Make Up Junkie

Call me late bloomer but my serious love affair with make-up had only begun just a few months ago, and coincidentally, while I am a few months pregnant. 

Dear husband has been quite complimentary with my looks lately and I must say that I love how he is very vocal with his positive feedback on my exerted efforts into looking pleasant and presentable.  Compared to my past pregnancies, I could say that this time, I am at my best.  Ryan gladly supports me with my cosmetics indulgences from time to time, and is very happy that I am glowing as he is hoping for.  He had finally succumbed to the truth that when I am happy, his life gets a lot more relaxed and happier, too :) 

During our company’s anniversary celebration last November, Ryan said I looked like a Kardashian the moment he saw me with my fully made up face.  I asked my female Arab colleagues what he meant, and I was assured that coming from a guy, it is definitely a compliment.  I guess I scrubbed up nicely because at the gala dinner, my clients barely recognized me.  It was funny how they were handing me out their business cards and I had to tell them it’s me, haha!

lace evening dress from Mango

My make-up was done by Shiseido, and my hair was pulled up in a nice French twist bun by Nancy Salon.  Feeling great about myself even though I am heavy with my pregnancy helped me gain confidence to experiment and put on heavier than usual make up to highlight my face’s features. 

with Maricel from Shiseido.  this woman is now in her 40s, can you believe it???

As my youngest sister is into beauty blogs and vlogs, she had influenced me to try out certain ‘holy grail’ cosmetics that I should invest in since I am a working Mom with a job that is client-facing and requires me to socialize a lot.  Trust me, I do love lipsticks and I do buy them from time to time.  My go-to brand is Chanel which works well with my lips.  I also adore my powder, eye shadow palette & blush from Shu Uemura.  I started going for the brand since my wedding day because that is what my hair and make-up artist used on me, and I loved it since!  But in late 2014, I have decided to try out new brands as my sister had suggested, and bought these to add to my ultra-cute Beauty Box train case that my hubby helped me pick out:

my lovely St. Tropez Beauty Box

Nars blush in Orgasm

my favorite bronzer :)

best mascara everrrr!!

smokin' hot red

She had also suggested 2 brands of make-up brushes to try and I am so glad I listened to her! 

I ordered the Real Techniques Core Brushes from the US through Amazon for about USD 14 each set.  In our local Lifestyle shop, they are being sold for AED 175, which is ridiculously overpriced.  I decided to gift my sister with a set, too, so for a total of AED 154, I got two sets from Amazon including the shipping fees. 

The brushes are super soft and are definitely worth the wait.  They got shipped by Amazon Prime to Aramex who sent them from my New York warehouse address to Dubai.  For its price point, these brushes are truly bang for the buck!  I use them every day now, and I love their supple feel on my skin!  I wish I had known about them sooner!

I did splurge on another set of pro-make-up brushes and have set my heart on Zoeva Luxe Complete Set, much to the prodding of my little sister.  I bought it for myself as a Christmas present and was giddy happy when it arrived albeit past the holidays.   It was a toss between Zoeva and Sigma but thankfully, my practical side got the better of me.  With the price of Sigma Make Me Classy Essential Kit (12 regular brushes), I was able to purchase the Zoeva Luxe Complete Set (15 luxe brushes), and I am very pleased with this decision.  I also asked a friend who is into make-up brushes, and she did say that if it was her to make the choice, she would opt for the Zoeva set because it is more value for money.  So yes, thank you Mandy for helping me out, too!  I am now a proud owner of this plush set of make-up brushes which has earned rave reviews by make-up enthusiasts including Zoella. 

Now the most recent cosmetic splurge I made is this tube of lippie from Tom Ford:

my first tube & I love it!

My bestfriend got it from Dubai Duty Free last week, and boy, was I really thrilled when I finally got hold of it last night!   This hydrating creamy lippie is perhaps the best I have ever tried, and I must agree that it is worth its price tag (USD 50 for a lippie is not cheap, huh!)  I have long wanted to try TF but couldn’t find them here in Dubai, and when I finally did, I could not see myself coughing up that amount of money.  Thankfully, I got a tip that the brand is available in Dubai Duty Free and is about AED 55 cheaper than Harvey Nichols and Paris Gallery where they are being sold at AED 240 per tube.  It really pays to research first as not everything in this part of the world is cheaper!

My sister had shared this link to me just a couple of weeks back.  So far, I now have 5/26 ‘holy grail products’ but I don’t intend to purchase everything on the list.  These are the only ones I am keen to get little by little:

photo c/o Sephora website

photo c/o Sephora website

photo c/o Sephora website

photo c/o Amazon

photo c/o Urban Decay website

photo c/o Tarte website

photo c/o YSL website

I am delighted as to where I am now in terms of self-care.  I have never been so conscious about how I look or how I present myself in the past 30+ years of my life.  Now that I have kids who look up to me, I always make it a point to look good in front of them especially when we are going out as a family or when I am in school for an activity or programme.  I want to set a good example to my daughter so she would value the habit of good grooming later on in life.  I don’t ever want to each a point where my children would call me as “losyang” because truth be told, it's probably one of those things that would really hurt for me to hear.