My choices of body care products

I am not usually a person who bothers much with body care mainly because the humid weather in Singapore does not dry out my skin as much. Even though I work and sleep in air-conditioned room everyday, I am not someone who lather on body care products often because I dislike the sticky, uncomfortable feeling of applying. However, having said that, I still using body care products and today I would like to share some of the body care products that I use.

Just to share my personal preference on choices of body care products. I always prefer something that is light in texture with mild scent. Not only will I not have the uncomfortable sticky feeling, I like having something lightly scented on my body for that 'fresh out of shower' smell.

Below are the body care products that I am currently using:-

1) DNA Miracles Natural Hydrating Baby Lotion
2) Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Body Cream
3) Kiehl's Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion

DNA Miracles Natural Hydrating Baby Lotion

Yes, I know this body lotion is for babies but what is stopping adults from using them? NOTHING, haha. I have always like baby lotions because they are usually the lightest in texture with the gentlest ingredients that can be applied on babies' skin. I have to say I reach out for this lotion more often than the other 2 because of the light texture. It is easily absorbed into my skin, providing the hydration I required on dry areas. There was once I had slight rashes on my arms after CNY spring cleaning and DNA Miracles Natural Hydrating Baby Lotion helps to sooth my skin after application. The combination of glycerin, willow herb flower / leaf/ steam extract, pathenol, aloe leaf juice and sodium hyaluronate make this product a wonderful body lotion for everyday application. With a mild sweet scent, DNA Miracles Natural Hydrating Baby Lotion does make me feel a child!

Available on www.allyourfamilyneeds.sg. Retailing at $24.50 for 190g of product.

Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Body Cream

I bought this body cream plainly because I am a fan of Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Cologne and it would be a great item for me to lay my scent when I would like my scent to stay longer. Being a body cream, Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Body Cream comes in a luxurious glass pot and you scoop out the cream using your fingers (that's me) or a spatula. Despite me buying this previously to layer my scent, I ended up using this product at night, just before bed. I like how the scent relaxes me after long, stressful hours in offices. The texture is creamer than lotion and does makes me feel there is a thin layer of cream on the surface of the skin.

This product is available over Jo Malone boutiques in Singapore but I previously purchased mine over Saks Fifth Avenue at USD 75 for 5.9 oz (approx 167g) of product.

Kiehl's Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion

Ok, I have to say this. Kiehl's Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion is the product that I have hardly used. Despite being named as 'body lotion', the texture is the thickest among the 3 making me feel very sticky after application. I guess it will worked well for individuals with badly chapped skin. The scent is also the strongest among the 3, which is the reason why I touches it the least now. The key ingredient in Kiehl's Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion is Argan Oil and Argan leaf extract which is a very popular ingredient in a lot of products to provide hydration.

Available over Kiehl's counters in Singapore, it was previously retailing at $100 (I'm not sure if there are price changes lately) for 475ml of product.

Swatch of textures for the above-mentioned 3 products

From left to right: DNA Miracles Natural Hydrating Baby Lotion, Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia Body Cream, Kiehl's Superbly Restorative Argan Body Lotion

Review: Bio-essence Bio Spring Water

This post is another sponsored review post and you guys have to read on, because I fell in love with this product hard and fast. It's none other than Bio-essence Bio Spring Water.

Bio-essence Bio Spring Water is a bottled mist which is uniquely low in mineral content but at the same time rich in trace minerals to ensure 2X cooling, soothing, softening, moisturising and anti-irritating effects. The best part is that it can be used as a multi tasked on face, body, hair and even suitable for babies. As you all know, babies' skin is very very tender so for a product to be able to used on babies show how gentle it is.

Some of the recommended usage of Bio-essence Bio Spring Water is stated behind the bottle and the list is pretty long!

I have used it on my face and body after exercising and and it certainly helps to cool down my face and body. Not only do I not feel sticky and uncomfortable, I actually feel refreshed. On days whereby I have makeup on, spraying Bio-essence Bio Spring Water on my face does makes my makeup last longer and I also noticed that the oil field around my cheeks are not as active. This is due to the moisturising effect of the water.

For readers who are keen to try out Bio-essence Bio Spring Water, you may want to pay attention here, hehe. 1 lucky reader will be gifted with a 25ml travel-sized Bio-essence Bio Spring Water all you need to do is to provide me with your name and email address in the comment box below. The closing date is 3 Feb and I will randomly pick 1 lucky reader.

Do act fast because even Eden love Bio-essence Bio Spring Water so much that she is guarding it day and night! :)

Disclosure: The product in this review is sent by the company for my review and consideration. All opinions stated are my own honest views and no compensation is received for this review.

Review: LUSH Sultana of Soap

After trying a few LUSH soaps, I am on a road of no return, I simply love their soaps! I have tried Honey I Washed The Kids, Sexy Peel, Sea vegetable and Noubar, and now I am trying out Sultana of Soap.

Yes, you can expect raisins in your soap! This bar soap is creamy and sweet smelling with the raisins in it and it totally look like a gigantic nougat I love how the creamy texture of the soap makes it so easy to lather (unlike Sea vegetable) but you can also expect the soap to turn soft easily if it's always in contact with water. As such, always make sure that your soap dish is dry and away from the shower head.

Although Sultana of Soap is creamy, it does not leave my skin feeling moisturised like the Dove shower foam advertisement. However, I like it that my skin feels clean and fresh (especially in Singapore's humid weather) without the squeaky clean and drying feeling. Scent of the raisins also lingers on my skin as well as making my bathroom smelly nice. :)

This soap is a definite re-purchase for me, together with Honey I Washed the Kids and Sexy Peel. For you readers out there who are keen to give this soap a try, do check out LUSH store at Wisma Atria. :)

Belated hauls posting

My blog has been really boring lately with not much updates and all thus I decided to post a belated haul postings with some of the buys that I made few months back.

Courtesy of 2 of my good pals, I managed to snag Laura Mercier from Taipei and Crabtree & Evelyn stuffs (my pal had some discount for her birthday month). I got the popular oil free foundation primer and tinted moisturiser from Laura Mercier as these 2 products are highly raved in the beauty blogsphere. Have yet to break into it thus no comments from me so far. Will post my comments about it once I started using them.

I love nice scented stuffs, especially from Crabtree & Evelyn and L'Occitane and I have been a fan of their body products for a while. Used to not need to get anything from them because I also received their stuffs as Xmas presents from friends! I love lavender and anything with lavender goes for me so I decided to purchase their Lavender dusting powder as well as Lavender bar soaps. Love them!

Next up is Metro Sale! I never usually head down to Metro during their sale as I have friends who can help me get stuffs or I have no stuffs that I need to get. This time round, it was a rare occasion whereby I have Clarins stuffs that I need to get and I was actually available to head down after work.

What I love about getting Clarins stuffs from Metro is that because I am a Metro Card holder, I get to have direct 10% discount off Clarin's products on normal times and when it comes to Metro sales, it's an attractive 20% direct discount! Lucky for me, Clarins works well on me so it is what I called 'Killing 2 birds with 1 stone', hahahaha.

During the Metro sale, I got my favourite cleanser, Gentle Foaming Cleanser for normal to combination skin, Toning lotion (for combination to oily skin) and White Plus HP Whitening Moisture Day Emulsion.

I have tried Toning lotion years ago so I do not think it should be any problems for me. But the whitening day emulsion is a new try for me since it is new. However, I tested the texture on my hand and it felt ok so I thought why not give it a try, especially when there is 20%? Cheapo me........ BC also got some stuffs from Clarins Men range seeing the 20% discount! Haha.

Another reason why I love Clarins? They are super generous with their samples, which I think is a superb strategy. Most ladies are concerned about committing to a product which might end up not suitable to their skin type. With a sample, not only are they able to try, if it's good, you have a new customer, why not? Check out the samples I have from Clarins over 2 visits from them previously! (Did not managed to get any samples during the Metro sale because it was really crowded!)

Last but not least, I finally got my hands on Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy after my previous posting here! Chanel does not have direct 20% discount since their stuffs are price controlled but we get the 20% off in terms of rebate voucher. So I get to offset this 20% against my Clarins purchases (which already has direct 20% off, yeah!)

Changed review of LUSH sea vegetable soap

If you guys remembered, I reviewed LUSH Sea vegetable soap sometime back and was ranting on how much I disliked it. But after using it for about 3 weeks, I want to change my comments about this soap.

1 of the peeves I had about this soap was that it does not lather well. Well, I noticed it does not lather well in the first few uses, but after that it does foams up pretty normally. So I guess patience is virtue. Lol.

Although the scent does not lingers long on my skin after shower, it has a 'freshen me' effect on me especially in the recent hot and humid weather. Not beats having a nice cool shower which makes you feel that you just had a swim. I am starting to appreciate this scent....

It is definitely a nice change from some sweet, strong smelling shower gel and soap and I am definitely buying this again.

My 1st LUSH Spree

Just last month, I organised my very 1st LUSH spree and with the support from my sister and some friends, we managed to order the stuffs that we wanted and split the shipping costs! Yippie!!!

Online shopping is just so convenient nowadays that it is almost impossible not to love shopping in the comfort of your home and just click click away on the mouse and making payment via your credit card. Processing and delivery is very prompt by LUSH UK and I received the parcel just under 2 weeks after my order was placed. On a separate note, I discovered my sister's order of Oatifix fresh face mask was not in the parcel and I tried my luck in contacting them to inform that this item is missing from my parcel. Honestly, I was prepared for the worst case scenario that nothing could be done about it but their customer service was excellent! Not only did they replied my email within 12 hours, the good news is they will send me a replacement mask!!! I am soooooo going to order from them again!

Now, back to my hauls....... This is my personal order:

Top row: Fresh Farmacy cleanser, Mint Julip lip scrub, Sexy Peel soap, Porridge soap, trial size Charity Pot
Bottom row: R & B hair treatment, Noubar soap, Honey I Washed the Kids soap

My sister's friend also got interested in LUSH products and ordered LUSH Lime Smoothie and Creamed Almond and Coconut Smoothie. I have personally not tried the smoothie before but I think they should be good!

V also gave LUSH a try by ordering Happy Hippy and Back For Breakfast shower gel. :)

I am so addicted to LUSH products now!!! I have already came up with my next shopping list for LUSH!

LUSH Dream Cream

I hope I am not boring all of you with another LUSH review. These are just limited products from LUSH that I have and is using and hope it is useful to you guys in considering to try out LUSH products.

This post is dedicated to LUSH Dream Cream, which is a body cream. The texture is light as a body lotion and very easily absorbed by the skin. My personal preference for a body lotion is very simple:-

1) Light texture that is easily absorbed which will not make me feel sticky and greasy
2) Nice fragrance!

Needless to say, LUSH Dream Cream has met these 2 criteria with flying colours! Yeah! Not only is it able to moisturise my dry skin (especially my arms and thighs), I also do not have the uncomfortable sticky greasy feeling (which can be very unbearable in Singapore's humid weather). With the fragrance of chamomile, lavender and rose water in the Dream Cream, it is no wonder that I fell in love with this cream.

The only complaint I have about this product is the packaging. It felt less hygienic to scoop out the cream from a tub as we will be passing germs into the tub as we are scooping. It would definitely be better to be in a bottle with a pump.

I keep LUSH Dream Cream in the fridge and when I use it on my body, it felt cool and comfortable. SHIOK!!!

LUSH Sea Vegetable soap

Just last week, I started trying out another soap from LUSH and it's the Sea Vegetable soap. I bought it sometime ago after reading from forums that there is a shop in Holland V that sells LUSH products (at much higher price, of course!!). I do not know what was the weight of this soap that I bought but it cost S$13.20 when UK site is selling 100g for GBP2.89. Wow!!!

It has a layer of sea salt on 1 side of the soap which double up as a body scrub while showering and it has a fresh sea fragrance. However, the intensity of the fragrance of this soap is very very subtle which do not leave any smell on my skin after shower.

Can you see the layer of sea salt?

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with this soap as the sea salt does not scrub very well. In addition, it does not seems to foam up too, and my personal preference is soap or shower gels that lathers well with lots of foam. The fresh fragrance of the soap is a nice change from the sweet fragrance of 'Honey I Washed The Kids' and reminds me of the pool but it would be a plus to have this fragrance lingers on my skin after leaving the shower and not just ending it there and then.

This is a soap that I will most likely not get again but some of the soaps that I would love to try soon are:-

1) Porridge soap (seen so much good reviews on the gentle exfoliation of this soap)

2) Noubar soap (similar to porridge soap but with walnuts, peanuts and almonds)

3) Bohemian (had a sniff of this soap at the shop at Holland V and love the smell of lemon)

Oh, the lady boss of this Holland V shop was trying to convince me to get LUSH skincare too which I stubbornly decline and she had no choice but to give me sample of Fresh Farmacy cleanser (looks sufficient for approximately 3 - 4 days washes). It is suitable for sensitive and troubled skin. I have yet to try this out and will post my reviews about this cleanser soon. Stay tuned! :)

LUSH Honey I Washed The Kids

Not sure how many of you still remember LUSH many years ago when it was available in Singapore, specifically on basement 1 of Isetan Wisma (where the current Agnes B is at now). That time, I really hate the smell of LUSH when I walk past, because it smells TOO SWEET for my liking which I think I was going to puke. However, last year when Tracy shared with me her love for LUSH and helping me get 'Honey I Washed The Kids' soap during one of her business trip overseas and I absolutely love it!! This soap is a hot seller and it smells heavenly with honey (needless to say) as one of the ingredients. It does smell sweet when you are smelling it directly from the bar, but during and after shower, the honey smell that lingers on the skin really is quite relaxing and soothing especially after a hard day at work or an intensive workout. It especially worked this afternoon in soothing and freshening me up after a session of housekeeping with the hot and humid weather here.

After shower, it not only leaves my skin soft and smelling great, I actually felt clean. Not squeaking clean like using a harsh bar soap but clean enough that I feel fresh! I absolutely love this soap. For newbies to LUSH, I would strongly encourage you to try this soap out! Oh, if you would like to stock up on LUSH products, it would be advisable to keep the LUSH products that you are stocking up in zip lock bag placed in the fridge. Given Singapore's hot weather, their products might not last very well.

Guess what, it's time to do some online shopping soon!