Awesome Giveaway

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you guys know about an awesome contest going on for an Ipad2!

Here's the link:

http://icoulduseadeal.com/2011/04/giveaway-royal-wedding-64-gb-ipad-2-with-wi-fi-3g-ends-430.html/comment-page-35#comment-79228

Anyways, apologies for not updating this blog in awhile, I'll try to get it going again over the summer =).

Urban Decay Show Pony Palette and GIANT OYSTER!!!

Hey blog, haven't seen you in awhile! ~(*o*)~

Anyways, I had a great dinner tonight at Nara, a japanese restaurant near Diamond Bar. Highly recommend the place =), their longostino sushi, yellowtail sashimi and GIANT RAW OYSTER is to die for.

Giant Oyster of lore:

The plate it's resting on is larger than my head. So take a gander at the size of this thing:

Anyways, the waitress said it was a Barrons Point oyster? Not sure, either way it was the crispest, sweetest, and definitely biggest oyster I've ever eaten. Dayum.

Alright, onto the mini-review:

A week or so ago I received the Urban Decay Show Pony Palette in the mail from Sephora. It had been on sale (I think it was around 10 dollars off) so was definitely worth the haul:

(Pic from Sephora.com)

Here's swatches:

As usual, Urban Decay's eyeshadows are creamy, incredibly pigmented, and amazing. Totally worth it. Pretty good coordination of colors here as well. Got the 3 neutrals in the 2 browns and 1 peachy-champagne color Snatch for a gorgeous daytime look, but also some fun bright colors for a party/nightlife look as well.

Only issues I had were with Flash, the purple color, which was surprisingly the least pigmented of them all and a bit less creamy than the rest (I had to swatch it multiple times to get it to show up on my arm).

Snatch was my favorite color, I know it's hard to get from the picture but it's a beautiful peachy pink with gold glitter that also look s a bit champagne at certain angles. Some people complained that Snatch had a lot of fallout due to its glitzy nature (a common complaint of most glittery Urban Decay shadows... especially those darned Stardusts or whatever) , but it was tolerable for me. Either way, you can always get some not-too-sticky tape to catch all the fallout under your eye after you're done.

Oh and PS. the mini sample of UDPP (Urban Decay eyeshadow Primer Potion) was lovely of course as well. Kept shadows vibrant and stationary throughout my day. That bottle design still sucks though, it's cute but hard to get the last bits of product out as usual -_-

Flowery Summer Nail Art

Hey all,

Summer is finally over for me =((((( school starts tomorrow.. I'm so sad! No more relaxed nights playing Guitar Hero/Rock Band for me =(((((. SO SAD.

Anyways, to cling to the last vestiges of summer, here's a pretty nail design I had a few weeks back:

I based it off a design I saw somewhere on Youtube =)

First I painted my nails with a sheer glittery color, then painted a diagonal black line across the nail. I filled in the bottom with black polish and then waited for it to dry. After a few moments, I laid down five dots of white on each fingger and used a toothpick to pull a line through each dot to form the petal shape. Then, add optional rhinestones and set with a top coat =).

Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstain

Ah, yet another reminder why unless absolutely necessary, to never EVER buy drugstore makeup >=(

A few weeks ago I was once again tempted by the drugstore sale fairy (damn her!) it was buy 2 for (insert slightly cheaper price here).

I did want a lip stain since I was tired of lipstick and lip gloss melting off my lips after a few hours or so, and I came across these Maybelline lip stains. Their description is "a sheer, water based lip stain." Which turned out to be a total lie. Heres me wearing the two colors I bought,

Wink of Pink:

Touch of Toffee:

As you can tell, the colors are completely, utterly off. They give me clown lips, especially the darker color. Also they leave my lips feeling strangely dessicated and covered in an unpleasant watery film. To top it off, it doesn't even stain at all. I wiped most of it off with a dry tissue after application -_-.

F- x infinity, Maybelline.

The Body Shop: Matte and Shimmer Cheek Colour

Hey guys!

Finally I'll be reviewing the blush I received from that 3 for 10 bucks Body Shop sale! =D yaaay

As you can see, it's pretty cute =) and has 4 different parts, 2 shimmer (top right corner) and two matte (bottom left). At first I was like, "Oh cool this is like getting 4 shades of blush in one!" but it's not really practical since this pan is actually quite small - a little under 1.5 by 1.5 inches. My full sized blush brush basically covers the entire pan so I always end up using all the colors swirled together.

Also the colors by themselves are very unpigmented ( I had to swatch many many times to get it to show up on picture haha):

The left four swatches are each individual color and the one on the far right is a swatch of all colors swirled together.

Anyways, the verdict on this: It's a very cute blush and for the price (what, 3.3333 dollars?) it's pretty nice. However, it's very low in pigmentation and the staying power is pretty sad. It comes off within an hour or two. Basically due to these limitations, how I use it is just as a shimmery overlay over another blush that has better staying power for whenever I want a multi-hued glow. Basically, treat this as a cheek highlighter more than a solid blush.

Hope this was helpful =). Btw, if anyone knows what kinds of makeup The Body Shop excels at, I'd like to know.. so far what I've used hasn't been too amazing!

More Nail Arts =)

Here's some nails I had awhile back:

It's pretty easy to do. I put down a layer of pearly silver, and then drew stripes with Nail Art polishes (they have thinner and more precise brushes). Then on top I put some small rhinestones and set it all with a top coat.

Hope you like it =D

Urban Decay Brow Box

Yay! Summer finals are over! WOOT =DDDDDDDDD YAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYYYY

ahem.

Anyways, today's review is on Urban Decay's lovely Brow Box, with everything in it you need to keep your brows lovely and in tip-top shape!

Of course, comes with a beayootiful UD design on its top =) :

Inside is great too! Two brow powders , a tiny brow brush and tweezers for those stray weeds, and a giant drawer full of brow wax (YAY).

OKAYS so I've been using this product for a few weeks now and it's really great (especially since I got it off eBay at half price!) for it's price. It really does have pretty much everything you need to fix up your brows in the morning.

The tiny tiny brush and tweezers will be useful for if I go traveling and don't want to bring full-sizes along, but usually they're a little too small to easily use. Still, they're pretty cute XD. The wax does it's job, and sets my brows so they don't wave in the wind like wild tentacles (...um cause yeah. brows do that).

Only real qualms I have is that the brow powder quality is not as good as I'd like... it tends to.. crumble a teensy bit in the pan? and is not as pigmented.. but since this whole shebang was less than half of what I paid for my HG (Holy Grail) Anastasia Brow Powder duo (which is like, half the size of this thing btw and comes with no wax or tools), I'd say this is a good investment =).

Anyways, how's everyone's summer? =)

Juicy Couture Lip Gloss in Layer Cake

Hey all, hope you're having a good weekend =) I hit Japantown yesterday and it was great fun! Anyways, today's review is on Juicy Couture's Lip Gloss that I got on sale from Sephora awhile ago.

It's a pretty tall tin, and so you get a hefty amount of product for your bucks, which isn't bad. It's more of a lip balm format and consistency than a lip gloss though, and as you can see it doesn't really have any color. It's a clear gloss with fine shimmer. Wear time isn't too great, but if you treat this as a lip balm you'll understand why. All in all, it's a pretty unremarkable product, but you do get what you pay for ( if you get it on sale... ). Here's the shot of me wearing it on bare lips:

Woot Sale at The Body Shop

Awhile ago there was a sale at The Body Shop. 3 for 10 bucks! Too bad that by the time I got there, most of the products had already been tested and ransacked through, but I did find 3 things that interested me =).

The products were a blush/highlighter quad, a mineral eyeshadow in a dark chrome-y gray with shimmer, and a cute eyeshadow duo in white and blue. Reviews coming up soon!

Urban Decay Stardust Samples

So recently I got a sample of Urban Decay's (relatively) new eyeshadows "Stardust" in the bottom two colors, Space Cowboy and Retrograde. (Also how do I turn off this underlining stuff?!).

Anyways, I had great hopes as I am a total UD junkie, but Stardust was some nasty stuff. The fallout was terrible.. like World War III had started up but instead of destruction and terror, someone had filled all the ICBMs of the world with glitter. Somehow, after I was done demurely patting Space Cowboy over my lid and Retrograde into my crease, I had glitter in places that I can't even write down for fear of your sanity. It got pretty much everywhere- in my hair (even as it was held back by a hairband), on my neck, on my entire face and onto my clothes).

The pigmentation was also terrible sh*tty and I had to put on layers and layers of the shadow to get any real solid color (resulting in more Edward-like fallout). I'm pretty sure I even inhaled some glitter and may presently sue UD for some glitter-caused respiratory disease, like eyeshadothelioma or something (damn that Stardusbesthos!).
And all this was on top of the holy UD Primer Potion too, so there really was no excuse when, a quarter through my day (eg 2 - 3 hours) I realized that most of the shadow had faded off and was barely there and I had to reapply something like 2 in the afternoon...and then proceed to sticky my face with some Scotch tape to get most of the glitter (don't even TRY to get all of it.. the world will end before you could possibly accomplish such a task).

So yeah. UD Stardust eyeshadow sucks. Don't waste yer moolah!

I'M BAAACK =DDDD

HEY ALL!

Finally got a day of relaxation from summer school haha... my schedule runs from 10am to 9pm! Anyways, I have a LOT of catching up to do! Hope you've all been well, and that your summer is full of kickass-ery.

Oh yeah, and it was very recently my roommate Nat's 21st birthday! Her parents got all of us chocolate mousse for the occasion and I just dug into mine now... it's SOO GOOD.

Not sure where they got it but I NEED to know.. it is super delish. And it looks like a bunny!

Anyways, now that summer is upon us, I am feeling paler than ever. What bothers me the most is that for the longest time, my face and my neck haven't matched colors in forever! After countless foundations and bb creams, I've given up looking for my HG color match since I don't think any makeup line runs "sheet white" or "cottage cheese" as one of their color choices... So the only solution to my dilemma? TAN MY NECK.

Just got this thing today from Walgreens.. it was 10 bucks but it's a quite generously sized tube so I don't mind.. all THAT much. I'll let you all know how it turns out.. and if I turn orange, please don't laugh.

Avon Blush Giveaway Winner!

Hey all!

Sorry for not posting in superlong, summer school's started and it's a lot more hardcore than I'd thought it would be. I guess it's time to man up though, eh?

Anyways, without further ado, it's time to conclude the Avon Smooth Minerals Blush Giveaway!

I used Classtool's random name picker annnndddddd

*drumroll*

THE WINNER IS AMBASSADOR!

Congrats Ambassador!!!!! Please e-mail me your full name and address so I can mail you your prize!

And for everyone else, no worries this won't be the last giveaway =).

=D

Eye makeup Night Look, Purple Smokey =)

Here's a look I did before I went out for a night of partying (where I subsequently broke my sandals, hugged random people, and had to run away from a rather persistent boy with a monobrow).

ANYWAYS,

I took some pretty silly myspace-camwhore-ish pics of myself on the webcam before I went, so please ignore that because I wanted to share the eyemakeup look I did for this blog haha.

It's basically a smoky purple look with extremely heavy eyeliner and a large wing. I also lined my bottom waterline with white to try to make my beady eyes larger... did it work?

Here's a slightly creepy closeup of me trying to glare at my laptop over my lower lids... I tried to go for a gradation from dark to light from the outside of my eye in.

Anyways, that's pretty much it =). Oh and please forgive the graininess of the photos, my webcam isn't really up to par anymore.

LEMMING FOR UD'S LOVECHILD

LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING LEMMING.

*foams*

*chews rug*

...

=( Have you ever wanted something soo much that the fact that it existed and was not yours was like a poisonous, bony claw wrapped around your bleeding heart?

No?

Well, me neither, but this comes pretty damn close.

I was walking around Macy's or Nordstrom's or something when I saw the Urban Decay counter... tried on 50 shades of lipstick and found this gem

LOOOOVECHILLLLDDDDD!!!! (I screamed that in textual ecstasy)

Still, even though they were having a promotion for Memorial Day weekend (buy 2 UD products and get a free giant XL sized UD Primer Potion!), I couldn't justify spending 22 dollars on a lipstick.

Even though it was perfect, and creamy, and slid on like a dream, and was hydrating and soft and light on my lips, and even the gay makeup counter guy was like OMG! that is totes your color, girl!

Oh, the emo sadness. Maybe I'll be able to justify it if I get a job. Or win the lottery. Or rob a bank. Or kill Bill Gates.

Um.

Charlotte Russe Nail Polish Fun =)

So a few weeks ago I was in Charlotte Russe skimming their sales racks. You know when you're waiting in line there are loads of small things put there to bait you into buying 'just one more thing' before you go?

Well they got me good. I fell prey to two pretty looking CR brand polishes (they were 2 for 3 bucks!).

They don't really have names so I'll be prosaic here and call them pink and brown:

Anyways, for no particular reason I decided to paint both of them on, a layer of the brown first and then a layer of the pink on top. It actually turned out quite nice!

In different light, the polish changes from dusty pink-rose to a more beige-brown color.

It was all great until I removed the polish and discovered that it had stained my nails orange. Not even yellow, but orange.

I could try to be fancy and say that the lesson was that cheap things are cheap for a reason, but how about for now let's just not buy any more polish from Charlotte Russe?

Giveaway: Avon Smooth Minerals Blush!

Hi all!

Sorry for not posting in a few days =) I get lazy. Anyways, to make it up to all (2)of you who read my blog, I'm gonna be doing my first giveaway!

The prize is:

Avon's Smooth Minerals Blush in Blushing Mauve!



This blush is super finely milled, 100 percent natural, and great for sensitive and normal skin. I see that this item has actually been discontinued on the Avon site so I guess it's a rare item =P. The quality of the Smooth Minerals line from Avon is much better than their usual fare, and this blush is no exception. The greatest part is that for those who are newbies to makeup application or are just normally heavy handed, this blush goes on very naturally and light, but can be layered for more pigmentation. I actually use this blush in another color, Radiance (review upcoming!). Anyways, it's a great higher end product from Avon and I recommend it for those new to mineral makeup.


The Contest:

It's pretty easy to enter.

Just post a comment below stating your favorite makeup or beauty trick, and your name and a legit email address for me to contact you by.

After about a week, I'll be using a random generator machine to pick one of you to win!

GOOD LUCK =)

Tokidoki Kabuki Brush

Let me introduce... the Tokidoki Kabuki Brush =)!

I've been using this brush everyday to put on powder, and I love it! It's super soft, has never shed a single hair, is big enough to efficiently cover the whole face in seconds, it's PURPLE, and it's SUPER cute.

It even matches my Tokidoki crossbody bag =D.

There's really nothing to not like about it! I really recommend it.

<3

Fimo Fruits Nail Design =)

Hey all!

Here's a nail design I did on myself awhile back, although I wish I still had it now cause it's perfect for summer =).

I used Fimo canes and some nail art pearls for this (all available on Ebay!).

Hope you like it. I know I did, too bad I had even more fun picking the fruits off and making a mess of things just a few days after I'd painted this on =P.

Oh and here's what I did:

1. Base Coat (Sally Hansen Nail Hardener)

2. Painted a solid stripe of green polish on the tips of my fingers...you can be messy on this part cause you'll cover it up.

4. Went over whole fingernail with semi-transparent gold polish with glitter a few times so it looks like a gradient.

5. Before that layer dries, apply the (already cut) Fimo decorations and pearls and whatever else you'd like.

6. Go over with a topcoat.

Done =)

Laura Geller Tinted Moisturizer, Line n Define and Cream Eyeshadow

It's Tuesday, and I've got my mom's heated shiatsu massager pressed against my belly.

I'm glad I'm a girl because it's socially acceptable for me to feed my makeup addiction but sometimes .....

Anyways, today I'm gonna finish up the reviews for the Laura Geller items I received in a Sephora clearance sale awhile back.

First on my list is Laura Geller's Barely There Tinted Moisturizer with SPF 20 in Fair

Here's a swatch:

You can see here in this pic that although Fair is the lightest color available for this product, it's still a tad too dark for me (then again I really haven't been able to find any products pale enough for my pasty skin so it's not surprising).

However, since tinted moisturizers tend to have very low coverage and this one is pretty translucent, it blends pretty well.

(pic of the swatch above blended in)

I haven't got many bad things to say about this tinted moisturizer. It goes on very sheer but you can layer for more coverage, and with just one layer I get a nice dewy complexion. It's perfect for summertime because it's incredibly light on your skin and won't melt off like heavy powder or liquid foundations AND it has SPF!! I've been using this on an everyday basis, although it doesn't cover the blemishes on my cheeks and the bridge of my nose, I usually cover those by wearing my black-framed glasses =P.

You probably wouldn't want to use this product by itself if you want it to cover up major blemishes and etc, since, even for a tinted moisturizer, it's on the sheer/lower coverage side. However, I can definitely say that wearing a layer of this over your usual foundation will give you the much-needed SPF for summer time and also a nice dewy glow.

Other specs: It blends well and easily, is also a light summertime moisturizer for the face, and for the clearance price of what I think was around 5-10 bucks, is really worth the money.

Laura Geller Line n Define in Ipanema Brown and Plum Wine.

Line n Define is a pretty cool product from Laura Geller. It's a double-ended pencil-shaped product with a colored mascara on one side and a liquid liner of the same shade on the other. The colored mascara is supposed to bring out the shade of the liquid liner even more and make your eyes pop.

Sadly, as is the case with many discontinued/clearance Sephora products, these were a little past the expiry date (yes makeup DOES expire). As you can see in the photo, the mascara side of both Line n Defines was pretty much dried up and grody =(. I returned these to Sephora awhile ago because of that, but I almost didn't because the liner side of the products worked fine and were quite nice.

Here's swatches of the liner side of these products on the right (the left is swatches of the cream shadow that I'll review right after this).

Laura Geller Eye Stay Cream Shadow swatch in Pink and Aubergine on the left

Laura Geller Line n Define in Ipanema Brown and Plum Wine on the right

It sucked that the mascara side of the product was pretty much useless but the liquid liner in both plum and brown was very nice. I especially loved the dark bronze-y color of Ipanema Brown. The colors were very pigmented and didn't crease, although the consistency was a bit watery (perhaps because the product is expired?).

Here's a pic of me wearing both colors:

Anyways, a pretty great product if not for the dried-up mascara (although I'm not sure if it's worth the 20 bucks Laura has it up for at her site).

Finally, the last Geller product I have: Laura Geller Eye Stay Cream Shadow duo in Pink and Aubergine.

The color's a bit off in this photo, as the Aubergine color is definitely more dark purple than brown.

As you can see from the swatch above, this product is very creamy and extremely pigmented. It didn't fade or crease when I wore it (although it's hard for me to get creasing since I have a mono-lid =9), even without eye primer. The pink is a bit more metallic than I expected, but is still very beautiful and more pigmented that most lighter color eye shadows.

All in all, this product was definitely worth the buy.

Laura Geller Wonder Wand

Well. This product is a face highlighter, for under the brows, under your lower lashline, in the inner corners of your eyes and etc. from Laura Geller. Now while I love her other products, ( like her tinted moisturizer and cream eye shadows (reviews coming soon!)), this one... well... just fell flat.

Lets put it this way:

There was a wand, and definitely wondering.. but only at what Laura was thinking when she made this product.

Photo with swatch:

First of all, the packaging. The outside is okay, nothing special. However, the inside design is SUPER weird. The first time I opened this product, I didn't realize that twisting would turn the foam applicator inside into a Twizzler strip. Now I have to be super careful when I open this product because I remember reading a review of a poor girl who ordered this product 3 times because everytime she tried to open it, the applicator would break.

So yes, major design flaw.

Onto the product....

Swatch:

It's basically a matte ivory shade with little to medium pigmentation. There's a tiny bit of shimmer but it's not really noticeable, and that pretty much is fails this product as a highlighter. All highlighters carry shimmer or some kind of light-attracting formula to, well, highlight. You get the point.

Also, staying power is very bleh on this. It's a super fine powder and I feel like I had to put a lot just to get it to work/show up but it comes off easily too so boo...

I think the only people who might like this are those who wear or need conservative/nude/workplace makeup... shimmer and glitter don't really fit for those. But the product still barely shows.. maybe it's my super pale skin.

Either way, I would say to stay clear of this product. It's pretty useless, and I'm returning it to Sephora tomorrow.

-Amy

PS. Right now I'm using Benefit's High Beam which is pretty nice, although not optimal in my opinion.. the consistency is strangely watery and it's a bit too metallic and looks kind of strange with softer looks/ nude makeup. I've been eyeing Nars Multiples in Luxor and Copacabana to take over as my primary highlighter... we'll see.