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On the 8th of this month, it was a bittersweet day for us. Our son and his family were spending the holidays with us and they left in the morning to head back to Japan. It would have been totally sad and lonely except that another blogger friend and her hubby arrived on Oahu early that morning and would be spending only the day. I had planned to meet them after dropping the family off at the airport and we ate lunch, got a drink dessert, went sight seeing and ate more dessert before finally dropping them off where they ate dinner and the hubs and I went home to eat dinner. Did you notice that we did a lot of eating?!
It was an honor and pleasure to be able to meet up with Lulu of Lulu China Doll blog. Although she hasn't been blogging much lately, we have been keeping in touch with other regularly through twitter and instagram. We have done video chats before but never had the opportunity to meet in person. Lulu and her husband are both the nicest people around and we had a great time together.
I first picked them up and then we went to meet the hubs and went out to grab lunch together. It happened to be a very windy day with occasional rain spells so we decided to take them on a hike to Makapu'u Point Lighthouse Trail instead of Diamond Head. We thought that Makapu'u is less well known than Diamond Head and it's a really nice hike. The drive there is scenic and we noticed that the water was quite rough so we made a pit stop at Blow Hole, better known as Halona Blowhole. This attraction is a blowhole which is naturally formed lava tubes from volcanic eruptions years ago. These tubes run to the ocean in ideal conditions, when the waves come in, the ocean water is forced into the tube and water shoots out. Of course, the larger the wave, the larger the spray.
We were lucky to see some nice sprays being blown out.
We continued on to Makapu'u to do the hike. It was really windy and fortunately the wind was blowing inward. If it blew outward, there's a very slim chance that we could have been blown off the trail and down the cliff. The high winds also made it impossible to take really nice pictures with our hair blowing all over the place. With it being the start of whale season, we were hoping to catch a glimpse of some whales but there were too many white caps in the ocean.
Lulu met up with me bearing gifts. I had asked her to bring my favorite nori (seaweed) snack from Trader Joe's, which is wasabi flavored. She also included other goodies and one of the items was a really cute container. I had to hurry and take this picture because it's the last package of nori. I forgot to take pictures before I started to devour them.
Also in the goodie bag was a Butter London nail polish in a very beautiful shade with lots and lots of glittery sparkles! For those of you who don't know Lulu, she loves nail polish!
It's my first Butter London nail polish so I was very excited to receive it and try it out. I love the shade and glitters in it. Surprisingly, this nail polish wasn't so difficult to remove despite the glitter in it. Usually nail polish with glitter takes supreme effort to remove.
Thank you Lulu and Mr. Lulu for the gifts, but mostly for your gift of friendship. It was so awesome to meet up and it was perfect that it was on a day that would have been totally a downer. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with you both.
*Kat*
This is actually supposed to be a quick post although I'm combining 3 different things into it.
I received a love package from the awesome Justine of Sakura Lovely. She sent me a package packed with so many wonderful things to delight body and soul. A very small portion of that package was a collection of L'Oreal Color Infallibles! Most of them were the newly released colors with one or two from the original release.
Left to right, top row: Innocent Turquoise, Metallic Lilac, Tender Caramel, Permanent Kaki
Left to right, bottom row: Pepsy Coral, Sahara Treasure, Sassy Marshmallow
Justine has an extensive collection of the Infallible eyeshadows along with an extensive list of the different colors. There are releases that are exclusive to only certain countries and she has that listed as well. Please go and look through her blog to read up on all of her reviews. I was going to link but there are quite a few. You'll be impressed by her collection as she has almost all the colors.
This past Saturday I wasn't going to wear any makeup but had to go out so I decided to play with the Infallibles. My EOTD consisted of:
Pepsy Coral
Metalllic Lilac
Dior Ultra Violet
K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner
After my usual eye prep, I applied Pepsy Coral to inner 1/3 of eyelid. Metallic Lilac was applied to outer 2/3 of eyelid and blended upward toward the outer corners. Ultra Violet was applied in outer V to create more depth. Lined upper lash line and outer 1/4 of lower lash line with K-Palette. Ultra Violet was applied over K-Palette on lower lash line and blended gently towards mid eye.
It's my usual eyeshadow application technique. I didn't apply it very heavily but it came out nicely. I'll have to apply it a little more heavily the next time I use it as it's a bit too light for my liking.
Thanks Justine for the beautiful Infallibles. I'll have to reveal the rest of your package later.
*Kat*
I did something horribly wrong when I tried to do this as a scheduled post as I did with the other two--I lost my post! It was supposed to post on Tuesday but never appeared and I can't find it so here I am writing it again. Sorry Yuming that it didn't get posted earlier.
Love package #3 was actually a trade that I had worked out with Yuming of Beauty Box. She had commented on one of my posts about wanting but has been holdling off on getting NAKED 2 Palette. I barely touched my palette, mostly did a couple of swatches and a couple of EOTD so I asked her if she would be willing to do a trade for it before I decided to put it up on a blog sale. She graciously accepted by trade request and sent me extra lovely items as well.
There were a bunch of masks, a couple of sample items, two Daiso blushes, a lip gloss and Daiso sponge cleaner. The Daiso blushes are really a great product and at such an inexpensive price. I've raved about the sponge cleaner in an earlier post as have many other bloggers.
A sweet note and the trade item--an Addiction eyeshadow! I requested the color Keshi. I had first bought an eyeshadow a couple of months ago when I was in Japan. I was very much impressed by the pigmentation and quality of it. I had always thought that it was an extremely expensive product but to my surprise, it is priced similarly to maybe NARS and only slightly higher than Urban Decay. If the dollar wasn't so weak against the yen, then of course it would be even more reasonably priced.
A closeup of Keshi, which is a dark charcoal color. I will definitely be reviewing this along with the other color that I purchased. That color is Neverland, which is a deep green.
Thank you Yuming for doing the trade with me and for including such wonderful goodies. I love everything!
*Kat*
The 2nd love package that I received was quite unexpected. The lovely and very talented Yasumi of WorshipBlues and I have recently started following each other on Twitter and slowly getting to know each other better. I had mentioned that I had been hearing so many wonderful things about Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation but unfortunately can't get it here. She so kindly offered to send me a bottle and in the process sent a very lovely love package. I was so blown away and touched by her kindness.
In the box...
...not one foundation but two! There's Healthy Mix Serum Foundation and 1 2 3 Perfect Foundation. I hadn't heard of the 1 2 3 Perfect Foundation before and was so excited to try both of these foundations. Also in the box is a Bourjois bllush, Bourjois stick foundation, Labello lip balm and Rouge Bunny Rouge cream eyeshadow.
I'm so excited to try all of these products. All of these products are brands that I have never tried before. Thank you so much Yasumi! I'm in the process of gathering some things to reciprocate.
*Kat*
Over the last month, I received 3 packages. This will be the 1st of 3 posts and will go in order of receipt.
This first package was from Yumeko of A Dream of Tokyo. This all came about because I was traveling to Japan in April and she asked if I could CP a couple of things for her and bring it to Japan with me. Unfortunately, I knew ahead of time that my schedule was so packed that I wouldn't be able to do a meet up with her so we agreed that I would just use a delivery service within Japan. Since I had originally hoped that we could meet up, I had planned in my mind that I wanted to give her the items as a gift so when I ended up having it delivered to her, I told her that it was a gift. Being the good and proper beauty blogger and strong asian upbringing characteristics, she very kindly and oh so generously reciprocated.
There were so many things packed inside the box! A variety of masks (love them!), a blush, a concealer, a beauty nose brush and jelly gloss. I'm assuming that the beauty nose brush is a foundation brush that helps to apply foundation easily to the area around the nostrils and side of the nose. I haven't taken the time to read the back instructions as it takes me a loooong time to read the little Japanese I can read. The concealer stick is very interesting to me and I can't wait to try it out.
Also included in this treasure box was:
A couple of snack items, tea packets, and some cosmetic samples. I can't wait to drink the tea! I'm also excited to try the BB cream sample as I believe it's the one that Yumeko loves.
We're not done yet...
The main item is the facial cleanser. This was newly released when I was in Japan but I couldn't find it when I looked. Yumeko had told me that was being promoted by my absolute favorite J-Pop idol, Ohno Satoshi of Arashi so of course I needed to try it. I've also used Naive Facial cleansers before and really like the brand. Also included in this box of treasures were a couple of rolls of deco tape, a pen and scrapbooking sticker set. The sticker set is so cute and it's Hawaii themed.
Thank you Yumeko for the wonderful love package! I love everything.
Reviews of some items will be coming up later.
*Kat*
Thanks to Sheila, this time she hosted a Secret Valentine swap. I had so much fun with the Christmas ones that there was no hesitation to go ahead and join this one. I felt that this one was more difficult to do since the limit was $20.00. Needless to say, I'm quite sure that everyone who joined in was far more generous than their $20.00 limit. That holds very true to my Secret Valentine who was...
DRUMROLL
May! I met May via Twitter and she is just the sweetest person!
The box was so cutely decorated! She knows how much I love (as well as many others out there) Hello Kitty.
The box was filled to the brim!
Yummy sweets! The panda ones are so cute and are absolutely delicious! May, are they Japanese candy? I showed it to Wuzzyangel and we both haven't seen it here before.
A ton of masks and e.l.f. makeup remover wipes. I haven't masked in a while and I really need to do so. Love masks!
Hand and foot exfoliator and wet swabs. I really do need to exfoliate my feet! It will come in handy.
A washing mitt and makeup sponge.
A Hello Kitty 2012 calendar! It's so cute!
A very cute polka dotted makeup case. This was also filled to the brim!
Revlon Lip Butter in Sweet Tart--this was on my wish list! Beautiful purple nail polish, Q10 cream, hand lotion, a Dolly Wink Eyebrow pencil--or was it an eyeliner. Sorry, everything is at my office and I'm at home typing this and a cute stuffed charm.
I'll have to admit that I opened this up last week. Sheila gave me permission since she knew that I would be so busy on Valentine's Day that I probably wouldn't have a chance to open it up until really late, if at all. All of the panda candies are eaten and the other goodies will be finished up soon too. I can't wait to try everything that was in the box.
Thank you again May for the wonderful Secret Valentine gift. You were so generous! It's been great getting to know you on Twitter. I'll see you there again soon.
*Kat*
Sorry that I've been so inactive with blogging these past few weeks. Working and dealing with the hustle and bustle of the holiday season left me feeling quite exhausted this year. I do have quite a few catch up posts planned and hopefully can get it all organized and done soon.
The end of 2011 was a good one because I got to meet up with 2 bloggers at the same time. Liz aka Jamilla Camel of Makeup for Professional Asian Women and Tracie aka Wuzzy of Wuzzy Angel are the two bloggers that I got to meet. Coincidently, Tracie lives in Hawaii and quite nearby to me and we haven't ever met before this. We decided to meet at Ala Moana Shopping Center just outside of Nordstrom and then head over to Assagio Italian Restaurant for lunch.
Liz also brought along her husband who Liz described as a very tall English man. This conjured up all kinds of stereotypical images in my mind of English men. One stereotype is that they are loud and rowdy. The other being the perfect English gentleman. Her husband is indeed very tall and is a soft-spoken, genteel and perfect English gentleman. It was an honor for me to have been able to meet him too.
Liz, I have "met" via video webchat before and so it was great to actually see her in person. It is amazing how different people can look in person even though you've seen them through web chat. I have to say that Liz is even more beautiful in person, if that is even possible. She has the greatest personality too and is so easy to get along with. Unfortunately, she wasn't feeling very well so she couldn't enjoy eating a nice meal.
Traci is also a beautiful and easy going person. I've discovered that we have a few things in common besides our love for makeup. Traci, I think that we'll need to get together again and just fangirl over the Johnny idols.
We totally failed in remembering to take meet up pictures! We were having so much fun talking and eating that by the time I remembered that we needed to take pictures, the food was gone except for Traci's salad. This is the only picture that I took of Liz and Traci:
No blogger meet up is complete without goodies. From the lovely Liz, I received this bag:
And in the bag was wonderful goodies!
A packet of Victorian cutouts, a couple of eyeshadow palettes, a mask or two AND a Hello Kitty x Liberty Lipgloss Set! I already opened up and used the Victorian cutouts and that will be in an upcoming post. Thank you LIz!
From Traci, I received a wallet-sized zippered pouch which has a mirror inside and there was a bunch of sample packets that I can't wait to try. Also included was a nail polish and Bare Minerals powder.
It was actually all wrapped up in a package as well but I forgot to take a picture of it before I opened it up. Thank you Traci!
Thank you ladies! It was a wonderful way to end 2011.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, I've been quite exhausted and I actually fell asleep on New Year's Eve as soon as I got home from work. I got up a few times and posted a couple of tweets but went back to sleep until I finally got up at around 11:30 p.m. It was just in time to wish my family a Happy New Year at midnight. I then showered and went back to sleep. New Year's Day, I was still feeling tired and like I had a hangover so it was mainly spent just lying around and watching television.
I finally cooked my New Year's meal for dinner tonight. It isn't the new year until we eat soba and the traditional ozoni (mochi soup).
Soba:
Ozoni:
Teriyaki Furikake Salmon:
I couldn't find my sakura-shaped cutter so I had to use this other cutter for the carrots in the soup. I don't like cooked carrots so after I took the picture, the carrots went back into the pot.
To eveyone, Happy New Year and I hope that 2012 will be a good year for all.
*Kat*
With the holidays fast approaching, it's beginning to feel more and more festive. Helping to add to that festive feeling is the blessings that I have received in the way of love packages and Christmas packages over the past couple of weeks. This is in addition to the Secret Santa packages that I received.
First of all was a love package from Yu Ming of Beauty-Box-Online. We follow each other on twitter and she remembered that I had once said that I was interested in trying out the MDB Earl Gray Tea & Macaron Masks and Chocolate Truffle Masks. She kindly offered to send me some since it hadn't worked out for her. Along with that, she included a few sample items. I can't wait to try all of the items out. Thank you so much Yu Ming!
I had been wanting the "perfect" shade of violet and wasn't having much luck finding it. I finally found it--Urban Decay's Flash. I had actually seen Flash before but always thought that it was much darker than I wanted. I swatched it on Friday and it actually comes out lighter than it looks in the pan and it's my "perfect" violet shade! You don't know just how excited I was to discover this.
This EOTD is done using just about all Urban Decay products. UDPP in Sin, Flash, Psychedelic Sister, Rockstar and Perversion eyeshadows. K-Palette Real Lasting Eyeliner was used too.
The one thing that I did was to line the outer corner of my lower lashline with K-Palette and then I topped it with Flash. I loved the result. It reminds me of when a kazillion years ago there was a Lancome eyeliner pencil in a violet shade which I really loved. It has long been discontinued and I can't even remember the name of the pencil. I used it over black liner and the end result was a combination that was great. The end result with using Flash over K-Palette is quite similar so I'm quite happy.
I also received another love package yesterday from a blogger who wishes to remain anonymous. Actually, she and I have exchanged packages a few times and she is really an awesome and generous person. Thank you "J.P." for the wonderful love package. I can't wait to try out the things you sent for me to try.
I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!
*Kat*
I have been so blessed with getting to know all you lovely beauties. I received two love packages this past week!
Steph of susho spent a couple of months in Hong Kong and was so sweet to think of me. She sent me a wonderful package all the way from Hong Kong!
In the last couple of days, I received two packages that in exchange for items I sent out.
The first one that I got was a trade that I worked out for the Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush that I had on blog sale. I honestly didn't know what I wanted so I asked her to just send me anything. What I received was the NYX Runway Collection 10 Color Eyeshadow Palette in Champagne & Caviar.
It is a gorgeous neutral palette. I do have UD Naked Palette but this is quite different from the Naked Palette. The colors in the Naked palette run on the warm side and the colors in this palette are on the cool side, which actually suits my skin tone better. I've already used it a couple of times and really like it. I'll post an EOTD soon. Thank you so much Alvira for doing the trade and I hope that my package arrives there soon!
About a month or so ago, I had bought the Borghese brush set from Costco. Winnie from All Styled Up was checking her Costco in Canada and couldn't find it. I offered to pick up a set for her and told her that instead of her paying for it, we could work out a trade. Of course again, I had no real preference for items although I did ask her if there were Canadian products that I couldn't easily get. I already have a Lise Watier concealer wheel so I didn't need that. I think that I gave poor Winnie a hard time by not having any preferences. The package that she sent me was sooo awesome! I had to take it two shots.
The first picture is all MAC products. I love MAC and can't wait to try these out. There's even a MAC brush! What is in the contact lens cases are pigments! Contact lens cases are really convenient for storing products. I use it to carry a glob of cream concealer.
The second picture has a beautiful jewelry set, two eyeshadow pans from Annabelle Studio, mini Kiehl's Line Reducing Concentrate (I've been wanting to try something else from Kiehl's so this is perfect!), Organic Wear mascara and two items from Quo, which I have never heard of before. One is a powder atomizer bottle. It is so cute! The other is Summer Fantasy Palette, which is really gorgeous. Even the casing is beautiful with crystal rhinestones set in the top of the lid. I can't wait to try this palette out. Everything came inside the pretty floral organza bag.
I was fortunate to have met Winnie through another wonderful blogger, Brianna of The Sungirl Says. Thank you Winnie for the awesome trade. You truly spoiled me.
I also received a love package from Sheila of Maddy Loves. Please check out her blog if you can. She has great reviews and is just a sweet person. (She is also having a giveaway, which will end in 3 days.) Sheila was the coordinator for the 2010 Blogger Secret Santa exchange which I participated in. I know how challenging it can be to coordinate something like this, especially if someone doesn't follow through. I sent her some small as a thank you for doing such an awesome job. In turn, she sent me a thank you package!
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