Ok, just so that I don't appear like I'm a crazy shopaholic (we may be beyond that already but I'll try to redeem myself anyways), I'd just like to state that these purchases were made prior to my posting the last two entries. So it's not like I talked about my needing to curb my purchasing power (:D) and then turned right around and bought some more stuff.
So, now that I've sufficiently justified my shopping addiction (hehe), let's just proceed onto the stuff that I got. First up, a rubberized hard case cover for the company issued Blackberry Torch.
I got this off of eBay and decided to go for the red case. Now, this is truly a departure for me as I usually streamline my gadgets to one colour only and that is BLACK. It was a 'BUY NOW' deal and cost me $2.98. The reason I decided to get this is because when my parents were up here visiting me, there was an incident where I dropped the phone, which had been sitting on my lap, getting out of the car, a 4WD, and proceeded to put one foot atop it. When I realized what had happened, I knew that there would be some kind of physical damage to the phone as it had fallen from a height and onto asphalt. True enough, the once smooth bezel of the phone was now pock-marked. I got truly annoyed with myself. Since then, everytime I look at the phone, I am reminded of that incident and the annoyance creeps back in. To save my sanity, I decided I needed to cover the damaged areas and what better way then to get a hard case. I went for red cos I felt it would be easier to find in my bag. It's been shipped but I don't know if it'll reach in time for my short visit Homeland next week. We'll just have to see ;)
Next, I got some skincare off of Strawberrynet. I decided to go full-on Murad and bought the Blemish Control Starter Kit, the Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel and another bottle of the Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. Sense a theme here aside from the brand? ACNE :D I am on acne prevention control. God, I am nowhere near a teen but it sucks that I still have to deal with this. My hormones have just gone haywire for the last couple of months which created small bumps all along my jawline and I did a lot of things to try to get them under control but until I started taking the GNC Saw Palmetto pills, nothing worked to treat my hormonal acne.
Once I started taking the pills, along with the Sibu Sea Buckthorn supplements, I have seen a marked improvement in my skin. However, although the appearance of new pimples and amount of acne has decreased significantly, I still have to contend with the scarring. I am one of those people who get highly hyperpigmented scars from acne and it is so annoying to have to wait eons for the marks to fade. I do have the Ambi Fade cream but I need something stronger, something that contained a higher potency of Hydroquinone which is a skin bleaching chemical. So I decided to get the Murad, Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel. The product comes in a 30ml bottle and costs $62.50 on Strawberrynet which is $2.50 more expensive than if I had had gotten it off of drugstore.com. The reviews for this product were 99% positive so I decided to just invest in this product.
Next I decided to get another bottle of the Murad Hybrids Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. It retails for $35 but on Strawberrynet it cost 5 bucks more at 40 dollars. I have been using the bottle I got off of drugstore.com for the past one month and I have to say I like it. It does control shine very well. I like that it also contains acne fighting properties. This primer has a 0.5% salycylic acid content to help control acne. Honestly, I use a 2% salycylic acid blemish treatment so 0.5% is really a negligent amount :) The primer is light but it doesn't have a runny consistency. It spreads easily and you don't have to spread it so quickly before it dries.
Lastly, I figured I've tried so many Murad 'skincare accessories' that I might as well give the basic skincare range a go. That's why I got the Blemish Control Starter Kit. The product I'm most excited to try is the Exfoliating Blemish Gel - I have heard/read soooo many good things about this product. The kit contains the Clarifying Cleanser in a 60ml tube, the Exfoliating Blemish Treatment Gel in a 30ml bottle, a 7.5ml tube of the Blemish Spot Treatment, a 30ml tube of the Skin Perfecting Lotion and a 0.9ml sample packet of the Oil-Control Mattifier SPF 15. This kit cost me $39.50 but the RRP on drugstore.com is 36 bucks.
So I got these yesterday and they were already shipped and the package is currently in transit. This order was shared between myself and two other colleagues as we all wanted the additional 5% discount for orders containing 6 items and above. Also, currently Strawberrynet is offering an additional 10% off on the Christmas specials set and my Murad Blemish Control Starter Kit qualified for that. On top of all that, I had my 7.5% loyalty discount. In total, I paid $119.05 for my entire purchase with free shipping. Although I had a 20% discount from drugstore.com, I decided to just buy the stuff from Strawberrynet because any discount I got from drugstore.com would be offset by the amount of shipping I would have had to pay to have it sent back to Homeland. I think from now on, unless the discounts are significantly cheaper, I will just get my beauty products off of Strawberrynet if they have it in stock.
On a side note, I've tried various spot treatments and something I've noticed about myself is that my skin responds the best to products that contain salycylic acid. It does not like products that contain Tea Tree Oil so much and barely tolerates those that have Benzoyl Peroxide as the main chemical. However, all the salycylic acid is drying so I have had to really slather on Garnier Skin Naturals lightening moisturizer I am currently using as my go-to face cream.
So, now that I've sufficiently justified my shopping addiction (hehe), let's just proceed onto the stuff that I got. First up, a rubberized hard case cover for the company issued Blackberry Torch.
I got this off of eBay and decided to go for the red case. Now, this is truly a departure for me as I usually streamline my gadgets to one colour only and that is BLACK. It was a 'BUY NOW' deal and cost me $2.98. The reason I decided to get this is because when my parents were up here visiting me, there was an incident where I dropped the phone, which had been sitting on my lap, getting out of the car, a 4WD, and proceeded to put one foot atop it. When I realized what had happened, I knew that there would be some kind of physical damage to the phone as it had fallen from a height and onto asphalt. True enough, the once smooth bezel of the phone was now pock-marked. I got truly annoyed with myself. Since then, everytime I look at the phone, I am reminded of that incident and the annoyance creeps back in. To save my sanity, I decided I needed to cover the damaged areas and what better way then to get a hard case. I went for red cos I felt it would be easier to find in my bag. It's been shipped but I don't know if it'll reach in time for my short visit Homeland next week. We'll just have to see ;)
Next, I got some skincare off of Strawberrynet. I decided to go full-on Murad and bought the Blemish Control Starter Kit, the Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel and another bottle of the Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. Sense a theme here aside from the brand? ACNE :D I am on acne prevention control. God, I am nowhere near a teen but it sucks that I still have to deal with this. My hormones have just gone haywire for the last couple of months which created small bumps all along my jawline and I did a lot of things to try to get them under control but until I started taking the GNC Saw Palmetto pills, nothing worked to treat my hormonal acne.
Once I started taking the pills, along with the Sibu Sea Buckthorn supplements, I have seen a marked improvement in my skin. However, although the appearance of new pimples and amount of acne has decreased significantly, I still have to contend with the scarring. I am one of those people who get highly hyperpigmented scars from acne and it is so annoying to have to wait eons for the marks to fade. I do have the Ambi Fade cream but I need something stronger, something that contained a higher potency of Hydroquinone which is a skin bleaching chemical. So I decided to get the Murad, Post-Acne Spot Lightening Gel. The product comes in a 30ml bottle and costs $62.50 on Strawberrynet which is $2.50 more expensive than if I had had gotten it off of drugstore.com. The reviews for this product were 99% positive so I decided to just invest in this product.
Next I decided to get another bottle of the Murad Hybrids Skin Perfecting Primer Acne and Shine Control. It retails for $35 but on Strawberrynet it cost 5 bucks more at 40 dollars. I have been using the bottle I got off of drugstore.com for the past one month and I have to say I like it. It does control shine very well. I like that it also contains acne fighting properties. This primer has a 0.5% salycylic acid content to help control acne. Honestly, I use a 2% salycylic acid blemish treatment so 0.5% is really a negligent amount :) The primer is light but it doesn't have a runny consistency. It spreads easily and you don't have to spread it so quickly before it dries.
Lastly, I figured I've tried so many Murad 'skincare accessories' that I might as well give the basic skincare range a go. That's why I got the Blemish Control Starter Kit. The product I'm most excited to try is the Exfoliating Blemish Gel - I have heard/read soooo many good things about this product. The kit contains the Clarifying Cleanser in a 60ml tube, the Exfoliating Blemish Treatment Gel in a 30ml bottle, a 7.5ml tube of the Blemish Spot Treatment, a 30ml tube of the Skin Perfecting Lotion and a 0.9ml sample packet of the Oil-Control Mattifier SPF 15. This kit cost me $39.50 but the RRP on drugstore.com is 36 bucks.
So I got these yesterday and they were already shipped and the package is currently in transit. This order was shared between myself and two other colleagues as we all wanted the additional 5% discount for orders containing 6 items and above. Also, currently Strawberrynet is offering an additional 10% off on the Christmas specials set and my Murad Blemish Control Starter Kit qualified for that. On top of all that, I had my 7.5% loyalty discount. In total, I paid $119.05 for my entire purchase with free shipping. Although I had a 20% discount from drugstore.com, I decided to just buy the stuff from Strawberrynet because any discount I got from drugstore.com would be offset by the amount of shipping I would have had to pay to have it sent back to Homeland. I think from now on, unless the discounts are significantly cheaper, I will just get my beauty products off of Strawberrynet if they have it in stock.
On a side note, I've tried various spot treatments and something I've noticed about myself is that my skin responds the best to products that contain salycylic acid. It does not like products that contain Tea Tree Oil so much and barely tolerates those that have Benzoyl Peroxide as the main chemical. However, all the salycylic acid is drying so I have had to really slather on Garnier Skin Naturals lightening moisturizer I am currently using as my go-to face cream.
