Skin Care Journey: Products

What's left of my Retin-A



New Night time face wash - my brother gave this to me, I use it to take off my make up.



Mandelic acid toner I accidentally bought



DHC face brush

Skin Care Journey: Sorry about the radio silence/Mandelic acid+Retin-A

I haven't been updating the skin care aspect of this blog because frankly there was not much to say. I was mauling over getting mandelic acid and trying to get the face brush all of which has been discussed here in the past.


I ordered the brush from ebay and it came yesterday. It is the DHC face brush, they are infamous for their face oil. It is a pretty interesting face brush with very soft bristles on the inside and harder ones on the outside. Because of the harder bristles you can't scrub too hard else you will end scratching your skin raw and bleeding. I used it at night to take off left over make up and I'm surprised how much stuff is left over after taking my make up off with the wipes.


I ****ed up! I accidentally ordered the Mandelic acid toner instead of the face peel.I'm undecided as to where to go from here - should I order the peel as well and use that with the toner? would that be too abrasive for my skin? I'll decide that within the next 24 hours so I can order asap and kick this off. I know people have been finding my blog because of the promise of info on the Mandelic acid+Retin-A combination and I hate to let people down. so, I'm going to attempt to be a guinea pig for the cause. 


My skin as it stands at the moment.











I know it looks bad, but this is better than where I started. It is becoming harder to take pictures of the spots - which is a good thing. The main problem is the texture of my skin which I'm hoping the mandelic acid should solve. 

I went to see Big Boi

A week ago, my friend won tickets to see a Big Boi gig and was nice enough to invite me along. It was amazing to say the least! The set was a mixture of OLD outkast stuff and his solo material. He was totally live and full of energy and I loved every minute of it. But, after seeing his glasto gig, I feel a bit short changed because he had a live band on stage with him while all we got was a D playing the backing instrumentals. 


Pictures from the gig all taken on my Sony Ericsson Arc....

CocknBullKid & Eliza Doolittle - Bills Bills Bills (Destiny's Child cover)

I've previously talked about my love of cocknbull kid and posted one of her songs as part of my free music download post. Her new album is out and I haven't heard it but, I wasn't impressed by the remedial song writing in the snipets I heard. And Eliza Doolitttle's music doesn't move me in anyway. That said, I do think this is an interesting take on the Destiny's child classic. 

What I think about when I think about running

For the past couple of weeks the universe has been telling me to run. Only yesterday, I had the line from Pink's Just like a Pill stuck in my head ...."Where I can run, just as fast as I can. To the middle of nowhere, to the middle of my frustrated fears”. I'm reading "Are You There Vodka, it's me Chelsea" and in it she has a chapter about taking a kick boxing class and getting jumped. I get home and my sister asks me to go running with her...The universe is telling me to run! 

On Saturday morning, I wake up at 6:40 or 6:50 as the 10 minutes fast clock in my bedroom tells me it is. Not only am I unusually perky because as most people know I am a sour bitch in the morning and only communicate through sign language. I am also in the mood for a run. I brush my teeth and head down stairs to clear all the Randy Newman and Miranda Lambert off my mp3 player and put some stuff I can actually run to.  I do a search and find the Workout Mix CD I downloaded the first time the universe asked me to run, I didn't listen that time. I throw in a couple of Bloc Party songs and head out. 

I only just stepped outside when I face my first hurdle (i always believed I would have made a great hurdles runner, but my secondary school had no hurdles). I am standing outside with a bottle of water, a huge bunch of keys, phone (to time my run with runstar or to call 999 when I pass out), MP3 player, credit card, cash, Tesco shopping list...how the fuck do other runners manage to go runing with nothing but an MP3 player? I decide to leave my key behind and hide it behind a bottle of water obviously no stranger would pass by and see through the slender see-through bottle. 

I hit play on my MP3 player some song I'm too uncool to have ever heard was playing and I run down to flights of stairs. I get downstairs and I feel like my hands are going numb, I'm convinced I'm in the early stages of an heart attack - do I go back home and admit defeat or do I carry on running? I choose the stupid thing to do and run as fast as I can to the middle of my frustrated fears. 

I run a couple of yards and I'm smiling, I feel good, I'm grooving along to the music and totally forgotten about the numbness in my hands. I head for a park so I can sit and catch my breath – it is closed, damn! Why do bad things happen to good people like me? I carry on running and I pass by strangers that I totally want to impress with my running, but I am two songs in and frankly I am running out of breath. I am starting to run like an old lady and I could feel people giving me weird looks. I head for a quiet road and stop to "program my runstar and MP 3 player".

Programing my runstar and MP 3 player is what I tell myself I am doing when in fact I'm really having a rest. I stand there and scan through some songs; I am going to stand here for as long as it takes to resume breathing normally. I find that Sonique song at the same time some stranger starts walking towards me - someone new to impress. I start to run as fast as I can...to the bus stop! because my hands are going numb again, I am pretty sure I am having a stroke and a heart attack and I feel like pucking and I have a stitch ...FML, why do bad things happen to good people like me?

I couldn't have timed my dash for the bus stop more wrongly; a bus was heading for the bus stop at the same time and for the first time ever a bus driver stopped for someone running towards it. All I want to do was rest my arse now this driver was waiting for me. Do I look at that bad? I know I can't lift my head and if you look up "flailing" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of me there, but that is kind of cute, right? I briefly consider taking the bus one stop so I'm closer to my house. I decide to sit at the bus stop and the driver gives up and moves.

I sit at the bus stop and this time actually "program my runstar and MP 3 player" apparently, I have been running for 8 minutes - 8 whole fucking minutes! Including all the time I spent earlier "programming my runstar and MP 3 player". I decide to run seriously, I actually program my runstar to use GPS, and all that fancy shit. I put on Bloc Party's Mecury, in retrospect "The Prayer" would have been a better choice .And I start to run, this time is going be the one, I'm going to run like those "other people" with so much focus and determination, I am going to kick arse!

I run right into a man and his yappy little dog! Why do bad things happen to good people like me? The dog chases me for bit, chase is probably an exaggeration, it's short little legs are no match for my old lady running skills and luckily the owner grabbed it just in time for me to realise that I'm lost. I find myself in one of the hackney hipster back streets I normally would not dare to enter. I start to recognise where I am and realise I had driven past there during my driving lessons. I turn left and head for home or Tesco whichever one I get to before my heart gives in.

I stop at a zebra crossing to "program my runstar and MP 3 player". I skip a bunch of sings and find Rihanna's only girl In the World, it is the followed by Salt n Pepa's Push it..."perfect, I'll listen to this as I run towards Tesco". 

I run to Tesco and by the time I get there, Rihanna is still playing, I check my time on the Runstar - 5:35, 0.7km. At this point, I am totally delirious and have no idea what this means.

I enter Tesco and Salt and Pepa comes on, I dance to Push it, in the World Food aisle, I do my shopping and leave.

On the way home I convince myself that lifting shopping bags is the same as weight lifting.

Adding this to my "Break up playlist!"

Lee Ann Womack - Ashes By Now by Lee-Ann-Womack

I'm so excited my country funk is coming to an end with the release of  Ben harper's new album.  I'm still on the look out for that one album that I will listen to the heck out of this year.

Skin Care Journey: Peels, Scrubs and 3 months later

So, I've spent the past 2 weeks or so taking stock of my skin, where it stands and what I want to improve. My major headache at the moment is the texture. I am not really sure what is wrong with it, but my make up wasn't going on as nicely as it used to and I can land space ships in my pores. My Burts Bees toner doesn't seem to be helping and I am thinking of changing back to the Glycerine and Rose water toner I bought from boots.



check out those holes and little black dots!  I burst a couple and they were full of pus - yuck! 


 I took a really close look at my skin and noticed I have clogged pores around my nose and under my eyes. I also have lots of little pimples (what is that about?). I remember when I used to use peels about 2 years ago my skin was quite smooth. I bought my peel from an ebay shop (http://shop.ebay.co.uk/forever-young2007). I have had a good experience her peels, I emailed her to see if I could use the mandelic acid with my retin-a regimen. And she said,

It is hard to say. I would never recommend using a standard peel strength solution with tretinoin. 

But the Alpha-bright is very mild by comparison. Just 5% Mandelic by volume and weight. 

There is school of thought that suggests mild peels with Retinyl (std Vitamin A) 

can work really well so there isn't an obvious conflict between Vitamin A products

 and alpha hydroxy acid peels.

My understanding is that the concern is about Tretinoin and alpha hydroxys

 both being skin exfoliating products and that using two exfoliators might overly irritate the skin. 

But I guess that as long as one monitors the skin and stops using both 

products at the same time if irritation does occur then I can't see there being a problem.

And once again the alpha bright is very mild.

As an alternative though would you consider our Lumineux blemish reduction cream?

 There is no indication of any slight conflict between the 

active ingredients in the cream and Retin products.

 If you read the listing then you will understand how it works and maybe you would feel 

confident in using it. It is the cream with Glucosamine and Niacinamide

 rather than the Arbutin and Kojic blend ( a strong cream that might not suit Retin users).

So, I'm still trying to decide between her recommendation and the Mandelic Peel...or I could use both and watch my face peel off and go down the drain. She is also one of the most affordable chemical peel shops around. 


I'm working on getting rid of left over hyper pigmentation which you can see in the pictures below.



anyone else have a problem with pimple recurring in the exact same spots? for me it's those two darkest spots, I swear there is a line of them waiting to come out as soon as one leaves.

I think the combination of retin-a, mandelic acid and a good face brush might be the push I need to get my skin to where I want it. I am trying to see if I can get my hands on the boots botanical face brush (aka the manual clarisonic), I couldn't find one in my local boots, so I want to check the larger one at Liverpool Street Station. If that fails, I have my eye on the DHC face brush on ebay.  My regimen is staying the same as my last update till I can get everything in place for phase 2. 

till then. 


P.S I scrubbed my face till I scratched the surface, I've now got little scratches and scabs on her face...not good. 

Majek Fashek - So long

The borderline African weather we've been having put me in the mood for some Nigerian music. 

New Music Post: Steel & Feathers - Nikki Jean

New music for this week come from Nikki Jean,she has worked with the likes of Lupe Fiasco, and toured with Kanye West. Steel and Feathers is song from her up coming album "Pennis in a Jar" and the song is co-written by Bob Dylan, you can clearly hear Bob Dylan's influence writing. But, the production is a bit more flamboyant(?) than a typical Bob Dylan song would have. I would love to hear him record it. But, that said it is still very beautiful and she does a brilliant job.

Skin Care Journey: How do you remove your make up?

Very good tip from Goss. I've seen this direction on packs of face wash.


Personally, I would do it like this;
 - Take my make up off with Johnson and Johnson baby wipe. 
 - Squeeze some face wash onto my hand and spread it around.
 - Wet my hands and wash a bit more. 
- Rinse.


That way I get at least a few minute. When I was having problem with dryness, I incorporate my boots scrubbing pad into the routine. 


In other news, I am pleased with the way my skin is going - clearing spots and reduced the frequency of my acne (thanks to duac). The smoothness is my big issue at the moment, I have heard amazing things about the Clarisonic AND the manual Clarisonic (the boots botanical brush). But, since the boots one is more in my price range, I will be checking that out and up dating you all with progress pictures. 


till then. 

Refashioned - muumuu/bubu

so, the last in the series of my refashioned clothes. 


My mother had this bubu/muumuu made for me in my teens, but the style is too "old lady", awkward, unflattering and I never got to wear it. So struck with a bit of inspiration, I decided to update it. It was very important that it retained that African feel with the detailing at the neck being the focal point. Any changes would have to be built around the neckline. Anyhoos, here are my results.



dirty mirror - eek! 



neckline detail.


How I wore it,




dress - refashioned muumuu
cardigan - ebay, but originally george at asda
tights - pretty poll @ boots.
shoes - charity shop, but originally from primark. 
belt - came with a skirt. 


I have to say I really enjoyed doing this. It is such a good feeling to see the clothes I cut up come together as something nice and wearable. It really got me thinking about finding beauty in the "ugliest" things.  and from a financial stand point, I was able to add a few new pieces to my wardrobe for next to nothing.  I'm looking forward to rummaging around charity shops to see what I can find and play around with. 


till then.

R.I.P Gil Scott Heron.

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” that was about the fact that the first change that takes place is in your mind. You have to change your mind before you change the way you live and the way you move. So when we said that “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” we were saying that the thing that’s gonna change people is something that no one will ever be able to capture on film. It will just be something that you see, and all of a sudden you realize I’m on the wrong page, or I’m on the right page but I’m on the wrong note, and I’ve got to get in sync with everyone else to understand what’s happening in this country." Gil Scott Heron

Happy Bob Dylan Birthday day!

when I was younger, I was TOTALLY convinced this song was about my family. Maggie was my mother the evil person that made me and my sister scrub the floors and the bathroom. I was only about 7/8 at the time so scrubbing anything was like child labour. My uncle was maggie's brother, who rarely ever gave us pocket money, but asked us if we were having a good time. And my grandmother talked to the maids about "About man and God and law". so, totally about me right?!

Skin Care Journey: Treating, and Dealing with Hyper-pigmentation and Acne (8 wks progress pictures)

I think I took these pictures in week 7 and 8, or 7 and 6 but I'm not too sure. I'll call it 7 and 8, so it matches up with the skin care posts. 


Week 1



Week 7 



Week 8







Right Side:


Week 4(I don't have week 1, pictures)



Week 7



Week 8





I have NOTHING (not even moisturiser) on my skin when I take these pictures, I'm fresh out of the shower. I've been using it for 2 months now and I'm happy with the results, I was inspired to try Retin-A by this user on acne.org. She used Retin-A micro, I'm not sure how that differs from the Retin-A that I'm using. I wish I had done a control experiment to see if the improvements are due to Retin-a or time and good exfoliation. I feel more confident going out with my bare skin. I do want to take a break give my skin time to regroup. I have a prescription of Duac from my doctor, so I might use that in the interim. 

Skin Care Journey: Treating, and Dealing with Hyper-pigmentation and Acne (products I use pt 2 and update)

Murad cleanser - night time face wash. I got it free in a magazine. 



(trying to take an artsy shot, obviously failed)
Vitamin E - used on the weekends in the morning. It is the purest grade no additives at all. 



My new face scrub used daily. 


Week 7 and 8
I had a break out all over my forehead and temples this is weird for me as my breakouts are usually concentrated around my cheeks. I'm slightly worried that it might be caused the the vitamin E gel, but I'm still using it (eek! ). 


I'm running out of the 'Murad Cleanser' (it is only a tiny size) and 'My Good Things Stay Clear' face wash which I use daily. I'm not sure if I'm going to stay with them, because neither of them seem to have helped with my break out.  My routine is the same as I stated last week. I'll be posting my 8 week comparison pictures soon. I'm starting to think I should come off the Retin-A and give my skin a break. 


till then.

Still loving country music and here's why....

I'm all about badarse, sassy unapologetic women and female characters and when I listen to songs like the ones posted I feel like I can go out and take on the world. And before anyone says it, I know not all country music is like this. I know I've chosen two Miranda Lambert songs - I'm really liking her at the moment, but here are the songs I've been listening to a lot lately.







I'm trying to get into Martie and Emily, formerly of Dixie Chicks, now 'The Courtyard Hounds album. I know it is a year old, but I just go round to listening to it. I'm really stuck for new music I like at the moment which is another reason why the music aspect of this blog is suffering. I'm yet to find the album that moves me that same way the Avett Brothers and Gil Scott Heron's album moved me last year. I hear Weird Sl is releasing an album, that might be just what I need to get me through the year!


till then.

I've been listening to a lot of country music lately....

Re-fashion Pt 2/Yes, I'm still taking picture in toilets

Part 2 of my refashion post from a week ago.  You can check out Part 1 here, if you need reminding, here is what the outfit looked like before.



I cut it into two halves and manage to get two cute outfits out of it!  There is the second half. The elastic was big and stretched so I added a new elastic. When I was cutting the dress in half, I made sure I left enough to create a tunnel for the elastic to go in. Here is what I ended up with .



new elastic







How I wore it.
Top - asos two pack from last summer.
Skirt - refashioned.
Black Tights - can't remember where.
Necklace - eons ago from H &M





close up of the necklace. The arrangement of the pendants is a happy accident. They got tangled up and I decided to leave them as is. 


I have one more in this series, I'll be posting it next week.


till then

Skin Care Journey: Treating, and Dealing with Hyper-pigmentation and Acne (week 5 and 6)

I didn't do one of these last week (wk5) because I had nothing to say and I don't want to keep rehashing the same thing over and over again. My skin has been the most normal it's been since I started, I guess that is because I've reached the 5 week mark when the Retin-A really kicks into gear. I still get breakouts and the texture is still reminiscent of a gravel road - yuk! but, the hyper-pigmentation is clearing nicely. I've also changed my routine again! I know I haven't really stuck with nay products and if you are following this you are probably wondering what product to buy to follow this routine. Personally, I would go with whatever works for your skin, during my skin care journey I have bought A LOT of stuff and  tried a lot of stuff based on other people's recommendation and I didn't notice a difference in my skin. Which is why I ended up with lots of half used products and I'm working my way through them. I guess my routine (Cleanse-Tone-Moisturise) stays the same, it's just the products that change.

The other day, I was watching ANTM and one of the girls mentioned using vitamin E - I happen to have Vitamin E gel and oil on my dressing table, so I've added that to my weekend routine.I didn't have much of a weekend routine, so I wants to see how this changes everything.  So my routine as it stands.

MONDAY TO FRIDAY

Morning

Wash - Good Things Stay Clear Face Wash

Exfoliate  - Queen Helene Mint Julep (no longer using the boots scrubs at the moment, my skin seems to wince at the idea of being scrubbed)

Toner - Burts bees

Moisturiser - Good Things Mircale Mattifier (I went back to it when my skin started to behave)

Night

Take Off my make up with any wipe I can get my hands on

Wash  - Murad Essential C Cleanser (got for free in a mag so I had to try it)

Retin - A

Saturday And Sunday Morning

Rinse off Retin - A residue then apply Vitamine E gel (I'm trying to use that up first then on to the oil)

Continue the rest of the day  and finish with my usual night time routine. I try not to wear make up at the weekend unless I'm going out for drinks/to a club at night.


till next week.

Cover VS Original: Je t'appartiens/Let it be me - Gilbert Bécaud/Everly Brothers/Nina Simone /

Gilbert Bécaud


Everly Brothers


Nina Simone


It has been too long, 
jukebox