Maybelline The Rocket Volum' Express Waterproof

Yet another Maybelline mascara i'm a big fan of!

The packaging:


The cobalt blue tube is nothing to shout about, with 'Maybelline New York The Rocket Volum' Express Waterproof printed in sky blue.

The wand:


Resepi Kurma Kambing

*this post will be in Manglish, people, OK? and i will be using "i" instead of "saya". let's see how that goes.

OhmyGoddd. I berjaya masak kurma kambing, YES!!!




Selama ni pernah masak kurma daging/ayam dua kali macam tu je rasanya, tapi malam tadi rasa adventurous lah pulak. D…

Makan-Makan In Italy: Venice Episode

Bapak, Shah and i were having dinner with a friend of Bapak's named Thomas in Paris a few weeks ago, and we were discussing about Italy. When Venice came up, i instantly exclaimed, "I LOVEEE Venice. Possibly my most favourite city in Europe." And Shah said his was Barcelona. Thomas then mused, "I can understand why you love Venice—it's a 'woman' city. And i also understand why you (looking at Shah now) like Barcelona".

The thing is, it made sense. It does. Venice has the little streets, the canals, the boats and gondolas. The things girls sigh over. Barcelona, in Shah's words, "has everything": mountain and beach and i can't even remember what else. I don't know why that can be made into a reason to love a city, but to each his own.


Another thing is, i am such a girly girl, it simply won't make sense if i don't love Venice. Don't even think of this as a sexist issue; it's just human nature. The two sexes were generally made in such a way to appreciate different things in life. Like how, generally, men love football, and women love handbags.


The beauty of all of this though is, for example, i fully support Shah's favourite team Manchester United—we even wore a Van Persie jersey TOGETHER that one night—and Shah fully support my need to constantly get brand new handbags. And shoes and clothes and so on. Only, of course, he does this financially too.


But yes, ever since i declared to Shah i loved Venice, which was in Venice itself, i felt the need to defend why exactly i love Venice. To tell you the truth, i don't think Venice has a lot to offer, other than what i mentioned. The little streets, the canals, the boats and gondolas. I will admit Barcelona is a more interesting interesting city to explore. In fact, i sometimes wonder if i like Venice or Barcelona more. But, i don't know, there's just something about Venice. There's just something that i think just appeals. Especially to the female mass, yes, possibly.


However, i recently discovered Venice is my Pakteh's favourite city in Europe as well! A huge plus i'd say! Pakteh, my retired Uncle, and his family came to visit Shah and i in Paris recently. Him and his daughter, my cousin Lina were here for Roland Garros, so it's great that we are here when Roland Garros was happening. Pakteh studied in a uni in England and did the whole backpacking Eurotrip thing. When i asked what was it about Venice that he liked, he said something along this line: it's a city with a different feel to it. And the water plays a big part in its uniqueness.


Well, i couldn't agree more.


Oh and of course, the food. Food was a BIG part of it, to me.


On our first day there, a receptionist of our hotel suggested we had lunch at this restaurant right beside the hotel.





Weekend Getup

Spring comes and goes...all in the month of June itself this year. Spring 2013 forgot how to "Spring" sometimes. It's confusing itself with winter at random moments.

The weather was lovely this past weekend though, as well as today! Spring is my absolute favourite season. All the colours around you! I love it when the sun is out and even more when there is a slight breeze. Breeze matters to hijab-wearers, fyi.

My outfit for Saturday:




deBBY kissMYlips Lipstick 7

deBBYthis is exactly how it's spelled, with the 'd' and 'e' as small letters and the rest capital—is a pharmacy/drugstore/pharmacie brand i discovered a few months ago, found in the Monoprix branches strewn around Paris. Hailing from Italy, it's the sister brand to Deborah Milano, with both brands being under the Deborah Group.

I discovered this brand sort of accidentally; it just happened to be next to the Deborah Milano products that i originally had my eye on. There was these rows of short tubes of deBBY lipsticks that caught my eye then, and this pink of a shocker stood out the most.



Remember that time we met Tim Burton?

Shah and i were on our way to watch Bachelorette (not a good movie) in Les Quatre Temps. We saw a commotion. Loads of cameras, reporters and non-reporter regular people waving their camera phones about.

And then i saw that marvellous messy mane.

OhmyGod. Oh, my God.

TIM BURTON.



How To Make a Super Easy, Delicious and Relatively Healthy Spinach Pasta



The only ingredients you need to make this simple spinach pasta are: thin spaghetti, loads of garlic, chilli flakes, baby spinach, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.

That's it. For a healthy pasta, that is. But we are making a relatively healthy pasta here. So add butter to that list, bebeh!

Ingredients (for two people):
- Enough thin spaghettis for two people
- 10-15 garlic cloves; Shah and i love garlic, so i usually use 15. We don't mind garlic breath.
- 2 tbsp chilli flakes
- A few handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves; this is totally up to you. Shah and i love spinach so we put loadsss in.
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
- 1 tbsp butter
- Salt and pepper to taste


MAC Morange Lipstick

It's been quite an education to live in a country with four seasons and experience the ever changing trends with the season. I wasn't so much into makeup when i studied in New Zealand, so count that out. Reading about these seasonal trends in Malaysia didn't affect me much, as Malaysia is summer all year round—the hottest, most humid summer you can imagine, i suppose—so i feel like we Malaysians are allowed to experiment with colours and trends any time of the year. Seriously, it's not impossible to find Malaysians wearing leather jackets and boots, regardless of what season it is anywhere else in the world.

But now i am in Paris, and it is spring! My favourite season, and possibly yours too i'm sure. Although if you must know, the 2013 spring in Europe is said to be the coldest ever in 20 years. It was like winter still at the start of spring. Thankfully the weather has warmed up a bit lately.

In winter, it was a lot of dark reds and warm, darker colours. Now that summer is approaching, it's back to the bright, cooler colours. Isn't it interesting how we all kind of wear warmer colours in the cold weather, and wear cooler colours when the sun is starting to scorch?

I still can't leave my red lippies behind, but i'm also starting to use my bright pink lipsticks again. However there is one colour that i feel i am finally, finally ready to experiment with: bright orange. And there is no lipstick more perfect for this experiment than my MAC Amplified Morange.


Vichy Normaderm Range Review

I've been using this Vichy Laboratoires Normaderm range for 9 weeks now, which i think is a long enough period of time to warrant a creditable review. Or maybe i just can't wait any longer.

The products i've dutifully used in that period of time from this range are:

- Normaderm Deep Cleansing Purifying Gel / Gel Nettoyant Purifiant Profond
- Normaderm Purifying Astringent Lotion / Lotion Assainissante Astringente
- Normaderm Global Anti-imperfection Hydrating Care / Soin Hydratant Anti-imperfections Global
- Normaderm Chrono-active Anti-imperfection Night Care / Nuit Soin Chrono-action Anti-imperfections



Contact Form for Pages [DO NOT DELETE]

Hi, I'm Liyana

I'm a style & lifestyle blogger based in sunny (and ever humid) Malaysia. On The Good Weekender, you can find typed journals of my evolving modest personal style, travel adventures, skincare/beauty updates, home decor things, and stories of other bits and pieces of my everyday life. I hope you'll enjoy flipping through these pages of my virtual book!