What's going on?

If you've been following this blog lately, you'll know that I started a new website, www.tashination.com. I thought I'd take a minute to explain a bit about it and what's going on with Sugarchic and tashination in the months to come.

The tashination website will now be my main focus. It is an online magazine where I will be writing about beauty and travel. I'll be posting reviews, tutorials, recommendations and whatever I'm in love with at the moment. The magazine will be updated at least on a weekly basis (I'll try to do it as often as possible) and old reviews and articles will be posted to my blog so that all past content will be easily accessible.

I will also continue to blog on Sugarchic, but I am considering a move to wordpress or typepad.. if anyone has any comments on either platform I'd love to hear your recommendations! I'm kind of scared to move because when I think about moving feeds, subscriber lists and all that my brain freezes up. As tashination is my main site for beauty and travel content, I'll be able to blog about more varied topics here.

Hope you enjoy reading! Here are some random pictures from the day I went out to take a photo for the background of tashination :)

Ciao ciao

L'Oreal Collagen Mascara Review

I have always been a big fan of L'Oreal products, particularly the mascaras. The L'Oreal panoramic curl mascara is one of the best I have used in terms of keeping your eyelashes curled and lengthening them. (The waterproof version is better than the non-waterproof.)

Recently I bought the L'Oreal Collagene Extra Volume mascara (non-waterproof). It's pretty expensive for a product you can buy at the chemist (around $26). The packaging is really lovely and the brush is an interesting shape, as you can see from the above picture.

Unfortunately I'm not that happy with the performance. There are two main problems. The first is that it is supposed to give your eyelashes more volume and it did not really do this on me. Perhaps also because it aims to thicken the eyelashes, the formulation is pretty thick and heavy and makes my eyelashes straight no matter how much I curl them before. This could also be due to the fact that I have naturally thin, straight eyelashes. The second issue is that when I apply the mascara on my lower lashes, by the end of the day the product will always smudge leaving me with black/grey messy smudges under my eyes.

One good thing about this product is that it does lengthen your eyelashes a little.

I would probably not buy this product again, especially given its price. That said, it has not deterred me from trying other L'Oreal mascaras in the future, as my past experiences with them have been wonderful. I think mascara is a very personal product and something that works well on one person can be dreadful on another.

Blame it on the Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh-ENTER Score

Lately I've been doing the last bit of study I have to do before getting my pracitising certificate which will qualify me to be a solicitor in the lovely state of Victoria. And, like at all 'transitional' times of my life, it's led me to think a plethora of thoughts.

Let me tell you a story.

Educated in Melbourne for my whole life, I finished the VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education - high school for you out-of-towners) with a good ENTER score* and not the faintest idea what I wanted to do. Commerce? Sounds good. Law? Even better. Science? Could be interesting. Not a clue. "Well," advised a good-hearted careers counsellor from my school, "Your score is high enough to get you into any degree you want." So, with no better reason than 'because my ENTER allows me', in the week before uni offers came out I switched my preferred degree from Commerce/Law to Engineering (electrical)/Law.

Engineering/Law is the kind of degree that sparks a couple of standard reactions in people.
(1) What the ****? Are you crazy?
(2) That's a very interesting combination. Why did you choose that? *Confused face*
(3) I didn't know you could do that combination together. Now let's talk about the weather.

I truly admire anyone who's completed an engineering/law degree. Actually I admire anyone who's completed an engineering degree. The workload is immense and after two years it became clear to me that I did not enjoy it. I made a very long and tortuous decision to discontinue my engineering degree. It was very hard for me to do that - my engineering marks were brilliant, my law ones were dismal, I knew I would have a weird looking transcript, and there was the question of 'wasting' the last couple of years and the overriding fear of looking like a dropout. In the end, after countless headaches, internal analyses and tears (yes, engineering made me cry), I decided to say goodbye to the EEE department.

And so, I became a straight law student. I never ever intended to practice law. I was one of those students who thought that law would be a good general degree to have.** I met plenty of law students just like me, who fell into law partly by default and partly due to a suitable ENTER and no idea what to do.

In my final year at law school I got a job offer to work in tax. I still wasn't quite convinced that I wanted to work in that area, so I packed my bags and went to China, and then Korea. When my time overseas was drawing to an end, I began to think about what I really wanted to do with the next few years of my life.

In my head there were two columns; one entitled 'What I Want' and the other entitled 'What I Can Realistically Do, Given my Qualifications'. The two columns didn't intersect quite as much as I'd hoped.

So I have decided, at least for the next little bit of my life, to follow the law path. While I was once convinced I'd never actually be a lawyer, I'm now going to do exactly that. And it doesn't look so bad after all. I think it might even be... enjoyable?

Funny how life changes. I remember the day I found out my ENTER score which has determined the career aspects of my life so far. It was summer, and the sunlight was white and strong, making everything look kind of faded. I was outside, walking around the spa. Our spa is built into the pool and the spa water overflows into the pool, which means the walls of the spa are covered with a thin stream of water which is particularly nice to walk on on a hot summer day. My mum handed me the phone telling me the principal was on the line. If, at that moment, I'd known what the future held I might have made my uni course choice based on a little more than the score I was about to receive.

Or then again, maybe not.

--------------------------------------------
*The score you receive upon leaving high school. It's not so much a score actually, as a ranking against every other student in the state. The highest possible score is 99.95, meaning you are in the top 0.05%.
**I wish I read this earlier. I highly recommend the article. I discovered it while googling 'I hate law' as a part of my pre-exam procrastination.

The Good Skin Diet

This week I tried out a three day diet by Dr Perricone, the dermatologist and anti-aging expert. I have been reading his book "The Perricone Prescription" and find it quite interesting. The core idea is that aging of the skin and also the body and organs is caused by inflammation in the cells. Dr Perricone believes that inflammation is the major cause of most skin problems including signs of aging such as wrinkles, discolouration and sagginess.


The diet

The diet consists of three meals a day and two snacks and I found it very easy to follow. Each meal and snack consists of one piece of high protein food (usually salmon), vegetables and a small serve of low GI, high anti-oxidant fruit, such as blueberries and canteloupe. For example, a dinner could be a piece of salmon, 2 cups of lettuce, 1 cup of asparagus, 1/4 cup blueberries and 3 inches of canteloupe. Although there are basically no carbs in this diet apart from rolled oats during breakfast, I never felt hungry. The only problem with the diet is boredom - if you're not a fan of salmon, the three days might feel difficult. That said, it is only three days, so it is very bearable.

Dr Perricone and his favourite fish :p

The results

The physical results were very promising. My skin is generally very good, but I have problems with redness and inflammation and am prone to eczema around my lips. After following the three day diet, there was noticeably less redness in my cheeks and my lips were less dry and irritated. My eye circles were also less noticeable and the pores around my nose appear a little smaller. I did take before and after pictures but they're not on this computer so I'll save that for another post.

The best thing that came out of this diet is that it has taught me a few basic rules about eating. I realised how much excess I had been consuming before. The meals and snacks in the diet have very strict proportions and I've been able to use the portion sizes as a guide to how much I should be eating in one sitting which has been very useful.

Perricone Products

I also recently switched to using Dr Perricone's skincare (from the RX2 line). In Melbourne they are available at Mecca Cosmetica, but it is much cheaper to buy them through the Perricone website, if you can afford to wait a bit. I started using them a few days before doing the three day diet.

Here are the products I'm using and what I think about them so far. I have only used them for at most, a couple of weeks so these are just initial impressions.

Advanced Face Firming Activator

This product has a nice light texture and is supposed to minimize appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, refine skin texture and minimize pores. The active ingredients are Alpha Lipoic Acid and DMAE (if you read Perricone's books, these are two of the most effective ingredients in combating aging). I have noticed my skin texture has improved and become more supple.

The worst thing about this product is the smell. The product smells faintly fishy when you first apply it. I find that pretty bizarre and not very pleasant. The smell does go away after a minute or so and it is a very faint smell, but enough to make me notice it.

Advanced Eye Area Therapy

This product also contains ALAs and DMAE and is aimed to minimize wrinkles, discolouration and puffiness. I have very bad dark eye circles and I have noticed some improvement, particularly after doing the three day diet. I was looking at the before and after photos and noticed that I did have a line under both my eyes starting at my inner eye corner, which has disappeared. The eye cream has a nice light texture, almost like a gel, and seems to be easily absorbed. (I was previously using La Prairie which has a much thicker and 'harder' consistency, so this is a nice change.)

Face Finishing Moisturiser

This is my favourite product of what I've tried so far. It has a really lovely scent and smells like roses. The consistency is also very smooth and light and absorbs nicely. It comes with a little spatula so you don't have to go dipping your fingers in the jar. I have naturally dry skin and this product has kept it well hydrated.

I'm sure I'll post again about Perricone. I am now moving from the three day diet to a twenty-eight day plan and am excited to see the results.

tashination has arrived

tashination
is up and running.

tashination

I have been working on a new website, www.tashination.com for some time now, and am happy to announce it should be up and running by tomorrow evening.

The tashination concept is a personalised, online magazine with a focus on beauty & makeup, lifestyle and travel. As I won't be restricted by a blog format, I'll be able to include more interesting and varied content. I've based the site on my own experiences and ideas and hope you will enjoy it!

Will post again once the website is published! <3

Go-ru-fu

I just came home from a very satisfying golf lesson! It was my second lesson and I love it!

I've never been so excited about sport in my life. Actually I've never been excited about sport in my life, so this is very new and interesting to me.