Diamond Strength?!

In one of my previous posts I had purchased a few Sally Hansen Nail polishes. One of them was Twilight Teal from the Diamond Strength line.

Let me say that I spend more on nail polish in order to avoid chipping. I mean, cheap nail polish chips like crazy - don't you think?

So I painted my nails on Friday mid-day (I was sick and had the day off). This is what it came out like after two coats:

I used my Poshe base coat as well as my Poshe top coat.

Twilight Teal really is a pretty colour if you're looking for a navy blue hue. When I did my nails, I personally felt that it looked better in the bottle than on my finger nails but oh well, it would have been a waste to just take it all off right?

So, this is what my nails looked like on Sunday morning:

(left hand)


(right hand)



Pretty bad considering it was only two days of wear. Does your nail polish chip this badly too after two-three days of wear? If not, let me know what you're using!!

Hope your week is going well so far!

=) Karen

How I age myself in 1 minute

I haven't quite cracked the secret of youth yet...LOL. But I know how to make myself age like 5-8 years in one minute.

It's called red lipstick.

And I'm sure if I threw on the right type of mature oldish-lady kind of clothes, I could pack on a couple of more years.

Anyhow, for some reason I had this sudden urge to pick up a few red coloured lipsticks yesterday...I've always wanted to achieve a classic red lips look and I guess with the colder weather and Fall approaching, it kinda all came together. So I went to MAC and got some stuff including reddish coloured lipsticks.

One of the lipsticks I bought was MAC Dubonnet:

It's an amplified creme finish and a "deepened claret" colour as described by MAC. Whatever that is, here's the swatch:

And because my girlfriend and I have cold still, we decided to stay in last night with another friend of ours and we ate a ton of authentic Thai food (my gf is Thai and she did all the cooking). After that we played cards and dominos where the losers of each game had to take a shot of beer. Yup, a shot of beer.

So I was willing to take a risk with my look last night since we weren't doing anything important. I slapped on some of that MAC Dubonnet. I lined my lips with MAC Cherry lip pencil before applying the lipstick and here's what it looked like:

And because I can't recall wearing red lipstick out in public, my gf of course noticed right away when she saw me. She was like, "OMG, you look so much older!" I kinda knew that already but it's nice to know I'm not the only one thinking that. After about fifteen minutes though she was like, "yah it looks good on you." Hmmm, so I guess when I want to age myself a bit but still look alright, I'll go with my MAC Dubonnet or one of the other MAC red lipsticks I picked up (I will do swatches and looks soon).

Do you have a red lipstick that suits you? Do you wear red lipstick out often?

Hope your weekend went well! =) Karen

FOTD & A few purchases....

Today I went to go get my hair trimmed because my younger sister commented on how my long hair was pulling down my face...yes, that's how she put it. I'm sort of biased towards long hair on myself and she's biased towards shorter hair on herself so I kind of saw this comment coming. Anyhow, I was due for a trim so although I intended to only have 1" max taken off, 2-3" really came off. Don't you always find that 90% of hair stylists don't listen when you ask them to only take off a wee bit and even use your fingers to show the length that you want off?

Anyhow, today I opted for one of my favourite MAC eye shadows - MAC Star Violet. I love plum/purple eye shadows on me and this is definitely a favourite of mine. I even like the texture very much.



Terrible. I need to learn to crop pictures and edit them so I can get rid of that one armpit exposed look! LOL

And yesterday I met my girlfriend at the mall. For my eye shadow I ended up using a favourite green eye shadow of mine - MAC's Sumptuous Olive. On me it has quite a bit of gold undertones to it which is nice because although a lot of people say gold coloured eye shadow compliments brown coloured eyes, gold coloured eye shadow really doesn't look good on me.



I dressed pretty casual to the mall:



I only ended up picking out a couple of small things from Forever21. One was actually this dress that I saw online on their website:



It's actually pretty cute on.....and I love how it has a halter top.

And I picked up a couple of earrings. These turquoise coloured earrings were the last pair...I like jewels and I like turquoise/teal colour so I grabbed it as soon as I saw it!



And well, I like earrings similar to this style when I go out for dinner or clubbing so of course I picked these up too....



Don't you just LOVE Forever21???!!

The last thing I'll mention here might get you bored. I've been looking for a "greener" alternative to Mr. Clean or Lysol multi-surface cleaners. Mr. Clean and Lysol definitely get the job done but um, there's a lot of harsh chemicals you're inhaling when you use it (even though I turn the fan on if I'm in the washroom using it). So I went to Shoppers Drug Mart and picked up this multi-surface cleaner for my bathroom:

I believe the brand Method might be sold exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart - I can't be sure on that one though. What caught my eye were a few things: French Lavender scent, non-toxic, and the cleaner is biodegradable.

Okay, I have no idea what french lavender is suppose to smell like but if it's suppose to smell like regular lavender then this product does NOT smell like french lavender. The cleaner smells distinctly of lemons.

I'm not sure if it's really gentle enough to use this cleaner without gloves on. Any bit of slight irritation on my hands can irritate and trigger the bit of eczema that I have on my hands so I didn't take a chance on that - I still used disposable latex gloves with this product. But the fact that it's probably gentle enough to use without gloves is a nice thought (and practical for most other people too).

And it actually does clean pretty well. So I'll be buying this cleaner again for sure! It seemed like the most "green" solution out of the other multi-surface cleaners they had in stock.

So, I hope you're having a lovely Friday! Let me know if you're doing anything exciting this weekend!

=) Karen

MAC Tone: Grey quad & Fuchsia Glitter

Ugh, so it seems like there's some sort of flu/cold going around. My best friend is sick right now and I think I have her to blame for my sore throat, coughing, and jaw/head aches. I had a fever and body aches late last night but luckily those have subsided during the day today.

On a brighter note, I picked up a couple of things from MAC this past weekend but just haven't gotten around to updating it =)


I picked up MAC's Fuchsia Glitter and MAC's Tone : Grey Quad.

Here's the fuchsia glitter up close:

It was too pretty to pass up! But notice that the chunks of fuchsia glitter are much larger than the glitter in MAC's Reflects Rust Glitter (which I picked up like two weeks ago and love). And, because the fuchsia glitter is chunkier like "real" glitter, it's a friggin b*tch to apply! I tried using visine with it but it ended up being chunky glitter in a really really bad way. I had to wipe it all off and re-do my makeup differently because I was trying to use the glitter last night when I went out to dinner with a couple of friends. And when I wiped the glitter off my eyes, some of it stuck to my face so yah, my face had a bit of unremovable glitter last night. Oh well.....

Anyhow, here's the MAC Tone: Grey Quad I picked up:

The colours are limited edition and I can never figure out how MAC names the eye shadows in their quads. I'm not sure if they're naming the colours from left to right or even top or bottom....so I'm guessing here: I believe the top two colours from left to right are called "A Warmer White" and "Tone: Grey". The bottom two colours from left to right are called "Waft" and "The Right Smoke". Anyways, those are the four colours in the quad but I'm just not sure which name belongs to which shadow =(

And here's the swatches from the glitter and the quad:


So this was the look I came up with yesterday for dinner (after wiping off the fuchsia glitter - which I will try my best to figure out how to apply it well).

For the shadow I ended up using mostly the blue ("Waft"?) colour on the bottom left of the quad. It really is such a lovely blue. Then I used the grey on the top left of the quad ("Tone:Grey"?) along the edges of the blue shadow to soften any harsh edges a bit. And then I used the lightest colour in the quad for my brow highlight as well as the inner corners of my eyes.

Have you picked up any makeup products lately or been eyeing anything?

=) Karen

Bronzing Powder: MAC Golden & Cargo Matte Medium

I finished my first MAC Bronzing Powder - it was in the shade Golden.


It's slightly golden toned so don't be mistaken by the name. You can see some subtle golden shimmer in the pan but once its applied it goes on very matte actually. And I like how for my NC30 skin, it provides a very natural looking tan since you can use a light hand with it or even apply it more heavily to build up the coverage a bit. And even when I do use a heavier hand when applying this, it still looks quite natural on my skin tone. I most definitely would repurchase this bronzer colour.

But instead of repurchasing the MAC Golden bronzer, I still had a back up of an old time favourite: the Cargo Matte Bronzer in Medium.

I've been through several tins of Cargo powder bronzers since I used them throughout high school. But sadly I'm finding that this colour is a bit too dark for me now! I even tried using a light hand with it and it's darker than using like 2-3 layers of the MAC Golden bronzer. Idunno, I might have to apply this with a fan brush to really really use a light hand with this.

What bronzer are you using now? Are you liking the one you have now?

=) Karen

MAC Moisturelush cream & MAC Lightful Products

So I've finished my MAC Moisturelush cream.

I must say it's pretty good if you're looking for a really thick moisturizing night cream. It's definitely not something I would use in the daytime especially under foundation or something because it's really thick in consistency and a bit oily too. At times I actually used my MAC Fix+ spray in conjunction with the MAC moisturelush in order to make it thinner in consistency so I could spread it better. It might break you out a bit because when I first started using this I got quite a few zits on my face the first week. That's typical for me if I'm using a really thick moisturizing cream - but usually after a week of using a product like that, my face gets use to the cream and it stops breaking out. I figure a few zits for a week is the price I have to pay to moisturize my face really well at night....or maybe I've lost it?!!! Do you feel the same way about night creams too and put up with a bit of acne in the beginning?

Anyhow, instead of repurchasing the MAC moisturelush I decided to try out the MAC Lightful Deep Ultramoisture Cream.






I just started using it tonight and my first impression is that it's a LOT thinner in consistency than the MAC moisturelush. Like, I think you could honestly use this in the daytime under your foundation. It absorbs really well into the skin (and this is after using my MAC Lightful Active Softening Lotion on the bottom right of the picture as well as my MAC Lightful Charged Essence serum on the bottom left of the picture)

I decided to go with this three step system: after cleansing, using the MAC Lightful Active softening lotion, then the MAC Lightful Essence Serum and then my night cream on top of it. I know it sounds pretty heavy duty but I'm hoping to get a better complexion after all this work! LOL. Plus, the MAC Lightful product series are all made in Japan (well, these three products are). I figure skincare products from Japan must be good =) I know, I'm a bit biased. Oh, and I love the packaging of the lotions with the mirror like finish on the bottle/tub.

So anyways, the MAC Lightful Active Softening Lotion is really liquidy....sort of like water consistency. It's a bit annoying that you have to pour it out because it's easy to spill like that. I wish they made this product with a spray nozzle instead. But it has a really nice smell to it - sort of like a fragrance smell (I can't really describe it). And anything to make my skin soft makes me happy so I've settled with it the past week that I've been using it.

The MAC Lightful Essence Serum is a thin gel like consistency. It absorbs quickly into the skin just like the Active Softening Lotion. I read in a magazine not too long ago that we all should be using a serum for our skin BEFORE applying moisturizer because it's like vitamins for your skin. So, when I read that in a magazine a few weeks ago I decided I had to have a decent serum because heck, we all need vitamins and I feel like I've jumped on the band wagon a bit late now! Oh well, at least I've started! LOL. I don't know...I must be a bit out of touch but serums for my face are a new concept to me that I only picked up like three weeks ago when I read it in a magazine! Are you using a serum right now?

=) Karen

Nail Polish mini haul + MAC Shirelle

How was your weekend?! Did you do anything fun or did you manage to find time and relax? The past week has been really busy for me with work, my sister closing a deal on a new condo (Yay! I'm so proud she's finally moving out of my parents house!!! LOL), my older sister's birthday on Saturday (Yay! Happy Birthday Carol!), went shopping (of course) and partied it up with a close friend of a friend who flew back home to Australia yesterday....

I thought I would do a quick post on this one nail polish I'm in love with (the colour at least). I think everyone has to have at least one really sexy red nail polish and I think I found one for me. It's MAC's Shirelle nail polish which is a cream finish (I prefer the cream finishes over the frost ones at MAC).

I'm not one to be crazy about nail polish. I use to have my nails done all the time and did that for 2-3 years straight. It really damaged my nails so I just gave up the habit and got all lazy with nails....It's only been lately that I've made some effort to polish my nails. In any case, I really like this shade of red and my boyfriend complimented me on my nail polish colour a couple of times which is like rarer than rare that he even notices I did my nails! LOL. Anyways, too bad my nail polish chipped big time the next day when I was using my hands to eat crab and lobster. Do you have a favourite shade of red nail polish?

And on Saturday I did some shopping. Among a number of things I picked up, I got several Sally Hansen nail polishes.

From left to right in the pictures, from the Diamond Strength line I got Plum Royale, Twilight Teal and Emerald Green. You can tell the level of creativity with the names....And from the No Chip 10 Day line I got Night Blooms, Strong Blush and Boudior.

I'm curious to see how well the Sally Hansen No Chip 10 Day Nail Colour lives up to its name - I'm lucky if the darn polish doesn't chip after the first 2-3 days. I'll let you know! I just know there's no way it'll last ten days on my nails even after using my Poshe topcoat every other day. By the way, I'm not actually sure what the hype is all about regarding Poshe's topcoat. I've been using Sally Hansen's Mega Shine for ages and I find that it works just the same as Poshe in terms of drying time, shine and preventing fading/chipping of nail polish....except Mega Shine is cheaper than the Poshe top coat. What top coat do you find the best?

=) Karen

Finding that Olay Thermal Mini Peel

So I was serious when I said I wanted a full size of that Olay Regenerist Thermal Mini Peel. It's a really gentle exfoiliator that I could use more often that the harsher St. Ives Apricot scrub. This was the sample size of it that I got:



So I went to my local drugstore and couldn't find the Olay Regenerist thermal mini peel. Instead I ended up seeing something very similar:



The way this Olay Warming Deep Purifying Cleanser is described is pretty much exactly like the regenerist mini-peel I'm looking for. I was sort of like, what the heck? Because Olay keeps marketing their Regenerist line as different from the rest of their products (just like their Definity line). But you know the regenerist line is a bit pricier than the regular Olay line so I hope Olay is not going to market this Warming Deep Purifying scrub as a regenerist thermal mini-peel later on and double the price along with a new Regenerist packaging. I sort of confused so I didn't pick up the cleanser this time around.

Have you had this problem before where you're looking for a product and find that it's marketed at a different price with different packaging?

U2 Concert at Rogers Centre

Wow, I guess when you pay $45 to see U2 in concert you get to sit very close to the rooftop! Well, you know when they sell binoculars on the level you sit at that it's a sign! Haha. Oh well, the concert was great though. I have to be honest and say that I could do without all the political messages thrown in between the songs, but that's to be expected from U2.

The opening act, Snow Patrol was pretty good too. For some odd reason I thought they were from Toronto - darn, they're from Ireland though. Of course, all the good lighting and video footage was done much better when U2 got on stage. I don't know why they didn't bother to do better lighting and video for Snow Patrol.

The rooftop of the Rogers Centre was half open so I had a nice view of the sky, condos and the lovely CN tower =) Here are a couple of pictures from my iPhone (what crap!) which really didn't do the view any justice:



You can see the opening of the rooftop here:



This was the stage. It was open (no walls surrounding the stage) which is really nice so there's no obstructed views:






Snow Patrol was done by 8 pm (their performance started at 7 pm). And by the time U2 came on just before 9 pm, it was dark:



Wow, looks like the stage blew up here! LOL



Pretty red:



It was really pretty towards the end of the concert when this disco ball lighting came on:

FOTD / OOTD for U2 Concert

Hope your week is going well so far!

U2 is in town tonight and I'm going to the concert with a few friends. Snow Patrol is opening up so this should be a great show =) The last concert I went to was at Casino Rama to see Live - and they're really good in concert (I think the lead singer is hot too!).

So I thought since it's a concert I can use some glitter for sure. Here I used MAC's Reflects Rust Glitter all over the lid and MAC's Print eye shadow lightly on the outer corners of my top eye lid. Visine really does help the glitter pack onto the eye lid but I would stress that less visine is more. I was using half a drop because the first time I tried it today, I used a full drop on my brush and the glitter just packed on like crazy. This the look I got:

Sorry for the blur on top here, the camera strap got in the way! :

And I'm gonna wear the dress I got from Forever21 a few weeks ago. I'll pair it with flat sandals since I don't feel like standing still in heels for like 3 hours (not comfy).

Well, I'm not looking forward to the crazy crowds when it's time to exit the Rogers Centre. Not to mention that the subway ride home might be crazy packed - so I might opt for walking home instead (a 30 minute walk).

Have you been to any concerts lately? Who was the last group/artist you saw in concert?

=) Karen

FOTD

I have to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store now....my guinea pig is bugging me for green veggies and is fed up of his carrots! So this is the look I came up with (without/with flash):

Eyes:

MAC Rubenesque paint pot (all over lid as a base)

Lorac Glam Rocks in Metallic Copper (all over lid)

MAC Print (on outer 1/3 of eye lids applied with a light hand)

MAC Blitz & Glitz fluidline (top, bottom lashes)

UD Zero deluxe eye shadow (to seal the fluidline)

MAC Prep + Prime lash

L'Oreal Voluminous Waterproof mascara in Carbon black (I personally don't think it's any blacker than the regular black L'Oreal Voluminous)

Face:

Revlon Colourstay foundation in 220 Natural Beige

MAC Blot Powder in Medium

MAC Golden bronzing powder

MAC Hello Kitty Fun & Games blush -I'm gonna miss this blush when I'm out :(

Lips:

MAC Colour Crafted lipstick (I really like the colour but no so much the texture)

MAC Underage tinted lipglass (a favourite)

Hope you're having a lovely Tuesday =) Karen

FOTD, desert & a new handbag

I hope your week is off to a great start!

Today I ventured with green eye shadow. I always wished I could be a bit more versatile with my eye shadow colours but it seems that only a few shades compliment my eye/skin/hair colour best....and I don't think green is one of those shades. But I'm not going out anywhere important today or meeting anyone extra special so what the heck! Anyways, I personally think the green eye shadow makes the whites of my eyes more yellow for some odd reason. This is the look:



I used MAC's Steamy eye shadow on the whole eye lid and on the outer 1/3 of my eye lids I used Gosh's Effects Powder in 06 Greeny.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my Mom and older sister. Later on my Dad joined us and we went to a Malaysian take out food place called Gourmet Garden and they're actually pretty good.

In any case we had the regular fried noodles and I had beef curry with roti. The desert however was a Malaysian desert which you might not be as familar with (like me). I wasn't particularly crazy about the deserts like my older sister was...I think it's because it tastes so different than Canadian deserts which is what I grew up and crave (cheesecake, ice cream/frozen yogurt, tartes...mmmm.!). So anyways, I thought I would share a pic or two of the deserts so you can see what I mean by different. At the top of the picture is a Malay desert called Ice Kachang (my Dad said Kachang is "ice" in Malay) and it's not that bad...I tasted cappachino or some sort of mocha flavour to it but I was told it's palm or peanut syrup actually. At the bottom of the same picture is another Malay desert called Chendol. I could really taste the coconut milk in this desert and it's also got some palm or peanut syrup in it too.

Ice Kachang (top) and Chendol (bottom)




Ice Kachang close up:




After you stir around the mountain of ice/peanuts in the Ice Kachang, you can see it has like jello like cubes in it and corn too! Corn in desert is a totally new concept for me so that's why I took this picture too!



Enough about desert....anyhow, I picked up a new handbag today! Yay! LOL. I have a bag similar to this giraffe like print however, I don't have a bag with horse hair on it. I've been eyeing a bag for a while that has that kind of short horse hair on it (I know it sounds weird so I hope you know what I mean). This is the bag I picked up and I'm really happy with it. Can't wait to wear it out!



The inside of the bag is lined in red:




A close up of the bag so you see what I mean about the texture/hair (I don't want to call it fur!):



And the bag is pretty spacious and large. I like big handbags because I always carry around a crap load of stuff! So this is a quick picture of me with my new bag:

Let me know what you were up to this weekend and how your week is going so far to start =)

Karen