Yes Winter, No Winter - Olay Essentials Moisturizer

Muscat’s weather has become quite moody and unpredictable. Yes, these are the exact words I would use for it. We are in the middle of December and yet are unclear if it’s winter yet or not. Some days it’s cold and some days it’s so sunny we feel like its summer. I guess that’s the matter with every Middle East country. Whatever the case, the air has become quite dry. Dry enough to make your skin rough and wrinkly. In such a weather it is very important to keep your skin properly moisturized – at all times. Yes, you heard me right – at all times. It’s practically of no benefit if you put on a moisturizer once in a day and assume it’s going to keep your skin moist throughout the day. It’s important you reapply your moisture to keep you skin soft and wrinkle-free. I know the things I am writing here is common knowledge but I would still like to write them because who knows someone like me, who has no idea about beauty and skin care, might be reading it and this might be new information. 

Moving on, I wanted to share about the moisturizer that I use. I have recently started taking my skin a bit more seriously than I ever did before. Now, I am not a person who likes her products dense/sticky. I get irritated and also don’t have the patience to wait and let them absorb after hours and hours. So my first choice while choosing an appropriate moisturizer was Olay Essentials – Beauty Fluid (Moisturizing Day Fluid). It absorbs into the skin quickly, leaves no stickiness, keep the skin soft and alive for hours. It goes with any skin type, the price is super economical, can be found in almost any hypermarket or store, and it lasts for at least 2-3 months.

I always make sure I apply it the first thing in the morning after I am done washing my face. I also prefer reapplying it when I clean my face in between the day. Also I have not looked into any night creams as yet and probably won’t either, I prefer applying it before sleeping. My skin is all good when I wake up the next day.

Another thing that I do hope to keep in mind and in my routine as well is that Yes Winter or No Winter, a moisturizer is essential in every skincare routine throughout the year. Especially for a person like me who is very fond of pulling multiple extremely funny (read hideous) faces every day. My skin must be cursing me since years now, but I am going to fix that. Well I am hoping I can.

Have you tried Olay’s moisturizer or any other product from the brand? How did you find them? What is your favorite moisturizer? How well does it do?

Your comments are more than welcome! 

Love,

Rebel xx

My College Is Driving Me Nuts :(

Whenever I start blogging in form, my college has to tumble my life upside down. I have so much work to get done with this month, its insane.

I’ve got one assignment to submit on Saturday and another on Sunday. Yes, 7^th and 8^thDecember. Then I have a presentation on Tuesday. As soon as I am done with it I have to work on a major assignment which is 100% assessment. So I will probably be going nuts over it as it’s a tough one. Right after its submission on 22^nd I will be presenting it. After that I have to finish another assignment and no, it does not end there. I have got my exams on 15^th and 18^th January. God, I hate last month of the semester. It’s so hectic and stressful. When will this end? All this pressure is killing me. 

I want to  get back to blogging regularly again, ‘tis all I want… (and read some books and go out..)

For a change, Love me maybe..?

Me these days.. without the Starbucks though..

Look What We Got Here!! ~ Red Cups by Starbucks ❤

A big Hello to you all!! 

Today’s post is about one of my favorite coffee bar – Starbucks.

To begin with, even though it’s not part of my religious festivities, I am a major Christmas fan. I love everything Christmassy; from the tree to decorations, from the cake to the gifts, from color red, green, white and gold to Santa Claus himself – I just love it all. I even have a mini tree I bought when I was in school and I had put it up on Christmas’ eve twice I think. I had bought all the decorations and lights and even a star. My favorite item was an angel with a musical instrument. I don’t know if I have all those decorations anymore because I have been shifting around houses quite a lot in the past years and with every move there was packing and unpacking and more packing and unpacking to do. Guess my stuff is lost somewhere in some cartons or something.

Ever since summer ended this year I have been waiting for red cups to appear in the Starbucks outlet in Muscat. I have literally lost track of times I have questioned all my friends asking them if the cups have arrived yet or not. To be very honest, I was not very hopeful they will come here because I don’t remember seeing them around previously. Or maybe I have been a Second Cup fan for far too long to give much notice to Starbucks.

Yesterday, a friend of mine and I met up in college in the evening to work on our Marketing assignment. We both are grouped together with two more people. The two of us had decided to get done with most of our work by yesterday itself.

We took out the handouts and assignment papers and were engrossed in taking down points to type out and writing a list of things we had to Google. Once done with it we started searching the internet for our topic related information. A while later we realized the college’s IT department has blocked some of the most useful sites as precautionary measures for plagiarism. Boy, we were furious.  It’s not every day that we get serious about working on our assignments. 

Now I was hungry and low on energy because of sleep deprivation so we decided to pick something up from McDonald’s to eat and then head to Starbucks for some coffee and to get done with our work as we can get free Wi-Fi there without any blocked websites. Yaay!!

So we went to Starbucks after getting our food, with me eating it all in the car itself, and got greeted by lovely RED CUPS!!!  OHMYGOD!!! My happiness was beyond measures. I was almost giddy with it and excitement. The first thing I did was to rush up to the counter and see them with mesmerized eyes as if I haven’t seen anything so lovely ever in my life, LOL. I am quite sure my friend must have thought I have lost it at seeing some red plastic cups, but oh, the beauty and happiness. Christmas is definitely around the corner now!! Hehe!! 

They have introduced two ‘Holiday Delights’; Toffee Nut Latte and Toffee Nut Frappuccino. Same flavor in two opposite temperature drinks, Ahhh. ❤ Coffee has got to be the synonym for love.

After choosing a spot and dumping my bag and books on the table I went and ordered myself a small Toffee Nut Latte. I always go for either mochas or frappuccinos so this time I wanted to try a latte. And to be honest, it was one of the best I have ever had. I am not a fan of very sweet drinks anymore or toffee flavor, but this was an amazing taste of mild sweetness and wasn’t too heavy on the taste buds. I totally loved it and would recommend it to every single person I know and whoever reads this. I want to go back again and try Toffee Nut Frappuccino now.

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Another very important thing to add here, I finally discovered Starbucks’ official website for the Middle East. Hahaha! I was very happy with myself on finally finding it. And while I was at it, I couldn’t help seeing their header and copy it to add here, hehe.

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Have you tried any of the two Holiday Delights yet?! Which one is your favorite?

Much Love!! ❤

'Cause Rings Make Everything Go Round - Forever 21

I was going through my rings last week and realized most of them were quite outdated and I really didn’t have much in the collection anymore. So I made up my mind to buy me some new ones, and what better place to shop for pretty, cute and funky rings than Forever 21. 

I went to their store the next day and got me the following.

1-       Silver Arrow Rings with three plain ones.

2-       Animal Rings Set – Cat in gold, Owl in silver, and Elephant in gold.

3-       Rabbit Ring in Silver.

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The rabbit ring was actually a gift for a bunny-obsessed friend. She has been trying to get a bunny for a pet while now and the moment I saw it I knew I just had to get it for her. I can’t gift her real rabbit so I thought why not give her one in form of a ring, as she is very much obsessed with rings too. She loved it. 

Love!! ❤

22nd November, 2013 - An Exceptionally Good Day

This post is more of an update on one of the best days I’ve had so far. If you are not interested in knowing about my life or about me, then you can skip through this one, and if you are interested then; Keep Calm and Read On.   ♥

On 21^st November’s evening, it rained cats and dogs in Muscat, with hailing in some main city areas. It was a new experience for us Muscatis as something as close to as snow falling down in our desert is quite a huge thing. Unfortunately I wasn’t amongst the lucky ones to witness it. I was busy packing my parents’ luggage for their flight to our hometown the next morning. I did get to enjoy the rain later at night though, but it was more of a drizzle and not super rainstorm/thunderstorm kind of a thing which I am very crazy about. Would say I missed the best rain Muscat has ever seen in ages.

The weather forecast for the next day and a couple more said it would rain heavily again. My siblings and I were a little worried for our parents’ flight knowing it would surely get delayed. Other than that the news had me all excited as I am a major rain fan. 

We woke up to a cloudy weather the next day. I am not very good at saying goodbyes hence I wished my parents farewell and stayed back home while my brothers drove them to the airport. Another reason was I was major sleep deprived and needed to regain some energy from the previous night’s insomnia. So once home alone I tried my very best to sleep but all my efforts were in vain.

It had started drizzling by then and Muscat transformed into a fairytale land for me.Muscat in the rain is just beautiful. Words cannot describe its beauty. Following are two pictures to show you how it looked like from my window.

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As I was looking out of the window totally mesmerized, I got a call from my brothers asking me to get ready because they were coming to get me for some breakfast outside and a cruise ‘round the city. As tired as I was, I still got up, got dressed properly, for once did my hair, and whoosh I went on the mighty adventure.

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The clouds ♥

Now we were four famished, sleep deprived, low on energies people seeking for food on a rainy day at wee hours in Muscat. We were taking names of every spot we could think of, from fast food to traditional. The argument went on and on, and so did the wheels of the car. 

Yes, Muscat is under construction in several places.

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The first stop we made was to Gulf Beach – because we wanted to see the sea, and also because we were on our way to Jawharat Al Shatti.

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My favorite place.

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On our way to JAS we passed Royal Opera House, which looked like a haunted place to me. On normal days, it is one of the most beautiful buildings in Muscat.  Here is a scary version of it from my camera, LOL.

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Our first choice at JAS was D’Arcy Kitchen, but it was packed. To stop me from passing out, I was treated to my most favorite drink that makes me a happy bunny, Dilato from Second Cup. Milk, Coffee, Oreas and whipped cream – oh my god, life is beautiful with every sip of it. ♥

The argument was still in full swings when we finally decided to go to Al Makan Café in MGM. The weather was beautiful and a rooftop view of the city while eating would have been all a person could ask for.

The moment I stepped into MGM, a visit to Borders is a compulsion, followed by a visit to Hallmark. Borders make me a happy bunny as well.  Any good bookstore in any mall is my favorite and happy place. Borders is where I got my One Direction Official Annual 2014 Book from – All the more reasons to be happy.  I wasn’t hoping to buy the book before next month’s pocket money, but God was kind on me that day, and *someone* got me the book as a late birthday present.  What more can a person ask for in one day.

Anyway, to our bad luck Makan was closed and we had to resort to eating McDonald’s for breakfast that day.  *McDonald’s is happiness too!!  *

Once done from there, we all went home and slept our bums off and got up around evening. Before I could think of rocking my PJs for the rest of the evening and sulk around in every corner of the house which is my usual routine when mum dad go away somewhere for long, my brother asked me to get dressed because we were going out hunting for camping stuff. He had a plan of going for camping the next weekend (which was this weekend, like last night) and was insistent I go along. But I was stuck with a lot of college work as well as other things to do, so I had to refuse,  plus washroom issues.

After two hours of searching Sultan Center’s camping portion high and low, Bro told me ‘The Hunger Games; Catching Fire’ is on tonight and lets go for it. Boy was I excited. 

I have read the series over the summer and even though I did not like the first movie The Hunger Games, Catching Fire was my favorite book in the series and I wanted to watch the movie, to see if the directors have disappointed me again this time or was it any good. I wasn’t sure if I was willing enough to watch it in the cinema though. But the day was going good and this could have been the perfect end to it. So I said, ‘alright, bring it on.’ And to be very honest, it was worth it. 

So, let us do the math now.

1-      Rainy Day – Check

2-      Second Cup – Check

3-      One Direction Book – Check

4-      McDonald’s for breakfast – Check

5-      Movie Night in cinema that too Catching Fire – Check

Could this day be any more perfect?! I guess not. 

God, Thank You for blessing me with such an amazing day and surrounding me with such amazing people. ♥

Parfois - Wallet Purchase

I have been meaning to buy a new wallet from a really long time now but I never found the perfect one. I think I have become quite picky now when I shop. I was looking for a wallet big enough to fit all my cards in, which are quite a lot. That was my first priority. I am not much fond of carrying a separate card wallet because I already have way too much stuff in my bag, it would just get lost amongst all my things. My second priority was that it be normal sized enough that it does not take much space in my bag.

I went to Carrefour, Qurum, the other day hoping to check out some footwear and beauty products but instead I ended up in Parfois. I thought to take a quick look and see if there is anything new in their collection. Going through their wallet section haphazardly I finally came across my new purchase.  The moment I set my eyes on it, I knew it was the one. (LOL)

Love the nude color.

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Animal print fan here, especially Leopard. (Yes, i love the shopping bag from Parfois too.)

One thing that I’d like to mention here is that I really liked the staff. She was sweet, friendly, assisting and wasn’t hovering over me continuously while I was making up my mind about the wallet.

Have you bought anything from Parfois lately?! What’s your favorite product from their brand?!

Love! ♥