About Me

I always believe dreams are driving forces of reality and everything happens for a reason, for the good and bad.

Tricia Ong. Email me at vaingloriousyou@gmail.com for enquiries and advertising

@VainGloriousYou

As we approach the end of the first month in this new year, I thought it will be nice to start the year with a few blog posts of gifts, achievements and particularly, skincare. Hmm, that may be a long list but oh well, being a skincare junkie, what better posts to put up when THIS is the kind of post I have most inspiration for; with my fingers flying across the keyboard furiously, no lack of writing juices. And...I made a video of my skincare routine as well! ;)

About 1 year ago, my skincare routine included products from DRx. I am sure you would have read my post before. At that point of time, DRx in my opinion was at the top of the game with arguably one of best asethetic and skincare doctor and a line of products developed by the same doctor, also known as Dr SK Tan. The products worked wonderfully for me.

Being a skincare junkie, I soon heard news about Dr SK Tan's new venture in setting up his own asethetic clinic with huge investment pumped into (1) Research and Development for his new line of products known as JYSK (2) The quality of ingredients used in his new line of products, I knew I had to at least give this new skincare line a try. In a twist of fate, my asethetic clinic also started getting commercialized. With brand awareness comes fame and when fame comes in it will mean more sales for the company and should this not be properly managed, new patients will walk in feeling pressurized to buy, possibly even beyond their budget.

So I decided I could do with a change while trying out Dr SK Tan's new clinic and his professionalism as a doctor. I have long heard news of him refusing to do aesthetic or laser treatments for his patients because of the confidence he has in his line of skincare products. He also refused fillers and botox treatments for patients even though the clinic can easily be raking in monies from these non-invasive procedures from vain patients like myself haha. Being a businesswoman, the first thought that came to my mind was "Why turn away money?".

Having formulated the highly successful clinical skincare line which I was using previously - Derma-Rx (DRx), Dr Tan draws on his 20 years of experience in aesthetic medicine and collaboration with international renowned experts, he designed and developed the new IDS line of products to which his goal in doing so is to deliver maximum efficacy comparable to medical grade products , even under ordinary 'home-use environment' like in the comfort of your home.  I made the switch to IDS clinic and its line of products precisely because of the quality ingredients in Dr Tan's new line of products. I had the confidence in his products even before using them when I got to know the type of cutting-edge concentrated ingredients and the technology used in them. Biased some may say but like I always say, I want to know my ingredients before using it. 

 (IDS line of products)

Being with Dr SK Tan for close to 9 months now (I started visiting in April 2014 as a paying customer), I can say it is because he has integrity (and not a commercial doctor), has utmost confidence in his line of products and he is highly professional and attentive in his consultation and diagnosis. It didn't take me long to finally understand why Dr SK Tan dared to challenge beauty journalists from renowned magazines to try out his products (and only his) for 2 weeks to see the difference otherwise, they can be highly critical and unforgiving in their write-up featured in magazines about him and his clinic. WOAH. 2 months later, I started seeing all these magazines with long write ups, positive reviews for IDS and even awards for (almost all) star products from Dr Tan's IDS JYSK line of products.

(Consultation with Dr Tan without makeup on the 5th month. You can see the left side of my face with slight pigmentation but the right side was almost controlled and lightened by then.) 

However, it didn't start off all breezy for me. Because of the highly specialized range of products, it requires time for Dr Tan to customize the product usage to my skin. At this point of time, I know many people would have gone back to their previous aesthetic doctor / dermatologist, but something about the dedication and sincerity of Dr SK Tan made me stay. I developed pigmentation for the first 2 months while Dr SK Tan continued his religious diagnosis on my skin and the products I use. In between his diagnosis, he planned out facial treatments for me as well to soothe and upkeep the condition and health of my skin. 

I have to say am I glad to have been patient and stayed with IDS and Dr Tan. Just after 2 months, Dr Tan managed to grasp the sensitivity of my skin and adjusted the products accordingly all while treating my pigmentation which got worse because of the nature of my work in the real estate industry (which requires me to be under the sun very often). And it got even worse when I have to try out different skincare products from other brands (before I take on advertorial jobs from clients) and these products stung my pigmentation spots so badly it hurt. #lifeofaskincarejunkie where I use-first-regret-later haha. 

(Love seeing this smiley face everytime I stepped into Dr Tan's room haha)

Thank goodness for Dr Tan whom was extremely patient when he started my route on recovery with my very red pigmentation spots on both my cheeks. Within the fourth month, I remember waking up every morning to see my red pigmented spots becoming lighter and my skin was more translucent. I attribute this improvement to these holy grail products - C-PLUS, OM (oil-free moisturizer) and sunscreen used with proper diagnosis and frequency of usage.

Let me give a low-down on C-PLUS especially as this is my favourite favourite product. This is an all-rounder skincare product which targets dark spots, patchiness, wrinkles, firmness of skin and even acne. In my case, it works for me on my (1) pigmentation (which was slowly turning dark due to exposure to the sun), (2) patchy spots on my forehead and lower cheeks which resulted in colour imbalance when I apply foundation (also due to the sun exposure) and lastly (3) the firmness of my skin improved because the tightness of the skin actually gave my skin a healthy taut look. 

I am especially enthralled by the ingredient in this product because I know most skincare products containing Vitamin C is in a highly unstable form. This means that when the product reaches the first layer of your skin, the Vit C compound is so unstable such that it cannot deliver effective results because THE PRODUCT WILL BE RENDER USELESS JUST AFTER A FEW DAYS YOU POP YOUR BOTTLE OPEN. I am one of those annoying customers who stand at an alley of products and turning each product back to read its ingredients before I make a purchase so trust me on this. The Vitamin C in your product have to be inherently stable and have a long shelf life for it to be deeply absorbed into your skin layers and stays in there for at least 48 hours. 

Dr Tan spared no cost in his R&D and ingredient procurement for this C-PLUS product and it boast of a new form of potent but stable Vitamin C, water soluble Vitamin E and Fullerenes. These three actives are delivered deep into the skin using patented technology for optimal skin penetration. If you can use C-PLUS religiously for 2 weeks straight, I am sure you will definitely see the results just like I did. 

So why do cosmetic and skincare companies NOT use this stable form of Vitamin C? Simple as that, because it is expensive to procure and in economics term - impractical to mass-produce a supposedly "off-the-shelf affordable home care skincare product" with a highly expensive ingredient in it. Because consumers just want ready made solution to their skincare woes. And not many are knowledgeable enough to understand whether the ingredient used in the product really delivers.

However, you may ask, does it mean that the product is very rich in formulation? For the products I am using from IDS including C-PLUS, nope it is not. The formulation is extremely gentle and you are hearing it from someone who has very sensitive and dry skin (and painful pigmentation spots, and wrinkles around my nasolabial folds argh what else). 

On Oil-Free Moisturizer (OM), I use this daily together with C-PLUS because it gives hydration to the skin without the greasiness (if you do not like the stickiness of moisturizers). When used together with C-PLUS, it helps to lighten spots on my face to give translucency because it helps to suppress unwanted melanin. Additionally, you may not see this product in the video as I only got started on this product recently - I am currently layering Intensive Moisturizer (IM) after OM because I find that as I approach late 20s now, my skin requires more hydration. I honestly do not mind slapping my face with good products even though it may come with a richer texture. For IM, it has an addition of a skin-brightening polypeptide which helps to maintain an even skin tone! I highly recommend IM as I love how hydrated my skin is when used with IM! 

On IDS sunscreen, I use S2 which is untinted. Sunscreens are an essential part of your skincare routine so PLEASE DO NOT SKIP SUNSCREEN! I am currently on S2 sunscreen and IDS's latest breakthrough - Lycowhite pills but I will leave that for the next blogpost. As I speak now, both of these above mentioned sunscreen and whitening supplement is turning my face 1 shade lighter than my body! The supplements especially but I will come to that when I am at my second bottle. By then, my entire body should be 2-3 shades fairer than I am now. The effect is already showing first on my face hehe. Back to S2 sunscreen, I like that this is a NON-CHEMICAL sunscreen lotion that has the ability to keep skin's surface temperature stable even under sun-exposure. It also contains Vitamin C that provides added antioxidant benefits. I will only stick to this sunscreen from now - at least for a long time because the formulation does not make my skin greasy nor shiny at all. Above all, it does not have any chemical fillers unlike alot of sunscreens in the market. 

I took the time to talk about these three products because they are especially good for my skin and I have them to thank for keeping my pigmentation under control and giving my skin translucency. However, I use the full range as below: (You may have realized some products are missing from the list below as compared to the video and this is because the video was done last year and now I have actually removed some products as it had completely treated me on the problem areas!) 

MY CURRENT SKINCARE ROUTINE

IDS C2 Cleanser > IDS Facial Scrub (another star product) > IDS T2 Toner > IDS C-PLUS > SKII Skin Signature Eye Cream or Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Eye Cream or Lancome Genifique Eye Serum > IDS Oil-Free Moisturizer (OM) > IDS Intense Moisturizer (IM) > IDS S2 Sunscreen 

Good luck in your skincare routine and I hope you will find this useful to make the switch to IDS or at least, give their star products a try! ;) 

IDS Clinic 

8 Sinaran Drive

#05-07 to 10

Novena Specialist Center

Singapore 307470

Tel: 6568 3555