Hello, darklings! ^x^

So. o_o

How much d'you all love the new term of endearment I invented?! >w<; Personally, I'm quite proud of it --- If only because it popped into my head in such an out of the blue manner! It happened while I was having a shower last night, when it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't have an opener planned for this week's Updates/Blog entry.

Cursing myself and washing my armpits with more vehemence than before, I began racking my brain, trying to recall if I had any backup openers reserved for use in these types of emergency situations. Since I'm the type of chick who leaves everything 'til the last possible minute, though, it wasn't surprising when I concluded that I had exactly zero emergency openers.

For fuck's sake, I thought to myself, Why do I always leave this shit 'til the last second?! Now I'm going to have to go with a an annoyingly average opener like 'Hello, everyone!' My visitors don't want to read an entry that starts with 'Hello, everyone!'

And yet, as I scrubbed my face with my homemade exfoliator and moisturiser duo, ((More on that later!)) I found that I simply couldn't come up with anything else whatsoever. My mind was a complete blank ... Which, again, wasn't surprising at all, as this is how my brain always reacts when I need it to make a split decision. I sighed, knowing that I was simply going to have to greet everyone with a boring 'Hello, darklings!' and just be done with it.

I nodded to myself in a resigned sort of way as I turned my face into the stream of water and began to rinse the exfoliator/moisturiser off. Yep, I said to myself, I guess my visitors'll just have to deal with the fact that I can't always come up with something completely uniq ---

Here, I had to resist opening my eyes and mouth in an extraordinarily wide fashion, as this is what one is usually compelled to do when they're struck by amazement over the awesome that is themselves. However, due to the fact that a stream of water was pummelling directly onto my face at the time, I thought better of it, and instead celebrated my genius internally.

Oh my fuckin' God, I shrieked inside my head, I totally just came up with a greeting and formulated a new word at the same time ... Without even meaning to! I grinned to myself in a satisfied sort of way, my mood instantly lifted. 'Hello, darklings!' it is! I decided happily.

Hopefully, you all like 'darklings' as much as I do, 'cause I think it might just become one of my new catchwords, bwahaha! >w<;

Enough about that, though ... Onto this week's updates! *^^*

The Japanese Text Based Emoticons page got a serious overhaul! I added over twenty new emoticons and accompanying descriptions, edited several older emoticon descriptions for better accuracy, and re listed the entire page so similar emoticons are now grouped together.

The Emo Kids page was updated with one new doll. I know a single doll isn't much of an update, but I spent close to forty minutes perfecting each and every pixel! x_X; Kinda defeats the purpose of using dollmakers, but I refuse to just throw together a bunch of random props and then call it a doll --- Thats just lame. When I use dollmakers, each and every prop has to be carefully chosen, tested for matchability, pieced together just so, and then the whole thing has to be painstakingly edited to my vision of perfection. It takes a lot of effort, but in my opinion, it's worth it!

The Wishlist page was updated with an assload of new materialistic items I've decided I simply can't live without, including circle lenses, a Japanese school bag, and the April 2010 issue of a gay and lesbian lifestyle magazine called 'Out'. If you're puzzled as to why I'd want such items, then be sure to check out the page for explanations! ^_~

Now then, let's move onto this week's blog topic --- That homemade exfoliator and moisturiser duo I mentioned earlier! Making and using this stuff was the best decision I've ever made in regards to my skin, and needless to say, it has literally done wonders for me. Prior to using it, my face was in pretty bad condition. My cheeks, chin, and the area around my mouth were always dry, whereas my forehead, temples, and nose were always extremely oily. On top of this, I was constantly getting loads of massive pimples.

At the time, the only thing I used to wash my face with was Ivory soap ... And I was doing it at least three times a day to remove all the oil my skin was creating. But little did I know that my skin was creating all that excess oil because of the extreme drying effects of Ivory soap! +_+;

Even after discovering this, though, I simply ignored the problem, as I had decided that there was simply nothing I could do about it --- Unless I wanted to fork out loads of cash to buy expensive La Roche Posay skin care products. ((I had received several La Roche Posay products as gifts one year, and they had all helped my skin immensely ... However, I realised that there was no way I was ever going to be able to replenish the products once they ran out, upon discovering that a four once tube of cleansing cream, for example, costs over twenty dollars.))

Then, one evening a couple of months ago, I was idly browsing through all of the videos the people I was subscribed to had recently submitted, when one of Michelle Phan's new videos, entitled 'Dry Skin?' caught my eye. Intrigued, I clicked the thumbnail and began watching. In the video, Michelle demonstrated an easy, quick, and extremely cheap way to counteract the drying effects of winter weather, by the way of a homemade exfoliating/moisturising facial scrub.

When the video ended six and a half minutes later, I immediately ran down the stairs and into my kitchen, where I began frantically opening and closing cupboards in search of all the ingredients Michelle had listed in her video:

A half cup of granulated ((white)) sugar.
Three tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Two tablespoons of honey.

Thankfully, we had just enough of everything to make one batch of the scrub, and so I began carefully measuring it all out, into a plastic container with a tight fitting lid. After I finished measuring out all of the ingredients, I slowly stirred the concoction until it was well mixed ... And then it was ready for a test run!

Perfect timing, as I had been planning to have a shower after I finished catching up on all my subscriptions! Plus, Michelle had recommended using the scrub at night, due to the fact that it can sometimes make your face a little shiny afterwards.

So, after washing my face with Ivory soap as usual, ((As you are supposed to cleanse your face before applying this scrub ... Or any scrub, for that matter,)) I scooped up a little bit of the scrub and began gently rubbing it into my skin, being careful not to get any into my eyes.

The first thing I noticed about the scrub was that it smelt really good ... Sort of like a batch of sugar cookie dough, LOL. The second thing I noticed was that it felt a little uncomfortably oily --- But I forced myself to get over this fact, as I knew it was only because I was used to the drying effect of Ivory soap.

After I rinsed it off, ((Being sure to leave a little excess behind for extra moisturising effects,)) And then patted my face dry with a clean towel, I immediately noticed my skin felt softer, smoother, and somehow cleaner than if I had just washed with Ivory soap --- And all this was after a single use!

Encouraged by such a good outcome, I continued to use the scrub every single day after washing my face with Ivory soap. However, I noticed that the skin around my mouth was still always super dry, which meant that I was still getting fairly large pimples in that area ... So I decided that the time had come to stop using Ivory on my face in total.

After a bit of research online about cheap alternatives to Ivory soap, I decided that I would start using Dove, instead. Immediately after making the switch from Ivory to Dove, I decided that doing so was the second best decision I've ever made in regards to my skin ... As using it in combination with the homemade exfoliator/moisturiser every single night improved my skin even more than before!

So, needless to say, I highly recommend this to anyone who has any of the problems I did. Trust me, you will not regret it! ^^; ((Remember, though, you gotta use extra virgin olive oil! This is the most important ingredient in the entire concoction, so make sure you get it right! Using anything else will simply not work ... In fact, it might make your skin even worse, so be extra careful!))

And there's one more topic I wanted to discuss with you all before I end this entry: What name I chose for my new Betta fish! That's right, after owning the little dude for nearly a month, I've finally decided what his name should be --- Barely, though! #_#;

I'm still a wee bit unsure if I've picked the 'right' name for him, but since it keeps popping into my head nearly every time I think about it, not to mention every time I catch sight of him swimming about in his fishbowl, I've decided to just go with it. After all, over thinking a name can be just as bad as picking one willy nilly! >_<;

So, without further ado ... My new Betta's new name! O_O

;She presents said name by jumping onto the nearest elevated surface, whilst throwing her arms above her head and screaming it at a rather startling volume toward the Heavens.;

That's right, I decided to go with Brimstone, after all! ^o^ Like I already said, it's the one name that kept popping into my head, time after time --- Whether I was sitting down with a pencil and a piece of paper writing out other name ideas, whether I was feeding him his daily meal, whether I was tidying up my room and happened to glance over at his fishbowl, or even when I wasn't near him or thinking about him at all --- So I think it's safe to say that this name is simply meant to be! ^^;

I wanna thank you all for suggesting so many creative name ideas of your own, though! Lemme tell you, I was seriously tempted to use quite a few of them ... And if it hadn't've been for the intensity of the name 'Brimstone', I probably would have! *^^*

So once again, a big thank you to all of you guys! You've no clue how happy your support makes me --- And since we're on the subject of support, I'd also like to take this moment to thank not just people who commented with name suggestions for Brimstone, but every last one of my visitors who regularly visit and take the time to read over my Updates/Blog entries, as well. ((Even those of you who're too shy to leave a comment, hehe. ^_~))

Thanks to you guys, mallorymaloney.com has begun to rack up over three hundred unique visitors per day --- Something that I've never experienced before, and something that I wouldn't be able to experience if it wasn't for your support! You all rock my black and white striped knee socks, and I'm not gonna forget this fact anytime soon.

;She blows everyone a kiss using just her middle finger, as opposed to the more conventional method of using one's entire hand.;

I fucking love every last one of you.

Heart.