I visited Kuala Lumpur on my birthday weekend because I wanted to escape Jakarta’s suffocating stranglehold, and because I wanted to hang out with my dear friend, Syar, who is one of the pillars behind the very excellent online magazine, ISSUE. She drove me around the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur, where I had my fill of Malaysian culinary staples: Penang laksa, roti canai, and the enigmatic Ramly burger. All were as I remember them to be from the last time I visited Malaysia–greasy and downright DELICIOUS.
Whatever a honey massage is, it sounds pretty good after all that food.
We spent most of our time in the suburbs of Shah Alam, Bangsar, and Putrjaya, but we managed a trip to KL proper to visit the beautiful grounds of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre and two hugely fascinating museums: the Muzium Negara and Islamic Arts Centre. Soon enough, we became thirsty for bubble tea and hunted some down during a trip to Mid Valley Megamall. Then like a moth to the flame, I became distracted by some shiny lights.
Inglot was a makeup heaven. The store was an absolute sight to behold, with rows and rows of lipticks, eye shadows, and nail polishes in every shade imaginable. But I’m a caveman and was not familiar at all with this brand; I asked the in-house makeup artist about their line of gel eyeliners, and she kindly led me to an amazing product with a colour intensity I never encountered in any other gel eyeliner. For the rest of the day, the formula did not crease or smudge despite the tropical heat we were walking around in.
I was hooked and was fixed on buying a pot, but I had already fallen in love with their lipstick and cream foundation. I bought a bright red lipstick (#126) for RM 50, and the cream foundation (#26) for RM 80; that’s about IDR 450,000 for both, which I thought was a spectacularly good deal.
The lipstick of my choosing was a hydrating semi-matte red which looks especially strong under white light, but it is far more subdued upon application. The cream foundation works well as a means of oil control, and colour oxidation remains at a minimum even hours after patting it on. I’ve laid on the foundation thick in the swatch photo below, which just goes to show how a little bit of this product goes a very, very long way.
After I walked out with my purchase, I contacted my fellow Fashionese Daily editors Deszell and Grisselda (who are much more educated on beauty products than I am!) and asked if they had heard of the brand; they wrote back excitedly singing praises of their eye shadows and nail polishes. I immediately regretted not buying more!
I did a little research on the line and learned that it was founded by Polish-American chemist Wojciech Inglot, who sadly passed away recently. The brand became a cult favourite among Muslim women for their halal-certified line of O2M “breathable” nail polish, which is porous enough for water and air to permeate to the keratin (Fashionese Daily’s own Ketupatkartini wrote about it in a recent article). Plenty of other Inglot products are specifically formulated for women who are health-conscious and concerned about the often toxic compounds found in cosmetics: their nail polishes contain no toluene, formaldehyde, DBP, or camphor, while their lipsticks are paraben-free, composed mostly of castor seed oil, and enriched with apricot kernel oil for maximum hydration.
I really, really, really regret not getting my hands on more items from Inglot! According to their website, the closest Inglot stores are the ones located in Malaysia. So keep an eye out for this line the next time you’re there and don’t forget to pick up some nail polish for me while you’re at it! 😉
