Purple Nail Arts

Purple is my favorite color.  I have been playing with a few purple nail polishes lately.  I really love how the nail art turned out when light purple was the base.  So elegant and yet cute.  Here are some photos of the designs I have tried lately...

Starry night...

Achieved Using

Essie purple polish

Sally Hansen XtremeWear in black

Poshe top coat

Konad m3 + BM5 templates

Crisscross French Nail...

Achieved Using

Revlon gum drop

Red Earth polish in a dark shimmery purple

Poshe top coat

Konad m64 template 

Purple Garden?!

Achieved Using

Sally Hansen Hard as Nails in 

Sally Hansen XtremeWear in white

Sally Hansen top coat

BM20 template 

light purple rhinestones

Tutorial: Tokidoki Bag Organizer

Materials

1. fabric that can withstand heat from ironing (ex. cotton)
2. double sided interfacing (Flexi Form)
3. colored thread (similar color to the fabric)

4. needle
5. elastic strips (1 per pocket)
6. ruler
7. scissor
8. [optional] Dritz Liquid Stitch (see pic on the right)

Design for Tokidoki Stellina

• You can shorten the height of the organizer from 17cm slightly.  I found this dimension to be slightly tall.

Blue & White Strips

Lately I have been thinking of ways to use two of my newly acquired nail polishes. Last Sunday while going through my nail art image plates (from bundlemonster on Amazon), I found the perfect solution.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are 4 thousand words at once.

What I used:

Nicole by O.P.I. Party In the Penthouse + Gosh silver + Poshe fast drying top coat

First I started off with 2 layers of blue nail polishes.  Wait for it to dry a bit. Next, from the BM20 plate, I transferred these pretty silver strips on top of the blue nail polishes.

And here you have designs that remind me so much of Hershey's kisses. Yum~ 

Without flash....

I love how these image plates give you really professional looking manicure.  I would say even better than the ones I had from a beauty salon a week ago.  hmm...I still can't stop staring at my nails.  ^_^

Review: Avon Anew Clinical Eye Lift

I'm blessed with double eyelids but the depth of the cut was different on my two eyes.  As I get older, the droopiness seems to make this difference more obvious.  Hence, my search for a good eye cream began.

So far, the only eye cream I've used is the Olay Definity eye illuminator which only helps with discoloration.  After reading some reviews, I ordered this Avon Eye Lift gel/cream.

Lid off~ The container is pretty small and cute. 

There is a protective cover to prevent the gel and cream from leaking or mixing.

Top: upper eye gel, Bottom: under eye cream

Information on the packaging:

 Product information about the gel and the eye cream.

Ingredients

The first time i tried this, I thought I saw immediately result after sleeping with this serum on.  However, I'm not sure whether I was just seeing things.  I have been using this serum/cream for 4-5 months and I don't see too much difference anymore. 

What I found

• Nice texture: the lower cream is super moisturizing and very soft
• Upper gel glides on your lids nicely 
• Not sure about the lifting effect. 
• The duo-pocket packaging is not really practical.  Some mixing of the gel/cream near the lid occurs very easily. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5

Overall: I'm not sure what to think about this after so long.  I was using it continuously for a few months.  However, even after stopping for 2-3 weeks, I don't really notice much difference.  Maybe it wasn't that much effective on me to start with.

Having fun with nail art & rhinestones (LOTS!)

Recently, I became interested in nail arts. I found these packages of colorful rhinestones and beads from a local store and thought I just had to try these out.  Would you look at these gorgeous beads and rhinestones?  Seriously, click on it and look at the full size photo!  They are eye candies~

 If you see my previous gothic nails (3D nail deco with Konad), this would be my second attempt with these glue-on 3D nail decoration.  Without further ado, here are my nails...

I was going for an elegant style that mimics the feel of those Japanese/Korean acrylic nail arts, which couldn't (shouldn't?) be duplicated exactly by regular nail polish.  The decorating was fun but not so easy.  Mind you my 10 nails took a FEW hours to do with countless re-do's.

First attempt with Konad and nail decoration~

Work has kept me busy, which led to no posting for such a long time.  >_<  So here is a quick post about the nails I did today.  I have been dying to try the Konad nail art.  I was trying for a Gothic feel and here are the results.....

Pardon me for the cracked skin....I only remembered to moisturize them after I saw how badly dehydrated they were in the photos.

I'm still a novice in both Konad and 3D nail arts.  I realized half way through that the designs were a bit too different on each nails.  However at that point,  I just couldn't bare myself to redo everything again.  Any how, I'm quite satisfied for my first attempt!

Review: Clean & Clear finishes pore perfecting moisturizer

I can't resist showing you a lovely pic of my newly-acquired stuff animal. Ta da~  Squirt from Finding Nemo. Unfortunately he is not the main focus of this post. Look closer, closer, much closer! I actually want to talk about the moisturizer in its hands (or perhaps feet?).

So here it is...Clean & Clear finishes pore perfecting moisturizer

 

According to Clean & Clear, 

it softens the appearance of pores with light diffusing minerals to give you a beautiful, smooth finish. It’s lightweight, oil-free and won’t clog pores.

Active Ingredients: Avobenzone (3%), Octisalate (5%), Octocrylene (1.7%), Oxybenzone (3%)

What I like about it....

• SPF15
• oil free but fairly moisturizing
• no heavy or sticky feeling on the skin
• mattifies the skin
• very cheap 
• no sparkles (although it mentions about light diffusing minerals, not visible to my eyes at least)
• hygiene packaging: sleek squeezable tube

This moisturizer is fairly moisturizing even for the Canadian fall weather.  However, I did have to put on a bit more than during the summer time.  I am not so sure how it would perform during the upcoming winter time though.  I would say this is a cheap and effective moisturizer.  Don't expect anything fancy but it'll do the job.  I didn't experience any noticeable changes to my skin, which is not very sensitive to begin with.

Score: 4 out of 5

Overall: Great day moisturizer for the ones with skins that don't require special treatment.  I would recommend giving it a try.  I might repurchase it if I run out of my moisturizer stock.

Lastly, we have Squirt again...

Graduated and got my dream job!

Ever since I defended and officially stopped being a grad student earlier this June, I have been slowly job hunting and doing some more work for my professor.  Just as I was about to give up, I accidentally came across a job opening in the area similar to what I studied during undergrad.  I'm proud to announce that I have landed the job the beginning of September and have since started working at the company.  However, with my day day and night works (being one of the decoration personnel for my sister's wedding), I couldn't find any ME-time during the past month, let alone blogging.  Sorry for neglecting my blog. 

However, I have yet figured out a balance with my work and blogging.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting some odds and ends about makeup and skincare very soon!  ^________^

My First Trip to Disney World

The 2 weekends ago I went to Disney World in Orlando, FL with my sister and our 2 best friends.  I always thought that I should make a trip to Disney before I get too old and loose my interest in cute things.  Needless to say, I was really happy that we decided to go to Disney.

We ended up going to Epcot instead of Magic Kingdom.  It was fun but I wish there were more Disney related things.  My next travel wish list will definitely be Magic Kingdom or maybe Japan Disneyland.

Just thought I'll share some photos of the trip.  The weather in Florida is SOOOO humid and hot, much like how it was in Taiwan. 

On our first day...
we went to Daytona Beach, Universal Studio City Walk and Downtown Disney. It was raining for the whole weekend so our trip at the beach was very memorable (sarcastically speaking).  For some reason, we all left our swim suits at the hotel.  It started pouring heavily minutes after we got out of the car at Daytona beach, so our original idea to just walk into the water with our shorts was put to a halt.  Not only that, we managed to get our rental car stuck in the soft sand.  Since it took us an hour to get there, we felt so silly & shameful that we didn't actually swim in the water.  We managed to at least get our feet wet.  Other than that....well...the salad bar @ Ruby Tuesday in Daytona Beach was great! 

We spent the rest of the first day at Universal city walk and the night at Downtown Disney.

We were all super tired by the end of the day.  But I was really excited with my first encounter of Disney stuffs.  The Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney was in reality a Disney shopping mall masked successfully into a theme park like area for shopping and dining.  But I can't deny how excited I was when I stepped into those stores. 

We had a late night dinner after our visit to the Pleasure Island.  We were really hungry and finally settled with Pizzeria Uno nearby.  The food was so so and the wait at the table was quite long.  The decoration was close to 80s family restaurant style.

Crafty bridal shower idea

For my sister's bridal shower, the three bridesmaids decided to create uniforms for the four of us to wear.  So once the ideas were formed, the currently unemployed crafty person, which is me, was put to work under pressure.  We saw these super cute "Thing" shirts during the out-of-town bridal shower getaway trip at Orlando, FL.  Remember those creates called Thing One and Thing Two from Dr. Seuss' Cat in the Hat book?

What some creative dude at Universal Studio made these into four Thing shirts.

We thought it was the perfect shirts to have. So....I was put to work. I bought some normal tees from Michaels and used fabric paint to draw these adorable "thing" bubbles on each shirt.  They turned out to be pretty cool when you look at all 4 shirts today.  Noticed how the Bride-to-be has a little crown on her "thing 1" shirt? 
 
And we didn't just let the idea stopped here.  We decided to do a makeover for all four shirts.  Although the makeover was a lot harder than I imaged and I would say some shirts didn't turn out as I want, it was definitely fun. 

Of the four shirt, I like the makeover on the Thing One shirt the most.  It was more elegant and wearable than the other 3.  Consider I was given a short notice, I would say this is still a job well done.

Flexi Flats...Lifesaver for high heel lovers

Recently, I won a pair of Flexi Flats from the giveaway hosted by fellow makeup bloggers, Lisamarie and Christelle at Beauty Crazed.  I was super lucky to have won this.  Thank you Lisamarie and Christelle!  The shoes were mailed to me quickly from the company.

According to the company, 
FlexiFlats are emergency fold-up ballet flats designed to give your feet a well-deserved break from high-heels. These little saviours will give you a few extra hours on the dance floor or a more comfortable commute home.

Four sizes were available: 

• SMALL - USA 5/6 - EUR 36/37 - UK 3/4 - JAP 22/23
• MEDIUM USA 7/8 - EUR 38/40 - UK 5/6 - JAP 24/25
• LARGE - USA 9/10 - EUR 41/42 - UK 7/8 - JAP 26/27 
• XL USA 11/12 - EUR 43/44 - UK 9/10 - JAP 28/29

Don't you think it's such a GREAT idea?  I mean, how many of us have days when we left the house all proud and stylish in those NEW and AMAZING LOOKING heels, but towards the end of the day wishing that you can just take off those evil shoes and give your blistered feets some break?  Well....I am definitely one such gal.  To be honest, I can barely walk in heels and when I did, I can always predict what my day will end up like. 

Without further ado, I present....the FLEXI FLATS!   
Warning: image heavy!
You can also skip to the end to see the actual review.

Review: Oh so smooth, Pantene medium-thick shampoo & conditioner

We all have been using various different brands and types of shampoo & conditioners.  Yes, the one that's supposed to maintain your curls, keep your highlight or volumize your hair.  The list goes on.  But seriously, how many of them have actually done something amazing to our hair OR make you say, it WORKS?

I have been troubled by over-volumized hair forever.  Although my Asian hair is somewhat straight and thick, they are way too fuzzy and puffy.  Especially right after washing & blow drying them, my head becomes a fuzz-ball.  What's the use of having supposedly straight hair when you can't let them down and have them silky and smooth?

So if you have problems like mine, Pantene has found a solution for you.

The new Pantene collection offer customized hair care by hair types and the trouble you want to tackle.  There are 4 lines available: color hair, fine hair, medium-thick hair and lastly curly line. Once you have selected the particular line that suits you, you then choose from a list of possible issue that you want to fix.

Color hair:

• Color preserve shine
• Color preserve volume
• Color preserve smooth
• Expressions for blonde, bunette or highlighting

Fine hair: 

• Flat to Volume
• Dry to Moisturized
• Fragile to Strong

Medium-thick hair:

• Frizzy to Smooth
• Dry to Moisturized
• Breakage to Strength
• Flat to Volume

Curly hair: 

• Dry to Moisturized
• Curls to Straight

 So what did I pick?   Please meet my new love...

Medium-thick hair, frizzy to smooth shampoo & conditioner!  

I found that by using slightly more conditioner, it tames my hair better.  The bottom line is, use sufficient amount of conditioner suitable for your hair length and volume.

Pros

• keeps volume DOWN: no more puffy/exploded hairstyle after blow drying
• makes hair smooth and silky to touch
• keeps hair straight & fresh

Cons

• poor design of the caps, which can accumulate shampoo/conditioner.
• still have fuzzy flyaways 

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Overall: Definitely recommend trying this.  I used to think all (Drugstore) shampoos & conditioners are the same, apparently not with this new line of Pantene. I'm absolutely happy and excited that it tones down the volume of my hair!  I noticed the effect immediately after the first wash.

p.s. review products are purchased with my own money.

Review: Gatsby Oil Clear Sheet...Let's blot those oil away~

If you have oily or combination skin, you definitely want to look into blotting paper/sheets.  Of all the ones I've tried, I have to say Gatsby makes the BEST ones out there.  Their classic oil absorbing blotting sheets (official name: Oil Clear Sheet) are amazing, effective and heavy duty.  Yes you heard me.  Heavy duty!  

What Gatsby website says...

Unique film with advanced micro holes for powerful absorption of facial oil. Matte and cleans skin without stickiness Micro holes on surface of the film adsorbs sebum and user can actually feel the effect.  Soft touch, tear resistant and palm size (9cmx6cm) soft film. 70 sheets per pack. What I like about them... Soft to the touch do NOT break when using...you can TuG and PuLL on it.   Quickly absorbs oil like no other You can clearly see the oil which turns the film transparent Remove oil without drying your face Available in Asia or online.  Made in Japan.  Costs about Cdn $3 in Taiwan and on eBay.  North America stores (Pacific Mall) sell them for Cdn$6.  I usually use one in the afternoon.  My face feels clean and refresh after. Photo of a (kind of beat up) single pack Inside cover shows how you can easily remove a single blotting sheet with the adhesive tape.  I just finished the last sheet so the container is empty.  ^__^  Gatsby In Action... Here is a pretty gruesome photo showing how effective this blotting paper is. Warning: view at your own discretion.  It's kind of GROSS....ha

NOTD - Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Black Out

This week Rexall has Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear and Hard as Nail on sale for $1.99.  So I bought the black one from the Xtreme Wear collection.  It was thinner than the blue one that I have (used in the fimo art deco post) and went on a lot easily.  I love the thin consistency. Two coats were sufficient to cover the nail completely. 

The dark nail polish kind of made my fingers look even shorter than they already are...haha~

I'm planning to wear this nail polish when I want a punk or rock and roll feel.  ^___^  I always find those cute gothic fashion so adorable, however, still trying to acquire a full gothic outfit at the moment.

Polymer Clay Nail Arts

Lately, it seems like these clay nail art decoration has become more and more popular.  After my initial encounter where I decided to order some, I've started to notice fellow makeup lovers mentioning these on their blogs.  This weekend, I finally had some time and tools to play around with these yummy looking clay sticks.

I got 10 different designs of fruit slices.  They come in a 5cm stick so I had to slice these up thinly myself.  It took some practice and I did create some failures along the way.  However I totally enjoy the process and final look.

"Yeah~ we are the failures", says these half slices....

To add some spice, I psedo-randomly placed a few slices on some fingernails.  I think having the same design on every single nail will be slightly boring and not so pretty.  I have tried two methods to put these on.  1) place slices on top coat then seal again with another top coat layer.  2) Use nail glue and as an option, seal with top coat. 

Check out below for my yummy fruity nails. 

I still can't decide which method works best as I had fall out within a day or two.  These "incidents" occurred when I washed my hair, went to a Jack & Jill party, violently (haha) flipping through some stuffs in a drawer and mysteriously throughout the days.  I was really keen on maintaining these so I kept on applying new slices back.  For their short lifespan, they received lots of love and fulfilled their duties well.  

After more practice, I will do a more detailed post on these cute little nail deco.

Mini Haul at Zellers

I dropped by Zellers this afternoon and found a few goodies on sale.  A lot of houseware, clothing and hair styling products were on sale there.  Many clearance items are further reduced by 30-50% so the deals are awesome.

The Tide BraBaby, which is a little container for washing padded bra without deforming the bras.  You can also use it in the dryer directly to prevent other clothes from crushing it.  I actually purchased the exact same one a year or two ago and have been using it ever since.  This is a must for every woman.  It's marked down to Cdn $8 (from ~$12) but is further reduced to $4.8. 

Next, I got a really complicate looking Conair brush.  Look at the bristles.  Doesn't it look high tech?  It belongs to the Infiniti line with Tourmaline-ionic ceramic technology.  According to the package, it releases ions to reduce static electricity and leaves hair frizz-free, shiny and silky smooth.  Hmmm....we'll see about that.  It's marked down from $18.99 to $14.99 but when I scanned it, the price of $4.49 came to the screen!  There is the signal that says "bring me home". 

Review: Revlon Makeup Eraser pen

According to Revlon...
For touch ups on the go or during make-up application, our Make Up Eraser Pen quickly removes smudges, smears and mistakes without disturbing the rest of your make-up. Greaseless formula easily lifts away even long-wearing and waterproof make-up, without irritation.

Remove smudges and mistakes without disturbing the rest of your make-up. Easily lifts away even long-wearing and waterproof make-up.  

Showing the grey pen tip...

From my point of view...
I've used this eraser pen during makeup application to remove e/s mistakes and smudges from mascara.  It worked fabulously.  In the photos below, I've tested the pen on some eyeliners, mascara and eyeshadows.  I think only the Maybelline Studio gel liner is waterproof.  The pen had no trouble removing the makeup except the Covergirl LineExact liquid liner, which is surprising.  It took some good rubbing to get rid of a thin line.  However with proper usage, it can remove pretty everything and leaves you a clean canvas!

The pen tip is fairly hard and work by wetting the "problematic" area of your skin and lifting the makeup onto the pen as you glide over.  There is a limit to how much makeup you can transfer onto the tip.  It can end up pushing the excess makeup across your skin.  

Before 

After

Tips

• After erasing over the mistakes, pad the area dry with tissue or a cotton pad.  Then reapply makeup. 
• Cleans eraser tip by wiping with a cotton pad.  Stay away from tissue if you can, it leaves lints on the tip.
• For erasing bigger area of skin, clean eraser tip a few times in between.

Pros

• Easily wipe away mistakes.  No more Q-tips.  
• Precise. 
• Very travel friendly
• Cheap.  Avaialble in drugstores.  
• Good for smudge-proof eyeliners including UD 24/7 eyeliner and Maybelline studio gel liner.

Con

• May need a few strokes to remove makeup, which is perfectly fine in my opinion.

Score: 5 out of 5

Overall: Great product to precisely erase mistakes while you apply makeup OR to remove any possible smudges/creases afterwards.  Everyone should have this in their makeup bag.