Beauty: My Peely Base Mani Lasted 7 Days

Hello! Or, I should say: holo. I promise the Seattle posts are still coming, one has been in my drafts for 5 days. I’ve just hit a bit of a writer’s block and there’s too much to write about so I’m overwhelmed. Plus the sheer level of busy that I’ve been lately is… insane.

Anyway, it’s been almost exactly 2mo since I received my first ever Holo Taco order. I have since, um, ordered so much more that I’m already Holo Royalty lol. That said, a solid 75 points came from bonus ways to earn. I realised a couple of days ago that I could have just signed up for SMS messages and become Royalty before a bunch of recent Holo Royalty surveys were sent out so I totally missed out on those.

But with the new launch releasing this week, I’m glad I’m now Royalty and able to receive advanced teasers woo! And yes I’ll be buying more polish this weekend, lol. I guess let me know if you want me to actually review everything else I got from Holo Taco too. So far, I’ve been purchasing polish from them exclusively.

In my first Holo Taco review, I mentioned that I used Peely Base and it lasted a total of 5 hours.

After I followed the tips and tricks from Cristine’s video about how to make your Peely Base/mani last longer, I was able to make my Peely mani last 3 days… then 4-5 days… and most recently, a full week or more, if we count the day I did my nails as day 1.

Above shows days 3 and 7. I was already getting bored of this mani and was planning to get rid of it soon anyway, so it deciding to yeet itself came at the perfect time. Oh dang look at that nail growth… and this boomer finally learned to start watermarking lol.

Allow me to share how I did this with more progress pics below. And the weird ridges in my nails will be explained as well. If you only care about the tips & tricks, click here.

Read More

Fitness: Grow A Booty Challenge Week 1

Image screenshot: Chloe Ting 2022 Grow A Booty Challenge

I interrupt my Seattle posts to bring you… a new workout challenge. Haha. The last time I did a home workout was in August. Goodness, has it been a month and a half already? Per my final thoughts for the Get Abs Challenge, my body needed a break from doing both wushu and home workouts.

The HIIT was too much for me to handle, and I am very glad that I took time off from home workouts to allow my body to rest in between intense wushu classes. I was working towards my yellow belt (which I’ve now obtained) but it was just getting harder to keep up my stamina when my body wasn’t getting sufficient recovery time.

However, I must be recovered by now because all of last week I felt like I wanted to do more workouts than I was doing. Now that I’m on my yellow belt I am learning staff, which is nearly impossible to practice at home so my exercise has less than halved.

This morning I found a bit of time and just really wanted to do a workout… so I went for it.

I’m still going to be doing my wushu classes 2-3x/week and I’ll listen to my body to see if I have the energy to do these workouts the rest of the time. This challenge is complementary to my wushu since my form requires so much leg strength so, while I’m not sure how quickly I’ll be able to progress through it, I’ll aim to complete it before December!

(That’s my code for: don’t expect this post to be updated frequently lolol sorryyy.) Anyways, on with the post!

Read More

Travel: Seattle Day 1 – Pan Pacific Hotel

Um, yep. It’s been almost a month since we took our Seattle trip, but let’s be real: neither of us are surprised that it’s taken me this long to post about it. In fact, I think we’re both more impressed that this post has even come as soon as it has, no? :D

We arrived in Seattle on August 31st so that we could spend the entirety of our anniversary exploring Seattle rather than travelling. When we chose September 1st as our (legal) wedding day, we actually hadn’t considered the additional benefit of it being so close to labour day. Now we will always have the added benefit of a national holiday that doesn’t need personal PTO to take off.

We actually came to Seattle last year for our anniversary, but unfortunately were only able to stay for a few days during the week since the US government scheduled my biometrics for the Friday (USCIS also decided to schedule my green card interview on my actual birthday so they certainly have interesting timing).

(Also, hey Bobbie, where are the posts about your trip last year? Yeah, um, remember we agreed to just be impressed about me getting this post up, okay?)

During our short stay last year, we ended up enjoying one of the best sushi omakase meals we’ve ever had and vowed to return this year for more. So we did!

Last year we stayed at the Grand Hyatt and loved the service, amenities and walkability of the hotel. In particular, I loved their gorgeous marble bathtub because if I’m going on vacation, I’m going to take long, relaxing baths. Unfortunately when I tried to book it again this year, there were literally zero rooms available and calling their booking service made me want to smash my head against a wall.

Disappointed but not to be deterred, we went with the Pan Pacific Hotel instead. Based on our research, it would also be decently walkable, easy to get to from the airport and some of their rooms have a great view of the Space Needle. Guess which room I picked.

Read More

Beauty: Bliss Kiss Hydrating Oil Review

Hello hello. I promised Seattle posts and have I delivered? Ehhh… not yet. But they’ll come eventually. I’ve been in a bit of a rut, largely in part because of how uncomfortable I’ve felt in my surroundings lately, as well as with some of my failing electronics.

Long story short: I purchased some new organising items (some of which my hubby helped to put up around the house), moved furniture around in my office and purchased a new USB-C hub for my MacBook Pro. I am thrilled with how the updates we’ve made to the house and my new hub is working exactly as intended. I can’t wait to get some of the stuff done that I’ve had planned for a while.

Let’s start with the review of a new nail oil I acquired: the Bliss Kiss Simply Pure Hydrating Oil with Vitamin E and Jojoba. (I started writing this post before my Dark Rainbow review but it’s taken longer to get out because I needed a solid few days to review it properly.)

Why

Oh boy what a nail journey! I know I mentioned that I tried Simply Nailogical’s nail oil idea and it totally worked initially, but I noticed that, after using nail polish for a while, my nails were starting to get very dry, brittle and flakey again.

Read More

Beauty: Holo Taco Dark Rainbow Review

Mmmmhmmmm… I promised a Holo Taco Dark Rainbow review and here it is. I managed to purchase the Dark Rainbow Collection with the box on launch day and had been looking forward to receiving it since I made the purchase.

The colours looked stunning on the website and via Simply’s launch stream. As a self-professed non-fan of holo, this collection was enough of my vibe for me to justify it being my first foray into the Holo Taco linear holo formula that I’d heard so many good things about.

Don’t come for me, but after having had it for about a week and the initial novelty has worn off, I must say… I don’t love it as much as I thought I would. Don’t get me wrong, I still like them a lot! But at present I feel like these are probably my least favourite polishes out of all the Holo Taco polishes I currently own, and allow me to explain why.

Positives

Let me start with the positives: the packaging was great – my box arrived in perfect condition.

The colours themselves are very pretty.

Read More