Salon Vim @ 313 Somerset

A little intro about my natural hair..... I have really dark black hair often people call it Jet Black. I guess im pretty blessed with that colour and many have mistaken my hair colour being dyed instead of it being natural... Well being said, the only time I dyed my hair was during my secondary school days where every one was experimenting with hair colours, or I would say when most of us were at the rebellious stage where we wanted what we couldn't. :P

Since then I think the next time I had my hair coloured was approx 3-4 years ago, where I went to random shops after reading online reviews, and dyes like twice in a year and permed once - that got my hair fried. Everyday I had to bun my hair up and my classmates would call it (my bun) "Bird's Nest". 

What did I do next? Chopped the Bird's Nest off...........

So I've had short hair for the last 3-4 years and only recently have I decided to try growing it out, I wanted to see how my natural locks were (I have natural curls which have always been ironed most years) and if they could do well without any chemical treatment. Besides, I've already tried such short hair once I wouldn't be afraid to go there again. (If I didn't like my long hair again that it)

My very short pixie-like hair. Haha. Don't mind the background.

Worked-it-like-a-boy.

So anyways, my guy was telling me how he'd like to get blue hair and I was like "what? its so Beng!" (lol) Then after a few days of consideration, I was like okay lets get our hairs done together for CNY and if we're gonna do it we ought to do it at a re-known place (just because I was terrified of frying my hair again). 

Salon Vim lor.... its like, who doesn't know them? The net has been flooded with bloggers blogging about them. But i'd have to say, their works are really quite nice. And of 'cuz the marketing was really strong. 

Hair all done... mine was brown base with 2-tone (purple & pink)

His was violet + blue highlights

Just us goofing around... and the last chance to see my black hair...

My first wash after colouring the base and the bleach to prep for the pinks & purples

 After 5 hours of colouring and cut............

What do you think?

Okay basically I went into Salon Vim and asked the senior stylist what he could do for me and I told him of my concerns (that I was afraid my hair would get fried and I didn't want colours that would wash out to look like "Ah Lian" gold..) and that he could feel free to come up with colours that would suit my skin tone because I was just lost at it...

He looked and thought for a good minute and advised what he would do for me and I agreed. Total it took about 5 hours... from 5:30PM to 10:30PM.. we were so late for our dinner gathering. *blah*

And the price tag...... a whopping $400+ for mine. *faints* I only went bcuz they did not have pre-CNY charges and that I had a 10% off for using my colleague's member discount. But I only realised the discount was not applicable to alot of things after the service was done.

CNY Reunion Dinner Afternoon

The guy's company D&D... still somewhere in Feb

Middle of March.. you can see the pink has washed off to a reddish tone...
which im sooo scared i'll look "Lian"....

End of March... You can see even more that the ends have washed off quite a bit that its showing abit of the gold from the bleach

Overall I was pretty pleased with the service and the colour results tho my only concern was the price.
If you ask if I'll do it again, wel....maybe yes maybe not... Its kinda like a fashion thing where I'd like to try once but not exactly wanna have vibrant-neon-coloured hair all the time.. You see when the neon colours washes off, it reveals the bleach colour which is somehow not the trendiest type of colour (some how its abit like our old school secondary-school-cheap-bleach-colour kind-of). So yea, maybe......

Well colouring my hair was definitely a little drying but wasn't as bad as I imagined. I guess you just have to go for treatments like I do- I go for quarterly Brazallian Blow Out Treatment to keep my hair smooth.

One tip I got alot online was not to wash your hair too often to prevent drying as well as washing off the colours. I read that its good to wash once every 2 days. But of 'cuz if you went for a workout etc and had alot to sweat then of 'cuz you'll have to wash. Otherwise you could skip a day to keep your locks from drying and keeping the colour for a longer time.

Colouring your hair is just like any other fashion item added to your wardrobe, your wardrobe changes as your hair colour changes, and not to mention your make up changes too...

So remember to match your eyebrow colour to your new hair colour... Happy stylling~ ;)

Eyelash Extensions with Curvaceous Lash. - C.Lash

Its my first time getting eyelash extensions. I've never thought about it and I've never even worn fake eyelashes other than the one time I went for a Sweet Sixteen make over where the make up artist applied the fake lashes for me. That don't count right?

Well I've never worn any because I have naturally long lashes, though they could be thicker, but I guess that could be fixed with just 2 coats of mascara. My regime since 16 was to have curled & thick lashes everyday, I could forgo the eye liner BUT NOT the mascara. Lol. Guess the motivation came from the constant compliments about my "doll eyes".

I guess that when you're older, you get busier and less time to spend dolling up. These days I call myself "lazy" for not wanting to do my make up (in full), but if you look at it another way, its just that I come from home to work and home again, so why spend so much time in the morning putting on all that make up and removing that gunk in the evening when no one other than my few colleagues see me everyday. (Okay, Im just lazyyyyy)

In the last few years I've been trying to do things to beautify myself to look "naturally" beautiful meaning not having to put on alot of make up to look good every day. So it was about a month before CNY 2014, I was planning where to go what to do what to wear kinda... I wanted to look good when I went to my guy's place for the nights and wake up not needing to spend alot of time doing up my face, so thats when I decided to give eyelash extensions a shot.

I briefly remembered a friend of mine posting a shot of her permed eyelashes and she mentioned that they do extensions as well.... so I searched her FB page for that thread and got the name of the place and typed "Curvaceous Lash" on to the Google search engine.

To be honest I didn't know how eyelash extensions was done until the time I got it done, I was curious and started asking the beautician questions and continued my research at home after.

So this is how the extensions should go on - one extension to one strand of your own lashes

This is how it looks like when your natural lash fall off few weeks later - together with the extension

I found this guide online - just beware

So do make sure you look for a good place to get your lashes done, you don't want to hurt your own lashes and end up having "botak" or bare eyelids...

FYI this was before I got my extensions, with no make up......

This is a comparison of Before & After, taken by the friendly owner of C.Lash - Stella.

Its real pretty right?

FYI I did the natural lash/length

Ta-dah - After!

The first thing I said when I was handed the mirror by Stella to look at the completed lashes was "So prettyyyyyyy".... Lol.. really, I said that smiling.. Verdict: I really loved it... :D

I went to do a touch up 1.5 weeks later just before CNY to make sure my lashes were full throughout the festive and this time I tried on the longer lash to have the more "dramatic" look.

Drama Mama - Nice?
Can tell that its longer this time?

Okay... Here's the thing. I have long lashes but not as full as I would like. The idea of eyelash extensions are to have individual extensions stuck onto your natural lashes. So if you have short but full lashes, you are able to attach more extensions unlike lesser lashes then you'll be able to attach lesser extensions. But one more factor I learnt from Stella is that you could only have the longer extensions if you have longer lashes to support them. But I would think that ladies with short and full lashes are the best candidates to have extensions as you'll have a very thick set of extensions even though using the natural length which I think is more than pretty enough. :)

Right now after 2 months, Im letting the extensions fall off naturally because I am trying out a new lash + brow serum. I want to have thicker lashes before I do anymore extensions. Well ultimately I WISH that I could have thicker and longer lashes that I wouldn't need any extensions at all.. Haha.....

Pros:

1. Instant beautiful lashes everyday everywhere
2. Save time on eye make up
3. Natural beautiful eyes/lashes
4. Good for people with short lashes 'cuz you can't just grow them!

Cons:

1. No application of mascara - 'cuz you won't be able to remove your make up, no rubbing you see....
2. Like I mentioned of no rubbing, you have to be careful otherwise you risk pulling out your natural lashes
3. Maintenance every month - additional costs
4. If you want to remove them - you can either go back to your beautician and pay to remove them, or wait for them to fall off (like me) one by one... But I'd have to say, its quite a pain to wait... 'Cuz you have a few strands dangling and you can't do anything about them. Sometimes they itch because they poke your lids and other days you can't apply mascara. That kinda su*ks... :/

How it felt:

Pretty much nothing when blinking and while you're doing your usual daily stuff.. The only time you'll feel it is during shower 'cuz you can't just rub water off your eyes or when you are using the towel to dry your eyes 'cuz you wiped too hard you can feel the extensions poking back at your lids. Other than that, I felt perfectly normal. :)

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want. I know alot of girls who got the extensions and could never stop going back I guess simply bcuz they wanted to look this pretty all the time...

Oh by the way this isn't a paid ad. Im writing about C. Lash because its my only experience.
C. Lash is home based in the East side and Stella does the services. She is a really friendly lady who does not chatter too much so you can rest assure that you get a peaceful time. I fell asleep both sessions, lol..

You can check out C. Lash here: http://curvaceouslash.com/about/

If you need to know more FAQs about eyelash extensions, you can visit Stella's FAQ section: http://curvaceouslash.com/test-page-1/

Pandora ˜ Bracelets & Charms.

Pandora; when I first heard about this name a couple years back, it appeared to me as a silver bracelet brand thats in the trend and highly raved by many. I kinda associated it with the next "IT" bracelet, just like how Tiffany & Co. took our shores about (erm.... I think?) 10 years ago. Well tho it (Pandora) being the next in bracelet just like many others, I did find a particularly classy & different touch to the usual jewelry we're all used to wearing or even seen advertised on magazines. How should I put it? Yes yes, I know they are just silver charm bracelets, I'd simply say they're kinda a grown up version of it. ;)

Here are some lovely bracelet creations from Pandora.....

Well yes... at that point of time all I thought of them (the bracelets) were "Oh, they're pretty charm bracelets".... nothing more. It didn't occur to me the uniqueness of these little jewelry until the time I had my hands on one.

For me, I usually do not buy jewelry for myself as I've always had the thought of them as sentimental gifts. (eg. from my partner, parent, or best friend) So it was a month before my 26th birthday and as usual my bunch of primary school besties were waiting for my birthday wish-list I had for that year. I came up with the idea of having all my loved ones buy me one (charm at least) to make up the whole bracelet as momentous I can look at to remember all of them. So on my wish-list I mentioned to them "Pandora".... tho not mentioning what item was it exactly that I wanted nor any of them knowing if I had a bracelet or not, I wanted to be surprised.

And without any disappointment, my BFFs got me my first pair of Pandora charms.
I was delighted. :D

Well it would have been nice if I could have matching ones with my BFFs (one side each), but then again there're 4 of us......so they gave it as a pair to me. Still happy that I got them, just gotta find my next sponsor for the silver bracelet.

Well I'll cut the story short...

My Dad & his wife got me a bracelet set (bracelet + 2 clips + a heart charm) for birthday. They bought them on board the plane when they visited SG....

And this was how my bracelet looked in the beginning. :)

**Oh yes, and a quick pointer is that the bracelet set sold on board are of standard 19cm sized. If you have smaller wrists, I doubt it'll be a good fit. So it'd be better to get them off retail outlets instead.

And how could my partner not get me any right? So it came during Vday... I guess like many other girls who got their guys to gift them for the special day. Lol. I received a Murano Bead & Jared Dangle Charm from my Man.

My current collection......

To be honest im pretty happy with my collection now but of course my goal is to have ALL my loved ones reminding me of them (even more so because they aren't by me side).. Well, im now short of my dear Brother and my Mom (*giggles*).... I've looked up on what I wanted as momentous from them and I decided to have an Alpha V Charm from my bro, since we're both "V"s.... and a Happiness Charm from my Mommy to remind me that happiness comes from within. *smiles* :)

I made an online prototype of how it would look like after adding the 2 charms..
(using their design tool) Quite nice huh?

I know to some... its some how or rather just another excuse to spend money but I find the whole concept rather sellable... They sold the idea of letting you gain momentous from your loved ones. Genius... 

Im sold.

To Summarize Why I Love Pandora Charm Bracelets... They are............

1. Very personal & customizable

2. Sturdy thick bracelet (not afraid of breaking them as Im a sporty person who keeps them on 24/7)

3. Have I mentioned about their "screw" system??? - you have to screw in the charms. This way it prevents the charms from falling out when you unclip your bracelet. You could even add "clips" to stop the charms from running from centre position to the ends, or "safety clips" to prevent charms from falling off when the bracelet is unclipped. I have to say, this is the best feature ever!!! 

4. Clip/snap closure for easy wearing - instead of the usual claw hooks

If you are new to Pandora's bracelets, you'll probably not get what I am talking about.. But I assure you its really simple, just choose your bracelet, then your charm, and Viola! You will love it! ;)

-To create a prototype, go to: http://www.pandora.net/en-sg/explore/inspiration/create-combine/bracelet-designer 

- For Pandora size guide, go to: https://estore-uk.pandora.net/on/demandware.static/Sites-en-GB-Site/Sites-en-GB-Library/default/v1378594849388/images/sizeguide/size_guide.pdf

Pandora not only sells bracelets and charms, they sell other jewelry like necklaces, rings, earrings and watches too. I personally love the charms bracelet collection best followed by the stackable rings.

Quite cute huh?

Pandora was found in 1982 (in Copenhagen, Denmark) and only came to Singapore sometime in 2009. To think of it, Pandora has won over many ladies hearts in just a short few years. And every special occasion I would see loads of photos posted by friends of their new jewelry received as gifts from their special someone or to their special self. 

Overrated? Maybe in a few years time.. Overall, Im in love with all the features I mentioned above. I still sold. :) I guess its just the part that its personal & customizable that even seeing many ladies wearing the same brand, same type of bracelet, we love it because it means something to us.

P A N D O R A . . . .   U N F O R G E T T A B L E   M O M E N T S