How to Enjoy NYE at Home

There is nothing embarrassing with admitting that you are spending your New Year's Eve at home, away from the jubilant voice of party and cracking fireworks. After all, there is no place like home, right? Due to work, I'm not able to join the rest of my family in their exciting trip to Turkey. Luckily, I won't be alone at home, my dear sister is also stuck here for exams (#thejoyandsorrowofmedstudent). We already have a couple of things that we'd do together to celebrate NYE.

Baking and Cooking; My sister is currently in a phase when she is conscious of everything she eats, a phase I went back when I was around her age. She's been interested in cooking and baking lately. I haven't been able to rekindle my passion for baking despite the many attempts I made this year. Figure this will be a great chance, I'm thinking something along the line of Hummingbird Bakery Chocolate Brownies or Peanut Butter Cookies. By the way, can you believe that this will be the first time we whip up something together in the kitchen?

At Home Concert/Cinema; even if you don't have impressive home theater, you can still enjoy the euphoria of your favorite concert/film just with your PC and great quality headphones. Turn off the room light, switch on my turquoise ligh-stick, and I'm ready to relive my SHINee World Concert experience.

Lit the candles; get the celebration mood by doing the most simple thing you can do; light up the candles, turn up the fairy lights. Not only it will fill your house with the most heavenly scent, right candle and lighting can set up a right celebratory ambience.

Early morning shopping; which includes shopping for your dinner ingredients. I found shopping at December 31st morning gives me the craziest of deal. Who doesn't love 50% of Hershey chocolates and big jar of Nutella, seriously? While you're at it, visit your favorite makeup counter or retail store, you might find the item in your wish-list to be at its lowest price.

Clean and declutter; use this last chance to do the yearly clean up you always promised you'd do but never did. I've did another wardrobe clean up early this month, and it's more merciless than the one I did back in July. I ended up with two huge shopping bags; one to donate and one to sell.

How do you spend your new year's eve at home? and Happy New Year!

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The Best Makeup Edit 2016

With the end of the year approaching, posts about yearly favorites are popping here and there. Just like NYE itself, it's a tradition. I use this chance to look back and see what products did I love this year. Though my focus was more on skincare throughout 2016, I got myself some lovely makeup bits that I absolutely adore. Even if my makeup stash is considerably small, to keep things simple, I'm excluding products that I bought last year.

I finally tried Nars for the first time this year, and I'm incredibly smitten. My base favorites are two items from Nars. Their Velvet Matte Skin Tint and Contour Kit have been a firm staple in my routine since July. Both are light-weight and looks like real skin, especially the skin tint. The contour kit can double up as blusher since it has slight rose-tint to it, very handy when I was feeling lazy.

I got another chance to nab some Jill Stuart item this year. While not all of their items are stellar in term of performance, I cannot deny the quality of their best selling item; the blusher. With build-able pigmentation and finely milled shimmer, this blush gives my cheeks a very radiant, flushing cheeks. Their nail polishes are also in top tier quality. They're priced roughly around the same of Essie nail polishes, but with even more elaborate packaging.

For the eye department, I'm sure if you're a regular reader, you would know how inescapably in love I am with Burberry Eye Color, they make great eyeshadow as well as highlighter. Kiko wow-ed me with their highly coveted eyeshadow stick which was my on-the-go eyes for busy morning, they apply and wear like dream.

For my first foray into the world of eyebrows, I trusted Bobbi Brown Natural Brow Shaper, it's a life-saver for brow-noob like me for its effortless application. Mascara is not an obligatory for my everyday makeup so I only picked one from Majolica Majorca this year. MajoMajo lives up to its name for being one of the best drugstore mascara in the market, this one instantly lifts and curl, while lengthening my lashes at the same time.

For lips, Clinique Pop Lips had taken over the last quarter of the year. Not only creamy, this lipstick is incredibly long-lasting and comfortable to wear. Lush Lip Scrubs are one 'blogger-made-me-buy-it' product, and I'm not disappointed! I can see why people love this delicious lip scrub, it thoroughly removes the unflattering flakes from my lips.

What have been your favorite beauty products this 2016?

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Festive Room Details

It's getting closer to the peak of this season. Everything is decorated with red and gold, a touch of green and some silver glitter there. Seasonal menus and red cups have become my morning routine as of late (Toasted Graham Latte and Shepperd Pie are personal favorite!). While I'm not celebrating christmas, there is nothing wrong with transferring the uplifting mood to my room when I spend majority of my time this December (#homebody).

What is best to describe festive mood than gold? Still following the latest trend, I've been adding a touch of rose and gold to my room for past 4 months or so. Small and dainty trinkets like jewelries are not only good for props but also for home decor. My favorite includes this bird hair pin from Zara. I arranged it on my necklace hanger so it looks like it perches on there.

Whilst Star and Moon accessories‎ have been popular for these past couple months, I've always been obsessed with celestial objects (hence the name of my blog). It was a blessing when they started showing up everywhere. Stradivarius is not only my favorite place to pick up apparels, but also accessories. These set of rings and bracelets come in handy for party occasion, but also gives a touch of bling in the corner of my room.

I picked up this rose-gold shell plate and copper basket from Zara Home, and I've been smitten with them ever since. Most of my jewelries now sit there, while the copper basket has been utilized to store my hair products and hair pins. I hope I'm not the only one who thinks makeup brushes are great decoration. It is probably one of the reason why I'm so obsessed with Zoeva Rose Golden Brushes Set. Also, this sunglasses from Forever 21 makes a great center piece on top of my book shelves.

Lastly on top of my bed, I have this cork board with World Trigger Rubber Straps and favorite characters acrylic keychains. I think the best way to make use of these kind of things is to make them as room decor, they're colorful so they give my room a nice pop of color. Below, I hang the photo stickers I took while I was in Japan. Most of them were taken back in 2013 and some from my recent trips this summer.

How do you decor your room in this festive season?

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3 Festive Beauty Essentials

When it comes to festive makeup, there are three mandatory things you must (or at least feel obliged) to incorporate into your look. I narrowed it down into 3 things, let’s see if you’re nodding along until you finish reading this.

Red Lips

What is festive makeup without red lips? Be it long-lasting matte red that withstand heavy dinner and creamy dessert, or juicy-looking red that draws everyone’s eyes. Red lips is the staple of festive makeup, and I don’t think there’s anyone who can deny that. A couple of cult favorite includes MAC Ruby Woo or Russian Red, or Rimmel Kate Lipstick in #1 for affordable option.

Shimmery Eyes

Or smack-dab glitter on your lids. You just cannot not blind everyone with your light-reflecting eyeshadow whenever you flutter your eyes. Shimmer shadow has the perk of making you more awake as well. Some of them can be difficult to work with, but once the formula is right, they’re the best thing ever invented in earth after sliced-bread. I personally recommend Burberry Eye Color in Gold Pearl or Makeup Geek Shimma Shimma. Tom Ford Honeymoon and CT Dolce Vita is everyone’s favorite quad.

Glittery Nails

When your eyes is not enough, you can go with your nails. A stroke of glittery polish on the tip of your nails ala French manicure increases your festiveness by folds while still maintaining your class. Essie Summit of Style is the classic gold-glitter polish, or you can try their Stroke of Brilliance if you want a more fun color. Butter London Doily Overcoat is a unique overcoat with pink and white glitter than can transform any of your polish into a bright, festive nails.

 

What's your festive beauty essentials?

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What I Ate Recently

If you’re here expecting makeup, get ready to be disappointed. Or not, because I present with food. And, really, who doesn’t love food?
 

Tendon Tenya

Good ol’ Tendon Tenya, it is one of my favorite places to eat back when I was living in Japan. They’re crazy affordable, fulfilling, and delicious. While I always went for the classic tendon back then, coming here, I experimented with the menu. The recent one I tried was the curry udon with ebi-tempura, which perfectly satisfied the udon and curry lover in me.

Hokkaido Baby Cheesecake

While everyone was raving about Pablo Cheesecake’s arrival in Indonesia, I, who had stupidly ate one whole of their cheesecake a day before returning to my country (along with extra 1.5 kgs), wasn’t feeling the excitement. Instead, I was curious to try this equally dainty yet inviting offering from Hokkaido Baby. I tried the original and green-tea, both of them earned two-thumbs up for me. I like my cheese-cake to be on the balanced side; light yet still maintaining the richness of cheese, which if wasn’t done well can ended up with bland cheesecake. The green-tea one is definitely another favorite too! When it comes to green-tea desert, I’m incredibly picky; the deeper the green-tea’s bitterness, the better, and this one nailed it!

Starbucks Scarlet Velvet Cake

I’m that person who goes to starbucks just for their ice coffee but orders each and every new food delicacies. One day, I found out they have this scarlet velvet cake for sale, and intrigued – since the last time I ate their red velvet roll-cake, I was disappointed – I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, it’s good. Nothing earth-shattering, but it has good balance of moist yet not too moist cake and light, yet flavorful icings.

Those are the three new menus that I tried recently. Have you tried any of them?
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In my makeup bag this December

My makeup routine lately has been on the ‘lazy’ side. My endeavor in skincare has finally born fruition, thus, I feel more comfortable on my skin with less makeup lately compared to a couple of months ago. That being said, I love the action of putting makeup itself, so even if only for the bare minimum, I’m still keeping a couple of items with me.

If I wasn’t comfortable without a layer of foundation or powder before, I’ve been wearing no base product other than concealer lately. Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer has long since being my favorite, its creamy consistency and high coverage is perfect for brightening up my under eye area, thus giving illusion of bright, healthy skin. A touch of Nars Contour Kit on the cheek, coupled with light dusting of Bobbi Brown Blush in Nectar  makes my skin even more alive.

On the eyes, I keep it simple with just patting Burberry Gold Pearl on the inner corner of my eyes, then tidy up my brows using Bobbi Brown Natural BrowShaper which grant me full brow with minimal effort. Lastly, I swipe Makeup Forever Plexi Gloss in Burgundy, this opaque lip gloss is an old-love that I just rediscovered.

What makeup do you keep in your makeup bag this month?

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Pink Beauty Favorite

While December is not exactly a month you'd associate with pink, I find myself steering toward them lately. Maybe it's the blush-pink trend that's been going around, or maybe because I'm actually a closeted pink hoarder.

Pink is not the color that I wear a lot on my lips either, mainly it tends to clash unflatteringly with my complexion. However, a couple of them does pass this problem, and I'm quiet fond of them. Dior Lip Glow in Pink might not be the most impressive lip balm on my lips, but I cannot deny the color-changing technology does give me the most beautiful shade of pink. If I want some glossiness, then I'd go for Jill Stuart Lip Jewel on top of my lipstick. This one is in shade coral kiss but in real life, it leans more toward pink with fine golden specks.

For lip treatment, I've been going for Lush Lip Scrub Bubblegum and finish it with Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask before I hit the bed. The lip scrub get rids of dead cells and flakes on my lips, while the sleeping mask ensures my scrub lips are pampered by thoroughly hydrating them.

In the lips category, but this Pink Drop nail polish from Jill Stuart's regular polish line has been my favorite since I purchased it in June. The non-streaky application, plus opaque color in one swipe got me head over heels for it. Etude House Silk Scarf Hair Serum is oldie but goodie. This clear-pink gel ensures my hair stay in place after styling, smelling nice throughout the day, while nourishing it at the same time.

What's your favorite pink items?

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Brand Focus: Laneige

Other than Kiehl's, Laneige is my second favorite brand for skincare. This Korean brand is part of Amore Pacific and with their motto 'Sparkling Beauty', they strive to give woman radiant and clear skin like snow, hence their name. Using water as their main ingredients, Laneige is an excellent brant if you're looking for a supple and hydrated skin. They also cater to various skin types, including oil-pore skin, too.

BB Cushion Pore Control; Laneige currently has 4 types of cushion offerings, and this one is targeted to oily skin type. It promises evening out skin texture, blurring pores, and keeping your face matte. However, the result is not flat-matte but rather satin like. I personally love to bring this for traveling since it provides me coverage and lasting power while being very practical at the same time.

Pore Deep Clearing Foam; with Moroccan clay ghassoul that works as micro-abrasive, this cleanser is good at getting rids of impurities from your pores. As the name suggests, it promises thorough cleansing of your pores. I find that this works really well for my skin though nothing ground-breaking, I just wish it's a little bit thick and creamier.

Blackhead Melting Gel; just the name alone is enough to tickle your curiosity. This clear gel claims removal of blackheads plus preventing is appearance. Though I cannot vouch for the later claim, I have to say this really helps removing my blackheads easier. I mainly use this for my nose and cheeks area, they always feel smooth after!

White Plus Renew Skin Refiner; if there was one Laneige product that didn't really impress me, it is this one. Despite being on of their best selling products, this milky toner didn't really do anything to my skin. But other people claimed they got more supple and bright skin, so, maybe, my skin just don't get along with this.

Light Balancing Emulsion; On the site, this is described as matte-type emulsion that absorbed fast into skin, yet provides skin with hydration. Now, this, this is probably the star of the show for me. I feel immediate effect after a month of usage. This moisturizes helps me getting rid of my acne scars faster, plus brighten up my previously dull skin.

Lip Sleeping Mask; the most recent addition to my collection is this lip sleeping mask, and if you thought lip mask is just a gimmick, I swear to you, it's not. This pink, thick gel is supposed to be applied on your lips before sleep, and they will help getting rid of your dead skin cells while moisturizing them at the same time. If you're suffering from dry, chapped lips, they will work wonder to retain your supple lips back.

Have you ever tried any product from Laneige?

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