Some Monkeys and a Little Whimsy ~

Yay! Finally some updates from S.T. all the way from China!

On another note, my aunt from UK came home for a visit few weeks ago, and while she was here I got to spend some rare quality time with her kids. I am obsessed with their British accents! It's such a thrill to hear small children speak in whole sentences with that rounded accent!

And so before they returned home, I made them some sock monkeys! I found this great tutorial on another blog on how to make them, it's super easy and it looks so professionally done that my aunt and cousins could not believe I made them. You can find the full tutorial here [btw Joanne, the other blogger is genius at crafts!]

And when one of my friends saw it she instantly wanted one, so with her birthday just around the corner, I made her one too. I also made her a bookmark. The bookmark was inspired by S.T. actually, she made one before, with just the locket frame, and in it she had printed out the a favourite quote from a book of the person that she was giving it to.

Being inspired, I made one with my drawing instead, and the one here features my favourite drawing of the Eiffel Tower. I felt the whole feel of the bookmark is rather whimsical, as the back of the locket frame I've also added a quote - “If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion." - Avram Noam Chomsky

Get inspired! till next time...

Cheers,
E.L.

S.T: Cocktail: YuZu Daydream

Hello hello,

Its been an exciting week in Shanghai, with the start of school term and Autumn making its way into this part of the world. The days are beautiful, with lots of sunshine and cool breezes, almost like an English summer. I have so much to blog about, so much to share but I guess I'll pick my battles.

Teacher's Day recently passed and the school I'm teaching at gave everyone a jar of Citron tea, or as what I call it, Yu Zu. Its declicious and a popular beverage served at Japanese and Korean restaurants. Its also easily available at supermarkets.


It looks like a jam concentrate and to drink it, you simply dissolve it in water and the result is a tangy, sweet and chunky beverage that bears a semblance to honey lemon teas.

So guess what I did with my jar?

Yup, I boozed it up and it made one TASTY beverage.

Its absolutely delicious, refreshing and the alcohol hits you hard because you can't taste it. You guzzle it like a HumVee guzzling gas. Not a pretty picture I know but still. Gorilla decided to name it YUZU Daydream. And yes, it will send you into a hazy stupor of happiness and giggles.

YUZU Daydream

3 Tbspns of Citron Jam

300ml of Tonic Water

60ml of Bombay Saphire Gin

1. Mix Jam and Gin together.

2Add the tonic water and stir till well cmbined.

Serve chilled.

Try it, its the perfect summery cocktail.

X.O.X.O

S.T

Greetings from Shanghai! -S.T

Hello all!

Its been quite a hiatus for me, having moved to Shanghai and almost after 2 glorious months, I finally managed to get the VPN working and hence, able to blog!

Its been quite an adventure, having to go back to dealing with messy paint and screaming children to checking out live jazz bars in Shanghai.

Here is just a quick visual summary of what I've been up to:

Its been a great adventure and like anywhere new, you have to embrace everything that happens with a great sense of humour and adventure. :)

I'll be blogging more about the nightlife, great bargain shopping places, craft shops and recipes so keep watching this space! :)

XOXO

S.T

Taking Care of your Hair

If you have been following our blog, you would know that I've tried dyeing my hair about a year ago due to greys, and as much as I liked the idea that I can cover my age, and my reviews on the hair dyes still stands - I regret dyeing my hair!

The chemicals in hair dyes are terrible for your hair and scalp! And honestly I'd really rather have my greys than what the dyes did to it! So until I explore natural hair remedies to cover greys - that are not harmful to hair or scalp - I have been trying all ways to recover the softness in my hair.

I am all about departmental brands or herbal natural remedies when it comes to beauty aids - mostly because I cannot afford the luxurious brands or facials every month etc. If you can then great for you! Go do that because yes it is true, money can really buy you better skin, better hair, better health and better everything!

So for the middle class folks like me, we have to experiment... and I did. So here is the best result thus far in repairing my damaged hair.

My Hair 2 months ago-

Ok bad photo, but good enough to see how frizzy and split my hair was... you can see the ends of my hair are now brown as it gets that way after the chemicals in your hair dyes are stripped over the months of washing.. 

At this point, I was using Dove intense repair series. It was wonderful when I used it before dyeing my hair.. but after, not so much. Considering that the intense repair series is supposed to help hair that are damaged by chemicals, it did not really help. 

So I tried getting a hair trim at my neighbourhood saloon - bad move! The silly scissors that is half-comb and half-blade that is used for thinning the hair [to get the layered effect] is really bad, it gives split ends! And that was what the saloon used and I ended up with plenty of split ends... But still workable.

I then decided to bite the bullet a little, and bought Organix hair products. I've always seen this brand on the shelves, and for frugal people like me, this is much higher priced than most other products in a pharmacy. But I was desperate, so I got the Moroccan Argan Oil leave on conditioner and Vanilla Silk Serum at about $15 each. I also ventured a little further for my pockets, I went to L'occitane and bought the Volumising shampoo.

Ok firstly, I wouldn't suggest the L'occitane shampoo to everyone, I got it on impulse and got sucked in by the store's warm and sweet smelling and dreamy marketing strategies. It's really expensive considering it's only a 500ml bottle of shampoo [that's gonna end up down the drain anyway] at $53. But I do like the idea that it's supposed to be for volumising, because I have very thin hair, and have quite bad hair fall.

I liked this collection as they are all organic products, and I'm quite conscious these days about Parabens - especially after using Korres [no parabens in Korres products is the biggest selling point - ok to digress a bit.. Parabens is an ingredient in plenty of beauty products that has been causing some controversy as research has shown that breast cancer cells have shown a presence of Paraben in them - although no solid proof has linked that the ingredient of Paraben in beauty products are the cause of breast cancer.., but then again, if you can avoid it, why not right?] So none of these contains Parabens, and the all natural and organic oils etc sounds all so delicious for my hair!

So my routine is - Shampoo, leave on the conditioner, towel dry hair and apply serum to hair. The bottle for the conditioner says for ultimate effects, apply conditioner then wrap in warm towel - but I'm too lazy. I started doing the conditioner like once in 2 weeks, and the serum after every shower. But these past couple of weeks I've been doing it every evening.

Hair now-

Okok bad photo, I just took it while in the office... but hey even so, you can see the difference! I can feel the difference too! My hair is back to it's softness from before the hair dyes! And it's far less tangly too! 

I find that the one product that made the biggest difference was the Moroccan Argan Oil conditioner. It really left hair so soft and silky. The serum is pretty good too, just that if applied to completely dry hair, it gets really sticky and heavy - so don't use too much of it. The Shampoo is good too, but it doesn't lather as much, of course considering that it is supposed to be mostly natural ingredients - its volumising effect has yet to show much results but who knows, maybe in a couple months!

Cheers,

E.L.

p.s. see my follow up on these products here

Gift Ideas - Fun Packs & Kits

It's been awhile since a new post and this is because I've been lazy and S.T.'s trapped in China which of course blocks out Google.... So till she figures how to manoeuvre round the internet blockages from the chinese government, we will not be receiving any updates from her.... Ah well.... then it is up to me to fill this space!

So in my absence, we've celebrated a couple of occasions that warrant pressies! Who doesn't love presents right? And what's better than just receiving a gift? RECEIVING PLENTY OF GIFTS!

Well that's sorta the idea... so if you can remember from the last post [or so], our colleague S.M. was leaving our company and moving on to another job, so our company gave my other colleague, I.A. and I a budget to get a farewell gift on behalf of the whole company. After much dallying and not knowing what to get, I.A. came up with an idea to put together a Rainy Day Kit for S.M.!

Awesome idea! Because with the small budget we got a variety of fun stuff to put together and made it into a Rainy Day Kit! It consisted of all the fun things a girl needs on a rainy day -

A book to curl up with, facial masks, bath & body lotions, chocolate, fudgey lip balm, mints, a princess pen, and nail polish. We also burned her a CD with all the songs we've shared with her throughout her time with us in the company! That was such a fun and personal bit, but so hard to narrow down the song list!

It was such a hit with S.M. that it gave me brilliant ideas for my cousin R.'s belated birthday pressie. I haven't met her in months and thus missed her birthday in March, so I think she deserves a little luxury. In her pack, it's called the "Self-Indulgent Pack"

In R's 'Self-Indulgent Pack', it has all the stuff a busy modern day woman would need to unwind and relax on a day off. I got her a set of the Japanese Rose bath and body milk with lip balm from Korres, I got her a travel Book about Europe by my favourite author Bill Bryson [R.'s an avid jetsetter who is obsessed with Paris], and I got a nice container and filled it with soothing teas for her and also made a CD compilation of relaxing music. Plus a touch of additional luxury, if she wants to step out, a little sparkle to add on to her party dress - I made her pair of Aventurine Earrings.

The next pack was for D. I also missed her birthday in March, so I made her a pink girl pack!

In her pack, I got her a nice glass bottle and filled it with yummy cookies and tied a pretty pink bow, facial packs with nail polish all in pink, bath and lotion in pink, and a girly pretty romantic novel - all wrapped up in pink!

And last but not the least..... My BF's birthday! Which was just this weekend that passed! I got him a theme of blue accessories.

A pair of Rivieras Leisure Shoes and an AX Pop colour watch - both items he had been eyeing and wanting to get for himself. Of course staying in theme, both were in the shades of blue!

And so with a personal creative touch, I made him a birthday card with quotes from our current favourite TV show - Happy Endings

I created the font from scratch and printed it out to make the card, here is a copy so you guys can use it to if you want ;)

And yes, I am very broke now from all the spending, but so happy to see my loved ones happy with what I got them! This gift pack ideas are wonderful and actually with the right budget and the little effort of shopping wisely while thinking of what the person you are buying for might appreciate - this gift pack ideas make great presents and can save you alot of moolah!

Hope it inspired some of you out there!

Cheers,

E.L.

Korres - Beauty products

Korres' values are about using natural Greek herbs to make up at least 80% of their beauty products. Basically stressing the fact that they are trying to use less of artificial, chemicals that can be harmful to our bodies. You can learn more about their research and motives for their all natural products here.

Before S.T. left the company, she worked with Korres on a marketing tie-up, which resulted in Korres giving us a ton of complimentary samples and cash vouchers for our staff. Awesome!

The samples includes a White Tea Facial Cleanser, Thyme Honey Mask, Showergel Basil Lemon, and Shampoo Aloe and Soapwort.

I've tried the samples and was in all honesty not very impressed with the products.

The White Tea Facial Cleanser was really nothing special, it wasn't drying as the product promises, but it didn't really leave my skin spectacularly soft either. To be honest, it did not lather so well, and at the end I felt like it did not clean as much as it should. So I used more of it, then it felt cleaner. But I washed my face again right after with my Simple facial cleanser. I felt it wasn't spectacular but did its job moderately, and felt my Simple Facial cleanser was actually better.

The Showergel Basil Lemon was also quite average. The smell was nice, and it did lather better than the face cleanser, but overall my skin wasn't buzzing with excitement. I think I felt softer and smoother after the first time I tried my Netrogena Rainbath..

The Shampoo Aloe and Soapwort was actually a disappointment. It did not leave my hair silky and soft at all.. it wasn't drying either, but it just felt like it did the basic minimum of cleaning with some lingering smells of freshness. To be honest my hair is shinier, softer and silkier using my Dove Intense Repair shampoo.

The Thyme Honey Mask was good. I tried it on my arm, it felt more like a moisturiser than a mask. It's supposed to be applied thickly all over the face and left on for like 10-15 mins than rinse - I think - but I wiped mine off and it feels like the softness retained better. Skin did feel softer and moisturised, just that the smell can be quite off putting to those sensitive to weird smells.

All their "soapy" products claim to be "Formulated with vegetable-derived soap substitutes—deeply cleanses and refreshes without dehydrating the skin." And products also claims to be Paraben free - Paraben is a common chemical used as preservatives in beauty products, it became a controversial product when it was found that paraben is present in breast cancer tumors. So I guess for that fact alone, it is quite a good factor to be a Korres convert - but just to note that it is not proven that Paraben is a cause for cancer - not link has ever been found.


I may not be tooting Korres effectiveness in its beauty outcome, but I will give them credit for pulling off the all natural products with their not-horrid results. I guess I had high expectations, considering that they do charge alot of money for their products, with facial creams at $90 over - I thought they would blow me away at their results. But I guess being limited with their all natural ingredients it is rather hard to pull off miracles. After all beauty these days do not come naturally...

I may not have found their showergels and shampoos much to toot about.. but I do have to say their Multi-Vitamin compact powder is really making me contemplate converting from Chanel forever!

 It is apparently loaded with Vitamin C and E, so good for skin, and it has this new skin mimetic ingredient which [I guess] mimics your complexion to have a more natural coverage. It's for oily skin as it is mattifying - I have a problematic T-Zone so I feel this helps! And actually I'm in love with how light-weight it is and how natural it looks! Of course it has no Paraben and artificial dyes or fragrances - so it treats your skin well.

I have not found a compact powder that can compete with Chanel's which are always flawless, but this one can be quite a competitor as it has all its goodness as a factor. Of course Chanel's Natural matte powders or their Lumiere collection is flawless - it literally feels like silk on the skin and so light but full natural coverage. Well... for the price of Korres MVpowder which is $61, it feels more worth it to buy Chanel's refills which are at $60. I got Korres this time round as I had the cash vouchers. So in all fairness, if I did have to purchase a full priced one, I will still go back to Chanel.

Hope this helps you make your decision on Korres!

Cheers,
E.L.

L'Entrecote Singapore

On a recent meet-up with a couple of dear friends, we decided on treating ourselves to dine in L'entrecote.. For those of you unfamiliar with its background, originally a French Bistro based in Paris, it has set out to take the world with restaurants popping around the globe's famous cities like New York, London and here in Singapore as well!

It's famed for it's hearty 2 servings of steak with their secret sauce and a free flow of fries! This is their only main course, so the only choices you need to make are your appetisers and desserts.

L'Entrecote Singapore is beautifully located in one the several old peranakan buildings and amongst the pre-war Shophouses in Duxton Road. With it's European interiors and impeccable service, the entire experience was lovely!

The high glass ceiling of the restaurant [right above our table!] and lightbulbs in whisks lighting adds a whimsical touch.

We picked a couple of appetisers to share... or rather my friends shared the Escargots and I shared the Duck Foie Gras Terrine.

What was the most loveliest touch [in my opinion] was the welcome complimentary drink! I didn't exactly catch what it was - I think it was Vodka something... Although they did charge us an extortionate $9++ for still water.... always feel the charge for water in any place is an arrogant and obnoxious business tactic... but felt like it could be forgiven considering the $29++ for their perfectly  cooked medium rare steaks in large portions with free flow of fries were worth the total expenses.

All in all a wonderful restaurant, good food great service wonderful friends... Check them out!


Cheers,
E.L.