No Longer a Chanel Virgin

I've been coveting a Chanel quilted bag for a couple of years now. Luckily there is no Chanel store in Perth and flights to the east coast are pricey. But on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia, I decided to 'go have a look' inside their store.

Quilted bags galore!!!

Sadly I can't see myself carrying those lovely bags as much as I like them because I would be too self-conscious.

So I settled for something discreet:

A small wallet!

It still has the yummy quilted smooth lambskin(?) leather and no glaringly obvious interlocking Cs. The only way you may recognise it as Chanel are the charms the quilted leather and the inside of the wallet (photo below).

Anyways, more photos ahead because it's a once in a lifetime purchase :-P

The bag

Bag and the ribbon- the shop assistant took their time with all of this.

The box

The wallet! Mmm... smell the leather...

The other side.

Inside for your cards.

I was thinking of replacing the one of the hanging charms because they look plastic and cheap and very much like guitar picks. Have something a bit more personalised on it I suppose. So that is my very first Chanel. It's not a bag but definitely much more useful!

Post Christmas Giveaways

**GIVEAWAY HAS NOW ENDED**

Hope everyone had a wonderful wonderful Christmas whether you celebrate it or not! It's a good time to get together and be merry!

Below I've got 4 individual collections to giveaway. Yes I'm still madly clearing out my unwanted/unused products.

Email me with the collection you wanna win and at the end of January 6th 2010- I'll pick a winner and post it out. Simple as that!

#1:

New MAC prep+prime, Bobbie Brown basic eye palette (sl. swatched), MAC mineralised blush in Nuance (sl. used) and charm bracelet.

#2:

MAC volcanic ash thermal mask (new), Lucas Papaw ointment (new), Moxie liners, MAC mineralised blush in warm soul (sl. used)

#3:

Mukti travel size body lotion, Dior sample moisturiser, Pigeonhole diamond earrings, Post it notepad and Guerlian blush (sl. swatched)

#4:

Exfoliating face cloth (new), Surfume in frangipani, pens and post it notes.

My Sort of Christmas Tree

Only 3 more days til Christmas! Not that I'll be doing much. Just back from my holiday and snapped this photo in Singapore:

Now if all those blue boxes had something in them... :-P

Another Singlet Dress

Here is another dress I couldn't bear to give away:

It's a Milk & Honey dress that was slightly too large.

Out came the unpicker and another singlet from Supre:

Just in time for summer!

Pot Holder

On a mini sewing roll!

A quick to sew up pot holder.

Remnant Amy Butler fabric- this is my favourite print of her's.

Tried out my sewing machine's fancy stitching

Hey it's binding!

The binding for this potholder is made by me. I bought 2 bias tape makers from the Craft & Quilt fair in 2008(!!) They were still in their packaging until a week ago when I made this pot holder.

Really all you need is a strip of cloth, an iron and the bias tape maker. Follow the instructions and you have your very own bias tape.

'Lace fans' from Ink & Spindle (the back)

Modelling with a teapot

New Sewing Machine Mat

I decided I needed to update my rather drab sewing mat I made 3 years ago- how time flies! I mentioned that most of the green fabric gets covered by the sewing machine anyways but I still see a bit of it and it annoys me because it is an ugly green.

Seeing as I still have heaps of fabric remnants, I whipped one up in less than an hour.

Patchwork of sorts- most of the fabric are in my quilt/s.

Found a big enough piece of remnant for the backing.

This fabric was used in my 2-hour wrap top.

A chance to sew my label on :)

I didn't make it like a quilt ie. bind the whole thing.

A much more aesthetically pleasing mat.

Sukicolor Tinted Active Moisturizer

I was very excited when I found this moisturiser. It was one of the few that had natural ingredients. I bought it at Bkind- an organic/natural beauty shop but it is also available at Green Organics online.

List of ingredients:

purified water, organic sunflower seed oil, beeswax, organic grape seed oil, organic jojoba seed oil, hazelnut oil, borage oil, cetearyl alcohol, shea butter, standardized willow bark extract, organic food-grade non-gmo lecithin, vitamin c + retinol liposomes, sodium borate, organic rose extract in food-grade ethyl alcohol, organic food-grade acacia catechu gum, organic food-grade xanthan gum, fragrance (made only from pure, steam-distilled essential oils) [may contain: titanium dioxide, iron oxides]

Suki’s range of tinted moisturisers had only 2 shades to choose from: porcelain, natural and bronze.

Porcelain has pinkish undertones and is the palest of the shades. Natural has yellow tones and bronze is the darkest for the really tanned people. I chose natural.

This tinted moisturiser comes in a glass pump tube. It’s quite weighty but sturdy and the plastic pump is sturdy as well. I dislike the packaging. Although pump tubes are great in the sense that they don’t allow contamination with the rest of the product, they seem to squirt out various amounts of product. Also I don’t like the crusty bits that dry up in the tubing close to where the product comes out.

The first thing I noticed about this product was the scent. Actually make it the smell. There is no artificial scent which is excellent. However there is a smell. Like a clay/dirt blend. It doesn’t dissipate after application either. Lingers for a while afterwards.

Smear on cheek

I must admit it provides good coverage, even though it takes time to blend it all in. It is also SPF 15 but I always wear my tinted moisturisers over my sunscreen. I thought it looked too dark for me and oxidises afterwards. Otherwise, at the end of the day, it makes my skin smoother, albeit dark.

Blended on around cheek area

Whole face application

Close up of part of whole face application

End of the day oxidation

I paid $89.95 for it at Bkind but online it retails for $20 less. I won’t be using this one anymore because I can’t stand the smell of it and the pump tube doesn’t impress me. It’s disappointing because I thought it was ‘the one’. But at least I’ve found another suitable natural tinted moisturiser for less than half the cost!