Aliexpress haul : False eyelashes.

I heard many things about this website Aliexpress but never tried it out until of late. I have been searching for affordable dresses for the summer since I am not going back home this year to stockpile my clothes stock.
While browsing Aliexpress I bumped into their makeup section, The makeup section offer a selection of makeup products and also false eyelashes. The false eyelashes design look really pretty online and the price is so affordable. I couldn't resist the temptation and I ordered a few.

I can't remember how many sets I have ordered but for now only two sets have arrived. I haven't check the rest with the post office yet.
These are the two designs that I have received. One of them is Yu Er Gong Zhu, the other doesn't have a brand name.
I will leave the seller's link here : http://www.aliexpress.com/store/722940
Besides false eyelashes, the seller sells a variety of accessories, home decor and beauty items. Have fun browsing the web store.

The seller sent out my package fast, in about 2 days and I received the items two weeks later, which is considered fast on registered mail standard.

This Yu Er Gong Zhu lashes design is very beautiful. They do not have a name or style name, I will just leave the link below.
It is a whispy style criss cross lashes.

They are made out of synthetic fibers but they still look natural and not plastic-like. The only downside would be they do feel plastic-like which is not too pleasant to touch but on the eyes, I don't think it bothers that much. Anyway, they are so cheap, so if they do not work out, just dump them aside. They are USD1.5 for a set of 5 pairs. A great deal.

Here is the link :http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6565386774.html?orderId=66437364308874

This set of lashes does not have a brand name. The style is Z-1.

The quality is the same as Yu Er Gong Zhu's. It is also a beautiful set of eyelashes. It also comes in a clear band which can make it hard for first timers to apply since it is flimsy.
This design leans to more doll-like. More suited for a dolly makeup look.

Link : http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6565386771.html?orderId=66437364318874

That is all for my first Aliexpress haul. I have more packages to come so stay tune for future Aliexpress hauls. 

Fixed Price haul

'Fixed Price' is sort of like the Dollar Shop of Moscow, just that instead of USD1 , items are priced at 45 Rubles each ( they raised the price, last week it was still 43 Rubles, I am kinda bumped).

It has been quite long since I last went to 'Fixed Price' but I passed by one the other day when I was heading to the post office. I thought why not stop by and stock some snacks. 

This is a huge amount of snack isn't it?
I am could not resist temptation so I have tried most of the snacks I have bought. 

So there will be a mini review on the snacks.

Cookie fingers covered in milk chocolate.
I think this is my favourite snack out of the all that I have hauled.
It is basically cookies covered in milk glazing. It taste good and one pack comes in 265grams. That is a nice amount of cookie fingers in one pack for the price.
It makes a really great snack. It is just so munchable.

Waffle 'cake' with yogurt coating and walnuts.
It ate some of it already as you can see.
It is a nice waffle 'cake' for its price. Taste wise it is nothing special but acceptable. The yogurt coating doesn't stand out, it doesn't taste very yogurt like, it is very sweet. I would expect the yogurt coating to be slightly tangy instead of just being sweet. Overall it is a nice waffle 'cake' for its price.
Just that since it is so big and it is basically waffle, it is quite hard to eat with a spoon or biting it as it is. Not something I would take and treat as a snack on a daily basis.
I shouldn't complain much as it is quite a big portion for the price.

Prepackaged Medovnik.
I have tried a little of it as you can see. I would say just get the fresh one from the bakery section. The prepackaged is just too artificial tasting for my liking. The artificial honey scent is too overwhelming, it is like eating honey perfume. Not recommended at all. 

I haven't tried the cake dessert in the blue packaging yet. No reviews for it! 

Overall, I would buy the finger cookies all over and over again. The rest? Meh. 

Haul : Essence + Catrice

If anyone noticed. There's a change of setting. This is because I have moved to my temporary room. From now on, newer hauls will have this as a setting. 

I quite like this room because sunlight is abundant compared to our old room where there is hardly any sunlight and it is much dimmer and darker. It makes photography much easier and also editing (yes, I have just learned how to edit my photos). 

Let's go back to the haul. 

I went to the beauty store with a sole purpose to pick up an eyelash glue because my old eyelash glue has completely dry off and I am too impatient to wait for the eyelash glue that I have bought off aliexpress to arrive. 

Then at the clearance bin were the past season Catrice products for a very affordable price. I couldn't resist and picked them up. 

So in the end, I ended up with two lip treatments/lip glosses and a eyelash glue. 

These Vitamin Lip Treatment from Catrice is from their limited edition "Visionairy" collection. 

I picked up the two shades available for the lip treatment. 

Left : 02 Veil of Vision 

Right : 01 Apricosy Daydream

Both shades contains microglitter in them. I really like how 'Veil of Vision' looks like in the tube, it is a lilac chrome shade. It is really gorgeous in the tube. I do not how well it translate on the lips. I haven't tried any of them. 

I do not expect them to have great colour payoff because they are lip treatments. 

I like the design on the tube. The silver details on the tube makes it look more sophisticated and sleek. 

Finally, the last item of this haul is an eyelash glue. 

This is the main purpose I went to the beauty store. 

There were only choices of eyelash glue in my beauty store. It is either this Essence Eyelash Glue or Ardell's. I picked out the cheapest one among the two because I am a cheapskate like that. 

That is all for my haul this time around. Not very exciting this time around. 

Eating out Moscow : Magnolia Bakery

I have heard many things about Magnolia Bakery from my friends and how they love the cupcakes and cakes from this bakery.
During Victory day, we were roaming around Moscow city and we so happen to bumped into Magnolia Bakery. I did not hesitate and paid the bakery a visit.

Magnolia Bakery is a New York based bakery and they have finally open an international branch in the heart of Moscow. This bakery is famous for their red velvet cupcakes and banana pudding.

The ambience of the bakery is really pretty. Simple and cute.
The shades of white interior of the bakery makes the bakery look much spacious than it is actually is, It also makes the whole atmosphere very comfortable and laid back.
Each table has a its own pot of flowers which is pretty sweet too.

Display of cupcakes. I just want them all.
They are so many cupcakes to choose from. Unfortunately, Red Velvet was not available on the day I visited, thus I had to choose another flavour.
I really like Red Velvet cupcakes and I heard it is also their best seller. So I was pretty sad about it.

The desserts are not just limited with cupcakes. There are a lot of pastry and desserts to choose from. There are cookies, pies, puddings, cakes, cheese cakes etc.
Lots of variety for the sweet tooth.

The staffs are attentive too. Also, some of the staffs speak English. So, do not worry about the language barrier if you don't speak Russian.

My German Chocolate cupcake.
It is basically chocolate cupcake with coconut shredding paste topping. The cupcake is tad sweet, not suitable for eating in big bites, I find one small portion as it is is just fine, a slightly bigger portion would have lead to sugar intoxication. Nevertheless, the cupcakes are really good, I enjoy the coconut on top.

Overall I like the atmosphere and cupcakes from this bakery. I will pay a visit to this bakery again and hopefully get my Red Velvet cupcake fix. 

Essence haul : I love nude collection

The beauty store near me has brought in Essence I Love Nude collection which made me so excited. I have been lusting over the nude collection for quite some time since the announcement of this announcement over on Essence webpage.
I love my nudes and I definitely would not let go any chances to grab a nude lipgloss or lipstick.

Here is what I picked up from the collection, plus, something extra that is not from the I love nude collection.

I picked up two lipsticks and two lipglosses from the nude collection and a past collection "Come to Town" cream blush.
I like Essence lipsticks for the affordable price tag and great colour selection.

This time for the new I love nude collection, they released five brand new nude colours. I managed to pick up two colours form the range .I find the other available colours too light on me, the colour appears like icing sugar on my lips which isn't flattering at all. One of the shades which I like - "Porcelain Doll" is unfortunately sold out, it is a really beautiful peach nude, I will pick it up the next time I see it in stock.
Meanwhile for the lipggloses, I picked up the two darkest shade from the four colours available because they give the best colour pay off. I like my lipglosses with some colour pay off and they are not too light on me to the point of looking like icing sugar or washing me out. 

I did not pick up the eyeshadows or nail polishes from this collection this time around but i will pick them out as soon to play with them and try them out, especially the eyeshadows. They have a few shades that tickle my fancy. 

Left : Sweet Almond Right:Taste the Sweets
They are not the most pigmented lipgloss I have ever use but they do give a decent and subtle colour pay off. Enough for a wash of colour on the lips.
Taste the Sweets is a pinky nude and Sweet Almond is a taupe nude. I really like the colours of both glosses. They are really pretty especially Sweet Almond because it is something different from what I own.
They are a decent gloss for the price, not sticky at all. Definitely worth picking up if you are a nude lover.

Here comes the highlight of my purchase this time around. The lipsticks!
The packaging is so cute. Different from the normal line which has a black body, it comes with packaging that matches with the lipstick shade.
This makes me easier to recognize the lipstick.

Left : Come Naturally Left : Cool Nude
Essence lipsticks are really great for its price. The pigmentation is great, texture is smooth and buttery. The best part the price tag is affordable, such a bargain.
Come Naturally is a taupish brown nude. Cool nude is a dusty rose.
They are both very gorgeous colours and really great as an everyday lip colour. My favourite has to be Come Naturally.

The last item is not from the I Love Nude collection but the "Come to Town" collection. This is a past collection thus it is in the clearance bin for a very discounted price.
I like cream blushes, when I saw this in the clearance bin for a discounted price, I couldn't pass it up and just had to get it.

The blush, 02 Wrapped in Pink, is a deep magenta pink. A beautiful winter/fall shade to add a deep pink flush to the cheek.
I really enjoy cream blushes, personally I think they stay put on the skin longer and gives a more natural finish compared to powder blushes. Essence have great cream blushes considering its affordable price tag. I own about three cream blushes from Essence. All from the limited trend edition. I enjoy all of them.
They are easy to blend and have great pigmentation. 

Tiny Events #6

So previously I have talked about the unfortunate incident that there was a fire breakout in my hostel at my floor. Now, things have pretty much settled down and I have temporarily moved to another hostel for the time being as there were no empty slots or rooms for us.

' The view from our new room. The grey shades of suburban Moscow. Definitely a much nicer view compared to my old room. I am kinda sad that this room is only temporarily available to us because it is such a great room. '

' Our first meal in the room. We consider this as an open house ceremony with all the sushi. We ordered our sushi via an apps called delivery-club.ru from this sushi shop called "Bento Wok" which offers sushi sets for an affordable price. For a sushi delivery shop, I would rate the sushi from this shop decent for its price. '

'Sirniki. It is a type of Russian thick pancake made from quark. This is my first time making it and it it wasn't so successful as I added in too much flour, thus the aroma from the quark did not stand out too much. I made it the second time again after that and it was a success. It is a pretty easy pancake to make, all you need are quark, flour, sugar, salt, egg, vanilla essence and raisins (optional).'

' Spring is finally here. On the way from the post office back to my hostel. I went out to pick up from order from Aliexpress.com . So, expect a huge Aliexpress haul soon?  '

Exam period is coming up soon, Tiny events will be kind of boring with not much going around with my life. If I were to update a 'day in my life', I will definitely bore everyone to death. 

Around Moscow : 9th of May : Victory Day

Happy Victory Day to Russia and Ex-Soviet countries.

We woke up early to catch the Victory parade and can get a good spot to view the parade. Well, not the actual parade but the parade of the military tanks, missiles, nuclear war head, you name it.

We left our hostel at 7.30 am or so and the parade starts at 10am. We stopped by Mayakovskaya station at Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa. At 9.30am, the metro is already packed with people, one of the exit of the metro was blocked and people were allowed to get off at one exit only, so imagine the crowd and how hard it was to exit the metro.

The road is block until 10.10-10.20 ish after Putin's speech and we were let to line along the Tverskaya-Yamskata Ulitsa, awaiting for the military tanks parade. I managed to get a really good spot infront, just right behind the railing.

The street while awaiting for the military tanks to pass by.

The military tanks are arriving. Look at how enthusiastic the Russians were. They were all chanting "Ura!" and thanking the army.

 A really enthusiastic army, appreciating all the cheers from the Russian crowd. He is giving a thumbs up to all of us cheering for the parade.

Missiles.

Nuclear war head or I think it is the nuclear war head.
I am not too sure which tank is which.

It is really sunny that day that it feels scorching hot.
When the military tanks drove by, the road became really dusty, so dusty that my camera was covered in dust so were I, my jacket was all dust.
I was so worried that the dust was going to get into my eyes and contact lens, some went into my mouth though. Not a pleasant feeling.
I felt so dirty at the end of the parade.

2S35 Koalitsiya-SV Self Propelled Artillery

T-15 Armata Infantry Fighting Vehicle.

Armata T-14 Main Tank

I could not name all the tanks, but these are the few tanks that I could google the names of. Maybe some tanks junkie could help me out.

After the parade, we headed to Tverskaya metro station and then walk our way to Bolshoi Theater.
Streets are so crowded with people and festivals.

At Bolshoi, there were veterans sitting outside. To thank the veterans, on these day the people would give them flowers and say a word of thanks to them.

an old female war veteran sitting with her biography hanging on her side.

a crowd surrounding a war veteran and him telling the crowd his wartime stories.

It is quite rare that this street is blocked to all sorts of transportation, so it is chance to take a picture with Bolshoi Theater on this street. 

Tiny Events #5

Hi everyone, It is already May. I have finally settled down and moved to my new temporary accommodation after the fire outbreak but I still do not have internet connection so I have been leeching off the free wifi. 

This post has been retrieved from my draft, I will do a proper post once I get the room sorted and also the internet connection sorted out. 

What have I been up to? Well, I am been slacking with easier classes. Have been finding myself going back watching Japanese dramas, catching up with Japanese music and idols.

Lately, I have been catching up with the Spring season dramas, most notably - Yokoso, Wagaya e. 

Also, I have been listening to mostly LDH artist and finding out more about this new group Johnny WEST. 

That is that, before I start rambling further. 

"I finally baked the Walkers Luxury 9 Miniature Mince Meat tart and oh gosh, they taste so heavenly. I want more! They got a unique taste, despite being a mince meat tart, it doesn't taste meaty at all. It is full of taste of spice and fruits. Very nice twist to the tarts.
I am definitely going to get myself some when I go back to London next year. If visiting the UK definitely something to look out. "

" Forensics medicine cycle. All the hips don't lie.
There were no corpse during our classes just bones, skulls and bits and pieces of preserved organs."

"Mcdonalds breakfast menu is probably my favourite from their menu. I love the Mcmuffins.
When we had our forensics medicine classes, our class were located near a Mcdonalds. On the last day of class, we decided to stop at Mcdonalds to get ourselves some Mcmuffins. My favourite has to be the Egg Mcmuffin.
I got the Egg muffin and a berry pie. I like the apple pie but apparently they do not have apple pie on their menu. Looks like the apple pie is not a staple on their Russian menu. "

 "Last week marks my last class in Hospital 15 for the semester. I am definitely missing their cafe's food. I really like their breads and pastry. They are really good.
This is my favourite. I do not know it is called but it has quark and raisins. It is just really delicious.
Next semester onwards I am having most of my classes right in this hospital, maybe I could satisfy myself with their pastry and bread before I graduate. "

" Shopping at 'Fixed Price', it is like the dollar store of Russia but ofcourse items are not priced at a dollar, they are 43 Rubles for every item.
I just so happened to pass by a 'Fixed Price' the other day and when crazy at the food section. I got a lot of snacks from the food section and I will do a "Fixed Price" haul soon.
I am a happy girl with all my snacks. "