Online shopping: Beauty Products. Here are some lovely sites for Malaysian shoppers.

Remember when I went a little excited at the launch of Clinique Malaysia e-shopping website?

It's a no-secret that I love shopping beauty products online. I feel less harassed, I am able to enjoy the freedom to choose without being pressured and I don't need to feel the need to buy many various different products from the same range/brand as I get to pick and choose which products would suit my skin needs best.

I have to admit that Malaysia is a little slow in the e-shopping department. A decade ago, our friends in the States have already enjoyed this service with added benefits too - they'd usually receive samples with purchases made. Here, samples are hard to come by. Instead, samples are sold to us even.

Whatever it is, I welcome this positive development. More and more user-friendly online sites are made available to us, with lovely promotions and shopping experience made easier. Here are some of them which I'd usually check out:

Pebble smart watch review part 2

Okay after pretty much using the pebble for more than a week solid, i am in a more informed position to continue with the review. Here goes.

Battery Life

The box says to expect a battery life of between 5 to 7 days. I can safely say that this will depend on the amount of notifications that you set on receiving and also if u pull GPS location info from your phone to the watch or when u use the built in sports mode when you work out and stuff. I got almost 5 days use before i had to charge the watch, and this was after 3 sessions of running, almost all notifications turned on and a few install/re-install session of the beta 2.0 firmware. That's not bad considering some watches don't even last a full day.

battery indicator using the smartwatch pro app.

Applications

new 2.0 beta interface for the iPhone app.

apps for the iPhone.

So far I've found a few websites where you can download apps and watch faces for your pebble. Soon they will also launch with an official pebble store where folks can develop and probably monetize their apps on a common platform. depending on whether you are on android or iOs, the app selection slightly differs. and it also differs if you are running version 1.0 or 2.0 of the firmware. currently i have the following running on the watch.

Twebble - a twitter client that lets you compose tweets, check your timeline and even browse profiles.

check mentions..

Multi timer - allows you to set multiple timers counting down or up for whatever purpose.

basic timers..

Spoon - quick check ins on foursquare
Pebble cards - app that pulls info from various sources, rss feeds, stock quotes etc.

there are more apps coming out for the platform and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

Conclusion.
it is safe to say that a smart watch is not for everyone. but as more and more companies enter the game you can say that this will probably change later in the future. as battery life becomes better, and as more and more fitness based sensors are integrated in a watch, one can argue that maybe in the future every one will want to wear one. as for the pebble? yeah i would recommend it if you're looking for a smart watch that is. check out the pebble steel for a more professional look and a much heftier price.

The Shiseido Ibuki and how it fared for me.

Remember my previous post at the launch of Shiseido's much coveted smart Ibuki skincare line?

Well, I think it is time to tell you what I think of the products that I got to try.

First up, the Gentle Cleanser. The cleanser is creamy and takes very little to lather and I guess this is good and economical. However, at my age and skin concern, gentle cleansers don't really lather and I'd stick to just creamy and comfortable. The fact that it lathers, it makes skin a little tight and dry.

I don't think it's the fault of the product because it did say that the range is targeted to those in the age range of 25-34, and unfortunately, though I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to try this, I have to admit that I am not within the target age group. I'm long past that *sigh*

However, since it is quite creamy, I still have plenty left and have been using it as a once-a-week to twice-a-week deep cleansing treatment. When not used daily, it is quite alright.

The Softening Concentrate, as I've mentioned before is pretty costly for the 75ml bottle. That's the only size available.

The formulation is surprisingly quite thick for a toner and can be used as a hydrating lotion before your serum/moisturiser. Unfortunately, this one didn't quite make it on my vanity table... I find it oily with a strong fragrance. Don't get me wrong, I like the fragrance and I think it smells good but I find that skincare with a strong fragrance always irritates my skin.

It is also loaded with alcohol and I think that must have also been an irritant to the skin.

Though it feels oily on application, it did get absorbed really fast into skin. However, somehow it just feels a little strong. I've used the White Lucent range before and I think the lotion feels lighter than this.

The Ibuki products came to me just when I discovered that silicones in skincare might not be that good for me. And when I read its ingredients list on the box, my heart sank.

The moisturiser comes loaded with silicones.

But, since that factor was just something I had recently questioned myself at that time and not something I was very sure of, I decided to not limit myself and to just give it a try. And tried it I did. In fact, this was the only product in this range that came with me to my Europe trip and it did help me maintain healthy skin in the super cold weather.

Though I am not in the age range targeted for this line, I've always realised that my skin cannot take moisturisers that are too rich for my skin, ones that are targeted for my age group. It's so weird in all sense and frustrates me much too. The skin's dehydrated and shows signs of aging, yet fluids are too light while creams are too rich.

With this Ibuki moisturiser, it was ok. I didn't see any super duper results like super soft skin, etc, but at least I didn't break out. In fact, my skin was almost flawless with little maintenance (ie. lesser scrubbing & mask) when I was out in the cold. 

All in all, I think the range would probably work better for those in the targeted age group, those that are tougher and could withstand alcohol, fragrance and silicones. Perhaps.

Have you picked up any of the products in the range?

Biotherm Skin.Ergetic boasts all-natural ingredients

After that realisation that silicone content in skincare could bring more problem than good to my skin not too long ago, I have since made some hits and misses with products that do not contain silicone. Most that I've come across are usually organic or natural skincare products.

This was the first that I discovered and when I read its list of ingredients, I squealed in delight.

Pebble smart watch review part 1.

What's the time?

So basically a smart watch is all about notifications. Making sure that you don't miss anything when you don't have your phones in your hands right. Which is these days kinda rare because you will always have the phone in your hands right? Well there are situations where you need to be discrete so I guess therein lies the need for the pebble. 

Pebble got its big break from kickstarter. It raised more than 10 million and basically kickstarted (no pun intended) the whole smart watch wearable craze. Now everyone is in on the ride. Even apple is rumored to be developing a smart watch and that would be something to look out for. But as it is now, we are looking at the Sony smartwatch 2 and also probably the Samsung galaxy gear as it's main competitors. The main advantage that the pebble has is its compatibility with both android and iOS users.