What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see a duckling?

What I can think of is:

the story of ugly duckling

a rubber duckie

to me, ettusais and their little duck logo encompasses the essence of expressing yourself with loads of confidence by turning you into a beautiful swan with clear skin. Also, not forgetting the fun and cleanliness bit a rubber duckie brings during bath time!

Ettusais (pronounced as eh-tu-say) was launched in japan in 1992, and may 2001 in singapore, targeting young women aged 18-29. Ettusais range of skincare and makeup is specially designed for gentle caring for those with skin concerns such as oiliness, poor sebum balance, scars, clogged and open pores. And also bringing you one step closer to maintaining healthy and clear skin!

Let me share with you the favourite and highly raved about products from Ettusais!

Skin care: AC-Skincare Skin Version Up

Basecare: Zero Pore Pact

Makeup: Cheek Colour


ive been using ettusais fr two years now and i still remember how bowled over i was by the cuteness of the card when i bought my first ettusais product which was the medicated gentle soap bar (:

To be an ettusais club member, all you have to do is to purchase any skincare or basecare item. Its that simple!


And whats a member without privileges?

Your club ettusais card earns you a stamp with every $10 spent. With a fully stamped card of 20 chops, you could redeem a $10 voucher.

You get monthly mailers with invites to workshops, launches, promos and private events.

Special birthday double chop rewards and gift with purchases.

So spread the love!

Here’s the list of ettusais counters islandwide for your reference:

BHG Bugis, Bishan
ISETAN Orchard, Scotts, Tampines
METRO Woodlands, Paragon

Alternatively, you can visit their website by clicking the logo on my sidebar or send them an email at ettusais@shiseido.com for more enquiries.

ps: mystery product featured in the previous ettusais post will be revealed in the next!

while you were looking for yourself out there

"why havent you packed your room?!"

is not a question.

neither is there an option.

Happy Chinese New Year all!

night shoots for the week left me very very tired and slightly disoriented. am slowly adjusting to the time change and becoming a normal person again. pictures from the shoot and more soon! gong xi fa cai, time to let the pineapple tarts take over the world!

feel like the bags under your eyes need to be checked into an airplane's overhead compartment? getting enough rest and still have friends naming you after a tasty biscuit snack? hellooo panda! fret not, help is here. (:


before you start piling up on eye masks/gels/creams like no tomorrow after realising the shadows under your eyes are not cast by your luscious lashes, lets start by doing a simple evaluation like how all sensible people would. heh.

do you have, brown dark circles? blue dark circles? or puffy eyes? ive got a little of all, especially puffy eyes ): so yeah, all my boxes are checked. sigh.

brown dark circles (i dont mean sexy smoky brown eyes) are caused mainly by excessive melanin production, or hereditary reasons. also, as you age, the thinner the skin under your eyes get, thus making the circles more obvious.

blue dark circles are harder to conceal but easy to rid off, because they are caused by the lack of sleep. so a good night's rest is all you need, or rather proper sleeping hours and routine.

puffy and dry undereyes are due to an imbalanced diet, high salt intake and water retention. watch out heartbrokens, crying yourself to sleep, binging on salted chips and choking on water before you sleep will guarantee that you look as terrible as you feel, so chin up, tomorrow will be a better day!

ive been using Ettusais’s new tinted eye zone tinted colour essence and the eye zone massaging essence for a couple of days now and to sum the experience up in 3 words, “a pleasant surprise.”

to combat brown dark eye circles while concealing them in the day, ettusais has came up with this loaded pen of creamy goodness of tinted essence. it has vitamins C and E derivitives to improve blood circulation and prevents melanin formation, also it comes with a soft brush tip for gentle and easy application!

use this after your pre-makeup base for a natural finish, or pat on more after your foundation for stubborn shadows.


my skin on my left undereye is slightly dry and prone to irritation, so i try not to pat on too much of it to prevent a cakey appearance, but as a result, the dark shadows are still slightly visible.the coverage isnt as fantastic as a normal concealer, but its pretty decent for an eye essence with dual properties.

whats awesome about it is after i take off the concealer at night after a day of errands, my dark eye circles do not appear darker than how it looks in the morning, betraying signs of how tired i actually am.

it worked great for my right undereye, so if your dark eye circles arent social-life threatening and you havent got dry skin under the eyes, the eye zone tinted colour essence actually works like a charm.

also, not forgetting the eye zone massaging essence which really impressed me. this gel like essence easily tops the list of one of the best eye gels ive ever used. reduction of puffiness and lightening of dark undereye circles could be seen the first night i tried it. its also moisturising enough without the heaviness of a cream, so worry not about milia seeds!

the ettusais brochure that ive got has this easy massage technique which i coupled with the essence. ive done up a short video on the application and massage techiques, i hope it helps you guys! the volume's rather soft though, and i massaged the wrong way round for the first step. heh. sorry! how embarrassing.

here's the massage techiques in pictorial form taken from the brochure for girls who do not have the time to pick one up at the counters. (:

okay, i hope all of you enjoyed this post and found it useful. stay fresh for the new year and in the meanwhile, banish those dark eye circles!

(retail price for the tinted essence, $39. the massaging essence, $56.)

callback auditions yesterday went pretty well, despite my hair having pancake ambitions, my nagging headache which refuses to go away and that blasted cough which made me seem like a walking viral plague.
louis (knew his name courtesy of facebook, the privacy killer), who acted beside me looks a whole lot like this other guy who will be acting with me for a feature film come sunday. besides the uncanny resemblance, that guy's called louis too! crazy coincidence i tell you.
am trying to save my hours of sleep, late nights filming from sunday to thurs from 8pm-6am. ): thank God for the new eye essence from ettusais, no more panda! heh. review will be up soon!

just before the beginning, when nobody called her nothing. those who came, snubbed their shoes, in her heart. dug it out and cut it up. those small little cut up pieces were boiled and left to shrivel in the morning sun. crows with beady eyes watched, malicious glint like rolling thunder. the little shreds of her heart were finally served on a silver platter, complete with a dash of pepper. piece by piece, they fed her. "is it delicious?" they asked. without a heart, she replied, "yes it is, very delicious." as her tears fell pitter patter, on the silver platter.

Et tu sais?! (a french term for "you know what?") ive been chosen as a brand ambassador for Ettusais along with 9 other lucky girls! heh. I’m really glad to be chosen as I have sensitive skin and ettusais products are ideal for girls with such problems!

last week, we had our virgin meet and greet session to learn more about ettusais, the products and of course, to meet the lovely ambassadors. let me do a quick introduction of them.
from left to right: sarah, grace, jeanine, regine, zoe, me!, fidelis, holly and esther. we're missing an amanda in the picture cus she couldnt make it.

i was wondering why i looked so short in the picture. and then it dawned to me that most were wearing heels. and perhaps my hair should never be allowed mood swings, its currently undergoing the flat-in-your-face phrase. i think i need new legs, longer ones. new voluminous hair would be good too, actually. heh.

okay, next, we were introduced to the brand itself, the products, and the stuff we would be getting to try out and review monthly.



also, we have the nice people from toshiba here (the ladies in black and blue), who would be sponsoring some prizes for this collaboration between ettusais and toshiba. they gave us a brief on their new laptop and a little gift which i LOVE. more about that later (:



next, here am i as the model for the skin care and make up demo. bare faced and prepping the skin up for make up! the pre make up routine helps protect your skin and enable your makeup to last. the friendly make up artist here is chelsea who also did my make up for an advertorial for ettusais (coming up in the march issue of cleo!)

curl your lashes for an instant wake up call for your peepers. and always curl your lashes before applying mascara to prevent the breaking of your lashes girls!



all pictures taken at the meet up session's courtesy of iris the marketing exec of ettusais, and esther who kindly mass sent her pictures. (fortunately/unfortunately for me, i wasnt able to take pictures much or mingle around with the friendly girls cus i had to sit still while chelsea worked her magic on me.)

the days ended with us girlies presented with goodies from both ettusais and toshiba! (:
we acted like kids under the christmas tree tearing open their presents in a fervent rampage. okay, highly exaggerated. once more altogether!



this is the stash from ettusais! (left to right)
1) an extremely cute and handy 2009 planner, complete with an ettusais charm bookmark!

2) lipstick (mine's in pk4)
3) nail polish
4) basic skincare trail kit
5) a mystery product (heh)
6) eye zone massaging essence (new)
7) eye zone tinted colour essence (new)

i will be reviewing the two new products from ettusais eyecare range to help fight dark eye circles in my next ettusais post. for sneak previews of these products and price range, you can read up about them at ettusais very own website, http://www.ettusais.sg.

i tried the basic skincare routine which includes, "gentle wash" in a soap bar for cleansing, "version up" which acts as a skin toner, and "aqua shooter" as moisturiser (oil control for oilier skin and moisture up for dryer ones)



i like the "gentle wash" in a soap bar because it lathers up to a rich creamy texture which doesnt create any friction between my skin, and allows the dirt and grime to glide off. leaves my face feeling deeply cleansed.



"version up" works as a softener, enhancing your skin's ability to absorb moisture (as we all know, the skin's natural ability to absorb moisture is rather low, sadly), prepping it up for a good boost of moisturiser. just apply it directly onto face, simple! its rich texture makes me feel as though my skin is indeed softening!

"aqua shooter" is an extremely lightweight and refreshing moisturiser (just like water!) that promises no greasy or sticky feeling which i LOVE! i hate the feeling of having stuff on my face especially when i sleep at night, so this works great. dab it all over your face gently using a cotton pad and youre good to go. besides preventing dryness, it also helps to prevent acne. double yay!

anddd, lets welcome, PALA-CHAN! this ridiculously cute seal(?) is the new mascot for toshiba. his dad is called pala-papa, mom is called pala-mama, and his gf (beat that!) is called papu-chan. them people at toshiba sure are creative! you can read more about pala-chan, get cute wallpapers, watch videos and more HERE. (he's actually a laptop screen cleaner)

toshiba also introduced their portege laptops to us, you might have seen their ads in your daily commute already. comes in 4 different fun colours to suit your lifestyle and personal preferences! i personally like the one in red (:


showing palm-sized pala-chan some love. i refuse and cannot bear to use him to wipe my laptop screen though. thou shall live with an inch thick of dust on my screen than swipe it with pala-chan's white belly once over.

thats all folks! i'll review the "eye zone massaging essence" and "eye zone tinted colour essence" by next week, and there's still the mystery product waiting to be unveiled. keep my name on your address bar, have a good one!

happy birthday daryl! (aka streething)


here's elaine, me and corde


entertaining ourselves,


as we wait,


for these guys

to fill our tummies,

after they are done with, uh, whatever they were doing.

besides being bright young things of yesterday, i have been counting down the days before steph leaves for melbourne and trying to fit them in a lidded jar. getting exasperated with my hair that obviously has other plans rather than staying how it looks once i get out of bed. forgetting to paint my grunge looking toenails, actually "grunge" is an understatement. reading the great gatsby (finally!), watching too much saturday night live and having strange midnight cravings.

bliss is waking up in the morning to sweet little texts sent in the wee hours of 4am. (:

the three little pigs, out! xoxo.