Favourite beauty products of 2016!

Seems like I'm getting worse at this game year by year, but anyway seeing as it's the last day of 2016, I thought I'd do a recap of my favourite products this year! 

1. Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) Liquid Lipsticks 

Liquid lipsticks were a HUGE hit this year and whilst I've tried a number of brands - drugstore to high-end - my favourite hands down are ABH's in specific the shade ASHTON. It's described as a midtone yellow brown but it's so. much. more. 

These liquid lipsticks have the best lasting power on me as well as the least drying among all the other brands. They retail at USD20 and you can get them here. 

2. Innisfree It's Real Squeeze Mask 

Another big thing for me this year were paper masks. Like, I've always used them but this year I've elevated my usage of them. Masking it up nearly 4 to 5 times a week and I feel like it's made a huge difference in my skincare routine. Plus, it's all very relaxing! 

I bought a bunch of this mask whilst I was in Korea and my only regret is that I didn't buy more! It's only about MYR3 in Korea and it's retailing here in Malaysia for MYR5.48 per piece. The mask fits my face perfectly so there's no excess flapping anywhere. The ratio of essence to mask is also perfect so I don't feel like I'm wasting all the essence. My skin also always feels super plump after I've used the mask. 

My favourite out of the bunch is probably the Aloe. 

3. Belif The True Cream - Moisturising Bomb

Okay first let me clarify, I have fallen deep in love with a lot of Belif's product. Even the herbal scent of their products completely draws me in but this cream, I've been using it as a night cream and let me tell you: My skin feels so refreshed in the morning when I wake up. It's glowy without looking gross and feels soft. 

It's retailing at MYR160 for 50ml and you only need the tiniest amount per application. Read more about it here. 

4, Biore Cleansing Oil 

I've always been a user of Shu Uemura cleansing oils but they're proven to bite quite a chunk out of my wallet every time I had to repurchase. So, I went off to find a solution and the solution is this: Biore Cleansing Oil is my lifesaver every single night. 

Light office makeup: Biore Cleansing Oil to the rescue 

Heavy dinner makeup: Biore Cleansing Oil to the rescue

24 hour makeup worn: Biore Cleansing Oil to the rescue. 

What I am trying to say is that this cleansing oil only costs about MYR 20 - 25 depending where you purchase it and it does an ultimate job at removing every inch of makeup. I still double cleanse of course but I've just been through a journey of very disappointing makeup removers/cleansing oil that just didn't cut it. 

Best believe I will not be leaving this out of my routine for a while. I've got about 4 backups in my cupboard as I type. Just in case. 

5. Clarins Ever Matte Skin Balancing Foundation 

This is my HG foundation - it keeps my skin oil-free for a good amount of time, the colour match is perfect and it never ever feels heavy regardless of how much I use on my face. Also worth mentioning it's got a very nice fresh cucumber scent which I love. 

Retails for GBP28 and the only downside of this is that it is not sold here in Malaysia. So I don't know what I will do when I run out of it. You can read about the foundation here, I'm in the colour 109 WHEAT just for reference and I'm a MAC NC25

So, here's my top 5. Sorry not that sorry about a pictureless post but I've MISSED typing in huge chunks of text so this felt good. 

2016 has been a pretty good year in terms of beauty products/skincare/ skin life in general and I'm hoping 2017 will be a better one too and that I don't get any crowfeet!!! 

Lots of love,

Amelia. 

FY2015

One of the deciding factors that made this blog happen again was the fact that I've been doing a yearly recap of the things I have done/accomplished etc, you know what I'm on about.. for the past 10 years ish and I was a little sad that I didn't have a platform anymore to kind of just list it all out.

So here it goes! What went downnnnn in Two Thousand and Fifteen.

• The most obvious thing. Stopped blogging at Bytes-Infinitum and moved on to this pretty little place. 

• Traveled! One of my most favorite things to do ever and if I had unlimited money and no responsibilities at all,  I would be traveling all day err'day but unfortunately, life isn't like that but I'm thankful I've been able to visit the following places in 2015: Manila, Puerto Princesa, Tioman, Melbourne, Bangkok (twice!), Chiang Mai, Langkawi (finally), Jakarta and Singapore. As well as went back home to Brunei several times too! Can't live without seeing my parents and my Scamp & Peps so I gots to make those trips home every couple of months. Which reminds me that I am actually due for a trip home. Need to organise that asap.

•  Started teaching kids. I always thought that I didn't have patience for children or that maybe I just didn't like them all that much. However, having taught several classes now.. with kids aged 5 - 7, I realise you know what? I really should give myself more credit. I have more patience than I thought I did. *happy* I teach English btw and it's the hardest thing ever. 

•  Moved in to a place that I can call my own and I am *loving* it. 

• Got myself a pair of wrist tattoos! Since I was in my early teens I've always wanted wrist tattoos. There was always something stopping me from getting them but I went ahead and got them this year. I got "Love is patient. Love is kind." and it's my favourite. I look at them everyday and I don't think I could ever get sick of looking at them. It's also a reminder sort of for me? To always be kind and to always be patient and whilst it doesn't always work, I'm trying!

•  Actually not spent a lot of money on make-up this year. I didn't even fall into the holiday trap when all them beautiful palettes were being thrown out. I stood my ground and didn't even buy one palette. It's hard and it's taking a lot of self control but I'm proud of myself. The money goes to better things like paying bills and eating.

•  Made a couple of really good friends that I am so thankful for. Also, reminded always that some people are just not worth all the effort especially when it's not reciprocated. 

• Would you believe me if I said that I've improved my mandarin a fair bit this year? Because, I have! I can actually gossip (to a certain extent) in complete mandarin and even order in a shop properly. Mad happy. My hopes for 2016 is to improve even more and just widen my vocabulary and that people are willing to want to speak to me in Mandarin more.

•  Went to DWP in Jakarta in Nov'15 and it was a really surreal experience. 8 hours of non-stop dancing and just screaming and throwing our hands in the air was really fun albeit we felt like we were the little mermaid walking for the first time with daggers in our feet afterwards. Felt like it was worth it though. Really REALLY enjoyed it. Glad for midnight decisions. 

•  Joined a treasure hunt organised by work that took us from KL all the way to Johor so that was really fun and took a lot of brain power. 

•  Started calligraphy writing and now it's one of my favourite past time to release stress. Very proud of how far I've come with this so there's that. 

• My Macbook Pro died on me and has not been revived ever since. Well to be fair, she's been in the hospital for the past 2 months and so far no good news. Can I just say I had 5 years of memories in that laptop and it really kills me. Also, my hard disk that has memories dating back to when I was using my Sony Ericson in my secondary school years has also malfunctioned so I have actually no memories that I can look back to at the moment and that KILLS me. 

Basically, a lot happened in 2015 even though it wasn't anything huge or life changing I feel like it's been a pretty decent year. Lots and lots of terrible days but I've had some really good times too and I am so SO grateful for people I can call my friends who have made the good times in 2015 happen.

I was also unfortunate to meet the worst guy ever but in a way, I am lucky because now I am really really sure about what I want and don't want in any guy that I ever date. I lost a lot of self-respect at that moment and it was something that I regretted wholeheartedly but hey, you get over it. I take it as a lesson to not ever lower my standards and that some people are just dickheads and can't be helped (mostly because they don't want to be helped..) but seriously though, where do these people even come from? No respect for women and just the worst. I am so glad that saga is not something that's ongoing right now and fingers crossed that will never ever happen again.

Moving on to 2016, I'm ready for some changes in my life. I'll be turning 25! So that's halfway to my 30-s which is really quite exciting! I've got some plans to carry out this year but I won't list them down even though it would make me accountable but a bit shy lah. Like what everyone says though, New year, New me! New in a sense.. upgraded.. better? My brains...

ALSO, I intended for this post to be super picture laden but unfortunately, I am typing this on my Thinkpad from work and I have no friggin idea how to transfer pictures from my iPhone to this computer. So..

Soz.

I'll update the post or do another one when I figure it out because I want to have pictures on this blog cause it's so nice to look back and ahhhhh.

I miss my Macbook Pro A LOT. I don't even know how to put it in words.

To everyone who's read this entire post, thank you! Have a happy jolly 2016 filled with luck and love and good health and happiness. May we all be happy in 2016.

BTW BECKY, I WILL BE UPDATING REGULARLY. INTERNET, WITNESS ME!

xx

Amelia.