Dream a little dream of me Feat Dirty Works

I had a dream last night. I was falling and then a pair of strong arms reached out and caught me, just in time to break my fall... I woke up then, still breathing heavily from the exhilaration and tried to recall my dream. However, regardless of how much effort I put in, I could not remember the events leading up to the fall, in fact I could not remember anything except for the pair of strong muscular arms and the set of manly lips that I managed to glimpse upon. These images still stay fresh in my mind till this day and its funny how I cannot recall anything else but those arms and lips. Don't you think that sometimes we remember people this way too? By that pouty lips, that particular fragrance, that beautiful eyes or the long flowy hair...
Today I would like to replicate that dreamy feel. Instead on emphasizing too much on the entire face, I would like to focus on my lips as well as to recreate a pair of long beautiful legs. (I do not have manly arms, hence, I shall focus on legs instead!)
Keep makeup simple. For eyes, just mascara will do with a slight hint of rose pink blusher. Next, exfoliate your lips. A simple way to scrub your lips will be to apply lip balm and leave it on for a minute, then using a balled up piece of tissue paper, rub your lips in a circular motion. Repeat if needed. Then using your finger just rub your lips  again, removing any flaky bits along the way. Reapply lip balm when done.




 I am using Go Balmy Berry lip balm rom Dirty Works (
http://glamogirl.com/products/dirty-works-bath-and-body/go-balmy-fruit-lip-balm/  @ Sgd$7.90) This balm contains beeswax and sweet almond oil which both softens and nourishes lips, and to top it off, it comes in a delicious strawberry flavour! I was trying my darndest not to eat my lips! hahaha...




Now for that bee stung lips. Apply a lip plumper for fuller and sexier lips. I dabbed on Dirty Works Rumpy Plumpy lip plumper (http://glamogirl.com/products/dirty-works-skin-care/rumpy-plumpy-lip-plumper/ Sgd$14.90) This is one of my favourite lip plumper, because it does not have that full on stingy feel yet it moisturizes lips with jojoba (pronounced ho ho ba) and plumps up lips with sodium hyaluronate which has excellent hydrating qualities! Ooooh.... and have I described the flavour yet? It comes in a delectable chocolate and orange flavour which reminds me of my favourite chocolate lava cake oozing with melted chocolate with an orange slice at the bottom.... Heavenly....
 




Tissue off the lip plumper, then apply a lipstick colour of your choice. Then reapply the lip plumper over it. The lip plumper acts like a gloss while enhancing the fullness of lips therefore, this step would maintain the lushness of your lips and at the same time does not compromise on your lip colour.
My lips before.... Bleah....




My lips after! <3








Now for the legs. The key thing to beautiful silky legs is to scrub then moisturize, moisturize and moisturize! However, to amplify beautiful legs, what you would really need is an illuminating lotion. Spruce up dull legs with Dirty Works Bling it on Shimmer Lotion (http://glamogirl.com/products/dirty-works-bath-and-body/bling-it-on-shimmer-lotion/ @ Sgd$19.90)




The shimmer particles highlights and enhances skin making your legs look wondrously touchable!




Go legs go!!




Now that we are set, lets head out into the night and be a part of somebody's dream tonight..... Xoxo

Friday the 13th Party face

Ok Bye! I'm off!



With my lovely sister!

Xoxo, Mel

Boost your attractiveness!

Hello ladies! What is a perfect face, a perfect body, a perfect poise and diction coupled with body odour? Ah yes, you heard me right! Wat a spoiler... Just one glitch and runway model you is gone. Don't you wish that you are like the legendary Xiang Xiang Gong zu? Emanating a Sweet smelling fragrance naturally... Well, on my quest to attain beauty immortality, I came across this:












This is the magic capsule of nice nice smell. And what it does is that after popping one or two capsules, a rose scent will emanate from your pores whenever you perspire and you will have sweet rose breath! Wow, it's miraculous isn't it? You will be one hell of a living rose! Haha... They also have this in chewing gum version which I have bought before from Japan. For all you curious rose wannabes, this retails at Nishino pharmacy for about Sgd$10.50.
Here's Rose One and Rose Two wishing you all the best in life!




Xoxo, Mel

Is it MAGIC?

You know u want it. The long black line that defines eyes, giving you a bolder sexier look whenever the occasion calls for it.

What am I talking about? I'm talking about eyeliners! Tsk Tsk...

The one that gives you panda looking eyes after a few hours, the one that takes you all bloody day to draw, the one in which u have to get the evenness of both sides right! Omg... The evil eyeliner!!

Well, I have a solution for that. Presenting sticker liner!! Absolutely no smudges, no budges and best of all, No fear of shaky hands!! Yeah!! 

It looks like this, exactly like a double eyelid tape but in black! How cool is that huh? Not every shop stocks this up, but hey, go colour your double eyelid tape (make sure it's the thin one and not the chunky kind) with your gel liner and you've got the same thing! 

Here's my before. What I did was put on my falsies first, then taking the double eyelid tape, I positioned it further off away from the inner corners of my eye, then eased it right on top of the lashline. This tape also helps secure my falsies! The other great thing about using this is that it accentuates your double eyelids, enhancing the folds and creating bigger eyes for you! 

Now here's the after picture! Tip: If you want a longer line, use your liquid or gel liners to extend it out from the ends of the eye. You can also use a kohl liner to to extend the inner corners of your eyes. Just make sure that it looks like an extension of the tape and not a separate patch on your eye! 

Simple right? *beams*

Short & sweet tutorial. :) Enjoy!

Xoxo, Mel

My best friend Amy Face

If you think that this post is about my best friend Amy and her face, then you are gravely mistaken. Finally I did not give myself away in the title! Lol.

Anyways, this post is to cheer up my best friend a little, sometimes life really does not go the way we wish it would be and everything seems like the pits but I always tell myself that hey, if it's already so bad, the only other way to go should be up! But somehow I dunno why but sometimes life really does go against the grain of what I just said. Bad luck? Or maybe it's just me. I dunno. *weak smile*

Well enuff of that emo shit, why my best friend Ames face is because I was happiest when I had this look on; when we were out partying or chilling out. Oh yes, it's a lotta work to be out with other pretty girls, one does not simply slap on foundation, a little mascara and gloss and think that they are hotness incarnate. No no no.... It's a lotta paint work I tell ya. That being said I must slot in the disclaimer that I also have best friend Aly, Shujia, Michelle, Maryann, Nat, Doreen, Cheryl, Sheryl etc faces too. It's tough being surrounded by beautiful people and u really must look ur best when you're out with them. One does not simply allow her hotness throne to be usurped!! Lol. But that's many other blog posts down the road...

Well, firstly we need the GLOW baby! And I am not talking about neon lights ok!!

Here are the items I used to recreate radiance. I slapped on a whitening mask (when in urgent need of last min tlc), followed by Sk2 Cellumination mask in lotion then with the Cellumination Serum. Top off eye area with eye cream, I'm using Cle De Peau Beaute intensive eye contour cream. This is my prep work for skin. 

Followed by sun block, an inexpensive one that I like to use is by L'oreal, retails at around sgd 23 at all good pharmacies, the reason I like this is because it's in purple - offers skin a nice anti dullness glow, has a high SPF of 50+++ and comes with antioxidants to boot. 

And then instead of masking my face with thick foundations or greyish bb creams, I simply dot concealer on areas of my face that are in need of concealing. Namely, on spots, sides of nose, under eyes and a little on the forehead.

Lastly, the highlighting pen of magic (nope, not neon light sticks!) is used. Cle de Peau Beaute brilliance enhancer touche sublime catches light perfectly with its finely diffused light reflecting pigments, waaaay better than the acclaimed YSL touché éclat IMO. But expensive lah...

Sweep it down the sides like so to lengthen and define the sides of face.

Upside down triangle on the chin followed by proper blending

V to highlight the cupid's bow

Sweep a line across then blend like so.

Down the nose.

Inner corners of eyes and undereyes

A little across the forehead

Directly under brows to define the arch.

When completed. Me Glowstah!!!

Prep eyes with eye primer, my absolute favourite is by Nars. Sweep it on lids as well as the bottom half of eyes.

Get a nice soft white eyeshadow and sweep it across lids forming a half crescent around the socket. I'm using Skull Donut by Tokidoki Sodashop palette.

Underneath too.

Followed by ciccio of the tokidoki soda shop palette. Apply on double eye lid area. Followed by a half crescent at the ends of the undereyes.

Then shade the outer corners of the eyes like so, just to contour ya know, define ur eyes to make it look more deep set.

I used Creep from the Naked palette

Then fill it up and it should look like this.

Shade on the outer half of the lower eye for some shadow definition.

Shade a v shape at the sides.

Then line eyes. Start from the middle it's easier!

It should look like this, be sure to elongate the ends!

Now using a pen liner, draw a v shaped tip at the inner corners of the eyes. If ur eyes are spaced far apart, this gives the illusion of closer eyes, and it elongates the eyes as well.

Using a light hand, draw a line from the front corners of the eyes outwards. Followed by false eyelashes and mascara on the lower eyelashes.

Proceed to apply blush at the sides of your face swirling upwards.

You should end up looking like this and all ready to go out to meet your friends for a fun night out. It's kinda long winded but this post is really for you Ames. Cheer up ok! Love ya!! 

Xoxo, Mel

Skein Skyn Skeen Skin (Acne)

Yes, I have been procrastinating.... and somehow work coupled with my family and friends 'time' seem to deter me from blogging regularly. Tsk tsk.... Not my fault at all... 

Anyways, I'm gonna write about one of the topics that is close to my heart. As the subject matter implies (ok, I'm good at giving myself away), I am gonna be talking about skin. Yes, the largest part of your body! (No guys, sad to say, it's not that part...)  

When I was a teenager, I was cursed with bad skin and as befitted my character, I was diagnosed with acne vulgaris (one more reason to cuss big time). Thankfully, the fairy godmother planted the seed of vanity in me, which led me to seek for ways and means to obtain beautiful skin. Therefore, please be informed that this post will be the start of many skin posts as I cannot cover everything in one entry. But first let's get down to how I won the battle against the ugly red monster! Picture please~

Well, acne is generally made up of papules, nodules, pustules, blackheads, whitehead etc... If you do not know what they mean, then its either bumpy, red, blackish, yellowish, pus like, small or huge or in severe cases, a combination of two or more, or even worse ALL!!!!!! lol. For the ones giving me the WTF face, go read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acne_vulgaris Caution: Even in my joking manner, always remember that acne is not a joke, it causes ugliness and scarring which might lead to depression and suicide. I should know; cause all I wanted to do was stay home.... 

I will categorize 3 categories which helped, namely; Treatment, Oral medication & Topical applications. T.O.T

Let's start with Treatment:

I started off with AHA (alpha hydroxy acids) peels which is in essence, acids that are found in fruit, milk and sugars. This was done by a certified doctor back then, as the choices were limited, AHA was used to slough off the top layer of my skin making way for regrowth of new skin cells and at the same time helping with scarring, uneven pigmentation and enlarged facial pores. 

Procedure: AHA in the form of a viscous liquid is brushed and left on the skin. After which a neutralizer will be used to neutralize the acid. 

I find that this really helps in giving the skin clarity and to slough off old/dead skin for regrowth, till date, I still get this procedure done whenever I want radiance. The downside is that I feel that it thins the skin and sun protection is a must; all the time I might add!

IPL - Intense Pulsed Light is just intensive light waves that is flashed in pulses across your skin for the treatment of acne. lol. Ok lah, the light stimulates the growth of collagen and elastin and the heat that is produced is absorbed by the haemoglobin which causes a reduction in the sebaceous gland activity (Think Oil glands!!) Acne and pigmentation is reduced and facial tightening is experienced. 

This is my holy grail of acne treatments! When I first started, I noticed a stark a difference in my skin condition immediately... Impressive. I still do this treatment on a monthly basis at David Tan Medical Aesthetics - http://www.dtaesthetics.com/

Oral Medication

I know of people that are against oral medication as there are many side effects and controversies against going against the body's natural functions. Sometimes, we have to weighs the pros and cons before we act on anything. For me it's a very straightforward issue. Ugly = Worse than death 

So there you have it, I'll pop the pill then. lol. Of cos, it will be under a doctor's supervision lah...

Roaccutane - For people with severe acne, this miracle pill has anti inflammatory properties and dramatically reduces the size of the oil glands as well as the amount of oil they produce. The side effects are too many to list but some of the more common symptoms are dry skin (all over) and lips, low white blood cell count, depression and hearing and vision problems. Please go to a doctor. Strict supervision is a must! 

Yasmin - is a contraceptive pill that is also used to treat moderate acne. Its a no go if you are a guy or if you are planning to have a baby. In a nutshell, this also has oil curbing properties. 

Vitamins - A,B,C,E!! 

A - Maintenance & repair of Skin Tissues

B - Biotin is a nutrient that is found and is essential for skin, hair and nails. Niacin, which is another vitamin B derivative has anti inflammatory properties and helps your skin retain moisture. 

C - Reduces the damage caused by free radicals

E - Another antioxidant, see vit C. 

Topical medication

Ah yes, you should know about the Oxy!!! okok, those who were born during my time should know. Back then, there was this really popular over the counter anti acne cream which contains benzoyl peroxide and that was none other than Oxy! lol. Benzoyl peroxide works to dry out the acne, increase skin turnover and clears the pores. If you dunno what the hell I'm talking about, then try this link: http://www.oxyskincare.com/our-products/

Nexcare acne patch often brings to mind the story of the boy who in order to help the plants grow faster, went out into the fields and pulled up the sprouts one by one. Alas it backfired on him when the plants all died instead. Quite sad actually... However, when it comes to this acne patch, I use it whenever I need to 'ripen' pimples. It works by absorbing pus and oil secretions and by covering up the zit so that it doesn't come in contact with dirt, grime and itchy hands. I get really excited using this and every morning whenever I wake up, the first thing that I do would be to peel this acne patch off my face and then check it out for cloudy areas (oil, pus etc). I have even pasted it on my nose and I swear one or two blackheads got caught in it! How's that for satisfying?! 

Anyways, acne is something that we all experience from time to time, except for some lucky people (stop smirking!!). Let's incorporate good skincare habits into our regime so as to stave off acne once and for all. 

• I use water that is of room temperature to wash my face, this helps with closing the pores. Warm water can be drying but use warm water before deep cleansing masks as it opens up the pores first.
• A clay mask used once or twice weekly assists in sucking out the impurities. A good brand that I would recommend would be the Burt's Bees mask, the one in powder form but I can't seem to find it anywhere nowadays... Zzz...
• Lots of water and beauty sleep (which I might add, I am sacrificing just to write this post) 
• Moisture is essential in maintaining skin's health. Opt for water based products to retain and maintain moisture levels in your skin. Laneige water sleeping pack is a good treatment whenever I need a moisture boost. 
• Do not overwash your face, you will end up aggravating your skin.
• Invest in a light therapy device. I use ANSR http://www.ansr.com
• Oat. What the hell is that you say? lol. I use primitive measures whenever my skin feels sensitized. I only use this in the mornings as I do not have makeup on. I take a handful of oats, wet it, and rub it all over my face. I leave it on while I brush my teeth, shampoo and do the rest of my toilet stuff. Rinse off and you are good to go! Why oats? Cos it has anti irritant and anti inflammatory properties! Mix it up with honey or milk for a natural homemade mask if you want to. 
• I do not use a towel to dry off my face. The thought of leaving a towel in the open with dirt and bacteria settling down on it is rather unsettling to me. I use tissues instead. 
• Less makeup! I know this sounds odd coming from me, but it is never a good idea to cover up your whole face with a foundation or bb cream no matter what kind of benefits is extolled! My skin care is slapped on my face in this manner. Toner, serum, acne cream, sunblock, then dot on concealer on affected areas. I only use foundations and bb creams occasionally. 

Mel and doggy say goodnight! 

Ok enuff said, my back is killing me. I'm gonna mask up and go to bed. Goodnight! Xoxo!