Burt's Bees in Malaysia!

Yesterday I was at The Curve and pretty much walking aimlessly for awhile when I stopped and stared at something for a long while because I couldn't really believe my eyes. Right next to Border's Bookshop on the Ground floor of The Curve, were the renovations boards indicating that Burt's Bees ("Burt's") was going to be a new addition to the shops at The Curve!!!

I first learned about Burt's when I went to Singapore sometime last year and walked into Sephora. I bought the Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil just to try out the product. Suffice to say, I am very happy using this product as it keeps my lips smooth and moist. The pomegranate oil is supposed to infuse your lips with antioxidants.

Replenishing Lip Balm with Pomegranate Oil

Picture extracted from Burt's Bees website

Basically, the brand is all about using natural ingredients for its products. Currently, half of their products are 100% natural and the company is aiming to to meet a goal of 100% natural formulas for all their products. All products are free from the following:

• Sulfates
• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Petrochemicals

Currently, Burt's has the following product ranges : Lips, Face, Body, Hands and Feet, Hair, Baby and Mom, Men, Sun and Outdoor and Gift Packs. Let's hope that when the store opens in Malaysia, most of the products will be available. I would really love love to try out some of their other products, for example their Lip Shimmer products which I was told by the Sales Assistants in Sephora, were one of Burt's best selling items.

I believe the store will be open for business in another month or 2. You can read more about Burt's Bees' products at www.global.burtsbees.com.

Has anyone used Burt's Bees products before? If you have, please let me know which product you love and would recommend to others!

Update : The Burt's Bees store is now open at The Curve right next to Borders on the Ground Floor.

Update 2 : If you buy above RM200, you will be eligible for a loyalty card which entitles you to 10% off on all products for life and a 30% discount on the week of your birthday.

Serenity Gemz - CHRISTMAS OFFER

Serenity Gemz is currently offering a 25% discount on ALL items until 31st December 2009 as part of its Christmas promotion.

Do check it out and who knows? Perhaps pick out your own Christmas present? Hehe....

Totebags Galore!

Has anyone ever heard of the brand Rootote? It is a brand which was created in Japan in 2001 and it's called a Rootote because each bag has a convenient side pocket called a "Roo pocket" (as in kangaroo, I think). There are also convenient pockets to hold all your gadgets and stuff inside the bag. For those who are afraid to use bags with no zip enclosures (like me), you can put your purses and such in the Roo pocket as it is a cleverly hidden pocket with a zip enclosure at the side of the bag. To see what I mean, please visit Rootote.com.

Here are some pictures of the Rootote bags :

Cosmetic Pouch

The prices for the totebags ranges from RM50 to RM125 for limited editions. The cosmetic pouches retail for RM45. The bags made from polyester materials are priced at RM50 and the cotton canvas ones are priced from RM55 onwards. I have seen these and I feel that the material that is used for the totebags are strong and durable, perfect for everyday use. And the above are just a fraction of the designs that are available.

You can find the above bags at :

Life & Style Co.
P2-L1, Tropicana City Mall
No 3, Jalan SS20/27
47400 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan

The shop also sells other brands of totebags such as Funtote (from the USA) and Envirosax which are environmentally friendly designer shopping bags. Everyone should be encouraged to use these bags as their contribution in saving our environment!

Enjoy!!

Latest Arrivals on Serenity Gemz

This is just a short posting to all my readers that there are new arrivals from Foxy Originals on Serenity Gemz now!

Here is a preview to what's in store:

Casablanca Hairband from Foxy's latest Brazilia Collection - RM 135

Peacock Necklace from Foxy's latest Brazilia Collection - RM 180

Heaven Necklace by Foxy Originals - RM 170

Sahara Ring by Foxy Originals - RM 165

Love Birds Necklace by Foxy Originals - RM 180

Please visit the blog store for my new items. Serenity Gemz is currently having promotions as follows :

Buy 2 items - get 15% discount off total value

Buy 3 items and above - get 20% discount off total value + one large size velvet gift pouch

MAC Cosmetics Store - Pavilion Shopping Center

I just want to make a short posting on something I was quite surprised with. A few months back, I bought a lip gloss from MAC Cosmetics from their Plushglass range. I decided to try this range because it was supposed to plump your lips, or rather, make your lips look plumper than usual and it contained peppermint as part of its ingredient (and it makes your lips tingle when you have peppermint in any lip product).

Anyhow, my lips felt funny the first time I used the Plushglass but I didn't think too much about it. It felt like there were small, tiny rashes on my lips (invisible to the naked eye but you can feel it) and the lips felt rough in texture. I decided to then take note and put on the Plushglass again, and this time, the same tiny rashes on my lips appeared and it took about one week for my lips to go back to normal! I was so freaked out and was telling a friend of mine about it. She encouraged me to go back to the store and ask for a refund or an exchange since I was obviously somehow allergic to the product.

Now if I was overseas, I would have definitely gone back to the store and asked for a refund or exchange but as we all know, it's difficult to do so in Malaysia. Anyhow, since I had plenty of time on my hands, I thought I would try by first calling up the store and telling them my story. I was pleasantly surprised as the store manager told me to bring the product back along with my receipt and that they would gladly exchange it for another product.

So off I went happily to the store and all I had to do was fill in a form which actually had questions like 'What was the result of using the product?' in it. Does this mean lots of people have allergic reaction to their products? It was quite a long form to fill up but I was glad to do it. Better than having a brand new lip gloss lying around going to waste right? :)

Co-incidentally, I have to say that the MAC Store in Pavilion is the only one that I like going to. Why? Because the people at the other MAC Stores make you feel like an idiot that shouldn't be buying MAC stuff if you don't know how to put on make up. And they are usually not very polite when they are doing so. However, the service staff at the Pavilion store seems more polite, not pushy and very helpful, especially a girl called Chloe. So anytime I want anything from MAC, I will make the effort to go all the way down to the Golden Triangle. :)

Has anyone ever had the same experience that I had shopping at other MAC stores?

Sephora in Singapore

This post is about my recent visit into Sephora Singapore at ION Orchard during Merdeka Weekend. This is actually not my first visit to Sephora as I had already visited the Sephora in New York about 10 years ago. Only then, I was much younger and wasn't really interested in cosmetics so, did not think that Sephora was a big deal. Hahaha.

Anyhow, I was not allowed to take pictures of the inside of the Sephora store. Yes, I was a geek and asked the store people if I could, and they said 'no'. So, here's a picture of the store front.

It is actually a very spacious store and I hope that in the future they will choose to bring in more brands. For now, they have the following brands (I will try to list the brand names from Memory):

• Sephora (in-house brand)
• MAC
• SK II
• Pop Beauty (UK brand)
• Smashbox
• Too Faced
• Clinique
• Clarins
• Kose
• Bare Minerals
• Bliss
• Burt's Bees
• Makeup Forever
• Dr.Hauschka
• Federik Fekkai
• Nvey
• Dior
• Sisley

There's more but that's about all I can remember. They also sell perfumes by a lot of brands so Sephora is not only for skincare and cosmetics. :)

Basically I was only interested in Burt's Bees and Bare Minerals products as I have heard good things about it and wanted to try Bare Minerals foundation powder. There were many sales assistants around and I would say most of them were very polite except for the one that attended to me at the Bare Minerals counter. Anyhow, I bit my tongue and walked away with only one product (if she had been nicer to me, perhaps I would have walked away with more). Hahaha.

I apparently have yellow toned skin so the SA matched me with the mineral foundation in 'Light'. I have been browsing bare minerals online but was quite shocked when I saw the size of this thing up close. The above only contains 2 grams worth of powder and costs SGD48 (about RM 118). Although on the upside, it provides you with a sun protection factor of 15 (i.e. SPF 15).

I must say though that after trying the mineral foundation, I really love it. It gives my skin a natural finish with some coverage and on the overall, you get a glowing look. If you want light coverage, use a normal powder brush to apply it on your face. However, if you want a little more coverage, then use a kabuki brush to really buff the powder onto your face. The only downside is my pores becomes a little bit more apparent than normal but no one has commented on that fact yet! ;) I will be going back to Singapore in October and thinking if I should try something else from them. Hehe. You can read more about Bare Minerals cosmetic line by Bare Escentuals here.

I also got some brushes from Sephora's own line of brushes. First was the angle brush for cheeks, then another flat round top brush for either blusher, bronzer or powder and a crease contour brush. The brushes range from SGD20 to SGD35 and they are made of natural hair (whatever that means). Hahaha. But they are very soft although I haven't used it yet...Still too new. Hehehe.

I also bought a lip balm from Burt's Bees and another eyeshadow palette from Pop Beauty. I would say that the eyeshadows from Pop Beauty are pigmented and very smooth to the touch. I have not used them yet so I can't comment on whether it's long lasting or whether it goes on nicely.

I just wished that Sephora brought in Urban Decay because I really love the eyeshadows and eyeshadow primer potion! We can remain hopeful. :))

Feel free to leave me your thoughts on Sephora Singapore!

New Collection at Serenity Gemz

Serenity Gemz has just added to its list of quality handcrafted jewelry, a collection by Lotus Jewelry Studio flown in all the way from USA. This collection basically consists of sterling silver round tags which are either hand stamped with initials in script font style or with words such as 'Peace', 'Hope', 'Faith' and 'Luck'. 16 inch chains are included with the tags.

Each necklace is priced at RM 175.

20% discount is given on ALL items until 30th September 2009!

Serenity Gemz

I am very excited to be introducing my new blog shop named Serenity Gemz. My aim is to find and offer uniquely handcrafted items of jewelry which is not currently available in Malaysia. As a start, Serenity Gemz currently offers a line of jewelry from Foxy Originals, a fun and unique brand from Canada.

Foxy Originals jewelry are all handmade with lead-free pewter, then dipped in 14 kt gold, sterling silver or bronze. The items are well made, solid and comes in so many designs, you wouldn't even know where to start. Some of my favorite pieces are as follows:

Medina Necklace

Holly Earrings

At the moment, I am only stocking Foxy Originals. However, from time to time, I endeavor to look for other unique jewelry lovingly handcrafted by different designers to be added on to my blog shop. You may either click on the logo picture above or the link under 'Shopaholic's Haven' at my sidebar to get to the blog shop.

Happy Shopping!

As You Like It

My favorite florist is what As You Like It is. Let's just say I have been their loyal customer since about 2003 (I think. My memory fails me).  I can't really remember now how I got to know them but there was no turning back after I found them.  I love their flower arrangements which are always sweet and well co-ordinated.  I even used them for the flower arrangements at my wedding. For what my budget allowed, I was very pleased with the result. The following are just some pictures that I managed to find.

I will say that I have never been disappointed with the arrangements done for me.  Usually, I just give the owner, Valerie Lim, a budget and she has the free hand to come up with any arrangement that she feels appropriate. Valerie is an extremely nice and patient lady even when she is uber busy. They first started with a shop located at Plaza Prisma Ville in Desa Sri Hartamas but have since set up a new place at Bangsar Shopping Centre located on the Ground Floor.