Random Thoughts #13: Change is Coming

Not sure how many of you have noticed this, but I have been tinkering with my blog, moving things around, adding categories/sections/links and basically just trying to edit it the way I want it be – with a proper ‘filing’ system so that it’s easier to navigate. I’m a little OCD like that.

Along with my new job, I’m also changing a little of what I will be writing about. There’s been some things that I’ve always wanted to write about or share, but just didn’t have the time and I don’t want to talk about some of these things lightly. You might say that it’s sharing knowledge or just a conversation with myself as I learn about some of these things too along the way.

I actually really love to write. It was my childhood dream to be a writer, not a number cruncher. In the end I followed my head and did what I excelled in naturally, which is dealing with numbers, instead of following my heart. So I diverted from my real dream.

Now is my chance to really write. I will write anything to my heart desire. I’m just not sure – should I write it here, or start a new blog to write about all other non-beauty topics? I’ve given this quite a lot of thought and I thought it’s simpler to just add the new stuff into this blog. What do you think?

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On another note, while I was thinking of how to revamp this blog, I decided to take a look at some of my old posts. Some of my old “random thoughts” left me feeling… well, not very good. I felt that I did not do what I said to do last year – that I have continued to let myself degenerate.

I need to push myself harder, and to run faster. Let’s hope next year this time, I would be better, stronger and most importantly, much happier.

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Please let know if you have any thoughts/comments!

Review: NYX Pure Decadence Butter Gloss Set

I don’t know what took me so long to find these but these NYX butter glosses are fantastic! I recently got this NYX Pure Decadence Butter Gloss Set from Sephora for S$20; I checked around online and found this set to be selling at about USD10 in the U.S., so considering shipping and exchange rate of USD1 for SGD1.30, the markup isn’t that bad. Plus, there are 3 full size glosses in this set, so each gloss comes up to only S$6.67, still a really reasonable price for a gloss.

As a set, I think the shades included are great with a good mix of variety. All of them have some sort of bakery theme in their name! Red Velvet is a cherry/raspberry red. Tiramisu is a nude shade, leaning towards the pink side; this is a my-lips-but-better shade. Devil’s Food Cake is a deep, berry shade; I think it looks quite vampy on me. All three glosses have a pretty strong sweet or vanilla scent, in line with the bakery-theme, so if you’re sensitive to scented lip products, you might want to avoid these.

These glosses comes with a doe-foot applicator, which I think comes in handy with the darker shades where more control is needed. For Red Velvet and Devil’s Food Cake, I find the pigmentation really good so one swipe leaves behind at least medium coverage – they can be built up to their full colour but I’m more comfortable with less coverage as shown in the lip swatches below. I think they look slightly streaky if I just applied it once; the best way to use these is to kind of work it into the lips by painting it back and forth on the lips to get it all evened out. All three leaves a lot of shine!

The texture is very smooth and buttery, just like its name! On first contact it’s quite a thick formula but I actually think it feels really comfortable on, not sticky or tacky, and quite moisturising without being heavy. However, given the comfort factor and non-sticky texture, the staying power is quite low – the lighter shade lasts about 1 hour on my lips, while the darker shades leave behind a slight stain that stays on for about 2 to 3hours even after the shine wears off in the first hour.

In all, I really like these glosses! I’m usually not a gloss fan – because they can be sticky and I’m highly sensitive to sticky glosses, but these are really comfortable to wear with really good colour payoff! They’re very reasonably priced, and the high shine is really pretty! If you’re looking for stocking stuffers this holiday season, then these will come in handy as well. Or if you’re a relatively new lip gloss user, these will be great to start with! Now my only problem is that I want to pick up the rest of the shades…

Rating: 4/5

Review: Tarte Magical Moments Deluxe Discovery Set

Picked up this Tarte Magical Moments Deluxe Discovery Set in a recent haul, which I wrote about, for S$24! This set comes with their famous Amazonian Clay 12-hour Blush in the shade Magic, a LipSurgence lip gloss in the shade Magic, and a Lights, Camera, Lashes 4-in-1 Mascara.

Review: Pibugonggam G Facial Scrub

Enter one of the shortest reviews on my blog – since this is quite an obscure brand and I am not sure where you can find it if you want it, I shall not make too much fuss about it. I got this from a Memebox, and the product card claims that it costs US$13 for 50g of this product. 50g is not a lot – it’s quite a small tube, so my first impression is that it’s pretty overpriced.

Product Description:
This scrub is made from natural scrub ingredients – orange and tangerine peels – and works to exfoliate gently without stimulating the skin. The vitamin rich grapefruit, sea buckhorn, red poppy petals and aronia extracts rejuvenate and cleanse the skin all at once.

The scrub smells really nice, with its citrus-scents. It’s runnier than most face scrubs that I’ve used so I tend to use a lot more than normal at one go – lending to its faster depletion than usual. The scrub bits are very soft, so soft that it doesn’t feel like a scrub. There’s not much friction there, which I think for some with sensitive skin will love, but for me I don’t feel like I’ve had a nice scrub out of it.

Bottom line, it feels like a normal face wash and I wouldn’t spend US$13 on it nor go out of the way to find it. It’s not bad as a face wash and I love the smell, and could be a great scrub with people with very sensitive skin as it’s very gentle. But I like my physical face scrubs with a little more oomph.

Rating: 3/5

Unboxing: LookFantastic Beauty Box November 2014

Can I just say, I am so glad that I managed to get my hands on this month’s LookFantastic Beauty Box? I think it’s such an amazing box this month! For all those who don’t know, LookFantastic.com is a online beauty store based in the UK; I’ve shopped there many times and had really good experience – quick shipping with very reasonable pricing. They have a lot of products that are very difficult to find from Singapore. When I saw that they had a Beauty Box out, I definitely had to jump on it!

I missed the chance to pre-order this box in early October, and I was almost in a panic when I realised that the pre-order was over and was so scared that I wouldn’t be able to purchase it! Luckily they opened for purchase on 1 November, and I was refreshing the website every 5minutes that day just to make sure that I don’t miss it. I’m glad I did, because this month’s box is really fantastic!

Haul: Sephora… Again!

Holiday season and Sephora? They are a matchmade in haul heaven and a pain in the pockets! I just couldn’t leave Sephora without buying something with so many new holiday gift sets popping up, so over the weekend when I *passed by* Sephora, I ended up walking out with a big bag of makeup.

First up is a box of 6 scented fizzy bath balls from Sephora which costs S$18 – I bought it because I have a couple of trips coming up. Vacations are my only chance for a long bath as I don’t have a bath tub at home; I couldn’t justify buying 20 bath bombs (half for me and half for the bf) from Lush, given how expensive they are, so wanted to mix it up with some cheaper ones like these.

Next is the NYX Pure Decadence Butter Gloss Set. At S$20, I thought they are quite reasonably priced, although not really a great steal. Included in this set is NYX Butter Gloss in Red Velvet, Tiramisu and Devil’s Food Cake; a really good mix across the color spectrum. I’ve heard a lot about the NYX Butter Gloss, but this is the first time I’ve got my grabby paws on some.

Finally, is the Tarte Kiss & Belle Lipsurgence Lip Set which set me back S$49 for a set of 8 lip products. I feel like I’ve been buying a lot of lip products lately but little itty bitty lip products are just so irresistible! I’ve tried a matte Lipsurgence before and wasn’t really a big fan of the strong minty taste/smell but… look at them! They’re so cute! How could I say no?! And S$49 for 8 cute little lippies? Yes!

Anyway that’s it for my “little” haul. I hope you’ve enjoyed peeking at what I’ve bought; I always love reading about what other people are buying!

Unboxing: Memebox Superbox #84 Skinfood

Another Memebox… I have another 12 more boxes waiting to be shipped from Memebox so please bear with me for the next 2 months. These are all outstanding from earlier when I was upset at work and shopping is what I do when I’m upset! I have stopped buying more Memebox this month, and I told myself not to at least until I use up enough products to make some space in my room so hopefully I’ll be able to stick to it. Memebox, please don’t put out any more cool themes any time soon!

Unboxing: Memebox Superbox #82 The Face Shop

The Face Shop is quite a well known Korean skincare brand for its affordability and cute products focused on using natural ingredients; I believe that they have stores internationally. I don’t personally use a lot of their products – for no particular reason, I just don’t have enough faces and money to try every brand – so I was quite excited when Memebox came out with this box!

Review: Fresh Sugar Stash

I’ve been wanting to try something from Fresh for a while now – they just look so sweet and girly! But somehow I just never got round to it… but I finally did during my last haul. I saw this really cute Fresh Sugar Set and decided that it’s time that I brought them home with me.

I tried to find more details for this set, but weirdly it’s not listed on the Fresh website nor the Sephora website. So I don’t have any official information on this set, but it’s still available in Sephora Singapore stores at S$52. This contains 6 minis: 3x3ml of Tinted Lip Treatment and 3×2.2g of Lip Treatment.

Unboxing: Memebox Special #50 Step-by-Step Skincare

A whole box full of Korean skincare, step-by-step? Count me in, please! I was so excited when I saw the theme for this box and I very nearly grabbed it the moment it went up for sale. Skincare is my thing, and if there’s a chance to get skin as beautiful and clear as the South Koreans, I will be the first in queue. I tore into it as soon as I got my hands on it. Let’s see what’s in it!