I'm currently in love with yet another pressed powder from Étude house; the Precious Mineral BB Sun Pact SPF 50+, PA+++. We all know how important is sunscreen in sunny Singapore. Even on days where I'm just grabbing a lunch or quick dinner with dearie in nearby neighborhood areas(places where we still need to travel), I will still wear sunscreen. But because usually after applying sunscreen, your face will be moist and somewhat sticky, it's still essential to pat on some powder so that dirt/impurities wont stick to your face while you're outdoors.
Étude house Precious Mineral BB Sun Pact SPF 50+, PA+++ is great on days where you need protection from the sun but yet dont need much coverage. High SPF of 50+ with PA+++ is very rare in pressed powders. The only other pressed powder with high SPF 50+ with PA+++ which I know of is from
Laneige, their brightening sun powder. It costs around S$60 and it broke me out BIG TIME. I'm still wondering what to do with it.
Étude house Precious Mineral BB Sun Pact only provides sheer coverage(or no coverage) when it's used alone. What is great about it is that despite it doesnt provide much coverage, it does brighten up your face to a certain extent whilst still looking very natural; as if you're not wearing anything. Despite wearing only sunblock, with no serums/emulsion/moisturizer/bb cream beforehand, I'm still able to glide it smoothly over my face without having dry patches or flaky bits. Having oily to combination skin like me, I usually use an oil control toner and oil free sunscreen prior to using this powder too. And it's able to lasts 4-5 hours for me without any need to blot in air-conditioned environments. When I reached home, I still look pretty natural; it doesnt look like it has oxidized or has an oily sheen. Thumbs up!
You can always apply a light bb cream before it if you wish to have more coverage.
Laura Mercier's tinted moisturizer in nude is also a great choice. Foundation is not recommended as it might appear to be heavy. Sunscreen needs to be re-applied if you're constantly under the sun for long hours. Since you cant possible reapply your sunscreen or bb cream/foundation with spf WHILE having powder on it, you can always touch up with this pressed powder with SPF 50+, PA+++. =) It only comes in 1 colour and it's not recommended for dark or olive-skinned people; I think it will look kinda odd as it's pretty light in colour despite it being sheer. I dont really remember it's price because I bought a dozen things from
Étude house in order to reach a certain tier for the kawaii rabbit usb-port fan. Wahahaha
. =P But it couldnt be more expensive than
Laneige's brightening sun powder. Maybe it's around half price, like around S$30? As it's made from precious minerals, it means it's less prone to sensitivity too and good for the skin. In terms of lasting power, overall effect, it still wins
Laneige's hands down.
If you're wondering why the need to protect yourself from sun so much, the main reasons will be, not only will it makes you tanned, produces spots/freckles, it also makes your skin age more quickly.
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Just now we were at Lot 1 having a late lunch at Sakae Sushi. I'm actually not really enthu to have Japanease food there but there's no nice Jap restaurants in the neighborhood.
There wasnt much stuff to eat and we had Sakae Sushi at Icon. I was quite annoyed actually. Because I ordered a set of sushi which should come in 8 identical pieces and horrendously I noticed few pieces of the 8 were easily HALF the standard size of a sushi. Have you ever seen sushi which is like 1CM wide?? 真是气死我了!! If it wasnt my birthday eve and if I wasnt that hungry, I really would have.....arrggghhh! I cant imagine how they have the cheek to serve it right up to me. I really despise corporations like these. I rather they priced the sushi set higher, say 8 pieces at...(I forgot the price...maybe $15 etc)...at maybe $18? Or 4 pieces at $10 or simply 2 pieces at $5, you know, to make it exclusive or something. But certainly not this way to cheat your customers. That's so unethical.
I thought we'll just quickly settle a lunch there at Sakae Sushi Lot 1.
And there was this PRC waitress asking us whether we wish to opt for buffet as I'm actually planning to go ala-carte as dearie wants the Sakae teppanyaki. So naturally I did asked what are included and what are not, in the buffet, price and etc. After the PRC female waitress said it's around S$20 nett, I told dearie it's pretty worth it for the spread available. Therefore we both took buffet. Seriously, Sakae's standard has been from okie to worse. Initially it was decent, then it became mediocre, now it's like totally horrible for some of the dishes. While the Chawanmushi and salmon were still pretty decent(for the buffet price), the breaded prawns, tempura prawns, soft shell crab were horrible. They totally fell apart, tasted mushy and got this flour-like taste which was totally unacceptable. However, I do feel the service was prompt.
When it comes to the settling of the bill, we realized we were being billed S$19+++ which comes up to S$47something nett instead of the S$20nett per pax as per told. So I told the manager, which is another FT from Philippines, that the PRC waitress specifically told us it's S$20nett per pax.
He gave us an impatient look before calling the waitress, named Li Li to us. And he asked her how did she tell us about the price. She said, "Yeah. I told them it's S$20 nett total." I then said, "See, she said it's S$20 NETT." Then Li Li said eagerly, "Ya ya I actually mean it's S$20 nett total, not grand total."
I was like WTF? She did not mention about the "not grand total" part at all. And everybody knows NETT is grand total lor.
The manager then apologised, saying it's a matter of miscomm and naturally all prices in restaurants, especially Sakae Sushi comes with +++ and I SHOULD KNOW THAT. Immediately I got pissed off.
Of course I know all restaurants comes with +++ but how would I know if it's maybe S$15+++ and it comes to S$20nett. I will only assume that she gave me the NETT price especially she's the one who told me it's "NETT". I have never tried Sakae Sushi lunch buffet before, how would I know about the pricing? I even clarified again with her prior to confirming the buffet that it's really S$20nett and she said yes. Both of them started to apologise again and I said, "It's okay." But they just stood there doing nothing after dearie's card had been swiped for the wrong amount. The Filipino manager expected us to just accept the mistake and go.
I was like, hellllloooo, please be responsible for the mistake which you obviously made. Why should we be responsible for the obvious mistake that she made? If she had not told us the wrong info, we would have go ahead and go for ala-carte as well as the teppanyaki. So I insisted that he pay back the difference. Then the FT manager started saying Oh there's nothing he can do because all the charges comes with +++ and he cant do anything about it or he has to answer to whatever marketing department whatsoever.
As if it's my business. How you answer to your company for the mistake that your staff made is non of my business. The fact is, she did made a mistake and that mistake did affect us in some way because we wouldnt have chose the buffet if it's +++; we would have go for ala-carte and Teppanyki. And it's not as if we're particularly pleased with the buffet food, if they are, I would have gladly pay, but they're not. We had regretted opting for the buffet and now you're still telling us we need to pay more than what we're prepared to pay.
If a dispute is in a way where nobody know who is right and who is wrong, like for example, I said she said this, but she said no she didnt say that etc, then fine, perhaps there will be no end and nobody will have a right to demand anything. Either you give in the customer or the customer give in to you. BUT she had ALREADY openly ADMITTED she said what I heard(unknowingly admitting something which she didnt know she had done wrong), then really, why should we still pay for her mistake?? No sense at all. And the manager seemed to be at a loss as to how to handle.
Then there's this group of young punks who were previously so damn noisy behind us, they came to settle the bill too and the moment they reached the counter, one of them raised his voice at me whilst looking at me, "Can we settle the bill PLEASE?!" I was like, "Hey, you want to shout then you shout at him(the manager to settle your bill), not me okie? Are you being crazy or something?" Then I ignored him. The manager then gave me S$5 note in cash and wished to settle the problem.
So clever~ Why didnt he do it much earlier? Moron~ S$7 should be the correct amount but nevermind, treat that we're suay.
Sakae Sushi,
you want/need to employ FT dishwashers, FT waiters/waitresses, I dont blame you. But for supervisors or managers, can you employ people with slightly more brains or not?? Sometimes, the ability to speak English is not sufficient. They need to have a certain degree of EQ, able to think and speak with reason as well.
Sigh........................I really wish these FTs get out of my country.
