Thursday, December 30, 2010

I am in Singapore! My Homeland!

Yes, I just arrived in Singapore today at 430pm (local time). So glad, to be back! After 8 months being away from my family and friends. It has been a rough time but I think it is all worth it. I feel so happy to be back. I will be here for a month. My long awaited vacation. Sadly, Mr Hubby could not make this trip with me due to his work schedule. 

With all said, everything seems different. I don't know how to explain the feeling. I really hope to do some soul searching and enjoy every minute of my time here in Singapore, with my Family and Friends. Oh, I miss the food too, so that means it's chuck chuck time! :) Recharge time!

It's my Mummy's birthday tomorrow (31th Dec), I can see that she is so glad to have me back. So I am going to give her a makeover and hopefully make this birthday a memorable one for her.

I am really looking forward to the new year. I can't wait to let go of 2010 and embrace 2011. 2010 has been a year of testing and trials. Good things and bad things have happened. I hope, 2011 will be an amazing year for me, Mr Hubby, family, friends and all of you!

So, 2011 here I (We) come!

Night Night my lovelies!

(PS: I am so jet lagged, trying to sleep now so that I can get up early tomorrow!)


Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!

To all my lovelies,

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May this day bring joy and happiness. God Bless!



My Christmas Tree! We have much more gifts than that you see. It's at my in laws as we are celebrating Christmas with them this year.

Can't wait to open all the gifts! (The little kid in me has awaken!)

:)


Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Purple smokey eyes

Here is a quickie makeup tutorial! (Now don't think cheeky! ''wink''). This is a look I wore to a friend's party and got several compliments. As said in the video, I wore it again for my husband's birthday celebration. Super easy for those who wear makeup in a rush! No need for so much makeup and products. Hope you like it and enjoy the tutorial.  






Products used are :

EYES
Urban decay - Primer potion
NYX - Slate jumbo pencil
Sleek - Bad girl palette mid night purple shade
Mac - Medium / dark mineralized skin finish (blending colour and highlight)
Mac - Feline kohl pencil
Berry M - #98 sparkle dust
Mac - Eyeliner mixing medium ( Alternative : La Splash e/s sealer)
Loreal - Volume million lashes mascara

CHEEKS
Nars - Taj Mahal blush 

LIPS
Mac - Fast play lipstick
Mac - Jest lipstick


Happy Holidays! 

:)

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Bad experience with Eve Pearl, her products and her staff!


UPDATE:
 Customer service rep from Eve Pearl office contacted me on the 24 Dec 2010. We have resolved this matter. Here is the explanation by them, for the spots found on the cream products. 

The belowmentioned is extracted from the email sent by the customer service rep Aina Lee dtd 24th Dec 2010.
  • Following is some information provided by our chemist on the composition of our products which we hope will provide a clear explanation to your claims about our cream products, particularly the section in red as it directly addresses your claim:

These cream formulations and mixtures are developed, mixed and Hot Poured (by human hand)  right here in New York and overseen by our chemist. This is why sometimes not all sides are exactly even or smooth…they are not poured by a machine or made by the thousands…they are made for us on 30-60 day orders…several hundred at a time.
These EVE PEARL formulations are ANHYDROUS: Products that do not contain any water such as balms and ointments are self-preserving with only the necessary antioxidants contained in the products. This is why they feel like your skincare without a thick waxy texture…because it is like your balm or ointment and will treat your skin…naturally.

At times you might see spots, dots or crystallization that might occur on the top of the products. This will indicate mottling and/or syneresis which happen commonly in anhydrous product that deal with drastic temperature changes (usually cold temperatures). This is NOT a cause of Fungus or Bacteria.   Fungus and bacteria can only produce in the presence of water in the product. There is absolutely no water contained in the concealers and foundations. While it may not look as attractive there is no harm to use the products and it does not affect the quality of the products…You can use as is or if you want it to look smooth, simply mix the cream.  If you are still uncomfortable to use the products and wish to send them back, we will absolutely refund your money.

Also, during extreme heat, these same Foundations/Concealers/Cream Blushes will melt…once again, as any balm, cream or ointment will.  Once again, melting will not affect the quality of the product.  Once it cools off it will harden up again. This is a good thing to know for makeup artists who want to keep their products always looking smooth…you can use a hair dryer over the creams to create a smooth surface. We actually fill our Pro Palettes right here, by heating the product and then pouring it into the empty Black Palette.  Because there is NO water in the products, they will not dry up or evaporate or grow any mold or fungus.

Shelf Life: On all the packaging with Boxes (like our HD Dual Foundation) in the back there is a little open jar pic that says 18M which means this product is good for 18 months from date of opening.  This is compliant with all global regulations.   Only food products can have a precise date of expiration.  This indicator, however is not on our Foundation and Concealer trios, and as a result of your feedback we will post this information on our website and in the near future adjust our packaging accordingly.  

  • Your order was scheduled to be delivered on December 8, but was not delivered until December 13th due to delivery rescheduling at your request,  thus leaving the package vulnerable to the extreme cold temperatures in Sweden.  This is a factor that must be taken into consideration as well.

  • The Pro Trio kit you ordered was not included in the Black Pearl promotion and therefore is eligible for a return.  Normally returns are shipped back at the customer’s expense, but we will allow you to ship your products back at no cost to you and grant you a full refund, store credit or replacement items.  Whatever your preference.  We will send you a return label so you can send the products back at our expense.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Disclaimer : I am not here to hurt anyones business. It is not my nature. I always want to give my honest, unbiased opinion about the products that I pay with my own money or even the ones that are sent for reviewing purposes. This review is about what I received and how the company handled my complaint. It is not about product efficiency as I have not used any of their products on my face yet.

As the post title explains, it is about my bad experience with Eve Pearl, staff and her cosmetics line. Many of you would have heard about the 5 times Emmy award winning makeup artist Eve Pearl. I have been a fan and follower of both her work and Youtube channel. It has been on my wish list to try out her products as they seem very well suited for women of various skin tones.

About two weeks ago, she had a black friday sale (up to 50% sale on selected items). I quickly placed my order as it seemed like that was a good time to try out her products. The total cost including shipping came up to USD$226.19. 

Priming Moisturizer with Astaxanthin1$35.00$35.00
HD Pro Trio Kit: Foundations, Concealers, Blushes1$160.00$160.00
Magic Salmon Concealer (L/M/D)1$50.00$50.00

Sub-Total:$ 245.00
Coupon discount:$ 0.00
Gift certificate(s) value:$ 0.00
Another discount:$ 34.00
Sales Tax:$ 0.00
Shipping:$ 15.19
Handling:$ 0.00
TOTAL:$ 226.19


To me that is a lot of money, however, I felt that since her line is well raved about, I should be getting good things. I made a mistake obviously.

Out of the 8 products I ordered, 6 of them were unfit for use. They were all cream products. To my untrained eyes, it seems like something organic growing (fungi?) on them. I would never want to put these products on my face or on my clients. 

To clarify the matter, I sent them an email with a picture of a concealer with the suspicious spots and asked them for an explanation and resolution. There was no reply from them so I went ahead and wrote a comment on their Youtube channel about my email. They replied to it. I will add the link here so that you guys can see what was said (username UmaPreve and EvePearl). There you will see that I asked them to respond via email. Well, they were not tactical, they chose to respond publicly and continue defending and disregarding my complaints about their products/ my order. What made it worse was that Eve Pearl herself wrote some things that I felt were very unprofessional and intimidating which I till now cannot accept. This is because I have always had the impression that she is a very nice level headed humble woman. Now I feel otherwise.

Not even for a moment did she consider that maybe I could be one of the unlucky ones to have received defective products and that maybe I was trying to tell her something about one of her potentially bad batches. I am really very upset with how this whole incident was handled.

Now I have to spend my OWN money to ship the defective items back to Eve Pearl so that they can refund me based on the purchased price. How is this fair to me! I am the consumer who received bad products, quite likely, due to an erred quality inspection or to poor shipping and now I have to pay more to get my money back! You are not a good company in my book!

In my honest opinion, this whole incident could have been resolved between the company and myself if only they took the time to forward the email they claimed to have sent to me. Instead of intimidating and patting me on the head with their comments, they could have tried to listen to what I have to say.

Here is something that I find alarming about Eve Pearl's cosmetic line; there is no manufacturing date, no expiration date or even a batch number on their products. I find it strange that a makeup company can even present a product line without at least one of the above mentioned quality control measures to thousands of beauty/makeup enthusiasts like myself. All makeup items have a shelf life!

I have learnt my lesson. I will never put my money on Eve Pearl cosmetics line ever again. This whole experience with them has been very bitter and unpleasant, which could have been avoided if they just listened!


Here are the pictures of the products that have suspicious looking spots/growth on them :-

Concealer Trio 'B' 

HD Blush

Foundation trio A

Magic salmon concealer Trio 'A'

Foundation Trio 'B'

Magic salmon concealer Trio A

These were the only two items that seemed normal and usable.
Priming moisturizer & Concealer Trio A

The only concealer that had no nasty stuff out of my order. You can see some vaporization, which I can understand could have been caused by transportation, temperature change, etc...


A good company will always listen to their consumers!




Friday, December 17, 2010

Glittery Christmas look

Here is another Christmas/party look for the coming holidays. Made this one more wearable and not over the top. This look can be achieved easily with good blending and basically you can use anything from your makeup kit to replace the colours and make it work the way you want it. I hope some of you will find this appealing and give it a try.





Products used are:-
EYES
Mac - Indianwood paintpot
120 palette - Gold e/s
120 palette - Brown e/s
120 palette - Black e/s
Mac - Ricepaper e/s
120 palette - Green e/s
La splash - E/s base and sealer (sticky base for the glitter)
TKB trading - Gold glitter (eye safe)
Lakme - Green glide on eyeliner
Mac - Feline eye khol pencil
Urban decay - Perversion eye liner
Loreal - Volume million lashes mascara

CHEEKS
La femme - Mocha blush
Sleek - Medium face contour kit

LIPS
Nyx - Auburn lip pencil 


Enjoy and have a wonderful day!

:)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Makeup haul, Youtube & Blogger friends meet up in London!

Hi Everyone,

As you know I was in London a couple of days ago. Could not blog about it as I had a bad migraine when we came back. Anyway, I had a great time in London. Met up with three lovely friends from Youtube and Blogger world. It was a long yet fun day for me.  I have talked about the Youtube friends I met and about the things we did that day on the video (see below). In that video, I have talked about things I bought as well. 

However in that video, I did not mention much about my blogger friend because she is a fellow blogger and some of you would know her too. I met Eve from Eve's house. She has been such a darling friend for a long time. We have build a good friendship even though we have never met each other until last Saturday. Both she and her husband traveled all the way from Devon to meet us. That was so sweet of them. We had dinner and even breakfast the next day. We had such a lovely time! 

Here are some pictures from the trip. 


Dinner with Eve and her husband Dominic!

Breakfast at the hotel we both were staying. Yes, we were staying at the same hotel (different rooms of course!).


Trip to the British museum. If you like history like me, this is the place for you. You can take pictures of most of the exhibits.

My husband and I went to see the Ancient Egyptian 'Book of the dead' exhibition. I was quite disappointed with this exhibition as the tickets were like 12 pounds and the exhibition was not worth that amount in terms of what was on display.

Here is a picture of a building that fascinated me. I love the way it looks. So old yet so cool! 

This is one the art store in central London. I loved it so much. Spent about 2 hours browsing and picking the art supplies I needed. The name of the store is 'London graphic centre' ( click here for their link)

Two floors of art supplies, you name it and they have it. Love this store!


 


That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this post and the video.

Have a great day.

:)


Friday, December 10, 2010

In London again!

Here I am at the hotel blogging about my wonderful day at Westfield shopping centre! Yes, I am in London again. Reason for being here, well it's a perk that comes with being married to a Senior lecturer (assistant professor). While he is on a work conference, I have a blast touring the city! hahaha! (Sorry darling hubby, you spoil me too much! Love you!)

Anyway my lovely readers, I am also very excited to be here because I am going to meet some Youtube and blog friends. For the first time, I am going to meet them face to face. Hopefully with their permission, I will be able to post some pictures of our meet up session. It's going to be fun. I miss socializing as It has been quite difficult for me in Sweden. Not that the people there are unfriendly, it's just that I find it difficult to break the language barrier. I tried learning Swedish but I didn't want to continue for reasons that I think I will keep to myself. Anyway, this is something I am trying to work on as I am having a home based business and it would be good if I know some Swedish. With all said, I am truly blessed and thankful that I am living a life that many could only imagine. 

Now that I am here in London, I feel so at home. Everything is so familiar. I feel like I kind of belong here. It's so nice to see that everything is in English. It reminds me of my home country but a slightly older version (Singapore is a young nation). There was a very nice old lady who helped us get a taxi when she saw that we were quite lost. God bless her!

 Maybe who knows, my next chapter of my life will be in London. I can only visualize and aim for it. Only time will tell.

Back to my day here today, we checked in and went straight to Westfield shopping centre. OMG, it totally reminds me of Vivo city (Singapore). Huge shopping centre with awesome shops to shop till you drop. I had a blast window shopping with Mr Hubby. 

Tomorrow, I am heading to a huge art supply store called 'London graphics' at Covent garden. I need to stock up on sketchbooks and art supply since I can't get some things in Sweden. 

Hopefully, I can share my art haul with you guys if time permits. 

Here is a picture we took when we were browsing Ted Barkers store. It's Santa trying to show some skin. Eeewwww! We could see hair on his legs!


Thanks for coming by.


Big hugs & see ya later!



Saturday, December 4, 2010

Handmade fabric flowers

Now that my Fashion Illustration course is over, I can finally do some handicraft and some sewing. For a start I made some fabric flowers. Maybe these might be given away as part of my blog giveaway for my sewing/handicraft loving ladies. 

Here are some pictures of my handiwork. I think I will be making more this weekend. When I get inspired to so something, I can get so engrossed in it.






These can be worn as a hair accessory or as a broach.

Do you guys know of any online tutorials on handmade fabric flowers? Please feel free to share!

Anyway on a side note, it is snowing and cold here in Sweden.
Here is a picture of Uppsala and the snow!

Thanks for coming by my lovelies!

Have a pleasant weekend.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Glitzy and Glamourous party look tutorial

Back with another party appropriate look for the coming New Year's Eve celebration. This look involves quite a bit of blending and patience. Also for some, red lips might be too much. I have included a picture of me with a muted lipstick shade so that you can see how versatile this look can be.

It's that time of the year where you get to wear over the top looks and look fabulous counting down to the New Year. Have fun and enjoy the process of making yourself up.






Here are the list of products used for this look

EYES
Two faced - Shadow insurance (primer)
Nyx - Milk jumbo eye pencil (white base)
La femme - White #21 sparkle dust ( pearl white loose shadow)
La femme - Brown e/s (crease)
La femme - Black e/s (outer V)
Mac - Medium/dark mineralized skin finish (highlight shade)
La splash - Splash proof sealer (sticky base of the glitter to adhere)
Mac - 3D sliver glitter 
Urban decay - Perversion liquid eyeliner
Loreal - Volume million lashes in black

CHEEKS
Sleek - Sunrise blush (used as contour shade)

LIPS
Maybelline - Cranberries lip pencil
Makeup Academy - Shade #13 red lipstick
Mac - Fast play lipstick (for a muted lip colour if you don't like red)


Hope you give it a try!

Thanks for coming by.

:)

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Red,black and gold party look

Here is a look I came up with using the good girl palette from Sleek. I really liked how the look came together. I really like Sleek eye shadow palettes, they are inexpensive yet so pigmented. Love it!

This look is very party appropriate. Great for the holiday season. I will definitely rock this look with a pretty LBD.






The products used for this look are:

EYES
Urban decay - Primer potion
Mac - Blacktrack fluidline (as base)
Sleek - Good girl palette red e/s (outer crease)
La femme - Black e/s (deepen the outer crease)
Obsessive compulsive cosmetics - Auric e/s (inner corner)
Mac - Ricepaper e/s (highlight)
Urban decay - Perversion black liquid eyeliner
Mac - Feline eye khol pencil

CHEEKS
Sleek - Pomegranate blush

LIPS
Mac - Underplay lipstick
Sasa - Red lip pencil



Hope you guys like this look!

Have a great weekend!

Love Love!



Thursday, November 25, 2010

Giveaway on my Youtube channel

This is my 1st ever giveaway on my Youtube channel. This is to show my appreciation to all my wonderful subscribers on Youtube/Umapreve. I hope you guys will join it and win some prizes.

The rules are :

1) Must be 18 years old and above, if not you must have parental consent to enter this contest. 
2) Must be a Youtube channel subscriber (I will check!)
3) Open to all international subscribers.

How to enter this giveaway:
Type 'Enter me' and state why you like my channel in the comment section. 

Simple and easy! I will select the best answer and use random.org to select the 3 winners.

Giveaway deadline : 29th Nov 2010 Monday

The prizes include Sleek Limited edition Circus & Good girl palette, Sleek (LE) Rose gold & Pomegranate blushes, BarryM #98 &#22 Dazzle dust and glitter, lastly Urban decay 24/7 glide on eye pencil in covet.


Good luck and thanks for all your wonderful support!


(PS: A giveaway for my bloggers who love to sew is coming soon! So look out for that!)

:)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

I'm still here!

Hello my lovelies,

I know it's been a while since I blogged anything. I am not feeling all too well and have been busy with my course work. I had to do loads of drawing and experiment with different art supplies for my illustrations. I have learnt a lot. Also I have been a little down because of the weather here in Sweden. Days are getting shorter and darkness is really freaking me out. I need the sun! 

Anyway, these are the reasons for my absence. I promise to pull my self together and get all the things I plan to do done asap. The things I need to do 1st is to host a contest/giveaway on my Youtube channel and do a giveaway on my blog. It is about time! Need to show my appreciation to my fellow makeup addicts and sewing enthusiasts. Without you guys, there would be no Umapreve/youtube or Umapreve.com.

Regarding giveaways, I won one. It was from Eve's house (blog). She is an awesome person and I am very privileged to know her and become a personal friend. She has such a sweet spirit! Check her out if you haven't.

Here is the pretty jewelry set and goodies she sent me.

Don't mind the mess, I was drawing when I received the package. 

She gave me cute buttons too! Thank you Eve!

Eve's creations! 
Love the leopard print box. Love it!

Thanks for coming by. 

Big hugs!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

An interesting article - Top ten ways to be a Feminist

A friend of mine posted this article on Facebook. Out of curiosity I read it and found it interesting. Here it is ladies, top ten ways to be a Feminist. Read this article and you will see that there is no need to go bra-less and refuse to shave our armpits to prove a point. 

I know that I am already doing some of what has been written in the article. I am a Feminist in my own way!


Hope you like it!

:)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Mascara review: Loreal volume million lashes

This is a Youtube subscriber's request for me to share my thoughts about Loreal volume million lashes mascara. I always believe in trying out a product for at least 3-4 weeks before I do a review of it. 

So here is a breakdown of what I like and dislike about this mascara.

(image is from Makeuptalk.com)

Likes:
1) It does not clump. I don't have to work with cleaning out excess maraca from my lashes as the tube has a anti clump wiper. I guess most mascara has it but this one really works.

2) Love the rubberized bristle want. I can apply the mascara with ease without much effort. 

3) The fanning out effect the bristles give when applying mascara. This helps to separate my lashes. I do not need to use a separate comb for that.

4) I love how pigmented it is. I like black mascaras. 

Dislikes:
1) I wish it had a thicker formula. So that I do not need to apply 4-5 coats to achieve the same effect as I would get with the Mac zoom lash mascara. 

2) Even though the rubberize bristle is great for my upper lashes, it doesn't seem to work for my bottom lashes. It's too thick a wand. I can imagine that this mascara might be difficult to apply for some of you who have shorter bottom eye lashes.

Overall rating:
3/5

(I continue my search for 'the perfect mascara'!)


Thanks for coming by!




Sunday, November 14, 2010

It's Cold & Dark! How do you deal with it?

It's 0 degrees here in Sweden. The sun sets at 430pm and sun rises at 8am. It's always cloudy and dull. How do you deal with darkness and cold? I really do not know how. I try not to look at the clock so that I don't freak out at how the days are shorter. My skin is has lost most of the sunny glow. Now it looks pale like I would when I'm sick. How do I deal with that?

I didn't realize how much the sun is important in ones life until now.  Thank God I am going back to Singapore in Jan for 3 weeks. 

Even though life is good, we always tend to find something to complain about. For me it's the cold and darkness. I am so used to having sunlight/sunshine from 7am till 630pm back in Singapore.

Don't mind my rambling, hope you are having an awesome weekend. How is the weather on your side?

This is how it looks outside my home.



:)

(PS: I am planning a giveaway so hopefully it will be revealed soon!)

Monday, November 8, 2010

London here I come!

Hello Everyone,

Guess what, I am visiting London tomorrow for the 1st time in my life. I am so excited. It will be a very short trip (2days and 1night) but I am so happy that Mr Hubby and I could get to spend some time together there. I also have some business to take care off which I can't talk much about now. When the time comes I will tell you guys. So London here I come, please make sure you have awesome deals on makeup, fabric and stuff. Please, I am deprived of good shopping here so I need to get my fix (LOL)!

I know I have not been blogging much but there is a reason for it. I have been so busy drawing. I am not sure if I told you guys this but I am doing a e-learning course with London college of fashion in Fashion illustration. OMG, I have so much homework. I am happy so I am not really complaining. It feels like I can finally put my designs and ideas on paper. 

Here are some drawing I have been working on. It took me many hours to complete each one. It may look like it's easy art but it's not (trust me!). It has taken up so much of my time.





This is one that I am currently working on now.

Thank you so much for coming by.

Good night everyone. 

Sweet dreams!
(PS: I am off to bed now so that I can wake up in time for the flight!)