Ume Tonya 梅問屋 Plum Juice Concentrate [sponsored]

Do you know that plums are plentiful in minerals like potassium, fluoride and iron, and other health benefiting compounds such as dietary fibre, sorbitol and isatin? They are also rich in antioxidants, which are helpful for reducing inflammation and protecting our cells from damage by free radicals. In addition, plums are found to be particularly high in polyphenol antioxidants, which have positive effects on bone health and may help to reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes!

And with the current #stayhomeforSG situation to keep ourselves safe from COVID19, I can't be any more glad to receive the Ume Tonya Plum Juice Concentrate from SampleStore.com to give me a healthier alternative to my daily dose of ice-cold sweet drink to beat the unbearable heat of being cooped up at home all day long. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that I do not have an air-conditioner at home? 

Made with preserved plums, the juice concentrate has no added preservatives and flavouring, and is the perfect drink to quench thirst and replenish the salt and mineral content in our bodies during hot weather. And each serving is barely 67 kcals! No worries about this contributing to our ever-growing waistline. 

Preparation can't get any simpler. Just empty the content of 1 sachet into your mug, top it up with cold/hot water and stir till combined! If you'll prefer a lighter taste to your plum juice drink, just add slightly more water to dilute the concentrate (but why would you, 250 - 300ml is perfect!) to suit your personal preference! You just can't mess this up. 

I'm a huge fan of tangy flavours and this plum juice concentrate is right up my alley! It's the right balance of sweet and sour, that's super light and refreshing on the taste buds, the perfect drink to reach for right after a meal. 

And guess what, you can now redeem your free bag of Ume Tonya 梅問屋 Plum Juice Concentrate samples (3 sachets) from Sample Store right HERE

Also comes in a a box of 12 sachets going for only $8.50 HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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GreenE Pain Relief Tape [Sponsored]

So one fine day, you realised that your usual barbell weights is starting to feel somewhat, lighter; so you (very confidently) added on that two more plates.

And here's the brand new you walking confidently into the brand new day the very next morning.

"Shouldn't have added those weights yesterday, but too late..."

Does this situation rings a bell? Well, that has happened to me all the time. Not because I'll never learn, but pushing our body to the limit is how we grow stronger, right?
The only issue is that all those muscle ache relief gel are always so oily/sticky and the patches always comes in fixed and rigid rectangular pieces that almost never seem to fit well on our sore spots. And let's not even get to their strong, distinctive medicinal-minty smell that's simply announcing to everyone within a 10-metre radius around you that you're experiencing severe muscle aches right now.
So much for trying so desperately to walk normally.

Now, I'm absolutely excited to know that Samplestore has brought in my life-saviour product from GreenE!

Using patent technology, the GreenE Pain Relief Tape (otherwise also known as Soft Acupuncture Patch) is a medicine-free (hence no pesky medicinal-minty smell, yay!), 4-way stretching medical-level tape that can be worn for up to 36 hours. It can be stretched up to a whopping 192~230%, which is 3 times ahead its competitors in the market.

Made of F-IR generating fibre, which is drawn from energy ball implanted nanoscale Ge/Ti/π solution, which generates the purified far-infrared. 93% of F-IR emission occurs at wavelength of 2-22 um, which helps cell-resonance thermal effect and liquidity effect by de-bonding water micelle and boosting blood circulation for pain relief, which is proven in clinical test reports that the tape increases blood flow speed at near 22%, which benefits the removal of lactic acid and hematic acid in our body.  

On top of its muscle & joints pain relief benefits, GreenE Pain Relief Tape also helps with easing muscle fatigue during exercises. A bicycling electromyography test on the tape has revealed less muscular-strength regression, muscle stretching and torque, which indicates less fatigue and better injury prevention during exercise.

Tell you what, this tape is officially my new Spinning buddy. 
140 rpm, let's go!

Last but not least, the GreenE Pain Relief Tape has an internationally certified Invention Patent registration in the US, China and Taiwan, with medical device certificates issued by the FDA and CE, ISO13485 and GMP certifications, et. cetera.



It's aptly named as an acupuncture tape because just a small patch directly over your soreness point will do the trick, as the Bio-FIR/Bio-Energetics emitting is able to reach 6 cm under the skin, including blood capillary system as well as lymphatic system.
Due to its super elasticity of 190 - 230% stretch by using 10% expensive Lycra and special knitting, having the tape directly over our joints (elbow, knee, ankle etc) will also not hinder our movement at all, hence we can still continue with our usual workouts without any limitation.

Usage of the tape can't be any simpler:

- Make sure to clean your skin and trim away body hair on the area of application

- Cut tape to the desired length and paste on affected area

- Best to apply 30 minutes before activity

- Water resistant & last up to 36 hours

- For removal, simply remove tape from skin gently

- Take note not to apply on wounded skin

Check out Sample Store's page HERE to redeem a free sample of the GreenE Pain Relief Tape and purchase the product. 

This September, Sample Store is once again bringing to us many new and interesting products from Taiwan! The last Best of Taiwan campaign in 2018 was well received and this time round there are many more exciting products other than this GreenE Pain Relief Tape for you to try out!
Subscribe to Sample Store's eDM to keep yourself notified on their weekly launches!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Barista Coffee - 西雅圖極品咖啡 [Sponsored]

Barista Coffee's Chinese name, 西雅圖極品咖啡, which loosely translates into Seattle Gourmet Coffee, strives to bring to us quality Seattle-style coffee (with more milk dilution, hence larger serving). First opened in Taiwan in 1997, they're among  the first coffee house in Taiwan serving heavy roast gourmet coffees. Since its establishment in March 1997, it has opened several outlets in Taiwan and Beijing, and has also developed many peripheral products for sale at various outlets., one of them being their gourmet drip coffee!

And now, for their latest June exclusive promotion, SampleStore is bringing the Best of Taiwan to us! Over the next few weeks, expect many Taiwanese beauty and F&B products up for redemption and Barista Gourmet Drip Coffee shall be up for redemption along with Aromase's 5α Juniper Scalp Purifying Liquid Shampoo 2% on their 3rd week. 

Barista Coffee is a leading brand in the drip coffee market and their Gourmet Drip Coffee uses coffee beans specifically blended by their chief barista with a specific roasting degree to create quality gourmet coffee. Barista Coffee insists on using 100% fresh Arabica coffee beans from high mountains, and focuses on the formula and roasting techniques to keep the original flavour, creating an integrated taste of aromatic, sweet and unique flavour.  

The Gourmet Drip Coffee launched by Barista Coffee has three main features:

(1) Roasted in Taiwan 

(2) Nitrogen gas packing; lasting good flavuor.  

(3) Patented drip bag; it is easy to brew. 

Brewing a cup of coffee with Barista Gourmet Coffee Drip Coffee is super easy with just 4 steps:

1. Tear along the line on the filter bag 

2. Pull out the hanging ears on both sides and place them steadily on the coffee cup 

3. Slowly pour 180ml of hot water (92∘C-94∘C) into the drip bag 

4. Lift the filter bag from both sides and throw away the residue 

Lastly, add in milk or sugar to your preference and sip away!

First I drink coffee, then I do things. Hands up if you're #teamcoffeeaddict like me!

The 3rd week of SampleStore's Best of Taiwan June exclusive will be up real soon and do check out their link HERE to redeem your free samples!

To find out more about Basrista Coffee and their products, visit their website HERE.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Get Glowy Skin with Avalon Stem Cell Beauty Drink! [Advertorial]

Dryness, dullness, wrinkles, sagging. Are your poor diet and living habits costing you your chance of having glowing, younger looking skin? And as if that's not bad enought, time is liken to a thief, slowly and quietly stealing our youth away, leaving behind signs of aging on our faces. Wouldn’t it be good if we can turn back time and lock up our youth so that we can look younger than our biological age?

And what if I tell you, you can easily achieve that by solving 6 different skin problems with just 1 small bottle a day?

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink can help us to restore our youthful, healthy complexion by giving us 6 benefits:

1. Rejuvenates our damaged skin cells

2. Helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines

3. Helps tighten sagging skin by restoring skin's firmness and elasticity

4. Helps brighten dull skin

5. Helps tighten pores

6. Hydrate dry skin by locking in moisture

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink the first beauty drink in Singapore that contains Young Orchid Stem Cells. Enhanced with Litchi Seed Extract, Premium French Marine Collagen and a combination of Fruit Extracts, where taken together helps to repair and rejuvenate our skin cells, retain skin’s moisture, brighten skin tone, tighten pores, improve skin firmness and reduces appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, resolving 6 major skin problems with just one product!

Orchid symbolizes luxury, love, strength and beauty. It represents refinement and perfection. With more than 25,000 species of orchids and over 100,000 hybrids growing throughout the world, these exotic flowers have been a part of many cultures since a long time back. Orchids were used to promote good health and cure diseases by the ancient Chinese, ancient Aztecs brewed a strength potion from its flowers to obtain power over their enemies, Europeans used it in Love potions and the Geeks used it for fertility. 

Today, Orchid extracts (the flower as a whole) are use in multiple varieties of products including hair care, body care, and skincare products. However researchers have found a breakthrough in an untapped part of Orchids; its stem cells. 

And guess what, unlike other beauty drinks in the market with thick texture and strong flavour, AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink is made with Sparkling Water that not only adds a refreshing twist to conventional beauty drinks, but in fact sparkling water actually helps to boost nutrients absorption & promotes skin metabolism! The result is a beauty drink that tastes awesome: both tangy and sweet, light and refreshing. 

It's a common myth to think that taking collagen alone is sufficient to fight signs of aging and keep our complexion youthful. However, taking collagen alone is actually insufficient to fight signs of aging. Fundamental to having good skin is maintaining healthy skin cells. To fully benefit from any oral beauty supplements or skincare, it is important to have healthy skin cells to fully absorb and locks in the skin beneficial nutrients. Researchers has discovered that the Orchid Stem Cell is a powerful antioxidant and possesses strong anti-inflammatory properties, particularly young orchid stem cells, which protect the skin from environmental damages while hydrating and renewing our skin cells thus making it an excellent youth revitaliser which works on almost all skin types.

I highly recommend that you store these drinks in the fridge and drink them chilled for an even better taste enjoyment, before bedtime. For 1st timers, drink 1 bottle every night for 7 consecutive nights for maximum results. 

In 7 days you can feel your skin being more supple and hydrated, and in 28 days (our skin renews itself every 28 days) you can see your skin tone brightens up looking more radiant, pores appears to be tighter, wrinkles and fine lines will also look lighter now that your skin is more supple. 

AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink retails at only $69.90 for a box of 10 and is available at:

Watsons, Unity Pharmacy, ALT, OG, Robinsons, Yue Hwa & www.hibeau.com

You can get 20% OFF by entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout on hibeau.com 

20% OFF when entering code TSS-20OFF at checkout. Only for purchase online at HERE 

Do head over to SampleStore's FACEBOOK as they are running a giveaway today (17th October) and giving out full sets of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink to 5 lucky winners! In the meanwhile,  head over to Sample Store to read more reviews of AVALON ™ Stem Cell Beauty Drink.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Sponsored Review: Reduze Pro

Thanks to Sample Store and Reduze Pro, I got to try out one month's supply of their new, extra strength formula. This came like an advance Christmas gift for me, as I've recently put on almost 3kg after eating like a pig for 1 week straight during my China trip and skipping gym classes. 

Reduze Pro works on a triple action detox formula that help us cleanse, burn fats and lose weight effectively. Yes, you got it. It's both a fat burning and detoxing product in one! How convenient! 

Many ladies on a weight loss regime tend to focus mainly on increasing exercises and decreasing calories intake, forgetting about detox totally. Based on the International Journal of Obesity published in 2010, weight loss releases excess toxins into the body. Therefore, it is important to start detoxify your body at the same time when you start a weight loss regime.

Apart from helping us to detox, burn fat and lose weight, Reduze Pro also boasts of the following efficacies:

1. Triple action detox formula, which rebalance gut flora, improve digestive system, and give sustainable weight loss

2. Eliminate toxins and waste

3. Flatten tummy

4. Improve bowel regularity

5. Increase satiety

6. Enhanced weight loss

7. Clearer complexion

With Reduze Pro, we can also expect to have up to 8X MORE weight loss, +52% of bowel frequency, -29% of calorie intake, and 20 billion live probiotics per dose. 

Directions for use is really simple. We just need to consume 2 capsules once a day before food. Or, for quicker results, start with 3 capsules daily and gradually decrease dosage back to 2 after desired effect is achieved. 

And after consuming Reduze Pro with 2 to 3 (I alternate the daily dosage depending on my lunch) capsules daily for almost 2 weeks and keeping my diet and gym classes constant, I realised that I've dropped about 1.5 kg! 

Throughout the 2 weeks, I did not feel any form of discomfort at all. However, I did experience some flatulence initially but it went away after I stopped take my daily dosage of probiotics supplements. Yes, probably an overdose there, for there's also probiotics blend in Reduze Pro. Yikes! 

As for increased bowel regularity, I was pretty disappointed that I didn't experience any, for I have a bad case of constipation since forever. However, I did feel that my stools were somewhat, softer, and visits to the loo generally felt easier and quicker. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that the regularity will pick up eventually. 

And best thing of all, Reduze Pro has no adverse side effects found so far. And since it's made from all natural ingredients, it is suitable for long term consumption! 

Reduze Pro now retails in store for $128 per box of 60 capsules (one month's supply) and it can be found at the following locations:

Guardian

John Little

Metro

NTUC Fairprice

Robinson

Sasa

Unity

Watsons

&

Rakuten

From 17 Nov till 31 Dec, there will be a $10 off promotion with minimum purchase of $128 (1 box of Reduze Pro). Simply use the promo code REDUZEPRO10 upon making payment. Limited to only 1 time usage per Rakuten member. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Samplestore Kabloom Re-Launch Party

Recently, I was really glad to be part of Samplestore's re-launch party, Kabloom, as one of their beauty panelist.

It was an exceptional event, held at Fullhouse Restaurant. I'll say it was a great choice of location, certainly, for it was literally a full house turn out.  I mean, look at the crowd!

There were 10 booths set up by Samplestore and 9 different brand names:

1. miacare
2. Tsubaki
3. My Beauty Diary
4. NOV
5. goodal
6. Pond's
7. Brand's Innershine
8. enavose
9. belief

We were encouraged to mingle and move around the booths to gather inked stamps. 3 stamps will earn us 1 goodie bag worth $50 and 6 stamps will earn us 1 place in the lucky draw

At the Samplestore's booth, we were introduced to their revamped website (which is basically what Ka Bloom was for) and made to do a beta testing on samples redemption. And I really prefer their new website, which is already launched now, so go check them out! 

And after completion of the beta testing, guess where have I headed to (and absolutely have to talk about it). I reckon you may have guessed it correctly.

They're miacare acne patches from Korea! miacare, omg how can I not support? :) 

Previous to this, I was an avid supporter of 3M acne patches because they really do work wonders on my pesky bumpy pus filled pimples. Just stick them onto those hideously enlarged pimples (provided you have some sort of an 'opening' for the pus and oil to escape) and just overnight they will flatten out with all the icky stuff  transformed into this flatten glob of whitish stuff on the patch. 

But there was also 1 major down-points I've noticed. The 3M patches leaves your flatten pimple bump red. And it's a pretty mad, purplish red that will take days to weeks to fade away. 

But with miacare patches on this particular pimple on my chin, I didn't experience the red scarring at all, after peeling it off the next morning. 

I'm not sure if it's due to the difference in pimple size (the one I tried miacare on was significantly smaller than those I've used 3M on before) and 'opening' I've created, but I did notice that my pimple bump wasn't as flat as what I've experienced previously with 3M patches. 

But take a look at this, they are super thin! I'll say they're about 1/2 the thickness of a standard 3M patch? And if your pimple happens to not be at a very prominent place, such as on the tip of your nose, you can also consider putting this under your make up in the day! 

Isn't this awesome? 

You probably can't find this in stores yet, but fret not! I heard that they will be coming in by later this year! So do keep a close lookout for them!

Another interesting booth will be from NOV, a beauty brand from Japan that specialises in catering to sensitive skins with their skincare and cosmetic products. 

And with their trusted model, UV-san, they showed us the importance of sun protection.

 First up, UV-san was given a generous amount of NOV's sunscreen, SPF 50 PA++++, on half of her face.

 And then it was added on with their foundation stick...

And finally their pressed powder to set everything, with the benefits of additional SPF protection. 

Giving her the UV light on the side with products usage...

And then swiftly shining the UV light on the other side without SPF products (you can already see that the other side has no tanned spots)

And a closed up shot to show the tanned spot left by the UV light, right below UV-san's birthmark at her temple. 

So ladies, do not ever step out of your house without the basic sun protection of the basic SPF 30 PA+++. Consequences will be dire! 

And of course, food! 

I should have snatched the mad-cute cookies while they're still there, for when I returned after going through all the booths, there was almost nothing left at the table other than 2 more bottles of emicake's pudding and a few boxes of nestle's cereal. 

And my goodie bags! Haha, I was taking them out onto the floor to snap pictures and Jelly got curious and came to inspect them. She probably thought they were food. 

And they're so generous with all the samples (some were full sized)! Can't wait to try out NOV and Enovase's products! 

To find out more about Samplestore, visit their revamped website HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Unboxing: August Black Box & SampleStore Box

Yes, I've not only redeemed some samples from the Sample Store, but was also very lucky to be able to ballot successfully for the August Black Box. 

First up, let's take a look at my Black Bos.
I was pretty surprised when I received the package in the mail. It's no longer literally a black box, but a black.... bag? 

Not that it matters, though.

Look at all the goodies I received this month. For zero dollar! 

L'Oreal Paris Hair Expertise EverSleek Shampoo and Conditioner, 59ml

KLARITY Lasertox V-Line Slim Up Mask, 1 sheet

Hada Labo SHA Hydrating Lotion, 20ml

Dettol Skincare Body Wash, 10ml

Zappy Antiseptic Wipes
FrG Instant Stain Remover Wipes
FrG Instant Shoe Wipes
FrG Leather Polish Wipes
(1 pc each)

To find out more about Black Box, visit their website HERE

And this is the 2nd time I'm receiving their limited edition box. :)

At SampleStore, we can redeem up to 4 samples with a delivery fee of $5.99.
Let's see what are the 4 samples I've gotten this time.:)

Neogence Deep Pore Cleansing Mask

Klarity Lasertox CC Miracle White Lotion

GoodSkin Labs Z-Pore Instant Pore Refiner and All Over Pore Reducing Serum

Rachel K Stem Cell Purifying Cleansing Gel

To find out more about Sample Store and start redeeming your free samples, visit their new website HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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