Origami Dress

I'm a girl who likes to keep things classy: from the way I dress to the way I present myself through actions and words, respecting myself as well as respecting others. In terms of the way I dress, I would say that I'm more on the conservative side - happy to show some arm and leg but not wanting to let anything 'hang out' or else I'd feel too exposed. 

I was on a hunt for a dress for my second cousin's wedding which was last month and I came across the perfect dress that suited my style - it was classy, elegant with flattering cuts in the right places and a colour that I felt would bring out the warmth of my skin tone. Thankfully Glue Store came to the rescue as I browsed their range of dresses and came across an eye-catching number from Finders Keepers. For those who don't know, Finders Keepers is an Australian fashion label which provides on-trend collections of prints, shapes and textures for casual daywear to sophisticated evening looks. 

My darling mother in the background :)

 

 

 

 

The dress that I chose was the Finders Keepers Billy Jean Origami Detail Dress in Peach* and its origami-like fold on the chest was what drew me to this style and also its high halter-style neckline. I'm usually either wearing strapless, spaghetti-strap or one-shoulder dresses so having this sort of neckline style meant that I didn't need to do any adjusting or be wary of unwanted exposure.

 

(Excuse my terrible hair, curling irons hate me)

 

I'm not one to wear many crop tops or anything that exposes my non-existent/hidden abs but it's certainly a trend nowadays and I can't say that I dislike it - actually I don't mind it really! Thank goodness the small triangular cutout only exposes a small portion of the abdominal area just above my belly button and not any more than that, phew.

Mandatory bathroom selfie

 

I like how the dress has a split at the front, it makes it different from other dresses and it complements the triangular cutout. I paired the dress with some nude heels as I felt that black or any other colour would clash with the dress. Playing it safe is always a good option :)

 

I loved the whole fine dining experience of the wedding reception, in fact I've always liked formal dining experiences but of course as a student, I can rarely and barely afford to dine at high-class restaurants! So I get very excited when I hear about relatives' weddings and their locations/catering choice, hehe.

So on the day I was pleased with my outfit, displeased with my hair (I really need to work on this!) and pleased with my makeup look. Even for glam events I still like to keep it rather natural-looking with neutral shades for my eyeshadow and a pinky-red shade of lipstick. I decided to wear circle lenses and false lashes to enhance my eyes in a subtle way. I realised that in the two photos of myself above, my lenses are barely noticeable which to me is a good thing. I don't opt for the crazy/unnatural-looking lenses as I only intend to slightly lighten and enlarge my eyes (though I've been told that my natural irises resemble dark circle lenses).

The lenses that I wore to the wedding were the GEO Berry Holic Brown CM954* from Pinky Paradise which are more of a hazel brown and I think they're the perfect colour for that subtle lightening of my eyes. They're really comfortable too and I've worn them a few times.

They have a green tinge to them and appear lighter under brighter day lighting, as seen on the left

What I love about coloured lenses is that you can actually see my pupils! The Berry Holic range include 3-tone lenses which blend in extremely well for eyes that are as dark as mine.

They look great under night lighting too

 

From browsing through Finders Keepers' Instagram account, I noticed that Aussie model Jessica Gomes has worn this dress and it looks amazing on her. But seriously, what doesn't look amazing on her??

Who wore it better? Just kidding, obviously her.

Anyway, I'm not sure when will be the next time I attend a formal event and get the chance to dress all fancy but I am surely looking forward to doing this sort of thing all over again! Any excuse to dress up is always desirable, hehe :P

Questjen for you:

Do you have any exciting events coming up?

With Christmas on its way (as if it's already December) and New Year's, I'm sure most of us will be celebrating with friends/family and attending work functions and parties. That's why it's called the festive season :)

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Throwback: A Snapshot of May

I can't believe I've abandoned my blog for close to two months, this is so not me! Every year when May and June comes around, it ends up being jam-packed with so much happening at once, it is absolutely insane. I thought I'd share some photos of things from the last 31+ days and be a little creative with it by describing each one with the letter 'M' for May. There may be a bit of a crossover with things from April but as long as I can come with an 'M' word for it, I'll include it :)

1. Modelling

I got to be part of a wedding photoshoot as a bride and this has been the most exciting and biggest photoshoot I've done to date! My favourite one so far too. I do TFP shots which I've spoken about here and the theme for this shoot was autumn/vintage bride. Although I don't plan on getting married any time soon or having a autumn or vintage-style wedding myself, it was interesting to see how the makeup and hair was going to turn out on all the models (myself, groom, flower girl, page boy, celebrant) as well as the outfits and props used. Here are some of my favourite photos from the shoot:

(I'm not engaged yet guys hehe)

MUA/Hair: Celeste Wong

Photographer: Captura Photography (Hannah Grant)

2. Meet-ups

Despite all of the busy-ness, it's always great to make time to catch up with good friends over brunch/lunch, dinner and/or dessert.

Brunch at Nano cafe (it was so good) and burgers at Schnit House

Tried out the newly opened Malaysian restaurant, Papparich

Dessert and earl grey tea at Spats

3. MAC

I purchased my first ever MAC product and based on my last lippie love post, it should be obvious that I am indeed obsessed with purchasing new lipstick so of course adding a new lipstick to my collection was a no-brainer. I'm absolutely loving the shade 'Craving' from the Amplified Creamsheen range as a slightly bold but suitable for everyday wear look as I've been wearing both to work and for outings. I love my berry shades, especially for the colder weather and I find it to be the most flattering for my skin tone.

I wore the lipstick to a 21st birthday party

4. Mother's Day

I gave my mum some nice things for Mother's Day and I'm glad she liked them all. I got her a cute card, a nice box of chocolates, a sample of her favourite perfume (she's planning on getting the full size through duty-free when she goes overseas later in the year), a MAC lipstick (after she heard how great mine was) and an Urban Rituelle Caramella Sweet Petites gift set*.

Of course I peeled off the sticker before giving this to my mum hehe

This is the MAC Amplified shade called 'Fast Play' which is a very neutral colour. My mum loves it!

5. Multivitamins

I ended up catching a cold during May which wasn't pleasant at all when I had many uni assessments to complete. Thankfully I was able to overcome this cold within a week after taking these particular multivitamins which I highly recommend to anyone who is currently fighting a cold.

These were half price as well which was a bonus!

6. My birthday

I am a May baby :D Now I can relate to Taylor Swift's song. Not only am I feeling twenty-two but I am twenty-two. Here's a selfie that I took before my night out:

Wearing my new coat from Forever New (birthday gift from the bf) and the GEO Nudy Golden Blue circle lenses

7. Minions

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-na-na hehe. I was able to find these limited edition banana-flavoured tictacs and to be honest I'm not a huge fan of banana-flavoured confectionery but I couldn't go past getting these because they're so cute :P Does anyone know when the Minions movie is going to be released? I'll definitely give it a watch!

8. Mimco

Being a Mimcollective member means that you get $30 to use when your birthday rolls around so I decided to use this on a new pair of rose gold studs which I adore so much. The quality of Mimco jewellery is exceptional and I haven't had any bad reactions to any of their studs. I thought about getting another pouch but I thought it'd be more practical to get more jewellery pieces rather than more pouches or bags. So thanks Mimco!

9. Melbourne

From the 22nd of May (my birthday) to the 24th of May, I went on a short trip over the weekend to Melbourne accompanied by my boyfriend and we stayed in the gorgeous 5-star hotel the Grand Hyatt overlooking the city and although it was pricey, it was definitely worth it and if we wanted to make the most of this trip then we decided to go all-out!

Amazing view of the city from the hotel room

Loved visiting H&M

Managed to make a stop at the Cat Cafe! I made a friend =^.^=

Simply stunning

10. Melody

Last but certainly not least, my long-time friend blogger friend Melody sent me a lovely birthday surprise! I love how she included some edible goodies as well as some useful beauty products. Thanks so much girlie!

So that pretty much sums up my month of May where I also squeezed in full-time uni, study and part-time work (I currently have two jobs) which explains my absence from the blogosphere. Once my exams are over I intend to have at least a few posts to share in July before the new semester starts.

Questjen for you:

Has anything exciting happened to you lately?

I wonder how everyone's been - sadly these days I haven't had much of a chance to read through my Twitter and Facebook feeds so I wonder if I've missed out on any exciting news!

Keep me posted and I shall do the same :)

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f(x) 'Red Light' MV Inspired Look - Krystal

Hey, I love it when my favourite K-pop groups make a comeback, especially girl groups because I always look forward to seeing their concept for their 'teaser' photos and music video, and to possibly get some inspiration from those. Think of these concepts as 'cosplay' with all the different hair colours and costumes but not based on any particular character and are created by their stylists. f(x) recently came back with their 'Red Light' title track and album and their style is not overly cute nor sexy (the two concepts that many girl groups aim for these days) but instead consists of dark makeup and camo-style outfits. From seeing f(x)'s teaser photos and music video, I was immediately inspired to create one of their looks on myself and share on my blog for fun. Here's how it went:  

  I decided to base my look on f(Krystal) because out of all the members, hers looked the most dramatic and when it comes to inspired looks like these, the more dramatic the better! And she dyed her hair platinum blonde and then I remembered I had a blonde wig (which I rarely use) and was perfect for this :D   Here are more shots of Krystal from the MV:

She wore a headpiece and a crown   The thing that really captured my attention from the look was the one black, smokey eye and the other almost completely bare with a coloured contact lens on. This was pretty consistent with all of the members however I felt that Krystal stood out the most with her super dangle-y headpiece and ice-like crown/headband (where would I get one of those?!)   As I say for all of my inspired looks, my intention is not to create a replica or tutorial on how to get this look - this is just my own interpretation where I have used items that I already had, to look as close as possible to the items worn by Krystal.   A tick for the blonde wig, a tick for an army-green jacket but with the headpiece... that was where I had some issues. Considering that I never wear headpieces or anything on my head (if you see me with a headband a la cat ears, it means I'm wearing them for a special occasion), I wasn't thinking about buying one and thought I could just wrap some gold chains around my head... but that didn't work.    I had a browse online and found this one and thought it was perfect but now it's sold out!!! And it's called 'Crystal' like Krystal too, omg. I settled for the cheapest one I could find in the store ($4, online it's still full price) to wear and draped gold chains over it. Unfortunately I only had two gold chains and I didn't have crosses but I had butterflies:

Accessories sorted!

These are the products (minus tools such as brushes) that I used to achieve the inspired look:

FACE:

ELES Age Defying BB Cream 30*

Tony Moly Crystal Light Gold Beam

Rimmel Stay Matte Dual Action Concealer 

Ardell Brow Sculpting Gel

EYES:

GEO Angel Blue Lenses

Australis Eyeshadow Primer

ELES Signature Shadow Quad in Minimalist*

ELES Mineral Matte Shadow in Sand*

Australis Eye Pencil in Blackest Black

Rimmel Soft Kohl Eye Liner Pencil in 071 Pure White

Maybelline HyperSharp Liner

Benefit They're Real! Push-Up Liner (still trialling for review purposes)*

Maybelline The Falsies Waterproof Mascara

Dolly Wink Eyelash Glue

Taiwan Bottom Lashes in 011

LIPS:

Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in 625 Iced Amethyst

Couleur Caramel Rouge a Levres Lipstick in 119*

I used the lightest shade of BB Cream that I had to correspond with Krystal's pale complexion and used concealer for extra coverage. I highlighted my nose bridge, brow bone, cheek bones and cupid's bow. For my brows, I kept them a natural brown like Krystal's and used my light brown brow gel to fill and lighten them up a bit. I couldn't see any blush on Krystal's cheeks so I didn't apply any.

Krystal's contact lens is a blue-green colour with no limbal ring (the black around a circle lens to give a dolly look) however I didn't have any other lenses that were blue so I used my GEO Angel Blue ones. This gave my eye a more doe-eyed look compared to Krystal's.

Left eye (no lens):

I applied eyeshadow primer all over my lid and applied black matte eyeshadow right up to the groove of my eye socket. I also applied the eyeshadow to my bottom lash line. I then used the brown matte eyeshadow and placed it right above the black eyeshadow and directly under the black used on the bottom lash line. I blended these together to create a smokey look and minimise any harsh lines. I winged my eyeliner, curled my lashes and applied a few coats of mascara. I used bottom lashes (half) that had a similar thick-thin style.

Right eye (lens):

Again, eyeshadow primer went on first and then a sand-coloured matte eyeshadow all over my eyelid and bottom lash line. Using my liquid eyeliner, I drew a thin line on top of the lashes and applied white eyeliner on my waterline. I finished it off with curling my lashes and applying mascara to the top and bottom lashes.

It all sounds pretty straight forward but it took me a few tries to get the smokey eye right and the way I wanted it to be. Perhaps it's because I hadn't done one in such a long time. Anyway I'm glad I only needed to do it on one eye or else it would've taken me even longer!

And finally to the lips:

It's so weird seeing the blonde against the bottom half of my face... doesn't even look like me o_o

I made my top lip look thinner than usual and my bottom lip slightly thicker (not like it needed to be any more thick haha). Krystal's got a dark ombre lip going on with purple matte lip products. I've only got one purple matte lipstick and it happens to be my darkest one, so I used it for the centre of my lips. The outer lipstick is a lighter purple and has a creamy consistency, hence the glossiness. I could have went for fully-matte lips but I didn't want to risk drying out my lips, plus I prefer smooth, glossy lips!

So there we go, the finished look where I had a few hiccups along the way with the accessorising and makeup application but overall I'm pleased with how it turned out :)

In the end I even added a small 'freckle' near the side of my nose, Krystal-style!

Oh and here's the full MV if you're keen to see the rest of the girls' looks and/or listen to their latest track:

Questjen for you:

Whose look did you like the best in the Red Light MV?

If you don't know their names, you can identify them by their hair colours/styles

I could say good things about each look and although I was most inspired by Krystal's, I was fangirling the most over Sulli! I wanted to recreate her look too but I didn't have brown lenses or the right accessories~

She's the youngest member of f(x) and she's all grown up looking more and more stunning

I hope to do more of these inspired looks in the near future and if there are any requests, feel free to shoot them my way!

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Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, nor am I affiliated with any of the companies mentioned. Products marked with a * had been provided for consideration.

Inspired Look - Goo Hara (Damaged Lady - KARA MV)

Hello, I have a makeup look to share which was inspired by the gorgeous Goo Hara from the K-pop girl group KARA in their latest music video 'Damaged Lady'. The first time I saw the teaser for this MV, my eyes were instantly drawn to Hara's amazing look with those stunning grey contacts and bold ombre lip. I have seen some people do a tutorial for this look and they did amazing jobs. From seeing other people's take on this look, I felt inspired to recreate this look with a slight smokey eye.

Just to reiterate, this is not a replication of her look which is why it looks nothing like it! I like being creative with looks that I see and changing them a bit to better suit my features (or make do with products that I already have).

Plus Hara is such a doll and there's no way that I could look as good as her with the same makeup application! Our features are completely different and I'm not a pro with makeup replications/transformations (unlike Promise Phan on YouTube).

I love her smirk hehe (which I fail to do)

There's also a tutorial that I chose not to follow (credits to Elisa)

This is the music video teaser that had me captivated by Hara's look, seen in the first 5 seconds:

And a few gifs from the MV:

The products that I used to achieve this look:

EOS Gray 307 Lenses

Gi & Gary Eyelashes B3 2L Black

Dolly Wink Eyelash Glue

ELES Signature Shadow Quad in Nouveau Riche

Essence I Love Runway Highlighter

Models Prefer Matte Black Kohl Pencil

Mimididi Flashing Diamond Powder Eyeshadow in 02

Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream in Light

Australis Eyeshadow Primer

Revlon Lipstick in 070 Soft Nude

Maybelline Colour Whisper in 95 Mad for Magenta

Natio Rich Colour Creme Gloss in Passion

Benefit Fake Up Concealer in Medium

Diamond Blush

Shiseido Eyelash Curler

Dolly Wink Eyebrow Pencil in 3 Dark Chocolate

Heroin Make Smooth Liquid Eyeliner

Maybelline The Mega Plush Volum'Express Waterproof in Very Black

I wore gold and black just like Hara

 These were the only grey lenses that I had

I want to quickly showcase the eyeshadow quad that I used to create my smokey brown eyes. It is from the brand ELES which you may be familiar with if you're a frequent reader of my blog:

ELES Signature Shadow Quad in Nouveau Riche

RRP $99.00 AUD

The reason why I love featuring ELES cosmetics on my blog is because they're great quality and is a brand that I completely trust. They are cruelty-free and the formula of all of their mineral makeup products are superb. These eyeshadows are hypoallergenic, oil-free, talc-free, dye-free,  and fragrance-free! I love that they are also packed with vitamins A, C and E to condition and protect the delicate eye area so that you can be sure not to experience any irritations and that this product is safe to use on all skin types.

The application is smooth and gives a velvety finish. They were a breeze to blend together to create the smokey look. With some eyeshadows, it is a must to wear eyeshadow primer underneath however with these ones, it wasn't necessary for me to wear primer because even with the swatches without primer underneath, they stayed on well.

Also, I liked how they are shimmery but not too shimmery. The amount of shimmer is perfect for me and the brown shade was great to use not only as eyeshadow but also for contouring!

A golden smokey brown with a hint of orange

 

The ombre lips was a bit of a challenge for me but it was quite a lot of fun to try out!

I did my best with accessorising with items that I already had at home to go with the look

Studded, dangly earrings and hair up in a messy low bun

 I also used these easy stick-on nails that had gold patterns

Overall I enjoyed recreating this look and I hope to see more K-pop artists with dazzling eye makeup. I've missed doing these inspired looks - it's been a while since I've see an artist's look that I've really admired.

 What did you think of my look?

Questjen of the week:

 Do you like seeing inspired makeup looks?

It doesn't just to have be from me but from anyone. Though I'd like to hear your thoughts on whether you enjoy seeing these types of posts from me, especially since it's been ages since I last did one! Should I do more of them? Or do you have any suggestions? Please let me know :D

❤ Jen xx

Disclaimer: ELES product provided for consideration. This is not a sponsored post. I am not affiliated with any of the companies/products mentioned.