I peeled my fake lashes off last night, and I’m happy to report that my natural lashes are intact! Now I’m trying to wash off the glue because apparently contrary to what I originally thought, they are reusable!

I don’t have much to say about the application part though. In the end, I was running late so I had my friend do it for me. She was a veritable expert. She had it on in less than 10 seconds! I must say, they looked fabulous! And yes, this is my first time with fake lashes and that’s why I sound like a bumpkin.

I just spent the last two hours trying to imitate Michelle Phan’s Sailormoon look. It is much harder than it looks in the video! I think I ended up looking more like an evil witch than anywhere near an anime character. 

Even though this is my first time ever using an eye liner (I went to pick up a L’Oreal Lineur Intense Brush Tip Liquid eye liner since it topped Allure’s best make-up list this year, just for this!), it wasn’t as hard to catch on as I’d feared. I was actually quite impressed by how easy it went on. Plus I love how it just rubs off! Yet nothing about my look was quite right. The lines I drew were either too thick or too thin. (HOW did she get the eye liner line on the lower eyes to look so thin???? I couldn’t even get that width practing on my hand!) The eye lashes I drew were nowhere as cute. The shape wasn’t right. Or I’d blink too quickly and it would smudge. It turned messy quite messy pretty quickly! I even messed up the part where I had to put white eye shadow/liner in to fill in the blanks. I ended up over shadowing the eye liner and getting a lot of powder into my eyes (my poor eyes). I did learn one thing though. Don’t be afraid to extend the two top lashes further than your instinct tells you to. Once you get the hang of drawing them properly and getting the length right, it really does take you a long way towards anime eyes. It’s a genius idea!

I’m not quite there yet with the whole look. Maybe I just don’t have the right eye shape for this. Maybe I don’t have the skill for this and should stick to a simpler look. Or maybe I’ll give it another try tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I’ll make another break through playing around. Will keep you posted!

Ps. If you’re still looking for ideas for Halloween, Michelle Phan has a few other neat ideas including Snow White, Seductive Vampire and Barbie.

It was love at first sight. It was hiding on one of the lower shelves at the very back of the Urban Outfitters store, but I saw it anyway and knew I had to have it!

 It is no cashmere or pashmina, but I love the print, I love the simple black/ivory color and I love how it looks on me! And it was only $28! So I decided to get myself a little something for my birthday 🙂

As it so happens, my birthday also happily lands on the first day of the Sephora F&F event. The perfect excuse to stock up! Currently I have the above in my basket. I’m still brainstorming what else I need before I hit “check out” tomorrow!

Image Source: Sephora

This morning the Olympics committee announced the winner of the 2016 bid in Copenhagen. I was really excited, because I’ve been keeping up with it for months (my friend works in the committee for Chicago) and I was really feeling the spirit. My office is also conveniently located next to Daley Plaza where the city was gathering to watch the announcement, so every now and then I’d look out the window to see. There were banners everywhere, they dyed the fountain orange, they were giving out orange tees (I would’ve gotten one too if the line wasn’t so long), they put a crown and medal on the art statue, it was all very festive! I really thought we had a chance. The 2012 Olympics is going to be in London, so they were not going to have it in Europe again. China just did it in 2008, so bye bye Tokyo. Rio has a good chance locationwise, but then they’re doing the 2014 World Cup already, so isn’t it just a tiny bit greedy of them to do the 2016 Olympics as well (in my head, both are big international events)?  Plus, we had the Obama effect, whatever that is worth. Obviously I wasn’t the only one thinking this, since people were bidding 60% for Chicago a mere 48 hours before.

So we were very disappointed when we saw people swiftly trickling out of the plaza indicating that we’d lost- first round! People around the world must really hate America. I was vouching for Madrid in the semi finals, just because Brazil it doesn’t seem fair and I’ve always wanted to go to Spain, but alas Rio won out. To give them credit, they did seem to have a bigger, more enthusiastic crowd in Rio watching the announcement than Chicago (in Chicago’s defense, we had to work!).

After my doctor mentioned it and my mom started harping on about how soon I’d be too ancient to get it, I finally got my first Gardasil shot the other day. I was hesitant at first because everyone I’ve talked to told me that this shot hurts. Some told me it made them cry, other told me that it felt like they were poking the needle deep into your muscles. I even read an article about how there’s been an increase of girls fainting from vaccinations since this shot was introduced! 

Physical pain has never been my strong suit. So prepared for the worst I walked into my doctor’s office, sat down, turned my head away and started rambling on nervously while the nurse got ready. She told me to take two deep breaths….. and I was done. The excruciating pain never came! It felt just like a regular blood drawing except even faster. I was so relieved I literally skipped out of the office. I don’t exactly look forward to my next shot in 2 months (apparently it’s not every 6 months, but 2 and 4 months), but at least now I don’t dread it either 🙂

Update: Apparently, this was what we missed. How did we miss this??

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I’ve been in Chicago for over five years now (time flies!), and I have yet to see an Oprah show. So when I recieved mail that Oprah was blocking off Mag Mile today to do a shooting, I thought this is it! It’s even starting just after work hours. How many chances does one get to see the Oprah show literally at their doorstep? I won’t even have to wait for ages for the bus or squeeze onto the train afterwards!

And so my colleague and I snuck off a little before five today, hoping to get a decent standing spot. We entered from the side and boy was it packed! We tried to sneak our way forward the best we could without pretending to have a “medical emergency,” and we did make respectable headway if I may say so myself. Unfortunately, the crowd was very tall for two 5′ 4″ Asian girls and we literally could not see anything and had to stand on our tip toes and strain our heads just to see the corner of the projector screens. The best view we had was through the screen of other people’s cameras! We glimpsed Oprah’s yellow clad form on the screen and heard Black Eyed Peas played. When we realized that we have no idea (and still do not) what the big “surprise” that involved thousands of people that had Oprah exclaiming that it was the most extraordinary thing she’s ever seen was even though we were there, we realized that there really wasn’t much point in staying. And so we left and had  Berry Chill instead. But at least now we get to tick something off our Bucket’s list (kind of) and say we were there and felt the atmosphere!

This was probably the longest stretch I’ve been away from home. I’d forgotten how loud my extended family talks and how funny their conversations are. It plays out like a sitcom. It still amazes me how they can repeat the same point over and over again and everyone else still just plays along like it was a new topic. Their criticism of my too thin physique, hagged looking appearance (that’s usually what happens after a 15 hour flight!) and unladylike/dark outfit, was as frustrating as usual. But it’s always endearing to witness their unfailing appreciation of little things like a boxful of good ol’ American cherries and huge nectarines. My nose allergies are acting up again (I think I’m allergic to my own room) and it’s really hot and humid over here- but it’s good to be home 🙂