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Saturday, September 3, 2011

National Service and other random stuff

To get my necessary documents for my deferment request, I have to wait till next week. Kinda of ironic, huh? The day my second semester starts is the day I'm supposed to go for registration. And before this I was waiting for the letter, dreading college; now I'm in love with university life (except for the money-sucking part) and can't wait to get this horrid thing off my back.


Yeah, they make you exercise and whatnot and supposedly I'll get my dream abs but all this trouble for 3 months of life away from friends, family, and most importantly him with mobiles allowed only on weekends? I'd die - DIE, I TELL YOU!!!


I've changed to and am now using the new blogger interface - kinda like it, very ... SOPHISTICATED. They used the term "less is more" to the ultimate-ness.


Anyway I've just been checking my blog feed and saw peacemusicbabe's blog post on brush cleaning. I'd like to clarify on a few things, though she got the most part right. First, Michelle said essentially olive oil because it helps nourish the brush hairs and make them softer. And in another one of Michelle's videos, she also stated that olive oil is a great make-up remover and helps nourish the lashes and does not clog pores.


Secondly, I would recommend that the dish washing soap be mild. I used regular dish washing liquid before, but it made my synthetic face brush become the tangled mane of Anne Hathaway in Princess Diaries before her princess makeover ... or something like that.


My recommendation is the pink grapefruit alkaline (or was it lower acidity?) dish washing liquid from Daiso. My aunt bought that for my mum once, but my mum banished it to the cupboard under the sink (sounds familiar, no? XD), which meant that it wasn't entirely suitable. Anyway once I used it to wash my brushes and I fell in love - it's decreased acidity meant that it's not as strong as normal commercial dish washing liquids, and the fruity scent of the pink grapefruit makes my brushes smell like ... I dunno, pink grapefruit? Anyway you get the point. XD


The dish washing liquid serves to kill the bacteria (ironic that I'd go for decreased acidity?) and also to help remove the tons and tons of make-up buried deep between the bristles of your *insert function/type* brush. Refer to the video, and you'll see that the brush-back-and-forth-on-the-palm/back-of-your-hand motion is to 1. work the oil-and-soap mixture into the bristles and 2. get the excess, accumulated make-up out of your brush. Um, it doesn't help kill the bacteria, the soap has got that covered.


Lastly, I would NOT recommend sticking your brushes bristles-down into a cup, or onto any surface for a long period of time for that matter. Unless you have a brush sleeve or any rigid-ish alternative. I have some for my brush kit, but for my loose brushes I just let them hang over the edge of a table.


In my opinion, sponge applicators that come with small palettes or any sponge applicators meant for eye shadow is completely irrelevant. Local creative-preneur Haze Long uses the Coastal Scents 88 palette to demonstrate the pros and cons of using brushes versus sponge applicators (a.k.a Q-tips) and also some basic techniques for make-up application. I have to stress, though, you should not "drag" or otherwise use any strong stretching on your eyes during make-up application as this will lead to premature ageing. =x


Watched two movies last night. You could say there are quite ... old, though not as old as Bette Davis or the first Harry Potter movie, but it's been a while since it was released. First one is Pirates of the Caribbean ("ka-rhee-BEE-an", not "carry-bean") 4: On Stranger Tides. I find it ... odd. While watching the movie I struggle to find the similarity, however little, with the first few movies.


Plus, the story-line swerved too close to mainstream movies where the hero rescues the damsel-ish style. It is not POTC-ish. And I also miss Captain Jack Sparrow's drunken antics - he looks quite sober in this movie. Next is Narnia 3. Everything was OK-ish. Wasn't really a fan of Narnia anyway. Though I have to say Eustace looks horrible. =x


My family (my younger sister, dad and mum, so to speak) have been on a juice rage these days. One night I just wanted to whip up something that I thought healthy but still sinful. Here comes the banana chocolate shake!!! All ingredients are approximate, and this recipe would make approximately 2 servings. You could substitute any part of the recipe you like except for the bananas and chocolate in general. =)


You will need:

  • 2 medium-sized, frozen bananas
  • 1/2 cup milk, heated until hot enough to dissolve powder in general
  • 2 tsp cocoa powder (or any chocolate powder)
  • 1/2 teaspoon coffee powder
  • sugar to taste (I used around 3 tsp)
  • ice cubes

You should:
  1. Make the concoction - spoon the cocoa powder, coffee powder and sugar into the hot milk. Stir until dissolved. If you like you could pour the mixture into an ice cube mold and freeze them to make ice cubes - this would reduce the likeliness of the normal ice cubes to dissolve and thin the entire smoothie, unless it's what you want.
  2. Whip out the blender, dump all the stuff inside (you might want to roughly chop up the bananas a bit) and blend away. Add water or whatever you want as liked.

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