Gratitude Day 11

Today, I'm grateful for:
1. Waking up and remembering to transfer payment to pay for my loan.
2. Having a sweet colleague who got two reams of photocopy paper from the main office.
3. Bumping into Zalina and having a good chat with her 

Gratitude Day 10

Today, I'm grateful for:
1. Seeing the Secret Recipe kitty again after many days of not seeing her...wonder where she went...
2. Being given the heads up about potential problems with students/ parents so that I have enough time to prepare evidence.
3. Being able to find a parking space in Mid Valley after work (who would think that it would be difficult to find a parking space then, huh?).
4. Getting to Mid Valley in less than 45 minutes from work (after work hours).
5. The relatively affordable and quick dinner at Mid Valley.
6. The free seminar conducted by JY's disciples.
7. Getting home safely...thank you Allah.

Gratitude Day 8

Today, I'm grateful for:
1. Remembering just in the nick in time to send in my income tax return (I had it prepared but was giving myself some time to mull over it in case there were other claims that I needed to add to my returns).
2. Seeing that the Inland Revenue Department owes me $$$!!! Yay!!! :)
3. Having food at home.

Gratitude Day 7

Today, I'm grateful for:
1. Going back to reading books
2. Having the energy to prepare my own meals at home :)
3. Purchasing scones at the 2 for 1 price
4. Taking Ole Faithful out for a drive

Gratitude Day 6

I'm thankful for:
1. Waking up early this morning and having the time to catch up on my reading in the early hours and to have another snooze after that!
2. Making my own brekkie at home --- yum!
3. Having the strength and energy (physically and mentally) to go get my maintenance fees paid up to date.
4. Being able to hijack someone else's parking space (I know, I know, that was naughty of me) for the time that I was there to get my bills paid.
5. Getting home just in time before the angry rainstorm started --- Phew!!!

Gratitude Day 5

I'm thankful for:
1. Being able to treat myself to a Mango Frappe at San Francisco's Coffee.
2. The friendly and smiling barista who took my order at San Francisco's Coffee.
3. Not losing Tesco's yellow chip coin (I had left it on the passenger seat of the car).
4. Finding checkout lane 35 free of any customers when the other lanes were busy in the grocery store.
5. Not having to pay for parking (I did it all in the 3 hours of free parking time --- yay!!!).
6. Waking up totally refreshed from the 12 hour long sleep that I had last night (yup, what had initially supposed to have been a nap turn out to be a lot longer! I was totally zonked out!).

Gratitude Day 4

I'm thankful for:
1. Having the time to get started on working on the Teaching File student work samples.
2. Not having misplaced any of the students works.
3. The Nasi Lemak breakkie that was purchased for me. The serving was so big that I didn't need to go out for lunch --- yes, I saved $$$ !

Gratitude Day 3

I'm grateful for:
1. Not spending a lot of money today
2. Going to work and getting home safely
3. Having the luxury of time at work to do research for my next batch of classes

Gratitude Day 2

I'm grateful for:
1. Having RM15.60 off on my grocery shopping ( RM3.00 Off Voucher for Friskies, RM0.60 Off Voucher for F&N Ginger Ale and RM12 Off for Purchases RM80 and above Tesco Voucher)
2. Having the energy to cook dinner once I got home with all the shopping
3. Finally dropping off two of my many bookcrossing books (and thus reclaiming some space) at the bookcrossing zone in The Curve
4. Not "bumping" into the snake in the stairwell! Having collegues warn me just in time --- phew!!!

Gratitude Day 1

1. The Kitty I've been feeding at work didn't run away when I took a peek at him. Instead, although he was wary of me, he looked back at me.
2. Having the time in the morning to fix myself a quick breakfast to take to work.
3. Having a car and getting to work safely.
4. Having leftover food for an early dinner when I got home from work.

Dr Cafe at The Curve

Armchairs, Mocha Frappe....Just me making myself feel at home while working in a little cosy little nook in Dr Cafe at The Curve. 

FYI Dr Cafe at The Curve is currently running a promo. My Grande Mocha Frappe cost me only RM6.

Mc D's Breakfast Day

My Mc D's free Egg Mc Muffin. I decided to give the Latte a go since I was given coupon for it. Not being a coffee person, all that caffeine left me jittery for most of the morning!

Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation Review

I've been using this product every day for over a week or so now and I'm ready to write a review on it.

The Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation comes in a 30 ml frosted glass pump bottle and a clear cap. I like the pump as it's pretty easy to control if I want to dispense less than a pump of product. This is an oil free foundation and it is creamy in texture.

I get a light to medium coverage when applied with my buffer brush and more of a medium coverage when applied with a makeup sponge. Personally, I find that this looks better on me if I apply it with my buffer brush instead of a makeup sponge.

Finding a matching shade may be a problem for many people as there are only three shades to choose from (I wish they would make more). I bought mine the shade 020 Rosy Beige which I think is a tad too light for me when I first put it on in the mornings but I find that the foundation oxides as the day goes on and then, it looks okay on my skin.

I read somewhere that this is a dupe for Makeup Forever's Mat Velvet. This foundation doesn't transfer as much as the Bourjois 123 Perfect foundation. Once on the skin, it feels light and it lasts around 5 hours on my extremely oily skin before my oil blotters have to come to the rescue. Around mid day, I normally would blot my face and apply setting powder and that lasts till the end of my workday.

Overall, I love this product. I have read many complaints about the rosy scent of this foundation but I have no issues with it. The best thing about this product, I think, is that it's great value for the price.

The Good
The price!
It's a good quality product.
The pump dispenser allows me enough control to dispense less than one pump for product.

The Not So Great
The colour selection is small (only three shades, to be exact).
The rosy scent may be an issue with some people.

Update May11, 2015:
I purchased the next shade 030 Caramel Beige as I found the shade that I had initially bought, 020 Rose Beige, to be a little bit light for my skin (yes, this was only after 6 weeks of wearing the lighter shade!). In order to not waste the lighter shade, I now mix the two shades together.

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Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation | 30 ml 
Made in Germany
Retail Price: RM 37.90 (I purchased mine for RM26.55 as it was on 30% discount)
Available from selected Guardian outlets
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My Wild Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation Chase!

After weeks of looking at and visiting the Catrice foundations in Guardian, and reading as well as watching reviews on their two foundations online, I finally decided to give it a go. So last Saturday, I went to Mid Valley Mega Mall with one thing in mind --- to purchase the Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation from Guardian's.

Once there, I decided look around the mall and to purchase the foundation only on my way out of the mall as I didn't want to be loaded with stuff as I walked around the mall. As luck would have it, when I finally went up to the cashier after a long wait in the queue, I was asked by the sulky cashier if I had another card on me other than the Amex that I had given her because  apparently, she said that it takes a long time to get an approval code on Amex. Tired and turned off by her less than polite tone and non-customer oriented attitude, I asked for my card back, told her to cancel the purchase and walked out. Yes, it was something that I would have liked to have but not something that I had to have as I still have about another half bottle worth of my Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation left (even though I wear it to work everyday!).

The following day, on Sunday, I was in KLCC and once again, I visited the Catrice stand there but decided not to purchase the foundation then as there was a long queue at the check out counters. Then Monday rolled around and lo and behold, what did I see on my FB feed --- Guardian announced that some selected makeup brands were going for 30% less and one of the brands was Catrice!!! WooHoo!!!

So yeah, I made my way to the Guardian in IPC after work and finally purchased a bottle of the Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation. I guess, I was lucky that I didn't purchase the foundation just two days earlier as it on only a 10% discount then instead of the 30% discount when I purchased it yesterday. Mmmm.... can't wait to try it out!

Oh, btw, all the Catrice products were going at a 30% discount and I was going gaga just looking at the prices. I had to keep reminding myself that I still had A LOT of fairly recently purchased makeup to use up before I can reward myself with more.

Joey Yap's Feng Shui 2015 Seminar Encore

Learning on a Sunday. I love his seminars.

There's this annoying male usher-er who is insisting that I close the gap and sit in the row in front of where I have already seated myself. I know, you are only doing your job but I'm stubborn and choose not to move. Sorry. He's clearly not impressed when I tell him that other people will come in and and those seats will be occupied... only not by me.  

Empties: February 2015

Just thought I'd share with you my empties in February 2015:

1. Minnie Mouse Cotton Facial Pads   150 pieces
Purchased this in Guardian while it was on sale. Thought that the packaging was cute.

2. Daiso Facial Oil Blotters
I use the ones in the box at home. Not brilliant but it does the job, so I can't complain.

3. Daiso Facial Oil Blotters
I usually have a pack in my handbag for use throughout the day when I am at work. This isn't the kind that I would normally purchase at Daiso but they were out of my regular ones and I was desperate for some!

4. Nivea Anti-Perspirant Spray in Energy Fresh   150ml
This is one of my repeat buys from time to time.

5. Clear Anti-Dandruff Shampoo   350ml
I've had this for AGES!!!

6. Benefit's Maybe Baby Body Lotion   200ml
Purchased this years ago and forgot all about it until I rediscovered it recently. I simply adore this product. It's a shame that it has been discontinued :( And oh, it's got tiny shimmers in it that can only be seen when light shines on your skin. I love, love, love the scent!

7. Marks and Spencers Peach and Almond Bath   500ml
This was my treat purchase last Raya. While the product is good, the scent isn't something that I am likely to repurchase. The bottle is pretty and I'm saving it to be used for other products that I buy in refill packs.

On Time and Self Development

I think I shouldn't waste time and should instead use it wisely. So this is the plan: I'm going to spend at least an hour on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday on self development.

I started day one of self development yesterday by reading a book I found in the library entitled, "Money Smart: Secrets Women Need to Know about Money".

I'd have made good use of my time if I learn something.

Silky Girl Moisture Boost Lipcolor Balm Review

I'm always on the lookout for a good bargain. Guardian recently had a buy one get one free promotion and the Silky Girl Moisture Boost Lipcolor Balm was one of the items offered. I figured that it would be a good time to try out this product as I have been curious about this product but was not about to break the bank and pay the full price for it but since it was going at half price each, I thought, "Why not?".

So I purchased mine in Coral and Ruby. I've so far have only used the Coral one and I find that it doesn't feel as moisturising as my Essence lippie but it doesn't feel drying on the lips either. I was quite surprised to find that the colour lasts a lot longer than I expected since it is classified as a lip balm. I also like the bright  Coral color. By the way, the coral color is much brighter in life than in the photograph.

According to the Silky Girl website, this product doesn't contain fragrance, parabens, carmine and isn't tested on animals. So that ranks pretty high on my list.

I couldn't get any information on the amount of product that you get but by the looks of it, it seems to be less that your normal lipstick. That's kinda okay with me as I like to have the colour variety and one lip color lasts a mighty long time for me.

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Product: Silky Girl Moisture Boost Lipcolor Balm
Retail Price: RM20.90 (I purchased mine during the Buy 1 Get 1 Free Promotion at Guardian Pharmacy)
Product Amount: 3.2g
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Key chain

Meet my new key chain. This guy was just too difficult for me to pass up on. I just had to purchase him. I use this specifically for my thumb drive as it would make it more visible especially when it's in my handbag that has got LOADS of stuff.

A Makeup Trick I Learned and It WORKS!!! :)

My super oil slick skin drives me up the wall sometimes. I've recently been experiencing my makeup transferring onto my handouts when I happen to touch my face and then the handouts (not cool!). I initially thought that perhaps I should be on the lookout for a more matte foundation but I recently came across this video tip on youtube from one of my fav makeup artists and I am eternally thankful for it.

If you're like me, all you need to do it to apply loose powder all over your face BEFORE you apply your foundation. That's it! It's that simple! And best of all, it WORKS!!! My makeup lasts a lot longer now. Now, this is not a miracle solution as if you've got oily skin, your skin will be what it is --- oily! BUT this tip will make your makeup last a lot longer than normal. This tip has helped me save $$$ as I no longer feel the need to run out and get myself another bottle of foundation and I can now look forward to finishing my current bottle of foundation. Hope this helps! :)