10 things for Long Weekend

One | Long weekend itself is a  blessing already. 4 days not having to think about work, life cannot get any luxurious than this.

Two | I went with my bestie, Amez, last Saturday to Ikea. Despite the mouth-watering deal for some furniture, we skipped it and went straight for smaller things. I got an adorable pastel pink bowl (considering to get the plates as well), bed sheet and pillow sheet in lovely navy color, and cutleries for my mom.

Three | If you visited my instagram, you'd have seen I'm starting take a different style of photography. I'm trying to say goodbye to over-exposed white background, and embracing textures instead. I'd use the long weekends to try and explore this new style of photography. It's daunting but exciting at the same time since I've been in horrible photography rut this year!

Four | Pancake. Fluffy pancake. We got new standing mixer (courtesy of new house), as well as spanking new recipe. I might post some on my story, keep in track!

Five | Sleep. Long, good, unbothered sleep.

Six | Season greetings are coming, meaning new calendars, new photocards, new journals! How exciting.

Seven | I recently received a totally adorable Alice-themed tea selection from my friend. I've always been huge for earl grey, iced or hot, and this holidays will have me drinking them non stop.

Eight | Writing. Blogging. You name it. Recently, I got the kick after binge reading some stories and blogs while I was bed-ridden from nasty, evil cold. Blessing in disguise?

Nine | sheet masks. I have at least ten? Sheet masks ready to use in my freezer. They're such a treat after clay mask, cooling, and hydrating. But for whatever reason, I'm always too lazy to slap them on. I should quickly work on them before they expire (can they?)

Ten | Youtube. I have so many unwatched videos in my youtube feed, like lovely vlogmas by I Covet Thee and Kate La Vie. Time to finish them in between my productive hours, because life is all about balance, right?

What's your plan for long holiday?

All about Bases for Oily Skin

When it comes to base, I'm incredibly fussy, to say the least (when I'm bothered, of course). Having oily skin, living in country with tropical country with average humidity of 70%~90%, and temperature averaging from 23°C ~ 26 °C. Even if the sun is not high up there, shining, the humid air still melt my base rather easily. Simply put; it's absolute nightmare for my oily skin.

My search for the perfect base routine has began and I think will continue on until I find my absolute one. The ones I have tried so far have been either hit or a miss; wrong undertone or wrong texture. It does mattify but clings on dry patches. It's the right coverage but no exact color match. It's such a long, arduous (allow me to exaggerate), and money-consuming task.

I tend to research first (endless, and endless of blog reading, video hopping), hit the store, find the closest to my match, and stick with it regardless I'm 100% in love with it or not. So far, I've ended up with 5 foundations and 3 bases/primer. They're either hit or miss, but at least they give me the base (no pun intended) to work from.

R O U T I N E

My base routine itself is pretty simple. After skincare and SPF (absolutely important, especially in where I live), I start my makeup my applying the base first. My current love, and the one I crowned as my holy grail for its ability to give my skin that lovely, healthy, perky glow without being oily, is PAUL AND JOE PROTECTING FOUNDATION PRIMER.  After smoothing it all over my face, I leave.

Joke aside, I sometimes do that when I'm feeling really lazy. Next, comes the eye makeup. Whatever mess I make around my eyes is the concealer's job to tidy up. As for now, my concealer of choice is MAYBELLINE FIT ME CONCEALER. As far as drugstore concealer goes, I think this one is the best among the ones I have tried.It's fluid, thin, but still offers decent coverage. Foundation comes after that, applied with damp beauty blender since my mom has taken my foundation brush hostage (she's incredibly in love with it), and finished it with dusting of loose powder with big, fluffy brush.

T H E  E S S E N T I A L S

BOBBI BROWN LONG WEAR EVEN FINISH FOUNDATION SPF 15 is not my first proper foundation, but it's my first high-end, and it definitely sets the bar up high. It has incredibly light-weight formula; the most decisive factor for me. I hate the feeling of having a product on my face, I feel stiffed, like my skin cannot properly breath. True to its name, this one has impressive lasting power. The formula is definitely on the fluid side, the most fluid out of all oily-skin targeted foundation I've tried so far. The finish is less than matte but more of a stain, very natural, and like other BB foundations; skin-like. My only problem is it doesn't have my exact color match, but seeing as this is my second bottle, I don't have that much problem with it.

Needing something closer to my skin tone, and generally hungry to try Nars', NARS VELVET MATTE SKIN TINT with SPF 30 entered my collection last year. Considered my effort to get it as extra as I went far to Japan just to have this baby lining up my arsenal (obviously, I didn't go to Japan just for this babe). I had incredibly pleasant experience with the SA, and I fell equally in love with the product itself. It's a fuss-free product, easy to apply (often, I forego tool at all and go with bare hands), and perfect for on the go. It doesn't have impressive coverage as it's never targeted as such, but gives skin major lift up by evening out discoloration, along with satin finish.

MAKEUP FOREVER MAT VELVET+ is highly coveted in the beauty world for being the 'it' foundation for oily skin. It entered local market just this year, and despite the poor shade selection, I bit the bullet and went with darkest shade offered. Alas, of course it's too light for my skin, I have to mix it with NARS to tone down the color. This has the thickest formula so far, and rather hard to blend, or maybe it's because I always deal with fluid foundation that I find this too thick? Either way, sometimes, I thin it down by mixing it with primer or a spritz of facial mist. Coverage wise, this triumph my other foundation (I often use it as under-eye concealer). BUT I find this one cling to my dry patches, so I have to make sure my skin is properly hydrated, even exfoliated, before using this. To be honest, the result is rather underwhelming.

URBAN DECAY is finally available offline around here, and the first product I tried from them is their equivalent of NARS' VELVET MATTE SKIN TINT, which is ONE AND DONE HYBRID COMPLEXTION PERFECTOR SPF 20. I dare say I love this more than NARS (sorry NARS) since its shade is more accurate to mine. On hand, this doesn't feel as drying as NARS', although a little bit sticky. Like MUFE, this one is rather thick, but not the point that I have to thin it down nor giving me blending difficulty. Despite not marketed with full coverage, I find this one hides my blemish quiet well.

T H E  F I  N I S H I N G

MAYBELLINE FIT ME POWDER is my on the go touch up powder. After trying high-end powder and found rather underwhelming result, I decided that as far as touching powder goes, I'll just stick to drugstore one aka. Maybelline, seeing as this my second purchase already. I don't think I'll switch for a while, this does everything I need as touch up powder; compact, eliminate shine, and adds a tiny bit of coverage I need as I go on with my long day.

Loose powder is, surprise! surprise! a little bit of a faf for me. I used to have one from BARE MINERALS and I find it more or less a dud product? Which is weird since everyone love it to bits and pieces. I rekindled my love for it after trying THE SAEM PERFECT PORE POWDER. Usually, I'd stay away from any white powder since they can give skin a grey cast, but this translucent one has absolutely none, and makes my skin silky soft. I cannot vouch for the pore-blurring effect but it certainly makes my skin look perfect!

A spritz of finishing spray or facial mist to lessen the flatness of my face, then I'm done! I have to say that I'm yet to find the one for me, but it in itself is an exciting thing since it means I have an excuse to try an entirely new product. Have any recommendation?

Desk Updates

The past four months had me, for the first time in my life (or, maybe, not really the first time. Technically.) moved out of my house. It went a major renovation, as major as tearing down the roof, and foundation, and tiles, and walls, and start everything from zero. We're living in spanking brand new house now, my mother's dream house with cream colored wall and high ceiling, and I find myself in a new room, with light turqoise colored wall and white furnitures.

The first thing that I put together was my desk. I switched from my, practically 10 years old desk to Alex desk from Ikea last August. It has two drawers; one where I store my stationaries, and the right one for my beauty bits.

I use random boxes that I purposely kept to store them. I have quiet a lot of fandom things like postcards, photocards, stickers, and what-not, and seeing them cluttered whenever I pull my drawer out makes me incredibly mad. Boxes are great for this reason. Boxes are life-saver. I love boxes. They separate my polaroids and fansites' goods so well. Nice, pretty, boxes.

The set up for my makeup is pretty much the same, still using the classic Muji acrylic drawer to store them. My collection definitely grow this year, especially on the eye department, but I managed to fit all of them in one box! Okay, maybe not, since liquid base products and sprays are put inside the drawer, but the other decor items like blushes and lipstick are sitting prettily inside the boxes. What a beauty blogger dream.

Obviously I will talk about my beauty set up later once I have acquired a proper vanity mirror (I'm holding on with my hand mirror and folding mirror now. Absolute nightmare), and the focus of today's post will be the desk set up in general.

I have decided to go with it and display things I love. Things that gives me joy and inspiration. Say goodbye to pretty prints and quotes, and hello to biases! Yes, I do love them! I shamelesly put three huge photos, and there are still, at least four? Five? to come once the season greetings I ordered arrive.

The A3 Canvas is from DeFlow's photo exhibition back in July and it took at least three months until it reached me. The long wait is incredibly worthed it. I was in awe as I unpacked the photo canvas. DeFlow's photo quality is stunning as always, the rich, vibrant color, the candidness of this photo that perfectly captured his emotion; perfect! I always feel energized waking up to this every morning.

The mesh board is from Ikea. It comes with paper clips as well, but as you can see, as I slowly fill them with many, many photo cards, postcards, photo stickers, and birthday cards, they're not enough, and I need to pull out my wooden clips. I have pretty much everything I love there, and like any other mood board, this will probably change the next season/month, but for now, these are my ultimates. I also hang my sunglasses on the corner for a dash of maturity, as my sister put it.

Down below, I have my Hermes' perfume, Argain Body butter from body shop, box of My Burberry Perfume, and shell dish from Zara Home to store my bracelets and rings. To finish, I put my rabbit plushie from Ikea, and a captain America tsumtsum in its lap.

The desk is very me, it's not the desk you will expect from twenty something, fully-functioning adult. However, here it is, my desk, I think it's me, in desk set up form(?). It has a taste of everything from high end lipstick, child's toy, spices and cardamom perfume, potrait of idols, and photo stickers from her younger days. It's very personal, and since it's the place where I will spend most of my time in, I think it makes sense that I want, or rather; need it to be one.

How do you set up your desk?