skincare routine: winter '16

Well my routine certainly expanded since the last time I posted in the summer.

Excluding cleansing stuff (Kose cleansing oil / Hada Labo foaming cleanser / Innisfree clay mask / Skinfood rice pack):

This is how everything is set-up on my little table, with the general order of use corresponding from left to right.

Actives (haven't changed, and probably won't for a while)

• Mizon 8% AHA: the packaging is the sole reason why I'm not trying any other AHAs
• Melano CC: can easily stock up while in Japan, so won't be switching back to OST for a while
• Cosrx 2% BHA: I really do like how it sinks in so quickly

Main Routine (many new additions)

• Cosrx A-Sol: this is more-so trouble care, but I'll slap this on whenever I feel that my skin is becoming congested. Not used everyday.
• Cosrx Galactomyces 90: not sure how much of the overall improvement in the glowing of my skin can be attributed back to this, but it seems to have some beneficial effects. Will try other first essences when I run out though. 
• Hada Labo lotion: so stocking up refills when in Japan
• Shark Sauce: aka niacinamide bomb (at 5%) I love how it started (proud to be part of the 2nd batch), I love the texture...but I'm inconclusive at how effective it is for me. Been only using it on one side of my face and frankly there's little difference in the pigmentation of my old acne scars. Oh it's also gotten a ton of amazing reviews. Will reserve judgement for when I finish the bottle, hoping it's just because I'm using it only at night that the effects are taking longer to become apparent. 
• Tosowoong propolis essence: not their famous ampoule since I'm not a big fan of mixing products into each other. This what I use on the other side of my face that doesn't get Shark Sauce. Haven't been using it enough to see if it has any benefits, but I do like the ingredients and texture. Out of Tosowoong's essence and Scinic's ampoule, one of them will cover honey and the other will cover snail, though undecided which is which yet. Used only at night.
• Scinic Honey AIO Ampoule: not as sticky as I've read in reviews so I'm using it in the morning as the only "boosting" step aside from my Hada Labos to be true to it's AIO name. It's working well, and is very economical, so will try the snail version next. 
• Cosrx 96% Snail Essence: solid snail essence...since there's not much else in it. I have no complaints about this, but will try out Scinic's snail AIO since I prefer products stacked with good things. Used only at night.
• Hada Labo Milk: ditto on stocking up.

Trouble Care (entirely new section)
This section is analogous to the section of your wardrobe for exercising...or going out, whichever you do less of. Basically specialists that gets called in periodically.

• Chica y Chico Astazet 4.0: the star ingredient is supposedly an amazing antioxidant and the product is designed to fade scars. I haven't used it enough to make a sound judgement, but so far it's not very promising.
• Tosowoong Tea Tree Essence: this replaces Shark Sauce and the propolis essence when I have active acne. Pretty effective combo with the Cosrx A-Sol and LJH essence at calming down large inflammations. 
• LJH Tea Tree 90 Essence: I thinnnk this is more effective than the Tosowoong essence, but also much more expensive. 
• Mizon Pink Spot: The abovementioned combo is good at calming down large red spots, but doesn't bring them to head which then takes forever to disappear. Bought this in hopes of having a way to force the acne to come to a head so I can slap a hydrocolloid bandage on there and banish it foreverrrr.

In other news:

• Innisfree Mist: used to wet the air puff before applying my cushion to create a dewier appearance. 
• Sunkiller Perfect Strong Moisture Suncreen: finally used up a bottle of my Sunbears, into trying the next Japanese sunscreen. This one, although still a liquid, is slightly thicker and thus easier to apply. A good winter sunscreen.
• Lovemore masks: back to loving Taiwanese masks, because silk masks are amazing. Hands down best mask sheet material.

I also like to keep travel sized products readily packed so I can just grab and go when packing. It's quite a time saver. 

behh

After these, I would've read all of Murakami's fiction works with the exception of A Wild Sheep Chase, which the Atlanta library system does not have.

Unfortunately this catches me in a non-reading mood, so it will take some willpower to get through before they are all due back.

prickly pears

Today features my backlog of food photos:

1. African peanut soup, much tastier than when I first made it.

The main difference, if I recall, is the generous addition of a couple different kinds of chilies, and probably more sweet potatoes. This also benefits greatly from the addition of cashews, in reality I added more after taking the photo.
Definitely a staple, especially since this freezes well.

2. Potato & tuna salad, probably my sole original recipe.

First edition here, but this version is much better mainly thanks to the ultra-crispy roasted potatoes (method via the always awesome Kenji). Though I do miss the basil, thankfully I can go back to Sky Garden this summer *u* Another tweak in this version is adding the tuna to a big batch of the dressing and letting it marinate in the heavily mustard concoction since I buy cheap water-packed tuna.

3. Cornbread

Extra emphasis on the corn, very very intense flavour of corn, all thanks to the fancy cornmeal from Anson Mills. For all the amazing corn taste, the per serving cost of this corn bread is astronomical since a bag of cornmeal cost $6 and makes...one skillet of cornbread. I should've read their recipe more closely sigh. Saving my two remaining bags for when parents visit while I try other recipes that can work with mediocre cornmeal.

4. Bean sprouts

I've very overdue on posting this since one of the photos is resized to 600px durr. But I am damn proud that I figured to use my steamer post to germinate the green beans, it works absolutely fantastic. This reminds me to see if Publix sells green beans so I can make more of them.

hongni

Finally retrieved my tea care package after it spent the weekend in my leasing office. The anticipation was overwhelming.

 yahcha for weeeeeeks! plus an aged oolong.

 Because one pack can now last more than one session! Thank you so much for lending me a little shuipin pot.

This is very close to an 100% crop with minimal edits. You can quite clearly see the less than stellar IQ from shooting at high ISO. 

Much thanks!

two

I thought that I would keep my little X10 around in case I needed a more normal lens, but alas I am too spoiled by the newer model that I see all the deficiencies in the old. Especially when manual focusing, so so much easier on the X-T10 with focus peaking and a larger and higher resolution LCD screen.

Also despite all my praise for Velvia, I've been using Chrome for the past month or so since it's more suitable for indoor shooting. It really is beautiful paired with the soft, diffuse light of my window.

This is SOOC, with only cropping:

(by fluke I got the focusing perfect the first time, such a rare ocurrence)

Trying out BTT's dongding. It's a lighter roast compared to my Eco-Cha, and taste accordingly different. It's a brief interlude before diving back into yancha next weekend, courtesy of my lovely friend who sent me some samples to try.

2016 hit list

I regularly like to engage in a futile effort of listing out future purchases with the goal of sticking to said list. The accuracy of the list has gotten better for clothing purchases, balanced out by omissions and extra purchases. But this year I will be overly ambitious and try to include all categories.

Motivation: a favourite blog's wardrobe lust list

Even though I've titled this post for 2016, I'll be including a "grail" section at the end for things that I've been eyeing forever and will be the end-all of that product. Bonuses will definitely being spent on these.

Clothing

•  Adidas Stan Smiths: replacement white sneakers for my Ecco pair that has a hole worn into it's sole. I'd rebuy the same Ecco pair for it's low profile...except it's been long discontinued. Been a difficult task to find a similarly low profiled sneaker.
• Black jeans: probably rebuying a jcrew pair whenever it becomes on sale, gonna stick with cheap jeans since I wear through them fast enough to be considered disposable.
• Unicorn thick wool pants: so I can wear my Grace boots as office wear.
• Black over the knee boots: only if I can find a really good deal, because I can always suck it up in the cold. 
• Forest green coat: Tien said that his friend that works in retail said this will be a popular color this season. Perhaps I can finally find a suitable coat.
• Fancy laces & shoe care: to pamper my footwear. Leather laces / flat waxed laces / Saphir neutral wax / Saphir creme polish in tan 
• Back-up glasses and sunglasses: to take advantage of Warby Parker before I leave, via HSA money
• An allowance for minor shopping in Japan and China.

 Cosmetics

• Jolse / RRS: order for refills, and some new first essence to try (NR, Innisfree, Tosowoong).
• Taiwanese sheet masks: a lot of MBD / Lovemore / My Scheming, a bit of L'herbaflore and Maskingdom if I have time in Taipei. After a year or so of using Korean sheet masks, it's back to Taiwanese ones. 
• Japanese sunscreens and eyeliner: to pick up when I'm in Japan. Also Hadalabo refills.
• Cushions: only if Sulwhasoo / Iope / Laneige / Hera comes out with pretty LE cushion cases, but I'm satisfied with my current Innisfree one.

Entertainment / Technology (woah this section is surprisingly populated for how little time I have leftover for it)

• Fuji XF 35mm f2 WR: either whenever B&H starts discounting this, or in Japan.
• Other camera accessories: Slik tripod / rocket blower / lenspen / maybe polarizing & ND filter
• PS Vita via Ryan: whenever I see him next
• Bravely Default: whenever a price drop occurs, hopefully when Bravely Second releases, or even better if it comes in a bundle with Second.
• FE:Fates: only if I can get my hands on LE, else I'll wait a long time until sale/price drop.
• Ni no Kuni 2: I regret not getting LE of the first game, definitely jumping on this.
• FFXV: sigh. just sigh. I've budgeted for this for yeeeeeears.
• PS4: preferably bundled with any of the above games

Houseware:

• Vegetable cleaver: to get in Japan, also sharpening stones. Incidental is learning how to sharpen knives. My kitchen will be fully functionally stocked after this.
• Jetpens order: gotta take advantage of US shipping!
• An allowance for when I get tempted in MUJI.

Tea

• Japan: 1x sencha / 1x gyokuro / 1x hojicha / 1x mujicha / maybe a small shiboridashi
• China: yancha / dian hong / a small yixing for yancha if I trust myself to evaluate pots
• Taiwan: if Wisteria has a reasonably priced black tea sampler set
• Online: refill of dongding / if Tea From Vietnam has another black friday sale / maybe some pu-er from Crimson Lotus

...

Grail

• Burberry trench coat: this coat is the epitome of the grail section. Maybe one day I will be making enough money to buy the seasonal coats too. 
• Custom-made shirts: because I am picky about the details on my shirt and Everlane discontinued the closest-to-perfect silk blouse I've found. 
• Bespoke coat: navy / cashmere / silk lining / double breast / six low contrast horn buttons / exaggerated partially fur lapels / ends right above knee. Similar to this and this.
• St. Crispins 630 model double monk: seriously, no sleeker shoe exists (not a fan of wholecuts)
• Black croc leather bag: or probably a YSL sac de jour in calf with a croc texture. Thinking that this will be my main work bag, for when I get my P.Eng
• Kelly bag: for when I make principle  
• Hermes silk scarves: maybe I should alternate between a pair of nice shoes and a silk scarf every year, starting after full time employment of course
• Eames lounge chair: after I buy a house *u*

いま

I'm panicking because I can't remember the lyrics to my childhood favourite songs...but I also don't know the lyrics of my new favourite songs by heart yet.

In the words of Sylvia Plath:

August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.

...

This song and 东风破 are the first two songs that I learned. Though I'm happy that I managed to remember all but 3 lines of lyrics from this song in the time it took to wash my hair (aka a really long time).

The internet does not agree on who the original singer is, but this version is the set of lyrics that I remember.

用我的晚安陪你吃早餐 记得把想念存进扑满

我望着满天星在闪 听牛郎对织女说要勇敢

 

别怕我们在地球的两端 看我的问候骑着魔毯

飞 用光速飞到你面前 让你能看到十字星有北极星作伴

 

少了我的手背当枕头你习不习惯

你的望远镜望不到我北半球的孤单

太平洋的潮水跟着地球来回旋转

我会耐心的等 随时欢迎你靠岸

 

少了我的怀抱当暖炉你习不习惯

E给你照片看不到我北半球的孤单

世界再大两颗真心就能互相取暖

想念不会偷懒 我的梦统统给你保管