This time, I wanted something natural but yet bling enough for CNY 2012. So my manicurist did a gradient design for me as I did my nails 2 weeks before CNY (smart choice because I was kept busy at work for 2 weeks!). I chose gold glitter tips for some wealth! LOL
*Manicure was 2 weeks old when above picture was taken, thus there was some growth
Spa Vintage is a well-kept secret… it’s my favourite massage/spa salon with an exclusive location. The prices are not cheap (averaging about $100 for 2 hours massage, depending on which treatment you choose), but the therapists’ skills are top-notch. They are not middle-aged aunties who suddenly decided to change their jobs, nor are they pseudo-masseurs. They are adequately trained and have even taken up certification courses for different types of massage. I go there about once every 4-6 weeks, always doing my favourite green tea massage for 1.5 hours or 2 hours if I’m particularly tired. Above is the locker area, and you can also enjoy a warm foot bath before you start on your treatment.
After the foot bath, you will be led into your treatment room and while the single room is small, it is sufficient for the therapist to walk around without shifting the bed. Each room has its own air-conditioning unit so the temperature can be adjusted according to your preference. The beds are warm and towels are clean and plush. If you visit the place with a partner, you can also request for a couple room which comes with an attached shower area. The rooms have piped-in music and the walls are also fully boarded up, so you have your own personal space without having to listen to other customers’ conversations (one of my pet peeves during treatment is that some customers talk NON-STOP during treatments… how irritating!!)
My favourite treatment would be the green tea massage and deep tissue hot lava stone massage. The green tea massage uses green tea oil for moisturization and it uses a combination of Javanese, Balinese and Swedish massage techniques, together with hot lava stones for a relaxing and soothing massage. The deep tissue hot lava stone massage is hardcore stuff, I usually choose it if my muscles are extremely sore. Either way, I love having hot lava stones incorporated in my massage because the warm stones just relaxes my muscles so much, I could turn into jelly.
The therapists do not hardsell at all, and they are usually quiet during treatments (some therapists yak away… especially those in Malaysia… sigh). I’ve brought my parents and my sis to this secret place of mine, and all of them love it so much! I’ve been a regular since 2010 and the therapists there remember me and my dad! Great personalised service! I do not usually sign packages but these quaint little spa haven has an affordable package of only $500 (+ $150 free treatments), that I have since signed on at least twice. I usually finish 1 package in a year. They do not restrict you which kind of treatments you can do, but rather they go by the value of the treatment you choose to do during your session. They also have monthly promotions which allow customers to try different treatments if they wish to. Members enjoy 30% discount on one full body massage treatment (regular price) on their birthday month.
So I did my 2nd Gelish manicure in Tiger Blossom, sometime in November and it held up very well. I just removed it yesterday (6 Jan 2011) because I wanted to rest my nails for a bit before I do something for Chinese New Year. The colour was still fresh and shiny, though my nails had grown out by about half. But now I know that I can actually trim & file my nails if they get too long and the polish still holds up well! I really love this colour – it looks red on the colour chart, but it’s a lovely coral with shimmers on me.
Item Reviewed: Ichikami Care & Style hair water
Price/pack size: S$
Available at: exclusively at Watsons
Description: Ichikami hair care series is formulated with Rice Premium EX (Yusuru essence, oil and protein originated from rice bran), plus six kinds of pure Japanese Herbal Essences (Belanmcanda, Camellia, Soapberry, Walnut, Sasanqua, Sakura) to nourish, repair and moisturize your hair.
Usage: Spray hair water 5-10cm away onto hair. Apply styling products if desired. Can be used on wet & dry hair.
Review: I received this product in my Ichikami product hamper last year end, and only remembered to use it recently after I permed my hair and it was getting dry like the Sahara desert. Remind me to treat my hair properly before I do any other chemical treatments in future please. Le sigh. Anyway, I was deciding between Lucido-L treatment water (with Hyaluronic Acid!) and Liese Raspberry hair mist in Watsons, when I saw the top shelf display for Ichikami. I suddenly recalled I have this at home, and decided to save some bucks and not buy anything. Hehe.
Ichikami Care & Style hair water promises to treat and repair hair, as well as style hair at the same time! Talk about multi-purpose! I usually use this during the day, while in office, to add some much required moisture to my hair, as well as, restyle and revive the curls. It smells really sweet, and makes my hair smell nice too (an added plus especially when we lunch at the smoky hawker centre!) However, I think my hair is way too parched for the hair water to have any effect on it. Like, I reckon I need a serum or oil more than water. Y’know what I mean? So sadly, this hair water was used a couple of times and I sent it to dear Kimoko (Queen of BB creams) who absolutely loves it.
Rating: -/5 (not suitable for my current hair state)
Would I buy again: Don’t think so… I’ve already found my HG hair serum (Kerastase Oleo Relax!)
I haven’t been very active here lately, but I just wanted to share this inspiring video with those who have acne issues, myself included.
Cassandra Bankson has severe acne but it didn’t deter her from pursuing her dreams of being a model. In the video below, she shows her extraordinary makeup skills!
Ok this is the first time I’m blogging on my iPod while waiting for my sis to be done with her Gelish manicure. So here I am, at Old Town White Coffee, enjoying the free wifi and blogging. By the way, blogging on my tiny iPod touch screen is a chore cos my fingers are just too fat! Lol
Today I’m going to review Shiseido’s Tsubaki shining shampoo (the one in the red bottle, for those who are more visually inclined.) I have to say I don’t really like this shampoo much because it makes my hair oilier than usual and I get these annoying scalp pimples when I use the shampoo for a period longer than 3 days. Too rich and moisturizing for my hair type, me thinks.
The shampoo is a creamy shampoo that lathers up well with sufficient foam. I like a good shampoo that lathers up with tons of foam cos I have moderate thick hair and it’s just easier to wash my hair with foamy shampoo. It smells floral and sweet, like a girly scent but I don’t think it lasts long on me because the scent either dissipates when I blow dry my hair or it gets covered up by my conditioner, or hair serum.
Despite the name “shining shampoo”, I don’t think my hair is any healthier nor shinier after using it. In fact, I think it makes my hair limp and oily by late afternoon, and my curls are less defined after using the shampoo. I’m usually a love it or hate it person, so sadly, I think this shampoo goes into the meh pile. If you have dry scalp, and dry hair, I think this will work for you. But for me, I’m sticking to my Loreal Professional coloured hair shampoo because my scalp is normal-oily while my ends are dry due to the perm and colouring.
My first Gelish manicure… lasted me a whole 3 weeks without scratching & chipping… only got it soaked off because my nails were too long for me to bear! Definitely not my last Gelish manicure!
As if shopping in Korea wasn’t enough, I had to come home and still order from Gmarket Korea. I tell you, shopping is truly addictive. Not so good for my wallet and bursting shoe cabinet though. This time, I held a mini spree/bulk order among myself and friends. Thanks to one of my friends, the parcel was as huge as my doggy. LOOK!
I was quite disciplined and didn’t buy much this time round… only a white Tshirt and some bra sets! Tee hee! My items are at the bottom of the photo, whereas shopping queen’s items are in the box right on top, and everything you see on the left.
Links to white tshirt (seller: 하늘 소녀) and bra set (seller: 트와니). The white tshirt costs W9,900 while the bra sets (comes with free matching underwear!) ranged from W3,900 to W8,900.
My aunt also requested that I help her buy some Baviphat items (Apple All-In-One Peeling Gel) and I got her a Grape Anti-Wrinkle Gel Cream as well. However they made a mistake and delivered the Apple Sleeping Mask Pack instead! 
This is the first time that I have a wrong delivery, and I’m a little clueless on what to do. Hopefully the people managing the Gmarket Global facebook account can get back to me soon!
Update: Ok, I wish I will never ever have to go through another refund process with Gmarket again. It actually isn’t really the fault of Gmarket, it was the seller who sent me the wrong item, but it was such a pain in the back coz every time I emailed Gmarket regarding the status of my enquiry, they replied me back, requesting for the same information and pictures which I have sent like 10000x before! Absolutely annoying. All in all, it took me close to 3 months before the refund was made.
I was a customer of Ucara for about 1 year+ before I stopped visiting them. I kinda liked their facials because I had a great deal with the outlet manager. Imagine 20 facials for S$1280 (before GST)! And it was sorta like a treatment facial, using equipment and masks. Pretty good deal, if you ask me. To be honest, I was a little hesistant to sign a package with them initially because Ucara was like this unknown facial place, in the shopping ‘mall’ near my house. However, my sister convinced me that at $64 a facial, it’s pretty worth it, and so we took up the deal.
Atmosphere: Ucara places a lot of emphasis on natural, botanical extracts, so even the refreshment drinks that they serve before treatments are freshly brewed. It may be red date tea one day, chrysanthemum tea another day.
Products/treatments: Ucara uses their own house brand products for the facial, but they were pretty good. I mean, I haven’t had any allergies though my skin can be quite sensitive to alcohol and fragrances. However, the products are pricey if you were to buy and use at home. They are averaging $60-$80 for a toner or a facial mask! If I’m not wrong, my facial package is the Botanical Facial. The steps include 1) makeup removal, 2) facial cleanser, 3) scrub, 4) steam, 5) extraction, 6) shoulder and back massage, 7) facial massage, 8) facial mask, 9) moisturizer & sunblock. Sometimes, the manager would use the microdermabrasion machine on me instead of the manual scrub. Sometimes, she would also use some ionic machine on my skin after extraction. If my skin was acting up a little due to the monthly period, the high frequency machine would be used to help kill the bacteria and prevent acne from spreading.
I soon signed up for an eye treatment package with them as my dark circles were really ‘jialat’ due to me facing the computer day in and out. I liked the eye treatments because a soothing ionic massager was used together with the eye serum. It felt like a treat and I dozed off soon after. My eyes were also less tired and strained (probably due to the lymphatic drainage treatments).
However, I did not continue my monthly facials after my package ended because 1) I couldn’t get the good price anymore, and 2) the salon manager left the company. Mom was really lucky to have won their lucky draw in April, and had won $1000 worth of products. We had actually stocked up quite a bit when we went to Korea within the same month, so we got the spa to extend the voucher validity period for us till August. They were in the midst of changing their product range in August and so, quite a number of items we wanted were out of stock. However, we got the
It usually takes me forever to finish a product, and I usually fall out of love with products somewhere around the 60% mark. But this! I finally finished it! Ok, my drawing sucks. I actually kinda forgot about Got Me Covered as I was using a combination of my doctor’s sunscreen + mineral loose powder to keep my skin protected and matte. But when I finished up the doctor’s sunscreen, I found myself needing a good sunscreen cos the Dior Snow wasn’t cutting it for me.
To cut the long story short, I picked this up again and completed the bottle. My initial review on the tinted sunscreen still stands. GMC does control oil well. My nose started peeling when I used GMC on a 5 day roll without using a strong moisturizer. I love how matte my skin becomes after application so I usually skip the powder when I use this (my acne scars are now lighter than before. Yippee!). I even brought this to Malaysia when I went to stay with a friend over the weekend. It was so convenient and the travel-safe packaging just made it so easy!
HOWEVER, now that I’m done with this, and again need a new sunscreen, I think I might just try the moisturizing version of it (untinted though) – Shield Me. I recently bought a moisturizer from Bliv (Quench Me) and it’s fab! So maybe…
