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.