How I learned to be in peace with my depression is probably not the best title for what I’m about to say in this post but in a way I sorta am going to tell you how I accepted my depression, brave through the storm again and again. As I’m sitting here writing this down, I won’t lie to you saying I didn’t thought of ending my life here and now. In the past few weeks the suicidal thoughts are strong. I have never felt like this since my first wave back in 2015. This time I’m defeated and I don’t know what I can do to brave through it like I did before.

I’m always honest about my battle with depression and how I feel about it. Depression is beautiful. This still stands. It is only beautiful once you accepted it and understand it. Despite how awful depression makes me feel everyday, I still think it’s beautiful and God has bigger plan for me.

Depression is not just a blank, it has all kinds of intelligent things happening within it … Depression is an unsatisfied state of mind in which you feel that you have no outlet. So work with the dissatisfaction of that depression … It has all kinds of answers in it, but the answers are hidden. – Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Unsatisfied state of mind

I’m angry with myself for this because what Chogyam said was true. I’m angry that I’m raising awareness on depression, telling people to love themselves more but here I am, self-loathing like there’s no tomorrow. I failed to educate myself. I start to understand what Chogyam said now. When something is unresolved, we keep going back to it again and again, thinking about why. It is only you resolve the issue then slowly the depression leaves. What I’m going through in my life now that causes the depression doesn’t have any resolution. I just have to go through it no matter what. That is why it makes the healing process slower and harder for me this time around.

I know most people are angry at depression. I’m never angry at depression. I only feel sad because the mind work that I’ve been working on so hard has all gone down the drain. It doesn’t matter how high my IQ or EQ are. When depression hits, I am back to square one.

The wisdom behind having depression is that you see some things clearly. I question the purpose of me in the life. I tried to change a certain part of my life each time depression hit. But the downside about questioning your life is that when you can’t find the purpose of you in this world, that’s when the suicidal thought came. I have thought of a 101 ways to end my life. I even dream about it.

Have I truly accepted my depression yet? I thought I did. Now I know it’s not fully. My experience with depression in the current wave is so much different than what I’ve been through before. Sometimes I breeze through it in a day, sometimes a week but no matter how long it takes, I always feel better and well. It has nearly come to a month and I’m still feeling hopeless. This time depression hits me hard. I’m allowing myself to dwell and heal. It doesn’t matter who I am. I am where I am now. Back to where I was, questioning about me, life and everything else.

I have come to make peace with my depression because that fella will stay no matter I like it or not. Although I know exactly what to do when the wave come but I am still a human afterall and sometimes I fail to do what I needed to do.

So this is me, accepting my depression, acknowledging it. Because it is only through acceptance that I am able to heal.

This is also me, announcing that I will be on a hiatus from Street Love. If you see an update on Facebook that means I’m back. Until then I am taking some time off to storm through the current depression wave. I can’t promise you that I’ll be back stronger. But I can promise you I’ll be back. That’s for sure.

Stay beautiful Street Lovers ❤ xoxo

The post Heart-to-Heart: How I Learned To Be In Peace With My Depression appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

Sometime in October, I had a bad breakout that lasted for a month. At that time I was desperate for a quick solution. As you already know, I’m not a big fan of Korean skincare because some of the are too hydrating on me hence giving me that oily complexion. But some, I love. You know who I turned to when I was doing my research on breakout skincare? The Korean brand of course! Koreans are known for their fair and flawless skin. I want that skin too so I started googling my way to find more info on which Korean skincare brand and products that are able to help with my breakout as well as to give me some of that flawless skin. I stumbled upon a few useful article at ProductNation Malaysia. They have varieties of useful articles on all the latest product reviews and roundups, featuring consumer favourites, on-trend reviews and many more in Malaysia. Beauty wise, ProductNation focuses more on Korean beauty trend, which is exactly right down my alley.

Here are what I learnt from my research and what works best for my skin.

Soothing Cleanser

There are a lot of cleanser specifically meant for acne/oily skin but one of the article in ProductNation mentioned about “soothing” combination skin. The Green Tea line from Innisfree is one of my favourite line so I will recommend this Innisfree Green Tea Cleansing Foam. Besides the green tea extracts, it also has amino acids and minerals to keep the skin supple, smooth and sooth skin irritation. Plus it smells amazing too!

Skin Freshener

This may sound a little cheezy because Mamonde sent me a bottle of the Rose Water Toner a few months ago but the fact is, the Mamonde Rose Water Toner is one of the best toner available in the market, if not in the Korean brand range. For someone who love everything rose, this toner has 90.89% of real rose water extracted from Bulgaria’s Damask roses. Now, where do you get a toner a pure as this! It doesn’t contain mineral oil and all the bad synthetic pigments making this toner absolutely safe to use even for the most sensitive skin.

Soft Face Scrub

Do I even need to say more about this Skin Food Black Sugar Mask? I bought 11 tubs of this and it is the only scrub I used to date. And that it was under one of the product recommendation at ProductNation makes me feel good about my product choice lol. I like this because the sugar will melts off as you are rubbing it on your face therefore it is not painful or harmful to the skin. The skin turned to super smooth, soft and supple after rinsing. I cannot tell you enough how much I love this.

Da Bomb Cream

Over the recent months, I have been extremely intrigued with the brand Belif. I didn’t even know they’re a Korean brand! I’ve heard so much about Belif especially The True Cream – Aqua Bomb. I heard that this one is quite a seller and sort of blossomed into a must-have product. It is a gel moisturizer and has the ability to provide intense moisturization minus the sticky feeling. That is why this product are highly raved everywhere. Besides this cream, there are tons of other more products from Belif that I’ve heard of. Must try to clear out my medium-sized Sephora at home before splurging at Belif

Must-Have Sleeping Mask

If you don’t have at least a tub of the cult Laneige Water Sleeping Mask at home, where have you been! I absolutely LOVE the original blue version and when Laneige launched the Lavender scented Water Sleeping Mask, it sent everyone out running to purchase it. That was because it is a limited edition launch here in Malaysia. I’m going to sound cheezy again because I am using the exact Lavender one at the moment and I’m not surprised ProductNation also recommended it as one of the top 10 Korean skincare products for combination skin.

Pimple Clear Pads

This one is really a no-brainer product to have which I think everyone who constantly has breakout should own at home. The Cosrx One Step Pimple Clear Pads are already pre-soaked in betaine salicylate and willow bark water. It has dual function as a toner and chemical exfoliant. All done after cleansing without irritating the skin. It is said to be super effective in clearing up pimples and cystic acne on the face, chest and even back acne as well. I say this is one bomb product to own. Super convenient too!

Never Skip Whitening

I spoke about the importance of using a whitening product to help lighten the acne marks even before it turned to a mark so many times here in the blog so how could I missed out the Laneige White Dew Original Ampoule Essence. White Dew range is a new range launched not too long again. Always incorporate minimum one whitening product in your skincare routine. It can be a serum, essence or cream. Whichever that is convenient for you and suits your routine. This one particular is a highly concentrated ampoule essence. Not only it can help with improving uneven skin tone, it also said to give a glowing skin. I just recently took out the cream version to use and I didn’t have anything bad to say about it.

One Last Important Product – Clay Mask!

In my recent Breakout Skincare Post, I talk about using mud mask aka clay mask as a must-have weekly treatment ritual. It is important to use something to suck out all the gunks from the inside. The Innisfree Super Volcanic Pore Clay Mask one is not a bad one except that it can be pretty dry. Having said that, I like how the mask contains 6020 mg of Jeju volcanic clay which is effective in removing impurities. It also comes in a mousse version which in my opinion is more convenient. Both works the same and dries down completely. It does have a volcanic ashy scent to it that makes the whole treatment feels like as if you are scooping real volvanic ashes and apply it on your face

There you have it! Korean skincare products for breakout skin recommendation based on my search for the best skincare in Malaysia. Bear in mind these are just some of the products that I find suits my skin and preference. There are tons and tons more products that are also suitable for breakout skin so please do your research thoroughly. You will be amazed with what you can find through Google.

The post Korean Skincare Products for Breakout Skin appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

Does this dress look familiar to you? Yeap! It’s the turquoise version of the purple dress I wore in What I Wore Vol. 5.

In the recent post I shared about Losing Weight, I’ve lost about 2kg at that time and since then I’ve lost another 1-2kg. Lost of appetite is one of the main cause among other contributing reasons. This dress has been fitting me nicely since post-depression 2 years ago. Now, it fits even nicer in my opinion as I’ve also lost that little tummy from What I Wore Vol. 5. The only thing I still don’t like about the dress is the low back. Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of a low back dress but somehow it shows my boney spines. Bones that I never knew existed!

It’s a simple look for a quick event. On days I want to cover up more, this is what I prefer to wear.

Dress: P&Co, from many years ago (RM69.90, if I’m not mistaken)
Shoe: Crocs Leigh II Ankle Strap Wedge (RM289)
Necklace and Earrings: H&M
Watch: Garmin Forerunner 235 (RM1,550)
Tracker: Fitbit Flex 2 (RM480)

The post What I Wore Vol. 11 appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

Mon Chéri, a French-inspired skincare company has already built a name for themselves when it comes to skincare offerings. Now, Mon Chéri has launched a complete cosmetic line named Collection De Bouquet and this completes its existing Petal CC Cover and Lumiere Complexion & Pore Refiner, which was launched in February 2017 as a whole complete cosmetic range.

The entire cosmetic line has 13 products in total, 11 which was newly added into the Collection De Bouquet line. Packaging wise in my personal preference is absolutely beautiful and aptly done according to the brand’s identity and theme. It features white and champagne gold packaging with Mon Chéri signature flower decorated all over to complete the look of elegance and luxury.

Glowing and Matte Lipstick (RM75)

The show-stopper is the lipstick range – Glowing Lipstick and Matte Lipstick. A total of 17 colors were launched all together, with 5 color selections (rose pink, coral, peach orange, rose red) to choose from. There are two texture and formulation as well – G, which I asssumed stands for Glowing aka cream lipstick and M, which stands for matte lipstick. It has all the usual goodness ingredients such as Vitamin E, Shea Butter, Plum Seed Oil and 3 antioxidiant ingredients. The matte lipstick are not a full on matte but a velvet-like rich matte with satin effect. The shades offering are not that huge with just 5 shades available. All 17 Glowing and 5 Matte lipstick are absolutely beautiful!

Chameleon Lipbalm (RM75)

Now, this one I like! The tinted, color-changing lipbalm. This lipbalm doesn’t need much introduction. It changes color according to body temperature and lip color. Ingredients in the lipbalm are equally good too – Vitamin E, Shea Butter and Olive Oil. Similar to their lipstick except for the change in Olive Oil.

Foundation (RM149)

Featuring Shine Fit Technology to enables the foundation to add a layer of luster to the skin to soften the look, Mon Chéri Foundation is a thin and lightweight foundation that claims to leave zero-burden and non-sticky texture on the skin. However, darker skin girls would need to bear with the limitation shades at the moment as there are just 3 shades available at the moment.

Compact Powder (RM125)

I love compact powder to set my foundation, but it has to be a thin coverage type so that I don’t add extra product onto the foundation. This Compact Powder from Mon Chéri is just that. This powder helps to rectify uneven skin tone and brighten dull complexion. With that, this does has a little bit of coverage. The finishing is matte, just as any other compact powder. It also comes with a puff too.

Loose Powder (RM96)

This Loose Powder gives me flashback to those days where sponge-top packaging are in trend. If you are a loose powder fan but dislike the dusty mess it gives like I do, this is your answer to that problem. The loose powder gives a soft and comfortable finishing, hence protecting the skin against dehydration. Perfect for those who dislike matte powder. The powder also absorb any excess oil, leaving you with a fresh look throughout the day. It has a somewhat soft touch effect therefore minimizes the appearance of large pores and fine lines.

Concealer (RM96)

You can now go for one concealer for the under eyes and spot concealing with this Concealer. Featuring a unique Perfecting Fitting Layer System, the concealer allows pigmentation particles in the cream to cover dark circles and even dark spots.

Blusher (RM80)

I think most people at the launch are attracted to these beautiful marble Blusher. The baked-texture enables a three-dimensional look for the cheeks. It is lightweight as a feather but because it is a baked blusher, the longevity tend to last longer up till the entire day. At the moment only two shades available – Pink Marble and Orange Peach.

Eye Shadow Palette (RM130)

Another item caught my eyes is none other than the Eye Shadow Palette. This quad has different shade depth from highlight to deep outline the eyes. I think you all are already the expert to know what to do with this quad without me even telling you which shade to use on which part of the eyes . It has 3 matte shades and one satin. Quite a versatile palette that suits most people’s preference these days.

Mascara (RM115)

Another item to take note is the Mascara, which has smaller spiral brush. The kind of brush that I like. This brush enables you to achieve that curl and fuller volume effect. It claims not to give any clumps with repeated application.

Water Proof Eyeliner (RM78)

We all need a waterproof eyeliner. All the rain and crying doesn’t help . Comes in two everyday shades – Black and Brown.

There you have it! A full glance into the most exciting launch of the year for Mon Chéri – the Collection De Bouquet cosmetic line. And I’m also happy to announce that Mon Chéri is on board to be our #IWillBeOkay Beauty Bay 2017 Edition sponsor!

The post A Complete Guide to 11 New Mon Chéri Collection De Bouquet Cosmetic Products appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona