Category: life

I had my eye on the Remington Sleek and Curl flat iron for a long time since early December last year. I think it was the cover that did it for me. There were women with 6 various different hairstyles that I was hypnotised and stared at the box for like 10 minutes, examining every corners of the box till Cart dragged me away.

Anyway, I did a quick research online for review, and seeing how every user loved it, I finally decided to get it. Unfortunately, by the time that we went there next, it was no where to be seen!

So back in January, while I was in another mall, I noticed the last set of Sleek & Curl hair hot iron and I quickly pounced on it before anyone else could get it.

This is what was in the box.

The flat iron, and a book manual, and a dvd that shows you the different ways on how to style your hair. It was actually very interesting watching the stylist do all those hairstyles on the model. Although I’m not sure if I had the deftness and dexterity to do them all.

Just on thing to note about the flat iron is that it uses this European pin. I can’t plug it directly to the Italian power source. But all we had to do was to get the correct attachment plug for it and it works just fine. I bet that it’ll be fine for travelling too as long as there is the right attachment.

It takes about 30 seconds to heat up.

Though the maximum temperature of the flat iron is 230 degrees C, I haven’t really experimented it at that heat. By right, I shouldn’t really worry since the flat iron is supposed to be made of ceramic, tourmaline and coated with teflon so its not supposed to be damaging for hair.

But I’ll stick with 180 degrees for the moment. It’s hot enough for me. After all, that’s almost twice the heat needed to boil water!

Anyway, this is my hair in all its natural glory one day after shampooing.

It’s naturally wavy, shaggy and thick.

Truth be told, I’m not all that good with hair styling. But I’m keen to try different hairstyles. Especially now, its so easy to access tutorials from youtube and blogs.

There was one time that I was so excited to try making victory rolls, so on impulse, I bought for myself, a pair of curling iron. I don’t remember which brand it was though, but it was so challenging to use that I hardly touched it after one use and it pretty much broke down by itself.

What a waste of money.

Fortunately, this time round with my flat iron, my first time was fantastic and it was surprisingly so easy to use.

I’m not sure why I’m doing a Mariah Carey hand gesture here but you take a small segment of your hair. Put it as close to the roots, squeeze and slowly pull it down.

One of the thing that initially put me off flat iron is because of the tangles I get from using them. I tried my little sis’s flat iron but it was so tangle-o-rama. And my hair felt so dry afterwards. It worked fine for her though. Maybe its because of our different hair textures.

But the teflon works here since its actually very smooth and I don’t get that draggy and tangly feeling.

For the back of the head, it would be easier to pin with a hair clasp. And you repeat the steps till every bit of hair is straightened.

Tada! Straight hair!

And if you want to curl your hair, you take the small segment of hair again, put it close to the scalp, squeeze the flat iron and turn it in and drag it down slowly.

Be careful with your fingers though, its quite hot!

I’m not sure if you could see it in the picture, but there are guide lines which is supposed to guide you in controlling the type of your curls.

Yes, my curls look very messy. I’m still quite new at this, but for a newbie, my curls look pretty impressive, yes? 🙂

Anyway, tadah! Curly hair! I like! Abit of hair spray and it’ll stay sexeh for the entire day.

Hopefully my skills get better in time but I’m quite liking my toy for now. I’m glad I bought it 🙂

To me, make-up cleanser is a very important step at the end of the day. As much as I’d love to look immaculate 24/7, using make-up for an extended amount of time is really bad for the skin, regardless of what brand or how expensive it is.

Quite by chance, reading a review by beauty blogger,Tea Noir made me so intrigued that I wanted one of my own. I couldn’t find it in Rome so I had to wait till I was back in Singapore to get my paws on one.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Biore Cleansing Oil :

Wait … what? Oil to clean your face?

If you could get over how greasy it is, oils from coconuts and olives actually make good cleansers. It’s not supposed to cause acne since acne is a result of dead skin, hormones and bacteria. Not convinced? Try smearing some cosmetics on your hand and dab a little bit of olive oil and see what happens.

Thank goodness we have formulated cleansing oils that doesn’t feel so greasy.

I’ve been using this cleansing oil since January and I’m liking it so far. Firstly its quite affordable at about $10 SGD and its quite easy to use.

So here I am with my regular make-up on :

And then you squeeze out the cleansing oil in the palm of your hand. I usually need just one pump, you can pump out more but I’m trying to be frugal since I cant find this in Rome.

The oil is transparent, smells nice and fruity.

And then massage it gently all over your face and you’ll see that in no time at all, every bit of make-up gets dissolved.

Be it blusher, waterproof eye-liner, lipstick.

But be extra gentle with the eye area as I’ve read from a number of other reviews that the oil sting their eyes. I didn’t encounter the same issue personally though so I think it could be a new formulation.

And then rinse off the oil with water and admire how nice and clean your face is … Oops! Now you can see my blemishes!

The interesting thing is that after using the cleansing oil, my face feels dry. Which is weird since oil isn’t supposed to make your face dry.

So at this point of time, I’d slap on some moisturiser or if its time for bed, I’d follow up with the rest of my facial care – Cleanser, Toner, Eye Cream and Moisturiser and then dream of pimple and wrinkle free skin.

Have you used the Biore Cleansing Oil before? What do you think of it?

In all honesty, I was a little grossed out looking at pictures of myself in December. It was entire my fault, not watching what I was eating and consuming food like Pandoro almost every day and then making it worse by stuffing my face with loads of comfort food when I was back in Singapore.

My weight reached almost 70kg. Definitely not good.

This is a picture of me and Jules in December. I keep looking at my arms, thinking about how succulent they were.

The problem probably began last year.

Being newly married meant that Cart and I wanted to share everything together. And that includes food. When cooking, Cart liked to measure and serve the food portions equally. I’m pretty sure that other couples would empathise.

And have you ever seen Italian food portions? It’s huge!

This pizza is a portion for one person. In the beginning of the year, I could only manage eating half of it. Slowly as the months went by, I found to my horror and fascination that I could finish it all by myself.

While in Singapore, I’d be exercising regularly, doing yoga and aerobics, taking advantage of the affordable fees from community and sports centre. You could go for weekly session for about $50 Singapore dollars for 3 months. I loved the facilities and the instructors are mostly fantastic.

The prices of exercise sessions in Rome on the other hand, is much costlier. The most affordable one that we could find was about 54 euro per month and the place looked rather dated and I didn’t fancy some of the instructor’s methods.

So slowly, after going there for a few months, I started to slack and eventually stopped going. Probably not a wise thing to do. I kept telling myself that I’d supplement by going for daily jogs. But that never happened. And the weight kept going up.

Finally in the beginning of the year, I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I told myself that I better do something about this weight gain.

I would like to reaffirm that I do not believe in quick fixes like diet pills, weight loss spas, detoxification programs and I’ll never ever endorse them. You might see temporary weight loss but then gain it all back some weeks or even days later. Its a waste of time and money in the end.

Coincidentally YesPecan was recommending an exercise regime called the 30 day Shred by Jillian Micheals. I gave it a try.

The first few days was a challenge for me. While lifting my weights in front of me and doing leg stretches at the same time, I felt so wobbly! And I was so sore the next day. Every step I took, I felt my muscles complain.

Regardless, I carried on. At first, there was no weight loss but eventually, it was really nice to see the numbers go down 😀

It was not a dramatic weight loss. But I’m realistic. I’m happy just to lose slow and steady at 0.5kg every 2 weeks and not gain them back. As for food intake, I still eat practically everything I feel like but I moderate myself to stop when I feel full instead of trying to finish everything on my plate.

But what gives me the most motivation is seeing the physical results itself. This is me after finishing my 30 day shred.

I still have a long way to go, but I feel so psyched that I am started to see a little definition in my abs. And as tired as I feel, seeing this inspires me to continue to have a more toned body.

Please feel free to join me! If I can do it, I am sure that you can do it too! Come on and lets motivate each other to lose weight together!

If you liked this post, you might enjoy :

• I survive the Amore Women’s Day out
• I feel good!
• I am fat
• Yoga makes me feel sexeh