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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Mia's Review: III Cafe

Finally, I'm back with another food/cafe review! Has been doing more beauty related posts recently and my food pictures has been snowballing in my blogging folder. Yikes!

And this time, it was a meet-the-pets event with SL's Butter and MD's Froski snatching the limelight. I would have let Jelly joined in, but after seeing her traumatised look from hearing my neighbour's dog barked ONCE, I guess not.

"You mean, I don't get to go?"

"Oh, okay...."

Located on the 2nd floor of the row of shophouses along Siglap (above the pub), I was greeted by a cute french bulldog, miu miu, at the gate.

 The cafe is not very big, with about 10 tables or so to accommodate about 40 plus (human) pax at a time.

 Other than a drinking fountain for the pooches, the cafe has also placed mop with bucket and litter pan for the pets and their owners.

There's a section of the cafe serving dogs' meal, The Barkery. Menu includes savoury mains like meatballs & meat pies, and also desserts like pupcakes and biscuits.
The most popular dish for that day seems to be their meatballs, even a terrified kitty gave it a few munches! Well, we'll get to that later on.

And now, to the human food section of the cafe. For a pet cafe, they actually do have a pretty wide range of choices, from light snacks, to salad, to pasta and western mains.

Couldn't help but snap a picture of this cute doggie figurine sitting on the counter.

My choice of the day:
Roasted Chicken with Salad and Mashed Potato (but they gave wedges) - $12.90
Mocha - $4.90

The coffee was okay, but the food was.... mehhh.
Both SL and I chose the same mains. Hers was okay, while mine was a little too salty, especially the salad. According to her, my salad dressing even looked a darker shade of brownish yellow. I guess that's why mine was overly flavourful.
And while SL and my sides were more flavourful. It was right at the opposite end at OYHZ, Dresden and MD's side. MD took Cabonara while both oyhz and Dresden took their All Day Breakfast.
It was painful looking at oyhz trying hard to stomach the extremely bland eggs. Just think, scrambled eggs with no seasoning?
No thanks.

However, the meatballs from The Barkery seems to be a big hit, for not only Butter couldn't wait to clean up the bowl. but even a terrified Froski ate quite a few bites of them. And even though it was left cold, it still attracted a very cute Corgi!

"Woof, will you give me some meatball?"

This Corgi, named Coco, is so sweet and mild. Instead of dashing over to steal a bite, she simply sat down and stared at us until we decided to give up Froski's half eaten meatball for her.
And she literally WOOF it down in one bite.
Her owner was pretty embarrassed, constantly coaxing her to go back to their table and saying that she has already ordered meatballs for her too.

The very first dog that caught my attention in the cafe is this 6 months old Chow Chow puppy.
He's so fluffy I'm gonna dieeeeee!

Very chillax, sociable and playful too!

This Shiba Inu puppy was pretty smitten and kept butt-sniffing and hugging him.
HA HA HA!

Then came along a Japanese Spitz, who got pretty fed up by the touchy-feely Shiba Inu and started a small barking fest.

And the so adorably tiny Chihuahua twinsy pups! The black pup seems to be blind in one eye, but still a cutie!

At one point of time I spotted a toy poodle and a pug as well.

 And then came the biggest dog of the night, a cute Golden Retriever, who got smitten with Froski and wanted to befriend him.
Froski you got yourself an admirer!

"WHAT?!"

"OH MY GOD!"

"I better retreat. No, food won't work on me this time. I need to hide!"

"Why you all so bad one?"

When MD and Dresden first came in with Froski and attempted to let him out of the cage, it immediately attracted a handful of pups who bounded over and started barking excessively. Poor guy, he was so terrified and even peed on Dresden while she carried him away from one hostilely barking pup.
Throughout the entire 3 hours plus we were there, Froski was totally stressed up being the only cat in a cafe full of dogs. His face was literally a 囧 and he moved around slowly in a leopard crawl motion. Poor boy! :(
Apparently, Dresden has called to ask if it's advisable to bring a cat and they didn't bother to give much warning that the cat will probably end up in such a predicament.
Sorry Froski, no second time!

As for Butter, it wasn't exactly a stressful time for her since she's just being surrounded by more of her own kind, I reckon.
But being more timid and introverted, she very much preferred to stay close to her humans, SL and P, and literally just dog-watch along with us.
Haha, how sweet!

 "Yes I know I'm pretty. You don't have to keep snapping photos of me."

And after being fed meatballs and some of SL's roasted chicken, she went into this Zzz mode.
Love those floppy ears!

All in all, I think III Cafe will be an awesome cafe to bring your pet dogs over to chill and let your pup make some pup-friends and socialise on a weekend. Food wise....
Oh well, on the safe side you can always just stick to fries. :)

Oh, and please, no cats unless it's a seasoned dog-befriender.

III Cafe is located at 678A East Coast Rd Level 2.
For more information, visit their website HERE

Have you participated in MollyMia's first beauty giveaway?
Head over HERE to check it out if you haven't!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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