SkinCareRx.com Friends and Family Sale Coupon Code

This article was originally posted at http://aichakubeautification.blogspot.com. If you see it anywhere else without credit, the content is stolen without permission.

SkinCareRx.com is a site that is linked to Apothica.com and they are having a Friends and Family sale now.

Below is the discount coupon code that you can use on the site. La Roche-Posay is among the wide range of brands available at the site.

Friends and Family Coupon* Code: FF25

*Excludes some brands. Expires Dec. 1, 2010.

I had previously ordered from the site before. The items were well packed, makeup and breakable containers arrived in perfect condition. Direct shipping costs from US to Singapore are reasonable and prompt. In all, I was very pleased with the purchases I made and the customer service from the site.

Enjoy your shopping discount!

This article was originally posted at http://aichakubeautification.blogspot.com. If you see it anywhere else without credit, the content is stolen without permission.

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New(?) Japanese Items in Watsons Singapore

Apologies: I used to put prices as a service for those who wanted to know, but I no longer do it. ^__^

Hi sweets! Welcome to the New Year!!

Chinese/Lunar New Year holidays is just over for us, and though I'm still very busy (going to be even busier) at work, I finally have a little breathing space on the home front. :D

Hence, I come bearing "ninja photos" taken via "stealth mode" at Watsons today. I was very excited to see these 2 products on the shelves at a Watsons store I frequent near my office. It's the first time I saw them and reckon they must be new. I wanted to share the news. :D

First is Tsubaki oil that I learnt of from Yumeko in 2009. It's the very same brand that she blogged about and it is in Singapore shores. Both the oil and oil+water formulations are available, but the price seems exhorbitant to me! Is it highly jacked up?

I also saw this cute hair product that I intend to get and try soon. Will review it when I do.

That's all, just a brief post for now. Take care, till later ... soon! :D

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Here's to the Weekend Ahead!

Note: I used to put prices as a service for those who wanted to know, but I'm feeling this exposes my spendings abit too much, so I'm no longer going to put in prices. ^__^ Hi everyone, TGIF!!! Weekend ahead, woot! I stopped by Raffles City to check out the Luxasia sale and bought my all-time favourite old-time fragrance, L'air du Temps at a nice price. I'm using Anna Sui's Flight of Fancy for some time now but recently found it abit too sickly sweet and cloying. As I don't usually stock up on fragrances, I had no alternative, so it's great I found my old favourite at a great price at a time when I needed it. Don't ask me why, but I also picked up a YSL Whitening Essence and The YSL Radiant Brush Foundation, both at more than 50% off the retail price. As though I don't have enough base makeup already! And looks like I've not learnt my lesson and am still game to try new skincare products? Hard to resist all these interesting products available out there I guess? I hope the foundation shade no.4 isn't too dark for me.

While I was there, I saw that Robinson's was having another sale, so although I also already have tonnes of mask I couldn't resist getting more, as they seemed cheap enough to me to warrant trying.

I tried to look for the Kanebo counter at Robinsons but it's no longer there! Sad!! I hope I could wait patiently for a Takashimaya or BHG sale before stocking up on my trusty Kanebo products.

In response to my previous post, someone commented that whitening products can be drying and I agree with her.

That's why Kanebo was so great for me! Even when I trimmed down my skincare routine to just Kanebo products, I was doing really great, until I finished the products and started trying those darned DHC and Paul & Joe items.

Kanebo's skincare was the first whitening range of skincare that didn't aggravate my skin. It clarified my skin, made my freckles lighter (I think because of the melanin-inhibiting ingredients) and added glow (probably due to the moisturising and hydration ingredients). I'm definitely returning to using it!! (Not enough exclamation marks to represent my eagerness to return to Kanebo!!!!!)

Long-time readers will recall the post I made about how the skin-analysis machine proclaimed my melanine levels have dropped and my skin is in a normal-balanced state. Thank God I still have some sample size bottles and satchets I received as freebies and gift-with-purchases. I can use those before I find some time to get to the trusty Kanebo counters at either Takashimaya or BHG.

Oh yes, it just occured to me to get the ingredients list from the web, for the products I reviewed in my previous post! Why didn't I think of that earlier?

So here's the ingredients list for DHC Acerola Lotion from the DHC US website:

"water, butylene glycol, malpighia glabra (acerola) fruit extract, glycerin, aloe barbadensis leaf juice, yeast extract, hydroxyproline, placental protein, disodium ascorbyl sulfate, serine, allantoin, methylparaben, acetyl tyrosine, paeonia suffruticosa root extract, pueraria lobata root extract"

And what do you know? While I was at the website, I read that the lotion is for normal to oily skin! Gawsh, no wonder I am reacting badly to it! An SA actually said today that my skin looked alittle aggravated and allergic to something. I couldn't agree more with her. I need to stop using that lotion. Silly me for not finding out about the product before using it!

Here's the ingredient list for Paul & Joe Whitening Emulsion (I found it at this website, and it's a discontinued product anyway), and OH.MY.GAWD! Alcohol is the highest concentration in the list, after water. No wonder my skin reacted badly!!!!!!! (Again not enough exclamation marks to express my horror).

"Water (Aqua), Alcohol, Dipropylene Glycol, Neopentyl Glycol, Dicaprate, Butylene Glcyol, Dimethicone, Glycerin, C14-15 Dialkyl Carbonate, Ascorbyl Glucoside, Behenyl Alcohol, Aesculus Hippocastanium (Horse Chestnut) Seed Extract, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Flower Water, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Crataegus Cuneata Fruit Extract, Hydrolyzed Lupine Protein, Lilium Candidum Bulb Extract, Rosa Multiflora Fruit Extract, Rosa Rugosa Flower Extract, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Leaf Extract, Sambucus Nigra Flower Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Leaf Exttract, Disodium Phosphate, Hydrogenated Rapeseed Glycerides, Lecithin, Phosphoric Acid, Polysorbate 80, Silica, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Mehtyl Stearoyl Taurate, Sorbitan Stearate, Triceteareth-4 Phosphate, Xanthan Gum, Butylparaben, Ethylparaben, Isobutylparaben, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Alumina, Mica, Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891). "

Freak me out! It says on that website that it functions with Bleaches & Lighteners!!! GREAT! No wonder my skin was peeling and going nuts!

This teaches me a great big lesson on the evils of complacency!!! Buahahaha. Time to stop using those 2 items and perhaps put them up on the sale blog? Hmm? Any interest? I mean, these 2 products did have great reviews elsewhere, so they do work for some people and you might be one of them. I'll be selling them cheap, cause I didn't pay too much for them anyway.

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Shopping: Myeong Dong & Loreal Beauty Sale

Note: I used to put prices as a service for those who wanted to know, but I'm feeling this exposes my spendings abit too much, so I'm no longer going to put in prices. ^__^ Thank you to everyone who joined the International Follower Giveaway! If you haven't joined, there's still time to do so. :D Some of you were asking if there's a good whitening mask in the same price range as My Beauty Diary and I did some searching around but couldn't find any! It's because My Beauty Diary masks are really very cheap. In fact, I read on some blogs and forums that Guardian Pharmacy's promo price of less than $5 per box of 2 masks, is to quote, "sooooooo expensive!!!!!!!!!". I guess for that price point, it's probably too much to expect great whitening effects. For me, I find it's a so-so product because it didn't smell great and I didn't find it moisturised my skin that well either (it stung), so I thought the price wasn't something I'd be willing to pay, even if it's considered "cheap". I could get better moisturising masks at a slightly higher price (perhaps $1/2 more) and I'd be willing to pay that difference. Anyway, my favourite whitening masks are from Kanebo and Silk Whitia. And as for pearl type masks, Silk Whitia's Pearl Finest Powder Pores Refining Mask is also my favourite. In terms of moisturisation, my favourite will be Watson's Bird Nest Essence Mask. I have another favourite, which I will review soon, it is Beauty Talk Q10 Mask. It seems I caught the bug and became very industrious about creating new looks and trying out new tools for my "websites"! I spent almost the whole day today at trying to create a blogshop at Simply, Aichaku! I got feedback that the "storefront" on Facebook requires one to log in before one can view it. I thought that's not good, because not everyone is on Facebook, so I tried my hand at making a "storefront" on blogger. So far, it's only got 1 product on there for now, because it really takes alot of time to create the "storefront"! OMG. I truly take my hat off to those who are managing their thriving online stores and creating stuff all by themselves! Meanwhile, I also unified the look of my makeup and skincare sale blog Beautification Stuff and added stuff there. I'll be adding more soon. I'm trying out the paypal button to ease your shopping. I hope it works out well for those who decide to make a purchase. Let me know if you encounter any problems. Omg, I must tell you that I saw a short vid on youtube the other day and suddenly I miss shopping in Myeong-dong sooooo much!!! Is it nuts to keep going back to the same countries? I love shopping in Tokyo, Taipei and Seoul but I should start heading toward Europe soon! Take a look at the clip. The guy who made this video seems to be pronouncing "Myeong-dong" in a weird way, but nevermind, thanks to him, we have a brief view of the Myeong-dong experience. I haven't been shopping much lately, hence the lack of haul posts. Anyway, I was feeling bored on Tuesday evening earlier this week, so decided to head to Raffles City for the Loreal Beauty Sale (it's like a periodic warehouse sale). I couldn't get to the Loreal Private sale that has the high-end stuff. It took place a the week before. Someone was trying to sell me tickets which she probably got for free, but I had a bad taste in my mouth and decided not to buy them. So, I headed to the general Loreal sale instead. This is my haul. I restrained myself as I still have a tonne of stuff to use! :D I break my "rule" about putting up prices because I really find these prics so cheap! I must share the good news! SG$15 for 2 Pure Zone moisturisers (made in 2009). So cheap! I'm going to try this on my t-zone and see how it works on my open pores. SG$40 for 3 boxes with 5 masks in each box (also made in 2009). I used one on Tuesday night itself. It turned out to be quite good as a moisturising mask, though I felt slight stinging in the beginning (I blame it on my PMS-dry skin) but after awhile there wasn't anymore stinging. Well worth the price I paid otherwise. Eyeliner at SG$10 each (brown and black). I tried out the black this morning. Turned out very nice and dark! No smudging too. Great and cheap. I read it smudges on some people, but it doesn't smudge for me. Maybe it's because I use a eyelid primer (Too Faced).

Have a great weekend everyone! ^_^ © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Some Freebies I Got This Week

I was too free last week and started dwelling too much on negative things. It didn't feel good at all (I'm sorry I tortured you guys with some of it in my posts!) Fortunately, I have many things to do now, and feel back to normal. I'll show you some freebies I got this week. A lipstick from Loreal - member gift. A long-lasting lipstick. Colour is quite nice but I don't like lipsticks like this because they are dry and leave a stain after wiping off with just a tissue. From Shiseido, another member gift, I don't know for what, but I went down to collect it. It was supposed to be a shampoo and moisturiser sample, but since I was late, the shampoo had run out and they replaced it with a conditioner. The SA told me it's the last one! LOL. Recently, the hair dresser decided to trim my bangs so that it is "lighter". It is still long but cannot be tucked behind my ear anymore. So, my hair keeps getting in my eyes (annoying when shopping frantically). Wearing hairbands give me a headache and unflattering with my thin hair. I dug out my pins. Plain. Yeps. I feel it's feel comical to be in my 30s, wearing glasses and putting on flowery/too glittery pins on my hair. LOL. After talking so much about it, I'm finally leaving on my trip tomorrow night. I'm really nervous because it's my first time travelling alone! I've never travelled alone before actually. Does it sound strange? Decided to bring my laptop and DSLR. I will stick my DSLR in my handbag. Can you see it? I'm sure it's a not good idea at all. It's not padded and not safe, but I don't want to bring the big camera bag. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Random Shopping & Makeup Talk

Just for discussion sake, I want to show you my eyes without makeup and without eyecream. And here is yesterday's EOTD, with makeup, using Lunasol's eye palette from the 08 Christmas Coffret & mixed in some of Jill Stuart eye palette. See, I DO put on makeup. I don't understand why people keep telling me to put on makeup! I don't understand what they are asking me to do, wear clown colours?????!!!!??? I do put on makeup, I DO! If I line all around my eyes with black eyeliner like the SAs like to advise me to do, it actually looks too harsh and absolutely fake on me. Thinking back, I think that's what the Japanese Kanebo MA was trying to tell me. Really fed-up. I'm starting to think people say these things to me, only because they don't know what else to say!! By the way, I think my dark eye circles have improved! I've been using Biotherm HYDRA-DETOX BIO-DEFENSIS Yeux and Beaute de Kose ULTIMATION Eye Cream since Dec 08. I bought and will be switching to Shiseido's Bioperformance Eye Contour for a while to try out though. Check out the difference, this was my just-cleaned eye without any eye cream in Dec 08. Photo dated: 24 Dec 08. Did you know you could pre-order stuff online from Changi Airport's Duty Free, then collect the stuff before your flight? Or even keep the stuff at the store, then collect them on your return flight? Personally, I only learnt this yesterday while surfing the net. I found that I could either order stuff from the Changi Airport Malls site or directly from Nuance Watson's site. I'm keen on some products but not sure if I should buy them since I intend to haul stuff on my trip. I do know the husband is travelling in May! I can preorder stuff and get him to pick them up for me. *gleeful* Lastly, I want to show you my new powder. Remember the Paul & Joe SA recommended the wrong colour? I went to P&H counter yesterday and 02 is still not available so I changed it for Pressed Powder N in 04. I've been wanting it since I saw it in Fuz's blog. Isn't it pretty? I tried to adjust the colour to show you the light mauve tinge it has. I haven't used it yet but I think if it suits Fuz, it'll be ok for me, cos I think we have similar colouring, since she uses Legere BB Cream without much problems. Though the P&J SA is quite lousy with her colour-matching, I'd recommend Singaporeans go head for the Isetan Scotts P&J counter if you want an easy-going SA. Look for the SA who works in the afternoon shift, has wavy hair (like it was done with curling irons) and speaks English with a heavy Chinese accent (very heavy, I often can't understand her unless I speak Chinese with her). I shouldn't tell you her name online but email me if you want to know. Otherwise, I actually prefer the Takashimaya Paul & Joe SAs. They are more knowledgeable and better at colour matching. I MUST submit my Takashimaya card application soon! Today, I'm inspired by Fuz and will go search for some hairstyling irons ... © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Thank Yous, & Lunasol Primer

Thank you so much everyone! I appreciate all your comments from yesterday's post! I'm going to take some time to think about how to incorporate them all into my shopping. Some points are really easy to follow, eg. XXX said find things with waist cut. But others are bit harder, eg. I appreciate some of you told me the clothes are frumpy, but I'm not sure how to choose less frumpy clothes in future. Offhand, perhaps the key is that I really have "old" taste and I need to modify this taste. To do so, I'd have to figure out what is "young" haha. :D Am I right to surmise that "old" is stuff that are dark, long and ill-fitting? I did think my clothes fit quite well ... LOL. Ohoh :p Oh well. Oh dear, and I can't be sure I'll go out and buy less frumpy clothes! lol. What to do? And I can't throw out my whole wardrobe, some of these dresses are new, LOL ... so I got to figure out how to make them less frumpy. Like some of you said jazz it up with trendy shoes and accessories, I'll take these tips and go look for such! ^__^ Haha I hope I don't buy "wrong"/"old" accessories. LOL I love the suggestion to post my clothes for your comments. Maybe I could do this for clothes that I am uncertain about, whether to keep or throw? If you are not bored. ^_^ *Sigh* I miss not having a good girl friend here or even a sister to discuss makeup and clothes with. Or people who give constructive tips... my mum is hopeless, she doesn't care to tell me the why or wherefore ... she just says "nice" or "not nice" and "good for wedding" or "good for work"... and thinks I'm offended when I try to ask her "why?" or "in what way?". I thought I could learn by knowing why or comparing her reasons with my personal views, but she thinks I'm angry. LOL. One key thing is: I don't have a good figure, my stomach and thighs are quite thick. So I can't wear things that are too fitted, or I'd start to look lumpy. The lumps of fat show up. I used to be very trim and abit of an exercise freak, so these days, those lumps make me feel I need to wear clothes that are bit looser so that they don't show? I guess this is wrong? I also have a bad/sway back, so I tend to slouch ... Another very important point is that I keep my hair short. I have a short, layered bob, with no fringe/bangs (I like to keep the hair off my face). I don't feel I can do much with it, because I struggle with the problem of thinning hair, I do go for trichologist treatments but I cannot keep my hair long, it pulls on the hair shaft. The hair is too weak to take chemicals like dye and perms and straighteners. I also have natural waves in my hair, so sometimes, as an Asian people expect I should have a straight curtain of hair and often think I don't comb my hair. LOL. I feel this has the MOST to do with people thinking I am aunty. Fuz has hit the main point, I think, because hair is the most obvious thing on a woman. I can't think of what to do with my hair, except, I did think of getting a WIG! Should I? :D I also don't like bringing attention to myself ... maybe that's another thing ... I don't want to look flashy and loud ... and some "young" things like bold accessories ... are just too "bold" ... I'm not daring enough to wear them ... Anyway, yesterday, I bought some jeans ... I was thinking wearing them, instead of my frumpy lumpy jeans skirt will give me a "lift" keke. :D I was glad when Fuz replied on Twitter that jeans are the way to go to look younger. Here's a pic of my new jeans and a top that I usually wear to work. You can see how frumpy and lumpy my body is, actually, maybe the key is I should go exercise again ... ugh nooo, I actually hate exercising now ... Ok, let's get back to regular programming! Today, I'll tell you about how much I like Lunasol's primer ... Lunasol's primer is called Control Makeup Base and comes in 3 colours: 01 - Moisture: blue tone, not much pigment, a watery thin base 02 - Lighting: pinkish tone, with very fine illuminating glow/shimmer, light pigmented base 03 - Clear: yellow tone, MA told me it's used to counter redness in the skin, quite thick in my view I chose to buy the 02 primer. It leaves a glowy finish, and absorbs well into the skin. As you can see from my fingers after I applied the primer to my face, the primer lightens and brightens the skin. . The glowy finish, seems to deflect imperfections, leaving my skin looking smoother than usual ... but it doesn't have much coverage so I still have to use a light foundation. Overall, I love this primer. On the day I bought it, I went over to look at P&J's. This primer is more glowy compared to P&J but P&J's seems to have more coverage. I haven't used it on my face yet, but I intend to buy it and I'll let you know how it compares to Lunasol's. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Should I Buy More Dior?

I am at home and feeling lost. Not having to go into the office makes me feel like I don't know what to do with myself, even though I have alot of personal errands to do. It's funny how work takes over one's life, even if I don't really love what I do. I hope one day I can write for a living. :D Even though I am supposed to be preparing to go out, I watch tv and an Arirang documentary talks about Hallyu (Korean Wave) in Japan. Many Japanese ladies are learning the Korean language. One lady said Korean men in K-drama have a quality she couldn't find in Japanese men. LOL! Even the Japanese men started watching K-drama and began to study Korean history as a result of their interest in historical K-drama. Anyway, the purpose of this blog post is to ask you to help me decide: As a result of me having my birthday this month I received some offers. Among them is an offer to receive a full-size Dior lipstick with $100sg spending at Dior. Should I go buy some more Dior glosses and check out the Dior mascara or even the Dior powder? Should I? Haha. ^_^; Well, you probably already know I'm not a young twenty-something and I recently celebrated my thirty-something birthday. (Note the SINGLE candle, haha!) Suffice to say, some days I feel like my hair, face and body are falling apart. Haha. I'm actually late coming into make up. I've never put on much because of my very sensitive skin but lately, BB creams and good primers are making it easier for me to make my foray into makeup. I've always been obsessive about skincare though. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Crazy Stocking Up Habits

I'm hopeless! Today I went to a doctor's appointment and am now on some medication for some time hopefully I'll get better. So, I ended slightly early and I stopped over at Takashimaya on the way home. In the end, I resisted Hello Kitty powder, but bought something else instead. Bittenbefore reminded me of it ... I'll show you another day when I feel less guilty... ;p Ugh. I need to stop "stopping over" at shopping centres! Today's focus is on Crazy Stocking Up Habits. It's this "good buy" and "good deal" thing that gets me a little crazy. I don't "collect" makeup or skincare but when something good works for me and is cheap, I do tend to want to stock up to take advantage of a good deal. When Lavera was available at $7SG per item, I bought these toners to "stock up". I paid $35SG for 5 toners. The original price of each toner was somewhere between $33-35SG, I can't recall. Good huh? 5 for the price of one? I certainly hauled too much, but I'm glad I did. So worth it! These are great toners, but now that I'm using Blanchir, I wanted to keep the daily routine "pure" so that I can see better effects of Blanchir's brightening/whitening. So what am I going to do with so much haul? I should give up my crazy stocking up habits? Regrets? No! Haha.No way! I formulated a plan. I bought these compressed facemask sheets from Daiso and I'm going to soak these toners in the masksheets for face mask. Daiso sells so many varieties, I haven't tried all yet but this one is cheap in the sense that there are more pallets per pack. So my toners will not be wasted! Woot! Clever huh? Haha. Take pride in what I can. :p There are other things I got from Lavera too, sunscreen, body oils, moisturisers etc. This bag isn't the only one that went home with me filled with Lavera products. :p I went back several times to the shop over the week, because each time, I got a bottle of something to try and felt it was so good, I had to get more while the prices were good. But I'm too scared to show you everything. In case my friends in real life see them and come along to "scold" me for spending so much. Also, I feel guilty, especially knowing there is a friend who loves food but is starving herself of meals so that she can save money! (She says she's not starving, but she loves food so I feel kinda bad for her ... even though she says I shouldn't!) You just have to guess what I bought in total from Lavera. A story: On the last day of the sale, I was there picking up my toners and there were 2 women who were hauling so much that they paid a total of $600+SG and had many shopping bags lined up in the store! See, I'm not that bad! *snigger* By the way, I have been carrying this bag I bought recently from Charles and Keith. Very cheap, very roomy and matches alot of my clothes. It even has a zip, which is very important to me. Only thing I hate is the fake leather smell. :p Any tips for removing the smell? Otherwise, I hope it goes away after a few weeks' of use. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Skin Care and Make Up Hauls

It's no good for me to be alone on weekends. The son was gone all weekend for sailing and I just had to entertain myself! Rather than stay home to clean the house, I went out and hauled. Prepared myself for the weekend crowds with my various tools such as my ipod with soothing music to block out the noise. It was madness at the train stations, but luckily I didn't get any problems. There was a huge crowd at City Hall interchange. It was so hot and I was stuck for about 5 minutes waiting together with many people trying to get up the escalators to exit the train station. So, at Raffles City Shopping Centre I hauled Lavera stuff, at $21SG for 3 items. I paid only $42 for these things plus 1 free gift (hair spray). Their original retail total was about almost $300SG? I need to go back to get some more to stock up. Maybe tomorrow, because alot of their stuff work well for me and it occured to me that I should just stock up some extras since the price is so good. Some of the Neutral stuff are really good for when my skin is acting up, so I'm thinking maybe I should just use these exclusively to prevent my skin from going nuts every so often. However, I still need to find a good whitening/brightening skincare item, which I haven't found yet because most will irritate my skin after some continuous usage. I'll try to do some reviews on Lavera stuff later. Yes to Carrots, Organic Surge and Mukti stuff were also on sale, but the SA was very nice and told me since I have very sensitive skin, I shouldn't try Organic Surge stuff because they are not really all-natural or all-organic. I didn't get any Mukti, since the discount wasn't as much as that for Lavera. Oh and I got some shampoo from Skin Food to try. My friends say Skin Food is much cheaper in Malaysia, but since I don't travel there much, it's ok to get from Singapore. One shampoo for hairloss, another one for cleansing the scalp (eg. for dandruff, sebum etc. - I bought it mainly for sebum cleansing). Also got some Paul & Joe stuff. This makeup set from Isetan for $80SG, with a choice of colours for all of them: 1 Face Powder, 1 lip crayon, 1 lipstick, and 1 single eyeshadow. I have some regrets about the colour I chose for the lip crayon. It's too dark! And I spoilt it while closing it! Booo! Anyway, I'll do a review of it all later. Since I also bought the Skunk blush, I had enough purchases to qualify for a gift, and I chose the wallet, even though I think the evening bag is quite popular. The SA said Bambi blush is sold out but I didn't intend to get it because I don't look good in orange, so it's not too bad for me. Though now I got it in my head to try to hunt it down elsewhere ... Over at Kose, I received a perfume candle, a member gift for submitting my old member card in exchange for a new one. Kose is switching over to a new type of member card. The perfume candle smells really good and is a hefty size. Very generous! I didn't buy anything from Kose. I didn't make it to Kinokuniya, which was having a 20% discount member weekend. Neither did I stop by at Sephora. I was running late and had to go over to get groceries, otherwise my husband wouldn't pick me up! LOL. Good thing though, because I think I hauled enough! © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Where I Ask for Travel Recommendations & Complain About Singapore Shopping Centres

I am thinking of taking a trip, go away for a long long time ... like for 1-2 months (maybe 3 months) and alone. I think it's time for some me time and some thinking time. My first thought was Japan and Korea, you know, all that great shopping? Then later, it occured to me that Europe would be good, with 3 months to spare! Any tips from anyone for either places? I'd love to have comfortable but budget-like accomodations. I haven't gone to Europe before. I'd always wanted to go with my husband but he's never going to have 3 months to spare. I know Bed and Breakfast places would be good, so I'd appreciate European bloggers letting me know your personal recommendations. I'm such a typical woman! I always prefer personal recommendations any day, over random picks from books or ads. Yesterday I headed out to Plaza Singapura a shopping centre just minutes away from my house. It was a mistake! I was back home within the hour. On a normal weekday or early in the day on weekends, this shopping centre is usually quiet and a nice spot to just loiter around looking at stuff. However, yesterday was madness. The shopping centre was cramped with people. It was not only hot and stuffy, but it stank! It was such a hot day, so no doubt there were many sweaty people who came in from outside and it made the shopping centre really awfully smelly especially since the aircon didn't seem to be working well. Plus, I also don't get Singaporeans or people who have decided to settle in Singapore. We don't have much sense of personal space, for a country that's so cramped and small. Most of us don't behave like city folk at all. People have no qualms shoving into you, backing into you (why are they walking backwards in the first place?) or walking into right your path on collision course while staring right at you. People are also just meandering as they walk, loitering about at the pathways or stopping in the middle of nowhere to chat or kiss their boyfriends or babies! They are also always pushing! You'd be standing somewhere looking at something and without a single word of "Excuse me" someone will shove themselves in front of you to get at that something you were looking at. Or they'd push past you from behind and get tangled up in your bag (no matter whether it is miniscule or large). That plus the noise! On weekdays, the shopping centres are usually just right ... but on weekends, I don't know why the shops prefer to start blasting loud music on top of the super noisy people who like to talk loudly! It was maddening and after a while, I got very confused and irritated. I didn't manage to buy a single thing at all. I ran home to the safety of my cool aircon house and thanked the Gods that I could watch Torchwood quietly and comfortably. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Haul Post

A quick-as-I-can post of my haul. Ha! I thought I was very thrifty yesterday and didn't buy much, but I deceived myself! In my defence, I bought them all at good discounts! I hate buying things at full price or more expensive compared to elsewhere, and when I do, I usually beat myself up over it. So, I forgive myself when it's sale time. This is the boring part of the haul, it's like a repeat of the last haul from Maquillage and Dior. I liked the stuff I bought so much, I bought more colours during the Tangs sale. 3D Eyes GR366 (turned out not too colourful at all, sheer and really neat on my eyes), lipstick RS713, 3D Face 11 (really natural on me), Dior Ultra Gloss 157. The colours of the eye and face palettes always look so washed out ... sorry, not true to colour. I don't do good EOTD, so I'll save you the agony of seeing the EOTD with the eye colours. Instead, I'll show you the Maquillage lip colour RS713. *love* It's so moist and such a sweet colour. This one is true to colour, it's taken near a window with natural light. With a 12% rebate, cash vouchers and a 35% discount, I bought this $150SG dress for less than $50SG. So happy. Love the cut of this dress. I'm not thin so, a nice cut on the clothes is important. :D (Ah, that necklace was purchased on another day.) New spring issues of Taiwanese magazines! Lovely stuff inside, so romantic and sweet and cutesy. Gotta show you some scans later. I never thought I'd get so hooked on Taiwanese mags! The Shiseido stuff are gift-with-purchases from Shiseido. Got the other items at the Watson's 21 Anniversary Sale. Stocking up on my sunblock. These are 2 sunblocks that I don't hate the smell and they are matte, not sticky at all. And Lavera body lotion at great great discount of $10.50SG. *heart the fragrance* More Watson's sale stuff: Lavera body oils. I use them after shower, lovely smells. Also $10.50SG each. They are advertised as $21SG for 2. Also greatly discounted. The original prices are close to or above $30SG for the Lavera stuff, depending on the item. Rosehip oil and mist, purchased as a bundle from Watsons, they are greatly discounted at $19.95SG per set. They are wonderful for dry peeling skin. When I was in Australia for a very long holiday and my skin was peeling from the crazy ("crazy" said lovingly) Melbourne weather, I bought this in desperation at the recommendation of the Pharmacist and found it rescued my skin! So I love this and actually wanted to be the Singapore/Asia distributor for this brand hahaha, but I couldn't follow through ... they wanted a large chain-store agent ... so I guess they found Watsons in the end. Another gift-with-purchase from Shiseido. I used it today. Ok that's all!! Hope you enjoyed looking at it all. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Massages and Sales

Someone asked me about massage techniques for use with Anosa L Carnitine V Face Water Gel that I reviewed previously. I don't have the official Shills massage, but I saw it on a poster, and it looks like most of the massages that are taught in the magazines, so I'll look for one such massage from a mag and so a scan post of it soon. Speaking of massages, I took some time off from work yesterday and did some shopping (will post my hauls later), cut my hair, trimmed my brows and had a massage. I might have found my ideal masseuse, she's strong enough to work on my very stiff muscles. A young and robust China lady, she told me in Chinese that my back can "carry alot of pressure" and then looked at me and said I'm very stressed. Haha, I think she made a pun in Chinese and tried to joke with me, although I think she's not far from the truth. Anyway, there are some benefits to massage. Usually I sleep better after a good massage. This time though, I went home and felt energetic, which resulted in staying up late, cleaning up my cupboards and sorting through my various stashes. This urge for housekeeping extended to work today, with me cleaning up my computer files and folders. Haha. The shops are going crazy trying to attract customers! There are so many member private sales and promotions going on. My head is dizzy. It is not helping my goal to be more thrifty this month! Haru of Rouge Delux just posted some information about an upcoming Isetan Private Sale and it got my attention. As usual, I must have missed this info, so I'm grateful for her "alert", but it means I'm tempted again. Sigh. This information is also available at the Isetan website. There are a few attractive offers. I'm lemming for the P&J offer. The Givenchy set on the same page is also good for anyone looking for a bargain, but I'm not usually attracted to Givenchy. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Today's Haul

Thanks for all the great comforting words, comments and tips yesterday! So ironic that after yesterday's "guilt" post, I went to collect my Shiseido member gift today and suckered myself into buying this bunch of stuff from the Shiseido and Dior Spring Collections! These colours and palettes have been reviewed many times elsewhere already, so I'll not spend too much time talking about them. (Also to hide from my guilt!) I think I'll just not buy any other makeup until it's March. Watch me strike out most of the want list from yesterday's post and hold on to my $ for another ... 5 days till end of Feb. :p Hopefully, in March I'll not be hauling much at all ... (unless I'm doing it with vouchers ... then it's not cash ... because I still want some P&J stuff ... ack). I promise reviews tomorrow on skincare. I'm watching Episode 3 of Boys Before Flowers on KBS World and it's really quite funny. Oh! It's another F4 thing that has been made into drama serials many times before but in Korean this time... Now, I'm so hooked! Gotta make sure I tune in every night! Edit: Colours look abit off on another computer that I'm at now. 3D eyes and lipstick are colours worn by Juri Ueno in the Promo pics, if you'd like to look at the official photos. Shiseido Maquillage: 44 (3D Face), & VI 367 (3D Eyes), PK316 (Lipstick) Dior Actress Pink 464 Dior Gloss Reflect 657 © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Mini Coffret Dor Haul

Happy Valentines Day! I did some shopping today and one of the places I went to was the Kanebo counter to look at the Coffret Dor line. After Fuz listed Coffret Dor as one of her favourites, I decided to give the makeup line another try. So far, I've only got their Christmas 08 Party Coffret palette and I wasn't too happy with the eyeshadow texture. Today's shopping experience was good! I found the colours very attractive and bought the Winter 08 eyeshadow palette (really smooth, like Fuz said, very different from the party palette) and some items recommended by the SA which I might not have purchased otherwise. There was a gift-with-purchase promo of a set of skincare and a bag, but I didn't want the skincare so I was given some makeup instead. Such an accomodating SA! I think I saw the Spring 09 collection, but maybe not. I'm not sure. Th SA told me these are new colours but I don't think so. There'll be a special makeup promotion in March, when a Japanese MA will be in Singapore, so I think maybe that's when the Spring collection will launch here? I heard the Shiseido Macquillage Spring 09 collection will also arrive in Singapore only later in Feb or early March. Anyway, I might review the items one-by-one later. For now, I'll show you what I got. The Winter 08 eyeshadow palette in purple-grey, blue liquid eyeliner (it is dark blue when drawn on the skin) and a lipstick (very sheer and moisturising, not at all like those thick lipsticks that I'm afraid of). The gifts: Quite a useable bag, a makeup pouch, Testimo (eyeshadow, lipstick), Coffret Dor (mini/tester size powder) and Kate (nail polish). Oh and I was at the Kinokuniya magazine section and spotted a shelf full of Japanese magazines related to Korean TV and Korean male actors! Incredible! I never realised!!! © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Why I Should Revisit Tokyo

I'm on a shopping ban of sorts after all my splurging in December (I'll allow myself to buy some magazines and makeup and skincare .... aaaaahh? What sort of ban is that?) ... so anyway I'm convincing myself I need another Tokyo trip. I need to go because I want ...

1. Hello Kitty Hello Kitty Hello Kitty Hello Kitty Hello Kitty
2. Makeup Makeup Makeup Makeup
3. I wanna to go a temple and buy a good luck charm
4. Eat eat eat eat
5. ...

Hahahaa. I dunno what else. I think those are good enough? Plus, I just need a holiday. Who wants to go with me?

Aside from that, I purchased some body treatments from a spa and now I am really cheesed off by their service, I am asking for a refund. Wish me luck!! © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Daily Conversations

Me: Which bag is nicer? X or Y? A: (looks at bags) X is nicer... (pause) A: Didn't you just buy a bag? (pause) Me: Yes ... (*sigh*) Ugh, yes, someone said it's possible to get a Coach bag from the US at a cheaper price, so I'm now eyeing 2 bags ... Addison leather bag in brown or Addison Spectator leather bag in pink. But ofcourse common sense says, "No more new bags!" © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Random Mutterings

1. Ugh, I forgot to put on mascara today!
2. Concealor application looks slightly better ...
3. Blush still looks faint ... maybe I'm just a "natural" makeup person...
4. Stuck my eyeshadow brush into the mini-ziplock and tried using Mixology's Armor eyeshadow without spillage. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! So sheer but pigmented enough to see the colours (my type of thing). Not powdery at all (will try to do proper review with swatches soon) ... . I'm so going to try every colour then buy more in full-size quantities hahaha!!
5. My timing sucks! I never do know exactly when John Little's Stardust is having it's 20% storewide discount!! Why don't they send me the mailers? I seldom receive Robinson's mailer on time and none of John Little's mailers at all, despite being a Robinson's Card member.

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Continuing Battle Against Dark Eye Circles

I was at Sephora today and the things I wanted were sold out. How disappointing. I read about the fantastic Urban Decay Primer Eyeshadow Primer Potion and that Two Faced Eyeshadow Insurance is a comparable product. Since Urban Decay is not in Singapore but Two Faced is, I thought I could go try it out. I was hoping it will help my concealor and also eyeshadow look better, so that I can conquer my dark circles and appear fresher. Unfortunately it is sold out and won't be available until mid January. Another product I tried at Sephora was Bare Minerals' concealor. I shamelessly and fearlessly put on the concealor testers on my dark eye circles! I tried all of them and found Well Rested covered and neutralised my dark circles the best. But it was also out of stock. I thought Bisque might work for me too, since it is the closest in colour to Well Rested, but no, it didn't work. I noticed Well Rested was quite yellow-based. So, maybe yellow based concealors are best for me. I did buy some items for helping me get a good night's sleep, so I can conquer my dark circles. I'll share with you about them after trying them for at least a couple of nights. © Copyright. All rights reserved.

Another Place to Buy Rootote

I first saw Rootote in Japan. Liked it but didn't buy because of my personal history with these sort of tote bags: I buy them, then don't use them for various reasons. Then, I saw Rootote in Taipei. Attracted to them again, but didn't buy either. Then Rootote came to Singapore. I got this news from Viva Woman's post Rootote Available in Singapore. I saw Rootote yesterday in a rather unexpected place: The stationery section of Page 2 at Vivocity. You can check them out there, if it's a more convenient location. I still don't have a Rootote, so I don't have a photo for you, but I did buy 2 new notebooks for 2009! Yeah for cute notebooks. :D © Copyright. All rights reserved.