L'Oreal Colour Riche Balm

L'Oreal Colour Riche Balm (SPF 15) in Plush Plum is a lovely, medium plum color, but it brings out the sallowness of my skin, so as a color it doesn't quite suit me.  I'm a big fan of the formula though!

Takehiko Inoue on CNN

One of my favorite manga artists ever, Takehiko Inoue was interviewed by CNN.  There's also an article.
My favorite works:

• Slam Dunk
• Real

Current skin regimen

For a while my skin was breaking out and out of control - mainly because of stress and lack of sleep.

Now that the stress is more under control, I thought I'd mention my current skin regimen.

• Bioderma Sensibio Derma Water (50ml trial size) - neutral for my skin; I probably won't bother repurchasing
• Astalift Jelly Aquarysta (sample packets) - applied in small quantities, I don't find it irritating, but if I apply too much I find this stings.  It could be helping my skin, but these days I don't look at my skin too closely!
• Astalift Lotion - similarly, applied in small quantities, it's okay, but too much and I find it irritating.
• Leaf & Botanics Essence Lavender serum + moisturizer - it smells lovely, and my skin doesn't seem to get irritated.  No complaints, but , I'm looking forward to trying something new.
• Guinot Creme 888 Vital Antirides (Anti-wrinkle Rich Night Cream) - the scent took a bit of getting used to, but my combination skin rather seems to like it - I apply it to my cheeks at night.  When I finally use up the tube, I'll open up the day version that I also received from my generous aunt.

I'm using a cleansing oil - it works well, but the scent has gone off a little, so I'm looking forward to going back to Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water which is undeniably gentle.

For sunscreen, I'm working my way through Allie UV Moisture Gel SPF 50+ PA++++.  The texture is fine and my skin seems to tolerate it fairly well.

When my cheeks get too dry and irritated (hello SF water!), I apply Yuskin (the orange capped version) - I like it better than petroleum jelly but in all honestly they could both be equally effective.

All in all, my current regime is working, but I'm looking forward to using up all of these products.  Since I find the Astalift products irritating, I may give them all to my mother.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I watched this powerful speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TedxEuston.

Witty and intelligent, it explains exactly why I am a feminist.

On repairing the wooden sole of your leather shoes (Japanese).
Wow, there's a lot you can do to fix leather shoes!
I want to do this to my leather bag, but it seems a bit riskier in terms of possible color transfer.

New packaging for Lavshuca Dramatic Memory Rouge

I took a look at the display today and noticed that Dramatic Memory Rouge has new packaging, and I am not a fan!

Ugh.  Ah well.  At least the line still exists.

I own one Dramatic Memory Rouge in the old packaging (BE-2) and enjoy it a lot; I had been planning on picking up an orange one too...

thinking about the beach

Love this Tommy Bahama jute beach bag!  I'm all about jute stuff, but I've found it hard to find nice stuff made in it.

After months of slogging, I finally finished "Hope in a Jar" - a far more academic, historical look at the culture of beauty than I anticipated.  I am now working through Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" - quite practical and moderately interesting.  I hope to get through it this week.

Next on my get-rid-of-books-taking-up-space list: I'm going to try to get through "Tai Chi Chuan - 24 & 48 Postures with Martial Applications".  Tai Chi is pretty boring when trying to learn through a book.