Rowan

I feel as though lately roses have been making a comeback in the fashion trends. More little roses everyone and I think it’s adorable ❤️ I found the perfect romantic rose bikini that I will definitely plan on wearing to the pool or the beach. 😍

Rose Bikini 🌹 $40

Amala Fox Brand @amalafox on IG (www.amalafox.com)

Reasons I love this bikini 👇🏽

🫶🏽It’s made by a small business that has beautiful designs. I’ve been trying to shop from more local designers instead of big retail chains 🙂

🫶🏽This red is absolutely stunning!! It’s a little deeper than a bright red, more leaning towards a wine color. It looks absolutely beautiful and luxurious especially in the sun

🫶🏽The ties on the bikini is extra extra long which adds a sense of romanticism and also you have more room to tie the bikini in all different ways 😉

🫶🏽There is also an adjustable rose on the top which is cute, I just put mine on the right as well

🫶🏽The ruched bottoms make your 🍑 look so good! The cut is flattering and gives you shape but is not a thong

Yes pals it’s super worth it!!!! Look at the change over the course of 3 years!!

In the first pic I was 18 years old, yes puberty did help but the biggest push was injectables LOL 😄😂

I’ve never regretted investing in aesthetics and it’s never too late to start too.

1️⃣ Rejuran Healer 🍣

I’m super acne prone to the point when I just touch my face, I will have a new pimple by night time. I started with Dr Secret (which everyone was swearing by – it sucked for me), burnt my skin and had more break outs yikes 🫣

Rejuran Healer is salmon DNA that helps with skin healing, pore reduction and controls my acne! It’s really good if you’re struggling with oily skin / acne prone skin and trust me I’ve tried all products possible from drug store brands like sebamed to DR secret. Of course topical products only have 20% absorption as compared to injections.

2️⃣Lip filler👄

I just fancy plump and juicy looking lips 😵‍💫😍

3️⃣Chin filler 🤔

Yes to V shape face! I had an unbalanced looking chin so I needed a fast solution to V shape face lol, an alternative is HIFU if you’re looking into non invasive 😆

4️⃣Jaw Botox 💉

I have a square shape face and this softens my jaw, giving me a more “soft” “feminine” look

5️⃣Nasolabial Folds Filler 👃🏻

AKA smile line filler (I’m 27 this year and I’m already hating the look of smile line!) also another alternative to this is HIFU but…… I’m impatient so 🤪

Other aesthetics related things I did were Pico laser (pigmentation from past acne removal), Yellow laser (helps to control sebum production, skin brightening, reduces rosacea) and acne laser.

📍Aura Bangkok (chin filler)

📍V Medical Aesthetics (Rejuran, lasers)

📍Malaysia (Botox and whitening drip – I did this once and didn’t see much of a result mainly because I was inconsistent 😔 )

Ofc with all these, need to maintain with good skincare (basic ones), I gave up on DR secret alr cause so expensive and need to pour the products on the face each time 😖😖😖, sleep well and hydrate 💦 ++++ bonus if u use sunblock PLS do it’s so important to prevent premature ageing and pigmentation!!! (Pigmentation is so hard to get rid of it’s so much easier to prevent.)

Hello zesties!!! From my previous post and my DMs I saw that many of you were interested to know how hubby and I afforded our home! Some asked about my age, etc, and I just realised I never did an introduction, ahahah probably next time. But hubby and I are 1999 babies, and he turned 24 this year while I’m waiting for Dec to be 24 too 🥰

We bought this place July last year, shortly after our ROM, as our matrimonial home 🏡❤️ and I covered my considerations in the previous post 👍

TO THE KEY THING YALL ARE READING FOR!

How were we able to afford a private condo for our first home? Before I continue, I would just like to say that I was extremely blessed in my journey with Christ. As I look back at all the things, I see His strength in everything I took up, or I would not have been able to do so much in such little time, but it was made possible through Him.

//

FIRSTUP, set your goals.

I always wanted a house, and it was not just a want to me, it was a commitment. I prayed for a home, and took action to save and plan. Hence even though the house hunting portion took me merely 1.5years, I had been saving up for this moment 3 years prior, upon entering university.

I never deviated from this goal, which meant I didn’t get distracted by other material goods and travels, as I never left the country beyond the JB family trip. This might sound sad to some, but for me, I was happy, earning, interning and working for that end goal I had in mind ❤️

Don’t get me wrong, this does not mean I didn’t have a life, but it just meant that I prioritised the house. I love travelling and hope to be able to go on mission trips, which is something I can now set as a goal to focus on, having now achieved my primary goal.

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NEXT, earning.

I believe strongly in the saying that you should not chase money, and money will come. Sounds floppy and idealistic, but I realised that as I chased experiences and explored my interests, I earned money and was never in lack. That only motivated me to continue pursuing the various hobbies and projects I was keen on, whilst believing that God will provide. Even though not every side hustle picked up, I always gained something out of each venture and was able to apply and improve on the next 👍

📸 DYADCONCEPT – Through the many part time jobs I held – Tried & Tested 18 Jobs #1 & #2 and found the ultimate side hustle, leading to the birth of dyadconcept – our brainchild, with my husband 🥰 Though we weren’t a big name, and still am not, we are consistent w our work and delivered quality service to our clients. That led to many repeat and referral clients who enjoyed our photography and videography and were willing to refer and testify for our service quality

💐 ARTISAN.WHITESNOWY – Also another baby of mine featuring floristry, crafts and customised gifts 🥰 I had this side hustle for the duration of my university, and it was something very seasonal for me. I loved the smell of fresh flowers during V-day and Mother’s Day and that was my little way of enjoying life too, being surrounded by beautiful flowers and passing them on to the next person for them to enjoy and celebrate

🏋️‍♀️ INTERNSHIPS – this was my proudest side hustle though it was lowest in terms of monetary reward, but I gained a lot from it (more on another post) as I ensured I had full time internships during school breaks, AND continued w part-time internships during the semester

💰FULL TIME JOB – Upon graduating and securing a full time job, my side hustles were taken up by my husband and mum, who continued to grow it. My full time job definitely gave me a large boost as it helped me save up most consistently and quickly.

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THEN OFC, expenses 💸

Needless to say, even if I had the biggest paycheck and many successful side hustles, it would amount to nothing if I spent a significant portion of it. While I did have to invest in equipment for dyadconcept amongst other things I always made sure to cycle my earnings from my side hustles back into the biz ☺️ this meant that I only had the one off investment into each biz, and my salaries were untouched.

– Luxury items were out for me; but it wasn’t something I was used to anyways 🙂 I told my family about a lil incident that happened some years back, where I actually mistook an LV pouch for a customisation of someone’s parents names 🥹 I was even so excited about it cause I thought that it looked really pretty for a couple customisation 😭 but basically I never familiarised myself w luxury brands.

– Minimising replacement expenditure: As I still had a life and needed things like food, books, clothes and shoes, I still spent adequately to procure these items. However I made sure to maximise the value and lifespan of my items. This meant taking care of my laptop, phone, and especially shoes, cause these can either serve you for years or breakdown in a short time 👍 (I do have a tip I wanted to share more on another post so stay tuned :))

– subscriptions are unsubscribed: personally HATE recurring bills, so it was not until my hubby psycho-ed me into Spotify and Netflix that I started subscriptions, GONNA CANCEL SOON HUBBY WATCH OUT 😆

– food: tbh I leeched off my parents a lot at home when I was trying to save 🙂 but just eat whatever you can find at home / Kopitiam / Hawker. I also used to be super envious of a friend who always had full home cooked meals 🥹 SO PLEASE EAT YOUR HOME COOKED MEALS ❤️ People who know me from the past know I used to spend really little on food, but I WAS NOT STARVING OKIE, I was a Fat lil ball cause of all that student-priced meals at school 😙

– Back to Basics: I spent a year staying at hall during my uni, but decided to move home and make the commute even though it is a 1hr45mins travel by train and bus. This was made possible because of my class arrangements which I took great effort to schedule such that I only had 2 / 3 days of school, and started school at the earliest time possible to take advantage of the shuttle bus ❤️ I loved the shuttle bus rides tbh, as it usually meant that I was always early, and didn’t have to spend that extra on transportation 👍

– what is Grab / Gojek: kinda built a lil cave, and hid in it refusing to use these apps for the longest time cause whats better and more reliable than my bus 11 (my legs) to get food and travel to places righttt 😙 also free exercise ?? But now ofc I do use it from time to time especially when my schedule really disallows travel time luxury, but I keep it to a minimum.

– what is accessories: you don’t need the new bag, you don’t need that bracelet. ofc I get tempted cause some things do look v pretty, but I knew I usually rush around a lot and rarely wear these things so I had a grand total of 2 necklaces both gifted by my mum’s colleagues at the time and never actually spent on these things. Just wanna say that things have changed a bit, and I will be sharing about a purchase I made v soon, which is also a mini investment ?

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INVESTMENTS

okay, so idk if these are considered investments, and probably some investment guru will disapprove of this, but basically this is my low-maintenance way of investing my money 🥰

– SAVINGS PLANS: again, a lot of people have knocked this and said its a gimmick, its not earning enough etc etc, BUT, personally I love this a lot. It helps you build a good saving habit, and locks your money so you can’t spend it randomly 👍 I had been maintaining multiple policies since young, and have a mini plan for payouts to come every 5 years when I hit 30 🙂 Can’t give a review until it actually happens in 5 years time ? But I did get a small payout which contributed to my lil saving stash ✅

// I have savings & investment-linked products 👍

– SMOL & SAFE Investments – I’m really not good at investing but we did use Syfe tgt for about a year? And did get a good return which we cashed out right before things went south, but to me the stress wasn’t worth it 😭

// A lil side note, we did try Crypto but THANK GOD it was only a small investment, where we made some and lost some too 😞 (pls dont try, I genuinely think that one was a gamble rather than investment and I hated the feeling of waking up to nervously check it 🤞and for educational purposes we lost around $1k 💸 it was SO PAINFUL I FLOPPED ON THE BED FOR 1 DAY AND DIDNT WANT TO MOVE, cause I was thinking about the amount of chicken rice and waffles it could buy me 🥲🥲🥲

– 黄金GOLD – This is something which I 100% believe, support and promote. I am no expert in this area but personal opinion. I love Gold. Call me materialistic, but this has been such a reliable investment I can’t not love it. If you have some extra cash, please invest in Gold. It will serve you in the long run (more about it on another post).

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ALL IN ALL, with the above, a rough gauge of how much I managed to save in a year was around 80-90k, with one year being exceptionally good at 100k. I enjoyed the saving process very much, and it was such a fun journey. While I continue to save up for my future goals and have adjusted to a slightly higher expenditure pattern for my wedding, travels and more, the base principles don’t change for my lifestyle, and that is how I still continue to save ✅

//

AS A FINAL NOTE,

When you buy a home, please do plenty of research. There were many units that we almost bought into, but decided to hold back and research further, leading to this ultimate value-for-money purchase FOR US.

The last thing you want is for all your hardwork to go down the drain and purchase a bubble property that you either can’t afford to maintain / out-of-budget / does not suit your needs.

Do listen to professional real estate advice, but do your own research and calculations. Nobody knows your own financial situation better than yourself. My personal experience w agents is that they tend to oversell you, even though I know they mean no harm because they believe in your capability and may find it suitable. But the dream creates an impulse in you, so know that you shouldn’t try to stretch your budget (unless you can afford to do so). Affording a condo in SG is not easy, and if you have stretched your budget beyond, it will be difficult to be happy with your purchase even when you are living in it.

Bring your excitement down a notch, the more dreamy it seems the more you have to slap the budget back into play. Hubby and I almost overcommitted into a dream place, which would have placed us in a vulnerable position. Before you commit, even if the place is for an investment purpose, know that you still need the means to hold the unit (meaning pay for it as long as required) should the market for selling be less than ideal. The more holding power you have, the better you can position yourself for sales when the time comes.

That being said I found an amazing agent, who also taught me a lot from his professional experience and informed me of things I didn’t manage to find out myself and if you guys would like to find an agent can always DM me and I can link yall up 💪

I will be sharing some of my research takeaways from my 1.5 years of grind and hope that it will help anyone planning for their own lil cave ❤️

If this post helped you, please drop a comment so I know I am not rambling to myself 👍 and follow me for more life content 💙

OKAY THATS IT, byeee 👋

Follow jojuscave home journey!

🔑 Collecting Keys to our lil cave

🧱 Defect Journey to refine our lil cave

🔧 Defect Rectification 🔧

💡Saved $1.5k on whole house lighting!

🏡 Why we got a private condo for our first home

OKAY, THATS IT BYEEE!!

✨Brand: Polene

https://eng.polene-paris.com

Polene is the upcoming luxury brand from Paris. People are lining up in Paris to purchase the bags. What makes me curious about this brand? The bags are made of leather, well-made BUT the price is much friendlier than other luxury brands (LV, Chanel, Prada, etc).

Thus, I research more via 🍋lemon8, Google search, Instagram, etc. I am amazed by how each bag is crafted by artisans in Spain. It also appears on arms of royals and celebrities like Kate Middleton and Lily Collins. Furthermore since their 1st launch in 2016, the price has been increasing. The last increase is in 2023. ⬆️

Thus, I cannot wait to add on one to my luxury bag collection. I had made a purchase of 2 bags : (Numéro Dix & Nodde). Numéro Dix arrived 1st as Nodde is a pre-order.

Buying Polene bags is such a pleasant online shopping. I made my purchase via AUD$ as the exchange rate was the cheapest among the rest of the currency. Pls do a comparison before purchasing.

The main worry for all is the shipment fee. Polene charges AUD$35 per BAG for shipment. However there is another shipment fee from DHL for shipment locally. The breakdown is as such:

💰 Price:

Numéro Dix : AUD$610 (est S$536)

Shipping Fee from AUD: AUD$35 (estS$30)

Local shipment: S$63

TOTAL: around S$629

It only takes 3 days to deliver!!! WHAT A FAST DELIVERY! Thus I am glad to pay that shipment fee. The touch and finishes of the bag is awesome.

GOOD BUY! Cannot wait for my Nodde to arrive!!

MUST SAVE 💎 HIDDEN GEM MUSLIM-OWNED CAFE 💎

Chiko Pollo, the same establishment under their popular dessert cafe, Lola Faye, serves fusion Western food with an alfresco dining concept! 🍽️ I headed down to try out their menu and omg guys, I think I’ve found one of the BEST menu ever 😭😭 You’ve gotta bring all your Muslim friends along!! 💯💯

What we tried:

🍔 Wagyu Beef Banjir Burger

This menu has got me greedy for more 🤩 The burger comes with a side of melted cheddar cheese that you pour ALL OVER the burger!! 🧀🧀🧀🤩 If that’s not enticing enough, their wagyu burger is one to behold. The wagyu patty is ridiculously tender & juicy. The beefy flavours rly comes through even while the burger is drenched in cheddar cheese, so it’s not jelat at all & I cld honestly devour two burgers 🤤 Pls pls get this, it’s worth the calories!!!

🍝 Truffle Mushroom Ribeye Steak Pasta

Another menu I would reorder in a heartbeat. The pasta is cooked al-dente and coated generously with creamy truffle mushroom sauce. I love the ribeye steak which was cooked perfectly with a golden brown sear and served medium-rare. 🥩💦 Brb I’m still dreaming of this dish 😋

🦪 Creamy Garlic Butter Mussels with Mantou Buns

Omg who can resist mantous!! Not me!! 🥰 Dipped in the creamy sauce and chased with a bite of fresh mussels, this is a great appetiser that’s not too heavy.

🌶️ Sriracha & Honey Chicken Wings x 6

This is SPICY man, but a balanced level of spicy & sweet, which equals ADDICTIVE. 😋 It gives Korean gochujang fried chicken vibes except it’s not fried.

🍟 Mentaiko Fries

Perfect dish to share with everyone~ The mentaiko is GENEROUS & the fries are crispy. 👍🏻

🧁 Chocolate Brownie with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

The brownie is more of a cake texture, super rich and chocolatey. Served warm to pair with the ice cream 🤤 I love the salted caramel ice cream too.

Chiko Pollo has really wow-ed me with all their dishes & I can’t wait to be back again!!🥹 It’s definitely a hidden gem restaurant so show them some love & support!! 🩷

📍Chiko Pollo, 28 Madras St, The Great Madras by Hotel Calmo, S208422

🚆 Nearest MRT: Rochor / Jalan Besar

🕰️ Tues-Sun 12pm-12am

Closed on Mondays🛒Product Item:

Since it’s nearing Christmas, Dior just launch this limited edition natural glow set. There are a few different types of set they not just have one type.

What’s in the set:

Dior addict lip glow oil, shade 001 pink:

This is my first addict lip glow oil the textures looks smooth but I heavent had the chance to try it on yet, but I honestly think that it would turn out better than I expected. there is also engraving on the bottle.

Dior rosy glow, shade 001 pink:

This is my first ever blush from Dior. I personally did not try using blush but the appearance already shows that it will look better on my checks. I forgot that I didnt have a brush for my blusher

Dior creme abricot:

This is legit one of the best nail cream I ever used. i honestly recommend if you have dead skin or skin that is peeling because it works just like in 30 mins?!?!

the total price for this set is $172

Hi Zesties! Ever felt like no matter how many times you tried to curl your hair, it’s just SO tough to achieve korean natural wavy curls? Because I can totally relate to yalls 🙂 Would highly recommend y’all to purchase this VODANA hair curler in 40MM which the size of the iron is slightly bigger than average to achieve the loose & bouncy curls!

More about this hair curler:

– This brand is not a new brand to koreans as it’s one of their more established hair tools brand so you can definitely trust it quality. In fact it’s an award winning brand 🫦

– Comes in super cute colors (Black/White/Pink/Purple/Mint)

– Comes in different iron barrel size! Depending on the curls you’re trying to achieve, you can consider different iron sizes – Smaller barrels for smaller curls & larger barrels for looser and more natural curls

– More affordable than other hair curlers in the market

If you Zesties are in Korea, you would be able to get this at 72,000 Won from Olive Young (that’s around $72 for a hair curler SAY LESS)!!! Fret not, you are still able to get in SG Olive Young’s website/app at SGD $129. Although it’s slightly more expensive, it’s still cheaper compared to other hair curlers in the market.

Let me know if you guys would want a tutorial on how you can create korean curls with this too 😜

Hello lemons 🍋,

Gift-giving are always so stressful especially when you don’t know what will make your partner happy 😩! But this is 100% Safe + fool-proof gift because every gf reason for not wanting flowers are “ too expensive “, “ will die in a few days “ , “ cannot keep forever “ etc but this checks all boxes 🤭

Plus if it’s cheap it’s usually not so fancy and nice but if you want the nice and beautifully-made bouquet you’ll have to pay the price 😳 it’s a big dilemma right ? 🥶

Let me recommend you my bf’s smart idea of Cheap , will Last forever , Won’t ever die or rot & LOOKS AESTHETICALLY PLEASING flower bouquet 💐

He bought all these at taobao so It’s cheap ! Both bouquets cost under $20 !!

He make sure to read the reviews to make sure it’s true to picture & he also personally message the shop to make customise order like removing certain colours & the flower types he’ll like.

I get to take photos with it & keep it forever as a room deco so I’m happy too 🥰

Save this post for later 📌 ( or lowkey send it to your partner 🫡 )

Till next time , Joanne ☁️

hello! i recently went on a family trip to japan, and the weather was amaaaazing (think of sunny skies with cold winds) 😍

however, towards the end of my trip it got a little colder than singapore and thus, i couldn't wear what i usually wear in singapore! 😞

here are some outfit ideas and details for all you mid-sized girlies who want to look cute while still braving the cold~🥶

my favourite is the first outfit! super simple yet cute ^_^

also, if it wasn't obvious enough – i am a HUGE carhartt lover. carhartt, if you ever see this…i love you.

let me know which outfit was your favourite! ❣️🇯🇵

My 5min Morning Makeup Routine