March 26, 2014 by Jessica Tan
It’s been about a week or so since I’ve received my Urban Decay Naked 2 palette (paid £37 for it) in the mail and I’ve been happily experimenting on the wonderful taupe colours! Since I am now living in Hong Kong, it is so hard to find this palette!!! Moreover, the online websites that carry the Naked palette had no stock since the Christmas season until recently. 😦 For those living in 852, you can check out BeautyBay.com or lookfantastic.com for beauty products you can’t find locally. It helps that these websites offer free international delivery!
So… how do you create a simple day look in under 15 minutes with Naked 2? (HINT: don’t try to use every colour you think it’s pretty! Less is more) I know it’s VERY VERY tempting to want to use all these pretty colours inside the palette all at once! (I was guilty of it on the first few days upon receiving it *hiaks* but it also gave me a good idea which colour combination works) All you need is 3 colours in the palette. (Yes, you heard me… THREE) Namely Foxy, Booty Call & YDK.
First, use Foxy under your eyebrows for a slight highlight. (P.S. Foxy is also a great colour to use to highlight your nose bridge & lighten under eye dark circles) Then apply Booty Call all over your eye socket area. Don’t have to be too detailed with this as all you need to do is to make sure your eye socket area is totally covered with this base colour.
Once that is done, now comes YDK to add a 3D effect to your eyes and make them shine.
As you can see, I only added YDK towards the end of my eye socket area from lash line to the start of my brow bone. (approx. 1/3 of my eye) If you are new to applying make-up, just imagine your eye socket is divided into 3 parts. Tear duct to before the mid line of your eye or the highest point of your eyeball is the first section. Second section is the mid point of your eye or centreline or highest point of your eyeball. And last section is towards the edge of your eye where I am applying YDK. Add a little YDK to that section and slowly blend inwards. Ensure that you don’t overdo this so as to not have 2 stark contrasting colours on your eye. It should look like the colours naturally merge from light to dark.
With only 3 simple colours, you have a nice, natural & seemingly professional DIY day-look. Now, flip the Urban Decay’s brush over to the flat brush and dip it into the dark colours. I used Busted which is a dark brown, but you can also use Blackout for a sharper look. Line your lash line with this dark eyeshadow colour. I like to wing my eyeliner upwards to create a more cat-eye look. Finally, curl your lashes & coat them with layers of mascara & you are done! Remember to use a coral toned blush for a natural flush look.
This is my simple 15-minute day look created using the Naked 2 palette’s colours. Hope this is helpful to those who own this palette & those who are new to applying eyeshadows! Have fun!
Now… I’m totally tempted to splurge on the Naked 3 palette to play with a new set of colours! Maybe I will treat myself to it on my birthday in April! *hee*
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Beauty, Fashion, Reviews | Tagged 15-minutes, 852, Beauty, beauty & fashion, beauty bay, beautybay.com, birthday, blush, booty call, busted, coral blush, day look, DIY, eyeliner, eyeshadow, fast, foxy, HK, Hong Kong, Jessica Tan, look fantastic, lookfantastic.com, make up, make-up artist, make-up tips, Makeup, mascara, naked, Naked 2, Naked 3, naked palette, natural look, natural make-up, nude, nude make-up, nude makeup, online shopping, quick fix, Review, summer make-up, Urban Decay, YDK | Leave a Comment »
March 24, 2014 by Jessica Tan
Needed some really pretty nails to match my Great Gatsby outfit & accessories to attend a theme party over the weekend. And thanks to MyVisitDay.com they arranged a soft-gel nail treat for me at Nail & Waxing@LKF to get them “dressed-up” for the party!
Met Fran who is the boss-lady who also did my nails for the occasion. Fran is originally from HK but she was raised in Canada (hence fluent in Cantonese & English), learning the trade of nails & waxing when she was there. She has been in the business for a long time with her first nail/waxing salon in Canada. She had to give up her business back in Canada to come back to HK because of family (which is the most important thing in the world IMO) and thus she opened up Nail & Waxing@LKF 4 years back. I told Fran about my theme party & what I was gonna wear, so she let her creative juices flow & thought up of a nice set of nails to go with my outfit for the night… I was in for a NICE surprise!
After about 2.5 hours of meticulous manicure with a revitalisation hand scrub, I was presented with the most beautiful set of soft-gel nails!!! Sparkly but yet edgy & not too girly because I’m not a girly-girl. Perfect for me!
They look even nicer with the accessories I donned on for the event! The nails completed the whole look perfectly! Thank you Fran!
Here’s some pix I took to create the whole Great Gatsby look… It’s all about accessories & bling! (with a modern touch of sparkly nails to add!)
If you want a good professionally done manicure & pedicure with someone who speaks perfect English & Cantonese, do look up Fran from Nail & Waxing@LKF. She will do magic to your nails!
There’s a promotion going on from now till 30 April 2014 (who doesn’t like discounts?!). For the soak off gel manicure + revitalising hand scrub treatment that I did (additional charges apply for nail art), it’s now 30% off!
Drop by Nail & Waxing@LKF for a visit soon as Summer is approaching and we do need pretty mani’s & pedi’s to show off in the Summer! 😉
Address:
Nail & Waxing @ LKF
11/F, 1 Lan Kwai Fong,
Central, Hong Kong
Telephone:
+852 2530 2022
Website: http://nailatlkf.hk/central/
Remember to also LIKE their Facebook Page!
Posted in Beauty, Events, Fashion, Reviews | Tagged accessories, art, Beauty, beauty & fashion, chanel flower, dress up, events, Fashion, faux fur, feature, french manicure, gel nails, glitter nails, Hong Kong, Jessica Tan, Lan Kwai Fong, LKF, make up, manicure, Miss Singapore, nail & waxing, nail and waxing at LKF, nail art, nail polish, nails, old-fashioned, ootd, OPI, OPI gelcolor, outfit of the day, pearls, pedicure, pretty, professional, professional nail, Progel, Review, rings, sequins, Shellac, soak off gel, soft gel nails, sparkly, style, The Great Gatsby, theme party, vintage, waxing, what I wore today, wist | Leave a Comment »
March 12, 2013 by Jessica Tan
I have a terrible habit of grinding my teeth at night when I sleep and only found out about it in recent years. So I started reading up about it on WebMD and realized that it can be caused by stress, abnormal bite or crooked/missing teeth. I’m pretty sure mine is caused by my abnormal bite as my upper and lower jaw doesn’t line up symmetrically.
As a result, I often wake up with muscle aches along my jaw after a night of teeth grinding. And recently I’ve noticed that my face is looking more square too (looks like I’ve put on a lot of weight on my face). So I consulted Dr Kwan from Dermacare regarding this and from the last time I saw him in August till yesterday he actually noticed a huge difference in size of my jaw muscles. And Botox is recommended to shrink those muscles and stop those aches. He also recommended to use a bite guard once I Botox’d my jawline to stop my bad habit of grinding teeth and this is a long term solution to stop those terrible muscle aches and sometimes headaches. (I’m gonna collect my bite guard next week and will start using it immediately!)
What Botox does on the jaw muscles is that it paralyses those muscles and stop them from being active and they will shrink back to original size after a month or so. And I will start seeing results after 2 weeks. I took photos of myself yesterday before I got the Botox jabs and today 24 hours after receiving it. There was no obvious change in the size of the muscles but I did notice that my jawline does look slightly “softer” as compared to yesterday. Not as tense. And the best thing is… No aching jaw this morning!!!
After reading on about teeth grinding I learnt that it can get quite serious to the extent that the teeth are worn down to stumps and serious after effect will be felt when I’m old. So from now on, I’m gonna rely on that uncomfortable bite guard & hopefully prevent any detrimental damage to my teeth & jaw! No pain, no gain right?
If you are having the similar problems as me, do consider doing Botox on the jaw muscles to shrink them back to normal & buy a bite guard! Botox on the jawline at DermaCare costs SGD$1000/session and the effects can last till about a year or even longer with the bite guard.
Dr. Kwan also shared with me that after about 2 weeks where the effects of the Botox will be more visible, that DermaLift might be required to tighten up the skin around the cheekbone area after the muscles shrink and skin might look looser. But this is dependent on individuals and how elastic your skin is. DermaLift is the injection of small doses of Botox on the skin level to create a tightening of skin and give a “mini face lift”. This treatment is highly popular amongst brides who want to look their best on their BIG day! For DermaLift it’s SGD$600/session. And if you want this lift to be long lasting, Dr Kwan recommends 3 sessions of this.
If you are interested in trying this out, do give Dr Dennis Kwan a visit at their Ion Orchard clinic.
DermaCare Aesthetic & Laser Clinic
2 Orchard Turn #05-05 ION Orchard
Singapore 238801
(Enter from Lift Lobby A)
Operating Hours:
Monday through Sunday
11am to 9pm
Main Line: 66346328
Second Lines: 66346327/ 66346329
Visit their website at www.dermacare.com.sg
I simply can’t wait to see some results after 2 weeks! More photos then!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Beauty, Reviews | Tagged abnormal bite, ache, aesthetic, bad habit, Beauty, Botox, Dennis Kwan, Dermacare, dermatologist, Dr Dennis Kwan, Dr Kwan, face, grinding, habit, Ion Orchard, jaw, jawline, Jessica Tan, muscle, muscle aches, square jaw, stress, teeth grinding | Leave a Comment »
February 8, 2013 by Jessica Tan
It’s the time of the year again! Time to eat our hearts out and feel guilty after…
This year I decided to bake Cornflakes Cookies to add to the new year goodies at home. Didn’t have much time as I just got back from Hong Kong so needed something nice, yummy & simple to make!
Ingredients:
200 g unsalted butter, softened
200 g brown sugar
2 eggs
350 g self raising flour
1 tsp grated lemon/orange rind (optional)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 150g box of Kellogs Cornflakes, crushed
Packet of mini cupcake casings
How I made it:
– Pre-heat oven at 160 degree Celsius
– Cream the butter & brown sugar in a mixer
– Add eggs one at a time, mix well
– Add vanilla essence, mix well
– Slowly pour in flour 1/3 portion at a time & put electric mixer on low to mix it in. (if you’re using Kitchen Aid Speed 3)
– Roll small balls of batter in your hands n drop it in the bowl of crushed cornflakes.
– My shortcut way is to roll 8-10 balls and place them in the bowl n swirl them around in cornflakes to coat the cookies. Saves a lot of time!!!
– Fill up the baking tray and bake for 18-20 minutes till golden brown.
And… Wah lah!!! Yummy simple cookies for CNY to impress your friends & family!
Enjoy this simple recipe!
And 恭喜发财!!!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Food, Recipe | Tagged bake, baking, biscuit, Chinese, Chinese new year, cook, cookie, cooking, cornflake, cornflake cookies, cornflakes, cornflakes cookies, delicious, festive, New Year, recipe, season, simple | Leave a Comment »
December 25, 2012 by Jessica Tan
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Hope you are having a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones and friends sharing good food, company & exchanging exciting gifts!
Christmas is one of my favorite holidays of the year as it reminds people to spend quality time with their loved ones and cherish them. To me, Christmas has always been exciting because of gifts exchange with close friends and family since I was a wee tot! Who doesn’t like to receive gifts?! I’ve always enjoyed gift giving to people whom I love as a token of appreciation to them and seeing their faces when they receive their pressies! (specially hand picked for them) 🙂
This year, I’d like to also spread the holiday cheer to those less fortunate in Cambodia as well as I’m embarking on this charity project called Project Light which is endorsed by Rotary Club Singapore & Rotary Club Siam Reap Angkor. Project Light has first chosen this village – Kachangkoy (I’ve visited this village in August this year) to help provide better living standards to the villagers. At present, many villagers do not have the means to afford electricity for lighting and they often use the cheapest form of lights such as gas lamps or candles which can be a fire hazard. Project Light aims to provide households with solar lighting to improve their socio-economic situation. With solar lighting it gives children the opportunity to continue their studies once the sun sets, women the ability to cook proper dinners, reduces their fear of the dark and improves security, gives monetary savings for the villagers as they don’t incur costs from using solar energy & reduces the carbon footprints to help Mother Earth.
As a Singaporean, we have been born into a rather fortunate environment where electricity is freely available to us and we take for granted simple things like lights. Once it’s dark, we flick on a switch in our rooms to turn on the lights – many villagers in Cambodia and numerous parts of the world don’t even have this simple flick of a switch. Lights has always been an integral part of our lives and we never (I too never) realized it until its been experienced on our own. Imagine us complaining once there’s a blackout for more than 10 minutes. These villagers permanently live in blackout conditions once the sun sets. So, I do hope that everyone of you out there can help out in this charitable cause to help these 300 households in Kachangkoy light up their homes.
Every donation of SGD$100 will help provide solar lighting for one household and also give them hope to improve their lives for their future generation. And for every household you sponsor, you name will be recognized by Learning Journeys (Cambodia) Foundation. So please donate generously and give the villagers in Kachangkoy something to smile about!
This project will embark by March 2013 and we hope you can help support this good cause to make Project Light a success!
And if you would like to join me in the installation of solar lights and obtain more information on sponsorships, feel free to email me, Jessica Tan, at bridgingbordersasia@gmail.com
For more information on Project Light kindly visit this website Project Light and to sponsor a family under Project Light kindly complete this application form Project Light Sponsorship Form
Spread the love!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Community Work, Travel | Tagged Cambodia, charity, Christmas, darkness, donation, gifts, Jessica Tan, Jimmy Ooi, Kachangkoy, learning journeys, Merry Christmas, Miss Singapore, miss singapore universe, miss universe, Project Light, rotary club, Singapore, solar, solar light, solar lighting, sponsorship | 3 Comments »
August 5, 2012 by Jessica Tan
After giving much thought and contemplating over this for a couple of years, I’ve decided to give natural fillers a try! I’ve always wanted my upper lip to be slightly fuller than what it already is. Always found “pouting” in front of the camera a huge challenge for me as my upper lip was thin and I had to really be conscious and controlled with my lip muscle (believe it or not it’s a lot of muscle control for me and didn’t come naturally) to look good with that “parted lip look” that photographers really love!
So finally I decided to take the plunge and try out Restylane Vital fillers which is 99% hyaluronic acid that is a natural occurring substance in our body so this will eventually be absorbed by our bodies. (also it being non permanent and lasts about 10 months gave me the insurance to not do it again if I didn’t like the end results)
I consulted Dr. Dennis Kwan from Dermacare in Ion Orchard and he gave me very honest and reassuring advise about doing lip fillers. My hugest concern raised was I didn’t want my lips to look unnatural or overly filled and have “sausage lips” like how some Hollywood celebs like theirs. Dr. Kwan did say that my upper lip was slightly thinner than usual and when I smiled it totally disappears. He advised that I only really need fillers for my upper lip and very minimal for my lower lip just to even out the fullness overall. So after raising my concerns and repeatedly telling him I want it natural and not over filled he reassured me that I will have beautiful lips after this session. I went ahead.
After my RevLite Laser session on my face, I went forth to get my lips filled. Numbing cream was applied on my lips for about 25 minutes so numb and prep my lips for the injections. NERVOUS!!! The uncertainty of the outcome was kinda nerve wreaking but yet I was excited at the same time as I wanted to see how I’ll look like with fuller, poutier lips!
After the numbing cream took effect, Dr. Kwan came back and started with the procedure. Honestly, even with the numbing cream, the injections still hurt. (explained by Dr. Kwan that our lips are extremely vascular and pumping liquid into it will definitely hurt a little) I just kept thinking to myself “no pain no gain!”. After about half and hour and “balancing” out my pout. It was done! And I’m extremely happy with the results!!! My lips still look like mine just with a bit more “meat”. Kinda how it looks like after eating lotsa spicy food and it swells! Lol.
And there was no bruising on my lips! Happy with the results, I immediately took photos of myself and sent it to my close girlfriends to rave about it to them.
Full lips for the next 10 months and the pain was well worth it!
For those who interested do visit their website to find out more! I simply love their RevLite laser treatments (even my mum sees a difference in my skin and she’s doing it now!) and find out more about the fillers they have to offer. http://www.dermacare.com.sg/
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Reviews | Tagged Beauty, cosmetic, cosmetic enhancement, derma, Dermacare, enhancement, fillers, hyaluronic, hyaluronic acid, ION, Ion Orchard, Jessica Tan, lip fillers, Lips, Orchard, Orchard Road, Restylane, Restylane Vital, Vital | 3 Comments »
June 19, 2012 by Jessica Tan
Yesterday I underwent my very first laser for my face. I felt that my skin is starting to look tired, freckles on my nose bridge/cheekbone area is becoming more noticeable and my open pores have been bothering me for some time. (My irregular hours & sun damage from scuba diving is probably the cause of it) So I decided to give RevLite a try at Dermacare@ION. I heard rave reviews that after one session you can immediately see a great improvement in skin tone & fairness.
I met up with Dr Dennis Kwan and consulted with him raising tons of questions regarding my skin. From my clogged chin area – is it due to fine facial hairs? – YES. To is there any downtime or side effects with this laser? – NO. After spending about half an hour bombarding him with all my concerns as I’ve never tried laser treatment before and I’m naturally worried. I was ushered to take a before photo of my skin *horror*.
After that I was laid down on the treatment bed, had my sunblock removed & started the laser treatment. The first time the laser touched the skin on my cheek it felt like someone just gently snapped me with a small rubber band! Kinda shocked me a little. But after a while I got used to the sensation and it was like tiny ant bites on my skin which didn’t really hurt. And after 5 minutes I got used to the feeling and it felt like a massage – sore but soothing as the skin warms up as well.
What I am most happy with is that RevLite will also ‘burn’ off the fine facial hairs that cause my pores to be more open & skin more prone to white heads. Something that’s been plaguing me and I’ve tried so hard to battle it. Immediately after the laser, I found my pores tighter, and skin more radiant n fair.
So I decided to sleep over it and take a photo of my bare skin with no make up the minute I woke up this morning. I’m happy! My chin actually seems less clogged and pores definitely smaller. I also found that my eye area less dark. Freckles still look about the same to me. But generally I find my skin a lot smoother than before without a single bit of make up.
So I did up the before after treatment photo and also noticed that I’m slighter fairer! *yay*
Can’t wait to go down for my next treatment and see more improvements on my skin!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Reviews | Tagged clinic., derma, Dermacare, dermatologist, dermatology, fair, fair skin, freckles, ION, Jessica Tan, Laser, open pores, pores, rejuvenate, rejuvenation, RevLite, skin, skincare, therapy | 6 Comments »
May 23, 2012 by Jessica Tan
It’s coming up again – 25 May. A date that has been etched in my mind for years. There’s 2 significant events that happens on this date. One, is the day I joined Singapore Airlines and if I’m still working for them it will be my 8th year anniversary. Two, it’s my Dad’s birthday. The latter is obviously more the emotional one for me.
It’s my dad that made our birthdays really important. He created a family tradition to celebrate each of our birthdays (even though Mum’s and my brother’s birthday is only 3 days apart) with birthday cakes, cards, presents, family dinner outing & most importantly a family photo at the same spot in the house with each family member standing in almost the same position; the only difference is that we are a year older. He made me love birthdays! Who wouldn’t if you get to feel so special with your family and loved ones that day every year. As a result, everyone in my family remembers each other’s birthdays by heart and we still carry on this tradition even when my Dad isn’t around anymore.
This is possibility the reason why I feel sad when I don’t get a birthday cake on my birthday. It’s not because I love eating cake or I’m spoilt, it is because I always had one specially ordered by my parents every year. Not having one just breaks my Dad’s tradition.
Well, I know my Dad won’t be reading this post wherever he is now. But I still want to say Happy Birthday Dad and we miss you!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 25 May, anniversary, birthday, birthday cake, cake, Dad, daddy, May | 2 Comments »
May 11, 2012 by Jessica Tan
A tribute to my wonderful Mummy!
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mother’s out there. It’s sure not easy being a mother…
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/a-tribute-to-the-most-important-woman-in-their-lives.html
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in -NEWS!- | Tagged Jessica Tan, love, Mother's Day, mum, mummy, Nat Ho, sacrifice, tjin lee, woman | 2 Comments »
March 19, 2012 by Jessica Tan
NO SHARKS FINS SINGAPORE!!!
Hey everyone!
Please join in my effort together with plenty of divers out there to support this cause. Please try to stop/reduce consumption of Sharks Fins as we need these Apex predators in the sea to maintain an equilibrium in the Eco-system.
Official campaign launch by Ocean Geographic will be at ADEX 2012 at Marina Bay Sands Singapore. Seeya there!
XOXO
Jessica
Posted in -NEWS!-, Community Work, Diving, My love for Animals | Tagged Amanda Cotton, anti-Sharkfin, Bahamas, campaign, causes, fin, Fish Tales, Goh Teck Boon, Jessica Tan, Michael Aw, Miss Singapore, Mok Wai Hoe, no sharks fins, Ocean Geographic, scuba, scuba diving, Shark, shark angels, Sharks fins, sharksfin, Singapore | 4 Comments »
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