My Beauty Diary Oceania Firming Pack - I choose you!

It's 12 midnight and I'm feeling kinda moody. The exams are over and I'm officially a graduate, (not)ready to face the wild and strange working world. Well, stress and hormones also brought me two annoying pimples and an overall deflated and blotchy complexion. I look quite like a mess this week.

And so, I whipped out the My Beauty Diary oceania face pack that comes with a Glasswort (whatever that is) hydrating mask and a separate Marine firming cream. Fancy huh?

Now's the time to heal myself and truly find some me time before I get sucked into the whirlpool of work yet again. The trip to Taiwan is coming in 10 days and I'm getting so excited about it. Have been planning it for quite some time (6 months to be exact) and I want it to be absolutely amazing. I'm cautious not to set such high expectations! 

Coming back to the face mask, it's sitting  on my face as I type away on my phone. It has the pretty much cooling sensation of face masks. MBD's face masks are soaked in roughly 23ml of serum/solution and that is a lot. I mean, my foundation comes in 30ml bottles and I'm using 23ml of serum up in one sitting?

I usually put on face masks for 15-20 minutes before patting in the remaining serum into my face and dabbing off the excess. I quite like the MBD series of face masks, and my favourite is the Oceania's sister - the Europe Clarifying pack (all the names these masks have...) and I love the Rose honey refining gel it comes in. Hopefully this firming cream doesn't disappoint!

And yes, Taiwan is the home of MBD and I truly hope I do not go overboard when I get there.

Thanks for reading!

Hui Ling

My go-to brow product

I recently found the perfect shape for my brows-something light and taupey. I had it all along in my "medicine container" (from Daiso) as an eyeshadow but just only recently realised how near perfect if was for my brows. I have relatively thick brows, but they are quite light. This trial and error with my brows has paid off, but the one most disappointing thing is that such a gorgeous eye shadow has been discontinued. Why!?!

I'm talking about the matte eyeshadow - Nutmeg - from Everyday Minerals. Its a cool-toned greyish taupe colour that's is great for all over the lids and of course, for my brows. I purchased it a couple of years back, from the Smoochiezz warehouse, for $1. Yes, $1. It was hanging there, in a packet, surrounded by many cheap and unwanted products. I was in luck.

Pardon the untidiness. Everyday mineral eyeshadow a come in a loose form. With a little help from some rubbing alchohol, I managed to set it as "baked" form for quite some time. Too much using and moving around has caused it to shatter and it's time for a reset soon. My iPhone camera did not pick up the slightly yet very delightful purple tones (I'm blogging via my phone now, pretty fun).

Here's a swatch on the back of my hand:

Why does it have to be discontinued!?

Perhaps it's time to find a dupe up on the same street as Nutmeg in Everyday Minerals, or, elsewhere.

Thanks for reading!

Hui Ling

Update

I've been very much away, on a long break away from blogging. Well, I've been busy with...almost nothing. FYP's over, report submission and oral presentation are done deals, and what's left of my undergraduate life is just two exam papers. I've been spending the past two weeks quite easily and lazily, waking up during lunch time and watching TV off the Internet. Life's been good (albeit a little empty).

First obsession in quite some time - my onions. I've started growing onions a couple days back and I can't seem to be patient about it! Not gonna lie, but I take a look at them every few hours for a couple of days now, eager to see tiny shoots coming out of them. Nothing has really changed except for the mould growing on them.

Another obsession worthy inclusion in my life is Spotify. If you haven't heard of it, please go do yourself good and download this magical app on your computer and iPhone. Finally, legal music streaming has taken over. This could spell the end of illegal downloads! However, not everything is up on Spotify though.

A couple of coffee places I've been to recently are SOHO Coffee and Kooka Cafe. Both are quaint little places with comfortable dim lightning and interesting furnishing.

Well, its high time I start studying for literally, my finals. Booyah.

RIMMEL Lycra PRO Nail polish in 416 NIGHT FLIGHT

Not too long ago, I bought a Rimmel christmas pack from Watson's and it came with this Lycra PRO nail colour in 416 Night Flight. 

It is a dark royal purple and has no shimmer or glitter particles in it. It boasts a "mistake free application" due to the "maxi brush" and it really lived up to its name. Application was so easy and basically mistake free! 

The formulation was quite thick but good – one coat can get you an opaque colour. It dries really quickly as well, leaving a shiny finish. Longevity-wise, I'm sure it can live through a week without any major chipping if you're not using your fingers to do much manual work.  

I'm unsure about the retail price in Watson's but asos.com sells Rimmel nail polishes between S$6 - S$10. 

Why can't all nail polish brands come with this brush?!

Review: PALTY Bubble foaming hair dye - NAMACHOCO WAFFLE

After a couple of years of ditching the DIY hair dyes, I came back to it once more. I've never had a real great experience with DIY hair dye before to be honest. It was either too brown for my liking, or did not have a real effect. The latter was the case of my most recent attempt, with the DIY PALTY Bubble foaming hair dye. Foaming hair dyes are all the craze right now with the easy and fun application, which makes it more than a novelty factor.

I was looking for a dark chocolate brown to even out my hair colour (I've not dyed my hair for more than half a year), nothing too extravagant. There were many brands that were competing across the shelves and the Palty ones stood out to me as being firstly, Japanese (or Asian), it had a middle-price range, and it foams.

I purchased the dye at S$16.20 at Watson's. 

Here is a closer look at the Palty foaming hair dye in NAMACHOCO WAFFLE. The foam was fairly easy to create and apply. Unlike its beautylabo counterpart with a lid to shake the solution (to form the foam), the Palty one only had a cup and a paddle with many holes in it to whip it up to a foam. I wouldn't say it is terribly troublesome or difficult, in fact it was very quick and quite fun.

Put on your gloves, pour the developing liquid (bottle) into the cup and squeeze in the whole of the colour tube as well. Use the paddle to stir the mixture and it quickly becomes foam. Do it until it reaches the line in the inside of the cup. When it has hit the mark, you're ready to dye! I sectioned my hair into 2 - 3 parts and started dying. After 20-30 minutes, I rinsed everything out. The smell of ammonia did not hit me until the product was on my head and was fairly tolerable compared to some other brands that I have tried. 

Here are the results:

To be honest, I'm not so much impressed. The colour was subtle but did not resemble much to the one on the box. I did make sure every part of my hair is covered and massaged the dye in as much as I could. The lower areas of my hair that were already coloured were still lighter than the rest, but the difference is much more gradual (thank goodness). As with hair dye, the colour changes after a week or so. If there is any difference in colour, I'll be sure to update!

Oh yes, one plus point. I LOVE the leave in conditioner that comes with the dye (yellow sachet). LOVE. Why don't they sell it separately? 

<3

HL