Earn more money, eat more food...

...and then gym more to keep the weight down. 

But I think I'm slacking in the exercising department because I can feel myself feeling bloated more frequently. Is it time for another round of Teatox? I know many people do not think much about teatox but I've tried it 3 times and each time it worked well in getting rid of the bloat and excess water. Good to try if you're only looking at cleansing your system and not to lose weight. 

There's always a ranting section in my food posts, so here's one:

I have suffered from acne for 6 years now and I cannot wait for my hormones to settle down and stop giving me shitty skin. I know 6 years is a short time for long-time acne sufferers but if you are a long-time acne sufferer, you should be able to understand the self-esteem issues that I go through. For example, yesterday I went to a trade show at Suntec City, and I had the most amazing lip look ever (a slightly dark and vampy berry colour). However, all I could think of is what others will think of my bumpy skin. I wanted to smile and interact with the stall vendors, but talking to them would mean lifting my head up, and that took a lot of struggle. Why, skin, why?! Evidently, my skin is not as bad as before, but still... 

Western medication doesn't help at all - I suffered a lot of side effects when I was prescribed those pills. So I was thinking of going for traditional Chinese medication. Anyone has done that before? Please share your experience with me. Thank you!

Ok back to food photos!

Jeremy, Kokky and I bit the bullet and queued at Tendon Ginza Itsuki for the legendary tempura bowls. It took us 50 minutes and the stuffy weather added to the torture. But hey, we had a good time talking about random things and kokky's happiness, and the server gave us all free tea, so yes it was bearable. 

Do I recommend Tendon Ginza Itsuki? The tempura bowls were definitely lovely, but the long wait might not be everyone's cup of tea, so I'm on the fence. But if you don't mind the wait, then yes it's a good place to try. They only have 2 main items on the menu - the Special tempura bowl or the Vegetable tempura bowl. Already a great indication of a quality food joint. 

Both bowls were delicious and the prices were highly affordable - Special set for S$13.90++ and Vegetable set for S$12.90++. 

I had one of the best chawanmushis in my life here! 

The Special tendon came with a deep fried onsen egg (very spectacular for eggporn videos), so if you're into the eggporn scene, order this set. 

I had the Vegetable tendon and I was pleasantly surprised. I became an eggplant convert after this bowl of goodness. They also included the deep fried lotus (!!) and I LOVED IT. The deep fried leafy vegetables were a bit greasy too. 

Ginza Tendon Itsuki

101 Tanjong Pagar Rd, Singapore 088522

Kengyang and I tried Kinsa Sushi at HillV2 and wah so nice? It's almost tears-inducing because it's quality Japanese food so near to my house. :') 

I had the Wagyu Beef Bowl. !!!!!

You know the popular beef bowl from Fat Cow? This is almost the same quality and it's much more affordable. I confirm will order this again and again and again next time.

Also lol, they had a Chirashi Cupcake. I had no expectations at all - ordered just because the dish looked pretty on the menu - but wow I was blown away! Fresh seafood atop seasoned black rice. Looked good and tasted good - rare right? :D 

Kinsa Sushi

4 Hillview Rise, HillV2 #02-02, HillV2, Singapore 669320

Finally felt the excess flab, so okay time to eat clean on weekdays, and I'm glad to report that I had salads and fruits for lunch for 4 out of the 5 working days. For a tam chiak person like me, that took serious self control hahaha. 

That's pesto and tuna on top of multiple greens. The only sauce that I will excessively eat is pesto :D

Date night - trying out Korean porridge at J-Story!

The porridge was .. okay lor. Nothing too fancy and no wow factor. BUT, I would come back for the samgyetang - so flavourful! 

J-Story

NEUE B2-53 Capitol Piazza, 15 Stamford Road, Singapore 178906

So yes, that's another round of eating. Are you sick of my food posts yet? 

I'm not that interesting of a person, so most of the time I can only share good food places. Pang chance a bit lah hor? 

Have a good Sunday guys! :) 

Spicy noodle, bubbly mask and HARRY POTTER!

This month has been hectic. Filled with mostly busy weekdays and fun weekends. I'm very proud of myself this month. I went out to meet up with friends or to date my man almost every weekend day. Which says a lot because usually I just want to be glued to my bed and never leave my room till Monday comes again. 

Also, I cannot believe November is almost here. Christmas is around the corner. It is mind boggling how fast the year has gone by. Need to start buying Christmas presents again! Typo, here I come! :D

Anyway, you know all these Youtube videos about people trying Korean spicy noodles? I was really intrigued. Got so spicy or not?? So, when I saw that the 7-11 near my office sold them, I grabbed one to try. To be honest, it was spicy. Definitely will numb your tongue a bit, but aiyoh some people really over-react leh! I understand some of them didn't have high tolerance level for spiciness but I saw some people cursing and swearing profusely, then got some even cried like a baby on screen. Not so bad lah! Actually really quite nice. The trick is to not slurp the noodles using your lips, just put a bit of noodles in a spoon and scoop straight into your mouth. Not so spicy anymore! I'll be getting more because it's really nice and the spiciness super got kick, damn shiok!

I had a lot of fun trying out new things that day haha. After my spicy noodles, I tried a bubbly mask. I saw this on someone's Instagram and was soooo curious as to how it will work in real life. 

It's a tea tree purifying mask so it's suitable for my skin. Once you apply the black mask on your face, bubbles will start forming and you will slight tingling to indicate that the product is working in trying to remove the gunk in your pores. Then you remove the mask after 10 minutes and rinse off thoroughly. Very brilliant product if it worked as promised! 

Definitely worked as promised HAHA. I look like a bear!! 

I also liked how refreshing this made my skin feel, and the tingling sensation is quite satisfying. I have used this 3 times and I enjoyed every 10-minute session. Gonna get more soon. I got my first set of 3 on carousell for S$5. Super cheap please, but I think the retail price is much higher than that. 

Taobao purchase from last month - flamingo print tote bag for less than S$8! 

This month's shopping ban has been quite successful. I mostly bought necessities like soap, shampoo etc because I was running out. Other than that, I have restricted myself quite well. Yay. But the temptations were aplenty, especially now that we have Topshop Singapore online and of course every single day I'm discovering new stuff on Taobao. But I'll persevere and save the money for the food and shopping during my upcoming Hong Kong trip!

ALSO, JENG JENG - I finally have the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It is BEAUTIFUL. Jim Kay is a genius. 

My favourite page is this short guide to trolls! :D 

I love the excitement! It's like in the past when I queued up outside Popular bookstore when a new book was released just so that I could read the book immediately after release. Now no longer queueing outside book stores because can just preorder on Amazon! Can't wait for the next one! But hmm, how would Order of Phoenix be illustrated. That book has 700+ pages of densely spaced lines. Another question is how heavy will the illustrated Order of Phoenix be? But who cares about these questions because I'm still going to get all of them!

What a glorious way to end the post. I love Harry Potter so much! I have yet to visit a Harry Potter theme park so maybe 2016 resolution? :)

50 months together!

It has been 50 months! How crazy is that? 

10 years ago, I would have never thought that I would have a stable relationship. I had a bleak perspective about love, mostly because I experienced a heartbreak the previous year. 

My 16-year-old self was fearless and worry-less. Actually no, the only thing I feared was Additional Mathematics. It was the first time mathematics became so daunting to me. I had other problems too, but they weren't significant enough for me to remember them now. 

Kengyang was in the same class as me but any feelings I had for him I labelled as "infatuation" and I moved on. It didn't help that my close friends thought I had a crush on his seatmate LOL. Wrong person liao lah. 

Reminiscing about secondary school days always makes me happy. I loved every bit of those days and I'm glad I experienced those 4 years. If I didn't go to CCKSS, I wouldn't have met the man who would end up being my BTO partner :D 

We didn't have a huge celebration. We're not such people. A good dinner and a couple of drinks will suffice. And so, we decided on Spruce at Old Fire Station. Perfect location for me because my house is a comfortable 6-minute walk away. 

Our bill was over S$145. But we had 2 drinks each, and ordered 2 mains, a side and a dessert to share. All the ordered items were excellent so it was S$145+ well-spent. 

Spruce Hot Wings

Casarecce Verde alla Norcina

Spruce Burger

Double Chocolate Crunch Cake Ala Mode

Spruce at Fire Station

260 Upper Bukit Timah Road,

 #01-01, Singapore 588190

Website

Facebook

The best thing about dining at Spruce is I could walk home after that. No need for long bus rides. Walked for around 6 minutes and I was home! 

Actually the walk home took way longer than 6 minutes because we kept taking stupid photos. Here are the 3 that were not deleted from my phone HAHA. Some really cui max. 

Ok, one proper photo to end this post. This was taken when we went to the National Museum! People commented and said we look alike leh. Where got??! Like that I also look like the millions of other people who wear spectacles leh! 

Review: Peripera Rouge Pang in PP08 Serious

Korean beauty brands have some of the best lipsticks in the market. I don't know how they do it. High quality lip products with affordable price tags. If you haven't tried any lipsticks from Korean brands, I highly recommend that you try some from Etude House and Innisfree - amazing products with wallet-friendly prices. 

Or, maybe you can try Peripera Rouge Pang! I bought mine in shade PP08 Serious from Qoo10 on a whim and it actually turned out to be quite a stellar product. It's S$10.99 with free normal mail on Qoo10. 

Packaging: The lipstick cover has a similar shade to the lipstick shade, so it will be easy to find the colour that you want to apply if you have many of these in your collection. When you close the cover, you will hear a click to indicate that the cover is secure. A sturdy packaging that will not accidentally dislodge itself in your makeup bag.

Colour and pigmentation: PP08 Serious is a slightly deep berry colour. There's more pink than purple, but you still can see the gorgeous tinge of purple after application. The Peripera Rouge Pang has impressive pigmentation. The swatch below was achieved with one swipe. Great stuff!

Application: This lip product applies so smoothly and evenly and it does not settle to your lip lines. It's like applying lip balm to your lips, but without the unpleasant greasy feeling. It has a slightly glossy finish that will dry to a semi matte finish after a couple of hours. Very moisturizing but not sticky at all.

Longevity: The Peripera Rouge Pang fares averagely in terms of longevity. Actually it highly depends on whether you eat and drink on that day or not. With food and drink, the lipstick faded quite a bit, but you still can see the tint your lips - definitely require touch-ups after food intake. Not something that I will be bothered about since the lip product performed excellently in other aspects.

Will I buy it again? Definitely. I'm interested in getting OR05 Chit Chit but I'm not sure if I can pull off the orange-lip look. I also want PP02 Secret - a gorgeous magenta colour. For those of you who want more glossy and shiny finish, there's also the Peripera Lumi Pang line!

Have a great day guys! :) 

New skincare regimen: COSRX products!

I think I have finally found holy grail skincare products for my nasty excessively oily and acne-prone skin type. It was a gamble to purchase so many products from one brand in one go, but it's a gamble worth taking. 

COSRX is a brand that is rarely mentioned in the Singapore beauty blogosphere. I follow quite a number of Korean beauty youtubers and bloggers and many of them who used to suffer from hormonal acne trouble highly recommended COSRX products. I was thoroughly intrigued and after many months of contemplating, I took the plunge and bought these four products via RoseRoseShop. These four products are not pricey at all. I was really shocked when I saw the prices online because I was expecting a much higher price point. What a pleasant surprise! 

Also, I think it's worth mentioning that I have tried a sample of the COSRX Natural BHA Skin Returning Emulsion before making my purchase. I was able to get around 6 applications out of that tiny sachet and I really could feel my skin getting a little bit more manageable after the 6 applications, hence I made the decision to get the full sized product and more products from the same line. Therefore, please get a sample first before buying the products below because they contain natural chemical exfoliants (BHA: beta-hydroxy acids) and some people may have allergic reactions. 

Here are the products that I bought:

• Natural BHA Skin Returning Emulsion (100ml for USD11.09)
• Natural BHA Skin Returning A-Sol (100ml for USD10.39)
• One Step Pimple Clear Pad (70 pieces for USD12.28)
• Centella Blemish Ampule (20ml for USD16.47)

Very reasonable prices right? Especially reasonable for Natural BHA Skin Returning A-Sol. It's my favourite product out of the lot and it's the cheapest! 

Starting with the product that has shown the least effectiveness out of the four - the One Step Pimple Clear Pad.

Let me explain myself - by saying that it's least effective does not mean that it's a rubbish product. I like it! But it just didn't provide as much improvement as the other 3 products in the same period of time.

The One Step Pimple Clear Pad is a product that I use after toning at night. It's recommended to use one to three times daily, but I think once a day is good enough if you have less severe acne problems. This can dry your skin if used too long or too frequent.

The product scent may be a little off-putting for some people, but you will get used to it. All the COSRX products that I bought have the similar herbal, briny smell. I actually much prefer this scent than artificially scented skincare products. Those products are really bad for acne-prone skin so please stay away! Especially heavy floral scented skincare products - NO! 안돼 ANDWAE!

Such humorous packaging lol. I really laughed out when I saw the cover design.

The One Step Pimple Clear Pad has two sides with different textures. One side with coarser texture for better exfoliation, and one side with smoother texture if you just want to wipe the product on your skin with minimal exfoliation.

Getting the pad out can be a problem though since they are pre-moistened and all stacked together. Perhaps an addition of a tiny plastic tong will be better? More hygienic too!

After almost a month of using this, I find that it works best when I have really painful pimples on my face. Wiping this somehow calmed down the throbbing part and after a while those pimples didn't hurt anymore. The pimples will still ripen, but with much less pain - I prefer this than an excruciatingly painful ripening. In the past, the pain was so bad that even smiling aggravated the pain (since smiling = skin stretched). So now, I still get the occasional pimples, but with less pain, so it is much better. Aiyoh, write until want to cry already. Reminded me of those dark times.

The Centella Blemish Ampule is a product that I will definitely recommend to those of you who always get acne before your periods.

I really hesitated getting this product because I was afraid of ampules. In my mind, I equated ampules with oils, and hence I thought ampules were super oily and would cause breakouts. Fortunately I got the Centella Blemish Ampule and now I learn that some ampules have mattifying and oil-controlling effects.

Before I start raving about this product, can I please bring your attention to the short ingredients list? 13 components leh. Even some The Body Shop products have double the components for a supposedly natural product.

I use this every morning after toning and before my moisturiser.

A tiny amount goes a long long way. I thought 20ml was too stingy of an amount, but I have been using this for a month and I still have a significant amount of product left.

A dabbing motion works the best for the application of this ampule Don't just wipe the product on your skin and continue with other priducts - slowly dab your skin with your palms to quicken the absorption of product. It doesn't take very long - one to two minutes later, the product is absorped completely and you don't feel any uncomfortable, sticky residue on your skin.

As abovementioned, the Centella Blemish Ampule works very well for those who suffer from PMS acne. This really works well in controlling sebum production. Those few days before your period starts, your hormones go out of whack and the increased sebum production causes more pimples. With this consistently applied every morning, I saw a huge difference in the number of PMS acne that I get. Usually, I have A LOT on my jaw and chin area, but this month I counted maybe ... three? And they were pop-able by the second day!

Yes, I pop my pimples, but using the correct method okay. Not anyhow use fingers and squeeze squeeze one. But yes, that's a story for another day.

This is definitely a product that I will continue and repurchase!

Ah, my favourite product - the Natural BHA Skin Returning A-Sol.

It's a very confusing product at first because I was accustomed to the cleanse-tone-moisturise regimen. I didn't know where to fit this in! It's not a toner, it's not a moisturiser and it's not a serum, so I was very intimidated. Too scared that it will break me out haha.

But it turned out to be the best performing product! Oh I love this so much, I will keep repurchasing until my skin decides to stop loving it!

This was truly the product that made the most difference to my skin. I think this and the Alpha-H Liquid Gold really prove to me that my skin loves chemical exfoliants. If you are someone who gets a lot of tiny bumps on your cheek and jawline area, THIS IS THE PRODUCT FOR YOU (of course please try a sample first ah before committing to a full-size product). The difference is night and day. My pores get clogged really easily - even from the slightest application of BB Cream or powder foundation. Clogged pores will give you those disgusting tiny bumps that really make your skin look rough and dirty. They are not even painful and they are not going to be pop-able pimples, they are just...THERE.... hanging out.

After a month of the Natural BHA Skin Returning A-Sol and Emulsion, the number of tiny bumps on my skin was greatly reduced. I still have them but not as uncontrollable as before. It's like magic! I think my skin really loves natural BHA and also natural propolis extract.

I use this every night before the Natural BHA Skin Returning Emulsion.

The Natural BHA Skin Returning Emulsion is now my go-to moisturiser. I use it in the morning before makeup and also at night as the last step of my skincare routine. It works very well with the A-Sol, hence I strongly recommend purchasing both products at once. This also contains centella extract hence it's fantastic for keeping oil production at bay.

It is incredibly moisturising. One pump is enough for the entire face. I love applying this in the mornings before makeup because it really makes the skin supple and smooth - perfect canvas for face makeup.

I have completely stopped using The Body Shop Tea Tree moisturisers and converted to this. My skin loves it! But I still prefer the tea tree scent from TBS Tea Tree products.

These 4 COSRX products really worked for me and I'm very thankful that they worked this well. I always am scared of changing my skincare products because my skin is a whiny brat who throws tantrum at any form of imbalance.

I didn't start using all 4 products at one go. I started using the pimple pads first, then the blemish ampule and after 2 weeks on those products, I incorporated the natural BHA products into my routine. I did not have any allergic reactions to the 4 products and I also did not encounter any extreme dryness issue. Therefore, I'm a firm believer of COSRX products now! I have plans in getting the Whitehead Power Liquid and the Blackhead Power Liquid.

Any of you used any of the COSRX products too? I would like to hear mini product reviews from you too! :)  Hopefully experiences as positive as mine!

COSRX global website

COSRX instagram

Note: I bought these products with my own money. No sponsorships involved. I truly love these products and all opinions are genuine. But of course, if COSRX reads this post and decides to sponsor me, I'm more than willing to accept. HEHEHE. #auntiemaximum #buaypaiseh #skinthickuntillikebrick