© Karen Arnold

A couple of blog posts ago, I promised you a bad brow story and I thought I’d share it with you today. I was actually going to review the Benefit Gimme Brow after the bad brow story but it turned out to be longer than I thought so I’ll do that tomorrow instead because a bad brow story must be shared ASAP. 😛

I was in Malaysia a month ago before gallivanting to Europe and prior to Beetrice’s wedding, I thought it would be nice to get my brows groomed. I won’t tell you the shop where I had it done but I’ll tell you the brand because I didn’t expect this from them at all. It was Shu Uemura.

Before I talk about the experience, I thought I’d give you a bit of a low-down on my brows. You see, I had my eyebrow embroidery done 4 years ago (big mistake) and the second time I did it, it didn’t turn out well. The shape the beauty therapist gave me was too wide for my eyes but I was stuck with the “embroidery” because it’s still here, 4 years on. You’ll have noticed a faint brown line on my brows in my FOTD posts. It’s not badly drawn brows. It’s eyebrow embroidery that won’t completely fade off even though the therapist promised me it’ll be gone in 2 years.

Anyway, back to the story.

Now I’ve been having my brows waxed and tweezed at Benefit Brow Bars since the beginning of the year so I know how they operate. Alarm bells should have rung when the makeup artist at Shu Uemura didn’t tell me how she wanted to do my brows but just went for them straight away. Prior to the brow shaping, I told her I wanted to keep my brows full à la Cara Delevingne. I don’t think she knew who Cara D was but what the hey, it’s Shu Uemura. Surely they know what they’re doing. I didn’t have my contact lenses on, so I had to remove my glasses during the grooming. I can’t remember the last time I had such a long brow grooming service because it took at least 30 minutes for her to finish.

When I finally saw myself in the mirror, I was horrified. She kept my brows full all right but she shaved off 1/4 of my left brow! She shaved the “tail” off, leaving that brow straight and angled upwards. Bee’s then-fiancé was with me at that time and when he saw my brows, he exclaimed “OMG what did she do to your eyebrows?!”

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A week ago, Paris B tagged me to share just 5 makeup products I’d pick to, well, do up a face. I thought, oh why not? It’s been a while since I’ve done a tag and what better way to start the weekend.

See, I’m the sort of person where just using 5 makeup products to create my usual look is a piece of cake. In fact, I’ll do you one better, how about 4 makeup products which is my usual thing? Foundation/BB cream, powder, blush, lippie? No? Oh all right, I’ll stick to the rules of the tag. 😛

Now choosing what those 5 products are … now that’s difficult. It’s like asking me to pick out my favourite blush. Or my favourite cake. Or my favourite bag. It’s a tough one!

After a week of mulling over the topic and products (you can see how seriously I take this tag, eh?), here are my picks for the 5 makeup products I’d select to do up my face. Nothing fancy but at least it’ll make me look quite presentable without appearing like something the cat dragged in.

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I originally titled this post as A Beauty Blogger’s Dilemma but after thinking about it, I realised it’s not just something beauty bloggers face. It’s something beauty lovers face. If you enjoy makeup, skincare, haircare, bodycare … anything beauty-related, well, this might apply to you too.

This issue has been on my mind for years now. It’s something I’ve faced even before I started blogging. I’m like a magpie but instead of being just attracted to shiny things, I’m attracted to beauty products too. I see something good, I buy it. Do I already have 30 blushes? Of course I do. Yet, I still buy another. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

When you enjoy so many beauty products, do you wait till each product is finished/used up first before opening a new one?

See, my dad calls me a guinea pig. Mind you, it’s not a term of endearment. He calls me that because I test and try out products before recommending to my readers. I can’t argue with that because that’s exactly what I do.

As a beauty blogger, I’m very fortunate to be sent beauty products to try. As a beauty enthusiast as well, I sure buy a lot of makeup, skincare, etc goodies too. It really is no wonder that my wardrobe is now not only inundated by clothes, bags and shoes but beauty products as well. It also becomes a problem because so many times, I see myself with lots of half-used – heck, try barely used – products in my cupboard. I open one, try it out for a month or so and then move on to another product. It’s not just me. I’ve seen a lot of beauty bloggers and enthusiasts do that as well.

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