One Dollar Wonder: ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen

Hi everyone,

In the land of budget makeup, E.L.F rules. I mean, who else can make decent $1 products like they do? When I discovered something I like from E.L.F, I tend to stock up just to give them away to friends. When they have sales, it's even more awesome. I used to get a whole bunch of things I need and then some. During this vicious cycle (ha!) I discovered the Waterproof Eyeliner Pen and I have never been happier. At $1, it is the blackest eyeliner pen out there. I'm so glad I put my money down and got the first one at Target. I've tried so many eyeliners before and this one is very easy to use.

E.L.F Waterproof Eyeliner Pen ($1)

Wanna know why I love it so much? Jump!

My Eyes on Inglot

Hi everyone,

Lately, I've found myself staring at the screen and lemming about makeup. Maybe lemming does not fully describe my status. It's more of uncontrolled drooling while looking at makeup swatches. Really, this is insane!

Source

Of all the buzzes I've read online, Inglot rings a church bell. I was very impressed of the pigmentation and variety of colors available. A reviewer did not do anything more than touching her finger to the pan and a whole lot of bright pigmentation attached to it. My mouth dropped to the floor when I saw it!

Price-wise, Inglot products are very affordable. Most of the items are $11-12 and I don't see a lot of colors to price beyond $14 USD. Their AMC lip glosses are pretty great and I've heard so many raves about their eyeliners. However, the real intrigue lays in this:

The Freedom System!
Source

If you are familiar with MAC 15-pan makeup palette, Inglot Freedom System is similar. However, Inglot took a step further by fully magnetizing their palettes to make them stackable. Yes, that's right. You can put whatever color combinations to the palettes and stack them on top of each other. They are extremely sturdy and I have seen reviewers having trouble taking colors out.

Now, you see why I'm so hyped up with Inglot? But that's not all! The prices of the refills are insanely inexpensive. For eyeshadows, a single square will cost you $7 USD, but if you buy more, the price will drop ($5 each if you buy 3, and $4.50 each if you buy 10.) Which means, if you fill a 10-pan palette, the cost would be $65 USD ($45 for eyeshadows and $20 for the pan.)

Just do the math, if you go with MAC, it will cost you $11 USD/refill x15 +$15 (for the pan) = $180 USD!
But if you buy from Inglot, the whole 15 eyeshadows with pans will cost you $97.5 USD. Almost half-price!

But we're not done yet, the Inglot pan actually weights more than the MAC pan (2.7g vs. 1.5g.) Therefore, you get more products at a much cheaper price.

Now, we can shop online with Inglot, which makes me very excited. I've seen tutorials done with their eyeshadows and they all blew me out of the water. The pigmentation is insane! If you don't believe me, just watch Xparkage's Green and Purple Inglot look below:



Insane, isn't it? I can't wait to get my hands on some Inglot eyeshadows. I know if you go to trade shows like IMATS or The Makeup Show, you'll get the whole palette with makeup for $40 or so. Those of you who got a chance to enjoy Inglot makeup are so lucky. I envy you and hope you enjoy your makeup :)

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Burning Makeup Question: Do You Have any Makeup Quirks?

Hi everybody,

Yes, it's Thursday again and this time, our Burning Makeup Question of the week is "Do you have any makeup quirks?"

Yours truly looking way too gleeful with a red teddy bear. But believe me, smokey eyes, hair bow, and red teddy bear are not my quirks.

Wanna know my answer? Jump!

Get Coconutty with Coconut Oil

Hi everyone,

Guess what's inside this jar?

It's coconut oil!

 And what do I use coconut oil for, you may ask.

Why, my dear readers, to moisturize my face, of course! A few months ago, I had a terrible crop of zits on my face. I used T3 Mycin and then benzoyl peroxide to cure them (but not together, though. That would be committing skin suicide.) Then, my niece mentioned cold press coconut oil and my mom got me 50 cent worth of it.

More than this much, but I doubt it to be more than an ounce.

 At first, I shrugged but put the coconut oil on my face anyways, since I'm such a good daughter (haha!) Day 1 saw less inflammation and so was day 2. Day 3, zits stopped oozing up. My mom and other female relatives started ooh-ing and ahh-ing at my new skin.

Once a geek, always a geek. I climbed Mt. Google and found out why coconut oil can cure acne. Turns out, there's an abstract in PubMed that talked about this. According to this publication, lauric acid is an ingredient found in coconut oil. Since it has poor water solubility, they loaded lauric acid on liposome to form LipoLA. This new compound can fuse with the membrane of P. acnes, the bacteria that causes acne, and lauric acid is released to kill the bacteria. Awesome science, right?

While waiting for LipoLA to come in a tube, I am determined to apply coconut oil to my skin. The scent is very yummy. Once applied, the oil absorbs into my skin and best of all, I don't need to use a lot.

See, this much is enough!
It is one drop of oil, people. ONE drop.

I was a fan of jojoba oil before but coconut oil tops it. It is a bit thicker and since my skin is oily, it takes time to absorb. However, on my hands and cuticles, the coconut oil is a dream! My hands feel feathery soft and the cuticles are well-behaved again. Since I only have a tiny bit, I don't use it on my hair. But for those who have really long Rapunzel-like hair, conditioning it at the end is very beneficial.

You can find cold pressed virgin coconut oil at health food store. I like the brand Spectrum. Although it's pricier than the other ones, the material is stellar. However, remember this: only use a little coconut oil on your face. The goal is to cure your zits, not to load more stuff on your face to suffocate your skin.

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Hello, Mr. Brown!

Hi everyone,

A couple nights ago, I went through my stash of eyeliners and realized I have so many brown eyeliners! I mean, where did they all come from? I didn't remember when I got all of them. And where are my black eyeliners? Except Blacktrack and another pencil liquid eyeliner, I don't even have a black one in pencil form. Curiouser and curiouser, right?

But once I played with my brown liners, I realized why I have them. I truly love brown eyeliners. Truly, really, incredibly in love with them. Also, each of them are different from each other, which make them so interesting to me.

My brown eyeliner stash, all 5 of them (for now!)
(L-R): MAC Teddy, L'Oreal Extra-Intense liquid pencil eyeliner in Bronze, Essence Long Lasting eye pencil in Hot Chocolate, Victoria's Secret chubby eye stick in Bronzilliant, and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on eye pencil in Bourbon

 Wanna know why I love them so much? Jump!

Cacharel Amor Amor: a Lovely Summer Scent

Hi everyone,

This year, I haven't bought a single bottle of perfume. My perfume stash dwindled down to about 3 scents I love the most. I gave away my stuff before and after moving to Vietnam. However, I still have a new bottle of perfume. Recently, my aunt from Belgium came back home for a visit and gave me a bottle of Cacharel Amor Amor. After experiencing the cloying scent of Cacharel Anais Anais, I was not sure if my love could go to its younger sister. I gave it a try and realized despite our differences, Amor Amor and I can work things out.

Cacharel Amor Amor (comes in 30, 50, and 100ml EDT)

Wanna know what I think about this perfume? Jump!

Belly at Large: Cambodian Kittens

Hi everyone,

Dao's here, not Belly. Being a Crazy Cat Lady (CCL) without a cat is hard. I miss my Belly. I miss his fuzzy face, his smart-alec meows, his passion for turkey, and his constant bugging me for head and tummy rubs. Yes, I miss his good, bad, and ugly. I just miss him.

Adorable Belly looked so thoughtful. I know what he was thinking: "When is she going to give me more turkey?"

Sometimes, I even miss his girth crushing me when I was trying to sleep.

Yup, a candid shot of Belly's belly. He's a quarterback-size tabby kitty.

Belly is very special and as much as I tried to replenish my longing to him, I failed. He is the one kitty that touched my heart. When I visited Cambodia, I saw a litter of kittens on the boat and my heart melted. I just thought of these kittens to grow up and become somebody else's Bellys, to touch people's hearts the way Belly did to mine.

And this one kitten busted this move that almost made me bring him back to Vietnam:

HE LICKED HIS PAWS GANGSTERLY!

 How that kitten learned this move is beyond my comprehension. But I swear the moment he started licking his paws, I only thought of Belly. However, Belly only did it to warn me. This kitten, being young and innocent, enjoyed the act.

Mama Cat and one of her babies.
Kitty: Mommy, can I go play outside?
Mama Cat: No! It's dangerous. We're on a boat, son.
Kitty: pwease, pweety pwease!
Mama Cat: I said no. Now go play with your siblings!

The whole litter, minus one or two kitties

Cambodia's Next Top Kitties. Today's theme is "Fear". Now, go ahead and work it!
(Belly Jr. is the one on the right.)

For now, I'm alleviating my pain of missing Belly by posting photos of cats (and dogs) that I took. Until we meet again, Big Boy!

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Burning Makeup Question: When Did You Start Wearing Makeup?

Hello there, everyone!

Yes, it's time for another Burning Makeup Question. If you missed the debut post, click here.

Yes, Belly, you can haz a queshun. Also, I miss you, my baby boy!

Belly and I want to know when you started wearing makeup. Wanna know our answers? Jump!

Tutorial: Shaping Eyebrows with the Tinkle Brow Razor

Hi everyone!

Last week, I wrote a quick review on the Tinkle eyebrow razors. I mentioned that I would do a tutorial on eyebrow shaping using this tool. Well, tada! Here it is!

First of all, you don't really need a lot of things to shape the eyebrows if you use this method. Beside the Tinkle razor, you only need a name card.

Seriously, these are all you need!

 Secondly, if you don't know how to frame your eyebrows, this tutorial should help. That was how I used to do my brows but now, I don't need to frame them anymore since my eyebrows are embroidered now (more on it later!)

So yes, step 1 would be drawing a frame of your eyebrow. This would give you a shape of how things are supposed to look. Like the previous tutorial, you would remove the unwanted hair away from the frame and keep the rest looking well-groomed.

My left eye with Chewbacca-ish eyebrow
Before, I would have used some kind of light powder to cover the eyebrow area I'd like to keep. Now, I already have the frame from the eyebrow embroidery.

 The rest of the tutorial is after the jump. So jump!

Love Eye Makeup but on Time Crunch? Here's a Tip for Ya!

Hi everyone,

Yup, that was me climbing the Great Wall of China! I actually had time to camwhore before climbing to the next beacon (Beacon number 9.) It was a great trip and I was wise enough to pack some essential makeup and skincare items for my trip.

Despite the sandstorm from Mongolia, we managed to take some great photos
And yes, this is how I look now. It was cool that day (14-22 degree C) but with strong winds. The cashmere cardigan saved my life!

I actually brought a small bag to store my essential items. As much as I want to haul my whole makeup and skincare storage unit, I decided to be more selective.

Everything I needed stored inside this fake croc bag from Clinique.

Wanna know what's inside and the makeup items that made my traveling life easier? Jump!

The Awesome Tinkle Eyebrow Razors

Hi everyone,

I've been a fan of the Tinkle eyebrow razors as long as I can remember. Probably around high school, I came to a realization that my eyebrows weren't all that. Also was the fear of plucking them made me find high and low for a pain-free method of eyebrow shaping. With some luck, I found the Tinkle eyebrow razors at a supermarket. And then, years later, I bought another pack at the same place. Needless to say, the Tinkle razors have become a staple product to many makeup artists and addicts who need to groom eyebrows fast.

Tinkle eyebrow razors come in a set of 3.

 Wanna know how awesome these eyebrow razors are? Jump!

Because Once Isn't Enough, I Wash My Face Twice

Hi everybody,

Thank you for the warm welcome-back messages from yesterday's post. You guys make me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside :)

As I mentioned on that post, I am traveling on the sans-makeup road. Let's be clear: I miss the intricacy of applying makeup. But right now, the weather doesn't allow me to do so. On top of that, I don't even have time for it. However, I'm determined to keep my skin at tip-top shape. That involves a lot of work since I'm fighting an uphill battle of heat, humidity, environmental pollution, and hormone imbalances (y'know, those days of the month!)

Living in a tropical area means one big thing: moisture is your enemy. You can't add more moisture on your skin by using lotions and potions and such. If you have oily and acne-prone skin like mine, doing so equals to committing dermal suicide. I learned my lesson after about a week living here and seeing how bad my skin looks. Therefore, I decided to switch up my skincare routine and so far, it works.

This is probably nothing new to some of you but I only wash my face with face wash once a day. In the morning, I use a microfiber washcloth (the type people use to wash cars) and plain ole water to wash my face. In the evening, it's time for me to bring in all the bells and whistles. I use 2 types of face washes:

1. A scrub:

Thorakao Turmeric Grain Face Cleansing Milk ($18,000 VND ~.85 USD)

To be honest with you, I don't know if this product is available outside of Vietnam. It's (a) dirt cheap, (b) is a decent scrub, and (c) has natural turmeric grains to exfoliate. If you live in a Vietnamese community in the States, you'll probably find it but with extremely marked up price.

I used this product when I was a teen but didn't think much of it. It was a decent scrub at the time but the one I'm using now is even better. As a facial cleanser, it does a mediocre job to clean your face. However, as an exfoliator, I think it's way better than those St. Ives facial scrubs. It's a non-foaming cleanser packed with turmeric grains. They are not too harsh or chunky but their sizes are decent enough to satisfy the scrub addict in me.

Turmeric has anti-inflammation properties that helps calming the skin. As a scrub, it works really well to fade my scars. My mom, without knowing me using this scrub, asked me why my acne scars faded so fast. In my two step cleansing process, I use this first to exfoliate my skin before proceeding on washing it with ...

2. A face wash

Vichy Pureté Thermale Purifying Foaming Cream Cleanser ($18 USD)

I received this as a gift from Dr. Baumann. She selected it for my OSPT skin type. I've heard about Vichy, a French skincare brand, before. One of my former roommates, who is French-Vietnamese, used Vichy and had amazing-looking skin. Therefore, I was delighted to try the new Pureté Thermal cleanser.

Please don't let the words "cream cleanser" scare you. This is probably one of the cleanest face wash I've ever tried. It is scent-free, does not contain SLS, and most importantly, does not leave a film on my face after I wash it out. Yes, this stuff gives me squeaky-clean skin.

Since the Thorakao Turmeric wash tends to leave my face a tad oily, I use this Vichy facial cleanser to totally remove all the oil out. Before, it was uncharacteristic of me to do so. But living in Vietnam taught me the importance of having a clean face. With the Vichy, my face is clean and smooth. I like this product so much that I take it with me whenever I travel. From Cambodia to Vietnam to China, I did not even have a single zit when I was on the road!

Now, here is an important question: Who would benefit of this two-step cleansing method?

People with oily skin, of course! I would not advise those who have severe acne or sensitive skin to go ahead to scrub and wash. However, the Vichy Pureté Thermal cleanser is suitable for every skin type but especially formulated for those with sensitive skin. If you need a new facial cleanser, I highly recommend it.

That's all for now, folks! I'd love to hear what you think about this. How do you wash your face?

Disclaimer: The Thorakao turmeric grain wash was already available at home. The Vichy Pureté Thermale face wash was a gift. This entry is a reflection of my own experience. What works for me may not work for you, as we are different people with different skincare needs.

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The Things that Make Me Happy

Oh hi!

Are you still here? I'm glad you do. It's been a while, I know. Believe me, I did not imagine the things I did since coming back to Vietnam. It all happened like this: bam, bam, bam, bam, bam! One thing after another. So far, I have been to many different places, traveled to 2 foreign countries, and helped my parents moved the whole house with 20+ years of stuff. Amazing, right?

But the cost is my unable to blog as often as I want. Also, I have ceased to wear makeup. I don't have time or the aspiration to do so. I have found a way to keep my skin in a better shape. Despite this extremely hot and humid weather, my face is almost flawless. Yes, it requires a lot of work and me drinking some bitter herbal potion but there's a price for everything. The question is whether you want it or not.

Lately, I have come to a realization regarding skincare: it's all coming from the inside. If your internal organs are functioning well, your skin is going to be nice-looking. I did not believe in this herbal potion at first but about a month later, my zits are almost gone! Also, I drink a lot of water and move around a lot. Living here and traveling forces me to move.

I have not been buying a single makeup item since coming here. Besides the stuff I brought from the States, I haven't added anything new to my stash. Yet, it seems excessive. I know I have missed a lot of sales and a bazillion MAC limited editions. But I didn't feel so bad about that. Quite frankly, I would be lying if I say I don't miss makeup at all. But now, I am more into doing other people's makeup than doing my own. To me, I am living in a strange place at a strange time.

But, but, but...when I saw this in Shanghai, I screamed:

It's a SEPHORA!

 Yes, I miss Sephora THIS MUCH! Very, very much. You don't even know. I walked miles and miles to get into the shop and spray some Jurlique facial mist on my face. For a moment, life was good again and I was back to my old beauty addict self again.

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