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

It’s almost Friday and the weekend beckons…but first I have to get through a Very Important Meeting tomorrow. But I digress from the reason for this post, which is…*drum roll* a giveaway!

Yes, my pretties, I have 2 tickets to give away to next week’s Redken-Rock the Runway Hair Show happening at this year’s Audi Fashion Festival. The theme is Rock Couture and I’m sure there will be fashion and hairstyles to blow your mind.

So without further ado, here’s the what, when and where.

Excited? You bet I am!
Now, how to win? Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

1. You have to be physically in Singapore on 17 May 2012 and able to attend the event.

2. Leave me a comment on this post telling me “Why I want to attend the Redken-Rock the Runway Hair Show?” together with an email address that you’re contactable at.

The deadline for entries is 12:00 (noontime) on 14th May 2012 (Monday).

I’ll randomly pick a name out of the hat and email the winner. If I don’t hear from you by Tuesday morning, I’ll have to pick another winner.

Hit the comment box, ladies (and gents)!

I think I’ve unleashed my inner glitter monster with this NOTD (nails of the day) combo!

This NOTD look features Deborah Lippmann’s Marquee Moon with China Glaze Prism and Full Spectrum layered on top.

I originally intended to feature just Marquee Moon, but mucked up my application for my non-dominant hand as this polish needs a really steady hand and precise application or else the brush strokes will show. Also, it is a frustrating polish because you have to dig and dig to get the sparse hexagonal glitter onto your nails. If you want to know what Marquee Moon should look like, click here for All Lacquered Up’s swatch.

So, to cover up my poor application skills, I decided to layer China Glaze’s Prism and Full Spectrum on top. Whaddaya know? All that lovely duochrome glitter on the silvery foil base of Marquee Moon actually turned out better than I expected!

In the shot above, I have on Nail Tek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat, 2 coats of Marquee Moon (hardly visible), 2 thin coats of Prism, 1 thin coat of Full Spectrum and Seche Vite dry fast top coat.

Here’s another gratituous shot up close because I can’t stop staring at my nails to see the multi-colored glitter shift colors depending on which angle I hold my hands at.

The idea for this post was generated from a random chat with Beetrice (during work hours! ) one fine day and I got the idea that it would be fun to see what kinds of beauty related stuff people would keep at work.

I tend to go for the minimalist approach where possible, but soon found out that what I considered minimal was a whole lot more than what some of my beauty blogger friends had (which is nothing! Paris B, I’m looking at you!). But then again, some of the stuff I’ve listed aren’t strictly make-up or skincare related. I’ve just included them because I consider them to be part of ‘beauty at work’.

Are you ready for the virtual tour? Heheh.

Essentials that I need at hand on my workstation :
- Box of tissues (for my sinuses. Atchoo!)
- Avène Thermal Spring Water spray (to combat the drying effects of the office air-conditioning)
- Small standing mirror (to check myself out; also a gift from the lovely Syen)

Hidden away inside my drawer, tucked inside a pink cosmetics pouch from Daiso :
- tiny DKNY Pure Verbena scent spray (from one of my Bellaboxes)
- Liese Juicy Shower Hair Fragrance Spray (for those days when you eat out and come back smelling like a kitchen)
- Folding comb (also picked up for a song at Daiso)
- Oil blotting papers (I ‘fess up, I have two types – both powdered and non-powdered)
- Lip balms (not one, not two, but four! Estee Lauder Lip Conditioner SPF15, Mentholatum Pure Softlips in Honeydew, Pangea Organics Lip Balm in Pyrenees Lavender with Cardamom, and Maybelline Lip Smooth in Rose – the last one is a tinted lip balm)
- Lip products (mini Smashbox Lipgloss in Buff, Revlon Colorburst Lipgloss in Rose Pearl, and Revlon Lip Butter in Sugar Plum)
- Assorted medication (for the sudden fever, cold, allergy, headache/migraine)

Also hidden inside my drawer but not in the cosmetics pouch :
- Small tub of Vaseline (original petroleum jelly type, not cream or lotion)
- Santa Verde Aloe Vera Creme in Medium (doubles as face and hand moisturiser)
- Crabtree & Evelyn India Hicks Island Living Ultra-Moisturising Hand Therapy (a gift!)
- A’kin Lavender, Geranium & Jojoba Hand, Nail & Cuticle Creme
- Vitamins (Blackmores Cold Combat, and Scott’s Vitamin C Pastilles)
- Shoe shine sponge (part of a travel toiletries set)

And last but not least, something I consider essential to beauty at work for me… uh… four pairs of high heels under my table.
- Aldo Doyscher heels in black leather (super love them – my Louboutin dupes!)
- Rockport Luciana pumps in sandstone (a new addition bought on sale…)
- Lewre work pumps in black leather (my go-to regular shoes)
- DMK peeptoe heels in camel (when black just won’t match my outfit of the day)

So, what do you keep at work that’s beauty related?

After some initial success with layering polishes, I think I’m now somewhat addicted to finding new combinations that unique and different from the normal cremes and shimmers.

Today’s nails of the day (NOTD) are OPI’s Lincoln Park At Midnight and Haze Glaze’s Sweet Tart.

Lincoln Park At Midnight is a very deep, dark purple that looks a bit black when seen from far. It looks best up close and personal, because then you can see the wine tints and slight shimmer that keep it from looking flat.

Sweet Tart is a mix of gold hexagonal, pink, purple, teal, lavender and silver square glitter packed in a pinkish jelly base. It look fabulous on its own in swatches online, like this one here from The TraceFace Philes. (Side note : My bottle seems to have a bit more of a purple tint to the jelly base compared with the online swatches.)

In the shot above I have on Nail Tek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat, 2 coats of Lincoln Park At Midnight, 2 coats of Sweet Tart and 2 coats of Seche Vite dry fast top coat. Dry time was impressively fast for both colors and very easy to apply.

The shot above doesn’t really capture how this combo looks in real life, which is more shimmery and vibrant. I think the artificial lighting kinda dimmed the glitter effect, making it a bit flatter.

I’m really loving how Sweet Tart brightens up Lincoln Park while complimenting it beautifully in the same color tone family. On the other hand, Lincoln Park gives a hint of depth and mystery to Sweet Tart, giving it a touch of elegance.

Haze Glaze polishes retail online for USD 8.79 exclusively at the Haze Glaze Etsy shop here.

Nail polish lovers rejoice! butter LONDON polishes are now available in Singapore.

Thanks to a tip-off from the Make-up Blogette on Twitter on Saturday evening, I called upon my fellow polish collector Beetrice and we made a prompt foray to hunt for butter LONDON on Sunday. I was so paranoid that I would arrive to find no more butter LONDON left, or, in a worst case scenario, plenty of other shades but not the shade I’d been coveting since last year!

For those on the hunt, you will find the elusive butter LONDON stand hidden in the racks in the general vicinity of L’Occitane and Korres at Basement 1 of Takashimaya (seems like a strange place to place all these niche brands to me) – so keep your eyes peeled for it as we nearly missed it!

It’s really a tiny stand – only half a shelf – and they’ve brought in limited shades in even more limited quantities (only 1 or 2 bottles per shade). As you can see in the picture above, that’s all there is (there are about 1 or 2 more shades at the side that got cropped out of the picture), and that was BEFORE we made our purchases on Sunday afternoon. The sales assistant (funny aunty! ) mentioned that restocks might be made every 2 weeks depending on demand so you can expect that I’ll be frequenting Takashimaya a lot more regularly in the future.

I’m sure you’re wondering if I managed to hunt down my desired butter LONDON polish in the end. Ladies, I’m glad to say that I did. The last Victoriana is now safely residing with me in the company of my other polishes. Hehehe. Review to come in due course.

You can also check-out the Make-up Blogette’s post about butter LONDON here.

butter LONDON polishes are 3 free and come in 11ml sizes. Polishes retail at SGD 25.00 per bottle. Treatments retail at SGD 32.00 per bottle.

Rusks. When I hear of rusks, I think of Farley’s Baby Rusks that my mother fed me as a child. Today, I rekindle my affection for rusks with the Tokyo Rusk Company’s Premium Almond Rusk.

As I work in a Japanese company, my Japanese expatriate colleagues frequently travel back to Japan either for work or to visit their respective hometowns. And one of them (who sits nearby) was nice enough to buy some to share in the office.

How do I begin to describe a rusk? Firstly, the cute slogan on the packaging caught my attention :

“Hand made delicious and beautiful rusks comfort our hearts and wrap us in sweet dreams.”

Cute, no?

The rusk I got was in the Premium Almond flavor and it tastes like a chunkier, sweeter version of almond biscotti with the delightful crunch of toasted bread with sugar sprinkled on top. Fear not if you think that the rusk will be too sweet – it is a bit on the sweet side, but not overly so. This would be perfect paired with your favorite coffee for the perfect tea-time snack or light breakfast.

Now, who’s going to Japan anytime soon and can bring back a box of this for me?

Tokyo Rusk Company website (only in Japanese)

Read other blogger reviews here :
Laura Thompson
Yukari

Since I got back from my Hong Kong holidays two and a half weeks ago, I’ve been experiencing a period of relatively good skin condition. I’m not sure if it’s attributed to the slightly cooler, rainy weather we’ve been having (less inflammation) or the recent changes I’ve made to my skincare routine.

You see, I was worried that the colder weather in Hong Kong might dry out my already irritated and dehydrated skin even more, so I added a heavier moisturizer/serum combination and continued it even when I returned. So far (touch wood) my skin seems to be loving it.

Here’s what I’ve been using in the morning and evening:

Morning
- Avene Extremely Gentle Cleanser
- Estee Lauder Hydrationist Moisture Barrier Fortifier serum
- Estee Lauder Hydrationist Moisture Creme

and

Evening
- Dermalogica Special Cleansing Gel
- Dermalogica Overnight Repair Serum or Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair serum

That’s it! I know, it’s an extremely simplified skincare routine, but so far my skin seems to be thriving on it.

What makes my skin happy, makes me happy.

For a bird’s eye view of what type of products others incorporate in their beauty routine, do check out the reader comments at Paris B’s post here.

Let’s just face it. I’m not meant to be a nail blogger.

What with the many astounding blogs out there with perfect nails, perfect swatches and perfect photography, I feel shy to even post a photo of my very imperfectly shaped short nails and rough cuticles.

I’ve only recently discovered the allure and addiction that is nail polish hoarding and this is further exacerbated by reading said astounding blogs. Having enabling friends in this area also has an effect on me going, “Ooooooh, pretty!” and buying. (Even though I probably already have more nail polish than I can finish in a lifetime.)

But I’m rambling when the subject of today’s blogpost is to show you how very stunning the combo of Riveting and Luxe and Lush (both from China Glaze’s Capitol Colours Hunger Games collection) is when layered together.

Riveting is a very bright orange that reminds me of the orange candies I’d get as a little girl during Chinese New Year. If you look at it really closely, you’ll see gold shimmer flecks and it does look stunning on its own.

Luxe and Lush on the other hand, is a flakie polish with irregularly shaped flakie bits in a clear base that you can use on top of virtually any polish to give your look that little bit of jazz.

Picture credit to kBoey for being a good sport and taking this shot for me.

In the shot above I have on Nail Tek Foundation II Ridge Filling Base Coat, 2 coats of Riveting, 2 coats of Luxe and Lush and 3 coats of Seche Vite top coat. It sounds like more than it looks, really. The only reason I had to pile on 3 coats of Seche Vite top coat was because I still don’t have Gelous in my nail polish arsenal and I needed to ‘smooth down’ the edges where the flakies were not lying evenly on my nails.

I love the combination of Riveting and Luxe and Lush – it really is quite eye-catching and I’m planning on recreating this look again for Chinese New Year to go along with all the mandarin oranges and gold decor.

Lastly, credit to the following bloggers for inspiring me to recreate this look (although my nails look nowhere like theirs), do click over and take a look at what I was *trying* to achieve:
Fashion Polish
Polishology

During my recent trip to Hong Kong, I needed to have access to data on my smartphone while roaming but I didn’t want to pay expensive roaming charges. (This is what living in a connected world does to you. You feel bereft of something important, like checking Twitter, Facebook, email and blogs. Or having to reply your Draw Something games.)

So I did some research on the Internet (doncha just love Google?) and found that it was very easy to get a prepaid sim card in Hong Kong with reasonable data charges. The network provider that I eventually went with was 3 (I think they are located in Australia as well) and it proved to be a good enough choice for the 4 days I was in Hong Kong.

Where to buy
You can buy your prepaid sim card from convenience stores (7 Eleven et al) or from mobile shops. I chose to go to the 3 mobile shop located at the airport terminal itself upon arrival. You just have to go up one floor to where the check-in counters are located – both 3 and rival operator CSL have shops there.

3 mobile store
Unit No. 7T038, Level 7, Departure Hall, Hong Kong International Airport

Which type of sim card to buy
I initially wanted the HSDPA Broadband Access Rechargable starter pack recommended on various travel forums (which is only available at mobile shops), but was rather short on time to explain to the salesperson which starter pack I was looking for – the salespeople will automatically recommend you to take the basic mobile prepaid pack.

The basic mobile prepaid pack costs HKD 98.00 and it’s as easy as pie to pop in the sim card and be instantly connected. Since you’re using a mobile prepaid, naturally you will be able to make local and international calls as well as use data. (Side note : If you are using a tablet device, you may have to point your settings to the correct APN before the device detects the connection.)

Fees and charges
I didn’t really do much research into the call rates so I’m not able to list them on the blog but at the time of my trip (March 2012), the data charges for 3’s network were as follows :

1MB = HKD 2.00
Maximum daily charge = HKD 28.00
Monthly charge = HKD 388.00

Basically, as a tourist you would only need to pay up to HKD 28.00 per day for unlimited usage of data. The usual fair usage throttling only starts after 5GB so you’re basically running around with a free hand on how you use your data.

Although I did read some reports online about poor connectivity or coverage by 3’s network, I didn’t experience any problems throughout my trip. In fact, I was highly impressed that even underground in the MTR tunnels, the Hong Kong network gave me far more stability in coverage and faster network speeds compared to Malaysia and Singapore networks.

Top-ups
I did miscalculate the amount of data I had used (dang the fast download speeds that seduce you into using more than you originally planned!) so towards the end of my trip, so I learnt the hard way that 3 will cut off your data once you’re down to HKD 10.00 worth of credit in your prepaid account. You’ll have to top-up to continue enjoying their services.

Nevertheless, top-up is fast and easy – I did mine at a 7 Eleven convenience store. Do take note that the minimum amount to reload is HKD 100.00 so if you foresee that you won’t be using up this amount, you may wish to monitor your data usage accordingly to maximise your credit.

Your prepaid sim card and its corresponding number will be valid for 180 days from the date of your last top-up and if you don’t top-up additional credit within that time frame, whatever balance you have in your account and the number will expire.

All in, I consider buying a prepaid sim card to be a cost effective way of enjoying unrestricted data coverage while you are in Hong Kong (finding free wifi spots are not easy at all!) and would recommend 3’s network to leisure travellers (do note that online forums do not recommend 3 if you are travelling to China or the outskirts of Hong Kong).

(I am rather late with this post cos my Hong Kong trip and work came up, but better late than never!)

Last month, I was lucky enough to be Beetrice’s plus one at Bella Box’s High Tea for bloggers. We had no idea what was in store for us but I can tell you now that it was fun!

The event was held at Arteastiq Tea Lounge @ Mandarin Gallery. It was my first time there and it would be a place I’d like to revisit – it seems very popular with the hip SG crowd, judging by the stream of people that came while we were there.

I have quite a number of pictures from the event after the jump so keep on reading! Read the rest of this entry »