Cetaphil's Regulatory Affairs Manager Busts Common Skincare Myths!

In August earlier this year, I had the opportunity to go for the Cetaphil Experience - basically a 3-day trip where I got to learn more about the brand, the philosophy behind their products, and their history in Singapore and in the Southeast Asia region. You might have seen some of the updates on my Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram and so on - and now that I've had a bit more time to settle down after the trip, I've decided to share some of the learnings with you guys!

Tracy Chean, Regulatory Affairs Manager for Southeast Asia at Galderma Singapore, answering some of our questions

As a skincare geek, one of my favourite parts of the trip was the ability to get some burning skincare questions answered, and skincare myths busted by Cetaphil's own Tracy Chean, who is the Regulatory Affairs Manager for Southeast Asia at Galderma Singapore. Tracy ensures that Cetaphil and other Galderma products comply with strict safety and compliance standards, and also manages the Galderma National University of Singapore (NUS) Student Internship Programme. She graduated from NUS with a Bachelor of Science, and has also been a Singapore Licensed Pharmacist since 2010. Above that's a photo of Tracy, looking gorgeous in red! She was very friendly and willing to answer a lot of our questions, no matter how basic or esoteric they were.

Yours truly asking a question at the session

The entire session was 1.5 hours long, and there was a lot of information shared during this session. During this session, Tracy helped to bust some skin myths, answer some questions about cosmetic regulations, and offer advice on a good skincare routine. Since there were quite a number of questions, I've arranged them by topic, rather than just in chronological order, so that it makes more sense to the reader. I've split the post into two - today's post will deal with skincare myths, and the next post will deal with questions on skincare routines and specific product questions.

Also, while the content of the answers is reflective of the information conveyed, it might not be the exact word-for-word answer that Tracy gave, just because I was furiously scribbling down notes during the entire session, and couldn't get down every single word said exactly. The photo below is of my notes pages from the session - you can see how much I was trying to write down! Nevertheless, the gist of each of the answers is accurate. I've also added in some editor's notes (aka my own additional thoughts) here and there to provide supplemental information where appropriate.

That's my notes from the session - 1.5 hours of furious scribbling!

Cetaphil has uploaded lots of videos from the session on the Cetaphil Facebook Page. Where the videos of a particular answer is available, I've also embedded it directly below the answer - so you can hear Tracy in the flesh as well! For more of the learnings from the trip, and to see more skincare myths and questions, do check out the Cetaphil Facebook Page.

Etude House Play 101 Blending Pencil Swatches: All 25 Shades!

Etude House's Play 101 Blending Pencils were launched some weeks back, and I've finally gotten around to swatching them for you! For those who are familiar with Etude House, you'll remember that two years ago the brand had launched their Play 101 Pencils, which I had reviewed at the time. The Play 101 Blending Pencils are a different product, and an extension to the Play 101 line.

Etude House Play 101 Blending Pencils: A new addition to the Play 101 line

Like the original Play 101 Pencils, the Play 101 Blending Pencils are also little pencil-form sticks of makeup that are multi-purpose - you can use them on your eyes, lips, or cheeks. But the difference is that the Play 101 Blending Pencils are thicker and chubbier than the Play 101 Pencils, and are more like lip/cheek pencils in size, than eyeliner pencils (which is what the Play 101 Pencils looked like). Also, the formula and texture of the Play 101 Blending Pencils on the whole seems to be more emollient, making them much more blendable, and more suitable for lip and cheek use.

I've finally gotten around to swatching all 25 shades above, so without further ado, let's get started!

Skincare Empties Part 2: Essences, Serums, Acne Products, Masks, and Eye Creams

After the last empties post part 1, here's part 2, where we look at the rest of the skincare products that I've managed to use up over the past few months!

All my skincare empties accumulated over the past few months!

In the last post, we looked at makeup removers, cleansers, sunscreens, lotions, toners, and moisturizers. In this post we'll be looking at essences, serums, eye creams, acne products, and a Vitamin C powder, which is very interesting.


What we'll be looking at today! Serums, essences, acne products, masks, eye creams and the like
Some of these empties were products that I really liked, and some were products that were kind of eh-okay, but ended up getting used up for whatever reasons. As we run through the list, you'll figure out which is which. So, let's get started!

Skincare Empties Part 1: Cleanser, Makeup Remover, Lotion, Toner, Sunscreen, Moisturizer

Yes it's another empties post! And this post is pretty mega, hence the two-part split. And that's just for skincare - the makeup empties post is a separate post too, to make sure the individual posts aren't too long. So yes, I have indeed been a good girl and using up my products and not wasting them (a perpetual beauty junkie problem it seems)!

Tons of skincare empties this round to share with you guys!

Above you can absolutely see the mess of empties, running the gamut from sunscreen to serums. I could probably do all those empties in one sitting, but the post would just be very long. So this time, we'll just be focusing on oil cleansers and makeup removers, normal cleansers, face masks, sunscreen, lotions and toners, and moisturizers! In other words, we'll just be looking at the stuff in the photo today, which is still quite a lot.


Empties: cleanser, makeup remover, lotion, toner, sunscreen, and moisturizer
I realized that quite a few readers seem to like my empties posts (and you can see all of them here) - perhaps, it's because with all my science-y skincare reviews, some readers are curious to know what exactly remains in my stash and gets used up at the end of the day. I suppose the idea here is that if I used up something, then it must be really good! The truth is that it kind of depends - some of these empties I've had for a long, long time, and for various reasons take longer to use up, and some were very quickly made favourites or staples and get used up much faster. As we go through the products, you'll see which is which!