♥ Frowne: Adventures of a Costume Designer ♥

Much belated Valentine's Day post

2012-02-28T19:03:00.000-08:00

How did you guys spend your Valentine's day? I went to Los Angeles to spend time with my valentine and go on all sorts of adventures. Most of them including food!

I was going to drive there (from San Jose-ish area -> Los Angeles), which would have taken me about 6 hours. My mother, being as worried about everything as she is and I, having a test late Monday night, decided that it would be better to fly. So, with last-minute plane tickets secured, I packed up my suitcase and realized that I'd have to get up at 3am to make it to the airport on time. Whoops. Here, as punishment, you may have this half-asleep, drugged-out looking face. This is about 9am, an hour or so after I arrived:

You like that? YEAH YEAH? WANT MORE?
I honestly have no idea what is going on in my head at this moment. I feel that it's nothing too coherent, but I give up. Why? Because I had brought a bottle of BAWLS with me [side note: it's the only energy drink I can stand and the only one that works for me]. It will be better soon, I swear...

I won't really go into the details, because who gives a damn about two people enjoying the company of each other, but there are a few awesome things I must mention.

First, I picked a kick-ass place for dinner. I love French food, he loves French food and French food can be pricey, not to mention various qualities. I had spent quite a few hours, while still at home, looking up reviews and researching various restaurants around the Los Angeles area. Finally, I came across Cheval Blank and the menu sounded pretty awesome. So I made a reservation and off we went.

It was KICK ASS. Yes, I had to repeat that. When I was younger (think 15-19), I worked at a local French restaurant, that had similar pricing and high class reviews and man, oh, man! I think I found the next best thing! All the dishes were delicious, but I must single out Duck Confit, because it was like eating [insert something delicious and possibly inappropriate here]. I may or may not want to just live at the restaurant now, and they can pay me in Duck Confit. Yeah, that's how good it was.

Our waitress was super sweet and took a photo. My valentine is one of those people who dislike "kissy" photos, so he surprised me when at the last moment, he planted one on my cheek. And he will probably kick my butt for even posting this. Oh, well!

After fancy-dress, nice makeup, pretty hair evening, we woke up and were off to Salton Sea for some camping. Didn't figure me for a nature type, did you? Well, neither did I, until recently. Namely, this: my first camping trip in FOREVER.

On the way to the camp location, we decided to do some UrbEx on the way [I am not going to disclose the location, because we are not quite done with it yet, sorry...]. Let me tell you - being in a burnt down home that has child's toys in it is quite morbid:

Right? Tell me you don't have stories popping into your head about how this fire happened...Because I definitely do, quite a few, actually. And they all terrify me!

But terrifying things aside...after all this exploration madness, this guy here goes and makes Lemon Meringue pie for a mentor of his. Man, I dislike lemon pies, but this one was goooood--
Also, I like this shot. Makes me almost a pro, with my dSLR and all. Just kidding. "Just because you own a dSLR, does not make you a photographer" - I stand with that statement. I do enjoy the d90, because of all the options (and because I am better with complex things than simple...)

Now I just made myself hungry. Good job, Alina...
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

But it's okay, because I also got to visit Vivienne Westwood shop while in LA and fell in love with these:

They have a giant zipper and are awesome. Since my birthday is coming up, I hinted to my family that I want these. However, I doubt that it will happen, so this photo currently sits on my desktop, taunting me and making me drool a little bit. Oh, Vivienne Westwood...I love your work a little too much--

Speaking of awesome things:

Titanium rings are pretty damn epic. So is the paleness of my hand. HAH!
Since I was given mine a few years back, I fell in love with Titanium jewelry - it's so easy to maintain and does not tarnish like silver. Plus, if you need self-defense, you've got some right on your finger! Right?

And on that happy note, I shall stop rambling for the day.

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Okay, maybe not...I forgot to mention that I am going to be visiting My Glam warehouse on Friday, and participating in the panel with the Glam Girls! I am quite excited, because not too many things happen around this area, and when they do, I am busy doing something else. BOO!
The event is from 9.30am - 4pm and I think I may actually revive my twitter/instagram for this.

Until next time,
Frowne

How Bath and Body works ruined my wall

2012-01-05T16:50:00.001-08:00

What's worse than products not working as well as you expect? Products ruining your personal belongings or hurting you. Think I am overreacting? Let me show you something...

For years I've loved Bath and Body Works. My home always smells like Japanese Cherry Blossom, since it's a gentle and pleasant smell that's not too invasive on most noses. But it seems like I'll have to look for another place to find my room fresheners and such. Why? Well, let's see here:

What is that? Oh, that's just a Bath and Body Works candle that EXPLODED. There I am sitting at my laptop and working when a piece of glass lands on my mouse - hand. Was the glass cracked beforehand? Nope. Was there anything hot near the candle? Nope. Yet somehow the glass cracks and I end up cleaning up small pieces of glass from between my keyboard keys. WHAT? Well, that's a waste of $10, my time and some band-aids. Whatever, I thought, and kept going on with my life.

There I am, going on with my life when I realize that my home smells less and less like Japanese Cherry Blossom. Well, that sucks! So I check my three Wallflowers (if you don't know what they are, here's a photo):

(Product photo from Bath and Body Works website)

Turns out they have stopped working as well. All three of them. First my bedroom, then my bathroom, and lastly, my living room. It hasn't even been six months, so that shouldn't be happening...But since it's past the return date and I definitely don't even have the receipts (I don't keep any past 3 months, because I expect products to work from then on), I am screwed right there. It's sad when the refills you bought out-last the Wallflower itself. Just...sad. There goes another $25.50 for three Wallflowers. Plus I've got 2 more 4-packs of refills left with no use. Great.

Now, you may think that the story ends here with me complaining about products that don't work, blah blah and that I am a complaining bitch. Well, the last one is true, but wait til you hear my last straw story...Watch this:

What in the world is that?
Oh, that's just another Bath and Body Works product EXPLODING on me and this time getting the liquid all over my wall, floor and baseboard. A little cleanup should do the trick, so it's nothing but my time and product wasted, right? Wrong.

The bulb refill liquid caused the paint on my wall and baseboard to bubble up and come off! Oh, nothing big, just a few hundred to repair. Can you believe this? Not only did I lose The Wallflowers, the refill, but now I have to match the paint to my wall and baseboard, sand and re-paint both, not to mention the fact that it will always look different, unless I repaint the whole baseboard or it will just drive me crazy.

All in all, FUCK.
I generally don't do this kind of dramatic complaining thing, but I just can't stand the damage their products have done, while I was using them as I was supposed to.

Hello repairs and lost money, good bye buying any more crap from them. Happy New Year.

Sephora: temptress in disguise

2011-12-12T15:06:00.000-08:00

I've noticed that quite a few of my previous posts are about things I've purchased at Sephora either with the Friends & Family sale, VIB sale or this following one: VIB gift card. Craziness.
Aside being amazing by carrying so many different brands, they have an exceptional return policy and quite a few sales and freebies. Does not help my addiction at all. This is awful.

However, I ended up purchasing more things *sigh*
I got a $20 coupon from Sephora by email ($20 off $50), and I got seduced by the good deal, so I gave in and purchased a Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush (in Blissful) and YSL Rouge Volupté Lipstick (in Peach Passion).

The blush packaging is super slick and tiny, which seems like a rip for a $25 blush, but from what I saw when I swatched it, it's incredibly pigmented, so I don't expect to run through this that quickly:

The design is nice, but I assume I will flatten it out quickly enough:

See what I mean about pigmentation? Blissful has a somewhat peachy side to it, which I was excited about, since I don't have any peachy blushes yet. So pretty:

Have I mentioned that I am addicted to YSL? Their packaging is to die for, even the shiny outside box :3 shiny~

And just look at the lipstick packaging itself >.< Definitely feels anything but cheap and makes me feel like a real lady:

There's a good amount of product in there as well, just a few dabs will get full coverage on the lips, therefore I expect this to last forever:

The color actually makes me think that I may have subconsciously picked two peachy items on purpose, which I hadn't. MAGIC. Not really, but hey~

I've been wearing the YSL lipstick for a few hours at this point and it's super creamy. I did end up eating and transferring the lipstick to my fork, but I am not going to judge it harshly just yet. I'm not used to such creamy lipsticks, so it will take a bit to get used to.

As for blush, the swatch is still on my hand, even though I tried to rub it off a bit. I am not wearing any makeup aside from that, so I will wait to judge the blush when I decide to make myself up and be all pretty <3

Photo of the moment

2011-11-16T22:53:00.000-08:00

You know what I've been doing lately? Being a total slacker. Damn, after my job finished, I've been sleeping in, walking the dog, watching Law & Order SVU and just being a lazy bum. Mostly.

I did, however find some new inspirations for blogging and such and for artsy stuff. I guess it's a good thing. Although, I kind of miss having something to do every day - maybe I should go back to school and learn something new and awesome? Gosh, what would I learn :o

Meanwhile, let me show you what I've been up to...

First off, there was a night where I could not sleep and I though "hm...I should do makeup before I go to bed..." and for some reason that sounded like a good idea. So I decided to do Black Swan makeup. Why? Because that move was slightly terrifying. Just slightly. Oh, and be forwarned: this is an iSight photo, so it's shit quality, but makeup is okay :3

Then later on, when my hair was getting all washed out blonde again (ew), I had it tinted to a Sunrise Red. I love it! And it reminded me of Jessica Rabbit's hair, so I decided to go for it and just...you know...go all out on this. Plus, I was doing a semi-collaboration thing with a friend of mine for hooker makeup - this kind of qualifies, no?

Oh, the fun times...OH! Would you like to see my lunch? I was terribly hungry and craving sushi, so I tagged along with my mother to a shopping center with a Nijiya market and ended up getting a pre-packaged sushi lunch...that I put on a plate, made a side rice and miso soup and some delicious green tea:

Man...so delicious (plus, the wasabi cleared up my sinuses)~

As a side note, I will start a new thing on this blog. I will post "photo of the moment" type of thing, because I realize that most of the time, I am just too lazy to log into blogger and hence never write anything anymore. This will force me to take a shot at my creative side (and possibly learn some photography while I am at it...) and possibly even write something worthwhile~ Now, as a preview, here's something I decided to do a Photo of the Moment on:

MELON BREAD. I love melon bread so much :DDD

Oh! I wonder if it would interest anyone if I made a hair poof cheat tutorial. Or I guess - how to make a hair rat type of thing...hmm...I have extensions that I am not using, so I may do that soon - keep an eye out~

Sephora F&F Sale Haul

2011-11-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Sure, it is the most sad and depressing 'haul' ever, but I did not need much, so here goes necessity buy! Yay me!

Since my MAC Fluidline is kind of icky right now (it's not dry, but it takes a few times going over the line for it to show up dark), I decided not to re-purchase that when I am out, but go with another brand. I read up on a few gel liners and heard that Bobbi Brown one is good, plus I've seen it plenty in tutorials. Additionally - 20% off purchase is as good time as any to get it, right?

My other purchase was YSL Matt & Radiant Pressed Powder (Poudre Compacte Radiance), since I don't like super high coverage powders and my Revlon is being very cakey recently. Reading up on this, I came to a conclusion that it would be a good match for me, as it is pretty translucent, but good at mattifying. Let's see, shall we?

Boxes are always pretty, no? Although I get frustrated when boxes are shiny and show fingerprints. Boo. But hey - it's not like I am keeping these, ya?

So far, the liner looks good. I still have to test it out, but I don't want to do it before I run out of the Fluidline:

See how pretty the compact is? It also comes in a velvety pouch with 'YSL' printed on it. It's nice to keep the compact not scratched in the purse.

The pouch also comes with a compartment that stores a little powder puff. When I was reading reviews, I came across a few that were complaining that the compact did not have a puff inside, so either they did not know about this little pouch, or YSL started including these. They are pretty nifty.

The puff is kind of cheapo, but honestly, I change these often for sanitary reasons, so it's not like I need a pricy one, right? RIGHT?

The compact has a good size mirror and it's pretty light and fancy. I kind of love it right now. I am hoping to use it when I next do my makeup, so we'll see how it goes. Pretty, pretty, pretty >.<

Here's an imprint of the YSL logo on the powder. Wonder how long it will take me to flatten it :3

See, I told you the haul was tiny. My name is Alina and I have an addiction. Pfft.

San Francisco Adventure

2011-10-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was amazing for quite a few reasons and I am quite sure I will remember this day for a while. Would you like me to share why? Yeah, well, even if you don't, here goes:

Thursday night, I was on Facebook and noticed someone posted that MAC Lightscapade was already sold out on Nordstrom, MACcostmetics and everywhere else and that it's on backorder and blah-blah-blah. I didn't even know they were re-releasing Lightscapade, as I have not been following their releases for a while because of work. But Lightscapade is so cool and pretty! So I went off to Nordstrom's website and they had an option to see if any stores around still had it in stock. So I enter my zip code, and Stanford shopping center has one! So I put it on hold, pay for it and hope that it really is there.

Next morning, I receive a call that they are waiting for me to pick it up at any time! So before going off to San Francisco to hang out with a friend of mine, I stopped by Nordstrom and picked it up *excited*

The veining on it is great. I love it - it's nice and shiny:

So like I mentioned before, I was on my way to meet a friend in San Francisco (someone I worked with, but after we quit, I hadn't seen since). We decided to meet up in Japantown, because both of us are in love with cute and awesome things. Also, we have not been in J-town for quite a while, so YAY! First thing we did after eating lunch is PikaPika fun times. We ended up picking a glitter-background machine and it was super cute:

Of course, after we got hungry again, we went off to Sophie's Crepes and got some delicious dessert! I got the kiwi and Nutella and my friend got strawberry and Nutella. Both were so delish! I wish ice cream did not make my teeth hurt so much, otherwise I would also add ice cream!

That's Tina, taking photo of our PikaPika photos (yo dawg, I heard you like photos...) to post on FB.

you know, I haven't really ever gotten the hang of taking photos of myself with my arm stretched out (as in...I constantly get a wrong angle and end up cutting off someone's head...), but Tina has gotten it down to a science, so here's the two of us :3

This is taken at the New People building. It's pretty neat, I've never been and it's quite a clean building, I love it. This sign made me happy. If you don't know why, this meme may help you understand my crazy.

Another big reason for going to San Francisco today was my appointment at Asako's Nail Art House for a CalGel nail art set. I've been contemplating going to get my nails done by her, but since it is in SF and you need an appointment quite a while in advance, I decided that I will just compile a lot of things into one day whenever I end up going.

For a while now, I've been taking care of my nails, mostly as an experiment on a few products and trying to get them all stronger and longer. Judge for yourself:

And this is where trouble comes in. The Nail Art House is in the same place as Baby The Stars Shine Bright. I've semi-purposefully avoided visiting it, because I knew that just a touch of the clothes would make me want them. I was right. Sort of.

I saw it. A JSK (Jumper-Skirt) from the Night Fairy Fantasia collection. In a beautiful 'Cloudy Sky' color (brown x ivory). It was on a rack near the entrance, away from rest of the frilly things and next to a mannequin dressed in a teal dress.

It was beautiful, it was perfect, not too frilly, quite classy, and $295. GACK!
Okay, breathe. It's fine. You don't need it. Not like you wear that stuff anyway...right?

Wrong. I put it on hold, as I was going to come back in a few hours to get my nails done, so I was going to think about it.

After taking my time to think about it and weighing pros and cons, I ended up buying it. I'll pay off the credit card eventually *sigh*

Another great thing about the shopping experience is that the shop girl was super nice. She's not only knowledgeable in the product, but also passionate about the brand. If we did have the same sort of thing here as they do in Japan (where the shop girls for such big brands are somewhat of idols), I am sure she'd be great at it! We got to gossip and talk about the brand, other Lolita brands and just random chit-chat. Yay for making friends! She also has a blog, so check it out if you'd like~

I love the way she packaged everything, too. Reminds me of being back in Japan.
The classy black shopping bag, with a beautifully printed logo, and a little tie to keep the bag closed up together:

I had a choice: whether I wanted a black or a white tie. I chose the black one, because it matches the bag so well. Could totally use this baby on jewelry. So much love~

Half-open bag, with beautifully wrapped dress in tissue paper. Dark blue, matching the theme of the line. Meticulously wrapped:

A few small things tucked in carefully in the tissue paper folds. Business card, Alice and the Pirates sticker, and a frequent buyer-type thing card.

My photo of the dress did not turn out as beautiful as I wanted it to, because of the light, so I took this one of the BtSSB website. A total beauty *squee* It really makes me think of Steampunk things. Well, kind of. I realize that Steampunk is not anywhere close to this, but the colors make me happy just looking at it.

This is the dress, carefully unpackaged, but still folded up. I really did not want to un-fold it. It looks so nice that I want to preserve it forever. *freak*

See why I did not use my photo to show off the full glory of the dress? My photo is not nearly as amazing as the official one. But still - I want to take a photo of it before I actually wear it.

And this is the back. The laces on the back are nice, too. Although I may need someone at all times to lace up the back. So much detailing.

This is the lace front. That's probably the biggest frilly part on this, which is quite a little amount compared to rest of the dresses. It makes me happy - kind of classy, no?

The bow is removable, so I can make it as frilly or un-frilly as I want. The shop girl suggested that I can use it as a head bow when not using it on the dress front. That's pretty sneaky!

The ties on the back are connected to the sides with plastic stars:

Bottom detailing. Looks like ivory roses. Very subtle!

Small amount of gold trim makes the dress magical, which goes with the Peter Pan theme and the little Tinker Bells on the print.

Even after thinking about it for a long time after the purchase, I really don't regret it. I am glad I did not spontaneously purchase it as soon as I saw it. I definitely needed the few hours to process it, but I do not regret the purchase. I will need to make a petticoat for it, though. And a blouse. And some accessories. I am thinking it will become my project - make/coordinate at least five full outfits with this, which will make for a fun and creative spending of my time!

Okay, enough about the dress. After my nail appointment, I rushed over to a friend's house for a party in honor of two of our other friends' birthdays. Although party was fun and remember-worthy, it's not something I am going to talk about ;p *tease*

And here ends my long and picture-heavy post
Until next time,
Frowne

Gelish Products

2011-09-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of Gelish? It's a Gel Polish (as the name suggests) and is described as "Gelish performs like a gel applies like a polish" product. I first tried this when I went to a salon to get my nails done and the lady used this instead of regular polish. Now, I've heard of gel polishes before, but what makes this one special is that it comes in a nail polish bottle and applies as such. This is something that I am really in love with, because as much as I love gel, it is a bit tricky to work with (for me) on my dominant hand. Not as much practice as I'd like (that's what she said...), anyway.

After experiencing the application of this product, I decided to get it myself (I ended up paying around $40 for the application, which was WHOA!) and do it myself. CHEAP-STYLE. At the time, it was not available in stores, so I got mine from a seller on Amazon. I ended up paying about $15-ish a bottle (including shipping), which is pretty decent. All you need to start is the foundation gel, top coat and your choice of color (I picked MIDNIGHT CALLER), but you can also get the other recommended products: Ph bond, Artificial Nail remover and Nail Surface Cleaner to help you get the best out of the system.

The biggest downside (and expense) would be the UV lamp. I've seen lots of people (mostly on YT) get the cheap-o 9watt ones from eBay for cheap, but the truth is 9watt ones are not enough. You definitely want a 36watt lamp, otherwise you will be cooking your nails for a long time. Gelish also recommends an LED lamp instead of a UV (it takes less time to cure), but mentions that UV is a good substitute. The better ones can be around $100, so make sure you are dedicated to this before you commit.

The point of this entry is that Sally's Beauty Supply now carries Gelish products! Given, they are the itty-bitty size at an outrageous price, but if you are desperate (or just want to test them out), it's a good way to go. Today, I noted that the mini polish sizes were $14-something and they had quite a few colors. The reason I am even mentioning this, however, is that they have a 2-for-$10 deal on the mini Artificial Nail Remover and the Nail Surface Cleanser. That's $5/bottle (4oz) and it's the cheapest around. If you are interested in those, go ahead and jump on the deal while it lasts, but I suggest getting the Gelish polishes online.

Photo time!

My initial Gelish haul. Includes base gel polish, top coat polish and my choice of color polish:

As I mentioned earlier, I picked MIDNIGHT CALLER, because it seems like a classic shade that would never get old...to me, at least...

These babies are 4OZ each, which is a good trial size. I hear that the artificial nail remover works better than acetone, so I am definitely into trying that out!

And this is my collection so far. I am not going to expand it for a while, because they are kind of pricey, but possibly in the future.

That would be it for today!
Have you used gel polishes before? Did you like them? Are you planning to try them out?
Frowne

Take a day!

2011-09-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Spent the whole day running around stores *exhausted…*

First off, spent most of late last night looking up Remy hair extensions and the best places to get them (came down to either Hello Gorgeous, Head Kandy, or Foxy Locks in order from highest likeliness to lowest) [side note - if you guys have any recommendations, I would love to hear them!] and where to get the best triple barrel iron.

Sadly, finding a good quality triple barrel in US is hard. When doing my research, the best reviews were given to the BaByliss Pro, but unfortunately no stores carry it in the states and online stores either have ridiculous shipping charges or only provide you with a UK plug. Balls.

Then there was Hot Tools and some equivalent brands, for which I would have to spend around $50. To be perfectly honest, I do not mind shelling out even that or more for a great one. However, $50 for a mediocre one is a bit…blah. So I browsed…and browsed…and browsed…and watched some reviews and YouTube tutorials to get a better idea how each one performs. Then I came across the idea that I should just go for the cheap-o Revlon Jumbo one (since other brands don't seem to carry HUGE ones, just regular size) and keep looking for a good quality one that is of a regular size. I may be able to get my hands on a BaByliss one eventually, or at least one of a similar quality.

After I did some more research, I found out that I can get a Revlon Jumbo 3-Barrel one at Ulta. I've never been to Ulta in my life, and I've always wanted to, but the closest one to me happens to be in a shopping center I never visit. So now I had an excuse! And a $3.50 off $10 purchase, which sweetened the deal. I walked in and they had i! It was the last one, plus they had an open one on display. Considering how huge and bulky looking it is (I was kind of scared at first when I saw it on YouTube), it's not that heavy. Awesome! So I ended up getting that and getting my butt outta there before I spend any more money. I was on a mission!

My mission was to go to Sephora (at another location) and return the Lancome brow pencil I had purchased and get the Illamasqua foundation. The brow pencil was OKAY, but not $24.50 okay. I was hoping the lightest shade would make my brows defined, but not as dark, yet all it did was darken them…it was not as blond as I expected. Oh, well. But I do need a winter foundation! In summer I used a BB cream (because it's so hot and icky, I do not like wearing full foundation in summer), but now that fall and winter are approaching, I decided to go with something that has a little more coverage. MAC breaks me out like a mofo, MUFE is okay, but still breaks me out a bit and covers 'meh,' so I decided to go drastically different and try out Illamasqua. I've never tried their products before, but what intrigued me is that many reviews say that it is super high coverage and you can even use it as a concealer. Huh…does that mean that I have to take less things with me when I go somewhere with my makeup? Sold. And you can mix this with a moisturizer of your choice to make it a little less dense. It's like pigment…for your face. If that makes any sense at all, of course…

Right before work, I ended up buying lots of food at the food court, so I'd have lunch and dinner all set ^_^
Splurged on a Cinnabon as well (Caramel Pecan!), now I feel like a fatty, but it was so worth it~

Now time for photos, because they are probably more interesting and explanatory than my talking anyway ^_~

Look at how huge the Revlon Jumbo 3-barrel is! It's pretty intense. But it's not as heavy as it looks, so it's pretty okay...we'll see how it turns out.

Yay for Illamasqua and MUFE stuffs! Have not tried any of them yet, really, so we'll see how those go. I have very high hopes for the foundation *excited*

The Sephora lady matched my skin to the shade 135. It was the lightest one there, but from what I read, there are also super white shades and white with some pink. Kind of intense!

Stopped by Forever 21, mostly for accessories. I really did not want to stick around for long, but I do dig the cheap jewelry. Found this awesome ring (in my size, too!) and this simple yet "cool" necklace. The ring was about $5, the necklace was $6 I think. How do you guys like 'em?

On my way out, a poster outside of Bath and Body Works seduced me. It was the 3-wick candles 2/$20. Usually they are $19.95/each, and I love them, so hey, I thought. MUST. My signature scent is the Japanese Cherry Blossom, that's what I have as a scent in my room and that's the only candle from B&BW that I ever get. Best part? There were only two of the Japanese Cherry Blossom ones left and both of them were nice, so I got the last ones! So much love!

That's all for today
Frowne

Tea Time

2011-09-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

Oh, man...I've been working on this layout design for about a week now. Crazy...
Still not completely done with it, but my eyes are murdering me. I need to stop being so picky about everything...

On the bright side, while working on the design, I decided to take a little tea break and ran over to Tea Era for some boba. Decided to go with something different this time - Kiwi Milk Tea. It was pretty damn delicious and looks pretty awesome in its greenness:

And after a few more hours and a newly found headache, I decided to go the easy way and just make myself a hot green tea with lemon. Delicious. I forgot how much I love tea with lemon - it adds such a nice bit of taste (both a bitter and a sour one...SO MUCH LOVE!)

Also, I took a nail care break. I have been diligent about taking care of my nails for about a week now. I started using Nailtiques, as I have read so many good reviews about the formula that I just caved in and went for it. So far, it seems okay, but I can't really say anything until my nails grow longer (IF they end up growing longer - that would be a first!).

Another thing I've been using is the LUSH Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter. The stuff smells so good! I am generally not a LUSH product girl, but this stuff is great. I like it better than cuticle oil, mostly because it's easy to carry around in my bag without any worries about spilling it. Also, did I mention IT SMELLS SO GOOD!

Now, I am really hoping that my nails stay strong for a while. I've secured an appointment with the [supposidely] the best nail artist in the Bay Area (Asako san) on the 30th of September, so here's to hoping...Otherwise I will have to get extensions, which will cost a fortune. I am just so tired of my short nails...

Still kind of thinking about the design, but I am almost sure I will get gunmetal and peach colored nails with some 3D elements. Woohoo! Trying to be a bit prettier on day-to-day basis here, so bear with me (*´∀`*)

Enjoy Everything

2011-09-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

Yotsuba& [よつばと!] is my all time favorite manga. Possibly because it is so humorous, or because I am not bored re-reading it tens of times, or because I can read it out of order and still find enjoyment, or even because it is just a good companion in my purse for when I have some time to spare.

Whatever the reason is, Yotsuba& happens to be the manga that inspires me. I don't want to be a princess or a superhero or a lonesome vampire or any of that. I want to be carefree and joyful. Like Yotsuba.

I was reading that yesterday (end of vol. 1) and thought just how horribly jealous I am of Yotsuba.

I hope that one day I can become a person like Yotsuba. Well, not the slightly-strange kind, because I've already got plenty of that...However, I want to be a person who finds joy even in the safest parts of life, a person that does not easily get depressed, a person who smiles a lot, I want to be someone who finds happiness and holds on to it, especially when people are trying to take her down.

Currently, I am not that person. A lot of things are going on in life that get me down. Not clinically depressed kind of "down," but just the garden-variety-sad kind of "down." The biggest problem is that those things just pile up and it's hard to un-bury myself from them, so I get stuck in that mess, looking for a ray of sunshine.

Gosh, this sounds like an emo entry. But it is not really, it's more of a goal-setting entry. I am determined to find that something that I can always look to when I am in an unhappy situation. That teensy "something" that will make me smile.

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In less depressing news, I am still working on a new layout, since I do not really like how this one turned out too much...so that is going to take me a bit. Hopefully I will have it by the end of next week :D

Hello, again

2011-09-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Gosh, when I look back at the date of my latest post, I did not realize that I have been away for so long. Smack!

On the bright side, when I come back, I come back with lots of things (*´∀｀*).
- New Layout
- Giveaway announcement
- Lots of stories
- Better navigation
- Pretty pictures

I am sure that this is what most of you are waiting for. Dun dun duuuun!

Winner of the giveaway is Noniek. I've already contacted her and sent out her package, so hopefully she will get it soon ^_^

How do you guys like the new layout? I decided to go for a less-gloomy look for once. I kind of like peach color at this moment...kind of relaxing and not as crazy-girly as pink, no? I think I will still be tweaking a few things in the coming days, but mostly the change from the earlier one is done.

I have not been wearing makeup for about a month. It's kind of scary, but work just took away my time and I preferred the extra few minutes of sleep. Plus, there was nobody to show off in front of ~.~ Just yesterday, though, I looked over my makeup train case and took out and rearranged some things that I do not use so often. Possible blog sale...hm...
Not sure if I had mentioned it before, but I decided that I would ever only have makeup to fit one train case. That makes life so much easier, especially if I have to go somewhere or move. Pretty neat!

On the less bright side, I've been having silly headaches again that bother me constantly, and now that work has let up, I scheduled a brain CT that I was supposed to have a year ago and it's tomorrow. Kind of scary *shivers.* But I think it will be okay. It should be okay, anyway...right? Bleh.

Now, that I have done a little catch-up, I am running off to bed - the CT is at 8am and I like my sleep :3

until we meet again,
frowne

And so work goes on--

2011-08-02T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hi, people!

Finally got some time to sit down and type something up. 14-hour work days are kicking my ass. However, I am quitting one of my jobs (two guesses which--). Which reminds me that I'd never actually mentioned where I had worked before. Well, now that I am quitting and there can be no "conflict of interest," which could get me fired:

i worked for Apple

Yeah. No surprise there, really. Especially the not mentioning part, since they have this whole secrecy weirdness and God forbid I mention something that may somehow be considered a conflict of interest...booo! What changed? Well, first off, my last day is on Friday, I gave my notice a while ago. Second, my 1-year-old  MacBook Pro is being a c-word. It's slow as fuck and gives me the beach ball when I browse the internet. What the fuck, yo? Oh, and right now I am working on it with a completely wiped hard drive and a freshly installed and updated version of OSX and no other programs installed other than the ones that came with the OSX and guess what...

IT GAVE ME THE BEACH BALL WHEN I WAS ROTATING A PHOTO IN FUCKING "PREVIEW"

What is this? Anyway. I'll take care of it later. Here's some more fun things:
[DISCLAIMER: Like I just mentioned, there are no programs on my computer right now, aside from basic stuff. Meaning that I cannot resize these photos to match the border, nor can I add the border and make them pretty and stuff - for some reason I thought it was better to add an entry sooner rather than wait...I will possibly re-make these once I install Photoshop back--]

Remember when I mentioned my family was in Canada? Well, they brought me back this mug. I decided that the perfect place to use it would be at work for coffee. YEAYUH! I thought it was a cow, until someone at work pointed out that it is a moose. Because it's from Canada. For some reason the two did not click in my head before, I guess...

After family came back from Canada, my brother and dad went to New York. Brother brought me back Strawberry Yan Yan...and these were my favorite ones:

In things related to work, I fucking hate this fabric. It is the worst piece of crap you could ever try and dye. It barely takes any color and when it does (or you think it does) and you gently wash it (by hand, of course) and dry it (no dryer, just air dry) this piece of crap decides to be pink. Was it supposed to be pink? Nope. A darker brown with a slight tint of orangy-yellow. But definitely not pink. So I spent two more days trying to mix a color it will take. Finally today, after two hours working just on this, I got it. Damn - it usually takes me this long to dye about 3-4 completely separate pieces. Enjoy this stupid color:

Oh, and this one is just because. Most detailed instructions ever. I think someone is getting lazy at this point, because I know that they know that there are a few hundred of golden shades that this could be dyed. Just sayin:

And finally, last but not least, I got my package from MAC finally ^_^
Guess what it is~

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Jealousy Wakes eyeshadow~

"...but there are two..." you may say. And you would be correct. I had decided to get two, so I can give one away in my aforementioned giveaway. Apologies about not mentioning anything before, but I was not sure if I was going to get it or not, so hey - YAY for everyone. Especially the winner, of course!

Which means - go enter the giveaway for your chance to win this eyeshadow. It is my thanks to you as my readers who put up with my ramblings, swearing and complete randomness in relation to posts.

Cheers for now (*´∀｀*)

Costuming update and summertime giveaway

2011-07-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

So, this completes the first week of my costuming job, which so far is pretty darn awesome. To be perfectly honest, I did not realize how much I had taken on, so blogging every day may not be too smart of an idea. Turns out with the costuming job and my current job, I am working 14 hours a day, which makes for a slightly difficult and stressful week.

However, I think writing makes me feel a bit better and more relaxed, so I believe I should continue for myself and for those who enjoy reading my ramblings. So here comes~

Since my last blog post, I have mostly been working on dyeing fabric. There is a ton of fabric to be dyed and all different colors and shades. WOOHOO! Spent a few days working with samples to find perfect shades, and spent all yesterday over at the San José Rep working in their dye room (they have a giant dye vat, which we do not have over at the Opera). So today, my partner and I were working mostly on the tie-dyeing 4-yard pieces of fabric that I was talking about earlier. It hurt >.< But was well worth it, because they turned out beautifully.So did my fingers: I am thinking that even nailpolish is not worth doing at this time, because it chips so easily from having my hands in water for such a long time. However, I do soak them in cuticle oil for a while at the end of the night, so that should help out a bit:

To be perfectly honest, nothing interesting is happening yet, so not much to blog about. But I am going to try to do as much blogging as I can while I have the time ^^; Oh, boy, I am excited!
And I think I may be boring you all with my stories of silly things and work, so I am going to just dive into it: giveaway, giveaway, giveaway~

time for giveaway
giveaway? why?
Well, first off, I have not done one in ages and I really love sending out packages. However, since I cannot send one to each and every one of you, a giveaway seems like a fun idea. Plus, since I was just a part of one and happened to win, I was so happy to get a package that I wanted to share as well. This time, I am doing a US only one, but once I get more followers, I promise to do an international one, as well. Sound good~?

rules
- Be a follower of this blog
- Like Me on Facebook.
- Subscribe to Me on YouTube.
- Either blog about my giveaway or tweet about my giveaway.
- Comment on this post with the following: your name, email/blog, youtube name, and the link to either the blog post about the giveaway or the tweet~
that is it, pretty easy~

prize
- E.L.F Natural Eyeshadow Palette
- Intensive Double Vitamin C Eye Mask
- "Marshmallow Pony" notepad
- E.L.F Tea Tree Clarifying Oil Blotting Sheets
- KORRES Wild Rose Lip Butter
- Taiwanese Shimmer Stick in Pearly White
- NYC KissGloss in City Sorbet
- Sephora mini Eyeshadow in Aspen Summit
- Sephora mini Eyeliner in Nano
- Sephora mini Mascara in Black
EDIT: As of August 2nd, another prize has been added: MAC Jealousy Wakes eyeshadow

(I was not sure it would arrive on time, so did not want to get anyone's hopes up, loves--)

deadline
Let's make it a good amount of time: August 31st

Feel free to use the following photo link to include in your re-post of the giveaway:
"http://i808.photobucket.com/albums/zz7/frowne/ONEtwo.png"

Oh, and that "semi-secret" thing I was talking about in the previous post is a purchase I was planning to make that did not happen. I really want the black MacBook (the ones that were discontinued a few years ago), because they are so cool looking, but I am kind of sad that they are no longer available, so I found one on Craigslist that I wanted to buy. However, the seller was a dick, so I decided not to. I may still look for another one, but who knows. Maybe I should just keep the money for something more awesome (*´∀｀*)

Cheers to all and til next time *kisses*

Warning: More costuming ahead

2011-07-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, I bet you missed my wonderful-quality-phone-photos, so therefore I am back with more!
[I promise that I still carry around my real camera, it's just pretty hard to work and have it out, so this will have to do for now. At least until the costumes come together more~]

By the way, those cookies I was thinking about yesterday totally did not happen until today. When I happened to burn them a little. whoops!

This is my work station. I HEART this machine. It is somewhere in the middle of a home sewing machine and an industrial one and it is just heavenly. I am sure it is a million years old, but it's quiet as a mouse and the pedal controls the foot (raise), the sewing AND cuts the thread. WHO NEEDS HANDS?! Also, having my own work station, where I store my stuff, clean up my own mess and don't have to worry about someone fucking with the settings of my machine? Oh, man...I am in heaven:

Next up, there was this giant piece of fabric, that needed to be cut into strips...and then the strips needed to be all sewn together into one long strip, making it into a trim we could later use on one of the garments. The fabric had these little metal attachments that were a pain to remove, and were also not sewn on straight, so it was pretty much impossible to get them to look like they were one long strip when I got them all together. You can see that here, it looks pretty obvious, even if you were onstage:

But fear not! Why? Because Frowne has some ideas that are going to take some hand-sewing, but will fake the look. If I learned anything by making costumes for Fanime and working at UCSC Costume Shop is that everything can be made to look like you want it. Fake it. Like this one time, when we burnt a hole in the carpet of our rental apartment in college and i just cut off some carpet from around the front door and hot-glued it in the bald spots to make it look new. Can you believe that it did and we totally got away with it? Anyway, different story. This is what it looked like after I added some of those metal things by hand. It actually looks like a continuous row right now, and just imagine those empty sides being folded away as seam allowance and it will be completely unnoticeable! Yay~

And this happens to be the completed half of my work. And the lovely lavender magnet cushion. From here, the material looks like fish scales. Kind of reminds me of them, too, but much less gross:

After working on this pile of trim for a few hours, I had a neat little pile of tiny little threads lying around and somehow, this one got away, forming a perfect little heart. I did not move it, and you can still see the rest of the debris around it. In my delusion, I thought it was a message from the fabric that it loves me for making it awesome. Just kidding, I really didn't. However, I did think it was pretty neat how it wandered away from the rest of the threads and decided to become a little heart. Or Ramen. Whatever...

I think that is probably it for the day. Currently, there is not much else to talk about, because the designer is still picking the fabrics, so not much work to be done other than that. However, I am loving this so much! I can't believe (still) that I have gotten something so amazing to work on.

Tomorrow, I may or may not have time for a blog entry, because I am heading up to SF after work. This is currently a secret-type-of-thing, because it may or may not work out, so I don't want to jinx it. But regardless of whether or not it does or does not, I shall report on this "secret" thing when I get to write up my next entry.

I hope you guys are enjoying the more frequent updates and the complete randomness of me blogging about my work. I shall continue unless anyone objects--

Lesson of the day: Fray-check is your best friend when dealing with this sort of stuff. Or any material that frays. And then afterwards, you get to take little pieces of dried glue off your hands (remember those days when you were a kid and put Elmer's glue on your hands just to peel it off afterwards? Wait...was that just me? Well, regardless, this is kind of the same...).

And the costuming begins--

2011-07-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

So, today I started actually doing some work at the shop for Idomeneo at Opera San José. And as you can tell, I am (so far) keeping my word by keeping the entries coming. Could also be because my family is in Canada right now and I am home alone (alone and scary *shivers*), so I am more lonely than I would have ever thought...

Anyway, here goes my first assignment: I was to dye dark teal and midnight blue Silk Dupioni black (with some blue stripes left), so that's exactly what I did. Would you like to see?

This is the one we ended up choosing, because the teal would look so much better in contrast with the black on stage: [apologies in advance for phone-quality photos. They were indeed taken with my phone...]

This one looks pretty neat and would look beautiful on an everyday garment, but on stage it would probably not be visible as much. Hm...on the other hand, when I look at it now, it reminds me of bad web design where people put default link color (navy? blue) on a black background *shivers* Still pretty, though.

Aside from that, I love this gig! I got there at 10am, and the next thing I know, the crafts person is telling me it's 1pm and lunch time. This is where I look at the wall clock in disbelief - did three hours just fly by? Oh, man, I love this! Definitely improved my mood of the week. The loneliness of being home alone and a mixture of other stuff is getting to me, I think. *sigh*

You know what I am thinking? I should make cookies. And take photos, of course ;D
COOKIES!!!!

Lesson of the day: Never turn on gas on a stove you have never used before all the way before shoving a lighter to it. It will explode a flame and possibly burn you. Or keep the rings you are wearing on your hand warm for a while. No, I did not hurt myself, but it was a close call. Next time, I shall stop playing with fire...

Love Post

2011-07-07T22:01:00.000-07:00

Like promised in the previous post, I am going to try not to slack and catch up with the posts I wanted to do before I get buried with work! So here is another post (two in two days, be proud, hehe~), hopefully photos will entertain you at the least. Scroll down for delicious food if you don't want to read the whole thing :3

So, just recently, Yumi was hosting a 100-subscriber-giveaway and I was the winner (for once ;p - I never win giveaways ~.~), so I got a neat little package a while later and it contained a few goodies, which I am going to enjoy in the near future.

Here's the whole package. It included a Hello Kitty notepad, Maybelline eyeshadow quad (yay for shiny neutrals~), Maybelline mascara (never used this one before, so should be fun!), Ponds wrinkle-preventing cream (getting old, me), and of course a personal letter:

Here's the close-up of the quad. It's the #70 "Copper Chick," from Maybelline Eye Studio line, which is super shiny:

Recently I have been obsessed with the simple foam shadow applicators for some reason. I think they end up being convenient when I travel and have no space for my brushes. So I was supper happy when this one included it ^_^

See? Super shiny, like I said. So if you prefer a quad with at least one matte color to tone the look down, this is definitely not going to be for you. But I think I like the colors so far, and they are quite pigmented. When I end up doing a look with these, I will be sure to post something up, okay?

And here is the anti-wrinkle cream. It's very nice consistency and smells pretty good. I wonder if it works...but either way - I do need a facial cream, so works or not for wrinkles, this will be perfect for moisturizing. Love!

[The reason why I did not include much about the mascara is because I want to keep it closed until I need to open another mascara - I hate having many mascaras I use open at the same time and then having to throw them all out so soon >.<]Overall, I love the package I received - the giveaway gifts she had chosen were quite smart: a little of everything! Go visit Yumi if you have not already, she's sweet and pretty and her posts are fun to read :3

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And completely unrelated to anything, here is some food I recently had. My family and I went to Thai food a bit further from our house that we usually go for lunch, but the place was fancy. Generally I am wary of fancy Thai places, because they tend to be overpriced and not as good as the run-down holes-in-the-wall, but this one was good. I ordered the Duck Curry, which was OH, so delicious. I honestly did not care for the duck itself, because they gave me mostly fatty skin and barely any meat, but the sauce was to die for. Sadly I could not finish it all, but here's a photo of what it looked like before I got to taste it and find out of its amazing flavor:

That would be all for today. I have a few plans for the weekend, so hopefully I will take some photos there too and share with you all <3

Cheers!

New Job: Costume Construcion

2011-07-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

Hi, people!

So, while I was away and catching up with work and cleaning my house after coming back from Los Angeles, I also happened to get a gig doing costumes for Opera San José!

HOW AWESOME IS THAT???

Honestly, I think that the way I got the job and the whole journey towards this merits its own post, yet somehow I felt like I needed to post something. It is official as of yesterday - I signed employment papers and such and I am in until the show starts, which is in September. WOOHOO!

What does this mean for you? Yes - I will be busy, no - I don't believe that my blogging will decrease in quantity/quality. You know why? Because I will have much more to talk about! And it will be exciting. I promise photos, too. pix or didn't happen, right?

I actually wonder if you guys would at all be interested in a separate post on how I got where I am...or maybe that will just bore you to no extent...OH! There is some NSFW content in the story, though, so that may be scandalous enough to get your attention, ne?

So you are wondering "what show is this, Alina?"
Well, I am working on construction of Idomeneo, which should be pretty damn epic. Just saying...So if you are in the are, come watch it ;D

Okay, this honestly was just an update post, so don't linger around too much - I promise more interesting things coming up because hey - what makes for better photos, right?

/bye

LA Trip: Vacation

2011-06-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Small disclaimer: This post will be full of photos and stuff, so if you get bored by that kind of thing, skip it. However, if you like reading about my life and looking at food photos, go ahead~

So, having not seen Paul since we finished UCSC, we had planned for me to come down to LA for a week right after the graduation ceremony. Him and his family would pick me up from my home, and we'd head to his home town. So, here goes:

Sunday afternoon, right after I had lunch with my family, Paul and his picked me up and we headed down to LA. The trip was not as long as I had expected - only about a bit over 5 hours, which is shorter than it usually takes. Big plus, of course. Didn't get to do much that day, as we got home pretty late, but we had big plans for the rest of the week, so sleep was necessary.

Monday morning we went to a Dim Sum place, which was delicious! I love visiting Los Angeles for food, let's just say that. And their Dim Sum is love. My favorite still is tripe. Yum!

This is me waiting for deliciousness. This photo is a little too yellow, but I decided not to photoshop any of the trip photos. I thought I'd stick to natural for this post, haha:

And of course, the obligatory photo of me eating said deliciousness. I wish there was a photo of me pigging out on the tripe - it would have definitely shown off my piggy side:

And my favorite shot of the set is the fish eating itself. I just love it's teeth. This photo is so wrong. Cannibalistic scary fish is scary:

After stuffing our faces with amazing noms, Paul took me to the Ghetty Villa museum, where more fun was had. We spent a few hours walking around the place, with tons of photos, so I decided to post some of the more interesting ones for your amusement.

PLEASE TOUCH was the first sign that greeted us and it was pretty "WHUT," therefore it had to be photo time, no? To be honest, I have mixed feelings about touching things at a museum. Whenever I go to one, I absolutely want to touch the exhibits, but then I realize that I am not the only one. Lots of people want to touch them, so they would, then the children with their dirty hands that have been in their noses and yuck! But hey - it's all a part of the experience, right? So in short: please touch the exhibits:

Penis. Is missing. You know, I found this to be a theme throughout the museum. Many of the pieces had their penis missing, but not all. So it makes me think that someone just stole them. Somehow it is amusing to me, but I am not even sure why:

Speaking of penises. Peni? Penes? Anyway. This one made me have the " :| " face, just because it was so "what the...?" for me. I guess you could call this art, however, if you put a penis on something, at least make it better looking, ja?

This one was my favorite, however. It's slightly on the terrifying side, but I can't stop looking at it, you know? If you look deeply into the eyes of the statue, you will be able to see the face of the person inside the mask. And it is not pretty, I tell ya:

Oh, and have a gander at a super excited Alina. The weather was awesome, we just spent a few hours at a museum and had plenty more places to go visit. And...the vacation was just starting:

Obligatory cam-whoring photo of the post. This would be it. This one is definitely thanks to Paul, because he would not leave it alone until he found a perfect spot to take this shot. I guess he was growing fond of the Nikon d90 I brought with me. Better than a child, naturally:

After all the wonder, we decided that we should go to the beach the next day. So what happened next? I realized I had forgotten my swimsuit. Fuck. Well, let's get a new one, I said. And so we went off to get a swimsuit for myself and Paul's sister, as she was in need for one as well. A few hours later, I had myself a Barbie-pink bikini and old-style sunglasses.

On Tuesday we woke up early, took Paul's sister, and picked up a couple of her friends and headed to the bakery Paul works at to get some breakfast before the beach. The place is pretty small, but looks fairly decent and the pastries were delicious.
Then we drove off to Santa Monica to the Third Street Promenade Apple store. Paul's iPod Touch was being stupid and I had a friend who works there whom I have not seen for a long time, so that was quite convenient. I was so tempted to go on a shopping spree, until I realized that the tax rate in Santa Monica is 9.75% (OMG, right?)

And of course, the main event of the day: Beach.

FUCK, it was cold! The weather was gloomy and there was no sun to be seen and it was icky and uncomfy. Yet somehow I did not give a damn about any of that, since I got to spend time with someone so awesome (/cheesy moment). The best part of it all was when a flock of seagulls landed on a spot right next to us and raided the backpacks/grocery bags of the people there. This is what you get for leaving your stuff unattended, guys. Just because you leave your sandwich wrapped in plastic wrap in your backpack does not guarantee that the seagulls will not steal it out of your backpack, unwrap it and eat it while you watch. Just sayin'

I ended up staying on the blanket the whole time, with my clothes on and feet in the sand. Yay for getting a pedi just before the trip, right:

On Wednesday morning, we had delicious Cambodian food for breakfast. I wanted a soup-like food item, yet something that had some thickness to it, and this is what I ended up getting. To be honest, I have no idea what it is, but it was good and I enjoyed it:

The next best thing happened: we drove to an outlet mall! I have not been to one for so long that I forgot how magical they are. I ended up going to a CCO and a CCS. Got Lancome products for myself (Translucent finishing powder - $10, and Oscillating mascara in GUNPOWDER - $15) and my mother (lifting foundation - $15). And of course something from MAC: a mineralized eyeshadow, in ENGAGING, which can be used as a shadow, blush and highlighter by the color combination. SCORE!

Last but not least, we stopped by Toys R Us, because we are actually 12 years old on the inside. I ended up buying one of the strangest things I have seen for sale in a while: SUPER-OMG-SKINNY doll that kind of reminds me of a BJD. I have no idea what this series is about, but they looked so much like how I used to draw people, I just had to get it. I don't know what to name her yet, though. Her name is apparently "Draculaura," because she is the child of Dracula. I don't like it - it's stupid, so I want to think of something awesome. Hold for more info later:

Thursday was pretty legit. We went to Japan Town, because I am slightly obsessed with it.
First off, just going to say this: Bearded Papa's cream puffs are the shit. Most delicious anything I have had in my mouth for a while *cough* sorry, truefax. Can't get enough of this stuff. I am pretty sure there is one somewhat close to me. Right? RIGHT? Please tell me I am right...

Then we found this near a museum. They had an exhibition outside, so we just went around and hung out a bit there, taking photos of huge art pieces. This one is awesome. Just sayin'

And this is where I think I died and went to heaven. Chin-Ma-Ya of Tokyo, you are officially my favorite ramen place as of right now. This is me, finishing all of the ramen, even though I was too full to even live after half the bowl was gone. But I COULD NOT STOP, I TELL YOU. Gah:

Decided to go out for boba at the end of the night with Paul and sis. Ten Ren with a fancy table. It looks like a fancy tea ceremony table, but since it was free, we got to sit at it. Super awesome:

Bobaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! And buttermilk toast. I kill my food before I eat it. Hehehe:

Friday was the most magical day ever. We did so much and it was so full of events that it felt like two days. Crazy, I tell ya. We went to see Kung Fu Panda II, took Cue Studio Japanese sticker photos, and went to Boiling Crab for dinner.

It was my first time at Boiling Crab, so I let Paul order. We got 1/2lb of Shrimp and 2lbs of Cray fish. Because I love those little buggers:

Eventually, most of it was consumed and the our table looked like a slaughter house. I did love it, however. I am glad that I have a Boiling Crab not too far from where I am, so this is where I am thinking of bringing my family eventually. That should be awesome, no? Although I would be scared to imagine what a table of five would look like after noms were consumed:

And then, Saturday, as I have not yet seen Kung Fu Panda (first one), we decided to rent it and relax at home, which was a change from the hectic running around ^_^ Then there was Curry House lunch. Made me realize that I love Paul's curry so much more. Even box curry I make was better. It was okay, though, but not too awesome.

Since it was Saturday, Pasadena had a few things going on and we picked the Chalk Festival. Quite a few pieces were super amazing. Like this one - look at the blending:

The day concluded with a trip to antique shops/thrift stores. Didn't end up buying anything, however, yet it was quite interesting to see all the old neat things.

This brings us to Sunday, last day of my visit, and Paul brought me to a fancy tea place with delicious teas and lemon funnel cake. YUM!

I got on a plane Monday afternoon, and off I went just to go to work the next morning. Sadly, the vacation has to come to an end, even though I would sell some part of my soul for it to keep going for at least a little bit longer.

Just as another FYI, I'd gotten a few things in Japan Town that I will be doing tutorials/reviews/scans of. I got the Deco & Deco vol. 9 magazine that I am sure some of you will enjoy thoroughly. Cheers and enjoy--

FOTD dump 1.2

2011-06-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

I sometimes find it is quite difficult for me to post photos of myself, especially when I am not wearing any makeup. Why, you ask? Because I am a perfectionist and notice every and all flaws that I have, it is quite hard not to go and edit everything I don't like about myself in Photoshop.

But then I think...wait...why wouldn't I? Sure, natural beauty is "in" and all, but I am not a very natural kind of person. I love makeup, I love outrageous looks, false nails, contacts, I dye my hair, if I could afford it, I would get a nose job and possibly do something about my jaw line. So then I think that there is no point in being righteous and always only posting natural photos.

Point of this being? Well, I spent some time doing my makeup today, just because I did not have work and I thought I would spend some time to myself. I did not have anywhere to go, but I also did not want to sit around and stare at a blank face in the mirror - so there you have it. This is how I came up with this:

[June 5th, 2011]
And of course, following is the list of everything I am wearing on my face.
Lenses: Fynale Honoo Red
Face: Missha Watery BB Cream || MAC MSFN in Light || MAC MSF in Stereo Rose
Eyes: Shimmer Stick in White || MAC Smoking Eyes Quad || Dolly Wink in Dolly Sweet || Dolly Wink in Baby Cute
Lips: MAC Show Orchid lipstick || MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner in Pink Fish

I am actually proud of this one. Since I have gone blonde, it is definitely important to bring out the eyes, because otherwise my pale face just blends in with my hair, making everything super bland. But to be honest, it is not a look I could spend the time on doing every day. I do love the lashes, especially the effect bottom lashes are giving me, but I'd assume its a little bit dramatic :p

Speaking of dramatic, I was actually sporting this look a while back. My mother called me a Barbie, but I am not sure whether or not she meant it as a compliment or as an insult, but I guess either way is...cool?

[May 27, 2011]
Lenses: Fynale Kiwi Blue
Face: Missha Watery BB Cream || MAC MSFN in Light || NARS blush in Deep Throat
Eyes: Too Faced Shadow Insurance || MAC Smoking eyeshadow || Dolly Wink Eyelashes in Dolly Sweet (#1)
Lips: MAC Cremesheen Glass in Partial to Pink

After looking at both of these, I realize how much younger my bangs make me look. I was glancing over my previous FOTD dump, I saw that the super short cut made me look a bit older, but this hairstyle makes me look like a doll. I feel that now when I am getting older (not that 22 is old!), I probably want to stay as young for as long as I can, right? So I am going to sport the bangs for a bit ;3

Cheers to all and I shall post something more worthwhile later on~

Love Package: Janie from Pretty&Cute

2011-06-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to rain pouring outside my window and a pitter-patter on my sun roof continued to accompany me throughout today, while I chose to spend this rainy day cleaning my house. Oh, I probably should mention that I'd found a giant spider last night, which freaked me out, so I decided to clean every corner of my room and make sure there was no way anything could stay alive here...

So after I spent a few wholesome hours scrubbing under every piece of furniture I own, my brother informed me that I got a package. I rushed (through the rain) to my family's part of the house and found a cute little box (and some letters from banks asking me to sign up for their credit cards...) from Janie of Pretty&Cute. I'd sent her a package to cheer her up a while ago, which I believe did what I wanted it to - helped her keep her head up, even though everyone keeps trying to take a snap at her and her business. She is someone I consider as a wonderful person, especially after meeting her face to face back in March, so I will do my best to support her and help her though when people try and get the best of her. I believe she knows that :)

Now, to the contents of the package. It contained a variety of products that I will no doubt get addicted to and end up buying later O_O

The funniest part of it all (at least I found it funny) was that the Shimmer Pencil had it's lid off somehow and got all over the outside of its lid and some other products, so when I pulled them out and looked at my head, I went "HUH?" But as you can see, it was only the tip and I cleaned it up all nicely >:) Oh! And a pair of EOS Tear lenses in Blue. They are so transparent looking...I am actually quite excited to see how they will show up - they look like they would make for quite a natural look (unlike the rest of the lenses I own...)

Some Lioele sample bottles: "Hydro Peel Therapy Skin," "Hydro Peel Therapy Lotion," "A.C Control Lotion Trouble Hunter," and "A. C Control Toner Trouble Hunter." To be honest, I am currently in love with Mario Badescu skincare line, but if these prove similar or better for my skin than MB, I may have to switch :3

Oh, and of course a Lioele Perfect Soothing Essence Mask and Cucumber nose strips. To be honest, I am not sure how to use the Lioele Shake Packs, so I am going to research that before I open them ^__^ But they look so cute! Like candy~

Their signature Glamour Lash in #050 and some deco stickers (ooh, the fun times shall begin~), and a shiny "Round Saucer Crystal" necklace. Or at least I think that is what it's called >.~

And of course, a swatch of the Shimmer Pencil. I am in love with the white pearl ones, but now I've got one from the opposite spectrum. The packaging makes it seem like it would be blue, but it is more like gunmetal black. I love it!

It's so important to have people you care about, people you respect and people you look up to. Janie is definitely that person for me. Aside from being a good friend and a beautiful person, she is also kind and strong. Even though she may not seem it, she is definitely a fighter - when I imagine how much hate she must get from people who are jealous of her success, people who are just waiting to take a stab at her, I see how strong she is, standing on her own feet, not letting any of that get to her. But I also know this - those who care about her keep her that way. If you know you respect her, like her for who she is and love talking to her, let her know that once in a while - behind every great person there are those who love them.

And that is all for today, I feel like I may induce some cavities with all this sweetness :3

Tutorial: Storing and Taking Care of Lenses

2011-05-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

Edit June 7,2011: Made a video to follow the directions easier ^_^
Watch it here

For a while now, I wanted to make a post on how I take care of my lenses. I am aware of the controversial conversations about circle lenses etcetera, but the way I see it is this:
If I take precautions in order to protect myself from eye infections and clean the lenses thoroughly and make sure I discard them when required, I can avoid anything happening to my eyes. My eyes are quite sensitive, and so if the lenses do not feel right, I will take them out. I have had my eyes checked, had a consultation with my optometrist and I am educated about the lenses, so I am pretty sure I can make an educated decision. If you are in any way considering wearing circle lenses, please go to your eye doctor first and make sure you do not have any special needs for your eyes. I am neither endorsing them, nor am I bashing them - this is my choice, and I ask that you educate yourself before making your own decision. That is all. I guess end of my super-long-disclaimer-type-thing.

Now, this post is going to describe how (with photos) I go from packaged lenses to storing them. So far, I have been wearing circle lenses for a bit over a year (a couple of times a month) and had no problems. If you have a different way that may be cleaner or better, please do let me know - I am all for improvement!

Now, all these photos were taken in my bathroom, which is where I generally do all of this (which also happens to be the cleanest place in my house), so I did not think it would be proper to do a fancy studio-lighting-shoot of these step-by-step-photos. Hope you don't get too frustrated with my bathroom-lighting. Thought it would just be natural :p

Now, for the "tutorial" itself~

Introducing, my "test bunny," the EOS V-202 in Green, one of the lenses I received a few days ago from an order I placed in December (-_-;). This is the last pair of the batch that I have not yet opened and stored, so here goes:

Get your favorite lens container. (I have stopped using the cheap lens cases that come with the lenses when you order them, because I am not one of those people who change the solution every day, and I learned the hard way that if you don't check on your lenses for a couple of weeks in those cases, the solution will be gone and your lenses will be dry and crusty. This is a lens case I got from Safeway (three for $6, I believe) and it has protective coating on the inside and it will store the solution and the lenses for a very long time without drying them out):

This is my Holy Grail solution for initial lens cleaning! It uses hydrogen peroxide that kills all the bacteria etcetera and is made to create a bubbling action for active cleaning to take away all the dirt and icky things. It's also great to use if you have worn lenses with lots of makeup and are afraid that you may have gotten it on the lenses. I will get into this product a bit more in a second:

Also, get out your regular solution for rinsing, because it will be useful shortly. For this, I use whatever I have handy at the time. My current solution is the one from Costco, but once this one is out, we'll see what comes next:

Open your lens container. If you are not sure how to do this, look for a little triangle mark on the silver top of the container, and push the white top up:

Pull off the silver top from around the container. If you happen to accidentally pull off the white top without the silver, gently utilize a letter opener or something similar to take it off. Luckily for me, the first container went smoothly, but the second one I had to battle with:

Yay! It's off! Now, open up the rubber top as well and you are done! Almost...

And this is what I call the "lens torture chamber." The little metal "thingie" neutralizes the hydrogen peroxide solution over 6 hours, causing bubbles to form, which clean the lenses:

Now, the container has a little line on it, so all you have to do is fill the hydrogen peroxide solution until this line. See how this solution has a BRIGHT RED cap? It's for those of us who may be silly enough to use this solution as a lens rinse. Which reminds me. Don't use this as a lens rinse >.< It will burn. It is supposed to be only used in the special container, as the container silver part will help neutralize it:

Now, pour out the lens and the solution it comes with into your palm, then gently take out the lens with your finger and place into the "torture chamber."

If you are one of those people who need different strength prescriptions, make sure you not the R and L on the "torture chamber," and keep track on which one is which.

Finally, place the "torture chamber" into the container with the solution, screw it on and watch the bubbles go! Leave it alone for about 6 hours or so. I like to do this overnight, so I don't have to look at the clock and wonder "is it done yet?" Yes, it is indeed because I am so impatient:

Now, once your 6-hour-wait-time has passed, you can see that there are no more bubbles cleaning the lenses and the solution is still. This means your lenses are clean and ready to use. You could potentially just take them out of the solution at this point and put them in. However, for me, I generally do this before I store them away in the regular lens solution in their case, so I am going to continue:

Fill your lens case with the regular lens solution. Like I mentioned before, I recommend the slightly more pricey lens cases that you can get at drug stores, because they will store your lenses longer. But it's really up to you:

Open up your "torture chamber" and take out the lenses gently with your fingers (make sure they are clean!):

Place the lenses in their respective sides of the container and you are finished. Unless you'd like to follow me a little longer to insure that you keep your lenses fresh.

Take a labeling sticker 1-inch in diameter (or cut one out that's about the size of the lens container) and write the BRAND, SERIES, COLOR, and DATE OPENED. Back when I had one or two lens pairs, it was easy to keep track of them - the names, brands, colors and when I had opened them, but now that I have a few more (I think about 6, so it's not too many), it's a bit harder. The most important factor is the date opened. Since I have not gotten them at the same time, I want to make sure that I do not wear them past their 8 mos-1 year wearing time. This is why the date is very helpful:

And now finally, you are done. You can go ahead and store them away until you decide to wear them. Not too bad, eh? And although it sounds like a lot of steps when I type it up, it really only takes at most 5 minutes to prepare for the solution, then about same amount to store them away. And it's not too much to give up to make sure your eyes are all nice and protected:

Inspiration and Lenses

2011-05-25T23:54:00.000-07:00

I got home quite late last night after work, so I did not have much time between getting here and crashing to write this, but I think I must write this down, especially because it was so important to me and what I will do in the future.

A few months ago, I did my makeup with little dots under my eyes, using black and white eyeliner: black dot, white dot, black dot, white dot...you get it. It opened up my eyes and it was slightly flashy, but not too much, so it was also work - appropriate.

A woman came in to pick up her computer from repairs (hm...I guess this happens to be the first time me even hinting as to what kind of environment I work in ;p) and stopped dead after seeing my face. By hers, I could tell that she spends some time on her appearance and she appreciates makeup. She stared at me for a few seconds, complimented my makeup, followed by "I don't generally compliment people on their makeup. This is very rare for me..." and we spent some time talking about the technique, products and tips. She left happy, partially because she learned something new and because her computer was now fixed and working. Yay.

And this is where yesterday happens. I was just returning from my break when I hear my name called across the floor of my workplace. I turn to see the woman from before speaking to my manager. Apparently she came in just to see me and would not leave until she saw me if I were working that day. I felt flattered. Quite a bit.

Turns out she went to MAC Pro in San Francisco to get the Fluidline (black) and Chromaline (white), the products I had used on myself that time. She had come in to my work to ask me more questions about the technique, because the brush she used did not make the dots as uniform as mine were. About half an hour later, she ended up leaving happy and with things to try out.

This was near the end of my shift, so I had some time to think about this. Someone coming into the store (that has nothing to do with makeup), out of their way, just to talk to me about makeup and how I do it? Man, that was quite a surprise and I was very happy.

So it got me thinking - I think I am going to continue doing this blogging thing and probably expand it into something more - I definitely want to learn more about makeup and beauty and cosmetology. I may or may not actually go into a cosmetology program, but I know I will enjoy learning on my own at least. And possibly teach someone something while I learn :)

*sigh of relief* I think it was a slight revelation for me - I can do something. I can create beautiful things and people actually do notice. This is why they turn around on the street. Well, that, and the fact that I may be slightly insane :3

So that is that. I have decided to work harder at this whole artistic thing, therefore look forward to some awesomeness in the future, loves.

In other news, I came home today to two packages that both contained 2 pairs of Circle Lenses each. One package was from a survey order that I had ordered in...January? They were EOS and there was an issue with shipping etc. etc. but I finally got them. Yay. The other package was from Fynale lens company, where I ordered two pairs as well, after I saw how beautiful the Honoo Red lenses were when Janie got herself a pair. I also ordered Kiwi Blue.

Here are some preview shots, but I have not opened them all yet/tried them out, so there will be detailed reviews coming later:

Honoo Red:

Kiwi Blue:

EOS J-203 in VIOLET:

EOS V-202 in GREEN:

That is all for today. I currently have Kiwi Blue lenses in solution overnight, so they will be the first ones I get around to testing. I am kind of nervous about the red - I want them to succeed so much that I am biased a little. But it shall work out, I promise :D

Mountain View Art Fair and Family Time

2011-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, downtown Mountain View had their annual Art Fair/Festival. Generally, I avoid these, because most of the time they are very boring, but Mountain View is so pretty and lively, plus I had not spent a lot of time with my family recently that I decided to go. I also decided to dress up a little for once. It was a pretty warm day and I finally got around to wearing some of the pretty things I had gotten for the summer. So it ended up looking like this:

[The dress is from Forever XXI, cardigan is from A&F, shoes and purse from DSW, and fur cuff from eBay]

The shoes are cork wedges that I bought recently. I have not had cork-soled shoes since I was twelve, and these were super girly-looking, so I decided to get a pair. I have a whole photo pr0n on these coming up soon, but here is a close-up:

One of the main reasons my family wanted to go to this particular fair (aside from liking these kinds of gatherings) was because my step-sister's uncle (mother's side) is in a band and they were performing. Classic Rock band, I believe, whose name I don't remember. Nothing too fancy, but they play these kinds of venues and to my surprise, lots of people knew the words to the songs. They were actually pretty good, but it's not my scene. He's the guy on the keyboard, by the way:

What I like best about these fair-type things is the food. Loving food as much as I do is kind of unhealthy, but I can't help it. It's just too delicious. While waiting for the band to set up, I spun around in a circle and just snapped photos of three places that were just around me:

Some of the art is pretty, too. Most of it is lame and people make lots of money from silly things that they make and overprice, but hey - everyone has a way of making money, right? Mom ended up buying a fairly pretty ceramic vase from an artist from Oregon. His stuff was good. As we were walking around, I did find a painting that I really liked. Not enough to buy and hang of my wall, but enough to have as a memory of this fair. I think it was the cutest thing ever:

Lastly, while mom and I were entertaining ourselves with art, my brother, stepfather and his daughter ate without us (you suck, guys!), so mom and I set on a journey to find delicious noms. We ended up getting huge hot dogs. Nom, I say. We soon realized that we should have just gotten one to share, since we barely finished half each. But what was done was done, so we decided to take them home and give the leftovers to the remaining family member who got to stay behind: our Doberman Joker. Unlike Los Altos street fair, the Mountain View one did not allow pets, so he was left all alone sleeping on our couch. Not a bad deal, after all, eh? Food pr0nz:

To be perfectly honest, my feet were killing me. These shoes are not for three-hour-long walks, I tell you. They are pretty comfortable, but in moderation. Considering that we walked from our house to downtown, I think I did pretty well.

I guess the most important part of this was the family time. It is rare that we do anything together, as we keep crazy schedules, but once in a while hangouts are fun, I would say. Next, I would love to go to the dog beach with our big puppy. TO THE BEACH!

Back into the arts

2011-05-19T00:01:00.000-07:00

So, today was my day off, so I decided to go ahead and build a DIY lightbox for photography. Whenever I stumble upon a blog that has professional-looking (note that I am saying professional-looking, not necessarily professional) photos, I tend to stick around, enjoy my time spent looking/reading it and then most likely either bookmark it or "follow/subscribe." Since I am no professional photographer and I don't even claim to be, I don't believe that spending much money on a lightbox would be a wise idea for me, so I decided to ask my dearest friend, Google, "how to make a DIY lightbox." There were a few tutorials that I found and I kind of just smooshed them together and made my lightbox (didn't like any one of them, but the ones I looked at made a great compilation and were super useful!), so it's sitting on top of my artsy-drawers, waiting for lights to be gotten (going off to Home Depot to get something over the weekend, probably, since I don't even own a damn desk lamp...)

I did that. Then I was also at Joann's (getting white fabric to cover the sides/top of the lightbox), and I decided that I should get off my lazy butt and get my sewing machine from under my art desk to do some work. So I purchased some "Fabric Quarters," as they call them and a zipper. The end result turned out to be a pretty neat makeup case that I gave to my mother. A while ago she asked me if I had a perfect sized makeup bag she could borrow for her purse. I didn't - the ones I had were either too small or too bulky. So now she has one. Yay. (Photos later, when I get lights for the light box ^_^)

And then to relax, I decided to do some doodling while re-watching Dexter. Boy, I am so pleased with the things I did. Lately, I have just been working, browsing the internet reading Memebase and Failblog and just being a complete bum, but now it feels like I have the inspiration to do things again, and it makes me a happy camper!
Now, lightbox and makeup case photos will be up later, but since I just finished the drawing, I decided to take a snaphshot of it (since it is not much and just a doodle, it does not need to be all fancy photographed and an iPhone photo will suffice ;P) Enjoy:

I am waaay too rusty with all this artsy stuff for my taste. I am very disappointed that since graduating I have been doing nothing but mundane work. I had no creative outlet and I have a feeling that it's the reason I was so depressed. That and other things, of course, but having no creativity just kills every remaining happy cell. I think that now that I have the inspiration to do things/make stuff, I will be more chipper and may be even blogging more. And hopefully once I get the darn lightbox lights, I shall be flooding this place with pretty photos of useless stuff :3

As a side note, my nails are abnormally long right now. As in...longest I have ever had them. I am pretty sure they are short for some people, but for me (someone who has super brittle and crappy nails), this is so amazing *squee* and I am hoping that they will stay that way for a while, hence I am trying desperately to use as many strengtheners as I can >3< We'll see...

And now, off to bed and work early in the morning...grrrr...

New camera: Nikon S6100

2011-05-15T17:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, people! Missed you all, so I decided to do a wee bit of a post. Nothing too special, but I thought I'd keep you all in the loop with all that's goin' on in life - plus, it gives me something to do :p

So, my "old" camera, Canon SD600 was my favorite thing in the world since I had gotten it. However, it's been over 5 years and it's gotten a bit sloppier with the photos it takes and the ISO is kind of lagging. Also, it's a 6MP camera, so after all these years, the photos it takes are slightly grainy. For a while now, I thought of getting a new camera, but I am so indecisive that it took me over a year to actually pick one that I liked. I was considering both Nikon and Canon (not so fond of any other camera company, but these two...), considering a dSLR versus a point-and-shoot, and pixels vs. zoom, among other things.

I finally settled on the Nikon S6100. It is 16MP and 7x zoom. It's a point-and-shoot with a powerful punch and a pretty neat manual setting option. The reason I decided to get a simpler, smaller camera is because whenever I go somewhere, I tend to pack light and having a giant dSLR around my neck bothers me. Plus, my father owns a Nikon D90 that I have full access to in case I have something that needs more beautiful capture. So I thought - okay, let's go with this one.

I ordered it from Amazon (no tax, no shipping fees <3), and it took them about three weeks to ship it out (although they estimated it at about 4-5 weeks, which was happy news!), just because it only came out in March. So finally, after the long wait, I finally got my new baby:

The package contains everything I needed and more: one of the CDs contains a large PDF of instructions, troubleshooting, etcetera. Yay happy reading times~

It is a touch-screen (pressure-sensitive, so very unlike iPhone/iPods etc), so you can use your nails, a stylus etc. It does come with a stylus that attaches to the strap, but I find it somewhat useless. Also, one interesting thing about it is that it's the only camera me/my family has owned that charges the battery through connecting it to a wall/computer directly. Usually, I am used to taking the battery out and placing it in the charger for overnight charging (which sometimes causes me to forget the battery and leave my house with camera only!), so I guess this way I will never have camera/battery forgetting issues. Yay!

Pretty and shiny! I chose the black matte one, because it was the most attractive of them all. Generally, I would probably choose a silver one, but there was not one in this collection. They even had red and purple, but no silver - just a super light gold. Icky. So let's go with the black...

The touch-screen is pretty huge, but like everything that is shiny, it attracts fingerprints like a mofo. It's pretty nice and big, but the photos are so large that the images look compressed until you zoom in a bit to see the rest of the image.

It looks so geeky with the strap and the stylus >.<

And because I decided that I am not going to have any scratches on this 'child' of mine, I am keeping it in this leopard makeup bag I got as a bonus from one of the Japanese magazines I constantly purchase, haha.

It fits beautifully and even has some space left over for the charger and the cord if I needed to take it on a longer journey:

So now comes the fun part of testing it out and making sure I want to stick with it. I have taken a few dozen photos with it, and am planning on seeing how the videos turn out. Something I am concerned about is focus during filming. I know my previous camera would not even think about autofocus, and the rest of the cameras my family uses are not really meant for video, so I think that it would be just too perfect if this one could. So we shall see then, huh?

And now I am off to get some noms! So hungry :3
Cheers to all <3

Review: Missha Watery BB Cream

2011-05-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

[Non-Sponsored]

For a while now, I have been using BB creams instead of foundation. They remind me a lot of tinted moisturizers, but more versatile and more fitting to my skin. They generally have a better coverage and last a bit longer than TMs.

So far, I have tried Lioele Beyond the Solution, but that was way too dark and heavy for me. Then it was the Missha Perfect Cover in No21, and that one broke me out in tiny bumps all over my face, so I dropped that fast. After that, it was the Skin 79 Shiny Pearl Water Drop, which was amazing, but its a little bit too sparkly and I feel like a Twilight character, so I only use it on my cheeks for the highlight. And finally, this brings me to my latest BB cream on my journey: Missha Watery BB Cream.

Product Description:
Missha Watery BB Cream is a very lightweight BB cream, that gives light to medium coverage and is buildable. It moisturizes the skin and keeps it smooth and even looking. The BB Cream contains flower extract and astaxanthin to nurture skin, and has a cooling effect from little droplets of water when applied to skin.

How to use:
After applying primer, apply even amounts to your face and blend evenly either with your fingertips or a blending sponge or a makeup brush.

Ingredients:
Water, Titanium Dioxide, Cyclopentasiloxane, Phenyl Trimethicone, Alcohol Denat, Ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, 4-Methylbenzylidene Camphor, Talc, PEG-10 Dimethicone, Vinyldimethicone, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 dimethicone, Nelumbium speciosum, Sodium Citrate, Glycine, Citric Acid, Cyclomethicone, Diamond powder, Serine, Glutamic Acid, Triethoxycaprylylsilane, PEG 60 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Ethyl menthane carboxamide, Coral powder, Pearl powder, Aspartic acid, Leucine, Amethyst powder, Tourmaline, Lysine, Alanine, Isoleucine, Tyrosine, Threonine, Proline, Valine, Phenylalanine, Butylene Glycol, Glycerin, Butylene glycol dicaprylate/dicaprate, Histidine, Sodium Hyaluronate, Methionine, Cysteine, Polyglyceryl-4 isostearate, Hexyl Laurate, Arginine, Astaxanthin, Platinum Powder, Parfum, Methylparaben, Chlorphenesin, Butylparaben, Disodium EDTA, Hexyl Cinnamal, Hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexene carboxaldehyde, Butylphenyl Methylpropional, Linalool, Alpha-isomethylionone, Limonene
MAY CONTAIN [+/-: Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499)]

Price:
$19.49 for 50ml if you purchase it from Pretty and Cute, which is where I got mine.

Review:
Missha Watery BB cream is by far the best BB cream I have used so far. It matches my skin perfectly once it is blended (I am NC15, and it is hard to find shades that are light enough for me, without being completely transparent), it is not heavy on skin, and it has light to medium coverage.
The main reason I got this BB cream is because I was amused by the little water droplets that form once the cream is applied to skin. And to my wonder, the droplets have an amazing cooling effect, which is just perfect for the summer weather. It is definitely very light and at times I even forget I am wearing any foundation at all.
One thing I did notice, that may be a turnoff for some, is a light smell that reminds me of fresh laundry, but it does not bother me at all, especially that it goes away when it is applied to the face. However, if you can't stand makeup with even the slightest scents, this may be something you'd need to pass on.
So far, I have been using this BB Cream for about three weeks or so, and I have not broken out. I've also noticed a slightly more even skin tone on my cheeks, where I usually get some red spots from previous light acne scarring.
Another amazing thing is that it is so moisturizing that it is impossible to "cake" it on. It's like applying a cream moisturizer that also covers up your imperfections. It's wonderful!

Overall Rating:

Overall, this is currently my HG (Holy Grail) product. I use it whenever I am applying makeup and will not leave the house without it. I even prefer to use this over my airbrush makeup. The only downside I can see is that it is not widely available in the US and it comes in quite a small size, so I already have to order my second one soon. But having used this for over three weeks, I have not broken out, and my skin is very soft and feels nice. I am definitely going to re-purchase this.

Photos:

I hope you guys found this review informative and check back soon for more <3

Kajan Padraig and Westerfeld House in SF

2011-05-08T23:53:00.001-07:00

Our morning begins with the previous evening, where I set my iPhone alarm to 5.30am, knowing that I will probably wake up around 6am, so that I can leave home around 7am and head to San Francisco orange. salon for hair and makeup at 8am before an editorial photoshoot I was asked to model for by the lovely designers of Kajan Padraig.

Unfortunately, life had other plans...

I awoke from my phone ringing, and immediately answered it to find my mother on the other end asking "ready to go?" Now, my stepfather was to drive me to SF that morning, as the trains were not to run until 8am, which would have made me late. It was nice of them to offer, so we agreed I would be ready by 7am. This is where I whipped my head around to look at my iHome alarm clock, which is just an inconvenient length from my bed for me not to use it just to see a glowing 7:09AM "FUUUU-----CK" I replied, and jumped out of bed.

Now, the evening before, we were told not to wash our hair on the day of, nor do our makeup, so I did not have to worry about that, so I dressed myself in the dark, ran into the kitchen, where my mother was making me a piece of toast I could take in the car and a cup of coffee. Thanking her, I grabbed the noms and out I went.

I ended up being on time with no problems at all, and arrived the first out of the bunch at the salon. Even when I am late - I am early. That's a fucking skill! Which I should give my mom and stepfather (epic driving) credit for this time, hehe.

I got to the orange. salon [835 divisadero st] with enough time to go grab a cup of coffee. Mmm...coffee...

When I returned with my cup of awake-juice, I found the hair and makeup artists setting up at their stations. One of the designers and another model was there already. There were to be three of us in total. Both of the artists' names were Paul. It made my barely-awake self slightly confused, but it passed:

The place was quite small, with only two work stations and nothing in the back but the bathroom [which also housed cupboards with locks, full of supplies, I assume], however, it was pretty well decorated. A few pieces of art, none of that over-tacky sh*t. Just look at this awesome chair:

Then arrived the rest of the crew: the third model, the second designer and her husband and soon the first designer's husband. After a game of chairs between two hair and makeup stations and three models, we finally found our way to the "mansion" we were to have the shoot in. Honestly, I had no idea it was going to be so professional. I finally felt wide awake...or maybe that was my morning-juice talking. We got to the mansion, or the Westerfeld House, and it was goddamn beautiful. I had never been there, nor had I ever heard of it, and I now wondered why. Why has nobody told me this place exists? And how was I lucky enough to find myself having a photoshoot here?

That's the inside portion of the door that greeted us upon entrance. The stained glass is a theme throughout the whole house and looks wonderful if it gets lucky enough for sun to reach it. See? More stained glass, just a lift of your head away from the door:

Speaking of stairs, however. This place has way too many. Too many and too steep, I say. Living in this mansion is like constant exercise, yo. I have a feeling my mind is playing tricks on me, but I am pretty sure that I had to climb at least three flights of these babies to get one shoot location:

Up and down...up and down...in 5 inch stilettos and pencil skirts or evening gowns. B*tch, please. That's nothing to us! And now for some more architecture pr0n:

Now, yes, people actually live in this house, it seems. It was cold as fuck, though. If not for my being prepared for San Francisco weather and being all bundly in my sweatshirt and leather jacket in between outfits, I would have frozen my pretty little butt over. Brr. Also, blow fish:

That is all.

I absolutely forgot: What does a proper model do during down time in between outfits? Goes and barfs in the bathroom to loose that piece of cracker she had earlier for lunch? Eff that. She eats peanut butter pretzels and plays Pokémon. F'yeah!

Now, remember those stairs we were talking about earlier? Well, those b*tches came back to haunt us. That is, more walking up four flights of those torture devices to get to the loft-tower thing. But it was definitely worth it! a 360 view of San Francisco from a loft that has four windows on each of four walls? And when wind blows, one of the windows rattles like crazy. It's beautiful! Oh, not to mention this ash tray following the view:

Not to be a lame-o-saurus or anything, but it is no secret that I am a big fan of leopard print. As a matter of fact, as I am typing this, I have leopard-print (Sally Hansen "Kitty Kitty" nail strips) on my fingernails. So of course, I could not resist this:

Now, the only thing that is sad about this is the fact that I do not own this. I want this to be on my floor and I want to put my feet on it *silly face*

And now that I have bombarded you with lots of photos [there are definitely more and I will post more, especially when I get the editorial shoot photos from the photographer, but this is it for tonight, as I am exhausted], I am probably going to bore you with more talk. However, I have not done any interesting talking in quite a while, so I feel like I owe you peeps.

The shoot took about 10 hours, including hair/makeup and the 30 min break we had for snacks. It was long, exhausting and cold. And it was wonderful. I do regret not starting doing this more often, as I have met quite a few talented people today, it was amazing. I definitely loved working with Patrick and Cake [creators and owners of Kajan Padraig], they are pretty amazing and their garments are beautifully and flawlessly made. I kind of felt like sneaking away wearing one of them ;P

Kidding. But honestly - go check them out. I get absolutely no gain from advertising for them, but I do get to introduce more of you lovely people to a label that actually creates wonderful pieces by hand and care very much about their clientele.

I guess I can close with the snapshots of my hair I got to get after I stumbled back into my room, falling off my feet from how tired I am. Consider these a very lame teaser for what is to come in the future posts:

Also, I need to have a conversation with my face. "Dear face, please stop getting oily, even after the MUA used a mattifier on you. Your cooperation would be greatly appreciated. All my love, Frowne."

And now I am going to legitimately pass out. I have done my duty of blogging for the day [although I think next time I will brink a notebook for...notes...for what I'd like to write about. That would be quite helpful. Indeed.]

Oh, and I don't know if you'd noticed, but I got a new camera. Nikon S6100. I am still trying to figure it out, but it seems that either the camera or the SD card tends to damage some images, so some wonderful shots were lost because of that. I so hope it is the SD card. Please let it be the SD card...If not, I guess back to Amazon you go, camera. You are lucky I did not name you, yet...But I do like you so far. Let's just make sure you don't break anything else, ja?

Well, my lovelies, cheers to you all and you all have a great rest of your weekend (however short it may be - 10 min to go for me...)

Coffee Junkie

2011-04-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I really like coffee. I have been drinking instant coffee since I was about twelve and grew a taste for real coffee soon afterwards, and there began my love.

I like real strong espresso cups, double shots, as well as "drinks" with coffee in them (meaning mochas, frappuccinos, etc. drinks that have about one part coffee, ten parts sugar and milk), and I like hot chocolate. Heh.

What I don't like is when people fuck around with my coffee and mess it up. I understand days where you are like "ugh, I feel like crap, let me half-ass at my job and hope nobody will notice." But at some point, they do. I have been a fan of Starbucks since about Sophomore year of High School (which was about 5 years ago), and I've been to a few of their restaurants (including a couple in Japan), and had quite a few variations of their drinks. For the most part, they are similar in taste and the way they make it across the border.

Not the fucking Starbucks downtown Palo Alto (CA).

Fuck, and it is not just one barista. It is every cup that I have had for the past month.
Given, I went there on only about three different occasions within this month, but hey - 3/3 is pretty darn high for a failure rate.

Now, I am generally not the one to make a scene in a restaurant or a customer service place, because I have been there, I have done that and I have been on the other side of the counter, so I know how it feels when a customer is not only unhappy with their purchase/food/service, but is also yelling at you while you try to make it better. That is not cool. So I generally just keep quiet. But I guess I need to vent somewhere, so instead of getting into an argument with already tired employees, I am going to dump it all on here.

Please note, that I am not ordering something as extraordinary or as long or complex as say, this: "Grande coffee in a venti cup with 2 pumps hazelnut, 2 pumps vanilla, 2 pumps caramel, 2 equals and 4 sweet and lows filled to the top with cream, with extra cream on the side, double cupped with no sleeve, a stir stick, and stopper put in the top." (First thing I got off the internet when I searched for "crazy Starbucks orders," so credit goes to whoever wrote it)

Side note, again: these were my coffee runs on my 15-minute break from work, where I could be sitting and reading a book instead of wasting money on something that is not nearly as delicious as I need it to be in order to keep on working.

Try #1
(I am super excited, because I have not had this in a while)
Order: A caramel frappuccino with lots of extra caramel on bottom, sides, and top.
Result: A caramel frappucino with a millimeter of caramel on the bottom, nothing on the sides, more ice than flavor, and a drizzle of caramel on top of the whipped cream.
Outcome: Unhappy Frowne.

Try #2
(A long while later, when I decide to give them another try, because hey - things happen. And I needed another fix)
Order: A caramel frappucino with a ton of extra caramel and an extra blended shot of espresso. With whipped cream. Oh, and lots of caramel. Did I mention that?
Result: Yet again barely any caramel. Is there a shortage? What is this madness?
Outcome: Complain-y Frowne. But only complain-y to my friends outside of the joint.

Try #3
(Today, when it was cloudy and a bit drizzly and I decided that a perfect way to spend my 15 minute break was to go and get a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and pretend that I am actually curled up on the couch in front of a fireplace)

Order: A hot chocolate with whipped cream.
Result: A brown-flavored water beverage with a pump of whipped cream on top.
Outcome: Fuck this joint. Not taking this bait again. I think I'd rather make my own coffee and drink that up.

Now my question is - HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU FUCK UP HOT CHOCOLATE? Even I can make that, and I don't even cook! (You don't want to let me near the kitchen...)

Okay, I realize that I sound like a total spoiled bitch here, but when I pay around $5 for a drink, I expect it to be perfect. At the least, I expect it to be tasting at least remotely similar to the ones I have ordered before at the same coffee places, right? Wrong. Not at this Starbucks, nuh-uh! No, sir.

"We give you flavored water that looks like the drink you ordered." - should be their motto. Bleh. I have a funky after - taste after that brown-flavored water. Ugh.

On the bright side, not all Starbucks places are like this. I was shopping with Paul a while back and he wanted to get a death frappucino (kind of what I had ordered from descriptions above, except with more caramel and more shots). So when he ordered that, this kid (who reminds me of my brother - tall, skinny and young - looking) took about 7 minutes just to make our drink - he was so careful and so thorough with the order that I was almost afraid to drink it - and it was OH, MY GOD, made to perfection. I feel bad that I forgot his name, because you know...I would only want him to ever make my drinks.

I think I may have done well with venting my disappointment and getting rid of my insomnia. I also know that there are a few other posts that I can't wait to write about. But this one was just so...personal and I had to write it today - otherwise the effect would have been lost. Yay, me.

SOCKS!

2011-01-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

I have an obsession with socks. Not too fancy, not anything insane and super expensive, but I love socks. In particular, knee high socks, or just-over-the-knee socks.

Last time I purchased a large(er?) amount of knee socks was about three years ago, when Target was having knee-high sock packages for fairly cheap. I think I purchased about 3 packages, totaling in 6 pairs of awesome socks.

Three years later, and the socks have some holes in them on the soles/backs of my feet (pretty good for cheap socks!), and so I had decided to take a road trip to the nearest Target (which is about 30 min away on freeway) and try and find some socks.

I was happy to find that they had lots of socks. ON CLEARANCE. So...a pair of socks for $1.40-$2...Can I do that? HELL YES, I CAN DO THAT. So I think I grabbed about 8-9 pairs and happily skipped to the sports equipment department where my roommate was looking at knee pads. Ended up deciding against a couple of pairs after taking a second look, but I stuck with 6 pairs of new knee-high socks. YAY. This has been long overdue~

Now, it is time to raid the closet and throw away ALL of the old pairs. NEW SOCK SEASON, HERE I COME :D

Target was not the only place I wanted to go in the shopping plaza, as I had done my research well. There was also a Sally's Beauty Supply store and hey - I needed some gel nail products.

I spent all last night (instead of doing homework) looking up gel nail tutorial videos on YouTube and I was inspired again. My nails are extremely fragile right now, because just before New Year, I went to a salon to get acrylics done and the lady ruined my nails completely. Not only did she drill my cuticle 'til my skin was all gone, she also made them look all bulky and gross. I could not stand it, so I took them off the following day, and just applied tons and tons of repair nail products to soften the damage. Now, to the point. Since my nails are so fragile, I have decided to try doing my gel nails again, and to find the rest of the products I needed. I had chosen IBD to be my gel product brand, mostly because it is so accessible, it is on the cheaper side compared to other products, and it is legit (none of that black market stuff). So this is what my shopping list consisted of:

- Clear Builder Gel (I had the overlay gel, but it seems like I am slightly silly and did not realize I would need a builder gel. No wonder my nails did not last long~)
- Clear tips (I wanted clear, just because then I can paint it any color, put any sparkle and they would look awesome. To be honest, I think french tips are beginning to look tacky to me)
- Tip clipper (I COULD order this for cheap off eBay, but I was there anyway, and I had a Sally's card, so it did not make me too poor. The reason I wanted this, though, is because any time I use large clippers that are not specifically for tips, I feel like I am damaging and putting too much stress on my already crappy nails. So I hope this helps)
- Nail buffer (because my other one's getting a bit dull)
- Nail file (100/100 grit. I have a 180 grit, so I thought this may be appropriate)
- Nail wipes (these are lint-free, meaning that they are perfect for removing that sticky residue after curing gel nails)
- Cleanser plus (this is what will remove the sticky residue)
- Some nail decoration (I have quite a large collection, but these tiny beads just made me happy, so I had to pick some up)

Now, all I have left is to go over to my other home (too many homes. I miss having all my stuff in one place, so I don't have to go "hm...I can't do [blank], because my supplies are at the other house"), pick up my supplies and spend an evening doing my nails. Oooh, I hope they turn out well. Will there be photos? YES THER WILL :D

Speaking of photos, here are some I took of the stuff I managed to get today. Socks are my favorite. The hair dye is for my hair (obviously), because the red has already washed out and I need another dose (hair dye - my new drugs :D). Oh, and mint + melon gum....om nom nom.

I feel like I have been slacking with entries. I wonder what I should do to remedy that. It is just...I am so lazy it is impossible haha.

Cheers!

Review: UNII palette

2010-12-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

[Non-Sponsored]

For the longest time, I have been looking at UNII cosmetics palettes. Watched reviews, followed their twitter, and browsed their website. The idea of such palettes appeals to me, because I have seen the dressing rooms of theaters and the mess the actors work in. Blush, lipsticks, foundation, eyeshadows and tons and tons more. It's a mess. Big mess.

Unfortunately, having no budget just to test things out for my fellows and the department, I was stuck drooling over the palettes without being able to properly test them. So can you imagine my surprise and a factor of "squee" when I received a parcel at my doorstep from one of my YouTube subbies that contained...

...dun dun dun...UNII PALETTES! In every color!

Now, she had requested that I do not release her name/username, but I can't not mention her at all~ (yay for double-negative?)
Aside from it being an amazing early Christmas gift, she intended for this to be something I could review honestly and find a use for (how can I not?), and hopefully mention things that others who have gotten them from UNII for free to review did not touch upon much. So. Shall I try? Let's do this~

Now, there are 5 colors of the palettes (and now that I look at their website, they have added a sixth recently, so I guess I have the earlier editions): Pomegranate, Twilight, Lemongrass, Eggplant, Snow (and the latest - Coal).

They come in white cardboard origami packaging, with stickers to reflect the color included within:

The palettes themselves are shiny plastic, very reflective, and the colors are not simply painted on. Instead, the color is "underneath" a see-through layer, which means that even if you scratch your palette (oh, no!), it will not take off the color.
[From left to right: Lemongrass, Eggplant, Pomegranate, Snow, and Twilight]:

Now, aside from the name, my favorite palette from all of the ones I currently own is Twilight. The color is a gorgeous blue with teensy sparkles. Makes me think of the beautiful night sky:

On the side, the UNII palettes have a snap, which makes the palette close up very tight and secure, with no way of opening in your purse/suitcase/makeup bag etc., especially during travel. A huge plus and a selling point!

Inside, it has a thumb grip, with their logo on it, which is slightly rubberized for best grip. It's quite a nice idea, because I constantly think of better ways to hold my full palettes, and it is never really...sturdy. I end up wanting to stick my finger into one of the shadows. This should not be a problem here. The best part? You can move it to wherever it is more comfortable for you:

The palette itself is not too big, but that's the appeal of it. It is not really for makeup artists, instead, they are more for the consumer. It is great for travel, makeup bags and to keep your everyday makeup organized, but it is not too practical for storing the countless eyeshadows a makeup artist may have:

On the back of it, there is the logo and the name of the company, their website, "made in korea" and "patent pending" imprinted ("comatose-bunnies.com" is just my watermark ;D):

Now, back to the packaging. It is fairly sturdy cardboard that is folded origami style to make a box for the palette, and when unfolded, it reveals the flower-like design that is the logo for the company:

On the inside of the cardboard, it has detailed instructions on how to use the palette, how to depot eyeshadows and pans, and some background on the company:

Now, to the criticism.

First of all, I am going to mention the price: $29. TWENTY NINE DOLLARS for a small palette. (they are currently having a "Holiday Sale," where they lowered the price to $24, which is a bit closer to what I would pay for it...but still...) In this economy, the "simple consumer" who has makeup pans lying around cannot afford to purchase a palette for $29. I know I can't just throw that around. And I thought MAC palettes were expensive (and they were $12.50 back when I got them). Of course, you are paying for the convenience, beauty, practicality and design. But when you think about it...$30 (plus tax, of course) is a whole load of cash you could be spending on so much more things.

Is it worth it? Well, to be honest, at this time I am going to say no. If I really needed to take my makeup with me and I really needed to take all my free-floating makeup with me, there are quite a few cheaper options to do that, including a DIY palette that I can wrap in bubble-wrap if I needed to shove it in a suitcase. Will it be pretty? Maybe, maybe not. But it will cost me less than $30 and will still allow me to bring my necessities with me.

I was thinking about this for quite a while and I noticed something. The packaging used for every single palette is an enormous amount of work, and is bulky. Although beautiful, it serves no other purpose than aesthetic appeal and will end up in my recycling bin in little less than 15 minutes. The whole concept of the UNII palette is that it is simple, it saves space and it is practical. The packaging is the opposite of that statement. It is complex in design, it takes up more space than necessary, and after removing the palette from it, you are either going to keep it because you are mesmerized by its design (which takes up space you just saved), or you are going to throw it away, which is kind of a waste, because when you think about it - the $30 you are paying for the palette...a part of that went in for the price of production of the packaging and the materials. So you are essentially throwing away some part of the $30.
Would it be the same without the packaging? Well, personally, I believe that it would be better without it. Right now, all 5 packages are stacked by my recycling bin, ready to be taken out tonight to be picked up by the recycling team tomorrow morning. Did I enjoy the packaging? Sure, for about 2 minutes, when I looked at it - the exact information I can simply find on their website, without wasting any resources. /rant. Essentially, I believe that if the package were to be simpler, the cost of production would also go down, making the palette more accessible to a wider audience.

Now, how do you justify the $30? For me, I am very excited about having my essentials in one place and being able to take them with me wherever I go. But on the other hand, having this convenience cost me $30 is kind of...intense. The only way I could justify this myself is that if while I traveled a lot, my expensive makeup broke during the transport and it spilled all over my bag, making everything unusable. But for drugstore makeup that I can just go and re-buy for $5, I don't think I would bother.

Now, I believe this is a great tool for actors, as they do have quite a bit of a mess at their vanities during a show. But then again - not every piece of makeup would fit in their palette, so that is a turn-off.

If you are very interested in having this and think that it is the best thing ever, get one. Just one. And see if you necessarily need any more. Right now, they are at $24, which is a bit more reasonable price. Personally, I would not pay more than $20 for it, as anything after that is slightly...meh. As an item, it is not worth $29. Its value to you may be the $29...if so - go ahead. If you can live without it, well...you've got your answer.

Now, while watching reviews for these palettes, I saw that the magnets were in one sheet, with two pre-cut lines running length-wise. But mine came in as one piece. Honestly, I believe this is a slight improvement over the semi-pre-cut ones, as it gives the user a larger range of sizes they can use. Seal of approval! I am just hoping that other little things will be improved with future designs.

Now, let's talk about the black palette. It seems like the packaging is also black on it, and it looks pretty neat. It reminds me of the limited edition Macbooks way back in the day. Actually, the whole concept of UNII palettes reminds me of Apple products. Hmm...it may be because of the 'simple' thing they are going for...or it may be because they are so shiney in a "oooh, shiney~" way.

Now I kind of wish I had the black one. I have a feeling that the quality or at least some minor things are different from the rest of the palettes. But I may never know, eh? Do let me know if you have the black palette and tell me what you think about it, guys~

Love to all and cheers~

Review: Harlot Cosmetics

2010-10-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

I have been hesitating on writing this review, because right before Harlot Cosmetics, I tried out another mineral brand that turned me off of mineral makeup for a while. Then the pretty colors from Harlot Cosmetics seduced me and I thought that I would give them a try.

And look at all the pretty colors:

The 10g jars are $6 each and full of product:

Summer Dusk, Hotsy Totsy, Purple Passion, Chea &Evil, Blue Velvet, Beach Babe, Spike, Charging Sky, Tease, Cupcake [without primer]:

Shiny [without primer]:

And pigmented [without primer]:

I was happy to find out that the eye shadows were pigmented, well blended, beautiful colors and stayed on for 4+ hours.

The first time I wore them, I went out for about 4 hours and when I came back, they were still as beautiful and bright as they were when I first put them on. Given, I did use eyeshadow primer, so that may have enhanced them a teensy bit.

The colors are fairly grounded, yet bright - they are very wearable and quite easy to blend. There is a nice variety, but it feels like something is missing - I wish that they had some matte colors, to use alongside the shimmery ones.

Overall, I was quite happy that I did end up trying them - they brought me back to using some mineral makeup. Also, it makes me quite happy, since Harlot Cosmetics are a small brand, their products are quite amazing.

Would I purchase the shadows? Yes, but I would prefer if they added some non-sparkly shadows and possibly their own primer.

Interested in finding out more? Visit Harlot Cosmetics and look over their stuff for yourself.

Taking care of your feet

2010-09-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

After long hours at work, after running around in high heels or just not too comfortable shoes, we all get achey feet and we just want to lie down and rest, right? Well, yes. But aside from just simply elevating my feet, I feel best if I give my feet a little pampering. Naturally, I do not have time for this every day, but I try and do this at least once a week, so that my feet are nice and happy and continue to serve me though the long work hours.

So, how do I pamper my feet? Well, let me elaborate, with pictures of course. If you don't want to see my feet, feel free to not read this post. Yeah, I know my feet are kind of gross in the first picture - this is why they need to be taken care of, right?

After a full day of standing on my feet, my toes and the bottoms of my feet are not only aching, but looking horrid:

So it is time to pamper my feet and let them relax and rest, so they can survive yet another day of the same thing. For that, I use this foot bath thing that belongs to my mother. I believe you can get one of these for about $20 at Target or Walmart. To be honest, I am not sure where this one is from, but I recently saw some for fairly cheap. If you don't want to get one, you do not have to. Simply fill a container that will fit your feet with warm water and soap and put your tired feet in:

A foot-scrubber, however, is a must. When you get a pedicure, they will take care of your calluses for you, but when you do it at home, make sure you have a foot stone. Don't rub it too hard - just enough to soften your feet. Mine has a brush on the other end, so I can brush the dirt away. This little guy came in a set of bath supplies and was fairly cheap. No need to get a fancy expensive one:

A sponge that will be more on the harsh side, for exfoliating and getting rid of dead skin around your feet. This is not necessary, but I just like the feel of my skin after I use it:

Now, soak your feet in the bath for about 7 minutes, remove cuticles from your toenails, shape your toenails into the shape you want and remove the old nail polish if you have any. Use the foot stone on your heels and the balls of your feet, until your foot is smooth and feels nice. Feel free to use any soaps you like or any skin products. Dry your foot afterwards and see the result:

After the awesome treatment, I like to put aloe or lotion on my feet to keep them soft and hydrated. This time, I chose aloe. I also use Vaseline brand lotion, but whatever you have handy and love will work just fine:

Last but not least, put some socks on. They will keep your feet moisturized and the lotion will not be rubbing off on the floor and in your shoes/slippers. Now is the time to sit on a couch or a bed with your TV remote or a book and enjoy your time off. Keep your feet up and let them rest. I like to keep my socks on overnight, so that when I wake up, I have soft and clean feet and can start the day fresh:

I hope you guys are doing well and are taking care of yourselves. Its getting colder and colder and we wear more and more close-toed shoes, warm boots etcetera that make our feet dirty and not breathing. Give your feet a well-deserved rest at least once a week. You will feel better, I promise :)

KONAD Nail Art

2010-09-03T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many of you know about KONAD (I am sure quite a bit of you, especially that YouTube is filled with KONAD tutorials, reviews etcetera), but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Konad. Why? Because I am terrible at doing nail art on my right hand, so my nails end up looking quite different on one hand than the other. WIth KONAD, that possibility is a lot less, and it makes it easier to achieve beautiful nails :DD

I've posted about KONAD before, when I first got my starter kit. Back then, I purchased my items from WOWSOCOOL.com and they had a coupon code for my readers for some percentage off their order (it was a long time ago, so I don't remember how much it was, sorry). Unfortunately, KONAD USA made them stop the coupon codes, so that was the end of that.

However, WOWSOCOOL.com owners are generous and amazing, so they keep sending me promotions they come up with, so I can share them with you guys. The latest email was this:

"We are having a promotion offering free product valued at $6.99 for orders over $30 with code "promo699". The $6.99 will be deducted from the order total after checkout. This code will expire on 9/30/10."

Which I thought was great. Earlier that day, I was actually thinking that I should order some more KONAD items, as I really wanted the French tip plate (M19), and a couple more colors. Why the M19 in particular? Well, I was contemplating about going to a high end nail salon and getting (real) gel nails, but the price tag was somewhere around $60, and the nails would have lasted me a couple of weeks - plus, it is kind of hard to use touch-screen devices with artificial nails. And having my job be around touch-screen devices, it is kind of hard to avoid them.

So I did some math and decided to just go with some more KONAD items. With tax, it all came to a bit over $30 ($30 and some cents, I believe) and I can create oh, so many variations of nail art. So all in all, I have expanded my collection a bit and gotten some more inspiration to improve :3

What did I order? Well, this was my little haul:

Of course, items came VERY well packaged. Everything was wrapped tightly in bubble wrap, box was filled with packing peanuts, and there was no space for anything to break. This photo was taken after I took off the bubble wrap:

I got the two sided stamper and an extra scraper, because when I ordered my first KONAD set, it came with one sided stamp, and this one just seems so much more practical:

The lovely M19 French tip plate:

Top coat, because other top coats still smear the images, which drives me INSANE:

Special polish in PINK. Because I don't have pink. And as much as I am not so much with the girly, I do like Hime nails, so I believe this will go beautifully:

I am, however, into reds, so WINE RED seemed like a beautiful addition to the collection:

GASP! Things out of their packaging! (why does packaging have to be so pretty? I want to keep it ~.~):

Oh, did you notice the nails art I had in these pictures? Well, I also took a snapshot of them with my phone and Purikura-d it. I used the MARRON iPhone app for those of you who are intersted:

And just because I have been slacking off and not posting anything other than reviews lately, here's a FOTD with Mamegoma, whom I am absolutely in love with and is my current obsession. Freaky coloring, because I was extremely tired and didn't want to do any actual photo correcting to make myself look good O_O

Do you guys use KONAD? If so, post your designs or your favorite product recommendations, I would love to hear them :DD

Review: BLAKhead Masque + Lotion

2010-08-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

EDIT: I was asked what a Tweezerman tool was, so I thought it would be important to share.
A Tweezerman tool for blackheads is one of these guys:

Ever heard of Blackhead No More? Whether you have and you are interested if it actually works or you have not and are interested in hearing about it - stay tuned! I have a review with photos coming right up :3

Plus, as a bonus, the owner of the website offered to sponsor a contest with THREE winners. THREE!! What does that mean for you? Well, if you win - you get a set of the two products I am about to review. Interested? Stay tuned and please make sure to read the rules~

For the longest time, I had a problem with blackheads. I used Tweezerman tool to get rid of them, Bioré strips, but both of those are quite painful and don't get rid of all the blackheads anyway. I stumbled upon the Blackhead No More website when researching (yet again) on the best way to get of those pesky little blackheads. As I had never heard of the products before and had no idea if they would actually work, I was offered the products for a review and I agreed. I was really excited (and still am!).

Shipping took a little while (about a week - which is not too long), because it was shipped from Singapore. Shipping is safe, you pay with PayPal and you get a tracking number :)

When I got the package, it contained both the BLAKhead Masque and BLAKhead Lotion. The containers are pretty sizable and last for a while. Besides, if you keep using these products, your blackheads will decrease dramatically and you will no longer need to use as much :DD

The lotion comes in a convenient little bottle with a pump, as well as black cotton swabs, so it is easier to see the blackheads you have removed from your pores:

The instructions are very easy to follow: after a shower, saturate a cotton pad with the BLAKhead lotion, then place on your nose (or other blackhead-prone area), soak a towel in hot water, wring it dry and place it over the pad for a sauna effect. Let it sit for about 15-20 minutes, then use the cotton swab to gently push out the blackheads:

After following the instructions, this is what my swab looked like (gross, I know ~.~), and this is only after one swab:

The BLAKhead Masque comes in a black tube (80grams):

It is a fairly good size, and will last for quite a while (the website claims it is about 30-40 applications, depending on the size of the area you are treating):

I used the Masque right after I used the lotion, so there were not many blackheads left - only the deeper ones. The mask itself is black and gooey, but it has no smell, so it is not gross. Place it on the area you want to treat, then wait 15-20 minutes until it stiffens, then pull it off. It is not painful at all (unlike pore strips) and this is what it pulled out for me:

The white frame shows the minor blackheads I had left still after the Lotion treatment, which is saying a lot. My nose is clear, which makes me extremely happy ^^

Overall, it is an amazing product. I was pleasantly surprised when this actually worked and how!
The price may be the only downside to this product. The BLAKhead Masque is $28 and the BLAKhead Lotion is $18 (or $40 if you buy both~), but when you take the following things into account, it does not seem so bad:

- The masque alone will last you around 30-40 times of use (every each time, leaving you with less and less recurring blackheads!)
- The cleaning method is painless, unlike the pore strips or the Tweezerman tool
- It actually works and gets the blackheads, as well as leaves your skin smooth after the application
- Bioré pore strips are $8 for 8 stips, meaning that 32 stips would cost you $32. Now, you do the math ;D
- This method will not leave you with any scars, unlike the Tweezerman tool - isn't that a plus?

I am so happy that I found this product and I no longer have to rip the strips off my nose and watch tears spring out of my eyes when that happens >.Blackhead No More is letting me host one with three of you as winners!
Please make sure you read these guys first, though ;D

Rules
- Must be a FOLLOWER on this blog
- Must be a SUBSCRIBER on YouTube
- Must LIKE the Facebook Page

How to Enter
- Do NOT write "enter me." If you do, you will be disqualified, sorry ~.~
- Comment on this blog with your favorite skin treatment. What do you do to keep your skin clean?
- Vote on the poll on the sidebar, so I can get your insight on things :3
- Write something insightful on the Facebook Page - I love hearing from you guys~
- Make sure you are a FOLLOWER/SUBSCRIBER/LIKE Facebook

Prize
- BLAKhead Lotion
- BLAKhead Masque

Deadline
- September 15th, 2010

Good luck, everyone :DD

Review: Creamery Creek Soap

2010-08-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

I love baths. Which leads me to love bath products - bath bombs, salts, bubbles, and of course, soaps.
Personally, when walking by a store like LUSH, I sway a bit because of the overwhelming scent of their bath products. I love scented products, but most brands on the market are way too much for me.

I came across Creamery Creek Goat Milk Soaps and was absolutely ecstatic when they offered to sponsor my review. At 6oz - 6.5oz, these soaps retail at $5 each and last for a very long time. I received the batch of soaps to review a couple of months ago, and decided to go through half of each bar before reviewing them. I then realized how long that would take me and settled on using a quarter of each bar before deciding whether I like them or not.

Before I go any further into detail, the website advertises these soaps as "Natural, Cruelty-free, Vegetarian, Environmentally friendly and Completely handcrafted." And they are just exceptional at making these bars!

The package arrived extremely quickly, in a cardboard box, packaged very well. One can tell that the owners put great care into their product and how they transport it:

The package contained four full bars of soap, a tester size of another scent, a couple of business cards and their credo:

The scents I received were Bulgarian Rose, Grapefruit, Strawberry and Lavender Oatmeal, and a sample of Love Spells:

First of all, the scent is divine - it is not too harsh, nor is it quickly fading. It lingers about the bar, but does not stay once you put your soap away back into your soap tray (at least that is where I keep my soaps). My favorite scent out of the ones I was sent is Strawberry. It smells somewhat like a milkshake, or strawberries and cream, which would make perfect sense. It's almost good enough to eat~

Second, the soap feels amazing on the skin. It's creamy, moisturizing, nourishing and smooth - perfect for dry to medium skin. I am not sure how it would feel on oily skin, so if you have used it, please let me know. After bath or a shower, I don't necessarily need to use lotion anymore (I generally do anyway, because I like my skin moisturized), as the soap leaves a nice feeling right after and lasts for quite a bit.

Third - they are an amazing price for the amount you get. The bar is $5 and lasts for over a month, even if you use it every single day. And for this quality soap, I believe it is way worth it.

My current favorite is the strawberry bar. It has tiny strawberry seeds, that feel gently exfoliating to the skin and leave me feeling very fresh and clean for the rest of the day.

Would I buy these soaps? Yes, as a matter of fact, I am planning a purchase of another Strawberry bar, and try the Green Tea one. Which one would you guys pick? Let me know :3

Shoes: A sad dilemma

2010-08-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I am not sure whether or not I have mentioned this before, but I'd gotten a job recently. Not going to go into details, because they are kind of boring, however, I will mention that I spend about 7.5 hours on my feet. Which is what I am used to anyway and it does not bother me much. The dress code is practically non-existent, as long as you are comfortable, which is nice.

So I had decided to get myself a pair of shoes that I could wear to work. I always wanted to try clogs, but none of the lame and silly-looking ones. Something cool. I've heard that they are comfortable and they have a heel, which makes them perfect.

After doing some research online, I came across Vince Camuto's "Christies" clog. And I fell in love. They are sold on Nordstrom.com, and I was hoping that going to my local Nordstrom would do me some good. I dislike buying shoes online, because they never end up fitting. So off I went to try them on, or at least a pair made by Vince Camuto.

With my luck, of course, they did not have this particular style in stock, but I got to try out a pair by the brand. 8.5 fit perfectly, and the sales clerk offered to order it to be shipped to my house for me, to which I agreed. He told me it would take 5-8 business days, which was a torture, but hey - I would have them~

About two weeks later, I receive the package and open it eagerly. The shoes are beautiful and I cannot hold my excitement. My mother agrees that they look amazing and they are EPIC. I try them on and walk around the house. This is when I realize that it would be impossible to wear these to work, as they are on the heavy side, and unfortunately not as comfortable as I expected.

Now comes my dilemma. I love the shoes, and they are comfortable enough to wear, however, not comfortable enough to wear for too long of a time. They fit my wardrobe and are just so awesome. Downside? They were $120 including tax. Now, I am okay with paying this amount of money for perfect pair of shoes that I would wear for several years, and that are comfy. Unfortunately, this was not the case. But they were so nice...

What did I end up doing? Well, I'll tell you right after I show off the pair first:

Sadly, I ended up returning them. I could not justify spending that much money on a pair of shoes I were not certain about.
I did hold them for a week or so, just to make sure I wanted to say goodbye to them. And to my surprise, I am relieved and do not regret returning them. I know I would regret keeping them. So I guess this is a goodbye to my pair of shoes I waited over 2 weeks for *sigh* I just hope I find another one that I fall deeply in love with. And hopefully they will feel like clouds on my feet :D

I realize this may sound like I am bragging, however, one of the main reasons I returned them is because I could simply not afford to keep them. So I guess it's more of an admitting that there are things in this life one could live without. Maybe?

Have you ever given up something as such? Something you were unsure of, something that you could not keep for whatever reason?

NYC MAC Pro and MAC In The Groove

2010-06-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

As my finals week was in full blast at the university, my mother and stepfather ended up going to New York, for both business and pleasure. Since I've never been and they knew I wanted to go (not desperately enough to miss finals, though!), she offered to get me something from anywhere, as long as it was around where they were going to be located.

So I picked MAC Pro. To be honest, I was always curious to go to the MAC Pro store, and having one in San Francisco (which is about an hour or so away from where I am), I guess I could go myself. However, since it was offered and I had no other ideas, I requested that she get me a couple of items from MAC Pro in NY.

I went ahead and looked up some Pro colors that I would be interested in and/or could not dupe with regular MAC products, and came up with the following: Show Orchid Lipstick, Azalea Blush and Cantaloupe Blush.

After finals week, as I was moving my stuff back home from my uni apartment, I was pleasantly surprised by all three waiting for me in my mother's room:

I was thrilled. But now that I had two Pro pan blushes, I needed a blush palette, which Valley Fair mall (closest freestanding store to me, others being over an hour away) was conveniently out of. I did end up ordering one online, then swapping for one on MakeUpAlley.com. Now, in possession of two blush palettes, I am looking for more blushes to complement my NW15-20 skin. Eesh. Suggestions welcome. Current fave is Dollymix, and I am glad that it is perm <3On another note, I am very excited about the In The Groove collection that is coming out July 8th! I was not into makeup back when Stereo Rose was released, and it seems like such a wonderful color, that I am glad they are bringing it back. All the talk about it being slightly different color made me wary at first, until I read that it is a bit more friendly to the lighter skinned girls, like myself. I already have a couple of intense MSFs and blushes, so if Stereo Rose is toned down from it's original color, I guess I am okay with that.

Since I have a feeling that it will sell out fast, new formula or not, I placed a pre-order at my local Nordstrom for two of them (I was surprised when the sales girl told me they only received three to begin with!), one as a backup, of course. I also could not resist and ordered a "Go For It" lipstick, which is a mid-tone blue purple (Cremesheen), as I am a sucker for purple lipsticks (my first MAC product was "Up The Amp" lippie~).

What products are you looking forward to? Did you end up pre-ordering any or are you going to rush your counter to get your share? Or is this a collection you are going to pass completely?

Cheers!

Review: Bad Habit Gifts Review

2010-06-10T11:45:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

I stumbled upon Bad Habit Gifts while I was browsing Etsy and I was intrigued in trying out the line. She is just starting out, however, the products she has are pretty darn awesome!

When I received my package, it was extremely well packaged, to protect every single piece of makeup within the package, and that made me extremely happy. There are many sellers these days who do not bother wrapping their products, which causes them to spill over or to break completely. Thumbs up for the care for your product!

I got to pick my choice of products, so I went with Strawberry Fields Shadow, White Widow Shadow and Doll Face Veil.

These are the products I was provided with for the review:

The shadow jars are packed to the top, so be careful when opening them:

On the left, the shadows are placed over a primer base (Too Faced Shadow Insurance), while on the right, they are used straight up on my hand:

As with all mineral eyeshadows (and most shadows in general), I suggest putting an eyeshadow base before using them. The colors I picked were subtle, and very soft, which is exactly what I wanted. The photos of the shadows on her website are a great representation of what you will get, so do not be afraid to pick what you like - it is exactly what you will get, no smoke and mirrors here. And the combination of the two colors I got makes a great summer look, which I will post later on~

Another thing I got was a Mineral Veil. I have never used them before, so I was very interested in trying it out. I wore it out on a sunny Santa Cruz day and it made my skin glow. I did have to reapply after about 6 hours, but hey - I am impressed.

Aside from products themselves, the owner is an amazing lady and I ended up following her blog, which lead to us talking on a semi-regular basis. From the start, she was amazingly sweet and great at communication, which leads me to believe she would be great at customer service. Try her out and you will see for yourself!

If you'd like to see what I am talking about, go follow her blog HERE.

Or visit her Etsy store, where you can purchase the awesome eyeshadows and other cosmetics I keep talking about HERE.

I would like to thank Ashlee again for providing the products for my review. She is an amazing person, so go check her out!

Artist's babble

2010-06-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

Let me say this straight up: I can't always afford the best art materials and that bothers me. Why? Because a lot of the time, the more expensive art materials are noticeably better than the cheaper ones (orly?nowaiBBQlolsauce). Yes, I know this is an obvious observation, but hey - being Ms. Obvious here. Get over it~

So the purpose of that was to rant more about art supplies. Not even bad rant - more like a ponder than rant.

I recently assisted in designing for Odyssey at UCSC and used my awesome watercolor set of awesome along with prismacolor pencils to achieve a desired texture and effect in my renderings. After spending some time on the renderings, I realized that I would really love to try out some watercolor pencils. But there was a dilemma: I had two different parties whom I respect equally tell me the exact opposite responses about the idea of watercolor pencils. One disliked the idea of them, as after usage they did not end up looking as well as just watercolor or watercolor mixed with pencil. The second one adored the idea of watercolor pencils, because they gave her a great range of textures and were extremely easy to work with.

So I went on a research hunt and realized this: The first one was using Derwent brand pencils, while the second one was using Faber - Castell. And here comes in my love for Faber - Castell. As a fan, I decided to splurge and get the set of 12 basic pencils to test them out, meanwhile borrowing the Darwent ones from the first friend.

Of course, as an art nerd, I had to see for myself how the two compare, and this is what came out:

Faber - Castell

Darwent

As you can see, the Faber - Castell ones are less grainy than the Darwent ones. I was not surprised, really, but I was more than happy to have chosen the slightly pricier ones, as they will make a difference in the future. Yay for good choices.

So I guess the whole purpose of this was mostly for self - reflection and thoughts about using best quality materials to create the best pieces of work. I always try to get the best, even if it is pricier, as long as it makes a difference.

How about you guys? Do you believe that using higher quality materials will improve the quality of finished work? Or do you believe that any quality materials can be used, as long as you have the skill?

I these are the things I think about in the middle of the night during a finals week.

Cheers!

Review: My Lip Stuff

2010-06-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

I received three lip balms from My Lip Stuff for review: Pineapple Cake, Smores, and Vanilla Buttercream. It always takes me a while to write reviews for such products, as I like to try them out for a while and get used to them before giving my opinion, so I apologize in advance for lateness.

This is how they came packaged. The packaging is simple and cute, and attached is a business card:

Close-up of the flavors I received:

The amount of lip balm you get is pretty good for the price. Starting at $2.50, you pick the flavors you want. And with over 500 flavors to choose from, you cannot go wrong.

The balm itself is very moisturized and is great for dry and chapped lips.

It is on the glossy side, however, it is not sticky.

The first one I opened was Pineapple Cake. The smell was pretty strong and it remotely tastes like pineapple when on your lips. I did not find the smell to be overpowering, but I cannot say if all the flavors are like that. I have a feeling that heavier scents will smell a bit stronger, but as I have not tried them, I cannot say for sure.

After using the balm for about a week daily, I found that I prefer to use it as a moisturizing balm for the night. I used to have a problem where I would bite my lips when they were chapped, so I would always use Carmex before I go to bed. One problem is that it tastes very unpleasant and is a bit too greasy. My Lip Stuff solved that problem: I would put it on just before going to bed, and would wake up with soft and moist lips, without the greasy effect.

The labels are very simple, and I can see how some may find them a bit tacky. However, you have the choice to customize your labels, which would solve that problem. For me, lip balm packaging is not too important - it's the product that matters. There are tons of lip products out there and many of them have much more intricate packaging, however, I would still pick this product over them. Why? Because I would rather have a good product than pretty packaging :)

Overall, I would recommend at least trying this out. For $2.50, the choice of flavors and the service is hard to beat. As a matter of fact, Brea, the person I communicate with throughout this review process mentioned that they would do a giveaway open worldwide. The winner gets 6 randomly picked lip balms shipped to them. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in this wonderful product? I will post details soon!

A couple of other notes:
- They do NOT test on animals
- You can customize the label on the lip products, which makes a great wedding favor, business advertisement, parties, etcetera
- Over 500 different flavors: there's something for everyone~

I want to thank Brea and My Lip Stuff for providing me with the products to review. Please visit them and tell me what you think. What's the flavor that catches your eye?

To purchase your own lip products, please visit them at My Lip Stuff.

Cheers!

Review: VersiCOMB

2010-06-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

Let me start by saying that I hate combs with fiery passion. I have pretty thick hair, and unfortunately am very prone to split ends, which means that I end up with tangles and tangles of hair. This makes brushing my hair quite a challenge. Even with a slight blow of wind, my hair goes into a frenzy, therefore I must always carry a brush in my purse.

This poses a problem, however. I prefer smaller size purses, yet small combs do not work for my hair - they rip the tangles and I end up in tears from the pain. Ouch is all I can say. So what did I do? I cut my hair short. Solves the problem, right? Wrong. My hair is still the same texture, except shorter. Eek.

And this is where Melissa comes in. I got an email from her after a post I made, and she offered to send me her invention to try out - the VersiComb. I was flattered and intrigued at the same time - I had a feeling that this would be something exciting to try out, so I agreed. Not too long after that, a package showed up at my door and there was the VersiComb - all bubble wrapped and beautiful:

I quickly took it out of the package and snapped some shots before using it. I was pleasantly surprised that it came with its own pouch (this means that the comb itself would not be scuffed in my oh-so-busy-purse).

When folded, it is pretty compact, which means that it can fit even into the back pocket of most pants, which sounds great.

When open, however, it is pretty sizable, which means that it is good for both short and long hair (yay!).

After I was satisfied with the photos I took, I immediately tiptoed to my mirror and used the comb on my messy hair-do (come on...it was the middle of the day). I was amazed how smoothly it went though the tangles in my hair - it was probably the most satisfying feeling I've had while brushing my hair.

The two sides of the comb are slightly different from one another. One side has narrow comb teeth with boar's hair and nylon bristles, while the other side has wide comb teeth, to suit the many hair types out there. Whether you have straight, wavy, curly or combination hair, it will work great on all.

For me, the best part about this was that it was pretty darn tiny for a tool that can do so much with my hair. I no longer have to carry around a huge hairbrush, so that it does not hurt to brush my intricate hair, VersiComb fits well among the rest of my cosmetics without taking up too much space. SCORE!

The design is also pretty neat. The handle part looks like marbled ivory, which makes it look pretty neutral and classy, with simple bristles - a universal design. It has been in several of my purses (and a backpack!) for about a month now and I keep taking it wherever I go. Now, any time wind blows and messes up my oh-so-tangly hair, I no longer have to dread the brushing. VersiComb makes it quite a smooth ordeal and it makes me very happy.

I want to thank Melissa for the opportunity to review her wonderful creation and write a review on it. I hope that you will stop by her site and check out the product yourselves - I promise you will not regret it <3please go visit VersiComb if you are interested in purchasing your own. The price of the VersiComb and the pouch is $14.95 - pretty affordable for something so convenient and useful! Also, Melissa is such a sweet and helpful person - she will answer any questions you may have before purchasing.

Cheers!

Marine Life Highlight Powder by MAC

2010-05-31T11:29:00.000-07:00

This post was meant to be posted on 5/27/10, however, since I am a lazy butt, it is posted now~

So, this baby sold out online in hours. Those who bought it later in the day of the release, got an Email from MAC, stating that it was sold out and will be re-stocked in a couple of weeks.

After looking at swatches for the longest time and not wanting to miss out as I did with Ripe Peach Ombre, I called my closest MAC counter, in the Capitola Mall's Macy's. I asked the girl if they had any "Marine Life" in stock, she chuckled and told me they had a few, and asked me if I would like to reserve one. I quickly jumped on the wagon and said "YES." She then took down my information and was absolutely sweet about everything. Just before we ended the conversation, she mentioned that there were a bunch of people lined up outside waiting for their Marine Life. I was ecstatic that she was so nice as to reserve one for me. I realize that it's probably not the nicest thing to do, especially that there are people already lined up for it, however, I've never reserved anything for that exact reason, and I always missed out on things, because I would never miss class for it.

So I am scheduled to drive to the mall after class at 6pm, and I am really hoping that they are indeed holding my Marine Life. After I visit the mall, update will follow:

Update: Drove to the mall and purposefully headed towards the MAC counter, where Marine Life was no longer on display. I headed to the counter and told the girl that I was there to pick up my hold items. Gave her my name and watched as she sifted through several bags full of To The Beach collection for others. When she saw I got Marine Life, she smiled and said "good choice, we only have four left." Which is kind of amazing. As soon as I got home, I had to take pictures, of course. Mostly because I know that it will not stay as beautiful as it is right now, therefore I must keep this as a memory.

Marine Life pr0n coming up:

Hairless summer

2010-05-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

There's nothing more liberating than having a hairless body during summer; in any season, actually.

I am not going to lie - I find hairy legs, and pits in women repulsive. Especially when someone raises a hand in class and I can see the bush they are growing in their armpit. Not only is it unattractive, it is also very unhygienic.

I work pretty hard to keep my body hairless and dedicate at least a small part of the week to pampering myself and taking care of my body. But this is not a rant, so I am going to stop complaining. If you want to collect the smell on the hair in your armpits - go ahead, however, I will pass.

It's spring - nearing summer, so for me, it is time to search for a good Brazilian waxer. I will gladly take care of the hair on the rest of my body, but that's one place I prefer to leave to a professional. Last year, I went to a woman pretty close to my house, she was thorough, had a great bedside manner, and her price was $60. She used both hard and soft wax, depending on the area she was working on, and if the wax did not get a hair or two, she would tweeze them. My nether region was smooth as a baby's butt - it was great.

I stopped going once school kicked in, I moved to my university apartment and driving over an hour to get waxed was not an option. I had a full day of classes and design meetings/rehearsals after that - I had no time for such luxuries.

Finally, at the beginning of April, I started searching for places to get waxed without being overcharged or painfully mutilated. Yelp is my best friend in this area. I went, and I read reviews, and I searched and I picked a couple of places. Then one day, I got a recommendation from a friend of mine for a woman she goes to - and it was not too far and only $45, which I took as "okay, I got to try this."

I went to the appointment yesterday and the place is tiny, they lock up the door while you are in session, they have relaxing music, sweet smelling perfume oils penetrating the air and everything is clean. I liked it. The woman went off to wash her hands while I lied down on the table, then we began. She was pretty quick, however, she used the same wooden stick throughout the whole procedure (to which I closed my eyes and looked the other way), and she only used blue wax for the whole area. This is probably why she ended up missing a couple of spots and not wanting to go over them again, ignored them altogether. Her technique was relatively painless, so I can't complain in that area. She also kept talking to keep my mind off the pain, although I did not see it too necessary - she was pretty painless compared to some.

She was done in a bit less than half an hour, I paid up ($54, as I have a habit of leaving tips), and I went home. And this is when I started noticing the differences:

While driving home, my panties stuck to the areas where she left some wax, and it was getting quite uncomfortable. The previous woman made sure to give me a lotion, some gentle cleaning solution, and antibiotic gel to put on before I left. I left with a non-sticky crotch, that was conditioned and was not about to get infected. But hey, I thought - I can always do this at home, since I have all of those supplies.

Next, I went home and proceeded to take a shower, wash myself up and put Neosporin on myself, to avoid infection. This is when I noticed just how much she missed. I spent the next forty-five minutes tweezing myself, while holding up a mirror with my other hand. It was awkward and unpleasant. When I was finally done, it looked pretty good, so I gave up on silently complaining to myself.

So, I started to wonder: do I want to pay $45 again and go through with this or do I want to pay $15 more and get every hair gone? To be honest, I don't know. I feel like I should give the second place another try - it might have been a bad day. On the other hand, it's my privates we're talking about and it's kind of important to take proper care of your body.

At this point, I have decided that I will see where I am in a month - if I am still in this uni apartment, I will go with the second woman. If, however, I am near home, I will cough up the $60 and enjoy my hairlessness.

Just a tip, girls. NEVER go to a place without researching it first. You may end up in the emergency room with burns and your skin ripped off. Oh, horror stories~

On another note, these two things will help in avoiding ingrown hairs and keeping the bacteria away. Use them right after your wax. They are available at drugstores, or you can buy them on Amazon:

Bikini Zone Medicated Creme for Bikini Area 1 oz (28 g)

Neosporin Antibiotic Ointment, 0.5 oz

Now that I have sufficiently weirded everyone out, I take my leave.
Cheers!

Review: Lashes from MadameMadeline.com

2010-05-09T15:59:00.000-07:00

[Sponsored]

I was browsing the online shops for false lashes, because I was tired of the limited drugstore selection, yet I hate spending more than $5 on a pair of lashes. Otherwise, it feels bad once I throw out a $15 lash pair. Eek.

While on my search, I stumbled upon Madame Madeline, a company that sells several lash brands. I emailed them asking about their products etcetera and Grace, the woman I talked to, was so sweet and sent me several lashes to try out and do a review on. The shipping took a total of 3 days, I believe, which was quite nice. And here are the lashes I got:

Purchase here

Purchase here

Purchase here

Purchase here

Purchase here

Purchase here

They are pretty cheap, and as I mentioned before, I prefer to buy cheaper lashes, so I don't feel bad once I throw them out. To me, both $3 lashes and $15 lashes can look either real or fake - depending on what you want to achieve. Therefore, I choose to go with the cheaper ones ;D

I am pretty pleased with the variety of lashes they provide and I realized that I no longer have to run around from store to store to find different brands. All I can say is - I know where I will be buying lashes once I run out again <3 I did a more detailed review on YouTube, if you would like to hear me talk:

I hope you enjoyed my review and I would like to thank Madame Madeline for providing the review products.

Please remember to use "KSHARE" for 10% off your order. Gift with $20+ purchase.
Visit Madame Madeline to order.

Cheers!

De-potting MAC eyeshadows + Back 2 MAC

2010-05-04T22:40:00.000-07:00

Decided to make yet another tutorial video while I was de-potting a batch of my MAC eye shadows.

I also realized how often MAC changes their "Back 2 MAC" policy. The most recent one I heard about was the shadow pots have to include their metal pans, which may be a problem for de-potting. However, I then realized that I have some left-over metal pans from way back when I used to press my pigments~

Simply replace the full shadow pan with an empty one and off to B2M it goes:

p.s For those of you who are unsure what "Back 2 MAC" means, it is their recycling program. If you bring 6 empty glass/plastic containers to a freestanding store, you will receive a free lipstick/lip gloss/eyeshadow of choice. You may also bring it to a MAC counter, however, I believe they will only exchange them for a lipstick.

Enjoy!

Mario Badescu at CVS Beauty 360

2010-05-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work, I was on my way to CVS to get 91% Isopropyl, so I can mix my brush cleaner and clean my brushes. I was also in need of my favorite facial mask: Queen Helene Mint Julep Masque. Since I had some time, I decided to go and visit the Beauty 360 that was recently opened in that particular CVS.

To my surprise, it was quite a large space and had several brands, including Cargo, Pop Beauty, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw Mario Badescu. A whole section of shelves dedicated to the skincare items. I was in heaven.

Now, I know Mario Badescu is not that difficult to obtain - one can easily order it online or over the phone and voila - you will get it at your door in a week or so. Besides - they are the same price at Beauty 360 as they are on MarioBadescu.com

However, I like to see and touch the items I purchase, especially if I am purchasing a product I've never tried before. So long story short, I was very happy to find that I can now purchase Mario Badescu skincare in my local CVS, without the wait of the post office and their clumsiness.

While I was practically squealing around the shelves and trying to find a facial mask to suit me best, a saleswoman came up to me and informed me that with purchase of two products, you get a gift with deluxe size samples - either skincare or haircare - your choice.

As we all know, I am always for "try before you buy," because I always feel bad returning a product in case I don't like it, as they can no longer sell it and lose the money. So I decided on two products:

"Whitening Mask - $24" and
"Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater $7"

I was originally only after a facial mask, but since summer is so close, I decided to get a refreshing spray as well. It actually kind of reminds me of MAC's Fix+

Super fancy packaging for a drug store:

Whitening Mask and Facial Spray:

Gift with Purchase bag and products:

So overall, I had a fantastic rest of my day, because I knew once I ran out of any of my favorite products, I could just walk over to CVS and get more. Such a wonderful feeling. The less things I have to order online, the better!

Cheers!

Making a veiled headdress

2010-04-27T12:42:00.000-07:00

I am currently an assistant costume designer for Odyssey at UCSC and I had to design and make a headdress for Queen Aréte. So I decided to take the opportunity and create a tutorial on how to make one since I was making one anyway.

This headdress can be toned down a lot for a more simple look, of course, as well as toned up for a more dramatic look.

What other tutorials would you like to see in the future? Costuming, Deco Den, clay food items? Let me know and I will set one up ;D

Depotting/Detubing lipsticks

2010-04-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

I just recently bought a small handbag for nights out and realized that I can no longer carry around as many lipsticks as I would like to. So, I decided to try out melting my lipsticks straight into the metal pans that fit into the shadow palettes!

It works out great - especially for touch ups during the evening and the night out. You may need a lip brush, or you can use your clean finger (up to you) and you are good to go~

By the way, I am currently in the middle of moving to a domain, and another YouTube channel (from "MistressFrowne" to "comatosebunnies"), so please be patient with me. The rest of the videos are still on my old channel, however, I will start uploading religiously to the new one. More info on that coming soon~

MUSE concert, April 14, 2010

2010-04-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

It is now April 25th...why did I hold off for so long to write about this most amazing night? Possibly because I could not believe it was over so fast...

To be honest, I was stoked, as it was my first concert ever (and by far, I am glad I lost my concert virginity to MUSE ;D) and was probably a bit more excited than I should have been for the nosebleed tickets we got.

But hey - it saved us in the long run. Why? Because for a whole hour, Silversun Pickups played their opener. I did not expect that, and even my mother reflected upon the heard music as "was it one song or was it just really bad?"

However, around 9pm, it was all made better by nothing other but UPRISING. The set went dark, with only lights illuminating the beautiful towers in the middle of the stage and the crowd went insane.

The setlist was as follows:
Uprising, Resistance, New Born, Map of the Problematique, Supermassive Black Hole, Hysteria, MK Ultra, United States of Eurasia, Feeling Good, Undisclosed Desires, Starlight, Unnatural Selection, Time is Running Out, Plug in Baby, Exogenesis pt.1, Stockholm Syndrome, Knights of Cydonia.

"Best Setlist Ever." as my brother put it.

I will also mention that during each transition, just as the first couple of notes were hit, my brother could identify the upcoming song. Sometimes, I am so proud of this little bugger. <3 you bro~And now for some quick phone snaps in the dark. The reason why I didn't bring my camera is because I brought nothing else but a cell phone (and of course, my battery died before MUSE even got on stage), and my ticket. My brother holding his ticket, because it is AWESOME:

The ridiculously long line for the merchandise, which I ended up standing in...I really wanted that shirt ;D

Finally got the shirt. And found the seats. WOOHOO! So Paul decided to eat the shirt. Nooo~

Although I did not believe it at first, every single seat was filled:

Next time, I will hopefully be able to snatch up some mosh-pit tickets. I was fairly "grr" at people who did not appreciate having those and ended up acting up like jerks and got kicked out. But on the other hand - HAH. That's what they get.

And now, about a week after I started writing this, I will end it at that. I don't think I can write more without getting the nostalgic feeling and creating a playlist to reflect the setlist.

I promise to be back with some awesome tutorials,
Cheers!

FOTD dump

2010-04-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

As I was doing my makeup this morning and I realized that I have not taken many FOTDs. However, the ones I did take are still on my hard drive. So therefore I decided to put them all up today instead of letting them sit and collect virtual dust on my desktop folder.

I am thinking of doing these more often, mostly for my own future reference.
I will also post products used, although most of these can be substituted for other colours and brands.

March 5th, 2010:

Eyes: MAC Spring Colour Forecast 4 Quad, MAC Penultimate Liner, MAC Liner Blacktrack.
Lips: MAC Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick.
Face: MAC Tited moisturizer in LIGHT, La Mer translucent powder.

March 6th, 2010:

Eyes: MAC Gentle fume quad. Stila kajal liner.
Lips: MAC Viva Glam GaGa lipstick. Rimmel lip liner in PINK.
Face: MAC tinted moisturizer in LIGHT, La Mer Translucent Powder, NARS blush in DEEP THROAT.

March 7th, 2010:

Eyes: MAC Smoking Eyes quad. MAC Blacktrack liner.
Lips: MAC Barely Lit lipstick. Kryolan beige liner.
Face: MAC tinted moisturizer in Light, La Mer Translucent Powder, NARS blush in Deep Throat.

March 8th, 2010:

Eyes: Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland palette [Underland, White Rabbit, Curiouser], UD 24/7 liner in Zero.
Lips: MAC Up the Amp lipstick.
Face: MAC tinted moisturizer in Light, La Mer Translucent Powder, NARS blush in Deep Throat.

April 16th, 2010:

Eyes: MAC Penultimade liner, Stila Kajal in White, MAC fluidline in Blacktrack.
Lips: MAC Creemsheen Gloss in Looks Like Sin
Face: MAC tinted moisturizer in Light, MAC MSFN in Light-Medium, MAC MSF in Northern Lights

OPI Acrylics and current favourite

2010-03-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

In my recent haul, I mentioned purchasing OPI acrylic set from a salon pro store. I ended up doing my nails last night with the said set and they turned out pretty well, considering that it was my first time using a set such as this one.

On the back of the box, it says "Blah blah, professional use only. Not for sale to general public blah." That's for a reason. However, if you have gotten your nails done before, you will most likely be able to figure out the steps, especially that the set comes with complete instructions. Super helpful!

On the other hand, you will not be able to get the set, unless you go to a pro store OR you buy the set on eBay. For reference, I paid $25 for the set at the pro store, so don't get ripped off, okay ;p

Anyway. I admit that it took me about 2 hours, but that's because I am terrible with my left hand. I think I will practice writing with my left hand, so I can stop shaking so much once it actually matters...That aside, this is what my nails turned out to be:

I could have definitely done better, but I used natural tips with a pink powder, which made a visible line on my nails, so I decided to cover the whole nail with polish. Maybe once I take these off, I will simply use the acrylic to strengthen my natural nails and watch them grow :)

I should probably mention that it stinks quite a bit and to please, please, please do your nails by an open window. Otherwise you may pass out :\

If you remember, during that haul, I also got the most beautiful color of nail polish EVER. OPI's Smitten with Mittens is now my new favourite:

And just so that the whole post is not just makeup, here, have some food pix ;D

I love taking pictures of food. Probably because I love food and can't get enough (fatty talk, haha).

Cheers~

Catch-up and haul

2010-03-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

I was going to write things yesterday, but it did not end up as exciting as I had planned. Given, I did end up going out for Japanese food and to Daiso to pick up things I do not need, but for some reason want, however, the day was not as productive as I wish it has been.

After running some errands, Paul and I went out to Dancy Sushi, because we were craving some Udon. I ordered plain Udon and he ordered chicken one. Best thing about Dancy Sushi is that they give you pickled things at the beginning of your meal, as well as deep fried salmon in spicy sauce. NOM! Aaaand our meals came with a salad:

My plain Udon ended up being as plain as I wanted it, but it made me realize that I do not even like Udon to begin with :\

I think it is a nostalgia thing. That's probably why the craving, but the distaste for said dish. I would absolutely trade it for a good bowl of Pho~

Daiso was quite successful. I, of course, ended up buying a million stationary items that I am in no need of. But hey - those of you who are expecting letters from me soon, I promise I will utilize these very soon ;D
I also picked up some extra items to use in contests or giveaways later on. Stay tuned~

Now, switch to today!
I went out to get some acrylic nail supplies in the morning (since I am still trying to learn how to do my own nails ;D), so I borrowed my mother's membership card to pro-only stores and went off to find me some nail supplies!

Unfortunately for me, the UV lamp I was planning to get (IBD 1000) was $125, which means it was $40 more than I would pay if I ordered it online (shipping included!). I decided to pass on that. I then went to yet another pro store and ended up picking up an acrylic set from OPI, which contains Liquid Monomer, Color Powder in perfect white, Color Powder in translucent pink, disposable nail forms, bonding agent, nail antiseptic solution, most amazing tabletop instructions (laminated for convenience!), instructional brochure, and another pamphlet with tips for perfect acrylic nails. It's actually pretty amazing for $25, I would say. I feel like it is a much better deal than you would get at Sally's and the quality of the acrylic is better, as well. I will end up writing more once I try the kit out!

Lastly, as I was about to check out, I noticed one lonely OPI nail polish in its row and it was the MOST amazing color of ANYTHING I have ever seen, so I picked it up. I did not care what it was called or why it was there, I just fell in love. The color name is "smitten with mittens" and it is my new best friend. Swatches coming up ;D

I should also mention that I was looking for a nail drill, so that I would not have to manually file down my acrylics, which would be a pain. Unfortunately, none of the pro stores carried them, so I found my way to Sally's.

To my non-surprise, they did have UV lamps and drills, however, they were very sloppy looking as well as incredibly pricey. No name brand drill was over $160!!! No thank you, I thought, so I just got myself some IBD gel items: nail dehydrator, natural nail primer, clear gel and lastly a bottle of Seche Vite, since I heard so many good things about it. Not to forget (because I almost did, heh), I also got a #8 sable acrylic brush at Sally's for pretty cheap. I feel like spending $40+ on an OPI brush is an amazing idea if you are a pro. However, when you begin doing your own nails, I feel like a lesser-quality brush will suffice.

I came home and ordered the IBD 1000 lamp, as well as a nail drill online, in hopes that they will both arrive before the end of the week, so I can try them on my nails before school starts ;D We'll see how that goes, and I will post more about the items once I actually get my hands on them~

I spent the rest of the time helping my mother wash the lawn furniture along with Paul, until I was picked up by a couple of my co-workers and friends to go shopping.

Naturally, a mall trip is nothing without purchasing the most amazing items one can find, and these were mine:

Forever 21: It's just a cat. On a shirt. Nothing to it. A random cat. Aaaaand some hair accessories, and a pair of dangly earrings (I don't own many earrings, I realized)

Wet Seal: We were about to pass the store, when I saw it. It hit me like a...giant pink shirt with a seal's face on it! Oh, wait...I had to have it! My obsession with sea creatures will drive me broke one day--

Clinique: My first Clinique purchase! Moisturizing lotion pour moi~ With my combination skin, it is amazingly hard to find a moisturizer that will not make me oily and break out all over, and at the same time leave my skin soft and not dry. So one of my friends, a frequent user of the brand, suggested I try it, since our skin is somewhat similar. I thought I could throw down $24, as the moisturizer felt nice and the bottle was fairly large and would last quite a bit. Best part? You get a gift set with a $21.50 and over purchase! Yay for Bonus Time! So I ended up leaving with my moisturizer and a bag of goodies. The bag of goodies seduced me, I need help ;p

OH! And I absolutely forgot about this: Target has a collab with Liberty of London! Some of the things are pretty cute, considering that they will match the Liberty of London MAC items. This is the negligee I ended up buying:

This would be all for today. I hope I did not tire you out! Oh, almost forgot about my FOTD today. I did not edit anything in these photos, so excuse my oily skin after a long day...

And now I am off,

Cheers!

Dog walk and outing

2010-03-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

My family owns a Doberman Pinscher. His name is Joker and he is only 4 months old. I woke up this morning, and was invited to go to a hike with my family, then possibly a dog park. After breakfast, I agreed, because I don't get to see the little bugger, since I am at the University most of the time.

Right after we entered the hike park, there were these little bird statues that I fell in love with:

The park has loads of ducks and geese and naturally their poop. The walk was a mine field, but our big puppy seemed to enjoy himself. Since the last time I saw him, he has improved his behavior and can now walk next to me on a leash without being rebellious:

The most amazing part, however, was the Dog Park. It is a semi-large fenced off area filled with dogs and their owners. there are a couple of benches to sit down, but other than that, just dirt and dogs. I was kind of wary at first, since Joker was bullying his mates at the dog training yesterday morning, but my worries were put to rest when I saw him try and pick a fight and get shot down. I believe the fact that most of the dogs present were no longer puppies and were older than Joker helped him behave like a playful dog instead of a bully. He interacted with both larger and smaller dogs and there were no problems. Yay.

When we got home, he immediately plopped himself on his favorite rug in our living room, right under the window, where the sun shines constantly. He was extremely exhausted.

And I was hungry. So Paul and I decided to walk downtown for some Chinese food. We ended up going to Chef Liu's, as it was absolutely empty, and they seem to have remodeled since the last time I've been there:

After ordering, we decided to make silly faces and pose for my camera:

Paul and his silly duck face, and me with my "I am pretending not to notice that you are taking a picture of me" face:

I ended up following my white instincts and ordered Sweet and Sour pork, which ended up being most delicious!

Paul got Mongolian lamb, which I decided to kidnap for a bite or two, and it was better than I expected, aside from there being huge chunks of fat. Bleh.

And what is a complete meal at a Chinese restaurant without one of these:

The fortunes never fail to amuse me. I feel like I should get a whole batch of fortune cookies just for the laughs at fortunes...and the cookie ;D

One of the weirdest things, though...while writing up our check, the waitress rounded UP our order to the nearest dollar before adding tax...so it was:

Pork - 8.95, Lamb - 10.95. She rounded that up to 20, THEN added tax and THEN rounded up to the nearest dollar again.

No, I am not bothered by the added 10 cents to my order, but it is kind of hilarious when you think about it. And I do know people who would get into a fight over the 10 c. Meh, I guess it is the establishment's choice. Personally, I don't think it's worth it.

We then walked back home, and went shopping with mother. I must admit, I did not plan buying anything, as Paul was the one in need of shoes, but I ended up leaving with a skirt and a T-shirt, which I will model later~

Now dinner time, and I must go take a nap. SO exhausted. Although, I feel like I may talk Paul into watching "Taken" tonight. It's been over a month since we planned to watch it~

Cheers!

Review: The Brush Guard

2010-02-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

[Sponsored]

Hello there, lovelies. It's review time!
Today's review: The Brush Guard from TheBrushGuard.com.

Disclaimer: I have been sent this product by the company for a review. However, all of my reviews are my own honest opinions, regardless of whether I purchase the item or get it sponsored.

First off, I would like to say that the owners of TheBrushGuard.com are wonderful. They answered my questions very quickly, and on a weekend, which is impressive. After Diane contacted me and let me know that the package was on the way, it took two days for me to receive it, which is pretty fast. I love getting packages--

Back on track, now...
I opened the package to the following:

There were two (2) packages of the Variety pack brush guards (6 brush guards - all of different sizes), and a brochure, explaining how to make the best use of your Brush Guards.

I opened one of the packages straight away (I am going to keep the second one for a contest for my followers later on...), as I desperately needed to wash my brushes (yes, I did wait to wash them, just so I could use the brush guards--)

I washed my brushes as I usually do (please refer to my brush cleaning routine for more information), and then opened the brochure included in the package, and read on...

I slipped on the brush guards, starting with my large powder brush and the largest guard included. It fit pretty snug and I put it bristles-down in a glass, as recommended. I then did the same with the rest of my brushes and soon the glass was full:

I let them dry overnight and came back in the morning to check up on them. First, I took out my MAC and Sigma brushes, which seemed to dry off very well and retained their shape, so I was impressed. I then proceeded to take the guards off of the rest of my brushes (Borghese, Coastal Scents), but found them to be more than just damp. I decided to let them dry a little bit more and left for school.

To my disappointment, when I came back, they were still quite damp, so I took off the brush guards and let them air-dry on their own. That seemed to work a bit better.

What I can conclude from this: If you have high quality brushes (MAC, Sigma, Lançome etc.), I would suggest you at least try out the brush guard. It will prolong the life and the original shape of your brushes and will make them dry fairly quickly. Another good thing is - when you dry them bristles-down, the water drips off the bristles, instead of seeping in between the metal and the wood part, loosening the glue. That would be bad and fairly expensive to replace.

However, if you have brushes of somewhat lesser quality (like my beloved Costco Holiday Borghese brushes, for example. Or Coastal Scents and similar), you may want to save up for brushes first before buying this product. As much as I love my cheaper brushes, I know they are not meant to last long (no matter how well you care for them), and I did not see any improvement with using the brush guard with them as opposed to drying them the good ol' way.

Another thing to consider...the brush guard does not come in irregular shapes, so if you own a MAC 184 brush (fan brush), you are darn out of luck until they come out with one--

All in all - it is a great investment if you have pricey brushes that you'd like to keep looking newer for a longer time. If you possess the lesser quality brushes, however, I would suggest holding off on this purchase, as it is not a necessary investment in this case :)

In closing: I would like to thank Diana of TheBrushGuard.com for providing me with the Variety Pack product to review, and I, myself, will be making a purchase of the brush guard (in Ex. Small for my countless shadow brushes!) in the near future.

Video Review:

I would like to remind my readers that the views and opinions expressed in my reviews are based only on my experience and thoughts of the product. They are in no way influenced by suppliers or sponsors. I like keeping my reviews as helpful as possible to both high-end product users, as well as cheaper products.

If you are a supplier/owner of a company and would like your product to be reviewed by me, please contact me at sporkofjustice[at]gmail[dot]com. I will give a timely reply within 24-48 hours.

Cheers!

Alexander McQueen

2010-02-11T11:17:00.000-08:00

So I am sitting in Dramatic Theories class and reading news and almost gasp. Alexander McQueen? Dead? No way! He's so young... I am not going to elaborate on this death, as details are still quite vague (feel free to let me google that for you) - different news places posted different information, but one thing is clear: no more Alexander McQueen.

I will miss you. You and Westwood were the two people I looked up to quite a bit, so I am still somewhat in shock.

You will be in the thoughts of those you worked with, designed for, and even those who just loved to watch your fashion shows.

RIP.

Chatroulette adventures

2010-02-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

My boyfriend came home from class this evening, carrying a newspaper published by the uni, which he discarded and took over my laptop, while explaining that there's this "random webcam site," which should be hilarious.

It kind of is. For those of you bored in the evening and done channel-surfing, looking at failblog.org etcetera, and happen to have friends over, this is a somewhat entertaining way to spend about 7 minutes (because it gets boring after a while of clicking "NEXT" as you catch a glimpse of a hairy fat man jerking off on your screen)

Chatroulette DO IT.
If you are too afraid of just clicking a link that I have posted (I have taught you well...), you can read about it here READ MEE.

People

2010-02-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

I never fail to be disappointed in them.

For instance, take this example into consideration:

A person in need is asking for help from anyone who can, so I help out as much as I am able to (financially). This person exhibits incredible gratitude with the assurance that this gesture will not be forgotten.

Not a week later, I realize that I could use some help myself, but the given person ends up just shoving that aside and ignoring me.

To me, it does not matter whether this situation happens between family, friends, or people I have just met. I love to help out as much as I can, but I generally expect that when I need help, it will also be extended to me. I guess I am way too wrong.

This is not the first time something like this has happened, but I thought better of the person. Just disappointed, I guess.

Bank Story

2010-02-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

Has anyone ever noticed that whenever you are nearing 0 balance in your checking account, banks will do something to make it go over, so they can charge you?

Well, it happened to me yet again.

In November, I loaned a friend $70. Because the closest bank is a while away, I wrote a check and gave it to the said friend. This friend cashed, spent it and gave me back what he owed in the beginning of December, but I noticed that the bank has not yet taken out the money.

At the same time, since it was around holidays, I spent quite a bit and my pay day was running late, but I was careful not to spend any more than I had. On December 8th, I received my check from my work and decided to go and place it in the bank. I used the ATM, as it was late already and the bank was closed. This is what I did:

- I deposited a check for $420.75
- I checked my balance, which was $40something
- I withdrew $20
- I got my receipt and went home

When I got home, I was going to place an order online, so I checked my bank online, and was unpleasantly surprised. According to them, I was over my balance, so they charged me $33 for insufficient fees. Immediately, I wanted to see their logic, and this is what they had:

- $70 check was debited
- I withdrew $20
- Insufficient fees were debited
- I deposited my check

Well, this is not what my receipt from the ATM states, so I emailed them about it. Since it was their mistake and I had obvious proof that this is not how it happened, I did not see how it was fair that they would charge me. Right? Besides, they took out a check from my account about a MONTH after it was spent.

Wrong.

Apparently they can withdraw the check whenever they want to, and I have to guess and watch my balance. They told me that they will "waive it this once" just because it was my first time. This continued with me trying to tell them that it was their fault, and I have a receipt to prove it. But they did not budge. They did refund me the $33, but at this point, it was more of a principle thing. I don't appreciate being blamed for something that was not my fault. So this continued for a while, until I gave up.

This makes me wonder, though. Are there people employed by the bank to actually sit around and wait for the accounts with low balance to run close to empty and then they press some magical "steal money" button and debit your check, for example? Because this is what it feels like. Once you are low on money, they make sure to withdraw something else and fuck you over.

I don't know how many banks do this, but so far this has been done to me by Bank of America (which I quit), and WaMu, and now Chase.

Bleh. At least Chase has actual people answering your emails instead of a machine. Yay.

/rant

Cheers~

Urban Decay Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows

2010-02-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

As oh-so-many of you know, Urban Decay came out with an Alice in Wonderland Book of Shadows on January 15th. Unfortunately, I missed the window and did not get to order mine until they pre-released it at Sephora.

I called Sephora's 1-800 number on January 22nd and placed an order for the palette. The nice lady told me it will ship around the 26th or the 27th. To my surprise, I got a shipment confirmation on the 25th and I have been tracking it every day since.

Today I came home to the long-awaited Sephora package on my desk (boyfriend signed for it), so I rushed to get a knife and rip open the package.

Inside, amongst the many samples and an extra package of samples for for oily skin (promo), I found tons and tons of tissue paper compressed around the palette. And it was gorgeous. Not having any Urban Decay products, I found that I did not expect it to be as large as it was, and that was a nice surprise :3

Have some pictures to make it less boring:

If you own Urban Decay products (especially their Book of Shadows and palettes), you may notice the similarity between the shades listed here and the shades you own. Why? Because they are simply renamed permanent line shadows to fit the theme of AiW. Wonder what they are? Here you go:

--Underland [Flash]
--Alice [Painkiller]
--Oraculum [Baked]
--Queen [Last Call]
--Chessur [Chopper)
--White Rabbit [Polyester Bride]
--Wonderland [Maui Wowie]
--Curiouser [Grifter]
--Muchness [X]
--Mushroom [Mushroom]
--Midnight Tea Party [Midnight Cowboy Rides Again]
--Vorpal [S&M]
--Absolem [Homegrown]
--Drink Me Eat Me [Sin]
--Mad Hatter [Twice Baked]
--Jabberwocky [Oil Slick]

The palette also comes with two Travel-size 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencils. One in Zero and one in Flipside as well as an Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin [mini].

So "How do you justify spending $52 on this palette, knowing that the shades already exist and you can buy all of these things any day?" Well, I cannot answer for everybody, but having NO other UD products at all, and loving Alice, Tim Burton and makeup, I believe this is a pretty good investment. If you do own the shadows, however, I may consider skipping this product, unless you are an absolute fanatic (which is fine too - don't get me wrong ;p).

For those of you who are still confused as to what I am babbling about, here's the Urban Decay link to Alice BOS: Click Me and here is the Sephora page, where you may order your own right now: Follow Me.

This would be all for today,
Cheers!

Bad drivers and awful roads

2010-01-31T19:19:00.000-08:00

I visited my family this weekend, and they live about 45minutes away. We had a great time and all, and it's Sunday, therefore it is time to go back to Uni apartment.

For those of you who know what it is, I have to take HWY 17, so it is super twisted, very narrow, has only two lanes going one way and a pretty scary-looking divided in the middle of the highway. Well, I have to take that every time I visit my family (awful, AWFUL highway!)

About 35minutes into the trip or so, there is an onramp onto the HWY 17, where there is another lane for about 1/4 of a mile, so cars can merge. At this point, I am going about 55mph (60mph limit) in the leftmost lane - away from the merge lane. On my right - another lane, and a merge lane next to it. On my left - another car's width and a cement divider. I keep going, minding my own business, then out of nowhere, the car in the merge lane decides to merge across the whole damn freeway into me.

For a second, I thought I was going to die and take my boyfriend with me (he was in the passenger seat). The woman in the car (mind you, I was driving an Acura TL, and she was driving a somewhat large SUV-like thing, so there's no question that I would lose the "battle" if it came to it...) did not look to see whether or not there were cars around her, nor did she merge one lane at a time. She obviously thought that she had the right of way in everything and did not need to look. At all...

So what happened is we were RIGHT next to each other and she was about an inch away from merging into me, when I slammed my hand on the honker and swerved to my left, as I sped up to avoid her merging into me.

I don't know what happened to her, as I was a bit more concerned with my car and not dying, but after I calmed down a bit, my boyfriend told me that she freaked out, and swerved to her left sharply after throwing her arms in the air.

Long story short, I pretty much saved at least 3 lives, two cars, and hours of traffic that would have occurred had we collided (remember: this is a TWO LANE highway).

It is by sheer luck that the divider on my left was this far away from me. For most of the highway, however, the divider is about an elbow's length away (if not less) from your car. I consider myself extremely lucky right now, along with a bit of pride for my reflexes, but mostly I am thankful that nothing happened.

There is a lesson to be learned from this, guys: Look over your goddamn shoulder when merging, please . It will avoid so many problems. If the woman had even considered for a moment that there may be other cars on this highway (duh?), one head-turn and she would have avoided this.

Ugh. I am still somewhat shaking D:

Cheers!

CCO/CCS and MAC Cosmetics

2010-01-31T18:43:00.000-08:00

I visited a CCO/CCS (Cosmetic Company Outlet/Cosmetic Company Store) at the Gilroy Outlet mall (CA) this weekend, as I heard quite a few good things about CCOs.

It took about an hour and a half to drive there and I enjoyed my time there, as I went with my family and boyfriend. Unfortunately for me, the CCS at the Gilroy Outlet mall was quite disappointing. Aside from the Hello Kitty palettes, it had outrageously old stuff, that it was kind of embarrassing. No MSFs, about 5 pigments, a brush case from about 3 years ago and items that I haven't even heard of...

Ugh. Me being the way I am, I decided that driving an hour and a half and leaving empty-handed was a waste, so I ended up purchasing a Mineralized blush in INTENSO, pigments in MUTINY and REFLECTS BLACKENED RED.

This did not satisfy my craving for MAC (besides, they did not have any of the things I came to look for!), so I ended up dragging my boyfriend to the closest mall with a MAC counter.

After standing in a huuuge line (what was up with that, I wonder...), I left with an EMPTY QUAD, eyeshadows in SATIN TAUPE and SHOWSTOPPER and a sample of their SELECT COVERAGE concealer.

For those of you who don't know yet, I am trying to collect every piece that came out with the Smoke Signals collection (which was before I was into MAC :\). Sadly, the "SMOKING" quad is so well loved that nobody is willing to give theirs up and it is long sold out everywhere...

So I decided to piece mine together :D So far I have "Next to Nothing," "Satin Taupe," and "Showstopper." Too bad "Smoking" is the hardest one to get. BUT I SHALL SUCCEED :3

Currently I am missing:
LIPSTICKS: Brew, Barely Lit, Sparks can Fly, Mellow Flame, Burnin.
SHADOWS: Smoking.
KOHL POWER: Orepheus, Raven (I might actually skip these...)
BLUSH: Ablaze, Emote
PIGMENTS: (Have all <3)POLISHES: Wildfire.If any of you have any of these that you are willing to part with, please let me know and I can purchase them off you :3Now that I am sure you are all tired of my mumblings, you are welcome to take a look at my stash :D

Cheers!

Mario Badescu Free Samples for everyone :D

2010-01-31T18:30:00.000-08:00

So, running around the internet as I so often do, I came across an interesting fact:

Some pricey cosmetics companies are more than willing to give you their samples (and pretty generous amounts at that), so you would fall in love and buy their products.

Every time I visit a MAC counter, for example, I get a sample of something I'd like to try out. Of course, I'd hate to abuse this, but I learned with MAC that most of the face products don't works for me so well. Shadows and such are lovely, but foundations, mattifiers and primers are a killer for my pores. So instead of purchasing an item, hating it and returning it, I decided to get samples first - which makes just too much sense. Many times I end up buying the product (mostly concealers and pigments), but there are times where I am glad I did not consider this further.

/Off topic.

I found that Mario Badescu has a Questionnaire which you can fill out to have products matched to your skin tone and if you allow it, have sample products sent to you.

At first I shrugged it off after filling out the questionnaire and forgot all about the samples. About three weeks later, I received a package containing samples that were quite surprising in size. I opened the package to find these contents:

I was pleasantly surprised, because I did want to try the line, but it was quite pricey to go hit-and-miss. As of right now, I cannot say whether I like it or not, as it has not yet been long enough, but I will post a review as soon as I try the products out.

If you'd like to fill out a questionnaire and get your own product samples, please go
HERE and follow the instructions :)

Cheers!

New obsession: Circle lenses

2010-01-23T21:37:00.000-08:00

So, as a frequent YouTube visitor and a tutorial addict, I came across a link to http://prettyandcute.com, and got sucked into purchasing a pair of GEO circle lens in Nudy Green.

For the longest time, I have wanted to purchase a pair of colored contacts, but haven't found anything that was very comfortable. I don't really wear glasses other than for reading for a long time, so I don't really need lenses with degrees, but naturally, it's harder to get those in the US. Why? I don't know. Besides, the choices I was given (yes, I went to a legit optometrist for a consult) were not too exciting. Apparently purple and red lenses are not that popular. Heh. Just kidding.

I was given some testers, Acuvue were probably closest to what I wanted, but still made me somewhat uncomfortable. Besides - they are not that cheap and only last for about 2 weeks. Screw that.

/off-topic, now. I got to prettyandcute.com and saw the selection they had for lenses. The colors were beautiful, the prices were extremely reasonable and they last for up to a year after opening! (Although I would suggest not wearing them for longer than 8 months, less if you wear them very often).

So I ordered a pair, and with shipping, I paid $24.76, which is very reasonable to me. I got my order in about 4 days, in a safely packaged box, with delivery confirmation and all that fancy stuff.

As a bonus, you get a free lens case with purchase of circle lenses. I got the "Button Pooh" case, as I wanted a case that was not transparent (plus I <3 Pooh!)So overall, I must say that this is going to be my one stop for lenses from now on, as Janie keeps adding new lenses pretty frequently. Of course, the website doesn't only sell lenses, but also fashion accessories, beauty products and cute things. I am thinking of purchasing more variety lenses, as these were probably the most comfortable lenses I have ever worn. Amazing quality, too. Naturally, she only sells AUTHENTIC GEO lenses, so no worries - your eyes will be safe ;)If you DO end up purchasing from her, please do mention that you were referred by [sporkofjustice@gmail.com] - I would be extremely grateful :)And here's the awesome video review:

How to spot fake MAC brushes (187)

2009-12-28T18:07:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying that I am still a poor college student, so if I can get something on a sale, on ebay or otherwise, I will do it, rather than buying products full price.
So of course, after wanting a MAC 187 stippling brush for about 6 months, I decided to get one. On eBay. Yes, I know how many fakes there are, but I am also not stupid and have been buying things on eBay for years, so I thought I would be safe. Guess again.

So I went on eBay, and simply did a search for MAC 187. Not too many results came up, but I decided to pick a seller without an eBay store, because this is where all the Hong Kong sellers dwell and sell fake MAC brushes. I picked an individual seller from Brooklyn, NY. I emailed "Wendy" to ask her about the brush. She told me that she received it as a gift from a friend, but already had one, so she is selling it on eBay.

Okay, I though. So I looked at the picture she posted, which looked fine:

It had the grooves set in pretty well, and the bristles were even, so I am thinking the the brush pictured is real.

I purchased it and it came in the mail today. Unlucky for "Wendy," I also went to MAC counter and purchased a real MAC 187 for comparison (I plan on returning it, as I cannot afford it, of course).

So I put the two side by side:

Marker #1: The packaging will include a bar code on the real brush, as shown here:

Marker #2: The grooves on the steel part of the brush will be very distinct on the real brush and yhe lettering on the real brush will be somewhat engraved, very slightly and the numbers will be close together:

Marker #3: The real brush is slightly longer, and has tiny specks of glitter in the handle, fake one is absolutely black:

Marker #4: The bristles will be more evenly together, as opposed to more bristles in one spot, less in another:

Marker #5: The bristles will be the same length on the real one. On the fake one, you can see how the black bristles are different lengths, very visible:

Still unsure? Take it to the MAC counter and ask them to check for you. I am sure they will be more than willing to help, because that will increase their chances of selling you a real model, in case this one is fake.

What to do if you bought a fake brush on eBay? Hint: always pay with PayPal. First, contact the seller. Tell them that they misrepresented their item and sent you a fake and you would like to return it for a refund. If they get hostile or don't want to help you or refuse a refund, file a claim with PayPal and file a SIGNIFICANTLY NOT AS DESCRIBED claim. There is a checkbox specifically for "Imitation" items, which are illegal to sell on eBay in the first place. You will most likely be asked to send the brush back (make sure you do so with a tracking number!), and seller will be forced to give you a refund.

There are always risks of buying things on eBay, but most of the time, it has worked out for me. If it does not work out - there's always PayPal resolution center, where you can dispute your case and will most likely be right.

MUA, Swapping, Swaplifters and loss

2009-12-17T21:06:00.000-08:00

I found Make Up Alley (makeupalley.com) after people have been raving about it all over the internet, and joined on 12/8/2009. I immediately found the "swap" area and was quite excited to join the hype.

As soon as I listed a couple of items, people were messaging me, wanting to swap. It was great. I made some deals and sent some items and looked up things I need. It was great.

I then found a person with a MAC 187 brush, which I desperately want, and who was willing to swap for my 3 MAC eyeshadow pans (FIG 1, Beautiful Iris and Créme de Violet). This sounded very reasonable to me, but the person in question only had one or two tokens (given, at the time I had one). Since that was the case, I requested that we same around roughly the same time, so it is fair for both of us.

I agreed to send on Monday, December 14th given that she will send hers on Tuesday night, December 15th (apparently she was busy because of the finals).

I sent the package Monday morning, including the Delivery Confirmation on my package. I was tracking the package every day, waiting for her to send her end. Tuesday passed. So did Wednesday and it is now Thursday night. I checked up on the tracking info again and voila: the package arrived at her place today.

I emailed her, asking her to send mine quickly, so I can get my end of the bargain, and then went to MUA to check the last time she visited the site. But guess what: yep. Her account was deleted. GREAT! I thought. So, I searched her user-name in the "search" bar on MUA and lo and behold: there is a swap notepad with her name in it from another member. Of course, the other member warns everyone against this person. Oh, damn, I thought and contacted this other member.

I will not disclose her information for safety reasons, but I will say that she was very helpful. She agreed that I was most likely swaplifted and recommended that I join "swaptawk" and report this person to the local police, as well as internet fraud authorities.

Well, I now have filed my charges, and emailed her local police department. However, I am doubtful that anything will come out of this. Honestly, I just want to warn the rest of you against this person and make sure she does not get any more items from any of you.

And in order to do that, I will list all the information on her that I have. Go at it:
(Authorities, please note: I am displaying this information because I have been robbed by this person and I want some justice. If you would rather take it into your own hands, please contact me and I will take the information down.)

MUA user: macislove3, thepunkprincess35
Email: kamis3@yahoo.com, punkprincess35@yahoo.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePunkPrincess35
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PunkPrinces35
IP: 24.113.64.254
Name: Cammie Swolgaard
Cell Phone #: 360-204-8826
Address:
12969 Burchard DR. SW.
Port Orchard, WA 98367

I will be updating on this when (if) anything at all happens.

Konad Nail Art

2009-11-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

I am sure that most (if not all of you) have heard of the Konad Stamping Nail Art. Now, after pondering for a while now, I decided to try it out for myself. Luckily, I came across wowsocool.com and since they are located somewhat near me, I decided to order a couple of things.
First thing I ordered was the so called "S-Set" View it on KonadUSA. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I looked, I could not find a clear description of what exact products are inside it: all I knew was that it contained the M2 image plate, white special polish, stamp and a scraper. Since this is all you really need to begin, I decided to give it a try, since I thought that buying a kit would be cheaper.
Oh, was I wrong...

First of all, the polish it comes with is TINY. It is less than half the amount of the regular sized special polishes. I am not sure how long this will last me, but this is definitely not a good starter, especially for the WHITE color.

Second, I was expecting to get the two-sided stamper, but it turns out that it is this tiny one-sided one, with only the large side. Basically, if I want to use the M2 image plate it came with, it would be too large, as the images on the M2 are tiny.

After the initial disappointment wore off, I decided to do the math and see if I really paid less or at least the same amount that this would cost a la carte.

To my absolute horror, I realized how wrong I was and that I was slightly ripped off...
I am going to show you my math, in order to illustrate my point.

The kit contains:
- M2 image plate
- White special polish (5ml)
- One-sided stamper + scraper

These are the prices a la carte:
- Image plate: $6.99
- White polish: $6.99/11ml ($0.635/ml = $3.18/5ml)
- One-sided stamper + scraper: $4.99

What I should have paid, if ordering separate items:
- Image plate: $6.99
- TINY polish: $3.18
- One-sided stamper + scraper : $4.99
TOTAL: $15.16

Now, I know this is not a big difference at all, but it just seems like the kit would be slightly cheaper than buying items separately, right? Apparently not. Besides, it also comes with a super simple image plate that I will probably end up not using. So if any of you are thinking of ordering one of the S-Sets, just like I did - think again. Order the two-sided stamper, a regular sized special polish, and an image plate you actually like.

As a review for the WowSoCool itself, I must say that they are extremely efficient. I placed my order either Friday night or Saturday morning, and they sent me an eMail couple of hours later, letting me know that my order would ship Monday. And it did, of course, arriving at my house on Tuesday. I was impressed, but I guess it's not so impressive when you realize that they are located only a couple of cities away.

Overall, if you are interested in trying out Konad, I would recommend purchasing through WowSoCool.com, but be sure that you are ordering what you want, because otherwise you will end up like me: with a tiny polish, a huge stamp and a useless template that I cannot use with the given stamp.

Cheers--