taiwan

Beloved One Skincare

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It has always been Korea Korea and Korea when it comes to Skincare. What about Taiwan? Taiwanese have great skin too! One of their top selling brands in Taiwan is For Beloved One. I can see it almost everywhere when I was there last November. *How I want to be back in Taiwan again!!*

To be honest, I have never bought any products from For Beloved One before until I went for a lunch with them in October last year when they gave me some Bio-Cellulose Masks to try! They are the world’s first bio-cellulose masks – not any cotton or paper mask so it would stick to the skin better.

Unlike other masks in the market, each piece of mask is at least 2x heavier than normal masks (which also means that the mask is soaked with an entire bag of goodness!! After using the mask, I use whatever that is leftover on my legs lol.

I was of course sold by then. Only one mask a week and the skin would be well taken care of. Some masks requires you to mask every 3 days. Soooo troublesome!

Now, they have new products that are already out in the market!! It is their Vitamin C Plus range!

Ting ting!! Of course of course, yay to more products for whitening!!!!

The differences between the old (2013) and the new range (2014) are the ingredients:

Melaclear2, Technowhite, DermaRXSRC and more. The ingredients can brighten up your skin tone and restore crystal clear skin! I have tried two out of their 5 products on my face and some of it on my hands during the event. They smell a little like citrus and they are so gentle that people for sensitive skin can also use them.

From left to right:

– Vitamin C Plus Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Surge Cream ($85)
– Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Essence ($95)
– Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Lotion ($57)
– Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Toner ($58)

Not forgetting, their famous Bio-Cellulose Mask is also available in this range! – Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Bio-Cellulose Mask (Retailing at a box of 3 for $63).

First review: Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Surge Cream ($85)

Although we know that it smells like citrus, I was still surprised to find out that the cream is in a pale yellow color instead of white. I must be too used with white cream products already. Heh.

Apply it twice a day, morning and night after cleansing, toning and essence (if you have this step). It is said to keep the skin hydrated and lighten the skin. I HATE creamy or oily stuffs on my face. So if I dare to use it, it means that it is almost grease-free. The texture is quite watery so sometimes I would skip my makeup base and skip to sunblock after applying this. I have yet to experience lighter skin tone but my skin is definitely brighter and more radiant!

Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Lotion

The lotion is able to slow down pigment formation as it contains gentle whitening agent and MELASLOW which can help lighten skin by reducing melanin production. Apply it 2 times a day to strength your skin’s defense and boost skin health!

Melasleep Whitening Ethyl Ascorbic Acid Essence

I am a very very essence person. I can skip the moisturizer if I have my essence with me because essence are usually watery and cooling for my face. This serum contains higher stable Ethyl Ascorbic Acid, which reverse melanin formation and lighten dark spots. And with the new ingredients in the improved range, skin will become more and more radiant!

Watery texture. Results are best seen on dull skin tone.

You can find For Beloved One exclusively at Sephora Singapore. They are so worth every penny so be sure to give them a try!! 🙂

Sun Moon Lake @ Taichung, Taiwan

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The Sun Moon Lake experience will be split into 2 parts because there are too many pictures in this post!

Instead of taking a coach to Sun Moon Lake, we were persuaded into a very persistent taxi driver who wouldn’t let us off into booking his cab for NT4000 (~$170-180) for that few hours. We only realized that we were cheated after we came back when other taxi drivers offered us NT2500 – NT3000 (for 2 places – Sun Moon Lake and CingJing Farm).

2 stops are being covered in this post:

1. Puli Brewery
2. Wen Wu Temple

Visiting the brewery can be quite an interesting thing but the visit to this brewery is pretty much boring cause there wasn’t a real tour to demonstrate how the beer where brewed. There are 2 levels.First level sells food that are made of alcohol like alcohol ice-cream or the local snacks like Tai Yang Bing while the second level sells souvenirs of the different culture from Taiwan (eg. Alisan).

PRETTY MUCH BORING RIGHT? The taxi driver couldn’t even be bothered to explain anything. He sat in his car for 20 minutes (yup, we combed the place within 15-20minutes) by taking some pictures of old empty wine bottles and all. Worth a stop if you need the toilet for a toilet break.

It was quite cold when we reached the first stop for the Sun Moon Lake tour as we were traveling uphill.

The view was breathtaking. I know my picture don’t even do any justice to it.

The biggest temple there is Wen Wu temple. It is a Taoist temple dedicated to Confucius and Kuan Kung, the red-faced god of war. We went up one a Monday so it was not that crowded.

You will also see people from Ming Zu singing, performing and selling their CD outside the temple. I must agree that people from Alisan are great singers. My dad told me A’Mei is from Alisan too.

A lot of bells were hung on the wroughht-iron ladders (366 steps). Each ladder represents a year of birth. People would write their prayers on the wind catching paper and hang their bell there. As it is quite windy there, the people believes that the wind will send the written prayers to the gods in the temple. You can buy the wind chime in the temple.

When I moved into the temple, I saw another board with similar function.

You can also buy a fish feed from this machine for NT20 and feed the fishes there.

The view of the temple from the highest peak (taken from the inside of the temple).

As you can see, Sun Moon Lake is more of a tourist attraction for the older people. No shopping was done throughout. But it was a different experience from the city.

There are different stops (I took the yatch and all!) which will be covered in the next post.

Taipei Day 3

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Day 3 was pretty boring (since we covered most of the famous shopping areas).

Day 3: Long Shan Temple, Xi Men Ding, Hotel (rest for 2 hours), Shi Da Night Market and then back to Shilin Night Market.

Outfit of the day.

I was very very hungry cause I skipped the hotel’s breakfast so I grabbed a Pudding Bread nearby first. They have interesting and nice bakeries!

We went to visit the famous Long Shan Temple and had lunch at that little village place. Ordered 2 You Tiao and my god, they were as hard as potato chips. The temple was crowded and the people at the village were quite old but friendly. Everyone was crowding around this little pom who was very very active and playful!!

The interior was amazing. The waterfall look kinda natural.

After we left the temple, I had to grab a cup of bubble tea. I drank bubble tea EVERY single day. And because I couldn’t read chinese, I could only order “Zhen Zhu Nai Cha” every time ~.~

Back to Xi Men Ding for lunch! This building is called the Red House – the police station.

We went into a Japanese restaurant for ramen! Yums. I realised that none of the restaurant serves runny ramen egg 🙁 Anyway, my ramen only cost $6.

My brother’s bento set which cost less than $8.

Headed to the departmental store to buy some Porter back as well! Birthday presents from the Dad. Got 2 bags. Hehehehe. (But I bought more Porter again later on…. on Day 5).

Buildings at Xi Men Ding… They reminds me of Seoul. The shops in myeongdong looks like Xi Men Ding and Wu Fen Pu reminds me of Dongdaemun. The places sell quite similar stuffs but it is much more expensive in Seoul!! At least 3-4 times more!! You can only get beauty products in Seoul (in my opinion).

After 2 hours of rest, we cabbed over to Shi Da Night Market and we were still very early (4pm). Please reach only after 6pm if you are intend to head over to any night market. I thought stalls would start to open at 4pm but I was wrong. The entire place was still very very very quiet. We grabbed some street food and sat at some cafe to chill while waiting. Only managed to grab very minimal clothes (3 pieces) there so I suggested to head back to Shilin Night Market for proper dinner and shopping!

This cap was bought in Shilin too! For $5 I think.

It seems like everywhere in Taipei sells very juicy fruits! We had fruits almost everyday (which we don’t in Singapore).

Stay tuned for Taichung!

Taipei Day 2

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Woke up early for the hotel breakfast (but it was a disappointment). To be honest, I don’t each much when I am in Taipei because of the differences in taste. Their food seems to be either too salty or too oily. It is always on the extreme side. I avoid street snacks due to the oil issue that was reported in the news recently. (Having said that, my parents still enjoy street food -a little)

I always start my day with this shampoo-looking bottle of coffee every morning.

Our plans for Day 2 were – Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Shilin Night Market.

But it turned out – Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Zhong Xiao Fuxing, Wu Fen Pu, Shilin Night Market and then Xi Men Ding.

After traveling to Taipei 101 (take the blue line and alight at City Hall), we walked a distance to ATT and all at Xinyi District. It was very very much like our Orchard road where you can find big brands like Prada, Miu Miu and more. So we roamed around for 2 hours before heading off to Zhong Xiao Fuxing to shop.

You can find 2 SOGO departmental stores there but do roam around the alley as well. There are little stalls where you can find them at the night market too. Wanted to dine at Ding Tai Fung for lunch but omggggg, the queue was too long.

So we walked and walked and we found Barbie Cafe!

We didn’t get anything much from the 2 places so we went back to Wu Fen Pu to shop since it was too early for Shilin Night Market.

A shop caught my attention. My friends know my love for dogs and bulldog!!

I asked for permission for a picture with the bulldog. The shopkeeper told me if he would, it would be a miracle. So I sat down, and this little baby actually went up to my lap and rest! cute!!!!!!!!

Managed to grab more clothes before moving on to Shilin. I brought an empty luggage over so I had to buy clothes and more clothes for the remaining days.

Shilin Market is one of the biggest market in Taiwan and this is my favourite market so far (I am already at Day 5 while blogging this). You can find a lot of game stalls, street food and clothings! They are quite repetitive because they sell the same stuffs everywhere. I focused more on clothes at Wu Fen Pu so I tend to look at shoes more at Shilin.

I ended up with more shoes than clothes for Day 2. Yay~~~ The most expensive pair was only $13 (I think). It is hell cheap over here yo!!!

The skies in Taiwan gets dark at 5pm. By the time it is 6pm, it feel as if it is already 9pm. YUP, it is that dark!!

We left Shilin at 9 and cabbed back to the hotel at Xi Men Ding because my parents were too tired from the walking.

My brother and me went back to Xi Men Ding for more shopping and food.

I found this Ramen egg at their 7-Eleven which is like our Hanjuku egg. Expected, the eggs were too salty, I couldn’t finish them 🙁 I survived on chips, bubble tea and ramen restaurants ONLY. There are days where I rather go hungry than to give in to their food. Sigh.

I really really love how much the Taiwanese love their dogs. They bring them everywhere!! These golden retrievers were found at a restaurant! Hehe. And I ended my Day 2 like that.

Good night darlings!!

Taipei Day 1

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We took the 8.30am flight and reached Taoyuan Airport at 1.15pm. By the time we retrieve the luggage and all, it was almost 2pm. Cabbed from the airport to our hotel at Xi Men Ding straight. I have no idea why, when people told me that the cab fare in Taipei is much cheaper, I thought it would cost about 20-30% lesser but hell no. Our cab fare from the airport was SGD50. The distance is like our Jurong to Changi Airport (slightly further up). It would only cost SGD25-30 for that distance in Singapore though.

After checking in the hotel, we roamed around Xi Men Ding for lunch. Settled comfortably in a Japanese Restaurant. Each bowl of ramen only cost about $6. The portion is slightly smaller than what was served in Singapore.

And not wanting to waste any time, we took the metro (MRT) down from Xi Men Station to Hou Shan Pi Station where you can find Wu Fen Pu wholesale market.

The MRT fare is fairly cheap. SGD0.80 for a ride. And single ride journey tickets are in the form of a token. So cute!!

Wu Fen Pu is one hell of a good shopping place! It is so huge that it took me 3 hours to comb the entire place twice. I spent $200 on clothes for me and J within that 3 hours. My brother managed to grab quite a bit of male clothing too.

What to buy in Wu Fen Pu: Mostly clothes. Shoes are not exactly cheap here. You can get it cheaper at other parts of Taipei.

Station: Blue Line – Hou Shan Pi

After 3 hours of shopping, it was already 7pm so we walked over to Rao He Night Market. There is no direct station (Hou Shan Pi is one of the nearest) here so I would suggest you to cab there or walk over from Wu Fen Pu after shopping.

Rao He Night market has very good street food!! They do sell clothes, shoes and accessories but I would prefer the clothes at Wu Fen Pu instead. You can find cheap female shoes at NT200 (SGD8-9) where my mom and I got 2 pairs each. Male shoes are cheaper here. My brother got 2 pairs of loafers at NT500 (SGD22) each. Male loafers usually cost about SGD40-50 even in our Bugis Village.

My dad had Stinky Tofu there, although he insisted that it was good, I wanted to vomit at the smell of it. EWWWWW!

After all the street food and little shopping done at Rao He, we cabbed back to Xi Men Ding for more.

Xi Men Ding is very lively at night! I also realised from the Superdry Store in XMD, the stuffs here cost more than Singapore! A tee here cost about SGD90 when we could get it in Singapore for SGD70.

I love the people in Taiwan because they are dog lovers!!! You can see them everywhere!! Oh ya, pet clothing are cheap in Wu Fen Pu too!

Loot for first day.

Add in Shills to your beauty regime!

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I was recently introduced to a new Taiwan brand – Shills during a beauty workshop. Some of their products really caught my attention because of the unique features.

Two favourite products in the brand are
– SHILLS Anti-Blackhead Activated Charcoal Exfoliating Bubble Facial Scrub
– SHILLS Mandelic Acid Skin Renew Toner

The toner is really really really special!! It has the latest Ice Cotton Technology which tightens pores, reduces black and white heads, decreases acne formation and improves skin clarity.

Have you heard of the Ice Cotton Technology? No? Okay, instead of “spraying” out liquid or foam when you press it, cotton comes out instead! The cotton is pretty icy. The icy-cool foam is not only soft, but also delivers the toner deep beneath skin layers and the icy sensation helps to increase skin’s metabolism.

Look at all the cotton!! Save you cotton pads no? Use it, dap it around the face and into the bin it go. So effortless.

The toner also contain Mandelic Acid which targets fine lines and wrinkles as well as uneven skin tone. The acid can work as a mild exfoliant and has anti-bacterial properties. My mom would definitely love this for sure. As for me, I like it as it can induce scar lightning and acne reduction!

As for the Anti-Blackhead Activated Charcoal Exfoliating Bubble Facial Scrub, I like the creamy and delicate texture. Unlike other scrubs which can be quite rough and harsh on the face, this facial scrub is very gentle but effective in removing excess grease and dust on the face. By removing all these, it prevents the formation of acne too.

The scrub also contains fruit enzymes (yum yum) that are effective in dissolving stubborn dirt within the pores (so it helps to unclog pores!). The active charcoal absorbs excess dirt and grease for better cleansing and whitening effects.

Both products comes in easy-to-use and convenient-to-use bottles. No squeezing, no pouring!!

You can easily get them at any John Little!

PS: SHILLS is Taiwan’s currently leading web-based retail brand and it is regularly used on Taiwan’s popular beauty talk show 女人我最大!!