Beetrice's Reviews...

Melbourne Haul – Part 1: Cosmetics!

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Wed, 23 May 2012 03:30:00 +0000

Now that I’ve finally had a bit of time to sort through all the stuff I brought back, I realised my purchases fell into rather distinct categories! What to do, I’m probably quite a creature of habit eh? :P

Anyhoo, I thought I’d share the cosmetics bit with you today (I’ll save the bigger bottles and tubes for the next part)…some of the items were bought and some were given, but they’re all gorgeous! :D

First up are the nail polishes – can’t believe I came back with 13 bottles! *shock*

Top Row (L-R): Ulta3 in Orchid, Sally Hansen Gem Crush in Lady Luck and Big Money, Revlon Matte Suede in Fire Fox and Emerald City, Revlon Starry Pink

Bottom Row (L-R): Essence Nail Polish in Blue Addicted (finally!!), Australis Crystal colour Top Coat, some purple shimmer polish (I can’t quite make out the name of because the bottle leaked over the label), Ozotic Elytra 530, BYS Matte Topcoat, SAX nail polish in No.54, Maybelline Mini Colorama in 135 Tart

I also picked up several boxes of Sally Hansen Salon Effects since they were on sale – at Target it was 40% off at one point, and some were on cheap sale at the local chemists. On the left are press on wraps that have 3D patterns on them…I might just try the Kiss Nail Dress ones for the Gaga concert next week!

Next up is mascaras and eyeshadows – Tina kindly let me try the Face of Australia Impact Curl mascara (which the Aussie ladies have been raving about), and I picked up the Australis Voluptulash mascara on Tine’s recommendation. The fat red tube is Maybelline’s One by One Volume mascara which I believe was a limited edition (with the corset print). The Chanel and Innoxa eyeshadows were inherited from Tine, and OMG they’re absolutely gorgeous colours!

One of the more expensive items in my cosmetic stash this visit – an Ellis Faas Eye Light pen…I tried it on at the ~~Becca~~ (I mistook Becca for Mecca *smacks forehead*) Mecca Cosmetics outlet, and fell in love with the colour. :D

Last but definitely not least would be all the lip products…there are a few too many in the photo below to name in sequence, so you’ll just have to match the product to the photo, yeah?

Face of Australia Lip Quench in Forbidden Fruit and Malibu Barbie (thanks Tina!), Nature’s Care Pawpaw lipbalm, Blistex Silk & Shine lipbalm, Face of Australia Sheer Gloss Lip Crayons in Sundae and Cupcake, Crabtree & Evelyn Lip Butters in Pomegranate & Grapeseed and Citron Creme & Honey (both of these smell and taste so good, I should have bought more!), Dior Addict Lip Maximiser (bought on the plane to Australia) and a bunch of U3 lipglosses.

And there you have it…I don’t think I did too badly right? There’s still a whole pile of body and hand creams, lotions, body products, face mists, oils and more to go through… :D

So tell me, did anything in this pile catch your eye? *wink*

The week in Instagram…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:13:00 +0000

It’s been a long and busy week since coming back from Melbourne, and I thought I’d just share some of the moments with you via Instagram. If you’re already following me on Instagram, you should have seen most of the photos below…and if you’re not, well, why not? :D If you’re into beauty, pets, food and a bit of random scenes here and there, my username on Instagram is beetrice.

And now, on to the highlights of the last week!

On Tuesday, Redken kindly invited me to a hair workshop with Canadian hairstylist Jorge Joao who was in town in conjunction with their show at the Audi Fashion Festival. I’ll go into a detailed post about this later since he did share some great tips, and I learned how to do a super quick side braid to my hair too!

My invites to Redken’s Rock the Runway show at the Audi Fashion Festival on Thursday! The waiting itself was killer, but thankfully we stood near the door where there were gusts of air-conditioning everytime the security let someone in/out. (They wouldn’t let us in early since they were still changing sets)

When we were finally let into the show, there was another long wait for people to take their seats – to be honest, it was quite chaotic with ushers guiding people one way then another…but oh well…and so when there’s nothing to do but wait, I got snap-happy with Rinnah. :P

The show itself was about 40minutes in length, but the highlight would have been the ‘live’ show by Jorge…just check out that cloud from the amount of hairspray he used to hold the style in place – and all done in under 10minutes too! (more on the fancy hairstyles to come in another post)

Saturday was all about events as well…there was the Lancome Rouge in Love roadshow and event happening at KLCC, and after being told by Tine about what we now call the “Emma Watson” shade (the colour she wears in the advertisements), I simply had to give #375B a try…not too bad I reckon?

The same hue came out slightly different for each wearer – on Emma it comes across as closer to fuschia, but in this case with Yani and Dom (yes, we’re all wearing the same lippie!), it’s a matter of “same same, but different”…LOL! It was great catching up with the usual culprits over lunch too, and darn, I miss you evurl ladies!

Indulged in The Last Polka ice cream while waiting for my next event…their new Chocolate Banana Cake is pretty cool (with real cake chunks in it!) and of course, I could never say no to Salted Gula Melaka…this flavour is and will always be my favourite!

One of the items spotted during the Silkygirl event on Saturday was this tri-colour lipgloss (reminded me somewhat of MAC). I was told this is limited edition and has been out since April in 5 shades, but I haven’t seen it around. Has anyone tried it?

The rest of Saturday was spent in Seremban, which is a haven for cheap and FAST food…all the dishes you see above came out within 15minutes of ordering! And ooohhh the salted-egg crabs – my gran has suddenly developed a taste for this…after 92years! We couldn’t say no to the old dame, so who am I to decline? *wink*

Granny doing what she does best, but now we’ve discovered the mahjong queen has a telltale smirk (captured here!) every time she’s about to win – not that we can do anything to avoid losing money to her though…

Welcome to my Kit Kat heaven…all thanks to a friend who surprised me with these from her trip to Japan! :D Thank yous babe, you know who you are!

Last, but certainly not least…said friend who went to Japan got me my Laduree rose petal blush!! The photos don’t even begin to do it justice and I’m still hankering to get my hands on that pretty egg it’s supposed to be housed in, but for now I can say I CAN HAZ LADUREE! :D :D :D

Yes, I’m that excited. It smells exactly like roses and has so much detail you can even see the rose veins in the pattern. *satisfied sigh*

How was your week/ weekend? I’d love to hear about it! :D

Back from Melbourne!

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:31:00 +0000

WARNING: VERY picture-heavy post!

View of the Melbourne sky line at night from the Eureka Skydeck – 88 floors up!

Hel-lo peeps, didja miss me? :D The last 2 weeks have been absolutely *heaven* in Melbourne, and safe to say I didn’t want to come back at all…alas, that was all the time I could squeeze so it had to do.

When looking through my photos, I realised that I’d used my iPhone 4S as my default camera as opposed to my Lumix (not to mention posted rather a LOT of photos on Instagram!) so I’m going to share this trip through my Instagram pics…

My host for most of the trip was none other than cousin Tine, who played host, tour guide and general shopping buddy…she’s probably the biggest reason why I’ve gone there twice in the last two years – well, that and she keeps tempting me with all the good stuff in Melbourne!

One of the ‘must do’ items on my list was to get my nails done at Tsumiki Design by Clara. After seeing Tine’s McQueen nails, I didn’t have to think twice. I had told Clara I wanted a paisley-ish design and I knew the woman was talented, but OMG she still blew my mind when I saw the end result. Mind you, the design was hand-painted on with a TINY brush, and the attention to detail is astounding. I still have them on after over 2 weeks, and beyond a bit of tip wear (and me chipping my darn nail) it still looks darn good!

What would a trip to Melbourne be without meeting up with bloggers that you interact with online but never get to meet in person eh? A bit of a bummer that the meeting with Emily and Ling fell through, but I’m glad the dinner with Geek, Tina and Tine happened – was the first time meeting Tina, and that woman is a SCREAM. Am rather sad she’s gonna be leaving Melbourne soon, but hey, there’s always Taiwan/ Malaysia/ Singapore, right?

And oh the food…it was a good thing we did a lot of walking because otherwise I’d have come back 2 sizes bigger. Just check out a choice selection of the food…

Kettle chips – I didn’t see this brand around last year, and the roasted pepper & sour cream variant is to DIE for…*slurp*

Vietnamese at Thanh Dat – had a good giggle since the name pronounced in Cantonese means something else!

Excellent salt-baked chicken and other piping hot foods from the Hakka Tea House in Glen Waverly…

A funny sign at Grill’d along Lygon Street – can’t speak to its enforcement though, because after I tweeted a photo of my burger, their twitter handle replied me saying they liked the photo and hoped I enjoyed my meal. LOL!

The Perfect Pear burger from Grill’d…awesome stuff, and spectacular fries!

Managed to catch up with Eevon and a childhood friend Charms (who by the way, makes DELICIOUS desserts!) for fusion food at Red Spice Road – if you’re ever there, go for the early bird banquet. The roast pork belly and prawns are a must-have. :D

Salted Caramel Cupcake from Cupcake Central…am beginning to like this flavour just a little too much…

Clams and chorizo in white wine at Movida…

A typical big breakfast at Sass Café out in Richmond…

One of the best desserts I had – rhubarb and frangipane tart with creme anglaise and yogurt sorbet at the Tokar Estate out in Coldstream (also one of the LONGEST lunches I ever had – our 2 course meal took almost 3 hours!)

Hellenic Republic on Lygon Street receives rave reviews, and it’s not hard to see why – these are just some of the appetisers we had…

…and the rest of the dishes from Hellenic Republic – quite easily the best Greek food I’ve ever had!

You know you can’t go wrong when lunching with two chefs (Charms and Chris) and they suggest Trunk – the quesadillas and pizza were awesome!

Strawberry bizcocho from San Churro…custard, strawberries, cake and chocolate – what’s not to like??

Managed to catch up with another cousin on my mum’s side at Degraves Espresso…and I loved the prawns and mushrooms served with crusty bread. I need to find more tapas places here!

By the way, the coffee culture in Melbourne is HUGE – Melburnians love their coffee…I haven’t had any bad coffee yet (explains why Starbucks isn’t doing that well here) or drunk so much in such a short time!

A friend on Instagram suggested I try Rekorderlig after I posted a photo of my Pipsqueak Cider…and the Strawberry & Lime is fabulous. Now if only I can get Tine hooked on it… :P

Okay, enough about food…on to the rest of the highlights!

Managed to squeeze in a sleepover at Geek’s place with Tine – and it was also one of the rare times I’ve worn pyjamas (aka jammies). Can you tell who is who?

Speaking of jammies, how adorable is the Cookie Monster print on this pair from Big W?? :D The boy definitely knows what I like…*wink*

The weather was brilliant during my second week – and we hopped into a rental to visit Philip Island…with Bailey in tow!

Spotted a super sleepy (yet still greedy) koala at the Koala Conservation Centre on Philip Island – we were lucky he came so far down just for the food!

A rare appearance of the boy and I looking err…rather frost-bitten thanks to the strong winds and freezing temperatures at Nobbies – by the end of the stroll along the wooden boardwalk, I could barely feel my nose or fingers (and probably looked like a banshee with my hair flying wildly about)…

Random sign spotted on a truck in Richmond…can you imagine if someone here tried to do that?

Melbourne is a seriously gorgeous city – just check out the view from the Rooftop Bar at Curtin House. We managed to glimpse the supermoon on several occasions too despite the cloudy sky…

My trip to Melbourne wouldn’t be complete without a meal with this group – this time with one more addition!

To say I shopped my heart out in Melbourne is a bit of an understatement – I think the boy has been scarred for life after lugging back a 36kg bag (most of which was my shopping…poor fellow!). I came to Melbourne with 7kg of my own stuff (rest was for other people) and left with a 23kg bag not including hand luggage…oops!

Just part of the ‘bottle’ haul…

Gotta love having a cousin who’s a beauty blogger as well…she err, ‘declutters’ her stuff to me! :D

No visit to Melbourne would be complete without a haul from the LUSH store – the lady there was awesome, and I got a sweet deal because she felt bad for making me wait (there was a big problem with their EFTPOS system)

Revlon Matte Suede polishes! I’d been hankering after the OPI Blue Suede Ink one, but these are just as good at a wallet-friendly price of AUD4.95!

Don’t know whether to be happy or mad with Tine for bringing me to Lovisa – how did I come out with so many rings after saying I wasn’t going to buy any more stuff?

One of my favourite finds at Lovisa...love the design! I also picked up a Swarovski Blue Fidelity ring at the duty free in Singapore before my flight (no pics though…)

A money tin featuring a comic from Vimrod! :D I’m gonna use it to squirrel away money for my next holiday…

And…one of my ultimate highlights this trip – meeting my god-pup Coco!! She came home the day before I left so my ‘co-godma’ (is that even a term?) Tine and I got to spend a good half-day playing with her. That pup is gonna rule that household, make no mistake!

There you have it – a little under 2 weeks squeezed into a very looongg post! Big BIIIIIIGGGG thank you goes to the cousin (and her hubs of course!) for making this (and every other trip with her!) an awesome one. :D

And yes, this is one of those “bored so let’s play with phone photo apps” moments because we’re nuts like that.

PS: I’ll save photos of the makeup and beauty haul for another post once I’ve picked up the rest of my stash from KL. :D

Happy Labour Day - Beauty Stuff I Keep at Work...

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:17:00 +0000

Hello from Melbourne!! :) I've been up for over 24hours straight and counting, but that's what a holiday's about, right?

But that brings us to today's post - a while back, some of the evurl ladies got to talking and we thought it would be interesting to see what kind of beauty products we keep at the workplace...and what better day than one when we're NOT in the office?

So here's my modest collection (besides the necessary stash of sanitary products of course):
• Revlon New Complexion Powder (to keep away the shinies)
• Origins Peace of Mind (not quite beauty related, but keeps the frowns from work stress at bay!)
• Stila eyeshadow duo in Mara Simba (awesome neutral hues for that quick touchup before after-work events)
• Avene Thermal Spring Water spray (when I need a spritz of refreshment or if my skin is feeling a bit dry from the air conditioning)
• Carex Hand Sanitiser (besides the obvious, it's great for cleaning my handset as well!)
• Bloom Butterfingers Shea Butter Hand Cream (dry skin and grotty cuticles begone *wink*)

And there you have it...now it's time to hear from the rest of you! What beauty stuff do you keep at work?

Bailey Shops - L'Oreal Infallibles in Singapore!

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:59:00 +0000

Bailey - I had a rather busy weekend, but one of the highlights was finding out that L'Oreal has brought the Infallibles eyeshadows to Singapore! :D

This was the display spotted in BHG, and later in the afternoon I saw another one in Watsons, so they're here to stay. The Infallibles are priced at SG$14.90 each, but BHG is currently having sales of 20% off regular-priced items which saw the price drop to about SG$11.90..quite a good deal if you ask me! :)

There are 8 colours in total - Forever Pink, Eternal Black, Permanent Kaki, Endless Chocolat, All Night Blue, Hourglass Beige, Flashback Silver and Purple Obsession.

Hope your weekend was as fruitful as mine..tonight, Bea and myself will be off to Melbourne for a 2 week break - shopping time!! :D

Giving Sleeping Beauty a run for her money with the Dermalogica Overnight Repair Serum…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 04:48:00 +0000

About a month back, I was invited to hear more about the latest addition to the Dermalogica AGESmart family – the Overnight Repair Serum and was kindly given a bottle to try out. After using it for a few weeks now, I figured it was time to share my thoughts on this nifty little product.

Description:

Dermalogica Overnight Repair Serum is a powerful peptide serum with Argan and Rose oils to help stimulate cellular repair overnight. Maximise night time skin repair to help minimise fine lines and increase luminosity. Smooth this serum into skin or blend with your night time treatment cream for dramatic age-fighting benefits: the supercharged peptide serum helps stimulate collagen production to help firm and renew resilience while potent Argan and Rose oils revitalise lacklustre skin and smooth away fine lines. Free of artificial fragrances and colours.

The Verdict:

Design-wise, the serum comes in a small (but solid!) opaque screw-top bottle with a relatively large opening at the top as you can see from the picture above. However, dispensing the serum is a breeze – all you have to do is tip the bottle upside down (no need to shake, just be patient and the serum will come out in drops).

At first sniff, the serum actually has a pretty strong scent – I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think it’s from the Vitamin E and Rose Hip Seed oil in the formula. It doesn’t bother me though, and feels a bit like aromatherapy since I feel quite relaxed after smelling this. To be honest, the serum should really be classified more as oil than a serum since it is essentially a runny oil (see above) and behaves as such.

The instructions recommend 4-6 drops for your face, but I believe 4 drops (which is the amount you see in my palm above) is more than sufficient for my face and neck especially when blended with my moisturiser. I’ve tried patting it directly into my skin and mixing it with my moisturiser, and both methods seem to work fine. The serum is absorbed quickly, and I wake up to almost glowing skin in the morning.

Given that I have a super oily T-Zone but dry cheeks, this serum has actually helped to even out the oilies somewhat so that I wake up to a less-oily T-Zone and nicely moisturised cheeks (Didn’t know you could use oils on oily skin right? I didn’t either!). Did I become a sleeping beauty? LOL maybe not, but my skin feels pretty darn close to it!

The Overnight Repair Serum is supposed to help increase skin elasticity, firmness and collagen renewal while minimising discolouration. I can’t say I’ve noticed drastic improvement in my skin texture in the past 3 weeks or so, but I’m majorly happy with the morning-after effect, the frown lines between my eyes have stayed away (despite major stress at work) and I reckon my jawline has gotten a teeny bit more defined (or maybe it’s a placebo effect, but either way I’m not complaining!)

Of course, if you want maximum results, Dermalogica recommends that you go for their free Face Mapping® skin analysis and AGE Smart® prescription, but for now I’m quite satisfied with the results from this serum and am happy to continue using it.

Ingredient list for those interested

As with most Dermalogica products, this serum doesn’t come cheap but it is worth the SG$138 you’d have to fork over. While 15ml may sound like a tiny amount, you only use a few drops at a time – I estimate this little bottle will last me a good 6 months at least.

Dermalogica Overnight Repair Serum retails at SG$138 for a 15ml bottle, and is available from all Dermalogica outlets or authorised spas and salons. Alternatively, it is also available from the Bellabox website.

Rating: 4 / 5

Value: $$$

Budget Manicure with Color Combos – a not-so-bleak winter’s day…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 00:30:00 +0000

If you’re wondering about the title, it’s because I couldn’t come up with a better title to describe this manicure – this really does describe the colour to a ‘T’ (or at least, it does in my opinion).

The colours I used were a grey creme and a bluish jelly polish with blue and silver glitter (I suck at descriptions!), both from Color Combos (shown above without and with flash). Why budget? Because Color Combos, which you can find at Sasa, retail at about RM5 per bottle. How’s that for cheap?

In terms of coverage, the grey creme worked great – what you see above is just one coat of polish.

Once the grey dried, I layered on two coats of the bluish glitter and finished with a coat of Seche Vite. What you end up with is something that looks like little flakes of snow on a grey wintry day – and I happen to love snow, so a grey winter with snow isn’t bleak right? Oh don’t mind me, I’m rambling here… :P

No flash

With flash

For the price, I really can’t complain…and they’ve lasted for over 4 days without chipping! :D Only problem is, now I'm pining for this kind of weather…who knows, maybe I'll get a dose of it in Melbourne?

Say hello to Flawless Beauty with the April Bellabox…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:57:00 +0000

This month’s Bellabox just reached me earlier this week due to delays, but I’m glad to report that the wait wasn’t in vain – and wondered why the box was so unusually heavy when I received it! (to be explained later)

Keeping in line with the month’s theme of Flawless Beauty, the products in the April Bellabox are all about giving you a flawless complexion. Let’s have a look!

The box contained the following items:

Enavose H2Osis Black Tea Quench Mask (15ml) – I’ve tried this before, you can go here if you’d like to read my thoughts on this.
Benefit Cosmetics Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow Liquid Foundation (5ml sample) – LOVED the packaging of this sample as it’s similar to the full-sized bottle, can’t wait to try it out!
Lemongrass House Lavender Shower Gel (30ml bottle) – I’m a big fan of Lemongrass House products (particularly their room sprays), and this was a nice size I can take on holidays.
AHAVA Hydrate essential day moisturiser (15ml) – haven’t tried any AHAVA products yet but have heard some nice things, so I’m looking forward to trying it.
Kinohimitsu Collagen Drink (2 bottles) – this was the reason the box was so heavy! These are supposed to be immensely popular, and a friend’s mother swears by these…worth giving it a go right?

The box also came with a number of vouchers, including a SG$5 voucher for Lemongrass House (I’ll definitely be using this!), a 1-for-1 special on brow arch service at Benefit (usually SG$22 per person), and a 1+1 treat on a Mineral Oxygen-Infusion facial from AHAVA (NP: SG$88).

What did you think of the contents, and are there any products in this box you’d like to try in particular? :D

NEW: butter LONDON polishes and LIPPY now available in Singapore...

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:32:00 +0000

If you have been following my Twitter or Instagram (username: beetrice) feeds, you’d have seen this photo on Sunday where Rinnah and I went hunting for butter LONDON polishes based on a tip-off she’d seen online.

After much wandering around and hunting through all the racks, we found the small butter LONDON rack tucked away in the Basement of Taka – ensconced amongst the likes of L’Occitane and Korres.

If you want to get your hands on the shades, I’d suggest you head down immediately as stocks are very limited (what you see in the photo is all they have left, and that’s before we made our purchases!) However, they will be bringing in small stocks every 2-3 weeks depending on demand. Or at least, that’s what the rather amusing sales lady told us.

One good thing to note is that they’ve brought in the new LIPPY lipglosses and matching polishes which were only launched this month so if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on them, now’s your chance!

Top Row – Primrose Hill Picnic, Snog and Teddy Girl

Bottom Row – Trout and Yummy Mummy

butter LONDON polishes are 3-free, and the LIPPY products do not contain parabens, petroleum, phthalates, sulphates or bismuth.

As for me, I walked away with 3 polishes – but only one is mine. Can you guess which one? :P (L-R: Disco Biscuit, Rosie Lee and The Old Bill)

butter LONDON polishes are retailing at SG$25, nail treatments are SG$32 and LIPPY lipglosses are SG$30 each respectively.

Fun Dupe for the Ciate Caviar Manicure…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:05:00 +0000

Remember I wrote about the Ciate Caviar manicure about 2 weeks ago? Well, after seeing some shots of it in action (you can read the Brit Blogger’s review here) I was hankering to try it, but after seeing the GBP18 price tag (approximately SGD$36 or RM90!) and knowing it would take a long time to make it to Asia (if at all) I gave up on wanting to get them – it's not something I’d spend THAT much on just for novelty’s sake!

I couldn’t quite get past wanting to try it though, so when some sites suggested it could be duped using ordinary nail polish and microbeads, I decided to give it a try.

Ta-daahh!! Hehe…looks quite convincing, no? At least, I think so… :P

I used POP! shiny finish microbeads from American Crafts (pic above is courtesy of Rinnah who found the motherload!) which can be found at any well-stocked craft store – they come in a variety of colours as you can see above, but I stuck with black since it felt like the easiest to work with.

Getting them on was simple enough – start off with your regular base coat and two coats of your choice colour of nail polish. In my case, I was trying different shades to see the effect, hence ended up with green, red, purple and blue from my index to pinkie. :D

After this was the bead-sprinkling bit, which I cheated on. It was a bit difficult to get them to stick onto the polish even working one nail at a time, so I tried a few methods and found one that works. Apologies for the poor photo quality, it's not easy trying to manoeuvre a camera with wet nails...*grimace*

If you’re interested in trying it, this is what worked for me:

First, apply base coat and two moderate coats of coloured nail polish on your nails. I recommend using bright, shimmery colours as this will stand out more compared to sedate ones. Let dry for about a minute.
Next, working one nail at a time apply a coat of Seche Vite to your nail, wait 5 seconds and then dunk your entire nail into the bottle of microbeads. This is a lot easier than sprinkling them onto a dish and having to clean up afterwards!
Once the beads have stuck to your nail, gently (and quickly!) brush off the excess and press the beads into your nail. Don’t worry if they roll around a bit as this will help it adhere faster, plus your beads may just get coated in some of the coloured nail polish for an added effect like what happened in my case. Do make sure you coat them all the way to the tip though, mine looked a bit bare at the tips because I didn’t get to them fast enough!
Repeat with the rest of your nails, then sit back and let them dry. Because I used Seche Vite, my nails dried in less than 15 minutes and were sturdy enough to last an evening without dropping off.
PS: If you want to try the original way, the instructions are in my previous post on the Caviar Manicure here.

Did I like them? Yes. They’re unusual enough to try for a fun night out, and definitely something different. To get the multi-colour bead effect, you can always buy a couple of colours and mix the beads but since this was just a trial run, I stuck to rolling the beads around in the polish to get the colour to shine through.

A point to note though, is that removing the caviar manicure or microbeads can be a pain but I found a way around that too (all for the sake of being thorough!) and people with itchy fingers will love this.

If you try to use nail polish remover directly on the beads, be warned that the colour will leech from the beads onto your nails and skin – in this case, it’ll turn them a dirty black. So save your skin, and instead pick off the beads first. Once you’ve picked off a small area, it’s easy (not to mention a bit addictive) to pick off the rest. And after you’re done with the beads (please do it over a container or dustbin, you don’t want them going everywhere!), you can use nail polish remover for the base polish as per normal. Easy peasy!

And there you have it, a dupe for the Ciate Caviar Manicure. Anyone else want to give this a go? *wink*

Think it through – the Luxola Facebook contest boo-boo…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:53:00 +0000

It all happened sometime last week (on the 3rd if I’m not mistaken) when this photo below was posted up on the Facebook page of local website Luxola.

They had decided to run a contest for Easter, stating that there were 16 eggs to be found on their website. The T&Cs which were stated in the image as well as the details said that the first 16 to find the Easter eggs on their website and link it on Facebook would win the product they had linked to, which looked easy enough.

However, about an hour into the contest, Luxola suddenly backtracked on their initial terms and conditions, and instead said that EVERYONE who linked their Easter eggs would be entered into a random drawing for the prize, which contradicted their initial terms as well as the details stated on the image.

Some of their comments ‘explaining’ why their terms and conditions were suddenly changed can be seen in the screenshots above (you can click on the images for larger versions). However, do note that the image is still that with the “first to link will win” line at the bottom (these posts were later deleted and the image cropped to omit the incriminatory line).

This is where I got miffed.

#1 – I can understand their panic in going “Uh oh, we didn’t anticipate so many entries in just the first hour, this contest is going to be over before we can publicise it!”, but backtracking barely an hour into the contest and justifying it by going “We want everyone to have a chance” is not being fair to the people who had already entered.

#2 – All the links to their page were open for everyone to see, ie. anyone who was on the Luxola Facebook page could see the links other people had posted and simply had to copy the link instead of searching through the website themselves. The settings were later changed by Luxola, but again, this showed a lack of thought process.

#3 – They deleted comments from members commenting on the change of terms. These comments were all attached to the image they deleted in order to re-upload the cropped image, so after responding to a couple of the comments, they just deleted the image, uploaded a new one and ignored the rest of the feedback from members. For brand management, this is a BIG no-no. You should always respond to customer feedback, even if just to offer an explanation, clarification or acknowledge the situation.

And just to be clear, I’ve got nothing against their services. I’ve ordered items from the website before and gotten exceptional service – the guy who hand-delivered my order accidentally missed out two items, but apologised profusely and was back within the hour with the remaining items.

The point I’m trying to make is that if companies like these want to run competitions, they should think things through. Furthermore, even if they did have an “oh shit” moment shortly into the contest, my current impression of them would have been a lot better if they had just honoured the first contest and perhaps run a second contest with different terms and conditions for the rest of their members instead of doing what they did, changing T&Cs halfway and leaving it at that without responding to all the comments.

Any thoughts?

Happy Easter, and a little dotty fun…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:36:00 +0000

I know it’s already Easter Monday, but never too late to wish you all a very Happy Easter right? *winks* If you’re wondering, the little chocolate chicks in the pic above were a gift to the office…cute right?

Since I had a slight break back in KL over the Easter weekend, I decided to try a 'Easter' look with my nails – I was originally going for a dotty “Easter eggs” effect, but apparently my colleague now tells me they remind her of strawberries…what do you think? :P

The polishes I used (L-R) – Skin Food Nail Vita in PK202 (I really wish they’d give their polishes names instead of just code numbers!), Revlon Nail Enamels in Tropical Temptation and Amber Ablaze.

After my usual base coat, I applied one coat of Skin Food PK202 – one coat gave me the opacity you see above, you can faintly make out the nail line on my fourth and fifth fingers, but I didn’t bother with a second coat since I was going to add dots to them.

Next, with a round tipped hairpin (I didn’t have any dotting tools with me, hence had to improvise!) I started dotting my nails with Revlon Amber Ablaze. Tried to make them as random as possible, but they kind of ended up in rows…I wonder why?

After Amber Ablaze, it was time to add Tropical Temptation dots – I quite love this combo of cheerful colours, and they’re all glossy finish save for the Amber Ablaze (which I had to add in simply for colour contrast and because I love my sparkle!)

I added a coat of Seche Vite after waiting for them to try about 5 minutes, but alas, you can see from the top pic that my index finger got a bit smudged in the process. The rest are still holding fine though. :D My nails are pretty simple since I'm a klutz when it comes to nail art, but if you want more advanced designs I'd suggest you check out Pretty Beautiful's Easter nail art tutorial. :D

Oohh, and if you have the chance to (I know some friends in Australia have gone bonkers over these), you have to try these Cadbury Easter eggs. They come in a cute egg carton of 4 pieces, and are super fun to eat! Only downside is they cost a bomb, but now that it’s Easter Monday I’m hoping they’ll be on sale…let me know if anyone else has managed to find them in Malaysia?

April’s Bellabox has exciting things in store! :D

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 02:36:00 +0000

Remember I mentioned attending a Bellabox event a couple of weeks back? It’s no surprise I’ve been a fan of their boxes, considering they have not failed to impress me so far (it’s been 6 months and counting!)

Personally, the highlights so far have been Akin, Caudalie, OCC, Aveda, Savoir Faire, Dermalogica and Pangea Organics – I’ve been very happy with the boxes so far, and certainly happy to continue.

Just a little taste into what’s in store for the April Bellabox (which will be out very soon!) – the theme for this month is Flawless Beauty, which means the contents will be aimed at helping you achieve flawless skin *wink*

Bellabox has also signed up with several new brand partners that include Benefit Cosmetics, Laura Mercier, Ahava, Elizabeth Arden, High Tech Cosmetics and Annick Goutal amongst many others.

So, who has signed up for Bellabox, and what have you particularly liked from your boxes so far? Or is there a particular brand from the list of new partners above that you’re really looking forward to? (I’ve got my eye on Annick Goutal!)

The Sleek Original i-Divine Palette is oh so divine!...

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:06:00 +0000

When it comes to wearing eyeshadow, I’m usually the finickiest person around – anything too gritty, too powdery, too difficult to apply, etc gets relegated to the back of the drawer almost immediately. However, enter the Sleek Original i-Divine palette which I got as a Christmas present from some loverly ladies *wink* – and despite initial reservations, I’m quite in love with this baby!

Description:

The Original i-Divine palette contains a variety of highly-pigmented colours, ranging from green to purple, allowing you to create endless looks fit for day or night. The velvet-touch consistency gives full and shimmering coverage to the eye lid for maximum effect. Each of the 12 shades can be applied alone for a dramatic effect or mixed to create a personalised look.

When I first opened it up, the colours were breathtaking – this palette doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to colour! I was a bit alarmed by the powdery flecks scattered throughout the palette but I reckon it was just due to shifting during transport/ shipping.

And here come the swatches:

Gorgeous colours, aren’t they? With the exception of the flat black shade (top left shade or #1) which feels a bit gritty and is the only matte shade in this palette, the rest have great colour payoff and texture. Personally, I do like my colours a bit on the shimmery side so this is right up my alley.

My initial hesitation was not with the texture of the eyeshadow, but rather the hues – knowing me, I’m more of a brown/ nudes/ neutrals sort of person with a strong hue added in (think deep jewel colours like emerald and amethyst) and only ever use multiple bright colours for special occasions, so I was initially hesitant to try a lot of the shades (hel-lo, bright blue? Uh oh…).

However, I’ve found that using my fingers to apply this gives me a more muted look and makes the bright hues easier to blend (although the instructions say the eyeshadow is best applied with the enclosed dual-ended sponge applicator), so now I’ve gotten quite used to it and (god forbid!) am even starting to use brighter colours overall.

Incidentally, the i-Divines have been given a makeover – the outer packaging has been updated and they’re now pressed flat instead of the waffle print you see in these pictures. A bit of a shame really, since I kind of like the waffle print. :D

Ingredients for those interested

Overall, this is a great palette for those wanting to experiment with colour and want shades that are easy to blend. It's certainly gotten me out of my neutrals comfort zone and who knows, you just might see me with a lot of brighter colours soon?

And on that note, Happy Friday and have a lovely weekend!! :D

The Sleek Original i-Divine palette retails at £6.49 and is available from the Sleek Makeup website. International shipping is available (except to African countries).

Rating: 4 / 5

Value: $$$

Coming up smelling roses with Enavose FloraComfort Micellar Cleansing Water…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 01:12:00 +0000

Early last week, this box landed on my table – beautifully wrapped as usual, this time containing another product, rose-scented potpourri and some organic cotton rounds from Swiss brand Enavose. Did I like it as much as I did the Black Tea Quench Mask? You’ll have to read on to find out. :D

Description:

The Enavose FloraComfort Micellar Cleansing Water with Micellar technology captures and removes debris, makeup and residue in one simple step while hydrating and softening skin to prevent any feeling of tightness or discomfort. Cornflower extract and hyaluronic acid work to add radiance and hydration to skin for enhanced nourishment. Perfect for on-the-go cleansing, freshen your skin with long-lasting water reserves and elevated suppleness.

Similar to other Enavose products, the FloraComfort Micellar Cleansing Water (which shall hereafter be referred to as just Cleansing Water!) comes in a sturdy plastic case or in this instance, bottle.

The pump is one of the best I’ve come across – doesn’t dispense too much, easy to use and the whole thing is sealed up so the product inside remains sterile…very hygienic! Product wise, the Cleansing Water has a very mild scent with just a hint of rose – perfect for those with sensitive noses.

Instructions are super simple – just pump out the Cleansing Water onto a cotton pad, sweep over your face to remove makeup and repeat until your makeup is gone. For me, the most notable result was taking off my foundation, just check out the before and after below:

Not bad, it does a decent job removing foundation and blush. :)

For makeup, I decided to make the test more obvious and drew on myself (oh the things we do to test products!) so what you see above is waterproof mascara, eyebrow pencil, lipstick and liquid eyeliner.

This was after soaking a cotton pad and leaving it on to saturate the area before wiping off in one swipe – you can see it did a good job with all the other items except the mascara. To be fair, the mascara was waterproof (hel-lo Maybelline!) but I generally use a separate eye makeup remover so this didn’t bother me too much.

I was told that this is a no-rinse formula which means you don’t have to wash your face again after using the Cleansing Water, but personally I felt my skin was a bit sticky after using this (particularly along the T-Zone area). The feeling dissipates after a while, but I don’t like the sensation so I prefer to splash water on my face afterwards. A point to note is that I have a really oily T-Zone, so chances are it’s only me having this problem.

Ingredient list for those interested

All in, this is a decent cleanser that does the job for me (only caveat would be the waterproof mascara) – Enavose is having a promotional price for the FloraComfort Micellar Cleansing Water at the moment for just SG$29 (Usual Price: SG$45). If you purchase more than SG$100 on either the Enavose online store or Facebook e-shop, you’ll get a free Mineral Concentrate Refresh Mist worth SG$32.

Of course, if you want to win yourself something from Enavose instead, they’re currently running a “My FloraComfort Cleansing Buddy” Facebook Contest. What do you have to do?

1. Share on Facebook when you would most love to use this versatile cleanser

2. The three entries with the most number of likes wins

3. Winners get an Enavose hamper worth SG$145 consisting of the Glo Enzyme Powder Wash, Alpine Edelweiss Dew and Nutritive Hydrator.

** Please refer to the FB page for further details, terms & conditions.

Enavose FloraComfort Micellar Cleansing Water retails at SG$45 for a 120ml bottle and is available at Suntec City Mall (Tower 3), Tangs Vivocity Beauty Hall and online at www.enavose.com (free shipping islandwide) and the Facebook e-store.

Rating: 4 / 5

Value: $$

Fancy fish eggs on your nails?

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:37:00 +0000

Okay so I didn’t mean that quite literally, but that’s figuratively what you get with the Ciate Caviar manicure kits. :D

Essentially, what you get is a bottle of polish together with a bottle of tiny spheres/ caviar/ fancy balls/ whatever you want to call them which you sprinkle on to your nails.

Looks interesting, no? The instructions look easy enough to follow, although I think I’d be pressing my nails into the bed trying to make doubly and triply sure they stay on!

There are three shades available, which are white, multicoloured and black (with purple highlights). And no, there’s no prize for guessing my favourite out of the three…it would just be too easy! You can read more about them on Kiss and Makeup here.

The Ciate Caviar manicure kits are due to be released sometime in April so I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of them then.

If not, maybe it really is time to pile caviar on my nails…they’d be tasty for sure! :P

Can you see yourself trying something like this, or is it too fancy-schmancy for your liking?

Finally, a free (well not quite, but very enjoyable) weekend…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:25:00 +0000

Ahhh…did you ladies have a good weekend? I finally had a weekend to myself to do as I pleased – it’s been a long time in coming, since all my weekends this year so far have either been spent running errands, travelling or out and about. You get the idea!

So what did I do with my precious two days? I think I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Saturday had a rather ominous start since I woke up super early and couldn’t get back to sleep (don’t you hate it when that happens?) so…I decided to watch movies and do my laundry instead. But the afternoon was decidedly perky as I had tea with the lovely ladies from Bella Box. The bracelet above was their “sign-in” ID – how cute!

The tea itself was amazing (I’ll do a more complete post on it later because I forgot to bring the thumbdrive with the bulk of the photos! Super fail, I know…) but the biggest highlight of the evening was….*fanfare*…making your own Bellabox! You can have a peek into the items I selected, but mind you, this was only part of the stuff we went back with.

Every participant picked out an activity from a fishbowl when they arrived, and mine was a manicure (now how did they know I needed one?) The manicures were done with Ozotic polishes, and this colour is just seriously gorgeous. I haven’t stopped patting my nails yet (and Rinnah can attest to that…LOL…)

We had originally wanted to head to the i Light Marina Bay show after that in the evening, but alas it started to drizzle so plans were put on hold until the next day, which gave me some time to do some cleaning (Random Q: Why is it everytime I clean up stuff from drawers and put them back, there seems to be LESS space than when I started??)

Sunday was Simpsons day! Hehe…I had pickedup a packet of organic pasta in Simpsons shapes (cue squeal for cute food!) and made a tomato-based sauce with bacon, onions, mushrooms and chilli for lunch. Best part? I made enough to pack my lunch to work for two days…yay! I’ve missed cooking…previous places I’ve stayed at didn’t allow cooking, and when I’m at home my mum tends to love hovering while I cook, so I haven’t been in the kitchen for a while.

And finally, we made it to the i Light Marina Bay show in the evening – it rained earlier in the afternoon, but thankfully cleared up by about 6pm so the evening was nice and cool (albeit a little damp!). The i Light Marina Bay is the second time this show has been held (first time was in 2010), and will be on until 1 April 2012.

There were more than 30 innovative and environmentally sustainable light art installations on display, including a gorgeous water, light and fire show which is held just outside the MBS shopping gallery (overlooking the bay) at 9.30pm.

Mind you, the display is spread out across the whole bay and starts at 7.30pm – after over 2 hours, we had only covered half of the show so I reckon we’ll have to come back again for Part 2. Nevertheless, these were two of my favourites… :D

Brightly coloured “toadstools” made from jumbles of lights in different hues.

The “SQU1D”, which alternated between white light and bursts of psychedelic colour along its body and tentacles.

This is just something random in the Louis Vuitton window I saw while we were walking back to MBS to catch a cab – love the way the display was laid out, but to be honest I thought it took away the focus from the outfit. What do you think?

And last but not least, how I spent my Sunday morning – taking out and actually cataloguing my makeup palettes. Extremely enjoyable, and I’ll be damned if I found items that I’d actually forgotten about! *oops*

I’ll definitely go into this in a bit more detail later, but for now I’ll just leave you with this…just a part of the various palettes I have, and some I haven’t even touched!

And that was my weekend in a nutshell. How was your weekend ladies? Hit me up! :D

Try the new Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective range and stand a chance to win!

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 04:26:00 +0000

Passed a Kiehl’s store or roadshow recently? Well, if you haven’t you’d better make your way to one on the double!

Kiehl’s has just launched their Clearly Corrective range, and for the month of March, Kiehl’s will be giving away four bottles of Kiehl’s Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution worth RM200 (one per week).

The steps to win are simple – all you have to do is visit any Kiehl’s store to get free samples of the Clearly Corrective range, ‘Like’ the Kiehl’s Facebook page and leave a review of the samples you tried on Kiehl’s Facebook page (under the Clearly Corrective tab). The best review per week will win. Easy peasy lemon squeezy right?

Kiehl’s has also implemented a new Friends of Kiehl’s (FOK) membership program. New customers will have to spend RM250 in a single receipt to become a member, while existing/ old customers need only spend RM150.

So if you pass by a Kiehl’s don’t forget to drop in, have a look and try their new Clearly Corrective range! :D

Bailey Shops – Weekend Sightings…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 04:33:00 +0000

It’s been a while since we last heard from Bailey, yes? He’s been a little busy burrowing a cosy little corner for himself in my bed amongst the new pillows I just got, but he’s all perky today and ready to tell you all about the new finds we spotted over the weekend. :D

First up is the Garnier UV Protect Lightweight daily UV block lotion with SPF50 PA+++ in Beige. I haven’t seen it back in Malaysia yet, but at S$14.90 in Watsons here, it looks pretty interesting. Also, Watsons is having a "Buy 2 Get 1 Free" promo on selected Garnier and Maybelline products from now until 28 March so head on down to check it out if you're interested! :)

Ohohohoho…look what finally arrived!! I’ve been waiting for this Lip Smackers Bottlecap Edition for almost a month since getting a preview on Beauty Fool, and they’re finally out! There are 3 flavours available – Coca Cola (of course!), Sprite and Fanta Orange. They’re currently retailing for S$6.90 each and available from selected Watsons outlets (preferably the bigger ones). And before you ask, yes I did get a few. *wink*

For those familiar with BHG in Singapore, the entire store will be having a 20% off all regular-priced items in store. Bourjois fans are sure to rejoice, because this covers pretty much their entire range, including the new Healthy Balance Unifying Powder (upper pic) and the Spring 2012 Paris Sucre makeup. :D

And last but definitely not least, it’s not beauty-related (and not part of Bailey Shops) but…we’re going to Lady Gaga baybeh! I finally collected the tickets yesterday and we’re ON! Come 29 May, Rinnah, Dom and myself are going to be rocking out dressed err…OTT for it…? :P

And that’s it for this edition of Bailey Shops, hope you ladies had good weekends too! :D

About Bailey Shops:

Bailey is a soft toy dog who will be bringing you little blurbs on promotions he spots while wandering around with his little shopping cart. Apologies in advance if the photos for this section are a little blur though, since his paws can’t work the camera on the phone very well while keeping an eye on his cart.

My skin’s A-OK with the Melvita Cleansing Foam Floral Bouquet…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:11:00 +0000

Happy Monday folks! Hope you all had a great weekend – I was back in Seremban celebrating my paternal grandma’s 92nd birthday, and if you follow my tweets you’d have seen some funny pics! :D

Now instead of doing a typical review for the Melvita Cleansing Foam Floral Bouquet – Clarifying for normal to combination skin, I thought I’d try something different. Let me know what you think! :D

Got this cleansing foam for my combi skin,

Decided to use it on a whim,

Did a little ditty cos the words all rhyme,

I’ll start it off by saying it smells sublime!

The mechanism itself is easy to use,

Just two pumps is sufficient - not too profuse,

You might think this cleansing foam’s a bit weak,

But it leaves my skin soft, clean AND without a squeak.

Soap-free and enriched with moisturising ingredients,

My skin loves the inclusion of Orange, Rose and Narcissus,

And to brighten skin further and lock in the moisture,

I recommend you follow with Narcissus Extraordinary Water.

The ingredient list is above for you ladies (and gents),

And never fear, Melvita uses organically farmed or responsibly picked ingredients,

What will I do once I’m done with this bottle?

Recycle of course, and head to Melvita on the double!

So there you have it, my purple prose,

I hope you didn’t find it too gross,

This was the first product I’ve tried from Melvita,

I’m kinda liking it, now what about you yeah? :D

Melvita Cleansing Foam Floral Bouquet retails at RM107 for a 125ml bottle, and is available at all Melvita outlets.

Rating: 4 / 5

Value: $

A Legend is relived with A England’s Ascalon…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:46:00 +0000

Back in early February, I tried A England’s Tristam from their Mythicals collection and absolutely loved it, prompting me to champ at the bit waiting for their eagerly-awaited Legends collection to become available.

Needless to say, I snapped up a few of the Legend polishes as soon as I could, and I’m glad to say they’ve done it yet again with the new collection – my favourites are St George and Ascalon, but I’ll save St George for another day. Today, it’s all about Ascalon…

Image source

Ascalon was the name of the sword or lance St George used to slay the dragon if legend is to be believed. I’m not sure how the colour was derived from that, but being a lover of all hues purple I’m not complaining!

Without flash, Ascalon looks pretty enough with colours ranging from silvery-grey to a dusty lilac. Two coats were enough to give full opacity, and the formula is similar to that of Tristam which was a complete breeze to work with.

With flash, you can see the real brilliance in Ascalon (which is also visible under sunlight). The shimmer seems to dance under direct light and is nothing short of breathtaking. The description on the website describes it to a ‘T’ – “Forged by magic and guided by our hero's sainted hand, the steely grey of his spire is alive with a swirling heart of lavender fire”.

Despite the hefty price tag on A England’s polishes (at £9 a bottle, they’re easily one of the most expensive polishes I own), the results are nothing short of spectacular for their shimmer polishes. As mentioned previously, the cream finish polishes can be a little difficult to apply evenly but for shimmer, A England ticks all the right boxes.

A England’s Legend collection is made up of seven lovely polishes, each as gorgeous as the next with similar finishes. Admit it, you want to get it now right?

Now if you don’t mind, I’ll get back to staring at the lavender fire heart in this steely grey spire…*wink*

A-England polishes retail at £9.00 a bottle, and can be ordered from www.a-england.co.uk. International shipping is currently free.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Value: $$

Organic aromatherapy for your lips? Maybe not, but Pangea Organics Lipbalm comes close…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:22:00 +0000

The January edition of my Bellabox had a full-sized Pangea Organics lipbalm in it, which I dug into almost immediately thanks to dry lips after forgetting to transfer my existing lipbalm over to my work bag.

Fast forward over a month later, and it has earned a solid spot in my bag. So, what is it about this lipbalm that was so great until it ousted my existing lipbalm? Let’s have a look…

L-R: Italian Red Mandarin with Rose, Egyptian Fennel Grapefruit and Sweet Orange, Pyrenees Lavender with Cardamom

Description:

Free of petroleum and synthetics, Pangea Organics lipbalm allows a unique blend of organic oils to sink into the skin, rather than sealing them off from moisture. Organic Tamanu, Sunflower, Jojoba, Hemp, and Shea oils deeply hydrate and protect lips from moisture loss while imparting naturally occurring fatty acids into the skin. Available in three variants.

The Verdict:

First off, Pangea Organics was new to me – after doing some research online, it turns out they’re an award winning brand with certified organic products. The company is an advocate of fair trade whenever possible, and their products are free of sulphates, synthetic preservatives, artificial colours or fragrances.

Design-wise, I was quite taken by the design of the lipbalm tube – it’s very minimalist, yet made of sturdy plastic that closes firmly with grooves in the cap to hold it in place. Better yet, the base actually twists out all the way to the end (I tried), so there’s no wastage of the product at all unlike some where you’re left with an irritating bit stuck at the base which you have to dig out.

Now the one thing you have to pay attention to – the scent of this is UH-MAY-ZING!! The variant I got was Pyrenees Lavender and Cardamom, and it smells exactly of spiced lavender…*bliss* Yes, you can all call me nuts, but I would happily sniff my lipbalm for an aromatherapy boost when it smells this good… :P

When it comes down to performance, this has got to be one of the most emollient lipbalms I’ve ever used – quite simply, I’m in love with this! Couple it with the lovely scent, and I’m a very happy camper. As an added bonus, the texture of this lipbalm also means it can double up…as a cuticle moisturiser! Tell me, who doesn’t love double duty products?

Seriously, if there was aromatherapy for your lips, this would be thisclose to being THE One. I haven’t found anything to complain about this product so far, and after daily use for over a month I’ve only used up a couple of millimetres out of a 4-centimetre tube. Awesome, yes? :D

Ingredients:

Helianthus Annuus (sunflower) seed oil*, Cera Alba (beeswax)*, Simmondsia Chinensis (jojoba) oil*, Lecithin (soy)*, Cannabis Sativa (hemp) seed oil*, Butyrospermum Parkii (shea) butter*, Calophyllum Tacamahaca (tamanu) oil*, Aloe Barbadensis (aloe vera) gel*, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Lavandula Angustifolia (lavender) oil*, Lavandula Hybrida Grosso (lavender) oil*, Elettaria Cardamomum (cardamom) oil*, Citrus Sinensis (sweet orange) oil*

*certified organic ingredients

Pricewise, this may seem rather expensive at SG$14.50 but when you consider that it’s retailing at US$12 overseas, we’re getting it very close to the original price. Better yet, since I get loyalty points from Bellabox for subscribing, I can actually redeem my points for another lipbalm (and other stuff too! I’ve got some thoughts about the Bellabox program after receiving 5 boxes from them, but will save that for a separate post).

Pangea Organics lipbalms retail at SG$14.50 for a 7g tube and is available online from the Bellabox website.

Rating: 5 / 5

Value: $$

Getting pretty cuticles on the go with OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil To Go…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Cuticle oil – admittedly, a foreign word to me until a few years back…until I started getting horrible cuticles. That said, even after knowing I was supposed to take care of my cuticles, I was terrible at using cuticle oil simply because I hated the greasy feeling it left on my hands.

And then I discovered OPI’s Avoplex Cuticle Oil, which was given to me by a good friend for my birthday. The cuticle oil also comes in a bigger bottle, but the one I got was the “To Go” version, which is much cuter and easier to use on the go.

Description:

Experience soothing, hydrating Avoplex Cuticle Oil on the go! Replenishes essential moisture and lipids with antioxidant Vitamin E plus Avocado, Sunflower, Sesame and Kukui Nut oils. Leak-proof.

Can I just say how much I love the leak-proof mechanism? (circled in blue) :D As long as I’ve screwed the cap on properly, the tube will never leak in my bag (short of me accidentally jabbing it with a pin or sharp keys rather hard, god forbid!)

The OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil scent reminds me of grapeseed which I love, despite other oils featuring high on the ingredient list. Using it is also a breeze – as the instructions say, just remove cap and apply to cuticles. Don’t you just love simple instructions?

To be honest, the brush does the job applying the cuticle oil well enough, but it’s nothing to shout about considering it can be a little hard to manipulate. What I would usually do is to squeeze the tube (gently!) to saturate the brush and run it along my cuticles, then massage the oil in to my cuticles afterwards. Somehow it seems the best time to do this is when I’m on a plane or in the train, so it’s a good thing this little baby is discreet and small enough to slip into my handbag when I travel.

Does it work? It’s a resounding yes from me – an application of this leaves me with soft, healthy-looking cuticles and it absorbs quickly without any oiliness. I’ve even continued using my phone with this on and didn’t end up with a greasy screen, so this gets two (soft-cuticled) thumbs up in my book! :D

Below is the list of ingredients for those who are interested:

At RM48 per tube in KL, this may come across as rather pricey but if you can find them on sale they’re very worth it. I picked mine up at the Smoochiezz sale in Singapore for just SG$9 each (approx. RM22) so I’m sure there are similar deals to be gotten in KL.

OPI Avoplex Cuticle Oil To Go retails at RM48 per tube and is available from most nail salons and anywhere you can get OPI polishes.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Value: $$$ (if you can get it on sale)

Care for a spot of tea with the Enavose Black Tea Quench Mask? I would...

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:30:00 +0000

A while back, I was contacted by the people at Enavose, a new premium beauty brand to make its way into Singapore. The brand hails from Switzerland, and claims to be free of any SLES, mineral oil or allergenic fragrances, as well as frowns on animal testing.

So when they offered to send me their star products for review, I figured there was no harm to it right? I was expecting a simple parcel delivery, so imagine my surprise when this package landed on my table.

Remember I mentioned I’m a sucker for pretty packaging? :P I caught myself humming "My favourite things" as I opened it...

In terms of packaging and personal touches, the lovely folks at Enavose get full marks – the box was a delight to open, which included their Black Tea Quench Mask. :D

They even sent some sachets of black tea infused with Mediterranean eucalyptus and bergamot oil to drink while trying out the mask – talk about being pampered…

But all those touches aside, the main question would be – is the product decent, and does it work? Well, let’s have a look…

Description:

The ultimate hydration haven for thirsty and dehydrated skins, our quenching mask uses Sweet Black Tea to release a profusion of moisture and vitality that deeply replenishes skin’s moisture. It harnesses the power of skin to retain higher levels of water, leaving it velvety soft, incredibly supple and invigorated. Feel the surge of immense moisture and be better equipped to defend against damaging environmental forces.

The Black Tea Quench Mask is packed in a sleek plastic jar, and uses an airless mechanism to dispense the product, which keeps it from getting contaminated and can be easily dispensed. I liked this touch as it’s hygienic and cuts down on the mess compared to scooping it out with a spatula or dipping my fingers into a jar.

The pump mechanism of the mask is easy enough to use, and doesn’t squeeze out too much at one go – about 4-5 pumps of the product was enough for my whole face. To use, I just apply it generously to my face (you can include the throat area as well, although I didn’t), and rinse off with warm water after 15 minutes.

Texture-wise, the Black Tea Quench Mask is a bit gel-like, and cooling on my skin with a faint but pleasant scent. I kept it on for closer to 20 minutes, and by that time, part of the mask had disappeared (I’m assuming the liquid evaporated or was absorbed by my skin). Now comes the tricky part - removing it was a bit of a problem. The minute you add water, the mask becomes very slippery and difficult to rinse off cleanly since your fingers just slide over your skin without actually getting the mask off.

Scared you for a bit eh? ;) Personally though, I found that using tissue to remove most of the mask before rinsing with warm water makes it a LOT easier to take it off (the same concept can probably be applied to most cream or gel masks too)

Does it work? Well, my skin did feel a lot more ‘boing boing’ afterwards, not to mention incredibly smooth and cool to the touch. Followed with my usual night routine, the ‘boing boing’ effect lasted well into the next day, which scores serious points in my book.

Do I like it? It does the job beautifully, so yes. In terms of pricing though, the mask is slightly pricey but worth getting if you take advantage of the promotional price (details at the bottom of the post).

For those interested, some of the active ingredients in the Black Tea Quench Mask include sweet black tea, Swiss glacial water, Arnica Montana flower and Lecithin. The rest of the ingredient list can be found below:

Interestingly, Enavose also has a 30-day money back guarantee on all of its products. If you’re not completely satisfied with what you purchased, you just have to bring it back to the Suntec outlet (above) to get your money back or an exchange (determined after consultation), provided not more than one third of the product has been used.

Enavose Black Tea Quench Mask retails at SG$59.50 for a 50ml jar and is available in Singapore online at www.enavose.com (free shipping islandwide) or outlets at Suntec City Mall (Tower 3, #02-079/081) and the Beauty Hall at Tangs in Vivocity.

Facebook Promotion:

From now until 4 March 2012, you can buy the Enavose Black Tea Quench Mask at SG$35 instead of its usual price of SG$59.90, as well as enter a Facebook contest to win products worth up to SG$140 by clicking the respective buttons below.

Random Weekend Browsings…

noreply@blogger.com (beetrice) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:07:00 +0000

While meandering around town in Singapore over the weekend, I thought I’d just share some random items and promotions I came across. It was a fruitful weekend, although I didn’t actually spend that much… :P

As most of you would have heard, Vichy is pulling out of Malaysia but in Singapore, the brand is still going strong (so far). Their Thermal Spa Water sprays are pretty decent, and now at a sale price of just SG$14.90 for 2 x 150g bottles, going for a bargain at Guardian outlets.

Dove is now joining the ranks of the self-foaming pump cleansers with at least three variants – I’m really liking the citrusy scent of the ‘Go Fresh’ one (in orange), but since I just started on a bottle of a different variant in the Dove range, I think I’ll have to wait a while…

L’Occitane’s Limited Edition Cherry Princess is out – smelling of cherry blossoms! As Daphn3t said on Twitter, this is SO up Tine’s alley… :P Haven’t had the chance to check out the whole range yet, but the couple of products I sniffed were quite nice!

As if it wasn’t enough to have Hello Kitty masks, now we have a whole range of My Melody masks available. They’re now packed in a promotional box of 15 pieces if I’m not mistaken, but if you want to try them before buying there are individual masks available at SG$2 each. Personally, I thought the Chamomile Mint one was rather interesting. :D

Did you know The Balm did nail polishes? I think I’ve been living under a rock, because I didn’t! I only saw them in Sasa over the weekend, and it turns out they’re having a Valentine’s special for the Hot Ticket 5-pc set which is going for half price at just SG$29.90.

And last but not least is this odd Whitening and Oil Control Black Foam cleanser from Garnier, which is now being sold at an introductory price of SG$7.90. BLACK foam?? Okay, I’ll admit I’m somewhat intrigued by this…

I also found a nice storage solution for my nail polishes (can you tell I’m obsessed with organising my nail polishes?) from none other than Daiso – best place for picking up cheap and cheery storage solutions, but I’ll save that for a separate post.

And that’s it for now – did you spot anything interesting while you were out over the weekend? :D