Check-in #2

For this fortnight's check-in, I'm happy to announce that I finally managed to save the final $50 for this month, because I found about $700 in duit raya while I was cleaning my room. Syukur Alhamdulillah for small mercies. 

1. Winnow through my closet

I've done many more small rounds of clearing since, and I finally created enough room - the entire top shelf of one cupboard - to put my bags. I also cleared out most of one drawer and put my sports bras in there. Also, I cleared out the rest of my room while I was at it. 

I admit that I could stand to lose another 30 - 50% of stuff, but I think I'll save that for when I'm moving out, or something. :) 

2. Finish up one foundation

I've been using foundation daily for work, which is about five times a week, and I've been using the KVD one most of the time. I did try to work in the Hourglass sometimes, but it just doesn't last all day, especially when I'm rubbing my face, so, I dunno, naturally I keep reaching for the KVD. 

I'm actually falling more in love with my Infallible Matte foundation the more I use it. It feels so lightweight on my skin, but the coverage is excellent and the finish is more matte than KVD, which, like, wow! My forehead doesn't get shiny till late afternoon, even with all the sweating going on, which is more than I can say for the KVD. I wish I could repurchase it more easily, but I don't care - I'm gonna use it up anyway, if it comes to that. 

Oh, also I threw out the L'oreal Mineral Powder because let's be real, it was doing nothing for me and I haven't touched it in a year. 

Once I finish up one foundation, and if it happens to be the Infallible which I can't repurchase yet, I'll try the Laneige Pore Control BB Cushion. 

3. Low-buy

I messed up a little here. After my massive decluttering, I decided to reward myself with a bunch of organisers from Muji. I ended up spending about $120 on five PP drawers, three smaller PP containers, one PP carry box (for my skincare), and my prized possession - an acrylic drawer for my (considerable) lipstick collection. Ah, it looks so lovely. I'm so happy. I don't regret a thing. It makes my skincare routine much less kecoh, which is great. 

I also made my planned purchases for the month, which was the four Cosrx items I'd listed earlier. 

I did also mention that I wanted to try something from Pyungkang Yul, right? But the shipping from Ohlolly (clearly their exclusive retailer) was like $20-$30 (USD!), so that was an easy no. I'll survive on my Belif and maybe try a Muji travel size, thanks Ohlolly. 

4. Ride out once a week

Sorry, I really don't think I can keep to this goal. The inclement weather doesn't help my kemalasan. I can do a once-a-fortnight thing, if you will. 

5. Fun lip colour once a fortnight

Well, this is an easy one, I guess. Even with my chapped lips situation, I have the cream Vice in Venom, so I wear that like, every other Friday or so. Or whatever dates I can squeeze in. I wore it yesterday! Thank the Lord for traditional cream lipsticks. I may allow myself to buy one more next pay. 

6. One blog post a week

Still on track, as you can see! 

7. $1k to MKK fund

As I mentioned in my first para, I've saved the required $350 for this month, yay! I mean, Syukur Alhamdulillah. Two more months of $350 to go! Let's do this! 

Rants and raves

I'd mentioned my chapped lips in one of my earlier posts. And I'm sad to announce that they're back! It's my fault. I was reading on one of the subs (AB or SCA) that someone put the Hada Labo Gokujyun HA Lotion on their lips before an occlusive, and woke up with nice plump lips. So I decided to be gatal and try that. Yeah, one and a half days later, my lips started chapping again. This is even worse than the first time, because it's spread to my lower lip, and quite a large surface area, too. Lipstick looks horrible on now, even the cream ones I'd been exclusively wearing during Ramadhan. 

I'm sad and bingit sendiri because I love wearing my liquid lippies, and I miss them so much, especially L.U.V. Please wait for me, guys! I'm slathering lanolin as liberally as I can, and praying for the health of my lips too. Lesson learnt: Don't be slathering any kind of acid on your lips. 

In happier news, my skin seems happy with the changes I've introduced, which was mainly the Cosrx Pimple Clear Pads. So far, I've only done two rounds of that, about 2 days apart. Granted, my cheeks have gotten drier, but the whiteheads? white bumps? CCs? on my chin have all but disappeared. I can't believe I agonised over them for months and even tried to squeeze them out at lower points in my life, when this solution was just a subreddit away. Okay, yang lepas tu lepas. 

So with my dry cheeks, I have to be more careful to use a heavier moisturiser on those areas, and then seal them in with lanolin. Otherwise, I have no complaints! 

I'm itching to try my BHA and AHA Power Liquids, but I'm gonna give myself another 2 weeks on the Pimple Clear Pads before I introduce the AHA. 

Oh oh. I have to admit that I picked up some brushes at Sephora last week to up my eyeshadow game, and I regretfully got a Supergoop Defense Refresh Setting Mist after I met Holly and she excitedly demoed some of the products on me. I only realised, back at the office, that the reviews of the product were not-so-rave, and the tester spray really did leave odd beads of residue on my eyebrows and eyelashes. So there's no way I was keeping that. 

Thankfully, I managed to return the Supergoop today, and get the NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer in Caramel. Yes, I like to make like I'm darker than I really am. I don't think it looks odd. In fact, I don't think my foundations oxidise on me - they seem to get lighter the longer the wear time. I guess my skin chemistry makes the stuff reduce, then. :P

Well, till next fortnight, or earlier!

Check-in #1

Quick check-in on my Summer Lovin' Goals!

I haven't bought anything yet, but I have a Sephora mini-spree (for brushes) and an OhLolly mini-spree (Cosrx and one Pyungkang Yul item) planned for this billing cycle. I'm really proud of myself because I was at Tangs with Nat on Friday and there were some nice Alia Anggun tops in my size, and on sale, and I didn't even try them on! Also I was at Sephora twice this week and didn't buy anything, just swatched lots of stuff. So keep it up!

Next, I managed to put away $300 to my MKK fund. That's short of $50 for this month. Not too shabby, considering this month I had to renew Ferb's insurance and road tax!

Also, I didn't manage to ride Ferb last week because I wasn't feeling well, but I rode out for my brow appointment today so that's great!

I'm well on track to using up one foundation. I'm focusing on the KVD and the Hourglass Vanish stick.

Till next fortnight!

posted from Bloggeroid

Chapped lips

We're just entering the fourth and final week of Ramadhan, and it's been a pretty challenging one for me. Or rather, my body isn't reacting the way it normally does during a fast. 

Last week Monday, my lips started chapping, and they were raw by the time I got home. I blamed it on the Peripera lip tint (Ink Velvet) that I wore that day. Lip tints are the most drying of all lip cosmetics, right? So the next day I went back to a "normal" liquid lipstick, but my lips refused to heal. So I just had patches of raw skin - no flaking pieces of skin or anything, just raw open "wounds"? - which hurt like heck, especially since I couldn't hydrate myself throughout the day. Even reapplying copious amounts of my Vichy Aqualia Thermal every half hour or so didn't work. I went crazy last week trying to find something that would work. My Fresh Sugar Lip Scrub, Bite Agave Lip Mask, random Belif Rose Oil.. Nothing worked. On Saturday I was heading out for a date and removed my protective layer of Bite Agave to put on my Huda Beauty liquid lipstick in Famous. I reasoned that Huda Beauty's liquid lips are the most hydrating, from my past experience and also they don't dry down, so I'd be safe. But God no, my lips started stinging the moment I swiped the doefoot applicator on. That was upsetting. I immediately wiped it off and smeared on my UD Epigram. That didn't hurt. Cream lipsticks ftw when you have sad chapped lips. 

I don't believe this has ever happened to my lips before. It must be part of getting old or something. Usually when my lips dry out, they just start peeling. So you slap on a scrub, remove the dead skin, and you're good to go. But yeah. None of the usual remedies worked. 

So on Tuesday I got off work early, so I dropped by Mothercare at Tampines and bought a tube of Lansinol HPA Lanolin. It's actually marketed as a nipple cream, but because it's pure lanolin, you can use it for similar skin concerns, I suppose.  It appeared to be the top remedy from my r/skincareaddiction searches. I was a bit bingit at having to shell out 30-some bucks for a lip salve, but on hindsight, it is 40ml of product, so it's a lot cheaper than Bite Agave, even. And it's so thick, you only need the teensiest bit to put on your lips. That tube'll probably last me till I actually need it for my nipples, insya Allah. 

Anyway, I was really impatient to see results, but it's been slow-going. Sigh, this internet age, making us want more things faster. (Fine, okay, I won't try to shift the blame.) However, I think that it is working quite beautifully. My lips no longer sting when I eat pedas food, so that's a step ahead. And I've been using cream lipsticks religiously (I miss you guys, liquid lips!) to avoid exacerbating the problem, so I'm gonna try and put on a liquid lip tomorrow, and see how it goes. Then I'll go back to cream for the rest of the work week, so that I'm ready to rock an intense liquid lip on 1 Syawal. 

Watch this space!

Baaaack!

Hello, I'm back and with a skincare obsession and some real #goals! 

So I've joined the MakeupRehab subreddit, which has been really helpful and given a new, healthier perspective on my latest obsession. There was a post today on Summer Lovin' Goals, so I came up with some and I'll post them here, because I'm too shy to post on the sub. 

Duration: Now, 6 June to 3 September. 

Check-ins: Every Sunday

Here goes!

1. Winnow through my closet

I've done 2 - 3 rounds of this so far, this year. But I think there's still a lot of room for improvement, because I have so many clothes now that they're stacked to unsustainable heights. So I really want to do one giant, focused one this time. 

Guidelines:

• Mouldy, ripped
• Never wear it
• More than 2 sizes up or down

2. Finish up one foundation

Here's a list of the foundations I currently own: 

• KVD Lock-It in 62 (45% left)
• Hourglass Vanish Stick in Golden Tan (60%)
• Tarte Amazonian Clay Mineral Powder (no idea, you can't see through the container!)
• Maybelline Fit Me stick (98%)
• Nude by Nature BB Cream (90%)
• L'oreal Infallible 24-HR Matte (80%)
• L'oreal Mineral Powder (75%?)

That's way too many for someone who doesn't wear makeup half the time, thanks to Zumba. Soooo.. Let's try to finish up one of these soon! I'm favouring the top 3. I love the first 2, but the Vanish isn't long-wearing at all, and is more dewy (i.e. shiny on me), of course. And the Tarte one just doesn't do much for my face, so once I get rid of that, I will not repurchase. 

3. Low-buy

From here on out, I'm on a low-buy mode. This applies to clothes, makeup and skincare. It explicitly excludes date expenses, Uber, and food. I'm only allowed to buy replacements for whatever's used up or damaged (ripped pants, anyone?), and the following Cosrx items, because I plan to add them to my routine:

• Pimple clear pad
• Acne Master Patch
• BHA Blackhead Power Liquid
• AHA 7 Whitehead Power Liquid

4. Ride out once a week

Since I don't ride to work anymore, Ferb is tragically underutilised. I'll make sure I bring him out once a week, whether it's to the shops or the park, or on a date. 

5. Fun lip colour once a fortnight

I wear my brick reds, peachy nudes, and pinky nudes on the daily, whether it's for work or dates. I've almost forgotten how much I love my bright purples, dark purples, and vampy shades. I even bought a fresh tube of KVD's L.U.V. last month, but I haven't had a chance to open it. So I think that I'll have to make a conscious effort to work them into my makeup routine. Since I'll only be able to wear them on Fridays (if there are no meetings or interviews) and weekends, there's not much room to include them, so I've made it easy by putting fortnight as the frequency. 

6. One blog post a week

Starting with this post, I'll endeavour to put up one blog post a week, whether here on Blogger, Tumblr, Wordpress, or even Livejournal. As long as there are words accompanying the post, it's counted!

7. $1k to MKK fund

I saved the most ambitious goal for last. I'm hoping to save another $1,000 this summer for my MKK fund. I really do want to marry Cutes, and I want to be financially ready for such a commitment, so this would help immensely. This means I'll have to put away $350 each month, or thereabouts. 

Go Ain!

Well, that's it for my comeback post. I'll try to check back in the next couple Sundays or so! Toodles!

Whee! I'm like blogging on Shups' iTouch and it's loads of fun. Thanks Shups! Life's been tiring but loads of fun, I actually feel like I'm doing some good in this gorgeous store of mine. Been having lots of suppers with The Cute One. Hehe. It's so great that she rides too! Yey! And I haven't been clubbing in two weeks, how weird is that?! Ohwells. And I bet my favourite bouncer misses me. I miss you too, favourite bouncer! Okay I'm gonna change now cos I'm meeting Mai in awhile, toodles!

I Miss You

I'm sitting at the bar area and thinking, "The Starbucks in You've Got Mail has a bar area too, and Kathleen Kelly was sitting there when Joe Fox came and rapped on the glass." Yes, if you're wondering, I am giler. And when I'm not feeling my best, I tend to draw comfort from my favourite things. In this case, my favourite movie.
I'm sleepy, even though I'm supposed to have had eight hours of sleep. I don't feel like dragging my sorry ass home today. I wonder, if things had been different, if I'd been enjoying an off day today like I'm supposed to, or if I'd woken up this morning without shortness of breath, would I be sitting here moping at all. But even Dumbledore doesn't know that, let alone aku. Ohwells. Updates later then.

I went shopping the other day and got a yellow sundress, white bondage heels and a large tub of body butter. Woo! I also got a toffee crunch with caramel dip from Auntie Anne's. Yum. Da lama tak makan pretzel, it's so good! Thursday was DblO, I met someone new but I don't give out my number anymore, ha!

I'm currently into this song by Zee Avi, Bitter Heart. I told Mai that it's almost entirely about her. Haha. I'm enjoying my off day with no plans. Lots of things to do, though, so I got to try and get some done today and leave the rest for tomorrow. Speaking of, my braces come off tomorrow! I'm excited, aren't you? I wonder how I'll look. Been spending the past few days at Lido Shaw and Orchard Parade. Really relaxed environments. It's been enjoyable, espesh the parts with Imran around. Thanks be to God for granting my prayers thus far.

Step Supermodel

So I borrowed Mas' hooker heels the other night. Managed to stuff my feet into them a la Ugly Stepsister, and I even walked pretty convincingly after a time. After that I posed like crazy, but photographer Christina was sooo off her game that we only got this shot on the billionth try. Cool shit though. Can't wait to get my own pair, yey!

In the club

These two cuties went clubbing with me last Thursday. Well, we went to Dblo together, but they sat at Poolbar people-watching while I danced with my partners. And they made a merepek night better. Thanks, baby. Thanks, Ash.
Okay aku nak kencing and take a nap. Haha.

Three Shots

I'm back from Changi Beach with Mai. She let me ride her bike for one round at my place, and it stalled twice! Nasib baik electric start. Watching Cj7 now on the telly, it's my first time, and it's so adorable! I now have renewed love for my Cj7. Well, time to tids, nites!

We love Firman!

So Dblo was good, but Rebel was better! We spoke to Dinesh, made friends with more of Clinton's crew, and on Thursday I gave D and Nazim a lift home. D is friggin adorable with those sepet eyes and that cheeky smile. Takleh angs.
We were having supper at Mac's and this guy would not quit staring. When he left, he waved and I waved back. He asked for my number but I politely declined. So he came back in and gave me two numbers, his and his friends. Klakar kan?
Both Dayahs were at store yesterday, so cool!

Heart dblo

Cute boys and cute other elses.

For here iced cup

For here iced cup
Originally uploaded by norainne.

I'm back after literal months! I know, right? But I don't have much to say, really. I had a nice attachment shift the other night at Fusionopolis, which has the most adorable plastic for here iced cups. Sungguh loves!

Today I have an unexpectedly free day, but I don't have any money to do anything with it, so I'm listening to F&F4 songs online while waiting for nightfall.

My dad got me the C905, which is like a better version of my K800i, so life rocks in 8.1 megapixels, and Wi-Fi, both of which were used in bringing this photo online. Haha.

Hello once more!

I am back! Hehe. I have a new phone now so it's much easier to upload photos and shit. Yey.

Photo-update II

Life's been so starkly different lately. No more Clarke Quay, lots of sun, sand and sea, and car rides aplenty. Shopping, too. Let's not forget the shopping. I'm really glad I don't own a credit card, because if I did, I'd end up like Becky Bloomwood.

Cafe Del Mar. Yesterday and last week. Always a fave spot. Palm trees, pristine sand, cool waters, refreshing breeze.. What more could one ask for? [Well, cute guys, of course, but there is such a thing as pushing one's luck.]

Rail's unexhaustive range of headgear. I love modelling them, apparently. Anywhere and everywhere. Anytime and everytime. Gimme more!

OHwell. Other than what's been pictured here, I've stopped hanging at CQ so that means no more Tiger. Or is it the other way around? Haha. Tak tahu. Anyways I've got someone a billion times nicer than he could ever be, so I'm happy! But I've also been eating a lot, and we know what that means.. It means back to those late night runs!

Sad movies always make me cry

I watched this movie just now. It's such a lovely movie. And Jennifer Lopez never looked as hot as she does, here in this movie. Her dance outfits are amazing, especially the fur coat and the dress in the Santa Maria scene. Plus, I always end up crying at the last part of the movie, about two minutes before this escalator scene.

Here's to more peaceful off days, filled with nothing but pretty clothes, gorgeous skies and endless books.

Photo-update

I do realise it's been quite a while since I blogged here. The lure of LJ is too strong for me. However, I will summarise my life for the past couple of weeks, in a collection of photos. If it helps.

 
My three favourite chubby dodos from work. Rose5, Fazzy-Wazzy and Wanieeeee!

 
The ever-adorable Rail, Xtina's boyfriend. Don't go to NS, I'll miss you too!

 
With Sham at Marina Barrage rooftop. OMG the chilling breeze. And the wide expanse of grass. Fantastico.

Because the setting was just too perfect. I took off my Emilys and waded in.

Had a gorgeous 22nd thanks in large part to these dodos above. Much love!

D-day

Two years of Christmas Open Houses and I've always been ringing up the transactions. Today I was expediting the queue instead, with Evonne. It definitely requires a different skill set from my previous position. Haha.

But it was fun! I love all the disorder and chaos that goes on during Open House. Nothing can quite match up to it. It's almost like one of those performances I used to participate in--angklung, tarian, and the like. The downside is, just like the performances of my yesteryear, there's the post-performance depression to sink into. I hate that. Like, the calm after the storm. Hate it!

I'm glad I was paired with Evonne, because instead of asking for customers' names like I was supposed to, I just grabbed their receipts and scribbled down my first impression of them instead. For example, Evonne was screaming, "Singapore t-shirt! Singapore t-shirt!" because that was exactly what I wrote on the receipt. Or I would write, "Semi-cute guy" or "3/4 cute guys", but there was never any fully-cute guy. Then there was one time I scrawled, "Gay" but thankfully she misread it as "Guy".

Funfunfun.

Sorry I couldn't pick up the pieces so well. You can't really expect a freshly-certified shift manager to be able to just vroom around and put everything back in order, right?

In other news, I just came back from a run, which was terrific as usual. I realise I haven't been running the full 2.4, but I'm just gonna take it slow [ like I'm doing with a certain someone], and hopefully by this time next year I'll be doing 3k at one time.

Seven days closing straight! It's time for a break, but I won't be getting one yet, because tomorrow I need to get some things done to Baby. Sigh. Well, I'll try and sleep in anyways.

I'm a cert!

I'm a certified now! No more babysitters, I'll be going solo all the way! Excitingggg. Unfortch, my first solo shift will be TOMORROW, which is D-Day. I'll have to clean up the mess caused by 294827593 transactions! And deal with the Thursday crowd, to boot!

Tiredtiredtired. This would be my sixth closing in a row. With one more coming up tomorrow. Can you believe it? Plus, I'm getting old. I'm not even enjoying the last precious days of my 21-dom. And the crowd now comes in at ten instead of nine, and they don't wanna leave, even at midnight! Still. Trickling. In! I had to extend operating hours today because the higher-ups said so, but at least I came pretty close to the target. I'm talking like a manager now! So annoying!

Starving. Since I became a manager I've hardly had time to eat. Which can only be a good thing, I suppose, considering my size, but I really love and miss eating!

I put up the Christmas tree just now, because if I don't do it, no one else will. It was less complicated than I expected it to be, thankfully. And it looks pretty good for my first attempt, I daresay. The final, rewarding touch, was of course putting up the lights and turning them on! Sedih though, they're not multicoloured. But it still looks festive!

I love it.

Jessie says I remind her of Mima sometimes. Haha! I wouldn't argue with that, I think that like her, I do like to buang muka when I'm angry.

And Tiger messaged me just now, first! Yey!