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

[Picture-heavy post]

My university clique and I made a trip to the SG flyer last Friday, as both a group activity and a farewell to me. There was suppose to be 7 of us, but one of the girls couldn't go. Anyway, we were all SG Flyer virgins except for my guy friend, Terry, so there's no need to mention that we were super excited for it. Plus, we got the tickets at S$10 each only!

Let's hand the talking over to the pictures!

4 of us girlies waiting at the MRT station for the others to arrive.

And as soon as everyone was present, we started walking towards the flyer. There's Marina Bay Sands in the background!

It was the perfect day for the outing, with crisp blue skies.

The foodcourt at the Flyer, which is modeled after the 1970's vibe and the famous streets in SG. The food is obviously overpriced.

My friend, Terry, waiting for us while we went to the ladies.

After which, we took the escalator up to the floor with the carriages. I love this escalator, it's so Tron-like!

Walking along the cyber space-themed corridor to the Flyer!

In one of the exhibition halls right before the entrance to the carriages.

Here comes the carriage!

And all 6 of us onboard safely!

The view from the Flyer is awesome! You can see everything from up there...

... like the pier, and the eco trees at Marina Barrage..

..the expressway...

..Marina Bay Sands...

and even the Merlion, hah!

Here are a few shots of us:

(flabby arms D:)

(obviously I was being an idiot in the background)

(and Terry looks like he's got a broken neck here)

We caught this guy and his family waving and snapping pictures at us in the next carriage! So cute!

After the Flyer, we went for dinner and decided to head to the Esplanade to chill out.

There were some blue funky lightings there, so we kinda played around with them and ended up with some creepy Juon-esque pictures!

Then we headed over to the centrestage to watch a B Boy Dance Battle!

And we ended the night with some goodies from Max Brenner and a long chat session. From left to right is the Dark Chocolate Soup, the Mexican Spicy Hot Chocolate drink (we thought it tasted like curry chicken, not good) and the Apple Tart.

We ordered the Chocolate Souffle too!

But out of all the chocolatey stuff, I love the apple tart the most! It was dayumz~

Ha ha, sorry for the pic spam but the outing was so enjoyable that I wanted to share it with you guys. Hope you found this post interesting and helpful if you're thinking of visiting the SG Flyer!

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!

I think I kinda fit along side Jones and Verlyn. As in we're the morphing hairstyle trio, ha ha ha! Seriously, I've seen them change their hairstyles so many times (never got sick of it, cos they always look good), and lately I've noticed myself doing so too.

I went for a hair cut finally, after 5 months of walking around with an assymmetrical mop atop my head. I went to find Shirleen at Marina Square's Chapter 2 this time, after seeing Ru's gorgeous haircut. It's also because my regular hair stylist, James at Century Square's Storm, retired! Oh my god, you should have seen my stunned face when I heard that.

Anyway, if you've seen my previous post on the Stila smudge pot, that's my hair before. And this is my hair after:

Yeah, granted it's still assymmetrical... But it's an assymmetrical BOB now! That's something different. I can't remember when was the last time I went so short or had a bob. Think it was at least 5 years ago.

The left side:

The right side:

And the back:

Gah, the first picture gives away the whole hairstyle! Shirleen was okay, she gave me some tips on how to work my (very fine and thin) hair. What I enjoyed most was the hair wash! Oh gosh. It was can-die shiok! The shampoo girl and I got into this deep converstion about education, so she kept scrubbing and massaging my head and, it was etherael! Plus the shampoo she used was minty, so my head was all cool and menthol and scrubbed, hah!

After the hair cut, I was kinda shocked at how airy and naked my neck felt, but I'm grateful now cos the weather is crapping hot! On the other hand, when it comes to winter in Montreal.... Brrrr! So not looking forward to it! Bring on the scarves, baby~

My dad likes the hair cut though. The first thing he blurted out when he saw me was "Wahhh, Cheryl! Why you so sexy?!" LOLOLOLOL.

Anyway, let's wrap up this post with 2 animal pictures. I caught Mocha sleeping on the printer in my room; she refused to look at the camera when I tried to camwhore with her.

Bluhh, whatever. Ha ha, thaks for reading though! :D

One and a half weeks ago, I finally purchased my first Stila product! And that is the smudge pot in "Cobalt Clutch". It was part of the Barbie Loves Stila promotion back in 2009, hence the price for it was only S$16. Also because I got it a the Smoochiezz flea market at The Cathay, and they're known for their cheap but authentic cosmetics.

Ha ha, I'm still highly amused by the holographic cover, however amatuer that may seem.

The smudge pot is a brilliant blue, with some silver sparkles (I think, I can't really tell the colour of the sparkles inside. FML).

I've heard so many good things about Stila smudge pots and I was really exciting at owning one; however, I think I got myself too hyped up about it. It kinda disappointed me.

First was the pigmentation. Even though the blue looks so opaquely stunning in the pot, it doesn't translate like that at all on the lids. I have to keep layering to finally get the full colour of the gel liner out. And also, the product flakes on me. Even when I'm layering it on. It's not that the smudge pot is old or dry, cos it's still creamy and spongey when I stab my eyeliner brush into it, but it just starts flaking when I apply it on my lids.

The only redeemable point would be that it does last a long time on the lids (once it decides to stop flaking off). And also because I really love that shade of blue.

Here's me wearing the gel liner over some peach e/s to match with my blue tank top:

Matchy matchy, me likes~

All in all, I'm glad I got it on sale, cos I won't want to fork out S$40++ for this kind of eyeliner. I wonder if the other smudge pots are like this? Or is it just because this is blue, that's why it's not that opaque and it flakes?

Anyway, thanks for reading this entry! 1 more week left till I leave SG, gotta start packing soon.

I finally got myself a new camera, the Canon S95!

Bought it through a contact for S$589, with a free 8 GB SD card, that beautiful brown casing and an umbrella (-__-). I added another S$110 for another 4 years of warranty, which is so worth it.

Have been lemming for this camera since the end of last year, but I was quite put off by the price. However, since I'll be going for the exchange trip, it's more than enough reason to invest in a good camera. It'll be good to preserve those memories in good quality pictures.

And there's nothing better to test out the camera than some snap shots of my pores (and my black heads and eyelashes). God, I love the macro function!

And one of my nail polish I had on then (with flash).

And of course, my animals! Presenting to you my new kitten, Patches!

I seem to be getting a new kitten every now and then, don't I? Anyway, my gauging with this camera isn't very accurate yet, hence the cropped-out side of my face.

I managed to get my face in for these pictures though (totally unglam; no makeup and no touch-ups either).

I had to share this one, cos Patches was punching me as I was trying to plant a kiss on her, and my sister is in the background playing with the iPad!

Also, I made two collages with the pictures I snapped!

And finally, a snapshot of Mocha and little Patches darting in the BG. Those two are as different as can be!

Anyhoo, subsequent pictures you see on this blog will be taken with my S95. I'm really satisfied with the quality of the pictures, and I'm hoping that I get to picture spam when I'm abroad. Thanks for looking!

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.

Sometimes, the makeup industry can be a place that harsh and full of deceit (heck, most industries are like that), but from the experience I've gained so far, I feel that I'm able to write an accurate insider's account on what's going on. To clarify things, I'm not trying to toot my own horn. Afterall, I've only been working there as a temporary BA. However, I do know a few stuff and it's fun to just let you guys know what truly works and what doesn't. :)

Favs and Nays of Sephora BA's

Fav #1. Sephora Flashy Liners

There's the 24/7 pencil liners by Urban Decay and the Aqua Eyes liners by Make Up For Ever (MUFE), but they're so expensive for just a simple eye liner. The next time you visit Sephora, do check out the in-house line of "Flashy Liners", cos they work just as well (if not, better!). I've tried all three brands, and honestly, UD's 24/7 liners suck big time. They don't stay on my waterline and they migrate everywhere in Singapore's hot and humid weather. MUFE's Aqua Eyes are only a tad better. Sephora's flashy liners work great, and they only cost $14 each. Plus, the electric blue, forest green and peach shades are so pretty and pigmented!

Fav #2. Sephora Jumbo Eyeshadow Pencils

Ha ha, I've always amused myself at how Sephora launches certain products that are uncannily close to a product of another brand.

*cough* rip off *cough*

One such case is Urban Decay launching their jumbo e/s pencils, and a few weeks down the road, Sephora has their own version of the jumbo e/s pencils! While the former cost S$33 each, Sephora's only cost $17 each and they work pretty much the same. The only difference is the colour selection - if you prefer more BOOMZ colours, go for the Urban Decay ones; otherwise, the Sephora ones are a good bargain!

Fav #3. Sephora Mattifying Powder Foundation

Truth to be told, I haven't tried this product myself as I don't use powder foundations, but I've seen a lot of customers and colleagues use it, and it's good. My assistant supervisor, who's been with Sephora for 3 - 4 years, swears by it! The powder is finely milled and the coverage is full, so it gives you a very natural and flawless finish without looking cakey of too made-up. It also comes in pink (R series) and yellow-based (D series) tones, and ranges from the very fair (R/D10) to the very dark (R/D55). Plus, the oil-controlling property is really not bad!

Fav #4. Sephora Hair Mask

Again another product that I personally didn't try, but I've heard tons of Sephora BA's singing its praises. The display shelf for it is almost always empty, hence it's frequently sold out, and when stocks do come, the BA's will reserve 2-3 tubs for themselves at one go. I heard that the moisturizing and repairing ability of the mask is really good, and it comes ina huge tub at a relatively low price (S$25+) too. However, I haven't been seeing it instore lately, so there's a possibility that it might have been discontnued. =/ Just keep an eye out for it lah.

Fav #5. Federic Fekkai Hair Products

Ha ha, I'd be lying if I said we love just the in-house brand of products; of course we adore the high end brands too, and one tried-and-tested brand is Fekkai's range of hair products. Let's just say that anyone who've tried their products never went back to the previous products again. It's that good! I love their hairspray, my colleagues rave about their Apple Cider Clarifying shampoo, and I've got customers that swear by their Technician Color Care series. Yes, it's pricey but it's worth every penny!

Fav #6. Make Up For Ever

More often than not, when a Sephora BA is deciding which instore products to use for the day, she/he will head straight for the MUFE counter. Simply because the quality of their products is amazing and most of their products work so well. For me, I love their eyebrow pencils and Smokey Lash mascara. My colleagues love their HD elixir, HD primers and All Mat foundations. MUFE is a true gem amongst the other gimmicky products in the store, and we know it. The only downside is the price of their products... -___-

Nay #1. Amazing Cosmetics concealer isn't all that amazing.

[Picture credit to cosmetic-candy.com]

Well, it actually depends on your skin tone and what purpose you want it for. I'd admit the concealer is not bad - it's smooth and liquidy so it won't cause cakiness, the coverage is excellent, and it's a good investment since a little goes a long way. However, most of their shades are too orangey for us Asians. Thank god I match well to one of their few yellow-based shades, and that is "Light Golden". Most of my darker skinned customers have great difficulty matching, simply because of its weird orange tone. A pity, really, as it's quite a good concealer.

Nay #2. Clinique skin care

I'm not gonna say much in fear of what may happen to me, but people with sensitive skin, just avoid the brand. You can test it out if you want, just go to Sephora and swab some onto your neck. But in general, just take my heeding. No matter what the brand claims to be (allergy tested, fragrance free, blah blah).

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Pet Peeves

More specifically, mine actually. While I'm pretty pleasant to majority of the customers, so really do get my goat. I know that it's our job to serve you, but there's no reason to be mean or degrading or rude or just plain unreasonable.

Pet Peeve #1. "Is it good?"

Ha ha, I had this customer who asked me that question for every product she laid her hands on. I don't mind if you ask me on specific products, but to do this for 10 products ranging from skincare to makeup to body care, it's just... NO! (see, I've ran out of words to describe that horrible feeling) I mean, I am paid to say that every product is good, but do you really want to hear that? I sure don't, cause what I want to do is to tell you the truth. Don't make me lie in your face.

Pet Peeve #2. Learn to speak at least some English, goddamnit.

This has always been bothering me. Why is it that most Japanese and Korean customers bother to learn english and even try to make their point across with their limited vocab (I do appreciate the effort, I'll always try my best to help them)... but the China customers don't?

They walk into Sephora expecting every single person there to be fluent in Mandarin. When half of the Sephora BA's are Malays. Even the MUFE BA at our store is a Malay. I alright with my mandarin, but I'm not trained in speaking cosmetic terms. What's "serum", "toner", "lash tonic" in mandarin? I've got no idea. Singapore is a multi-racial country and our first language is English, so please learn to at least utter some words. "Thank you" and "Please" will be a good start.

Pet Peeve #3. Treating BA's like servants.

Seriously, this does not go down well with us at all. Yes, it's our job to serve you, but as a customer and sales assistant. Not as a owner and slave. Will you make your friend run around to fetch things for you at a single command or a wave of your hand? Will you expect your friend to bend down and pick up something you've dropped at your feet, just because you don't want to mess up your dress or you're actually trying to balance on 5-inch heels? No, right? That applies with us, and all the rest of the human race.

For me, if a customer is nice enough, I'd voluntarily run around the store for her and even bend down at her feet. But if you're showing me a haunty look and expecting me to do so, sorry. No go.

That being said, do try to make friends with the BA's. Cause once we feel at ease and friendly with you, more often than not we'll throw in a lot more samples and goodies into your shopping bag. And we might even let you in on good products that only the BA's know. At least that's what I do. A single heart felt "thank you" and smile goes a long way!

Pet Peeve #4. Please acknowledge our greeting.

Even if you turn towards our direction after we've greeted you, we appreciate it! A nod of your head or a smile makes the greeting even more worth doing. I love greeting caucasian customers as they often return our greetings with a wide grin and a cheerful "Hello, how are you?". Most Singaporeans do nod or flash us a brief smile. There are some that just saunter in, ignore our greeting and us in general...and then turn around and say we didn't serve them.

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Ohh, before I forget, let me show you this cute souvenir my assistant supervisor got me when she went to Bangkok a while back!

Ha ha, isn't it cute??? I love her silky long red hair and her dress, even though I'm not really good at taking care of it (her hair is much messier now than when I just received her, ha ha!).

Thanks for reading this post, if you do have any comments/feelings on what I've just written, please leave it down! I'd love to hear what you have to say!

I had been working as a temporary beauty advisor in Sephora (kinda obvious from my series of posts) for the past two months, and I've finally stopped work last week. It will be just another 2 weeks more before I leave for USA and Canada for a 5 month exchange trip, so I needed some break time to get my things in order.

Surprisingly, it was a relatively uneventful experience this time. I wasn't involved in any of the animations (over-time shifts that the BA's do to revamp the display shelves and put up new products) and my manager didn't send me for any training (seeing as I was temp anyhow). Plus, there weren't any makeup themes and we didn't have the hair styling station to play with. However, I did serve a few interesting customers (Ris Low will forever top that list) and I'm satisfied with my work.

One perk about working in a beauty store is that you kinda have 'unlimited' excess to samples and products.

Which is how I ended up with all these...

...and I must say it's very timely of me to pick up these miniatures, as they'll come in useful for my upcoming exchange trip!

There's some Biotherm products: (from left to right) the cleanser, a microscrub cleanser, serum and tub moisturizer.

A bit on Biotherm - I don't really have a good impression of it. Most, if not all, of their products contain alcohol denat., which dries out skin. I don't even get why they put it into their moisturizers, kinda defeats the prupose doesn't it?

I got some For Beloved One stuff! (left to right) Treatment lotion, Vit C essence, night jelly, toner and the BB cream.

The brand just arrived in the store a few weeks back, but one thing I have to say is that their stuff all smell really good! Like their toner don't smell like toner at all, smell like some kind of perfume. *swoons at scent*

Some assorted products here, the top row are Kose samples. Grabbed the refining lotion 1, and two tubes of washing cream and makeup base each. There's two Lancome Bright Eyes base (SPF 50, woots!) and a couple of Libote Sakura cleansers and exfoliating gel.

I've tried a tube of the Kose makeup base, and I must say I'm quite impressed with it. It's got SPF 25 but it isn't greasy at all; in fact, it gives a semi-matte finish. Also, it's got enough coverage for me to use it on its own if I'm not going anywhere special.

Should have grabbed more of it... Ha ha!

Last but not least, these I find extremely handy for my trip. Travel size Clinique makeup removers! Such a good time to grab these, I was wondering how to smuggle in my full size L'oreal makeup remover the other day.

On top of these cosmetics, I got a free Ralph Lauren umbrella. It's a wonderful umbrella, being made up of thick and sturdy material and being incredibly big. I can foresee my family using it for years ahead. -___-

All in all, it was certainly a good thing to go back to Sephora to work this holiday! Ha ha, thanks for reading!

Basically, this was the last notable LOTD that I wore to Sephora for work. I only had a day left after that and I happened to fall ill, so I didn't do any fanciful eye works.

Close-ups of the eye:

It was the pair of Elise lashes that I bought half a year ago, the pair at the bottom.

It was going for only S$2 (R.P. at $12.90) at a Sasa sale, and I swore I would wear it at least once if I do return to Sephora for work. Well, I fulfilled that promise to myself and I totally didn't regret buying this pair of lashes. They look amazing and they're quite comfortable to wear. Not heavy and pokey at all! I'm definitely bringing and wearing these to NYC!

Other than these lashes, I kept the whole look simple with some light contouring and a winged liner.

Ahh, I love how they complement my silver frames!

Ha ha ha at my narcissism. But thanks for looking anyway!