Favourite sheet mask? Mediheal N.M.F Aquaring Ampoule Mask Ex. review

I've been writing a lot lately. So much that I'm kinda not used to it. I guess I should say welcome to me stress writing. Pouring words out is actually a form of de-stress for me. With so much stress built up, not only my state of mind, even my skin is at it's worst. I swear the only thing keeping this skin from reaching an even worse state is skincare. 

The Butterfly Project has recently started this new monthly blog detox activity for bloggers to write about a specific topic. What's interesting is that this is a non-sponsored activity so it actually encourages bloggers to write and express freely, not being pressured by lighting/editing perfection. Basically going back to basic blogging. (literally still me rn cause I'm basic jk) 

This month's topic is 'Favourite Sheet Mask', and seeing my skin really needed to de-stress with my favourite sheet mask ever, while my mind needed to pour words out, here I am participating this activity 30 minutes before closing haha. 

My favourite sheet mask is non-other than Mediheal's N.M.F (Natural Moisturizing Factor) Aquaring Ampoule Mask Ex. 'What a mouthful' was what I thought. I guess the longer the name, the cooler the sheet masks sounds? Anyways, who cares if the name's long, as long as it works, right? I was actually first introduced to this sheet mask when I got it in my Althea box from Butterfly Project's Christmas Party last year and I've tried so many moisturizing sheet masks, not one has made my skin happier than this has. I've also tried Mediheal's A:PE Proatin Mask (Soothing) the other day when I really needed the N.M.F one but couldn't find it at Watsons, but although I was alright with the results, I'm really not a fan of the scent. The N.M.F one has a much milder more pleasant scent. 

For those who are new to the brand Mediheal, they are actually a korean beauty brand that is pretty well known for coming up with masks with custom solutions based on individual's skin concerns. This N.M.F (Natural Moisturizing Factor) mask that I love gives me softer skin instantly! Meaning I didn't need to wait til morning to see the results, I can feel that my skin is softer right after using it. 

Directions to apply is similar to most facial sheet masks. First cleanse your face, apply toner, then put the mask on. Leave it on for 10-20 minutes then remove it and continue on with your skincare. For mine, after this is just moisturizer + sleeping mask. 

For starters, this mask actually fits my face pretty well. (Apart from the nose la. I got big nose, I know) Other than that, the mask isn't one of those super thin delicate type that would break easily. This was actually a pretty medium-thickness mask. Not too thick, not too thin, just right. There are also times when certain masks are drenched in essence. Being moist with essence is good but literally drenched to the point where it starts dripping down my face/into my eyes sort of drenched? No thanks. Thank goodness, this was super moist enough and was still moist after 20 minutes but wasn't drenched in ampoule to the point where it was dripping :D

This mask was actually pretty tough for me to find because it's always sold out at the Watsons I go to :( It's also sold out on Althea for a really long time! Only recently I've discovered this facebook ad that this website called "Yoskin.com" has stock for this mask. In fact I was pretty lucky to purchase this during their promotion! (the promo seems to be extended too!) I got 10 pieces for RM64! 

If I were to get this sheet mask individually from other sources + no promotion, it'll cost me RM13/sheet leh! I find RM13 on the pricey side, especially when I'm someone that tries to use face masks as often as possible lol.

PS. This mask does leave a slight sticky finish.

This sums up my review on my favourite sheet mask! Thought I'll also share a little about my "masking activities". So what I do during 'mask sessions' is that I'll try to de-stress my mind for 20minutes while de-stressing the skin. 

I'll either write stories/blogposts/journal with a mask on or play some phone games. One more thing I do while putting a mask on is drinking water. Not like I don't drink water all day, but I generally try to drink more water while having a mask on. (idk why) Basically just getting my health straight again y'know. I'm all about caring for my mental health lately, I've start to realize that what truly matters ain't that pass or fail/cgpa stuff, if your health's poor, your cgpa ain't gonna save you. It'll just watch you die slowly, but literally. Although deep down, I'm still panicking and still really afraid to fail, I'm trying my best to take it easy now. (like i can't wait to slack for at least 2 months after I'm done with this.)

Ohhhhh and, I know that this game is pretty old but I've only started and completed the entire Naruto series recently....so it's natural that I've only found out about this game now. Those Naruto fans out there interested, the game's called Naruto Blazing ahaha! 

So yes, I'm on my way to be a hokage now. 

Bye design life.

Bye guys! 

Kenrokuen Garden & Japanese street food and supermarket food - Day 5 in Kanazawa, Japan

Before I begin, I would like to first clarify that this travelog posting is super outdated (my trip was back in end December 2015 lol) but lately I've been missing my Japan shinkansen rides a lot which makes me really want to reconnect with the lovely memories I have from Japan again. Which explains why I'm writing this now. Also, really important FYI I'm not sure if any of the stuff I'll be mentioning have changed over the past 1 and a half years so just in caseeeee please do your extra research ya! ^^"

- This post is a continuation of these posts -

Day 1: Hello Japan - Day 1: Osaka to Kyoto

Day 2 part 1: Okonomiyaki love - Day 2 in Japan: Hiroshima pt1

Day 2 part 2: Deers and Blue Skies - Day 2 in Japan: Hiroshima pt2

Day 3: Bamboos and Tori Gates - Day 3 in Japan: Arashiyama & Fushimi Inari, Kyoto

Day 4: Sukiyaki Buffet & Japanese pasta - Day 4 in Japan: Staying at Hotel Nikko Kanazawa

Okies, now that my little fyi is out there along with my recap list, let's see how much from my trip I could remember haha!

I actually couldn't remember if we ate anything for breakfast on this day. Though I do remember that we had quite a tight itinerary planned. In the morning, we've visited Kenrokuen Garden and during noon we explored Shirakawa-go. I've initially thought of joining the two posts together but since my Shirakawa-go posting would be pretty lengthy, I've decided to split them like what I did with my Hiroshima posting.

Back to Kenrokuen, in the morning we took the Kenrokuen Express bus to a bus stop near Kanazawa Castle. From there on we took a short walk to Kenrokuen Garden. Do take note that at Kanazawa Station, to catch a bus to Kenrokuen, you'll be heading to the bus stop at the east side of Kanazawa Sation.

Kanazawa Castle during winter~

It rained earlier so the tiles were slightly slippery. In areas at Japan that would have heavy snowfall, they'd protect the pine trees with a "rope cage" called yukitsuri. You'll see more of em at Kenrokuen Garden later or actually throughout Kanazawa.

Kenrokuen Garden is open daily. Opening hours during 1st of March - 15th October are from 7:00AM til 6:00PM. From the 16th of October - End of February opening hours are from 8:00AM til 5:00PM. You do have to pay a small fee to visit the garden though. Adults are priced at 310yen/ticket and children are priced at 100yen/ticket. For a garden that has made it into the top 10 best gardens in Japan across many travel sites, I think it's worth the entrance fee. Plus, the garden is huge! I went during winter so I did not see many flowers though the greenery in the garden add on with the refreshing cooling morning air was pretty calming and enjoyable.

 Because the floor is wet and slippery, I've never been happier to see a garden with occasional small slopes here and there to have this bamboo mat. (I'm prone to slipping you see :') )

Here we have the oldest fountain in Japan. I was actually really sleepy when we went to Kenrokuen Garden so I actually didn't capture many photos, just some family group photos, these and some snapchat videos. The garden has many greens and it's a very peaceful and calming place to take a walk and clear your mind a little. (though you might encounter large tour groups at certain times and spots) If you visit Kanazawa in different seasons, you'd be able to catch different colour leaves in the garden as well. 

After we've visited Kenrokuen Garden, we're now walking back down to the bus stop to return to Kanazawa Station. While walking down, we passed by some shops selling souvenirs and snacks. Either we really didn't grab breakfast or we were simply waisek (24/7 craving for food). Whichever it was, we got food.

We passed by this shop selling these rice stuffed fried beancurd....? so we went in. 

Upon ordering, they actually fry it on the spot for you! At that time the weather was so cold, a nice warm snack was exactly what we needed!

 Japan has made my wallet itch so much because they're just so good with cute pretty packaging T_T

I actually took this photo cause I thought the fugu (puffer fish) looked cute ahhaah O 3 O 

While we were waiting for our fried stuffed beancurd, my sister saw some fried sotong(?) balls outside the shop. (so we played the waiting game again cause they had to fried these too hahaha)

Snacks are finally served! The prawn balls were exceptionally good i'd say!

After we got back to Kanazawa Station, we've decided to skip the restaurants and grab food from the supermarket at Kanazawa Station instead. If I did not recall wrongly, the supermarket should be called Hyakubanmart 100 Mart. Why can't Malaysia supermarkets serve yummy food like these with affordable prices too? T_T (I am clearly super in love with Japan supermarkets and convenient stores!) 

This XL size karaage chicken was super good and it's only 284 yen??? That's only RM10. And also the best karaage chicken I've had ok. 

grilled fish for under 200 yen! 

We obviously did not finish all the ramen during lunch la haha. (we kept some for supper LOL) Oh and that 200yen on top of the ramen is fried calamari! Really tasty too! I've also lost count the number of vegetable juices I've drank at Japan. 

After our yummy supermarket food lunch, we had to quickly get changed to catch the bus to Shirakawa-go! Will be updating about my Shirakawa-go adventure really soon! 

ciao ciao!

Candy Gets Hungry #10: The Original Cake from Taiwan at 1 Utama - Did I like it?

When you are constantly seeing videos being shared on Facebook about a massive crowd queuing to buy a cake from Taiwan, of course you'll want to try it right? Even someone like me whom isn't a fan of such cakes in general was eager to see what's the hype about this legendary "源味本鋪 Original Cake" from Taiwan. When I went to Sunway Pyramid the other day for my boyfriend's graduation, I managed to hunt down Chizu, but failed to hunt down Original Cake before closing hours. I wasn't particularly sad or anything since at that time I already knew that they were opening a new branch at 1 Utama, next to Tealive.

Fast forward to their grand opening @ 1Utama, I was ngam ngam shopping, passed by and saw the crazy queue, then I've decided.....to try it after the hype dies haha. I mean I've waited so long already, no harm waiting a couple more weeks right? The next day, I saw one of my kawans Tiffany buying their cake and apparently there wasn't a long queue?! Short queue on a Sunday?? Initially I thought "ok, maybe everyone has already tried it at Velocity/Pyramid and the long queue during their grand opening was because...it was their grand opening....?" Then later on I found out that they were giving out free cakes all day long during their opening at 1U. So perhaps that's the reason behind the long queue la. I mean, who doesn't love free food right?

Their 1 Utama branch offers 3 flavours to choose from. I also think they've revised the pricing slightly lower as compared to the pricing I saw from other reviews online. (unless it was an opening promo price, I'm not sure) Their pricing is as such: Original Flavour Original Cake - RM15 / Cheese Flavour Original Cake - RM20 / Frozen Chocolate Cake - RM25. 

Instead of waiting for a month, I've decided to try my luck on bringing home their Cheese flavoured Original Cake the following day. Which was a Monday afternoon. I half expected to queue along with a huge crowd of KPMG/IBM employees, but surprisingly I only waited for about 7-10 minutes to reach the front of the queue :o

Honestly, I think the queue exists because they only have 1 person cutting the cakes lo. Moreover if the queue consists of more people favoring either one of the cheese/original flavour, I think that's one of the reasons for the queue. Ok ok, now let's see how they cut the cakes right in front of you.

They'll take a fresh cake out of the kitchen and flipped it over. Then you'll be engulfed by the heavenly scent of yummy freshly baked cake.

Then they'll measure and make guidelines with the knife. It's quite surprising to see a cake baked this way. The side with dots on the top is their Cheese Flavoured Original Cake while the smooth side is their Original Flavoured Original Cake.

After measuring and cutting it into two (cheese & plain), they'll begin to cut the cakes.

Do you know how happy and excited I was when I saw the cheesey goodness flowing out of the fluffy cake?

Then they'll package it in their paper boxes

Got home and was super excited to try it with my fam and bestie!

For a cake this big for RM20 I think it's quite a fair pricing la. 

Finally we've arrived at the most important part of this posting. Taste test!

Do I think it was worth the hype? Yes and no. 

Yes, because for a basic sponge/'kinda-souffle-like' cake, this was actually not bad but still not mind-blowing? Generally most cakes of this kind are really really dry and crumble easily but this one was slightly more moist than those even though still a little dry in my opinion. I guess I could say this kinda tastes like a souffle but not as moist as a souffle?

No, because I would never queue 2 hours for this. If you queued for 2 hours and loved the cake, good for you then haha!

Would I buy it again? 

Nope. In the end I still don't like this category of cakes haha, even souffles I'm not particularly a fan of it. However, if I would ever ever repurchase from their shop, I would get their Original Flavour instead because I'm really not a fan of the cheese filling in their Cheese Flavour Original Cake. When I saw the cheese flowing out when they were cutting the cakes, I was so excited!! Sadly, I did not expect the cheese to be so salty. In my opinion, the saltiness of the cheese totally killed it, in a not so flattering way. Though, I wouldn't mind getting the Frozen Chocolate to try if I don't see a queue the next time I pass by their shop. 

Overall thoughts:  

I don't know why but eating just the cake(minus the cheese) reminded me of Uncle Tetsu's cheesecakes. I know I shouldn't be comparing the two because they're two different type of cakes, but I'm not the only one that feels like the two tasted 30% similar, so I might as well just put it out there. Perhaps its the fluffiness the two have in similar? However if I were to choose between RM15 Original Cake and RM20 Uncle Tetsu Cheesecake, I'll go for Uncle Tetsu ahaha. 

That's all for my thoughts on the Original Cake from Taiwan. Everyone has different thoughts on this so you'll definitely need to try it yourself to know if you like it or not.

ciao ciao~~

Store Locations

源味本铺 Original Cake - Sunway Velocity
3-29, 3rd Floor, Sunway Velocity Mall, 55100 Kuala Lumpur

源味本铺 Original Cake - Sunway Pyramid
F1.78, F Floor Blue Atrium, Sunway Pyramid, 46150 Bandar Sunway, Selangor

源味本铺 Original Cake - One Utama
S121b, 2nd Floor, One Utama Shopping Centre, 47800 Bandar Utama, Selangor

源味本铺 Original Cake - Queensbay Mall
3F-23 , Queensbay Mall, 11900 Bayan Lepas, Penang

源味本铺 Original Cake - Gurney Plaza
170-B1-16 , Plaza Gurney, Persiaran Gurney, 10250 Penang

Fake a fresh face and go night mode / 1028 Visual Therapy 1 brand tutorial

Hihiii! What makes you happy? For me it's food and seeing the money I spend on makeup not go to waste! I get especially happy when purchasing products that are multi-functional too! Brought to you by The Butterfly Project Malaysia X 1028 Visual Therapy, I have today is two simple makeup looks (a day to night transition look) you guys could re-create using only products from 1 brand! 

Before hopping into the tutorial, let me just share with ya'll a little bit about 1028 Visual Therapy. First things first, this brand is from Taiwan. I've never used any makeup brands from Taiwan before, so this is exciting. The brand formulates their products to suit the Asian skin and contour. 1028 also focuses on creating 'Skincare Cosmetics'. AKA. Cosmetics that are infused with skincare essence to treat our skin while using the makeup product. Now that we know the brand slightly better, let's get started with the tutorial.

Being someone that is barely able to call it a day before 2AM, my skin definitely ain't gonna look healthy. If I had to fake a fresh looking face within 5 minutes after maximizing my sleeping hours, this first look I'm sharing will be my go-to basic makeup face.

First things first, fill in the brows. Here I'm using 1028 Visual Therapy's Longwear Eyebrow Definer pencil in 02 Dark Brown (RM39.90) The formula of this eyebrow pencil was really creamy and easy to work with. Because of it's creamy formula, a little goes a long way and the spoolie brush is able to blend the product very easily. If you were to make any mistakes, slight clean up was also a piece of cake with just tissue and not even makeup remover.

Here's a swatch of the Longwear eyebrow definer pencil

Next we're moving onto eyeshadow. The one I have here is 1028's Macaron eyes eyeshadow kit. It's retailing for RM69.90. This is a sweetly packaged palette filled with 6 shimmer eyeshadows inspired from the sweet meringue-ish confection from France - Macarons. 

The shades include 1 warm tone brown shadow, 1 darker cool tone brown shadow, 1 peachy shadow, 1 light pink shade, 1 champagne/pearl shade, 1 metallic-ish pale pink shade. For RM69.90, I do think the pans are pretty large :o

Here are some swatches under natural window lighting, but do take note that these swatches are all three layers of product as I was testing to see how far the pigmentation goes. Although the pigmentation of these eyeshadows are build-able, I do think that they require some patience to work with because the Macaron eyes palette isn't as pigmented as compared to their Mont Blanc Eyeshadow Kit and Brownie Eyeshadow Kit. (I swatched them at Wastsons, so I know haha)

Decided to snap a photo of these swatches with flash as well for you guys. 

First, take this cool light pink shade.

apply it all over your lid with your finger tip

Taking the peachy shade...

I'm combining two steps here for the "Outer V" of your eye. First, apply the peachy shade from above to the outer half of your eyelid. Then taking the light pink shade from earlier, apply it to the outer half of your bottom lash line.

Taking the pearl eye shadow shade

Apply a small amount to the inner corner of your eyes just to highlight.

Taking the eyebrow pencil again

Draw a thin line as close to your upper lash line. This will make your eyes look slightly larger! Your eye look is now complete! Moving onto the face.

From all the midnight oil burning nights, I don't exactly have a healthy looking skin. I also have uneven redness across certain areas of my face. Which is why to fake a quick and healthier skin, BB Cushions have become one of my favourite beauty inventions. Here today I'm trying out 1028 Visual Therapy's Unseen Mesh Compact BB Cushion. (RM99.90) First apply your usual primer, then only the BB Cushion. Oh and in case you're wondering why BB Cushions are now introducing this mesh filter, it's actually to ensure a fresh and clean application. (Thank you Ulta)

Just the fact that the packaging is pink already wins me over.

Here we have a left and right comparison of the BB cushion! Super impressed with how well it had hid the redness on my skin. If you look closely, you could even see how much it had covered my dark under eye circles. Another good thing about this BB Cushion is that it comes with SPF 30 PA+++ to protect you from UV rays. Do take note though, this BB cushion might be a little drying for some.

Covered up the other side as well. From the looks of it, you could say that this is a medium to high coverage BB cushion.

After applying the BB Cushion, you'll need to set it with powder. This super cute baby pink with polka dots thingy is their Ultimate Oil-Control Powder (RM29.90) As you can tell, its a pretty tiny and cute pressed powder. Though I must say, the matte finish it gave my skin looked super nice! I don't know why either, although I have my usual Benefit Porefessional + That Gal primer underneath (ok maybe 2 brand tutorial la), this powder was actually able to further minimize the appearance of my pores! In case you're wondering, this powder does give about 5% of extra coverage?

If you have read about my "allergy blog post", and saw me talking about me being allergic to "pressed powder foundations" yes I did get a number of breakouts the next morning *sobs* And yes, I kinda only realized that I was allergic to pressed powder foundations the entire time after using this. Basically I started counting the number of times I had multiple breakouts overnight and noticed each time it happened, it's always after using pressed powders haih. No matter which brand, still break out one haih. 

I was particularly sad this time because I really loved this setting powder and I really want to keep using it haih. Especially for touch ups, this size is so convenient to bring around in my hand bag.

Also, just to assure you that it's my skin and not the powder, my mom had tested this powder and got 0 breakouts the next day. Why la I can't use pressed powder foundations T_T She finds the size so convenient for travel and touch-ups she even brought it along with her trip. (basically claiming it already HAHAHA)

After setting your foundation, that's it. All you have to do to complete the go-to basic makeup look is apply any lipstick of your choice. I went for a lighter sweet pink lip.

This simple and quick look is perfect for those that just wants to fake a "refreshed face" in the morning within a short amount of time.

In the day, what I want is an effortless simple and natural no-makeup makeup look, in the night though I'd want to spice things up a little. So with these three products all from 1028 Visual Therapy, let me show you my take on "night mode" of my day makeup.

We'll now be touching the two darker brown shades in the palette now. The coloured dots indicate the colours used for the step by step explanation right after this.

I started with the warm brown shade first. (pink dot,  follow pink highlight on top right pic) Applying that shade on the outer V of my eyes then blending it into the outer half of my crease. Then taking the cool tone brown (green dot, follow green highlight on top right pic), I applied it to the outer V of my eyes as well, just that this time I was using the cool tone brown for more of an eyeliner effect.

Close-up of the shadow

Next up, this is their Infinity Longwear Black Eyeliner (RM59.90) What I liked about this eyeliner is the sharp tip, the grip of it and also how easy to get a smooth black line from it. The eyeliner does not "bleed" into the fine lines on my hand either when I'm swatching it. 

I'm definitely going to be repurchasing this eyeliner soon because I've been constantly using this eyeliner for something else. 

I drew a slightly longer wing compared to my usual go-to short wing and also drew some dots on the outer half of my bottom lash line to "fake more lashes"

Once I was done with eyeliner. (kind of) It's time for mascara!

Here we have is 1028 Visual Therapy's Miracle Extension Mascara (RM59.90) This mascara claims to lengthen, moisturize, and strengthen your eye lashes. Although this mascara did lengthen my eye lashes, personally I prefer their Big Eyes Mascara for lengthening better. If you're interested to find out more about that mascara, I've done a review for it HERE. :) 

Curl your lashes

Here's a pic before mascara

Here's one after. After applying mascara, I would usually give it one last curl.

Going back to the lightest pearl shade in the Macaron palette

I need some highlight bling on my cheek bone. 

End eye look

Now time for some vain selfies. Can you see that highlight glowing! I'm still impressed how I've never really had to buy highlighters because I have so so many shimmery pearl eyeshadows.

So I kinda felt that the eyeliner here could've went a little bit thicker...

So I thickened the eyeliner slightly at the end and extended the wing a bit too.

Here's my final final night makeup look. I'm someone that likes to keep my makeup as simple as possible even if it's for a night look. So if you're like that too, this look might be perfect for you to try out.

Here's another look I tried out on another day with the exact same products. However, instead of developing the look from the "fake-natural-day-makeup", I started from the two brown shades. Skipping the soft pink lip, I went for a bright red one instead.

This sums up my Day to Night transition makeup tutorial using only products from 1028 Visual Therapy (excluding the lipstick). If you're interested in their products, they're available at Watsons :) 

When I reached the eyeliner, I mentioned that I needed to get a new one asap because I was using it for something else, remember? Here you have it, my "something else" I've mentioned earlier how my visual therapy is food and seeing the money I spent on makeup not go to waste, how multi-functional products are my absolute love!

However, because I'm a dumbo that has no idea which pen on the shelves is a brush pen, one day in class I've started doodling with my eyeliner. In which it got pretty addictive to the point where I have now started doodling with this liquid eyeliner each time I'm bored or hungry. (don't worry, I still have backup eyeliners lying around the room) So look, if you can't find a pen, make sure you have an eyeliner in your bag at all times! They're multi-functional and in fact, doodling with eyeliner and swatching eye shadows on paper kinda inspired something for my final year project :D (I'm kidding guys, please get a brush pen, it's cheaper lol. I just really wanted to draw with eye liner and see how it goes on paper, but seriously though, it's addictive. Don't be like Candace.)

  1028 Visual Therapy   |   Get 1028 Visual Therapy @ Watsons Malaysia   |   Butterfly Project Malaysia 

Updated post with brow pencil swatches! :)

* This post is sponsored. A collaboration between the Butterfly Project Malaysia and 1028 Visual Therapy *