These photos are a couple of months backdated, but nonetheless, better late than never.

I attended the annual D&D with some of my lovely colleagues. This was also my 2nd D&D this year, and the last year that I get to attend 2 D&Ds!

Vanity got the better of us and we got off at 3pm to get our hair done.

At Grand Hyatt with Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls. The theme was Heroes, Villains & Sidekicks but we didn’t dress up (again..) because we only decided to attend the event at the very last minute.

After the D&D, it was time to party at Butter Factory. It was terribly crowded. Thank goodness we booked a table earlier on. Our dear powerpuff girl became the life of the party and was prancing around like a social butterfly, so unlike her usual demure self. ;P

Merry Christmas everyone! I’m interjecting my Japan posts (it’s never-ending isn’t it?) with a post on my recent stay at Conrad.

We had an enjoyable stay at the Conrad Hotel last weekend. It was the closest alternative to a get-away without physically leaving the sunny island. All we did was eat, drink (not alcohol but soup from Golden Peony and Oscar’s) and be merry (read: a lot of shopping, albeit mainly xmas shopping for colleagues) during this jolly season.

I don’t know if we were fortunate or unfortunate..but Space Furniture was having a 30% discount on many of its items so we stepped in and got ourselves a Phanton chair for the study.

We loved this M16 rifle lamp too but it’s way out of our budget. The price easily surpasses that of our new sofa.

Lazing on the chair with my favourite magazine, Home and Decor, which also happens to be JW’s most hated magazine because I keep adding new wants to my shopping list. Furniture shopping isn’t exactly a hobby that one should cultivate.

Our first stop in Kyoto was Kiyomizu-dera – UNESCO World Heritage Site. Kiyomizu means clear water and it’s name in Kanji is 清水寺. All these photos are 3 months overdue and my memory is clearly fading with time. Thank goodness Grace posted all her photos up on facebook, complete with descriptions so I can leech off her! ;P

We had to climb up a steep slope to reach the temple. It was a slow climb as we kept getting distracted by the little shops selling traditional gifts and snacks.

No idea why they stood so far away initially but they moved closer when it was their turn to take photos with us. Haha.

Actually, there’s nothing secretive about my routine, but since I’ve been receiving quite a number of inquiries about how my make-up is done, I’ll do a short post on the make-up products that I use.

Concealer

Foundation
To set the concealer, I use DiorSkin Extreme Fit Supermoist Powder Foundation. Sometimes, I use it all over my face as well if I need a little more coverage. More often than not, I just stick to tinted sunscreen. Eyeshadow
Then I’ll swipe Majolica Majorca WT963 eyeshadow all over my lids. It’s a very glittery shade that is subtle at the same time. I also line my lower lashline and the inner corner of my eyes with this eyeshadow using an angled brush to open up my eyes. If I am in a rush for time, this is the only eyeshadow that I use.

On other days, I’ll also use a palette of brown eyeshadows (either matte or glittery) to create more depth. Blending is key when you’re using a few shades so it’s always best to get good eyeshadow brushes. I personally think that MAC and iNuovi have pretty decent make-up brush sets.

After using so many different brands of eyeshadow, I’ve figured that drugstore brands are equally good (i.e. very smooth, pigmented yet buildable colour). My favourite so far is Silkygirl’s blockbuster quad in Bare Classics. The best part is its price…it only costs S$11.90!

There’s also another brown Japanese eyeshadow quad that I found at Sasa recently. It has very blendable browns and comes with the most glittery white eyeliner gel I’ve ever seen – totally great for parties. I’ll take a picture of it and post it here soon.

I usually use the lighter shade of brown over the entire socket and the darker shade at the ends. Sometimes, I’ll also line my upper lashline with the darker eyeshadow. I find that it helps my eyeliner to stay on longer.

Eyeliner
After blending my eyeshadow, I’ll move on to eyeliner. My holy grail is MAC’s Powerpoint in Engraved (it’s black, not blue as shown in pic) because it glides on easily and the colour is very intense.

I draw a thicker line on my upper lashline and wing out the eyeliner at the end. The wing effect varies depending on the thickness and angle that you draw, but practice makes perfect. Depending on the shape of your eyes, this may or may not suit you as well.

After drawing the upper lashline, I slowly glide the eyeliner on the waterline (i.e. inner corner of the entire lower lashline). I like my eyes fully lined, while others may only prefer to line say 1/4 of the waterline. Once again, this depends on the shape of your eyes. For some people, fully-lined eyes may make their eyes appear smaller.

Mascara
I usually finish off my eye make-up by curling my lashes with my Shu Uemura eyelash curler and applying mascara. On days when I have no time, I skip this step altogether.

I’ve been using Majorlica Majorca’s mascara base as well as their mascara. I like intense colours, and that’s the very reason why I love this mascara.

So there you have it… my full daily make-up routine revealed! I certainly hope this comes in useful!

P.S:
You may have realized that I left out blusher and eyebrow pencil in this post. I’m not particularly fussy about these two items and I do without them most of the time.

But if you must ask, I like MAC’s pinch o peach blusher as well as Majorlica Majorca’s PK333 blusher. 😉

Yes, I’ve taken yet another step towards becoming a domesticated housewife, having ventured into a realm that was totally unfamiliar to me until recently – cooking.

I never took home economics in school ( I took music as an O level subject under the music elective program and started MEP lessons since Sec 1) and I was just never interested in cooking. Anyway, I embarked on a path to self-discovery about 2 weeks back and there’s no turning back. It all began one day when I was at home and feeling a little bored of the food in my neighbourhood, so I decided to go grocery shopping!

My first attempt at chicken & mushroom spaghetti (pls excuse the newspapers. I was too lazy to get hold of my placemat haha). The verdict – it actually tasted fabulous!! That’s not bad for a start, especially for a fastidious eater like yours truly.

The bratty me in secondary school used to shudder at the sight of my maid’s dishes. I often asked her to buy me cheeseburger from McDonalds even after she laid the dining table with painstakingly prepared dishes. On hindsight, I felt really bad for tormenting her that way. I am so glad that I’m no longer as brattish and definitely much more independent too.

Since my first experiment, I have tried other easy-to-prepare dishes too, such as:

1) Fried Udon with minced beef or minced pork and vegetables with oyster sauce;

2) Spaghetti bolognese (silly me then realized that spaghetti tastes much better with minced beef :P); and

3) Herbal chicken soup (super yummy!!!)

Not only can I handle household chores, I can cook too! I think I’m certainly on my way to becoming a great housewife! LOL.

Housewifely duties aside, here’s an outfit that I wore recently to meet my uni friends for lunch at Waraku Pasta (I like!!).

Updates on Kyoto will be up next!

I’m sorry I have not posted any of my buys from the Korea trip. I have been so swamped at work ever since I got back that I hardly have any time for myself. Today’s my birthday but I only managed to get off work at 7.30p.m. To think that I was supposed to be on afternoon leave!

I bought a little birthday gift for myself from Ferragamo last weekend. It doubled up as a reward for working into the wee hours of the morning. 😉 Now, my dark rings are even darker than before!!

Within the paper bag lies a pair of Carla bow pumps in bisque. There was a 30% discount on this baby and they had it in my size! I took the one with shorter heels (5cm) for greater comfort.

It happened to be a good hair and good skin day despite being deprived of sleep, if that’s any consolation. LOL