Happy Chinese New Year

Yay! Today is Chinese/Vietnamese New Year day ^-^ To me this celebration is even bigger than Christmas as we have a family gathering feast and red pockets aka lucky money (li xi) are distributed by older relatives like aunties/uncles to younger relatives (which includes me hehe). It's really exciting and of course, I always look forward to new year because it gives me an excuse to go out and buy new clothes etc. (it's traditional to wear new clothes on new years day!)

It's highly appropriate to flash some money on a day like this. Jokes, just the red pockets:

I'm joking again haha, I haven't gotten any red pockets this year yet!

But these are the cutest ones that I've had in past years

I rarely get really cute ones like above, so I like to keep them because they're pretty to look at ^^ I wore a red top because red is the lucky colour for Chinese New Year, but when I actually do go to my family gathering, I will where a different shirt (since this one is now 'old', from last month and worn before).

 My newest selca~ who says lucky envelopes can't also be hot pink :P ? So cute!

So since I haven't actually 'celebrated' CNY yet, I can't really say much about it :/ Not that I was intending to make a post on it anyway, but yeah... I'll now swiftly turn this into a beauty post on the count of 3. 1..... 2...... 3..........

Woooooooshhhh

I have a new dual eyeliner to share with you girls, it's so kawaii and I received it from KKCenterHK earlier this month. It's from a brand called 'Ling Mei' which I haven't heard of before but I can tell that it is a Chinese brand:

 LINGMEI Two-Headed Dual-Use Big Eye Eyeliner

US $6.00

The liquid eyeliner end

The pencil eyeliner, twist-able end

There isn't much information on the web page about it, just that it has two ends and there are different packaging colours and designs to choose from (yellow, pink, brown, green, purple, black) and I chose 'brown' which is actually more like gold.

Left is the pencil liner, right is the liquid liner

• Both have the same thickness, though the liquid liner's black is darker
• Pencil eyeliner is not smudge-proof, liquid eyeliner is
• Both are not waterproof

I can't say that I'm impressed nor unimpressed with anything about this eyeliner because I really had zero expectations and this product has no claims of what it does, haha. So all I can comment on is how well it 'performed' as an eyeliner and my thoughts on this product.

My naked eye :O I hardly show myself without makeup on

I didn't attempt to be all creative with my eyeliner because I didn't want to stuff it up or anything. Instead I decided to be safe and stick to a design that I've done before (as seen in my tutorial in this post)

Liquid Eyeliner

• It glided on really well and was really pigmented
• The tip/brush wasn't too stiff or flexible, in fact it was perfect for me to precisely draw a line
• It dried within 10~15 seconds
• After it dried, I noticed that the formula felt a tiny bit sticky because each time I blinked I could feel my eyelid crease slightly sticking to the eyeliner
• After a while the eyeliner lightly transferred onto the top of my eyelid (as seen in the picture above)
• It lasted all day without fading or flaking

Pencil eyeliner

• It glided well onto my waterline but required some extra strokes to make it more pigmented
• Works extremely well on skin, smoothes on effortlessly
• Can be used for top lash line and bottom lash line
• However it smudges and rubs off, hardly leaving any residue
• Eventually the eyeliner fades from the waterline

Overall Pros (+) and cons (-):

+ Cute product design and packaging
+ Plenty of designs colours to choose from
+ The plastic packaging is not tacky or easy to break
+ Really cheap and affordable, US $6.00
+ Dual eyeliner, perfect for on-the-go/travel
+ Pencil and liquid eyeliners glide on very well
+ Liquid eyeliner dries within 10-15 seconds
+ Liquid eyeliner is long-lasting (whole day)
+ Liquid eyeliner is smudge-proof
+ Pencil eyeliner can be easily removed in case of any mistakes while use
- Liquid eyeliner's formula is slightly sticky after drying
- Liquid eyeliner transfers onto top eyelid, even after it is dry
- Both are not waterproof
- Pencil eyeliner requires more strokes for better pigmentation
- Pencil eyeliner fades when used on the waterline

Overall thoughts:

In Australia, there are hardly any eyeliners that retail for around $6, let alone a dual eyeliner. Even some pencil eyeliners are close to $5 each or even more. Therefore to me this is such a bargain! The packaging is just adorable and if you didn't know the brand/where it came from, you'd probably think that this product is not a cheap one! If I saw someone using it in public, I would draw my eyes to it immediately and be like, 'wow it's so cute! Where did you get it from?' because I am a sucker for cute packaging. Anyway, for the price it is pretty decent. I mean, you can't expect it to be amazing but I think it's worth $6. The liquid liner was more impressive to me than the pencil and I'd still think highly of this product it if it just had the liquid eyeliner and wasn't a dual one. It only had a few cons however a 2-in-1 like this makes the cons forgivable... they equate to $3 each!

I would recommend this eyeliner to people who may be experimenting with eyeliner for the first time and/or are interested in purchasing a really inexpensive one. Eyeliner is my favourite makeup product and I have plenty of black eyeliners, but I can never have too many :P Having this one in my collection is nice because it stands out from the rest due to its design and this my only dual eyeliner which makes it super unique! I will definitely take this with me when I travel etc. where I'm not fussed whether it's smudge-proof/waterproof or not. Just because I may have some other eyeliners with better quality doesn't mean that I'll abandon this one, it will be used too!

Repurchase?

When it comes to purchasing eyeliner, it has to tick all the boxes (waterproof, sweat-proof, sweat-proof, long-lasting) and since this one doesn't, I wouldn't really consider adding it back to my collection once my current one runs out. I'll miss having a dual eyeliner but I can live without one x] The cute packaging and convenience doesn't tempt me too much ahaha.

If you're interested in purchasing this product, you can purchase it HERE for only $6!

Thanks for reading my review, here's my questjen of the week:

How important is eyeliner to you?

 My answer: Important!

If you really want to transform your eyes, eyeliner is the way to go. It does more than eyeshadow and if it's worn correctly, it can make you look 'hot' lol. I also love guyliner, but only in small doses. I use eyeliner more than any other eye makeup product I own :)

Polished London Review and Swatches

To all of my lovely blog followers,

Just wanted to start this by saying thanks for sticking by despite my lack of updates recently! I can assure you that I have many things to blog about still but haven't found the time to, so please bear with me as I try my best to get them written asap :)

I have a nail polish review for you guys today, but not just one nail polish - 3 of them from the brand called 'Polished London' which were sent to me for consideration! They were so generous with the postal packaging... they put it in a huge cardboard box! I couldn't believe it... I had no idea what was going to be inside because it was so light. This was what was in the box:

 A floral gift bag with green tissue paper and of course, the Polished London nail polishes

Double-sided press release was also in the package

I hadn't heard about Polished London nail polishes before until I received an email about them. They've actually only recently been released in Australia (Australian-owned brand) in selected pharmacies and retail for $7.99 RRP. I haven't seen this nail polishes in store yet so to me this is a great privilege to be able to try out these nail enamels before many others, hehe.

And to prevent biased views, I did not choose which enamel types or colours to review - they were given to me by random:

POLISHED LONDON'S SPRING/SUMMER COLLECTION

From L-R: Duchess, Miss Navy and Piccadilly

I noticed that the lids were a bit inconsistent! Nothing major but it seems more appropriate if product packaging is identical

By the way, I didn't do any watermarking on my photos because my swatches are so messy, thus I don't think anyone would want to take them anyway! Nah but seriously... I forgot to do them and now I don't want to go through the trouble watermarking and re-uploading :/

The above press release listed out 'key benefits' of these nail enamels. I will be referring to these key benefits when I review each nail polish. Here is the list just in case you missed it:

Key benefits:

• Hard wearing
• Superior gloss
• Extended wear
• Chip resistant
• Even and smooth application
• Quick drying

~Duchess~

 

3 coats of nail enamel

I had really high expectations for all of these nail polishes, especially after reading the press release. Did it meet my expectations? Hmm, yes and no. I'll start off by being really specific about each one, and as for this one... one coat was really sheer and I noticed that there was a bit of streaky-ness. For the first coat, the application was smooth and it dried pretty fast... about 20-30 seconds (I didn't time it). As for the second coat, there were more streaks and not surprisingly, it noticeably took longer to dry (a minute or two). The good news is is that a third coat made the enamel opaque (as pictured above) and the streaks were less noticeable. The drying time was about the same as the second coat and the surface was much smoother.

I noticed that this wasn't entirely consistent with my other nails - there were some that seemed more thick/gluggy on the surface. However despite the application consistencies,  the colour of each nail was exactly the same as each other and on the bottle. 

~Miss Navy~

 

2 coats

This one is just like the one above with the streaky, sheer, fast-drying initial coat. It only looks streaky but doesn't feel streaky... if you get what I mean. I think it might be the ingredients separating in the formula when smoothed out, making it like that. I guess shaking the bottle plenty of times wouldn't make much different because that's exactly what I did =|

The difference is that this only needed 2 coats to get it to be like the colour seen through the bottle. And the second coat is really pretty - smooth and streak-free! BUT unfortunately again this is not consistent throughout the painted nails, which sucks. The ring finger (next to the pinky) looks the best and i wish I could have made all of my nails look like that.

~Piccadilly~

2 coats

3 coats

Wow I just want to start by saying that I can see a distinct colour difference between 2 and 3 coats o_o I think this rarely happens, yes? It's not very easy to see but the bottle is more like the enamel colour that I 'created' with 3 coats. But I do like that pastel yellow that is seen in the first swatch picture of Piccadilly. I don't have any yellow nail polishes so to finally own one is exciting ^^ I've always wanted a pastel one, perfect for spring/summer.

The first coat was close to being unbearable. Smooth application but more streaky than the first two - disappointment! A second coat made all the difference though, like it completely covered up the streaks and made it look a whole lot better on my nail. Is this part of the 'key benefits' that this nail polish apparently has?? I don't know but it seems quite amazing. I also noticed that second and third coats were more consistent and not seen as thick/gluggy. Yay, much happier with this formula =]

Overall pros (+) and cons (-):

+ Smooth application each time

+ Chip resistant to a certain extent

+ Lasts quite long, at least a week

+ Nice glossy finishes

+ Quick drying, especially with the first coat

+ Affordable, middle-ranged nail enamels

- Streaky, especially with the first coat

- Not widely available, both nationally and internationally

- Product packagings (the lid) were not completely identical

- Inconsistencies with nail polish thickness

- Some may think that $7.95 is not worth it for the quality

- Requires more than one coat to become opaque and match the bottle's colour

Overall thoughts:

This is the first time in any of my reviews, whether it be circle lenses or makeup products, that there has been equal positives and negatives. Which means that I can't come to a conclusion about liking or disliking these nail polishes. Yes they do have all the 'key benefits' listed - that's not a lie but in a way I feel that they can come across as contradictory. They are indeed smooth but smooth = streaky. A positive and a negative. Same with them being affordable however I don't think that the quantity matches up with the quality. There is definite room for improvement and I have tried other nail polish brands which have the same/similar RRP but were better quality. To be honest I think some cheaper-priced brands of nail polishes can give these a run for their money.

Repurchase?

Since I already have plenty of nail polishes, I don't feel the need to purchase any more ;P Haha but seriously... I probably would only consider purchasing from this brand for curiosity i.e. a new limited edition collection with pretty colours. I am curious about their Crackle Effects range (see press release) and if I saw it in the shops, I would buy it because it's considerably inexpensive for crackle nail polish. But other than that, unfortunately I wouldn't! Only because I much prefer 'high-end' nail polish that are $10+ and have superb quality. I would pay the extra few dollars because it is worth it, trust me.

That's all for my review, I hope you liked it and found it informative. Please stay tuned for some exciting announcements in my upcoming posts ^_^ Thank you for reading!

Questjen of the week:

Which is your favourite nail polish brand? Pick only one!

My answer: Essie

I love Essie nail polishes, they are really impressive and one coat goes a long way! The opacity is just right and the enamel lasts really long too - minimum of one week without a single chip =) If you haven't tried this brand before, I suggest that you do because I absolutely love it :D

ABBM Christmas Picnic

Hi guys! I'm super late with this post but I still wanted to share it with you guys anyway. The weekend before I went to Sydney, I attended a Christmas picnic with the ABBM girls (Adelaide Beauty Blogger Meet) on Saturday the 17th of December that was organised by the amazing Celeste. She came down to Adelaide to meet up with us and not only did she bring herself but she also brought along some goodie bags for all of us ^^ I will share the items later on in this post!

The picnic was held in the Botanic Gardens and we were lucky enough to find a shaded area which had tables and benches as the day wasn't very sunny with a fairly high chance of showers. In the photo below, it kind of looks like a room that we hired or something! But nope, it was free for us to use, facing out to the grass and beautiful plants.

Photographer: Saku ♥

(Sitting on the benches, starting with those closest/back facing): 

L-R: Jeneara, Kitty and Stacey

L-R: Celeste, Sherry and I

Michelle was also there but unfortunately a bunch of others couldn't make it, aw

And one surprise of the day was meeting two new additions to ABBM - Sarah and Cal, the lovely ladies who are standing in the above picture. It was nice meeting them and great to have them join us for this picnic! Our group is getting bigger ^_^ I still remember when I was the new one in ABBM hehe.

I thought I was going to be late when I arrived because I had to catch the bus and I was waiting for quite a while, getting impatient. But gladly I was on time and there were still some more to come *phew* I just hate being late for any events :|

 FOTD/OOTD picture

I kept my makeup really simple, I wanted to look as natural as possible without going OTT

I wore a black floral dress which had a very low cut at the front so I wore a bandeau underneath

And my boots, courtesy of Saku's photography:

Saku randomly took a picture of these because she said she liked them n_n"

They're one of my favourite shoes to wear, they're so comfy!

Candid shot by Saku! Chatting, nibbling and drinking away (soft drinks lol)

L-R: Me, Cal and Jeneara

 The food upon arrival :)

We had some more coming

I felt a bit bad for not contributing to the food (I can't make anything and I wasn't sure what to buy!) so I provided cups which definitely came in handy since there weren't any and Saku brought a full esky of drinks xD This made me feel better about my contribution, haha.

 Another bench for KK presents :D

More were coming

So along with this Christmas picnic, we exchanged KK presents (aka Secret Santa). And lucky for me, I was involved with two blogger KKs! One which was hosted by Melody and I on our blogs and one among Adelaide beauty bloggers... sweet :]

The person who I had as my ABBM KK was Jac who wasn't at the picnic but received my gift when she met up with Celeste on another day. The ABBM KK who had me was Natsumi/Suki who is currently overseas. Celeste told me that Suki will post my KK present when she is back from overseas. Kindly, Celeste sent me a KK present on behalf of Suki (so that I wouldn't have to wait for too long) which had arrived at my home while I was in Sydney! But it was a really nice gift to come home to... thanks again Celeste ♥

On the day of the picnic I was KK present-less for the day, but not empty handed.
We each received surprise goodie bags! Celeste, why are you so kind to us T-T How do we repay you?! Did I mention that Celeste is extremely good at dealing with PRs? Whereas I am a little clueless and do find it to be a bit difficult :(

Anyway, we all received the same items of Nutrimetics products:

 Has anyone heard of Nutrimetics before? I think it might be Australian

It's good to know that they're against animal testing :)

I wouldn't have the slightest clue as to whether or not Nutrimetics products can be found in stores because I have never seen them in stores before! I know they can be ordered from booklets that can handed out (like Avon too) so Im really not sure whether they are actually stocked in physical stores, hmm. Here are some closeups of each product:

 Nutrimetics Restore Intense Anti-aging Night Creme

Made in New Zealand, ooh :]

 The packaging is weighty and it makes the product look pricey (I don't know the price)

I actually gave this to my mum to use because she'll be unhappy with me using anti-aging products. She thinks I'm too young to use them and that I don't need them. When will be the 'right' age to use anti-aging products? Is 18 too young? I wonder if anyone out there really knows when it is a good time to start using anti-aging/wrinkle creams. My mum is currently using it.

 Nutrimetics Restore Anti-aging Eye Creme

Made in New Zealand

I also gave this to my mum to use

 Nutrimetics Lip Lightning Lip Gloss in Bare Naturel

Made in Taiwan (yay Asian product xD)

I love the shade of the lip gloss, it's the perfect pink. I also love the mirror finish on the lid and side of the tube so I can apply this lip gloss on the go if I don't have a mirror!

When you open the lid, the light turns on which makes it convenient for putting on this lip gloss at night/when it's dark. And it automatically shuts off when the lid is screwed back on properly

Nutrimetics Lash Lightning Mascara

Made in Taiwan

This is just like the lip gloss with the light inside but on top of the lid there is a manual on/off button for the light. Must be careful to not accidentally push the button to turn it on when it's in your bag or something because this will drain the battery :/ Again there is  small mirror on the side of the tube

Nutrimetics Illuminating Shimmer Mist

Made in Italy

 Such fancy packaging, I like it!

I normally wouldn't use shimmer mist or any glitter sprays/lotions for my body but it's ok, I can give this a try. It's nice to have an 'illuminating glow', I guess ^^"

Nutrimetics Marble Rouge in Jupiter

Made in Italy

A two-toned blush, how pretty! I don't have any like these but I do have a baked one which has the same outer texture. The shades are very wearable for the day time, love it ^^

 The cosmetics look so good together *.*

Last but not least in the goodie bag was a 'Becoming Beautiful' lip balm! Celeste's beauty blog is called 'Becoming Beautiful' and these lip balms are like her very own business cards.. instead of course, being printed on cards. It's a fantastic idea and quite unique!

 Not sure what the flavour is but it sort of smells minty

And I received an item from Saku~ She brought along some clear nail wheels to share with us! So useful for doing nail polish swatches and doing nail art! Glad to have one of these now, thanks hun ^^

For future nail polish swatches, you'll probably see them on here instead of my actual nails

Overall the day was really enjoyable and there wasn't any rain thankfully! It was nice catching up with everyone and just talking about blogging matters :) After all, that is something that we're all interested in :D

A questjen for you:

Do you or would you like to meet up with bloggers in your city?

There are so many bloggers that I want to meet up with interstate (in particular Melbourne, Sydney and Perth!) and also overseas... I wish I could meet each and every one of you :D

But seriously, 2011 was an awesome second year of blogging. It was wonderful to know of other beauty bloggers in my city, let alone meet them in person! Such a privilege to have =)

ASOS Haul Video!

Hey! So I recently made my first purchase on ASOS and I received my items on Monday, about a week after I made an order. I honestly didn't expect to receive my order so quick! I loved that the shipping was free and that ASOS currently has an up to 70% off sale for selected items. Awesome time to shop for bargains :D

I was going to do a regular haul post with pictures but instead I decided to film a video because I haven't filmed one for a while and I thought it would make a great 'start-of-the-year' video for 2012 :) The quality of the video kinda sucks though, sorry about that. Watching it in HD 720px doesn't make it heaps better/clearer unfortunately... the raw video was much clearer but after editing it and exporting it from Windows Movie Maker (used the older version), the quality decreased. Hope it's still okay though.

I ended up purchasing 8 items however my video ended up being about half an hour long lol. I had so much to say about each piece and got a bit carried away at times xD It was a struggle to cut it down to under 15 minutes (YouTube's maximum time limit) but I managed to do it! Apologies for the choppiness and the audio being out of sync around the second half of the video :(

 

Not the most flattering screenshot of me from my haul video

What is in that box and bag :O ?? You'll have to find out below!

I mention in the video:

• My purchased items, one by one
• Their names
• RRP and sale price
• Thoughts on the material quality
• Comfort while wearing

I just thought it would be something you guys might want to know, especially for those of you who may be interested in purchasing from ASOS or from any online clothing site. I give my 100% honest opinions on each piece as this was not sponsored or provided to me in anyway so I don't have to feel any pressure to give positive feedback... not that that has ever really influenced me. Just saying in general.

Also, I have a Yesstyle clothing order coming in haha! My boyfriend and I made an order together so that we could get free shipping (minimum spend of AU $150). It's not as 'big' as my ASOS one because I bought less items. If anyone is interested in reading or watching a haul of that then let me know ^^

I have a questjen for you guys:

Which online clothing stores do you highly recommend?

I'd like to know whether there are any really good ones out there that can be highly trusted and offer great customer service. I really want to try purchasing from Gmarket but it looks very confusing! Also Taobao which is in Chinese but my Chinese reading skills aren't that great so I struggle with that too...

I want to share a selca that I took after filming the video:

Love my newest drop earrings with crowns dangling on the ends ♥

Could you tell that I wore coloured contacts in my vid? I wish my eyes were naturally this colour!

And I have a really short video of my cat Coco that I recorded after my hauling. He was sitting on my bed about to fall asleep, aww:

Sydney Post Part 2: Sightseeing

Hey! Here is my part 2 post of being in Sydney~ My first post was about the shopping which you can read HERE in case you missed it. As mentioned in this blog post's title, I will be talking about the locations that I visited which were some of Sydney's tourist attractions. I wasn't able to visit heaps of them but I definitely did more sightseeing than shopping!

Please be aware that this post may become picture-heavy...

Also, this post is NOT a post about full details of areas I visited like its history and date founded etc.! Everything I write is based on my own knowledge without any research, so do excuse any incorrect names and whatnot... and don't tell me to do some research because I don't feel that that is necessary. After all this is not a travel blog, just a documentation of my trip.

I really don't know where to begin so I'll just go in order of date visited.

My second night in Sydney was a Friday night and it was really enjoyable. We caught the train into town to look at the CBD shops (mostly on Pitt Street) and walked through a park to see the Christmas lights display/choir singing.

I am terrible with names of places... this is why I don't suit being a travel blogger/tour guide :( But all I remember is that it is one of the biggest parks in Sydney? I really should have documented everything my uncle was saying when we went sightseeing!

Blurry picture because I was walking while snapping the photo. I can't recall a time where I have visited a public park at night, before I did in Sydney. People were walking their dogs and there were a few joggers. It wasn't scary walking through the park at night because people were still around and the lights were pretty bright so you could see your surroundings quite well.

THIS was what surprised me the most about this city. Apparently it's normal for bats to be flying around at night?? My Sydney cousins were all like meh about it because they've seen them plenty of times before (of course) but when I first saw bats in the sky I was heaps shocked and terrified D: Bats are considered to be harmless to humans so I shouldn't have been so terrified lol... though after a while I found it to be cool :D

After walking out of the park, we had to cross the road to see the Christmas lights/whatever was going on at the time. There were so many people there, it was surprising.

A whole bunch of people sitting on the ground watching/listening to the choir singing Christmas carols

Me and my family only ended up staying at this place for about 10 minutes only... sorry to say but I guess we were all feeling a bit bored :/ I'm just being honest by the way. We thought there would be more exciting things happening but we didn't think there would be once we were there so we walked back to the train station to go home. Note that we were also feeling really tired =|

Speaking of the train station, this is what it looked like. I can imagine this being more full when people have work/school

We hired a van for 3 days for all of us to fit in (12 of us) so that we could travel together to places that didn't have public transport services. Did I mention that 12 of us lived under the same roof for 9 days?? Haha, it was pretty fun! My grandma, 3 aunties, uncle, mum, 5 cousins and me :D

Drive to the Blue Mountains/3 Sisters and Scenic World

This image was taken from a small cliff with railing that everyone could safely stand and look over to see the 3 Sisters and the Blue Mountains. Correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe that it is impossible to climb these 3 Sisters... I think that's why they're only for an attraction.There is however, a walk to the 3 sisters where there is a path to reach them without walking through or over them.

Here are Sydney's famous '3 Sisters' which are huge standing rocks that look like 3 people (hence the name)

I zoomed into the 3 Sisters picture above so you can see where people walk to, to get to one of the 3 sisters :) There is safe railing again

We ended up walking to this railed area too! And I took pictures of my view:

 View of the Blue Mountains from the 3 Sisters

 Others coming down too. There were many tourists doing the walk!

Standing underneath a 'sister'

A candid shot of me for the lolz. Casually looking up and taking pictures

Wore my mum's walking shoes since they were comfy and all I had brought with me to the trip were sandals

My family and I ended up walking further down the walk but stopped at the half way point. Going down wasn't tiring, but then we realised how painful it would be for our legs to walk all the way back up the steps T_T I just want to say that I am SO freaking glad that we didn't complete the walk (even though it would have been an awesome accomplishment) because my legs were killing me going back up those steps! My thighs were aching and luckily there were some 'resting' points for drink breaks and sitting down. Each rest point we reached, we stopped. Unlucky for me though... because I didn't have my drink bottle with me! My mum was carrying it for me in her handbag but she only walked a quarter of the way instead of half where the rest of us did so I forgot to get it from her after she stopped. I was thirsty and struggling lol, it was the best feeling to be able to drink my water again after completing the walk back. I think it was around 1 km from where we began.

After this we went to the Blue Mountain Scenic World where we rode on the Scenic Railway and Scenic Cableway which were both very enjoyable, but I found the Scenic Railway to be more fun and exciting =] I only have pictures of these on my Facebook since they have family members in them and I'd like to keep photos like these private from my blog.

Bondi and Cronulla Beach

Sydney's most famous beach is Bondi beach and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to visit it. I'm actually not a huge fan of going to the beach but I did enjoy my time at the beaches I visited in Sydney. Cronulla beach is smaller with less people and I swam in it for about an hour. I didn't get to swim at Bondi beach because I didn't bring bathers so instead I just dipped my feet in the water.

This was a smaller beach near Bondi. I don't recall the name of it unfortunately

See where those beach houses are? We had to walk down there to get Bondi. It took about 10 minutes to walk there from this beach

On our walk to Bondi, we came across two outdoor pools. We thought it was free to swim in them but it turns out that you have to pay to swim in these. I guess it's for people who don't want to swim at the beach but still want to enjoy being in the water at Bondi beach

 View of Bondi from the balcony, walking over the pools

Wind blowing, my hair's a mess and my 3/4 jeans are half wet from the small waves... but I'm still smiling brightly ahaha

I noticed that I got a tan from being at the beach when I didn't even intentionally tan :( I wore sunscreen but I don't think that does much for tan prevention.

The days I went to the beach were only around 22-25 degrees C so they weren't very hot days. Luckily for all the 9 days I was in Sydney, it wasn't hot which was perfect for daily outings. It was humid so t-shirts and shorts were fine to wear.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House

Everyone around the world should know these very popular attractions! This was my second to last day in Sydney. I was actually feeling starstruck when I saw these famous icons for the first time... because I had always seen them on TV and in pictures. Seeing it right in front of my eyes for the first time was cool.

 Tried my best to have both of these attractions in the same photo

Making our way to the steps of the Opera House

On the steps now, yay ^_^

The view inside the glass around the Opera House

Me sitting on the steps. Finally a non-aviators picture for you guys

Unfortunately my family and I left Sydney on New Years Eve so we missed the epic fireworks :( Anyway, the day before NYE was looking like this... people setting up for the celebrations

I didn't get to be really close to the bridge but I took a picture and noticed that Luna Park is down on the other side. It's Sydney's theme park which I sadly didn't get to see :( Hopefully next time... I really want to see because I like visiting theme parks

Sydney's City/CBD

On the same day as seeing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, I also went to the city to explore some more. I didn't take many pictures...

There was a man kneeling on the right who was using sand(?)/chalk(?) to do this artwork on the ground. It's not pretty but it did look amazing... such talent.

Randomly walking. I didn't know that Sydney had a 'monorail' like in a Simpsons episode x)

A 2-storey KFC and an old-looking building. It's just something different to my city. We have no KFCs like this

 Walked past this... rainfall/waterfall thing? Ahaha I have no idea what to call it but it was really pretty *_*

This is the end of my Sydney part 2 sightseeing post! I had so much fun and 9 days wasn't even enough haha, it flew by so quickly. I really want to come to Sydney again to explore more and shop more... I know there's just so much more for me to see and do there, amazing! I also want to visit other cities in Australia (especially Melbourne) as well as countries all around the world ^o^ Maybe the next time I visit Sydney, I could meet up with bloggers there :)

I probably forgot to mention some things but if I remember, I'll probably tweet about it. I hope this post wasn't too boring, after this post I will get back into doing beauty posts :D

To get it started I'll show you my fail jars that I brought with me in Sydney:

I thought that these would be perfect for travel (foundation and tinted moisuriser in the jars)

But no!

• Permanent marker rubbed off so I couldn't read which was which *scratches head*
• Only ONE of them could open, but then a few days later it wouldn't open anymore!

 

Having my face and hand cream in these jars were fine however with foundation... it was like they made the lids permanently stuck because no matter how hard I tried to unscrew, they just won't budge. And they still won't open *sigh* my wasted foundation and tinted moisturiser forever stuck in those jars! I couldn't use them for the whole trip so I resorted to my stick foundation which made my skin dry :( Thank goodness my face has recovered since being back. My lesson learnt is that I should use travel bottles instead (I'll need to buy some) or bring my full-sized products despite being heavy and taking up space in my bag.

A travel-related questjen for you guys:

Where is the best place that you've traveled to?

My answer: Hong Kong!

I went there when I was really young so I didn't get to enjoy it to the full extent i.e. the shopping, photo-taking but I did like it very much! I definitely want to visit again ^-^