OLAY REGENERIST Advanced Cleansing System

Today I would like to have some write up on the latest gadget I have in my daily routine lately. It's the OLAY REGENERIST Advanced Cleansing System. I read about OLAY Professional PRO-X advanced cleansing system online from other countries and it is named differently in Malaysia. I guess there's no different. 

The product was brought into Malaysia by Watsons in early February. I missed the first round of promotion as it falls during the festive season. I got this at the normal retail price.

I always thought that facial cleansing machine is only available at the beauty house until I saw this promotion by Clarisonic Cleansing system at the mall. I was amazed and thought that this is a great idea to own one of these cleansing system at home. At that time, I did not buy the Clarisonic product right away as I wasn't familiar with the actual advantage of having the product and I need to put in some research before I make the investment.

While reading through the information available online, I came across that OLAY actually has the same type of product at a more reasonable price. At that time, this product was not available in Malaysia and I almost bought it from an online store. The product came to my country just in time.

Like the packaging indicates, it comes with a cleansing system and a tube of 20ml skin renewal cleanser. I've not used OLAY products before this. To be honest, the skin renewal cleanser smells terrible. It's actually a scrub. But even without this scrub, when you are using your own cleanser with this cleansing system, it works by ex-foliating your skin.

Personal reflection on the product after using for two weeks:

1. My skin is clearly fairer than before. (Okay fine, I was tanned during my Koh Samui trip)

2. My pores start to appear smaller than before.

3. My facial regime finally working effectively! (I've been using the Eucerin Dermo Purifyer range for my pimple prone skin but didn't seem to work effectively all these while. This shows that my skin is seriously clogged up before this.)

4. My face feels much cleaner and lighter and of course fresher.

5. It is so gentle that you can use it every day. (I use it once a day at night)

The biggest advantage is that with a little amount of investment, I can save a lot by skipping facial treatments at the beauty house.

The product is a small battery operated machine. It is definitely travel friendly. The brush is made of micro fibres which is claimed to be very tiny which can penetrate through your pores and clean really thoroughly.

One disadvantage of the product is that it didn't come with a casing. I have to purchase a separate casing to store the brush after each use. The brush is refillable and it has be to changed after 3 months.

To date, I am very satisfied with the product and I wish to spread this good stuff to everyone. Most importantly it is priced reasonably and it is a good product to start of with if you would like to start using a cleansing system in your facial cleansing regime.

Price: RM129.90

Refill: RM24.90 for 2 brushes

Good stuff are meant to be shared. :)

老油鬼鬼 I love YOO!

I was having a sudden cravings for porridge. Guess it's because I was a little unwell but wish to have some good food. I was in Mid Valley Megamall and I remembered seeing a porridge stall at the LG floor and I decided to head for it. 

It is a stall located in between all the food stalls. It is next to the ShiLin stall.

It's specialty is to serve You Tiao, which is also known as Chinese Cruller or Chinese Bread Stick. It is commonly served with porridge or bak kut teh. To be honest, this you tiao and porridge served by I love YOO! is quite tasty. I do like it but for such a small serving at the price of RM4.30, I think it's a little overpriced as I'm pretty sure we can get a tastier and bigger portion porridge and you tiao at the hawker stall centre at cheaper price. However, I think it's somewhat still worth the value as we are having the food at the cleaner and more comfortable environment.

Stall location:

LG-K-16,

The Gardens Mall,

Linkaran Syed Putra,

59200 Kuala Lunpur.

I love YOO! is also located at various locations. Do visit their website for more details.

小霸王 Xiao Bar Wang

The commonly known Taiwan Mee Sua in Malaysia is by 士林 ShiLin. In recent years, another Taiwan Mee Sua store has come up with few branches in the country.

The mee sua served by Xiao Bar Wang is with pork meatball rather than oyster. The chilli sauce added in the mee sua is hilariously spicy. Try request for the chilli sauce to be served separately instead of mixing it into the mee sua in order to adjust the spiciness in the servings. The mee sua is also less starchy. I thought this is more healthy.

The Xiao Bar Wang store which I've visited is in 1 Utama. A small little shop serving few other kinds of food in their menu. I've not tried them all but I suppose the mee sua would be the best.

Xiao Bar Wang 小霸王
LG118,
1 Utama Shopping Centre,
Bandar Utama.
Contact no: 03-7722 2950

Social media in recent days

In recent days, almost everyone has got a smartphone or a tablet, if not a computer. As such, these people can't seem to live without social media apps and of course myself!

Look at these social media apps on which have been installed in my smartphone.

Facebook - A must have social media app to me. On Facebook, I've got many friends who are living all around the world. We do not meet each other for a real long time but Facebook has given me the chance to know what is happening to my friends.

Facebook Messenger - This app is part and parcel of Facebook app which allows me to chat with friends on Facebook.

Instagram - An app to post interesting photographs with various filters. It links to Facebook and Twitter.

Hangouts - This app used be to known as "Google Talk" or we commonly called it GTalk. I started using GTalk since I started working. My seniors likes using GTalk while talking to each other. Hmmm... for some reasons. Recently, Google has come out with Hangouts that replaces GTalk. It's a little difficult to adapt with the new app honestly. My contacts in my earlier GTalk has gone missing and I have to manually add in our contacts one by one. I do not really appreciate this thing.

Twitter - I used to twit a lot when this app firstly launched. Unlike Facebook, it is mainly an app that allows its users to post a short note. It is now an app for me to know the latest news as I've followed many news page.

Weibo - This is like a Chinese Twitter. This app is quite awesome. Many artistes from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong has official accounts on this media. It allows me to follow these artistes and I get updates about them through this space. Quite cool! There are also various interesting accounts that gives me good reads. 

Skype - Skype is commonly used by people for video call over the computer. Honestly speaking, I've not used the app on my phone. I'm not sure why did I even install it. LOL!

Line - This app is just another messenger app but it comes with very cute stickers. However, another interesting part of Line is that it comes with few side games. You can send any game requests to your contacts on Line.

Pintrest - This is an interesting app. It allows us to pin any pictures onto the wall. You can also repin other's pictures as well by categorising them into various category. Oh well, I hardly use this app but I will still browse through it when I'm bored.

WeChat - This app is quite similar to Line app. The interesting part of this app is that you can add and chat with anyone in the world. What you need to do is just searching by shaking your phone or let the phone identify users using GPS function. That's sounded cool but I'm refraining from that. I will not chat with strangers too easily.

Viber - This is an app which is commonly use for voice call via internet data. It is useful when you have unlimited internet data else it wouldn't help much in cost saving.

Last but not least, Whatsapp! Looks like many people can't live without this app anymore. This app has almost replaced the traditional SMS. It's like an all time app where we will be chatting, sending pictures, emoticons, voice messages, etc. 

There are countless applications on Google Play or iTunes for social media. How many of them are really very popular among the users around the world?

Mama Kitchen Restaurant @ Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI)

I was introduced to Mama Kitchen many years ago and I visit this place quite frequently. I finally decided to have a review on this restaurant. 

As the label of the restaurant suggest, it serves good loh see fun. I seriously come here for only one or two dishes.

More often than not, my family will start to order without looking at the menu as we have known what is good here. What I want to give a praise here is the sambal chilli sauce. I personally think it's really good and matches the taste of the loh see fun well.

I'm a garlic fan and often request for garlic and mix them with the sambal chilli sauce.

Here comes the big sized pot of lou see fun! Look at the freshness of the egg. The pot comes with minced pork and some prawns.

Other than loh see fun, my mum just loves having cantonese fried noodle. Their cantonese fried noodle is not bad actually.

These two dishes are actually up to my expectation. One bad thing about this restaurant is they can be inconsistent at times. One time may be very delicious, the other time may be disappointing. But I still will revisit the place after some time hoping that there is some surprises. In fact, this time of my visit, with the above photos, they taste good and satisfying.

The restaurant is located in TTDI.

Mama Kitchen Restaurant
48, Jalan Datuk Sulaiman,
Taman Tun Dr Ismail,
60000 Kuala Lumpur.

(Closed on Thursday)

Nyonya Restaurant at SS2

There are few restaurants in SS2 serving nyonya cuisine. I recently visited the Nyonya Restaurant at Jalan SS2/24, Petaling Jaya.

The ambience of the restaurant gives me a very calm feeling. Guess that's the effect of their colourful Nyonya arts in the whole space.

 We have ordered a few dishes and they came by to have all spicy dishes. Woah! Such a tongue tester to me.

Sayur Paku dish with shrimp. To be honest, I rarely have the chance to eat paku and I never know how tasty this greeneries is until I have this plate of dish.

Here comes the Curry Kapitan. Look at the gravy! Oh my gawd! Best of the best! This is the type of gravy I love.

Sambal Petai. I seriously want to give a thumbs-up to the owner of the restaurant. Petai comes with two different species, one is Petai Padi and another is Petai Papan. Both have the pungent smell which many people dislike but Petai Papan actually taste less strong than Petai Padi. The owner of this restaurant uses Petai Padi for their Sambal Petai. This really gives me a great satisfaction to my cravings.

Brinjal or we call it Eggplant. I never like eating Brinjal. The slimy texture of the vegetables is quite disgusting in a way. But honestly, this dish is well cooked. I've eaten even a few slices of it. But again, it's spicy. Perhaps that's the reason why it doesn't tastes as disgusting as I thought.

 Last but not least, Assam Fish Head. Thinking of this dish, I'm drooling already. The sour taste together with the spiciness of the gravy.

We had the Cendol as desserts. This is quite disappointing. Guess it's because I have had the best cendol before this.

Overall rating of this restaurant, I will give 8/10. The fact is the dishes served are genuinely tasty with good ambience. On the pricing, I think that's what PJ prices are. I believe it could be cheaper. I'm not sure. But it's worth a place to visit.


Nyonya Restaurant (Pork Free)
52, Jalan SS2/24,
47300 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor

Business hours:
Monday to Friday
Lunch: 11.30a.m. to 3.00p.m.
Dinner: 6.00p.m. to 9.30p.m

Saturdays and Sundays
Lunch: 11.30a.m. to 3.00p.m.
Dinner: 6.00p.m. to 10.00p.m

GoodSkin Labs - Circleplex-2

Dark circles, it is often the concern across all generation. Of course, it is also the major concern by myself.

I have dark circles under my eyes since I was very young. I think it's because of too much crying when I was a baby and not having enough sleep. Haha! Oh well, on top of that, I often do not get enough sleep since I started working and puffy eyes, dark circles etc are attacking me. It troubles me a lot. I've been using a lot of products and none of them can help much of it.

About few months ago, when I was browsing through the shelves of the local pharmacy, I was introduced by the shop assistant to the GoodSkin Labs - Circleplex-2.

The packaging comes with two compartments of cream. One for day use while the other for night use. The one for day use is a little tainted while the night cream is more moisturized.

After few months using the product, I do not think my existing dark circle has any reduction effect. What I believe is, at least, it has prevented my dark circles becoming worse. One plus point about this product is, it actually helps reduced my puffy eyes in the morning. Often, I wake up in the morning with very serious puffy eyes, however, after applying the cream by massaging it over the eyes, I could feel the immediate relief under my eyes.

This eye cream comes in the size of 10ml each for the day cream and night cream and it can last me for really a long time. It's worth the value to have it as part of my daily facial use.

As what I often believe, Good stuff are meant to be shared.

Pitbull - Timber (feat. Ke$ha)

It's going down, I'm yelling timber

You better move, you better dance

Let's make a night, you won't remember

I'll be the one, you won't forget

What a catchy music this song has.

Thumbs up to Pitbull with the new song featuring Ke$ha. I seriously find Pitbull is really good at selecting the right female voice to feature in his songs. From the last Feel This Moment with Christina Aguilera, and it's now - TIMBER.

I can't stop playing this song through my music player. It is really a great song that could cheer my tiring day up. Good stuff.

HTC One Max Review

Phew! This is my first post on the review of HTC One Max. I am myself a HTC user. I've always been a Nokia phone user for almost 6 years. Over a year ago, I have decided to change to a new smartphone and at that point of time, I was deliberating between Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One X. They both are amongst the best smartphone in the market. The Apple iPhone is always out of my mind and hence, in the end, I've bought a HTC One X.

And now, the brand of the phone I owned has come out with another phablet that adds to its HTC One series - the HTC One Max.

 

The system of this phablet is of course the well-known Android 4.3 with HTC Sense. I do not have any doubts over the system, instead, I love it very much.

The key features of this HTC One Max inlcudes:
1. Dual-capture mode frames
2. Dual front-facing stereo speakers
3. Finger print scan

The most interesting bit of the phone is the finger print scanner built-in on the phone, which is located right at the bottom of the rear camera lens. It can be used to unlock the phone without any pins. The unique feature of this finger print scanner is that it can recognised up to 3 different finger prints. I'm not quite sure about the technical part of this feature, however, what crossed my mind was the practicality of this scanner.

To be honest, I think that the location of the scanner is kinda weird. It is not quite easy for one person to swipe the fingers over the back if the phone is front facing. Alright, may be I have short fingers. Perhaps, there are people who will appreciate this feature.

Another feature of this phablet which I think it's worth mentioning is the dual-capture mode. The camera of the phablet is not something with fabulous mega pixels. Instead, it comes with the HTC UltraPixel Camera which claimed to be able to capture higher quality than those with high number of mega pixels. Oh well, I can't comment much about it but the photos captured by this phablet is quite amazing as seen in other reviews. At least its aperture reading at F2.0 is a great achievement for a phone camera. I do believe it can capture great photographs. The dual-capture mode is of course giving us a hype in photography. You are able to capture both from the front and rear camera at the same time! Oh wow!

Overall, I think this phone is great but I do not have any plans to give up my HTC One X yet as it is still new and has recently updated to the latest software with the HTC Blink Feed feature. I'm still happy with it anyway!

But, as I said, good stuff is meant to be shared. I think HTC is a good phone with likeable user-interface.

Restoran Goon Wah @ Jalan Kuchai Lama

Two years ago, I was introduced to try the special XO Fish Head Noodle at Restoran Goon Wah @ Jalaln Kuchai Lama by a friend of my dad.

I've always love to go to this restaurant to enjoy their fish head noodle but their operating hours has been on weekdays only. I will look forward to a public holiday which falls on a weekday so that I could enjoy the meal over there. But sometimes, it's hard... oh wells. And, today, I was on leave and decided to make a trip to the restaurant with my family. I'm so happy! :)

The fish head noodle from this restaurant is very tasty in the sense of the materials they used for the dish. They use sea water fish instead of fresh water fish. This is always at the advantage as some fresh water fish will carry a weird muddy taste depending on where the fish being bred. On the other hand, I love their soup base! Seriously! The taste of sour is just nice. That's awesome.

The noodle comes in two types - thin or thick noodle. I prefer the thick one but today we had the thin one. We could hardly see any noodle from the top. So many pieces of fish today! YUMMSSS!!!

They have other speciality as well, such as Claypot Lou She Fun, Honey Chicken Wing, etc etc. Many more. But we only had the fish head noodle with big portion. Oh, they come in small, medium and big size. The staff there will recommend you on how much to order depending your head count and how many dishes you ordered.

They do serve desserts too! Their desserts menu varies from day to day. We had Barley with dried beancurd today.

Lovely right? It wasn't too sweet. Although I'm not sweet-toothed, but I like how it was cooked.

Here's one good news to everyone who had the same feeling as I do (always looking forward to public holiday on weekdays). They are opening on Saturdays too starting from November 2013!

I saw this notice as I walked out from the restaurant. Wow! I was excited! Nice! I no longer need to wait till a public holiday to come! YAY!!

Restoran Goon Wah
G13 & 14, Jalan 3/115C,
Block KP 2, Taman Kuchai Jaya,
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

Do pay a visit to this restaurant if you are a fan of fish head noodles!

Good stuff are meant to be shared. :)

Sony Nex-3N

Being an amateur photographer, I've recently upgraded to a semi-pro camera - Sony NEX-3N.

I've been practising photography few years ago but I've been using ordinary digital camera. My first digital camera was bought when I was 16. Subsequently, I've been using three other digital cameras thereafter by slowly upgrading them through the specification which I wanted. The reason being for not having an upgrade to a better camera is that I can only afford digital cameras. 

In recent years, semi-pro cameras are getting lower price and hence, I've finally gotten a great deal from a camera shop to get the new Sony NEX-3N, a Sony Alpha camera. The package comes with kit lens (16mm - 55mm) and zoom lens (55mm - 210mm).

This camera comes with 16.1 megapixel Exmor™ APS HD CMOS sensor which deliver images of DSLR quality. The quality of each photo captured does satisfy me. 

There is another advantage of this Sony Alpha camera. Sony Malaysia provides workshops and events for Sony Alpha camera user. As this is the first camera of mine which uses manual settings, the workshops provided is an advantage for users like me!

Picking up photography is a skill that has a very abstract learning space. I wish this camera will help me to progress well into photography and of course one day later I will upgrade into a full DSLR camera.