Makeup Quest

Hello guys, how is everyone doing?

You're probably very surprise to hear from me. Well, I'm just dropping a short note here to say that this blog will be on a hiatus till.. I'm not even sure when? The thing is I've started working full time and while I know that is no excuse to laze on the blogging front, I'll just be honest and say I've lost my blogging drive. I've got so many things on right now with my life, I just can't seem to blog anymore. For that, I'm truly sorry to all my readers. I've considered shutting down this blog permanently but decided not to, in case anyone wants to refer to past posts. 

Just so you know, I'm not abstaining from makeup or anything. Ha ha, that will never happen! But I've been buying much less and just trying to use up whatever I have, so there isn't anything new to write. Also, nowadays when I do get new stuff, I can't be bothered to put it aside for photographing before using it. I'll just rip the packaging off and use it. 

There are so many good blogs out there and new ones are popping up everyday, so I'm sure you won't miss this one. :) I'm still occasionally following a few onsugar blogs but like I said, i don't have as much time. I'm still contactable though, so if you have any questions or just anything, you can drop me an email or an Onsugar message.

thanks for supporting my blog thus far, once again, I apologize for the hiatus. Take care, everyone!

Just thought I'll share with you guys what I made... a month back? LOL, told you I'm pretty backlogged on my entries, but enjoy the food porn nonetheless!

It was a rainy weekend and being stuck at home and feeling bored, I decided to do some baking. Somehow, rainy weather always puts me in the mood to bake! Grate grate grate the carrots, with my mom's trusty old-school grater! 

Lots of beta-carotene!

Sorry, but I was so focused on making the batter, I forgot to take pictures of the process. But into the oven the cake goes!

And here's how the fully baked carrot cake, in all it's yellowy glory, looks like. I added walnuts into the batter for added crunchiness. 

Moist crumbs of carrot-y goodness.

What's a carrot cake without its signature cream cheese frosting? So, I went ahead and made some with my hand-held mixer. 

And this was what my family and colleagues enjoyed the Monday after that rainy weekend, cheers!

Thanks for looking at this quick baking post!

A while back, I decided to make some purchases in the light of Bath & Body Works' thanksgiving "Buy 3, Get 3 Free" offer. I figured it would be a mini birthday gift to myself and I've been thinking of trying out a few more scents, plus they are cruelty-free!

Here's what I bought:

A crapping load full of shower gels, ho ho!

I paid US$33 for 3 bottles, and the other 3 bottles came free. What a splendid offer this was. All in all, shipping and everything came to around S$58, which translates to S$9.70 per bottle. Not bad a price, considering how online blogs sell these for S$16-$18 a pop and let's not even mention the duty-free shops in the airport (I think I saw them going for $20-$30?)..

I've tried 4 of them so far, so I can kinda give a few mini reviews on the scents. Let's go through the flavours I picked out, shall we?

Exotic Coconut

"Roasted coconut folded into sweet cream. At once, both fresh and sensuous."

This is one of their older scents and unfortunately, I haven't tried out this shower gel. However, I've sniffed it and it smells really rich! It's a pretty heavy scent, something you'd want on a rainy day (or during winter months for those lucky seasonal countries!). You really do get the warm, toasted coconut scent with a touch of vanilla cream. Smells heavenly, so I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out! 

One thing I've discovered about B&BW scents is that they can smell different in the bottle and on the skin; so if you think a certain scents smells good in the bottle, it may not be so when you're washing yourself with it, and vice versa.  

Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin

"A cozy blend of fresh pumpkin, crisp apple and spiced vanilla."

And yet, another bottle which I haven't tried but I've sniffed it...and i'm kinda on the fence on this one. When I chose this scent, I kinda had a vision of a warm, buttery, caramel-ly pumpkin scent interspersed with a light shot of apple now and then, well, because that's what the description says isn't it?

But when I smelled this... it's not what I expected. You can definitely smell the pumpkin - in fact, that's the predominant scent here, whatever apple and vanilla notes are mostly wiped out - but it's not the warm, fuzzy scent I envisioned. The pumpkin smells pretty artificial and flat, and the lack of vanilla and apple means there's almost no cozy-ness to the scent... if I'm making any sense. It just an unexpected weird scent, but I'll have to try this out before passing the final verdict.

Honey Autumn Apple
 

"A fresh blend of crisp red apple, sparkling nectarine and a touch of honey." 

Now I've been using this shower gel quite a lot and th scent is pretty accurate; it's easily one of my favourites out of the bunch. If you're looking for a clear yet warm, comforting scent, this is it. The apple is the primary scent here and it imparts an almost coying, sweet apple-y smell, but the nectarine and honey lurking at the back manage to balance it and keeps the shower gel smelling light. I love using this on rainy days or when I wanna envelop myself in a sweet cozy scent the whole day, cos yeah, this is one hella' lasting scent!

Coconut Lime Breeze

"An exotic scent of coconut water, lime blossom and bergamot inspired by a tropical breeze of tropical fruits and luscious citrus for lather that bursts with fragrance. Top Notes: Sparkling Tangerine, Lemon Italy Orpur, Neroli, Bergamot Italia Orpur, Zesty Lime Juice; Mid Notes: Watery Melon notes, Sheer Muget, Pineapple Juice, Jasmine Petals, Lime Blossom."

Ha ha, another scent that proves that smelling the gel in the bottle can be deceiving! When I sniffed this initially, I thought it was gonna be my favourite scent of the whole bunch, because in the bottle, it smells of just the right balance between warm, toasted coconut and crisp, fresh lime!

However, when I slapped it onto my body, oh my gosh, the lime over powered everything! I smelled like a very good version of Mama Lemon dish washing liquid. I don't know about the other complex notes, what tangerine and bergamot and jasmine petals; it was just tart lime everywhere! There was no hint of coconut at all, until the very end when you're toweling yourself dry and the faint base scent of coconut just lingers on your fingertips. Nevertheless, it's a very refreshing scent for hot days or when you wanna feel energized and awake! The longevity of the scent is okay, not particularly long-lasting.

Cucumber Melon
 

"Our original, classic Cucumber Melon fragrance is a crisp, fresh scent that evokes the optimism of a dewy summer morning."

This is a highly perplexing scent. It's so strange... it confuses me. I chose this because of how much PinkieCharm of Youtube raves about it (it's like her HG, favourite B&BW scent evvaarrr) and again, I had this vision of a crisp, slightly sweet but mostly fresh neutral melon and cucumber scent in my head. But I smelled this, oh. It's so strange. It doesn't smell like melon at all. It smells..like a very strange, very soapy-scented cucumber. Kinda like alkaline you know, have you ever sniffed a bar of harsh soap or some sodium hydroxide? It smells even weirder than my Mama Lemon Coconut Lime Breeze. And when I bathed with it, gosh, how I hated the strong chemically alkaline scent! 

Now I'm perplexed. Why, or how does PinkieCharm even like the scent?

Japanese Cherry Blossom

"A seductive and mysterious floral scent for lather inspired by the exotic gardens of Japan. Top Notes: Asian Pear, Fuji Apple and Ume Plum; Mid Notes: Japanese Cherry Blossom, Butterfly Lily, Kyoto Rose, Mimosa Petals."

I wanted to try this scent simply because I've heard so much about it - seems like anyone and everyone who tried it, adores it. But with all that hullabaloo about, what, mimosa petals and ume plum, it's just a very soft powdery scent.

Honestly, it's such a soft, subtle scent that it doesn't even last for a hour after my shower. I towel myself dry and I'm left wondering where the scent had gone. But that being said, it's a very feminine, gentle, pleasant scent. I don't know which note or ingredient it is but this gel has got a baby powder smell to it. If you like the smell of babies (and I suppose most women do, that's why this scent is so popular), you'll like this. I don't really care for babies but I enjoy using this on days when I'm feeling a little zen, "in the zone" and lady-like, hah!

So that's my mini overview of these 6 B&BW scents, hope it was helpful and that you enjoyed reading it. If you asked me so far..

Most favourite scent: Honey Autumn Apple
Least favourite scent: Definitely that cucumber melon thing, hands down

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Oh, and if that was the mini part of my birthday gift to myself, this is the major part:

Yeah, I got myself an iPad Mini with a red body kit! It makes reading articles, magazines and manga so much easier! Plus, I can balance it on my tummy and watch YouTube Videos when I'm in bed at night, ha ha ha!

Anyway, thanks for looking at this post, guys! Let me know if you have any favourite B&BW scents or if you've tried any of the 6 scents.

Gah, I'll like to start by apologizing to everyone for the lack of posts. You know, it's the festive period and so many things are happening both in and out of my work life. Plus, I'm SO back logged on my entries that it's a bit frightening but let's get started before it gets out of control, lol!

3 weeks back, I went for my first ever marathon, the Run for Hope 2012.

Uhh, it's not really a full marathon but it was nevertheless 10km. I've been jogging and gymming routinely ever since I returned from my student exchange back in January this year; gotta lose those post-exchange pounds, you have no idea how round I got spending winter in Canada. Usually I'll manage 5-6 km per run, so doing 10 km was pretty challenging for me. Nonetheless, I decided to step up may game in the name of cancer research!

It was just breaking dawn (no, no Twilight pun intended) when we all reported to the Padang at 7 am. It was gonna be a run around Marina Bay Sands.

My colleague and I decided to take some (bare faced) selcas before the run. This is the first marathon for both of us, so naturally we were very nervous but  excited at the same time.

The starting point at the Esplanade bridge.

Yeah, it was a LONG run, but I thoroughly enjoyed it because the scenery was so beautiful throughout the entire run. Everything could be clearly seen under the crisp morning sunlight - the iconic MBS hotel with its boat-like architecture, the SG Flyer, the Esplanade, Gardens By the Bay, etc.

We didn't die! All of us were well and kicking after the refreshing run. Took us about 1 hr 15 mins to complete the 10 km.

What else is next but breakfast at the new Tiong Bahru Bakery at Raffles Place? No better way to replace the calories used.

Our smoked salmon and cream cheese burger and my cuppaccino in front with the really pretty foam art.

We ordered the Praline Pear tart too, quite delicious!

And here's the NOTD that I spotted effort the run:
(right hand)

(Left hand)

I'm adoring the bright colors and diagonal/horizontal stripes. I think the only color missing was the bright blue, but meh! 

All in alI, it was a great experience for a first marathon and it has kinda gotten me hooked. I'll be going for another one in January, so I shall keep up with my training! 

Thanks for looking, everyone. :)

I'm not sure if you haven't already spotted Essence's new trend edition, but my tardiness in posting this update was probably due to me being out of the country last week and missing the launch and hence, missing some of the polishes that I want!

But I'm sure the Essence Cosmetics staff will stock them up soon, so better late than never, here's their latest release:

This trend edition doesn't include any cosmetic products and only consists of nail colours.

Very lem-worthy nail colours, I must say.

Seems like everyone is hopping onto the Disney badnwagon recently, what with Sephora US releasing their Cinderella collection (did you see that gorgeous eyeshadow palette?!) and e.l.f launching their evil queen-cruella devil-maleficient kits. But I think Essence took it the right way by coming up with Snow White-inspired nail polishes instead of makeup products, cause let's be honest, who else needs more makeup with all those releases?

 
[This image along with the two images below are taken from parokeets.com, because I didn't get the press release of the polishes.]

The polish collection centers around the bright red bottle of polish, Snow White (S$3.90), with 7 smaller bottles of polishes embodying her 7 dwarfs (S$3.50 per bottle).

I have my eyes on Dopey, Sneezy and Bashful!
[Update: I've bought Dopey and Bashful! Found them restocked at Bedok Central's Watsons.]

The collection also includes 3 special effect toppers: Evil Queen, Prince Charming and the Huntsman (S$4.30 per bottle).

 
Last but not least are the nail art stickers (S$2.80) and the nail file (S$2.80). 

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Aside from that, Essence will also be revamping their current Colour & Go nail polishes this November/December!

[This image and the image below are credited to nihrida.com]

Improvements:

• 44 new and trendy colours
• a new formulation that unites particularly intensive, long-lasting color and shine effects with an extremely short drying time for perfect nail polish results
• is formaldehyde, toluene and emollient phthalate free
• a newly patented professional brush that captures more color and distributes polish on your nails even faster, more accurately and smoothly without any streaks
• an upgrade to 8 ml instead of 5 ml per bottle

This applies to their Nude Glam range of polishes too.

"The new nude glam nail polishes also stand out for their gel-shine effect as well as their fast-drying and long-lasting innovative formula. The soft nude shades – sometimes creamy, sometimes shimmering – are slightly transparent with the first application and offer more coverage when a second coat is applied. One thing is for sure, the individual nude look will never be boring!"

With the increase in volume, the price per bottle also increases slightly from S$2.80* to S$2.90. But that's only a 10 cents difference for 3 ml more, making it still very affordable. Plus Essence nail polish formulations have mostly been very good - they apply smooth and non-streaky with full opacity. Being a fan of their polishes, I can't wait for these new Colour & Go polishes to be available!

*Thanks to Cherubslips for the amendment in the pricing. 

What do you think? Are you excited for these new polishes by Essence? Bets of all, they are all cruelty-free, yay!