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

Oh. My. Gosh.

I just visited the MAC kiosk at Tampines Mall just now and it's a pretty uplifting experience. It's quite a small corner anyway, tucked snugly at a side of Isetan (1st floor). It's the first time I've ever stepped up into a MAC counter, cos those in the city area (Ngee Ann City, Tangs etc) always look so high-class and the makeup assistants always either 1) look unfriendly 2) look sian 3) spot a "I'm-too-good-for-the-rest-of-you-lowly-beings" expression.

Though the Tampines kiosk is small as compared to the city area ones, there weren't a lot of people browsing there. Which is good, for us at least. I guess those aunties and uncles with their tank tops and bermudas don't really give a damn about MAC cosmetics. That's a really good point of being in the heartlands - always a smaller crowd.

And there was this really pretty, really chic, and really friendly MA who was busy assisting this couple when I slithered in (didn't want anyone eyeing me suspiciously) quietly into the kiosk. As I was ogling at the mineralized blushes, she stepped up beside me, flashed me a bright smile and asked if I needed help. I was really taken aback, cos she was super cheery and all grins when she said that - it made me feel really welcomed. And when I said I was looking around, she acknowledged it nonchalantly and just went on helping other people. No "are-you-going-to-steal-something" look, no "I'm-too-good-for-you" look and no irritating hanging-around behind me. And did I mention she was super chic, and super pretty? Her short cropped hair was styled into an effortless tousle and her eye makeup was really good - thank goodness I had mine to rival hers. It will be posted in the next LOTD! And her pants, it was some leather leggings which didn't look too tight or too loose but just perfectly classy.

Ok, enough with the MA rant. I had a really good time swatching the eyeshadows and the mineralized blushes, and running my fingers through all the brushes. I mean, that being the first time I've actually touched MAC products, I was really impressed with the colour payoff. The mineralized blushes are LOVE, I tell you, so glittery and pigmented, yet subtle when you blend it out. And the brushes were really dense. The funny thing was that I didn't see any veined/marbled MSF and crease brushes, so that definitely warrants another visit back to the store! They had the Colour Forecast, Pret-a-Papier, Art Supplies, Too Fabulous and the Viva Glam collections up on display, so I had fun playing with all the products~ Sooo fun, sooo tempting!

Yet another one inspired by vintageortacky - I've been watching too many of her videos for my own academic good. -__-

I know the pink isn't really showing up in these pics, and it appears as more of a frosty white but it's has a slight pinkish wash in real life. What I did was to smudge out some NYX Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencil in "Milk", pat some of NYX's "Salmon" pink eyeshadow onto that base and then layer NYX's "Snow Cone" over. That's the Chrome pigment "Beanie" plus some black eyeshadow at the edges.

Full-face pic

I'm loving how the light frosty pink shows up as a highlighted line on my lids, and how the purplish brown edges contours my eye to fake out a crease (which I dismally lack).

Thanks for reading, cheers~

After reading retailtherapy and icefrost's posts on how to save the earth by re-using and recycling their cosmetic packagings, I decided to post up my small, little contributions in helping save the Earth too.

I don't know how many of you use Sally Hansen's Nail Polish Remover but I've been using it for 6 months now, because it's such value for money and it removes my polishes effectively without drying my nails out. However, the huge bottle with its big-ass opening means that it's a pain trying to get the right amount onto my cotton pads and I've knocked over and spilt the remover countless times.

So what I did was I washed my Maybelline Eye & Lip Makeup Remover bottle when I was done with its content, dried it and transferred some of the nail polish remover over. The Maybelline bottle works perfectly as those people who used it should know, it's got this pinhole opening to shake out just the right amount of liquid. So instead of getting a new squirt bottle, re-using my old makeup remover bottle works fine! Plus, I've never knocked over my Maybelline bottle before, cos it's small enough to avoid clumsy me.

And like a lot of people, I re-use my old supplement bottles to store my brushes and these 2 are just the right size to stand my brushes up. I place my lipglosses and eyeliners in my old Ellips hair vitamin container too!

I know my nail polish collection is miserably small (student on a budget here!) but I do store them in a shallow cardboard box for easier excess. Previously I had them all thrown in a bag but it was dead difficult rummaging through just for 1 colour, so displaying them like this works better. I'm planning to DIY some cardboard dividers after my exams so that each bottle can have its little slot and it won't be this messy.

I mean, helping save the Earth isn't restricted to just cosmetic packaging and stuff - there's a lot of other ways to reduce usage. I'm sure most of you are practicing at least 1 or 2 ways but here's just a few of my "outside-cosmetics" Earth-friendly practices:

• Not accepting plastic bags when I go out and buy stuff. Usually, I'll bring along one of those $1 "Save The Earth" paper-canvas bags or I'll just dump all the stuff into my humongous shoulder bag which I bring to school daily.
• Recycling all my plastic bottles e.g. my 1.5L coke bottles, 0.5L Green tea bottles.
• Switching on the heater only when I'm ready to bathe. Usually by the time I dwaddle into the bathroom and get my clothes off, the water would already be hot enough. On very hot days, I don't even bother switching on the heater.
• Not switching on the air-conditioner unless I really need it, and that's usually when I sleep. The S$50 fan in my room is mostly enough for me except on very hot and humid nights. This is my pet peeve actually, cos my dad and my sister has got this nasty habit of switching on the air-con every time they retreat into their room. And this is even when it is cloudy or raining. I really don't see the point, but I'm not going to start an argument with my dad just because of it. I try to do my part by skipping the air-con altogether for that day.

So how do you contribute to saving Mother Earth? Do share by leaving a comment or by doing a post alright? Ohh, and any other tips on how to re-use certain stuff or make new things from the old?  Hope you enjoyed reading this post, cheers~

Do not leave me at home with my cupboard of cosmetics and a stack of lecture notes to study, you know which one I'll choose right?

Somewhat of an antagonistic take of my "Cool Blue Take 2" look.

I was inspired by vintageortacky's Kat Von D Sinner's look and tried to replicate it with my lower end products. I'm putting my NYX chrome pigments and eyeshadows to good use, I'll say~

No other face makeup on, not even mascara this time, cos I was purely experimenting and was gonna stay at home the whole day to meddle with cosmetics mug for my exams. I thought the outcome was pretty neat so I snapped a few pics to share with you guys. Love this dramatic look; this shows that monolidders with little/no crease can rock this kind of look too!

Full-face pic

Ha ha, I was plugged into my pet iPod and humming along while doing this look. Now back to the books! Thanks for reading, cheers~

Using NYX's Chrome Pigment in "Nymph" all over the eyelid, and NYX's Single Eyeshadow in "Jazzy Bronze" for the outer corners. Highlight was from my NYX Trio palette in "Dune" and the eyeliner was Koji Springheart's eye pencil in dark brown. Mascara, as usual, courtesy of SilkyGirl.

A full-face photo...

No other face makeup, only the eye do and NYX's Round Lipstick in "Pumpkin Pie" on my lips.

I had 2-3 pimples breaking out on my cheeks last week so I was giving my skin some time to heal and clear up. It's funny how I got 2 perfectly symmetrical pimples parallel to each other on each side of my cheek, makes me look somewhat like Pikachu... or Queen Amidala... you pick. I think both are equally hilarious.

I really should be sleeping right now, cos I have to start studying for my exams... but really no mood, what can I do..? Haiz. *exam depression*

Item: Garnier Fructis Style Wonder Waves [Flexible]

(What a mouthful for a product name @__@)

Product on the left

Product-on-hair shots

Back view

Side view

Price: US$4.30

- This product cannot be found in SG and can only be imported in via Drugstore.com. I got this at BOGO price, together with the other Garnier product on the right, and the total cost for each bottle came up to about SG$7 I think. Can't really remember the exact price in SGD, it was quite a while back.

Pro:

1) Lightweight liquid hairspray. It actually dries a little crispy on the hair so it's kinda like a very light gel hairspray.

2) Works okay, if you already have curls in your hair or you have the time to wind sections of hair into ringlets and pin them up to dry.

3) Cheap

Con:

1) For people with poker straight hair like me, it doesn't really work. Even with some residual curls left from my previous perm job, it didn't enhance them as I hoped it would. The pictures of my hair above is when I had the time to wind my hair into small ringlets, pin them all up and blowdry. That gave me very subtle waves. Without the ringlet method, I did't get any waves at all. Maybe a small kink here and there only.

2) However, the ringlet method gave me quite a bit of frizz also, especially when I loosen my hair after blowdrying. I'm the sort who will never have frizz in my hair unless I do something drastic to it, so this kinda shocked me. The frizz died down after a while, but so did the curls.

3)  I can't sleep with it! It made my scalp all scratchy that night, after I styled it in the evening after bath. Maybe it's my habit of not putting any styling product in my hair, but I can't help feeling all prickly. Maybe it's because the product dried a little crispy on the hair.

4) The smell may be appealing at first but after a few sprays to wind the ringlets up, it begins to smell very sourish and vinegar-like. Which, trust me, isn't appealing at all in the long run.

Rating: 2.3 / 5.0

Would I buy it again? Nah, I don't think so. So far, I'm not impressed by it and I was really hoping this product would bring out the waves in my hair.  I mean, so many people rave about it, but it doesn't really do much for me. Maybe it will work for people with natural curls or with thicker hair, I'm not sure.

This review was requested by heavenlygorgeous. Hope it helped, Mya! Cheers~

BTW, this blog has gotten 50 followers! I'm so happy, feeling like a proud momma! Ha ha, I would like to thank every single one of you, sweeties, for bothering to read my entries. Thanks guys! En, and I'll continue writing up on my  hauls, LOTD, NOTD and reviews. Take care everyone!

Ok, I wasn't satisfied with my previous cool blue look cos the eyeshadow looked really uneven, so I did tried it again today.

Ahh.. I kinda lied cos it's not really icy looking anymore. I added some black eyeshadow at the outer corners for contouring, that's why it's a little smokey. The brilliant blue shadow is NYX's chrome pigment in "Chaos" and the striking black eyeliner and mascara is by SilkyGirl. I'm loving thick, winged eyeliner looks right now - it's so retro!

Here are some full-faced pics.

I kept the blusher very light and went with Revlon's Nude Attitude on my lips. Still loving the lipstick~ Plus it's great for taking these hair-in-the-wind kind of pictures. My hair doesn't stick to my lips and smear lipstick all over my face, unlike other lipsticks/lipglosses.

Sorry for the picture spam but I absolutely love this shot!

Gosh, I wish I looked this good if I cut my hair short. I know it's all in the camera angle, but somehow I looked really nice in short hair here. In reality, my face is not so angled and refined. -___-

Last but not least, I cut my talons nails, filed them to short little squares and painted them with Re-fresh Mint. I think pastels still look the best on short nails.

Thanks for reading, take care people~

Gahh, I'm so frustrated.

I changed my blog template to solve a few visual imperfections, only to stumble on another one.

Can someone please tell me how to include the "xxx views" for each post, under its title? I'm seriously a noob at this; previously I had to deal with this problem too and I managed to solve it, but it kinda screwed up my blog theme. Then now when I'm finally satisfied with how the new theme looks, the stupid "xxx views" thing vanished on me.

Some kind soul, do help~~~ What CSS code to use and where do I have to include it in the theme CSS page? I've got a nasty feeling it's under the "post" section...

Sorry for this short rant, I really had to reach out for help. After I've finished unleashing my anger on my poor pillow, I shall be back to do another review.

Update:

I have solved the problem!!! Ha ha, super happy now~

Ok for those who want to put in the "xxx view" thing under each post, go to "Blog Options" --> "Themes" . You'll see a few tabs, with "Active" being first and ending with "Create". Go to "Yours" and click "Edit" for the current theme template you are using. You'll see a few more tabs after that, starting with "Info" and ending with "Post" with a picture-like thingy. Click "Post" and you'll see all the CSS codes.

Look for a line that is something like this, usually it's one of the first 5 lines:  <div class="date">{$post_date} ·  Posted by {$post_author}</div> Then paste in {$post_totalcount}. If you want the view thing to be behind your "Posted by xxxx", then paste it behind the {$post_author}. Just paste it where ever you want it to be. Then preview the template to see if it's correct and save it. Voila, c'est fini!

Ha ha, it was so simple, yet I can't believe how stressed out I got over this. Hope this helps whoever out there who needs this tip, cheers~

Item: SilkyGirl Double Intense Waterproof Mascara

Brush Close-up

On-eyelash shots

Price: S$14.90

-I got it at John Little for S$10.50 after a 30% discount. You can also get it cheap when Watsons is having its 20% storewide discount, or on special offer weeks e.g. 1 week back it was going for S$9.90.

Pro:

1) It significantly lengthens and separates lashes.

2) The black pigmentation is impressively intense (double intense, gotta live up to its name yarh?). Because of this, if your lashes are sparse, they will really stand out after application.

3) Personally, I feel it is extremely suitable for my lower lashes because of the intense black pigmentation and the shorter bristles at one end of the brush.

4) Reasonably easy to remove. A definite plus point after using Marjorca Majolica's (unremovable) mascaras. :)

5) Cheap!

Con:

1) It doesn't really volumize. There are times when I apply many coats to get thicker lashes, and it seems to work.. only to...

2) Clump a little. Yeah, if you wanna volumize your lashes with this mascara, you gotta risk a little clumping.

3) Not really waterproof. Yeah, I tried - I bathed with it, I cried with it (school causes meltdowns sometimes) and I purposely sprayed water on it before. The mascara doesn't dissolve but it seems to slip off my lashes. Kinda like a casing, it comes off in weird, black mascara worms... if that even makes sense .__.

4) AND the worst con! It doesn't hold a curl at all. I curled my lashes and layered the mascara on, only to find them flopping down a minute later. I haven't yet come across a mascara that can hold a curl with asian eyelashes, except for the permanent-for-a-lifetime Marjoca mascaras.

Rating: 3.8 / 5 (I've decided to change the rating from 3.5 to 3.8, cos I really like its intense pigmentation and it works brilliant for my lower lashes :D)

Would I buy it again? Err, there are many other mascaras I'm itching to try for now. Not a must-have. :)

Hope this review helped, thanks for reading~

Ok, technically the cool-blue part and the metallics part are separate issues but I thought they complimented well with each other. Here's goes~

NOTD

Using China Glaze's Millennium from the Khrome collection.

Aaaand a close up.

I finally understood why it's perfect for konading. Cos the formula gets really think and goopy after a while. I had such a hard time painting my nails with this, cos it either applied streaky or the polish just shifted and came apart in blotches if you go over your painted nails a second time. In the end, I had to slap thick gobbles full of the polish onto my nails and hope it evens out. However, I'm pretty satisfied with the result - the plain metallic iciness and the awesome reflection. The finish may not be as good as foil or minx nails, but it's not bad. Just that the application is a horror on its own.

LOTD

Yay to shimmery blueness and dramatic winged out eyeliner! I tried to emulate Michelle Phan's look in this video...

.. but I kinda failed, cos I realized I didn't really have a crease and I'll just look stupid walking around with a purple line draw along my eye. So I just drew a blue line and blended it out to meet my eye's outer corners. And I overloaded on the mascara on my lower lashes, since I thought drawing the winged out eyeliner on my waterline will be too much for to wear outside in SG. In the end, it was a lot different from Michelle Phan's version but at least I'll feel safer wearing my version out. :)

So here's the whole look with my ever-present specs on. Be good everyone, and thanks for reading!

P.S. Damn this flu bug going around, I think I'm falling sick yet again. Zzzzz... =___=