November 27, 2012

2012 November Ipsy/ MyGlam Bag Review

This is my second month with Ipsy and I have never been excited on what will come the next month, and the next, and the next! There's just so much make-up for the price of $10! 
*They started this month to ship to Canada, and I think they get theirs at $15/month which is still a bargain for the sample products in the bag!
Ipsy made it very interactive with its Ipsy members by giving you your own profile at their site: ipsy.com. There you will find Challenges that is related to what you received in your bag for the month. Every month are different challenges that can win you more beauty products! It really brings out the make-up fiend in you! 
I am no make-up pro but I recently just started building my make-up collection and learning a few tricks that I have learned from my fave beauty gurus on Youtube. And Ipsy is the place where I get to share and find tips and tricks on make-up, nails, hair and whatevers in trend with other Ipsy members! 
I can sum up Ipsy as the place for Make-up/ Beauty Lovers! Everybody here is encouraged to show their own style and their individual beauty.
On to this month's beauty bag! They themed this month's "Party Perfect", which was great timing since I had a wedding party to attend to during the Thanksgiving weekend, and this bag was very handy. I left the brown bag at home since it looked cheaply made, but it's good to store my lips in my drawer!

Chella Defining Eyebrow Gel: OMG! There is such a big difference with a brow that isn't defined and filled in, and a brow that is well groomed! I have noticed on my pictures how my eyebrows looked great and  just picture perfect! This clear gel did an awesome job keeping my bushy eyebrows in place all night. This is defnitely one step I would not miss when I go get ready for a night or day out!

For the wedding, I went for a "retro-glam" Look. With my perfect groomed eyebrows I just went for a simple cat-eye and a touch of smokey eye. With the help of. . .
TheBalm Meet Matt(e) sample eyeshadow in "Matt Batali": which was a dark gray shade, it helped me capture that smokey matte eye look which I didn't want to be overpowering since I wanted my lips to stand out that night. This sample came in a cute little case that has a magnetic closure just like how their palettes come! This is great to have when travelling or just need a touch-up so it's good for the make-up bag!

Starlet Intense Eyeliner in Black: Came in handy when I was tight lining my upper and lower water lines. This was also great to do a subtle smoke on the eyes. Just draw a line on the upper lid and smudge, and whatevers left on the brush can be smudged on the bottom part of the eyes!  

To finish my look for the night, I went for the Dark Red Lips, which is the trend for the Fall. I have always been a fan of dark red lips since I have dark pigmented lips the nude or pink lipsticks don't look good on me. With my tan complexion, a dark red lips looks more natural for me. Plus it makes me look more glammed and sophisticated =) After putting my favorite lip product of the moment: Revlon Just Bitten Kissable in Crush, I added the. . .
bareMinerals Marvelous Moxie Lipgloss in Daredevil: This leaves a slight tint of that dark red on your lips. And the shine was just perfect to help my lips stand out on my look. I'm never a fan of lip glosses because of the tacky feel to them but you don't get that with this lip product. It actually leaves a minty or cooling effect on my lips which I loved. Throughout the night though, I had to retouch my lips since it is not long lasting. 


Unfortunately, most of the pictures that night were all taken under a dimmed lit room, my make-up doesn't show well =( The best one I found is this: 
 *not the most flattering angle but im loving my eyebrows here and my lips* this is my first time trying out this night out look and i'm loving it! 
Last thing in the bag was a Nailtini Nail Lacquer in Millionaire: I love this polish! It's my first glitter polish! This had mostly gold little tinsels in it, with a few red and teal ones. It's like a New Year's Eve confetti in a bottle! It was  overwhelming to see all my nails on glitter so I came up with this look to help me transition to an all-glittered nails =) I just added some oomph to my favorite polka dot nail look by dotting some of this polish right in the middle of the big dots and add small dots all around the nail. Top coat is your friend here to keep the look last longer.




Overall, I love this bag! These products are so versatile, I can use them with my everyday look; use them when I go travel; use for touch-ups for a day-to-night look or give my look a little glitter or "oomph" if I'm feeling bold and daring that day. 

I forgot to mention with every Ipsy monthly bag, they include a card with discount codes on the products from that month if you are interested to purchase full size of those products. I unfortunately threw out my card already but if you click on the product names above it should take you to the Ipsy page where they have the discount codes, and I will try to do this with every blog review of my Ipsy bags from now on so you can all check out the discount codes if you're interested in purchasing one! "Sharing is caring!" I am not sure how long the discounts are since I haven't really tried to purchase one yet. I am very satisfied with my samples that I have been receiving that's why I haven't really bought any full sized products of these great brands! *I do regret not getting the full Meet Matt(e) Palette but I'm over it! 


November 23, 2012

Coastal.Com Website Review

So I have read about Coastal.com from MarieClaire@Work magazine. It said that your first pair of glasses from their site is free! So I had to check it out. At first I thought, there has to be a catch so I better read the fine lines, FAQs..everything! Just to make sure I do only be paying the shipping & handling.I also looked online for reviews about this website and see how legit this is.
Of course MarieClaire will not publish a company that is not truly legit so that was one factor that helped a little bit for me to trust Coastal. And after reading reviews online and watching videos on youtube about Coastal.com, which were mostly great reviews; very satisfied customers with their nice looking glasses, I went online myself and started shopping for a pair of cat eye shaped glasses.
Unfortunately the free pair excludes their Luxury brand models which I don't care much. I really have nothing to lose getting a free pair since I still have my year old glasses working well right now. So I went with the Derek Cardigans 7005 Brown TortoiseShell glasses which I'm so excited to get since it got good reviews and the pictures look so cute! At check out after putting in the offer code, I only did ended up paying the s&h, tax and the Coating Bundle ($19.95), totaling to only ~$40! Very cheap compared to my $100+ RayBan glasses now!
I ordered on a Monday. two days later I received an email from Coastal that they have upgraded my shipping to Fedex and I should be receiving my glasses by Friday! Now I couldn't wait for the end of the week to come! Friday came, waited all day at home for the Fedex guy and I got nothing! Checked the tracking number and my package is still on Clearance Delay! I thought the site was not just updated and it will come but nothing came! First thing I did Monday was to speak to Coastal. I first went on their online chat assistance and she told me the same thing that my package is on clearance delay and they have no idea when it will be delivered since it's all in the hands of the FDA now. *Not a really good answer
I decided to just keep waiting and maybe it will come sometime that week and still nothing came. I have been checking their Facebook to see if I'm the only one affected by this "Clearance Delay" dilemma and it looks like a lot of their customers who ordered the same time I did are all in the same boat!
Coastal did acknowledge the problem and posted on their Facebook that they are trying to handle everything as much as they can and asking for everyone's patience. Another week gone by (week#3 of waiting) and customers are losing their patience. Their facebook page became a wall of complains and unhappy customers. By this time, I have written a facebook message to them and an email in regards to my eye glasses!
Week#4 of waiting I see they have posted on their Facebook that they will re-producing the orders that were held by the FDA and customers should be receiving them by the end of the week or the next. Instead of getting that good news of an email, mine says how they have ran out of the Derek Cardigans 7005 and I will need to pick a different pair with no additional cost at all, Luxury brand or not. I still wanted a cat-eye shaped glasses so I went for Love L740 in Black Passion. The person I spoke to over the phone made sure she will put this order right away to their lab so I will get it immediately. This was two weeks ago.
Last week I emailed them to get an update on my new order and they gave me a USPS tracking number. I received all of my other packages I have ordered from other online sites and they used USPS too. I see the updates from those packages but nothing from Coastals USPS tracking number. At this point I felt I was being scammed. I already have asked to refund my shipping because of all this ridiculousness but tricking me with a USPS tracking number is just beyond stupidity in their part! I complained and emailed and Facebook messaged them, and they have assured me they will be giving me a full refund.
My refund has been processed and yet still no glasses. I received another email last week telling me how they had to resubmit my new order of L740 to their lab since there was a problem again with the shipping that it is being held in customs again! I'm not sure if to believe this anymore, I am tired of hearing the "Customs" excuse as I call it since it shouldn't be this difficult to ship one pair of glasses from Canada to the US! He goes to write the new glasses has been shipped via Airmail, that has no tracking number and I should get it in 6-10 days. Does that sound like another lie to you? It does to me! I am on day 9 of waiting and still nothing. I chatted with their chat assistance and she goes it should be here by nov.28, that's another week from now! That's already two weeks of waiting if it was truly shipped on the 14th.
This time it would be a miracle if my mailman comes and deliver me a box from Coastal.com since I believe I just have been dropped by the company since I already got my full money back. This is not about the money anymore but the principal! I gave you my patience which was slowly diminishing as the end of the year is right around the corner and you can't even mail one pair of glasses out of Canada! We have ordered other stuff from other sites that came from Canada and it did not take this long for them to deliver it to us! Your company obviously needs an overhaul since this is one huge mistake you cannot take out on Customs. You have kept my hopes up and I expected to be treated better than this.

November 13, 2012

luv d cat eye look, hate d work

i am such a noob in the make-up department. For the past 28 years (i'm 30 now), all i wore was a lip balm or a lip gloss and a little bit of eyeshadow and mascara.
Not until two years ago I got introduced to Youtube (YT). I couldn't help but admire my girl friend's makeup one lunch date, that's when she told me she learned to put make-up on from watching Youtube! I never browsed YT before that and all I know of the site is it has some hilarious home videos. I never thought it would teach me how to get a flawless face! Well almost flawless.
This is when I started making notes of my make-up shopping list since I have a lot to catch up on! Foundation, Concealers, Blush, Lipsticks and make-up brushes! OMG! Did you know there are tons of different make-up brushes for different areas of the face?!? It's overwhelming and I felt very behind. I felt pretty down after watching tons of beauty gurus that are probably years younger than me, showing me how to put on foundation, contouring and all that! I also felt sad for them since they have put all this stuff on their face before heading out of their door. After watching thousand more videos and applying this to myself, I slowly understand why these girls have to put on make-up, and help noobs like me how to properly put it on. For me, it helps my confidence because I know the make-up I had put on is not to hide myself from all the pretty colors of the palette but it is to accentuate what is already there! I never thought my big round eyes will ever be my best feature.
And this is where my eyeliner obsession started! At first I didn't like it because it just made my eyes bigger and rounder, but as I learn it is how I put it on that makes a difference! And then I got introduced to the cat-eye look! So this is when the search for the right eyeliner to perfect that wing began...Did you know there are different kinds out there?!? Gel, pencil, liquid, felt pen and basic black eyeshadow!!! I do have one of each in my make-up collection except for a liquid liner but my favorite is the gel liner method. I have more control with the brush in how I want to put it on, either thick or thin. For my everyday wear I make it thin and thicker in the end then a small wing. For night, since I suck at smokey eye make-up, I do a thicker line and a longer wing which looks great with or without glasses actually!
Recently I have added the liquid liner in my collection and still iffy about it. I have theBalm Schwing liquid liner and just the word liquid alone intimidates me! I was not sure how to put it on. Do I use the same method as how I put my gel liner OR do I pretend this is a pen liner since it has a really fine tip that should basically would just glide. Most of the Beauty Gurus on Youtube seems to prefer liquid liners and they make it look so easy using it, but on my first try...well, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that great as how I would like compared to my gel. Maybe it is just me too since I am so used to the gel and have only given the liquid liner a few tries.
I have been practicing though, and it still not as perfect as I would like, but hey I have a whole liner I can use and just keep practicing until I perfect this liquid liner! I would really like to love this product and hopefully cut the time in my make-up routine too since I see it suppose to be faster to put on than the gel!


this first picture was done with theBalm Schwing eyeliner. As you can see, it's not that clean looking. I still have to perfect the use of liquid liner here.

this second one was done with my new fave liner! Be A Bombshell eyeliner - I got this product from my October Ipsy bag and this felt tip liquid liner is amazing! It has a fine felt tip perfect to draw that wing. I outline first with an eyeshadow and then trace it with this eyeliner and voila! It's cleaner looking than with the Schwing.