On 28th July 2018, just two days after I turned 27 years young, I got engaged. Preparations for the big night started even before the Eid Celebrations, and I swear to God, there were times when I thought I was going crazy! I was the typical Bridezilla, I got upset for no reason, picked fights with people when things didn’t go my way, and was very very sleep deprived. Continue reading “Akir Atul Akhirnya”
Work has taken up a lot of my time and whenever I’m free, I’d be busy planning for my engagement and wedding. Yes, I am getting married – to one of my best friends of 10 years too. I didn’t see this coming at all, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I came back to Malaysia a couple weeks back from Europe – it was for work, of course, not a vacation…..as a matter of fact I can’t even remember the last time I had a proper holiday. My schedule has been so packed – not that I’m complaining.
Being occupied with work and all these engagement/wedding plannings, of course I have to take extra care of my skin if I want to look good on television and on my big day. Before this I had a regiment already but I guess because I am getting older and my skin condition keeps changing due to my age and hormones (let me add stress levels too), my routine has changed to cater to my skin’s needs. Continue reading “Dayang Atul – 2018 might just be year of the olive”
First thing’s first, I just renewed the subscription of this domain name on WordPress, not even realising that it has been a month since this blog has been wiped off the internet. As irresponsible as it may sound, I haven’t been checking on MyLS as often as I’d like to – but just a few moments ago, I thought I’d check out the older articles available from 2016 (when the blogging fire was still rearing to go) and then I noticed – “mylipstickstain.com is no longer available, please click here to renew”.
I admit I did have second thoughts on whether or not to give away my credit card details for the renewal, but again, I managed to convince myself that I NEED to practice writing – doesn’t matter if there’s anyone out there who actually reads this. Long story short – mylipstickstain.com, I’m not leaving you to die.
So here goes….2018, let’s see what you got.
I’m 27 this year and I am still trying to figure what product would best fit my skin. It’s not that I started caring about my skin later than most girls but because when I was younger, my skin was clear. As in – I really didn’t have a problem with it? Then again what were the stresses a teenager could’ve faced that was more serious than the issues we currently have to deal with as adults, right?
I’m sure you’ve heard of Mario Badescu. The products that the brand offers are so good. Actually good is an understatement – the products that they have are amazing! The only downside though, is they are so mahal. I used to have their whole set because I’m the type of person who sticks to just one brand at a time. I hate it when products in my medicine cabinet don’t match with one another hence the sticking to only one brand rule. Is that weird? Continue reading “Aiza Said, Brand Consultant”
Now that I’ve finally gotten myself a Spotify Premium account, music has once again become something which is actively part of my life (the way it was when I was thirteen) rather than just background noise the way it was for the past couple of years. One of the best investments I’ve ever made, btw. I listen to a lot more independent artists now and am discovering some of the best songs I’ve ever heard. At the risk of sounding pretentious, having so much music becoming easily accessible to me has made me a lot more selective towards what I choose to listen to. Why continue to fill my ears with payola-d, radio trash when there’s so much better stuff available? (In other words, I’ve become one of those people who reply to comments on Youtube about new music sucking with: “Good music still exists!! You just have to look for it!!”)
While I look for new music, I’ve also been reunited with older music that I used to love when I was younger and get to judge them with more grown up ears. Honestly, most of them are objectively pretty bad (I mean, I will still go HAM when 3OH!3’s Starstrukk comes on but you have to admit that it’s hard to defend it as being anything other than a pretty terrible song) but there are also some which I actually end up liking a lot more now compared to how I felt about it when they were new (I would say the R’n’B era was a great one. Honestly, I’d sacrifice every EDM DJ currently on the airwaves for Toni Braxton to have a big comeback).
One of the ways I measure whether a certain song or album is something I truly love and isn’t just something with a nice beat that I enjoy hearing is if it’s capable of bringing me into its world. Is it weird to say that I think some songs have aesthetics? A bland but enjoyable song is just that—something you hear—but a really good song is capable of making you envision things. These ‘things’ include makeup. So since this is supposed to be a makeup blog and not just a personal blog, let me talk about two albums that I really love and talk about what kind of makeup and aesthetics it brings to my mind.
Continue reading “If two albums I loved were people, what makeup would they wear?”
I’ve gotten a couple of messages on my personal Instagram account (@dayangatul) on how and where does a gal start when she’s still new to makeup? Should she give in to peer pressure and try to emulate this?
Or should she just stick to the basics and build up skill and looks from there?
The latter obviously!
It started when I moved to Malaysia… been spending most of my life here rather than in my own country, Indonesia, since I was 9 years old up until now where I’m 21 years old and have just gotten my bachelor degree in Culinary Arts from Taylor’s University. I just completed my final internship at Nobu KL and am currently on the search for that perfect first job. I’ve basically been in love with art and music since high school, I always got the best marks in school for those subjects compared to others.
You guys know how when corporations are trying to sell makeup to you, they’re not just selling you individual products but rather they’re offering an image and a dream. A dream of the kind of woman you could become if only you’d buy this contour stick or this eyeshadow palette or brow kit. I mean I’m not exactly breaking new ground here… this is something we’ve all known for a while. Women in the 60s were being sold the image of the youthful, skinny, bug-eyed Twiggy woman while in the 80s they were promoting the Amazonian supermodel. Back in the 2000s, I totally admired the whole stick-thin blonde It-Girl heiress wearing gigantic sunglasses and toting around an even more gigantic handbag with a tiny teacup Chihuahua in tow look. Starbucks in hand, of course.
There’s no questioning who was the woman we’ve been pushed to aspire to be for the past couple of years… I don’t want to mention the name because I don’t admire them so much but I don’t have to mention her anyway: you know exactly who she is. And in the makeup giant’s quest to make us want to be her, we’ve been pushed contour kits and liquid lipsticks and high-coverage foundation. Everything we need to achieve that exotic, racially-ambiguous Armenian look. But now I think we’re seeing a new kind of woman emerging—The Cool Girl.
So who is the Cool Girl? I can’t name any specific woman the Cool Girl is based upon. I guess she probably does exist, but she’s probably an artist or a writer or a magazine editor AKA not the kind of person the general public would recognize. It’s funny because the first time the term ‘Cool Girl’ came to my (and a lot of people’s) attention is through Amy Dunne’s iconic prose in Gone Girl (the book and the movie) where she basically laid it out that the ‘Cool Girl’ is a myth and a fraud, a front put up to satisfy men. So it’s funny that the term is now being repackaged into something that’s meant to be desirable and aspirational. Not that I mind all that much—I’m pretty much the opposite of a ‘Cool Girl’, but I find myself really buying into it. So here are some of the elements which I think make up the Cool Girl Look.
Everything Sounds Better in Spanish
Right when you thought MyLS is dead and gone like Lindsay Lohan’s Hollywood comeback, BOOM we’re back at it again hoping to start of 2017 with a bang even though January is already almost coming to an end. Really, where did the time go?
All of us over at MyLS HQ, a.k.a the living room of our parents’ house, have been busy with life – some with final exams, classes etc. and as for myself, work got in the way. Apart from work, I’ve also had a billion weddings to attend and flowers to carry around during receptions, alongside travelling and getting my teeth fixed. Trust me, it’s been a crazy November-January for me.
About a month back, I was given the opportunity to spend wintertime in Spain – a trip I’ve been looking forward to! Spain was my eighth country to visit in 2016, and I’m very grateful to have ended the year there, in the heart of Barcelona where the sun is always bright but the cold winds pierce through your skin. Continue reading “My Passport Stamp: Barcelona, Spain”
We’ll start with the exciting stuff, which is what’s in my makeup bag. I always bring my MAC Studio Sculpt Defining Powder in the shade Medium Deep. It’s a powder foundation, for touching up like when I’m sweaty and stuff. I apply it with my Bobbi Brown Powder Foundation Brush. I also carry a MAC Blush in the shade Swiss Chocolate, because blusher fades away quickly so you need to reapply. This kind of looks like I contour my face with it actually. I’ll apply this with an Estee Lauder Blusher Brush.
MY LIPSTICK STAIN 