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

It was totally on impulse! Ha ha ha ha, I swear! I wasn't going to do anything to my hair until my trip to Canada, but after watching the korean girl band f(x)'s hot summer auburn hair, I immediately went to buy a box of DIY hair dye.

I used this...

... and 1 hour later, I emerged with red hair. *cue hair picture spam*

This was my matching red LOTD that I wore to work the next day, I was feeling the red dude!!!

Close-up of the eyes:

The shimmery taupe shade you see near the lash line is the new Bare Escentuals High Shine Eyecolor in "Glisten".

Also, I was sporting both the Lash Definition and Volumizing mascaras from the brand. The mascaras have been released quite a while back, but the High Shine Eyecolors and the Pretty Amazing Lipcolor are new items that arrived in our Sephora just last week.

On my lips, I was wearing the Pretty Amazing Lipcolor in "Courage". It's a really amazing fiery coral shade, so complementary with my skintone and my hair colour!

And a final goodbye pic from me, cos I simply loved how this turned out, heh. :)

My hair is getting quite long and it's almost time for me to get it cut! 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!

So what has been going on in the past 3 weeks that I've been working for Sephora? Updates updates, ha ha ha!

1) We got free food!

Well normally, I'll be packing food from home as it's simply too costly to eat out everyday at the shopping mall. The food is cold, but it still fills my tummy and it's healthier than outside food. But when Sephora gave us an allowance to buy food, I abandoned my food from home and indulged in the goodies! Saturday was an upsized Burger King meal, while we had pizza on Sunday!

(yes, that's our very messy pantry-cum-office)

My supervisor ordered 5 giant pizzas from Pizza De France for about 9 of us, of course we couldn't finish everything! Ha ha, I even packed home a few slices for my parents to try. These pizzas are quite nice, lots of toppings and not too oily!

The vegetarian one.

The BBQ chicken one.

The chicken ham one.

The spicy minced chicken one!

And the all-cheese one! It's really cheesy and salty and fattening, but oh soooo tasty!

Ha ha, I just had to camwhore in the office while I had my pizza! Grainy pic with iPhone VGA camera~

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2) I got a sample kit of Benefit's Bright Radiance Skin Care line to try.

Ha ha, isn't these mini bottles/tubs cute? :D My colleague went for Benefit's training one afternoon and she decided to pass me her kit since I mentioned I was looking for travel-sized skin care for my trip to NYC. There's the facial emulsion (with SPF 15!), the foaming cleanser and the eye cream.

They're so small and adorable, and I can carry them onto the plane to hydrate my skin!

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3) And since I'm working in a beauty shop, there's no other better opportunity than to take some samples of skincare back for my coming 22 hour flight to New York!

I read Sophia's post on her skincare and makeup items she brought aboard her flight to take care of her skin, and that got me thinking about what I'm going to bring for mine. Well, I don't have the Chanel Sublimage mask, so I tried looking for alternatives in Sephora! Come on, it's a mega beauty haven, there has got to be some stuff!

And these are what I took home happily with me:

Ha ha, a whole range of Ole Henrikson skincare products. The full size items don't come cheap; most of the moisturizers and serums range from $70-$130 each. I was very tempted to buy the 2 month starter kit ($92 after staff discount), but since these samples are free, might as well take them.

Ha ha, you can probably tell I grabbed a whole lot of moisturizers! The Vitamin C serum is the brand's best seller and I needed the scrub for some gentle exfoliation after the flight (my current scrub uses rough walnut bits instead of the gentler jojoba beads). I've tried the Red Tea Mask on my hand, it's amazing! And it's a leave-on mask that goes on clear, so I'm hoping I can use it during the flight. Now I'm contemplating if I should buy the facial mist.

What do you guys say? Are facial mists important or beneficial for long haul flights? Or can I go them a miss?

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4) I got to serve Ris Low the past Sunday.

Oh. My. God. Ha ha, that's really all I can say, you know, without getting sued and all. It was really an eye-opening experience; she's everything they said she would be. :) BOOOMZZZZZ!

Hah, so once again, thanks for reading these random stuffs, I hope they entertained you!

Once again, I tried to put my e.l.f cosmetics eye transformer to good use, so I utilized the pink and blue shades in the palette this time. Can't really see the pink and purple huh? Looks like a normal silver smokey eye through the camera. -__-

Close-ups of the eye makeup. Maybe you can just see a hint of pink on my lids; it's more obvious in real life. Also, the purple on the outer V was created just by layering the blue transformer shade on top of a black base, and using a bit of dark purple e/x from my 88 palette to contour some more.

I used one of Smashbox's more recently released mascara, the Hyperlash. The mascara is not too bad, it lengthens quite a bit and volumizes well. Unlike the new Urban Decay Cannonball, which gives no volume at all.

[Pic credited to Makeupandbeautyblog.com]

A silly face to end off the post. As you can see, my complexion isn't at its best right now. I was breaking out real bad a few days back, but luckily the pimples are healing nicely now. Must be the monthly thing and the stress!

Ha ha ha, thanks for looking people!

And that is by using the bottom most right shade in the Wet N Wild "Comfort Zone" palette (go ahead and google the shade, I'm too lazy to post a pic :p). Of course there're plenty of comparisons between the MAC e/s and the WnW e/s, but I think this shade is awesome as it is!

I used a white gold colour (L'oreal quad!) in the inner 1/3 of my lids, while the green-to-brown gradient effect was achieved with only that single WnW e/s. It flashes green on my lids cos I had a black base underneath, afterwhich it graduated into a reddish brown shade on bare skin without the base. It's really a magical e/s IMHO.

Dramatic much?

But I still love it a lot!

Ha ha, thanks for looking at this LOTD, there're still more to come!

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.

Thank you everyone, who entered the giveaway and for giving such awesome comments! I had a fun time reading all of them and collecting the tips. :) I'm so sorry I went MIA the past few days - I went to Malaysia for a short holiday and I've started work as a temp staff in Sephora. Please pardon me if there aren't any new posts for the time being, cos things are kinda hectic currently.

Back on the giveaway, I have selected the winner through random.org and she is charlenejudith! There were 77 comments altogether (I excluded some due to them not following the rules) and I used random.org to generate the winning comment!

And here's the 29th comment:

Congrats Charlene! I've already contacted her and hopefully, we'll be meeting up soon for me to pass her the goodies. :)

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Regarding some of the questions and comments, I've got some replies to them too.

1) First of all, thanks everybody for reminding me to moisturize more and to take care of my things when I'm abroad. I don't really use moisturizer in SG, because the weather is already so humid and hot, so hopefully I'll be able to get into the habit of doing that when I'm in Canada. And I know that SG is crazily safe, so I'd keep an extra eye out for my belongings too.

2) Natassja, thanks for bringing up the underground city! My dad went to the library to borrow some travel guides and he told me about this HUGE underground shopping mall in Montreal. It's like 100 times of Dhoby Exchange or something, and I'm definitely looking forward to visiting there! And yes, my friends and I have already planned to visit the Niagara Falls!

3) As for CP-ing makeup for our fellow onsugarettes, I'm not too keen on it. Several reasons, one being that I'll be abroad for 5 months so you guys would have to wait very long to get your stuff. I also don't think I'm capable enough to hold on to so many requests for such a long period of time. Also, my family and friends have already requested me to bring back stuff for them. It's gonna be very heavy for me. I'm terribly sorry, guys. ): I'd love to, but because of the circumstances, I don't think I would want to.

4) To yurayura, I'm taking the degree in Biological Sciences; though I think you know already, cos you're the one that PM-ed me right? xD

5) To Mya, of course I'm excited to go! Ha ha, I've already gotten my tickets (leaving on the 18th of Aug), so that's gonna be in 2.5 months time. Many things to do before leaving though! And yes, I'll definitely be blogging A LOT on my exchange so look forward to the entries guys! I'm sure the makeup and the places posts will be quite interesting.

6) Lastly to Jen (shimmerpole), I'll try to pick up the Canadian accent if I can, ha ha! Not too optimistic on that, but we'll see. :]

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So once again, thank you all for joining my 160 followers giveaway. Thanks for all the support and love I've received in this 1.5 years that I've been makeup blogging. If you want to read more about my experiences in the states and Canada, so continue reading my blog, especially during the Aug-Sept period ok?

Cheers to all the lovely onsugarettes! <3