- Dalai Lama XIV

The house is ever so quiet and empty since mum left for home.

How easy it is to feel lonely in this tiny island of 5 million.

I try to keep busy to mask the passage of time.

Counting down the 23 days till I board the plane.

Every time wishing for a more permanent departure towards home.

This deep yearning never quietens but intensifies with every effort to ignore it.

There is no mistaking the fact.

I want to go home.

First of which was gradient nails:

Sea green gradient nails

Okay so they don’t necessarily look like the best. I didn’t have a glitter polish to go over the top and I think it’s the glitter polish which helps ‘merge’ all the colours together since it reflects light which would hide the flaws. Note to self: buy glitter polish!

The overall effect was a lot nicer than my first attempt where I just tried painting a dark red pearly shade over pink nails. The polish wasn’t sheer enough to give a good gradient effect. This time I used a sponge instead. Nicer, but also a lot more tedious.Also the dark green at the top has started chipping after a day so wasn’t too happy with that. To be fair though, I did some washing and cleaning today so it could be why they started chipping so fast

The second project that I was working on was making my own DIY Lash Cards. I first saw them on YouTube and thought it was an awesome idea since I did have an issue with getting mascara all over my lids which is a pain to clean, especially since I use Majolica Majorca’s mascara which is notoriously hard to get off once it’s set. Damn flat eyes. Anyway I hear they retail for 5 USD for 10 Lash Cards (why spend the money when you can DIY?).

Here are the materials I used:

Thick paper and scissors are all you need

I think a thicker paper works best so that it can hold its shape. I happened to have a credit card mailer with me made of really good quality paper (I think at least 120gms – why do they always use such thick paper for such advertisements? Save the trees yo).

Just cut a small piece and hold it up to your eye to get a rough idea of how to curve the ends. I have pretty flat almond shaped eyes so I didn’t have to curve it very much.

One end

I just needed to make one sample piece and just cut the rest up from the template.

That mailer got me 14 lash cards. Great recycling idea if you ask me.

The final yield

Anyway, the weekend is over now Back to work tomorrow. On the bright side. Zoukout 2011 is next weekend!

Yeah. End-of-the-year resolution to finish 2011 off and get a fresh start next year eh?

With a side of iced honey lemon made with the juiced out lemon. No wastage I say.

Kinda wish I took pictures!

However, there has been one product which I’ve always felt is such a worthwhile investment because you get SO much product and you don’t require a lot at all with each application. You guessed it (duh); it’s the MAC Paint Pots.

Perhaps I should give a little background on my skin: I have extremely oily skin AND single eyelids/monolids where the lid kinda folds in on itself so whatever liner/shadow I put on that part accumulates quite a bit of oil and smudges easily. As a result I’ve never been a fan of powder eye shadows and pencil liners because they smudge too easily on me and I start looking like a panda in no time. However, since getting the Urban Decay Primer Potion (since I’m no longer the poor student I was – heehee)  powder shadows have started lasting a whole lot longer on my eyes. I think I’ll save that for another post though.

Which brings me to MAC’s Paint Pots. They are really, really, REALLY awesome because they have such lasting power. Humidity and heat are a really big problem here and it’s hard finding make-up that doesn’t melt off your skin. Price-wise, in this part of the world they cost SGD 33 and MYR 70 which can be rather pricey (considering they retail for USD17.50 on the MAC website ) for just one colour but I think the colour pay off really justifies the purchase.

I have a grand total of 3 Paint Pots and I use them for very different looks:

(L - R) Quite Natural, Delft, Half-Wild

Quite Natural: I use this a lot in my everyday look. It’s a matte mid-toned brown that’s great for natural looks. I just apply a waterproof black eyeliner and when it’s almost dry I just smudge it out with the Quite Natural Paint Pot. The result is a really intense dark brown smokey eye. I don’t really do a whole lot of different colours as I feel with monolids it’s quite easy to go over the top. This look lasts me for up to 16 hours without smudging and takes me easily from day to night. I believe this colour is no longer on sale.

Delft: This colour is kind of a turquoise colour with flecks of gold glitter in it. It’s so pretty for party looks because of the glitter. I use the same technique as I would with Quite Natural. It looks kinda gross because I’d just finished making it creamier (more on that later). This colour is also no longer on sale.

Half-Wild: This is my new favourite Paint Pot! I’m such a sucker for all things purple (though ironically I have no purple eye shadow colours) and stumbled upon the Posh Paradise collection really by chance. I’d been periodically visiting MAC counters to see if they had any new Paint Pot colours but was never really too impressed with the Limited Editions until this line. It must have just come to Singapore since I didn’t see them at Ion Orchard’s Sephora two weeks back. And, it so happens that I’ve been looking for a dark-ish purple cream shadow for awhile now. So so glad to have found it ♥ I immediately fell in love with this colour when I swatched it at the MAC store and nearly panicked for a moment because there was a ‘Sold Out’ sticker on the display. I managed to snag the last one though heh heh I’m really looking forward to trying out this colour one day.  This colour is so popular that it was the first one to sell out on MAC’s website.My one major gripe with the Paint Pot is that the Paint Pots do tend to dry out after awhile. You can see in the first picture that the colour has pulled away from the side of the pot. I’ve had Quite Natural since 2007 (4 years! Goodness) and even though that one has pulled away quite a bit from the side, it is still creamy and blends really smoothly. Delft didn’t fare so well though, I think I got Delft about 2 years ago and it dried out within a few months and became quite hard to blend so I didn’t really use it as much. I’m not sure if the glitter makes a whole lot of difference in the formulation since Quite Natural IS a matte brown.

Here are some tips if you’ve also got Paint Pots and/or cream shadows that have dried up. I hear this also works with the MAC Fluidline eyeliners – When I got my third Paint Pot yesterday I asked the MAC MUA and she recommended dropping one or two drops of oil (she said any botanical oil would work fine) and to just mix that in. She said it wouldn’t affect the lasting power or consistency of the Paint Pot. I came back and did some research online and many people seem to be recommending Visine instead. Some even recommended putting it in the microwave for just under a minute. I was kind of reluctant to add anything to them as I didn’t want to risk changing the formulation and neither was I too keen on nuking my Paint Pots.

I eventually stumbled on a random forum and they recommended placing the Paint Pot into a Zip-Lock bag (IMPORTANT! You don’t want water getting into your Paint Pot) and putting it in a hot water bath. I did exactly that and my Delft Paint Pot became a whole lot creamier and was much easier to blend. At least by doing this you won’t have to waste a whole pot of colour by throwing them out once they become dry. I think I will just repeat the process if it dries up again. I’m not sure how Posh Paradise’s Half-Wild will fare though, I will report back in a few weeks… already I can see tiny cracks at the sides that touch the pot

Phew! That was a long post! Have a great week ahead!