22, omg where has my life gone?
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Food & Nosh, Make-Up & Beauty, Misc
I turned 22 on Sunday, another year older and perhaps none the wiser. It still hasn’t hit me that I’m an adult now, maybe that’s for the better lol. Turning 22 is scarier than turning 21 because all my fears are suddenly amplified by the passing of another year. I realised today most people reading this blog don’t actually know who I am save for my name (Ilyana is actually my middle name), my age, my incessant need for shoes/make-up and that I now live in Melbourne. So since this is my birthday entry and birthdays signify something personal to most people, I shall now reveal a couple of things about me that most of you prolly won’t know. It’s a list of “OMG EPIC FAIL” moments and hopefully you’d find this quite comical as I did when I wrote this for my creative writing module’s non-fiction piece.
Shit that has happened to me:
1. Going to the bathroom when I was 10 and forgetting the lock.
2. I’m at the doctor’s, he tells me to strip and I realise I have my bunny undies on.
3. After dropping several hints on what I want for my birthday (this beautiful bag I saw in some store), my boyfriend gives me a bag. A laptop bag. We are no longer together.
4. My mother phoning my aunts, grandma and her best friend to announce I just got my first period and therefore I am “normal”.
5. My grandmother passed away and my grandfather dies 5 days later - let’s not go there.
6. A friend gives me chocolates from Japan and hide it at the back of the fridge only to find it gone the next day. Ammar, if you’re reading this - I know it was you.
7. I spent the last couple of years thinking my bff’s blog (Aaron’s old blog lol) was named silks on nets. It was strange and a little poetic but still strange tho I never asked him about it. I found out recently (at my own expense) it was actually silk sonnets.
Excellent milestones aren’t they? Also, if you’ve got a question to ask - ask me on my formspring! I promise I’ll be kind XD
22 and my skin has never looked worse sigh. I’m sorry you had to see this but well, everyone has pores. You just have to accept that. I hate all the break-outs I’ve been having thanks to school. Skin, can you please act your age?! Stop being a hormonal teenager, god - GET IT TOGETHER ALREADY. Eyeliner: Maybelline’s gel liner, Lipstick: NYX lipstick in B52, Blush: MAC highlight powder in Mellow Rave.
I went out with Nad for a pre-birthday brunch at The Quarter (I could actually get used to this starve-in-the-morning-eat-at-noon thing) and that vanilla milkshake you see me having is probably one of the best I’ve had. I was looking at last year’s birthday entry and I was wearing yellow in it as well lol - I love mustard yellow, it’s such a beautiful color. This mustard yellow trench is from MANGO and it is my ABSOLUTE favourite. Best investment EVER. The color of the trench looks more accurate in the first photo than this one - this one’s been tainted by the fervent use of yellow lighting in cafes.
My mexican omelette! It’s got roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, spinach and goat’s cheese with toasted rye bread. YUM.
This is Nad! We were schoolmates back in primary school and we never saw each other again for close to a decade until I moved to Melbourne. She goes to the same uni as I do…except she’s graduating in a couple of weeks, lucky duck. NAD WHO’S GOING TO BUY ME PRESENTS NOW THAT YOU’RE MOVING BACK TO SINGAPORE?!
Nad had french toast soaked in maple syrup and cinnamon sugar with bananas on top :3
And as promised, beauty stuff! I’ve been obsessing over Lancome’s L’absolu Rouge lipstick in Voile De Rose when it first appeared on Temptalia and let me tell you, finding this lipstick was not easy. It’s a US-exclusive which is ridiculous - how the governments of this earth expect to work towards world peace when we, as women, don’t get equal access to make-up collections is beyond me.
Anyway childish rants aside, last month I decided I had enough of this country-exclusive bullshit and checked out the local Lancome counter to see if there were any dupes of Voile De Rose. I was swatching every pink lipstick that had similar tones on my hand and comparing each swatch with an image of Temptalia’s Voile De Rose swatch that I saved on my iphone (See I’m so obsessed it’s almost obscene). 10 minutes in and I found my baby! This is Lancome’s L’absolu Rouge Gold Lipstick SPF 15 in 354 Rose Rhapsodie. It’s a very very close match - I won’t be surprised if it really is Voile De Rose packaged under a different name. Rose Rhapsodie is a soft shade of pink, so pretty *_*
Finally got my Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle from my mom when my family visited me last month! My first CHANEL lipstick whoo! Mademoiselle is the shade Vanessa Paradis is wearing in the ads and it’s a deep rose with beige undertones. I’m going to wear this today so I hope the formula doesn’t disappoint me.
Swatches for you! L to R: Rose Rhapsodie, Mademoiselle. Sorry Rose Rhapsodie looks like a blur of pink city lights, I thought I had a good shot of both swatches (it was my only shot) but when I got home and checked the images on my computer, it turned out to be er, otherwise. Ah well. Also, please take note Rose Rhapsodie looks darker in this shot than it actually is.
The love of my life, Nadz, called me in the wee hours of the morning - I won’t lie lol, I was up at midnight waiting for her call and I waited for over an hour before she finally did.
Me: “Bitch, you’re late.”
Nadz: “Huh, what time is it over there?”
Me: “1 am”
Nadz: “OH SHIT.”
HAHAHAHAHA FAIL NADZ FAIL. I miss you <333333
The parents called me the next morning.
Parents + brothers in the background: "HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYY!!!"
Me: "Aww thanks guys!"
Dad: "We're going to Carousel later in your honour."
Me: "SIAPA PUNYE BIRTHDAY NI?!?!" (That's malay for "I'm sorry but whose birthday is this?!?!")
Shucks, I miss my family so much. After getting me my dream miu miu bag, you guys would think that my parents would stop with the STUDY HARD! GET GOOD GRADES! blackmail.
Well.
I don’t know how to say this but.
Clearly, they’ve taken it up a notch.
MY ALMOST CHANEL IS NO MORE! Chanel Classic Jumbo Flap in Black Caviar with gold hardware, I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU ALL MY LIFE. The catch is I have to share the bag with my mother - not that it bothers me, I’d take my chances even if I’m forced to share the bag with an orangutan LOL. Ahh this is crazy, I’m over the moon!
Thank you for all your birthday wishes on fb/twitter! I loved reading each one <33333333333
chanel photos credit: my dad’s cellphone, chanel.com
Tags: beauty: CHANEL, birthdays, fashion: CHANEL, lancome, nosh: western food
Les Secrets De La Veste
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
A rare photo of me as proof that I’m still alive, though just barely. LK bought the top for me at H&M when he was in Hong Kong last year and it’s something I always keep reaching for in the closet when I feel like I need to wear something vivid as a contrast to this bleak weather we’ve been submitted to. I’ve just completed 2 essay assignments so I’ve got a bit of free time to write a quick entry before I let my study routine feast on my soul again. I actually meant to post this earlier this week but if you follow me on twitter, all my entries were wiped out due to a database glitch. It’s fixed now - thank you LK! <33
I feel really awful for neglecting this baby and I think everyone's just sick of me missing out on their entries (I'm sorry guys!) but I guess you can say my priorities are different now. Life is a lot harder when your family isn't with you NOT because you're left to fend for yourself- being independent I can deal with but because there's noone to help you with the forking LAUNDRY. Laundry has got to be the common enemy for all students living away from home, god I could go on forever about laundry but WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT SOILED CLOTHES WHEN WE CAN TALK ABOUT CHANEL Y/Y??
The local Chanel boutique had a exhibition called “Les Secrets De La Veste” which is French for “Yep we know you’d never be able to afford our jackets but hey that’s not gonna stop us from pulling out our iconic jackets, display them in store for you to touch and look at, and then you can go home crying to your spouses, blaming your lack of Chanel in the closet on their miserable paychecks and ultimately, you end up with a messy divorce”. Chanel ruins lives because you always want something you can’t have and they know it.
Like this blazer/jacket for example. Oh my god it’s beautiful. Price tag? $8,000 and guess what, they don’t make them anymore so stab me in the heart why doncha.
The woman in charge of the exhibition noticed we (we = my roommate and I) were early and gave us our own private tour which was really nice (now if only she handed over the Chanel flats she had on, it would have made my day). She talked about the whole process of making the tweed for the jackets, the individually weighed buttons which usually feature distinct icons of Paris that Coco Chanel was inspired by and the embroidery/beading that’s outsourced to a Parisian embroidering company that has worked with Coco for many years.
We got out of Chanel, feeling slightly suicidal and hungry so somehow we ended up having desserts at Brunetti’s. Eating chocolate is the best way to heal a severe fashion heartache, that’s just the way it is.
I had the Tre Gusti (it means three flavours in Italian according to Google Translate) which is a triple white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate mousse that’s topped with some squiggly fudge thing and a dainty sugar flower I massacred the minute it was served.
Roomie got this giant vanilla tart topped with a massive chunk of flakey chocolate. The name of the dessert escapes me but it might be “mostro di cioccolato cosa vulcano” which is what Google Translate thinks is Italian for “monster volcano chocolate thing”. I actually like the malay version Google came up with - “rakasa coklat gunung berapi hal” which if directly translated into English means fiery chocolate mountain monster with issues HAHAHAHAHA Don’t take my word for it tho, my malay isn’t as good as my grandmother’s.
Speaking of fiery volcanoes, my dad was in quite a fix last week because my mom’s flight back home was via Frankfurt and it was cancelled due to the volcanic ash in the air. He wasn’t actually worried about my mother being in a foreign country all by herself but letting a woman loose in New York is not exactly a good idea especially when her credit card is linked to your joint account LOL. Anyway, my mom got home safely last week (can’t say the same for the credit card bill though) and she got me a tube of the Chanel Rouge Coco in Mademoiselle and more MAC stuff yay! Sadly, I’m not going to receive them until late May so no swatches or images til then guys!
Oh and here’s one more thing she got for me:
OMFG MIU MIU (sorry about the cellphone photo - my dad shot this for me lol)
CAN I GO HOME NOW PLEASE?
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fashion: miu miu, melbourne
Making a mockery of Chanel and other things.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
YAY it’s couture season! I can once again bitch talk about fashion! Christian Dior haute couture was such a mess, I think Galliano has been in a design rut the past couple of seasons so I didn’t really have high hopes for Dior. The set was god-awful and the first few looks were something Vivienne Westwood would have designed so I’m not going to bother going into details because there are other more disastrous things to talk about..like Chanel haute couture.
Ok I know everyone thinks I’m a hardcore Chanel fan, there’s some truth in that but WHAT. THE. FLYING. IS. THIS?!?!?!?! Already I’m getting visions of the matrons in Enid Blyton books wearing this pastel nightmare; even Mary Poppins won’t be caught dead in this crap.
The shapes are completely unflattering (The second last pink long dress/skirt combo looks like a baju kurung gone bad wth), the hair is a shotgun marriage between Minnie Mouse and the girls of Harajuku and omg wtf don’t get me started on the shoes. Karl has clearly made aluminium foil cool again, just look at that suit in the last photo. It’s either made of foil or someone dropped a vat of mercury onto a Dolce & Gabbana suit and tried to pass it off as a Chanel. Stefano, we have a problem.
I’m almost sorry you guys had to take a look at the absurdity Chanel presented us with so I’m going to cleanse your eyes with some of my favourite shots from the Hermès S/S 2010 campaign photos featuring model du jour, Karlie Kloss. She’s Aaron’s fave so I know he’s going to appreciate this lol.
OMG STUNNING, KARLIE FOREVER!! I love love love the art direction, there’s nothing cliche about it- it’s just a nice minimalist and modern Hermès approach to fairy tales! The campaign’s shot by Paolo Roversi who happens to be my fave so perhaps I’m being a little biased here lol but I’m sure you guys trust my judgement no? Noone should think they can design a tacky collection using the good name of Coco Chanel and think I’m going to let it slide just because it’s ~CHANEL~ you know? (OK OK I WILL STOP BITCHING ABOUT CHANEL ALREADY..but omg did you NOT see those hideous shoes lol?)
Short life update: Tomorrow’s my last day of work, holy brie! Everything is moving so fast this week, I’ve been rushing out this last project which has been on my end for months now so I can’t wait to finish it and hand it over to my boss. Every minute of my time at work has been spent slaving over that particular project, it’s been really strenuous staring at the same thing for hours, days at a time so when I come home all I want to do is just catch up with some friends and faint on my bed! So I’m going to apologise again if I haven’t been commenting as much as I should - I honestly don’t have the time this week!
img credit: style.com & TFS
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fashion: Hermès, models: karlie kloss
Golden Pink FOTD and my almost CHANEL.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Make-Up & Beauty
Golden pink FOTD:
Face:
MAC Studio Fix foundation in NC25
Bobbi Brown Corrector in Peach
Cheeks:
MAC mineralize skinfinish in Shooting Star (Limited Edition) - my fave bronzer!
Eyes:
MAC paintpot in Rubenesque as a base
Jesse’s Girl eyedust in Salmon Pink
Benefit lust dusters in Gogo Girl
MAC eyeshadow in Shroom as highlight
MUFE Aqua Eyes in 22L as my eyeliner
MAC Browset in Girl Boy
Majolica Majorca Lash Expander NEO
Lips:
NYX lipstick in Indian Pink
MAC x Hello Kitty lipglass in She Loves Candy
Lil note: I think Indian Pink + She Loves Candy is the ultimate shimmery peachy pink lip combo!
I like how if you take photos in the mid-afternoon, the sunrays aren’t particularly strong and the light seems to bounce off your skin creating the illusion of near perfect skin hahaha ;D I did this FOTD on Sunday when we went out to celebrate my mom’s birthday! We had lunch at the Straits Kitchen, Hyatt Hotel and er I think I murdered my diet many times over because I ate so much! It was really good food though so it was worth the extra pound I gained (omg I knowwwwwww)
I got my mom some beauty stuff - it’s a tradition for me to get her lipsticks/lipgloss every year so this year I got her a lippie from Estee Lauder (her fave brand), a dazzleglass from MAC Christmas collection (her fave lipgloss range) and a MAC eyeliner in Engrave.
She loved it but what’s not to like right? Picking presents for your own mother isn’t hard but picking presents for your own wife…not so much because my dad didn’t get anything for her LOL so he said “You can have anything you want this year.” WHAT AN EASY WAY OUT RIGHT? Except my mom told him she wanted a new bag, like a real proper designer bag omg I almost fell out of my seat. My mother isn’t one to go for branded items but I think I may have brainwashed her a little >D
We went to every boutique in Ion from Yves Saint Laurent to Dior to Marc Jacobs where she fell in love with the Stam Bag which I immediately wrestled out of her hands “Sorry Mom this bag is for a different target audience i.e ME.” and then to Bally where she was completely smitten with a bag that reminded me of the Gucci Hysteria. She told me she was looking for a roomy elegant bag with a chain she can bring out for work or dinner so I was like “OMG WE SHOULD CHECK OUT CHANEL, IT’S LIKE THE MOTHER LORD OF ALL CHAIN BAGS!!!!” so I dragged my mom out of Bally and started my little conniving plan to somehow talk my mom into getting a Chanel bag we could share.
Omg you guys should have seen me in Chanel. I was completely oblivious to the world, asking the SA to bring out every bag I wanted: The 2.55 lambskin in black, 2.55 in Beige Caviar with gold hardware (LOVE LOVE LOVE), the Grand Shopping Tote (aka GST) in Black caviar (LOVE LOVE LOVE), everything! I even had two bags strapped on me at one point lol; it was crazyyy! My mom liked the GST a lot so I started my brainwashing session “Omg mom you have to get it - it is SUCH a classic, it’s going to last forever, it’s CHANEL you can’t go wrong with Chanel! It looks so good on you bla bla bla” but in the end my plan backfired because my mom told me the GST suited me more than it suited her baaahhhh.
As we walked out of Chanel and went to look at books in Kinokuniya, I hatched another conniving plan™ I talked to my dad and told him how perfect the GST was and that if he paid half and I paid half, he didn’t have to get me anything for my birthday for the rest of my life! He kinda agreed to it and we headed back to Chanel - at this point in time I was completely bursting with excitement BUT as with all fairy tales, they don’t really happen in real life because when we got back to the boutique there was this loooong queue at the entrance (URGH WHY?!?! CAN’T THEY JUST GO TO LV INSTEAD?!), my parents were too tired to queue by then so goodbye my pretty bag ;__;
I was telling my BFF, Dejiki, that I wanted to stay in bed for the rest of my life and whine about my almost Chanel lol (yeah like that even happened.) Anyway mom got the Bally bag in the end, it’s kinda cool so I’m going to try to steal it from time to time. I hope everyone’s had a good week so far, just a few more days and it’ll be the weekend again!
Til next time~
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fotd: neutral, life, shopping
LANVIN SPRING/SUMMER 2010
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
If my wardrobe was based solely on one high-fashion label, I would pick LANVIN anyday. This is the best S/S 2010 collection EVERRRR. Let’s talk some fast fashion: My top 3 fave. collections: 1) LANVIN 2) PRADA 3) CHANEL. The WTF-IS-GOING-ON collection goes to Louis Vuitton. Marc Jacobs, please WAKE UP and understand that you’re designing for a luxury brand not a bunch of HARAJUKU GERLZ.
Til next time~
img credit: style.com
Tags: fashion: CHANEL, fashion: LANVIN, fashion: PRADA
There’s no better spam than CHANEL spam.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion
Just some 20 odd screenshots I took of my favourite scenes (which is pretty much er, every scene lol) in the new CHANEL no 5 ad featuring the parisian beauty Audrey Tautou who reunites with her Amélie director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, for this new campaign. A simple storyline made captivating by lovely saturated colors (which is what Jean-Pierre Jeunet is famous for), stunning film locations in Paris and Istanbul and a bit of CHANEL magic. You can watch the entire ad here.
I spent my whole lunch hour painstakingly hitting the pause button to screencap the commercial, if you would like bigger versions of the screenshots or would like to use them in your blog etc, I would really appreciate it if you dropped me a comment. Thank you ;D
Tags: actress: audrey tautou, Fashion, fashion: CHANEL, tv: commercials
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