OPI Pirates of Caribbean: Stranger Tides Collection

I’ve always wanted a green-toned nail polish to add to my collection, so when I saw “Mermaid’s Tear” I was just in love! I had to get it! I don’t think it’s officially released yet so I’m not sure how my seller was able to get ahold of it, but I’m really loving this polish. The formula is really smooth and streak free which makes for an easy application, and I think the color complements my skin really well.

I’m also really into the crackle trend so of course I had to get Silver Shatter as well. However I’m not feeling it over the light color so I’m only wearing it on my ring finger. I’ll try it over darker colors next time.

OPI Katy Perry Collection

This is “Teenage Dream”. I’ve been loving the glitter nail polish lately so when I saw how awesomely glittery this is in real life, I bought it without thinking twice. It’s this super cute pink with medium sized colorful glitters all over, and micro glitters as the base. Makes for a messy removal, but looks oh so cute on the nails.

Also got the Black Shatter nail polish which started my shatter obsession. I love it over glittery polish! The picture above is over Mad as a Hatter from Alice in Wonderland collection, which I’m totally loving since it’s just a crazy confetti of colorful glitters. Too bad the full bottle is rare now :(

I also finally tried Seche Vite fast drying top coat, which has been amazing so far! It makes everything looks shiny and last for awhile.

My lacquer polish collection so far!

This is either an impressive or tiny collection depending how you look at it. I know some girls who has literally WALL(s) of polishes so I think I’m not too bad, yet most girls I know probably have 5 bottles at the most. This is 15 regular sized OPI and China Glazed + a Seche Vite top coat + OPI Alice in Wonderland mini bottles set. I also have random cheap polish in the back, but I don’t like them as much since the colors aren’t great and application is messy.

It’s tough to choose which color is my favorite. OPI “Mermaid’s Tears” swatched above is one of my top favorites since the formula makes it so easy to apply. I also wear China Glaze’s “For Audrey” a lot since I love Tiffany blue color, but I think the application isn’t as easy since it tends to be a bit streaky. OPI Bubble Bath is yet another favorite since it reminds me of strawberry milk :)

I’m gonna lay off the nail polish purchases for a bit since I bought 5 bottles over the past week (+1 coming in the mail, Essie’s “Matte About You” top coat), but looking at the above picture I’m still missing some important shades to complete the collection. So for my next purchases, I’m looking at blue, red, peach, lavender and true black polish. I’m also loving grey polishes, khaki/neutral and white polishes.

Where to buy in Singapore

I used to buy my polishes online on eBay since they retail for ridiculous amount here (SGD22). However, recently I found out a few local sellers are selling them for more or less the same price as I would have paid if I got them on eBay.

I’ve purchased from Nail Vibe, who has just recently opened a store right across my work place! convenient but bad for my wallet :( I’ve also purchased from TimTam, who is nice enough to meet me at Raffles Place MRT to pass me my purchases. Price-wise they are both comparable to each other so I don’t think it matters much which seller you buy from.

Nail blogs I like

For swatches I would always go to All Lacquered Up and Vampy Varnish. Between the two of them, I don’t think there is any collection they haven’t swatched. For nail decoration ideas, I really really like Chloe’s Nails. Seriously the cutest and most creative mani blog ever!

i had never had this happen in my entire life so i suspect it was an allergic reaction. it was to the point i was ashamed to go back to work the next day, and this is coming from the girl whose “perfect skin” standard is so low that she doesn’t even bother wearing foundation / any make up when going out.

anyway, as soon as I got back to singapore i went crazy trying to repair my skin. on the way back i bought SK-II Cellumination Deep surge cream b/c I had heard so much about it.

It was quite pricey but I managed to get it for S$125 at the duty free store, which is apparently a pretty good price. i also did a lemon mask, rice mask (from The Face Shop) and white egg and yolk mask treatment almost every day and applied SK-II twice a day.

i’m not sure if it was the expensive SK-II cream that i bought or the intensive mask treatment I did that saved my skin (or maybe it just healed naturally after a week) but i really think it’s better than before! the size of my pores are greatly reduced, my skin is super soft + smooth and my freckles are less noticeable (not that i mind the freckles). I also haven’t been getting any pimples at all ever since I started using SK-II.

Here are some pictures I took periodically while my skin was being horrible. I’ll put it under a cut b/c some of it are quite gross.

Day 2: You can see why i freaked out, right? my face was pretty much red with bumps everywhere! and what’s more is that the picture above doesn’t even do justice of what it really was in real life, probably bc i was wearing blue and the walls of my bedroom is also blue, which tones down the red a little? anyway it was even more noticeable and super gross :( i was concerned it would leave permanent scarring!!

Day 5: Started getting better, minus some persistent bumps. At least most of the redness was gone. Still wasn’t back to my normal skin stage.

What I did on Day 1 – 5 is apply egg mask and lemon mask every night, plus SK-II deep surge cream in the morning and at night. The first three days I also used the rice mask from The Face Shop but had to discontinue it since it’s an expensive habit ($4/mask yo!).

After Day 5 I stopped the mask treatment (I did do an egg yolk mask treatment on random days when i eat ramen since I never eat the yolk) and only used deep surge cream at night.

Day 7: much MUCH better. i still had minor leftover bumps on my left cheek but not very noticeable (i can tolerate it). basically back to how my skin was before this weird break out. i know on day 1 pic above i said the iPhone camera made my skin look better, but in this picture it highlighted the spots instead! my skin actually looked more even than the picture above made it seem.

Day 9: not a significant improvement from yesterday, but the leftover bumps are gone. i love how soft my skin is! there is basically no bumps at all and i can barely notice the spots in real life, though my skin is still far from perfect.

Here are the three masks that I bought:

Cereal Rice Mask Sheet – This is the first mask I tried on. It smells nice and has a less runny consistency than other masks I’ve tried, so it wasn’t dripping everywhere when first taken out of the packaging. It actually feels almost like lotion and very moisturizing. I also find that it was easily absorbed into the skin.

Cereal Walnut & Pine Nut Mask Sheet

Cereal Mung Bean Mask Sheet

Other than the rice mask, I found the other two forgettable. It was moisturizing at best, but felt the same as other (cheaper) face masks. I’ll definitely buy more of the rice masks!

Shunji Matsuo studio used to be located at the Wellington Building, but recently they have relocated to The Heeren, which is literally the next building, on the 5th level. Today was my 4th time getting a haircut with them since exactly a year ago. Despite being a regular, I don’t really have a preferred stylist. I usually just let them assign me whoever is available at my convenience. If I recall correctly, I’ve had my hair cut by Kiko, Haruka, Chris and Justin. Each of the stylists have different levels of expertise (and thus different prices), but I would say the quality of their haircut is consistent across the board.

As you can see from the price list link above (which is not inclusive of GST), they ARE more pricey than other salon, but I think it’s very worth it. Each of the stylists I’ve had so far are able to cut your hair in such way that the hair will grow nicely and keep its shape for a very long time. plus the staff are generally very friendly, efficient and doesn’t try to hard-sell / coerce you into buying extra products or getting more than what you originally came for.

Here’s my new hair! well, not exactly new since i’ve always cut it this way since the start of this year =P but I also like the way they style it up. Looks very japaneseeee!

Now if only I can keep it this way…

So that’s why I decided to try eyelash perming (or “lash curl”), saving me the need to curl my lashes everyday so my bare face doesn’t look TOO plain. Today was my 3rd time going. Each perm last about 2.5 months for me and I’ve been quite pleased with the results each time! They do look a bit too dramatic when you’ve just stepped out of the salon, but the lashes loosen up and gets really nice within a couple days.

I’m not wearing mascara or eyelash extension or anything at all! I love it!

I get mine done at Browhaus, which has been excellent in everything so far (it’s also where I get my eyebrow threading done), but after searching online I found out they are quite expensive! Each treatment sets you back S$74.90 including GST, while there are other places that would do it for about S$40. That’s almost HALF the price! I didn’t really feel the weight since I bought a package earlier this year (see my post about threading), but since i’m almost running out I’ll have to give the other places a try before deciding if I should renew with Browhaus. It’s still possible that you get what you pay for, right?

A bunch of singaporean bloggers were commissioned to promote Liese Bubble Hair Color a few months back, so I decided to give it a try. Of course with my affinity to red I ended up with Cassis Berry. This is actually my second time using this product with the first time being 1.5 months ago. Obviously I liked the result enough to re-purchase!

Yeah sorry I only have one picture. I haven’t been using my camera lately so I’ve been forgetting to charge the battery and this was literally the last picture taken before it completely turned off on me!

The result isn’t as intense as the box promised, but that’s to be expected with any DIY hair color on dark hair. I actually like the result better than the box color since they’re not as crazy but still noticeable. If you ARE looking for an intense, deep red color for asian hair, I recommend using L’oreal Feria Power Reds. This dye is also very even in coloring and VERY easy to use, as advertised.

While checking out their facebook page I’ve also learned that Liese have recently improved their formula, so I made sure I got the new box this time (here’s how to tell if you have the new box). I did notice that the formula is less runny than the old one, but color wise I feel that they are more or less the same.

Anyway, I think I will continue using this hair dye for some time :)

Until last year I’ve always been the type to bite and destroy my nails. it’s a bad habit I’ve had ever since I was very young and I just couldn’t kick it off no matter what. However, somehow, some way, last year i started liking the idea of maintaining my nails and keeping them long. I was introduced to OPI when I got my first bottle in “Bubble Bath”. Even now it’s still my favorite out of the bunch. It’s this super cute pastel pink color, almost nude, and it reminds me of strawberry ice cream depending on how many layers you put (I like to put about 3-4 layers).

I got that first bottle in January this year. Between now and then, I’ve managed to collect 16 bottles of nail polishes (yes i’ve just counted them), in various colors and types. Brand-wise they used to be all OPI, which without a doubt is the most popular lacquer nail polish brand out there – used by nail salons and spa! Recently though I’ve branched out to another brand called China Glaze. At first I was disappointed by how streaky China Glaze seems to be, but later on I learned that the colors actually settle quite well when they’ve dried up. I like “For Audrey” from China Glaze, which is a tribute to the gorgeous Tiffany blue.

Since I have so many different colors, I actually do switch them around almost daily depending on my mood. Thus I’ve been using my dailybooth as a sort of nails diary :D Currently I’m wearing this sunshine yellow color from China Glazed called “Happy Go Lucky“. the name suits me well, but at first i wasn’t sure if the color compliments my skin tone well… now i’m just loving it since it makes me happy to have cheerful colors on my nails!

Pretty boring simple bottle right? They don’t even have a proper logo on it! However what got my attention was the little info card that were displayed with the product, saying that this product were part of the 2009 Oscar’s swag bag given out to the nominees. They also said to have been in the business for 8 years but didn’t do any advertising to be successful. Furthermore it claims to be one of the most popular skin care product among Japanese girls, selling at the rate of one bottle every 20 seconds.

Watson’s had a tester, which instructed shoppers to squeeze a small amount on the back of their hands and gently massage. Intrigued, I did exactly that while continue reading the review excerpts posted in cute small post-it notes in handwritten style typeface. The texture of this product is very light – almost watery – and that’s why it was a huge surprise for me when after 20 seconds of massaging the product onto the back of my hand, it started feeling a bit scrubby. So I looked down, and to my surprise the scrubby little things were actually my own dead skin! Gross, i know, but that sold me over and I bought the bottle for S$38. A bit pricey for something bought from a drugstore, yes, but if you saw how it works you’d be convinced too!

When I got home I immediately tried the product on my face. Even after showering + washing my face with my usual scrub, using Cure still takes off a substantial amount of dead skin. I googled the product and judging from the rave reviews everywhere, they weren’t bluffing when they claim to be one of the most popular skin care products, not only in Japan but also Singapore and pretty much all of Asia. What’s even crazier about this product is that it’s made of 91% water (hence the light texture) and very little active ingredients so it’s completely safe to use on any part of your body. Leave it to the Japanese to come up with an insanely good product like this!

You can find out more about the product by watching this video, or googling it like I did! this review is probably the most informational out there, as it has the (very japanese) diagrams that were displayed in-store.

People in North America can buy this product (at your own risk) online through YesStyle (a bit expensive), various sellers on eBay, and a website called Beauty Carousel

Anyway, Orchard Central was just next to 313, so I decided to stop by there for dinner since i knew Everything With Fries opened their fast food branch there with a new menu, appropriately named EwF.

The OC outlet is very cute with white and pink as their dominant color. Service was fast and swift, like a true fast food place and they seem to get a good flow of people coming in and out of the place. the staff were also nice, they’d say “Happy Fries day!” when you order, which I find rather endearing.

Their burgers are $6.90 – $7.90 as you can see above and if you wanted a meal with fries and soft drink it’ll set you back $11.90. I personally think they need to revise their price a bit since people aren’t going to be too happy having to pay additional $5 only for only fries and drinks in a “fast food” setting…

I debated between getting the super burger or fish sandwich, but in the end I tried to be “healthy” and went with the Seared Fish sandwich, which if I remember correctly was topped with mushroom cream sauce (so not-so healthy anyway). I got a meal since I wanted some Salt and Vinegar fries as well.

Close up of the sandwich. Sorry for the lack of focus… YOU try holding a burger on one hand and taking pics with the other while hungry!

The fish sandwich was good. The meat was very soft and it just melts in your mouth. also think the mushroom sauce goes very well with the fish. I’m a huge fan of white fish (or fish in general, really) so this sandwich gets a thumbs up from me!

So with this, I’ve officially been to all three of EwF’s outlet (see my blog about the Holland V and Joo Chiat branch)! I dunno if i’ll be back to the other two outlets as they are a bit out of reach for me, but I’ll most likely frequent the OC outlet since I go to orchard to shop a lot. Next time I will try the super burger! :)