The Dolldalera's Blog | Category Archives: Health

Trying out the Cesa Skin Raw Sugar Scrub

Posted on December 15, 2016 Posted in Fashion and Lifestyle, Health .

Dry skin has been one of the banes of my existence since childhood, especially when it comes to my legs. Even now, no matter how much lotion I put after coming out of the shower, an hour or so after and they start to crack. It’s become such that skirts and shorts are something I try not to wear because my “chicken skin” just sticks out like a sore thumb.

Just recently, I was able to try out Cesa’s Raw Sugar Scrub, care of their Cesa Skin line. The package comes in a bundle with Cesa Skin’s handcrafted soap, which coincides with the flavor/scent of the raw sugar scrub.

Coffee Biscuit Bundle

The packaging immediately caught my attention. It was simple, but it was straight to the point. Also, it’s made locally, and most importantly, it’s predominantly made up of natural products (I’ve read on the news about the harm that micro beads in most commercial scrubs cause the environment and marine life when they get flushed down the drain).

The ingredients include: Raw Sugar Crystals, Coconut Oil, Ground Coffee, Fragrance, Menthol Crystals, Honey, and Parabin-Free Preservatives (Methylchloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone)

I decided to try it out the first time on my legs and feet, which is usually the area I have the most issue with when it comes to dry skin. As per instructions, I placed the raw sugar scrub on damp skin and then massaged the scrub onto my skin. The raw sugar scrub is a little rough (of course it has to be!) but fine at the same time (by which I mean it’s not rough in a painful kind of way). I placed about half a spoonful onto each of my legs first, and then massaged it in a circular motion. The smell of coffee beans is instantaneous – if you didn’t already smell it the moment you opened the container.

After massaging the raw sugar scrub for a few minutes, I sprinkled a little water onto each area where I placed the scrub. By this time, the color of the scrub on my skin had turned a light coffee brown, but you could still see some granules of coffee as well. After another round of massaging, I washed both legs off with warm water.

Lo and behold, to my surprise, I found that my skin felt so smooth after rinsing the scrub off. It doesn’t usually even feel this smooth after I come out of the shower and right after I put my moisturizing lotion on.

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To test if it was real, I even waited a few minutes to see if it was simply an after-effect of rinsing my legs with water. I was happy-stunned to realize that it still stayed smooth even after a few minutes. I checked my legs, and they do still have some of the “chicken skin” marks (well, nothing can be perfect the first time right?), aka patches of dry skin, but it was for the meantime, visibly reduced.

The instructions on the container do say that the scrub should be used about 3 times a week, so it’s a home-treatment that’s sure to improve with time and with repeated use, especially if it looks successful the first time around.

Not only do my legs and my feet (or well, soles) feel smoother, the palm of both my hands also feel smoother and softer. This doesn’t come as a surprise since I did use both hands to massage the areas, so the scrub worked both ways. 🙂

On a separate occasion, I also tried the raw sugar scrub on my upper arms, an area which I usually also try to hide due to my dry skin. I knew that the raw sugar scrub was working effectively because as I was massaging the scrub into the area, I could see it turning slightly red from the abrasive friction of the scrub’s granules! I could feel it scrubbing away at my dry and dead skin as I continued to massage it in.

And the most amazing thing is, you have this little and simple container which looks a little small when you first open it up. But all you really need is a small little teaspoon of the raw sugar scrub when using it on your body, and you’ll be amazed at how little you really need, and how much more is still left in the container after that scrubbing session.

You can get this coffee biscuit raw sugar scrub and handcrafted soap bundle, and other bundles, at an affordable Php500 (original price of the scrub is Php350, and soap is Php250, equaling to Php600 – so you save Php100!)

Check out Cesa and Cesa Skin’s products here:

Cesa’s Website (check out their swimwear collection)

Cesa Skin’s Website

Cesa Skin’s Facebook Page

Cesa Skin’s Instagram Page

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Dry Eye Incident

Posted on July 10, 2014 Posted in Health, Journal .

Have you ever had those moments where your eyes are tearing up for some unknown reason, and no..it’s not because something flew into your eye, or because you have some kind of eye condition.

I first experienced this a couple of months ago when I was still living in China. I would have those moments when my eyes would suddenly tear up, and I’d have to dab at it with a tissue. Sometimes I would be tempted to actually scratch at the eye, because it felt like the problem was somewhere there. Even when I had moved back to Manila, I was still experiencing the same problem. It would happen at the office, or at home, and it was mostly inconvenient but bearable. But things changed drastically when my eye started tearing up as I was driving in my car one evening.

Earlier that evening I had dropped off some friends at the Makati area. I usually keep a box of tissue with me on the passenger seat, but as they had sat in my car they moved the tissue box to the back, which was a big problem when I was driving home. First it was nothing, and then suddenly one eye started tearing up….I could still sort of drive then. And then my other eye started tearing up too, and it was then that my vision started getting blurry and I could barely see the road. I couldn’t even reach one of the emergency bays, and I was along EDSA, so I tried to find a convenient place to stop for a moment (that was not in the middle of the road) and put my car on hazard mode. It took me a few minutes to grab at the back for the tissue box and dab at my eyes. When I was okay I started driving again.

What that moment told me was that I really had to have my eyes seen by a doctor. My mom had mentioned to me a few times that it might just be dry eyes, but I never took her seriously enough. I thought it was impossible I had dry eyes because I was the kind of person who cried a lot during movies, so my eyes always had some amount of “moisture”, but seeing as desperate times called for some desperate measures….

When I finally went to the doctor to have my eyes checked, she confirmed my mom’s suspicions. I had dry eyes. But even then, I didn’t really fully understand what having dry eyes meant, and what were the things to do to try and avoid getting them, and what was the treatment to it.

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Mobile App: Plant Nanny

Posted on February 2, 2014 Posted in Games, Gaming and Apps, Health .

I’ve recently downloaded an app called Plant Nanny, a cute and interesting app that’s a lot like taking care of a pet. Except it’s not a game, it’s like a tamagotchi without the cleaning and the games.

It’s basically an app that allows you to take care of a virtual plant alongside meeting your daily drinking water needs.

So what is Plant Nanny really all about? It’s about drinking water. And as a lot of my IRL friends know, I do not like drinking water….at all. But of course, one just cannot choose to not drink water at all. And as I’ve been constantly reminded, I need to drink more water, which is why I downloaded this app to sort of encourage me to drink more. The app works on the concept that your plant is you, so whatever amount of water you drink, it drinks. And unlike the concept that plants can die if they’re over-watered, this doesn’t work the same way with your plant on Plant Nanny. Based on your weight and activity, Plant Nanny estimates how much water you need a day, and that’s how much your plant would need to be fully healthy.

So let’s say that based on my weight and lifestyle, which is Sedentary (you choose between that, Normal, and Active), I need at least 2000mL of water a day. I choose from a variety of containers (like a drinking glass, or a tumbler) and choose an amount of water for your chosen image – let’s say 500mL. Based on my cup, I would need to drink at least 4 (500mL) cups a day. If for example I don’t seem to be drinking enough water, Plant Nanny sends you a reminder saying that your plant is thirsty. A few days ago, out of my required daily water intake, I had only 30-35%. Plant Nanny sent me a note saying that if I didn’t drink enough water the next day, my plant could die. And that within 1 day of starting the app.

Plant Nanny allows you to see your progress and track how much water you’ve taken today compared to the last couple of days. And if your plant is well-fed and happy, it eventually grows up and you can pick another plant to take care of, while your old plant gets sent to your garden. Each plant you help to mature gives you seeds, and you can use those seeds to buy other plants. Initially, the only plants for free are the Devil’s Ivy and Dandelion, but later you can use your seeds to buy a Cactus and other plants. You can also use your seeds to buy other pot designs, and background designs.

From looking around the app, I’ve discovered that you can actually use money to buy items that will help your plant grow. So if someone gets attached to their plant and doesn’t want them to die, they always have the option to spend real money to keep it alive. Not that I would though.

I was able to help my first Dandelion mature (see photo above), and now I’m onto my second plant. I’m proud to say that though I haven’t met the daily required 2.2L of water that I have to drink, I’ve been drinking so much more water. It took my plant 18 days to reach full maturity. Hopefully, the following plants will take less time? Hopefully.

Soo, if you have Plant Nanny on your phone, how do you find it?