{Something borrowed Something new - Singaporean Fashion}

Happy Chinese New Year!!

2012-01-25T00:13:00.002+08:00

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year of the Dragon!!!

It's another exciting few days of celebration of the most important date for most Asian people. If you don't really know how big it is, think of it as Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one, that's how big it is! It's the one time for families to come together and often, I see distant relatives only during this one time of the year. Also, instead of receiving presents, unwed adults and children receive red packets stuffed with money instead. So naturally, plenty of kids look forward to it!

I've just finished my second day of visiting relatives and so far, I've only met the relatives on my mom's side, my dad's side would be on Saturday. It can be quite exhausting with all the adults gossiping and chatting and food being shoved everywhere and kids running amok in the crowds of people, but I like to sit still amidst all the noise and just take in the whole celebratory atmosphere.

Traditionally, its customary for everyone to buy new clothes and clean the whole house as a way to usher in the new year as well as inviting luck and propserity. However, my family is rather liberal and since we're the ones who usually visit other people's houses, we didn't bother to tidy up the house much. I did get a new dress:

Ah yes that's me, I did some surgery the past week or so..... LOL!!!!! Just jesting! It had slipped my mind to take a picture of my dress before changing out so here's the dress on the lovely model instead. The dress is from Spiral Girl.

Of course the colour red is mostly de rigeur for clothes, but I don't wear red outfits that often and most of my previous New year clothes winded up hanging in the closet till I got rid of it. So I decided to get something I know I'll definitely use again. If you're wondering, red is the colour of choice as it's considered a properous colour, so naturally it'll invite plenty of luck and good fortune.

It was also my first attempt at trying out the Newspaper printed nail:

I think it's decent for a first try but I would definitely use the section of newspaper with a smaller font and Steph suggested using a grey nail polish the next time.

Ona side note, I apologise for the lack of posts recently, I kindda had writer's block for abit and when I was finally thinking bout writing a post, I came down with a bout of flu. I'll probably try and finish up my review posts, but no promises as I'll be quite busy with school and finishing up the detailing for my costumes for the next cosplay event. Any guesses what character I'll be doing next? I'll give you a hint, one of the characters is definitely from Vocaloid, the other comes from last season's anime and had one of the most complicated storylines for an anime. Lol, lets see if anyone will take upthe challenge! Till next time! Xin Nian Kuai Le and Gong Xi Fatt Chai (Happy New Year and Wishing you Prosperity and Wealth)!!!!

No Longer Sheryl Nome

2012-01-13T03:19:00.004+08:00

After nearly 3 months and having a good deal of my roots grown out, I finally made a trip to the hairdresser to fix my hair before Chinese New Year celebrations roll by. If you're wondering about the title of this post, this is Sheryl Nome:

She's one of the main characters in the anime, Macross Frontier, and as you can clearly see, her hair is a mixture of blonde and pink. So from the moment I started getting pink streaks done to my hair, alot of my friends, especially those in the cosplay circle, have constantly teased me about having my hair like her. It is flattering and fun, but all the teasing can get a tad annoying at times plus I was starting to get bored of my current hair. So I decided to get a change in hair colour.

This is the last picture of me with my old blonde hair. The pink streaks had faded out quite abit and were only visible as low lights.

Typically, I waited till the last moment to decide what my new hair colour would be. I was randomly scrolling through various pictures in my iphone when I chanced upon this old picture of Sakurina:

I immediately fell in love with the deep reddish/pinkish shade of hair with the black streaks. So I requested a similar do from my hairdresser.

This is the resulting hair colour. (Pardon my face, I have the barest of makeup on and it was a long day at school, then at the salon)

Unfortunately, the hair colour is brighter then what Sakurina had, and, despite having added some darker low lights to my hair, my hairdresser didn't extend them all the way down so I have more like a reddish/purplish tone hair right this instant.

I quite like the colour as it's something totally different from what I've had for awhile now, and I also finally got my blunt fringe back. I've really missed it despite being bored with it awhile back, hence the growing out stage.

The colour is alot bolder in a more subtle way (am I even making sense here?) and it's helping me adjust to having darker hair. Somehow, the thought of having darker hair kindda scared me after having light -coloured hair for such a long time, but it's a nice transition so far. I only hope that the colour doesn't fade out too fast, somehow, my bleached hair can no longer retain colour for long.

Anyone else making changes to their image for Chinese New year celebrations?

Personal Outfits (Busy End)

2012-01-07T01:06:00.003+08:00

I was rather free when December rolled by, however, towards the last 2 weeks of December, lots of things started happening back-to-back so I've winded up delaying my post once again. Too many things to list down specifically so I'll let my outfits for the various day do most of the talking.

Singapore had quite alot of cold days with plenty of rain towards the end of the year, so I figured why not bring out my winter-influenced wear. Wore this for some Chritsmas shopping I think.

Outfit:

Turtleneck cape: second-hand from Mom

Inner tank top: can't remember

Denim skirt: Victoria Beckham for Rock & Republic

Thigh high socks: Cosmode

Leopard bag: Jimmy Choo

Shoes: Gal Star

Wore this for a movie date with the bf, we watched Sherlock Holmes. Gotta love the bro-mance between Sherlock and Watson hahah

Outfit:

Dress: Can't remember

Red Stockings: This Fashion

Shoes: Taobao

Leopard Bag: Jimmy Choo

Wore this when I went out with Esther before heading to a friend's house for a Christmas-themed dinner. We were fed pasta and cheese fondue by the guys who took over the kitchen, whilst the girls waited for them to be done. Esther says I look like a kuma (bear) with my hairdo combined with my fur stole.

Outfit:

Black shirt: Giordano

Jeans: River Island

Fur Stole: Uniqlo

Shoes: Gal Star

The rest of our purikura. I'm terribly sad that the outlet at Cineleisure has closed, so now there's only one shop left that has awesome purikura machines.

Went for an outing with some of my cosplay friends. We had planned to go ice-skating but it was too crowded so we decided to go bowling instead. I finally brought my polaroid camera along so other then Esther and I, the other girl is called Neir and the guy is Daisy (you may recognise him as my partner for my Just Be Friends cosplay and as my first Claude Faustus)

My last shoot so far and the first shoot for the year. Care to guess what series we're from? Should be pretty obvious! Kenneth was photographer and another cosplayer, Minichaos, came down to assist in the shoot. Mini does fabulous drool-worthy cross-dressing, I should probably show some examples of her fabulous work next time.

My classes are starting next Tuesday, but my mind is drifting off and planning for the next cosplay event in February. Unfortunately, I totally forgot just how long China celebrates Chinese New Year, so I've got a costume that may not make it in time for the event. Luckily, my partner is facing the same situation so at least I'm not exactly abandoning her during the event. I also had to change my plans as the other costume I had planned to get, the seller decided to increase the price by such a crazy amount as it was considered rushed order, so I scrapped that plan and pushed another plan forward instead. It's a good thing that this 2 particular costumes are solo plans of mine, so it's easier to switch them around.

Plenty of things to look forward to for the year I guess, and I'll probably be doing a review on this new series of lenses I've been using for cosplay recently, they're alot more comfortable then my previous cosplay favourite, the Dollyeye lenses. I'm also having a backlog of review posts for makeup and stuffs, shall get to them as fast as I can, promise!

End-Of-Year 2011 (Continued)

2012-01-02T03:48:00.007+08:00

Happy New Year to all! It's hard to believe that 2011 is over and its already 2012. The year seriously flew by in the blink of an eye and I'm left scratching my head wondering what exactly did I do the past year. But I shan't bore you people with it, neither will I make any sort of new year's resolutions since I'll probably forget about them before the week is over, no thanks to my shoddy memory.

Well, as promised, I'm uploading the higher resolution pictures that Kenneth took of me during the End-Of-Year (EOY) 2011 event, the last cosplay event in my country. It was a seriously messy and poorly-organised event and I was tempted to skip out of attending it, especially when majority of the cosplayers had headed off to Malaysia to attend Comifest. But since the event was located at a school, I figured I'd might as well make use of it!

However, I winded up looking quite fierce in some of the pictures so, only these 2 shall be seen. The rest shall be tucked away in a corner and shall never see the light of day ever again.

Esther (as Shou) and I. Loving her adorable froggy head!

My super cute Shouko!

I was asked to pose for a local website/Iphone app that is pretty much the same logic as the popular Bijin or Gal Tokei. However, this photo makes me look short and wide, so not very pleased with it but at least I just had to endure a minute of my ugly mug being shown on the app and website LOL!

We met some friends at the event and winded up eating at an Indonesian restaurant later in the evening. Naturally, Chibito threatened me with physical violence and forced me to smuggle him into the restaurant so that I could feed him.

Chibito after his meal (just kidding! And no, the red parts aren't blood, just some leftover chilli paste and those are fish bones)

He's especially distrusting of Kenneth's driving skills, so of course, he kept a careful eye on him!

I'll be having plenty of photoshoot pictures up soon, as to date, I've done about 3 shoots, 2 of which were done within this past week alone. I'm still waiting for Kenneth to finish editing them and send them my way for a final inspection before their release haha!

Anyway, in case you heavn't heard, Japan suffered another earthquake of magnitude of about 6.8-7.2 (depending on the area). As far as I know, no tsunami warnings have been sent but I'm sure its not an experience people would want so early in the new year. So take a moment to send a little prayer for Japan and lets hope for the best.

Aftermath of Christmas

2011-12-30T02:25:00.003+08:00

Hi everyone, I hoped you all had a lovely time during christmas! Personally, it wasn't that fun for me, if you followed me on Twitter, you would get an idea why. I'm sorry if I ruined anyone's festive mood with my ranting on Twitter, but it was my only accessible outlet to vent my frustrations.

Anyway, once again, I've got a backlog of posts. I've been running around like mad without a break over the past week and only today, was I finally able to sit down at home and do whatever I fancied for the day. I'll try to post them as fast as I can, but with many other things planned ahead that I wish to accomplish before my new school trimester robs me of time, I can't promise how fast those posts will be up. So bear with my slow posts, gomen nasai!!

Anyway, some Chrsitmas pics:

Thankfully my dad decided to order food this year instead of attempting to cook everything himself and forcing me to help him. It sucks when out of the entire family, only my dad and I are able to cook without poisoning anyone and my dad holds onto the reins tightly in the kitchen whilst continuously barking orders at me. The bf helped by buying this amazingly scrumptious fruit tart. Crunchy, buttery tart shell, with cream piled high atop a smooth custard base and then topped with an assortment of berries that gave a sharp edge to the creaminess of the tart, followed by crisp, puffed rice cereal and the whole thing was held together with a mixture of gelatin and syrup giving it a sweet, stickiness. My mouth is wtaering right now at the thought of it.

My gifts, except for Chibito, who steadfastedly refused to be in the photo and attempted to bite my finger off in protest. The books are from my Dad and the 2 Tintin DVDs are from my sister (yes, I'm a big fan of Tintin!), the necklace and earrings are from a cosplay friend, but I guess she failed to notice(as many others do) to notice that I actually lack pierced ears, haha! But they're lovely gifts all the same! My mom also gave me an "IOU" for a hair-colouring session at a salon, but it isn't pictured here.

I'm actually nearly finishing the Inheritance book, I've only got about a 1/4 left to go before the end. I'm quite sad to see the series end as its the last series that I've read since the first novel was released. I've seen Harry Potter end, then it was the Alex Rider series, and now the Inheritance Cycle. I hate that its a reminder that I'm of a certain age now but I guess I could alwasy devote myself to reading classics next. Perhaps I'll tackle Haruki Murakami's works, I haven't read any of his works since Norwegian Wood, as the novel left a deep impression on me that no book ever has and I wish to refuse to let that feeling go. But at the same time, his latest work, 1Q84, is calling out to me, so I guess I have to leave that shell soon enough.

LOL, I just realised how from a relatively happy beginning of this post, its started to become rather serious as I started spewing the torrents of emotions about the various books I have read. I guess it's rather obvious how books will always have a special place in my heart.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T15:19:00.002+08:00

Happy holiday wishes everybody! Hope you're making merry and having lots of fun!

End-Of-Year (EOY) Event 2011

2011-12-20T02:35:00.004+08:00

Today was a rather dreary day for me. My family had initially planned to go to Universal Studios today, but the weather decided to unleash its fury upon us and it rained the whole day. I barely saw the sun peeking through the ominous looking sky, which resulted in me feeling, cold, wet and thoroughly unhappy and in a foul mood for the rest of the day.

It didn't help when I was dressed in a shirt and denim cut-offs, having intended to have fun in the sun but ended up in the confines of a freezing cold mall with only a thin cardigan that my sis had wisely told me to bring along, "just in case". We ended up watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The movie was pretty good but my teeth were chattering from the icy cold blasts of air conditioning in the cinema. But, I'll stop digressing from the intended blog post today and shall attempt to cheer myself up with the fun pictures I took at EOY.

I cosplayed Nanami Haruka from the series Uta Prince as was accompanied by my friends, Esther and Tsukiya who cosplayed Shou and Shouko. The event felt more like a gathering of friends but it was fun nontheless.

Shouko on the left and Shou on the right. They are actually the same character, however, Shou winded up being dressed as a girl in an episode, and was dubbed Shouko hahaha!

My other friends, the other 2 girls are cosplaying Gundam Seed characters and the guy is Kenneth, one of my favourite photographers!

Esther gave me the palmtop tiger from the anime Toradora! as a Chirstmas pressie. I know it isn't a good picture, but I'll upload better pics of him next time. We've nicknamed him Chibito and as you can see, he's holding my wallet hostage to force me to feed him.

Bonus picture:

Shou and Shouko dancing for Nanami who is sitting like a boss LOL!!

I'll upload better pictures next time, once Kenneth hands me the higher resolutions photos. Persoanlly, its pretty easy to cosplay Nanami, since personally I find she doesn't have much of a presence, even in the anime. Plus with her gentle personality, it's hard to go wrong and all I have to do is to be more feminine, softer and gentler then normal.

However, the costume was pretty hot as it's the winter school uniform, so I was actually wearing a white collared shirt buttoned all the way to the neck, a plaid dress and a blazer and pantyhose. The thick layers also don't help that much in pictures as I look fat in certain angles. But oh well, this costume would probably be my go-to costume when I have nothing planned as it's pretty easy to maintain.

Korean Press-on Cheek & Eyemake Set

2011-12-15T03:29:00.007+08:00

I first read about this amazing Cheek & Eyemake press-on makeup set from this blog: http://yuk-lui.blogspot.com and was so amazed and by it that I just had to blog about it.

I'm sure you've all heard about instant eyesadows before, it seems that Avon & L'oreal have produced their own versions of it. However, the Grandma of press on eyeshadow was called eye majic and was featured ages ago in Oprah Winfrey's show. Well in case you haven't or if you need a refresher, it looked like this:

It was simply 2 sponge applicators on a tray with the eyeshadow nicely stuck on it. All you had to do was position it nicely on your eyelid and then press it down for a couple of seconds and presto! nicely done eyeshadow! I remember using it back when my local Sasa sold it and my mom went nuts and bought lots of it for her "lazy" days. It was kindda pricey though, so I stopped purchasing it after awhile and it slowly disappeared off the shelves.

I remember thinking to myself, "if only it could be used more then once, what a great way to apply shadow for lazy people or people learning to apply makeup for the first time!" Well, it seems that a korean brand, Chosungah Luna, had the same ideas and have produced their own version that is reusable AND it pushes the boundaries further by including a highlighter and blush version too!

This is how the set is supposed to look like. It comes with 2 shadows, a blush and highlighter combination and 3 sponge applicators.

The different sponge applicators for each of the shadows

The 2 options that are available so far. I'm liking the shadows for both sets so far but I'm not quite sure about the blush and highlighter combination. I especially like how they offer one neutral eyeshadow and one heavier style.

It seems fairly easy to use, just dip the sponge applicator on the shadow, making sure to press down on both sides to pick up the shadow evenly, and then I guess you'll just press it onto your eyelid.

I'm loving this idea alot and am seriously considering asking my friend who's visitng Korea next month, to try and get a palette for me to try it out. However, the main thing that is holding me back is the cheek print. I always figured that the application of blush and highlighter was a rather personal thing, as you had to learn what was best for contouring your face since no face is ever alike and different bone structures requires different areas of focus.

However, it is tempting me alot as I'm trying to imagine the possibilities of it cutting down the time spent on my eye makeup and no longer having to fret at finding the different shadows to mix around and fiddling with a makeup brush when I am trying to rush out the door.

Oh well, I have bout a week or 2 to decide if I wanna bug my friend to find it in Korea for me. If I do get it, you can be sure to expect a review of it!

Personal Outfit 75 (Day of Gluttony)

2011-12-08T20:22:00.007+08:00

It's been nearly a month since I last went out and about in town just to window shop and explore abit. Thanks to school, at times, I feel like I'm slowly becoming a hikikomori but at least I have some plans to go out and have fun during my short holiday despite the fact that I'm quite broke from buying presents for Christmas and stuff I need for my new cosplays next year.

Last week, the bf and I went out for a day of window shopping and we ate at my favourite ramen shop, Tampopo. I love the shop's amazing smooth, silky pork broth and the bf loves eating their kurobuta (black pig) dishes especially the tonkatsu. If you didn't know, kurobuta is kindda like the pork version of wagyu beef. It isn't as expensive as wagyu but definitely a notch above regular pork in the flavour department.

My ramen, with kurobuta cha shu and the pork broth that I love so much. Sorry bout the mess, I had greedily started digging into it before thinking bout taking any pictures ;P

The bf's tonkatsu with vinegared radish, it was soo good! The panko breading wasn't too thick and the pork was marbled with fat that melted so deliciously in my mouth. The miso soup was also really nice, it tatsed more like home-cooked miso broth with an assortment of veggies thrown in and left to simmer for quite awhile.

I took the opportunity to dress up abit, and wore this kindda rokku(??) style outfit.

Beanie: Maison Gilfy

Spectacle frames: random shop in Far East Plaza

Top: Taobao

Denim skirt: Victoria Beckham for True Religion

Shoes: Gal Star

Bag: Taobao

Grr, the shadow from my specs makes me look like I have a unibrow, grr...

Makeup for the day:

Base:

Heroine make BB cream

SANA Pore Putty Concealer

RMK Cream Foundation

Majolica Majorca Skin Remaker powder foundation

Candydoll Mineral pearl loose powder

Eyes:

Canmake Eyebrow pencil in 03
Urban Decay Primer Potion
Majolica Majorca Eye shaow Customize in WT963 & BR665
Dior 5 colour palette in Night Dust
Kiss Me Heroine Make Long & Curl Mascara

Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid liner

Dolly wink No.2 Sweet Girly (Upper Lash)

Canmake lower lash No. 13

Cheek:

Candydoll Strawberry Pink

Majolica Majorca Shadow Customize WT 963 (Highlighter)

Sasa Bahama Mama bronzer

Lips:

nil (I hadn't reapplied my lipstick when I was camwhoring)

Lens:

Bambi/Princess Mimi Sesame Grey

I've been rather deprived of cosplay lately, so I'm really happy that I'll be doing a shoot with my friends soon! We'll be doing Uta Prince so I'll be taking alot of shots my with harem of gorgeous "guys" ahahhaah! I might also be assisting a friend's shoot at a later date, it'll be fun to see him acting out as his character.

I'll also be attending this year's End-Of-Year (EOY) cosplay event, as I'm too broke to be able to attend the event in Malaysia. So if you're gonna be at EOY, do say hi if you see me, I promise I won't bite, I'm just really forgetful of people's faces!

Makeup Review: Majorlica Majorca Powder Foundation

2011-12-03T21:14:00.008+08:00

Sorry guys!!! I know its been ages since I updated, but I had to finish a school assignment, then a exam came fairly quickly after that. However, now that they're done I'm finally able to get back to blogging!

Today's review is a product I've come to love very much, it's Majolica Majorca's Skin Remaker 2-way compact foundation. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking for now:

The powder and the case in their packaging. I bought it in shade B010 but there are 3 other varying shades.

After sliding the powder into the case. Also, for hygiene and wear and tear reasons, a sponge is included with the powder, so you can always change it once you finish the powder.

The beautiful gold case. I've heard that ZA powders fit perfectly into it, so if you want a pretty case, you can always opt for this! I find the quality of this case better then Kate's as it has more weight to it and with the decorations over the top, scratches won't be as obvious on it.

Majolica's case also has this nifty spring locking system to secure the powder firmly in place. To remove, just push it forward and upwards and the powder clicks free. You also need not deal with a sticky mess unlike most other brands that still depend on a sticky adhesive to secure the powder.

Pardon the weird wonky eye, this picture was taken in the food court of a mall with quite harsh fluorescent white lighting, but my skin looks pretty nice. I also used Majolica Majorca's primer under the foundation, and as compared to my last review bout it, the product seems to have improved alot. I no longer get a weird chalky finish and a dry powdery texture from it. It's almost like a lighter form of BB cream now.

Okay, I'm digressing, but basically this foundation is fabulous, it's finely milled and has a soft, silky finish. Its also incredibly easy to apply so I can apply it on-the-go if I'm late for an appointment without creating a crazy mess.

In summary:

Coverage: 8/10 (Medium coverage for me, but it could be because I use the primer beforehand. I have read of cases where people claim the powder didn't work for them and emphasises their pores, so use a primer! For heavier coverage, wet the sponge before application)

Texture: 10/10 (To me, it blends like a dream, I can apply it without bothering to look at a mirror and it's just fine. The powder is silky soft and finely-milled but some have claimed that it has a silicone-like texture so be wary of that if you're against or have a reaction to silicone)

Oil Control: 7/10 (The powder hardly oxidises through the day, which is a first for me! It mixes with my facial oil to produce a soft, glowy look on my face, so I no longer need to touch up or bring along blotters)

Price: 7/10 (The case costs $12.90 and the powder refill costs $29.50 and it has lasted me for bout a month and half before hitting the pan. It's certainly alot cheaper then my Kate foundation)

However, I must warn my readers and especially western gals out there. Most of the shades are yellow-toned, so if you're really fair, you will have a sickly appearance after applying the foundation. It seems that there is a lighter shade then the one I'm currently using called OC10, so I'm planning to try it out after I finish this current palette.

Final Camwhore pic hehe....

Base:

-Majolica Majorca Skin Lingerie makeup base

-Majolica Majorca Skin Remaker powder foundation

-SANA Pore Putty concealer

-Candydoll Mineral Loose powder in Pearl Crystal

Eyes:

-Canmake Eyebrow Pencil in 03 light brown

-Kate Eyebrow mascara in LB-2

-Urban Decay Primer Potion

-Majolica Majorca Eye Shadow Customize in WT963 & BR 665

-Dior 5 colour Eye Shadow Palette in Night Dust

-Kiss Me Heroine Make Mascara in Long & Curl

-Kiss Me Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner

-Dollywink No.2 Sweet Girly (Upper lash)

-Dollywink No.5 Real Nude (Lower lash)

Cheek:

-Candydoll Strawberry Pink

-Majolica Majorca Eye Shadow Customize in WT963 (highlighter)

-Sasa Bahama Mama bronzer

Lips:

-Maybelline Baby Lips lipbalm in Smoothing Cherry

-Ann Sui rouge jar in 01

-Majolica Majorca Rouge Majex in PK-313

Lens:

-Bambi/Princess Mimi Sesame grey

As you can see from the list, Majolica Majorca has slowly been invading my makeup box. I won't deny that they have fabulous products for a fair price, so I might end up purchasing more Majolica Majorca products in the future.

Steph's Birthday Party

2011-11-24T01:55:00.006+08:00

Last Saturday night was Steph's birthday party. She and another pal (who was also celebrating his birthday) had booked the VIP lounge of Zouk so we didn't have to bother with jostling with the crowd and fighting for a table or space. After combining her friends and the other birthday guy's friends, there were like 30 of us or so, quite a large group that night. I can't remember everyone so I'd rather not randomly slap pictures of their faces here, especially since I'm not really friends with them.

I was on photography duty that night so there's very little pictures of me, as I was busy trying to capture all the action that was going on that night.

Steph (second from the left), the rest of the girls and I. Yes, my DIY flower clip is pretty big, and I was teased quite abit by Steph's bf bout it. Ironic much, since Steph has a similar flower too and funny thing was, she mentioned that she had initially wanted to wear her flower and the same Vivienne Westwood necklace that we both have (albeit hers is red whilst mine is the pink version), which I wore that night. It also funny considering we never once decided to get those similar things together, we just somehow procured them on our own and ended up realising we have similar ones.

Samanth and I. I ended up chatting with her a fair bit during the night, it was a pity that she had to leave early.

Lets see if I remember the names of Steph's "brothers" clearly, from left: Shin, Clarence and Amos, I think. They were extremely fun to play and chat with and they definitely made the night really fun.

The evening started out fun, but deteriorated quickly. Quite alot of things happened too fast and too furious to get a proper grip on what was happening, and somehow I think I ended up drinking something that I was allergic to.

I ended up with incredibly puffy and swollen eyes for 3 days after that night and my skin itched like mad for 2 nights. Till now, I have no idea what caused it but I do know that drinking and partying the night away still isn't something I can envision myself doing every weekend. It's definitely fun, but just not my cup of tea and I definitely like my wine and sweet, girly cocktails over mixers and shots any night.

Personal Outfit 74 (Music to Sooth the Soul)

2011-11-19T15:15:00.004+08:00

Ah! I have assignments to finish and an exam to prepare for, but I can't seem to get round to doing either one of them. Procrastination at its finest I guess....

Haven't had the chance to dress up lately due to school, plus I haven't gotten anything new for awhile so I often end up staring blankly at my bursting wardrobe and still can't find anything to wear. I should probably get some new clothes soon I guess. Anyway, the Bf took my camera with him to his holiday so no pictures till he returns but I managed to take a quick but blurry picture with my iphone of my last outfit when I was out shopping for Steph's birthday gift.

Top: Glad News

Shorts (hidden): Can't remember

Over-knee socks: Cosmode

Shoes: Gal Star

Bag: Taobao

I haven't been sleeping well lately, I tend to sleep for abit and then wake up with a jolt and it'll be a couple hours before I manage to roll myself back to sleep. Not quite sure why its happening but I find listening to the opening song of this anime, Dantalian No Shoka aka Bibliotheca Mystica de Dantalian helps me relax and get back to sleep alot faster.

Its sung in a mixture of Latin, Italian and French and I love the lyrics to bits. Its also rather interesting that Gainax worked with lolita giants Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Alice and the Pirates, for wardrobe designs for the characters in the anime. Too bad the anime had a rushed ending, perhaps to poor reviews since its not really something the mass audience would appreciate I guess.

Cras Numquam Scire (Tomorrow is Never to Know)

The moon speaks faintly
In a voice unheard by all
of the ever-repeating rise of the tide
are the sights of the moon's vanishing memory

The stars record arcanely
in letters known by none
of infinite, swirling words
that birth books beyond count

The sky is too vast for one such as me
and the pace of time is far too swift
Forever lost
the words gathered for naught
will simply rot away inside the earth

Yet still, I will clamor.
I will raise my voice, not knowing why
May my echoes reach the heavens
And before long, a new sun will rise

The moon speaks faintly
In a voice unheard by all
of the ever-repeating rise of the tides
are the sights of the moon's vanishing memory

The stars record arcanely
in letters known by none
of infinite, swirling words
that birth books beyond count

The sky is too vast for one such as me
and the pace of time is far too swift
Forever lost
the words gathered for naught
will simply rot away inside the earth

Yet still, I will clamor
I will riase my voice, not knowing why
May my echoes reach the heavens
And before long, a new sun will ris

The despicable darkness answered me,
saying none has ever seen the future.
I reach my hands into the empty sky,
and grasp the cold wind.

Oh, despair, blow through me!
All dreams and agonies shall be left in the past.
In the faint twilight above the sleeping earth,
I will walk forward
towards the tomorrow that is yet unseen.

Aftermath of AFA (Anime Festival Asia) 2011

2011-11-17T01:31:00.000+08:00

I'm finally gonna write about AFA (Anime Festival Asia) 2011, after having to recuperate for 2 days. Its my least favourite event so far, the crowd was insane with nowhere to move about, there was zero attempt at crowd control, my prop for my second day of cosplay got partially destroyed by some kids who snatched them out of my hands while their parents happily told them to pose for pictures, and there were many other issues.

I usually get all motivated and pumped to do more cosplays after an event and I go nuts to the point I search for any cosplay available and try to convince myself that I might actually achieve them all. But with this event, I feel nothing but drained emotionally, mentally and totally demoralised whereby I question why am I doing cosplay in the first place? Perhaps its abit too much to have all these emotions after a lousy event but questions like that were running through my head throughout the 2 days recuperating. However, I know it won't stop me from doing something I love, I'll just get my kicks from eleewhere I guess haha.

Anyway, some good things were, I managed to meet Usagi (an awesome photographer) after such a long time and he introduced me to these 3 lovely cosplayers from Thailand. They were so sweet and pretty and they gave out some Thai milk candy and a Pretz snack with a unique flavour only available in Thailand. Its called "Larb" and from what I remember, its a savoury stir-fried meat dish.

I doubt I'll be able to find much good quality pictures taken at the event due to the massive crowd and poor lighting, so these are the ones taken at a photography booth conveniently located inside the event hall.

Did Freya from Chobits on Saturday

Cosplayed Panty on Sunday with Esther as Stocking. The Bf helped us make our weapons and it actually lights up with the push of a button, thanks to the built in LED lights.

Another picture taken at another background at the booth. I don't think I did a good job as Panty, so I'll try to change up the wig and outfit for the shoot and hopefully, I'll channel her better.

Oh yes, before I forget, I was actually featured on the Japanese version of Youtube, called Nico Nico Douga. I was interviewed on both days so if you do manage to track down the video of me, please link it to me as I can't seem to locate it. I really wanna read the funny comments that the Japanese made as they watched the interview.

The next cosplay event is in December so I'll see how it goes, I gotta start preparing for next year's events too, I have about 4 other costumes that I feel like doing, so I gotta save up!

Kuroshitsuji II Shoot From Long Ago

2011-11-11T17:33:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow is the much anticipated AFA (Anime Festival Asia) event (well technically it starts today but cosplay starts tomorrow). I'm not 100% excited about it to be honest, because of some stuff that have changed my initial plans from before, such as I'll be cosplaying as a solo character tomorrow because Esther couldn't get her preferred costume in time and thus she's joined some other friends for another series and I'm scrambling to finish my props at the last moment for Sunday's cosplay.

However, in the meantime, I'll show some of the results from my last shoot. I cosplayed Alois Trancy once again and with my other friend, Kazu as Claude Faustus. There are some other pictures still with my photographer because it requires some photoshopping and he hasn't had the time to get round to editting them. The weather was incredibly warm and humid that day so wearing our thick, layered costumes didn't help much in an outdoor location infested with bugs and mosquitoes.

This shot was inspired by a picyture of Alois standing by the staircase in his home. Too bad I don't have a large mansion to pose by so this outdorr stairs had to do. Pardon the stray lock of hair by my eyes too.

Love this picture alot. It was inspired by another art picture and I had to try to make my face as sad and pitiful as I possibly could. Luckily my drama class acting lessons came in handy to produce this look haha.
I don't actually like how I look in this picture but I think Kazu really embodied Claude's evil persona in this shot, so I figured it'll be such a waste to not let people see this amazing shot of him.
Love the colours of this shot
Kenneth (the photographer) & I played a game of chess whilst waiting for Kazu to get ready, and he took this shot of me after finishing a round of the game. In case you're wondering, I lost badly, I'm a terrible player of chess. Also pardon my fat thighs (>.<)"
This shot was inspired by how Ciel was constantly portrayed as the Black King chess piece in the first season of Kuroshitsuji and considering Alois is his arch nemesis in season 2, I figured it would be fitting for him to be represented as the white king.
A slightly embarassing shot of me trying to show Alois in a "sexy" pose that Kenneth was asking for. This was the best I could come up with and already a girl on Deviantart has written some very strange but funny comments about Alois in this pose. If you're a fan of the Yaoi and Boys Love genre, you should get an idea of the stuff that has been left in my comment box.

Despite having my plans all cancelled for next year, I've already confirmed bout 3 plans with another friend called Shiro and I'm also considering 2 other potential cosplays. The only problem is, the other 2 require showing quite abit on skin, well one has a skirt to cover but the other is a plunging neckline that stops just short of the crotch area. So I'm still giving them some thought, but a little voice in my head keeps urging me to give them a try. I'll see how it goes, might just do a shoot for them just to staisfy my urge to cosplay them without actually having to parade half naked in ront of hundreds of other people.

In the meantime, do look for me tomorrow and on Sunday if you wanna get a coscard from me. I've printed quite a large amount so I should have enough for almost everyone. I'll be re-cosplaying Freya from Chobits tomorrow and then Panty the school uniform version from the anime Panty & Stocking. I'm guessing our weapons are the only ones with LED lights in them, this year, but you'll never know. I also apologise ahead of time if I don not recognise you at the event, I'm quite bad at recognsigin people and its alot more difficult when you're in full costume and makeup for cosplay.

Anyway, I wanna thank Kazu for being a wonderful partner for this shoot. It would be great if we could work together again in the future.

Makeup Review: Candydoll & Canmake Blush Comparison

2011-11-07T02:44:00.005+08:00

Today I'm gonna be doing a comparison and a review of sorts of the 3 blushes that I constantly use in my makeup kit. The 3 blushes in this comparison are: Candydoll blush in Strawberry Pink, Canmake Cheek Powder in PW20 "Lollipop Pink" and Canmake Cream Cheek in Shade 03 "Strawberry Whip".

A short background on each blush:

Candydoll is produced by Gyaru model, Tsubasa Masuwaka. The Strawberry Pink colour shade is a rather unique colour that cannot be easily duplicated and is often shown being paired with the lighter Peach Pink blush or Marshmallow Purple highlighter.

Canmake is a Japanese drugstore brand that sells pretty good quality products for reasonable prices. The Cheek Powder in shade PW20 is the most popular in the range and is often ranked in top 3 favourite blush category in alot of gyaru magazines especially Popteen. The Cream Cheek shade on the otherhand, is a newer product hence it hasn't gained as much recognition as its powder cousin.

The 3 blush in today's comparison. It was only after putting these 3 side by side did I realise that the 2 Canmake colours have a peachy undertone as compared to the pure pink colour of the Candydoll blush

Left is without flash and right is with flash

From left: Candydoll blush, followed by Canmake's powder blush and finally Canmake's cream blush. Also note that it took 4-5 swipes of the Canmake powder blush for the colour to appear this way, whereas Canmake cream blush took 3 swipes and Candydoll only took 2 swipes.

As the picture shows, Candydoll is the most pigmented of the 3 blushes, the 2 Canmake blush are lighter in shade in comparison. Hence, when it comes to application, Candydoll usually requires just a single swirl of the brush that often picks up enough blush for each side of the cheek. Canmake Powder blush on the other hand, requires multiple applications before you actually see a build up of colour on the cheek, but that can be useful if you want just a light pink of colour that is barely there or you wanna slowly build up the colour. I apply the Canmake cream blush and blend it out gently with my fingers and upon application, the cream becomes slowly develops a powdery finish. Like the powder versions, the colour is buildable and can easily be blended out with other shades.

However, between the 3, Canmake's powder blush is my least favourite, because, it requires a great number of applications before I see any colour on my cheeks and considering how small the palette is, I need to constantly swirl my brush around causing a great deal of fallout of the product. The colour is pretty nonetheless and lasts for a fairly long time, but it would help if it was a tad more pigmented so that I needn't get a workout everytime I apply it. My last palette took me about a year to finish it and that was after daily use.

Canmake's Cream blush is a cosplayer's/model's best friend. The colour is light in real life and unlike most powder blushes, it actually shows up pretty well in pictures even if one is subjected to awful strong flashes from the camera. It's a must for me to apply it at every single cosplay event or shoot to achieve the sweet anime look most of the anime girls seem to have. The cream blush gives one a glowy blush that seems to radiate from within and the colour lasts for hours, also it doesn't dry out quickly unlike cheek stains so you needn't worry about getting uneven patches of blush on your cheeks. With that, this blush has a permanent place in my makeup kit and I'm getting a new palette pretty soon (I'm scraping off the edges from my current palette). A palette will be able to last for about a year, even if you apply it everyday.

Candydoll's Strawberry pink blush is my latest addition to my collection and I've loved it from the first application. The colour is vibrant but blends well with the rest of my makeup and vcan easily be toned up or down with the amount applied. I use it alone for simpler makeup or combined with the Canmake cream blush when applying heavier makeup. However, my gripes for this product is that firstly, being so pigmented means that you have to be extremely careful when applying the product. If you go crazy and swirl the blush like mad with a brush, you're gonna end up looking like a cartoon character. Go light and easy with the product application and you'll have a very nice pink blush. Also, the palette size is rather small so be careful of product fallout, but with its high pigmentation and containing 5g of the product inside that small palette, the blush would probably last more then a year of daily application.

In summary:

Canmake Cheek Powder in PW20 "Lollipop Pink":

Colour Intensity: 5/10

Price: 8/10 (can't remember exact price but I know it isn't very expensive)

Lasts for about a year

Barely shows up in pictures whne applied on its own

Canmake Cream Cheek in 03 "Strawberry Whip" :

Colour Intensity: 7/10

Price: 8/10 ($17.90 per palette)

Also lasts for about a year

Bonus points for showing up extremely well in pictures

Candydoll Blush in Strawberry Pink:

Colour Intensity: 11/10 (unlike the other 2 which you can apply them quite liberally, apply this blush with a light hand to avoid looking like a clown)

Price: 7/10 (can't remember the exact price but I remember paying over $20 for it)

Will definitely last over a year if applied with a light hand

Shows up fairly well in pictures but results are best when its combined with the Canmake cream blush

Okay, that's the end of this post that ended up far longer then I had intended. I might do a comparison between my peachy/orange shades of blush next time, we'll see....

Traumatised by Palty & New Hair Color

2011-11-01T14:46:00.001+08:00

I have a beef with Palty hair products, after they caused my last hair disaster. Considering the number of DIY at-home kits on the market, I figured the chance of something going terribly wrong would be pretty slim. I was proven wrong.

First, I tried using the Palty bleach spray, hoping it would help me deal with my roots for abit. After a week of spraying and blowng dry and letting it sit for an hour each day, the results were.... nothing! I didn't see any difference in anyway with my hair.

Upset at the spray's utter failure, I figured it was time to bring out the big guns. I got myself two boxes of Palty's Natural Brown bleach (they cost $13.90 a box), steeled myself into doing it and even roped in my sister for help to getting the back of my head done.

After 2 hours, a fist-sized pile of hair being pulled out of my head, choking on the smell of ammonia throughout the ordeal, and traumatizing my sister into declaring she'll never ever be a hairdresser even if her writing gig fails, the results were this:

The left was my hair after using the bleach spray for a week, and the right was after the bleach dye.

I had an amazing rainbow of colors on my head after the bleach dye. The roots on the top were bleached brown, but there were parts which remained black especially the back of my head. I had parts of my hair looking like my old blonde hair and other sections looking more like a golden blonde. My pink section got bleached out to a faded pink and the best part, the hair on the top of the back of my head got fried till I started getting those weird curly bits.

I was so distraught at the results of my hair after the bleach dye that I got very depressed and when I went out, I would either wear a wig or would bun up my hair and tuck it under a hat. I also made an emergency call to my hairdresser to try and rescue my horrible hair.

When I got to the salon, appalled, would be a very gentle word to use at my hairdresser's reaction. She was jumping around and flinging conditioning products onto my hair and demanded I promise her to not bleach my hair till the damaged parts had grown out. Then, she proceeded to work her magic on my hair and managed to salvage it.

The result, after 3 hours of dyeing and steam treatment. She dyed my hair back to the same brown I had before it faded out, the colour that Esther calls raspberry brown. I also requested for pink lowlights, but my hairdresser didn't have a nice pink dye, so we decided to dye it purple and let it fade out to the the nice pink I had before. I quite like the current combination, it reminds me very much of when Sakurina gets black highlights done because my purple parts look black unless there is a strong light.

The bright idea I had to try and use a box dye to save some money totally backfired on me. I ended up spending alot more money then I initially thought, firstly on the horrible wasted boxed bleach, and then going back to the salon and fixing the horrendous result.

Lesson learnt, I'll just stick to the expertise of my hairdresser next time, instead of attempting to be smart and cheap.

Onward Fashion show Fall/Winter 2011 (ICB, Dip Drops & Rosebullet)

2011-10-28T22:46:00.011+08:00

This show was held on the 14th but due to life and school getting in the way, I haven't had the time to write about it. So I was seriously behind on it and was pondering if I still ought to write it, but I do know a fair number of people are fans of the Rosebullet brand, so I figured it wouldn't be fair to deny you guys a preview of the fall/winter collection.

The event was held at a rather nice bar called Avalon, its like alittle island on it own that's only accessible by a bridge from the mainland. Pretty cool and I wouldn't mind checking it out next time. The show featured the fall/winter collections of 3 brands, ICB, Dip Drops and Rosebullet and was run by Onward Kashimaya, the head company behind these brands.

Do click on the pictures if you wanna see the details of the clothing!

First was ICB's collection. Their target audience were definitely more matured office ladies, considering their dark, muted colour palette and how everything was so serious and sombre. Bit boring in my opinion but I do like the cape and fur shawl.

Dip Drop had a more colourful collection. It had a touch of retro and vintage appeal in their collection with the loose A-line skirts that reached the knees. Key trends in their collection included mustard colour, pleated A-line skirt, polka dots, cropped woollen sweaters and delicate feminine blouses.

Rosebullet came last, and it was clear it was the audience's favourite show. Despite similarities in the trends with Dip Drop, they had their own twist to their collection. Mustard was again a key colour, they also had menswear-influenced designs, sheer pleated skirts, floral prints, peter pan collars and velvet textured mary-jane shoes.

Halfway through the show, there was a quick styling mini show with a stylist showing how to transform 3 different outfits into other outfits by adding extras such as a coat or shawl. Top 3 pictures are the before and bottom 3 are after the stylist changed them up abit. Interesting how he managed to make 3 blah outfits turn amazing with just an addition of a coat or shawl.

Goodie bag given to all who attended the event. Rosebullet certainly spared no expense in the stuff they included in the bag. They threw in 2 postcards, 2 pamphlets and a lookbook of the beautiful shoot they had with Lena Fuji. ICB and Dip Drop included smaller lookbooks.

A preview of Rosebullet's lookbook. The whole look was very vintage inspired with a dreamy air to it due to the soft lighting and focus of the pictures. I'll definitelty scan it once I have more time.

Outfit for the night (pardon my ugly black roots):

Polka dot dress: Bonica Dot

Stockings: Can't remember

Hand bag: Jamin Puech

Patent pumps with Floral detailing: Prada

I think its nice that this year's fall/winter trends are softer and more feminine as compared to the usual harsh looking leather, animal print, black and grey colour palettes that tend to be the norm. Its definitely nice to see someone wearing pastels and lace on a cold winter's day, though of course, how do they keep warm is a whole other matter.

I know I sound like I'm rambling on and on, but my brain isn't functioning too well right now. So I apologise for it and hope that the pictures make up for my current lack of putting together sentences that actually flow right and make sense.

I've still got a few more posts up my sleeve so I'll update as soon as my head clears and I'm less tired out.

P.S. I've finally gotten my own Twitter account. I've already followed some people but if you guys wanna follow me, my name's @Razhensia, someone had already taken "hortaru" so I have to use my cosplay name instead. I don't update it very often and often ramble on incessantly with random thoughts on it, but I'll definitely update it once I've uploaded a post.

Personal Outfit 73 (Wedding Lunch)

2011-10-17T01:16:00.003+08:00

I've got a few posts lined up and semi-prepared with pictures and stuffs already. But life decided to get in the way and dump a ton of assignments on me, so I shall be MIA for a week or so to clear off my assignments.

In the mean time, the Bf took me to a ex-colleague's wedding lunch cum reception. The food was pretty nice those the dishes towards the end of the 9 course lunch started to get less appetising.

Sorry bout the quality of the picture, was a hurriedly taken shot by my Iphone.

Floral Dress: Nichii

Nude Pumps: Taobao

Beaded bag: Jamin Puech

I kindda overslept, so being pressed for time, I used my Prisila wig instead of slowly trying to style my hair. It's been awhile since I last saw myself with darker brown hair hahaha

I love love love my Prisila wig. I've worn it about 5 times now and it still hasn't gone all crazy or tangled. The curls have loosened abit so I probably need to style it soon, and the back has gone alittle messy. However, I find that with the wig becoming alittle messy, it actually resembles natural hair far more then when it was neat and in pristine condition.

Okay, that's it for now. But do come back soon, I've got quite a few posts up my sleeves including attending a recent fashion show and a few makeup reviews.

Personal Outfit 72 (New Digicam & Real Steel)

2011-10-10T01:52:00.010+08:00

Had a rather eventful weekend, starting by attending a small fashion event, meeting up with some new people and eventually ending the weekend with an awesome movie date with the bf. Shall go into details later, but in the meantime, check out what the bf got me as an early christmas gift!

Wheeee!!! My awesome new cam that is half the size and weight of my old digicam. Guess what's the best function of this little wonder, hehehe.... its... a front mini LCD screen!!! So now I can camwhore all I like without having to juggle a mirror in order to see if I've angled my face properly. Wheee!!!!!

I had been lamenting to the bf about how much I missed my old (now dead) cam, especially considering how sucky my Iphone 3GS camera is. So he chanced upon a great deal for this little baby and decided to get it for me! So I'll be able to do my old makeup and contact lens reviews once again, so keep a lookout for them!

Anyway, outfit for yesterday was super simple and comfy. I was tired after having to do full gyaru-style makeup and hair for 2 days straight:

Maxi dress: random shop in Holland Village

Cream cardigan: Uniqlo

Straw bag: borrowed from mom

Nude loafers: Itti & Otto

I also wore my new hair barette! I got it when I was attending the launch of the Harajuku Street Style event on Friday. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures because it was super crowded and I was standing too far away from the catwalk to even get a glimpse of the models' outfits.

Anyway, I have a little something to share with you guys. The Kawaii.i TV team came to Singapore last weekend, and they followed me around for a whole day!!!

Haha, okay, I'm just jesting, it wasn't me they were focused on. The reason why my new friends and I were filmed by them is because we're the first and only, official gyaru-sa in Singapore. We're called Sparkling Cotton Candy and we're fairly new but our numbers are slowly but certainly growing. Also, unlike gyaru-sa-s in Japan, we don't focus on just a single gyaru style but embrace all styles.

Here's our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sparkling-Cotton-Candy/172667889460601

I'm just an average member so I'm not very sure about when will the program be aired or anything, but I'll definitely write about the day in detail once the leaders upload the pictures taken that day and when the video comes in.

Kawaii.i Tv also gave each of us alittle present:

A super cute Domo-kun keychain. It's currently hanging from my new digicam.

Anyway, the weekend ended with the bf and I catching the movie, Real Steel. Its a real wholesome family movie, but the fighting scenes were amazing and I seriously felt like taking up kickboxing classes after watching the show. I definitely reccomend watching it in the cinema, it'll be such a waste if you miss the opportunity to watch all the fight scenes on the big screen. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Okay, this ended up as a rather long post with so many things thrown in, but I have an essay due in 2 weeks time. So till next time!

P.S. I'm seeing alot of new followers here, so a big hi to you guys! And just curious, but where did you guys come from? I know twitter has something to do with it but who tweeted bout my blog? O_O??

Personal Outfit 71 (Boring Life)

2011-10-04T01:25:00.004+08:00

I apologise for being a bad blogger and not updating lately, but my life had become quite mundane and boring lately. I often end up going to class and back and then finishing up assignments if not catching up on old anime, and this has become my routine for the past 2 weeks. Even my cosplay life has kindda been on a standstill, I'm simply sitting around and waiting for my stuff to be shipped in, though if I really wanted to do something, I guess i could actually comb out my Freya wig and start styling my Panty wig.

Anyway I'm digressing, point of this post was to show the simple outfit that I wore today when I met up with an ex-colleague. She's flying off to Arizona in a couple of weeks because her husband's been posted there for work for 2 years, so we had a good-bye lunch.

Super simple outfit:

Blazer: Prada

Shirt: borrowed from mom

Shorts: can't remember

Stockings: can't remember

Feeling rather uninspired in terms of dressing and makeup lately, so I thought I'd dig out my red lipstick since I haven't used it in awhile.

I haven't bought new clothes in awhile because alot of my funds have been poured into cosplay (its a pretty expensive hobby) so I often find myself staring at my wardrobe and looking at the same few items, depsite the reality that my wardrobe is packed full to the brim with alot of random stuff. I've also put on weight after taking some steroids to clear my skin of my eczema flare ups. It sucks that my skin becomes better but I develop cravings and get hungry often as well as bloat up, so I've really packed on the pounds and need to start dieting and exercising. I wanna go back to the body I had when I did my Sheryl Nome shoot, I did 2 weeks of eating plenty of salads so my body naturally burned and toned up on its own.

Ugh okay, this post has become more like a ranting post then anything else. So before I start on another random rambling, I'll stop writing and distract myself with something else. Till next time!

Makeup Review: Kanebo Kate Powder Foundation in BR-C

2011-09-26T20:06:00.008+08:00

I've been on the hunt for a good powder foundation to use for normal school days ever since my old SK-II foundation ran out. I was actually deciding between this foundation and Majolica Majorca's powder foundation, but this one had a ton of favourable reviews online so naturally I gravitated towards it.

Firstly, I bought it in the shade BR-C, which is a brightening powder and the only one that is contained within a white packaging. The other shades are packaged in black and seem a tad darker in shades. The compact. It's made of super reflective plastic that is a total dust and fingerprint magnet! Within a few uses, it was covered in scratches and smudged fingerprints and such, so if you're picky about appearances, then its better if you find an alternate compact.

I've already used quite abit of it, so pardon the dirty sponge. I'd forgotten to take a pic when it was still nice and clean. The powder is very fine, and the coverage ranges from fine to medium and covers minor blemishes. It also contains SPF20

After full makeup, the effect without flash is a luminous, light finish that I love. I can also fake perfect skin with it haha!

With flash, you can see that it has a slight sheen to it and is generally quite smooth in application with no patchiness. BUT!!! This effect came about only after I had changed my makeup base to Majolica Majorca's Skin Lingerie Pore cover which I had reviewed before.

Me after a long day in school and then going out to sing karaoke with some friends, so pardon the tired look. I also used a peach instead of pink blush for a more au naturel look.

The foundation on the whole is a decent product however, it has caused me to change my makeup quite abit. Firstly, I was using Kate's Mineral base (which I keep forgetting to review about) and being from the same brand, I naturally assumed it would work together just fine. I was so wrong!! This foundation doesn't work to give a matte finish and if you apply a mattifying base, it'll just go all patchy and wrong and look horrendous. So I had to switch to a base with less oil control in order for it to work fine. The good thing is that if you prefer the luminous, dewy look., this foundation is just what you need.

However, a few warnings to take note! When I applied this foundation, I was really shocked at how pale and white I looked and it wasn't fair, it was literally white! But after applying my other makeup such as mascara and blush, the shade looked just fine. I'm also glad I got it a shade lighter because the foundation does have a tendency to oxidise since it doesn't control oil very well, so do get a shade lighter then your usual if you have oily skin. It also doesn't work as well with my favourite Candydoll loose powder, but with Kate's own loose powder, it works just fine and keeps the powder in place and minimizes smudging. I also have problem contouring my nose now because I use a waxy concealer and a brown eyeliner to darken the sides of my nose, but whenever I use that method now, the powder slides and creates terrible smudges that are super difficult to fix, so I have to use my bronzer instead.

So in summary:

Coverage: 7/10 (average coverage, but it does leave a sheer, luminous finish. So its good for faking perfect skin)

Texture: 9/10 (super finely milled powder, that go on smoothly and need minimal blending)

Oil control: 3/10 (Do not depend on it for oil control! Use blotters and bring along some loose powder to touch up instead)

Price: 6/10 (More pricey compared to average drugstore products. I remember the foundation costing $38 and that's not including the compact case, which I can't remember the price)

I'm getting used to using the foundation now, though it was initially incredibly frustrating to figure out how to make the best of it. I had to change quite abit of my makeup products and routine to accomodate it. So do remember, when done right, the effect is amazing but if not applied with the right products, it can go horribly wrong.

I'm still on the fence if I should continue using the product or try out my other option which is the Majolica Majorca powder foundation. I'll probably continue using it out of habit more then anything else, but I'll see how when this initial pact finishes.

World Runway Premiere (Fashionquake Aid 2011) Event

2011-09-21T01:30:00.013+08:00

I managed to snag myself some tickets for the World Runway Premiere (Fashionquake Aid 2011) event, so I dragged along my friends, Josephine, Jeremy and Cockroach (that's her nickname, she's a major fan of Gazette). I was pretty starting to get pretty ill (still haven't fully recovered) but even my illness wouldn't stop me from attending such a major fashion event!

A slight background of the event, unlike its famous big sister, the Tokyo Girls' Collection (TGC), WRP is NOT a fashion event for brands to showcase their latest collections. Rather, it's a fashion tournament involving teams consisting of stylists, wardrobe assistants and makeup artists/hairstylists from 8 countries who compete to style their models according to the theme, which was "street-chic".

The teams came from Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, Russia, UK, USA and Singapore. They had to shop for their collection from local shops and had to keep within a strict budget (I think it was bout $500 per model).

Onto pictures! Though I apologise for them being so blurry, with my camera out of order, I had to depend on my crappy iphone pics, though jeremy did help me by taking some pictures too! So the less blurry pics are his. Do click on the pics for a bigger view, that way you can see the outfit and makeup details alittle better. >.<

If by chance anyone does take the pictures for whatever purpose (tumblr etc.) Please, link it back to this blog, I took an insanely long time editting the pics, joining them together and choosing the best of the many crappy ones I had. Thanks!

Most pictures are from the large screen because we were seated insanely near the side of the stage. It was fun because we were the "cheerleaders" and they gave us flags to wave about. The stage was like 2 "Y" joined together, and the entire team were judged on a few categories (styling, makeup, hair, walking, uniqueness, team presentation & creative vision) with the total score making up the final score. Only 4 teams were selected for the second round, and then the winner was chosen.

USA played with textures greatly. They layered alot and their models were often adorned with heavy jewellry that almost resembled medieval chains. Makeup consisted of intense contouring with blush and highlighting being overly emphasised coupled with dark eyes.

Italy focused more on strong colours and bold makeup. I loved the reddish leopard dress in the third picture, it was accesorized with a chunky gold belt that appeared to be made from thread spools or bangles, super creative! The model on the far right picture had feather earrings or hair acccesories, which is very on trend right now.

I felt that Russia failed totally in meeting the "street-chic" theme. Their look was soft and muted with a colour palette consisting of nudes and whites. It was very different and no doubt, stood out in its own way, but like I said, personally it failed to meet the theme. But I cannot deny that I loved their makeup so much! The models had soft, glowing porcelain skin with the barest of blush and liner to give it that ethereal, forest nypmh look. Their hair and makeup were accesorized with flowers, and I think gardening foam.

Brazil, was in no doubt the most fun of the lot! The models sashayed down the runway decked in colourful, blinged out clothes and waved and danced about. I certainly felt like I was attending an actual TGC with the models' fun antics. They even came down at the last moment carrying the Brazil national flag, a definite showstopper! Makeup was fun with lost of glitter shadows and eyeliner and fun pops of colours everywhere be it the lips, blush or just the amazing clothes.

From here on, the following countries were the ones that made it to the second round. The other countries that failed to make it assisted the other countries during the 20 minute interval that they were given to get the models to change into their new outfits and to freshen their makeup.

Honestly, when I first saw Singapore's collection, I thought they were the Japan team. The 2 pictures from the right came from their first collection, and the third picture is their second round collection. The models were decked out in alot of neon colours, Hello Kitty and hoodies with cat ears on them, the whole thing was alittle too "kawaii" for me. The second collection had little relation to the first collection other then having the same makeup and bright colours. Most of them were decked in cheongsam-inspired dresses that had the most garish prints on them, I seriously thought the outfits were more suited for getai singers (performers who sing, dance and perform comedic acts during the Hungry ghost festival, to entertain both the living & the dead who had returned) then a styling tournament

France on the otherhand, played it bit too safe in my opinion. Their outfits were fun no doubt, but in a more Friday office dress down getup kindda way but they were bang on trend with high-waisted shorts, polka dot patterns and vintage style dresses with waists being cinched in with a wide belt. Their makeup was obviously a nod to geishas with super pale skin and painted red lips and perfectly coiffed dark hair.

Japan reminded me alot of the dramatic antics of a John Galliano show. Models had their hair decked out with interesting headgears that seemed to be made of coloured netting and flowers and other random knick-knacks, all placed atop the models' perfectly pulled back hair in the most precarious manner. Models sashayed down the runway waving huge umbrellas and fans, looking sombre with their pale skin, kohl-rimmed eyes and stark black lips. Clothes were heavily layered, or in some cases, like the 2nd picture from the right, heavily adorned with amazing details and all of them had at least one material on them, somewhere, that had some kind of Japanese print on it, be it floral or Japanese cranes.

UK was the eventual winner (and my personal favourite!). It was a dead giveaway that the styling team was heavily influenced if not, paying homage to the late Alexander Mcqueen. Models had dewy skins, with the appearance of just a touch of makeup, nude lips and then heavily emphasised brows, with extra feathers and glitter foil attached to their brows. Clothes too covered the bare minimum, but had great amounts of detailing on them, with lots of metallic accents on them or a mixing of textures. They looked so futuristic and awe-inspiring, no photo does them complete justice, I am now deeply obssessed at finding out where the styling team got their outfits from, because I totally want the whole collection!!

At the end of the tournament, all the models and styling teams came onstage to await the results. UK walked away with a total score of 79, and became the first winner of the World Runway Premiere event.

The event was great fun, but alittle messy. Models were still practising their walks when my friends and I were let in, but then again, we were the "cheerleaders" so we were allowed in alittle earlier then others to get us to rehearse our flag-waving and cheering. Once, due to a technological malfunction, the timing went off-schedule and our host, Utt, had to come out and buy alittle time by interacting with the audience.

I was also really upset when I noticed about a 1/4 of the people attending the event were more interested in the Korean performing artist, se7en, then the actual event. They waved glowsticks aorund and suddenly the whole audience was so alive with fangirls screaming away when he performed. They promptly left, the moment his performance was over without even having the courtesy to wait alittle while more for the tournament results.

But no matter, as a trial for what's to become a major fashion festival for the next 5 years, it was done superbly and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to attend this event. Cross my fingers and hope that I'll be just as lucky next year!!

Momoeri's New Lash Line: Jewel Eyelashes

2011-09-18T01:36:00.006+08:00

Just a fairly quick post before I'm off to bed!!

Momoeri sells a fair amount of cosmetics and such so it isn't surprising that she'll have her own line of lashes really. If I remember correctly, this would be her second lash line though I can't say if her lash lines are permanent or on a limited basis, though my guess would be that its released for a limited time only since I don't see much publicity for lashes and news about them disappears pretty fast.

Her new lash line is named Jewel Eyelashes, which I think is fairly suitable with her blinged out lifestyle where majority of her stationary and other items have to be decked out in jewels one way or another.

The line consists of 2 top lashes and 2 bottom lashes, a decent variety I think

Top Lashes:
Type 001: Elegant & Gorgeous
(this one seems bit too similar in pattern to Dollywink's lashes)
Type 002: Elegant & Natural
(I don't like that the hairs seem to be all wiry looking and stuff, but I guess it will blend in with your natural lashes when applied, which is the type of lookthis lash is trying to achieve)

Bottom Lashes:
Type 003: Feminine & Glamorous
(Longer then most typical lower lashes, I'm quite interested in these actually, considering they are longer then usual but not tufts of hair stuck together, hence a more natural but still obvious look)
Type 004: Feminine & Simple
(Again this reminds me of Dollywink's version, but there seems to be more tufts of hair on the entire lashline as compared to Dollywink's)

From the available information, lash glue is not included in the pack and I'm uncertain if the hairs used are natural or plastic hairs. Judging from the designs, I honestly do not feel inspired by them at all. The designs are fairly simple and quite common in my opinion.

The lashes will only be released on the 22nd of September and are going for 1260yen (tax included) which at the current exchange rate equals USD16.40/SGD20.35 without shipping. A reasonable and common price for most lash lines in Japan I guess. They can be purchased (currently reservations only) online via the Momoery Rakuten shop: http://moeryshop.jp/item/5076.html

if not, it'll be avaliable in Don Quixote (Donki) stores from early October.

Okay, I'm off to bed now. I gotta wake up early to celebrate my sis's birthday before heading down to the amazing World Runway Fashionquake 2011 event. I managed to snag 2 different tickets, one was to be part of the cheerleading team and the other was a pair of general seating tickets. Of course, I naturally gravitated towards the cheerleading tickets since its always more fun to be part of a major event so I gave away my other tickets to a friend. I'll try to take pictures of the event but I'm not sure how its gonna pan out so hopefully I'll mamange to snag some good shots. Oooh!! Super excited now!!!

Contact Lens Review: Barbie Tri Blend brown

2011-09-16T00:45:00.009+08:00

My life has become extraordinarily boring lately, hence the lack of updates. All that happens to me lately is going to school and back, meeting buyers for my cosplay costumes and some of my old Japanese gyaru magazines, meeting the bf and staying at home doing housework and schoolwork.

So in order to keep this blog updated and prevent it from stagnating, I decided to try and catch up with my reviews. Espeically when I've been using plenty of new products lately but always forget to take pictures for a review, however, as fate would have it, my camera decided it was time to fizz out and die on me. I'll try to continue my reviews using my mom's super old camera, but no promises as I need to figure out the functions and try to take nice pictures with it. In the meantime, here's a review that I managed to take pics of just before my camera died.

I'm reviewing Barbie tri Blend Brown lenses. I got them to replace my old adult brown lense that had started to irritate my eyes, I had been using them for more then 6 months anyway, so I guess it was a hint that I oughta change it anyway. Again, these lenses are super simple lenses that I had purchased for the pupose of using them for school and days when I don't wanna wear much makeup.

The poster for Barbie Tri Blend Brown. It claims to be 14.5mm but its more of 14mm in my opinon and its manufactored by the same company that produces Candy Magic king lenses.

One lens in, one lens out. Minimal enlarging as you can see.

Both lenses in with no flash indoors. They look like very natural lenses.

Both lenses in and with direct flash. The design is very minimal and blends in seamlessly with my dark eye colour, a super plain pair of lense that you really shouldn't expect much from it. No way will it be good enough for the super enlarged look for gyaru makeup.

In terms of comfort, the lens is definitely very comfortable, with little need for me to apply eyedrops even after spending a whole day in an air-conditioned classroom. Its super natural looking due to the smaller diameter and it not having the typical black iris-enlarging black ring.

I've been using the lens for many many months now so maybe its bout time for me to change it its starting to get blurry after a couple hours of wear, but it could also be my eyes acting up as lately my lids have become abit sore for no apparent reason. I'll be seeing a doctor soon if my eyes don't get any better after switching lenses and throwing out my old makeup.

But overall, its a fantastic pair of lens for a natural look and I really recommend it.

Personal Outfit 70 (Sis's Birthday Gift)

2011-09-10T01:56:00.006+08:00

Went out for abit the day before to get my sister's birthday present and to spend some time with the bf. I haven't dressed up for quite awhile so I thought I would treat myself by dolling up but since I haven't gotten some new clothes in awhile, I had to throw on a rough outfit with what I had on hand.

Outfit:

Pussy bow shirt: Osmose

Tiered floral skirt: Nichii

Belt: Taobao

Over knee socks: Cosmode

Nude loafers: itti & otto

Hair bow: Salvation army

Bag: Mety Darmali

My hair has kindda faded out to a light honey/caramel blonde which I love alot, I personally think it looks alot better then before! Did a simple plait hairdo and added a slight wave to the ends of my hair that day. Nothing fancy.

The bag is by an incredible designer who named the brand after herself. Most of her pieces tend to be one-off designs and every single piece is sewn and beaded by hand, my mom and I fell in love with her incredible works of art and have since amassed a collection of her whimsical bags. It's hard to capture the beauty of her bags in a picture but you can admire more of her other works at: www.metydarmali.com

The bag in full detail, her signature is the 'I "heart" Me' beading, she has it on all her bags and for her larger, rectangular bags, there's always one side that has ribbon threaded through in a corset-style.

After sifting through my wardrobe, I've realised that my mom and I (my mom mostly) have collected a ton of bags that are all crazily fun and unique and sadly, they've been shut away for quite awhile. I plan to dig them out and start putting them to use, and considering makeup and clothes are rather toned down lately in gyaru fashion, perhaps its time these beautiful bags get their chance in the spotlight.

I'll definitely show more of them in time to come!

Kagura & Kamui (Gintama) Shoot

2011-09-05T23:40:00.006+08:00

After the horrible results of the Sheryl Nome shoot, I'm so relieved that the results from this shoot was alot better. Which is pretty funny since it was shot within 3 hours, at an outdoor location and with the weather threatening to pour on us that day.

We shot at Japanese Gardens and initially we were worried bout the crowd there but luckily for us, there were rumbles of thunder that I guess scared off the people but it remained sunny enough for us to shoot. We also got our trusted photographer, Kenneth to shoot for us, and out of the people I've worked with so far, he's definitely one of my favourite photographers to work with.

My face looks bit funny here, but I think its more of the angling

Love love love this shot, though the bridge was kindda steep. Kenneth saw the potential in this shot when we were walking to the bridge, I had run further ahead of the rest of the group and was attempting to scale this bridge when he shouted at me to stand still before taking a quick snap. The result is pretty nice as you can see.

A more "action" shot, it took abit of effort to pose in a ultra mini skirt and high heeled boots and a stiff obi limiting my positioning on soft grass. But the result is worth it!

I think Esther looks ultra cool here, so bishie!! (>w<)b

Kamui: "Kagura, that dango..."

Kagura: "No way!"

I've already retired my Kagura costume. It was definitely a fun costume but I don't like re-using the same costume too many times, and I definitely don't have enough space in my room to keep costumes for the purpose of preserving memories. It'll be going to another loving home pretty soon!

Digressing to another topic, Esther's new school term is gonna start soon so any previous plans we've made are thus put on hold and subjected to the amount of free time Esther has from now on. Its bit sad because we do have quite a few plans together but this is something totally out of our hands so I'll probably start working on a few other solo plans I've put on hold. I'm trying to recruit at least one guy for a particular series but nothing concrete so far, though I have been recruited for a group cosplay!

I'll be cosplaying Nanami Haruka from the series Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000% (super long title I know =.=), and best part is, hehehehe.. I'll be getting a "harem"! The anime is the typical shoujo style of story with one girl and a bunch of guys who all eventually somehow develop a crush on her and start vying for her affections. My friend has managed to recruit all but one guy, so we're just proceeding with the plans and hopefully it'll not be just for a shoot but for an event as well. So crossing my fingers!

Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier) Shoot

2011-09-02T02:27:00.005+08:00

I had planned this shoot some time back and it was because I greatly admired a particular CD cover of Sheryl Nome. The shoot was supposed to revolve around the artistically done Universal Bunny CD cover (not costume!!) and I later decided to try doing the Pink Monsoon cover at the same time. But to be honest, I'm thoroughly disappointed with it. I had initially planned for Steph to be my photographer for it because of the level of nudity involved but due her busy schedule, I decided to get another female photographer instead.

In the end, I had like 300+ snaps taken after an entire day in a photoshoot studio but barely any were good enough for my standard. The photographer had also initially sent me some samples as ideas so I figured why not and she agreed to help me do all the editting and stuff. In the end after waiting nearly half a month for the shots, she dumped the 300+ shots onto me and one measly editted pic. I was screaming mad when I saw the result because I had spent quite abit of money paying for the time in the studio, spent a whole day trying to get good shots, spent bout 2 weeks dieting for the shoot and all I got one was so-called nice pic.

This pic was influenced from the Pink Monsoon CD cover. Steph kindly helped me to do editing for it and I tweaked it abit more when she sent me her photoshopped version.

This was the edited pic that the other photogrpaher sent to me. I'm still not totaly happy with it but with Steph and Esther busy with their own stuffs, I don't really wanna bug them to help me do editing since they are doing it out of kindness.

I've asked Steph for a possible reshoot and she's agreed but considering how busy she is with her bf and work and stuff, it doesn't look like we'll be doing it anytime soon. I also need to get ready my costume for the AFA (Anime Festival Asia) event in November, so my guess is I'll be extremely lucky if I can get the reshoot done by this year.

So much for getting a nice photo, and to think I thought that this would be the first and last time I would do such a revealing shoot, I was totally entranced by the design of the CD cover but the results are far from it... haiz....

STGCC 2011 Cosplays

2011-08-29T01:39:00.012+08:00

Ugh I'm behind on posts again, but I do have a valid excuse!! I've been bogged down by plenty of cosplay shoots lately, so you can expect lots of nice pictures once I've edited them!! Hahaha, okay, it isn't much of an excuse but it does rob me of time to blog amongst other things.

I attended the recent STGCC (Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention) event, so I managed to get some pictures there. I didn't have much planned for the 2 event days though so I took the opportunity to test out my Freya (from Chobits) costume and I re-cosplayed Alois Trancy on the second day.

Pictures:

I tried my hardest to give off a gentle demeanor and I think I managed to succeed in that. I tend to give off a natural fierce and intimidating vibe which can be useful for certain characters but its extremely bad for characters that tend to be considered kind and gentle.

Chobits is one of those classic anime/manga that you can never go wrong with, I'm cosplaying Freya, the sister/twin of one of the main characters. I love her character so much more then her sister because she's far more complicated and darker in nature unlike the super sweet and innocent sister.

Bleaugh, ignore the plastic bag behind me

Love this pic! I look super tall and you can see how long my train is, not easy dragging a train made of PVC all around the event space.

I re-cosplayed Alois Trancy on the second day but I had a different guy cosplay as my Claude Faustus, because Daisy's costume shrunk in the wash. Good thing is, Kazu (my new Claude), is taller then Daisy, so he managed to create the appropriate height difference between the characters without trying. I actually brought a blue and brown lollipop along as a prop, but after licking it for abit, the lollipop turned my lips and abit of my teeth blue!! So I had to stop using it hahahahah. I saw another Alois and Claude couple at the event too but I feel we did a better job (biased much!! XD), we also did a shoot together today (or rather yesterday) so I'll be getting more pictures soon! But here's some taken at the event itself:

Introducing Kazu!! He's the more appropriate 1.8m tall height, whereas Daisy was only 1.7++m tall, so he had to wear height increment insoles but even that showed only minor differences in our heights after I wore my heeled boots.

Can't miss the opportunity to make some funny faces! Its a must do for an Alois cosplay hahaha!

Love this shot alot, the lighting shows the characters' personalities well in my opinion, though I could have attempted to look less innocent and happy (=_=)"

An up close facial shot, somehow I quite like the angling of this shot

So far I've done 3 shoots (including today's) that I haven't written or posted pictures about. I'm bit upset at the result of my Sheryl Nome shoot because the photographer didn't edit the pictures much and trust me they need major editting which I totally suck at! Anyone wanna offer their photoshop skills to me for editing purposes? Hahahah!!

I've more or less done editing the pictures from one of the shoots already so I'll write up the post about it soon!

Blondie No More!

2011-08-25T00:15:00.003+08:00

I've finally stopped being a blonde! But begrudgingly so, because I loved the colour alot, however my hair is seriously dying from the numerous bleaching sessions and my parents have been nagging me about my hair dropping all around the house.

I had initally planned a post to decide about the next colour for my hair, but after talking it over with my hairdresser, she told me that considering how bleached and light my hair was, no picture I showed would ever come out the way I wanted it to. I had to slowly introduce colour back into my hair so the resulting colour would be really unpredictable and it would still fade out after awhile. So even I was surprised with the eventual result.

I chose to bleach my roots first, because I wanted my whole head to have a uniform colour, not colour blocks and especially not visibly darker roots.

Resulting hair colour. I left my pink streak alone because my hairdresser and I didn't want to take the risk and produce a weird coloured chunk there, since we couldn't predict what kind of colour would come out when we mixed the dyes. (Sorry, I only had on basic makeup here, this is how I usually look like when I go to school)

My hair is definitely brownish in colour, but its not a dark brown, its kindda ashy, with hints of gold and I can definitely see a pinkish hue to it and it looks bit orangish at times too. Esther called it strawberry brown but I don't know if there's any real name to this colour.

Unfortunately during the bleaching process, I tolerated the painful process for a tad too long because I totally forgot I had to put on another colour after that. So when the other colour was applied, I nearly screamed from the pain, it hurt so bad! I had no choice but to tolerate the pain otherwise I would have suffered for nothing, so I sat through the pain and I'm glad I did.

I'm still getting used to the colour but I'm really liking it, it's definitely different from the majority but I've stopped getting snide comments from delusional people who assume I'm trying to copy eitehr Lady Gaga or Xiaxue. Considering my hair colour would fade out and change over time, I'm wondering how it'll look like in the future, so I guess I'll see how it goes!

Kocchi Muite Baby (Vocaloids) Shoot

2011-08-23T03:39:00.006+08:00

Had a rather packed weekend by attending 2 events. First was the Singapore Toys, Games & Comics Convention (STGCC) and then on Saturday evening, I also attended the annual Natsu Matsuri festival. I was cosplaying on boht Saturday and Sunday that's why I didn't wear a yukata to Natsu Matsuri this year and besides, I had initially planned to purchase another yukata but it was sold out online. There's always next year!

Since I'm still in the process of gathering my pictures taken over the weekend and Esther is helping me to edit them, I'll post pictures bout my old Vocaloids shoot instead. It was a relatively simple shoot in a rented music studio with Hatsune Miku and Kagamine Rin as the students and I as Megurine Luka was their teacher. At least that's the relationship they had in the PV (Vocaloid relationships are extremely confusing and can differ greatly from pv to pv).

So pictures:

Not many shots of us three together but this one is cute

Forgive me if I am holding the drumsticks wrongly, I've never once played the drums in my life

One of my favourite pictures from the shoot. Esther is helping me make it into my next coscard!

Playing around with the drumsticks

And finally, a full length shot!

I'm not very fond of the outfit as it was a office style skirt with a blouse tucked in. Problem was, the blouse kept riding up resulting in funny looking lumps on my waist making my waist look fat and because it was sleeveless too, if I held my arms wrongly, my arms would look super fat.

The good thing was that it was relatively free and easy shoot with just some feelings of irritation I got from a particular person, but shadn't elaborate.

I've planned another shoot for my Alois Trancy cosplay. I doubt I'll use the costume anymore because as fun a character as he is, it gets pretty sickening to wind up bumping to at least 2 other lookalikes at an event and everyone of us wind up sizing up each time we glance at each other. Plus, I should get ready some other costumes or upcoming events.

I'll update bout STGCC and my other shoots soon!

Personal Outfit 69 (Window Shopping, Purikura & Red Velvet Cake)

2011-08-18T01:05:00.007+08:00

Finally had a catch-up session with Jo after so long. I'm so glad that she's back here in Singapore, she's going back in October but still, at least we can meet up abit to catch up and stuff.

I planned a haircut early that day because my mom gave me a promotional voucher for a free haircut. It was okay, but the guy kindda took my idea of curls too far and instead of using tongs, he used a diffuser which resulted in a really messed up hair do that resembled a rat's nest. Jo helped me to comb it out so my hair looked rather plain and unstyled for the rest of the day. We didn't have much planned after that so we randomly wandered around before deciding to take some purikura. We purposely travelled all the way to Bugis for this really amazing purikura machine that Jo was telling me about. It enlarges our eyes, applies eyeliner, softens and smoothens skin and lengthens and slims our legs, a really awesome machine to bring out the narcissistic side of any girl possible.

My favourite purikura shot, my eyes look huge here! Jo's eyeliner was also darkened and our skins look so soft and perfect hahah!

The blush was added on later, too bad that they didn't have varieties of blush, just 2 options of pink or orange, I wish the pink blush they had wasn't so stark

A fun purikura

The full length shot made our legs look super long and slim, love it!!

Outfit:

Top: Taobao

Ripped Leggings: Taobao

Jeffrey Cambell Lita look-alikes: Galstar

Necklace: Vivienne Westwood

Goggles: Lips Enterprise

I am so gonna try and do my purikura at this machine from now on, I love the effects despite the fact that it looks bit over exposed hence why we look so fair and my hair looks white.

Jo also introduced me to red velvet cake. I was bit apprehensive bout it initially because I detest cream cheese and heavy cheese cakes (I only like light Japanese cheese cakes) but the cake was so scrumptious, my mouth is watering at the thought of it and I'm actually having cravings for it now. I tried it at Cedele, but does anyone locally have anywhere else to recommend a good red velvet cake?

Oh yea, I'm gonna dye my hair next week, still trying to decide what colour because alot of hairdressers have told me not to dye my hair black right after belaching so much because I won't be able to lighten my hair after that. So I'm trying to decide between Muto Shizuka's ashy blonde do or Sakurina's more reddish-brown hair. I'll do a proper post about it next time with pictures so that you guys can get an idea okays?

Casual Shoot & Preview of Other Shoots

2011-08-13T00:21:00.011+08:00

Been pretty busy with plenty of shoots ever since my school holidays started. I've had bout 3 or more like 2 and an attempted one so far with yet another planned for this Sunday. Busy, but feeling quite satisfied because I can get nice pictures of my costumes and me in character, which rarely happens during events when lighting sucks and bad photographers are everywhere and putting up pictures that make me look ten times more hideous.

On to pictures! First will be the casual/ attempted shoot:

We went to Marina Bay Sands Shoppes for the shoot, love the view!!

Esther, Joshua, Kenneth and I ended up sitting by the Singapore River and spacing out and chatting while watching the sun go down. Kenneth managed to shoot these few nice shots though hahah!

My favourite shot and I only just realised that the waves in the water happened so nicely above my head!

Outfit consisted of:

Inner Camisole: Tutuha

White top(tutuha-inspired): Taobao

Skorts: Laggy

Thigh high stockings: Can't remember

Jeffrey Cambell Lita look-alikes: Galstar

Next shoot was for the Vocaloids PV, Kocchi Muite Baby, I cosplayed Megurine Luka. After sifting through my cosplay pictures, I think my face suits Megurine Luka better then the other Vocaloids. Too bad my height is meant more for Kagamine Rin or Hatsune Miku (and that's if I'm in heels) Hahaha!

Camwhore picture with Esther right after applying makeup

Super funny picture during the shoot, hahaha you should totally check out my face up close! Esther and I still laugh like mad at the ridiculous face I made.

I kept wondering why did the face look so familiar, then it hit me, I resembled Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes, a comic I grew up with! Hahha, so unglam but too funny to not share!

Okay, here's a more "glamorous" shot of me which Esther took. Hahha, I look like a lady boss checking for quality control of the pictures in Kennth's camera. My legs look impossibly long here...

My last shoot, shall keep the theme secret till I get the pictures. Super shy bout it because its bit risque, so I'm still wondering if I should post the pictures here >.<""Super messy wig because I was lying down sideways and I'm glad my 2 weeks of dieting worked out. My tummy flattened and my thighs look slimmer too! Too bad I can't maintain this figure for long, I love food too much...

Whee! After Sunday's shoot, I'll be meeting Josephine on Tuesday, she's finally back in Singapore again! Yay! Then it'll be another cosplay event this weekend called Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention aka STGCC but the first day of the event will be clashing with Natsu Matsuir so I'll probably be rushing from the event to get to the next one and then back to the cosplay event the very next day! Bet it's gonna be super tiring but I'm sure nonetheless, it'll be fun.

Too bad that I'm not wearing a yukata for Matsuri this year! I won't have time to style my hair after the cosplay event so its pointless to wear it and I also couldn't get my hands on the one I wanted. But I'll definitely wear a yukata again for next year!

The Bf's Birthday Celebration

2011-08-09T02:00:00.013+08:00

The post is a few days late and that's because since my return from the getaway, I've already done 2 shoots within the 2 days that have passed since then, I'm resting for a day before my next shoot comes along. Shoots are fun, but ultra tiring, anyway the Bf and I had a quick getaway last weekend to Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) to celebrate the Bf's birthday.

Stayed at the Festive Hotel, the room was of a decent size with an extra kiddy bed and a sofa bed, a good room for families I guess. Took this pictures off the official website, I don't wanna take pictures of hotel rooms right now in the midst of the seventh month (chinese ghost month) in case I find an extra lodger in our room.

We had a free and easy first day to explore the whole place, Sentosa has seriously changed so much from the little island that I used to frequent as a little girl. It's now become a super entertainment centre, which is good for the economy I guess, but I still miss the old Sentosa at times, when it was less commercialised.

We went to Universal Studios Singapore the next day.

Obligatory tourist photo at the USS globe, haha!

Super cool Egyptian statues, I've always had a fascination with the history of ancient egypt.

The castle of the land of Far Far Away from Shrek

Took this pic at the entrance to the land of far Far Away, ignore the guy photobombing my pic

Found this super sweet statue on the roof of a shop, it so cute to see Donkey playing with his kids

The Bf bought this dinosaur bottle at the Jurassic park area, I find the dino has a rather mischevious look

Me totally drenched after riding the Jurassic Park River rapids ride. I sat in the worst seat in the entire raft, the others got away with just minor splashes while I had to wringe out water from my clothes after the ride. Amazingly, my makeup stayed put even after that unexpected bath! Hehe!

We stayed till 9pm to catch the fireworks show. It was nice but I personally preferred the ones I saw at Disneyland Hong Kong

We had fun the whole by simply letting our inner child out and running around like crazy kids. My favourite ride was the Battlestar Galatica, Cylon version! It totally satiated my thrill-seeking side that day though most of the other rides became a tad boring after that super adrenaline rush we got from it.

The Bf and I were also "married" by Donkey from the movie Shrek during his "live" show though he made me swear to change the Bf's hairstyle hahahaha. We even had a staff congratulate us on our "wedding" later during the day when we were randomly wandering around.

The whole getaway was rather fun and was made better by the fact that there weren't too many people around, so we didn't have to queue too long for any single ride and managed to more or less catch most rides and even sat through the cool Rock The Musical show.

On the whole a great way to spend some much needed time with the Bf and to celebrate his special day.

P.S. Didn't put up pics of the Bf because he's not so fond of having his face shown on this blog, so shall respect his wishes

Just Be Friends (Vocaloids) Shoot

2011-08-04T03:35:00.007+08:00

I'll be away for the next 2 days as I'm celebrating the Bf's birthday with a quick getaway to Universal Studios Singapore. So I'll leave you guys with pictures of my old, forgotten shoot, Just Be Friends by the Vocaloid, Megurine Luka. It's essentially a breakup song so and because it's easy to gather the stuff and costume needed for the shoot, alot of cosplayers all over the world have already done it.

The shoot was done at 2 different locations, most were at the backstaircase of a mall and after we got chased out, we found another location with some tiled fountains but the grey didn't quite suit the theme and we were already losing light so we did just a few shots there. On to picturess!

The iconic shot for Just Be Friends. Eeek! Pardon my fat thighs!

My favourite picture, though Daisy (my partner) looks like he's in shock *sniggers*

Another shot

Esther helped me photoshop this picture abit and I like how she made me look like a drawing or something since technically the "master" is "breaking up" with a Vocaloid aka basically the dude stopped using the Megurine Luka voice program. Hence the fact on why I look unreal in this shot.

I love the colours in this shot, my skin looks super fair though my sharp brows made me look pissed off, I've stopped angling them so harshly now.

For this shoot, I applied so much makeup on my face that I basically looked like a clown in real life. I had to appear made up in pictures because Luka is the kind who would apply makeup as compared to Miku or Rin and since cameras tend to wash out alot of things, I applied tons of blush, eye shadow, lipgloss and super thick lashes and as you can see, it turned out just right. But I like how the makeup turned out, definitely my favourite cosplay makeup so far!

Okay, it's pretty late and I need to wake up early tomorrow to check into the hotel in time, so till next time!

Streetfest/D'J Party Event

2011-07-30T01:40:00.007+08:00

Technically, I have an exam on tomorrow, but my brain is refusing to absorb anymore information from my notes and one of my friends has even joked that he slit his wrists from the stress and is now attempting to study in a hospital bed. I'll write alittle about the recent cosplay/band performance event.

I usually skip out this annual event as I don't have much interest in the local band scene and cosplay-wise, its a rather low-scale event which tends to be over-populated by the newbies, but since Steph's awesome band, Zephyr, was making its debut, it was only natural that I had to go and support them!

The people behind Zephyr

Love this pic of Steph, I think she look super cool here

Took some polaroids with a few friends. I had 2 with Esther but somehow they didn't turn out right.

Managed to sneak in a few shots, thanks Kenneth! I reused this costume because it was the easiest costume to change in and out of and was comfortable too.

Forgive the weird way my body seems scrunched up here. Silly me also forgot to bring my Miku hair accessories

It was a rather hot day so I was lethargic most of the time while sitting at the "backstage" area and waiting for Zephyr to come on. The heat and humidity sucked most of my energy out of me so if you take a look at Steph's blog, you'll see me giving a half-hearted good luck wave at them as they stepped on stage.

So go and take a look at Steph's blog, there's alot of pictures of Zephyr during their performance and even a video of them. You'll definitely won't wanna miss it!

Moi's Little Birthday Celebration

2011-07-24T02:55:00.010+08:00

This is such a late post but bleaugh... I'm still gonna post it anyway! My birthday was on the 15th and I had alittle surprise celebration that was planned by Esther (thanks babe!). I had known something was up because the Bf kindda let it slip that something was gonna happen to try and cheer me up when I was having my depressive mood swing during my PMS, but he refused to let on anymore details.

Started the day by catching the latest Harry Potter movie with Esther and another friend (the movie was awesome!) and then Esther tricked me by claiming that Kenneth had a shoot close by so we oughta drop by and visit him. We then winded up at an anime paraphernalia shop where the Bf and Joshua totally caught me by surprise and we winded up eating a late lunch/early dinner with food they had prepared earlier.

Me cutting the birthday cake they had gotten..mmmm..chocolate!

They brought sushi and Joshua's mom made fried noodles. His mom's cooking is seriously awesome!

Thanks Esther, Kenneth, Joshua and of course the Bf for making the day extra special. Love u guys!

Grr! I have no idea why blogger keeps switching this picture to the side! Anyway here are some gifts I got: Polaroid camera, lots of polaroid films (think bout 12-15 boxes), a polaroid photo album, a pre-made ribbon hair scarf and a Vivienne Westwood diamante pink heart pendant necklace. I also got a pair of pink earphones from my sis and a red packet (money!) from my dad

I went to Streetfest yesterday but it wasn't a major cosplay event. I was simply there because alot of my cosplay friends were going and Steph's band was performing too, so I thought I'd go to give them some moral support. Her band was awesome but the location was extremely hot and humid, I can't imagine performing in that kindda heat.

I'll upload the few pictures I had taken but it wasn't many and I gotta upload my pictures for my Just Be Friends shoot soon! That shoot was done soo long ago but I haven't gotten round to actually showing the pictures, really sorry guys.

My exam's coming up soon which means a month long holiday for me! I'm gonna be doing a huge load of shoots before Esther and I get busy with school once again and I'm super excited bout an upcming shoot that is pushing my boundaries quite abit, I won't elaborate further, so you just gotta wait and see what I'm gonna shoot next!

Cosfest (Behind the Scenes)

2011-07-17T02:38:00.011+08:00

I'm posting my final post about Cosfest. It happened like round 2-3 weeks ago so some details have gone kindda sketchy but I just remembered having alot of fun despite having a few hiccups here and there.

Pics shall tell most of the story I guess:

Getting ready to go!

We dropped by a nearby food court for lunch.

Haha, Esther took this picture of me while I was deciding what to eat. The stallholder didn't even bat and eyelid when I went up to her and ordered food, she just gave me a lazy stare and repeated my order then just gestured at me to wait for my food. Guess nothing fazes her anymore.

Went to a convenience store to buy dinner. I was rifling through my sleeves to find my purse, somehow the sleeves became pretty good pockets to stuff alot of things in

Returning back to our chalet, Joshua is folding his shirt and Kenneth was cahtting to his friends who were conveniently located next door. We could hear them playing anime songs in the middle of the night hahah! Pardon the mess, we kept joking that it looked like a bomb had gone off in our room.

Preparing for the next day. Joshua is testing his wig while Kenneth is busy trying to finish making the armour parts for Esther's cosplay. The guy with specs is Emmanuel, Esther's friend who popped by and was awe-struck at the amount of mess we had created in a single night.

Quick camwhore shot with Esther the second day, my wig looks bit funny here...

A picture of us four before Joshua left. We look so tired but happy

I had a fun time those 4 days and 3 nights. I think it was alot easier for me because my costumes and props were pretty much complete whereas, the other 3 were trying to finish their stuff right till the last moment. I remember helping Esther with some stuff regarding her gloves and Kenneth slept at like 4 or 5 plus the second night because he was so busy trying to finish Esther's armour. It was a pity that Joshua had to leave on the last night because he had work the next day.

With Esther's school starting soon, I'm not sure if she'll be able to cosplay much anymore since we all heard that her school totures students by giving out so many assignments that students become utetrly devoid of any social contact. I may continue, but it isn't as fun without her being my partner so I'll see how it goes. I do hope that we might be able to have another fun weekend like this next year, here's to hoping!

P.S. I celebrated my birthday yesterday so I'll write up a post bout it soon!

P.P.S. I realise I am waaay behind in my review posts. I seriosuly need to get down to it and finish them up, maybe I'll do it when my school holiday rolls by, but first, I have 2 assignments and 2 exams to deal with. So be patient kay guys?

Personal Outfit 68 (Ellialyn's Birthday Party)

2011-07-14T16:27:00.006+08:00

I'm gonna interrupt my Cosfest posting flow to write this little post about my friend's recent birthday party. It was her 21st birthday (my country's coming-of-age) so naturally a party was thrown by her family to celebrate this special day, it wasn't too fancy, just a simple gathering of her family and friends. We had a dress code of "white tee, denim and bling" because supposedly that's what one of her favourite K-pop singer always wears on stage.

The birthday girl! With pictures of her favourite K-pop band behind.

My outfit:

Skull camisole (under shirt): Tutuha

White shirt (Tutuha design): Taobao

Skinny Jeans: Uniqlo

Necklace: Vivienne Westwood

The birthday girl, me and my other University-mates

Our other friend, Beatrice came later as she had to attend a wedding rehearsal beforehand

Ellia (the birthday girl) was so sweet to give us individual hand-written thank you cards.

We brought her to a Korean barbecue buffet later in the week as a belated birthday gift to her. I ate so much that I felt so deprived of energy and barely managed to drag myself home, it was soo good and best part was the price wasn't too bad either. I'm actually craving it now despite suffering from hot oil splatters and tons of smoke causing my eyes to dry out, but with good food and good friends coming together, what else can I ask for?

I hope we'll have many more sessions like this in the future.

Cosfest Day 2

2011-07-12T00:37:00.008+08:00

For Cosfest Day 2, I cosplayed Alois Trancy from Kuroshitsuji II. I initally didn't like his character since he had a pretty grusome introduction but after thinking about it for awhile, i realised he was a fun character to play around with simply because he had a broader range of emotions and expressions as compared to Ciel who mostly just sat or stood somewhere and scowled 3/4 of the time.

Daisy, my partner who helped me with the Just Be Friends shoot was my Claude Faustus. However, he disappointed me quite abit as we were only together for like a couple hours max before he started complaining about about his feet being painful from wearing the hieght increment insoles and asking if he could change out. He also didn't bother asking me to pose with him if anyone came up to him asking for a picture even if I was just standing next to him, so he would just pose while I'd be staring off somewhere or something. I'm having doubts about asking him to be my partner for anymore cosplays since he constantly vexes me with his constant whining about everything that discomforts him, which is ironic considering most of his body and limbs are covered in tattoos.

I also didn't have much photos taken of me that day since I was hanging around with Esther, Kenneth and Joshua who were totally awesome in their costumes which had lots of armour and large swords. So I was kindda overshadowed by them and Esther also wasn't feeling too well that day so I ended up taking care of her half the time too.

Okay, picture time:

Casual pose with Esther and gang and some new friends I made that day

Daisy and I from a shot taken by Usagi-san. Glad to have been able to meet him that day and it's really sad he's not gonna come back to Singapore after AFA. *Sob* there goes on of the best photogs that I know of on a personal basis.

Another shot from a makeshift studio at the event, I ended up making Daisy stand still since he kept posing like only a few poses and was dancing around him like a maniac to vary the pictures.

As we were leaving, we spotted an open room that was the backstage resting area and linked to the stage, so Ryusei and I snuck in and did a quick couple of shots before running out. they also conveniently had some glasses out so they made handy props.

I think my face looks funny here but I like how skinny my legs look hahah

Also did a quick shoot with another photographer, Nicholas, he's not bad but can do better I think. He does enjoy playing with light effects so they give my pictures a different feel to them.

I think this captured Alois Trancy's character pretty well, I like the lighting in this picture very much though it came out alot darker originally. I had to tweak it abit to brighten the picture up.

I haven't been feeling too good lately, not physically but emotionally. It may just be my PMS but I've been really hard on myself lately, nothing just seems to look right on me and I'm starting to hate my hair, I don't know why. I just hope it's a passing phase and I'll stop having my emotions yo-yo-ing about, it's not fun and I keep having the urge to tear people's head offs.

On another side, I think I kindda lost myself somewhere. I look at myself in the mirror and I don't see myself anymore, and it's really hard for me because I love too many different fashion and makeup styles to ever settle completely on just one. I think I need to find a happy go-between but I'm also limited in terms of time and funds and the fact that I'll be working soon constantly looms over me, and I know time is slowly ticking away on just how long I can look different from the masses before I'm forced to blend in for the sake of work. It'll be hard to try and look gyaru when I'm thirty but at the same time, I wanna try other styles which also require a young age to pull off. Maybe I'm getting mid-life crisis early on, I don't know. But I do hope I'll figure out my identity soon.

Cosfest Day 1

2011-07-09T01:21:00.011+08:00

*Warning: Intensive picture spam!

Finally, I'm getting down to writing about the going-ons that happened at Cosfest. I'll write bout the 2 days which I cosplayed first then I'll throw in alittle bit about what happened at the chalet during the 4 days and 3 nights we were there.

So first day, Esther and I cosplayed together as the crazy Yato siblings from Gintama. We were initially freaking out about the weather because when we were getting ready, it started to rain and not in the passing shower kindda way, it was seriously pouring! So we postponed our inital plan of having a picnic at the location and decided to scout out the location first. After wandering round abit we decided that the place was dry enough to actually get our picnic going so we went back to our chalet to prepare the food we had bought.

Waiting for the instant food to cook

Esther and I are trying to break up the instant rice into smaller pieces, and we overcooked our soba, it looked great in the end though.

Taking longer to cook then we thought...

Tadah!! Our "cooked" instant rice and soba. They actually looked pretty appetising though Esther and I knew better, so we didn't dare consume them after the event.

A picture of us when we were still wandering around before our picnic. I kindda felt that I looked totally different from my usual look, I think it's because I used a different lower lash so I had to put on more eyeliner to balance the makeup.

This was taken closer towards the evening that's why there's less light in this shot. Besides our rice and soba, we also had rice and prawn crackers and a mini teapot and 2 green tea cups that made up our "picnic"

Food fight!!!

Playing around with the props

Doing the signature "pull your mouth" grin

It was a pretty fun day and we did attract quite abit of attention with our picnic, though I was rather limited in terms of my sitting positions (a short skirt and a wide, hard obi don't help). The only sad part was Esther's umbrella was bit spoiled so there were some holes in the delicate paper at the end of the day.

I'll write about my second day soon! So do check back for more!

Blonde Mixed With Alittle Stocking

2011-07-07T00:41:00.006+08:00

Before I continue this post, I'd like to firstly introduce Stocking:

She's alittle goth cutie from the anime Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, which is totally crude but so hilarious at the same time. I wish season 2 would be out soon!

Oooops! I've digressed, okay back to topic, the reason why I'm introducing her is because my hair kindda turned out like hers, purple mixed with alittle pink. Now before you run around screaming at me on what I've done to my hair, relax and just read on.

Obligatory before picture. Check out the roots! I was going around with either a hairband or a hat every time I left the house because it had grown out so much, and no I didn't curl my hair, I have naturally wavy hair and that curl somehow occurred naturally through the day.

Bleaching the roots. It itched like mad this time and I was clawing at the chair to prevent myself from scratching my scalp in a mad frenzy. Though it hurt like a bitch later on, so my roots are still kindda yellow, not as white as the rest of my hair.

Tadah!!! My new colour! Blonde but with a purple and pink streak at one side.

Initially I had planned to get just one pink streak down, but after thinking about it, I realised that it would look similar to my old pink and blonde do, so I figured why not go bakc to my original inspiration, which was Nonoka with her purple streak. However my hairdresser kindda messed the dye up abit as it hadn't set properly when she washed it out, so some of the purple colour ran and dyed the surrounding hair, but it came out more like a light pinkish tone instead.

I actually like the final result even though it came about accidentally. But I think the pink adds more dimension to it then just having that one portion of purple, so all's well and good! However, this will be the last time I'm bleaching my hair blonde, my hair's getting pretty fried and my parents have been nagging at me about my hair dropping everywhere. I had initally planned to dye my hair black, to let it rest abit, but knowing myself, I'd probably dye it the first chance I get since I haven't had black hair since I was sixteen. I'm also kindda afraid to go so dark instantly, so I'm still on the fence about what colour should I get next. Hmm, any ideas?

Lookey!!

2011-07-02T02:42:00.003+08:00

Guess what I did! I chopped off my hair and it's all short now!!

See the new pics:I got kindda tired of long hair, so I decided to simply chop everything off, looks cute right? Kindda in a pageboy style way, I might keep this length for abit...

Did you fall for it? Hahaha, I'm just pulling your leg. I didn't actually cut my hair, I'm just wearing my Alois Trancy wig, because my University friends wanted to see me in a wig, so I thought this would scare them but not traumatise them as compared to my other wigs, plus it looks the most natural. It's become my favourite wig!

Cosplay, cosplay....

2011-06-29T21:32:00.012+08:00

I'm in the process of bugging my photographer friends and trawling the local cosplay community's website for any pictures of me at the Cosfest event and slowly putting them through the editting process of making myself skinnier and prettier (hur hur!).

I also need to work on my old Just Be Friends pictures, they've been on the backburner for far too long and should be ready soon. I'm just being picky with them becasue my legs had alot of bad marks because my eczema was flaring up then, so they also looked chunkier thanks to water retention. So I'm still contemplating if I should even be displaying them (>.<)"

In the mean time, enjoy this series of photographs that Kenneth took for me during the Haru Bazaar. I was playing around while he and Ryusei were prepping Esther for her shoot and he caught me twirling around and laughing like a maniac to myself. Kenneth initially didn't send me this batch of pictures, but I like them alot and I find that I just look so happy that I can't help but smile to myself at the thought of just how much fun I had that day.

Cosfest Here I come....

2011-06-24T13:14:00.003+08:00

"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go...."

It's now 1:23pm and Kenneth is picking me up at 4 plus. It's hard to believe that the event that I've been looking forward to a month ago is happening this very weekend. It's been a crazy week of last minute preperation, praying for my Alois wig to arrive on time, writing up a list of what to pack and trying my best to not let my luggage bag explode from the sheer volume of stuff I shoved into it. I'm expecting more mayhem and madness this weekend since I'll be again on makeup duty for 4 people (Esther, Kenneth, Joshua and Daisy), but its a good kind of madness and mayhem, the kind you laugh about even after you're completely exhausted from it.

Looking back at the amount of stuff I'm bringing, I look more like I'm escaping to a far flung country for a few months instead of a quick local getaway. My luggage alone only contains all my cosplay stuffs, I'll be living off my other bag which thankfully my mum loaned to me as I doubt I have another bag large enough to contain all that I'm bringing. I can't imagine doing a cosplay photoshoot overseas, I'll probably pay extra for baggage if that ever happens.

Rememeber to look for me if any of you are popping by Cosfest to take a look. I'll be having a picnic with Esther tomorrow since we're the crazy and random Yato siblings from Gintama, and I'll be bossing Daisy around on Sunday as Alois Trancy since he's cosplaying Claude Faustus. So keep your eyes peeled out for us!

See ya!

Personal Outfits 63-67 (Short Work)

2011-06-19T14:43:00.008+08:00

Been bit busy lately because I've been helping my friend out at a retail store she's working at. Just a short 6 days but since the pay is reasonable, I figured why not? Especially when ever cent counts with a money-sucking hobby and ever-changing fashion trends.

The shop sells mostly office apparel and since the stocks are from Korea, most of the dresses tend to be quite feminine and with frills and flounces adorning them. So I figured I might as well dig out my old feminine looking dresses and stuff to match the type of clothes the shop sells, its not really nice to give a customer a rude shock after she waltzes in only to find a salesgirl dressed in goth or something.

I forgot to take a picture of the outfit I wore for my first day at work, and strangely I just realised it was also the only day I wore pants to work. Hmm.... the second outfit from the left was a trial attempt at mtaching a maxi skirt and I just found a rip in my stockings on the first outfit from the right. Damn it!

Makeup for all the outfits, you can pretty much match them from the headpieces I'm wearing and hairstyles. I'm seriously loving red lipstick now, though I always get stares from people who can't seem to appreciate the combination of red lips and blonde hair. Balls to you, everyone else not just Lady Gaga can wear this combination ya know?!

I need to pack for this coming weekend's Cosfest event. I'm seriously looking forward to it because its almost like a getaway with my friends since we'll be staying at a chalet close to the location. It'll also be my first proper cross-dressing cosplay since I'll be cosplaying Alois Trancy for day 2 of Cosfest, Ciel ballroom version doesn't quite count since I'm cross-dressing as a boy who's cross-dressing as a girl (confused much?) which equates to zero cross-dressing in the end. Luckily, Alois is a young British kid who has quite feminine features, so I don't need to try and look "man", since I'll probably fail at it. Esther does it much better.

I'm also trying to finish an assignment due this week but I'm having writer's block. Funny how blog writing comes easily to me, but writing an actual news story gives me nothing but frustration and blocks the flow of my creative juices. Haiz....

Haru Bazaar 2011 (Miku in Seifuku Cosplay)

2011-06-15T02:25:00.000+08:00

After dying from the heat and humidity of the Comifest 2 location, Esther and I decided to go to the Haru Bazaar instead of attending another day of Comifest 2. Main deciding factor was that the location was indoors and there was AIR-CON!!!! The event was alot smaller but just as packed and we also got to see our friend Sabrina win the karaoke singing contest!

On to pics, as always, fun stuff first:

Esther and I swapped costumes, so she's Kagura while I'm Miku instead. Sabrina is cosplaying Ranka from Macross Frontier, quite a suitable character since she won the karaoke competition.

Esther and I again. I can't deny she's definitely prettier then me when she does cosplay (thinner and taller too... bitch! XD) plus she always gets lots of requests for pictures.

Took purikiura at the end of the day, though there were more people (7 of us!) then the purikura booth could accomodate, so soemtimes you just see a part of their face squeezing in from the corner. Us 3 cosplayers took priority for photo space muahahahah!!!

Yay! And now its back to the more serious shoot for the day:

I brought a book, spectacles, a pen and a Japanese school bag to play around as props. I also tried a new eye makeup style and the upper lashes are actually Daiso lashes!

This picture is over-exposed but I still like it all the same

Miku is doing anything but actually studying... XP

This area outside was a nice spot to shoot some pictures

Ryusei got me to try a lying down pose. Not too bad I guess...

Met a few friends that day and made some new ones including one guy who's helping me alot for a article I need to write about for an assignment. Now I'm looking forward to Cosfest!! Kenneth, Joshua, Esther and I will be bunking together in a chalet since its really near the location, so that we wouldn't need to bother with the hassel of travelling to and fro and lugging our costumes and props.

Esther and I will be cosplaying togetrh for day 1, she'll be Kamui (my "brother") and I'll be Kagura again. Should be fun, posing all kinds of martial arts stances together hahahah. I'll be doing Alois Tracy (mean but cute!) for the seocnd day and I managed to drag my friend, Daisy to be my Claude Faustus, heheh I have a butler to boss around!! Now I'm just waiting for my alois wig to be delivered, why is my agent so slooooowww!!!! Grrr....

Comifest 2 (2011) Day 1 (Gintama Kagura, Yoshiwara Arc version)

2011-06-13T00:43:00.013+08:00

Hey sorry guys for not updating for so long. Just been really busy with real life and I kept having to pester my photographer friends to hurry up and send their photos of me. Well, I've finally gotten the pictures for the weekend that I cosplayed, and Esther and I actually attended 2 different events but because we didn't really have much planned for these events we just decided to swap our outfits the next day. I also used this as an opportunity to give my Gintama Kagura kimono outfit a test run so that I would know what to expect for Cosfest. Okay enough talk, lets take a look at the pics! First up are the random, behind the scenes fun pics:

I laugh whenever I look at this picture because I find it looks so silly but fun at the same time. I was trying to do a "V" sign but Joshua's head is blocking my hand and Kenneth was scouting around for a good angle to take some pics.

Esther took this shot of me when I was gobbling a burger for lunch. I look like a hamster storing food in my cheeks but yet, this is so much like my character, Kagura, that its actually kindda funny. If you didn't know, she wolfs down food like crazy, and she literally eats all the rice straight from the rice cooker.

Since Kagura does martial arts and was trained in a dojo, I asked a group of Taekwondo practitioners who were conveniently practising in front of me if I could snap some pictures with them. This sempai was game enough and taught me this basic stance, because I know zero about Taekwondo.

Hahah, another picture, this time you can see the rest of the camera-shy students and sensei practising in the background.

Okay, now time for the more serious photoshoot pictures:

My favourite picture of the day. I had a "fat face" day so alot of my pictures made my face look chubby and round, but thankfully this one doesn't. I think the wig also contributed to the "fat face" look, gotta layer the sides abit more.

Love the movements in this picture (see my super stuffed pillowy ribbon, Esther and I nicknamed it fairy wings/mermaid tail, because its so big, I can hug is to sleep if I choose to do so)

Stupid lamp post (see if you can spot it!) ruined this nice nature shot, but it still looks nice anyway

Last picture, another one of Kagura staring out. She does that quite abit hahaha...

Sorry bout the picture spam, I know its bit much but I did have quite abit of fun that day, despite half melting from the heat and humidity and the event ending pretty early at 530pm. But it was a fun day, I'll update the next costume as soon as possbile. Just need to sort through the pictures now.

P.S. Thanks Kenneth (Zelmer) and Ryusei for the pictures!

Tired But Happy

2011-06-06T13:55:00.003+08:00

Attended 2 events over the weekend, and surprisingly, I had loads of fun! Maybe because I had already anticipated the events to be small affairs, so I didn't get my hopes up and ended up getting more then I expected!

Anyway, the rain over the weekend totally killed me, I was dying of the heat and humidity the first day, especially since it was an outdoor event and there were lots of foliage and greenery around us. I felt like I was walking around in a greenhouse, though I did end up getting some nice shots that suited my character. The second day was alot better, because I went to another event that was held mostly in an air-conditoned area, so the heat didn't kill me, but Esther had to brave a heavy downpour to get to my place so that we could prepare our makeup before the event.

Lots of pictures will be up soon once my photographer friends pass them to me and I'm thinking bout possibly writing a post about cosplay makeup, since I've had a few requests for it. Though I'm still bit apprehensive bout doing it since I'm not an expert and I definitely won't do a video since I doubt I have the time to do all the editting and stuff. We'll see I guess... (>3<)

The Spa-Lon Spa Buffet Advertorial

2011-05-30T00:51:00.013+08:00

* Advertorial* Brought to you by Cozycot & The Spa-Lon (Local readers only)

Moi was lucky enough to receive this blogger invite by Cozycot to attend a spa event on Saturday. So I excitedly dragged my fellow (beauty) blogger friend, Patricia (http://sweetestsins.blogspot.com/) along to the event to check it out. I was really intrigued with the name of the spa treatment (ATP 38) as most spa treatments tend to be named after some organic, floral thing to give you the impression that its relaxing and natural and all that, but when I noticed it was simply named ATP 38, that really caught my attentuon.

Here's the invite!

We were briefed on the amazing technology wonder that is the ATP 38. Its basically a machine that emits pulsing LED light rays to penetrate deep into the inner most layers of your skin to stimulate your cells. This would encourage healing, regeneration, pain relief, anti-inflammation and tons of other positive stuff. Best part is, it can actually be applied to any area of concern, not just the face but even body and hair too!

With an overwhelming number of people who turned up for the event, not everyone was able to try out the treatment. So after the first volunteer was randomly selected, I was quick to voice out my willingness to be the next volunteer to try out the treatment and was ushered to the changing room to change into the spa's fluffy robe, shorts and slippers. Loved the dressing room, it was large with multiple cubicles and a long makeup table and comfy chairs to sit on.

Unglam picture of me after changing into the spa's robes, with unstyled hair, minimal makeup and a dorky smile. I doubt photoshop would be able to salvage it, so I'm not even gonna try.

The first volunteer (I found out her name was Pris later on), trying out micro-dermabrasion and then doing the LED treatment on her face. I didn't manage to talk to her so I can't verify just how well the treatment went for her.

When it was close to my turn to try out the ATP 38 treatment, I asked the staff of Spa-Lon if instead of doing the same facial treatment for me, they would actually try out their LED treatment on my eczema wounds instead. I figured that if it worked pretty well for acne and stuff, it could potentially help me with my eczema problem. I know I probably threw a wrecking ball at their carefully-laid plans, but they amazingly accepted my random request!

Another unglam shot of me, with the LED lights focusing on my legs. I'm sure there's plenty of mug shots of me being posted around the internet as other bloggers were taking pictures of me doing the treatment.

Shining the LED lights on my legs to help with my eczema.

Treatment process

I honestly was so comfortable during the entire duration of the treatment that I was seriously tempted to just snooze right there and then. Of course the thought of me potentially snoring and drooling at how relaxed I was during the process and potentially embarassing myself in front of a multitude of bloggers kept me awake, but I seriously had to fight the urge to just doze off and sleep because I just felt so warm and comfy throughout the treatment.

Results of the treatment

To be honest, I didn't feel any different before or after the treatment, just terribly sleepy because I was so relaxed. But amazingly, that very evening I noticed that the skin on my legs had a healthy glow to it, something that I haven't seen since my eczema started appearing. My eczema patch has also started to scab over and its become less itchy and swollen. Which is amazing since it was just one session and trust me, I've tried everything possible to help my eczema and nothing has ever worked this fast or effectively before. So imagine if it works this well for my eczema problem, what could it possibly do for your skin?

I'll definitely consider approaching them for potential treatment for my eczema if my skin condition worsens and they have a branch conveniently located pretty near my home. If anyone is interested, this is the outlet I went to:

The Spa-Lon

302 Tiong Bahru Road

#05-08/09

Contact Number: 6276-6313

Do check out their website for more details at: http://www.thespa-lon.com/

Skincare Review: Sana Nameraka Honpo Soy Milk Moisturizing Cream

2011-05-24T21:40:00.009+08:00

As always, school has started and immediately I'm fighting deadlines and the urge to leave assignments to be completed at the last minute. I seriously blame Republic poly, it screwed me over by having 3 years of zero homework and now I'm still trying my best to get my engine started on doing my assignments.

Anyway, today's review is a product that I've been raving about non-stop to my family and friends. I'm completely addicted to it, and its been the best skincare product that I've ever gotten my grubby hands on.

The product is:
Sana Nameraka Honpo Soy Milk Moisturizing Cream

The packaging is relatively simple and fuss-free, not something to display prettily on your vanity table. But while it lacks in the looks department, it's a super effective cream that's solved numerous skin problems that had been plaguing me for the longest time. It's packed with rich soybean isoflavone and ceramide which is the secret ingredient in this product as the isoflavone mimics female estrogen (a hormone) thus boosting collagen production in the skin and resulting in wonderful, soft, smooth and bouncy skin.

My skin bout 3 months ago, during my PMS once again. There's the usual breakouts and redness.

My skin last month, less breakouts but minor redness is still present.

My skin now, it isn't perfect during PMS as I do get occasional whiteheads and the rare pimple, but my skin's condition the best it's ever been for a really long time.

I used to suffer from really really bad breakouts everytime I had my PMS, the pictures from my previous reviews can attest to it. I also had this problem whereby, if I slept too often on one side, I would develop breakouts on that side, so I had to try and force myself to sleep face up to avoid that problem (all that suffering for beauty's sake >____<"). But with this little pot of miracle cream, all those problems have been left in the past. With regular use, I've also noticed that my skin looks more luminous and has a glow to it, the kind which SK-II models seem to have and my pores appear smaller and my skin is definitely smoother then before.

Texture: Thick and rich

Recommended skin type: All skin types (use less if your skin tends to be oily, I have combination skin, so I use less on my T-zone area)

Absorption rate: pretty fast, I don't get the sticky feeling I used to have with my previous night cream so honestly, I don't wash my face in the morning with a facial wash. I just splash some water and I'm good to go.

Amount needed: I use slightly more then the size of a large coin, because I also apply it to my neck. But each pot lasts me about a month and a half to 2 months, which is real value for money

Price: bout SGD$20 if I remember correctly, but Sasa tends to have occasional discounts from time to time, so I got my last pot for only SGD$16

Popularity: Constantly featured in Koakuma Ageha magazine's annual skincare and makeup poll and is always in the top 3 ranking for moisturizing cream (if it's good enough for a hostess, its good enough for me!) and various online sources claim that over 35 million of these little pots have been sold (not sure if its international figures or just in Japan alone)

Options available: 3 different series in this product line, the one featured here is from the moisturizing line, there's also a brightening (whitening) line and an anti-ageing line containing CoQ 10 to improve skin's elasticity to get rid of any fine lines

Plus points: It's free of fragrance, mineral oil and artificial colourants. And they use only organic soybeans in the production of their products (not crappy genetically modified ones) so it's really good for people with sensitive skin (like moi!)

I can't stop raving about this product, though I've yet to try out any of the other products in their line, so I'm planning to get a box of the facial masks soon. Anyway, if any of you guys remembered that I used Hada Labo products at one point, I've actually stopped using them after I realised the product was too rich for my sensitive skin. It caused me to develop really nasty breakouts, but my friend loves it as her skin is really dry, so do remember that while a product may work for me, another person may not achieve the same results I have due to different skin conditions and sensitivity and vice versa.

Cosplay Photoshoot (Just Be Friends)

2011-05-16T17:53:00.004+08:00

Had a relatively casual shoot yesterday following the Vocaloid MV, Just Be Friends. We didn't follow the whole video exactly since both my partner and I were having wardrobe and budget constraints so we just wore the more iconic and casual clothes. We actually took most of the shots at a back staircase in a mall, since hardly anyone except the staff who worked there uses it, but as always, security chased us out and demanded that we seek permission to use the damned location next time. Seriously, not like we're planting a bomb or something or disturbing the shopkeepers and their customers, we even clean up our mess, geez!

So we left and ended up finding this pretty nice outdoor location, which we might use for future Vocaloids shoots too! If anybody chases me away from this location too, I'm gonna take up law and study the clauses and conditions and rights for the public to use public property for whatever the hell reason we want!

The dirty staircase that we used for our shoot, I didn't even realise this pic had been taken as I'm clearly distracted with kicking around the rose petals haha! Esther looks cute and bishie as a Starry Sky (dating game for girls where the characters are all created after different zodiacs) character.

Esther took this shot of us, I think she lost the mood to do her own shoot after we got chased out. The left are Kenneth, a photographer and the one with his back to the camera is my partner for the shoot, we call him Daisy (long story...) and you can see me and the other photographer on the right.

I don't think the pictures here turned out that nice because it was towards the end of the day already so we were slowly losing light, plus my helium balloons magically untied themselves from my bag and flew away, ugh! I watched my $8 worth of balloons floating away till they became tiny black spots, carrying some of my ideas of some shots with the balloons away with them.

I'm waiting for the photographers and Esther to do some editting to the pictures before they send them to me, but so far in my head, I only have one picture that I really like and I hope its as good as I am imagining it. I also need to work on looking sad in pictures, because no matter how much I try, I either crack up or look like I'm bout to slaughter someone. So no depressive characters for me now till I learn how to get the sad look right.

Now that this shoot is done, I need to channel all my energies into my upcoming cosplays Cosfest, taking place in end of June. I'll be cosplaying Kagura from Gintama (Yoshiwara Arc version) for the first day and Alois Trancy the next day. Hehehehehe, I managed to bully Daisy into becoming my Claude Faustus so I have a butler to boss around on the day itself! Cross my fingers that the preperations get done as soon as possible.

*Just a little extra ranting* I got quite annoyed when I saw this family staring at me when we went to a nearby mall for dinner, the daughter even turned around after her father gestured at me and opend her mouth so wide, I swear I could shoot marbles in for fun. I had removed my wig by then but was still wearing my photoshoot makeup, and I fought the urge to walk up to them and tell them off, especially the mother and daughter for looking at me with a look that was a mixture of shock and disgust. I nearly spat this out at them "Sweetie, shut your mouth dear and learn to accept others instead of judging them before you know the whole story, and you're not that pretty yourself so don't hate. Your mommy dearest should teach you this much to not to judge others by the way they look." But I just forced myself to carry on walking. Esther did purposely smile sweetly to them on my behalf to make them realise that we did know that they were staring too obviously at us. A group of fat office ladies turned round and stared too as we were walking past a pizza place, though I could sense that all the stares were directed at me. I don't usually care when people stare, but just that family's reaction really hit a sore spot with their looks of disgust, stupid closed-minded people in Singapore. We're supposed to be a bustling, international metropolitain city for goodness sake, change your attitudes instead of acting like you just came from a farm in the countryside and pointing and gawking at everything that is just slightly different.

Funny thing is, I got more reactions that day then when I usually go out dressed in gyaru, I wonder why....

Personal Outfit 62 (Melting Under the Blazing Sun)

2011-05-14T01:14:00.005+08:00

With temperatures in my country reaching bout 37 degrees celcius, I feel like a slug these days and all I want is to lie under a cool shade with the fan blowing directly at me and a cool drink by my side. However, my university friends decided on a movie outing so I was left scratching my head at deciding what to wear that could withstand the intense heat without making me sublimate in a fraction of a second whilst not freezing in the cold frosty air conditioning of the movie theatre.

I managed to balance both somehow with this outfit:

Maxi Dress: Random Shop in Holland Village

Lace Cropped Top: Online

Quilted chain bag: Bugis Street

I actually styled my hair, kindda like how Muto Shizuka constantly does it, a high ponytail with loose curls, but all my efforst went to waste when I got caught in the rain. So my hair went flat and frizzy and my left wedge broke. Not to mention, we ended up watching some teenage flick called Beastly that's a modern version of Beauty & the Beast in a high school setting.

I would have been pretty upset considering my bad luck during the day, but things worked out. I actually kindda enjoyed the movie because the 'prince' was nice eye candy and the 'witch', played by Mary-Kate Olsen, had a great wardrobe. Man, I wanna steal all the costumes from her character, everything was so goth-influenced with amazing hats and dramatic stockings and killer heels, they're everything I need in my cupboard like right now! Plus I made some new friends and laughed so hard that I was hoarse for the night.

Just the kind of outing with friends I needed for a few (or many) laughs....

Help!!!!

2011-05-08T18:10:00.005+08:00

Hi guys! I need your help real bad!!! I've had this shirt stuck in my head for awhile now and for the life of me, I can't remember what brand they're from. I clearly remember reading about them from someone's blog, but I can't find the post anymore T^T

Here's 2 pictures of the back and front, so please if anyone recognises it, please let me know! Thanks!!

The front, as you can see, the picture is too small and blury for me to see the brand! Whyyyyyy????? The "skull" is actually formed by phrases that are supposedly the last words of some famous people (macabre I know, but that's what intrigues and appeals to me the most about it)

The back has cut outs at the top and chain links

I've kindda exhausted all methods of searching as nothing seems to yield the result I'm looking for, so if anyone knows, please let me know!

(I keep getting the feeling its from Gilfy or Backs or something, but I really can't confirm)

Blonder and Blonder....

2011-05-06T19:47:00.004+08:00

Bleached my hair again on Thursday evening, so I finally managed to be rid of the icky black roots.

After the twice bleaching process again, my hair is less orange but still yellow

So my hairdresser again dyed my hair after the bleaching process

End result! The top is alot lighter almost a milky kind of blonde (think Chii from Chobits), though my ends are still just a tad lighter then my previous colour

I'm abit surprised at the milky colour of the hair, though at least this means its reaching the nearly whit-ish blonde that I'm looking for. I just need to get it abit more ashen looking and not completely white and it should be exactly like Nonoka's. I also plan to add one lock of pink down one side, though it may be detrimental to all the efforts made to get my hair blonde, because of all my hair, the parts that had been dyed pink previously are the hardest to actually turn blonde. So once the pink starts coming off, I may end up with a weird orange streak. But the idea of doing that pink streak is too tempting, I may end up just buying a bottle of pink dye and constantly touching up on my own.

Personal Outfit 61 (Twin Coordinate & Night Out with Steph)

2011-05-01T22:57:00.009+08:00

Met Steph on Friday for some drinks with her and some friends. After one guy left, we went off to sing karaoke till bout 5 the next morning. Had alot of fun with her despite the drunken antics of her friend and getting yelled at by my parents for coming home so late.

So outfits:

Oversized knit top: Forever 21

Leopard Scarf: This Fashion

Shorts (hidden): Can't remember

Stockings: Anna Sui

Knee High Boots: Taobao

Bag: Chanel

If you're wondering what's so special about the stockings, that's because I wore them back to front, because I felt like there was too much details if I wore the lace-up design on the front. I bought them awhile back, but been too chicken and unsure how to coordinate it to wear it out.

Steph and I, with our twin coordinates. We both wore oversized knit tops, stockings and boots and even carried our Chanel bags. We also matched our contacts by wearing green ones and she wore her Navana wig to match my hair length. It was really nice when 2 ladies came up, chatted abit and complimented our bags.

A close up pic

We actually exchanged our knit tops because the one I had ordered from Taobao was so long, it reached my knees, whereas Steph's was so short it barely reached her belly button. But considering our difference in heights, our knits fitted each other perfectly haha!

I think Taobao knits hate me, the white knit that I wore in my previous outfit post was supposed to be cropped but it ended up too large again. Luckily this time it looked just like an oversized knit on me so I guess its okay, though the outfits I had previously planned had to be scrapped. Totally sucked!

Oh, Steph and I also took some purikura, so I'm waiting for her to scan them and I'll show them here once I get them. We'll definitely have moore twin coordinates up our sleeves so do check back!

Check out her outfit at her blog: http://zombie-hero.blogspot.com/

My Current Favourite Songs 13

2011-04-27T22:50:00.003+08:00

This month's selection:

It Hurts (2NE1): As everybody probably knows, I'm not a fan of K-pop. But this music video really grabbed my attention, with the amazing set, costumes and wigs. The drama student in me was squealing in glee at this visual porn, I always sit in awe at just how amazing this whole video is and my heart yearns to be able to work with a set like this someday.

Universal Bunny (sung by the character Sheryl Nome, whose actual singer is May'n): I haven't watched this anime yet, because I'm afraid of getting too obssessed with Sheryl Nome and start having delusions of cosplaying her. Alot of cosplayers have fallen into that trap and I've seen a local cosplayer who seems hellbent on cosplaying her and no one else. But after a friend showed me this video, I couldn't get the amazing concert scene out of my head. Perhaps I'll start on the anime after all...

Theme for Scanty & Kneesocks (DJ: Teddyloid): I kept listening to this song when I was studying. The constant heavy beat kept me awake and the lack of lyrics helped me focus my attention on my work instead of attemtping to sing-along to the song. I love this song alot and its really awesome to listen to when I'm getting ready to go out, because I find it really sexy and helps to boost my confidence.

Rolling in The Deep (Adele): Is it just me or what, but lately I've found most Western pop to have gone quite stale in terms of creativity, I keep hearing remixes and such a la Jennifer Lopez and Black eyed peas. So I was very relieved and excited when I came across this song, it was the palate cleanser I needed and a very much sought after breathe of fresh air in terms of talent and creative direction. I hope this girl goes far though her kind of music may probably only reach a niche audience.

Kare Uta (the Gazette): My favourite song from them, I love the poetic lyrics and the way Ruki's tongue rolls over the words. All the better to hear his incredibly sexy deep voice, hahah its the fangirl in me calling out! I doubt I'll ever stop loving Gazette.

Makeup Review: Majolica Majorca Rouge Majex in PK-313

2011-04-25T17:53:00.001+08:00

Wow, I just took a look at the comments on my previous post, I'm glad you guys liked my outfit though I was really surprised it got that much response considering I didn't put as much thought into it as my other outfits. But thanks for the lovely compliments, it really made my day!

My exams are finally over!! Yay! I'm not feeling too positive bout the results as I couldn't remember major parts in my modules so I'm just crossing my fingers that I'll at least get a pass. Not the best result I know I could get, but I'll be quite content with it. So now with the holidays, I'll try and finish up all the reviews that I've listed for sometime now, so apologies to those of you who have been waiting for them, I'll get them up as soon as possible.

Today's review is Majolica Majorca's Rouge Majex in PK- 313. Rouge Majex is kindda like a cross between a gloss and a lipstick, with the ease of being able to slick it on without the need for a mirror but yet with greater colour intensity then a normal gloss.

The ever-cute packaging that always makes me squeal with delight whenever I purchase something from Majolica Majorca

A swab of the gloss on the back of my hand. Its a sweet light pink with silver shimmers and as you can see, the colour is greater in intensity as compared to other glosses

(Left: With Flash, Right: Without Flash)

I applied the gloss on my bare lips and as you can see, it does give a slight pinkish hue that I could only previously achieve with the combination of a lipstick and a gloss. However, as you can see in the pic without flash, it does tend to get bit frosty if you apply more then just a thin swab, but since I usually apply it over my Anna Sui pink lipsticks, it doesn't really produce the frosty effect.

I had decided to get it after I was getting rather irritated at my other 2 Majorlica Majorca Honey Pump lipglosses for constantly failing me. They didn't do much in terms of boosting my lipstick's colour, so I use them as nude glosses now. So in summary:

Colour: Sheer pink for me but some people have claimed it looks more peachy on them, so I guess it depends on your skintone. There is some shimmer in it so do be careful bout putting too much unless the frosty look is what you want to achieve, but other then that, the colour is buildable.

Ingredients: Claims to have olive oil and royal jelly in it to boost moisturizing properties and giving it, it's smooth texture.

Texture: Smooth but bit sticky in the usual lipgloss way, but its wipes off more easily then normal glosses.

Scent: Smells bit sweet to me, almost like candy, but not in a nauseating, artificial manner.

Long-lasting: Not quite, like normal glosses, it wipes off easily so you do need to touchup pretty often, but with the doe-foot applicator, it should be pretty easy to touchup even without a mirror.

Cost: $17.90 (bit pricey for a small tube but I like the colour and texture, and since its quality is on par with other pricier brands, I don't mind re-purchasing this)

Generally Majorlica Majorca's products are pretty good, my only disappointments were the honey pump liglosses that washed out my lipstick's colour, but I've found better use for them as sheer lipglosses, so I guess if you do get the honey pump glosses, get the ones in stronger colours. Trust me, the colours aren't as intense as it looks when you actually apply them to your face. I feel sorta tempted to try out their powder foundation after I read that a Kera magazine model uses them. If its good enough for her to be used in shoots, I guess it should be good enough for daily use I guess. Only problem is, I'm too used to using liquid and cream foundations now hahah, so we'll see I guess.

Personal Outfit 60 (French Dinner & School Modules)

2011-04-21T01:26:00.005+08:00

Opps, okay, I kept delaying this post because I was trying hard to study for my exams tomorrow so it's been like a week since I wore this outfit. I wore it to join some friends for dinner at a cute little french eatery and to select my new modules for classes next semester. Nothing really spectacular bout it because I was more concerned bout comfort though I did like my makeup that day:

Outfit:

Over-sized off shoulder wool top: Taobao

Ripped Leggings: Murua

Shoes: Online

Bag: Chanel

Spectacle frames: Random shop in Far East Plaza

Red lips and less intense false upper lashes, I also didn't bother putting any lower lashes. I loved my makeup base here, my skin looks ultra smooth! I did not edit the photo in anyway.

A pic of Esther and I, used a purikura app to add the heart because my eye looked really weird there.

Ugh, I'm kindda upset about my whole school module selection thing. What happened was that I did the pre-registration with my friends but unlike them, I didn't get any information about change of classes or that their stuff had been registered and all they need to do was to pay. So blur old me, went to school, saw that most classes were already filled up, so I changed my registration to fit into the available classes. Only after the whole thing did my friends tell me that my registration had probably gone through and the school had probably failed to inform me, so now I suspect I may have a lesson all alone, without the company of my friends. Totally sucks!!!

Ugh, just gotta suck it up I guess, maybe I'll be able to make new friends I guess.

SOYC Cosplay Event + Pics

2011-04-15T22:18:00.005+08:00

Finally, I'm gonna post about the recent cosplay event I went to. As you've probably read from the last post, it was a less then thrilling affair for me as I was constantly stressed out about my exam and I was literally being pushed and jostled about by the ever-increasing crowd throughout the day. But it was an experience nonetheless and I did meet some new people as well as catch up with some other people. I also did a fair bit of hair-cutting (technically, wig-cutting) practice on Esther's weirdly shaped wig and I wanted to strangle it after awhile of incessant cutting that didn't seem to affect it in any way. We finally hacked crazily at it in anger and it did turn out slightly better. On to pictures I guess before I start rambling on again:

Helped a friend do his makeup and a massive scar on his face. he's a cosplay newbie but he's helping me quite abit by being my male prop in the Just be Friends shoot and he'll also be my Claude Faustus partner for Cosfest when I'm cosplaying Alois Trancy

One of the few team pics we managed to get done before people started disappearing and I had to leave. I was gripping onto the handrails for dear life when descending those stairs because of my platform heels.

One of my favourite pics from the shoot near the end of the event. Thanks riE for being my Mikuo! (I know you'll be reading this!!) One last shot of me, to satisfy my narcisstic side hahah

I've got 2 more exams to finish up and then it'll be 2 weeks of freedom!!!! I have so many things planned for my 2 weeks of holiday such as meeting friends, cataching up with old friends, getting stuff prepared for my upcoming cosplay plans, and hopefully get my Just be Friends shoot done! The idea has been on the backhold for so long, I can see mould and spiderwebs growing all over it. Better get it done with as soon as possible.

Anyway, if you wanna see more pictures of my cosplays just head over to my deviantart: http://razhensia.deviantart.com I needed it to satisfy my narcisstic side hahaahahah

On a side note, I've been bookmarking clothes to suit my new style, since I've decided to go into a more rock/gothic gyaru route, since Nonoka and Sakurina are my main inspirations now. I also ordered a pair of rings to suit this new style, so I hope my wardrobe overhaul would be done soon. Yay to a new fashion path!

Down and Out...

2011-04-10T02:07:00.007+08:00

*mindless ramble of my feelings and thoughts over the past few weeks*

I'm tired, I'm stressed out and I'm being pulled in all directions. Things have been going downhill for abit, with assignments piling up, exams coming soon, stressed bout the SOY cosplay event and worried that I maybe becoming cold to the people around me because I always tell them the same thing lately when they try to talk to me which is, "assignment due soon. Chat later" which the "later" part never actually arrives.

I went for the SOY cosplay event today (or yesterday, depending on the timing I guess) and honestly, I was majorly disappointed. The location sucked, there were too many people and my team was anything but cooperative. Even my makeup sucked because of the build up of stress, late nights and sheer tiredness which caused my skin to flare up abit and look worn out. Even applying my thick photography/cosplay makeup couldn't conceal my tired, worn out look but I still kept a happy front and tried to help others the best I could with their makeup, outfit and wigs. But I couldn't pose properly for photos because I didn't feel my best and when I tried to smile, I noticed that my cheeks kept shaking and just wouldn't hold the smile, so I probably look glum and unhappy in alot of pictures.

I had to rush from the event to an exam and was bit upset at some of my team who took their time to do things and then was like all shocked and surprised that I had to leave without taking a team photograph with them, depsite telling everyone of them long ago that I had to make an early exit. I kindda feel that my personal sacrifice of choosing to carry on being the front person of the team instead of abandoning it and disappointing my team to study for my test was unappreciated, with people complaining bout everything and anything under the sun all day or conveniently disappearing from the team at regular intervals and not giving a damn about others. Perhaps I should just try to avoid doing cosplays in large teams from now on.... not much good seems to come from doing them and I'm often left feeling drained physically and emotionally everytime.

And speaking bout cosplay, a damn seller on Taobao ignored my agent's orders and thus i'm left with a sub standard obi belt for my Gintama Kagura costume that doesn't even have a ribbon. So I either have to find a piece of cloth that resembles the obi belt and make the damn ribbon myself (which I really have no idea how I'm gonna do that), or I'll just use my yellow yukata obi in replacement since the colour is pretty much the same anyway. On the bright side, things are looking up.

I found a $5 note during the event today (I've always considered finding money a sign of good luck, and I've never picked up this amount before), the exam paper I had today was weirdly similar to the practice test paper I did just this week, and I've decided to drop from 3 modules down to 2 in the next trimester so that I can better cope with the assignments, and the exams will be over soon, so i can finally take my well-deserved break and finish up some overdue shoots.

Note to self, just hang in there, remember that with darkness there is always light at the other end...

Personal Outfit 59 (Shopping and recent gets)

2011-04-03T15:13:00.008+08:00

I've kindda realised that my blog has been repeating itself with outfit posts and I apologize if you're sick of seeing my outfits by now. I've been really bad on keeping with my promise of writing up my skincare, makeup and lens reviews but I'll get to them real soon, I just need to get over my initial hurdle of the upcoming exams over and done with. Wore this for a brunch outing with old secondary school friends before doing some makeup/supplies shopping with my cosplay friends later:

Polka dotted dress: Bonica Dot

Black thigh high stocking with lace trim: Can't remember

Nude heeled loafers: Borrowed from Mom

Red bowler hat: Lips Enterprise

A closer look on the beautiful detailing of the collar. Okay, you can't really see it, sorry, but this was the best one that you could see the most of the detailing out of my many camwhore shots.

I actually bought the red bowler later in the day but decided to wear it immediately since it added some colour to my otherwise monotone outfit. I also bought a cardigan with beautiful draping and its cut so that the front hangs lower then the back, kindda like Sakurina's own cardigan here, wait maybe that's a shawl, but the draping is pretty similar. I was actually eyeing another jacket, that was similar to one that I am still regretting from not buying, but at $85++ its waay above what I'm willing to spend on a jacket that I won't wear as often.

After my decision to stop centring my style around gyaru and instead be looser with my clothing options, I'm embracing styles and labels that I used to love before I holed myself into gyaru. Like take for example, the shop which I bought my cardigan from, its from a local label called Mu, that features alot of unique draping, folds, pins and tucks in the fabrics. I stopped entering the shop after I decided to focus solely on gyaru style because it was such a different style, but now I'm loving it all over again. I still admire gyaru style and will incorporate their hair and makeup styles but I'm not gonna change what I like anymore just to fit into a particular subculture or style.

P.S. I actually bought this dress after falling in love with it when I saw Rinka wearing it for a TV show. I only received it after there was an explosion of polka dotted print on gyaru magazines, so I'm expecting girls to start jumping on this trend badnwagon pretty soon.

My Current Favourite Songs 12

2011-03-31T02:03:00.001+08:00

My list of songs for the month: Pledge (The Gazette): Been looking forward to this PV since Shiver was out, and I love that its kindda reminiscent of their older music videos, with the black and white colours and playing the instruments/singing in a seemingly abandoned house. Stargazer(Alice Nine): I'm still getting adjusted to Alice Nine's new songs, somehow I just don't warm up immediately to their stuff lately. This video is amazing with the desert foreground and amazing scenery of the changing sky in the background. Though the washed/bleached out effect of the video was kindda irritating, because I couldn't see them in their full good-looking glory. Complication (ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D): Another song from the anime Durarara! Its catchy and interesting but I still prefer the other 2 featured before this. Though it does perk me up whenever I listen to it. Love is War (Vocaloids: Hatsune Miku): I'm using this song to get me all pumped up for the upcoming SOYC event, since I'll be cosplaying the Eager Love Revenge version of Miku, though some people also call it Love is War. I always assumed Love is War Miku wore her standard outfit and just added a megaphone, oh well. The Ballad of Mona Lisa (Panic! At The Disco): Love the steampunk theme!!! Its another subculture style that I adore, though I don't think its that well-known/big in Singapore, the only time I ever saw it was when a cosplay team did an original cosplay of Alice in Wonderland Steapunk version. The song is pretty catchy and keeps reeling round and round in my head now

Personal Outfit 58 (Dinner Date & Test Driving New Shoes)

2011-03-28T23:04:00.002+08:00

Went out on the dinner date with the Bf the day before, and I also took the opportunity to have a test run on a pair of boots I had gotten for my Gintama Kagura cosplay. Lets take a look at the outfit first:

Tunic/Mini dress: Lip Service

Black camisole: Borrowed from Mom

Stockings: This Fashion

Multi-chain cross necklace: Taobao

Knee High black boots (Not shown): Taobao

I'm still getting the hang of dressing with my hair colour and Steph gave a me a really great tip, "dress in black" which is pretty handy since it offsets the colour of my hair nicely. And now I understand why Nonoka and other models with super blond locks can get away with thick eye makeup, because the colour really washes out your face so you need strong eye or lip makeup (or sometimes both!) to bring the attention back to your face. I also chose not to curl my hair because my hair still felt weak after all the chemical treatments and whenever I curl my hair, I apply a ton of hairspray to make sure the curls stay put in the midst of Singapore's heavy humidity, which causes quite abit of hair breakage whenever I wash my hair after that. So now you know, why I don't curl my hair on a daily basis! ;)

Anyway, it was a good thing I decided to have a test run for my boots, because when I actually met the Bf, my right heel had broken off, probably because the glue wasn't strong enough. So I hobbled to a nearby cobbler who managed to glue it back, but warned me that I had to be careful with it. Well, he was right, because I could feel the heel starting to come off slightly on my way home. I guess I'll just use it for my cosplay and maybe sell it off after that, since it does look nice though bit uncomfortable to wear for an extended period of time. Lets just hope the heel holds up during Cosfest! Cross your fingers!

There's a New Blonde in Town!!

2011-03-26T14:38:00.006+08:00

Finally got my hair done after delaying any appointments for the longest time thanks to the never-ending array of project deadlines that have been looming before me. I went to another salon to get my haircut, not the one from before because it seems that that guy (I forgot his name), left Singapore to find his girlfriend in Taiwan or something like that. I hope she's grateful because she's denying me the services of a damn good hairdresser right now! So now I've finally got my straight fringe back. As much as I like welcome the change and enjoyed experimenting with different looks with the side fringe, somehow I feel the straight fringe is more "me" and it matches alot better with my new hair colour. I've yet to test the skills of this new hairdresser because I haven't tried curling my hair yet, maybe I'll do it later or something.

Anyway, the day before, Pochi and her bf accompanied me to get my hair colour done. The nasty roots have been growing out so I needed help ASAP! That was when I finally went blonde!

First bleaching session, you can still see the nasty black roots here. Eugh!!

Second bleaching session, its alot lighter now and I could feel the burning sensation from the bleach... oh well, short term pain for long term gain I guess

Washing out the bleach, it was still a nasty shade of orange and yellow, but the hairdresser didn't want to risk frying my hair by leaving the bleach on any longer, so she decided to dye over it.

Tadaah!! The end result! Pardon my face here, I had on only basic makeup and I didn't bother touching up my lip colour after it had been wiped off.

Its still more yellow then I had hoped, so I'm abit disappointed but at least its a step to getting my hair as blonde as Nonoka's. I'll probably go back and bleach my hair again next month or so. I had initally decided to carry on with my previous hair colour becasue I had really loved it, but with the sudden influx of covergirls on Japanese magazines having similar hair colours, I knew it would only be a matter of time before most other girls would start asking for the same hair colour, and I hate being a clone of others, so I proceeded with my next plan. Which was to get my hair like Nonoka's!

However, as much as I like her blond hair with a purple streak down one side, I think pink is still more of my colour, so I'll get a pink streak next time, once my hair is white enough that is. Steph and I talked about it and she's missing her pink hair too hahah! So we may end up sharing a bottle of pink dye and helping each other do streaks in our hair!

Personal Outfit 56 & 57 (Cosplay, cosplay...)

2011-03-19T04:04:00.005+08:00

The last 2 times I actually dressed up nicely to go out were all related to cosplay one way or another. Its definitely a sign that cosplay has taken over my life especially since its left a permanent vacuum on my already thin wallet. Okay, I've digressed from the intended topic, anyway the first outfit was when I went to the recent Haru Bazaar. A super tiny, low-scale cosplay event which was filled with close to like only 10 cosplayers all of whom were newbies that I wanted to strangle at the poor shoddy quality of their costumes, wigs and makeup (or lack thereof..)

Anyway my outfit was something more comfy, becasue I met the Bf later for dinner and to check out the IT fair with him. I have a love/hate relationship with these brown boots, they're comfy and look nice generally, but they make my legs look stumpy and fat and I always forget how slippery their soles are. A testament to how bad their soles are was that I took a tumble just outside Cineleisure whilst walking hurriedly. It was embrassing of course, but I did the usual "get up, check self, dust knees in a cutesy way and pretend nothing happened and walk off" routine, though I did see a guy giving me a worried look as I quickly shuffled off.

Outfit:

Black off-shoulder slouchy knit top: Zara

Tiered floral skirt: Nichii

Brown suede boots: Bought in Shanghai

I was bored of my usual makeup style and decided to try something bit different, so I drew a wingtip liner style with an Anna Sui purple eyeliner pencil I had bought ages ago. I also used a simple white shadow with pinkish tinge as the base shadow. Toned down the rest of my makeup though my fake lashes were my usual go-tos of Dollywink No.2 and 5

The other outfit was when I went out with Kenneth, Joshua, Tristan and Esther yesterday to drop by the tailors to get our costumes done. I'm actually down with the flu but I didn't want to waste a day recuperating at home and feeling the strain of project deadlines and I needed to get a costume done for a upcoming shoot.

outfit:

Fake 2 piece dress: Taobao

Belt: Taobao

Goggles (worn as a hairband): Random shop in Far East Plaza

Engineer boots: Bought in Macau

Yes, I wore goggles out as a hairband. I got inquisitive stares of course, but I'm used to it now. I got the idea after seeing a random gyaru in a MV(I forgot which...) wearing a pair of goggles (probably from Tutuha) as a hairband and the image has kindda been stuck in my mind ever since.

A funny incident occured relating to my goggles. After visiting the tailors, we settled down for dinner in a little eatery tucked in an housing estate, a young couple kept staring at me and Joshua noticed it. He got bit irritated at them constantly staring at me throughout the dinner (I was oblivious on the otherhand), and actually went up to them and told them, "you can stop staring and just ask her about them if you're so curious you know". They promptly stopped staring and hurriedly left the eatery a short while after. I didn't even realise what he had done till much later after making a remark bout them. Haha, nice to have friends who stick up for you!

Anyway on a sidenote, I've finalised my plans for the upcoming Cosfest! I'll be doing Gintama's Kagura the Yoshiwara Arc version with Esther who'll be my brother, Kamui and then I'll also cosplay Alois Trancy the next day, and I managed to bully Tristan into becoming my Claude! Wahahahaha!!! So if any readers see me on those days don't hesitate to ask for a coscard and/or picture! I'll also be cosplaying Eager Love Revenge's Miku for SOY so just spot a large Eager Love Revenge team and I should be there!

{Something borrowed Something new - Singaporean Fashion}

Happy Chinese New Year!!

No Longer Sheryl Nome

Personal Outfits (Busy End)

End-Of-Year 2011 (Continued)

Aftermath of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

End-Of-Year (EOY) Event 2011

Korean Press-on Cheek & Eyemake Set

Personal Outfit 75 (Day of Gluttony)

Makeup Review: Majorlica Majorca Powder Foundation

Steph's Birthday Party

Personal Outfit 74 (Music to Sooth the Soul)

Aftermath of AFA (Anime Festival Asia) 2011

Kuroshitsuji II Shoot From Long Ago

Makeup Review: Candydoll & Canmake Blush Comparison

Traumatised by Palty & New Hair Color

Onward Fashion show Fall/Winter 2011 (ICB, Dip Drops & Rosebullet)

Personal Outfit 73 (Wedding Lunch)

Personal Outfit 72 (New Digicam & Real Steel)

Personal Outfit 71 (Boring Life)

Makeup Review: Kanebo Kate Powder Foundation in BR-C

World Runway Premiere (Fashionquake Aid 2011) Event

Momoeri's New Lash Line: Jewel Eyelashes

Contact Lens Review: Barbie Tri Blend brown

Personal Outfit 70 (Sis's Birthday Gift)

Kagura & Kamui (Gintama) Shoot

Sheryl Nome (Macross Frontier) Shoot

STGCC 2011 Cosplays

Blondie No More!

Kocchi Muite Baby (Vocaloids) Shoot

Personal Outfit 69 (Window Shopping, Purikura & Red Velvet Cake)

Casual Shoot & Preview of Other Shoots

The Bf's Birthday Celebration

Just Be Friends (Vocaloids) Shoot

Streetfest/D'J Party Event

Moi's Little Birthday Celebration

Cosfest (Behind the Scenes)

Personal Outfit 68 (Ellialyn's Birthday Party)

Cosfest Day 2

Cosfest Day 1

Blonde Mixed With Alittle Stocking

Lookey!!

Cosplay, cosplay....

Cosfest Here I come....

Personal Outfits 63-67 (Short Work)

Haru Bazaar 2011 (Miku in Seifuku Cosplay)

Comifest 2 (2011) Day 1 (Gintama Kagura, Yoshiwara Arc version)

Tired But Happy

The Spa-Lon Spa Buffet *Advertorial*

Skincare Review: Sana Nameraka Honpo Soy Milk Moisturizing Cream

Cosplay Photoshoot (Just Be Friends)

Personal Outfit 62 (Melting Under the Blazing Sun)

Help!!!!

Blonder and Blonder....

Personal Outfit 61 (Twin Coordinate & Night Out with Steph)

My Current Favourite Songs 13

Makeup Review: Majolica Majorca Rouge Majex in PK-313

Personal Outfit 60 (French Dinner & School Modules)

SOYC Cosplay Event + Pics

Down and Out...

Personal Outfit 59 (Shopping and recent gets)

My Current Favourite Songs 12

Personal Outfit 58 (Dinner Date & Test Driving New Shoes)

There's a New Blonde in Town!!

Personal Outfit 56 & 57 (Cosplay, cosplay...)

The Spa-Lon Spa Buffet Advertorial