Get to Know Me | 10 Facts and A Lie

Me and mama

Hi everyone. I got the idea for this post from Miss Getaway and I thought it would be fun to do it on my blog. I love reading random facts about a blogger (aside from age and location) but this time, I'm going to do it but with a twist. I will be listing 11 random facts about me but one of them is a lie so you will have to guess which one is it in the comment below. Let's get to it!

1. I hate egg yolk. Whenever I'm eating something with fried egg or hard boiled egg, I will give the yolk to someone else or I will just throw it away.

2. When I was 6 years old, I had an infection on my lungs and also a problem where the skin around my nails cracked so I needed to use a cream everyday until it got better.

3. One of my ex-boyfriends broke up with me because "couple is haram in Islam" but dated another girl in his class not long after.

4. When I was little, I really wanted to be a model but I stopped growing at 14 years old so modelling no more.

5. My favourite place is Nyhavn, my favourite city is Copenhagen, my favourite country is Denmark, and my favourite language is Danish (besides English).

6. I started growing and dyeing my hair when I was 13 years old. Before that, it was always a bob cut or boy cut.

7. My dad never lays a hand on me or my siblings no matter how terrible the things we do. No rotan, no nothing.

8. One time when I was 16 years old, I went to a Giant hypermarket near my house with my friends and shoplifted a Maybelline mascara at Guardian. I got away with it but it didn't feel right so I came back and put it back on the rack.

9. I have tried smoking twice back in university just to understand what was the hype about but I didn't really like it but I do prefer menthol cigarette than regular cigarette.

10. I love beaches. They make me feel serene and peaceful inside.

11. My area of expertise in cooking is anything pasta especially fried macaroni, linguine bolognese, lasagna, and aglio olio.

So which one do you think is a lie? I would love to hear your response!

ATTENTION TO EVERYONE WHO SENT ME QUESTIONS (Q&A RELATED)

Since I'm still getting questions everyday and there's no way I would clog my blog with Q&A posts every other day (though I feel like I'm doing it now), I made a FAQ page for answering every question I get. This way, you don't have to wait until I make a new Q&A blog post to see replies to your questions. Whenever I get a new question, I will immediately update it on that page. You can click the FAQ link on my navigation bar or

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY FAQ PAGE

I have divided all questions into 4 categories — beauty, lifestyle, blogging, general — to make it easier for you to find related questions. I have just answered 6 new questions there:

1. Which body lotion would you recommend? I'm looking for great body lotion but I don't know where to start.
2. do you think it's fine to 'steal' other people's idea of blogging in terms of content? they don't copy paste other people's content and publish it on their blog, they do some changes here and there but still, it's from other people's content. what do you think of it?
3. what foundation that breaks you out like crazy?
4. do you get breakouts from wearing glitter/ shimmery eyeshadows?
5. what do you feel when you saw other people's blog that has the same template as you?
6. do you do scheduled post?

If you would like to send me questions, just use the form below and I will answer it on the FAQ page as soon as I can.

Erin Talks: Your Questions, Answered (beauty/blogging)

Check out my FAQ page for more questions

Because the usual Q&A post is pretty bladdy boring. I wanna talk. A lot. And Erin Talks is purrrfect for it. Let's get on to the questions I received from the previous post I did.

PS: I strongly suggest you to make a 🍵 before reading any one of my Erin Talks posts 'cause it's super long.

#1 / do you take any supplements? (e.g. aura white)

Surprisingly, I don't. I don't take any aura white, collagens, or whatever supplements in the market right now. Not even Qu Puteh (ha!). I occasionally take Omega-3 fish oil but for most of the time I forgot to even take it. I'm only 21. Not yet married. As far as I'm concerned my collagen production is fine and I'm a bit iffy when it comes to consuming supplement products.

Maybe when I'm married and had my first child, I will. But for now, not yet.

#2 / what do you think of the 'no-makeup' makeup look?

I am living for 'no-makeup' makeup look. I'm more into natural, dewy, and glowy skin so the lesser makeup I have to use, the better. You can do your makeup however you want obviously no one should tell you what you can or cannot wear but for me personally, I like dewy skin, strong brows (because your home girl has black brows), subtle blush and highlight, and nude lips. My current favourite lipstick right now is MAC Mehr. I feel so sorry for my Velvet Teddy. I haven't worn it since I got Mehr last month.

And I'm already looking for swatches online for my next MAC lipstick purchases.

Worth reading: My Go-To Makeup Look

#3 / what are your blogging essentials?

1. My MacBook. I have separation anxiety whenever I'm outside because I can't be with my laptop. It's awful, really. So I really need my laptop for everyday use and also for blogging. I have grown accustomed to my laptop so it's weird to blog using other computers. I don't write blog posts via mobile phone 'cause it's just going to be a hot mess.

2. Stock photos. 'Cause who has the time to set up props?

3. Hard drive. I recently backed up everything on my laptop to my hard drive and deleted everything on my laptop. Life has been good ever since. All my stock photos, photos I have taken myself, templates, and everything else is safe and secure.

4. Canon EOS 60D. You don't need an expensive camera for your blog obvs but it's quite handy to have one. Even if my photography skill is zero, at the very least my photos are all high resolution.

5. Bloglovin'. I can't go a day without going through my Bloglovin' feed. So many awesome posts!

Worth reading: My Blogging Essentials

#4 / the font for your post body is really nice and neat! what font is it? if you don't mind me asking :)

Why thank you! It's Raleway, 12px, font-weight: 400, letter-spacing: 1px, line-height: 1.9.

Worth reading: Blogging Tips Roundup

#5 / What is a makeup no-no that you're guilty of doing in the past?

1. Not using moisturiser before foundation.

2.

Honestly I can't think of anything else. I didn't wear much in the past and I'm pretty sure I google everything I need to know about makeup. But if there is one thing that I can advice people of, is to wear foundation the same shade as your skin. I know Malaysians are obsessed with having fair skin (to be honest I do not know why) and they tend to wear foundation or powder that are 2 times lighter than their skin tone resulting in grey face. Not cute at all. Embrace your skin tone. Use the same shade foundation and your makeup will look good, trust me.

And tak best pun kulit cerah. Muka cepat merah. Risiko dapat cancer kulit tinggi. Bekas jerawat susah hilang.

Worth reading: My Makeup Story

#6 / Hi, Erin. It's Lia here. No personal life option to tick on, eh? That's why I let it blank, if it's allowed. I love to read about personal stuff, especially foods and beverages someone enjoy the most.

So my question is, cafes or restaurant review? Include the foods absolutely.

Hi Lia! I didn't include personal life option because I do write personal posts from time to time. I did cafes and restaurants reviews back on my blog in 2014. It was so much fun to do! I took pictures of the restaurant ambience, the food, I freaking love taking food photos just like what you're doing on your blog now.

But that was when my blog was more to personal and just a little bit of beauty blog. Now I have beauty posts, blogging tips, lifestyle posts, personal posts, and it's just getting too much to handle because that's a lot of niche I have to cover.

Maybe in the future I can post more about places to eat? Who knows? :)

#7 / What is your blogger's goal ?

Ever consider to become a youtuber ? if yes, let's collab then hehe

who is your blogger's idole or inspiration?

where do you see your blog in 5 years ?

are they were serious questions? hope you're having fun answering them.

— My blogging goals are:

1. To make a lot of new friends as much as I could.

2. Make my blog a business that I can earn money from so I can make blogging my professional career. I did one sponsored post a few months ago and I got RM150 for it. It felt soooooo good omg. I also helped a few of my blogger friends with their templates (I purchased the template and installed/tweaked it for them) and I also help bloggers buy templates from Etsy because not everyone has a Paypal account. Just contact me if you're interested.

3. Post even more quality contents in the future.

— I have a YouTube channel and I did two What's in My Bag videos in the past hahaha but I'm not ready to become a YouTuber. Maybe in the future? :)

— Blog inspiration:

1. HannahGale.co.uk (Hannah)— she's so fun and her posts crack me up everytime. She's so relatable.

2. InTheFrow.com (Victoria) — her blog is a freaking Vogue Magazine, I swear! She makes me want to move to London and be a fashion blogger.
3. Lily-Like.com (Lilia) — her fashion is so me! I once went through her MAC lipstick category on her blog and ugh I want every MAC shade that she has!

4. JasmineTalksBeauty.com (Jasmine) — 'cause HER MAKEUP COLLECTION that's why.

5. FromRoses.co.uk (Rebecca) — UK beauty and lifestyle blogger.
6. AGirlObsessedBlog.com (Mandy) — US beauty and lifestyle blogger.

I love reading successful UK blogs. Definitely my blog inspiration!

— Where do I see my blog in 5 years?

Probably juggling between writing beauty posts (more higher end makeup hopefully husband I want that Chanel foundation and powder), lifestyle posts ('cause you know avocado on toast is still in and maybe just maybe my flatlays are on point with marble background and rose gold props), and mommy posts (ehem baby clothes haul and tutu haul and toddler haul).

But I hope I still write regularly in the future, though.

I have so much fun answering these! I will be publishing a Why I Start a Blog post hopefully some time this week for more in depth on this topic.

#8 / How do you manage to create very good and interesting contents?

Your style of writing is important. I like reading posts that are my niches such as beauty posts, blogging stuff, and lifestyle posts. I love reading personal posts too but it depends on the writings. You don't necessarily have to be doing fun stuff but the way you write the post is what matters most. You can write about your day at home or your day in university and still make them interesting with your writings. It's all about the writings.

I use my favourite blogs as guidance. However, I do not copy and paste my contents from other blogs 'cause that's just unethical and mean. If I read a post I like from a blog, I take it as an inspiration for my future posts and write it with my style of writing and ideas. No blog is original these days but at least make yours genuine.

I write posts that I love to read. Everyone has their personal preference of what they like to read so I apply that on my blog posts. What's more important is you enjoy creating contents for your blog because blogging is fun!

Worth reading: 5 Types of Blog Posts That Turn Me Off

#9 / Where do you promote your blog to increase your views?

To be honest I don't promote my blog all that much. Once a month I post my blog link on Facebook and Twitter, I registered my blog to search engines and babab.net (even though I don't have their banner on my blog, my blog is still registered), and I have quite a number of followers on Bloglovin'. I also joined Twitter chats too. 

I think growing your loyal readers is important for increasing pageviews so write better contents and promote it on appropriate platform. One of the reasons why I blog in English is because I can attract bloggers from all around the world to come to my blog and read my posts.

I kinda let my blog grows at its own pace while maintaining its quality. I'm obsessed with my stats, sure, but I'm not going to stress over having to promote my blog everywhere and leaving my blog link on every single blog I visit just so I can have 2000 pageviews per day. It's tiring and I don't wanna feel tired doing what I love.

#10 / Who's blog inspire your blog design?

I don't design my blog myself. I actually bought a premade one from Etsy which is the Marigold template from Underline Designs. I saw it one day, fell in love with it, and bought it a few days later. You can read about it here. I also made a review of all templates I have used in the past.

Worth reading: 10 Tips for Choosing Responsive Templates

#11 / hello sis erin, can you show to us your makeup collection / beauty collection ?

Hello there! I did make a few posts about my collection. Check out where I store my makeup (maybe I should do an updated one, eh?), lip products, cheek products, and eye products. My face products post is coming up soon.

I hope you all made it to the end of the post. Thank you for spending the time to read this post!

The Sunday Currently: Vol. 3 + Q&A!

Hi everyone, how are you doing? I hope you all have a lovely weekend. Today was simply the laziest day out of the week for me. I spent all day including eating lunch in my bed. I had chicken rice in a bowl while all curled up under the cover with the second season of Elementary on iflix. Sunday is nice. Sunday is good. There are no other day like Sundays.

— Reading

7 Hari Mencintaiku by Siti Rosmizah.

I read this novel way back in 2012 and since the drama is showing on television right now, I thought I would go down the memory lane once again and reread it.

— Writing

I have a bunch of drafts that I haven't finished writing yet. I have so many ideas for blog posts but my brain just wants to shut down all the time. Blogging? Nope. Sleeping? Nope. Everything else — A BIG NOPE.

 — Listening

I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) by Whitney Houston.

Because I love me some 80s. A good pick me up song when you're feeling down.

— Thinking

... of doing a Q&A posts. Am I well-known enough to do a Q&A though...

— Smelling

My room! The other day I bought an Ambi Pur air freshener in Green Tea which is my favourite scent for my room but the thing is it doesn't smell like green tea. It actually smells like my brother. Oh y'know, the usual boy scent. Maybe they mislabeled it I'm not sure but hey if your partner is far away and you need some testosterone scent, Ambi Pur Green Tea is a good alternative.

— Wishing

... for a new template but the currency is awful right now. RM270 for a template? Na-uh. Maybe when the currency gets better. So I took a few hours last night to revamp my blog! I change the colour scheme to #eeeeee, deleted some widgets, added a few more, and if you're reading this you might notice that I have 3 columns for post page! On the right sidebar you can see my popular posts this month and everything else is moved to the left.

— Hoping

... that Guardian Online processes my order as soon as possible. They had a buy 1 free 1 deal last Friday and a lot of products were on sale so I picked up a few things that I needed. I will do a Mini Drugstore Haul along with two products I got from Watsons Online a few weeks ago.

— Wearing

MNG sequin shirt and Tesco shorts.

Like I said in my previous two TSC, Tesco shorts are my favourite and I have a hefty amount of them in my collection so I probably can get away with wearing Tesco pants everyday for two weeks without reusing the same one.

— Loving

I feel like I should do a current love post showing you the products, songs, shows, and everything else I've been loving right now but for this TSC, I will have to go with my newly revamped design. I absolutely love it!

— Wanting

... a new Earpods. I'm on my third right now and this piece of junk is nothing but pricey with zero quality. Although credit must be given as it survived being in washing machine for 45 minutes..

— Needing

... a new pair of contact lens. I usually buy the 3 month disposable ones but I use them for a solid two months before purchasing another pair just because I'm not confident that the lenses can withstand being used for a lot longer than that.

— Feeling

... like I could use some sleep.

Anyway, I'm planning on doing a Q&A on my blog because I saw some bloggers did it so I wanna do it too. If you could just kindly submit your questions using the form below that would be greatly appreciated. If you wanna give out your name then go ahead and state your name but if you want to be anonymous then that's fine too. I accept all type of questions so ask away!

Erin Talks: Seth Tan, EXO, Glenn Rhee, templates, and meatballs!

Grab a cuppa 'cause this might be a heck of a long post.

#1

I have just finished binge-watching Nora Elena again on Iflix and I just had to write this post.

I just had to.

OH MY GOD?????

I forgot how much I loved that drama and how much I loved Seth Tan. I do not condone the whole (trigger warning) rape situation and I do not wish to talk about it so that part is better left out. Seth Tan is a fictional character anyway and it's not like he did it in real life or whatever. Right?

Now we talk about the good part. The good husband part. Malay dramas are so cliche it actually hurt my brain trying to process the 'accidental' things (example: both lead characters hit each other's car and bickered/found out moms want them to marry. OH PLS!) that happen in each goddamn drama but in Nora Elena the only cliche plot I knew is Seth Tan knew Nora Elena when she bumped into him and takes a liking to her knowing that she is his staff's fiancée and later found out that she was the girl he (trigger warning) and loved 10 years ago and somehow within God's work, they are married! Life sure does work in mysterious ways in novels, doesn't it?

Although if I were Elena I do not mind marrying a guy who loves me more than I do him and is super hot and super rich and super protective. (I talk about Malay dramas being cliche while I'm the cliche-minded woman here) (Who could resist this type of guy?)

#2

Am I the only one who can't write while listening to vocal music? I can only write high quality posts with instrumental music playing in background, preferably my instrumental playlist on Spotify. Yes, I have playlists for everything, quit judging me. For Erin Talks, EXO - Don't Go is my favourite to listen to. Hands off! Sehun and Kai are mine. #bae

I love every piece in that playlist except Yiruma - River Flows in You because it reminds me of April and August last year when my boyfriend was on a flight back to the UK. I listened to that piece on repeat while tracking his flight on FlightAware and crying my bloody eyes out refreshing the page only to see the small plane icon moving away and away from KLIA and cried even more when he reached London. I hate that feeling. I hate British Airways.

And for his flight home Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles gives me joy listening to while waiting.

#3

Let's talk about The Walking Dead new season 7.

If you're not a 'cult' follower, then you may skip ahead to talk #4.

As you may know, Glenn died. My KPOP baby (he's Korean) is dead! He was brutally killed by Negan, the main antagonist in the series. Negan is played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan who is one of my favourite actors. Gaaaaaah. I hate him for killing Glenn but I love him because he's a good actor. I love him in Grey's Anatomy (he was in the earlier seasons) and The Accidental Husband with Uma Thurman. If you haven't watched that movie yet, please go watch it. I'm a rom-com/chick flick sucker and I probably have watched 75% of famous rom-com/chick flick to date and they're as cliche as Malay dramas but my heart loves it.

I went from talking about zombie series to chick flick movies in the same paragraph. I'm so good at this, no?????

And bee tee dubs, I am skipping season 7 because Glenn is dead. It's not going to be the same without him anymore.

#4

I wanna talk about my giveaway next. The reason why I love giving away templates is because I think bloggers can benefit more with a template than any other stuff. I see so many of you complaining about free templates and honestly how many of you have used the Rosemary template by ThemeXpose in the past?

A lot. I know.

The thing with free templates is you can't do much with it and if you want to tweak it to your liking, you will have to purchase the supported version which is exactly the same like premade templates available on Etsy. And with the free version, there is no support which means you either fix it yourself or find some other templates that can do what you want. If you spend a lot of time on your blog (I probably spend every waking hour with my blog), I don't think forking out less than 50 ringgit for a simple and cute template with support from the seller is too much.

To date, I have spend around 260 ringgit for my own blog templates (not including giveaways) and to be honest although I spent that much money on intangible things, I don't feel like I'm wasting my money or anything. Blogging is my hobby and I should be willing to spend money on my hobby. Who knows if I might earn stable income from my blog, right?

And I feel less bad about spending money on my blog because my parents are so supportive of my hobby. My mom thinks my blog is beautiful and I know she tried her best to refrain herself from freaking out when I told her the price of my current template... And my dad supports me with whatever I decide to do with my life.

Regarding my latest giveaway, I actually messaged Fearne on Etsy and asked her if she would like to sponsor my template giveaway and the next day I got a reply from her and she agreed! Oh the things I do for my followers... #pleasegivemesomeloveokay.

I know some of you are curious about how Rafflecopter form works. It's very simple. You know how other bloggers do giveaway and generate a number from random.org to get the winner?

Rafflecopter uses random.org too. The only difference is with the usual blog post entries, you only get one entry for your blog which means, if there are 100 different blogs participating, your chances of winning is 1/100. With Rafflecopter, 3 points means you get 3 entries equals to 3 blog post entries.

Here I show you a screenshot of the participants in my giveaway:

Do you see the Entry # on the left? That's your number. I use Rafflecopter platform itself to get a winner and they're using random.org (third party app) to generate a random winner. If I want to pick a random winner on my own using random.org, I would key in the number of entries (for now I have 155 entries) and see which number I get. For example, if I get the number 30, that means Fatina wins. Or I get the number 7, then Ain wins. That is why you should visit the giveaway post everyday, comment on that post and click the daily entry to get extra 2 entries everyday so the more entries you submitted, the higher chance you'll win.

And yes, I do remove entries that don't abide by the rules. So far, I have deleted two entries from two different blogs for simply not commenting on that post but entered "Comment on this blog post". I have to be fair, you know? It's not fair for the other participants who do leave a comment on that post everyday.

The winner will be announced on that form so just come back on November 19th to check the winners.

#5

I went for a late lunch with my family (excluding my brother, he's at UNITEN hah PADAN MUKA) at IKEA Cheras yesterday. We initially planned to have lunch at TESCO but dad drove straight ahead to KL and internally I was screaming "goddamned it my outfit is not on point this is my TESCO outfit!". The last time my dad did this was in 2013 when we planned to eat at TESCO but went to Pavilion instead. I don't dress up for other people but my outfit wasn't on point with my standard hey-I'm-gorgeous-today-everything-is-on-fleek-including-my-brows look. I felt so underdressed.

I had salmon with wheat pilaf. To be honest, the meatballs at IKEA Damansara is better than Cheras'. The ones at Cheras were drier and less tasty. Maybe they use different meat supplier?

#6

I ship Neelofa and Fattah Amin so hard it hurts. Enough with the countless eye contact and attraction innuendos, just date already!

#7

Don't forget to join my giveaway if you haven't already and I hope you all have an awesome week! Talk soon.

Erin Talks: Brownies, coffee, and giveaway winner!

Hi everyone, how are you today?

I'm not really in the mood to blog (but I do read you guys' posts!) but I had to make this post just to chit chat and kinda give an update on what's been happening and all.

I'm currently just chilling in my room with my sister who has Ariana's Side to Side on repeat on her MacBook. Who could have known that that song is about sex? My thirteen year old sister has no clue and let's just hope she wouldn't be having any until she's 21. Definitely.

Anyway, I baked today and I made chocolate brownies with crushed almonds. It wasn't my first time baking that but I fall in love over and over again everytime I make that brownies courtesy of a recipe from Azlita Masam Manis. If you followed the recipe to the T, it would be too sweet for some people's liking so I suggest using 80gm of castor sugar instead of 100gm. Delicious!

What's brownies and cakes without coffee? Incomplete. I'm in dire need of a coffee grinder or a Keurig but this Nescafe Oh So Dreamy white coffee with brown sugar is my absolute favourite. I repurchased this pack of 15 countless times already and I really recommend it if you're a coffee drinker like me. I like my coffee strong so I always put less hot water in my coffee. Honestly, I don't get people who prefer light (almost tasteless!) coffee. I mean, what's the point of drinking coffee if it's not to give you a shock to the head with the strong aroma and taste?

On Saturday, I went out with my family to Mitsui Outlet Park for lunch. We had a delightful meal at DÔME Café and I ordered their lemongrass baked fish with rice (your home girl dies without rice) and iced mocha with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. I gained 5 pounds from that meal but it was so worth it.

I wanted to do some shopping because who could resist shopping it's like ingrained on my body and soul so my dad gave each of us a couple of hundreds but I ended up not buying anything. The MAC Matte Lipstick in Stone that has been in my wish list and RM23 cheaper than in MAC stores? Pass. But now I'm slowly regretting not getting it though...

On the way home, we stopped by Bangi Sentral, the worldly heaven for hijabis. My mom and I really wanted to check out Imaan Boutique and CalaQisya shawls as they were on craaaazy sale but unfortunately by the time we reached there, they were already closing. But I did get 3 Radiusite Instant Khayla hijabs for RM9 a piece! The original price was RM62 and to be honest it was my first time hearing about Instant Khayla but you could do no wrong with buying a nine ringgit scarf. I didn't get more because the 3 pieces I got were the only colours left. Now if I arrived just a little bit earlier in the day...

My giveaway ended last night at 12AM and thank you to everyone who joined! I have already chosen a winner and emailed her about the giveaway. As you can see on my sidebar, I have already inserted a Giveaway Winner blog list that will be up until December 31st. Congratulations to Liyana Jasmi for winning the giveaway. The reason why she won is because she visited my blog everyday for the extra entries thus giving her higher chances of being chosen as the winner. It's the effort that counts, right? Are you interested if I do more template giveaways? Do let me know in the comment below.

Wishing you all a lovely week! Talk to you soon.

COMING SOON — SHOPERIN.CO!

Hi everyone! I am so excited to announce that I am opening an online shop on Instagram — @SHOPERIN.CO!

I will be selling affordable makeup brush sets that will not break your bank. 99% of brush sets are RM100 and below and I swear you will be in dilemma trying to pick one to buy! Everything is free postage for peninsular Malaysia and +RM5 for Sabah & Sarawak. Preorder items will be stated in the caption (#SHOPERINPREORDER) as those usually take longer time to arrive and some people are not keen on preorder items so need not worry! You can whatsapp me if you have questions about that.

I will also be selling makeup items that are hard to get in Malaysia. DON'T WORRY! I only sell authentic makeup products as I do not condone buying or selling fake makeup items as they're bad for your skin. I haven't uploaded any makeup items on @shoperin.co but these are the products that I will be selling:

• LA GIRL Pro Conceal/primer
• MAKEUP REVOLUTION - palettes/highlighter/blusher/eyebrow kit
• REAL TECHNIQUES Miracle Complexion Sponge
• LA SPLASH Velvet Matte Liquid Lipsticks
• NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream (always out of stock in Sephora!)
• FREEDOM MAKEUP Pro Strobe Palette/Eye Palette
• COTY Air Spun Loose Powder
• JEFFREE STAR Liquid Lipsticks - Masochist/Celebrity Skin
• RIMMEL primer/stay matte powder/sculpting palette
• ELF primer/eye primer/setting powder/setting spray
• ETUDE HOUSE Play 101 Stick
• COLOURPOP Lippiestix (Brink/Cami)/Ultra Satin Lip (Magic Wand/Echo Park/Alyssa/November)

There are also sunglasses, makeup train case, and selfie ring light for your phones. I'm planning on bringing in affordable acrylic makeup organizer to the store. They can be super expensive so if I can find some good quality but affordable ones, that would be awesome!

I hope you can take a look at my shop and tell me what you think. I still have a lot of items to upload but if you're planning on buying any makeup or brushes above, just let me know by leaving a comment below and I can check if they're still available or not (most of them are ready stock!)!

@SHOPERIN.CO

The Sunday Currently: Vol. 2

A week went by just like that and I'm back again with the Sunday Currently. How are you guys doing today? I made rosemary grilled chicken with mashed potato and they were so good! I haven't made that in quite a while so today totally relived just how much I love making that. Click here for the recipe.

- Reading

I feel like I shouldn't even include reading in my Sunday Currently because I haven't read a single page of my novel since last week's Sunday Currently.

- Writing

Nothing in particular at the moment. However, I do need to write blog posts of all bulk photos I took last week. My go-to makeup look is up tomorrow at 8AM!

- Listening

I was not listening to any music prior to this part but Amy Search - Tiada Lagi was on pause on my Spotify.

- Thinking

... of migrating my blog to Wordpress. I'm currently on the hunt for the best hosting fee and Blogger to Wordpress migration service. I think I have found them but I need at least RM500 for hosting, hiring somebody to migrate my blog, and a template. I'm not migrating anytime soon but I'm hoping I'm able to do so next year before my domain expires. But first, I need to top up my Wordpress fund (BR1M 2017!).

- Smelling

Right now, I smell like raw chicken and rosemary. I just put a batch in the oven for dinner and another batch later for my brother to bring to his campus hostel.

- Wishing

... that I get to blog using Wordpress! I can start an online shop on my blog just in case I want to sell preloved stuff or anything else that I feel like. I can do so much more on Wordpress and to be honest I have fallen out of love with Blogger.

- Hoping

Is it weird that I'm not hoping for anything right now? Just for things to get better, you know. Who doesn't want that?

- Wearing

MNG top with Tesco boxer short. Their pyjama pants and shorts are my favourite!

- Loving

Organic Aid Vitamin E Moisturizing Cream. Works wonders on my dry, flaky skin!

- Wanting

A white bed sheet set so I can take great photos on my bed.

- Needing

Just some money, maybe. I'm currently trying to save money and not spend on things I don't need.

- Feeling

Anxious. It happens occasionally.

- Clicking

... on my mouse.

Erin Talks: Blog Posts Line Up

I love doing Erin Talks posts because I can say anything that crosses my mind. If you knew me in real life, I'm that type of friend who couldn't stop talking, you know? I'm very expressive and I talk a lot which probably why having a blog is the best decision I've ever done in my life.

I'm currently following two Malay dramas that are famous right now. I thought Lara Aishah was only going to be a 20-30 episode drama but little did I know that there are 100 episodes. That is 20 weeks for a drama! Not that I'm complaining or anything, it is a heavy drama adapted from a telenovela so 100 episodes is honestly nothing for a Latin America soap opera.

The soundtrack is so good though. Faizal Tahir is one of my favourite Malaysian performers (besides Awie). I have it on repeat (maybe you should too)

The second drama I'm following is Suri Hati Mr. Pilot. I gotta admit — I wasn't into the hype before because of Fattah Amin. His acting in Playboy Itu Suami Aku left a really bad taste in my mouth that I never watched any of his drama again but my sister was a 'cult' follower of that drama and she always persuaded me to watch so today, I did.

And his acting is soooooooooooo much better than before! Kudos to him for working on his acting skills.

And can we just talk about Neelofa's outfits?

Damn gals.

I love her outfits. I love her hijabs. I love everything she wears. Hell, I even want to go on a diet so I can have her body. We share the same height (she's taller by half an inch) and I'm pretty sure if I get rid of a few kilograms (more like a lot of kilograms!) I will be able to slay everyone with my outfit. Gaaaaaaaaaah.

I want the hijab she created for this drama which are the Lady Warda, Queen Warda, and Classy Warda but everything is sold out already! I really like the way she wears her hijab so I tried styling my Naelofar Isabelle like how she does in the drama and I got it! I got it I got it I got it! I will do a tutorial on how I wear it soon.

Anyway, the point of my doing an Erin Talks post is I want to list down my draft posts that I still couldn't publish because:

1. No photos yet because I'm lazy to set up my camera
2. I'm lazy to wear makeup for my review posts
3. I'm just a lazy person in general

The day I stop being lazy is the day I flood your dashboard with my posts which is hopefully soon, though.

• Makeup Collection: The Face Products
• MAC Lipsticks Wish List
• Things I Will Buy for The Blog if I Had The Money
• TV Shows I Have Finished Watching
• MAC Lipsticks Swatches + Demo
• Product Empties
• Nobluk Lens in Blue
• Products I Will Repurchase
• My Gadget Wish List
• My Blogging Struggles
• Eyebrow Routine
• Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation Gel Review
• Innisfree No Sebum Mineral Powder Review
• Essence I Love Extreme Crazy Volume Mascara Review
• Naelofar Isabelle Hijab Tutorial
• Skincare Routine
• My Go-To Makeup Look

These are the posts that I am currently working on but without the photos, they're worthless. I plan on working on the photos tomorrow which means that I have to wear proper clothes, proper hijab, and set up my tripod. I really hope that the weather is perfect tomorrow. I need as much sunlight as possible for the photos to turn out good.

Anyway, if you want to request a post or if you read something on my blog that you want a review of, please tell me in the comment down below. I'm adding it to my draft and if it needs my own photos (such as reviews or swatches), I will take the appropriate photos tomorrow. Talk later!

The Sunday Currently: Vol. 1

Welcoming a new series to my blog – The Sunday Currently!

To be honest, this wasn't my first post of the Sunday Currently. I used to do it every week a few years ago and I think it might be good to bring it back but let's be real here — Sunday is everyone's chill day and it's the only day out of the week that I don't feel like publishing a blog post but it will be fun to do some catching up with what I'm up to on the weekend.

— Reading

City of Glass by Cassandra Clare.

I'm still on the first book in my October Reads list. This is really bad. I don't think I'm able to finish all four books on time before November. My reading slump is awful :(

— Writing

My boyfriend's essay homework.

Apparently M.Eng. is making him has his plate full with work that he asked for my help with his assignment. No worries though, he owes me a MAC lipstick as a reward.

— Listening

One Direction - Infinity

How many nights does it take to count the stars? That's the time it would take to fix my heart, oh, baby, I was there for you, all I ever wanted was the truth

— Thinking

... about who's going to win my premade template giveaway (do join if you haven't already!). The template I'm giving away is Brooklyn by SandyTheme and it is gorgeous! I would have used it on my blog if not for the fact that I like my current design.

— Smelling

In the kitchen frying chicken drummet for my sister.

She told me dad asked me to fry it for her but my dad said he did not say that. How do y'all deal with a sister who asks you to do stuff for her and uses all your makeup? *Crying emoji*

— Wishing

... that things will get better. I'm dealing with some personal matters that have been weighing on my shoulder for quite some time now. I don't talk about my problems online so if you thought that I have a lovely life from what you read on my blog, trust me, that's only what you see online. I want my blog to be a place of happiness for me so I try to keep it positive and happy.

— Hoping

... that I will get my packages tomorrow. I ordered a few products from Hermo.my and Watsons online store. I will make a blog post about them once they arrived!

— Wearing

Sleeveless grey top from ELLE and Tesco's boxer short. Most of my pyjama pants and shorts are from Tesco because they're so comfortable and they last a long time too. Not to mention that they are inexpensive!

— Loving

My new contact lens.

I've had it for about two weeks and I've been meaning to do a review about it but oh god I procrastinate. I legit have 9 posts in draft that I still cannot publish because I haven't taken any photos for them.

— Wanting

A new phone.

I don't need another because the phone I'm using now is still in good condition and I'm honestly not a heavy smartphone user but I'm lusting over the new iPhone 7 and Samsung S7 Edge. So beautiful!

— Needing

A new pair of glasses.

I'm fine with wearing contact lens everyday but I dread having to take them off at night when I'm all ready to go to sleep.

— Feeling

I don't know what I feel these days. There are days when I feel fine but I can't not notice days when I feel like the world is on my shoulder. Today is my 'I feel fine' day, alhamdulillah.

— Clicking

... on a bunch of blog posts from my Bloglovin' feed. It's easier to follow and find new blogs there.

Enter my template giveaway

Erin Talks: blogging rut

I'm in a blogging rut and it's getting ugly. I have so many blog ideas that I planned for my blog this month but I'm just not feeling it right now. I try not to make blogging a job that needs me to meet deadlines on every single post but rather a hobby that I can choose when to post according to my schedule. Not that I'm busy with other things. I'm probably the most unbusy person in the world right now.

I have 3 beauty posts in planning that need me to put makeup on but good god I am so lazy to get ready and setup my camera equipments. I hope I'm able to do so this week and probably publish them some time next week. Who says being a blogger is easy? You are your own content creator, editor, photographer, publisher, PR liaison, and so much more.

I'm having a bit of identity crisis with my blog. I'm stuck in between publishing perfectly curated posts and writing whatever my heart and interest desire. How does one choose a niche for one's blog? I know that I am a lifestyle blogger but sometimes I get too overwhelmed by the vast amount of contents I want to create. I'm trying to alternate my contents between the 3 main categories which are beauty, blogging, and lifestyle so I won't publish the same category of post twice in a row. All in all, I need to take a few days off blogging so I can come back not feeling like blogging is a chore that I hate to do.

Currently listening:

I don't know if you noticed but I didn't post my September favourites. I'm thinking of abandoning that series altogether because my favourites for previous months were mostly tv shows and favourites posts are usually intended for beauty products which I don't wear at all on normal days so I don't have new favourites in a short span of time. If I do have new beauty favourites I'm probably going to name the post something like "Beauty products I'm loving" etc.

Whilst everyone is busy with school, I'm at home rotting into an absolute of nothingness with my tv shows. By the way! My dad has finally given me green light to get a driver's license after four years since I turned seventeen. Four goddamn years of waiting. He told my mom that I can drive to campus everyday but there's a catch — I can't drive alone. I need to have a friend that can carpool with me but no one in my residential area is studying in my university. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that, though. I'm still not sure if I want to drive to and fro Shah Alam. It's a 40 minute drive twice a day! Thank goodness I won't have to think about it this year because I'm going back to school next year.

So what are you guys up to these days? Are you in a blogging rut like I am?

My Bucket List

I was searching for blog ideas just now and one of the suggestions was to create a bucket list. I've never made a bucket list in my whole life so this is definitely going to be interesting because I'm going to be including my short-term and long-term goals.

• Get a driver's license.
• Learn Danish until fluent.
• Get a lasik surgery.
• Ride on a helicopter.
• Try bungee jumping.
• Learn to cook Malay dishes.
• Go to a One Direction concert.
• FINISH. MY. DEGREE.
• Complete the 93 blog posts.
• Buy an iMac desktop.
• Hit pan on all of the makeup I own.
• Learn photography and how to take awesome flat lays.
• Be a successful lifestyle/beauty/mommy blogger in the future.
• Blog everyday for a month.
• Get an eyelash extension at least once.
• Ride on a hot air balloon.
• Visit New York and go to their famous cafés and have a picnic at Central Park.
• Visit Copenhagen, Denmark and take the canal tour in Nyhavn and go to Tivoli Garden.

• Go to my boyfriend's graduation in the UK next year.
• Marry my best friend.
• Enroll my toddler in ballet class so I can buy cute tutus.
• Own an Hermés Birkin bag and Chanel Jumbo bag.
• Buy a Volkswagen Beetle.
• Move to Denmark.
• Buy the Tiffany and co princess cut diamond ring.
• Be a university faculty dean.
• Be the minister of education.
• Open a café + bookshop.
• Write a book.
• Buy a house with a room dedicated to beauty/closet/office.
• Buy my mom a Chanel bag.
• Perform hajj and umrah with my husband.
• Host a soup kitchen.
• Build a mosque.
• Travel around the world with my husband when we're old and rich af.

Dealing With Long Distance Relationship

I'm not one to write about my personal life too much on my blog because I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea and I wanted my blog to be for everyone but with a touch of my personal life here and there but not too much. But I think this topic is quite interesting because a lot of us out there are dealing with long distance between us and our 'bae', excuse my modern language of the words boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands/wives.

If you think karma is a bitch, then long distance relationship is even bitchier. Johor-Perlis relationship sucks, but try crossing countries and continents to get to your loved ones. If you're clueless about my relationship, check out this 30 paragraph post if you have the time to spare.

We got together after he went to the UK and if I hadn't loved him as much as I do, I would have easily decided that that was the stupidest decision I had ever made in my life. Long distance relationship is not for everyone. If you think you can't commit and sacrifice for them, then you are better off with someone living close to you.

You don't know how many times I wanted to give up because I couldn't stand the distance and his I'm-busy-I-don't-have-time dramas. We fought a lot of times to the point where I blocked him everywhere including emails. Yes, who would have thought to block someone on email but apparently I did. What I did was childish — I know that already — but he was pissing me off and my temper is the baddest side of me that if I could, I wouldn't want to show it to anyone. Guys and gals, we are different. Gals can

multitask because we are awesome. We can handle multitasking and having our concentration divided into how many things we are doing at that time. But guys, gosh, they don't even listen to us talking to them when they're watching TV. That's how bad their multitasking skills is. And my boyfriend is one of the guys who can't multitask. I still think he's perfect — don't get me wrong — but his multitasking or lack thereof is one of the reasons why we fight a lot.

With the distance, you can't see them as much as you want to and what more can you ask from them if not their time and attention? Studying abroad is no joke especially when you're under a scholarship and you have to excel in every exam so I know that he's struggling hard to get through classes and countless of projects. But hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Hell hath not fury like a pissed off woman who needs her long-distance boyfriend's attention.

Maybe you'd think that I'm not an understanding person but come on, I'm already losing so much sleep with the 8 hour difference. All I need is attention or FaceTime calls and I'd be happy for the next few weeks (or days). Thank goodness I will only have to do this for one more year.

Try to be understanding

To be honest, this wasn't my first long distance relationship. I dated someone studying in the Middle East (that's a story for another day — full of betrayal and lies) a few years back and my ex gave me attention every single day without my having to ask for it. But all guys are different from each other and my mistake was thinking that my boyfriend would treat me like my ex did. Both of them are two very different people and I shouldn't generalise them.

So I tried and tried to be understanding. I tried to rationalise it in my head that he has stuff that he has to do first before he can spend time with me. It took me quite a few months and countless fights to deal with it and safe to say that I'm getting better at it now. I'm not used to not getting things done my way and somehow he taught me to be patient and make me understand that I can't be selfish. Mutual understanding is very important. You need to understand them and they need to do the same for you too.

Communication is important

Out of sight, out of mind. Out of mind, out of heart. These two simple sentences should be enough to show that communication is important in any relationships. When you don't communicate, even the strongest relationship in the world couldn't withstand through rain and storms.

Fights and misunderstandings cannot be solved by simply ignoring them for days. You gotta take time to calm yourself and after all the madness and rage have gone away, you can start talking about the problems like two normal and rational people. Don't make hasty decisions that you don't mean just because you're mad. Trust me, I did that a lot and I regret it.

Give each other some space

As if 6000 miles in between isn't enough space, we have to give each other spaces to live our life and do our own stuff. Sometimes when you've been in contact with each other for too much you will feel a little bit overwhelmed. There's so much more to life than to be devoting your life to your partner especially when you're not yet married. Take the time apart as an opportunity for you to grow and be what you want to be and achieve what you want to achieve in life.

I think these 3 points are what you need to focus more in maintaining a long distance relationship. We are in no way perfect and it took us months and months to sort it all out and we did it eventually. And oh, one more friendly advice from me:

Suck it up. Suck it all up. Missing someone so much is already bad, but nothing can beat the longing and knowing you can't do anything about it. I cope with the distance and longing by imagining that my boyfriend is at home, sleeping, or going out with friends, or anything else he always does when he's home. It's not a healthy mindset but hey, it worked. And I desperately need it to work for 12 more months.

By the time this post is published (11AM), my boyfriend is going back to the UK in 12 hours. My third time going through this but it still hurt like a bitch.

Erin Talks: New Template from FearneCreativeDesign!

Hi everyone, how are you doing today? I am supposed to publish my favourite makeup brushes post by the end of the week (according to my blogging calendar, the post was supposed to be published yesterday) but do you know how lazy it is to take out the camera, do the setup and everything? With the cloudy weather hindering the perfect natural lighting needed to take good photos, I'm stuck y'all!

Anyway, I bet you notice something different going on with my blog. Well I bought a new template on Etsy called Gigi template by FearneCreativeDesign. I love this template a lot! However, there's a few things I would like to point out about this template:

First. It is not compatible with Blogger Template Designer meaning you have to change the fonts and whatnots manually. If you don't know html coding, I suggest you stay away from this kind of template.

Second. The comment section. There is no commenter icons and border around each comment making it look messy and hard to read. However, I will play around with the coding and hopefully I can resolve the issue with the help of google.

Other than that, I'm perfectly happy with it! I paid RM20.94 (USD5) for this template since it's on sale. The non-sale price is around RM80. Such a bargain!

Below is a screenshot of my blog. It's very clean and minimalistic just like how I prefer my blog to be with masonry/grid-style on the main page. However, if you click on a post, you can see my sidebar on the right which is rare to find with a grid-style template.

Buying blog templates is very therapeutic for me. I'm obsessed with finding templates on Etsy and going to everyone's blog to see where they get their templates. I must say that buying templates is more satisfying than spending money on makeup. It makes me feel good inside because my baby blog is beautiful. I am so happy with my blog right now. Though I will be even happier if I didn't procrastinate and get some posts up this week...

I hope you guys like my new template because I care what you think of this new look. If there is something that you think I should change about my blog, I take it as constructive criticism and please leave a comment. Anonymous pun okay kalau malu.

If you're having difficulties to buy a template such as no debit card or Paypal account, feel free to contact me. I can buy it for you with RM5 service charge :)

Erin Talks: Central Intelligence and Makeup Routine

Hello my lovelies. I have quite a few things I wanted to chit chat about in this post in which I have written down the points in my dear bullet journal in case I forgot anything. First thing first: movie of the week. Last week, we watched Central Intelligence at Alamanda but we missed the first few minutes of the movie because we came in late. The movie was funny but there was nothing bizarre about it. If you want to watch it, go ahead, but if you don't, you're not missing out.

Book update: I finished a few books during the weekend! I finally finally finally reached the end of City of Glass. I started the book back in September 2014 and only managed to finish it a few days ago. I felt terrible. And then I picked up Hush, Hush saga by Becca Fitzpatrick. I read the first book back in 2013 and I reread it again yesterday before I can continue with Crescendo. I am now on page 116 of Crescendo and let's hope I can finish it by tomorrow.

Have you guys checked out the new Spotify Family Plan? The old plan was RM22.90 (1+1), RM29.90 (1+2) and increment of RM5 for every user. But right now, they changed the plan to RM22.40 for 1+5 family members! You're basically paying 20 ringgit something for 6 premium plans! Aaah such a bargain! I still have 3 slots left in my plan.

I am currently learning Danish language using two apps that you can download for free. Why Danish? One day, I will make a blog post about my obsession with Denmark and how it all started. Anyway, the apps I use are Memrise and Duolingo. I prefer Duolingo but both of them are really good in my opinion. Duolingo is much harder but you learn a lot more than Memrise. I am now 1% fluent in Danish (the app says so based on my test) and one day, I will be 100% fluent in it. Jeg elsker det så meget!

I changed up my makeup routine to a simpler one for a more natural look. I abandoned my foundation and went with Laneige BB Cushion which is my holy grail product that I have repurchased a few times in the span of two years. To set it, I use Innisfree No-Sebum Mineral Powder to mattify the dewy finish of the cushion #oilyskinproblem. For mascara, I use a non-waterproof one by Essence Lash Mania Reloaded because I hate taking off waterproof mascara. For brows, I shape them with Shu Uemura Hard Pencil and set it with a Bobbi Brown brow gel. I set my makeup with NYX matte setting spray for the final touch. As for lips, I use a lipstick/lip balm from Sendayu Tinggi that changes the colour of your lips according to your blood colour. Bogus claim, I know, but I only wanted a sheer tint on my lips and that said product does it.

I hope you enjoyed this post!