Dr. Zein Obagi's presentation at Raffles City Convention Center

I had an epiphany while listening to Dr Obagi's presentation this afternoon over a fantabulous luncheon-tea session thanks to the kind people at GlamAsia sponsoring me a pair of tickets.

I want to work towards having skin that requires no make-up instead of just having skin that looks good with make up on.

Can do?

Or just an unrealistic dream?

Okay back to the doctor.

His one sentence left a mega deep impression in me:

Makeup is meant to enhance features like making a nose look sharper or creating a more defined jawline but NOT to conceal flaws.

I think it makes perfect sense in retrospect. Don't you think?

Hailing from Beverly Hills, Dr Obagi gave a very lucid presentation on how there is no such thing as sensitive skin, only weakened skin. I do agree, since my skin, though plagued with freckles since I was a toddler, was pretty much smooth and acne-free till one day, a serious breakout made me go on a flurry of heavy duty skincare and cosmetics which are out there in the market.

The case studies he showed were astounding! Many cases had a good decade or two lifted off their faces after starting a treatment regime with Dr Obagi. Unlike products in the market, the treatment swears to rebuild skin cells from within the DNA level, and reactivate lazy skin cells to fight environmental stress and pollution.

One of our friends, Rachel, was extremely lucky to have been chosen to get a face-to-face consultation with him (with free products prescribed personally by Dr Obagi!!) on the spot. ^^

All of us who attended the seminar were given a full-sized sample worth 130$ of the ZO Skin Health OFFECTS Exfoliating Cleanser & Exfoliating Polish. And the products are only available at dermatologists island-wide, because they should be prescribed after a consultation. I am surprised that the pricing of the products is actually quite reasonable! :) Made me think twice if I should repurchase my usual skin care products after I finish my stash; or if I should pay the derm a visit. tinyceci will give the samples a shot soon after and update again! It seems ZO skin products may just be the holy grail for skin that I've been searching for in Singapore.

Dr. Obagi- He's actually part Russian and Syrian(?) if memory serves. Not Japanese.

Read more about Dr Zein Obagi and his anti-aging tips here at Glam Asia's article!

Once again, thank you Glamasia for the chance to meet Dr Zein Obagi in person! It was lovely and SO enlightening! Interested in more updates from Glamasia? Like them here on facebook!

[Now watching] [겟잇뷰티 5화] Ⅵ. 주말 리프레싱 힐링 팁(3) 스트레칭&지압

This video is from one of my favorite channels to couch potato to in cold winters, OnStyle. They have several cool programs featuring beauty tips and fashion styling trend reports, Korean's ANTM and project runway. This particular one is called "Get It Beauty".

This is super amazing!

Massage techniques on various acupuncture vital points which helps blood circulation and even help get a better complexion! There's also a fun 귀요미 way of doing the massages~ 앙아앙 ㅋㅋ

How to dress like a Korean : Kimchi girl [epi 1]

With the crazy hallyu blowing on in SEA like a crazy Gangnam style (I am actually not that fascinated with this song), tinyceci has been seeing loads of locals piling on the Korean frocks but it seems not a lot know how to rock the Korean look! As a result, the whole look isn't complete and thus STILL looks Singaporean instead of kimchigirl style.

Korean girls tend to follow a standard way of dressing according to the seasons. There will be on trend items or accessories, the general rule is: they love their sneakers in the summer, an alternative look is to rock long sleeved tops and long bohemian skirts; while the skirt hemline go shorter (and shorter) while the seasons get colder. ^^;;

So, how does one dress like a Korean chick in the summer?

For today, tinyceci will be giving you a few tips on this kimchi girl look for a casual day out in the summer.

Here's my take.

1) 포인트 가지고 있는 원피스/티샤츠+미니스커트
Choose a short mini dress/one piece or a short skirt with tee-shirt with simple details and colors but with interesting highlight, or in Konglish we call it "point/포인트". In my case here, I chose a mini blue-beige stripey one-piece with the stripes tailored in a wavy motion (-> 포인트!)

2) 운동화/ 스니커스
Pair it up with cool sneakers! This is the key here to tie up the look. Many locals tend to pair a korean chic dress with ballet flats or worse, slippers and end up missing the kimchi girl laidback casual look. The sneakers can be converse canvas flats, or VANS, which is what I'm wearing. It doesn't have to be in the exact same color to match your dress. I chose red, which is kind of a universal color to match for this look. I later realized the exact same pair was featured in summer 2012 on onstyle TV Korea for its reasonable pricing and edgy look.

3) 양말
Choose nice mid length socks which come up to slightly higher than your ankles but not hitting your mid calf. I'm wearing black socks with white polka dots from H&M but you can choose any color you wish. Again, black is the easiest to match for socks and you don't have to worry if it makes your calves look fat. If you've got really skinny and straight long legs, then try going for more edgy colors!

4) 헤어스타일
You can either wear your hair long and straight like mine when you've got brighter hair. If not, if black's your hair color, you might want to tie it up in a high sporty ponytail to make it look more summery cool 안 더워보이게..

Here's how much this OOTD costs:
1) Blue-beige wavy striped mini dress: 15,000 krw on 지마켓, Korea
2) VANS red sneakers: 55,000 krw from ABC mart, 명동 Seoul
3) Black socks from H&M: 3000 krw for a pack of 4 pairs, 명동 Seoul

Whole look under 70 USD

Remember, looking kimchigirl chic doesn't mean it has to be crazy expensive.

Thoughts about FANCL's new Whitening Line

tinyceci was extremely fortunate to be chosen to try out FANCL's new whitening line. FANCL gave tinyceci a lovely set of the full whitening line including 6 pieces of the mask (♥♥♥), the lotion, serum and emulsion in no I initially which is suitable for oily/combination skin. Upon double checking the information given in the leaflet, tinyceci called FANCL takashimaya and was immediately given a choice to exchange the set for no II, which is more hydrating and meant for dry/combination skin thank God! ^^

Having tried various whitening lines like Lancome Blanc & Clarins, I noticed that whitening ranges tend to be less hydrating and therefore might give rise to more fine lines forming in the process of whitening. I was a little apprehensive in trying this range out initially because of my super sensitive skin weakened by all the different rich products a few years ago. However, since my dear friends started raving about how soft their skin became just a couple of days of usage, I became curious and decided to try it out after a week of pondering.

The first thing I immediately noticed and fell in love with was the mask! I think I probably will purchase more of these in the future especially when I need to prepare for an event. The texture and quality of the mask sheet itself is top grade. The mask essence has no fragrance and feels very soothing when I put it onto my skin. In fact, it was so comfortable I nearly fell asleep wearing it. The lotion was also clear like water and absorbs into skin very quickly. I am convinced that FANCL's motto of using only the freshest ingredients is valid in the sense that the products are all packaged for a month's use only. And the texture and feeling of the whole line don't feel that synthetic/packed with active chemicals like some other brands. My breakouts also became more stabilized!

A few low downs though.

Although touted to be a whitening line, I find that this line don't really whiten as much as it softens and smooths skin tone. Also, I had to use another moisturizing serum and emulsion as my skin felt a bit dehydrated especially at night. My spots did not decrease and pores became more visible. I would personally recommend this to those with normal skin which do not require that much hydration and looking for smoother, softer skin. Either that, or couple it with a hydrating serum containing hyaluronic acid, a pore refining serum and a more hydrating night moisturizer. For the price point, I feel that it is a little wanting in the hydration department and therefore a little pricey if I were to include the cost of purchasing a hydrating serum and moisturizer on top of this line. 

Nevertheless, FANCL is still a wonderful brand loved and trusted by many beautiful lady friends of mine and I believe this whitening line would probably work better as a daytime skincare routine, and switching to a more hydrating line for night skincare. 

Thank you FANCL for the wonderful mask & serum! ♥

Much ♥ from MAKE UP FOREVER SINGAPORE & STEVE MADDEN

A BIG THANK YOU to MAKE UP FOREVER SINGAPORE & STEVE MADDEN SINGAPORE ♥ for this lovely pair of TARRRAH in sexy black! 와ㅏㅏㅏㅏ 명품신발 받았으니 너무 행복해! ㅋㅋㅋ

The height isn't overwhelmingly high so it is super wearable on any kind of occasions and match any kind of MUFE makeup! The shoes came in a dust bag and the standard bright orange Steve Madden carrier. April at Steve Madden Ion also taught me how to take care of and clean the felt straps of the heels using a special cleaner from Isetan shoes and sponges from Daiso! Props for the additional tips.

Special thanks and shoutout to Sabrina, MUFE's digital marketing and events manager for meeting me in Steve Madden Ion on Saturday despite the rain! She is soooooo nice and pretty!!! Complete with a trendy lime green outfit and Steve Madden ankle boots.

Here's what we did at the store itself while we were trying on the gorgeous shoes!

 My friends Rella and Jess were also around for the shoot, below picture credits to Rella! Thanks babe.

tinyceci is sooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the MUFE makeover session at their makeup school!
정말 기대된다! ㅋㅋㅋ

Do like MUFE and Steve Maddens on facebook to keep up with the latest trends on makeup and shoes! They have a number of fashion shows coming up. ^^

**Update**
By the way, did you know that you can now peruse and do some comfy online shopping of beautiful shoes by STEVE MADDEN on the ZALORA online shopping page? Well, I didn't. But now I do! ^____^

Check them out here!

Thank God for ZALORA!

They have some crazy sale going on now and it's really awesome having stuff delivered instead of having to carry them. ^^ (Yep I was damn spoilt in Seoul and had every single thing delivered to my doorstep ^^)

Lots of pretty stuff from STEVE MADDEN under SGD100! ^^
Check it out~ 

This sure is good news to peeps like me who sometimes feel a little intimidated ㅠㅠ by pushy store personnel trying to persuade me to buy every single thing I try on. ㅋㅋㅋ I'm sure I'm not alone in that department.ㅋ

Thank you Joyce for letting me know ZALORA has my favorite shoe brand stocked up online! ^__^

Current game: Torchlight 2

After a hiatus from Path of Exile (POE), T bought me a copy of Torchlight 2 from the 4 pack bundle sale on steam yesterday. Check out the website here.

It's kind of an old game, and T was pretty cynical about tinyceci writing about this on the blog, but what the hey, we've had too much of cosmetics lately anyway.

Torchlight II has a rating of 9.1/10 on ign, read their reviews here.

It's sort of like the original Diablo 1 & 2, but with cuter graphics and kind of more complicated controls. Also you get to choose a pet from the usual cat, wolf, panther to a dragon-like fantasy creature Chakawary or even the Panda. There're loads more to choose from! I chose the Chakawary. :) 귀요미 ㅋㅋㅋ

As for the character classes, there are 4 basic classes to choose from: Embermage, Outlander, Berserker and Engineer. Don't be fooled by the name Embermage, within this spellcaster class you can choose to specialize in Fire, Ice or Lightning elements, or have a combination depending on your playing style. The Berserker is your standard melee warrior Barbarian-like class. The Outlander is kind of cool, dual wielding guns and sort of like a modern ranger/rogue class. The Engineer is also a heavy melee fighter using cannons and creating machine bots to help in battle.

No prizes for guessing which class tinyceci will be starting on.ㅋㅋㅋ XD

tinyceci created two Embermages, one to specialize in Ice and one for Fire. I would say, in terms of term play, Torchlight II would probably beat POE, but I still prefer the grime, dark gothic feel of POE. Also, it seems a lot easier to play alone on POE instead? I died like 10 times within 30 minutes into Torchlight II on Elite difficulty. Or maybe it's because mages are more squishy.

Anyway, it is sort of cheap with the 4 pack bundle, and it IS a hack-and-slash game. When tinyceci was going through the first chapter with two other team mates, it seemed rather hard to focus on what were the quests or the game is about. 

If you're a casual gamer like tinyceci, I would say it is a 3.2 ★ / 5 ★ ㅋㅋㅋ