NIVEA brings us the 1st rinse- off body lotion

Body Lotion? Ain't nobody got time for that. Sometimes (or all the time) you are just in a rush, you just want to hop in the shower, hop out, clothes, hair, face and just get out.

However you have dry flaky skin. Its either your skin looking kind of ashy, it seems like there is a fine white powder on your skin, or perhaps you have dry and pigmented skin at places where you joints meet, elbow, knuckles, and knees.

You know you have to put on lotion, but dear god, time is just running of your feet. You use conditioner on your hair after you shampoo. What? You don't use conditioner? You don't know it exists? Gasp!!. Well my friends it’s an awesome piece of chemical engineering that you use after you shampoo. Yes, there are those "all in one" shampoo where you hair gets cleaned and conditioned at the same time, but you never have lived until you felt you hair after you apply conditioner. Holy sweet "what ever you worship in", you never thought your hair could get this soft and smooth. True, that conditioner is usually for long hair and heaven sent for those who have curly kinky hair, but trust me, if you can comb your hair, you would love the baby softness hair conditioner does to it. This is basically how Nivea In-Shower Body Conditioner do. How does exactly a lotion that you apply to skin stays on after you wash off..

We are going to do a little chemistry children, but don't worry, you lived with it during school, you are going to survive this blog post.

These are the important ingredients in Nivea in Shower Body Lotion works in moisturizing the skin.  

Cera Microcristallina, and Paraffinum Liquidum are a type of petrochemical product that is normally used in skin products, commonly known as petroleum jelly. These are what we called as “occlusive”, which forms a film on your skin which blocks water from evaporating. This causes the skin to feel moisturized. Since you are in the shower already, you are keeping in all the water in your skin.

Glycerin is humectants, which will attract and bind water together. It’s a byproduct from traditional soap making process called saponification, but today’s detergent based soap, glycerin is added so that the soap will be less drying.

Hydrogenated Coco-Glyceride, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, and Myristyl Alcohol sounds like a recipe for cocktail but its actually types of emollients. It’s basically a fatty acid that is found in plants and animals, but for skin care, we use plant origins. They are supple, wax like, lubricating, thickening agents that prevent water loss and have a softening and soothing effect on the skin. This is one way that you skin feels nice and smooth after using Nivea In-Shower Body Lotion

Maris Sal. What? Who? Google this now. Well apparently maris sal is basically dead sea salt. It’s not just your ordinary table salt which is sodium chloride. There is a whole other lot of mineral in it. It comes from the infamous Dead Sea, a sea where the water is so dense with mineral, you just float in it. The ocean contains 85% sodium chloride, but the Dead Sea contains only 12-18%. Other minerals that contains in Maris Sal includes silicon dioxide, calcium dioxide, aluminium dioxide,magnesium dioxide etc. It has a lot of known benefits such as helping ease common skin ailments such as acne, psoriasis and inflammation.

Whoa. It blew my mind when I wrote this blog post. Who knew so much science comes from a product. However it’s always good to find out what are the ingredients in your product is, especially those that is located in the upper tier of the list. When you understand what each ingredient do, and where it comes from, you are more educated and wise when you use a product.

I liked it a lot actually, even more after I understand how it works. I just don’t have the time or the diligence to apply body lotion, so an in shower rinses out product works perfectly. 

Another nice touch that Nivea did was to put perfume at the last ingredient on its list. So you are left with a very light “soap like” scent that won’t over power your perfume or your natural body odor.

Another good thing Nivea did is that it offers this product in two variants. One for normal skin and the other one is dry. The ingredients are almost similar except that instead of Maris Sal, the one in the blue bottle which is made for dry skin, contain almond oil, which is a type of natural emollient. I choose the regular white bottle because I don’t like to get too moisturize because I sweat very easily.

This is a good product if you have no time to put on body lotion or you just need an extra coat before you apply your favorite body lotion.

This is definitely worth a try.

Take a peak at the Nivea In-Shower Body Lotion video. Its a quirky video with plenty of eye candy, if you like half naked men.

A skinfull

My mind is preoccupied with skin. Not just my own, but other people's skin as well. I mean I have enough problems with oily skin and blackheads, flaky skin on my chin and eye lids, pigmentation on the right side of my face, pigmentation on my knuckles, knees and elbows, keratotis pilaris on my arms and back, and rough thicken foot soles. Still my mind obsess on their problems.

I try to give out advice, but usually its a hit and miss. Skin is so hard to predict. What works for me will not work for you, what is claimed to be great, can just be lack luster on mine. One must not forget, that one must be extra diligent when dealing with problematic skin.

For those who says just splashing water on their face is the only thing they do, Dr Leslie Baumann says you probably have resistant skin that is perfect and seem to be able to resist any harm to it. Damn you...
It just hits my button when some holier than thou claims that wuduk is the best way to treat problematic skin. I am sorry, but god does not want a lazy ass bum, you have to actually do something to treat it and he might grant you your prayers. Enough of my ramblings, these are what the 3 problems that people have that I can related to

Problems:

Person A is looking for a sunblock that does not add to the oiliness or extra acne, but must be able to protect him from both UVA and UVB rays.

Person B is looking for something to treat her pigmentation. Typical for someone after menopause or reaching 50.

Person C is now looking for a different cleanser that does not contain triclosan since FDA rulling on the status of triclosan only will be shown winter of 2012.


All of this problems obsess me, because I do have all of the problems in the above. The right and gentle sunblock that does not sting nor gives me acne, a way to treat pigmentation on the side of my face and maybe a cleanser, although I still like my triclosan cleanser very much.


Solutions:

These are my solutions based on what I read and understand although I only choose few references to support my claims and everyone who does research knows that this is not enough.

For Person A, I would recommend him Neutrogena Dry Touch Sunblock because it claims to not add excess oil to a person with oily skin, Banana Boat Ultra FACES because it was claim to be made for the facial area and that it also does add more oil to the skin and Ocean Potion Clear Zinc Oxide, because physical sunblock such as Zinc Oxide is better for acne prone skin because it does not irritate it.

For Person B, I would recommend BHA along with topical retinoid and a pigmentation cream. My choice would be Paula's Choice 1% BHA lotion, Retin-A 0.05% and a hydroquinone cream. If hydroquinone is not your thing then try Dermatoligica Extreme C pigmentation cream or Olay White Radiance Spot Corrector, White Essence or Serum.

For Person C, since she already uses Paula's Choice Clear cleanser, she should perhaps switch to Skin Balancing Cleanser, since its also light and foamy but without the triclosan that she is worried about.

Sigh, its just my prescription to them, but I want to take my advice before I give them this. The knowledge on skin care is a diverse as the research I did on toxoplasmosis. It gives me a headache and keeps me up all night. Not good at all for the skin. Oh well, I can only give them my point of view for the to considered it.

y u so expensive Paula's Choice?

This is Paula's Choice Skin Revealing Body Lotion with 10% Alpha Hydroxy Acid. My sister bought this my accident actually because I wanted the Beta Hydroxy Acid Lotion to treat acne on my arms. Anyhow I still used it, I tried putting it on my arm and I did not like it very much. I decided to use it on my feet and it works much better. Its very moisturizing without being incredibly greasy. Its chocked full of antioxidants and anti inflammatory ingredients, but the main star is its 10% glycolic acid. You can actually smell the acidic sour smell of the glycolic acid in this lotion, which gently exfoliate the the skin. In theory this would work great on tough rough skin. I really like this, it even soothes my feet during the days when it would be dry and itchy.

However I used it sparingly, only because it used to cost RM80, now however the priced has jumped to RM105 which makes it one expensive foot lotion. Other than this lotion is imported from the US, its contains more interesting ingredients than say a Vaseline lotion which cost like RM20. Arghh.. so expensive for such a good product, I would actually rather have rough feet than cough up RM105, but I would buy in heartbeat if my budget allows it

Temulawak - One of the original BB cream

I was curious with my sister's new obsession of BB cream. BB cream stands for blemish balm or beautifying balm. It was said that it could replace your sunblock, moisturizer, concealer and makeup!. It sounds too good to be true so I decided to check upon in on the Internet.

When I looked at the ingredient and the name BB cream, it reminded me of a cream that girls and boys use when I was doing my diploma 10 years ago. Girls would wear it during the day as makeup while guys usually wear it at night before bed. They swear it makes them whiter and makes their skin better.

I check the ingredient of these new BB cream and wanted to compared them with the ones in the past. Temulawak was one of the popular beauty cream of the past and it still sold today in Mydin and various traditional cosmetic counters everywhere. I bought one from RM3, this one contains Goat Milk. I opened it and smelled it. It still looks and smells like it did 10 years ago. I still remember my friends layering it on before bedtime or my female friends looking strangely fair or my friends who used "Babyface" and had their skin on their face peeling off.

I looked up the ingredients online and found its mostly an emollient and a very good physical sunblock. The main emollient is petrolatum, which is basically petroleum jelly or Vaseline. On its own its quite greasy but its one of the best emollient out there and it does help with skin healing. There is other emollients added in such as bees wax, carnuba wax and milk protein which does the same thing. The physical sunblock that is used in most BB creams are titanium dioxide, its not only a physical sunblock that reflects both UVA and UVB rays, its also acts as thickener for the product. This is true because its the texture of this cream in the jar is like cold butter.

So basically just based on the ingredients, those who uses this everyday in the daytime will have youthful skin  that is protected by the sun, while those used it at night will have smoother and flawless skin that has healed it self.

Why many people stopped using it? The texture and smell has something to do with it, it does not feel as luxurious and smooth like creams of today. Today's cream smells either better or are fragrance free. Another reason it that this is a balm, which is thicker and more richer that a cream. Which is thicker than lotion and even more thicker that gels.  

In the end, according to its ingredients, this RM 3 balm, works as well or even better that creams that cost 2,3,4, or 10 times as much. You might want to check out this old but never forgotten cream and see if it works better than the cream you are using now.

Great Skin

How to have great skin?

I actually have no idea :/

Over the years, well actually in a few months, it develops from being

 Clear

Full of Acne

 To clear again

I absolutely have no idea what happened. The most acceptable answer for me was hormonal change, but what into what? As if my body decided to go to puberty again. Many said the facial and the CO2 laser I did cause my face to break out. However the facial did get rid of the many pimples that were not erupted in my face and the CO2 laser did reduce my blackheads.

Perhaps its the cleanser I bought from my esthetician, or perhaps the Vitamin C that I started taking or perhaps the pimple medication finally decided to work. I still don't know.

What works for me, may not neccesarily works for you and vice versa.

I did decide to educate my self on the products I used and use peer to peer reviews to find out products beneficial using these two websites

http://www.beautypedia.com

This websites provides review on products available on the market, although majority of the Asian focus products in Malaysia was not reviewed. The best thing about this site is the dictionary so you can find out what dimethicone means.

http://www.skintypesolutions.com/home

This websites allows you to find out what kind type do you have. Its no longer just normal, oily, dry or sensitive but up to 16 different types of skin type combination. Mine is oily, sensitive, pigmented and tight. The quiz is now free (they used your data for research) and you have access to forums where people discuss which product works for your particular skin type group.

Its easy to give out advice based on your skin, but its kind hard when you don't have the same skin, but the website skintypesolutions does come close when grouping people in the same categories.

Obsessed

Obsessed? Who me? Pretty much. About what? A lot of things, my close friends would tell you the things I am obsessed with. However, right now, I am obsessed with my skin. Damn, other than family, this has to be one of the most written post I did. I can't help it, I used to have clear skin, clear but oily, but god dammit, it was still clear. Now its like 27 going 13, I could even see the acne forming right before my eyes. I knew it was going from bad to worst since my barber could not perform his job like he usually does. He actually nick one of the pimples at my temple and it bled. When he was trimming my side burns he stayed away from the pimples at the jaw line. When he was putting some yellow cooling "toner" on my scalp, no longer he massaged my forehead, temple or eyebrows anymore, heck he did not even put any muscle when he was massaging my scalp. Noooooo!!!!!! and that was one the best thing about getting a haircut there, which the scalp massage that he does :(. So sad., again so sad. I though I have it under control when I wake up in the morning, I see my face is clearing up, and then when we reach evening, I could see new cyst, yeah cyst, like my parasites!!! not pimples but cyst!!!! forming and I do think it puss now, and not sebum, forming right before my eyes. What the hell man!!! Arrrgh. Now I look just like a few of my friends with bad acne and their face is clearing up!!. My friend told me, that it does not matter, people will still like you. I told him, I know that but right now, I am the one who has to face the mirror and see my face deteriorates, I am the one who has to feel the bumps on my skin when I wash it, I am the one felt the pain if I knocked my my temple and blood is spattered everywhere, not because of a cut but because a pimple burst. These looks like miniature boils now, boils and cyst with puss. Do I have a right to be obsessed about this? DAMN right I do.

CO2 Laser Resurfacing 2

Its almost a month or more since I last undergo a procedure called CO2 Laser Resurfacing. This is the result. The picture on the left is before and the picture on the right is after the procedure

I was more concerned with the large pigmentation on my right cheek as seen in the second picture. I blame it on my poor blackberry camera for the before photos and the 5megapixle Nokia after photos. I can see that pigmentation on my right cheek has been reduce significantly in size and colour. Its also less noticeable now. For my acne scars, some of it has improved especially the dent on my fore head. However, most of the noticeable result is gone, because I kept having more acne on my face which created newer scars. In general, I do feel the skin is more refined despite the onslaught of acne. I noticed that the bumps on my nose due to blackheads is almost unnoticeable to my eyes. Even my pores seemed smaller now.

Would I do it again? If I had the money I would definitely try to erase as much scars on my face as I can. I just have to control my acne now.

2 weeks

Around 2 weeks ago, I suddenly had a major acne break out. I did not change my diet, not did I change my skin regime, in fact I even doubled it after I started to follow my friend doing facials. The lady that does my face told me, I had a lot of blackheads, so I set up in a battle to control it. It was perfectly fine actually, I loved that my nose is no longer bumpy, but one thing she complained about my skin is that, although its free from acne, my face is quite oily and even though she already done the extraction, it seemed to come back after a week. Actually I think within 3 days my blackheads are back. Everything was quite okay, until I had 3 days of self induced stress which I tried to overcome by listening to music, doing work and going at the gym like crazy. It worked, since I was able to overcome the problem but 2 days after I thought I solved everything, I started to break out, and it got worse by each day. When I went back to the salon, she was so surprised my face is breaking out all of the sudden. She got her guns out and started to work on my face throughly. She scrubbed twice to remove all the oil off my face, and now the extraction process included to remove the acne that is hidden in my skin. It was a really painfull extraction process but it had to be done. As usual my blackhead extraction was also painfull. Then she did something new, she said, she had to use this toner, that will sting a lot but will help with my acute onset of acne. She was being honest, it stings like hell.

My face felt like it was on fire, I actually cringe in pain. It was so shocking that the toner actually hurts more that the extraction process. At the end of the process my face was swollen a bit and there were marks of all the acne that was extracted. She told me to get a cleanser for my skin so that it will be less oily. I finally gave in and bought it. Actually it was a pretty good cleanser, it made my face felt really clean. better than Neutrogena Deep Cleans foam. I am stopping all of my lotions for a while I just want my skin to be as less oily as possible. My last facial was so painfull, I felt very tired from the pain and slept early that day.

At 27, my acne came back with a vengence. Its going to be a long recovery, just like when I had my first break out at 13. Bring it acne,  I will take your sudden appearence and I will destroy you

My First Facial

My face looks red but strangely smooth. It reminds me of a sunburn, however when I get a sunburn, I will become darker, and more red. However this was not the result of a sunburn. Instead this was the result of my first ever facial. DAMN IT HURTS. Actually it started out pretty well, they apply this cleanser and then this rough textured cleanser (scrub). After than they apply this cream or something and start to massage your face. That massage felt really good. Then HELL BREAKS LOOSE. They said, they were going to treat my blackheads. I thought my blackheads was on my nose only. WRONG!!!! I got so many blackheads all over my face. The lady in charge said, I have a relatively clear face but I have a lot of blackheads at the sinus areas, which is all the area near my nose such as the cheeks, the chin and the between my eyes. If you look closely, you will how red those areas are. The areas were red because they had to manually remove the blackheads using this tool

These are a few tools for removing blackheads and whiteheads. They take the round noose shape end and dig through your skin to remove it. It hurt like hell because I don't ever prod or poke my face. The torture lasted a  for like 30 minutes. By the end of 30 minutes I was ready to give up on the pain. I did not scream but I kept quiet but tears were flowing down my face. The lady took charge and took almost every blackhead. I think she did, she never stopped and I never asked her too, although I almost did. She only said the same thing my dentist said "tahan siket yer" (hold on okay). I was so glad the torture was over, because the next thing they did was to place a mask on top and then let you chill for like 15 minutes or something. I woke up to find swollen and red skin :( However, the skin was smoother.

I admit I did saw black spots at the areas that she poked and prod, but I ignored them. She did took all the blackheads out I think. She showed me the gunk that came out of my face. My face felt tender and raw afterwards. It was definitely an experienced that everybody should do. My friend, who never told me, he has done this before, said its perfectly normal to feel pain during your first extraction, but after a while, there will be less extraction needed. My skin does feel smoother and soft actually despite the redness.

Will I do it again? Why not, if I have the time and money. However it makes me wonder, if I do choose to do an all over body spa thing, will it hurt like a facial? Erghh.. scary

Absolutely Positively Takde Keje Lain

This post is so vain, if you could raised one eye brow, you would too. I just gotten a haircut, and its always a bit different everytime I get it but its always being done according to my taste. Something simple as keeping the side and back very short and cutting the crown with a layering scissors, make simple "crew cut", just a bit different. Heck, I am all about crew cuts, is the only hair style I like to have and maintain. My sideburn is back, after it was accidentally shaven off, due to my mistake of being trimmer happy (always used the guard with the trimmer ALWAYS). A sideburn is very important, it frames the face nicely, and keeps its from going roundish, if you are chubby like me with a chubby face. Another that suddenly appear is the black patch on my right cheek, the side burn seem to hide it or camoflauge it. Weird... Another nice thing, my contact lenses did not cause my eyes to be red at the end of the day. This problem is further augmentated that I have coloured lenses. I just can't stop liking my Geo lenses Magic Color 3 tone lenses. It looks grey, green and brown at certain times of day, almost like how a friend of a friend who has naturally hazel eye, and he is 100% Malay. WICKED!!! How about blemish free skin, and shine free skin. Perhaps is the mild weather today and that I washed my face with water a few hours ago, and that I finally found a sunblock that is not greasy. Sadly, the sunblock is no longer sold in Malaysia, or at least at every god damn pharmacy I went in. Too bad I got a facial hair above my lips that looks like adolescent boy or girl, which has to be shaven off because its looks damn ridiculous. I don't it grew anymore than it did when I was 12. Eh.. can't have everything right..

*although everything seem to fall apart, other things seem to come together....

Maximum Strength

Ah yes, Oxy, the medication most of us have heard, seen or used. Its our favorite acne creams for many years now. Why is that? because benzoyl peroxide is one the best medication for acne and has countless of research backing it. However some people do divert from using it because benzoyl peroxide dries the skin out, sometimes so drying it makes your skin peel. Some people divert using it because they heard stories about your skin peeling.

Oxy is very safe and recommended by many dermatologist. Its unscented and has no colorant, this two are one of key agents of skin sensitivity. So if your skin does feel irritated, you might want to seek something with out these two ingredients.

Benzoyl peroxide comes in many strengths. Oxy comes in 5% and 10%, if you seek your drugstore, Watson, Guardian, or Caring, you can find 2.5 % benzoyl peroxide from another brand. Last time I did find Neutrogena carrying a 2.5% benzoyl peroxide concentration.

If you find 5% too strong for you, as in makes your skin overly dry, try getting the 2.5%. If you can tolerate 5% but want something stronger use the 10%. Dermatologist carries and even higher concentration but only under prescription.

According to the directions, you try putting it on once a day, and if there is no problem continue with putting it on twice a day after you washed your face. If you do feel its drying, use it under your favorite face cream.

Warning, benzoyl peroxide bleaches clothes and hair. So be careful when using it while wearing a very expensive shirt. I learned it the hard way... :(

*another secret, some people with oily skin use the 2.55 or 5% concentration all over their face to reduce oil production because that is what exactly the product do, but beware, when you do sweat, the benzoyl peroxide can stain your clothes..

**at 26, I still have one or two acne pop out time to time.

Twilight Saga - New Moon (How to become one)

First of all, I have to say, the crowd at Pavillion on the Eve of Aidil Adha/Raya Haji was INSANE. There were so many people, like I have never seen this much crowd before. It helps that Friday was a public holiday and Thursday was the premier of the New Moon movie in Malaysia, although some had watched on Wednesday night. It was packed to the brim.

The twilight series had a strong following, some even called it a cult (Miley Cyrus apparently hates Twilight and calls its fans a cult, wait.. so doesn't she have die hard fans who worship her totally..hmm I sense jealousy). Girls are practically worshipping Edward and now Jacob. Most guys in Malaysia can look like Jacob. You just have to cut your hair short like Jacobs, his already black, and you just need a bit of gel to shine it up a bit. Make sure you are clean shaven, and oh yes. get a trainer, hit the gym and diet like crazy. It took Taylor Lautner less than a year, to transform himself from slim to ripped. He has the same problems most skinny guys have, which was not being able to gain enough weight. (Bastards...). However with lost of weight training and kilos worth of protein shake, now you can have that same oooh, ahhh and giggles that girls and some guys (regardless of sexual orientation, most guys are amazed with another man's incredibly buff body). You can also be like Edward, just stay out of the sun or use Loreal Mens Expert White Activ range, to be as fair as you can be, then dye your head in a bronze colour, and use pomade for the messy look. You also must have the car, you can either get the Volvo C40 like what Edward had in the first film or get the Volvo XC60.

Whiter skin with Loreal Men's Expert White Activ

Freshlook Colourblends in Honey for that I just drank a whole cow's blood look.

Volvo C30 that retails at RM 215,500.00

Volvo XC60 T6 LE that retails at RM 360,000.00

No wonder girls love him so much. He has great skin, great eyes, very protective, very loving, has a nice car, and loyal to you for the rest of eternity. Gee.. you can get all of that except for the last part..

Smooth and Soft

I have a love hate relationships with lotions and creams. I love when used on my face to treat acne, to even out the colours of the skin, to prevent skin darkening, to prevent burning and to prevent skin cancer depending of the type of cream and lotion you buy. Its something I do religiously after every time I take a shower since I was 12. Lotion on other parts of the body is the hate part of the relationships. I just like to put it on my hands, feet and body. Lotions and creams as you know are greasy, even though they say its not greasy, its going to be greasy the first 15 minutes, and if you do sweat, or get contact with water, you can feel the lotion seeping out of your skin and making it more greasy. I feel I do get 8 glasses of water each day but certain parts of my body looks like the dessert. On my hands, the sides of the nails gets chapped and dry, which will puncture and rip the latex glove that I need to use everyday. The sole of my feet dry so badly, it becomes hard, chapped and thick, sometimes its so chapped its like an open wound, and it hurts when I walk. It also traps dirt which worsen the condition. My elbows, knees, knuckles and ankles, are black due to accumulation of melanin and dry because of I don't know why. Since I washed my hands more frequently now, since I work in the lab, the sides of the nails gets chapped even more, which requires me to carry a bottle of lotion with me to the lab. I have to apply cream to the sole of my feet or it would cracked up to a wound. I feel like the Tin Man, from Wizard of OZ from having to grease my joints. Putting lotion on your face is different, because once you put it on, you don't touch your face nor do you pressed your face on objects. If I put lotion on my hands and feet, I need at least 10 minutes for myself, to not touch anythings, or it will leave a greasy mark and at least 1 hour before I can touch liquids. Ergh.. the results are nice with smooth soft skin, but the treatment is so bad and its for the rest of my life. I just can't see my skin getting oily as my face and scalp. I guess all the moisture from my hands, feet and joints goes to my face and scalp, because the face and scalp are the two things that get oily easily.

Quality ingredients has its price, the white bottle, Paula's Choice Body Lotion with 10% alpha hydroxy is RM90 for a 237 ml bottle, packed with antioxidants and soothing ingredients, while the Nivea Body Intensive Milk retails at RM 2.90 for 75ml bottle, is a basic moisturizer that, well does a basic job. As I am writing this, I am waiting for the lotion to fully absorb. Now I have baby smooth hands, but greasy...

Finished

Yes, finished. I finished a bottle of lotion. Yeah sounds kinda lame or kinda suspicious depending on your state of mind, this is because I seem to loose the bottle of lotion or threw it out because I haven't used it for 2 years. I am just lazy to apply it on my body and feet, because its too greasy or I totally forgotten about it. Unlike my face, which is something I don't event ouch normally. Besides you never feel dry on your feet or body, but always on the face. I guess this why the skin condition on my face is much2 better than the rest of my skin. I have to changed that, a dear friend did say, if you take good care of your feet, the effect will manifest itself right to your the tip of your hair. I been doing it all wrong, I focused more on my scalp and my face than my feet. Hmm, I wonder if there is actually proof in this. However my friend did point out, if you see people with nice shoes, 9 out of 10 they look great as a whole. Same thing with people with a nice lawn/yard/garage/porch/balcony. If they could spend money to make the outside of the house look nice, the inside must even be better.

Underneath Your Clothes, There Is A Different Story.

I hate sweaty arm pits. I hate it when I can actually feel the sweat trickling down my arm. A damp pit on your shirt is not very appealing to many. It kinda ruins your whole look that you do. One cannot be like the Hollywood stars and get botox injection to your armpits. Apparently other than wrinkles, it works great to prevent excessive sweating. However its too expensive and I am not sure having a needle jab into my arm pit. What's worst that is that sweaty arm pits can cause B.O.

There is nothing worst like body odor or known as B.O to some. It ruins job interviews, failed relationships, causes panic and increases anger level. Exaggerating? I think most of us has experienced how B.O can really make your day turn sour. What does one do? Do we have to become mouth breather, practice holding our breath as long as possible, or spray some perfume and that god forsaken pits. Don't confuse this with natural body smell. Some people do smell naturally good, blame the pheromones for this unique scent that is present in everyone.

These two problem related with each other and can cause discomfort to the person and those around them. Sure there is deodorant and anti perspirant in the market, but sometimes certain brands or certain application of deodorant do not work well on others.

My brother has terrible anti perpirant problem. He gets so sweaty and wet, it turned into the most horrific and foul smelly B.O. He tries to wear deodorant from all brands and type but none of it worked well enough for him. Somehow along the way, we noticed he stopped smelling foul and is dry enough for us to touch. He told us his secret. He uses a Speedstick Anti Perspirant and Deodorant and a Nivea Dry Impact for Men. He claims this was the combination to stop him from sweating. A stick type deodorant that is then covered by a spray type. I did not really believe his combination until I tried it myself. However, I used a Rexona Roll On deodorant and Nivea Dry Impact combination. The result, my underarms were dry. They usually get wet easily even by the slightest sweating, but not when I used the combination. It was a pleasant surprise for my self. Maybe some of you may think that the Nivea spray deodorant is the reason for the dryness, but I used the spray before and did not like how the vapours enter my nose. So I do believe both combination provided an excellent protection and coverage to me.

A friend of mine has this terrible B.O problem, but so far we did not pin point it to excessive sweating. Since his underarms were relatively dry. So it has to be B.O. A blogger friend of mine swears that using Nivea Whitening for women has cured his problem. It sounded strange, but it worked for him. So I decided to try and recommended it to my friend with the B.O problem. He hesitated at first but after I told him he really did stink and before this I did not had the guts to talk about it to him but after he said his girlfriend sometime complain that he does, I straight away spilled the beans to him and he gave in. The results? It really worked, Nivea Whitening roll on work to combat B.O. Now I don't have to open the windows when he rides in my car.
Note, this is not a advertisement for the products mention above (I love to, but I don't think the company likes me mix matching their products and other company's products together)

A Clean and Smooth Act

I can get really messy with all my toiletries set. I used to chuck it all in the closet and end up mixing my clothes and the toiletries together which result them in falling out of my closet all together. Hair, face, body, perfume, deodorant and etc all together crammed in many places, I decided it was enough and I desperately needed to clean up my act.

There, everything in place, outside the closet and within personal reach. Do you think this picture looks familiar?

Hik2, I guess it does since it reminded me of my sister organized mess in compartments. Generally we have the same but not similar stuff such as sunblock, lotion, perfume and deodorant. However she wears make up, I don't hence less brushes and other make up tools.

I use a variety of lotion everyday. It was ingrained in my self when I was little when my mother and sister would tell me to put a lotion on because my skin was dry or oily or patchy or whatever the reason maybe. I am usually very diligent when putting on face lotion but usually ignored the rest of my skin. However things changed a bit and I do need to take care of other areas of my skin other than my face. I found a really good body lotion with 10% alpha hydroxy acid, which is said good to exfoliate skin to reveal newer healthier skin. This lotion is great to help treat acne, dry skin or any rough patches. Sunscreen is very important. Other than preventing skin cancer, it also prevent early signs of wrinkles. I been using a variety of sunscreen every since I put lotion on my face. Maybe that is why some people say I look a bit young for my age :p. This waterproof sunscreen from Banana Boat is light but I read in an article that it does not contained enough UV blocking properties. Oh well might as well finished this first before I get a better quality ones. I really like this scalp lotion by Sunsilk to treat my dandruff because of the light texture and fragrance. It works wonders on days where I forgot to shampoo my hair by calming down the itch. Scholl's Foot Therapy is just one of many foot creams I tried to treat my thick, dry, callous soles. I really have to be diligent using this cream and sometimes it gets tiring. Hehehe I do find tanning un attractive (but so do most Malaysians :p) so I try to delay the tanning (skin darkening) process by using a Brightening cream. It was said it helps to delay the melanin production that adds the tan (colour) to the skin. So far its okay, I mean unlike the commercials I won't get better jobs, or get to know someone or get lucky but it does makes your skin look glowy. Finally OXY (benzoyl peroxide), the best treatment for acne backed by many medical journals. Some people are allergic to it and some will experienced that benzoyl peroxide is very drying. So far I have no problems with OXY since it prevents my skin from being oily but it does bleach my shirts since OXY may stained or bleached fabric. So I end up using it at night. I know this is a lot of stuff for a guy but then its better to be educated about this than living in the dark..