I was just sitting on the couch last night, fiddling with my iphone, my plate of home-cooked pasta (ya, pasta again) on my lap and my leg propped up comfortably when it hit me suddenly that I am now, exactly where I wanted to be during my growing up years teenage/adolescent years (I'm still growing up).

Before I start this, I want to say a very heartfelt thank you to my best buddies. I'm so lucky to have you both in my life. I really don't know what I'll do without you both.

They knew I was feeling a little lonely and bored last Saturday and they decided to both pop over to cook dinner and hang out!

Of course I was more than happy to have them over. Check out our massive cook out!


That's Angeline cooking "Pumpkin with Salted Egg"

So many BB creams out there, but what are the ones you have tried before? Well, here's one that I am using right now and I thought I'll share how the product is.

The product is called Dr Jart+ Premium Blemish Base [SPF45/PA+++] aka Dr Jart BB Cream (a korean brand).

When using any product, I always try to find out first what makes this product different from others. For Dr Jart's BB Cream, they have the following:

♥ HIGH SPF Coverage. This is one of the higher ones in the market. This is very important cos it helps to save one step in my skincare regine which is applying sunblock! :D

♥ TRIPLE functioning benefits. It aids in skin whitening and protects your skin against wrinkles from UV. There are also anti-oxidant ingredients in there for wrinkle improvement. Lastly, it contains white gold while gives a high level of coverage with a natural look that's moisturizing.

♥ Main Ingredients.
Biopeptide: Skin elasticity & wrinkle care
EGF: Complexion & wrinkle enhancement
Acasia collagen: Enhancing skin elasticity &
Improving skin texture
White gold ingredient: Protecting & Purifying skin

Here's a swipe to show you how it looks like inside the bottle.



It is suitable for all ages and most asian skin tones. The product is actually gold in colour. The one I have in the product above is a sampler product.

I think that the coverage is quite light - perfect for those who are looking for the natural look that's not cakey! The effect is what I call "Naturally Dewy". My photo above is a close up of my skin with this BB Cream. The BB Cream also glides on very smoothly which makes it very easy to apply. My friend commented on how even my skin tone looks - but did I reveal my secret? :)

Oh and I just want to add also that I brought this handy little tube with me on my recent trip to China where it was very cold and I love this BB cream a lot! It kept my face moisturized! Not once did I feel tightness on my face (which would have been likely if I were using foundation!). Kudos!



Go try it out at a Watsons near you! Dr Jart+ Premium BB Cream is sold at $59.00 exclusively at Watsons and found in most stores. For more info, you can click here or join their FB fanpage here.

Some time back in August, the whole gang of us at Oasis went for our annual office retreat and this year it was to Phuket.

We've had a good year this year. Everybody worked really hard as a team despite the challenging deadlines. Phuket came as a superb treat for us all to rest, relax and bond for both our offices in Singapore and Malaysia.

It was mostly hot throughout our trip with occasional showers. The sun, sea, food and awesome food made this trip one to remember by.

Check out some of the fun photos we took.


That would be me and the BF discussing how to get that fish down there. LOL. If you click on this picture to enlarge, you'll see the blue waters are really quite awesome.

A group shot of half the team I work with.

This can be roughly called the other half that's missing in the above picture.


I swear it was mad hot. Covering myself from head to toe? NECESSARY. The one on the left of the pic with no head is me. :)

Yesterday, Angeline and I went over to Tanglin Mall's Guardian outlet where VICHY has a big counter and a big skin test machine to get our final test.

Just wanted to share with all her report card. Haha!


Before


After using VICHY Normaderm Series for 2 weeks

That's some mega improvement after only 2 weeks and I'm really happy for her. After the test, we went to Chilli's at Tanglin Mall to celebrate.

For those who haven't been to Chilli's, the ribs are good! Way better than the Tony Roma's ones. They also have this dish called Chips with Salsa and it's $6.90 for freeflow! Shiok! Haha. Perfect for those who drink beer and want some munchies to go with it!

Anyway, so when we were seated, we were still pretty excited about the test results and was yakking on about it when another of our friend, Shan, came. Woah! She has this spurt of angry pimples and Angeline immediately became a brand advocate. LOL. I took this series of photos in amusement.


Oh you got pimple, use this! Come lemme squeeze some for you to try at home.

Now that all her pimples are gone, I know what I need to buy her for Christmas!!! The VICHY Double Corrective Whitening Essence for her to clear her acne scars! :D



***

Here's my outfit of the day.



And here's a grouppie shot with the VICHY folks!

This blog has always been a mix of so many topics ranging from iphone app reviews to food, from travel to beauty and so much more.

I have always been hesitant to write about personal stuff because well, I don't know. It seems my blog is overly diverse already.

But hey, I decided that I am going to start writing about more personal stuff. Isn't this what life is?

Life as I know it, is made up of so much more than the material things we own, the places we go and the experiences we get. It is also made up of so much more emotions that are often classified as personal. And to be true to this blog of mine, it is my life, as I know it.

So keep a lookout for more of em' personal posts. :)

Here is a quickie shot of my little furries that make me smile in life.



Sleepyhead, greedy furball

My motto in dieting is always about the right diet and good exercise. I don't believe in shit like slimming centres or pills, or slimming drinks. But that's another story for another time.

My purpose of this post is to share with you the meals I have prepared for myself which are wholesome and very healthy (in my opinion). The ingredients are as easy to find as bread and eggs. Promise!

See, in Singapore, everywhere beckons sinful food. You hardly find reasonably priced salads/sandwiches which are healthy (unless you work at Raffles Place and have a lot of $ to spend on $10 salads!!). So that makes healthy eating in Singapore, quite a challenge. There's always junk food/chicken rice/fried noodles/etc etc that are readily available, but those aren't exactly everyday healthy food.

So, I head to the supermarket's raw food aisle often and make my own! Enjoy!

1) Multi-grain Sandwich




I start each day with a yummy healthy sandwich.


Layer a slice of ham, butterhead lettuce, cherry tomatoes and thinly sliced cucumbers between 2 slices of multi-grain bread and you're ready to rock and roll. No sauce, no butter. It's nice!

You may replace ham with egg mayo (low fat mayo mixed with smashed boiled egg) or replace it with tuna mayo (low fat mayo mixed with canned tuna in water).

I always believe in DIY'ing your own egg/tuna mayo. That way you know exactly what goes in between your sandwich! :)

2) Salads

Contrary to popular belief, salads are not boring. Think of them as empty canvases on which you can paint anything you imagine. And be warned. My salads don't come with sauce. Of any kind.

At Carrefour, you will also see them selling roast chickens. Well that's a good buy! Take off the skin (and visible fats) and cut up the meat! It makes as a great addition to your salads!

All of the above are great on its own. If you prefer, you can buy shredded bacon bits/bread crumbs to add on but I think that's unnecessary carbo.

For my salad, I add a mixture of butterhead lettuce, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sliced cucumber. You can also add little corns (which add yums to the whole salad).

3) Meatballs

For more protein, I take fresh minced beef, marinate it overnight with oyster sauce, pepper, basil, 1 egg and sesame oil. I then form them into little balls and pop them into the oven for a little grilling. 15 mins later, out comes the yummy meatballs.

Don't throw the sauce/"juice" that came out of the meatballs! Cut the broccoli up, pour in the juices and go for another steam. 5-8mins will do.

Meatballs + Broccoli? Max yums.

****

I hope you enjoyed my little healthy post. Healthy and yummy food can go hand in hand and it does NOT have to be expensive.

Does dieting mean you only eat salad? Nope. It means you watch what you eat and eat everything in moderation.

Just a little note, if you notice the ingredients above, all of them are interchangeable to keep things interesting. E.g.: Broccoli goes super well with Salmon too!

The challenge ends this Wed, 24 Nov. I'll just like to write a little post to share my challenger and my journey with VICHY.

1 month back, VICHY contacted me regarding this contest. They told me that Normaderm, the anti-blemish range, helps to reduce acne, redness and shine. And they are max confident of their products. They told me to find a friend who has these skin problems and they'll put her on a 2 week skin challenge.



I attended a rather educational talk about their product USPs and they even gave me a skin test. Of which I tested results of moderate to very high sebum on my cheeks and forehead. :/

1 month later, the challenge has ended and my dearest friend, Angeline, who was my friend who took up this challenge, has benefited so much from this.

Angeline and I go way back. We've been friends for... 13 years...! Check out an old secondary school photo of us!



It was racial harmony day. Angeline's the one on the left most of this pic and I'm the one in the blue sari. Oh those were the times. I think her skin was better then cos we didn't have makeup on in secondary school.

We kept in touch and 13 years later, and we're closer than we've ever been. Thanks to VICHY of course. However what makes this challenge most rewarding would be that:

Her skin actually made progress!

The Eucerin DermoPURIFYER skincare regime is made up of 3 products (cleanser, exfoliating scrub and moisturiser. They key ingredient in this product is the Lactic Acid that is proprietary to Eucerin. The lactic acid reaches the pores where pimples and blackheads originate and effectively eradicates them.

Here's something I found in their ad:

“Derived from milk, Lactic Acid is well-known not only for its skin hydrating properties but as one of the gentler AHA exfoliants to unclog pores.”

Dr Lawrence Khoo,Consultant Dermatologist

In Singapore, every famous chicken rice in Singapore is called Hainanese Chicken Rice. If all of the yummy chicken rice in Singapore "hails" from Hainan, then when at Haikou, Hainan, I obviously must try the Chicken Rice.

It wasn't easy to find one in Haikou. Most of Haikou had loads of steamboat places. But nonetheless, I found one after getting lost.

Check out the pictures!

Looks nice right? But it's not. The texture is chewy... like the chicken is a bit undercooked. There was no chilli provided and the rice is sticky normal rice.

I always thought the beauty and art of every chicken rice is in 3 areas which is the Chicken, the Rice and the Chilli. Perfection in all 3 would give you the best. But this Hainan Chicken Rice (they call it Wen Chang Ji in China) failed on all 3 counts.

And because I want to have some vegetables to go with this...

The hot plate brinjal is not nice. It should be renamed cold plate brinjal.

As I passed by some rows of shops in a cab, I saw a shop named Singapore Hainan Chicken Rice!! LOL.

Maybe after Wen Chang Ji came to Singapore, the people here made it fabulous and call it Singapore Hainan Chicken Rice now.

If you're interested, here's the address:

No.22 Datong Road, Longhua District, Haikou 570102, China [Map here]

If you have been reading my blog here for awhile now, you would know that ever since I got my iPhone4, I have been completely consumed by it. I was always mindful of it and if I were overseas, I would check my iPhone4 first before my passport.

But last Sunday, something really really REALLY bad happened. =((!!

See, I woke up to a very hot Sunday and decided to be productive. The sheets needed washing so I hauled the whole lot to the machine and put it through a 30 degrees wash and dry mode.

Then there was this horrible thumping sound in the machine that made it sound like I overloaded it. That got me worried about it. The BF said maybe the washing machine was unbalanced and asked me to check it later.

I soon forgot about it and then when it was done, I happily took out the laundry and saw my iPhone4 in there.

T_T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was HORRIFIED!!

I heard people say that if your iPhone has water damage, you put it in a bowl of rice and hope for the best.



Nope, didn't work. But then hey, it might if it was just a little water. But mine, my baby iPhone4 went through a 30 degree wash and dry. :/

I sped it off to Singtel/Apple Service Centre at Comcentre aka hospital and begged for help.

To my expected dismay, they took a torch light and shined to the top and bottom of my phone and the water indicator was marked red already which indicated water damage. -.-

So since warranty doesn't cover that, they offered me a scheme called out of warranty whereby I had to trade in my phone and pay $350 and in return I get a brand new iPhone4.

I was left with no choice right?! And well, honestly, this is cheaper than buying a new phone T_T

So there.



I am so careless. :(

Super big hugz to my friend Shan and Angeline who drove over, picked me up and went to Singtel Comcentre with me to solve my problem of my phone. What would I do without best friends????

My skin problems are plenty but my main concerns are enlarged pores, oily skin (cheeks, nose, chin and forehead - oh wait is that the whole face?!) and whiteheads and blackheads and the occasional breakouts.

I was recommended to VICHY some time back and you probably already know that because I have not exactly been very quiet about my love for this product.

I have received some questions about my skincare routine with VICHY (i.e.: what do you use first? and when do you apply this and that?). So today, I shall address it all in a graphical post. :)

1) CLEANSE, you must.

Yup, I use this twice a day, once in the day and once in the night. Use warm water so that the dirt and makeup comes off easier. Use a 20cent-sized glob of this, then rinse with warm water. Remember to take off your makeup with a proper makeup remover!

2) TONING closes your pores

4 years back, I was this goondu thinking toning is unnecessary. And I squeezed at my pimples a lot. Look how enlarged my pores are now. :( Now I am religiously toning everyday. It becomes a habit that you come to enjoy. I swear by it!

It's alcohol free and feels very soothing to my face.

3) MINIMISE those pores!

Yes. This wonderful product (as reviewed here previously) works wonders. So slap it on!

4) MOISTURISE moisturise moisturise



Yea baby. Get your skin hydrated with the day cream (as reviewed here previously). If your skin is hydrated, it won't be deceived into thinking you have dry skin and start to over-produce oil ya!

In the night, I use the night cream (as reviewed here previously).

5) ELIMINATE those pimples!

This is a great pimple cream. When put at night, it works magic overnight and the next day, the pimple will harden and dry up. :) Quick relief!

6) CAMOUFLAGE and heal!

VICHY is now giving away S$300 VICHY Hampers via the VICHY Anti-Perfection Challenge! All you have to do is vote for me here and you could walk away with a hamper! Click here naooo!!

Every photo you see there is the progress of my friend using the VICHY products. See her progress! Every photo is clickable (there are 12 of them!) and click on the GREEN VOTE button! You can vote everyday!