Photo: Love 101

| insecurities |

You can’t love another completely without ever loving yourself first. You can’t feel happy together, if you’re unhappy being alone.

Review: Sally Hansen’s Miracle Cure Strengthener

I hope I do not sound like I’m boasting if I say that I am thankful to be blessed with hard nails; my nails generally don’t break off easily but they do chip and the edges do crack if I’m doing too much house chores. So, when it comes to things like that, product like the Sally Hansen Miracle Cure Strengthener should come in handy. After all, it is supposed to strengthen my nails and prevent it from chipping.

Review:

• Brush – First thing I realised about the product was that the brush is long and ridiculously small. Hence, making it harder to apply it on your nails. Especially on the thumb. What more when the instructions given was to apply thin layers. I won’t say it is impossible but it is tough and it’ll need sometime getting used to it.
• Smell – If you have a bottle of Seche Vite Top Coat and think that it stinks, well, this smells even worse. I have no idea why it smells so bad, could be the chemical used? I sure hope it’s safe.
• Like I mentioned earlier, I have pretty hard nails so it’ll be hard to judge, for me if the products really works. Somehow after applying the product, it looked like just a shiny coat for my nails. I am not sure if the product works to strengthen the nails (so that the nails will be stronger?) or that it prevents the nails from breaking and chipping because the shiny coat forms a layer that binds and holds the nail together. I think it’s more of the latter, a layer to protect the nails.
• As such, I used this product as a base coat. But it is not recommended because like I mentioned earlier, it forms a layer. And so, if this product is used as a base coat, you can basically peel the whole polish off your nails.

This is a product I wouldn’t recommend, because I do have another nail strengthener which I use and I personally found them to work really well. That one is from The Face Shop and is much cheaper by one-third compared to Sally Hansen. (Will probably do a review for that soon! Watch out for that.) 

Swatch: Sally Hansen’s Flirt

I’ve always been a fan of Sally Hansen Xtreme series, I have the gorgeous deep blue colour; Blue It and Green with Envy, a funky happy green one. And now I have another amazing colour to add to my collection, Flirt! Thank you Yuberactive for sending me the polish.

When I first saw the colour, I couldn’t tell from the bottle what colour it was. It didn’t help that when I first applied the polish, it was in a rather low yellow-ish light. So, I thought the colour was somewhat more to the black goth polish type. Which is actually what the colour looks like for most of the time.

However, under the sunlight, it is a different colour all together. You’ll see a shimmering dark purple/magenta colour which is actually really pretty. But this is only limited to when there is sunlight. In the absence of that, the colour would appear as a rather boring, flat dark coloured polish which I think is a waste.

Application wise; it was easy to apply like the others in the same series. However, there was a minor defect in my brush which probably is a unique case. Other than that, it was a nice nail polish, three coats for even coverage. Pretty easy removal as well, although it may leave a slight tint on your nails.

Event: Boys Like Girls was in KL!

If you don’t already know, Boys Like Girls is finally back from their hiatus (where in that period, I was sadly replaying their old records and wishing for a comeback)! I’ve been following their comeback pretty closely, since they do release videos occasionally of the making of the new album. In fact, I’ve heard/watched a clip of Martin Johnson (lead vocalist) play ‘Be Your Everything’ at a music festival in United States. And so, all I did was anticipate patiently the release of their new album, “Crazy World”.

But little did I know that they were actually coming to KL to perform live for the showcase of the upcoming Rockaway Festival. =.= So much for being a fan, huh? If I hadn’t been blog-hopping, I really wouldn’t have found out and that’ll probably make me really really miserable. Thankfully I found out about it, although it was a mere few days away from the showcase. :O Lucky for me, the tickets wasn’t sold out and I managed to get my hands on a few of them. I didn’t want to go alone, so I dragged my close friends (Jason who Mumbles, Reuben and Serene) to come. Hee.

And now, I’ll let the pictures do the talking! Uploaded straight right out from my Canon S90, with no edits because it’ll be too tedious to do so. Pictures were mostly taken by Jason and some by myself.

My ticket, wee!

Since it was held in Neverland (a club), they were pretty strict with the age requirements; with ID checks and all. Knowing full well that it was free standing, I arrived there about 5.30ish PM, waiting forever outside for more than one hour. This is despite the management who said doors will be open at 6PM, which didn’t happen. Made us wait silly long, just for them to get the venue ready.

First act; The Lab Rat.

When we did finally get in, we didn’t have to wait that long for the first act to start. Of which if they made us wait any longer, we’ll all probably start flipping tables. Or not, since we are civilised. But I wouldn’t say that about the whole crowd that night. Things got really pushy and almost rowdy at some point, which could have made this experience an awful one. Luckily it didn’t get out of hand.

Opening Act 2; An Honest Mistake

AHM rocking the stage.

Male Lead Singer of AHM.

Singer from The Azenders.

There were all together three local Malaysian bands opening for the showcase; The Lab Rat, An Honest Mistake and The Azenders. Of all these three, I only knew An Honest Mistake, but not their music. Just knew there was such a band. Turns out they were pretty good, too bad we couldn’t see much of the girl’s vocals. Similar to the earlier act as well, I couldn’t hear the lady’s voice.

Motion City Soundtrack!

Midways through the local opening acts, one of the lead singer (I forgot which band) asked the crowd if they were excited for Boys Like Girls and then Motion City Soundtrack. And guess what, the crowd cheered louder for Motion City Soundtrack (MCS). Haha, I must say I was pretty surprised that there were so many fans here for MCS instead of BLG. I’d actually not heard of MCS before, neither was I familiar with the songs played, of which quite a number was played.

The lead singer from MCS.

Pretty lights! The club itself was pretty small but I really like the lighting of it.

After what seemed like forever (because MCS played quite a number of songs and BLG took a pretty long time to set up the stage), BLG came on the stage! Wee! It really felt awesome to see the band again although Bryan is no longer in the band and is replaced by Morgon Dorr, who is pretty cute. At this point, the crowd or rather the girls just went crazy (but this was not when the pushing started – it was during MCS’s performance) !

Not a good picture of Paul, but he came out first. :)

And then Martin came out and the girls just went nuts and wild. Hee.

They started out with one of their hit single, “The Great Escape” and at this point, nothing matters but to enjoy their performance. Haha, I did try to take some videos but I figured nothing beats the experience of watching them live. They played quite a number of songs, when I had actually only expected them to do like a couple, say 4 songs max. These were the songs that they played (not in sequence);

• The Great Escape
• Thunder
• Hero/Heroine
• Two is Better Than One
• Heels Over Head
• She’s Got a Boyfriend
• Five Minutes to Midnight
• Holiday

Besides playing their old tracks, they did play a few songs from their upcoming “Crazy World” album like my absolute favourite, “Be Your Everything”, “The First Time”, “Life of The Party” and “Crazy World”. I’ve actually heard the first three songs before, from their Ustream session but it was a acoustic version. And now, hearing it live, it’s really nice and I just cannot wait for the album to be released. :)

Martin, alternating between two musical instruments and singing. Talk about multi-talented much. Heh.

He is playing Crazy World, it has a really catchy tune.

Can you spot Morgon in the far right of the picture? Couldn’t get a nice picture of him from where I stood.

Watching them live and having them play some of my favourite songs was a definite dream come true, only that it didn’t end there. No, I didn’t get to hang out at the after party with them or got a hug or anything like that, though I really wouldn’t have mind. Anyway, Jason got me an invite to the pre-listening party for Boys Like Girls’s Crazy World, held the very next day. :D Talk about ecstatic much, I was going to meet them up close too. Woot.

 

* * * * * * * * *

And so, the very next day I woke up in the morning, obviously very excited that I’ll be seeing the boys later in the afternoon. I did my usual routine of checking Twitter and I realised that they were on Hitz.fm and after that, FlyFm as well. What a blissful morning, though I wished they had longer airtime for interviews.

They were on live chat on Gua as well. Best thing was they replied to my questions, haha. That totally made my day. I asked Morgon to say ‘Saya cinta Malaysia’ and he’d actually asked if he could say it, because he was afraid it was a bad word! I also told the boys that they should have sang “The First One” , a track of the second album, Love Drunk. And one of the boys said “Do you mean ‘The First Time’ (since this was one of their newer songs)?” And Martin interupted by singing a chorus line from the song, “The First One”. He went like this, the first one is the worst one, when it comes to a broken heart. <3

* * * * * * * * *

So, what went down at the Pre-Listening Party? Well, it was organized by Sony Music Malaysia, and we were given the privilege/opportunity to listen to the studio version of a few songs from the upcoming album, “Crazy World”. Their EP was due for release on the 17 July, but we got to hear it first before anyone in the world did on the 13th of July.

I was one of the first few to arrive, being the excited me. It was my first time at this sort of event so I had no idea that I have to hand over any recording devices over. This meant my lifeline-slash-phone, along with my camera as well. Boo hoo. Jason came late, after watching Spiderman for the second time, leaving me to stone forever.

The event kicked off with emcee, Jeremy Teo from Red.fm talking briefly about BLG’s history and went on to introduce the first song that was played. A total of 5 songs off the new album were played which were;

1. The First Time
2. Life of The Party
3. Crazy World
4. Be Your Everything
5. Stuck in The Middle

Like always, and one of the main reasons why I love this boy band so much, was because Martin Johnson (lead singer/vocalist) have always wrote the songs on the BLG’s album. Of course, he have co-writers as well. But I love the very idea of a musician writing and performing his own pieces.

So, what did I think of the song, from a fan perspective? Speaking from someone who have heard both their albums, I would say this new album sounds completely different than anything they produced previously. There is more emphasis on the melody, the tune and the feel of the songs now. If you love Martin’s vocals, you’ll love this new album. I’m not saying that there is less emphasis on the rest of the band members, but rather, it feels like the boys are venturing into a different music genre. Also, I feel the music is a bit more grown up, which Martin did mention during the short press conference we had after the songs.

During the press conference, I managed to ask a few questions like;

“What were your inspirations when writing the songs? (Typical, typical questions to ask, I know.) ” – For this, Martin mentioned that it was the different type of settings that inspired him. But mostly, it is usually the tune/melody that he gets, which will then lead him to start writing a song based on that very tune.

“What can your fans expect from this album?” – Again, Martin answered and he said that the tracks off the new album are those that can be played over and over again. It’s also more dynamic and very much different from their earlier records.

Also during the press conference;

Martin mentioned that he’d actually found it very hard to write love songs these days. *gasps* Because he said, it was very hard to maintain a relationship while touring. (I thought he was seeing Ashley Tishdale?!) He had also mentioned that they actually had over 200 songs and they narrowed it down to just 11 songs for the new album. These songs were mostly recorded and produced in his very own home-studio in LA.

He explained the delay in recording the new album was because at that time, the music was very much inclined to producing techno beats or dance club-ish which didn’t really suit them. They had actually tried to make a record but didn’t quite like it, so they threw the unfinished record out and took a short hiatus.

Thinking back, I should have asked more juicy questions, although I’d risked getting kicked out from the press conference and probably banned from all future events. Anyway, the new album is due for release in September, and I’m pretty much excited for it. The boys have also said they will be back early next year for a full blown concert. That I cannot wait. :)

After the press conference was over, I was hoping to get a picture with them but they left rather abruptly, shattering my hopes and dreams. I wished they had stayed behind, but they were moving on to their next interview. Emcee, Jeremy Teo got a picture with the boys tho. :( I did get a picture of them, because they posed for the photographers.

<3 My sis pointed out that Martin was wearing slippers! Haha. They did mention that they came straight from their rooms, so yea?

* * * * * * * * *

I know this is a rather long post, so thank you if you read the whole entry. Also, I want to thank Jason and his friend for the invite to the event. ;)

Photo: Scarlet Red

| your touch |

I miss you so much, you have no idea. Well, that’s the problem; you don't know.

Of ice-creams, life savers and hugs.

There is only so much each of us can handle, there is always a limit to that. Imagine having to face heart breaks, one after another. How is it that you can still stand up to face the world with a smile, when all you want to do is just cry your balls out. Is it too coward to say, you’d just rather run away from them? But how long can you run before you get exhausted? Before you get too tired with all that happened.

At times, like these, trust me when I say ice-creams and hugs do save the day. If not that, you’ll feel better enough to face the world again. (I haven’t found my life-savers, yet though).

Moving On.

I’m always looking back, thinking if I made the right decisions in the past. It’s not exactly the best thing to do but at times I really can’t help it. I do ponder quite often about the decision I made last year end, because it was an extremely tough call to make. I’ve felt regrets, disappointment and sometimes, anger when I go back to ‘that’ time when it happened, when my life changed.

It could be dramatic to say so, but believe me, if I didn’t make that call, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. I found it extremely hard to move on because there were just too many memories. Everything I did would somehow remind me of the past. I also realised that I try to push away or rather, I avoid going back to those times. Truth is, that only made it harder to move on.

I recall A and J telling me that I had to come to terms with my situation, in other words, accept that what happened has already happened. There were good memories that I should treasure and the not-so-good ones.. well, just let it go. Move on.

But when they told me that, I really couldn’t see it through their perspective. I was probably clouded and confused about my emotions. Half a year later, today, I realised that the only way to move on was to accept it. And it’s true; I do feel less burdened by the past. 

June.

I’ve somewhat imagined my post-exam holiday to be one that would involve me bumming around the house and em, doing just that. But since the holidays started, I haven’t been able to do just that. Not that I’m complaining anyway, because I have an awesome team to work with. I don’t know what I’ll do without them sometimes, when organizing an event especially.

Despite the busy ‘working’ schedule, I’ve managed to squeeze in a shoot with Alex Leong. Actually I shot with him before, I had famously called that previous shoot a headless one because you couldn’t see my face in the pictures. But then again, each photographer have different styles. This time around, I’d rather him not shoot my face because I had a mere four hours of sleep the day before. My eye-bags were freaking obvious. I haven’t seen the shots, but he did show me one shot that looked pretty good. Looking forward to that. Will post it up once I get my hands on them.

So, June will be ending soon and I’m hoping to make the most out of July since it’ll be the last month before I head off to work. Time to catch up with my friends, shoot pictures and just living now.

London The Summer Musical.

You may have heard of the latest musical in town, none other than London, The Summer Musical. :) I’ve been invited to the Gala Premiere of it back then in May, but I’ve only been able to blog about now due to my examinations.

These are the tickets, and I loved the design of them. On the back of these tickets, they actually resembled boarding passes. Like those you’ll get when you board an airplane. Which is a nice touch, because this time the musical is about three air stewardesses who stopped performing and decided to travel the world instead.

This is the opening act, I love the theme song! Very catchy tune. :)

I’m not going to elaborate more about the storyline of the musical but you can expect some love story and tonnes of songs being performed on stage. I’ve been to the Magical Musicals and Aladdin as well, so if you did as well, then this musical is somewhat a cross in between the two. Why’d I say so? Simply because the concept was similar to the Magical Musicals with three girls and three boys being paired up, singing and such. Aladdin because I love the elaborate costumes there; there was some in the London, Summer Musical towards the end only though.

Last but not least, a picture of myself and the sister! I have a pretty long day in college before heading to the Surf Beach for this. Haha, please ignore the tired look. :)

When things couldn’t get worse.

I’ve been MIA for some time because I’m taking the final papers of my semester and I’ve said that I’ll only be back on June 13. But after all that happened today, I had to pour my heart out somewhere. So where else if not, my blog?

I got so depressed after the exams, so depressed that if I didn’t talk to anyone about it I knew I would lose my mind. So, I called Jason up and after that, I did feel so much better. And thank you Alex too, for listening.

I’m sure you’re wondering what got me so depressed, which surprisingly, wasn’t because of the paper I sat for. It was because of what I did in the examination hall, despite the fact that I had unconsciously done so. :( I have my own stupidity to blame for that.

And because I was so shocked after realising how stupid I was, I actually left my pencil case in the examination hall. The case had my credit card and my IC in it. :s Best thing was I didn’t realised that I left it until my friends called me. That is how clueless I can be. (And thank you Danny for taking the case back for me!)

And all these stuff, just got me so bloody depressed. It may seem like pretty small issue but trust me, if you’re in my shoes, you’ll know how it feels.

But, on the bright side, I just got my pencil case back from my lovely awesome fantastic friends who delivered it to me! Thank you Eugene, Reuben and Serene! I’m forever indebted, until I treat you all to a meal. Haha. :P

With all this things happening, I’m really really thankful for my friends. Also, I’m very lucky to have friends like you all. <3

* * * * * * * * *

It helped that the radio played the right song today; Andy Grammar’s Keep Your Head Up.

But you gotta keep your head up, oh,

And you can let your hair down, eh.

You gotta keep your head up, oh,

And you can let your hair down, eh.

.

Photo: Hope in Faith

 

Note: I am going through my preparation for my final two papers, hence I’ll be taking a short break from blogging! Will be back from June 13 onwards!

* * * * * * * * *

| downside up |

When life gets you down, you can lose everything but you cannot lose hope. And faith, that things will be alright.

Photo: Ghost of my past

| move on, move along |

I wish I could look at you one day and not feel the sadness of what we once were.

Photo: A window.

| the reality of things |

There are lots of things that we don’t understand, no matter how many years we put on, no matter how much experience we accumulate. – Haruki Murakami

Review: Biolyn’s Phyto Hyaluronic Acid Solution for Skin

Just recently I blogged about the Biolyn's Hair Spa experience and how awesome it was, and during that Hair Spa, I was given a free product to try. It is called the Phyto Hyaluronic Acid Solution for Skin and I decided to do a review of the product. (I’m actually dabbling with blogging reviews of the product I used, not only the nail polish but beauty products as well.)

The product is packaged in a simple bottle. I’m not able to read the Chinese words being the ‘banana’ I am, but the other details are written in English. So no worries if you’re like me. Heh. Anyway, as described on the bottle, this product hydrates, firms, soothe and whiten the skin. It is stated that it might take up to 30 days to see the effect, but, I have been using this product on my face for about a few days already, and I’ve noticed that my face looks slightly fairer and clearer as well. It isn’t very noticeable, hence I didn’t take a picture of my face.

Here is a close up picture of the bottle. Rest assured that this is a natural product, since its ingredients are extracted from premium white fungus. I was born with sensitive skin, so I have to be careful with the type of products I used, but I didn’t have any allergic reactions towards this product. Possibly since it is free from allergens, like proteins.

This is the cap of the bottle, and you’ll have to tilt the bottle to pour the product out. Very easy to use and I don’t need to screw any cap back on. Super convenient when I’m in the rush especially, which is most of the time. Haha.

You don’t need to apply a lot of the product, it is advisable to do it by drops. After pouring a few drops, you’ll just need to spread it on your skin. And, ta-da, the product is fully absorbed into your skin. I really love how well and fast it gets absorbed, and it doesn’t leave any traces of sticky feel. I have a huge issue with products that leaves that kind of feel on my skin, it is very very uncomfortable to me. Because it get absorbed pretty fast, it’s really easy for me to include into my daily regime for my face. I’m actually using it to replace my moisturiser, so far, it seems to be good. Doesn’t clog up my pores, so no worries about pimples.

In fact, it claims to minimize pores, lighten dark spots and reduces oil secretion if used on face. I find that it actually does help because my face is less oily ever since I started using this product. From the picture, you’ll find that this product can be used on other areas of the body since it’s basically a skin care product.

I’m going to show you a picture of my extremely dry skin which do happen occasionally especially during the hot seasons like now. Try not to get freaked out. Haha. You have been warned. It shows a before using the product; my dry skin and how my skin is after the product.

As you can see the product really works! It gave my dry, peeling skin an instant hydration. Definitely handy to have this product if you suffer from dry skin. :) I’m looking forward to the end of the 30 days period to see if the product would give a more noticeable change for my face but by I’m already loving the product so far.

If you’re interested in getting this product, you can get them from the Hair Salon I went for the Biolyn's Hair Spa experience or any other Biolyn’s outlets. It retails at RM 39.00.

Photo: What you don’t know.

| everyday, i think of you |

But you don’t know how much you mean to me. Maybe, you’ll never even know.