Christmas 2013 and New Year 2014

I feel like I'm too late for this post. It's already the fifth day of 2014 and I'm blogging about Christmas 2013 and New Year 2014? I guess it's never too late to thank the angels who landed in my sombre world and made things a little bit more colourful ... and bearable. 

My Christmas was spent in Taiwan with Kengyang and his family. Coincidentally, we also spent Christmas lighting up a lantern at Pingxi. A lantern which was filled with all our hopes and wishes for 2014 and the far future. I found it quite endearing (perhaps on the verge of beguiling? Lighting up a lantern to make our wishes come true seems like a huge marketing ploy for the village) that every one of us made sure the lantern was lit properly and as it floated away, no one spoke - our eyes just followed the floating lantern, and when it was nowhere in sight, all of us automatically continued our chit-chats and bickering. 

My New Year was ... a joke. Actually, more of a I'm-gonna-laugh-at-it-in-the-future kind of a joke and not I'm-so-depressed-I-hate-life kind of a joke. Kengyang and I wanted to countdown to 2014 at Marina, but we figured it's going to be a nightmare due to the crowd. We decided on town but realised the traffic home would be another nightmare. So okay, let's go to a heartland mall! But we made the wrong decision to shake leg at Kengyang's house first because we ended up counting down in his house while watching the countdown celebration programme on the telly. All I can say about that programme is - WLH, why you lipsync your upbeat songs?? 

However, I'm not complaining about my "lacklustre" New Year countdown. At least I got to spend it with the love of my life and his family, and I didn't have to struggle and squeeze while trying to go home. Oh, and I munched on McDonalds while watching the telly. BLISS~

Christmas presents! 

Thank you Kengyang for the electronic toothbrush. I randomly said I needed on and he bought it for me. :') 

Thank you Kenny for the cookies, potpourri and inspirational pencil! Kenny was my secret santa this year! 

Thank you Serene for the accessories, the L'occitane goodies and the loofah!

Thank you Chay for the instant (but from Laos, so very exotic haha) coffee! 

Kenny, I don't think I will ever use this pencil! I'll just tape it on my office table and stare at it whenever I feel drab. 

We had our annual Christmas+New Year party yesterday. A bit late, but it didn't matter since all of us could make it and it was a great gathering! 

Our boxer chef, Wang (#wangcancook) cooked up a storm and wow each dish was DELICIOUS. 

Our Italian-Mediterranean menu

Greek Salad

Pesto Chicken Nuggets

Shakshuka

Ricotta Pasta

Caramelised Apples with Vanilla Ice Cream (not in photo)

Cheers to a great 2014! :) 

Birthday, presents, friends and turning 24.

My birthday's a good three weeks ago and I'm only writing my birthday post now. Priorities are now placed on pewdiepie's The Last Of Us and Outlast videos, hence I barely have time for blogging. I really am addicted to pewdiepie's videos. He's extremely hilarious, especially when he's scared while playing the game. HAHAHA. I seriously cannot stop laughing when watching his videos!! :D

 

Anyway, continuing with the post...

 

I'm officially 24 and I don't like how fast my twenties are zooming past. I thought I just turned 20?!?! I don't know what happened to time, but I certainly don't want to be 30 that soon. :((

 

This year's birthday was a great one! I thank all my friends and colleagues and boyfriend and family for the simple yet very very very rewarding celebrations. :)

 

Presents presents! I have to thank Ong, Kokky, Konkon and Eve for the Juicy Couture perfume. This smells FABULOUS and even have praline as one of the base tones. DELICIOUS SMELLING.

 

Lily gave me Real Techniques brushes. I wanted them since forever, but didn't want to spend so much on brushes, so thanks Lily for the amazing present! I have been using the expert face brush RELIGIOUSLY because it's simply amazing. Review on the brushes coming soon!

 

My supervisor gave me Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker! It's not what I will normally reach out for, but I'm glad she gave this to me because I'm slowly getting used and liking the smell! Yay new perfume territories! 

Another of my colleague drew this for me!!! Such amazing talent!! I'm definitely going to frame this up.

Thanks to my colleagues for the surprise birthday celebration! Four cake flavours to munch on! :D

Met up with the MTV gang on my birthday too and we went to Five & Dime. I LOVE LOVE the mentaiko pasta. I want it NOW.

These people so nice, surprised me with Twelve Cupcakes cupcakes. :')

The legendary mentaiko pasta!!!! This was so good and I was so sad when I was finishing the plate of awesomeness. Definitely must come back for this!

YAY thanks guys! :')

We walked to Magnum pop-up store after our dinner and had a bad experience. Extremely rude waiter, BLEH.

Kengyang got me an external charger (HUAT AH) and a Bershka shorts, which I already posted in one of the earlier posts. :) He brought me to SEA Aquarium too. Heehee great experience but wtf so many tourists. It's like taking a train during peak hour, but instead of being in the tunnel, you are in an aquarium with all the fishes laughing at us.

Anyway, Kengyang and I found this affordable restaurant opposite Beauty World that served surprisingly yummy food! We went in with no expectations whatsoever, and was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of food! I really hope this restaurant can withstand the competition from Al Azhar. So many restaurants have opened and then closed months later simply because no one wants to give new restaurants there a try!

Kokky, Ong, Konkon and I went to Saigon Lotus and wow I love the Beef Pho. Such a mega huge serving for quite an alright price (S$11 I think?).

I met up with Junyi, Lily and Weijie (finally) and we had a great dinner at Burger Shack. They always serve good food and that's the reason why I keep going back. Look at the huge chicken chop!!! This wasn't even close to S$9!!!

Of course had to complete the meal with some Island Creamery goodness. HEH.

Kengyang and I are on a mission to hunt for delicious hawker food and we went to ABC Brickworks Food & Market Centre last week. We had an alright claypot rice for dinner but the highlight was this Taiwanese dessert. It's much cheaper than Black Ball and it was so much more delicious!! Please get your Taiwanese dessert fix here! No need to spend so much money anymore!!

My boss treated us to Japanese food last week. First time ordering in Japanese food and I must say Sakae Sushi serves better food when it's an online order. :S Every single time I visit Sakae Sushi, I always leave underwhelmed by the mediocre sushis. However, this online order came fresh and delicious!



I feel like this is such a messy post. Gonna get back to reviews proper soon! :D

Have a great week guys! :)

Skincare Haul: VMV HYPOALLERGENICS

It was an amazing week last week. I won a S$200 VMV HYPOALLERGENICS voucher from Urban! HOORAH! 

Prior to the win, I have known nothing about the brand, so I decided to do some google magic, and I liked what I read, so I couldn't wait to redeem the products!!

VMV HYPOALLERGENICS Website: http://www.vmvhypoallergenics.com/

VMV HYPOALLERGENICS SG Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/VMVHYPOALLERGENICS.SG 

 

I especially like the slogan - Skinfatuated, Skintellectual, Skingenius. Reading it already makes me feel like buying the entire line. :P 

There's only one boutique in Singapore currently, and if you are interested to get some skincare goodies from VMV HYPOALLERGENICS after reading this post (hopefully I helped in one way or another haha), then head down to ION Orchard, #B3-48! 

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the VMV lady who was so nice and helpful to me during my visit. I forgot her name, but if any VMV bosses are reading this, it's the lady who served me on 5th February at around 730pm! She was beyond amazing! So patient with all her explanations and the best thing was she didn't pressure me to buy anything. She's an amazing asset, so please give her a pay rise!!! 

OKAY, time for haul photos!! :D 

Id Facial Clean & Shave Cream (S$35 for 120ml) - obviously this is not for me. Heh. :D 

Creammmy Rich Intense Moisture Milk (S$41 for 120ml) - this is for my mom.
Spring Fresh Oil-free Nourisher (S$41 for 120ml) - this is for me! 

Spring Cleaning Oil-Control Anti-Bacterial Facial Scrub (S$32 for 120ml) 

VMV Starter Kit - Safe Skin Haven (S$50 for 6 travel-sized products)

The VMV Starter Kit was awesome. It contains 6 miniature products and I think I'm gonna pack them for my Japan trip in May! :D

Here are the 6 products!

The lady was very very very nice, and she included some samples for my mom and I. She remembered me saying that I have oily skin, while my mom has dry skin, so she gave free sunblock samples according to our skin types. She is just very nice lah, I never praise anyone praise until like this before.

And the sun block samples are so cute!! Look at the packaging!! :D They even included a spatula for you to dig out the product. Heehee. The amount of effort VMV HYPOALLERGENICS put into a SAMPLE. The moment I saw this, I knew I'm going to spend my money on these products when I'm working next time.

Also, VMV HYPOALLERGENICS toners all contain alcohol. Not the bad types of alcohol though. I remember her saying something about plant-based or plant-derived alcohol. Whenever you purchase a toner (or a slightly strong serum), they will give you an Application Frequency Chart to help you slowly incorporate the product into your routine. Apparently, the alcohol can gave differing effects on different people and hence it's better to use the product sparingly initially to expose the skin to the new chemicals, and then increase the frequency of usage slowly.

I think it's a very smart move! This way users can follow the chart without being too confused on what is "sparingly" and how exactly to "increase the frequency". User-friendliness, FULL MARKS.

So far, I have only used the oil-free nourisher and the Id sweat acne and overall anti-bacterial gel, and they have been amazing on my skin. No new breakouts and my face has been less shiny. My mom has yet to try her products. I will provide an update on that in the future!

Sometimes, more costly products do work! :)

Happy Chinese New Year!! Have a great holiday and enjoy yourselves!! :)

Birthday haul: Thank you dearest friends! :')

Thank you to all my dearest friends who have made my birthday a really awesome one! I couldn't ask for better friends and I'm so glad I know all of you! :) This sounds highly cheesy, but I need to appreciate the good people around me. 

My friends make my world go round (because my family is such in a dire state) and so I really am grateful to every single one of them! 

First up, thanks to eve, ron and gohchaychay for the Soap&Glory Soaper Heroes set + the Sephora mini body cleansers. I'm sure to smell fantastic the coming few weeks. :D 

The next one is full marks for presentation. Konkon, kokky and jeremy (AKA FYP GROUPMATES :D) gave me a paper bag full of goodies and homg look what's on the paper bag!!!!!! Confirm framing this up!

Food to last me a few days. Actually I wiped out everything already by now. HEHEHEHEHE.

Thanks chay for the elephant earrings too!! :)

This is a very cool present. IT'S A LIGHTBULB CARD THAT GLOWS. Lovely for lost-in-the-dark days.

Look at this! So cool! :)

MTV folks gave me an awesome shopping experience at H&M. Thanks lizhen, lirong, javior, june, aaron, ivan, rachel and aloyscious. And haha S$20 ah? Cannot bluff me one. :D

This is a surprise omg-they-didnt present. It's my very own Clarisonic cleansing tool! YAY! :') Thanks lily, mervin, zihao, jialiang, yenhao and shangying! HOMG SERIOUSLYYYY!!! :') Been using this for a few days, and yes lily I agree this breaks me out initially. However, nothing can compare with how clean my skin feels after using this!! I'm expecting great results!! Let's wait another few weeks!

My friends are crazy awesome people. I need to treat them better and stop letting my mood swings affect how I treat them! This past year has been a rough one for me, especially after succumbing to my depression tendencies, but I'm glad I have overcome it and I hope everything will go well in the future. Thanks to my dearest friends who have been there all along! :') YOU GUYS ROCK LAHHHH.

Yay new pairs of TOMS on their way!

I just purchased two pairs of TOMS! :) More of like a birthday present for myself. Or maybe it's a sad gift to myself for turning 23 years old and being old. Bah. 

Whatever it is, I CAN'T WAIT FOR THEM TO REACH MY SHOE CABINET! :D