Chinese New Year OOTDs!

Hey everyone!

First of all, Happy Chinese New Year to all the readers celebrating. May you have a prosperous and fantastic Horse year! 

Secondly, I apologize for the long silence on this blog. I've been terribly busy with all the spring cleaning and preparations for the biggest Chinese festival of the year: Chinese New Year!

If you don't know what Chinese New Year(CNY) is, then here's a very brief introduction. CNY is the time of the year when the new lunar year in the Chinese calendar starts. It is like the Western world's equivalent of Christmas. To celebrate, we deck ourselves in new clothes, cook lots of food and clean the house to prepare to welcome in the good fortune of the new year. People will visit each other and give out red packets with money inside.

This is one of the most stressful period of the year for me as my life gets turned upside down. I get kicked out of the usual room I sleep in for my grandparents, which really messes with usual routine. There's a TON of cleaning to do (from kitchen tiles to crystal lights... and the list goes on). Furthermore, my food intake increases by 200% during new year, thanks to the incredible food my grandmother cooks. Coming from a Hakka+Hainanese family background, my CNY usually involves having a huge table loaded with super yummy  fattening food, such as yam & pork, braised pork with leeks etc. One thing for this year was that my birthday fell on the eve of CNY. On that day, my house is THE place to go for the annual reunion dinner, so my birthday got overlooked in a way. I did get  3 birthday cakes because I celebrated my birthday with different groups of people. Overall, CNY was pretty crazy for me. I've got my pimple breakout to show for the stress I went through.

I did my new year clothes shopping waaaay ahead of CNY (last June) to avoid the hassle of shopping during the peak period. That's probably why you didn't see a CNY outfit shopping post from me. Without any further waiting, here're my outfits! (there're only 2 outfits because I only visited on 2 days)

DAY 1

Outfit- Dress, ~35RM from some shop in JB Citysquare(cheap dress); platform sandals, ~SGD30,Guangzhou; Purse,Hong Kong; Watch, Wired(Hong Kong)

For the first time in a long while, I decided to wear red for CNY. Red is considered to be an auspicious colour, thus I chose red. Personally, I think my figure looks really amazing in this dress because it showed off  my curves that I'm proud of.  This is because of the support wear/corset pants from Black RaRa** that I wore inside. It helped to pack all my excess bulge nicely :)  It was tiring to pull the pants up, but I was comfortable once I was in it (I even fell asleep in it!) So, with my tummy all tucked in nicely, the dress accentuated my waist and curvy body shape, which I liked. I think I looked slimmer and the red really brightened my skin nicely.

**If you're interested in the Black RaRa shapewear, check out their facebook page. I'm wearing the Agent 001 Slender Sally, which cost me $49 at Metro before 20% discount.

I paired the dress with the pair of white platform sandals that I bought in Guangzhou in June last year (yes, I managed to stop myself from wearing these lovely babies all these months). I carried a small purse which I love because of the cute cat prints, colour and sequins on it. It probably didn't match very well with my red dress but whatever. It's CNY and I adore cat prints.

Accessories that I wore: Hearts bangle, Qoo10; Heart Necklace, SK (my 22nd Birthday present); Set of 6 Silver Rings, H&M, $4.72.

I put on some silver accessories which I felt added a glam factor to my outfit. If not, the dress would be really plain. I think this outfit will also make a good Valentine's Day outfit too, considering that it is red and has heart-themed jewelry.

Makeup wise, I didn't do anything too difficult except for the red lips. I put on a light layer of foundation and blush and also used some bronzer. On my eyes, I used some of the neutral eyeshadow colours from my Sleek palette and my Fasio mascara. To complete the look, I drew my eyebrows with my brow pencil. I think it's important to define your brows to really bring the look together. This is especially so if you're going to do bold makeup. I focused mostly on my red lips, which are tricky things to handle. I lined my lips first with NYX's lip pencil (Brick red) and then layered Rimmel's lip lacquer over the pencil. I blotted the lips with a tissue and then used the same lip pencil to shade the outer corners of my lips. I then dabbed some more of Rimmel's lip laquer in the centre of my lips to give some depth to the look.

Left: Sleek Au Naturel Palette; Fasio's Mascaliner; Revlon Colorstay Concealer; Bourjois Blush; Rimmel Natural Bronzer.
Right: Rimmel Show Off Lip Lacquer in Big Bang; Origins Lip Remedy; NYX Lip Pencil in Deep Red. 

The colours that I used in my Sleek palette: Honeycomb-- an amazing base colour because it covers up the pigmentation/darkness on my eyelids; Moss-- contour; Mineral Earth-- used at the outer edge of my eye; Taupe--inner corner highlights. Taupe is a super pretty colour that lights up the inner corners of my eyes subtly.

DAY 2

The second day of CNY involved everyone coming to my place again for lunch. I was planning on going back to bed after everyone had left, so I decided to wear my recently purchased dress from H&M. It's comfy to sleep in yet looks presentable if I go out in it.

Outfit- Jersey Dress, H&M, $9.90; Hat, Hong Kong; Orangle bucket bag, Bangkok, ~$8; Necklace, Qoo10; Rest are the same as outfit 1.

As it turns out, I went to my grandparents' place to play with my little cousin who came from Guangzhou after lunch. I ended up staying overnight because I played some mahjong till quite late... and I slept in the dress too. Haha.

I adore the hat I'm wearing in this photo because it amps up the chic factor of any outfit. It helped to block out some of the sunlight too. For makeup, I just put on the bare minimum of foundation, liquid eyeliner and blush. Not to forget, I also drew my eyebrows because not having defined eyebrows makes me look washed out, thanks to my lighter hair colour. I kept accessories simple to match the simplicity of the outfit, so I only wore my watch and my cheap gold triangle necklace. The total outfit probably costs less than $60(excluding my watch), which is pretty awesome for those of you who are on a budget.

A photo of my hat. I bought this when I went to Hong Kong with Christine a few years back. I can't remember how much it cost me but it's less than $10. Hats are a great way to chic up your outfits.

Well that's all for my CNY post folks! I hope you've had an enjoyable CNY too! Feel free to use my OOTD as reference for your V-day outfits since they're red (red symbolises passion and love). Happy Chinese New Year to all the readers :) :)

Till next time
Love,
El   xoxo