Pain point No.1 - Hair loss due to pregnancy and aging (Update 1)

Update 1 - progress after 4 weeks

Visit my original post about my story and transformation journey: 

Pain point No.2 - Always want to put on lip stick, but lips too dry, lazy and many other concerns stopping me!

I have found my solution recently. Thanks to my husband who bought me these lip glosses as Christmas presents!

Reasons avoiding to use lip stick:

• My lips always very dry and cracking as a result of my Retinol / Retin-A (tretinoin) cream and medication to fight my acne problem when I was much younger.
• I had bad habit to peel my dry skin on my lips due to the dry lips problem, so my lips half the time were bleeding.
• I am lazy, I don't like to keep touching up my lips colors after drinking water, coffee and eating my meals. Because of that, I also don't like to and lazy to put on hand cream during day time. To that extent, I don't touch up my make up after I left home.

Other concerns:

• Color stick on my teeth - Other brands I tried before the lip stick / gloss will stick on my front teeth, which I think this is more embarrassing than not putting on the lip stick. Any I can't keep checking if my teeth look okay or not after some time.
• I don't like to taste the lip stick! And I feel like I am eating the lip stick which sounds gross and toxic.
• Those lip sticks that are "all-weather" proof and resistance also sounded scary... that means the substance will stain on my lips(skin) gradually overtime?

After lunch the color (the color is called Determined) still stayed on my lips and not dry. That day I had breakfast, drank coffee and water multiple times, I did not touch up or put any other lip balm. The color stayed until I left office in the evening.

Most of the time my lips were very dried, cracking and bleed a bit.

The color chart that I feel is more realistic and easier to figure which color to choose from:

Pain point No.1 - Hair loss due to pregnancy and aging

Thank God now my pain point (hair loss) over 3 years has been resolved just within 3 weeks and I feel glad that it is improving! I simply being a diligent user and used these shampoo, conditioner, serum and massaged almost every day over the past 3 weeks.

This November my husband bought me a set of shampoo, conditioner and serum with a spa machine to try. Being skeptical and with doubt yet nothing to lose, I tried these products to test the result. When I first looked at my week 0 photo, I was shocked! No one ever told me that my hair loss on the top of my hair in fact quite serious and I never see that myself... 

I have been bothered by hair loss problem for 3 years where the problem started to be obvious between 2016 (one year after gave birth of my child) until present. My hair loss problem mainly due to post-natal and aging. 

This has been a pain point for me but not serious enough I wanted to go to doctor or seek professional treatment until now. For past 3 years, I had been adopting a "wait-and-see" approach, monitored if my problem accelerated or not. Each time when I picked up a ball of hair at the drainage cap after washing my hair, I felt worried the speed of losing my hair must be way faster than my baby hair growing out! 

Since my pregnancy and after moved to Singapore, I had never dyed or permed my hair for 4 years, worrying these would worsen my problem. Back then when I was in Hong Kong and still singled, I used to color my hair every 3 months to look perfect from head to toes.

I compared my progress from before using the products on weekly basis until end of Week 3:

Very scary to see myself earlier this year my top and both sides of my hair became so thin and now the situation improved a lot. I think now I restored about 80% of my hair volume comparing my prime time.

Photos from 2015: Before pregnant and right before I gave birth my child

Photos from 2016: When my child 8 months old and turned one.

Photos from 2017: When my child was about 1.5 years and before turned into 2. This was my hair loss problem became obvious.

Find out from here about my next week update!

Shirt smart tips

I am quite picky in how the buttons on a shirt is being arranged. This can tell me whether the designer is thoughtful enough or not in his or her design to provide privacy to the potential buyers, who often won't pay attention when buying the shirt!

Trust me! I saw shirts popping up 8 out of 10 times when I was checking the ladies' shirts in public areas, especially when they sat down and you could see their bras so clearly from the side. To me, this is not professional and elegant at all.

My tips are choosing shirts:

1. with dual button design, so there will be an invisible button to fully covered the gap between the buttons at your chest level; or
2. where the button is located exactly at the middle of your chest level to stop the shirt popping open when you sit down; or
3. most of my shirts are tailor-made, so I can decide how the buttons should be arranged and they always come with dual button design to provide an extra layer of protection.

I know is not so easy to find a shirt that you like and the buttons are perfectly arranged... so D.I.Y.! At least make an effort to use a tiny safety pin to secure the gap between the buttons at your chest level. You are responsible for respecting and protecting your privacy, unless you are intentional!

Good design to provide additional protection and care free!

 This is dangerous but still good enough

  This is unprofessional and inelegant

Skirt smart tips

Lace and two-layered dresses have been very popular these 2 years. I would like to share this very important reminder to all ladies, not to repeat my mistake when wearing these dresses or skirts. I personally fell into this trap once and I will never forget anymore.

The trap is with the outer layer of the dress or skirt which is typically longer, heavier and semi-transparent design, you tend you forget about the inner layer may not be properly fixed! It may be half folded up and you are exposing your thighs without notice.

My personal bad experience was one day I wore a black wool dress with many holes on the outer layer and the outer layer was quite heavy because made of wool. I forgot the inner lining was not fixed properly and I came out from the washroom. After I walked on the street for a while, a lady gently tapped on my shoulder and reminded me about this. I was so embarrassed and luckily it was not super obvious, but obvious enough if people pay attention to it.

Hope this little tip can help you to look confident and elegant in your favorite dress!

Green Tea Red Bean Pudding (砵仔糕) - Hong Kong Traditional Dessert / Pastry [Modified]

This time I created my crossover style Japanese Green Tea (Matcha) x traditional Red Bean Pudding. 
I modified from the traditional recipe I posted some time ago. It was successful. The slightly bitter matcha taste blended with the sweetened red beans are just nice.

Refer to my first recipe and I highlighted the additional ingredient, step and tips below.

Serving size: 4 small bowls (each pudding is 8.5 cm diameter x 3 cm height) or 10 mini cake mould (each is 5 cm diameter x 2.5 cm height)

Preparation time: 10 minutes (exclude the time if homemade red beans)
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
85g          Rice flour
55g          Wheat starch
1/2 tbsp   Glutinous rice flour
60g          Brown sugar
50g          Raw sugar
2 cups      Water
2 tbsp      Sweetened red beans (homemade or canned)
2 tsp        Matcha (Green Tea) powder


Steps:

1. Combine rice flour, wheat starch and glutinous rice flour, then mix with 1/2 cup of water.
2. Heat 1 1/2 cups of water, then add brown sugar and raw sugar into the water. Stir to dissolve sugar and bring to boil. 
3. Pour hot sugar solution into flour mixture. Stir swiftly to mix the flour mixture and sugar solution until very well. *Sift the mixture to ensure the batter is smooth and without lumps. This will have direct impact on the texture when you eat.
4. Add the matcha powder and swiftly mix the powder with the mixture until very well.
5. Bring water to boil in a wok over high heat. Put some red beans (30 beans or depends on your preference) in each of the small bowls.  Steam the bowls over water for 3 minutes.  Pour batter into the small bowls. Steam over high heat for another 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Optional to add some read beans on batter after steaming for 5 minutes.
7. Let cool. Stick pudding with bamboo skewer (the traditional way of serving).  Enjoy!

My Tips:

• The amount of red beans can vary depends on your preference.  Some people prefer no red bean at all.
• This time I used canned ready made red bean instead of boiling the red beans myself. Canned red beans may be too sweet for sweet people, so if you can afford to boil the red beans by yourself, you can adjust the sweetness easily.

• If you replace brown and raw sugar with white sugar, then you will have a white colour pudding, which is also the typical alternative choice to brown pudding.

• When combine rice flour, wheat starch and glutinous rice flour, better to mix all these flour first then add water.  Also make sure you mix the mixture as smooth as possible to make it easier for you to stir when later need to pour the boiled sugar in it.
• Next time I will try to add earl grey, coffee powder, chocolate or Milo powder to make more D.I.Y. flavors!

My comments: Ingredients are simple, but the steps to mix the batter determine the success or failure.

Styling - Back to Basic

#3 Tips to pick shoes - Buying shoes is an art! 
     


I have shoes range from USD 40 to USD 1,000. Similarly a pair of plain beige heels can vary from USD 40 to USD 800! Of course you may challenge me different people have different budgets and criteria over picking their shoes, but you should still aim to find value for money shoes at different price ranges. 

When going for budgeted shoes especially for heels, pay attention to the details of the finishing. Some of them when I saw on streets or trains, their finishing are telling you that they are really low quality.  Therefore, you should be extra careful to observe if the edges along the side of the heels are nicely done or not. Some of them look bulky and not slim cut, which are not fitting the shape of your feet.

Even if you are buying luxury branded heels, more money not equals to better quality or more comfort.  Below are some of my personal feedbacks towards some of the brands.  If you have bad experience with the first pair, quite natural that you will never consider this brand anymore!

My favorite brands with good style, good fit & comfort!

• Salvatore Ferragamo - best tailor which I can feel my heels are nicely wrapped and supported. My feet also look slimmer.
• Jimmy Choo - nice design and comfortable for very high heels
• Christian Louboutin - love their beige heels and their red sole
• Stuart Weitzman - love their sandals and high heels
• Repetto - love their basic flats.  In Singapore, the weather only allow me to have matte surface

Value for money buy...

• Sam Edelman - not the most high-end, but you just need to have the basic heels in plain colors - black, beige, as well as open-toe platform heels for all occasions.

Brands that I like their design or colors but not comfortable at all...

• miu miu - seriously I used to love miu miu and have more than 20 of their bags, so I also bought their shoes.  Boots are okay but all heels I have bought so far, they are not comfortable at all! I am a bit disappointed as a miu miu fans, though their colors are unique.
• Dolce & Gabbana - I only tried one pair, again very uncomfortable to wear. The heels are very hard and heavy.
• Brian Atwood - I have the most sexiest killer heels from this brand, but they hurt the back of the my heels quite badly, since then I still haven't had the courage to wear them for the second time! ^__^"

 **Disclaimer: I practiced Ballet for 14 years, honestly I think my tolerance level is already quite high in terms of comfort-ability of the shoes... ;)