comfort clothing; when you think it won't look good on you

A couple few updates before I jump into the entry. Been keen on doing this lately but I just have to squeeze these non-exciting life jitters of mine in a blog post.

• I am currently addicted to the Olsens tumblr. If you're one of the person like me who lurks in the dark and pops out only to find that fashion is amazing, please check this out. It's a cool site for girls who love to put on pretty things together behind their back but don't have enough imaginations (or guts) to do so.
  
• Slowly changing my eye makeup routine. I've added just a bit of black eyeshadow which you can't really tell once it's on. That's why I've been putting of blogging about it. I know.. I know..
• Addicted to the TV show, Merlin. I know Merlin is old news, but there is something about me and ancient history movies lately.
• Am still on the hunt for the perfect black skinny jeans. Right now the chances are second to none.
• Contemplating into getting one of the many BB Creams that Face Shop has come out with. I've barely scratch the surface with my Super Skin 79 because I've been using my old trusted Revlon of late. Believe me, I should not get another BB Cream, no matter how pretty they are in my collection.

Done. Now onto the main part of the post.

I've always thought (as I'm forever in awe of my 'knowledge' in certain type of clothing) that those massive baggy batwing shirts won't cut it for my body type. And truthfully, there are some out there that despite the baggy look, obviously look baggier on me. I don't want to end up looking like an overgrown bat. I know that the Olsens rock baggy shirts, up to their knees and pair them with skinnies (where are mine?) and some black boots. But they look good in it coupled with the famous out of bed look whereas for me, I couldn't afford to make my scarfs and shawls any scruffier looking then they are at present.

Don't get me wrong, I do have a couple pair of baggy shirts (usually cropped) that I like. Zara makes good ones and if you're attentive enough, you'd find pretty ones in Time Square. But this time around, I want to find something that isn't cropped, a blouse perhaps that have baggy arms but one I could pull off.


I got this blouse at a store called Rest & Relax. To me, this store is seriously overpriced. Lucky I managed to get this on a discount for RM30-ish. It's a kimono type of blouse, which for me personally (judging from my body type), fits into the category of baggy clothes. I have had a few issues with this blouse when I brought it home. First, it has a low back, which would mean that I have to wear my scarf really low just to hide the peeping skin. Some of my tops aren't this low so layering proves to be a problem. I kept tugging it back and fro. The color scheme is nice though, I would consider it safe. And as for the baggy arms, I'm glad that they finish off with small cuffs at the end so it closes the baggy-ness of this blouse on me.



It still doesn't look any less baggy on me, which I like. Lucky that it has an elastic waist, which means I don't have to carry the baggy-ness down below my abdomen.

Coupled with my favorite accessories, this was during a sister's day out I had with my sisters in Penang.


Yes, I'm in a fitting room trying on some skinnies as you can see (which I bought, by the way. will show it in future posts!) Trying to see this blouse from a different angle.

The same blouse, only this time with a different shawl.

Blouse: Rest & Relax
Necklace: Forever 21
Watch: Vincci Accessories
Shawl (in the last picture): Curve Flea Market

Bai Semua! :)

all strings attached

You know what's the best thing in my life right now?
The first word of that sentence.
Happy three years :)

comfort clothing; on lazy days

Pardon my language. It is not my intention to start of by being so abrupt and sounding so sudden in a post title. Probably you wouldn't need to read the rest of the post once I put out the picture that I associate it with. Oh well. Something just don't need the beating around the bush to get to the point, and this is one of the things. This is just too...obvious.



Behold the lazy clothing that beats all other lazy clothing out there. Cardigans.

For someone like me, cardigan is a must-have. If people have an umbrella stand ready by their door, I would use that stand to hang my cardigans so that I could slip into them at the dorrway and run out to the street. How twisted is my understanding of sediakan payung sebelum hujan. I always think of cardigans as my savior in confusing or busy days. Days where I'm too lazy or couldn't care less. Days that I want to go with not thinking what I should wear or whether I would look cute. Days where I would trade myself with an Oompa Loompa if that means I could complete my work. Okay, scratch that. I don't want to work in a sticky chocolate factory.

Let's cut it to the point.

Well, I have always wanted to find a cardigan that isn't plain, but not too fancy at the same time. I have looked into stores in Times Square, where to me, one could easily get a nice looking cardigan that would look cute on. And nothing black in it. Lord knows I have enough black cardigan/jacket/blazer to last me a lifetime. No, this time I am determined to find a cream/peach/pink/tan/grey cardigan. i prefer it not to have buttons as well, as I've seen in Korean fashion that a buttonless cardigan, at least in my opinion, would pop up an outfit. And even if I'm looking for one, I would find it with cute buttons.

Mission in Times Square fail. I brought that mission home. Got up one day with an urge to go to some random local boutique in my neighbourhood, pop in, and there it was. Hanging nicely on a rack (clearance rack!) just waiting for me to try it on. And tried it, I did.

This is indeed a RM25 well-spent.

I could pair this up with so many different things- blouse, jeggings, high waisted shorts and black tights, white tshirt, long necklace, bangles etc etc. But for most days (the lazy one, as the post title suggest), I would just go with some black jeans, white/black tank top and a black shawl.


I like how this cardigan has an extra tie around the waist, so it hugs it to my body nicely and gather them in the front so it hung nicely around my legs. And the ruffles around it just add to my point of "not plain but not too fancy" cardigan.



With lazy days, come the matching lazy face. And a lazy face like this consist of moisturizer, BB Cream, face mist and some Vaseline for the lips.

What do we do on lazy days? We go food hunting at the nearest Bazaar. So you would understand how a cardigan like this is much needed in such a situation.

Cardigan: Local boutique
Black tank top: ROMP
Distressed jeggings: Local boutique
Watch: Vincci Accessories

exceptionally and especially

So as you all know, I am very fond of my Loreal Ultra-Volume Collagen mascara that I acquired maybe five months ago. And I have been using it diligently since then, it now leaves me literally scrapping the end-brush to get more products out of the tube. Only two days ago, I have to face the fact that if I was to do anymore scrapping, I would end up breaking the brush. That wouldn't go down well in the history of makeup obsession now, would it? So two days ago, I have switched to a different mascara which I already have in my stash. I was promised good results with this one, I especially asked for the best mascara out of this brand.

As it turns out, I was wronged. Yes, that's it. End of story.

Really, I'm not trying to diss anyone here but merely pointing out my rights to have clear and honest suggestions from salesgirls. I love makeup, and I would always go to the drugstore brands first to see if there was any that I like in there that could match the ones I like in high ends. I like to make my money's worth. And for that reason, I truly despise salesgirls who have everything but knowledge of makeup in mind. Scratch the sale and marketing point- most of the times they would come off as being exceptionally rude and coerceful to me.

I wouldn't randomly bash any products, no matter how lousy they turn out to be because I would always want to make the best out of them in any way (money matters, man!). Let's just put it this way, after I've used the Loreal mascara, barulah saya tahu mana satu kaca, mana satu permata!

Loreal Ultra-Volume Collagen on the right, Rimmel London Glam'Eyes Lash Flirt on the left

The mascara in this case is the one I'm holding on the left, the Rimmel one. I love Rimmel products. I have their lipsticks and lipglosses (which I LOVE, Airy Fairy is one of my favourite), their foundation (used Stay Matte before, wonders wonders) and also their blusher (I shared the same approving view of the blushers with another friend of mine). I know that my roommate has their eyeshadows and I've used it on her once and they were really good. But as for mascaras, and this is the second time I bought their mascaras, only differently each time, I have failed miserably.



As you can see, the Loreal's brush is big, fluffy and busy looking, which means it can take in even the small edges of the lashes and make them voluminous and longer looking. I have been asked by friends and even other salesgirls whether I'm wearing false eyelashes, but no. The Rimmel's brush however is lean, plasticky (if that's even a word) rather than sturdy like Loreal, and it is bendable instead of unyielding. Yes, I am associating my mascaras with Harry Potter's wand. How original. Sadly, it doesn't transfigured much on my lashes. I have to patiently apply two, three and even four coats of mascara each time I'm wearing this to achieve half the results that I get with using my Loreal one. I especially hated the plastic brush and handle though, it hurts my eyes. I thought I have seen the worst with Revlon 3D Extreme mascara, but no.

A little bright sidenote,

I got this lipstick from Maybeline, just because. It's not a new product or whatever. I haven't bought anything from Maybeline for a long time, and a lipsctick wouldn't go wrong. This one is called BP03 Nude Pearl from the Color Sensational line. It is a pearl finish, so aside from the nude, it also has tiny sparkles of gold that reflects light. I have yet to decide the lipstick finishes that I like the most, so far I have like them all. As for nudes, I often go for the more brown-tone ones instead of the pink-tones or the ones that leads to peach. I couldn't pull them off as easily as I did with brown nudes, which is why I like Revlon's Fleshtone Creme lipstick. The Maybeline one I have here has light brown tones and the rest are sprinkled in gold reflects, it still works fine for me though. I've been wearing this one for the past few days already.


...and if you can see it on my lips.

Bai Semua! (Haven't said this in a while, silly me!)

as close as I'll get to KPOP fandom

A little updates in my life before I ramble on to the usual beauty stuffs :

Ramadhan has been welcoming. I'm enjoying cooking,baking and even cleaning up the house here and there just so that I do something productive in the day other than mourn in hunger. I haven't yet manage to do any Raya shopping at the moment. I've merely look into stores, but nothing really caught my eye. I've already bought my Raya shoes from a friend, and yesterday I got one black satin shawl and one black-purple shawl which I doubt I would wear for the upcoming Aidilfitri. But as for clothes, I'm not a fuss really- I just want something that's nice but wouldn't strecthed my purse.

Other than that, my official result from my previous semester's examination came up yesterday (about time!) I was beginning to worry. But as I've suspected, it came torn and half-opened, meaning the postal service had messed up. And as it turns out, it was not the official result that I want. It was just a letter telling me that I, and the other 89 persons in my batch, have passed our Attachment programme. Sigh, that one does not need telling T_T.

Last but not least, my dear friend from Indonesia has been called for work in the Indonesian Embassy here in Penang. I am completely stoked! I knew he is the adventurous type but I can't help feeling a tad worried for him for being in this country. But as it turns out when I met him the other day, he was pretty much stoked as well that I don't think the fact that he will be working away from his family has sinked in yet. He could survive though, I knew he will.

Alright now without further ado, onto the recent beauty stuffs that I got.

Etude House eyeshadows in BR 302 and GR 002, Nature Republic Stain Girl's Tint in number 3, Nature Republic cream eyeshadow in number 5, Elianto frosted liquid eyeliner in deep brown.

I have gotten a bit into the Korean/Japanese makeup brands lately. Not that I have not always been one with Elianto, Face Shop or Skin Food, but I just realized recently that I'm more drawn to Sasa products than the ones in Watsons or Guardian. There are a lot of them out there that are fascinating in my opinion, and lets not argue on the facts that they make the cutest packaging. I've entered the big ol' Nature Republic store in Time Square and was just sold. Same goes to the ones in Sasa. Too pretty to choose from.

Only downside that I know of is that I could barely understand any description on their products, hence the names of the products in numbers as you saw above. And you all know how much product names mean to me (case in point: SimplySiti lipsticks). Luckily enough, I don't find any of that too overbearing for me that I overlook the actual products.

I have not used much of these items that I purchased. I have only used the green Etude House eyeshadow once to do the Parseltongue look in the previous blogpost. I like Etude House eyeshadows, and they are not overly priced (again, case in point for comparison: SimplySiti eyeshadows). I have around five or six of their eyeshadows to date and I have always gone for the natural shades. I was quite surprised that they only have ONE shade in green, I would have love to make the Parseltongue look without incorporating greens from other brands.

I have also used the Elianto eyeliner. I have a similar one in dark grey and it was beautiful. A bit sticky, but that's what you get from using colored eyeliner. It would be great if I want to do fun looks or simply divert from the usual.

I haven't had the chance to use the Nature Republic products yet. I know from swatches at the store that the tint was a nice coral-peach color. They have three shades; a red, a pink and a coral. And the cream eyeshadow- I have been wanting a color like that for AGES. Right when I'm lusting over MAC's Paintpot. I saw one in Sasa from the brand TheBalm and it was a little over RM50++.

TheBalm Creaseless Cream Eyeshadow

Not wanting to pay MAC or TheBalm's money, I opted for this nice dupe instead. I think I'll use it during Raya.

Parseltongue?!

This is going to be a short (hopefully) but precise post about my favorite all-time book slash movie series ever. it's the hype of the millennium, non other than Harry Potter.

Like this if you are a Harry Potter fan and not a Twilight fan. Heheh ;)

A clear intro- I have been reading the series for 10 years, diligently waited two years per book to come out. I was one of those people who would line up in front of MPH early in the morning just to get the book, ad mind you,when it was my time, the books were sold out in early afternoons! I was one of the giddy girls who daydreamed of Harry and Hogwarts, memorized spells by heart and wishing that there was a King's Cross with Platform 9 3/4 nearby. Believe me, you can't say I'm not a Potterholic.

In the spirit of the last movie, I have decided to make a look inspired by one of the Houses in Hogwarts, Slytherin. It was just a subtle everday green look that one could do without incorporating Harry Potter fanatic into the picture, but I was obviously determine into calling it my Slytherin look. But before that, here's a few cuts from the book mentioning about this 'evil' house.

"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head,and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that-no? Well, if you're sure- better be GRYFFINDOR!,"

"It matters," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent."

"You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name for ever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side?,"

Zabini did not make any sign of recognition or greeting, and nor did harry or Neville: Gryffindor and Slytherin students loathed each other on principle.

"I was Head of Slytherin," said Slughorn. "Oh,now," he went on quickly, seeing the expression on Harry's face and wagging a stubby finger at him, "don't go holding that against me! You'll be in Gryffindor like her, I suppose?,"

"The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties," interrupted Professor McGonagall.

Now,onto the 'ever-famous' eye makeup look;

Shots from ze lousy camera phone.

Shot from ze even lousier webcam

as simple as zat!

I didn't give much thought (never at all) when this famous artist started to venture into business. I barely knew she came out with her own tea line. But when I heard...rumours...that she'll be having her own makeup line, I want to get my hands on it!

Mostly because I'm just intrigued by the fact that a Malaysian artist, and I know who better than her, was interested in having her own line. It's a first of many, and I completely support the idea 100%. I like the name too, SimplySiti...not too much but just enough to throw the products out there. So I paid a visit to my dear local Watson pharmacy to take a look at the SimplySiti counter.

As like any other makeup products, I do have my likes (and dislikes) on them. i don't like the fact that they have her song titles as half of their products' names, especially the lipsticks. If at all, it only sounds tacky to me. I'm that kind of girl who likes to memorize makeup name and would always,when doing makeup, find it pretty helpful to picture the makeup look in my head and go, "I think Revlon Cha Cha Cherry would look good, and ohh, swiped Elianto Roasted Brown on the crease as well,". This is of course reserved to everyone's taste, but for me who's big on product's name, I find that I am not drawn to purchase a Bisikan Asmara lipstick or anything that it's called. And that is despite the quality of the product, which sounds a bit underestimating but that's how I always look at it- I go for the names first.

Then there is a question of the blushers. I am not a fan of blushers that's in a jar with a round puff on top that you roll on your cheeks. Elianto came out with those kinds early in its time which I have bought but didn't quite like it. I can take cream blushers, powder blushers and mineralized blusher that's far messier but I can't take those kinds that SimplySiti have. I don't trust anything that I can't swipe with my fingers or brushes because it wouldn't apply just the way I want it to on my face.

There is also the price of the things, which in my opinion, are overpriced. I know it's a Malaysian brand, but I still can't take the fact that Etude House eyeshadows costs a lot cheaper than SimplySiti. And I have noticed how SimplySiti never have sales on their products yet. Don't get me wrong, I do splurge once or twice on products that I know are good and that I have always wanted but that often happens only as much as cows would eat man-made grass in fear of starvation.

All this apart, there are few things that I like about their makeup line, and one which I have always gone back and forth to swatch on the back of my hands. Yes, it's their eyeshadows (prices aside).

Two that caught my eyes. I have always liked the one on the left first, and always swatch it whenever I have the chance. The one on the right caught my attention just recently. And Thank God for non-tacky product names. They are called Praline and Smoky Mountain.




Praline is a beautiful everyday chalky brown that would look lovely to wear on it's own or in the crease. Smoky Mountain is a dark green shade sprinkled with gold, it's a colour I would not have gone for but it seems too lovely to spare on the shelf.

Both priced at RM12.90 each. It does gives of nice pigmentation, and as for it being a Malaysian product, I do feel that this deserves a good review.