Goals And Resolutions For 2017

Goals And Resolutions For 2017

Personal Cosmetopia Digest   Monday, January 02, 2017

Happy New Year! I hope you and your loved ones have had a great Holiday season, wherever you are around the world. I also wish each of you a very fruitful and prosperous 2017!
2016 was one of the three worst years of my life. I spent the first few months hiding at my parents' place, not even stepping out to sign for packages, with my face ravaged by a terrible breakout. Things began looking up from the mid-year, and I am due to start subcision for the scars from January 18.
For 2017, my goals are as follows:

Moomooi By Feelunique LE Accessories Collection S/S 2016

Moomooi By Feelunique LE Accessories Collection S/S 2016

Tools Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Beauty retail giant Feelunique has collaborated with fashion illustrator @moomooi - Meredith Wing, whose clients include Cosmopolitan, Coach, De Beers and Rebecca Minkoff - to launch an exclusive limited edition accessories collection for Spring/Summer 2016. Wing is known for giving her illustrations a 3D effect, by using flowers, fruit, vegetables and other material along with the drawings. The collection, which includes makeup accessories, bags/fashion accessories and iPhone accessories, is inspired by the Pantone Colours for 2016 - Rose Quartz and Serendipity.

Scroll down for deets on the @moomooi by Feelunique Limited Edition Accessories Collection for S/S 2016.

affiliate . pr sample

Birthday Beauty Haul 2016

Birthday Beauty Haul 2016

Shoes Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, April 16, 2016

It was my birthday yesterday. Despite having made up my mind - and convinced family and friends - to avoid cake this year, the lovely chef at Le Meridien MADE one very quickly once he found out what was going on, and I cut it at 10:30p.m. with complete strangers joining in. Sadly, I only have iPhone photos from the celebrations. Will show you my purple EOTD once I'm energetic enough to resize those photos.

Scroll down to check out the beauty products to which I treated myself this year.

How To Pack A Travel Beauty Bag: For Acne Prone Skin With Multi-Step Routine

How To Pack A Travel Beauty Bag: For Acne Prone Skin With Multi-Step Routine

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, April 12, 2016

The problem with acne-prone skin - in my case, recovering from a severe infection - is that you need specific products apart from the usual cleansing-hydrating routine. It poses quite a challenge while travelling; you end up packing enough products to fill a cabin trunk.
Now that my skincare routine has been revamped by my new dermatologist (who won my loyalty when he told me the benefits of makeup) to include acid toning and clarifying facial oils, I have a host of new products in my regimen. When I went to stay with my grandparents recently after Gramps had medical appointments and Gran's sugar levels dropped, the challenge was to pack as lightweight as possible so as not to arrive with a freight train in tow, at the same time retain my multi-step regimen.  

Scroll down for travel beauty bag packing trips for acne-prone skin.

iPhone Skins For Beauty Lovers

iPhone Skins For Beauty Lovers

Urban Decay Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, April 10, 2016

My Dad gave me an iPhone 6S in rose gold for Christmas, thereby marking the end of a decade's association with Sony [Ericsson], which had started with the T610 and gone on through a couple of Xperias. In fairness, my Xperia was on its last legs after all the abuse it suffered at my rough hands.
It took me a while to warm to the iPhone. The Xperias, I felt, looked way cooler. "Get a skin," suggested Dad, showing me his Charles Bronson - in The Evil That Men Do - skin. I picked these up in the local mobile accessories mart.

Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clips Review

Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clips Review

Reviews Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, March 19, 2016

Despite never going out without makeup, I am lazy when it comes to styling my hair. On most days, I cannot be bothered to blow-dry, iron or curl it and prefer the wash-untangle-air-dry-go-out routine. It would take all day to style my hip-length hair anyway. Invisibobble ties and scrunchies - yes, scrunchies - are usually my go-to, even to flashy events.
Lilla Rose Flexi Clips (PR sample) effortlessly add some zing to my otherwise listless hairstyles. They are a breeze to use and remove and are tough enough to endure my rough handling.

Scroll down for my review of the Lilla Rose Flexi Hair Clips and how I use them.

Personalised Blog, Life and Work Planners for 2016

Personalised Blog, Life and Work Planners for 2016

Planner Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, January 24, 2016

Have you got your planners for 2016?  I ordered mine a few months ago. As soon as I learned to write, I had begun keeping a daily diary and had wall-planners from my high school days, but swapped both diary and wall-planner for a planner notebook two years ago.
I patronised boringly respectable, dour business organiser-style planners, but decided to go in for something more fun this year. But you cannot take the nerd out of me at one go, so I got two planners from personal-planner.com - a formal planner, and a somewhat more fun planner for the blog.

Scroll down to check out these personalised year planners for 2016 and where you can buy them.

My Experience At The LuLu Beauty Fest

My Experience At The LuLu Beauty Fest

Lifestyle Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, November 29, 2015

On Black Friday, I had the opportunity to attend a blogger event when I was invited to the inaugural LuLu Beauty Fest, featuring more than 100 beauty brands. The event was held at LuLu, the largest shopping mall in South Asia (LuLu Group are a leading department store chain based in Abu Dhabi). The Beauty Fest runs from November 27 till December 6 and will be an annual event.
Brands in attendance included Shiseido, Clarins, The Body Shop, Yves Rocher, Toni & Guy, Elizabeth Arden, Hugo Boss, Vaseline and drugstore names such as Olay, Vaseline, Nivea and so on. 
Scroll down for more deets on the LuLu Beauty Fest.

Les Floralies Apothecary Sniff Boxes for Sleep and Balance

Les Floralies Apothecary Sniff Boxes for Sleep and Balance

Lifestyle Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, September 08, 2015

Though I am a snuff box collector, I was intrigued when I saw these "sniff boxes" at a pharmacy in Tanglin, Singapore. The lady at the counter said they were aromatherapy boxes which contained a variety of ingredients to calm and soothe the nerves or to invigorate them. I bought two - Sleep and Balance.
Made by one of New Zealand's most famous bath and body brands, Les Floralies (a.k.a. Matakana Botanicals), these contain locally sourced ingredients. The company was born when the current owner's mother decided to make some potpourri, back in 1986, instead of buying aerosol cans of room fresheners. Today, their products are included in amenity kits in Emirates' First Class and in Air New Zealand flights, and are sold in countries around the world.

More on Les Floralies Apothecary Sniff Boxes below.

A Roman Summer: Sights, Spaghetti and Sephora

A Roman Summer: Sights, Spaghetti and Sephora

Travel Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, July 29, 2015

I had the chance to spend a few days in Italy three weeks ago. This being a beauty blog, let me first tell you they have three fabulous Sephora outlets in Rome and some great regional brands, about which I will talk in a few days.
Why "fabulous" Sephora? Because they give more GWPs than the Dubai branches (who give more freebies than most other countries) and because they had a whopping 20% discount sale (off EVERYTHING) going on when I was there! The day I first hauled, I thought my bill would run up to a four-digit sum, but it only came up to three-digit figures after the discount.
And the soaps! There were so many varieties of Roman soaps! I bought a dozen or so and exceeded my baggage quota.
But Italy wasn't all about Sephora and makeup. I have some 30GB of (medium-sized) photographs from Italy alone. I'll show you a sample selection. Warning: Picture-heavy post!

Check out a few of my favourite sights, snacks and shops in Italy.

How and why I rebranded and changed to a new domain name

How and why I rebranded and changed to a new domain name

Website Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, March 07, 2015

Utopia: a state of things in which everything is perfect.

I think this blog outgrew "My Beauty Junction" a while ago. I wanted something that was my own; that stood for my own corner on the internet. For sometime now, I have been racking my head over names; a discussion with a few blogging friends yielded results. Huge thanks go out to Anne Smith of Betty's Beauty Bombs for suggesting Cosmetopia, combining Cosmetics and Utopia. Apart from producing the best dang nail art stamping I have ever seen in my life, Anne clearly has a penchant for copywriting.
What is my version of utopia? It involves lots of great quality makeup, skincare that works, LOTS of gifts with purchase, subscription boxes that exceed their face value, haircare that removes frizz completely, acne treatment that eradicates pimples forever, makeup brands lowering their prices without compromising on quality... isn't this utopia a lot nicer than the one that politicians promise?

For fellow-bloggers looking to change their domain name, here's a step-by-step look at how I rebranded, changed my domain name and redirected the old URL to the new one. 

Fuss-free Half-up, Half-down Ponytail Tutorial For Frizzy Hair

Fuss-free Half-up, Half-down Ponytail Tutorial For Frizzy Hair

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Monday, February 23, 2015

Try out this super-easy, everyday ponytail that is voluminous and bouncy. 

Ponytails are usually synonymous with sleek hair but my super-frizzy hair does not give a toss. My go-to hairstyle for almost everything from work to play is a half-up, half-down ponytail. It keeps the hair tangle-free and away from my back, and is not flat, but bouncy and voluminous. Not as serious as a bun and far more convenient than open hair. My hair is quite long and leaving it open and loose everyday would mean serious detangling every night.
All you need for this look are two accessories - a hair tie or a scrunchie, and a claw clip. I recommend the flat-backed revolutionary Linziclip, with hidden springs - reviewed here. The beauty of this style is that the hair tie is hidden, so you can actually wear a scrunchie without feeling that the world is laughing at you for staying back in the 1990s.
Here's how you get this fuss-free, wearable frizzy-hair ponytail. 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Personal Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, January 01, 2015

 

Happy New Year! I wish each of you and your families a great start to 2015. 

The annual New Year Carnival parade takes place here over the course of the next 24 hours, commencing with the burning of the "papanji" (pronounced pappa-nyi) on the beach at midnight, a custom derived from the Portuguese. A giant effigy of the "papanji" is erected each year - you are seeing this year's version in the photo above, taken an hour before midnight.
Each year, the Mayor or some other distinguished guest sets fire to the effigy of the "papanji", which comes the Portuguese word "pai". The "papanji" is different from Father Christmas, and stands for the old "Father Year", which has now become shabby and doddering, and must be extinguished so the New Year can be born.
What can I say, when you come from a place that was colonised and/or occupied by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Jews and the British one after the other from 1498, you must expect to be part of a cultural melting pot.

A Beautiful Christmas amid an ugly war and sights from 2014

A Beautiful Christmas amid an ugly war and sights from 2014

Personal Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, December 25, 2014

It is Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas to you and yours! Christmas is my favourite time of the year, followed by April (my birthday). I hope you are having the most beautiful Christmas of your life.
A hundred years ago, on this very day... it was Christmas. Christmas in a world at war. At war with itself.
Man killing man. The ugliest sight ever. And yet, in those killing fields, the brave men who were sent there merely to obey orders and kill each other without rhyme or reason created a beautiful Christmas on this very day in 1914, perhaps the most beautiful Christmas since the first one in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago. This post is about that beautiful Christmas, created amid some stark ugliness, and includes local sights from Christmas 2014. 

Desert diaries: Adventures featuring dune-bashing, sand-boarding, falcons and cuisine

Desert diaries: Adventures featuring dune-bashing, sand-boarding, falcons and cuisine

Travel Cosmetopia Digest   Sunday, January 12, 2014

I had never gone on a desert-safari, despite my Dad working in Dubai for a few years, so I was looking forward to spending some time in yet another natural landform. While I wouldn't want to live in the desert - my skin dried and flaked up and my back looks like someone let off fireworks on it; there was little greenery there and I need trees - I certainly loved every minute in the world's largest sandbox, especially sliding down sand dunes. See below for more pictures including me sliding down sand dunes in bin liners (new, unused ones, of course).

Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Lifestyle Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Here's the Christmas tree I have back home. Sorry - the lights are off so you can actually see the tree, haha. Only my presents for other people were beneath the tree when I left, but when I go back, I hope my tree - and my stocking - will include some prezzies for me?
I wish you all, and your families, a very happy and safe Christmas!
In other news, I've finished shopping - I think - and hauled from Boots and Sephora.

Hallowe'en Special: Seven Deadly Sins link party

Hallowe'en Special: Seven Deadly Sins link party

Tags Cosmetopia Digest   Saturday, October 26, 2013

No, not the Seven Deadly Beauty Sins post (here). This is a link-up for Hallowe'en that I found on Nina's Bargain Beauty - who in turn found it on Whispering Sweet Nothings. And since my NaNoWriMo 2013 project is titled (for now) "Seven Deadly Shimmers" (christened by one of the more creative people on their forum), I figured the timing was right for me to do this link-up.

Mini haul: Accessorize handbags, notebook and freshener

Mini haul: Accessorize handbags, notebook and freshener

Lifestyle Cosmetopia Digest   Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Who doesn't love Accessorize? Kill-joys? Anyway, I picked up a notebook, a room freshener and a pair of spacious handbags which I love. Looky!

DIY: How to make a light box or tent for beauty photography

DIY: How to make a light box or tent for beauty photography

Tutorials Cosmetopia Digest   Thursday, August 01, 2013

I can barely tell one end of a camera from the other, and hate getting behind it. Which isn't very helpful for a beauty blogger. I can't be bothered to frame a photo, get it set in natural light and all that rigmarole, so I just point, shoot and leave. A colleague recently told me my problem was bad lighting, especially indoors, and that a photography tent would help quite a bit.
A light tent, it turns out, costs around $100, so I decided to make my own crude, inexpensive light tent without spending a penny, though I'll eventually have to confess to my family that I'm the one who used up every bottle of glue and inch of tape in the house. And if you have been reading my Facebook page, you'll know I didn't have much glue to start with after my niece presumed the gluesticks were deodorant/perfume and applied it all liberally over herself when no one was looking.
The beauty of this is that even if you are, like me, the swot who failed art, craft and needlework (I went to an all-girls' convent school), you can still make a usable light tent. Here's how.

What you need to make your own light box for photography:

What's in my shower?

What's in my shower?

Tags Cosmetopia Digest   Wednesday, July 10, 2013

My shower routine involves a mixture of products every few weeks, and I don't really wait for a set to finish before I switch around. I was tagged by Tshering of TiTi's Corner for this post, so you can see my bath and body products-of-the-moment for yourselves!
The bathroom's main colour scheme is blue, and it is marine-themed. I've got dolphins on the wall, waves on carpets and toy fish that grow in size when you drop them in water on my shelves. Incidentally, interior decorating is one of my passions and this is where I began experimenting. I've designed five (much better) bathrooms after this. Here are a couple of the shelves: