too pale in color, even tho the chocolate scones had cream brushed on top. The blueberry scones also absorbed the sugar topping, so there's no delightful crunch :( The lesson learned is not bake on a tight schedule.

motion

Another item(s) on my list if by chance I win the lottery jackpot:

Van Cleef & Arpels's poetic complications: zodiac lumineux virgo / a day in paris / day and night coccinelles / poetic wish

Too bad (or good in that I'll never actually be tempted to buy them) that they're all 38mm, which I consider too big for my wrists. So they'll be really expensive decor that I probably need to buy extra home insurance for.

66

The silver lining to chilly weather, aside from knitwear and layering clothing, is drinking darker tea in my favourite tea cup.

2002 liubao "803" via YS

I had this tea with my family last evening and it was evident how much my taste deviated from drinking tea in the last couple of years. My mom considers this tea on the edge of drinkable due to its strong dirt flavour, whereas I thought it was an enjoyable crisp wet leaves flavour xD Although having it today in the setup above, that clay pot pretty much removed all of the dank flavour and just left some mineral-y notes...and some woody notes at the end if I try really hard.

parsley

After another maintenance cycle after another year with these monks 

year 2

year 1

Perhaps the lighter color show scruffs more easily? I haven't spent nearly as much time maintaining my black boots.

roll

My concern over word choice is perhaps above average. My previous epiphany in this subject is independence vs individuality, and my current epiphany is that content vs complacent is a matter of self awareness. Ok this one isn't too much of an epiphany since its fairly obvious from the words' definitions.

...

"Desperation fosters creativity" is the cousin of "necessity is the mother of invention", or at least the underplaying truth to the trope of the starving artist? This bout of anxiety has currently filled 5 journal pages whereas the usual can be fit into 1. I hope I'll still think these ideas are good when I wake up tomorrow, whenever that'll be since I've been turning the light back on and writing another page.

...

Stella's Ultimate Coconut Layer Cake

I did not sleep well last night, was stressed about making my first layered cake. It's Stella's recipe, so I know I'm in good hands, but still.

It turned out okay, I'd give it 7.5/10

I skipped the white chocolate ganache since I couldn't find Valrohna's Dulcey and am not up for slowly caramelizing chocolate. Just to contradict myself, I did make toasted sugar. Also skipped the toasted coconut flakes since Jeff isn't a fan.

This was really time consuming. Solely because my hand mixer is under-powered and it took forever to 1) cream the butter & sugar, and 2) whip the meringue. In fact I was legit scared that my hand mixer's motor will break due to overheating while whipping the meringue. Stand mixer plz ;_;

Frosting the cake also took a while, because I'm inexperienced but also because the cake layers don't align. I wonder what the tricks are to having cakes with straight sides. The tall cake pans did help a lot with having a flat top, I barely had to level the tops. Pipping buttercream also needs some more practice. Appearances aside, the taste is great and super coconut-y, as promised.

Next...to tackle the opera cake @_@"
...

Bonus milk tea pot-au-creme, which has such a luxuriously creamy texture.

recipe via Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi

SaveSave

smoked

I've been cooking on Fridays and loafing otherwise.

An impressive Honey&Co meal if I may say so, unfortunately it doesn't look too good shot from bird's eye.

Featuring, from top to bottom and left to right:

• Baba ganoush 
• Octopus in meshwiya sauce & celery salad
• Green tabbouleh salad
• Matbucha sauce made into shakshuka 
• Beef (and pork) kofta
• Israeli couscous (but made with bulgar wheat)
• Bukhari bread

...

Bonus pork shoulder ragu, made in the oven this time. I actually prefer stove top since it turned out too liquid-y this time. 

camel

Flowers and some baking, the madeleines are moderately successful on the first try using David Lebovitz's recipe in My Paris Kitchen. I also referenced Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi, and applied her tips of preheating a half-sheet pan in the oven and also I chilled the batter overnight in the fridge. I also very generously oiled the entire madeleine pan, which is quite necessary as they do tend to stick. While writing this post, I saw another one of David's blog posts on madeleines in which he suggests to freeze the madeleine pan in the freezer, I suppose for maximum contrast between hot and cold, which I will try next time. Also a lemon glaze.

tahini

Dinner for the past 2 days

Left has: naan, labneh with za'atar, chickpea salad & eggs with harissa
Right has: broccoli, winter melon tomato meatball soup & masala scrambled eggs

peach

Some new cosmetic acquisitions:

The most beautiful cushion ever (although my Laneige clover one is still my fav) that came with an incredible amount of free Sulwhasoo skincare samples. I really like most Sulwhasoo product's hanbang scent, and am set on getting the first care serum if I find it on BeautyTap's daily deals.

Aside: two of my friends are into perfume and gave me lots of recommendations. One of which, Terre d'Hermes Eau Intense Vetiver, smells similar to Sulwhasoo's scent. Overall, I learned that I have zero tolerance for sweet scents and really like woody scents. Penhaligon's Lord George is my current fav, someone go through Heathrow and grab one for me ;_;

...

Two new lipsticks, although the Mamonde one was bought last year so I'm still good with my 1 lippie a year goal (although my progress on the other resolutions are awful).

Both lipstick's exterior boxes have pretty holographic design...which was a pain to photograph "orz 

Surprisingly, these two look really similar on the lips

...

On a more serious note, my stash of beauty products (and tea!) is huge. I have a ton of backups for some products, random products I bought to try, and still a lot of sheet masks left from my haul the previous time I went back to China. That being said...there's also so much (15 on my list to be exact) new products that I want to try. The new things I'm eyeing are mostly actives, which I don't have stashed up, but still feels bad to consider purchasing new things.

But! It's also frustrating, especially for AB products, when you find something that works well only for it to be discontinued (the Mamonde lipstick) or reformulated (my HG LGH tea tree serum). So there is a good reason to stock up.

bitlong

Good to be back home and drinking tea from my clay pots again :)

Kew Garden

I'm pretty happy with the pairing of the photos

London Museums

V&A and the Wallace Collection

minerva

A short photo set of the Prior Park Landscape Garden to post while I'm probably strolling through Kews.

...

Plus a bonus photo of the Roman Baths that is rescued by luminosity masks:

thornbank

Its appropriate that one of my last meals that I cook in my dorm is chicken tikka masala:

...

Farewell Bath