Empties #17: January 2015 – Part 2

Welcome back everyone, to part 2 of my January 2015 empties! I’ve got a few makeup items this time round, and a lot more skincare products, so let’s cracking on!

Empties #17: January 2015 – Part 1

It’s the first empties post of 2015! Oh boy, am I excited! Now that I’m on a beauty budget, I’ve been focusing on using up what I already have this month, rather than buying more new items. I always neglect the foil packs – even on holidays, I don’t bring them along though they would be more convenient as I like to carry little bottles of skincare that I know will work well on me, so this month I’ve been trying to dwindle my stash of sample foil packs down.

Unboxing: Lip Factory Nov 14 + Dec 14

Hello everyone! I have my first, and last, unboxing of the LipFactory box (well, two of them). This box is quite expensive for an international subscriber, at USD32, so I didn’t try out this subscription service until October 2014. Unfortunately, October 2014 was when Lip Factory had their supplier problems and subsequently had to close down because of it in December. They are now officially closed.

Honestly I’m not too upset about them closing down – my whole experience with them was totally horrible. The only time they communicated with me was when I filed paypal claims since their website mysteriously disappeared, and they had not mailed out my November box and already deducted the December box. They did not send any messages on whether the products will be sent, or even bothered to inform subscribers that they were closing down.

$avvy $undays #4: Avoiding the Upsell/Bundle Deals and Buy What You Want To Get More

I have to admit that I used to be one of those people who always fall for the upsell. Give me a bundle deal, or tell me that I just need to top up a certain amount of money to get a higher quality item, and I would always choose to take it – even if I don’t need anything else that is bundled with the item that I really need, or that I don’t really know if the so-called better quality item is really any better.

It always sound like a fantastic deal to me until lately, while I was going through my beauty stash, I found a lot of random products from the same beauty brands and it hit me. I have so many similar products, or products from the same brands because I always, always bought “deals”; such as “buy the second one at half price”, even though it takes me years to finish the first, or “buy up to a certain amount to get a gift”… which are things that I never really wanted or needed.

Review: Hand Chemistry Intense Youth Complex Hand Cream

With all the money that we spend on anti-ageing skincare, one area that is often forgotten, and where all the efforts elsewhere is wasted, is our hands. Our hands are one of the places that it is the easiest for others to tell our age! Because like our face, it is one of the most exposed parts of the body. But thankfully, we can take steps to delay signs of ageing on our hands too! Enter the Hand Chemistry Intense Youth Complex Hand Cream – a hand cream that claims to leave the skin looking visibly younger in 11 days! Does it really work?

Final Swatch #11: Wet & Wild Walking on Eggshells Color Icon Trio

I bought into the whole Wet & Wild eyeshadows craze a couple of years ago and bought nearly every single palette out there. It was a little crazy – the eyeshadows were good, but honestly some of the colors were way off or had so much similarities to shades that I already owned. I’ve been going through my makeup recently and decided to part with some of these palettes.

The first to go is the Wet & Wild Walking on Eggshells Color Icon Trio. The formula is really lovely, very nice and buttery smooth; it is slightly powdery but a little tap on the brush to get rid of excess powder before applying it to the eye solves the problem of fallouts. The pigmentation is also great – all the colors shows up well on me with or without primer. Swatch photo above is without a primer.

I didn’t have a problem with this palette – except that I have way too many palettes with similar shades. This is great for a day or work makeup, paired with some liner. It’s also not something that I can safely bring out as the softness of the eyeshadow makes it feel really fragile and tend to break easily, so it is often left behind and kind of neglected in my makeup drawer.

This little one now belongs to a lovely buyer who hopefully will make more use of it, and give it a little more loving, than I did.

Monday Masking #6: Glamglow Supermud Clearing Treatment

I got my hands on a sample of this Glamglow Supermud Clearing Treatment, which is so hyped up in the beauty world. Needless to say I was totally dying to try it but it is also very expensive so I’ve been holding off my purchase, so I was so glad when it turned up in a beauty box.

From the name it’s a mud mask obviously; I find it so cool that it dries to a different colour – from a blackish grey when wet to a very light grey when dry. When it is dry it gets so hard and tight; I could barely move my face! It feels like all the gunk is being sucked out of the face as the mask dries. After it’s totally dry I just rinse it off – it’s black so it can get messy!

I must say that this is definitely going on the top of wish list! My face looks so clear after just one use… I’m not sure if I will see the same effects with subsequent uses but my first definitely showed a lot of improvements. I have a couple of zits but they dried out or seem to have shrunk! More please!

The Bridezilla Chronicles Vol. 1

If you’ve paid attention an earlier post, I mentioned that the bf (now fiance), proposed! So I said yes – obviously, or there wouldn’t be this post – yada yada, fireworks and all. But now excitement and giddiness aside and the champagne’s drunk, I have to say that we have absolutely no clue what to do now. Yes, I have the (insanely beautiful) ring. But what next?

Unlike a lot of women, I have never thought of what I wanted for my wedding. I was always the odd one out amongst my girlfriends when they talked about the ring that they wanted, the kind of wedding reception to hold, and all their expectations… I never really thought about them; to me, I just want to be happy! Of course, I want to get married – but with 2 older sisters who have had marital problems, I think who I’m marrying is a lot more important to me than how I’m marrying!

Or at least that was what I thought before I got the ring! So, now that I have the ring, I’m feeling excited! And scared! And worried! What do I do? Do I have enough time? Where do I start? I’m not even starting at the same baseline as all my friends who have spent years of their life dreaming up their perfect wedding! What about me!?! The one thing that I’m so glad about is that the fiance managed to pick up an amazing ring without any inputs from me! I think I got lucky there!

So just like any decent researcher, which is what I do in my day job, I decided to buy a few magazines for research purposes and see where they bring me. I thought this whole wedding planning process will be interesting to write down – even for myself. When the wedding is over, I can read back and see all the things that I’ve done, and maybe laugh at it! From planning, dieting, everything!

This is just the beginning…

Unboxing: Memebox Christmas Collection #4 2014 K-Beauty Wrap-up No.2

There was a huge lull in Memebox launches towards the end of 2014 – for such a long time there were no new boxes coming out, and then there were a few Christmas boxes popping up which sold out extremely quickly, so when I finally saw one that wasn’t sold out, I just had to grab it! I honestly did not even read the content of the box when I purchased it – I just had an itch that needed to be scratched!

I bought this for USD29 with another USD6.99 for standard shipping from Korea. The shipping date for this was fixed on 19 December and I received this on 30 December.

Unboxing: Memebox Global #18

It’s finally time for another numbered global box from Memebox! I’ve come to love the global numbered boxes – even more so than the themed ones; they might not always be out of this world, but I also think that when they fall short, it’s never as bad as the themed boxes. I guess it’s also because without a theme, there are less expectations so it’s easier to surprise (in a positive way).

I bought this as a value set with the Memebox Global #17 and #19 – so I only had to pay one standard shipping for 3 boxes. The shipping date for this was fixed on 24 December and I received this on 30 December. The set of 3 boxes cost me USD69, plus another USD6.99 for shipping from Korea. Individually, it’s priced at USD23, plus another USD6.99 for standard shipping.