Hakubi White C Series

* Written by Jessie Lem  *

Living in a tropical country, we are greeted by the hot blazing sun almost on a daily basis, and with humidity joining the weather party, the toll on our skin could be severe if there is lack of care and protection. Even if you’re not exposed to the sun every day, juggling work & life will inevitably cause stress & hormone imbalance.

Sato Pharmaceutical from Japan has introduced the Hakubi White C Series – to help women obtain healthy and radiant skin. The series comprises the Hakubi White C Plus for internal consumption, and the Hakubi White C Gel for external application. The prominent element of this whitening series is Vitamin C, an antioxidant that repairs flawed skin.

I am not much of a big fan in whitening, but I do like the products, it sounds pretty impressive with the combo idea of the supplement pills & the gel together! It’s like doubling the effort to achieve results, or making sure that even if one fails to be effective, the other one would at least indemnifies some effects.

Hakubi White C Gel is a high concentration of Vitamin C derivatives and Licorice Extract, in the form of clear liquid to be applied on skin. The gel suppresses the production of melanin which causes blemishes and freckles. At the same time it moisturizes and tightens skin.

 

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Burt’s Bees new lip colour range

* Written by Louise Carmen *

Burt’s Bees clearly needs no introduction as they have been around since 1991 and we’ve all heard its name one way or another. What distinguishes them from most of the beauty brands out there are – the all-natural ingredients they use for their products, how they’re made using nature-safe processes, and sold in environmentally sensitive packaging.

Burt’s Bees launched their new lip colour range at Namoo on the Park last week. Two new ranges are introduced to the Burt’s Bees family – Burt’s Bees Lip Gloss, and Burt’s Bees Lip Shine (you can view some pix of the colours further down); while new colours were added to the existing Lip Shimmer and Tinted Lip Balm lines.

The above statement is as to WHY we should opt for natural lip colour!

During the event, we watched Hong Kong-based make up artist Jess Yung give us a demo on Spring/Summer trends we could try for ourselves, including mixing two lip colours you already own so you get a brand new colour.

Director Susana Chung gave us an insight of their products, adding that the entire Burt’s Bees Lip Colour Range is “made from 100% ingredients and gives you all-in-one shine, hydration and colour from just a single tube!”

 

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Swiss Line, Aesop, diptyque and Dr. Brandt

I’ve been using Swiss Line’s new anti-ageing serum called Cell Shock 360º Anti-Wrinkle Serum Triple Collagen Complex for a month now, and wrote a review about it on the Swiss Line FB Page:

“The first thing that strikes me about the Cell Shock 360º Anti-Wrinkle Serum Triple Collagen Complex is the extremely elegant gold cylinder bottle it comes in. Gently twisting the cap to open it automatically draws in the recommended amount of serum needed for an application, so i needn’t second guess whether i’m applying too much.

After regularly applying the serum for a few weeks, it’s safe to say that i saw a visible difference in how SMOOTH my skin felt and looked. I have dry/combination skin and am 30 years old, so i need to be assured that whatever i use retains my skin’s moisture throughout the day. This Swiss Line serum did that, as i felt no sense of dryness by the end of the day, and i was pleasantly surprised by how the fine lines on my face which i usually notice and stress about, have ceased to catch my attention!”

Key active ingredients are:

1) Triple-Collagen Complex >
- increases collagen levels in the skin
- stimulates synthesis of collagen, repairs sun-damaged skin
- cells from Argan trees reduce wrinkles by 26%
- provides protective shield against oxidative stress

2) Hyaluronic Acid >
- improve skin’s density and resilience
- low molecular hyaluronic acid enhances penetration across skin barrier

 

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The best bite i’ve EVER had.

I was a metal braces wearer a lot later than most people my age. I only started wearing them when i started my first job. Not only did i have to wear braces, but a head brace ala Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night vid. It was so atrocious that when i once closed the house gate for my father to go to work, he jested that i should hurry back into the house lest i scare the neighbours. -_-

Braces back then were torturous as any 80s kid will tell you. The metal spikes dig into the sides of your mouth, causing ulcers that bleed. The worse is when the metal continues digging into the ulcer itself, and there’s nothing you can do but… not move your mouth to avoid further pain.

Every time i tightened the braces i’d have to survive on a liquid diet cos my teeth and gums were too painful to bite into anything. That wasn’t so bad for me, cos i was covering events back then and didn’t mind having an excuse to drink ‘more wine because that’s my dinner’.

Alas, after years of diligence and pain, i did the stupid thing every braces-wearer should never do – which is to neglect wearing your retainer.

What made it worse is that i’m a teeth grinder. I didn’t know it was so bad till Clem patted my cheek in the middle of one night, and said, “Baby… stop it… it sounds really scary!” I never realized grinding my teeth produced a high-pitched shrieking sound of banshee proportions.

Some time two years ago, i realised that thanks to my dumbass negligence, my teeth had moved again and my front teeth stuck out in pictures, which made me quite self-conscious. SO MUCH FOR WEARING BRACES BEFORE! *bangs head on table*

I was on the lookout for a solution that didn’t require me wearing those hated braces again. I took note of a documentary i watched — on theatre child stars — where one had some sort of braces afixed from the INSIDE of her mouth, with pressure applied from a metal screw that was bolted into the roof of her mouth. Seemed kinda hardcore. And there were no dentists i knew of that did that in KL anyway.

Then Invisalign came into town and i noticed a few people starting on it. Invisalign are ‘invisible braces’ that promise not to be obvious, not to be inconvenient, etc. And i toyed with the idea of getting it in my mind. Mostly to do with the money too. I already spent thousands (when i was young and earned a basic salary) paying for my metal mouth, did i want to pay more for something that i shouldn’t be paying for because i stupidly hated my retainer?? Ugh.

In the end, i got a semi-sponsorship and decided to go for it and put the money down to ‘investment in health’. I just feel that teeth are so important to me… and i don’t want to have my bite get worse and worse as i get older, then end up dishing out even MORE money for it later on in life!

Okay, and also, i’m vain and i’d like my teeth to be straight again, thanks.

I started going to MyDentist on Jalan Ipoh, and it’s really easy for me to get to from the Penchala Link heading towards Jalan Kuching. No traffic lights, and no parking problem cos they have allocated spots in front of their dentistry for clients. I go there pretty often cos i have to change the mold for my Invisalign every 2 weeks to a month, so that it gradually shifts all my teeth to perfect alignment.

I am in love with the dentists there. Dr Melissa, Dr Alex and Dr Kar Shen were the main dentists that took turns attending to me every time i went, and i love talking to them! I always chatted and joked with them, and they made me feel extremely comfortable.

When i had my teeth polished a few months ago, i accidentally jerked and (i think it was) Alex (who) asked me, “Oh! Was it painful? Are you okay?” Truth was, i was so at ease that i FELL ASLEEP hence the sudden jerk. :p

I used to think i’m paying these dentists too much money to work on me, but now i feel that it’s all justified. They take such CARE and detail in their work that i feel they’re making my teeth into a perfect work of art. All these THINGS have been done to my teeth to perfect my bite, which i never thought of before. It’s not just the braces that moved my teeth back gradually, but they’d measure and take photographs, and get me to bite on some paper to see whether the teeth touch, and delicately shave different teeth down so that they’re all the same shape and size… It’s really awesome to know that i made a wise choice in going to this dentist. I foresee myself going to them years from now cos i just love them so much for what they did! (Thank you! If you ever read this :p)

This has turned out to be a long post about loving my dentists -_- I really just wanted to post about how STRAIGHT MY TEETH ARE NOW!

TEEHEE

 

Caudalie and their Vinexpert range

I went for the launch of Caudalie’s latest skincare line weeks ago, though i’ve put off its writing cos there is so much information involved and i didn’t want to rush it. Caudalie (pronounced ‘coh-dah-lee’) is a French beauty company from Bordeaux and is currently imported by Ken’s Apothecary – who also brings in amazing brands like Aesop, Laura Mercier and Diptyque. So you can guess the quality of Caudalie even if you’ve never heard of it before.

I got my first taste of Caudalie when Clem’s mum gave me a bottle of the brand’s Beauty Elixir Mist which I later found out is a cult product often raved about by celebrities and make up artists.

But i’m not here to tell you about their cult products and whatnot. I really wanted to start off with THE MAIN REASON why i found Caudalie so exciting. You know how we tend to memorize particular ingredients imperative in products to be the best for our skin? There was (and still is) the whole Vitamin C deal, then the collagen thing to the point people started drinking it (i never bothered with that consumption trend), and hyaluronic acid.

There’s a new ingredient that begs to be remembered. It’s a mouthful but i say it deserves its extra effort: Resveratrol.

Resveratrol originates from the grapevine and is currently known as a world-famous anti-ageing molecule. It was first discovered by Caudalie and their Professor Vercauteren in 1997; before they successfully isolated, stabilized, and patented it in 1999. Since then, Grapevine Resveratrol has been a flagship active ingredient for cell regeneration and in cancer research, and is recognized by Harvard’s Department of Medicine as being among the best anti-ageing molecules.

So that’s Resveratrol that was patented in 1999. In 2012, Caudalie and Professor Vercauteren patented a better version of their original findings, and called it Resveratrol-Oleyl. This arose when the Professor discovered that carbonyl stress was a big bad boy in causing more ageing, so he modified the new generation Resveratrol-Oleyl that’s stabilized by oleic acid and increased in efficacy against carbonyl stress.

(i thought it might be a bit nerdy to put this molecular chart of the Resveratrol but i want to!)

It was explained to us that carbonyl stress causes the sugars in our skin’s molecular build to ‘caramelize’ and become more hard/less flexible. When this happens, our skin’s support fibers rupture, causing the skin’s surface to ‘fall in’ and wrinkles to appear as how we know it. This whole process is referred to as glycation and plays a significant role in tissue damage, and loss of skin elasticity.

What makes carbonyl stress more of a bitch is that it generates extra-cellular oxidative stress, which in turn activates carbonyl stress’ harmful effects. Chicken and egg situation.

Back to the new Resveratrol-Oleyl. It acts on two fundamental levels:
Intra-cellular level > it stimulates collagen fiber production and increases epidermal thickness.
Extra-cellular level > it inhibits that dratted carbonyl stress to prevent glycation, while encouraging the production of superior quality collagen and elastin.

Also, thanks to the oleic acid (that’s used to stabilize it, remember?), the skin is provided with fatty acids omega 3,6 and 9 which protect it from aggression, regenerate and deeply nourish it.

Phooew, okay so now you know the main ingredient behind Caudalie’s latest skincare line and WHY it was so important for me to explain it… i didn’t just want to list the benefits of the products down and expect you to believe them, i wanted to share what i learnt that day too!

All of Caudalie’s new Vinexpert products of course have Resveratrol-Oleyl as its key active ingredient.

Vinexpert Eye & Lip Serum – finely targeted formula to smoothen crow’s feet wrinkles, lip contour, lift the eyelids and act against puffiness. Also includes ingredients Matrixyl-synthe 6 (one of the most high performance anti-wrinkle molecules), peptides to fight skin slackening, argan protein for tightening and hyaluronic acid. (15ml; app. RM220)
Vinexpert Firming Serum – this has the highest concentration of Resveratrol-Oleyl and fills in the areas most subject to aging, acting on density and firmness – cheekbones, facial contour, neck, décolleté. (30ml; app. RM264)
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bvilla+spa @ Seminyak, Bali

Day Two:
We packed our things to get ready to check out from Villa Bunga Hotel
Went to Made’s Warung to grab some brunch
I had a satisfying nasi campur as usual
Clem had a disappointing sandwich and coffee oops

After filling our tummies and stocking up on mushies
we grabbed our bags into the waiting One Eleven van that took us to bvilla+spa.
There are three bvilla establishments in Bali: +pool, +spa, +seaside

bvilla+spa has 13 exclusive 1 to 3-bedroom villas, and a 5-bedroom villa spacious enough for ten people.

 

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