Post exam haul : Essence & Maybelline

I casually dropped into the beauty store and picked up some beauty products.

Essence wake up spring collection were having a clearance so I picked up the two leftover items from the clearance bin. Essence always have cute trend edition products also known as limited edition. 

These days I do not collect them as avidly as I used to. Just when there's clearance, I will pick them up if I happen too find them. 

After clearance. they cost USD1 each which I think is a steal. 

Essence Wake up Spring palette. 

The shades are different tones of plum and pink shades. Very cute and girly. 

The imprint on the eyeshadow is just so pretty. 

Essence Wake up Spring blush in Apricot.

It is a apricot shade with slight shimmers. 

Maybelline Vivid Matte Liquid in Nude Flush. 

I have heard not very good review on this Maybelline liquid lipstick but this shade is too pretty to pass by. It is such a gorgeous dusty pink shade. 

There was a discount on these lipsticks so I thought it was not too bad to pick them up to try them out for myself. 

I won't have high expectation on this product to not make myself disappointed with this product. 

Graduated and Thank you.

I have officially ended medical school. I can't describe how I feel now.
There's a mix of fear and excitement for the uncertain future.

I just want to thank everyone who have supported me through out this long journey.
Six years just flew by and I have finally reached the end of the destination as a student. From today onwards, it marks a new beginning. 

British beauty haul

Everytime I get the chance to visit England, I will never let go the chance to sweep beauty stuffs from major high street shops, department shops and Primark. England I could say is a makeup heaven for me (I have not been to America, I bet it would be paradise over there and I will go crazy) with a wide selection of beauty brands.
This time I burnt a hole in my wallet and made a huge purchase.

I mainly got items from brands that isn't available at where I am now such as Barry M, Soap and Glory, Real Techniques, just to name a few.

First, I am gonna start with the palettes.

I got 5 palettes from the high street. It is a record for me, getting 5 palettes in a go.
There's so many beautiful palettes from various brands in the high street, I wanted to get more but since I do not have as much cash with me, I restricted myself to these five palettes.

I heart Makeup Go! Palette . This palette is inspired by Tarte Showstopper Clay Palette.
I actually like the concept of the Tarte Showstopper Clay Palette where everything is compacted into a palette. It is convenient and travel friendly, but at the same time I do not to fork out money to get the Tarte Showstopper Clay Palette. When I knew Makeup Revolution sister company came up with a Go! Palette, I knew it was my mission to hunt it down when I visit the UK.

The palette came with the most gorgeous shades of roses for the eyeshadows. They are so up my alley.
As a lover of highlighters, I like that the highlighter came in the largest pan because you know, I am never stingy with the highlighter on my face.

Collection Little Mix All About The Eyes Palette.
The packaging of this palette is a cardboard, it is not my favourite type of packaging because it seem flimsy. The packaging already looks battered up through the transiting.

The palette comes with 6 beautiful shades of neutrals. Great for daytime casual look and nighttime smoky look. It is a very versatile palette.

The Makeup Revolution Iconic 3 Palette.
This palette is inspired by the infamous Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette. I love the Naked 3 Palette so, I wanted to get this palette to make it my travel palette to substitute my Naked 3 since Naked 3 is pretty pricey, I do not want to carry it everywhere and risking it shattering and breaking apart. Imagine the heartache.
This was the last palette available at the Superdrug I visited. I was considered to be pretty lucky.

The shades are gorgeous, they look somewhat identical to the Naked 3 Palette.

Sleek i-Divine Palette.
I finally got a Sleek palette for myself. I regretted not getting one the last time I visited the UK and I swore to myself the next time I visit UK, I had to get it and I finally got it.
I am so excited.

The packaging is a matte black. It is not the NARS type of matte black that will attract all sorts of dust. It is very sleek like its brand name. This is not a pun.

The palette comes with 12 shades. There's enough of variety of light, dark, matte and shimmery shades to do create a variety of looks for different occasions.

BarryM Natural Glow Palette 2.
I wanted the Natural Glow Palette which came with a blusher but unfortunately it was out of stock, so I had to settled with with the Natural Glow 2 Palette.

This palette is a primer and 6 neutral shades.

The next batch is powders, foundations, blushers, the other stuffs.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation.
This foundation is not available in Russia;s Rimmel counters. I have heard many good reviews about this foundation. Me myself, I have good experiences with Rimmel's foundation and I love my Rimmel True Match Foundation.
When I was in London, Boots was having a 2 for 10 pounds offer on Rimmel products. I picked up two of the Wake Me Up Foundations.

Boots was having a 3 for 2 for all Soap and Glory products.
I have heard many great reviews regarding Soap & Glory's One Heck of A Blot Powder from many beauty youtubers from the UK.
I picked up two of this powder incase I so happened so run out before I manage to set foot back to the UK.

The packaging is cute and retro.

The powder has a really cute engraving. This powder comes with a sponge.

The third item I got from Soap & Glory is the Glow All Out Luminizing Radiance Face Powder.

The packaging is a cardboard with a retro print on the front.

In the pan, the powder looks too pink for the face but when applied it appeared as a subtle champagne pink.

Sleek Blush by 3 in Pink Lemonade.

I have great experience with Sleek's blushes. I picked up 3 from my last UK trip and I love all of them. They are so great in texture, pigmentation and longevity and the great part, you don't need to burn your wallet to get hold of them.
It is just unfortunate that Sleek isn't available in my country. So, everytime I visit the UK, I need to pick up something from Sleek.

Instead of getting the single blushers, this time I got the palette because after doing the math, the blush palette is much more bang for the buck and I already had four of the single blushers from Sleek. I do think that is a fair amount of Sleek blushers.

Pink Lemonade has two powder blushers and a cream blush in the palette.
The shades are different tones of pink. You have a bright light pink, bubblegum pink and a surprise - a pinkish copper tone.

The other blush I got is I heart Makeup Blushing Hearts Triple Baked Blusher.

From the packaging, I guess you know where this blusher got its inspiration from.

You got it. The TooFaced Sweetheart Perfect Flush Blush.
The design is pretty much the same, equally girly and cute but less elaborate compared to the Too Faced.

Isn't the blush so cute. The shade is "Blushing Hearts"

It is a dupe for the TooFaced Perfect Flush Blush in Something About Berry.

Tanya Burr's lipgloss.

I saw a small display of these lipglosses at the corner of Superdrug and I purchased it solely because I do adore Tanya Burr.

This shade is 'Picnic in the Park'. It is a warm pink shade.

I got two items from Real Techniques. Have been wanting these brushes eversince watching many beauty youtubers raving about how great the brushes are.
Got the expert face brush and also the miracle complexion sponge.
I want to see how does the miracle complexion sponge compares to the beauty blender.

This is my most luxury beauty splurge of the trip.
The Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette.

The packaging is simple yet feels and look luxurious.

Look at the shades, aren't they so luxurious and gorgeous.
This is the Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Palette in Golden Goddess.
At first, I wanted the Dolce Vita Palette because I see everyone and their mom raving about this palette but sadly it is out of stock. After swatching all the palettes out, I find that I like the Golden Goddess better because the tones are cooler compared to the Dolce Vita Palette which is pretty warm. I do not suit warm tones as well as cooler tones.
I do hope to get more Charlotte Tilbury items the next time I visit the UK.

EDIT : I realize it is the Dolce Vita Palette. Now I have no idea how I got it since it is out of stock and the sales assistant asked me to get another shade.

The last batch of items are items I got from Primark.

Primark Lip Crayon.
It does not have a shade name stated anywhere but it is a nice pinky nude shade.

Primark P.S. Love Lipstick
These lipsticks were on offer, so instead being their usual price at a pound, they were on sale for 80p each.

As usual, they do not seem to have a shade name.
I got a rosewood-brown shade and a bright warm pink shade.

Blush stick.
This is a baby pink shade.
The blush stick is shaped like a lipstick, really slim and dainty.
With the packaging, It can be easily confused with a lipstick. I thought it was a lipstick before I really took a look at the label.

The last item I got is a Cream Blush.
The cream blush does look really nice for such an affordable price, I just had to pick it up. Actually I picked it up at the last Primark that I visited in this trip, which is in Manchester.
Strangely I do not recall seeing it in the Primarks in Oxford Street and Edinburgh.

It is a medium pink shade.

This is the end of my huge UK haul.
Also, if you are interested, click over here to see my previous UK haul.

Favourite sites for online shopping

Online shopping is one of my favourite past time. I usually hit the net when I am looking for cheaper alternatives or dupes of items in stores or when I want items that I can't get hold in my country.

Today, I am going to share websites that I usually do my online shopping. 

1) Aliexpress.com 

I am aware that there are a lot of fakes on this website since it is based in China. If you look into this web, there's much more to it than the fakes.
I have bought many items from this website, makeup brushes, clothes, false eyelashes, phone cases and also makeup ( I know, I can't resist) from this website.  Ofcourse there are one or two bad experiences from the websites. For example, having my items arrive damaged or my items to never arrive.

I have no disappointment with the items I purchased because I do not have very high expectation for the items I have purchased from this website. You just can't expect so much from the price paid. Even so, so far, I have love most items I had purchased from this website. I find them to be decent in quality and some surprises, amazing quality.

For payment wise, I usually use my Qiwi wallet or my debit card.  much prefer using my Qiwi wallet to my debit card. Although I haven't experienced any pishing or fraud on my debit card, I still do not feel safe enough.

Here are my posts on my Aliexpress haul.

2) Ebay
Ebay has everything. You just have to do your research carefully to find items you want.
I have bought so much from Ebay that I lost count what I have bought. Ebay does refresh your purchase history after awhile so unfortunately, I can't find out what I have got from there. I remember purchasing clothes, makeup, phone cases etc.

For one thing, I love that ebay uses Paypal. I find it to be a very safe and convenient method of purchasing

3) Instagram sellers
This is where I get my dose of American/British beauty brands that is really hard to get my hands on.
I have bought from a few sellers and I have my favourite sellers who I loyally buy from.
Usually waiting time can range from 4-5 weeks.
The worst I have experienced is 6 months, which is really ridiculous. I consider myself to be patient when waiting for my items but even so, this is too long of a wait for me. I do not think I will getting from the seller any longer unless the seller does not repeat the same mistake.

My American/British beauty brands purchase dates back from 6-7 years ago. I started pre-ordering from foums. Specifically Lowyat forums. Sellers come and go. Now, I have moved on to Instagram.

4) Roseroseshop
This is where I usually shop for my Korean beauty products. The prices are pretty attractive but it does not include shipping. Even after shipping, I still find the prices to be reasonable.
For Mizon, shipping is free. I usually get my Mizon items from this website.

I used to get my Korean beauty products from Qoo10 but most the sellers that I am used to getting items from just stopped selling there. I have moved on too.

5) BeautynetKorea
This is another website for my Korean fix. I do not use this site as much as Roseroseshop. I usually head here when I wanna get items that I could not find on Roseroseshop.

Eating out Malaysia : Moonlight Cake House

During the holidays, me and my friends were hanging out, doing some catching up. We wanted to hang out in the other cafe but unfortunately it was closed.

I am not too familiar with the area my friend brought us, I mean I know where's Sri Petaling but that's not my area to hang out of choice. After searching for a decent cafe to hang out, we spotted the Moonlight Cake House and we thought why not just hang out right there since it is so huge. 

This Cake House does not serve only cakes. They serve breads, pastries, drinks such as tea and coffee or some other fancier drinks and also A la Carte. 

There's a huge variety of pastries, cakes and bread to choose from. 

This is the 2nd floor where the tables are. 

The ambiance of this cake house is nothing out of the ordinary. The dim lights makes it relaxing and gives a sense of privacy. 

I did not feel very fancy that day, so I opted for a boring old Ice Lemon Tea. 

They offer a wide range in their menu for A la Carte. There's a mix of Western and Malaysian food.

This is my A la Carte order. Smoked Salmon Aglio Olio. 

This is not a good order. It taste like spaghetti drenched in salt water with salted salmon. It is just bland, all you could taste is just salt. I would definitely have expected a more herby taste from the spaghetti to compliment the smoked salmon.

Definitely not a good pasta for me. 

Something a million times better than their spaghetti, is the cakes.
It is a cake house for a reason, not a spaghetti restaurant.

Instead of ordering full size slices, they also offer small little cake bites. Which I find a really good option especially if you want to try more flavours but you don't want order like 5 slices of cakes that you know you will never end up finishing them up.

From the bread and pastries section, we picked up three pastries looks the most appetizing to us.
We got a Portuguese egg tart, Peach custard tart and almond croissant.

The croissant is nothing special. It lacks the strong buttery aroma that I am currently missing from France. The almonds and sugar helped to cover the lack of the buttery aroma but still I am not pleased. The tarts are not too bad, not the tastiest tarts I have tried but still good.

There are hits and misses from this place. It is not too bad of a place overall if you are finding a spot to hang out and do some catching up. I would recommend their little bite size cakes, it makes a great company while chit chatting. 

Travel Diary: Australia: Follow me Phillip Islands

After a long and enjoyable ride along the Great Ocean Road, we finally arrived Phillip Islands.

The first stop is Maru Koala Animal Park, to catch a glimpse of the animals unique to Australia.

Kangaroo! It is the first time seeing a Kangaroo and they are so cute.
The kangaroos in this animal park are really tame, so it is fine to go around and play with them. Manage to get closer with them by feeding them.
Can you spot an albino kangaroo at the background?

Alpaca!

Tasmanian Devil.
This thing is pretty much the devil running all over like a mad man, was pretty hard to get a nice shot of it since it was running non-stop! Wonder where did it find so much energy. I wish I have half of its energy during the weekdays.

A photo session with one of the cutest and fluffiest animal on earth the Koala.
It is just so cute! I thought it will be soft to the touch but the fur is rougher than it looks like.

Guess where our next stop is. It might be crazy to come here during winter with the strong winds but we are at Cape Woolamai. One of the most famous surfing beaches in Phillip Island.

The waves on this beach are really huge and rough, making it a favourable spot for surfing. It is also a very dangerous spot to surf or swim if you are not good at it. Might get washed away by the waves.

Some avid surfer, brisking the cold and surfing during the winter months.

From the state of my hair you can sort of have an idea how strong is the winds over here. It is not very cold since Australian winter is mild, you can see me from wearing my sweater and spring trenchcoat but the wind is unbearable.

We had a stroll at the Phillip Island Nature Park.

The greenery in this nature park is very soothing and serene.

In this park we managed what we thought were kangaroos but the tour guide explained to us that they are wallabies. I do not know how to differentiate kangaroos and wallabies, they look the same to me. We also saw swans at the swan lake trail.

Neverending greenery of the bush lands.

The main reason we visited Phillip Island is because we wanna catch the Penguin Parade at the Nobbies Center.

The seal rocks.
We are trying to look out and hear for seals from this point.

The Penguin houses at the center. We spotted some Penguin 'chicks' inside the houses.

After that we went for the Penguin Parade. We were not allowed to touch or take photo of the penguins to prevent from scaring them. So, I do not have any photos of the cute little penguins.

We sat down beside the sea before dawn to wait for the penguins to come back from the sea. According to the guides, the penguins come back home at night to prevent predators from preying on them. We followed the penguins until our van. The penguins travel really far from the sea to their houses, some may travel as far as a few kilometres.
Drivers are also advised to look out for penguins on the road.

This is how we ended our day on Phillip Islands.