SOAPZ

PhotoYou

2012-01-31T01:11:00.000+08:00

These behind-the-scenes photos of a shoot date way back... almost a year in fact. I had forgotten all about them because as usual I never got to see the end product of the shoot :(

Anyway this was a simple shoot for PhotoYou, a photography magazine managed by Reader's Digest. If I'm not wrong this is meant to appear in Autumn 2011? If any of you happen to be/have a photography enthusiast in your family who might have bought it... LOL.

So yep this was a half-day shoot and it was just supposed to be a simple photo to accompany an article about... flash photography? Or something like that?

Since it was supposed to be natural/stock-photo-ish (like the kind that accompany articles of love/work/health/etc in e.g. Cleo) I could wear my own clothes!

Photographer in the background. This was not long after I had DIY-ed my hair orange hahaha.

Makeup area! Bulbs not lit.

I had to be taught how to hold the camera in the "proper" DSLR way because at that point I had zero prior experience handling them before. Big, bulky, expensive alien-looking things.

Tried out different colour background + top + hair combinations in case! I don't know which was picked/preferred but I personally think the hair down ones were better!

Sending off some sample, unprocessed shots to the client.

This was so long ago that I don't remember very much about it... I just know that it was quite short and that I had worked with the photographer before for a L'Oreal editorial (if you're an older blog reader you might remember it's the one where I had a stye on the day of the shoot haha).

Hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was so hectic which was why I didn't blog earlier :(

I have a 6-hour school day tomorrow and still so much to do first now :(

Stomp's V.Day

2012-01-27T17:18:00.002+08:00

I know I haven't blogged in quite a few days! I should blog now but I'm busy reading the Stomp Singapore Love Stories! Hahaha some are so funny...

"thanks for standing by me when your parents objected to us because of me being a vegetarian" - What? Why are these parents so anal? Race, age, social background... I get it. But diet?!

"I love you uncle low" - *shudders* Calling your boyfriend your "uncle" is kinda creepy no?

"He treats me differently, sometimes like a princess, a Barbie doll or even a kitten. He likes to dress me up and calls me his 'prisoner of love', which I feel is is weird." - Sounds like her boyfriend has a weird fetish!

It also seems like quite a majority of these couples met via Facebook, Tagged, Skout.. etc. I use Facebook obviously, but only knew about the existence of Skout because it's an annoying pop-up ad that appears after each move on Words With Friends. I didn't know people really bothered with these websites O.O

And from another story based on how she told it...

I gather she got together with her current-boyfriend by cheating on her then-boyfriend?!

Day 1: She is with her bf, when her bf introduces her to X for the first time. X is her bf's friend.
Day 1 night: Add each other on Facebook, chat blah blah
Day 2: She asks X out for lunch (YOU GOT BF LEH! SLUT!)
Day 2 continues: They meet, get along well & become girlfriend-boyfriend. (DAFUQ?! BITCH YOUR BF LEH?!)

Hahaha omg I seriously have nothing better to do. Of course it's not that you can't meet a male friend at all, but bitchplease.jpg -> you just met him, he's your boyfriend's friend, you were FB-chat-flirting him the whole night -> YOU KNOW WHERE THIS GOING

Don't mind me. I shout "SLUT" at the TV/cinema screen all the time hahahaha. Especially when I wanted the male lead to fall for another girl! *angry* Ok ok obviously in the cinema I don't shout it.

"When we went back inside the club, he approached me and said, 'you dance really well for a Chinese'" - WAHAHA what is this?! Chinese people can't dance meh? So bad!

CNY 2012

2012-01-23T23:07:00.000+08:00

Hope everyone is having a good CNY!

It's one of the few holidays where you don't get to sleep in at all T_T

I'm wondering what CNY will be like in a couple of decades. I think when I'm a parent it'll still be relatively traditional & early because our parents (turned grandparents) would still be around, but by the time I'm a grandmother I think everyone will only roll out of bed & go to each other's houses at night lol. And maybe we'll order KFC (as their advertisements repeatedly try to make us believe...)

This is a Tokidoki unicorn that Alaric bought for me because I saw the picture & thought it was cute!

CNY for me this year was at Siglap at my cousin's place, where my grandma is right now.

Thought it matched better with this black bottom at first, but you know what they say about black for CNY... So I unearthed this floral skort which I never wore (recent purchase) because it's too small for me T_T

Bunned up my hair & put in a bow. Haha CNY is one of the occasions where I feel like... I can dress weirdly. I think that actually applies to most festivities, because you're somehow pardoned for any fashion faux-pas. Like no one thinks I'm weird for wearing a reindeer hairband at Christmas.

That's the horse from Toy Story right?!

Lots of doggie pictures...

I only just realised that I didn't take pictures of anything else other than the house & the dogs hahaha.

Count a total of 4 dogs! They belong to my 2 cousins (so they have 2 each).

Can you tell which is the hyperactive dog?

You can't even see her because she's always an excited blur, but it's actually a 5-year old beagle that my cousin recently rescued from a puppy mill :') I guess that's one reason why she's SO excitable now, because as a breeding dog she never experienced any warmth or love.

Opposite. Chillax max.

I think even if she wants to get excited she can't even move around much on her stubby legs hahaha.

Wah I have no clue how this happened haha. GHOST DOG!

This is a mongrel! I mean clearly he isn't a purebreed, but this is still a really rare mix-mongrel! Never seen anything like this before. This dog was found abandoned at Pasir Ris.

It was probably mistreated previously because it had serious issues warming up to people; it would growl if you tried to pet it. But now it's all good already & he's become quite manja.

HAHAHA SO CUTE!

Small electric Mercedes car for my little nephew!

Harrows!

I'm actually not one of those crazy-for-soft-toys types (I'm faithful because I only hug one to sleep every night!) but this big, white Care Bear was selling for only $10! :O

I swear, I was really tempted to buy it for friends too hahaha, but I wasn't sure who would want a big Care Bear lol. But anyway it's super soft & fluffy so I'm happy!

So sleepy

z_z

I was up at 10am today & only got home from visiting at 8pm.

I really don't recall how I did it back in secondary school & JC with the 6am - 8pm days...

Flaunt.CC

2012-01-22T13:19:00.000+08:00

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JB Supper

2012-01-20T23:15:00.000+08:00

Wah. My blogpost about my hamster gets more comments than blogposts about myself usually do hahaha #fml. But thank you to all you nice people who commented! :) ♥ ♥ ♥

Photobooth picture with the New Year's greeting Nuffnang sent us! Quite a nice touch :)

Ok so anyway the other day my friends & I went over the causeway to Johor Bahru for supper! I actually haven't been to JB in years. I never knew that JB was so built-up!

All my recent trips to Malaysia have been via the Tuas Checkpoint instead of Woodlands. If you go via Tuas you just see lots & lots of greenery because it's a different route up to KL/Genting/wherever.

So... I always thought JB was mostly plantations & a few malls lol.

Anyway, my friends & I went in 1 car (7-seater) through Woodlands to a supper place really nearby! Please don't ask me how to get there because it was my first time.

Coming out from the Woodlands Checkpoint, we stopped at a roadside moneychanger on the left & with just a bit more driving we were at the supper place!

Massive sugarcane drink & my coconut!

I like coconut juice quite a bit & the ones they had was cheap & really good!

I actually ordered... 4 coconuts O.O

Omg I loved the crab! I think this was butter or salted egg crab? (I can't remember which is which)

We also got black pepper crab which was good, but the one above was super yummy!

Cereal crayfish! Also yummy.

On the way there we had each changed S$50 because we thought we might go for a massage afterwards. Dinner was approx S$20 each! In the end the massage place (which is nearby) was closed by the time we got there.

This is where we ate! I think it closes at 2am if I'm not wrong. Or maybe earlier.

Basically it's not 24-hours, so we left Singapore at 9pm.

Another big eating place beside it.

Hahaha you know how they always say that driving up to Malaysia isn't safe (no offense to any Malaysians)? That's why I chose to wear sneakers that day, which I very rarely do.

In case... I needed to run hahaha.

Anyway it was totally safe because like I said, it was basically just driving from Singapore to another big city. The rumours of danger are usually for the long drives through empty expressways, where instances of car-jacking have been known to occur.

Would totally wanna go back to JB for more crab ASAP!

Hamlet

2012-01-19T06:53:00.001+08:00

Some of you might have read on my Formspring on Monday that my hamster-y little ball of fur had passed away...

I know people are probably thinking like, Ok it's just hamster you know. And yep, I agree. Furthermore I've had hamsters since I was like... 12? 13? And dwarf hamsters only live about 2 years. I've basically gotten used to them dying.

The first hamster I had of my own (the ones at 5 years old don't count) was a feisty one named Hammy (no... it's not a derivative of "hamster"; it's actually inspired by Hammie from Baby Blues).

She wasn't feisty in the nasty-biting-hamster way, she just had a real flair for adventure (yes I'm talking about a hamster). She was always very excited about exploring life beyond her cage, always very quick to jump off so as to venture off further ~no fear no rules ~

For Hammy my mom & I could tell when she was dying. She passed away in our hands & I held her cold, lifeless body in my hands & cried for 2 hours before burying her.

Since then I've had a succession of hamsters. Some just had ok-ish characters. Some were great - I had one that I would take out & put on my table while studying; she'd run & sniff around. When she got tired she'd curl up somewhere & nap. An hour later she'd emerge all refreshed & start sniffing about again.

So like I was saying - I got used to them dying.
I have chucked my dead hamster rather unceremoniously down the rubbish chute.

I came home on Sunday night & took Hamlet out of her cage as usual. I held her & walked over to my main door to lock it, stopping to let her sniff around at the potted plant - I always find it a little strange that hamsters are one of the few animals that basically get no exposure at all to nature.

Watch out for ants if you ever put your hamster on the grass!

Brought Hamlet out to McDonald's once; offered her a bit of a fry but she wasn't interested.

Guess she knows what's not good for her.

I then brought her to my room & let her run around on my bed; brought her back to her cage when she started getting over-excited. I refilled her food bowl, giving her 2 peanuts instead of 1 (they're rare in her food packet) because I figured I'd open a new packet soon.

Then I thought nothing more about it for the night.

The next day, like every day, I woke up & walked to the bathroom. That makes me pass her cage, so I stopped & decided to refill her water. Only 1 peanut had been eaten.

She was curled up in her favourite sleeping spot, but she didn't stir awake & come over to greet me. She stayed still & although I already knew, I lightly tapped her thinking maybe she was just taking longer to wake up like the little lazy piggy hamster she is.

Her body was only very slightly colder than usual, so she couldn't have been dead more than an hour.

I was sad, but hey, I was used to this no? So I set about dismantling her cage, the same way I always do when I'm going to clean it. I usually start taking out her house, food bowl... etc while she's still in the cage, so she runs around wondering where all her things are disappearing to. But this time there was no curious poking by her furry little nose.

Finally I'm left with nothing but her body, the bedding pellets & her broken wheel. I'm thinking I should just dump all of it into a plastic bag & throw it away. I look at her little body & that's when the sadness really hit me. She just looked like she was sleeping.

I really surprised myself when I started crying & I'm still surprised by how sad I feel about it. I mean it's been years since I cried over a hamster. Hamsters are great, furry little companions who can be very responsive, but the level of interaction just isn't the same as with a dog or cat. And yet in her own little way, she was always there, perched on her little balcony waiting to say hi, observing what was happening, looking for a little popcorn treat...

And I'm really sad that she won't be there anymore.

Me: "I know you think I'm stupid for crying about a hamster".
Alaric: "Noooooo. Nooo. Noo."

3

2012-01-16T23:10:00.000+08:00

This crochet top is from Alvila Boutique & is of a great quality!

Quote “ALSOP01” for 10% off (min $30 spending, excludes postage), valid till 24th Feb.

This is a self-manufactured lace off-shoulder dress by Flair Closet!

I really like the bit of lace that sticks out at the bottom!

This dress also comes in 2 sizes (S & M) so that gives you more flexibility in choice :)

And finally is this sweet dress from Luvest, which has just launched its latest collection!

This also available in black & teal :)

Told Alaric I might wear this dress for Valentine's Day.

Alaric: "Who says we're doing anything for Valentine's?"

Me: "Never mind I'll wear it even if we're just going to Spize!" (24-hr supper place lol)

Not Quite Back To School

2012-01-16T04:14:00.000+08:00

Dug up some older pictures from my iPhoto that I hadn't yet posted! School still isn't really back into swing yet... and it's gonna be the CNY holidays soon!

So anyway the pictures below are from when I went for a Doc Martens event at Zouk with some friends.

This was the most surprising part of the event that made me happy!

Not the boys... the fish & chip cones!

Dr Martens designed by various locals:

Designers of OwnMuse.

MTV VJ Holly.

Ok I can't see the picture that clearly here but I'm pretty sure it's some of the Zouk staff!

In the middle is Sofie (lol) & on the right is Sam.

My fish & chips! They were pretty good too :D

And another pair of shoes designed by the Pop Tart DJ!

2 of my friends from NUS, Zoe & Hazel. On my right are actually my SAJC guy friends, but one of them was always spoiling each shot so I deleted all hahaha.

Random pictures below!

Hamlet, pressing herself between the wheel & the cage walls.

She has a wheel but she NEVER runs in it.

I actually broke it the other day by accidentally dropping it, but with the crack I can now see that the wheel has not moved. At all.

Hehe scaling up the bars towards me! Sho cutez.

Mega fat stray cat. Or preggers? Not sure.

Pictures from when I was studying!

Doing the readings off my laptop because each one is crazily thick so you really shouldn't print them out... Massive waste of paper + you most likely won't even cover them all!

I just take summarised notes off each reading.

This was for Sociology of Food.

We took it only because our friends that had done it previously got A/B+ & it's a Year 2 module (I'm a Year 3 student) so it was supposed to be pretty easy.

Sadly for my semester they decided to be mad strict or something -_- Like the exam question was really broad & vague. I got a B- overall (FML) whereas 2 of my friends got Cs! Cs in FASS is really seriously pretty rare & mega FML.

I'd say my handwriting isn't pretty, but it's legible no? Even in exams & even when I'm rushing crazily for time in the last 5-10minutes, my handwriting always stays pretty much the same!

Two leftover pictures from when I was doing my Essential advertorial!

I'm still a noob at my DSLR so I just randomly toggle with the settings & I thought these looked cool (at least my hair looks cool #flickshair) so I kept them.

BBM

Alaric: Goodnight love you

Me: Love you too

Alaric: Love you three

Me: (Love you) to the power of infinity #pwned

Hahaha #uncool...

But actually he had already gone to sleep so he didn't even see my mathematically clever reply :( okayguy.jpg

First step on my path to academia:

DECORATE MY PLANNER!

MAKE A BOOKMARK FOR MY PLANNER!

PUT MY TIMETABLE IN MY PLANNER!

ENTHUSIASTICALLY WRITE THINGS IN IT FOR THE TWO WEEKS!

It stays empty for the rest of the semester.

Blog Views

2012-01-13T19:32:00.000+08:00

Today I'm going to talk about something many bloggers & blogshop owners will be familiar with - blog statistics.

Naturally I'm aware of how many views my blog garners. I don't stalk it like a crazy woman because I don't like having to freak out & stress over why one day is lower than another lol. I just take a screenshot once in a while so as to send to blogshop owners when they enquire with me about advertorials.

Anyway of course between bloggers, we do have a rough idea of who gets what & how many #kaypoh.

At the same time, we also get to hear of who charges what/how much.
And you know... some charge a far cry from the reality of their statistics.

Whenever a blogshop enquires with me about my rates, I automatically attach a screenshot of my blog statistics with my reply, as does Qiuting. Some bloggers don't, while some, cut off half the image.

Here it is:

(As you can see, on NYE everyone was out partying & not reading my blog haha)
(Still not sure of the purpose of the "skyscraper" since I don't think anyone has 2 stars)

Can you guess which half some bloggers like to cut out?
The Uniques, of course.
Can you guess which figure some bloggers quote for their blog stats?
The Views, of course.

So according to the image above, I have 4000-5000 uniques & 7000-8000 views. Depending on the one I mention to people, the outcome can be very different no? In fact, since I have one day with views of 8843 views, I can even approximate it & say I have 9000 views (which is what some bloggers do).

9000 views.

That is almost double the number of uniques. Hell, that sounds WAY more impressive.
I wish I had 9000 readers.

Because I don't.

Most people use views/hits/uniques very interchangeable when they mean drastically different things.

Uniques: Total number of visitors
Views: Total number of pageloads/pageviews
Hits: Total number of loads of each & every single image/button/widget/etc

The Nuffnang screenshot above doesn't reflect Hits because obviously the numbers can be massive, and I'm sure no one quotes those either because they reflect virtually nothing.

So let's say my blog has 5 photos on it currently. Person A visits my blog today. That's 1 unique visitor. He then views an older blog post of mine & visits my blog again 15 hours later. That's 3 views. Hits-wise? 3 views x 5 images = 15 hits.

Got it? Ok good :D

I recommend blogshop owners to be a little more discerning so that they don't end up paying over-inflated charges & then are left wondering why the advertorial didn't work!
(But if your stuff is just ugly then bohpian LOL)

Bet some people will say I sound bitter/sour/self-righteous *shrug* Well, I am!
I always compare their rates to that of Qiuting's because she has one of the highest blog stats around (7000-8000 uniques) & there are bloggers with uniques half of mine, quoting prices more than Qiuting's!

There are many blogshop owners falling for it because they hide their uniques or over-inflate (e.g. by quoting their all-time, one-off peaks) & this can make a serious dent in a less established blogshop's funds as well as dishearten them when they see no results.

I've even heard of some (none that I know personally) bloggers who PHOTOSHOP the screenshot! In those cases... you're just really unlucky. Well then you just have to go by a lucky guess. If she "has" 7k readers, how can she only have 2k Twitter followers? Twitter followers are not 100% accurate, but they give a rough gauge.

P.S. You can also buy Twitter followers by the way. It's 10USD-15USD per 1000 followers. It's fairly easy to spot really, since the number jumps drastically (I can't believe these websites sell by the 1000 instead of by the 100 or 10) & you will notice that the number of replies the person gets from followers is very, very low.
E.g. 20k followers, 1 or 2 replies in 3 days (true story)

Seventeen Magazine Shoot

2012-01-11T06:56:00.000+08:00

Ok finally getting round to uploading this although it came out in the September issue of Seventeen! (Because I have nothing else to blog about) (Lies, I still have Blackberry Snaps #3)

So anyway I was actually in the August then September issues for Seventeen!

The August one was about how to wear flare jeans lol (read HERE).

This one was... about how to look like a Disney princess! Actually I didn't really get the point of it because it's not something you aim for day-to-day wear nor was it Halloween haha.

I was supposed to be Rapunzel! ^^ LOL not sure why.

Oh yeah and... if you have been following my blog you should have noticed that I always take photos with my left profile! The photo in Seventeen is... with my right profile *sobs*.

Ok I saved this second picture first then realised it's not much bigger/up-close than the full page one!

Warning... Whole series of camwhore photos of myself to follow! Came home, pinned up my fringe (hairspray/gel is so annoying) & took pictures. This was way back with my digital camera hehe.

*act yi ge*

Then it gets worse... I take out my cat ears. *hides face*

This is the makeup!

It's actually quite simple at the eyes, but the foundation is pretty thick & I think they made me darker. Guess I'm too pale normally lol.

Anyway for the eyes there's the blended eyeshadow, eyeliner only on the top eyelid & half a falsie on each side. Makeup artist felt it would look more natural!

The makeup artist is Larry Yeo & actually he was the one who did my makeup for both my New Face photoshoot + on the night of the finals itself!

LOL that means I partly owe my win to him.

Shitty makeup can make a big difference!

Fine. Here's one from my right profile. Pft.

My jawline/cheeks look mega weird from the right. The right side is chubbier in all the wrong places!

Blackberry Snaps #2

2012-01-07T23:43:00.001+08:00

Super uninspired to blog... But don't leave me! :'(

I haven't been doing much. I even half-wish school would start already so that I'm doing something each day. But omgwtfbbq school starts next week O.O

I was pretty sick the whole of today that's why I'm only blogging now!

But the good news is that BOTH the puppies we're fostering got adopted today!

Sadly they were adopted to separate homes, which saddens us a little because we see how attached they are to each other - they walk around together, play together & curl up to sleep together. But I guess all puppies get separated from their families... I'll definitely have at least 1 dog & 1 cat in the future!

Animals love company. Even if dogs love humans, a furry friend is good too. That's why some rehoming groups actually insist that the adoption home must already have one dog/cat before adopting another. But well, it's still great news :) Hope they adapt well & we can visit soon!

Blogshop shoot for Esnique the other day! Actually she split the photos into 2 collections, that's why in the 2nd one I look worse hahaha. Gets tiring towards the end.

Hahahaha Anne Hathaway's outfit seriously made me LOL...

Hamlet looking a bit car-sick after a ride to my grandma's! I never thought hamsters could look ill haha.

Tried nail polish marbling! Surprisingly it's actually pretty easy & works. Terribly messy though.

Haha fake Hello Kitty cover. Her face looks like it got a bad plastic surgery procedure.

Hamlet is the main focus of this picture, but I realise from this you can see the games I play & some books I have. Plus it makes me look like I do Arts & Craft.

Hahaha scaling the mountain...

At a shoot!

I love how Caucasians have so much natural texture to their hair! The colours are also so varied... I don't think you can create this with dyes & perming right? :(

SHO CUTE!

But eh. Please don't get more than one hamster, they're actually very territorial. I made that mistake once & they ending up fighting so we had to buy a second cage.

Door gift from my friend's 21st birthday!

O.O some person in my carpark put a gazillion coupons hahahaha.

I actually wrote a long blog post once ranting about how it angers me that HDB dwellers don't have a right to parking; that even such space has to be commodified & sold... but never posted it.

A bit lame anyway!

MASSIVE HOLE BIT BY MY HAMSTER WTF.

Hehe back when I was playing Cityville! Took a picture just because it had my hamster's name hahaha #loser.

I actually love Cityville, Farmville & Sims Social... :(

But I stopped playing the former two because other people weren't playing it anymore...

Oh & also because my Facebook account was hacked so I lost my 2-year-old farm :'(

I even wrote in to Zynga pleading for my farm back hahaha #megaloser.

Random iPhone photo that my niece took of me at CNY last year! She then added the filters & all that & tweeted it to me! Haha cute. It still creeps me out that young kids have Facebook & Twitter though.

"I will state here without proof that the years between 22 and 35, being a time of good health, taut skin, generally idealistic worldview, firm buttocks, trim physique, ability to legally acquire intoxicating substances, having the income to acquire such substances, high liver capacity for processing said substances, and optimal sexual function, are the Best Years of Your Life."

- The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Not Go To Medical School... And The Single Reason You Should

Cute reasoning. I think the best years of your life at from 18 to 25 though. After that it's kinda like... you can't do fun things anymore because then it's considered childish & irresponsible. I think people grow up too fast... People start too early on being focused on fancy food, fancy clothes, fancy drinks, fancy holidays & all the fancy-shmancy shit to prove that they're now an "adult". You have your whole life for that. Probably 30 over years in fact, if you start later.

Haha by my definition... people like Qiuting are exiting the Best Years of Your Life this year LOL.

I'm turning 22 this year & I already feel so old... Turning 21 was still considered "exciting" - a kid hitting the official age of adulthood! I "just" became an adult! But now... omg I am already IN IT.

Does anyone else have growing-up anxieties like me? Lol.

Blackberry Snaps #1

2012-01-05T07:50:00.001+08:00

I actually take quite a lot of photos with my BB but I don't really Tweet them & obviously there's no Instagram or Instragram-culture for BBs...

I think when I finally transferred them over to my computer (BB's running low on memory & lagging like crazy), I had like 100+ photos. Guess I'll just upload them here since they're little snippets of my daily life!

Although... I actually hate it when people do blogposts consisting entirely of boring iPhone snaps edited with filters & whatever! But when I look at my own pics I find them quite interesting leh.. *shameless*

Ok here goes.

Woo! Full Wan Zi set! Too bad I Pong-ed the Liu Wan, but never mind!

A friend took a picture of the poster Errol & I appear in! You can see the full photoshoot pictures & result in this post HERE.

Getting hair done for a shoot! I'm so super sad because I never got to see the pictures :(

I have some behind-the-scenes which I never uploaded so I'll do it sometime soon.

One of the pair of shoes I wore for the shoot & clip-on earrings!

Friend went to the USA for a holiday, so these are the polishes he helped me buy back!

I have barely touched them LOL.

Hehe cute!

Random midnight snack.

GINORMOUS PANTIES FROM ASOS!

I think this was a size S or maybe M? M at the very most I swear.

Never knew their sizes ran so large!

Swatch watch Alaric bought me from the NUS bookshop! Ok I remember tweeting this picture.

Clothes I was selling at the Bugis Essensuals flea.

DROPPED MY MAC BLUSHER & THIS WAS THE RESULT.

FML.

SO MUCH LEFT.

Then some people on Twitter said you can "piece back" cracked/crumbled eyeshadows & blushers, so I Googled it. Apparently you just need to mash it up & add alcohol, then let it settle into the pan. It'll then dry up & be like normal! This is supposedly a great way to combine leftover eyeshadows & what not.

So I attempted it without much faith.

Trying to make the pieces smaller.

I didn't have the right alcohol to add. In fact, I'm not sure what it is. I'm assuming Vodka isn't acceptable. None of which I had anyway, so I added... TONER.

Toner is supposed to contain alcohol. Pretty sure mine did, but I'm assuming it wasn't the right kind.

And I was right. Maximum fail.

Hehe ok I leave you guys with a cute (I hope) picture of me! ^^

Alaric had gone to Malacca with his family for a short trip & when he came back he said he had bought me the biggest Stitch ever (I already have the furry one I'm cuddling above, plus another less cuddly one). I was quite doubtful since the bag he was carrying was quite small...

He asked me to close my eyes while he took the Stitch out. When I opened them...

"TA-DAAH!"

He was standing & wearing the Stitch eyemask -_-

Haha ok byez.

Stephie's Shop

2012-01-04T01:56:00.000+08:00

Established in 2009, Stephie's Shop has expanded rapidly since moving to an e-commerce website in June 2011 :)

They have actually been featured on The Straits Times, Channel 8 City Beat, mypaper, Shin Min Daily News & i-Weekly!

They also have over 10,000 Facebook "likes" & 5,000 Twitter followers O.O

Stephie's Shop caters to young working adults, providing chic & affordable apparel to working professionals. However they also provide a wide range of casual pieces for the weekend, as well as for weddings & parties!

The best part is: They upload 10+ designs every single day!

They have recently moved into a physical showroom & office, which is 2 minutes' walk from Tai Seng MRT.

Here they run a Weekend Market every Friday & Saturday, where Accessories & Sale Apparel are all at S$15 while Current & Preview designs are at S$25!

Click HERE for the map on their showroom location!

This weekend, they will be holding their regular Stephie's Shop Bazaar at Orchard Central Basement 2, to provide customers with a convenient shopping experience in the heart of town, just in time for Chinese New Year!

Expect 30 racks filled with current designs at S$25, tonnes of accessories at S$15 and sale apparel at only S$15 ;)

Check out their website now to see some of the designs you can expect & remember to visit regularly since they update daily!

Stephie's Shop

December

2012-01-02T00:12:00.000+08:00

Visited our previously fostered dog, Poppy, at her adopter's place recently! She's still as feisty as ever but we really lucked out with an awesome adopter who is super patient & attentive to all of Poppy's needs! Poppy should have started training lessons by now ^^

You can read my previous posts on Poppy here:

Poppy (super cute puppy pics!)

Poppy's Adopted

Poppy's ears waggling all over the place as she gnaws on the bones we brought her, in her comfy bed!

Lunging for the camera, nothing new there haha.

WTFBBQ I cannot believe her adopter managed to get Poppy hooked on eating celery sticks. LOL what kind of dog likes eating celery sticks?!

Gnawing on it as happily a if it were a bone! *astounded* I hate celery, but then again I hate most veggie... so not the best gauge.

Happily sitting in her adopter's lap & gnawing in the bone again! Hehe so cute. Poppy & her adopter have developed a very cute relationship! She says Poppy never bothers her if she's doing her work (it's a home-office, which is really good for Poppy).

She is actually a wedding planner & her office is super nice! If you're looking for (or know someone looking for) a wedding planner, you can check out her wedding services:

As Always

Facebook

Website

Hehe if you ever go to her office you can say hi to Poppy for us!

Super impressed by how dedicated she is to taking care of Poppy so I really think she's very meticulous about everything she does :)

I'll take pics of her office next time we visit! Really nicely decorated!

♥ ♥ ♥

Headed to Ngee Ann City after that for dinner, walked around & saw the new Candylicious store!

Tons & tons of jellybean flavours! I'm not a huge fan of jellybeans though, don't really like the taste or texture of them.

:O Dinosaur sweets!

Butterflies!

Ok after I uploaded the pictures then I realised the giant M&M looks unhappy about posing with me lol.

So many pretty M&M colours! I think a set of purely pastel M&Ms would be really nice! But... they all taste the same as usual. Pft.

The stuff we bought! The Peeps were on sale, so we grabbed them out of curiosity. Frankly all the novelty sweets are just that... novelty. I prefer a good old Mentos any day!

♥ ♥ ♥

More random pictures of Laura & Ashley!

Hehe sho small sho kutez.

CUTE OR WHAT *melts*

And... random outfit picture from the day I went to Cineleisure to watch Sherlock Holmes 2! I definitely think this one was better than the first, although both are pretty good. I hope it becomes a continuous series, like James Bond! Hehe.

Hope everyone had a good NYE :)

Make concrete & realistic resolutions!

Improvement should be all year round & blah but since we're all procrastinators (except those of you killing the bell curve, thanks) use this opportunity to make a headstart!

I am... still procrastinating making those resolutions.

Christmas

2011-12-30T22:50:00.001+08:00

I really like this restaurant at Ngee Ann City! Lots of pasta choices & at a reasonable price :)

You can find it near the new Candylicious shop!

Christmas Eve

Last minute plans with friends to get dinner at Dempsey! More were supposed to come but in the end some cancelled :( Anyway, we had reservations at House @ Dempsey!

Reindeer hairband from Daiso! ($2) Haha yes, I wore it the whole time. Even while eating.

Truffle risotto. Pretty good, but I wish it had less veggie bits (yuck)!

Mushroom pizza! One of the signature pizzas apparently.

English Breakfast pizza! Haha that's because it has bacon & eggs. The tomato-y taste was way too overpowering though. The previous pizza was definitely better!

We also got these mini burgers, which come with truffle fries! Overall the food at House is pretty good, but the drinks suck. I actually ordered English Breakfast Tea because the rest was just...

With Chloe, Shaun & Nathaniel! Friends from SAJC :)

I headed to Alaric's after that while my friends went to get drinks because his mom had a dinner party that night as well! Too bad I missed the food.

Doggy pictures!

Ashley!

Laura!

These are the mongrel puppies that Alaric & I are currently fostering. They're siblings & only about 1 month old; they were discovered in a drain at just 3 weeks old! (Puppies in pet shops are 3 months old)

We're still giving them puppy milk powder formula, but they're slowly moving to solid puppy kibbles already :) No idea what happened to their mom & other siblings!

And their names - Laura & Ashley. Haha just something random I came up with on the spot, because at first I was thinking of Mary-Kate & Ashley (the Oslen twins). Not a very good name so I hope whoever adopts them finds something cuter! :)

I haven't done up a proper post about their adoption yet, but if anyone is already interested please email me at sophiewillocq@gmail.com! Thank you :)

Doggy tshirts from Daiso as well! $2 for a dog tshirt is insanely cheap O.O Pet shops sell them for >$30! Plus Daiso has lots of designs, and even SIZES. They're wearing Size S right now of course.

Haha Ashley (black) has a wrinklier face so I prefer Laura (brown), but everyone else prefers Ashley! The black one is way more manja so that's probably :)

Super hard to get a clear shot of both of them at the same time! There'll always be one that's still & one that's moving.

Doggy candycane toy!

LOL fighting over the toy.

AWW SHO KUTEZ.

See! Ashley is super manja! If you're sitting on the floor she'll just climb unto your lap and fall asleep! ♥

Haha kaypoh doggies.

Christmas Day

Went to Alaric's friend's place for potluck dinner and there was super a lot of food! Woohoo. Our contribution: mahjong table & set. Which we ended up playing lol.

Truffle oil mashed potato (not bad!), turkey, pies, pizza, chicken drumlets, chicken pie... Alaric's friend's family owns Hatched (at Bukit Timah), so we got lots of Hatched food too - egg benedict, mushroom sauce mashed potato etc.

Haha logged into my Facebook on his friend's iPad & we thought the interface looked amusing.

LOL Alaric's friend kept laughing when he saw my Lumix G3 because his DSLR is more "professional"! #sadface

Mahjong!
Yucks sucky tiles. Not my flower, can't play pong-pong, can't play half-colour...
But overall that night I think I only lost maybe $5? That's still passable. I've actually bankrupted (lose the base - we usually play with a base amount of $40) a few times before!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas! I've no plans yet for the New Year's Eve countdown although it's just tomorrow! Might bother making resolutions this year LOL.

Happy 2012 everyone!

P.S. Oh yeah I'm assuming you guys have realised I'm testing out a new alignment! I'm hoping this will look a little neater although I don't really like the words being in the middle.

strobe lights

2011-12-28T20:45:00.000+08:00

My friends & I went to Zouk last Wednesday; it had seriously been a while since I had last gone anywhere for Ladies' Night!

First time bringing out my Lumix G3 to a club as well. Usually I figure it's just way too heavy, but I do like how the pictures turned out! Way better than my 2-year-old digital camera lol.

My friends Chloe & Teresa are back from Australia for the holidays! The drink Teresa & I are holding is called Bellini - it's a mixture of champagne/sparkling wine with peach puree! It basically tastes like... the a Slushie. Very nice & very mild so you can try ordering that if you just want something nice to sip on :)

LOL a girl with green hair. Camera couldn't focus on anything :( Still rather a noob at this thingamajig.

This is in the main Zouk area, which on Wednesdays plays Mambo music & everyone likes to do the hand actions for the songs.
This is one night where the people on the podium are self-declared Mambo hand action experts lol & everyone on the dancefloor follows them.

♫ ♪ "Love in the first degree" ♫ ♪ - with your hands: heart shape, 1, circle (for degree)

Not my thing... way too tiring to have to be watching someone & following their movements & trying to remember them.

With Hazel! Who IS. ALWAYS. THERE. She literally goes at least twice a week & last week she went like 3 days in a row or something.

I'll post up my Christmas pictures next! Nothing too exciting... usually just gatherings at friend's places!

I haven't had time to go to town & check out the post-Christmas sales yet! Alaric & I went to town on the 23rd & it was so crowded! Spent 30 mins queueing to get into the Ion carpark alone.

Ate at Ajisen Ramen because it was one of the few places left open by the time we were done & the meat pieces in their ramen looks drastically different from the pictures in their menu. Sad.

Alaric needs to buy an iPad cover for his mom, so does anyone know where we can get them in town? I stopped him from buying this horrid bright orange one even though we had no more time to go elsewhere to look lol. Something cute but not *too* cute!

Ok ok I need to rush off because I'm going to Johor Bahru for supper! I hope it's crab hehehe.

NAPBAS Kuala Lumpur

2011-12-26T18:04:00.000+08:00

The day after the NAPBAS dinner awards were for us to explore Kualar Kumpur! I figure most Singaporeans have been to KL at least once in their lives & I have too of course, but it had been really long since I last went up to the capital!

So anyway this was our (Qiuting & my) hotel bedroom! Haha yes there is only ONE bed, although it is very big. Gosh I have not had these girl sleepover thingys since I was in Junior College!
Qiuting needs to sleep with one light on... So for both nights I slept on my right side to avoid the light!

The bed is so big & comfortable! I want one in my room :'(

So that night after the awards I crashed on the bed & Qiuting asked me to fake a model pose: "werk it"

LOL ok no.

Qiuting didn't wanna take off her makeup yet because of all the effort!

The rest came over to play Monopoly Deal & we ordered room service for supper so we all slept pretty late! Didn't make it on time for breakfast lol (in fact, we didn't make it for the 2nd day's breakfast either haha).

Next day!

Our hotel room window overlooks the driveway :( I'm sure the other side would have been much nicer because this hotel is a resort!

Took the hotel's cab (flat rate: 70RM but ok, comfortable ride!) to Sungei Wang, which is supposedly sort of like Far East Plaza here!

Grabbed lunch from one of the eateries near the entrance; this restaurant was not too bad! Nice ambience & acceptable food for a reasonable price. I didn't catch the name but if you're there I'm sure it's easy to spot!

My Shirley Temple! It's a mocktail that I order sometimes in Singapore, but frankly the one they served me there sucked because it had mint in it :S
Totally killed the taste + the mint leaves texture sucks + it looked disgusting once everything mixed.

M&M mascots outside Sungei Wang!

Spent ages trying on variations of this pair of heels!

It was like 70% off or something, so it became... 68RM? Around S$30+
I originally wanted the beige colour in a different version but the shop's sizing was so messed up!

I'm normally a Eur 37, which fit me ok in black. In beige, even the Eur 39 was still too small! So finally I had to settle for the one in the picture :( Which I quite like, but I do have a lot of black heels.

Sugar-coated fruit sticks! Surprisingly nice! Usually this novelty stuff that LOOKS yummy (like chocolate-coated strawberry) sucks balls.

Mega huge Sephora shop!

There was some kind of bears-of-the-world installation in front of the Pavillon in KL! Didn't have time to search for Singapore's especially because everyone wanted a picture with them too.

Beary fun! LOLOL #lamepun

Christmas decorations inside Pavillon!

Woah... nicer than all of Orchard Road's malls leh :(

Freaking carousel in the Christmas set-up!

Headed to Times Square afterwards, which is a shopping mall with an indoor theme park! Too bad we only have slightly over an hour before the shops closed :( And anyway Qiuting is a massive wuss for theme park rides!

Krispy Kreme donuts! Snowmans! So cute!

Ok frankly I don't even like donuts. But they're novelty so ok! Buy back to Singapore!

I got four peanut butter ones because I like peanut butter lol (duh). A box of 12 like this is 19.90RM, which is approx S$8! Pretty worth it I think.

Here's my overall KL haul in a couple of hours! Spent all my cash (this always happens to me on trips).

The 3 malls we visited:

1) Sungei Wang
The top floor is full of Jap/Korean stuff which are nice, but not cheap! There are still shops there selling things for 10-30RM though, which is approx S$5-S$12. The middle floors are mostly "everything at 25RM" shops.
They have a Daiso outlet there! 5RM/item, stock is more or less the same but I still bought quite a lot of stuff!

2) Pavillon
Atas mall. Here you can find Marc by Marc Jacobs, Coach, Zara etc. Can't remember if they have the high-end (Chanel, Prada etc) boutiques too. But anyway the massive Sephora is right in front of Pavillon!

3) Times Square
ROLLER COASTER. First 3 or 4 floors are normal brands (e.g. Adidas). SKIP. Above that are lots of small shops that sell reasonably nice things at good prices!

If you're going to KL, definitely try to cover Sungei Wang & Times Square! If you only have time for one... I can't really decide which is better but I think I did buy slightly more at Times Square.

Overall however I wouldn't say KL is particularly a shopping destination! I mean sure, there is shopping, but you know... not on the same playing field as Bangkok lol. Bangkok is like pwroahfchtf *ten shopping bags*

But of course compared to Singapore it's still worth a visit, especially since prices have totally increased at Far East Plaza & Bugis!

NAPBAS Dinner

2011-12-24T07:09:00.002+08:00

I'm splitting up the NAPBAS (Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards) post into 2! :D Today's post will just be of the dinner awards itself.

Anyway the first NAPBAS was held in 2009 in Singapore and is attended by Nuffnang bloggers from all over the region! NAPBAS occurs every 2 years & this year it was held at the Marriot Putrajaya hotel in Kuala Lumpur! This is my first time attending :)

Nuffnang booked 2 coaches to bring the Singaporean bloggers up to Kuala Lumpur, which left on Friday morning. The awards were Friday night itself, with Saturday for touring the city & Sunday for the return journey!

The bloggers from the other countries (Hong Kong, China, Australia, Philippines, Thailand...) get it the best because they get to take flights down! LOL I hope the day comes soon when the NAPBAS will be held in Australia *fist pump*.

Wendy touching up her makeup in our room!

Qiuting & I shared a room & I guess... due to it being the non-couple couple room (Couple 1: Wendy & Mike, Couple 2: Jessica & Sam)... everyone would come to ours!

Cheesie (Malaysian blogger) came to our room too & the 3 of them (Wendy, Cheesie & Qiuting) took lots of pictures in our room.. & I'm in none!

Quoted from Qiuting's blog:
"If you're wondering where Sophie is.. SHE IS IN THE BATHROOM! =.= She freaking chill one!!! Still can nap and laze around when we only have 2-3 hours to dress up. We say she half angmoh so she haolian. LOL."

Haha we reached the hotel room at... 4.30pm? Dinner was at 7pm. No time to nap meh?! Everyone was astounded that I was even planning to wash my hair first since they all went straight into curling/tonging their hair! But... I didn't wash my hair before getting on the coach so no choice...

Downstairs for the award dinner:

Qiuting & I! With her carefully curled hair lol.

LOTS OF PEOPLE! Didn't expect it to be so crowded! Oh & poor Wendy in the background who had to take pictures with a zillion people that night haha.

I wore a sequin outerpiece/dress from Topshop that had been sitting in my closet for ages because it looks a bit too dressy for normal nights! Actually I bought it simply because it was on sale lol.

With Qiuting & Jessica! And Brad's left eye.

Haha I don't know where Wendy is looking... that's Mike with his newly permed hair ;)

Wendy & Mike with one of the founders of Nuffnang, Ming!

Wendy's hair & Mike's suit look nice here so I'm posting it up despite both of them not looking in the right direction & Mike's eyes even being closed lol.

Brad & the nomination board for the Best Food Blog, posing with his blog!

With Esther!

Qiuting & Cheesie. People say they look alike; do they at all?! I see no resemblance leh! Maybe just the... hair colour?

With Brad & Qiuting!

Qiuting & Huiwen! Huiwen is the blog manager for the Singapore branch of Nuffnang!

With Jessica, Qiuting, Wendy & Cheesie!

With Velda & Beatrice on the right!

+ Jessica!

With Chaigyaru from Australia!

Dinner table!

Cheesie, Wendy & Mike! Also at the table with Qiuting & I were Cheesie's blog manager as well as the Singaporean nominees for one of the parenting blogs!

First course - Seafood terrine. I ate Qiuting's share LOL.

The 2 Nuffnang founders! Timothy also just proposed to Audrey (Malaysian blogger) via memes & the video is now going viral!

Hehe Huiwen, the Singaporean manager!

Brad as one of the food blog nominees!

Which...

HE WON!

Best Food Blog - Brad! (ladyironchef)

Best Fashion Blog - Cheesie! (cheeserland)

Most Influential - Wendy! (xiaxue)

Region's Best Blog - Wendy! (xiaxue)

The Region's Best Blog is the biggest award of all & isn't open to nominations! The winner is picked based on the highest total scores out of the nominees for all the different categories.

So in total Singapore took home 3 awards at the NAPBAS thanks to Brad & Wendy! I didn't really keep count but I think one of the big winning countries was the Philippines! So exciting :D

Group shot of all the nominees & winners:

LOL at an Australian blogger who wore this really cute dinosaur dress! Like omg the dress has a TAIL. Hahahaha no clue how she could sit comfortably in that!

And finally... a picture of me with the NAPBAS backdrop ^^

The next NAPBAS will be in 2013 & competition will be even more intense because Nuffnang is expanding to more countries in the region! If I'm not wrong, South Korea is one of them :) Haha Qiuting keeps saying it's gonna be damn difficult with all the super pretty Korean bloggers.

Anyway everyone was so dressed up! Lots of girls wore full floor-sweeping gowns :O I don't even own one of those! Haha I decided on my outfit... around 5 hours before the coach left the Nuffnang office. Ok next time I need to get something with extra extra bling LOL.

P.S. When I think about it... I think the Singaporeans were the most underdressed. Doesn't necessarily mean they didn't look good! Just that very few of us wore gowns :)

Ok hope everyone enjoys their Christmas Eve!

Lafiendra

2011-12-22T19:51:00.001+08:00

Did a blogshop shoot for Esnique last week & they've just launched half of the collection so go take a look! The first dress below is my favourite, but the grey & yellow versions are nice too!

♥ ♥ ♥

Hello! Ok while I upload & sort through the NAPBAS pictures, here's some pictures from my dinner with Alaric last week :)

We don't particularly celebrate our anniversaries but since we hadn't gone for a nice-ish dinner (something that is not Hong Kong Cafe/supper lol) in a while we decided to coincide it with our anniversary! On that day it was our 19th month :)

So anyway he brought me to Trattoria Lafiendra, which is an Italian restaurant at the Singapore Art Museum (my favourite food is pasta!).

A starter we got to share; parma ham with melon! Very nice :)

Small amuse-bouche. The only time I would ever eat tomato bits (but I love Ketchup/tomato sauce).

My main! Haha it's ravioli. I know it looks kind of gross... but it's pretty good! A tad bit too salty for my personal liking though.

Alaric's Carbonara. He says it's the best Carbonara he knows.

The entrance to Lafiendra! Not very noticeable really.

71 Bras Basah Road
Singapore Art Museum
#01-02
Tel: 68844035

One of the SMU buildings opposite!

Had some time to kill before our movie, so we went up to Level 9 at Cineleisure to play darts! It's really quite fun & it's cheap! It only costs $1/person to play a full game (8 rounds of 3 dart-throws/round).

They close at 11pm on weekdays, and after midnight on weekends.

LOL look at my weak throw... Out of the 3 throws you have, probably only one of mine hits the board. One of my darts actually bounced off the board & hit the guy in the next lane HAHAHAHA *hides face*

But the thing is that the board doesn't necessarily work by bulleyes - the outer rings can be worth a lot! So with my one or two hits... I can end up winning lolol.

Vlog!

2011-12-19T22:45:00.002+08:00

This is NOT a tutorial ok! So don't scold me for it being useless in terms of imparting makeup techniques! T_T

Makeup:
1) Concealer - The Body Shop (approx $20)
2) Eyeliner - Sephora, Nano (approx $10)
3) Blusher - MAC, Well-Dress Powder Blush (approx $36)

The blusher I'm using in the video is NOT the MAC one, but the MAC one I've recommended is the one I used to use & am currently using again so... yep!

My lips look pretty shiny because I am wearing lip balm!

Photo stills of my completed daily makeup:

LOL I actually took this by accident because the self-timer wasn't turned on.

Honestly hor... I don't find that there's much of a difference between my daily makeup & more dressed-up makeup (+ eyeshadow, mascara & lipstick). In photos I look the same. Not any more special #sadface.
You can make a comparison once I upload the Nuffnang Blog Award photos!

Shop at BaDangDangs this Christmas! :) Quote "Sophie" for free normal postage.

I know I just uploaded a video of me putting on makeup, but here are some pictures of me without makeup LOL. Ok but wearing bright red lipstick!

Red skater dress from Alvila!

Discount
Code = ALSOP01
10% off purchases with minimum spending of $30 (excluding postage)
- Not valid for discounted items
- Valid 15/12/2011 – 15/01/2012

Photobucket... why you ownself go desaturate my photos? #hate

If you have bad eyebags... cheat with VERY HARSH FLASH *evil laugh* #okayguy.jpg

ACRES

2011-12-16T09:23:00.002+08:00

ACRES (Animal Concerns, Research, Education & Society) is having a flea this Saturday at the Singapore Flyer to raise funds for their animal rescue efforts!

♥ Facebook
♥ Website

In case you're not familiar with ACRES, they focus on promoting animal welfare in Singapore, but more particularly so for wild animals.
This means they're the main animal group trying to stop the RWS from keeping wild-caught dolphins to perform tricks (let me remind you that 2 dolphins died already), as well as a host of other issues such as poaching (yes, in Singapore) & smuggling (poor wild animals stuffed in suitcases & discovered dead or almost dead).
These animals are rescued, treated & rehabilitated - ACRES' rescue services is open 24/7 : every single day.

Aside from their rescue efforts, ACRES also educates people on cruelty-free living, such as using brands that do not test on animals! (Read my post on animal testing HERE)

Local animal groups need our support... they get very little from the authorities & the current society. Please support them in any way you can! Go to the flea, donate, volunteer or simply spreading the word... Thank you!

P.S. And you never know what you can find to buy at a flea! ^^

♥ ♥ ♥

I'm actually in KL right now for the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards! :)
I updated the Jipaban post below with some other random pictures of us so scroll down to see if you haven't!

So yep more photos of me with only concealer & lipstick (so I don't look totally dead):

Topshop-inspired denim jacket from Aurélie's Symphony! It's a real, proper denim and it's very comfortable! (I folded up the sleeves)

Useless extra picture #1.

Useless extra picture #2. Haha a-go-go or what? I think this is what our parents used to wear hahaha.

Jipaban

2011-12-14T19:36:00.002+08:00

[Edit]-ed with a few extra shots!

Jipaban 24-hour sale!

Starting from 10pm today to 9.59pm tomorrow 15th Dec, items in the Jipaban Gift Guide will be 10% off!

There is also a bundle sale on shoes, clothes & accessories!
2 items: 5% off
3 items & above: 10% off

Qiuting & I did our Jipaban shoot together! All items that we are wearing will be in the sale! :D

Christmassy or what!

With the Jipaban lollipops! I really like the white shoes I have on :)

Sunshine maxi which also comes in a lot of other colours like, green, blue & white! Qiuting wore the blue.

And the great part is that your purchases can be gift-wrapped if you're buying them as a present for someone! Super convenient! Doing gift-wrapping at home is damn leceh, especially if the item has a really weird shape and all.

Hehe so hurry to Jipaban at 10pm, and be quick about your purchases so that you don't miss the discount! 24 hours only!

Jipaban

Here are some behind-the-scenes! It was quite fun because we basically could accessorize & "style" ourselves. Qiuting is damn er xin because for every outfit she had a new hairstyle! LOL #competitive.

Plus... she makes faces at herself in the mirror... Like you know how you see in movies, the girl will dress up & sort of admire herself in the mirror? - pouting, smiling, posing... etc.
Qiuting? All of the above & more O.O

This is her giving herself a "werk it" cool/sexy face hahahaha.

They asked me to put on false eyelashes. Second time ever doing it! It's not that difficult girls ~ If it doesn't look right just pluck it off & try again!
Anyway... think I look weird haha.

Yep me in yellow & Qiuting in blue! I don't know why we both got all the maxis lol, I think some other bloggers got other apparel options? Hahaha.

*Hi*

My favourite items that day! I liked the shoes, bracelets, hair bows & clutches :)

And last picture taken from Qiuting's blog:

Lol I've noticed that when she edits me in photos she slants my eyes downwards & makes my chin extra sharp!

red

2011-12-13T07:09:00.003+08:00

Went to Bugis Essensuals to get my hair done! It had grown out quite badly because I didn't have time to go during my deadlines & exams :(

I had the colour touched up & got a trim!

Below are the After pictures:

My hair always comes out super soft & silky after a visit to the salon! My hair never looks like this at home lor T_T
The hairdresser will apply some kind of treatment during hair washing & then rinse it out after 10 minutes. They also give awesome head massages!

Told them to get rid of the orange-ness of my previous colour! :D This brown looks more natural.

The salon also sells hair products - they have a whole range of brands & products types (hairspray, gel, treatment... etc) with a promotion on right now!

Promotion:

It was really busy the day I went down so do try to make an appointment first! They'll have more free time for you in the early afternoon from Monday-Thursday, where you also get 10% off if you say you're my blog reader!

Bugis Essensuals

241-A Victoria Street

Bugis Village

(Above Burger King, which is beside Bugis Street)

Tel: 63330039

Facebook & Formspring

♥ ♥ ♥

Since I was in the area, I also went to Milly's to remove my leftover Gelish! It had been like 2++ months O.O the Gelish stayed on the whole way!

This time I decided to give my nails a break & simply got a normal, plain express Mani & Pedi! Sometimes I miss being able to paint my own nails lol. Plus my nails are super short right now so no point getting a nice design till they're longer!

Hehe if they're not too busy 2 manicurists can work on one customer at the same time!

I picked a very muted shade of pearly nude-ish pink? I don't like to draw attention to my nails when they're this short T_T
My hands & fingers are so chubby so the short nails just makes them look like a kid's hand!

The finished colour! They applied Base Coat, 2 coats of the colour & Top Coat :)

Milly's

(outlets at both Far East Plaza & Bugis Street)

Far East Plaza

Milly's II #03-129

Bugis Village

Milly's #3,4 & 5

(Enter Bugis Street & take the first escalator on your right. Turn left at the top)

Tel: 83835395

Ok I'm so sleepy Z_Z
Pictures of the Jipaban shoot with Qiuting will be up on my blog on Wednesday!

Star Cruises

2011-12-11T20:24:00.000+08:00

Went on a cruise last week onboard the Superstar Virgo courtesy of Star Cruises! The last time I went on a cruise was in 2004, and it was on the same boat! (Or same type of boat lah, I'm assuming there's more than one).
Alaric had just gone on the same cruise early this year so he was quite familiar with the massive boat too.

Anyway our cruise stopped at Malacca & Port Klang for people to get off for a day tour but we stayed onboard instead to explore the ship :)

We got on the boat around 9pm & decided to grab dinner at one of the ship's big restaurants! The boat actually only left Singapore around midnight to give everyone time to get on & settle down in their cabins etc.

Complimentary drinks for all passengers! This is the main lobby and it's probably the main thing I remember from my 2004 trip, along with the pool.

Christmas decorations up already! During November-December they actually have a Spongebob theme for the kids! Haha little Spongebob plushies as Christmas tree ornaments.

LOL mandatory picture of the complimentary fruits now that I have a DSLR (not that the picture is exceptional...). I actually like fruits so I ate all the strawberries, grapes, one plum & one banana. Alaric touched none of them.

This is our cabin! It's a balcony cabin so we have a proper view of the sea & fresh air :D

They actually provide a lot of basic amenities - toothbrush, toothpaste, sewing kit, shower cap, moisturizer etc.
And I love hotel bathrooms that come with a hair dryer... I frequently forget mine while lugging one along isn't ideal either.

Musicians that went table to table and did song requests! They're actually really good, it's quite a shame that so many good singers never really get anything out of their talent. I see so many good singers on Youtube too and it's just so wasted!

Catching the night skyline back in our cabin as the boat slowly moves off from Singapore. It was already pretty late so we just watched lots of CSI on TV & went to sleep shortly after!

NEXT DAY:

Decided to skip breakfast & go check out the pool instead!

Jacuzzis at the side of the main pool.

This is their latest addition! A MEGA WATER SLIDE! And the most exciting aspect of it is that at one part of the slide, it actually hangs over the ocean (and the sides are clear lah, so you can see the water below you!).
I was super excited to try this but it wasn't open yet when we went (it has fixed hours) & by the time it was we had already showered & changed :(

This is the Parthenon Pool!

Gym that looks out unto the ocean.

This is a small indoor pool that we went to check out. You can look out the windows but people can't look in!

The pool has this 2-layer depth feature, so it's like stepping into a big fountain before entering the pool itself.

LOL #itsfunnybecausehesfat - The Hangover, movie.

Upper deck with a cafe!

This is the kids' pool! Looks fun hor. When I was 14 (in 2004), my friend & I went to this pool instead hahaha. But now that I am a *cough* mature adult...

Had lunch at the Japanese restaurant - Samurai Restaurant

The ship also has a movie screening room, so we caught part of Captain America again before heading to another restaurant for... teatime with Spongebob! LOLOL.

Part of the tea buffet spread.

Spongebob! Hahahaha. And Patrick too.

Ok random photo of a medical boat. I think the ship crew were doing a mandatory emergency drill. It sounds like they do it on each & every single trip (which is damn frequent); FTLs lol. School drills were once a year & it was already a mega pain in the ass.

Malaysian police boat!

Hahahaha we got a photo with Spongebob & Patrick!

This is Yina, another Nuffnang blogger that was on the same cruise as I was!

That reminds me, when we got on the ship one of the staff brought us around & gave us recommendations on where to eat & so on. At one point she finally paused to ask Alaric & I, "uh which one of you is the blogger ah?" LOL.

Ok random picture of another cruise ship near us. This one is quite a bit smaller of course; the Superstar Virgo has 13 decks! O.O I mean it's like... can you imagine a ship the size of your HDB block? The ship also has 935 cabins.

I think this ship was getting re-fuelled. I always figured the re-fuelling ship would be a lot bigger though.

At night we went to watch the performances on board the ship! We watched 3 in total - the Russian acrobats, a small staff-performed party & a Crazy Horse/Lido-cabaret one!

I've seen the actual Lido performance in Paris (my dad felt that me turning 20 was a turning point that warranted the topless show lol), they're both not raunchy at all but I think some guys thought it would be... saw one or two guys leave halfway lol.

There's no dress code but I changed out of my denim shorts in case!

No photography allowed in the shows of course (and I'm not gonna post pictures of topless women anyway), so just these 2 I took with my Blackberry of the Russian show:

Got a balcony seat!

The show was centered around Rasputin. Anyway the whole time I was just like... dancers go away I wanna see the acrobats!

"Ra-ra-rasputin... Russia's greatest love machine" (this is an actual song, I hear it on Gold 90FM sometimes).

Ending off with a picture of some of the food we ate onboard! My favourite was probably the Bella Vista, my meat (left) was really good! Bella Vista is one of the pre-paid restaurants onboard so that's awesome, as is The Pavillon Room (Chinese).

P.S. I actually got a mild tan from the small amount of time we spent at the pool! Gosh I mean we weren't even suntanning. My skin is damn #fail.

Essential to the Rescue!

2011-12-09T17:57:00.000+08:00

I'm sure all girls would agree that your hair is really crucial in how you look overall! That's why we spend so much money on it no? Perming, straightening, dyeing... all the stuff we do to our hair to make it look good can also end up damaging it!

My hair is probably longer than average, so maintaining it is quite a hassle.
Due to the weight of my hair it also looks very limp and flat :(

My hair has natural waves so I'm grateful for that, but it is...
super mega frizzy & flyaway.
It's a problem I've had with my hair for many years, although I don't actually face problems with tangles.

The last 15cm of your hair is where the damage is the most obvious! As the hair at the end is naturally a lot older, it has gone through the most damaging procedures.

And I don't mean just hairdressing/salon stuff - every day the environment is attacking your hair and plus, many girls usually blow-dry and curl/straighten their hair daily.

The heat from these can really dry out your hair and make it brittle, all while removing moisture.

LOL the last 15cm of my hair is WAY OLDER than 1 year... The last time I had short hair I was 11 years old, and I used to trim my hair only maximum once or twice a year. I also started getting my hair dyed about a year ago and that requires regular re-dyeing to maintain the colour -> more damage to my poor hair...

... so that's why I'll be entrusting my hair to Essential! They focus on effective hair repair, and this is not limited to girls who only dye/colour their hair - everyone's hair is damaged to a certain extent so this is suitable for all users.

Here are their products!
Shampoo x Conditioner x Treatment x Hair Mask x Hair Essence

So first I used the basic Shampoo + Conditioner! You're actually supposed to use conditioner daily, which I didn't bother to do previously.
(+) Their products have an awesome smell! Hehe it smells sweet.

And yes... I'm still blow-drying my hair LOL. I can't wait for it to dry naturally because it takes ages. Plus I especially need to blow-dry my fringe; if I let it dry on its own it decides to take a trip to the other side of my forehead or something.

So to counter the damaging effects of blow-drying I used the hair essence!
It is a daily leave-on serum, specific for anti-frizz! ♥

The difference is very obvious! The side with the serum quickly becomes a lot smoother and "condensed" (haha that's how I think of it). It appears a lot neater and makes the hair more manageable if you want to style it afterwards!

With both sides done!
The products are all suitable for damaged hair as a whole, but seeing as how the last 15cm gets the most damaged, that will be where you'll really be able to see Essential work its magic!

The serum should be applied from mid-length to the hair ends, but lol... I figured my hair's frizz is jialat throughout so I applied it to the top area as well!

Tip: As with all treatment products, avoid applying it to the scalp/roots because you don't want to end up with an oily scalp!

I have a very neat look here, but you can easily adopt a different hairstyle! The serum just makes it easier to handle your hair and plus it repairs your hair's surface so it's good to put it on before going out.

This is their full range of products, they have 2 series:

1) Nuance Airy (pink)
*to get light & bouncy hair!
- suitable for flat, limp and damaged hair

2) Rich Premier (orange)
*to get smooth & manageable hair
- suitable for untameable and damaged hair

Both series contain High Purity Honey (adds moisture) & Shea Butter (soothes dryness, repairs breakages and mends split ends). The main focus is all about nourishing your hair!

The one I use/prefer is Nuance Airy! For me I don't really have issues with tangles, so I would rather focus on getting more volume & bounce into my hair :) It always looks very meh when it's so flat.

Shampoo & Conditioner - They have a deep moisture formula and should be used daily!

Hair Treatment - It is (2x) stronger than the conditioner and contains cuticle repair essence. This should be used once/twice a week to further boost the nourishment and repair of your hair!
Apply it right after rinsing out your shampoo. You don't need to use conditioner on days that you use the hair treatment!

The hair mask is for severely damaged hair!

This should be used once/twice a week as well.

Tip: Apply the hair mask for 3 consecutive days both before and after chemical processes such as perming or dyeing so as to lessen the damage done to your hair!

And lastly is the hair essence/serum I showed earlier on! This has the same moisturizing ingredients, but also helps to repair hair cuticles, protecting your hair while nourishing it as well!

It is highly recommended that you use this daily because it not only protects + repairs your hair, it also helps to flatten the frizz & dryness!

Nice hair doesn't come easily! I need to improve mine too.

Essential is suitable for all types of hair since it both repairs & strengthens :) Even if you have short hair you can use it!

Their products are available in all leading personal care stores & supermarkets! For more information, you can also visit their cute website: Sassy Kawaii

Sayonara! ♥