Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

K-Beauty On the Road: Inappropriate Sheetmasking & Involuntary Strobing

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, you've no doubt already seen/heard my special-event-attendance woes leading up to this weekend; I live a hectic life full of important things like reorganizing my spreadsheet or inventorying my sheet masks, not to mention writing a blog post every weekend and working 60 hours a week at my day job.  This means social outings that require the trappings of non-hermit life such as well-behaved skin, makeup, and spanx is more than I can handle.

Having had to do it a few weekends in a row has me ready to retire from human contact until at least midsummer.  Stress and troubled skin is a bad combination, but weddings are one of those events that you can't really dodge, so I took advantage of our out-of-state drive and loaded our car trunk with (I kid you not) a cardboard box full of skincare, makeup, and sheet masks.  Being 'ready' was beyond my means, but this was as close as it was going to get.

Korean beauty product routine
I loved the dark cherrywood of this desk so much that I'm writing this covered in sawdust. More on that later.
I'm actually already a few hours overdue to be asleep for an early morning workday, so this post is going to be brief (ahahaha no) and terrifying; I'm going to include a demonstration of the cushion + (accidental) highlighter on my skin.

I've also finally figured out how to properly create a linked table of contents (I think), so you can now just jump to the section you want, woo!

In this post:


I need an adult, or preferably an adult beverage, but then I'd fall asleep at my computer and the rest of this post would be endless lines of "dfghjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj" and then possibly a tweet tomorrow about how I caused an electrical fire by drooling into my keyboard.  If you don't want to see how my repurposed highlighter + cushion looked after a full night of wear, duck out after the money shots of the cushion.  You've been warned!

Embracing Change; Ditching the Desert

Today’s post is going to be both a little more personal and also blog-centric, but rest assured next week we’ll be back with your regularly scheduled programming of reviews, nerdiness, and eye candy.  First, though, I have some updates to discuss.

This is a National Geographic image of the desert in which I live(d). Image credit National Geographic
This month will bring about some serious life changes and blog changes; a personal chapter in the life of my family is drawing to a close and a long-awaited new beginning is happening.  If you’ve ever checked out my Skin Type & History post, you will know that I moved from the temperate and verdant climate of Canada to the harsh and barren wilds of the US desert several years ago, and the resulting skin crisis was the catalyst for this blog.  

In the desert no more

Travel SOS: Taking a 10 Step Skincare Routine on the Road with Poor Planning

While having a Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine is awesome for customization whether it's the Winter or Summer, it also means that travelling is a bit of a nightmare.  Last week I was out of state, and since we would be gone a full week, I mistakenly assumed that we would be checking a bag and thus figured I could pack the full-size bottles that make up my current routine.

The night before we flew out, I got ready to pack and was was advised by my bewildered spouse that we would not be checking a bag.  Cue panic!  How was I going to fit my routine in a carry-on?!

The dreaded 3-1-1 TSA guideline.  Image from here
If you aren't familiar with the American TSA rules for carry-ons, anything liquid has specific rules, namely:
3-1-1 for carry-ons. Liquids, gels, aerosols, creams and pastes must be 3.4 ounces (100ml) or less per container; must be in 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. The bag limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring.
A quart-sized ziploc bag is not a lot of space when even your "pared-down" Summer routine looks like this:

Image from my Updated Multi-Step Korean Skincare Routine Summer 2015: Sheet Masks Galore post
If I had planned ahead, I could have purchased all the airless pump bottles I would need to decant everything I wanted, and played tetris until I had the perfect combination.  Sadly, I had time for neither.

In this post:
  • The 411 on my 3-1-1
  • My 'dry goods' and makeup
  • What I took with me and why
  • What I regretted not bringing

So with no time to order bottles, what did I do?