Thursday, May 27, 2010

A day out in the beach

in front of a beach hut



FOTD: Anessa Sunscreen Sparkle spf 50, Ettusais Powder Foundation 04, DHC Rose Lip Balm
Hair: just a hair band bought in Taiwan
Clothing: Tsumori Chisato Dress


In the hottest day of 2010 so far, me and S decided to leave the cats at home and went to the seaside for some beach, seafood and away from the computer. Rarely, I have a day that there's no shift and no need to rush home for work, so we totally took the opportunity to go to the beach.

We went to a seaside town called West Mersea somewhere on the East Coast of England. We choose there because there's local seafood, namely oysters and lobsters around there. Althought we know it is not in season, but it is worth a try.
The company Shed is the place to go for seafood. Nice and fresh. A seafood platter for 1 is only 7.50 for takeaway, since there's no seat and it cost £2 more per head to eat in, me and S bought 2 portion of seafood platter and went to the beach for a seafood picnic.

Don't be fool by the sand. It is no sandy beach, it is a rocky/pebble beach and we met a Chinese couple went shellfish hunting. They were armed with a big bucket and I thnk some razor calms wouldn't survive under the Chinese fishing. It was interesting to see what we were concerned was not enjoying the sea water, diving in, sunbathing, but.. what's on dinner tonight :)

Monday, May 24, 2010

Review 2: Cancer Council Sunscreen + Washing off suncreen


To continue from my previous post, here's the day wear face sunscreen and some swatch


Review of Cancer Council Day Wear Face Sunscreen

What's good?
Perfect for face. It is not oily at all! There's no blotting paper needed when I was in sydney, and in fact, I was bare face most of the time coz I have clear skin and re-applying sunscreen is more important than to have makeup in this case.
no white cast, to me this sunscreen feels more like a moisturizer than a sunscreen for face
Refreshing - coz it has added aloe vera to its ingredients, when you apply, it feels cooling and refreshing when you apply to your face.

What's not so good?
little more expensive it is 15 AUD which is around £8.
it has 75ml compare to the 110ml of your body sunscreen (still a lot more than Anessa)


The swatch




On the left: Day wear sunscreen
On the right: 2 hrs body sunscreen

You can see the body sunscreen is a lot thicker than the day wear sunscreen


On the left: Day wear sunscren
on the right: 2 hours body sunscreen
After applying, you can see the body sunscreen is not absorb immediately compare to the day wear sunscreen (the shiny part f it) but be assured, it is definitely absorb totally without greasiness once you rub it more

Both does not show white cast after rubbing it.

So back to my last post, I had some horrible experience with white cast. That's due to over-applying my sunscreen (Anessa) every 1 hours on the beach.

I came home and head straight to the shower, and trying to show it off. To my horror, my normal shower gel nor my L'occitane sugar rub can wash it off. I really thought that I can 'rub' it off with my sugar rub..

So on a desperate measure, I need to use my Fancl Cleasing oil and it works wonders. I used up 1/3 of the bottle just to wash off my sunscreen.

But it seems the less SPF you got in the sunscreen, the less white cast you have (hmmm...) definitely with the Cancer Council sunscreen, even I re-apply according to the instructions, I have no white cast in the end of the day when I got home.

Has anyone got any good wash-off sunscreen tips? I am sobbing over my fancl cleansing oil now and at this rate, I'll be hauling more very soon.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Souvenir from Australia: Cancer Council Sunscreen


Hiya!! To girls who are in UK, we finally have some summer weather. I went to the beach yesterday (actually to be exact, I went for the seafood on a seaside town...) and remembered i haven't done review to the sunscreen yet.

If you remembered back in the beginning of this blog, I posted my favourite sunscreen, Anessa. It is non-oily and gives a bit of a sparkle. However, I just finished my bottle of 50ml and I carried to much to Sydney so need to buy something local. I read from Jojoba, who's now based in Australia about the Cancer council so I bought it when I was there

Cancer Council Sunscreen SPF 30 review

What's good?
Cheap. it is only 6GBP for such a big tube for 110ml (compare to £22 for just 50ml of Anessa)
I like the fact that it is clearly labelled how long this will last. I read so much about girls who pile their sunscreen every 1/2 hour, with this label, you know you should re-apply every 2 hours .
This is not greasy compare to other sunscreen, also not thick at all. (i'll talk about this thickness diaster in the next post)

What's not so good?
Australia has funny laws. You can't label your sunscreen to be over SPF 30, and hence, many company who has SPF 30 or more just say spf 30+. I know my Anessa will give me SPF 50, but this as far as you can tell, is just SPF 30

I wanted to write shorter review so the rest of the review will come in this week :)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

the 'get to know me' quiz

I saw this from Jamilla's site, since been a bit lazy with beauty post I'll do something at least to keep you all entertain. Not tagging anyone but feel free to do one on your own blog!


1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:28am

2. How do you like your steak? medium rare, as the restaurant always do it to done anyway

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I watch movies on airplanes.

4. What is your favorite TV show? Anything on the History Channel.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? London and Muscat, Oman.

6. What did you have for breakfast? Toast and Coffee.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? ANYTHING Spicy!

8. What foods do you dislike? Anything too bland or fatty.

9. Favorite place to eat? Bar Shu, London

10. Favorite dressing? Caesar

11. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Golf GTi

12. What are your favorite clothes? I shop a lot at ASOS for non-work clothes and Max Mara for work clothes.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Australia and the South Pacific...never have enough time!

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 full

15. Where would you want to retire? Taiwan or china. I can hire someone to take care of me without moving my arse

16. Favorite time of day? Evening when I'm nearly finishing work

17. Where were you born? Hong Kong

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Men's swimming/diving (speedos baby!)

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? S of coz. never ever. actually even sent him on a mission to buy me Ffish food (Ben and jerrys) in the middle of the evening

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Mom. she nagged abt wedding

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Anyone? just not my dad pls.

22. Bird watcher? I watch the birds with my cats

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? night

24. Do you have any pets? 2 cats, the famous Dao dao (who looks like a lion this morning) and the kitten Mui Chu (who looks like a rat)

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Canmake 3d foundation is love!!!

26. What did you want to be when you were little? The list of jobs I want to be includes teacher and lawyer. more like i wanna be a princess!

27. What is your best childhood memory? pushing my brother off a swing :)

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Cat

29. Are you married? To Be.

30. Always wear your seat belt? of coz. I dun want to get fined!

31. Been in a car accident? Yes, crashed my car into someone else coz I was not looking

32. Any pet peeves? people who dun want to use their brains

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Mushroom and pineapple

34. Favorite Flower? Blue Roses

35. Favorite ice cream? Ben and Jerry's Ffish food

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? McDonald's and KFC

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? too many, ok i'll be frank 8.

38. From whom did you get your last email? My music producer who is going to produce the music

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Jill stuart or Miu Miu

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? Being a geek and hacking games..

41. Like your job? Yes. Best ever. work from home and internet related

42. Broccoli? Yes, with garlic stir-fry pls

43. What was your favorite vacation? My Kyoto trip with my best frd Kaz

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? S in New Malden Korean restaurant

45. What are you listening to right now? Angela Aki 'Answer'

46. What is your favorite color? Pink

47. How many tattoos do you have? Nil

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? anyone who wants to do this

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 10.59 GMT

50. Coffee drinker?Starbucks only

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Bride-zilla diary: choosing the procession music

in the studio recording strings (2007)

So at the moment, my head is near to explosion. Firstly, phd is banging on my everyday. I talked to Yoshiko Yamaguchi on a daily basis (I know she's still alive but still part of my research) But now my concern turn to getting the music sorted on the day

For those who don't know, I used to work in the music industry in HK, and produced a few tracks. My processions music will consist some of the production I did and I may just paste it here to see what you think.

the song translated to Love Simiplicity. It is originally written about a couple will be together no matter what, but kind of didn't make the ultimate committment (signing your life over the dotted line) but i'll change the lyrics to reflect that.








this is another song I produced, which is called 'Silly guy' actually because the lyrics is written in such a way, not many people know the true meaning. It is about falling in love with a geek/otaku!!! One of the line says 'He's just a silly guy, not many people understand him. It is hard to leave him, but I dun think I can't wait before I made the decision to stay or not'

this song was produced when I was in between hong kong and london, yet.. i love the strings part...



I do something rather funky as well... here's something I produced... in Canton-pop classical style lol

sweet blog awarded by Penelope




 

thank you penelope for this award :) 



Friday, May 14, 2010

hair claw from sasa. the best hair accessories....



over-statement? Think if I spent 3 days in front of mirror trying to do a ballet bun.. when hair claw quietly crept into my life and transfer my hair style.

I think Yumeko has talked about it before, but I couldn't find that article about it.

These are the hairclaw that you can get from Sasa.com. They are not called Hair claw but Hair clip and made by Lucky.. i first bought them from Taiwan and found them in Sasa (which i bought every single one of them available) so i'll quickly do a hair- demo photo (which is my first)

Ballet bun claw:


is by the first claw on this blog. It really makes ballet bun a breeze. less than 10 sec and no hair clip and you get a prefect bun. I get a better bun with my current hair


you can have a tail from this or hold it all up. I usually wear it sideways and it is really easy to use again. This is particularly good for girls with heavy hair.


the smaller claw helps to tuck in some of the hair that cannot be hold with other clip, I find it good to use for smaller ballet bun

the only problem I got is this:

until now I have no way using this... ifollowed the video but still get hold my hair in place.. anyone can help?

on a last note. i have handed in my notice to marriage (after a long struggle I'll put it under my bride-zilla diary)

And this is the makeup I had during the day


FOTD: Canmake 3d foundation, 03, Shu Uemura 7YR loose powder, Lunasol 10th anniversary pallette (used the orange variation eye shadow and the liquid eye liner), JS 11 blush powder, and Heroine Make lipgloss, MM mascara
Dress: Bread and Butter (love love love this brand, I find it is a good brand for someone who's size 10 and a bit large in HK)

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The woes being a bridezilla. 6 months before wedding

My wedding venue in Wales

So you might have thought i'm quiet. I have soooo much to do since I came back from Australia which is totally unbelievable. Mainly I absolutely must do my phd (yes working everyday) work work work (work is on the increase at the moment) and wedding.

Last year at this time, many things I thought I needed has been organised. Dress is a tick, rings, tick, venue, tick. And due to the unfortunate incident where the Home Office held our passport up for nearly 3 months, things are not as on track as they should. With me being the sole bearer to the organisation to the event.

We have decided not to have a professional photoshoot in Japan because we definitely have a wedding session in hong Kong. Instead we plan to take our own photos with a tripod and go around the country whenever possible.

so within this month, here's a list what need to be done:
1) hand in notice to marriage. it took us a month just to get an appointment
2) meet hotel to re-arrange the timing of the day. S has a 2nd thought and it is all subject to what the hotel says
3) meet the registrar. decide how long/short the vows can be.
4)booked all makeup artist and hair stylist. Which I am being lazy and just went with the hotel recommmendation
5) re-design the invitation cards. We forgot sth really important. I'll say next time

Monday, May 10, 2010

Cherry Bloossom weekend

It seems spring has arrived (and winter came back as well) and UK has enjoyed from blossom. I went to Kent, somewhere called  Brogdale Horticultural Trust. 
They hosted some beautiful cherry trees, orchards, pears etc and education purpose. And also some local butchers, diary products and farmshop. 
my purpose? to enjoy some cherry blossom in a country in UK.


the blossom in UK

I put on a lighter makeup on the day (except diaster happened in the end), I also permed my hair when I was in HK. not my intention to perm it, but my hair stylist said 'Girls who are getting married get their hair permed and permed it.


FOTD: Canmake 3D foundation in shade 03
Jill Stuart Shade 11 Rose Fiary blush
Shiseido pencil eye liner (which as I predicted, just simply smudged very heavily at the very end)
Maquillage lip conditioner

the camera we used is a Sony DLSR A200. great beginner's DSLR (cost only £250 brand new), the automatic mode is just simply perfect. I bought a Minolta Portrait lens (cost me only £55) and the colour came out very sharp. Of coz, a loving bf who simply see the best of you in his eyes helped.


so bye for now :)

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Giveaway winner announcement!


apologies to the lack of updates. i have been uber busy with wedding/phd/work/cats. in fact I wonder if I have time to breath..

As promised the giveaway has now closed

There are 18 lovely comments that were left and all eligible to enter, using a random generator. i have picked a winner.

Number 6.. that's EVIE from Singapore



i'll be emailing you within today or tomorrow asking for you address. so stay tuned.

Second giveaway is coming tomorrow!!! and it is something of its kind. Small but unique is all I'll say..

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin