One of the most anticipated yearly event has got to be the one and only Estée Lauder Staff Sale, which I like to call it as the mother of warehouse sale. It is beyond just the massive discount offerings at the sale. To me it is the girly get-together day for me and my friends. It was fun!

I didn’t thought of writing about this year’s sale due to various reasons but since I skipped last year, I thought I might as well note down what went down this year for reference purposes. This may also serve as a ‘guide’ for you if it’s your first time on what to expect and prepare for the sale as I do receive loads of emails, PMs on Facebook on what to expect at the sale. It’s tiring to repeat again and again as I’ve written about it at this link as well.

Without further ado, here’s Estée Lauder Staff Sale for 2015!

Every year I managed to secure a few tickets. I do not ask for a lot, usually just 4 tickets to prevent wastage. I know there are tons of you wondering how to get the ticket and some of you have been bothering or rather stressing and harassing me over emails and PMs on Facebook in giving you tickets. Yes. Not asking IF I have extra BUT demanding for it. First of all, I DO NOT WORK for Estée Lauder Malaysia Sdn Bhd. I too have to ask for tickets myself and I suggest you try it too. How? If you are a regular customers of any brands under the company, I believe you will have one BA (beauty advisor) that is particularly close with you. Ask from him/her! If he/she have extra, he/she will give you. However, no promise. It’s totally up to him/her if they want to give you. I remember my first year tickets was from a BA working in MAC. Anything is impossible if you try to ask. So please stop harassing me

Last year I extended my ticket to ShopGirl who went over at 12am to queue and to queue for me as well. I live quite outskirt from the city so she kindly let me go slightly late. My usual time is always around 5-5.30am. This year, I was blessed with VIP tickets. Thank you to the wonderful person who make the impossible possible for me. You know who you are . Once again ShopGirl went early and queue for me. Thank you babe! I planned to go earlier this year, say around 4.30am but I only fell asleep at 3am and my alarm went off at 3.30am. Then I went to pick up Traclyn and we arrived around 5.40am. Thank goodness Traclyn Whatsapp me just before I was leaving my house lol . I was so happy that Traclyn was able to make it this year. I haven’t seen her for quite some time so it was good to go shopping together. Well, actually we had lunch last Friday 

Last year and this year the sale was held at Berjaya Times Square Hotel. I understand that there was some issues with the guards not letting the early birds in to queue, which was the same case as last year. Last year also the guard didn’t even let my friend have a bite of a piece of bread. While the staff bagged our bags, I checked with him where are the exact location of all the brands. My main concern would be Estée Lauder. I needed to run to get ANR! Anyway, here’s my haul from Estée Lauder Staff Sale 2015.

My main priority this year was Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair II and Micro Essence. As soon as we entered, the first thing we did was to make a beeline to the Estée Lauder section. Everything was properly boxed as usual so identifying ANR was tough. Luckily there wasn’t a lot people so we can still take some sweet time. ShopGirl spotted ANR and we both contemplating either to get the 50ml or the 30ml. In the end I settled with 50ml. I had totally forgotten about Micro Essence. ShopGirl pointed to me where Micro Essence was and I grabbed a bottle. Both ANR and Micro Essence was at a limited quantity.

I walked around for a bit. Went to Bobbi Brown, saw lots of makeup but nothing interest me except for Shimmer Brick. I was directed to the singles but I was looking for the set. It was at the other round of the table and I made a beeline there. Grabbed the set but kept thinking it seems similar to the one sold last year and the manufacturing date sticker was torn off. I kept the set in my bag and walk around. I went to MAC next, saw loads of eyeshadows, pencil liners, lip glosses, nail polishes and lipstick. There are around 10 sets of lipsticks (3 in a bag) and I grabbed the last set that comes with Toledo lipstick. There wasn’t any price tag on it and I ask the staff for the price. She took the set and the lipstick fell off from the plastic and then they refuse to sell me the set. I wasn’t willing to stand there waiting for them to sort it out so I left. Then I came across something familiar. MAC Toledo Blush Ombre! It was the blush that I wanted to get when the Toledo collection was out. Boy am I happy to see it at the sale. As it was still early with no crowd, the BA demonstrate on the back of my hand how to use it and the shade payoff. Kindergarten Red (left) offers better, beautiful peach shade but I had my eyes on the Azalea Blossom (right) from the beginning. I mean how often do you see a pink + purple blush pan? Hardly. It doesn’t goes on the skin purple just in case you’re wondering. It’s a pink blush by all mean. So I took Azalea Blossom.

Estée Lauder cosmetics occupied a large section this time round with lots of product selection. I browsed around and saw a familiar item. That particular section was surrounded with people because everyone was curious. It was the highly raved blush/highlighter Estée Lauder Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelée Blush! There was only one shade – 04 Crystal Baby. Good enough for me and it’s cheap. I nearly bought this off from an online seller for RM100.

ShopGirl excitedly call out to me while I was browsing at Clinique section with Jessying. She said Cheek Pop is available. What else? I quickly followed ShopGirl. I was kinda surprised that they have Cheek Pop there. There was 3 shades available – Ginger Pop, Peach Pop and Berry Pop. I wanted to buy all 3 but Jessying wanted the last Ginger Pop. It’s fine because I was blush-overloaded. I took both Peach Pop and Berry Pop as it was only RM50 each. Peach Pop was the shade that I wanted to get two weeks ago. This two blush was purely impulse purchase.

Not long after I entered into the hall, I saw an auntie holding a cute perfume miniature set. I went over to Estée Lauder to take a look but wasn’t too impressed with the RM80 price tag. I bumped into ShopGirl half way after that and she commented how cute the miniatures are. I was more impressed that it came with a mirror plate stand for the miniatures and the fact that I wanted to get a baby for my Modern Muse at home. So I grabbed a set and that’s why you are seeing this now lol.

The Origins Grapefruit Duo is a last minute grab. The set contains 100ml each of Gloomaway Grapefruit Body Souffle and Gloomaway Grapefruit Body Wash and Bubble Wash. I thought RM40 was a good price and it makes a great gift pack. It might not end up as gift but in my bathroom

I can’t help but to think the huge MAC Toledo Blush Ombre is only RM70 and Clinique Cheek Pop is RM50. MAC Toledo is more worth it. So just when I saw more and more people are coming in through the door, I make a quick dash to MAC again and grabbed Kindergarten Red. It’s too pretty to not grab the other shade. That’s how I ended up with two MAC Toledo Blush Ombre

Overall, this year’s offerings are interesting and good in my opinion. The promotion varies every year. I thought last year was great but this year is even better. The prices are not as low as I expected especially Bobbi Brown. That is why I didn’t grab anything from Bobbi Brown. MAC too are slightly high priced. I didn’t take a look at other perfumes so no comment on that. Estée Lauder prices and promotions are the best of all for me. Their skincare are reasonably discounted and priced. Clinique skincare sets are not bad either.

GST 6% are all inclusive. I’ve been wondering about this for weeks. That might explain why the price are a bit higher than before. Oh and this year, the organizer arranged for a special parking validation for a fixed parking fee of RM11. I didn’t know this until we went back up to the sale floor as I parked my car at the other part of the building. Saw the counter and quickly gave my parking ticket for validation . I thought this is such a good gesture from the organizer.

That’s all for Estée Lauder Staff Sale 2015. See you next year!

The post Estée Lauder Staff Sale 2015 Report and Haul appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

I’ve been wanting to get MAC Paint Pot ever since I heard about it from various Youtube beauty gurus. Two of the most mentioned Paint Pot is Painterly and Soft Ochre, which unfortunately is not the two that I’m about to talk about today. I knew I would be going to the annual Estée Lauder warehouse sales so I hold on to my purchase at the store, hoping MAC would throw in a few pots at the sale event. I made a beeline to MAC right after stopping by Bobbi Brown. I was right alright. MAC did indeed had a box of Paint Pot on clearance. I managed to take my sweet time choosing the right pack with the right shade for me and so I went home with MAC Paint Pot Bare Study and Layin’ Low.

The reason why I chose this duo is because Bare Study is the lightest shade available but unfortunately it was paired in a pack with Layin’ Low. That’s how it is at warehouse sales. You don’t get the best of both world. All these while I know these pots as “Paint Pot” but Layin’ Low is labeled under Pro Longwear Paint Pot. I took a quick glance at MAC website and Paint Pot is now referred as Pro Longwear Paint Pot. Well, I’m just going to call these Paint Pot

I wasn’t expecting Bare Study to be shimmery and I certainly didn’t expect Layin’ Low to be darker that what it looks like from the outside. Then again, the very main reason I bought these is to be used as an eye base before eyeshadow. It works just as well as I expected BUT I wasn’t expecting how diversify these Paint Pot can be.

Here is the swatch of both Bare Study and Layin’ Low on the back of my hand. Bare Study is a beautiful frosty, shimmery light gold and Layin’ Low is a darker matte finish cream that goes well with medium to dark skin tone. Texture wise, both is quite creamy. Bare Study is a teeny bit easier to blend while Layin’ Low is drier but still blends well although not as effortlessly as Bare Study. When working with Paint Pot, you need to be fast. This eye cream dries down fast with no down time. Once it dries, it set completely without budging.

Remember I said earlier that I bought these Paint Pot eye cream as an eye base but soon discovered these isn’t just an ordinary cream that only work as eye base? Here is my top 4 reasons on why you need MAC Paint Pot and how you can incorporate them in your everyday makeup.

Reason #1 – Using as an eyeshadow base

Despite being a cream shadow, many beauty guru used it as eye base thanks to it’s non-tacky, long lasting formula. It performed 100 times better than any other eyeshadow base for example the highly raved UDPP. I too jumped into the bandwagon and used it mainly as eyeshadow base. Bare Study is the perfect fit for my skin tone but because it is shimmery, I only used it accordingly to the eyeshadow of the day. Layin’ Low is darker on my lid. However nothing that eyeshadow can’t do to hide the darker tone or the shimmery of both Paint Pot. Once I sweep on the eyeshadow, it’s not even noticeable anymore

There is absolutely no creasing, no meltdown and last the whole day on my oily lid. If you do plan to get Paint Pot as your eyeshadow Base, go with either Painterly (lighter shade) or Soft Ochre (warmer shade), depending on your skin tone.

Reason #2 – As a highlighter on the brow bone / inner corner eye / lower lash line

One of the best trick I’ve learnt is to use a concealer to carve out the eyebrow for a sharper and cleaner look. On days where I need more highlight on the brow bone, I would use Bare Study along the under brow line. A little bit is all I need to instantly brighten my eyes without looking too shimmery. Painterly work just as well, the only difference is that it will be matte.

Reason #3 – Using as an eyeshadow

I’m not a fan of cream base eyeshadow in general. Paint Pot is nothing like I’ve ever used. The quick-drying formula is what make this such an amazing product to work with. After I sweep Bare Study all over the lid as an eyeshadow base, I notice that the pigmentation is intense enough that I no longer need to apply a lighter / satin shade on the 1/3 of the inner eye to brighten the whole look. Bare Study did the job for me. If I need to intensify the color payoff, I would then dab some more onto the area where I don’t have any eyeshadow on. Most cream eyeshadow needed to be set with powder eyeshadow or for the color payoff. With Paint Pot, there’s no need to!

Reason #4 – Using as concealer for under eye clean-up

I’ve also been using Bare Study to do a “cut crease” look as well but that is like way too advance in eye makeup, which I will talk about some other time eventually. So let’s talk about another brilliant trick which everyone should do after finishing the whole eye makeup. I first revealed about this under eye clean-up in the Maybelline HyperSharp Liner Laser Precision review and winged eyeliner tutorial post (click to read) which not many people will do but should do. It makes a whole lot different to the look after cleaning up all the excess eyeshadow that surpass the eyeliner line. For this, you will need a matte shade i.e. Painterly.

Phew! Never knew there’s so much I can talk about a simple Paint Pot. I only need one reason to get MAC Paint Pot but soon discovered more reasons and how easy or diversified it can be. Originally meant to be as a cream eyeshadow, it is now widely used as a clean perfect canvas for eye makeup. Each pot comes with a price tag of RM77 of 5g pot. Sounds expensive for just a mere 5g product although in real you don’t need a lot per use therefore one pot could last you for a very long time.

I like it as it’s not tacky like other eyeshadow base product. If it’s tacky, I will have a hard time blending in transition shade and eyeshadow would go on patchy, not forgetting hard to blend evenly. Paint Pot is just nice. It’s no wonder beauty gurus around the world raved about this cream in a pot! Next I would be getting Painterly. I hardly make a dent on my pot so it will be a very long time before I needed to spend on Painterly

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored review. I bought the product on my own.

The post MAC Paint Pot: 4 reasons why you need it in your life appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

I found out end of last week (12th Apr) that this year’s Suria Meriang Staff Sales is happening on the 20th April 2013 and I haven’t get any pass yet! I have only a week to get my pass and get a partner in crime. Quickly I sent an email to someone I know in Estee Lauder. She replied immediately, cc-ed the PR girl and told her to send me 6 passes. By Monday (15th Apr) I still haven’t heard from the PR and I dropped her an email telling her I can pick up those passes as I know they will all be busy preparing for the sales. You know what? The courier reached me in the afternoon on the same day. That was fast!

This year I re-invited my last year sales partner, Chin Ching but she is in India and her plane home is on Saturday itself. Her sister who is a reader of the blog doesn’t have anything to buy so she is not interested. Last year both the sisters were so sweet that they wanted to send me something as a token of appreciation which I turned down. I had a good time shopping with Chin Ching and they owe me nothing. Nonetheless I’m happy with their kind thoughts. No one actually do that to me. Normally they would just ignore me after that.

I managed to get Traclyn of LaVogueFemme.com to go with me this time. I’ve decided that if she can’t make it I will go alone :). I left my house at 5am, reached Sg. Wang to pick up Traclyn at 5.35am, reached Renaissance Hotel around 6.15am and got to the queue line by 6.20am. This is the queue line. We are quite at the back. I also notice that there’s a separate VIP line this time.

All pictures taken in the hotel are quite grainy due to the low light condition so please bear with me k?

The VIPs went in around 7am. As the line moved slightly forward, the lobby outside Grand Ballroom is already packed with eager shoppers. This is the back view. I am standing in the middle of the hall. On the opposite side (which is my back), the queue line already snake all the way to a hidden alley.

I went to the washroom and we sat down again after standing for a while. Out of the sudden we hear a loud sound which shocked all of us. That’s the sound of eager shoppers jumping up from the floor as they were given the green light to enter. Almost spontaneously everyone jumped up from the floor as well. It was 7.41am.

This is a shot taken as we were walking towards the entrance.

Shoppers are let in by batches. The hall this year was bigger than last year so more tables for more products. As usual Bobbi Brown is the first section we saw as we enter. Everyone went crazy at Bobbi Brown. Everything were snatched off within minutes except those that needed color match like compact foundation, loose powder and liquid foundation which was very very limited quantities. I wanted the Oil-Free Even Finish Compact Foundation but my shade #2 Sand was not available. I was told to come back to check if someone happen to throw back which I did – 6 to 7 times but still didn’t spot #2 Sand. Even did a last check at Bobbi Brown before checking out.

Here is the crowd inside the hall while standing at an empty corner at Bobbi Brown. It’s so hard to walk and look at the stuff.

MAC had the biggest section I think. They are mainly clearing last year’s Christmas collection and lots of pigments, eye shadow single, lip glass, eye liners, blushers and bags.

Estee Lauder as usual are mainly on Christmas sets especially makeup sets and perfume sets. I didn’t get any cause none of them are appealing to me. I was looking for Double Wear foundation but not available. The skin care this time round is much more expensive than last year. I don’t intend to get any so I guess it’s okay.
Note to Aby: Didn’t saw what you want. I went there quite late

DKNY and Coach fragrances on the other hand is so much more than last year! I remember last year everything finished off by the time I went to that section. This year? Stock sufficient.

Lots of skin care from Clinique too. I was looking for Even Better foundation but there’s none.

And here’s my haul. Last year I spent RM1,480 while this year is just RM165 :D.

My main focus this year is Bobbi Brown and MAC. There is one particular item that I wanted from MAC which is the Perfectly Plush Brush Kit from Holiday Collection 2012. I’ve been eyeing on this since last year but I told myself not to buy it since I can get it from sales the next year. I thought they didn’t brought the brush kit to the sales but I saw a lady holding it! That’s when the search begin. I searched high and low for this but everyone told me it’s sold out. It’s so hard to spot it because MAC Primped Out Eye Look Bag is also the same design as the brush kit. One last check before checking out, I screen through all the holiday collection feeling hopeless and that’s when I saw the brush set nicely placed on the table with 2 girls standing in front of it but I guess they are not interested (which is why the brush set is still on the table) so I reached out and grabbed it. That was surreal.

MAC Perfectly Plush Brush Kit (RM105) was retailing for RM268 previously. The price stated on the set during the sales is RM100 but it is actually RM105 when the cashier scan on the bar code during check out. I asked the cashier why is the price difference and she asked me if I want it *face palm*. They really think I would let go of the brush kit since I asked about the price difference. All I want to know is why. That’s all. I told her nevermind that since it’s RM5 difference.

I notice that there’s some pricing issue for example MAC Extra Dimension Eye Shadows (Small) is RM80 for 4 and some stated RM100. The big one also RM100 for 4. I checked with the MAC sales people why some is RM80 while some RM100 and he changed all the price to RM100 before passing back to me. You bet I didn’t buy it. I was pissed!

Initially I grabbed a Bobbi Brown Pretty Powerful Coffee to Cocktails Collection but it wasn’t that worthy so I gave it out during check out. Can you imagine I only ended up with these two Kohl Eye Liner c/w Pencil Sharper (RM30). This eyeliner was retailing for RM90 each and it’s sold out almost immediately. When I was there I took my sweet time choosing from the full box. The next minute it was gone. It’s definitely a steal.

There you go. My mini haul this year which I was surprised myself. As soon as I enter and went to Bobbi Brown I literally wanted to bag everything that I want. Then I told myself to calm down and rethink because it was just the first 2 minutes. I still have to roam the whole hall for more great deal so I only put in what I wanted. MAC was also hard for me because I wanted everything! Especially the blusher but the color combination in the set is totally not my type unfortunately otherwise I’d definitely grab a set. I also wanted to get the colorful pencil eyeliner set but decided not to since I’m quite happy with CLIO’s staying powder.

Did anyone of you went? If yes what did you haul back?

The post Suria Meriang Staff Sale 2013 Haul appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona

I used to avoid gel eyeliner as it’s troublesome to use and you really need to be good to use it. I’m nothing near to good when I first started with eyeliner even with liquid. I only got hooked to gel eyeliner after all liquid eyeliner smudge on me due to my eye’s tearing issue. After being persuaded by a friend then only I venture to gel. I did some research on how to use gel eyeliner and let’s just say since then I never look back. Gel eyeliner are much more natural-looking, way more easier to draw (if you know the trick) and staying power is far better. However there’s always a down side. Less than a month upon opening my new pot, the gel hardened. I tried a simple trick to revive hardened gel eyeliner which work perfectly. Here’s what I’ve been practising to revive my pot of hardened gel eyeliner and hope it benefited you too. It’s really simple.

All you need is a hair dryer and of course your hardened gel eyeliner.

The rest of the steps are pretty simple. Just ON your hair dryer and point it directly to your jar of eyeliner. Don’t forget the sides, top and bottom of the jar. Do this for about 1 minute. If it’s still harden continue the process.

Do note that this effect doesn’t last long. You need to repeat this whenever your gel eyeliner hardened again. As for me I do it once a month.

If you are really really lazy…there’s a simpler way. Just pop this to microwave for 30 seconds and you’re done. I prefer hair dryer so I’ve never tried microwave before.

So girls. Don’t throw away your gel eyeliner if it hardened. There’s always a way to save it

The post Tips: How to Revive Hardened Gel Eyeliner appeared first on Street Love. by Fiona