Life is totally full of surprises sometimes.

Other than spending a fair share of time in front of the com,
I spent quite an amount of time running about as well – some times studio, sometimes meetings, sometimes events etc.
And lazy me usually do a quick lunch or so at wherever I’m at,
and usually it will be just that without fruits (Either cuz I don’t have the routine habit to have fruits after meals or the place doesn’t sell cut fruits).

So it’s pretty much serves-me-right that I somehow have problems going to the loo (yeah constipation you may say – they said it’s a girl thing? Is it??
And….right, another of my secrets out. boooo!), and my aunt got me a box of Prune Plus Essence from BRAND’S® InnerShine®  to drink at night (best consume at night and that makes it very convenient at all times!),
and it’s rich in dietary fibre to aid in my bowel movement and it helped after a while!

In anycase, why did I mention that Life’s full of surprise because being a satisfied consumer of BRAND’S® InnerShine® already,
I was more than happy, and immediately agreed to take on this review on their new formula -
BRAND'S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract!

And YAY, I received a set about a week ago to try!

The surprise gift!

I’m in the early twenties now but not that far away from being in mid-twenties (ahhh It feels like I just celebrated 21st not long ago!!),
and It’s pretty frightening to know that age catches up in a fast pace, and I have done my research –
Do you know that the body loses collagen at a rate of 1.5% per annum starting at age 25, leaving to wrinkles & a duller complexion?

Actually to me, I think it has started already!! 
I used to be delighted when people said I looked older than my age (but that’s when I was 17, feels good that I wasn’t looking more matured),
but now it feels pretty boohoo when people think that the bf (who is in his early 30s) looks like 27, and I look about the same age as him!! *pouts*

Grrr not fair, we girls spent so much money & time to go for facials, and buy good skin care products,
whereas the guys don’t – except for either using tap water to wash or just ONE product to wash the hair, body and face.
And in the end, the common consensus is that guys look more charismatic & attractive as they age (as a matter of fact, their wrinkles and lines = more manly)!!!
What about us girls……Trust me, I know how you feel!

So really, it’s never too early for us girls to take care of our youth!!

Truth to be told, no doubt facials & early sleeping time etc help to maintain our complexion,
I personally feel it’s also the food intake and what’s within us that causes the dull complexion, breakouts and all in fact.
Hurhur always stops me from eating those fried food, saying that it's those that cause the breakouts and bumps,
and somehow or rather, you can feel your skin reflects the unhealthiness in the body.

I've friends who already started drinking collagen drinks or taking collagen powder, and
thankfully this came now, it urges me to kick start my beauty regime that I have always wanted.

I’m very thankful for having the privilege to try out BRAND'S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract,
because my days could get pretty busy and sometimes those late nights do take a toll on me too.

Amidst all the busyness, this is very convenient and an oral beauty drink to help meet our beauty needs by nourishing our skin from within!
LET’S BRING IT ON THE YOUTHFUL GLOW!!

Like this, just pop one into your bag easily!

A lil more about BRAND'S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract that you might want to know:

1.    Helps the skin to better retain moisture, preventing it from having lackluster & sallow skin.
2.    Helps to work towards a radiant complexion
3.    The Grape Seed Extract enhances skin elasticity to keep it firm. Powerful health supplement that fight free radical oxidation & UV radiation.
4.    Contains powerful antioxidants & anthocyanins from 5 types of premium berries: Blueberry, blackcurrant, chokeberry, acai berry and cranberry. (btw it’s imposible to get your own mix from the supermarket!!)
5.    A bit on the technical terms, it is fortified with Oligomeric Proanthocyanidin Complexes (OPCS),
       an active ingredient from grape seed extract that helps to strengthen collagen in the skin while slowing down the depletion process, stabilize the capillary walls of the skin, bringing back vitality, vigor and glow.
6.    Grape seed extract has 50 times more potent than vitamin E and 20 times more potent than vitamin C!!

It has no artificial flavouring, colouring or preservatives, and i am very convinced already!
Cuz these facts don't lie, andI like the rich, sweet and smooth taste of this product, and it’s so easy to drink!
Well, it’s like a fruity juice and I like it best when it’s chilled!

You probably have seen it around already and Xiao S is the new ambassador for it.
She has been the spokesperson of BRAND'S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract for a few years in Taiwan now.

Pretty!

Here’s me and my new found beauty drink!


Got inspired by Xiao S photo, decided to try googling for fun and found this site that adds sparkles for me on my picture! Geez, coolbeans! :p
But apparently, it's a trial so the file size is pretty small, hence pardon the pixelated image, more pics below!

 

You can easily get BRAND'S® InnerShine® Berry Essence with Grape Seed Extract  at selected Watsons, Guardian, FairPrice,
Cold Storage, and Unity outlets for a decent price of S$24.90 for a pack of 6 bottles!
LADIES, Let’s kick start our oral beauty regime!!

Last but not least, To find out how you can enjoy promotions and giveaways or find out more about the drink, do click HERE!
Don’t miss this chance!
 

It's time to bring you more styles and here are some gorgeous pieces that I recently received!

1. you might have already seen this piece from my previous post, and yes!! I am madly in love with this maxi dress from Frockettes!
Love the prints, love the tube cut, and the design at the front. Simply gorgeous.

 
2. Something different & more unique, this shrug from Frockettes can be worn loose like a cardigan or tie like a kimono outer piece!
I matched it with my own leggings, but i think it looks good with a pair of shorts too.

3. This pretty piece from DOT has a very japanese demure feel, especially the prints at the bottom part, looking elegant!
I think the peach colour top really complements the prints, and yes, i bet you like the structured fit too.

4. Summer summer summer, pleats are in fact in the trend if you realised,
this sweet piece from DOT comes in many different colours but I like the yellow shade of this. Definitely a great pick for the weekends!

 

Hooray Folks! Let's spread our hands out and welcome the weekends here again,
and this time you might/might not be looking to head out for a good weekend brunch,
but I'll still share a new place that I have recently explored nonetheless! teehee. :p

Last Sunday I was craving for an English breakfast brunch and decided to try Ardent's Cafe Bar @ Neil Road.
Heard raves about it, even for their dinner sets, and seen quite a bit pictures of their brunch sets around in fact.
Yay! Finally got to try it! I'm in love with their rustic yet modernized shophouse area, somehow like a lil cottage in the woods.
And you can pretty much locate it while driving/walking down the road.

For those who drive, there are parallel lots carpark opposite the cafe!

LOVE EGGS BENEDICT!
Actually, most of the pictures i saw circulating were the eggs benedict,
so i reckon it shall be the must-have there and both hurhur plus myself ordered two sets of different benedicts!

While waiting for our food..

 
 

the old-school casio watches- we both agreed that they are our most lasting watches outta all!

    

We ordered the Eggs Montreal (smoked salmon) + Eggs Blackstone and swopped one each to try.
Imma fan of Grilled Bacon & Smoked Salmon but I have to say the Eggs Montreal has the better taste overall.
The hollandaise sauce is a lil more towards the savoury side, so if you prefer that, you would have to try it!
For fans of smoked salmon, you probably would like the Eggs Montreal as much as i do.

As for the Eggs Blackstone, the grilled bacon was really cripsy and grilled to perfection,
but somehow it overpowers the overall egg taste for me, in which i could only taste the bacon.
We also had a cuppa latte, and it was pretty good!

ARDENT'S CAFE BAR
80 Neil Road
Singapore 088842
Tel: 6325 7077
Fax: 6220 4144
Mon – Fri: 11am to 12am
Sat – Sun: 10am to 12am

♥

I believe you have seen many pictures around on facebook or so on how each of us spent our Valentine's Day,
and here's how I spent mine!

It was a simple affair this year but a special one because hurhur decided to whip up a good meal, a fushion cuisine – western with chinese.
Was indeed an enjoyable and quiet night though we ate around 9pm cuz we both had stuff on for the day.
Am thankful for that heart-warming and lovely meal, especially when he had a full day of work too. <3

 

Here's what I got for him to show him my appreciation!
 
  
hehhe GPS!! :p Practical one and my research shows that Garmin brand is the best outta the lot.
Now we can explore more brunch places! :p

 
A pretty card from him!

A lil backdated, but here's the Love Bonito gang at Rach's place for sukiyaki!
How i love these house parties and of course, rach's love nest and the entire LB gang.

It's an immediate YES whenever Rach invites me to her place for Sukiyaki that her mom will prepare,
cuz the homemade soup is as good as what you can get in Japanese restaurants and dipping the beef slices in the tasty soup + raw egg just completes the meal satisfyingly!
i'm so gonna learn to cook the soup base, it's my favourite outta all kinds of soup. heh.
Please share with me if you have any good and recommended sukiyaki recipes!!

love mushrooms!

!!!!

The lovebirds & their love nest!

Last men standing. we were all too full to finish the remaining!

vel and her peach soda dessert! yum tum!

Gonna be back for more, am going out to see my darling linny's lil two weeks old kiddo!

HAPPY VALENTINES ALL! )

May you enjoy this special day be it with your partner, friends or family.
Love is in the air <3

Recently I received some LOVE by Baked by Lace, and I got hold of a box of pretty cupcakes during one weekend.
I must say Lace (the passionate & friendly owner) gets me yearning for more every time and this time, lucky me got to try out more different flavours,
and my bet would be on the Salted Caramel & Red Velvet. Simply heavenly and she definitely makes one of the best cupcakes around!

Da boom! Sea Salt Caramel cuppy cakes!

♥

I met up with the girls to pass them the Pink Love Boxes during the past week, and I hope you ladies love it!
Didn't manage to take photos of all 8 ladies, but thanks for the support nonetheless!
Will try to share more goodies with you all!

♥

I had a belated CNY steamboat with the poly gang at dear Sharon's place,
and thanks to her great hospitality and for opening up her place, we had a feast & rounds of Ban-Luck which I got my first set of "A,A" for this entire CNY. heh,
Celebrated her birthday as well, and silly me got mistaken that she loves banana, and got her one of the best banana chocolate tasting cakes in my opinion- from Old School Delights @ Upper Thomson Road,
and in the end banana turns out to her her least favourite food of all. heh
Sorry Sharon! Will get you one of the bestest chocolate strawberry cakes next time! ;p

Not entirely the prettiest cake, but it's delicious!!

 
Guess what?! we got her a lil blue box too!

And thanks to sharon too, i always receive surprises each and every time i see her!
Awwww, thank you my dear!

♥

Last but not least, I'm a lil slow on this, but i received a surprised news in my inbox one day.
I was being sent the Media Release of Google Top Searches in 2011, and glad cum privileged to be on the list!

Top Local Blogs

1. mrbrown
2. Beatrice Tan
3. Yankaykay
4. Peggy Heng
5. Steven Lim
6. Xiaxue
7. Norfasarie2baihakki
8. Dawn Yang
9. Silver Ang
10. Miyake Wong

Quoted in the press release: "Today, Google announced its annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2011 through the collective eyes of Singaporeans on the web. The 2011 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year's major events and hottest trends based on searches conducted in Google.com.sg."

LOVE IS INDEED IN THE AIR!

Here comes the day four of my Korea Trip,
and you never will be able to guess what they planned in for us for this day – and it's FACIAL!
Well, I got really excited for this because I have never expected myself to be doing facial in another country,
and furthermore, facial = walking out with bareface & red spots!! heh
And for this time, it's not walking out and heading home to hide,  but it was facing 20 odd new strangers hahahah
Anycase, it was not as bad as i thought, I'll elaborate later!

We started off with a breakfast at our resort,
and halfway through our meal, it begun to snow!
I could see some of us instantly trying to gobble down the food in due to head out for snowy pictures, including myself, Geez

this was the view i had when i entered, not snowing yet..

And then we headed outside, you can see the white snow in this picture!

And we do have the really-freezing-but-trying-to-post-cool-and-good-for-the-pictures look, don't we? heh

my gloves was in the luggage, and I think after this shot i was thinking in my head, " why did i even put my hand out -.-"

  
Time to bid farewell to our lovely resort once again, we are heading back to Seoul today!

The second part of the day was pretty interesting,
we got to visit the filming set of the famous Korea dynasty drama, Dong Yi (同伊, 동이) and it was such an eye-opener.
We had quite a drive into this area (Yong-in MBC drama set) that has absolutely no sight of any city buildings,
and it seemed as though we were kinda in a rural part, peaceful and quiet.

It was just amazing, you feel as though you are living in another country, and it felt pretty surreal to mel!!
The only thing that i kinda regretted was not watching the show before i came here in fact,
i would really appreciate it a 101% more than I went (though i was already very impressed by the place)! ;(

Us dropping off, looked sunny, but we were freezing!

snap shots printed along the way, those were snap shots of scenes of shows filmed here before.

Yes, us walking towards the set, that's just a glimpse of the place!

a good background for a group shot

and this was the entire group of us, from 5 different countries!

as you can see, once we head up, it's gonna be another world!

here we were!

This place just totally blew me off with its architecture and probably just how the whole area cum its location..

spot no cities at all, and the woman in purple at top is fiona, we are all heading up for a better view.

And this was the exact view upon standing right at where Fiona stood. Amazing isn't it?
Completely like a whole new world, i'm just lacking of the appropriate outfit that's all heh.

We walked furtherdown to another part,
and here was the famous filming ground with a good view of the palace.

this is the screenshot of one of the scenes in Dong Yi,  the best i can find.

WEEE! I was here too!! *star-place struck*

the main actor for the show, which i heard he has a good man role in it, no wonder Caitrin loves him so much! ;p

and this! another scene..

I was here too!! Just that it was another room with a different setting. hehehe.

So yes, i'm gonna start watching Dong Yi!!
Read the synopsis and saw clips of it at youtube, seems like a pretty good show with a great story line and stunning actors/actresses.
And hope i'm able to relive the memory of my trip! teehee

*

After having the palace tour, we headed to this cosy lil restaurant named San Chae Chon,
and it was a lunch particularly introducing mountain vegetables, and we tried a pretty good range of vegetables cooked in different ways.

Lunch after was a visit to KINTEX, which is Korea International Exhibition area (something like our Singapore Suntec City Convention),
and our trip was planned to coincide with one of the annual biggest tradeshows – Gyeonggi International Travel Mart.
Glad to have the opportunity to attend a tradeshow there,
and the way they organised it was pretty similar, just that they had really interesting activities for us to do at many of the little booths.

Took a shot with the tradeshow girl!
They all look so gracious and demure and i think Singapore's tradeshow should hire such girls in fact,
i bet it will draw a larger crowd! heh

one of the booths that i had joy sitting at, we got to design our own rice cake!

everything can be eaten.

'

MY DESIGN – a bed of roses!
spent 100% concentration on that 10 minutes on this, so proud of it!!:p

And this is a famous rice wine in Korea, that is supposedly nicer and milder than Soju.
Best thing is that it's not expensive too, less than SGD$5 if im not wrong, should try this than soju!
Think the koreans pronounce this as "Bar-car-li"

caught these two korean lil kids talking, so adorable!

And we were done, went off with a bag of souvenirs, and a polariod of ourselves!

spotted riot on the way back, and it was for Hyundai actually,
heard it was about Hyundai retrenching their workers. ;\

And here comes the FACIAL!
We went to this place named the Skin Anniversary, one of korea's largest beauty corporations,
and i think it's something like Jean Yip in Singapore
It has a range of makeup services, facial etc, plus i heard a lot of famous korean artistes go there for facial too!

the wall of fame, signed by those who patronized the store!

RAIN!!!!

can't remember her name, but she's gorgeous!!

so professional and so cool, they were standing behind each screen waiting for us to do our scans.

And the facial room

Well, no pictures were taken during the facial, but it was sooooooooooo comfortable & relaxing!
To be honest, I think our facial here is pretty on par with their standard (i mean afterall, they are known for beauty and such),
and probably because it's a big group, they didn't really do extraction for us, more on massage.
The only thing that i think Singapore's beauty parlour for facial should improve to make it the best,
is to incorporate a longer facial massage whenever we girls go for our session!
I think that would really make the session so much more look-forward to, and much more comfortable, don't you think so?!
Please say yes, and I hope some facial place (in particular my facial place) might happen to chance that you readers agree with that,
and help incorporate that into the session in future, hahahaha :p

And, I think they put BB cream at the last step and that was why my skin looked ready for heading out though it was bare,
but guess what?
They had make up services at the ground floor and make up artist to beautify us!

it was pretty hilarious, cuz i think she was asking what kinda make up i want (in korean and sign language),
so i didn't know how to answer, and saw this Kim Tae Hee poster above me.
Well, she's a super famous star there so i took the easiest way,  just pointed to her that and said "Kim Tae Hee's make up". Jeez.

Ahhh, didn't manage to take a shot of myself after the make up,
but it was nice!! very natural and i'm trying to refresh her makeup techniques in my head ever since i got back,
and use it for my make up days too. heh

Anyways, the facial was awesome, and i really enjoyed it,
you can try it if you head there too, just have to book an appointment in advance!

*

By the time we ended facial (which took about one half hour),
we were in fact back in Seoul already, so we headed to the city Myeong dong in due for a good dinner at Bulgogi Brothers (불고기브라더스)!
The guide mentioned that it's a famous chain in Korea,
and always full-house!


Yeap! known for the beef, and yes, it's a MUST-TRY in Korea!
Excellent tasting marinated beef i must say, the taste is just different and kinda sweet, but two thumbs up for it!

Last but not least,
if you recognise this building, yes, it's opposite doota!
And we are at Dongdaemun area- the famous shopping district <3

Definitely a place for clothes, and though MyeongDong has more beauty outlets,
but you can still find them at Dongdaemun area, and it's pretty accessible via the subway!
 
Tha's all for Day 4, folks!
Will continue for the next day again