Archives for August 2013

Enter Laura Mercier: Cast a Dark Spell with the 1-minute Mystical smoky eye

August 19, 2013 Paris B 28 Comments

There are so many Fall makeup collections already making their rounds, but I’m going to kick it off here with the one from Laura Mercier which I found interesting because it is so dark! Aptly named Dark Spell, the collection is deep, dark and mysterious with generous lashings of black and glitter infused darkness.

Pretty much like this Baked Eye Colour in Mystical.

In the Dark Spell collection there are 2 black eyeshadows. One is a Satin Matte Eye Colour in Dark Spirit – a pigmented matte black powder eyeshadow, and the other is the Baked Eye Colour in Mystical – a dark black baked eyeshadow shot through with lots of silver glitter.

I’ve got an overall view picture and view of the Dark Spell collection below, but I’d like to go into a little more depth with Mystical, and to show you just how you can achieve a very simple and wearable smokey eye look in just about 1 minute with just one shadow. Which girl doesn’t need that, I ask you? 😀

Travel Tales: Learning to cook Thai food at Baipai Thai Cooking School, Bangkok

August 18, 2013 Paris B 33 Comments

2 weeks ago, I was in Bangkok. No one realised it, probably but that’s how I like it! I was there for just a short trip and this trip, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something I’ve always wanted to do – go to a cooking school and learn some Thai dishes!

Many places offer these short cooking school sessions, where you can join for half a day or so, and learn to cook the local food so you take home more than just memories. You take home a taste of the country you visit. I love the idea and I’ve always wanted to do it so, I did.

Before I left, I looked around on the internet for recommended cooking schools in Bangkok and you’d be surprised to know that there are so many! Most of them take you on a buying/familiarization trip to the market as well, which is interesting if you are foreign to the exotic South-East Asian region. I eventually stumbled upon Baipai Thai Cooking School.

Reviews were very good, the website was professionally laid out and although it was more expensive than others I surveyed, they offered a hotel pick up and drop off, which I fully appreciated. So, I dropped them an email and it was sorted! Payment is made at the school itself after your class so that was easy!

I was notified of my pick up time at my hotel and at the appointed time, a large van with a friendly driver in uniform identifying the name of the Baipai cooking school was waiting for me. We drove around picking up more “school mates” from various hotels in the city before heading off to the school. In our party that day were visitors from Macau, Japan, Korea and Guadeloupe, the last of whom was a chef himself!

The Baipai Thai Cooking School is located just after Chatuchak and it is deep inside a housing area, so I appreciated that they offered a pick up service. I don’t know how I’d have gone there otherwise. Along the way, the van dropped off most of the people in the van at the Or Tor Kor Market for their market familiarization trip. I opted out of that because I live in this region and I’m quite familiar with most of the herbs and spices used. I just need to know what goes into the recipe 😀

Arriving at the school is a pleasure. It is a large spacious wooden bungalow with a large garden and is so serene and tranquil that you are immediately put at rest. A lovely cold and delicious cup of lemongrass tea is served, you are handed your apron and recipe cards and off we went for a trip to the herb garden.

Refresh and rescue those peepers with the Caudalie Vinosource SOS Morning Eye Rescue

August 16, 2013 Paris B 28 Comments

In recent times, I’ve been asked a few times by readers what eye creams they can use, especially for younger skin and it shames me to say I’m not too good at the eye cream stuff. The one I use most (when I remember) and which I’ve repurchased is the Estee Lauder ANR eye serum (not the new serumy thing in the thin bottle, but the short squat bottle). It also shames me that so many of you young ‘uns are so into eye creams and looking after the delicate skin around your eyes, when this old lady doesn’t LOL!

So I’ve resolved to be a little more diligent using eye cream and here’s one I’ve been using most recently, because I’m out of ANR.

From the Caudalie stables come the Vinosource SOS Morning Eye Rescue. It is a very simple, very basic eye cream that serves a very basic purpose – to hydrate the delicate skin around your eyes and keep it fresh and glowing.

Like the rest of our facial skin, eye skin does also need some “moisturiser” so before I rush right in and treat problems I have, I thought I’d do what I did with my skin. Go back to basics and hydrate it. Then address whatever problems I might have.

As a very basic eye cream, this does the job just fine and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Honey, If it’s not you then it must be me : Skincare products that didn’t work for me

August 15, 2013 Paris B 30 Comments

Every so often, as I go along my skincare journey, identifying my must-haves and current skincare loves, I too discard alongside the ones that didn’t make the cut or the ones that just don’t work for me one way or another. Most of the time, I don’t feature them at all. Why feature something I don’t like?

But then, I realised that it’s helpful knowing what doesn’t work for people because you can then avoid it, or if you are still very curious anyway, be aware of their pitfalls. So, unless they stand out as being spectactularly awful, in which case they will get a whole post to their awful selves, I might do some of these little round-ups as I go along, to balance out the raves I’ll have.

I’ll start off with a selection of skincare that I tried a few months ago and for some, I’ve been trying them off and on for months, to see if they truly do not work for me or just do not endear me to them for some reason. If they work for you, it would be helpful to know because it can help other readers make up their minds 🙂

Pure Paw Paw Papaya Ointment – S$14.90/25g

This was a gift, and while I hate to diss gifts because I know the gifter means well, this just didn’t cut it for me. What this is, is an ointment very much like the Lucas’ Papaw Ointment which is made from fermented papaya or papaw (paw paw) and has a myriad of uses to soothe, moisturise and protect the skin. I am a huge fan of the Lucas’ Papaw Ointment and because it gets a lot of flack for containing petroleum (which doesn’t bother me), I hoped I’d like this one. Sadly, I didn’t. I found the ointment far too runny even after being kept in the fridge, and the strong sweet smell put me off. I might hand it off for my nephew’s use. I don’t think he’ll be as fussy as I am 🙂

Archives for August 2013

Pure Paw Paw Papaya Ointment – S$14.90/25g

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