While I can’t say I’ve tried SK-II’s Facial Essence, I’m halfway through a bottle of the line’s Facial Treatment Clear Lotion and I like it enough as a toner to put it on top of my beauty round-up list for 2010. It’s got SK-II’s secret Pitera shiz and the added benefits of AHAs to help exfoliate the skin! It doesn’t have alcohol on the ingredient list (as far as I can remember, I threw the box away months ago) which makes it really gentle on skin. My face has been a wreck lately for reasons beyond my control. Yes. Hormonal acne is not something to be trifled with because even your peroxide of choice wouldn’t stop it. Grit your teeth, apply massive amounts of concealer and try to be as gentle as possible when treating the affected areas. This toner does its job.
After I ran out of LUSH’s Angel’s on Bare Skin, I wanted something even more gentler because winter was just sucking out all the moisture from my skin. Dermalogica’s Daily Microfoliant is SOOO GOOD. It comes out as a fine powder when you pour it out of the tube (no Kate Moss cocaine jokes please!). It gets activated by a few droplets of water and you end up with this slightly foamy paste. I know it’s a little weird to be scrubbing your face with something that doesn’t feel the slightest bit abrasive but it does work!
The powder’s got some rice-based enzymes in it, as well as salicylic acid which masquerades as over-the-counter acne medication most of the time but it also happens to be a great chemical exfoliator. Don’t be put off by the inclusion of salicylic acid though, the Daily Microfoliant is so gentle you can use it everyday. YouTube reviewer Lollipop26 believes the Daily Microfoliant worked so much better for her than her Clarisonic, check it out 
I’m trying to fade the red spots I get from old zits as well and the Face Shop’s Post-Acne Nighttime Eraser is a nice product for that. I’m not sure if it’s working or not because I’ve only had this for about 1.5 months now and while my marks are still there, the redness has gone down a bit. It smells really soothing too, I would slap it on even if it doesn’t work LOL. I’ll update you guys on this product when I finish the tube…eventually.
My first Bobbi Brown palette from the extremely generous Catherine! She actually bought the same palette and when I expressed my amazement at its colours, she sent me one for Christmas! I had no idea she was sending me something major so I had a “OH MY GOD SHE DID NOTTTTTTT” moment when I tore the wrapping open lol THANK YOU CAT <33333 Totally digging the slick black packaging too, that crest is hot!
Bobbi Brown Day to Night Warm Eye Palette from L to R: Ivory, Oat, Espresso, Burnt Sugar, Velvet Bronze, Black Plum. I’m particularly in love with the Burnt Sugar shade, it’s a beautiful metallic gold-brown! Cat’s written a fantastic review on this palette, complete with swatches so I shan’t go into too much detail – read what she has to say ;D
I noticed I have a lot more natural-looking FOTDs this year than in the past when I used to be more experimental with colours lol, perhaps I really have grown up omg. Sadly, my skin doesn’t want to get out of its awkward teen stage *stabs* Anyway, this dark brown FOTD has flashes of gold in it for instead of layering the colour on a neutral coloured base, I used my Kryolan Aqua Pearlshade in Gold to create a subtle duochrome effect whoo.
Face:
MAC Studio Fix foundation in NC25
MAC Studio Finish Concealer in NC25
Cheeks:
La Femme Glow On Nectar Peach Blush
Eyes:
Kryolan Aqua Pearlshade in Gold as a base
Bobbi Brown eyeshadow in Burnt Sugar
MAC eyeshadow in Amber Lights
MAC eyeshadow in Shroom as highlight
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner in Honey
MAC Pearlglide eyeliner in Wolf
MAC Browset in Girl Boy
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander NEO
Lips:
Good old Nivea lipbalm!
I like the eyeliner in this look as well, dark grey and gold make a beautiful pairing ;D
Announcement: tea noir will be on a short break this week, I’ll be heading to Malaysia tomorrow to meet my BFF Aaron for the first time! I hope everything goes well and I’ll be back soon to tell you what happens when two fierce bitches meet LOL I’M PRAYING THE WORLD DOESN’T IMPLODE ON US! x
Also, it’s nearly 3am now I don’t have time to read my entry again so forgive me if I have any typos/grammar issues in this baby! Thanks guys, see you soon.
This has got to be the prettiest product shot I’ve ever taken. I would have totally posted this up as a 1280 x 960 wallpaper sized image but that would make me seem obsessive, wouldn’t it?
Just some photos of the Bath & Body Works shower gels and body butter I got from Hid who flew out to San Francisco last month. There isn’t a B&BW store in Singapore so I’m happy I can finally try their products out ;D Doesn’t “Sea Island Cotton” sound so blissfully romantic? Long chilly walks by the beach at sunset, being carried on your boyfriend’s back as he sparkles and runs at superhuman speed through the mossy terrain..oh wait that’s just Twilight lol -Thanks Hid, you’re super!
I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately (pictured above is my current fave, sakura! sakura! from TWG), it’s de-stressing especially after a long arduous day of making a student visa. I have the worst luck in taking ID card photos, all my photo ID cards e.g. my driver’s license, my IC- ALL of them have the most unflattering shots of me and today my visa is going to join my dysfunctional family of monster ID cards.
I actually look entirely different (in a bad I’m-about-to-murder-someone way) in my visa photo and that just sucks because I have to live with it for the next 3 years of my life! Mr Photographer dude, I didn’t just take a day’s leave from work for you to take a lousy photo of me!!!!!!! Fork this -_-
Anyway, I promised you guys a review of the SK-II Facial Treatment Mask and I finally got around to using it last night.
It comes individually wrapped in pretty silvery foil packaging, I actually regretted not taking a photo of it but it was night = shit lighting and I’d rather kick myself than put up a bad photo on this blog lol (yeah sue me for being anal).
Once you’ve ripped open the packaging, you can see the mask is completely soaked in Pitera, a top-secret key ingredient in all SK-II products and the sole reason why SK-II is so goddamn expensive. C’mon guys, the jig is up! WE ALL KNOW IT’S JUST RICE VINEGAR!
Ok ok, don’t sue me. I made that rice vinegar thing up. (tho I won’t be surprised if it’s actually made of rice vinegar lol, juz sayin’) Rice vinegar or not, THIS MASK IS EPIC. I left it on for 30 minutes and removed the mask to reveal the softest, glowing skin *_* The mask itself is made of thick, woven material which fyi, is even thicker than my Silk Whitia masks surprisingly. I LOVE the shape/cutting of the mask- it fits my face perfectly which is a good thing because I hate it when I have to constantly adjust a sheet mask in order to get even coverage on my skin.
This is my first time using anything from SK-II so I’m a little weirded out by the Pitera scent. It smells faintly of fishballs and vinegar LOL I’m not kidding this time! It doesn’t offend me as much as it offends other people so I’m not going to bitch about it.
Overall, I’m really liking the SK-II Facial Treatment Mask and I can seriously see myself emptying whatever remnants of money I have left in my bank account (which isn’t much to begin with >.>) to invest in these masks XD The only drawback is the price (SGD$21 per piece D8) so I think I’m going to stick with my Silk Whitia masks and only purchase this when I find myself a rich boyfriend for special occasions.
Yet again I’m put in a spot where I have to spontaneously declare my love for a country I’ve never been to but have heard/read about it so much (all this with a slight tinge of envy) that I have embraced its culture as though it were my own.
Everything about Japan fascinates me, it’s a nation obsessed with attaining perfection in a sense that everything they do is done with careful grace and everyone is well-groomed and dressed to the nines.
You can pick out plenty of fashion styles in Japan, some are so chic (it just stabs me in the heart to think I live in a country where flip-flops and shorts are the norm) while the others look like they were from an entirely different time/planet/dimension/the space between spaces which amazes me sometimes because all of them are so immaculately dressed despite their slightly warped kooky sense of fashion. Now that is just made of epic fashion win.
I have to keep reminding myself that this blog isn’t entirely about my terror-inducing beauty-related spending habits and my knack for playing pretend chef every once a while but also to document the many things I find intriguing from fashion (dude, I’ve not blogged about fashion in the longest time!) to design-related stuff. So today I bring you a couple of photos of Tokyo from one of my favourite photographers on Flickr, Chillhiro.
img credit: chillhiro@Flickr
There is a certain elegance and beauty to his photos which I love and it’s strange because his photo compositions are so simple yet he manages to capture the rare stillness of a fast-paced metropolitan city like Tokyo. If you like what you see, check out Chillhiro’s photostream here for more visual splendor ;D
*cough* k back to my ridiculous spending habits. (What? You can’t expect me to talk about artsy stuff 24/7, can you?) A colleague of mine, Jas, went to Japan over the Christmas holidays so I gave her a shopping list of stuff I was interested in and she came back with a bag full of yummy goodies for me YAY!
Milk tea is my fave drink in the world and Japanese milk tea is the absolute best!!
Chocolates! Meiji Matcha chocolate, Matcha Kit Kat and Royal Milk Tea Kit Kat (MILK TEA KIT KAT O.M.F.G!!!!!) Of course, you can’t leave Japan without buying some oddly-flavoured Kit Kats. They have different seasonal flavours each year, ranging from the brilliant (milk tea Kit Kat, MILK TEA KIT KAT /o/ /o/ /o/) to the downright bizarre lol (ginger ale Kit Kat anyone?) Honestly I won’t be surprised if they came up with a clam chowder flavoured Kit Kat lmao. Only in Japan guys, only in Japan.
BENTO GOODIES ♥ ♥ ♥ I have pretty technicolor soy sauce bottles to fulfill my wild bento fantasies! The flat plastic thingum you see on the far left is actually a sandwich box (no more soggy bread for me whee!) Jas actually got me a two-tier bento box too but er I kinda left it in the office so I couldn’t take a photo of it, sorry.
Bihada Ichizoku masks! I’ve heard so MUCH about these masks, I think the girly manga illustrations on the packaging’s amusing lol. I’ve not tried them yet but when I do, I’ll write a short review.
That’s all for my Japan haul! But I’m not done yet haha, I’ve got some past purchases I’ve not shown you yet so here they are:
VOV masks! I’ve tried almost all of them and I’m pretty happy with their quality. From L to R: Volcanic Ash Wash-off mask, Black Charcoal Peel-off mask and the Apple AHA Peeling Gel mask. I like the Black Charcoal mask the best so far, i think it’s comparable to the KOSE Seikisho Mask White, works the same way and costs a fraction of the price.
Did I mention I’m officially swamped in masks? Yep. I’m up to my neck in sheet mask nirvana. Here’s the queen of all masks, the SK-II facial treatment mask I bought on a whim at Sephora the other day. I’m just waiting for this little pimple on my chin to evacuate off my face before I try this one out; there is no way in heck I’m going to waste an SK-II mask on a stupid clogged pore.
The Body Shop’s Christmas LE Nutmeg & Vanilla body scrub! I got this during their post-Christmas sale when everything was at 40% off! Not that I need another body scrub but…
Doesn’t it look like a yummy smoothie? It’s got honey, nutmeg and ground walnut in it, I used this yesterday and came out of the shower potentially smelling like a French bakery. That. is. just. so. AWESOME. All my life I’ve wanted to smell like freshly-baked croissants and cream-filled crepes and the body scrub leads me one step closer to my dream. God bless Dame Anita Roddick, RIP. (Ok I’m kidding about the wanting to smell of croissants and crepes lol but the scrub really has a lovely scent!)
I think I shuld end this entry now before it gets any longer than it already is and people start throwing rocks at me lol. It’s TGIF! Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you soon ;D
