Recent Purchases 3
Hey cutie,
School has been bombarding me with work so I haven't found time to get around to writing this post but I am today! I just wanted to haul my "recent" purchases. I bought these about a month ago and have had a fair amount of time to test each product out.
L'oreal Infallible Pro-Last Lipcolor in Neverending Nutmeg
I was anticipating getting this specific colour because many people claim it as a "dupe" for Limecrime's Cashmere. If you look at swatches, they're not exactly dupes, but it's close enough that it made me excited. The colour itself looks great on my lips; the cool-toned taupeness of it is right up my ally, however I really do not enjoy this formula. It's one of those "2-step" lip lacquer lipcolours where you apply the colour first, wait for it to dry, and then apply a gloss on top to get rid of the tackiness. It's similar to the Rimmel Provocalips however I find the L'oreal one flakes super easily and settles into fine lines. After drinking with it on, the colour on the inner portion of my lips started to peel off in chunks and it's not cute. So much for long lasting.
Sephora Collection Colorful Face Powder in Tranquil
I'm always on a hunt for a good cool toned contour powder and I think I've hit the jackpot. Sephora came out for a whole blush collection that includes highlight and contour shades. Tranquil is a straight up grey-taupe cool toned contour shade that's perfect for pale-light skin. It's not too crazy pigmented that it'll make you look like you over-did your contour, but it's also not too sheer where it's not buildable. I especially love it for a natural nose contour.
Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Plum Wine
I've been avoiding this bandwagon for quite some time but when I found myself in search for a drugstore cream blush, I kicked myself in the butt and bought this. The 'bouncy' concept to me is still a little useless/I don't really get it, but the product actually works really well. Since it's such a dark colour, it's super pigmented and I only need a tiny amount to give myself a nice flush on my cheeks. I love that you can use this with both your fingers and a brush, making it ideal for traveling if you don't want to carry too many brushes around.
Real Techniques Stippling Brush
What can I say? Real Techniques just has great brushes. I was lucky enough to snag this stippling brush (they are always sold out!). I use it to apply my foundations; it's great to have multiple brushes just so you don't have to keep washing the same one every single day.
MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick
I finally found my MLBB! This colour matches my lips so well and it's matte. I tell you enough how much I love this lipstick. It's my every day to-go lip colour.
MAC Nylon and Omega Eyeshadow
I was looking to get Nylon for an inner corner highlight for a while now and got suckered into getting Omega as well. Omega is a good cool toned transition shade for your crease and I find myself using it every time I do my eyeshadow.
Labels: blush, brushes, contour, eyeshadow, haul, lipstick, loreal, mac, maybelline, real techniques, sephora
2014 Winter Wishlist - Makeup
The holidays are around the corner and the year is coming to a close end. That means it's time for a new wishlist of the year :) Here are some of the makeup items that I've had my eyes on for the whole entire year. Most of these are cult favourites. It would be nice to get even one of these items on this list! What are your makeup wishlist items?
Dolce & Gabbana Blush - Tan
This is a recommendation from my favourite Youtuber HeyClaire. She uses this to contour her face and I just love the way it looks. It's a cool toned bronzer colour, which fits my undertone so much better than all the warm orange bronzers out there. She also recommended NYX's blush in Taupe as a similar (but not quite) dupe, which I absolutely love and is what I'm using now. I'd love to upgrade to a higher quality version of it, so this is definitely something I want!
Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Bronzer
Ah yes, another bronzer. I love contouring and I've heard a lot of great things about this one. I think this would be a good summer time one as it is slightly warmer than the D&G one. This would be second on my list of most wanted bronzers if I wouldn't have my first pick.
Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Lolita
Ahhh, look at that packaging!!! I must admit, I mostly want this lipstick for the packaging and the name; Lolita. But, I am on the hunt for the perfect mauve/MLBB shade and people have said this is very promising. I'd definitely have to go in person to test it out and it's not something I would blindly buy online.
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal Light
This product has been talked about a lot during the beginning of the year and it has caught my attention. I'm a big contour and highlight girl as both are part of my daily makeup routine and I want a really good quality cool/pink toned highlighter that makes it look like I'm glowing within!
Fresh Sugar Lychee Perfume
If I were to be turned into a scent and bottled up, this is exactly what I'd smell like. I always go into Sephora whenever I can to spray myself down with this, and I've even gotten several samples of it. It's just too pricey for me to splurge on right now!
MAC lipstick in Cyber
This. This lipstick is
the lipstick. I love dark vampy lips, and this is the one that I need in my life. Some people are scared of dark lips but not me. I say, the darker the better. Wet n Wild's Vamp It Up which is a close dupe to Cyber and I loveeeee the colour. The only problem with Vamp It Up is that it's extremely patchy! I want a good quality lipstick that will give me an even opaque application and that's where Cyber comes in.
Sigma Essential Kit - Mrs. Bunny
Everyone needs a good set of brushes and these have been well known to be some of the best brushes out there. It's important to have a set of essential brushes to make your makeup application that much more professional and easier!
Lorac Pro Palette 2
The first pro palette didn't really catch my attention because it seemed like there were a lot of warm tones which I am not drawn to. But the pro palette 2? This is filled with way more cool toned shadows which I love and really want to get my hands on! The shade I'm most excited for is that plum matte shade!
Disclaimer: None of these photos are taken by me.
Labels: bronzer, brushes, cosmetics, eyeshadow, highlighter, lipstick, makeup, perfume, sephora, wishlist
Hello, London. I was in you.
YOOOOOOOO...
So, yeah. It's been a while. It's now the beginning of November and I just got back from visiting Charming in another town. He lives away from home for school, which really sucks but this was the first time I went over to visit. This was also my first time traveling a long distance alone. I don't do well with traveling alone so this was a huge step for me and I was really nervous and scared but I'm glad I did it. I had a lot of fun for the past three days!
I arrived around 7:30pm, so Charming picked me up from the bus station and we walked around downtown and picked a Japanese restaurant to eat at. We ordered quite a bit but everything was really yummy. I also had a beer. I told him I want to drink every single day that I was there, hehe.
We went back to his place and spent the night cuddling in bed and watching movies. There's a relatively new Jackie Chan movie called Chinese Zodiac, I think, and it's super weird and stupid hahahaha. 0/10 would not recommend.
The next day was Halloween, which is my favourite holiday of all time! I didn't get to spent Halloween with him last year so this year, I made the effort to be with him. Since his school is known to be quite the partying school, I figured I wanted to check it out and see what the hype was all about. We went to a house party or whatever and it was pretty hectic and not my style. Everything was... How would you put it... Ratchet as fuck. On the brighter side, we ditched and went to a karaoke place and sang our hearts out while drinking a truck load of alcohol. Charming isn't the type to drink heavily so drinking with him that night was really fun because we both let loose and had lots of fun :) We drank tons of beer and shots of hard liqueur. Oh, I was a cat and I made him wear my lion ears from last year. We're Roarilty ;D
I also got to go to Target to buy some stuff. We don't have a Target anywhere close to where I live, so I made sure to go to Target over there because there's one really close to his school. I was originally looking for NYX's blush in Taupe but they didn't even carry any blushes, so I picked up their jumbo eye pencil in black bean, a lip liner from Annabelle, and a limited edition brush set from Sonia Kashuk.
Oh yeah, and we also went to the supermarket and bought groceries to cook dinner. Originally, I wanted steak but the ones in the store didn't look too fresh. We settled on making our own version of a Chipotle bowl including the cilantro lime rice, some tomatoes, caramelized onions, and seasoned ground beef. It was quite good and we have leftovers that lasted for at least two days!
The next day, I spent it helping him work on a poster for this club he's part of. He was assigned the job of making the poster for some singing competition audition thing and it was fun watching him try to do what I basically go to school for. He struggled a little bit but I was there to help him along ^^ So cute.
After that, we called out some of his friends to accompany me to dinner. This was my last night in town, and I wanted to see some of the guys, so I called them out and we went to a place called Crabby Joes. I had a shrimp pasta dish that was quite filling, and Charming ordered his usual ribs. He got the one that included chicken wings as well because I liked them :) He's super sweet. Did I also mention he ordered me onion rings? ONION RINGS!<3
Saturday morning
(afternoon?) was when I was leaving, so we woke up and headed downtown to grab brunch. We went to a small little place that had really good food for really good pricing. I've started to realize just how expensive Toronto really is compared to other places. He ordered eggs and steak, while I had bacon and eggs with a side of ham. Everything was delicious and we ate until we were stuffed. I was full for the entire day because of this!
(I wanted steak and he got it for me hehe^^)
The ride back home always feels faster than going to, which I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. I ended up falling asleep for the majority of the way there. I woke up just as we arrived back into the edge of town. While taking the subway and bus back home, I thought about the past three days and I really want to go back. The town is really dead and boring but I had fun spending time with Charming and his friends. I especially miss being able to sleep with him at night and cuddling. Somehow being back in my own bed alone just isn't satisfying enough. Oh well. Charming said he might come home next week, so fingers crossed!
Some other things that happened days before I left was:
I spent some time working on my Smashbook again. I'm too busy to scrapbook most of the time but I took it out again to work on some more pages and I made a pocket that looks like a shirt, hehehehehehe :D
Avocado BLT from La Prep. It's surprisingly really good and I would totally recommend it.
I made soup two days in a row. Both were good. I cooked for once. Proud.
Drinks with the girls to catch up on life. Much needed and the company was good.
Labels: boyfriend, brushes, charming, food, life, personal
Etude House Etoinette Brush Collection Review
If you guys are familiar with Etude House, you'll already be familiar with their (limited edition?) Princess Etoinette line. Everything is packaged in cute pink princess like packaging and it's just so adorable and girly. Well, I got sucked in and managed to get my hands on the Etoinette brush collection. Within the line, there are also a Rose Brush which is like a small kabuki brush, but I didn't get that one. Since I just did a brush review, I thought I'd share this one as well to compare.
So there are two brushes and a lip gradient tool that comes in a lace pouch that ties at the side. I love the packaging, although I don't see myself using it very often because constantly putting the brushes back in every time would be annoying and a waste of time as appose to sticking the brushes in a brush-holder cup. They come with plastic protectors that keep the shape of the brushes but I don't use those as well. (Maybe I should...)
Left to right: Lip gradient tool, powder brush, fan/finishing brush.
Lip Gradient: I think this is made out of a rubbery sponge. Or at least, that's how it feels like. It's a bit firmer than a regular sponge tip and bends like rubber almost. Apparently like the name suggests, it's used to create a gradient lip. I've tried it once with a red lipstick and it allows you to apply a thin even coat of lipstick. Since it's small and angled, it's easy to just focus on the center of the lips. I didn't use this tool at all because I didn't know what it was at first, but now I'm starting to think twice. Maybe I'll give it a try once in a while.
Powder Brush: When fanned out, this brush is pretty huge on the face. It's a decent powder brush size and after two washes, the bristles are very soft. I believe it's made out of goat's hair. It does a good job applying powder all over the face and picks up product very well... Maybe even too much, if you don't tap away the excess. Since using this, I've hit pan on my powder...
Fan/Finishing Brush: This brush is labeled to be a finishing brush that you use to brush away the excess powder on your face or any fall outs. However, I love using this brush for highlighting my nose and the tops of my cheek bones because it's just the perfect shape for it. And it picks up powder highlighter really well so it doesn't look like you're swiping nothing on your face.
Note: Shedding and bleeding of colour.
I was so excited to get these brushes because they looked so promising online but I was very disappointed when I first used them. As I do with all my brushes before using, I wash them to get them clean. I noticed that it takes these brushes a very long time to dry and after laying them out on a paper towel over night, I noticed pink stains. That's the pink dye from the hairs bleeding off. I've washed these brushes twice and it happened both times.
Another thing that really disappointed me was the amount of shedding these brushes do. After using, my face would look like I smothered my face in a cat's body or something. There were sooo many hairs falling off of this brush and sticking to my face; both the powder and fan brush. Even when I buff the brushes into my hand, more and more bristles come off. It was the worst after the first wash. I decided to give it another wash, and it got a tiny bit better. I noticed less shedding after the second time, but there are still some. I'm not sure if it's because of just extra hair that the manufacturers didn't clean off
(good thing I washed them before using!) or if the glue holding these hairs are become loose. Whatever it is, I'm disappointed in how much shedding is going on. It's like having a cat without the cat and just hair everywhere. Since I'm starting to see less hairs coming off, I'm assuming the shedding will stop soon. I'm going to continue to use these brushes and see how it goes.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Overall although cute, these brushes just aren't good. Sure, they're soft and cute but they shed like crazy and if you don't live in an asian country that sells Etude House, it's difficult to get your hands on these. I would say they're not worth it. Invest in good quality brushes from brands like Mac, Sigma, and Real Techniques.
Labels: brushes, etude house, korean, makeup, review
Real Techniques Core Collection Brush Set Review
Hi you!
I recently went to Walmart and was surprised to find that Canada now sells Real Techniques brushes! I'm not quite sure when we started to get them but I picked up the core collection because I was in need of some basic face brushes. I heard a lot of good reviews so I decided to buy these and to my
(not so) surprise, all the reviews have been right; these brushes are amazing!
I'm sure many people already know about these brushes as they are very popular amongst the online beauty world, but if you've somehow never heard of them, then keep reading :) These brushes are made by Samantha Chapman from the Pixiwoo channel on Youtube. I've seen a lot of other Youtube beauty gurus use these brushes as well.
As you can see, it comes with 4 face brushes: detailer, foundation, buffing and contour. My favourites are the buffing and contour brushes, but I'll describe all four.
The brushes comes in a little case that you can turn into a stand. I think this would be perfect for travel but since I don't travel, I just store this away for later use. Also, the brushes have a flat bottom which makes it possible for them to stand up straight if you don't want to put them flat on the table.
(At least, the big ones can. I haven't tried it for the detailer brush yet!)
From left to right: contour, foundation, detailer, buffing.
Contour: This is my second favourite brush in this collection. It's tapered which makes it very easy to contour the sides of your nose with. The size isn't very huge so you can get very precise when your contour the hallows of your cheeks. It's made from synthetic taklon bristles which makes blending cream blushes A DREAMMM! I have the Etude House Miss Tangerine cream blush
(review soon ;) and using this brush with it is the best combo ever. Lastly, I love to use powder highlighter with this because the tapered tip makes it easy to highlight down your nose and on the tops of your cheek bones.
Foundation: I don't use foundation but I do use BB cream and I find this brush causes streaks when I use it on my face because of the light and thin formula of the BB cream. However, it's pretty good for concealer, especially around the nose. I use it to blend out my concealer because it can cover a larder area than most concealer brushes. But on lazier days, I simply use my fingers which means I use this brush the least. It's also my least favourite of the four but still pretty good. I'm just not a fan of flat foundation brushes in general.
Detailer: This is such a tiny brush but very useful! It can be used for spot concealing or concealing around your eyebrows to get them very defined, and around your mouth when using a bold lipstick. Also, you can use this as a lip brush because of the synthetic taklon bristles. I've tried it with a lipstick and you can get very precise with this brush.
Buffing: I love this brush and it's actually the reason I bought this set! I needed a face brush to apply my BB cream with and this is perfect for that. I use less product when using this brush (as appose to using my fingers) and it blends my BB cream very easily. I've also notice that it makes my Skin79 Orange Vital BB cream go on less cakey on my face. Usually this BB cream is very drying on my face and leaves dry patches after a couple of hours but with this brush, it hasn't done that. You can buff or stipple with this brush which makes blending out concealer in a larger area perfect too. Lately, this brush can be used to apply powder to set your makeup.
Overall, these brushes are very good. They're fairly cheap for a set of brushes. It's around $18 or so but with tax, came up to around $21 which I think is still very cheap! I've washed them a couple of times since I've gotten them and they haven't shed once. They're really easy to just clean with soap and water. Some of my other brushes I own seem to hold soap in the bristles which makes rinsing them very annoying, but these don't do that. To top it off, these are 100% cruelty-free!
If you're in Canada, so far we only have the sets, as far as I know. I hope we start setting the individual brushes soon. Whenever I go to Walmart, it's always almost sold out so get them as soon as you see them because they might not be there the next time you're there!
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5
Labels: brushes, makeup, review
Recent Purchases 3
Hey cutie,
School has been bombarding me with work so I haven't found time to get around to writing this post but I am today! I just wanted to haul my "recent" purchases. I bought these about a month ago and have had a fair amount of time to test each product out.
L'oreal Infallible Pro-Last Lipcolor in Neverending Nutmeg
I was anticipating getting this specific colour because many people claim it as a "dupe" for Limecrime's Cashmere. If you look at swatches, they're not exactly dupes, but it's close enough that it made me excited. The colour itself looks great on my lips; the cool-toned taupeness of it is right up my ally, however I really do not enjoy this formula. It's one of those "2-step" lip lacquer lipcolours where you apply the colour first, wait for it to dry, and then apply a gloss on top to get rid of the tackiness. It's similar to the Rimmel Provocalips however I find the L'oreal one flakes super easily and settles into fine lines. After drinking with it on, the colour on the inner portion of my lips started to peel off in chunks and it's not cute. So much for long lasting.
Sephora Collection Colorful Face Powder in Tranquil
I'm always on a hunt for a good cool toned contour powder and I think I've hit the jackpot. Sephora came out for a whole blush collection that includes highlight and contour shades. Tranquil is a straight up grey-taupe cool toned contour shade that's perfect for pale-light skin. It's not too crazy pigmented that it'll make you look like you over-did your contour, but it's also not too sheer where it's not buildable. I especially love it for a natural nose contour.
Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Plum Wine
I've been avoiding this bandwagon for quite some time but when I found myself in search for a drugstore cream blush, I kicked myself in the butt and bought this. The 'bouncy' concept to me is still a little useless/I don't really get it, but the product actually works really well. Since it's such a dark colour, it's super pigmented and I only need a tiny amount to give myself a nice flush on my cheeks. I love that you can use this with both your fingers and a brush, making it ideal for traveling if you don't want to carry too many brushes around.
Real Techniques Stippling Brush
What can I say? Real Techniques just has great brushes. I was lucky enough to snag this stippling brush (they are always sold out!). I use it to apply my foundations; it's great to have multiple brushes just so you don't have to keep washing the same one every single day.
MAC Velvet Teddy Lipstick
I finally found my MLBB! This colour matches my lips so well and it's matte. I tell you enough how much I love this lipstick. It's my every day to-go lip colour.
MAC Nylon and Omega Eyeshadow
I was looking to get Nylon for an inner corner highlight for a while now and got suckered into getting Omega as well. Omega is a good cool toned transition shade for your crease and I find myself using it every time I do my eyeshadow.
Labels: blush, brushes, contour, eyeshadow, haul, lipstick, loreal, mac, maybelline, real techniques, sephora
2014 Winter Wishlist - Makeup
The holidays are around the corner and the year is coming to a close end. That means it's time for a new wishlist of the year :) Here are some of the makeup items that I've had my eyes on for the whole entire year. Most of these are cult favourites. It would be nice to get even one of these items on this list! What are your makeup wishlist items?
Dolce & Gabbana Blush - Tan
This is a recommendation from my favourite Youtuber HeyClaire. She uses this to contour her face and I just love the way it looks. It's a cool toned bronzer colour, which fits my undertone so much better than all the warm orange bronzers out there. She also recommended NYX's blush in Taupe as a similar (but not quite) dupe, which I absolutely love and is what I'm using now. I'd love to upgrade to a higher quality version of it, so this is definitely something I want!
Benefit Cosmetics Hoola Bronzer
Ah yes, another bronzer. I love contouring and I've heard a lot of great things about this one. I think this would be a good summer time one as it is slightly warmer than the D&G one. This would be second on my list of most wanted bronzers if I wouldn't have my first pick.
Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick in Lolita
Ahhh, look at that packaging!!! I must admit, I mostly want this lipstick for the packaging and the name; Lolita. But, I am on the hunt for the perfect mauve/MLBB shade and people have said this is very promising. I'd definitely have to go in person to test it out and it's not something I would blindly buy online.
Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Ethereal Light
This product has been talked about a lot during the beginning of the year and it has caught my attention. I'm a big contour and highlight girl as both are part of my daily makeup routine and I want a really good quality cool/pink toned highlighter that makes it look like I'm glowing within!
Fresh Sugar Lychee Perfume
If I were to be turned into a scent and bottled up, this is exactly what I'd smell like. I always go into Sephora whenever I can to spray myself down with this, and I've even gotten several samples of it. It's just too pricey for me to splurge on right now!
MAC lipstick in Cyber
This. This lipstick is
the lipstick. I love dark vampy lips, and this is the one that I need in my life. Some people are scared of dark lips but not me. I say, the darker the better. Wet n Wild's Vamp It Up which is a close dupe to Cyber and I loveeeee the colour. The only problem with Vamp It Up is that it's extremely patchy! I want a good quality lipstick that will give me an even opaque application and that's where Cyber comes in.
Sigma Essential Kit - Mrs. Bunny
Everyone needs a good set of brushes and these have been well known to be some of the best brushes out there. It's important to have a set of essential brushes to make your makeup application that much more professional and easier!
Lorac Pro Palette 2
The first pro palette didn't really catch my attention because it seemed like there were a lot of warm tones which I am not drawn to. But the pro palette 2? This is filled with way more cool toned shadows which I love and really want to get my hands on! The shade I'm most excited for is that plum matte shade!
Disclaimer: None of these photos are taken by me.
Labels: bronzer, brushes, cosmetics, eyeshadow, highlighter, lipstick, makeup, perfume, sephora, wishlist
Hello, London. I was in you.
YOOOOOOOO...
So, yeah. It's been a while. It's now the beginning of November and I just got back from visiting Charming in another town. He lives away from home for school, which really sucks but this was the first time I went over to visit. This was also my first time traveling a long distance alone. I don't do well with traveling alone so this was a huge step for me and I was really nervous and scared but I'm glad I did it. I had a lot of fun for the past three days!
I arrived around 7:30pm, so Charming picked me up from the bus station and we walked around downtown and picked a Japanese restaurant to eat at. We ordered quite a bit but everything was really yummy. I also had a beer. I told him I want to drink every single day that I was there, hehe.
We went back to his place and spent the night cuddling in bed and watching movies. There's a relatively new Jackie Chan movie called Chinese Zodiac, I think, and it's super weird and stupid hahahaha. 0/10 would not recommend.
The next day was Halloween, which is my favourite holiday of all time! I didn't get to spent Halloween with him last year so this year, I made the effort to be with him. Since his school is known to be quite the partying school, I figured I wanted to check it out and see what the hype was all about. We went to a house party or whatever and it was pretty hectic and not my style. Everything was... How would you put it... Ratchet as fuck. On the brighter side, we ditched and went to a karaoke place and sang our hearts out while drinking a truck load of alcohol. Charming isn't the type to drink heavily so drinking with him that night was really fun because we both let loose and had lots of fun :) We drank tons of beer and shots of hard liqueur. Oh, I was a cat and I made him wear my lion ears from last year. We're Roarilty ;D
I also got to go to Target to buy some stuff. We don't have a Target anywhere close to where I live, so I made sure to go to Target over there because there's one really close to his school. I was originally looking for NYX's blush in Taupe but they didn't even carry any blushes, so I picked up their jumbo eye pencil in black bean, a lip liner from Annabelle, and a limited edition brush set from Sonia Kashuk.
Oh yeah, and we also went to the supermarket and bought groceries to cook dinner. Originally, I wanted steak but the ones in the store didn't look too fresh. We settled on making our own version of a Chipotle bowl including the cilantro lime rice, some tomatoes, caramelized onions, and seasoned ground beef. It was quite good and we have leftovers that lasted for at least two days!
The next day, I spent it helping him work on a poster for this club he's part of. He was assigned the job of making the poster for some singing competition audition thing and it was fun watching him try to do what I basically go to school for. He struggled a little bit but I was there to help him along ^^ So cute.
After that, we called out some of his friends to accompany me to dinner. This was my last night in town, and I wanted to see some of the guys, so I called them out and we went to a place called Crabby Joes. I had a shrimp pasta dish that was quite filling, and Charming ordered his usual ribs. He got the one that included chicken wings as well because I liked them :) He's super sweet. Did I also mention he ordered me onion rings? ONION RINGS!<3
Saturday morning
(afternoon?) was when I was leaving, so we woke up and headed downtown to grab brunch. We went to a small little place that had really good food for really good pricing. I've started to realize just how expensive Toronto really is compared to other places. He ordered eggs and steak, while I had bacon and eggs with a side of ham. Everything was delicious and we ate until we were stuffed. I was full for the entire day because of this!
(I wanted steak and he got it for me hehe^^)
The ride back home always feels faster than going to, which I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. I ended up falling asleep for the majority of the way there. I woke up just as we arrived back into the edge of town. While taking the subway and bus back home, I thought about the past three days and I really want to go back. The town is really dead and boring but I had fun spending time with Charming and his friends. I especially miss being able to sleep with him at night and cuddling. Somehow being back in my own bed alone just isn't satisfying enough. Oh well. Charming said he might come home next week, so fingers crossed!
Some other things that happened days before I left was:
I spent some time working on my Smashbook again. I'm too busy to scrapbook most of the time but I took it out again to work on some more pages and I made a pocket that looks like a shirt, hehehehehehe :D
Avocado BLT from La Prep. It's surprisingly really good and I would totally recommend it.
I made soup two days in a row. Both were good. I cooked for once. Proud.
Drinks with the girls to catch up on life. Much needed and the company was good.
Labels: boyfriend, brushes, charming, food, life, personal
Etude House Etoinette Brush Collection Review
If you guys are familiar with Etude House, you'll already be familiar with their (limited edition?) Princess Etoinette line. Everything is packaged in cute pink princess like packaging and it's just so adorable and girly. Well, I got sucked in and managed to get my hands on the Etoinette brush collection. Within the line, there are also a Rose Brush which is like a small kabuki brush, but I didn't get that one. Since I just did a brush review, I thought I'd share this one as well to compare.
So there are two brushes and a lip gradient tool that comes in a lace pouch that ties at the side. I love the packaging, although I don't see myself using it very often because constantly putting the brushes back in every time would be annoying and a waste of time as appose to sticking the brushes in a brush-holder cup. They come with plastic protectors that keep the shape of the brushes but I don't use those as well. (Maybe I should...)
Left to right: Lip gradient tool, powder brush, fan/finishing brush.
Lip Gradient: I think this is made out of a rubbery sponge. Or at least, that's how it feels like. It's a bit firmer than a regular sponge tip and bends like rubber almost. Apparently like the name suggests, it's used to create a gradient lip. I've tried it once with a red lipstick and it allows you to apply a thin even coat of lipstick. Since it's small and angled, it's easy to just focus on the center of the lips. I didn't use this tool at all because I didn't know what it was at first, but now I'm starting to think twice. Maybe I'll give it a try once in a while.
Powder Brush: When fanned out, this brush is pretty huge on the face. It's a decent powder brush size and after two washes, the bristles are very soft. I believe it's made out of goat's hair. It does a good job applying powder all over the face and picks up product very well... Maybe even too much, if you don't tap away the excess. Since using this, I've hit pan on my powder...
Fan/Finishing Brush: This brush is labeled to be a finishing brush that you use to brush away the excess powder on your face or any fall outs. However, I love using this brush for highlighting my nose and the tops of my cheek bones because it's just the perfect shape for it. And it picks up powder highlighter really well so it doesn't look like you're swiping nothing on your face.
Note: Shedding and bleeding of colour.
I was so excited to get these brushes because they looked so promising online but I was very disappointed when I first used them. As I do with all my brushes before using, I wash them to get them clean. I noticed that it takes these brushes a very long time to dry and after laying them out on a paper towel over night, I noticed pink stains. That's the pink dye from the hairs bleeding off. I've washed these brushes twice and it happened both times.
Another thing that really disappointed me was the amount of shedding these brushes do. After using, my face would look like I smothered my face in a cat's body or something. There were sooo many hairs falling off of this brush and sticking to my face; both the powder and fan brush. Even when I buff the brushes into my hand, more and more bristles come off. It was the worst after the first wash. I decided to give it another wash, and it got a tiny bit better. I noticed less shedding after the second time, but there are still some. I'm not sure if it's because of just extra hair that the manufacturers didn't clean off
(good thing I washed them before using!) or if the glue holding these hairs are become loose. Whatever it is, I'm disappointed in how much shedding is going on. It's like having a cat without the cat and just hair everywhere. Since I'm starting to see less hairs coming off, I'm assuming the shedding will stop soon. I'm going to continue to use these brushes and see how it goes.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Overall although cute, these brushes just aren't good. Sure, they're soft and cute but they shed like crazy and if you don't live in an asian country that sells Etude House, it's difficult to get your hands on these. I would say they're not worth it. Invest in good quality brushes from brands like Mac, Sigma, and Real Techniques.
Labels: brushes, etude house, korean, makeup, review
Real Techniques Core Collection Brush Set Review
Hi you!
I recently went to Walmart and was surprised to find that Canada now sells Real Techniques brushes! I'm not quite sure when we started to get them but I picked up the core collection because I was in need of some basic face brushes. I heard a lot of good reviews so I decided to buy these and to my
(not so) surprise, all the reviews have been right; these brushes are amazing!
I'm sure many people already know about these brushes as they are very popular amongst the online beauty world, but if you've somehow never heard of them, then keep reading :) These brushes are made by Samantha Chapman from the Pixiwoo channel on Youtube. I've seen a lot of other Youtube beauty gurus use these brushes as well.
As you can see, it comes with 4 face brushes: detailer, foundation, buffing and contour. My favourites are the buffing and contour brushes, but I'll describe all four.
The brushes comes in a little case that you can turn into a stand. I think this would be perfect for travel but since I don't travel, I just store this away for later use. Also, the brushes have a flat bottom which makes it possible for them to stand up straight if you don't want to put them flat on the table.
(At least, the big ones can. I haven't tried it for the detailer brush yet!)
From left to right: contour, foundation, detailer, buffing.
Contour: This is my second favourite brush in this collection. It's tapered which makes it very easy to contour the sides of your nose with. The size isn't very huge so you can get very precise when your contour the hallows of your cheeks. It's made from synthetic taklon bristles which makes blending cream blushes A DREAMMM! I have the Etude House Miss Tangerine cream blush
(review soon ;) and using this brush with it is the best combo ever. Lastly, I love to use powder highlighter with this because the tapered tip makes it easy to highlight down your nose and on the tops of your cheek bones.
Foundation: I don't use foundation but I do use BB cream and I find this brush causes streaks when I use it on my face because of the light and thin formula of the BB cream. However, it's pretty good for concealer, especially around the nose. I use it to blend out my concealer because it can cover a larder area than most concealer brushes. But on lazier days, I simply use my fingers which means I use this brush the least. It's also my least favourite of the four but still pretty good. I'm just not a fan of flat foundation brushes in general.
Detailer: This is such a tiny brush but very useful! It can be used for spot concealing or concealing around your eyebrows to get them very defined, and around your mouth when using a bold lipstick. Also, you can use this as a lip brush because of the synthetic taklon bristles. I've tried it with a lipstick and you can get very precise with this brush.
Buffing: I love this brush and it's actually the reason I bought this set! I needed a face brush to apply my BB cream with and this is perfect for that. I use less product when using this brush (as appose to using my fingers) and it blends my BB cream very easily. I've also notice that it makes my Skin79 Orange Vital BB cream go on less cakey on my face. Usually this BB cream is very drying on my face and leaves dry patches after a couple of hours but with this brush, it hasn't done that. You can buff or stipple with this brush which makes blending out concealer in a larger area perfect too. Lately, this brush can be used to apply powder to set your makeup.
Overall, these brushes are very good. They're fairly cheap for a set of brushes. It's around $18 or so but with tax, came up to around $21 which I think is still very cheap! I've washed them a couple of times since I've gotten them and they haven't shed once. They're really easy to just clean with soap and water. Some of my other brushes I own seem to hold soap in the bristles which makes rinsing them very annoying, but these don't do that. To top it off, these are 100% cruelty-free!
If you're in Canada, so far we only have the sets, as far as I know. I hope we start setting the individual brushes soon. Whenever I go to Walmart, it's always almost sold out so get them as soon as you see them because they might not be there the next time you're there!
Rating: ★★★★★ 5/5
Labels: brushes, makeup, review
Profile
stupid princess
UserName: Hyokii
Age: 23
Birthday: January 22
Location: Toronto, Canada.
Sign: Aquarius Sun, Gemini Moon, Aries Rising
Who are you?
I'm just an average girl studying graphic design in my hometown Toronto. I'm nothing special but I like to blog and document my findings :) I'm really into astrology so come and tell me your sign!
What do you blog about?
Mostly just about my life and occasional beauty hauls and product reviews.
What does 'babo gongju' mean?
It's Korean for 'stupid princess'.
Boyfriend?
Yes! He does Muay Thai and he's a Virgo.
Tell me about your skin type!
I have extremely dry dehydrated skin and really dry/flaky lips. Light; yellow with neutral leaning cool undertone. Currently wearing NARS Sheer Glow in Gobi.
Up Coming
A List of posts that are coming soon
Reviews:
Tonymoly Cats Wink Smooth Primer
Etude House Goodbye Pore Ever Primer
Skin Food Choco Smoky Eye Palette
Aussie 3 Minute Miracle Shine Deep Treatment
Real Techniques Core Collection Brush Set
Etude House Golden Ratio Contour Maker
Skin Food Coffee Creamy Sheer Lipstick (PP701 Plum Wine)
Etude House Real Art Cleansing Oil (Moisture)
Skin Food Bath Salt (Peppermint)
Etude House Miss Tangerine Cream Choux Blusher
Skin Food Red Orange Makeup Finish (Matte Type)
Tonymoly Cat Chu Wink Tony Tint (Cherry Pink)
Etude House Etoinette Crystal Shine Lip Lipstick (PPK001 & PPK003)
Etude House Etoinette Brush Collection
The Face Shop Rice Water Bright Cleansing Special Set
The Face Shop Cotton Pads
The Face Shop Face It 07 Quick Top Coat
The Face Shop Lovely ME:EX Design My Eyebrow (01 Gray Brown)
The Face Shop Lovely ME:EX Style My Eyebrow (01 Gray Brown)
The Face Shop Face It Designing Cake Eyebrow (01 Khaki Grey)
Etude House Dear My Blooming Eyes (OR203 Mesmerizing Orange)
Nicole by O.P.I. Nail Polish (Iceberg Lotus)
The Face Shop Real Nature Mask Aloe Vera
The Face Shop Face It Styling Auto Gel Liner (01 Edgy Black)
The Face Shop Floral Water Mist
The Face Shop Mild Papaya Peeling Gel
Kat Von D Spellbinding Eyeshadow Book
Rimmel Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick By Kate Moss (111 Kiss Of Life)
Rimmel Lasting Finish Matte Lipstick By Kate Moss (102)
Sally Hansen Big Matte Top Coat
Witchcraft Mini+Cures Set
Maybelline Volum’ Express The Colossal Smoky Eyes Mascara
Nicole by O.P.I. Quick Dry Top Coat
Essence Kalinka Beauty 01 Babushka Me Lip Brush
Maybelline Volum’Express The Rocket Waterproof Mascara
Maybelline Eye Studio Master Drama Eyeliner in Midnight Master
Maybelline Fit Me Concealer in 10 Light
Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Ivory
Etude House Nymph Aura Volumer (sample)
Etude House Mal;Gem All In One Emulsion (sample)
Etude House Mal;Gem Smoother Toner (sample)
Etude House Sun Prise Super Aqua SPF45/PA+++ (sample)
Etude House Precious Mineral BB Cream SPF30/PA++ (sample)
Etude House Moistfull Collagen Firming Eye Cream (sample)
Skin Food Platinum Grape Cell Essential BB Cream SPF45/PA+++ (sample)
Skin Food Agave Cactus Emulsion (sample)
The Face Shop Chia Seed Moisture-Holding Seed Cream(sample)
The Face Shop Mango Seed Silk Moisturizing Toner(sample)
The Face Shop Mango Seed Silk Moisturizing Lotion(sample)
Updated The Face Shop Mango Seed Silk Moisturizing Toner & Lotion (full size)
The Face Shop Mango Seed Silk Moisturizing Facial Butter(sample fullsize)
The Face Shop Volcanic Clay Black Head Aloe Nose Strip(sample)
The Face Shop Herb Day 365 Cleansing Foam Acerola (sample)
The Face Shop White Secret Whitening Body Essence (sample)
Tutorials & Tips:
How I Contour My Face
Tips On How To Drink More Water
2013 Summer/Fall Wish List
My Current Everyday Makeup Tutorial
Friends
Love'em, Hate'em
Jin
Bucket List
before the end
. Put a lock on Seoul’s Namsan Tower's fence
.
Visit the beach; any beach (063011)
. Party hard
.
Starbucks date (072310)
. Learn to drive
.
Star gaze (062812)
.
Road trip (Summer`09)
.
Be loved
. Visit South Korea
.
Wedding; anyone's wedding (10.13.13)
.
Be happy
.
Bake cupcakes from scratch (04.06.10)
.
Ride a motorcycle (08.21.14)
. Get my first tattoo
.
Kiss in the rain
.
Pull an all nighter
.
Belly button piercing (02.19.14)
. Disney world/land
. Anime North
.
Cosplay Rin
. Cosplay X-23
.
Princess Cafe date (12.10.12)
.
VVIP album(02.20.11)
. Visit Hong Kong again
. Graduate university
. Paris
to be continued...
