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October 2015

in Uncategorized

Travel: Paris Day 1 – Musée de l’Armée + Les Invalides + Napoleon Bonaparte Tomb + Eiffel Tower

Back to travel posts! Right after we arrived in Paris, my husband and I freshened up and went straight to exploring for a bit. The first stop was Musée d’Orsay.

And since it’s summer in Paris and it was about two in the afternoon, we found the longest line known to mankind.

Of course, my spirits weren’t dampened. We each have a Paris Pass! Surely, there’s a special line. Yes, there is! But it’s also equally long. *insert disappointed face emoji here 😒*

For those who haven’t heard of the Paris Pass, it’s your ticket to a lot of the attractions in Paris and includes a lot of perks and freebies too. Oh, you can also opt to get a train ticket with them that will give you unlimited Metro rides for the duration of your stay.

Some would say it’s kinda gimmicky but you actually save money and time by using it if you plan to go to a lot of museums and attractions. Since it’s the husband’s first time in Paris, we had a pretty tight itinerary so we could go to a lot of the ‘must-sees’.

Sadly, we had to skip Musée d’Orsay for this trip due to the crazy line. I really wanted to go show him my favourite Renoir which can be found in this museum. 🙁 Weird enough, we didn’t have the same problem with the Louvre. But I’ll talk about this on a different post.

We then moved on to Musée de l’Armée which is something we’re really excited about.

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France’s National Military Museum is located inside Les Invalides. A compound in the 7th Arrondissement that houses a couple of beautiful buildings that relate to the country’s rich military history. Aside from Musée de l’Armée, you can also find a couple of war monuments, a hospital and retirement home for war veterans, and even a former Church that houses Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb. We’ll get to that in a bit. 😉

 

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in Beauty & Fashion

Beauty + Review: IOPE Air Cushion XP (Cover)

So I’m back with another review and this time, we’ll be talking about the IOPE Air Cushion XP which is one of the most popular brands in the market today – both in Korea and in other countries.

IOPE has 3 kinds of this cushion – sheer, natural, and cover. So as the names suggest, sheer provides very minimal coverage and works well in just brightening your skin, natural gives you light coverage, and cover gives pretty good coverage while maintaining the fresh and dewy finish this cushion is famous for.

I got the Air Cushion XP Cover in the shade C23 from Althea Korea. When ordering, do consider that IOPE’s shades are really light so be careful in choosing the shade for your skin tone.

At RM115 (Regular Price: RM199), the Air Cushion has 15g of product and comes with a refill that also contains 15g. So technically, you are getting a beauty product that will last you twice as long than your normal foundation or BB cream.

The compact is similar to the size of the Laneige BB Cushion Pore Control. Looking at the top surface, this compact is pretty standard in size but like the Laneige cushion, the IOPE Air Cushion XP is a bit on the thicker side so it has the tendency to take more space in your makeup bag.

Like most cushions, it comes in with an awesome sponge that applies and blends the product really well just by patting it on to the skin. No swiping as it won’t deposit the foundation properly on your skin.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Skincare

Smart Buys: Support Breast Cancer Awareness while getting Velvety-Smooth Feet with Scholl

Just a quickie post to let you lovelies know about something awesome!

I’m all for a good cause and with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, painting the town pink is something we should all be up for.

I’m sure every one’s familiar with Scholl‘s nifty contraption – the Velvet Smooth Express Pedi. Almost everyone and their mothers are talking about how it gives you smooth and baby-soft feet! 😉 But for those who need a refresher, do allow me to give you a short run through of what this device is all about along with a bit of comments here and there that will serve as my mini review. 😉

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in Beauty & Fashion, OOTD

Fashion: Trium Card Celebrates 1st Anniversary + Nichii’s New Collection

Kuala Lumpur is definitely a shopping a city. I remember telling my husband a few months ago how it’s always a problem for me to close my wallet due to all the shopping and membership cards I acquired since moving here last year. Almost every brand or store has a membership card, all promising rewards. The more you shop, the more you get out of it.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? You actually get more value for your money in the end. 😉

One of these membership privilege providers is the Trium Card which handles three of the most popular and affordable retail brands I’ve seen in KL (They have stores every-effing-where!)  – Nichii, Kitschen, and Dressing Paula. The Trium Card loyalty programme was actually launched last year and what I like about it is that – it’s not really a card so it doesn’t physically take up space in my wallet.

****Photo****

What I Wore: Star Wars Long Sleeved shirt from Uniqlo, Black pencil skirt from Zara, Lace-up flats from H&M, Black leather handbag from Manfield.

No, really. It’s a digital version of a shopping privilege/membership card that you can access through your smartphone. Every time you shop at Nichii, Kitschen, and Dressing Paula, you get a point for every ringgit you spend. Once you accumulate 500 points, you get a 50 ringgit voucher for your next shopping trip.

I must admit that sometimes, I forget that I am a member of one store as there’s just so many cards to remember! Having just one card to cover these three fashion brands, makes transactions easier. Plus, I can use the points I accumulated in my Trium Cars to either one of these three brands.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Hair, Video

Beauty + Video: Care and Styling for Naturally Curly Hair

I get asked about my hair a lot. So I figured I’ll just put everything in one video. Are the curls real? How do I style it? Did I ever consider straightening it?

Spoiler alert: I actually did. Once. And I’ll never do it again because I’ve grown to love my hair so much despite all the pressure shampoo commercials in Asia put on people like me! Haha! Also, have you guys seen how popular curling wands are nowadays? 😉

Most people with curly hair find themselves struggling with how to style it. I went through this when I was young and for a long while, I thought I have bad hair! Turns out, all I had to do was get to my curls better!

So without further ado, Allow me to share with you my current favourite products for my hair and all the ways I style and care for my mane!

Enjoy! 🙂

More later!

Love,

Carol

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in Diplomatic Incidents, How-Tos, Personal Musings

Marriage: How we got our dream wedding without breaking the bank

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Everyone at my wedding! (Well, almost! Francis, our photographer, was obviously taking the shot)

Four things: Lots of research, careful planning, friends and family who love us dearly, and a teeny tiny bit of luck

When my husband proposed on February 2013, we got into planning our wedding right away. We had a theme, a budget in mind, and 8 months to get everything in place. Sounds like a challenge, doesn’t it? But truth be told, wedding planning isn’t as bad and excruciating as some people might think. It was actually a breeze for the both of us. (I didn’t turn into a bridezilla at any point in the planning and even on the wedding day!)

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Nope. No bridezilla! Although I did cry on our wedding day – a lot.

With a husband who gets a kick out of planning along with friends and family who were ever so supportive, we got what we always wanted. A very classy (if I may say so myself) and intimate wedding with just our closest family and friends where we were able to talk, laugh, and mingle with everyone which made everything just oh-so special.

Plus, we were also able to go on a honeymoon in Singapore and Bali within the wedding budget! How much did everything cost? Php 250,000 (Conversion rates: MYR1=Php11.04, EUR1=Php51.92, USD1=Php45.69)! Which is basically unheard of in the Manila wedding circuit these days.

**In case you’re looking into having your honeymoon in the Philippines, you can check out this post by Honeymoon Backpackers!**

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In fact, someone who writes for a wedding magazine found out about our wedding, saw the photos, and was eager to write about it for a feature on intimate weddings. However, when I told him how we did everything by ourselves and how much money we saved by not going through planners and all the people in the wedding business, he told me he couldn’t write about it anymore. Why? Because the magazine will lose advertisers. 😛

So I won’t go into detail about everything as this is not a timely wedding guide anymore since it was two years ago. But I hope what you read here will be great advice to anyone who’s in the planning stage! 🙂

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Almost Diplomatic - carolific - Diplomat’s Wife - Travel - Paris - Hotel Home Moderne Paris - Antique Book Market
in Europe

Travel: Arrival in Paris + Hotel Home Moderne, Paris (Review) + Antique Book Market

After a short stay in Amsterdam, we took the Thalys to Paris. It was a pleasant journey that took a little over 3 hours.

Thankfully, we took the train on that particular day as just a few days later, a gunman boarded the same train and planned to shoot innocent passengers as the train sped through Belgium! Good thing there were 3 men – 2 Americans and a French national who stopped him! It’s still a running joke that if it were Alvin and me on that train, God knows what would have happened. :)) But I digress.

Getting there

We arrived at Garre du Nord station where we were able take the Metro to where our hotel was.

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We were lugging around big suitcases and one thing I should tell you is that Paris Metro stations are not that conducive for people with humungous trolleys with them.

I knew this already and I know I should have packed less but we were staying in Europe for 3 effing weeks! I’m not the backpacker type of traveller either – I need my hair products and I will never sacrifice my clothing choices. So I pulled and huffed my way to the other side of Garre du Nord.

Alvin tried to help me but I was too proud. I did let a couple of French guys help me carry my suitcase up a few flights of stairs in two separate incidents. For two good reasons – 1, my suitcase was indeed heavy and 2, I just want show Alvin that I still got ‘it’. 😛 Whoever started the rumour that the French are snobs, I really have no idea whom you’ve met. The last time I was in Paris in 2013 and on this recent visit as well, I’ve only met kind and helpful Parisians!

We got off at Plaisance where the hotel was a good 10-minute walk from. It’s not too far, to be honest. But with heavy luggage, it did feel like forever.

Location

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Hotel Home Moderne is located in the 15th arrondissement so it’s not too near the city centre and all the attractions. However, with the Paris Metro line, everything in the city and its outskirts are always easily accessible.

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It’s more of a residential area where there are quaint cafés and small restaurants. If you want to see actual Parisians (even in the summer!), I suggest you stay here. You also get the feel of actually ‘living’ in Paris because of the neighbourhood.

It’s a tourist-friendly area but not touristy – you get what I’m saying? There’s an abundance of small grocery stores which also makes everything easier.

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in Beauty & Fashion, Skincare, Video

Beauty + Video: Guerisson 9-Complex Horse Oil Cream + Unboxing, Real vs Fake, First Impressions

I’m on a roll with videos this week! 😀 I have so much backlog that I’m trying to post as much content as I could before the husband comes home from another work trip! 😉

Today’s video is about the much-raved about Guerisson 9-Complex Horse Oil Cream!

But before you start giving me violent reactions, let me just put this out there: I am an animal lover! I was told that Guerisson uses horse oil from Germany which is extracted only from the base of the horse’s main and that these beautiful creatures are not harmed in any way for beauty! So we’re all good!

So here’s an unboxing video where I’ll be going through the features of the packaging. This should be helpful to people who are looking into getting this product as there are a lot of fakes out there! Enjoy! :-*

More later!

Love,

Carol

in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Denmark, France, Geneva, Leavesden, London, Malmö, Paris, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Travel, United Kingdom, Versailles, Volendam

Beauty + Fashion [VIDEO]: The humungous (affordable) Europe haul

Hi everyone! Finally publishing this requested video which takes over 20 minutes. Crazy long, I know! But there’s just so much stuff to show you! So this is the video where I prove to you guys that shopping in Europe can be VERY affordable. 🙂 While I do have family there who heavily subsidised our trip and spoiled the hell out of us while we were there, the stuff I actually paid for didn’t leave my wallet in a sorry state. I missed Europe and all the things I can get there but I am proud to say that as always, I kept my head and didn’t go wild. Whew! (Always a struggle though if you’re into beauty products and clothes!)

Also, as a disclaimer, I didn’t include everything and even had to cut off a lot of parts just to keep it this short! I kept the most interesting bits, though. The home stuff, I’ll probably talk about them in another entry.

You can check the list of products I mentioned after the video if you don’t want to go through the whole ordeal. 😉 I also put them in order so you can easily forward through the video if you’re only interested in a few products!

A friend of mine who saw this video first before I uploaded it also asked why I didn’t get anything from Sephora during the trip. Answer: Because of the low Ringgit, everything is cheaper in Malaysia at the moment! So it would have been a disservice to my wallet and shopping skills if I shopped for makeup there that’s readily available in KL. 😀

Also, I was able to keep my hands off the Charlotte Tillbury and Tom Ford lipsticks that I wanted with the logic that if I pass on them now and just buy them when I have more savings, then, I will be able to buy more stuff in Boots! Haha! Crazy, I know. I’ve been taking extra freelance work lately as I’ve been saving up for the high end stuff that I want for my next trip – which may be coming sooner than I thought! 😉

Enjoy!

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