You will recognise this product if you have read my night skincare routine. This is a korean brand moisturizer that promises to brighten and helps with wrinkles. I got mine from Althea, I am not sure if you can get this product in any physical stores here in Malaysia, but you can easily find it online.



Packaging wise, it looks so modern and feels luxurious, I love the color of this jar as it makes it kind of holographic when light hits the dome. For some reasons when I took it out of the box it reminded me of a pokeball lol.

When you open up the lid, there is a separator covering the product, I guess it is to avoid leaking if you want to travel with it. Underneath is the actual product that is going to shook you like it shooked me. They are little pearlssss! OMG. I literally screamed because I was so amazed at how pretty the moisturizer is lol. These little balls or pearls are soaked in essences of goodness. When you move the jar around, little specks of pearlescent glitters are showing. SO. PRETTY.



You're provided with a spatula to scoop out the product, which is super convenient because I really don't want to dip in my fingers inside the essence trying to take a pearl out lol. They suggest to take 3 to 4 pearls per usage, but I always only take one or two at most, at a time, oops. I found one pearl is enough to moisturize my small face.




I crush the pearl onto my palm first and then apply the bits and pieces to my face. The pieces will melt once rub onto the skin, and you'll be left with these magical pearlescent specks all over your face. Just look at my palm. Hence, why I only use it at night time lolol. I am not sure how sparkly it will leave your skin if you use more than two pearls, but if you do use only one, rest assured that it won't actually make you look like a disco ball or anything like that, haha. On your face, it will look like you have this natural healthy glow and dewy skin.

My face always look brighter and plumper when I wake up in the morning. I did use it a few times for day time moisturizer and it does not make me oily or anything. So I'd say it's a great day and night time moisturizer! It's just that I love my Clinique's Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel more for day time for smoother foundation application.

I do think that it helps to brighten my skin a little bit over time, but I can't really comment about the anti wrinkle claim as I don't have any issue with that yet. Will I repurchase? Maybe, but not anytime soon because prefer a moisturizer that comes in a pump or anything simpler. As much as I do enjoy my skincare routine, I don't really want to spend time disinfecting spatula, scooping and crushing pearls each time I need to apply a moisturizer lol. But overall, it's a great product!

More The Balm reviews! Today I want to talk about two other products that I got from The Balm which are the Nude Tude eyeshadow palette and their Hot Mama Blusher. Let's start with the eyeshadow palette.



This palette consists of 12 variety color selections and comes in a cardboard packaging which I adore because they are less bulky and won't get any dents in case they knock on anything or fell. The Balm products always have this cool vintage designs on them which is so pretty! Retails about RM223 on Sephora online but you can get it sooo much cheaper from SaSa outlets. They sell them for only RM155 last time I check, and sometimes they'll be discounted so you can get it for even less.



Moving on, Hot Mama Blush has been raved about being a dupe for NARS's Orgasm. I do not own the Orgasm so I can't compare the two. So my opinion would be solely on this product itself and the performance.

Ayyyy, as promised. Here's my morning skincare routine! Not much difference though, I only switch one or two products from my night skincare routine, and the rest stays the same. My morning routine is a lot simpler than the night, that's because I don't like to layer too much in the morning.

1. Cleanser



Same product, I use the Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleanser for my morning cleanser too, but without the clarisonic. I used to use it only at night, and use a foaming type cleanser in the morning but I find that my T-Zone still gets oily throughout the day. So I figured that the foam in the cleanser might be drying for my skin, causing the sebum to produce more oil to compensate the oil loss by the foam cleanser. I switched to this gentle cleanser and viola! The sebum production on my T-Zone has been reduced tremendously! I'm just gonna stay away from foaming cleansers from now on. Sorry for the torn looking bottle, I've had this for almost a year now haha!

2. Toner



I use the same toner in the morning too, which is the Son&Park Beauty Water. For some days, when I am in a hurry or don't feel like washing my face with facial cleanser after shower, I only use a cotton pad and this toner to clean off any debris from last night and that works just as good.

3. Serum



In the morning, I only use 2 instead of 3 drops of this serum for my entire face. Like I said, I don't like to layer too much in the morning. I like to keep it light, avoiding as much causes for an oily skin as possible. But I still want the benefit of this serum to speed up the process of brightening my hyperpigmentation so I have to use it in the morning too.

4. Eye Cream



I just included this eye cream from Skinfood to replace my Garnier one, so I can't really tell how much it has improved my dark circles. But it has been moisturizing my under eyes very well I would say. Will keep you updated!


5. Moisturizer



I have only used this Clinique Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel for around two to three weeks, but oh my god. It has become my holy grail moisturizer! I never thought I could find anything that would work so well for my oily T-Zone, but this moisturizer really hydrates your skin very well that my sebum forgot to produce its oil like they usually do lolol. My foundation applies so smoothly on top, it never looked so flawless before. And it feel so light on the skin too! Really, no complain at all if you can overlook at the price. But hell no I am not gonna switch to anything anymore. I even bought for my mum for Mother's Day and she loves it too that she asked me to buy the whole 3 step set for her hahahaa. This one is a BAE. Okay enough, I'll do full review on it soon, but I'll have to test it long enough first okay?

If you have been following my blog before I think you'd know that I used the Royal Expert White Cream as my moisturizer. I still have it, but I stopped using it just because I needed something that would help with oil control. It's still a great cream if you're looking one for brightening, but I guess it's not moisturizing enough for my skin. Maybe I'll use it sometimes for night time, just to finish up the jar hehe.
Update : Lately there has been a scandal about the Royal Exoert Cream that says it contains a high amount of mercury but they are running a second test for it. Thank God I've stopped  using it! No mercury withdrawal symptom happens on me so far so the scandal might be true or no, we'll just wait for the test result.


5. Sunblock


Sun protection is a must. There's no way I'm gonna let the Sun to darken my hyperpigmentation after every effort and money I've spent to brighten them up lol. My favourite two to use would be this one by Biore and another one from Innisfree. But I like the Biore one slightly better just because the Innisfree can get a little oily on me throughout the day, so if you have dry to normal skin, go for the Innisfree one!

I've been wanting to post about my skincare routine for the longest time ever, but ya know me, I'm a girl who change my skincare products pretty regularly so I wanted to wait until I have found the products that I am confident to not be able to live without. I want to share the products that I know have been doing miraculous changes for my skin, and so here they are! As a guide, I have a combination skin where the area of my cheeks are normal, but the T-Zone is pretty oily.

1. Makeup Remover

I do double cleanse. For some reason I forgot to put the product that I use to take off my makeup before I cleanse my skin using normal cleanser lol, but I use the Senka's Perfect Watery Oil  to first melt off any makeup that I have on. I find that double cleansing is really important because your normal cleanser should be cleansing your skin, kills any nasty bacteria and clean all sorts of gunk inside the pores, so you should really take off that layer of makeup first for your normal cleanser to be able to do its job to the maximum potential. Any makeup remover will do!

2. Cleanser


I am currently using the Mario Badescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel as my morning and night facial wash, and I specifically use it with clarisonic at night time. These two together, is like peanut butter and jelly. It's just perfect! Clarisonic itself can be a little harsh to use daily, but I do want to use it daily anyway because I find that it really helps to really clean any excess makeup that my makeup remover couldn't remove. And it has helped so much in clearing out my skin, therefore I have to make sure that I use a really gentle cleanser with it. I have tried using my clarisonic with a bunch of other foaming cleansers but they just dry my skin out so I decided to use with with a non foaming gel cleanser, and it's just perfect. Highly recommend these two.


2. Exfoliator


One of my skin concerns right now is blackhead, so I try to incorporate BHA (Salicylic Acid) in my skincare routine to help with that. Most of the nights, I'll use the Cosrx's BHA Power Liquid after toning my skin. This is a chemical exfoliator so it is gentle enough to be used regularly. But once a week, I'll use a physical exfoliator to really scrub the dead skin cells and dirt off. Also containing BHA, I loveee scrubbing with this St. Ives Green Tea Scrub.


3. Mask


I do not have any specific nights to put on a mask, I just use them whenever I feel like. But the two out of my masks collection that I use the most are the B&Soap Apate Black Mask and the Skinfood Rice Wash Off Mask. The Black Mask I use specifically when my skin is going through a breakout or during that time of the month when I have one or two pimples showing up because it contains ingredients such as charcoal and ash which are great for drawing out impurities. It is a bit drying, that's why I only use it for that purpose. The Rice Mask is great for brightening and moisturizing, so I always use it when i know I have somewhere important to go out tomorrow, so I'll just slather this on the night before. I love it so much, almost running out of it.

4. Toner


I use Son & Park Beauty Water as my toner. It's a great hydrating toner. I find that it really works wonders to take off any excess makeup after cleansing. This product is super famous in Korea and I can clearly see why. Kinda like micellar water, but this one works as a toner too as it has the pH balancing and hydration properties. So it's like 2 in 1 product. This takes off the most stubborn waterproof mascara and liquid lipstick like a breeze. But if you have troubled skin like acne or clogged pores, this won't really help in that department. It's a great product, but I think I love my Eucerin Dermo Purifyer toner a lot more so i'm gonna repurchase that once I am done with this.

5. Serum


I use the Dr. Color Effect Red Serum to help lighten up my hyperpigmentation and acne marks. So far, it has done a great job at that. Doesn't make my skin oily or anything. I usually use 3 drops of this at night, wait for at least 5 minutes for the product to completely absorb into my skin before proceeding to the next step because I don't want whatever product that I apply after to interfere with the ingredients of this serum.


6. Eye Treatment

Laneige is a mid end korean skincare brand which is very famous for their water sleeping mask and I have heard tons of hype around this product. It seems like everybody loves it so I thought to give it a try. This is indeed my very first sleeping mask!

I purposely bought this serum for my acne marks and hyperpigmentations. I have actually received a sample sachet of this product a while back and fall in love with it so I decided to purchase the full size from Althea.


As the name suggests, the red serum is charged with ingredients that are highly enriched with phyto red such as pomegranate, raspberry, acai berry, blueberry, cloudberry and lycium. These ingredients are said to be very helpful with moisturization, antioxidation, improving skin elasticity, vitality and overall tone. Vitamin C content in the raspberry is responsible for the lightening of the scars and hyperpigmentation.

Hey everyone! Whether you like it or not, sun protection is crucial to prevent your skin from variety skin problems including aging, dark spots, pigmentation, cancer, and the list goes on and on. Nope, you cannot solely depend on the SPF content in your bb creams or moisturizers to do the protection for you 'cause they're just not enough. There are ton of choices of sunscreen in the market and today I am gonna write about my favourite one from the drugstore!



The first time I used this sunscreen was when I was in high school. I was looking for the best sunscreen to bring with me on a parade competition ( I represented for scouts!) at my school. I remembered picking this up for the oil control claim and the good reviews that it gets online. It was scorching hot but my face felt so comfortable that it didn't sweat much at all. So after the parade was over, I went to the toilet along with my friends, flipping my hijab away from my face to check on the tan line and to my surprise, I didn't had any! I knew exactly on that spot that I had fall in love with this thing.

First, let's talk about the fact that it provides such a hugeee amount of sun protection; SPF50+ PA++++ girl! If you don't know yet, the SPF value is for UVB protection and the PA is for UVA protection. Both of the SPF and PA value for this sunscreen is very high, so I know I'll be well protected as long as I apply enough amount of product on my face for maximum protection.



As the name suggests, the consistency of this sunscreen is very much like a milk, a very runny white and opaque liquid. Something different than your normal creamy sunscreens. So you need to shake the bottle up before pouring it out to make sure the product inside is thoroughly mixed. There was one time that I forgot to shake the bottle up and only clear liquid comes out when I poured it onto my palm lol.

One of the reasons I think most people do not want to apply sunscreen is because of the white cast that it gives. Well I'll say that you just haven't found the right one. Though this one from Biore still have a tint of white cast, it is not too crazy. Actually, it looks like it brightens up the face a little instead of looking like I have a white powder masked on. It dries down a matte finish which is a huge plus for people with oily skin as it also works great as a makeup base.


Comes in a screw cap bottle containing 30ml amount of product is really not that much, but to be honest, for the price point and the performance, this product is a major win for me. It's only about RM30+- at Watsons, and you can also find it at other drugstores like Guardian and SaSa. I have tried several other ones from Biore like the Aqua Rich Watery Essence, Aqua Rich Watery Jelly and from other brands, but I keep coming back to this one. Until now, I think that my finding-the-perfect-sunscreen journey is over lol, I am just gonna recommend this one to anyone who asks.

Pros :

• Oil Control
• Matte finish
• Waterproof
• Sweat resistant
• Easy to absorb
• Really works to avoid sun tan
• Affordable