Oopsie..

Ok so I know I'm supposed to be on a major shopping ban but it's not my fault that Black Friday deals are just so damn good! In case you didn't already know, last Friday was the day after Thanksgiving and is referred to as Black Friday which is pretty much America's equivalent to our Boxing Day (but SO much better imo). I've only ever been in Hawaii once three years ago for Black Friday but omg it was awesome. Fortunately though for those of us not living in the States or lucky enough to be on holidays there around this time, many American online retailers also participate in the sales and this year was no exception.

Having been eyeing a couple of pairs of shoes for (what feels like) the longest time, I guess it was inevitable I was gonna take advantage of Shopbop's spend and save offer. Starting with a pair of black Newbury boots by Rag & Bone which I first read about on Goop's 'Packing tips for travel' newsletter back in August. There are so many great reviews of these boots over at Shopbop and I've gotta say they are all pretty much true - these boots are so amazingly comfortable, and feel more like flats than heels:

Just for reference (because I'm always searching other people's blogs for sizing advice) these ran true to size for me although I probably won't wear thick socks with mine.

This next pair is all Mr Ng's fault after he bought a copy of HK's Next Magazine featuring an article on Kelly Chen's outfits of the week:

                                                                         image from the Nov 08 issue of Next

I love Kelly Chen, and I love her style even more so into the shopping cart her Ash sneakers went as well:

Again for reference, I took these in my usual size and I can most definitely still wear these comfortably with thickish socks on. However these are available in whole sizes only so if you're between sizes it probably would be best to size down (so much for no more black shoe purchases..).

The 'Big Event' spend and save promotion is still on for another few more hours so scoot on over there now before it's too late!

Bioderma In Oz!

I've blinked and it's now only 5 weeks away from Christmas - my absolute favourite time of the year. And this year it will be especially exciting as Mr Ng and I will be holidaying with my parents over the Christmas period in Singapore before going to Malaysia to celebrate my Grandmother's 90th birthday. And then it will be off to Tokyo just the two of us to celebrate my own birthday - the first time going to Japan for both of us so I can't wait!

But due to the upcoming travels I've been trying very very hard to curb my spending, and sticking pretty much to necessities only i.e. beauty products. Unfortunately with zero trips to either HK or the States this year I've been unable to stock up on some of my favourites and have been forced to pay the sky high prices for them here (though I suppose I should be grateful that they are even stocked here in the first place).

I've mentioned this before but one of my all-time favourites is still Bioderma's Crealine H2O which I use as a pre-cleanse to take off my make-up before I do a proper cream cleanser cleanse. I actually ran out of this a couple of months ago and have been using other cleansing waters by Vichy and Caudalie which I picked up on previous trips overseas. But I have to say ever since I stopped the Bioderma the condition of my skin has really started to deteriorate - I break out much more than usual these days and my redness has really started to increase.

So after a bit of googling I was so happy to discover that as of earlier this year Bioderma products are actually stocked at quite a few pharmacies around New South Wales and Victoria! And low and behold I managed to pick one up from a pharmacy just down the road from me:

250mL retails for a crazy $AU39.95 (I pay less than that for 500mL in HK) but at least I got a bunch of cotton pads for free which makes me feel a little better lol.

Cosmetiques de France is the exclusive distributor of Bioderma products in Australia and you can go to their website here to find a stockist near you.

Totally off topic now but the other week I was at the movies and saw a trailer for Ang Lee's new movie Life Of Pi.
My opinion? BEST. TRAILER. EVER.