This space is definitely getting rusty. My apologies. I have started working and whenever I have the time, sleep was what I needed. Haven't been feeling very motivated to be honest. Life has been complicated and boring at the same time. I need to find some time for this space again for sure..

On the side note, I took part in a contest in collaboration with KARMART and Sample Store. It has been exciting to be able to do makeup/product reviews on my YouTube Channel.

2 videos have been up so far for the contest and I would love to be able to get as much support as I can! I am new to this so pardon my awkward self on camera and also weird voiceovers. Haha.

Please leave a "LIKE" on my video if you can! It'll help out a bunch!

We were sent a product to review on and this is my first video (:




I got into the semi-finals and they sent us some Cathy Doll makeup for us to review on next!



Special thanks to my sister, Camelia (@cameliatay on IG and Twitter) for editing! I think the results turned out great.

Please show your support, thank you! (:

Cheryl x

Sponsored Post
*stay tuned for giveaway at the end of the post!

This title appeals to me so much I can't even.. I am from the era where everybody started owning a blog because it was so trendy and then using that to blog about my every day life. Which is, honestly speaking, BORING.

I blogged about pretty much the same thing again and again I think I would fall asleep reading my own blog and didn't think anyone was reading it. But one day, just this one fine day, my mind had this sudden inspiration to give my blog a whole new life.

I am an introvert. I am awkward & socially awkward. Not even joking. Sometimes I have a whole lot of feelings and thoughts bottled up inside me but I just couldn't bring myself to say them. Maybe just afraid of people thinking, "who cares?", "ok?", "why are you telling me this?", "nobody asked for your opinion", and the list goes on..
Or maybe it's because of another reason.

I think it is quite obvious now the main reason why I love being a blogger.


Although I am not sure who are reading what I have to say or even if anybody out there are interested, I have a space where I can share what I want to say.

It has come to the point where I not only share about my feeling and thoughts, but also information worth sharing with others. For instance, good food I had that I thought people would want to try for themselves, places and experiences people would want to know and experience themselves etc.
I would be overjoyed when someone actually finds my information of help to them.

I love sharing about my experiences, reviews and opinions on this space now. (:


I reached a point where I decided to take a big step. A serious one. One that requires courage.

I took part in Cineleisure's Next Online Sensation, a social media competition. I wasn't sure what had gotten into me or how I suddenly got that bravery from, but I decided to take that big step because I know how blogging can build confidence in myself. I was determined to overcome my introvert personality. At least by a little. Haha.



The major part of the competition was probably how we had to do a catwalk in front of a crowd of STRANGERS. That was a huge challenge and breakthrough that I got past.

Although I did not graduate from the competition as one of the winners, I received things  that I never would have thought I would. I got myself engaged in so many activities with bloggers thereafter.

Events like food-tasting, fashion previews & more granted me with opportunities to engage and communicate with people, helping me to overcome that reserved personality of mine step by step. These are all the things that I never thought I could do but I did all because I decided to take a step further with blogging. (:

Contest

Starting off with a fact about myself. I have NEVER bought any skincare products for myself because I always have my mom very against me having skincare products on my skin seeing I was still young. & it kinda stuck, till now.

I have friends around me and people I know around my age using skincare products talking about this particular brand and that but I have NO clue and feel so out of place when it comes to this topic. Time when I realised I do need skincare product NOW, I have no idea what I should go for.

Thanks to Nuffnang and Laneige however, for providing this opportunity for me to maybe have my own skincare products for myself for the first time.

You probably haven't see pictures of my skin without makeup, filter, edit before. So here are 3:

*you can click to enlarge if you want a close-up look which i'm sure not
Skin not in any way edited. Didn't edit the lighting either.

1) Pimples on my forehead & on the sides of my face which i'm guessing are caused by letting my hair down touching my forehead and sides of my face. 

2) Dark eye circles probably caused by always staying up late. 

Judging from these 2 problems I have plus my daily routine of what I do to my face when I'm going out, choosing a favourite product of skincare and makeup out of all the Laneige products is easy peasy!



Problem #1 solution: Power Essential Skin Refiner Light(skincare)

Problem #2 Solution: Snow BB Soothing Cushion(makeup)
Use - Whitening + Suncreen + Sweatproof + Soothing + Makeup effects

I don't think it's hard to understand why I chose this after looking at how many uses it has. It's so amazing right!

I chose this not just because of how effective it would help in covering my dark eye circles. 

As you can tell from the pictures, I have a pretty dark coloured skin which makes me look super dull as a person; like how people look when they just woke up.
I usually would use either foundation/compact powder to make my skin brighter/whiter. But after a long day, it's just not of use anymore because of all the sweat.

But see how many problems this product help solve for me already?
WHITENING & SWEATPROOF & MAKEUP EFFECTS. 
ALL!

On top of that, I'm actually not a person to put on sunscreen when I go out. I know it's really bad for my skin especially when living in Singapore :s
I think I may call this product a superhero or something, having so many powers to help solve problems like now; being a suncreen to help solve another problem of mine! :D

After being through all the 5 very tedious, sometimes fun &  exciting challenges, I feel kinda emotional & feel like sharing my deep thoughts.

Challenge 1: Nomnom Challenge


Really remember me being very noob with talking on cam. I guess I know I would be in a disadvantage when I joined this competition because I never really made any videos so my subscribers are near to 0.  Probably those who were subscribed clicked on the wrong channel or they were hoping for some videos to miraculously appear. Hahaha
Without having much experience in making a video, of course I'd lose out in brainstorming for the video as well. So the 1st video turned out kinda crappy.
TBH, I thought I was really proud of myself and found the video damn awesome when  I published it. After I watched it several times more, it sucked, it really did. I think I could be blinded by my own love for myself LOL
This very first challenge really was quite the challenge for me having to act in public with everyone looking at me like i'm some kind of psycho -.-
After this challenge, my sister never wanna tag along to help out with me again because we had quite the quarrel for this challenge lol
Challenge 2: Entertainment Challenge

After Challenge 1, I kinda learn more about what are better videos by looking at what the other contestants have done for Challenge 1. In Challenge 1, I got too engrossed into planning out the perfect play I lost track of what was important; the content.
So for Challenge 2, I decided not to put THAT much thought into coming up with the best play but the best content I can give. So you can see lots of talking in the video as compared to the last one. More of me so YAY :D 
Don't think having good content doesn't have its rough parts! Do you know how many NGs it took for me to get the right lines? Valerie had to be my cameraman for most of the challenges. Hard on her :p
You can still see i'm not that confident on cam still though. With all the eyes-rolling I do when I'm trying to recall "hmm what's the next line after this?!"  So it kinda makes me look ugly on cam doing that -.-
Challenge 3: OOTD Challenge

I still recall how hard I struggled for this challenge. It was having a hard time trying to find my male model because I actually need him to be able to WANT to buy clothes from Cineleisure because I can't use male clothes for myself lol
But luck wasn't on my side. Every guy friend I know was either broke OR don't buy clothes from Cineleisure OR too afraid to go on cam.
Then, something good happened. I found a guy friend who would actually buy the clothes for himself but can't model because he's in army camp so all I had to do was find another guy friend who's broke but was ohkay going on cam. Hahaha. 
I think I probably have the most complicated story for this challenge than anyone else's ever.  Another trouble I had was I realized way too last minute that I actually need another helping hand & didn't manage to find one so it was tedious filming with limited resources. But I managed! 
But then you see, even if I am the one having the video camcorder, I usually weren't the one using it to film so when the last part of the video requires me to, it turned out EXTREMELY shaky lol
Challenge 4: Cathay Decoded Race

I think anyone who participated in this race could agree with me that the toughest part was climbing up a hill. I think the most important thing about this challenge is finding the right team mates & I am really lucky to have great ones! Namely, Angela & Katriel
The fact that we didn't win the race was upsetting but positive thoughts I have out of that was we got some free vouchers from Frolick, Best Fries Forever, E2Max and Singapore Flyer! So it wasn't that bad afterall. Haha
On top of that, great exercise, people, great exercise. I have to dedicate a special thanks to the cameraman, Angela's friend, Wai Meng, for running together and suffering with us! Thank you so much!  It's thanks to him that we have this awesome video :D
Usually blogging is just a one person thing. To have this challenge of working together on a blogpost was really quite the challenge but quite the experience as well! We learnt a lot from one another. Or at least I feel 
I learn a lot from my team mates. Hopefully they learnt something from me too hahaha We actually submitted our video late & panicked at that point in time but.. I guess that is part of the.. FUN? YOLO right. Not that we did it on purpose. lol
Challenge 5: Makeover Challenge *no link to this one
No videos either. Sorry.. But this one was taken place at Cineleisure itself. No videos were required. I think I may need to explain about this one seeing there is actually not a blog post about it.
For those who followed me on Twitter & Instagram may have found me annoying and unfollowed me on that day because I was kinda flooding my Twitter and Instagram with my process of getting ready for Challenge 5 because it was part of the challenge. 
We were supposed to dress up at our best because there were gonna be lots of photo-taking going on. But instructions said to leave some space for accessorizing. 
When I arrived at the venue, all I was given was a piece of paper, a $10 BeadStreet voucher and time I was supposed to report back. Was freaking happy about the $10 voucher. You have no idea how many  accessories I can buy with that $10 voucher from BeadStreet! 

The picture on top were the things I got in total from BeadStreet that day! A pair of polka dot shades, a pair of feather earrings & 2 sets of arm swag. 
In my head, I was going for the sweet look initially but then it changed when I went shopping for the accessories & it turned to retro. lol
Thanks to my cousin, Regina, for her big help with my hair. I was pretty worried about my hair being like this:

Pretty messy right. It was actually a "cheat" waterfall braid behind but my fringe just goes everywhere -.- But then she retied my hair to this!

I have no idea what she did to my hair. Haha Tbh, I was kinda paranoid about the hairstyle she was gonna retie my hair into because I am very particular that my hair has to cover the sides of my face or else my face would look freaking HUGE. I have naturally quite the big face :( 
So you may see some of my fat faces taken by the photographers there. DON'T JUDGE!
I need to give my special thanks to my cousin, Valerie, for her top also! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We actually had to pose in front of the public; something I never thought I would do in my life.  Not only that, catwalk too! NOT KIDDING.
I was nervous to the extent that when I got back from the catwalk, I forgot what I did, literally. Well Qiuqiu said I did well for it so i'm gonna take it as I did. Haha
I didn't mention celebrity bloggers were there to judge did I?! :D
I was so excited but like quietly excited when I saw them. I am sad I'm not a natural speaker so I didn't talk much but I'm glad I managed to take pictures with them! 

 With BongQiuQiu!

With BeatriceTan! Didn't manage to take pictures with Peggy(sixpegs) using my phone but a photographer did manage to help me take one with her!  People weren't lying when they said Qiuqiu is very friendly. She totally is! I think i'm really lucky to be able to meet all of them in person!  You know what's awesome? We all got sponsored dinner from Seoul Garden afterwards :D Well sadly the celebrity bloggers weren't able to join us..

All taken using my phone with Instagram filters. Sorry if the quality is poor! I had beef bibimbap. The portion was too big to finish up all by myself though. If you want to be more romantic, share with your lover! ;) Their side dishes were pretty amazing. I love their clams soooo much! 
The fact that Seoul Garden HotPot is gonna have another outlet opening at Jurong IMM in mid-April makes me so excited because it'd make it more convenient for me ;) 
In line with the opening, they'll be launching their new menu in mid-April as well!  The new menu will be focused on value-for-money that will cater to the busy executive crowd at IMM & Harbourfront as well as movie-goers who'd like to catch a quick hearty meal before the show at Cineleisure.
Btw, they're having a promotion right now till 30th April! - NS45 SAFRA/HomeTeamNS Voucher Promotion: 1 FREE main course for every 2 main courses ordered. Present your SAFRA/HomeTeamNS card to enjoy this promotion! 
Details can be found here: http://seoulgarden.com.sg/ns45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I managed to have my final outfit taken (: Wasn't a very clear one though..

& some random pictures I took that day...

Before I end this, I have yet to compile all of my embarrassing moments aka bloopers when filming for CNOS2 because my video editor decided to give me a hard time.. 
But I will compile them all into one video and post in another blog post of mine so stay tuned!!! 

_____________________________________________________ To find out whether or not we won the race, and check out other interesting snippets of the race, watch this video that we recorded during the race!

*Credits to camera man & video editor: Ong Wai Meng