Bugaboo Cameleon 3 (2015 classic) vs. Uppababy Vista 2015

We own three of everything for Brevi, and this is NOT IN ANY WAY meant to come off as showing off, as it wasn’t by choice. (so no judgemental moms pls.) Because we aren’t merely “visiting” Korea and the US but actually staying there for weeks to months at a time, we felt it was necessary to buy separate baby items for each countries to save ourselves the trouble of lugging everything around. It sucked buying three of everything, but it also meant I have the opportunity to try out the other close competitor products that I couldn’t narrow down in my baby item search. This review is for baby strollers, which is every mother’s most talked about baby item! note: this isn’t a tech review, you can find specs of these strollers at youtube channels and other websites. It’s just an honest review of the pros I saw in each stroller after having used it for a year.

From the popular and the highly rated strollers in all three countries (listed at the bottom of post), we narrowed down our choice to Bugaboo Cameleon 3 (for Singapore) and Uppababy Vista 2015 (for America) because of their SMOOTHEST push. I am pretty petite, at only 100lbs, so it was important for me that this presumed heaviest deluxe stroller had an extremely easy push, preferably with one hand.  We bought, tried and tested both strollers on our own baby for over a year before writing this review and I can confidently say that YES, both are extremely smooth, and as most reviews state, they are extremely well made! it’s funny that I CANNOT bother pushing a market cart anymore after I’ve been spoiled by the stroller’s easy push around the market and just throwing everything down the underseat basket.

side note: For Korea and for easy transit between airports, we got an umbrella stroller (Emotion by Babyhome, more on umbrella strollers in another post!) because there was no way we are taking deluxe strollers on flights.

8 Simple Skin Care Habits to Steal from Korean Girls

Since it’s been awhile that I updated the blog, I thought I’d change the subject a bit and share with you ten simple ways you can improve your skin drastically- just by changing your daily habits! I am a skin care fanatic and had spent countless times trying out facials in Korea (and all over, but Korea by far is the best in beauty related services) and testing hundreds of different products. More so than makeup, I believe in looking flawless in your bare skin. While this can’t cure all, the simple steps below will definitely improve your skin within days. These are the things I wish my mother had told me growing up!

1. Apply a lotion or toner IMMEDIATELY after you wash your face.

Yup, that’s right. Immediately means seconds after you wipe the water off of your face with a towel. Not a minute, or five minutes. or worst yet, 30 minutes after your wash because you were too busy changing into your night gown. You have just scraped off your skin raw by washing your face and trust me, your face is prone to all sorts of nasty stuff due to its dryness. The moral of the first rule: do not let your skin lose its moisture.

Why I Chose Korea to give Birth- My Korean Postpartum Care Experience

 Three weeks after we brought Brevi home from the Korean postpartum centre, he’s put on a lot of weight and is thriving. He’s already doubled the size of his birthweight and now finally resembles something like a little human. Amazing how babies change so much! I can barely keep up with his ever-changing face and sometimes I have to do a double take to make sure I didn’t bring home the wrong baby. Despite still waking up every two hours each night to feed him, I feel more refreshed than ever (and much lighter), thanks to the amazing postpartum clinic I stayed in Korea. Though there were faults in the system that annoyed me a couple times, I believe it was worth the “investment.” And I say investment, because it was so absurdly expensive. but it was definitely worth every cent! Here’s my belated review on the Korean postpartum system and why I chose to give birth in Seoul, Korea, instead of Singapore (where I currently reside) or United States (our original home country)!

Brevi’s Birth Story ♥

Our beautiful bundle of joy is here!

Our little Brevi arrived earlier than we expected at 37 weeks and 1 day, weighing 2.62kgs on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014, at 10: 47am!

What an unforgettable *tear* 🙂

I still can’t believe I’m now a mommy! It feels so surreal. And I never thought I’d ever feel this way, but I am so thankful that I was born a female, for a different reason post this event. Yes, my pregnancy was hard- I had a severe case of morning sickness that lasted from week 6 to week 18 where I was throwing up every few hours every. single. day. I couldn’t stand the smell of basically everything. In the third trimester, my right rib cage went numb because my baby kicked in the same area repeatedly. My delivery- written below- was nothing I had imagined, and really really terrifying (yes, all you expecting mothers. it’s exactly as excruciatingly painful as everyone explained it’d be, and more), but I now have a newfound respect for all those that went through active labor. Yes, I feel so thankful that I’ve been born a female, so that I have the HONOR of experiencing a child kick and squirm inside me (growing from a little bean to a little human! I have grown a human!), and to have experienced giving BIRTH to an another being despite all that I went through for the past nine months.

So this is may be a bit personal, but I thought I’d write about my delivery to mark a truly blessed and humbling moment in my life so that I will forever remember every detail of my labor, which has been shared many many times with my family, friends, and oh, the other mommy’s at the confinement centre I got to know while brestfeeding in the last couple days. I will explain my confinement experience in the later post.

Maternity Photography in Korea

It’s been a bit over two months since I’ve been in Korea… and I gotta say, Seoul, Korea is such an exciting place with so much happening. It’s a bit like New York in terms of variety of things to do but of course, the quality doesn’t quite meet up there yet. Only certain nicer parts of Seoul.  But as for quality of service and the price point of products offered, I think I’d rate Seoul as the number one city. It’s def not cheap here either, but you really get the top-notch quality products for the same price you’d pay in US (In US, you’d have to pay A LOT to find this quality) or Singapore (I’m sorry to say, but you’d have to pay A LOT in Singapore to get even the low-end products, if it’s available) Seoul just has too many talented ppl in every market you can think of, thus having too much competition which in return provides low prices for consumers.

Because we got so burnt from the ‘high-end’ popular photographer in the US (see my post below), we decided to look for affordable photographers in Korea for my real maternity photoshoot now that I’m at 36 weeks. And there were many.  There was, of course, the high-end one in every city where the celebrities and the rich gawk over (May Studio), but yes no more, I’m not falling into that trap anymore. I’ve visited to find out its price and we were so turned off by the absurd high pricing (though a lot lower than jen huang and it comes with an album and photo editing service. jen huang was just digital copies.) and their inflexibility in providing the original copies. They only provide you with five to ten copies out of the 100 pictures you’d probably take in an hour, and in order for you to buy the other prints, you’d have to pay for them. I guess that’s how it works with certain photographers, but if I’m in it, and if I hired you, then I want it without having to pay five bucks for each piece. I’m guessing it all depends on the photographer but koreans and freelance photographers are usually generous with sharing their unused leftover pictures. Anyway, by now we learned our lesson that expensive is not always better- we’d only go for up-and-coming, talented photographers, not those that are already up there to still hold the drive to want to cater and please the clients.

I searched and searched for the two perfect ones that seem to have both the quality AND the cheap price. It seems photoshoots are an excuse for girls to do a makeover and have fun 🙂 So here are the two that I’ve narrowed down for Korean maternity photography, and they also do regular family shots and professional photos. so check them out next time you’re in Korea! Kindly take note that they are a bit farther out from Gangnam, Seoul. There are many chaeper options there as well, but I didn’t like the quality and concepts at all.

The service and products offered are unbelievable (in US and Sing standards):