thesandraquo

Friday, February 12, 2016

REVIEW | DEWYTREE Real Gold Black Pearl Eye Patch

My First Korean Sauna Experience

I'm SAUNA obsessed!!!!

I have been wanting to try it in Atlanta for awhile now! However since I'm in Chicago... Considering the snowy weather in Chicago, going to a sauna is the best thing to do and a must add to the itinerary.

I went after braving the windy chills and plopping around in the snow! After doing snow angels and making a mini snowman, I had serious hypothermia, frozen hands and toes, and a mild charley horse coming on. It was so nice to step into something warm.

I went to King Spa Sauna located in Niles, IL. It was a 20 minute ride from my hotel. I was thrilled about that! As soon as you walk in, they hand you a bracelet with a locker number. After you register and pay you are ready to begin your sauna experience.

They ask you to take off your shoes before proceeding to the locker room. An employee is ready to greet you with your outfit once you step. It's recommended that you wash off in the spa pool or shower before going inside the sauna. I would be lying if I didn't feel a little shocked seeing the women in the locker room walk around naked. (hehe :p) I wasn't comfortable doing that so I quickly changed and went immediately to the sauna room.

There are different sauna rooms available. It's unisex, so both men and women can join the sauna together. Each sauna has its own specialized room. There is a Jade room, Charcoal room, Salt room etc. And each room offers different benefits. I was super ecstatic to try all of them!

A Korean sauna or public bathhouse is called jjimjilbang in Korean. Koreans have been going to saunas for years for various reasons. It's is part of their life/culture! The jjimjilbang not only includes sauna rooms but it provides hot tubs, showers, spa pools, massages and a small restaurant/snack bar. There are sleeping rooms available too. Oh and they offer the infamous whole body scrub!!!

It's typical that Korean Saunas never close. King Spa Sauna allow people to stay overnight and it's operated 24 hours daily. How awesome is that?! I would rather go there than rent a hotel.

Let's talk about the benefits of sweating out in a sauna room! It's like giving your skin healthy food to eat. It's a body detox and a skincare rejuvenation. The sweating help clean out impurities and toxins. There are studies that saunas can help with reducing stress, fatigue, lower blood pressure and help with weight loss! If that's not enough to get you to go to one, then I don't know what will convince you!

We care so much about keeping our face healthy with skincare products and such, in which we often neglect our body. Our body deserves the same kind of loving and care. To me, it's about self-care instead of vanity. I think it's very important to take care of your body. So if you live near a sauna, first I am jealous of you, you should try to go as often as you can! Next time I go, I will definitely try the whole body scrub! ^_^

Below are pictures that I took from my iPhone. You can see the different rooms. I forgot to take the sleeping room and cafe/snack bar area. Enjoy!

After changing, you'll end up here to pick which sauna room you wanna go in.

Ice Room or Amethyst Room? I just got done freezing in the snow.

In the Amethyst Room. Sweating away dirty toxins!

I had to do it Korean style!

You can choose to lay down or sit. A wooden pillow and a rug is provided for your comfort. (Inside the Egyptian style room pictured below)

GOLD ROOM

AMETHYST ROOM

BASE ROCK ROOM

ICE ROOM

DREAM BULGAMA ROOM

SALT ROOM

OCHER ROOM

CHARCOAL ROOM

Chicago in Pictures

Body Skincare Journey

As a skincare enthusiast I'm a sucker for anything that helps keep skin looking healthy. It was only time that I reached a stage in my skincare journey to start thinking about body skincare. I had a growing interest in that area for sometime now.

I started out with purchasing body soap that contains special ingredients to care for skin such as moisture, suppleness, wrinkles etc. Specifically, the olay body line that I can't think of the name at this moment was what I started out with. In between, I used Palmer's cocoa butter. I liked it but I didn't love it, I just didn't feel satisfied. One thing I can say is that, I didn't want to smell like that. It has a nice smell that's not what I'm saying, it's just I would rather smell prettier if that makes sense lol.

Later, I moved on to using coconut oil. I loved reading all the wonders that coconut oil can do. I was super excited to try it out for my thirsty skin! Sadly because I really really really dislike oil, it just didn't quite work out. Numero uno, it breaks me out. Numero dos, the natural fragrance was too strong for me. I'm not sure if all coconut oils smell like that, but I just found it unpleasant to continue using it. I'm definitely not striking this out, I'm going to try different brands. Besides, I love coconut everything. Natural coconut, coconut water, coconut ice cream, and coconut desserts to name a few!

On May of this year, I finally bought one of the things that was on my skincare wish list for awhile. And that is.... Nature Republic's Aloe Vera Jelly! I wish I bought this sooner. It truly tops everything I've ever used. My skin is weird. Too much moisture and my skin gets irritated, and well if it's not moisturized I just look and feel dry, ashy ew. That's a no no!

Not only am I in love with this product, I got my sisters loving it too! I'm actually currently out of the product because I didn't think I'd be loving it and using it religiously. It seriously is

Are there any body care skincare items that you're obsessed about? I want to not only know about it, I want to try it too!

source:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61EH2i7pA9L._SL1500_.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/aplus/detail-page/B002Z7EOOE_olay_201305304_4627.jpg
https://shopgirlsdiary.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/aloe2.jpg?w=620

Spring in Fort Lauderdale

Here's a simple get-up for on the go! I was in Fort Lauderdale for a week and a half after my trip bk from Malaysia and literally had no other clothes besides what I packed for my trip. So I basically used my simple top with my lace pale blue shorts to come up with a fresh look for this change of season. My dear friend Anj, (styledwithpoise.com) took these shots of me :) hope u can find some inspiration! Oh and if I forget... Have a Happy Easter!!! 💐🌸🌷

Top: Padini Concept Store
Bottom: Forever 21
Shoes: Aldo

MALAYSIA Part I

It's been a week and 2 days since I got back from Malaysia and I'm already missing Nasi Lemak! I had so many firsts in this trip. It was my first trip out of the country, my first time at a hawker stall, my first time eating (yucky) durian!

There's so much to talk about and so many things that I want to share. I'll try not to blabber too much but here are my thoughts and opinions!

My trip started in Alor Setar. I was there for a couple days to spend Chinese New Year with my bf's family. There, I got to experience the brutal humidity of Malaysia. It was scorching hot! Instead of shivers running up your spine, you feel a waterfall running down your spine! It was necessary to shower 3 times a day. I'm use to the sun since I live in Florida, but Malaysia was on a different level!

Aside from the weather, the second thing I noticed were the "onion" top buildings, also known as mosques. hehe. If you didn't know, the major religion in Malaysia is Islam. Malaysia is a multicultural country that is home to Malay, Chinese, and Indians.

Third, billboards, advertisements, and signs were everywhere! I guess you could compare it to New York. Ads followed and screamed at me everywhere I went!

Fourth, Malaysians love coffee! You can get a cuppa anywhere! From cute ones to a local popular named, 'Old Town Coffee'. I didn't get a chance to sit in a cute cafe cuz well... there was so much on the schedule for the day.

Fifth, everything was so cheap! Compared to US Dollars of course. Not average food, but outta-this-world-awesome-bomb food can be found for $.30!!! Also, asian cosmetics was sooo much cheaper compared to the US.

Notice how I relate everything to cosmetics and food. That seemed to be my focus on my trip lol Instead of reveling in Malaysia's famous towers and historical buildings, I kept thinking whether I had enough money and luggage space for beauty buys. Yikes!

After Alor Setar, we took a road trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. That's when I felt America was so behind on creativity, design, and architecture. The malls were incredibly huge! The project planner had much thought in how he wanted it to look. Each mall was unique and I could really tell that they cared a lot about presentation.

I was most thrilled to see asian cosmetics. Access to asian skincare and cosmetics is slim-to-none here so to see them in their own stand-alone store made me giddy! I saw Innisfree, Face Shop, Etude House, Shu Uemura, and SASA! It was close to heaven for me. :)

Oh and I can't sign off without talking about fashion! People dressed casually and fitting to the weather. I didn't see much personal style around me. Maybe because I was on the LRT when ppl were making their way to work etc. Clearly, I explored the city in odd times. I'm sure there's a fashion popping place in KL somewhere, unfortunately I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So I was hoping to buy clothes locally but in all of the boutiques I walked in, most products were from Taiwan and China. Out of all the stores I dropped in, I liked Charles & Keith (Singapore brand) the most. I wanted to buy a bag soooo terribly bad, but I had so much to carry that the thought of lugging another bag around would make me faint! Especially my dslr... it was annoyingly heavy. However, while I'm typing this and thinking about the store... I REGRET not buying a bag. boohoohoohoo. (I only ended up buying shoes from Singapore, because the flats I had on gave me blisters!)

AH- Anyway, I purchased two shirts from Padini Concept Store for $10 and bought shoes from Vincci. And of course, I had to stop by Zara. Ahhh how I wish we had no sales tax! Although rumor has it, that sales tax will be implemented possibly in April. Eeeek >.<

I went to Johor Bahru for two days. From there, I took a bus to Singapore! I spent two fantastic days there. I'll write a separate post about that excursion later!

Enough of the blabbing, here are some pictures of my travel. Enjoy!