Review: The Face Shop Ecovert moisturizer and toner

TW lent me this quite some time ago and I tried it out for a couple of weeks! Recently I've been quite crazy over skincare which is marketed as organic, paraben-free and natural etc, so I was quite excited over Ecovert.

I'm not too much of a Face Shop fan personally because they seem to have too many lines and have a 'budget' feel. Ecovert is their natural skincare line created with AMI, a renowned French manufacturer of eco-friendly natural products, so hopefully it's of better quality than what I've experienced with other Face Shop products.

I thought it was really cute that Ecovert has a French tagline - 'La nature m'aime' which means 'nature loves me'. The Ecovert range is paraben-free, artificial fragrance-free, alcohol free, organic pigment-free and mineral oil-free. It contains French rose extract, wild pansy extract (hydrating), thyme extract and 100% bamboo extract is used in lieu of water, which sounds really cool and makes me feel like an earth mother. Lol!!

The Face Shop Ecovert Daily Moisturizer
The bottle says it has a 'liquid crystal emulsion system' to prevent moisture loss. Sounds high-tech, but I have no idea what it means really. I guess it describes the texture - a sort of emulsion-cream with texture slightly reminiscent of gel-cream. It smells really nice in a natural, honey-floral way, kind of motherly but not mumsy... if you know what I mean.

It is relatively light in texture for its moisturizing ability, which is suitable for normal to dry skin, but not moisturizing enough for extra-dry skin. I found it clogged my pores on my T-zone a bit though, so it's definitely not for oily skin. TW says it's better for winter cos she used it then and loved it, but for humid Singapore... not so much. It's nice to use if you spend a long time in air-conditioning definitely.

Rating: 7/10

The Face Shop Ecovert Essential Toner
Written on the bottle is 'Before each use, gently shake container to activate formula'. It's a dual-phase toner apparently, as you can see in the photo, there's a layer of golden palm oil floating on top. Yes, palm oil. I was totally like OMG because palm oil sounds so comedogenic - and it is! They make it sound good though - 'Double-phase toner with essential oils and a top layer of Golden Palm Oil to add nutritive moisture to skin'. It smells very nice and is good at softening and prepping skin for more moisture. I guess this is good for normal to dry skins only.

Rating: 5/10


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I had an endoscopy yesterday - apparently there's inflammation in my digestive tract. I think it has been inflamed for quite some time because I have such horrible gastric problems. The doctor was kind of appalled when he found out - he asked me how long I'd been experiencing the symptoms - '1 month?' No, I said, I think about a year? And actually it's way longer than that, lol!

Oh well, back to studying! Finals in a week.

Rilakkuma love + Maxim matcha latte?!

Look what my sister bought me I made my sister get me!!
My dear Rilakkuma is so cute!!! He looks like some weird conductor on my digital piano.



R-rated Maxim matcha latte! Haha... it's really cute cos it bubbles up when you mix it in. $4.50 for 5 sticks at Yamakawa.

Review: Renew Antioxidant Moisturizing Cream

I was really tired so I decided to take a break and blog, and also to let you guys know this blog is still alive!!! So I decided to do a review of this cream I really really love and will probably repurchase a million times over. (: [More regular reviews to come... my sisters like to say that my room is like a mini-Watsons' so I think I'd better do some good with the $ I've spent... the good thing is, I've stopped spending so much because now I no longer have much space to store my products, haha!]


Renew Antioxidant Moisturizing Cream

I find Renew as brand very very similar to Sukin! They're both from Australia and are organic and paraben free, and they use similar ingredients as well, except in different quantities probably. The only differences would be that Sukin smells divine while Renew is either neutral, or borderline icky but bearable (rosehip oil). Also, the price points - Renew is a bit pricier than Sukin - the Sukin face wash is $13 while the Renew is $20. (These are rough estimates; I'm pretty bad with money and my memory fails me quite often as well. Ha!) Renew does have bundle packs though - they often sell the rosehip oil with either the cream, cleansing gel or face mist(both full-sized!) for $29.95 which is a great deal!



I have seriously oily skin so it seems weird to use a moisturizing cream but I'm a big believer of the idea that oily skin is actually dehydrated underneath. The surprising thing was that this cream feels really light and leaves my skin matte - the finish was straight matte, unlike the Sukin moisturizer which left a slight dewy sheen. It feels a little tingly (not minty, but just subtly energizing) and not greasy at all, unlike the Sukin one which is more 'oily' and liquefied in texture due to the essential oils in it (the Renew moisturising cream doesn't contain essential oils). Basically the texture for Renew was more solid, like spreadable margarine! (without the oil.)

I felt Renew was less moisturizing than Sukin which was surprising since Renew's is a cream while Sukin's was a lotion. Still, it's moisturizing enough for normal skin, and for dry-skinned people, it can be layered over their rosehip oil for extra hydration. The Renew cream is scentless and I really like it cos it's light, it keeps my skin matte and helps a bit with oil control. Consequent use will bring huge improvements to your skin! I find it really brightens and wakes skin up, just like the rosehip oil. I use the cream in the day and the rosehip oil at night (cos it's too oily for day). And it's very gentle - when I'm lazy, I use it in place of eye cream. And there's just so much of it in the jar, you can use it on your neck as well. (They always tell you to smooth over face and neck but I hardly do cos you'll use up product faster, but you need to use this within 6 months cos it's organic, so I feel free to use it everywhere.) The only con I can think of is the jar container which is unhygienic if you keep dipping your fingers into the cream, but I'm a hygiene freak and I use a spatula which I always clean, so that's fine for me.

Rating: 100/10!!! :D Awesomeness!!!

My So-called Life

it was a special :P






I just finished a Cubiks test and it was like horrible! It requires so much concentration but I'm pretty much attention-deficit so.

I wasn't feeling great today cos my ear was blocked cos I was tired yesterday and maybe the violin was too loud.

The weirdest thing that happened to me was that I sat next to the loudest guy in the lecture for my elective (which I usually skip). He was like so weird. We had to do a questionnaire and he totally asked to copy my answers even though it's a questionnaire so it doesn't matter! And he like shouts out these really funny answers to questions which was seriously amusing. And halfway through the lecture, his phone went off really loudly and everyone promptly turned to stare. HAHA.

After class I went to the bus stop to find my so-called friends except they'd already left. -rolls eyes-

Back to work.

Lengthy Post

Goodness, I feel like crap!

A group of my friends asked me out for this Saturday, ostensibly to celebrate my birthday, but obviously I couldn't make it cos on Saturday I have CCA in the morning and a project meeting in the evening, and Sunday is well, meh. I feel crappy cos I have been blowing them off so many times (cos I was previously busy all the other times they asked me out) and I feel like every time we go out, it's on my terms (only when I'm free) and even when I do go out with them, I don't increase the 'atmosphere' much? And it makes me feel so guilty that they want to celebrate my birthday when I've been such a horrible friend. They probably thought I'd be free on Saturday since it's a public holiday, so it really sucks.

And I was supposed to have my birthday dinner with the family this Saturday but I have to do my project (report due Monday morning). I won't be able to go for high tea with the extended family on Sunday (to welcome my cousin back to SG) cos I'll probably be rushing the report. And on Sunday I'll be busy in the morning with work, in the afternoon with my violin lesson, both of which are non-cancellable, which I guess will make my project mates a little annoyed cos it means we can't meet then (not that I'm such an invaluable member that they can't meet without me anyway).

Argh!

Now do you know why I couldn't care less about my birthday?

It stresses me out!

I know my friends and I are all really really busy right now and we're not getting much sleep at all so my birthday wish (though my birthday's not here yet) would be for us to all pull through!!!

:D Yayness!!! Ok I'm off to hit the showers and then the books.

Happy Birthday

Delicious strawberry shortcake from Rive Gauche Patisserie! Yummy yummy.

I have no idea what birthday cake I want. I thought of a mont blanc, but the big sis shot down that idea immediately lol. I wanted a huge strawberry tart instead of a cake but I have no idea where to get it. And Mezza9 has a great chocolate cake but nobody I know is popping by there anytime soon. And Gelare makes a great chocolate cake too, but apparently, Gelare's no longer in Singapore!!! Like, OMG?!

Well it doesn't really matter anyway. This is like my busiest period ever but I'll spare you the details.

Lalala!

Mess

It takes very little to make me so stressed I feel like crying - losing stuff that I really need is the easiest. (Funnily enough, piles of schoolwork can't do that.)

I'm not a disorganised person. It's just that, one needs space to organise. You can't organise without any space. And I don't have space. And it ended up even worse after I moved home. And bear in mind, I already threw out bags and bags of my things.

Imagine how it feels when you're rushing out with nothing to wear and you can't remember where you put XXX because your closet was full and you keep half your clothes in a huge box underneath your bed, and all the clothes in it are folded, not ironed which makes them more difficult to go through.

Imagine if you're trying to find a necklace that you really loved and haven't even worn once, just to find you can't remember where you put it. And you check in all the usual places you put your jewellery in but it's not there because there's no longer any space there so you had to put it somewhere else, but you just couldn't remember where.

I waste hours and hours trying to find my stuff all the time.

And it really sucks.

Anyway, the most recent update is that I just found my long-lost laptop battery (which I lost for over a year). I found it as I was looking for the documents for my digital piano.