clapbangkiss's Xanga

Tuesday, May 07, 2013

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:07:51 GMT

“Moms Go Loco Local” This Mother's Day

Wondering what to do this Mother's Day?

Here's a fab idea to share with you! This is where I will be bringing my mom to check in for a staycation and enjoy a chic afternoon :)

Open House at Grand Park Orchard goes “Loco Local” or mad for all things proudly Singaporean with an All-You-Can-Eat local high-tea extravaganza this Mother’s Day on 11 & 12 May 2013, accompanied by a pop-up local fashion showcase.

Food and shopping -- what else does a woman need to be happy on the weekend?

The stylish open-dining concept restaurant with designer curvilinear AMEBA lights, elegant Black Forest Marble and plush carpets in the restaurant’s signature cheerful radial colours boasts a magnificent view of the prime shopping and entertainment district of Orchard Road. The award-winning all-day restaurant will be showcasing a colourful fiesta of All-You-Can-Eat LOCAL High Tea fare at four ‘live’ cooking stations for mums and their family to indulge in.

At Open House, watch chefs in action as they skilfully knead out freshly-made pizzas over a beech wood-fire oven; tend tirelessly over simmering claypot specialties; show off their finesse for timing and control at the noodles station; and dedicatedly watch over steaming baskets of dim sum, all prepared à la minute to a pinnacle of freshness for your dining pleasure.

To further heighten the fun and excitement of an intimate family feast, diners will be given a special privileged access “keycard” after their meals entitling them exclusive entry (on the same day of dining) to the Presidential Suite, located on the 11^th floor of the hotel, for a first-of-its-kind pop-up shopping experience in partnership with five uniquely made-in Singapore brands.

The participating brands include
hansel, In Good Company, Carrie K, Ling Wu and Saloni Rathor.

In the privacy of the room, Moms will be pampered by a range of merchandise with exclusive discounts and offers for the day that includes apparels, bags and jewellery.While shopping, guests are also invited to luxuriate in the sheer elegance of the one bedroom suite setting swathed in rich shades of deep brown, natural wood and cream. As they enjoy the expansive space with a separate living room, study room, dining room, kitchenette and master bedroom, they will be treated to a magnificent vista of the vibrant Orchard Road from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

To end the experience on a memorably sweet note, Moms are entitled for a lucky draw at the pop-up suite room boutique where they will stand a chance to win the grand prize of a weekend night’s stay at a Park Suite room worth S$1,500, followed by the second prize of a pair of Spa Park Asia’s 90-min Gold Lava Shell Massage vouchers worth $396+ and finally the third prize with three individual winners of a pair of Open House All-You-Can-Eat Dinner vouchers.

If the shopaholic in you still rages on, there is Abercrombie & Fitch and Topshop waiting for you below ;)

Book your instant reservation here or call 6603 8855 for enquiries.

I'm certainly looking forward to some "localmotion" fun with my mom and family!

♥ Dawn

Saturday, May 04, 2013

Sat, 04 May 2013 19:51:02 GMT

Essensuals Bugis Salon 3rd Anniversary

There's no better time than this month of May, to get all your hair styling needs met.

Cut, color, perm, treat - do it all at Essensuals Bugis because....

· PROMO IS FROM 1^ST TO 31^ST MAY 2013.

· EVERY $80 SPEND ENTITLES YOU TO ONE RAFFLE ENTRY.

· ALL ENTRIES MUST BE DROPPED IN THE LUCKY DRAW BOX FOUND IN THE SALON.

· WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED ON 2^ND June 2013 at Essensuals Bugis.

Not only are the prizes really awesome, every customer this May will go home with a fabulous free goodie bag containing treats from all the sponsors shown, including my online boutique Lexi Lyla !

I'm a happy client who gets her hair done there as well. So call to make your appointment, and maybe we'll be getting our hair washed next to each other ;P

♥ Dawn

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:33:47 GMT

Passion For Fashion

How time flies, it's been about half a year since I attended the epic party event Passion For Fashion 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And this year's is happening TONIGHT!

With event founder Josiah Mizukami

Girl power! Linora, me & Evonne.

Passion for Fashion specializes in bringing all professionals from the fashion and film industry together once a year for a glamorous night of networking and fun.

First launching in 2009, the attendance of models, directors, actors, photographers, hosts, celebrities, agencies, producers and editors to name a few, make it an exciting event for guest to party at.

Catch snippets of the action in this video (and see if you can spot me, twice)

The KL crew really knows how to have a ball of a time. Beautiful Andrea Fonseka (on the far left) was with us too.

I met a time traveller.

On another note, the night wouldn't have been complete without a lovely dinner and drinks at Marini's on 57, taking in the resplendent view of the KLCC Petronas Twin Towers.

See all of you Malaysian peeps later tonight at The Butter Factory. It's the Labour Day public holiday tomorrow so no excuses ;)

It's also a great honour for me to be presenting a special fashion show for my brand Lexi Lyla at this year's event! I spent a lot of time preparing the runway collection, and I can't wait. I hope everyone likes it!

♥
Dawn

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:50:41 GMT

Future Music Festival Asia: Day 1

Bigger and badder this time round, the second edition of Future Music Festival Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was one crazy rockin' party you should not have missed. Wait, make it two crazy rockin' parties!

The king of trance and ranked no.1 in the world , Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren was the headlining act on Day 1.

35,000 party-goers made their way to Sepang International Circuit on 15th March to be part of a little electronic dance music history -- Armin's A State Of Trance 600: The Expedition tour, which marks 600 episodes of the Internet radio show he launched in 2001.

Peace & smiles, as we wait in the massive car pile-up leading to the festival grounds.

Our other 2 friends were probably not so happy though - they let us off first and ended up having to park reallyyyyy far. Then they had to navigate an obstacle course of forests and ditches to get there, poor guys! It sounded like a refugee/war story.

Check out all the excited party people, all pumped and raring to go.

YEA YEA! I love it when people dress up funny at music festivals :) But being in the tropics, boy must it be hot!

Sunset falls.

Lots of fun tents and colorful lighting, electric atmosphere.

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of being elbowed and stepped all over in giant, sticky, sweaty crowds. I guess I've done it too many times before and I've had enough, lol!

Thankfully I had the Media and VIP tents to hang out in as well. Air conditioning, sofas, water, and food :D

Sophia and Deva, the super nice PR folks who took care of me really well

Photographer Mike.

Malaysian babes.

Expected expats.

Had a lot of fun playing electronic darts, courtesy of iDarts Malaysia.

I sucked at first, but after a bit of instruction, I managed to hit a couple of bull's eye ;P

But my favorite spot hands down, has got to be the giant ferris wheel.

Unlike the crawling Singapore Flyer, this one goes round at a decently fun speed, and we got to enjoy a surreal aerial view while jumping and rocking around the swinging carriage.

Insane....

"Argghhh, we're better off up here!"

Before Armin played his anticipated set, there were several cool opening acts as well -- Super 8 & Tab from Finland, UK's Ben Gold, Dutch duo W&W, and Germany's Cosmic Gate. All hand-picked by the superstar DJ himself.

When he went on, the crowd went berserk into a prolonged one hour high, a state of euphoric trance ecstasy.

The entire show was broadcast live on his two-hour internet radio series, which has a reported 20 million listeners from over 40 digital stations across 26 countries.

.....Party pics ahead. It was super great hanging out with the peeps from Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Australia, and well, everywhere else. Let the good times roll.

Though my legs ached and my sandals were nasty by the end, there was this one moment. One of pure emotional, stirring melody lifting me up into a universe of lights... and it was worth it.

But the 3 hr coach journey back to the hotel? Hmm... that I have to consider again ;)

Took photos with lots of people, thank you to those who IGed me!

And make sure I see the rest of you there at next year's Future Music Festival Asia too!

Day 2 blog post coming up next, stay tuned.

♥ Dawn

Monday, April 22, 2013

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 22:36:10 GMT

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

I was quite pleased with the smokey eye make-up I did on myself for Lexi Lyla's latest 13.5 lookbook shot (seen in the previous post before this)

Sharing some selfies I took that day after I changed out at home as I think they turned out pretty nice.

This style of smokey-eye make-up is very dark and dramatic, yet soft and ethereal.

Not to mention, it makes eyes look larger :)

Wanna know how I achieved the look? I regularly get requests from followers to share my make-up tips, so I hope you find the following useful!

MY DARK & SOFT SMOKEY EYE TIPS

1. Line upper and lower lash line with black liquid eyeliner.

2. Soften the black eyeliner a little by smudging it with a thick brown-black eyeliner pencil, in soft strokes and blend.

3. Apply a shimmery dark brown/gunmetal eyeshadow all over the upper eyelid, reaching above the crease and extending out further from the ends of your eye. More emphasis on the outer corners. Blend well.

4. Darken the crease line to add depth. Blend well.

5. Apply the same eyeshadow along the lower lid, over and beyond the eyeliner. Don't do it in a straight line, imagine a crescent moon shape under your eye and fill it in, with more emphasis downwards on the outer corners of your eyes. This will create a wider, doe-eyed effect. Blend well.

6. The overall effect should be like a round halo around your eyes, with no obvious harsh lines.

7. Add a touch of bright eyeshadow (white or pearly cream) at the inner corners of your eyes.

8. End with generous coats of mascara on the upper and lower lashes.

To be honest, in my decade of modelling I have never met any local makeup artist who can do a great smokey eye, in my humble opinion. (Or perhaps I haven't had the good fortune of working with one of the top MUAs in sg yet haha). They usually seem to follow some outdated, cookie-cutter textbook for white people, without studying/adapting to each individual's Asian features. The smokey eye they give Asian girls almost always ends up looking like a Cleopatra cat-eye.

I think this is also evidenced by the fact that I've heard countless of girls lament and complain about how MUAs for their makeover/bridal/whatever shoots make them look uglier rather than prettier? One of my girlfriends getting married soon was so horrified she has decided to just do it herself on her big day!

Anyway, I digress.

Now, it's time to do a bit of shopping.... Don't miss our 3 day sale :)

SHOP - www.lexilyla.com

*p.s I don't share all our sale promotions here on my blog all the time, so remember to sign up for our mailing list or follow on FB to get exclusive updates!!!

♥ Dawn

Friday, April 19, 2013

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:09:46 GMT

Retail Therapy

The adventure starts here.

Cool girls will be in hot pursuit of classic khakis, neutrals and treasured gold.

See the latest collection at

www.lexilyla.com

facebook.com/lexilyla

instagram @lexilyla

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:14:21 GMT

Win 72 Hours in Monaco with Johnnie Walker

I got a slice of the high life last week thanks to Johnnie Walker :)))

First, a plush limousine service from Uber picked me up from my place and dropped me at Seletar Airport.

Where were we flying to? Nowhere particularly.... just an aerial tour all around Singapore, in a private helicopter!

We thought we'd look oh-so-glamorous. Then we had to put on these bright orange safety vests.

The compact helicopter looks very cool. The thrill was bubbling up inside, it was my first time about to step into one.

Aye aye captain, let's get this helicopter outta here.

Fantasising I own one of these, to fly away wherever whenever. Pilot - me of course. How wicked would that be?

Woohoooo!!!!! ;)

Strapped in and ready to go up, up and away.

A little random, but I love the feeling of the helicopter hovering and moving around just slightly above the ground! It feels like you're in Star Wars or something :)

We spent around 45 mins in the skies, seeing breathtaking views of all the different precincts of Singapore - from Yishun to Bishan, to the reservoir areas and even dangerously trailing the bordering air space of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The colourful HDB blocks looked like an endless, neatly arranged sea of toy buildings, it was really quite a marvellous sight.

Throughout the trip, we enjoyed a running commentary from our pilot through the head phones we had on. We were shown tiny islands, places to do water sports, and fishing zones in JB that he pointed out as unsafe because they were right next to shipyards.

Yikes. I love seafood.

From the air, we were taken to the sea for the next VIP experience.

Ship's ahoy! The Johnnie Walker crew on board our private yacht.

Enjoying a glass of Johnnie Walker whiskey while taking in the sunset.

"Gotta instagram this...."
Rozz and friends lounging on the boat's hammock before dinner is served

Nothing like good company, good laughs, and the ocean breeze.

Being out at sea is always one of my favourite things to do :)

Now it's YOUR turn.
What I experienced that day was just a small taste of what YOU could have.

Ever dreamed of watching the Grand Prix from on-board a private yacht on the French Riviera?

Flying in a helicopter, superstar style?

Meeting and partying with international celebrities and VIPs?

In one of the most incredible contests ever, Johnnie Walker is offering FOUR fans the trip of a
lifetime.....

***WIN The ultimate luxury F1 race weekend in Monaco worth $80,000 per person!!!***

The winners will be jetting off to the glamorous state located at the heart of Mediterranean Europe, for the most prestigious street race on the Formula One calendar. Flying in style to the French city of Nice, a helicopter will be waiting on standby for private transfers to dazzling Monaco.

Once in Monaco, the luxury lifestyle will continue, with the winners enjoying accommodation at a top 5-star hotel for three nights, with access to VIP parties throughout their stay. On race day, they’ll enjoy the afternoon on a private yacht with an unbeatable trackside view of all the thrilling action.

As well as living like a race driver, the prize also includes the priceless opportunity to meet the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team in person and get up close and personal with the iconic Monaco circuit in a guided tour of the racetrack and Formula One pit.

Isn't this so crazy it sounds almost too good to be true? Well it isn't.

HOW TO ENTER: From now till end April, every purchase of Johnnie Walker Black Label or Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve will include a unique Gold Pass code. (Bottles can be purchased nationwide at all leading clubs, pubs, bars, hotels and supermarkets.)

Enter your Gold Pass codes at www.facebook.com/JohnnieWalkerSingapore to earn points.

Participants can also boost their points total by inviting friends to the app or sharing videos. The more points garnered, the higher the chance of being selected from a Grand Draw.

The "72 Hours in Monaco" contest ends on 30th April and the winners will be announced in early May. Trip of a lifetime happens on 24th - 26th May.

So for the rest of this month...

If you're going to party at the club, buy some Johnnie Walker.

If you're thirsty and need a drink, buy some Johnnie Walker.

If you're stocking up your bar at home, buy some Johnnie Walker.

Step inside the circuit, and the VIP life.
I'm envious of the winners already!

♥ Dawn

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:36:45 GMT

Zardoze Model Search

Let me introduce you to Zardoze - a glamorous homegrown fashion label with a presence in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

They are one of the designers slated for this year's Audi Fashion Festival 2013, showcasing their beautiful creations with a focus on handcrafted embellishments.

I'm honored to have been chosen as one of their style ambassadors, so keep a look out for me in their pieces soon! :)

Check out other celebrities wearing Zardoze as well:

Want to be the next face of Zardoze?
Then join their model search to appear in top fashion magazines + win some great prizes!

ENTER HERE

Good luck and I'll see the top three winners at the Audi Fashion Festival.

♥ Dawn

Monday, April 15, 2013

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 07:10:58 GMT

DBS Solve The Suitcase

Have you played the quick & fun daily game DBS Solve the Suitcase yet? See my previous post for more info .

This week, you can win a pair of tickets to OSAKA! Play everyday to increase your chances of winning!

PLAY HERE - http://www.dbs.com.sg/travellershieldsolvethesuitcase

This week (15 April – 19 April), there is a special 50% premium discount for the Single Trip Plan. If you are traveling in the next 3 months, you should buy your travel insurance now. Don't make a mistake and regret not having any coverage.

Buy DBS TravellerShield

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:45:29 GMT

Nespresso Atelier Class

As Presenting Partner and Official Coffee of SAVOUR 2013, Nespresso is delighted to showcase their dedication to quality and commitment towards providing gastronomic experiences with their Atelier and Mixologist classes at the gourmet food festival.

I was invited to a preview of their sell-out Nespresso Atelier class, to learn the subtleties, nuances and origins of coffee, and how to make the perfect espresso every time!

As a coffee noob who can't tell the difference between Starbucks and a good barista's cuppa, I could not wait to get educated :)

Held in the airy APS Lifestyle Gallery where beautiful high-tech kitchens were all for our using, we were first treated to a delicious array of canapés.

I'm wearing //Chiara Geometric Tank Blouse// from www.lexilyla.com

Chef Antonio Facchinetti from Prego, Fairmont Hotel prepared the Italian bites for us.

The student's "desk".

A small and intimate class.

Presenting the Nespresso Master & expert, aka our professor of the day!

We have 10,000 taste buds; different parts of the tongue detect sweet, salty, acidic and bitter tastes. So to appreciate the flavour of coffee, make sure to splash it around your tongue to fully taste all the profiles of the roast and it 's aromatic complexity.

Nespresso has 16 "Grand Cru" (French for "great growth", a term originally used for wine classification) capsules, with limited editions released from time to time. They are classified into three categories ranging in intensity.

Floral - fruity and citrus fruit notes
Balanced - slightly roasted notes with hints of honey or cereals
Intense - strong, spicy, woody or intensely roasted notes

Out of the three grand crus we tasted shown above, I liked intensity 4 Dulsao do Brazil and intensity 10 Indriya from India most. Guess I'm very extreme ;) Indriya is one of their best-selling btw.

We start by making espressos.

Winner of the Red Dot Design award, the popular Nespresso Pixie coffee machine is gorgeously designed and eco-friendly. It is made of 98% recycled coffee capsules and auto powers off when inactive.

My family recently just bought one for our kitchen, so this class is going to come in very useful!

The tasting ritual for an espresso is a full sensory experience.

LOOK. Delight your coffee with your eyes. Observe the smooth and rich brown caramel colored froth called the crema. Crema is the signature of a perfect espresso! It should have thick and very fine bubbles and remain stable. When you add sugar, the sugar should stay on top of the crema for a few seconds. It should stick to your spoon and not drip. That's how you tell if you got a well-brewed shot.

SMELL. Take a whiff of the different aromas.

DRINK. Quickly and splash it around your tongue to take in the complexities and finesse of the coffee, the taste should linger.

On a caffeine high!
Thinking of all the things I'm going to do since I won't be getting any sleep tonight...

The last recipe we learnt to make was my favorite of the night - Cappuccino a la Rose

Prepare some white chocolate.

Add your shot of espresso

Then finally, add some milk from the Nespresso milk frother and pour in some rose syrup.

It is absolutely divine!!! :)

We ended off with a shot of heavenly tiramisu made by chef Antonio using, what else - Nespresso coffee.

Thank you Nespresso and Savour for a superb Ultimate Coffee Moment.
We are all certified coffee snobs now ;)

If you want to attend a Nespresso Atelier or Mixologist class as well, make your way down to SAVOUR 2013!

SAVOUR is unique annual gourmet festival in Singapore showcasing only the very best food & drinks. Singaporeans who love to makan, you really must not miss this.

www.savour.sg

** GIVEAWAY **

I have 2 pairs of Savour Premier Passes worth $65 for you!

To win your pair of tickets, simply answer the following question:

"How many Grand Cru capsules does Nespresso have?"

Email your answer to clapbangkiss@gmail.com with subject "Nespresso Savour 2013" by midnight tonight (9 April).

I will randomly select the two winners from the correct entries.

Good luck!

♥ Dawn