The Perfect Foundation so far ..and a Mini Haul

The theme for this haul is bronze and reds!

The top 2 nail polishes--Revlon in Cherry and Sally Hansen in Right Said Red. I am in the quest for the perfect RED nail polish and these 2 are about to be tested. 

And I finally got Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua foundation! Im in the shade B40 Beige Desert. I really have to say, Chanel is the Rolls Royce (or Bentley..or something even higher) of makeup foundations. My previous post on what I thought was the perfect foundation was also Chanel (Chanel Pro Lumiere, which is now discontinued). I won't cry too much over it because Chanel's Vitalumiere Aqua is even MORE perfect! 

Coverage is light to medium. It's also quite watery which I like because application and blending is a breeze. The finish is perfect--very dewy and almost glowy even without highlighters. It's just very natural. It's like your skin except 10x better. 

I was expecting my skin to be a bit shiny by mid-day , but lo and behold--not a shine (I have combination skin). The lasting power of this product is amazing, considering it is a light formula.

This is my HG foundation at the moment especially for days when I want to look more alive glowing. This winter season, I am having a ball wearing lighter finish foundations (some days just getting by tinted moisturisers or my one and only BB cream which I will do a post on later). 

I know the common practice and knowledge is to wear a light foundation in summer or warmer days and heavier on winter/colder days. But for my personal use, I do it the other way around-- Winter the skin can afford to have lighter foundations that would normally make you shine in a few hours because your skin will hold makeup better--you sweat less hence less chance of melting moments. Whereas in summer, the more you wear the light wear foundations--you will have a melted face later on for sure. So you do need a foundation with longer and stronger staying power in summer. This is my theory based on my personal use and own skin type anyway.

Too Faced Lockdown Creaseless cream eye shadow. It is perfect on its own or as a base. I got the shades Dreamarama (top) and Bedroom Eyes (bottom-darker one)

Almost pointless doing a swatch as they are not that visible on my hand, but on the lids they are amazing. Not as pigmented as the Chanel Illusion D'Ombre ones but perfect for everyday "look lively" look.

These two shades, I was inspired to get from a bridesmaids dress I saw online. No, no one is getting married soon. I was just browsing dresses online when an ad for Bari Jay bridesmaid dresses came up. Next thing I know, I was just staring at this bronze coloured bridesmaid dress. It was two toned (bronze and golden caramel) and I thought how nice if those were eyeshadow colours! I searched high and low for the closest shades , and a week of colour and brand researching later, I came up with these two Too Faced creaseless shadow tubes. 

Yes I can be OC when I am on a mission!

Anyway...here is the Chanel Vitalumiere Aqua finish ...

haul for everyday makeup look

This is not really a recent haul. I had the photos saved but only had the time to post now. I purchased these several weeks ago, and for more than a month now, this has been my everyday (almost) look.

What I got: from top L-R: Chanel Illusion d'Ombre longwear eyeshadow in Emerveille and Ebloui.

Laura Mercier metallic cream shadow in Alloy and Nars blush in Douceur.

These two are the ultimate time savers everymorning. They make my eyes look made up when all I'd really done was swipe them on my lids with my fingers. It sort of has a mousse like texture but has a powder finish.

Nars Douceur. I have seen this one from Chanelette (YT Beauty Guru from Lithuania), and it just looks very dreamy on her. Now I am probably 7 shades darker than her, so on me, this colour has a very very subtle appearance.

It acts as both my contour and blush (like Mac's Blushbaby) and it is perfect for everyday wear --casual day out or work. Even with how pigmented Nars blushes are, I don't think I can overdo this shade on me. I love how it gives my face dimension and depth without the harshness or tackiness of bronzer.

Et voila. My everyday look so far. Very boring I know. Most days I like looking healthy in winter. And it's hard to get totally made up when early mornings are dark and cold. So..I hit 2 birds in one stone--sleep in time, and minimalist look which I am loving at the moment!

Sunbeam Hot Rollers. Yes, Sunbeam.

This is probably the best item I ever invested $40.00 on.

It's the Sunbeam Hot Roller set. Sunbeam isn't really a brand you would associate with beauty and personal care. It's more along the lines of el cheapo toasters, water boilers, and other small kitchen tools a uni student may use.

I'm not too obsessed with hair so I purchased the cheapest hot roller set available. I've had this for 4 years now, it's travelled and moved with me to 3 different states. And it works like a gem all the time.

The only thing I'm not too big of a fan of is the metal U-pins it comes with to secure the hair. I have really thick hair so those wires don't really do anything for me.

I use separate clamps most of the time to keep my hair in place using these rollers.

I use these rollers when I want to have abit of texture in my otherwise boring straight hair.

this is also good for turning those bad hair days around. Instead of hiding under a Fedora Hat (no matter how "in" they are these days), hide the blah with curls!

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum: Possibly THE Best drugstore foundation!

I'm so so thrilled to have discovered a new Holy Grail product.

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Gel Foundation! I've been hearing a whole lot about Bourjois, that it is the higher end on the drugstore makeup brand scale. However I never gave it a go because, well frankly, Bourjois just does not capture my attention enough whenever I see it alongside other brands like Maybelline, Rimmel, etc.

I should have known better than to be lured by the pitfalls of cosmetic merchandising. Geez where have you been all my life?

This is my first go at the Bourjois brand (the brand is an offshoot company of Chanel, so it is a little bit pricier than your normal drugstore brand..but who cares, they deliver very well).

I will go with my one and only gripe: the shade range is very poor! I think there are only 3-4 shades here in Australia, and my shade 55, is already the Darkest in the range. So if you are any darker than me, I don't know how to further recommend this foundation to you. This is the end of the road for you.

I really think it's rather poor (the shade range). As you can see, I have 2 sets of foundation and concealer. Because I mistakenly got the shade 53, thinking its a mid-range shade (as I'm always in the middle / medium range skin tone)

so 53 is to the left, and 55 to the right. there is no 54 so 53 and 55 are consecutive shades. talk about lack of gradual shading. nothing in between. 53 is way too pale for me, but perfect for my sister so I gave it to her. 55 is just perfect for me. (I'm nc35-37)

The 55 concealer (the last in the range) is abit too light for me but does a very good job in concealing acne scars and blemishes.

the product applies like a dream! I use my fingers and hands to apply...it has a semi-cream/gel texture and I can't imagine a brush doing a better job than the natural warmth of my hands letting it sink in to my skin.

This is very long lasting too. I was expecting a sort of Maybelline Fit me kind of staying power (2 hours??) but no, this lasted me the entire 8 hour work day!

Here's a cheesy photo of me with the foundation bottle strategically next to ze face . I would say this is medium coverage but very buildable.

It also has a flawless almost velvety finish

I do not have photoshop in my laptop or pc so this is totally unedited. Not saying it's perfect but if you want a good face day, Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum ..is just gold.

Basilica de Guadalupe

Hey hey it's Sunday tomorrow and Mothers' Day at that! --Happy mothers' day Zemum! I won't be celebrating Mothers Day with my mom, or any kind of mother figure as my mom and I are in different countries.

Anyway, I thought I'd share this way overdue post. This is the annoying part about travelling for such a long time. The travel posts just don't end and it's been over  a year now since I was in the US/Canada and Mexico.

Well you all know that I like getting my scrub top on when I travel, meaning I like to get down dirty and gritty--which is why I rarely travel with "girlfriends" or other girls because well, girls naturally like to hit the shops when travelling. Don't get my wrong, I LOVE doing that too! But I love exploring unusual sides of cities and places, doing lots of physical stuff. Most females I know hate doing that, my sister included, so I always end up tagging my husband along.

Anyway,  when we were in Mexico City, I wanted to check out the Basilica de Virgen de Guadalupe. When I was in school, I learned about the miracle of Guadalupe and all that stuff. I found out that the church is just like a 40 minute drive from Mexico City so off we went.

It was my lucky day because the province? or city? or Veracruz was celebrating the Virgen de Guadalupe day when we visited. There used to be just ONE day of the year to celebrate the feast of Guadalupe so , as you can guess, the WHOLE of Mexico shows up in one place (kind of like Mecca), and this resulted to stampedes, overcrowding, and sadly a number of deaths and accidents.

So what they did was assign one day for a town/city/province to celebrate the feast of Guadalupe.

So the town of Veracruz was celebrating when we went.

The grounds of the church area is so smooth and shiny--these used to be cobbled tiles, but due to the number of people flocking to the church, it had been smoothed down to a perfect shine...

Inside the church:

This actually isn't the original Basilica de Guadalupe. They had to build a new one next to it to accommodate the number of people going to church.

This is the actual original one, much smaller , and the newer one is to the left (just a fraction of it seen, the kind of circular structure) . I know my outfit is so daggy. I just literally got rid of the grey jumpsuit off from my wardrobe today. Que horror!!!

We came just before mass started. We were there for the first part of it.

Look at the number of priests in the video. Holy Moly!



Have an awesome Sunday everyone!

itsy bitsy mini beauty haul

One of my favourite places to haul beauty related items is SA Hair Nail and Beauty Supplies.
I love how discreet their location is too. I don't think a lot of people know about it so that's the joy of it--glorious beauty and cosmetics shopping in peace!

Last weekend we were walking along George St so I passed by. The "pass by" of course turned into a mini buying episode.

I got , from left to right starting from the row behind:
1. Samantha Chapman's Real Techniques Blush Brush-- I LOVE this brush! I have about 4 -5 blush brushes at hand. I keep buying because I could NEVER find one that I love. My blush brush buying will be put to a stop now. This brush is just amazing--picks up the right amount of product and deposits into the skin gradually. Also, among all my other Real Techniques brushes--this has to be my favourite next to the powder brush.  SA by the way is the official distributor of Real Techniques brushes in Sydney.
2.) Nail polish remover--I got this mainly because of the dispenser type. It's the kind that pumps the product upwards. So no spills or over saturating cotton pads. I also chose it for its "grape scent". I haven't tried it yet. Am still on the last drops of my old one.
3.) CND Cuticle Away--gel type cuticle remover. Used it 2 times now I think it's alright. There weren't any smaller bottles though so I had to contend with that huge size.
4.) Posh brand Fan brush--I already regret getting this. I have been looking for a brush to apply my highlighters with. I already have 2 mini stippling brushes for this. But no...my OC self still wants THE perfect brush for it. This is my first fan brush so I can't really compare. But I'm not happy with it. It picks up almost zero product and its just too soft to put anything noticeable. Well I guess  I will never have a problem with overdoing highlighters ..
5.) China Glaze nail polish in Ingrid- abit flat in my opinion but I did get a couple of compliments from random strangers for it. (in one day)
6.) OPI Nail polish in Warm and Fozzie --I love this! wearing it now as I type! Will do a photo swatch of it later.
7.) OPI Nail polish in A Quarter of a Cent-cherry -- love this deep red too. Ive been on the search for the perfect red nail polish. This one isn't quite it..but it comes very close.

Pardon the messy oil cuticle! OPI Quarter of a Cent-cherry. A TRUE cherry red shade. Almost maroonish, and on certain angles and lighting, almost burgundy.

Finally Certified

I did something very productive over the Easter Weekend---

I switched my hip hop clothes for an underwater wetsuit (just for the weekend anyway)

I am finally a certified open water scuba diver!!!!

I say finally because this has been on my "to do list" for the longest time (longer than bungee jump) and I can't believe it's taken me this long.

It IS a lot of effort to do it. You have to take a lot of time. And really study and work hard for it.

I went on 4 dives before becoming certified. The last 2 was at Shelley Beach in Manly.

As per usual, a video was made out of it. If you notice that the editing style is a tad different, well that's because my husband made it.

*my husband who, by the way, has been certified for the last 12 years but went through EVERY STEP all over again just for me. Yes, I know I'm spoiled but don't take it for granted*

Am sooo excited to explore the different oceans of our planet. Now planning our dive trip ;)