Pier 1 Import: Should I say I am obsessed?

Hello Everyone,

I went to Pier One Import just to pick up one thing and one thing only, but I end up coming out with several items. Dont' you just hate that. I started to transition my room from Winter to Spring (I know it is still early), but I am loving this one scent that they have right now. As I was walking in, I saw a stand fill with green candles, room diffusers, fragrance beads, etc... and I just had to stop and sniff. It says Citrus Cilantro and I was curious on how it smelled. I love adding cilantro to my food but never heard of cilantro being a scent. One sniff and I feel in love with it. It's very refreshing and not too overpowering. I can see this being a kitchen or bathroom scent, but I just love it in my room.

I am not good at describing scents so I will just let you know what is in it: Blend of lemon, lime, cilantro, bergamot, grapefruit, mandarin orange, lively green basil, lime blossom, rose, jasmine, cyclamen, rosemary, coriander, fir, and musk, Yes, that is a lot of ingredients.

All of their scented items are 20% off plus I had an additional 10%. Alright!!!

I picked up Citrus Cilantro Potpourri ($14.40). It's really cute with dried orange slices and lime. It just makes your room smell so good.

The next thing I got is the Citrus Cilantro room spray ($5.60). I would spray my room before I get into bed and in the morning. The best time I love spraying my room is after I steamed my carpet because I feel the scent lingers for a longer period of time.

I also picked up Citrus Cilantro Fragrance Beads: $4 - They smell so good and look like fish eggs. That sounded kinda weird. It's also fun playing with them because you can shake them around and these oily balls just slides everywhere in the jar. Hahaha.... I don't think I am getting any better at describing this. Ok, I will shut up now.

Also, going along with the Citrus Cilantro theme, I picked up the scented tea light candles ($5.60 for a box of 30). They actually go very well with the item that I actually went in for in the first place.

I think this is enough to make my room smell like Citrus Cilantro... don't cha think?

Ok, now for the item I really went in for is the Metal Eiffel Tower Centerpiece- Paris is know as the City of Lights. This brings me back to my backpacking days in Europe.

Eiffel Tower with my Citrus Cilantro tea light candles (I also like the reflection it makes on the wall):

Now, prepare to see the Eiffel tower lit!

Even better at night!
Ta-Da!

I love making my room a place where I can de-stress and relax. So, this is my way of meditating. 

Have a great night!

<3 <3 <3

Birchbox for January

Hello Everyone,

I just love getting goodies in the mail. Yes, I still have Birchbox even though I am also a subscriber for MyGlam bag because I feel that they offer different products. It is also $10 a month and you get one or two full size item(s) and some deluxe samples.

This month is about bringing clarity to your life from your mind to your beauty regimen. Basically, to start your year fresh with healthy skin and eating right. The products in this box are listed on the card below.

I wasn't too excited about this month's Birchbox maybe except for the Stila smudge stick waterproof eye liner.

Let's get to the items:
Borghese CuraForte Moisture Intensifier: This is actually not a bad product. It's a bit more on the expensive side ($67.50 for a full size bottle) but I love the fact that it is a serum and can be mixed with another cream to intensify the moisture to your skin.

C.O. Bigelow: Lavender and Peppermint Shampoo and Conditioner: $12 for full size
I like fruity and flower scents in my shampoo rather than peppermint, however, it does make my hair feel soft and refreshing.
Would I buy it at the store? No, it's really not a smell I would normally go for.  I can see other people loving it because it feels nice, luxuries, and the lavender mixed with peppermint just soothes your body.

Juicy Couture Signature Fragrance: Full size- $69-$89
I am not a big Juicy Couture perfume fan, but it does have a very feminine scent which I love. It's definitely does smell sweet and floral. This is great to wear for a nice afternoon date and can be easily transitioned to a dinner date too.
It's funny how they also threw in a small pack of granola from Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio's NY based wichcraft chain. I am trying to eat healthier so this is a great tasty snack.

The last item is the Stila smudge stick waterproof eye liner in Purple Tang: $20.
I like using a lot of Stila's eye liners because they are very pigmented. I am glad this is waterproof because I have oily lids that can easily smudge throughout the day. This eyeliner has a little shimmer which is great to wear for evening.

Have a great night!
<3 <3 <3

MyGlam Bag for January

Hello Everyone,

Guess what came in the mail?
MyGlam bag!!! My Glam is a website that is created by Michelle Phan who is a makeup guru on Youtube and one of Lancome's spokesperson. It is only $10 a month and you can get 4-5 full sized products or deluxe size samples per month.

I love what was in the December's package which made me so eager to see what will be in this month's package. Now that it is here, let's see what is inside. I haven't tried the products yet because I just got it.

In the previous month, they sent a small makeup bag fill with products and I was wondering if there will be a different bag for each month.... and yes, they do make a custom bag for each month.

This month's makeup bag is called Back to Nature.

 All the products inside are environmentally friendly.

The first item is a full size Facial Peel-off Mask in cucumber by Freeman ($8). I have used this product before and I love it. I am glad I am getting back to using it again. It really nourishes and hydrate your face. The best part is peeling the mask off in once piece. After using it a few times, you will see a gorgeous glow in your skin.

Second item is the Full size Sheer Cover Duo Concealer: $29. I heard it provides great coverage and has a flawless finish. This is one of the items that I cannot wait to try.

Third item is a deluxe sample size of Wen Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner (16 oz- $36)
This conditioner will not strip your hair of it's natural oil and at the same time will leave your hair hydrated.
I have heard good things about WEN so I hope it lives up to everything that people raved about.

The last product in the bag is The Balm Cosmetics Hot Ticket Nail Polish- $10. I was hoping to get the eyeshadow instead, but I guess a full size nail polish is good too. It comes in pink or green color and I got the green in Grass Is(n't) Always Greener.
It claims to be a long-lasting nail polish which I will put it to test next week.

The other items in the bag are promotional discounts if you want to buy any of the products in the full size or other products that are made by that company.

Overall, it is worth subscribing on a monthly basis because a lot of the products are full size and you really get your money's worth.

The only issue I have with them is they have so many people subscribing and it took them a while to mail out the products for this month.

Have a great night!
<3 <3 <3

Products that Fail

Hello Everyone,

Remember how I was excited to try some of the new nail products that just came out this month? Well, I can tell you that the Gel Perfect 5 minute Gel-color manicure by Nutra nail completely fail. I had such high expectations for this because it claims to dry in 5 minutes as a gel nail without UV light.

I don't know where to start. The box came with 3 miniature bottles: 5 Minute Gel Polish, Gel Perfect nail color, and the brush cleaner. Just for this kit, it was $12-13.

Step 1 is to use the 5 Minute Gel Polish on top of your clean nail. No base coat is needed. When I unscrewed the bottle, the brush looks like this:

I hate when the brush is split like this and how do they expect you to paint your nails with it? Also, it's very important not to get the 5 Minute Gel Polish on your skin because it's very sticky. Well, it was a bit difficult to work with if I am getting this type of brush. 

Then, I open the Gel Color nail polish and the brush is very thin and stiff. I've used a variety of nail polish from $1.99-$25 and I have never seen this poor of a quality before. 

I still continue to give it a try. I can feel my nails harden similar to a gel nail, but it does not look nice like a gel nail. The overall quality is very poor. #Fail!

I also picked up the No-Mess Express Gel Perfect Remover ($8) and it claims to remove the Gel Perfect Color nails in less than 2 minutes. NOT! It looks so easy and fast on the box, but I had to do some major scrubbing and it took me probably 15-20 minutes to remove the gel polish from my fingers and toes. Even though most of the polish came off, I still see some left overs on my nail. So not a clean and easy process. #Fail!

Next item on the hit list is the Make-up Brush Cleaner by Crown Brush. I know the MAC makeup brush cleaner is not the best, but this is soooooo much worse than MAC. At least I feel the MAC makeup brush cleaner gets a lot of the products off, this doesn't even come close. I can still see the products on my brushes no matter how much I used. Also, there is a scent to this which I am not very fond of. I will still use this until it is empty because I don't like wasting it, but never will I buy it again. #Fail!

Brushes

I can tolerate cheap brushes that are made with soft hair, but I cannot tolerate brushes that are cheap WITH stiff hair. While I was looking through my brush collection, I found a few brushes that I always avoid using. 

ELF Total Face Brush. I know ELF brushes are $1-$6 which is very cheap.  There are few that are great, but most are not. The hair on this brush is not very soft to the touch and has a lot of fall outs. I cannot see anyone using this as a foundation brush or let alone a blush brush because it feels so rough. The other two brushes with the black handles are from Bare Escentuals and think the hair are very thick and coarse. I do think Bare Escentuals do have decent brushes, but these two are just not brushes that I gravitate towards. I rather spend the money towards ELF (some), Sonia Kashuk, Sigma, Sedona Lace, or MAC brushes.

I hope this is helpful

Have a great night!

<3 <3 <3

Change is good!

Hello Everyone,

I colored my hair again! I think the light brown cool tone color doesn't suit me very well. I feel more comfortable with a darker warm shade. I went to Walgreens to pick out a darker hair color and it's called light auburn black from L'Oreal Paris. So far, I like the color and I do feel it's more me.

Recently, I have just been talking about new drugstore products, but I also want to show how they look on. Here is a picture of me without any makeup.

Well, hello! I look pale and I do have some redness around my eyes and nose. Gosh, I didn't even know if I should even show this..... anyways, I do walk out the door without makeup when I have to run errands.

To get an even skin tone, I have to apply foundation. My body is a bit darker than my face so I had to pick a foundation that is a few shades darker to have it blend evenly. Also, I do like a little but more color on my foundation, but not too much where you can tell it's the wrong color for me.

Revlon came out with the Photoready airbrush foundation in a aerosol like can. It supposed to give your face an airbrush look. The foundation is a light to medium coverage so it's not going to cover any dark circles. To cover dark circles I prefer to use a concealer. The texture is like a mousse.

It's hard to control how much comes out of the bottle because it's foam. Since I cannot control how much comes out in one squirt, I feel like I have to use all of the products even if I didn't need to because I don't want to waste it.

A picture after I apply just the foundation and blush:

The blush that I used are:
Amazing Cosmetic: Cinnamon (A tiny bit gives you so much color) One of my favorite blushes of all time.

On top of the Amazing blush, I have on Hot Tamale from Maybelline Dream Bouncy.

I do have oil/combination skin so I feel the need to apply a matte pressed powder on top of my foundation. I do this before I put my blush. I use CARGO Blu-Ray in #30

Now for the eyes, I used the new L'Oreal 24Hr Infallible eyeshadows. Just to keep it natural but with some color, I used: 333- Golden Sage on my lid, 890- bronzed taupe for my crease and to blend, and 888- Iced Latte for my brow highlight.

For the eyeliner, you can use any black eyeliner. I just used Almay because that was the only liquid liner I can find at the time.

Here is the overall look:

Lip: Revlon lip butter in Peach Parfait.
Happy Lunar New Year!!

Have a great night!
<3 <3 <3