What I Wore : April - May

I wanted to call this post a lookbook but since Malaysia has only one season which is summer and also summer. It would not make sense to call it a spring or summer lookbook and it's lame to call it a Malaysian lookbook.

This is my first time doing a fashion post.
My fashion style is pretty much a mix, I don't even know how to describe it. I enjoy girly florals, ruffles, ripped jeans, formal shirts.. Basically things that goes with me and flatters me.

Look 1
Top : My mum's old top which she bought in Hong Kong circa 1995
Jeans : My mum's old H&M jeans which I cut the bottoms
Shoes : H&M
Bag : Vincci

Look 2
Top : Zara (past season)
Jeans : H&M ( My mum's old jeans which I cut the bottoms)
Belt : MNG
Shoes : Bootleg Adidas from Chinatown (My sis')

Look 3
Dress : Thrifted
Shoes : H&M
Bag : Vincci

Look 4
Top : Dressing Paula
Jeans : MNG
Shoes : Zara (click here)
Bag : Charles & Keith

Look 5
Dress : Thrifted Vintage
Bag : Forever 21

Look 6
Top : Thrifted from Carousell (Zara inspired)
Jeans : H&M (click here)
Bag : Bought from Carousell (click here)
Shoe : H&M (click here)

My skincare pick from the drugstore

I am pretty much a skincare junkie and I believe you don't need to spend that RM500 on a Lancome Genefique or Advanced Repair to have great skin. Some drugstore products work as well if not even better than what you see in the counters or departmental store.
Here I am introduce the treasures I have found in the dtugstore.

1) Bio-Essence Face Lifting Cream.

I have been using this cream eversince I first bought it.
This cream promises to lift facial contours, firm sagging skin, reduce double skin, contratcs pores & refines skin, reduces appearance of aging lines, reduce visible fine lines and wrinkles, deeply nourishes and moisturizes skin and shapes V shape. That's a whole lot of claim.
I have notice that my skin has been really moisturized, firmer and smile lines diminished ever since I used this cream. It's not a miracle cream of any sort but I find it to be an effective cream if you are looking for a very nourishing cream that helps to firms the face.
I really like the tingly tight feeling after applying this cream. It is as if the cream is working its magic.

2) Hada Labo Hyaluronic Acid Hydrating Lotion

This has been a God sent to me. I suffer from dry skin and patches from time to time.
This simple lotion has kept my skin hydrated and supple.
This product is a one trick pony, all it does is keeping the skin hydrated with hyaluronic acid.
It does not contain alcohol, colorant, fragrance or mineral oil. So, it's great for those with sensitive skin.
By the way, I use the light version because I like how it feels lighter and I find it to absorb faster into my skin. It's just a personal preference.

3) Eucerin Dermopurifier Toner

This is one of the most moisturizing toner I have used from the drugstore. This toner contains 2% lactic acid which is quite little and lactic acid is the mildest of the AHA group, so sensitive skin folks need not to worry. The lactic acid helps to slightly exfoliate and unclog pores and retain moisture since it is also a humectant.
It feels a little sticky after application but it will go away.

4) Garnier Skin Naturals Aqua Defense Non Stop Intensive Hydrating Essence

If you are looking for a lightweight moisturizer. Look no further, this is the moisturizer for you. This moisturizer has a gel like finish which makes it really light and absorbs into the skin easily. I used to use this moisturizer as my daytime moisturizer before I bought the Kanebo to try out. I recommend this moisturizer for oily skin folks.
Among the drugstore moisturizer, this is one of the cheapest and it definitely a bang for the buck.

5) Senka Perfect Whip Facial Cleanser

My favourite cleanser from the drugstore and probably the only cleanser I will use from the drugstore besides Eucerin or Avene (those pharmaceutical brand). I like how this cleanser foams up into a dense and thick whipcream-like texture, it is just so satisfying.
This cleanser does not stripe my face's natural oils off and it doesn't leave an unpleasant tight feeling afterwards.
The downside to this cleanser is the pH. It's a high pH cleanser instead of an acidic one. So far I haven't experienced any negative effect on my face so I have not stop using it. Just love the texture too much to let it go.
I would stop using it when I do find a low pH cleanser I love.

6) Biore Makeup Remover for Eye and Lip

Is this counted as skincare? I would assume so since makeup removing is a part of cleansing. I love to use this for removing stubborn masacara and liquid lipstick. It does the job, it does not sting my eyes or make my vision cloudy after applying it to my eyes.

That's my recommendations for the drugstore, I know there might be more gems out in the drugstore but I have yet to try them all.
There's a few items that I am interested to try out too, one being the Dr. Morita Snail Mucin and Hyaluronic Acid moisturizers. They have been highly raved in the Malaysian beauty community. 

Around Malaysia : Cameron Highlands

This was a spontaneous trip. Since we were at Ipoh, we thought why not drive up to Cameron Highlands since it takes only an hour to get up there.
We drove up to Cameron via Brinchang which is the less dangerous route to take and the nearest from Ipoh.

We went up the highlands late in the afternoon so we ended up not doing much at the highlands. All we did was visit the tea planatation.

It took about 30-45 minutes to drive into the tea plantation from Brinchang. It's much nearer if you are coming in from Tanah Rata.

We visited the cafe to grab some drinks and desserts. We were lucky that we managed the cafe because we were there an hour before the closing time.

There are a good selection of tea or infused tea drinks and also cakes and pastries.
The cakes are made infused with the tea from the plantation. It's quite unique and special to them.

We ordered iced milk tea, strawberry tart and boh tea infused cotton cheese cake.

I do not know if it's tastebuds trciking me but I can't taste or even smell the tea in the cheese cake. It's like a regular cotton cake. Even the cheese tasted so faint.
It was disappointing.

Nothing we ordered was notable.

Walking down to the plantation from the cafe to get some pictures but the view here isn't so great because there are trees blocking the view of the valley of tea.

It's too far to walk into the plantation for great view and it isn't safe to walk into the deeper parts of the plantation since you do not know if there are any creepers hiding in the bushes.

While driving out from the plantation, I did manage to stop the car by at the side to catch a great picture.

This portion is a few minutes drive from the cafe area , the view is much more magnificent without any distractions. Just purely tea valley.

Actually it was about to rain, I am glad I managed to get this shot before the rain started pouring. We got a few drops of rain on us but nothing major.
We left as fast as we could to counter the dark clouds but unfortunately the clouds got to us before we managed to arrive on flat land.
We had to drive through the rain through the slopes and sharp turnings down the Ipoh. It was really scary experience but glad we had a professional driver with us.

We managed to arrive back to Ipoh safely at the end of the day.

Roseroseshop haul

I picked up a few items from Roseroseshop few months ago. I just completely forgot to blog about them.

I got these three items. Definitely cut down a lot.
I had to convince myself not to overbuy.
Korean cosmetics brand are very good at attracting hopeless people like us with all the cute and pretty packaging. It's very dangerous for my bank account.

Etude House Bling Me Prism Liquid Lip
This is a limited edition from Etude House's last year summer collection.

PK 001 Star in Pink

It is a wearable bright neon pink.

Etude House Dreaming Swan Eye & Cheek

When I saw the preview of this collection, I wanted the whole collection badly but in the end, I was late in placing my order because I can't seem to find a seller who carries this line. This collection sold like hot cakes in Korea, I would understand it would be very difficult for sellers to even get stocks.

Anyway, I am happy that I managed to get something from the collection.
Look at the packaging, it's so pretty.

The shade I have got is Jete Pink.
It is a soft pink shade. This shade is very flattering on fair skintones, it can never be over done.

The last item is from Missha.
If you are familiar with the messaging app LINE, I am sure you know where this bear is from.
So, Missha had a LINE collaboration and they had quite a few items in this collaboration.

This is the Missha LINE friends tension blusher.
The shade I have bought is VL01. It is a lilac shade. I personally like lilac shades because it brightens up yellow skintone.

The packaging is so cute but what really made me got it is that it is a tension blusher. A tension cushion blusher is different from a cushion blush in the way instead of the product being soaked in a sponge, the cream product sits under a netting. I haven't tried any product like this before, so I am really intrigued. Even though I know it might end up being one of those gimmicky products.
Please prove me wrong Missha. 

Beauty and consumerism.

With the constant releases and introducing of new beauty launches and trends and glorifying of them by beauty youtubers or "gurus", it can be said that the beauty world has taken a tremendous step in the promotion of consumerism.

Beauty world is not like the beauty world we used to know. Where brands will only be releasing their latest collection every season and Vogue magazine will be the front liner in filtering and introducing the products in their publishes. As opposed to what we see now. New releases every week.
Beauty youtuber and "guru" hyping high and low on new products before they are even launched to create the great hype. Also that "limited edition" trick that has been overused that you don't even know which is limited edition and which isn't.

When I  first started following youtube, I was one of those girls who got swept along the wave, I caught on every hype and I was spending big money on items that youtubers rave and hype about, but as time goes by, I find everything to be really overwhelming and suffocating.
Trends changes and new beauty releases come out so fast that you can't catch up with it and also, you do not have the disposable income to be hoping on every single "trendy" product.
Beauty launches are getting more and more gimmicky and some launches are the same old things over and over again.
How much innovation and creativity can be put into a launch when the turnover is lightning fast. Every few weeks there are new launches, new releases.

With this trend of consumerism, it's definitely great for companies, they are earning the big bucks.

But for us, the consuming end, we end up with truck load of untouched or barely used makeup product because they are not 'trendy' anymore, they are something you would not reach out on a daily basis, you have the similar shade or they are just not practical for everyday use.

If you take your time and slowly calculate through the amount of barely used/untouched makeup, the amount of money spent is large and imagine how much money you would have saved if you practice smart consumerism and not get swept by trend or hype.
Also, imagine how much waste we had produced.
Take a moment and imagine what if there are a million of girls like you with the same amount of barely touched/ untouched makeup. That mountain of waste, how many gallons of waste will that be equivalent to. 

I was going through my vanity and I was woken up by the fact that I have so many items but how many of these items I actually use or will reach out to? I myself know that I would only probably use 10% of the items I own.
The rest? "beautiful trash". That's what I call them.

I know it's very contraindicating for me to do a post as such, since I do do and post a lot of haul. Mindless haul post I would say.
Haul post that I have been posting are my past haul that I have saved in my draft for ages and forgetting to post them.
I have been cutting down massively on my hauls and I have been controlling my purchases.
I am really thriving to be a smart consumer. Purchase things that I really need or really love. I do not want materialistic items to overtake my life and drown me in. 

NARS haul

I did some NARS shopping when L'etoile was having a 40% off clearance on seasonal items. I love it when they do their 40% off sale because brands like NARS will be so much cheaper than getting them in Malaysia or the US.

I got three items this time since these three are the items that caught my eye.
I got the NARS Climax set, an eyeshadow and a blush.

The items of the Climax set comes in a nice sturdy pink plastic box. The box is of high quality.

This set comes in a set of three items, a nail polish, a lipgloss and a lipstick, all in full size in the shade Schiap.

It is a great gift set and with the 40% off. What a steal.

Schiap is a hot bright pink shade.
It's loud but wearable.

The eyeshadow duo I have gotten is Dolomites.
This is such a gorgeous eyeshadow shade. It comes with a metallic muted rose pink shade and a warm toned red brown.
Definitely shades up my alley.

I have been into the warmer shades of brown of late. I find them really flattering.

NARS Deep Throat.
I was caught by surprise that this shade was on sale. I have not expected it since it is such a popular shade and it is not a limited edition.
I just had to get it.
It is a peachy pink shade with golden shimmers. I find this shade to be flattering on many skintones.