Love Duty-Free, Hate Spring!

I've had a hectic and tiring week but it's so good to be home finally :)

Besides the 1kg Belgian chocolates, I also brought home some duty-free stuffs like Longchamp le pliage 2011 Spring Limited Edition Arbre de Vie and 3 Chanel Coco Shine lipsticks.



I was lucky to grab the last medium size Arbre de Vie as the SA told me they only have 1 size in stock. Well, I guess my sister is the lucky one because I bought it for her!

I fell in love with Coco shine the first time I saw and swatched them at Sephora a few weeks ago. I got myself Boy, Liberte and Aventure. They're so pretty and I know I'll be getting more of these.

I hate spring. My spring allergy came back a week ago and it's getting worse today. My eyes are itchy, I'm coughing and I've stuffy nose! The birch pollen season started last weekend and will end sometime in May. It's my worst enemy, making my life pretty difficult because it also causes food cross-reaction. I can't eat apples, pears, apricots and the list goes on. It sucks to be me... *lol*



Most people love spring, Sandy is spring lover. He enjoys the sun, he'll go to chase the birds in the garden... It's so cute to find my dog 'sunbathing' :)

In Brussels

Blogging from Brussels! Am here for work again this week. Had a little haul at the airport duty-free :) Will show you what I got :D

Speak to you again the end of this week. xoxo.

March Favourites

It's April! Can you believe it? NYE seems like it was yesterday for me.

I did a spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago. I threw away plenty of skin care products, bath products and cosmetics I didn't use anymore. Some of them are surprisingly a few years old. Yikes.

Here is a list of beauty products I use almost everyday in March. Some are new, some are not :)


MAC New Spirit Lipglass
This lipglass was part of MAC Makeup Art Cosmetics collection in 2009. I found it at my nearest MAC store last December. New Spirit is a light coral shade with shimmers. I like wearing it on the top of MAC Hug Me or MAC Ever Hip lipsticks.


Bare Essentials Prime Time Foundation Primer Oil Control
I'm not sure why this product received so many negative feedbacks on MUA. I love it. My makeup stays longer and it doesn't break me out. I shall write a review on this one soon.


L'OCCITANE Rose des Neiges Hand Cream
Love this hand cream so so much. My review here.


Chanel Rouge Coco Jersey Rose
I love this! I'm a big fan of pink lipsticks that have slightly peachy tone.


MAC Powder Blush Cubic
This is one of my favourite from MAC. It looks natural on me and it's a very subtle shade. I've been using the same blush at least 4x a week :)

Hubby and I are going for a weekend getaway with some friends :) I wish you a great weekend!

NOTD: Essence Irreplaceable

I don't usually like light colour polishes especially those with a lot of shimmers. I don't have any gold, beige and champagne colours in my stash. I've way too many pink, red and brown.

Irreplaceable is another new shade from Essence recent release. It is a dark champagne with gold shimmers. Like most Colour & Go polishes, the application for this one was easy. I applied 2 coats and a coat of Seche Vite top coat here. The colour is so beautiful and I can't stop looking at my nails :)

March Nail Polish Haul

I've a cheap nail polish fever this month. I can't wait to try all the colours especially Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper.

The first time I saw Essence was 5 years ago. The main reason why I was never bothered to check this brand out because the cartoon illustration made it look cheap to me. I bought a few nail polish last year after reading some good reviews on their Colour & Go. What I can say? I was sold! They cost around 1,20EUR - cheap and available in many fun colours. I'm so in love with the new duo chrome colours. They're so pretty.


From left to right, top to bottom
It's Purplelicious, You're A Gold Mine, Circus Confetti, Edward, Right, Girl, Blue Lagoon, Out Of My Mind, Where Is The Party?, Red-Y To Go, Essence Hypnotic Poison, Irreplaceable, Can't Cheat On Me
I don't shop at H&M much. I only go there when I need some wardrobe basics. Their nail polish have never caught my attention. Am still not sure what got me checking them out a few weeks ago. I brought home Miss Stone Heart and Moody Model. I was surprised to see how easy the application was and it didn't chip for days. I went back there and bought more of them. Happy Purple is my most favourite colour. It's dark purple with gold shimmers.


L->R: Hunt Me Down, Moody Model, Miss Stone Heart, Happy Purple

I picked up Essie top coat - to dry for and good to go! from Sephora. They're 20% off for Sephora Club members last week. I've used good to go! top coat before I started using Seche Vite. Seche Vite is a great fast dry top coat but I hate when it goes thick, adding polish thinner doesn't really help.



What's your latest nail product haul?

Chocolate Muffins

I love baking but not as much as I love makeup *lol* I love to eat and I enjoy food. I guess I don't really watch my diet (maybe I should) but I rarely eat junk food - maybe once a month. And I believe in exercising regularly.

I baked some chocolate muffins last weekend. I found the recipe from one of the Marks & Spencer cookbooks but I've changed the recipe a little.



Love muffins? You can make your own too!

Ingredients (Makes 12 muffins)
150g Chocolate chips or chocolate chunks plus 50g for sprinkling
2 Large eggs
80g Butter
280g All purpose flour
100g Caster sugar
250ml Milk
2 tbsp Cocoa powder
1 tbsp Baking powder
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/8 tsp Salt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C (392°F).
2. Melt butter on a double boiler. Cool before use.
3. In a large bowl, shift together flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder; stir in sugar and chocolate chips.
4. In a medium size bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add in vanilla extract and milk; mix lightly together.
5. Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined (the mixture should be lumpy).
6. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle the top with the remaining 50g chocolate chips.
7. Bake for 20mins or until risen.
8. Cool for 5mins before removing from pan.

I love my muffins with cold milk. Yum!

Pandora & Lovelinks ♥

I'm a white gold or silver jewellery kind of girl. I also love beaded jewellery and make most of them myself.

I've had heard about Pandora years ago but wasn't really interested in them until they open a store near my workplace right before Christmas. I went to see what they had in store a few weeks ago. After 20mins, I walked away with a bracelet, a spacer and a bead. A few days later, DH bought me two new beads :) How sweet!



I have a few beads and am slowly collecting more. However, I don't intend to fill my bracelet. I also came across Lovelinks when I was at a jeweller last week. I love the Murano beads but the ones at Pandora are very expensive and the nearest Pandora store doesn't have many of them. I fell in love with Lovelinks ones. They're so pretty. Not only they come in many designs, they are almost 1/2 price cheaper than Pandora's. They fit the Pandora bracelet.



Here's my tiny collection of Pandora beads and Lovelinks Murano glass beads. I'm going to get more Lovelinks ones because they're so pretty.



Do you like Pandora or Lovelinks too?

The Memory Remains

I remember how painful it was for me to look at the photos I've taken during my stay in Helsinki. I hope one day I'll go back again. I still have friends who live there and I've promised them I'll come back to visit. My last visit was in summer 2007 with hubby. We're dating for only 3 months back then and my past was still haunting me...


My first winter in Helsinki, 2004


We lived next to the coast. It's beautiful in summer


Aleksanterinkatu


American flag + Tarja Halonen poster? We're waiting for Conan O'Brien :D


Took a walk on the frozen sea on my birthday in 2006


My last time at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport

Life was hard for me. Right after I graduated from uni, I moved to Helsinki from Australia to be with my then boyfriend of 6 years. Things didn't go well. Finding my first job was so difficult. My first job interview was at Nokia. In the end, everyone told me I didn't have the experience they're looking for. I finally found a job after 8 months living there but the company went out of business after a few months. I was unemployed again but soon found another job at a university as a research assistant. I wasn't there for very long before I had a job offer from my current employer. That changed my life forever :)

Shoes & Sandy

I love shoes! Who doesn't? :)

I bought these pumps from Zara a few weeks ago. They were on sale! I really like the knots, I find them cute. The heels are below 4" and they're pretty easy to walk in.



I'm a big fan of ballerina flats. I wear them most of the time in late spring and summer. The Bloch I ordered last Friday have finally arrived. They're my first pair of Bloch and I absolutely love them! They're so comfy and light! I usually buy my ballerina flats from Vagabond and Camper.



Hubby is on business trip again. Sandy's my best companion. I'm so happy to have him in my life even though he's now next to our front door, waiting for his daddy to come home as usual. His sweet little face always makes me smile ♥

L'OCCITANE Rose des Neiges Hand Cream

I've been using L'OCCITANE Shea Butter Hand Cream for many years. I picked up Rose des Neiges Hand Cream last week after finishing my last one.



Rose des Neiges hand cream contains shea butter and rose oil. It keeps my hands moisture and soft and I love the lovely scent of white rose which isn't as heavy as many rose scented products I've tried before.



This hand cream comes in the normal 30ml tube, it fits perfectly in my little cosmetic pouch.

What's your favourite hand cream?