Lancome Tonique Confort

Lancome has a range of toners for different skin types;

• Tonique Radiance exfoliates and purifies in 1 step through use of antioxidants and skin clarifying ingredients. Good for older people.

• Tonique Douceur soothing and cooling, removes impurities without stripping natural oils off the skin leaving skin soft & hydrated. Most people use this.

• Tonique Confort is for sensitive skin or sensitized skin because of overexposure to the sun. It's silky soft contents moisturizes and gently purifies the skin.

Soft pink packaging wins it many points!

Ben & Jerry's Chunk Fest 2014

This Saturday 4th October is Ben & Jerry's Ice-Cream Chunk Fest 2014! Held at The Meadow, Gardens by the Bay from 2pm to 10pm. Register early for the ice-cream eating contest (teams of 4) to win a year's supply of ice-cream.

There will be 20 flavors of ice-cream including limited edition versions brought in just for this event. There will also be carnival activities, movie screening and talks.

Supermarket Contests Tip #8

Write out the full name of the items purchased and highlight the necessary information on the receipt. This way, you can see the details at a glance. Sometimes the item descriptions aren't clear especially when it is a long receipt. An extra step to take, it lessens your chances of disqualification!

Louis Vuitton A/W 2014/2015 Fashion

Nicolas Ghesquiere's first collection for LVMH, is decidedly retro re-mixed.

It's got that 70s classic hipster feel, redone with colour blocking and sexier modern silhouettes.

LV menswear this season is overrun with blue stripes. It's still classic menswear with coats, suits, sweaters. Just lots of warm, cozy fabrics used here.  

Buffet Dinner @ Carousel

Dinner for 2 @ Carousel, Royal Plaza on Scotts courtesy of Paseo.

I've eaten at Carousel several times before and always found the service great (they change the plates really fast). Wonderful food with a selection wider than most hotel buffets.

Lancome UV Expert BB Cream

Beauty Balms are all the rage these days because of it's multi-acting usage. Lancome offers UV Expert BB Cream, a SPF 50+ product offering sunscreen coverage, skin coloured foundation to hide flaws and an active pore-refining complex to brighten and perfect your skin. $80 a bottle.

McDonald's Twilight Specials

Did everyone catch the F1 Night Race yesterday? Drama even before the race started, what happened to that engine!

McDonald's has been having this Twilight special for some time now. Every evening from 6pm onwards you can order from the Twilight menu and they add flowers in vases to the tables for that cafe-like feel. Certainly adds some intimate charm to a large chain franchise, food is good too, free desserts/sides if you bring the coupon.

Supermarket Contests Tip #7

Increase your odds of winning something. I find it difficult to win the big contests, you know the ones that are advertised throughout the supermarket for Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali. Because those are contests everyone enters. If you only enter 1 contest, chances are its the big one right.

Contests that allow for redemption are definite wins! Contests that offer multiples of the same prize increase your odds. Instead of 1 big prize, they offer 25 winners the same prize (e.g. electric steamer). I do win such contests fairly often so I can attest it is more attainable.

Prada A/W 2014/2015

Prada sends out men & womens wear together this time. Its a fun fashionista look this season and oh so flashy! Only serious fashion people need apply.

Featuring coats with wide lapels and piping

Super strappy dresses

Bright yellow or red fur! Some of it looks really long & shaggy like hair.

Official FIFA 2014 Merchandise

The World Cup 2014 Brasil is over and only now do I get my souvenirs courtesy of Johnson&Johnson. It's official FIFA - Adidas merchandise (backpack, jersey and some stress balls). Obviously I will not be the one using these items as its all guy stuff.

This jersey retails for $150! I have never bought football jerseys before so am a little stunned at the price. I guess if your kids play soccer they need quite a few of these.

Lancome Le Crayon Khol Eyeliner

Lancome Le Crayon Khol eyeliner pencil is creamy smooth to apply and smudges to give the eye that highly coveted smoky look. It's an easy to use, all in one tool. Available in 7 different colours including white, $34.50 each.

Thanying Restaurant

Thanying Restaurant serves Royal Thai cuisine in an intimate setting of just 30 tables. It's a nondescript building in between Amara Sanctuary Resort Lobby and Tier Bar, you can only tell from a tiny wooden sign bearing its name lit-up by a single lamp at night when its open for business. Despite being really difficult to find, the restaurant was almost full when I was there for dinner.

These 2 house residents were at the entrance of Thanying Restaurant to greet us, no full exhibition of plumage though. Not that we didn't try to coax a response from them, these peacocks are fully accustomed to humans.

Complimentary lemongrass tea for hotel guests. Local bank cards get 10% off the final bill.

Miang Kha Naa for appetizer, that is the highlight of our entire meal. It embodies all the reasons we love Thai food at all.

The chef only had 2 soups that night, a clear prawn tom yam and a coconut fish tom yam. Both soups were good but my fave was the fish version, soo rich & creamy, soo soothing on a rainy evening.

The green curry came and we were soo busy eating I didn't take pics of the rest of the food that arrived later. All I can say is the chef is happy to oblige popular thai dishes that are not on the menu and plain rice costs $6! But this meal was totally worth the calories and heartburn.

How to get here is a little tricky. When you turn into Amara Santuary Resort, you will first see Tier Bar with pool tables & free kacang puteh. I caught another peacock roaming around the bar.

The next building is Thanying Restaurant that is accessed via a side door.

After that is the Resort lobby, where you will be greeted with this refreshments table. The house mint tea is refreshing, kinda unique. This being a resort and not hotel, there are lots of outdoor areas (non-air-conditioned) that you have to walk through. Not really a place to be too fussy about, if you don't mind getting out in the sun or rain for a bit, its nice & quiet with charm. I liked the big windows in the rooms that opened up completely so you can hear the birds chirping and get a bit of that sea breeze.

Supermarket Contest Tip #6

Visit different supermarket branches. The promotional signboards/forms etc are not necessarily spread out across all branches. So some branches have it, others don't. You might miss something if you don't check.

In addition, there are different types of supermarket branches. For example, Fair Price has Regular branches, Xpress, Finest, Select. The fine print on some of these contests restrict it to certain outlets. So again, you have to check.

Fendi A/W 2014/2015 Fashion

Talking about big-headed dolls...Fendi is picking up this trend this season as well in beautifully lush, fluffy hoods.

It's fur with an edge, asymetric lines and even blocking. Absolutely loving those fur collars that don't look soo lady-like and better suited to an urban wardrobe.

Fur aside, the collection also carries camo prints and navy blues. 

Phillips Avance Mixer Prize!

I won this Philips Avance Mixer worth $209 courtesy of Nestle Cornflakes. It's a nice size at 3.4L and reminds me of my first mixer (1L) that can be detached from the stand and used as a handheld mixer. It can mix or knead that is what I will really use it for. In addition, it has attachments that can be purchased for chopping (you know nuts & fruit for baking) and blending (mostly smoothies I think or purees).

Estee Lauder Double Wear Mascara & Eyeliner

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-place Eye Pencil does what it says, no smudges to clean up after, it sets by itself in seconds. It goes on the lid easily with a creaminess even though it is a pencil. The rich colour lasts for 12 hours. Available in 7 different shades, the one I have is 01 Noir (black). $40 each.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Zero-Smudge Lengthening Mascara also does what it says, no mistakes to clean up after and your lashes get lengthened. It lasts 15 hours, resisting heat, humidity & even a little water. Available in black or brown. I would keep the brush even after use, as its a really good bristled comb for applying mascara nicely. $52 each.