I'm lazy (there, I said it!) But not lazy enough to walk out of the house looking like I just rolled out of bed. I'm also not one of those people who have perfect skin, unfortunately. I too suffer from uneven skin tone and blemishes. In the search for a foundation for a simple makeup routine, I found BB Cream.
What exactly is BB cream?
Short BB cream review
BB is short for Blemish Balm, and BB cream acts as a foundation / makeup base that soothes and regenerates the skin. It also has a thicker consistency so it conceals skin tone imperfections better than tinted moisturizers. It may have sounded too good to be true when I read about it online, but when I was in Korea for a visit last winter, I made sure to pick up some Dr. Jart Black Label BB Cream to try it out.
At the time, new breakouts were wreaking havoc on my skin. I don't consider myself to have bad skin, but it's not great either. Whenever I break out, even when the pimple subsides I usually inherit an additional dark spot on my face which take months to fade. Since the breakouts kept coming, pretty soon, dark spots formed constellations upon my cheek which was laced with a scattering of new pimple bumps making my skin look pretty awful nude.
And so I tried Dr. Jart. That was a great idea. I first noticed that my face was not as oily as it was before, which was awesome. It makes my pores look smaller/invisible and covers my uneven skin tone and light blemishes pretty well (for those big ones I have to dab a little concealer). I initially rotated between this and the Shiseido foundation I was previously using, but I eventually used BB cream exclusively because it was so easy to blend and use. It comes out of a squeeze out tube, I slap it onto my face, and within a minute I am done and ready to go. No mess, no hassle. Dr. Jart is rated as one of the better BB creams, and the Black Label has a "unique triple action formula...[that] aims at covering skin imperfections, concealing blemishes, and activating skin rejuvenation. It also smoothes wrinkles and fine lines while providing sun protection to skin." I'm starting to sound like an infomercial, but if you're on the fence, I highly recommend you try some!
The downside is that if you're darker-skinned than the general Asian, the color will probably not suit your skin tone. For reference, I am a MAC NC20/25 and the Black Label matches me pretty well. I've used it for about 6 months or so, and I have a lot fewer breakouts now. With it on, my skin just looks naturally even-toned and blemish free according to people around me (little do they know, ha ha!)
Reviews + pics by other users
Whenever I look for makeup reviews, I like to see how it actually looks on someone instead of commercial picture ads or swatches on a hand. As I am not brave enough, and also too lazy, to post pics of myself online, I shall link you to some good ones I've found of Dr. Jart users. Black Label is meant for dry/normal skin and is slightly darker than the Silver Label, which is meant for oily/combination skin.
Other BB cream brands
Lastly, there are a lot of BB creams out there. I happened to choose Dr. Jart Black Label because it was the first one that matched my skin tone. Since it works great, I'm sticking with it. For those of you who want to find out a little more on other brands, hop on over to these massive forum discussions all about BB Cream at soompi and cozycot.
Where to buy Dr. Jart
If you're in the US, you can get Dr. Jart directly through its website. I also have some sample packets lying around I'm willing to part with if shipping costs are covered. Probably most worth it for US readers (do I even have any? he he). Regardless, leave a comment with your email and maybe we can work something out if you're interested!
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When space is important, here is a way to get LaTeX on OS X with a small footprint (~50MB).
Credit: MacTeX
1) Download BasicTeX.
This will install a small subset of TeX Live on your system, but the small subset is remarkably capable, with TeX, LaTeX, pdfTeX, AMS-LaTeX, ConTeXt, XeTeX, etc.
2) Download TeXShop.
I also highly recommend LaTeXit, a program that quickly typesets LaTeX equations into PDFs. It does require Ghostscript and a few other dependencies, which is a 1-click install with a dmg file found here.
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As we're moving towards being an electronic society, more and more of us are starting to shop online. The variety of goods available online and the ease of having things shipped to your door is unquestionable. If you'd like to make the most of your online shopping, here are a couple of tips you should consider.
Rebates for online shopping
If you're shopping online anyways, you might as well get some money back while doing so. Whenever you shop through a link from a cashback site (e.g. Ebates), you get a % of your purchase back. This is not a scam, you really do get money back (based on personal experience).
So how do you go about it? You can first learn about how many different cashback sites there are and how they can pay you. Here is a nice overview of the major sites out there. You can then sign up for one, a few, or all of them to take advantage of the best % rate.
Once you have your account(s), you can check reb8r.com which organizes the major cashback sites and their links into a concise table. It compares the current rates so you know at a glance which site gives you the most back. The links are already compiled for you, so you don't have to go searching through each individual site for the click through link.
Rebates for using credit cards
Usually when shopping online, the most popular method of payment is via a credit card. There are a ton of credit cards out there that offer you rewards for spending money. You've probably heard of the airline reward cards, but honestly, if you have to pay an annual fee, you won't reap the benefits unless you spend a *ton*.
Remember that there are a lot of cards out there that don't require an annual fee. These usually give you ~1% back, so you might as well use them if you're shopping online. Now, I'm not condoning that you get these credit cards if you usually carry a balance -- you should pay off your balance and only spend what you can afford. That way, you'll get the most bang for your buck instead of wasting it on paying back interest.
Here are a few of my favorites:- Blue Cash from American Express - 1.25% back after you've spent $6,500/year, which is slightly more than the 1%. I like to put big electronics purchases on here because Amex extends your manufacturer's warranty by a year.
Here's a scenario: you buy a TV that comes with a 1 year warranty. Something happens to your TV <2 years later. Instead of going "oh %$#^!" you contact Amex and they'll cut you a check for the cost of your TV! - Chase Amazon Visa - 3% at Amazon, 1% elsewhere ($25 gift cert for every 2500pts). This one makes sense if you shop through Amazon a lot (which I do, they have quick shipping and almost everything I need from an online store).
- Capital One Rewards - 1%. This one is nice because if you travel internationally, they do not charge you a currency conversion fee like other cards which is about 3%.
There are so many more, check here for a nice consolidation of possible credit cards to get. The posters are also very active, so check out the discussions on each thread as well.
One last slightly related note, if you're renting an apartment, you can sometimes pay your rent with a credit card! That's usually a nice, easy way to rack up points on money you have to spend anyways.
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iConvert - Convert uploaded image
Google converter - Grab favicon of any webpage you desire (put URL at the end of the link)
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It's time for you to find a domain and almost everything that you can think of has already been taken. Argh! What to do now? There are a few tools that may come in handy:
BustAName - You have a few keywords in mind, but you haven't had any luck trying various combinations. This site is the answer to your troubles - stick in all the words you can think of and it'll think of every possible combination for you. It even gives you synonyms if you'd like.
Domainr - You really want a specific word, but the .com version is out. This checks your word with variations of top-level domains (What are top-level domains? Seeing is worth a thousand words) Pretty nifty.
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I'm lazy (there, I said it!) But not lazy enough to walk out of the house looking like I just rolled out of bed. I'm also not one of those people who have perfect skin, unfortunately. I too suffer from uneven skin tone and blemishes. In the search for a foundation for a simple makeup routine, I found BB Cream.
