can I tell you why

A couple of weeks later, I suddenly really like the series finale ED. It does fit the show if you don't think of it as strictly a romantic love song.


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In other news, 2 full days of field work is so tiring.

steak

The best translation from sky to pixel yet.
Of course then I post-processed it to what I thought looked the best.

High Museum of Art

I really enjoy going to art museums despite how little I understand its contents. It always brings up a whole mix of emotions.

A couple of my favourite items:

Veiled Rebekah 

I stared at this for a good five minutes, first in shock that the veil is actually carved from the marble and not a textile that's draped over. I've seen a fair share of classical sculptures with beautiful renderings of fabric, but this takes the crown.

 English porcelain

 Coke-cola bottles

The design brief for this involved the bottle being recognizable by touch and even when shattered.

Recycled Coke bottle bowls

rolling

Oolong again after 2 weekends of green tea, it's good to be back.
Heavy roasted organic dong ding from Eco-Cha, it definitely taste nuttier. 

skincare routine: summer

Time again for an updated routine, fueled by the move down South and lots of hauling.

Top products are from Jolse, bottom is from RRS. Not shown are my Taobao haul (mostly restocking basics) and the copious amounts of samples that both shops sent. I'm actually not keen on receiving tons of samples, since 95% of the time they're for products I'm not interested in. Same reason why I don't buy subcription boxes.

Thanks to /r/asianbeauty, my purchases are more informed by active ingredients than pretty packages and anecdotal reviews. The next step would be to learn more about formulations, which I plan on doing through some DIY once I get back to Toronto and can mooch off my mom's lab environment (because I can't be bothered to sanitize my table). For now, here's a feature of Scinic Honey AIO's amazing ingredients list, and CosRx's application instructions:

(click to zoom, do it because the ingredients are actually that amazing)

Onto my summer routine, which features many familiar faces as winter:

Hada Labo forever.

The routine has 3 general phases: cleanse, actives, and treat/hydrate.

Cleanse (opps photo shows them in wrong order):

• Nursery Yuzu Cleansing Gel: remove makeup / sunscreen. At first I was skeptical of the gel texture, but now I appreciate it because it makes washing at the sink so much easier. Also very effective at removing makeup, so no complaints. It's hard to source this outside of Asia, so I'll be switching back to an oil cleanser after it's done.
• Hada Labo Foaming Cleanser: low pH, self foaming pump, refillable. I see no reason to switch to anything fancy since it stays in contact with your face for such little time. 

Actives:

• CosRx 2% BHA: haven't been using this long enough to see visible results, but I feel that it is helping reduce the SFs on my nose in conjunction with the clay masks. 
• Mizon 8% AHA: second bottle, enough said.
• Melano CC: switched from OST20 because I wasn't a fan of how sticky it felt, but I'm not a huge fan of this texture either. It feels like a dry oil. Still on the look out for a good Vit C sigh.

Treat / Hydrate:
Most of the new additions will be in this phase, such as the fermented goodness (CosRx Galactomyces) and honey products (Scinic, Tosowoong)

• CosRx A-Sol: 95% propolis plus other goodies such as tea tree extract, aka miracle worker. It's absolutely fantastic at calming down acne that's yet to surface / come to a head. I want to buy 3 bottles of backups immediately. 
• Hada Labo shirogyun lotion: good ol' staple.
• Benton Snail Bee essence: another good ol' staple that played a big part in fading my PIH. Switching this out for CosRx snail essence next, but there's nothing wrong with it at all. Will repurchase.
• Hada Labo shirogyun milk: yeah HL forever. Actually switching this for Mizon's snail repair gel because I'd like a lighter texture last step because Atlanta humidity kills. But I've got refills of this ready to go. 

That's it...for now. Routine is definitely going to expand once I manage to test out the new products.

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Since I've got to be more presentable for work than school, here's my makeup routine that I'm sacrificing 15 mins of sleep everyday for:

Quick thoughts:

• Innisfree no-sebum powder is great at oil control.
• Not completely sold on cushions only because it's a pain to clean the puffs every week. 
• Aritaum honey melting tint is amazingly long lasting.

my dreams becoming distant apparitions

It really is frustrating when the anime's OP and ED sequence are so beautiful but the resolution just isn't good enough to make into wallpapers.
Ughh.
It was also hard picking one line of lyric for the title since they're all so poetic.



Couple more thoughts on the show:

• Fuu/Mugen/Jin is so much more well done than Lisa/Nine/Twelve. 
• It is true that Bebop is "what if you can't escape your past" and Champloo is "what if you can"
• Lukewarm is mot accurate word I can think of to describe the ending. While I do like the choice of final opponents for Mugen and Jin, since they close up the circle of their past, Fuu's confrontation (if it even qualifies as that) with the sunflower samurai is a little anti-climatic. Maybe that was the point. Objectively I don't think it was a bad ending, but I like my stories realistic throughout and dramatic in the end.

Samurai Champloo

image via.

I was short on HD space so I finally finished watching Samurai Champloo in efforts to free up 13gb.

In short it is a believable successor to Bebop, but doesn't match it's greatness.
Favourite things:

• Soundtrack: #1 goes to the ending track (Shiki no Uta) because it really sets the melancholy mood that matches quite a few episodes perfectly. Ep 11 also has beautiful tracks.
• Fuu episode: probably the one with shinosuke (ep 7, A Risky Raquet) but my favourite moment is when she plays as the dice roller at the end of ep 4 Hellhounds for Hire (pt 2).
• Mugen episode: ep 10 Lethal Lunacy, but also his moments with Sara in ep 20-21 Elegy for Entrapment
• Jin episode: hands down ep 11 Gamblers and Gallantry because Jin in love is even more swoon worthy. I like to think that he went back to find Shino to console myself for the trio parting ways in the end. Although I was totally prepared for both Jin and Mugen to die. 
• Quotation: In order for you to accept yourself as you are and live with your soul at peace, you must simply teach yourself to let it be, only then will you discover freedom (ep 12 The Disordered Diaries)