Valen’s Vanity Square

Jeez, what’s wrong with my immune system? I thought my previous favorite facial mask was the culprit to the skin allergic reaction on my face. It seems that even my facial treatment is giving me problems!

Went for facial yesterday. Everything was fine after that, my complexion looked more supple and my pores were reduced. So, I window shopped, had my afternoon snack and coffee, waiting for hubby to meet me for dinner at the shopping mall.

About 2 hours later, I started to feel itchiness on my neck, face and around the eyes. And there were small bumps and big bumps emerging on my face, too! Oh no, it’s here again. The allergic reaction!

I didn’t have my allergic medicine with me, and my face just becomes redder and had rashes all over. I couldn’t do anything but sat in the ladies washroom (there’s a make-up area with sofas) and waited for hubby. I didn’t want to walk around and scared away the patrons of the shopping mall. Haha!

I still can’t figure out what causes my suddenly sensitive skin. Facial masks that I have used without problem, facial treatment that I have undergone for more than a year, they both now trigger skin allergy on my face.

I don’t know if that means I can’t ever go for my facial again (but I still have 12 more treatments in the course!), or they just have to change the type of treatment to suit my current skin condition. *sigh*

If I had acne and blemishes now, I don’t think I would even bother to look for the best acne treatments, coz I have a more urgent problem to deal with now - a sensitized skin. As to exactly what my skin is sensitive to, I don’t know! Other skin care products that I’ve been using don’t seem to trigger any undesirable reaction so far.

Looks like tonight I have to visit the pharmacy and get some anti-allergic medicine in case a flare up happens again!

Oh no, this weekend my mother-in-law’s siblings and their family are coming to my house for dinner! We’ve tried to delay this for as long as possible, but we can’t avoid it any longer. My mother-in-law insisted to have this occasion. >:<

Luckily, we don’t have to prepare the food. Everything will be prepared at my parents in law’s kitchen and brought over. But it doesn’t mean that I don’t have anything to do. Not that I need to put up a nice abstract painting on the wall, or buy new log furniture to fill up the empty space. But I have to clean the house this Saturday! I hate that. I thought I’ve just gone through spring cleaning last month before CNY, now I have to do it all over again! And think of the cleaning up to do after the dinner…

Why? Why? Why must parents force their children to do things they don’t like?

Bought a magazine few days ago, and attached to the magazine is a sample bottle of skincare products. It’s Hada Labo’s Super Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer Lotion.

I’ve seen Hada Labo range of products being sold in the pharmacies, but I didn’t really pay attention to them, coz their labels are mainly Japanese characters!

It’s claimed that this Super Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer Lotion is sold one bottle every 4 seconds in Japan. Wow, it must be very good then.

So I tried it for a few days. Because it doesn’t have SPF factor, so I used it at night. I now see why it’s such a popular skincare product. I sleep in an air-conditioned room, so usually when I wake up in the morning, my face looks dull and dry. It reflects on the enlarged pores.

But after using Super Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizer Lotion, my skin actually stays quite supple in the morning when I wake up, and my pores are not as large as usually seen.

The lotion is colorless and odorless. It’s quite watery, when applied to the skin it feels a bit sticky. But it gets absorbed into the skin soon.

I think this is a good skincare product for those who stays long hours in an air-conditioned room, whether during working hours or sleeping at night. It helps to keep the skin hydrated but doesn’t appear to cause oiliness of the skin. I think I’m going to get a full-size bottle after I finish the sample bottle.

I have only 2 weeks to enjoy my good old ‘jobless’ days. I foresee my world is going to turn upside down and inside out when I start working…

There’s so much to do for the next 2 weeks, that is - shopping. Hahaha! First, my wardrobe doesn’t really have clothes for me to wear to work, so I need to refer to some old fashion magazines and decide what I should get.

Second, I don’t take handbag to work, instead I prefer to use tote, or something big enough for me to carry documents in case I have to bring home unfinished work

Third, I need a pair of boots, that’s my style of working attire. Only when I wear pants or jeans, of course. And it’s better to have two or three pairs of shoes to alternate if you want your shoes to last longer.

Jeez, before I get my first pay, I may have exhausted my credit card! I think those credit card processing vendors will be very happy when there are more patrons like me, who keeps spending using credit cards.

Other than shopping, I think I’ll need to ‘practice’ to wake up early and go to bed before midnight, haha!

We’re still in the first quarter of the year. What is one of the things that you usually do in the beginning of a year? Marking down on the calendar the birthdays of your spouse, parents, sisters, brothers, and friends, weddings of your colleagues, graduation day of your cousins, etc.

So, it’s good to plan all the gifts to give (and your budget) in advanced, isn’t it? To make your gifts unique, you may want to consider giving personalized gifts. A number of personalized gift ideas are such as:

For wedding gifts, you may give the to-be-wed couple a customized hand painted ceramic signature plate to replace the traditional wedding guest book. The signature plate, with all the guests have signed on, can serve as a piece of decor in the house for many generations to come.  Customized cake toppers also make fun wedding gifts.

For birthday of your nephews and nieces, I think they will like a photo pillow or photo blanket very much. They can sleep on a very nice photo of them with their beloved puppy or cat, perhaps, and have beautiful dreams every night.

If you have a girlfriend who are going to become a mom, she will appreciate your handmade baby diaper bag gift. She’ll be the coolest mom in town to have a lovely diaper bags that comes with a matching handbag, changing pads and reversable nursing cover.

If you need more personalized gift ideas, I’m sure you can find a lot of ideas from the internet. So start researching for your 1-year gift ideas!

What a day!

Went to see doctor first thing in the morning because my whole face got itchy in the middle of the night. The real culprit to my itchy face is identified - it’s my favorite facial mask! Put it on before I went to bed, then the itchiness started few hours later. Could feel some bumpy areas and rashes on my face. Couldn’t stand the itchy, woke up a few times to wash my face!

Since the itchiness and redness only happen on my face, it’s very certain that this is a skin allergic reaction to the mask I used last night. While nothing happened in the past 4 or 5 times when I used masks from this brand, the doctor said that sometimes allergic reaction will only manifest after several contact with the allergic-causing matter.

After seeing the doctor, with some patches of redness on my face, I applied on some compact powder and off to attend a job interview. I applied facial mask last night because I was supposed to look good for the interview, but I ended up looking so horrible. Jeez, this is my ‘ugliest’ interview ever. Well, may not that bad. The redness did subside and was not so obvious compared to the morning.

Anyway, it’s not the look that decide whether you get a job or not (err, depending on the type of job I guess). I’m offered a job and was asked if I could start work after 2 weeks. Let me think about this. Actually I was planning to start work after 3 weeks, coz I want to cherish the last good weeks of freedom. Haha!

*Sigh* I exchange freedom for money…