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”
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!
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.
While elaborate makeup routines are becoming more and more popular, I realise that a lot of girls are still apprehensive about skincare. This is totally understandable, as skincare is seen as a more ‘serious’ thing than makeup— getting the wrong skincare can totally mess up your skin, while the wrong makeup can easily be washed off— plus, when beauty websites (including this one, guilty as charged) rave about long, overblown 10-step skincare routines, the skincare beginner may be intimidated from using any skincare at all.
So today I’m bringing you an article about building a simple, minimalist routine for the skincare beginner— inspired by when a friend of mine asked if she should use moisturiser or not. First disclaimer: obviously I am not a skincare expert. I’m not a dermatologist! What I know is all a result of reading up on the internet and my own experience of battling acne, but I’m not a professional and my advice is meant to be just that: advice. Therefore, I’ll be keeping the recommendations today as gentle as possible, applicable for someone who doesn’t suffer very serious skin problems. Secondly, yes my definition of ‘minimalist’ may not be the same as yours. I’m using it to mean as minimalist as a skincare routine can get, but in the end it will still be a routine with more than one step. If you want ‘minimalist’ by the purest of definitions— then just use one step. Also, just like in my Makeup Shopping for Beginners guide, I’ll be keeping the suggestions focused on drugstore since I imagine beginners are not looking to splurge just yet.
Continue reading “Minimalist Skincare Routine For Beginners”
I don’t like beige lips. I don’t like light beige, or dark beige. I don’t like brown beige nor pink beige. I don’t like it with eggs. I don’t like it with ham. I don’t like it with spam. Sam I am.
But then EVERY DAY that goes by where people go mad over some variation of a beige/greige nude– usually matte– and I can only react like “oh that wouldn’t look good on me”, I die a little more inside (I’m on life support, at this point). See, my defiance towards straight-up unapologetically nude lips is not out of some middle school desire to be against the mainstream or whatever. It just doesn’t look good on me! I wish it did. I want to be one of those bronzy girls who can wear, like, bronzer and mascara and Kat Von D Bow and Arrow and look great. But no. I’ll just look sick.
Nevertheless, my good sis wears a lot of those kinds of lipsticks (she’s a typical millenial: influenced by Kylie, wears brown liquid lipstick, etc) so I decided to ask her about what she thinks are the best nude lipsticks around. Continue reading “Four Favourite Nudes”
Not everyday is going to be a good makeup day. That’s a fact. Sure, it would be great if you could have perfectly groomed, brushed-up brows and eyeliner sharper than Naomi Campbell’s left cheekbone all day errday but you know what? That’s just not the case.
There’s ALWAYS going to be those days where you’re not going to have enough time to get ready… or you’re going to have to be out for a period longer than your makeup will withstand. Although you can’t control fate in order to avoid those days, what you can do is control what makeup you bring with you in order to look as fresh and… un-tragic as possible. I’m writing this from the perspective of a college student, but honestly it can be applied by anyone really.
Continue reading “Three Common Situations And What Makeup To Bring For Them”
You know how sometimes when we’re talking about makeup and someone—usually a guy— goes and says “Girls who wear makeup are fake and hate themselves and are hiding something from the world! False advertisement!” When we see these kinds of statements girls do tend to— quite reasonably, I have to add— jump to the defence. “Makeup is self-expression!” It goes. “Girls don’t wear makeup for anyone but themselves! We wear it because it’s art!” Then you’ll probably see a dual-selfie, one with makeup and one without. Caption: “Slaying both ways”.
The message there, of course, is “I am confident with or without makeup, but I have chosen to wear it as a form of self-expression… the same way we express ourselves through our clothes or hair.” And that part is true, too! But then— is it really? Or is it only true for those who are already perfect… even without makeup?
I got through my teen years fairly free of acne. That teen curse didn’t hit me, except a short time when I was 15 when I had a small bout of pimples. That turned out to be stress-related, as they went away almost immediately once PMR was over. For the rest of my not-so-carefree teen years, my skin stayed clear. I got into makeup and wore a ton of it. I wore oily, heavy BB creams in the heat of the day, all while I was staying in campus where the default weather was hot and hotter. I never cleaned my makeup off properly, thinking— “Well, it will be all gone the next day, anyway”.
Then I turned 21.
Continue reading “How To Get Away With Murder(ing your acne)”
Picking the right kind of concealer for your skin type can be quite a drag, especially if you don’t know what exactly you are searching for.
A prime example would be me, when I used to think concealer was just an excuse for makeup stores and brands to make more money since it’s the exact same thing as foundation.
What’s the point of wearing concealer if I have a good foundation? my naïve, younger self would say.
A-ha! That’s what you might also think, but please please please understand that foundation does not equal to concealer. If you think you can simply dab on foundation under your eyes to cover those dark circles – it won’t. If you think you can easily layer your face with a second coat of foundation to cover those blemishes, you’ll look like pancake with extra tepung.
We all have that one ‘big day’ in our year. No, I’m not referring to the big day like weddings but rather regular ones like college events, parties, etc. If you’re the ‘makeup guru’ of your friend group (every girl squad has one) then you’ll recognise these days as being the day when your phone starts blowing up with “please can you help me do my makeup!”
I was that person. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved it. The actual event never turned out as fun as the preparation– all the sitting around on the floor with music on and chatting about makeup and whatever else that came to mind. Flipping through magazines and pointing out random celebrities– “I think you should do this!”. The most fun were the girls who usually wore no makeup and knew next to nothing about it. They would present their scant makeup collection— it was usually just a tube of bb cream and an eyeliner, perhaps a mascara as well— and ask if I could do a ‘natural makeup look’ for them.
“Natural, but not too natural but not too much either. I don’t want to look scary.” What they really meant was that they just wanted to look like themselves, with a bit more definition around the eyes. Beginners usually aren’t ready to go ham with the falsies and the lipstick.
Now, I’m no makeup artist— at all— but today I’ll be sharing the ‘look’ (if you can consider it that, since it’s super simple) that I usually do for my makeup newbie friends on big days. It’s a safe, subtle look that obviously isn’t going to win any makeup awards but is good enough to make someone feel a bit more special and dressed up than usual.
I think I’ll call it ‘The World’s Easiest Smokey Eye’.
The first thing any beginner should know about makeup is: you do not need makeup. Nobody needs makeup. Makeup is a hobby or a luxury that has somehow been transferred by society into a necessity for all those born with XX chromosomes. Still, makeup can definitely be fun plus studies have shown that women who wear makeup are paid more than those who don’t (this is not necessarily a good thing, especially since Malaysian women are paid less anyway).
‘Starting’ to buy and wear makeup can be daunting— where does one even start is the question. There is just so much of it— too much of it, actually. The best advice I can offer to any beginner is that 98% of the makeup sold in stores is unnecessary to achieve a well made up face. The beauty industry is constantly creating needs out of thin air. Your best friend who is obsessed with makeup and has a whole Ikea shelf just for her collection buys it only for fun— she would look just as fine without the Becca Shimmering Skin Perfector. In fact, just 10 years ago nobody used highlighter, now it’s suddenly a requirement to achieve a ‘fresh faced glow’.
Therefore, this guide will focus on the 5 necessary elements to achieve a full, well made up face. The products suggested will be mostly affordable as it is likely that a beginner would not want to spend a bomb on expensive products. With that same thought in mind, all the products suggested will be those that can be applied without a brush— a beginner does not need to worry about makeup brushes. Brushes aren’t necessary unless you’re trying to achieve a certain ‘look’– like cut creases or heavy contouring. We’re not going to talk about looks today. Get comfortable with your face and what works on it first, then we’ll talk.
MY LIPSTICK STAIN 