Isabel Lee | Malaysian Beauty & Lifestyle Blogger: January 2011

Products Finished in January

Decided to dig around in my room for anymore old stuff to throw out this month.

1. Issteru Top Coat (I think? This is quite old and has hardened)

2. In2It Base Coat

I didn't quite like this as it had a tendency to dry, streak, etc. When the base is uneven, nail polish application won't look good =( I'm throwing this because we've diluted this a few times and I have only just realised that it ruins the whole point of protecting your nails from nail polish =_=

3. Kebiya Super Nail Hardener (hardened too)

4. Maybelline Unstoppable Mascara

I used this as a lengthening mascara. It's so old but my sis insisted on finishing it =_= I don't think it's even available anymore!

5. Skin Food Aloe Vera Foaming Cleanser sample

I was quite surprised at how solid this cleanser was. Perhaps I kept it for too long and it has expired? o_O But anyway, it lathers really well! It's supposed to hydrate but I found it to be drying instead =( There was also that squeaky clean feel which I didn't like. Will not purchase.

6. Botani Purity Cleanser sample

Not fond of this. Review coming soon.

7. Maybelline Eye & Lip Makeup Remover

Well, actually I've finished many bottles of this lol It's my favourite makeup remover! I can count on it to remove almost anything (makeup wise) from my face ^_^

8. B&B Organic Placenta Soap
"Our placenta bar is a herbal soap extracted from placenta plant. It restores the natural moisture of the skin. You can see the difference in just a week of use. The dryness and itchy feel will be gone.

Benefits:
- smoother, blemish free skin
- younger, supple skin
- whitening

You may use as often as you want. Effective for the body and face."

Short review..

Pros : Lathers well, good as body soap, doesn't dry out skin (body)

Cons : Does not moisturize/whiten/smoothen as claimed (still have small bumps on my back), doesn't have a nice smell

Will not repurchase.

NOTD : Bunnies and Carrots

So after posting my leopard nails on Facebook, couple of my friends asked for rabbits instead. Knowing my very limited nail art drawing skills, I would probably fail lol But my leopard nails were fading bad so I gave it a try.

*Sigh* So embarrassing.. Looks like a 5 year old painted these =_=

So many things went wrong for this. Wrong pink, bad nail polish, shaky hands, wrong side (supposed to face the other way but I made a stupid mistake of not thinking before I put on the big white blob) etc. Supposed to draw lines on the carrots but my hands super shaky even while dotting on the rabbit eyes so changed my mind lol

Products used :

You may wonder what's that pen for. Formula for my white polish wasn't good and was goopy so I coated the bottom of the pen in white and 'stamped' it on =_= It wasn't perfect but there was a round-ish shape. It slid on my right thumb though. So.. Not a really good idea lol

This was my original sketch : (barely looks like it >_<)

Oh yea, I did an amazing job of ruining it cos I scooped hot rice out of the rice cooker right after applying top coat and now there are bubbles!

This Week

A lil pic heavy this week lol

Weekly reads ^_^

Chaigyaru explains how she does her own DIY Backdrop (very useful if you like to do OOTD or just simply like camwhoring xD And it's below $20!
I've never thought fish inspired eyeshadow would look good but this Nemo inspired look is so cool!
Renee explains why we tend to open our mouth while applying mascara.
Emily has a wonderful post on applying eyeshadow according to your eye shape.
Check out these horribly cute flower kabukis from Sephora.

Had my family Chinese New Year reunion dinner last Sat at Sam You Restaurant (3 brothers?). Maxi dress from my blog & heels from Champion Verdi.

Reunion dinner!

Went for the O.M.G. Charity Play @ KDU. It was a good show, considering the fact that they were all students (except one lecturer xD).

Washed the wand of one of my old mascaras. It'll serve as a spoolie for my sister =)

I'm waiting for several parcels (I think? I can't even remember anymore..) so was abit excited when dad went out to sign for this xD Evolle bar! Won from prettybeautiful.net. Wonder if it'll be like the Mior & Eumora bars I've tried before or even better! There's also a discount of 3 for RM 199 instead of RM 297. Anyone wanna buy? Lol

Feb issue of Cleo.. Some staplers and envelopes. See who's on the cover? ^_^

Yes, I was super excited over this lol..

Then off I went to 1 Utama.. I've been using the Solone eyeliner almost everytime I go out. For this look, I'm using Elf All Over Cover Stick (Rosy Beige), Silkygirl foundation, Elf Brightening Eye Colour (Butternut), Solone eyeliner (Golden Black), Missha Eyeliner (white), Max Factor False Lash Effect & NYX Tinted Lip Spa (Orange Passion).

Picked up Natio samples from Sasa to review. It's actually quite a generous sample.. Let's see how these are..

And this is where I broke my shopping ban lol But at least it wasn't more makeup! =x

Spotted this super cuuuuuuuuuuuuute yellow star-like thingy at Miss T ^_^ RM 12.90 for this adorable thing. Muacks!

It's actually a pouch but I don't think I'll be putting anything in there.. lol

Was walking to the carpark to leave when... I saw that there was a sale at Bonita! 70% off the bags!! Careful! Inspect the bags very very carefully as alot of them are defected or will be defected (straps/buttons dropping off, torn fabric etc). If possible, ask for a new one. This is bigger than my current bag and quite spacious even after camera (my sister's camera), wallet, bottle, tissue, etc etc etc..

It's a lil plain but I like the studs! Original price RM 129 (I think they were all RM 129) but after discount, RM 38.70.

* Spoilers in blue, highlight to reveal
Also watched Season of the Witch that day. To me, it was just average.. Nothing too exciting. For that kinda show (demons and possessed girls), I would have expected more creepiness. Thought there would be a twist, maybe something about that monk.

FOTD : New Concealer

Yesterday's FOTD, actually. My look for the O.M.G. Charity Play. Nothing too OTT (not like my makeup ever is lol) and I toned down my eyeliner as well. This was taken with my digital camera. I still love the effect it gives =) Makes me look almost flawless xD Can you believe I'm not wearing foundation here? =P

Decided to finally open the Physicians Formula Perfecting Concealer Duo. The yellow is for under-eye circles. I've found that putting yellow eyeshadow beneath your eyes also lessens the appearance of dark undereye circles =) The beige is for the rest of your face. It's more solid than my other concealers so I can cover pimples better with this.

Left : This is my bare face. I don't have many scars but my undereye circles are baaaaad. They make me look so tired and dull =(

Right : With concealer. It's quite solid in the container but I used my finger to apply it on my undereyes and it melted to be a lil creamy. Surprisingly, it wasn't very dry and didn't appear to cake even after 12 hours! I think it even lasted longer than my usual concealers. It's also easy to blend in. Only con was that the beige shade was a lil drying on my pimples as there was minor flaking.
Edit : On 2nd use, it's drier than before! I'll test it more before posting a full review.

Close up comparison

Complete with eye makeup. See how well the concealer blends in? I only set it with Elf HD Powder and there was no foundation/anything else.

I decided to use both Maybelline Magnum and Super Film together. Magnum first to hold the curl and Super Film after to keep it smudge proof. Not too successful since my Magnum is quite dry and I couldn't really coat a 2nd layer on. But result is good! I got curl, volume, length and almost-smudge proof.

I have here.. 3 types of photos. Of course, all have been Photoshopped due to brightness/odd colour but Photoshop can only go so far.. First is using my sister's semi-pro (or sth like that) camera. The settings for this is haard. I almost never find a colour/white balance/brightness that looks appealing for my FOTD.

Second is using digital camera, without flash. Looks kinda washed out but still over contrast here and it's always blur as I can't adjust the shutter speed. Darn shaky hands..

Third is using the same digital camera, but with flash. This is my fav mode as I look prettier here xD!! But... It's a lil too perfect, maybe? But it's easier as there's less chances of getting a blur pic. However, sometimes my face is too bright. Here, I'm not wearing foundation but I'm already looking too fair!

So which mode do you prefer? For close up shots of stuff, of course the semi pro is better as it's more detailed.

Products used :

Physicians Formula Perfecting Concealer Duo

Elf High Definition Powder

NYX Powder Blush (Angel)

Daiso Eyeshadow Palette (Brown)

Solone Eyeliner (Golden Black)

Maybelline Magnum Mascara

Maybelline Magnum Super Film Mascara

My Lip Stuff Lip Balm (Mixed Mystery)

Elf Mineral Lipgloss (Au Naturale)

O.M.G. Charity Play @ KDU

Err.. Kinda last minute but didn't wanna recommend it until I saw it myself. I would say I was impressed by the show. It's a romance + comedy, very entertaining. It's quite Glee-like as it includes singing and dancing. Don't want to reveal too much.. =) IMO, the best were Noemi (Mia, the maid), Kathleen (Kristiana) & the Narrator.

This is a play by the students and lecturers of KDU College's Pre-U Department to raise funds for the Children's Cancer Fund, PPUM (Universiti Hospital). They're aiming to raise more than RM 50,000 so please help out if you can =)

The set.. Sorry no pictures as I didn't wanna take pics during the play. Also, they're all grainy as it was dark =(

The crowd.. You could be here! The newly renovated auditorium is comfy and air conditioned. It's free seating so please be early =)

Taken from website :

The play is given the title of O.M.G; an acronym for Oh My Girl. It is a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedic play The taming of the Shrew. It is a musical romantic comedy on how love is not only sowed in a singular way and a sole intention, and how sometimes, true love and bloom with persistent patience on the stage of life.
Kristiana Padua is only well known for 2 things - her acid tongue and notorious reputation as the Shrew of Italy. Will this reputation however, ruin her chances of finding love in an arranged marriage with the newcomer in town, Paolo? Who will be the first to give in to love - the girl or the boy?

There will be another show tomorrow and on Saturday.

Date: 27th Jan 2011
Dress Code: Smart Casual
Time: 7pm onwards
only @ RM15

Date: 29th Jan 2011
Dress Code: Black Tie
Time: 7pm
only @ RM100/RM200 inclusive of 3 course Italian meal

Contacts to purchase tickets : Fen Fen (014-2678030), Wei Fang (017-7834556) & Vi Vien (016-6873702)

Facebook : HERE

Facebook event page : HERE

Website : HERE

I've always wanted to do leopard nail art but never bothered trying cos it looked hard. But then I found out that it was actually really simple!

Products used : Wet n Wild light gold nail polish, Sasatinnie orange nail polish & black nail art pen from night market.

I used the gold as base and an 'orange peel orange' dotted on with the back of a nail art brush. Fluorescent orange was my first choice but it didn't look as good. Depending on your nail size, I think 3-4 dots per nail is good. Don't make the dots too small or it'll look a lil weird and out of proportion.

Practise drawing on tissue first.. lol I basically just drew C, smaller c, dots, O or wobbly lines. You don't have to draw perfectly around the orange circle but overlap the orange as well. I would suggest dotting to form the C/line as we don't want a clean straight line. Natural animal prints are not perfect so don't worry too much.

If you can't see my nails clearly, here's a lil diagram lol I don't think you need it but also for my own future reference in case I forget LOL

Step 1 : Round dots, doesn't matter if it's not round or perfectly shaped.

Step 2 : I used 3 types of circles here. Draw where the dots look bad xD

a - Normal C shape

b - Half C on both sides

c - Broken C shape (sorry gap isn't obvious)

Step 3 : Fill in the spaces between the spots

d - Small c

e - O shape

f - Random wobbly line (sometimes I do a jagged i as well). You can see it on my middle finger's nail.

What do you think? Does it look like leopard print? Lol

I think my colour combination was a bit odd but I like that the orange stands out ^_^ You can experiment with other colours yourself. I actually had quite a nice time painting this as I didn't have to wait for layers and layers to dry. Lower chance of me wrecking it xD