Saturday, September 14, 2013

Cotton On Haul - Everyone needs basics

Cotton On Asia sent me an email on their online S$5 sale for tops last week and it was super timely because that morning itself, I had difficulty looking for clothes to wear to work since I had so few basic tanks and tops! Everyone knows I love my vintage/quirky/rara/colourful prints and I still love them, but basics are really important staples to have in the closet! 

SO...THANK YOU COTTON ON ASIA! :) 

I wanted a nice small wrislet/pouch to keep the many name cards that I have been accumulating from my training sessions and so I got this simple black one with "HERE AND NOW" emblazoned on it. I bought it for S$4.95 (original price and not on sale). 



I also bought this very comfortable pair of shoes in black and white stripes with studs. I'm super into monochrome shoes right now because I think they match with everything! This was on sale for S$9.95. I just checked online and now it's on sale for S$15! Lucky buy early. HEHE.

Ormond Slipper: http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/ormond-slipper-black/white-stripe-canvas/


 All items from here onwards were S$5 each! BARGAIN! :)

Alice Printed Tank (Leopard Fantasy/Ebony): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/alice-printed-tank-leopard-fantasy/ebony/



Layer Upon Layer Lace Tank (Black): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/layer-upon-layer-lace-tank-black/


Amelia Slub High Crew Tee (White): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/amelia-slub-high-crew-tee-white/


Eternity Tank (White): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/eternity-tank-white/ 


Michelle Essential Shirt (White): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/michelle-essential-shirt-white/


Layer Upon Layer Lace Tank (White): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/layer-upon-layer-lace-tank-white/


Eternity Tank (Black): http://asia.cottonon.com/shop/product/eternity-tank-black/


Can't wait to dig out my old sheer tops and wear them out again!! My closet is exploding and I keep thinking that I have nothing wear when in actuality, everything is hidden somewhere inside the closet. TIME FOR CLOSET CLEANING SESSION!!

For those who want to stock up on basics too, go to Cotton On Asia online now! I have tried on all the tops that I bought and they are freaking comfortable. Great buys!! :)

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Review: Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream in #01 Silky

Out with BB, in with CC!! 

It's both ingenious and questionable how cosmetic brands are constantly coming up with these acronyms. BB Creams, or Blemish Balm Creams, exploded into the beauty world and every brand jumped on the bandwagon. Now we have CC Creams! Different cosmetic brands have different meanings to the acronym "CC", some define it as Colour Control, some as Complete Correction, and in this case, Correct & Care. 

I didn't have much luck with BB creams, to be honest. I only found two that I really liked - the Holika Holika Aqua Petit Jelly BB and the Hada Labo BB Moist Emulsion. Other BB creams either broke me out (the nightmares!!!!!) or did nothing substantial to my skin. 

The CC cream is supposedly similar to a BB cream in terms of how it aims to be both a cosmetic product and a skincare product. The difference is how a CC cream focuses more on correcting skin's redness or shallowness. Basically, a CC cream aims to make your skintone as even as possible without compromising on the skincare benefits and the beautifying properties. Those looking for medium to heavy coverage should take note that a CC cream applies lighter than a BB cream, hence it's more suitable for those who want to correct their skintone without heavy coverage. Of course, you can always use it under your liquid foundation for an extra colour correcting lift. 

The Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream comes in two variations - #01 Silky and #02 Glow
  • #01 Silky - it's more suitable for those with combination to oily skin because it's more mattifying. It also applies more velvety (or silky if you want to go with the name) and dries quite quickly. 
  • #02 Glow - it's great for dry to normal skin and for those who want the ever-popular dewy-looking finish. After you apply it, it stays relatively shiny at high-point areas like the upper cheekbones and the tip of your nose, hence giving the user the dewy-look. Definitely NOT recommended for those with oily skin. 
I bought it online on Qoo10 (magical website for Korean cosmetics) and it was only S$9.80 (plus shipping) when I bought it. It's now S$15 with free non-registered mail, which is still significantly cheaper than those sold in the local Etude House stores. You can get it here: http://list.qoo10.sg/item/ETUDE-HOUSE-NEW-CC-CORRECTCARE-CREAM-SPF30/409926751?selectedOptions= 




So many benefits in one product! Can protect you against the sun, anti-aging, can relief stress (?? but yay), hydrating, whitening, can tone up, can have luminosity (reminds me of harry potter lol) and can have smooth texture. OKAY LET'S SLATHER THIS ON MY SKIN.



I was pretty intrigued by how the Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream claims to give a "healthier complexion, inside and outside". Quite remarkable if they can do that well. Imagine if you remove all your makeup and you still look somewhat decent. At this point of time, I can safely say that I look like a train wreck when I remove my makeup. So, please CC Cream, do miracles to my skin!!


Ingredients List


Product packaging: I LOVE how Etude House packages this product. Thank God they didn't go all pink or all purple or all that horror. Just white with fancy fonts and a little bit of purple. Professional-looking with a touch of their brand's signature style. Also, how genius is the pump? It's so much easier to control the amount of product that you are going to use! Personally, I want all my liquid cosmetic products to be equipped with a dispensing pump, but some brands just don't get it and can't be bothered! Thank you Etude House!


Pigmentation: No pigmentation to talk about here because the Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream is a white liquid when you first pumped it out. Scary, I know, but this is the beginning of a fun journey~

As you blend it out, it gradually turns into your skin colour (or some colour near your skin colour lah). So fun right!

SCARY WHITE

Okay, we are going somewhere with this...

Blending completed and we have a nice match in terms of skintone huh? Great job Etude House!
Application: At first, the Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream was giving me anxiety attacks. I was initially looking like I was preparing myself for Halloween Horror as a ghost or something. I calmed myself down and just kept blending away and the product gradually matched my skin colour. It applies very smoothly and it dries really quickly, which means no more sticky after-application feeling!

Coverage: It has a light to medium coverage. If you have slight blemishes here and there, maybe one or two layers of this will be enough. A ripe pimple or a really bad eye area situation cannot be salvaged with the Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream. You need a good concealer or a liquid foundation to apply on top of this if you want maximum coverage.

Here's a before and after comparison! I really like how it brightens up the skin while evening out the skintone!



Longevity: It lasted quite a long period of time, but that's with loose powder/mattifying powder brushed on my face after CC cream application. It also helped that I was spending most of my time in an air-conditioned room. I tried the "shopping-trip" test and nope it didn't last more than 4 hours. I had to re-apply my powder to get rid of the shininess. The great thing was even though I looked oily, the product didn't budge or slide. I just looked shiny and not slimy, which is great!

Anyway, a "shopping-trip" test is when I apply a product and test it out while I'm out shopping. Why shopping? Because when you shop in Singapore, you are constantly going in and out of air-conditioned buildings and constantly being in and out of sunny weather, hence you can really test out a product's longevity!

Some photos of me with the Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream on. No close-ups because I'm dumb and forgot about close-up photos, but I really like how my skin is showing up in these photos. My skin is not in a good condition right now okay (damn you hormonal acne!!) so these photos are miraculously awesome. I LOVE YOU Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream!!



Will I buy it again? Definitely! However, I have a feeling that more and more brands will churn out CC creams. So if all CC creams are of Etude House Correct & Care CC Cream's standard or even better, then I'd like to try them out too! But yes, at the moment this product ROCKS! Did I mention that it didn't break me out? No, I don't think I did. So yes, it didn't break me out!! Hooray.

Hope this post is useful! :) Have a great week ahead my lovely readers!! :)

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

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! :)

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Taobao September 2013 Haul

Here we go again. HEHEHEHE.
 
Yes, this will be my only taobao haul for this month. All the below products for only S$26! Of course the price is before shipping charges and agent fee. But I think even with all those extra charges, the total cost for all 6 items will not go beyond S$40. YAY! :)
 
I realised my taobao haul posts haven't been helpful at all, so from this post onwards, I'm including the links to where I got my items from! Do take note that sometimes the items are taken down quite quickly or the online shop is shut down.
 
First up, this pretty blue ankle boots (S$6.56 with domestic shipping)! I have been wanting this pair since March and I finally bought it because the price went down significantly as this was an old design. YAY.
 

Two sunglasses because I need new sunglasses (S$5.36 for both with domestic shipping). :D

Link: http://shop100449184.taobao.com/?spm=2013.1.1000126.d3.gza3yS


The following three tops are bought from the same shop. I always like to bulk purchase from one shop because then the domestic shipping is cheaper. Certain shops give free domestic shipping for bulk purchases too!

The three tops shared a domestic shipping cost of approximately S$2.16.

Sweater (S$4.95): http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1.w1028-3399564262.17.oecveN&id=19644870416


Striped top (S$3.23): http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1.w1028-3399564257.21.oecveN&id=19740797044


Daisy denim top (S$4.73): http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.1.w1028-3516134281.11.oecveN&id=22243911194


I chose Economy Air shipping from Shanghai this time because all shops were nearer to Shanghai! Yay! Can't wait for all of them to arrive!! :D

Review: forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose

Blackheads. No one really wants them. Personally, I HATE blackheads. No matter how clear or smooth your skin is, if you have a farm of blackheads on your nose, you still look like you couldn't care less about your skin. Unless you converse with people by standing very far apart from each other lah, if not it's really sickening when you are very near to someone and then start to worry about how terrible your blackhead situation is.

My blackhead removal procedure is quite .... painful. First, I will use the ever-popular nose strips from Biore, and then after admiring the gunk that was pulled out, I proceed with squeezing out additional stubborn blackheads using clean tissue papers. It's really very very painful and usually after a good cleansing, the skin around my nose area will start peeling. BLEH. Of course, the way I remove blackheads is not the correct way and it's super damaging for my pores - which is why I'm trying to use less crazy ways of removing them.

So, I was really intrigued when I saw the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose in a random Japanese drugstore. Just use daily and you will see a reduction of blackheads? Also, it was ranked the 3rd best product by consumers! CONFIRM MUST BUY RIGHT?!

So I did.

The forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose retails for 987 yen, with tax included, which is roughly around S$11-S$12.

To be frank, I wasn't expecting anything miraculous to happen after using this product. Less expectations, less disappointment!

However, the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose is proving its worth!


Packaging: Honestly, the first thing that caught my attention was the packaging. So cute lah! The product itself is packaged minimalistically - a rather huge contrast with the product insert. I think it's quite clever! Capture the consumers' attention by huge contented face and large pink stuff first, then make the consumers intrigued by the professional-looking product.



Directions: Everything was in Japanese and I was lost, so I turned to everyone's best friend, Google, to find out how exactly to use this product. It's quite simple. After you are done with your cleansing routine, just massage a tiny bit of the product on yout nose for 30 seconds, and then wash away.




Consistency: It's like a transparent Cetaphil. If you have used the highly raved gentle cleanser before, you will know what I'm talking about. The consistency of the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose is quite pleasant; like applying a liquid gel mask on your nose. When you massage the product on your nose, it doesn't feel slimy or sticky. Instead, it feels like a nourishing serum!

The important question is ....

DOES IT WORK??

At first, I didn't really believe the claims that the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose has. After using it for 2 days straight, I stopped using and went back to my old ways of extracting blackheads. As expected, I went a little too crazy and the condition of my nose was way off the normal radar. I got really scared. So, I decided to give this product a try.

I'm glad I did because now my nose looks less pimply and less red. My verdict for the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose will be that if you are a person with a relatively mild blackhead situation, please don't expect this product to do magic for you. However, if you have a really bad blackhead tragedy, then the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose will make life a little bit better. My extremely sensitive and inflamed nose (with hugeeeeeee pores from all that squeezing omg NEVER AGAIN) calmed down even after only one day of product usage. Today's my fourth day of using it (I only use it during my night skincared routine) and the redness is almost completely gone, and my unsightly huge pores look less monstrous. I'm a very happy user. Want to cry already. :')

Will I buy it again? This will depend on my needs. You know how the skin condition always changes throughout your life? If I have crazy blackhead nightmares again in the future, then of course I'll purchase this again (I hope it's available in Singapore!!). If not, then I probably will not. Overall, the forme Acne Care Medical Pack for Strawberry Nose really works if you have a bad blackhead situation to start with!