On Face Mists & Fasting

Ramadhan Al-Mubarak has always been one of my favourite times of the year. Particularly because of the food, and how much a lot of us (well the people that I know anyway) try to cleanse our souls as best as we can. Basically – not too much gossiping, or using words that we shouldn’t….you get the drill.

I’ve promised myself this year that I will not gain weight like how I always do when it’s the fasting month. I have decided that I will try to eat as healthily as possible to avoid looking like a sack of potatoes when Shawal comes.

I started the first few days of my Ramadhan quite impressively I must say – for Sahur I take the Kourtney Kardashian avocado pudding. I tweaked my recipe a bit to make it more bearable; half of an avocado, honey, low-fat milk and chia seeds. Blend them all together and keep them in the fridge to chill overnight. By sahur, it’ll be nice and cool to consume. Very delicious and definitely very filling.

I won’t eat this everyday for sahur obviously, because avocados aren’t that easy to get and I am not commited enough to blend every night!

For drinks, I love myself some plain ol’ air masak. I do jazz it up a bit by adding some lemon slices in my plain water but other than that, the message that I’m trying to convey here is simply “keep hydrated, drink lots of water”.

And that my friends, is our point of discussion for today.

KL as we all know and have complained about, has been really really hot lately, so all of us are bound to getting dehydrated especially during the fasting month. The most obvious step would be to increase your fluid intake during sahur to help you function as best as your body could help you for the next 14 hours or so. Also apart from keeping your insides cool with water, you can also spritz some face mist throughout the day if you’re feeling a bit dry and patchy.

For me, everyone knows how much I love the Avene Thermal Spring Water Spray. I always have some supply in my bedroom, my handbag and my luggage. I carry with me some Avene everywhere I go, all over the world. Literally.

If I had to choose just one brand of face mist for the rest of my life, Avene would be it. It helps cool down the temperature of your face on extra hot days (the sensation of having French springwater touching your hot, flaming skin is just heavenly!) and it’s also miraculous enough to control redness. The springwater has some sort of relaxing properties to it, so it really does help give your face a more relaxed “glow”, as opposed to looking like a red tomato when you pay the bazaar Ramadhan a visit.

Other face mists that I also use alternately would include the MAC Fix Plus. It has vitamins, minerals, cucumber, green tea and chamomile so OBVIOUSLY it works well keeping your face hydrated. I love this product so much, but the only thing that bugs me about it is it’s strong scent. I don’t like scented products especially on my face – it’s just something I am against….but this product works great, and I use it from time to time but to fix my makeup mostly. For hydration? It does the job well but I’d still take the scentless Avene any day.

As you can see in the picture above, there is another face mist that I featured and that is the Kose Lotion Spray which I bought in Tokyo last winter. It was a total last minute buy, because my face was cracking due to the Zero Degree weather at that point of time. My Avene face mist was of no help at all, it couldn’t help me fight the winter season! I needed to find Jon Snow in a bottle, so I bought the most impressive looking bottle that I could find in the store.

Now this face mist won’t work as great as the other two because it’s meant for cold weather specifically. But for a cold, office environment perhaps – when you’re thirsty and feeling dry during the holy month of Ramadhan, this one works wonders I tell you! It has a very milky feel to it, and it’s very comforting too. The smell is very pleasant, it reminds me of baby lotion.

Hydration may be key when fasting, but I need extra comfort to go with it. What can I say, I tend to get very cranky (not angry….just cranky) when I fast, so I need all the comforting things to help me carry on with my day.

Avene Thermal Spring Spring Water is available at all pharmacies for RM60 (for the large bottle) while the MAC Fix+ is available at all MAC stores for RM90.