It's A Family Affair: Meet My Insta-Family

L-R: Top: @edwardkb || @jeromecan Bottom: @reycanlasjr || @keso_k

When I say 'Insta-family' I'm not talking about the people who I've met and become friends with through Instagram, I'm talking about my actual family on Instagram.

You know how the saying goes - "The family that 'grams together stays together." That's how it goes, right?

Ok, so let me introduce you...

What's on my face - Benefit Bigger Than BB Big Easy

I thought buying make-up in Hong Kong would be easy. Big city, lots of expats to cater for, and since I'm of South East Asian descent, I thought if there's anywhere I'm going to be able to buy the right colour match for my skin, it would be around this part of the world, right?  Wrong. I went to buy my usual foundation Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua in shade B50 and was told... "No, too dark." They didn't stock B50. The darkest shade they had was B30. Whaaat?

Anyway, long story short - I am only able to get that foundation now when travelling or if friends come to visit. This meant I had to look for alternatives. Since it was so hot and humid here, I found I was not actually wearing foundation as much as it would basically just slide off my face. Turns out, foundation did not stand a chance against the tag-team of my face grease and sweat. Attractive, I know.

My search for alternatives did not get very far. I went back to another foundation I liked - Skin by Bobbi Brown, at least this foundation had a wide variety of shades. Next, came Dr Jart's Water Fuse BB Cream that I bought from Sasa, my first foray into BB creams. Which leads me to what I'm using now - Benefit's Bigger Than BB Big Easy.

Time to Party Party! - Fun Photo Apps

Made with: Party Party

Whoa! I bet this was more of my face than you were expecting to see. Probably should have put a warning up. Oh well. 

The other day as I was doing some essential reading - i.e. catching up on my favourite blogs, I came across this post from A Beautiful Mess. They had launched a new app called - Party Party.

It was an app that basically turned your smart phone into a photobooth-in-your-pocket. However, the feature that intrigued me the most was the ANIMATED GIFS! I couldn't press my thumb print down fast enough to confirm my purchase from the App store. If you haven't already guessed, I love a .gif. 

I do quite like these fun photo apps. Sometimes you just want to pull a funny face and be ridiculous. So apart from Party Party here are some more of my faves currently on my iPhone...

Beauty Chores: Cleaning Make-Up Brushes

Even though I try not to wear much make-up in the hot and humid weather of Hong Kong, sometimes needs must and make-up brushes must be used. This also means, that said make-up brushes must also be cleaned. Snooooooze.

Cleaning make-up brushes isn't the most thrilling of tasks, but if there is something that will get the job done quickly and get the job done right, then I am all for it.

Trying my hand at hand lettering and calligraphy

When we moved to Hong Kong, I had to make a decision on what arts & crafts stuff was going to come with me. To be honest, not a lot of stuff made the cut, and I only brought with me my rubber stamp carving tools and a few calligraphy pens - small, compact, easy to pack and transport. Since I've been here, I've carved a total of one stamp. Yep, just the one.

I love making stuff or just doing something creative, but without any of my art materials I've been looking for other creative outlets.

Recently, I've become obsessed with hand lettering and calligraphy, and am super jealous of illustrators / designers / calligraphers etc, who can all put pen to paper and conjour up beautiful letters and type. Ok, jealous isn't the right word... well, maybe just a tad. I'm actually very inspired by them and their creativity, and of course impeccable handwriting skills.

McBloglovin'

Hey hey friends

Just in case you wanted to keep up to date with whatever I post, you can in a number of ways...
1) You can subscribe to my RSS feed --> You'll find it over there by the social icons.
2) Follow by email --> Again, you'll find the box is over on the right
3) Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hope that helps and hopefully I'll be able to keep up with some regular(ish) posting.

P.S Don't forget to check the archives if you ever need something to read, as sometimes I post about things that may have happened in the past, but I like to insert them into the blog as if I wrote about it at that time. Got to keep things in chronological order. Does that make sense?

Summer Wishlist: River Island Strappy Cami

This is now my second summer in Hong Kong, and I wouldn't say that I have fully acclimatised but at least I don't feel like I'm going to burst into flames like a vampire coming into contact with the sun anymore. Progress, right?

I've never been one for warm weather dressing. I'm a sweater, not the knitted garment kind, the sweating kind. This means I've always found it hard to dress for the heat. I don't want to be all damp and feel like my clothes are stuck to me, and god forbid visible sweat patches. 

My Hong Kong summer uniform right now consists of a lot of denim shorts and sleeves tees and tanks. Although they tick all the right boxes in terms of comfort, sometimes I feel a little too casual. That's where these strappy camis from River Island come in...

Smart-ish, different from a regular cami/vest, can be dressed up or down, will keep me cool in the heat, and comfortable... tick tick and tick tick tick (or check, to you American English folk). 

I've never been a huge River Island fan in the past as a lot of the clothes had far too many diamante details and embellishments for my liking, but I think these understated strappy camis are a winner. 

All that's left for me to do is order them. Thank goodness they ship internationally! 

If you have any tips for dressing in the heat or staying cool - feel free to share them in the comments below. 

What's On My Face? - Cleansers

I'm a bit late to the cleansing oil / balm party, but as they say... better late than never, right?

Lunch Hour

When you work from home, 'lunch time' can be anytime. Heck, if I feel like being a rebel, sometimes I'll even have it before midday or sometimes, not at all! *Gasp*.

Today, was a definite lunch day and pictured above is what I ate.  Nothing super fancy, but definitely tasty. I thought it made for a colourful plate, so I thought I would share.

What's on my plate:
- Chicken sausages
- Halloumi
- Scrambled eggs
- Cherry tomatoes
- Spinach
- Avocado
- Crispy shallots

Annual blog post time!

It would seem I have fallen into the bad habit of posting once a year and then falling into a blogging slumber, not to be seen again for at least another 365 days.

Well, I am awake now!