DIDA for women velvet matte lip creme

I love trying local beauty products, so when my best friend Saida introduced me to DIDA for women, I was hooked. DIDA is not only a Malaysian based company, its products are also cruelty free! As of now, they've released one product which is their velvet matte lip creme, and I'm please to report that its amazing! 

The lip creme comes in this cute packaging, and theres a lot of product (the box says 0.25 oz). The shade Saida got for me is called Tango, and it translates to a bright orangy coraly color which dries matte. Orange is not a color I usually use, but I'm glad I have this color in my makeup kit now because I think it compliments my skin tone quite well.

This is how the products looks within 15 minutes of application. Like I've mentioned, it dries matte like most trendy lip cremes, but it didn't sink into the little cracks in my lips or dried my lips out or anything like that. I also didn't have to apply lip balm or scrub my lips first, though it might be useful to know that my lips are pretty, well, huge, and they aren't dry to begin with. Saida has slightly dry lips and she mentioned she'd use lip balm first just in case, but still, its better than most local matte lip products that just dry you out (or so I've heard). While it dries it does feel a little like its going to be really dry, but after it sets, its fineeee. I daresay 10/10 for not drying out ness whilst remaining totally matte.

The other thing to note is that this lip cremes staying power is beyond amazing, seriously guys, staying power better than any boy I've met! We swatched a few different shades in the store and after washing our hands, it didn't budge!!! So I decided to do a little experiment and see how long it would last. Note that although it was Ramadan, I was on my period so I had lunch as usual and ran some errands with Saida. After lunch and about 4 hours, this is what it looked like:

AMAZING

Now I've tried colourpop's matte lip cremes, but in comparison, I think think Dida takes the cake in terms of staying power. I proceeded to go to the bazaar, have dinner and went out for coffee, and 11 hours after application, I came home with my lipstick still in place. No budges! I was documenting my lipstick progress the whole day on snapchat, but I forgot to save it, but I assure you, it looked the same after hours and hours and hours and I didn't reapply in the slightest. Upon coming home, I got ready for bed and washed my face and all that, and only then did my lipstick flake off a little. Even then, most of it was still pretty intact, which kind of scared me... but its all good, cause all I needed was a little oil based makeup remover (or just oil, like the one in your kitchen) and it came right off.

So staying power is crazy good, but that also means you have to be really careful in application. And you have to be sureeee that you want to use that colour because, honey there is no turning back. If you were in a rush, or applying your makeup in the car, um, I'd wish you the best of luck but I wouldn't dare if it was me. Still, I'm super duper impressed. 

If any of you are interested, you can check our their instagram ( @didaforwomen ) or their website : https://www.didaforwomen.com Its priced at RM 45, which for the size and the quality is great value for money. You can order on their website or check out their showroom at Publika ( B2-3A-2 Block B2) 

I can't stop singing praises about this lip creme. Its like my favourite thing in my whole makeup kit now, and I'm sure you would love it too.

Love,

Mira

March Favourites

Hey guys!

I know its been agesss since I've last posted here, and I'm so sorry! With A2 and trials and just life happening, I could never find the time. But that aside, I've put together  list of things for this months favourites, though, I've been loving some things on here since January. First-3-months-of-the-year favourites maybe ? In any case, its my first favourites post so let's just cut to the chase. I have quite a few items so bear with me.

 1.  Herbalism, LUSH

Now, I kind of have bad skin. Not the worst, but I do always have the odd bump and a few pimples on my skin and I have a lot of problems with scarring. Never really have had clear clear skin (and starting to accept that maybe I never will?) I used to have major major oily skin problems, but its went down a little now, so just your average amount of oil. But anyway, I heard Lush was good so I went on into the store while I was in New Zealand and told the sales assistant all this, and she recommended Herbalism to me. I didn't watch any reviews prior to coming into Lush so I really just bought whatever it is she told me lol, but I was very very pleased with my purchase. Herbalism is a facial cleanser. I've used it all up so I can't show you, but its a green paste, and smells kind of like bread and herbs. Its not a foaming cleanser like I'm normally used to, and you're supposed to pinch a little off, work it into a paste with water and then pretty much just massage it in like a normal cleanser. 

When I started using this, I noticed I broke out much less often, and a lot of my usual redness was gone. Its quite gritty in texture, so I guess it must have had a sort of exfoliating effect, cause my skin looked less dull and more glow-y too. And I got so many compliments! 2 people purchased Herbalism online after I told them I was using it. My skin just got so so much better. It did everything the sales person told me it would, prevent breakouts, clear up redness, help with oil and grease, and it didn't sting to use like harsh cleansers or make my skin feel super dry after washing. I'm definitely repurchasing this. The only thing is, since all Lush products are made fresh, it is best used immediately. If you're not used to Lush, then you have to take note of the expiry date on the side on the pot, and stick to it. Two days before the expiry date my product started smelling bad, and I was breaking out a little around that time but I don't know if thats was because I was at the break out part of my menstrual cycle, or because of the product. I threw it out, but there was only a day's use left anyway. I daresay this is the best facial cleanser I've used, so if you have mildly oily problematic skin, I'd highly recommend this product to you. My 100g pot lasted me over 2 months, and if you are interested, you can visit lushxmalaysia on instagram (they're a reseller!)

2. Olay Regenerist revitalising hydration cream with SPF 15

 Next on my list is a moisturiser. Growing up, I never moisturised. I had oily skin and I was one of those ' Why would I add more oil on my oil?!?!?!' kind of people. But eventually I got out of those dark days (lol) and learned that oily skin is a negative feedback reaction cause your skin is not hydrated enough and all that. It made sense, but I never ever found a moisturiser that worked for me. Everything felt really greasy and to me, it made my acne scarring more prominent. I discovered Olay's Regenerist line because I'm in a boarding college, and I hate transporting my own stuff back and forth so I steal my moms skin care products all the time. She was using the whole Regenerist line, because it actually is an anti-aging line (lol, I'm 20 trying to anti age myself to 4) but it really worked for me! Like the whole line works for me, but I finally grew up and bought my very own pot of cream, and it was this day one with SPF. I love moisturisers with SPF, so I love this. The formula is non-greasy, even though it is your usual creamy- cream as you can see from the picture above. It didn't clog my pores and felt very lightweight, and did its job at keeping my skin hydrated. My cheeks even felt supple! Also, it smells reeallllyyyy good, and I've noticed helps with my makeup application. Just makes it smoother, ya know.

You can get the whole Regenerist line from pretty much any pharmacy. It's reasonably priced, if I'm not mistaken, its around RM 50 and I've had mine for over a month and there's still plenty left, like more than half kind of plenty, so its good value for money too. Apparently all the women on my moms side grew up using Oil of Olay, and they all have really smooth, fair skin (don't know where I got my breakout genes from tbh..) so I believe in Olay as a brand. Try out their stuff guys!

3. The Body Shop : Olive Beautifying Oil

This next item I got from my close friend AJ ( visit her blog here guys!) Soon after I started believing in moisturising, I tried my hand in using oils before bedtime. I tried Josie Maran's pure Argan Oil, and although argan oil does a lot for AJ, it didn't really do much for me. But anyway, AJ had a bottle of this olive oil she purchased which she found out she was allergic to, and handed it to me. I use it as my night moisturiser, and again, this one smells good, like delicious. For an oil, its very lightweight. I can go out and get food and not look like an oil slick, because it absorbs very well. When I wake up, I've noticed, my skin looks the absolute best, and I don't know if its the oil working (I don't use any night serums or anything) or just the way my skin works, but this oil does great stuff. Sometimes when my hair is dry I'll run this through my hair too. It claims to  ' Moisturise, smooth and illuminate'  which might be stretching it a little, but I'd second it. It makes me glow, which is a good thing in my books.

4. Safi Shayla; Smooth & Manageable Shampoo

 I don't have a picture of this one sorry, but its because its another one of my stealing-from-my-mother finds. Guyssss, omg this product, spend all your money on it seriously!!!!! Its SOOO good. It markets itself as 'Syampu wanita bertudung' but damn it works. It smells good, and the smell transfers to your hair. I can whip my hair a little a my boyfriend smiles extra big and he doesn't know it, but ITS THE SHAMPOO. One day, I used it before attending a birthday lunch, and I didn't blow-dry my hair or anything because who has the time for that but 3 people asked if I went to the saloon before hand. My mom gets the pink bottle for shampoo, which is the smooth and manageable one, and the purple one for conditioner. It hydrates, it tames flyaway hairs, it is the best shampoo ever lah. I love this, I will bring a suitcase of this to the UK when and if (insyaAllah) I go because I don't want to live without it. So impressed with Safi for this product, and its super cheap? So go go, go get yourself a bottle, your hair will thank you.

4. Coconut Lime Candle, Typo

I picked up my dad's love for scents early on, so I have a candle corner in my room hehe. But my most recent find is this candle from Typo (of all places!!!). I found it tucked away and discounted to 20 ringgit, so I kind of bought it because it was so cheap for a candle. But I fell in love with the smell! I didn't use to be a big coconut kind of girl but this candle changed that for me. Now I have coconut toppings on everything, I have coconut oil in my hair as we speak, and my favourite candle is this coconut lime one. I normally settle for Lavender and more, spicy herby almost christmas-y scents, so coconut is way out there for me. Im really sad because I have a feeling this isn't in permanent production for Typo, I mean, they aren't known for their candles, but I hope I find another one tucked away when I finish this one. I have to admit, the scent got much weaker the more I used it, but still enough to smell, you know? Will look for more coconut candles, hate the ones from Bath & Body works, so if you know any, please let me know!

5. Baby Powder reed diffuser

My house is littered with reed diffusers. My dad always gets them. He had a dinner recently, and gave away these diffusers as gift bags, and they were from some unknown brand (apparently he got them from some home tech store in mitsui?) but I love it! I used to scoff at reed diffusers, but I have one on all the time in my room now. And this one smells of BABY POWDER. Oh my, baby powder! So fresh so clean so adorable. I find scents like these really work in rooms where I have to be more productive, and its got me sprinkling Baby Johnsons on my pillow to intensify the smell when I sleep you know. I loveeee babies, and now my whole room smells of baby powder (and uh, coconut) and I am a happy happy happy girl.

6. Chia seeds

The last one on my list is a food one. I've gotten into adding chia seeds into my drinks, my oatmeal, my anything I can really. They're pockets of omega-3, and you can leave them into water to soak. They're one of those super foods that are supposed to reduce the likeliness of heart related diseases and a bunch of other things. They give off a slightttttly nutty taste, but its hardly noticeable. But anyway, they look like biji selasih once they've soaked up water, but I googled, their two different things. They have a lot of protein, veryyy good for hydration, so if you're like me and have trouble drinking your 8 cups a day, these would help! I like them because well, they sort of make me less hungry, if Im hungry but its not lunch or dinner yet I add this to some water and my hunger goes away a little. I've also noticed my scarring is reducing, and I did read that it helps with your skin, so I guess it could be an effect. It also gives a nice crunch you know. I got my jar from MBG, and I take about 1-3 tablespoons worth when I feel like it. Got pretty much my whole family on it now, so heres to healthy living!

So thats all for this post. I'm in the middle of my trials exams, and have approximately a month left of A levels! Time is moving so so so fast. I really do hope to write more, but I can promise you, once I got my exams out of the way, I should have so much more time to write. Also, I'll be going to the UK to do my degree soon InsyaAllah and my oh my does time fly. AND IM TURNING 20 SOON TOO?!?! okay like a month and more away but its huge. My life is taking me by storm guys, and I hope to share it all occasionally with all of you. Thanks for tuning in.

Love,

Mirr

Honest reviews : Duckscarves

Famous for their trademark zigzag edges and metal dUck logo charm, duckscarves are all the rage nowadays. I have friends who go to great lengths to get limited edition pieces; line up for absolute hours, skip classes, the works lah! Its so impressive, props to dUck and FV for your amazing marketing. Personally, I love the colours the brand offers, they're literally so yummy and are all named after food too! But these shawls come with their own unique set of challenges, that I don't think people (who don't already have duckscarves) know about. I personally feel like these scarves aren't the cheapest, ( RM 120 for a basic premium scarf which are the plain colour ones, and RM 170 for limited edition) and I know some people actually save up for them. I think its only fair that you know exactly what you are buying.

Although I'm not as die hard as a fan as some, I do have my very own duck collection of 5 scarves : two from the bamboo cotton range, one from the peach skin range, one satin silk and a limited edition piece.  I'll be reviewing the scarves range by range.

The Bamboo Cotton Range

From this range, I have the colours Scones ( top row) and Mushroom Soup (bottom row)
First thing to note is that, the actual colours of the scarves aren't exactly as shown in the website. As you can see in both pictures, the website tends to be a little lighter than the actual scarves, still pretty close and theres not thatttt much difference but still. For scones specifically, its really hard to capture the actual colour. It is this lovely pink with an undertone of orange ( honestly one of the prettiest shawls I own), but the closest picture I could get to the actual colour of the scarf is the top right one, (the crumpled one, yes, haha). For the most part, the colours are still so pretty but you should keep them in mind when purchasing online. Also, colour inconsistencies are most apparent in this range.

I have such a love hate relationship with the material of this range. Its soft and is unlike any other cotton scarf, the material is really unique and so nice to touch honestly! But, as you can see in my pictures, they wrinkle SO EASILY. Im talking, taking off the hijab to go pray, and having to put it on the exact same say because the wrinkles are so bad, and Im not even the type to care much. If you want to experiment how to wear a scarf, just do it wrinkled, then iron after you are VERY SURE with how you want it to be. Its also a heavy material, and in addition to the width and length of duckscarves, which are wider and longer than most shawls, its hard to do some looks i.e. the sleeker ones. So take note of your hijab styling as well, cause this material may not work for you. The heavy material also means, no doing anything strenuous in this shawl, its hard to keep on, and also isn't like cooling or anything like that. Not like its hot, its just not cooling. I find that even when going to open houses or doa selamats, really chill functions you know, my pins tend to come off and I have to redo it a lot because of how thick the material is. Overall, if you have a lot of patience, and enjoy a soft, amazing feel to the fingers (thought your head doesn't really feel it lol), this material would work for you.

The Peachskin Range

I have one scarf, in the colour Pecan Pie. On the left is how its shown on the website, and on the right is an unfiltered picture (same goes to the ones above, no filter so you can see the colours!) Its less yellow than in the website irl.

This material is also very unique. It does feel like a peach, sort of fuzzy! (but no visible fuzz don't worry). Its also very elastic, like you can slightly stretch it no kidding. At first I didn't like this, but I found you can actually stretch it to pin it in certain places so it helps with styling, kinda. Its very light as well, and much more cooling in comparison to the bamboo cotton. But it does kind of feel like rubber a bit, only slightly, but enough for me to be like, 'eh apa ni' when I first got it. It doesn't crumple as easily as the bamboo cotton, but if you are particular about wrinkles, you'd still have to iron it back out after experimenting. Still wouldn't work out in this scarf of anything like that, but it is the lightest material of all the dUcks I own. so thats nice. Sleeker styles would work with this one. I started out hating this scarf but now, I quite like it.

The Satin Silk Range

In this range I have the shade chocolate fondue. It looks pretty accurate from the website even. But anyway, I LOVE this satin material. Its not too shiny, like most cheaper satin scarves, so it looks classy. The sheen is just nice, shiny enough to look luxe, but not like, tacky satin shine. Lovely! The satin comes with usual satin problems, its slippery and you'll need a anak tudung and pins and everything, but this is actually my favourite satin tudung. This much be the least crumply material. I think I once didn't even iron it! Its wide and long like all duckscarves, but its light so you can style it pretty easily. No complaints about this range, if you have a fancy event, I say get one from this range.

The KL scarf

Ah, the KL scarf, I know so many people went crazy to get their hands on one of these. Mine was a gift, so I didn't have to go through all the trouble hehe. but it isss beautiful. The KL skyline, printed on a scarf. It works. So note that the print on the white ones is in blue, not black. Like really dark blue, you could still so monochrome with it. As you can see, it crumples too, so need to iron lah! But my main concern with this scarf is, how do you display the print ?!?! Still haven't found a nice way of doing it, but really, even if you only see a bit of stacked up print, people know what you're wearing. Like OMG, the KL scarf. But really, if you can't display the print it doesn't look nice. Ive found one way, but it involves you having a longgggg tudung at the back especially. So yeah. Love having this piece more than I love wearing it. Maybe I should frame it ?

In general, if you hate ironing, do not get a duck scarf. You definitely have to, every single time you want to wear it. If you are travelling, you might want to reconsider packing your ducks, cause of the whole ironing issue. The charms tend to fall off too, Ive had to sew back on one of my charms, but apparently you can email them and they'll send you some charms for free. All shawls are long and wide, so that's something you might want to consider. 

Duckscarf just restocked on Fashion Valet last night so go check them out if you want. I hope this review helped! 

Love,

Mirr