2 weeks ago on a Friday I decided to try a BB cream that is highly raved from almost every corner in the world. Been reading so many good review on this so I finally got it. I had bought this 2 weeks earlier and I think it’s time to put this to a test and do a review on it. I put this on around 8am and just before I step out for lunch I had a slight itch and burning sensation on my forehead. I thought I was just feeling hot so I didn’t pay much attention to it. After lunch I took a look in the mirror and I can see that my forehead swell up a bit and the texture is uneven. I guess that’s what people called as “bee hive” which will only happen if you have allergy. I am fortunate to have the type of skin that I can slap on anything so I have not had this before and I was clueless. By the time I got off work I couldn’t stand the increasing itch on my face. After I reached home and removed my makeup my mum commented that I was looking pink. By night time I can see that I turned to red and my face is slightly hot when I touch it. Then I knew something is not right. I didn’t apply any skin care that night. But my face was so itchy that I applied Clinique Moisture Surge on because the gel cools my face down. I couldn’t sleep properly that night as it started to get painful. I remember waking up at 3am to look at the mirror. I guess I was hoping that everything will be okay after a sleep but I was wrong. I was still quite red as before and this time my face is swollen. The next morning I woke up with burning hot, maroon color, itchy and painful face. When I looked into the mirror I was horrified. My entire face was so burning red and I was a few tone darker. My face swelled up quite a lot too. I looked like I had severe sun burn. By 9am I rushed to the nearest skin specialist clinic bringing along the said BB cream. Doctor confirmed that I had severe skin allergy and it’s quite bad judging from the fact that I only had the BB cream in less than 9 hours. I was so worried that it’s going to be a permanent damage as my neighbor had the same thing too and it’s permanent for her. Doctor said it is not but will take a longer time to recover so I need to bear going out with this face for some time. I kept asking the doctor if it’s going to be permanent for several more time before leaving the clinic. I was prescribed with anti-itch med for morning and a different one for night as well as a face cream. The culprit? It’s the famous Garnier BB Cream. Hell yeah.

When I mentioned that I had severe skin allergy all I get is “nah, it’s just a normal allergy…it’s not that serious”. Well sorry to say but damn you. You can say that because it doesn’t happen to you and you’re just being naive or shall I say mean? I don’t expect you to understand but try to be sensitive a bit. I do get a lot statement like “why would you try new product on your face”? Huh? Hallo?? If a beauty blogger doesn’t try it on her own face abuthen (the slang for common Singaporeans for “oh yes, it certainly is”) I should try it on your face? You’d be surprise to know these statement are from friends, blogger and even readers. Oh well. These pictures below are as it is. I’m not going to shrink it smaller so that you can see that this is indeed a serious type of skin allergy. So to the insensitive one tell me this is not serious to you???

Day 1 – Saturday

I met up with a friend who had tried the BB cream before and she immediately knew what went wrong when I told her what cause me this. According to her there’s a particular ingredient called Lemon Fruit Extract which can cause such allergy as it’s a very very strong substance for face and it’s meant for whitening. DAMN YOU GARNIER. Don’t you know this?? Or you’re just taking a short cut in terms of whitening? I know lemon can be a powerful remover for household washing detergent but for face?? Are you kidding me Garnier?? I did some search online and it turns out there’s also people who suffer allergy after using this BB cream. Just that they didn’t mention in detail and there’s no picture on how the allergy is. So you can figure out how clueless and devastated I am to have a maroon face for a week. The worse I read is there’s even fluid coming out from the eyes. I’m lucky because I never apply base makeup to my eye area. For some reason I just don’t like to put foundation or BB cream to my eye lid or near my eyes. So thank goodness for that I don’t have things oozing out from my eyes. But I do have burning hot eyes and I hardly can open my eyes because my face is so swollen and stiff at the same time. A lot of people asked me why is both side of my face are more serious than my forehead. That’s because I don’t have much to cover on the forehead so I applied lesser base makeup. My face the the areas that I’d applied more to cover the marks etc. That explains why the redness are all on my face not my forehead. I was practically still the same on Sunday. At that point of time I think the meds and cream are not working. Same thing for Monday. My face are so stiff and painful that I couldn’t smile, laugh or even open my mouth to eat. And I have pimples popping out because my face are burning hot!

Day 3 – Monday

On Tuesday there’s a sudden drastic changes with my skin. My face are still as red as before, itchy and painful. But it started to peel badly. I couldn’t do anything about the peeling because my skin are so sensitive even to touch. There’s no way I can scrub it off or use a toner to remove it because my current skin care sting and painful on my face. Due to the peeling the itch has come back. The so-called bee hive are patchy and getting worse. I lost all hope for recovery from that day after looking at the swelling face and bee hive. For some reason the area around my lips are getting more serious. It started to peel badly and it’s painful to even talk or smile just a bit. When I talk the skin around my lips especially my chin crack and it’s itchy and painful at the same time. Bad combination. And it got worse on Wednesday.

Day 5- Wednesday

When the peeling became bad I started using Marula Oil. Thank goodness it doesn’t sting or painful on my skin. I didn’t warm up the oil like usual because my face couldn’t take it so I only apply in one swipe direction and piled the oil generously on my face at night and another time before I go to sleep. If previous I only need 2 drops for the whole face, this time I need 2 whole dropper amount. This oil gave me the necessary hydration needed as my face are so dry and because of this method the skin on my face are more hydrated especially the severe area around my lips. I even apply Marula Oil before I go to work to help to keep my skin hydrated. It works actually as I can talk, smile, laugh and eat! By Friday my skin started to get better thanks to Marula Oil healing properties. The peeling has lessen quite a bit too. I can see that the bee hive and the swell had tone down quite a lot. At that time I looked pink from near but looked tan from far.

Day 7 – Friday

Here’s the close-up on the area around my mouth. It’s still red but recovering. I should have taken the picture of Tuesday and Wednesday when it’s at the most horrible state. Basically I couldn’t apply any skin care and I was relying heavily on the doctor’s cream. When I ran out of the cream (it’s a very small pot) I got panic and demand to go back to the doctor for a bigger jar of cream. After I calm down I realize I should stop replying the doctor. Afterall how long can I do this. I was lucky to have a bottle of Marula Oil at home which act as a moisturizer and healing oil for my face. No toner, no eye cream no nothing else. On Friday I attended a mini event and I chatted a bit with the beauty trainer on my skin allergy. I told him I can’t put anything on and I didn’t know what to do and what to use because my skin now is so thin and sensitive but dry at the same time. He told me when he had skin allergy and sun burn previously he only can use Simple. Simple is very very mild and it’s meant for sensitive skin. Or he said I can opt for Cetaphil. I’ve heard about Cetaphil and I decided to buy it from Guardian after the event. He said it’s quite pricey but I think it’s around 50+ for the cleanser. So I went to Guardian to check out Cetaphil. I thought of getting the moisturizer too but it’s quite pricey so I walked over to Simple to look around. Gosh. The cleanser or moisturizer is not more than RM20! Then I saw a trial kit selling for RM20 and I bought the kit. So far so good and it suits my skin very well. Huge thank you to this wonderful person who intro me to Simple For the past 1 week + this is what I used or take to treat my skin allergy.

If you ask me if I regretted using the BB cream I’d say NO. If I didn’t use it I wouldn’t know it’s this crappy and causes such problem even to no problem skin like mine. And I’m glad I used it first before posting up a review otherwise those with sensitive skin might get the allergy too. I can always post up something on the BB cream but I’m not that type of a blogger. This is what I do as a beauty blogger and there’s no regret. I’d still continue to try new products even after this experience but this time I’m going to do a 24 hours patch test first. I left a Facebook message on Garnier wall asking for the brand person email address because there’s no “PM” function available and apparently they decided to ignore me. Stupid move. You must at least attend to my message and not ignoring when problem arise. So Garnier if you read this you better contact me. Ignoring what happen to me doesn’t solve the issue. Just because I’m being nice doesn’t mean you cant treat me like a piece of trash. If it’s not because I’m busy treating my face I’d have make a big fuss already. CONTACT ME! Now my face condition is stuck at what you see from Day 7. Slightly less red but uneven skin tone and my face is at least 2 tone darker. Seriously this product looks like ACID more than BB cream.

The post My First Severe Skin Allergy + A Bit of Rambling appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

A few weeks ago I asked you a question in Facebook if you are willing to spend on expensive makeup remover and most of you said you’re not willing to. There’s a reason behind the question actually. A year ago not only I’m not willing to spend on expensive skin care and makeup I definitely won’t splurge on makeup removers. After spending so much on expensive makeup removers I’m cutting down a bit on the splurge side while implementing some budget buy in.

I’ve grabbed some of the best budget makeup removers from a local drugstore; Watsons that I’ve tried previously. Here’s what I think.

FOR FACE

Bioré Cleansing Oil – RM19.55 for 150ml
I’ve gone through at least 3 bottle of this. This is really efficient in removing ALL my makeup thoroughly. Using this is as easy as ABC. Just pump onto palm, massage onto face and rinse with water. After that double cleanse with your favorite cleanser and you’re done.

If you’re looking for budget cleansing oil I’d suggest you give this a try.

Purederm Make-up Remover Cleansing Tissues – RM12.16 for 30 sheets
This is the easiest and good make-up remover tissues around. Not many people knew about this mainly because it was tucked in a small section at Watsons. I discover this a few years ago when I was looking for make-up remover tissue. This is also the only cleansing tissue that bears the name and description of “make-up remover” which is great because it’s especially designed for makeup unlike other brands in the market. Sometimes I managed to get this for RM11+ only when it’s on sales. It’s easy, good, clean and refreshes the skin.

If you’re into simplicity and convenient…this is the one for you. As usual double cleanse with your favorite cleanser after that.

Simple Kind To Skin Cleansing Facial Wipes – RM15.21 for 25 wipes
Can you believe if I told you I’ve never tried this Simple Cleansing Wipes before? But fret not. I’ve used a few wipes prior before this post

I’ve heard so much about this and how great it is in removing makeup. I’ve also heard how some user had break out from using this. Personally I didn’t experience any break out. The wipe does remove all makeup just like any other cleansing wipes. However I think the tissue is a bit on the dry side. I’m not sure if all residue is removed because of the dryness of the tissue.

Do double cleanse after that.

FOR EYES

L’Oreal Gentle Lip and Eye Make-up Remover – RM19.80 for 125ml
As for eyes…this is one of the drugstore eye makeup remover that I kept buying and buying. I’m very particular about eye makeup remover. I only use bi-phase remover just like this one. Bi-phase removers are the best in removing waterproof eye makeup. I’ve tried gel and cream but non works like oil.

You’re not suppose to rub the remover on your eyes. Just pour some on the cotton pad, put it on your eyes for a few second and wipe gently. Use the other end of the cotton pad to repeat the same process again.

Bioré Makeup Remover For Eye & Lip – RM23.80 for 130ml
Before I bought the full size bottle I’ve tested the sample and it’s really good. In fact most Bioré products are good! This is slightly high on the price tag for a bi-phase eye makeup remover. Remember to shake before use otherwise you’d ended up using all the oil thus the inefficient of the remaining product after that.

If you ask me what’s the different between the rest of bi-phase remover in the market, I think it’s quite similar in terms of performance and efficiency. I wouldn’t mind spending a few RM more to get this to use alternately.

Are you using any of the above? If you need a detail review on any of it, do comment!

The post Budget Buy – Eye & Face Make-up Removers appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona