Highlights of Instagram Vol. 7 : A Brush with Travel

Wooh! How quickly the weeks fly by, and before we know it, we just ended the first quarter of 2014! How was it for you guys? Did you have a good start to the year? Or was it kicking you in the butt?

I pretty much got kicked around the first few months of 2014 but the thing is that when you’re down, you can’t get much lower so the best thing to do is pick yourself up and continue on your journey. It’s the best way to stay sane and remember, positivity breeds positivity! No matter how dark the clouds might seem.

On that rather ruminative note, here’s some highlights of what I’d been up to on Instagram in the past fortnight. There’s lots more of course, but I don’t want to bore you so here are just some of my favourites.

• I made an impromptu trip down to Singapore with my friend Xin just for the weekend. It was tiring, but we managed to get quite a lot done! There was of course the customary selfie when we went down to Marina Bay Sands. We are both so bad at this selfie thing, it took us at least 5 tries and innumerable out takes! It’s harder than it looks!
• It turned out our timing was excellent because we came across the Hakuhodo Brush Fair at Takashimaya! Here was our chance to paw at and drool over these famed makeup brushes and their softness are quite something else. Picked up a couple to add to my collection and I also found out that Hakuhodo will be at the International Beauty Expo at the KLCC Convention Centre from 17-20 May 2014 so if you want to paw and drool over these brushes, mark your calendars now! I don’t know if I’ll be going. I usually dislike these beauty expo things because I see more rubbish than gems to be honest 😛
• I also made sure I went to Bath & Body Works, which is the first BBW store in Asia at MBS. I had read so much about their bath and body products and their scented candles that I told myself I’d pick some up. Unfortunately, the scents were far too sweet for my tastes. One or two weren’t bad but I was overwhelmed by all the sweet, floral, strong smells in the store I had to escape. Pity!
• On days when I don’t feel like having anything heavy for lunch or dinner, I make a salad. I realised one weekend that it’s so much cheaper making these gourmet salads at home than eating it at a fancy cafe where it can cost upwards of RM20! I made mine with sliced romaine lettuce, tomatos, sauteed mushrooms, an apple, an egg and drizzled with Japanese sesame dressing for the cost price of about RM5 LOL 😀 If you want more bulk, add in some pasta. If you want more protein, grill a piece of chicken or add some tuna. It’s delicious and healthy and if you make it at home, affordable!
• Oh Dior has some new liquid lipsticks out – Dior Fluid Stick of which I have 2 colours to show you – Pandore and Aventure. Beautiful colours but I’ll tell you off hand that I’m not quite a fan of them. I’ll have my review come up for you soon 🙂
• I stopped by the Gucci boutique to sigh and drool over the Bamboo Shopper Bag when I noticed that the new version has the name and logo embossed onto the leather as opposed to being gold stamped. A win in my books! I’m all for understated elegance! There were some new colours like this mustard pictured here with black lacquered bamboo handles. Very interesting! Haven’t caved …. yet! 😉
• Perfume brand Diptyque is branching out into skincare and Malaysia will be the first country in Asia to get the whole range! Yay us! 😀 I had the chance to play around with some of the products and they’re all quite basic, and delicately perfumed. I found 3 items very interesting – a cleansing balm (yay!) a floral water (yay!) and a face washing powder (huh?!) I hope to be able to share some thoughts on them soon. They’ll be available here in May 2014 so watch out for them then exclusively at the Diptyque boutique at Pavilion KL.
• It ain’t Laurent without Yves you know! I’m still upset that Hedi Slimane dropped the iconic Yves from the brand name. So much so, I’m  not even giving them a second glance. Yep, Saint Laurent doesn’t do it for me I’m afraid.
• Any fans of Maggi Mee Curry in the house? 😀 I was out looking for this for a friend and saw that the Penang White Curry was available too. It was terribly popular a while ago, to the extent that people were stocking up boxes of these instant noodles! It’s really pricey too! Do you reckon the craze has died down? I tried it but I’m not a fan of it although I like that a packet of sambal is included to make the spicy soup, I don’t like the texture of the noodles.
• This is not a camera trick. The strawberry was really almost as large as my palm! I had this in Singapore and it was absolutely delicious and satisfying. I need more!
• Finally, I have this Garnier Men Wasabi Facial Wash. Wasabi! Can I order a side of sushi on the side? LOL Seriously, the guys get all the fun skincare don’t they? I’d like to have wasabi in my facial wash too! Or hmm… maybe not? 😛

Did you travel anywhere this first quarter of 2014? Are you excited about Hakuhodo brushes being available here soon?

Whilst I won’t say the Hakuhodo brushes are expensive for the quality you get, they still do not come cheap. So if you are eyeing some, I’d advise saving up for them. I don’t know what local prices are like but I expect them to start from RM50 (S$19.50) or thereabouts and go up from there. I have no plans to head down to the expo but then you know what they say – never say never! 😉

Paris B

Highlights of Instagram is an excerpt of the highlights of my weeks on Instagram. There are lots more in the full IG feed so follow me there @ParisBMWS for quick reviews, beauty previews and gastronomic delights.