Recent OOTDs: vintage skirt, ZARA lace cardigan and ZARA ombre lace shorts

It seems like I have hit a rut. I can't lose any more weight. However, I'm not stopping on the running because it actually makes my legs look nice and well-defined. Very lovely indeed. Whether I'm losing more weight or not, aiyah it will be awesome if I do, but ohwell, I don't really give a damn now anymore because I have already lost quite a substantial amount. 

Yay to positive thinking!

First outfit is a typical office-lady outfit (as Anthony calls it haha). I purchased the vintage skirt online for a mere S$4. Always love bargains! 

Paired the outfit with my adorable pair of 3D bow flats. 3D because the bows are so in your face. HAHA. I still remember the conversation I had with Fiona in office. I fear Fiona in the past because she looks extremely pretty and intimidating.

Fiona: Are those Melissas? *grin on face*
Me: *obviously flustered with her beauty* No larrrrr, fake one from Hong Kong!
Fiona: LOL (and so did everyone around me)

Next outfit was one that I dreamt of and it was one of those rare times when the reality looked as nice as the dream. :D

I wore a combination of my Monki bright orange cropped top with ZARA ombre lace shorts, and completed it with ZARA lace cardigan. I could be done with just the top and shorts alone, but we were having out 11th month dinner at Wild Honey, so I wanted to look a wee bit more presentable. :)

I wore my rose gold H&M flats too, and they bit. Freak.

ZARA lace cardigan - on sale for RM69.90 (from RM259.90)
Monki orange cropped top - HKD100
ZARA laze shorts - on sale for S$39.90 (from S$89.90)

My outfit so international sehhhh. HAHAHAHAH.

Yay to my beetle necklace from H&M - a steal at HKD30! :)

Ok, off I go to enjoy some slurpy goodness of a Yong Tau Foo now! :)

Review: Heroine Make Volume & Curl Mascara

I am always on the lookout for great Japanese mascaras, and the Heroine Make Volume & Curl Mascara has been on my list for a long time. I didn't buy it sooner because the pricetag simply didn't register in my head. I couldn't bring myself to pay more than 20 bucks for a drugstore mascara. 

I finally found it in Sasa during my Hong Kong trip, and it was sold together with a Kiss Me Heroine Beauty Perfect Water Sunscreen for HKD75! That bundle cost less than S$14! Amazing deal, hence I had to get it! 

Packaging: a beautiful purplish pink tube with 6g of product. I know the photo below doesn't show its true packaging colour, but it really is a beautiful wand! Kudos to Japanese brands for making their products so pretty and princess-y. It catches your attention, it registers in your brain, and then suddenly you are transported into a scenario whereby you are already paying for the product. Crazy spooky I tell you.

Claims:

• Long-lasting
• Waterproof
• Contains fibres to lengthen your lashes
• Contains curly polymer to hold your curl!

Brush design: It's an odd one. It shaped like an elongated hourglass. This design works because during application, tiny eyelashes at the inner corner of the eyes can be reached easily. A typical mascara with the straight brush will concentrate the product in the middle of the eyelashes, creating unsightly clumps. Ew max. This skinny-waist design helps to balance out the amount of product applied on all the eyelashes, not just the middle! Also, the curved design really does help with curling your lashes.

HOWEVER, I will not advise anyone to use this on their lower lashes. It's a horrendous mess, and it's precisely because of the brush design. Lower lashes are shorter and finer in general, and so they need a mascara brush that's straight and tiny. Definitely not this one. I had a hard time applying this mascara on my lower lashes and I will NEVER do something so foolish every again.

CAN YOU SEE THOSE MIRACULOUS TINY FIBRES? :D

Lengthening: Those fibres work their asses off! It's crazy lengthening. To be honest, I have long eyelashes to begin with, so I didn't have high hopes for this product, but oohlala~ it does a bloody good job in lengthening the lashes. Bravo fibres!!

Volumising: The volumising factor is rather blah in my opinion. However, I was quite impressed at how this mascara does not clump my lashes at all! I applied three coats and they were still separated and pretty! Usually, two coats will be more than enough and another will be a nightmare full of clumping horror. But, this didn't clump at all. So yay to that!

Curling: I'm highly unconvinced. It's either my lashes are too straight and stubborn or this mascara does nothing in terms of curling. It doesn't make sense though because the brush design should help in curling! My take on this is that the formulation of this product is too runny. If it's a tad thicker, it will be a curling masterpiece!

Longevity: Amazeballs. Japanese mascaras never fail to impress me in terms of longevity. Even under this scorching Singapore sun!

Removal: To sum it up, removal was something that I prefer not to do. Japanese mascaras are a bitch when it comes to removal. They just are so heavy-duty that they wanna cling on to your lashes like crazy! To prevent frustration and lash-pulling during removal, I suggest using a good Japanese oil-based make up remover for products like these. And don't use a cotton pad and wipe sideways, that doesn't help at all. You have to wipe downwards; when you start to see fibres coming off, that's when you know your mascara is removed!

Will I buy it again? As much as I want too, I think I will try other Japanese brands. I'm not saying that this is a bad product. It's actually quite a great product, but you know the relationship between mascaras and me is like one-night-stands - I just need a new one every single time! HEHEHE :D

Review: Kiss Me Heavy Rotation Perfect Eyeliner

Kiss Me Heavy Rotation Perfect Eyeliner was one of my beauty acquisitions from Hong Kong! It costs HKD62, so around S$10+? Not bad for a popular Sasa product! 

It's highly recommended by Sasa and Kiss Me claims that the product will last for an unbelievable 24 hours. I mean, come on, who will have eyeliner on for 24 hours. Damn gao wei! But a strong claim is a claim that I must check out! 

I will put this product in the one-level-before-holy-grail status. It's really good for the price and I love how it pairs up with my liquid eyeliner. 

Packaging: Like all pencil eyeliners, the packaging is thin and compact. No problems there. 

Product texture: I like how it's a pencil liner, but it's not the chalky type. The texture is almost gel-lish and very soft! It certainly feels like an Urban Decay 24/7 liner! 

It also comes with a sharpener and a smudger. Amazing deal. The smudger works wonders too. I don't know if it's the smudger or the product, but when I tried to smudge the eyeliner on my lids, it somehow turns powdery and like eyeshadow. It doesn't feel heavy or cakey at all! 

Swatches with camera flash - normal line (left) & smudged line (right)

Swatches with camera flash - after intense rubbing

Swatches with camera flash - after intense rubbing + running tap water

Pigmentation: The photos do not do this eyeliner justice. The swatches do not look pigmented at all, but trust me, it is highly pigmented. It's one of those rare pencil eyeliners in which you swipe once across and you're done. No need for a second round. Amazing for its price!

Longevity: Does it stay for a full 24 hours? I have no idea. But it certainly did stay for a good 12 hours or so. That's good enough for me.

Application: EASY PEASY NO TROUBLE WOOHOO

Smudging: This is the point that made this perfect eyeliner less perfect. After a good three hours or so, I noticed some black marks on my lower lids. EYELINER TRANSFER is not good. Although it was quite little, but it is still there. Maybe it's our weather? Japanese girls swear by this eyeliner like a magic wand!

Waterproof?: meh. This is not heavy duty waterproof. The best description will be, when you cry, this will not budge, but when you cry and start to rub your eyes, there goes your eyeliner and HALO PANDA EYES!

Will I buy it again?: Definitely. To prevent the smudging, I actually paired this product with my trusted liquid eyeliner and everything went well! I just love how fast this applies. There's no need for a reapplication because the eyeliner stays there almost all day.

Review: Cosmo Products QUICK EYELINER EX

Just before I went to Hong Kong, I purchased the Quick Eyeliner EX from Cosmo Products at a bargain of S$5 on eBay. It's currently still retailing on sasa.com for US$8.40 (http://www.sasa.com/SasaWeb/eng/product/viewProductDetail.jspa?itemno=103125001002). 

I didn't really know what to expect out of this eyeliner, but the price was too low to pass. I also wanted to try an eyeliner that was less harsh. I always apply the blackest of black eyeliners, and I wondered how I would look with a less jarring eyeliner colour. 

Sasa.com indicated that this Quick Eyeliner EX contains "sembri maidenhair tree extract, that permeates instantly along eyelines to boost the growth of lashes". I didn't know about this AT ALL when I bought it because the entire packaging was in Japanese, so YAY SCORE! 

It also claims to be "extra waterproof protective". And yes, IT IS HIGHLY WATERPROOF IT'S CRAZY.

The eyeliner itself has a thicker-than-usual felt tip and because of how tapered the pen is, application is quite a breeze. Even the beginner of all beginners will have no major problem applying this eyeliner.

Also, because it's tapered, it's rather easy to alter the width of your eyeliner application. You want a thin line, you just apply in an almost 90 degrees angle. Then, just keep adjusting your angle to get your desired line!

The colour is really less harsh than black. I applied it today (sorry no photos!) and I instantly looked less serious. Black-brown eyeliners are really suitable for everyday, no-fuss wear.

Swatches with camera flash - different width of applications

Swatches with camera flash - after intense rubbing

Swatches with camera flash - after placing hand under running water

Swatches with camera flash - after intense rubbing under running water

Pigmentation: It's not an eyeliner with fantastic colour pay-off, but it's alright.

Longevity: CRAZY GOOD. I had it on for more than 12 hours today. NO SMUDGING WHATSOEVER. Nice!

Waterproof?: Extremely waterproof. I placed my hand under running water and scrubbed really hard, and the swatches didn't budge at all. Not even the slightest cell of eyeliner budged!

Application: As said above, application is very very simple. However, I noticed that when you try to reapply more eyeliner on an applied area, the product has the tendency to create these fibres that will drop to your lower eyelid area. A bit troublesome to clean up that area again, and this morning some of those teeny fibres when inside my eye! Yikes!

Will I buy it again? Not really. But from this, I know that black brown eyeliners are quite precious. I shall try black brown eyeliners from other brands!

Off we go for MTV World Stage 2012!

I'll be at the MTV World Stage 2012 at Sunway Lagoon (Kuala Lumpur) over the weekend! Nope definitely not to enjoy the great acts like Justin Bieber, Jay Park and KARA, but to work my ass off as a researcher. Oh dear gosh, please wish me luck.

The luggage weighs in at a current monster of 26.1kg. 90% of that are bundles and bundles of questionnaires. So scared of helpers dropping out! PLEASE BE RESPONSIBLE DEAR MALAYSIAN COLLEGE STUDENTS!

I hope everything goes well, and I hope I get to convince my manager to take me in after I graduate! HEEHEE.

Free samples: L'oreal White Perfect Laser

Another free sample up for grabs, and this time it's from the latest product from L'oreal Paris - their White Perfect Laser products! 

To grab some free samples, just like this page:

http://www.facebook.com/lorealparissingapore/app_321174177960580 

Click on "White Perfect Laser Sampling"! 

Quite excited to try this out because I WANT TO GET FAIRER. I think it's a growing up thing. In the past, I used to hate getting pale, but now I JUST WANT TO LOOK LIKE A VAMPIRE!! HEHE :D

GO GRAB SOME AWESOME SAMPLES! :)

Trampoline Self Esteem

I need to stop thinking that everyone is judging me based on how I have changed. It's quite frustrating because now I'm trying to cure a rather serious (in my terms, it's rather serious. According to my sister, it's not that bad) skin problem that was mainly driven by the massive extraction process during my facial sessions.

Now I have tiny bumps appearing all around my face and I'm advised to not go for extractions anymore because now my combination skin has turned into oily/sensitive skin with damaged cells. FML seriously.

I cried about it a fortnight ago, but the situation has been much better now. It's no longer flaring and painful acne everywhere, but more of just tiny bumps that don't hurt. It got so bad two weeks ago that when I smiled, it hurt.

I'm trying to cure it using medicines now but the effect can only be seen slowly. Not what I want, but better than nothing.

I'm just trying to smile it off everyday. What's the point in crying right? Maybe crying will even make it worse (stress and everything)! Might as well just be calm, be normal and laugh it off. I'm quite sure things will be brighter in the near future. Not so soon, but it will come eventually.

My mom even said that she had the exact problems when she was in her early twenties and so if genetics really work, I shouldn't worry so much. She is now approaching 50 and her skin is actually quite impressive - of course all those SKII helped too.

So I have to just pray, laugh and be positive.

Things will be alright soon. I know it.

This post is also a shout-out to my boyfriend who has been the perfect boyfriend all this time. I went to HK still with flaring acne and he didn't comment much about it and even made me think that most of the flares were gone (when they were obviously still there). He was also the ever attentive person who attended to me first in everything before himself. We may not have worked out 4 years ago, but I'm quite sure I want to be with him till forever and ever now. This is so mushy, but I didn't grow up with lots of love, and he is the first person to shower me with generous helpings of love.

I think I'm quite lucky and hence I know things will be fine again soon. Pray, laugh and be positive, Fifi.

Hong Kong 2012 - instagram experience

Review: essence Stay Natural Concealer

I recently found out that Lot 1's Watsons carries essence and I went to check it out - came back with more purchases. LOL. However, essence cosmetics are not very expensive to begin with. Normal nail polishes go for S$2.80? Freaking cheap and the quality is superb for the price tag!

I decided to try the essence Stay Natural Concealer because obviously I need as many concealers as possible (fml because of my acne problems but whatever haha). It retails for either S$4.30 or S$4.50. HOW CRAZILY CHEAP IS THAT?!?! And let me tell you, the quality of this product is quite awesome and I'm now itching to try the foundation! 

It's one of those stick liquid concealers in which you have to turn the other end to get some product out. Quite a good packaging concept because it's easy to control how much concealer you exactly need. 

In case the words are not clear, the description reads "naturally covers imperfections and reduces dark circles, with vitamin a". 

Although the packaging states that the concealer can be kept for 6 months, I think it's better to throw it out after 2-3 months? Concealers with brush applicators can harbour bacteria which is TERRIBLE for acne-prone skin. NO NO NO. Replace your concealers even if there is still tons of product left!! 

It's quite easy to get the product out - somehow turning the bottom part is rather therapeutic for me. Tick, tick, tick and I'm like yeahhhh do some more. :D HAHAHAHAH that sounds so wrong on every level. Of course I get excess product every single time because I turn too much. :P

Pigmentation: It's not the most pigmented of all concealers, but it does its job fairly well. Blemishes are well-covered and that's good enough. 

Coverage: As said above, coverage is fairly good: light to medium coverage. I use it together with my mineral powder concealer from everyday minerals and they prove to be a lethal concealing combination :D

Consistency: It's not creamy, so my pores don't feel choked. It's not so liquid-y too, so I still can blend it well. 

Colour range: This will be the downfall of this product. I'm currently using the darkest shade - o4 - and I'm not very dark or tanned in the first place. I hope they introduce more shades so it can extend its awesomeness to tanner/darker skinned girls (and guys!). 

Will I buy it again? Definitely yes, yes, YES! I'm stocking up!!