Monday, May 25, 2015

~Skincare Review: My Beauty Diary-Royal Jelly Mask~

Last time I posted a review for the Lululun Premium Face Masks, and for some reason a lot of people were interested in that post! So I'm back with another late night blog post to review the My Beauty Diary (MBD) Royal Jelly Mask! I've heard a lot of great things about MBD and yet this is my first time trying it out! I just bought the pack a few hours ago from Uwajimaya in the beauty section. I finally caved in for these masks because I wanted to see if it would work to lighten some of my acne scars since my acne has been clearing lately! I don't actually know if it's because of the new foundation I'm using (Pur Minerals) or new face wash I'm using (CeraVe for oily/normal skin). But either way I'm liking the current results! Now if I can just get my skin to be soft and even toned I'll be happy ^.^ That's why I'm trying out these masks :3 SOOO without further ado, here's the review! Heehee that rhymes :D

***Warning, lots of shots of my face in this post, once again!! LOL***

Heres what the box of masks look like:


I wanted to try the Royal Jelly "flavor" (I guess? haha) because the box claimed it would help with brightening and repairing. Usually with masks the instructions recommend you use it once a week for best results, sometimes even once a day if they're light essence masks. This mask recommends you use it 2-3 times per week! With these I'm going to try to use them at least once a week or at least once every other week to see if they really are working, knowing that not following the box recommendations means I won't get immediate results. BUT! I'm willing to take that chance anyways. Hahaha~

The box comes with 10 masks total, so if you used as directed it would take you about ten weeks if you used it twice per week (see? I can do simple math at least! heh)

Here's what one pack looks like. Inside there is one mask. 
Back of the mask package is in Japanese. There are instructions in  English on the side of the box!

Side and front views of my face right when I got home (with make-up on!):




Front/side view after removing make-up with Clinique make-up removing oil and washing face with CeraVe for oily/normal skin:




Aaaaand now it's mask application time!! >:D I made a video for this one! heheheh~ This one comes with a top layer for easy unwrapping and placement so you just put the cloth side down on your face, pat it on and peel the plastic-y top layer off and adjust to fit your face! (Yay I remembered to upload the video more than a month later LOL!!)



And then what I like to do after putting it on is pat the essence (what the masks are soaked in!) into my skin using my fingertips like it says on the box~ I rub the rest of the essence in the pack on my neck as well! ^___^

Scary!! @__@

*pat pat pat*
And now I just leave it on for 20-30 minutes! Or until I can't stand it anymore/it's dried up!

HAHAHA my next post should be a tutorial for how I brush my teeth ;D Jk jk
Front and side views after ~35 minutes!





So far I really like these masks because they seem to contain a lot of essence (not all masks are like that!) and the quality of the mask itself is sturdy and fits on my face quite nicely. The scent is also nice and light. It kind of has a faint honey/floral scent but I could only really smell it when I first put it on, after that I didn't notice it at all! So if you aren't into perfumey masks, this one seems quite natural and not overbearing ^.^ As always, you can't tell whether a mask worked or not after one use, so I'll try my best to keep this updated to let you guys know if it's working or not! :D Though my pores tingle (in a nice, refreshing way) when I have this mask on if that's a testament as to whether it's effective? UwU I'll say it is hahaha~

TL;DR: 8/10 so far! That's actually quite a good overall score, taking into account this is my first time using it and I haven't seen any dramatic effects yet!
~Essence: 8/10 Does it work? Maybe! Gotta use it more often. But it has a nice smooth texture and light scent.
~Mask: 9/10 Pretty easy to put on if you've used masks like these before. Nice and soft and fits my face nicely, doesn't dry up too quickly and doesn't just slide right off my face! Still a little weird around the cupid's bow area though >.<

Thanks so much for reading through this post everyone!! I know I'm just trying to make up for not posting for almost three weeks straight but if you like these posts and think they're helpful that's all that matters! hahaha

xoxoxo
Abby ^3^

Sunday, May 24, 2015

~Lifestyle Update: Seattle Shenanigans and my Besties are Back!~ (Long Post)

Shameless selfie from my Instagram to start out my life update post lolol~

Hello lovelies!! I'm sorry It's been forever since I've posted but finals are creeping up and I'm just trying to make these last few weeks of the quarter count as I near the end of my first year at Uni!! AHHH! I can't believe I've been blogging (although not all that consistently heehee) for almost half a year~ I'll do a proper reader appreciation post in June probably but for now I just want to say thank you to all the amazing readers who have been visiting my blog!!! I really appreciate it and this is the most successful "journaling"attempt I've had in my life so far hahaha. Anyways, I'd also like to take this time to tell you about some fun things I've been up to this past week! This is mostly a filler post so you guys know I'm still dedicated to this blog and will be posting A TON over the summer! Weeeellll at least, that's the plan! :D So without further ado, here's what I've been doing ^___^

This lil' project I did for my besties actually happened about a month ago, but I didn't want to post about it until after I gave them the surprise! Hahaha~ It started out by me asking about what everyone liked on their pizza:



Then I broke out the beloved polymer clay and got makin'! It's silly how they all like similar pizzas (pineapple galore!!) but at least pineapple is relatively easy to make hahaha.



And of course they all fit together like friendship charms! You know hard difficult it is to find a nine person friendship charm?! It's great because we all love pizza :D Other ideas for large group bestie charms could be: pancake stacks (stack em' on top of one another, everyone has their own batter preference I guess? Lol), cake slices, pie slices, puzzle pieces, etc. There are actually quite a few things you could do for friendship charms! They don't even have to fit together, they could even just be matchy like Monopoly piece charms, Scrabble initial tiles, astrology signs ^.^ just to name a few. But bestie charms are definitely the perfect way to connect with your friends in a meaningful way, especially if everyone is all over the place like our group!




Another thing I did this past week was go to my younger sister's Honor Society induction (so proud :,-D) But I don't really want to post pictures of that, as a great of a day as it was.

I just realized I'm an outfit repeater (if you saw one of my last posts lolol oops) #noshame


We grabbed some yummy food in the International District (China Town) at a place called Fortuna(?). A simple little cafe style eatery. I ordered the chicken curry :P

Yummy~
One of the other highlights of my week, however, was going on a field trip for my geology 101 class to the Laser Dome at the Pacific Science Center!

To get there I took the Monorail from Westlake, which is always exciting because I don't take it often enough! Pardon the shakiness and the grainy quality, all these pictures and videos are from my phone :3



From the Monorail I browsed Seattle Center including the Space Needle in all it's glory *__*. Despite living here my entire life I have NEVER been up the Space Needle! I hope that changes over the summer! :D

It was so nice that day <3 

AHHH CHIN SHOT!! DELETE IT DELETE IT AHHHH! lolol

Tryin' to be cute in front of the EMP.

OH and this right here was super cool. These are the solar power energy Giant Flower art pieces next to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Sculpture place! Super cool to see in the day time and apparently they light up at night! I wanted to stay later to see that but I didn't want to walk home from the bus stop in the dark haha.


It's an interactive art piece so when you go up next to the flowers they sort of "sing". And according to the artist, the bands on the stems of the flowers are some sort of code that can be deciphered by inquisitive spectators. I have yet to figure it out! So cool!

For our field trip we watched a private screening of a documentary-ish type movie called volcanoes of the deep sea. And it was so cool to watch in the Laser Dome with the huge speakers and everything! I want to go back to watch one of their actual laser shows @__@



Here's a really dark and shoddy video of what it looked like inside the Dome, kind of. It was super dark in there ok? lol

I also want to go back to browse the Pacific Science Center itself ^.^ It's such a cool place! SOOO many cool things going on around Seattle Center. Definitely check it out if you're around this area!





I didn't wanna go up the Space Needle solo that day (though now I'm regretting not taking the opportunity and being spontaneous lol) but I did go inside the base of the Needle where the gift shop is~ hahaha

My shenanigans~ I wish my phone had a front cam so I wouldn't look as derpy in these photos >.< hahaha.

And last but not least I hung out with my BFFs on a Friday night (whoop whoop!) to see Pitch Perfect 2! We also ate IHop for dinner which was a nice lil' bonus :3 It was a crazy night and some odd things happened...But for the most part we had a great time and it was the best thing ever to see my girlies again!! <3 I missed them all soooo much :,D Going to separate colleges can be tough, but it makes our time spent together all the more memorable!

Pre-movie at IHop ^__^ 

Thank goodness my ladies are selfie/selfwe takers because I never take pictures of when we hang out >,< and it's a shame but I always get so caught up in the moment that I forget to do it! Hahaha

Post movie: it was already midnight and people had work tomorrow LOLOL I hadn't been out with friends past midnight since prom of senior year :,-D Good times.
Thanks so much for taking the time to catch up with my life cutie pies! Hopefully I can get through these next few weeks and finals, and then SUMMMERR VAY-CAY!! WOO! *soon* Hope you guys are doing great too!

xoxo Abby <3

***BONUS ROUND!! I actually did stuff on Memorial Day Monday when I thought I was just going to be cleaning and studying and stuff...BUT!! My parents were actually willing to take us to China Town and do a bit of browsing! YEEE! So here's a bit of that:

DELICIOUS AHHH~
 We got bibimbap from Shilla inside Uwajimaya in the International District. I believe I talked a bit about Uwaji in a previous post (though I can't recall which one at the moment heh oops) It's basically a large Asian grocery focused market located int the ID of Seattle :3 Love it there. The food court is AMAZING~ And the service is terrific ^.^

I want more :F

Also managed to pick up some other lil' goodies besides groceries! I don't know if you guys know about my obsession with keychains. My obsession list probably goes: 1.) Bags/purses (especially the ones that come "free" with Japanese magazines) 2.) Keychains/charms 3.) ALL THE SHOES.

Ampanman apple man toy, Aikatsu! (I think?) stamp/keychain charm, and Hello Kitty re-ment phone strap charm <3__<3 The HK one was a surprise pack! I got the pudding one :3 would've been happy with any one of them though! YAYY!


I did a review on the My Beauty Diary Masks I picked up from there too so check it out if you want! :D




Hope you guys had a great Memorial Day weekend as well!


Friday, May 8, 2015

~Beauty Review: Pur Minerals Liquid Veil 4-in-1 Spray Foundation~

Hello everyone! Is it Friday already?! Wow time flies by so fast (especially when you have exams to study for huhuhu U__U) Today I have a review for this foundation I just recently discovered at Ulta.

Pur Minerals Liquid Veil Foundation $39 at Ulta and Pur Minerals Complexion Authority brush $23 *shudders*


I didn't look into this product at all and when we went into Ulta I was trying to get my mom to look around and hint at something for Mother's Day. *sigh* Of course what ended up happening was we went into the Benefit section with my mom asking what I want for my birthday (a WHOLE MONTH away mind you, oh mom) and then one of the people who worked there asked if we needed any help and my mom told them I was looking for foundation (which I did tell her I needed before I got the Calypso one at Uwaji, I don't think she remembered I got that one lol) and so they started recommending things from the Pur Minerals section. I dunno if that was a product they were just really trying to sell that day because a bunch of the sales associates were in the Pur Minerals section having people try on this brand. But the person who was helping us did say it was good for sensitive skin (which I have) and so I was like sure, I'll try it. About 95% of the time I get makeup products because they look cool or have cute packaging or something. This time I actually got it because I thought it made my skin look nice hahaha. Today is my first day actually trying it's ability to withstand my oily, sweaty skin ^.^ Perfect sunny day in the U-district!

**Hint: TL;DR at the bottom of the post if you just want and overview and scroll through the pictures! ^.^**

Here's how I got this stuff on this morning!


First I shook the can and sprayed in onto this brush (side note: I don't know anything about make up brushes, please bear with me here for now hahaha) Here ^^ is what it looks like on the brush. I took this with my phone camera so it comes off as a LOT more orange in this pic, and the brush makes it look orange as well but it really isn't orange at all!

Face with sunscreen and primer only ^.^ Also, look at this super adorable dress I got from Buffalo Exchange on the Ave! I might just have to do an Adventure Post for this shop it's AMAZINGGG! (ooo did I just hint at a possible new blog post segment? ;D heehee) It has CATS and a COLLAR how could I leave the store without it?!

Then I brushed it onto my face, I read some reviews and makeup tutorials and they said do a "cross-hatch" pattern when putting it on, which is basically a bunch of little x's.

With foundation on only half my face. I'm only using one layer for this first try to see how much I might need to use.

This half has the foundation >__<
Face with foundation on both sides! 
Creepy staring into the camera with full makeup face o.o hahaha
My face right NOW!! At school eating lunch in the sun & blogging. This is after sweating while walking from home to bus stop and then bus stop to school >.< So hilly, so many stairs *huff* *huff* hahaha

As you can see in the last photo my skin still looks pretty good, although at this point it's only been almost two hours since I applied the foundation so, we shall see how this stands the test of my skin! Hehehe!

Update:

This is right after geology soooo 1:30ish (about five hours since application) and the foundation still looks pretty good, even in this not all that great lighting in Kane haha ^.^

Why do I look so annoyed in this picture? LOL This is on the bus home which was at about 4:08, eight hours after application taking into account my oily skin and the sun and sweat and such~ Looks like it's fading a big in this pic, can see some of my acne scars a bit more clearly. 

Aaand finally at the end of the day after doing a bit of browsing around and eating out. I went home and removed my eye makeup because it was bothering me a bit. But I didn't touch up at all throughout the day just to see how the foundation would do on it's own. About 14 hours since application of the foundation here. 


My  thoughts (updated):
Love how "airbrushed" it makes my skin look. A TON less cakey than my Calypso foundation! And it's actually closer to my skin tone! The person who helped us recommended light on me even though summer is coming up because even though I'll be tan (hopefully hehe!) it blends so nicely and evenly. The foundation is also light to medium coverage I'd say because it covers my acne scars but they're still a bit visible, but I'd say my redness is covered quite nicely! I price is the only thing that really bugs me, it's so expensive but I had to at least take it home to try it once. I don't think there are any foundations that last on the skin without needing touchups or a powder every once in a while throughout the day, especially for oily skin. But then again I haven't tried enough foundations to really know that for sure haha.

TL;DR:
~Amount of product: 3 oz (90 mL) I think this is a decent amount of stuff in a can, especially since it's the spray kind. That being said...
~Price: $39 3/10 too expensive to buy frequently on my budget. I can't leave the store with a clean conscience when I buy this.
~Did it work?: I do think it did what it said it would, although don't expect this to be a full coverage all day type of foundation. You'll probably have to reapply at some point if you want full coverage or try to layer it on upon first application. 7/10
~Would I buy it again?: I think I need to use this more often to really see if this is a reliable product but for now I think I'm good with just this one can and I could survive without it if I didn't have it. 5/10
~Design and ease of use: Spray on brush and criss-cross it on, easy peasy! Can is not cute or anything but the whole spray concept is pretty cute. Though I've heard some people have had trouble with the spray of the can o.o 8/10

Overall rating: 7/10 The smooth and even coverage without caking is this foundation's best feature in my opinion. Other than that, nothing special, spray is cool, only comes in four shades :C, expensive.

Thanks so much for reading through lovely people! I have some projects lined up for the next couple of weeks but I also have a bunch of exams coming up too so I'll see when I get to post them!! Yay for almost regular posting? Well at least I'm posting semi-frequently?? Hahahaha ^_____^


xoxo Abby :D