Waves!

No one asked, but I thought I'd write a tutorial on how I got my wavy hair. I did this yesterday and it turned out really really really well. This has been done plenty of times already and it's a pretty basic procedure that everyone knows about; but because it takes extra special methods and products and voodoo for my hair to be anything but mostly straight, this is mostly for me, so that next time I remember what I did.

"Remember when you were 12 and you used to think those Mac filters for your pictures were cool haha!" Jks I dont hv a mac

So I started with my hair not completely blown dry (i.e. damp hair) because when hair is damp and put up in some way, it'll usually stay that way better (at least in my case). I split my hair into two sections - not exactly down the middle, because I had a pretty good side part so I left it like that - and French-braided each section semi-tight. And then I went to sleep.

When I woke up, I took the braids out, and gently separated the strands without tugging on them in hopes that that'd help keep the waviness in there longer; and sprayed my hair with a sea salt spray while scrunching up random bunches of hair. And finally, I prayed to the hair gods that the humidity wasn't too high and my hair wasn't too rebellious so the waves would stay in all day, because I always find it embarrassing when my waves go kind of limp and my hair looks like it doesn't know what it's doing.

Et voilà! Almost-mermaid hair! The above picture was taken this morning (so, the day after), and the waves were still there. They've kinda given out at the moment, but overall, I'm happy with how it turned out for yesterday and got lots of compliments from my coworkers (and even a patient! He was a 60 year old man but we'll ignore that part).

Keep it mellow, fellows.

Epuris: one month down, x months to go

Hello! I bring some mediocre updates on my face's condition after having been on Epuris for 30 days:

- My skin is dry! I mean, maybe in a couple of months this will be a nuisance but at the moment, I don't have too many dry/peeling patches of skin so it's a welcomed change from my usually frying-pan greasy skin. 

- With my skin being dry, my makeup actually stays on for the entire (work) day now! And I don't get oily throughout the day. 

This was taken at around 9pm before my shower. My makeup was applied at 7am!

- My lips are chapped af and the corners of my mouth are also really being affected. Sometimes I look like I have a milk moustache with all the peeling skin that appears throughout the day (i.e. When it's been a while since I applied Chapstick). My dermatologist says I've been managing my chapped lips pretty well though.

- My hands are also really dry, though this could be attributed to how I get rubbing alcohol on my fingers and hands all the time at work (and how I over-wash and over-sanitize my hands). 

- I am still getting pimples!!! This is disheartening, but my dermatologist said most people see improvement after the second month of treatment. And on the bright side, my pimples aren't making appearances too frequently. 

- I had mentioned last time that I noticed a lot of blackheads popping up on my nose. My dermatologist said they aren't "truly" blackheads, but are just my oil glands. I'm guessing their appearance is indicative of my body working to clear out whatever is in these glands. 

- My face still gets pretty red after cleansing. But I think this is because a) I scrub too hard sometimes and b) I shower with really hot water. Check out that shine on my nose though. I don't even know. I hadn't even moisturized when I took this and my face was definitely not oily... I promise I don't have a plastic nose. 

Anyhow, thanks for keeping up with my shenanigans. I cracked open my second box yesterday and I am staying optimistic! If you have any tips on how to deal with being on Epuris, please share!

Stay mellow,

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Look guys! I went out!!!

So maybe I'm not a real fan of the Marvel Universe - I don't collect comic books, I don't know every story arc for every character, and I don't even know every character. I guess I could be called a casual fan; nonetheless, I am an enthusiastic fan of the Marvel Universe!

It started after I watched the first X-Men movie a while ago - I was immediately drawn to the whole superhero thing, and after that, I spent a lot of time (it's an embarrassing amount, and goes to show that I, in fact, do not get out often) on Wikipedia reading biographies of a lot of the characters, which led to watching the cartoons, reading a few graphic novels I could find at the library, and day-dreaming of the day I discovered my own powers and/or became a superhero (this still happens, admittedly).

Anyhow... exactly a week ago, a local radio station tweeted out a contest for advance screening tickets for the latest Avengers movie. To enter, all you had to do was tweet them what superpower you'd have with their hashtag. And so I did...

I'm pretty good at winning twitter contests... Thanks @VirginRadioTO! pic.twitter.com/L5FypAvyr5

— yvonne (@whyv0nne) April 23, 2015

(If you haven't been keeping up, I won Toronto Marlies tickets earlier this month).

I invited my fellow future OD friend to come along, who, coincidentally, had been out with one of our other friends that night, and he had been bragging about having VIP tickets for opening night. Sorry, bud!

At this exact moment, I was probably internally fangirl-squealing.

I won't spoil the movie... but it was amazing (this, of course, is a totally unbiased opinion). It was action-packed (as expected) and extremely thrilling with many funny moments and epic scenes. There were some things that were completely unexpected; but the movie on a whole was definitely not a letdown.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is in theaters on Friday!