skin deep

I was reading Elle Magazine a couple of days ago and came across an article of some things we women do which we think are good, but in actual fact are bad for us! Here’s a few that I thought were helpful for me, maybe they’d be for you too:

Bad habit #1: Using the lowest setting on your hairdryer, because it’s gentle on your hair

Any setting that you use on your hairdryer involves heat, and as long as there’s heat involved, your hair needs to be protected. No matter what heat setting you use, remember to use a leave-in conditioner or some sort of conditioning serum before you dry your hair! This is good advice, and like all good advice out there, we tend to get quite lazy and forget to follow them!

Bad habit #2: Using conditioner all over your hair

Conditioner should only be used on the oldest part of your hair which needs the TLC, ie the ends of your hair, not the roots. Well technically you could use it on your roots, but since your roots get plenty of oil from your scalp, this can make your roots greasy. A good rule of thumb is to condition only the hair that falls below your ears.

Bad habit #3: Applying facial wash to your face before working it into a lather on your skin.

The reason why you shouldn’t do this is that it drags your skin and causes unnecessary stress to it. Instead, you should dispense the facial wash on your hand, use your fingers to work it into a lather, and then, apply it to your face.

Well that’s all that I can remember, hehe. Another thing that I think is very important is to wear sunscreen every day, even when we’re staying indoors! I’m using a neutrogena SPF50 one at the moment that I am pretty happy with.

If you have more tips do share! Now that I’m going on 25, I’m suddenly paying attention to all these skin/beauty care tips so I’ll be sharing whatever I learn from time to time. I’m also trying to experiment more with make-up, I just realised that my make-up stash is so miniscule in size compared to other people, no wonder I look so drab compared to other people. Gotta step up my game yo! Hehe.

Ooh, and Elle Magazine is going to have a makeover day on May 8 at Wisma Atria which I feel like checking out! If anyone wants to come too, do let me know! It’ll be great to have company! 🙂

yay or nay: pink lipstick

Hello all!

One of my favourite things to do is to raid my mom’s make-up drawer and try her make-up, experiment with new colours, etc. It’s a great way to discover what works for me!

Usually I’m not very successful because my mum has better skin and is fairer than me (no fair!), but recently I made off with a couple of new tubes of lipstick, including one curious shade of hot pink. Usually I stay away from the pink, but this time it called out to me for some reason.

I tried it on today, so far I still don’t have the courage to wear it outside the house though! What do you think? Maybe you could help me out and let me know it it’s a yay (“wear it out, it’s hot!”) or a nay (“you look like Cindy Lauper, except you’re not – throw it out and don’t touch it with a ten-foot pole!”)? It’s not the best photo, I look like a turtle and my hair’s funny, but let’s try to look past the flaws, shall we?

bowl me over

We went to the bowling alley on Saturday night. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I found some amazing vintage bowling photos online! Yay internet! 🙂

Via here, here, here, here, here, here and here!

I love the women’s bowling champions! Fun stuff! Hmm…maybe it’d be a good idea to set up a women’s bowling team? Hahaha, if anything, it’d be awesome fun! Plus, vintage coordinated outfits sound like a winning idea!

Hope you had a good weekend!

kick-ass

YOU.MUST.WATCH.THIS.

Just do, and thank me later.

dancer in the dark

I’ve been having quite a lovely couple of days although lately I’ve been thinking that I need to do more – pick up a new hobby, learn a new language..thinking of picking up French since it’s quite relevant to my job. I honestly hate not applying myself (outside of work), so I’m hoping to change that in the next couple of months.

Photos found via here, originally an amazing video from here.

shopping mopping

Over the weekend I decided to do some online window shopping (geddit, window shopping? *snigger*) and I saw sooo many lovely clothes. I’ve been trying to save money and I haven’t shopped in awhile (verdict is out for the definition of “awhile”) so it was quite torturous to look at the lovely clothes, but I guess all girls are masochistic this way! Here’re some things that caught my eye:

PANTS:

I die for these bow-tied pleated pants…but maybe it’s the fierce outfit that I’m falling for – whatever it is, I want them. (From NastyGal)

DRESS:

The geisha print on this vintage maxi dress is so pretty and totally stands out from the maxi dresses we see now. It costs $278 though! *whistles* That’s a large chunk of change right there! (From NastyGal)

Nadinoo absolutely rocks my socks. I love EVERYTHING she makes! This dress is so precious and the bow in the front? SQWEEE!

This Japanese checked dress from nicolethen made me swoon when I saw it, the print, cut and colour is so perfect that my heart broke when I saw that it had been sold. Still, so gorgeous.

ROMPER:

This vintage romper is so awesome, especially the Impressionism artwork! Artsy eh? I love rompers and have none, isn’t it tragic! Keeping my eyes peeled for nice ones! (From NastyGal)

BLOUSE:

This weave top caught my eye immediately with its woven details. It’s kind of sweet and sexy at the same time, eh? (From NastyGal)

SWIMSUIT: (if you noticed, I started with the most cloth and worked my way to the least, hee)

Cute red and white polka print, flattering vintage cut, what’s not to love in this swimsuit? Plus it’s called Beach Blanket Bingo! I had a swimsuit in the exact print when I was younger (though in a modest one-piece) so it brings me back to my childhood days so I think I might just buy it!! (From ModCloth)

What do you think of my choices? This was actually a very fun post to do! 🙂

holey moley, me, oh my

It’s Indiepop Sunday!

I love indie, indiepop, indie-twee, electro-indie, indie-folk, twee-pop (you get the idea) songs a lot! But unfortunately I never seem to be able to discover new bands very easily, so I’m usually slow to these things. But today I realised that all this could be solved with youtube!  A bit slow I know, but I don’t care because now I’m happy with my new indie finds! 🙂

Here’s a song I discovered when I *coughcough*obtained*coughcough* some new indie songs a few weeks back. It has a happy, boppy beat that makes me want to dance everytime I hear it! (and I did when I heard it in the lift today! :P) Gold (Or Something Just As Nice) by Hari and Aino:

This I found via youtube: Last Dance by Maths and Physics Club. I don’t think this is the official video, but there’s something mesmerising about the sight of a slowed-down recording of people dancing that’s just lovely to watch!

Here’s the last one, not sure if it’s indie, but it definitely makes me wish I was born in the 60s and was a hippie! The video is so awesome. Home by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeroes. Such a lovely song, I want to play it at my wedding!

Hope you enjoy them! I’d love to hear your recommendations of other great indiepop tracks if you know of any! I hope you’ve had a good weekend!

My weekend was all about iced milk tea, starworld re-runs and a lovely lazy Sunday with erfen where we very hilariously encountered many unexpected visitors including an old grandaunt who had been misinformed that there was a gathering at my house. Needless to say, many laughs were had!

everything with fries (yes please)

Now seriously, does this make you wanna eat a burger or what?

We just moved into a new office on Joo Chiat Road which makes us officially right next to Everything With Fries. Or more specifically, next to and above, since EWF is neighbours with a slightly dodgy KTV pub, and that’s certainly not us!

Everything With Fries is located at 458 Joo Chiat Road, open Tues to Sun from 12-10pm. They also just opened a new branch at Lorong Mambong, good for them!

And did you know that it’s brought to you by the same people responsible for the good stuff that is Awfully Chocolate? Cool stuff!

So after having many people telling me to go try EWF, we finally had lunch there yesterday. (Not that I needed any persuasion really!)

First off, I fell hard for the all-white, clean interior. It matches our all-white office too!

The food was gooood.

I had the cheeseburger, which came with fries and either coleslaw or a salad. Since the focus of the place is on their fries, you get to choose the flavour you want (mine was curry) as well as the cut (shoe-string or straight-cut).

I am pleased to report that their curry straight-cut fries were yum! And my colleagues liked the normal shoe-string fries, which came crusted with a generous amount of granular salt. I choose the salad which was great, though I could do with a bigger portion. My colleagues ordered coleslaw which I thought was good too, considering that I don’t really fancy coleslaw.

The plate was bigger than my head, and I have a humongous head!

As for the cheeseburger, (oh, the cheeseburger) – it was excellent! Highly recommended as the meat was moist and very flavourful. Very filling too, I couldn’t finish my fries and had to doggy-bag it!

My colleague, Juli, had their King Salmon.

IT.IS.TO.DIE.FOR.

Tender, tender, tender salmon which melts in your mouth. I’m definitely going to order it next time.

Next up: Dessert!

We had a strawberry cupcake to share, which was really the only thing I had room for after the filling burger. There were 3 flavours – strawberry, coconut and peanut butter. The peanut butter cupcake was recommended by our waitress but I had eaten PB&J sandwiches the night before so we opted for the strawberry.

It did not disappoint. The butter cream topping is just the right amount of sweet, and quite light, unlike some other cupcakes I’ve tried. The cupcake itself was spongey and alright, and at the bottom was some strawberry jam which helped to balance out the mix of dry and moist elements in the cupcake.  Does that make sense? I hate it when cupcakes are dry so this is important to me!

Check out their dessert menu: I’ve heard many good things about that Nutella Tart!

Overall, we had a really good lunch at EWF. Plus, it was Friday so everyone was in a happy chippy mood! 🙂

I’m already looking forward to my next visit! Seeing their desserts in the window everyday is surely not going to be good for me and my waistline. But oh, I guess a little bit of indulgence now and then ain’t gonna hurt nobody, would it? 🙂

beauty world (cha cha cha)

Warning: Trip down memory lane coming ahead. Proceed with caution.

When I was younger, I used to be very unhappy with the way I looked. I had really bad skin and combined with puberty and the angst that comes with being a teenager, I used to think I was the ugliest person in the world. I’d even hate to look in the mirror, and there were times when I would not want to leave the house, preferring to hole up at home rather than go out and be stared at by other people (or so I thought). It was really quite traumatising, and it seemed to me that all my friends had such perfect skin compared to me. Those were dark times!

Well, fast forward about 10 years, and I can safely say that I’m no longer that self-hating person. I don’t have perfect skin still, but I guess as you grow up, not only does your skin naturally improve since you’re no longer a teen with raging hormones, but you start to learn that diet, exercise and good skincare start to play an important part when it comes to having good skin. Also, I do believe that as I grew older, I became more comfortable in my skin (haha, pun fully intended), so I’ve become accustomed to the fact that I don’t have perfect skin and hey! that’s ok! 🙂

So anyway, I got to thinking about this because today I read in an advertisement in the paper about a new moisturiser from Vichy that’s meant for people with oily or blemished skin, and there was a promotion so I bought it!

(Crystal Bowersocks/American Idol on the TV!)

It’s called Anti-Imperfection Hydrating Care, and supposedly capable of reducing imperfections (duh) and controlling sebum in 4 weeks. So anyway, it came with some other products as well. I figure, no harm trying! (Note: This is not an advertorial, I’m just a sucker with these kinda things.)

Anyway, here’s how I look like today:

Oily skin? Check!

Break-outs on the side of my face? Check!

Large pores? Check!

Ding ding ding! We have a winner! 😛 Well, here’s hoping there’s an improvement to my skin after 4 weeks – my birthday comes then so it’s either I look better or I look terrible! No pressure eh?

Anyway, here’s something random, in the photo above you can see my reflection on the left, I find it kinda spooky but cool! Hahaha. Ok random.

Ok I’m excited to use the new moisturiser (is that normal?), so here I shall end. Goodnight folks!

old photos make me happy

Today I met many people – some I knew, some I didn’t – and I had a blast. I think I am coming closer to being comfortable in my own skin, and it makes me happy. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty awkward kid and I still envy those who can work a room without so much as losing a sweat over it. But today I felt at ease. Who knew what it was? Surge of confidence? Was I wearing something pretty? I don’t know, but I found myself actually enjoying the process of socialising for once (did I just ruin the moment by calling it a ‘process’?). I think, at 25 (oh turning 25), it is high time I am comfortable being just me.

Just for kicks, here are a couple of old photos!

3 things I’m happy about today:

1) Met some familiar faces – Hisham, DK, Jerrick, Stephie, Sandy, Eunice – and made a new friend – Dawn! =)

2) That I brought some comfy flats to change into after wearing heels the whole morning (yes, I’m a wuss, my heels weren’t even high!)

3) Looking forward to meeting my friends after work today to help out at my friend Malcolm’s restaurant, The Candlenut Kitchen! We were supposed to have a girly night out, it’s funny how plans turn out some times!

Bonus entry: My bf is performing in a dikir barat performance today for work! He is singing the part of the karut which is kind of like the jester/clown of the performance. Break a leg @perpendi! 😀

Have a good Friday all!