i was cleaning up my table the other night and reorganizing my vanity table as i am buying a new set of brushes so i need to re-arrange my vanity table to accommodate them. while doing so, i realize that my organizer is full, and more stuff is coming since i asked my hubby to buy more products while he was abroad. then i remembered my old days.. when i was young and know nothing about skincare and makeup. oh well, i do know a bit, but i didn't have a grown collection like today. so, considering that this is the end of the year, i think it won't hurt remembering how far i've gone from beauty newbie to a beauty addict. i think i will start with skincare first then makeup in another post.
during my teenage years, i didn't own any skincare products aside from face wash. and the face wash that i had was always drugstores. back in that days, the internet is still growing, so there's limited information. i also never saw my mom putting a bunch of creams and stuff. so, with my own limited information, i always thought my skin was oily. so every time i went to the drugstore, i always bought products for oily skin. luckily i didn't suffer from bad acnes. i did have acnes, but i didn't have problems with it. it would be gone after a while, and the scars faded too. i guess i was lucky since i always squeezed my pimples. i know it's bad thing to do, but somehow i couldn't resist. again, you shouldn't do it. squeezing your pimples might give you bad scars. while i could get away from it, it didn't mean that you can get away from it too.
anyway.. i survived only using a face wash. then comes the day when i read fashion/beauty magazine. and all those shining ads pages... and then i was curious about l'oreal gel moisturizer. then there were two. face wash and moisturizer. i like this moisturizer a lot back in that day since it helped control my sebum, but i didn't like that sometimes it got icy cold on my skin. and i was thankful that i like to read a lot. so i knew i had to use sunscreen. unfortunately, online shops were not as popular as now, so i was limited to drugstore, hence another l'oreal. i picked their sunscreen but i didn't like that it reversed the effect of the moisturizer on my skin. my nose became oily again so i didn't use it regularly. again.. don't do that. you have to use your sunscreen regularly since young age to prevent aging.
oh, and then i grew up and knew a bit of makeup, so i needed cleansing stuff. my mom stuff was limited too. all i knew that she had a cleansing milk and a toner, so i naturally bought a cleansing milk and a toner. l'oreal again, unfortunately. the cleansing milk worked just fine, but the toner is an astringent which contains alcohol which dried my skin further. actually this is a bad mixture. the toner dried up my skin, and then the moisturizer dried up even further, and then the sunscreen made my skin oily again. years later i found out that you should hydrate your skin to make it produce less sebum, not the other way around.
then my sister who lives in singapore told me about korean stuff and how she could buy it online. and i was plunged into the deep ocean of asian skincare. suddenly there are a bunch of stuff to try. a whole lot steps to do. i remembered i was overwhelmed when i read about 10 steps of korean skincare. i immediately wanted to buy every single recommendation in every steps. but luckily i held back. i tried one by one. i started with the basic one, cleansing. so i started doing double cleansing. at first i was using my cleansing milk and face wash, then i decided to buy korean face wash while finishing my cleansing milk. then i changed the cleansing milk into cleansing oil and changed the toner to korean hydrating toner. next step was moisturizer, which i already used every day. i decided to buy a korean one and it turned out to be my favorite for a while. then i introduced night cream into my routine and used sunscreen religiously. then i started to try first essence, essence and serum, and then all the mask sheet, wash off mask and peeling mask. i eventually knew about acids and retinoids. i've tried BHA and AHA, and vitamin C, but no luck so far. i had a retinoid serum in my stash but i held back using it since i've been using a lot of new stuff right now.
at first i thought at the end of that experiment, i would have a stable routine. something that i will always use everyday forever. but there are a bunch of stuff to try. and my skin is also changing. so i decided to try new things and introduced it slowly to my routine. i've tried acids, some worked, and some didn't. and i still want to try other things, like retinol. but i'm happy with my skin now. even my husband said that i looked younger than my younger sisters. somehow my skin becomes more radiant now that i take care of my skin better. he said "all those creams and stuff you put on your face really works" hahahaha.. and then he said "it'd better be.. all those money to buy that stuff"
anyway, if you're new to asian skincare routine, i will suggest you to understand the basic steps. and then slowly progressed from there. don't use all the steps altogether at once, but slowly introduce new products one by one. start with things that you've already familiar with and then try new things you are curious with. take note of your skin condition. and enjoy a new and improved skin. you might not see the result immediately, but trust me, the hard work will pay. you will get glowing if you're committed to do it. and i believe new year is a good time to start. have a good skin next year!
during my teenage years, i didn't own any skincare products aside from face wash. and the face wash that i had was always drugstores. back in that days, the internet is still growing, so there's limited information. i also never saw my mom putting a bunch of creams and stuff. so, with my own limited information, i always thought my skin was oily. so every time i went to the drugstore, i always bought products for oily skin. luckily i didn't suffer from bad acnes. i did have acnes, but i didn't have problems with it. it would be gone after a while, and the scars faded too. i guess i was lucky since i always squeezed my pimples. i know it's bad thing to do, but somehow i couldn't resist. again, you shouldn't do it. squeezing your pimples might give you bad scars. while i could get away from it, it didn't mean that you can get away from it too.
anyway.. i survived only using a face wash. then comes the day when i read fashion/beauty magazine. and all those shining ads pages... and then i was curious about l'oreal gel moisturizer. then there were two. face wash and moisturizer. i like this moisturizer a lot back in that day since it helped control my sebum, but i didn't like that sometimes it got icy cold on my skin. and i was thankful that i like to read a lot. so i knew i had to use sunscreen. unfortunately, online shops were not as popular as now, so i was limited to drugstore, hence another l'oreal. i picked their sunscreen but i didn't like that it reversed the effect of the moisturizer on my skin. my nose became oily again so i didn't use it regularly. again.. don't do that. you have to use your sunscreen regularly since young age to prevent aging.
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| my current vanity |
then my sister who lives in singapore told me about korean stuff and how she could buy it online. and i was plunged into the deep ocean of asian skincare. suddenly there are a bunch of stuff to try. a whole lot steps to do. i remembered i was overwhelmed when i read about 10 steps of korean skincare. i immediately wanted to buy every single recommendation in every steps. but luckily i held back. i tried one by one. i started with the basic one, cleansing. so i started doing double cleansing. at first i was using my cleansing milk and face wash, then i decided to buy korean face wash while finishing my cleansing milk. then i changed the cleansing milk into cleansing oil and changed the toner to korean hydrating toner. next step was moisturizer, which i already used every day. i decided to buy a korean one and it turned out to be my favorite for a while. then i introduced night cream into my routine and used sunscreen religiously. then i started to try first essence, essence and serum, and then all the mask sheet, wash off mask and peeling mask. i eventually knew about acids and retinoids. i've tried BHA and AHA, and vitamin C, but no luck so far. i had a retinoid serum in my stash but i held back using it since i've been using a lot of new stuff right now.
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| the night cream that's not fit the organizer on top of my wash off mask (psst..lots of mask in my closet, hidden among my clothes) |
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| close up on the skincare portion (i transferred some into clean container to fit my organizer and for better usage) |
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