NURUL AZIZ

March 22, 2020 12 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

That is one clickbait title. I apologize in advance for that.

I love it when my house smell good. I think most women can relate to this right? Men please don't feel offended. Hahaha. We spend a lot of our time at home especially housewives. But I don't want to spend too much money on house scents because in my opinion although it is important to have a house that smell amazing but it still just a value added, not a necessity. So I always resort to cheap but good quality scents.

That being said, here are the things I use to make my house smell good.

p/s : I found new usage for my romance books that I don't read anymore (read : pictures prop 😂)

Glade Automatic Spray (~RM15 for the refill can)

I've been using this for years now (Glade please sponsor me 😆). I tried different smell of this spray during earlier days I started using it. Sort of experimenting which smell suit me best and I found the one for me. Now I only buy the Lavender & Vanilla refill and I love it so much. You know how each house has it own signature smell right? For example, my late grandpa's house had this smell that I loved, a combination of his smell and everything else in the house. Kind of rustic smell. Glade's Lavender & Vanilla is the signature smell I wish to have for my house. But I have problems with this type of diffuser(?). First, it operate on battery so I need to change the batteries once in three or four months and that's extra cost I don't want to bear. So I often let it sit for a long time before I feel like changing the batteries. That bring us to second problem, I'm not sure if this is related or not but I noticed everytime I let the spray unit sit unused for a long time, it won't work anymore even after I changed the battery. So yeah, the spray unit is not really reliable. Now I use this spray manually and that's answer why I haven't finished the can even after 6 months. I just forgot to spray it.

IKEA Sinnlig Scented Candle (RM5.90 - RM12.90)
I'm sure everyone who ever visited IKEA are familiar with this scented candle. Like Glade spray, I only buy vanilla scent because that's the only one scent I love among all other choices they have. You can see there is red candle in the picture. Arrif chose that because he likes everything strawberry (Yeah I know weird) but he never use it so I have to burn it just because I hate seeing the candle sit in the storage. I usually burn the candle in my bedroom. It give me the calming effect and make me sleep better (the vanilla ones, not strawberry). Don't worry, I put it far away from my bed and I will light it up only if Arrif is busy with his game and won't sleep until before 2.00 am so that there will be someone to blow out the candle. I also will light it up after I vacuumed my bedroom on every weekend morning just to make the room smell good. My problem with candle is it's not really safe. Of course I put it at a safe place but accident could happen right? And also, what did people do with the glass when the candle is finished? As you might know, I'm not a hoarder (you can read about it HERE), but the glass is nice. So everytime the candle is finished, I'll wash the glass, hoping I could use it for something later. I thought about planting succulent in the glass and make them as decoration or give them to people. Funny thing is, whenever I washed the glass and let it sit to dry on the dish drainer, Arrif will use it to drink water. Hahaha. I think it's not harmful as glass don't absorb chemicals from the things it contain, no? Chemist please correct me if I'm wrong.

DAISO Reed Diffuser (RM5.60)
I bought this diffuser from Daiso after watching a review on YouTube and this is the first time I bought them. The smells are quite nice but they are not strong enough to spread into the room. I literally need to put my nose very close to the bottle for me to able to smell it. Maybe you can put this in a wardrobe but I don't have wardrobe for now so I'm not going to buy it again.

That's all I use in my house for now. I know Bath and Body Works have tons of choices for scented candles but I'm not going to spend my money on something that expensive. I'll buy them when I become a Tai tai later. Hahaha. But I've been eyeing their wallflower. The price is a little bit higher than all the scents that I currently use, but still kind of affordable? Yeah, that answer why I haven't buy it yet. I'm still thinking do I really want to spend more than RM20 for house scents? What do you think? Is it a wise purchase? And also, please let me know what kind of scent do you use at home. I'm still looking for the best and cheap ways to make my house smell good.

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 😊

Thank you for reading.

💙
Nurul

March 14, 2020 22 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

I was choked with emotion when I watch this video. It wasn't the action in the video that cause my anger and sadness. But because of how much damage us human have cause to this world. It is so sad watching the tiger walked away from the place which once upon a time their home. How many more trees we want to cut and land we want to flatten? How many more animals we want to kill? This is their home too. How many more buildings we want to build as if existing buildings are not enough to shelter us. Enough is enough. With the COVID-19 outbreak, I understand people's fear and I don't mean to belittle scientists and those in healthcare's effort in searching for cure and care for the infected, but this is our doing. We cross the line. We poke mother nature just to feed our greediness. This fast globalization which is the product of our greediness that enable the virus to travel this fast. So really, this is our doing.

Look at this image of before and after of NO2 density in China. NASA believes that this decrease can be directly correlated to the shutdown of the factories and the economic slowdown that has occurred due to the spread of COVID-19

Arrif and I always argue about this one question. Does human race worth saving? In my opinion, we don't. As much as I love humanity but I have to admit this world is better off without us. Thanos was right. Now let's watch the Infinity Gauntlet of COVID-19 do it's job.

p/s 1: My thought (this post) and my actions might contradicting each other. I'm a consumer and benefited from this globalization too yet I'm talking about saving mother nature here. The fact is, I'm struggling too to do my part of reducing human footprint and I hope one day I'll be able to minimize my needs to the most basic. For now let's start from wants.

p/s 2: I compiled my commentator's link here as my way of appreciating their visit and comments. Feel free to visit them too ya 😊

Thank you for reading

💙
Nurul The Turtle Lover

March 07, 2020 22 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

Welcome to the second part of my Dr. Ko review. If you haven't read Part 1, you can read it HERE

To make it easier, I'm going to separate this post into parts as below;

1. Effect after medication and skincare (without facial)

2. Facial extraction

3. Effect after facial

4. My skin now

EFFECT AFTER MEDICATION AND SKINCARE (WITHOUT FACIAL)

After three weeks of consuming the medication and using the skincare, there were still acne popping up on my face. The big ones with pus inside already gone but my skin still felt sandy. I guess they were whiteheads. I tried to Google types of acne but there are too many different descriptions and not to forget, they are gross it make me feel uncomfortable. So I hope my description above is enough for you to imagine. Heheh. The medication suppose to make my skin and lips dry but surprisingly my lips weren't affected at that time. I thought this one too doesn't work for me 😕. I'm one impatient human being guys.

FACIAL EXTRACTION

Remember I said I only had the chance to do the facial after a month and half after my first visit HERE. After consultation session with the doctor on my first visit, I did make an appointment for facial. The appointment for facial on weekend is no joke. There were a very long queue so I decided to be on the waiting list for the next week in case there were cancellation from other customers. Sadly there were no cancellation so I need to set my appointment for another date which six weeks after my first visit. So please, just set a proper date.

The facial took three hours. To be honest, I had better facial extraction experience at my regular spa because they (read : Dr Ko) didn't scrub and steam your face. But of course spa is not the same with aesthetic clinic. I think they just don't want to risk enlarging pores and causing abrasion to skin. It was a bit painful since my skin was dry (from the medication) and wasn't really soft if compare with after steaming. But the beautician who did the extraction on me was so good. She did extract everything from my face. I'm amazed by how patient she was hahaha.

EFFECT AFTER FACIAL

It is normal for your skin to have redness after the extraction. After a few days, my skin peeled. It was just small peeling so it wasn't bad. After the dead skin gone, there came the soft skin. Mind you the softness was just on the touch. The dark scars were still there. A week after facial, I noticed my skin wasn't oily at all. Usually when I woke up in the morning, my skin will became oily but after the facial it wasn't oily at all. The effect wasn't only on my facial skin but also on my scalp. I only shampooed my hair once a week at that time. Hahaha. I was still on medication and using the skincare at this time so I think it was the combination of the three elements that cause my skin to become soft and not oily like that. I finally experienced how it feels like to have normal skin without problems after the longest time!

MY SKIN NOW

My skin was okay for 8 months. On October last year, it decided to breakout again and I'm still struggling with it up until now. To be honest I'm so tired with my overly sensitive skin. In my opinion if you don't have overly sensitive skin and the breakout you experience now is not repetitive unlike me, you can give Dr. Ko a try. But if you have overly sensitive skin like me and would like to try Dr. Ko, prepare your mental to not thinking your struggle will be over and no more acne forever. Hahaha. I didn't mean to be discouraging and negative but seriously, I think there is no end to this. Now I need to tell myself to make peace with these acne because I'm going to live with it forever. Wow that is one negative note to end this post. Hahaha. I'm sorry. Gambatte to all acne fighters!

If you have any questions about my experience with Dr. Ko, feel free to leave your comment. I'll try to answer it as soon as I can.

UPDATED : Three days after I posted this, I read on Twitter a girl had the same problem with me. She had breakout too. But that's not what shocked me. The shocking thing was, she also had that breakout more or less a month after she came back from Vietnam. She said the air was dirty.When I read that, I realize that I went to Vietnam on September and I started to breakout on October. . It was during haze at that time but Vietnam didn't affected by the haze so I don't know what makes their air dirty but even Arrif who has normal skin (not prone to acne or whatsover) also affected by it. He developed some weird rashes and he did pointed to me that it was because of Vietnam but I brushed him off each time. Hahaha.

Here's a screenshot from my Tweet. I'm sorry I can't put the girl's thread here because she already set her account to private and I don't follow her.

So in conclusion, it's not Dr. Ko doesn't work. It's just that people with sensitive skin really need to put extra care of their skin. Don't go visit random countries because in my opinion, it's not worth it. Hahaha. But that's only my opinion. You are free to have your own opinion too.

Thank you for reading.

💙
Nurul

March 01, 2020 16 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

This blogpost is inspired by Lya Amie's post. I love surprising my loved ones even with littlest things. The smile on their faces whenever they received the surprises is one of things that makes me happy.

My mak is one of my favourite person to surprise because she's often clueless. I have series of stories where we pranked her first before surprising her. Don't worry they were not mat saleh type of pranks. The most memorable one was when me and Ira went back to Terengganu for raya. This was before I am married. We usually started our journey from Selangor around 2.00am to 3.00am to avoid the typical festive season massive traffic. Mak will always called around after Subuh prayer to check on us. As far as I remember, we never tell her the truth about our current locations. Our answer will always be, "baru gerak" or "baru sampai (insert random location)" and she believed that. Every. single. time.

That time, she called us as usual. We were about three hours away from home but when she called us, we told her we just enter the LPT 1 highway. So I guess she continue with her activities thinking her two daughters will only arrived 5 or 6 hours later. When we almost exited the highway, Ira called ayah to ask their whereabouts because she told us she planned to buy groceries earlier when she called us. Oh, ayah is one of our partner in crime in surprising mak. He's one reliable and good partner in crime. Hahaha. Ayah told us mak was at this one hypermarket so we head there right after exited the highway. When we arrived at the hypermarket, we were stopped by ayah who was waiting in the car. He told us mak is at the counter, paying for the items. So me and Ira entered the hypermarket with caution because the counters located close to the entrance and we don't want mak to see us before we get close to her. Iqa, our littlest sister was at the counter too with mak. She saw us first but I don't remember her reaction. When we arrived at the counter, I patted mak's shoulder and said "hi" to her. She "hi" back to me and smiled a little and continue rummaging her purse, looking for money I think. Few seconds later she look back at me and shouted heyyyy. This time with a grin. Hahaha. She hi me the first time without realizing it was me that stood in front of her.

But as the saying goes, the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last or as we Malaysian says, sepandai-pandai tupai melompat akhirnya jatuh ke tanah jua. I kantoi once tho. It just happened end of last year when we were on our way back home. That night, she called us as usual to checked what time we will start our journey. Since we were not at the same place (me at my house and Ira at her rented house) she called Ira first. When she called me, she told me Ira can't go back as planned and she asked me why to which I answered, "Mana kak tau. Dah dia tak boleh balik". Mind you, Ira never told me her plan (read : surprising mak). Only when we were in the car I asked her did she tell mak she can't go back and she just laughed at my question 😒. There, suddenly we set another surprise for mak.

That morning when we arrived Terengganu, we missed the nearest exit to the house. Me and Ira were sleeping and Arrif was too immersed in his Spotify. The next exit located near to a pasar minggu (pasar pagi / pasar tani) so we planned to head there first to buy some kuih for breakfast. I called mak to tell her about our situation and if she needed anything from the pasar. Here I translated our conversation (because we spoke in Terengganu' slang) as I remember it;

Mak : Nak makan nasi dagang? Kalau nak, beli la beras nasi dagang
Me : (TALKING TO IRA WHILE MAK IS ON THE LINE YOU STUPID OR WHAT NURUL? HAHAHA). Ira nak nasi dagang?
Mak : Haa, cakap Ira tak jadi balik. Ooo tipuu. Pandai sangat ni.

Hahaha. She practically shouted at me through the phone. I think that was the first time I ever failed to surprise her. Mak is one of the person I know that rarely show her sadness so when she asked me why Ira can't go back, her tone was normal. No trace of sadness or whatever even after I teased her with "sedih la tu?". I guess losing her mother at young age really mould her to be strong and make her keep her emotion deep inside herself. But when she 'shouted' at me, I could sense her happiness when she know Ira will be home too. I just love it when she is happy like that. I mean, who don't want to see their mother happy right?

But I think she's kind of get it now because her guesses almost always hit the bull's eyes nowadays. She gave me a big Tupperware container when I always complained I don't have container big enough to store keropok. I'm sorry, I'm that spoil when I'm with my mum. Suddenly she wanted that too as if she don't have enough container collection already 😑. Such an Asian mum. Sadly the container was out of stock at her 'supplier'. Last two week I saw that container at my friend, Ili's whatsapp status. So I straight away booked one from her and asked her to send it to mak but I didn't tell mak about it. The parcel arrived this week (it's not Ili fault. I just paid her at the end of the week) and she called me first. Last month Ira ordered her birthday gift online also without telling her and she called Ira first. She's good in guessing now. We are in trouble. Hahaha.

Mak and her ~~annoying~~ lovely last child

Anyway, if you want to order Tupperware container and don't know where to get it, you can contact Ili HERE. Don't worry she's a trusted seller. She also sell chocolate but I never tried them yet.

Disclaimer : This is not a sponsored post

February 22, 2020 20 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

From my IG story

Those who read and watch Harry Potter must have already familiar with horcrux. To those who are clueless, horcrux is an object in which a dark wizard or witch has concealed a fragment of his/her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality. Horcrux is a dark magic and it can be literally any objects even the most common one like comb or pot. Among the characteristics of horcrux are it can sense threats and possess self defense mechanism. One of the event where you can see these characteristics of horcrux was when Ron Weasley tried to stab Slytherin's Locket (Voldemort horcrux) with Gryffindor's Sword (one of the item that can destroy horcruxes), the locket taunted Ron with his deepest fears. That's where my IG story came from. It was Ron's deepest fears.

I have seen your heart, and it is mine. ... I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. ... Least loved, always, by a mother who craved a daughter...least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend...second best, always, eternally overshadowed.

And it is mine too, every time, during that time of the month because I always feel like I'm at the bottom of priority list of everyone I love. I can live thinking that I am nobody number one on normal days. But when my hormone levels fluctuate like nobody business, it's hard to keep my emotion away and be the ridiculously rational and positive version of me.

Then came this reply,

Ignore our grammar discussion. Hahaha.

A reply from my Nee (Trivia 1 : As you can see from the screenshot, her real name is Su Omar. But we call each other Nee, short for bunny. She called me bunny first because I think she think I'm cute 😆)

She might not realize it, but her "Says Mr. Horcrux?" slapped me. Of course it was also because it was the next day when I read her reply and the feeling has faded. But it still make me think. It was just words by a horcrux, created by dark magic and a dead one on top of that. So why does it matter?

From this, I think sometimes it is okay for us to be drown in our own sadness and insecurities. We are all human and we have emotion afterall. But don't let yourself wallow in those feelings for too long. Cry if you need to (Trivia 2 : My favourite place to cry is in the car during traffic jam hahaha) but be happy after that. Find something you like and distract yourself with it. InsyaAllah, you'll feel good after that.

I'm sorry to bore you with my weird PMS story. Let's see each other next month with another story. Hahaha.

Thank you for reading.

💙

Nurul

February 15, 2020 17 comments

Assalamualaikum. Hi.

This happened literally a year ago because I went to Dr. Ko on February last year but I think it is a good thing I just have the mood to write about it now because I could give proper review. The long term effects like what happened to my skin a year later. But HERE's a spoiler if you care for one. Read at your own risk, alright.

I decided to go to Dr. Ko because I had terrible breakout (what's new huh?). It was actually my fault. I didn't realize that my scrub and moisturizer has expired. Hahaha. You know what, it wasn't 100%. We can also blame Watson store near my house for not removing items that close to their expire dates from the shelves. I'll never buy anything from that Watson anymore and guys, check the expiry date before buying anything especially things you put on your face.

I called Dr. Ko Puchong beforehand asking if I need to make an appointment but they said I can just walk in anytime. I went to Dr Ko Puchong because that was their closest center to my house. I think they are open everyday from 10.30am or 11.00am to 7.00pm. I went on Saturday because I'm working a Monday to Friday job.

From my consultation with the doctor, I can conclude that there are five factors triggering acne and I think most people already know what they are especially people who are always struggling with acne like me. And they are ;

1. Hormone

2. Product (skincare, medications etc)

3. Environment

4. Stress

5. Diet

The doctor suggested for me to take the acne package. I'm not sure if they have other acne packages but this was the one she recommended for me.

What's in the package?

1. 1 month worth of medications (antibiotic and isotretinoin)

2. Full set of Dr Ko acne skin care

3. 3x facial (extraction)

Now let's go to one of the reasons why you are googling Dr Ko Review at the first place. How much does this package costed me. It was RM 1449. Beauty is pain (in the pocket) guys. Now let me walk you through all those items above.

MEDICATIONS (RM 330/MONTH)

This was a month worth of medications. I was on the medications for three month so every month I went to Dr Ko to get new set of those pills. The dosage depends on individual. I need to take 2 of the isotretinoin (purple capsule) for the first five days and one each day after that. The doctor told me that isotretinoin can cause birth defect if you take it during pregnancy. So if you are planning for a baby or if you are a pregnant lady, don't take this. You need to stop isotretinoin a month prior trying for a baby. It will also make your lips dry.

SKIN CARE (RM 880/SET)

The price of Dr. Ko skincare set is totally not pocket friendly especially for students but to think that I've been struggling with acne for 9 years and I've tried so many cheaper alternative that didn't work for me, so I thought I'll treat this as an investment for myself. I forgot the price for each products with the package discount. I'm really bad with number guys. Like REALLY BAD. Luckily there are price tag on each products' packaging. But they are the net price not discounted price (update : well I calculated it and it just RM8 difference between package price and net price 😴)

The products in application orders

From left to right;

Bio Perform Acne Cleanser RM 139

The cleanser is my third favourite item in this set. It came in a pump which I like because it also came with a cap so it's travel friendly. I have just finished this last December which mean it lasted almost a year for me. I use two pumps of it each time I washed my face. Sometimes one pump, especially during the morning when I was still on medication because my skin wasn't oily at all. Actually it's worth the price because you don't have to buy cleanser for a year, don't you agree? Please excuse the cap. The metallic coating peeled off when it came in contact with water. That's the only part I hate about this cleanser, specifically the packaging. The metallic coating will stuck on your skin like glitter and it's very hard to remove.

Clarifying Mist RM 120

I'm not sure what's the function of this one. As the name suggest, this is a mist spray. Maybe for hydration. I don't know if it helps with combating acne. Please, if anyone know anything about facial mist, please educate me because I really don't think it does anything. Hahaha. This one finished after around two to three months if I'm not mistaken and I since I'm so ignorant about the advantages of facial mist, I didn't bother buy a new one after that.

Vitality Purifying Essence RM 120

This also came in a pump. That's what I like about Dr. Ko's skincare packaging. They are hygienic. This one is use on problematic area where those nasty acne located. It has the smell of alcohol so I'm guessing it is use to disinfect the acne bacteria? Please bear with my guessing game. Hahaha. When I use this while I was on medication and few months after that, it still works. But it doesn't works nowadays. I'm not sure if the bacteria are already immune to this or what. I still haven't finished this bottle. Oh, you will feel tingly when you apply this if you have acne wound from self-peeling acne. I was guilty of that so I that's how I know. Actually I still does that tehee. Don't be like me. KEEP YOUR HAND AWAY FROM YOUR FACIAL SKIN guys especially if you have acne prone skin like me.

Acne Therapy Solution RM 99

It is actually spot treatment so this one is to be applied on each of the acne bumps. Just like Vitality Purifying Essence, it works on me only when I was on medication and few months after that and I also haven't finished this tube. Maybe I put too little of it so that's why it doesn't works?

Bio Hydro Gel RM 230

Behold, my most favourite item from this whole set. This is the moisturizer. The name suggest that it's gel but actually it is more like cream with water-like consistency. Isn't that magic? The bottle is also kind of unique. The moisturizer came in a airless twist up pump bottle. That's a bit of mouthful. Hahaha. HERE an example. I'm sorry if you're not fascinated with it. Maybe it's just the designer in me who find the mechanism interesting. Although it's cream type but it doesn't feel sticky and oily at all. I love it. This is the only item that I bought again after I finished the first bottle. You can read why I don't buy third bottle HERE.

Bio Defense Suncscreen RM 100

This is their sunscreen with protection factor of SPF 60. It came in a tube. This is my second favourite. I like it thick creamy white texture. With that texture, one might expect it to be oily but surprisingly it is not oily at all. I haven't finished this tube too because as I said the texture is thick so just a little of it can already cover my whole face and I don't really go out. Also I'm guilty of not wearing any sunscreen at home. Heheh. I might repurchase this again if not for the metallic cap. I once accidentally wetted the cap and the metallic coating came off. It still come off up until now. So sometimes I have glitter on my face when I'm in a hurry and just don't have time to deal with it. Or do you know any hygienic ways and container that I can use to transfer and store this because I really do like it.

FACIAL EXTRACTION (RM 200/ 3 SESSIONS)

Their net price for facial extraction is actually RM 200/session. But I get two sessions free because it was my first time with Dr. Ko. You need to book early for the facial because they are always full on weekend since everyone only have free time on weekend. Unless you are free on weekdays, then you are good. I only had the chance to do the facial after a month and half after my first visit. I'll let you know why that happened in my next entry (hint : it is my own fault)

I'll update more in my next entry.

Thank you for reading.

💙

Nurul

February 08, 2020 18 comments

NURUL AZIZ

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