Trilogy Beauty Class ... 트릴로지 뷰티클래스

 April 30th, I went to Trilogy's launching event of Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion. It was an invite only event that started at 11am, which I totally mistook it for 11:30 so missed a bit in the beginning..

Trilogy is a New Zealand natural skincare company that has gotten many beauty awards. I was introduced to this brand by a friend and I really love their Rosehip Oil Antioxidant+ and their Mineral Radiance Mask.

The Beauty class that was held on Thursday, April 30th was for the new product launch in May - Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion. We got to try it, make some great skin & body scrub and had snacks and lunch. The new Hydra-Tone Softening Lotion is a gel type lotion that is especially recommended for dry skin but it's perfect for all skin types. It helps remove residual cleansing product and make-up and it is absorbed quickly into your skin with a moisturized feel. The main ingredients as indicated on the label are hyaluronic acid (helps protect skin and moisturize), marshmallow (helps condition your skin), ylang ylang (helps maintain a healthy PH balance) and mulberry (helps brighten the skin). 

I've used it and it really does have a nice moist feel.

After the beauty class we had delicious snacks and lunch ready for us.



And we also had a visit by Lorraine, the Asia Regional Manager of Trilogy.

You can easily purchase them at any Olive Young store or buy them online on most of the major online shopping sites like GS shop, CJ mall, Lotte imall, Hmall.com, or Lotte.com. Also at the Lotte Duty Free, Dongwha Duty Free and The Grand Duty Free.

2015년 4월 30일 11시 메디엘 코스메틱 본사에서 진행한 봄 맞이 트릴로지 신제품 런칭행사에 다녀왔습니다!

시간을 착각하여 조금 늦게 도착하였으나 새로나온 하이드라 톤 소프트닝 로션의 소개와 함께 슈가 스크럽을 만드는 시간을 가졌어요.

친구를 통해 트릴로지를 알게 되었는데요 전 로즈힙 오일도 좋아하지만 미네랄 마스크도 굉장히 좋아한답니다. 꼭 한번 사용해 보세요! 굉장히 촉촉하고 탱글탱글한 피부를 느끼실 수 있으실 거에요..

올 5월에 런칭하는 신제품인 하이드라 톤 소프트닝 로션은요 젤 탕입으로 굉장히 흡수가 빠르고 촉촉하며 세안 후 화장품을 포함한 잔여물 까지 깔끔히 제거해준답니다. 모든 피부 타입에 적합하지만 노화가 시작되거나 건조한 피부에 특히 추천한다네요. 핵심성분으로는 보습에 뛰어나며 피부보호에 도움이 되는 히알루론산, 피지분비 조절과 PH밸런스에 도움이되는 일랑일랑, 피부 진정과 화사한 피부 연출을 도와주는 마시멜로 뿌리추출물 그리고 생기와 활력있는 피부연출에 도움을 주는 상백피 추출물들이 들어있답니다. 그 외에 백차 추출물광 알로에베라 추출물도 포함되어 있다고 하네요.

직접 사용해 본 결과 굉장히 깔끔하고 촉촉하며 화사한 느낌을 주더라고요.



트릴로지 아시아 메니저인 로레인씨가 방문해주셔서 얘기도 해보고 메디엘에서 맛나는 점시과 간식을 준비해주셔서 배부르게 먹고 좋은 체험하고 선물까지 얻어왔답니다.



기회가 되시면 꼭한번 사용해보세요~

여러 온라인 (GS shop, CJ mall, Lotte imall, Hmall.com, or Lotte.com) 및 올리브영에서 구매 할 수 있다네요.

Hanbunsik [한분,식 - 한분한분을 위한 식사]

The entrance to the little cozy restaurant 

If you're having a craving for some Korean food! Then you should ABSOLUTELY and most DEFINITELY visit this place. I love kimbab and all the Korean snack-like meals but sometimes you just get sick and tired of all the franchise places and want a nice homemade style. And if you're like me.. then you really.. really.. have to go here. But please do keep in mind that we all do have different opinions and taste buds so don't be put off if it isn't up to your expectation..

Hanbun (한분) - a person /
sik (식/식사) - meal

For me, however, I have been looking for some good busik (분식) place and I think this is it.. though it is a bit out of the way.

Their name is very clever, too. Hanbun, sik (한분, 식): Hanbun (한분) refers to one person and sik (식) means meal. So, translated it means meal for each and every person. I thought that was neat.

Below are the basic side dishes provided with the meals: soup and white kimchi :

White kimchi (백김치) - this is good for those
that can't have spicy kimchi 

Soup with fried bean curd(유부) it has a little spicy kick to it 

We ordered 2 kimbab, jinmi kimbab which had seasoned dried squid in it and salmon mayo kimbab. They were both delicious.. but can't wait to visit again and try the other kimbab.

Jinmi kimbab  (진미 김밥)
[in food, 'jinmi', refers to delicate flavor]

Salmon mayo kimbab (연어마요 김밥)

We also ordered ddokbokki, which is a dish of rice cake and fish cake seasoned in a little spicy sweet sauce. All three dishes were delicious and fresh. I really liked the kimbabs because they didn't have too much rice in it but more of the other ingredients. Also the ddokbokki was good to because they made it with rice cake made with brown rice. So, it felt much healthy.

Ddokbokki made with brown rice
(현미떡볶이)

The restaurant is located between Yeoksam Station (line#2) and Seollung Station (line#2&Bundang line). When you reach the Renaissance Hotel, walk to the back of the hotel and you'll see a Japanese Restaurant named IDOMI (이도미), take the alley where Idomi is and walk straight, pass the first intersection and you'll see the restaurant on your left. If you live near by, you're in luck because they do deliver and the owner and the employee do speak English. They're open every Monday to Friday from 10:30am till 9:00pm, closed on Sundays.

HANBUNSIK

address: 역삼동 664-32

tel: 025-666-555

No more hospital visits... Knock on wood!!

March 20th, 2015

My final visit to the hospital and checkup with the doc.. To see the progress and get the plastic thingy (sorry for my ignorance but I still don't know what they're called :( ) out of my nose that was correcting(?) my deviated septum. Boy, now I can believe you can practically stuff anything up your nose. I was wondering how kids got those huge toys stuck up their nose and had to visit the emergency room... I mean, I had my eyes closed when they were pulling it out but, wow, seriously they were huge.. And I just had thought it was some kind of tube. 

Anyhow, it was a quick visit: the nurse did her thing and the doc examined and told me it's healing well.. no infections or out of the ordinaries. I just need to take care of it a bit more with the cleansing for a month since there'll be scabs and occasional slight bleeding. Still am not supposed to blow my nose or pretty much he said blowing your nose is not good at all (for anyone). Mid April I should be able to start exercising and in about a month's time I should start getting some feeling back. It still feels a bit numb and stiff :( but it is still heeling so need to give it time. 

My check up for the first surgery went fine too. The swelling is all gone and I could see a huge change after the doc took pics to show the difference between the before and after photos. 

Breathing is much better now. I think it could get much better after the swelling goes down and I can feel my nose again, lol. It's weird because after the surgery, taste and scent are much more pronounced. 

Also, no snoring! And I'm feeling more rested as days go by.... Except for the occasional times where I can't really fall asleep but that has more to do with my insomnia problem and getting my biorhythm in order. However, sleeping 3 hours a day is ok because I do feel much more rested than I used to before the surgery. ;) But yes, a regular scheduled time wouldn't hurt either. 

I'd like to thank all my friends and family for being there for me and sending me good thoughts! 

Love you all! 

Organising...

Since I have had more time to myself..
I've had time to organise much more and get rid of the things I've thought about getting rid of..
However, the indecisiveness sometimes gets in the way and some other reason pops into mind and I'm holding onto it again...

Been trying to hoard less and go minimalistic.. it's not perfect but I'm sort of making it work.
Got rid of a lot of books, things and went through the clothing, shoes and bags, put them in a box of 'throw away' and 'donate'. I should go through them again and get a pile of winter clothes to get rid of. It's not perfect, but it's getting there...

While I've been organising all the things, in my mind, I've been organising something else too..

My address book or contact list on my phone has names and contact info of people that I just don't keep in contact anymore.. mostly from old work and yes, there are people that I do keep in contact but there are the ones I don't. I did keep them just in case.. but as years go by, I really don't think they'll or I'll ever contact again.. so what's the use of keeping those names and numbers?

I'm trying to make things simpler and focus on what matters the most.. and it comes to where I just need to delete some of those that doesn't matter and make room for what does.. I've already deleted the apps that I'm not using but thought I might and had downloaded.. there still are way too many apps on my phone :P

Organising my address book made me think about all my friends that I hadn't contacted personally. Yes, we have Facebook, and other social medias that keeps us updated in their lives in general, but phone calls and emails and letters, I feel, are much more personal and they do bring a smile to your face. So, I'm slowly building and updating that as well.

Second surgery... Thank heavens it's over!!!

March 6th, 2015

While my first surgery to fix the obstructive sleep apnea was concentrated in the oral area, my second surgery was all about the nasal area: fixing the crooked nasal cavity by inserting a plastic tube and burning of some tissues to broaden the airways, and some other thing I couldn't understand... :P

The morning of... I got ready to head to the hospital on the subway with the morning crowd headed into work. My surgery was scheduled for 10am but had to be there by 9:20 to see the doc before the surgery and and do a simple checkup. So, with all the people cramping up in the subway off I went...

Morning crowd...

Got to the hospital way early, talked to the doc, did some basic tests, got changed into hospital gown and off to the surgery...

I got another round of general anesthesia and this time it was different because I actually felt the liquids flowing into my veins and it hurt! But after that I only remember waking up again cold in the recovery, dizzy and just hurting all over and not being able to breathe through my nose. After gaining a bit of strength I was moved to a bedroom where I wasn't able to sleep for the next hour and half OR drink. So, tried to focus on some other things in order to forget...read a bit, played some game, chatted with my friend on FaceTime. Time did pass quickly and gosh, was I glad to be able to drink water!

I was feeling weak, tired and thirsty. My nose was blocked with gauze stuffed into it and breathing through the mouth made me thirsty all the time. I was released from the hospital around 8pm with nose still blocked, an IV needle stuck into my right wrist, so couldn't breathe properly and couldn't use my right hand. On top of that, I couldn't wear my glasses because it'll put weight on the nose and that was a no-no. So, I was half blind, and half-crippled...

Sleeping that night was really hard! Kept waking up and I couldn't sleep lying down so had to sit up again and that made it a little easier to sleep. 

March 7th, the day after the surgery I had to return to the hospital to get the gauze out of my nose and get the antibiotic shot. Getting that done even though it was very, very painful, I'm glad it was done because I'm feeling much better! 

Next appointment is a week later and I'll get rid of the stitches and the blue bandage that's covering the nose. And a week later from that they'll take the plastic tube out. 

I can't wait till everything is healed. For all the swellings to go down and have fully healed it'll take months.

There are also some precautions I need to take in the meantime (for about a month) like: no excessive exercising, no heavy lifting, no tilting the head down, no sauna or public bathhouse, no alcoholic beverages (up to 3months) 

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

I've been told I snore. 

Yes, people snore, and women do snore. The problem with me though is that I've been told I stop breathing after a very loud snore. And this had been going for some time and hadn't really thought much of it even though my family have had constantly told me to get it checked out. So after ignoring it for the longest time, I finally went to a sleep clinic to get myself checked. (Because it was getting serious and even I was starting to notice and coincidentally I saw a program related to sleep apnea and how badly it could affect your daily life and health.)

February 6th, 6:30pm was the day of the appointment with the doctor at my sleep clinic in Gangnam. We did a short survey, and met up with the doc and did the CT scan, x-ray, and blood works. Didn't take much time maybe an hour or so then at 9pm came back to the clinic to get hooked up on the wires and whatnots to get my brainwave, breathing and movement scanned and filmed. Went to bed around 11pm and the next day they had the results ready by 5pm. 

February 7th, second meeting with the doc... and I was hoping maybe a little retainer would do the trick but it wasn't going to be that easy. He said my results were pretty much on the top of one of his worst female patients. (I pretty much rank 2nd) the results said that I've been waking up over a 100 times in an hou tall becaue of sleep apnea and generally 30/hr is in the red zone and my results were 3times higher. Also, the longest I didn't breathe was 37seconds and that's not good. 

Hence, it came down to two choices, non-surgically I could be using the breathing mask to help me breathe during my sleep for the rest of my life OR surgically, I could broaden up my airways. Luckily, and thankfully I didn't have to get the complicated surgical procedure done.. just a simple not to painful surgery was an option for me, which involves: reduction of the tonsils, uvula and tongue. And yes, it sounded horrifyingly painful and frightening when the doc explained it. And it made me think of all the brave women out there who actually get jobs done willingly just for the sake of beauty... I could never do that. From the CT scan, we could also see that I had a narrow and crooked nasal cavity, hence that needs to get fixed as well and having all that fixed should cure 90% of my problem. (So, 2nd surgery si scheduled for 6th of March)

February 12th, 7pm - The Day of Surgery!

Nervous, anxious and a little frightened.. changed into hospital gown and walked into the surgery room. As I lay down on the surgical bed, I saw those circular lights that we see often on tv and the doctors started connected me to IVs and other electrical wires. The anesthetistf came in and started injecting something into the IV and put a mask on me, telling me to take deep breaths. After couple of breaths I don't remember anything but waking up in the recovery room, shivering.It wasn't painful at all, like the doctor had said, but felt all swollen and awkward, yes, swallowing was very hard. I started out with water, which was difficult, it felt like my throat was the size of a pin hole.

For the first couple of days, I could only eat water, ice cubes and ice cream. I still have to be careful with what I eat because I can't risk the stitches tearing and bleeding. So, for the next couple of weeks until everything is all healed and my lower jaw and four lower front teeth are back to normal, I can only have liquid food, no seasoning, chunks, spice... just soft, cold, sweet stuff.. Oh, and I have to sleep sitting up until the swelling goes down. It's been pretty good so far, I guess it helps because I cant chew or swallow. However, I can't wait till I can eat alll the food I've been missing out on! :)

It's been about 10 days since the surgery and the swelling has gone down substantially, the bruises are almost gone, there stilll are a bit of yellow and blue, purple patches but it should disappear in time :)

I have a checkup at the hospital coming Monday to get the threads removed and to see how the healing's been progressing so far.