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Especially Escada is the gorgeous new fragrance from the House of Escada with a sweet, floral and refreshing summer scent that took me by surprise when I first tried it. It was a pleasant surprise. I love how the scent is simple, elegant and lively but doesn’t seem like it’s trying too hard.

The lovely scent inspired me to seek out this pink pleated dress and dress up for a friend’s birthday dinner celebration last week. The perfume doesn’t belong to the overpowering sexual musky type of selection . In fact, its’ scent is more sensual, happy and has a touch of modern glamour.

The fragrance opens with a sparkling top note of pear and combines with the exotic notes of ambrette seeds. A luxurious combination of rose and ylang ylang radiates a fresh and natural aura of floral joy and happiness. Light musky notes complete the scent, adding a subtle touch of femininity. The rose and pear notes makes a wonderful collaboration and immediately awakens my senses and makes me feel like dancing.

The perfume is light enough to be worn on a daily basis yet sophisticated enough for special dates. The gorgeous elegant scent helps to uplift my mood and spread that joy to those around me. Great for carefree, delightful days, Especially Escada is a luxuriously delightful.

Not just using any rose, the Especially Escada contains the opulent Bulgarian Rose, which adds depth as well as a distinctive character to the perfume. One of the most luxurious rose species in the world, the Bulgarian rose is uniquely collected in the early hours of the morning to best capture its sophisticated and classic aroma.

 Fronted by globally renowned supermodel, Bar Refaeli, this fragrance is for the flirty, happy and glamour puss in you.

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Outfit of the day

As inspired by Especially Escada.

Dress: Stella McCartney

Earrings: Chanel

Sunglasses: Glossi

Heels: Japan

Recently, I got better acquainted with a watch company that has a long history of making premium watches; built to last several generations. Since 1928, Aries Gold has been dedicated to the art of crafting impressive time pieces. It is a Swiss brand that is registered in 42 countries worldwide and focuses on design, quality and durability.

While looking through their 2012 and 2013 collection of watches, I learnt more about their design inspirations and how Aries Gold was one of the first brands to take the plunge in building their own in-house facility capable of testing scratch resistance, water resistance and impact resistance. I love their latest collection which is the “Inspire” range as it focuses on endurance, precision and functionality without losing the sense of luxury.

Although Aries Gold carries both female and male watch designs, I felt inclined more towards their masculine range. For quite awhile now, a lot of females are abandoning dainty watches in favor of mens’ timepieces and I am a huge fan of that unisex trend. When it comes to timepieces, mens’ watches tend to show more personality and are oversized enough to be worn as a statement piece as well.

As displayed by many stars such as Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Madonna and Naomi Campbell, oversize watches gives a more casual style to your outfits and shows how you like to take charge of your accessories.

Even though I was down with flu and fever that day, I had such a happy time checking out the various time pieces. Here are two of the newest ones in their collection.

Aries Gold watches have a strictly no China movement so you can be assured that you won’t be buying a mass market made in china product. In fact, every piece is produced in limited quantities and they do not reproduce the designs in order to maintain the watch exclusiveness. 95% of Aries Gold watches uses scratch-proof sapphire crystal which means that you don’t have to be extremely careful about knocking or hitting it when you go about your daily activities. Only a diamond is capable of scratching the sapphire crystal surface.

After countless of difficult selections (the other top contender is the watch on the first photo in this post), I finally narrowed my ideal watch to be the Aries Gold Inspire BOS10-010G-Rose. It’s one of those watches that men fall in love over the sporty classic look and at the same time it makes an awesome arm-swag for women. Great choice if you are one of those who like sharing watches with your other half.

I’m so pleased with my choice and it has become one of my favorite oversize watches in my collection. This flashy “piece of art” helps me keep my ultra feminine outfits a little more interesting and I’ve received compliments from both male and female onlookers on my watch! The hubs stole my watch to wear and while it became a statement piece of accessory on me, this piece looks really classic and exudes a sense of power and elegance on him.

Other than how aesthetically wonderful the watch looks, it’s the mechanical aspects that have drawn me to it. Hailing from the Rally collection of the Inspire range, this watch brings with it cutting edge technology  inspired by the passion for endurance and precision as seen in many motor sports. It has a chronograph movement with date, scratch-proof sapphire crystal, solid stainless steel case, high grade silicon strap and is 100m water resistant. I generally have a strong preference for my chunky watches to have metal straps or silicon straps instead of leather or rubber. Silicon or metal straps allows watches to have a slight slack when worn loosely so it behaves almost like a chunky bracelet.

As you can see on the back of the watch, there is a etch of a cool race car as well! This watch is a limited edition and only 100 pieces was crafted so I’m extremely lucky to own the 64th piece.

To top it all off, Aries Gold has a 10 Years Warranty on movement parts for all their watches! It is probably one of the longest warranties you can find for watches these days. Usually you get a one year warranty or if you are lucky, a three year one. But Aries Gold holds the quality of their watches in highest regards which explains their confidence in giving a whooping 10 year warranty.

It’s so easy to match this watch and I wear it pretty frequently even though I don’t always remember to take “outfit of the day” shots. I’m sharing with you 2 recent outfits I wore together with my Aries Gold watch but I’m sure you can imagine how the possibilites are endless with such a lovely design.

I find that pairing oversize watches with pretty summer dresses helps to offset the masculinity of the watch. I had also paired the watch with a white denim maxi dress and it pulled the whole look together.

Hat: Japan

Earrings: Chanel

Dress: Snidel

Lace crop top: Liz Lisa

Cat Clutch: myjotterbook

Watch: Aries Gold Inspire BOS10-010G-Rose

Heels: Christian Louboutin

With such designs and style you’ll think that Aries Gold Watches are extremely pricey right? Well, most of their watches are actually in the S$199 to S$380 range. The one I’m sporting is a limited edition so it’s priced slightly higher at S$571. Now you can get a chance to own an Aries Gold Watch. Look out for the details at the end of this post.

The first look I shared had a more classic feel but to show you how versatile this watch is, I’ve paired it in another summery and flowery combination.

The Aries Gold watch helps to balance my feminine florals to give my look a more sporty vibe.

Cap: Gift from Sushi

Floral romper: Dazzlin

  Bag: Hermes

Sunglasses : Glossi (also a super versatile piece)

Watch:  Aries Gold Inspire BOS10-010G-Rose

Wedges: Louis Vuitton

Now, as promised, I’ll share with you how you can win yourself a luxury Aries Gold watch. 

There are  the 2 of Aries Watches you can choose from should you be the lucky winner.

Enchant L500 – Bedazzled worth S$328.

- Swiss Movement

- Solid Stainless Steel

- 44 Swarovski Crystals

- Domed Sapphire Crystals

- 50 M Water Resistant

- In Rose Gold White Dial or Rose Gold Purple Dial or Silver & Gold

- 10 Years Warranty

I will be loading up one of my outfit photo on the Aries Gold Watch Facebook Page, Renzze Facebook Page as well as on my Instagram (@renzze). All you have to do is like the photo (like all three posts if possible) to show your support. If Louis could participate he would too! Look how good the watch looks even on him!

To find out more about Aries Gold watches and where to find them visit:

I’m sure you would have guessed that I’m no automotive expert nor do I claim to know better. But I do want the best for my car and do drive rather frequently. In fact, I’m the unofficial chauffer for my entire family especially my grandparents.

But even someone (like me) who can’t recognize the different parts under the car hood knows that maintaining the engine efficiency of a car is crucial to its performance.

Whenever the engine in your car is running, the fuel it burns to make power and propels the car leaves behind harmful, power-robbing carbon deposits inside your engine. This is an unavoidable deposit that is a by-product of the fuel burning process. However, over time, if these fuel-related carbon deposits are not properly managed, they will cause a gradual loss of engine power, fuel economy and drivability. The power loss and drivability symptoms that these deposits cause often occur so gradually that you may not even notice it, but if you had taken note of the efficiency of your car when it was brand new vs after driving often over years, the statistics would usually tell you otherwise.

The concept of engine cleaning is actually quite simple – once the carbon deposits are cleaned from your engine, it should perform like it did when it was new.

However, traditional methods of engine cleaning means the car specialist would need to remove the engine from the car and manually clean it up. This is extremely costly (couple of thousands) and time consuming (at least 3 days). Of course this is by far one of the better methods if you want to make sure that your engine is cleaned and have any wear and tear parts replaced.

However, Klear Karbon has brought a brand new technology to help ease this problem. Instead of an engine overhaul, KlearKarbon is able to harness the power of hydrogen to attract and break down the carbon deposits in your car engine without having to physically remove it out of your car. This also means that the time needed to clean is faster (about an hour) and also much cheaper (carbon cleaning for my car model is only S$128).

Klear Karbon is the first and only workshop in Singapore has this unique hydrogen cleaning service. I won’t be going through the technicalities of how it works as you can always find the details at their Klear Karbon website. All you need to know is that this USA patented technology comes in rather portable sized machines from Taiwan. It is mess free, fast and works well.

I’ve learnt a lot about how carbon build up in engines can affect the performance of cars from the owner of KlearKarbon as well as from some automotive enthusiasts. It has given me more insight into the car that I’m driving and I think such knowledge should be shared in an easily digestible format.

Here are 6 key points why carbon is bad for your engine.

1. Carbon deposits can build up on the piston rings, causing them to stick in the piston grooves, which can lead to a loss in engine compression and cause the engine to burn oil.

2. Carbon build up can interfere with normal combustion is several ways. It can alter the engines operating temperature, compression ratio, and several other important factors involved with combustion and sensor readings.

3. The deposits that build up on the intake valves and in the ports can cause a loss in engine power because these deposits will restrict the flow of the air/fuel mixture as it flows into the engine’s cylinders.

4. The deposits that build up in the combustion chamber can cause an engine to knock or ping because these deposits can create a hot spot in the combustion chamber thus increasing the engine’s need for higher-octane fuel.

5. The build-up of these various fuel related deposits will also cause an increase in the engine’s exhaust emissions.

6.  Carbon deposits can also cause cold start and driveability problems as the engine warms up because they can actually act as a sponge by momentarily absorbing some of the fuel that is need for proper combustion.

The process of using Klear Karbon hydrogen technology to clean my car engine was simple. They just attached 2 cables and let the machine do all the work while I got to chat and learn more about the system. I felt as if my car was going for a detox session and after all the ‘stress’ I’ve brought upon it through the years, I guess I owe her one.

I can almost imagine the hydrogen molecules rushing into the grooves of my engine and dancing happily as it attracts all the carbon, sludge and yucky stuff to it, clearing the heart of my car. If only this machine works on fats as well, I wouldn’t mind a purging session.

The walls of the Klear Karbon Workshop are filled with testimonials from car owners of all walks of life. It’s amazing how many cars Klear Karbon has helped and improved even though they’ve only just brought this technology to Singapore. At the affordable price and efficiency of the cleaning, it’s no wonder word of Klear Karbon is spreading like wild fire. If you want to read even more testimonials, just check out Klear Karbon’s FaceBook Page.

At the last 5 minutes of the preset cleaning schedule, one of the staff came to inform us that slight water condensation can be seen on my exhaust. This is good news as it shows that my engine is burning fuel efficiently and water can be seen the by-product of a clean combustion. I was told that water condensation in the exhaust is a common phenomena in brand new cars but as carbon builds up internally, most cars no longer burn fuel efficiently enough for this to happen.

Now for the most important part of my review. How was my car performance after this little machine performed their magic?

Well, for starters, my car was a lot more responsive and my acceleration was faster.  However, the biggest and most significant visible improvement I had after the carbon cleaning was the improvement of my fuel consumption. My car was doing about 11.6km for every liter of fuel. But now, it’s doing about 12.5km per liter of fuel. This means that my 55 liter fuel tank in my 1.8 Honda Stream is able to go for an additional 49.5 km with each full tank. It also means that I can even do an additional trip from Changi Airport to Tuas Checkpoint with fuel to spare!

I think the fuel savings I gained was worth several times more than the S$128 it cost for the carbon cleaning. Of course different car models, maintenance level and driving habits would yield different individual results as well. But at least personally, it worked really well for my car and I’m pleased with the results. It has solidified my belief that a clean, deposit-free engine will provide its driver with the best power, drivability and fuel economy; plus a clean engine will provide its owner with the maximum engine reliability and lower exhaust emissions.

Klear Karbon

50, Serangoon North Avenue 4,
#01-08, First Centre, Singapore (555856)
Website

One of the highlights of the trip to Brunei was to be able to explore the incredible pristine rainforest that Brunei has preserved.

We left our luggages behind in the city and each prepared only a small daypack for our stay in the rainforest.

After our breakfast at the hotel, we headed off to the jetty to begin our long journey to Ulu Temburong National Park Rainforest with our guides, Anthony and Tom. The sun was shinning high and bright that day even though it was only 9am. In Brunei, the sun rises an hour earlier than Singapore even though we’re in the same time zone so it took a little getting used to. I kept thinking it was much later in the day.

Before long, our first transport arrived and we got on together with the locals. We were heading to the best preserved tropical rainforest in Borneo; where the rainforest is pristine and the trees are hundreds of years old.

Despite being warned that it was going to be quite a long trip to the resort, I really didn’t mind it at all as part of the fun comes from the journey itself. I could see the lovely Kampong Ayer (Water Village) from across the jetty we boarded.

As we moved out I saw new unoccupied water homes and found out from our guide, Tom, that these were specially built by the government for relocating some of the existing Kampong Ayer residents so as to upgrade them to better facilites and living conditions.

You can see a gradual shift of scenery as we moved out of the city center and into the the embrace of Temburong. It’s such a pleasure to be travelling on this small boat with the wind in my face. The air is beautifully unpolluted and I was feeling both excited and refreshed to be on this journey. Even though the boats was nicknamed “Flying Coffins” (because of its shape and the speed in which they fly through the waters), it was a amazingly comfortable ride.

The scenery keeps changing as the boat weaves through various river channels. Once in awhile, you’ll spot fishermen at the banks of the river and the boat captain would slow down and glide through these areas so as not to disturb their fishing waters too much. How naturally considerate. I was hoping to be able to catch some proboscis monkeys swimming across the river as they are known to do but it just wasn’t our lucky day.

As Temburong, the second largest district in Brunei Darussalam, is separated from the other districts of Brunei by the Limbang river which belongs to Malaysia, at some point we had to go through Malaysian territory. Thankfully both Malaysia and Brunei came to an friendly agreement and even though our boat had to go pass the customs office (next to the green ferry landing), we didn’t need to get off the boat or even get our passports checked. The transition was so smooth that it’s possible to miss it entirely. However, the main tell tale sign signaling our entry into Malaysian territories were welcome messages from our mobile service provides asking us to have a nice stay in Malaysia.

The 45 mins journey passed in a flash and we arrived at the small town of Bandar. We were told that this is the last place we would get any mobile phone reception so everyone Twittered/FaceBook/Instagram/Whatsapp their last goodbyes to the rest of the world. I was more than happy to let go of technology and begin my digital detox. I was already getting swayed by the sleepy old town feel that Bandar exudes with the quiet streets and old one-storey shophouses. Time seems to move even slower in Temburong and it was just the right moment to let go of tomorrow and enjoy the present.

While waiting for the mini van to pick us for the second leg of the journey, most of us got distracted by the yoga posture cats and kittens that were hanging out at the Bandar Jetty. During the briefing from Tom about what we should expect and prepare for our hikes, he told the group that our shoes were bound to get wet and muddy. I was really glad I followed my instincts and brought along sports sandals instead of sports shoes. The rest of the group didn’t need to fret because Anthony, made a special detour to a local store for them to pick up some “kampung addidas”, full rubber shoes.

On the van journey they prepared some local snacks for us to try. This was rice with palm sugar, wrapped in leaves. I had tried a version of this in the Gadong Night Market but the ones found in Bandar were much nicer because it uses a special fine grain local rice that you can only get at the markets here. It was so yummy I had a 2nd helping!

Our mini van journey dropped us off at yet another jetty and I spotted the unique temuai (traditional longboats) of Brunei. This is the only way to access the park as this region has never been logged, so there are no roads . I’m finally at the “Green Jewel of Brunei” that I’ve specially traveled to experience. The 50,000-ha Ulu Temburong National Park, sits in the remote southern portion of Temburong, in the heart of the Batu Apoi Forest Reserve.

We strapped on our safety jackets and off we went! The boatmen are all born and bred in this area which explains their stunning skill in maneuvering the longboats through the river rapids and avoiding the shallow areas of water.

The 40 mins upstream long boat ride was so very relaxing! I love being surrounded by greenery and immediately noticed the difference between the primary rainforest here compared to the secondary rainforest seen in the Brunei city area. The primary rainforest here is a lot more densely packed with tall trees providing a continuous canopy and a tight undergrowth. Every part of the forest was filled with trees, plants and other greenery so that the sunlight is heavily filtered, leaving the forest grounds only in full shade.

Finally we arrived at our destination, The Ulu Ulu National Park Resort. Ulu Ulu Resort was established in November 2008 with the privatization of the facilities in the National Park under the authority of the Forestry Department. This is a historical milestone in Brunei tourism as this is the first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between a private sector and the Government of Brunei.

We were warmly welcomed with cold towels, fresh lemongrass tea and snacks. How thoughtful and perfect!

The specially ordered local homemade snacks were a big hit with everyone especially the very popular Pulut Panggang.

Pulut Panggang is made with the special local rice and prawn filling, wrapped in banana leaves and then grilled to perfection. It was sooooo sooooo good! Poor me could only risk taking 2 bites of this yummy snack  (due to my shellfish allergy) while the rest of the group rushed to finish the whole plate.

We were each assigned our very own Ulu Ulu Resort refillable water bottles to fill up and carry around (Reuse, Recycle and Reduce!). The water at Ulu Ulu Resort comes directly from the clean river. Although the water is clean and safe to drink, however, in preparation that our city stomachs are not as strong as the locals, the water in the resort has gone through the resorts’ own filtration system.

Then we were off to check out our rooms. With a name like Ulu Ulu (remote and far), I had half expected we might have to pitch tents and rough it out. Surprisingly, the rooms were super nice! Here are a couple of photos of my room.

I had a lovely patio with seating and a comfy daybed overlooking the river.

Inside the room also looked really nice and comfortable. I even had a choice of fan or air-con.

Shower, toilet, sink and even a full bath tub! This is probably the most luxurious nature trekking holiday I’ve ever done. Really impressive.

With daybeds and hammocks found everywhere in the resort, Ulu Ulu Resort is absolutely perfect for any nature lover. Bask in the shade of the the virgin rainforest and watch the flowing river as you heal your body, mind and spirit. The place has everything and yet it maintains an eco integrity and doesn’t feel overly commercialized at all.

This post chronicles my journey to Ulu Ulu Resort and already it feels like an adventure. Look out for my next post on Brunei as I share with you more about my digital detox experiences and the magnificent discoveries nature taught me. Thank you OMY, Brunei Tourism and Royal Brunei Airlines  for making this trip possible.

If you would like to know Brunei better or check out more Royal Brunei Airlines promotions, check out their Facebook page.

PS: I have a couple of photos that I’ve put up in this post without my usual watermark as these photos are used courtesy of Malcolm Sunny and Andy Storm.

I don’t think I can be considered fat but that doesn’t mean I do not have stubborn fats in unwanted places. Anyone that knows me personally can attest that I EAT A LOT. In fact, this trait of mine actually surprises many because I’m quite petite in stature. I try to exercise (recently its through cycling) but I can’t really say that I’m doing a lot so I probably have to credit my good genes that I haven’t turned into a beach ball yet.

But there’s a down side to having natural high metabolism that people don’t realize – complacency.

I’ve had a relative high metabolism all my life and in my teens, I could easily consume a 3 person portion meal and still look exactly the same. But after I hit 28, my metabolism naturally declined and things started to go a little downhill for me. It’s even worse now as I’m in my early 30s. While I’m still not a beach ball (thank heavens!), I do put on weight much easier. It’s not the sudden type of weight gain (though its becoming more obvious) but the kind that stays stubbornly on my arms, belly, butts and thighs. The kind of weight gain close friends notice. The kind of weight gain my regular seamstress and clothing store notice. The kind that makes me feel a sort of conscienceless wearing skin tight clothing and cropped tops when I never used to give it a second thought.

The fact of the matter is, while my metabolism has declined in accordance to my age, my diet has remained more or less the same as it was for the last 20 years. Naturally the sums of intake and output just doesn’t add up, resulting in excess. In fact, in the last one year, I gained 6kg! Luckily, I was rather underweight previously so the weight gain was not entirely a bad thing. If I could redistribute out the fats throughout my body, it’ll probably be perfect. But then again, I know how reality works so I am probably asking for the moon.

When AFC offered to let me try some of their hot selling weight management products, I thought why not. Unfortunately, shortly after they sent it over, I went overseas and didn’t get to test the products till I got back recently. Otherwise, I might have already been able to document some of the effects.

AFC has 2 different products that you can take depending on what sort of lifestyles you are leading – The AFC LipoDOWN 2 and ActiveSLIM.

AFC LipoDOWN 2 is a clinically proven formula to fuel fat burning round-the-clock, even while you are at rest. Enhanced with APF Fat Reduction Factors, the new proprietary formula is 200% more powerful to support sustainable fat loss, for visible inch and weight loss. I totally like the idea of burning fats round the clock especially on the days where I’m seated in front of the computer for many many hours (which is most of my time) or when I’m being a total bookworm ( part of my day job includes reading through a lot of research reports and journals ).

Comprising a potent combination of Apple Polyphenols and Fucoxanthin, the APF Fat Reduction Factors are natural substances extracted at high purity from unripe apples and Japanese brown seaweed respectively. 100% manufactured in Japan, the natural active substances in AFC LipoDOWN 2 require advanced Japan’s patented extraction technology to ensure the strict potency and efficacy markers are met.

This means that when I’m going about doing my usual business, I’ll be losing or at least burning my fats at the same time. When people try to lose weight initially, they see a vast improvement because they usually tend to lose water first, followed by muscles then bone. It’s incredibly irritating but the body wants to keep the fats for emergency instead of burning it off first.  With AFC LipoDOWN2, you are targeting fat lost instead. Great of people like me that just want to tone up or lose that “extra layer of protection” (in other words, fat!) without getting dehydrated or losing whatever little muscle they have.

Now whats the difference between AFC LipoDOWN 2 and ActiveSLIM? 

ActiveSLIM is a clinically proven formula to fuel 3x more fat burning whenever you move. Its rapid fat burning ability makes every body movement work harder for you. Packed with 4 Active Thermo-Factors, it effectively transforms and shapes your body towards a slimmer silhouette. This means it’s more suited for those who are already actively trying to use up more calories!

When we exercise to support weight loss, our body starts burning off stored glucose and only minimal stored fat. Upon 20 minutes of exercising, our body starts to use stored fat as fuel and fat burning increases with longer exercise duration. Most of the time, because of our schedule we may not exercise long enough to burn off our stored fats.

If you take ActiveSLIM before you exercise, you’ll burn 3X more fat with every move thus maximizing the effect of your exercise activity. I was informed that you can see clinically proven weight loss in 4 weeks

ActiveSLIM contains 4 Active Thermo-Factors to help reduce body fat and weight:

1. L-Carnitine: Natural fat burner, it ignites fat burning and improves energy level
2. Alpha Lipoic Acid: Burns sugar to reduce conversion to body fat
3. BCAA: Prolongs fat burning, boosts exercise performance, promotes lean body
4. L-Ornithine: Increases fat metabolism, promotes muscle mass, reduces fatigue

As part of my 2013 goals, I working towards a healthier lifestyle and I hope AFC weight management products will help kickstart my body into burning fats and building muscles!

You can get AFC LipoDOWN 2 and ActiveSLIM at your nearest Watsons store or if you prefer having them delivered to you, you can also shop online at Lifestreamgroup.com

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Outfit of the day

Dress: Japan

Shoes: Marc by Marc Jacobs