Isabel Lee | Malaysian Beauty & Lifestyle Blogger: January 2014

Why I Didn't Learn How to Swim

With the temperature drop and the frozen fish/moose/fox stunt, one can only assume that.. The end is coming.

Remember this!

All that water. I don't think I've mentioned it here but I am really afraid of drowning. Like.. I would avoid deep waters and not venture out into the sea when at the beach. I've tried swimming lessons once.. Total failure.

I'm not only afraid of swimming pools but afraid of the stuff that are at the bottom as well. Like this one time at a hotel pool, we went in for a dip (it was shallow enough for me to be in it comfortably). Suddenly I felt something slippery and lost my footing. I looked down and realized that the bottom of the pool was full of worms. Slippery green worms.

Then after that my friends and I went for swimming lessons together. Very enthu wan. All equipped with cap and goggles. As it isn't hygienic, I can't wear contact lenses but my goggles don't come with prescription so it was safe to say that I was almost blind.

Then it didn't help that we were sharing the pool with the much younger kids who were learning as well. Here we are with our yellow floats & blue foam boards while they're already zooming through the water. How demotivating =/

Then during one lesson, the young male instructor was gonna teach us the frog kick. He made us float faced down at the edge of the pool on the stairs and kick our legs like a frog. However, he was not satisfied with our lack of openness. He kept shouting open bigger open bigger! I'm just like dude.. I don't know you. I can't see you when you're standing behind me. There's no way I'm opening my legs wide for you wtf

Then we also got called aunty by one of the small girls there lah.

Aunty, where's the toilet?

Yeah, I can still remember it, little girl!!

But the worst thing that made me say NO to continuing my lesson there was when I almost drowned and they didn't even notice. They asked us to get into the pool without teaching us how to stand up. I needed to breath but was in the middle of the pool. I tried to stand but failed repeatedly, causing me to drink some of the water. After I somehow managed to get it right, I looked to the side and the instructors were busy chatting omg! *facepalm*

Then of course, I get feet cramps every single time I get into the water, which makes it hard for me to swim. So... I stopped my lessons and prayed that I never fall prey to a tsunami or fall into deep water. Or the end of the world.

Belco Hair Studio @ Uptown, PJ

Nicole and I were walking in Uptown and we spontaneously decided to pop into Belco Hair Studio. It's nice to see new hair salons in Petaling Jaya to keep my options open. And I cut my hair short.

Nah not really xD

They were having an opening promotion where I got my Colour & Cut for RM 170, which is actually not THAT cheap for an opening promo. My hair colour usually costs RM 129 or RM 168 with haircut. And that was when my hair was much longer.

I believe this was taken at Niko Niko Onigiri though. Our fav onigiri place xD First photo of 2014, she said lolol

The place has limited space so if you're looking for posh interior, please close this page now. It is still quite new afterall..

The brand of hair dye they used is Shiseido which didn't leave my hair feeling dry. L'Oreal is alright as well but Schwarzkopf has a tendency to give me straw hair =/ Almost cried seeing my hair break apart at the slightest tug.

Old faded yellow begone!

Under sunlight, you can see a faint burgundy shade but indoors, it seems almost black.

It lasted for a few washes before becoming a pinkish brown for a brief 2 washes. Now it's a dark reddish brown which looks slightly pinkish under certain lighting and angles. The bluish tones disappeared quickly. It's also much darker than my previous hair colour so I guess I can delay my next retouch =x

My stylist, Coburn Soy, was very friendly and patient. He was the one who suggested this colour because I said I didn't want it to fade to be such a lala goldish yellow.

Actually I like this kinda brown hair colour but all the salons tell me that I can't get this colour. They always claim that a dark brown is the max that I can go. Is this true? =(

Obviously NOT because Storm Hair Studio got pretty close when I went there last CNY. Except it was more orangey. Still loved it though.

Nicole also got a new haircut! She had straightened her hair previously so it's rather flat. To counter that problem, Coburn gave her a slanted hair style.

Will I be back? I'm not too sure.. The price is higher than Storm but I do prefer the staff at Belco. After going to the realms of darker hair colour, I think I still prefer lighter browns albeit the horrible golden yellow hair after.

I was initially lured into the pinkish brown colour available at Belco but was told it's not possible unless I bleached my hair first. I imagine it should look like a darker version of this :

Belco Hair Studio

No. 80, Ground Floor,

Jalan SS21/39,

Damansara Utama,

47400 Petaling Jaya

(opposite McDs Uptown 5)

Tel: 017-302 5387

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/belcohairstudio

Adore Macttalic Grey Lenses

The brand which brought you the Imagene Lenses now has a new range - Macttalic!

Out of the 5 colours, I picked Grey & Amethyst. I think the colour on the poster is not very accurate though =/ The Amethyst looks more blue toned IRL.

While the 14.5 mm diameter is not too scary, it offers quite an enlarging effect for my small eyes.

The Grey looks slightly bluish sometimes, with a yellow-brown middle ring. The design itself is natural looking.

Complemented the blue tone with blue eyeliner using Sleek! I've blogged about how you can get this blue eyeliner.

Trying to be sexy with these lenses LOL I'm not sure why but these lenses give me a very.. mysterious dreamy-eye look =/

Overall, the lenses are not bad. They're comfortable to wear and don't dry out too soon. Can't wait to try out the Amethyst ones once this pair expires!

You can get the lenses at Focus Point!

https://www.facebook.com/Macttalic

Matchy matchy grey dress!

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What I DIDN'T Get for Christmas

After Christmas, I noticed these kind of tweets appearing. Image is from Google but I censored out some inappropriate words.

(Click to enlarge)

I was shocked at the kind of things children can say about their parents! Like.. OMG.. I feel like punching each and every one of them. Some received an iPhone 4S and complained about not getting the latest one while some were so angry over getting the wrong colour. Hello? Your parents DO NOT owe you stuff!!

To promote filial piety among the younger generation, Obpedia.com & YouthsToday.com collaborated for the eulogy-writing competition. It's good to know that Malaysian youths have not lost all their good values.

CEO of Akademic Belia, Mr Rahman Hussien

Director of Obpedia.com, Mr Kevil Leow

Jassie Looi, Kum Peng Han & Lisa Yeo walked away with RM 2000, RM 1500 and RM 800 respectively for writing about cherished moments, memories and legacies as they create touching stories.

Some faith in humanity restored!

The Legend of Hercules (2014)

Being a fan of Greek mythology, even le Bf knew that I would not miss the new Hercules movie.

If like me, you were expecting lots of Greek myth stuff, you would be disappointed. It is more of a.. 'teenage son trying to win over his step-father' kinda thing =/ No unicorns, god appearances or stuff like that.

Also, I didn't feel like the cast was suitable as they didn't have an 'ancient mystical' look, if you get what I mean.. I guess this Hercules isn't my type either.. And why does Hera look like that?! I cannot accept lor..

Then there was all that slow-mo going on through out the entire movie. A little overdone at times.

Immediately from the start, it gave me the feel of the movie 300 and then it got a bit Gladiator. Big half-nude guys battling. But nooo.. As the movie progresses, there is a disappointing lack of proper battles (didn't feel real enough). There's cheesy romance though.

Highlight to reveal spoiler below.

At the last battle where they face an army 5 times their size, I honestly thought "great, finally an epic battle scene!" then suddenly that dam Zeus sticks a string of lightning to his sword and he just swung it around like a little girl's hair and whacked everyone. Not cool man. Not cool.

Spoiler end.

I would not recommend you to catch this in the cinema. I would have preferred it to be manlier and less Twilight material. More original content as well please!

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Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Moisturizing Make-up Remover

I always try to have 2 types of makeup removers - for heavy and for light makeup. Since I'm currently using the Hada Labo Super Hyaluronic Acid Cleansing Oil, I paired it with the 'cleansing water' version.

In line with the other Hada Labo products, it's free from fragrances, mineral oil, alcohol and colorant.

Despite its blue outlook, it is actually clear =/

Lock pin so I can bring this around with me without worrying about it spilling.

Much to my dismay, this seemed more like a gelly than water. Definitely not suitable to be used with a cotton pad so I simply massaged it in with my fingers. It can remove foundation but is ineffective against heavier eye makeup like mascara. Also, it stings my eyes badly! After washing off with water, I get this really bad slippery rubbery feeling on my face and fingers too. Major turn off. As much as I love the cleansing oil, I'm not buying another bottle of this.