Skincare products on circular racks

Skincare Basics – Stop Messing With Your Face

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People, please stop doing weird shit to your face.

I don’t have flawless skin (I don’t think anyone can), but having had skin issues growing up, I am very grateful for the way my skin is. Do I get breakouts from time to time? Yes. I have stress, eat different foods, and live in a city where the weather keeps changing despite its constant humidity. Do I want it to be better? Of course. It looks dull and there are pores which I wished was way smaller. I’m also slightly annoyed that with age it doesn’t quite ‘bounce back’ the way it did when I was younger.

I have a routine that works for me and, to be honest, I don’t give it much thought until something goes wrong, a new product catches my attention, or someone starts talking about it. When we do talk about it, this is the first thing that I share: I don’t usually bother with foundation, and I think that’s the key to healthier skin.

It’s not that I don’t actually give any thought to my skin, I just have a routine that works and doesn’t require extra attention from me. I have friends who don’t bother taking off their makeup at night, to celebrities who need to be thinking about makeup and skin care treatments all the time. From talking to them, I realized there are a few things I’d like to share with everyone. These are some ‘skincare principles’ I learned while growing up, which I think could benefit anyone that’s interested. I would also love to hear your feedback and learn a thing or two from you!

Stop touching your face.

I’m guilty of this, too. I get stressed and rub my face and I like to poke at my blemishes. Apart from bringing all the bacteria from your fingers to your face, I find that touching my face encourages me to find things to pick at. Sometimes, the mere fact that I’ve been touching my face brings about a dump or itchy spot just because I irritated it. It’s really not worth it.

Drink lots of water. 

No, soft drinks, coffee, and tea don’t count. Beer doesn’t count. Wine doesn’t count. Drink good old fashioned water. Warm, preferably. If you’re not sure why you need to drink water, you’re either lying or should really google it. The nutshell version is – a good portion of your body is made up of water and you need it to keep your skin ~supple~. If your skin is too dry, your miraculously made body produces more oil to keep it from drying and flaking off like the way Voldemort died and dissolved into the wind.

Hint: if you have an oily complexion, investigate whether it’s because it’s too dry.

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Relationship Issues

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I was having a chat with my friend about relationships the other night, and not that I’m an expert, but a few things came up which I wished someone had told me when I was younger:

  1. The focus is off.In a fight, there’s a good chance the other person isn’t upset about what happened, but the fact that you are mad and/or disappointed in them. This isn’t to discount the significance of whatever issues you are facing, but to simply point out that in conflicts, especially between partners, there’s a lot more emotion involved than the hard facts of what was done wrong. Sometimes the other person is simply upset that they disappointed you, or worse yet, upset you without even understanding what they have done.

    Give yourself enough time to stop being angry. When you’re calm, let them know you love them and graciously explain why you were upset. In times like this, the other person first needs to be affirmed, then to talk about what happened and how to move forward from this.

    I think.

  2. They’re not even mad at you.When the other person lashes out at you, it’s possible that it’s not even about you. It doesn’t make it right, but to give you a little insight into what’s going on in that brain of his/hers: they might just be upset about something else, and you, being the one who loves them, are the only or one of the few safe places for them to let these emotions out.

    We don’t all know how to process emotions, and even if we know how to talk about it, doing it is vastly different, especially when emotions are running high. Try to cut this loved one of yours some slack, but if it’s an issue, do talk about what would be a better way to handle these situations. Remember, we’re all different and there’s no right or wrong when it comes to how a person feels about something.

    One of the most valuable things I’ve learned through counseling is that “feelings are just feelings, they’re not right or wrong – there’s no such thing as a wrong feeling”. This means (if that wasn’t obvious enough), that how a person feels is just the way it is, but you can change that by giving each other more insight into why you feel that way, and what you can do to prevent or rectify it.

  3. Do you really want them to change?

    This is a tough one. The question that comes up is, “if I were any different, would I still be me? Does that mean you don’t love me for who I am right now?” This is such a fine line to be treading around. Yes, I think we need to know if we love someone for who they are, but I also think this is a bullshit excuse to continue to be a lesser version of your best self.
    We can’t force other people to change (one thing I’ve always known but wrestled hard with, because it’s a whole other kind of hurt when the person you love is settling for the lesser version of themselves), so here’s one thing to ask ourselves: Would we still be attracted to this person if they were any different? If they were more organized but less spontaneous, would you still be excited to be around them? If they stopped voicing their opinions and holding themselves to their self-imposed standards, would you still respect and be charmed by them? Would you still feel comfortable being yourself, if they weren’t such a dork and approachable?

What do you think about the three ideas I shared above? What are some of these “wisdoms” you wish someone shared with you when you were younger?

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Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018

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2017, you heartbreaker.

I remember being very excited for 2016 to end, egged on by quite a many memes confirming that 2016 was indeed a terrible year.Bad 2016 MemeOf course, we sadly remember that it was indeed a bad year even without the internet’s comic relief: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and Trump becoming President of the USA.

For no particularly solid reason, I looked to 2017 with hope like many others, wishing it would be a much better year.

Sadly, I would say 2017 is the worst year I have had. Without going into too much detail, I lost a lot of faith, a few relationships with a great ripple effect, and on a night out I got drugged and spent a couple of hours hallucinating in fearful paranoia but I was very lucky to be safe in the end.

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You Need To Love Yourself

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How’s this for a thought? I don’t think many of us love ourselves enough. I’m not talking about whether someone comes across as confident, I’m talking about what we really think about ourselves – that deep down feeling we don’t like to give a lot of attention to, or worse yet, that feeling that consumes our entire being, living only under that thin layer of a mask we wear.

I’m bringing this up because obviously, I came to a point where I realized I didn’t love myself as much as I could or should. This stuff runs deep and there can be so many levels to it. Some of this comes in the form of day to day lifestyle choices, like not making enough time for ourselves, and some of this comes from a false sense of identity which perhaps leads to destructive behaviors.

For me, it probably runs on the deeper rather than the shallower (easier) end, but if I’m completely honest, I also don’t have the energy to be dwelling on this every day. I have, however, decided to give this a little more attention because we as humans are always striving for so many things and yet, I don’t think we can go very far unless we are fueled with the right stuff. Let me make this clear, I don’t think EVERYONE is messed up and “needs” to love themselves more. I know people who are happy and are at a good place. We do, however, go through ups and downs, and many are able to seek improvement and change under a very positive light.

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Melbourne Brunch Spots: Hash Specialty Coffee

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Depending on whether you follow my Instagram (it’s @RachiePn by the way), you may or may not know that I snuck off to one of my favorite places about a month ago to Melbourne, Australia.

It was a very short but fulfilling trip. Even my flight there was amazing: 777-300ER, PEY bulkhead with only one other person on my row, four seats away, thank you very much.

Although my instinct says “meat pies and beers” when I think of Australia, the whole Melbourne brunch craze took too much effort to say no to. Since I dropped in on Melbourne while everyone had work or class (as in lessons, not the classy kind of class, I got some of that too), I managed to spend some good old me time while I was there.

My friends and cousins threw a bunch of names at me like “Hardware Societe”, but basically told me to go down to Hardware Lane and just do whatever the fuck I felt like doing. I checked Hardware Societe but there was a huge line and what’s more awkward than eating alone? Queuing alone to… eat alone.

So I went across the road and checked out White Mojo, but decided to give it a miss since they didn’t have much on their savoury menu that I fancied. Just a door or two down was Hash Specialty Coffee & Roasters. Short line, black decor, chorizo & scallops on the menu, it was definitely my scene.

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Apart from having to sit on a tall stool, it was freaking awesome. The very hipster-looking staff actually made me feel comfortable, even after explaining that both still and sparkling water was free and comes from a tap straight into a beaker. I ordered the mentioned chorizo & scallops and a cold brew coffee for myself.

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[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] EATING DISORDER

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It’s funny how people usually think of anorexia first when they hear the words ‘eating disorder’.

For me it was binge eating (yes it’s a thing) and bulimia. I actually desperately wanted to be anorexic, but the whole reverse psychology thing kicked in and my cravings took over my mind.

I was bulimic because of my binge eating, and I did that because I was under so much pressure to be thin that food became a drug to me. The sense of deprivation came from obsessive dieting and eventually everything revolved around food.

First things first, when this all began I had a BMI of ~18.3, just underweight. I probably started gaining a bit of weight, and being in the world of entertainment which can drive the most confident person to be insecure, I hopped on the diet wagon.

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Check me out: round, on the cover of a magazine, wearing a strange strange dress.

In hindsight I feel my addictive personality may have contributed to it. I like to go all in. I researched the most effective diets and learned why it was so. Sadly for me, learning why opened the door to a whole new level of obsession. I needed to track my caloric intake. I started reading the labels on everything I ate. I would get very good at guessing the calories in a portion of food (like how I became really good at guessing someone’s salary just from looking at their CV as a recruiter, ha). I would weigh myself before and after I peed or worked out, as if the difference meant anything. I would feel bad that my efforts didn’t make my body look different.

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[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] THE ACTING PART OF IT

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It didn’t come easy. It took years and years of pushing and being pushed. I was too shy and I cared too much. Warning: pretentious cliche saying up ahead. As an actor you really need to let go and lose enough of yourself to become another person. It was either that, or becoming vulnerable enough to expose your true self in the shell of a character. It feels easy enough to drown in the emotions when you’re watching it on screen, but the truth is actors don’t get any soundtrack or editing while on set to help them feel different from what they are actually experiencing. It’s unnatural to have been running around all day doing random stuff (because actors really do do the weirdest of things to put food on the table), and suddenly just become another person living another life. We get good days and bad days, easy scenes and difficult scenes, but it still takes skills, practice, and can be very exhausting.

For me, doing a scene where there’s something big going on is easy. Crying, heart broken: I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s okay. Scared: a little more difficult (I was once told by a director he wants to see my pupils dilate in a close-up; have yet to master that one). Drunk: kind of easy. Happy, curious, gossiping, angry, all relatively easy. Candid, by comparison, is level 999 for me. Sure, there’s something happening in every scene, but when it’s not one where your character needs to be actively doing something, that is really hard. On this front I think supporting actors’ jobs are much harder than the leads’. Standing around doing nothing while pretending to be someone else is not something that comes naturally. You don’t want to overthink it, but you also need to be in character.

So thrilled to be part of his crew.
Stole some kids’ costume, as you do.
“Lets make sure she’s bruised EVERYWHERE”. Harnesses are a bitch.
I have no idea how to hold a gun, but no one cares.
The end of a very long day is still the end of a very long day even if you’re doing a kids show.
Got sent on a mission to kill mosquitoes on an ancient imperial set in China.
KFC TVC I think?

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[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] INSECURITIES

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I was going to write about acting, but this insecurities thing is burning on my mind and last time I checked this is my bloody blog and I can write whatever I want to.

I’m quite open about insecurities because I know everyone has them. Recently I’ve had to face some insecurities I thought I was done with. It’s sobering to learn that some insecurities just don’t go away. Not completely.

So much of being an actor is about facing and living with your insecurities, but I feel that’s really because we’re all human. We all have insecurities, actor or not. Maybe this blog post could be a standalone outside of this series; or to be honest, I could probably also start a one called “Insecurity is My Middle Name”.

Before we go into the things I’m insecure about, let’s start with some ground rules. Try not to judge or bitch too much. If you’re going to tell me I have no right to feel a certain way, or that I’m just ungrateful, you might not understand what insecurities are. Insecurities can be irrational, which is why they’re a bitch to live with, but also why we stand a chance at working through them.

So. Shall we begin?

I’m insecure about:

  1. My thighs, and calves… let’s just say my legs
  2. My tummy, the way it sticks out after a meal… even though I know it’s supposed to do that
  3. My eye brows
  4. My profile, as in how my face looks from the side
  5. My face, actually
  6. My laugh
  7. My nails, please don’t look at them
  8. My singing, not that I actually need to sing for anyone
  9. My personality
  10. My sentimentality, it makes me feel like I care more than others do, as if that’s a crime

I think this is becoming a list of things I don’t love about myself, and could go on forever, but while it lasted – all ten points of it – it was great to get off my chest and to openly say that those are the things that would drain my confidence if you paid attention to it.

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[THE GROWN UP CHILD ACTOR] HOW IT ALL STARTED

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If you know me you would not believe that I was an incredibly shy kid. So shy that I found it difficult to say hello to anyone in a room full of adults. Like any spoilt child though, I had a lot of attitude when it came to my own family. I think the weird combination of being a shy but spoilt only child must have lead to my annoyingly inconsistent bitchiness.

To make things worse, I was also the baby of the family for a long time. My relatives loved dressing me up and taking photos of me as if they had such pioneering spirits that they thought of film as memory cards.

I hated it.

The attention and company was nice for a while, but my cousins would move onto playing house, making me play not just the baby, but a small baby who “doesn’t know how to walk or talk”. That meant I would spend whole weekends or even summers with them being told to lie in a corner and do nothing. Fast forward 20 odd years and I would own that game, especially if you gave me some wine. The alternative back then was being strapped into a toy pram, raced against whatever they found available for pushing and destroying, and be abandoned until my aunt found the carnage of a toy pram crash. Now you know that’s a thing. Oh wait, memories are flooding back: option #3 was being held down and tickled by no less than two older cousins until an adult tells them I’m about to stop breathing; and option #4 was being “taught how to swim” by having my head held under water until an adult comes along. It’s a strikingly consistent theme. 

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Please Like “Please Like Me”

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Can we please talk about the TV show Please Like Me?

It’s not a new show (piloted in 2013; is ‘piloted’ a real word?), and I only stumbled across this show a week or two ago on Netflix.

I have to be very honest here, I’m a bit ADD, which means when I watch anything at home I either fidget with something or I play some brainless game on my phone. You’re right, I don’t focus and I miss a lot. This could be why it took me a while to get into this show. The characters are unbelievably hilarious, but no one delivers a punch line like it’s a punch line. There are no awkward pauses or raising their voices to announce the arrival of a gif-able golden punch line. The funniest parts of the show are in fact delivered in such way that if you don’t pay attention, you will miss it completely.

Please Like Me

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Josh comes to the realization that he is homosexual.

Gay. I’m just going to call him gay, ok? He calls himself gay on the show. It’s okay to state that he’s gay, right?

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So Josh realises he’s gay, and we come to learn that his parents are divorced: his father is dating a Thai girl, and his mother depressed. Sounds a little like Modern Family doesn’t it?

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