Black Paint Singapore Launch @ Alkaff Mansion Ristorante

Earlier this month, I was really honoured to be able to be part of the Singapore Launch of Black Paint held at Alkaff Mansion Ristorante.

Alkaff is a really pretty (and pretty secluded) fine dining restaurant located at 10 Telok Blangah Green. 

Spectacularly pretty at night, with a small lawn (that wasn't in the picture) in front, where the flight of stairs lead to. 

The reception area was done up in a relatively simple and clean matter and decorated with the phototaking area decorated with pretty pink balloons.

 I just have to share this because my nametag was right smack in the middle of this awesome shot their photographer took. :)

Here's the autograph board the invited bloggers signed on. 

We were seated at proper dining tables and served beverages and a couple rounds of yummy appetizer snacks from Alkaff, which looked equally pretty as well.

And some final photos of the event location before we get starting on the main focus: Black Paint SG

Black Paint is founded by Maeda Miyuki-san, and is highly popular in Japan, having a over a 100 stores mainly in departmental stores in Kyoto.

Black Paint is an all natural, organic skincare brand established in Kyoto 15 years ago, with the concept of not killing beneficial bacteria in our body, but nourishing them for them to do their job. This concept is supported by "moisture care", which involves supplying the skin with mineral element rich water, and not disinfecting the skin, focusing on the body's own natural healing force instead. 

Apart from focusing on using natural ingredients with no synthetic preservatives (and also no alcohols, yeah!), the other 2 main focus of Black Paint are Pore Care, and Supporting Skin Microbiota (microscopic organisms living on our skin).

And in order to help us achieve beautiful flawless skin like Maeda-san herself, Black Paint has got a set of wonderful products to get the job done.

 The event started off with a pretty in-depth presentation of Black Paint's skincare concept by Maeda-san herself in Japanese, with an English translator to help with our understanding.
 And with the completion of the insightful introduction, every table was then handed out their product samples to try out as the presentation continued.

For ladies who wear eye make up on a regular basis, our first step will definitely be to remove the make up. Named as Vegetable Oil, this cutie sized tube of 50ml product is actually a cleansing oil for our eyes area. Apart from helping to remove all out our waterproof and 'solid' smudge-proof eye make up, it also contains 11 kinds of organic oils and essential oils, which helps to prevent fine lines around our eye areas caused by dryness of the skin.
A brilliant 2-in-1 product indeed!

As seen on the back of my hand, the product is very liquidy and spreads over the skin effortlessly. This is actually a very crucial aspect of eye make up remover products as it minimises unnecessary tugging on our delicate skin, which may result in premature wrinkles.
Even though it's a cleansing oil, there's actually no need to emulsify it with water before washing them off. Just a few gentle swipe across our eyes and we can speedily move on to the next step!

 And here's their famous facial cleansing Bar Soap, which obviously gives you a few seconds of unglamorous charcoal black face in exchange of thoroughly cleansed, smooth skin.

Do not underestimate what this block of black stuff can do for your skin, for it helps with expelling the pesky blackheads from our pores as we massage our face with our hands.
First, we got to soak it in (preferably) warm water for up to a minute to get it 'soft and slippery' before rolling the entire bar of soap all over our face to give it a good coat of the product. We shall then proceed with a simple facial massage to aid the product in performing its magic with our dirty pores before washing it off with lukewarm water.

A small tip: Being a non-fan of bar soap, I know the idea of working with a palm-sized slippery black bar is rather unappealing. But fret not! We can always chop it up into smaller, workable sizes and keep the remaining big chunk nice and dry in the box until we're done with the small piece. :)

For a more thorough cleansing, we can also use their Black (konjac) Sponge to massage the skin with a tiny bit of black soap (or without) to remove the layer of old keratin and giving us translucent skin.

And of course, after cleansing comes nourishing.

The Best Water is a skin lotion that helps to tighten our pores with moisture. There's absolutely no alcohol or preservatives used in this product, so yay for all those sensitive-skinned ladies! 

We can also make use of these special facial pads together with the best water for some quick fix at localised dry spots on our skin. Just pump out a generous amount of the best water onto the pad and stick it on your skin for a few minutes.
I really love the refreshing feeling of the product on my skin. Felt as if my hand was totally rejuvenated.

 And after tightening our pores, it's time to give it some moisture and oil for nourishment. With that, comes in the Oil Water, which is infused with all the goodness of Rose and Argan Oils. As seen in the screen, it comes with a layer of oil on top of the water so we need to give it a good shake before pumping it out.

And even though it's named Oil Water, it's surprisingly not oily at all. Somehow it has this very watery and subtly gel-like consistency that spreads effortlessly over the skin. The best thing about this product is that it smells like a bouquet of roses! So relaxing and feminine.

And finally, we will end the skincare routine with the Water Cream to give our skin for long continuation of moisture.

 I know it looks really thick and scary (especially for ladies with oily skin like myself, yikes!) but it's really manageable. A small amount of it spreads out really well over the entire surface of the back of my hand and turns into this water-like consistency as I rubbed it in gently.

Even though it's stated to be both a day and night cream, I do believe it does better for a night cream instead of a day cream because time is needed to get this product fully absorbed into the skin. You wouldn't want to pile on foundation onto that layer of sheen, do you? 
Plus, I seriously think that I've taken way too much product for I couldn't seem to 'complete' the massage and get it fully absorbed into my skin. So yup, even though it comes in a really small package of 50g, but a little really goes a long way.

 Lastly, Black Paint is really sweet and generous to also give the bloggers a full sized product of their Ostrich Balm, which has yet to make it to the shelves in Singapore.
As the name goes, this super rich balm is made up of ostrich oil, shea butter and macademia nut oil. It is the best product to combat the worst dryness in your skin to keep them moisturised and hydrated.

 And because my cuticles are pretty dry lately..... :)

I personally feel that this product is simply way too rich to be used on the face. It has the thick consistency of vaseline, just that it absorbs better and is very much less sticky.
Nevertheless, it will be a product I personally turn to, for my chapped lips, dry peeling cuticles, cracked heels, patchy elbows and knees.

Here's a snap shot of the goodie bags Black Paint has prepared for the bloggers. They were really sweet and generous to give each blogger a full set of their retail sized products to try out.

 

Was informed that the model for Black Paint is Maeda's daughter herself. Look at her flawless skin! 

And finally, a group shot to end the awesome night.

Thank you Black Paint, for having us that night. It was surely enjoyable. :)

Black Paint is available at Isetan, B2 Westgate Mall.
You can get more details on Black Paint at their Facebook, Website or Instagram @blackpaintsg

Till then,
Mia

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AgeLoc TR90 Tracker: 6th Week's Update

Frankly speaking I have no idea what else to update either. It has been 6 weeks (actually as I'm writing this entry it's more than 6 weeks) and no changes in my body. Following the advice of many distributors (or business partners, as what they prefer to call themselves for whatever reason) who contacted me through email, to increase my food intake, I've done likewise but still.... no results seen. 

I've seen quicker results (increase in muscle content + drop in fat content) by working my arse off at the gym.

Face it, this doesn't work unless perhaps you really put yourself in a strict diet and doesn't eat even 1 baby bite of something that's not in the 'recommended' diet. 

So for those who are seriously considering spending the 1.8k to try out this 3 months program only after reading (possibly fake) reviews of how quick results were seen even when they tend to 'cheat' on the diet every now and then, please reconsider. 

SGD 1.8k is not a small sum to waste like this. 

Plus, all the pills swallowing is traumatising. It really didn't help when their lifepak (the multi-vitamins mix of 4 large pills per packet) actually stinks and putting them in my mouth makes me want to gag. 

So my decision to just stick to Control and Complex and chuck lifepak aside while trying my best to persuade the distributor my cousin bought her sets from to let me exchange for other less nauseating products. She agreed to let me exchange them for the other green tea extract product, which comes in capsules (so no stinking smell) and requires less daily intake. 

And after this agreement, no more follow up.

And why am I not surprised?

Oh well, I guess I have no choice but to continue bugging her for the exchange, I guess. The boxes of lifepak are just collecting dust in a corner anyway. No harm being annoying to get my money back, albeit in another form. 

Fellow true TR90-eaters, do share your progress with me either via comments or email. Any form of truthful, good advice is more than welcomed. 

Till then,

Mia

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Mia's Review: Fullhouse Signature

In my SHM's Cake in a Jar post, I've mentioned about dining with the girls at an awesome pretty place, and so here it is! 

We went to Fullhouse Signature at Clarke Quay! 

I never got the chance to visit when they're still at Rendezvous Hotel and was really glad to be able to arrange for a meet up with the FP girlies here. 

 Even their menu is so cute! The whole picture just oozes coziness and happiness. 

 And this was what made us burst into laughter as we seated down at our table. That poor dove is dying! T.T 

And I really don't know what's gotten into me that day, I kept calling them pigeons. *rofl*

This dove is looking much better at the other lamp. 

 Peppermint Tea - about $6.90 - $8.90

I can't remember the pricing very well now because I didn't bother to remember them, thinking that such a cute themed cafe with even the PR personnel stationed in MUST have a very detailed website, which I can just link to. But apparently not.

My apologies for assuming too much. 

This tea is like my 3rd or 4th choice off the drink list because they seem to have nothing much available that I want. I was eyeing the yoghurt mixes initially but they weren't available.

The tea basically tasted like peppermint tea (duh!), and tasted stronger in comparison to many other cafes as they're not using teabags but dumped a generous amount of tea leaves into the tea pot. The mini candle at the base of the pot really did keep my tea hot throughout my 2 hours of dining time there. 

The only problem was, I really wished they'll provide a more standard sized tea cup rather than the dainty sized, masak-masak tea cup that only holds one mouthful of tea at a time.

Braised Lamb Shank - $29

Sorry for the blurry photos, I didn't check on them until it was too late and I didn't notice that the restaurant's lightings were too dim to take good pictures on default camera settings. 

Anyway, yeah their mains were pretty much on the pricey end. My lamb shank might appear as a monstrous size but it's really just because of the bone. The actual amount of meat you get is at most just a little bit more than a lamb chop, I will say.

But out of our 4 mains for the day, mine was the BEST! That is, provided you're not anti-lamb. :) 

The meat was cooked to perfection. It was so tender and succulent that I need just a slight tug from my fork to separate the pieces of meat from the bone, which gets easily chewed down even with minimal chewing. It was also well braised to give every bite a full savoury flavour, with a very slight hint of sweetness that might have gone unnoticed. Even their tomatoes were awesome, served prettily on vines and absolutely fresh, tart and juicy. 

The only thing lacking in this dish is the gravy for mashed potatoes. It might seem sufficient in the picture, but actually it's not enough at all. Plus, the mashed potatoes has a very strong milky taste (that reminded me of baby throwing up milk, yikes!) , which makes it less pleasant to the taste buds without the addition of gravy to it. So yup, this is one of the rare times you'll see me having leftover mashed potatoes in my plate.

That's Dresden's Ribeye Steak - $39

Yes, very pricey steak indeed, considering both the quantity and quality. I believe Dresden asked for medium, but it came totally well done and rubbery. That's $39 down the gutters, imo. 

ps. there's obviously even less gravy here for her mashed potatoes. 

SL's Chicken Chop - $25

Another one of the better dishes we had for the day, but then again $25 for a chicken chop is still on the extremely pricey end. A bite of it hints of tenderness and peppery savoury goodness. I won't say it's money well spent, but it was definitely a good eat.

Angie's Salmon - $29

One sentence from Angie will sum up the review for this dish: This taste like what I cooked for myself, at home.

Definitely not untasty (Angie is a good cook), but definitely not worth the price tag. 

Now for more picture spamming....

 Two dying doves here... *rofl*

Don't ask me why there's a bathtub here in the middle of nowhere. I do find it a little out of place too. And there's actually a row of bride's gowns at the opposite corner. But I reckon that's to fit in to the wedding theme of this corner. 

 Yes, you can go into the big birdcage and take some pretty photos!

And as you can see, Fullhouse Signature's theme is actually pretty 'garden wedding' imo (though they might not have that intention in mind) and I personally think that this is an awesome place to hold a small scale dinner for a very small group of close friends and relatives after ROM.

However, for frequent dining, I'm afraid it's not going to make it to my list of must-revisit because of the price and food quality. 

IMO, it will be brilliant if they will focus/expand on their dessert menu. What's more to ask (from us girls) than to have an amazingly pretty cafe with cute looking desserts (that hopefully aren't horribly overpriced)?

Fullhouse Signature is located at

3A Clarke Quay, River Valley Rd #02-04 Singapore 179020

Tel: 6338 0885

For more information, visit their FB page HERE.

Till then,

Mia

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