Guerlain comes up with the most beautiful Christmas collections every year and this year is no exception. I mean have you seen the Météorites Perles d’Étoile, Limited Edition from the Guerlain Un Soir À L’Opéra (A Night At The Opera) Christmas 2014 Collection? This must be the most exciting meteorites yet. The bronze-red hues are just a stand out for me. Natalia Vodianova is the picture of  glamorous opulence as the face for this collection.

Have you guys noticed how unforgiving the sun has been lately. The heat and intensity is just insane!! It does all kinds of crazy to the skin. Sunblock is a must. A brightening range that helps to fight signs of aging due to sun exposure and brighten the complexion would help even more!

L'Occitane recently introduced some new additions to the L'Occitane Immortelle Brightening Range which helps give you a brighter, more youthful and evenly-toned skin - Brightening Foaming Cleanser, Brightening Mist and Brightening Hand Care SPF20. L'Occitane held and appreciation workshop over the weekend for their loyal cutomers, which is really awesome, and I was so excited to be invited to experience the range.

Have you guys heard? There's a cupcake decorating contest going on!  If you are a cupcake decorator, baker or eater this is something fun for you to try out and win big while you're at it. It is a cupcake decorating contest held in conjunction with Malaysia's 55th anniversary of independence and the upcoming Malaysia Day Celebrations on September 16th. It is open to all Malaysians in the spirit of 1Malaysia.

I was invited to an exclusive cupcake baking class for bloggers and media for the Celcom Cupcake Challenge organised by Celcom Axiata Berhad in conjunction with its launch. It was held at The Cooking House, hosted by Lu Soo Chee, resident cake artist and a member of ICES (International Cake Exploration Societe) and the British Sugar-craft Guild, who has more than 10 years of baking and cake-decorating experience.

About 50 participants from popular Malaysian blogs and media publications attended the class to learn the basics of baking and cake decorating with a patriotic twist. I was there with Tammy (Plusizekitten), Jean (MystyleMylife) and Sidney (BigBoysOven).

It's been a while since my last cupcake baking/decorating class so I was looking forward to it. It's always fun when you get to make your cupcake from scratch, cupcake first then you get to design it. It was a super fun session! The big group was divided into two smaller rooms. The group I was in was handled by Chef Rose, a celebrity chef with her own cooking show, who helped everyone out with the step-by-steps of cupcake baking and decorating.

Making the cupcake batter was the easy part but my icing was a tough one. Gosh I think I developed some serious muscles on my right arm from all that mixing. This is what happens when you are not used to manually mixing stuff.

When my baking partner, Sidney and I eventually got the icings mixed we lined up our 24 cupcakes and started icing away.We decided on a classic flag shape with an almost classic design. Well actually he did most of the piping because I realised I don't have much patience when it comes to decorating. But hey I still love eating those yummy cupcakes. Did I just say my cupcakes were yummy? *laughs*

When all the teams were done everyone was walking around curious to see the others teams design. The winning team was judged by the participants and won themselves an awesome chocolate recipe book which I would have loved to get my hands on. *sigh* I think their design was classic but it had an impact. I rather liked the heart shaped design Tammy and Jean came up with too.

I was so tempted to run away with that cookbook! There's a reason why the blog is called Chocolate Cats. *evil laugh*

So here's how the Celcom Cupcake Challenge works, all you need to do is design a cupcake with your own creative interpretation of National Pride and upload the photo to www.facebook.com/cupcakeschallenge to be in the running to win prizes worth more than RM100,000. From now until the final submission date of 23 September 2012, 55 participants with the most "Likes" on their entries will be chosen to go on to the grand finale on 29 September 2012.

At the challenge finale, the 55 finalists are to replicate their cupcake designs witnessed by the public and a panel of celebrity judges, who will choose the top three cupcakes designs based on creativity, uniqueness and closet match to submitted photos.

The three top winners will walk away with a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone worth RM2,199 each and RM10,000, RM5,000 and RM2,000 in cash for the first, second and third places repectively. The rest of the 52 finalists will receive a stylish LG Prada mobile phone for their achievements. There will also be free Celcom cupcake giveaways this Malaysia Day at selected malls.

For more information, visit the Celcom Cupcake Challenge Facebook page or www.celcom.com.my or call 1 300 111 000 or 1111 from a Celcom mobile.

RoC®, that skin care brand you find at the pharmacy, is French and has strong dermatological ties. So they had a workshop early August, yes it's been a month since, I have been tardy. *blink blink*


RoC® organised the workshop to introduced their latest anti-ageing skin care range at the workshop RoC® Sublime Energy™. This range is inspired by professional electro-stimulation. As we age, bioelectrical signs naturally diminish, leading to decreased cell to sell comminication and production of essential proteins such as collagen and elastin. This can result in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, loss of firmness, uneven skin tone and other signs of ageing.

The science of RoC® E-PULSE™ Skin Electro Stimulation Technology™ is based on creating and delivering natural levels of electricity directly to the skin. This helps facilitate cell-to-cell communication that stimulates the skin's rejuvenation process.

E-PULSE™ Skin Electro Stimulation Technology™ can only be found in RoC® Sublime Energy™. Each product has 2-steps, the first is E-PULSE concentrate containing zinc and copper minerals and the second is and activating moisturiser that when used together deliver fast and remarkable results. The range consists of 3 complementary products: RoC® Sublime Energy™ Eye, Day and Night.

It was a basic skin care workshop which basically taught the participants how to know your skin type, how to recognise various skin conditions and suitable products for your skin type and condition. 

I'm sure we all know off the four skin types - Normal, Dry, Combination and Oily. Your skin type will not change for the rest of your life, you are stuck with it for better or for worse.  The way to know which skin type you have is through the size of the pores. For example, I have oily skin and if you noticed from my photos my pores are obvious. If you have dry or normal skin types your pores will be less visible. I'm still holding on to the notion that oily skin age much slower. Hey it's my birthday this month, let me be delusional if I want to. *laugh*   

Skin condition however is caused by various factors - environmental, diet, stress, medication, hormones and age. The more common skin conditions are dehydration and ageing. 

All four skin types can experience dehydration. Seriously. I have bouts of surface dehydration as well and when that happens my oil glands goes on overdrive. It's my skin's way of telling me I'm not hydrating enough. Surface dehydration will eventually cause premature aging. To avoid it you have to use specific products to pump in moisture into the skin.

Ageing is something you cannot run away from. Perhaps what you can do is slow it down with a good skin care regime and anti-ageing products. You will notice appearance of fine lines which will lead to wrinkles and then come the deep wrinkles, lastly your skin will sag as there is no more collagen in your skin to keep it looking plump and smooth. 

For suitable skin care products for your specific skin type and conditions you might want to consult a skin care expert but the general rule is that dry skin requires oil based products, oily skin - water based products and combination - a combination of both types. Sun protection is also a must. A healthy diet will also contribute to healthier skin. More fruits and vegetables people!

RoC® E-PULSE™ range and their other ranges are available at all leading pharmacies. Prices update soon. :)

Organised by Cosmopolitan, the Passport to Pretty with Clinique workshop last Saturday taught Clinique and Cosmo fans how to get the jet setting fashionista look - New York, Paris & Tokyo were all in the same room!

The workshop started off with a lively welcome and introduction from Jin of Clinique. As Clinique always emphasises 'Great Skin' participants were guided through the 3-step skincare according to skin types.

Step 1: Cleanse

Step 2: Exfoliate

Step 3: Moisturise

Next step was to apply the Super City Block Oil Free Daily Face Protector SPF 40 which also acts as a base before prettifying yourself with makeup.

Pain au chocolate, sandwiches, roti jala & chicken curry for tea break.. :)

David Ooi conducted the make up session after tea break. He's is ever so funny! He recreated the ooh la la sexy Paris look on a volunteer by popular request.

THE train case full of goodies!

He then left all 50 participants to create their own version of the New York/Paris/ Tokyo look. David's train case was ransacked for products & colours. There wasn't much left in it by the time the workshop ended.

I attempted the New York look. I'm always so terrible at doing eye make up! After foundation & loose powder, I started with Colour Surge Eye Shadow Trio in Ebb and Flow because it matched the colour of the top I was wearing. It is a palest blue green partnered with a midtone seafoam and a blackened teal. I lined my eyes with Kohl Shaper for Eyes in Blackened Pewter and topped of with Lash Power Volumizing Mascara in Black Onyx (lurv this mascara!).

For my eyes

I sweeped Fresh Bloom Allover Colour in Plum Poppy on the apples of my cheek. I then lined & filled in my lips with Quickline for Lips in Soft Rose and applied a light layer of Vitamin C Lip Smoothie Anti-Oxidant Lip Colour in Goodness Grapecious. Viola! My subtle version of the NY look.

My cheeks & lips

What I noticed about this workshop was the wider range of age group which was a pleasant surprise. Usually you'd find the 20-35. This time there were women in their 40's participating. It was a good mix.

With David Ooi, Ms. Izza (Editor for Cosmo) & Jin

A fun workshop!

*Photo source: Clinique Website for products.