Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hope everyone celebrating it is having a great time and quality family time. To those unable to celebrate this day with the family. I definitely understand your sadness because I feel really sad being away from my family.

Since I am having my exam tomorrow. I shall keep this post short and sweet.
I will post a longer and complete blog post after my exam. Wish me luck!

FOTD : Valentine's Day Special

I am still very boring and pretty much in my comfort zone with my eye makeup. I am still sticking with my usual makeup products for my eye makeup, no experimenting thus the same old look. This eye makeup is more tone down than my usual eye makeup with the brown eyeliner. Brown eyeliner usually gives a more feminine and elegant look instead of the harsher black.
On the other note, Essence Effect Eyeshadow has been my favourite drugstore cream eyeshadow. If you haven't tried them, you just have to.

The products used :
Catrice Eyebrow Stylish in Date with Ash-ton
Essence Effect Eyeshadow in UK's Stonehedge
Catrice Absolute Nude Eye Palette
Max Factor 2000 Calorie Mascara
Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara
Maybelline Hyperliner in Brown
3CE Full Coverage Concealer

I finally am back with one of my favourite drugstore foundation the Catrice Nude Illusion Foundation. I have abandoned this poor thing for 2 weeks since I didn't bring it along with me for the holidays, I brought along my other favourite which is the L'oreal Nude Magique. I set the foundation with the ELF Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer.
I am just in a glowy mood that day thus the powder choice.

For my blush and contour , I used the Vivienne Sabo Blush Duo. Many might not have heard about this brand because I haven't seen this brand out of Russia. It is an average quality blush duo, it is pigmented but the fall-outs is pretty scary. It flies everywhere. Highlighter is the Essence Soo Glow in 10.

For my lips. It is the Max Factor Lipstick in Midnight Mauve.

This Valentine's look is budget friendly. All items used are from the drugstore or products in the drugstore prices range. Who says we can't look lovely and expensive with drugstore items.
I like how most drugstore products has step up on their game and some products' finishes are even on par with high-end products. 

Valentine's wishlist

Valentine's wishlist by suzannelsx featuring Lime Crime

This year there are more products than usual that I wish to get or are in my wishlist. I blame those makeup companies for pushing so many new releases. As a girl, it is really hard to resist. Ain't it? 

I have yet to complete even half of my new year's wishlist. Actually, I just got an item off my new year's wishlist. There's so many more to get. And now, i have a whole new wishlist.

Please have mercy on my bank account. 

Happy Valentine's Day and a Latte

Happy Valentine's day everyone.
Do you feel the love in the air? Have you plan anything special for your love ones today?

I did not know that Starbucks had a special Valentine's day blend. I am not a Starbucks person, I do not drink them often, maybe once in 4-5 months so prior to the years before I did not notice anything other than their Christmas blend.

Just so happen I passed by Starbucks yesterday while I was doing my grocery shopping and I thought why not share the love and get their Valentine's blend and also their cake which I wanted to try for some time.

Raspberry latte and triple chocolate cake.

What really drew me to the latte is the fact that the latte is pink!
Pink latte how can a girl resist. It is just too cute to be true.

Half a heart for my pink latte because my Barista is just so fancy.

While sipping the latte though, you can see that the latte is still pink, or more like a pinkish brown.
The latte taste so good, it has hints of raspberry (more like strawberry for me) which adds a girly touch to the latte.
Definitely the latte for all the girly girls outside. 

Travel Diary Day 5 in UK : Edinburgh

From London Victoria Coach Station, we took the National Express to Edinburgh at night time, so we could sleep over in the coach, save a day and arrive Edinburgh in the morning.

In Edinburgh we stayed in Westend Hostel, it is a walk from the city center but it isn't extremely far but still considerably far if you do not have the energy to walk, it is about 15-20 mins walk.

What amazes me about Edinburgh is its architecture. The city is a mixture of gothic architecture design from the old town and modern from the new town.
The city is pretty lay back too.

Since we couldn't check in till 2pm, we left my luggages in the hostel's luggage storage area and headed out for breakfast and some walk in town.

We headed to Golden Grill Cafe which is a small and cosy cafe down the Haymarket road.
It serves all day breakfast and the prices is pretty good.

I opted for paninis since I never had them before but they weren't for breakfast and later on, the waiter said it was fine and he could make me a panini.

Bacon & Cheese Panini.
It was lovely and delicious. The cheese is the highlight of the meal, it is very cheesy and flavourful.

After our hearty breakfast, we headed down the Princes Street Gardens. The grass is so green and beautiful. It is considered a 'present' for us the see greenery considering where we are, winter is always monotone, black and white.

The whole park is really photogenic. The green of the grass translates very well on camera.

Edinburgh castle from the bottom of Prices Street Gardens.

We has a good chat with a university student here. He told us that he had never entered Edinburgh castle because it is a tradition for them to visit the castle when only they graduate as a graduation gift from Edinburgh city.
That is a very interesting fact to know.

3, 2, 1 Cheese!

We couldn't possibly miss The Royal Mile. We had a short walk over there because we plan to head back to the hostels, get ourselves wash and freshen up for dinner in The Royal Mile area.

The Royal Mile is definitely a beautiful street to walk along and take lots of photos.
It is also a good place to get souvenirs, just walk down the streets, the prices gets cheaper further away from Edinburgh Castle. There are also many restaurants to choose from this street.

The beautiful St. Giles Cathedral.
We didn't manage to go into the cathedral this time but we got a couple of beautiful pictures outside of the cathedral. 

FOTD : New Year's Eve

I previously blogged about my trip to the circus and counting down at Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in my previous post. Now, it is time for the FOTD.

My hair was pretty wild, it went all 'natural curls' and the fringe refuse to budge from my face to the side.

For my base, I applied the Etude House Conditioning Face Cream and L'oreal Nude Magique Foundation. I love the nude magique foundation, it is very light and you definitely can't feel the foundation on your face. This also dries down into a powder finish so it is not necessary to set this foundation with powder but it also looks good and not cakey with light dusting of powder on top. The perfect foundation if you are looking for a nude base makeup look. Which contributes to the only downside is it has light coverage, it won't work on people who needs higher coverage or with acne.
I set the look with the MAC Mineralized Skin Finish Natural.

Blush is Catrice Lip & Cheek Colour in Neo Geisha. Sadly, this is a limited edition and I really love this cream blush, I do hope Catrice will release a permanent line for their lip & cheek colour.
Highlight is Essence Soo Glow in 10. Bronzer, The Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder.
This bronzer is currently my HG bronzer. It lives up to its raves. It is definitely a fool-proof bronzer,it is sheer so you can never apply too mch.It also looks so natural on the skin, not muddy or orange at all. Very beautiful bronzer.

For my eyes, I am using the Essence Metal Effect Cream Eyeshadow in UK's Stonehedge. This has been my favourite cream eyeshadow for the past few months. It is super pigmented and shimmery and it doesn't budge at all. All you need is just a little amount, a little goes a long way. I paired this eyeshadow with the eyeshadows from Catrice Absolute Nude Palette.
Eyeliner is the Maybelline Master Precise. Mascara, The L'oreal Volumissime x4 Mascara and Maybelline Volum' Express Cat Eyes Mascara for the bottom lashes.
To cover my undereye circles, I am using the 3CE Full Coverage Concealer.

Lip colour is the Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in Ole! Flamingo.
It is new year, I just want to be bolder with my lip colour choice. And, I love this lip colour a lot, it is a beautiful fuchsia that complements most skin tone. This lip colour will not budge even after eating oily food and drinking. It last me through out the trip till I am back in hostel. 

Tiny winter haul

I am back from my holidays, I am still on holiday mood and too lazy to do anything at all. 

Meanwhile I sort all of my holiday pictures and slack around . Let's have a haul post to fill up the emptiness that has been here for 2 weeks. 

In this haul, the items are brands from Russia. They were on sale or clearance which is pretty much the one of the reason I picked them up.
I picked up the Divage Kiss Me Lipgloss , Divage Kiss Me Lip Balm and L'etoile Rouge Desir Lipstick.
I paid around 373 Rubles for these three items. If you do the math it is about RM24 USD6.7) at that moment of time which is a steal considering makeup is cheap here at the first place.

L'etoile was having a 40% off storewide until 28th December. Ofcourse I couldn't resist the good sales. I did pick up a lot of high end products from the store and that will be in another post.
L'etoile is like the Russian version of Sephora, they have their own in store brand with great and vast selection.
What caught my eye the most is their new Rouge Desir. From the packaging, they remind me of the creamy lipsticks that most companies are pushing out such as the Dior Addict lipsticks and Chanel Rouge Coco Shine. They were so many colours to choose from, there is  more than 20 colour to choose from. It is really great. There's definitely a shade for everybody.

I picked the shade 411 Princesse. You know, I love my pinks. This is a beautiful medium pink that suits every occasion. With the formula, the colour won't be too loud or bright. It gives a nice high shine wash of medium pink to the lips.

I really like the packaging, the packaging is very sleek and minimalistic with the full black theme. It is also very sturdy. It is also very slim which makes it easy to carry around in the makeup bag, because it will not take up much space.
The downside though, the packaging is such a fingerprint magnet!

Divage is an affordable Russian brand with its own stands.
Divage Kiss Me Lip Balm in 04.
These were on a clear out in the beauty store near my hostel. They were going for 49 Rubles.
Doesn't hurt to have another lipbalm for 49 Rubles. I go through lipbalms really fast since it is winter now and Russia is known for having harsh and cold winters. The harsh winter often try out my skin and lips.
I haven't tried out this lipbalm, I am not sure if it swatches with colour or clear.

Divage Kiss Me Lipgloss in 01
These lipglosses were on a clear out for 49 Rubles too. There was about 2 shades left in the clear out and this shade caught my attention. It is a peachy nude with slight shimmers. The shimmers are not very noticeable unless you really look into the tube.
I was pleasantly surprised by this lipgloss. It is pigmented and it feels quite nice on the lips, quite smooth and creamy. It is not sticky and doesn't apply patchy.

I would say this is such a steal for only 49 rubles.