Sephora + Collective Holiday Haul

This is a much delay post for the haul I did during my holiday in Malaysia and Myanmar. Anyhow, these are what I bought. I didn't do much shopping in Myanmar aside from their organic mask, a bracelet, a dress and a silk sarong, most of my spending were on tourist attraction, food and transportation. But, I did some shopping in Malaysia. Only some....

First up, SEPHORA HAUL!

Alright, most of these are not from Sephora Malaysia (they don't offer what I wanted), I did some on-line shopping on their US website before I travel. My cousin who now live in the states were going to Malaysia for Chinese New Year celebration too, so I asked her nicely to bring the parcel to me. Free postage fee, great product range (in fact the best!) plus I love their point perks and the generosity of samples, I always love to shop on their US website. So here's the products I got from both Sephora US & Malaysia:

1. Nirvana White gift set by Elizabeth & James (here) - Fall in love with this scent when I was given the samples from my last Sephora purchase. This set contains  30ml Eau De Parfum spray, 10ml Rollerball and a 50ml Body Lotion. Love their packaging!!
2. Sephora Cream Lip Stain in 01 Always Red (here) - I've tried it right away and it's a 2 thumbs up from me! It's staying power is awesome and minimum maintenance required. It's always a plus when it's matte red lip stain and the colour is gorgeous! 
3. Marc Jacobs Beauty Enamoured Hi-Shine Nail Lacquer in 110 Gatsby (here)
4. Sephora Nail Buffer Block (here)
5. Sephora Beauty Insider Birthday Gift - Nars One Year Bolder 2015 Birthday Gift (contains 2 Nars Lip Pencil deluxe sample)
6. Samples!

Another MUST GO place for us when we visit Malaysia is HerbaLine Facial Spa. My face were acting up a bit for months before visiting them, scarring and acne problem that just doesn't seem to go away. Aside from the facial treatment I had with them, I bought some recommended products that will calm my 'face problem' and some for the Mister too.

1. Herbaline Purifying Milky Lotion for him (here)
2. Herbaline Bio Cellulose Mask for him (here)
3. Herbaline Anti-Sensitive Ampoule for me (here)
4. Herbaline Aloe Vera Cream for me 
5. Herbaline Aloe Vera Gel for him  (here)
6. Herbaline Lemon Grass Aroma Oil for our house - this is the same aroma oil they burn in their facility. It's a very zen-ish and spa-ish smell.

I went to explore the newly open Innisfree shop located in Sunway pyramid shopping mall. They are one of the popular Korean beauty brand in the market. We do have access to some of their products here in Melbourne in some of the Korean/Japanese beauty house but not a full range of them. Also, they have an online store (link) that ship to Australia! So here's what I bought from them:

1. Black Berry sheet mask (here)
2. Rose sheet mask (here)
3. Bamboo sheet mask (here)
4. Bija sheet mask (here)
5. Orchid Enriched Cream set (contains Orchid Enriched Cream, Orchid Intense Cream and Orchid Hand Cream)
6. Eco Safety Aqua Perfect Sun Gel with SPF50+ (here)
7. Eco Beauty Tool Black Head Good-bye Finger Tip Silicon x2 (here)
8. Green Persimmon pore special kit (contains Green Persimmon Pore Pack & Cream, Green Persimmon Pore Essence and Green Persimmon Pore Toner)
9. Samples of Orchid Enriched Cream

And for the rest of the haul:

1. Yankee Candle Car Vent Stick in Balsam & Cedar
2. Yankee Candle in Mistletoe (here)
3. The Body Shop Blueberry Special Edition Body Butter (here)
4. The Body Shop Fijian Water Lotus Body Butter 
5. The Body Shop Olive Body Butter x2
6. The Body Shop Moringa Body Butter
7. The Body Shop free gift from purchase mini shower gel in olive and satsuma. 
8. Bobbi Brown Full Coverage Face Brush (here)
9. K-Palette 1 Day Tattoo Eye-liner in Black (here)
10. Guardian Jeju Face Mask Sheet in Tangerine, Lily and Tsubaki x10 (here)

There's nothing over exciting but now I'm all stocked up with body butters and face masks!!

Love,
Carol 

The Golden Yangon

With the ambition of ticking the countries across South East Asia, Myanmar was our latest tick and adventure. We didn't manage to get a long trip and we only stayed for 2 nights (totally regretting this!). We spent our whole trip in Yangon, their largest city with the population of over 5 million.

For the first day, we spent the half day with pagoda and temple visit. We were blessed with nice weather and pictures turned out so beautiful. The first and the most iconic pagoda (the one that you must visit when you're in Yangon) was the Shwedagon Pagoda. We hired a tour guide that was available in the pagoda entrance (optional) for just about 10USD for the two of us. He was very informative and taught us so much about the history and culture of this sacred place. Another plus was he took nice picture for us too and here's the picture.

The Pagoda was under some renovation at the time, replacing the gold plates and ready for their new year celebration in April (same new year with Thailand). Keith bought a sarong to wear as he was wearing shorts that day. You are required to wear top with sleeves, long pants or skirt or sarong and no shoes when you're in the pagoda.

After this Schwedagon Pagoda visit, we went around in a taxi that cost us about 10USD (if I'm not wrong, I remember it being very cheap)and visited the other smaller pagoda or temples around Yangon city. Then, we went to the Kandawgyi Lake for a walk. Spot the Schwedagon Pagoda in the picture.

We hopped into one of their local restaurant, the one that looked busy and popular to the locals (that's what we normally do, follow the locals, they know where's good food!). We ordered their local dish which is very similar to Chinese/ Thai food as their cooking were influenced by the Chinese, Thai and Indian cooking. I ordered fried fish with Burmese curry rice and Keith ordered chillies minced chicken stir fried with egg rice. They were really flavourful, tasted so good that we just inhaled the whole dish in seconds and they only cost us about 4 USD each dish! Very affordable! We ordered dessert too, Burmese style! We ordered the drink named Falooda and we fell in love right away!

It's hard to choose when they have so much to offer when it comes to food, I like all of them but the one that really blew me away was Mohinga. It's their unofficial national dish apparently! I saw them selling this dish everywhere (in a portable kitchen stall by the side of the street) like these but we didn't get a chance to try them with certain reasons (language mainly).

However, just before we leave the country, I get to taste this unofficial national dish - Mohinga and this is a shot before it get in ma belly! Yum Yum Yum!

I love it here, in Myanmar/Burma in general, the people are so friendly and everyone seems to be very relax, happy and pure if that's the right word. I suppose that's the effect of being a Buddhist country. Also, there are some pretty/good looking faces here. Their skin are well taken care of, especially their face. Most girls will have this mask/plant root paste on their face for cooling, UV protection and smoothing purpose. I bought myself some and I put a little on and took a picture :)

We definitely would love to explore more in Myanmar in other region when we get a chance. I hope country development won't change the culture they have now and stay how they are!

What a trip!! 

Love,
Carol 

Recent Update

It's been crazy busy and I have been wanting to write a blog but time is what I'm lacking! So here's what happened since my last post!

1. We need to move out by April - We moved out of our house last weekend!! I will now refer that house as our old place. Keith has been living in that house for about 10 years since he finished his high school and I moved in 2 years ago after we got engaged. On top of that, Keith's siblings all (7 of them) stayed in that house at some point since it's a 3 bedroom house. Long story short, there's a lot of stuff in that house! We spent weeks packing that house up and getting rid of unwanted furniture. So I have been super crazy trying to be organize in packing things up.

2. We need to look for a new home - We are looking into buying our home but not without a trial! So we will be continuing renting a place in the area we are interested in, Docklands. It's not exactly in the city but very close to the CBD area. This meaning that it's not going to be too busy with the view of Yarra River and the city. Another plus, close distance to both our workplace in the city! We found a place after few inspection and we will be moving in by mid April! Here's a picture of our new place, we will be staying in the white building at the far right. Excited!

3. We went to Myanmar and Malaysia - It's that time of the year, every Chinese New Year we will be travelling to Malaysia to see family. This trip, we managed to squeeze in a 2 day trip to Yangon, Myanmar. We spent about 9 days in Malaysia after the Myanmar trip. It was amazing aside from the food poisoning part.

4. Work as usual - no more holidays and no special treatment when you're rushing in moving from one house to an apartment. So time is very limited (and human do get tired).

5. Moving into new home - This is the excited part! I can't wait to move in to our new place and start organizing our little home together. This time just us! We're not sharing our home with other family member like how we were in the old place. It's like honeymoon again :)

There you go, that's pretty much a summary of what's happening when I stop writing post here. I will start sharing some experiences when we settle. Till next time!

Love,
Carol