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Cozycot Holy Grail Party

Woke up bright and early this morning to attend Cozycot Holy Grail Party at Singapore Expo with my mum. Spent around 2 hours walking the booths, but I didn't see much that caught my eye. There was some good discounts on:
selected ZA products (50% off) with the 2-way cake selling for $10
selected Majolica Marjoca products at 30% off (I grabbed a nail polish at $5)
Esperique Precious foundation going for $49.
10% off Bod sincare line

I bought a cleansing milk and eye gel from Bod, a natrual skincare range which had 10% off (actually this range is newly launched, and can be found at Watson's, also with 10% off I believe). I also tried the scalp analysis at Phyto, Keratase and did a UV skin check at DermaR skincare. For some reason I have more brown spots and UV spots compared to my mum who is almost 30 years older than me!!! Could this be due to the fact that she's more judicious with carrying an umbrella and I prefer to wear sunglasses (I read somewhere that it's not good to wear sunglasses cos they reflect the rays onto your skin but I'm not sure how accurate that is).

Was disappointed with the door gift, I got a stack of vouchers for some spa treatment, a Pantene 3 minute hair treatment, 1 Bliss yoghurt drink, and Bioessence sample for face lifting cream. To think I was one of the early birds queueing at 11am.

See more comments here.

Kao Prettia Hair Dye- Bleach

Kao Prettia hair dye, aka Liese Hair Dye in Singapore, is a range of hair dye in foam format, so not only is it easy to apply, doesn't drip, it is extremely easy to wash off. I don't know how many times I swore off at home dye jobs cos it was just too difficult to wash off.

I used No. 18 Bleach which isn't available in Singapore yet, as there is a wider range in Japan.


Now my hair is black black black, as I haven't coloured it in years. So since I wanted to get a brighter colour, I left it on for 1 hr (the box showed that for the lightest result I would need to leave it in for 40 mins). At the 30min mark, I looked in the mirror and my hair was still black, so I proceeded to leave it in for longer.

The results:

Verdict: I'm happy with the light brown shade, and it looks pretty even, although this could be attributed to the fact that my hair hadn't been dyed before. Oh there was loads of hair dye left, so this is economical for longer haired gals.

Price: $19.90 in Singapore, available at Watson's/Guardian/Supermarkets etc. I got mine in Japan for ard 700yen

Stila #21 Blush Brush

As you can see in my previous pictures, I'm very fond of the Stila #21 blush brush. In fact, it was one of my first 'branded' brushes and a favourite of mine ever since. I prefer using animal hair brushes for my powder prioducts, leaving synthetic brushes for use with liquid foundations, gel blushes and eyeliners.

What it is:
This bell shaped brush has bristles manicured to a flat top. A corner edge applies color precisely beneath the cheekbone for a contoured cheek look. The flat circular top of the brush puts cheek color down on top of the cheekbone in one sweep. (taken from amazon.com)

Double duty, can be used as a blush brush & a cheek contour brush

Material: Fine Goat hair

Normally I would swirl my brush onto the entire surface of the blush, but this brush has tiny bristles sticking out so that by doing so, excess powder is picked up and flicked off to the side. So I just carefully pres the brush into the pan, lift it and re-press into the pan until it has picked up the correct amount.

see how some hairs are longer than others?

I reccomend using this brush for all blushes, as you can control the amount to be picked up. I've never used it for contouring though, but I can see how it could work as its has a flat surface.

Price: US$45

There are rumours that Stila is pulling out of Singapore, so grab this brush while you still can! Hopefully there will be more price reductions to come.

Luxasia Warehouse Sale

Another sale we were all looking forward to, Luxasia Warehouse sale which started today. End on sunday, location is SAFRA Toa Payoh. Starts at 11am, but I was able to enter earlier at 10am as they have a special preview for Standard Chartered cards members. Prices were cheap, and stock ran low for some items even before I left. I spent 1 1/2 hours slowly browsing, as there weren't many people. By 11.15am people were streaming in and the place was packed! I quickly made up my mind and left. I spent $229 so I also got a free Paul Smith Floral EDP 30ml. I believe non Stand-chart holders got a Lancaster sample pack, as they were about to give that to me.

My Buys
Stila Brushes:
#8 Powder Brush $17 each
#9 all over blend brush $9 each
#21 blush brush x3 $13 each
#31 retractable powder brush $12 each
#17 Retractable brush $10 each
#6 lip brush x2 $8 each
#19 all over shimmer brush $15 each

Skincare/makeup:
Stila SPF 30 oil free tinted moisturiser $10
Phytomer toning body scrub $10
Lancaster spf 25 sun beauty stick eyes and lips $6
Vera Wang Princess EDT set $50 (50ml edt, roll on, body polish and body lotion)
Jurlique Eucalyptus essential oil $5
RMK pan concealer $15
Stila Lip glaze stick blackberry $5
Stila Pomegranate lip crush $10
Free gift: Paul Smith Floral EDP 30ml

Prices for the other items that I remember:
Stila:
assorted makeup brushes, from $8-$20
Lip glaze stick (blackberry/brown sugar/gingerbread) $5
Oil free tinted mosituriser $10 (they had light 02 and a medium colour)
lots of eyeshadow pans going for $4 each
Eyeshadow quad montmare $8
lipsticks, lipglazes, concealers, foundations etc but i didn't look at these

RMK:
pan concealer $15
powder foundation $20 (this is the discontinued one)
no base or liquid foundations

Ipsa:
Metabolisers (for oily skin) going for $16 thereabouts

Lancaster:
They had sunblocks going for cheap! spf 30 going for $8, i bought the eye/lip care sunblock stick for $6. This was oos by the time I left, so not sure if they will restock

Phytomer:
Toning Body scrub $10
Soothing face cream $25
Soothing face mask $15
Cellulite gel $30

Jurlique:
Eucalyptus essential oil $5
Soothing day care lotion $16 iirc (exp sept 09)
they had other skincare tems, but most expired either end 2009 or mid 2010

Perfume:
Salvatore Feragamo incanto heaven $24

Anyone who's going, head down soon!

Magazine gwp alert

Today I went to Books Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City but they didn't have anything interesting for magazine gwp. I dropped by VivoCity on my way home and popped into Page One bookshop, since they have the cheapest price I've seen so far for Allure magazine (ard $8) but the May issue isn't out yet. Thus, I ended up buying Harper's Bazaar for the 2nd month in a row, due to the gwp. Exclusively at Page One stores (or so the poster claims), you get a full-size Redken Real Control Thermal Resist. Now I just gotta look for its reviews.....

Lavera Body Spa Wild Rose Body Oil

I've recently started incorporating oils into my mositurising regime, from using a mix of jojoba + almond oils as a cuticle moisturiser to adding a few drops into my hand cream and body lotion. So far I've found that my skin is liking the jojoba oil, and its been keeping my hands moisturised. My hands tend to be dry and my cuticles always look the worse for wear cos im fighting a recurrent bout of ezcema.

Anyway I chanced upon Vivawoman's review of Lavera's wild rose body spa products, and she reccomended the body oil as the product she liked the best. I'm not too sure of the retail price but I got my bottle from Phyto Organics at Raffles City, as they had a $7 promotion and you had to buy a minimum of 3 products, so I also got the Yes to Carrots shampoo and Lavera lip balm -repair. Other products in the same range include a shower gel and body wash. There are also other fragrances such as vanilla-coconut, milk-honey and lavander-aloe.

Lavera is a brand of natural products from Germany, and its products are certified organic.

Wild Rose body oil, 50 ml packaged in a frosted glass bottle
Ingredients:

Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil*, Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil*, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil*, Rosa Moschata Oil*, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Alcohol, Fragrance (Parfum)**, Citral**, Geraniol**, Citro-
nellol**, Limonene**, Linalool**
* ingredients from certified organic agriculture
** natural essential oils

As you can see, the base is olive, almond and jojoba oils which is pretty moisturising. The rose fragrance is a pleasant, slightly sweet fragrance but it smells slightly different from my rosewater, probably due to the presence of all the oils. The day after I use it as a body moisturiser, I got incredibly smooth legs.

So there you have it, I was looking for something different and who wouldn't like a rose-scented body oil? The instructions state that it can also be used as a massage oil ;)