New Love: Klorane Conditioner with Mango Butter

I have a new found favourite product to pamper my hair! They are the Klorane Conditioner with Mango Butter! I love mango and seeing this conditioner with mango butter? Sold! Also, I have never try products by Klorane before and oh boy! I have missed out! Kinda late to the party, I have bought their dry shampoo and this conditioner to try out when Priceline were having a 40 percent off all hair product promotion.

I experience the difference right away after using the conditioner and I am not exaggerating. First of all, I like the packaging where you can see the products inside. The product looks like mango curd that makes me want to lick it (I didn't) and it smells so good!! It's very nourishing and act like a quick hair mask which I think what conditioner is for. I leave it on my hair ends, avoiding my hair roots for about 3-5 minutes during my shower and rinse. Easy application, not too runny, not too sticky. It detangle my hair when it was wet, leaving it nice and smooth and easy to brush through. Then, my hair is so soft (don't get tangle easily when there's strong wind) every time I use it. Finding myself stroking my hair more often, I fell in love with this conditioner. So two thumbs up from me and I have bought a back up tube already!

I want to try their other product now having my eyes on their shampoo so I can have a set of goodness for my hair.

Love,
Carol

My Current Wish List

I try not to buy much since we're trying to save some money and invest them on travel and house buying fund! But, sometimes, you do need reward to treat yourself for being good and working hard. Knowing that the wedding anniversary, Christmas and my birthday is coming up. I have created a little wish list of my own.

1. The Rebecca Minkoff Mini Mac in Taupe

2. Birkenstock Arizona in White

3. Michael Michael Kors Selma Saffiano Leather Medium Satchel in Black

4. Chanel Butterfly Sunglasses

5. Chanel Les 4 Ombres Multi-Effect Quandra Eyeshadow in #234 Poésie

So these are things I want! (so bad) 

Love,  Carol

Shanghai Highlights

Hello! I was in Shanghai for about a week with my family and I love this city! I had such a good time there. Good food, interesting good looking buildings, great shopping, night view of the city is beautiful (it's so colourful with the lights!) and we met some nice friendly locals! So here are some pictures of my journey.

We stayed at Sofitel Luxury Hotel Shanghai, which is located in the middle of the famous East Nanjing Road. This street is full of shopping malls/shops and restaurants. I find it a very convenient spot to stay with 2 metro stations in walking distance and surrounded with almost everything you need. Also, one of the tourist attraction, The Bund is just 15 minutes walk away from this hotel. Great choice of hotel daddy (he's the one who recommended this hotel to us). This is my hotel view!

This is The Bund day view in a panorama view..

night view...

See what I meant by the colourful night view? and here's a picture of me in the middle of the busy East Nanjing Road.

Some part of the city does look like this, old school traditional buildings that is now modern shops. So beautiful! This is near the tourist attraction,Yu Garden.

 And we are inside the garden!

 

Last but not least, a picture of their yummy soup dumpling! Yes, the straw is for you to drink the soup inside the dumplings!

Now I have covered Guangzhou and Shanghai, I would love to be back to China again to visit other cities like Beijing, Fujian and Chengdu. Such a beautiful country! I do hope they maintain the beauty of their country.

That's all for now, have a good weekend!

Love, Carol

The MINI Obsession

I'm going away in a week time for a week of holiday in Shanghai (Woohoo)! However, my working schedule is a bit pack till the day I fly away, I will have to pack my bags (on my roster day off) days before the departure day.

I always prefer to get travel size products than transferring my products into a travel size container (if you get what I mean, I'm just lazy like that). So I started to buy travel size products/ travel kit, I'm such a sucker for miniature things. Long story short, when I started to pack my toiletries for the holiday, I found out these pile of miniatures I got in my stash! It's a drawer full of miniature products I have there! In my defense, part of them are samples given to me from several events and gifts I got from some of my shopping. Also, I always tend to ask for the sample size when I bought the full size of a product.

I know it's a lot but these minis come in really handy when it comes to travel. Right size to bring on flight if you want to travel light. Also, You can just chuck the containers away when you finish the product at the end of your holiday, which will eventually cut down your weight to go home. More room for your other stuff (e.g shopping).

Any how, I will roughly list down the brands in few categories I have in this pile (This is how I organise them too).

Travel Kit: Caudalie, Nuxe, O.P.I, Victoria Secret, Elemis, Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden, Lancome and Estee Lauder.

Body Wash: Peter Thomas Roth, Crabtree & Evelyn and The Body Shop.

Body Lotion: Peter Thomas Roth, Christian Dior, Crabtree & Evelyn, Kiehl's, La Roche-Posay, Burt's Bees and The Body Shop.

Shampoo & Conditioner: Peter Thomas Roth, Crabtree & Evelyn, Herbal Essence, Pantene, Schwarzkopf, Organix and L'Oreal.

Dry Shampoo: Batiste and Klorane.

Face Wipes, Makeup Remover and Micellar Water: Bioderma, Avene, Clinique, Lancome, Caudalie, Yes To, Biore and Estee Lauder.

Face Cleanser, Scrub and Toner : Avene, Estee Lauder, Lancome, Biore, Clinique and Caudalie.

Face Serum, Moisturizer, and Spot Correcting: Lancome, Caudalie, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Lierac, La Roche-Posay, Sukin, Kiehl's and Antipodes.

Eye Cream: Kiehls, Estee Lauder and Clinique.

Face Mask & Hair Mask: Formula 10.0.6, Michael Todd & Macadamia Natural Oil.

Hand Cream: Bioderma, La Roche-Posay, Caudalie and Korres.

Toothpaste: Oral B & Colgate.

Perfume and Body Mist: Christian Dior, Victoria Secret, Lancome, Elizabeth & James, Fragonard, Bvlgari, Gucci and Nest.


Do you collect miniatures for travel use as well?



Love, Carol

Red Earth Illusion Lights Beauty Pro Eyeshadows

I came across with Red Earth years ago while I was still living in Malaysia (Sasa Malaysia is their authorized reseller there). But, in Australia, I never really heard or seen Red Earth around before.

About Red Earth:
Red Earth is an Australian beauty/cosmetic brand that was founded since 1991. The brand gets their product inspiration from the beautiful colours of Australia and promotes natural beauty.

I did not know they are Australian brand until couple weeks ago when I stumble into their booth in Emporium Melbourne (I was strolling around in the mall nosing around). Had a chat with the staff and found out they are Australian. They were having a clearance sale on their cosmetic products due to "the products are changing to a new packaging" reason. Then I saw these cute pots of beautiful eyeshadow, I can't help but start swatching them on the spot. They impressed me right away. It's very pigmented, the colours are all very wearable and the price was reduced down to 5 dollars per pot! So I grabbed 3 pots (wanted to get all of them but I need to refrain myself).

The colours I bought were number 20 stormy night (deep navy blue), 38 cleopatra (metallic bronze) and forever and ever brilliant pearl (champagne). I dropped the champagne colour once and I cracked the eyeshadow (luckily not the little mirror it came with inside the packaging). I have been loving them! They are creamy, easy to blend and a little goes a long way because they are that pigmented (lesson learned from my first use. I went too heavy handed with them and took me ages to blend them out so I don't look like a drag queen). I like the packaging as it is a great size to put in the make up bag, travel bag and it took a small spot in my makeup storage space (you can stack them up). So overall, thumbs up from me!!

Here is a quick swatch picture I took.

I would definitely go back to check out their other colours since the formula of their eyeshadow is brilliant. I would love to check out their other products too and see what else they could offer. Have you try Red Earth's products?

Love, Carol

I went crazy in Priceline Pharmacy

Exactly a week ago, Priceline had a 40 percent off all skincare promotion event for 2 days (long enough to do some damage). Of course, I got sucked in, TWICE! I spent a bit there, probably the biggest amount I've spent in Priceline. Ah well, who could resist 40 percent off all skincare hey?!

So here are the stuff I bought: (These are all new products I wanted to try out by the way)

First into my shopping basket, La Roche-Posay Effaclar Duo+ and Bioderma Sebium Mat Anti-Shine Fluid. Two of the French pharmacy items I've been wanting to try (the price was stopping me from getting them) and since there's 40 percent off, into the basket please! Then I popped over to the Yes To section and grabbed the grapefruit brightening facial wipes, cucumbers hypoallergenic facial towelettes for travel, grapefruit dark spot correcting serum and then I got their cucumbers daily calming moisturizer for my husband. I heard good stuff about this range but never really tried them and since it's on sale, it's a great time to put some stuff on trial! Over at Sanctuary Spa Covent Garden section, I got the 5 minute thermal detox mask. The word 'thermal' itself attracted my attention. I somehow think this would be a nice mask to put on during a cold night for some reason. Let's see how it goes! Only 1 item from the L'Oreal booth this time, I got the new Skin Perfection Magic Touch Instant Blur. From Sukin, I got the Botanical Body Wash (nice herbal scent) and the Hydrating Mist Toner which is in a spraying form (a bit different from the other toners). I saw this moisturizer  from Physicians Formula that claims to 'look 6 years younger in 4 weeks' with SPF15 in it and I want to look 6 years younger! So I bought it (I doubt the result would be what it claims but I do want to look younger!). 

New brand discovery: Formula 10.0.6. I never heard of this brand before but the packaging and the names are really appealing to me. Price wise, it's cheap and it's on sale too. So I grabbed these to try out Down to the Pore Blackhead Banishing Pore Strips with tea tree + kaolin, Over Night Success Overnight Spot Minimizing Patches with tea tree + grape seed, Rescue Me! Acne Blemish Treatment, Get Your Glow On Brightening Peel Off Mask with Papaya + Citrus (my first peel off mask! very excited to try it!), Deep Down Detox Ultra-Cleansing Mud Mask with Orange + Bergamot and No Time to Shine Oil-Absorbing Mud Mask with Sea Kelp + Calendula.

Lastly, I got more cleansing wipes from the fuss free naturals line, one is with citrus + pineapple enzymes and another one is with green tea + vitamin c. Always great to pack up some cleansing wipes since I use them everyday (to take off part of my make up before doing full facial cleansing routine).

Since I spent over a hundred dollars, Priceline have a gift bag for me and this is what's in the gift bag (jam packed with samples, products and a makeup bag).

So, in general, I get to save from the 40 percent off all skincare promotion and got some freebies, thank you Priceline! Did you get suck into Priceline 40 percent off all skincare event like I did? Can't wait for their next event!



Love,

Carol

Dinner Menu Planning

I used to be the type of person who goes to the supermarket almost everyday to shop for the ingredients of the dish I decided to cook that day. I never plan ahead when it comes to cooking but in my defense, I was unemployed and have the time to kill.

Since I got myself working in the retail world now, working hours are a bit different with the office hours; I normally finishes at 6 or 7pm. That means, I don't have much time to think, shop for ingredient and cook. Also, I decided to bring lunch to work as eating out (lunch) everyday gets pretty expensive after a while. I would rather put that amount of money into my funds for my future new Michael Kors handbag I'm eyeing on now. All these made me realized or actually gave me no choice but to plan dinner menu ahead according to my working timetable.

I wrote my dinner menu on the notepad I got from work at the moment since I just started this habit. I am planning to have a monthly dinner menu print out but I'm taking baby steps at the moment writing down weekly dinner menu. First I wrote down the days and put a star next to the day denote my day off and a capital 'L' to indicate my late shifts. Then I fill in with the dish I wanted to cook.

Ideally for the days I have work the next day, I would plan the dish that normally have enough left overs for lunch. For example, lasagna or fried rice. Then for the days that I have day off the next day, I would cook something like steak or fish with salad that don't have left overs. As for the days I finish earlier than usual, I would cook something that takes longer to make like chicken pie or beef stroganoff. As for the late shifts, I don't have to cook!

This actually helps a lot with money saving! Not just the lunch money but grocery shopping money too. Having dinner menu plan ahead, we know what to get during the grocery shopping time especially when there's sales on, a bonus because you know what you need instead of impulse buying.

So for the versatile dinner menu, I always write down a note on the notepad when I think of a different dish or when there's new recipe I want to try. I like choices so I would try not to repeat the dinner menu too often.

I know it's not hard to figure this habit out but I don't think many out there is having this dinner menu planning habit. I hope this post would inspire some of you out there. Think on the bright side, it's a food money saving and more shopping money :p

Love, Carol