Tuesday, June 28, 2011

NOLW; Plaids + Minnie Mouse inspired, Bourjois delice de Poudre

I've been sleeping my days away. The weather is so freaking hot. Some parts of the world might be flooding but Penang has turned into a toaster oven. It cooks you slowly, not allowing us a swift death.

It's too hot to go out, it's too hot to sleep yet it's too hot to do anything except wriggle in your sweat soaked bed dreaming of McDonald's chocolate sundae.

NOLW- Nail of Last Week



Saw the design on Youtube and had a grand idea to do plaids on my nails. Too grand. It failed. Partly because my super thin long thin nail brush has curled into a "C" and I couldn't make thin lines with it anymore.

10 minutes later, everything was washed off and on to the next big idea.

Minnie Mouse inspired nails



To be truthful, I've always been a fan of Donald/ Daisy Duck more than Mickey and Minnie but I love the idea. The dots I made were a little too small, I think it would have looked better with bigger dots. Oh well.



Graduated from strange looking waffles to strange looking macaroons. Yay! I'm been thinking of sending some to friends but I wonder if they'll be insulted with something this badly made?


The missing macaroon finally rejoins the group

JH's younger brother has returned from the UK for a short break. I must admit that I frequently trouble him by asking to buy me this and that. There has not been a trip that he has returned without a list of what I want. He never complained, what a nice guy.

This time it was for the Bourjois Delice de Poudre bronzing powder in 51. Saw this a while ago but couldn't figure out where to get it. It is only available everywhere except Malaysia. As usual. And even if it reached Malaysia, it would probably cost a bomb no thanks to the tax. As usual.



51 is the lightest shade they had. JH asked me what it was for and I explained with a flurry of hand actions that it was a bronzing powder and is used for contouring the face and making it look slimmer.



Truth be told, I.do.not.know.how.to.use.it.

There will be no How to contour face tutorial because I have absolutely no idea how to pull it off. Sure I know where the bronzer goes and all but everything I do makes me look dirty. Well, the bronzer is a good 16.5g so there will be a lot of attempts in the near future.

Yana's sister has a review on this; Read it here



Got the Maquillage Design Face Colours (refill) in #20 for cheap. I have no idea what the heck this was for since I can't read a word of the instruction (It was in Japanese and JH is not around) but I ended up mixing all the colour together and using it as blusher. AHA! Surprisingly it turned out quite pretty, It has a very subtle natural blush colour that makes my cheeks looks healthy and smooth. OoOoooo.. me likey!

If anyone could even tell me how to use this, I will be grateful >.<



Bought the Bobbi Brown Basic Eye Palette for mom. I know she loves browns and I thought she would love this. Unfortunately mom is more of the reddish brown kinda person. Excuse me while I go bang my head on the wall.

I have had my Shimmering Nudes palette for a while now and the colours are too similar to the Basic Palette for me to keep.

It cost me a pretty penny too. *sniff*

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Miniature clay items



Having a hobby is always good, it keeps my sanity and gives me something to look forward to and do. I've been making small miniatures food items and turning them into hand phone charms for friends.

Rant
It is not entirely without some heartache along the way. I ordered the clay online and got some old clay from them. They require a lot of kneading to make them workable. I ended up crying in frustration the first time I used them and complained via email.

Thank god, they do have very good customer service. They denied sending me old clay, offer refund and gave me lots of tips to knead the clay. I need the clay and sending the clay back means I have to spend extra on shipping and begin all over again searching for the clay. I decided to perhaps the clay was indeed fine and it's just me. Thank him for everything and went off happy only to see someone on YouTube with the same clay that didn't even require her to knead very much. &^%$#@!!

/ end rant


Oh well..



I may not be able to sew to save my life like some people can but I do enjoy making small miniature food items. I'm no genius but it's relaxing and fun. These are from my first batch, they were clumsily made but made with lots of love as well.

*Note: Some might have heard this before but buttons I've sewn on shirts comes with a 99 year guarantee never to come off.
*snort* The one meter long thread might have something to do with it though.


I am not a pro, I am not a pro, I am not a pro...

Lately, I've gone and made a couple of plates as well. JH recommended me the Royal Copenhagen (click on the link here) for design inspiration. I sincerely I don't get my *toot* sued for using their designs as inspiration but their Blue Fluted Mega collection were very pretty. I might not be able to own any of their collection in this lifetime but those of can, feel free to browse their online shop.

P.s: I'm not making the plates to sell. It's just for fun.


Royal Copenhagen inspired plates (except the one in the middle of course)
They are roughly the size of the Malaysian 10 cents

The designs were a total pain in the *toot toot toot* to paint on something this small. I might look easy but I nearly went cross eyed painting them. I failed 3 times before deciding to stick to this design. It's clean, clear and crisp with not too much funky lines. Hats off to those who paint miniatures for a living.



I recently made a Battenberg Cake, I used toy clay mixed with acrylic paint for this and prove to be a mistake. They dry too fast and too many of them spoilt by not sticking together (brown-pink part). I also realized the plates I made were too small. They nicely fit ONE Batterberg cake or ONE macaroon.

Excuse me while I go pull my hair out. I thought this was suppose to be relaxing..

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Lancome: A Love Affair Inspired

It's been a while since I did an inspired look.

I bought a local 'fashion' magazine a couple of days ago for RM1 (a February 2011, second hand of course, couldn't resist the price!), it's been over 4 years since my last issue. Gone were the interesting articles replaced by hundreds of 'heard-that-done-that tips', useless bedroom advices, gazillions of ads of expensive products. Then again, that's how to make money right?


Inaccurate report. Marilyn Monroe has always been known for her hourglass figure. The magazine stated she was a 36" 23" 25"(?!), Uhh.. where's the hourglass in that? A more accurate vital stats for Ms Monroe would have been 35" 22" 35" according to Fatnutritionist.com. BOOO! But I'm guessing it's a typo on their part.

One make up look however caught my eyes. It was for Valentine's Day using Lancome's Ultra Lavande Collection.



Unfortunately, I thought it was horrible. It was suppose to be sort of a Rocker chick theme with the caption, 'Rock it!'. Then again, what do I know? I'm a simple blogger with a big mouth and no make up cert. D'oh!

So I decided to do this look and see how it turns out.


First, take a nice big close up picture of it. Stare at it for an hour. End of one hour - It still looks awful. Wonders if JH will bring me out for a nice Valentine Dinner if I wear this out or will he stay home and cook me instant noodles.

Remembers she is no make up artist for any big magazines. Sets to work. For this look, I will be using dupes and whatever I find at the bottom of the dressing table.


Face and Eyes: Mac Typographic, Nylon, Nice N Vice PP (Paintpot), Black track PP, Cash Flow PP, Christian Dior palette, La Pensee eyebrow palette, Botanics eyeshadow in 'no name'.

Cheeks and Lips: MAC Triple Fusion Mineralized Skinfinish, Elizabeth Arden Pink Champagne lip gloss




Camera acting wonky. Most pics turns out blur. I already had one some mineral powder and mascara from morning. Out of sheer laziness, I just added my ELF primer. Then added MAC Cash Flow PP to eyelids.



Drew the cat eye shape with an eyeliner brush using MAC Nice N Vice PP. Searched high and low for a gold eyeshadow. Uses MAC Nylon as last resort to place on top of the MAC Cash Flow PP.

*Note: I absolutely hate using expensive products for looks such as this since I know it's only last for 10 minutes but I have no other similar colours to this look. ARGH ^%$#@!



Use the Christian Dior Palette's purples to set the MAC Nice N Vice PP. Use MAC Blacktrack PP as eyeliner and to line waterline.

*Note: The Christian Dior palette was "inherited" from my mother. We've had it since I was 11 years old. That's a good 16 years ago! I remember it because I got caught and beaten by mom for playing around with her make up. I used the bright green eye shadow to dot my entire face. Heh!

15 years later, it's mine :D



Dust the Botanic's eye shadow below the brow bone, define the crease with MAC Typographic, pile on some old foundation lying around, contour nose with La Pensee eyebrow palette (who would have thought an eyebrow palette from the 100 yen shop could turn out so useful. AKAKAKA!)

For cheeks, the girl in the magazine seems to have a gold colour blusher. I ended up using the MAC Triple Fusion's gold, the one right at the bottom but I guess my blush brush had a little left over. Oops. Apply lip gloss and we're done. So lets see how it looks.



Hmm, looks okay I guess - For a photo shoot. I would need a little too many tequilas before I have the guts to wear this out. Excuse the one sided pictures. I only did half my face for this look.

Then again, if JH gives the thumbs up, I might just be wearing this out...I think.

EDIT: JH gave the thumbs up, I think he needs his glasses changed.

Disclaimer: Please do not SUE me. I have no money to give you. Most of my make up is above 5 years old and is mostly donated anyway.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

NOTDs and Singapore haul; Gelato Pique, Kiss me Heavy Rotation lipstick

NOTD



Freshly painted without topcoat. Sides not cleaned yet.

Saw this from MissKatv Beauty Straight Forwards and fell in love! I love it, it was one look I wanted to try out despite it being 4am in the morning.

Used:

Stage's base coat
Elianto's top coat
Elianto's baby blue
OPI Off with her Red
Etude House PK011
Maybelline's Lickety Split from a gazillion years ago.


My previous NOTD



Used:

MAC Cream Seasonal
Elianto's black
Stage's base coat
Elianto's top coat

NOTD from God Knows When (Probably before Macau trip)

Inspiration: The Longchamp Dentelle


FAIL!



Something I need to try again. This time, I need my Konad stamp to get better lace motif.

Haul from Singapore trip

*snort* If you can even call this a haul.



Bag #1 from MORE magazine. There were lots of choices from Kinokuniya and me and JH went thru most of them to find the biggest. After the mistake I made with the last bag I got from Hong Kong (the bag turned out tiny) , this time I made sure that the bag was of a decent size.

Bag's brand was Gelato Pique (click to see their website)



Bag #2 A Hello Kitty reusable bag. LOL. Yes I got el cheapo bags. The Hello Kitty bag was so cute I had to get it. All stuffs above was from Daiso for S$2 each (RM5).

Air clay for RM5? Unbelievable, I got mine for RM13.


Mini stamps and a stamp pad in pastel purple from Kinokuniya

The last purchase I did before leaving Singapore. A Kiss me Heavy Rotation Lipstick in #4 Cinnamon Pink. There was 4 colour available but no testers.

Watsons - S$16.50 (RM40.45)



The colour was very pigmentated and can cover my natural lip colour in just one swipe. The texture is thick and creamy. No funky smell but colour itself is a little odd on me. It also sinks into our lines and emphasizes them and can look chalky without lip gloss on.



This is NOT something to use without lip gloss on. I paired it with my NYX lip gloss in whipped and it looks perfect!


Natural; 2 coats without gloss

I hope it comes to Malaysia soon so I can buy more!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Trip to Singapore; Universal Studios, Lion King Musical etc

*Picture overload and long boring text. If you notice an inconsistency with the picture size, two camera was used. One lousy one, one good one. No prize for guessing who the lousy one belongs to.

This is probably the best holiday I had with JH! The weather was good, eat a lot, got myself 2 bags, ride roller coasters and eat like the world is gonna end. Oh wait, it supposedly did. *sniff* It's sad to know it ended without me ever fulling my quest to own a Nespresso machine, Hello Kitty waffle maker or taste a macaroon.

What a sad life I had.

*Ahem*

I changed for about S$150 (RM350+) for the trip. I know, it's little. Very little. Especially to Singapore. Hmm, maybe I should start writing guide books;

'How to travel with an almost non existent budget/cash/money by Ashley Tan'


When shopping, best to have:

1) a credit card
2) a boy friend

Either one is good, but in my case, I didn't shop a lot, bought a few things, paid for transportation and food and was within budget. No credit card swiped too. Whee!

Then again, I only kept in budget only because JH sponsored the flight tickets and paid for most of the food, taxi rides, Universal studio tickets, Lion King musical tickets and etc. I know, I know. I felt guilty about him spending that much so for the first two days I tried to pay for most of the food. Wasn't much but I did my best...

Thank you JH!



JH insisted that since the Lion King musical was in town, we had to go take a look. I've never attended a musical before so to me it was 'Uhh okay, what's so great about a musical?'. The tickets cost a bomb at S$165 (RM403) per person. I mean, I've already watched the cartoon. Not to mention, JH has already watched in the UK. He insisted it was a once in a life time kinda thing and he wanted me to experience it. (How sweet! Muaks!) He happily bought the tickets and away we go.


What?! No other pictures? No camera allowed once it starts

I must admit, I was very impressed. He was right, it was a once in a life time kinda show. I was in love with the props; How the scene change from one to another. I would love to catch Les Miserables next. If only!



We went to Universal Studios on our second day in Singapore. It was a lot smaller than the ones else where but I was still impressed.



We apparently arrived at a very good time. I think everyone who came earlier than us all went to watch the Waterworld so the place was almost empty and no queue to any of the rides! Including Battlestar Galatica! WOOOOO!!


Ignore the model. This was the best shot of the BSG

That was the first ride we went for. We opted for the Human side first since it was supposedly less scary. We had front row seats. I must admit tho, after the first few seconds of shock, it actually felt like sitting in Elisa's/ Pinky Doodle Doo's car with their maniac driving. I'm serious! So while JH screamed like a little girl next to me I calmly finished the ride feeling a little jaded.

LOL!

There was NO queue for the Cylon side as well. Again, we opted for front row seats. I was a little more apprehensive about this because unlike the Human side, Cylon had us strapping to our individual seat and our feet dangling out. So you can see exactly how high you are and what you have underneath you, which is literally nothing. There was more kick too; a cobra, a corkscrew, upside down etc.


Left to right: Old Hollywood, Madagascar

I still remember as we went up and then plummet down, I could see that we were 14 storeys high and there was nothing but a pool underneath us - I screamed like a baby.

Far Far Away; Shrek's castle

There was a part in the ride as you are descending, you see part of "white cement" that you're heading straight at. A quick calculation tells that doesn't seem right. We're too low, we're going to crash into the white patch on the ground. Panic! Turns out the "white patch" was a hole in the ground covered with mist. Sheesh. Scare the bejeezus out of me. I swear if I grow any white hair, it's probably because of that ride.

The second time we rode that thing just before we head for home, I amused myself by listening to everyone's scream. Ahhh~ Schadenfreude.




Next ride after BSG was Revenge of the Mummy. Seeing there was no queue, we rushed in without a clue what ride it was. It turned out to be another roller coaster ride - In the dark! Not for the claustrophobic though.

A few debated whether riding a roller coaster in the dark was scarier or one that you can see. JH mentioned that in the dark, you don't know how deep the plunge is or what is head or a ride in the dark in scarier. For me, a roller coaster where you can see absolutely how high you are and what is coming up next is much scarier. What do you guys think?

After all the twirling about, we went for lunch. We were expecting the food to be overpriced and bad but suprise suprise! It was good and affordable.


Interior; It was empty when we arrived and full when we went out

We ended up in Luig's NY Pizza Parlour.



JH had the New York pepperoni pizza and I had the lasagna. YUM! Never been to New York, didn't know their pizza was that huge.


Designer Fashion Houses in Far Far Away

Explored the rest of the place, went for the new Madagascar ride and it was boring beyond words. Walked around, whine about feet, limped. Look for shelter in the rain. BSG down for maintenance. Limped. explore. Watch Waterworld, was impressed. Ride BSG. Go home.

Didn't buy an souvenir, but I did get something back. Sore feet!



After all the rides, we did nothing else in Singapore but shopped for JH's stuff and eat.

We went to Tanglin Club's Tavern for dinner and had oysters, onion soup and prime beef, lava chocolate cafe and apple pie. The beef was beyond a doubt the best beef I had in my 27 years of life. JH likes his beef medium rare, I usually prefer mine medium. Since we were sharing, I let him have it his way. We ordered the gentleman's cut. A 380g of beef, YUM!

Was busy enjoying my food that I totally forgot to take pictures.



Had a little Strawberry Shortcake for take away.


Oh you pretty little thing~

Dinner with JH's friends in Saboten Japanese Restaurant.

The pictures looks great but the food is mostly fried and pork. Not a fan of either.


Katsu Curry Loin Set with free miso coup, Ice cream and cabbage salad.


No sharing allowed so JH had something light, a fried pork sandwich.

Ash: Doesn't cabbages makes us fart?
JH: Yea but not to worry, you fart a lot anyway
*Friends laugh*
Ash: ...
ha..haa..haaa..ha

Just to clarify, I do fart, I don't deny but only of an average amount. Something JH later admitted. Thanks for making me the butt of the joke. Sheesh!

Just before we left Singapore, we had Freshness Burger, a rival of the Mos burger (my all time must- eat-when-in-Singapore favourite)


Large green tea; JH's burger (forgot the name)


My bacon omelette Burger and YW's Classic burger.

JH liked mine better and I liked his better so we ended up switching burgers. In the end it was while JH and his friend raved about Freshness burger, I'll stick to my Mos burger.

Freshness Burgers are made to order and the best part is being able to customise your own sets; drinks and side orders for -S$2 of the total bill. Freshness burger is bigger in size compared to Mos burger.

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