Japan update #2

Finally another update from Japan! It has been a good 14 days here in Japan and we are still loving this country so so much! Occasionally, I miss my roti prata and hor fun fix but all is good since I can have my Japanese rice and Japanese eggs. The eggs here are GLORIOUS. They have orange yolks and the yolks taste sooooo creamy. I know I'm not supposed to have too many eggs in my diet with all the hereditary high cholesterol shit but I gotta take a gamble since I'm jn the land of glorious eggs. 

I think I'll miss the eggs the most. :( 

Anyway, we went to lots of places this past week! Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and now we are in Onomichi, Hiroshima! Osaka was not as busy as Tokyo and everyone's more laidback, but that also meant shops closed earlier. Now that we are in Onomichi, life is much more relaxed and the shops close way earlier. We just kept going back to our hostel earlier and earlier. Haha. Onomichi is really a pretty seaside city and we can't stop walking around the bay area because the view is simply breathtaking! 

Oh! And we visited Pokemon Centre in Osaka. HEAVEN ON EARTH! :) Bought a pair of socks and an iphone cover! 

We followed the advice of a certain blog on a hiking trail but it turned out to be fake. We were hiking a completely different mountain and in the end we had to have lunch in this secluded forested area. Hence, this face of mine. Bleh.

SEE THIS GLORIOUS EGG?! How to not eat everyday!? 

Best green tea ice cream from Kyoto's Golden Castle. Nothing beats this. I'm never going to order green tea ice cream again in Singapore because NO SHOP CAN BEAT THIS. 

Japan, as instant noodles country, does not joke around with her instant noodles. I felt like I was eating gourmet ramen. :') 

This was a set meal from Song Wu (松屋), a beef bowl shop that competes with Yoshinoya. It was cheap and bloody good. 

Here's chay taking a photo of a deer at Nara Deer Park! 

And now pretty photos from Onomichi! 

Best Udon EVER. It cost us 400yen (s$5?) and it was the most delicious bowl of udon I've ever eaten. Why no have such amazing udon in Singapore!? :( 

And that completes my second Japan post! 

We'll be moving to Hiroshima city tomorrow and I can't wait because I'm getting bored of Onomichi (shops close really really early. Damn sian.)! After Hiroshima, we'll be going back to Tokyo and then back to Singapore! Sian, why 3 weeks pass so fast one. :(

Have a great week ahead! Can't wait to buy all the awesome beauty products from Japan and then review them for you guys! Yay! :) 

Japan update #1

Finally posting from Japan!

We just arrived in Osaka yesterday and we'll be making a day trip to Kobe tomorrow! Can't wait to taste Kobe beef!! :D It has been a great trip so far with amazing weather (make up won't melt at all one) and really polite and helpful locals! Of course my travel partners are also awesome possum! :)

More photos during my next update! The internet at this airbnb place is really quite wonky, or at least it's wonky for my phone. Only I have to camp at the stairs for the strong internet connection. Chay and Jeremy's phones can be connected to the internet from anywhere in the house! Haiyah.

I'm also currently battling a lot of mouth ulcers. My body cannot take the heatiness (from travel constipation and all that) so I just boughty myself some medication and hopefully it will work its magic!

We're going to have okonomiyaki tonight! Apparently it's a must-eat at Osaka! :)

See you guys and hope all of you are doing great!

Oh I forgot to mention that the 24-hour eyeliner tattoo is only around S$14 here. When I get back to Tokyo, I'm gonna raid the drugstores!! :D

Review: KATE Gel Eye Shadow in BR-1 and GD-2

After I purchased the Maybelline 24-hour Color Tattoo (Review for that coming up soon! I deleted my photos accidentally!), I have been obsessed with gel/cream eyeshadows! So easy to apply (use fingers can already!), and so so long-lasting. 

So, when Watsons sold the Kate Gel Eye Shadows as a set during the Member's Sale for S$10, I HAD TO GET IT. It was quite a challenge finding two wearable colours though, but I managed to get the set with BR-1 and GD-2 in it! 

Let's see how these work! 

Packaging: It's relatively tiny, but around 1.7g of product is provided, which is good because if KATE cosmetics packed less than 1g of product, I will be a disappointed woman. The Maybelline colour tattoo has 4g of product, and so this is definitely way tinier. That's the thing about gel eyeshadow. Due to its gel consistency, you are more likely to use up a gel eyeshadow much faster than powder eyeshadow! So if you get less than 1g of product, it's technically wasting your money right? You can only use it for a couple of months and it's gone! NOT GOOD. So for gel eyeshadows, be sure to get your money's worth!

Colour: BR-1 is a brown eyeshadow with fine silver shimmers and chunkier gold glitters.

Colour: GD-2 is a champagne-based eyeshadow with generous shimmers and glitters. This is like a glitter bonanza (or what I call a nightmare for sensitive eyes).

Pigmentation: To be frank, KATE Gel Eye Shadow in BR-1 and GD-2 are not as pigmented as the Maybelline Color Tattoo. However, I think their less-than-stellar pigmentations are justifiable because of the copious amounts of glitters and because Japanese eyeshadows usually put emphasis on minimal hues rather than on major colour pay-offs.  I'm a happy camper with the glitters! I guess I will apply the Maybelline Color Tattoo first for that great pigmentation, and then apply the KATE Gel Eye Shadow for the glitters!

Swatches taken with camera flash

Application: The first few applications were quite frustrating because the gel eyeshadows somehow managed to dry up, or maybe just the top layer. After I worked my way through the hardened layer, application was more easy breezy!

Longevity: Ohmy, GREAT GREAT GREAT longevity. Especially for BR-1. Can you imagine, after 10 hours of wear, you still have glitters on the correct areas of your upper eyelids? Minimal glitter-shedding and I didn't end up like I had disco-ball cheeks because the glitters stayed put! Amazing!

For those with sensitive eyes: I wouldn't recommend this product if you have sensitive eyes. BR-1 is still okay, but GD-2 has CRAZY amounts of glitter and occasionally some of the glitters make their way into your eyes, and that's not a good situation to be in. So avoid the hassle, and the pain!

Will I buy it again? Yes, but only if there's another combo pack that's priced reasonably. As an individual product, I will not buy the KATE Gel Eye Shadow again because I think the retail price (I'm not sure how much, but nearing S$20 or slightly above S$20) is too much for 1.7g of product!

Review: e.l.f. studio Eyebrow Kit in medium

I have been paying attention to my eyebrows lately. It's weird because I used to ignore them and let them grow till they look like caterpillars. Then I trimmed my brows, and I realised how important it is to have nice, proper and neat eyebrows. They really do make your face look more three dimensional (like not so flat lah) and sometimes well-trimmed and properly filled in eyebrows make you look more awake! 

I only have ONE eyebrow product, yes very embarrassing I know. That's why I'm looking out for more eyebrow products! Since I'm still quite new to it, I don't really want to spend a bomb on eyebrow products. Hence, I was quite excited when I saw the e.l.f. studio Eyebrow Kit in medium at the smoochiezz's stand at Tanjong Pagar MRT! I bought it for S$7 and the price is definitely cheaper than drugstore eyebrow kits. I read so many great reviews too so I was stoked!

The e.l.f. studio Eyebrow Kit promises to do the following:

Ingredients list

Packaging: I have always thought of e.l.f studio's packaging as being similar to NARS's packaging. Of course the quality of the e.l.f studio one is not as good, but there's nothing to complain about really. The mirror provided is also quite substantial. A great size for when you want to touch-up your eyebrow look. I will not recommend throwing away the plastic cover though (as seen from the first product photo), because it acts as a shield between the products and the mirror. Getting powder and wax on the mirror is not a pleasant situation, so keeping the plastic cover is a must!

Brush: The brush included is surprisingly of above-average quality. With reference to the photo above, the left side is supposed to be for the powder (for setting the brow wax), and the right side is for applying the brow wax. The left brush is very very soft and it's a good brush for people with thicker and fuller brows. Those with thinner brows will not like it because the brush is quite huge and it covers a bigger area. I still have trouble using the right side brush. It's good for drawing precise lines but the problem is when I use it to dab on the brow wax, the brush head splits into two? Then application gets really troublesome because the line drawn is not uniform! I still don't know what's the problem. BAH! I got so irritated, I started using an eyeliner brush instead. Worked so much better!

Swatch of brow wax, taken with camera flash

Swatch of brow wax + brow powder, taken with camera flash

Separate swatches of brow wax and brow powder, taken with camera flash.

Pigmentation: The pigmentation from the brow wax is stellar. It's so good that I'm scared I will apply way too much on my brows. But everything's good because for some weird reason, the wax applied lightly on my brows and I could build up the colour! Great product! The brow powder doesn't have much pigmentation but that's expected because the brow powder is supposed to set the wax and not to add more colour. So, all is well in the pigmentation world!

Application: I didn't like applying the brow wax with the given brush so I used my eyeliner brush instead and it worked just as well! The wax applies smoothly and it doesn't dry quickly, which means you have time to slowly shape your brows. If you realise from the above photos, the pigmentation is not so strong on the brows right? I personally like it that way. I was so scared I would look like a clown! Thankfully, it applied lightly, and yet it could fill up the holes! YAY to e.l.f. studio Eyebrow Kit!

Longevity: This product lasts a long long long long time, even under the crazy Singapore weather conditions. I'm super impressed at how long-lasting it is! The application didn't smudge or fade away. It stayed put for for an entire day and I didn't have to touch up at all.

Will I buy it again? Yes. Of course I will be getting eyebrow products from other brands as well, but I have a feeling at the end of the day, I will go back to the e.l.f. studio Eyebrow Kit again. It's foolproof (perfect for beginners) and it applies beautifully!

Graduate lo! (Well, almost!)

My last day in WKWSCI was a really eventful one (I don't cout exams lah, so April 22nd is my last day in school haha). It started off with a crazy transportation bonanza where SMRT once again proved to the world how useless it was. =___= But no let's not go there. 

We started the day with immense nerves. Our oral presentation for Final Year Project was at 915am and we were just rehearsing like mad! Of course it went well (I think) and it was all over by 945am! HOORAH! We then had a lot of waiting to do because the buffet lunch was at half past one. A lot of waiting meant a lot of gossiping with people that I haven't seen for a long long time, so that was precious! :') 

Buffet lunch was from Amici and the WKWSCI management still gave us wellness packs! So awesome ah this school. :) 

The night was spent at fabrika and the gathering was like a conclusion to our undergraduate lives and a beginning to many many years of alumni gatherings to come. 

Thank you WKWSCI for the 4 years of great education and for giving me the opportunity to know all my wonderful friends! I LOVE WKWSCI! 

Technically, WKWSCI also gave me my job, so THANK YOU MORE MORE WKWSCI! :) 

PHOTOS TIME!

This was taken right after our FYP oral presentation. HAPPY RESEARCHERS!! :) 

We also took one precious photo with Bo, our amazing FYP supervisor! The statistics genius!! 

Kokky was rehearsing her speech I think. haha. 

YAY WONDERFUL FRIENDS!! Where's Chay!!

HERE'S CHAY! :D 

Anyway, I know I'm not dressed up for presentation lah, but whatever haha, I tried to formalise everything with the black blazer. I was dressing up for fabrika!!

Wellness packs from WKWSCI! <3 td="">

Everyone queueing up because the buffet was ready to be attacked!!

Those mushrooms were just heavenly. They were completely wiped out when I went back for more. Sian.

With Mark, Jasmine and Krsytal! 

Finally caught up with some Paverts at fabrika! :) Been long since I saw them and it was a good gathering!! 

I cannot say enough ah, but THANK YOU WKWSCI! :))

See all of you guys again on July 26th!

Review: O.P.I The Bondettes Collection (Inspired by SKYFALL)

I went into the Smoochiezz stand at Tanjong Pagar not knowing which nailpolish I should get, but I know I will get some nailpolish! And sure enough, I tried hard to only choose one set, and I walked out with the O.P.I The Bondettes Collection (Inspired by SKYFALL) and also some other stuff, which you can read about on my haul post. 

This set is GORGEOUS. I love my reds, dark deep colours and glitters and this set has all of them. Precisely why I got the set in the first place! 

The set costs S$20! I think if you get it online (ASOS for example), it's much more expensive, so yay Smoochiezz! 

The colours didn't look nice when I took the photos using natural lighting! I have no idea why because I'm a noob photographer, but maybe because it's too cloudy?

Colours from left to right:

• GoldenEye 
• The Spy Who Loved Me
• The World Is Not Enough
• Live and Let Die

GoldenEye looks like your basic gold glitter nailpolish but ohnonono, it's a yellow-tinted base nailpolish with gold glitters and gold shimmers in it. The glitters and shimmers are extremely fine and when you apply it, you don't get chunky applications. It's very smooth and your nails look so festive! :D

The Spy Who Loved Me is a warm tone red with fine gold shimmer. It's like trying to go sensual and funky at the same time!

The World Is Not Enough is a sheer metallic grey with fine multi-colour shimmers. I'm quite disappointed with this nailpolish. When I say sheer, it's REALLY sheer. If the colour came true to what I saw from the bottle, then it's a perfect colour! But no, I had to layer 3 coats to get like 75% of the pigmentation. :(

Live and Let Die is what I have on my nails right now. As always, I will turn to the dark colours first! Live and Let Die is a dark navy with fine glitter shimmers. It's really quite gorgeous because when the colour catches the sunlight, it turns into this glorious multi-dimensional colour. LOVE IT.

All 4 swatched on my fingernails. Sorry for this bad photo quality. :(

Anyway, look at The World Is Not Enough (2nd from right), this intensity was only achieved after 3 coats. I'm beyond depressed because the colour is so gorgeous but it's not showing up right!!

Can't wait to change to GoldenEye next week!! :)

Have a great day everyone! For those with exams, MUG ON!!