My Glam Bag December

After watching so many videos about Birch Box while I was in Japan, I became really curious about sample subscription services. Sadly by the time I moved back to the US, Birch Box was no longer appealing to me as it seemed like the products they were sending out were more like rejected items rather than items people would actually like to use. I recently watched a couple of videos by Michelle Phan and Andreas Choice, which spoke about this new subscription service called My Glam. I checked out the website and saw what they had planned to include in the December bag and decided to take their profile quiz and subscribe. I figured for $10 it seemed like a good deal. Here is what I got in my December Glam Bag:



*The Bag*
Its not the best beauty bag, its definitely cheaply made but for $10 its not bad. And I would rather them spend the money on what is inside, so this doesn't bother me at all!

*Mai Couture** Salicylic Acid Blemish Control blotting paper (full size) valued at $20USD*
In my quiz I had mentioned that I have oily skin and sometimes get blemishes, so I believe that is why I got these blotting sheets. I haven't tried them out yet, but will review them when I do.

*NYX Soft Matte lip cream in the color Istanbul (full size) valued at $6USD*
I just started getting into lip products so I was excited to see this, however I am not sure about the color as I think it may be too pink for my pale skin at the moment.

*Tart Lights, Camera, Action Mascara sample size*
I saw this and was excited as I had been wanting to try it out!

*Urban Decay Original Primer Potion sample*
I love this stuff and was happy to see it, even if it is in the old packaging.

*Urban Decay Eye Shadow in Sin (full Size) valued at $17USD*
One of my favorite shadows in my Naked palette, so I was glad to get this for when I run out....I am almost hitting pan!

Overall I would have to say this service is off to a great start. I hope that next months bag continues with this standard and is as much a value as December's. Has anyone else subscribed to this service? If so what did you get in your bag?

Hope you are all having a wonderful week! I hope this post starts me back on regular blog posting!

Happy November!

It's been a rough couple of months here in the city of angels! It seems as though all of my free moments have been spent either supporting my husbands career or with family. Both of these are great, but I also have come to the realization that I need some time just for me and the things I like to do. One of those being to write this blog, which has been pretty neglected lately.

So with the start of the new month, I thought I would share one of my newest changes in recent days. That change being my hair color! I'm now a brunette. For the past few months I had been playing with the idea of dying my hair dark, so this past weekend I finally decided to go for it. I used a L'Oreal cream color hair dye in dark brown. It's one that gradually fades in 28 washes, so I am able to try being a brunette for a while without committing to the color if I want to go back to blonder hair.

How do I feel about this new, dramatic, and somewhat out of my comfort-zone look? It's going to take some getting used to, but overall I am pleased with how it turned out. After being a blonder girl for at least the past six years, it's been fun experimenting with make as it now looks a bit different.

Have any of you ever tried a hair color (or anything) that was out of your comfort zone? If not what are things you would love to try, but haven't?

2011 Fashions Night Out, LA!

Last year was my first time attending the Vogue Fashion's Night Out event, I went in Tokyo and you can read about it here. I had such a wonderful time so I was very much so looking forward to this years event. It took place on September 8th this year and due to the fact that I am now living in Los Angeles, there was a plethora of places that I could go to participate in the event. I however chose to go to the Beverly Center and The Grove which are in West LA. Here are some of the pictures that my husband (bless him for being so patient) and I took of the evening.

The opening ceremony at the Beverly Center, we saw Randy Jackson and Nicole Richie there.




The fashion show that took place at the Beverly Center.


I got to meet Lauren Conrad at The Grove's Nordstrom, she was there promoting her new clothing line Paper Moon. She very sweet in person!


Some of the models from ANTM's current cycle at Express.


Some of the cute cupcakes given out at Bloomingdales.



I only purchased one this that night (despite being tempted to buy many things I wanted), I picked up a top at Banana Republic for 40% that night only.

Did anyone else participate in Fashion's Night Out this year? If so where, I would love to hear about your experience! Also if you are in Japan, you still have a chance to go as its been pushed back to 11/5/2011 this year because they want to conserve energy there.

NOTD: Essie Carry On

Hello ladies (and gentleman?), long time no blog! For the last month I have spent most of my time trying to learn the ropes at not only one new job, but two! I have to say it hasn't been easy, but I am finally feeling comfortable at both and hope that in my free time I am more motivated to blog again rather than just sleeping. Despite my absence on this blog for about a month, I have managed to acquire some new items through purchases and friends.
One of these items is this new nail polish by Essie in the color Carry On. With all of the warm weather and sunshine we are having here in Los Angeles, it is hard to believe that autumn is actually here. I don't mind the warm weather, but I wouldn't mind some cooler weather so I can breakout some of my autumn clothes and boots. I think this desire for autumn also lead me to this color polish.


Carry On is a reddish eggplant color, which at times reads brown in various lighting.
When I first applied this polish, I wasn't sure if I liked it as I am not used to seeing my nails so dark. It has since grown on me and I am looking for more darker colors to try out. I am open to suggestions if anyone has any they think I need to try out!

Was it purple or blue?!

When I last wrote about fashion I was left with the dilemma of having to chose between a purple or blue top from Target. During my shopping trip there I even asked a woman working there which color I should chose based on two pictures I snapped on my iphone, her chose helped sway my decision. I chose the purple color, so therefore Kat of Maitokatoshaberi chose correctly! Congrats Kat! I have already sent out some goodies to her, which I hope she likes. I am also considering picking up the blue shirt as well as its now on super clearance at Target and so many of you thought I chose the blue, which must mean it also looks good!

In other news I have been busy working 12 hour days with my two jobs, its funny how a person can go from having no jobs to two in such a short period of time! I have more posts planned, just need to sit down and type them out!

I hope you are all having a good Monday (or Tuesday in other parts of the world)!

WnW Dancing in the clouds

Another benefit of living stateside again is having access to drugstore brands that are affordable, one of them is Wet n Wild. I grew up with this brand, but didn't think much of them then. I would always shop the Wet n Wild area when I was looking for cheap cheap disposable makeup that I was likely only going to use once. Well times have changed and that once super cheap brand has improved its quality without having to increase their price. There are not too many brands out there that you can say that about.

I stopped into my local Rite Aid in search of a different WnW trio called The Guilded Age, but since that was nowhere to be found I noticed that they did have another more sought after trio called Dancing in the Clouds. This appears to be WnW's version of last years Urban Decay Summer of Love Palette, minus the shade to match Smog. I don't have that palette, but here is a link to Temptalia's review of it if you are curious.

Here are my swatches of Dancing in the Clouds, as you can see the purple is not very pigmented, which is a shame but for $2.99 you can't really complain too much. I have other shades of purple I could use to intensify this with if I wanted.




And here is a shot of me wearing the trio as the matching imprints in the shadows say to. I lined my eyes with Urban Decay 24/7 pencil in zero and topped them off with some fairy drops mascara. Excuse my oily face, I'm currently trying to figure out ways to combat that. If you have suggests, please comment me with them! It's like an oil slick these days!

Take me out to the ballgame!

One of the things I used to do a lot as a child and before I moved to Japan was go to baseball games. I think this had something to do with the fact that my grandmother was a HUGE fan of both baseball and football and my parents were both employed at the local baseball stadium in San Diego at one point while I was growing up. I remember fondly going to games with my grandmother and brother and then visiting my mother who was working at the game. As a adult baseball games became even more of a social thing when you introduced beer into the picture. During university I would go to Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants games then.

Fast-forward to now, this is honestly the first time I have ever lived in Los Angeles and so I had not much experience with the local ball teams here. The only thing I really know is that they have a national league team; the Dodgers and an american league team; the Angels. Though I never really considered the Angels to be an LA team, but more of one from Orange County as Anaheim is in that area. We got free tickets to go to a game and decided to make use of them recently.

Here are some pictures from our experience, sadly the Angels lost but it was a nice experience.



Shots of the field before the game started.

Can you find the Angels logo?

I'm not sure I if I have become an Angels fan, but at least I have a shirt to wear if I do, lol.
I do enjoy baseball, but I can't wait for ice hockey season to start. Do you have any sports you enjoy watching?

Love is in the air

I have come to notice that living in the USA again has its perks but also at times has some minuses. One of those perks is being able to stop into all of my favorite shops anytime I want and not paying a small fortune. This is of course dangerous as at the moment I am not as gainfully employed as I would like to be.

This being said Mr. S and I stopped into Bath and Body Works together last week as we were trying to kill time before seeing Rise of the Planet of the Apes. We hadn't planned on purchasing anything, but I noticed that they had their pocketback holders in stock again and at $0.50 you really can't go wrong. We use the pocket backs religiously here as most places don't give you oshiboris (hot/cold hand towels).

While paying for my purchase, I saw they had their newest scent mini lotion on sale for $1.00! At that price I couldn't help but pick one up.

The Bath and Body works website notes that the keynotes in this are french tulips, apple blossoms, and pink champagne.

I really like the scent, while it is one of the sweeter ones in their line its not so much that you are bowled over by it. Its a young, but not too young fresh scent. Its much more a summer and spring scent to me.

I would repurchase this again at some point, but I am more likely to try out something new beforehand as I like using different scents.

What are some of your favorite scents? I would love to check out some new ones.

The one where she went to work

When I was in high school and university, Friends was my favorite television shows and to this day I still watch it when I can.(Which is technically anytime I want as I own the whole series on DVD, lol) There was just something about the chemistry of all the actors and how they came together to create a very quirky and believe group of friends. I think we all hope to have a great group of friends like that in our lives. That being said you can now guess where I got my inspiration for the title of this post.

After having lived in Japan for so long, I have come to associate the color black with both business and death. I was once told that if you wear lots of black to work it means you are professional. So as it was one of my last regularly scheduled teaching days I figured to black-it-up! I was also anxious to wear my new black capris that I was able to pick up at sale price with an additional 30% off that price making them a steal! Excuse my face in the picture, it was EARLY (before work) and I had asked Mr. S to take the picture, can you tell I am not much of a morning person?


top:Lands End Canvas, capris: Target, shoes: Aerosoles ( I later changes into some pumps at work), bag: Faux Wang from ebay

What are some colors you associate with work attire?

On a side note sorry my posts have been more clothing and less beauty as of late, I have some beauty posts in the works.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Hey baby its hot outside..

One of my favorite winter songs is Hey Baby It's Cold Outside, which lead me to think would it be possible to come up with a song about it being hot outside as well? I imagine it would have lyrics about air conditioners, swimming pools, and splashing about on the beach, those are all things one does when it is hot outside right?

It's moving in to the hotter part of summer here in Los Angeles and so I have been making the most of it by wearing my shorts and tanks as much as I can before fall comes rolling in. Although thats not a bad things to me as I love fall fashion and can't wait to try on boots and jumpers when its not around 90F (32C) outside!

Anyway here is my OOTD, for when its hot outside.



top and cardigan: target, shorts: gap (very old!), shoes: Dolce Vita

What do you wear when its hot outside?

Make it blue...no make it purple?

It is really already mid-August? Time is certainly flying by this summer! I apologize for my lack of blogging recently, a lot has been going on here and my motivation to write has been pretty low. But as you can see I am back in action which is a good sign, because yes things are looking up.

The other day I popped into Target after a job interview and found a top that I had been interested in was now on clearance, that plus the $3 off coupon I had for being a Target mobile member made the price much more affordable given my current income. The question after realizing that I could in fact buy the shirt was which color to choose, there were four total (purple, blue, grey, and green) but after narrowing it down I had two to chose between.


Purple


blue


So as an interesting little blog game I give you pictures of me in both colors, purple and blue. Which do you think I chose?
One of the people who guesses correctly will me drawn at random and be sent a nice little surprise from me.

When enuf is really enuf!

With the summer weather now in full swing here in Los Angeles, I have been trying out more vibrant colors for my toes. This week I am using Essie's Enuf is Enuf, which is a reddish coral color. I do like this color, but I think there are probably many dupes that are cheaper than the Essie price tag to be had.

You will have to excuse my shoddy job here, I took this picture just after I had painted them and hadn't cleaned them up yet.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

A nice day for a...white wedding!

Happy August everyone, time sure does fly by fast doesn't it?

Two weeks ago the last of the cousins who are of marriage age got married, so my husband and I drove up to San Luis Obispo for the event. It was held at the Flying Caballos Ranch. As expected it was a lovely wedding followed by a fabulous reception. I have to say my cousin and her new husband sure know how to throw a party!

For the wedding I wore the Horkelia Shift dress, that I previously mentioned in this post. I styled it with a gold necklace that I layered, some gold teardrop earrings that I made, and some gold heels that I have had for years.

I couldn't find anything that looked like these that either a)didn't cost a fortune or b) didn't look cheap...so as I am crafty I made my own! I have enough parts to make even more though lol. Here is a closeup of my work.



As for my makeup I went towards shades of gold, brown, bronze, and rust.
e/s yaby shadows I purchased at IMATS.
MAC antiqued
MAC satin taupe
top liner MAC teddy
bottom liner milani gold liner
lashes fairy drops lash film type

lips revlon lip stain
cheeks MAC otherworldly
NARS orgasm

Unfortunately not many nice pictures of me were taken (meaning without me pulling some kind of funny face), so I leave you with a nice shot of me and my husband partaking in some wine after the ceremony.

More fun from the fitting rooms & an OOTD

Apparently I am a glutton for punishment, the reason I say this is because at the moment I can't spend any money but I still go to to some of my favorite stores like Anthropologie and try things on. I tell myself its in the name of research and to stalk items till they go on sale.

Anyway here are a few things I tried on that I loved and some that I think in the end I will pass on. Forgive me for my silly faces, I am honestly no good at taking pictures of myself with my iphone in fitting rooms lol.

After my last post I tried the Expanding Universe top on again and had a change of heart. My father sent me one in navy for my birthday so I tried on the red one today just to make sure I liked the navy over the red. As I expected, the blue was definitely more for me. I do like the red though.



This next item is something I have seem on many blogs, its the lunar cycles top. I avoided trying this on because the feel of the material is pretty rough and stiff to the touch. I have to say thankfully it is softer on than on the hanger, though I am not sure it is for me. I felt that in ways it makes me look pregnant, so I will have to pass on this one.



After checking out the sale area I came across a Loosened Shelby Blouse. I actually liked it and liked the fact that I could wear it in such a smaller size. Though I do believe the next size smaller would have been a perfect fit, sadly they didn't have one I could try on. I also decided to try on the green jeans I love so much again, I think they look good in this outfit. If they were only cheaper!



The last item I tried on is called the gathering tee, it appealed to me as it is a basic but has style. I think if I were to buy this one I would size up and probably pass on the white version as it is pretty shear. They have this in a plethora of beautiful colors.



And finally I leave you with my outfit of the day! I am wearing absolutely no makeup *gasp*, but I am loving it. I have been giving my skin a break over the weekends and since its been warmer I haven't been as motivated to put on a full face.


shirt: Anthropologie Brickwork Tee
pants: the gap Broken-in skimmer crops on super clearance $6.50!
shoes: blowfish
watch: Michael Kors

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I survived carmageddon and got to see an excellent soccer game on tv, congrats to the ladies of Japan!

Blogger Love from Nic Nic

When I was in Japan I was fortunate enough to meet upwith NicNic who writes the blog Bangbangsheshoots. Just before I left we had lunch a few times, I suspect if the earthquake had not happened we would have met up more....but such is life. Like many other bloggers who have met her or hung out with her, I can tell you she is great. I am happy to have her as a friend. At our last meetup she mentioned she had something she wanted to give me but had forgotten it so she sent it to me here in Los Angeles. I just got it this past week and it was such a sweet surprise!

I think she was able to key into my love for bath with all of the Lush posted that I have put here and so its full of lovely Japanese bath goodies. The larger bag includes a bath pillow and bath salts and fizzers that smell like cherry blossom. The smaller package includes two bath fizzers in the shapes of Macaroons, they smell lovely as well.
I look forward to using all of these, especially as they are scents I can't find here easily in the US.
Thank you so much NicNic!

Fashion : Anthropologie items; lust or bust?

After working my part-time job today I stopped into the mall across from where I am working and tried on a couple of items at Anthropologie that I have been lusting over. When I first saw the Expanding Universe top online I was in love. It had the perfect qwerky but fun fashion that I like. I paired it with the AG Stevie Ankle pants in green. I was inspired to try these on after reading this post on the blog Square Peg for Anthro.





I had never tried on any jeans from AG and ended up really liking these, I just wish the price tag wasn't so high! Sadly the item which I had really been lusting over (expanding universe top) didn't really impress me too much, the colors looked nice but the fit was all wrong. It left me feeling that my chest was lopsided and thus not flattering at all.

What do you think of the green jeans? Would you buy them if you were me? I have also been considering them in red too.

My IMATS LA experience and a little haul

Happy belated 4th of July! Sorry it took me a while to post this, things got a bit busier here in LA after I went to IMATS as my husband finally arrived in the US.

I was lucky enough to attend IMATS in LA this year, after watching videos about it last year I was determined to experience it at least once.

I got there at about 10:30am as I wanted to make sure I would have time to see all that I wanted in case there were lines to get in. Amazingly enough I didn't wait more than five minutes before I was in the door. I think getting there early was a good move in that later on in the day the booths got much busier and items started to sell out. At about noon I met up with Jamie of Maquilagem Masstige and her friend Kat. It was really nice meeting them and we had a lot of fun going around the place together. One could easily spend a lot of money there and I was lucky that I stuck to my budget.




Here is what I got:
6 Yaby eye shadows
2 Yaby corrector concealers
2 MAC eye shadows in Print and Antiqued
1 Z-palette
1 3 eye shadow freedom palette from Inglot with 2 green shades and a highligher (I chose the colors)
1 Stila convertible color in lillium
1 Stila long wear lip color in coquette
2 Hakuhodo eye shadow brushes
1 Sigma E25 (free sample)

Overall I think IMATS was a great and fun experience, I made a couple of new friends and was able to see and try more make up than ever before.

Here are some more photos from the event.








Hope you are all having a wonderful week!

Travel: Legoland in Carlsbad

The week after I arrived back in the US, a couple of my friends and their children from San Francisco came down to LA and SD to hit up some of the local theme parks. I couldn't go to Disneyland with them since I already had plans that weekend, but I was able to go to Legoland in Carlsbad for the first time.

When I got there I had really no idea of what to expect, except for the fact that there would likely be LOTS of legos. I was not too far off, in addition to legos there were rides based on the various genres of lego and a special Star Wars themed area.

One of my friends has two sons and they absolutely love Star Wars so it was really fun to watch them get so excited to see the special event area. I have to admit I thought it was pretty darn cool too!

While its no Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland definitely has appeal. I would probably wait to go there again till when I have children of my own though.

Here are a couple of pictures I took with my iPhone from my trip there, don't the Star Wars things look cool!?

Duty Free shopping and a last minute splurge

I had always had a minor interest in Shu Uemura products, but since I already had everything I "need" in my make-up stash and we were saving money I never really looked into the brand while I was living in Japan. I have to say I sorely regret it, I do love my MAC products but there are some really lovely Shu Uemura ones as well.

What prompted me to stop by the nearby Shu Uemura shop in Shibuya was a chat I had over lunch with Nic Nic about concealers. I was using MAC studio sculpt at the time and was looking for something new as I was never really "wow'd" by it. She suggested I look into the Shu Uemura ones. I dropped by the Shu Uemura counter in Tokyu department store in Shibuya that same week. I knew I could probably purchase what I wanted in duty free, but since it was concealer I really wanted to check out the products and make sure I could get a color that matched my skin. I asked the girl there which was the easiest one to use (I am somewhat lazy at times) and provided the most coverage for under-eye circles and redness around my nose. She introduced me to this doubled-sided concealer crayon. I tried it that day and was so happy with the coverage and results there that I couldn't not buy it. It was a bit more than what it is listed on the Shu Uemura USA website, but it was worth it to me. In addition this particular concealer was not in the duty free at Narita so I was glad I bought it when I did. This was my last minute I am leaving Japan splurge cosmetic item.




Speaking of duty free I did find the Shu Uemura items there and picked up the following palette. I liked the natural and pink shades and felt it matched my skin better than the other palette they had in duty free. I tried looking up this palette online, but I believe it is sold exclusively for duty free and wasn't able to find a link for it.

So without further ado, here is my face of the day using my new Shu Uemura products.

face:
Missha Perfect Cover BB Cream in #21
Shu Uemura cover crayon in 9YRL/5YRM
Shu Uemura blush from the travel palette
Shu Uemura palette blush
MAC Otherworldly blush



eyes:
Can Make eye shadow base
MAC Naked Lunch
Shu Uemura shadows from the travel palette (tan for highlight/pink for lid/taupe for the crease)
MAC Lord it Up liner
Fairy Drops Mascara film type (from Japan)

brows: Revlon brow pencil in dark brown

lips: Smiths Rosebud Salve



In other words, tomorrow is the big day for me....IMATS and then Monday my husband finally arrives in LA!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!