Presents & Presents

Legendary Strawberry Fresh Cream Cake from Chateraise, made from soy milk. It's soo soft and delicious!

I spent the festive season sick with the flu and found myself drinking ready made soups and tea cocktails. I have also discovered that adding cooking cream to everything makes it extra delicious.

The first present I received over Christmas is 3INA cosmetics, that I thought was a Korean brand as it turns out its actually a vegan European brand. It's a massive 15ml tube of green coloured mascara, usually mascaras are 1.5ml or something like that. And a tube of argan & jojoba lip oil balm with a new type sponge applicator.

The Christmas edition LuLuLun facial masks, featuring Fir Tree extract! Cannot wait to try that out. This one box contains a whopping 28 pieces of facial masks in resealable packets.

Dr Wu facial masks, this is a 2 piece pack for both neck and face. Dr Wu stuff are pricier and meant to replicate salon treatments. So I am kinda excited about trying this out.

Nespresso coffee capsule refills, practical and much appreciated.

The little boys bought me this oil painting from Cambodia, they were there on a mission trip just before Christmas.

Rendang, crispy bread and fried chicken wings for New Years, keeping it local this year.

SGMALL purchases

Making full use of my internet connection, I watch a few of these live auctions every night. Kinda addictive and I also get to learn the Chinese names of these gemstones & crystals.




"Black Keys" are really popular and made into all sorts of decor and accessories. I bought one Icy Black Key pixiu bracelet, see the pixiu is curved and made from the same material. It's also chasing a "tiger eye" ball.



This is my White Crystal Pointer of gemstone bracelets, all purchased on sgmall auctions including the crystal pointer. I was told this is the tallest crystal they can source for and there is no base, usually there is a wood base provided, maybe that's kinda traditional so its not available. I will probably be taking these apart for beading later on. 



The rest of the pixiu bracelets I bought look like those available in stores, with the gold pixius and 2 accompanying gold beads. There are more variations than these available but not as common I guess. For the lighter coloured pixiu stack I bought only quartz, so its blue, pink, purple, yellow, rutilated quartz.



Finally, I found one Liuli item to purchase, coz the auction sites are selling soo much of this stuff every night. Its a zodiac animal seal, a pig sitting on a pile of money, that I am planning to get engraved with some bacon or pork related insignia.

SG Mall Live Streaming

Hanging out every night in front of my PC watching SGmall live auctions, real time auctions streamed over Facebook. Sometimes instead of auctions they do a discounted offer price, also in real time. There are soo many lucky draws and free gifts with soo many different vendors I got confused.



Its almost everything you can find in a pasar malam, affordably priced clothes, unique accessories, specialty skincare, fengshui decor, crystals and my favorite item - gemstone beads to feed my beading hobby. The prices change all the time and can range from really cheap to really expensive with certification.

The best gemstone find so far is Morgan Stone or a mix of pastel coloured natural beryl gemstones (aquamarine, morganite, heliodor, goshenite) that I thought was plastic at first. The colour is soo sweet that I thought it was fake. Price is usually $35 to $55 a bracelet, not expensive but really difficult to find. The most expensive beryl not mentioned here are emeralds.

I also bought one gem-set pendant in rose gold. I was looking for a bigger pendant to go with my new chain, love it! Finally, a pet-related accessory.

I did buy something from the designer goods auction and its not a bag, its a T-shirt at almost half price. You need DBS Paylah! or OCBC Paynow! to make payment before the live show ends. If not then its a trip out to the banks within 24 to 48 hrs to do a funds transfer.

I only bought one fengshui decor item, the Dragon Toad. I was deciding between the liuli versions when this DongLing Jade turned up on screen. I had to bid a lucky 88 number to get it, and the number was really lucky coz I won an assortment of prizes in the lucky draw (see above), making my purchase totally worth it.

Shilla Duty Free Cosmetics

Online shopping at Changi Airport duty free goods for pickup at airport or home delivery. I chose home delivery but you still need to be a flight passenger to purchase these items tax free. Luckily, my family was ok to help so I used their flight details for this purchase.

Urban Decay All Nighter series of full coverage concealers and foundations. Its the same price as UD's other series Naked that provides lighter coverage and more moisture, so its like skincare + makeup. If my complexion wasn't soo bad I would use Naked coz I am in air-conditioning all the time.

Guerlain goodies that came with some freebies. I felt obligated to buy this coz I received the Les Voilettes compact as a gift earlier on. 

I also got the meteorites powder summer edition that came in a metal tin instead of the usual paper box. I like the shimmer effect, its not glitter.

Freebies are a full size Orchidee Imperiale home fragrance that smells just like perfume only it doesn't linger on. A sample of creme S.O.S. and a perfume sample that comes in handy when I am travelling and in-transit to relax and soothe frazzled nerves.

Holidays are here...

Yummy torched chirashi bowl but the truffled white asparagus was a little bitter, not sure what makes it bitter.

I started on my Christmas shopping by purchasing these Swatch Watches, 2 metre wall clocks that double as art pieces. It's only available at Raffles City, Orchard Gateway or online at Swatch Singapore webstore. 

I made one online purchase from Goldheart, 85cm red gold chain with white freshwater pearls. Meant to be layered with a regular necklace. I had to order it online coz I couldn't get it in the stores. Original price SGD $1,328 now $478 + free delivery.

Couple more freebies from supermarket contests:

EZlink card $5 value form Pringles potato chips

4 tickets to Omni Theatre from Nestle Honey Stars

$500 Dairy Farm vouchers + Hamper from Top Nanox detergent

$100 FairPrice vouchers from Kinder Bueno

F1 Mercedes Cap from Monster Energy drinks