Giveaway Winners and Life Updates

Hiya! My giveaway has now ended and I'd like to say thanks to everyone who entered :) And hello to new followers ^o^ Altogether there were 73 entrants with a total of 242 entries. Now to announce the two winners:

*Drum roll*

The winner of Prize 1 is:

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London Life

The winner of Prize 2 is:

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Amyboo

Congratulations girls!! I will sending an email your way very soon.

I am sure to be holding another giveaway as soon as I hit 800 followers (only 3 more to go!) so do keep an eye out for that if you're interested ^_^

I didn't want this post to just be about the giveaway winners hence I have decided to also include a little update on the not-so-interesting me ehehe...

I had a hair cut last week

I mentioned this in my post last week however I didn't share a picture as I had already shared one on my Twitter. Butttt just in case you don't have Twitter or don't follow me *sad face*, here is how my hair looks like now. Well, how it looked like after I had it cut.

(I hate having to say this but it's to avoid diss/people saying that I look tired etc. mk - it's my no-makeup face with the use of a photo filter)

Looks like my hair has two distinct colours... no it's just the filter effect/lighting

Medium-longish hair now compared to my loooong hair (10-15cm+) before. I like the length now and I'll probably let it grow out over spring and summer.

Bye purple hair, hello... possibly blonde??

Mm, the purple from my hair has pretty much fully faded to dark brown. It was good while it lasted *tear rolls down the cheek* but yeah... now that spring is here, I'm definitely thinking of going lighter! I have home dyes ready!

Uh blonde...? What was I thinking when I bought this box of dye?!?! Yes, it's a pre-lightener kit specifically for dark hair. Whoever has dark hair and uses that dye will definitely go blonde because it has bleach in it. I think I bought it because I saw that it was on sale for like 8 bucks and being the cheap Asian I am, I thought that this was a bargain. It was also the last one left. Gees.... what am I going to do with it?? To go blonde or not, lol! And one box won't be enough for medium-long hair so imagine if I did use it and got patchy blonde hair?? EW!! Here's what I thought about doing with this box of dye:

• Use it to ombre my ends blonde. Or at least use it to lighten my ends and put my own colour on top like... pink xD
• Use the box on its own and hope that there won't be patchiness. Hope and pray T^T
• Try finding/buying another box to dye my whole hair with. Then stay blonde or dye another colour over it.
• Get a bob cut and use the bottle. No patchiness guaranteed!!

Would love to hear any of your suggestions! I think going blonde would be cool but I don't think it will suit me well :( And I'm sure the boyfriend won't be too happy to see me blonde (he prefers me to have brown/black hair), same with my parents haha.

I do however have two boxes of golden brown dyes which were $5 each! Gotta love cheap hair dye xD I could just forget about the blonde dye and use these two. But I'm worried that these won't turn out nicely/light on my current dark hair (you can never rely on the colour swatches on the side of the box, and they say it may turn out darker than what is shown). Again, another slight dilemma.

Actually I just remembered that I purchased a Scoopon a few months ago to have my hair dyed and cut! Might just stick with going to the hairdressers to go lighter :)

I'll be sure to give another update on my hair when it changes again ^.^

I've become so fashion-inspired lately!

Ahuh! I originally had this blog categorised as beauty and fashion but had only really focused on beauty because it was what I felt more comfortable with. I love fashion, I really do. The reason why I haven't posted many outfits of the days etc. is because I need to update my wardrobe and most of the stuff I have are just casual clothes I wear to uni :/ I don't find them to be OOTD-worthy since they're so simple and not that appealing. I am forever envying other people's wardrobes, fashion sense and style. I'm looking at all you fashion bloggers!!

Recently I have received some free fashion magazines in the mail :) The Iconic magazine, Unique magazine and Plastic Island (which was a mini magazine in my Ceci magazine... which wasn't free ahaha).

Woo! Freebies ^^

Thanks to these magazines and your answers giveaway questjen (What would you like to see more of on my blog? Outfit posts), I have become motivated to update my wardrobe more often and include outfit posts in the near future, yay! I can't promise that I will but I am definitely working on it. Must get a tripod! And must make the boyfriend take photos of me hehehe.

I don't have any outfit pictures right now, thus instead I will share my favourite pages from these magazines:

Plastic Island (from Ceci magazine)

The K-pop girl group Sistar!

I love how they all have the same pattern but in different pieces

The Iconic magazine Spring/Summer 2012

Neons are so in! I'm comfortable with accessorising with neons

Though I'm not brave enough to wear a bright yellow dress like the model on the right haha. Are you???

Of course, pastels! I would wear any of the above, honestly :3

Unique Magazine Spring/Summer 2012

I love knowing 'what's in' right now. It always helps me decide what to buy and wear :)

Coloured skinnies! This is really helpful if you're not sure which colours work well together without clashing (like me) hehe.

Anyway that's all from me~ This post is unlike my previous ones of makeup reviews and stuff so I hope this was a good/decent read!

Random, silly questjen where silly answers are expected...

If you had to choose one, which would you choose for yourself - 

a) bad hair but good fashion sense

OR

b) good hair but bad fashion sense

My answer: Probably B! Hahaha, hair is so important to me!!

 ♥ Jen

 

Review: Daisy 3-Tone Brown Lenses

Hi all! Happy weekend :) Just reminding you all that my giveaway ends in a week's time - the link is on my sidebar. Something that I noticed was that I am close to reaching 800 followers - I can't believe it! And you know what will happen when I reach that number? Yep, I will be holding another giveaway. Sounds crazy but hey, I admit that I am pretty crazy sometimes :P


On the topic of 'crazy' (well... not really) I received a pair of circle lenses from MukuCHU called 'Daisy 3-Tone' which have the pattern of a daisy.

DAISY SERIES (3-TONES)

POWER/PRESCRIPTION: -0.00 (Plano) only

LENS USAGE: UP TO 1 YEAR

SHELF LIFE: 3 YEARS

MANUFACTURER / ORIGIN: SOUTH KOREA

MATERIALS: 2Hema

B.C.: 8.8mm

DIAMETER: 14.8mm

WATER CONTENT: 38%

 

 

They're more like yellow than brown but colour-wise, they look very natural when worn because of my dark brown eyes. And I love all 3-tone lenses because that means that they blend in better for dark eyes instead of it being a pop of colour that may freak someone out. If that's what you want to do then these lenses won't be a good choice for that haha.

 (Sorry this is the only 'HD' photo of me wearing the lenses)

I took pictures on a day where I thought that the sun would show up but no, the sun didn't come out at all. Hopefully the pictures are still okay and clear enough.

They definitely enlarge the eye without having too much of a dramatic effect. No thick, black limbal ring or harsh outline in the centre where the pupil is. I had originally thought that the daisy pattern would be very obvious in both natural and flash lighting but nope, it's very subtle in daylight. Perhaps on lighter-coloured eyes, the pattern would show up a lot more but since circle lenses are manufactured in Asian countries, they are probably specially designed to be more suitable/wearable for Asian/dark eyes. That's just my guess.

Webcam picture (bright lighting). Haha people rarely take webcam pics these days

The lenses make my eyes look very light brown

And under low-quality photo settings, the lenses look dark brown/black. Very natural!

So really, these lenses have varied effects depending on the lighting however they generally look natural on dark eyes. Don't let the diameter scare you too much - I too used to think that 14.8mm was HUGE but I got used to them and now I reckon the size isn't too big/dramatic. It really depends on the pattern and colour - I think diameter makes the least impact when it comes to appearance.

Though when it comes to comfort.... it usually comes down to the brand and diameter. Did you know that comfort does differ from brand to brand? I've worn circle lenses for 4 years (not constantly but 4 years ago was when I started wearing them) and I've tried many different brands but the two that I trust the most are GEO and EOS (and they're usually the two that I review the most) because they are the biggest manufacturers and GEO has an anti-fake system which is great reassurance. Anyway, I've personally discovered that EOS lenses are thinner but they're both just as comfortable. 

These are EOS lenses and they were very comfortable to wear for hours. Only experienced irritation when I accidentally wore one on the wrong way T_T I wouldn't wear large diameter lenses for long periods of time i.e. anymore than 6 hours as less oxygen reaches the eye compared to 14mm lenses. When I go out I would prefer to wear 14-14.5mm lenses just to be on the safe side. But if you do decide to wear 14.5+mm lenses, you must have eyedrops and don't exceed 6 hours of wear!

That's my snappy review on these lenses - apologies again for the lack of better-quality photos... I'm still going to blame the sun for not coming out :( I definitely tried to give you guys as many comparison pictures - low lighting, cloudy day, bright lighting, flash, low/high-quality camera. Hopefully the review was still interesting~

My simple outfit that I wore on the day that I took photos:

 Pastel blue cardigan: Temt (bought it recently for only $5!)

White singlet: JayJays

Black leggings: Valleygirl

You can say good bye to that hair by the way.... today it got the chop. I asked the hairdresser to take off 10-15cm off and that was what she did! I have medium-length hair again and you can check out the picture that I took after my haircut and posted on Twitter. Or you can wait until I take blog pictures next time hehe.

I'm going to leave you with a picture of my new and current favourite ring. I bought it from Valleygirl for $3 and it's a crown *__* The last one there too, size S/M... how perfect :) If you know me well enough then you would know that... I LOVE CROWNS AND TIARAS!

I love how there are little stones on it

Questjen of the week. Let's relate it back to the subject of this blog post:

'Daisy eyes' aka Daisy lenses - what are your thoughts?

My answer: They're pretty unique and cool! Not too creepy or unnatural :)

♥ Jen

 

ADL Beauty Conference 2012!

Hi guys! It's been two weeks since my last post and I apologise for not blogging last week! But I have a reason (well you could see it as an excuse haha) - last Saturday on the 1st of September, I attended the annual Adelaide Beauty Bloggers Conference (shortened as 'ABC'). For those who have been my blog readers since mid last year, you may remember my post about last year's ABC which was the first one ever! You can check out my post on last year's ABC here, though unfortunately my pictures are missing due to my stuuuupid deletion (long story short, Picasa album aka ALL of my blog pictures were synced to my phone... and I accidentally deleted it. FML) but my vlog is still there, hehe.

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

Can you spot me ^^?

We had more attendees this year than last year, which means that the amount of beauty bloggers in Adelaide is increasing! Since I am a shy, reserved person, I do prefer smaller groups over larger ones but hey, that's just me :) Though I do like meeting new people~

The event didn't start so smoothly for me - I ended up coming in late by around 5-10 minutes so I missed a lot of the introduction :( I regret relying on public transport on a Saturday! I awkwardly walked in and I'm sure everyone looked at me haha. If I was the type of person who craved attention, I would have loved this! But no, I am the complete opposite and at that very moment I wanted to hide!

 While waiting for the bus and listening to music

 Went for a dark pink NOTD (Essie) with glitter nail polish on top to represent my girly-ness

Yay we all got these cute name necklaces to wear :3

I don't really want to go into detail about what I wore (if you want to know any specifics, feel free to ask!) but my whole outfit was pretty much all from ASOS haha. Things that I had in my wardrobe but didn't have the chance to wear yet.

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

 I didn't get the chance to take an individual photo against this awesome backdrop as I arrived late T_T I also wasn't able to introduce myself to all of the new faces at ABC! But I have followed everyone on Twitter so I can get to know you guys and keep in touch :D

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

This year's ABC was hosted at Media Makeup Academy - a makeup school which holds courses and are trained to become makeup artists. It was really nice and spacious inside - I actually had trouble knowing where the entrance was as it's situated in the food court xD I had to do an emergency tweet to Steph who then guided me to the entrance. Coming in late was already bad enough!!

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

Noms from our catering sponsors Cupcake Treats and Zed'z Cafe!

During break time I had the opportunity to meet Kathy who I had actually spoken to online a few times before and have mutual blogging friends with her :) Here is a photo that Sherry snapped while we were enjoying our cake pops (made by Monnie of Cupcake Treats) ^_^

I only had one but it was super yummy!

We had presentations from Evo and The Purist Company who were two of our major sponsors for this event:

Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

Afterwards we played the 'beauty games' which I was initially rather worried about because in the programme guide where it said The Beauty Games, this was written underneath:

'Think they had it tough in the Hunger Games? Think again.'

I didn't think that anything would be more tough than the Hunger Games :S But phew, these beauty games weren't actually that bad... though I didn't win anything xD I could say that I performed poorly in the games!

 Credit: Monique @ Adelaide Beauty Conference

 

I just had  to chuck in a candid shot of me lol'ing. Not attractive but who cares, this is gold hahaha!

This was during the Australian beauty/skincare brands pictionary game

ABC ended with a bloggers panel about the big question behind why one blogs: whether it's for fun, for money or possibly for both. The speakers raised some very interesting points and their words have given me some blogging inspiration.

Guest speakers (L-R): Melissa, Celeste (ABC main host and founder!) and Christina

At the very end of ABC we were given our goodie bags which were generously filled with products from proudly Australian-brand sponsors! Thank you all so much *_*

 As I was about to walk out of Media Makeup - I brought eco bags to put everything in

I almost forgot to take this out with me haha

Credit: Kate @ Seduced by Beauty

Hopefully I'll get the chance to review at least a few of these products :)

Well I already had the KUU Konjac Sponge! I reviewed them here

Thank you Media Makeup for having us, it was definitely the perfect place to have ABC!

And of course a MASSIVE thank you to the amazingly awesome committee who worked so hard to make ABC 2012 possible - Celeste, Stacey, Steph and Sherry ♥ !!

The day technically wasn't over yet as there was an after-event dinner sponsored by Crust Gourmet pizza! Yay for yummy pizzas!

But before that we had time to go for a coffee break. I carpooled with Kate (her spacious car was perfect to fit us and our goodie bags!), Kitty, Saku and Sarah and we had Cibo.

My hot chocolate and caramel macaron P:

I didn't know that we were going to be eating outside~ So glad that I wore my woolen tights to keep my legs warm in the evening :)

Looking at these pictures makes me crave gourmet pizza again *drools*

Not only did we eat and chat but we also took photos, courtesy of our photobooth provided by Yelp Adelaide! I brought my polaroid camera with me but completely forgot about taking pictures! Luckily we had this photobooth and photographer to snap some lovely photos of us :D

The wonderful Sarah and I! (Doesn't she look just like the ABC mascot?!?)

Also I can't believe how mature I look in this picture :O

Aww my girl Saku and I! Her dress was stunning by the way

Bunny and Princess ^3^

Me with Saku, Kitty, Sarah, Shai and Christina

So as you can probably tell, it was a very fun-filled, jam-packed day and I enjoyed every minute of it! My thanks goes out to everyone - not just the sponsors but also to everyone who attended. Looking forward to seeing many of you again at future blogger meetups.

Can you believe that I would not have known any of these girls if I hadn't started beauty blogging?? It fascinates me when I think about how a hobby like blogging has made a huge impact on my life. You never know where your interests may take you and who you may meet! There is honestly no way that I could have bumped into or met them any other way besides through blogging - something that we're all passionate about :D And my city is considered small but I really don't think it's thaaaat small :P

My questjen of the week, especially for the many bloggers and readers whom I hope to meet one day:

How has blogging impacted your life?

Has it helped you to discover new things about yourself? Have you made new friends/met up with them?

I would love to know your answers!

 ♥ Jen xx