Monday, June 30, 2014

end of june hauls


hi guys this is the remainder of june's haul. i caught a couple sales and picked up a few replacement items. ~Lindsay-chan ^.~



bella rosa rose blush (2 swipes, blended), bella blue nail polish
  • amazon.com (seller: etailz): redeemed my capital one points for an amazon gift card, so i got a sigma E35 for $4!
  • cvs: essence of beauty brushes are on clearance, and emilynoel recently talked about their crease brush set, so i picked it up for $3! and got myself another lypsyl lip balm >.< (not pictured)
  • walmart: our neighborhood walmart just got an elf carousel display and i've never seen their eye makeup remover wipes before, so may as well try them out! and i picked up another wet n wild fergie bb cream in light (not pictured)
  • milani.com 30% off sale: bella blue nail polish, rose powder blush in bella rosa
  • ulta.com: tree hut body wash in coconut lime, salt scrub in fig & olive, japonesque makeup cleanser (supposedly it's parian spirit?) & solid brush cleanser (gwp)

  • skindinavia.com: they had a code for 20% off, free 20mL setting spray, and free shipping; so i got an 8oz oil control [oil-free] setting spray for $32, considering the urban decay de slick is $30+ for 4oz. and skindinavia is the same manufacturer or something like that....
  • urban decay: freebie sample of the new perversion mascara!! i'll review it later! (review post)

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

notd: loreal frieda's nude with opi pirouette my whistle

hi all! i bought this polish a while back when the celebrity nudes polishes and lipsticks first started appearing. anyway, here's 2 coats of frieda's nude over 2 coats of opi original nail envy, and topped with 2 coats of prolinc diamond dry topcoat. and one coat of pirouette my whistle on my ring fingers. ~Lin-chan ^.~

Friday, June 20, 2014

june 2014 ipsy bag (updated)


hi guys, so june's IPSY BAG* (theme: pretty in paradise) has finally arrived after falling off the grid for almost a week!  ~Lin-chan ^.~

here's my impressions:
  1. be a bombshell lash out mascara in black (9g--full size, ret. $15) -- has a fairly standard wand--similar to maybelline great lash, it's slightly skinnier and longer, but looks pretty safe. kinda turned off by the weird smell though. it kinda smells like old, expired mascara.... i've got mascara on now, so i'll have to update later.
    • likelihood to repurchase: probably not
    • update: the mascara's pretty good, but more lengthening than volumizing, if that's what you're looking for. as i've said before, it's silly to order mascara online when i can find comparable drug store mascaras for cheaper and i can get them locally.
    • product has been given away
  2. marc anthony dream waves beach spray (1.52oz--mini, ret. $8.99 for 4.2oz [$3.25]) -- i haven't gotten into the whole beachy sea salt hair sprays trend here, but i'll give it a try. it has a very coconutty scent. i'll have to update on this later too.
    • likelihood to repurchase: probably not
  3. nicka k new york shimmer eyeliner in blue (.1oz--full size, ret. $4.99) -- this is a  really pretty eyeliner, and very persistent. it didn't want to come off with makeup remover! the brush tip is actually a silicone tip, which'll be interesting. it's a longer tip than the real techniques silicon liner brush and seems like it might be a little more difficult to control, but it shouldn't be too bad.
    • likelihood to repurchase: nah
    • update: the silicone tip actually has a slight bend to the tip (maybe it's just the one i got); between it and the formula, it kinda irritates my eyes. it's also difficult to apply evenly but i think it's just this shade because it's so metallic and reflective (as proven in the photo below).
    • product has been given away
  4. nyx butter gloss in apple strudel (9mL--full size, ret. $4.99) -- i'm excited, i didn't have this shade and i've been eyeing it.
    • likelihood to repurchase: maybe
  5. laneige bb cushion sampler packette (ret. $34 for .5oz)-- just looking at this, i can tell it's expensive to repurchase..but it's got target's logo on the back? idk. on that note. yeah i'm not so sure about this. i'll have to update later.
    • likelihood to repurchase: no
    • update: this sampler has 4 compartments, an applicator puff, light, medium, and dark. i opened up the light and it was an ok match for me. inside is a sponge (bb cushion) saturated in product. and you use their weird patented puff to extract and apply the product. while this product is pretty neat in theory, the puff (even in spite of the micro sample size) doesn't retain enough product that you keep having to dip in and get more out. and it's not super great at blending it all out.
  6. rebecca minkoff ipsy bag -- so freaking cute! i love this pattern
  7. card with company info/discount codes
    1. $1 off for marc anthony hair products at walgreens. in-store coupon on ipsy website (exp. 8/3/14)
    2. nyxcosmetics.com: 30% off nyx stick blush, code: nyxjunebloom (exp. 8/9/14)
    3. dermadoctor.com: 20% off any purchase, code: ipsy20 (exp. 7/8/14)
    4. clarisea.com: 30% off any purchase, code: surfergirl (exp. 7/30/14)
    5. $3 off $10 essence of beauty body or fragrance purchase at cvs. in-store coupon on ipsy website (exp. 7/31/14)
    6. jessesgirlcosmetics.com: 20% off purchase, code: ipsyjune2014 (exp. 7/15/14)
    7. mdsolarsciences.com: 20% off purchase, code: ipsy20 (exp. 7/15/14)
    8. ofracosmetics.com: 30% off, code: ipsy30 (exp. 7/20/14)
    9. olehenricksen.com: 20% off coupon when you share your email
    10. realtreebeauty.com: free shipping @ $50, free shipping & gift at $80, code: ipsyrealtree (exp. 7/31/14)
    11. store.skinn.com: 20% off purchase, code: ipsyskinn (exp. 10/9/14)
approximate product value: ~$28.23



on me: everything in this month's bag but the hairspray (bb cream in light); revlon colorstay concealer in light, elf essential clarifying pressed powder in ivory, be a bombshell blush in sweet cheeks, loreal one step eyeshadow in natural for brown eyes, rimmel scandalEyes liner in black, urban decay liner in underground

*Affiliate Link.

second anniversary vacation adventures, pt.2

hi all! so here we finally have part 2 of our vacation. [link to part 1] ~Lin-chan ^.~

6/1 after we got off the ship, we drove back up to orlando and stayed at the wyndham bonnet creek resort. we stopped at ming court for some dim sum before heading to the resort and pretty much relaxed and did laundry the rest of the day.

complaints about the wyndham bonnet creek resort:
  • the buildings are all clustered around pool type areas so if you have a room on the inner side of the complex, you will hear people and children at all hours of the night splashing around and screaming. for some reason, they have no pool hours.
  • the walls between units are very thin. i think the neighbors were watching tv every night around 11-12 and were always laughing super loud. whenever they talked, it was inaudible, but his laughter was as if i was sitting next to him.
  • the resort is closest to epcot and when we checked in, they said that we'd be able to go into this one suite to watch the fireworks. it kinda worked, except for the fact that there's a treeline blocking the way. so stupid.
6/2 epcot. overall the day was pretty nice; it was fairly overcast and the crowds weren't too bad. we went to les chefs de france restaurant for lunch. we were kinda disappointed by the host though. we got there about 5 minutes before our reservation, checked in, and sat for 20+ minutes while he seated several people who checked in after us. like wtf. otherwise, the food was pretty good. we got an order of escargot, paul got some sort of crepe thing, and i got a croque monsieur. turtle talk with crush was sooo freaking cute. basically there's a little section to the front where kids can sit and interact with crush. who is somewhere behind the scenes with a camera looking at all of us in the audience and our host walks around with a mic so that the dude can hear the kids' questions.

6/3 animal kingdom. somehow the park opened at 8 instead of 9 and it wasn't the extra magic hour day either. so we were kinda confused but it worked out for the most part because not as many people were there yet and we were able to get some of the busy rides done early. one ride, they asked us if we wanted to just stay on and ride it again! lol. but we didn't, we decided to go off elsewhere to rides that we didn't have fast passes for. then by about 10, we did everything we wanted to do, outside of our fast passes..which weren't for a while afterward. for lunch, we went to the bbq place in dinoland and it was really good. >w<

6/4 downtown disney. we took a break day from the parks to go check out downtown disney. we wound up going to both starbucks, there was one on each side of the area. and they were both kinda disappointing. what we ordered at one wasn't quite right, and at both locations there were soooo many workers to the point where they were inefficient and standing around doing nothing, looking around confused. it was pretty sad.

6/5 hollywood studios. our plan thing that paul made had us going to the rock n roller coaster first thing in the morning, but it was broken even after half an hour. so we went on to do other things. we eventually got back onto it doing single-rider and we wound up riding on the same set of cars, so that worked out. that evening, we went to mama melrose's for dinner. it was kinda sad because i started to get a migraine and couldn't eat. sadface. we got an order of calamari, i forgot what teh paul got, and i ordered the seafood pasta. i ate some of the calamari, but when my entree came out, it was like nope. nope. can't do it. it was kinda sad. we left the park shortly afterward.

6/6 magic kingdom. it was ridiculously busy this day. there were like 4 groups of shirts people / tour group-y people with a flag! it was crazy. again, our plan had us going straight to a ride, this time it was the new 7 dwarfs ride and guess what, it was broken down too. it was barely 2 weeks old and it was broken down before the park even opened. so after about twenty minutes or so, we left and went about the day. the laugh floor was awesome. it was similar to turtle talk, except they pick on you. like as everyone walks to their seats, if you're playing on your phone or other things, they'll feature you on the screen. they also have a system to receive jokes you text to them to use in the show while you're waiting in line. they also pick someone to be that guy and they kinda pick on that person for the whole of the show. the that guy for our show was like asleep or bored looking every time they flashed the screen to him. soo funny.

for dinner/lunch-ish, we had a reservation for 4 to the be our guest restaurant. basically, you can eat in the ballroom, west wing, or library of the castle (not in the central castle) and take pictures with beast. dinner was pretty good, but over priced and over rated. we didn't do appetizers or drink anything but water, and the bill was $70! crazy. i got shrimp and scallops, the paul got lamb, and we got cupcakes for dessert.

6/7 another break day. pretty much lazed around the hotel complex the whole day.

6/8 magic kingdom. we went in to catch all the last few things we missed out on from the previous day. again, we went straight to the 7 dwarfs ride and waited about 20 minutes before they had it up and running. i was pretty upset that we were so close yet so far to the end of the line on the previous day. but whatever. the ride was actually pretty lame. the animatronics looked greatly improved relative to the older rides, but the coaster itself was dull. if you ever go, it is not worth waiting more than 30 minutes or so for.

6/9 an uneventful drive back home.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

end of may to mid-june hauls



hi all! we are getting this post up early..or is it late? lol. so i ordered a few things to the in-laws' house while we were gone, plus i've got a few things i picked up before the trip until now. i wanted to get this post up because i've got a swatch of a new loreal color riche quad in absolute taupe, a new maybelline leather color tattoo in chocolate suede, and a maybelline baby lips crystal in mirrored mauve. later! ~Lin-chan ^.~


candles by victoria ($1.50 shot sale): create a scent 16oz country jar (lovin lemon + garden mint), scent shots in bergamont & herb and sweet angel dust (freebie), soap shots in vanilla sandalwood & rosemary mint
  • i was hoping the lovin lemon and garden mint mixed together would somehow be bbw lemon mint leaf, but it's totally off. i'll still burn it anyway, but i don't recommend this combo.



swatched without primer
  • loraccosmetics.com: little black palette (on clearance)
  • sephora.com (multiple orders): clinique great skin great deal set, samples: alterna bamboo kendi oil dry oil mist, benefit fake up in light (fully dispensed), first aid beauty skin rescue deep cleanser
    • the great skin great deal set is $26, which is the cost of a 4.2oz of the ddm gel anyway, so why not get a mini of my toner and a meh face wash for free?


(swatched dry)
charlotte amalie, st. thomas, us virgin islands
duty-free store: loreal color riche quad in eau de rose
del sol store: blue dolphin keychain

orlando, fl
h&m tops
container store: lip spatula



shimmering sands trio, absolute taupe quad, hocus pocus (1 swipe!) [all swatched dry]; chocolate suede, mirrored mauve

walgreens/bbb: nyx angel veil primer, covergirl shimmering sands shadow trio & #midnightglow glosstini (not pictured, see notd post here), loreal color riche quad in absolute taupe, total intensity by prestige shadow in hocus pocus, maybelline color tattoo in chocolate suede & baby lips crystal in mirrored mauve, the shine brush by wet brush -- supposedly good for dry shampoo..we'll have to see!
  • holy cow that hocus pocus swatch is amazing. for reals that is one swipe, dry. no primer. nada! that's exciting!
  • mirrored mauve has a slight shimmer to it, but it's almost negligible and gets lost in the shine from the glossiness of the balm
  • angel veil is ok. makeup seems to last all day. but i'm not a huge fan of the texture and for the price, i'd rather get the black radiance primer. $16 (1oz) vs. $6 (.84oz).
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