Had fun pretending to be all healty / hipster at Stranger's Reunion post-yogasana with Sujin - this girl really just entertain's all my whims and wishes whenever I have these crazy urges to check out a new find!


So anyway, I've heard about Stranger's for the longest time but just never really found any reason to come down, I mean, it's just another cafe right? But after chancing upon a picture of their Avocado Smoothie Bowl ($11.90) on Instagram, I had to go because I've been crazy pinning all kinds of these super photogenic food on my Pinterest for the past couple of weeks but hadn't had a chance to try one or saw one pretty enough to take a trip down for... till now!


The Smashed Avocado Toast ($15.50) also was outstanding albeit a bit pricey for not a lot of food. The bread was crispy and fluffy and soaked with BUTTER, and the avocado was very generously lathered on (though still not really worth $15.50 on hindsight).


Anyway the verdict on the Smoothie Bowl is that it a) does not taste as bland or as baby food-ish as I thought b) it is a surprisingly filling to be a whole meal and c) I think it's not actually that healthy because it was super sweet, but that's what made it yummy, and I don't really care about healthy food anyway so whatever, haha.


Quite impressed with Stranger's Reu really, there are so many cafes in Singapore that bank on being pretty but serve subpar food, but their food is pretty legit AND the place is pretty too, of course, which is still an important part of cafe culture. Guess that's why they've been around so long!

Stranger's Reunion
33/35/37 Kampong Bahru Rd
Singapore 169355

Went for one of the most unique and conceptualised workshops last week to make my own perfume with Oo La Lab! Founded by Terry Jacobson, who hails from South Africa but has spent his life living all over the world, Oo La Lab is a personal passion project in which you as a customer are able to walk into his shop and create their own bespoke scent wardrobe.



I love how the whole concept of the shop / workshop is crafted around Chemistry. The above diagram ("Oo Fragrance Table") is a cheeky play on the Periodic Table, but actually encapsulates all the available scent profiles for us to play with that day (which were laid out neatly in the brown bottles you see!)

All the scents with high notes were at the top of the table, followed by the mid-notes in the middle and so on - so there was structure to it, rather than just being visually pleasing.


Terry explained to us how all perfumes should have a mix of high, mid and low notes, and we each had a handy "worksheet" that we could use to test out each fragrance, then tick the boxes if (a) we wanted to use the scent and (b) how many drops we used to create our perfume!

There were so many smells it got quite overwhelming! Luckily there was a mini beaker of coffee beans for us to sniff in between to "clear" our senses (another trick is to smell an unscented part of your own skin!) We each had two tries to mix together a sample of 20 drops (10 low notes, 5 mid notes, 5 high notes) into our mini vials. Sujin said she basically created the same perfume she has at home, HAHA. Guess her sense of smell is quite keen!

And look how deep in concentration Kenny is "to find his concentration" (direct quote from him, k).


Once we tested out the 20 drops, we applied a ratio in which 1 drop = 1ml of the perfume, and filled up our little bottles! (Yes, we had an actual measuring tube and I remembered that the bottom of the meniscus must touch the line!)


Vacuum sealed my bottle with those cool machines, attached the nozzle, pasted the sticker, and.. Voila! Easy peasy! If you are interested to know what scents I used, you can look at the first picture at the top of this post!

Also, apparently after 2 weeks the scent may mature and change a bit in the bottle, which I am kind of hoping for because I think my ability to mix smells is atrocious HAHA. Kind of not what I was hoping for, but ok, it was fun!


Got to bring home our own diffusers as well - mine was "Floral Green Aldehyde". Love how on brand the packaging is!


The workshops are not open publicly yet, and this was just a media preview prior to Singapore Fashion Week to try our hands at making our own perfumes. The Oo La Lab Instagram has mentioned that they may have more workshops coming up, so do give them a follow @oo.la.lab to stay up to date!

Likewise, if you go to the Oo La Lab physical shop, you can create your own perfume from scratch too! (Prices start from S$48.00)

Oo La Lab
Commune Home
Millenia Walk
Level 2, Unit 52

Thanks Rennie from Mercury for inviting me!