Bobbi Brown has introduced rich new formula Luxe Lip color - it is ultra luxurious, glides effortlessly, nourishes and color the lips sans feathering or flaking. As Bobbi Brown is known for being classic and timeless, this Luxe Lips comes in 30 shades of subtle pinks to bright oranges and even to deep reds. This is probably the largest range of shades offered at one time. These shades were the results of Bobbi's internal collaboration with her makeup artists from around the world to determine the most popular global shade lineup that caters to every skin tone. 

With the very chic gold tube, I definitely felt the luxe Bobbi tries to give to her fans. The lipsticks were buttery - it melts on the lips and glides on as if a liquid lipstick would but it does not feather easily. Application was very precise and I definitely love the two shades I received - Your Majesty and Parisian Red, just in time for the Fall Winter season. 

Your Majesty is a reddish brownish color, almost like the lovechild of brick and plum that I decided to create my entire look towards a more rustic, dark-brownish palette. For this look, I used Bobbi Brown's:

- Holiday '14 Shimmerbrick over my base
- Perfectly Defined Long-Wear Brow Pencil in Saddle
- Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Heather Steel
- Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Scotch
- Luxe Lip in Your Majesty

Parisian Red on the other hand is a bluish-toned red lipstick that could recreate the signature Taylor Swift RED look with just a simple swipe of black eyeliner and a clean base for day, and a little darker shading around the eyelids required for the Blank Space look. For this look I used Bobbi Brown's:

- Holiday '14 Shimmerbrick over my base
- Perfectly Defined Long-Wear Brow Pencil in Mahogany
- Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Soft Peach on upper lids and lower lids
- Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner in Black Ink
- Luxe Lip in Parisian Red

For full coverage, apply with a simple swipe from the tube. The lipstick is made with a custom molded bullet, and the pointed tip makes it easier to line and define the outer edges of the lips, almost like a built-in lip liner so you'll be good to touch up and reapply as you go. Bobbi Brown Luxe Lip retails for RM107 at Bobbi Brown stores in Malaysia.

Their Golden Hour Getaway Holiday lookbook for 2015 captures the essence of a 70's bohemian queen featuring Siberian model, Vika Falileeva. The airy, heavily decorated dresses are of something I'd imagine to wear to exquisite dinner parties while the laced white dresses would be reserved for dancing and picking flowers in the meadow. The collection is a bit of hit-or-miss but majority was a hit in my books. I love flowy garments and mixture of textures so it's a definite yes in a heartbeat for me. The rustic color palette is just perfect for the holiday season although the thin materials would be questionable at this time of the year but that won't stop us girls in the Southern Hemispheres to rock the frock this season.

photo source and full lookbook here

About twenty years ago, Urban Decay was born out of the frustration of the 'pretty' beauty market - pinks and beige dominated the beauty market and other colors such as green and purple never made it on the shelves. Sandy Lerner then decided to make her own cosmetics that she likes instead of adhering to the generic market and catering to the 90's grunge market by releasing 10 lipsticks and 12 nail enamels with names such as Roach, Smog, Rust, Oil Slick and Acid Rain. Fast forward to today, there's not a beauty brand that does not carry purple nail polish and Urban Decay has moved on from the teen angst era and became a cult among beauty lovers worldwide. 

I mean, have you not heard of the Naked Palette? It is still one of the most coveted palettes around with shades of neutrals beiges to shimmery blacks, the palette has become somewhat essential in a girl's beauty product collection at least once in her life. It doesn't just stop there - the moment I had my first palette, I bought my mum one and it keeps going on and on to their primers, eyeliners, lipliners and so on. Now that Urban Decay has finally opened its first Malaysian flagship store in KLCC shopping mall, Kuala Lumpur and I went for a quick visit to see what the hype was about. 

The store is sleek, easy to navigate (most counters are similar, it's just duplicated to serve multitude of customers at one go) and it is decked in Urban Decay's official violet and black theme. But what's so different in this Urban Decay store compared to the array of products they have in Sephora, which is just less then 400 meters away? 

For starters, they have the UD Spectrum palette (only about 100 I was told) being sold in the stores. There are also classic items like the eyeshadow but in different metallic colors which are not available in Sephora. They currently do not do make-up services like other cosmetic stores but they have staff to help you figure out your best shade, and to teach you their trade secrets with the Urban Decay range. I am horrible when it comes to concealers so knowing that I could wear cream concealers and how to set it, thanks to the UD makeup staff I'm now no longer afraid to try on different types of concealers. Basically, there are more colorways and items that Sephora does not carry, so it is still recommended that you check out the store when you are in KLCC. 

C27, Concourse Level, Suria KLCC, 241, Jalan P Ramlee, KL City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I have a specific taste when it comes to buying scents and Victoria's Secret perfumes always does it for me. My fifth bottle and counting, this bottle is wrapped in delicate tulle and laced up corset, inspired by their lingerie - flirty, iconic and seductive. With notes of Belladona Orange, Solar Gardemia and Golden Amber, this scent currently puts a spark in my ensemble. Although it comes from the warm fragrance family, Victoria's Secret's Forever Sexy is not too sharp on the nose. This is quickly becoming my favorite fragrance. 

The perks of doing what I'm doing is that I always get samples or the latest stuff for beauty and skincare products and these perks passes down to my husband. Over the past two years we've been married I've started to notice that we're sharing a lot of things than our feelings - our skincare and down to the facial tools we use. We now have a Clarisonic device each (which we swear on to keep our face clean), and a few skincare brands we stick to and use together:

I have always dreamed of using La Mer since high school. It was one of those brands I've told my teen self to buy once I make some bank. Now that I'm working I realised that it's an investment to have at least one or two high-end skincare product to keep your skin in check. The first time I tried La Mer, it was the Illuminating Eye Serum (which I bring with me traveling and religiously use before bedtime) and I love it. My husband and I have bad sinus problems, which causes us to have dark circles and eyebags (cause you don't get deep sleep from the blocked nasal) and the eye serum helps a little to reduce the puffiness and the dark circles. We've just received this Treatment Lotion from La Mer which can be used by my husband and I! This lotion is best used as an aftershave for men, and as a toning water after cleansing for women. It comes off a little oily, but dries off instantly as your pat it into your skin and leaves a satin finish. I love the light scent, smells like scented powder. 

The first time I encountered Peter Thomas Roth products were during my stays in Hilton Hotels. When Sephora Malaysia brought them in, I couldn't resist trying out one of the products - it started with the Un-Wrinkle Turbo Toning Lotion, onto the Gel Masks (cucumber and rose are my favorites), and the most recent one is the Cucumber De-Tox foam cleanser. I love the fact that they are gentle to my skin and does not cause me to break out, while my husband loves that they provide just the right amount of moisture as he dislikes heavy or creamy products. In fact, we use the mask when we travel especially on beach trips. All you have to do is pop the mask in the fridge and use it to cool down your sun-kissed skin. It's also great to sleep with (yes, you sleep with the mask on) and wake up to supple skin the morning after. I have just received a serum from this brand to try out but I have yet to. Will probably post it up very, very soon.

My husband needed a new set of skincare while we were mid-traveling for a month as his ran out, and he has always wanted to buy something from MUJI. We were in Bangkok and dropped by at an outlet and I thought he'd buy no more than just a cleanser and toner. Lo and behold, he went for the dive and bought the entire anti-ageing range (there's 4 ranges in stores) except serum and moisturiser. I guess you'd notice by now how he dislikes the whole moisturiser part of the routine as he does not want to look 'dewy'. Must be a manly thing. So far, I'm a fan of the cleansing soap, toner and I also use the shampoo once in a while. Love the smell, it has some sort of a rooted, citrus and ginseng scent. I'm on the fence with the cleansing gel though - it's lovely to melt impurities on my face but it doesn't wash off very well and it took some time to really cleanse my mascara. In this case, I have to say that I'll pretty much stick to my favorite oil cleansers for obvious reasons. 

I've given some thought about reviving my blog in the past few months - delete all my previous posts,  get a new url, or just revamp this one. I know I've said that I might not want to continue writing again, my blog was saturated with ads and they're mostly things that are unrelated to my main goals. As hard as I tried to avoid them, some of them did pay the bills. It was hard to not write, there's always something on my mind that I'd like to share.

This time around, I'm going strict on my blog - fashion, beauty and the occasional lifestyle. I already have my travel and food site separately. Let's try it one more time, and see where this takes us. 

Now that I'm no longer employed, and are on the other side where I employ people I finally understand when other people tell me that it's difficult to find people with substance. Having substance does not mean you have to be super smart, an Ivy League graduate or someone with years of working experience but it's the level of knowledge and life-skills you have to allow you to be resourceful at work.

In the current world, everything moves really fast. In our line, we're always hiring people who can manage themselves as we would not mostly have the time to micro-manage. It's more difficult to train people now that time is restrictive, and most of the things you learn are from life experiences. However, I've put some of the things I've personally learnt throughout my years of working and hiring people on the go so I hope it helps some of you.

1. Read and follow instructions.

I've had a few people asking me why do I put my hiring criteria in sentences and not bullet points. Isn't it harder for people to read?

This, is your first test - reading instructions and following them.

I noticed throughout the years that people hardly read and take their time to digest anymore. They take in the first few words i.e "Hiring Now" and right away e-mail or personally message the person in charge and asks many questions in which they can source themselves via the internet.

Firstly, you might not follow the simplest instructions of 'e-mailing your resume to the mentioned email'. If I can't rely on you to follow the simplest instruction, I might not want to rely on you for bigger tasks.

Secondly, I might be the person posting it but I might not be the person who will be going through your resume and hiring you. Imagine if I'm posting on behalf of a friend, and you message me instead on my Facebook or other social media platforms. In this case, I'd reply you back and tell you what to do but what if it's someone else that doesn't care and just leaves you hanging? You probably just blew your chance of employment right there.

2. Ask relevant questions. Keep your intentions clear.

Sometimes I get people replying me (without their resumes) asking unrelated questions i.e. I'm hiring for a producer but someone asking me if I'm looking for talent extras. I understand that you're trying your chance right there but if my inbox is flooded with unrelated questions, most of the time I won't have time to entertain.

If you want to e-mail something unrelated to the job vacancy posted, do it as a separate agenda. Keep the heading of your email clear i.e 'Subject: Freelance Male Talent Portfolio' and not 'asking for job'.

3. We want to hire proactive people. Be resourceful.

My biggest pet peeve are people who wait for instructions and only do one thing until told for another. Not everyone can micro-manage and not everyone likes to be micro-managed. If I tell you that I need help with finding a location for a specific shoot, I'd expect you to come up with a few and possibly one or two for contingency in case if the weather fails on us. Now that would make you valuable as an employee (will discuss that in point #7).

4. Understand the company and what they do (even if its basic). 

When you're sending out your resume to a specific company, do a background research on them. At least view their past works, clients and understand (even if its just basic understanding) their core business.

All of these informations are readily available at your fingertips (a.k.a Google it!). I've had people send in things such as "I want to send my resume, but I don't know what your company does" on our Facebook page. Little do they know that if they scroll a little down south, they'd find our work and updates on what we do.

You don't have to stalk the company and the people in it but it's not helping you get brownie points when you text "i want the job but i'm not sure what you do".

5. Be comfortable. Do not be someone you're not (it shows).

When we assemble our Avengers team, we look for people we want to work with. This might not apply to other companies but if it's a small one, it matters. I do not want to be stuck with a person who would be grumpy all the time, or someone who has no tact when talking to others. It would reflect back on us and our work. 

When someone pretends to be the hottest shit in town, even when he/she is not it actually shows. Be definitely give the benefit of the doubt, as long as the work gets done but we'd expect improvements. 

6. Accept your flaws, play your strengths.

I'm okay with people who aren't experienced enough. However, it means that there's so much room for learning and there's potential to grow. However, in order to do so you should know your strengths and your flaws. Admit your flaws, and ask others to help out. Do not be arrogant and ignorant about it. Everyone around you would help you if you ask for it. In fields you're more experienced or have better knowledge, offer help to those in need. 

It's a balance, and that creates the dynamic in the team. 

7. Increase your value.

By increasing your value, I don't mean putting a price up for no reason. Your value comes when you're irreplaceable. People will have so much respect when you do your job well, and it's more difficult for employers to find someone that could match up to your quality of work. I'm personally working on this, but in order to do that, point #6 is vital. It's a learning curve, take it a step at a time. 

8. Do not take on responsibilities you can't handle. 

Knowing your limitations is key to a good dynamic in a team. If you can't take some responsibility, let it go and don't be greedy. Do not be afraid to say that you're having difficulties. It's only arrogant  and selfish when someone can't do something and keeps quiet about it. Best thing to do is lay out the issue, and ask for help to find solution. 

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