Christmas Goodies

This year, I'm on a bit of a money crunch so I wasn't able to get any of my friends anything for Christmas. We didn't exchange any gifts, but lucky for me I participated in Kay's Secret Santa! Kay was my secret santa and this is the only present I got from a friend this year. She sent me the Visee LE Glam Hunt Eyes in Mauve and a Rimmel quad plus lots of goodies and candies. The candies are all gone now XD Thank you so much Kay!! <3<3 I'm excited to try the shadows out.

Boxing Day sales usually suck. I find that as the years go by, the crappier the sales are. I still went to Eaton Center to see what I could pick up because my grandma gave me some red pocket money for Christmas. I didn't find anything I liked, so as I was going back to the subway, I noticed Lush had some sales. And what a sale! It was buy any wrapped gift get 1 free or buy any holiday product or soaps and get 2 free! I ended up getting about 0.8kg of Snowcake and a sample of the Figs and Leaves soap. I actually went 2 separate times to Lush cuz I had to stock up on Snowcake XD Any other time I wouldn't splurge there.

It's also finally snowing some more. It hasn't been winter in Toronto because of the lack of snow, it even rained on Christmas day, wth... Oh well I shouldn't complain, since I'll be the one shovelling it later anyway.

Golden Brown

I've done this look before, but I got bored so decided to make a video of it. I call it my go-to look. I use this look like 90% of the time with the same lipstick.



Eyes:
Coffret D'or Fluffy Shine Eyes 03 Gold
Jill Stuart Jelly Eyes 10 Vintage Decor
Lunasol Skin Modelling Eyes Beige Beige
Lunasol Nobel Shade Liner Deep Brown
Paul & Joe Pencil Liner 01 or MUFE 2L
Fiberwig Mascara
Maquillage Powder Touch Eyebrow GY950 (forgot to use it in the video)

Cheeks:
Jill Stuart Blush Fresh Apricot

Lips:
Maquillage Moisture Rouge PK705

Vivi and Classy January 2010

Click here to be one of the first to read the new Vivi! Once you click the link, you can also look at the full album by clicking the link on the left, that way you don't have to go through the ads.

Also, for those that are into the OL styles or just need some ideas, take a look at this magazine, Classy. I think it's definitely a more grown up version of Vivi. Click here to see more.

Soft Smokey?

Happy Holidays! I just realized I haven't updated in 2 weeks. Hope all is well in the blogger world. I receieved my secret Santa package from Kay and I'm uber excited to open it!

As you probably all know by now, I don't like to line my lower lids, which is why my post title is soft smokey. The "soft" is also due to the fact that this dang P&J shadow is so sheer.
LE things like to grab hold of me and tempt me to buy them. Who could resist though? Because how many other people might have this LE item? (Lots probably)

ANNYwaay... the LE item is P&J 062 shadow duo. I got this waaay before I came back to Canada, on my second trip to HK in August. By now I can't remember the price or the collection name, I just remember I got it from Langham Place Mall in Mong Kok.

This is a cute little palette and there's barely any fall-out while applying. I think that's all I have to say that's good about it. This was quite a disappointing purchase from P&J and I wish I had swatched it and thought carefully first before buying.
The pan width is a bit bigger than the MAC shadows, big enough to last me a lifetime. Sadly, the packaging will probably not last a lifetime because it's made of cardboard. Eventually, I know the sides and edges will start to mess up.

The lighter shade is grey, although it has been sometimes described as blueish-green, I honestly don't see it hehe. The darker shade is a deep navy. The lighter shade has very little hints of shimmer while the darker shade is near matte. They're not shimmery enough for my taste, but it's a change to my usual shimmery colors. These shades are so sheer it bugs me. I hate having to layer on so much shadow that it might crease badly as the day progresses.
I know I'm just bashing this palette right now, but one last thing, the applicator, it's so small!!! I can barely even hold onto it so using a brush is a lot easier.

I used the MM shadow as a highlight, applied the lighter shade as the main color and used the darker shade to blend the eyeliner up 1/4 of my lids.

You can see how sheer it is, but I supposed it's good for looks that aren't too dramatic for daytime. But, I have to confess, I haven't used this palette when going out yet, I've only played with it at home XD


I'm sure most of you have heard of Bubbi of BubzBeauty on Youtube. I was inspired by her Messy Updo Bun video. I tried it out and loved it!
This look is super cute and easy to do. I especially love how it gives an illusion that I have more hair. Making a real odango bun is a bit difficult for me because of my fine hair, so this is a great alternative.
I used 10-12 bobby pins and this held up through the day. If there were any flyaways, all I needed to do was add another pin without redo-ing the whole thing. The head band was from Korea. I wish I had stocked up on more, they're really cheap there.

I'm putting the comment box up, but I do apologize if I don't reply to your comments, but it makes me happy to see them =)

Pearlish Beige

Hello hello, long time no blog.
It's almost Christmas and there hasn't been a lick of snow in Toronto! I remember, back in the day, it snowed so much that school got cancelled. Saying that makes me feel old.

About a month ago, I ordered 2 Christmas presents for myself, one being the Aube Couture holiday palette and the other being the Lunasol Full Glamour Lips S Pearlish Beige#36.
I first saw it in the Sept 09 issue of Vivi and wanted it ever since, but Adam Beauty didn't carry it until recently.

Lunasol's lipsticks are great because they're creamy, smooth, and not sticky with the right amount of shimmer. It's got medium pigmentation, but as usual for me, lipsticks generally don't show up to what it looks like because of my pigmented lips. BTW, the lipstick is a bit lighter than in the picture.
The Pearlish Beige is one of the prettiest looking lipsticks I purchased, with a swirl of multi color glitter on it. The other ones are the P&J 061 and 062 from the Spring 09 collection with flower designs etched on the lipstick.
The shade is a beautiful beige with a bit of a golden undertone to it with very fine shimmers. I think this goes great with any of the eye makeup I consider more dramatic for me, like Lunasol Dazzling Night.

Here's a quick FOTD with Dazzling Night and Pearlish Beige. I much prefer not lining the bottom lashline with this palette. I've tried many times to get it right, but still, lining the bottom looks strange o_O

Oh, I'm also taking down the comment box since I'm not around blogger enough to keep up with it. Blogging is starting to become more and more difficult as I'm watching my spending a lot more with makeup. I hope that doesn't disappoint anyone! But I'm going to school in January to take my TESL certificate in hopes that I'll be in Hong Kong by August 2010, thennnn...the frequent posts shall commence XD Wish me luck!

Skincare Things

This is a super over due post of some more items I got from Japan (back in August).
As you might recall, I was using Orbis with a mix of Paul & Joe. During the day time, I used the Orbis Aqua Force moisture lotion because it absorbed quickly, but as the weather started to change, it wasn't moisturizing enough. After finishing it in August, I purchased the Sofina Beaute Emulsion.
The emulsion comes in 3 varieties, Fresh I, Light Moist II and Moist III. I think the difference is the moisturizing levels. The one I got is II Light Moist 120mL, I can't remember the price, but HK sells it for $290HKD.
I've been using it for daytime since the end of August and there's still a bit more than half the bottle left. So I think it's worth the price.
The bottle is very pretty with the white flowers. It's plastic and you kinda half squeeze half pour the moisturizer out.

I translated the HK Sofina website using Google, but most of it doesn't make sense in English. It basically says that this moisturizer penetrates the cell's core and helps with anti-aging. It's supposed to also help dry damaged skin from the environment. You can read it yourself here.

This moisturizer is super milky, I'd say a bit more than the Laneige emulsions. It absorbs very quickly and has a light floral aroma. I definitely think this is a great moisturizer because it makes my skin really soft and doesn't leave any residue, whereas Laneige did (back when it was my fav skincare). The floral scent goes away quickly so there's no need to worry about leftover smells. Since it absorbs quickly, I don't have to wait before applying makeup and worry about dry patches on my skin.
I use a little more than what this picture shows and it's more than enough to moisturize my skin.

Other Sofina Beaute items I'm using is the Wrinkle Essence. I got that in HK in February for $380HKD 25mL. I use this under my eyes everyday and sometimes on my face and neck. I can't really give good results since I didn't notice much. I think it's just good to prevent any further wrinkles though. After I'm done all my P&J products, I'm going to slowly switch over to the rest of the Sofina Beaute items as they're supposed to help with anti-aging.

I've been using nose strips for a long as I can remember, but sometimes they just don't pull out all the junk. In a quest to find something to boost the nose strip power, I found the Kose Softymo Hot Cleansing Gel from Japan.
This is a small tube, 25g for I think $5-6CAD? But it works well with the nose strip. After cleansing and drying my skin, I rub a 2 pea sized amount on the areas that the nose strip will touch. There's no hot feeling at all, but whatever haha. The gel is black and has a bit of tiny scrubbage to it. I do this for about 2 minutes then rinse off with water and apply the nose strip.
After peeling off the strip, here's what I'm left with... a lot more crap out of my pores than if I didn't use the gel. Whhheeee!!!!

Weekend Goodies

Thanks for all the comments and all my new followers!

I found a link to download the Mina 15 minute makeup tutorial book/magazine. Click here to download! It features very basic makeup application for beginners.

Also, here's the link for December's issue of Voce. Most of it's writing and it doesn't have as many picture tutorials like Vivi.

Check out this blog for swatches of Maquillage's newest collection. It's so beautiful!!!!!!! The lipsticks look more like jelly and it's more like a lipgloss than lipstick according to the blogger. (if I translate that properly haha)

Christmas Present!

Since I'm being terrible at commenting back, I'm considering taking down my comment box and just leaving my cbox open. What do you think?

I know, Christmas is more than a month away, but how could I resist not buying a present for myself already? All the holiday collections make me drool. I could only pick one thing otherwise I'd be broke before buying everyone else's present.
My present for this Christmas (along with one more thing coming from Adambeauty) is the Aube Couture holiday palette. I didn't own anything Aube Couture before so why not start with this right?

The package is so beautiful. The case is a shiny pink with a silver border, white and jewelled snow motifs. This is also a huge compact, 3x4, to hold applicators, 3 lippies and eyeshadow.

I chose the 03 gold eyes x red lip variation. I figured gold would go with most outfits and I didn't own anything gold to begin with.
Isn't it so gorgeous? Sadly the snow design is only sprayed on top and is rubbed off immediately after touching it with the applicator.

All of the shades are very well pigmented except the main shade, even with BE Prime Time. I have to layer on the main shade 2-3 times to get the desired amount of color. However, even with all the layering, the shades lasted very long (about 10 hours) with no creasing and minimal smudging. I'm quite impressed by this.

The liner and brown shadow is very similar in color. A light hand is needed with applying it to the outer corner to prevent it from over powering the gold.

The lipsticks are very smooth and medium pigmented. I'm a bit sad how red these came out, it doesn't match me very well. The top shade is similar to the P&J lipstick 062 but a bit more rosy.

I lined with P&J pencil liner 01 before smudging the liner shade on. I think the gold appears more brownish than gold, but that's probably due to my skin tone.
I'm using the top and bottom lip color in the last picture. It doesn't look as red as I say, but it's just not very flattering.

Stila TM

After using the LM TM for a couple weeks, I couldn't stand it anymore. As much as I like the dewy-ness I get from it, my face got soooooo oily after a couple hours!! I didn't even want to try the oil free one because according to some people on MUA, it's still oily for them.

I went to Sephora to try something else and the SA gave me a Stila Oil Free TM sample. I was convinced that this was the one for me after using it 2 times so I returned the LM.

The one I purchased is Dark Medium 03, which seems kinda silly because I never considered myself in the dark shades, but yet it doesn't look dark at all. This is supposed to have SPF30, but the packaging doesn't say so. I asked Sephora why and they said it's because Canada has different labelling restrictions or something, but it still has SPF30. Weird.

The TM is quite thick and not as easy to blend as LM. I use this with the Paul & Joe Moisturizing Foundation Primer 03 and it makes blending a lot easier. Something about the P&J added more blendability to the TM.

Coverage wise, I think it's pretty similar to LM. It's light-medium without covering all the imperfections. Oil control gets a pass. I don't get as greasy as LM but I still blot once, although if I didn't blot it wouldn't be that big of a deal.

Oh, I'm also using the Maquillage Powder Touch Eyebrow (GY950), though you don't really notice a big difference. I use a light hand just incase I look crazy with dark brows XD I also just follow the natural shape of my brows. I don't really shape them either because I don't have a lot of brow hairs to begin with.

Vivi December

I don't know what's up with my blog, but some of my pictures can't seem to be clicked on to enlarge. I might have to go back to using the generic blogger layouts soon. *sigh*

Vivi December is out already! My friend got this in HK a few days ago before she flew back. I also have the November issue but haven't taken pictures of it. Vivi seems to be less and less makeup-y these days, but I can't complain.

This issue has a little booklet called Christmas Coffret Super Catalog. I've already ordered from one of the holiday collections for my Christmas present. It better get here by the end of the week, I'm sooo impatient!

There's yet another collaboration of Vivi and Visee. There are 2 palettes (mauve and beige brown) and a mascara. The mauve one reminds me a lot of the Bobbi Brown mauve collection, except I'm sure the Visee is a lot prettier.

I finally got my first brow product! This is Maquillage's newst one called Powder Touch Eyebrow in GY950. I can't really compare this with anything I've used, but this pencil is supposed to be powder. It's also thicker than the average pencils.
It glides on with a powdery feel and finish so it looks super natural. For a first time brow product user, this is pretty idiot proof as the color is very buildable and it's easy to correct mistakes.
The color is darker than what it looks like on the pencil, but I haven't taken a good swatch or before/after pictures yet.

I got this on Adam Beauty for about $12. What a great deal! Plus it'll probably last forever.

Still Alive

No, I'm not abandoning Blogger XD I just find that I use the computer less and less now that I have my laptop. Please excuse my lack of commenting and catching up!
Tim's dad came back from Hong Kong, which means he helped me bring back the stuff I purchased. I stocked up on Beauty Diary masks, I can't remember the price, but it's more expensive than here for sure. I haven't had a chance to use any of these yet haha, except the apple one. It stings the area under my nose so I have to rip that part of the fabric off. Haven't really noticed any significant differences from using them though.

So, Tim's dad came back from Hong Kong to attend a wedding in Punta Cana 2 weeks ago, Tim's older brother. I was undecided on going due to some issues, but decided 2 days before that I should go and rushed to Urban Outfitters to get some new dresses. Lucky me, they were half price.
99% of the pictures are on Tim's computer, but here's a couple pics, one with the dress. I have plenty more I wanna post up when I get them from him XD

My stuff from Hong Kong included my new toys. If you didn't know already, I collect mini food, the ones mainly made by Re-Ment. My precious mini house made it in one piece ^__^
The new stuff also includes a sushi set, Mini Sweets and Fun Meals.

I ordered a Maquillage brow pencil from Adambeauty, it was only like $12! I hope it's not super tiny and that I'll know how to use it!

Oh, I also got my hair cut today and I promised my stylist to mention the salon here hehehe. It's called Initium Hair (located on Hwy 7 and Warden next to HSBC). I've been there many times before and the stylist I go to is Wilson Lee. He's been the most consistent stylist I've been to so I highly recommend him! I pay $32 excluding tips.