My short vacation is officially over.  It's time to get back to the grind and catch up on life.  There were sniffles everywhere when I was in NYC, so I knew this would happen—I caught something :/.  Whilst fighting this cold, it seems like a good idea to talk a bit about the skincare I used during my New York trip.

Happy Back to the Future day (aka Future Day)!

Today is October 21, 2015 and this post is posted on 10/21/2015 07:28, which is the exact moment when Marty McFly travelled to the future to save his family in Part 2 of the Back to the Future trilogy.  I remember watching the movie as a kid (over and over again because they always replay it) and was captivated by the out-of-this-world storyline.  Everything from Doc's DeLorean time machine to the Marty's self-lacing Nike and Hoverboard wowed me.

Being a big fan of the movie, I have to dress for the occasion.  So I pulled out my BTF tank from Forever 21, paired it with an oversized 90s flannel, leggings, and Chuck Taylors.

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter (both @eeenricaaa, so is Snapchat), you may notice that I’m currently in New York.  I’m visiting a friend here and it’s quite exciting to be back in one of my favourite city.  I’m really looking forward to explore NYC and, well, EAT!

I’m not the type of person that travel light when it comes to my makeup.  This time, though, I really tried to condense it and only bring stuff I would actually use on this trip.  If there’s anything I need though, there will be a Sephora nearby XD.  So let’s take a peek into my travel makeup bag before I pack it.

Makeup bag: SEPHORA COLLECTION The Vacationer (not shown)

Prep

Primer #1: Hourglass Veil Mineral Primer
Primer #2: Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Face Primer
Eyeshadow Primer: Too Faced Shadow Insurance
Eye Depuffer: Benefit Cosmetics Puff Off!
Eye Brightener: First Aid Beauty Eye Duty Triple Remedy: Brighten, Depuff and Smooth

Face

Foundation: Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Flawless Fluide in Macadamia
Concealer: Marc Jacobs Beauty Remedy Concealer Pen in 02 Wake Up Call
Under-eye Setting Powder: bareMinerals Broad Spectrum Multi-Tasking Face in Well Rested

Cheeks/Contour

Setting Powder/Bronzer/Blusher/Highlighter: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit
Cream Highlighter: Benefit Cosmetics Watt's Up! Cream-to-Powder Highlighter
Cream Bronzer: NUDESTIX Bronzing Pencil in Earth/Golden
Cream/Gel Contour: Rodial Eye Sculpt

Eyebrows

Brow Pencil/Brow Liner: BCL BROWLASH EX Water Strong W Eyebrow in Greyish Brown
Brow Gel: Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel in Medium/Deep

Eyes

Cream Eyeshadows: Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Colour in Rose Gold & Cocoa
Powder Eyeshadows: Marc Jacobs Beauty Style Eye-Con No.7 - Plush Shadow in The Lolita 206
Mascara #1: Estée Lauder Little Black Primer
Mascara #2: tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes™ 4-in-1 Mascara
Pencil Liner: Marc Jacobs Beauty Highliner Gel Eye Crayon
Liquid Liner: Kanebo KATE Super Sharp Liner in Black


Looking at the list, it might seem like a long list.  I guarantee you, all of the above, plus my skincare, fit into my makeup bag with room to spare.  I do find myself not using eyeshadow as much because I’m always running late lol.  But I’ll try to use it when we go out for a nice dinner.

What are your must-have items inside your travel makeup bag?

Until next time,





*Disclosure: Some of the products mentioned in this post were provided to The Office Chic for review consideration.  As always, all the opinions expressed here are my own and are in no way influenced by any advertiser, affiliate, public relations firm or brands.

Hey you!

How have you been?

That's great!  I'm quite well, thanks!



As you can probably tell, I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for a few months. The break was a much needed one. Let’s see what has happened to my life during that time…

#1 We became homeowners!

It's official! We're home owners. 🎉 It's been such a fun/emotional/wild ride, but I n the end it's all worth it. 🏡 Now time to pack up and move in 😅

A photo posted by Rica (@eeenricaaa) on Aug 13, 2015 at 6:11pm PDT

It’s quite an exciting step in my life. We’ve been looking to purchase our own property for almost 2 years now. At first, we would look at listings, new developments, and open houses. For a long time, we just haven’t seen anything that we like and fit our budget. Then, we decided to go with a realtor. Unless you’re a real estate pro, which we were not, working with a realtor is completely necessary, especially when it’s our first property. They offer their insights, their market knowledge, and even some random recommendations (e.g. what filter you should use for the ventilation system in your condo). Even then, it took us a good half a year just to find a right listing in a desirable neighbourhood. It was quite an experience. We have moved now but we’re still in the middle of unpacking (I got way so much sh** x0x) and we’re still planning to renovate in the Fall. Can’t wait for everything to be done done.

Hey lovelies,


Long time no chic chat.  It's been a while since I have done a personal updates (usually that's through Twitter).  If you followed me on Twitter or Instagram, you might have noticed a bit of a MIA from my part.  That's because I have been either working or studying like a mad person.  It really has been a busy couple of months.  And I seriously need some me-time, going on a vacation, visiting a spa... or just lying down and watch a Modern Family marathon.  But not now.

Ever since January, I don't feel like I have had a break at all.  I was able to blog through January and February because even though I worked 12 hours every day, I still got sometime during after midnight to blog.  But it's not going to be possible this coming week... if I want to do well in my upcoming exam anyway.  In order to progress through my career, writing exams, taking courses to attain my designation is inevitable.  I have set a goal in life certain things I need to accomplish before I turn 30, and this is one of them.

So long story short, I am taking a one week break to study (and snack away, I at least deserve that).  I will not be doing chores, making food, or make myself look presentable in the coming week just so I can have some extra time to spend cramming all the information.  For those who are worried about my well-being (thank you <3), my awesome boyfriend will be taking care of me for this week (then it'll be my turn for the next month when he's studying).

I will be back on May 1 with a brand new beauty post :D.  In the meantime, take care my fellow beauty enthusiasts, see you on the other side.

Until next week,


x Rica

Some of you might have noticed that I haven't been posting as often lately.  First of all, I'm sorry for the lack of posts in my blog recently.  March was a stressful month for me, mostly because of things happened in my personal life...

With only two months away from the end of my current lease, I had to find a new place to rent.  It was a long and stressful process (especially with the housemate situation going on, which I have already vented about on Twitter so I'll spare you the details).  I would have started searching earlier if there was any available.  Unfortunately, because the law only permits landlords/real estate agents to list the property 60 days before the current lease end date, I had to start in March.

Finding an apartment to rent is much different than finding a room when I was in university.  Searching for a room back then was easy, because the university make things easy for you with their listing site and off campus housing help.  But real life is more complicated, you have to do everything yourself, and people don't like making things easy for you.  Sometimes they list an apartment as 1 bedroom when, in actuality, it's a bachelor apartment.  There's not even a separator thingy to make it a "room" (sarcastically quoted).  Sometimes they don't like to tell you if parking is included, so you have to email/call to ask.  I could go on and on with my rant, but I guess I should stop here.  Anyway, I'm glad to report that we have found a place to live!

I also had the most terrible week of 2012 during the last week of March.  Let's recap: got into car accident on Monday, lost my Presto card (for commute) on Tuesday, missed my train on Wednesday, train broke down at my station on Thursday (huge line for bus so I had to go on the train instead), another accident on Friday and my lunch was too spicy so it was not edible, cut my finger on Saturday... I think I should be glad that this week is over.  I thought staying at home could help me avoid accidents, but I cut my finger at home... so maybe I should just sleep it off till the luck comes back to me... hopefully in April!

It's already the worst month of the year, but there're still some good things that have happened...

I had the chance to attend various events, including a few shows of the World Master Card Fashion Week in Toronto.  Rushing to show to and from work was definitely not fun, but regardless the shows themselves are great.  Maybe next time I should take half a day off on those days so that it'll be more relaxing for me.  The most important thing in making the shows enjoyable is to go with friends (aka Joyce, Emily, and Michele lol).

On March 18, I also went to the Toronto Beauty Bloggers Brunch with my TOBB ladies =D.  Milestone brunch was pretty great, and chatting with TOBB ladies is awesome!  They are so inspirational in a lot of different aspects, not just makeup.  I also finally get to meet Lelo (@leloartistry aka my Walmart buddy lol) in person, and met two new friends @Ellaprettyblog and @walkinthecloset.  These ladies have great sense of fashion, accessories, and home decor.  I definitely have a lot to learn from them!

I also went to the MAC warehouse sale last weekend (huge thanks to Joyce and Winnie!), which was pretty great comparing to the past few sales, especially the charity bag part!  I'll be doing a separate post on my haul and experience!

Anyway, March was very eventful, both in a good way and a bad way.  I'm glad that it's over though.  I really hope my luck gets better starting now...  I hope this blog post didn't bore you guys, but I want to give you guys an update with my life.  I haven't forgotten my blog.  I have been wanting to post more, but sometimes life catches up.  I'm sure many of you can relate.  Hopefully I would be able to post more than I did in March this month.  With moving coming up though, I'm not so sure how consistent I could keep up.  but I'll definitely try!

x Rica

P.S. I'm sorry that this post is not chic at all...

Preface: We totally failed at the picture taking department during this trip. We have pictures here and there but not everywhere. I think we might need to go back soon lol... Anyhow, it'll be a rather wordy post... oops =P

our shopping cart lol

George Beauty Buffet Tray from Walmart

Happy Sunday!  You might have seen me ranting on about my skin on Twitter.  It started last Thursday, my skin has this weird reaction with redness and white bumps on my cheek area around my nose/under my eyes, as well as on my chin, and here and there on the rest of my face, even my eyelids =(.  So I was freaking out and pretty depressed over the last couple days.  I apologize for my rant and missing a post on Friday.  It's just that it has never happened to me before, so I was really scared.  Plus, it's on my face, it's very visible.  I don't work from home, so going to work like that is very uncomfortable.  Anyway, I woke up this morning, it seems like it has calm down a bit, so I hope it'll be better this week.  Because of how horrible I look, I didn't have the courage to take pictures of my face.  So this week is just going to be pure product reviews (and some leftover pictures from last week lol)...

Anyway, let's rewind and see what you might have missed this week =)

Putting My Chiffon Blouse, Cropped Sweater, and Winter Leggings into Action


Last week started off with an outfit idea post featuring few items from my Best Fashion Finds of 2011.  It is nice to show them in action to show how much I enjoy these pieces =).  Read more about them here.

It's a day late, but Happy Chinese New Year!  (Or if you prefer Lunar New Year).

Photo credit: Free BBG List

Last year's CNY was pretty great.  I was working at a bank back then and all my coworkers were Chinese.  So it was pretty festive, everyone is wear red.  We also went out for a CNY lunch.  The little kid in me enjoy getting red pockets from the "adults" the most, I even got some from my customers!  It was quite surprising, as I did not expect that to happen at all!

Photo credit: The Modline.com

This year, however, there wasn't much celebration going on for me.  I did have dinner with my family and relatives last Friday, and then with my roommates this Monday.  But that was it.  Oh well, but it's a brand new year, so I must be hopeful about how this year goes!  Anyway, here are some food photos from last night's dinner, excuse the phone quality photos.

Fried Vancouver Crab with Ginger and Onions

Garlic Bok Choy

Deep Fried Chicken

Chinese Eggplants with Shrimp

Nom, nom, nom... I want more food LOL.  I hope you all have had a wonderful Chinese New Year even if you're not Chinese.  I recommend checking out your local Chinese grocery store.  They put out some pretty festive snacks and food during this time of the year =).

x Rica

Hello, welcome to "The Office Chic".  I am Rica, the owner and author of this blog.  This is a place for me to share my passion and things I like.  It is called "The Office Chic" because I work at an office environment by day. Business casual is our office attire, but I do like to incorporate extra things I like in my outfits.  I believe that we don't have to dress boring to look professional, we can also be chic, and hence the name of the blog.

It's a brand new year.  And what a better way to set some goals, beauty related or not, for this year!

NYR #1: Drink at least 8 cups of water every day.
I don't think I drink enough water.  I usually am able to stick with it in the office, but at home, somehow it's harder to do.  So I'm going to use a water schedule for a month, and hopefully this will become my routine.

NYR #2: Sleep more.
I don't get enough sleep as it is.  During exam time, I get even less sleep.  So this year I just need to start studying earlier, so that I can get more rest closer to exam time.  (For those who are wondering, I have to write a few exam for a professional designation.)

NYR #3: Do yoga at least twice a week.
I stopped exercising over a year ago, which is bad, real bad!  With a full time job, this seems even harder, but I am going to make it work.  I have already taken a tiny step and sign up for some yoga classes at a local yoga studio.  Wish me luck!