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As mentioned in my past Travel Chic post, my trip to Asia has begun.  I spent my first three nights in Hong Kong, catching up with some friends and family during all those day.  Last Monday (or some say the one before... I get confused with these things), I flew to Taipei with my family because according to my brother I should "make the most out of my first transpacific trip in years".  I guess he's right.

Taipei is very different than what I have imagined.  I imagined it to be newer, but instead a lot of places are full of older building.  It's very different from Hong Kong.  But there are something the two cities have in common - the number of beauty counters.  Every mall or department store I have visited, the first thing you'll see after the entrance will be beauty counters.  I believe my fellow Canadian beauty enthusiasts will drool when they see these stores in person.  They have about 3-5 times more brands than we have in Canada.  They also have a lot of freestanding beauty stores... from drugstore to high-end, from American to Korean.  You can find almost every brand you can name here in Taipei!  And here are just some pictures that I took from a Taipei landmark - Taipei 101, plus a few shots in Ximending =)

Dior freestanding store... drool...

Dior freestanding store... drool...

Chanel freestanding store... drool x2

Chanel freestanding store... drool x2

The Travel Chic: Beauty in Taipei (Pic Heavy!)

May 30, 2012 • 9 comments
Ok... maybe it's not grammatically correct in old English, but I think you get my point from the title.

Ever since Jill from jillojello and Joyce from Sparkly Playground reviewed the George's Cream, I have been wanting to try out this local brand.  I went to the Shoppers Drug Marts near my place and my office to find them, but no luck (or maybe I've been looking at the wrong section!?).  So when the lovely people from George's Cream asked me if I would like to try out their products, I know I have to say yes.

L to R: George's Special Dry Skin Cream, George's Light Special Moisturizing Lotion

First of all, let's talk about my skin.  I have pretty dry skin on my body (ironically, I have very oily skin on my face = =).  So I need complete moisture in order to feel comfortable throughout the day.  My boyfriend has really dry skin too, and he needs even more moisture than I do.  Both of us tried out the George's Special Dry Skin Cream and the George's Light Special Moisturizing Lotion.  We tested them out throughout the month of April and the first half of May, so I think I have a pretty good idea on how well they work.

George's Special Dry Skin Cream



Ingredients: Deionised Water, White Petrolatum, Cetyl Alcohol, Polysorbate-20, Polysorbate-80, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Phenoxy Ethanol, Caprylyl Glycol, Sorbic Acid.

This intense moisturizer is meant for combatting severe dry skin.  It looks like a white paste when you first squeeze it out.  It actually put me off a little bit when I saw the paste because it's not really how I pictured it to be.  It seems like it's more whipped than other body creams that I have tried.

George's Cream, Thou Art Dry Skin Saviour + Giveaway! [CLOSED]

May 28, 2012 • 5 comments
Hi lovelies,

Long time no blog. I'm alive. Life just got busy... With work, studying, and moving. I'm not even done with my unpacking, yet I'm packed and waiting at the airport to board on my flight to Hong Kong. I'm hoping to get some travel posts up. Depending on the computer situation because guess what, I left my laptop at home lol. Oh well, I'll definitely be instagram-ing and tweeting, so be sure to follow me on both under the handle @eeenricaaa :).

I'm hoping to meet up with friends and family there and see many beautiful things! Anyway, I hope I get to get some blog posts up during my trip, even just some photo diaries... But if not, I'll see you guys in three weeks :)

The Travel Chic: Hello from the airport

May 18, 2012 • 0 comments
Last weekend I went to the MAC/Estée Lauder Company Warehouse Sale.  I originally planned to just go on Saturday (thanks to Joyce), but I got some extra tickets for Friday and Sunday, thanks to Winnie, so I went for them and ended up going to all three days!  Funny how things worked out.

On Friday, I got to the sale at around 7pm with my friend.  We shopped around for a bit, didn't go too crazy, but here's what I got:

MAC pan eyeshadow ($4 ea.)
Top row, from L to R: Satin Taupe, Golden Rod, Prussian
Bottom row, from L to R: Phloof, Naked Lunch, Yogurt
This was too good of a deal to pass up.  With the price of two eye shadows, I got 6 eye shadows.  And they're not bad shades either.  Satin Taupe and Prussian are some of the popular shades in the current MAC permanent range.  I have always wanted to try Phloof.  Naked Lunch and Yogurt are two favourites of mine, so it's nice to have a back up (almost hitting pan for Naked Lunch).  Golden Rod was a total impulse buy, I guess I'll see how to work it out lol.


Bumble and Bumble Bumble South Surf Spray ($12)

I was very close to get this surf spray last summer, but I didn't because the price is quite steep and I usually don't spend much on hair product.  So when I saw this at the sale, it was a no brainer for me.  I'm looking forward to use it this spring and summer!


Origins Clean Energy Gentle cleansing oil ($12)


This is one of the best cleansing oil I've tried.  I have been waiting for it to appear in the sale, and it has made its comeback this time lol.

Sometimes giving feels just as good as taking... It was proved during the MAC Warehouse Sale March 2012

April 1, 2012 • 2 comments
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...

Chic Chat: A Month in Review - March 2012

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