Days of a Kiwi

Red Valentines Day Nails

2012-02-14T01:56:00.000-08:00

I did my nails for Valentine's Day =D
Since I literally just finished these nails like 2 hours ago, I don't have time to update with a tutorial for these nails yet because I wanna go get some sleepy now...

I'll also update with better pictures of the nails too because you can't see the shimmer. It's sad how photos always kill the effects of pretty glitters.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day =]

If you are single, it is a great day to mingle ;D Hahahaha

An update for things I forgot to update on

2012-02-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

What the title says.
I realize that I forgot to blog about some of the stuff from before. I already had the photos edited but I totally forgot about updating D=

First, let me start off this post with this following photo:

Either the driver really needs to retake his/her driving lessons, or he/she is just an asshole.

I have seen people take up two parking spots before because they've parked really badly, but this was the first time I saw someone take up four parking spots.

Aside from that photo that I wanted to show you guys, I also forgot to upload these photos of deliciousness - which I will show now:

This was from another one of my guilty-pleasure moments at Denny's.

A super delicious egg benny with red potatoes =9

And their apple crumble to go with my meal XD

Mmm... desserts.
Here are some from ABC Country:

Baked banana? Sorry I forgot what this was called.

I just remember that it was really good lol

And bwahahaha...

Oreo goodness!

I love filling up my blog posts with food porn ;)

Dine out at Griffin's

2012-02-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

Another dine-out entry!
I went to Griffin's at the Fairmont hotel with gorgeous ladies.

Unfortunately, picture quality sucks because my camera is freakin ghetto.

Here's one group pic of us girlies... looking like we are two groups of people who don't know each other lol!

And now, the low quality food pictures...

Complementary bread with sundried tomato dipping sauce.

This was sooo good!

Cauliflower soup with blue cheese.

I felt that the cheese was too strong for this soup.

I forgot the name of this, but it was good lol.

Halibut!

And... a dessert buffet XD

After dinner, everyone had to go home because of work and school, except Eva and I.

We decided to go to Kamei Royale to chill since we didn't feel like home time yet.

We ordered this Ume Japanese Plum Wine...

it was SO GOOD!

The best plum wine I have tasted ever.

I will abruptly end my post now because I'm hungry and I need to go cook something to eat =D

Dine Out at Q4 Ristorante

2012-01-31T22:27:00.000-08:00

NOTE: This is an IMAGE HEAVY POST!

It was dine-out time again!
My first dine-out dinner this year was at Q4 Ristorante / Q4 Restaurant.

Me + Ching. This was when I just arrived at the restaurant.

I was still cold from walking outside and still had my coat on.

(Her camera makes everyone look so beautiful haha)

Like I said, Ching's awesome camera is awesome. We started taking more pics with it.

Dominos effect!

Haha. It's like we all fell down like dominos and then got back up and smiled at the camera like nothing happened in the last pic.

And then...

here comes the food!

...

Salsicce Italiano
Grilled Italian sausage, caramelized onions, gorgonzola, mushroom ragu

Sausage was way too salty.

Zuppa di Mare
Traditional 'New England' style clam chowder

The chowder didn't have any clam flavor.

Insalata Ortolana
Mixed organic greens, champagne vinaigrette marinated candy cane beets, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette

Meh. Tasted like any ordinary salad you can get anywhere.

Risotto ai Funghi
Wild mushroom risotto, truffle essence, parmigiano reggiano

This was very rich and creamy. Full of flavor. Yum =9

Filetto con Barbaforte
8 oz beef tenderloin, herb and horseradish butter

The steak was really juicy. And that tomato with cheese that comes with the dish is good lol.

Pesce al Limone

Pacific snapper, meyer lemon, basil, shallots, saffron verde

I found the fish too be a little bland =(

Ciliege Filate
Candied phyllo pastry, mascarpone and vanilla bean whip, sour cherries, red wine reduction

Cioccolato Fondente
Dark chocolate frangelico ganache torte, amaretti cookie crust

This was sweet but did not have enough cocoa flavor.

The cookie crust was dry and almost tasteless. Did not like.

Since we were not satisfied with our desserts, we went for a second round of desserts at Sweet Revenge.

Us, camwhoring a group pic while waiting for our sweets.

And... Ta-da!

Our yummies!

Raspberry creme brulee, chocolate mousse cake, and vanilla ice cream =9

During our sweet revenge-time, we also discovered this awesome camera mode on Ching's awesome camera.

The camera mode is called poster effect.

It makes our skin flawless, and makes whites whiter and darks darker lol

And so... we started to take tons of pics with that camera mode XD

Hahaha. We were trying to imitate this "chicken wing" pose, but obviously it has turned into something else.

And I will end this post with a photo of myself camwhoring using the poster effect haha

Good night! =]

New nails that did not last

2012-01-30T02:32:00.000-08:00

WARNING!
Rambling ahead.

I wanted to do my nails before a night out - actually, two night outs. I wanted my nails to be nice and blinged up for my nights...
HOWEVER... I was stupid enough to leave them until the last minute (okay, maybe not minute... maybe like last 2 hours). I wanted to do a tutorial for the nails, too, but I was so super rushed and I didn't have time.

To be honest, I didn't even have time to let the nails dry thoroughly before I left the house.
So what happened to them?

As you can see, the not-completely-dried polish on the thumb has been squished =(

I didn't even have time to put a top coat on the nails so some of the stones and beads fell off as well.
I forgot to take a picture of the nails before they were destroyed, but here is what my nails look like now.

A little chipped, squished, and stones/beads fallen off.

I was hoping that these could last me like two weeks because I am so lazy to redo them lol. I guess I'll have to redo them =(
Oh well... I think the color combinations could be better anyway, right? XD

I will post about my fun dine-out nights next post.
For now, here is a freaky photo of me that shows off my nails, make-up and my new color cons... So enjoy.

Nails: Yellow Polka Dot French

2012-01-26T20:44:00.000-08:00

Nail art tutorial, as promised ;)

These nails are super easy to do!
Please read on for the tutorial.

The picture above was under natural sunlight, whereas the pictures used in the tutorial steps are taken at night in my room's very yellow lighting.
This nail design is super simple. Only four steps =D

STEP 1: Base - shimmery clear coat.

I started with a coat of a clear base coat with a bit of shimmer/glitter in it.

You can always just use a clear polish instead of using glitter.

STEP 2: Yellow french tips.

As if doing a french manicure, paint the tips of your nails yellow (this was 2 coats of NYC's Taxi Yellow Creme, you may need to apply more to cover the streaks).

Yes, I know I did a crappy job because it looks so sloppy, but the sloppyness will be covered up later XD

STEP 3: Polka dots.

Take a toothpick (or a dotting tool, if you have one) and use it to make white polka dots on the yellow french tips.

STEP 4: Rhinestones.

Line the bottom of the yellow french tips with rhinestones.

Finally, apply a top coat to protect the prettyness and you are done =D

This tutorial was pretty short and simple, but hope you guys liked it!

Claire's Nail Polish Haul

2012-01-21T02:10:00.000-08:00

You have probably already heard of a nail polish from Claire's that changes colors. They are called "mood polishes", but I think they just change colors according to temperature. Anyway, I have wanted to try them for a long time but (I don't know why) I never actually went to Claire's to buy any.

Today... I finally went inside a Claire's, looking for those mood polishes.
I spotted some other nail polishes that looked like good finds since they were inexpensive. Plus, they were having a buy one get one 50% off sale thing =D

Everything I got is available on their site as well. I'll add links to the products I mention.

These polishes were so cute!

I am not too crazy about the purple or the blue in this package, but I couldn't resist the cute caps.

They are called Konnichiwa Nail Polishes lol (link).

I also saw sets of mini polishes.

I grabbed the set with lots of glitter (out of stock on website - a different, but also glittery set here). These may be fun to layer with =D

Testing them out on the black cardboard box:

And finally... the mood polishes (link)!

I bought two colors... Or should I say four?

Here is what they look like on the nail:

The pink one dries up totally matte.

The purple one also turns a tiny bit matte once dried. It isn't as shiny as it looks when it is in the bottle.

So... Do they actually change colors?
Yes! That, I am very happy about =D

HOWEVER... To my disappointment, both polishes chip very easily.
I've only had the polishes on my nails for about an hour or so and look at how it is chipped already. I wasn't even doing anything vigorous - in fact, I was just sitting and watching TV.

I have still yet to try the other polishes on my nails aside from the mood ones, but now I feel like I don't even want to use them. What if I decorate my nails with the polishes and they chip off after an hour? That would be a total waste of effort.

On a different note...
My family and I are getting ready to move. I am super excited =D
I'll be packing and cleaning my room some time during the coming week... That is going to take me a while to do.

Let me show you a little corner of my room:

Lol. I literally have to step on the bags to get to my closet.
My room is going to be even smaller once we move to the new house. I'll have to learn to be neat D=

Enough rambling...
I'm going to end my post here.
I will post a nail art tutorial soon ^_^

First hairstyle with my CHI flat iron

2012-01-17T23:57:00.000-08:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I have purchased a CHI flat iron.
I spent the last few days just practicing how to curl my hair with the flat iron. Today, I did my first hairstyle with that flat iron.

The flat iron works very well... so well that I think I am going to start doing some hair masks because I feel bad for my hair.

Anyway... I just wanted to show you guys how I styled my hair with the flat iron =]
I know... curling your hair with a flat iron is not anything new, but I felt so proud that my hair turned out better than I expected so I will now force you to look at the pictures:

Curls!

And this is what it looks like on the side:

It was really sunny today and the sunlight made my skin look so bright so you can barely see my scars and eye bags lol. I love you, sunlight.

Do you guys use your flat iron to curl your hair too?

Or do you usually use a curling iron for that?

CHI exclusive flat iron

2012-01-15T01:07:00.000-08:00

I was planning to get a KQC mini flat iron, but they were sold out at three different salons that I had went to check out.
At one of the salons, the receptionist recommended me the CHI flat iron. I told her that I straighten (or curl) my hair practically every single day, so she suggested that I get this brand because it is very durable and works really well.

I took her word of advice.
I was about to grab the plain, original CHI flat iron, but another box caught my eye...

The Red and Gold Feather CHI Flat Iron:

I think this was supposed to be an exclusive for the holidays.

The colors were so pretty... plus this was on sale for about $100. Woohoo!

The package came with a free heat protecting spray.

Look at the design on the flat iron.

So pretty! It also resembles Chinese New Year... which is coming up LOL

And the letters CHI in rhinestones!

I am going to keep practicing curling my hair with this for the next week or so... so I can be good at curling my hair with this flat iron since I wanna curl my hair for dine out =D
If I succeed, I will brag about it in future posts.

Have you guys tried any CHI flat irons before?
Do you guys curl your hair with a flat iron or a curling iron?

Guu'd food

2012-01-14T00:04:00.000-08:00

It was my brother's birthday and we went out to eat at Guu =D
I will not be saying much this post... Instead, I will just spam this post with food pictures to make you guys jelly. Hahaha!
(It's actually because I am too lazy to type up paragraphs today, but I still want to share some pics of yummy food with you guys.)

I'll probably come back and edit this post and put in the names of the dishes later on.

Started off with this cute dish.

They even wrote "Guu" with the sauce:

And then we went to eat gelato for dessert.
Onomnomnomnom =9

Happy birthday bro (even though it's past your birthday already)!

Deborah Lippmann polishes from Juicy

2012-01-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

I am so excited!
I have always wanted to try out polishes from the Deborah Lippmann line. I got myself a set from Juicy Couture. They sell it in a set of 3 for $48, which means $16 for each bottle. That is not bad, considering that buying single bottles of these polishes range from $16 - $20 per bottle. When I purchased the set, Juicy was having a 30% off sale, so I feel that this set was a really good deal =D

Here's what the pretty package looks like:

The three colors (left to right):

Believe, Here Comes the Queen, Jewel in the Crown

And check out the caps of the nail polish bottles.

The tops look like rhinestones. The regular Deborah Lippmann polishes don't have these pretty caps... Juicy never fails at making their products glamorous haha.

Now, the most important part; the actual polishes.

I tested out the polishes on some plastic nails:

From left to right:

Believe, Here Comes the Queen, Jewel in the Crown

Here's a closer picture of Here Comes the Queen.

The glitter/sparkles in the polish are not uniformly shaped like most other glitter polishes I have. The glitters in this polish are all different shapes and different sizes.

I decided to put a coat of that glitter on top of the other two colors.

Excuse the two dents on the left nail... I accidentally dug my nails into it before it dried.

I have not tried the polishes on my real nails yet, so I don't know if they are durable, but the application seems quite smooth from applying the polishes on the plastic nails.
I love the glitter effect that Here Comes the Queen gives... Can't wait to try these out =D (I have to wait for my chipped and cracked nails to grow out first, though.)

Christmas eve + NYE recap

2012-01-05T02:06:00.000-08:00

A little overdue. Just a little.
Here's my crappy recap of my awesome Christmas eve and new years eve this year =D
I'm going to make this short - partly because I am lazy and partly because I don't have that many pictures to post up.

Christmas Eve

My friends and I were planning to dine at a fancy restaurant but because it was Christmas eve, most western restaurants were closed at 8pm. I think that is just stupid. I understand that, yes, it is Christmas eve and you want to spend time with family, but don't they know it is also when families and friends go out and eat and spend? (Maybe I am too Asian?)

So we ended up going to Guu.

Us camwhoring in the ugly parking lot.

Sorry we squished you, K XD

My hair is flat and gross from work and I did not have time to wash or fix it =(

Waiting for food.

After dinner, we joined my other friends.

We did a gift exchange, and took a picture with us holding our gifts, but that is a bad picture...

So here is a picture of us who took part in the gift exchange but are not holding the gifts lol

After many attempts of a camwhore pic of us, we finally got one without some weird shadow on our faces.

It was a fun night spending my Christmas eve with such fun, awesome people =]
It felt as if new years was only the day after...

New Years Eve

This was the most calm, pleasant, peaceful NYE I have had in years!
We just wanted to do a very small gathering at my friend's house and just chill together instead of getting sh*t-faced together for the first time lol!

(Not very many pics from the night. I'm still waiting for pics to be sent to me haha)

Before count-down. With Ching <3

I made some fruit tarts ^_^...

well, more like put together some fruit tarts, since I didn't really make anything here lol

I actually enjoyed my new years eve a lot this year.
I counted down to 2012 sober and remembered every bit of the night. And my night did not come to an end with me hugging the toilet.
Spending my new years eve so peacefully was not a bad decision... especially after a crazy Christmas Eve.

I was just happy to have spent the first hours of 2012 with some of the people I loved =D

And now, I will end this entry abruptly by posting a super awesome sexy pose my cat made on New Years Day:

Hello, 2012!

2012-01-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

*Ad

First of all... HAPPY 2012!
Hope you had a blast during the past year and will have a great start to this new year as well =]

Even during just the past year, styles have come and gone in a flash. It's amazing what fashion does to us... our money, specifically lol.

Anyway, I want to share this site with you guys. It is called StyledOn.
You will need an account, but you can easily connect to the site using facebook or twitter.
The site has some main features such as Blog Love (which features some great fashion bloggers), Community Roundup that brings you in touch with the fashion community, and also Top 10 Editor's Picks.

I do have to say that sometimes I don't like sites that force you to sign up to view their contents. Honestly, if your site is good enough, people will sign up on their own because they want to keep coming back and be a part of the site's community.

On a side note...
My desktop has been fixed! Sadly, it had to be reformatted so everything is gone... which means no Photoshop =( So no pics for this post.

Nails: Glitter and shine for New Years

2011-12-30T18:18:00.000-08:00

I am ready for NYE with my new nails. New Years calls for bling bling. Instead of stones, I used glitter and hologram flakes =]

Hope you guys like.

The flakes look more orange in the tutorial pictures because I took those pictures under a different lighting... But either way, photos never do glitter and shine any justice. I wish the glitter could show its glittery-ness in photos too =P

STEP 1: Base color.

I am starting off with a polish color close to my natural nail color.
(Using OPI's Passion. 2 coats.)

STEP 2: White slanted tips.

Paint a slanted white tip on your fingers except the ring finger.
The lower end of the slant should end around the middle of your nail.

STEP 3: Rosy gold glitter.

Paint a rosy gold glitter on top of the white.
I used 2 coats of Forever 21's Sparkly Rose here.

STEP 4: Rosy glitter on accent finger.

Using the same rosy gold glitter, paint your entire ring finger.

STEP 5: More glitter.

Take a polish with bigger pieces of gold glitter/hologram flakes and paint over the rosy gold glitter.
I used OPI by Sephora's Only Gold For Me. Because I really love glitter, I applied 2 coats =D

STEP 6: Hologram flakes.

Take some bronzey-brown colored hologram flakes and line the slant on your fingers.
Then, apply a top coat to protect the glittery goodness and you are ready to show off your nails on NYE ;)

I hope this tutorial was helpful.
And wishing you all a very happy & exciting new year!

Nail stuff haul

2011-12-28T23:03:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to share what I bought today with you guys!

After work, I had a quick browse around the mall and there was a kiosk that sold nail stuff. I knew it existed but never really got the chance to see what was there.
I found some pretty good nail stuff today and they were on sale because of boxing week =]

First... my VERY first set of nail brushes!

Yay! Now I don't have to draw with toothpicks anymore.

I picked out a bunch of glitters and some 3D flowers (which you can't really see from this picture because I did such a bad job taking the photo.)

I also bought a pack of different color hologram flakes!

And finally, I got some blank nails so I can do random designs on.

Hopefully, with these, I'll be making more nail designs and hence more nail tutorials =D

And... on a completely different note...

My brother showed me this app called Coin Dozer and I am super addicted to it now.

Basically, you drop coins and push coins off the table.

I don't know why it is so fun to push coins off the table, but it is.

Hope you all had a great and not-too-exhausting boxing week =]

Gift-wrap nails

2011-12-25T18:28:00.000-08:00

I know it's a little too late to post this tutorial now since it is already Christmas Day today. (I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!) I actually did these nails two days ago but I haven't had the chance to update... but here it is...

My nail tutorial on some gift-wrap inspired nails =]

I just have to say that the brown and the red looked better together in my head than on the real thing, so you may wanna substitute the colors if you don't like the combination.

STEP 1: Chocolatte base color.

Start with a base color of a dark chocolate color.

I used Smoky Brown from e.l.f.

STEP 2: Thick white stripes.

Then, use a white nail polish and paint a very thick white stripe down the nails.

These stripes do not have to be all centered in the middle.

STEP 3: Thin stripe on the thumb.

Paint a thin stripe horizontally on the thumb with a white polish.

STEP 4: Red stripes.

Paint red stripes in the middle of the thick white stripes.

You can also outline the thin white stripe you've just painted with red stripes as well.

STEP 5: Glittery red.

For the red, I used a more opaque red polish and painted a thin layer of OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With It on top, because I like my nails glittery =D

STEP 6: Bows.

With a nail polish with a thin brush, draw on bows on the sides of the stripes or in the middle of the stripes.

STEP 7: Silver glitter lines.

Because I felt that the nails do not look gift-wrappy enough, I wanted to add some more glitter.

Paint a thin stripe of silver glitter down the nails where the middle of your bows are.

You can also paint horizontal stripes of glitter (see thumb).

STEP 8: Stone.

The last final touch is to add a bling stone to the middle of your bows.

Apply a top coat and you have yourself ten fingernails in pretty gift wrap ;)

Hope you guys liked this design.

And hope you all have a super wonderful Christmas and are already making great plans for the coming New Year =]

A mini recap

2011-12-22T02:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't been talking about my little adventures (not really adventures) for a while... so here's a mini recap of some of the things I did during the past week.

First... a wonderful night of chocolate fondue with some of the most awesome girls in the world =]

Stupidly enough... I did not get a picture of the fondue pots we dipped the food into lol

I also went to check out the Gingerbread lane display at the Hyatt hotel.

It was like gingerbread houses heaven... there were so many of them.

They even decorated the inside of the gingerbread houses... Crazy!

A gingerbread light-house!

With water and everything. Amazing.

This one here blew me away...

It was so pretty. I wish I could shrink and walk inside. They need to build a real thing that looks like this.

This would be the most romantic place to have your date on Christmas Eve XD

In comparison to the above pictures of pretty gingerbread houses, I feel like the malls here need to step it up with their decorations...

Look... Ch and I took a picture with these decorations in a mall here... Look how lame they look. And this was the best decorated part out of the entire mall. The other parts had scary-looking teddy bears and ugly reindeers =(

After shopping around for days for Christmas gifts for other people... It is always nice to get something for yourself, don't you think? XD

Look at my e.l.f products haul.

I cannot wait to try out all these products lol!

No, that was not enough for me... I also got myself an eyeshadow palette.

I already have an 88-palette with nude colors, so I decided to get this one with all the sharp colors.
Oooooh so colorful. I wanna try all the shades all at once the minute I opened this up... but that wouldn't look very attractive so I must be patient >_<

And also my first YSL lipstick <3

I am SUPER loving this lipstick! It is so pigmented and so creamy.

Something aside from make up...

I saw Lindt chocolate on sale. Omfg must get! Lol

And lastly...
I am going to end this post with something I saw at a store that I found very creepy.

Look at these dolls O_O.

They freak me out.
They were so creepy that I just had to take a picture of them to show you guys. How in the right mind would buy these dolls for their kids? If I had these creepy things in my room, I'd get nightmares.

Christmas Nails: Gold and red

2011-12-19T03:32:00.000-08:00

Yay! New nails =D
This time, I made them super Christmasy haha.

I must apologize in advance about the quality of the photos.
I still haven't gotten myself a new camera yet and so all my photos are still taken with my phone. On that screen, the pics looked fine, but when they are blown up on the computer screen, I see that some of the weren't even in focus =_=.

As usual, a tutorial follows...

STEP 1: Shiny base color.

I started off with a light shiny base color (OPI's Up Front & Personal - just one coat).

STEP 2: White slanted tips.

Using a white nail polish, make slanted tips like shown in the picture.
LEAVE OUT the ring finger! We are going to use that as our accent nail.

STEP 3: Red stripes.

Use a red nail polish with a thin brush and make stripes on the white tips.
I made my red stripes slant toward the center of the nail on purpose (instead of slanting the stripes all at the same angle) because I wanted it to have a more candy-like look.
Again, SKIP THE RING FINGER!

STEP 4: Gold stripes.

You can't have Christmas without gold ;)
Take a gold glitter polish and paint thin stripes next to the red ones.

STEP 5: Gold swirls.

Pick a darker gold polish that is not glittery (here, I used Love & Beauty's Gold - got the polish from Forever 21), and make swirly designs at the bottom of the white tips.
I used a toothpick to draw these swirls because I don't have any awesome tools =(

STEP 6: Repeat swirls + Paint accent nail.

Repeat and do the swirly designs on the other nails.
Using the same dark gold color, paint the ring finger nail.

STEP 7: Stones.

Add two red stones and one gold one in a line on the ring finger nail.

STEP 8: Tidy up & top coat.

You can tidy up any excess polish you got on your fingers with a Q-tip.
Then, apply a top coat to protect your beautiful design so they last til Christmas ;)

I really hope you guys liked this tutorial...
but if you didn't, that's okay... because I will be posting another one! Haha.
For some reason, I find these nails not bold and flashy enough for my taste, so I think I will re-do them - which means another nail tutorial =D

Christmas gifting...?

2011-12-18T00:23:00.000-08:00

Wow... last time I checked, Christmas still seems like weeks away. Now, it's like I am rushing to get my Christmas shopping done.

I have been going around shopping for gifts these past couple of days.

Here's my little stash so far!

I can't believe how much I have spent already. And no, I am not done my shopping yet, unfortunately.
How are you guys doing with your Christmas gift shopping?

I know sometimes it may be hard to think of a decent gift...
but maybe this following product can be a good gifting idea for moms, girl friends, or guy friends who like to look gorgeous.

What product am I talking about?

It's called the Catalytic Skin Tone Illuminator from Luminaze.

I have not tried this product yet, but I have read the descriptions and it seems like the closest product I have used to this is DiorSnow White Reveal Essence, which was around the same price.

This product claims to make your skin better in 7 days and that it is safe to use for sensitive skin, and it is supposed to remove dark spots. The product contains an enzyme that was harvested from a certain type of mushroom that surrounded trees. The area of the tree where these mushrooms grew had lost color... and that's how they got the idea of using this enzyme to help remove the ugly dark spots from our skin. However, if you are trying to use this to get rid of freckles, the site says it will not work. I wonder if it will work on my acne scars though haha.

Since this product is available in Nordstrom (in US) and the Bay (in Canada), I may go give it a try.
I bought a Clinique set that claims to also be effective in removing dark spots on the face for my mom as her Christmas present (I hope she does not read this because I haven't given the gift to her yet), but if I try this Luminaze product and feel that it may work better, I may go exchange it for the Luminaze product instead.

Good luck with your Christmas shopping! <3

Ready for the holidays

2011-12-14T03:06:00.000-08:00

Exams are over (or at least for me, they are haha)... which means I can finally start enjoying my holidays!
Well, not really... because of work =(

But nonetheless, my holiday spirit will not be affected!

My friend really liked my snowflake nails I did last time (see tutorial here), so I did hers too... except with a twist. I added snowmen on her thumbs =D

And then, of course, I did my own nails too.

Mine are not holiday-themed, though. I have a Christmas themed nail design thought up in my head but I want to save that design for when it gets closer to Christmas.

Also, to go with my holiday spirit, I bought a pair of gold glittery pumps!

I actually did not intend on buying any new shoes for the holidays but I guess it was fate that I saw a pair of super pretty pumps that fit me - which surprised me since I am a size 4 - 4.5 feet size.

And you can't have holidays without including something fuzzy, right?

So here... I present you... a picture of me in a fuzzy sweater with my fuzzy cat hahaha

I got this sweater a few months back when I was in Hong Kong.

The detail on the back is so cute =]

Sorry I keep saying I will post up a nail tutorial soon but not doing so...

I will get my lazy ass around to doing it soon. I promise! Haha

Are you guys getting into the holiday mood too? ^u^

Aeropostale clothing for girls

2011-12-11T22:49:00.001-08:00

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Hello, my lovelies... Guess what?
Aeropostale is having a huge sale right now. Some of their pieces are even 60 - 70% off - both online (here) and in stores!
Their selection of clothing for girls actually have a smaller fit than other stores I know of. In fact, their XS sizing is almost perfect for me - it's just that the sleeves can be longer than desired on me.

To show you guys how their clothes fit on a petite person like me, I took some photos:

I tried to take three pieces of clothing with different fit so you guys can get an idea of how the pieces fit. That's why I took the blue sweater (which is a casual, not-too-fitted shape) and then the knitted cardigan (a fitted shape in a thicker material) and lastly, the long sleeve top (which is a thin, fitted material).

I think because Aeropostale's style is aimed at a younger age, the fitting is smaller.
Their style is very casual and girl-next-door. This is a great chance if you want to stock up on casual, comfy clothing since the prices are super duper discounted.

Aeropostale hoodie

Hope this post was helpful =D

P.S.
I am hoping to finish re-editing the photos of my new nails and I should post a new tutorial soon.
My desktop is still unwilling to cooperate with me =(

Fancy names for clothing pieces

2011-12-09T21:43:00.001-08:00

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You can call me ignorant, but I honestly never knew that there were such fancy names for pieces of clothing... I just kinda made up names for the pieces lol.
To show you guys what I mean, look at this style of clothing:

No need to criticize whether or not those tops fit me, because I just picked out the first two tops I saw in the store that was of that style.
I have been calling these "bat sleeve" tops for the longest time (like in this entry)... but the proper name for them is actually Dolman sleeve.
You can see a bunch of Dolman sleeve dresses on sale on this site if you still don't know what I am talking about.

And has any of you heard of Harris shoes or Leeds shoes?
I have tried to google those terms to find more information on them.
So... from my unprofessional super quick "research". Leeds shoes seem to be men's plain-toe lace-up dress shoes. And Harris shoes is a brand of men's shoes.
Correct me if I am wrong.

Anyway...

My desktop has died and it won't even start up. Now I don't have access to any of my photos or any files for that matter.
I actually had a bunch of photos edited already so I can show off another nail art design I did... but now I've lost access to them =(
I am praying for a miracle that the stupid old desktop will miraculously recover.

Barbie-lize yo face

2011-12-08T01:27:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to try to fix my sleeping schedule (because I am going to bed at around 4:30am nowadays), I have decided to stay awake the entire night so I can just fall unconscious on my bed the following night.

I thought that since I was staying up the whole night, I could get some school work done, but that did not happen. Instead, I spent my time doing stupid things like making my face look like a Barbie lol!

I know that people have tried to convert Barbie's body proportions into real-life proportions and if she were real, she'd be a monster.
So what would a real person's face look like if that person had the proportions of Barbie doll?
I decided to do a crappy photoshop version and see how it turns out.

Here is the original pic of myself that I used:

And here is Barbie's picture:

Using my own face... I have morphed my face into the proportions of Barbie...
Are you ready to see the results?...

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I advice you to scroll down at your own risk!

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Okay...
If you insist on seeing it...

Ta-da!

LOL It (yes, I have to use it to describe the above picture) looks like a plastic surgery gone wrong, doesn't it?
Creepy.

Well, thank you for letting me waste your time with this post.
I hope you didn't get a heart attack from looking at that picture.

Nails: Snowflakes

2011-12-05T19:09:00.001-08:00

I know it's only been a short while since my last tutorial but I was inspired by the disgusting cold weather and some of the pretty snowflake nails I've seen other people do.
So I've decided to do my own snowflake nails =]

Here's my take on this wintery themed nail art:

The tutorial for these nails is longer than other tutorials just because I want to show the steps for drawing the snowflakes =]

STEP 1: Baby blue base color.

Start off with a baby blue polish as the base color.

You may need to apply more than one coat to get your nails completely opaque.

As you can see, I am a pretty messy painter lol

STEP 2: Dark blue gradient.

Use a darker blue polish to create a gradient.

Here, I'm using China Glaze's Skyscraper as the darker blue, but you don't need to use a polish with glitter in it.

DOING THE GRADIENT: Start from the tip of your nails and dab the polish on. Make sure you don't start off with too much polish on the brush. Continue towards the bottom of the nails - the gradient will appear because you will have less and less polish on your brush as you keep dabbing downwards.

STEP 3: Snowflake - step 1.

Use a white nail polish and draw a thin stroke diagonally on your nail.

STEP 4: Snowflake - step 2.

Then draw another diagonal line, making an X on your nail.

STEP 5: Snowflake - step 3.

Draw a line across the X. You should have what looks like the asterisk symbol now.

STEP 6: Snowflake - step 4.

Haha sorry I didn't know what else to call this step except "split ends".

Add little V's to the end of your asterisk so now your snowflake-to-be have split ends like bad hair.

You can actually stop here if you are satisfied with this simple snowflake look.

STEP 7: Snowflake - step 5.

Draw little V's between the bigger strokes of the snowflake like shown in the diagram.

Now your snowflake is complete!

STEP 8: More snowflakes!

Draw snowflakes on your other nails.

If you are comfortable with drawing in a smaller proportion, you can even put multiple snowflakes on your nails =D

STEP 9: More like a tip than a step.

Be patient and wait for your snowflakes to completely dry before the next step, otherwise they will smudge.

STEP 10: Glitter top coat.

Apply a glitter top coat (like Sephora OPI's Flurry Up) to give your nail a frosty effect =]

Apply only a thin coat, because too much glitter will cover your snowflakes.

STEP 11: Clean up edges & top coat.

Dip a Q-tip in nail polish remover and clean up the edges of your nails.

Apply a clear top coat to protect your design - Done!

Hope you guys enjoyed this design =]

I will do another design for Christmas!

A Little Something on Skin

2011-12-04T23:17:00.001-08:00

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Here is a little something on skin and skin care that I found pretty interesting.
The infographic image is from Tanda Skin Care, which provides products on acne removal, including acne light treatment.

Because the image is quite large, I shrunk it to fit on the page.

Click on it to view it in full size:

It gives some some brief history on skin care history and some fun facts about your skin.
I can't believe people used to use lead to treat their skin O_O...
They even gave you a face toning exercise, which I thought would be fun to try. If you are ready to see me make weird faces, continue to read on haha.

So...
Here is me trying out that face toning exercise.

1. Raise eyebrows as high as you can and then relax them.

2. Twitch your nose from side to side...

which I couldn't really do and had to use my hand to help lol

3. Puff up your cheeks like you're blowing up a balloon and then relax.

(Poking puffy cheek)

4. Open your mouth as wide as you can and stick your tongue out as far as you can for 5 seconds.

Hahahaha. I hope you have enjoyed my faces!
Excuse me for looking so LG. I did not attempt to have my hair nice or dress up for these silly face photos.

Even if my face did not get toned after doing this exercise, it was fun LOL. Imagine someone walking in on your while you are doing this face exercise.

And if you have noticed... Yes, I redid my nails this afternoon.
I'll post a tutorial for it soon... Maybe next post =]
Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend!