Review of beauty & body products I use - Part 1

I'm a person who absolutely loves to buy skincare products, body products and makeup products but seldom use them.
You see, I just cannot resist the temptations when I walked past Watsons and the big SALE sign is screaming at me, beckoning me to go in and "have a look". Normally, "have a look" will end up with buying alot of products which I dunno when I will use them :p

Anyway, I wanna do a review of the products which I bought and use (or will use) so that I can safely eliminate those products which do not work well for me. This is going to be a long post, so I will break it up into hair, body, skincare and makeup :)

By the way, all the pictures uploaded here are derived from the internet. I personally never take these pictures myself :)

For Hair
Shampoo - KerastaseI use this shampoo as my hair is permed and I want to maintain the curls. So far so good, no complaints :)

I alternate the Kerastase shampoo with this shampoo

As you can see, all the shampoo i'm using are for permed/curly hair. Besides maintaining the curls, it also helps to moisturize the hair deeply for softer, more natural curls.

Conditioner

Essential Conditioner by Kao. I love the sweet smelling fragrance and I find it not bad for my hair, though I would like to try other conditioners after I am done with the current bottle.

Leave-In Conditioner

This conditioner is really a mouthful to pronounce - Schwarzkopf Gliss Liquid Silk Express Repair Conditioner - phew!
I got this conditioner from a beauty store near my workplace. I cannot find it in Watsons, Guardian, NTUC etc....The reason why I bought this conditioner is because it is pink! Nice shimmery pink which I love! Result wise, it is quite good as it leaves my curls looking natural and in good shape

Hair Serum
Skinfood Extra Virgin Oil Essence
I first bought this product when I went to Korea 2 years ago. It was selling for SGD6 then. I grabbed 3 bottles of this. When I came back to Singapore, I went to check at the Skinfood outlets here and found that it was retailing at SGD 16 per bottle! I kicked myself for buying only 3 bottles. Subsequently, whenever my colleagues or friends are going to korea, I will include this item in my shopping list to them, hehehe.
This serum is not oily and I can spread it easily to the hair ends. Besides that, it has a nice subtle smell which lingers throughout the whole day! :)

Above are the basic and necessary hair products which I will use everyday. Besides the above products, I also bought the following products which I will use occasionally or never use at all:

Liese Juicy Shower Hair Mist

Seriously, I do not know what is the use of this hair mist. It does not make your curls stay, nor is it a leave in conditioner. I only use this hair mist when my hair reeks of "food smell" after coming back from lunch at the hawker centres. But one thing to note is, the fragrance, though it smells heavenly, does not last and at most it last only 30 mins. As a result, I don't think I will want to buy this product again. Now I just can't wait for it to be finished

Lucidol-L Designing Whip Hair Foam - Springy Curls
I have to be very frank. After I permed my hair, I go all out to buy almost any products that promised to achieve bouncy and lasting curls. No reviews about this product, coz I have not use it yet.

Schwarzkopf Osis Curl Liquid
I used this once and probably i sprayed too much, it made my hair hard like barb wire. Ok enough said, this will be a stand alone item in my cabinet until I have the mood to put it into the trash bin

Right now I can't really remember what hair products are sitting in my cabinet, unless I do a stock take.
The next post will be on skincare........coming up soon :)

一个星期六的下午

孩子们都在睡觉，而我呢？正看着天空发起呆来。。。

这是一个灰灰的下午。天空灰灰的，人的心情不由自主也变得灰色了。或许，这是因为我很想睡，但却不能好好的睡。在多一下，又要去上课了！如果没上课的话，我相信我的心情肯定是多彩的！

天，又要下起雨了。我多么想躺在沙发上，看书看电视都好。我真是一个懒散的人。
我好累啊！好想睡觉！。。。

A Heartwarming Morning

Yesterday I slept at 4am, as I'm busy packing all the stuff. Naturally I could not wake up early this morning.

At around 8.30am the little girl woke up and whispered "mummy" softly in my ear. I turned to look at the clock and realised that it's only 8.30am. Thus I ignored her and continued to sleep. When she saw that I got the intention to sleep instead of waking up, she kissed me on the cheeks and stroked my hair and whispered gently "mummy, you sleep ok? I dun disturb you" My first reaction to that is not smiling but thinking is her mouth smelly when she kissed me? Hahaha...ok ok im such a mean thing, but actually deep in my heart I feel very warm :)

The little girl did not fuss for milk and she just sat besides me, watching me sleep. When I woke up at 9.30am, I realised that she was still sitting on the bed. I asked her what she's doing, why sit on the bed and never drink milk? She replied that she's waiting for me to wake up. I asked her why she did not wake me up and ask me to make milk for her. She said mummy nevermind ok, I can wait for you to wake up. Oh My! I really did not know what to say! In order not to disturb me from sleeping, she rather wait for 1 hour for her milk! Seriously, can a 4 yr old kid has that kind of patience? My tears well up in my eyes. This little girl of mine, whom I have scolded countless times, did not want to disturb me. This little girl, whom I have beaten countless times, waited for me to wake up.

It makes me realised, that no matter how many times you beat your kid, out of frustration or anger, their love to you is always unconditional. It also makes me realised that I should cherish these moments, for when the girl grows up, she may not kiss me in the morning and wait for me. Seriously, deep down in my heart, I'm really very glad and thankful I have this girl, who knows how to warm my heart during difficult times and consoling me when she knows Im not in the right mood. What more can a mother ask for? :)

Life without a maid.....

Life without a maid....is satisfying albeit busy and tiring. But it really gives me great satisfaction to do all the household chores myself. I cook for the kids, wash clothes, iron clothes, vacuum and mop the floor, tidy up the whole place, wash toilets etc....ooohh...can't imagine i actually enjoyed doing all these! hahaha

My typical day starts at 6.15am. I woke up around this time to prepare sherise for school. gotta pack her school bag, prepare her snack box and water bottle. After that, make a bottle of milk for her to drink, let her do her "morning business", help her brush her teeth, change her into school uniform. Then it's off to tying her hair, before bringing her downstairs to wait for school bus. Her school bus will arrive at 7.20am. I still cannot understand why the school bus needs to be so early when school starts at 8.30am. To think that the kindergarten is just 10~15 mins drive away!

After sending her off, i will be rushing to prepare myself to go to work. When i go home in the evening, it will be another round of tedious routine, which includes doing the dishes, ironing, vacuuming, coaching sherise in her school work, teaching didi some stuff, before preparing the kids for sleep at 9.30pm. Prior to bedtime, i will also read books to sherise. I wanna train up her vocabulary as I want her to be able to read more words. But nowadays, instead of bedtime stories, we will be busy reciting poems or linking memory games, to prepare for Sat's shichida lesson :(

Didi doesn't have much patience and hence reading to him is an extremely tedious job. He's not interested in books of any sort except his favorite Thomas. As a result, I have to buy books that are "thomas-related"...roll eyes.....

Without a maid made me realised how little time I have been spending with the kids in the past. Previously, with a maid, I tend to let the maid handle the kids, while I hide in the room to surf net. I came to realise that this is indeed very unhealthy. So now, it's the other way round. Instead of cooping inside the room, I make full use of my time to teach them and educate them. I have to say it's much more meaningful and it definately bring the kids closer to me. Didi is now very close to me, will hug me every now and then, will look for me when he can't see me, will sit on my lap without me asking him to. It warms my heart every time when i think of those endearing moments :)

As for Sherise, she has always been very close to me, probably because we have been sleeping together since she was a baby. When the maid was around, she will tend to look for the maid because she said mummy is too busy playing computer. It breaks my heart when I heard this statement but I know what she said is true. Now with the maid gone, i can sense that she is actually much happier coz mummy is no longer playing computer (dun have time to play also) and mummy is spending more time playing with her :)

So, without a helper, it is indeed a blessing in disguise. Though it is more tiring to look after the kids and doing household chores, but the result is much more rewarding. I told Sim, if possible, let's not employ maid anymore and he agreed with me. As for now, I need to perform some time management. I always feel I dun have enough time! I slept at 1am everyday and I hope i can sleep earlier with proper planning of time. Yesterday I plucked bean sprouts from 11.30pm to 12.15am and as I'm plucking the sprouts, I curse and swear at myself. Why can't I just buy those plucked bean sprouts? Why am I soooo stupid to buy those that needs to be plucked and wasted my sleeping time plucking? Or better still, don't buy the bean sprouts and save all the trouble! Haiz....constant reminder to myself - proper time management!!

Twilight - Eclipse

Went with Ash to watch Twilight Eclipse today at Cineleisure, 8pm. This is the movie that both of us wanted to watch badly, coz we are drooling over Edward and Jacob! :D
Especially Jacob! Oh my, his body is so HOT!

Prior to watching the movie, we had dinner at Pasta mania. Ash took some creamy sauce pasta which is definately not my favourite and I took seafood Marinara. I'm actually on a serious diet and thus I forced myself not to finish the whole plate of pasta (which I couldn't finish anyway). I also refrained myself from ordering calamari, coz I really dun wanna overeat and stuff myself silly with food.

Ok, back to the movie.....
Reviews:
Besides getting to see the 2 eye-candy, the movie follows the book quite closely, although I would say the book is definately more interesting. I like the fighting part, esp. the part whereby Edward bites off Victoria's head. Cool!!

The part when Jacob snuggled against Bella as a werewolf, it was indeed very heart warming. Immediately I turned to ash and asked her "Do you want to keep the werewolf as your pet?" Wah can see her head nodding up and down frantically. Come on, be realistic please, you will never get the werewolf as your pet lor, hahaha

Recommended to watch, not once, not twice, but over and over again! Just by looking at Edward and Jacob make the ticket worthwhile! Im going senseless and mindless already.... :p

Books!

Chanced upon these books online and I decided to buy it. Reason? Because the books are Disney Princess and Thomas train! The gal is very into Disney Princess nowadays and everything from her school bag, to her water bottle and even her undies are Disney princesses! So without hestitation, I bought these lovely hardcovers for her :)



As for the boy, since he cannot really recognise and recite A-Z, hence I bought him his favourite to motivate his learning


Besides that, also bought these books since they are 3 for $10


I hope I have the time to read them the books..............................

Toy Story 3

Brought the girl to watch Toy Story 3 last sunday, 6.30pm show at JP




Overall, I find the show was ok but I still prefer Shrek, hehehe

There are a few characters in Toy Story which I like and one of them is.....


PEAS IN A POD!!!

They are so damn cute! They have cute faces and they are very mobile, can zip and unzip themselves easily, hahaha

There are of course a few baddies in the show and the most terrible one is LOTS-O! Hate this strawberry bear!



This big baby also puts me off, although he/she did become "helpful" ultimately...



It's a good movie for relaxation, as in you don't really have to give much thoughts about the movie, just go there, sit back and enjoy laughing here and there :)

Next on my list of movies-to-watch? TWILIGHT-ECLIPSE!

Conversation

Nowadays, i find conversing with sherise a joy and i always laugh when i hear her sensible and innocent answers.

Once when we were lying on the bed, she told me "Mummy, dun talk to me ok, im very tired, i want to sleep"...hey, she's the one who always talk to me hor, not the other way round and yet she told me this, hahaha

When i complained of having a headache, she asked me to sit down, helped to pound my head and told me no need to cry, hahaha

Or sometimes when i scold her, she will say "No, dun scold me, kaixin not naughty, you naughty!"

I always dunno whether to laugh or cry at her so called "innocent" answers :)

Photoshoot with Didi Jonas

Today is Jonas 1st birthday, decided to bring the two for a photoshoot for a memorable birthday.

This Jonas hor, i really dunno what to say about him. He dun like Sherise to take pics together with him. In fact, he pushed Sherise away and even pulled Sherise's hair, so that she will not take the pic. When he saw me carrying Sherise, his mood turned bad and he will scream at his sister. What's wrong with him?? Jealous?? Anyway the photoshoot is tiring and Jonas fell down twice from the chair, hahaha

Sharing some pics taken

New updates

Yeah, one of my long-time friend told me she has been reading my blog recently. So, now i have supporter liao, there's no reason for me not to update regularly right? Hahaha

To begin with, let's see how much Sherise has grown...

Sherise Then....(Jan 2009, in her playgroup uniform)

Sherise Now....(Jul 2009, in her childcare uniform)

Realised that she has grown quite a fair bit. Grown taller and hair longer too. So sad, my gal is growing too rapidly and she no longer has those babyish face. Time is passing so fast, in fact too fast for me to capture all her growing moments...

Changed my Mind...

Yup yup, i changed my mind again. Decided to update jonas's progress in his blog instead, to be fair to him. He has already shared so many things with his jie jie, so i better don't short changed him and be more hardworking in updating his blog, hohoho

Photography Course - Field Trip No. 1 - Sentosa

Today we went for our field trip at Sentosa. Weather was good, not too hot...I met Emily at Vivocity kopitiam for some brekkie before we went to meet up with the rest.

Nic taught us the techniques of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. All of us, armed with our "weapons" aka cameras, began on our quest for "presentable" pictures to show to Nic.

First, he wanted us to take 2 pics. one pic-subject is clear but background is blur whereas for the 2nd pic, both subject and background are clear.

This is what I produced for the first assignment:
Subject clear, background blur

Subject clear, background clear


I shoot the above pics using fully manual mode. Yes, manual mode. Set the aperture, metering etc...Gosh, I never ever imagined that I could take these kind of pics without any portrait lens! I thought you need a portrait len to take such pic but wrong! All you need is just the right setting :)

2nd assignment, to set the mode to AV and adjust the aperture to take the subject. This one, easy lah, coz no need to set metering. Just need to set the aperture and the camera will do the rest.

Below are the pics which I have taken for the 2nd assignment




Now I have come to appreciate the beauty of plants and flowers around us. Before that,when I saw those bushes and flowers by the roadside, to me they are just flowers and leaves. But now, all I want to do is to capture their beauty and present it in an appealing manner...wah wah im getting serious, isn't it? Hahahaha

3rd assignment
To capture the "silkiness" of flowing water. Hmm...what does it mean? That means to adjust the shutter speed to the slower speed. For this assignment, we have to adjust the mode to TV to adjust the shutter speed. Interesting!

This pic is taken with slower shutter speed, see how silky the water is, like a curtain

This pic is taken with fast shutter speed, very raw and jagged


4th assignment, to play around with the lens
This one hor, im too lazy to explain what's the whole thing about. Coz abit cheem and tedious to explain. See the pics below




We enjoyed this field trip very much and we were looking forward to more field trips organised by Nic. We really need constant practise so that our skills can be brushed up and we can take fabulous pics anytime anywhere! :)

Incorporation...

I have decided to incorporate sherise's blog, jonas's blog and my baking blog into 1. Yes, all in 1. I have decided to keep sherise's blog as the main blog since there are more entries in this blog than others.

I find it tedious to update all 3 blogs, that's why I have not been blogging for the longest time. Friends often feedback to me that they dun find updates in my blogs anymore. Err....no time plus lazy lah :p

In the first place, I should have faithfully stick to one blog instead of being gek kiang and itchy backside, creating 3 blogs which i cannot keep up. I guess with 1 blog, i should have more time to update bah....I can blog the kids' updates and growing up process, blog about my work, blog about gatherings, blog about my thoughts, blog about my house, blog about baking, blog about my maid (err, dun think i will blog this often), complain about Sim and blah blah blah...wah interesting leh! So many things to blog!!

Ok, now my fist mission is to start digging all the photos i have taken and start blogging! Oh talk about photos, I feel like doing a photography course leh. I bought a Canon EOS camera but i can see it is becoming more white and taking the form of an elephant. (P/S Felicia, in case u are reading this, can i take crash course from Joe when i go to HK? hahahaha)

Btw I got alot of to do lists on hand wor. First and foremost is to get sherise to nap first, so that she will be refreshed for her shichida lesson.

Later, the Philips guy will be here to wall mount the TV. Yeah, i bought a 42 inch LCD, despite Sim's numerous protests. I mean, life is short mah, can't I have the luxury to own a TV? Even though i may not have much time for TV now, but then see the screen also shiok mah, tio bo? Actually I have no intention to buy the TV but one fine day, I was strolling in Best Denki and I happened to see this "LCD TV" playing Sammi Cheng's concert. Immediately im mesmerized by the clear pic, good sound effect and large screen. Im totally sold! Upon checking the price, I find it's comparable to the prices offered in IT show and I bought it without hestitation. Hmm...as for Sim, he did try to object "weakly" but my persistence is too strong for his weak objection, wahahahaha...Lalalalalala

Darren told me Philips is a lousy brand but chin chye lah, im not as IT savvy as him. To me, clear pic and good sound system is more than enough. I do not know what the resolutions should be, what amp the sound should have in order to make it a bombastic TV. I buy based on instinct,hahahaha...sound very "bimbo" hor? ;)

Another "project" is in June, whereby I will be going on a all girls' trip to Seoul. I will be going with Adria and Emily. I tell you, going with these 2 gals is no joke. Emily can shop and shop non stop whereas Adria can laugh and laugh non stop. As for me, I can eat and eat non stop, hahahaha...That's why i can visualise myself going crazy there!

I really need to settle sherise for her nap now. Oh dear, still gotta sms YL about seafood outing in JB tomorrow. Cham, still got what things im supposed to do by 4pm??? My memory is really failing me....Updates later...

Different Expressions of Kx

Kx loves to take pics nowadays and most of the time she would just pose and pose. Once she saw the camera, she will insist we take pics of her. Really vain girl, haha

Jie Jie and Di Di

Kx loves to carry her didi. Sometimes she treats jonas as her baby and would attempt to feed him or change his diapers. But she forgot one thing, this jonas is not as light as her toy baby, hehehe

Kx: "Come, let me carry you"
Jonas: "Are you sure you can???!!"

Jonas: "Mummy, help me pleasssssssssse!"

Kx's 2nd Birthday Party

We invited the whole gang to Kx's birthday party and Jonas's full month celebration. Actually it's a belated party for Kx but i think it's ok as long as there's joy, fun and of coz FOOD! hehehe

Hmm...Kx was behaving very badly during the party. Initially she refused to share her toys and she was very nasty towards daryl. Poor daryl, kena scratches and pushes from Kx, no wonder daryl's daddy and mummy were very sim tia...

Below were some pics taken at the party
The party bags which I forgot to distribute to the late comers :(

Look at daryl, so handsome and styo...Kx, for goodness sake, daryl can hold the phone himself leh

The birthday cake with her favorite characters...BARNEY

Joanne, you carry my baby, next year it's my turn to carry yours, kekeke

Both daryl and kx eyeing the cake, wondering who will be getting that cake