All posts filed under: Personal

#YolandaPH

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(image via, credits to Agence France-Presse) Hello everyone. Just announcing a quick pause in regular posting. As you may or may not have heard, a typhoon called “Haiyan” (“Yolanda” is its local name here) swept through certain regions of my country, the Philippines. My hometown is considerably far from where Haiyan/Yolanda hit the strongest, which is the Visayas region. Tacloban experienced a storm surge, where the waters rose to about 15 feet, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Currently, the death toll is in the hundreds (reportedly about a thousand in total, but I can’t confirm) and there are a lot of structural damage in certain parts of the Visayas. Haiyan/Yolanda is on its way out of the Philippine area of responsibility, but we are left with entire cities to take care of and help out. Please consider making a donation (I’ll leave the info below) or sparing a thought or two for those who have lost a lot. Haiyan/Yolanda has been reported to have slowed down as it exits, but please be vigilant …

Nosy Beauty Special: My Travel Bag

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Disclaimer: This original post WAS going to be my travel bag… but I decided to downsize a bit, because I really didn’t want to bring too many things (I explain it in the post). The ff. are the items I ended up bringing. Click the cut to see what I was going to bring. BASE: NARS Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer (Alaska), Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder (Mood Light) CHEEKS: BECCA Beach Tint (Grapefruit & Raspberry), Benefit Watt’s Up EYES: K-Palette Eyebrow Liner, BECCA Eye Tint (Baroque), NARS Duo (Grand Palais), K-Palette Liquid Liner, Le Métier de Beauté Anamorphic Lash Mascara (Noir) LIPS: Chanel Rouge Coco Shine (Boy), MAC (Twig), Korres Lip Butter (Jasmine), Snoe Beauty Beso Balm TOOLS: Hakuhodo H601, shu uemura eyelash curler And some random swatches of most of the items above:

A Blog Birthday: Some Thoughts on Makeup & Beauty

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Hello everyone! If you couldn’t tell from the title, my beauty blog just turned a year old! 🙂 There have been a lot of changes regarding how I regard makeup, beauty, and accumulation. A lot of the ways in which I think and approach cosmetics and this aspect of beauty in my life has changed. I hope you don’t mind if I share them with you. 🙂 Overall, I have cultivated an awareness that was most definitely not there before. I think that’s natural when you learn more about something over time, but that’s the big glaring difference. I am more aware of which types of products work best for my skin tone, skin type, and features. I am more aware of how to actually apply the makeup. (Consider the photos to your left, in which I used the same palette in Nov 2012 & Sept 2013.) I am more aware of what colors suit me better and what things to consider when reviewing and purchasing products. More importantly than all of that, I am …

On samples and GWPs

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I’ve been thinking about samples and GWPs (Gifts With Purchase) and it made me wonder if you were more likely to buy something if you knew you would be getting something you might want along with it, for free. I wasn’t really ever a sample-hungry person. Often, I found the sachets a nuisance I wouldn’t even bother opening. Fast forward to today, when I carefully tear open a small hole in sachets so I can use them sparingly if it turned out to be a good product, or scramble to find a small empty pot I could decant some product into so I could savor it. I wasn’t really one for that kind of thing, until I wanted to try anything and everything. Personally, I just get extra frilly feelings if I know I’m going home with a buttload of samples to try out after dropping a lot of dough. I don’t usually let it drive me to make a purchase, though recently, my Sephora birthday purchase was inspired by the birthday GWP. I’ve always …

Makeup No-Buy Update: Three Month Mark

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Welcome to the third month of Makeup No-Buy, and it’s time to report my progress, so far! Many people have been asking if I’m still on it, and the short answer is ‘yes.’ The long answer is ‘yes, but I have purchased makeup here and there.’ This month, I got myself two Bourjois products from my Vietnam visit. We don’t have that brand in Manila, which I guess explains why I felt like I should grab them… Hehe. So, a recap of purchases! MAY/MONTH ONE: — e.l.f. Liquid Eyeliner — essence Stay All Day Eyeshadow * used Department Store points JUNE/MONTH TWO: — 3 x Addiction Ready-to-Wear Palettes — 3 x Addiction Cheek Sticks — 3 x Addiction Single Eyeshadows * Den’s Japan trip; can’t get these products in Manila JULY/MONTH THREE: — Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum — Bourjois Healthy Mix Concealer * Vietnam trip; can’t get these products in Manila Despite the obvious failure on my part to completely eradicate makeup purchases for six months, I think I’m doing pretty well. Especially when it …

Makeup No-Buy Update: Two Month Mark

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Hello, and welcome to the two-month mark of my makeup no-buy! I very nearly bought a lot of items, but I resisted. Mostly. It’s not that hard if you don’t look at makeup on the regular and window-shop, online or offline. While I still do read blogs and watch beauty videos, there aren’t a lot of items that I feel like I need to have now, omg, so it’s not so hard anymore. Some lessons I learned, though: — Do not go to a beauty event if you can’t really buy anything. — Do not go into beauty counters “just to look” That’s pretty much it. I went to a shu uemura event, which was apparently a launch for their 30th anniversary collection and I had like a mother. When the Karl Lagerfeld Collection came out, I bought so many items that I earned myself a loyalty card upon check-out. I was very, very tempted, but then I swatched some of the eyeshadows and the ones I was able to check out were powdery as …

Unboxing: BDJ Box for June 2013* & Thoughts on Subscription Boxes

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I received my BDJ Box for June a few days ago, but I’ve only gotten around to writing this post now. I edited the pictures on my iPad Mini and am writing this post on the WordPress app. I’m already so tired of typing (because I keep making mistakes!) but let’s see how long I can keep this up. The June box is chock-full of stuff. Let’s see if they’re things that I’d enjoy. First up are three items from the L’Oreal Paris Fall Repair 3x Line: the shampoo (Php 110, 180ml), conditioner (Php 119, 180ml), and hair tonic (Php 259, 90ml). This line is designed to reduce hair fall by strengthening and nourishing your hair. If these look familiar, then you’ve been paying attention! Both the shampoo and conditioner were part of BDJ Box’s L’Oreal themed box a few months back, and they were bigger sizes then. I appreciate the inclusion of the tonic, but there’s just something about getting repeats that is disappointing, even if they are perfectly good products. Next up is …