i Light Marina Bay 2014

Good Day Everyone,

I absolutely love Singapore at night. It looks so beautiful when it’s all lit up and conveys a beauty that just isn’t possible by day. Singapore is also a great place to be if you enjoy photography as it has some very interesting modern architecture and the contrast in its beauty by day versus night means that there’s lots of opportunity to take some amazing photographs.

Singapore's Central Business District

The Helix bridge and the Marina Bay Sands hotel

Wonder Full, The Marina Bay Sands light show that happens 2-3 times a night

A random brightly lit bike that you often see around Singapore

The other great thing about Singapore is that there is always something going on and right now there are two fantastic events on that, if you can, you should definitely go check out. The first is the i Light Marina Bay (website), which is Asia’s only sustainable light art festival. The theme of this year’s festival is Light+heART and it features 28 innovative and environmentally sustainable light installations from around the world. The participating artists have incorporated recyclable materials and energy efficient lighting in the creation of their pieces. 

The festival is a free event located along the Marina Bay Waterfront and as well as the amazing art installations there are a whole host of events and activities running concurrently. These include boat tours, markets, bazaars, skating activities and even Glo-Yoga plus a lot more.

 

 

The light festival has two routes and you’d be hard pushed to complete both on the same night as there’s a lot to see. There are three information kiosks dotted along the routes where you can pick up maps and there are information points displaying maps along the route so if you don’t have a map with you, you can see exactly where you are along the route. The festival is on 7^th – 30^th March 7.30-11pm and is a must see, in my books.

Information point

In addition, MOSAIC Music Festival Singapore (website) is currently on (7^th-16^th March) in and around the Esplanade Theatre which consists of both ticketed and free music presentations covering a range of genres including jazz, soul, pop, electronic and rock. So if you’re in Singapore and looking for some evening entertainment you have a lot to choose from.

 

The Esplanade Theatre (the two domes)

I hope you enjoyed the photos above and got a bit of a taste of what we managed to see this weekend :o)

Love Sheen xxx

MAC Strobe Cream

Good Day Everyone,

The weather in Singapore has been so dry lately that lush green grass on the sidewalks is now looking very dry and straw like. I can’t even remember the last time it rained but I know weather records have been broken during this long dry spell. The dry weather combined with the effects of indoor air con has taken a bit of a toll on my skin, which has always been on the dry side to begin with.

I’ve upped my game when it comes to skin moisturisation and due to the hot weather makeup has been kept to a minimal but one product that I have been reaching for almost daily is my MAC Strobe Cream. Now MAC categorises their Strobe Cream under skincare as a moisturiser, but to me this isn’t a moisturiser, but a skin illuminator, that can also be used as a highlighter. 

 

According to MAC, the Strobe Cream is;

The ultimate quick fix for the skin. Super-powered with potent botanicals; de-snoozes, de-stresses, moistens, freshens and boosts the look of dull, flat or tired-looking skin with a fully loaded vitamin zap and a mega dose of green tea. Brightens and clarifies with iridescent particles and antioxidants. Enhances the effects of light on all skin and in all lighting conditions from sunlight to spotlight.

I can certainly vouch for the brightening effect. On days when my skin is looking particularly flat, dull and dry (which is often at the moment) I apply the Strobe Cream, focusing on my cheeks and then sheering it out across my chin, cupids bow, bridge of my nose and forehead… basically all over my face for a dose of luminosity and a healthy glow. I don’t know what’s in this cream or how it works exactly but it just adds life and light back into my skin. It isn’t glittery, shimmery or sparkly but rather it has a pearlescent sheen to it, and it’s this subtlety that makes it suitable as a skin illuminator, for that healthy lit from within glow.

 

I don’t use this Strobe Cream as a moisturiser because, for me, it doesn’t feel moisturising enough. I tend to apply this after my moisturiser. On days when I’m not wearing foundation, this goes all over my face, as described above, and I just use a bit of concealer and my skin base is complete. Days when I am wearing foundation, I will sometimes use this as a subtle daytime highlighter on the typical areas like the tops of my cheekbones, cupids bow and the bridge of my nose. This sits and blends well on top of my foundation and cream blushes. When it comes to highlighting my brow bone I’m definitely a matte kind of girl. No shimmer is ever allowed to go near my brow bone, however, as this cream has more of a pearlescent effect rather than shimmer, I do sometime use the tiniest bit on my brow bone when I’m wearing predominantly matte eye shadows. This just helps to lift my eyes and draw attention to my brows. 

See the luminosity on the bottom half of my hand vs. the top half

The effects of this cream are pretty subtle, that’s what I love about it but I can imagine that for some people the effect maybe a bit too subtle. The cream has a bit of a scent to it that isn’t particularly pleasant but it’s bearable and does fade after application. The cream is very light weight and absorbs into my skin quickly and isn’t tacky or sticky. It hasn’t clogged my pores or caused any breakouts but my skin is pretty resilient and I’m lucky enough to have inherited my mum’s good skin genes. The only downside to the Strobe Cream is that the pearlescent effect doesn’t last all day. On my skin it probably lasts for about four to five hours before I feel it’s faded to the extent that I can no longer detect its subtle luminosity. However, as I’m no longer a career girl, I rarely need my makeup to last all day and so that doesn’t bother me too much. Also, as the Strobe Cream comes in a handy travel size tube you could easily throw it in your handbag / purse for touch ups throughout the day. 

The Strobe Cream is half the price in Singapore than it is in the UK which is bizarre as makeup tends to be more expensive here compared to back home. I picked up my travel size tube at Singapore airport for SGD$11 (approx. £6 compared to the £12.50 price tag in England for the same size).  However, I don’t think I will be needing to stock up any time soon as a little bit of this cream goes a long way. I always end up using less than I think I will, in which case the excess goes on to my décollete ;o)

Have you tried the Strobe Cream? What did you think? Which are your favourite skin illuminators for that healthy, glowing from within, effect?

Love Sheen xxx

I'm So Excited!

Good Day Everyone,

I am sooo super excited right now because we are going to Japan!!! Woohoo!!! 

Ever since we moved to Singapore, Japan has been the one country that my hubby and I have both wanted to visit. I have always wanted to go either in spring to see the cherry blossoms or during autumn / fall to see the leaves change colour. Japan has always looked like a naturally beautiful country from whatever images / photos / videos I’ve seen and I love taking photos capturing the colours of nature. I cannot wait to get snapping with my camera :o). 

(Source)

 My hubby has always wanted to go too and he did go towards the end of last year for a business trip but obviously didn’t have much free time. He is especially excited to go on the bullet train as he is a total engineering geek ;o)

Last year, we didn’t go any big holidays primarily because we had three trips back home to England which used up most of my hubby’s leave from work and were pretty expensive. We did have an extremely last minute weekend trip to Cambodia when the Singapore smog was at its peak just so that we could breathe some cleaner air!

This year we wanted to take a more focussed approach with our holidays and so over the Xmas break my hubby and I made a list of the places that we would like to visit in Asia and we both had Japan on the top of our lists. This is going to be our main holiday for 2014 and realistically this may well be our only visit to Japan, as there are lots of other places in Asia that we want to visit. 

(Source)

We are going for 11 days… which is a long time for my hubby to take off work and my tasks for this week are to decide which two other cities we want to visit besides Tokyo, to get our hotels booked as cherry blossom season is very busy, and order our Japan rail passes. Then next week I can start working on some kind of itinerary of the places we want to visit in each city, how we get from one city to the next and booking any excursions / tickets for events / places etc and learning some basic Japanese phrases because we go in just a few weeks… but first I have to stop looking at all the amazing photos on Google images of the cherry blossoms ;o)

Have you ever been to Japan? If so, where would you recommend we go? What should we see? Where are you going for your 2014 holiday?

Love Sheen xxx