Quick Swap Haul Post

Hey ladies!! It's been such a harsh week for me. I've been running around like crazy trying to get everything done at once. Also, makeup wise, it has been horrible because my skin has been flaking off with the dry weather!! However, it is gone and that will be discussed in another post (is that review post....??) So I just got out of a swap with a nice girly. 

Funny story of the day. In makeupalley, I get this email: I see that you are asian. I just got circle lenses if you are interested.

.... what? 

I'm so confused..... circle lenses?? Just because I'm asian, doesn't mean I like to look like an anime character. Just saying. 

I'm not going to lie. I'm not sure how to style these clothings. The red/black skirt is a little bit too "gothy" for me. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's not really my style. It's only because of the red color. I have to find a way to match with the vampy red but not look like I'm going to a KISS concert. The grey top is pretty but the arm holes are really large. Like you're supposed to layer something underneath that... interesting...

Ideas?

Yays for swapping!

I think that swapping is one of the 8th wonders of life.

No, not really. It really isn't.

Maybe to fellow beauty addicts it is. I like trading stuff that I'm never going to use for stuff that I kinda actually need you know? So I am always scouring MUA for new ways to get rid of stuff and for some new stuff to get. Yeah, I know that there are risks, thats why I don't go for used mascara, lipglosses, lippies are dipped in rubbing alcohol, etcetcetc. I'm actually planning on getting a spray bottle (like mini sized) from CVS to like fill with alcohol. Its to quickly sanitize whatever when I'm in college. Who says that colleges are clean?

Anyway, enough ranting. Here is my weekly swap haul.

L to R: L'Oreal HIP cream liner in Midnight Blue, MAC pigment sample in Golden Olive, Unnamed pigment sample (probably from Coastal Scents), E.L.F mineral lipsticks in Pouty Petal, Party Pink and Rosy Raisin.

I AM OBSESSED with E.L.F mineral lippies. They are only 3 dollars each and they wear well for the price. However, they do look horrid if your lips are even slightly dry. That's more motivation to always put on lip balm at night and exfoliate. I tried them on, but I'm quite dissapointed at thier sheerness. They don't cover my pigmented lips as well as Nicely Nude (E.L.F mineral lipstick) Perhaps it's time I find a realy thick, nude lip liner? Tips anyone?

Toodles

UD Strip EOTD!

Hey ladies! Today's EOTD features UD's Strip eyeshadow. It's a blue based silver. I got this in a haul with a CG shadow in Cafe Creme (sorry ladies, but I believe that it is discontinued). I have swatches below. The UD is really great, and it is comparable to the Physicians Formula Baked Smokes Trio (medium grey color). The difference is that the grey color is not as pigmented, more "matte" and more grey. If you mixed the lightest color and the medium color, you'd get something that resembled UD Strip. The Cafe Creme is like a grey taupe, not like Tapastry Taupe which is a brown taupe. If that even makes sense. Sorry if I'm rambling, here's the swatches/products/ EOTD

Left to Right: Cafe Creme, UD Strip, PF baked smokes

Products Used:

• UDPP
• PF Baked Smokes trio (lightest color) in the inner corner
• UD Strip in the inner 1/3
• Revlon Matte shadow in Venetian blue on the rest of the lid
• Annabelle shadow (matte dk blue) in the corner
• L'Oreal HIP cream liner in Black
• Almay Interplay mascara in Black Flash (2 coats, I think)
• Physician's Formula Healthy Wear Powder SPF 50 in Natural Beige
• Back 2 the earth shadow in Earth elemental (I think. I'm too lazy to check. I love how it matches my hair!) in eyebrows.

OMG today, I have to tell you, my right eyebrow was so kinky. Not even joking. You can't really tell on my camera, but when I woke up, instead of being straight, my brows were like... curly and gross. They were really uncooperative and that made me upset. Rant over, sorry that was weird especially since usually they are well behaved.. LOL look at me talking about them like they're animals! I know you do it too!

Toodles

Swap Haul and Quick fashion question for you fashionable ladies

Hey my fashionable ladies! How's everyone today? I meant to put this post up over the weekend, but it's been SO FREAKING HOT. UGH. And muggy. I mean, it went from 40 degrees to 80 in a period of literally 2 days. Also, it's been really really humid (haha like the eyeshadow) and my concealer/NYX jumbo pencils melted a bit. Ugh. Yeah, they're easier to work with, but it's gross...

I know that you ladies from the South are probably laughing now, but I THINK THAT 80 DEGREES IS QUITE WARM! I'm in the North, so... anything over 70 is horrid LOL.

Here's my swapsies with 2 ladies. I don't remember what I swapped unfortunately.... I got TKB trading in Manganese Violet, Electric Cosmetics' pink mineral eyeshadow, Chill Curve by Liz Clairborne, ELF mineral lipstick in Nicely Nude.

Some quick thoughts: I LOVE this new perfume, even though it is a EDT instead of EDP. It's alright. I've actually been planning for a long time to buy some beeswax, vitamin e oil and make some solid perfumes, but it's not like I have time now! Maybe when I get back from college over the winter break. I'll have a month of time then! LOL! It starts out as this light citrus/flowery smell then goes into a more warm and muskyness. I usually don't like warm smells, but this is aiight. I HATE AMBER. that's gross okay.

And how is that nicely Nude? It pulls a brighter pink on me, put it doesn't go too opaque, so it's not like Viva Gaga. Thankfully. I don't think this is nude at all.. but it's a cute pink.

Anyway, I'm calling all fashionistas! Even if you don't think that you are a fashionista, who cares! Go comment becuase I love all opinions. So, I've been working on this skirt, but I'm kinda stuck! It currently looks a bit BRIDAL, which no offense to people who like that, it's not my style. I'm not a real "bridal" kinda person. I like girly/vintage, but still with a bit of a kick. Ya know?

Tell me, what do I need to add? Don't worry about items. I've got fake flowers, faux pearls, fabrics in all colors etc. Well, here's the skirt in progress. Sorry about the crotch shot, but I needed to display the fabric on the outside of the skirt.

Quick Haulies~

Hey ladies! THis is just a quick post before I go off to fill out some scholarship forms. I'll be doing reviews at the end of this week! So, I did a swap and I swapped away a L'oreal sublime bronze + extras for a Revlon Lipstick in Natural Cashmere and a Maybelline Gel liner in Brown. I also got the little brush, which I love!

I LOVE the Natural Cashmere color. I expected it to be more brown, but it's like a coral color. Super great becuase I don't have anything like this! Also, the maybellline is quite small when compared to Smashbox and L'Oreal HIP. I didn't expect that, but I guess it's expected since it's at a low-ish price

Toodles

Swap Haul Fo'Sho and some pictures of NEWLY pressed pigments

So, I know that I'm not a gangSTAR, but you know. I try. So, the pigments that I pressed with my good friend Mika well... fell apart. They are like dead right now. They are kinda hard on the top part, but then like still soft underneath. I don't even know. I'm really lazy so I'm really NOT going to pull them apart to press them again because yeah. I'm lazy LOL. They're still usable.... kind of. Well, I'll press them later this week becuase I'm expecting some more pigments and those pan things to arrive. I'll be posting pics of those stuffles later this week as well as a HUGE eyeshadow overhaul. Meaning a reorganization for the win!

Just some tips for pressing pigments with Biosilk

Please do use Biosilk when pressing mineral makeup that does not have any natural binders in them. Sure, you can use Biosilk to press regular pigments, but do you know how expensive this stuff is? Its 35 dollars for like 12oz. Thats the size of a shampoo bottle. UGH. I will be posting a review next week on it when I use it in my hair kay loves?

1. Please wear disposable gloves. Like the ones that doctors have. You can get them at the drugstore. I mean ANYTHING. Plastic bags would be better than using your hands. You know why? Becuase Biosilk + pigment= stuff that wont come off with just soap and water. Seriously. I had to use so much Ponds Cold Cream, Rubbing Alcohol, to get it off my hands, the sink, my mixing tools, the SOAP BAR. This is serious stuff right here.

2. Use disposable mixing tools. I get it. I'm a cheap ass. Major cheap ass. I MAKE mini spoons out of aluminum foil. I take spoons and knives from McDonalds to use as spatulas to crush down lipsticks. Hey man, I'm not above taking those paper cups from McDonalds that they give you to hold ketchup or mustard from those huge pump dispensers. But DO NOT reuse. Why? They'll be a pain in the ASS to wash. See above note.

3. DO NOT. I repeat DO NOT try to press them with a quarter until the mixture is almost dry. Like when you touch the top, no pigment adheres to your finger. The whole mixture should feel like.. sponge cake. When you add the Biosilk to the pigment, you cannot add too much. This isn't alcohol pressing where you do some frosting or cake batter consistency. You want this to be like... wet sand.. or crumbly cookies. I tried to press it when it was wayy too wet. BAD IDEA.

4. If you are impatient like me, dry them using a hair dryer or the oven. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Farenheit (spell check!). I'm in the USA so I believe we use farenheit unlike the rest of the world. When you're done mixing and preparing the pigments, turn off the oven and shove your pigments in there to let it cool. Once the oven cools down, make sure the pigments are dry enough and PRESSS!

5. Lastly, protect your work surfaces. Unless you like the look of finger stains everywhere, do protect.

Some pictures, then off to the fun stuff: swap pictures!

Toodles ♥

Swap Haulage + Quick Reminder

Happy Valentines Day and Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I hope everyone is having a good day right? Just a quick reminder to Kiki Xiong. You have not contacted me with your addy so please do so in the next 2 days or else I need to pick a new winner! Don't worry everyone. I apologize for ending the contest early, but I will be putting up a new one in September, when I have time =] Stay patient!

Yesterday, a new swap haul came in! This person is SO generous. I forgot to take pictures, but a different one of like 100 magnets also came in. I made a new palette for myself out of a DVD case. I expect to perhaps press some more pigments this week because yet ANOTHER swap came in and I'm just waiting for my end to reach her. LOL I am expecting SO many packages this week, so I will update with more hauls and pressing pigments day and pictures soon!

I swapped a white scarf + extras for a Sephora brand shadow brush and a Revlon lippie in Goldpearl Plum. OMG i got so many extras.

I am FLIPPING out over the million fragrance samples, the new ELF brushes etc. I have the eyeshadow brush and the lip brush. The brownstone is a sample and it's like a cross between a brown and a light taupe.

Toodles... for now!

Some Lipstick Swatches and Quick Update

Happy Monday everyone! Usually, I'd be the first person to say "ew monday" but it's a happy monday because my school was let out early and also my swap from Canada came todayy! How exciting is that? I freaked out in the middle of my empty house and I was glad that no one saw me because it's kind of embarassing. I got a few brushes and 2 AVON lipsticks. I'll probably post pictures of the brushes later in the week because I'm lazy and I have a ton of stuff to still get to later.

Of course, I promptly depotted them into a small 5 gram jar because frankly, these tubes aren't small. I have a very limited space in my traincase and I'd like to keep things small so that everything fits nicely. I know that eventually I'll have to preform a whole moving process, but I'm going to delay that as long as possible. I mean, the jar only takes up 1/3 of the space and jars are stackable, unlike tubes.

Coming up soon: Physicians Formula Healthy Wear powder foundation review. I'm so embarrassed! I've had that stupid thing for weeks and I only used it today! LOL. Well, I'll get back to you on the end of the week.

And quick thought, has anyone been to CVS lately and seen the new PF cream liners? 3 for 10.99 is pretty nice. Although the jars look like the size of a Smashbox cream liner and the colors are basically repeated in the 4 eye color sets. If you get the brown and green eye sets, you'll basically have all the avalible colors. I plan to pick these up when they go on sale.

Toodles

Back to the Earth Swatches

Hey everyone! Happy Mondays? not really. Today, a new swap came in! I swapped with the owner of the online store- back 2 the earth. It is a vegan company and yes, they do ship internationally. I haven't tried them out yet so I'm not going to comment, but I do have some swatches up! I will be doing a review later this week (see Friday or the weekend?) after I try them out. I will also be depotting the samples out into small pillboxes.

Samples: 14 of them! The baggies are placed in the order in which they appear on the hand.

Just at first glance, some pigments seem to be dupes of each other or that they are very similar. For example, the Purple Dragon and Midnight Rider and True black all seem to be black. Except the MR and the PD have other undertones. Do you see some other HE brand dupes here? I think that Electric purple COULD be a dupe of MAC young punk (based off of other people's swatches) and perhaps Sphinx is a dupe of UD smog? Maybe? maybe? maybe? Do tell me.

I think that they are will unique enough to add decently to my collection. There are 30 some colors on the website. Also, it sells for 3 dollars for 5 grams and 5 dollars for 10 grams. AND there are so many different assortments (ie 6 5 gram jars for x amount). AND if you don't know what you want, you can get sampler sets. AND you can buy other things such as jewelry, soaps, aromatherapy stuff, etcetcetc

Toodles<3

New Necklace + Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Recently, I swapped a BNIP eyeliner pencil for this necklace:

And happy thanksgiving to all! My school is out until next monday! I will be posting a new tutorial soon if i can even find the scotch tape. It has been lost in my house.

Toodles<3

Hello again~ back with a new swap haul!

hello ladies! Today, my family and I went to the New York Botanical Gardens. I had a pretty good time (excluding the burning sun and the fact that we got lost!) looking at flowers and stuff. Personally, I love flowers, and I also love to garden. I have my own small little garden in my backyard that is growing nicely. I also bought a baby cactus!

Isn't it cute?! Well, I mean I think that it's pretty cute. I need to move it into a larger pot later so it can grow.

My favorite flowers there:

The one on the left is a hybrid oriental lily and the one of the right is a hibiscus flower. How nice eh?

A swap haul came in today. The emory board was something I bought for 99 cents at Rite Aid, the nivea soap and boss hugo perfume sample was something I ordered. sorry, but not swatches today of the eyeshadow! my camera is sucking real bad today, so yeah. The LA colors palatte I'm pretty happy with. I mean it's a low end product so the pigmentation could be stronger. It kinda smells like baby powder too, but the colors are pretty and I'm excited to play with this.

Toodles<3

Swap+ Tutorial+Personal

Today, my psychology class finally ended for the week. Ugh, it's been seriously draining catching the bus a 7:11 AM, filling out those damned college applications (Some are online, some aren't blahblahblah. Some colleges aren't too clear about how to apply online...), studying. I don't know. And so today, my family and i went to this sushi place one hour away. Sorry, but I don't care how good the food is. 1 hr is just too far to travel for me. Especially if we need to shop after. So, we go around to Marshalls, Wal-mart etcetc. And guess what I bought? NOTHING. Honestly, I wasn't expecting to find anything that fits because usually those large retailers or those warehouses where dept. stores send unwanted extras rarely have sizes like 0, 2 or XS, S etc. Those sell out first or something. This sucks. I haven't been to the mall since Black Friday... of last year... I have been a hermit for my Junior school year. I hate that! All they had was XXL, XL, L, M in shirts and maybe like Sizes 4 and up for pants. They had like maybe one size 1 pants that I hated, and a couple ugly small shirts. Whatever.

So, I recently completed a swap with Roxyjones again via MUA. I actually completed this like last week but really, I don't have time anymore to update as soon as I complete something. Now, I am taking a BCC class in psychology as well as doing some independent studying. Moving forward!

I love the Miss Sixty Perfume. Actually, its more like an appreciate feeling. It's sweet, but after a while, it can be overwhelming. I think that it's only for a night time thing, not something I'd wear in the daytime. The face highlighter I gave to my sister. The nail polish will not be swatched because at the end of summer before school starts, I will be doing a HUGE Nail Haul with swatches and everything. I'm really really dissapointed with the Mark get in line eyeliner. It sucks! The liner is so watery and you need to shake it up to get some pigment. Also, there seems to be a metal ball inside of the thing. Maybe to help to shake it up? I don't know. Also, it NEVER dries. Like, never dries. It's ridiculous. It gets tacky, but the only way to get this to dry, you need to set it with some powder. And this is not waterproof. Mark, I was inlove with the chrome liners. This is a major dissapointment.

Now for the Tutorial part. I mentioned before that I would do a tutorial on how to make your heels not slippy. Well, what I mean is that some heels have NO traction at all. It doesn't help that linolium and wood floors are slippery. So this is what I did.

First, walk in your heels. Notice where it is slippery. For me it is the heel and the toe part.

I took those rubber dishwashing gloves, and cut off the traction-ey part that goes on your palms and fingers. It has a different pattern to it. You'll know what I mean. So, I took a hot glue gun and glued three pieces to the place where the shoe slips the most. The shoe toe part has a fabric like thing there, so then you can use hot glue gun to glue the rubber pieces on. For the heel, you need to put a thin layer of hot glue on it. It makes a rubbery surface. For all plastic-ky surfaces that aren't fabric-ky you need to put a thin layer of hot glue. I hope that this helps. If it doesn't, message me or leave a comment!

Toodles<3

Swap mini haul/NYX depot journey

Hello lovely ladies. Today, I decided to switch my font from Arial to Trebuchet. That was random, but I decided to say so anyway.

So, I recieved my swap items from awsumchick07. She is the best swapper ever because of fast shipping and great extras. I got a bare minerals glimmer eyeshadow in envy, MAC pigment sample in Kitschmas (funny name isn't it), Chanel lotion sample, and a Bond Girl 09 perfume sample.

so, anyone see something wrong in the picture with the bareminerals glimmer eyeshadows? Hmm? Because I do. Isn't there supposed to be a sifter there? Well there is. Isn't a sifter's job to make is less messy and keep all the eyeshadow from just plopping out? Well, look at that. There is a sifter in the jar, I checked. But, all the eyeshadow is on top of it. That defeates the whole point of a sifter! I'm not going to dump the eyeshadow out, take out the sifter and put the eyeshadow back in because this stuff isn't cheap. I believe that its what, 13$ at Sephora? I can't go out, buy 10 of these, and still have money. So, I'll just deal with that. I love both of these colors. Kitschmas is a nice lilac color, very frosty and light. INNER CORNER and highlight! Envy is also very frosty, but I think that it's okay to put that as an all over color.. as long as you tone it down with a matte color. I should do eye looks on these. I need to get a blending brush. If you want to swap with me, Pnkxsparklexstar on makeupalley!

Used wet, these eyeshadows are great! Used over a base, still great! Not used on a base, Kitschmas gives a lot of fallout. Chanel lotion was used up today. The smell is very very strong. It's not a bad smell, but not that pleasent either. I really liked how moisturizing it is. Perfume will be used later. I still have another perfume sample that I still need to use. Ugh, whatever. It is FUKC brand perfume from a different swap.

I HATE DEPOTTING NYX JUMBO PENCILS. I love those things. They are cheap, come in many different colors, but seriously? It took me forever to depot into a new jar. So, let's begin.

If you can see, the lid on this jumbo pencil is like cracked and gone. It's gross. I used up the lotion, so now, I have a new jar to depot into! Yay! Also, i don't have a sharpener, and I don't want to get one. Depotting is cheaper, and (I thought at the time) cheaper. So, obviously, you melt this thing with heat

It's now 7:30, I decided to do my old trick: use my old trusty incandescent lamp that produces a lot of heat to melt. I use this for melting lipsticks, depotting eyeshadow, etcetcetc. So, why not use this to depot Jumbo sticks

8:00 PM-- STILL NOT coming out. Now, I'm pissed off. I take out my flat iron, set it to high, waited one minute, and held it around the pencil. I thought, well, maybe it's becuase everything inside needs to be melted right? Not working. I turn the thing off, and decide to go to plan 2.

I rip off the top metal part, which is a huge ordeal in itself. Wow, that's hard to take off. I used pliers and made a mess.

8:30-- now, I've tried heating this thing AGAIN. NOT WORKING. I decided to now step downstairs and shove this in the microwave. And guess what? It melts in like 5 minutes. WTF?!?!?!?!??! Maybe it needs a higher temperature? It needs to be heated all the way through? I considered using a blowdryer, but that is so noisy. I hate blowdryers in general because of the noise level. I don't like to use a microwave because I feel like I get a lot of lost product. Oh well. Does anyone else have this issue? Or is it just me? o.0

Toodles <3

Swap Update!

I am INCREDIBLY happy with my 2 swaps this time. I have swapped with these super generous people. I have to do a lot of reviews on some of these things.

Swap One: 2 nail polishes (I forgot which) for 1 sinful colors in Forever Pink, 1 WnW polish in Ice Pearl Blue, Almay lipstick in Plum and Milani eyeliner in Blue Blaze

I decided to do the swatches on a piece of paper because well, I hate putting nail polish on my skin. It's gross. I hate how the swatches came out because my camera is sucky and the flash is really strong. So when I do flashes, then everything is washed out. Ugh, anyway, moving forward.

I don't think that I will be using the Almay lipstick anytime soon. It's extremely dark for daytime and for school. Also, it smells kind of wierd, maybe it's expired? The eyeliner, I have to try it out tomrrow. It's really really creamy, but this means that it'll probably smudge everywhere. Ugh.

Swap 2: 2 half used Victoria Secret body spray for 1 NYC lipstick in Wild Orchid, Black Radiance loose eyeshadow in Plum Reflection, and a bunch of earrings.

Well, this picture is really wierd, but I'm really not going to take the time to fix it because I don't know how! So, well, that's annoying. Anyway, the Wild Orchid is a YLBB color for me and I am incredibly impressed with the pigmentation from this drugstore product. Unfortunately, it is discontinued. But oh well, I'm sure there are many alternatives to this. I think that this will last for a very long time for me because the 4 gram jar was filled to the very top. It's also not "loose", but that's because it's so filled that it's compacted.

Toodles <3