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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My 21st Birthday Gifts ♥

Hello! I am now officially a 'legal' adult all over the world - that's right, I've turned 21! In Australia it's not such a big deal (but then again, it kind of is with all the 21st birthday parties) compared to other countries because the legal age here is 18, however I thought that this would be a great opportunity to have a celebration with friends, seeing as most of them have had or are having their 21st birthday celebration. There are many friends who I don't get to see often due to our daily commitments so these birthday dinners and parties give us a chance to catch up :)

I had 3 birthday celebrations/outings this year - with the boyfriend on the day of my birthday (Thursday), with my girls the day after my birthday, and with my family on the following day. 3 days in a row of celebrating ^^

I took photos on the night with friends and I was thinking of sharing them but for privacy reasons I decided not to. Instead here is one of me with my birthday cake.

Yay!

I'm so glad I decided to do something for my 21st with my friends. About a year ago, I would've said I wasn't going to do anything. If you know me well, you'd know that I'm a very simple girl who doesn't like to over-complicate things and easily gets flustered among a large group of people, haha, which was why I wasn't keen on having a '21st'. It's probably got to do with my introverted-ness and mild social anxiety that made me not want to be the centre of attention for a celebration. I usually celebrate birthdays with my boyfriend/family and that's about it. In the end I decided to invite my closest girl friends with 15 of us on a table for a casual dinner. I don't mind attending events with lots of people, they can be quite fun but if I'm the star of the show, I'd rather be around less people. Anyway, I was happy with how the night turned out and I loved seeing everyone!

Just thought I'd share some of the lovely gifts that I received. Perhaps they'll give you some ideas of what to get for an upcoming 21st (I've got a few coming up). To make things easier, I'll group them by their category:

Electronic devices

I guess I could say that I'm a bit of a tech girl, I love new technology and gadgets. Whether it's a new camera, tablet or music device, these are popular choices for friends who want to chip-in for a valuable gift.

My dad bought me a new phone and this was the first gift I received for my 21st. With my current phone contract expiring in less than two months (Galaxy S2), it's the perfect time to receive a new phone for an upgrade and I'm extremely happy to have gotten latest Galaxy model. I can't wait to start using it!

Jewellery:

Jewellery is the perfect gift for any feminine and elegant female. I adore jewellery, especially classy/dainty pieces like the ones above. Currently I'm obsessing over rose gold and anything that sparkles!

Fragrances:

I see fragrances/body gift packs as quite typical gifts which I have gifted to friends before but haven't done so for a long time, and probably won't again because I personally don't like gifting people fragrances... but that doesn't mean I don't like receiving them - I am a-okay with it, as long as they smell nice :) Luckily the ones I've received do and they're pretty awesome.

Beauty products:

I'm a girly girl, I love all sorts of beauty products and I never feel as though I have enough! They can be so useful and handy. Also, gifted beauty/skincare products give me the opportunity to try new brands/items that have been missing from my collection. If I've used them before or have them already, it never hurts to have backups!

In case you were wondering what the black item is, it's a brush set! This was just what I needed *_*

And they're really good quality too!!

Bags/purses:

A girl can never have too many bags/purses, right? We pretty much need one for all different occasions (casual outings, dinner dates, cocktail parties, you name it) and it's great that we can easily switch between them. I'm definitely going to make use of these bags.

Chocolates:

You can't go wrong with chocolate unless... well, someone is allergic to them. But that's not the case with me and I've got a sweet tooth so I welcome yummy chocolates with open arms! You have every right to indulge in some choccies on your special day, and after your special day :)


The number '21'

These are great for memory's sake, simple as that. On the left is a '21' photo album to store all of this year's happy snaps. With cards, I prefer to receive ones that have an age at the front to help me remember which year it was for, when and if I look through my cards in the future. Having the age/year inside the card is good too :)

I just want to end this post by saying thanks for the well-wishes on my birthday and thanks friends for celebrating with me and for your beautiful gifts - I will cherish each and every one of them! And of course I will always cherish you guys too ;) I feel so blessed, appreciated and loved. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Questjen of the week:

Out of the categories above, which is your favourite type of gift?

For me it's definitely jewellery, since they're so versatile!

To any other May babies reading this, happy birth month :D I Can't believe the month is almost over, so quick!

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I update you, you update me - picture heavy

Hello, about time I blogged again. Let's make this a 'lifestyle' post where I share a bunch of recent events of mine with more pictures than words, okay? Okay, definitely not more pictures than words... because I'm always writing paragraphs.

If you know me well, you'd know that I am highly introverted and find outings to be very enjoyable yet at the same time, very exhausting - more mentally than physically. The past couple of weeks have been fairly exciting for me with lots going on, especially on the weekends (not partying). This weekend's a quiet one but next Saturday is... ABC! Adl Beauty Conference, the third one I'll be attending and as always I am super excited for it :} Then the following day I have a wedding to go to!

What has happened over the past couple of weeks...

September ABBM: The Body Shop Pamper Party/High Tea at Celeste's

It had been too long since I last attended a blogger meet (remember my last post about Benefit back in April? That was my last one before this one!) and aw, it was lovely seeing familiar faces again, and also the newer girls to ABBM.

 Becky, our Body Shop consultant for the party

Hand wash bowls to use before and after trying out The Body Shop products

We each brought along something sweet or savoury to share

I tried 'Champagne Rose' tea and it tasted quite nice. I am fond of tea hehe

Friends' 21st birthday sweets

October seems to be a popular month for birthdays - must be because they're the Christmas/new year babies haha! Since I have a sweet tooth, I'll just share the sweet stuff from the two birthdays that I attended this month:

For SJ's birthday. Salted Caramel Cheescake in a 'jar of yum' - Cocolat

For Z's birthday. A chocolate sponge cake from The Cheesecake Shop

Catch up with friends over tea, dinner and dessert

 With L. Teapot and teacups display at T2

Myself. Traditional floor seating at Matsuri

With L. Udon noodles with Tempura - Matsuri Japanese Restaurant

 With J, J and T. Waffle with strawberries and cream - Spats Coffee Lounge

Spoiling and splurging

I haven't shared this on any of my social platforms yet so this is new unlike the other pictures which I have shared on my Tumblr. My sweet boyfriend surprised me with something... something big...

Do you think you know what it is?

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More clues: something gold, something sparkly...

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something beautiful!

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 A rose gold watch with diamantes surrounding the face ❤

(is this what you thought it was? Not a sparkly gold ring with a huge diamond? :P)

I know it looks super gold in this picture but it must've been the yellow lighting from my room that made it look like that. I of course, love it and have always wanted a watch like this. It wasn't for any special occasion so you can probably imagine how surprised I was when he gave me this. I haven't worn it out yet but I will soon! Thank you dear.

After a stressful week of assessments I decided to splurge on one item that I had wanted for way too long. I shared it on my Twitter and Tumblr so it's definitely old news already - my compact SLR camera:

 Yay! HD photos and videos on the blog to come :D

I have no regrets after purchasing this and I wish I had gotten it sooner. I love how it has a 180-degree flip screen for selfies (as I like to call them, selcas) and for videos so I can see myself, because I have trouble looking and talking straight into a camera lens without knowing whether I'm centered and whether anything is out of place. I could just use a mirror but that's too much trouble for me!

From now on I will be using this camera for my blog pictures but I may still include photos from my phone. I am really happy to have finally invested in a high-quality camera.

Attending my first concert

Speaking of my new camera, I gave it a test run at my first concert last Saturday. Does anyone watch The Voice (Australia)? The winner of this year's season, Harrison, performed in my city for his national tour and his voice is incredible! Glad I had the opportunity to hear and watch him sing live. Plus he's beautiful both inside and out - amazing for a 19-year-old. His audition is a must-watch.

 With A. The Safety Curtain before the concert started

 With three spotlights on him, he shone like an angel x)

I also uploaded some videos of the songs that he sang from his album. Most of them are covers of popular ballads and ones that he performed while being on The Voice. Take a look at them if you want. Since it was my first time recording, the quality isn't the best:

Winners of my recent giveaway

Ah, saving the best for last. My giveaway where I asked you guys to ask me a questjen has ended and here are the winners picked randomly:

Also captured with my new camera, and on my old table...

Congratulations girls! I haven't got your email addresses so if your name is listed above, please email me at jennifer@questjen.com or comment below with your email address to claim your prize where I will send you an email :) However if I don't hear from you by next Wednesday, I will have to pick a new winner/s.

Thank you to those who participated and asked me some interesting questjens. I thoroughly enjoyed reading and replying to them! But just because the giveaway is over doesn't mean that there are no more opportunities to ask me questions - I'm happy to answer anything (as long as it doesn't cross the line), anytime.

I hope to blog again real soon but if I cannot, I will be updating my Twitter and Tumblr daily like usual. I need to practice my look for ABC and for a relative's wedding - eep so much excitement for one weekend!

So, my questjen for you is:

Before this year ends, what are you looking forward to the most?

Are you going to be graduating or becoming closer to reaching a goal?

Are you moving into a new home or making a new purchase?

For me, I'm looking forward to going overseas! Less than two months until I fly~

❤ Jen xx