Review: Shiseido Tsubaki Head Spa Range

I realised that I haven't been reviewing about my favourite shampoo of all times.
Tsubaki, pronounced as TSOO-bah-ki, also means Camellia in Japanese, and we all know how well Camellia treats hair:

• Softer and more manageable hair
• Restoring hair's natural sheen
• Helping hair retain moisture
• Forming a silky barrier against environmental pollutants
• Repairing breakage and split ends
• Treating dry scalp and itchiness
• Preventing dandruff
• Treating damage from perms and coloring

Have been using the Shiseido Tsubaki range of shampoos since my first visit to Japan in 2009.
You know, they have toiletries provided in almost all stays in Japan, and I was sooooo amazed with the range they had at the hotels I stayed at. 
They were mostly poured and dispensed with those stuck on the walls dispensers, and were mostly by Japanese brands - Shiseido and/or Kose.
Those they were considered as "common" toiletries, they were so darn good.
My hair instantly fizzed out after 1 wash, and my skin felt smooth due to the milk content in their body wash.
I was sold!
Thus, I packed the entire range - shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, hair spray, into my extremely small luggage and flew them back to Singers.
I figured that I needed the white range (also known as the Shiseido Tsubaki Damage Care range), more than the red one (Shiseido Tsubaki Shining range).
It was super good!
And I have been using it until 2 years back, I've made a switch to the Head Spa range.

I first laid eyes on the advertisement outside a Sa Sa shop in ShaTin Shopping Centre.
The packaging was of a brilliant gold hue and I fell for it!
Heh, in the end I lugged back the entire set from Hong Kong and started using it.
The Head Spa range contains 4 products that include Head Spa Extra Cleansing, Head Spa Shampoo, Head Spa Conditioner and Head Spa Mask. 

Tsubaki Head Spa meant to provide a relaxing experience like in a spa salon, allowing us, women, to care for their scalp to achieve shiny and healthy hair at the comfort of their home.
After the first wash, I really feel quite a spa-sation. 
I kinda like the cooling menthol sensation on the scalp. 
It's really refreshing and makes my head feel lightweight.
I feel totally loved after shampooing, just like walking out of a spa.

The wanderlustie loves the conditioner too.
According to him, he likes that it's not overly fragrant (it does have a very warm, light scent), and it really keeps his hair soft and manageable.

Next is the Head Spa Extra Cleansing Shampoo with Essential Oil.
This shampoo is a deep cleansing hair product that helps to remove buildup of styling products. It can remove dirt, excess sebum and residual in order to keep the healthiness of your scalp. Contains extract of Camellia and Oleic Acids for light moisturizing.
I like using this shampoo once a week to thoroughly clean my sculp.
My mane will feel extra luxurious after this once-a-week wash.

Do get your favourite range to try now!

Available: All major pharmacies, $19.90 for shampoo and conditioner. $15.90 for Extra Cleansing.

Volume: 550 ml for shampoo and conditioner. 280 ml for Extra Cleansing.

Star Properties: With Natural Essential Oil.

Packaging
It comes in a pump bottle that is ergonomically designed so you can wrap your hand nicely around the slimmer waist and grab it well.

For more information about Shiseido:
www.shiseido.co.jp

Review: Award Winning Laneige Sleeping Pack

What is the biggest organ in our bodies?

You might be surprised to find out it's the skin, which you might not think of as an organ. 
No matter how you think of it, your skin is very important. 
It covers and protects everything inside your body. 
Without skin, people's muscles, bones, and organs would be hanging out all over the place. 

Skin holds everything together. It also:

- Protects our bodies
- Helps keep our bodies at just the right temperature
- Allows us to have the sense of touch

My girlies once commented that though my face has a couple of pock marks around, I have a beautiful un-lined neck.
What they meant by un-lined is that my neck does not look like it's aging much (choy!), and they wanted me to share the secret behind my un-lined neck.
There isn't any secret - other than drinking loads of water, maintain a fix 8 hours of rest, and much exercise time.
As age catches up with everyone, it's very hard to maintain the flawless baby skin which we once had. 

With hectic schedules, terrible air quality, harmful sun rays, drying air conditioned environments, collagen is broken down and our skin is sagging almost every time we defy gravity or tug and pull at them.

As much as I try to drink loads of water (but not before bedtime 'cos it will turn into water retention) and place a full cup of water by my bed, my skin still feel dehydrated when I wake up in the morning.

That's where my trusty Water Sleeping Pack from Laneige comes into play.
I've been a loyal fan of the Water Sleeping Pack for 4 years, and currently into my 5th tub.

As we all know, our skin is at its most hard working state when we are asleep.
Cells will be busy repairing themselves, and generating new cells to repair us for a new day ahead, night time skin transmission is definitely at a higher rate than the one in the day time. 
Thus, applying the Water Sleeping Pack right before bed time, is the best state for the skin to maximize the efficiency of overnight water supply.

Enriched with Beta-glucan, Water Sleeping Pack_EX deeply hydrates fatigue and dry skin while Ceramide SLN formula strengthens the skin barrier. 
With containing the Snow Water, it helps to keep your skin look more crystal clear and vitalized. 
What's more, I love smelling it!
No kidding, it contains an aromatic essence compound exclusively developed by AMOREPACIFIC, Sleepscent™(Patent application No. 10-2009-0043726), helps to relax your mind and body and derive for a good sleep. 
A good sleep effect allowing sufficient relaxation eventually reinforces skin restoration for healthier skin condition. Essential oils from Orange Flower, Rose, Ylang Ylang, Sandal Wood etc. are contained in the Sleepscent™. 
Its light weight gel texture is non sticky and easily absorbed into the skin too.
Apart from applying a layer over my face, I will apply a thin layer on my neck as well.
It doesn't look too good if your face is baby smooth but wrinkles can be seen on your neck.

How to apply:

Try to release the muscle tension of head, forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth, chin and neck.

Try to centralize all the muscle of the face to the nose tip and pause for 3 seconds.

Open your eyes as wide as you can and try to lift up the eye brows. Open your mouth and try to pull down your nose tip. Pause for 3 seconds and relax the face muscle.

After all, there is a saying that women ages through their necks and hands.
But before I touch on the topic of hands, why not start protecting your necks first?

Credits to Laneige Singapore

Review: Sharp Plasmacluster Ion Air Purifier

Holla!

Hope that the long weekend was well rested for all.

I didn't really get the maximal rest due to my cloggy nose which has been a pain every night.

After reading up on reviews of some air purifier, mr wanderlustie decided that we should get one to try.

There are some pretty good ones in the market but mr wanderlustie decided on getting this:

It was the Plasmacluster Air Purifier from Sharp.

It is not the highest range from Sharp but it's good enough for my tiny room.

Featuring the High Density Plasmacluster Ion Technology, it powerfully and quickly removes airborne particles.

According to the website, "Plasmacluster" Technology is a form of Air Treatment Solution patented by Sharp. Plasmacluster Ions differ from general disinfection systems in that they change into "OH radicals" on the surface of the molds and viruses, etc. The ions form OH radicals that are highly oxidising only when they adhere to the surfaces of mold, viruses etc. They instantly remove the Hydrogen protein from the surface proteins, breaking them down. The OH radicals then combine with Hydrogen (H) to form Water (H2O) which returns to the air.

Another wonderful feature of this machine is that it has an odor sensor which monitors the air in the room - which is awesome!

You know how humid Singers is and most of times, moisture will be retained in pillows and blankets and if you don't get time to sun/dry/air them during weekends, they will smell.

So with the odor sensor, it actually monitors the air, and detects if there are any odors in the air.

Me, being me, just had to try to see if the sensor actually works. 

And so, I breathed into the sensor, and in a split second, the fan speed increases and you could feel more ions being released to "clear" the air.

To see the cleanliness of the air, there is also the Clean Sign Indicator. 

The indicator shows the level of impurities in the air so it's easy to see the progress as it returns cleaner air into the room.

I'm actually quite impressed with this indicator but it's a little too bright in a dark room, especially when the lights are off in preparation of a good night's sleep.

There is this function whereby you can choose to switch off by pressing on the ion button for 3 seconds - and the indicator will be switched off.

Who needs to really monitor the indicator when you sleep, right?

I also like that the fan speed is automatically switched, meaning that once the sensors detect that there are more impurities in the air than usual, the fan speed will be automatically switched on (high, medium, low). 

With this mean function, it also means that it's very energy saving, and energy saving also means cost saving!

When the air in your room is clean, it will automatically go onto low.

With only 3 buttons on the simple designed control panel, it is extremely user-friendly.

Of course, there are various models suited for various room sizes and conditions.

Though it's very bad to wake up to a drying mouth and I will definitely appreciate the KC range (models with humidifier function) better, it's not exactly ideal to put in my room full with camera lens and leather bags.

Thus, i shall leave that for the new nest.

Til then, keep calm and breathe clean!

Make Traveling a Blast with a Power Pack List

When I made my first trip to Europe, I didn't realise that the weather would be so cold - after all, I've only been to the coldest place being 14 degrees celsius max.

Upon reaching Vienna, the wanderlusties were freezing until our noses were drippy. 
It was a cooling day with sunshine, with temperatures hovering around 7 degrees celsius.
However, when night fell (and we were making our way out), the winds came along, and I literally felt the temperatures fall about another 2-3 degrees.

Silly us were totally unprepared for the coldness - with just a light down jacket, a parka and some wool scarfs. 
The bones around my ankle area were "chilling out" cos clever me, just packed ankle socks, and I was wearing my puma sneakers.
We thought the temperature at night was the torturous one - until the following, it snowed.
I thought snowing was fine, just as long as the winds don't howl.
But I was soooooo wrong cos snow would mean wet grounds and wet grounds would mean getting my sneakers soaked.
Sighs, I trotted around cautiously for the entire day, but the tip of my shoes would still be wet, and my "chilling" ankles will just get colder til my feet could feel themselves no more.
Snowing in Vienna was beautiful, and I almost fell in love over again.
Then we had to take the train to our next destination - Budapest.
Budapest was no warmer than Vienna, and the snowfall was growing thicker.
The temperatures in the day hovered around 5 degrees celsius, while the nights were about 2 degrees celsius.
I got kinda worried about the weather at our next destination - Zagreb.
And soon enough, we were on board the train headed there.
As the train ride was approximately 6 hours, we felt a little warm during the day but well, as night fell, i felt the chill creeping into the cabin.
As if the darkness outside didn't look terrifying enough, I started to panic when I could see nothing except a HUGGGGGEEEE bare land covered in super thick blanket of snow.
Luckily our stay for the night was just right outside the train station, so upon our check in, I checked the temperature for the night - -3 degrees celsius.

O.M.G.
The wanderlusties were just walking around in a layer of heat tech, parka and the down jacket.
I personally, didn't have any mood for walking, just wanna hide in the hotel and chill.
So we "chilled" the night away.
Then came morning where we were supposed to head to the famous Plitvice Lakes.
The bus journey there was all warm and comforting but when we arrived there, it was -6 degrees celsius.

Ok, that was it, no more cold places for me from now on.
We trotted cautiously around, just in case we stepped on frozen lakes, but the place was just awesome in white.
Moving on we headed to warmers places - Dubrovnik, Rome, Athens, Santorini, Istanbul, Cappadocia and Dubai.

So for you future wanderers, I've posted this very useful guide (many thanks to Cold Wear) of what to pack for your trips, cold or not.


BELOW 6

LAYER ONE
Wool/polyester thermal set
Brushed polyester leggings

LAYER TWO
Nylon ski pants (water-repellent)
Corduroy pants (wind-proof lining)

LAYER THREE
Wool sweaters
Wool cardigans

LAYER FOUR
Down-feather jackets
Wool coat

ACCESORIES
Woolen/acrylic scarf
Woolen/acrylic hat
Woolen/leather gloves
Wool socks
Ear mufffs – if below 0°C
Chemical warmers – Placed in pockets
Chemical warmers – Stick to socks

7°C to 12°C

LAYER ONE

Cotton/polyester thermal set

LAYER TWO

Long sleeve tees with Nylon ski pants (water-repellent)

Corduroy pants (wind-proof lining)

Corduroy windproof pants (wind-polyfill)

LAYER THREE

Wool/acrylic sweaters

Wool/acrylic cardigans

Polyester padded jackets

3-in-1 jackets

Polar fleece cardigans

ACCESSORIES

Woolen/acrylic scarf

Woolen/acrylic hat

Woolen/acrylic scarf/ leather gloves

Wool socks

13°C to 18°C

LAYER ONE

Long sleeve/short sleeve tees with Corduroy pants

(wind-proof lining)

LAYER TWO

Wind breaker

3-in-1 jackets

Cotton lined lightweight jackets

Polyester lined lightweight jackets

Fleece jackets

ACCESORIES

Wool mix/cotton/polyester mix socks

Life's.... As Per Normal

So this blog has been on sabbatical for more than a year.
I'm gonna revive it and get it back on tracks.
2012 marks a milestone in my life.
The wanderlustie and myself traveled quite a bit, ate quite a lot, got ourselves super busy, and we finally got married.

To get things back in track, I've made some changes to this site, namely to classify different topics with the various labels located on top of the site, and to re-organize some of the materials featured here.
This blog will mainly be a travelogue, featuring most of our humble opinions.
On the sideline, I'll also feature my own beauty holy grail, and things which I've tried and have work.