CELEBRATORY HAUL!

Hello folks!!!! I would like to say that I am officially back! I have had my thesis presentation and fingers crossed I will be able to have my commencement in july! Since all went well, I wanted to come back with a celebratory haul :D

Ok this is not so much a celebratory haul as much as a collective stress haul. Y'know, stress shopping is the worst (or best). Anyway, I went a little base crazy as you can see but I'm so happy about it! As you can see, I have all my bases covered. heh heh.

Mini review time - do people like mini reviews?

Laneige BB Cushion in Brown Beige - I snapped this up as it seemed it would be a good match for my nc30-35 skin. It's still slightly too light, but it's been a refreshing change using the BB cushion as it has spf50 built in. The strange thing about this base is that though the coverage is not high, it seems to reflect light in such a way that imperfections disappear. I noticed that my imperfections reappeared when I powdered, it was the strangest thing. Also, very very very strong scent that does not dissipate.

Guerlain Meteorites in Teint Beige 02 - When the SA tried this on me in Sephora I literally got a shock. My face looked perfectly poreless and smooth and I fell for this hook, line and sinker. I can't seem to recreate that effect at home though. It's baffling. Any hints?

Canmake Glow Fleur Cheek in 04 - Perfect peachy blush with a glow, not glitter like most of the other Canmake blushes. Only niggling detail is that it's so beautiful I can't bear to swirl my brush in it and spoil the flower pattern.

Elf Baked Blush in Peachy Cheeky - Looks very pretty in the pan, absolutely love the thin packaging though it can be tough to open. Not quite pigmented enough for my liking though.

Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Full Coverage Foundation in Light-Medium Honey - This foundation has a peachy undertone which is not the exact undertone for me but close enough. Gives a really nice finish that leans more matte and very good coverage. I like to mix this in with a creamier foundation.

Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation in 143 - My newest foundation purchase! Also, most expensive foundation I've ever owned. Haven't really played around much with this, so far, my only impression is that it's a very watery foundation that clings nicely to the skin. Leans more tinted moisturizer finish than foundation finish.

Bare Minerals Original Foundation in Fairly Light and Medium Beige - Was wrongly matched in sephora, so I purchased a smaller size in the correct shade. Haven't really worn this out much as my powder cravings come and go really quick. So far, the powder seems to give a reflective sheen almost like sunscreen.

Tarte Maracuja Creaseless Concealer in Light Medium - My most favourite purchase of the lot! This shade has peach undertones like the Bobbi Brown Peach Corrector and really cancels out my dark circles! Press this in with a dry sponge and it doesn't emphasize any flakiness, also is true to its name and does not crease on me! Perfection!

Clio Lipnicure in 7 Tension Red - I bought this to play with because I'm not the type that wears any lipstick/gloss at all. Partially because I hate lipstick fading. Anyway, aside from the absolutely terrible powder scent this has (and trust me it lingers and you won't want to taste powder in your mouth), the staying power blows.my.mind. Even with a cleansing oil it was tough to remove. I also had a swatch of this on my hand and it lasted something like 5 days. This is some powerful shit.

Essie Nail Polishes in Borrowed & Blue and Absolutely Shore -  I adore these colours. The blue goes on perfectly and is a 2 coater. The green is almost like a very muted lime and mint green mixed together. In some light it looks grey even and I LOVE IT. The only problem is this tends to go on streaky and is something like a 3 or even 4 coater. The best way to apply is to alternate it with layers of seche vite.


Let me know if you enjoyed my mini reviews and have a good tuesday! I definitely missed writing and it feels good to be back. xx

The Easiest DIY Magnetic Palette Ever!

I know I said I'd only post after graduation but.... This is too good not to share. This post is for any one who lives near a Daiso and wants to depot their make up. Total cost of this particular DIY Magnetic Palette: SGD$4 !!!!! Or $2 if you already own magnetic sheets or your makeup comes in aluminium (is that the magnetic metal?) tins.

credits to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/8069388206/sizes/l

Tools required: (everything in here can be found at Daiso, so go wild)

1. The magical 18 Color Pencil set (top left hand corner of picture). This case measures 15.5cm x 11.5cm x 1.3cm, the slimmest, most hardy case I could find in all of Daiso. Why is this case magic you ask? The magic lies in that this case is.... *drumroll* ... already magnetic! So you don't need to fiddle with cutting any large magnetic sheets to fit into your palette! I only realized this after i completed my palettes - silly me.

2. Magnetic tape/sheet (make sure sheet is sticky on one side) to stick onto the depotted make up.

3. Scissors/Penknife (to cut your magnetic tape/sheet)

4. Nail Polish and Cosmetic Wedges or Washi Tape for decoration.

5. Extra: If you're looking for smaller palettes with mirror, the business card holder section of Daiso should offer a decent selection. They're mostly made of plastic though, which would mean you would need to fit a magnetic sheet to the bottom of the case.

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Process:

Essentially, the only question here is whether you want to decorate your DIY palette or not. If you're not fussed on whether the palette looks good... then just begin depotting to your heart's content.

I chose nail polish over washi tape because washi tape is made of paper and is hard to clean. I did however, get slightly lazy and taped the depth of my tin with 0.5cm thick washi tape just to seal off the edges nicely.

Paint 3 coats of nail polish (or until opaque) over the entire cover of the tin to cover the print. The bottom half of the tin is entirely silver so you can leave that alone. It is advisable to do this in a well ventilated area because I believe you should not be inhaling too much nail polish fumes. When the 3 coats are fully dry, grab a cosmetic wedge and rip it into 2, pour another colour of nail polish onto a piece of foil, dab the ragged edge of the sponge into the nail polish and begin dabbing onto the tin. Repeat process with as many colours as you want!

P.S. mix and match different polish finishes for great effects! also, just a heads up, a poor quality cosmetic sponge will flake off when you dab the tin, but no worries, that just adds to the texture of the surface!

Now you can begin depotting and attaching the magnetic tape to the bottoms of the tins that aren't already magnetic, then just pop them into your beautiful new palette. Magic!

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Hope someone enjoys this barely a tutorial of a tutorial and saves some moolah because we all know that could be better spent on ... more cosmetics!

foundation matching woes

Hello! I know I haven't been updating at all for the longest time - I must apologise. I'm in the midst of my thesis year in architecture school and it really isn't the easiest of years. I know people who are much more free doing their masters/thesis but unfortunately, I'm just not one of them. I also tend to get stressed out (and hence get anxious or panic) really easily and I did not want to spread my ability to commit thin.

That being said, I have not stopped this (to put it mildly) makeup love (addiction shhhh) of mine. I have been continuing the quest of looking for the greatest products known to all mankind! I kid. I have been on the hunt for a new foundation recently and this is where my rant comes in.

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A brief introduction on my skin tone - I am Chinese. I however have the type of skin tone that would pass off more as a South East Asian person, rather than that of a South Asia person. More Thai, Malay than Korean or Japanese. So yes, to clarify things, I am darker than the average Chinese person (in Singapore) but not as dark as the average SEA person. See my problem in finding shades?

So finally, after my many years of finding foundations, I have come to realize that I tend to get foundations that are too light for my face. And just when I was thinking I was getting the hang of finding the proper darker foundation shades for me - WHAM. THE STUBBORN SALES ASSISTANT STRIKES. I blame my trusting nature.


The Stubborn Sales Assistant, hereupon to be known as the SSA, is the bane of my life. For some funny reason or other, they take one look at me and classify me as Chinese. Therefore, my skin colour should fall within the fair and light range, the darkest being somewhere around nc 25.

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Experience #1: Shu Uemura. I was looking to buy the old Shu Uemura Illuminating Moisture foundation I had, but it was discontinued and replaced by the new Lightbulb foundation. She matched me to 764 - medium light beige. A quick google shows me that pretty much 90% of the Singaporean bloggers had been matched to this shade - all of them fair chinese. On the face, it was clearly dissimilar to my skin so I insisted on a darker shade the 754 medium beige which I had initially chosen for myself. Perfect match. I was secretly congratulating myself until she told me that 764 was a better shade and mostly Malay customers got the shade that I had chosen. Say What?! That is not only stereotypical but potentially racist! Regardless, I got myself the 754 but it turned out I didn't really like the foundation due to it's massive transferring nature.


Experience #2: Sephora. Looking for a foundation with more of a matte finish, I settled on the Tarte Amazonian Clay Foundation. I was swatching the shades at the counter, trying to decide between Light Medium Honey and Medium Sand. Cue approach the SSA for help, cue being stereotyped and recommended the lighter shade. At least this time it wasn't too bad as I trapped her with the choice of only 2 shades. Not that she bothered to recommend more. Back in normal lighting of my home, I realise that it's just slightly too light on my forehead, but consoled myself that the darker shade would've been too dark.


Experience #3: Sephora. Got it into my silly head I wanted a mineral powder foundation which got me looking at bareminerals. Had to squat down rather undignifiedly to swatch the foundations as they were set very low, and was looking at the medium shades and golden shades but the golden shades were rather too yellow when swatched. Being rather baffled by the shades that look dark as a powder but swatched very light, I asked the SSA for help. Here, I gave the SSA free reign.

Woe is me, she tried on a foundation that looked pink based and chirpily said, this suits you and brightens your face! I requested to try on a yellow based foundation, the difference wasn't drastic, and the colour was still too light. I requested again for a darker foundation. She dithered, then said, I don't think the dark one would suit you as it will be too yellow. I did not insist, but I did ask her to try the foundations on as a heavier coverage rather than the light dusting she did, all the time making comments about the foundation being too light. She assured me time and again that the foundation would oxidize despite me telling her I have never in my life had problems with oxidation. Not even with my oily skin - my skin oil is special and doesn't cause oxidation. Since she was so assured, I took her word for it and bought the neutral foundation in the colour she recommended - fairly light.

Get this, I get home, checked the description of the foundation on the bareminerals website.
Fairly light: For porcelain to light skin with neutral undertones. Just in what universe am I with my nc30-35 skin porcelain or even light in complexion? That has to be a fairy princess world! The sad part is that I tried the foundation on for a normal day and found that it didn't even oxidize on me and now I can't return it because it has been used ):

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So ladies, this is my $75 +$60 + $49 lesson to be able to tell you that YOU know best your foundation shade and your skin type. To not be too trusting (especially with the dodgy Sephora lighting) of the SSAs and to most importantly, always INSIST on trying the shade you think is best despite what the SSA says. They seem to have been trained to stereotype based on race, as well as seeing acne on skin as a sign of oily skin, so to the best of your ability, do not let them fit you into their stereotype.

Thus ends my wall(s) of text and my rant, will be back with good stuff AS A GRADUATE! :D