If two albums I loved were people, what makeup would they wear?

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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.

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Who is the Cool Girl?

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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.

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Two throwbacks, one post.

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I know, am I not the alcoholic deadbeat dad of blog writing right now? Ah well. Apologies will get us nowhere. ANYWAY, let’s talk about these two lip products I have: the Urban Decay Vice Lipstick in 1993 and the Tarte Tarteist Glossy Lip Paint in the shade Obvi.

Besides the fact that these are both really good products (and yes, I think you should go out and buy them), one of the reasons I find them so interesting (and the reason why I gave this post this title) is that they kind of represent two throwback eras which I absolutely love.

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Too Faced Too Furious.

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You know I try my absolute best to never, ever make impulse purchases. I generally don’t buy makeup without reading a ton of reviews first, because too often I buy something without research and end up with a product I hate and never use. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of having TONS of makeup just for the hell of it. I mean it’s not like shoes and handbags, you know. Makeup rots. Having loads of makeup you don’t use just means you’re hoarding bacteria and fungi.

The problem with only buying well-reviewed products is you’re going to find yourself with a boring collection full of cult-y products that everyone already has. So I try to branch out once in a while and buy underrated products or poorly-reviewed products that appeal to me. I mean who knows? I could end up loving it. That’s how I found myself with the Too Faced Totally Cute palette.

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How to upgrade your sheet mask game.

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Hey guys. So I just want to quickly apologise if posts have been spotty lately. I’m back in a new semester and my thesis has been kicking my ass lately. Plus I haven’t really had any new products that really WOWed me enough to want to write about. A few bad products? Yeah, totally. But you know I don’t really like writing negative things. I dunno. I’ve just been indifferent about makeup and skincare these past couple of weeks, but that might just be starting to change. I just need time to visit Sephora and get in the groove again.

Anyway, although I haven’t been to Sephora (in fact I missed the 20% sale recently… oop @ me) where I have been is to Daiso. Anyone who knows what’s good for themselves knows that Daiso is a beauty goldmine. Doesn’t mean that EVERYTHING there is great, btw– don’t be fooled. Their mascara is trash, for example. But their eyebrow pencils? Excellent. I used to purchase and repurchase the crap out of the slanted tip one back in my staying-in-campus days. Daiso eyebrow pencils really are great, you know. Not just great for RM5.30 (or whatever the price is now after GST. Thanks, Obama!) but just great period.

But everyone knows they’re great. I’m here to tell you guys about the Daiso Sillicone Mask— your new skincare secret weapon.

Continue reading “How to upgrade your sheet mask game.”

Roses really smell like ooh ooh ooh!

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Some people utterly despise fragrance in any form of skincare, but I don’t. I mean, if something smells really strong and nasty like the Nivea Men’s Aftershave Balm does then yeah I might avoid it out of fear of breakouts but if it has a lovely, light scent of rose… then why not?

This is one of the reasons I bought the Naruko Rose & Botanic HA Aqua Cubic Night Gelly EX (I could do without that  ridiculous name, however). That and the fact that it has niacinamide listed as one of the first few ingredients. I’ve been wanting to incorporate niacinamide into my skincare routine for a while now but never found the right place to fit it in. Now, I do!

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Yet another makeup tip which is (almost) totally free!

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You know I was going to write another product review but then Karl Marx’s ghost visited me and pointed me in the direction of Lisa Eldridge’s new makeup tutorial using exclusively natural and/or organic products. Well, thanks a lot Ghostly Karl Marx because upon watching Kween Lisa’s video, I picked up yet ANOTHER beauty tip which not only totally works but is (almost) TOTALLY FREE– using aloe vera gel as an eyeshadow primer!

Want to up your makeup game while kicking capitalism on the butt? Read on!

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Into the Glossier Skin Tint.

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If you’re in the know, it’d be pretty obvious to you that we here are big fans of Into The Gloss and, by extension, Glossier. Well, as much of a fan as you can be for someone who’s never tried any of their products since Glossier doesn’t ship internationally. But after ages of longingly drooling over pictures of Glossier’s sleek, minimalist-chic products online, it was finally time to bite the bullet and, with money and third party help, get their stuff over here to Malaysia and try it out for myself!

Amongst their carefully-curated lineup of products, the one that I really wanted to try the most was the Glossier Skin Tint.

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My Passport Stamp: Perth, Australia

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So I’ve just been in Perth recently. Vacationing and all, you know the drill. Actually I didn’t just stay cooped up in Perth but definitely got around Western Australia— it was kind of a blast. The farm areas were the highlight for me, as a self-professed #organichoe.

Anyway, nobody wants to hear about me faffing about on the beach. Obviously I did a little bit of beauty shopping– beauty items are my souvenir. I try to buy as many beauty products exclusive to a certain country as possible when I’m visiting. But, you know, my main aim in Perth was kind of to soak up the scenery and be organic and chase kangaroos– not really shopping– so I didn’t exactly visit the Australian beauty hotspots. I passed by Mecca everyday (the store Mecca, not the actual Mecca) but never went in… and obviously there was a Jurlique store in like every corner, but obviously I knew that these stores carried only pricey stuff and I hadn’t done enough research to justify spending a lot on anything.

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Lighter & Curler: A Journey

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Have any of you noticed that the people of our generation (late-teens to mid-twenties) kind of love glorifying financial irresponsibility? Like we’ll see funny memes going all “RIP my bank account” or post a picture of a literally homeless person and be all “me after the Sephora sale”. I mean it was cute the first couple of times but we can’t complain that older people label us as being entitled and un-independent then turn around and basically create this whole culture of irresponsibility.

Adulting fail, y’all! Teehee!

Continue reading “Lighter & Curler: A Journey”