I am officially a BB cream convert now. In fact, I stumbled upon BB cream by accident. I have heard of a lot of comments and raves about it but it never made me budge, I do read beauty blogs religiously everyday.

My skin has always been a pain to maintain, I had perfect skin for a brief period last year after my chicken pox which miraculously made my skin glow!

And it was mid last year when my dad was diagnosed with cancer that I forgot what was it like to have good skin. I neglected it and it took it’s toll so now I’m left with marks and scars on my face as the result of neglecting my skincare routine. However, it’s been better now since I started picking up myself and give proper attention to myself!

As my skin was healing slow, and I mean really slowly, my usual Artistry SPF 50++ sunblock started  becoming too oily for my face, and I was using Dr. Renaud’s Intervention skincare to combat my acne and dehydrated skin. It was healing slowly but my skin would be oily on the outside and dry on the outside, so it’s constantly clogged, causing me a lot of pain! I was so self conscious at that time that I had to pile on the concealer on my marks and constantly blot to prevent my face from becoming a disco ball!

It was after my sister-in-law who was in Malaysia for two months left, that I was cleaning the guest room where I found 2 packets of BB cream samples. It was ORIKS Magic BB cream.

I went online to search for reviews about it but to no avail, none for this brand. However I found tons of review for brands like Misha, Skin79 and so on and the reviews were pretty good so I went to think, this BB cream couldn’t be that bad for me. I tried it on the next day, incorporating it onto my make up replacing the tinted sunblock that I always use and the name magic was totally apt for this bb cream because my face wasn’t oily! Well yea it would get a little oily while I was walking out to lunch with my colleagues but other than that, it wasn’t a big matter at all.

I was sold with this product on the first try, however I’m very particular about sun protection and this product doesn’t have a sun protection factor. So I went home and ask my mum about this BB cream and she told me that my sister-in-law uses it and she could purchase it for me in Taiwan. But if I were to wait for her to bring it over to me, it would take at least 4 months which I couldn’t wait so I began to search for a local seller and I found that ORIKS has an outlet in Sungei Wang, KL. So I sent Hugo to buy two BB creams for me, one Magic BB cream for night/dinner use and one Sun BB cream for everyday use.

It costs RM138 per bottle so these two costed RM276, which is really expensive! But I couldn’t care less because I needed to use it. And this will be my last time buying it in Malaysia because I went on to ask my sister-in-law about the price of this BB cream in Taiwan and I got scolded.

It only costs RM99 for a bottle in Taiwan and they are always sold in sets with other things like cleansers, loose powders and even buy 1 free 1 promotions.

And that was when last month, during my Taiwan trip that I stocked up my BB cream stash by purchasing it from Momo, it’s an online shopping portal in Taiwan and they even have their very own shopping channel!

I bought two sets of each BB cream; the Magic BB cream had a buy 1 free 1 promotion and they even threw in a free cleanser and a special makeup palette (which I gave it away to Hugo’s mum) for me. I also bought the Sun BB cream which is also buy 1 free 1 and it comes with a free mascara, a rose scented loose powder, a free cleanser! And for both sets, it costs less than RM300! And to think that I bought only two bottles of BB cream in KL for RM276.

I even bought my very much craved for Guerlain Meteorites in Mythic for only RM119! I was actually planning to buy it in the airport but the price on Momo was way cheaper. I couldn’t pass out on that offer. Will review about that in future.

Normal day look: Magic & Sun BB cream (blended), Rimmel Ivory Concealer, Guerlain Meteorites Mythic Powder, Carmex Strawberry Lip Balm, Estee Lauder Black Brow Pencil, Artistry Medium Brown Brow Pencil, Majolica Majorca Black Perfect Automatic Liner and H&M blush in Sunny Apricot.

Back to the BB cream, I use both Magic and Sun everyday and I like to blend them together because the Magic BB cream is perfect for my skin, it’s not thick and it gives an even coverage on my fair skin (it does not make me look orange!) but it’s missing the SPF hence that’s where the Sun BB cream comes in. After my toner and moisturiser, I’ll apply the Magic BB cream to the entire face and then blend in a small dot of the Sun BB cream and finish it with concealer and dust of my Meteorites powder.

I’m looking forward to my next Taiwan trip because I didn’t have time to scour all the beauty products that are available in Taiwan. I only managed to ransack Watson’s and I only stocked up on my Majolica Majorca items.

♥ Wendy

Day 2 in Taiwan began a little late, partially because we were so tired from traveling the day before and partially because my brother and sister-in-law aren’t exactly morning people. We woke up, showered and fed Stella her milk before we head out for our brunch.

And the weather was so HOT! Seriously for you people who are planning to go to Taiwan during summer, make sure you bring an umbrella or buy an umbrella! You will definitely need it because the sun sears your skin!

In a matter of a minute, whereby I was carrying Stella down from 6th floor in the elevator to the car, I was already sweating buckets. It was really really that hot.

We headed to somewhere nearby our place, it was a fast brunch for us as we are about the have a long drive to Kenting National Park. We were at Paddy Aurae, a Taiwanese version of fast-food, was supposed to head to Dolik for breakfast but we were rush for time. Anyhow, I ordered a bowl of pork meat plus floss and pickled vegetables served with rice and a bowl of white fish meat soup that costs 60TWD for both! Seriously it’s a cheap meal, there’s fish!

It was nice, will definitely have it again when I have the chance.

One thing about Taiwan architecture, the buildings are mostly tiled. Like 98% out of the buildings are tiled, as opposed to Malaysian buildings whereby it’s all just painted.

After our quickie brunch, we headed down to Kenting National Park and on the way there, we detoured to Pingtung and my brother decided to randomly drive around since he’s never been in that area before. We didn’t know where we were so we scoured to using Googlemap’s to help our navigation.

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I have had black hair all my life. I never dyed, permed nor had any crazy stuff done to my precious locks other than getting a temporary perm for a photoshoot 2 years ago.

this was taken in 2006, my first semester in my diploma days

I’ve had short hair for the past few years, because I kept cutting it and maintaining at a bob’s length, it was only 2 years back that I began letting my hair grow and trimming it twice a year. And now my hair is chest length and I plan to let it grow longer.

So yea, currently my hair is really long and I’ve been religiously using Clairol Herbal Essence’s Smooth Weighty Shampoo and Conditioner together with Liese’s Juicy Shower, Designing Jelly and Hair Cocktail to maintain my long locks. Yes, having long hair means a lot of maintenance because if you have long hair that looks bad, it really looks bad. disheveled is not a look that I like. I like my hair neat, clean and healthy!

I have been tempting to do something drastic with my hair for quite some time, I was thinking getting a perm or dye or both. But I think, better start slow for now. So again I went back to Liese’s products and I purchased the Bubble Hair Colour in Chestnut Brown.

As a greenhorn in hair dyeing, it wasn’t that hard to use!

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I was craving for some soup and I ransacked my kitchen to only find a few measly items available. Luckily I still have my bacon leftovers from my salad and breakfast meal so I figured why not use it? So with the onions that I have in my kitchen, I decided to make a simple Bacon Onion soup for dinner and the soup alone isn’t very filling so I made some super easy Cheese toasts along.

You will need; bacon (depending on the amount you like), Yellow big onions ( 2-3 depending on preference), butter or olive oil (I used olive oil because it’s healthier ), chicken stock (I used the cubes – 1 is enough mixed with water), salt & pepper for seasoning. For the cheese toasts, just place a slice of cheese between two slices of bread and put in the sandwich maker for about 3 minutes.

Firstly, I heated up the olive oil and fried the bacon (shredded into bits) until it’s fragrant, adding in the onion and fry until it becomes transparent and softened. Once the onion is clear, add in the chicken stock and boil for 30 minutes. Season with salt & pepper, serve with Cheese toasts.

Now isn’t this a quick comforting meal.

♥ Wendy

This particular recipe intrigued me while I was watching Michael Smith on Chef At Home I like it’s simplicity and how earthy it tasted! Plus quinoa is really healthy!

You will need; one (Japanese) cucumber – taste better and crunchier!, one grated carrot, one slice of ham shredded, one lemon – juiced and zested, quinoa – boiled with double parts of water, adequate amount of olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. (I personally like a lot of pepper because it make the dish smell so great!)

It’s really easy to make; boil 1 cup quinoa with 2 cups of water like how you’d boil rice then once it’s done just mix it with chopped tomatoes, zucchinis, carrot, corn kernels, onions and splash a generous amount of olive oil and for the final touches just grate some lemon zest and juice from half a lemon with salt and pepper to taste.

Serves two or three.  It tastes so so so good

♥ Wendy