Cause When A Heart Breaks, No, It Don’t Break Even

Hey everyone! Sorry for disappearing for two weeks! As I said in my previous post, it’s the end of term so I’ve been really busy with tests and assignments and presentations. I actually have an English presentation tomorrow but I’m just here to squeeze in a blog post real quick coz I feel so bad for not updating! Also, I am procrastinating washing the mountain of dishes in my sink. :p

Anyway! Before I came to Australia, I had no idea what to expect when I finally got here. So I didn’t know how to prepare, what clothes to pack or what things to bring. So for students who will be going to Australia to study, this is a rough guide on things to do and buy before you leave Malaysia and how to settle in when you arrive in Australia. I’m going to be doing this in two parts coz if I write everything in one post, it’s going to be way too long!

Before

If you haven’t already applied to a university or college, I strongly suggest going through an agent. I applied through IDP and the whole process was a breeze! They do all the paperwork for you, all you have to do is literally give them a copy of your results and passport and they will do the rest or give you exact directions on what you have to do. And the best part of it is that IDP is free! The only fees you pay are things such as your medical, courier, application fees, etc but they don’t charge you for their services. The IDP office I went to is located opposite the Taylor’s Subang campus but I know they have an office in KL and Penang too. Here is the website http://www.malaysia.idp.com/

If you don’t have accommodation, it’s probably a good idea for you to go to Australia at least 2 weeks before your term starts to look for a place. Check online prior to leaving Malaysia. The website I used was www.realestate.com.au to get an idea of the prices of apartments and the availability. Note, I knew from the start that I wanted to live on my own. If you’re looking to move into a share house, maybe you should go on your university/college website and see if there are any advertisements there for share houses.

Make sure you are covered by health insurance. Doctor’s consultation fees here are expensive, ($50 per consultation in Perth. That’s RM150 and this doesn’t include medicine!) and if you’re a student and covered by health insurance, your consultation is free. Also, if you require dental care (For those of you who wear braces), make sure you speak to your orthodontist and work something out or buy an insurance that covers you for dental care.

Google the public transportation in your state (In Perth, it’s TransPerth) and look through bus and train routes. This will make it easier for you to get around when you arrive and also give you a good idea on areas suitable for you to live in if you’re not staying on campus. You don’t want to stay an hour away from university/college!

Girls, trust me on this and pack only your favourite clothes! Believe me, when you arrive in Australia, you’ll want to shop like crazy because they have shops such as Supre, Dotti, Ally, Forever New etc that we don’t have in Malaysia and you’ll have the perfect excuse to buy new clothes because you didn’t bring enough! ;)

BUT, if you have favourite skin care/body care/makeup products, buy a couple of each thing and bring them from Malaysia. Things are more expensive here and I think it’s unnecessary to pay extra for something you can get for cheaper at home. However, if you’re the type that likes to try new things, go ahead and leave everything at home and buy different brands from here. I warn you though, it WILL get expensive.

Likewise, stationary is also more expensive so make sure you stock up!

Make sure you have a copy of your COE (Confirmation of Enrolment), passport, driver’s licence (In case you have to drive in Australia because of an emergency) and results. Your IC DOES NOT count as valid identification in Australia.

For those of you who are sure that you will be driving in Australia, switch your Malaysian licence to an international licence. Your Malaysian licence is recognized in Australia, but make life easier for yourself and the Australian authorities and switch your licence to English.

With whatever airline you’re with, they should be able to give you an extra baggage allowance if you tell them you’re a student. You might have to send them a copy of your COE but you get extra baggage allowance at no extra cost and trust me, this will be VERY useful. With SIA, I got an additional 10kgs!

Bring some basic medication along with you. Panadol, Clarinase, a course of antibiotics, period pain medicine etc because Australia is strict about buying drugs and you can’t just pop into a pharmacy and buy medicine when you feel like it. Again, it is also A LOT more expensive here.

Pack good quality and sensible shoes. You’ll be doing a lot of walking so don’t bother bringing all your heels so bring only what you need and pack ballet flats, sandals and sneakers.

The plug points in Australia are different from Malaysia so it’s a good idea to go to a hardware store and buy some travel adaptors. I’d say buy about 5 or 6. I know it sounds like a lot but it’s better to have more than not enough.

If you’re going to be living on your own, try your hand at cooking some simple dishes in Malaysia. It will give you a good feel of the kitchen so it won’t be too much of a shock when you get to Australia.

There are HEAPS of Asian shops in Australia because of the large Asian community so tell your mum’s and grandmother’s not to worry, they don’t have to insist you pack Lee Kum Kee soy sauce, you’ll be able to find that here! You can even find Super Rings here!

Don’t buy a new phone in Malaysia. The Australian phone companies always have great deals on new phone’s. I got my new BlackBerry Bold for $69 a month which includes unlimited BlackBerry data, free calls to people on my same network (3 and Vodafone) and $450 worth of calls to other people including international calls. But I am on a two year contract which means that I have to use this line for two years, regardless of whether I want to change it or not.

If you’re going to be taking the bus/train to uni, trust me on this and buy a backpack. I know how un-glam a backpack is, I fought tooth and nail NOT to carry a backpack, but damn, it makes life easy. :p

I’m sure most of you know this but Australian customs are VERY STRICT about what you bring in to Australia. Make sure you don’t bring in any plants, food, fruit, herbal medicines, etc or they will be confiscated. Also, ALWAYS be truthful on your declaration card of you’ll be looking at a fine!

I hope this has helped! What to do when you’re actually in Australia and how to settle down next! :)

The First Star That I Saw Last Night Was A Headlight Of A Man-made Sky

These dailydress pictures are extremely old. We’re talking before I even came to Australia! Well, except for one which was taken in Perth. :) But they were just sitting there in my folder, so I figured, why not right?

 

Dress: Bali                                                                                                                                                       Cardigan: Giordano                                                                                                                                   Necklace: Vincci Accessories                                                                                                                  Silver butterfly ring: Diva                                                                                                                 Turquoise ring: Thailand                                                                                                                          Bag: Louis Vuitton                                                                                                                                     Sandals: Nose

Top: Online                                                                                                                                                   Jeans: Kitschen                                                                                                                                              Red aviators: Forever 21, Thailand                                                                                                  Earrings: Can’t remember but it wasn’t from Malaysia. They’re either from Cambodia or Thailand.                                                                                                                                                    Belt: Gift from Kat                                                                                                                                        Bag: H&M, Dubai                                                                                                                                           Sandals: Nose

Top: Online                                                                                                                                                   Tights: Nichii                                                                                                                                               Necklace: Vincci Accessories                                                                                                               Bag: Online                                                                                                                                                    Ballet flats: Mitju, Singapore

That adorable little nugget is Dusty. She found my daddy one morning and started following him during his morning walk. I like to say that we didn’t adopt her, she adopted us. This was taken ages ago when she was still a puppy and still very cute, she’s all grown up now and is extremely ugly because she IS a stray and her ears stick up in a funny way. We call her our “longkang” (Malay for drain) dog, but she is very very loved and very very smart but also very very naughty. During her teething stage, she bit about, 17 pairs of my mum’s shoes! But I miss her terribly, she makes me smile in the mornings. :(

Oh and just a note to anyone who’s in/going to Singapore, you have to visit Mitju, one of my favourite shoe stores in Singapore! They’ve got a huge selection of shoes that are comfortable and reasonably price. But be warned, some of the shoes are well, not the most tasteful, but you do have some very nice ones. I’m not sure how many stores there are or where exactly they’re located but the one I always visit is in Orchard ION and it’s opposite Royce chocolates.

 

Blazer and top: Cotton On, Australia                                                                                             Belt: Supre                                                                                                                                                  Jeans: Giordano                                                                                                                                           Sunnies: RayBans, which were a gift from Ben                                                                              Watch: Casio which was also a gift from Ben                                                                                 Bag: Gucci                                                                                                                                                        Flats: Nine West

I actually really miss doing my dailydress posts. When I was still doing them, I felt like I had a reason to dress up even when I wasn’t going anywhere too special. Nowadays, whenever I feel lazy, I put on a hoodie and jeans because I know I won’t have *insert number of readers here* thinking “Omg, why is she wearing that?!?!?”. So I promise that I’ll resume my dailydress posts not just for those of you who enjoy it, but also for myself because who doesn’t feel good when she’s dressed up and feeling pretty? :)

I’ve got a very busy two weeks coming up because it’s nearing the end of term and there are heaps of assignments to hand up, tests to sit for and presentations to give. So you guys are going to have to bear with me coz I probably won’t be able to update too often in these next two weeks. I’ll still probably be able to squeeze in a post or two over the weekend though! :p

You’re Every Breath That I Take

I have to admit, as gorgeous as they are, the formula for Chanel nail polishes aren’t the best. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a nail polish with a brilliant formula, and if you aren’t, you get a polish with a terrible formula (Yes, Chanel Jade, I am talking about you!).

The formula for Chanel’s Paradoxal is miles different from the Chanel Jade formula. While Chanel Jade is a gorgeous colour, the consistency of the polish is thin and watery. Paradoxal on the other hand, is thick and dare I say, a tad, gloopy. I’m not sure if gloopy is even a word, but that’s the only word I can think of to describe the consistency of this polish. So application wasn’t the easiest because the polish was so thick, it was drying up a lot quicker than it should have been.

So while I found it a bit difficult to work with this formula, I am more than willing to put up with it because put simply, Paradoxal is quite possibly the most beautiful nail polish I have ever owned.

I love semi-weird, semi-sophisticated polishes and Chanel’s Paradoxal fits the bill perfectly. It’s got a certain elegance to it but it’s not your conventional French manicure or nude pink. It’s a darker polish, but I can’t call it a DARK polish because it’s not really dark, it’s more, dusty. And muted. It’s a beautiful, dusty, muted, grey-ish mauve-y polish with a slight violet duochrome. Think Chanel Particuliere’s violet cousin!

In my opinion, this is a must have nail polish. If you like Chanel’s Particuliere, OPI’s You Don’t Know Jacques, Barry M’s Mushroom or anything along the lines of those mushroom-y, grey, dusty, taupe-y colours that have been all the rage lately, you need this polish, I have never seen anything quite like this!

Swatch of this gorgeous polish below.

Excuse the slightly messy application. I was really excited to get this polish on my nails and the formula wasn’t being kind to me!

This swatch is about 99% true to life. I say 99% because different computers have different monitor settings but on my laptop, my nails look exactly like it does in this picture as they do whenever I look down at them and smile to myself because I am easily pleased like that.

You can see the slight violet duochrome in this picture. Isn’t it absolutely gorgeous?

Chanel, you have done it again. Now please, give OPI or China Glaze a call and fix your formula!

Let Your Heart Guide You

Okay, I know I promised some nail polish swatches in my last post but those swatches were taken AGES ago and it was only after posting that, I realized I don’t remember the names of the polishes and I can’t actually check their names coz they’re back home in Malaysia. :( But I will post those nail polish swatches, eventually. :)

Also, I still haven’t figured out how to convert my apartment tour video, boo. But I’ll figure it out eventually, I promise. Or maybe I’ll just film a new video and try not to be so shaky and trip on something and make my video look like the world is ending. Yes, now all of you know why I have to edit my video. I’m clumsy normally, but you try walking around looking through a camera screen. You’d trip too, I assure you!

So anyway, I figured I’d do a beauty tag since 1. I love doing tags and I haven’t done one in ages and 2. I’m actually too lazy to think of something else and tags are easy and fast. :D

But I promise, this could be potentially informative as well!

This is a “What I’m Using Right Now” tag and if you read my blog/watch my YouTube regularly, you’ll notice that these are my favourite types of beauty blogs/videos to do simply because it’s my favourite type of beauty blogs/videos to read.

Hope you guys find this useful!

Shampoo: Lush I Love Juicy.                                                                    

Conditioner: Schwarzkoph Moisture Enrich Conditioner.                                            

Styling products: I don’t style my hair but I do use a hair serum, if that counts. My favourite hair serum EVER, is Skin Food’s Extra Virgin Olive Essence.                          

Shower Gel: Lush Happy Hippy.                                                                                                        

Body moisturiser: I alternate between Palmer’s Cocoa Butter and Lush Therapy massage bar.                                                                                                                                         

Cleanser: Kiehl’s Ultra facial cleanser.                                                                                        

Exfoliator: Skin Food’s Black Sugar Scrub Foam.                                                                    

Primer: Skin Food’s Lettuce & Cucumber Matte Finishing Gel. Best primer EVER!      

Foundation brush: I usually use my fingers to apply my BB cream but when I do use a brush, I use the stipling brush from Skin Food, but I’ve forgotten what it’s called. Pearl Touch Highlighting brush or something like that. For powder foundation, I use The Body Shop’s kabuki brush which I have also forgotten the name of. It’s the one you’re supposed to use with their mineral makeup line.                                                           

Concealer: For underneath my eyes, Skin Food’s Salmon Darkcircle Concealer Cream in #2 and for the rest of my face, Skin Food’s Rice Concealer Tip in #23 and #21.   

Powder: MAC’s Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium Plus.                                              

Blusher: The blush side of the ELF Countouring Blush & Bronzing powder.                     

Bronzer: The bronzer side of the ELF Countouring Blush & Bronzing powder! :D            

Highlighter: Skin Food’s Lime Secret Shine Base in #2 or Skin Food’s All Over Muffin Cake Finish in #2.                                                                                                                           

Eye shadow base: MAC’s prep and prime. I have Urban Decay Primer Potion in original AND Sin and ELF’s mineral eye shadow primer but I’m trying to use up my MAC one!   

Eye shadows: It changes all the time but lately, I’ve been using the NYX Runway Collection palette in Champagne & Caviar a lot. Not coz the eye shadows are of amazing quality but more because it’s so convenient. All the colours I could possibly need are in that palette!                                                                                                                                      

Eyeliner: Revlon’s ColorStay Liquid Eye Pen in Blackest Black.                                             

Curler: Skin Food.

Mascara: Maybelline’s Great Lash.

Lipstick & lip gloss: Again, this changes very frequently but I have been LOVING Revlon’s Soft Nude lipstick paired together with Revlon’s Peach Petal lip gloss. Best combination ever!

Nail Polish: Chanel’s Paradoxal is LOVE and everyone needs to have it! Swatches of this gorgeous polish up next! :D

Okay, after writing this post, I realized that this has almost exactly the same content as my July Favourites video. :p

I’m sorry but I was stuck in a this confusing dilemma where I WANTED to blog, but I was LAZY to blog so this is what we ended up with. :( I find myself in this dilemma pretty often actually.

Now on the next question, to listen to my head? Or my heart?

And what if your head and heart want the same thing but you just can’t accept it and want to continue to live in denial?

And does accepting you’re in denial mean that you’re no longer in denial?

Some things to ponder.

Take This For Just What It Is

July favourites! :)

That’s a very flattering freeze frame isn’t it? Lol.

If you have any products that you’d like me to do a review on, leave a comment and I’ll try and do it when I can.

Swatches of the two Skin Food highlighters are below.

Skin Food Lime Secret Shine Base in #2.

The left swatch is the product not blended in and on the right, it is blended in.

With this product, a little goes a long way. You only need a tiny bit to highlight your whole cheek bone.

This can also be mixed with your foundation/tinted moisturiser/BB cream to create a dewy finish. I do this sometimes with my BB cream. It gives my skin a nice dewy sheen without looking like a shimmer ball exploded on my face. But like I said, a little goes a long way so be careful not to apply too much.

I usually use this product when I’m using a BB cream/liquid foundation/tinted moisturiser.

  Skin Food All Over Muffin Cake Finish in #2.

This highlighter is much more subtle than the Lime Secret Shine Base so you’d have to use more of this product than the Lime Secret Shine Base. I prefer using this when I use a powder foundation. This colour is a slightly warmer gold than the other one.

I might do a highlighter application video soon because until recently, I was absolutely clueless as to how to correctly apply highlight to properly accentuate my cheek bones and now that I know how to do it properly, I’ve realized that it really does make a difference to my makeup!

It’s gonna be a pretty busy week for me so I might not be able to blog as often as I’d like to but I promise to be back when I can. I’ve got some nail polish swatches that I took AGES ago that I’d like to post. :)

I’m Seeing It In My Dreams

I haven’t blogged in so long, I’ve almost forgotten how to, but lately, I’ve really been missing just sitting down and writing for something other than an assignment and being able to just tell a bunch of people what’s going on in my life and in my head.

I know how disgraceful it was for me to just disappear without so much as a word, not even an announcement that I was going to be away or something. If you’re still reading this, thank you and I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, I promise!

I’m pretty sure I don’t need to say this because by now, most people should know but I’m going to anyway! Just in case, ya know? :)

The reason I stopped blogging for awhile was because I moved to Perth, Australia for university. I never had the intention to stop blogging but my first term was really hectic coz I was trying to settle down in Perth, getting used to going for regular classes again and making new friends and basically just adapting to a whole new way of life here.

I’m in my second term now and things have gotten much easier and I’ve really settled down and am really loving Perth and I even went for my first cheer session this Friday! I miss my family and friends back in Malaysia very much of course, but I’ve made some good friends here and well, a certain someone makes my life here very pleasant. :)

And I PROMISE I will tell you guys who this certain someone is really soon!

Besides blogging, I’ve also really missed filming videos for my YouTube channel and sharing with you guys my opinions on all the skin care and cosmetics I use, so I’ve already filmed two videos! One of them is a tour of my apartment here and the other is a July favourites video and both of them will be up on my YouTube and blog really soon! I was planning for the apartment tour to go up first because that one had a bit of an update on why I hadn’t been YouTube-ing/blogging (kinda what I’ve already said here) but I’m having some issues editing that one so the July favourites one will probably go up first.

I promise you guys that I’m back to blogging regularly from now on, twice a week at least hopefully. I’m slowly going to be posting pictures of my new friends, and new life over here. It’s very exciting for me to be here on my own, I’m such a princess back home, I don’t know how I’ve managed so well here so far! (Well, actually, I do know, thanks sweetheart, you’re the best). And of course, dailydress posts will resume like normal! :D

I’ve also got some very exciting news that I hope to share with you guys really soon! In the next two weeks if all goes to plan! :)