Archive for category: Beauty/Fashion

Boxing Day SHTUFF!

I haven’t been to a Boxing Day event for the last two years, but this year I decided to since I felt a need for new clothes. The last piece of clothing I bought was literally six months ago :S Besides, I got some Christmas money to spend! Oh, and my boyfriend got me a Sephora gift card for Christmas that I wanted to use, but unfortunately Sephora did not have a Boxing Day sale going on, so I’m saving the gift card for another day. (Well, I received an e-mail from Sephora that ‘selected items’ were 50% off, but when I went, it was like … three or four selected items. And nothing interesting).

I didn’t attend Boxing Day sales for the last couple of years because I feel that the sales that go on during Boxing Day aren’t big enough that I care to go. A lot of stores will have 50-70% off but then say it’s on SELECTED ITEMS and it turns out that there’s only like, a few things that qualify and they are usually stuff that they are trying to get rid of anyway. Or you go into a store that has a decent sale going on (30-40%?) but all they have are the L sizes and XXL’s and stuff. Again, stuff they are just trying to get rid of.

But this year, since I wanted new clothes, I decided to go. I went with my sister, we woke up at 7AM to be at the mall by 8AM. The mall usually opens at 11AM, but for Boxing Day they were opening early. When we got there, there was already a lot of people, and of course, by noontime, it was jam packed. We started getting super cranky actually, because we were tired and it was so crowded. When we left Mall 1, we got some McDonald’s from a drive-through, practically inhaled the food and headed to Mall 2, where we were back in high spirits after a bit of rest and food :D

I think for Boxing Day, I actually didn’t spend that much (not as much as I could have!) I spent just over a hundred dollars, somewhere around $110? Which isn’t that bad, I think. Everything I bought for myself was clothes, pictures below! Prices are approximations of what I remember, I can’t be bothered to remember if it was $X.99 or $X.79 or whatever, those darn cents! Hahaha.

I don’t normally buy T-shirts with text/graphics on them but I saw this and thought it was cute! From Mimi McQueen; original price $22. Sale: 50% off, paid $11.

December 26, 2010 0 comments

Hard Candy Mini-Haul

The other day when my sister and I went to Walmart to buy Taboo and some nail polish, I discovered this new make-up line added to their cosmetics section — Hard Candy. It sounded really familiar to me, I was sure I seen it somewhere before, and they had some cool stuff, so I went home and did some research (aka: watched a bunch of Youtube reviews on their products).

Anyway, I discovered that Hard Candy (a baby/sub brand of Urban Decay, which explains why they have a similar concept to their make-up) used to be sold at Sephora but a year or so ago, stopped. The brand has relaunched itself as an exclusive Walmart brand now, so that’s the only place you can buy Hard Candy stuff (besides their online website, I think).

Anyway, this one Youtube video I watched, the reviewer is a big Hard Candy fan from the days when they were sold at Sephora. According to her, the quality has not changed at all and she did comparisons of some of the old stuff that was sold at Sephora and the new stuff sold at Walmart. The only thing changed was the pricing of things. Now that they are sold at Walmart, they are much cheaper! A single eyeshadow that used to be sold at $14-16 is now sold at Walmart for $6.

I completed my last final exam of the semester today so I decided to reward myself with some Hard Candy stuff! :D (That, and I also received $50 from my grandma … and I had to go to the mall anyway to buy some Christmas presents). I ended up buying only a couple of things because holy cow, a lot of the stuff was sold out. The popular lipsticks and eyeshadows I saw in Youtube reviews were all out. I even asked a salesperson to check if they had more in a storage room somewhere and after watching the poor salesperson rip open giant cardboard boxes of Hard Candy stuff trying to find the things I want, it turns out they are truly sold out of some of the products. I don’t mean everything was sold out, but a lot of the standard make-up stuff (eyeshadow, lipsticks, etc) were. There was still tons of some of the weirder things I would never use like eyeshadow tattoos (uh …) and glitter eye gel and things like that. Those remained relatively untouched but everything else … GONE! So basically, some of the products that got really great reviews in Youtube videos I couldn’t buy :(

December 20, 2010 2 comments

Shopping!: Cataclysm. Kat Von D, Too Faced, Urban Decay …

I went shopping today! Mainly to pick up the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm (normal version; I thought about the collector’s edition, but decided it’s really not worth it …) but I also went to The Body Shop to buy some more Satsuma Body Butter (my favourite!) as I was running low on it, and an eye pencil sharpener there too, just ’cause it was cheap and I needed one, so I can stop stealing my sister’s. (Anyway, expect a later post about Cataclysm, hahaha).

And of course I got sucked into Sephora … a different Sephora this time. This one also did not have Urban Decay’s Naked Palette :( I’m sure it’s sold out everywhere in my area, that’s sad … I really want that palette too.

But I did pick up something else I was eyeing. Sort of. I really like the Kat Von D eyeshadow palettes … Problem is, the one I want (called Adora & Fury … or something like that) was sold out!! Ahh! Why does this keep happening to me?! There are 4 palettes, and they all have standard black and white/cream eyeshadows, but this is the ONLY palette with this beautiful glittery so-dark-blue-it’s-almost-black eyeshadow (the last palette in the picture; it’s darker than it actually is when you see it for real). I mean, I don’t only like that one colour, the whole palette is pretty gorgeous, but that is my favourite colour in my favourite palette, and I’m so upset it was sold out.

So I picked up my second favourite, the palette that is called True Love (please just visit the link to see the colours, my camera is so shitty it can’t capture the colours well). This one is mainly purples and bronzes/gold. I like this one a lot too, it’s my second favourite. I would have bought this one with Adora & Fury, but I guess I can’t do that :(

The last few items are an Urban Decay Primer Potion and a mini mascara by Too Faced. I normally don’t wear eye primer, but after watching a few YouTube videos, I’m convinced I need it now, haha! Plus, everyone seems to swear by Urban Decay’s eye primer in particular, so I just had to try it out. It was pricey though for a li’l thing …

And the mascara? It was really cheap for a Too Faced product, was part of the clearance/major sale section by the cashier. I only own one mascara: Sephora’s Lash Plumper (well, I own 2, but they’re the exact same thing, just one was a sample version so it’s smaller). I honestly do not know the difference between mascaras. They all seem to work exactly the same to me, I cannot tell the difference, seriously. I tried the Too Faced one when I got home, and it works pretty much exactly the same as Sephora’s Lash Plumper … though I admit, Sephora’s Lash Plumper seems to make my eyelashes a bit thicker. A bit. Point is, I can’t tell any difference between mascaras so I bought the Two Faced one to see if there IS any difference … and I don’t think there is … so I think these two will be the only mascaras I’ll ever own :O Well, until I run out. You get the point.

December 7, 2010 4 comments

Too Faced: Naked Eye Palette

So some of you might know that I received a $15 coupon from Sephora, for Christmas, for being a Beauty Insider member. There was a minimum purchase of $40 required to use the coupon, but considering that’s the average cost of most average-sized eyeshadow palettes at Sephora, being able to buy one for $25 is a sweet deal. Plus, who knows when I’ll get another offer like this again!

So I bought this “Naked Eye” palette by Too Faced (retail price: $44 CAD. With the coupon, it came to $29 CAD + tax (British Columbia has HST) = $35ish CAD. So in total, almost $10 CAD lower than retail). The only other Too Faced product I own is a lip gloss which I really love (it is SO glossy and stays on all day, even after I eat food). I had a good experience with the one product I’ve encountered of this brand so I was very willing to buy some more from Too Faced :D (Even though they’re all so expensive … heh).

Too Faced had three different palettes of this kind. The one I chose was “Naked Eye”, which sounds an awful lot like their other palette “Natural Eye”. Isn’t ‘naked’ and ‘natural’ kind of the same thing? Well, the visible difference is that this one that I chose has more matte eyeshadow colours, while the “Natural Eye” palette had more shimmery eyeshadows. The actual colours are slightly different but along the same spectrum of peaches, browns and pinks. I think the “Natural Eye” creates looks that try to pretend you’re not actually wearing any make-up while this one I chose let you “roll out of bed flawless and fabulous … look like you were ‘born perfect’” (says the box). That’s just my guess. (The third palette available in the store was “Smokey Eye” which is pretty obvious. Lots of dark, seductive colours for that smokey eye look)!

I haven’t used it yet, but I’m excited to try it. I like the box (unlike the Urban Decay palette I bought a while back which had this awful swivel lid that I hated), and it even has a little ‘drawer’ for its brush (though I’ll probably end up using my own brushes). Eyeshadows that they recommend using as bases are bigger (see the three shadows on the left) while the other six shadows are smaller as you will, in theory, use less for say, the crease or outer corner and such.

Another cool thing about this palette is that it also comes with three cards which are stored in the lid. (See the lid with the giant picture of the eye, on the right you can see where you can pull the cards out). The cards basically show you various combinations of the eyeshadows you can see to create certain looks. There are three combos they offer you (the other side is just French translation), though of course, you don’t have to follow any of them, haha, there are enough colours for a variety of looks if you are creative enough! The looks they offer are called ‘Fashion’ (which is more dramatic), ‘Classic’ (the lighest look) and ‘Day’ (which I am guessing, is an everyday look).

Anyway, that’s it! I just think of this as my reward for finishing term one yesterday, hahaha. Of course there are still final exams … but now I can write my exams looking FABULOUS! Hahaha … !!!!

December 4, 2010 6 comments

4 Revlon Lipsticks

You’ll have to excuse the extremely bad lighting. I still can’t find that damn cord that connects the camera to the computer, so I’m still using my cellphone camera.

(Everything in this picture looks much darker than they actually are).

Two posts ago, I wrote about the Revlon/Almay warehouse sale happening in the UBC student union building, and how I fell in love with the lipgloss I bought there. Well, I went back today to see if there are any more lipglosses I might like. I realized the one I bought (“Honey” not “Honey Peach” like I originally thought; I don’t know where I got the peach from) was sold out! I looked at the other lipglosses available. There was one called “Ice” or something that kind of interested me but it looked like it’d either turn your lips very pale, or come off clear. The rest were too pink for my liking.

That’s when I noticed the small lipstick display that I didn’t see before. They have tons of lipglosses available, but only a small selection of lipsticks. They’re $3 each or 4 for $10, which I think is a great deal especially for Revlon lipsticks, so I bought four!

3 of the 4 lipsticks are “Revlon ColorStay” and the other one is just a regular one. They are all quite pigmented, which is awesome since the Wet n’ Wild lipsticks I bought weeks ago were quite sheer when applied. I like Tender Pink and Baby Peach (I know I wrote Baby Pink on the picture, whoops!) a lot. Baby Peach is quite orange-y while Tender Pink is like a classic pink colour. My favourite out of the ColorStay lipsticks is Sensuous Spice though. I don’t own any dark-ish colour lipsticks (until now … and I don’t mean dark like black or anything. Just darker than my lip colour; usually I buy colours lighter than my lip colour). Sensuous Spice is a bit of a brown colour mixed with some pink, if you can imagine that. I love this colour, it makes your lips look absolutely sexy.

As for Almost Nude (which is NOT the red-brown colour it appears in the picture; it actually does look nude in its container) — I love nude coloured, or pale coloured lipsticks (which is why I have been in love with my MAC Myth lipstick for the longest time). With that said, this Almost Nude lipstick isn’t really a nude lipstick to me. It is VERY close to my lip colour, rather than my skin colour. When I applied it, the colour looked almost a bit like a pale orange. I don’t know, that’s not really what I expect from a nude lipstick. Then again, it does say ‘almost’ nude, haha. I do like it though, if I don’t think of it as nude coloured and think of it as pale orange. It’s also a bit shiny :) Well, they’re all a bit shiny, but no shimmeries or glitteries here.

My point? I like these lipsticks! And the ColorStay lipsticks really do STAY.

November 25, 2010 0 comments

Revlon Sale @ UBC: Nailpolishes & Lipgloss!

So today at school, in the student union building, there is a booth (a very big booth!) selling Revlon products at clearance prices. Well, most of the stuff was at clearance prices, there was a few things that I felt were ‘regular price’, but they didn’t interest me, so whatever, haha. There is an area in the student union building where people can set up booths to sell things, and the normal ones are usually selling scarves, socks, jewelry and the like, but the Revlon booth, I believe, is a limited time booth so anyway … I decided to check things out … Can never resist a make up sale.

Anyway, I spent a grand total of $10 for the 3 nail polishes and lip gloss above, which I think is a pretty good deal. The lip gloss was priciest, $4.99, but the nail polishes were only $5 for three :) I really tried not to buy too much because, well, I’m not made of money even if the things are cheap. And I completely avoided the eyeshadow section because damn it, I have too many eyeshadow stuff already, I really should stop buying more! (Although I did take a peek, and it’s mainly stuff I already see in drugstores … so not really interested. When it comes to eyeshadow, I tend to go for non-drugstore brands). So I only looked at the boxes of nail polish and the lip stuff section.

The nail polishes were in large boxes, and unfortunately, there were no tester nail polishes or anything like that, so people were just opening them all and trying them and … well, it was kind of hard to find a bottle of nailpolish that didn’t end up having a smear of polish on it because people just threw them back in the box when they were done, not always making sure the lid is tight. Anyway, I chose those three colours above. I am excited to apply the bright colour onto my nails today :D It is as shiny as it seems in the picture, with a pearly element to it, I like!

The other two nail polishes don’t have quite the shine or pearly-ness that coral one has, they are more like “normal” nail polishes … and I chose darker colours just because I already have quite a few bright, light colours at home. I was curious as to how the silver one would look. It looks almost gray to me. I actually didn’t try it on my nails yet. I kind of have a feeling it won’t look as good as a solid colour on my nails, but maybe I can use it for when I want to do some easy nail art … I dunno … gray dots on a black background? Or something? The purple-ly red one I’m excited to use as well. I’m not a fan of traditional bright red, like old Hollywood glam red … but darker reds, I do like.

Then there was the lip gloss. I do not buy lip glosses that often just because they always show up on your lips different from the bottle, and differently from when you test it on your skin, like your hands or something (skin colour on hands usually not the same colour as your lips! Haha). And obviously I don’t want to be applying the tester one directly onto my lips because, well, you never know who last used it. So when I buy lip gloss, I am gambling that I will like the way the colour turns out on my lips. This one was called “honey peach” or something like that (I don’t know why, but the bottle doesn’t have the name of the colour, though it was labeled on the display stand). I put it on when I got home and I LOVE this colour on my lips. It is shiny like gloss, but it’s not clear; there is enough colour to turn your lips into a nice, pale pink colour, but sheer enough that it isn’t overwhelming … does that make any sense?? Hahaha. The colour it appears inside the bottle is accurate enough, maybe a shade or two lighter when applied on your lips. I love this colour, I think I found a new favourite lip gloss to wear! (And it smells kinda good too …)

November 23, 2010 0 comments