Friday, December 30, 2011

Happy Holidays! Looking forward to 2012!


(note: this is not an edible cake, it's a felt cake!)

Sorry folks I have been so busy lately with a current project (and it's been hellish for me, until the end of February I suppose).... sorry for being MIA...

I still have hauls here and there, and a lovely CP full of holiday presents from Elaine and her ring of beauty pal in Singapore, some hauls from HK, and also Vidi Vici!

I will try to sneak in some time to do a blog post for my recent hauls in the coming weeks. Stay tuned and don't give up on me yet!

And for now, happy new year to 2012 for the rest of the world counting down tonight!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Love Package + Mini Haul from Japan! (pic-heavy)

I have been hauling on and off since my last real haul post but I just didn't have time to blog about them due my hectic deadlines...

No.... this time is not from Momo-chan. She has been so busy with her kids that I haven't talked to her since I came back from Mexico....

This is from another friend of mine, Kazue-chan, who lives in Himeiji.

She sent out the parcel on 11/29 and with EMS, it arrived on 12/1. Super fast!!



Japanese is always so neat and tidy, and always have cute gift wrapping!



A full layout of items. Spotted the black and white box? Those are the 2 items I requested for a CP...



What are these black and white boxed items? The long anticipated SUQQU Christmas sets!



The black boxset is SUQQU's 2011 Christmas Makeup Kit B. Kit A didn't appeal to me that much with the pink shade (won't show up on my lids anyways) and the cool tone deep gray isn't too flattering on me. 



So I went with Kit B:



Description of contents: Blend Color Shadow in EX-06 Usuchaori, Eye cream R (4g), Eye makeup remover (50ml) and Original Pouch B (white), retails for 8,400 yen:



Full line up of the contents in Kit B:



Normally for a single eyeshadow, the retail price is 7,140yen, so for an additional 1,260 yen there is an added cosmetic pouch and 2 sample sizes of eye products.... it's a nice way for me to try out their skincare line as I would never image myself paying full price for their skincare line.... they are too expensive!

The casing for the eyeshadow is slightly different from their regular line. There are some shimmer bits embedded below the shiny lacquer.



Comparsion of the X'mas eyeshadow casing with regular eyeshadow casing (note the specks you see on the regular one is indeed dust! But the speckles you see on the X'mas one is real specks of glitter, not dust!)



EX-06 Usuchaori, it's too lovely to be swatched!




Comparision with between EX-06 Usuchaori (left) and the regular line 03 Matsukasa:



03 consists of 2 matte shades while EX-06 is more shimmery (perhaps it's from the X'mas coffret collection?

Part 2 of my haul is the SUQQU Special Kit A:



This kit contains the Musculate Massage & Mask Cream (48g), Repair Essence (15m), Moist Flow Lotion (30ml), Moisture Barrier Cream (7g), and my choice of one of the 4 kinds of SUQQU foundation (Frame Fix foundation in liquid/cream/2 kinds of lasting compact), retails at 12,600 yen:



Full line up of the kit:



Again, the casing of my Frame Fix Lasting Pact foundation compact is a fingerprint magnet!



The color shade I got is 003, which after days of research should be a match to me NC25-30 skintone.



And it took me a while to figure out which of the 4 kinds of foundation to get. I went with this Frame Fix Lasting pact foundation because 1. I have used a sample of it in #102, though the color is too light one me, I love the texture and it doesn't oil out on me, plus it lasts all day, and 2, it has the highest SPF of 30.

And yes, spending 10,500yen on a foundation seems expensive.... but the sample I am using lasted me for over 10 uses so a little goes a long way.... so, with an added 2,100 yen, I have the chance to try their skincare line, that's not bad!



Moving on to the rest of the items that Kazue has put together for me!

A cute Japanese print handkerchief, a towel pressed into a shape of an Azuki bean pastry dessert shaped in a fish, and a crane origami she made for me:



During her recent visit to Kyoto she picked up this purse for me. This fabric totally reminded me of the anime "Naruto"... and this pattern has the name of "karakusa moyou" (唐草模様) or "dorobou gara"(泥棒柄)":


Check out the store's website here.
This store specializes in handmade purses.... so this purse is surely one of its kind!



It even have its own charm/logo attached to this handmade purse! How cute is it!



And this is the pictures that Kazue sent me earlier when she visited the store:



A giant purse! How funny! And I just love the hand made quality..... there is nothing comparable here in the US...

Another gift from Kyoto, a Japanese green tea camellia lip cream. There is a brochure with the gift and I think this store sells mainly all natural products like camellia hair oil, wooden combs and such.... I would like to learn more about this store!



She also sent me 2 sheet masks... and one of them has a picture of a snail on it.... -__-"" Not too sure about this one.... will I feel slimy? But interestingly this range of Missha mask is not available here in the US's Missha site.... I wonder why? Slimy snails?



A Jill Stuart tote? Probably from a magazine's gift? She knows I like Jill Stuart...



Muji snacks! I have never try anything from their snack line, and I just tried the one on the left, which is a crack with apple jam from Aomori. Aomori is a region in Japan that is very famous for their apples. It's very delicious!!

And... I am back!

Sorry for being MIA for so long... I did have a blast in Mexico and I still remember how blue the water is over there.... 

I have been back for almost 3 weeks already but I have had new projects on hand so that makes blogging harder for me... but I will try to blog more, do not give up on me!

This blogpost is on the highlights of my trip....

And my journey started out like this when we landed in Cancun:



Depressing huh?

But the weather turned 180 the next day and remain nice and sunny for the remaining of our stay!

View of the resort pool:



See what I meant by the blues of the water? I never seen such kind of blue around here....



So I had some leisure time to do some drawing:



Finished product:



And some interesting encounters... a giant lizard! (about 2 feet long, almost stepped on it as we were taking pictures of coconut trees with awful lot of coconuts!)



The trip was definitely relaxing, a final touch of nice views on the plane... The island you see below is Cuba!



I am in love with the turquoise waters so much that I want to go back... not necessarily Mexico (well, some of you know why.... some unfortunate incidents happened during our stay), but definitely other parts of the Caribbean!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Hola! Mexico!!


This year for my birthday, my husband has prepared me for a 10-day get away in Cancun, Mexico!

It's probably a nice break for the wicked snow storm we had at the end of October here on the East Coast.

With that said, I will be disappearing from blogging for another 2 weeks or so, but don't give up on me, I will be back with more reviews!

Adios!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Estee Lauder Pure Color Illuminating Powder Gelee

The Muse has reviewed on this product sometime back in July here and it has really captured my attention because she said this powder gelee has self healing properties...

I just happen to be at Bloomingdale's to pick up my La Mer so I checked this out at the EL counter.

Display of the Fall collection:




The display has been tested out pretty heavily, and I don't think the self healing properties really apply after such heavy usage:



With just one swipe, with a whiter lighting, looking very shimmery and silvery:



With a yellower lighting, still very shimmery but showing more bronzy:



blended at the back of my hand with whiter lighting:



With a redder lighting:



Pigmentation on a tissue napkin:



I think to be a highlighter, it's way too shimmery for me, so the only use I can think of is being an eyeshadow... but this powder gelee is a tad too big to be an eyeshadow for me and it will take me 9 lives to finish it!

I have shimmery eyeshadows in my current collection and a pretty close dupe I have is by the name of B&C Laboratories Inc. Makemania-Sparkle Glitter (Brown, the left one):



So, without the interesting self healing properties, I am not too interested in getting it, what do you'll think?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

A little treat after my crazy deadline... Creme de La Mer!!

As my friends may know, sometimes when I am working on a deadline, I stay up till 4 or 5am in the morning, and after 3-4 hours of sleep, I start working again...


So that was my life 2 weeks ago for my deadline...


To reward my hard work, I placed an order for La Mer with Bergdorf Goodman a few weeks back here.


However, BG was so sneaky that they cancelled my deluxe GWP when they shipped my order. What's the point without the GWP?


So I refused the package when it arrived an went to Bloomingdales instead...


Voila!



Items purchased:
-The Luxury Essentials Set: 2oz Creme de La Mer, and the Eye Balm Instense 0.5oz, $350
-La Mer Lip Balm 0.32oz, $45

Offers:
-10% off
-$50 Bloomingdale's giftcard

GWP:
-2x The Eye Concentrate 0.1oz
-3x The Regenerating Serum 0.1oz
-2x Creme de La Mer 0.11oz
-1x The Moisturizing Lotion 0.1oz
-2x The Cleansing Gel 0.17oz

oh also, a rather not too flattering Bloomingdale's GWP travel bag which is bright teal colored....

Thank you to the BA that gave me loads of La Mer samples! And thanks to my lovely hubby with such great sweet talking skills!