DIY Eyebrow Maintenance - Be in charge of your own brows

Helloooo guys,

Today's post is dedicated to a make or break feature of the face- THE EYEBROWS!

Let me tell you, being Indian is not an easy maintenance. As glad as I am to inherit a thick, dark hair on my head, God decided to be extra generous and give me even more thick and dark hair everywhere -_- 

My eyebrows as a kid was pretty light and sparse, but as I grew into my teens, they became much thicker, darker, noticeable and BUSHIER. They had absolutely no shape at all. It was just a line of thick hair above my eyes. Not to mention my very attractive unibrow.

When I turned 14, my mom finally allowed me to get my eyebrows threaded. I was warned that it will be extremely painful (and no kidding, threading is the most painful thing ever, even after 4 years of doing it, it still hurts really badly), but the end result was AMAZEBALLSSS!! My eyebrows were not just thick anymore but so perfectly shaped and arched and it looked so neat AND NO UNIBROW. I finally looked like a girl. And my eyebrows were always complimented by my friends.

But the thing is my eyebrows grow back pretty fast. The parlour lady told me that once a month is enough to get my eyebrows threaded but the wild hair around my neatly shaped brows grew back within 1 and a half to 2 weeks. I read up that this has got something to do with hormones (not exactly sure what), and that is why every girl has different rate of hair growth. So for some it can take a lot of time to grow back, like about a month, and for some it can grow back as fast as in a week or two. 

If you live in Singapore, there are many indian parlours where you can get your eyebrows threaded for 5-8 dollars. If you go to more professional ones, it can be more expensive. So of course, my mom didn't allow me to get my eyebrows threaded often even if it grew back. Firstly, coz it wasn't reasonable to keep spending 8 dollars every week to get them shaped and secondly, doing your brows that often, will eventually make it really thin, which is what happened to me because me being me, did not listen to my mom and used my own allowance to get my eyebrows threaded often secretly.

So last year I decided to stop threading for a while and kind of take situation in to my own hands. I decided that instead of getting them threaded, I should just get a tweezer and pluck the extra hairs out myself and that way my eyebrows will look clean and I can allow it to grow back thick again. 

However I purchased an awful pair of tweezers. I only got them because they were cheap and I hadn't really researched on the kind of tweezers to get, so I got the flat tip one just randomly, which was by the way, a very bad idea. It looked something like this:

(Don't mind the rustiness, it has been stored in a corner for a very long time since I never used it. DO NOT USE A RUSTED TWEEZER) These tweezers weren't the ones that I used but it was similar, especially the flat tip part. And it was just such a horrible experience whenever I tweezed my eyebrows because I could never get good grasp of all the hair, the tweezer would constantly slip and end up pinching my skin and causing small cuts, slight swelling, redness and even after all that pain, the little wild hair would still be there.

I somehow managed to survive with those tweezers for 2 months only for the sake of having my eyebrows grow back. Once they did, I just threw them aside and went back to threading again. Although, this time I was careful of not getting them threaded very often, so I always had this period where my eyebrows just looked really unkempt. And also, I realized recently that because of threading, my eyebrows has become even more thin than before and it really made me feel sad because I wanted my thick eyebrows back again :(

So recently, I decided to go back to my threading hiatus again and switch to tweezing once more. Hence, my brows had become quite bushy and messy since the past two weeks because of that. So yesterday I went to Watsons to purchase a GOOD pair of tweezers and this time, I had also done my research. I learnt that slant tips are the best for tweezing, so I decided to buy this pair:

This pair is by QVS and it was almost 7 dollars and I was in two minds about spending that much for a pair of tweezers. But after the bad experience I had with my last pair of cheap 2 dollars tweezers, I decided to get this one. Also, there was another pair of slant tip tweezer whose tip was much thinner than this one and I was in a bit of confusion as to which to get then. But I decided to get this one as I felt that since the tip was slightly thick, it wouldn't pinch my skin or poke me if my hands were to accidentally slip while tweezing and also, I felt the thicker tip would grab on to the hairs a lot better. 

Anyway, so I decided to give this a try a yesterday since my brows were in some serious need for cleaning up and oh my god...THIS TWEEZER IS SO GOOD!!!

One of my main problems with tweezing used to be that it took so long to pluck all individual hair, but with this tweezer, it was so much easier to grab on to many hairs at once and just pull them out. Also, just like I thought, the thicker tip helped to grab on to even little, finer hairs without poking my eyes to give me a much cleaner finish and I've gotten a result that is almost very close to how my brows look when they are threaded. And it's really simple as well. So let me share with you how I did it.

I know you can't see really well but this was the clearest I could take with my phone camera. As you can see, my eyebrow has a shape but there is A LOT of wild hair around it and that is pretty much what you want to get rid off. To make it easier for me, I actually already filled my eyebrows so I know how I want my end "product" to look like and what I need to get rid off. Also, filling it first gives you an outline of the brow and you know where you need to pluck. 

LOOK AT THAT DIFFERENCE. The tweezer made it so much easier for me to pluck and give me such a clean result. 

Then I just did the same for my other brow. Just pluck the excess hair around the brow and try to pluck all the hair that falls outside the line because they are usually the wilder hairs and make your brows look really messy.

Every now and then, keep using the brush or your hands to remove all the plucked hair from your eyes and face.

My brow hairs can also get very long which also adds on to the wild look. So to make it neater and straighter, I used my eyebrow brush and brushed my eyebrow hair in the opposite direction from where it grows and you will see some hair that will stand out of your eyebrow outline. So just use your SMALL scissors (these scissors are especially meant for your brows) and gently snip them off. It's easy to go overboard while cutting so just cut a little by little and keep brushing them back to its original place to see how it looks like and whether the hair falls neatly back into your outline or not. If it doesn't, just snip more. 

After doing all those steps, you will have near perfect shaped and clean eyebrows

That is it, all you have to do is these three

1) outline

2) pluck

3) cut

Mannn I'm so happy with how it eventually looked like. It's the best results I've ever gotten with a pair of tweezers and it took me so much less time as well. 

As you can see, even after removing the eyebrow pencil colour from my brows, they still look pretty neat. That is why I prefer to fill them in first.

ps: excuse my oily face, the humidity here and my face don't quite get along

Anyway girls (or guys too if you are interested), so these were my little tips on doing your own eyebrows. Remember, the kind of tweezer you use DOES MATTER. Slanted and thicker tips, to me, are the best. And also, make sure you keep at least an hour minimum to yourself, if you plan to do them. Do not rush them or think you can do them just 5 mins before leaving your house. You will end up hurting yourself and not getting a good result. Personal experience.

However do note about this. If you are reading this and you have never gotten your eyebrows done before, then I HIGHLY SUGGEST you get them done by a professional first. They are the best people to give you a nice shape to your virgin eyebrows that will suit your face. After that, you can do this when the hair grows back because then you will know how to outline and where to pluck :)

There are many perks of being able to do your own brows. You don't have to be dependent on anyone else. When there is an important event you have to attend last minute and your brows are in a mess, you can do it within half hour in the comfort of your own home. You also get to be in charge of how you want your eyebrows to be, i.e, decide its thickness, length, which part you want to pluck which part want you want to leave it out and let it grow etc. And the biggest advantage, NOT HAVING TO SPEND ANY MONEY!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'll be back soon again. Gotta go and get back to my dreaded revision. 

See you soon and take care :)

DIY COMIC WALLET

HELLO EVERYONEEEE

I'm so excited to do this post because it is my first DIY post. It's been really long since I did a DIY. The last time I did one was galaxy inspired shoes and that was almost exactly a year back....Pretty sad, I know

Ok so basically a few nights back, I looked at my broken wallet, my Betty and Veronica comic books, this random roll of clear tape on my study table and realized "WHY NOT I MAKE MY OWN WALLET!!!"
Besides I needed one anyway, and I do not have enough money yet to buy myself this Charles and Keith Wallet I have been eyeing since forever, so I thought why not I make my own wallet to last me until I can get a new wallet. And besides, I remember making a similar comic wallet when I was 15. I even got a lot of compliments for it from all my friends and they all wondered how I made it. That one, however, was a simple envelope style wallet so it wasn't very difficult to make. The one I made this time is a full fledged wallet with pockets for cards and cash. So it actually took me 4 HOURS to make this. But it was really therapeutic and really fun. So if you are someone who loves doing DIYs and you want to carry around a piece of your favourite comics everywhere, then definitely give this a try.

*DISCLAIMER*
This wallet isn't meant to last you for a very long time. Its basically all just paper and tape put together so do not expect it to be extremely durable or kept in super good condition for a long time. It will wear along the way. However, it may last reasonably long like 6-8 months, especially if you can make it sturdy enough. The one I made 3 years back lasted me around there as well so yeap. This project is basically to let out your inner creativity and just really have fun as you make it.

So here is how your final wallet will look like after you're done

Pretty cool huh? So let's get started

Step 1: Use a wallet as your template. I'm using my broken wallet here

Step 2: Trace it on your big A3 sized sheet. I suggest you use those papers meant for drawing instead of printing papers.

Step 3: After tracing it, use a ruler to go over the lines again.

You should have something like this

Step 4: Cut your comic strips and lay it out on your sheet

Step 5: Glue them all. I also suggest using a good quality liquid white craft glue instead of a gluestick because you can just use a brush to spread a wide area with glue and stick everything at once. Plus you can use the glue and go over the edges to make sure everything is well stuck.

Trim off all the excess

And you should have a comic sheet that looks like this

Step 6: Do the exact same thing at the back and trim of the excess

Once you're done, make sure you go over both the sides with tape. Just cover the whole thing with tape. This is crucial to prevent your papers from tearing apart and also to give it a smooth finish.

Note: Stretch the tape out as well as possible to prevent formation of bubbles. But even if you get them, do not panic, just let it be. It doesn't look that bad anyway.

Do the same thing to the other side too.

Step 7: Measure the length and width of the main pocket

Step 8: Draw it out on a paper, cut it and stick your comic strips on it. 

Note: Add at least 2 cm extra to the length and the width because we will be folding them later. That is why you don't have to stick the comic strips all the till the edges because they will be folded and hidden away.

Step 9: Cut off the excess and use your clear tape to cover this whole thing (front and back). 

You can see how much bubbles I have at the back but this part will be hidden anyway.

Step 10: Draw 2cm length boxes on each corner

Then cut them out

Fold them in

And lay it out in the middle section of your wallet. First use glue to stick it on. Since its covered with tape, it will be slippery, so use some heavy books to stack it on your pocket and leave it for a while until the glue sets in.

Once it dries up, use lots of tape to go over the edges again to make it more sturdy. And there you have it, your main pocket is done. Let's move on with the card pockets now.

Step 10: Measure your side pockets and cut 4 pieces of paper

Cover them with comic strips

Trim the excess and tape it all over

Use clear tape to make a pocket for your pictures. You can even use a clear sheet to make your life easier but I didn't have that so I had to use tape instead. Even though it formed some bubbles and it was pretty tricky to stick them together because of their flimsiness, it worked anyway. 

Now arrange them all like the way it is arranged in your wallet and you should have something like this.

AND THERE YOU GO YOUR WALLET IS DONE

Front

Back

And the insides

So this was it. I know it's a pretty long process and many of you might just be too lazy to do this. But if you like doing DIYs like this, then I really do suggest trying this out. It looks tiring but it's actually really fun. And no one will have a wallet like yours.

That is it for today guys, I'll blog again soon.

Take care

Goodnightttt :)

Contact lenses the best thing ever?!

Hellooooo guys,

Been a while since I last posted. Well the blessed and the most awaited one month june holidays are finally here and it feels absolutely amazing to sleep at home and wake up at my own time and study at my own convenience with no pressure of homework. Although, I do have to go to school once or twice for History, but other than that, it's a legit break. I know many of you guys are like "what break?" since we have to mug for the dreaded prelim 1 but hey...come on...would you rather have school and lessons and homework and prepare for prelims at the same time or sit at home and just prepare? Yes, I thought so too

ANYWAY GUYS SERIOUS STUFF HAS HAPPENED THE PAST TWO DAYS AND I HAVE TO SHARE THIS WITH YOU ALL BECAUSE YOU ALL CAN AVOID LANDING IN THE STATE THAT I AM IN RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I KNOW MANY OF YOU WEAR CONTACT LENSES LIKE ME!!!

So yesterday I had to go for History lecture, and suddenly my right eye starts to burn a lot. I couldn't look at the screen because anything bright would start irritating my eye and make me tear a lot. It became so bad that I could barely keep my eye open and tears just kept flowing. And to top that off, Whenever I blinked or moved my eyes, I felt this really pinchy kind of a pain and it was just the most painful and uncomfortable thing and my eye really swelled up a lot after that. At first, I thought it was due to my lenses not being clean enough and probably a dust particle on it that was hurting me. So I was expecting my eyes to feel relieved as soon as I removed them. But even after removing them, NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL. I couldn't even text anyone because the light from the phone screen hurt my eyes. So I just went to sleep hoping that when I wake up, the pain will magically be gone. But when I woke up, there was no difference. I felt like I was trapped and I just wanted the pain to go away. My boyfriend, dad and mom suggested me to thoroughly keep washing my eyes BUT NOTHING WORKED. I became so desperate and I was in so much discomfort that my mom decided to take me to a doctor at 8 pm. The doctor however, was not an eye doctor so she could only suggest what may be the problem. So she referred me to an eye specialist at Raffles Hospital for the next day and gave me some normal eye drops to soothe the pain for the night.

So when I woke up in the morning, my eyes felt slightly better but I was still in a lot of discomfort and the tears still kept flowing. When we reached the hospital, my eyes were still swollen and it was so bad that during the eye test (you know the machine where you have to look in to this tiny hole and see a house), I couldn't even keep my eye open. Anyway, so somehow I managed to keep it open for like 2 seconds and the lady managed to do the test and send the reports to the doctor. Now here is the part that I did not expect at all when I went to see the main doctor.

When I told him what I was going through, these are the first few questions he asked me

Doc: What kind of lenses are you wearing
Me: monthly

Doc: When did you start wearing them?
Me: When I was 14

Doc: Do you know how to take care of your lenses
Me: Yeah, just wash my hands, put the lens on my palm, rub it with solution both ways and wear them.

Doc: Ok good, so how long do you wear them for?
Me: Definitely more than 12 hours a day

Doc: *cheeky smile* Do you wear them to sleep
Me: ....Sometimes...when I'm really tired, I forget

Doc: Did the person you buy the lenses from ever told you for how long you are suppose to wear them for each day?
Me: ...Not really

Doc: Why did you buy monthly and not disposables?
Me: So I could wear them everyday

Doc: So you thought monthlies are better because you can wear them everyday and for longer hours?
Me: MEHHH IDK OK I KNOW I ALWAYS MAKE WRONG DECISIONS IN LIFE!!!

Ok so the last part isn't true, but I realized, he asked me all these questions to make me understand that there's so much about lenses that I don't know, more significantly, the proper usage of the lenses. Knowing how to wear them and keeping them clean is one thing, but to know for how long to wear them for, when to wear them and when to remove them is another thing. And then he said this very important sentence.

"People forget that lenses, at the end of the day, is a foreign object. It's not meant to become a part of your body "

After that he went on to take a few more test in his room to check the level of damage I suppose. When he was done, he made me sit down and he went on to tell me what is actually happening to my eyes. And it turns out that....My eyes are showing symptoms of having Cornea Ulcers

You think the name is scary, wait till you hear what happens after you get them. But firstly, my doctor went on to tell me how bad lenses are, because he realized, that unless I don't know how they work, I will never learn from my mistake. So he went on to say:

"Your cornea needs oxygen to function just like any other body parts. When you wear lenses, you block the cornea from getting any oxygen. Your cornea can take that for a certain amount of time but if the lense blocks it for too long, it will start to suffocate and become weak. When it becomes weak, it will cause two things. One, it will distort the clarity of your vision and you will start experiencing blurriness and two, it will destroy the layer that protects bacteria from entering the eyes which will intern start creating ulcers. And once ulcers start to develop, the only treatment that could be done is Cornea Transplant and even after that there would be scars left that would be permanent and you'd have to live on eye drops (I forgot the kind of eye drops he mentioned) for your entire life because someone else's nerves and tissues will be in you body (or something like that) "

I swear, the moment I heard a cornea transplant, I stopped breathing. I mean I expected something like an eye surgery to remove the ulcer, NOT TO GET RID OF MY ENTIRE EYES ITSELF!!! 

At that moment, I swear I was on the verge of tears. I didn't want someone else's eyes with a scar, I wanted my own eyes to remain with me no matter what. At that moment, I was willing to make any sacrifice to not have my eyes removed. 

I shakily asked the doctor, if my eyes can still be treated or is it already too late?

And thank all the Gods in the universe, he said my eyes is still in a pretty early stage and in a treatable state. But...I strictly cannot wear contact lenses for 3 months now in order for my eyes to heal. I guess this is the sacrifice I have to make. Even though a part of me died when I heard that (because I'm so damn conscious to wear my glasses anywhere but home), AT LEAST I STILL HAD MY OWN EYES INTACT.  I don't even care about looking good or not, just hearing that my condition is still early and treatable was like the biggest orgasm to my ear ok, not even kidding.

So for now he gave me anti bacterial eye drops that I had to put once every hour today and tomorrow I have to go back and he'll see my eyes condition again, and start with the next treatment. So I guess bye bye to looking good now without my glasses, but hey, at least the pain and discomfort is totally gone and I can actually see everything again properly. And most importantly, I learnt the importance of taking care of my eyes now and I swear I will never take things like my vision for granted again.

My parents paid 168 bucks to hear this advice from the doc but you guys, if you have read all the way till here, you've gotten it for free of any charge. Please, if you are somebody who is a constant user of contact lenses, do not wear your lenses for more than 6-8 hours a day, DO NOT EVER SLEEP WITH IT and make sure you give your eyes 2 days a week to rest by not wearing any lenses. Trust me, you do not want to go through that kind of pain or the threat of having your own eyes removed and living on someone else's eyes. It's something that is in your control. I had to learn it the hard way and I guess I deserved this because I really was careless with my eyes and lenses handling. SO DON'T BE LIKE ME.

So to answer the question, yeap contact lenses are still a pretty amaze balls invention. I mean come on, when you clean it properly and wear them, it's like you have nothing in your eyes and it makes you feel like you have perfect vision. But as the doctor said, it is still a foreign object. Do not make it a part of your body. Be responsible and do not overuse it for the sake of looking good. Do not compromise you eyes or vision for it.

That is pretty much it for now guys. I really hope my eyes get better soon. On a brighter note, I will be getting a new pair of glasses soon and I guess it'll be fun to try out looks with which glasses will look good. And I guess it'll also be a good break for my eyes as well.

I'll be back soon with a new post soon. Until then, take care guys <3

cyaaaaa