Have You Met MUA?

Hi everyone,

I hope you guys are doing well and had a nice Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I spent my Black Friday in bed going through loops at Coastal Scents website. Two hours later and I could not even fit in my order. Que horrible! In the end, a friend came to my rescue and CP the things I wanted for me, phew!

Lately, I have been obsessed with this new find: Makeup Academy, have you heard of it? Apparently, it's like a better version of Eyes Lips Face (ELF) in U.K with products ranging from 1-5 pounds! I read the reviews, saw the swatches and then decided it's worth my salt. On top of that, once in a while, they offer a discount with free shipping!

After doing a lot of research, I found these items receive lots of rave from the internet. In case you want to make a haul from MUA, here is the short list:

• Palettes: Heaven and Earth and Undressed. At 4 pounds a pop, these palettes are perfect dupes of Urban Decay Naked and Naked 2 palettes for a fraction of the price. They go even cheaper when purchased in a sale event.
• Lipsticks: 16 shades, a pound a pop, pigmented but not dried out? Srsly, this is a makeup addict's dream came true. Even when you buy all 16 shades, they're still cheaper than a high-end lipstick.
• Blushers: they have a couple of options when it comes to blushes but I found the 1-pound blushers to be just as good.
• Brushes: they just came out with makeup brushes and from the look, I can tell these brushes are similar to ELF Studio but (probably) with better quality. Also, they have a stippling brush that looks like MAC 188.

It's hard not to go crazy when you browse MUA Store website. The products look good and from the internet searches, they also have good quality. On top of that, MUA has international shipping at reasonable price. This is something ELF no longer does and as much as I love ELF, I can no longer support it. But MUA is a different story. I have never heard a complaint of tardy shipping ever. And did I say their products are good? Seriously, British people, what are you doing? Why do you make us love you so?

Since I found out about Makeup Academy, I've had a big relief. Now, I can buy makeup at reasonable prices and have them ship to me as well. All I need is a new credit card and a lot of restraint to stop me from wiping out the whole store!

How about you? Have you met MUA?

With love,

Dao xoxo

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone,

First of all, I would like to say "Happy Thanksgiving!" to all my readers. I have been away from the U.S for 2 Thanksgivings now and I truly miss it. Looking back, this has been an amazing year to me. I got to cross out most of the things in my wish list and I got to travel to amazing places and meet amazing people as well. Needless to say, I am very happy.

On top of that, having this blog and getting a chance to interact with my readers have been wonderful as always. I can't help reflecting back on the days when I just opened this blog and how far I've come. It's a bit of a melodramatic cliché but it's true.

I would like to thank you, my readers, for all of your support. Also, props to the companies that sent products my way for testing and reviewing purposes, despite the geographical challenge. Also, to the editors at Elle and F-Fashion magazines for believing in me and giving me a chance to do what I love. Last but not least, to the beauty experts I got to interview this year. You guys have been awesome and I got to learn sooo much from you.

So happy Thanksgiving to all. May you have a restful day!

With love,
Dao xoxo


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Bling Eyes FOTD

Hi everyone,

I've wanted to put rhinestones around my eyes since forever. Yet, every time I tried it, the rhinestones did not seem to stick. I gave up but the dream did not die. Last week, I went to the cosmetic shop near my house just to browse and saw some flat-back rhinestones used to decorate nails. I bought a small pack, went home and gleefully glued a couple of them on the area underneath my lower lash line. To my surprise, the rhinestones held up really well, which prompted me to do a look and bling up my eyes!

Here is the result:

The makeup is the same as I did here, except I changed the lip color from bright pink to nude. I have to credit my success to the new eyelash glue that I bought recently. The wand makes applying glue to the rhinestones feel like a dream. Before, I had to dip each teeny tiny rhinestone into a puddle of glue, resulted in oversoaked rhinestones that failed to stick to my skin.

Full-frontal look
I was sweaty around the lips :P 

Detailed look of the eye
3 rhinestones on top, 4 at the bottom
Faux liner at the bottom to make it look like I have some bottom lashes :D

 Without the rhinestones, it's a very wearable and polished day-time look. The rhinestones just add more pizzazz to the whole getup, I guess.

Now that I can glue stuff to my face, I am very happy.

See? Happy!

With this new opportunity, I am going to incorporate more rhinestones to my makeup. A little bit of eyelash glue, a tweezer, and some rhinestones go a loooong way! Just make sure you are not allergic to the latex in your eyelash glue. If you do, just get a latex-free glue and it will solve your problem. (How to tell if you are allergic to latex: your skin will itch if you wear latex gloves or latex glue on your falsies!)

This is kind of a K-Pop look, don't you think? I love how clean and chic it is! While the rhinestones took forever to apply, it was all about the skin. I may do a how-to video on that in the near future. Just let me know if you want one.

With love,
Dao xoxo



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Must-Love Bags

Hi everybody,

When it comes to bags, you are going to see my anal-retentive self. I have to say I love bags but to go out and shop for one is a pain and a half for me. I remember going from one store to another and spending hours after hours just to look for an underarm bag to carry all my stuff. It got to a point that I would go by myself because going with friends means torturing them with my endless hours of trying on bags after bags after bags.

I'm this kind of person who has an idea of what I want when it comes to bags. But because fashion comes and goes, sometimes I can't get a bag that I suits my taste. For example, when those slouchy Balenciaga was popular a couple of years ago, all I wanted was something that looks like Tod's D-Styling Lavoro Shopper (#2 in the collage) but more affordable, of course! Needless to say, it didn't happen. And now, I'm kind of in the same boat when I need something roomy and nice but all I've seen so far are boxy bags.

Bags can be good investments, that's what I realized after spending money on cheap fashionable bags that go out of style after a short while. If you buy something classic and with good quality, not only can you use it for a long time, you can pass it on to your daughters and in turn, they can pass it on to theirs. Moreover, if you want to sell a vintage bag, chances are you'll get a good price for it, too.

These are my must-love bags. They are the ones I'm dreaming about once in a while. Granted, they are expensive but from my own experience, quality trumps all when it comes to bags.

1. Louis Vuitton Neverfull: as far as I've concerned, LV has become a cliche a long time ago. So many people wearing it makes it not so exclusive anymore. However, when it comes to a tote that you can carry to the grocery store and all, Neverfull trumps all as a luxury-branded bag. The Damier Ebene shading seems to be a popular choice than the monogram and believe me, this bag lives to its name. You can carry anything in it and look like a million bucks. It's an effortless chic kind of bag and after seeing Angelina Jolie wearing it, I know I need it in my life!

2. Tod's D-Style Lavoro Shopper: I have a thing for white bags, especially ones that is big enough to carry my paper stuff while looking classy. I know there are rules about wearing a white bag after a certain time of the year but honestly, I don't care. A white leather bag is high-maintenance, I know that part. But it does look tres chic and classy as well. On top of that, I've heard the quality of Tod's bags is amazing and I'm looking forward to the day when I look all classy and corporate and important with my white tote bag.

3. Alexander McQueen Black Envelope Clutch: one thing I've learned when it comes to party is you need to have a clutch. I've studied clutches like mad and one conclusion I've drawn is envelope clutches never go out of style. It can be retro, it can be modern, it can be modern while you do retro and vice versa. The envelope clutch is pretty and versatile and I need to have mine.

4. Chanel 2.55: this needs no introductions. It's the it bag and believe me, you'll look all class with this on your shoulders. Of course, it's expensive, very, very expensive. But for the life of me, I would buy one and treasure for the rest of my life. And with Chanel, you can be 25 or 75 to wear this bag. It doesn't matter. The 2.55 is in its own class, that's it.

5. Louis Vuitton Speedy 25 in monogram: the LV monogram canvas is as tacky as hell. However, the combination of monogram and Speedy in size 25 cm is a classic as it was requested by Audrey Hepburn. Being the smallest size in the Speedy category, it maintains the shape well and you don't see much of that annoying sag bigger sizes have. Like Chanel 2.55, Speedy 25 is a classic bag and it does go with everything. From jeans to suits to dress, you name it. Also, it does class up your outfit as well. The only time you can't use the Speedy with an outfit is when you wear a gown. But then, you'll have the Chanel for that :)

I've come to realized that when I wore my old bags, I liked them but I didn't love them. But with these guys, I have deep respect. They are made with high quality and they can last for a very long time. On top of that, brands like Chanel and LV do have good customer care to their products. If a handle breaks or a hinge goes loose, I know I can come to them and they'll fix it for me.

Another advantage of owning classic bags is they never go out of style. Bags like Chanel 2.55, LV Speedy and Hermes Birkin have been around for a while now and they are still very popular. I guess since I am such a pain when it comes to buying a new bag, owning classic ones is my own solution. That way, I can buy a bag and love them without thinking of what's next. That's kind of refreshing to me!

That's all for today, y'all. I do feel a lot better now and next week, I'm having something exciting in store. So stay tuned, alright?

With love,

Dao xoxo

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The Amazing Korean Setting Perm

Hi everyone,

Long time no see. Yeah, I've been sick like a dog thanked to a viral infection. Last week, I could barely sit up but today I feel a lot better. Still a little bit of swelling and marks here and there but at least I no longer have fever. Yeah, roseola is a pain in the you-know-what and I'm glad to come at the tail end of it!

But alas, I digressed. About 2 weeks ago, right before I got sick, I went out to get my first hair perm ever! Well, technically, I got my first perm when I was a kid but for some reasons, my hair did not take the perm solution and I ended up having straight hair. This time around, the L'Oreal Professionnel salon near my place had a perm sale. What was supposed to be a $50 chemical process only cost me 37 bucks. And that included a cut, wash, and style. Score!

Unlike the traditional type of perm where you have to soak your hair in those smelly and yucky perm solutions, Korean setting perm is quick and pretty much odorless. It is also the least maintenance perm that looks natural. Just think about Angelina Jolie's naturally wavy hair. Yup, the setting perm is going to give you awesome hair like that. It's like a straight haired girl's dream come true, you know.

So I settled down, got a quick consultation, and a hair wash before the fun began. First, a hair stylist applied a cream to the area she wanted to curl, which was from my ear down to the tip of my hair. Then, I waited for about 20-25 minutes for my hair to stretch before she washed it. After that, I had my Matrix moment: they hooked me into the machine, yo!

At one point, 3 people were working on my hair. They dried it before winding each section into the heat rods. Those rods are similar to your hot rollers but they are bigger and made of ceramics. Those hair ladies wound my hair really really tight and by the end, I had about 30 curls all over my head. They also put insulating pads over the rollers to make sure the hair is curled up nicely.

I felt like Lion King, if Simba chose to perm his hair and such. This was a moment before the nice hair lady came back with a couple sets of wires to hook me into the Matrix.

T

I don't know if you can see it or not but there were wires hanging out from each ceramic rod. These rods are like hot rollers on steroid! There's a place to hook it into the electricity. Once hooked, the rod will heat up the same way hot rollers do. The difference is I had to sit there and wait for 25 minutes while the heat cooked up my hair nice and crispy!

Really, I was kidding about the crispy part but yeah, it was incredibly hot and heavy. My head felt like it weighed a ton thanked to all the rods and wires. Luckily, 25 minutes went away pretty quickly and the hair techs came to unhook me from The Matrix. Then came the perm solution and I waited for another 10-15 minutes before I came to get the last rinse. Since my hair just got permed, the technician only washed my hair with water and conditioner. I got a quick face massage as a bonus.

Then, I got a haircut and 2 people simultaneously blew dry and styled the crap out of my hair. The total number of people who worked on my head that day was 6 and I paid 37 bucks. Not a bad deal after all!

Here's the end result, 2 weeks after I did the perm:

 Natural-looking wavy hair, yeah? And no, I didn't color my hair. That's my natural hair color with natural highlights and all :)

No, really. People may spend 200 bucks to have hair colored like that but I don't. That's how my hair really is. I spent about 2 years to color and highlighted the crap out of my hair to make it look like that but in actuality, it already does. That's why it's hard to convince me to color my hair these days. I already have the color that I want!

Cascading curls after cascading curls! It's official: I'm in love with my hair!

Ooh, shiny!

One thing I do notice is the staggering amount of volume I have after getting the perm. It's like I have twice the hair or something. On top of that, my hair does not feel damaged at all! The only change I have to live with is to set the hair in sponge curlers about 1/2 hour before going to bed. But that's not mandatory as I only do so after I wash my hair. Also, the 48 hours after the perm is crucial as I was not allowed to wet my hair. I use all the hair products as I did before, although stuff that promises to add moisture seems to be better to keep the ends nice and moist.

I got a ton of compliments on my new hair. Compared to the other types of perms, setting perm keeps the hair wavy for about 5 months. Once you get a haircut, you need to redo the perm as well. From the way I see it, I would do it twice a year to keep my hair nice-looking and healthy as well. Other people who want the tight and spiral kind of curls may want to try digital perm, which is more expensive. To me, this is nice enough and I make sure to keep myself loaded to get my perms twice a year :)

That's all for now, folks! Have you permed your hair or tried setting perm before? Please let me know. I'll be back once I feel better.

With love,
Dao xoxo


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