♡ NOTD ♡

I changed my nails... AGAIN!!! har harrr
The Teenage Dream glitter + Black Shatter nail polish took FOREVER to remove so I just wanted to go with something simple and easy to remove after going through all that messiness. 
This is OPI's Gargantuan Green Grape and it's a super pretty vibrant light green. 

By the way, just ignore my infected cuticle, I was really naughty a few days ago and decided to pull a bit of the skin and ripped my finger :( It wasn't that bad when I first pulled it but then throughout today, I totally just killed it more. It went through super hot tap water, plus a little bit of hot rice that was just freshly cooked accidentally got onto the little sore spot and I wanted to scream. Now the area around it is a bit red too whilst before it was just a little red dot. Other than that my cuticles and fingers are getting so much better. I've always been so obsessed with nail polish but I've been neglecting my cuticles and for the last couple months they've been getting ridiculously dry and horrid so I purchased a cuticle butter (Lemony Flutter from LUSH, which I mentioned in the previous post) and have been crazy using it for all of this week and my cuticles are so much better now :) YAY!!!


For the next post I will be going through everything I like and have been using from my goodies bag that I got from Revlon and some of my current favorite things PLUS some exciting news XD eeep!!! 


CIAO!! :P byeee ^^ 

♡ HAUL ♡

I went SHOPPING!!! 

I know that I've said previously that I was saving up but I had a credit voucher which was money I had used before I started saving so its kinda like free money,kinda haha. 

I had previously purchased a Ipad case from Forever New but unfortunately when I got home it was difficult to put the Ipad through the sleeve, I was literally shoving it in and by the time it was sitting in the sleeve, the case couldn't close so I took it back for a refund but instead they gave me a credit voucher. I thought I should get a refund as the product was faulty, it said on the label that it was compatible with Ipad1 and 2, and mine was a 1. But I wasn't really up for arguing about it. Anyway, when I went shopping yesterday with my mother, I had seen this really pretty case. There was another lady looking at the cases also and she had the Ipad1 and 2 with her so I asked if I could see if the 1 would fit in the case I was looking at, which it did. I was so happy but the other lady wanted that case too however it was the last one displayed. As the kind girl I am, I went to the counter and asked for her if there were any more in stock like maybe in the back rooms or something. Whilst the lady was checking, I some how lost my mother in the tiny store. I went for a little look-about and found her. By the time I got back to the counter I realized that the store ladies had found another one, a new cleaner one and the other lady took it. I was so annoyed and frustrated. I'm a little bit weird with stuff like that because I know I'm going to dirty it over time so I don't want to have the old, unclean version to start with. I was peeved -__- not happy at all. Then for some odd reason I started to stress out. I mentioned in my previous post that I had been under a lot of stress and I guess it hadn't worn off yet. I literally exploded in the store... okay not literally but basically (that would be so weird if I did explode haha). I couldn't make a decision if I wanted the dirty one or choose another case. In the end I left the store just deciding not to decide HAHA. I figured I might try my luck in other shopping centres. So I woke up early today and went to the Forever New in Pacific Fair. I walked into the store and discovered that the case I wanted was not there AT ALL, not a clean one and not even a dirty one. So I tried my luck further and asked the store assistant if there were any matching the description I gave in the back room. I was hearing a lot of 'if its not on the shelf then its all gone' :( but the girl was kind enough to look harder and found one. She came out and honestly if she didn't notice it I probably wouldn't have because I was so excited and relieved but there was a huge black mark on the back and since the case is white it is so obvious. Lucky there was another one, completely clean and perfect. What kinda depressed me a little was that I found out there was a navy version which would be so much better because the navy wouldn't get ruined or messy as fast plus I'm super into navy right now. But I was comprising. I got what I came for after a LONG journey. 

Such a cute case right!!! And I love that its like a little hand bag. It also comes with a longer strap so you can hang it off your shoulder like a normal bag however I guess my luck ended and when I got home, I realized it didn't come with the longer strap. FAIL. So I called the store and told them what happened and they said that if I come in they can help me except tomorrow is a public holiday and they don't open. OF COURSE -___-! So I have to wait till Tuesday and drive all the way back just for a strap! Fantastic! Not like I have any where else to be or anything. A lot of effort for a stupid cute case, I'm beginning to think its not worth all this stress and time. 

ANYWAY!!! 

I kept shopping around some more because when I get started, I really get started. I went to checkout revlon's photoready powders because I had heard good things about it plus I already sometimes use the photoready foundation so I was kinda already leaning towards buying it. 

I got it in 010 fair/light. I thought this was way too light for me but the next colour up was way too dark. Since I like a lighter finish, I went for this one. I used it this afternoon, before work and I love it.  It feels so light weight and makes me look flawless ^^ This was only $34.95 and Myers was having a Revlon promotion going on. So if you spend $39.95 or over you can choose one of either two packs. But first I had to spend a bit more to get to the limit. So I got something that I've been searching for forever now and its a quick dry for nail polish, I wanted it in top coat form but Revlon only has the formula that speeds up your nail polish dry time. 

This was $15.95 so I was more that enough over the limit. What really bothers me about this was the fact that not too long ago I purchased a lip butter. I would have like to have known at the time that this promotion was coming up so I would have gotten the lip butter later on instead of forcing myself into getting this polish. This wasn't really something I couldn't live without or I was really dying to have. But at least I left with something I actually wanted and didn't just pick up something random. 

<--- So that is the packaging the gift comes in

The other one had Grow Luscious Mascara, ColourStay Nail Enamel in Amethys, A lip liner and ColourBurst lip gloss which I'm not sure of what exactly the colour was or from what line it came from but I know both were kinda darkish colours and didn't really interest me at all so I didn't even take time to findout what it really was. I went straight to this one. The other one also had a similar eyeshadow pallet as the one in my pack but the colours vary ever-so-slightly and the makeup bag was purple but the same design as what I got. 
So now going into what exactly I got in my goodies bag which I think is more for my age plus it just had more things that I wanted and would use. 

So I got this super cool mascara called Custom Eyes. It lets you have the choice of two looks. Most mascara will advertise to increase length or add drama/volume and ect. This wand was designed to be able to interchange and do two things, 1. length and drama and 2. length and definition. The wand will change the positioning of the bristles depending on which setting you choose. I think that is pretty nifty and for the fact that I basically got it for free is amazing. This usually retails for about $25 I think, so I'm pretty ecstatic right now

I also got a revlon lip butter in 001 Pink Truffle and the normal price is $22. This isn't a colour that I would pick up to buy but since I got it in the goodies bag, I'm not complaining. I love my Strawberry Cupcake lip butter so I know the formula would be the same. The colour was surprising to me. On the stick it looks really brownish red like dry dirt clay..? lol but when I applied it on my lip it had a bit of a orangeish, pinky undertone and it doesn't look half bad. I actually really like it. It comes off more red than brown and I find that its a more wearable red lip colour than the full pop of red. Usually you have to style it up to pull off the red but with this, its more natural and easy. So I'm glad this was in the goodies bag or I never would have gotten it. 

The pack also came with a eye liner pencil in Onyx from the Grow Luscious line and I don't know what the price usually is. It literally goes on so BLACK and really easy. One light swoop of the swatch on the right -------------------> was so intense already. When I used it on my bottom lash liner, I realised that I had to be more careful when applying with this or else you'd either look super goth with heavy black eye makeup or completely ruin everything. Its easy to apply and that's a huge reason why its easy to mess up. Plus if you do mess up, its so black that its noticeable. When I got home I realised that its not really water proof. The swatch on my hand didn't really come off with water but my eyes started to tear up a bit tonight and the black was smudging and running a bit. So its not waterproof and its smudges like the slightest bit.

The swatch below that black line is the Pink Truffle Lip Butter :) 

So this is the eye shadow colour palate that came with the pack and its called Attitude Attitude 545 and again I'm unaware of this price. I tried to capture the true colour but the top left is like a nude with a pinky undertone, the on the top right is a like a light brown champagne colour, the bottom left is a earthy, mud brown and the bottom right is a rich, dark, chocolate brown. 

This is in the colour 060 Cafe' Pink and is usually $13.95. Its a really pretty pink with kinda light red/orangish undertones like salmon kinda. Its a colorstay so it means that it won't cheap but I tried it on my thumb and at work a bit of it chipped. FAIL lol. I didn't apply a top coat but I thought it would have lasted at least a night since it claims to not chip. But I love the colour so that wins me over ^^ 

And that is it for the goodies bag. Heaps of stuff for an amazing deal. It was literally like getting free stuff!!! I LOVE FREE STUFF!!! haha 

Afterwards I headed to lush to buy this cuticle butter since my cuticles are getting horrid! I wanted this one in particular because it smells lemony and I'm in love with zesty smells right now. 

That was it for the personal shopping. I left Pacific Fair and did a bit of grocery shopping plus lunch for the afternoon. I got sushi from Sushi Train in Christine Corner. Best Sushi Train ever! No other Sushi Train is as good as the one at Christine Corner. 

And once again I'm done with my superrr long post. I need to learn how to cut things down and be more precise haha 

OOTD/NOTD/The night before's outting

✿ OOTD ✿

Had a little day out with my mother this morning. We went to Robina Town Centre and did a bit of shopping then had lunch and dessert :)

I wore long jeans since 'winter is coming' (haha Game of Thrones reference (FTW)) and a cute cream with pink under tones knit top that I wore with a navy singlet underneath since its really loosely knit and 'see through'

Paired the outfit with these shoes that have about an inch, maybe two heels and super cute hearts and bows on the tips

On my head I wore my new bow that a friend gave my from Korean. I am in love with it ♡ 

And a selfie of me ^^ hiii 

Edited with Instagram (follow meee :) yan1093) 

✿ NOTD ✿

I have OPI's Teenage Dream underneath Black Shatter, both from the Katy Perry collection. I left my ring finger black shatter- less haha

✿ SHOPPING ✿

Whilst window shopping, I stopped to smell the perfumes in David Jones. I've been eyeing Sarah Jessica Parker's new perfume, NYC for months now, since it first came out I'm pretty sure. When I first smelt it, I fell in love. Such a beautiful scent but unfortunately I didn't purchase it at the time. I believe it was because it was too pricey for me. Well because I just had to smell it again, I forced my mum to also. She loved it too and brought it for me ♡ I love my mummy ^^ hehehe

This was the smaller size bottle, there was another in 60ml but i got the 30ml and it was only $45. I honestly remember it being so much more expensive. Even the larger bottle wasn't a bad price. I think the 60ml was $65..? not too sure but this was DEFINITELY a GREAT buy! I went to work tonight and someone complemented me. I usually wear other perfumes but I guess while I work it wears off or they just don't particularly like it. But this one lasts for so long AND it smells amazing! I like complements so keep em' comin' hehehe 

✿ NOM NOM TIME ✿
So after shopping for like probably 30-60mins, I got super hungry and I could not wait another minute for food. It was 12:00pm though so it was understandable for me to want to eat at that time, I think mum probably wanted to shop for a bit longer because I know that after eating we both hate shopping. We just feel lazy, fat, and just wanting to go home to sleep haha. 

We had lunch at River Penang and the quantity of the food is enough for two-three-four people depending on what you order. And the food is amazing!!! My favorite is the Hai-nan Chicken with rice. SO GOOD!!! I got something different today since I ALWAYS get that. I got chicken with Char-ho Fun noodle soup which was delicious but wayyy too much and it felt like the more I ate, the less the food was going away. It literally was a never ending bowl of noodles. This wasn't the first time I got Char-ho Fun noodles from here, I got it with an eggy saucey creamy mixure and it was the biggest bowl of food!!! You think I would have learnt my lesson haha BTW if you're thinking that because there is alot of food, its gonna be super pricey. Well let me reassure you its not. I got my dish for $13.90 and I am actually not kidding when I say its massive. My parents own a restaurant and they product huge dishes, a lot of the customers even agree that they are large quantities of food. But this place was bigger!!! I didn't take a picture this time but this is what my Hai-nan Chicken with rice looks like 

The one below is my mum's Tom Yum seafood noodle soup. This was HUGE too!

Afterwards we had Max Brenners and I ordered a white shake which is a lychee and coconut frappe that I froth! Its one of my favorite drinks there. And my new favorite is one I ordered for my mum and I just tried it for the first time today, it was the toffee chocolate frappe. So amazing XD
AND that is it for today's fun filled adventure 


✿ LAST NIGHT ✿
Yesterday I had the longest day of being at uni, stuck in the library, just trying to finish my essay, which was due at 5pm and even though I started to organize my pages, footer, and printing at 12, I still got super stress out about finishing on time. All my friends thought I was going crazy, which I was lol I honestly don't know what came over me, I was flipping out over nothing. Then I had to study for an online quiz and then having to do the quiz. Because I wanted to do it with my friend and she had to leave early, we had to get it done before 5:30. Even though I had like an endless amount of time to do it (the quiz ended at 5pm today, Saturday), I still got super stressed out about time because of my friend having to leave early lol I got 9/10 anyway >< yew for being super smart and studying :P. But I think I need to cut down on the caffeine for a while now and just relax, I seem so tightly wound lately. 
Anyway afterwards me and my friend treated ourselves to dinner and dessert. 

We ate dinner at Yuuga a Japanese restaurant in Surfers Paradise. Delicious food mmh! We shared Soba noodles with tempura vegtables and Salmon in Miso butter 

For dessert we went to my favorite dessert place right now. StarBerry. If you are on the coast, GO CHECK IT OUT!!! They sell frozen yogurt and smoothies. We both got frozen yogurt, mine was mango, forest berry, cherry, and strawberry with fruit pieces of lychee, watermelon, rassberry, kiwi, and mandarin ~ I like fruit obviously haha

My friend got less flavors but more content haha Hers was Chocolate, vanilla (which I think she meant it was their plan which isn't vanilla but something else..? but it tastes amazing!), and banana topped with nuts, coconut shredding and marshmallows. These were the BEST marshmallows in the WORLD. So soft and HUGE!!! 

 Afterwards we walked around and checked out some night marked that were going on near the beach of Surfers. My friend brought some amazingly scented candles. I wish I brought some but I didn't even have 5cents in my wallet at the time. I left the house thinking I was only going to uni and I didn't want to take a lot of money because I would spend it on junk food trying to 'study'. So I was super poor that night. 
We kept walking around and saw some pretty cool stalls, one of which was selling these small scented dolls made out of straw in the form of mice, pigs and koalas. Super cute and aw worthy. 

That is literally it for this extremely long post! BYEEE ^^

♡ Girls Night out! ♡

Me and my friend went to see The Avengers which was followed by dinner and dessert. 

MOVIE

Let me just say that Avengers was highly hyped up and rightly so. Usually with movies such as these, by the time they get released, it's not everything you wanted it to be and you're left disappointed. The beauty of this movie was that there was absolutely no disappointment at all. I left the cinema gleeful and ecstatic. And any movie with Chris Evans is instantly fantastic. I think I might just be in love <3 

We were at Pacific Fair Cinemas

Definitely a movie worth seeing and it was well worth the long excruciating wait. 

DINNER

After the movie, we went to BroadBeach and ate Mexican. First time eating at this place called Guzman Y Gomez (GYG) and I ordered the Beef Bowl which doesn't really sound too appetizing but it wasn't all that bad. A beef bowl is rice, cheddar cheese, vegetarian black beans, salsa, and slow roasted beef in GYG's Guerrero marinade with Pico de Gallo salsa, served in a bowl (except it came in a takeaway container so it didn't really come in a bowl haha), then I got guacamole added to it. I paid $12.50 and it was slightly more than average serving for what I would consider it to be a upper-class fast food joint. It might look fancy (not really) but it's still just a fast food place in disguise. It's probably one of those places I would go when I don't know what to eat and I feel like a cheap, fast meal. I actually was pleasantly surprised that they didn't mess up the rice. Some place that serve rice with food, it comes out hard and almost uncooked. I really enjoyed my bowl, I must have because I ate the whole thing. I wanna try their Nachos if I ever go again. 

DESSERT

After dinner, we of course had to have dessert. We went to Max Brenners and I ordered a Milk Chocolate with waffle balls. BEST HOT DRINK EVER! The waffle balls are coated in chocolate and when they enter you mouth, it's literally like they are melting in your mouth. So amazing! Of course you know that the coating of chocolate was melted because of the hot chocolate that it was swimming in but still just the feeling is amazing.  It was the first drink I ever got when MaxB first opened and it's still one on my favorites. Definitely go try it if you haven't already. And if you haven't, then what on earth have you been doing!?! Gosh! :P 

Outfit of the Day OOTD 

or in this case, night~ last night to be exact lol 

I wore black jeans and a orange/peachy top. Most tops in this style these days are really sheer and see through. What I love about this top is that it's the same material but not see through. I try to not get the see through tops because I just prefer not to have to wear a single underneath. I like that I can wear whatever colour bra and not have it be visible to the whole world.

I didn't notice this before going out but when I got home and started to take pictures I noticed the right shoulder of the top had been ruined. Going to have to sew the little bit back together. The top image is the left should and what the right shoulder should look like.

I also added a red scarf because it was freezing cold outside and raining (I left the scarf in the car when I took pictures). Originally it was just going to be a movie so I pair the outfit with my white flats that have these cute little bubble things on the tips of the shoes. If I knew we were going for dinner and dessert, I probably would have wore heels or boots since it was raining. I like wearing heels so my feet aren't flooded by the pools of water everywhere. My poor flats were soaking by the end of the night :( 

What's in the bag?

I only took the essentials because I didn't want to have to drag a whole suitcase to the cinema. I had my phone, wallet and mini make up bag. Most of the time my mini make up bag is with me because I find it hard to find things in my bag, especially in the big tote bags. So much easier to grab this mini bag in less than 5 seconds than rummaging through a massive bag for like 5mins. I pack this bag before heading out because my essentials change from day to day. So last night I kept moisturizer, hair tie, bobby pin, lip gloss, lip stick, compact powder foundation, mascara, and eyeliner. The only things I actually used was the lip stick, foundation and eyeliner, for a bit of a touch up after the movie. 

I get a bit weird when no ones looking hehe

Nail of the Day (NOTD)

Because I am super obsessed with nail polish, I've decided to do a blog segment. So every time I change my nail polish colour, I will just post a picture and maybe a tiny description about it. I do change the colour A LOT so I'll probably get lazy and sick of continually posting nail pictures haha We'll see how dedicated I am :P

So this is what is one me nails today. My thumb on this left hand is light blue (the same colour as the middle finger) and on my right hand the light blue is where the purple is in this picture, the purple is where the dark blue is and the dark blue is on my middle finger and thumb. 

The dark blue is Essie's Lapis of Luxury, the light blue is Essie's Borrowed & Blue, and the purple is a nailpolish from DIVA called Day Dreaming

 This was the mani I had on last week. It was a combination of OPI's mermaid tears which is a semi dark green, and just a random BYS gold polish. Then I cut out temporary tattoos and used it as nail art stickers. It was the first time trying temporary tattoos in this way and it was inspired by Cutepolish. I think it turned out pretty well :)

Also just wanted to show off this mani I did. Super cute cloudmani that was inspired by Higasaurus. Some even said that it reminded them of icecream hehe

I used Revlon's 007 Sheer Blossom as a base then OPI's Shorts Story which is a hot pink that reminds me of the nail polish in the pretty little liars opening. Then the blue is Essie's Lapis of Luxury 

Cheap Accessories

If I have to be honest, I would say that I probably buy a lot of things I actually don't need. I just love to spend money. But because I'm on a credit crunch and my account balance is trying to gain some weight, it's been pretty hard to buy things that I really really REALLY want. On days when the urge to buy something is too strong, I let go a bit and push myself either to the sale section or just cheap things. 

Now I don't really like to buy cheap things because in my opinion and experience, usually cheap products are dodgy, overpriced for that material, and a waste of money because it will inevitably break or tear or just be ruined in some way. I always think it's better to not buy a cheap product and take the money that would have been spent on it and put it towards something of better quality. That being said, there are those items of exception. I remember when there was this HUGE Ray Bans crazy. Almost everyone I knew were either sporting them or pawning after them. There was also a lot of look-a-like sunnies being produced. Because I liked the style and the way they suited me, I purchased a $5-10 pair of knock offs from DIVA. The reason I didn't buy the real deal was simply because I wasn't and still isn't a huge sunnies person. I don't really wear them and when I do, it's pretty brief. Most of the time they sit in my bag without any covering or casing, getting scratched and ruined. Also during that time, I was losing a lot of things, so I knew if i did get something expensive I would most likely lose them. That was one instance in which I felt it was okay to buy a cheaper version. A few years later I got a real pair of Ray Bans as a gift which unfortunately don't fit my head/face. It's wayyy too small and because of that they don't touch my nose bridge, so it's kinda just hovering there. Looks so weird and I never wear them. Literally just sits in my car for that super sunny days when I forget my regular sunnies and I just need something to block the sun while I drive. I don't actually wear them out. It's a shame too because I really like them. 

Anyway, what I really want to talk about is ICE (NO, not the drug -__-). I went late night shopping on Thursday night at Robina Town Centre and brought a new bracelet from ICE. ICE produces some amazing jewelry and they always have a 2 for $10 deal going on. If you don't know about ICE it's a fashion store, stocking mainly clothing. It holds shoes, nail polishes, belts, and jewelry. 

About a year ago I was in the store just accompanying my friend. While she was trying on clothes, I took a peak at the jewelry wall. I found this funky looking bracelet band thing and the tag said its was like $7 or something. 

The store assistant then informed me of the 2 for $10 deal so of course I was gonna buy something else. I saw this edgy necklace and got it. 

I was super excited because I just wanted something fun and casual to wear and I wouldn't be worried about scratching or breaking it.  Only recently did I realise that the necklace I got is modeled after a House of Harlow necklace (http://www.mall0rymitchell.com/2012/01/house-of-harlow-station-necklace-envy/). It looks exactly the same to me and I get heaps of complements on it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm totally envious of the girls who can afford the real deal and if I could I wouldn't be buying cheap knock offs. But for now, cheap knock offs will have to do. Then I realised that the bracelet band thing I got was also similar to a branded item. I love wearing them still and not having to worry about chipping or scratching. Both items haven't broken, the only thing would be the necklace and the metal on it has 'oxidized' (I think that's whats happend)/faded. So it looks a lot cheaper and 'trashier' now. So that is the down side of cheaper items, this obviously wouldn't occur in the more expensive one. 

The bracelet still looks intact, the faux leather hasn't 'peeled' away so it still looks like new. I think I should also mention, I'm not one to really take care of my things. I only just recently started to keep my more expensive jewelry items in the original box/packaging they came in. But for other cheaper items, I don't really try to insure they don't break and storage usually consists of me throwing them into whatever space I can find in my desk cupboard. So for cheap jewelry to have lasted me this long and still be acceptable for me to wear is amazing!

After having such great success first time round, I went back for more a few months later and got two other pieces of jewelry. I saw this super cute necklace with pearls and a stone encrusted bird. I just think its is just the prettiest necklace. But a few months later the bird fell off and I was so disappointed. But it was only the little clip thing so it could easily be fix. I was in a hurry one day and I wanted to wear it but I hadn't fixed it yet so I just wore the pears and it looked so nice even without the bird.

So the second piece I got with the necklace was a chain bracelet with ribbon through it and had pearls attached. Unfortunately it broke, I was absolutely devastated. It had this elastic wire through the ribbon and chain that held the pearls and that's what had broken. Everything else was fine, the chain was still intact and all the latches and parts were working. I think I just stretching it out one day and the elastic snapped. I'm sad to say that I couldn't repair it but on the upside, I did get a few wears out of it and it was only $5.

I don't have a picture of it before it broke but I kept the parts. I don't know why? I think I thought it still might have a chance or I could fix it but it has no hope. No hope AT ALL.

So my most recent ICE jewelry purchase is this beautiful bubble bracelet. There were a few different colours like deep red, purple, cream, and dark blue. I got the blue because I'm really into navyish jewelry right now and also because it suits me the best. But I think I might go back get get the deep red or the cream. It's just a really pretty bracelet and I'm super excited to wear it. 

Because I went shopping with my friend, she saw some bangles that she liked so instead of me getting 2 for $10 we split it and each got one for $5. I do think that this bracelet will break just because it is stretchy and ICE elastic hasn't been reliable thus far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and I'm going to hope for the best. But like I said I'm not gonna take extra special care of it. If it breaks, it breaks. I'll live. 

So if you haven't already checked out the jewelry at ICE, I definitely recommend it. There's some nice pieces and I don't think it's a waste of $5-10. Definitely worth it :)

Most pictures were edited with Instagram (username: yan1093) 

Thanks for reading and I'll let you guys know if this bracelets has the same unfortunate ending like the pearl one. I hope not! 

Lush Haul and Revlon Lip Butter

After much deliberation and pestering from a friend, I have begun blogging. If figure what better way to kick start my new blogging life with a blog about my recent purchases that I'm instantly in love with. Lately I've been saving my money and only spending it on food or things that I actually need like concealer but only when I've run out and even then I try to settle for the cheap stuff. I probably haven't splurged for about 3-4 months now and that is actually a ridiculously long amount of time considering I usually splurge 1-2 times a week. I'm a bit of a shopaholic. So when I went out yesterday, I was on a mission to spend all my money haha.
The first store I went to was Lush and Lush is one of those amazing stores that I love/hate. LOVE: Everything is so unique and different. I love that their products have a wide range of scents, from zesty lemon to heavenly floral. Even the names of the products are funky which entice me and my wallet more. HATE: It's so overwhelming when you walk in and most of the times I leave confused. The fact that they have heaps of products is great as they are trying to suit all skin types and a wide range of customer needs. However for a newbie walking in for the first time, the large stock of products gets frustrating. Even though the staff are helpful and absolutely wonderful ever time I've been, it still gets confusing to distinguish which one does exactly what I want it to. A lot of products are similar to one another but come in different forms so that is another difficult thing to suss through. So there is a huge struggle in my brain when trying to decided what I should get. In the end my brain explodes and I leave the store with nothing but 30mins of wasted time.
This time I was prepared. I went in knowing what I wanted to look at and basically already knew what I was gonna buy. After seeing a girl on YouTube rave about aqua mirabilis and stating how it evens out the body's skin tone and lightens the dark colour of the armpits, I knew it was definitely worth checking out. My armpits are one of my biggest insecurity, mainly because of the strong odour it produces so easily even when I'm not sweating. The other reason is because of how dark the skin area is in my armpits. So hearing about a product that can help with one of my issues, I just had to try it.
Aqua mirabilis is a body butter scrub so not only does it remove dead skin cells, it also hydrates my skin. It contains ground almond shells, cocoa, and almond butter. It comes in the form of a solid square shape, similar to soap. Most scrubs that I've used previously come in either a shower gel or in free form. I really enjoy the fact that it's solid, it makes it so much easier to use and scrub my body with. When I use free form scrubs, they don't really do the job I want it to. But with the solid scrub, it really gets in there and my skins feels so smooth even after just one use. The girl who served me also told me that this would help with the little bumps you sometimes get on your arms and I get a lot of them. That would be another insecurity of mine that I struggle with. If I ever leave the house wearing a sleeveless top, I feel the need to watch where my arms are and insure I don't accidentally rub up against some and they would have the unpleasant feeling of gritty arms. So when she said that this product can help remove that, I jumped for joy ~ not literally but I did say instantly that I would purchase it. The scent of the product wasn't overly strong which I actually liked because I'm not a huge fragrance product person. I love using perfumes but for products I use on my body, face or hair, I like them to be unscented. Aqua mirabilis has a kind of subtle scent that I cant really describe, the only word that is coming to mind would be 'fresh', and it only slightly leaves the scent on my skin but not to a point where it bothers me which is perfect for me. Currently I am loving this body butter scrub and I've only used it once so I am most certainly going to continue to use this and let you know how my arms go.

The second product I looked at is called Ocean Salt. I instantly loved the zesty scent and it contains coconut, lime, grapefruit, sea salt in a fruity, vodka-based scrub. This was definitely a product my face wanted but not needed. I don't exactly remember what the girl said about this but I know it helps with oily skin, removes impurities and it brightens for a glowing complexion. I probably spent 10-15mins in the store debate to get this or this lettuce face mask I was looking at. The girl said that I should get both (I was thinking of course she'd want me to buy both haha) but if I could only get one, I should get the mask because it would help put all the natural and healthy oils back into my skin. I was going to get it plus it was a lot cheaper than the scrub. This is one of the instances where there was two products that do almost the same thing but one is cheaper and better for me but the other smells better and I wanted it more. In the end the deciding factor was that I have a lot of blackheads on my nose and the scrub would better suit that so I brought the scrub and I LOVE it. My shower smells soooo good. I used it last night and again this morning, even though you shouldnt over scrub I just HAD to use it again. The scent doesn't stay on my face which I'm totally fine with, I just like smelling it while I scrub. I don't know if it's the placebo effect but I feel like my complexion is brighter and glowing after the first use and second use. It definetely is smoother and softer, however T-zone is still extremely oily so I'm gonna keep using it 1-2 times a week and hopefully the oiliness will reduce within the month *fingers crossed*

Next thing I wanna talk about is the new Revlon lip butters. There is this huge hype about them so I wanted to check out what all the fuss was about. I figured since my Clinique chubby stick is basically depleted, I most definitely need a new lip colour product. These lip butters have been reviewed as basically like lipsticks with some of the colours being slightly sheer but buildable to opacness with a sheen like finish and are hydrating. They have been said to not be as hydrating as lip balms but are definitely more hydrating compared to other lipsticks.

In Australia this is usually about $22 but right now Myers is having their mid-season sale. So I snagged this for $17. Also check out Priceline since they are have a two for one Revlon lip and nail products sale. I unfortunately checked out one that had very few stock left for the lip butters and only had a tester left in the Strawberry Shortcake colour. 

This is a comparison of the Clinique Chubby stick and Revlon Lip butter. The top swatch is the 06 Woppin' Watermelon and the bottom one is 080 Strawberry Shortcake.

This is a comparison of the Clinique Chubby stick and Revlon Lip butter. The top swatch is the 06 Woppin' Watermelon and the bottom one is 080 Strawberry Shortcake.
The Chubby stick is definitely darker and more hydrating. The colour comes out really opac like a lip stick but lasting and application wise, its like a lip balm. I absolutely love this lip product and I will probably buy the same one again but I thought I should give other products a try too. I love it because of the fact that I can fool people into think that I'm using a lipstick and not get the yucky dried out lips effect after 1-2hrs of wear. I find that happens very often with lipsticks and I either resort to applying more lipstick or lip balm. The Revlon one is an amazing colour but like I said, it is more of a lipstick and I do end up getting the dried lips look. That being said, the dryness isn't as bad as normal lipsticks. It's not a bad lipstick and I do really like the colour, application, and lasting factor. Also, this lip butter smells nice. I didn't notice it when I was test trying it in store but when I first applied it at home, I realized it smelled of coconut. Bonus points for a nice scent :)
(*side note* the above pictures were edited using Instagram. Username is yan1093)

That is it for my first post. Thanks for reading and I'll keep you updated on the progress of the all products :)