Aftermath of Christmas

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!

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

End-Of-Year (EOY) Event 2011

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

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)

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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)

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)

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.