Ideas for DIY home facial

Do you ever feel insecure about what ingredients goes into your skincare products? Although I’m easy with products I use, I have girlfriends who get paranoid about what goes into skincare products. Besides splurging on FANCL products each month because the skincare there is paraben-free, there are other remedies to go natural.

If you aren’t feeling too lazy to mix a bowl of home-made remedy for your face, I do have a few recipes for home-made masks that I would like to share. In this country where everyone is in a rat race fighting for survival, you darlings deserve to pamper yourself with a yummy-smelling home facial treatment.

To go fruity and look radiant, mash a banana and add pear juice. Mix it with 2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt to make a creamy paste. Leave it on for 20 minutes, then rinse. Although it smells really, really good, try not to eat it.

To tighten your pores , use a brush to brush egg white all over your face. Leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing off. While you are having your egg white facial, be sure not to laugh or you will have permanent lines. Or at least that’s what my mom warned me.

Anti acne – Apple is a key ingredient for a blemish free complexion. Mix equal amount of grated apple and honey. Wash your face before applying the mixture. Leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing it off. Like the banana and pear juice mask, try not to eat it.

If you would like to reduce the appearance of fine lines, smooth it out by taking seedless green grapes and crush it to pulp and apply after you use 2 tablespoons of flour to make it into a paste. Apply it, ignore the smell, leave it on for 15 minutes before rinsing it off. If you choose not to eat antioxidant stuff, maybe you can leave the magic on your face and hope it works.

For brightening dull skin and reducing inflammation, mix your moisturizer with anti inflammatory cream like Elomet and Dermasome with about 5 tablets of crushed aspirin. (I use Elomet, Dermovate and Dermasome for my eczema.) After wearing it for 10 minutes, rinse off with warm water. Try this combination and observe the difference!

Before trying, be sure to choose one of the five options available because I will not guarantee that your complexion might be better than ever if you mixed all the above ingredients (pear, banana, apple, yoghurt, eczema cream, grape seeds) and use it all at once.

Good luck!

O.P.I. New York City Ballet Collection

Great news for all O.P.I lovers or those who are into nude colour polish. Apart from the Soft Shades collection, they launched another collection which comprises of entirely nude and soft colours – the New York City Ballet Collection.

Everybody should love nude colours right? It’s appropriate for both work and play, and it’s easy to paint. Apart from that, it will not be obvious as hot red polish when it chips off at the edge.

The 6 colours are:

1. My pointe exactly – A sheer grey
2. Care to Dance? – A gentle lilac
3. You calling me a lyre? – A soft pink
4. Barre my soul – A sheer beige
5. Don’t touch my Tutu! – A sheer white
6. Pirouette my whistle – Silver sparkle

Colours will soon be available on www.ambroxial.com.

A job interview look

First impression counts, and before you can say “first impression”, people are already making personality judgements. Hence, it is important that we are constantly aware of how we look and take notice of our personal hygiene.

I went for a job interview some time back, and spent half a day thinking about professional makeup, and how to groom my hair, etc. I could have run a Google search, but then I decided to experiment what whatever I have in my drawer instead.

After thinking hard about it, I decided that the trick to look professional is to not overdo the makeup. Before I get started, here is a guideline to create the professional, corporate look:

1. Focus on either the eyes, or lips.

2. Don’t hurry, take time to blend well.

3. In case you perspire too much, remember to blot your face before adding loose powder.

4. Stay away from shimmers.

5. Go for a natural, sophisticated look.

6. Avoid orange or green eyeshadow. Stick to brown or grey, or use colours from the naked palette.

**

In this entry, I am going to share my makeup style and perhaps you can use the same style for your job interview.

Here’s what I started with:

BB cream, and nothing else.

Brushed all over with loose powder.

Used a warm coloured blush for a very natural look.

I know I shouldn’t have used coloured lens, but I ran out of clear lens so I made do with the coloured ones. Don’t try wearing coloured lens for a corporate interview.

Here, I also coloured my lid with light gold at the inner corner and purple at the ends.

And I made the colour a little more intense

Here’s both eyes

Filling the brows

Suddenly, everything falls into place

Nude colour

That’s me being unglam.

Used a brown liner for a less intense look.

The finished look.

Now, I just need to change clothes and bun the hair

..like this.

Now, that should make a good first impression. I think.

What’s your favourite interview look? Any tips? Feel free to share it with me!

Natural beauty

I’ve been thinking if I should have this entry posted up for quite a while now, and I have decided to publish it. The topic, as above, is about natural beauty.

I have heard many definitions of what a natural beauty is, and some absurdly ridiculous. So, here I am, publishing this entry with my unimportant thoughts.

Before you ladies start leaving comments about me having strong opinions, I would like to add a disclaimer – if you cannot accept my opinions, don’t read this entry. This entry is not here to offend people, and neither is it here to insult anyone.

Some people are extremely sensitive and can get pretty emotional to the things which I say, or type, in this case. Not that I have been receiving hate mails, but I do get non-positive comments. I, for one, welcome constructive criticism (I repeat, constructive criticism) but don’t say something that is irrelevant. I had this particular comment asking me not to discuss about skin colour because it is not nice for me to do so. To defend myself, I would like to say that discussing skin colour is something that relevant when it comes to choosing the right makeup colour. It has nothing to do with prejudice or racism, because all skin colour is beautiful to me. With that being said, I would urge all readers to understand my real intention and not jump into conclusion without giving the situation much thought. Geez.

Ok let’s get started.

My idea of a natural beauty is one who does not bother with self appearance, but is more concerned with making her personality appealing.

I feel a little irritated and agitated because I have seen many girls who want to be a ‘natural beauty’, yet defy most definitions and distort the meaning of what natural beauty should be.

My dear friend who works at Sephora told me that customers would walk into the store and request for certain type of makeup, stressing that they wouldn’t want to wear thick makeup like Sephora staff do because they believe in natural beauty. I’m pleased to tell you that my friend has high EQ and didn’t shove a Naked Palette into the lady’s mouth. That statement itself is really offensive!

Firstly, most staff at Sephora are extremely well groomed, with eyeshadow blended impeccably and people should learn how to wear makeup like them. Secondly, if they insist on having an au naturel face, they should not be buying makeup because having extra coverage on the face means it is not in its natural state anymore.  What ‘natural beauty’??

Also, men accompanying their female companions to Sephora should really keep quiet if they don’t know a thing about makeup. If you think we ladies should keep our mouths shut when you discuss 300mm f2.8, 650 metric horsepower and intel xeon E5620,  perhaps you should do the same when we talk about primer potions, makeup for ever HD foundation and drawing the perfect brow. We do not appreciate comments like ‘don’t wear so much foundation else your face will cake’, ‘your eyeliner is too thick’ and ‘don’t use green eyeshadow cause you are not Shrek’ unless you know what are you talking about.

For most people, it seems to me as if they do not know the difference between creating a natural, flawless finish and being a natural beauty. Creating a natural, flawless finish on a girl’s face means using the right amount of foundation, concealer and loose powder at the right area. But that does not necessary mean that the coverage is sheer or non-existent. Good makeup techniques will conceal flaws effectively, but not show how much makeup is used for that particular type of coverage. A good example of the ‘flawless, natural look’ would be the typical wedding makeup, and the makeup artist will use more makeup on any bride as compared to the ladies at Sephora whom you just accused of  ’wearing too much makeup’.

And by the way, a girl wearing dramatic eyeshadow and eyelashes and nothing else might have lesser coverage than the typical schoolgirl wearing foundation. Then again, if a girl knows how to do her eyeshadow, she probably would go all the way and highlight her nose, use blusher, draw her brows, etc.

In summary, natural beauties should wash their faces in rivers without the use of a facial foam, never ever think about enhancing their features through artificial means like aesthetic or plastic surgery, never ever lust over that new Bottega Veneta handbag or Jimmy Choo stilettos, never ever wear the slightest bit of makeup even though brands like Urban Decay, Benefit, Makeup For Ever, NARS has pretty little things to entice all Plain Janes in the world, never ever think about plucking their armpit hair and buy all their apparels without worrying if it matches anything in their wardrobe.

Be enlightened.

Much love,
JJ.

 

 

 

Vacation! <3

I will be away from 20th Dec – 3rd Jan.

More updates when I’m back!

xoxo,
JJ.