Celebrate CNY with the January Bellabox...

Gee, January is just flying by isn’t it? It wasn’t long ago we were celebrating the New Year - now it’s already the 18th, and it won't be long before we’re celebrating Chinese New Year.

The January box for Bellabox is actually quite cute in this aspect – themed “Celebrate CNY with Bellabox”, they’ve included items this month that are meant to help you look good ahead of your CNY celebrations. Even the wrapping in the box this month reflects this, detracting from the usual Bellabox logo sticker and bright pink tissue paper.

First up is a b.liv Feel No Sluggish Mask that is meant to help prevent the signs of aging by invigorating the skin with fruity essences – it’s supposed to be apple-derived too, which I happen to like. :D

Next up is something I’ve heard interesting things about – Macadamia Natural Oil Healing Oil Infused Comb – a comb that is supposedly infused with the Healing Oil treatment so it gets distributed evenly on hair without leaving a residue on hands. Will let you know once I try it out! Below it is a small “to be hung on your handphone” size of Sleek High Shine Lip Gloss in a pretty (if not bright) pink shade – as if I needed any more lip products, but it’s cute nevertheless.

There was also a trial size set of Skin Food’s Gold Caviar Toner and Emulsion, both of which I’ve briefly tried before and been ok with. The interesting part is that the toner and emulsion are infused with tiny flakes of pure gold. Go check it out – you’ll see what I mean. ;) There was also a small tube of Natura Bisse NB Ceutical Tolerance Cleanser which I’m looking forward to trying out. Skin Food also threw in a few sachets of their eye cream as a bonus together with a card for a personal consultation and sampling at their stores.

To be honest, this month’s box was a little bit disappointing apart from the mask and comb, but it’s still not too bad since there were items I was looking forward to trying out. Does anyone else share the same sentiment?

Happy Easter, and a little dotty fun…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gunk Begone! – Skin Food Egg White Pack…

Advance Warning: Gross pics ahead!

Still with me? Great! :D I’ve always had a problem getting gunk out of my pores, and my fascination with pore packs still holds strong after so many years. First it was the Biore pore packs, then the black pore packs (which looked great, but didn’t do much more other than show up the gunk better!), and then…I was introduced to the Skin Food Egg White Pack by none other than the daughter of the fellow who brought Skin Food into Malaysia. (here’s looking at you, K!)

Description:

The Skin Food Egg White Pack (Peel-Off Pack for Nose, Forehead & Jaw) eliminates blackheads effectively for a flawless complexion. Contains egg white to help control sebum and refine pores.

The pack contains 10 strips, 5 for the nose (left) and 5 for the forehead and jaw (right). Technically, it should be chin and not jaw, but oh well…

The Verdict:

First off, it’s nice that they’ve created specific strips for the forehead and jaw (chin) area – I have to admit, I’d actually cut up the Biore pore packs before just to paste them onto my forehead and chin areas (you’re not supposed to, but *shhh*!) But with dedicated packs, I can get my nose, forehead and chin area gunk free in one sitting without having to resort to scissors.

Using them is pretty much per standard instructions – make sure your face is clean and makeup free, then wet the nose/forehead/jaw area with water before pasting on the strip and waiting for it to dry. The instructions on the sheet say 10-15 minutes, however you’ll know when it’s time – the strip hardens into a crispy layer on your skin!

Peeling it off is the most fun – you start at the edges and work your way towards the centre (in the case of the nose pack, that would be the tip of your nose). Sometimes if you actually do that while looking in the mirror, you can see the blackheads being pulled out by the strip. It’s pretty cool, but not advisable if you’re easily grossed out. :D After that, you just rinse the residue off your skin.

Nose strip – you can see the biggest blackheads are on the tip of my nose (eww!). The pore strip also takes off hair, so don’t be surprised to see fine hairs stuck to the strip when you take it off!

Forehead strip – even more remarkable, this pulls out EVERYTHING. Blackheads, fine hairs, stray eyebrow hairs…I’m always amazed by the amount of gunk that comes out with this one.

Chin-wise, I don’t really have much to show you since my jaw area isn’t congested to begin with, so I usually just plaster the remaining patch wherever my pores are feeling particularly congested. My skin always feels super smooth afterwards – the egg white at work I reckon. :D

Just one minor gripe though – the egg white formula tends to smell a little bit weird when it gets wet, not unlike raw egg. It soon dissipates though, so unless you’re particularly sensitive it shouldn’t bother you.

Price-wise, this is substantially more expensive than the Biore pore packs but I feel it’s more effective at removing blackheads since I only need to use it once every couple of weeks.

I am so obsessed with this, I don’t think I’ll be using any other brand for some time to come! Xin is also just as taken with the Egg White Pack, you can read her take on it here.

The Skin Food Egg White Pack (Peel-Off Pack for Nose, Forehead & Jaw) is available from all Skin Food outlets nationwide, and retail at RM24.90 for a pack of 10 strips.

Rating: 5 / 5

Value: $$$

Getting back in the groove...of shopping, that is!

I’ve been pretty tied up with work the past few months, but the past weekend was just too good not to post about – trust Paris and Pinkelle to bring out the shopping demon in me! :D

The Great Singapore Sale, or GSS is something that I used to look forward to every year, particularly the trip down which saw me lamenting about the ringgit’s lack of buying power (I still lament!) but also meeting up with relatives down south. Come to think about it, I’ve missed the last two years *oh the horror* simply because I was either overseas or just too skint broke to go.

Anyway, the GSS has just only started (we’re currently going into week 3) and weekends along Orchard are just bliss for any freebieholic around. Just to give you a taste of the things we picked up along the way...

Skin Food bribed us with chocolate and a voucher in a small pouch to be redeemed in the store for a sample – clever ploy to get us into the outlet, and we each walked away with a sachet of Black Sesame Hot Mask.

Sephora gave out these adorable Harajuku Lovers fragrance fans (I know Xin’s going to drool over this) when you sampled their fragrances – the Lil’ Angel one smells pretty good, and the test strip is now making my handbag smell yummers.

This was probably the most amusing one – Jurlique had sent up a makeshift store outside Tangs along Orchard, and was giving out organic apples with their flyers...creative or what?

I’ve noticed that Singaporeans are very big on tissue, so it’s no wonder that many brands have resorted to making their own branded tissue packs – I picked up four over the course of two days (one used up already)

This is for Connie – S$5 Coronas, anyone?

LOL, now before you think that I didn’t do any actual shopping, I’ll just share a couple of purchases with you – ninny me forgot to take pictures of the three dresses I bought (you’ll see them soon enough since I’ll be wearing them for a friend’s wedding this weekend) but here’s just a taste of what’s to come...

Picked up a couple of OPI polishes at Millenium Walk for just S$14 each – they had a flea market in conjunction with 8 Days’ anniversary, so there were a lot of knickknacks...I even managed to pick up a brand new copy of Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress at just S$7. Brilliant stuff!

Of course, having Paris around as the ‘tourist’ also meant that we managed to get the GST waiver...I picked up a pair of Fitflops I’d been hearing about for ages, plus a definite splurge to mark my time here in Singapore...

Yes, it’s from Tod’s...anyone wanna guess what I bought? :)

The Great Singapore Sale is still going strong until end July and the deals are pretty good this time around, so if you want to drop by Singapore and channel your inner shopaholic, gimme a holler yeah?