comfort clothing; once you go black, you'll never go back

To me, having a little black blouse in your wardrobe is as much important as having a little black dress. Especially if you're not so much as a dress gal, then blouses or tops can be a nice alternative.

Black is a universal color, no one can doubt that. I don't know a person who doesn't love/own blacks in their wardrobe. Well, you don't exactly call it 'love'. I know that if I were to choose between a variety of colors, I would always look at the blacks first to see if the suit is nicer in black in color. You just...choose. Black is a safe option. And anywhere else, black means chic and sophisticated, and people tend to be more creative around this color.

Which is one of the reasons why, eventhough black isn't my favorite color, my wardrobe do seem to pile up on them.


I went into TESCO again, ventured into their clothing section again, got my eyes on one thing or two...same old, same old. This one was a new arrival back then. I was a bit in the mood to find some basics but with a slightly new tinge in it. I mean, I love my blacks and my whites and my browns, but I do think that I need to pay more attention on the details and the fabrics to avoid my choice of basics being too plain. That's the thing I learn (out of observation) that if you're going to buy blacks, make sure it has elements!


I never owned a blouse like this, eventhough I know that for quite some time I wish I had. I was a bit of a dress disciple back then to appreciate the fact that a nice, black blouse could be a savior in the closet as well. Just as chic and cute looking on. And as usual, the details and the fabric sold me. It is made out of chiffon material so eventhough it's black, I know I won't be melting in a blazing hot day. And I particularly like the V cut on the neck, the little cuffs on the sleeves and the elastic at the waist. It's the later part that caught my attention.

It's original price is RM69.00, marked down until it's RM34.50. I admit that it is still a cringing lot of money for TESCO but I think that the making of it does compensate for the price that I have to pay.

... insert sheepish-guilty look.

And with the classic black, came the compulsive need to pile on the accessories.

Black blouse: TESCO
Jeans: F.O.S
Necklace: Sunway Pyramid Asian Avenue
Ring: Chamelon KLCC
Watch: Vincci
Sling bag: Miss Selfridge

Love, Faith..and Other Drugs.

Okay, I know. Cheesy title pick, with an even more cheesier entry that I'm about to make.

I consider myself a girl that loves everything that other girls love and do. And what girls don't like themselves a little bit of accessories? I've not yet reached the level to own Tiffany & Co, but with my future set out, God-willing I will get there soon. But for the time being, I am most satisfied with gems in Diva, Accessorize, Chamelon and even little shops in Asian Avenue, Sunway Pyramid, little kiosks anywhere. If you look out properly, you will definitely not be disappointed. In my case, it's always whether some accessory is cheaper than the other.

I love simplicity in things, but I like following the trends too. Currently I've been meaning to get myself a feather necklace. Feather earrings are to die-for in my opinion, but since I wear scarves over my head, that would be completely pointless. I've eyed one or two in Forever 21 in stores but always get the goosebumps to wear it. I mean, wouldn't it look too much on me? I know my conservative mother would agree, and my friends have frowned on my choices before. So, as for now, I am saving myself to find the perfect simple feather necklace, if there is one out there (hopefully!)

Eventhough I don't pick-and-choose stores to go to when finding accessories, half of my dressing table do seem to pack on things from Forever 21. One of the reason is because they have massive collections, and often changed according to seasons. The other is because, despite them being an oversea brand, they are fairly cheap. Well, compared to Vincci Accessories, where their stuffs tend to start with RM 39.90 being the cheapest. I would only go to VA when they're having their 50% and above, which they did recently and I've finally secured myself some stuffs from them. But with Forever 21, I could count on finding things for RM10 in their jewellery section. And when they go on sale, the jewellery section to me swelled like Charlie's Chocolate Factory. At least in my Penang store, they did. I spent 4 hours there recently.

Does that make me sound like I prefer an International brand over a local brand?

Yes. No.

Well, arguments aside, one of my fave accessory from them has been this babe;



I call this my 'Love & Faith' necklace, I got this not too long ago. I prefer my accessories to be 'gold' or rusty gold. I could seldom find good accessory in silver color, my style. This necklace right here has been my go-to necklace for quite some time, and I'm very fond of wearing it against a white/black beater.

One thing I'm not liking about this necklace is the straps (is that what you call it?) I hate the little ball things where you have to clasp everything together, it reminds me of keychains on my schoolbag from years ago. Still trying to find the right chain (chain! that's it, not straps!) to go with it.



On another note, I did make my 4 hours trip to Forever 21 well worth it when one of the things that I scored is this necklace;

When I first bought it, I thought it was a just a nice brown stone necklace. It's not until I got home that I realized the green lining in the middle of the cut-stone and around it. This necklace comes with three colors- a black, brown and turquoise. The black was classic but I figured it would be pointless against LBDs, black tops or whatever. the turquoise was pretty but something made it a little meh on me. Besides, I'm quite picky when it comes to branching out in colors. imagine if this one comes in hot pink?

On second thought, hot pink is not bad either :-)

If you can't tell from the above picture, the cut in the middle of the stone bears a different texture from the rest of the stone. It is, to put in my own fabulous description, rusty, somewhat sandpaper-like.

...which is clearly seen in flash mode.

Hopefully I'll get enough wear out of this one. I have to be careful though, it does looks like it's delicate.

Handsome lonely bear sitting in the corner.

White beater: F.O.S
Black sweater: MNG
Jeans: F.O.S
Necklace: Forever 21

comfort clothing; the fast and the furious

I always envied people who wear bold looking pants, ones other than the normal black/grey/khaki color. People who walked around in neon pink pants/jeans/shorts, or even lime green, electric blue...you name it, I have my eyes on it. But to actually pull one myself is something that I haven't started doing yet. Ignorance to know my waist size aside, I have always put my trust on jeans...jeans...and more jeans.

Well, I think sometime I have to walk the walk too.



I bought this pants from a dear friend of mine, Ayie, for RM20. She originally bought it from Fourskin, a brand that I have heard about but never really paid attention to. It is not of jeans material, but the quality is good. It's sturdy and the cut is very flattering on my legs. It is a bit long though, so does every other pants in my wardrobe that needs trimming.


Now, the question is, red? seriously?

Red is not my favorite color, nor do I hate it. To me, it is alright to wear red. My favorite color is purple. But do I want to wear purple pants? Not yet, to be honest. I've bumped into a purple skinnies while out shopping for a grey one (the story of everyone's life) and although the color looks very inviting, I was really hesitant to buy it. I went through the usual shoppers' guide in my head; what do I wear this with? how do I pull it of? do I have something in my wardrobe to go with it? will I look good in it?

I know that people won't go out shopping everyday for yellow, blue, or red pants. I would always try to find myself a good pair of jeans instead that I know I can wear everday. But I would always glance...and envied dutifully at the rack of colorful pants in store, and wondering when I would have the guts to slip one myself.

All I could say is that my friend has done me a sweet favour :)



An obligated mirror pose. This has always been the way I would wear the pants with. I didn't change much with the red pants going on as I still rely big time on the safe color black. But overall satisfaction? I'm glad I have this in my wardrobe now, I don't have to fully envy others from now on!

Red pants: Bought from friend/Fourskin
Black lace top: www.getgorgeous.com.my
Black cardigan: ROMP
Necklace: Forever 21
Sling bag: Ayie's gift/ Miss Selfridge

comfort clothing; old 'n' authentic

I have a confession to make; that just as much as I hoard places looking for makeup (even if it means ol' Chinese beauty saloons here in Penang), I can assure you that I hoard for clothing items in those places either. I have this tendency to scrouge places that I go to find gems (as a manner of speaking) and it always surprises me how they will turn out to be in my liking, even more than my ZARA or GAP purchases.

That's the beauty of fashion. You can always widen your horizon, in fact, minimizing your chances might not be a very good idea.

I wouldn't call what I have as 'fashion'. I humbly respect everyone's and anyone's taste of style and I agree totally that not two of us are the same in what we like to have on our back. But now, onto my point of 'scrouging places for gems'.

One of the places where I secretly like to find gems is, surprisingly, TESCO.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I downgrade that place for anything low quality. But I've always been to that departmental store just for the groceries, never would I thought of it as a place to, put it in my own words, scrouge for gems. But scrouge it, I did.


Yes, I know. This is the epitome of a granny blouse. I would totally rock it in the 80s if I have this on. I love this blouse because of the old vibe that it gives. The dark color and the big faded white roses makes it even more interesting looking. It is a bit pleated down the colar area and has a nice, gold zipper down the back that goes half way. The material of it is soft, and I'm not going to kid anyone by guessing what it made out of. I'm just going with the description that it is soft. Not the kind of soft that Downy adverts made them to be though.


Now, the first time that I saw it in TESCO, I knew that I love it. This was definitely one of my style, what I would wear. The price then was RM49.00. I did the normal "this is too expensive for TESCO," and despite that I like it so much, I didn't get it then. I waited, and the next time I was in TESCO, who would have thought? This gem was on the rack for 70%, making it only RM14.75.


The way I would wear it. This was a size M, so does every story tells when you're on sale and you couldn't find your size S or XS anymore. But that's okay. I just tucked it into my skinnies.

Granny blouse: Tesco
Long black cardigan: ZARA
Skinny jeans: Cats Whiskers
Gold watch: Vincci Accessories
Ring: The Curve Flea Market

the notebook

Now, I just want to say that I have absolutely no idea of what I am going to write here. Honestly, I know what I want to write but they all seem like bits and pieces mashed up together. It's like it is easier being played on and on inside my head instead of writing them down. Because I'm afraid no one really gets it, you know what I mean? I don't want to write too long till it's pointless but I want to send my message out too. This is something I've been putting off for a really, really, really long time but I wasn't sure if I want to. But recently, I've been having a lot of Avril's What The Hell moments to even count which is right or which is not supposed to be exposed. I guess this entry will fall onto neither; it'll become the epitome of this song.

Be warned, I might enter some serious issues-ramblings-issues-ramblings phase in the next few lines. Just hope the ramblings wouldn't surpass the issues.

I celebrated my birthday recently, on the 17th of July 2011. And with it comes the new perspective and new momentum in life that I wish to embrace and achieve, as should all of us once we're entering a new age/year in life. There are goals to reach for, and in my case I have an ocean of them.

So what have I learned from 22 years of living?

1. Be yourself. If you like something, say/buy/do it. There are many others but there is only one YOU.
2. Stand up for yourself. Depending on others, is the last thing that I want to do if I can help it. I'm the kind of girl that when I want something, I will have it even if I have to do it alone. However, I do see this as both strength and weakness. If I do things too much on myself, I will be seen as ignoring and shunning others from my life. But the thing is I hate asking for favors and be burdensome to someone else. I guess I'll have to work on this area even more. It clashes like hell, and making me seem like I have this weird split personality.
3. Love yourself. It's okay to love others or love others more than yourself, but you got to have some love inside of you saved for yourself as well. Love yourself enough to know that something is wrong, something shouldn't be done or some decisions shouldn't be made that will eventually hurt you. Remember that if you don't love yourself, no one will.
   
4. Think with the head, not with the heart. I have always been a firm believer of practicality and I have longed let myself be the slave of my emotions. This is a result of a hard fall out five years ago, and pieces by pieces I have to patch my heart back again. I would not want my heart to be overly consumed with emotions, especially anger and sadness and regrets.
   
5. Apologies to me do not mean that someone is always wrong, often time it means you're matured enough to not fight over things, to solve things smartly and to defend the friendship.
6. Do not fight fire with fire unless you're absolutely 100% sure that your friendship is going to sustain it.
7. Quality always overrides quantity. You can have one or two friends that make you happy rather than having a bajillion of them and none will come to you when you need them the most. I have experienced this. Be thankful to have a friend that is willing to do just about anything for you, forgive your biggest mistake that you've ever done to her, even if it is just ONE friend. Believe me, that will be one too many.
   
8. Count your blessings, instead of what you don't have. There's got to be something in your life that you hold dearly to, that will keep your feet on the ground. I think by this time, everyone who reads my blog knows that my little sister, Ariessa is a God-Sent to me. I could not express how much I love her. Every song is about her, every laughter is for her. And I have not yet begin exaggerating, believe me.
   
9. You could have everything, but still feel suffocated. What's important is you feel content with what you have.
10. In terms of love and relationship, what's important is not to stick to how long you've been together, rather how you spend the time that you've been together.
    
11. Do not change if you don't want to.
12. Do not, in any circumstances, hold grudges. It's terrible and it gets to you back. You have to forgive others in order for you to move on.
13. Know that you're beautiful, and very special in your own way. It doesn't matter if you're fat or skinny, you're still very beautiful. Tell yourself that first before others tell you.
    
14. Put God first. Come to think of it, this one should be the first on the list :)
15. Never be afraid of what others think. It is not your job to please everyone.
    

Now that we're done with the serious part, I'm going to the more fun, non-serious part. And I am lacking vocabularies here.

I have been going through phases in my life where I have not always like the way I am. I hate myself for being too skinny because everyone else seems to think that it is unnatural for someone to be too skinny. And yes, I get all the usuals. The teasings and the name callings never get better, I begin to see compliments as hidden criticism. One thing that people don't understand is that, people find it rude to point out a person's fatness but don't find it rude to point out a person of the total opposite. So for skinny people, people like me, are deprived of the safety blanket of common sense. Until recently, I haven't really embraced the fact that the scales that I step on wouldn't change. I would always be 40kg and less in weight. I am very thankful that now, I have learned to appreciate and accept the obvious fact that this is my body, if I hate it I wouldn't gain anything but if I love it I would be very happy.

Of which, everything being told, this blog might probably enter a new angle :)

That's all for now, Bai Semua =)

hands down obsession.

Okay, let's all agree that this is the worst uploaded photo I've ever had in this blog. I'm on the mood for some product favorites and right now, because of this weird looking photo, my mood has somewhat a bit degraded. But not too worry, I'll make good use of what's in here. The thing is, I've spent a lot of time while I was out, looking for the right USB cable for my camera but to no avail.

Oh well, onto the more important stuffs.

I love all of my makeup purchases, no matter how lousy they turn out to be, or how irritated I am at half of them because they do nothing than look pretty on the outside, I'm still someone who would make things work with them. I changed my makeup regularly, but for the past few months I have noticed that I have been grabbing for the same products. In terms of foundation, I've been switching from my BB Cream to Revlon Colorstay regularly, so no surprise there. But as far as blusher and other products, I rarely stick to one until recently.

For primer, I have been liking my new purchased baby, the Elite Paris Fantastic Primer. I have a whole post dedicated to primers so I'm not going to dwell too much on it here. Three things that I could say; superb, excellent, and (as the name suggests) fantastic!

I am now in the happy mood of wearing eyeshadows, particularly cream eyeshadows. If you asked me, i wouldn't have the faintest idea that I would fall for them, let alone finding myself constantly wearing the Touch Touch Shadow Liner by Etude House. I am quite convinced that I have fouled this product by saying that it is too glittery for my liking, but I was wrong. I find myself not needing to wear an eye primer whenever I'm using this one, and it creates the most beautiful pearly silver finish on my eyes.

Other than that, I've been loving my Elianto Baked Eyeshadow in 02 Roasted Brown on the outer corner. I must say that I am quite happy to see that the oval shape of the eyeshadow has deflated in this tube, showing how often I've been using it. It is a dark brown eyeshadow with gold reflects, which makes perfect for wearing on the outer corner or in the crease. Together with that, I have been loving to put on two colors on the bottom of my Color Basical quad, the red purpley color and the mid tone brown one alternately on my crease. I must say that I prefer the brown better, as it creates a nice dimension against the Elianto eyeshadow.

Ah well, I surely think a quick Eye Routine is necessary to stress my point. Look out for it tomorrow, I hope.

Moving on to brows, I have been using my one and only Silkygirl Natural Brow Pencil in Soft Black. I have one in dark brown but I didn't like it as the colors seem obvious on my black brows. I used this ever so slightly and carefully. I am not big on shaping my brows as I hardly thread them, but as far as keeping them neat-looking, this brow pencil has done it.


Onto the blusher, I've been loving the Smooth Minerals from AVON in the color M02 Blushed. I would never have thought that I like mineral blusher, let alone mineral things. I've told you that I've been meaning to get my hands on the outdated Maybeline Mineral Foundation (which clearly won't come out again). I love the texture and color of this blusher. It looks like everything that I already owned but when swiped lightly across my cheeks, I can't help but thinking that the mineral ingredient might have done a trick or two. It's the most beautiful deep pink color I've had, and everytime now that I'm in a blusher-attack, I would always find myself go for this one.
At last, I think the number one most used product for the past 2 and a half month at least has been my Loreal Paris Ultra Volume Collagen. I would wear this everytime I have my makeup on and I have been complimented by friends, siblings and even sale promoters on makeup counters. One even asked if I was wearing fake lashes on, I swear! If you ask me, I'm definitely going to repurchase this (despite of having two unopen tubes of mascaras in my drawers). That's how much love I'm willing to give to this one!

That's all for now, Bai Semua!

come, come clean for once

It's no secret that I eat-play-sleep with makeup. My beauty obsession has stretched out as far as I'm willing to let it. But when it comes to removing them, I'm the complete wuzz of it all, hands down. It's not the fact that I'm doing a Kardashian and sleep in and wake up with the face all wrinkle,blemish free. It's more to the fact that I want to make every penny counts for removing my makeup, of which, if you ask me, is the irony of it all. My dad accidently pulled out my makeup drawer one day and went, "God, one of this must cost at least RM30," But when glimpsed at my skincare counter, you would only find three things used to remove all the 'more than RM30 worth of makeup' out of my face.


All I have on my counter ( I took them out of the counter and placed it on the dining table, literally speaking) are a jar of my trusted Vaseline, a hand sanitizer and a bottle of makeup remover). The only thing that constantly changes between these three is the makeup remover. I've had this one to replace my Biore Cleansing Oil a while back.

This one is called the Cleansing Express Lotion Moist. I literally have to keep the box that comes with it, because that's where the English translation of this product's description is on. The one I have here is for dry to normal skin, and in the store it did comes with one for oily skin and another for combination skin. This product claims to be a 3-in-1 product, it's a makeup remover, cleanser and moisturizer all in one. What's good about this product and why I like i very much is it is a water-based makeup remover, as opposed to many of the oil based and cream based makeup remover out there. I don't remember of seeing any makeup removers which are water based for once. And what's good for water based makeup remover in my humble opinion is that it doesn't leave the skin feeling oily and prevents the skin from having breakouts if we tend to use oil based product too often on the skin. That's one of the things why as far as I loved my previous Biore Cleansing Oil, it would just not cut it in this criteria. Also, this new water based cleansing lotion removed my makeup successfully every night before I go to bed and it is also true that I don't have to use a separate cleanser for this one. I could be ready for bed, as opposed to using oil based makeup remover where I'm always keen on washing my face afterwards just to X out all the oil on my face.

This product also claims to be 100% Oil Free, Fragrance Free, Colouring Free, Paraban Free and Alcohol Free. Now, what I would normally do to remove my makeup is that I would take my hand sanitizer and sanitized my hand first. then, I would used about two pumps of this product on my bare,clean hand and wipe it off my face, making it makeup-free. I ceased using cotton wipes a while ago because as i said, I'm trying to make every penny counts for removing makeup and having cotton balls or cotton wipes is a no-no in that department. After I have finished removing my face makeup, I would wash my hands and sanitize it again and after that used my ever versatile Vaseline to remove my eye makeup. I rub it gently so that it wouldn't sting the eye.

All in all, I can safely say that I like this product so far mostly because of it's time-savvy technique. It saved me from all the old hassle. It does work well but I haven't tried it with a full in-your-face makeup yet (I've been staying home mostly for the holidays and only gone out about four times a week) so once I go in-your-face kind of face, I would definetely give this one a good go.

Thanks, Bai Semua =)

a short (important) notice

Dear my beloved fabulous readers, every single one of you out there :)

I am dreadfully sorry to announce that I have to make this blog a private site so that no one can read them. I also am truly sorry to say that I can't accept any blog site invitation, or inviting other sites likewise to my blog. In fact, this blog will be open for myself only. I can't tell you guys the real reason of it, only to let you guys know that I'm joining an event where having online sites like facebook, twitter and blog are inconvenient at the moment. Not to worry, I'm not doing anything dangerous in particular hehehe. I assure you that once I'm done with the event, I'll make this blog a public blog back. While I'm gone, I'll still be posting entries here so that you guys will have an abundance (sincerely,hopefully) to look forward to once I open this blog back.


This notice will be up till tomorrow morning. After that, I'm going to make this blog a private site. I love you all, and hopefully this goes out to everyone's understanding. Thank you very much.

Much love, bai semua!

we should know this best of all

I have been slacking major in my blog, I know, it's just that I'm having a good time chilling at home and going around places in my hometown. Meeting cousins and family, was just G-R-E-A-T. And best of all, spending time with my precious little angel of a sister, she's just a whuzz, I love her to death. But fret not, I've promised to make a blog talking about makeup primers- the ones I used so far and recommend on using.

Now, the uses of a primer are plenty. It depends on what you're looking at, but mainly primers help your face makeup to stay on longer. Some moisturizers do that, but some don't. that's why it's always good to have a primer. Other than that, primer can conceal and help even out skin tones. There are primers that come in different shades just to help conceal problem areas on the face. You get that with concealers too (but that's for some other time).

Ianti Luxe Jewelry Makeup Base, Elite Paris Fantastic Primer, Givenchy Acti'Mine Base de' Teint

These are the three that I have in my stash right now. I first bought the Ianti one about a year ago from its store in One Utama. I don't know where you can find it anymore as I haven't seen it around, even the store in One Utama has moved. But I do know that Ianti is a famous Asian brand and you could probably find it in any Asian store (though I doubt Sasa carries this line).

Ianti Luxe Jewelry Makeup Base

This is a green makeup primer. At the time where I bought this, I was having mild redness on my face due to facial problems, and it was an ordeal to have my makeup stay on. So this was a bit of a life saviour for me, as green counteracts with the redness and help to tone it down to give me a nice face base to apply my makeup. It does smell kind of funny, more like a conditioner and waxy smell, but it was okay. The formula is thick, so I only need a little amount of this for all over my face. It does contains fragrance though, which is not a plus for someone who has sensitive skin, so I wouldn't recommend it. Overall, I would give this product a 4/5. I did stop using this primer when my redness have ceased. Would I purchase this again? i don't think so, as much as I like it and it did work wonders for my redness, I still don't like it's thick formula and I think teher are better primers out there worthy of my attention.


Givenchy Acti'Mine Base de Teint

I used this one religiously as I like its consistency. If you're a person who does not have much problem area on the face, you could just wipe some of this and pat some powders on and you are ready to go. I would say, if my foundation gives 50% coverage, this product gives another 50% to that. I like it's staying power too (how weird does that sound, really). It holds on to the face makeup well and it evens out my skintone. I've had it for over a year as well and you could see from the tube that I still have a long way to go. The product is quite wattery, so it isn't as thick, which is why I like it. Used this before a foundation, preferably a full coverage one, and perfecto. Me laaaaves this. Me give it 5/5!


Elite Paris Fantastic Primer

There are two reasons as to why I bought this primer when I have had such good results with the previous one. 1) I'm getting tired of not having the option to switch my primers every now and then and 2) I've been meaning to try out a primer which formula is gel-like. My first thought was to get my hands on teh Revlon primer but when I went, my local pharmacy was out of stock. So I picked up this one. I've used it several times already and I can say that it holds my face makeup well, perhaps even better than my Givenchy one. I think it has to do with the gel formula, and I like how it gives the matte look to the skin. My makeup stays on pretty much the whole day (or my foundation, powder and concealer did at least). I love this primer, except that I think the gel formula has leaved small patches of dry area after two,three uses, everytime I removed my makeup. But nothing that my moisturizer couldn't handle afterwards. I would give this one 4.5/5.

From left: Elite primer, Givenchy primer, Ianti primer.