An update & hiatus

By the time this post goes live, I will be sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to the US of A! The day is finally here when I get to not only travel to visit family and friends for a month, but also begin my journey to grad school!

How calm and composed I am at the thought of my upcoming reunions and new beginnings (I am essentially all of these corgis combined)

I'll be traveling leisurely about the US for the next month before settling into my new midwest home for the next two years. As such, posts will be a bit fewer and farther in-between (I have 2-3 scheduled from now until September. There's one for next Tuesday, so stay tuned!). I'll try to keep up with Fun Fact Fridays, but no guarantees ! I'll be spending a week each in four different cities, so I might try to do FFF updates with pictures from my wanderings, shenanigans, and discoveries instead of web articles and posts. I'll definitely be Instagramming my journeys and happenings, so be sure to follow me @howdoithai!

If you're in Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, and/or Seattle and see a super confused Asian girl with hair that looks like it's possessed by lions roaming about, there is a slightly higher than usual chance that it's me.

This is how I look, but just a bit more Asian | Source

Also, if you have any suggestions for what to do in any of the aforementioned cities, let me know, especially for LA and Seattle! So excited to see old friends and explore new places :)

Things will be back to normal(ish) by September. It'll be even more exciting then, because I will be settling somewhere new, and my no-skincare buy will be over! I'll have new goodies and pretties to test, and hopefully I will be able to keep up with this blog while I go through grad school!

Hope you're having a great day, and I'll see you on the blogosphere/Instagram-sphere soon!

Fun Fact Friday #3

Hello! Welcome to this week's Fun Fact Friday!

IZ FRIDAY (I may or may not have been inspired by one of the articles this week...)

I'm playing catch up with some older articles that have been opened on my browser for ages, hence the reason for the more dated articles for this week's FFF. Hope you enjoy them nonetheless :)

This week's instalment includes:

• Why is there so much hate for the word 'moist'?
• The transgender glass ceiling in Thailand
• Why some people are always late (and the types of people who are)
• The quest for the perfect pad thai

Guide: Asian Beauty shopping in Thailand

This post was supposed to go up earlier, but 80% of my post failed to properly save when I wrote it over the weekend.

You might have seen this on my Instagram | Source

Source

Nonetheless, I finally found the motivation to finish it up, so here it is! The guide to Asian Beauty (AB) shopping in Thailand :)

First of all, I am by no means an expert, but having spent the past two years back in Thailand since undergrad hunting down Asian branded skincare and makeup, I feel like I have a better knowledge of where to go to test, swatch, and browse for AB items. This list is by not comprehensive by any means, but I hope you find this helpful if you ever have the chance to visit Bangkok!

In this guide, I'll be mentioning Korean/Taiwanese/Japanese beauty brands, but also some Thai brands you might be interested in trying and buying.

I want to preface this guide saying that nearly all the brands listed here are quite marked up in Thailand. I suppose that is to be expected since all these items are imports, but just keep that in mind when shopping around here. It might be in your best interest to simply swatch items at the physical counters, and then buy it later online.

With that said, let's get to it!

Fun Fact Friday #2

It's Friday, so here is instalment numero dos in the Fun Fact Friday series!

How I feel when it is Friday, but also FFF #2!

If you're new to these parts (howdy! :D), FFF is a series where every Friday I round up interesting articles/stories/quotes/written word/etc. from the past week, and summarize and comment on it. You can read more about its origins here.

This week's FFF includes:

• Why do puns make people groan?
• 17 Aziz Ansari quotes on modern romance
• Does England make the most delicious breakfast?
• How grounded is your love life?
• Personal musings on Greek mythology

COSRX: Mini review, but lots of love

I am a pretty punctual person in real life (well, most of the time), but when it comes to trends, I have been, and always will be, late to the party.

Okay, I was actually ahead of the curve for the glory and greatness that is/was Gangnam Style, but that was mostly a fluke | Source

Whether it's fashion, TV shows (looking at you, Game of Thrones), or skincare, I only jump on the train as it is leaving the station. Even as I write this now, there are already so many posts and proclamations of love for COSRX that everyone else is already hopping on to the next wave of Asian Beauty pretties (Tosowoong, Goodal, Whamisa, Cremor Lab, anyone?). As I have been slow to come aboard this hype train, and am still contentedly yet belatedly sitting in it as it is leaving the station, I figured I might as well shout my love for COSRX into the dwindling void, because seriously my skin has never taken such a liking to products so quickly.  I'll post mini-reviews on the three COSRX products I have been using, mostly since many others have reviewed them already, and there's only so much new insight I can contribute!

In this post, I'll be providing mini-reviews on my experience using the following three products:

1. COSRX AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid
2. COSRX BHA Blackhead Power Liquid
3. COSRX Galactomyces 95 White Power Essence now mercifully changed to COSRX Galactomyces 95 Whitening Power Essence because the COSRX team is truly bae 

I felt like I was taking pictures of a boyband when photographing these.

Additionally, I will also comment how these products, plus their fantastic customer service and relations, will most likely be taking my money for the foreseeable future.

Fun Fact Friday #1

The inaugural Fun Fact Friday post! If you're curious what this series is all about, read the FFF introduction here!

How you will react by the end of this post! (Maybe. Hopefully?) | Source

Health

Colorado's Effort Against Teen Pregnancies Is A Startling Success by Sabrina Tavernise via the New York Times || dated 5 July 2015
Through a private grant, Colorado has been implementing a program that offers long-term birth control options such as the intrauterine device (IUD) and implants to all women - especially poorer women - at no cost to them. The researchers conducting this six year experiment wanted to see whether women would opt to use these devices in these circumstances, and how that would affect the overall birth rate.

Results from the study show that women did indeed elect to use these long-term birth control options when given the opportunity, leading to a 40% decrease in teenage pregnancies between 2009 and 2013. The rate of abortions also fell by 42% in this time period. Allowing women to better control when they want to have children is "one of the simplest, fastest, and cheapest things we can do" to reduce poverty. Colorado's state health department has estimated that for every dollar spent on long-term birth control programs, that leads to a $5.85 saved for the state's Medicaid program, which covers pregnant women, children, and their mothers who are unable to otherwise afford healthcare.

Science

The Brain of the Buddhist by Kathy Gilsinan via The Atlantic || dated 4 July 2015

“He said: ‘You’ve been using the tools of modern neuroscience to study depression, and anxiety, and fear. Why can’t you use those same tools to study kindness and compassion?’ … I did not have a very good answer. I said it was hard.”

That was a question the Dalai Lama asked neuroscientist Richard Davidson when Davidson met the Dalai Lama back in 1992. Since then, Davidson has been conducting studies to see the brain activity of Buddhist monks who meditate many hours a day. While meditating, these monks are 'generating “a state in which love and compassion permeate the whole mind, with no other consideration, reasoning, or discursive thoughts.”' MRIs show that these monks had higher gamma oscillation activities, which indicates that the brain is more plastic/capable of change. This may offer insights as to why those who meditate/express compassion, which is considered "a state that involves the body in a major way" are more resilient to certain negative events.

Social/Cultural

Learning the Hard Way Why You Just Shouldn't GetTooClose by Deepak Singh via NPR || dated 27 June 2015
The United States is a wonderful place for cultures and worlds to collide. Some say it's a melting pot, but I think it's more of a salad: many cultures come together, but it's hard to integrate. Singh talks about learning about this unwritten American cultural notion "personal space", something that Americans seem to take very seriously and personally. However, personal space is a luxury in some countries, such as India, where Singh is from.

I think this article is just a nice reminder that when you meet/experience someone committing a cultural faux pas, instead of being irritated with him/her, realize that s/he honestly may not understand what gaffe s/he is making. Instead of derision, try to be kind, and help them.

Personal

This isn't a recent find, per se, but I have been unable to stop thinking of this quote since I discovered it, and wanted to share.

Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors. -- Andrew Boyd

Why did you think of the articles mentioned? How about that quote?

Thanks for reading, have a wonderful weekend! :)

Fun Fact Friday: An introduction

I am an avid reader and learner, especially on health and public health issues. I frequently have far too many tabs open linking to articles on politics, economics, social dynamics, beauty and fashion (xD), but mostly health-related issues.

Me when I find an awesome article to read

Inspired by Franish's Top Three round up series, where she includes information she has learned through med school as well as other fashion blog-related links, I am beginning Fun Fact Friday: a series where I will be rounding up articles, stories, quotes, etc. I have read in the past week. Honestly, this will probably mostly focus on health and public health tidbits learned, but I'll try to intersperse it with non-health information as well (feel free to suggest any articles or topics)! I hope you'll find this even mildly interesting :)

PS. To my US friends, Happy 4th of July! Fun fact: 4 July is also the birthday of one of Thailand's princesses: Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn Walailak, an avid learner and promoter of the sciences. Celebrations, all around!

Review: CLIO Waterproof Brush Liner vs. KATE Super Sharp Liner

You know, sometimes I think life would be infinitely better if I just stayed optimistically disappointed about everything. That way, things would only be able to look up from there, you know?

And on that optimistic note, here I go on my review comparing two liquid eyeliners: CLIO Waterproof Brush Liner and KATE Super Sharp Liner.

There has been a lot of love and buzz on these two liners - particularly CLIO - but do they live up to the hype? The surprising, and mildly disappointing results, after the break!

Review: Shiseido Aqualabel Whitening Jelly Essence

I am writing this while wearing a hydrogel mask with my newly purchased Daiso silicone mask cover! Mask + Daiso + glasses = me looking like an overly studious and botoxed serial killer. It is for this reason I have waited until the rest of my house has gone to bed before applying the slippery hydrogel onto the skin, so as to prevent any impulsive 911 (well, 191 here) calls should someone walk in to see me like dis. Anyway. It's been approximately one month since I started my relationship with the Shiseido Aqualabel Whitening Jelly Essence, so I can finally review it!

Apologies for the blurry photo! I only just noticed this after uploading.

The following information is paraphrased from the ever-informative, Ratzilla Cosme: The Shiseido Aqualable Whitening Jelly Essence is supposed to be a 4-in-1 product: an astringent, hydrating lotion, serum, and moisturizer. Its main function is to prevent dark spots. The main active in this is m-tranexamic acid. I became interested in this after this post on Reddit about actual pore minimizing ingredients. The poster mentioned this product as an affordable option for the ingredient, glycylglycine, and what do you know, I managed to find it in stores on sale a few weeks later! So I bought this for the pore minimizing abilities, but became pleasantly surprised at the overall results.

Review: The Saem Snail Soothing Gel

Having lurked assiduously on several skincare and beauty blogs and subreddits for almost two years (1 year and 7 months if you want to be exact), I've learned a lot about how to read ingredients list on a skincare items. This allows me to be more critical, and look past advertising claims (since everything seems like the new "it" and wonder product these days) in order to determine where best to invest my money. This is important, because whether I use the product or not, every skincare and beauty product I buy will be sunk cost anyway (unless I manage to sell/swap it, but that's hard given my location).

My improved knowledge of ingredients has given me more confidence to venture out beyond blogger favorites, and explore lesser known products. This leads me to today's review of The Saem Snail Soothing Gel.

Look at dem snails, ain't they so cute?

Review: Fairydrops Volume Burst Waterproof Mascara

Friends, I may have discovered my holy grail mascara. This may just knock off the oft-raved about, very well-loved Kiss Me Heroine Long & Curl Mascara from its #1 status on my lashes.

Fairydrops Volume Burst Waterproof Mascara | Source

I am truly in love with the Fairydrops Volume Burst Waterproof Mascara. It ticks off everything I want in a mascara, and then some. Before, I never asked for too much out of my mascaras. I just wanted something that 1) held a curl, and 2) really lengthened my short Asian lashes. It wasn't until I used this Fairydrops mascara that my eyes were opened (pun completely intended) to the wonder of having a curl-holding, lengthening, and volumizing mascara on these unimpressive lashes.