Sometimes, you try to be very good.
Then at the ends of the week, you blow it all on a Friday night haul that somehow includes a tiny cute Copa di Vino… and you don’t even like wine.
This is from Sally Beauty, Marshall’s, and Wal-Mart.
I wandered around Wal-Mart for an hour and a half before finding this huge Pure Ice display right next to the registers.
I’m hesitant to post this because 1) I’m not the best reviewer out there, and 2) I take too many photos. I feel there are other people who would invest more time to eloquently put into words how they felt about such-and-such, and that’s not my style at this point in my life. However, this is better than nothing, and I might as well show you the BB creams I have come to acquire and how I feel none of them truly match me. If you do not know what a BB cream is, it is a do-it-all kind of makeup. In one step, BB creams offer light coverage, SPF, etc. to benefit your skin. I do not often wear makeup on my face, and I really thought BB creams would help my face just become luminescent. Yes, luminescent. Not that I need to look like that, but sometimes I want to look perfect. While my skin generally looks nice, there are times when my skin can be very dry and then very oily, and I have a lot of scarring from acne. I have pretty big pores. And then there’s this thing about skin tone…
I’m Asian, but I’m not really Asian. Not “BB cream standards” Asian, with pure pale skin. I’ve got that nice Filipino brown skin, the kind I’m not supposed to tan. I never really understood the significance in skin color simply among Filipinos until I was older, but I have been conflicted about it for a very long time. The number one reason I do not wear face products is because I cannot match my shade to save my life. I have no idea what NC blah blah MAC number I am. I often guess I am somewhere near “beige” and “tan,” but no, that logic soooo does not work. And only do traditional American skin products already feature a limited range of shades, but Asian products do, as well. So when I wanted to try out BB creams, I felt a bit left out. Meh!
There have been improvements when it comes to BB creams in the past year, and the following are a few I’ve tried out. Obviously, some worked better than others. Another one was simply horrendous and laughable. It’s all part of the learning process. Even though I am still feeling muddled about the whole thing, I hope this helps someone out there.
In a nutshell: I have no idea what works for me. Perhaps you can tell me. I prefer the IMAN for color, Flower for the matte finish, and strangely, the leopard print Beauty Angle. The last two are, like, from the Dollar Tree of eBay Asia.
The Lineup
From left to right, we have… IMAN Skin Tone Evener BB Creme in Sand Medium ($20 from walmart.com), Garnier Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector BB Cream in medium/deep (~$9 from Target?), Flower Beauty Balm BB Cream in BB3 (~$13 from walmart.com), UOUO Apple Balance & Refreshed BB Cream Foundation in medium (~$3 on eBay), and Beauty Angle Smooth Moisturizing BB Cream Liquid Foundation in deep beige (~$3 on eBay).
IMAN
-light coverage
-seemed reddish in color
-blends well
-light formula
Garnier
-medium to heavy coverage
-yellowish to dark tan color
-thick formula
Flower
-dark to orangey color
-medium to heavy coverage
-thick formula
-matte effect on skin
UOUO
-nice light formula
-way too light for me
-medium coverage
Beauty Angle
-light formula
-I feel this adjusts ok to my skin, starts off very light
-medium coverage
Face Swatches
Bare
IMAN
Garnier
Flower
UOUO
Beauty Angle
I had never had this much makeup on my face in one day. I hope you never have to see this much of my face ever again. 
On a recent road trip, I visited a Trader Joe’s for the first time ever. Just a couple of years ago, TJ stores were not in the picture for Florida. Forward to 2013, and there are TWO! I hope Central Florida gets one soon. The store I went to was in Gainesville, FL. I had no idea what a Trader Joe’s looked like, but I did do some on-the-road research on some things to try out.
Of course I went to scope out the personal care items. I picked up a facial wash and lotion.
The enrich moisturizing facial lotion and nourish all-in-one cleanser. I love the cleanser already.
On the whole, I enjoyed getting some stuff I didn’t really need. Billy and I enjoyed the things we’ve tried so far, but have yet to test the cookie butter and alcohol since we don’t drink much.
So sorry for being MIA! I was wondering in the past few days why my keyboard wasn’t working at home– of course it was something simple like the batteries were dead. I bought some new ones last night, but oh how easy it was to just fall off the blogging bandwagon! I get lazy. It happens. Anywho…
I wanted to share with you what I hope is going to be the last hair straightener I buy for a while. The jury is still out on whether this item can curl my hair (haven’t tried it yet), but I did straighten my hair this morning. I think it’s a keeper. Meet the Remington S5500 Anti-Static Ceramic 1″… 
There are reasons why this is a highly rated item. First off, it’s affordable. As in, super affordable- I bought this for less than $20. Plus, the Remington S5500 simply feels nice- it’s lightweight, pleasant to the touch, has a swivel cord and plate lock. I only used it for ten minutes this morning, but compared to the other straightener I purchased the other week, it was a more enjoyable experience. 
My Before & After 
You can buy this item at major mass retailers such as Amazon, Target, and Wal-Mart. I’ve seen it in-store before, and it was $19.99 last month. I purchased this item for $14.97
from walmart.com last week. I could buy Olive Garden with those prices!
But I’d rather do my hair. 
I am a horrrrrriiiiibbbblllleeeeeee makeup wearer. You know how it is: in an ideal world, you totes wash your face twice a day, washing away the grime of the day. And this is why I don’t wear makeup a lot, and of course my eyes get irritated! I sleep in all that eyeshadow! Boo on me!
Anyways, I have been trying to work through my immense collection of beauty samples, and last week, I decided to try out my sample of Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes.
In a nutshell: not my fave. The wipes weren’t too dry or too wet, and were not irritating when wiping away my makeup. What’s holding me up? Probably the fact that my favorite $1 Epielle wipes already does such a great job! The Simple wipes cost five times that at around $5. Not only do I prefer Epielle because of the great price, but they. are. always. so. nice. and. moist. Yay. I like that in a wipe. Sorry, Simple. I will not be buying you.
I just love Epielle.
And my cat who helped me review.
My absolute favorite part of playing with eyeshadows are all the amazing shimmery colors! I just love it, but it can look over the top most times. For one of my EOTD looks, I decided on a whim to just use matte eyeshadows. When I first started, I didn’t know if it would turn out ok- the lighter matte colors looked horrible on my skin color. I think it turned out fine! I would definitely turn to this look for work.
I’m not going to ever say I’m drop dead gorgeous or that I have perfect skin or hair. Some people are just born blessed with all the looks. Lucky them!
I do, however, have something most people would envy, and this is my biggest beauty secret that I keep in plain sight.
You may notice that I wear dresses almost everyday.
BUT–
I do not shave my legs.
The following are the weirdest photos, but the first one is just my legs, and the second one is a macro image of the same shot. You can barely tell there’s hair there.
Actually, until I used the following product, I had not shaved my legs since November 2011. Y’all be hatin’, lol!
I was actually looking for a new product to use to shave my legs for this monumental event. I still use disposable razors for other things, but I hadn’t purchased them since 2008 (I stocked up on a clearance deal at a CVS back then, and only change out the blade every 6 months. Kind of eww). Here’s the old faithful.
A couple of years ago, I was shaving my legs and knicked off a piece of my skin. It traumatized me. Back then, I was only using a three blade, and it left a bad scar. And do you know how hard it is to shave around a scabbed wound? After that, I just stopped doing it. I didn’t want to hurt myself, and I didn’t really have to anyways. I have babyfine soft hair on my legs, and even after a year, you couldn’t really tell. I only really shave my legs if I am going to a special event, like a wedding (the last one was in November 2011!), and tonight is my work holiday party, soooooo…
Time to break out the big guns! Meet the Venus Embrace!
Since I hadn’t used a newer model of a razor in years, I was pretty excited to try out the Venus Embrace that was provided in my Cosmo VoxBox. It had “5 Curve-Hugging Blades” and a “Protective Ribbon of Moisture.” My old razor only had FOUR. My, how the times change. Technology these days.
I used it in the shower with some conditioner since, obviously, I don’t own shaving gel or cream. The use was very smooth, and I kind of enjoyed how easy it was to use. The razors glided over my legs, and I did not feel like I could hurt myself too easily. I’m touching my legs right now and everything is completely smooth. I do not have much experience with disposable razors, but the Venus Embrace was a painless way to get my legs party-ready. I could not have asked for more (except I like those razors where you don’t need gel or cream to use with it… do those exist)? I’ll definitely keep this model around to use next time… next year. 
Products in this post were provided for consideration.
O.o
Me? Influenster? Never! Probably because I’m not cool enough.
But apparently I am, because I GOTS ONE, YO!
I will admit I was a bit excited. Here is what I received in my first ever Influenster package, the Cosmo VoxBox.
Pilot FriXion Ball pens
Gillette Venus Embrace Razor and Gillette Venus & Olay cartridge
Ghiradelli Sea Salt Escape
Bath and Body Works Forever Red fragrance spray
I’m very excited to tell you what I think about these products!
Products in this post were provided for consideration.
I love doing stuff to my hair! Here’s my haircut of fall 2012. My hair was at its longest after being short for more than a year, and I was itching to have a cut. Goodbye, summer ombré! I loved you, but you’ll totes be back next year. I think this is the most adult haircut I’ve ever had, but I’ve had a lot of similar short bobs.
My inspo, the amazing Norah Jones.
I like curling my hair.
Side by side!
Over the past weekend, I stopped by the American Apparel store at a nearby outlet mall. So lucky I have an AA store nearby- I get to stock up on their new offerings in nail polish all the time! My store only had two of the new sheer polishes out, so I picked up three polishes and three lipglosses that were on clearance. The lipglosses are usually $12 each, so I never thought about buying them. But some shades were on super sale FOR TWO DOLLARS. So… of course I got some. Here are some swatches, and they have a lot more available online.
The shades I picked up were Intimate, Micromesh, and Legalize LA. They had a great formula for basic colors.
Intimate
Micromesh
Legalize LA
These are the polishes I picked up.
I tried on Legalize LA, LOVE IT.
Extra: How many of the following places have you been to? Me: eleven.
