girls night in

did i mention how much i lovelovelove manda and lili?

i'm honestly DREADING the day they have to pack up and return to nz. i shudder at the mere thought of it; when that day comes *sad face* i'll probably be sprawled out on the floor clinging onto their ankles, begging them to stay. my only proper english speaking friends! we get along so well i can't remember a time when i didn't know them. we have progressed to the stage of having inside jokes *the look* that's how far along we've come.

after grocery shopping, we returned to our respective flats to cook lunch, with the promise of meeting up later in the evening. ie: getting dressed, going out.

after a terribly full (late and long) lunch, manda and i texted each other back and forth, hoping to spur ourselves into hatching some great plans for tonight - nothing. she wanted to do something. i just wanted to dress up, but not go out. rochester isn't exactly the hippest joint in town. hip isn't even in its vocabulary. rochester + hip = ? you get my drift.

in the end, i hopped over to watch the O.C. on dvd, and knock back malibu pineapple (i brought with me 'asian snacks' [they totally coined this term] and m&s choc biscuits), expecting a relatively tame night. halfway through - i can't exactly put my finger on it - we somehow got to talking about fresher's ball next week; - it's a 50s style boat party, on the river thames - outfit, styling, hair & makeup, shoes, bag.. etc.

ding! manda had a bright idea: we were going to practise curling our (mine and lili's) hair to get that 50s style wavyish loose curls, in a casually pinned updo. i ran back to my flat for some bobby pins, rubber bands, clips and breakfast at tiffany's.

what's a girls' night in without some holly golightly?

while the dvd was playing, manda aka chief stylist/hair & makeup artist/all-round everything-er worked her magic on/with the curling tongs. lili took a few photos so that i could witness the progress. manda never fails to surprise me with her enthusiam (and the fact that this woman can do almost anything), amaaaaazing! when she was done with the hair (which took the duration of the film), she proceeded onto makeup - doing proper smokey eyes/dramatic pencilled in brows/glossy lips - going all the way with the whole glamour-girl look.

upon the completion of her final touches, i nervously took a peek in the bathroom mirror - the unveiling always gives me the jitters, from disastrous past experiences - voila! it was... absolutely gorgeous. iloveloveloveit! the styling i mean. it's real pretty. we took more photos but uploading them on facebook would seem awfully narcissistic. i'll put up photos from the actual ball next week. basically, she pinned up the curls on the left and back of my head, but let the rest cascade loosely on the right.

back home, whenever we have a GNI, i'm usually the one running around doing everyone's hair. in the end, i never get anything done to myself because no one else knows how. for the first time, it feels nice doing girly girl stuff and having someone make you up pretty.

next, lili!

manda repeated the steps, but went milder on the makeup - lili tends to go for more natural looks whereas i'm up for anything (as long as it's at manda's magic fingers!) brushing across a forest green and bronze eyeshadow and giving her flushed rosy cheeks. curled hair as well; on the day itself lili's going ultra glam with glossy slicked back waves, pinned. my inspiration for her look was maggie cheung: in the mood for love. can you believe we actually researched this, and made film/red carpet references?

taking it one step further, manda and i practically launched ourselves 2-against-1 onto lili, forcing her to try on several dresses, belts, shoes and bags. we had to get the styling right. i bet she hates us now. haha. well, what do you expect? we're fashion students!