Stila Convertible Color For Cheeks & Lips

Good Day Everyone,

One of the highlights of a recent trip back home to England (aside from seeing my friends and family) was the time I spent in Harvey Nichols department store, more specifically the Stila counter (website). It’s fair to say, I had a bit of a Stila ‘splurge’.

I first came across Stila at Sephora in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) where I purchased the One Step Illuminate from their One Step range (click here for thoughts on that). As I had some time to spare I went onto explore other Stila products and one that caught my eye in particular was the Convertible Color for cheeks and lips. However, I resisted the temptation to buy as I’d already spent rather a lot on makeup. So prior to my trip home I had done my research, swatched the colours at my local Sephora and compared the prices in Asia with those back home to see where I could get the best deal. As is often the case, it was cheaper to buy in England and so I waited patiently for my upcoming trip.

Before I even got to the Stila counter at Harvey Nics (it was only later after the splurge that I realised Stila is also available in Boots and so I missed out on my Boots points... how annoyed was I - grrr!) I already knew I wanted to buy the Color Convertible in the colour Gladiola. I’m a sucker for anything that’s peachy/corally/orangey as I feel it really suits my warm complexion irrespective of the shade, whereas with pinks I feel I have to be a bit more choosey as not all shades of pink suit me. Whilst at the Stila counter I also decided to purchase the blush in a pink shade and boy did it take me a looong time to choose between Gerbera and Lillium. I (eventually) settled for Gerbera – a soft pink.

The blushes cost £16 each and you get 4.25g (0.15oz) of product for your pennies. They come in the cutest of round compacts, with the outside colour coordinated to the colour of the blush inside. The top of the compact has a floral embossed design with ‘Stila’ and ‘convertible color’ written across it. Inside, the lid contains a decent sized round mirror which is very handy for when you’re on the go, and the blush itself. There is no applicator. Being a cream blush this is not an issue in the slightest (for me). The compact is light weight and snaps shut which means I’m quite happy to throw it into my handbag without the fear of it opening and turning everything a bright orange colour ;o)

The colour pay off is amazing!Both blushes are true to colour and whilst Gladiola looks a little scary as a bright orange, it blends out (see last photo) to a beautiful peachy coral colour so don’t let the orangeness put you off (trust me).  I have always preferred cream blushes over powder as I love the dewy, glistening finish they give making my face look all youthful and glowy, and these did not disappoint!

You can apply these blushes with your fingers, however, my preferred method of application is to use my Real Techniques stippling brush (click here for thoughts on this brush). Not only does it avoid staining my fingers, but I find that I use much less of the product when applying this way. The brush also creates a very diffused, air brushed look where the edges of the blush just seem to blend seamlessly in my skin / foundation and there are no harsh lines / edges denoting where the blush colour ends. I love this look and struggle to achieve this effect when I use my fingers. The colour lasts a long time and does not go blotchy as it fades towards the end of the day.

These blushes can also be used as lip colours, however, I’m not keen on using them on my lips as I find them a little drying plus I feel the colour is a little 'patchy'. Also, I can’t seem to put my finger on it but for some reason I just do not like how they feel on my lips. A part of me thinks it might be psychological. As these look like blushes rather than lip products, my mind is telling me that these are not quite right on the lips plus my primary reason for the purchase was to use them on my cheeks.

In summary, I think these are absolutely gorgeous blushes with a wide colour selection and the cutest of packaging. I personally cannot wait for my next trip back home to expand my collection :o) Have you ever tried these blushes? What were your thoughts? Which colour did you go for?

Love Sheen xxx

My verdict:

• For cheeks 5/5
• For lips 3/5

(Note: I purchased these products with my own money)

DIY Wedding: Table Flowers

Good Day Everyone,

Continuing on with my wedding theme, (which if you've missed the first two posts click here and here) I absolutely loved doing our own wedding table flowers so much so that if I was back home in England, I may even be a florist by now! I loved it that much!!!

Now some brides-to-be would find it incredibly unsettling not knowing what table flowers they were going to have the day before the wedding but I've chilled out a lot over the years (I used to be quite the perfectionist but my hubby changed that - thank goodness because otherwise I might have driven myself insane by now! He has helped to realise that everything doesn't have to be perfect all of the time). Over the years, as I've gotten older and dare I say it wiser, I've become better at understanding which things are truly important and which I think are important but when I delve into it, aren't really as important as I thought they were. So what if our table flowers didn't look perfect, what’s more important is the happiness, joy and great time I had with my hubby and friend in making them and the memories we created :o)

Whilst we didn't know which flowers we were going to use for the table flowers, what we did know was the kind of ‘look’ we wanted. Our wedding breakfast was traditional English afternoon tea which was going to be served on three tiered stands so we knew that we wanted table flowers that were short in height and thus not competing for attention with the tall tea stands.

We knew we wanted flowers with a big head and so when we were at the street florist stall the day before the wedding we bought some chrysanthemums (bloom spider variety) which were quite spiky and two toned. The centre of the flower was yellow whilst the outer petals were white. We bought this colour, rather than pure white, as we felt it paid homage to my engagement ring which was a yellow diamond surrounded by little white diamonds.

Chrysanthemums - we got the ones on the right

We also bought some white lisianthus. These had pure white petals with yellow stamens and although the flower heads were quite small we thought we’d find a way to use them. We knew we wanted some pink in the table flowers to correlate with my bridal bouquet and the wedding cake, however, the florist, didn't have any pink flowers with large heads in the shade of pink I wanted and so later that day I wandered off to Marks and Spencer with my friend whilst my hubby did other things. At M&S we found the most beautiful, perfect pink shade, hydrangea plant which we immediately picked up as it was the last one. And at that stage I just knew we had what we needed for the table flowers.

White lisianthus

When my friend and I got back to the hotel we immediately watered the Hydrangea plant and left it to sit outside for a few hours to hydrate. We’d already bought some square glass vases that we were going to use for the table flowers and later that evening, the three of started to work on creating our table flowers.

Storing the flowers outside

The first thing we did was to strip most of the leaves and cut down the stems of the chrysanthemums so that the heads of the flower rested on the rim of the vases. We used three chrysanthemums in each vase. Next we got to work in cutting of the hydrangea heads of the plant, trying to keep the stem for each head as long as possible and stripped any excess leaves. We had enough for three heads per vase and arranged these around the three chrysanthemums. 

Just then my friend took one of the lisianthus stems and cut a little bit of and inserted it at a slight angle so that the open flowers sat just marginally above the chrysanthemum and hydrangea heads. Right at that moment, all three of us kind went, ‘aaahhh’ almost like the missing piece of the jigsaw had just slotted nicely into place. This little afterthought of an addition suddenly gave the flowers a whole new dimension. The long green stems and green buds added a certain je ne sais quoi! The green really helped to lift the yellowness of the chrysanthemums against the much larger pink hydrangea heads. Having the open lisianthus sitting just above the much larger pink hydrangeas helped to draw out the chrysanthemums which were dominated to some extent by the larger hydrangea heads. It also gave the flowers some height which didn't look as though it was competing for attention against the afternoon tea stands but rather complimenting it.

The finished look

A close up

We taped the stems together as close to the top as possible using some green cloth tape and then further cut the stems, if needed, so that the larger flower heads sat nicely on the rim of the vases. We then left the flowers in warm tap water outside in the vases until the morning.

The flowers on the ceremony table

On the day of the wedding, most guests were both surprised and rather impressed with our flower efforts, and in fact, it gave a couple of my friends, who were getting married later that year, some ideas and food for thought for their own big day and what they could do themselves with a little help from their friends :o) We had a dark grey round slate on the centre of each table upon which were little tea light candles and the table flowers. The grey slate provided a nice contrast and a lovely back drop for the lighter colours of the flowers.

The wedding breakfast and table

My advice to anyone thinking of doing their own wedding flowers would be to be realistic about what you want and what you can achieve. My wedding wasn't a big do and so there were not a lot of flowers that needed to be done. I’m not sure we would have managed (without more friends to help), if we had, say 20 tables at our wedding. Also think about where you are going to make the flower arrangements and store the flowers. Do you have the space?

Have a think about the kind of ‘look’ you want to create with your flowers? Do you want a tall or a short look? Slim or fuller? As this will affect the type of flowers you use. Think about the colours you want to use and what would complement the rest of the colours in your wedding day, be it in your make up, clothes, jewellery, venue, table etc.

Also bear in mind, that some flowers take longer to ‘open’ up than others and so if you do buy them make sure you know what you’re getting and how they might affect the overall look you are going for. We came across the street florist that we bought most of our flowers from a week before the wedding. This meant that we could ask him how often he gets his flower deliveries, does he get the same flowers each week, so would the flowers definitely be there when we wanted them, we could see how open the flowers would be if we bought them the day before the wedding and determine whether that would suffice or whether we needed to buy them several days before the wedding.

Most important of all, be honest about the kind of bride (or groom) you would be. Would you be devastated if your flowers didn't look perfect? Would you get stressed out doing the flowers the night before the wedding? Would you feel over whelmed by the task itself? If so, then you might be better off not doing your own flowers. But if you’re like me, and get great pleasure in creating and playing with colour and love the idea of doing your own and are willing to deal with the consequences if it all doesn't go as well as you’d hoped then go for it! 

Remember, I was lucky to get my hands on that last pink hydrangea plant in Marks and Spencer. What would I have done if someone else had picked it up just as I was about to? Well for me, I know from experience, that it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I had a few hours that day and so I would have gone looking for the large pink flower heads I wanted elsewhere and if I’d not found anything then I would simply have adapted and changed things because that’s how I work (best under pressure) but not everyone call roll with the punches so to speak and cope with last minute decisions /changes. 

My best friend signing the wedding register

The life of the poor hydrangea plant that had now lost all its glory didn't end there. My mum planted the headless hydrangea in her garden and its now doing very well next to her blue-purple hydrangea.

What did you think of our efforts? Have you ever done wedding flowers? Would you consider doing your own?

Love Sheen xxx

Stipple & Save

Good Day Everyone,

Now I’m the kind of girl, when given the choice, would prefer to spend money buying new makeup rather than makeup tools and brushes. My collection of brushes is quite limited, however, amongst them is a real gem, my Real Techniques stippling brush. For those of you who don’t know, Real Technqiues brushes are the brainchild of makeup artist Samantha Chapman, who is one half of the Pixiwoo sisters (beauty bloggers). 

I absolutely love love love this brush! Prior to this brush I used to apply my foundation with either my fingers or a traditional foundation brush, you know the kind that looks like a paint brush (FYI I always use liquid, cream or mousse foundations, never powder as I have normal to dry skin). Whilst both of these methods produced satisfactory results the RT stippling brush produces outstanding results! Yes that’s right outstanding, I’m talking A* kind of results. 
Now don’t get me wrong if you’re happy using your fingers or a traditional foundation brush then that’s great for you but I always found that the traditional foundation brush would often leave streaks on my face which I would then have to smooth out with my fingers. When using my fingers alone, I always felt under pressure to apply the foundation quickly so that it could all be blended before it dried which took the pleasure out of the process and left me with foundation stained fingers. 

One of the great benefits of the RT stippling brush is that I find myself using less foundation and getting a much better result. This duo fibre brush has the softest synthetic taklon bristles and is cruelty free :o) I use the brush by gently tapping it into a bit of foundation on the back of my hand. This way the longer bristles pick the foundation up but not the shorter ones yet all the bristles work together to cover my skin with a light and even layer of foundation. I use stippling motions, sometimes mixed with a bit of buffing, to apply my foundation, resulting in an incredibly flawless and even coverage that has an air brushed like finish without looking cakey.

The size of the brush (the bristle part) is smaller than many stippling brushes which some people may not like as it will take longer to apply your foundation, but I actually like this because it’s easier to work around the natural contours of the face like the nose and under the eyes. The other benefit to having a small brush is that it can be multi-purpose. I actually use my stippling brush to apply my cream blush, bronzer and even highlighter. That’s 4 uses out of just one brush – how fantastic is that?! Saving me money and time plus fewer brushes to clean and store. 

This brush applies cream blush like a dream. It creates a diffused, air brushed look where the edges of the blush just fade and blend seamlessly into my skin/foundation with no harsh edges. I love this look and can never quite manage to achieve this effect when using my fingers. This brush can also be used to apply powder products, however, I don’t like to use it in this way as I feel the ‘spikey’ effect of the bristles causes the powder to go on a bit patchy and requires me to concentrate a bit more on blending. I just get a much better effect by using a powder specific brush. I mean let’s be realistic I can’t expect this one brush to do ‘everything’ just ‘lots’ of things ;o)

The brush has a relatively thick, yet lightweight, aluminium handle which is pink with a wider black end that has a flat top. Not great if you like to store your brushes in a jar/mug but I  find this very useful as the brush can stand upright on a dresser/vanity table. The name of the brush is printed in a darker pink shade on the pink handle. I have been using my brush for several months now and I have had no shedding whatsoever. The brush is really easy to clean, dries quickly and has not lost its shape at all.

This little gem is one of my most favourite brushes. It allows me to use less product but achieve the ‘high definition, pixel perfect’ results thus making my products last longer and saving me money along the way. In fact, I was sooo impressed by this brush that a week later I went and bought a second one, just in case the first one ever got lost. Now that’s a real testament as to how great this brush really is!

Have you used this brush? What at your thoughts? Do you have a 'gem' of a makeup brush? If so, do share as to which one it is :o)

Love Sheen xxx

My verdict: 5/5 

Singapore website click here
UK website click here
US website click here
(Note: I purchased these brushes with my own money)

Boots Beauty Buys

Good Day Everyone,

I went ‘Boots’ shopping – yipeee! One of the highlights of a trip back home (aside from seeing family and friends, of course) is the chance to go shopping, Boots shopping specifically. There isn't a Boots in Singapore, in fact the nearest we get is a couple of drugstores (Watson and Guardian) but they don’t tend to have as wide a selection as Boots plus everything is significantly more expensive (have I ever mentioned that ? ;o)

So, I suppress the shopaholic within me (as much as I can, anyway) and only let her come out to play twice a year when we go back home. On this recent trip, I didn't do any clothes shopping as the retailers were starting to stock autumn and winter wear plus I’d had a little shopping spree in The Great Singapore Sale (click here to see what I bought).However, I did shop for toiletries and make up. I had some Boots advantage (store card) points accumulated which I took great pleasure in using because, to me, it’s like getting ‘freebies’. Boots also had several 3 for 2 offers on which I happily took advantage of :o)

I bought several hair care products as lately I've felt that my hair is quite dry, damaged and generally unhealthy. Having suffered from scalp psoriasis for at least a decade I’m constantly losing a lot of hair as almost every day I have to apply a medicinal ointment which then has to be washed out with medicated shampoo. I feel the daily washing has stripped my hair of moisture and shine and so I bought several of the Charles Worthington products as they were on a 3 for 2 offer. I also bought some heat protect styling spray for both straight and wavy hair because now that I've cut my hair short (I went from waist length hair to now barely reaching my shoulders!) it’s a lot more curlier but I also still like to wear it straight on some days.

I picked up some Ted Baker and Sanctuary gift sets for a few of my girlfriends and as these were both on a 3 for 2 offer, I kept the free ones for myself :o) These gift set miniatures are a great way of trying numerous different products before purchasing the full sized ones and I love the fact that they come in a reusable zip bag which I can use to store my makeup and accessories in :o)

Finally, I bought a few pieces of makeup as well as my first Essie nail polish. I don’t tend to wear nail polishes due to my psoriatic nails but occasionally when there’s a wedding or special event I do make an exception, mainly to disguise the discolouration on my nails and to make them look a bit more presentable. I bought a clear mascara which I use to keep my brows in place, a Rimmel eye shadow quad, a Maybelline 24hr Color Tattoo eye shadow and a Dream Touch blush, as well as a Maybelline lip liner (can you guess that it was a 3 for 2 on Maybelline products lol?)

I’ll keep you posted on how I get on with these products and if any of them turn out to be real gems then I’ll be sure to let you know. Have you tried any of these products? What was your experience?

Love Sheen xxx

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters

Good Day Everyone,

When it comes to make up, I believe in selecting one or two features to focus upon, and leaving the rest in the background so to speak. For me personally, I’m lucky enough to be blessed with good skin (thanks mum) and eyebrows, and so my makeup tends to focus on eyes and skin. I don’t believe that my lips are my best feature. Whilst my lips are an average size (not particularly thin or full), I don’t have a well defined cupids bow. The natural outline of my lips is quite blurry/jagged (if that makes any sense) and so I always struggle outlining my lips with a lip liner. Typically, they either end up looking too big, like I've drawn outside of my natural lip line, or if I stay within/on my natural lip line then inevitably I have jagged bits of my natural lip sitting outside of the lip liner. It’s a no win situation :o(

As a result, I've never been a big lipstick wearer. I always tend to opt for lip glosses, tinted lip balms or lip stains. If I ever do where a lipstick, I don’t tend to use a lip liner (due to the aforementioned challenge) and therefore tend to stick to colours similar to my natural lip colour. I tend to avoid wearing bright and opaque lipsticks because of the challenges of defining my lip line and because I have a fear of the colour wearing off from the centre of my lips and leaving me with the dreaded lipstick ring around my mouth. I’m also no good at topping up my lipstick or checking it after meals. Plus I don’t like the heavy (and sometimes drying) feeling of traditional lipsticks. So, in case you hadn't already realised... I am not a lipstick girl... just so we’re all clear ;o)

However, all that changed when I came across the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters – it’s lipstick for lipstick scary cats like me! These lip butters are a-mazing! I absolutely love love love them! They are incredibly moisturising, like a lip balm. They do not dry out my lips, no matter how often I wear them and they feel very light on the lips.

L-R: Candy Apple / Macaroon / Peach Parfait

They have a beautiful gloss like shine to them without being particularly sticky and best of all, I find that the colour wears of pretty evenly, thus avoiding the dreaded lipstick ring. In terms of staying power, I find that they last a good six hours or so, depending upon what I eat/drink etc. Whilst the gloss like shine may fade after a few hours, the colour remains on my lips for quite a while longer. The lip butters are sheer but buildable to some extent and they remind me a lot of the Dior Addict lipsticks (but without the hefty price tag).

L-R: Candy Apple / Macaroon / Peach Parfait

There’s a huge range of colours available so there’s something for everyone and the colours are actually great wearable shades. The lip butters do have scent, a kind of cinema sweet popcorn smell, but it’s not particularly strong and fades quite quickly once you've applied it.

The packaging is super cute with colour co-ordinated plastic lids that are embossed on two sides. The top of the lid is clear so you can see the colour of the lipstick inside. My only gripe with the packaging (and it’s not relevant to most people) is that because the lids are very long, there isn't much of a base for me to hold onto when pulling the lid off, which means it often takes me 2-3 attempts to get the lid off (due my arthritic fingers and problems with grip).

L-R: Candy Apple / Macaroon / Peach Parfait

So far I've bought three colours and love all three of them. The first one I bought was Peach Parfait which isn't particularly peachy in colour, in fact, it’s definitely more pink in colour. On me, it’s very similar to my natural lip colour and so for me it’s a MLBB (my lips but better). Peach Parfait has the most sparkle in it out of the three that I have and I can definitely feel the sparkly bits on my lips but they’re not big glittery bits that irritate me and so being able to feel them doesn't bother me.

L-R: Candy Apple / Macaroon / Peach Parfait

The next one I bought was Macaroon, which I love so much more than Peach Parfait, because to me this is my ‘perfect’ raspberry pink shade. I have been looking for my perfect raspberry pink shade for years and failed to find it... that was until now. I’m really fussy when it comes to my ‘pink’ lip products because I don’t like anything that’s fuchsia, Barbie pink, pinky violet or pink with a blue undertone. I definitely prefer pinks with a brown undertone (if I’m going for a MLBB look) or a red undertone as the colour really lifts my whole face (and makes my teeth look whiter). I absolutely love this colour and hope it never gets discontinued. In fact, when I next go home in a few months, I’ll definitely be popping into Boots to stock up on this colour. Macaroon has teeny tiny flecks of shimmer in it but nowhere near as much as Peach Parfait as I can’t feel it on my lips at all.

My most recent addition to my collection is Candy Apple which has no shimmer in whatsoever. For some reason my photos make this look more sheer than it actually is. On my lips, it is definitely the most opaque of the three when you build the colour up. I love Candy Apple because for someone like me who never really wears a full on red lip, this is a perfect muted kind of red that isn't too bright and scary to pull off. It has an ever so slightly pink (raspberry pink) undertone to it which I really like as again it makes my teeth look that bit whiter. This colour looks great with a neutral eye with lashings of mascara and black eye liner. I think Candy Apple is another one that I may stock up on when I go home.

I twisted my most recently purchased lip butter all the way to the top to see the amount of product there is and to be honest you don’t get a huge amount. Given that some days I do build the colour up, and apply a few layers, I’m not expecting these to last a very long time. However, as these are relatively inexpensive when compared to some of the high end brands that offer something very similar, I don’t mind having to re-purchase as I love these lip butters so much!

Have you tried these Revlon Lip Butters? What did you think? Which is your favourite colour?

Love Sheen xxx
My verdict: 5/5

For UK: Website 
For Singapore you can find this product at Watson and Guardian stores

(Note: I bought these products with my own money)

DIY Wedding: Bridal Bouquet

Good Day Everyone,

As much as my hubby and I wanted the ‘perfect’ wedding day we didn't want to spend the best part of £20,000 on just one day of our life. So, in order to save costs I made my own bridal bouquet the evening before the wedding.  

Saving money wasn’t the only reason we did our own flowers, I absolutely love colour and really wanted to have a go at doing my own flowers because working with such pretty, colourful things makes me really really happy! Now, the sensible voice inside me would say to you that if you ever intend on doing your own wedding flowers (or make up etc) then you must practice beforehand! And that is indeed the advice I would give to others. But how often do we take our own advice? Not very often, let me tell you. So no, I didn't practice making my own bridal bouquet or table flowers beforehand. In fact, we didn't even know which flowers we were going to use for the table flowers until we went out and bought them the day before the wedding!

From my previous wedding post (read here) you’ll know that I wanted a bridal bouquet of pink roses with a few white ones. I had originally planned to buy the flowers from Marks and Spencers online and turn them into my own bouquet but a week before the wedding, whilst shopping in Manchester city centre, we came across a street florist and got chatting to him. He had had the same flower stall in Manchester city centre, by St. Ann’s church,  for the past 14 years. We had a look at the types of flowers he had and agreed that we would be back a week later to purchase pink and white roses from him, as we’d much prefer to support a small local business.

The street florist stall

For all the things that I needed to make my own bridal bouquet, my best friend who has a bridal shop in Leeds, recommended a store called Country Baskets (website) which is a kind of wholesale store for floristry, bridal and party supplies. You have to become a member in order to shop there but membership is free and open to the public and the prices are very good. This store was amazing! I was like a child in a sweet shop! Somebody like me, who likes to make colourful, pretty things could sooo easily get carried away in there that I had to force myself to go in with a list of things to buy and stick to the list.

The morning before the wedding we were at the flower stall in Manchester where we purchased 3 bunches of white roses and 6 bunches of pink roses giving us 15 white roses and 30 pink. We knew that if we ran out we could always pop back the next morning as the wedding was in the afternoon.

What I used to make the bridal bouquet:

·         Flowers – I used 25 pink and 11 white roses

·         Ribbon - I bought ivory organza ribbon with gold glitter

·         Steel scissors

·         Green cloth tape

·         Diamante pins

·         Pearl headed pins – I used white and cream coloured ones

The pink & white roses we used

Tools needed to make the bouquet

Before I get into how I made my bridal bouquet, a couple of tips for storing flowers. As soon as we got the flowers back to our hotel we put them in a bucket of warm (not cold) tap water and kept them outside (not inside) in order to keep them in optimal condition. We purposefully booked a hotel room with an outdoor area for this reason. We left the flowers sat in water for most of the day so that they were well hydrated and I started to make my bridal bouquet in the evening.

How I made the bridal bouquet:

1.       I carefully stripped the thorns and leaves off the rose stems.

2.        I picked the most perfect pink rose as my central rose and I then took 6 white roses (the white roses were smaller than the pink) and arranged them around the central pink rose but just marginally lower height wise to create a kind of dome effect.

3.       Using the green tape I taped the seven roses together towards the top of the stems. If you tape them too low down, the stems become floppy and it’s difficult to build the next circle of roses around them.

4.        Next, I arranged a circle of pink roses around the tied bouquet, again just a little lower in height to maintain the dome effect and taped them together. I stopped at this stage, admired my own work, and felt happy with the bouquet. I showed it to my hubby whose first response was, ‘Isn't it a bit small?’ but I’m a small person and I didn’t want it to look too big for me. Just then my friend came over who concurred with my hubby and so she helped me build another circle of pink roses around the bouquet.

5.       After this second circle of pink roses we reviewed our work and all three of us came to the consensus that the bouquet now looked too pink and so we added five white roses, intermittently, within the two outer circles of pink roses and voila we were happy with the result.

6.       Having made sure all the stems were taped together tightly, we then proceeded to cut the stems down (at a slight angle) to achieve the length that I wanted.

7.        Next we wrapped the beautiful organza ribbon starting from near the bottom of the stems, leaving a little bit of the green stems showing. We secured the ribbon in place using a couple of pins – inserting them at a slight angle instead of straight on

8.       We wrapped the ribbon up towards the top off the stems and then worked it back down thus wrapping the stems twice as the ribbon was quite sheer.

9.       When we got the ribbon back down towards the bottom of the stems we cut it at an angle and folded the edge under itself and secured it with the pins so that there would be no fraying.

10.   We then left the bridal bouquet in some warm tap water outside overnight.

Storing the bouquet outside over night

The next morning I inserted a few diamante pins in the centre of some of the roses for a bit of extra sparkle and voila I had made my own bridal bouquet with a little help from my hubby and friend :o) All for the fraction of the price a professional florist would charge and had a lot of fun making it :o)

The finished bouquet

A close up

The finished bouquet

What do you think of our efforts? Have you ever made your own bridal bouquet? Would you be brave enough?

Love Sheen xxx

Dining Out: J's In Singapore

Good Day Everyone,

This is just a quick post for all of you living in or visiting Singapore and might be looking for a good place to dine out. Last week to celebrate my hubby’s birthday we went out with some friends to a Mexican / Latin American restaurant called J’s on Purvis Street (website). J’s has a decent vegetarian menu (as well as non-veg) and serves both halal and kosher food thus allowing people with a range of dietary requirements to enjoy a meal together :o) Whilst the restaurant doesn't serve alcohol it does serve some great tasting mocktails (non-alcoholic cocktails).

We've been to J’s a couple of times now and on both occasions the service, ambience and food has been excellent. I’d highly recommend it! The poppers are a must have - jalapeno peppers stuffed with mozzarella and coated in breadcrumbs. They are a-mazing but they are pretty spicy, so you've been warned! The lamb tostadas were delicious and our friends enjoyed the chipotle meatballs. I’d suggest sharing the appetizers as the portions are very generous (in my opinion).

We all thoroughly enjoyed our main courses, although most of us struggled to finish them! I had the braised lamb shank which was melt in the mouth tender. My hubby had the vegetarian fajitas and our friends had the chicken quesadillas and the beef burrito.

For dessert my hubby and I shared the black peppered pineapple with lemongrass ice cream. The ice cream was very interesting because it tasted just like what lemongrass smells like... if that makes any sense?! Our friends shared this amazing chocolate dessert that was served on a slate with lime froth. The presentation of all of the food was beautiful.

Have you been to J’s? What did you think? Is there any where else that you would recommend in Singapore for dining out?

Love Sheen xxx

(P.S. apologies for the quality of the photos as I only had my iphone camera)