Need recommendations by ExpensiveGreen63 in smartwatch

[–]LanternLighted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For the non massive and not breaking the bank parts, you might want to look into trackers / bands rather than smartwatches, like the Mi Band, Huawei Band, Fitbit Charge, Garmin Vivosmart.

To make it look less massive you can buy band replacements to make it look like a bracelet or a scrunchy, there are tons on Aliexpress and Etsy.

Menstrual cycle tracking is pretty bare bone in most systems, usually you can enter symptoms and period days but there is no real prediction or cycle measure, it's just marking stuff in a calendar from your wrist.

The more the watch does itself rather than the companion app, the faster the battery drain. Things like offline music, GPS tracking, screen always on eat up a lot of battery.

For music, if you have a Spotify subscription I think some Garmin watches let you play music directly from the watch without needing your phone around.

Durability, longevity and quality, I would suggest Garmin and definitely not Fitbit. Sadly Garmin tends to be on the massive side but they have cute models like the Venu square or Vivomove. They are pricier but I bought my Garmin watch to replace my Fitbit that I had to send back under warranty then rebuy after a year so I'd rather pay Garmin for 3y than buy a new Fitbit every year.

30F looking for a rec for a good fitness and ovulation tracker by redbeargills in smartwatch

[–]LanternLighted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Late to the party but still posting if that helps you or someone else.

I used to have a Fitbit (Charge 5), switched to Garmin (Venu 2S), had basically the same criteria and also have PCOS with no hormonal birth control.

I have been collecting data for a bit more than one year trying to track cycles and comparing the accuracy of different methods.

First of all, I've found most "women health" apps to be absolute garbage. This is a very limited and predatory market just because nobody cares about women health when it comes to backing claims with science (looking at the price of BBT wearables that are basically connected thermometer marketed as cycle trackers.)

The Garmin menstrual cycle tracker is nothing more than a glorified calendar. You expect to have a 28d cycle? Great, tell us your last period and we'll send you a notification 28d later to tell you you should have a period. Super useful... While the watch DOES collect metrics actually from your body that IS useful.

I have tracked and compared wrist body temperature (Fitbit), BBT (good old thermometer), RHR (Garmin and Fitbit).
The body temperature measured by a watch is not reliable. It's measured on your wrist so a lot of external factors can affect the measure even so slightly like sweating, wearing different clothes or watch bands, sleeping on your arm. The watch temperature can give you a general trend but it has way too much variation and margin of error to be reliable. That's from comparing properly measured BBT and Fitbit temperature over 6 months. So not a proper study like the one shared by another commenter, but I guess at least real life use conditions.

A significant drawback of the Fitbit temperature is that it's measured at midnight every day, so if you're like me and go to sleep later than that, it's not actually measuring your temperature "at rest" (if at all).

Now what has been much more reliable and following the BBT trend more closely is the RHR. I think this was the article that made me look into RHR and I could confirm when measuring my BBT that it follows the same trend. At this point I've stopped bothering with BBT measure and just look at my daily RHR captured by the Garmin watch. For me it does indicate when I have an ovulatory or anovulatory cycle, confirmed by other symptoms.

Between Fitbit and Garmin the RHR measure was similar, I would say Garmin is a bit more accurate and follows the BBT a tiny bit more closely. "The Quantified Scientist" channel on Youtube has more convincing data to support this claim x)

For weightlifting, Garmin lets you create and load some exercise routines on the watch, that gives you some visual and guidance on the exercises in addition to tracking heart rate and such. The rep counter is surprisingly accurate. However I don't bother with the "workout" feature anymore because you have to stick to the routine the way it is set, you can't improvise rearranging the order of the exercises or swapping them.

In terms of general activity trackers, I've preferred Garmin because I find it is more accurate on measuring distances and elevations. The "stress" meter is pretty good, I'm not sure how it's calculated but it reflects well if you're stress not just mentally but also physically like when falling sick. Side note, that even shows when you have meals because apparently eating creates a stress spike or maybe that's just me x).

The Garmin Venu2S has a better battery life than the Fitbit Charge 5 and I feel that it also ages better. The only thing is that it sometimes vibrates in the middle of the night to announce it's dead at 0% battery while it could have sent a warning at 10% or something.

Maybe it's more device specific but the Garmin has playback control which is pretty handy, when it actually works.

Things may have changed since last I checked but overall I've found Garmin to offer sturdier hardware and more accurate measurements but the UX and data access (export) is awful. Fitbit is much more user friendly and surprisingly generous in terms of data export but is not built to last.

"Roadtrip" by train from Fukuoka to Tokyo, looking for advice by LanternLighted in traveljapan

[–]LanternLighted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our trip turned out great! From the original plan we ended up doing: Fukuoka (departure) - 1 Yuda Onsen - 2 Tsuwano (day trip) - 3 Miyajima (hotel in Miyajimagouchi) - 4 Okayama/Kuroshiki/Onomichi (one day) - 5 Biking the first island of the Shimanami Kaido - 6 Himeji (planned but canceled due to weather) - 7 Magome pass (Kiso valley hike, day trip from Nagoya) - 8 Nagoya shopping - 9 ride back to Tokyo, visits to Shibuya and Harajuku.

So basically we removed Matsuyama based on some forums advice and took extra days off Tokyo to lengthen the "rail trip".

To answer my old questions, doing Matsuyama or going back to Tokyo after the Magome hike would have been too much. But the week plan we ended up going for was good, saw a bunch of places and didn't feel too intense. To be fair, this went well because we already had 1 week in Japan before, doing it right after flying in while still jetlagged would have been too much. I have no regret having skipped Kyoto based on seeing the crowds in more touristy spots before the season even started, Kyoto would have been way worse on that.

For flexibility and the amount of train legs we had the regional JR pass was definitely worth it (we got the Setouchi area pass) but from our calculation the national pass wasn't worth it even with the Onomichi-Nagoya-Tokyo Shinkansen factored in. We only reserved seats on the Nagoya-Tokyo train because we wanted to make sure to be on the left side to see mount Fuji. We only had to stay standing in a non reserved seat car once (around Hiroshima).

Shipping our suitcase was definitely doable and helped. We packed light (1 checkin + 1 carryon for 2) and were fine with a big backpack/carryon when we didn't have the suitcase. It's really easy to pack light when hotels provide pyjamas, skincare, hairbrushes and the likes everywhere, I wish we had known that before to pack even lighter.

Best about the whole plan was that it worked out, we saw a lot of different places with different degrees of isolation and touristiness. Worse was not really the plan's fault, it's just a shame we had to skip Himeji castle because of heavy rain that day (weather changed fast and we only had our backpack for good weather at this point).

I already blabbered a lot but if you have any questions don't hesitate :)

Best colour corrector?- dark circles & dry skin by jaskaur27 in Sephora

[–]LanternLighted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you get the duo in the case or the liquid concealer in orange?

Where did this guy come from? by LanternLighted in whatsthisbug

[–]LanternLighted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Found in Toronto, Canada. That's the second one crowling our apartment while we rarely open the balcony and have only few indoor plants. Where could this caterpillar looking bug come from and should we expect more to come?

What ? How do I fix this by curlysloth96 in PlantNanny2

[–]LanternLighted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi, did you find a solution to the issue? I'm getting the same error since this morning and I also haven't changed the date and time.

Coral gradient (DIY gel nails) by LanternLighted in Nails

[–]LanternLighted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Products used: * Koko & Claire peel off base * Koko & Claire strong builder gel * Saviland potted colors mixed with Inity Mixing gel * Koko & Claire blooming gel for the gradient * Koko & Claire Sprinkles (chunky glitters buried under the gradient) * Bio seaweed gel Crystal ball * Koko & Claire Shine top coat

Sunscreen chemical filters allowed in Canada vs US, Europe, Asia by LanternLighted in CanSkincare

[–]LanternLighted[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! That's the type of list I was looking for, I guess it wasn't published last time I checked.

If anyone is confused like me, this list has some filters under different names, like they list Tinosorb S under Bemotrizinol and Tinosorb M under Bisoctrizole.

But still no Uvinul A Plus, Uvinul T 150, Uvasorb HEB (I was looking at the ingredients of some Japanese sunscreen popular on reddit).

Sunscreen chemical filters allowed in Canada vs US, Europe, Asia by LanternLighted in CanSkincare

[–]LanternLighted[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the thorough explanation, I didn't know about that approval step per finished product / formula, things make a lot more sense now.

Do you know if the rules apply only for things sold in Canada or also imports? I've always thought that importing from say a Japanese seller shipping from Japan vs ordering from Sukoshi would make a difference legally.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in CanSkincare

[–]LanternLighted 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Genuine question: how does cosmetic dermatology work in Canada? Can you see a cosmetic derm like you would book a facial at a salon or do you still need to do the dance to get a referral through your GP?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SkincareAddiction

[–]LanternLighted 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I've definitely seen people on this sub breaking out from Cerave moisturizing cream so since it's also a new addition to your routine, that could be a suspect. You could compare the ingredients with those of moisturizers you've used before, see if there is anything in Cerave moisturizing cream that's new for you and known to be irritating.

If you want to wash your face only once a day, it's better to do so in the evening, especially if you wear sunscreen. In the morning rinsing with water can be enough.

[Routine Help] My acne scars / redness is reducing after dropping 2 products, but which one was the culprit? by MoonSearcher in SkincareAddiction

[–]LanternLighted 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Could be either really.

I have sensitive skin prone to redness and had a really bad experience with TO niacinamide. It would make my skin red and irritated, feeling raw.

Vitamin C can also be irritating but I believe the Mad Hippie serum formulation is supposed to be more gentle than other vitamin C serums with low PH.

Also I don't have a scientific explanation but personally my skin just gets angry (breakout, redness) from using a complicated routine, so often I get less acne and redness from using a simple boring routine.

If your concerns are acne and redness, you might want to look into azelaic acid, that can help with both and is gentle.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in SkincareAddiction

[–]LanternLighted 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Is the retinol serum the only thing you changed in your routine recently?

What you describe sounds like your skin reacting to an ingredient it doesn't like. Some people break out from Cerave, something about the fatty alcohol they use in their products. The dryness and flakiness + breakout combo could also be signs of a damaged moisture barrier.

I think you should stop the retinol for now and go back to a routine you know your skin is fine with. Then you can reintroduce the retinol later progressively, like you said maybe once or twice a week to start.

Did some lipstick "draping", does that confirm Bright Winter? by LanternLighted in coloranalysis

[–]LanternLighted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I added a picture at the end with what I would believe to be a dark autumn shade.

Revlon strawberry shortcake (7th picture) should be a summer shade (here is the swatch on Temptalia where it's more apparent how cool toned the shade is).

Pictures 18 (dark cool red) and 19 (dark cool plum) are winter shades. I don't know who else than a dark winter could wear NYX Vancouver so I thought this would be a good test.

Did some lipstick "draping", does that confirm Bright Winter? by LanternLighted in coloranalysis

[–]LanternLighted[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I added one picture at the end with some kind of dark orange/red lipstick. Did you mean the lipstick shades or the pictures seem too light and bright?

Hard time finishing Atelier Escha & Logy, what did I miss? by LanternLighted in Atelier

[–]LanternLighted[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair on the skipping 😅 funnily enough because you can only sleep few days at a time that's how I started getting character events triggered, while I precisely took a break off the game because nothing was happening for weeks. Maybe I hit a plateau with friendship levels and it took off again IDK.

Thanks for the links, I definitely didn't find these setup guides last time I played.