NURUL AZIZ

 Assalamualaikum. Hi.

What makes you happy?

Whenever I was present with that question, my answer was always coffee. Well, there are scientific reasons for that. When we drink coffee, caffeine enters our body and causes our body to release dopamine, the chemical that responsible for the happy feelings we experience.

But today that question makes me wonder, if I take caffeine out of the equation, what makes me happy? And I realize I'm happy when I feel content with my life. I'm happy when I feel thankful for everything I have. I'm happy when I make peace with people I hate in the past. I'm happy when I stop competing and comparing my life with others.

However, this happiness isn't always here to stay forever because I'm a normal human being. There are days where I feel my life is a mess and I don't have enough. There will be days where I envy other people's lives and I let myself consumed by greed and hatred. Ooh, it stresses me out just by thinking of those days.

But right now,  Alhamdulillah I feel content and enjoying this serenity. I'm happy to know I have Him, the trusted hand I put my whole life and existence. May this feeling is here to stay for a long time.

I'm sorry for this out of nowhere post. I think the evening sun put me into this mood.

Enjoy your long holiday everyone. Have a good rest and do what makes you happy while you are at it.

Bye.

 Assalamualaikum. Hi.

Here, I present to you our kitchen's current condition. These past few days were challenging for me. It started during the weekend when I suddenly felt the urgent need to repaint our master bedroom. You know those days where you feel like you can do anything and you are so artsy and patient and you can finish a room makeover in a day. Bahaha. So I transferred everything from the master bedroom to the guest room. All by myself. Because Arrif and I had a small argument. He said, it's better for us to hire people to do that but I want to do it on my own because come on, it's just a paint job. We can do it ourselves. Besides, hiring people going to cost us extra money and I don't want to bear that cost. I love a little DIY and Arrif doesn't. So you figure, who's right and who's wrong here.

After both of us have cooled down, I told Arrif why not we add another plug point inside the room because we currently only have one plug point and it is located so far away from our bed and it annoys me to see the extension wire laying on the floor. Suddenly I added another extra cost. But wait, that's not all. I have another brilliant idea. After Arrif roughly calculated the cost of the wiring, I pause for some time and I came out with another idea. Why don't we install plaster ceiling in the bedroom so that we can avoid the cost of drilling the wall for wiring? Hahaha. Don't ask me where's the logic. From a little DIY project to plaster ceiling real fast. I also don't understand my (PMS) brain. But Arrif agreed to that and now we are still waiting for quotations for the plaster ceiling, wiring and painting. Yup, Arrif convinced me to let professional do their job including the paint. Tsk. And we are now living a nomad live in this guest room.

Yesterday, our kitchen contractor came to reinstall one of the cabinet door knob. It fell off and we can't reinstall it on our own because the knob thread is too short. Little did I know, they also change the hinges of the cabinet doors for I a reason I don't understand. And that required some drilling. For a day I wonder why there were dust everywhere I step. I just know about the drilling part today but I just don't have the willpower to be mad because I'm so tired today.

Why am I tired today? It was hot nowadays yeah? I had (what suppose to be) a short meeting at a client place. The appointment was at 10.00am. I was on my way when I got a call from the client. He had another meeting so he asked to postpone it to 10.30am. I can wait for 30 minutes, no problem. Long story short, I had to wait for an hour and a half in a airconless lobby. I went back to the office after that and went back home around 2.30pm because it's PKPB and we can only go to the office 3 days per week, 4 hours each day. I haven't had lunch at that time because I usually have my lunch at home since PKPB.

We are waiting for our food when Arrif told me there's no water. It's not possible because we didn't received any notice about water disruption. We were not affected when the whole Selangor face water disruption so why now? And then someone gave salam at our door. It was the contractor from the house below our unit. They just drill thru the ceiling and puncture our pipe so they close the water supply to our house. That's not the worse part. The worse part is they need to hack our floor so that they can repair the pipe. I was mad at that point. Not at the contractor but at our downstair neighbour. Just who the hell install a ceiling fan at a kitchen that small. Just put an aircond if you are that puteri lilin. Ooh the dust we have in the house after the floor hacking. We need to wait for the cement to harden before we can have our water back. I was about to clean the kitchen after Maghrib when I opened the kitchen tap and there's no water coming out of it while other tap in the house are working just fine. Arrif called the contractor and he said he will look into it tomorrow. We won't have water in the kitchen until the contractor figure out what's wrong. I don't bother cleaning the kitchen yet in case they are going to hack the floor back. So there goes why our kitchen looking like tongkang pecah right now.

There goes my disaster at home story. Ooh and guess where I had my lunch today? In the guest room aka our current bedroom. What a sad life. Please just let me have the weekend now!

I'm sorry you have to read my rant but thanks for reading anyway.

💙

Nurul

 Assalamualaikum. Hi.

As promised in THIS post, I'm here to write about my skincare routine. I have combination skin where I have oily T-zone and dry cheeks and chin. My skin is also super sensitive and acne-prone. If you have similar skin type with me and wish to try any products that I will mention later, please read more about those products especially the ingredients. Also please remember, products that work on me don't necessarily work on you even though we have similar skin types. If you tried them and it doesn't work, don't be sad and frustrated for too long. Keep on searching okay. You'll find skincare that suitable for you eventually. And I think I've found an okay-ish skincare routine for me.

Now, here's my skincare routine by following the order. Oh, I apologize for the bad quality pictures below. Hahaha. I thought the lighting was okay when I took those pictures but when I put them here, now realize how crappy they are.

MORNING ROUTINE

4. Kiehls's Super Multi-Corrective Cream

This is my favourite moisturizer ever! I did a review about it HERE so go read it.

5. Kiehl's Ultra Light Daily UV Defense Aqua Gel SPF50 PA++++

I like the texture but I love Dr KO sunscreen texture more but I hate Dr KO sunscreen metallic cap when the coating came out and stuck to my face. That's why I change my sunscreen to this one. Until Dr KO change their crappy packaging, I think I'll jump from one sunscreen to another until I found my next favourite. This Kiehl's sunscreen is okay but in my opinion, it's not worth the price tag.

After slapping all of those things on my face, it's makeup time. Concealer, lip balm and lipstick on lazy days (read: almost every day) or no makeup on weekends except when I go out.

NIGHT ROUTINE

Onto night routine.

1. Heimish All Clean Balm

I love this balm a lot. I didn't do double cleanse before. Well, I tried with Simple Hydrating Cleansing Oil last year but I hate the smell and the feel of it on my skin. Not to forget it also made my skin became oilier. So I stop double cleanse because I was too lazy to experiment with another cleanser. Until my doctor suggested me this balm and it was love at first use. Hahaha. It is recommended for people who use heavy make up. I don't do heavy makeup on daily basis (refer above) but I still use this. It cleanses and hydrates your skin at the same time. I usually use this during my evening shower. Ooh, I tried Kiehl's oil cleanser sample too but this one is better in my opinion.

2. Hada Labo Hydra & Whitening Face Wash Super Hyaluronic Acid

I wash my face using this and following by other routines only when I'm about to go to sleep.

3. Caver Nano Ag+ Wash 60ppm

4.  SOME BY MI AHA BHA PHA 30 Days Miracle Toner

I use this every other day because it is a chemical exfoliator and it is not good to chemically exfoliates your skin every day. I like this toner because not only it make my face feel fresh and clean from dead skin but it also reduces blackheads and whiteheads.

5. COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence

6. Kiehl's Powerful Wrinkle & Pore Reducing Cream

The name of this cream really terrifies me. Hahaha. I bought this because the SA at Kiehl's IOI City Mall said my favourite moisturizer (refer above) was already discontinued because they are going to come out with better formulation for that particular cream and she suggested this one for me. I don't see any visible result yet from this cream because I only use it during the night for now.

The reason why I only use the above cream during the night.

7. The Ordinary 100% Organic Cold-Pressed Moroccan Argan Oil (with a twist)

BEHOLD MY MOST FAVOURITE PRODUCT IN MY ENTIRE ROUTINE. Hahaha. I was planning to do a separate post to review this product because it deserves a special place in this blog but yours truly is so busy nowadays. I'll write a little bit about it here and make a full review post later if I have the time, alright. So this is my skin holy grail. The name is The Ordinary Argan Oil but mine is not ordinary at all because I add something special to this oil. Hahaha. I added essential oils from Young Living making it my own beauty serum. The essential oils that I added to this are Frankincense, Lavender and Copaiba. I think I'll stop writing about these oils here or else it will become one long paragraph. I promise I'll write a separate post soon.

So that's all for my skincare routine. I hope this can help you in a way or another. Just leave a comment if you have any questions about any of the products I mentioned above.

Ooh btw, I'm now a Young Living Distributor, you can contact me if you have any questions about Young Living or to enrol as a member or just want to buy any Young Living EO okay.

Thank you for reading.

💙

Nurul

Guess who has free time and not tired? Me. Baca SINI untuk cerita kenapa I takde masa nak update blog dan penat melampau. Tapi hari ni I ada masa lapang dan tak penat jadi marilah update blog sementara ada peluang.

Dah lama tak tulis blog bahasa rojak macam ni but tonight I will. I nak mintak maaf in advance to those yang tak suka tulisan rojak. Nak tulis full BM actually tapi biasanya kalau I tulis full BM, terus jadi skema. Kagum dengan kawan I, Ili (sempattt promot blog member. Thanks me later Ili walaupun blog aku bukan banyak view pun hahaha). Tulisan dia walaupun campur bahasa Melayu dan Inggeris jugak but bunyi proper tapi tak skema. Sila baca blog beliau kalau curious macam mana level proper tapi tak skema I tu. Lepas tu tak tau macam mana nak address diri sendiri, so guna I je lah for now. Harap bersabar ye. Hihihi.

Back to our title. Sekali lagi I nak mintak maaf to those yang selalu jenguk blog I samada untuk balas blogwalking atau memang suka baca blog I wah wah yakinnya kamu Nurul. Hahaha. I mintak maaf sebab korang selalu kena nampak post pasal my never-ending acne journey ni. I actually don't mind pun kalau ada orang skip post macam ni sebab I pun selalu buat macam tu. I'll skip posts yang tak menarik minat I bila pergi melawat kawan-kawan blogger yang lain. Hihihi. Tapi I kena tulis jugak journey ni untuk future reference and I also wish to help other people who face the same problem like me sebab I tau the struggle nak dapat kulit bersih tanpa jerawat. Dekat bawah nanti I akan tunjuk progress kulit so ni nak warning awal-awal bahawasanya post ni ada graphic content. Kalau rasa geli dengan muka berjerawat, silalah jangan baca. Kalau nak baca jugak, jangan scroll sampai bawah. I letak gambar tu dengan harapan orang-orang yang ada masalah macam I tak rasa down sangat or worse, rasa give up terus.

Remember I said I need to make peace and live together in harmony with my acne dekat post review Dr. Ko dulu. Well, I wasn't ready for that yet. Lepas I sedar breakout tu mungkin disebabkan oleh udara dekat Vietnam, I pun pergi ke klinik lagi. I decided nak pegi klinik tu pun tiba-tiba. One day I ada meeting dekat tempat customer. Lepas tu dah nak dekat lunch hour. Kalau dekat office selalu tak keluar pun time lunch sebab I tak suka panas hahaha. I pun jarang makan lunch sebenarnya. Tapi hari tu sebab dah dekat luar time lunch hour, I fikir why not pegi klinik. For. one. last. time. Sebab masa tu muka tengah breakout teruk sampai tak tahu nak buat apa dah.

I pun Google klinik kulit dekat area Shah Alam and jumpa Klinik Welcare. I tengok rating dia 4.7 stars. Review dia pun banyak yang positif so I decided nak pegi klinik tu. Klinik tu dekat Seksyen 17 Shah Alam. Dia klinik general tapi specialized in skin kind of clinic? I'm not very sure. Tapi orang yang ada sakit biasa macam demam ke selsema ke pun boleh datang klinik tu. Dorang pun ada buat 3D scan untuk pregnant women sebab I nampak gambar 3D baby dekat notice board dorang. Tiba-tiba 3D scan baby pun nak mention sini. Hahaha.

Clinic assistant dekat registration counter tu tak friendly langsung (-1 point). Maybe dia tengah PMS kot hari tu ataupun dia ada masalah ke, I pun tak tahu. Time sampai tu ada 4 atau 5 orang pesakit je sebelum I tapi sejam setengah jugak la kena tunggu before sampai my turn (-1 point).

Bila masuk bilik doktor tu, I was greet by the doctor in her chirpy voice (+1 point). Lepas tu dia pun tanya apa concern I for that day so I pun cerita la pasal breakout dan keadaan kulit. Dia dengar problem I dengan tekun okay (+1 point). I pun ada cerita jugak dekat dia pernah pergi Dr. Ko before tu and I was on anti-bacterial and isotretinoin selama tiga bulan sampai June tahun lepas. Lepas tu dia explain apa yang normally menjadi punca breakout. Dia suruh I reduce all the good food (sweet and oily food) bahaha she just read thru me. I memang suka all those 'good food' pun. Dia tanya apa skin type I so I cakap combination skin and doktor pun agreed yang I ada combination skin. Lepas tu dia mintak I list out skincare yang I pakai time tu and dia tolong check ingredients dalam semua skincare tu dekat Cosdna (+1 point). Biasanya I check skincare ingredient dekat SkinCarisma tapi rasa best la bila ada orang profesional yang tolong check untuk kita. Dia cakap I boleh continue guna semua skincare tu tapi semua tu tak tolong hilangkan jerawat and I pun tak perlukan produk sebanyak tu sebenarnya. Dia suggest a few products dekat I tapi dia suruh study dulu pasal produk tu semua sebelum I decide nak try each of them (+1 point)

Isotretinoin dalam botol tu. Anti bacterial tu Doxy 100. I baca doxy tu untuk bacterial infection.

29th March 2020. After 20 days, I pegi balik untuk check progress and topup anti bacterial pill. Tapi I mintak sekali dengan isotretinoin sebab time tu tengah PKP so I taknak keluar banyak kali walaupun untuk medical reason. Second visit I kena bayar RM 190 untuk both of the ubat.

Since tengah PKP, I drag third visit almost 2 bulan. Lagipun kulit dah makin okay. Isotretinoin still ada but anti bacterial tu doktor prescribe untuk 20 hari je. I check dekat farmasi dekat rumah I if dorang ada anti bacterial pill tu and dorang ada that anti bacterial. So I beli anti bacterial pill tu dekat farmasi je. RM 15 untuk dua papan tak silap harganya. I don't know if you can get this anti bacterial dari farmasi without prescription ke ape tapi hari tu I memang takde prescription dari doktor but I boleh je beli. But I tak recommend la you memandai pegi beli ni dekat farmasi je. Better pegi consult dengan doktor dulu. I berani pegi beli dekat farmasi sebab doktor memang bagi I anti bacterial tu masa tu.

My third and last visit was on 15th May 2020. Breakout dah clear. Time ni doktor still bagi isotretinoin dengan anti bacterial pill tu dengan Adapalene gel. Gel tu untuk sapu dekat jerawat. So while I was still on isotretinoin, at the same time I pakai gel tu jugak so that kulit I akan adapt slowly and tak breakout balik lepas dah habis isotretinoin tu. Ooh this time dose isotretinoin tu dah kurang. Before that I kene makan sebiji sehari, last bottle tu I makan dua hari sekali je. Ambik masa dua bulan jugak la untuk I habiskan the last isotretinoin prescription tu. Anti bacterial memang 20 hari dah settle. Lepas tu I dah takde topup dah. Doktor pun cakap kalau I dah tak nak datang klinik pun takpe dah. Last visit tu I kena bayar RM 218.

Grand total I spent dekat klinik tu was RM 660. Mahal tapi memang tu la realiti orang yang ada masalah kulit ni. Memang akan banyak duit habis. Sebab tu bila kulit dah clear, I tak kisah beli skincare yang pricey. Asalkan elok untuk kulit I (Nanti I share my current skincare yang I rasa sesuai untuk acne prone skin) Dah tak larat dah nak berperang dengan jerawat lagi. I'm lucky sebab I dah kerja, boleh la pergi treatment sana sini walaupun tak tahu berkesan ke tak. Memang banyak try and error. Mostly banyak error je. Hahaha. Untuk adik-adik yang masih bersekolah ataupun dekat universiti lagi, yang parents banyak tanggungan lain, try pergi klinik ataupun hospital kerajaan. Rasanya I pernah baca dekat Twitter, dorang pun ada rawatan untuk masalah jerawat.

Kesimpulannya, I memang recommend klinik ni bagi sesiapa yang ada duit lebih. Sekarang bulan 9, baru around 4 bulan kulit I bebas jerawat. Time Dr. Ko dulu bertahan 8 bulan before I breakout balik sebab pergi Vietnam tu. I harap kali ni takde la breakout lagi dah.

Now, gambar progress kulit I. Doktor tu memang suruh ambik gambar each time lepas jumpa dia so that dia boleh tengok progress skin. Another +1 point hahaha. Last visit je I tak ambik gambar sebab lepas tu dah tak payah jumpa doktor.

Scroll bawah panjang sikit la ye sebab I tak nak orang terkejut dengan graphic content ni.

Gambar dahi dah la hihihi. First pic after first visit. Second pic after second visit. Kalau zoom, boleh nampak ada jerawat yang keluar air. Third pic tu ambik hari ni. Dua gambar dekat atas tu I ambik lepas cuci muka and pakai skincare. Third pic je I just cuci dengan balm dulu. Tak pakai cleanser lagi. Memang tak licin macam orang yang tak pernah breakout teruk but I bersyukur at least takde dah jerawat besar macam before this. Tu ada red bumps sebab I tengah PMS and snacking almond banyak gila nowadays. Nak kena stop makan kacang la nampaknya sebab before ni takde pun bumps tu.

 Assalamualaikum. Hi.

How are you doing? I'm good. I miss blogging a lot but I don't have too much free time to update my blog. I'm working on weekends now because I need to replace 22 days of not working during MCO. We actually have two options, either take annual leave for those 22 days or work at least 2 days (on weekend) a month for 11 months. But I don't have 22 days of annual leave laying around so working on weekends it is.

Today is Hari Malaysia. Selamat Hari Malaysia to all Malaysian. I spent this precious holiday by went out to get nasi lemak and coffee this morning. I slept for 3 hours after I had the nasi lemak. I slept at 9.00 pm last night because I was too tired after work and woke up around 12.00 am because of storm and also because I felt uneasy since I hadn't perform my Isya' prayer. The storm stopped right after I finished my prayer. I can't stop thinking it was the way Allah reprimand me for not performing my prayer first before I go to sleep. I was planning to wake up at 3.00 am actually but Allah knows best. I can't sleep after that as I felt fresh so I continue scrolling my phone until 3.00 am. That's why I felt sleepy after having the nasi lemak. 

Around 11.30 pm, I woke up and had some coffee before I started cleaning the house. I hadn't vacuum and mop the house for almost a month because I was too busy and too tired to do it. Arrif (again) offered to hire cleaner to clean the house but I just don't trust other people's work. Hahaha. I don't think I'm fussy but I just have my own standard. And I rather he use the money to buy me more coffee (I'm on my second cup of coffee now. Guess who's going to have hard time sleeping tonight?) It was a torture for me to live in that kind of environment for almost a month but I just turned blind eyes. I also sorted unwanted clothes and even took pictures of the pieces I'm planning to sell. I still need to edit and upload them to Carousell and sort and fold those I want to donate and recycle. I don't know when I'm going to do that. I was planning to do it this evening. But (again) I'm already tired of cleaning 3 weeks' worth of dust. Arrif had his share of dusting the spider webs and he slept the whole evening after that. Hahaha. I plan to spend the rest of the evening reading. In fact, I was reading before started picking up my phone to blog this. Yup, I'm blogging from my phone today because this is going to be a quick and short update and also because I miss blogging so much but I don't have the will power to sit down and write properly from my laptop.

I have plenty of things I'd like to write but I'll do it when I have the luxury of free time later. I hope that day will come soon.

So we cannot upload picture to blogger from phone? Okay then.

p/s:  I compiled my commentator's link here as my way of appreciating their visit and comments. Feel free to visit them too ya 😊

Till then.

Thanks for reading.

💙

Nurul.