Reflections

As 2010 comes to a close and 2011 begins, I'd like to take some time to reflect on some of the blessings in my life.

2010...

I had been reading beauty blogs for a while but on March 3, 2010, I took the plunge and created this blog for Mai and myself and wrote my first blog post. In the 9 months since that initial post, 60 people are now publicly following with others who are not following but reading my little ramblings. I feel so blessed that you find what I write interesting enough to read.

Technology is truly a wonderful tool. Yes, it can also be a dangerous tool but when used properly and with proper precautions, it's definitely a wonderful tool that can open up the world to you. I have friends in Austria, Japan, China, US, UK, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Guatemala, Venezuela, Holland and many other places in the world that I have met through technology (not just beauty blogging). Beauty blogging enabled me to expand my horizons a bit and meet more people in all corners of the world. By starting beauty blogging, I have "met" other beauty bloggers who I can truly call friends. I have been inspired, expanded my beauty repertoire, have been enabled and have enabled others and most importantly, feel better about myself and more self confident. I am quite shy by nature but being able to meet and get to know people via blogging makes me comfortable enough to want to meet in real life. All of you who I have met through blogging are truly the most awesome and generous people and I am so blessed to be able to call you friend.

In November I got to meet up with Kay of cosmeddicted, my first blogger meetup. A super sweet person who is beautiful both on the inside and outside.

2011...

Looking ahead to 2011, I hope to be able to do a few more blogger meetups. Nic Nic of bang bang she shoots will be coming to Hawaii in March for a wonderful wedding celebration. I hope that she will have some time to meet up. If anyone else has plans to come to Hawaii, please be sure to let me know.

I have had to make a New Year's resolution of sorts, mostly out of necessity. I will be trying very, very hard to keep my makeup spending to a minimal--hopefully just buy necessities and use my stash instead. Of course I already know that I will be probably hauling from Sephora when the Hello Kitty line gets released in mid-January. I also had resolved a couple of months ago that in 2011 I would be buying a brush a month to build up my brush collection with quality brushes. Since I had already decided to do that, I will be spending money on that. I will be going to Las Vegas at the end of February with my mom so I will need to save up for "play" money. I will also be traveling to Japan in July so of course I need to save up for that as well. I can finally make this annoucement that I've had to keep to myself for a couple of months now...the main reason why I will need to save up is because my oldest son is engaged to be married!

We will be preparing for two wedding celebrations. Having one celebration is costly enough so two will really put a bit of a strain on us. Plans for now is a wedding ceremony and reception in Hawaii in June with the other one in Japan on July 9--thus the trip to Japan.

I look forward to more blogging in 2011 and making new friends. I hope that 2010 was kind to all of you and may 2011 bring you all much joy, happiness and prosperity. Happy New Year to you all!

*Kat*

Blogger Christmas Blessings

In addition to having received an awesome Secret Santa gift, I was blessed to receive Christmas presents from two bloggers!

The first one that I received was from Brianna of The Sungirl Says.

Isn't this handmade card pretty?!!!

The second package that I received was from Jess of Ohh...Pretty.

Also included was a super sweet note.

Both of these packages were surprises. Brianna and Jess know me well since everything that they sent were items that I love or want to try.

Thank you so much to both of you for the wonderful surprises and for your friendship.

*Kat*

Happy Holidays Everyone!/Blogger Secret Santa Surprise + EOTD

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. Mine has been absolutely fantastic since I have the whole family home to celebrate the holidays.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I participated in a Blogger Secret Santa hosted by Sheila of Maddy Loves. I received my package a few weeks ago and patiently waited until the 25th to open it. Not being able to wait any longer, I opened my large envelope at 1:00 a.m. and found this inside:

A cute cello bag with a sweet note which revealed my Secret Santa. It was none other than Sheila herself! Okay, I have to admit that I knew it was her since it had her return address on the envelope.

Inside the cello bag was...

A super cute pouch bag that Sheila said was made by eki of ekilove.com. It is a very well-made pouch and I feel so lucky to have received this as part of the gift.

The pouch was filled with all kinds of wonderful goodies that I totally love.

I know that I didn't make it easy for Sheila to figure out what to get but I love trying out new things and she found items that are perfect for me. She thoughtfully bought  Lise Watier Professional Correctors Portfolio. I've read about Lise Watier products before but is available only in Canada. I can't wait to try it out! There is also a Lush Sexy Peel soap which smells so lovely, some MBD masks, Sasa sunscreen for body, Lancome Bi-Facil, Aquafina Lip Balm, Bath & Body Works lotion in White Citrus and a Visee Blooming Eyes Palette in BR-5. The Aquafina lip balm sounds interesting so I can't wait to try it. I love the White Citrus scent so I'll be using the lotion. I tend to like white fruits--I think it's because the flavor is milder so it seems to make sense that I would prefer white fruit scents too.

Since I opened up my package at 1:00 a.m., when I woke up later on to start Christmas Day, I decided to play with the Visee palette. All that I did today was to follow the instructions on the packaging as to how to apply the colors on your eye.

The only thing different that I did was to add Urban Decay's Creep (from the NAKED Palette) to the outer "V" of upper eyelids and soften it with Dark Horse (again from the NAKED Palette). The rest of the EOTD was my usual lining my eyes with K-Palette eyeliner and apply Gokubuto mascara.

I have another Visee Blooming Eyes palette, which I really like. This BR-5 palette is of the same quality, which is a nicely pigmented, easily blendable eyeshadow palette.

I'm so glad that I decided to join this Blogger Gift Exchange. I will gladly sign up again next year if there is one. Thank you Sheila for this awesome Secret Santa package and for the hard work in hosting the exchange.

*Kat*

Thank you to Yumeko

Yumeko of A Dream of Tokyo does handmade items which she sells at her online shop. Her items usually sell out really quickly so I was lucky to have been able to make a purchase recently.

I bought a brush roll made with Charmmy Kitty print fabric. It arrived very quickly after I purchased it and came with a few goodies. (It's actually missing one KitKat as I had to gobble it up before I remembered to take a picture.)

Love the eyeshadow color and can't wait till I can try it out. The Royal Milk Chai tea looks really delicious and I can't decide whether to drink it hot or cold!

The brush roll is a very nice size and is so cute! It is very well constructed and holds a nice variety of brushes--more than I usually use each day.

After you fill it up, it rolls up really nicely and holds the brushes in very well.

Thank you Yumeko for the wonderful service and for the extra goodies! I will definitely be using this when I travel next year. I know for sure that I will be taking two trips--Las Vegas at the end of February and Japan in early July.

*Kat*

Sparklicity Shimmer Dust Review

This is actually a really quick review since there's not much to say about it.

There are actually two different Shimmer Dusts that are part of Tarina Tarantino's Sparklicity line. One is called Shimmer Dust and the other is Gold Shimmer Dust. I decided that I prefer iridescent sparkles over gold sparkles so I bought Sparklicity Shimmer Dust.

According to Sephora's website, it is a pure-refraction glitter for body and hair. This luxe finishing touch is made from an Italian formula called reflex, which delivers pure glitter without base or binder.

It comes in a really cute glass bottle with a pink bulb pump, very reminiscent of an old perfume spray bottle. (The Gold Shimmer Dust comes with a gold bulb.) It contains 0.42 oz/12 gr of product, which is a decent size, to me.

When you press the bulb, a fine mist of the powder is dispersed.

Sorry, I had difficulty taking a good picture of the pretty sparkles

I think that because my bottle is new, not a whole lot of product came out. When I tested it at Sephora, a good amount of the powder came out in one pump. I needed to pump it a few times to get decent coverage. The sparkles are very fine glitter, which I like much better than chunkier glitters. I also think that it's better if you are wearing lotion on the area of your body in which you will be spraying for staying power.

It's a nice touch for an evening out, especially during this holiday season.

As a side note, I may not be posting too regularly for the next several weeks. My son is home for the holidays so it depends on how busy we are. If he ends up spending a lot of time out with his friends, then I will have lots of time to post. Until then, happy holidays to all of our dear and wonderful readers!

*Kat*

What's In My Makeup Bag?

I had seen these posts a while back and I decided that I wanted to do one too. I actually don't carry a whole lot with me although I know that I could. I'm trying to scale things down as much as possible.

I'm using a Marc Jacobs zip top pouch to carry my makeup. I'm not sure where I got this from but I think that it was one of those GWPs when I bought a Japanese fashion magazine. I'm going to talk about what's in the pouch in no particular order.

Maquillage Moisture Finish Powdery UV Foundation, which I usually use together with the Bare Escentuals Max Coverage Concealer Brush. I actually don't use much powder for my normal makeup routine and I rarely use this but like to have it just in case. It's especially useful when I have a cold and am blowing my nose a lot. I can then use the powder foundation to touch up.

I find that after 5 hours or so, the foundation under my eyes can fade away so I like to touch it up with the Canmake Cover & Stretch Concealer, if I'm still out and about, which is probably most of the time.

Blistex Complete Moisture lipbalm. After I eat (which can be often hehe!), I have to touch up my lipstick so this lipbalm goes on first then my lipcolors.

MAC Lustre LIpstick in Sweetie. This is my go to lipstick, which I will use to touch up no matter what color blush I'm using. NARS Lipgloss in Dolce Vita will go over Sweetie if I want to have a glossy finish.

Some bandaids, just in case. Oil blotting tissues for those really humid days when I might get a bit oily. (Red packet) The blue packet is something called "kami sekken", which translated means paper soap. My really dear friend, who is like a sister to me, was surprised when I had never heard of this before. Apparently, many Japanese women carry this around in their purse to use when there's no soap. The sheet looks very similar to an oil blotting sheet. You pull it out with dry fingers/hands and then wet your hands. It will melt and you can lather it up to wash your hands like regular soap. It's quite handy.

A small hair jaw clip in case I need to pull my hair back.

False eyelash glue and a mini nail file. No, I don't normally wear false eyelashes. It's no secret that I use Mezaik Double Eyelid Stretch Fiber to help keep my eyelids double. I used to use false eyelash glue a long time ago and that's how my eyelids kind of "naturally" became double. In the last couple of years though, it's been "falling" and getting weird on me so I've had to go back to glueing it every once in a while until I discovered Mezaik. However, even with Mezaik, my eyelids (usually the left eye) will get weird on me and I will get a really funky small crease which completely takes over my eyelid that even Mezaik can't seem to undo.

See the teeny tiny ugly crease

Ugh! Eyelids do not look double!

False eyelash glue to the rescue.

See how deep the small crease is even with the Mezaik applied? Not good!

First I'll apply the Mezaik as usual and it'll hold for a while but I will apply the glue over the Mezaik to make sure that it stays nicely doubled. I like to use the tip of the nail file to put the glue onto and then using the file I can apply a nice thin layer of eyelash glue. Normally after a few days, my eyelid will lose the small, ugly crease and go back to normal.

And that is my everyday makeup bag.

*Kat*

Random Quick Post

I was going to do a proper post tonight but alas, I'm a bit exhausted so I'll do something that I promised someone I would do.

Last month for our birthday giveaway, one of the point questions was what was Kat's new baby's name. Of course my "new baby" is my four-legged baby--a kitten named Hime chan. At that time she was only 2 months old. She's now 9 months old and here's a couple of recent pictures of her.

What are you doing?

K--I miss you even if you did use my chair.

Is everyone finished with their Christmas shopping yet? I'm not!

*Kat*

Sleek Eye Dust in Dirty Review + EOTD

Back in the beginning of November, K of cosmeddicted won Sleek's Twitter giveaway. At that time I saw all of the wonderful palettes that she received. I had also read about Sleek on various other blogs but when I saw K's prize, I was really curious about the product. When I met with K the oither day, I asked her how she liked Sleek's eyeshadows. I also told her how I was looking forward to a future post that she intends to do on pressing loose pigments. It all sounds very interesting. The only thing that I had ever tried was Bare Minerals loose eyeshadows, which I wasn't too impressed with. I'm not sure if it's the colors that I purchased or the product itself. I'm leaning toward the product itself since I found it to be quite glittery.

When I opened my gift package from her yesterday, I was so surprised to find that there was a container of Sleek Eye Dust in Dirty! What a coincidence that I was asking her questions about Sleek and loose eyeshadows/pigments.

Dirty is a beautiful color and something that I couldn't photograph well at all! The color looks quite dark in the container but when I swatch it/apply it, it applies as a dark taupey color. I had been thinking of looking out for a nice taupe color and this fits the bill.

I couldn't wait to use it, thus today's EOTD.

Products used: (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the products used)

Mezaik Double Eyelid Stretch Fiber
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Original
MAC: Remotely Grey, Neutral Pink, Print, Nylon, Goldmine
Sleek Eye Dust: Dirty
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Canmake Loose Cheek: 01

After applying Mezaik, I lightly applied UDPP in original. Someone had asked me if the Mezaik would work with original since I had only posted about it working well with Sin and yes, it works the same! Remotely Grey applied from creaseline to browbone and Neutral Pink in same area except from inner eyelid area and blended outward and upward. Dirty was applied from lashline to above creaseline over entire eyelid. Print applied from lashline to just above creaseline on outer half of eyelid, concentrating heavier color on outer "v". I used Dirty to line the lower lashline by concentrating it on the lashline for a natural look. K-Palette eyeliner lines the entire upper lashline and outer 1/3 of lower lashline.

The result was a very neutral look.

I decided that I wanted it to "pop" more so I dabbed Goldmine to the middle of eyelid and finished up by lightly adding Nylon to outer half of browbone. I used Canmake Loose Cheek Powder 01 as my blush today and I also added it to the middle of browbone and lightly blended it into Nylon.

I love Dirty! It's nicely pigmented and had a pearlescent finish to it. I didn't experience any fallout when I applied it. It's definitely nothing like the Bare Minerals loose eyeshadow that I had tried before.

Thank you K for including this in your wonderful gift to me!

*Kat*

Quick Recap of Meeting Kay

Yesterday, Mai and I had our first blogger meetup with Kay of cosmeddicted! Kay and I first met up when I picked her up in the morning from her hotel. We did some things and then met up with Mai for lunch. Kay is a super sweet person and very intelligent. We had a nice time with her.

She was so nice to have brought goodies!

Japan KitKats; Mango gummy candy--it says that it has Vitamin C and collagen (correct me if I'm wrong Kay);  two very pretty nail polishes; Hello Kitty Face Wash--it has collagen too, it's cute and it's pink; MAC Viva Glam V lipstick; a little container of what I think is pigment powder eyeshadow--it's such a pretty color and I can't wait to play with it; and Yoku Moku cookies in a cute Christmas tin! Yoku Moku cookies are so yummy and a rare treat.

The Viva Glam V lipstick is a pretty color but is too light on my lips. I have a kind of raspberry lipstick which is a little too dark for my liking so I layered the Viva Glam V lipstick over it and voila! it's the perfect shade now.

The weather was really nice yesterday but last night a storm came through and there was lightning and thunder! In fact, there was one clap of thunder that was the loudest I can ever remember hearing in my whole life. It sounded like it was right above our house and the house even shook.

Kay left today and is headed to Hong Kong with one stopover. She left Hawaii on the perfect day because it was still quite rainy and not the typical image of Hawaii that your mind conjures up.

The one regret that I have of this meetup--I didn't really take pictures! I have a few and will hopefully do a better post later. I guess that we were having so much fun that I forgot to take pictures.

Thank you, Kay, for a wonderful time. It was fantastic meeting you and I hope that we get to do this again.

*Kat*

Holiday Green and Gold EOTD (pic heavy)

It seems that recently I've been doing mainly reviews so I decided to an EOTD that I recently did and recreated for today's blog post. With the holidays right around the corner, I find myself wearing the festive colors of the season so I wanted my eyes to match the festive mood.

Products used:

I left this picture pretty much at it's original size so you can click on it to see better.

Urban Decay:
   Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin
   NAKED Palette--Sin (Noted w/red star)
   Book of Shadows III--Kush and Loaded (Noted w/red stars)
MAC:
   Remotely Grey
   Neutral Pink
   Goldmine (Noted w/pink star)
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
Revlon Grow Luscious Mascara

After my usual preparations, I primed using UD Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Sin.

In contour area between the creaseline and browbone, I applied Remotely Grey. I also applied Neutral Pink in the same area but only on the inner 1/3 and blended it towards the center and out.

It's a very subtle difference

Kush is then applied on entire eyelid from lashline to just above creaseline.

Loaded is applied in the same area but only on the outer half of the eyes. I make sure to blend the colors well.

Using my finger, I dab it into Goldmine and then dab it onto the center of my eyelid. Keep on doing this until you reach the intensity that you want.

Using Loaded again, I define the outer "V" of my eyelid.

I also use Loaded on my lower lashline to create a very subtle liner effect. Mai doesn't like to do this because she wears contacts and can't stand the shadow getting in her eyes. I like to do it because it's an effect where you wonder if the person lined her eyes or not.

I finish it off by applying a bit of Sin onto browbone, line my upper lashline and outer 1/4 of lower lashline with K-Palette and Grow Luscious mascara to my upper lashes.

For a formal party, you can make your eyes more dramatic/glamorous  by using UD 24/7 liner in zero (included in the BoSIII palette) and going over it with Loaded.

I hope that you enjoyed this holiday look.

EDIT:  You can also use shades of blue and silver in the same manner for another holiday look.
*Kat*

Blogger Gift Exchange

Last month I signed up to join in a "Are You Naughty or Nice" Blogger Gift Exchange. A blogger friend had done this last year and said that it was fun so I decided to try it. It's basically like a Secret Santa gift exchange that is done through Elfster and Elfster chooses who you will be a Secret Santa to and who will be your Secret Santa. You get to make a wish list for yourself and you can view others wish lists. You can also anonymously ask your draw questions to find out any further information you might need to be able to purchase their gift(s).

I received my package today so as per the rule, I am posting the picture here of the unopened package. I have to wait until Christmas Day to open it.

It's so tempting so I have hidden it away so that I don't have to look at it and get the urging to peek. After I open it, I will post pictures of what I received.

*Kat*

Blog Award

We were recently given this blog award. It is our first and we are very honored and really excited about it. Thank you to ashura of The Clover Beauty Inn.

We're supposed to tag 15 other beauty blogs that we just discovered and since we are relatively new to blogging and you are all so awesome, everyone is tagged.

Thank you again, ashura!

*Kat* and Mai

Review: Rimmel Fix & Perfect Foundation Primer

Continuing on with my reviews of some of the drugstore purchases that I made recently...

After reading K's blog post review  of this being her favorite primer, I decided to try it. I've been told by MUA's that they use an orange-toned cream (for example an orange lip/eye pencil) to cover dark spots before applying foundation over it. I tried it and I guess that I used either too dark a pencil and/or didn't properly conceal it because I ended up with orange dots all over my face. Since this is an orange-toned primer, I thought that it might work in the same way.

While it did indeed smooth and prime my face well, it was quite matte, which is not to my liking. It provided a nice base and helped my foundation to last nicely. It didn't help to mask my dark spot. After first applying this primer, it seemed to blend into my skintone very nicely but after a few hours, I noticed that I was looking very tanned which is probably due to the apricot tone. Unfortunately, this does not work for me.

Drugstore products are inexpensive, which is really a nice thing, and you can find great things there. The downside to this is that you can't test and swatch them before purchasing. As a result, I've ended up with a lot of products that don't work for me.

*Kat*

Decisions, Decisions...

As I am sure that all of you are doing, I've been busy trying to buy Christmas presents and decide who to give what. I find myself in a bit of a dilemma in deciding what to do for my son's girlfriend, who is from Japan. My son will be returning home for the holidays and she will be coming with him (the same as last year). I had lucked out and purchased a NAKED palette for her a while ago. I also bought this really cute tunic top, which I'm not sure is her style but she can always exchange it while she's here.

No other pictures since we've all seen lots of pictures of it before on a lot of blogs

I then came across a really interesting palette from Tarina Tarentino called Sparklicity Gold Palette. It comes in a nice gold box and I was surprised to see that the palette was also enclosed in a gold sheer organza bag.

As soon as I saw the casing, I thought that it was a design that Japanese girls would go for.

I really like the palette case design as well except for the skull that was included. I know that it's really popular right now but I can't see what is so attractive/cute about skulls.

The palette includes 5 different color eyeshadows and a mirrored lid. Quite a well-made compact, in my opinion.

The eyeshadow colors are on the neutral side so I think that it would go well with Japanese girls'/womens' preference.

The only thing that I'm not quite sure of is the quality of the eyeshadows--if they are pigmented, blendable, etc. I don't want to swatch it since it's supposed to be a gift.

So my question is, which one should I give to her or should I just give her both? Her birthday was in October and I also have a small birthday present for her--NARS Orgasm Lust set so should I combine one of the eyeshadow palettes with that and use it as her birthday present as well? Return the Tarina Tarentino palette?

Please tell me your thoughts on what you think I should do.

*Kat*