A short review and experience with Olive Young Global. This site provides free global shipping over $60 USD.
As a first time buyer, I was surprised at some of the deals they had!
Those Wake Make tints were only $1.90 USD and expiry in 2022/2023. They smell absolutely fantastic with long lasting staying power.
I wore those tints on set and they only started to fade off after a good 6-7 hours.
Other highly raved products can be found on their site too, such as Physiogel, Illiyoon and Luna!
I have been a long time fan of Physiogel’s Facial Cream (lightweight, non greasy and moisturizes extremely well) – they had it in a set for about $34 USD.
The entire process of shopping was easy, added items to cart and checked out!
Olive Young often promotes great coupon deals, so be sure to reconfirm before payment. Coupons can be found under “Account”.
The total for my haul came to be about $102 USD.
SHIPPING:
Everything was processed really quick, my package was sent out the next day via EMS to Canada. Shipment took only about 6 days, which was superrrrr fast! Was expecting some kind of delay due to the pandemic, ha!
Now…… Customs. That’s right. I got charged with a hefty sum of $25 CAD for customs. Why. Just why. GST, PST, and CBSA Handling Fees ($9.95).
I contacted Olive Young and they confirmed that any customs were to be paid by the customers, they are not liable for any costs. They are also unwilling to mark the package as “gift” as it has caused trouble in the past.
$25 is quite a huge sum, to be frank. I was not happy. Haha!
The package came safe with a ton of bubble wrap, so that’s a plus. No samples given.
Long story short, I love their website and the products they offer. Due to customs, I’ll have to think twice before purchasing from them again.
Have you shopped from Olive Young before? Tell us more about your experience!
In mine, there have been massive ups and downs, roundabouts, u-turns, falling off the roads. There is not a single formula that fits everyone. In multiple parts, I will be sharing my formula, the struggles I faced and recovery.
Note: I may bash myself in this series of blog posts from time to time, simply cause I would have done things differently given the opportunity.
I have always been a chubby kid. Ah yes, in every weight loss story, people say the same. “I have always been chubby”. But seriously, I was a big and wide kid. I’m not tall by all means, I grew to only be 5’3 in height, but my weight has got up and down throughout my life.
Being overweight for more than half my life, I had to endure remarks from family “oh, you look bigger”, and my parents “did you gain weight, again?!”. Honestly, I drowned those remarks by eating more in front of them, just to piss them off….
Knocking on Goblin’s Door in Quebec! I was sitting at 160lbs here
To summarize, I graphed out what my weight gain/loss was really like:
At the age of 18, I was extremely active and was part of fitness groups, particularly tennis and swimming. I lost a ton of my weight during that period, contributing to exercise and restrictive dieting. I remember weighing my cereal every morning, and not eating anything with visible carbs.
Then came university. “Studying”, lack of exercise and losing control of my eating habits had my weight skyrocketing to about 180lbs, making me extremely overweight, for my height.
Weight gain, and loss, takes time and does not happen overnight. For me to be at my all-time high, took about 5 years to reach that state.
I remembered looking in the mirror and asking myself, “when was the last time I exercised”, and I genuinely had no memories of exercising, because yes, it had been that long.
My weight was the highest in May 2019, when I realized I was literally, slowly eating myself to death. As morbid as it sounds, that was what I was doing to myself. Oreos for breakfast, packets of instant noodles, ice cream, heavily processed foods and sugary drinks were part of my main diet. I was (and still am) a massive sweet tooth that did not know how to eat in moderation.
Worst habit was eating chips in bed and getting crumbs all over
Learning about nutrition was definitely, not in my dictionary. I ate everything that tasted, well, tasty. Refined carbs, huge amounts of fat and truckloads of sugar were my go-to.
During this period I experienced:
Fatigue
Heart palpitations
Joint aches (especially in the knees and ankles)
Lethargic episodes (before/after food, I would only stay awake to eat and would go lie down)
Wearing men’s clothes
Very few social interactions
By no means I was depressed. I have extroverted tendencies and felt like my weight was impacting my social life, as I was definitely unhappy with how I looked but yet, did not know how to fix it. Thus, turning myself to food. Quite the irony.
It turned into a vicious cycle of me hating how I looked, to eating more, over and over again. As much as I wanted to break this cycle I had, clearly I couldn’t.
I remember in the first few days of trying to be healthier, I cut down carbs – all of it. Zero rice, bread, refined grains, pasta, bananas (yes I counted that as a carb), potatoes of any sort. I just wanted to see myself get thinner.
This day, I refused to eat any bread/rice, I was getting cranky
Did that work? Nope. Definitely did not.
Why didn’t it work? I still ate crazy amounts of sugar and processed foods. I was seriously addicted to those two, carbs being top 3 on my list.
Lets look at the very well known, food pyramid:
Credit: The Irish Times
My diet mainly consisted items at the top of the pyramid, the second (fats) and fourth (carbs).
On July 12th 2019, I decided to make a change. Till this day, I still don’t really know what ticked that change in me, but I remember scrolling through Google looking for gyms with a pool. I wanted to go back to swimming, and I knew swimming was easier on the joints despite it being a high cardio workout.
After signing up at YWCA Downtown Vancouver, I explored the gym.
Here’s me, first time at the gym after a long, long, time:
I had no idea what workouts to do, and was quite embarrassed to be in there
Fueled by determination, I was at YWCA everyday, 7 days a week for a workout. I wanted to get my money’s worth and I felt better each time I was there (adrenaline, I suppose?)
My routine for the first month:
Breakfast: Banana with 1 cup of Silk Almond Milk
Lunch: 2 Chicken Thighs, 1 Sweet Potato (boiled)
Dinner: Iceberg Lettuce Salad with Tuna or other kinds of fish
Beverages: Tea, Coffee without sweeteners. No sweetened drinks
No snacking except for fruit
After work: Swim for 1 hour (Breaststroke)
You might be thinking, what, that’s some crazy calorie deficit, and I completely agree, it was! Was it healthy? No. Did it work? Yes.
Within a month I lost about 11lbs/5kg and I was happy with the results. I felt more confident, happy, and was determined to lose more.
The rest of my journey will be continued in Part 2, stay tuned!
It’s April – Springtime is here! Yay to cherry blossom season ❀✿
Time to enjoy the sun, with sunscreen of course. Here are some pictures I took while on a walk yesterday, the weather is truly beautiful. Still a little chilly but hey, layering always works. Cakes are from Diplomat Bakery in Richmond, B.C. If you love cheesecakes, they make the best in my opinion.
Enjoying the sun with layers!
Now, onto a mini review on the Innisfree Ginseng mask. Extremely affordable and a handy go-to. I have been a huge fan of their masks since 2016, and they got an upgrade in 2019 with a reformulation.
There are 3 times of textures and consistencies with the Innisfree masks:
Source: us.innisfree.com
Water (light and refreshing): Bamboo, Green Tea, Tea Tree, Lime, Rose
The masks are made of 100% eucalyptus fibres, which are biodegradable. Props to Innisfree!
THOUGHTS:
There is a label on the bottom right that notes the consistency of the mask, which is really helpful if your skin needs a little bit more (or less, hence water type) hydration.
The scent. Very very ginseng-y. If you don’t know what ginseng smells like, I’ve googled it for you:
“It has a woody taste and it is also referred to as ‘man root’, ‘root of immortality’ or ‘life root’. What it smells like: Just like its taste, this ancient root smells very earthy, just like wood. “
Honestly, I thought the smell would be milder as the others (green tea, rice and lime) are pretty mild, but this mask was way stronger than the rest. I don’t mind it though, I quite like the smell of ginseng, haha!
I usually leave sheet masks on for a good 20 minutes, and this had some essence left while removing it.
There was a sticky feel to it after (the same feeling of layering Laneige’s Cream Skin Refiner on). It took a while for the essence to sink in, and it didn’t feel greasy after. Apart from moisturizing factors, I didn’t notice any other effects (ie. brightening)
Fit: Mask fits well on my face – I consider myself to have a medium face size.
Price: I got mine for $0.99 on Jolse’s website when they had a sale! Love the affordability and the range of masks.
Any breakouts or irritation: None
Overall, have been enjoying this line of sheet masks and will continue to use them. They’re travel friendly, and extremely lightweight to carry around.
Day's Beauty✨ 