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Hi Everyone,
After much struggle with my camera lens issue (had some fungus crap growing in it and had to get it serviced..), I'm back, meekly waving a flag of hello with an embarrassed grin to my face.



This is a quick update on my skincare routine.  As someone pointed out, 2009 was the last time I updated anything related to a full routine of doing my skin, so I thought I'd update you guys.

A couple of things have changed since my last skincare video.
- the frequency of washing the face.
- Products I use
- Other factors (mainly birth control pills)
- Living environment

Things that haven't changed much..
- My diet (although I do eat out more often than I did in New York)
- My workout (on and off, but I manage to do some cardio here and there, pretty much the same as my NY days)
- My sleeping cycle
- Caffeine intake
- When I shower (I shower daily, at night)

I hope this video helps out anyone curious about what I do to my skin.  Also, a lot of people have asked about my acne scars.  I still have my acne scars, but I think mine fade away easily.  I don't pop my pimples or irritate any break outs.  I just leave them and even if I accidentally scratch them, I let them be and wait for time to heal the scars.  As you can see through out the video my bare skin is actually red and spotty.  The redness is a result of a lot of acne scars overlapping each other.  I don't do anything extraordinary - I'm too lazy to do sheet masks, intensive treatments, anti-aging or whitening stuff (although I think I should be doing these religiously since my skin often looks dull and tired, LOL), so this video really is what I do everyday.

In the near future I do plan to get my freckles and sun spots removed, but I don't think I'll mess around with the acne scars since they cover such a vast surface area.
I'll update you guys when I get my sun spots / freckles removed! :)

Also, I understand that there's always a heated debate of the pros and cons regarding birth control pills - I don't recommend BC pills for everyone, I'm only sharing what worked for me.  Always consult your doctor before trying out birth control pills.  It's definitely not for everyone.  My mom, for instance, took birth control pills when she was young and she had major side effects and health problems (hence her opposition to my usage of the pills), so research and figure things out before jumping on the pills!

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Above is pretty much the same info as in the video description.

And below is just a small diary section. hehe.

I was feeling crappy today because I felt like I failed at something at work.  I'm really harsh on myself and I can't really lift my spirits after what happened today.  Usually small things like that lead to a bigger picture of how I fail to do so many things in life, even simple stuff like consistently putting up videos on my channels or regularly posting posts on my blog.  I don't know why things have to be the way they are with me, but my heart is still here with you guys and that's why I keep making videos and posting posts even if I'm in question of whether or not I'm relevant anymore.

I never started youtubing and blogging to get "big" or to make a living off of it.  It's not a business to me, it's a hobby and it will remain as a fun hobby I really enjoy doing.  I'm still opposed to the idea of throwing everything I've got to make youtubing and blogging a career.  I value my audience and people who care to read or watch my content, but sometimes I get caught up with life outside of the youtubing and blogging sphere and time zips by without much update online.  I know there's a lot of people who manage to juggle multiple things simultaneously, but I'm almost thinking that I'm incapable of multitasking.  Nonetheless, I'm not about to quit here.  I may limp and struggle to even get one video or post out, but as long as I'm enjoying it - I'll be around. :) I can't really promise or guarantee anything, except for the fact that as long as it's fun and someone finds my content helpful, I'll be doing my online gig and enjoy every bit of it.

Anyway, let's all wake up to a better tomorrow! :D


Much love,

Catalina

** I'm wearing Vassen Rainbow Eyes in Brownish Hazel in this video, which were received for free from pinkyparadise.com
http://www.pinkyparadise.com/Vassen_Rainbow_Eyes_Brownish_Hazel_p/e14-hazel.htm

They have a code for me (cl2425), but no need to use it if you don't want to- I already told them I don't want any monetary compensation on referrals.. so it doesn't really benefit anyone, unless you want free cases and stuff ^__^)b

Happy New Year!

2013 has officially kicked off and I still feel like I'm the only one living in 2012.  It's already been almost a week, but for the oddest reason, 2013 just doesn't feel like it's come to me.. yet!

Anywho, I have a new video talking about 4 things.
1. December 2012 empties.
2. December 2012 Favorites.
3. 2012 yearly favorites.
4. Skin improvement that happened in 2012.


I think I pretty much summed up my thoughts on all the makeup products.
As for the birth control pills, it's been exactly a year since I started taking birth control pills (read more about my first month here). I've been struggling with painful (and huge!) breakouts for 2 years.  It started sometime around June of 2010 and got progressively worse until early 2012.  I was always a bit prone to acne prior to 2010, but not at such a massive scale.  The major break out areas were from cheekbone down, concentrated on the jawline and under the jawline, down to the neck and all the way to my back.  I don't really think anything diet or exercise related caused the sudden outburst. At first, I speculated that it was stress related to work, but even after I quit work the acne wouldn't subside.  I tried a lot of things to stop the breakouts (tried to relieve stress, slept at regular hours, watched my sugar and carb intake, worked out regularly, washed my face properly, had my hair away from my face, tried anything and everything that would remotely prevent any further breakouts...) and nothing seemed to work.

In January of 2012, I moved to LA.  One of the first things I did was get birth control pills prescribed so I could see if the acnes would calm down.  After a couple of bumpy side-effects, it seemed to work.  My acne was disappearing at a fast rate, thus leading to less scars since I didn't have any acne to pick on.

Here are some before pictures of the breakouts.. They are all from previous posts. I've had some up and downs with the amount - but birth control pills dried the seed out of them and completely annihilated acne.

Happy holidays everyone! Like any other holidays in the past few years, I was busy trying to pump out a video on time to avoid awkwardness on the online sphere.  This is another one of those videos that I intended to make for Christmas ~ NYE period. Since I've been doing mostly simple looks, I decided to do a bolder look for the last of the series of my holiday series.

Here's the video that went up on Christmas -



It is a bit of a messy procedure, but what isn't when we're using powdery / loose shadows. :)

I usually try to cut down on chatter in my videos because I don't like it when someone goes on and on about something irrelevant to the purpose of the video, but I think I should include what was edited out of this video on the blog.

I was raving again and again about the Tarte products I was using in the video.


The clean slate poreless 12-hour perfecting primer is something that I was something that I was looking for for the longest time.  For the oddest reason, everytime I went to Sephora (multiple locations!), this product was always out of stock.  Anyway, I didn't like the idea of ordering the product online unless I tried out the texture at Sephora, but with my patience running out, I decided I'd just give it a go.  The video was the first time using the primer and as I was applying it while filming, I couldn't stop the compliments. The texture is like smooth, silky silicon.  With a tiny drop of the product, I feel like I could cover all of my cheek area and some of my chin (mostly where I have rough skin texture).

For now - I give it a 10 out of 10!! I can't find any flaws with this product!!

Also, another Tarte product that I used for the first time in my video was the Tarte Marajuca Creaseless Concealer in the shade light.

Oh my... I love this creamy and effective concealer.  For years, I was attached to my Shu Uemura concealer, thinking that nothing could beat it, but I've jumped ships without any hesitation.  I really REALLY love this concealer.
I actually overkilled on my first usage of this concealer.  I pumped out a small amount (more like 3/4 of a pea size), since I tend to use a lot all around my face, and it was too much.  It's amazing how such little amount can cover so much area.  This means that even the thinnest layer can cover up a lot of the problem areas.
The shade "Light" fits me and has a bit of a pink undertone to it, which is fine with me since most of my foundations have a yellow base.  Overall, this is a product that I will go back to over and over again until something bad, like discontinue, happens. :'(

I love me tarte products!!!

I'll probably mention these products in my next favorite video again, but I think it's worth mentioning these products over and over again to spread the goodness of them. :p

~ Catalina