im sooo tired.

Been super exhausted lately.. Irregular sleeping hours + stress over thesis + rushing a presentation for school tml... Im gonna turn in early today and have a good rest. Will get through the presentation tml by hook or by crook! :)

I went out in the evening today to get some errands done. I had won a full set of The Body Shop's Earth Lovers Shower Gels! So i trotted down to collect em and bought myself their Stop Sex Trafficking cloth bag for about 5 dollars, in which Im sure the proceeds go to their fund for that aim :)

I also helped a friend to get an item using my birthday discount!

Then I went down to Watsons to get my Vidal Sassoon VS 4 in one hair styler! Now i can straighten, crimp, curl or volumize my hair in seconds! Wheeee. I just tried and it works so well! <3 Thats a gift from my sister hehehe.

I was also supposed to collect a sample from FANCL but they needed me to print out a generic email for proof while I showed them the email on my iPhone. I admit i was grouchy but hey what about saving the earth? There are other ways to go about aiding your customers in collecting samples.... *shrugs* looks like I have to go down again one day...

And then my bf met me and we went to Awfully Chocolate to get a birthday cake! Well I wasnt too thrilled though haha. Oh well. He went ahead and paid for it and brought it up my place...

I hope I feel good enough tomorrow!

Stompy's having diahorrea :( Pretty horrible to know as it may cause bunny's death... as it has happened to our other bunny last time... I hope he recovers and be a strong bunny! :D

22 days to the end of the thesis journey I gotta press on! <3

Sending positivity to all who needs it today,
Jamie

one of the worst justifications i have ever seen.

I am gonna quit ranting here since it's my last day of being 22.

I am not Serene not because:

a) Serene likes to use momo or renie in her nicknames so Squovalicious definitely isnt Serene.
What kind of justification is this?!?! Should I be glad that I didnt name my online persona momolovesnails?! 

b) IP addresses are proved to be different.
Well... I find this weak. Why not try: after inputing her email address in Facebook, her full name appeared on her profile alongside her photo. Hence, she really is Jamie K and not Serene. 


end rant.

about sg_beauty + edit.

EDIT: I got the mods to clarify my name in black and white in that thread. And boy, it made me very satisfied and it is a huge load off my shoulder. I was also reprimanded that this blog post made the mods very upset too. But no apologies for this. My personal space, my say, my feelings. If you chose to be a mod, then you probably have to suck it up for asking members to settle their disputes outside of the community. My fight is officially over. But I know, for some, it has just started. Hint: Someone made a police report. I guess Im leaving sg_beauty for good! Too much nonsense.

-----Original entry starts here:

For those locals who have an idea of the LJ community that is sg_beauty, do read on.

I have been maligned by some ladies who suspected (???) that my account is under a user by the name of Serene. It stemmed from some controversy that they had with Serene. And as a new LJ user who joined LJ so that I could sell of some of my pre-loved/backup items there, I merely commented on a pleasant experience I had with Serene. I bought some items off her.

Then in the recent hoo-ha that the moderators decided to ban her from the community (She was banned due to a recent rude comment she made on a post.) I saw some nasty remarks made about the decision which included a threat from one user to Serene. Me being me, Jamie, and someone who feels there is no need for such language, i said, 'Hi mods, isnt this also a rude comment? And it is very threatening as well!' Well, the mods made no reply to my comment nor did they say that rude comments will no longer be tolerated.

Well, then someone decided to put my username up under the suspicion that I am Serene. FYI, im squovalicious on LJ too. My email address that contains my name is up on the profile and every selling post I make on the community too. How the hell did I get suspected to be Serene?

I asked for my name to be cleared and my identity reinstated. Did anyone bother? No. Cuz my character was being brought into question, regardless of my identity now (wow what a change) because I stood up for Serene. And I was being 'let to have the last say' because of my insistence that I was merely being objective.

My point of this post is to show my strong disappointment at the way the mods handled the matter by shushing us (no more rude comments or open conflict from this comment on or you get a warning) and not responding to my repeated demands to have my name cleared. I offered to give them my bank account number and names and what not I/C number even to prove that I am Jamie. Seriously now it seems like a big deal right? It hell is.

I started using Squovalicious on blogspot for this blog. It is my baby, my pride and joy and a very personal space for my use. I feel that Squovalicious is representative of my identity and should it be confused with someone else, I sure dont feel happy about it. It upset me so much that my credibility was also called into question when I was merely, being myself. Ironically. I did not want drama, nor did I cause any. I merely asked to be acknowledged as Jamie and to be sincerely apologized to.

Is this so difficult unless your ego is stopping you?

Days like this I wish I were Xiaxue.

you know where to get me if you need more information on this. *exhales deeply*

some crackle and some flak(ie)

Took out my MeiMei Signature's crackle and played again, this time its the ash brown one!

The dark patches are what it is supposed to look like with top coat on as the shimmers can then be seen. I used my Quick dry oil from Star Like nails after they cracked. The oil seeped into the edges and gave that 'wet look'. Hmmm. 

I tried the horizontal way of painting the crackle on as well as the normal nail bed to tip method. See the difference? Pretty cool. 

I used a non Seche Vite top coat on the right side of the nail, and it gave the shimmer look better than using SV on the left. 

Matte look of the crackle before my top coat experiments :) Also experimented with thickness of coat of lacquer.

I used Orly's La Playa as a base for all the nails. For this, I used Glisten up! by Essence for the flakies anda green shimmer look to the navy blue. Then I added Make Up Store's flakie called Linnea (another brand that names their lacquers on female names) to increase the flaki-ness. Glisten Up! adds greenish flakies but MUS's flakie was more red-orange-yellow...

It looked like there was rusted iron on my nails hehe. I quite liked it but am looking forward to my Nubar 2010 from a mega swap! :D I hope it arrives in time for my birthday heheheheeh <3

Im at the last lap of my thesis paper... I will survive! 

Ill be back!

Jamie + Pink = Internal Server Error

Indeed. Jamie of Squovalicious is not a fan of pink. I dont hate it either. Just... not a fan.
Until... I dug out some of my cosmetic items and dang! I have an affinity with pink, afterall.

Let's see...

These are most of my items that are pink, in concept. Half of them are unused cause... I only one pair of lips LOL.

From left: Canmake Nudy Gloss 01, 02, essence XXXL nudes 03 Nude Kiss, Lioele Blooming Gloss 07, 05, 03

I know, numbers are like how useful right? :P The darkest shade of pink gloss is essence's but it has glass flecked shimmer in the gloss too! Pretty unique I will say. 

The Canmake ones are awesome, their shimmer particles are a third smaller than essence's and almost undetectable on lips. 

The Lioele ones are the newest additions, and the company in Singapore had a mystery lipgloss grab bag of sorts, with 3 full-sized lipglosses and one free handphone lipgloss chain :) I requested for a mix of nude, pink and red shades and Im very pleased with their choices :D The nude shade has a strong gold shimmer and I wonder how it will turn out on my lips. I hope my yellow undertones wont jump out at ya. The hot pink is sooooo gorgeous. I hope it is a build-able shade, if not I'll use it on top of my lipstick.

Another Lioele item! Gotta love the Princessy look, with a diamonte :d

This is a marbling blusher that works very well as a highlighter on the forehead, nose bridge and chin. 

The brush that comes with it has very soft hairs and feels luxurious!

There is also a plastic cover that keeps the whole compact pretty hygienic. Great thought in there.

Paul & Joe's face colour compact in 17

A peach and light pink shade.

Have this for the longest time in my makeup stash. I won it at a CATALOG magazine giveaway last year. It adds some colour to my face after applying foundation or BB cream. I will build up the pink to use as a light blusher :)

Every girl loves the Paul & Joe's motifs right??? I know I do :)

ZA 2-way foundation limited edition case 2010

Look at the hologram patterns! ;)

Im a shade 21, totally suits my skintone. *thumbs up*

Applies both dry or wet using the sponge given. When used wet, it gives great coverage then does not look cake-y. Yep, somehow I'm wearing a pink T-shirt today :P

red earth by Esprit.

Eyeshadow colours from their 2009 Summer collection.

These are cream eyeshadows.

I use them a lot before I accumulated other eyeshadows :P But these two are my go-to ones when going for a sheer makeup look. These are shimmery and crease a bit after long hours of wear. But great to use over powder shadows to blend in the colours, me thinks. 

The Bodyshop Kiss of Colour cheek blush in 01 vibrant rose

Nailed it with the colour description there. A very nice almost Barbie pink blush that I have yet to try! Maybe this weekend... 

Got this at the recent Warehouse sale.

Victoria Secrets Juiced Berry body 3-in-1 wash, discontinued.

Love the smell. I am a sucker for fruity smells, only the sweet ones. And this is heavenly. But I'm a tad afraid of using it in case it aggravates my skin condition. But sniffing it makes me happy :D

From the top: shills perfect brightening base, M.A.C heatherette Limited Edition lipstick glaze in Lollipop Loving, Maybelline Hypercurl Volum' Express in Very Black mascara.

Shills work pretty well except that my face will get oily after an hour or so and makeup slides right off :/ There's also a diamonte on the packaging... now we know how pink screams princessy huh.

The M.A.C lipstick is a recent acquisition from a blog sale. It has a green iridescent sheen in the pink shimmer lipstick. Intriguing. 

The mascara is pretty good. Only to note that I have to wipe off excess else before application else I suffer from raccoon eyes. Which happened, a lot of times. Tsk. 

OF COURSE! Where are the damn nails?

5 different patterns, again.

I love the thumb here. It is actually a pink neon, textured pattern by mixing a few lacquers on the nail.

Forefinger is done with OPI's Wing It and then adding some Etude House pink glitter and base.

The little finger has Revlon's Pink Petal as a base. I didnt like the application at all. Streaky and needed 3 coats to get a decent opaque coverage. 

Tried out the V gap design on my ring finger here. but added my own touch to it. I would say this nail is Black Swan inspired :P

Used the Revlon chromes for the forefinger look. 

The middle finger is just plain old awesome Elianto 08 Salsa Pink. Hot pink with gold flecked shimmer.

And once again, textured little finger.

With Pink Petal base. Neon pink is from Daiso's nail art enamel.

So what do you think about these pink nails? What would you like to try? 

Do you own any of the pink cosmetic items I posted here? :) 

Hope you liked this post!

Wanna guess my favourite colour? :D 

moving on..

Thank you for the constructive comments on the situation I posted in last night's entry.
I really appreciate it :)

I have been blogging at the 8flo blog lately, covering the inaugural Men's Fashion Week Press Conference held in Singapore 2 days ago. If you are interested, do visit:
http://squovalicious.8flo.net/

I am also participating in 2 Facebook contests, has to do with nail art and voting, would be great if you could show some support :D Vote for your favourite entries or for me (pretty please) :)
Here are the links:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55773&id=115572838470028&fbid=202878049739506
for Crazy eMart.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=179434308767685&id=100001033511949&aid=43883
for Mei Mei Signatures ;) (her contest required us to use one of her products in the final design, it was fun thinking of ways to use that crackle!)

I am also gonna be announcing my 200 followers/Birthday Month/Blog Anniversary giveaway very very soon! I have prepared a few prizes, perhaps one for local followers and one for international? They will include more than nail polish :) Any suggestions on prizes?

I did not manage to do a green St Patrick's Day mani this year, as Im still sporting Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms in Burgundy Orchid and Garnet Lapis. These multi-chromes are awesome and pretty hard to capture. Ugh. Give me more time....

Things are going on pretty slow here as I struggle with school work and my thesis... All will be over by end of April :)

<3 Much love and positive energy to you...

I need your opinions.

Hi ladies,
especially those of you on MUA, recently i have been contacted for a swap, a custom purchase on my side. So in return I get to choose what items i'd like from her end.

She offered me Perplex and Hidden Treasure from another MUA's swapper, as she is swapping with the latter. After a few correspondence, she told me the items are swatched a few times, like brand new (as quoted). But the value of the swap as stated to me: HT: at least $10, Perplex: more than $5.

She said she based her prices off eBay.
edit: She did swap about usd 5 worth of stuff for Perplex so i guess i am ok with it. She did go the length to get it for me. and as for HT, i agree with you all now, so im accepting that too. Im just a little upset that I wont be getting BN items but quoted at BN prices.

What do you think? Am i being shortchanged?

Thanks in advance for all your comments!

Garden gates and roses...

This is my new favourite manicure. I surprised myself with this attempt :)

My Seche Vite was thickening and gave me some evil bubbles. But meh, I dont care, I love this attempt anyway :) 

The colours are so stark that they look like a printed sheet of polish on my nails! If the background colour is softened to a light lilac pastel, for example, I'm sure it is more wearable with all sorts of flowy dresses or clothes!

Once again, I used my Born Pretty pearls to complete this feminine look!

Added a nice crystal one one of the fingers :P 

The flowers and leaves are achieved with the nail art pens I got from BeautyAsia 2011. Easy to use, just that I had sore hands at the end of the night squeezing the polish out of the needle tip LOL. 

L'Oreal going cruelty-free in 2013!

I dont know if Im the last to hear this, but having read this article: http://www.livingcrueltyfree.com/2007/06/01/loreal-is-going-cruelty-free/
Im really excited to know that L'Oreal will not be testing on animals in the near future! :)

In the same vein, my friend has participated in the L'Oreal Brandstorm Competition in which her team has to come up with a great marketing and communication campaign for one of their brands! This is where you and I come in.

Do us a favour by clicking 'Like' on this page: http://www.facebook.com/LOrealBrandstormSG

and then click 'Like' for this group photo! http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150175722212425&set=a.10150175722127425.340829.192595137424&theater
to support Lumiere! :)

I would really really appreciate this sooo much! :D Thank you! <3

This is official!

Phew, this has been the news I've been meaning to let all of you know... and I guess the time is ripe :)
I have been invited to blog for lifestyle.8flo.com :) I have just started blogging there and I would for all of you to pop by there for some fashion, Singapore related posts I have for my readers.
And nope, Im not getting paid for blogging there either. I take it as a challenge for myself to write better :)

It was a choice to keep my blogs separate so that my international readers wont feel 'betrayed' in a way. Afterall, this blog was inspired by all of you whom I have been reading prior to setting up my own last year. This will remain as a nail blog with occasional hauls :P

Here is my new blog's address: http://squovalicious.8flo.net/
Please have some fun over there, I know it's pretty bare right now, do adorn the space with your lovely comments!

xoxox,
Jamie

P.S The purple button on the right --> also leads you to 8flo's main website, do take a look for the latest giveaways and information!

Singapore The Body Shop Warehouse Sale 2011 - haul

#prayforjapan

I went down to Suntec City yesterday for The Body Shop Warehouse Sale 2011.
It was a pretty small area with a pretty ok crowd.. Many items were on sale. But I did restrict myself...
Here's my small but pretty pricey haul. I spent about 90SGD in all.

First up, I wanted to try another facial moisturizer that could work for my whole face. Im using Avene's recovery cream for the red, flaky patches on my forehead and chin.

I chose the Carrot Moisture Cream which is an Original product, so I guessed it should work pretty well for it to have a revival. 

Here is how it looks. Pretty yummy actually. The smell is not reeking of carrots but a refreshing light scent.. :)

I got myself an eye gel which I have been eye-ing for a long time already... :)

Keep the under-eye area moisturized and reducing puffiness is my goal. Hope to achieve this with this unperfumed gel~

Yes, looks like hair gel :P

Also got a mineral eyshadow in nude gypsum

Shimmery and soft. Cant wait to use this as a base and all over eyelids :)

My main aim going to the sale was to look for a blusher. And I got myself a sweet pink one from one of their last season's collection.

Look at that cute mirror at the top of the blusher :D

Opens up to a sponge applicator that makes a whoosy sound when u pat it on your face LOL.

Congruent with my lips obsession, I got 2 lip liners, one in nude one in mauve berry for a more intense look...

The nude one is shimmery... Yum..

Just a random photo to show how globalized the world is now ;) Made in China, Germany and UK. hehe

Also got myself this lip liner fixer. It has pretty good reviews on Makeupalley ;)

Last but not least, a much-needed lip/concealer brush! Yay for some rationale shopping :)

What do you think of my haul? What did you get from the sale? 

I didnt stock up on shower gels etc as I cant really use them with my skin like that. I need more moisturizing ones and less(er) fragrance too... 

Will be back with a NOTD :)

Take care everyone, be safe. 

Heads Up!

Dearest Singaporean ladies,
Want some Del Sol colour changing nail polish? :D
Sasa is selling them at SGD9.90 instead of SGD14.90 a piece now! Go grab them ;)
I got myself Trick and Treat! YES IT IS HERE FINALLY :D

xoxo,
Jamie ;)

Mei Mei Signature's Crackle Polishes - Review

You must have heard and gone ga-ga over this season's crackle polishes. OPI and China Glaze have jumped on the wagon and enticed all polish lovers out there with their crackles. Loving how those bottles look as well :)

I have 3 bottles of crackle to show all of you here today, one of them the Black crackle and 2 others are shimmery burgundy and ash brown.

Mei Mei Signature's is the name of the brand and the owner is Mei Mei :)

This is the burgundy over Zoya's Harley.

I have to top it with a top coat, I used Seche Vite, on order for the shimmer to be seen :)

Application is fuss-free. The polish is pretty watery compared to the normal kinds, so layer it on your DRIED manicure quick and watch the crackle in action. Pretty fun, actually.

I showed my daddy and he was pretty amused :P

This one is to show the black crackle. It dries matte and I added topcoat for a glossy shine. 

It was done in a rush. 

If you see the blue layer, it's from another kind of crackle that I owned...

I did a fatal mistake by applying quick dry topcoat on the crackle, forcing the gaps to minimize further, looking like... hairline cracks :/ UGLY!

This is the ash brown crackle. There is also a very pretty shimmer that I might not have captured well. 

Half the nail is without topcoat hence the suede/matte feel. 

This could be clearer :) Tried on a glitter base. You can see that the edges of the crackle are messier. 

Here's all three on my swatch nail wheel. 

I also tried a manicure with the burgundy one. It is hard to capture glitters in photos so imagine them looking glossy and shiny :)

The crackles retail at SGD15 a piece on http://meimeisignatures.com/

There are more colours to choose from! 

They are all big-3 free! Hooray for that ;)

She has also shown how the crackle effect can be more varied if you apply it a zig-zag motion!

Born Pretty Store - Radiant Pearl review

I find pearls to go very very well with palette cleansers* (aka nude, neutral or mellower colours). 

I have my dream come true with Born Pretty's wheel of pearls from various sizes!! Mine came in only one colour, the silvery pearl that looks so radiant under natural light :)

Knowing myself, I had to break out at least 2 colours with each or most of my manicures :P And this above photo shows Essie's Jazz with Daiso's white nail art enamel and Born Pretty's pearls :)

Essie's application was smooth and 2 coats was needed. 

I added Daiso's biege sheer colour for the added shimmer on Jazz.

This is The Faceshop's colour, BR802, a nude with silver glass fleck-y shimmer, very subtle and feminine. 3 coats to perfection in coverage. 

This seemed like a better mannequin hands colour on me than Jazz was. Jazz was a tad dirtier, with possible grey tones to it. BR802 seemed more peachy. 

Love this a lot!

Look at how the pearls shine. I love the different shapes of the pearls as they added very good variety to this manicure. 

This is the one I got:

http://www.bornprettystore.com/sizes-nail-pearl-rhinestone-decoration-wheel-p-287.html

3 different sizes, one colour. There's also the multi coloured one that you might want to check out :)

I might want to use these pearls on a card sometime ;) 

For those who are new to nail art,

you just have to gloss on a layer of clear varnish or even a normal top coat (no quick dry please!)

and then use a pair of tweezers to pick up the flat-back pearl and place it on your nail. 

Gently press down to secure the position but not too hard or u see the varnish pooling on the sides of the pearl :)

Then seal the whole nail with top coat (quick dry or not) to complete your manicure.

*Born Pretty Store provided me with this item for an honest review. The lacquers in this post are from my own collection, paid for by me.