Avene To The Rescue

Before I move on to Adelaide, I thought I would quickly post about a couple of the products that have literally saved my skin over the last few weeks. A little over a month ago my skin was having a really strange reaction to pretty much all of my products, many of which I've been using for more than a year now and have never had any problems with. Thankfully there were no issues with my beloved MV Organics cleanser but when I moisturised it felt as if nothing was penetrating at all. And even when I spritzed with rosewater before moisturing, my skin still felt tight and started to look all red and blotchy. MV's rose soothing and protective moisturiser, Darphin's redness relief recovery cream and even Pai's rosehip bioregenrate fruit and seed oil (which had actually cleared up some weird dry patches that appeared on my cheeks just the week before) all failed to work. And when I attempted to apply sunscreen on top it just would not go on smoothly and would start pilling all over the place.  Sunsense, Neutrogena ultra sheer, La Roche Posay, even Cetaphil simply would not work. I couldn't even attempt to cover the splotchiness with tinted moisturiser because it too would just pill off.

I was pretty much at my wit's end when I remembered that I had purchased a small can of Avene's Thermal Spring Water as well as a tube of their Skin Recovery Cream a few months ago (which I bought on a whim after reading a great review and had barely used as usual) and seeing as how the products are specifically made for 'sensitive and intolerant skin' I figured they would be perfect. And they were! From the very first application the redness diminished and my skin actually felt hydrated. And within 24 hours it actually started to look the way it does during my one awesome good skin week I usually have per month.

I have honestly NEVER tried any products before that worked so quickly. And if it weren't for my semi-product ban due to the "amount of crap" (in Mr Ng's words) that I currently have in my drawer, I would've already gone and bought a whole bunch of other Avene products (I've got my eye on the Eluage Eye Contour Care, the Diroseal and the Cold Cream Body Lotion to name a few..). Looks like Avene products will now become a big part of the essential skincare items I can't live without.

Oops..

I have been so seriously lazy and have been neglecting my blogging for quite some time now so I thought I better get off my ass and finally do something about it!

So let's see what's been happening..Easter has come and gone and this year Mr Ng and I had a very quiet one - unlike last year's super short trip to HK over the Easter weekend to sort out the wedding invites (how sad, no more wedding to plan so we can't use that excuse to bugger off to HK for four nights anymore).

Anyways, Easter of course consisted of the consumption of many a hot cross bun:

as well as the demolition of too many chocolate eggs, including the obligatory giant egg from Mr Ng which I only just managed to finish today:

I informed Mr Ng last year that I had decided it would be a good idea for him to gift me an awesome egg every Easter (much to his protests that only fathers should need to buy Easter eggs for their daughters, although I have no idea where he got that from) so it will be interesting to see if he's able to keep it up in the years to come. However I must give him credit for this year's superb choice, it managed to trump last year's Darrell Lea giant egg both in taste AND weight!

Ok, what else..unfortunately the Manolo's that I mentioned here had to go back as they were slightly too big and all the smaller sizes had already sold out. Quite sad as it really is such a beautiful shoe with the style being very similar to the CL Pigalles (no wonder I was drawn to them!)

On a side note, this is the first time I have ordered something online from Saks and I have to say I am quite impressed. When a return is required all you have to do is email Customer Service for your RMA and they'll email you back all the documentation required (they responded to my email within half an hour) which you then simply pass on to DHL. And although the processing of the return is definitely not as fast as Net-A-Porter you are credited the exact same amount in the currency you originally paid in - however this is minus the new shipping charges for the return which you are informed of when you receive your RMA (which in my case was AUD43, so significantly more than the AUD19.95 express shipping which I originally paid). But considering I was expecting the return process to be more like Shopbop's where international shoppers are required to organise the entire return themselves through their country's postal service, I was nevertheless quite impressed. If Saks continues to have express shipping promotions then I will no doubt be purchasing more from there in the future.

While I'm on the subject of shoes, I also ordered this pair of fluorescent pink Pigalles from Net-A-Porter (the description is accurate however the picture is very decieiving - these are such a bright shade of pink they practially glow in the dark) however I made the mistake of taking the sizing advice and ordering one full size up from my normal size which turned out to be way too huge. So back they went as well. I've found NAP sizing advice to be very hit and miss so it's good that they have such an easy and efficient returns system.

Well that's all for now. Next up - a short trip to Adelaide!

 

Phamish

When a Vietnamese restaurant makes it to the #15 spot of the top Sydney restaurants on Tripadvisor, I like to find out what  the fuss is all about. I've known about Phamish for a while now but never got around to trying it out myself until last week. Although I've realised that when it's just the two of us dining we really don't get to try out that many dishes:

fried crab dumplings

ginger and shallot chicken stir-fried with broccoli

duck salad

Tasty and fresh - but pricey! Mr Ng and I had the above dishes with tea and steamed rice and the total bill was ~$60. So while the atmosphere is nice and the food is good, I'm not sure we'll be rushing back anytime soon..might just stick to Pho An for our weekly Vietnamese fix.