xoxojeneen

L’Oreal Butterfly Mascara and Gelmatic Pen Liners Review

January 17, 2014October 21, 2017by xoxojeneenLeave a Comment

I recently got my hands on the new L’oreal Butterfly Mascara and Gelmatic Pen Liners (thank you L’oreal!) and played around with them, trying to create different looks for myself. For those who know me personally, you’ll know that I’m pretty much a one trick pony with makeup. I use black liquid eyeliner and draw wing tips for my eyes – that’s about it. I don’t work with colours and eyeshadow much because I find it too tricky and I usually end up looking like a mess if I try and play with too many colours on my eyes.

I was pleasantly surprised when I worked with the Gelmatic Pen Liners. I am no expert with the many colours and was drawing mostly with blind faith, overlapping colours, trying to remember tips I picked up along the way about highlighting the corners of the eyes with whites, darks at the ends, etc. The liners were so easy to use! They glided on so smoothly and I created 4 different looks for myself easily and really quickly too – no messiness involved. I’ll share the looks I created in a bit. First, I’ll start with the review of the Butterfly Mascara.

The Butterfly Mascara has a revolutionary Butterfly Brush with asymmetrical lash line shape that extends and lifts outer corner lashes to give you a winged-out effect, instantly volumizing lashes at the roots and stretching lashes outward. The unique Cocoon Fibers instantly wrap lashes in a soft, delicate veil to create silky, spectacular lashes that flutter.

Here are my eyes, sans makeup.

The mascara was easy to use and most importantly, did not clump. I put on 2-3 coats. The brush caught the lashes easily, and even worked on the shorter lashes at the end.

Here are the results. I really like how the mascara separated my lashes and made my lashes fan outwards and up. Plus, it lengthened insanely! It almost looks like I’m wearing false lashes. What a dramatic difference when compared with the picture of my eyes without makeup.

My lashes look so long, thick and dark. 🙂

Fluttery lashes! I had so many people compliment on my lashes when I went out with the butterfly mascara and the curl held up really well all day.

Overall Verdict: This is the holy grail mascara. It stays on all day without smudging, holds up curl really well, does not clump, separates and gives volume to my lashes. A must-try!

Here’s moving on to the review of the Gelmatic Pen Liners,

This is L’Oreal’s first gel eyeliner in a pen format.

It’s an automatic crayon twist type pencil with no sharpening and with a precision tip for easy application. These are the 6 different shades available: black, gold, blue, silver, turquoise, brown.

I grouped the colours in cool and warm tones to create different looks.

Warm tones.

Colours I used for the first look.

I lined my top lash line with turquoise and black, and used the silver and blue on my lower lash line. It was so easy to work with the liners! The colours glided on super smoothly and I got the wing tips at the first go. With liquid liners, I sometimes have to re-draw them a couple of times to get them right.

Look how intense the colour pigments are.

Ta-dah! Here’s the first look. I’ll wear these colours and re-create this look for fun parties and nice dinners.

Look 2

For the 2nd look, I worked with the same colours as the first and dramatized the colours and look by thickening the lines.

The blue and turquoise colours are so so pretty.

I used more of the black liner for drama.

I’ll take this 2nd look to parties and drinks!

Look 3

For my 3rd look, I worked with the brown and silver pen liners.

I saw a Michelle Phan makeup tutorial on puffy, Korean ‘aegyo-sal’ eyes and tried to re-create the look by lining my upper eyelid with the brown liner and drawing a thick line on my lower lash with the silver to create the illusion of puffiness.

Here’s how the liner on my upper lid looks.

There! I don’t think I quite perfected the ‘puffy eye’ look no thanks to my less than adequate makeup skills, but I still like the overall look nonetheless! It’s perfect for days when I wanna look sweet and demure. Haha.

Look 4

For the final look, I worked with the brown and gold liners.

I lined my upper lid with brown and gold, and used the gold again on my lower lash with some of the brown at the ends.

I’m going to wear this look for Chinese New Year! The gold and brown matches the reds of CNY perfectly.

Overall Verdict: These pen liners are my newfound love. I wore them for the whole day and they didn’t smudge, I had no liner prints on my lids (my lids can get oily and I tend to get these line imprints when I use pencil liners), and best of all, they’re so easy to use (glides on mess-free) for a makeup noob like me. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the colours are so very pretty!

I end off this post with a Facebook and Instagram contest.

Stand a chance to win $300 worth of L’Oreal Paris beauty kit for yourself and your friend, and passes to an exclusive preview lunch of L’Oreal Cosmetics next upcoming launch.

Here’s how to enter:

Facebook

Step 1: LIKE L’Oreal Paris Sg FB Page https://www.facebook.com/#!/lorealparissingapore?bookmark_t=page

Step 2: SHARE my Facebook post (HERE)

Step 3: Tag a friend and hashtag #lorealparissg #makethemgelous #lashesthatflutter

Instagram

Step 1: Comment on my Instagram post (HERE)

Step 2: Tag a friend in your comment

Step 3: Hashtag #lorealparissg #makethemgelous #lashesthatflutter

Goodluck!

-xoxo-

bloggers, boracay, cyma greek restaurant, mesa restaurant, puka beach, talipapa market, the district boracay, tiger air, travel, travel recomendations

I Fell In Love With Boracay

December 18, 2013October 21, 2017by xoxojeneen2 Comments

For those who are following my Instagram account, , you’d have seen the gorgeous pictures of Boracay (like this one below) that I posted.

Roomie, Kay Kay and I on a speedboat cruising into the sunset on our way to parasail.

I was completely blown away by the beauty of Boracay and fell absolutely in love with it. Almost every picture taken there was completely picturesque and such a dream. Thank you Gushcloud and Tiger Air for sending us there! A big thank you too to our accomodations, The District Boracay for the wonderful hospitality. I’ll recommend this luxurious hotel to anyone who’s thinking of going to Boracay. I loved the contemporary, minimalist design, the staff are really warm and friendly, and the location is superb; it’s right by the beach. The beach is literally right outside its door step. You can trust me on The District Boracay. I’m usually fussy with accommodations.

The District Boracay – see what I mean by having the beach right at its doorstep?

There’s so much to love about Boracay – the soft white sand, clear blue waters, iridescent sunsets, yummy and affordable seafood, delicious fruit shakes (must-try!), beachside cafes…and the people are generally nice and friendly too. You don’t get shot dirty looks when you decide not to buy something from a shop. Water sports and activities are also affordable, the beach not overcrowded and it’s easy and convenient to get around. Most places are walkable, or you can hop onto a tuk tuk (similar to Bangkok’s) to take you to your destination. Oh, and massages are very affordable too! I was getting foot massages everyday when I was there (super happy!). I’ll recommend that you hit ‘Manggo Spa’ located along the beach at Station 2. The spa premise is very clean and the prices are affordable. I paid 490pesos (about S$15) for a foot massage. We tried some dodgy massage shops. Although cheaper, but the experience was definitely less pleasant. Also, as travel time to Boracay is quite long (we took a 4hr flight, 1.5hr bus ride, half hour ferry ride and then 15 min bus ride to get to our hotel), so I’ll recommend a longer stay there – at least 3 full days or more.

These are some activities that I did and recommend:

Snorkling and Island Hopping

I didn’t quite enjoy the snorkling – the water wasn’t very clear and there weren’t many variety of fishes. We spotted 1 rainbow coloured fish and lots of clown fishes. Getting to Puka beach however, was completely worth the trip. Puka beach is absolutely beautiful. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Kay Kay, Joanna, Valerie, Szes, Jolene, Lucinda and Sheena – before hitting Puka beach.

It reads, ‘PUKA’ if you’re wondering what the sticks are.

With Nicole, Serene, Melody, Joanna and Tricia

Mandatory jump shot at the beach! (we took jump shots at our last Gushcloud trip to Bali last year too) From left to right: Sheena, Rosanne, Me, Kay Kay, Melody, Tricia, Serene, Lucinda, Kife, Szes, Jolene, Valerie, Fiona, Nicole, Joanna, Lydia.

With the Gushcloud team, Audrey, Xuen, Sheena, Jasmine and Freda.

ATV

This was one of my favourite activities. I was so wishing that I could go a lot faster with the ATV vehicle, but we had to be in one line. We drove up and did a mini hike up to the highest point of Boracay. Again, it was absolutely beautiful.

The ATV vehicles

The view from the top.

Left to right: Rosanne, Lucinda, Kay Kay, Tricia, Me, Serene, Jolene, Audrey.

Check out Serene’s hair that completed the ‘E’! Oh why was my ‘L’ lopsided. 😦

Helmet Diving

As I posted on Instagram, those who dive for real will probably find helmet diving really gay. But it was my first time so deep underwater – 5m, walking on the ocean bed and feeding fishes. So fun! You wear these huge helmets (that are super heavy) with tubes attached and you can breathe completely normal and not get your face and hair wet at all underwater.

The helmets

Us all underwater.

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Here’s a short video to give you a sense of what helmet diving is like.

Parasailing

Definitely my favourite activity. It was so surreal and calming to be up so high and again I say, the view was magnificent. Although Kay Kay and I did have a somewhat physics discussion of what would happen if the parasail ropes snapped and we tumbled into the sea and we were worried about how we were going to land at first because we had no clue and were slightly scared. We eventually found out that we landed really gracefully with the speedboat reeling our line in slowly till our feet touched the boat. Phew! Oh, and you have to do this at sunset! It’s makes the whole experience even more amazing with the view.

With Althea, Freda and Kay Kay on the speedboat.

And off we went!

Higher…

…and higher…

Food Recommendations:

It was superb traveling with Lady Iron Chef because he’ll have his readers recommend the must tries and would have done his homework before helping us decide where to eat.

Mesa

Located at Station 2, the menu had a wide selection of Filipino cuisine with a hint of Asian fusion. I’ll recommend the salted egg rice, seafood platter, and curry pork dish. The pork leg was supposedly recommended, but it failed to live up to its standards. Food was overall good and the ambience was nice.

Talipapa Market

Awaiting our food at Talipapa Market. No doubt a bunch of bloggers we are – we whip out our phones at every chance!

A shot with Melody whilst waiting for our food.

This place has an interesting concept where you have to buy your seafood from the various stalls at the market and then bring it to a separate restaurant to have them cook for you. Seafood is definitely very fresh, but you have to haggle prices.

Cyma Greek Taverna

Located at D’Mall, Station 2. The rib eye steak and crab pasta is a must-try. The steak is super juicy and tender, and the crab pasta is super yummy.

Before I end my post, you can stand a chance to win tickets to Boracay and experience all the wonderful things I did! Tiger Air is giving out $1 million worth of flights in their year-end draw. 100 lucky travellers will walk away with $10,000 worth of flight credits each and every booking you make gives you 1 chance in the draw! For more details: bit.ly/1milliondraw.

Till we meet again Boracay!

-xoxo-

bloggers, boracay, contest, giveaway, tigerair

One sleep away from Boracay

December 7, 2013October 21, 2017by xoxojeneenLeave a Comment

I’m fighting the sleep monster as I’m typing this post. It’s been a crazy work week with the rush for Christmas launches on Pink Flare and everything else rolled into one. I feel like I need to repay my sleep debt desperately (if there’s even such a thing) and I long to have just one day of doing absolutely nothing.

So, enough of whining. It looks like my wish is going to come true really really soon cos’ I’ll be off to Boracay tomorrow! Yipee! Thank you Tigerair and Gushcloud! Just googled for images of Boracay and these are my search results:

How beautiful is this place?! I’m jiggling with excitement already just thinking of the glorious sun, sand and beach…and all the adventures we’re going to have. We’re going to be traveling in a big group this time – all 28 of us bloggers and peeps from Gushcloud. Can’t wait to fly! 🙂

Before I go pack my luggage, here’s a heads up:

Tigerair is giving the year a grand finish with $1 million worth of flights in their year-end draw. There are $1 million (wow!) worth of flights to be won. 100 lucky travellers will walk away with $10,000 worth of flight credits each – how generous!

Every booking you make with Tigerair gives you 1 chance in the draw. Winners can start using their flight credit from 1 Jan 2014 and also share it with a travel partner. This campaign is on-going from now until 15 Dec.

Hurry go book your Tigerair flights and stand a chance to win!

For more information and details: tigerair.com/1milliondraw

…till I’m back,

xoxo!

hong kong entertainment, instagram contest, mioTV, singtel

mioTV cHK – your daily dose of everything Hong Kong

November 28, 2013October 21, 2017by xoxojeneenLeave a Comment

Here’s some awesome news for fans of Hong Kong entertainment. SingTel mioTV has just launched a brand new channel, cHK (Ch 510) just for you! cHK screens content direct from Hong Kong; dramas (in original Cantonese language), blockbuster movies, lifestyle programmes, latest gossip, e-news, the works. The channel even screens the more ‘provocative’ programmes that other traditional Hong Kong entertainment channels won’t show. Exciting much??

Here’s even more awesome news, cHK wants to send you to Hong Kong!

Here’s how:

1. Look out for cHK pins around Singapore, snap a picture of it and post it on your Instagram account.

2. Hashtag your photo with #cHKlocation (e.g. #cHKcomcentre) and leave your email address in the comment.

The more pins you post, the higher your chance of winning and going to Hong Kong. You can check your pin standing on the leaderboard.

For more details: http://www.miotv.com.sg/chkcontest
Contest period: 18 Nov – 15 Dec

Pin locations

SingTel shop Jurong Point

SingTel shop West Mall

SingTel shop Causeway Point

SingTel shop AMK Hub

SingTel shop Compass Point

SingTel shop Tampines Mall

Here’s the leaderboard (hey that’s me right on top!)

Here’s me with a virtual pin, for now.

This is how the actual pin looks.

Happy Pinning, everyone…and good luck!

xoxo

hair, hair rebonding, hair treatment, haircare, hello gorgeous hair, salon vim

The Salon Vim Experience

October 8, 2013October 21, 2017by xoxojeneenLeave a Comment

My opinion of what sets businesses apart and differentiates them from their competitors is the customer experience. A great customer experience to me, is when the business or service provider is genuinely interested in their craft, and show that they truly care about how you, as a customer on the receiving end feels. It’s not often that I experience great customer experience. Hence, I sing all praises for Salon Vim, the salon I visit for my monthly hair fix. My recent trip there left me feeling like I’ve been completely cared for and thoroughly pampered.

During my visit, I told my stylist, Jaime about my ‘natural curl’ woes and after discussion, she decided that re-bonding my hair was the way to go for it to be fuss-free and manageable daily. I was apprehensive at the start as I am no fan of the poker straight, flat iron look. She assured me that we’re not going for the ironed-out-look and that she’ll be re-bonding only parts of my hair and will be applying various techniques so that my hair will look natural and retain its bouncy shape. She then assessed my hair and told me that my hair was terribly dry. So, to prep the re-bonding process, she had to start with a treatment first with the cream below so that my hair strands will not split in the process. It was just the start of my long hair fixing process and already I was silently giving her major brownie points. She could have easily left my hair to fry and frizz!

During the entire re-bonding process, she patiently supervised the technicians working on my hair and pointed out to them parts that needed re-bonding. She was working by observing my natural curls and was fixing parts that needed to be fixed. Again, she could have easily re-bonded my entire head of hair without much thought. At one point of the re-bonding process, she was also telling the guys to spray water on parts of my hair that were ‘drying up’…how very conscientious!

See how many people were working on my hair?!

After the entire re-bonding process was done, I was super satisfied and was very happy to sit out till my next monthly appointment. Jaime however exclaimed that she was not satisfied with my hair and that she ‘couldn’t stand it’ looking like that – my coloured hair was growing out, my roots were a strong contrast of black and the light colour made my hair look dry, she said. She firmly told me to come back to the salon 2 days later for a re-colouring and treatment session. If you’re thinking in your head, ‘Of course they’ll want you to go back. They’re making your money!’ Well, you’re dead wrong. If you don’t know already, my monthly hair pampering sessions at Salon Vim are sponsored.

This is why I was so in awe. They really didn’t need to have me go back for more colouring and treatments. It was obvious that throughout my visit at Salon Vim, Jaime only had one goal in mind – to fix my hair, and for me to have healthy, glowing locks. And with that, I left Salon Vim feeling like I’ve had such a great customer experience.

My hair after the 2nd visit for colouring and treatment.

I was sent home with a keratin shampoo at my 1st visit, and this Redken hair mask on my 2nd. I was to replace my hair conditioner and use this mask daily to repair and replenish moisture in the strands.

With Jaime.

Me, with a very pampered and well looked after head of hair.

Author: xoxojeneen