Forgotten Coastal scents haul

Okay okay.  I forgot about this haul.  Sue me. Actually don't please, LOL I'm a poor working class women :'(.  But yes I will admit that I forgot about this haul completely! I actually bought myself some stuff from coastal scents back in black Friday (yes I did make two hauls) but this one came in January since the Christmas mail time is really backed up.  That is completely understandable and the fact that I had to go back to work full time, so there is my reasoning. :). 

I absoultely love coastal scents but this time around, I really didn't feel like I needed anything.  But because during that time a few weeks back I was stupid enough to drop my 88 neutral palette and there was eyeshadow on the floor everywhere and many just fell out, I decided to just hand pick the few neutral colors I would wear so I just browsed through the hot pots hoping to find the perfect neutrals.

Project shoe dazzling inspired by the Christian Loubutin strassed daffodile

Back in December when i decided to really bite the bullet and make myself a pair of crystal shoes with none other then swarovski top notch crystals, I broke down and bought myself the pair of Steve madden babylonn since they are the exact same style as the christian loubutin daffodile ones. The only problem was that they didn't have the color I needed to match the crystals so I had to do myself a big DIY project. by the way, the color I choose for my shoes is called volcano which is mainly a amethyst purple shade but you can also see yellow, orange, light sea foam green and a light ocean blue.

ELF Studio Long-Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow review and swatch

 Like always, these awesome eyeshadow was on the ELF cosmetics instagram sneak peek so when these came out back in November, I jumped on the horse and bought them on Cyber Monday.  The description of these eyeshadows just intrigued me since its suppose to be a whipped gel eyeshadows which i don't even think there is anything like it on the market right now.

ELF's description on this product: "Soft and fluffy, these vibrant, shimmering Long Lasting Lustrous Eyeshadow colors can be used as eyeshadow or a bold liner. The whipped gel texture is easy to blend and lightweight for lasting comfort and wear. Perfect for highlighting the brow bone and adding extra shimmer for a truly glam look."

Product Packaging: Let me just start off by saying that the cardboard packaging for this was so annoying! The eyeshadow was stuck in there! You have to actually rip the packaging to get it out but I had to try so hard to not rip it for picture purposes LOL.  

Another thing that is super annoying is that the names for the eyeshadow was the names are not on them.  You either have to write it with a sharpie yourself on the bottom or you would manually have to rip the little sliver sticker off the back of the box.  I really hope that they don't do that for all of them because that just makes me question if they were thinking when they made this product.

 These have super simple packaging with a black lid on top with "ELF long lasting lustrous eyeshadow" printed on them and a clear plastic bottom. In pictures before I got it, I thought the bottom would be glass like the Maybelline color tattoos.

I stuck that sticker on myself by the way.

Texture:

Unlike anything I've ever tried before, but these do remind me of their studio cream blushes which has the same "bouncy" texture. These are "bouncy" but they are more wet then the cream blush which turns slightly powder on the skin.  I wouldn't slide my finger around since they are really squishy and I would just create a huge crator so i would actually just dab my finger over it. On the skin, it still has a slight wetness to it but it does set well.  The wetness does also help attract powders to show their true color, exactly what a eyeshadow base is suppose to do.

Color Pigmentation/ Payoff:
Out of the 7 shades, i only bought three of them since most of them are very boring shades to me and the three shades I bought, I thought I could get the most use of. The seven shades they sell are Toast (yellow golden bronze color), Soiree (light pinky purple), Gala (browny raspberry purple shade), Festivity (dark purple amethyst), confetti (white with silver shimmer), celebration (sliver), and party (dark silvery blue color).

As you can tell from my description, gala, soiree and festivity all are different shades of purple and on the skin (from swatch pictures  I've seen, they all look very similar so that saved me some money there knowing that I didn't have to buy all of them.

All of the shades are shimmery which stopped me from getting them right when they first came out but when it came time to the cyber Monday sale, I went crazy and just picked some up. Now I'm not the type to like crazy shimmer on my eyes but these makes the skin look like there are Swarovski crystals on my eyes. They are stunningly gorgeous! It has this metallic element with tons of shimmers that does actually adhere to the skin nicely.

The colors are very buildable and it will be true to color after about three layers.  The good thing about these is that you can actually wear these by themselves and it wouldn't crease or you could use these as a color base which is quite effective as well.

Smell:

Good news for those that don't like frangances in their products.  These do not have any smell :).

Lasting power:

From the name, you could kind of tell but these do last quite a long time. I would put these on in the morning and when I go to take my make up off late at night, it is still there.  It fades a slight  bit but nothing dramatic.

Price:

 These go for $3 each in their studio line but you can easily get these for $1.50 a piece if you use a studio 50% off code which you just have to google for one. 

Overall I really do love these even though I am not a big sparkle girl but wow I'm in love with the shades.  I  wouldn't be going out to get all of the shades since I have too much stuff already  as it is but i just wanted to try something new. 

Inside a lush Honey farm

Just recently went to Lush during their boxing day sale which was a buy one get one free event and it only happens once a year so I couldn't miss out.  I knew for sure that I wanted to finally buy myself a Honey farm wrapped gift since most of the stuff inside I really like, especially the Honey I washed the kids bar soap, their best selling soap.

First of all, let's start with the packaging.  The wrapping paper is made of 100% recycled material which just makes this gift more of a feel good thing :D.  There are little bees all over the wrapping paper and the whole gift is wrapped with a black ribbon with thick white stitching all over.  

 Each gift has a little directory of what is in the gift. This particular one has It's raining men shower gel 3.3 fl oz. which has the same smell of honey I washed the kids soap but in liquid form, honey I washed the kids soap 100 g, Butterball bath bomb, Honey bee bath bomb and a soft coeur massage bar.

 Ahh its naked! After unwrapping the box, this is what is revealed.  All lush products has a little cute sticker of who packaged the product and all products made by lush which makes it that much more personal.  Its a really cute concept and only lush does that as far as I know :).

 I know there was a time where lush gifts was packaged with popcorn.  And yes edible popcorn but I wouldn't suggest eating the popcorn since there was soap and what not sitting in that box for ages LOL.  So now they use packaging peanuts to hide away your products.

All of the gift has these little booklet with small explanations of what each product is in their whole lush collection.  Love the idea since all of the lush product doesn't have any product packaging.

 I can't wait to try this! Liquid honey i washed the kid, just want I wanted and needed. I'm not really used to using solid soaps so I think I might like this a lot more :).

 I still haven't opened the soft coeur massage bar since I don't know what to use this for.  I don' t live with my boyfriend and I don't massage myself so this is kind of useless for me but I will try to find a good use for this.

The two bath bombs are butterball which is super duper popular and honey bee bath bomb. Butterball to me doesn't smell special me but a slight clean clothes smell. Honey bee though smells amazing. I don't know if it is because it has been in the same box as honey i washed the kids smell but oh my goodness, it just smells like sweet honey with a hint of caramel.

Overall I would buy this gift set again but considering $40 for 6 products, I don't think I would be rushing out to buy this anytime soon. I think I would just repurchase honey I washed the kids soap and its raining men :).  

What do you think about this wrapped gift? Which one is your most favorite out of all of th elush gift sets?

2012 Christmas presents :)

In my opinion, I think this might have been the best Christmas so far.  All my presents were very modest but thoughtful, I don't think I could complain...not even a bit.  The best one was from my boyfriend which is priceless I think :).

From my boyfriend's family, they came me this really cute cupcake soap that smells delicious! I don't know where they got this but this is just as good as Lush soaps that I use everyday :).   The bottom smells just like chocolate and the swirly part smells like vanilla awesomeness! I don't know if i ever want to use this though :(, its too pretty~.  They also gave me a really cute white toque since I think they figured that i like hats LOL.  I wear one almost everyday since its damn cool!!! And well, they also figured I'm a winners crazy shopper so they gave me a gift card.  So nice :'), and yes...that gift card came to use the next week HAHA.

 My parents found me this super cute onesie which soooo came in handy since I just wear it and run around my house like a teletubbie as my boyfriend calls me.  I don't care! It so comfortable and I never got this when I was a kid :).  They are actually for children but my mom got it in extra large because I'm a kid like that! And yes the picture of me, I just woke up so I didn't comb my hair.  Don't judge me hmmph!

 My really good friend finally came back from Toronto and she brought me a present :). So sweet of her! She got me this really cool couture poster, a Elizabeth Arden set with lip balm, hand cream with gloves which is super useful since I have to wash my hand at least 50 times a day at work.  No more ashy and crusty hands LOL.  She also got me this choco Air chocolate which is the first time I have tried it and it reminds me of aero but a lot less sweet. Pretty good :D.

The last present I got was from my sister.  Before I opened the box, I could already smell something that reminded me of food.  When I saw the cardboard that said diamond candles and I completely freaked out.  Now the relationship between my sister is almost nonexistence so when i saw this, I completely was in shock.  I really wanted to buy myself these since you have a chance to actually win a real and expensive ring but they don't ship to Canada, only in the states. This smells so damn good! Just like fresh cut apples and yes I did burn that the next day and digged that ring out :).  LOL I know your not suppose to but I couldn't wait and I could already see it anyways.

What did you guys get for your Christmas presents? 

What was your most favorite reactions from the person you gave the gift to? 

Let me know down below :).

Boxing day haul

The night before boxing day, I was so excited to go to this really big mall called Metrotown in Burnaby for boxing day that I couldn't sleep at all and went to the mall right when it was opened at 8 am.  Luckly I decided to drive and get there right when it opened or else there would be absolutely no hope on getting a parking spot and the stuff I bought was quite heavy if i were to carry it around with me the while time I was shopping.  

Even though I went there right when it opened, the mall was already packed and I knew right then and there, I had to head to Lush first since last year they sold out of their Honey I washed the kids when I got there at 11 am.  I wasn't going to risk that chance so I went and got two blocks of it :).  I was happy since everything was still there and I got first dibs on them! Happiest day of my life :D. Also this is the only day in the whole year that I would buy some lush products since it is buy 1 get one free and I usually only just get their soaps.  I don't really take baths in my household so bubble bar and bath melts are useless to me.

 I actually accidentally deleted the picture of the stash of honey I washed the kids but this is a stash of the North pole soap that smells like mint and chocolate.  Its amazing too :).  I picked a piece that just had the pink part which was just chocolate and I love it!

 It wasn't super crazy packed with people when I got there but the line up felt impossible! It felt like the longest thing everrrrr.  All the customers was having a little chat, making the cashier slower and there was only two cashier there too.  Oh my goodness >_<. 

 There was this lady in front of me that had so many of the lush gifts, I'm pretty sure that it run up to at least $300.  Damn LOL.  I wonder how she could carry all of that to her car or even worse if she didn't even have a car.  Just imagining this tiny asian lady carrying it LOLOL.  Okay, back to reality.

 So in the end, I did control myself I think since I got myself two of the Honey farm gift box for $39.95 and it comes with a bar of 100g Honey I washed the kids soap, butterball bath bomb, its raining men shower gel, honey bee bath bomb and soft coeur massage bar which has actual chocolate in it :D.  Most of the stuff I would use so I didn't mind getting this gift set.

I will do another post of this lush haul since I have a lot to say about the stuff I got so watch out for that.  I can't wait to use It's raining men since it is basically the liquid version of honey I washed the kids.  If they had that in a perfume, I'd use that everyday no problem :D.

I got myself two bars of the honey I washed the kids.  This chunck is already $16 Cad which is quite expensive but the smell of it is too amazing.  Too bad I can't afford buying a whole wheel. If i could, id just leave that in my room so it would smell like that.  UGH!

 I believe this is a repromote from their Christmas collection from last year called the Northern lights.  Nothing really special.  This falls into the same category as sexy peel, sandstone and bohemian, citrusy.  I love citrus smells since it is so awakening and refreshing so this is perfect :).

This one is called North Pole which is completely brand new to Lush and it is actually a whole pole in the store so the name completely suites it.  It has a chocolate and mint scent which is very nice and not overbearing to the point where I want to puke.  I usually wouldn't buy a mint scented soap but this is really nicely balanced :).  I quite like it.

The second store I hit was Nine west of course.  Now the prices in Nine west is quite expensive but I have to admit that their shoes are comfortable so I would give them that.  Most of their shoes are really boring and old lady like to me but my most favorite part of heels are from them and they also were the pair of heels that I wore when I first met my boyfriend so it holds near and dear to my heart.  I didn't want to miss the chance to buy the pair of shoes I want and not have my size which would suck so i fought through the river of people to get there.  

Most of the shoes were 50% off but there were also ones that was only 30% off which kind of sucks but I still wanted them so LOL.  Too bad for me to falling in love with them!  I actually already knew what I wanted to get but little did I know that the part of heels was going to be Barbie heels, meaning your foot is arched so much to the point where its basically just walking on your toes LOL.  Too bad because I really loved them but oh well.  I did end up getting these other pairs that I had my eye on called "Drumroll" in the color pink multi suede. 

 They also had these in a more muted color scheme but this was the only pair of size 6.5 I didn't really mind the bright colors so i got these.  I'm actually a size 7 normally but because these are bootie style shoe and the front top didn't really hold my feet properly so I had to get a size 6.5 for a better fit.  These really remind me of the style in the movie Tron, super future-estque.  The cut out on your feet is really unique since it shoes the sides of your feet, never seen or had any pair of heels like this! Its awesome.  I'm also really happy that I have another pair of shoes to add to my collection since I'm a picky shoe buyer and would only buy a pair if they are comfortable, looks good and I can get it at a good price.  I got these for $79 after tax and discount which I think is a very reasonable price point for these since they are still on sale on their website for $111.99 which I don't find that to be a deal since the original price is $140.00.  You can check these out here if you are interested to find these.

http://www.ninewest.ca/product.asp?productid=8992#.UOqVQ649-Go

 Love me some platform heels :).  These puppies has a 1.5 inch platform.

And a 5.5 heel height which really would be 4 inch heel from the platform which is why I love me a lot of platform shoes since it just makes everything more comfortable and I think it looks better too.

This isn't really from the boxing day sale but I finally bought myself a pair of runners since I'm really serious about working out now LOL.  Hopefully I would get off my bum and do as I think.  These were $59.99 which I have been putting off on buying but I couldn't put it off anymore since I finally found a pair that wasn't pink FINALLY! I wore these for the first time and omgawww! They feel like I'm walking on cloud! These are called the Nike air and the inside is so padded, it feels super comfortable.  I think the sole does a pair of the job too.  I don't know much about runners but I'd wear these everyday too :), just to run away from my boyfriend harassing me.  LOLOL joking joking, I love him.

 I was actually already done with shopping after I bought the pair of Nikes but my friend wanted to check out Aldo and they had this little section where it was 50% off all their clutches and an extra 30% off their bags.  I saw this bag called "Ferruso" and it caught my attention since it was actually a pretty good quality bag which is really surprising since aldo shoes is super uncomfortable and the quality of the bag is never really that good. It was originally $50 but I got it for $27.99 which I think was a reasonable price. They still have this bag on sale on their website if you would like to check it out on their website.

http://www.aldoshoes.com/ca-eng/sale/handbags

 The inside has three compartments, two just open spaces and one part with a zipper which I think is a must since the bag itself doesn't have a big zipper to close it completely.  I also love the attention to detail on this bag.  Its not everyday you could come across a good quality bag at aldo LOL for this price too.

 The zipper detailing, which is functional, is awesome too! I can put my phone or loose coins and it would be easy access.

 I also love the small stud detailing on the sides and the best thing yet is that it has a body strap! That is a complete must for me since I don't find that holding my purse or bag is really ideal for which I'm out.  

 I also love the handle detailing! Its this lace up type of thing and it has buckle handles which I believe is just for show.

Overall I think I did a good job controlling myself during such a rush of sale time.  Spent about $300 for a lot of things that i love so no regrets!

What was your most favorite boxing day sale item you got? Did you got boxing day shopping?