All The Things I Can't Live Without...

Picture-heavy post

This tutorial was heavily hinted for by Charlene - yes, I finally got down to it, dear friend. :) And since I'm such a noob at making videos, I could only do picture tutorials. I think this was rather crudely done too at that, but hopefully you'll still be able to recreate this look after following through the steps.

This was the look that was requested for:

This is the end result of this tutorial:

It's slightly different, cos I included a few more steps. When I did the former look, I was actually rushing for work so I didn't add in much colour. The outer-V in this look is more accentuated and coloured in. Enjoy!

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This is me without any makeup on, except for some concealer and Kose's Tinted Makeup Base. Plain jane.

Before everything else:

We're gonna be using the shading technique for this eye look. What it means is that the highlight and contour of the eye will only involve pencils and lots of blending, similar to sketching in real life. I really can't remember where I learnt that from, but I saw the method online once and I loved how simple and effective it is.

I'm using my UD 24/7 Eye pencil in "Zero" (really short pathetic stub) and my Essence Metallic Eye Pencil in "White Divine". Any black and white eyeliner will do, preferably those that can be smudged out. "Zero" is too oily for my waterlines, but perfect for shading.

Onto the application proper (click on the image to enlarge it):

Up until step 6, you should get something like this:

Then taking a fluffy e/s brush and the e.l.f. Eye Transformer palette, select the blue shade. We're going to be using it all over the lid; this shade in this palette is crucial for the blurple-to-light blue iridescent effect, once it goes over the shading.

And you'll end up with something like this:

This was where I stopped for my previous look, and you can too. Just top it off with eyeliner and mascara, and you're good to go. However, I'm going to bump it up a notch since I have more time on my hands now.

(P.S. I really dislike calling the dip in our eye socket "the crease". Cos it's anatomically wrong for most of us Asians. Our crease is our double eyelid, which doesn't coincide with our eye socket at all. The westerners call their socket "the crease" just because they have more pronounced double eyelids and it coincides with their eye sockets.)

You will get this, after accentuating the outer-V and eye socket:

Almost done! All you need to do is to draw a winged liner, preferably with a liquid eyeliner pen...

... like so. Remember to allow the wing to follow the cut-crease that you made.

And fill in your brows and put on mascara (defined brows are important for this look). The eye makeup is done!

Put on some orange-coral blusher along your cheekbones, and some natural pink lipstick and the look is complete!

Hope it wasn't too confusing for a first-time tutorial. Hah, who am I kidding..? But I feel satisfied bringing this to you, so thank you very much for viewing it!

This is my trusty UDPP (XL) that I've been using since March 2010.

As always, the wand stops picking up product after some time and most people resort to hacking the tube open and depotting whatever is left inside. However, I'm apprehensive on on doing that as I'm scared it may dry out my UDPP very fast.

So here's a quick solution to getting more product out of your tube WITHOUT depotting it!

Remove that rubber stopper from the mouth of the UDPP (may take some time and elbow grease, the stopper is quite stubborn to getting pulled out), and you'll get this:

See how much product is on the wand? And that is after I had dipped the wand back into the tube just once! Granted you don't get a clean wand for application and you may find the product gathering at the mouth, but it's so much easier to access to what's left inside.

You may leave it at that, but I took it one step further and immersed my UDPP into a glass of hot water:

The reason to doing this is to allow the heat from the water to semi-melt what's left in the tube and let it all pool to the bottom. This way, it won't be so messy along the stem of the wand and more product will be at the doe-foot applicator.

Like so:

I was positively spazzing from how much product there was at the tip!

So hopefully this trick helps you to get more out of your UDPP without dissecting it, and hopefully it will preserve the consistency of whatever product is left too. Though it is a bit messier to apply the UDPP to my lids now, at least I won't have it drying up on me and I bet this can tide me through another 6 months to a year! Thanks for reading.

I drew inspiration on Verlyn's look here (click to see her very pretty version) and decided to wear the same colour scheme to work the next day!

Here are how the eyes look:

I really love this colour scheme, blue on brown looks so stunning! I'm using the brown shade in my Wet N Wild "Comfort Zone" palette (gawd, how I love this palette!), while the blue is with Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner in "Deviant". I set the eyeliner with the blue shade in my e.l.f eye transformer, ha ha, told you I was gonna use it!

The only thing I wished I did was to make the blue liner thicker, cos it virtually disappeared underneath my monolids when I opened my eyes. -___- Lesson learnt.

Thanks for looking, guys!

Before anything else...

Announcement: Urban Decay's Naked palette is back instore!!! It will be available at all 4 Sephora branches from tomorrow (17/06/2011) onwards! Grab them quick if you haven't bought one, cos they tend to go OOS after 2-3 days!

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After doing similar looks for the pass 2 weeks, I decided to break out from my makeup rut and try using the cosmetic items that I normally ignore. This was after I watched Emily Noel's video (click on the words to view it!) on how to stop repeating routine makeup looks, and I saw that some of her tips are actually brilliant ideas.

So I attempted this look for the first time yesterday and I'm glad I tried it, cos I think it turned out pretty well!

See the glowy blue-purple effect?

From far, it looked like I used cool-toned purples and blues to create this eye look; in reality, I didn't use any at all. I just used a white and a black, and I pressed on the blue shade from the e.l.f cosmetics' eye transformer palette! Because it appears differently on different bases, it shows up as differing gradients of blues to purples as I applied it across the white-to-black gradient.

Yeah, I've decided to put my eye transformer palette to good use (haven't touched it much!), so I'll be trying out a green, pink and orange version I guess? I also used a white eyeliner that I hauled in my recent Malaysia trip, the goodies haul post is coming right up! So the white and black gradient was done using just 1 white eyeliner pencil and 1 black eyeliner pencil (UD's Zero). I did the shading makeup technique with the pencils and blended using a brush.

Close-up pics of the eyes:

Ohh, not forgetting, on my lashes is UD's new Cannonball waterproof mascara. It's quite a good lengthening mascara, but it doesn't give much volume. Was test driving it yesterday. Taking it off with bi-phase makeup remover was a breeze too!

More pic spam, just because I love the effect of the eye transformer so much!

(Fluttering but thin eye lashes, oooh~)

And nude lips!

Thanks for looking, guys!

Well sadly, unlike last year, the store doesn't have any themes are us BA's. So everyday, you either see the staff wearing very neutral/simple eye makeup or it's always the same colours. My colleague has a habit of wearing the same brown-purple smokey eye every single work day. =/

As for me, I've been trying to incorporate variations in my look, but so far it's just been 3-4 different looks on a cycle. I simply don't have the inspiration to try colours! I think I've said this last year and I'll repeat again; if they don't give me a theme, I'll be stuck in my neutral rut.

Anyhow, this is one of the LOTD I had on last week.

(showing off the Urban Decay nail polishes against my black uniform)

I did a black smokey eye, here are the close-ups of the eye makeup:

I swear, Wet N Wild eyeshadows are the best! I really think my life depends on them , or at least the lifespan of my eye makeup. They are the reason why and how my black eyeliner manages to stay on my waterline even after 12 hours of wear!

On my lips I had on Clinique's Chubby Stick in "Mega Melon", and a Estee Lauder's lipgloss whose name escapes me now.

See the glow on my cheeks? I was test driving the newly-arrived cream highlighters by Urban Decay!

This:

[Picture credited to silverlipsbeauty.com]

I think I used "Moonshine". The product is not bad; it didn't go patchy on me and it gave me a nice glow to my cheekbones. I'm still not used to using cream cheek products, so... *shrugs* I also tried the honey-infused Lip Love glosses. Omg, they taste sweet and so yummy!! I was really getting hungry nearing the time of my lunch break, so I went crazy licking the gloss off my lips. They really do taste like honey!

And just because I promised you guys an eye-swatch of my EOS Super Neon brown lenses, here's another close-up of my eye:

I think it looks quite unnatural aka the Twilight-vampire kind of eyes. Eww, Edward Cullen... but I like the lenses! Ha ha ha!

Hope you enjoyed this LOTD, thanks for reading everyone!

Ha ha, I just had to have the 2011 edition of my Sephora Ramblings, didn't I? xD Well, sorry for being MIA but I've been busy with work, and doing up my Canadian exchange stuff, and going out with my friends for the past 2 weeks.

So I'm back on a really short temp job with Sephora. I have my reasons for keeping it short. =/ But anyway, here's the stuff that I've been messing around with instore recently!

Nails polish swatches! These are some of the more appealing shades for the new Sephora nail polishes (the $9 for 7.5 ml one, I think).

I had on this green-purple metallic duochrome on my middle finger, but it doesn't look as amazing on the finger as it does in the bottle. The 2nd finger and my pinky had on the same kind of purple shimmery polish, just that one was with blue shimmers and the other with more obvious pink glitters.

I really love the colour on my thumb and 4th finger though! :D I think Sephora has been putting a lot of effort into keeping up with the nail colour trend and their new polishes with the wide brushes are really not bad at all! Impressed.

And then Urban Decay's summer collection for this year arrived, and I just had to test out the Rollergirl nail kit.

The first 3 shades are opaque with 3 coats, while I only had 1 coat on for the 4th finger and my pinky. Ha ha, I was trying to paint my nails without getting caught by my supervisor! xD

I'm always "meh" about UD's nail polishes. No doubt some of their shades are lovely and the polishes apply okay; but the colours just seem so ordinary to me (what with OPI and China Glaze releasing their shatters and crackles) and the colour isn't all pigmented.

That saying, I still dig the cool gold foil colour on my 2nd finger! It's so metallic and shiny! My colleague liked the neutral shade on my middle finger.

So just to let you guys know, if you haven't been down to Sephora, UD's summer collection arrived last Thursday. This means the new primer potions in the squeeze tubes (finally, no more depotting); the new olive gold primer potion, Greed; the Rollergirl nail kit; the Lip Loves (honey-infused lip therapy glosses); the newly-packaged Baked Bronzers and Tinted Moisturizers; the Meltdown makeup remover; the Cannonball waterproof mascara; the big and gorgeously purple glitter Quinceanera makeup bag, and the UD Bride kit have all arrived!

[Picture credited to Temptalia]

[Picture credited to musingsofamuse.com]

[Picture credited to skincaretips4you.com]

So do check these new items out if you happen to visit any Sephora outlets alright? I know it's a bit late; I was suppose to write this on Friday, but I was too tired.

Last but not least...

Ha ha, I got to bring home these testers, just because they became a little too short and ugly to be displayed on the display set. Like pffttt, they still work marvelously well, so if you don't want them, I do. I have my little growing stash of 24/7 eye pencils at home, all thanks to Sephora! Ha ha ha ha!

Thanks for reading this post guys, hope you all stay healthy during the holidays.

Lol, I'm talking about the bottom lash line and not any other stuff, so keep your mind out of the gutter ok? xD

Yet another exam stress-induced LOTD, which I seem to be doing on a routinely basis. Here's are two looks I did 1 year back when I did my May exams, and another two looks I did 1/2 year back when I was struggling with my December papers. Guess it's obvious how I release stress when things come down to a crunch. =/

I was inspired to do this when I was reading Emily Noel's blog post on makeup tips for spectacles, and she mentioned about wearing more colours on your lower lash line to bring attention to your eyes more (since the crease tends to get obstructed by the frames).

And so I did just that, here's the look:

Maybe it's not very obvious here, but I was wearing that brown-teal duochrome eyeshadow from the Wet n Wild "Comfort Zone" palette over Urban Decay's 24/7 eyeliner in "Covet". Both are bright teal colours but I guess the brown duochrome and bad lighting today toned it down. For my lids, I just used the peachy and brown e/s from "COmfort Zone" to do some simple contouring. Finished it with eyeliner and mascara!

I also experimented the look with 3 different lip colours!

This one is with my MAC cremesheen lipstick in "Fanfare", a very normal pink for me.

And here's with Urban Decay's lipstick in "Vinyl".

Ha ha, does it scream "loud' or what? This somehow reminds me of poison for some queer reason.

And the last one is with a peachy-nude lip (was using my lipliner).

This is my favourite lip colour out of all the three (god forbid I wear that UD lipstick out), but the sad thing is that it's a lip liner! I need to find a lipstick that's the same shade as this liner, cos this is just the right kind of nude for me. I can't wear NYX's "Circe" for nuts; I look like the living dead. Does anyone have any recommendations for a lipstick that is of this colour???

Anyway, hopefully by now, the teal colour on my lower lash line has been more obvious and you guys can actually see it. And I think it works for spectacles too, cos I tried it out below. :)

My frames sit rather low because I have a little don't have any nose bridge at all, thus my upper lids are always blocked by my glasses. This is a good way to wear colour on your eyes and get it noticed too.

Speaking of which, Michelle Phan just posted up a video on spectacles and makeup a few hours back, and I'm ecstatic at the coincidence! Ha ha, what's the chance of it happening? But she did a typical crease-contour thing. Watch it if you want and see which way works better for you. :)

For me, I'm digging this method now and I can foresee myself wearing this look to every exam I'm gonna have this and next week (need to de-stress before chiong-ing for the paper, woots!) Ha ha, thanks for looking guys and all the best to those taking exams too!

Warning: Image heavy!

Alright, a quick post before I go back to mugging my ass off! Here are the swatches of the products that Ng Li (Yippy's real name, now I can stop "Yippy-ing" her) sent me. They are the Milani Sunset Blusher and Bronzer Duo, the Milani Lip Mixer Gloss, the Urban Decay Lipstick in "Vinyl" and the L'oreal HIP Jelly balm.

1) Milani's Sunset Blusher and Bronzer Duo in "Sunset City"

Contouring my face with it:

With the bronzer

Without the bronzer

Full-face picture

Onto the lip products~ From top to bottom: L'oreal's HIP Jelly Balm in "Savory", Milani's Lip Mixer gloss in "Lip Party" and Urban Decay's Lipstick in "Vinyl"

This is how my normal lip looks like without anything on (lip moustache :D):

2) L'oreal HIp Jelly Balm

In natural lighting

With flash

3) Milani's Lip Mixer

In natural lighting

With flash

4) Urban Decay Lipstick

Using it as a stain

Using it in its full pow-wow colour!

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I spot a duochrome thingy with the lipstick~ Anyway, reviews will be up in a while's time as I chiong to finish up with my exams. If you haven't joined my mini giveaway, do take part cos I think the prizes are pretty good! Thanks for viewing, take care people. :)

Title says it all!

My ex-colleague from Sephora informed me immediately when Urban Decay's Naked palette arrived instore on Wed, and I popped by Great World City's branch yesterday to take a peek at it. From what I know, that was the only branch displaying the tester.

But good news!! The palette will officially be launched today in all Sephora stores in SG! Retail price is S$73.00. Apologies for the lack of pictures, cos I wasn't sure if I could snap pics in Sephora and I didn't wanna put my colleagues in a fix (manager watching, sia!).

But I swatched all the shades and they were GORGEOUS! Took up my whole arm space to apply all 12 shades. Distinctively, there were 2 matte brown shades (very good substitutes for MAC's "Wedge"), a handful of very pretty metallic-foil shades and a few with glitter. Unfortunately, "Creep" (2nd last black shade) wasn't as pigmented as I'd like it to be (come on, black has to be BLACK) but "Gunmetal" is SOOOOO pretty! Texture, as all UD e/s are, is really silky and butter-smooth. Some, e.g. Half-Baked and Darkhorse, are so soft and buttery that one light swipe and you get your fingers temporarily stained with the pigment! So chio, I tell you!!!

If you have time this weekend, definitely try popping by Sephora to check out the new palette and be tempted by it! It's awesome, really! :)

Ha ha, my bank account is dwindling (hi-5, Michelle!) and yet, I still can't resist buying stuff so I've been sneaking a few small new items here and there into my stash. Just a round up of what I've gotten~

Mascara and eyeliners, who can resist~~~

The Urban Decay eyeliners, Mildew and Covet, are the travel sized ones and I got them from sg_beauty, for a super reasonable price of S$5.00 each. Also, I bought the Smashbox Lash DNA mascara off Jennifer (lillgoddess) and she was kind enough to give me a small discount for it! So happy, cos I don't know if you remember, I was raving about this mascara when I was working in Sephora. And it's currently sold out in the GWC branch (I wanted to get it with my staff's discount), so imagine how happy I was able to get this!

Here's how its very unique brush looks like:

From these 2 pics, you can probably tell the mascara has got a big-ass brush! That'll be one of the few cons of this mascara - you'll have to be careful/get use to using such a big brush as it may accidently smear mascara onto your eyelid.

It's kinda rectangular in shape, not like the conventional narrow-end, fat base kind of brushes - which means that getting to the lashes at the inner corners may be difficult. However the few times I've used in Sephora, it wasn't so at all. In fact, I found it reached my inner corner lashes and coated them more effectively than those tapered wands.

Also in the pic above, you can see its double-helix shape, where the bristles are arranged - long, short, long, short - in the manner of a spiral staircase. There's a special way to using this unique mascara but unfortunately, I'm not starting on this one yet - have to finish up my Covergirl Lash Blast first! Will do a review when I use this in the near future.

And also, this was something I had ordered 2 weeks back and it finally came yesterday! So exciting!

Bella V2 Pro Hair Iron, specially imported from Korea! I've tried it this morning and it's not bad at all~ Next post will be on the details and results of this hair iron! ^__^

Ohh yah, I almost forgot. Just wanna show you guys the goodies I got from my boss before I left Sephora.

I've never seen the Too Faced concealer sold instore before, so I'm guessing it's either an older, discontinued product or it's from the Ion store...? I'm not sure, but I have not used it yet cos I've still got other concealers opened. The Bliss Triple Oxygen mask, on the other hand, I've tried and it's GOOD! :D

Ha ha, these 2 Urban Decay products! There's a small story behind these - we were having a mini game between us colleagues and our supervisor, as to who can sell the most UD products at one go, and the target was S$500 in 1 receipt. Which is crazy really, cos 1 UD product is about S$30+, so S$500 would mean about 15 items? How to sell so many UD items at one go to one customer?! But we all tried our best and in the end, I won the game by selling 5 items for S$210+. So I got these 2 stuff for my reward, lol! I know it's super cheapo, but it's something! I guess I was prouder of my sales persuasion skills than anything else~

So yeah, thanks for reading and look forward to the hair iron review up next!