Review: Renew Balancing Gel Cleanser; Singapore Night Festival 2012

Recently I've finished using a cleanser that I've repurchased - Renew Balancing Gel Cleanser. My skin had been terribly clogged and congested for months and this cleanser played a part in helping to rebalance my skin. I'm happy to say that now my skin is getting much better! There's still a long way to go because while I don't have so many clogged pores now, they have left quite a few scars/red marks on my face. 

Anyway, I've reviewed products from Renew before, and absolutely loved them. I love this gel cleanser too! It is similar to Sukin Foaming Facial Cleanser, because I believe Renew and Sukin are related companies. It's also similar to Avalon Organics Lavender Cleansing Gel. This is SLS and paraben-free, and it's low-foaming, so if you're not used to such a low-foaming formula, you might be a little annoyed. I love it, it feels gentle on my skin and it doesn't strip skin of moisture. This Renew cleanser has a light tangerine/vanilla scent which is less complex than Sukin's delicious fragrance. Sukin smells better, but Renew seems to cleanse better - Sukin seems to leave a little layer of film on my skin after cleansing (essential oil, perhaps) but Renew rinses clean, such that I have the option of not using toner after. Between the two, I think Renew is more suited for oily skin. I love that this cleanser is inexpensive and made of natural ingredients, plus there are always periodic sales for Renew and Sukin at the drugstore.

Ingredients: Aqua, organic german chamomile, organic aloe vera, organic witch hazel, organic green tea, decyl glucoside (vegetable), cocomidopropyl betaine (vegetable), PEG-150 pentaerythrityl tetrastearate (vegetable), glycerin (vegetable), sodium chloride, sodium hydroxymethylglycinate (vegetable), citric acid (pH balance), grapefruit seed extract, phenoxyethanol, macadamia seed oil, organic rosehip oil, evening primrose oil, Australian sandalwood oil, tangerine essential oil, vanilla extract

In short - the price is right for an awesome product. :)

Rating: 10/10

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On Friday, I went to the Singapore Night Festival. Some museums were open for free to the public, there were light shows and exhibitions and a busking competition.

This was a cute exhibit of lighted doodles on the steps of SOTA (School of the Arts). I always feel a little wistful when I walk past SOTA because it opened after I went to university. SOTA starts from the high-school level, so it would have been nice if it was an option for me when I was in high school. Then again, though I have always been the artsy and weird one among my friends, I have also always been very practical in my choices...

One of the street dancers had a hot pink boombox. I LOVE IT!!!!! Does anyone know where I can get one???

There was the Night Lights show at the Singapore Art Museum. Some nature theme, with vines, birds, fire... Pretty cool, but I thought last year's was cuter! Last year's, the building looked like it was hip-hoppin'. Ha!

Some creepy installation at the courtyard, the shadows move as the lights move back and forth, and there's eerie music too.

Some eyeballs on display at SAM@8Q. My friends had a discussion of which coloured lenses they wanted to try. -_-U

This is a really cute but slightly "hmm..." video installation of little fishies in a fish tank. Water is poured in, then the little fishies have a feeding frenzy... then the plug is pulled and water drains out glug glug glug and where do the fishies go, I wonder...

A circular table-tennis table. You can play ping-pong on it - my friends and I did, and we totally sucked!

There was a light show at the National Museum of Singapore too, but it wasn't as nice as the one at SAM. This one was more nationalistic - like, it shows all the four races, historical stuff...

 I really like the swinging chandeliers in the National Museum, they swing so fast my camera had trouble focusing... My friends thought it looked ghostly, but they reminded me of Beauty and the Beast, and "Be Our Guest" just played in my head just then. Am I weird?

3D art everyone was crowding around.

This lone staircase at the National Museum is supposed to be haunted, my friends were all creeped out but I said "Hey this looks like a good spot to take a wedding photo..." Doesn't it??

I spotted these... things sitting on a bench outside the museum. I don't know what they're supposed to represent really. It's the 7th month right now (for the Chinese, it's the Hungry Ghost festival when the gates of Hell open and the ghosts are free to roam for a month), so it's really quite creepy.

Well it was a nice experience and I was pleasantly surprised to see so many Singaporeans out and about the museums. (Usually I think, we stay in the shopping belt?) I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Till next time then~

Essence "You Belong To Me"

About a month ago, I noticed the drugstore near my house had a new display of Essence cosmetics. Essence cosmetics are really affordable, so I grabbed a bunch of nail polishes (though I hardly use nail polish). They cost less than $3! (Albeit for a tiny bottle.) This shade is called "You Belong To Me", which is one of my favourite songs by Carla Bruni and Bob Dylan. (I like Carla Bruni... and I like Bob Dylan, but only when someone else is singing it, like Adele... hehhh.)

The photos above are with 2 coats of Essence, and 1 coat of Fancl Jelly Nail Coat. I quite like this polish, it is a very peaceful Tiffany blue kind of colour. I like this better than China Glaze's For Audrey, which I had taken a photo of before here, because this is less vivid and a bit more muted, so it's a bit more subtle... as subtle as a robin's egg blue can be. :P The formula of the polish is quite thick - it's easy to apply and spreads well, and it's opaque in 2 coats... but because it's thick, it bubbles easily. It might go on smooth, but in the process of drying, the bubbles just appear. :(

I really really love this colour... I don't do my nails often but I'm considering stocking up on this colour since the bottle is so tiny... In a nutshell, amazing colour at a great price, except for the tendency to bubble when drying.

Rating: 9/10

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Anyway, here's the song "You Belong To Me" by Carla Bruni. Her smoker's voice doesn't appeal to some people, but I like it. I know some people think this song sounds super boring, but I like how peaceful it sounds.

See the pyramids a long the Nile

Watch the sun rise on a tropic isle

Just remember darling all the while

You belong to me

See the market place in old Algiers

Send me photographs and souvenirs

Just remember 'til your dream appears

You belong to me

I'll be so alone without you

Maybe you'll be lonesome, too

And blue

Fly the ocean in a silver plane

See the jungle when its wet with rain

Just remember till you're home again

You belong to me

Review: Kevin Beautymaker Princess Lip Repairing Balm 公主修護唇膜

L-R: Sweet Pink (小粉紅), Strawberry (小草莓)

I got the Kevin Beautymaker Princess Lip Repairing Balm during my trip to Taiwan, in both shades - sweet pink and strawberry. They cost NT300 each for 4g of product, which isn't particularly affordable, but the packaging is really pretty!

L-R: Sweet Pink (小粉紅), Strawberry (小草莓)

I love the jewelled cap. The colours are really pretty, they show up as just the slightest hint of colour. (Very sheer in one layer, but slightly buildable.) I like that the texture of these is a gel-type balm that is very smooth and non-greasy. If I were to compare these to The Body Shop's Born Lippy lip balms... well these definitely win.

TBS's feels heavier (but not more moisturizing) and they don't have as much colour as compared to Beautymaker's. TBS's can also look a little greasy while Beautymaker's feels more like a gel/serum texture which is very light and nice! However, while TBS lip balms smell so delicious and fruity (in an artificial way), these Princess Lip Balms have little fragrance.

L-R: Sweet Pink (小粉紅), Strawberry (小草莓)

Ingredients: Jojoba Oil, Jojoba Ester, Microcrystalline Wax Hydrogenated Polysobutene, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter Extract, Sunflower Seed Oil, Aloe Andongensis Leaf Oil, Avocado Oil, Isohexadecane / Sodium Hyaluronate, Tocopherol Acetate, L-hydroxy Proline, Dextrin Palmitate, Nicatinamide, Propyl Paraben, Titanium Dioxide, Fragrance (Flavor), D&C Red No.6 Barium Lake

I definitely like these lipbalms... they're a bit dear but they're worth it! I would try to get them on sale though.

Rating: 9/10

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Some random photos:





This is a Payeasy Beauty Vending Machine which I found at a HSR train station in Taichung. It sells selected Kevin Beautymaker and Bio Beauty products at cheaper prices than the website. They also sell powder foundations and stuff, but I can't really tell which shade they're offering, so I don't know how that works.

I found these little cloth animal postcards at Sun Moon Lake - they are cute little templates where you can cut out the animals and make them into little toys. Very cute and affordable! I didn't get them because my friends aren't into sewing or zakka, and they don't have time to assemble toys like that. These postcards do make a good gift idea though!

I found these Hello Kitty and ninja face masks at Watson's in Taipei. So weird! Hello Kitty and ninjas?!

I have these really cute Rilakkuma sweets with me in the office now. Every time I see it, I feel like relaxing. One day I'm gonna get a gigantic pink heart pillow just like that and lounge all day!

Till next time~ Peace out!

Review: Kevin Beautymaker Magic Concealer

I picked up 2 tubes of Kevin Beautymaker Magic Concealer in Taiwan recently because it was on sale for NT199. It comes in 2 colours - ivory and natural. It's a click pen type of illuminating concealer, the typical YSL Touche Eclat-wannabe kind. I've tried Revlon Age Defying Spa Concealer and L'oreal Touche Magique, which were both really good, but they were twist-pens and not click-pens.

The brush is ok, not too stiff, but I still prefer using my fingers to blend. As with most twist/click pens, it's a little difficult to control the amount that flows out.

The click-button at the bottom has a lock mechanism, the kind that locks/unlocks when you twist it clockwise/anti-clockwise. Thing is, the button is small and difficult to twist. I don't intend to travel with this, so once I unlocked it, I left it unlocked. It's a useful feature, but it could be improved.

I purchased the Natural shade, which is the darker, more orange shade, which suits my MAC NC30 skintone well. (I have really dark circles though.) I think Ivory is paler and more yellow-based. It's watery, light and very blendable, but has very light coverage. Revlon Age Defying Spa Concealer and L'oreal Touche Magique (both twist-type illuminating concealer pens) have better coverage and better staying power, while illuminating well. So this Magic Concealer pales in comparison. It brightens up my dark circles, but doesn't conceal well enough. I use this on my eyelids as well, but it creases on my double-eyelid fold. Not good!



From left: Kevin Beautymaker Aqua Eye Concealer in Natural, Kevin Beautymaker Magic Concealer in Natural

I much prefer the Kevin Beautymaker Aqua Eye Concealer. I use it in the Natural shade as well, but it's less orange than the same shade of Magic Concealer, and has better coverage and staying power. So I'm really not too impressed with Magic Concealer. The regular price is NT300 for 3g, which is not worth the quality, I feel. However, it works ok for illuminating my undereyes (just not my eyelids), so it gets a 6/10.

Rating: 6/10

Review: Kevin Beautymaker Aqua Smooth Lip Color - Princess, Peach, Sweet Pink

Hello hello I'm back from Taiwan! I took a 10-day trip there with family. It was fun. :) I went to Taipei and Sun Moon Lake (Taichung). Anyway, I took the opportunity to haul items from Payeasy and I'll be doing a mini-review of the Kevin Beautymaker Aqua Smooth Lip Color in 3 colors. They were having a summer sale - they cost only NT199 each!

From left: Princess (千金裸唇), Peach (晶亮珊瑚), Sweet Pink (甜蜜粉紅)

With flash

Princess (千金裸唇) is a lovely warm nude that doesn't make me look like a corpse. In Chinese, it translates into something like 'rich girl nude lips'. So I guess it's a really nice, classy looking nude that all the rich girls wear. I like it the best out of all the shades! It isn't too pale for my tanned skin (MAC NC30 as of now) and I still look healthy when I wear it (unlike other corpse-nude colours). Subtle but you can still tell that it's on. A very wearable everyday colour.

Peach (晶亮珊瑚) is similar to Princess, but brighter and more vivid, with a coral hue. In Chinese, it translates into 'bright coral', which is a good shade description.

Sweet Pink (甜蜜粉紅) looks like a seriously bright bubble-gum pink in the tube! It really scared me at first, but because the formula of these lipsticks are sheer like a balm, it is really wearable. I like it too! It is blue-based, but not so blue-based that it doesn't work for yellower Asian skintones, so I like it! It is a nice blue-based pink that works for Asians. Good shade description.

From left: Princess (千金裸唇), Peach (晶亮珊瑚), Sweet Pink (甜蜜粉紅)

The formula of these lipsticks is very creamy and they have a dewy finish. They glide on very easily, like a lipstick-lipbalm hybrid. They contain Sodium Hyaluronate for moisture, and Vitamin E. They settle into liplines a teensy bit, but it's not noticeable because they're sheer. They're not too sheer - they hit a good balance between sheerness and good pigmentation. However, while they feel moisturizing, my lips still feel a little dry after wearing them, so you do need a good lipbalm under it. Plus, they wear off pretty quickly within a couple of hours, which is common for such creamy lipsticks.

The regular price of these lipsticks is NT300 for 3.5g, which is pretty reasonable. The lipstick tube is a little rubbery-plasticky, like NARS packaging, pretty classy for a drugstore brand.

Rating: 8/10

Review: NP Set Pasarella Foundation, Acmedica Medicated Acne Clear Pact

I couldn't compose a new post this week because Blogger was giving me an error. I finally figured out it was some HTML from my previous post that was preventing me from posting. -_-U Anyway, I was totally de-cluttering last week and here's some stuff I threw out which I thought I might do mini-reviews on.



From left: NP Set Pasarella Foundation, Acmedica Powder Foundations

NP Set Pasarella Foundation
I bought this at Target for US$30, which is pretty damn expensive for something from a drugstore. (Well ok, I guess Napoleon Perdis is expensive but NP Set is supposed to be the more affordable line!) I got it in Set 3, which I think is more suitable for MAC NC30-35. It was slightly too warm and orange on me. It also gives a powdery look and the coverage is very light. The good thing is, it controls oil pretty well!

I like that it has shea butter to moisturize, but the finish is too powdery for my liking. While it smoothes pores, it also has a flat matte finish which is a no-no for me. And I doubt I would repurchase, because as far as I know, they don't come with refills, and US$30 is too much to pay for a matte-finish foundation. (I have paid more and am willing to pay more for powder foundations with fantastic, real-skin finish, like Lancome Macqui Miracle Compact.) Plus, it doesn't have SPF.

Rating: 8/10

Acmedica Powder Foundation - Medicated Acne Clear Pact
I bought this ages ago - it comes in 2 shades, Light Beige and Natural Beige. They're pretty affordable, about S$18 each. What attracted me was that they are made for acne-prone skin, so they contain acne-fighting ingredients like sulphur. (Indeed, I can smell the sulphur in the powder.)

However, I felt it wasn't fantastic at controlling oil. It gives a flat, matte finish too. I originally purchased it as I thought it could be a dupe for the other powder foundation I use for acne-prone skin (the Ettusais Powder Foundation which is 3 times the price of Acmedica), but it isn't.

The good thing is, it is very suitable for acne-prone skin because my acne improved after using it! So the anti-inflammatory ingredients work. Some people might not like the sulphur smell though.

Also, it only comes in 2 shades - Light Beige and Natural Beige. Natural Beige will suit skintones of up to MAC NC25, so the shades are only for fair skintones. However, it does offer SPF15 protection. I think it's a good budget option for acne-prone people! Here's the picture of the packaging - you can find it at SASA.

Rating: 8/10

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I'm super busy right now, I'm trying to finish tidying my stuff because I'll be holidaying in Taiwan next week! I haven't started packing. Looking forward to it! :)

Organising: Magnetic sheets from Daiso

Hello~ I'm on a week-long leave (well-deserved, mm-hmm) and so I've started organising all my stuff in my room to make it more functional, so that I can save time on my daily routines and not waste time doing so much stuff! One project I completed recently was a magnetic 'To-do' board. Super simple, just took me S$10 and half an hour!

This project came about because I realized that every weekend, I have about the same type of chores (except maybe I swim instead of jog, and I wash different things), and I waste time and paper by scribbling down my chores on a post-it. Plus, the post-it is tiny and post-its just make me feel annoyed because they look messy and are very 'fly-away' - they're always dropping off somewhere.

So I got the whiteboard and these magnetic sheets from Daiso - they're only S$2 each! I got them in different colours for different items:

- Blue for 'me-time': Blogging, swimming, jogging, writing music etc

- White for regular weekly chores: Washing my make-up brushes, combs, laundry, disinfecting my keyboard and other items

- Red for chores that aren't so regular: Washing the curtains, wiping the fan, wiping my piano, conditioning leather bags

(If you're sharp you'll notice that in the photo, jogging and swimming are in white but I've since amended that, oops.)

They are really easy to use - you can use permanent marker or ballpoint to write on them, and they're eraseable and reusable! (Yes, even permanent marker.) It's really simple, just measure and cut into little rectangles - they cut like butter.

I keep the rest of the little magnetic rectangles in my Rilakkuma pencil case when they're not in use.

I imagine the magnetic sheets would be useful for tutors or teachers (music, ballet, whatever) working from a fixed location (won't work if you're the kind who drives to your students' houses). You could print a big paper schedule and write your students' names on the magnetic rectangles. When your student calls to change the timing, it's easy to see when you're free and you can just switch the placement of the magnets on the schedule, instead of cancelling and penning it down on your agenda. (I hate cancelling stuff on my agenda cos sometimes there's not enough space for me to write stuff once you cancel something out.)

I hope this is helpful! I'm really loving Daiso, I see so many amazing organizational tools there. Anyway, let me share some other cute stuff I found over the weekend-

To motivate myself to organize and revamp my space, I bought this Rilakkuma tape measure, to measure my spaces more precisely so that when I look at containers/organizing stuff, I can measure them and buy the exact amount of items with correct dimensions. (I used to just buy and try... which is a bad example!)

Rilakkuma name stickers! Too cute.

I found these notebooks with black covers and neon paper at Popular. So pretty!!!!! They're like my favourite black Muji notebooks, except with neon paper! I haven't found a use for them yet but they are too cute, I had to have them. And when you're really tired at work or in school, just a look at the neon pages are enough to wake you up. ;)

I've been clearing out my stuff. In order to throw some my sentimental stuff away, I take photos of them. (I only take photos of the really nice ones, or of stuff that suits me and of which I want to repurchase the same style again, so I'm not crazy or a hoarder haha.) I like this notebook cos I designed the cover myself and was really my style. I like the sticker of the pencil sharpener, so cute! He's sharpening a pencil and going "You can do it, go go go!". Lol! And I was really into drawing cute clouds. The writing there goes:

with my head in the clouds
almost anything is allowed
reach for the skies and
happiness is there!

I got it from an Hermes catalogue, I think. :P

And another birthday cake! I bought this from Chocolate Origin for my dad, it looks really pretty. It's a cake with more chocolate than cake though! I really liked the chocolate coating, it was not too sweet but really good. I would, however, still prefer a cake with more cake! (Awfully Chocolate's good, and Choc-a-bloc even better!)

I'll probably be posting a lot more this week because I'll be enjoying myself on leave. :)