Today I'll be reviewing the Etude House zero sebum fresh gel cream. I usually like to research and read reviews of products before I buy them since my skin is problematic but I couldn't find anything so I bought it anyway and thought I'll review it.
Packaging- I'm not really fussy with packaging but this one was nice and simple. I liked the colours and it also comes with a spatula for hygienic application.
My opinion- As you can just about see in the crappy photo above, the cream is a clear gel. It has a light citrus smell which I LOVE, I really need a perfume with the scent. Having oily and acne-prone skin, it's difficult to find a moisturiser that keeps you matte but doesn't make your skin feel tight. This moisturiser takes care of that! As the name suggest, it leaves your skin feeling fresh with no sticky residue since it absorbs easily. My skin also feels hydrated and moisturised. It didn't cause any breakouts and didn't irritate my sensitive skin.
PROS:
hydrates and moisturise while keeping me matte
nice citrus smell
easily absorbed
spatula for hygienic application
didn't cause breakouts or irritation
CONS:
if I was being picky, I would say it contains alcohol
I DEFINITELY would recommend this to anyone that has oily/combination skin that are prone to spots. I would've repurchased this but I generally avoid products with alcohol especially now that I'm on acne medication and it's advised no to.
Ok, so it's been exactly 2 months since I wrote here....I've been busy with work and uni but I wanted to come back with a post about my driving test that I took in December SPOILER ALERT I failed -_- All together, I have had around 45 hours worth of driving lessons which is the average in the UK but honestly I wasn't feeling very confident in the weeks leading up to my test. I couldn't do roundabouts properly, hardly drove in 4th gear, struggled with reversing around a corner and just panicked. My instructor was on holiday a week before which didn't help and for the past few months she had gotten rude and very unprofessional. I just wanted to get to the test. Before the test day, I had 4 hours of lesson and I can honestly say they were my best driving lessons. Something in my body obviously started working properly and all the things I struggled with I could suddenly do. The chances of me passing were getting higher, for some reason my instructor was pissed and just URGH I swear if I didn't need her car for the test I would've flipped out and maybe accidentally on purpose brushed her car against the car. Anyway, more about the actual test! The test day: Normally, for exams and assessments, I get quite nervous and tense but surprisingly I was actually quite excited. I had memorised the answers to the 'show me, tell me' questions which are questions asked about the engine or the function of the car. You are asked any two from this list https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/car-show-me-tell-me-vehicle-safety-questions/car-show-me-tell-me-vehicle-safety-questions After this I started my test and my examiner was really nice and made me feel comfortable...shame I didn't make it out the test centre road before failing. I make the same mistake every time I drive on this road. One side has parked cars, it's on a bend and there's just enough space for two cars to go through...if you go slowly and pay attention to the gap, I basically did the opposite and my examiner had to grab hold of the wheel to steer me away from the parked cars. You get asked to do one manoeuvre out of parallel parking, reverse around a corner and 3-point turn. And with my luck, I obviously got the one that I hated the most: reverse around a corner. It was going ok, I was a bit off but was adjusting, until a white van came up behind me and refused to go around me so I had to move off without completing the manoeuvre. The rest of the test went fine and the only other thing that the examiner was not happy with was the fact I didn't check my right blind spot enough. This annoyed me the most since I just had to turn my head a little bit more. Of course I would've liked to have passed but I was happy with the progress I had made and will hopefully start lessons with a new instructor in a few week. Honestly, I just want to get this out the way so I can focus on other stuff. Good luck to anyone who is learning how to drive or has a test coming soon!
Voting for MAMA awards have already started!! I just thought I'll write a quick blog post on who I'm voting for if anyone is interested. Firstly though, I just want to say that if you want to support your artist, please vote, don't have the mentality of 'other people are voting so I don't need to'. You don't need to make a load of accounts, even if it's just one and you vote everyday it helps. It doesn't take long either. I know MAMA are a bit dodgy since they favour the big 3 and winners are probably pre-selected but it doesn't hurt to vote. (Is it bad how I'm more passionate about these votes than political ones?)
Anyway on to who I'm voting for!
Best new male artist- NCT 127
Best new female artist- Blackpink
Best male group- BTS
Best female group- Twice
Best male artist- Zico
Best female artist- Ailee
Best dance performance solo- Taemin
Best dance performance male group- BTS
Best dance performance female group- Twice
Best vocal performance male solo- Eric Nam
Best vocal performance female solo- Ailee
Best vocal performance group- Mamamoo
Best band performance- Day6
Best rap performance- Zico
Best collaboration- MOBB/ Baekhyun and Suzy (I switch between the two)
Best MV- BTS
Best OST- DOTS
HotelsCombined Artist of the Year- BTS
HotelsCombined Song of the Year- BTS
Being multifandom makes it difficult to choose but BTS are my ultimate bias group so I always go with them. To be honest, some of the categories I just randomly chose because I like the artist or I've heard good things about them.
Lastly, it doesn't matter who you vote for just be respectful to all artists, here's the link to vote: http://mama.mwave.me/vote
Enjoy the rest of your day! :)
P.s MNET better treat BTS and GOT7 extra well to make up for the mess that happened last year. Geez if you want to rig the results fine but at least treat the artists right.
If you are interested in Korean cooking you might've come across the ingredient gochujang, or hot pepper paste. It is used a lot in Korean cooking and after looking up several recipes that mad my mouth water, I had to make some. Gochujang is quite hard to find in the area I live but all it takes is a train ride to London where there are many East Asian supermarkets. However, I decided to check online supermarkets first and after reading the ingredients I discovered that gochujang contained alcohol. Which therefore means it is not halal. I was kinda gutted since I wanted to make my cooking as authentic as possible but instead had to make my own concoction of ketchup and chilli powder as a replacement.
The other day, during my 4 hour break at uni (4 hours is seriously ridiculous) me and friend decided to explore the area around our uni and we came across a Chinese supermarket. They sold gochujang but after checking the ingredients, it wasn't halal. After a little browse around, I came across this:
It's not exactly 'gochujang' but the description was pretty similar. As you can see from the ingredients, no alcohol! I bought a jar and used it the other day to make ramen. Be warned, this stuff is SUPER salty so make sure you adjust your recipe so you don't increase someone's risk of kidney stones like I did. I can't compare the taste but the texture and consistency looks similar to gochujang except this sauce isn't as smooth.
Overall I'm happy with this alternative and will use this more in the future.
Happy cooking! :)
p.s BTS got their 1st win for blood, sweat and tears, wooooo!!
I've just completed my 2nd week of uni and I feel like I'm already slipping. Don't get me wrong, I made friends and I enjoy my lectures but it's the part afterwards: the independent study. After my first day I was on it, I typed up my notes, I had motivation and enthusiasm. But, after that I'm not sure what happened, but I stopped. Now I'm in a position where I have a load of notes to type up in order to catch up. What I think I am struggling with the most is that we aren't told clearly 'this is what you need to do'. It's up to the individual to look up on their online uni account to see what work is available. Even though I do do this I find it a bit tricky to navigate my way around the site, it's a bit messy and confusing. I guess I just need to play around with it and learn to be more independent.
We have already been our first set of coursework which involves writing a portfolio on our start o university. It took me a week to realise what this portfolio is meant to be on and that we should've already started it. To be honest, I still don't really know what a portfolio is, like a collection of your work, I guess?
On Wednesday we had 1 of 4 of our kitchen practicals. We were in groups of 3 and in 2.5 hours we were assigned a recipe, cooked and then completed a sensory analysis on everyone's dishes. The recipe booklet and instructions were uploaded online but I didn't know till the day before because it wasn't stated clearly and it honestly took me about 20 mins to find because I had to open and close so many folders. Once I found it, I read through the booklet at one of the tasks said we had to work out the nutritional content...except we haven't been taught that. So I was in a small panic. The next day, I clarified this with the teacher and told me it's fine, just fill it in after you have been taught it. But know I realised that she didn't mention this to the whole class after our discussion so I'm guessing people are still confused, or maybe it's just me.
I've been busy and stressed with trying to sort out finances and DBS check stuff and I guess a part of me took it as an excuse to slack. I need to get that motivation back quickly.
Just a heads up, there will probably be a lot of cap in this post.
Ahem.
WATCH BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS:
I thought Jungkook was joking when he said they'll be a more mature side to the group since they are all human memes but I WAS WRONG AND UNPREPARED. Their outfits, the dance moves the lyrics were so....sensual. I actually can't, I'm blushing. You know it's intense when it makes a brown person blush.
Anyway lets talk about the graphics and editing. I loved the whole art museum theme and how we saw it throughout. The members where in the museum itself and within the paintings. From the set to the props, everything was so detailed and merged together well.
The song- LOVE LOVE LOVE It's current and the vocals are amazing. All the vocalists improved and when they were singing it was angelic, I mean those HIGH NOTES!!! Honestly, the one thing that I could complain about is Jin's lines, or lack of. He did have a lot of screen time though which I guess helps balance it out but if his one line was at least a solo line and not shared with Jimin then I think it would've been better. I saw a mini clip on twitter of them practising the dance at that part and Jin was at the front which makes me happy since he isn't at the back the whole time. In term of the rappers, THIS IS J-HOPE'S ERA. I love how he got more lines and had a chance to shine like the sunshine he is. Even though RM didn't get many lines (I felt this was ok since he usually has larger parts in other songs and he narrated) he still managed to kill me. I don't know what it is but the way he says chocolate URGH. I was caught off guard because me and my sister were freaking and it suddenly got quiet. Usually it annoys me when this happens but I felt like they made it flow and when the music came back it was smooth. As for Suga, his voice is amazing so he could say anything and I would love it. This isn't about his rap but I really liked his jacket/shirt thing. I don't know if it's just me but I get a bollywood/arabic vibe from it. There's probably a bollywood song that sounds similar but I can't place it. Overall the song is super catchy and it has been stuck in my head since it came out. I have trouble sleeping because the tune is in my head and I feel like dancing.
The album- I can honestly say I loved EVERY song in this album. It was nice how each member had a solo track each but my favourites were MAMA by J-hope and Awake by Jin. I like MAMA because I like upbeat songs and I think the style suited J-hope well. Even though I'm not a huge fan of slow song and ballads I really like Awake, maybe because of Jin's voice? The song is just relaxing to me. Regardless, all the solo tracks were all beautiful. Even without knowing about the meaningful lyrics, you could still feel the emotion from every single member. Just a point worth mentioning, who knew V could sing that high? Also in the album were the tracks Cypher pt 4 which featured the rappers and Lost which involved the vocalists. Personally, I liked Lost a *tiny* bit more. However, I liked how Cypher pt 4 was something unexpected since it didn't sound like the other parts but the lyrics were still SAVAGE. 2!3! has such cute lyrics. My favourite song from the album is Blood, Sweat and Tears and in joint 2nd would be Am I Wrong and 21st century girl. I loved the intro and interlude (damn this means there's a second part) but out of the two, the intro is my favourite since J-hope gets to showcase all his talents and his wish came true, which was to do the intro. I think this album really shows how talented each and every member is and how versatile BTS are as a whole. It's a different sound but they still KILLED IT. Perfect way to start a new era.
One of the things that makes me really happy is that WINGS was #1 in several countries, including the UK! That's right, the land that seems to be unknown to kpop idols/agencies had a kpop album as #1 on iTunes. Hopefully this increases the chance of Kcon London. Also, I love the idea that people might be browsing iTunes or something and they see Wings, get curious so they check it out and they become a fan. It's amazing how big of a fandom we are now.
I'm SO EXCITED for this whole promotion period and how Bighit and BTS will spoil us. I'm hoping for lots variety shows too, as long as the boys are healthy though. Health comes first.
Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Because I'm a bit weird I'm going to put this here again (just hit 11 million views!):
It was a normal day, I was just going through my subscription box several because I was putting off doing revision. Then I am across THIS video. The thumbnail included 3 youtubers the I was subscribed to and I was looking to waste time so I clicked the video.
BTS dope was the first video they showed and my reaction was basically the same as Lilly's. I didn't even wait to finish the video and searched it up myself and watched the whole thing myself. I've heard of kpop before but never looked it up until then I got sucked in so fast. I love upbeat music, rap and dancing so I was IN. I watched Dope 10 times that day and when I was telling my sister she thought I was crazy (until I showed her the video and slowly sucked her in too). I was so hyped you won't believe I showed my sisters, mum, cousins, aunts and all my friends. I was like THE WORLD MUST KNOW. I've never fangirled over an artist or group so I was kind of freaking out because I wasn't the type but after a month or so of denial and watching every bangtan bomb, mv and other videos, I finally accepted that I had surpassed fangirl status and I was now trash.
In terms of biases, I don't really have one. When I first watched Dope and Jungkook appeared I was like WOAH but then I watched War of hormone and I was bias wrecked by V before I even knew what bias wrecking was. After getting to know their personality and what dorks they are I couldn't pick a favourite. I applaud the people who can stay loyal to one member, jut remember to appreciate all the members. If you struggle, you could be like my friend and have a new bias every week. They are all bias wreckers of my non-existent bias list.
After a few months, I started branching out to other groups like EXO and now the list of groups I stan continues to grow. 'EXO next door' was what actually lead me to kdramas such as 'Descendants of the sun'. Honestly, my sister is more into kdramas than I am since I don't have the time to watch them. However, when V and Minho's drama, 'Hwarang', comes out I will make my life about it.
Before I even got into kpop I had heard a lot of things about k-beauty from youtubers like Bubzbeauty and Michelle Phan but that obsession also took off due to how cute the packaging was and how innovative they were. I'm actually looking more into this as I suffer from acne and hyperigmentation and am slowly incorporating Korean skincare in my routine. I recommend watching Gothamista and Joankeem if you want to know more.
Lastly, the food. If you like cooking, Maangchi is the lady you need. That's literally all I have to say because you need to make it/eat it to know. One thing that bugs me though is that gochujang is used a lot in Korean cooking and I'm still in search for a halal one, if it exists.
I just want to finish off by sharing the video that started it all. I can't believe this was at 24 million views when I first watched this and now it's nearly at 100 million.
I've only been into this for a year but I don't think I'm leaving anytime soon...
