Monthly Archives

March 2015

in Fitness

Fitness + Photos: Major Improvements Just After 12 EMS Training/Workout Sessions (20 mins each) Later!

Doesn’t time fly so fast? In just a few days’ time, we’ll be welcoming the 4th month of the year! Crazy, isn’t it? I’ve been checking up on my New Year’s Resolutions and so far, I’m doing quite well with keeping most of them –  some, I’m already fulfilling while other’s are already on the pipeline. 😉

The one thing I’m most definitely proud of is becoming dedicated when it comes to working out – regularly! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really a health buff. I never exercised and I ate anything I want when I wanted to. Discipline was not in my vocabulary. So when I told my friends that I was going to be doing Electric Muscular Stimulation (EMS) training regularly, a lot of them thought that this was going to be one of those times where I try something new and get tired of it after just a few sessions.

Boy, did I prove them wrong! 😉

‘Before’

You see, I was definitely committed this time. After noticing how weak I am compared to my peers and seeing minor signs of being skinny-fat, I knew I had to do something – fast and effective.

(READ: Fitness: 9 Things I Love About Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) Training at Impulse Studio in Bangsar)

After much researching over gyms in our area, fate practically brought me to the steps of Impulse Studio where I started working out regularly in late January. I was addicted to it by the time we finished our third session. I’ve already finished my 10th session and after seeing the results – not just in the mirror but in the numbers as well – there’s really no reason for me to stop now.

I’ve always gotten comments from people about why I would ever think of subjecting myself to a workout when I actually look like I don’t need it. If you look closely, I was merely skin, bones, and bad-fat. If I had a bit of muscle in me at that time, they wouldn’t have been too useful as they were all too weak. I also got tired and sick easily.

Of course my ‘situation’ got worse when we moved to KL. I was 25 years old with a metabolism that was slowing down. But that didn’t stop me from eating Nasi Lemak left and right. I started gaining weight. Not in an overly dramatic sense but I was starting to feel like my arms are bigger and I was noticing fat rolls on my sides.

I was in utter disbelief at first! That can’t be, right? I’ve always been skinny! I was also feeling sluggish all the time and would suffer from shortness of breath just for carrying two grocery bags for a couple of minutes.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Makeup

Beauty + Review: Happy Skin Cosmetics’ Shut Up and Kiss Me Moisturising Lippie in Honeymoon Glow

Happy Skin, Cosmetics, Happy Skin Cosmetics, Honeymoon Glow, Lipstick, Moisturising Lippie, Pink, My Lips But Better, Makeup, Good For The Skin,

That title’s quite a mouthful isn’t it? So here’s the review (finally!) of my current go to lippie that everyone has been asking me about!

It’s the Shut Up and Kiss Me Moisturising Lippie in the shade Honeymoon Glow from Happy Skin Cosmetics and I’ve been getting so much love for it that I’ve been wearing it almost everyday. And that’s quite a feat because I do tend to switch up my lip colour all the time to give my lipstick babies equal love and attention.

Happy Skin has been available in Manila for quite some time now so I’m actually late to the party. And, man. Was I missing out.

I got my lippie during my trip to Manila a few weeks back. I wanted to try out a new lippie and since people keep raving out this brand, I thought that I should give it a try and see if it will impress me.

Oh, it did.

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It’s such a friendly colour that it goes with almost any outfit and it’s also my new ‘my lips but better’ shade. It’s a bit darker than Nouvelle Vogue in person but it actually looks more natural.

Happy Skin’s lippies are loaded with Shea butter and collagen, making sure your lips are hydrated throughout the day. And while it’s got the moisturising properties of a balm, it’s also packing up some serious colour. I wasn’t disappointed the first time I swiped it on to my lips – it glided smoothly and left an opaque, evened-out hue.

It’s also got a bit of shine to it so there’s no need for a gloss. But don’t worry, the shine is of slightest tinge, making your lips look dewy and healthy – not greasy. 😉

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I normally don’t wear lipsticks without putting some lip balm on first but with the Shut Up and Kiss Me lippies, I don’t have to worry about some tugging during application or whether my lips will dry up and start to chap throughout the day.

Oh, and the best part about Happy Skin is that it’s a Filipino brand! Yes, Filipino! I admit that I was a bit confused with the ‘Made in Taiwan’ label on the lippie’s box but looking through the Happy Skin website, I’ve confirmed that it is the brainchild of two Filipina women – former brand developer for Unilever’s personal care products Jacqe Yuengtian-Gutierrez and model/beauty columnist Rissa Mananquil-Trillo.

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These two ladies wanted cosmetics that are generally good (rather than damaging) to the skin and from that necessity, Happy Skin was brought to life. They’ve got a whole range of cosmetics – from BB creams to eyeliners, eyeshadows, and blush compacts. But from what I hear from my friends in Manila, the Shut Up and Kiss Me lippies are the ones making huge waves. 😉

And isn’t the packaging just too cute? I’m such a sucker for cute packaging.

Anyhoo, here are the photos of me wearing under various lighting situations:

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Indoor lighting (warm +cool mix). Say hi to Sophie the bear on the background! 😉

Happy Skin, Cosmetics, Happy Skin Cosmetics, Honeymoon Glow, Lipstick, Moisturising Lippie, Pink, My Lips But Better, Makeup, Good For The Skin,

Natural light (bright sunlight)

Happy Skin, Cosmetics, Happy Skin Cosmetics, Honeymoon Glow, Lipstick, Moisturising Lippie, Pink, My Lips But Better, Makeup, Good For The Skin,

Natural light (bright sunlight)

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in Diplomatic Incidents, Personal Musings

Personal: The #DearMe Tag

180126_497321788647_5962682_n_Fotor_Collage

Been seeing the #DearMe videos all over YouTube done by my favourite vloggers and I just think that it’s such a great idea/initiative for women’s day/month! I know I’m kind of late to the party and this would have been executed better through a video blog but my video editing skills are not good enough. 😛

1. Always be kind

Even though people around you aren’t. There are times when your patience will be tested and your faith in humanity will be blown into smithereens but don’t let yourself be jaded. It will take years before you can change that way of thinking.

2. You don’t have to conform

When I was a kid, I would often be teased because I was the ‘different’ one. I was extremely thin and white (to the point of being pale), I had curly hair (straight hair was in), I preferred to read by myself during recess rather than play, and come high school, I still preferred to read instead of experiment with makeup during class and flirt with boys. Yes, your eyesight will be very bad by the time you’re a junior in college. You will feel bad when other kids would tease you. But! Eventually love wearing glasses and contacts. And those big eyes, curly hair, and white skin will eventually land you part time modelling jobs as early as high school and you will earn extra money from it. All your reading will end up giving you a wild imagination and that will make sure you are never bored – ever.

3. It gets better

Related to number 2 – don’t worry. Your awkward phase will end. Some of those mean kids who teased you when you were in primary school will actually tell you you’ve got pretty eyes and hair by the time you get to college and it would be a gratifying moment when you tell them that you’re not interested. 😉 You will question yourself why you were ever insecure about those body parts ever. You will have the time to experiment with makeup the summer before college and you will thank yourself later on that you preserved your skin for as long as you can from the harsh chemicals makeup has (except for those few times you enjoyed trying it on for school programmes). That summer before college will also be about change. You will be more sociable and you will actually start to like having friends and going out. So, primary school Carol. Don’t ask yourself why your interests are so different from the cool kids. Don’t even try to conform. There will come a time for everything and later on, being the school nerd will be cool. Other kids will start worshipping Harry Potter and Star Wars and you will wonder why they do that now when everyone thought it was uncool to read those thick books and talk about light sabres when you were 8 years old.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Skincare

Events: #PimpMyChuLip at Kare Cafe

Chu Lip, Lip Balm, LipBalm, ChuLip, Japanese, Brand, Event, Contest, Pimp My Chu Lip, #PimpMyChuLip, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Kare Cafe, 1 Utama

When it comes to taking care of my lips, I often go all out. After all, I’m pretty prone to windburns and chapped lips every time we travel to cold areas. I’m the type who exfoliates lips twice a week and will never be caught dead without lip balm in her purse. Gotta take care of the puckers lest I won’t have any use for my ever-growing lipstick collection. 😉

I love lip balms as much as I love lipsticks. In fact, I never apply lipstick on my lips without applying lip balm first – especially with matte formula lip colours. Choosing the right lip balm is definitely a must for me and a brand (originally from Japan) that was recently launched here in KL called Chu Lip is seriously making its way to my list of favourites.

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in Expat Life, Manila

Authentic Filipino Crafts, Souvenirs, and Fashion at The Manila Collectible Co.

The Manila Collectible Co., TMCC, Philippines, Filipino, Souvenirs, Art, Craft, Clothes, Tribal, T’nalak, Abel Iloco, Traditional Filipino Clothes, Manila, Ifugao, Filipino Tribes, Collectibles

My husband and I are crazy about “Filipinizing” our home. While at post, diplomats are expected to entertain – to have guests of different nationalities (other diplomats, businessmen, etc.) over for socialising – which usually means talking shop over food and drinks. 😉 Those opportunities are a great way to showcase our culture and what we have back home.

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So during my last trip to Manila, I bought some traditional Filipino accessories and clothes that I can wear to different events. It is often hard to convince people at diplomatic events that I’m actually Filipino because of how I look. My husband’s looks don’t really help either as people often think he’s Chinese/Japanese/Korean.

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in Diplomatic Incidents

Random Thoughts and Happenings 1

I decided to put together small stories/thoughts worth taking note of and just putting them into one blog post. Something short and sweet to update you with some of the not-so-big yet still fun-to-talk about bits of our daily expat/diplomatic/normal life here in KL. 🙂

Winning the hubby lottery

Okay, I said this on Twitter earlier but I’ll just type it here once more for posterity’s sake. My husband is a very practical guy. But I love how when it comes to me and our marriage, he can totally morph into a cheeseball every now and then. A couple of nights ago, I asked him what’s the next ‘occasion’ this year so we can plan maybe a quick getaway or a special date. (He’s been so stressed with work lately as there are so many things happening in KL right now – ASEAN Summit, meetings, visits, etc) “May 3”, he said. I just gave him a generic reply. Like “Ok” or something. But to be honest, I was really giddy and a bit over the moon. May 3 is our first date and I just find it so sweet that he would still want it celebrated when we’ve already been married for over a year and we have our actual wedding anniversary in October. He didn’t promise a major celebration but to me, him saying that our first date is still that important to him makes a world of difference. Romance doesn’t die with marriage, people. Believe me on this. 😉

Painting woes

Yesterday, our building’s painters finally reached our side. You see, our building is going through a facade makeover. The painters left a good amount of dirt on our balcony which left me rather miffed since yesterday. They’re still coming back tomorrow to do 2 more coats on our balcony’s walls so it would be rather useless to clean it now, right? But the dirt was just there and it was bugging me. So I got our floor cleaning brush with this really long handle and started pouring water on the balcony and brushing. My husband came home from work and found me struggling. In the end, he had to help me out. I’ll have to admit – when it comes to cleaning, my husband is better and more patient than I am. I’ll stick with cooking and the laundry, shall I?

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in Beauty & Fashion

Beauty + Review: MAC x Toledo Collection Sin Lipstick

MAC, MAC Cosmetics, Sin, Lipstick, Ruben Toledo, Isabel Toledo, Toledo, Toledo Collection, Dark, Bold, Red

As I recently posted on Instagram, I was actually looking forward to getting a lipstick from the Cinderella Collection but was rather turned off about how the colours washed me out. I guess I’m just too pale for them and I need my lipsticks to have a bit of opacity and not just shimmer all over.

It was a good thing that MAC Cosmetics’ Toledo Collection was also out and so I had another collection to turn to for this season (the Bao Bao Wan collection is also out, by the way but I wasn’t in the mood for colours that were that bright).

The Toledo collection is inspired by Isabel and Ruben Toledo – arguably one of the most prolific couples in the art world and in fashion too. Their creations are known to be… err.. what’s the term? I don’t think there’s actually one word to describe their works but let’s go with eccentric-chic. Bold colours, vintage cuts with a modern twist for clothes, exaggerated lines for illustrated faces. It’s quirky yet with such an air of sophistication that only this couple can pull off.

So it’s no wonder that when MAC announced that they will have a collection inspired by this couple, bold reds and a parade of colours suddenly appeared in my brain. And I was right. The collection does not disappoint with the variety of colours available – especially for the eyeshadows. But of course, I was there for lipsticks that day. 😉

I was leaning towards getting Oxblood – a peachy-nude colour. I don’t really have enough nudes in my collection and I have a tonne of reds. But then I realised that I miss Sin – a shade that I used to wear back in college when I was totally into anything gothic.

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I ended up getting that one as I found the other reds to similar to ones that I already own. Sin is a permanent colour so yes, I was basically buying this for packaging – which is gorgeous by the way. On the brighter side of things, I won’t get my heart broken once I finish a limited edition lipstick and MAC is no longer re-releasing it. Hello, Maleficent Collection’s True Love’s Kiss. (I know what limited editions do to me but I still buy certain colours. Call it a bad romance of sorts.)

Sin is quite popular when it comes to being included in certain collections. Aside from the Toledo collection, it was also recently included in MAC’s Rocky Horror Picture Show Collection launched last year.

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in Diplomatic Incidents, Personal Musings

On International Women’s Day

“In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth, women are not merely tolerated but valued” – Aung San Suu Kyi

I am lucky to come from a country where women are respected, celebrated, and valued. I am lucky that I am married to a man who sees how different I am from him and from what the society dictates me to be. I am opinionated, stubborn, and I put so much value into my independence and instead of those qualities making him feel threatened, they only make him love me more.

Not all women are as lucky. We must all push for gender equality and break the chains of stereotyping and the norm. We all have a right as to who we want to be, whatever gender was assigned to us at birth.

No more slut and body shaming (Curves are all the rage by feminists nowadays but that doesn’t give anyone the right to body shame skinny people who don’t have eating disorders – just fast metabolism. Having less curves doesn’t make you less of a woman!) . No more telling us what to do and how a woman should be like so. Not all of us are meek and not all of us will let men take the lead 24/7. Equality. That’s what we want. Men who are secure of themselves will not be afraid to give us that.

Happy international women’s day, ladies!

in Asia, Malaysia, Penang, Travel

Travel: Sun Yat Sen Museum (Penang)

Sun Yat Sen, Museum, Penang, Georgetown, Armenian Street, Travel, Asia, Malaysia, Things To Do, Places to Visit

A long overdue post that I should have written months ago. But alas, my crazy schedule got the best of me. And since I still intend to post about my solo walking tour of Penang while my husband was at a conference there, please bear with me on this little throwback. 😉

Sun Yat Sen is a name almost all of us have heard before. Usually from the history classes we had during primary school. A medical practitioner turned frequently exiled revolutionary then finally became the Founding Father of the Republic of China. He lived from 1866 to 1925 and was a key figure in overthrowing the last of China’s monarchs from the Qing dynasty particularly during the Xinhai revolution in 1911. This guy led a very interesting life and is actually one of my favourite Asian History characters.

But I won’t bore you by waxing poetic about his adventures. I just want to share with you this place I chanced upon in one of Penang’s most famous streets –  Lebuh Armenian – which is not only filled with quirky shops, temples, and cafes but is actually the location of a house that opened its doors for Sun Yat Sen and his party (Tongmenghui).

In the early 1900s, Sun Yat Sen travelled all over the world, gathering support for his revolution in China and he got it, obviously. One of his stops was Penang where a lot of Chinese people resided. After his first visit in 1905, he saw that it was a great place to promote his ideology and he then came back every year to invite more and more people into supporting his cause.

A house in Penang, which was the place where Sun Yat Sen launched the Kwong Wah Jit Poh newspaper and made one of his famous speeches that got him loads of financial support for his revolution, is now open to the public as a museum.

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in Expat Life, Manila

Food: Tapella in Greenbelt 5 (Makati, Philippines)

Tapella, Restaurant, Restobar, Makati, Philippines, Greenbelt, Food, Makati Restaurants, Where To Eat

In case you were following my Instagram feed you would know by now that I was just in Manila. That explains the lack of posts the past few days. I made a quick trip home to buy some of the things we need – such as national wear/clothes (I seriously despise having to call them ‘costumes’. They’re our heritage!) We have our national day celebration coming up this June and most of Alvin’s formal and office barongs as well as my Filipiniana pieces that we brought with us last year have already been used a couple of times for different events. When people said that KL is a busy post with so many events, I didn’t expect it to be THAT many. So yes, one of us had to go home for reinforcements.

Tapella, Restaurant, Restobar, Makati, Philippines, Greenbelt, Food, Makati Restaurants, Where To Eat

While I was in Manila running around like a headless chicken and making sure I get everything done in 11 days, I made sure to allot some time to meet up with friends – both old and new. I really missed them for the past 9 months (OMG we’ve been in Malaysia for 9 months?! Feels like only yesterday when were packing our bags for posting!) that we’ve been in KL! 🙁 So despite my crazy schedule and constant battle with crazy Manila traffic (due to roads being built for APEC), I made time to meet with them. I wasn’t able to see all of them but I did what I can do with so little time!

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