My 10 biggest make-up pet peeves

I am the kind of person who when she learns something one way, she would most likely get annoyed that something is done another way, and the results are not as satisfactory as her method. Get it? Nope, I don't either. But that's actually dependent on the situation.


I have a lot of make-up pet peeves, and even after watching so many different make-up gurus on Youtube who uses various techniques and have different styles of make-up, there are just some things I can't accept.


1. False lashes sans eyeliner

Unless you're using false lashes with transparent spines, 9 times out of 10, your false lashes will have a black spine. I mean, don't you feel weird that your "natural lashes" grow from your eyelid? Lashes grow from the lashline, not the eyelid itself.


Correct way: line your eyes with eyeliner of your choice (black, please, 'cause unless your lash-attaching skills are impeccable, chances are, the spine will show). Stick on your false lashes, allow the glue to dry completely, then go over the spine with black liquid liner to even out and blend the lash spine to the eyeliner.

Trust me, it looks much more natural this way, regardless of the type of lashes you use. If you really want to sans the eyeliner, stick your lashes below the lashes, not above. If not, you could opt to cut them into smaller segments for better control.


2. Stark-white inner eye corners

Make-up gurus often instruct us to "apply a shimmery/pearl/white/beige/light colored product" to the inner corners to highlight and bring light to the eyes. This theory holds true, unless you decide to whip out your poster paint and dot them at your inner corners.


Having too shimmery or light inner corners just look very unnatural, and in my opinion, somewhat creepy. Highlighting should be extremely subtle, so that when the light shines on your face, the product catches and reflects the light. It shouldn't be extremely obvious.

Correct way: less is more. Subtlety is the key to highlighting. Just enough to brighten your eyes should do, any more than that and I might scream at you in the streets if I see you. =x


3. Shimmer/glitter liner gone wrong

There was this one time I was on a mall trip with friends, and we met another one of our friends who was working at one of the boutiques. She had on false lashes sans eyeliner (refer to point number one), and also silver glitter eyeliner at her inner corners (point two) and all over her lower lashline. I almost strangled her.

Anyways, personally I find glitter/shimmer liner to be used as an accent over regular eyeliner, not on it's own, especially those that are light colored. And unless it's a dark glitter, having glitter liner on in broad daylight is WEIRD.

Correct way: layer it over another product, so that it looks more natural. If it's gonna be stark, you might as well skip it, especially for daytime. And avoid applying it anywhere under the eye - it's just weird.


4. One-color lids

Sure, using one eye shadow color on the eyes aren't bad, if they're blended well. But then there's the case of using that particular color of shadow, and treating it like beige shadow - some apply it (not blend) all the way up to the brow!


Firstly, it looks weird as hell. Secondly, if you're using shimmer shadows, it looks even weirder. I dunno, it just gets to me.


5. Stark lipstick with wonky edges

This applies especially to red lipstick. There was once I was in Singapore, and we were taking the shuttle from my aunt's condominium to the MRT station. My older sister and I sat beside each other, and as the shuttle picked up more people from the neighboring communities, and from there came a young lady, I would say not more than 30 years old.


My sister and I promptly squished together to make one space due to the crowd in the shuttle. She was quite pretty - her hair was pulled up into a top bun, I liked her clothes at that time, but I just couldn't take my eyes off her lips. She had this stark red lipstick on, and the edges of the lipstick didn't go with the edges of her lips.

It just looked so weird - it's like putting the wrong set of lips on Mr Potatohead's face. Using a brush would increase precision, or a method I use is apply the lipstick, then gently blur the edges so that it's not so harsh.


6. Top-heavy eyes

The entire world is about balance. Having super dark and dramatic lids, without applying anything to the lower lashline is just WEIRD. Especially to those girls who wear super dense lashes in broad daylight - some of them have so much going on the eyelids, that sometimes it looks as if their lids are swollen.


Some say, "day make-up can't be so dark!" You're right at that, but your lids are already so dark, it won't hurt to put a little dark shadow on the lower lashline to balance things out. And to avoid looking like a zombie or panda, either find a good concealer, apply the dark shadow really close to the lashes, or both.


7. Neglected brows

I find that beautifully blended shadows on lids, are sometimes ruined by untamed/undefined brows. Not so much those with thick/bushy brows, but more of those with sort of fuzzy, light brows. Like they're not really there, but they're just visible enough.

The eyes are the windows to the soul, and nice windows have nice frames. In this case, the frames are your brows. If you're not comfortable having the typical arched brows, just groom your brows to their natural shape, ridding it of stray hairs.

When it comes to make-up, just lightly fill according to the shape with a powder (easier) or pencil (remember to blend) that matches your hair color. For dark haired people, go for one or two shades lighter. For light haired, go one or two shades darker.

The brows should be darker at the arch, then fade out to the front and back.


8. Wrong placement of blusher

This especially applies for pink blusher. Blusher is a cosmetic tool to fake an appearance of blushing, which is when blood rushes to your face and colors your cheeks. Natural blushing usually occurs at the apples of the cheeks.

Where application of cosmetic blush is concerned, usually it would be on the apples of the cheeks, blending up toward the hairline. I have seen girls who took "apply blusher on the cheeks" literally. The blusher is applied liberally to the entire cheek, and especially for those with clogged pores like me, make them look like they have a skin allergy.

Blushers have different colors and undertones. There's pink, orange, coral, red, etc. Test each blusher to see if it suits your skin tone before purchasing it.



9. Unblended foundation & BB cream

Somehow this is a more common thing than you think - given the many methods of applying foundations, as well as modern day time restrictions, it's quite easy to just underblend the foundation/BB cream.

This is especially for those people with oily skin, or the BB cream consistency just stays liquid-y or creamy - the product will continue to be in the movable state, thus will move more easily. To fix this, a thin veil of fine powder will help set the product in place, and help it last much longer.

I think the bottom line is to just make sure that you take a little more time to blend out the product to avoid looking streaky, which is why I usually don't wear make-up unless I'm sure I have the time to do it.


10. Heavy eye make-up that accentuates uneven eyes

None of us are born with perfectly symmetrical eyes, let alone faces - at least I haven't seen any. One way or another, each eye will be slightly different from the other. Michelle Phan just recently evened out her eyelids using eyelid tape - wearing it for over 22 hours a day for 3 months.

Some, like me, live with it. One eyelid has always been more hooded than the other, but now I have to resort to using eyelid tape when doing make-up - my eye infection hasn't completely went away yet, so my right eye has now a "double eyelid", which basically just means a more pronounced crease.

In some cases, those with uneven lids wear extremely heavy make-up - lots of dark shadows, and a super heavy, thick set of false lashes, which further accentuates its unevenness. Why I say so? When your eyes are uneven, your lashes tend to point in different directions - false lashes always depend on the eyelid to define its shape. Sticking on super heavy ones is practically screaming "I HAVE UNEVEN EYES!!!"

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Well, I guess that's all for this post. Just as a disclaimer: whatever is written up there, as well as anywhere else on this blog, are purely my own opinions. No one has directly influenced what I write (indirect influences coming from all directions, though).

I am, by no means, claiming that I am a professional at make-up, neither am I claiming that I know a lot. I just have a blog, I like make-up, and I like to share my thoughts.

The world of make-up is dynamic - products are now multifunctional, and there's no particular rule to what you should use for what part of your face anymore (sometimes). Like everything else, make-up styles and techniques change. Trends change. For now, this is how I feel about make-up, which is why I would almost never let anyone else do my make-up.

Event: Rescue by Change Your World

I'll first admit that the reason I attended the event was just to support a friend, but in the end I got much more than I expected. Rescue was held at lecture theater 20 at Taylor's Lakeside Campus on Friday (8th November), from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Photo by Jun Yi @ Instagram. Xue Ren was surprised by the flash =P

I hadn't planned on blogging about the event, so I didn't take pictures. Hence, all the pictures in this post are by others. =P The official Facebook event page here.

Photo by Xue Ren. Mei Xuan, me, and Xue Ren with our glowsticks~

I met up with Xue Ren, Mei Xuan and Jun Yi just before the event and we sat together. We were later joined by Wei Hua, and we sort of huddles together sharing information about someone. =P We were handed some glow sticks, and camwhored while waiting for the event to start.


This event was to raise awareness about the human trafficking and modern-day slavery in Malaysia, as well as the abuse of domestic help locally. It was organized by Taylor's LEAD #6, and conducted by Change Your World.


The event started off with an awesome performance by Intan, whose voice was so beautiful and mesmerizing. Pandora then took the stage with beatboxing, but for me it was a bit too dragged out, and sorry to say I've seen better.


My favorite part was when Relent performed. The vocalist's voice was so familiar, yet so special. It's hard to describe, but I really liked his voice, as well as the few songs they performed - Use Somebody by Kings of Leon; as well as the two songs composed by themselves - Save Me & Looking for A Savior.


After all the awesome entertainment was the serious part of the event - Kelvin Lim, the co-founder of Change Your World, talked to us. He told us how many young people in Malaysia actually get abducted, and most of them are trafficked and sold as sex slaves.


Did you know that the sex trafficking industry is now bigger than the drug trafficking industry in Malaysia? According to a criminal who was arrested for sex trafficking, this is because when a bag of drugs is sold, it's gone. But a girl can be sold and used over and over and over before she goes crazy or dies.


It's a vicious cycle, which is why Change Your World exists. Kelvin also showed us a video about Sasa, a Cambodian girl who came to Malaysia, thinking she could earn money to send home. Instead, her employers tortured her - for nothing she was slapped repeatedly. She had sometimes no food to eat at all, and only slept for 3 hours everyday.


Every evening, Sasa would be called by her employer to "exercise". Her feet would be tied together, and she would be told to jump down from fourth step of the stairs. That "exercise" has now caused Sasa's legs to be permanently damaged - she cannot stand on her feet for too long, or do vigorous exercises.


This is why Indonesia and Cambodia has withdrawn all their domestic help - because many local employers know about a loophole in the law: foreign workers can only seek justice if they are not paid for their work, but not for being abused. Sadly, many local employers not only acknowledge this, but they also take advantage of this.


Sasa was one of the lucky ones who escaped. If you see anyone or anything that is suspicious, or you think that human trafficking and abuse is going on, you could call Tenaganita at 012-335 0512 or 012-339 5350 to help those people.

Banner taken from ChangeYourWorld.com.my

Tonight, Liber8 will be launching at Zouk Club, K.L to raise awareness on human trafficking. A campaign called I Am Not For Sale will also be held starting next week until December 24th at various locations, including Sunway Pyramid, Berjaya Times Square, IOI Mall, and Tropicana City Mall. Click on the link for more information.


I've already signed up to be a volunteer, but I'm now considering the option of being a live mannequin for the campaign. Finally, for once in my life, I'm doing something that isn't for myself only. =) Oh, yeah, and thanks Vincent for inviting me~


Check out Change Your World's website for more updates on how you can be a part of all this awesomeness, and keep up on their latest events!

RESCUE

I've never attended an event voluntarily before since I joined Taylor's, but this just might be the first time =P

There's a rising demand for Malaysians in the trafficking world. In 2007, more than 1600 children were reported missing in Malaysia. 86% of these were under 18 years old. They are all victims of prostitution, drag carriers, and slavery.

What if I told you that one night can change your life?

CLICK HERE to find out how you can make a change.

REVIEW: Kungfu Paradise, Mid Valley Megamall

Every trip to Mid Valley calls for an event of food at a nice family restaurant, be it Nando's or Pasta Zanmai. I saw a notice on Facebook some time ago, announcing the opening of Kungfu Paradise at Mid Valley, and we passed by today, so we walked in for a taste.

I think the restaurant can be categorized as an Asian-fusion cafe, because the menu and the style of the entire restaurant reminded me of restaurants like Kim Gary - a mix of Asian food, along with some Western selections.

The menu. This was the basic color scheme for the entire restaurant.

At first glance, the place seemed welcoming - the orange-and-red color combo with black and white accents on the walls and furniture were inviting. The only thing was that the entire place seemed a little bit crammed, and the music was a little too loud.


The menu presented us with a wide variety of options - rice, noodles, Japanese curry rice, baked rice, toast, etc. There was even steaks and spaghetti, so naturally my expectations were further raised.

Our orders, after reselecting. You write down your own orders, and you pay at the counter.

We were disappointed, however, when the waitress came back (twice) telling us that the beef dishes that we ordered were sold out ... at 12pm on a Sunday. Four dishes ordered, and two of them were out of stock. Never mind that, the waitress just stood there with her mouth slightly open as my mum started complaining to her in Cantonese.

*click to enlarge* Top left: the 3 signature items of the restaurant. The rest: the selection of drinks.

*click to enlarge* the rest of the menu, complete with dessert, noodles, and toast.

Which brings me to another point - overall service. The staff were quite professionally dressed, but the way they conducted service just made me mad. The ones that served us didn't know their own dishes, worked quite slowly, and seriously lacked communication skills. There was also very obvious tell-tale signs of lack of training.

Noodle with chicken chipolata sausage and egg - RM7.90

The fastest dish to arrive was the noodle my mum ordered - Nissin noodle with chipolata sausage and egg. Duh. It's Japanese instant noodles. The soup was nice though - it wasn't the seasoning soups that some restaurants typically serve.

From left: Oreo frappe - RM11.90; pomegranate iced tea - RM7.50; rock melon iced tea - RM7.50.

The next to arrive were the drinks. Even the drinks menu was quite extensive, ranging from fruit juices to coffee to smoothies to different flavors of iced tea. My younger sister ordered herself an Oreo frappe, while my older sister and I ordered a pomegranate and rock melon iced tea respectively. Could've been better, especially given the price.

Chicken chop bake rice with cream and curry sauce - RM13.90.

My sister initially ordered a beef steak baked rice from the Flaming Hot Bake Rice section, but since the beef was non-existent at that time, she had a baked rice with chicken chop in cream-and-curry sauce. The chicken was nice and tender, and flavor-wise, it was not too bad.

Crispy chicken cutlet curry rice with egg - RM14.90

Me being my usual Japanese-obsessed self, ordered the Japanese curry rice with chicken katsu. The menu specifically said that the rice was Japanese pearl rice, but what I got was Thai rice. That aside, the entire dish itself was good - the egg was beautiful (didn't eat the yolk, though), the curry and veggies were perfect, and the chicken was oh-so-succulent.

Fish and chicken combo - RM18.90

My younger sister's dish took 40 minutes to arrive, despite only being fries, grilled chicken chops, and a deep fried battered fish fillet. She initially ordered a beef steak. I had no idea how her dish came out, but to my older sister's expert tongue, it was really not bad.


This is a joint review between my mother, my sisters, and I. All photos were taken with Samsung Galaxy Note; edited with PicMonkey.com.


My final verdict is approach at your own risk. Our visit was pretty much disastrous, but perhaps you wouldn't mind putting up with bad service for nice food. All prices are subject to 10% service tax.


Food - 8.5 / 10
Variety - 7.5 / 10
Environment - 7 / 10
Service - 4 / 10
Price - 7 / 10
Location - 9.5 / 10


Kungfu Paradise Sdn Bhd (owned by Paradise Group)
Lot LG074A, Lower Ground Floor,
Mid Valley Megamall,
Lingkaran Syed Putra
59200 Kuala Lumpur.

Business Hours 10am - 10pm daily (9.30pm - last order)
Telephone no. +603 2202 3099
Fax no. +603 2201 8799
www.paradisefnb.com.my

October in food photos

Apart from my birthday, this October was filled with lots of different types of FOOOOD! Well, I still have lots of stuff I haven't redeemed for my birthday, but the food was nice~

Sweet potato crunch @ Arisan, Syopz, Taylor's Lakeside Campus

 The Arisan that opened frequently whenever Taylor's University allowed stalls finally opened up a half-unit eatery at Syopz. What they still is typically Taiwanese fried stuff and tea. The dish that caught my eye was the sweet potato crunch, which was very reminiscent of Taiwan Dami's deep-fried plum sweet potato.

Basically the same thing, except for the plum powder, but this one had a different flavor and texture (Dami's were fries, while these were thin slices). And they're also cheaper - a small platter like that costs only RM3.90!

Bacon and mushroom fettucine carbonara

My older sister made a few rounds of carbonara this month. @_@ The first batch was fettucine with bacon and mushroom, while the second batch was with seafood. Needless to say, the bacon one tasted much better. For the seafood batch, it somehow lacked flavor and body, and the shrimp we had wasn't too fresh. =P

Taken with Jasmine's iPhone. Chicken Maryland @ Little Star Cafe, Serdang

We went to Little Star Cafe at Serdang for lunch on the first day of our (Jasmine, Jeanna and me) filming for our Innovative Media video assignment. In a way, I dread video assignments - the filming, talent communication, timing, editing, music, etc. It's just so stressful and tedious.

Anyway, Little Star is somewhat of a homey, Western-oriented cafe-restaurant, decorated with rather dim lights, cute ornaments, a shelf full of toys and magazines, as well as a few low tables with curtains. The walls were painted orange, which is a color that evokes both appetite and cheerfulness. Seems like a rather child-friendly cafe~

I just got my navel piercing a few days prior to the day of this shooting, so I couldn't eat seafood, and according to some, chicken, beef, and pork as well. I was convinced otherwise and ordered a chicken Maryland, paired with a glass of honeydew juice (RM16.90, tax-free).

It was basically a chicken thigh that was slightly over-breaded and deep fried, along with fries and a small pile of coleslaw that I did not touch (I automatically avoid coleslaw ever since I got tired of KFC's plastic-tasting coleslaw). The good thing was that the chicken was juicy, and didn't have that tongue-numbing effect that over-seasoned deep-fried chops have.

The thing I liked about Little Star was that the menu was extremely extensive. I do know that in most cafes like these, most of the sauces, soups, and whatnot are pre-prepared, but I like that they gave much more options than a typical Western cafe would.

Taken with Jasmine's iPhone. Chicken and mushroom steamed rice @ Old Town White Coffee

In general, I wouldn't order rice dishes from most places, except Chinese restaurants where they serve the dishes and the rice separately. It's partially because I really don't like how dry the rice comes out of some restaurants, and have an automatic aversion to it, similar to my aversion of coleslaw (and cabbage) in general.

I decided to break my rule for once (only because I couldn't decide on what to eat) and ordered this. Surprisingly, the portion size was reasonable. I seldom visit Old Town because the portion sizes are usually not up to par with the prices they charge.

The chicken was tender, the rice was moist and flavorful, and the mushrooms provided an overall pleasant, earthy aroma to the entire dish. This, if I remember correctly, was from the lunch menu (came with a drink), for RM9.90.

Sambal chicken steamed rice @ Old Town White Coffee

This was another event where I didn't want to order a tiny portion of asam laksa for RM7.50, and opted for this. The chicken was minced and shaped into a patty, steamed with the rice, and topped with sambal.

It was satisfying - the chicken patty wasn't dry, and the rice was just moist enough. I like rice that doesn't stick to every damn thing. =D I really can't differentiate different kinds of sambal, but this one had onions, and it got my sinus burning. It was nice though, for RM7.50 (if my memory serves me right).

Cookies!!!

Jeanna had a sudden passion for baking this month, and one day she brought some beautiful products of her baking for us~ I love making cookies, especially when you get to mix the dough with your hands. =3

In comparison, I think these are similar to the chocolate cookies my younger sister makes, but these are just less chocolatey, and slightly more moist.

Lemon cupcakes by Jeanna~ The letters represent all of us - Susu, Jasmine, Quinie, Kellie (moi), and Evan~

I'm usually not a fan of cupcakes, 'cause they're usually either too sweet, too dry, or both. In comparison, I'd prefer muffins, especially the vanilla ones from Kenny Rogers. XD

These dainty lemon cupcakes, however, were an exception. It was just sweet enough, while still retaining the refreshing flavor and aroma of the lemon. And I seldom like lemon cakes and pastries, mind you. In a way, I'm bloody picky with my food. @_@

Hazelnut Chocolate Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly @ Chatime

I hadn't had Chatime in a couple of months. Firstly due to self-inflicted diet restrictions; secondly, because of financial restrictions. However, for October, BCard gave me 590 B-Points to redeem at Chatime, and this was my (as well as Chatime's and BCard's) belated birthday present to myself.

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As for other updates, on my "interesting" life, I hadn't gone for the massage that I was so intent on getting, and now my chance for a 50% discount for my facial and massage. My legs are smooth, though, thanks to Veet. =D


Assignments have been continuously flooding in since a few weeks ago, and though we've been given more than sufficient time, we kinda focused too much on one assignment and neglected the other, because now we're basically rushing EVERYTHING. It didn't really help that we suddenly needed 300 questionnaire responses within a week.


For today, we finally finished up our Innovative Media video assignment. All the technical problems from the Mac OS and Final Cut Pro 7 were gut-wreching - "WHY IS IT TAKING SO LONG TO RENDER?!", "WHY IS IT NOT MOVING?!", "WHERE THE HELL IS THE CD SLOT?!". Please feel free to imagine how jittery we were.


It also didn't really help when our DVD couldn't play - the lecturer said our DVD was written on twice, and hence couldn't read or something. Jasmine, being the sensible and logical person that she is, had the video on her thumb drive, and we submitted our video from there.


Just so tired these few days. A formal interview planned on Friday, a presentation tomorrow, and Spanish homework. Oh, Spanish homework.


Oh, yes. I also forgot to mention that my car is being sort of a biatch right now. Sometimes she's alright, other times she just doesn't wanna behave. Ah~ The woes of having a car. Got some compliments on my gear-shift handling today, though. At least, I consider it a compliment.


And I found a nice iPad game today via Jasmine's iPad. I think it's called Airport Scanner, where you're the airport security, and you have to go through everyone's luggage to detect illegal items.


I shall stop ranting now and sleep. It's another full day tomorrow. BRING ON THE COFFEE!!!