Likables July 2010 ft. Lion of Ido, Inception

This will just be a collection of things that have interested me non-makeup wise through out the month of July.
 Mostly pop culture and music.

I've found this amazing band that I love and am obsessed with. They're called Lion of Ido and are based in New York City. Every single song out of their EP album is amazing and catchy and just overall makes me feel happy. I feel that I've found a great discovery and am excited for any new music they come out with. What's even better is that on their website, they've provided their EP album for free download! Don't worry it's legit. If you're interested, try it! It won't hurt because it's free. Here's the link. 
Then click on the left hand icon to download! Probably my all time favourite song of theirs is Day by Day.


Also, in terms of movies, I watched Inception and Salt recently. They were both great movies int heir own ways. I'll definitely have to watch Inception again some time because it at times got pretty confusing.
However, is it just me or does Joseph Gordon-Levitt look asian or at least partly asian. The instant I saw him on the big screen I recognized him from a movie made like 10 years ago. Does "10 things I hate about you" ring any bells? Starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.

I'll let you decide for yourself. But I think we can all agree he's pretty darn good looking.

Can't believe summer's half-over.

Mac Help Please?

I have a question that I need to be solved by other makeup officianados in the world wide web.
Recently I bought the Quo Bronzer Brush, otherwise known as a dupe for the Mac 187 Brush.

Here's a picture above.
I've used it now and washed it. Oh yeah, and I paid around $13 + tax for it. Regularly $22 but 40% off. It is made in China.

When I used it for my liquid foundation I thought it was pretty good. It gave me more natural coverage than if I were to use my fingers but it shed a few hairs on my face which was annoying. But more or less what I expected. Also, after I washed it, it had that dreaded dead animal smell. Is seemed to also be too sparse and big, I would prefer a more closely held and concentrated brush.
I bought this in hopes of it being a good alternative to the $50 Mac 187.

So here's where your thoughts come in. Should I keep this Quo brush and make do with it, even though I'm not completely satisfied and that the Mac won't be much different? Or should I save up and/or wait for a sale (Mac Friends and Family Sale?) to buy the Mac 187 because it will be better and last longer?

Any help/advice much appreciated.Thanks!

Collective June/July Clothing Haul 2010

Here's the second part to my haul: the clothing/shoes portion

One thing I forgot to include were pictures of some new turquoise jewelery pieces I got from my mom. I'm really into turquoise these days, such a beautiful colour.

This was a tank top that I spotted in Winners for $14.99. I love the floral print, it's also really light and comfortable to wear on those hot summer days.

A nice straw hat I found in my mom's closet. 

I almost dropped dead when I found this. I was on the hunt for a feminine romper and I found this one at Winners. It was originally $16.99 but one of the straps were falling off so I got it for $12.99 which is a bargain for such a beautiful piece of clothing. It's so comfy: like wearing PJ's.

A pair of basic high waisted jean shorts from Urban Outfitters. Reduced to $10 from $54.

A purplish-grey skirt also from Urban Outfitters. ALSO reduced to $10 from $54. Love the side detailing.

Basic peachy pink skirt from Zara. Goes to the knees but nice to be pulled up to the waist with a shirt tucked in. $10.

I don't know if I talked my relationship with second hand stores, specifically Goodwill. If you have the patience and know what to look out for, sometimes you can score some really good deals. I went on a day where the whole store was 50%, which was a bonus! This time, I found two items:

This is a BCBG Maxazria black velvet jacket. Fits really nice and it is silk-lined. Something from this line would normally retail over $100. I got it for $2.25, since it was originally $5.49 minus the 50% off. OH another thing I forgot to mention is that there are no taxes at Goodwill!!!

The other thing I purchased were these really unusual pairs of shoes. I don't know the brand but they were brand new and my size. They kind of look like they belong in the Bata Shoe Museum haha. It's really cute with the bows. Bought for $4.50, half of $9.

That's all for now. I love hearing bargains that other people have found. Please share in the comments below!

Collective June/July Makeup Haul 2010

Long time no write. Cutting the crap, here is just a bunch of things that I've bought over the last couple of weeks. School finished and I felt like treating myself to a few things.
Stick around for my next post, which I hopefully will have up soon, of my collective clothing haul.

To start off: the family picture

These items were purchased at Pharma Plus, MAC, Urban Outfitters, Loblaws/Joe

Commencing with nail polishes. If you spotted out earlier, I purchased three even though I seceretly swore after purchasing OPI's Absolutely Alice that I'd take a break. No can do.

Left to write: Urban Outfitters Matte Green 7, Wet n Wild Blazed and Urban Outfitters Sparkle Purple 

Two UO polishes swatched on paper. Sucks that the glitter couldn't be captured on photo. I put on the mint green/blue for the first time today. Takes 3 coats for it to be opaque. A good dupe for China Glaze's For Audrey (which I do not own). Have yet to try the purple. Bought these for $0.99 on sale/clearance, I think they are regularly priced at $6.

This is me wearing the Wet n' Wild colour. 3 coats with Seche Vite top coat. Chips quickly and in chunks. Paid $1.99. A nice summer coral. Debated between getting this or Joe's Coral.

Splurge of the month was my first MAC brush. Wheeeee. This is the MAC 217. I was looking for a blending/crease brush and after doing some research (Makeupalley), I opted for this one. It costs $27.50 plus taxes. It is perfect and exactly what I was looking for. Painted clear nail polish over the wording so that the ink wouldn't fade. 

Size comparison to my hand. I have a relatively small hand.

At Loblaws/Joe, a Canadian supermarket, I picked up this body spray on clearance. As seen above, it is in the scent Fresh Lemon. Very rejuvenating and light. Half off of $5.

Also bought my first lip stain. It is the Joe Fresh lipstain in Sheer Pink. Paid $6 plus taxes. Long wearing, natural looking colour. Not drying if apply a lipbalm or gloss on top.

Lastly, my finds at Pharma Plus:

All three of these items were extremely well priced. The two NYC products were $1.50 each! i got their pressed powder and quad. Have yet to try the powder but the quad is very light and wearable, do not expect extreme pigmentation. The covergirl Professional volume mascara I think was on sale for $3.99, but with a coupon, I paid $2.50. I have been hearing great reviews about this, not like I need another mascara though.

You might think that including a deoderant I purchased might be random and weird but I have perfectly good intentions of mentioning this. This is my favourite and basically only deoderant I have ever used. It is the Adidas for women cotton tech yada yada. I almost had a heart attack when i heard they were discontinuing it. People must have been in a rage because they're bringing it back. Yay! It's my favourite because it's very basic and gets the job done. I have no wetness and no smell, other than the fresh scent of the deoderant itself. It also DOES NOT contain aluminum or parabens. I'd say that over 90% of deoderants today contain a high percentage of aluminum, up to in the high 20 percentile. With a little research you'll find that aluminum is potentially cancer causing. Also, have you ever gotten pit stains before? Well, I haven't. And that's because there is no aluminum. Chemistry 101: aluminum is a metal, therefore it oxidizes. The aluminum in your deoderant oxidizes and turns yellow and anything else that touches it, i.e. your clothing. I highly recommend this as it is also affordable, $4 regular price. Haha, I swear I'm not sponsored by Adidas but I truly believe in this product.

Thanks for hearing me out!

Read this and GO NOW!

This is just a quick announcement. Very important that you listen CAREFULLY. It may change your makeup lives, or not.

Did you see last week on the Sephora website of the Stila trio deal of 3 FULL sized eyeshadow for $10 US plus s+h? Including Chloe, Lame and my favourite Kitten?
It sucks that shipping to Canada would be like 7 dollars or more though.

Well, guess what? I was so surprised to see that a couple of days ago at Urban Outfitters, they SOLD the palette there! For only $12 CAD! This is an awesome deal as one shadow by Stila costs $23 CAD. But you get 3 for only $12. It's included in a cute black palette.

So if you were ever contemplating on getting this cult fave shadow, check out your local Urban Outfitters now before it's too late! Unfortunately I can't find a picture of what it looks like online but you'll have to trust me on this and check it out for yourself!

Good luck on finding it!


Coming up will be a mini collective clothing and makeup haul.

June Favourites

Hey guys!

Long time no favourites. I'm trying to get on top of things. Not bad, since it's only July 3rd. Happy Belated Canada Day to all Canadians and Happy 4th of July to all Americans!

Here is the collection of favourites from this month:

And the individual pictures close up:

Mac Brill Eyeshadow (Satin finish), Urban Decay Matte Secret Service

I love to wear the first one as a wash, which is unusual because it is a silvery-green colour. But, it turns out great and really opens my eyes. Secret Service i picked up at Winners for only $4.99! It's the perfect matte crease colour, extremely pigmented and has many uses.

Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat and Elf Contouring blush & bronzing powder

All time favourite top coat, and really the only nail polish that has shown evidence of use. I'm over half way done and very upset because I don't know where else I can find it. Again, I bought it at Winners for $4.99, I heard it retails for a lot more. Anyone know where I can get it in Toronto? Wow. And I just realised that I picked up the ELF compact at Winners too, for $6.99. I've really only tested out the blush, which I really like because of it's light and naturalness. When I don't know what to put on my cheeks, this is my go to blush.

Mac A Rose Romance and Mac Lipglass in Pret a Papier

Both of these I picked up at the Mac warehouse sale. The pink lipstick is my only one really, so I'm glad to have it in my collection. Very wearable and sheer, since it's a Lustre. Smells awesome too. The dark red lipstick I'm surprised I enjoy as much as I do. It comes out to a nice vampy red, and lasts a long time on lips. A little stickier than I usually like, but all in all a great gloss.

Top to bottom: Sample Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin, Mac Brow pencil in Taupe, L'oreal extra-intense liquid pencil eyeliner

Sorry for the flash. I've been enjoying this lid primer, more so than the original version which most of you may find surprising. I love the wash of shimmer it gives, I'll need to pick up the full-size soon. The brow pencil is my first official brow product, other than a clear mascara, but it is very subtle, natural and does in fact enhance my eyebrow colour. I feel it's a very versatile colour that could be used on many skin tones if used correctly. The black liner is a very intense colour, more-so than the Urban Decay zero liner and for a  much more affordable price. I would recommend this if you're interested in a new eyeliner. Swatches will be shown below. 

With Flash

Without flash.

Left to right: Mac Brill, UD Secret Service, Mac Brow Pencil, L'oreal liner, UDPP in Sin, Mac A Rose Romance, Mac Pret a Papier, Blush and Bronzer from Elf compact

Thanks for reading!

Productrater's Awesome Giveaway!

Hey guys!

I've been subscribed to a fellow canadian for I think just over a month now.
She does really great reviews and if you love nail polish like I do, you'll love all the hauls and swatches of polish she does!

In fact, she's having an awesome giveaway now. It ends July 21st so hurry up before it ends!
Here's the link: http://productrater.blogspot.com/2010/06/productraters-100-follower-giveaway.html#comments

Good luck!

Products I've Hit Pan

So this isn't going to be one of those Project 10 pan videos, I don't think I would be able to do it

However, I'll show you the products I've either finished or the pan is visible.

The products shown here are: Physician Formula's Talc-Free Face Powder in Buff Beige, Joe Fresh Lipgloss in Sheer pink, Clinique all over colour in peony, Bare Escentuals Buxom Lips in Amber (you guys know how much i love this!) and Clinique long last glosswear in air kiss.
As you can see, i don't how many products that are on the verge of being finished. I have a problem. I can't identify ONE eye product that I could've put in this post! It's crazy. I've finished mascaras before, such as Rimmel Sexy Curves and L'oreal Voluminous but I don't think those count.

I don't know of the quality of these pictures. I took them with my new phone: LG New Chocolate because my sister took the camera I use on a trip. The phone has 5mp, so it should do the job.

Also, a couple of days ago i found a store in Pacific Mall selling the Alice in Wonderland Collection still by OPI. I was so excited but unfortunately they didn't have Mad As a Hatter. I did however pick up Alice in Wonderland. GORGEOUS blue sparkly colour but it's going to be a pain to remove. The price was good to, $8.50 CAD with tax included.

That's all for now! Have a good weekend. Exam week is coming up and it's killing me.
So excited for summer you have no idea!

June Mac Warehouse Sale 2010

Hey guys,

Sorry for the delayed posting of my (mini) haul from the Mac Warehouse Sale. Before I begin I just want to tell you all about my first experience there.If this bores you, feel free to skip ahead. So I went with my good friend on Sunday, June 6th and arrived at 7:50 even though it starts at 9am. It was raining that day but we're lucky because they let us wait inside. There were already about 50 people there. An hour later, they let our whole group in. There are three large rooms in there each filled with Mac goodies and other brands owned by Estee Lauder such as Clinique, Origins. I just focused on Mac. Overall, we spend around 2 hours there since there was hardly any line ups at all. Advice: just arrive early and bring paper and pen to write down the things you want.

There were three items that I regret not buying. First is the Eversun blush from the Style warriors collection which I instead picked up Blossoming Blushcreme. Second is the DKNY Be Delicious perfume. It was only $35 for the 50mL but it just wasn't my top priority. Third is the Mac Fix+ Rose. I'm also upset I didn't see the Mac Face and Body Foundation which I heard was there for only $10, originally close to $40.

Anyways, for the things that I did purchase was not that much. I'm overall happy about it since I saved a lot of money. By the way, sorry for the sucky pictures, lighting was not good.

Here's my collective purchases minus one since I sold my Sweet William Blush Creme to my friend.

Now my individual items:

Select Cover-up Concealer in NW25 (hopefully this is the right colour) for $7, regularly $20

Probably the best deal of the day other than the Charity Pack. Devoted Poppy: 6: Classic Eyes from the 2008 Holiday Collection? Love the jeweled packaging! On special buy 1 get 1 free for $15, so my friend and I bought one. Paid $7.50, originally $44 (?)

These two lipglasses cam in the Charity Pack. All money goes to Breast Cancer research. 4 full sized items for $5. Lipglass in Pret a papier, nice dark burgundy red and Lustreglass in LustreWhite, shimmery clear gloss.

Ohhh crappy photo. Two lipsticks both Lustre finishes for buy 1 get 1 free for $15. Left in Made with Love, right in A Rose Romance (pretty pink).

Brill eyeshadow, satin finish. Came in charity bag. Silvery blue colour.

Gorgeous pigment (in old packaging hurrah!) in Jardin Aires. Shimmery coppery champagne. Messy but oh so many uses. Paid $9, originally $23.

Cremeblush in Blossoming. Paid $12, originally $23 (?). Don't know if I should keep it, some people say this blush is glittery. Haven't used it yet.

Brow pencil came in Charity Pack. Colour in Taupe, universal colour.

So that's my haul! Hope you enjoyed. I'm going to have fun with these products for a while.
Talk to you later

eleventh0fapril 50 follower contest!

Hi y'all

My makeup buddy eleventh0fapril is holding a contest!
The link to it is here: http://eleventh0fapril.blogspot.com/2010/06/50-followers-giveaway.html#comments
Follow her! She's great!


Thanks!

Just came back. . .

from the Mac Warehouse Sale!
It was amazing! My friend and I got there really early so there was barely any line at all. I picked up a few things, but not as much as some other people I know did (eleventh0fapril)!
I'll post a haul when I find time to take the pictures.

If you guys have a chance to go, seriously, go! The sales are awesome!

The only thing that I regret was buying Blossoming Blush Creme because the free gift was Sweet William blush creme. They're so similar in colour. I think I'm going to post Sweet William for swap on Makupalley.

Talk to you later!

Amazing

This is going to be really short.

But you must watch this!!!

Happiness!!!!      ---Click here---

MIA + Mac Warehouse!

Remember me? I know, right? I think it's been over a good two weeks.
I have a lame "excuse". School. Stupid school.
Anyway, all my culminating and papers are for the most part, over and done with. Next is finals! Yippee!

But. . .I've got some pretty exciting news! My friend, "thank you", hooked me up with Mac Warehouse Tickets! Unfortunately, she was unable to go so I gave one of my besties the other ticket and we're going tomorrow. I hope we'll score some good deals there.
Haul will be coming up shortly.
Specifically, I'm going to be looking for brushes, any veluxe pearl eyeshadows (favourite finish!), grand entrance eyeshadow, a pink lipstick (similar to Viva Glam Gaga), the Skin Refined Zone pore minimizer, MSF Natural, Face + Body Foundation, and a Clinique Eye makeup remover.

May Favourites

Here's my May Favourites! Sorry there's a delay. It's been hectic at school right now. I'm going to be using stock pictures today just cuz I'm lazy :P

First up: LONGCHAMP! woop. i've been using it ever since I got it a few months ago. SO versatile and easy to use. goes with everything. i ordered mine online from magnums.net. they are a legit seller and have great, fast shipping! Also, if it's your first purchase there, you can sign up for their newsletter and get $10 off your first purchase!

I own both the Physician's Formula loose and pressed mineral powder. But, even though the loose powder is harder to work with, it gives me a better, less cakey finish. It lets my skin breathe which I'm all for. It's one of the more expensive brands, but I believe that their quality is better. I use it with my Posh Flat Top Brush.
(Don't use the brush that goes with it, it's so itchy and rough!)

Oh my god! That's so cool. I looked up on google images for a stock photo of the Posh Flat Top and the first result was a picture I used in my earlier post! Haha, I guess I'll have to use that one then. (It's the second from the left)

Another favourite is my Benefit Hoola bronzer. It's getting hot where I live and this bronzer is really nice to give colour to the face. It may look muddy in the box, but with a light hand: flawless!

My steady companion and favourite is the Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer. Really nice drugstore alternative for a under eye concealer. I got it a shade lighter so that it would brighten up my tired circles from lack of sleep.

The two neutral eyeshadow looks I've been wearing a lot is my Cover Girl Shimmering Sands and the Clinique Duo in Seashell Pink and Fawn satin.Foolproof

Overall, this month I have not been wearing much makeup. In fact, for the majority of the time, I've gone bare.
As well, I've been thinking, one thing I have not really posted on my blog yet is a real review. I'm not sure where to begin. So if you guys have any suggestion, that would really help me out.

Talk to you later!








I should really do a review of something.