marissa belle ｡･:*˚:✧｡࿐

Greetings to you, my lovely readers! 

I can hardly believe the year has come and gone. It has been a year since I last saw my boyfriend, it has been a year since I visited Disneyland Paris with him, and just like that, it’s been a year since we parted ways at London’s King’s Cross station, where I boarded a plane, tried to sleep for 14 hours whilst on it, and I’ve only seen his face on video call twice a week since.

It feels like forever! Long distance isn’t easy during a pandemic.

It has also been an extremely exhausting month. I made the biggest order of 80 soaps for a bulk order which meant I spent hours after my 10 hour shift at work in my kitchen whipping up a storm most nights, which deprived me of my usual YouTube binge watching, but man it has been worth it.

On a more positive note, 

I can also hardly believe I’m 26 years old and only just tried Shake Shack for the first time this month. Shake Shack opened its doors in Singapore just a year ago and I had seen the hype around their burgers all over social media but I could never justify the long 1 hour queue-time.

Thankfully, they’re now on a food delivery app, which meant that my colleague and myself could order a burger each for lunch without spending time waiting in a line. And they were so good! I don’t know if I would say they’re the best burgers ever, but they are definitely worth a try.

I dug out my Primark Aqua Lash mascara that I brought home from the UK back in December and didn’t get the chance to open. For £2.50, this mascara is pretty decent. What got me mostly was the packaging, there are tiny little plastic water droplets on the cap – the emphasis on the fact that this is indeed waterproof! It takes me ages to get it off.

I’ve tried both Wonderlash and Aqua Lash and although Aqua Lash is good, Wonderlash is definitely better for just 50p or £1 more. It feels like a luxury mascara and costs very little. I would highly recommend it. 

If you follow me on Instagram you’ll know I had a mini breakdown over the next thing I’m going to show you…

I caught sight of this Japanese tapir plush from the toy line LivHeart and I almost cried. Tapirs are my favourite animal and also a very rare find under any circumstance, including plushies. Costing a hefty $35.90, I didn’t have the heart to pay that money for him so I did what any shopping addict would have done, I searched for him online and found him for $10 less! So obviously, I purchased him and he is on the way to me now. 

I did a quick Google of this plush and he is described as a “dream fairy” who loves “taiyaki”. *Squeeeeee!* I’ve already decided that I’ll be going back to his roots and calling him Dream Fairy. 

I’ve also been obsessed with buying Japanese and Korean stickers online.. I can’t stop! They’re also so affordable, less than $3 for a pack of 50 sometimes, and I have made it a point to include about 5 stickers in every soap package that someone purchases from me. I used to receive a lot of stickers from other small businesses as well and I think it is a great touch because who doesn’t love stickers?! 

I’ve got Disney ones, Sumikko Gurashi ones and just random cute cartoony ones. I love them all! 

Exploring new ways to add colour into my soaps is something I am so excited to be starting. These were all the results of my ‘experimentation’ process, believe it or not! I first tried the purple and pink marshmallow scented bees and panicked because they were quite tough to do and I was extremely stressed, but they turned out sooo good that I decided to sell them and they’ve all sold out.

The pink and yellow snowflakes were the result of a custom request for a local customer, and she let me choose the colours myself – very glad with how it turned out! I can’t wait to make Disney-themed soaps soon and incorporate the oh-so-familiar colours into 1 soap. 

Let me know what you think of my new creations and also check my Etsy store out!

I am thankful that this month has zoomed by as I am done with 2020. What did you do this month? Anything note-worthy? 

As I’m currently obsessed with shopping on Etsy, do leave some great shop links below! From jewellery to bath products to customs, I love them all! 

Let the Christmas music begin!