Shopping for Christmas Presents!

Its that time of the year where you are busy writing down a huge Santa list to figure out who gets what. I normally start writing my list in the middle of Oct. I know, its early but hey, by the time I finish writing the list, it will be 2 weeks into November. You see, writing the list who I need to get Christmas Pressies are more of a challenge then getting a present for them. I have to make sure that I have got all, from family to friends and some extras, just in case I am invited to more then 1 Christmas Party and I need to bring present that is " not more than $10"....

Christmas Presents...Here are some tips that I have learnt from my past mistakes. Firstly, don't get T-shirts or Clothes unless its your best friend and you know his or her size exactly. Otherwise, why waste time sourcing a nice dress or tops only to see your friends get them exchanged cos they did not like the colour or they just couldn't fit or found your taste in fashion quiet unacceptable/comfortable. So stay away from clothing.

Secondly, avoid fragrances, unless you are 110% sure that that is what the person whom you are getting it for wanted. But again, its best to leave fragrances out of the Christmas Present List. Its simple, the smell that you most adore may not be someone else's favourite. Also, avoid those body bath, shampoo and all in one toiletries baskets. I remember a friend of mine got me this expensive toiletries basket from Paddington London. But she got them in Lavender & I don't like Lavender smell. Some how it sets off my migraine. I would have appreciated and used it with a grin of it was in Rose or Lily but not lavender. So I had to give it away as a Birthday present to another friend ( who does not have any association with the friend who gave it to me!), for sure I know she will love it cos she loves Lavender.

Finally, avoid giving the obvious, such as things that they like a lot. Obviously, they would already have it and probably someone else might be having the same thoughts of buying it for them. Unless its a designer collection, only 10 pieces in the world or something that you designed and had it made in what ever or which ever way that will be enjoyed by the person.

So what can you give? I learned that, being neutral and simple is the best, especially for friends. The harder I try and get them the blings or something fancy, they always exchange them for something they actually like. So I started investing in Gift Cards. Not only they are simple and they come in heaps of varieties, there is something for everyone. It also allows the person to go for after Christmas shopping and spoil themselves buying what they really wanted. There are ranges of Gift Cards for Spas, Mani & Pedi, Toys, Travel Vouchers, books, IT stuff, shoes, fashion, jewellery, dine & wine and many more. You can get spoilt for choices. Also, they come in affordable prices, as low as $20 - as high as $1000 or more. So basically the choice is yours. You can even buy them online and have them email the link to friends email ID. this is good especially if these Gift Cards/Vouchers can be used internationally. Thus, having to send Christmas Gifts to family & friends who are overseas can be a breeze.

I have a bunch of close girlfriends whom I see every year for Christmas. Since I was living in Sydney the past 6 years, the only time I was back home was for Christmas. So I always make it a point to meet up with my girlfriends and we dine & enjoy chatting. always we end up opening presents and squealing like little girls. As I am always busy having to buy last minute souvenirs for home and family friends, I hardly can buy gifts and fit them in my luggage, considering I am only allowed a maximum of 20kg luggage allowance. Thus, this gives me very little time to do any shopping back home as well. So, I became a Online Shopping Addict. Online shopping has pretty good ideas that can be bought and delivered to the address you wish. Also, it allows you to work within your budget.

Here are some products that I am considering purchasing online this year:

Handy cosmetic mirror with LED lights.

It is cheap and it is something that every gal wants to keep in her handbag to make sure she looks good all time all day long. You can get them from eBay, selective UK stores and at Alibaba. The good thing about this is, it comes in various colours, shapes, designs and even rhinestone crystal encrusted for that Diva look. It is prices between $15 - a lavish $45. 

The House of Fraser sells it for £ 22.00 that comes in animal prints as well. Check their website:

http://www.houseoffraser.co.uk/Model+Mirror+As+Good+as+Gold+Model+Miror/151893156,default,pd.html

This is a neutral gift that can't go wrong.

The other gift that I am going to shop online is Jewellery Stand. I know my sister in laws, Aunts, even some of my girl friends have heaps of fashion jewellery that are cluttered in their jewellery boxes. I, myself often have to spend like 10 mins to rattle through my jewellery boxes to get the matching earrings and such. So this can be  a perfect neutral gift that can be a good ornament and user friendly as well.

There are so many different styles that you can choose from. Again, you can get them from eBay Australia, Amazon and many other online stores. 

adventurous type, why not get them a Contigo Sports Bottle w/ Key & Money Compartment (http://www.latestbuy.com.au/contigo-sports-bottle.html). It is selling for $30 (not inclusive of shipment). It is a drink bottle that acts as a key/money holder. Great for guys who loves to go to the Gym or rock climbing or trekking. 

For a guy who is neat freak or an organised person or who often forgets their stuff, why not get them this cute Doororganiser. All they have to do is drop in their phone, keys, car keys, pen, wallet and anything else they need to bring along to their work and hang it on their bedroom door knob. So before he dashes out, all he has  to do is, get all that stuff out and put it into his brief case or his pockets.

 Whats' more, they are not that big, so he can actually have it work as his in bag organiser as well. So he just takes them out of the door knob and puts it into his bag. It is priced at $27 ( shipment price not included).

So you see, for a guy, think of his personality and you can choose a good Christmas present for him.

Well, I am still sourcing out websites for more better & interesting ideas. And if I do come across any, I will post it in this blog.

As for the websites, please be aware that they are not dodgy, go for the ones that are specialised in online shopping or the ones that recommended by others or even the well known online stores like Harrods or David Jones and so on.. Always read the reviews of the products as it will give you rough idea of the seller, the shipment, the product and so on. I always trust eBay as it is globally recognised and it rates its seller. I always check their 1 year status and reviews before I decide on buying from them. Also, I always look out for the Return Policies. read the fine lines too.

So happy shopping online and have grand fun making others smile for this Christmas.

Mahesh

Make up and everything colourful =)

Hi all....

Hope October had been an awesome month. I can't believe that 2012 is just 2 months away! OMG! Where did the 10 months gone! Gasp!!! Well, at least for me, it had been a good year back in Singapore and been with the family. Hope it has been good for you in some ways.

Well today I thought I will write about make ups, colours, brushes and some beauty tips that has worked for me. For a starter, I don't wear make up everyday. It just clogs up my face and makes it drier. My daily regime for my skin is a good mild daily facial scrub. I like Ginvera marvel gel with green tea ( seen in the picture below.)




Ginvera Marvel Gel with green tea . It can be purchased from Guardian or Watson's Pharmacy in Singapore and pretty much available all over Singapore & Malaysia. I have heard that even London has this product in its chemist. What I like about this product is that, it is a mild facial gel scrub (no beads). Just gently rub it on a wet face in a circular motion and you will instantly see it remove the dead skin, which is whitish small rolled up thread like. You can feel your skin freshen up instantly. Research has shown that Green Tea has more powerful antioxidants properties than vitamins A, C and E. What it means is that this ingredient is great for anti-bacterial, astringent and anti-ageing as well as UV protection qualities. I totally love this product. I use it on alternate days and my skin never dries out.

After the gentle scrub I always apply moisturiser. It is important that you apply moisturiser to retain the suppleness and hydrate the skin. Although there are several available in the beauty world I have found one that works for me very well. My take on moisturiser is don't go for the branded ones or recommended ones. Use the one that best works for you. It may take awhile for you to select a particular moisturiser but it is worth it. I remember my mother giving me an Olay facial moisturiser for me to try when I was a teenage girl. It was super oily on my face and yet, since my mom gave it to me, I stayed on with it thinking that is the best available, only till I started to break up and needed an instant change. I have gone through many sample bottles of every kind of moisturisers available in the pharmacies. But finally I have settled for the Bio-essence Bird's Nest Nutri Collagen & Whitening Moisturiser (See Picture below).




 Just one pump of this moisturiser covers my face and neck. I love this. It is not oily and last long. As for any other benefits mentioned, like diminishing wrinkles and whitening the skin, well, I can't say it does diminish the wrinkles but I guess the suppleness of the facial skin and boosting of the collagen helps to slightly smoother wrinkles. As for whitening, nah...no products with whitening on it will make people whiter. Is it does, I guess 3/4 of the population in the world will be walking "whites"...LOL... But as for moisturising effect, this does a good job. I use this twice a day, once in the morning & night. I have T-zone oily face, so my cheeks are drier but this helps to even out my T-zone.

Apart from the above "musts" I also use Neutrogena Lip Balm to help smooth my often cracked lips. I never had cracked lips before I went to Australia. The winter there made my lips dry & cracked, which sometimes bleed. Since then I started using Neutrogena Lip Balm (Picture below) and it has helped. So since, I dab this on on my lips when ever I feel that my lips are getting drier.




 When I do go out, I do apply my mineral powder, mascara, maybe eyeliner and some lip gloss. I had tried this mineral powder sample sizes (free) from Everyday Minerals. It is a website that actually allows you to choose a set of 5 mineral make up, whether it is blusher, eye shadow or face powder. So I gave it a try and got myself a set of 5. Applied it and loved it. It came in a small 1g jars (See picture) that had a "Try Me" on it.




 To my surprise, It was wonderful. I have tried BYS Mineral face powder but some how this is the best. Just glides on smoothly and covers well, even without a corrector or concealer. Which I think is good, as my face can get a bit too sensitive if a dab on too many products on my face. Thus this Everyday Mineral face powder was great. I love it and the best part was, I can actually try a few shades to see which suits my skin tone best without having to spend on buying a few jars and mixing them up or having to buy lighter or darker shades to realise that they are not the right ones. With the sample sizes of the different shades, I was able to decide on the best two and now I am ready to order my full sized bottle. Furthermore, Everyday Minerals ships them fast and they do not force customers to buy extras that you may not need. Go and check out their website at http://www.everydayminerals.com/store/color/new-colors/glow-kit.html and go crazy....

Mascara is always more then enough to transform a dull make up into a glamorous one without much fuss on adding on the eye shadows and so on. So, when ever I am heading for grocery shopping or to the library or for simple afternoon coffee catch ups, I just add a dash of my mascara and my eye lit up instantly. I always have Maybelline's Great Lash. It is truly great. It gives depth and volume to the lashes. When applied, it is more then enough. There is no need for eye liner as the lashes are well defined and opens up the eye. Adding a eye liner only makes the out look more Gothic, unless that is what you wish to achieve.





It is simple and easy to use, no clog ups or mess ups. Very black and gives an instant lift up for any dull looking eyes. The other mascara that I use is Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara.






Well, I tried this by accident. When I was at the Sydney International Airport Departure DFS shopping, I was informed by the salesgirl that I had two options of Elizabeth Arden's Mascara or Lip Gloss to buy at $10! I was like, wow! $10. Sure, why not. So I ended buying both the items and I don't regret the buy. I love both of them. The Mascara is not thick and it is smooth. Defines the lashes and separates them to give a fuller definition to the lashes. It has a demure elegance when tried on.

As for the lip gloss, Elizabeth Arden High Shine Lip Gloss, I choose, Berrylico. It glides smoothly and does not give a heavy glossed up look.




There are many shades to it. It is not that expensive either, given that Revlon & Maybelline do sell their lip gloss for almost the same amount. So give it a try.

 The next item on my list is Body Shop's eyeliner.





I have been using this for the past 5 years and I am still very loyal to it. I always choose black, as that gives the right kind of definition to my eye. It is simple to use, the tip acts like a felt tip pen, so it is easy to glide on and dries moderately fast as well, so there is room for you to quickly dab out any unsightly mistakes with a Q tip. Although I want to try a gel eye liner, I would like to have some suggestions of any that you think is best and does not smudge.

 Apart from the above, I do at times love to give my face some colour. So I always end up using eye shadows from Lakme. It has a range of rich earthy tones, dramatic beautiful deep colour sets and soft palette as well.






The above palette is the Peacock coloured palette. I have the Dessert Rose (seen below).





I always use my finger tips to apply my eye shadow, which allows me to blend as much ( meaning darker/richer colour of the shade) or less (meaning, a lighter colour of the shade). It is definitely smoother and the quarto eye shadow palette gives a nice blend of all the shades together for the eyes without having to look as if you had dabbed on many shades onto one eye lid.....

So, there you go. My simple make up or facial regiment that I normally use.

 My advise is do not ever skip on moisturisers, even when you are at home. it prevents wrinkles and allows face to retain some form of hydration. Always chose a make up, brushes or products that you are comfortable with, not some one else cos, everyone is unique and thus, not all products works the same way for every individual. You have to definitely give a try to a few or many before deciding what is best for you. always go for samples. You can ask at the counters or even try getting samples from websites, blogs or articles that you read from magazines. they always have samples to spare and what more, you do not lose out.

Don't always go for the famous brands, although they do spend a lot of money on R&D to develop the best products, but there are a few out there which are featured in magazines and newspapers articles who use natural ingredients as a base ingredients for their products. These few have had their own share of problems with the common market brand goods and thus have spent R&D on how to eliminate theses problems and develop a saver product.

Last but not least, you do not have to stick with the same branded face care and facial products for yourself. you can mix & match the products individually that suits you best. For example, I use Ginvera, bio-essence, Neutrogena, Tea Tree Oil, Body Shop, Lakme and so on cos I found that selective individual products from these products works well for my skin and overall facial adaptation. So go for it and mix & match but be careful. Do it slowly, one item at a time. But beware, that, if you do have a very hyper sensitive skin, always consult a doctor and sample try on your arms before applying to your face.

 So that's all from me...take care..


Huggies,
Mahesh

Nail Art

Hello peeps...How have you been? Hope the new week has been treating you well...


Today I want to share with you everything (almost) on Nail Art. I was amazes when recently a friend of mine sent me a video of Nail Art. It is no longer a simple painted flowers or stickies that you just paste on your freshly coated nails!!!! It is way more than that and it is beautiful. Great minds have come up with using Nail as a canvas to express themselves. It can be in Bold colours like this

Or it can be elaborate such as this 

It even gets very complicated and artistic....

It is all up to your imagination and creation...!!!!


I am totally amazed at the artistic talent that are displayed by these individuals and after a further research, Nail Art is being considered as a Elective Subject as part of a Degree Course!!!!


Definitely it is not easy. It needs patience, good sense of colour combinations, quick and clean strokes, elegant and delicate use of Nail Art tools and a good creative imagination as well. There is a definite trend currently that is booming well in Korea and Japan. Youtube has many video clips of individuals who show of simple to complicated design. There are many books in teaching you simple steps on "How to" and giving tips as well.


I tried my hand at it. Well, not a natural artistic person, I realised, I will start of on a simple pattern. For a starter, my nails are not too long as seen in these pictures. There are many ways to lengthening your original nails. Several techniques have been developed (apart from having to grow one's nail) such as ,  Acrylic System which adds PH Bond to apply artificial nails to your own and look like natural nails. This definitely gives you a instant length to your current nails and they look nice too. But there had been several stories suggesting that the bonding glue can harm your own nails if the technique has not been applied well. It also depends on the types of glue and chemicals used by the Nail salons that can further damage your nails causing irreversible damaged nails which will never look the same again. I, for one, would not like to add these to lengthen my nails and so I took a couple of weeks to grow out my nails. I used the basic steps of buffering and filing to prep the nails for the final step.


Since this was a trial, I managed to scavenge cheap nail polish (although they turned out really good and nice) that were sole for Buy 2 and get 1 free for $5 at Sasa Singapore outlet at Nex Shopping Centre. But As I did not want my nails to turn yellowish as some nail polish does that to your nails, I decided to splurge on a good Top & Base Coat applicator. So I bought the Sally Hansen's Top & Base Coat applicator which cost me a whopping $21for 13ml bottle.


My attempt was not so bad for a first timer. I will upload pictures soon. I had  realised that for one to get lovely designs on their nails, they should have a steady hand, not shaky like mine. My flowers at times looked very nicely painted but most of my nails had this smudged flower looks. But I loved my teal coloured background on my nail. Being a medium chocolate honey skinned, teal was not so bad. I normally stick to the safe colours like dark red, maroon and pinkish tones. But this teal looked fresh and brightened up my hands.


Overall, this was a great experiment. I was less stressed and kind of enjoyed the whole artistic feel to it. But whether I will do it often?...ummm...Nah. I rather be pampered at the nail salon while I just relax. This takes a lot of patience and definitely a good drawing skill as well. But I may make my nails unique for special parties like Halloween, Dinner & Dance, special company functions and birthdays. Cos Salon provides limited varieties and they really don't care if you brought them a drawing for them to paint on your nails. So, Yup I will do this nail art for special occasions.


For those who are interested in YouTube videos, have a look at this by cutepolish - http://www.youtube.com/user/cutepolish. She has simple and beautiful designs that anyone can follow. She also shows a wonderful Nail art technique called water marbling. It is really cool.  Her latest angry bird is something I want to try next...


Enjoy unleashing your creativity and artistic side =)

Mahesh