Pebble Penn : 2013

A Day In the Sky.

I spent a wonderful day with Superman in the sky recently, as part of his Christmas present I purchased a trial flying lesson at Moorabbin Airport with Soar Aviation.

He has always wanted to fly a small aircraft, and I decided that this was one thing I would like to tick off my bucket list, so we headed off on a sunny Melbourne Friday - nervous, excited and with butterflies in our stomachs!

We arrived at 10am at Soar Aviation and was greeted by reception, it was smaller than I had expected, but the feeling was so surreal. The person who flew before us, was a young boy aged 16, and he was clocking his hours for his license - later on we found out from the instructors there that he was the son of Cole's CEO; and another tall kind looking man who was there was his father.

It was such a beautiful day, although our instructor was late because of a car accident it definitely did not dampen my spirits! An instructor sat us down and explained some of the mechanics of flying an aircraft in preparation for the flight. When Micky arrived he took me to the small aircraft. I flew a Jabiru small aircraft, capable of taking two adults.

I must say, I must have looked quite silly to Micky. I have never been in a small aircraft or investigated how it worked or functions, so of course I followed him to his side of the door to try to get in, couldn't open the door, couldn't close the door, couldn't do up my seatbelt etc etc etc. We made our way to the runway and took off.

And the feeling is amazing. No words can describe the freedom in flight. The beautiful scenery that accompanied being 2200 metres above ground. The beauty of the shoreline extending across the horizon, the breeze of fresh air that comes from outside. Micky turned out to be a pretty awesome guy, he laughed, chatted, spoke about planes and aircrafts!

I got to control the aircraft once we were in training airspace, completed tasks such as flying straight, checking for traffic, turning, descending, ensuring the aircraft maintained in balance. Simple things everyone can complete, but allowing you to have a window of opportunity to experience flying and being a bird in the sky.

All in all I absolutely loved the experience and am in the midst of organising my schedule for 2014 to include flying lessons.

I hope everyone has a very Happy New Year! And that everyone puckers up the bravery to complete something they never thought they would or could complete in 2014!

Wishing All A Wonderful 2014 To Come!

Filled with Happiness and Smiles!

xoxo

Penn

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fashion

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applicator

Summer Ombré

Melbournians finally got a small sweet taste of summer. Hot Sun. Blue Skies. Amazingly beautiful days!

And summer always makes me want to dye my hair lighter, because it makes me feel light, happy and for some odd reason less hot?! I didn't really want to dye my full head of hair, because my hair grows quite fast and regrowth happens almost instantly. So I decided Ombré was the way to go.

I purchased the L'Oreal Wild Ombré kit from Priceline while it was 30% off, AUD $14.75 after discount (however I heard from B that it was only AUD$10 at Target... after I did my hair)

I went for a lighter colour to what I actually wanted as my hair is a stubborn jet black.

The kit is easy to use, simple three step process to get the concoction ready for dying.

The L'Oreal Wild Ombré does contain bleach (silver packet) and therefore when you are doing DIY you must read the instructions carefully and take all safety precautions to protect your skin and eyes.

What I love about this kit, is that it is soooo simple. Reminds me of the Dummies books, this is literally Ombré for Dummies. If you require additional inspiration pop on youtube and there are plenty of instructions and tutorials on how to DIY Ombré. The video I used for my personal reference is the one from the L'Oreal Paris NYC account on youtube.

I put on an old tee, parted my hair from the middle, and then portion my hair into sections and clipped the top couple of layers.

It comes with an amazing application brush that makes it super easy, I applied the mixture onto my hair and applied it to my hair using a vertical motion.

I chose to apply in a vertical motion as I did not wish to have a dead straight line from where the lighter colours started, my aim was for it to be as natural as possible, with the bottom being the lightest, and for the middle to just transform nicely into the lighter colour.

If you believe you have stubborn hard to colour hair, or you wish to have a lighter shade, leave the mixture in your hair for a longer length of time and/or sit under your bathroom heated lights to encourage the mixture. However, the L'Oreal Wild Ombré kit contains bleach powder so your hair will get lighter!

You may check the progress of your bleaching by taking a section of hair, washing the mixture off, if the colour presented is as you wish, go ahead and wash it all off. If not, leave it on for abit longer under you get your desired look.

Because it is bleaching, I did find that the ends of my hair were dryer than usual, and also quite prone to knotting. So I have been taking extra special care of my hair.

What do you thinkg of Ombré hair?

xoxo

Penn

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acne

Water 101

Do you drink 8 glasses of water per day? I am definitely guilty of not always drinking enough water; and I am sure (just from observations of my work colleagues) that a lot of people are neglecting this very important aspect of our lives - staying hydrated.

Here is the 101 on Water...

Water is an essential part of life, filled with minerals and electrolytes. It carries nutrients and materials such as blood cells around the body.
Humans lack the capacity to retain water as storage and therefore it is essential to consume water regularly and throughout the day. When your body is dehydrated, it causes deposits of toxic sediments in the tissue spaces, joints, kidneys, liver, brain and skin!

There are varying views on whether water can give your skin an "instant glow"; and personally I believe that we aren't plants and we do not 'perk' up instantly with glowing skin when we drink water.
However, staying hydrated each day, has in the past helped in clearing pimples/acne and dryness on my skin.
That's because water oxygenates your blood and flushes toxins
This ensures your body functions adequately, water removes toxins from your kidney, allowing cells to take nutrition and expel waste. If there is a lack of water, then waste will collect and your immune system will work less effectively.
Water enables toxins and waste to be expelled, hence you get better looking skin.

Back in my first high school year (?) apart from a bottle of yakult a day and the occasional juice, I wouldn't have more than 1 to 2 cups of water per day; and my body reacted to it - it simply was not enough to enable my body to function.

So it decided to protect the vitals and my body slowly shut down, there was an imbalance of fluids and electrolytes in my nervous system, and one day I woke up and my smile was abit crooked. As if one side of the face lifted higher then the other, I ignored it and day two saw that there was a massive imbalance in my features - when I smiled one side would go up in a big grin and the other corner of my smile was a humble weak movement. By day three, it was pretty obvious, the nerves on the left side of my face were not working, muscles weren't receiving the instructions from my brain to move. I literally had one functioning sided face, and one non-reactive face!

And everyone, this was all because i did not consume water. Toxins could not be removed from my body, and the nervous system was the first to be shut. Of course, my mum noticed, took me to the doctors, gave me meds and strict instructions to consume water. Not liquids as in coke, juices etc... but water - H2O.

Now I swear by drinking water no matter how "busy" and how "little time" I have in my day. As you have probably seen in my previous post, I haul around the Voss 800ml glass bottle everywhere I go.

And everyone at work have been the victim of my nagging, telling them to drink more water - but it is really important!

Not just for radiant skin, but to stay healthy and hydrated! You cannot look beautiful when you are sick, or when your kidney doesn't have a chance to do its job, or when your face is feeling dry skin because you are dehydrated. Make water your best friend!

Drink Up Guys!

xoxo

Penn

PS ; Remember to Follow Me! Located on the right hand side third icon down!

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acne

Hanaka Charcoal Mask Review

Some of you may have read my Pimples vs Penny post and saw the Hanaka Charcoal Mask (aka Blackhead Pore White Mask) And it is a mask I absolutely love!

It seems quite popular in HK and in Taiwan, and it definitely lives up to the hype. So here is the review, since my friends are kinda sick of hearing me talking about this and always offering to put some on their face.

The Claim

- draws dirt and other harmful substances from clogged pores (blackheads/whiteheads)

- draws and reduces oil (i.e.. T zone)

- aids with locking in hydration

- brightens the skin

Instructions (Roughly Translated from the label)

- Wash your face and remove all make up residues

- Using a warmed up towel, cover your face, especially the nose area (this assist in opening up your pores)

- Use a spatula to scoop out the Hanaka Charcoal Mask and place on the face.

- Leave on for 20 to 30 minutes

- Use cold water to clean off the mask

- Use a toner to lightly pat over your face.

So... I took a picture of myself with the mask... but I can't find the it. But I have my bf's picture with the mask on. Yup. Looks pretty army like with it on and he loves the mask because it clears up his pimples!

~~I hope he never reads my blog.... or I am in trouble haha~~

I love it because...

- It contains charcoal!

So charcoal is an amazing phenomenon on earth, it is primarily a carbon substance formed by charring organic material in the absence of oxygen. It has strong absorption properties, and therefore has the benefits of helping unclog pores and fight acne.

Fun Fact; charcoal has the ability to adsorb thousands of times its own mass in harmful substance.

- Subsides redness.

This is my secret for reducing the discomfort of red or itchy skin (possibly from hay fever), I find that when I have used the mask, it reduces redness and itchiness on my skin quite substantially.

- It is a gentle hero.

I use the mask twice to three times a week because it is not harsh or overwhelming.

Unlike pore strips, it is not harsh and doesn't feel like my pores have been ripped apart in the process of cleaning my blackheads.

- It is surprisingly moisturising.

When I went through my terrible dry and acne prone month of October, I used this and it subsided the dry skin, and provided temporary relief to the flakiness of my skin.

Unlike clay masks, its does not dry my skin, therefore there isn't the immediately rush for a moisturising product to compensate for the dryness.

- Slow and Steady Wins the Race.

I would not expect a sudden amazing complexion change from using this mask once, I say this it like the tortoise in the tortoise and the hare race.

It slowly works at softening your blackheads and removing dirt and reducing the size of your pores, and consistent use of the mask will showed amazing change in my skin. Complexion is improved and blackheads reduced dramatically.