Solange Knowles, the new face of Rimmel London

It is exciting that cosmetic brand Rimmel London has introduced Beyonce Knowles' sister, Solange Knowles, as its latest spokesperson.

I am an ardent fan of the gorgeous Beyonce (in fact, I am wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Beyonce's picture right now) and as such, it should not come as a surprise that anything related to her gets me madly excited. Yes, even her sister! LOL!

By the way, I think it is good news that Rimmel London's new face is Solange as it shows that the brand caters for both fair skinned and dark skinned girls.

Malaysians, especially those with tanned skin, now has a new icon that they can look up to in terms of products.

Solange looks simply stunning in the pictures, don't you girls think? (Pics taken from Rimmel London's website)

In the interview with Rimmel London, Solange said that she thinks her number one beauty tip is to be healthy, be happy, be beautiful and be whole-heartedly you. I absolutely agree with her.
Here is the link for the rest of the interview that she did with Rimmel London (http://www.rimmellondon.com/us/en/ourfaces/ourmodels/solange-knowles/)

By the way, question time. Who do you girls think has a better sense of style? Beyonce or Solange?

May: Love Of The Month, MAC Lustre Lipstick in Hug Me

Hello girls!

Firstly, I want to tell you girls that I am not really a lipstick person.

Whenever I go out, I put on makeup on my face but I only put on tinted lipbalm or sheer glosses on my lips.
That would be my perfect made-up face.

However, lately, I have been showing quite a keen interest in lipsticks, thanks to the hundreds of beauty blogs that I read regularly.

When I finally decided to buy my first ever proper lipstick, I headed to MAC store in Pavilion (of course!) and asked for the sales assistant to recommend a not too overpowering lipstick that would suit my skin tone.

And ta-da! She picked out MAC Lustre Lipstick in Hug Me.

It was love at first sight for me.The lipstick colour was just right, I thought.

Here is how it looked like when swatched on my arm.

When I applied it on my lips, I was sold!

It has slight pinkish hue that almost matched my own lip colour and it was subtle. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Check it out when I wore it on my lips. I wore the lipstick on my naked lips - no lipliner, no lipblam, no gloss.

I bought instantly and I now use it as part of my everyday look.

Wonder what took me so long to find this baby and of course, I will be buying more lipsticks!

Speaking of which, yesterday I won myself an Estee Lauder Pure Colour Lipstick in Crystal Pink after I took part in a beauty contest. Yay!

DIY fauna-themed nail tutorial

Hello girls,

Here's the simple fauna-themed DIY nail tutorial that I promised you girls last week.

1. Start with a base coat on your nails. I used In2it's Keratin base coat.

2. Then paint your nails with a deep green shade. I painted mine with Rimmel's 'Green With Envy'.

3. Stick any random flower-shaped nail stickers onto the completely dried deep green nail polish.

 

4. Then, place any leaf-shaped nail rhinestones in random places on your nails.

5. Finish of with a top cop to seal everything in place and you are done. Now all you have to do is show it off!

My first trip to Sephora Malaysia

Last weekend (the first weekend after Sephora opened its doors in Malaysia), I jumped into a train with my sister and headed to Sephora in Starhill Gallery.

I was almost trembling with excitement when I reached Sephora.

Since the moment I entered Sephora, I felt like Becky Bloomwood (from Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series) when she enters a shopping complex and gets all flushed and flustered over the magnificent bargains.


When I spotted all the lovely makeup brands in the store, my heart beat faster, my breath came in short gasps, I felt a little dizzy (from the excitement, I guess), my eyes bulged out involuntarily and I was in a complete daze.

My sister asked me a couple of times whether I am alright and I could not even reply her because I was speechless.

I devoured in all the makeup, skincare and nail polishes with my eyes and silently vowed to own them all.

So, with the same excitement and frenzy, I leave the rest of the talking to be done by the pictures that I snapped in Sephora. After all, a picture speaks a million words.

And yes ladies...I was there from morning till night! :) Till next time then, girls!

Apr: Love Of The Month, Urban Decay's Naked Palette

Hello girls,

Before I begin writing about my love of the month, I would like to express thousands of sorry to you girls for not updating this blog as regularly as I should have. I guess I am married to my job which, I know is perfectly unhealthy.

And that, is the exact reason why I am posting my love of the month for April, in May. So, I am truly sorry girls.

To make up for the delay, I am going to treat you girls to a simple, DIY nail tutorial this week, so, stay tuned.

In conjunction with Sephora's opening in Malaysia in April, my love of the month for April is...drum roll please, Urban Decay's Naked Palette (for those of you who are wondering, no, I did not get the palette from Sephora Malaysia because last I checked, they do not have it in the store. At least, not yet).

I bought this baby from a Malaysian website http://ix-ora.blogspot.com/ for RM239 including shipping payment.

I know, it costs a bomb but I reckoned it was worth the money because of all the hype that its getting from makeup lovers worldwide.

I was too excited when I got my hands on it (as always).

This is how it looks like.

The palette has 12 super smooth shadows that could be worn on its own or blended with other  shadows. It also contains a a travel-size eyeshadow primer potion (YAY!) and a cruelty-free good karma eyeshadow brush.

The shadows have interesting names such as Gunmetal, Sidecar, Sin and Virgin. The looks that could be created with palette range from subtle, natural, slightly smoky to ultra smoky.

Here are the swatches that I did with the palette:

      From left to right: Virgin, Sin, Naked

From left to right: Sidecar, Buck, Half Baked

From left to right: Smog, Dark Horse, Toasted

From left to right: Hustle, Creep, Gunmetal

To tell the truth, I would not say that this is an absolute must have or anything like that because I personally felt that some of the colours available in this palette are almost identical to the colours in other makeup brands.

That said however, I do feel that this palette is a worthy investment.

I do hate the colours Virgin and Naked as I felt that it is way too light for my dark complexion. I think that these colour are not even suitable to be used as highlight on my eye area as it is too frosty for my liking.

Apart from that one little flaw, I love the rest of the colors in the palette.

I personally think that the shadows will work great if you know how to match them. For instance, Toasted makes a great lid colour when paired with Hustle as the crease colour. Likewise, the combination of Smog as a lid colour and dark horse as a crease colour is simply divine.

Its all in the experimentation.

So girls, this baby is definitely a keeper.

Sephora is now open!

Sephora has finally opened its doors to excited Malaysians at 12.30pm today.

The store is located at Starhill Gallery in front of Pavillion.

I will be heading out to Sephora this weekend and will keep you girls updated on all the lovely things that I find interesting there.

Meanwhile, check out Sephora Malaysia's stockists, so that you can plan your purchases before paying the store a visit:

MAKEUP
 
AMAZING COSMETICS
BAREMINERALS
BAVIPHAT
BENEFIT COSMETICS
CLINIQUE
DIOR
ESTEE LAUDER
FOX
JELLY PONG PONG
LANCOME
MAKEUP FOREVER
O.P.I NAILS
POP BEAUTY
SEPHORA MAKEUP
SMASHBOX
TOO FACED
URBAN DECAY
GIVENCHY

SKINCARE/ BODYCARE

BIOTHERM
BOSCIA
BURT'S BEES (n)
CLARINS
CLARISONIC
CLINIQUE
DIOR
DR BRANDT
DR DENNIS GROSS
DR HAUSCHKA (cn)
DR MURAD
ESTEE LAUDER
HYLEXIN
JOHN MASTERS (o)
JUICE BEAUTY (o)
LANCOME
MARIO BADESCU (cn)
OLE HENRIKSEN (cn)
PERRICONE MD
PETER THOMAS ROTH
ROSEBUD SALVE
SEPHORA BATH & BODY
SEPHORA FACE
SOAP&GLORY
STRIVECTIN
UCARE

 
FRAGRANCES

ANNA SUI
ARAMIS
BEBE
BOND NO.9
BURBERRY
BVLGARI
CALVIN KLEIN
CARTIER
CAROINE HERERA
CHLOE
CLEAN
CLINIQUE
COACH
DAVIDOFF
DIESEL
DIOR
D&G
DKNY
DUNHILL
ESCADA
ESTEE LAUDER
FERRARI
GIORGIO ARMANI
GIVENCHY
GUCCI
GWEN STEFANI
HUGO BOSS
ISSEY MIYAKE
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER
JUICY COUTURE
KENZO
LANCOME
LOEWE
MARC JACOBS
MONT BLANC
MOSCHINO
NINA RICCI
PACO RABANNE
PAUL SMITH
POLO RALPH LAUREN
PRADA
RALPH LAUREN
SALVATORE FERRAGAMO
SHISEIDO
THIERRY MUGLER
TOMMY HILFIGER
VERA WANG
VERSACE

MENCARE

CLARINS MEN
CLINIQUE MEN
JACK BLACK
LAB SERIES
SEPHORA MEN

NOTE: (n) : 100% Natural Brands (cn) : Close to 100% natural (o) : Organic Brands 

Sephora in Malaysia!

Girls in Malaysia!

I have a super exciting news for all of you (breathe in..breathe out..)!

I  was browsing through the May issue of CLEO (my fav mag!) when I came across this short article that read:
"Sephora has finally arrived in Malaysia. The store is opening its doors this month."

I am so excited with the news that I can barely sit still for a moment.

I keep on dreaming of getting my hands on all the beauty products that they sell under their label.

I was so excited that I immediately headed out to find the exact location of the said store the next day and lo and behold, when I laid my eyes on the building, it took my breath away.


The building itself, although still under construction, looks modern and chic. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration if I say the exterior of the building is out of the world!

You girls can check it our yourself if you are near the Bukit Bintang area. It is perched right in front of Pavillion and you can spot it from miles away due to the shape of the building.

Check out the few snapshots of the building that I took. While at it, lets get excited together and lets put our hands together and welcome S-E-P-H-O-R-A to our shores!!!Yay!!

Mar: Love of the month, MAC's mineralize blusher in Love Thing

Hello girls!
Hope all of you are in the pink of health.

If you are not, what better way to fake a healthy glow than sporting pink or reddish cheeks?

Speaking of which, I would like to introduce my love of the month for the March: MAC's mineralize blush called Love Thing.

Love Thing is one of MAC's mineralize blushes released in July 2008 alongside their Sonic Chic collection. On the MAC website, the blush is described as being "dirty burgundy with gold pearl".

In the pan it looked like a deep raspberry shade (pretty scary, really!) and I was afraid that it would be too bright on me.

This was how scary it looked it the pan!

Nevertheless, when I swatched it on my hand once, the colour was 'just right' without being overly bright.

So, I thought this blush will be a good buy and bought it straight away.

The picture above shows swatches of Love Thing. The right one was swatched only once while the left one was swatched twice over the same spot. Notice how bright it becomes with more product you pile on?

I must warn you girls that this blusher is very pigmented, so a little goes a long way.

If you want just a slight flush on your cheeks, apply this with a light hand (fair skinned girls should do this but girls with darker tones could be a little liberal with this blush but not overly so if you don't want to end up looking like a clown).

I like to apply two slight coats of this with a blusher brush or a kabuki. If I want just a hint of colour on my cheeks, I put on one only a coat or smudge a little of this on my cheeks with my fingers.


When I first applied it on my cheeks, I noticed that it has quite a bit of giltter on it that I somehow missed when I swatched it at the store.

Here's a close up of  MAC's Love Thing blusher.

I don't know if you girls can see the sprinkle of glitter in this blusher. Look closely though and you might catch a glimpse of the gold glitter in it.

Although the glitter adds to the glow, I would highly recommend this to be used at night.
Since this is my very first MAC blusher, I could not really compare it to their other blushers (sorry girls!).

However, when I was browsing through MAC's miniralize blusher collection at their store in Mid Valley Megamall, I was torn between Love Thing and Gleeful. Gleeful looked pretty as well.


In the end I had to ask the sales assistant for help and she said Love Thing would suit me better.
So, I purchased it for RM95.

Since gleeful was too pretty to be just dismissed like that, I added it to my (ever growing) wish list.

Frankly, I was never into blushers before but after wearing this particular blusher, I started receiving many compliments on it. Friends and acquaintances have asked me 'what is that thing you are wearing on your cheeks? It is so pretty!'.

But I have to admit that this is definitely not a blusher that I would wear everyday as it is too bright for my liking.

Here's a picture of me wearing two coats of Love Thing. (Sorry for the sweaty, shiny face. My room was freaking hot and stuffy when I took this picture).

Thus, without even realizing it, I started to really obsess over blushes. I started paying attention to what blushers people wear and did quite an impressive (if I say so myself) amount of reading on different types of blushers.

I would also like to say a special thanks to Yinka, the author of the beauty blog Vex In the City (http://www.vexinthecity.com/) for indirectly cultivating such a love for blushers in me (even though she does not know this). I have been religiously reading her entries on blushers and just love how she gives an honest opinion about those that she has tried on.

Anyway, I think my blush collection will be growing profoundly after this..hehe!

A stressful week, a mini me time...

Hello girls,

Last week proved to be a really taxing week for me. I work in a local newspaper as a journalist and I have been juggling court reporting and taking in complaints from the public.

So, over the weekend, I headed out to have some me time and ended up catching a movie alone.

Not only that, I bought a few things to cheer myself up and face the week ahead with a more calm mind.

So, check out the stuff that I bought, girls!

This cute bag with the polka dot ribbon caught my eye when I spotted it in a kiosk in KL Sentral, so I bought it for a bargain price of RM35. It is made out of a durable material (it has an almost sack-like material) so, I hope it will stay with me for a long time. I don't like the cat's picture on the bag though (What? I don't like cats, ok?)

I also bought this three bottles of nail polishes for RM10. I know, that's such a bargain! The colours that I chose were a pretty green, a nude beige and a black. I am not too brand-conscious when it comes to nail polishes as long as I like the colour that I see. So, in this case, I know that I was lucky to have found colours that I like for a fraction of a cost.

I liked the green nail polish so much that I put them on my nails first thing when I went home. This is how the colour looked like on my nails.

And this is how the nude beige colour looked like on my nails.

Lastly, I bought these fake eyelashes just for fun. It only cost me RM5.

So, what do you girls think?

Feb: Love Of The Month, UDPP

Hello girls!

I am so, so, so excited. I finally got my hands on the product that has been causing me sleepless nights just by thinking how it would work on me. I now officially own a tube of Urban Decay Primer Potion (UDPP). Yay!!!

Some of you maybe wondering why I am this excited over having my very own tube of UDPP. Please understand my predicament, girls. They don't have this line in Malaysia and it does not help much that I have never shopped online before (I know, I am so 2009).

I have read like a million and one reviews about the bottle of wonder and my heart ached every single time I read these reviews.

So, after months of forlornly browsing through reviews online, to my greatest delight, I found a Malaysian website that sells UDPP. (http://krayolaninmalaysia.blogspot.com/2009/11/udpp.html)

So, I pounced on the opportunity at once and bought myself a UDPP. When my parcel containing UDPP arrived in my office, I was as excited as a child opening her present on Christmas moning.

First thing next morning, I experimented with it.

I put a dot of the product on and under each eye and blended it in with my fingers.It blended well and created an invisible, matte surface on my usually oily lids. I then layered on a shiny gold shadow and lined my eyes with a gel eyeliner. I did this at precisely 9.20am before going to work.

As I got busy with my work, I completely forgot about my makeup. I definitely did not have the time to check whether it ran, sat still or decided to turn shiny.

Only when I reached home after work at about 12 midnight , did I glanced myself in the mirror and holy cow! I was completely taken aback by the sight that met my eyes. Eventhough I know that many people who reviewed the product said that it is long lasting, I definitely did not expect it to last that long (almost 14 hours, wow!).

There was not a single crease in sight and my eyeshadow looked like I just applied it freshly. The best thing is, the gel eyeliner was not even slightly smudged. I was absolutely impressed because usually by midnight, the shadow on my lids would have been creased to death and the eyeliner smudges would have made me look like a raccoon.

Although this is my first ever eyeshadow primer, I just must say that I adore it! Girls, get your hands on this and your makeup will never run again! (Especially in our hot Malaysian weather).

Jan : Love Of The Month, Gladiators

Hey girls,

It has been a while, huh? Sorry girls, I have been really busy with work.

Anyways, I wanted to tell you girls something. I am starting a new section in my blog called 'Love Of  The Month'.

I will update this section every month with things that I bought, own and love. It spices things up a little, don't you think?

So, my Love Of  The Month for January is....drum roll please.....gladiator shoes!

The other day, I was walking in Ikano Power Centre in Damansara and I came across a gorg pair of sensible gladiators in Vincci.

I tried it on and it looked good on me so I bought it straightway. It only costs me RM69.00.

I haven't stepped out of my house with it yet, but I am thinking it would look good with a simple, no-nonsense, short dress with the hems just falling slightly above the knees. What do you girls think?