My internets died on me this afternoon. Australia, I really want to like you but your shit internet providers are setting booby traps for me in our love game. Aaron suggested I take a break from the internet so I dropped all plans of drowning my modem in the bathroom sink and went out for coffee instead.

Scooping out minute amounts of brown sugar in an old jam jar to stir in my latte definitely beats pre-packaged sugar sticks.

I finally got an iPhone 4 last month yay! And I got to pick a free case thanks to Apple’s iPhone 4 Case Program. Since I’m part Chinese (thanks Grandma!) and part Malay (thanks other notable blood relatives!), it has been inscribed in my DNA to have a “can’t lose out/tak boleh kalah” attitude so I picked the most expensive and prettiest case offered >D

Writing out to-do lists on napkins is a good way to whittle time away and pretend you have your life organized. I haven’t packed at ALL. Yeah, sure everyone thinks I still have time. But I have an exam to study for, gifts to buy, an apartment to clean, a freezer to defrost, bills to p- you get the idea.

Plus, what plagues me most is not the question of what clothes to bring (I’ve half a mind to pack some undies and pyjamas so I have an excuse to buy more clothes) but MY HEELS OMG, which pairs do I keep here and which pairs will travel the world with me? …and make-up. WHAT DO I DO WITH MY MAKE-UP?! *SCREAMS*

Shoot me: A couple of months ago, I did a swap with Fiza but never had the time to take photos of the loot she sent over from Singapore. I sent her a bottle of Bio-oil (which is available in abundance here) and she sent me a tube of the Korres Mandarin Lip Butter Stick (crazily overpriced in Australia). She included some extras as well, so lovely of her! The Korres Mandarin Lip Butter Stick has a slight pink tint to it and omg the scent is so yummeh!

Extras: Some fruit masks from The Face Shop and hand cream! Haven’t tried the hand cream yet because I’m trying to finish the one I have from L’Occitane.

MOAR NAIL POLISHES! I love the pale lilac shade, Fiza! It’s going to be perfect for Spring! And the dark grape-ish glitter shade is beautiful!

Everything she sent came in this striped nautical pouch, ++ brownie points for effort! Thank you so much for everything, Fiza! I loved everything you sent, including the skincare samples (didn’t take a photo because I forgot to bring them out with me!) I’ll be seeing you soon <33

I'm on a blogging roll yeahhh! It feels good to be writing for myself rather than for school and I love that I now have the time to take photographs again. I'm thinking of doing a giveaway soon and it *might* have something to do with Twitter so this would be the perfect time to follow @ilyana for more updates. If you don’t have a Twitter account, it’s about time you get one, honey because you don’t know what you’re missing: Rumour has it that I’m pretty funny on Twitter ;p

I’m going to update my About and Links section of the site within the next couple of days too, I have new blog friends and I can’t wait to share their blog links with you guys. Take care guys! <3

I meant to write this post earlier but due unforeseen circumstances i.e my amazing family surprising me with a farewell party/bbq over the weekend, I probably won’t have been lucid enough to write a few sentences, let alone a full length blog post lol; we were unanimously high on an extremely potent mix of charred chicken wings, spicy marinated calamari and bottled milk tea. All of us slept at 4am that night/morning (!!) so I was really in no shape to blog.

Last Christmas I took part in a Secret Santa gift exchange organized by the sexy Pam! Mel and I were partnered up (in secret of course) so we had no idea we were each other’s Secret Santa! We only had a few days to shop for each other before mailing it to ensure the package arrived before Christmas! Mel didn’t have enough time to shop for me so she sent me another package after Christmas and I just received it this week so that explains why this entry has been waaay overdue lol!

Here’s what she sent me in the first package: masks from The Face Shop, something hot from MAC, samples from Laura Mercier etc, NYX Lipstick in B52 and Hello Kitty pocky & candy!!

She got me the MAC Prep and Prime Face Protect SPF 50!! This primer allows a smoother application of make-up by filling in your pores, fine lines and has spf in it too which is brilliant! I’ll do a review once I start using this baby.

I was SO excited to see the Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars in the second package she sent! I have heard about how great and how pigmented they are but never got the chance to try them until now. Mel sent me three lip tars in all the colors I wanted omg, thank you so much! The color you see here is the lip tar in Grandma. HAHAHA it looks and sounds like a really safe, foolproof shade but just a dot on your lips is enough for a full blown coral lip k, don’t underestimate your dear old gramps!

Pageant is an almost porn star pink, it’s actually very similar to my YSL Pink Fetish lipstick but with a touch more fuschia in it.

And the shade I’m really really excited about: Indashio. This is not your momma’s lipstick…unless she has a thing for fierce poppin’ coral-reds. I can’t wait to try this one out! It’s time to stop doing the sickly pale lip and bust out that red lipstick!

Mel sent me two other NYX lipsticks: Aphrodite (a frosty lilac shade) and Perfect (a brownish-nude). I am happy to announce that I have enough lipsticks at my disposal to run my own dysfunctional bridal make-up company, can’t say I’m complaining ;D

SWATCHESSSSS YESSSS REJOICE FOR I BRING U MIGHTY SWATCHES. Left to Right: OCC Lip Tar in Indashio (look at how it gleams in the light omg), NYX lipstick in Aphrodite, NYX lipstick in Perfect.

I stupidly forgot to swatch the first NYX lipstick in B52 Mel sent me so that will go in another post I guess :/ I didn’t swatch the rest of the OCC lip tars because my hands got really sticky trying to swatch Indashio because I, too, forgot the universal rule of “Less is More.” Anyway, unlike Indashio, the swatches of the Pageant and Grandma are widely available on the internetz, like on Temptalia for instance!

MORE KRYOLAN STUFF! I’m so lucky omg. Kryolan Aqua Pearlshades in Anthracite and Gold. They’re cream color eyeshadows and they are made of awesome.

Top: Anthracite, Bottom: Gold. I think Anthracite is nothing short of spectacular *_* I have searched far and beyond the realm of the living for a nice smokey foolproof gray and have found nothing I was willing spend my money on but all is good now since I’ve got Anthracite yay! I can forsee Gold being used often as a highlight in the inner corner of my eyes whoo hoo!

Thank you so much Mel! I hope you’re loving the package I sent you as much as I’m loving yours <333

Sorry about my brief absence everyone! This is my last week at work so everything’s just been extremely hectic for me which is why I am WAY behind on everyone’s entries but I do promise I’ll try to do all my commenting by tomorrow. It sucks having full internet access at work but no time to do anything else except work -_- It’s just frustrating! It’s going to end soon anyway and then I can focus on blogging full-time woot!

Last night I was got back home a little later than usual due to a hold-up at work, I was really tired – I had the flu, my nose was leaking like crazy (you have no idea how close I was to stuffing a tampon up my nose….not that you needed to know that but hey I’m trying to keep it real and funny here ya know?) and all I wanted to do was pop a couple of pills and sleep.

Then I noticed the box.

OMG MY SWAP PACKAGE FROM CATHERINE IS FINALLY HEREEEEEEEEEEE! I did a lil’ SQUEEE! and danced around the living room, totally forgetting that my parents were there and giving me weird looks. Uh, right. Sorry mom I know my 20 second ~IMMA BE JLO~ dance routine last night was painful to watch but despite the odds, I’m still your daughter k. Promise.

What’s weird is the box Catherine sent me only had our names and no addresses! I guess technology has become so advanced that you no longer have to write addresses on mail anymore…or maybe my Photoshop skills are so kick-ass and hot like fire that I managed to get rid of our addresses to prevent scary stalkers XD

A little back story on how the swap came about: Cat reviewed the MAC 5 Haute High Jinks Warm Pigment/Glitter Set and I commented on the post asking if she’s tried MAC’s pigment in Blonde’s Gold (gorgeous light yellow-gold color btw) because it’s one of my favourites. Turns out she hadn’t so I offered to send her a sample and cut to the chase, that somehow turned into a full blown international swap lol.

I was telling Cat how I had all these annoying bumps on my t-zone from time to time and I had absolutely no idea how to get rid of them. I think they’re a lot worse than pimples because although pimples are icky, they go away after a few days but these bumps just STAY THERE. What is the point srsly? They’re not even paying rent so they gotta go go go.

Cat recommended using a concoction of jojoba oil + squalane as a moisturizer to help declog the pores so she got me a bottle each plus a small vial of lavender oil to add into mixture. She’s also written a couple of blog entries pertaining to the wonders of jojoba oil and how they can help with acne, read about them here.

I also asked her to get me Weleda’s Skin Food because this multipurpose tube of moisturizer has been getting raves on Makeupalley, everyone’s proclaiming it to be the next best thing since Lady GaGa. It supposedly addresses many concerns like dryness, redness etc and you can use it on your face + body so I thought it would come in handy during winter in Melbourne.

NAIL POLISHES! L to R: China Glaze Stella, OPI Smitten with Mittens, OPI Merry Midnight. I asked Cat to get me some OPI, particularly Smitten with Mittens which was part of their 2009 holiday collection. She also talked me into getting another polish from the same collection – Merry Midnight and HOLY CRAP it’s an amazing shade of purple! She was kind enough to include so many extras for me including THREE other nail polishes, one of them being China Glaze’s Stella which an outer worldly shade of warm purple, gorgeousss.

Dude. I completely flipped out when I saw that Cat got me the infamous Essie Mint Candy Apple which is a great dupe of Chanel’s “Jade” nail polish. I love it so much omg, thank you, thank you! The funny thing is she also included a bottle of Essie’s Love, Beverly Hills xx, which is another color I’ve been curious about (it’s got 24k gold in it!) How the heck did you read my mind girl??

See the beautiful shimmery pool of gold in the red base? Can’t wait to try this one out!

Stella is a very unique purple, I think it should have been renamed Stellar lol because it’s just so alien-pretty…if that makes any sense (sorry it’s 11pm, I’m sick and I’m sleepy)

Smitten with Mittens is a classic red with gold glitter! You might think it’s similar to Love, Beverly Hills xx but that’s got more of a metallic finish compared to Smitten with Mittens.

I cannot get over how AWESOME Merry Midnight is! It’s a very deep purple with lots of blue-red glitter and flakes! If witches celebrated Christmas, this would be their nail polish of choice lmao. Oh and I’ve got Essie’s Mint Candy Apple on my nails in this photo ;D

I wanted a replacement for my MAC paintpots before they completely dry up on me so I now have the L’Oreal HIP cream shadow paint in 807 Secretive which is a very light neutral color that can be used alone or as a base for eyeshadow. I love how it comes with its own brush too!

Sweet Sienna’s a MAC LE pigment that came out 2 years ago and it is what I would classify as “The one that got away”. I can’t remember why I didn’t buy it but I’ve always regretted not getting the pigment. It’s a dirty brown with silver/grey pearl, I think there’s nothing like it. Cat actually received a large sample of Sweet Sienna in a separate swap and she kindly gave me a portion for me to try <3 <3 <3

LOL I’M NOT DONE YET. She also included another MAC pigment sample, Sunnydaze which is a stunning almost brown taupe shade! You’re so right Cat, I don’t have this at all lol! My pigment collection’s mostly golds and greens ;D

Thank you so much Cat!!! I love everything you sent, you’re my first official cosmetics swap ever and I had such a great time emailing/chatting with you on msn! I think we got to know each other a lot better since the swap so cheers to a blossoming friendship <3333 If you're curious to see what I sent Cat from my end, you can read about it here!

This post is seriously lacking in swatches, I know and I apologise. I couldn’t stay out in the sun for a long period of time today because this flu is just killin’ my fun and I had to take a day’s off from work :/ My voice is so hoarse and raspy now, I almost sound like Steven Tyler from Aerosmith. I hear he’s quit the band so guys, if you’re still looking for a replacement I’m willing to take the job but I should probably let you all know in advance that the only Aerosmith song I know is “Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” from that Armageddon movie LOL