REVIEW: Maybelline Pure Mineral Concealer

Hey there,
So today I thought I would write up this review of the Maybelline Pure Mineral Concealer that you can find at pretty much any pharmacy here. It's available in two shades, 01 (lightest shade) and 02 (darkest shade):

Left: 02, Right: 01

As you can see 02 is an almost perfect match to my skin tone, whereas 01 is way lighter. I can use 01 as an overall face highlight or undereye concealer only.

Pros: 

-This concealer is very easily accessible, you can find it in most pharmacies like Watsons or Guardian. Also, its cheap!

-In terms of the texture, the concealer is nice and creamy, and it blends easily and nicely into the skin. 

-I feel like the coverage is pretty damn good, and it can cover up all my acne scars very well. 

-The finish of the concealer is not 100% matte, but it's a very natural finish which I like a lot. 

-It doesn't have any scent to it, which is good too. 

-The wear time on this is great, it will stay on your face all day if you set it with a powder like I do. I have quite oily skin and I wear this to class everyday, and it's still working it's magic when I come back in the evening!

The concealer blended. You can't even tell I have anything on my hand!

Cons:
-This concealer will crease if you don't set it pretty quick, but I guess that's normal for most concealers.
-Also, I feel like this will emphasise any dry patches you might have on your face, so stay away if you have dry skin.


So in conclusion (if you couldn't tell by the way this review is going), I reallyyyyy like this concealer. I've been using it for around a year and it hasn't failed me yet. It's a good match for my skin, I like how it feels and how it blends, it's affordable, and most importantly, it actually covers! Love it, and will definitely recommend it.

You can find this concealer at any Watsons or Guardian pharmacies near you, or online here or here. It's normal price is RM21 which is cheap already, but I always find it on sale for RM15-17!

Thanks for reading!

Mitsui Outlet Experience + Sasa Haul & Mini Reviews!

Heylooo there,

So the other day me and my family went to Mitsui Outlet Park near KLIA because it was my mom's birthday and she wanted a little shopping treat for herself, so we drove all the way there (which took around 40 minutes).

It was my first time there so I was excited because I keep hearing people say how cheap the things are! The place was bigger than I expected and there were quite a few stores in there, ranging from clothes, shoes and kids stuff to kitchenware, makeup and fragrances, etc etc. One thing I was a little disappointed by was the not-so-good selection of places to eat. Hopefully they'll open more restaurants in the future.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the place so I can't show you, but it was alright, it looked like any other mall to be honest. Now I had heard that there was a store there selling cheap Mac and Bobbi Brown products and stuff like that, so I hunted around and found it. It was called the Company Cosmetics Store, and they had a few higher end brands in there that were selling for cheaper than retail. They had some limited edition Mac products in there, like a couple of things from the Toledo collection and a selection of eyeshadows from the Wash and Dry collection. They also had a bunch of Paint Pots, single eyeshadows, Cremesheen lipsticks, foundations, etc. But, me being a broke college student I can't afford any of those, even after the discount, so I left the store empty handed.

Next stop was Sasa! Now this was a store that I could actually afford to buy stuff in lmao. They had a loooooot of sheet masks in there, a bunch of skincare products and nail polish, and the makeup section wasn't too shabby. Not to mention that all the things there were cheap! I found a little table full of products by The Balm and got excited, but a lot of those products were opened, swatched, dirty, broken, and generally gross so I mostly stayed away. I did, however, grab their Overshadow in the shade Work Is Overrated. This retailed for RM59, but I got it for RM20! But as you can see by the packaging, the colours are faded on the box and this expires in 7 months time, so it must be pretty old.

But nevertheless, it's still a beautiful taupe-y silver colour with multicoloured glitter in it. These Overshadows were meant to be eyeshadow toppers, so you're supposed to put them on top of any eyeshadow you already have on to add that extra bit of glitter and shimmer. Here's this swatched so you can see what I'm talking about:

The left swatch is without a base, and the right one is over a black base. The left picture is in direct light whereas the right picture is not. (Can you tell I'm in a bathroom? lol)The colour shows up a lot better over the black base than it does on it's own. To be honest if you put it on on it's own, you'll only be able to see bits of glitter and not much colour to it at all. Also, as you can see from the two pictures in direct light the Overshadow appears almost opaque, but when its not then you almost can't see it at all. 

Here's a macro shot of the glitter. As you can see, its mostly a taupe-y silver base, with green, purple and silver reflecting glitter. Super pretty!

Next up are some sheet masks! I obviously had to grab some because they were 4 for RM10 so helloooo, I ain't stupid enough to pass up on that deal. I grabbed these 4:

I grabbed the Aloe and Cucumber Essence Mask from Skinlite, the Pearl Facial Mask from Sasa's house brand Sasatinnie, and also a Green Caviar Hydrating Face Mask from Sasatinnie as well. 

Since I've tried 3 out of the 4 I got, I can give y'all some little reviews so you know which to get and which to skip. 

1. Aloe Essence Mask from Skinlite

This is the first one I tried and all I can say is it was aite. The texture of the liquid inside was nice, it wasn't too runny or too thick, so it sat nicely on my skin. If I'm not mistaken it had a pleasant, skin care-y sort of smell to it so that wasn't bad. All-in-all, it was okay. I'm not wowed by it, it didn't particularly hydrate my skin or anything, it was just okay.

2. Pearl Facial Mask by Sasatinnie

This one tho. SKIP THIS. The liquid on the mask was soooooo runny, it was literally dripping off my chin. And all the product from the top of the mask near my forehead would flow downwards because it was so runny and drip off, resulting in the upper part of the mask not being as wet as the lower half which sucked. Also, the scent! It had a really strong scent, kinda like Arabian oud which I did. not. like. at. all. There were no changes at all to my skin, no hydration, nothing. The liquid kinda just disappeared when I took the mask off, unlike some other masks where the liquid would kinda act like a moisturiser and sit on your skin which I liked. Also, the shape of the mask made it really hard to stay on my skin and it kept trying to slide off. DO NOT BUY THIS ONE. 

3. Green Caviar Hydrating Face Mask by Sasatinnie

On the opposite end of the scale, this mask I LOVED. The product on the mask felt super rich and gooey and moisturising, the shape and cutting of the mask made it really comfortable and it stuck very well to my face. It doesn't have a scent which I don't mind at all. The only negative thing I have to say about it was that when I put it on it kind of irritated my face and stung a little? But that could have been my own skin's fault for being dry. But! What I also love about this one is the fact that it makes my skin feel amazing after taking it off! I massaged the excess product into my skin after taking the mask off, and it feels really nice and absorbs well. My skin feels sooooo soft and smooth and moisturised, its amazing. I would definitely, definitely repurchase this one!

So the last things I picked up were nail polishes! I got a couple Sally Hansen nail polishes, they were 50% off the prices shown below so they were RM7-8 a pop! The colour selection was enormous, there was a whole table to dig through of different brands and colours. I picked up the two below, both of which are stunning and I could not resist getting them.

The one on the left is in the shade Pacific Blue and on the right is Emerald City. But of course, the downside was that these are really old and are gonna expire this year, but to be honest I don't really mind. 

I put on Emerald City and I am so freaking obsessed with how gorgeous this colour is!

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So this concludes this haul. Overall, I'm quite happy with what I got this time around, and I would definitely repurchase a couple of these things! So if you haven't been to Mitsui Outlet Park you should definitely check out the Sasa in there for cheapy items, you won't regret it ;) Thanks for reading!

REVIEW: Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks!

Hello there!
A week or so back, dollskill.com was having a one-day only free worldwide shipping promo on their website, so OBVIOUSLY I had to jump in and get some stuff! Their international shipping usually costs around $30 which is ridiculously expensive if I were to just buy one or two items >.<

I knew that they carried Jeffree Star Cosmetics, so those were the only things I was bothering to look at in their store (unless I'm secretly interested in getting nipple stickers or marijuana-print socks, you never know). The liquid lipsticks were USD$18 each, and since shipping was free that made them around RM80 each, which was a bargain! Instagram shops and Carousell sellers usually had them for around RM90-100 a pop, so that was what I told myself to justify this expensive purchase hehe

So initially I only wanted to purchase one lipstick, because obviously i'm a broke-ass student and I can't afford to buy more than one without having to starve myself until my next allowance comes in (for point of reference, the price of one Jeffree Star liquid lipstick can comfortably pay for my meals for a week 😬). Also spending 80 bucks on a lipstick was going into my personal book of records as my most expensive makeup purchase ever. Buttttt I was undecided between Celebrity Skin and Doll Parts and put both in my cart, and ended up accidentally getting both. Oops. No ragrets

Anyway, here are the beautiful, beautiful lipsticks:

Left: Celebrity Skin, Right: Doll Parts

Without flash. Top- Celebrity Skin, bottom- Doll Parts

With flash

Okay first of all, these colours are TO DIE FOR PRETTY. I love them. Doll Parts is like a dusty, darker version of a Barbie pink. I was initially a little hesitant to get Doll Parts because based on swatches I saw online, it looked like it would show up pretty bright on tanner skin like mine, and it does. I mean, it isn't obnoxiously bright or anything, just brighter than what I'm used to wearing, but I can still werk it 💁🏻 Another reason why I almost didn't get it was because its online swatches looked really similar to Colourpop's Clueless liquid lipstick, which I already owned. But upon comparing them irl, they are definitely way different. I love it so much more than I thought I would. 

And do I even have to talk about Celebrity Skin? It's a cult favourite for a reason. It's a beautiful warm brown nude that will suit sooooo many different skin tones, including mine. I can definitely see myself reaching for this a whole lot in the future. 

The formula of these remind me a lot of Colourpop's Ultra Matte Lips in terms of consistency. But how they sit on your lips is definitely different than CP's. These are more comfortable, and I don't mind these so much because I tend to forget I even have them on. These didn't dry completely matte on me, they stayed a wee bit tacky but I liked that. I'm not much of a fan of matte lipsticks in general tbh, and after wearing these for a few hours my lips would start to feel a bit dry and crackly, but then again it happens with every lipstick I wear so it's not much of an issue.

So, was this worth spending most of my monthly allowance on? The answer is definitely yes. Would I purchase more in the future? Yes, but only if I get as good a deal as I did this time (and also when Androgyny comes back in stock). I would definitely recommend y'all snap these up, especially Doll Parts because it's a limited edition holiday colour and once it sells out, it ain't ever coming back. So my verdict? 8 out of 10 lipstick emojis 💄

Listening to: pre-2012 Justin Bieber and life has never been better

REVIEW: Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge

Hey guys,

What I have for y'all today is a little review on this here sponge from Real Techniques. I read reviews that this was an amazing sponge and everyone needs it in their lives etc etc, so I decided to go out and purchase it to see what all the fuss was about. Read on for the review...

Okay so I think the reason why this sponge is so well-known is because apparently, it's a really good dupe for the Beauty Blender. But since I don't own a Beauty Blender and I never will because I would never pay that much money for a sponge, I decided to give this one a try instead. Here's what it looks like:

It's orange, and it's got a pointed bit at the top and a flat bit at the other end, which I think is pretty useful when putting on foundation or concealer on certain areas of your face. The sponge is pretty small initially, but after soaking it in some water it expands quite a bit and gets so much softer and spongier.

Before adding water

After the h2o magic

So to test this out, I put a little bit of my foundation on the back of my hand and used the Miracle Complexion sponge to blend it into my skin. And I have to say, I actually love the finish it gives! It looks super natural and like my actual skin, which is what I want my face to look like, not like I'm wearing a foundation mask (oh the horror)

Before blending

After (!!!!!)

Honestly, you can't even tell there's any foundation there at all.

So there are a couple different ways to blend out stuff with this sponge, either by just dragging the sponge around your face to blend foundation or by dabbing it onto certain areas that you wish, for better coverage. By dragging, the sponge sheers out your foundation, so even full coverage foundations won't look THAT full coverage. And that's not good to cover up all dem acne on my face, so what I do is drag it around first to make a nice base for my face and even out redness, then I would dab the sponge onto the areas of my face that need the most coverage, and it works pretty well that way.

You can also use this sponge to apply cream products like cream blushes, contour, highlight, pretty much anything that you want tbh

So all in all, I am very happy with this sponge and I can no longer live without it. It's become a staple to my daily makeup routine and I am very glad that I decided to give it a shot. So bottom line is: I love it and I think everyone should give this a try, especially because it really is very inexpensive compared to the Beauty Blender. So if you're like me and you're a cheapskate who can't afford to fork out $$$ for a high-end sponge, settle for this instead and you'll get results just as good. Check out this product on Real Techniques' website here. Until next time...

REVIEW + SWATCHES: NYX Butter Glosses

Hey guys,

So recently I ordered these 4 Nyx Butter Glosses:

These were my first NYX products everrrr and it's crazy that it took me this long to try them out seeing as they have an incredible amount of hype around their products!

I got four glosses, in the shades Creme Brûlée (which is a pinky nude), Red Velvet (obviously, a bright red), Merengue (a light purply-pink), and Peaches and Cream (which is a bright ass peachy pink).

These glosses have a doe foot applicator like in the picture below, which gives you a good amount of product, not too much or too little.

Okay, first thing about these glosses is the smell! They smell absolutely incredible, like vanilla cake batter and I have to hold myself back from licking it all off my lips haha they smell so good. These glosses are decently pigmented, I find that the most pigmented one is Red Velvet where I would only need one swipe for a ton of colour. Red Velvet is the only gloss in the swatches below where I only did one swipe on my hand, the rest needed 2-3 swipes to show up that much on my skin. They are smooth and really glossy, but they don't feel uncomfortable on the lips which is awesome.

My favourite colour out of the bunch is Creme Brûlée, because its super wearable, its such a pretty nude colour that I can wear with any outfit or look. Unfortunately it doesn't show up much if I wear it alone on my lips (because my lips have a dark pigmentation), so I would have to wear a lipliner or lipstick beneath it. Same goes to Merengue, because my lips are dark it doesn't show up so well which is sad.

 I ordered these off of cherryculture.com because they were having like a crazy sale and these were only $1.50 USD each (but last time I checked, they stopped selling those and now they're upgrading their website, so check back often to see when they're reopening!). But these retail for $6 I think, and in Malaysia it's something around RM25 at Sephora (I can't remember the exact price though so don't quote me on that)

So all-in-all, I love these glosses for adding a touch of colour and gloss to my lips, I love the colours and the smell, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to try these out.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road

Hey guys,
So yesterday I fiNALLY went to the cinema to watch Mad Max: Fury Road, which I was looking forward to for so long because every single person who's watched it said that it was incredible, amazing, etc., etc. Do I agree with them, or did I think the movie was a load of shite? Read on to find out...

The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where the dry, hot desert is home to thousands of people, thirsty and desperate, given up on hope of a better life. Who would control their water supply but their nasty leader, Immortan Joe, who, besides looking like a Halloween costume gone wrong, is self-absorbed and pretty possessive over his numerous wives. Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, smuggles his five wives away on a mission to get to 'The Green Place', where they envision nature, greenery, and freedom. Once Immortan Joe discovers his missing wives, him, along with hundreds of his evil cronies, set out on their crazy awesome cars, bikes, and monster trucks, to hunt Furiosa down and bring his wives back. Mad Max (Tom Hardy a.k.a. bae) somehow gets involved in the process and helps Furiosa and the others escape from the evil clutches of Immortan Joe, along with Nux (Nicholas Hoult, also bae), one of Joe's ex-henchmen-turned-good, in hopes of them leading a better life away from the toxic wasteland they've been calling home. 

First off, I LOVE THIS MOVIE. The action and special effects are incredible, I couldn't get enough. I was literally so hyped up when watching this, my heart was racing. The desert setting was desolate and beautiful, perfect as a background to this story (that one part with the dust storm was breathtaking). The accompanying music was really cool, it goes perfectly with whatever was happening onscreen at the time, especially during the more high-octane action parts (also, the fucking guitar maestro strapped up to his wall of speakers and non-stop playing metal riffs that would've blown your brains out of your skull if you were there in front of him? Need I say more?)

Besides the fact that both Tom Hardy and Nicholas Hoult were in this (infinite heart eyes), the star of the show was, for sure, Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Like seriously, she pulled off her character amazingly well. She was brave, strong, intelligent, and bad-fucking-ass. Tbh Max felt more of like a supporting character, and Furiosa was basically running the show here. The wives, too, were awesome in their respective roles, not to mention freaking stuNNING. Seriously, they were all so pretty I could die. 

I can't recall watching this good of an action movie in recent memory, so if you're into action/adventure/fire/explosions/etc, I would definitely recommend checking this one out. I'd give this one a 9/10. LOVED IT

Until the next one,
Alani

HAUL + MINI REVIEWS: Drugstore makeup #1

Hello there,
As promised (for once), I will be writing about all the stuff I got from the drugstores here in Istanbul (because I'm studying here for a bit btw). I definitely spent waaaaay too much money from my allowance on these things than I should have (oops), but for the record, I didn't buy all these things in one go, this is a culmination of a few trips to the pharmacy/drugstore.

Funny story about hauls, I used to be really clueless as to why people make haul videos on youtube and why people even bother watching someone show off all the things they bought, but now I'm sort of obsessed with hauls and I'm interested in seeing what people pick up in stores and stuff. Hence why I'm making this post, for the people out there who are nosey and curious like I am haha

Anyway, on to the products!

Note: I do apologize for the horrific quality of these pictures, but the lighting was terrible so I had to make do with what I got. Because of that, the colours of some of these products aren't accurate to how they actually are irl, even though I tried to edit them to make them as accurate as possible. I'll put a note next to the ones that aren't colour-accurate, because I know how important looking up colours of products online are lol

Starting off with the face products, here's what I got:

1. Rimmel Wake Me Up concealer in the shade '010 Ivory'

My plan for the Rimmel concealer was to use it as a highlight, hence why I bought it in the lightest shade there was in the store. But to my dismay upon reaching home and opening up the tube (because there weren't any testers in-store), I found that it was just sliiiightly lighter than the colour of my foundation, so that's not gonna work as well as I hoped. Rimmel's infamously poor colour choices strike again! Also, because my skin is a damn oil slick, I'm not too fond of the finish of this concealer, because it dries dewy. I'm more on the matte finish bandwagon for anything that's going on my face.

2.Wet N Wild Coverall concealer in the colour 'Medium'

The Wet N Wild concealer is pretty much a perfect match for my skin tone though, so I'm excited to try it out. The coverage seems decent, but not as good as my Collection Lasting Perfection one. Idk, I'd have to test it out more to make a good judgement of it. I might do a drugstore concealer comparison post in the future, who knowsss

3. Essence Silky Touch Blush in the shade '70 Kissable'

I loooooove the Essence blush because it really suits my medium, warm Asian skin tone. As long as I don't put a ton of it on (like I accidentally did today oops) it gives my skin a nice, natural-looking flush. If I were to wear a light pink blush it would most probably look hideous and fake af on me, hence why I like this one. The blush itself is really pigmented and the colour is beautiful, so I'm definitely a fan of this.

4. Wet N Wild Mega Glo Illuminating Powder in 'Starlight Bronze'

The Wet N Wild Mega Glo is a shimmery bronzer with 4 strips of different colours which you unfortunately can't see too clearly in the picture. The shades are more red-toned, so if I swirled my brush around in all four colours and slap it on my face, I tend to look kind of like a lobster because my face is already pretty warm-toned to begin with and the warmness in the bronzer doesn't help. But if I use the two least red-toned colours only, I end up with a nice, glowy bronze.

5. Rimmel Stay Matte Long Lasting Pressed Powder in '001 Transparent'

And lastly, the Rimmel Stay Matte powder. This is a repurchase, and I'm sure you've heard about this powder from someone or other. I just use it to mattify my face once I start getting shiny (which is pretty fast tbh). I also own this in the colour '006 Warm Beige' (I think), and that one is a good match for my skin tone. Honestly, I don't think this powder is THAT great because my oiliness shines through on my face pretty quickly with it on anyway, but that might just be because of my freakishly oily skin.

For the eyes, I got:

1. Wet N Wild Coloricon eyeshadow palette in 'The Naked Truth' (the colour in the picture for this one is slightly off to it's irl colour'

Okay, so about the Wet N Wild eyeshadow palette. The colours are pretty, ranging from light colours for highlight and darker ones for definition (though its weird that there's that one cool-tone shade out of all the warm ones), and I love that they're labelled with 'highlight', 'brow bone' 'eyelid', etc., but these will barely show up/stay on without a primer on yo eyelids. I mean, I don't really mind it for the price I'm paying for this. So if y'all were thinking about getting this, remember that you'll need to prime first if you want maximum colour payoff.

2. Essence single eyeshadow in the shade '19 The Grammy Goes Glammy'

I got the Essence eyeshadow to use as a highlight on my cheekbones (don't know why I got that idea, seeing as it'll make my face look way shinier than it already is), and it actually works pretty well for that purpose. The colour is a super duper pretty white champagne-y kinda colour, and the feel of this is really nice and smooth. This has tons of glitter in it so its ideal to use as an inner corner highlight as well.

3. Maybelline 24Hr Color Tattoo in the shades '35 On And On Bronze' and '05 Eternal Gold' (Eternal Gold in this picture isn't accurate to its irl colour aT ALL, in person its just a straight-up gold)

Do I really need to talk about the Maybelline Colour Tattoos? Or am I just getting lazy rn? Im sure you've heard everyone and their moms raving about these, and yes I too have joined in their ranks because these things are the bomb.com. They're super creamy and glittery and pretty, the colour payoff is amazing, and these. won't. budge. These are perfect to use as a base for other eyeshadows as well. I apply these with my finger because I find that's the easiest and works better than a brush. Just slap these on your eyelids for a wash of colour if you're feeling lazy and you are good to go.

4. NYC Liquid Eyeliner in 'Black/Noir'

I heard someone on youtube (can't remember who, might've been KathleenLights) raving about this eyeliner, so I knew I had to try it. I have had some not-so-good experiences with liquid eyeliners in the past, so I had high hopes for these. They're actually not too bad. My one major problem with eyeliners is them transferring to my bottom eyelid and making me look like a raccoon after a few hours, but these don't transfer too much (there still is a little tho). Admittedly, I've only used this once so I'll have to wear it more to be sure.

5. Rimmel Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer in 'Noir'

6. Rimmel Volumeflash Scandaleyes Mascara in the colour 'Extreme Black'

Okay so I got the Rimmel mascara and eyeliner in a set where I basically got the eyeliner for free, and even though I didn't need another mascara or eyeliner, I couldn't resist the bargain (when can I ever). I didn't have high hopes for the mascara, but it managed to exceed my expectations. It volumizes and holds my eyelash curl (which is cool because my eyelashes are thin and stick-straight), and it doesn't budge throughout the day, even after washing my face. The eyeliner is nice and creamy, and claims to be waterproof. I love that they have a smudger bit at the end so I can smudge out the line and make it smoky. I've read so many good reviews about this online, so I'm excited to give it a shot.

Surprisingly I only got two things when it comes to lip products, because lip stuff is my favourite thing on earth and lipstick makes my life complete. I got the Wet N Wild Megalast Liquid Lip Color in the shades 'Pocketful Of Roses' and 'Cherry On Top'. (Btw, the colours of these are slightly darker irl than is showing in these pictures.) Okay, I'll save my opinion on these for a separate post because loRD DO I HAVE SOME STRONG OPINIONS ON THESE. If you've heard about/used these before, then you'll probably know what I'm talking about.

And lastly I got this set of travel-size brushes with a handy-dandy pouch from a brand called Eklips, who I've never heard of before. These brushes were reaaaaally affordable, so I wasn't expecting too much in terms of quality but boy was I wrong. These brushes are amazing. They're super soft, not a single hair (hair? do you call them hair?) has shed from any of these after a couple weeks' use, and I am very impressed. Imma be checking out their other brushes for sure.


I bought all these products either from Gratis or from Watson's here in Istanbul, but I'm know you can find most (if not all) of these in other parts of the world too. Unfortunately, I think the makeup brushes are only available in Turkey. I've linked pretty much all of the products to websites that ship worldwide, so you can purchase these online no matter where you live.

So that is it for my haul this time around. Overall I'm happy with my purchases, and knowing me and my non-existent self control, another haul will be coming soon (even though I honest to God hope not). Sorry for the incredibly long post, but I hope you've enjoyed reading and stay tuned for my next post.

Until the next one,
Alani

MOVIE REVIEW: Lucy

Coming down from the high of seeing YMAS and just generally having a good time last week, I'm starting the month of September with a brand new semester of university, whoopee. I'm totally looking forward to writing three whole research papers this semester, of course I am, why wouldn't I be???

Anyway, I thought of doing this thing where I write stuff on this blog once a week at least, so I can sharpen those much needed writing skills and let these creative juices flow. I know that no one actually reads this, it's more for my own benefit than it is for people to enjoy.

Moving right along, I just watched the movie 'Lucy' a few hours ago, finally, and hmmmm.... it was... interesting, I guess? So I'll be doing a little review of it here and telling alls a'yalls what I thought about it, even though I don't actually know what I think about it.

To summarise, it was basically about a woman who accidentally got drugs in her system while trying to carry them overseas, and how those drugs increased her 'cerebral capacity' (which was a phrase said about every 10 freaking minutes in the movie), to the point where she was using 100% of her brain, because apparently human beings only use 10% of our minds (which is totally false btw). As her brain functions increased, she somehow developed abilities like being able to control her appearance, people, and objects around her, and even doing things like teleportation and time travel. And of course there are the bad guys trying to take the drugs (called CPH4 if I'm not mistaken) back from her to sell to the youths of Europe. Not gonna spoil it for anyone, but yeah, happy ending (I guess??).

To be honest, I don't really know what to feel about the movie. Like, it wasn't bad or anything, but it wasn't that great either. Scarlett Johansson was pretty good in her lead role as Lucy, and the premise of the movie was interesting, if not totally illogical. I felt like her 'powers' were slightly over exaggerated though, especially towards the end when she was reaching her full brain capacity. Yeah, I get that she's hyper-aware of everything around her and stuff but how does that give her the ability to go back billions of years in time?? Who knows.

One of the parts that I enjoyed was when she, for some unknown reason, travelled to space for a bit and watched the earth being formed, just because I really like space and the galaxy and stuff like that, so that was nice to see. But besides that I can't really think of any other parts that I particularly enjoyed, and based on the fact that I can't remember any specific scene that stood out to me probably shows something about how I felt about the movie.

So if you were looking to watch Lucy, go ahead. It was alright. I'm just mainly confused probably. Depends what you're into, I guess. I'll give it 3 out of 5 bags of CPH4.

listening to: One Man Wolf Pack - Marmozets

So you, me, at six? (A concert in review)

It was the 2nd of September 2014, a fine Tuesday that I had been looking forward to for months. I saw a band that I've been wanting to see live for quite some time, You Me At Six, at KL Live, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was pretty swell. And on top of their stellar performance, I got to meet them after the show and that was super great too. I'm writing all this down so I won't forget anything, so yeahh

We arrived at the venue pretty early, around 4pm. Waited around, got my meet-and-greet wristband, waited some more, and were finally let into the stage area at 7-ish. Around 7.30, local band Tres Empre opened the show, playing 6 or 7 songs. They were good, the singer's got some impressive pipes and I loved that the drummer was just going hard. Then another half-hour wait for the band everyone came to see, until finally, the lights dimmed, dark figures appeared onstage, and the crowd started flipping their shit.

The opening chords of 'Too Young To Feel This Old' rung out and singer Josh Franceschi started belting out the lyrics, the audience singing along to every word. They played a set of 15 songs, Josh succeeding in commandeering the audience like only the best of frontmen can. There was lots of terrible (but not really) dancing, clothes hastily being taken off, ears left ringing from the shrill screaming of teenage girls losing their minds, headbanging, and in my case, sweaty but pleasant hand-holding. Chris Miller, a.k.a. Chewy, stage left for YMAS, and Max Helyer, also guitarist for the band, played every note perfectly, Matt Barnes, bassist, held it down with his impeccable playing, and Dan Flint, drummer, gave everyone that incredibly loud beat they were craving. They played some of their more well-known songs, like the angsty 'Loverboy', the classic 'Stay With Me' and 'Underdog', 'Reckless' (cue the stripping), and 'Bite My Tongue' (having hundreds of people angrily screaming "Fuck you!" is always fun).

Everything was going fine and dandy, until Josh probably tried to do some dance move a little bit too enthusiastically and twisted his ankle. The band finished off their show with Josh having to succumb to sit at the front of the stage instead of leaping around like a wild animal due to his injury. They ended with the anthemic 'Lived A Lie', the crowd's rousing chant of "We are believers" making me feel incredibly proud of this little band from all the way across the world, and how much I felt like I belonged and connected with every single person in the room. The band walked (or limped) victoriously off the stage for a great show having been played, and I'm sure everyone in attendance thought the same too.

And now more waiting, as I went in line for the meet-and-greet. There were around 25 people queued up with me, trying to keep our heads cool before meeting one of the biggest rock bands in Britain. Concert posters were given out in line for the band to sign, and everyone got their CDs, pieces of paper, and drawings ready to be scribbled on by the five members of YMAS. The meet-and-greet went on in groups of six, except for mine, because we were last, hence there being seven of us. The m&g coordinator rushed us in with continuous barks of 'Hurry up, hurry up!". The band were probably exhausted and needed some well-deserved rest, so everyone was just trying to get this over with quick.

I walked in, a ball of nerves and excitement (obviously), and nervously placed all five things I wanted them to sign on the table. "Sorry I have so many things for you guys to sign," I said apologetically, laying out the two ticket stubs, CD booklet, guitar strap and humongous poster onto the table. "It's alright," Chris said with a laugh as he got on with the autographing. Max stopped me for a second, asking about the guitar strap I had him sign. "Is this a real Tom Delonge strap?" he asked curiously, examining the strap in question. "Oh no, my friend made that himself," I said, to which he replied "Oh that's cool, it looks really good!". I finally reached Josh, sitting with his injured leg propped up on a chair, ice on his ankle. "Josh, are you alright?" I asked, worried that he'd be in a lot of pain. "No, I'm not," he said with a grimace, "I'm going to have my leg cut off. I don't know why, they're making me cut my leg off from the knee down." (Cue awkward laughter from me because I was absolutely speechless at the fact that I was having a conversation with Josh fucking Franceschi) "Yeah, you just witnessed the last ever You Me At Six show," he said with a shrug. "Well, I'm lucky then," I laughed, thanking him for the signatures. I grabbed my stuff, and somehow managed to sneak a quick selfie with each member of the band before a group photo was taken, and I left, giddy at the fact that I had just met a band I've loved for years.

Well, that was my You Me At Six experience, and all-in-all, it was pretty freaking amazing. I can't wait for the boys to come down again so I can do this whole thing once more. YMAS, you guys played one hell of a show that I definitely won't forget, and Josh, get better ASAP, and hopefully no one would have to amputate any of your limbs.

listening to: Too Young To Feel This Old - You Me At Six

REVIEW: Essence Colour & Go Nail Polish

Hey guys,

So I said I was gonna start doing reviews of things, though I didn't expect to start off with nail polish. I was thinking more along the lines of TV shows, books, albums, etc etc, but lately I've been super into beauty products and reading other people's reviews on their own blogs, so I thought I might as well give it a shot.

So the polish I have for you today is the Colour & Go polish by Essence. Essence is an European brand that does all kinds of beauty products that (according to reviews at least) are more than good enough for the minimal price tag. I found this brand in a local pharmacy (Watson's, for any fellow Malaysians out there who are curious) and have never noticed them before, so I wanted to give it a try. Yes, most of the makeup products were really cheap and I love the packaging of some of them, so I'll buy some more for sure next time I go to the pharmacy.

Aaaaanyway, onto the actual polish. The shade I picked was 122 Chic Reloaded. It caught my eye bc I've always wanted duo chromes in my little nail polish collection and the colour looked super pretty. It's a purple to green duochrome but in different lighting it could look like a purple to dark grey.

The polish was super opaque, and you could just use one coat if you wanted, but I put on two to smooth over some patchiness. I absolutely love the colour, and I'll definitely be buying more from Essence. It costed RM7.90 which I thought was pretty cheap for a drugstore nail polish. 

You can find all Colour & Go nail polish colours here.

-all opinions are my own & i was not paid to write this-