Happy Chinese New Year!

Never too late to add my greetings to all those celebrating the Lunar New Year, right? Yes, it may be the 10th day of CNY, but since we have 15 days in total I still made it!

Warning: Pic-heavy post!

It has been a full couple of weeks, considering my CNY celebrations usually start up to a week before, starting with the “family reunion holiday” – it’s still easier to book accommodation before CNY (and cheaper too!), so we usually end up somewhere in Genting for a couple of days just to catch up with everyone and have a bit of fun.

Guess who’s back? :D Twas a blast catching up with Tine again after almost 9 months – sure there’s Whatsapp and Skype, but it ain’t the same! We also celebrated my gran’s 93rd birthday…she can still strike a pose yo!

The day before I left for KL, I managed to book a slot with Clarahnails who was back from Melbourne on holidays. Make no mistake, this woman is a nail genius – from my cherry blossom nails this time, to the paisley print she did for me when I was in Melbourne last year (all done freehand with a tiny brush!), it’s always majorly impressive. LOVE!

Gorgeous skies in Genting! Sadly, the temperature seems to have risen over the last 10 years…

Oh my pretties – I was trying to travel light since I was carrying back quite a few items for family as well as knew I was going to be bringing stuff back to Singapore with me, so I decided to break out a couple of the new items I picked up over the past month. There’s the Chanel Poudre Signee de Chanel Illuminating Powder, as well as the Guerlain LiU palette – both pretty awesome in their own right!

I also ended up making my first purchase from Net-a-Porter…the YSL Arty ring! :D No they’re not all mine, we decided to make a bulk order to save on shipping. I just had to add in this pic of the L’Occitane Fleur Cherie eyeshadow duo because it reminded me so much of Stila – right down to the paper casing!

CNY is never complete without these arrowroot crisps (or ngaku), and mum was a bit adventurous this year and decided to try making homemade crabstick crisps – they look a bit weird, but taste-wise it’s awesome!

One of the best waffles I’ve had in a while – came from Out of the Pan (and a steal with 1 for 1 deals!), while the one dish I always look forward to at CNY is…yee sang! Sadly I only had it a few times this year, but there’s still a few more days to go right?

Every year, my aunt’s place in Seremban has this awesome view of a temple nearby that sets off loads of fireworks at the stroke of midnight on CNY – next year, I think I’m going to camp out there with a proper tripod. These were taken on my PnS camera balanced off a fence!

Tine was caught hamming it up for the camera (she’ll probably explain why later on her own!), and I loved the décor that was put up – not a fan of the snake year, but there were still plenty of pretty lanterns and designs put up everywhere. One place I saw decided to recycle their Christmas tree and hang little red lanterns on it instead – quite creative!

I also got a cute thumbdrive in the shape of an Oreo cookie – so adorable! Just hoping I won’t mistake it for actual food and try dipping it into milk…and Bailey says “Happy CNY” too! He was busy keeping me company while I packed the angpows to go to my parents and grandmothers. :)

This year was also the first time I celebrated CNY with Kevin’s extended family, which was held in Malacca. I hadn’t been back there in over a decade (driving through to avoid highway jams doesn’t count), so we took the opportunity to try some of the famous favourites there like the Jonker 88 cendol and ‘one bite’ durian puffs…omg so good!

It happened that we were in Malacca the same night they had their Jonker Street night market, and despite being the first day of CNY it was still packed!

I had a real trip down memory lane thanks to that night market – there were cute stubby Coke and Sprite bottles, 60s themed drinks and even these Pop Pops I used to play with as a child. Who says you have to behave like an adult all the time? *wink*

There was a cute discovery during CNY as well – Tine and I found out we were iPhone cover twinsies thanks to similar Marc by Marc Jacobs…and when I posted the pic on my Instagram, it turns out Renee (Beautyfool) also had a similar case – yay for triplets!

One of the biggest banes during CNY would have to be the traffic jams of everyone trying to make it back to their hometowns for celebrations, and this year was no different. Thanks to the jams on the highway, we decided to take a number of back roads and trunk roads to avoid getting stuck, and one of the roads we drove along reminded me so much of the scenery heading to Yarra Valley in Melbourne…ahh that brought back memories :)

Yes, those are actual purple roses – gorgeous, aren’t they? :) Since Valentine’s Day fell during the CNY period, Kevin decided to surprise me with these just before I headed back to Singapore (and yes, I carried them all the way back with me!) I also ended up getting a cute snake plushie and angpows from the bosses (I know I said I didn’t like snakes, but this one you have to admit is pretty cute!) Last but not least, I ended up with a cute little purple bin to help with decluttering – I’ve been on a cleaning and sorting spree ever since I came back from my CNY holidays…I’m hoping this holds up, it’s coming in very useful as I’m discovering items I’d forgotten I had!

And there you have it – a choice selection of moments over the past two weeks of my CNY celebration. Needless to say I had a total blast…hope yours was just as awesome, and sending all of you felicitous wishes for a prosperous year filled with health, wealth and luck!

Updates, updates, updates…

Yep, I’m still here! I know it’s been over a month (bad Beetrice! *smacks self*) but so much has happened in that time and I guess it’s all still sinking in. I’m going to try and provide about 5 weeks’ worth of updates in one post, so it’s going to get a bit pic-heavy…here goes!

First and foremost, the main announcement which happened just a few days after my last post!

I'm engaged!! :D The bf (okay, now fiancé) popped the question when he came to Singapore for a long weekend. To say I was stunned for a moment would probably be quite accurate! Nothing fancy or over the top, and I love my ring – the smart fellow picked out a classic cut which suits me to a ‘T’. Here’s hoping I don’t turn into Bridezilla! *fingers crossed*

That same weekend, we ended up hopping on a ferry to take a day trip to Batam – it’s just an hour’s journey, but you get access to a whole host of yummy Indonesian goodies, local fare and cheap massages!

We also managed to squeeze in time to check out the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Artscience Museum at MBS – no photos were allowed inside, so all I managed to take was the flying Ford Anglia car at the entrance! :D

The Artscience Museum also had this whole water feature full of yellow and purple water lilies in bloom just outside the entrance, and many of them had little bees/ wasps busy at work – made for some awesome photos.

And August was definitely a month for excitement, because I not only got to go to the Harry Potter Exhibition, but…

Finally managed to make it to Universal Studios Singapore (USS)!! :D :D :D The good part was that we went on a Friday, so the crowd wasn’t as bad as we’d initially feared.

Funnily enough, we’ve always had pretty awesome luck when we’re together, and this time wasn’t any different. We got approached by a sales lady at the entrance pushing the RWS Invites card, which came with 2 free tickets PLUS express entrance to 5 key rides. Signing up for the card cost S$158, which after calculating, was still cheaper than buying the tickets from the counter.

The bonus? After we entered the park, another lady offered us two free express passes to any ride each for filling in a quick survey. Score! :D Having all those passes meant we were first in line to literally every popular ride we went on. Even the rain in the morning was a godsend since it took people a lot longer to enter the park, by which time we’d already covered most of the main attractions without having to queue!

Say hello to the Kingdom of Far Far Away, and wave to Elmo!!

This had to be the most adorable cookie store I’ve ever seen, and I finally got my photo with Cookie Monster! *omnomnomnom*

I’d watched the Waterworld show before at the Universal Studios in Los Angeles, but the show in Singapore didn’t disappoint either – the pre-show banter and antics of some of the actors kept the crowd from getting restless while waiting. On the right is a most unfortunate fellow who got caught in one of the trees at the Madagascar section – just hanging around, I guess! :P

Could not resist getting a potion from Fairy Godmother’s ‘factory’, and it must’ve worked cos the rest of the day was perfect! :D

Mel’s Dinettes were awesome, as were the super cute “I like to move it move it” Madagascar penguins!

Another major activity in September that took up a lot of my time – moving house! I spent the better part of 2 weeks packing up stuff into boxes, and now two weeks later…a lot of the things are still in boxes since I haven’t had time to unpack! *oops*

I love my new place though…from a single room, I’ve now got a small apartment on the East side. The rooftop pool is lovely, even if I haven’t had the chance to use it yet (will be remedying that this weekend!) and with bay windows that will make a nice corner for photo-taking (finally!)

A bit of a random insertion here, but this is the pool at the Capella Hotel at Sentosa, when I went there for an event. Not sure why I’m suddenly so taken by lovely pools, but well, there you go. :D

Just had to include this into the list of updates – for some reason, a couple of our dogs were in a very obliging photo-taking mood last weekend when I was back. Usually they don’t particularly like cameras (I swear, they grin like monkeys until the moment I bring out my phone) unless there are treats and tennis balls involved, but this time they were all smiles - not bad for a couple of 12-yr olds eh?

Now what would this update be without having at least some beauty-related updates, right? :D

Earlier this month, Watsons hosted a Beauty Day Out for bloggers to try and experience some of their key brands and products. I’ll be going into that in a separate post, but one of the items I was super excited about is this…

The latest addition to my Youth Code collection –the Rejuvenating Eye Essence! I’m already a huge fan of the Youth Code Pre-Essence (and got featured as a guest blogger on Bellabox for it here!), and picked up the Youth Code Lumiere when I was in Melbourne back in May. You’ll be hearing more about the Eye Essence next month once I’ve given it a good run.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…I really have to stop reading My Women Stuff, simply because PB makes me want to buy all the items there! This time, it was the Chanel Soft Touch Eyeshadow in Taupe Grise…it’s a good thing I got a ‘We Miss You’ discount from Strawberrynet (or was that a bad thing, since it made me buy stuff?)

Remember how I mentioned I have a problem with digging into pretty makeup? Well, I finally bit the bullet and dug into the Jill Stuart blush that Rinnah got for me from Hong Kong! :D The swirl of colours is oh-so-pretty and goes on like a dream, I’m kicking myself for not getting around to it earlier.

Was sending the bf off at his bus station in Novena when I came across that pretty sign we all love in the Yankee Candle shop – S.A.L.E…they were having 20% off their monthly fragrance picks, and I ended up with these…the Macintosh has my room smelling like apples now!

There were also Astalift and Dior purchases over the last month – I picked up the Astalift Jelly Aquarysta after reading Peach’s review on it, and as for the Dior, well…*looks pointedly at PB again*

I also attended a Bellabox TGIF party (the day before I moved house, no less!), and while I’ll go into the details of the event in a separate post, the most significant update for me would be that we now get three variants of Bioderma in Singapore! :) I’d only tried the pink one previously after nicking some of Tine’s stash, but have got my eye on the blue variant.

While I was out with Rinnah during one of our Orchard jaunts, we passed by the new YSL store in ION Orchard (dunno if they’ll eventually rebrand it to SLP per the news that’s been going around?) and just decided to have a look around.

The quick lowdown – mainly focused on cosmetics, although they carry some skincare and a pretty decent selection of their fragrances. Most of the people that were in the store were all crowded around the cosmetic counter though.

As if there wasn’t enough going on already, I had to renew my passport since it had just over 6 months left. The part that was stressing me out was how to get it done in one day (Sat), seeing as how I was only going back to KL for the weekend and needed the passport to get back into Singapore the next day. After seeing a couple of friends’ posts on renewing Malaysian passports online, I decided to give it a try. Lo and behold, I applied for the passport on Friday morning online, printed out the receipt and brought it to the Kelana Jaya office on Saturday morning.

After getting my fingerprints done and waiting for the passport to be printed, I was on my merry way with my new passport in hand – total time taken at the office: 45 minutes. AWESOME! :D Btw, this is probably the first passport photo that I actually like (taken a few months back)…what a difference 5 years makes!

On another quick note, my Fabulous Finds September box also arrived on time this month! :D I must say, I’m pretty impressed with the contents – there are 3 full-sized items this time, including the Ceramide Gold Ultra Restorative Capsules & Gold Ultra Lift and Strengthening Eye Capsules from Elizabeth Arden.

Last but definitely not least…an awesome friend brought this back for me all the way from Japan. I’d gotten the Laduree rose petal blush previously but couldn’t get the egg case to store it as it was sold out. This time around, she managed to grab a couple for me…and now my rose petals have a super pretty home!

And there you have it – a very packed month squeezed into a rather loooonnng post. Am really hoping things will settle down soon at work so I can actually get some proper posts done (it’s the end of the quarter, which means plenty of budget recons and plans for the next quarter!) but for quick updates on the go, do follow me on Instagram (beetrice). Have a happy weekend, folks!

Melbourne Haul – Part 1: Cosmetics!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Putting a purple twist on a French manicure…

Say hello to my purple reverse French manicure! :P

If you’ve been following me for a while, you’d realise that I’m crazy for purple hues. Violet, magenta, amethyst, aubergine, lilac, lavender, fuschia, plum…shucks, name me any purple shade and I’ve probably got something in that colour!

So one evening when I was messing about with some polish shades in my room, I decided to try layering different hues of purple on my nails and after trying a number of combinations this was the final result!

The two polishes I used – Chanel Le Vernis in #210 Lilac Sky and Face of Australia Molten Metallics Nail Enamel in Amethyst.

I realised though that these two polishes are really on the “Save & Splurge” ends of the price spectrum, but in terms of performance I have to admit liking the Face of Australia one more in terms of manageability and colour payoff.

If you were wondering about the shaky lines, it’s because I drew the tips in freehand – obviously I need a lot more practice! :P

Hmm…now what other colour combinations can I try? I’ve already tried peach with chocolate tips, sparkly tips on clear nails and glitter on coloured nails…any other ideas besides resorting to actual nail art (since I have absolutely no drawing skills whatsoever)? :D

Chanel Le Vernis retails at RM70 and is available at Chanel counters nationwide. Face of Australia Molten Metallics is a limited edition range and retails at AUD$4.95 each (not available in Malaysia or Singapore though).