First day of my last year of school...

First day of school... I'm in my senior year at college. At last! It's been a long journey getting here... now I just hope I can do my best so that I can graduate on time (I'll be 20. Gosh!).


Because it was the start of a new semester and I pretty much had just gone through a complete image change, I wanted to look pretty and fresh without my makeup being overbearing. So all I put on was loose powder, blush, eyeshadow/liner and mascara. I also filled in my brows. I just used a tinted lip balm for my lips.



There's a closeup of my eyes.


So far my first day of school was great, except for when I got home. it started raining REALLY REALLY hard, and it was so windy... I got stranded at a place near where I live, standing under a shop's canopy while holding onto my umbrella since the wind blew the rainwater everywhre anyway. Lightning kept striking and we even saw it hit the ground on a road nearby. It started flooding soon and something really gross happened--all the RATS and ROACHES ran out of the sewers and towards us! It was a horror show. What a way to end my first day. I had my mom pick me up then, and luckily she came before it got too flooded (it was ankle deep when she arrived).

But oh well, at least I got awesome professors in two of my subjects. I can't say the same thing about the other subject I had today, one of my profs is supposed to be a terror...and she admitted to it too. Oh gosh. T-T

That's all for today loves, I'll be back with a more substantial post soon!

Busy busy... [Attended a Wedding + Review]

Yeah, again life took over and I got really busy the past couple weeks. I attended a wedding as a proxy for my dad and started prepping myself up for school (shopping, hanging out with friends as much as possible, etc). I partied pretty much all weekend just to make up for the fact that once school starts, I won't have any time to at all. Thanks to my best friend, I had a load of fun on my last weekend before school starts.

So now that I have oh, say about 14 hours left before my freedom is taken away from me again, I figured I should take the time to update this little blog of mine before it started gathering dust.

Last June 6th (yes, I am aware of just how behind I am in posting, my gosh haha), I attended a wedding that my parents were invited to. I attended as a proxy for my dad who couldn't make it to the event. Of course I was really psyched, I mean I don't always get to attend events where I got to dress to the nines... not to mention I got to shop for dresses and shoes to wear!

I had bought a dress for Php500 (roughly $11) in May, but while I was with my mom helping her shop for her own dress, I spotted a dress that was pretty much sent to me from heaven. Why do I say that? Well, it was originally selling at Php2000 (roughly $43) but it was on sale for 70% off. So I got it at around php600 (around $13). It's amazing since it was the last piece of that design, last size and all, and it fit me like a glove. Best part: the dress had pockets! Man am I glad I lost weight, if only for the fact that I'm now able to wear cute dresses that I picked just off the rack. Well the dress was a tiny bit loose on me, but it wasn't that obvious. In any case... I suppose I should show photos!

PS: I wore the dress with a black swarovski necklace, but my cousin told me to remove the necklace because we were attending a Chinese couple's wedding and black is not a welcome color for them. Oops!

Also, I forgot to take a shot of my makeup before it melted off my face, but I did get a shot of my eye makeup at least.

In the hotel bathroom, snapping a quick shot after the wedding reception

"I'm gonna sit down, take a picture of me quick!!"

Me and my mom

me and my mom 2

The couple had hired a photo booth service to cover their wedding, and this is one of the photos my mom and I had taken (I had to crop it since my aunt was in it too)

Makeup products used: Celeteque moisturizer, ELF Studio two way powder foundation, MAC Studio Fix in NC35, Maybelline Perfect Concealer, NYX Pinky blush, Physician's Formula pearls of perfection bronzer, Fashion 21 brow kit, Art Deco eyeshadow base, Shawill 12 color e/s palette, Dollface cosmetics gel eyeliner, Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes mascara, NYX Tea Rose round lipstick

My mom's hair--yes, I did it myself! Haha

When I got home from the wedding, I of course had to take my makeup off. Just a couple days before June 6th I had run out of my favorite eye and lip makeup remover (Maybelline) so I had to pick up some more. But as soon as I got to the department store, I spotted this new product from the local cosmetics company Ever Bilena. Seeing how cheap it was I didn't hesitate to grab a bottle to try because it just might be a good, cheap alternative for my usual makeup remover.



Ever Bilena Advance Makeup Remover (Eye & Lip)

Directions for use (as stated on the bottle): shake well before use. Soak cotton pad with the lotion and apply on your eyes and lips.
Ingredients: Water, cyclopentasiloxane, isohexadecane, cyclohexasiloxane, propylene glycol, hexylene glycol, polyethylene-polypropylene glycol, tetrasodium edta, dipotassium phosphate, potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, tocopheryl acetate, benzyl alcohol, 2-phenoxyethanol, CI 42090

I started with this:

And with 1 swipe ended up with this:


The makeup remover had managed to take off the eyeshadow on the area I had wiped off, as well as most of my gel eyeliner--only a few specks of it remained on my eyelid. With a few more wipes I took off the rest of the eye makeup, but it took me a while of rubbing to get my mascara off.

Eyes, completely makeup free

Cotton pad, front

Cotton pad, back

So now that I've used the product, what's my verdict?

PROS

• Cheap - only Php95 (roughly $2) per 80 mL bottle
• Locally available and widely distributed, easily availed of

CONS

• Stings eyes
• Requires rubbing to take off stubborn mascara
• Bottle packaging LEAKS
• Need to use more product to get stubborn makeup off
  

Because the EB bottle leaks, I transferred the rest of the product into my empty Maybelline bottle.

So as usual, I got my money's worth. I think cheap items are hit and miss, and this one was a miss. I thought I was going to get a bargain but I guess not! This makeup remover by Ever Bilena works but it's not really the best, and any eye product that stings my eyes isn't a very good one in my opinion. I'm going to stick to my Maybelline eye and lip makeup remover. This is a product I won't really recommend.

Well, I guess that's all for now. School starts tomorrow, wish me luck!

Major haulage!

I know, I know. Some of you are probably thinking I've gone MIA again. But nope! Such is not the case--it's just that I'd had a rather busy week last week. I spent all day Wednesday shopping with my BFF, and then spent Wednesday night through Friday at her place. That had to be the longest sleepover I've ever been on!

I have so much to show you all! Bought on a budget of $60... I will however have to divide this post in two. One post for the makeup/nail polish, and one post for the clothes that I had bought. But all in all, I spent my money quite wisely, I do believe! I spent around $10 of my $60 on make up and nail polish.

These are the fruits of my bargain hunting: 12 nail polishes, 1 blush, 1 e/s palette and a tube of lip gloss. Yes, all of this for $10 (Php 470)!

I bought four bottles of Jocarste polish. For local readers, if you've been to Landmark TriNoma and have seen the display of Jocarste at the Shawill booth, you would know that a bottle costs around Php80 (roughly $1.30) each. Well, where I bought it, I got each at Php25 (a little over $.50)!

Here are pictures! I'll definitely be doing NOTDs and reviewing these products soon. Next time I am also going to make a better light box so I can take better pics without the crazy backgrounds. :)





And a little bonus: I'm going to a wedding on the 6th of June and I decided I NEEDED a hot pair of shoes to wear along with my pretty little dress. So here they are! Bought for Php 700 or around $15 last week (so this was on a completely different budget, not part of the $60 budget). I had a different pair of shoes in mind but I have to be mindful of my/my family's budget. Plus I love finding bargains! isn't that little bow completely cute? ^^


That's all for now. Watch out for my next post (which I promise won't take so long as this one did!

ETA: I also have a brand new Formspring! I have the widget on the LEFT sidebar of my blog, so if you feel like asking me questions...go right on ahead! ^^

FOTD/OOTD

Wow, my first outfit of the day post! Haha. I went to a surprise birthday party for one of my mom's college friends because my mom brought me along with her. It was kinda boring, of course, since I didn't really know anyone there...but hey, free food! Haha. Plus it was a chance to dress up, so I didn't mind.

Of course I just used the blue dress I used in the photos in my weight loss post, but this time I used black accents instead of red. I had nothing else to wear and we were supposed to leave at 7PM and I'd started getting ready at 6 so I was in such a huge hurry I barely even managed to straighten my hair and do my makeup.

*Little trivia about my dress: I sewed it from scratch myself!

For my FOTD I just spot concealed (because I broke out in the middle of my cycle--don't you HATE that?), used pressed powder and contoured my cheeks with bronzer and used NYX powder blush in Pinky. I filled in my brows, too, of course. For my eyes, since I had basically no time to do anything... I just put shimmery nude cream eyeshadow on my eyelids and I lined my eyes in Jordana kohl eyeliner (in blue) and of course I curled my lashes and applied mascara. I used NYX round lipstick in tea rose for my lips. All in all it was a simple, rushrushrushed FOTD.

I managed to look okay despite having just an hour to get ready...whoo!

Funny story, I woke up that morning with my left eye SWOLLEN. Like I got punched out, or bitten by a bug in my sleep. Thankfully because I put ice on it nearly all day, it went down by 6PM (I guess now you know why I only had an hour to get ready!).

I wish I could show you my shoes, but they weren't really anything new... They were the same shoes I wore in this picture.

Practically the whole time I was just sitting there looking around and trying to find someone to talk to, but yeah..nobody even remotely close to my age. Lol. Oh well, it was nice to people watch anyway.

I'll have a better post for you guys soon, I promise! :)

How I Lost 30lbs in 3 Months

That's right, you read it correctly. I lost that amount of weight in a little over three months--December 11, 2009 to February 2010.

Get ready, this is going to be a LONG post (It took me a couple days to write this whole thing too. Lol.) because I am going to go into detail about how I went from this...

At my worst, 136 lbs. At my height of 5"0 (yes, I am that small), I was overweight.

To this:

At my lightest yet--106lbs

I don't even know where to begin! Haha. Anyway, my intentions for this post is so to show you all that it can be done, and that you don't need a gym membership or craaaaaaazy good self-control in order to do it. I'm going to start with...

THE MOTIVATION

Why did I decide to lose weight?

• For health reasons - I got tired of being overweight, feeling so heavy, huffing and puffing every time I climbed stairs... At that time my diet was also very unhealthy--I ate whatever I wanted without thought as to how it would affect my health. Chips, soda, fast food--I just ate and ate and ate, with no regard as to how it would affect my body in the future. Because I was sedentary (a.k.a. a couch potato), I just kept on gaining weight! I continuously ate way above what my normal diet requires--around 1500-1800 calories a day for a sedentary person of my size. On some days I'd eat 5000 calories.
• To fight pain - Being without exercise and eating unhealthy threw my body off balance. As a result, every time I got my period I went through huge bouts of pain. Some days I'd be in so much pain I'd practically be paralyzed, lying curled up in bed in cold sweats, crying. Pain meds and hot compresses hardly helped. I still can't forget that day in school I collapsed onto the floor in the middle of class because of the pain. Also, at my heaviest my breasts were at 40D, so big I constantly had back pain. Walking in the mall alone would give me pain, my feet would hurt so bad, my knees bore the heavy weight of my body, my hips began to hurt.
• For myself - Living in a country like The Philippines where most of the people are skinny or at least slender always made me feel like the odd one out. While I don't mind standing out, it was hard for me to shop for clothes. Hardly anything would fit, sales people looked at you condescendingly and the shop displays would hardly have anything in your size. And oh my gosh, I could never find bras to fit me! Everything here is padded or too small. I guess I got tired of feeling bad for myself and I finally just decided to do something about it.
• I was inspired - Back then I did try to lose weight, but it never lasted long. For some reason, this time it just stuck. Because my skin improved, I thought 'why not work on getting your body to improve too?' I ran across a blog chronicling a girl's weight loss as well, and seeing her go from 250+lbs to 120lbs just inspired me so much. If she could do it, then I could lose weight as well!

So then I had the motivation. Now what, right?

THE SITUATION

Starting weight: 136 lbs

Measurements: 36-32-39

Goal weight: 115lbs

I had to see what my situation was. So at that time, December 11th of 2009 to be exact, I realized that I was at 136lbs or 61.82kilos. My height is 5 feet flat. My ideal weight should be around 100lbs, so I was 36 lbs over. I had no access to a gym (can't afford a membership), no home gym equipment, no running shoes, nothing. I also ate really unhealthily, so much so that my stomach was never really satisfied and I just kept eating and eating. I had bad habits (i.e. eating in front of the TV) that didn't help, too. So what did I have to help me lose weight? Well, just my motivation, the Wii and our old PS2. Thankfully, I still had a working DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) pad.

I also had no access to diet food and I could only eat what was at home.

At the start of my weight loss I was I guess you could say shy around people about working out or dieting because people would make fun. But I got over that. So then I told myself, "Okay Chrissy, if you can make it through the holiday season without gaining any weight, you can get to your target weight." My target weight was 115lbs. I'd told myself that if I could reach that weight, I'd be happy. By January 1, 2010, I had lost 6lbs.

LIFESTYLE CHANGE!

Just then, I knew I was doing something right. So what was I doing?

Of course, before I started my weight loss effort, I had researched. I looked things up on the internet, at the library, in the bookstore..every single thing I could get my hands on about weight loss, I read. And they all seemed to agree: Weight loss is achievable through a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. Not crash diets or fad workouts. Why did they say that is? Well, crash diets are just that--crash diets. It's good to help you lose weight in a matter of days to be able to fit into your LBD for that night out. But putting yourself under that much pressure, not eating, ignoring cravings..eventually you're headed for a binge. Apparently, people who go through diets end up heavier than they started because of all the binges to make up for or to reward themselves for their initial weight loss--totally wiping out any weight loss to begin with.

So I knew I had to make a lifestyle change. I would have to cut my calorie intake down to size and increase my exercise. The good part is, I'm still young so my body metabolic rate still had time to recover from the years of abuse I did to my body.

I knew I would have to stay 500 calories under my daily caloric requirements in order to lose weight--but if I were to do this I knew I would also have to exercise so that my metabolism would not slow down. I had to be careful not to starve myself because if I did my body would be encouraged to store whatever I did eat as fat. At that time, I began eating around 1500 calories a day. I only ever estimated how many calories were in something because not everything comes with nutrition facts.

You might think WOW, what does she even eat!? Well, I eat/ate normally, like I used to. But I willingly gave up junk food, fast food and soda (I do still eat all of this but only if I have no other choice). I worked on portion control. I used to eat more than a cup of rice with every meal (rice is a staple here where I live, every meal usually features it) and that is a lot of carbs and calories. So now I eat just about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of rice a meal. Enough to curb any potential cravings for it, enough to give me enough energy. It also allowed me to load up on vegetables--yum! I shifted so that the biggest part of my diet was fruits and vegetables. I still eat/ate meat for protein, and just because it's so hard to give it up in this country. I also made sure that there was less sodium in whatever I ate because salt = water retention. I snacked like normal--sandwiches with the crust cut off, crackers, granola bars, small treats. The most important part is that I never stop myself from having anything I was craving. This allowed me to still eat my favorite foods and prevent binging.

As for exercise, well.. I guess this is where I went a little bit heavy. I started first on the Wii then I realized that it was much too light for me. So then I moved on to DDR. Using the workout mode to estimate how many calories I burned, first I started at 150 calories per workout, until it escalated to 500 cals per workout. I worked out every day with only Sundays as my rest day. Every other day I would also do a little yoga and strength training (something that I really need to keep doing but can't be made to right now) just to firm up my muscles a little bit. I also did the Hip Hop Abs video workout whenever I felt like it.

I managed to stay motivated by telling myself there would be NO EXCUSES. I kept a food/exercise journal to keep track of how much I ate, lost, gained..if I noticed myself getting off track I quickly corrected myself.

Lo and behold, the weight started dropping off! And now, 6 months since I started, I'm still at 106lbs and working on getting to 100.

It sounds hard but in all actuality, it was rather easy! After the first two weeks, my stomach got used to the small meals, spaced out in the day so I was never hungry. The exercise was sometimes a hassle but it felt so good, so energizing! With my body producing the happy hormones via exercise, I was less snappy, too.

THE END RESULT

As you can see from the photos above, I lost a significant amount of weight. Enough to go from an XL to a medium (sometimes small)and a 40D to a 34C/D (I didn't lose much boob, just the fat around my back and the top of my chest). My current weight as I've said is 106lbs, just under 50 kilos. My measurements are now 35-28-36. I would show one of those before/after jeans photos (you know, the photo of the big jeans at current weight and after weight loss) but I forgot to take a before photo. If you want an after photo let me know.

I feel so much lighter. I can run up stairs easily. I can dance without being out of breath after a song. I feel so much healthier, so much more energetic, so full of life! I feel like I should at age 19, I no longer feel lethargic or tired. My feet, knees and hips no longer hurt when I'm walking (unless I've been standing for 5+ hours which is understandable). My period pains significantly lessened. The best part: no more back pain! Physically I am just so much healthier.

Losing 30lbs has made me so much more confident as well. Before I would walk with my shoulders hunched, trying to hide myself. I would never go into boutiques because I was afraid I'd get mocked, plus I didn't want the hassle of having to ask for bigger sizes (which the stores wouldn't normally have anyway). I could finally walk tall, wear heels without hurting my feet, wear sleeveless clothes. I could go to any boutique/store I wanted and pick something out of the racks and it would normally fit me (the only exception would be around the chest...I'm still larger than average there) fine. It has rewarded me with so much more confidence--so much so I even bought a bikini to wear over the summer months!

Simply put, losing weight has changed my life for the better. That's all there is to say about it.

I would never ever regret making the decision that I did.

OFF THE WAGON

Oops. From the end of February to the end of April, I hardly worked out (but kept my diet). Why? A number of things... school got really busy, my life got really busy, things like that. But because I'd jumpstarted my metabolism and trained myself to eat only what my body needed, I managed to keep my weight (despite a number of parties and weekends out). Still my endurance suffered and I had to start all over again.

THE CURRENT PROJECT

At the start of May I figured...hey, now that I'm much more fit, maybe I could pick up running since I did need exercise to stay healthy and to keep my weight. Funnily enough, when I lost weight my feet went down a size. So I could borrow my mom's running shoes. Now I'm starting an eight week (or less) program where the end result would be that I would be able to run for 30 minutes straight without stopping. I'm currently on week two and the longest I've run without stopping is 9 minutes.

I'm working on toning up, maybe losing a couple more inches around my waist and making sure that I have not much flab. My legs are toned as is but I need to work on my upper body. I'm also working to lose 6 more pounds so I guess you'll see posts about that sometimes.

My current motivation? Lady Gaga.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Of course this wouldn't be a proper blog post if I didn't post things that I've found helpful through my weight loss, would it!

• WATER. Need I say more? Make sure you get your daily intake requirements. If you're hungry, drink a glass or two of water before you snack.
• PORTION CONTROL. If you're eating a bag of chips or anything with nutritional facts and you see that there is more than one serving on the bag, take approximately one serving out and transfer it to a smaller bag. We are conditioned to finish what's inside a package so doing this will allow you to keep yourself controlled yet at the same time get just as much satisfaction as if you were eating a whole bag. But to make it easier on yourself, why not just buy packages that only have 1 serving in the bag (if available)?
• INDULGE YOUR CRAVINGS - If you feel like having chocolate, chips, soda, whatever, go ahead. Make sure you stay under your calorie limit for the day, though. Letting yourself have what you want keeps you satisfied and keeps those binges at bay.
• EXERCISE - Get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day or at the least exercise 3 times a week. Make sure your work out session exceeds 10 minutes because exercise only really begins to get effective after the 10 minute mark.
• HOUSE WORK - Chores can double as exercise! Another reason not to ignore sweeping, dusting, changing those sheets and whatnot.
• DON'T BUY/KEEP FOOD AROUND THAT YOU KNOW WILL TEMPT YOU - Surround yourself with 'safe' foods. I've convinced my mom to buy more fruits and keep the house stocked with fruit at all times. I also go with her to the grocery so I can pick and choose my 'snack' foods. Right now I've got a stock of biscuits, cookies, cereal bars and crackers. Yum.
• TAKE THE STAIRS - Doing so instead of using the elevator allows you to burn more calories in your day.
• WALK OR BIKE - if you've got somewhere to go and it's a walkable/bike-able (is that a word? It is now ;P) distance, avoid taking the car. Not only will you help the environment, you'll also burn more calories and tone up those legs!
• EAT SLOWER - It takes your stomach around 20 minutes to send the signal to your brain that 'hey, I'm full'. So eating slower allows you not to eat more than you actually should. That or...
• STOP EATING WHEN YOU'RE COMFORTABLE, NOT FULL.
• DON'T EAT IN FRONT OF THE TV/COMPUTER - eating while you're distracted pretty much keeps you mechanically putting food in your mouth without regard to what you're eating. Not. Cool.
• YOGUUUUUUUURT. I could go on and on and onnnn about the benefits of yogurt!! There's protein, calcium, fruits, live bacteria, healthy digestion... Not to mention it's a great dessert and anyone can eat it (even if you're lactose intolerant!) I practically beg my mom to buy me yoghurt every time she drops into the store. Haha.
• MOTIVATE YOURSELF! - I make sure to keep my "fat jeans" hanging in my room as a reminder that I should never let myself go that way once more. It's working! Lol.
• FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU - Just because what I did worked for me doesn't mean it'll work for you. Short of going to a nutritionist, you're the only one who can actually decide what's best for you.
• DON'T GET OBSESSIVE OR GO OVERBOARD- It's not good to be borderline anorexic.
• HAVE FUN - who says weight loss has to be hard and tedious? I lost my weight playing videogames!!
• DON'T GET JEALOUS if you start your weight loss journey and you are surrounded by friends who don't care what they're eating.
• KEEP A JOURNAL - If you feel you're getting off track or you're getting tired it should help keep you motivated and on the wagon.
• CONSULT A DOCTOR before you start your weight loss journey--just in case there is something you can't or shouldn't do.
• DON'T HURRY - If you don't see the effects of your efforts right away, remind yourself that losing weight is like carving a statue out of marble. Just imagine you're carving the new you out of your old body. Also--a good rate to lose weight is 1-2 lbs a week. I guess I just powered through 30lbs and didn't even realize.
• DON'T GET COMPLACENT - Lose that weight, keep it off!
• VEGGIES AND FRUITS. :)
• CAREFUL WHAT YOU DRINK - usually those beverages are what throw you off course. A can of soda = 300+ calories. Don't fall for the 'zero cal', 'zero sugar' nonsense, too. Sugar substitutes = not healthy. Milkshakes and coffee drinks can easily be over 500 calories each. Once in a while it's okay, but on a daily basis, it's not really in your best interest.
• STAY NATURAL - try to stay away from processed foods.
• LESS SALT - season your food so that it's just right. Salt makes you retain water weight.
• DO YOUR RESEARCH - before you dive into something, put the work into it. If you don't know what you're doing you might be doing more harm than good.
• BUDDY SYSTEM - Sometimes, doing things with someone is easier than doing it alone. When I started with my weight loss, the rest of my family sans my dad joined in. Now we're all at least 10 lbs lighter. :) Plus having a workout buddy AND a support system is so much easier!
• LIFESTYLE CHANGE!
• And once you do lose weight, BE PROUD OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT! Show that new body off!

That's pretty much it, girls. I have so much more to share but that's all that comes to mind right now. I hope you enjoyed this post and found it informative and helpful. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me (my e-mail address is chrisellesy at gmail dot com).

Is this...a COMEBACK?

Well ladies! I fell off the blogging wagon again as some huge things have happened lately in my life. But! Now I'm back, and hopefully I'll manage at least a few posts a week. I hope you all still remember me. ^^;

This won't be a full post since I'm still writing a HUGE one befitting of a proper 'comeback', but here's a little preview of me and how I look like now. As you can see, I've changed!

(Thank you to my friend Erika for a super fun time yesterday taking pictures/modeling for each other.)

Standby for a proper post SOON! Either tomorrow or the day after. :) Gotta have time to write it first, but I just want you ladies to know the ground hasn't swallowed me up whole just yet. Haha.

Pre-Valentines Party

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm super late with posting this but I've been busy...the semester is ending soon (SUMMER SOON YES) so everything is just piling up... haha. Sigh.

Anyway, how was your Valentines'/Chinese New Year? I didn't really celebrate myself since I'm single..haha. But I did have dinner with my family (immediate and cousins etc) because it was my cousin's birthday--and of course, to celebrate Chinese New Year.

I did go to a party last Friday though, at my friend's house. We decided we would have a 'Wild Lovin' theme--basically just an animal theme. I didn't have anything animal-ey to wear so I thought I could paint my nails but then that wouldn't be very noticeable. So I went out to see if I could get anything cheap to wear (since I'm not likely to wear anything animal print on a normal day). I managed to find leggings for only P70 (less than $2), so I just figured I could go to the party kinda casual. Good thing a lot of other people did the same, I mean people didn't even follow the theme! Lol.

I just did my makeup to match my outfit so I wouldn't be too out of place. Forgive the crappy image quality. I slept over at my friend's house (the house where the party was held) so I couldn't bring a lot of stuff.

The makeup:

Since I had school that day it was too much of a hassle to bring a lot of stuff..so I only brought my Coastal Scents 88 matte palette and my Shawill 12 palette. Despite this, 3 of my friends still wanted me to do their makeup..haha.

FACE Maybelline Clearsmooth face powder

CHEEKS Ever Bilena blush in Raisin

EYES ELF studio eye primer and eyeliner sealer, Coastal Scents 88 palette, Maybelline eyeliner, Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes mascara

LIPS Shawill gloss

CHEEK CHEETAH PRINT ELF studio eye primer, Coastal Scents 88 palette

The cheetah print on my cheek was a lot more clear and defined in real life..my camera phone is sucky :( It wasn't that blurry, the lines were sharp I promise! Hehe

I forgot undereye concealer..so I couldn't conceal my dark secrets. Sigh

The outfit:

Leggings (they are supposed to be grey).

The casual outfit...haha

Anyway. I'm working on something right now--my baby thesis! It's going to be about makeup so I'll be posting here what I work on for it. (:

Happy Wednesday, have a good day today!

FOTD/FOTN & Happy Birthday, Mom!

It's my mom's birthday today (well, Feb 8)--yay! So today, I went to class, then when I got home we all got ready to go out. I wore the following look to school.

FACE Celeteque moisturizer, Neutrogena Spectrum + advanced sunblock lotion SPF 70, Maybelline Clearsmooth Powder

CHEEKS ELF bronzer (I forgot what shade) applied on apples of cheeks

LIPS Shawill lipgloss over Nivea Pinkish Boost lip care 3-in-1

EYES art deco eyeshadow base, 120 palette, Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara

I'm aware that my eyeliner is uneven--this is because I woke up with one eye puffier than the other and had to compensate :/

Coincidentally, my 15 year old brother had his prom tonight (and he needed a ride home) so my parents and I decided that we would eat out so my mom wouldn't have to cook on her own birthday. I changed up a few things so my FOTD would look more appropriate for a night time setting. It was just a casual dinner (we ended up eating at TGI Friday's and for a while I completely forgot all about my diet..sigh).

For my FOTN I just added more black to my crease and thickened my eyeliner. My eyes were still uneven, sigh. Also, I used Saizen blush and Revlon Colorstay lipstick instead.

After dinner, we all went to the hotel where my brother was having his prom to wait for the whole it to finish (we sat at the lobby). A lot of the students were walking out to the photo booth nearby so I was having fun looking at their outfits and reminiscing about my own prom...almost five years ago. Gosh, I feel so old. Hehe. This was me and my mom on the day of my prom.

Don't I look so uncomfortable? LOL. It was because I wasn't happy with the way my makeup looked...that was the last time I ever had someone else do my makeup. From then on, I always did my own.

Anyway, I'm really glad to have my mom. She's such a sweet, caring woman and honestly I know that I take her for granted. I really am lucky that I have her, I wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise. She's one of my best friends and my guide, the only person I can really turn to when I find myself in trouble.

My mom and me lining up to get to the school gymnasium (auditorium too small to fit everyone) for my high school graduation

I know that sometimes my mom and I have issues (as is normal), and most of the time it's my fault. x.x I can't exactly say I've been a perfect daughter...

I think I was...10 in this. HAHA

But I know she loves me anyway. I love you mom, happy birthday!

Anyway, that's it for today.

Be grateful for the family that you have, everyone! (:

FOTD/NOTW

This was today's FOTD. Something really simple cause I was in a hurry and only really had like 30 minutes to do everything.

Products used:

FACE Neutrogena moisturizer with SPF 15 (I was in hurry and didn't want to bother with moisturizer + sun block), Maybelline Clear Smooth powder

CHEEKS Ellana mineral blush in Lust (not very visible in the photo, huh), Physician's Formula pearls of perfection for contouring

EYES Art Deco eyeshadow base, PAC palette, Dollface 28 neutral palette, Maybelline eye studio pencil eyeliner in black, Maybelline Volum Express Cat Eyes Mascara

LIPS Revlon Colorstay in Unlimited Mulberry

I did my eyes simply because anything more attention grabbing and I would look kinda weird (since I was just wearing a t-shirt + jeans to class today).

And here's my NOTW:

As you can see (or maybe not) it was already chipping. It's not that shiny anymore, either..my fault because I got too lazy to put a top coat on after I put the glitter layer on. I'm changing it soon, anyway, because Valentine's (or, to some of us, Single's Awareness Day) is near...so is Chinese New Year's. Hmm... no I have to decide which theme to follow when I paint my nails this weekend.

The base polish I used for my NOTW this week is really nice though. It's this pearlescent white that turns orange-y/pinkish when light hits it.

Anyway, I have more posts coming up soon! My dad just got back from the US and he brought some stuff home from me, so you'll hear about that sometime. Also, I think by the end of February I can finally do a before/after shot (of my weight loss journey). I started on Dec. 11 and so far I've lost almost 15 lbs. Just 5-10lbs to go (I'm not sure where I'm stopping because I want to see how I look like at that weight before I decide. LOL)!

Prestige iQuad Review

So today I really needed to relax after school (it was a really stressful day, deadlines and whatnot), so I decided I would play with makeup and maybe review a quad that came into my possession in December. This is technically a present to my mom, but since my mom doesn't wear makeup much, she gave it to me.

Prestige iQuad in Playback

SRP is around $5.99 for 2.5g of product (because this was given as a present and I haven't had the time to check the stores, I don't know how much it costs here in the Philippines)

Ingredients: Talc, octyldodecyl stearoyl stearate, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, isobutylparaben (LOOK AT ALL THOSE PARABENS), BHA. May contain[+/-]: Mica CI 77019, Iron Oxides CI 77491/CI 77492/CI 77499, Titanium Dioxide CI 77891, Bismuth Oxychloride CI 77163, Ultramarines CI 77007, Manganese Violet CI 77742, Ferric Ferrocyanide CI 77510, Carmine CI 75470, Chromium oxide greens CI 77288, Yellow 5 Lake CI 19140, Blue 1 Lake 42090

Swatches - top row w/o base, bottom row w/ ELF Studio eye primer

The eyeshadows were swatched counter clockwise from the purple

Two swipes each for top row, for bottom row anywhere from 3-5 swipes to get color to stick to base

Here's a mini tutorial for the look I did while I was playing around with this quad in order to review it.

Once eyelids have been primed, apply baby pink shade over eyelid. Layer on until you get your desired intensity (I layered on as much as I could, but it's so hard to get the colors to show up. I gave up at some point since the color would just disappear)

With a crease brush, take purple shade and apply on outer V, bringing the color into the crease. Again build to desired intensity--I was unable to do this again as the eyeshadow just won't layer on. Look at all the fallout!

With a fluffy eyeshadow brush, take the white shade and apply as higlight under browbone, bringing color into inner corner of eyes. As you can see...the first two shades (pink and purple) I applied pretty much disappeared. Still LOTS of fallout.

Line upper and lower lashline. I believe I used Maybelline pencil eyeliner..I forget which kind exactly. It was black, and I went over it with the purple from the quad

Apply mascara

Finished look -- of course you can't really appreciate it granted the fact that the colors pretty much DISAPPEARED.

So here's my review.

PACKAGING

2.5/5

First and foremost, I think the packaging is interesting, but upon realizing that it's packaged to look similar to iPods I'm left scratching my head and wondering why. What's the connection between the two products? They're worlds away from each other. But, okay...it's a novel concept (iQuad = eye quad), and the execution was okay, except the pan did not fit the compact perfectly. I pay attention to details and it bothers me (shallow as I am) that there is a gap in between the pan and the compact where there isn't supposed to be one.

Plus points, however, for the mirror--its sized decently enough. Also for the window on the cover which allows you to see what shades the eyeshadow inside come in without having to check. The compact also seems sturdy.

PRODUCT

1/5

Yeah I know, the quad only costs $5.99 but honestly, I can buy myself 4-6 palettes (5 shades) from LA colors for that price. I gave this such a low rating because as you can see in the pictures above:

• There was MAJOR fall out
• I could hardly swatch the eyeshadow
• It was REALLY hard to get the colors to appear and when they do they disappear after a while. I realize that they're supposed to go on sheerly but come on, I can't even layer on for intensity!
• The three shades (white, green, pink) all look the same to me when swatched/applied
• I don't like the consistency of the eyeshadow/powder/formula
• Would you believe that for the look I did above, I ended up MAJORLY denting the quad? I had such a hard time picking up color that I had to keep going back for more. At this rate I think this would only last me around 10 uses before I toss it...if I even use it
• It IRRITATED my eye:

I really only gave it a 1/5 because the white, pink and green would seem like decent highlighter colors. Also, the subtle shimmer is nice. The purple shade would have been great, but it disappeared from my crease soon after I finished using it.

WOULD I (RE)PURCHASE?

No. Just flat out no. Like I said, for $6 I can easily pick up other products that have much more 'bang for the buck'. I kind of actually expected more from this product but oh well, I guess this is a miss for me. I'm really glad this was just given to me because if I'd purchased it I'd probably be annoyed.

If you've tried this product, have you had the same experience with it as I have?