[Sponsored] Sample Store's Bloggers' Party with BeautyKeeper

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of attending Sample Store's Bloggers' Party, held in conjunction with BeautyKeeper, an online Taiwanese beauty store. I've previously blogged about some products from BeautyKeeper - you can read my past entry here.

~ The place ~ 

 

The event was held at Punggol Waterway Point's newly-launched Party Room - a cosy little air-conditioned space on the second floor of the mall. Decorated with vibrant decor of hot air balloons and trees, it's got a merry vibe that makes it especially suitable for children's birthday parties!

Yup, the room even has a TV for your to screen some entertainment or play a photo slideshow.

Plus, it's strategically situated right beside Waterway Point's Happy Park (wet and dry playground on the rooftop, so the little ones can go out and play while the adults mingle (in the comfort of air-con, thank goodness LOL). Don't worry, the wall of the Party Room facing the playground is made of clear glass, so you can keep an eye on your kids while they're wreaking havoc having fun out there.

Even the design of the ceiling had thought put into it!

Pssst...if these pictures excite you, you'll be glad to know that The Party Room at Waterway Point is now open for booking from just $150 for 4 hours - that's a super affordable deal for such a long duration!

The booking fee also includes:

• Pantry area with a refrigerator, hot water dispenser, and sink
• 2 tables, 8 chairs, and 8 kiddy stools
• TV (HDMI/USB)

Pretty awesome yeah? More deets below (click to enlarge):

 

~ The party ~

 

Kicking off the Bloggers' Party was food, glorious food, specially catered from Brunches Cafe. One look at the spread and I knew it wasn't the typical run-off-the-mill catered fare - for one, there were RAINBOW SLIDERS!

This picture makes me happy :)

Other dishes included salad, fried rice with prawns, fish in some cream sauce, and meatballs with CHEESE!

At first I thought the meatballs were merely topped with cheese, but as I bit into them, EVEN MORE CHEESE oozed out into my mouth! GLORIOUS. Some of the best meatballs I've ever had omg.

Each attendee was also given a bottle of Juscool Sparkling Juice in assorted flavours. I chose Peach. And it was pink! :D Other flavours were Apple, Grape, Passionfruit, Yuzu and Orange.

Great for those who wish to enjoy carbonated drinks without feeling the guilt, Juscool is a Healthier Choice Symbol product - made with real fruit juice instead of saccharine artificially-flavoured syrups!

After settling down with our food, we had a little talk by a spokesperson from BeautyKeeper. Basically, she explained to us what BeautyKeeper is all about and how the BeautyKeeper Ambassadorship Programme will be rolled out in the months to come. Hoping to be on board this Ambassadorship Programme as I've already tried some of their products prior to the event, and am liking them well so far!

Just to reiterate things in case you missed my previous post on BeautyKeeper - they're a Taiwanese online store that curates popular Taiwanese beauty products (most/all of which are currently not available here) and makes them accessible to us here in Singapore. Shipping fees are SGD$20 for purchases below SGD$200, and free for purchases above SGD$200.

That's not all. Another great thing about BeautyKeeper is that they have a special Taiwan Tourist Service, which allows tourists to enjoy free shipping of products to their hotels - so you can just collect your beauty goodies from the concerige and pop 'em into your luggage to bring home! How convenient is that??

Later on we headed down to Sample Store's Shopping Paradise event at the atrium to collect our goody bags at their BeautyKeeper booth! Here's a peek of some of their products that were up for purchase:

Facial masks from Taiwanese Aboriginal

Sports bras and shapewear from Mollifix

More masks in beautiful packaging

Read on to the next section to see what other products BeautyKeeper has to offer!

~ The presents ~

 

BeautyKeeper gave us all a huge $200 hamper full of some of the products they carry!

Back row:
Phytopia Slimway Synergy - 2-in-1 body shaper and topical appetite suppressant
Phytopia Stretch Marks Remover Synergy
All-Belle fake eyelashes in Yellow Flaunt
MD/AA Jiao Pulsed Mask Foaming Face Cleanser
MD/AA Jiao Oil and Water Dual Balancing Gel - a sebum regulator, oil remover, and pore tightener

Left section (white items, from top to bottom):
Userism DD Cream SPF50 Dynamic All-Daily Defence - liquid foundation with oil control, moisturising, and sun protection properties
Userism Bright Whitening Ultra-Water Facial Mask
Destino Advanced Repairing Face Soap

Right section (black items, clockwise from Rosy Pink Moisture Dew):
Serlando Rosy Pink Moisture Dew - a moisturising stain
Starsuki lipstick
Starsuki concealer palette
Starsuki Total Cleansing Eye and Lip Makeup Remover
Starsuki Super Perfect Remover Pen 2.0 - makeup remover in a pen

Because there are so many products here, I'm going to pick out 3 of the most novel products to talk about in detail!

Serlando Rosy Pink Moisture Dew

 

Stains are typically used for the lips, but apparently this moisturising tint can also be used on your AREOLA and BIKINI LINE too! I'm not kidding LOL it says so in the instructions! It's supposed to help brighten dull skin and reduce melanin as well.

I swatched this on my hand and it produced a very faint, pink sheen - which I think is great for a cheek tint on those days when you don't want to put on makeup but don't wanna look dead either. When I swatched this on my lips the colour was rosier and more noticeable :)

Userism Bright Whitening Ultra-Water Facial Mask

 

This sheet mask is a little different from others. Encased in a magical-looking vial, it comes with additional serum for you to drown it in - so that you can get ultimate hydration! It even comes with a pair of tweezers to aid you in putting it on your face.

After I used the mask, there was quite a good amount of serum left in the tube. I like that the tube came with a screw cap so that all the extra serum wasn't wasted. In fact, this was designed to leave you with 7-10 days' worth of leftover serum! 

Starsuki Super Perfect Remover Pen 2.0

 

We all have those days where we screw up our eyeliner, but 1) don't have any makeup remover on us because we're not at home 2) can't wipe it off because doing so would mean wiping ALL the makeup off your eyelids. But with this makeup remover pen, you can get rid of eyeliner smudges in the most precise way possible!

I tested it myself and it works pretty well! The 2nd picture shows the result after one round of colouring over my liner, and the 3rd picture shows the result after a second round of colouring over and finally rubbing the residue away with my thumb in a single sweep. Not bad, not bad at all!

Oh, there were also goodies from Otterbox - a pretty mint and coral phone case, together with a screen cleaner and a CUTE OTTER SOFT TOY!

Most of us already know of Otterbox as a brand for drop-proof smartphone cases that'll save your phone screens from smattering into a million pieces. It's no wonder that they're the #1 selling phone case brand in the U.S.!

Yay so happy with all my presents! Thanks all! :D

~ ~ ~

SAMPLE STORE'S BEAUTY SHOW

 

Don't despair if you missed Sample Store's Shopping Paradise last week. Coming soon on 2nd April (Sunday), Sample Store will be holding their Beauty Show at Marina Bay Sands, hosted by Hossan Leong! BeautyKeeper will be holding a LIVE beauty workshop there, and you'll also get to be seranaded by SING China's talented Grand Finalists. Other than that, you'll also stand a chance to WIN a pair of air tix to Taiwan and Bangkok, and shopping vouchers!

Head on over to Samplestore.com to purchase your tickets before they're sold out! Tickets are affordably priced at $10 and are fully redeemable for a BeautyKeeper goodie bag (worth $50!) Food will be provided by Brazil Churrascaria.

I won't be able to attend the event on Sunday (boooo) but I'm looking forward to more BeautyKeeper events held by Sample Store, and hope to get to try more great BeautyKeeper products :D

This post was sposored by Sample Store and BeautyKeeper, but all opinions are my own.

 

[Sponsored] BeautyKeeper

This one's for all the beauty junkies out there in search of new beauty products - specifically, beauty products from Taiwan. Joining an ever-growing list of online beauty stores is BeautyKeeper, which curates a selection of popular Taiwanese products and ships them over directly from the land of bubble tea.

With K-beauty being all the rage these days (still), it's refreshing to see something different in the saturated online Asian beauty scene. Besides, it appears that all of their featured products aren't available in physical stores here, so the new variety is always welcome.

BeautyKeeper sent me a bunch of their products to try recently, and while not all of them are up for sale on their website yet, do look out for them in the months to come.

Here's what they picked out for me:

Clockwise from top left:

1. Sevynal Brightening and Firming Repair Mask

I've used lots of sheet masks in my lifetime and some of my favourites are Taiwanese ones, so I was quite excited to try this! It was refreshing and definitely welcome at the end of a long day :) Well, masks are pretty self-explanatory so I'll move on to the next one.

2. Ethel Cosmeceutical AHA Citric Acid Tablets

All the wording on this packet of lemon tablets was in Chinese, so I had to Google this product's benefits - apparently it's supposed to help give more radiant skin and increase your energy levels. According to the few Chinese words I could make out, you're can pop 3-5 of these each day. The packet has roughly 10 days' worth of tablets.

The moment I put this in my mouth I felt the sharp lemony zest hit me. Was certainly more awake after that LOL. I like sour stuff, so although this hit me a little harder than expected at first, it was by no means unpleasant.

It comes in a resealable packet so you can bring this around with you with no hassle!

3. Eyes Light

My first impression of the bottle that this eye serum came in was that it was a cheapo one - and I was quite right. Other than how it's reminiscent of one of those kiddy plastic beauty toys you can find at Toys 'R' Us, it doesn't dispense well. It's hard to control the pump and the product often comes out in a big squirt of more than what I actually need, so that's a fair bit of product wasted that I could otherwise use for a separate occasion :(

Packaging aside, the product itself was pleasant, with a light texture that absorbed well into my skin and didn't leave a sticky feeling at all.

From the looks of it, the ingredients used are all quite natural - and few in quantity too, with just over 10 ingredients including Chamomile Extract and Collagen. I read somewhere that those with sensitive skin should pick beauty products with fewer ingredients as it reduces the risk of irritation, so this would probably be good for those whose skin flare up easily.

4. YOHO Power Probiotics Collagen

I'm assuming this is a berry-based collagen based on the picture on the box. Again, since everything on the box was in Chinese and my Chinese sucks, I'm not really sure about its special properties, but I do see "蛋白" on ths box which means...egg white?! ._. Anyway, this is a box of 20 sachets which you'll need to pour into a hot drink to dissolve.

I put mine in my tea - it dissolved fast even without stirring and was virtually tasteless, which is good because I don't really fancy something marring the flavours of my morning beverage.

~ ~ ~

Overall I had a pleasant experience with these few products. My only gripe is that most of them had instructions/ingredient lists solely in Chinese, which might be off-putting for non-Chinese friends or people with shitty Chinese capabilities whom might like to try these; people tend to be more trusting of products which have packagings they actually understand. Really hoping that BeautyKeeper might stick translated English labels on the future products they bring in!

Visit BeautyKeeper's website here
Follow BeautyKeeper on Instagram here

This post was sponsored by Sample Store, but all opinions presented are my own.

United States of Depression

This time last year (at time of writing, 8.10pm) I was very much close to tears, trying to navigate my way out of unfriendly JFK airport alone -- with no internet, and baggage I could barely pull along (both the luggage sort and emotional sort) without having to stop every so often for a rest.

As bloody cliched as it sounds, that semi-spontaneously booked grad trip, also my first visit to the United States of America, changed parts of me forever. And one year on, I still feel an unexplainable sense of wistfulness towards that place.

It's upsetting, because the America I dreamed of my entire life, which I finally met in person and fell more and more in love with the longer I stayed on, isn't the same America of today. Or maybe it is. Maybe it always was, and all that it needed was a just little push for a domino unravelling of fucked up events. Maybe the American Dream is pretty much just what it is -- a dream.

But for what it's worth, I was the happiest I had ever been in a long time there. And despite being in a rather good and happy place in my life right now, I daresay I wish I could relive that entire trip again. Every. single. part. of. it.

More often than I realise, and more often that I should, I transport myself back there through the tumultuous showreel in my mind. But as reality would have it, all I have with me are a few hundred pictures, slowly-fading memories, and a year-old Snapple bottlecap.

Sometimes I still find myself on Google Maps, zooming in and out on New York City's sprawling grids, trying to search for a piece of my soul.

I left (part of) my heart in New York and I wonder if I'll ever get it back.