A timely reminder

It's been pretty much a year since I'd made the big jump to strike it out on my own.

Today is a good day to remind myself that a lot of what I've done and achieved in the last 365 days has been to allow myself the opportunity to explore and grow as a person. It's been an amazing year. I've learnt so much more than I'd ever dreamt possible and had so many wonderful experiences that I wish I could share them all.

Most of all, I am incredibly grateful and humbled by all the generosity, faith and trust that has been showered upon me.

In the days and years to come, I pray I will never lose sight of my aims and that every action will be taken with the purest of intentions.

Peace and love :)

A scentsational experiment

Whoa, look how time has whizzed by! I've spent the last few months hard at work rushing to meet deadlines, spending as much time in yoga practice as possible and travelling a little, and before I could even check my calendar, it's almost the end of the world, if you are the sort to believe the Mayan doomsday predictions.

Well, I'm somewhat sceptical, but just in case, I've made sure to live every day as if it were my last. Come to think about it, that's actually a great resolution to make, supposing we make it to the new year lol.

Anyway in an attempt to live life as fully as possible, I've embarked on a little olfactive experiment, inspired by an article I read in an recent issue of Elle USA. In the article about male perfume afficionados, one of the guys interviewed told a story about how he lost his sense of smell during 9-11 as he was a first responder stationed at the site. Months later, he realised he was slowly regaining his sense of smell when he started to be able to smell garbage. Now that he has recovered, he is trying to build some sort of 'scent memory' by using specific perfumes for specific occasions. For example, on a holiday to Italy, he used only one perfume by Acqua Di Parma through the trip so that when he spritzes that scent in the future, memories of his vacation will come flooding back.

Easy breezy getaway

One of the best things about living in Singapore is its close proximity to nearby resort islands. There are even beautiful beaches just a one hour ferry ride away.

I had the pleasure of spending last weekend at Bintan Lagoon Resort. The picture above was taken from the rooftop of the resort's newest beachfront restaurant, Rice. Not a bad view eh. And yes, the sea is quite pretty too. Clear waters, mild waves and nice soft sand.

The resort was celebrating the grand opening of its new private ferry terminal, which is located a few hundred metres to the left of where this photograph was taken. Seriously, the hotel is a two minute walk away from the ferry terminal, which means you don't have to waste time with lengthy land transfers once you arrive in Bintan.

The resort very generously hosted a group of media people to a night's stay to take in all that the place has to offer. I decided to make a weekend getaway out of it and extended my vacation by a night so that I could have some time for R&R after all the festivities.

Is snail cream a do or don't?

It appears that the latest miracle beauty ingredient is nothing you would consider high-tech like stem cells or complex molecules with unpronounceable names like IUHE2185. Instead, it is something so simple and basic that you'd probably stop dead in your tracks and go: "WHUT?"

It is... drumroll please... SNAIL SLIME.

Ok, now that the initial bout of expressions of disbelief is over, yes, I kid you not. I first heard about snail creams a few years ago at a press presentation. Apparently the slime produced by snails have a high concentration of some sort of proteins that supposedly help the skin repair itself at a quicker rate.

According to the PR rep, there are snail farms for the sole purpose of harvesting this slime (no, I have no idea how they collect the slime, maybe they scrape it off the floor?). This slime is then purified and put into a jar with a few other ingredients, probably preservatives, and there you have it, a gelatinous substance to apply on your face.

I love bling!

Sort & Pepper is a new accessories website launched by a friend of mine. I want to share about it, not just because the owner is a good friend, but because I like what I'm seeing on the website.

The site has a nicely curated collection of mostly costume jewellery and some bags, sourced from Korea and Thailand. All the items neatly categorised so you don't have to plow through pages and pages of stuff just to find something you like. The name Sort & Pepper is a play on salt and pepper, in reference to how accessories are meant to add a little flavour to your outfit.

I just love those cute opera singer rings, $19, pictured above. So fun to wear and they're great conversation starters too. And yes, the items are all in this reasonable price range, which makes it incredibly affordable and a guilt-free indulgence :)

Click on for more of my favourite picks.