NotW: Leopard Spots

Base color: Butter London Diamond Geezer

Gold spots: Sephora by O.P.I. Rumba Romance

Black: Wet 'n Wild Black

My first time doing the cheetah/leopard spot design and I really like it!! But my black polish started getting all dried and goopy halfway through, so I had to throw it out before I could draw spots onto my right hand's nails. :( Will buy a replacement today~

I think my ring finger looks the best. I just can't stop staring at my nails today... Whoever came up with this design should get a gold star. Or win the Internet. Or whatever. \o/

Rinoa Heartilly Makeup [Michelle Phan, I challenge you!]

Do I look like her, even a little bit? Haha~

Gah, holding my bangs up because they're getting too long!

Admittedly, I do watch Michelle Phan's videos and actually do learn some useful tips and tricks from her. However, I cannot say I am a fan of her "cosplay" makeup tutorials/videos. Especially her Hatsune Miku video...dear god that was a lower lash disaster.

So, I have decided to challenge her most recent FFVIII Rinoa makeup look with my own! I tried to follow Rinoa's official artwork and CG from creativeuncut.com as closely as possible. Perhaps that is something Michelle did not do? My biggest tip, and what I live by, for cosplay is to always, always do cosplay makeup while looking at a reference of the character!!

Unlike Michelle, I do not have a Rinoa cosplay I can just pull out of my closet, so I had to make do pretending my hair could somewhat look like Rinoa's... The second picture is the closest I could get it. |D

Closeup of the eye makeup. :]

Oh dear, I have not been taking care of my eyebrows as I should..

And finally, the makeup that I used!

Hey....it's the Dolly Wink eyeliner I got from Shari! ;)

Urban Decay Vegan palette Half-baked, Smog

Maybelline Fit Me! powder foundation in shade 325

Loreal Hip in Shady

bareMinerals eyebrow powder in medium brown

Sephora eyeshadow in aspen summit N°23

Smashbox highlight/cheek color in Golden Blossom

Wet 'n Wild H2O Proof pencil liner in black

NYX pencil liner in black

Dolly Wink liquid liner

Eye Charm double eyelid tape

Makoto-ltd brand eyelash glue

awesomely cheap eBay fake lashes

How successful do you think I was? Do you guys want a step-by-step tutorial? Leave me a comment! ♥

Nails of the Week: S-s-s-starry Eyed!

Sorry for the cell phone picture; I have to run to advisement soon! So, super quick post before I leave. I'll fill in more details after I get home tonight. Lame title too, I know.

Very simple nails this time. I just really wanted to use the stars!

Nails of the Week: Underwater Mermaid

Base color: Sephora by O.P.I. Mermaid to Order (2 coats)

On ring finger: Sephora by O.P.I. Flurry Up Top Coat (1 coat)

On pointer finger: Rhinestone from XXI's Love & Beauty set :]

I almost forgot (how could I?!) that the reason I bought Mermaid to Order and the Flurry Up top coat together was to use them together!! I loooove how the Flurry Up top coat looks over Mermaid to Order, as if they were made for each other. ♥ ♥ I love how sparkly my nails are for the week, and I just hope my rhinestones don't fall off! I know I'm not the most gentle with my nails. Titled as "underwater mermaid" because the colors and sparkles truly remind me of sparkling, bubbling, and clean sea water, with sparkles reflecting off of the scales of tropical fish...or mermaid fins! Love love love.

How is everyone doing? I've been getting into gyaru, or gal style so much recently. I've been posting some of my makeup looks on my Tumblr. Just click on my "pictures" link in the side to see them, haha. I have to warn you though, my latest picture is not very....feminine or graceful or poise or WHATEVER at all. I feel bad for neglecting this blog... Will definitely post more in the near future, as I have a giant backlog of hauls!!! Yay!

Long time no see. Hey look, Dolly Wink.

I am returning from a 6-month hiatus to say one thing: I literally just got a Dolly Wink liquid eyeliner from exchanging goods with Shari and I'm in love. I'll do a proper review for it later but for now... ohmygod ♥ THIS APPLICATOR TIP!!

Dr. Jart Silver Label BB Cream

I decided to do a review of the Dr. Jart Silver Label BB Cream I have for my friend instead of just describing to her in short what I thought about the BB cream. This way I can share with everyone too. :)

Details:

- SPF 35 / PA ++

- Whitening (will eventually whiten your skin if you wear it daily/often enough)

The tube is a pretty good size. It's 50 ml, but you only need just a pea-sized amount or less each time for good coverage, so it seems like it will last for a long time.

There is no overwhelming smell. The smell is very light, and very bearable. It is unnoticeable unless you really are looking for the smell of the BB cream from the tube or on your hands when applying. In my opinion, the smell is even lighter than most skincare products! It's nice.

The coverage is very good. I only spread a light layer of the BB cream over my face and it already gave me the results I wanted. If I wanted a complete full coverage, I could have used more BB cream, but it would also likely take longer to oxidize. (I learned the hard way that BB creams need time to oxidize. If you don't give the BB cream some time to oxidize, it will not match your skin tone at all and will be usually too light for your skin!) With this coverage, the BB cream still doesn't really cover up my dark panda eye circles, but that's okay... I have really dark eye circles from lack of sleep, haha. The BB cream did, however, cover up almost everything else.

Before and after applying the Dr. Jart BB cream. Before is on the left, with all my noticeable blemishes and red spots circled. That was taken immediately after washing my face with cleanser and applying a moisturizer with SPF. After is on the right, where almost everything is covered up, yay! You can even see that my beauty marks or whatever are also slightly faded thanks to the BB cream.

Just a pic to show just how nice and even the BB cream made my skin! I don't even mind showing the full size pic because everything is so well covered. :) I even look healthier in this pic, haha!

Overall - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ - Easy to dispense from the tube, no scent, good coverage, feels light, doesn't take long or need tools to apply (I just used my fingers), not oily, only complaint is that it takes 1-2 times to get used to how much product to dispense and learn how long it takes for the BB cream to oxidize properly -> wasted product!

I will definitely be using this BB cream more as well in the future!

Thanks for reading! ♥

Day 11-16

As promised, a picture of the truffles I made for Valentine's day. :) My first time making these... I really want to find a better recipe next time! The one in the back is coated with chocolate shell and then drizzled with melted butterscotch ♥

Day 11. I was sad because I was so tired! So much work lately...

I skipped pictures for day 12-13 because I pretty much wore the same thing: long sleeve shirt + high school gym shorts. Lazy weekend coding marathon outfit, haha.

Day 14. Tried a little harder todayy.

Day 15. Yay boots! I almost forgot about these...

Day 16. Really, really, didn't feel like dressing up because I'm feeling super sick, but I had to look presentable for my first day at work..

Nice outerwear + flats save me every time!

Happy Valentine's Day ♥ NoTW

Did two manicures for Valentine's Day because my friend was kind enough to let me do her nails as well ♥

On my nails:

Base - Sephora by O.P.I. Dear Diary

Tips - E.L.F. white

Hearts - Butter London Knees Up

Rhinestones - Love & Beauty (Forever 21)

On my friend's nails:

Base - Sephora by O.P.I. Handpicked for Me

Flowers - Butter London Knees Up/Sally Hansen Diamond Strength #22 Sheer Bliss

Hearts - E.L.F. white

I finally got the chance to use the rhinestones from XXI Love & Beauty! They're cute. The heart got all messed up though...

Somehow, I did a better job on the heart on my right hand. Go figure, right-handed person does better with left, haha.

My friend's nails!!!! She said she might have an interview near future so I tried to keep it simple.

I actually really like the thumb nails~ I'll be doing dots more often!

I also made a bunch (read: 34) chocolate truffles for Valentine's Day in honor of my beloved~ I'll be posting pictures of those next time. :) They are currently still hardening/being stored in the fridge.

O.P.I. Holiday 2010 Mini Collection Set Swatches

I FINALLY got around to swatching all the colors from this set! It's really weird, I initially liked all the colors, and it is a great variety, but all the colors took time to grow on me when I swatched them. Out of all of them, I think I like Teal We Meet Again the best, but I like it best with some sort of topcoat! $OPI Flurry Up or Essie for Rock & Republic Clearly Matte are WONDERFUL over Teal We Meet again.

Onto swatches!

Dear Diary

Still Shopping!

Looks Like Rain Dear

Sample Sale

This color was so hard to capture on camera I had to include 3 pictures.. It came out very orange in most pictures. :\

Teal We Meet Again

Just a Little Dangerous

Maybe I will do a proper review later. Please click on the images for a larger size!

Orgasmmm!

Day 10. Glasses today...

NARS ORGASM POLISH ARRIVED TODAYY and of course I had to try it on/swatch immediately. I fangasm'd. Little did I know, it's sooo difficult to photograph! But, looooooove! 2 coats with $OPI Strengthener as a base. Maybe I would have better luck with 3 coats? I can't imagine using that much nail polish all the time though, haha. I only recently started using 2 rather than just 1! My apologies for the small preview :( Please click on the image for a better view!

Color - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ - Not as pink/peachy as I had expected from looking at online swatches, but still SO GORGEOUS.

Formula - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ - Thin enough to apply easily and quickly, but not too quick-drying. It's been over an hour and I still feel like I could possibly create dents if I'm not careful.

Smoothness - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ - Veryyy smooth.

Price - ♥ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ -Ugh. I paid $13 for a nail polish...I paid $13 for a nail polish.........

Overall - ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ - Love this polish, love this color. Just look at the gorgeous gold specks down there!!! Would totally be 5 hearts if it weren't for the price.

Mmmm gold specks~~~

Fly Like A G6, Bitch

This mashup rocks my world. I am in LOVE with Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, and this mashup is just amazing. I had to share. :)

Day 9. Button down, denim skirt, kneesocks, and mary janes. I want me a photog. :B Or a tripod.

Like the mashup? :) Comment and/or share the wealth!

More Nail Polish and a Matte Finisher

Day 8. Augh, terrible, lazy, cop-out outfit today... :( I'm dressed like for summer, and it's supposed to be winter!

2 more makeup orders came in today! 3 $OPI polishes (left to right): Club Queen Scene, Rumba Romance, and Handpicked for Me. The one on the left? Rock & Republic Matte Finisher from a HauteLook.com sale!!! So exciting!! It's so amazing. I instantly had to mattify the $OPI Teal We Meet Again I'm wearing.

NotW! Yeee.

Base color: Sephora by O.P.I. Teal We Meet Again (2 coats)

Top coat: Rock & Republic Essie Clearly Matte finisher (1 coat)

On ring finger: Sephora by O.P.I. Flurry Up Top Coat (1 coat)

Isn't it gorgeous??? It made me like Teal We Meet Again even more. I also added an "accent nail" by just using $OPI Flurry Up top coat and then the matte finisher again. I LOVE both top coats, haha! Worth all of my $$. I'm dying to try E.L.F.'s version of the matte finisher, but it's always out of stock. Has anyone tried E.L.F.'s matte finisher?

Just showing everything from my haul today. The 3 polishes, matte finisher, and the Valentine's Bare Escentuals free gift from Sephora! It came with a full-sized brush and what looks like a full-size of the blush/bronzer duo. Can't wait to try everything! I always love getting the Beauty Insider emails and their free codes. :) I'm slowly making my way to 500 points with the help of friends and group orders~

Day 7

Flew back to LA today~ My shirt was so long it made me look like I wasn't wearing pants...

Just one more week and I'll be done swatching my $OPI holiday set! I am so behind! I have 3 4 makeup orders coming in.... My first of the 3 4 came today: the 100-color E.L.F. palette! I nabbed this for $10 a little while ago but haven't been able to use it because a lot of the eyeshadow pans fell out/broke during shipping...so I emailed E.L.F. about it and they shipped a new palette to me! Wow! I'm surprised they didn't ask for the old one back. I will be testing this out later this week. Thanks to Vivi for showing me her palette during winter break! ♥

Me being a creeper behind my 2(!!) 100 eyeshadow palettes. You can kind of see the broken/loose pan at the top of the front palette. :( It's definitely still useable, just a couple pans loose and a couple colors broken.

My other two three orders are a Sephora order, including 3 new polishes and that Valentine's Bare Escentuals deluxe sample from Sephora, a Rock and Republic matte top coat from HauteLook.com, and a Nars Orgasm nail polish (how could I forget??).

Would anyone be interested in me doing a giveaway for the slightly-broken E.L.F. palette? I would of course include other brand-new, non-broken things too. :P

Day 6

Simple and lazy....

Went to my aunt's house today for a late Chinese New Year lunch. Didn't really feel like dressing up, so cloth pants, t-shirt, and jacket, yay!... So lazy! Lunch was yummy, and we had the usual Asian!fighting-for-the-bill. Except...this time, since we know the restaurant owner, we were fighting with her! Haha! Man she almost didn't let us pay! Craziness. Only in Asian families. Had my dad help play photog today to save the world from my terrible mirror-photo skills.

Thinking of starting a video review/YouTube channel.... Hm!

No Jeans February!

Hey everyone! My friend is doing No Jeans February and I thought it would be a good chance for me to join in and attempt to break away from my daily t-shirt+jeans routine! Also doing it for someone who doesn't like jeans... For you I boycott jeans for 1 month! ♥ :)

I totally wish I had the nifty slideshow thing that Tumblr has.. Or an LJ cut. (LOL too many blogging sites!) Alas, I will just post pics hereee. I started on the 1st so here's my backlog from then. Sorry I took all these by myself using a mirror! I wiiiish I had a photog to follow me around all day and take pics for me, hah.

Ahh, you all see my weirdo face for the first time...*hides*

Feb. 1st - cheating a bit using cloth pants..

Feb 2nd - Wearing my zipper leggings! I need more long shirts for this..

Feb 3rd - Finally trying more! Traveling outfit to fly home in. :)

Feb 4th - Super lazy outfit for doing homework at home...

Feb 5th - Fighting date outfit ;) Hehe, just wanted to wear my boots again!

Good luck to everyone else who is also doing this!

Oh, and today/yesterday....I spontaneously ordered a Nars Orgasm nail polish from eBay..... Random splurging, augh! I'm really excited to get it though! $12.99 with shipping instead of $17 from Sephora (pre-shipping, geez!). I need to not buy any more nail polish, my goodness. I have 3 hauls coming in this week........ Lots of posting to do!

Nails of the Week: Gold and Silver Flurry

Oh gosh, cheesy titles. I wanted to just say "gold and silver" but I thought....I'll probably use gold and silver together again later on, haha.

Base color: Sephora by O.P.I. Looks Like Rain Dear (2 coats)

Tips: Button London Diamond Geezer (2 coats)

Top coat: Sephora by O.P.I. Flurry Up Top Coat (1 coat)

The things I do instead of homework... For some reason though, this combination makes me like Looks Like Rain Dear a lot more than just by itself! Swatches of the holiday collection still coming up. I've been doing once a week because that's how long at least I have to have polish on and not feel bad about wasting. I would love to change my nail color everyday!...My nails and my wallet would hate me.

I love this top coat. It makes everything look so amazing.

November-December Hauls!

There are a LOT of hauls I didn't post yet, kind of because I wanted to swatch them all first...but I thought, ehh why not? Or else I'll probably never get around to it, haha.

Firstly, $58 of Sephora by O.P.I.! 'Cept I only paid $43 for it...yay Beauty Insider!

I got (left->right) Leaf Him at the Altar, Mermaid to Order, Flurry Up Topcoat, Strengthener, and the 2010 Holiday Mini Collection (consisting of Dear Diary, Still Shopping!, Looks Like Rain Dear, Sample Sale, Teal We Meet Again, and Just a Little Dangerous).

Working on swatching these still! My favorites are Mermaid to Order and Teal We Meet Again. :)

I went to the Stila Warehouse sale in LA also and got an eyeshadow in Jade and a Stila smudge pot in Pomegranate. The eyeshadow just came in the pan; the single case for it was bought from Sephora later on.

And my Sephora haul from that day! Kat Von D's Autograph liner in Call Girl and the Stila single refillable eyeshadow pan compact.

Finallyyy, my November Sephora haul!

Benefit's High Beam To Go, an YSL Radiant Touch that was accidentally mailed to me(?), Clinique Acne Solutions Clearing Concealer, Stila Make an Impression in Moscow Travel Palette, and some free samples (including a Bare Escentuals brush and mineral veil!).

Can't wait to try/review/swatch all of these~

There's actually a little bit more too from drugstore and another Sephora haul, ehehe.