rinnah's consumer views|a straight talking, tell-it-as-it-is consumer lifestyle blog

This has to be one of the most expensive moisturizers I’ve ever used.

When I bought the Santaverde Aloe Vera Creme in Medium, I was desperate to find a product that would work on my sensitive, eczema prone skin and thus was willing to throw money at the problem if it helped solve matters. So I used this at the height of my eczema breakout last year and ended up with two completely different opinions about this product.

Firstly, the good stuff. I love this for short term use. It’s wonderful when my skin is relatively normal – which means those *rare* periods of time when I have no eczema breakouts, no dry flaking spells, no sensitized redness. It doesn’t contribute to extra oil production on my oily t-zone and makes my skin feel comfortable. Unfortunately for me, my skin doesn’t behave itself all the time.

But…(you knew there was a but coming, right?) when my skin is misbehaving and breaking out in patches of rashes and what not, I hate this cream. It stings my eczema patches (I thought aloe vera was supposed to help calm!) and that in turn makes my skin turn red and irritated. I’ll also find that the cream formula becomes too rich for prolonged usage because I developed painful pimple bumps underneath my skin’s surface in the areas that supposedly need more moisture (my dry flaky cheeks). Not fun yo!

What’s a girl to do?

For now, I’m keeping this cream in my office to use as the air-conditioning tends to dry my skin out. And I use it very, very minimally, mostly on my hands and neck. Such an expensive hand lotion!

Would I repurchase this? No but only because it didn’t suit me.

Yes factors : Organic ingredients, smells great, handy size for travel, keeps skin soft and moist
No factors : Too rich for dry skin in the long run, expensive, not easy to find – currently available in Singapore only via Pure Tincture

Description : Pure Aloe Vera juice and valuable oils from seeds and fruits provide your skin with moisture, protect and preserve elasticity and suppleness.

Directions : Apply twice daily after cleansing and toning to face and neck.

Packaging : 30ml

Recommended retail price : SGD 73.00

My first encounter with Lemongrass House was when I accompanied Beetrice to their Raffles City outlet to choose a birthday gift for a mutual friend.

My first impression was that the shop smelled wonderful – like a spa, thanks to the essential oils they sell. So I was naturally ‘enabled’ into picking up something to try in the form of their Pomelo Aromatic Room & Pillow Spray. Their sprays are touted as one of the Top 5 best selling products.

My room in Singapore tends to be a wee bit stuffy because it’s not positioned to catch the breeze unless there’s a really strong wind blowing. Thus, smells do tend to linger on for some time. That’s where the Pomelo room spray comes in handy! I usually spritz the room spray onto my curtains and lightly onto my sheets and immediately get the delightful aroma of freshly peeled pomelos. Citrusy scents do wonders for uplifting the senses.

The only thing I would like would be for the scent to remain longer as it dissipates quite quickly – within 15 minutes of spraying. I usually don’t spray too much at a go as well, because my sinuses don’t take kindly to scent. I figure it will take me some time to finish up my bottle as I got this in October 2011 and have only used up about 1/10th of the bottle thus far.

For those who are interested, Lemongrass House claims that this spray is sulphate free and paraben free and it’s never been tested on animals. Yay for an eco-friendly brand!

Yes factors : Refreshing scent, variety of scents to choose from, eco-friendly
No factors : Scent doesn’t linger on long enough, only available in Singapore

Ingredients : Orange peel infusion, stearyl alcohol, tween 20, pomelo essential oil

Directions : Lightly spray these all-natural botanical mists on bed linens, in the car, or any place that needs a fresh scent. It naturally relaxes and uplifts your mood.

Packaging : 120ml

Recommended retail price : SGD 15.00

It seems that me and my girls have officially been bitten by the nail polish bug. Everyone’s into nails right now and we’re even spree-ing on nail polish purchases.

I recently picked up my first Rimmel nail polish in Green With Envy (#819), which is a shimmery green with hints of blue. It looked more blue in the bottle which prompted me to buy it, but when applied it looks very straight up green until you see it in daylight. It then turns into a beautiful shade of sea green with bluish tints. Think mermaids and wide oceans!

Here the photos are taken in daylight (no flash) with 2 coats. No base coat and no top coat. Although it applied evenly and is pretty much opaque, if you look closely you can still make out a bit of the nail bed beneath. So after I took this picture, I put a third coat that really enhanced the depth of the color but was too lazy to retake the pictures.

Unfortunately, I’m very hard on my nails, so by the end of the first day, I was already seeing slight signs of tip wear on my index fingers even with top coat applied.

What I love most about this polish is Rimmel’s 1 second brush. The brush is made to be flat and wider than normal brushes and it makes application simply awesome! I’m done with each nail in two strokes because of the width of the brush and I find that I don’t muck up my polish so much because I’m not going over it repeatedly.

Rimmel also dries almost instantly – they claim that your nails will be done in 60 seconds and honestly, it does work. I should know, since I went and hung out my laundry like 5 minutes after applying the second coat. No chipping, no scratching/hatch marks and no smudging!

In a nutshell, Rimmel is awesome and I’m definitely going to do my nails more often with polishes like this.

I have forgotten the price of this polish, but I do remember that I got it for 20% off at Watsons so wait around for sales.

Read other blogger reviews here :
MakeUp4All
Skye

Just last week, I was out for dinner with Beetrice in Orchard Road and as fate would have it, we walked past an Aldo store with a sale sign. You know what happens when girls see sales signs, right?

So we walked in just to ‘look-see’ (or so we told ourselves). Haha. And you already know what’s coming next…

Say hello to the latest (and most expensive) addition to my shoe wardrobe, Aldo’s Doyscher in black leather.

With an almost 4 1/2in heel (yes, I measured!), the Doyscher is possibly the highest high heel I’ve owned to date and if I do say so myself, it makes my legs look longer. Naturally, it is not for traipsing around on the roadsides of Singapore nor is it meant for long shopping expeditions. So for now, I shall just prance around in my heels in the office ala The Devil Wears Prada. Hehe.

The recommended retail price for Aldo’s Doyscher heels is SGD 159.00.

I figure the Doyscher will make an excellent stand-in (possible dupe?) until the day I can get my hands on these gorgeous Christian Louboutin Declic heels below.

I’m pretty sure this lip conditioner has been around, for like… forever?

Anyway, I just had to snap up this oldie when I saw it selling in Bonjour Hong Kong for a mere HKD 18.00. (Which works out to about SGD 3.00 or MYR 7.50 thereabouts.) Do note that I got mine in the old packaging (dark blue tube) instead of the new packaging (gold tube shown below) which might account for the discounted price.

The lip conditioner looks like a lipstick. It’s housed in a very traditional looking lipstick tube and even shaped like a lipstick, which makes it easy as pie to apply. But if you ask me, it makes this lip conditioner look and feel rather aunty-ish.

There is no smell and no taste but it does feel rather oily to me if I slick too much on. It also feels like it will make your lipstick slip and slide if you use this underneath but it could well be a godsend for those lippies that dry out your lips. I tried it under my Revlon Colorburst lipgloss and it provided a comfortable base (even though lipglosses don’t really need bases).

I like that it has SPF 15 sun protection as most lipbalms don’t have any inbuilt sun protection at all. Better some than none!

While I wouldn’t say that I adore or love this lip conditioner, I find that I prefer it over my Vaseline Lip Therapy on days when my lips aren’t super cracked. I keep it in my office drawer for daily use and it’s one of those good-to-have-on-standby-but-not-essential kinda product to me.

Yes factors : SPF 15 protection, easy to apply because of lipstick form, does a good job of hydrating lips
No factors : Looks a bit old-fashioned, may be oily if too many layers are applied, pricey

Packaging : .13oz/3.8g

Recommended retail price : USD 16.50

Read other blogger reviews here :
Bun Bun
A Girl – Beauty Views
Jeweled Thumb

Red Flame Bistro was a chance discovery on a rainy, drizzly Friday afternoon when my colleague and I were looking for a lunch place that was reasonably near the office. It was oh-so-conveniently located just across the road from my office building.

We both had the 3 course set lunch which costs SGD 12.90. You have a choice of salad or soup of the day for your starter, grilled chicken chop or fish and chips for mains (there is also beef sirloin offered, but with an additional top-up of SGD 3.00), and finish off with dessert of the day. You can also top-up SGD 1.00 for 3 pieces of garlic toast or top-up SGD 1.50 for a soft drink or tea or coffee. There is no charge for water.

The salad is nice and fresh with a bit of crisp to it and the dressing is made a little bit more interesting with the addition of pineapple pieces that lend their distinctive sweet yet acidic taste to the salad and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds.

If the soup of the day is mushroom soup, you’re in for a treat. It was the best mushroom soup I have ever tasted this far – creamy and smooth with a mushroomy taste that is not too strong (too much mushroom can be a bad thing sometimes) and not oily at all. On other occasions we’ve been there, the soup of day was corn and clear vegetable soup. The mushroom soup is far and away the cream of the crop though and is always available on the ala carte menu for SGD 4.95.

My colleague absolutely raves about the garlic bread (add on SGD 1.00 with the set menu or SGD 1.50 off the ala carte menu). I find it better than your usual bakery garlic toast, as it is crispy without being burnt and generously slathered with garlic butter. I would prefer it much more if the toast slices were sliced a wee bit thicker for a heftier crunch when you chomp down, but hey, you can’t have everything your way, right?

The grilled chicken chop is nicely done without being dried out. I would have loved it more if they had given more of the grilled potatoes and I could do without the corn-on-the-cob slice.

My favorite has to be the fish and chips. Coated in a golden batter and fried, the fish fillets were fresh and yummy. The best part was that it was not too oily. Accompanied with a serve of fries and a scoop of salad, this was possibly one of the better fish and chips I have had in a long while.

The first time I went there, I had the Mushroom pasta (which is no longer on the set lunch menu). If you like your pasta al dente, then Red Flame’s chef does it quite well. The cream sauce that accompanied the linguine was just right, not to heavy nor was it runny and it was not so overpowering that you feel stuffed after. Over a series of visits, I’ve tried variations of their vegetarian pasta (SGD 9.90) in cream sauce and aglio olio and find that it’s pretty good with a medium sized portion.

As of now the bistro has a steady trickle of customers during lunch hour so it is still nice and cozy and doing quite well. I understand from the manager, Guna (really friendly and helpful guy) that they plan to rotate their lunch menu every month for some variety so the dishes I have reviewed may no longer be on the set lunch menu but are still available on the ala carte menu.

Note: As of June 2011, Red Flame has increased the price of their set menu from SGD 12.90 to SGD 14.90.

Red Flame Bistro
2 Stanley Street

Take. It. All. Off. Down. There.

That can only mean one thing. A Brazilian wax.

Getting yourself waxed has always been a ‘you gotta try it at least once in your lifetime’ kinda thing to me. But yet, I had no gumption to do it until recently. Never let it be said to my future grandchildren that grandma was too scared to try a Brazilian wax! Also, if those Victoria’s Secret Angels can do it, so can I. Heh.

So one fine day in November, I took myself to WAXXX, a new-ish waxing salon located in Aman Suria. Two things I like about WAXXX’s location : 1) they are relatively near to where I stay and 2) it’s easy to find parking on a weekend.

Stepping into WAXXX is like stepping into a different world. They certainly are different from your normal waxing salon as they have a trendy and stylish designer vibe going on.

After registering, I put myself into the very capable hands of Kelly, co-owner of WAXXX, for my Hollywood (all off) experience (MYR 116.00).

The Hollywood at WAXXX is done using full premium hard wax and they are very professional about it. Instead of scissors (dangerous! could poke your eye out. Haha), WAXXX uses clippers to trim down hair and you get to take home the attachment comb used on you. It’s a nice personalized touch, in my opinion. Also, your therapist will be masked and gloved at all times and there is a strict No Double Dipping policy in place.

Together with my waxing, I also tried out the Depilar treatment (MYR 44.50 per treatment) which is said to inhibit hair growth. WAXXX is the first and only salon in Malaysia currently offering this. The two step treatment is applied to your skin immediately after the waxing is done and it felt very cooling and comfortable.

The whole process was certainly quicker and more painless than I thought it would be. Kelly was very thorough and professional about it, so much so that I didn’t feel inhibited about the experience (except that now come to think of it, it’s a bit funny to be chatting about all sorts of things while someone looks at your privates. LOL).

I was prepared for it but didn’t experience any itching or ingrown hairs a few days after my waxing so that was awesome as well. (I’m not sure if that was due to the Depilar treatment?) In fact, I don’t know why I made such a big deal out of it before!

I plan to go back to WAXXX and get my armpits done when I’m next back in Malaysia. I should think with a full round of Depilar treatment (around 12 – 24 treatments) I can dispense with shaving or waxing for the rest of my life. Imagine the freedom to raise your arms!

If you’d like to experience WAXXX’s excellent services for yourself, first time customers can quote this code “RINNAH50” while making your appointment and get a 50% discount on one body part valued above MYR30.00. This promo code is valid until end February 2012.

Do check out WAXXX’s Facebook page here as well.

WAXXX
J-G-17, Jalan PJU1/43
Aman Suria, Petaling Jaya
47301 Selangor, Malaysia

Tel : +60 3-7880 5588
Website : http://www.waxxx.me

Read other blogger reviews here :
Connie
Sam (a guy’s take on the Manzilian)

Note : I received this service compliments of the salon for review purposes. This does not affect my review in any way and do refer to my disclosure policy for further details.

Is it a cleanser? A scrub? Or a mask? How about all three? An intriguing concept no?

The “Flower Power” 3-in-1 Facial Cleansing Powder was the very first product I gravitated to when the good folks at Back To Basics Naturals sent me some samples of their products for testing and review.

Image credit

A description of the product on the website says :

Free of synthetic ingredients, your skin will show remarkable improvement within a few days. The skin is left refined, toned and purified. The gentle action when applying and removing the cleansing powder helps to remove any dead cells from the skin, thereby promoting a younger and clearer looking skin.

A product in powder form, all you need to do is add water to it and apply the paste-like mixture to your face. Keep it thick and let it dry naturally to use as a mask. Make it less thick and use it as a scrub. Add more water and use it as a cleanser. It’s up to you how you feel like using the cleansing powder.

The Flower Power cleansing powder comes in a small glass bottle that has a nice heft to it and fits comfortably in your palm. It also adds a touch of luxe feel to the brand. Although the instructions say to measure out approximately half a teaspoon of powder per use, I found I could get by with tapping the powder gently out of the bottle and estimating the amount needed each time.

The powder doesn’t look all that awesome as its natural shade is a bit grey-ish. It smells a wee bit herbal-ly, being a natural product and all, but nothing so strong that you’ll take a step back. In fact, I had to sniff closely to detect the scent. Having said that, once I got to the mixing stage it was a bit messier than what I’m used to so I would recommend that you use this over a sink. It’s not exactly pump and go so I had to take my time to get the paste to the right consistency that I wanted before applying it to my face and neck.

The first time I used it I was skeptical, but I’m not a skeptic anymore. I recently had another round of my facial eczema breakouts around my eye and mouth area so I had a number of red patches all over my face. I was really surprised that using the facial cleansing powder didn’t sting and it really did calm the red patches on my face. I could still feel the itch but when I looked in the mirror, the redness was gone by more than half. This wasn’t a fluke reaction because consistently over a week, I would go home at the end of the day with a slightly inflamed face, wash and have redness calmed and halved after. I believe this is due to all the anti-inflammatory busting ingredients in the powder. My skin also looked a tad brighter after use as compared to my regular scrub/exfoliator so I was quite pleased with its effects.

The only drawback for this product would be that because its completely natural, it won’t last forever like all the other manufactured products out there. If kept in the fridge, it will last up to a year. If kept at normal room temperatures, it will stay fresh for 5 months.

Yes factors : Calms irritated skin down a treat, works well as a scrub
No factors : A bit messy in application, shorter shelf life, only available online at the Back To Basics Naturals website

Ingredients : Lavender powder, rose hip powder, calendula powder, hibiscus powder, pink rose powder, white kaolin clay, dead sea black clay, rice flour, organic oats, sandalwood powder and tea tree powder

Packaging : 50g / 15g

Recommended retail price : MYR 68.00 / MYR 25.00

Note : This product was provided to me for consideration. This does not affect my review in anyway and do refer to my disclosure policy for further details.

I was uber excited at first to know that Singapore was getting a local version of the sample box trend that’s all the rage in US, UK and Australia.

Bellabox delivers the latest deluxe beauty products to your door, brand new and exclusive for you at SGD 15.00 a month. We handpick and deliver 5 of the most luxurious beauty products to hit the market. Discover new products you will love, and make new purchases with confidence.

I signed up for Bellabox about 3 months back during the preview before their official launching, but only received my first Bellabox this month after a long saga (I had multiple issues with ordering and the online payment via PayPal that resulted in my missing the cut-off date for the first edition Bellabox in October). I was pretty frustrated with the technical problems that put me on the sidelines watching other bloggers and Singapore beauty lovers tweet/blog/write about what they got last month so I guess my expectations were rather dampened by the time the November Bellabox arrived.

Nevertheless, there is always a thrill in receiving a package and opening presents.

Your Bellabox experience starts when your pink Bellabox is delivered to the doorstep via Singapore registered post.

Inside the pink Bellabox packaging sits another, smaller glossy box containing the sample products for the month, all nestled in confetti packaging. These products are custom selected for you based on the profile you fill up when you first register for the service.

Here’s what I received in November’s Bellabox:

1. Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tar in Trollop
2. Duchess Marden Damascena Anti-Wrinkle Serum
3. Korres Guava Body Butter
4. Skin Factory Eye Dream Honey Patch
5. Davines Melu Mellow Anti-Breakage Lustrous Shampoo
6. Davines Melu Mellow Anti-Breakage Lustrous Conditioner

Of all the products, I’d say that OCC’s Lip Tar and the Davines shampoo/conditioner set seem most value for money. After all, considering that 1 tube of Lip Tar normally retails at SGD 18.90, you’ve already gotten back the price of your monthly subscription. I was a mite disappointed with the size of Korres’ body butter sample sachet though – just one sachet seems rather miserly to me. Surely they could have coughed up another sachet which would allow users to better decide whether or not it works for them in more than just one or two uses.

All in, the jury is still out as I’m rather ambivalent about Bellabox at this point of time and will wait to see what’s in next month’s Bellabox before making any judgement calls.

Read other blogger reviews here :
Beetrice – October Bellabox and November Bellabox

Ever since I’ve moved to Singapore for work, I find myself craving for all sorts of Malaysian food. Like proper roti canai (I don’t like the word prata), curries, banana leaf, briyani, laksa, chicken rice, etc.

At the very top of my cravings list has to be nasi lemak.

So each time I come back to Malaysia, I drag my folks to Village Park in Damansara Uptown for breakfast on Sunday mornings before I have to take the bus back to Singapore and a diet of glorified bread and pasta. LOL.

A lot of people complain about how crowded the place usually is and how hard it is to get a table and parking but it’s never bothered me. Because I never park that close to the restaurant (walking is good for your health, people!) and the timing usually is such that I go before peak hours.

My all-time favorite here is the Nasi Lemak Ayam Goreng. Oh my, that crispy fried chicken is calling to me from my computer screen now! LOL. Sometimes I might get a slightly dry piece of chicken, but putting the fried chicken and the yummy nasi lemak together is a killer combo.

Sometimes my mom will order the Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang as she prefers it. I find the rendang to be a tad on the watery side, but the taste is still there. Good for those who prefer not to take too much fried stuff.

This here, is a drink concoction known as Milo Dinosaur. It happens to be Beetrice’s favorite as she never fails to order it each time we meet at Village Park. Heh.

All in all, you can expect to spend about MYR 12.00 to 15.00 per person for an order of nasi lemak (with one meat dish) and a drink. Specialty drinks will cost you a bit more. While it’s not exactly the cheapest fare in town, I still visit Village Park when I get hit with nasi lemak cravings. I may reduce on the frequency of my visits there though, as the management has recently decided to increase the prices further (what used to cost MYR 6.00 back in 2006 has slowly and gradually been increased to MYR 9.00).

Village Park Restaurant
5, Jalan SS21/37
Damansara Utama
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia

Click here for the Google Maps link.

Read other blogger reviews here :
KampungBoyCityGal
KY
Timothy
VKeong