Simple DIY Mask for sensitive skin

My skin has been breaking out nonstop for a few months now, aside from acne, there are acne scars, redness and magnified pores. :(

It's getting better gradually and I'm doing my best to eat clean, drinking more water and just treating my skin like they're the most fragile things on earth. It's so hard to leave home without concealing my acne. I know I'm just rubbing salt on my wound but I feel incredibly self-conscious if I head out without concealing my acne. I do leave home without concealing my acne on good days but those good days are hard to come by, until I gave this super simple DIY homemade mask a go. It instantly reduce the redness of my skin after leaving it on for 15 minutes before rinsing. I am honestly not sure if it will work for everyone, but the fact that both ingredients are natural, I'd say give it a go. 

That's really all you need. Just one table spoon of fresh yoghurt, and half a spoon of pure honey and voila! 

You could make a bigger portion according to ratio and keep it refrigerated for up to 3 days but I am not a big fan of storing these natural darlings as I think it works best when it is fresh. 

The Gap

This post is a little serious to what I normally blog about, but I need to let it out.

When I say the gap, I am actually talking about the gap year that I have been on right after my pre-u (Grade 12) studies in June 2012. One thing that never fails to baffle me is the amount of people who give me the disbelief look when I say I'm taking a gap year off. What is wrong with Malaysians (or Asians in general) thinking that the faster you complete your undergraduate degree the sooner you'll succeed. I absolutely hate this mentality. Unless I am doing absolutely nothing to be a better person, taking a gap year off means I'm doing things, part time jobs, internships, volunteering, personal development and growth. In short, taking a gap year off means I'm figuring out who I really am or who I want to be before spending my parent's hard-earned money on an undergraduate degree that I might be doing just for the sake of doing it. I'd rather take a gap year off to find out where my passion lies than go straight to uni, get a degree that I'm not even sure why, get a job relating to my degree and potentially hating my job for the rest of my life. If you take a look around Malaysia, 1 out of 1000 (maybe 100000) students take a gap year off after SPM/STPM/Pre-U, most of the time it's the parents that pressures the children to continue their studies immediately and sometimes its the children themselves who are afraid of being left behind when their friends have all moved on to this thing called university that seems oh-so-amazing. Well, my dear, I do think its more rewarding when you take a gap year off to find out who/what you wanna be before enrolling into uni and when you enter uni, you'll be the one ahead with a clear direction in mind.

I'll be blogging about something very personal after this. It's basically why/how I ended up taking a gap year off and also a post to inform everyone my whereabouts. It's a little sad how some friends still say "How's Canada?"

Stay tuned.

bed hair, undone, imperfect but always trying.

Operation Healthy

It has been quite a long while since I last played tennis. It's not easy to maneuver around to find a good location for tennis nor do I have friends around this area who plays tennis regularly. It's no surprise that I miss tennis but really, unless I find a friend in damansara who's willing to pick me up for tennis, I'll have to leave tennis to weekends when I'm back in Klang.

So I ate really healthily and exercised regularly to get back in shape and for my general health, but just like many others, my operation healthy came to. Long haunt after Chinese New Year. I mean c'mon, pineapple tarts, peanut cookies, oh and dont get me started on em Chinese food! it has been really hard getting back to healthily as I have been eating out almost everyday thanks to my amazing friends who never stopped bringing me to places with food that make my knees go weak. I have enough self control to choose not to hang out with them, but I'm hanging out with them so often now because they are all leaving to different continents soon. :( (when will the brain drain issue in Malaysia stop?) I have to say my willpower is shattered whenever I enter a restaurant. So weak. Oh well.

BUTTTTTTTTTTT, IM GIVING MY HEALTHY LIFESTYLE ANOTHER KICKSTART. I AIN'T GIVING UP.

So today was a pretty good start, started my day with mommy-baked rye bread, an egg, cherry tomatoes and arugula.

And with all my might, rejected a colleagues offer for a super yummy Asian lunch for some simply grilled salmon bone and salad, made by my sister, Christie. Despite not being able to get me some Asian, lunch was pretty darn good.
Eat your greens!

And I cheated a little for dinner, cause I was so caught up with work I didn't have time to make my smoothie, I had some rocky road bar from Plan B which didn't taste good to be honest. But that's a good thing since I ate only a few piece, I would have engulf the whole thing if it was good.

Aside from eating healthily, I should probably start sleeping earlier too. And obviously that is not happening today......so good night!

Being loud

Chinese new year really is the time of bright and loud colours and to be honest, I have never been the sort of girl who wears colours that attract unnecessary attention, until we decided to get this gorgeous pink blazer from H&M that was on sales.

I think it turned out pretty nicely, and it was nice to have a breathe if colors to welcome spring.

On a side note, I really do need to get a camera soon as my Canon is officially broken. :(

Spontaneity

Cooking is very much personal. Christie and I try out recipes often but what we do on a daily basis is just cooking and throwing in whatever we like into the pot. This habit of ours to just randomly create dishes from scratch with whatever we already have in our fridge and with no guidance can often lead to a gastronomic disaster and sometimes the opposite. Okay, I was exaggerating, my definition of disaster meant an edible crinkled tasteless piece of chicken breast.

On days where our mana point for culinary superpowers is sufficient, things like this happens.

A really simple, tasteful creamy mushroom pasta topped with alfafa, chili flakes, dash of lemon juice, salt, pepper and a couple more ingredients that I cannot remember for the love of bacon.

We really need to start making it a habit to write down the recipe. It's easier said than done when it's spontaneous cooking.