Mouina

Lawn Mower Shopping

2011-07-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

We went to the store today to look at lawn mowers . We've been wanting to replace our lawn mower for quite a while now because it is really old and the engine doesnt start anymore. We haven't decide which one we are gonna get yet but we've picked out a couple that are pretty nice and fit our budget. I'm gonna do some research online and read some reviews to see which one is best. Will probably go in some time next week to get it. I haven't actually mowed the lawn in a very long time so the lawn is looking a bit out of sorts. But really looking forward to doing some gardening and making the garden look pretty. Can't wait!

Rock & Republic 50%+ Off Sale

2010-12-15T11:43:00.000-08:00

publicRefer a friend and get $25 credit, plus over 50% off your entire order with code ROCKCOSMETICS
Shipping is only 99 cents!

Their blushes are usually $40 and everyone raves about them. There are only 3 colors in stock right now....not really the colors I wanted but $18.10 after tax and shipping for 2 blushes compared to over $80 is amazing! I'm not sure when this deal ends, but they seemed to have it ever since July. The rumor is that they are coming out with new colors so they won't be restocking the best sellers.

I got mine in Shameless and Immoral, but I really wanted Tease. Since that shade might not come back I decided to buy it on Ebay for $30. That's almost double the price of the 2 I bought. Still beats spending $120 for 3!
Their eye shadows should be really nice as well. I don't think I would ever buy these at regular price.
Don't miss this great deal!!

Juicy Couture Sale

2010-12-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Juicy Couture is having a 30% off online sale! That brand is way overpriced, but the sale items qualify for the sale as well. Plus, there is free shipping.

I just got myself their reversable nylon tote (only navy blue is available).

Picture from Google

This was the only item that I liked which I thought was at a reasonable price. All other sites still sell this for $100++
I paid under $50. Original price is $149. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Olive Oil Deep Conditioning Hair Treatment

2010-12-13T20:58:00.000-08:00

Bio Infusion's Olive Oil Deep Conditioning Treatment is one of the best hair products I've come across. It's an easy hair treatment that you can do at home and takes around 15 minutes to an hour. I know an hour might sound like a long time, but you can easily go back to what you're doing if you keep your hair tucked in a shower cap.
You begin by washing your hair with any shampoo and then apply this product over your hair generously instead of your regular conditioner. Instead of rinsing the product out, tuck your hair in a shower cap. If you are short on time and would only like to let the conditioner soak in for 15 minutes, then apply warm dryer heat over your hair. If there is nothing like that available then simply wait 45 minutes to 1 hour and go back to rinse everything out. Towel dry your hair and your hair will become soft and silky.This should be used as often as three times a week, but I think twice a week is good enough.

Here's the picture of the product

The texture is a little thicker than your regular conditioner.

The smell is nothing like olive oil like you might think. It's a little hard to explain, but it smells similar to Pantene Pro-V with a hint of cucumber melon. That's the closest description I can think of. Anyways, I think it smells very nice! The first time I used it the scent stayed in my hair for about 3 days. It's not an annoying or overpowering smell, it's actually quite nice. Every time the wind blew in my car I would be able to smell the scent, but this was only after the first time using this. After using this a second time the scent did not stay as long. I might have just used less though.

The price is very affordable at only $7.99 at Walgreens which is where I bought it. Right now they are even having a buy one get one free sale, free shipping over $25 and $10 off $40, I might just buy more! All the BioInfusion products are buy one get one but you have to buy the same product. The Hydrating Hair Creme sounds interesting though I fear it might be like the Bio Infusion Olive Oil Shine Serum. This was not a very good buy, because it had a sticky texture. It still has the same great scent, but I don't like the sticky/greasy feeling. I'll probably test it out again sometime soon, though I would not recommend that product. I think I would recommend trying the conditioning shampoo if you don't have an hour's time for treatment. It should work pretty much the same.

Overall, I really like BioInfusion and would rate this deep conditioning hair treatment 8/10 for making hair smooth and soft, 7/10 for ease of use, and 9/10 for scent.

Simple Pork Loin Recipe

2010-12-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

One easy way I cook my pork loin
These are the only ingredients I use

The 2 sauces are all I use. No need for salt or any other seasoning. You can find these in Asian supermarkets.

I just coat the outside of the pork loin (any size, but I prefer cutting them into approx. quarter pound pieces). I coat it first with the Sha Cha Jiang on the right. This is usually used in hot pot sauce mixes and has a beefy flavor. The red cap means that it's spicy, but they also sell non-spicy ones where the lid is clear. I only put on a thin coat, and then top it off with some of the sauce on the left. I've tried cooking this with only the sauce on the left before with as much sauce as I could stick on and it turned out a little salty, so never use too much sauce. If you like the Cha Shao Pork (where the outside of the cooked pork is reddish) then you can just use the sauce on the left. If only using the sauce on the left then you should poke some holes into the pork loin before applying the sauce so the flavor gets inside the meat. I prefer the other sauce more though and for that you do not need to poke holes.

I usually cook 2 or 3 pieces at a time and since my big oven is broken, I use this one below.

Don't mind the chips in the tray.
I preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and lay aluminum foil before laying on the pork so it does not stick and is faster to clean up.
Cook the pork for 40-45 minutes, turning the pork at 20 minutes to the other side.
The result is...

I know the meat doesn't look moist here, but I guarantee it is! The meat is super moist and tender and if you cook it long enough with enough sauce it will have a nice tasty crust.
If you only decide to use the sauce on the left then there will not be juices after the cooking process like you see above, but the meat still turns out juicy and tender.

Good luck if you decide to try this simple recipe out!

Las Vegas Trip Part 2

2010-12-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

This is the hotel we stayed at.
MGM in the West Wing - the modern rooms. A bit small but I liked it, and can't complain at only $39/night!

Right when you enter it's the bathroom.....that black space on the mirror is a TV screen! I loved the shower so much because of the 2 shower heads.

The king sized cozy bed

TV, closet on the left, and desk with free wireless internet.

The room was very dark so bad lighting to take pictures except for the bathroom. On the day of checkout there was even a blackout in the morning for about 20min which made it impossible to pack -_-

The bar/lounge area outside our hotel room

First day's dinner at Serendipity's before the show

Inside the restaurant

Tried their famous frozen hot chocolate

Mushroom pizza with chicken added

The stores are so pretty

Inside the mall

Ate at Earl of Sandwich...they're pretty good!

Pretty light in Planet Hollywood

Random guy in costume looking for tips. There was also "Elvis" and other people in costume. What does Darth Vader have to do with Las Vegas??

Inside Wynn for the buffet. Advertisement on the side - 孙燕姿 Stephanie Sun is having a concert in Las Vegas. Didn't know she was famous enough to have a concert here, but I do like some of her old songs.

Outside the buffet

Now for some of the food...just some of what we ate

Random plates of food. Lamb's my favorite!!

So many desserts I wish I could try them all

Random photo inside a bathroom

Inside a restaurant..thought the lights were pretty

The Statue Of Liberty made entirely out of Jelly Beans! I doubt the center is all candy.

At the Coca Cola store they sold many different soda flavored lip balms. They're pretty expensive, too! if I remember correctly they're around $8?

I found this the other day at Target. The packaging is much cuter and only $1!!! The taste is nice as well...not that I eat it, but everyone should know what I mean.

Coke can puzzle

Some funny movie posters from M&M World

Sort of blurry but it says extra tasty

hahaha

They had some sort of theater in there but it was closed =(

More puzzles

I remember they used to have a huge polar bear in the store that you can take a picture with but now you have to pay =/

Downtown Vegas was the most boring part ever...and so is the Stratosphere

Food at the Bellagio Buffet

The yams and pesto mashed potato were yummyyy. Yea, I like the cheap stuff...lol

Some night scenery

Inside the Venetian

loll

Random lion habitat photo

The last day we ate at this place

Joe's Steakhouse

They had the best assortment of bread

Aged Steak = yuck

Filet Mignon = not bad

This came along with the lunch special. I think it was tomato with something over it, and also got baked mashed potatoes and hash browns

Banana cream pie = just the right amount of sweetness

Some more random shots...

This was the only club we went to which was right in MGM. We have the club passes that we purchased online from a few years ago so that was one of the clubs where we could get in for free.

Well that's a summary of the trip. Stay tuned for my Death Valley entry!

Las Vegas Trip Part 1 - Shows

2010-11-30T22:19:00.000-08:00

Took a trip to Death Valley and Las Vegas last week with my bf and took over 800 pictures! I will just post a few of them here in the next entry.

This was my very first time seeing any show in Las Vegas. I've heard that any show that you watch there is a great experience so I was really excited. We got tickets to "Cirque de Soleil's Mystere" before leaving for the trip. The show itself wasn't bad, but the theater was pretty small. It was much like when I watched "Ovo" in San Jose. Our seats weren't the most expensive, but we were really close to the stage. I would rate that a 8 out of 10 having in mind the seating arrangements, how entertaining the show was, and the price for the tickets (special price 2 for $99!!).

At the souvenir store hehehe

The next day we decided that we had nothing to do at night so we bought tickets to 2 more shows. Zumanity and Criss Angel Believe (another special price to buy tickets for both shows). They are also both from Cirque de Soleil. I just love the acrobatic stuff!
We just wanted to see the Criss Angel show at first, because we saw this cool trailer when walking around Vegas. I can't find the exact one online but it advertised that there was a lot of Cirque de Soleil performances throughout the show. When we took a cab the cab driver even said people didn't like the show because it didn't show much of Criss Angel but more Cirque de Soleil. This made us more excited...we did not care too much about Criss Angel.

Here is something similar to the trailer that was advertised

Lots of acrobatic stuff right?? But NNOOOO! They must have changed the show without changing the trailer! It made me so angry after the show ended and I was like WTF that's it? There was not 1 sec of Cirque de Soleil. How can they call this a Cirque de Soleil show when they're not in it?! I seriously wanted to ask for my money back for false advertisement and that really ruined my night because I was so excited about it. During most of the show these random guys, or more like fake magicians that are supposedly Criss Angel's friends were talking during most of the show along with Criss Angel. He did do some cool tricks which I doubt are real, but I just wanted him to get off the stage and see some better action. T_T What a waste of my time...
They did have some cool pictures in the hall before the show though. Like those hologram kind where the picture changes when you look at it from another angle (I think that's what they're called).

This one's clearly not a hologram but I like it for the bunny

There were quite a few but I didn't get to snap pictures of all of them.
The theater for this show was much bigger, so for crappy show, bad seating, and false advertisement equals 3 out of 10 stars.

Me being sad the next day after being reminded of Criss Angel's show =(

Zumanity was quite boring, too. Also bad seating again...these tall people sat in front of us and blocked so much of the stage -_-. There was also less acrobatic stuff and more singing. Bf wanted to see it after I said no to shows like "Crazy Horse"...haha...maybe next time. Anyways, I would give this show a 6 out of 10.
The performers creeped me out before the show (they were walking/standing around the lobby). Every time I walked by one of them I would fear for them jumping out at me. Some of them have creepy makeup.

Next time I go I'm going to watch "O". That seems like the best show, but we didn't have time to watch another. That's one of the more pricey shows as well. "KA" might be good as well and it was playing at MGM where we stayed. I don't know why we decided not to watch that one.

Overall, the shows were not bad. Criss Angel just really pissed me off!

Lipsticks

2010-11-18T00:10:00.000-08:00

Swatches of lipsticks I currently own

Lancome

Recently I'm really into the nude/light pink colors. The Lancome lipstick is very nice and keeps my lips moist.

YSL

I do not really like the YSL. The color is too pastel pink which is alright, but if you tend you have really dry lips like me it shows your lines/cracks x10000. Not moisturizing at all! However, it does have a cool little mirror on top of the lipstick cap.

Dior

Dior's lipstick is quite nice too, but there is not much pigmentation even though the lipstick itself looks pretty dark. The packaging is nice, but is made out of cheap plastic.

Ulta

I did not buy this (it came in a package with other items from Ulta), but it's actually not bad. I expected it to be very dry since it's a cheap brand. It's very smooth and highly pigmented. Maybe that's because of the red color, but overall I like it. I usually do not like to wear colors this dark though. The picture above does not really show it's true color...I applied this after the gold Shu Uemura....

Shu Uemura 1

Also not very pigmented and a little too glittery for me.

Shu Uemura 2

Bought this one for fun...I guess it would be appropriate for some occasions?

Estee Lauder

This one's pretty pigmented as well and very moisturizing. It's almost like the Dior's coral except that it's darker. If you were to buy this it would be in a different packaging/case. This was a gift from one of those gift bags from purchasing other Estee Lauder items. They say it is not a full size, but it does match the size of my other lipsticks. One thing about this is that the lipstick broke off and I did not even twist it up all the way, and I've only used it twice. I think it got too soft.... I don't know if it would have the same issue with the real thing.

I know lots of people wear lip gloss over their lipstick, but next time I will review a few lip glosses separately. Overall I like the Lancome lipstick best and will probably purchase other colors in the future. YSL makes my lips look very dry and cracked so I will never purchase one (that one was a gift), and they are one of the more expensive lipsticks, too! I would still stay away from Ulta only because of the experience I've had with their other products, and the other brands are just not pigmented enough but they're not bad either.

Buxom is my favorite brand at the moment! I will blog about that haul in the near future

Colored Contacts Review

2010-11-16T23:27:00.000-08:00

I’ve only recently come to realize that eyes make such a big difference in people’s appearance. From seeing pictures on other blogs I’ve come to realize that wearing colored contacts really make your eyes stand out more and look bigger and brighter, especially the enlarging ones! No wonder their pictures look so amazing…
For months I wanted to try them out, but for someone like me that has never worn any type of contacts before I was very afraid to try them out. Some people say that contacts ruin your eyes and are not good for you while others say they do no such thing, but I think in the end having something in your eye must affect it one way or another. However the risks do not seem too big so I finally decided to try them out.
I bought my contacts from Pinky Paradise. First I just bought 1 pair to try them out, expecting my eyes to hurt like hell after putting them on. The first time I tried to put on contacts it probably took me 20 minutes or so for both sides -_-. It did scare me a little bit, too…not knowing what it would feel like in my eyes, but to my surprise they did not burn at all like I was told and I could only slightly feel them!
I didn’t know but the first pair I bought were hard contacts. Apparently it does not state that on the website. I tried out the Dueba Grey lenses. Damn it looks like the price dropped =( Bad news for me but good news for you if you’re looking to buy some.
This is what the bottle for the gray contacts were in

The contacts

They come with these cute contact cases. Here are all 3 that I’ve gotten. I got 1 with each pair.

Here’s me with the contacts on. In the picture it looks a little bluish, but in real life they’re darker looking like the color of them in the contacts case

I really liked how they looked so I bought 2 more pairs. These happened to be soft contacts and they are way more comfortable. I can barely feel them!

Different containers

I bought the brown and pink this time.

Here is the brown….

and the pink…

Hear are my eyes without contacts

Can you spot the difference?

I have yet to wear the brown ones out.
These are not something I would wear on a regular basis as I think they are bad for my eyes in the long run. I would only wear them on some weekends if I’m going out or to special occasions.
All the above shown are enlarging contacts. I have not seen any on the site that are not enlarging, but it does have a better effect if they’re bigger. That’s the main point right? I believe these can last up to 1 year. Can anyone tell me if I can keep these longer if I only wear them a couple times a month? I am not too familiar with contacts, but I hope this helped some people!
Please stay tuned for more reviews about contacts, makeup, and more. There will also be tutorials!