Gloves in a Bottle (+ sampling!)…

I was recently sent Gloves in a Bottle to review, and after a couple of weeks' use, I have to say the results have been quite satisfying. I also have some samples to give out, so do continue reading. :)

Description:
Gloves In a Bottle is a shielding lotion that rapidly absorbs into, and bonds with, the outer layer of skin creating a protective layer while retaining the natural moisture from within. This invisible glove helps reduce natural oil and moisture loss allowing skin to heal itself, a good remedy for dry skin.

The product does not wash off but comes off naturally with exfoliated skin cells, and each application lasts for up to four hours. Gloves In a Bottle is greaseless, non-sticky, fragrance-free, hypoallergenic, completely safe and non-toxic.

The Verdict:
For a lotion, this is actually quite liquid-like (as you can see from the picture above). Upon application, it was rapidly absorbed into my skin – I like this aspect as I’m not usually the kind of person that can sit there and wait for lotions/ creams to sink in.

Similarly to Tine, who applied this on other dry areas, I tried this on my right ankle in particular (I’ve scar tissue there from a previous accident, and the skin there tends to dry out despite my best efforts, leading to a lot of itching and scratching – it’s a vicious cycle), so this would be the ultimate test. For a whole week, I applied it to the area every morning before leaving for work.

Day One – nothing great. Apart from somewhat reduced itching, there was no real difference.

Day Two – itching was completely gone, and the irritated skin was slowly starting to subside.

Day Four – the flaky skin started rubbing off in the shower, and skin tone is starting to slowly even out (previously it was patchy because of the flaky skin and irritation)

Day Six – apart from the scar itself (which sadly this product can’t do anything about), the irritation is gone, and slowly (but surely!), the skin tone’s finally going back to normal. Skin texture is also getting better.

After the week was up, there’s been some marked improvement in the area, which I’m quite pleasantly surprised with. I’m also applying it to my elbows and arms, which are now nicely hydrated. It may be pertinent to note that although the product is called Gloves In a Bottle, the description implies that it is for dry skin and its conditions overall, and can therefore be used on any area with dry skin (but apply wisely of course!) It also has a very faint, negligible scent, which I also like as it doesn’t clash if I wear perfume.

The only drawback is that it’s not available in Malaysia, and has to be ordered off their website.


Rating: 4.5 / 5

** I have some samples of Gloves in a Bottle to give away on a first come first served basis, so drop me an email with your details to communicationz[at]gmail[dot]com if you want to try it out. Each sample contains up to four applications.

Note: This is only open to readers within Peninsula Malaysia only, owing to the nature of the sample. :) To my international readers, hopefully I’ll be able to work something out for you guys soon k?

I *heart* my new shoes…

Last Saturday I happened by Sunway Pyramid, and was completely blown away by the new wing…can’t even remember the last time I was there (probably late 2006?), but while I was there I passed by a VISS outlet with a 50% sale…

What can I say…I’m weak when it comes to shoes…I ended up getting three pairs of shoes, but to be fair, the prices were REALLY good…

This was about RM25 after 50% discount…and I’m wearing them today to work – me like! :)

Better take a seat before I tell you how much these were…RM11.97 EACH! (This is cheaper than shoes in BANGKOK k?) Since they were so cheap, I picked up two pairs in monochrome colours...if it’s not quite clear, the texture’s actually in horizontal quilted stitching, which extends to the interior as well. Very comfortable…


VISS can be found at LG1.87 at Sunway Pyramid 2 (the new wing).

The Daily Grind…

It’s been a while since I’ve ventured into Bangsar Village…seems like each time I go there, the shops have all changed! This time around, it was the restaurant on the lower ground level (I think it used to be some Vietnamese place before)…which is now The Daily Grind.

This place claims to be a specialist in making its own burgers. At first look, the place retains a lot of old western charm with a lot of red bricks and timber…definitely very cosy, where you can opt to dine inside the restaurant, or outside on the patio.

They even make their own tomato and chilli sauce – although the tomato sauce tastes more like spaghetti sauce to me…very full bodied, and a perfect complement to the dishes on the menu. Their sauces don’t contain any additives or preservatives, so don’t complain if the sauces are served cold to your table…you wouldn’t want them room temperature and have food poisoning, right?

Their Vanilla milkshake with homemade ice cream (RM14) is what my friend deemed “Happy Food”. It’s super rich, and you can really taste the cream in it – NOT recommended if you’re on a diet!!

I had a Monin & Soda, which is flavoured syrups in soda water. The Blood Orange variant (RM12) was certainly intriguing…I’d liken the taste to a mix between grapefruit and tangerine, with a tart undertone. Very refreshing...

Soup of the day, which happened to be corn (RM8.00). No Campbell’s soup stock to be found here, but note that the soup does tend to be rather watery. I prefer my cream soup to have a bit of bite, so this was a little disappointing.

Spiced Potato Wedges with homemade Nacho Sauce (RM11). My friend was raving about this one before we even reached the restaurant, and his tastebuds are usually spot on so you can imagine…usually there are usually one or two pieces left on the plate, but this time the plate was TOTALLY CLEANED OUT (including the sauce!)...this is a MUST HAVE on the menu…*heaven*

Now on to the main course – you’d have to be a bit mad to have something other than burgers seeing as it’s their specialty, and there’s everything from chicken and beef to salmon (no pork though, such a pity) with alternatives for vegans. Their meat is freshly ground on the premises, which is supposed to make the meat very tender and succulent. We tried one burger from the chicken and beef selections, and were quite pleasantly surprised.

Chicken Double Cheese Burger (RM27). Two thick slices of cheddar cheese, one under & one on top of a juicy grilled chicken patty served with ketchup, mustard and pickles. This was alright, although I’d rather have eaten just the chicken patty on its own. The giant onion slices however were a turnoff since I like my raw onions FINELY sliced (too thick and the smell goes up your nose), but if you like giant slices of pickles and raw onions, by all means this is a pretty good burger on the whole.

Down on the Farm Burger (RM32). A barbecue basted & smoky grilled beef patty stacked with crisp onion rings & corn cake. The patty was HUGE…the onion rings were EXCELLENT (similar to TGIF’s), and the entire combination was a gastronomical adventure. If I had to change only one thing, it would be the corn cake…it’s nice enough alone, but after eating the beef patty and onion rings, it’s rather tasteless in comparison. Maybe they should consider serving it as a side dish on its own instead of with the burgers.

Otherwise, I was really impressed by the food – when you order, the server notifies you that their burgers are always cooked to medium doneness unless specified. I was a bit apprehensive at first seeing as it’s really hard to get the doneness done just right and the meat ends up over- or undercooked (usually the latter). Since the server was quite persuasive citing the golden rule – “If it’s undercooked I can always cook it more, I just can’t uncook it if it’s overcooked”, I acquiesced and sat back to see the results.

Now take note – this is a sight to behold…medium doneness, cooked to perfection. The outside is nicely seared to lock in the juices, while the centre is JUST cooked with a hint of pinkness. Suffice to say, the server gets ‘two thumbs up’ for knowing his stuff…and I went home feeling like a stuffed (but extremely happy) turkey.

The house specialties are supposed to be the Foie Gras Burger (RM55) that comes with a diced foie gras-filled beef patty with onion cranberry jam and balsamic palm sugar glaze, and the Stinky Blue Burger (RM40) with blue cheese sauce, toasted walnuts and sweet sour apple compote. I haven’t tried these yet, but Shortcake says they’re good and she hasn't steered me wrong yet. :)

Portions are definitely more than generous for your average person, so if you’re planning to order appetizers and dessert, you might want to think about sharing the entrée. Their music selection (for those of you who deem this an important feature) is also superb for easy listening. I think I’m in love with that place…


The Daily Grind
LG8, Lower Ground Floor,
Bangsar Village, 1 Jalan Telawi,
1, Bangsar Baru, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2287 6708


Rating: 4.5 / 5
Value: $$

Warehouse Sales Saturday…

Saturday was really a day for warehouse sales…I managed to check out both the L’Oreal Warehouse Sale (Luxury Division) as well as the Metrojaya Warehouse Sale I blogged about previously.

First Stop - L’Oreal’s Warehouse Sale as it started at 10.00am (or so it said on the flyer). At first glance, traffic was quite smooth, so I thought it would be a breeze to get in……

……oh how WRONG I was!!

Mind you, this photo was taken at 10.15am! There were already HORDES of people lining up outside to get into the sale – you’d think that their lives depended on it…

Just to give you an idea of how long the queue was, it stretched from Bon Ton (near the Coronade Hotel corner) all the way down to the Lower Lobby entrance of Parkroyal. From there, there’s another 100m or so to clear INSIDE the lower lobby before you actually get into the room.

I finally managed to get INTO the building at 12.20pm – YES, TWO HOURS just to clear the queue to get IN, and another 20 minutes from there to get into the actual sale room.

But I must say that this year’s warehouse sale was just sorely disappointing. Although the organization was a lot better than previous years’ sales, they didn’t have much variety this time around. Also, the scene inside the room was just bedlam – a lot of vultures and hogs (the kind that hoard everything and claim it as their own)...

The two ladies in the picture below were especially rude – the boxes contained items that had been left by other people (ie. to be sorted by the staff and put back on the tables to be sold), which means you can sort through it yourself to see if there’s anything in there you want that’s already been sold out at the tables. The lady just dumped her big plastic bag on top of it (nearly on top of someone else’s fingers) and whined “WO DE!!” (translated: MINE!) and glared at everyone that dared to go near it.

Next thing you know, they’re setting up their own CAMP in the MIDDLE of the ballroom haggling about who gets what…eh, I know you want to work out the best bargains for yourself, but you don’t need to be quite so selfish OR socially inept to hog a huge area AND the products too. There were a lot of others also sorting through their items (myself included), but at least take the side of the room where you’re not blocking traffic, and PUT BACK THE ITEMS as you go along instead of building your own Tower of Pisa in the middle of a crowded room!

After all that drama – nearly 2 and a half hours waiting, and a mere half hour in the room, I walked out with only ONE item…*pengsan*...

Lancome’s Hydra Zen Gel Essence 30ml @ RM100 – which wasn’t even THAT much cheaper than outside.

Metrojaya’s Warehouse sale in Shah Alam was a LOT better, albeit a lot harder to find. But hey, I’m a happy chickie if there are decent bargains. The only inconvenient thing about this sale is that everything has to be paid in its own section – ie. you pay for cosmetics upon exiting that particular section before making your way to another section. However, judging by the traffic flow and payment waiting time (mine took less than 5 mins each to pay) in there, I’d say the system was working quite efficiently as in totality there were at least four cashiers per section, with another 5 or so at the main exit as well.

I managed to pick up quite a few items here:

A rather pretty-looking Polo purse – RM23.97 after discounts…I’d seen this at the Midvalley outlet several times, but couldn’t bring myself to buy it then as it was quite pricey for a ‘unbranded’ item (yes, cheapo me)… :)

Also picked up a rather nice green eyeshadow from this brand Bloop cosmetics (the shadow I bought is not actually available until next month at Metrojaya outlets) – a set of the pie pan plus case is going for RM20. If bought separately, pie pans are RM18 each (RM30 for two) and the singles case is RM5 each.

There were a few other items as well, but the two above are the only ones of interest… :) Everything is on sale from clothes and makeup to fragrances, shoes and crockery…Sunday (today) is the last day, so if you want to check it out you’d better get a move on!


Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Crabtree & Evelyn – Mother’s Day promotion…

Since Mother’s Day is just around the corner, Crabtree & Evelyn has come up with a special promotion that will run from 21 April – 18 May at all of their outlets in Malaysia.

L-R: Rosewater, Lavender, Summer Hill & Nantucket Briar

The four Hatboxes you see above are going at RM165 (NP: RM275), and you’ll also get a Teatime Treat set (I’d estimate this to cost about RM50 based on the contents) consisting of cookies, tea and honey if your purchase exceeds RM250.

Their Midvalley outlet is also celebrating its shop birthday, so with the RM250 purchase, you get an ADDITIONAL Summer Hill Weekender set (worth RM80), but only until 31 May.


As for me, I’ve already done my shopping…I picked up the Lavender Hatbox… :)

It’s definitely very presentable as a gift, and you can always use the box for something else afterwards!

Inside the Lavender Hatbox, you get the following items:

• A pack of Soap Leaves (for travelling)
• Hand Therapy Shea Butter Hand Cream
• Body Lotion
• Bath & Shower Gel
• Body Powder
• Triple Milled Soap

I also bought an additional item (which won’t be mentioned here as it’s a gift for someone!) and picked up the Teatime Treat pack as well…

I love Crabtree & Evelyn’s freebies – they’re always so pampering!

The best part about this Teatime Treat is the cookies…White Chocolate Raspberry cookies. Now if that doesn’t sound indulgent, I don’t know what will!

The portions are quite generous …for a ‘treat size’, there were eight full size cookies in the tin. My colleagues ‘helped’ me out with them, and the response was quite unanimous…

Cookie GOOOODD… :D (can you see the white chocolate chunks??)

PS: If you’re planning to take up the Midvalley birthday promotion, this is to inform you that they’ve run out of the Summer Hill Weekender set, and have had to replace it with sets from either the Aloe Vera or La Source range. Not to worry, as both sets are equally as good.

I’m partial to the La Source set, which came with a Weekender pouch, Hand Therapy Cream, Body Wash and a small towel – not too thrilled about the towel, but you win some, you lose some. I’m happy overall…spent RM267, but came back with products worth RM525….now THAT’s a bargain.


Have a good weekend, y’all!

Beautilicious…really?

While in Midvalley today, I came across a promotional booth set up for the new Malaysian cosmetic brand Beautilicious. The display did catch my eye (which I unfortunately did not manage to get a picture of), but the other thing that caught my eye was this:

The makeup promoters were just hanging around the booth, applying makeup on THEMSELVES. This would probably explain the absolutely disgusting state of all the testers (at 11am in the morning no less!!), and I really feel your pain, Paris! Granted, Beautilicious probably appeals more to the younger crowd. BUT, having teenyboppers manning your booth and using all the products instead of reaching out to potential customers is a big NO for any brand.

I was actually quite interested in stopping to look at the products, but as a customer, would have been totally put off by the disinterested looks. Since I was quite determined to see the product lineup, I stopped, but otherwise I would have just steered clear of the entire area. This is a shame because their set up was quite nice and very chic.

This brings me to my gripe session. I’ve got a peeve issue with bad customer service, and this is seriously one of those.

Firstly, the girls are just standing there toying with the booklets they’re supposed to be giving out. I had to physically STOP and STARE at the display before she deigned to give me one of those booklets. And more of that disinterested expression.

Next, when I asked her about the promotions happening, she only parroted two of the promotions (probably because she was staring at the two signs put up around the booth), which are the same as the ones below:

It wasn’t until I came back to the office and checked the website that I realized she had left two of the better ones out (below)…why? Because they’re trying to save money on giving out freebies? Saving it for themselves? Can’t remember? Who knows?

As for products, I tried out the Beautilicious Pie Pan Refills (RM15.90)…or at least, those that weren’t already covered with makeup dust or the promoters weren’t standing in front of (yes, they were blocking half the display applying the eyeshadow on themselves…eww) and tried them on the back of my hand. After seeing those promoters, the eyeshadows are not going anywhere near my face!

The texture of the shimmery ones weren’t too bad, with a good pigment hue as well. The flat colour shadows were a tad gritty, which is quite surprising as I’d have expected it to be the other way around.

But for the rest of the makeup kits? NO WAY was I going to try those. They were just haphazardly tossed on the counter, spilling out powder. The glosses in the kits looked like someone had taken a toothpick and scuffed the whole thing up. The promoter actually had the gall to suggest that I try the eyeliner, and said that I should apply it on my eye to see the ‘full effect’ (when I’d seen one at least two of the other promoters already use it!) and got huffy when I declined. There was also a guy standing there (I think it might have been their supervisor) with the same ‘duh’ expression. What is wrong with these people??

In the end, I was quite tempted to buy one of the Pie Pan Refills, but JUST because I liked the colour (Seafoam Suds)…but after that experience, I didn’t feel particularly inclined to contributing to their commissions in any way. Perhaps when I find a Beautilicious counter that has a decent promoter…whenever that may be.

Revlon Renewist™ Lipcolor…

Description:
Guaranteed to give you a lip changing experience, the breakthrough, patent-pending ProCollagen® Moisture Core instantly boosts moisture by 80% while reducing the appearance of fine lines and gently enhancing lip fullness over time. Lips will look and feel renewed - incredibly moist, beautifully smooth and gently full.

Revlon Renewist™ Lipcolor is available in 24 rich, revitalizing shades with SPF 15. Specially-formulated conditioning ingredients improve moisturization & soothe chapped dry lips. Seal in moisture in the winter, block out sun in the summer, and add vibrant color all year round.

The Verdict:
On first look, it looks quite space edgy with the see-through tube. As the colour I got was #10 – Naturally Revealing, it looked rather like a nudey beige shade but turned out to be a sheer pinkish colour. It’s also got a very light raspberry-ish scent, which you can (sort of) taste after application.

I liked the smooth application and it may be my imagination, but the collagen moisture core did seem to make my lips a little fuller. I’m usually against all these ‘plumping’ gimmicks – either they don’t really work at all, or you end up looking bee-stung. With a plumping product, the ‘plumping’ factor is usually due to toxins of some sort – these toxins won’t kill you unless you’re allergic to it, but it irritates your skin and causes it to swell, hence the ‘plumped up’ factor – not my idea of beauty.

However, with this lipstick there’s no such issue…I think it’s an optical illusion, but hey, I’d rather the optical illusion than swollen lips. It’s also got SPF15, which is really good – I don’t want my lips to be looking like some prune when I hit 50 (which is still very very far away…*cough cough*).

The downside of this is that it requires a fair bit of reapplying throughout the day (a full day for me required touch ups after lunch and just before leaving the office for dinner), but fair enough as it’s not meant to be a long last lipstick. The collagen core looks rather muddled with color after a while, so if you're the kind of person that likes her lipstick to be pristine, this is not the product for you. The price also makes it affordable, so on the whole it’s a pretty decent buy. And if you run out of things to do, you can play with the case itself – you have to get used to aligning up the ‘Revlon’ logo to shut the tube properly!


Revlon Renewist™ Lipcolour retails for approximately RM37.90, and is available from all Revlon counters.


Rating: 4 / 5
Value: $$

Fashion Fast Forward mid-season preview…

F3 – which includes brands like Miss Selfridge, Top Shop and Dorothy Perkins will be holding their members’ Mid-Season Preview at the Midvalley outlets this coming Wednesday from 11.00am – 10.00pm. All members get a 10% discount on new arrivals, plus an additional 10% discount on sale items.

One member card admits two people – I’ll definitely be going for this, so anyone want to come with? :)

You can check out the F3 website for additional details.

Most Unimpressive Customer Service…

Further to my previous post on Clinique’s Attracted to Colour Makeup Workshop, I was MOST UNIMPRESSED by the promoter at the Jusco Midvalley counter! Extremely unprofessional, not product savvy and not helpful at all! *grrrrrr…*

When I went to the counter this afternoon, the promoter started out by asking me what I wanted to do – “You want do foundation lesson or eye, or makeup?” (as you can see, her English left a lot to be desired) and actually WALKED OFF to see to another potential customer! Like hello? There’s another promoter just sitting there, and you have to walk off? With not as much as a ‘Excuse me’ or ‘Sorry’? *fume* After figuring out that she meant “Do you want a lesson in applying foundation, eye makeup or makeup overall”, I decided to try the eye makeup portion.

Then she started with this extremely long barrage of questions (CP = Clinique Promoter):

CP: What colour?
Me: Ermm…maybe something natural…beige/ brown maybe? (you have to remember, this is in the middle of the afternoon!)
CP: Ok ok…(goes off to take several items and comes back)…so you want recreate or step by step?
Me: Huh?
CP: (exaggeratedly) You want recreate look one eye, or step by step you follow me?
Me: Step by step is fine.

To tell the truth, I was really getting rather pissed off by this time. She then proceeded to gunk up one eye, telling me repeatedly to ‘shut both eyes’. Hello? If I’ve got both eyes shut, what freakin ‘lesson’ is this? I’m supposed to just re-create the look by looking at your work is it? Not to mention that she was quite LESS THAN gentle with the application.

The scary part came when she wanted to apply mascara on me – I had to tell her specifically not to use the same mascara brush (which looked extremely scary with rather a lot of gunk), and insisted that she take out another sample tester, or not apply mascara on me at all, to which she rather sullenly took out a new brush. (You’d think things like this would have been drummed into the promoter’s head before they started work!)

Anyway, long and short of it, this was the result:

I look like a blinking war casualty! The eyeliner was uneven (particularly on the lower lash line), the darker shade (which is not entirely visible in this picture) made me look like I had bruises, droopy eyes (which I don't actually have!) and don’t even get me started on the spider eyelashes.

The only upside? The two free treats – a travel sized Take the Day Off Makeup Remover for Lids, Lashes & Lips, plus a travel size of Fresh Bloom Allover Colour in Peony (according to her, they only had one shade available)

If it wasn’t for these two items, I think I would have just kicked up a huge fuss at the counter. To everyone else that wants to check this deal out, go ahead, but please don’t go to the Jusco Midvalley counter…nuff’ said.


PS: Remember the glosswear promotion I mentioned? The Clinique promoter didn’t even know about the promotion when I asked her about it! She had to go and check with her colleague and flip through some book before telling me “Yes got, just start today only” (like duh, I already knew that!)

Anyway, I had a chance to try out the gloss, and personally I’m not too fond of it. Waaayy too sticky for my liking, but for those that like sticky (the stickier the gloss, the longer it lasts), it’s retailing for RM63.00.

Clinique's Attracted to Colour Makeup Workshop…

Thanks to Rinnah’s post (and because I cannot resist freebies!), I decided to make an appointment to try out Clinique’s Attracted to Colour Makeup Workshop. Since it’s close to my office, I’ll be heading for the Clinique counter at Midvalley Jusco today to try it out.

Each new look consultation comes with two free treats – a travel sized Take the Day Off Makeup Remover for Lids, Lashes & Lips, plus a travel size of Fresh Bloom Allover Colour in Peony or Almond Blossom. More updates later! :)

This deal only runs until 27 April at Clinique counters nationwide, so if you want to check it out, make it fast! More details are available here.

Additionally, Clinique is running a glosswear promotion from today (21 April) to 4 May – you get a free travel size Long Last Glosswear for Lips SPF 25 with any Clinique Long Last Glosswear purchase. Not a bad deal eh?