The Loot: Hair Gift Pack

Since I've a compulsive behaviour of shopping, I've decided to start blogging about my purchases here. Expect mostly bargains and sales item because who can resist?

Went to the pharmacy to buy a new facial cleanser that will do it's job in removing make up. As much as I love my Burt's Bees it just doesn't do its job well enough in removing my BB cream. More about that next time!

Was in the check out line when I spotted this:

Was $29.99 reduced to $5 and heck, I've been thinking of getting a round heat reminder brush so why not. It also comes with a shine spray.

Say hello to more blow drying and voluminous hair!

Hair Hair Hair

I finally bought myself a hair dryer months after moving out (no more sisters hair dryer to use). A new toy to play with plus the cold winter months leads to a new obsession.

This is going to sound so bimbo but I love blow drying my hair as it leaves my hair bouncy and tame compared to my hair that would otherwise look dry and unruly.

I am well aware of the damage that heat can do to your hair but I've never really bothered because I do not put my hair through that kind of stress often but now, it was time to get a heat protector! I've heard friends and read some reviews of people complaining that heat protectors leave a layer of weirdness on hair so I was trying to be careful and vary when purchasing my first heat protector. I've have a bad history of compulsively buying new/wrong products. One morning, I went to Priceline store and stared at the isle where hair care products are slowly browsing that the various brands and type of hair products. Had a hard time making up my mind and decided on Organix's Vanilla Silk Blow Dry Cream. Purchased it for ~$14 on offer.

Good news is that this doesn't leave any weird feeling on my hair and it smells absolutely divine (I'm a huge vanilla scent fan)! It's organic and it's vanilla- should be hard to go wrong with. My hair feels softer and more bouncy but I don't know if that's the work of the blow dryer or this product. Conclusion: I absolutely love this product for it's divine scent!!!

On another note:

Disguising a bad hair day

My options usually are:

1. Tie my hair up in a cute french braid.

Works all the time and gets lots of compliments!

2. Tie it up in a bun.

2.1. A messy bun

2.2. A top knot

3. Wear a hair band- I rarely do this because bad hair days and fat days seem to co-exist and hair bands are just too 'cute' to go with it if you know what I mean.

And of course, dry shampoo to the rescue to hide and signs of greasy hair. :)

The top knot

source: Who What Wear Daily

p.s. I just visited Organix's website and by the name of the shampoos (Cherry Blossom Ginseng, Grapefruit Mango Butter, Pomegranate Green Tea) I can just imagine how yummy it would smell! Must read up some reviews on this brand soon and purchase it the next time I need new shampoo!

How To Do Swan's Crazy Eyeliner

As promised, (and since I have the most requests for this) here is a simple tutorial on how to do my makeup. It really is quite easy and once you've mastered it, it takes about 5 minutes to paint it on. Fuss free indeed!



PS: And if you have single eyelids and have no idea how to put makeup on, this should be pretty useful. It really helped me a lot since we single eyelid-ers can't put on makeup the way double eyelid people do. =.=



Anyway, before applying any form of makeup, you HAVE to cleanse, tone, moisturise. Basic skincare routine is very important to prevent premature aging!


After I cleanse, tone and moisuturise, I apply a makeup base from Shu Uemura to smoothen the imperfections on my face as well as lessen to lessen the redness. The makeup base also acts as a barrier, protecting my face from the powder foundation which will be put on after all the eye makeup is done.

It also has SPF if I'm not mistaken, so I don't have to put on sunblock. =)

You have to hold the bottle at 90 degrees and shake well before squirting it out. The texture is kinda foamy and light. Just apply it evenly over your face and you're good to go.


Jowee once asked me what was the one makeup product I don't leave the house without. And my answer was the Shu Uemura makeup base. It has become ingrained as part of my skin care routine I supposed.

I used to use a MAC makeup base which was not bad too but was slightly oilier. =/


Okay, here is how I look sans makeup on except for the makeup base.

So the first step to replicating my eye makeup would be the ever important liquid eyeliner.

As you can see, I use MAC's LiquidLast Liner which I find really good as it firmly stays on without smudging until you take it off.

In other words, it really does last.

Okay, so you draw the liquid liner close to your lash line extending outwards and upwards with a tiny little flick upwards at the end. You liquid liner should be JUST visible when you open your eyes (like the picture above).

Since everybody's eyes are different, use your own discretion when applying please.

(Oh and ignore my bad skin. stupid macro mode is too good liao. =.=)

This is the actual amount of eyeliner I had to put to fill up the space from my lashline to the top where it is JUST visible when I open my eyes. And you can see the cat-eye-upwards-flick more clearly here.
Hohoho, scary isn't it?

Oh yeah, a common concern about using liquid liner is that you have to have super steady hands. That is REALLY untrue. Because I have super shaky hands (I can never play Operation! >.<).

The trick is to rest your hand on your chin or on the mirror while using the liquid liner.

Now you know! ;)

Here you go. A comparision of before and after the liquid liner.

Obviously my left eye is after and my right eye is before.

The liquid liner is sort of like the base, once you hae that in place, you can use any kind of eyeliner on top of it in any colour to blend.

It basically gives your eyes more definition. ;)

Both eyes with eyeliner. Doesn't it look slightly bigger already? ^_^

After the liquidliner, you can use any sort of pencil or liquid liners in any colour you want for the top part. I usually use pencil liners coz they don't look so harsh.

Here I'm using MAC's pencil liner in Prunella. It's a mixture of brown and purple.

At other times, I use Silkygirl pencil eyeliners. At only RM14.90 they're really affordable plus they stay on forever. The only downside is that you have exert a bit more force when you draw it on which isn't good for the eyes (all that excessive pulling =S) as it will cause wrinkles around the eyes sooner or later.

This is why MAC eyeliners rock coz the colour glides on really easily and it's supremely easy to blend. However, MAC's pencil liners don't stay on AS long and tend to smudge a little towards the end of the day and they are like thrice the price of Silkygirl's eyeliners.

But if you want quality, you have to pay a price for it I guess.

Using the liner and colour of your choice, just draw on top of the liquid liner following its shape, overlapping it just a little bit so that the two colours blend.

Remember to extend that wing at the end of your eye so that it looks bigger!

And as you can see, that's before and after again. Such dramatic differences. Le sigh.

A closeup of my eye after the pencil eyeliner.

You can actually alter the shape of your eye when you draw the pencil eyeliner on depending on how you want your eye shape to me.

In my case, I want my eyes to look bigger so the middle part of my eye is extended higher so that it looks bigger.

But if you want longer eyes, you should extend the eyeliner to the back more, giving the illusion of longer, sleeker eyes.

When I close my eyes, this is how it looks.

Ideally, you should blend until you cannot see the distiction between the black liquid liner and the Prunella pencil liner.

To aid the blending process, you can employ the use of a black pencil eyeliner but you run the risk of getting smudges after a while. What I usually do is just draw on the line between the liquid liner and the pencil liner till the two distinct lines aren't visible anymore. For some reason, coloured pencil liners don't smudge as easily as black ones do. 0_o

Just repeat the process for the other eye and you're good to go!

This is how it looks like when you close both your eyes.

Lastly, just line your lower lashline with the pencil eyeliner.

I usually just line it halfway. Going all the way in is a bit too scary and animalistic!

There we go! The finished product!

Since my right eye is slightly smaller than my left, I have to draw more pencil liner to even it out and make it look roughly the same size.

Here are just some other photos using other coloured pencil liners:

Minty Green from MAC as well.

(Please ignore ugly face, it was the end of a very long day.)

Aaaand...my trademark purple which is from Silkygirl.

If you want to add more sparkle in the form of eyeshadow, add it above the pencil liner, blending it all the way to your browbone. I only do that for special occasions or during the night coz the eyeliner alone look very heavy already.

Alternatively, you can also put white/silver eyeshadow or eyeliner on the inner corners of your eyes to make your eyes look even bigger. Personally, I used a silver liner from some Japanese brand to do it. Again, I only do it for special occasions or for nights out coz it's a bit scary to have so much makeup on normally. =P

So there you have it! How to make your single eyelid eyes look bigger in a super simple way.

If you plan on trying this out, tell me how it turned out! It gets better with practice I assure you.
=D

Shoo Sticks

A friend of mine recently gave me some freebies. Sample packs of Shoo Sticks!

Don't you just hate it when you put on a sexy pair of strappy heels or a sling back but the falling straps just kills your mojo? I used to use normal double sided tape in my vain attempt to keep the straps from falling but by a few hours, it just falls off and I'm back to pulling my strap up every once in awhile. Feel my pain?

Shoo Sticks

I guess this product is similar to the magic body tape that you can use to tape on your clothes to yourself. So, this isn't exactly new technology.

Each 'stick' is roughly the size of your average shoe strap.
It's thick in a sense that it's like those foam double sided tape.
For our convenience, look, it even tells you which side to stick where!

But wait, Shoo Sticks are not just for keeping your straps attached!
The instruction sheet says that you can also use it to:
- Hold slipping straps
- Minimise rubbing
- Feel secure in sky high heels