How to: Cheat Sheet for Fabric Caring

This wouldn’t exactly be a cheat sheet, but calling it so makes it more interesting to read about caring for your fabrics (fabrics as in clothes). Like all others, my clothes are really precious to me and each piece is unique, with the different designs and materials used. More often than not, I find myself taking for granted that I have my mother to help me with my washing.

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Because of that, I am embarrassed  to say that I really have no idea that each clothing has to be cared for differently. :( So, after a few trials and errors, I took the effort to learn how to care for my clothings. Really, what is the point of having all these beautiful, gorgeous clothes only to have them ruined because I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to that?

 

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I started off with lace first because it is by far one of the most delicate fabrics I have in wardrobe. Every time I fall in love with a lace piece, I’d think twice and hard before I get it. Lace clothing are really beautiful, even more after you wear them but they are also very soft and vulnerable. Extra care have to be taken with these lovelies;

• Lace clothing need to be hand washed in cold water and air dried.
• If the clothes have zip or buttons, do zip or button them up to avoid sagging when washing.
• If you need to iron, place a cloth over the lace clothing and iron on that cloth.

Basically, with lace you need to be very gentle with them.

 

After lace, my favourite fabric would be the lightweight, almost see-through chiffon! Clothes, especially dresses look the best when there is movement in them. I love this chiffon dress because of the asymmetrical design and the chiffon, of course. Walking in this is just beautiful and you almost feel like you’re walking the runway. :D But like lace, it another delicate fabric, so here are a few handy tips;

• Chiffon tends to tear easily, so be careful of the accessories you wear. It’s best to go with fabric belts and accessories which won’t snag or tear the chiffon.
• It is very light and it may get burned really easily, so use a cooler temperature or place a cloth over it when ironing.
• It’s best to hand wash but if you want to machine wash, set the settings to ‘soft’ wash and put the it in a laundry bag. (You can get this from Daiso, for RM5 only)

 

There is something about velvet clothes that make me “ahhhh…” especially when I see gorgeous clothes made from velvet. It is not often to find clothes made out of this fabric here, maybe because it can get quite warm when wearing velvet. But I do have a few velvet pieces in my wardrobe. Velvet garments are bit more difficult to care for because the fabric can get ruined and crushed easily.

• The first thing to note is that you cannot iron a velvet garment. If there are creases, you’ll have to use a steamer to smoothen that out. Holding it over the steam of a hot boiling pot of water may help, but be careful.
• It is best to not fold your velvet clothing, because creases will be formed then. If you must fold, put tissue paper in between them.
• Some velvet clothing can be hand washed or even machine wash, but if you’re in doubt it will be better to bring it to the professional dry cleaners.

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I covered on the three most delicate fabrics that I have in my wardrobe. The other fabrics are actually easier to care for like cotton, rayon and what not. Silk is another delicate fabric as well but I think I’ll do that in another post to come. Essentially, it is always best to read the garment care label because that is usually the best way to handle the fabrics. I found a pretty comprehensive guide to understand the labels, because I do get confused often by the symbols!

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I hope you found this post to be useful and caring for your clothes will be so much easier with the few handy tips in this ‘cheat sheet’. Haha. I would really love to hear comments if I should do more posts like this. :) Or drop me a message if you have any suggestions.

Till next time, xoxo.

Review: Rainbow Lip Sticker! | Temporary Lip Tattoo

If you remember, I blogged about the lip sticker in this post. For that post, the sticker I tried on was in 046, which Jason thought looked like ‘lap cheong’, also known as Chinese sausages. Or even salami, he said. Well, the only thing anyone can say about this lip sticker is rraaaaaaiinnnboooooowww. 

I have always wanted to try to have rainbow lips, so having the lip sticker in this design was just awesome pawsome! But honestly, I hadn’t expected the colours to be so deep. I mean rainbow reminds me of happy cheery stuff, and the colours on this lip sticker are wee bit darker. But hey, it is still in the colour of the rainbow! Compared to the previous lip sticker I mentioned in this post, this one feels a bit dry. That is why you can see the liner on my lips.

oh, hi! *waves*

heh, because I can.

Wearing rainbow on your lips is bound to be a head turner, I mean who wears rainbow and shop in the malls, right? So, wear rainbow lips if you want to walk around with people bending over their backs, just to get a better look at you, the next time you head out. Give me a call when you do, and we’ll hang out. Tee hee.

How to: Winged (eye) Liner

Eyeliners was never really my must have make-up essential items; it was pressed powder back then, when my skin was still smooth and all I needed was powder. I used to think that, that was all I needed. Even when I saw my sister religiously wearing eyeliners whenever she heads out, I still hadn’t seen the wonders of eyeliners, yet. Then, one day I fell in love with the winged, cat eyed eyeliner look that was so in trend. The next day, I got myself a liquid eyeliner; it was the Maybelline HyperSharp Liner.

It did get me some time to get used to drawing a balanced eyeliner for both my eyes, especially since I immediately started off with liquid liner. Once I’m able to draw a balanced one, I went on to try the winged eyeliner! After many trial and errors, I finally managed to do a perfect winged eyeliner. My version is a somewhat casual with less drama compared to those we see on celebrities since those are actually longer.

I did a pictorial, because it is so much easier to have a picture by picture guide. I will also eleborate in details for each step, highlighting which steps were crucial. They are actually only 4 steps and with practice you can draw it under 5 minutes.

From the pictorial, I know it seems too easy but truth is, it is that easy once you get a hang of it. Since I was trying to make the pictorial as concise as possible, I’ll be elaborating more on each step.

The most important step of the four would be the first one, because that would be the line that helps to guide the winged liner. Think as though you’re using the eyeliner to extend the line of your lower lash line. There is a simple technique/trick called the tape trick or using a cellophane tape.

So, what you’d basically do is get a cello tape and stick it slanted/angled according to your lower lash line. To avoid the cello tape to be too sticky, lightly pat the tape on the back of your hand before sticking them to your eyes. The tape only merely acts as a guideline, so once you’ve drawn the line, it’s best to peel it off.

Moving on, the hardest step, in my opinion would then be the second one, where you have to draw the outline from the centre of the eye. I actually have a tip to make this step easier. For those who have double eye-lids, you can use the fold of your eyelid as the guideline to how thick you have to draw the eyeliner. For those who don’t have. you can decide on the thickness of your eyeliner according to how you would prefer it to be.

The third step basically involve filling in the outline that you have drawn earlier. Do this step carefully because you have to make sure it stays within the outline you have drawn. For the fourth step, it is just extending the line. If you’re not used to drawing your liner using liquid, best that you try to draw short lines instead of one slick line.

Ta-da, you’re done! Four simple steps to have that perfect winged eyeliner! I’ll show you a picture of my eyeliner; I had actually lined my waterline as well.

I know it is a bit dramatic, because I kind of got carried away while drawing the eyeliner which actually happens pretty often. I am usually afraid of lining my lower lash line because the eyeliner would usually smudge, but the new K-Palette eyeliner I am using (which I will review soon!) almost doesn’t smudge! :D

I’ll end the post with a shot of my face, wearing the eyeliner. I do hope you found the tutorial very useful and good luck with drawing the winged eyeliner!

xoxo

because, it doesn't matter.

So, I am sitting down and I’m just thinking. Have you ever sat in front of the computer, so many thoughts running through your mind, so quickly like flashes? And just as you were about to grasp them, they would vanish into thin air, replaced with new thoughts. It’s overwhelming, that I can tell you. Most times, it will get so frustrating but sometimes you have to stop fighting it and give in to them...

More wishful thinking, I wish I could read minds. I wish I would know what is what, even if it’s only for a day. I really wish so. Among these wishes, I wondered. I wonder why unicorns don’t exist. I wonder why you did what you did. I wonder why I love candies but hate chocolate.

Then, there are the questions that beg to be asked. But then, do I really want to know the answers? Wouldn’t it be better to leave things as it and give it the benefit of doubt? I ask too much, think too much so it’s time I stop doing what I used to do. Not until I’m sure it’s really okay to do so.

Trend: Oxblood, Fall Fashion 2012

I have taken a sudden interest in runway trends, just recently. I have been into fashion for quite some time; like all other, my passion for fashion started with a fondness of dressing up, looking good. But then, it never occurred to me what was in trend back then, I wore what looks good and what I like. Most of the times, it doesn’t really matter whether others like it or not. (Still doesn’t, I’m the one wearing the clothes after all) Of course, now it’s different because I am reading more about fashion and these would usually cover runway trends, especially since runway shows are pretty big deal.

Confession: One of my dreams would be to attend a fancy exclusive fashion show, *fingers crossed* front row seats!

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And so, here I am talking about the runway trend for Fall/Autumn 2012. The reason why I’d post about this “Oxblood” trend was because I had actually gotten myself a piece of clothing in Oxblood, even before I knew it was trending. I meant, what a coincidence, plus I really loved this piece very much that it deserve a post on it. If you don’t know by now, Oxblood is actually a colour. It’s a deep burgundy colour, very rich. It’s strong and it’s a bold colour. Not the eye catching bold, but just bold.

Google will show you just how huge the Oxblood trend is for Fall/Autumn 2012, the wonders of Internet these days. So many inspirations of pretty items! And, here is how I wore the Oxblood trend. When I was scouting for unique pieces to sell on Et Cetera, I saw this amazing faux leather skirt. I knew I had to have it, so I brought it in for Et Cetera and got myself one in the Oxblood colour (there is black too). I didn’t know that it was Oxblood, I saw that as a deeper maroon.

Look #1

Look #2

So, will you be wearing this fall’s hottest colour, oxblood? ;)

Note: The photos are shot using my phone, so you’ll have to excuse the quality.

Today’s Blonde Moment.

Are you sure you're not blonde? #ThingsIGetAlot

I had one such ‘blonde’ moment today, a first in many weeks (but then again, the past few weeks have been dull and colourless). This happened when I was talking to A, my best friend. He was telling me about how he wanted to start blogging again, after so long. He had given me his blog address before but me, being the blur forgetful person I am, I had somewhat forgotten about it. But I did remember it was something with the words ‘skies’ and ‘blue’. I’ll let you read on;

Like I said earlier, I remember it was ‘skies’ and ‘blue’ and A told me it was in Wordpress. So, easy peasy I went to Google the three keywords I had and to my convenience, skiesblue.wordpress.com came up. Clicked on it, scrolled down and I saw pictures that I had no idea why A would ever post! It’s not porn, but it was this…..

Em, yea. And more and more of pictures of this guy…. Obviously, something weird was going on and I had to ask A!

And that was what A told me!!! I mean, wtf, at that point I scrolled through two pages and it was that many pictures of that dude I just believe what A said. I mean who would joke about this kind of stuff, right? Obviously, he did and thinks it was funny enough to troll me. HMMPH.

It turns out that his blog was skiesblueS.wordpress.com. I missed out by one ‘S’ and that made all the difference. Meh. Anyway, A beat me to blogging about this, so if you want you can read what he wrote; meme style! Link here; http://skiesblues.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/skiesblue-4life/.

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I thought I’ll post a little more about how I’m doing and feeling lately, since I haven’t been updating much. Well, I, (hmmm) haven’t been the best I wished I could be. In fact, some days were pretty horrible. “There are good days, and there are bad days. And then, there are days that you feel so awful that you wished a sink hole would just swallow you in.”

Then, there are those days that you just want to drop everything and just leave. Run. Let time heal everything, while you disappear.

It’s really hard to deal with this, when suddenly all that I thought to be wasn’t what it was. I thought I was stronger, I told myself I could get through this. But frankly, I don’t have a clue. All I know is that despite everything, I keep looking back to the what had already happened. Sometimes really, (I don’t know if anybody will ever be able to feel how I feel or at least relate), when everything is lost, you find yourself missing and longing for it/them. You want to turn back the clock, you want to do things differently, you want to change. But you cannot. I cannot. And, it just hurts to be so helpless.

People change, but memories don’t.

21 days, the bro said.

If I told you I missed you, what would you do?

I miss my best friend(s). I know best, means having one only but I have so many friends that they are all my best ones. I really do miss them so much, and I’m really thankful for those who stuck on with me despite how insufferable, stupidly annoying and dumb I could be at times. Thank you so much, and I want you to know, that, it means the world to me. 

Crystie’s 20th, The Apartment

About a few Sundays back, I spent an afternoon with my friends from work and then, in the late afternoon I was busy preparing for Crys’s birthday and with coordinating her ‘surprise’ birthday dinner as well. It was meant as a surprise but because I didn’t plan it properly, :x she did knew about it but played along with us. Haha. Here are some pictures of what went down during the dinner;

Once again, happy birthday Crys! I love you in ways that nobody can understand, even yourself. <3

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Before I end my post, this is what I had from The Apartment. I have never been here before so I did Google up on what’s good there. But there wasn’t anything that was really good (from the reviews I read online) so I ended up deciding on what seems fine from the menu, and I picked the Duck Confit.

Shot with Galaxy Note, under low light condition.

I picked this because I have never tried this anywhere before and I quite like it, the cranberries sauce was sweet, just nice and complemented the tender and slightly crispy duck. I don’t know if this was what a Duck Confit was supposed to taste like but I like it enough, anyway.

Meet Eaton Mess, a sinful delish dessert made from baked marshmallow topped with cream, tonnes of strawberries and sweet strawberries sauce. This is so delicious, it’ll make you go “screw that diet, I’ll eat this and worry about the calories later”.

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That’s all from me this time, have a great working week ahead. Uh, that goes out to me as well.

Eat: Garden Lifestyle Store & Cafe

I was at e@Curve the other day, and together with my friends, we couldn’t decide where to eat. Actually, they couldn’t. If I was anywhere near IKEA, I will always always always choose to eat meatballs at IKEA. Yes, meatballs would almost the only reason why I’d ever go IKEA or anyway.

Shot with Samsung Galaxy Note. Edited.

They didn’t actually want to eat at IKEA because we wanted to have a nice quiet place where we can sit down comfortably and talk. IKEA is so often crowded and noisy, so we opted for some nicer and quiet place like Garden. I have only been to Garden once in Sunway Pyramid and I thought it was a rather pretty restaurant, designed to look as what their name is. And it seems cosy and comfortable for a nice lunch, and so why not?

But as it turns out, on that day, there was a futsal match / event right outside e@Curve and it got pretty noisy, defeating our purpose of having a nice meal with conversations. Nevertheless, we went ahead and ordered anyway and right now, there are having a Buy 1 Free 1 promotion for all their pastas.

Shot with Samsung Galaxy Note. Edited.

Grand’ Pa Carbonara (Beef)

Shot with Samsung Galaxy Note. Edited.

Own Style “Olio-Aglio”

I had a taste of this and I quite like it, but the chilli flakes did make it a tad spicier than what I could handle. I never expected a seeming simple pasta like Olio Aglio would taste this good. They were generous with the olives, but skimped on the prawns and tiny clams.

Squid Ink Pasta | Looks really plain to me but my friend said it was good.

Seafood Arabitta | And, this is what I ordered.

If I’m not mistaken, I think I had a similar one in Porta Romano, (in Romano, it was named after the restaurant itself) which was why I ordered it that time anyway. I rarely eat pasta outside, but I really loved the one from Porta Romano. (Read about it here.) Seeing that Seafood Arabitta looks almost similar to it, I thought I’d try this one from Garden.

Turns out pretty decent for a pasta, but to be completely honest if I compared it with Romano, it’d fall short because the Garden’s one was almost bland. From what I know the Arabitta is actually supposed to be spicy, but it slipped my mind to let the waiter know how spicy I wanted it to be. And he didn’t bother asking me, so my pasta tasted nothing spicy. Also, the cheese sprinkles were awfully dry and powdery which somewhat ruined the pasta for me.

All-in-all, the Seafood Arabitta was still a decent pasta but I would say it isn’t the best one from Garden. The serving size is decent but it wasn’t loaded with clams, like in Romano.

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So, the next time you head out to Garden Lifestyle Store & Cafe, you know which pasta to order. :)

Note: Pictures, if otherwise not mentioned, are shot with a Canon S90. :)

The Best Thing.

to be honest, i haven’t been doing so well. i am going through another difficult phase in my life, it’s not easy.. but as each day passes, i am getting much better. i have faith, things will get better. i am also very thankful for this thing to happen to me, i wish to say that i am not posting this to boast. i blog about things that matter to me, and hope in future, i can remember these things better, by reading my posts.

I have been meaning to blog about this, but somehow every time, I’ll decide to publish / work on another post instead. So this thing that I’m supposed to blog about is actually the best thing to happen to me, which by now, is already been a month since then.

Do you remember this post where I blogged about my love for platform boots? You can read it here if you missed that post. I posted some pictures which I mentioned were actually behind the scenes photos for a contest I joined. I don’t usually go all the way to shoot and edit my pictures but for this one, it was something I was very much interested in and so, hours of editing, shooting and some minor bit of brain storming.. has resulted with this.

I am too shy to post the full blown picture of my work, so you’ll have to bear with this from La Senza. The contest mechanics was rather simple; create a fashion inspired photograph. I could have easily done a Polyvore set for this, I did think about it but then I didn’t quite like the idea of using pictures that are not mine. And so, I used my own pictures. Well, they (my pictures) were the ones who gave me an inspiration to create a photo layout, much like a scrapbook.

And what did I win? :)

A (much needed) new phone! It is the first version of Samsung’s Galaxy Note. I was actually saving up to get either a Note (cause I can scribble/draw on it) or an iPhone, so you can imagine how ecstatic I was to win this contest. So far, I am totally loving this phone, since it is quite a huge upgrade from my Nokia 5530. The camera, is pretty good and with a front camera… you get the idea. Haha. Also, I’m finally active on Instagram, so if you want to follow me, my username is @itscarmenhong.

I am also totally in love with my pink metallic cover, so much that I went back to buy a spare one. Bought pink earphones too, to match my phone. Suddenly I love pink so much, when black has been my default favourite colour. I have to admit that this phone seems for like a mini tablet but hey, I am not complaining. Only thing is that because it’s so huge, when I shoot with my own camera, it feels like I am holding a toy. Everything else that used to be or feel normal to me, is now toy sized. Like damn.

Nail Art: Heart Shaped Matte Pink

With the Internet these days, it has been so easy to find and share pictures of pretty nail art designs. There are so many nail arts that I have seen from the net that I wanted to try. In fact, I was so inspired by some of the gorgeous ones that I actually sketched them out (with guides and notes) in my sketching notebook. Anyway, before I get side tracked any further, I stumbled upon a picture on Pinterest (Yes, I’m on there. :] Follow my boards HERE.) of a super simple nail art; matte heart. It was such an easy nail art to do since you only need stickers + matte top coat, not forgetting the base colour too. So here is my version. :D

How do you like my version? :) I used the Neon Pink polish from Elianto, which I swatched and reviewed before. Click here to read it.

So, how do to do this nail art? What you’ll need is a sticker. Draw a heart shape, cut that out and then paste it over your nail. The nails should be painted with a base colour before that. After pasting the sticker, top it off with a matte top coat. Whenever I use stickers for my nail art designs, I prefer to let my base polish to cool or dry for at least 24 hours because sometimes the sticker may be too strong and ruins the base colour, Just like that, and you’re done.

You may notice that there is a white outline over the heart shape. That is actually because of the matte top coat. I used Essence’s Matt(e) Top Coat for this nail design and somehow, after I peeled off the sticker, it left a white outline. But fret not, it’ll be go off after sometime. Of course, if you’re irked by it like myself, you can slowly scrapped it off with your nails, like I did. Haha.

It was a really simple nail art to do, something that I finished in less than 15 mins. To be honest, these days I find myself preferring to swatch instead of doing nail arts. Maybe I got lazier, :(. Which is why I am so going to make it point to do more nail arts. I know I’ll never be short of inspiration with the Internet these days, anyway.

Review: Temporary Tattoo Eyeliners | Stickers

Did you read my post on the amazing Lip Sticker? The one that gave my lips such edgy look? If you haven’t, you can read it here. What did you think about this trend? For me, I love how edgy it was; wear the Lip Sticker out, and you’re bound to get attention (read: heads will turn 360 degrees). Haha. So, it is not exactly a very, everyday-I-can-wear-this-out look.

Now that you have seen/read about the Lip Sticker, would you believe me when I say that there is already a sticker for eyeliners as well? But then again, with all the trends around these days, nothing would really come off surprising anyway. :x Anyway, the eyeliner stickers sounded quite interesting and I managed to get my hands on a few of them.

This is how it looks like; there are five pairs of different designs in a pack. I had initially thought that they would be like a sticker; being able to peel it off from the film and then stick them on to my eyelids.

Turns out that the application for this eyeliner was similar to the Lip Sticker, whereby the sticker/tattoo is transferred using water. I actually did a step-by-step photo instructions for this temporary tattoo eyeliner. Here it is;

1. Cut out the design you want.
2. Ta-da, I cut it like that.
3. For this step, I had to be extra careful when I was cutting the bottom of the sticker.
4. Remove the transparent film.
5. Place it on your eye lids.
6. Then, gently wet the sticker paper with water. Wet cotton balls can be used as well.

And this is how it looks! :D So awww-sum right?

It was super easy and fun to do. The picture on the left is without any foundation and was taken immediately after I managed to stick it on. On the right, is after I put on some BB cream and touched up the eyeliner. Sometimes I find that when transferring, not all it will get transferred properly. It’ll like extremely tiny gaps, so this eyeliner sticker is best to use with an eyeliner. But mostly all I needed to do was to fill in the gaps only.

The product claimed to be able to last a few days and hence, it is known as tattoo eye liner. I was sceptical about it at first, so after the first time using it I didn’t remove it just to test how long it was able to last. On the second day, the eyeliner still looks almost as good as when it was first applied. It was only after the third day when the sticker was slowly wearing out, with more gaps. Again, these gaps can be filled up using eyeliner. So yes, I must say that it really does what it said to do.

But for it to last longer, you’ll have to try to avoid washing your eyelids like the rest of your face. Besides that, the removal of this sticker was very easy as well; I used olive oil and cleaned it using a cotton bud.

And here you can see a collage of the different designs of eyeliners I used, according to the alphabets; a,b,d and e. I haven’t tried c yet To be honest, I didn’t like design e, because there was a gap, it ended up looking weird. So, I filled in that space using eyeliners instead.

After trying out most of the designs, I find that these eyeliners are simple enough to be worn out without looking over the top. But, it is uniquely designed so it doesn’t look too plain and normal. This set of eyeliners are actually the basic ones; there are two other fancy sets.

If you have read my post on thirtyfour’s blackplatinum event, you may have saw that I was wearing one of the fancier eyeliner sticker. Here is a picture of myself with it. :)

As you can see  I had minimal make-up on my face, except the lips because I wanted to focus to be on my eyes. I really liked how easy it was to do this, instead of having to spend like 20 mins on eye make-up, I was done in about 5 mins max.

Conclusion

This was quite a picture heavy post, thank you for reading it till here. So I’ll just give a final conclusion on what I feel about this product; super easy and convenient for those who look for something different from the usual drawn eyeliners. But since it have to be transferred, instead of sticking it on, that part can get a bit troublesome. Sometimes even, there are tiny gaps or the sticker wasn’t transferred nicely. That is when the old school eye liner would be useful.

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PS - I had actually realised that these were probably inspired from Dior’s Velvet Eye. After more Googling, I found out that Sephora and a number of other brands did come up with their own versions as well. But I’m guessing those didn’t take off as well as how Violent Lips succeeded with the Lip Sticker. And compared to this product which was transferred by water, Dior’s and Sephora’s one are made from velvet and can be stick onto the eye lids.