Product Empties! 1st of 2016

It seems that I've reached a point in my life where my Dad has complained about the number of beauty product items I've got lying around the bathroom.

So to accommodate him - I mean, he's got a point ;) I've set myself upon a product use up / project pan for 2016.

Stuff that is not included in this plan is lip products (except to replace specific Lipstick colours and my addictive Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker lip extreme gloss) and hair products (as I only buy more when they need replacing anyway).

To make sure I stick with the plan, I'm going to hold myself accountable through making videos so I'm documenting my progress.

My very first empties video features:

https://youtu.be/b4aZlhPxRmE

Products mentioned:

Batiste dry shampoo (floral)

QV Bath oil (small)

Body shop honey body scrub 250g

Yes to Coconuts body scrub 250g

Body Shop satsuma body butter (50g)

Manicare acetone and Vitamin E nail polish remover

Organix argan oil of morocco hair mask

Wipes:

Kleenex flushable

FemFresh

Currash unscented baby wipes (pack of 20)

What about you? Wanna share your project pans with me?

Review: Etude House, Sugar Tint Balm: Cranberry Pie

In my hunt for the perfect lipstick, I decided to look into Asian beauty products as they tend to be made for long-wearing…

Following the rise of Summer, I did some research and found out that Etude House had decided to create their own ‘version' of the Fresh Sugar Tint lip balms.

Sadly, there wasn't many swatches nor comparisons out there, so I was limited mainly to guesswork from the pictures posted by online shops.

My skin shade is best described as pale neutral (i.e. somewhere in the middle of pink and yellow toned) so I figured the pink-red shades were probably my best bet.

After a long time to decide which one to get, I finally settled on Cranberry Pie.

Best guess from what I had to go on, I'd say that this is a true red that's just slightly on the pink side.

In a bid to compare it to Western beauty products, I decided that the Revlon lip butters were probably my best bet.

Where the Revlon lip butters and lip crayons are more lip balms with lipstick added, I reckon that these Etude House ones are Lipstick with lip balms added.

One of the best features of this product is just how pigmented it is!

As you can see from the photos, it's really difficult to tell which is the 1-2-3 swipes.

Another added benefit to this is that whilst it's not too drying - it stays on a pretty long time. 

One feature I like about Asian tints is that they tend to be more of a ‘stain' as it does leave a nice red-pink layer on your lips - despite transferring like crazy!

Longevity is something I find difficult to judge as I'm something of a chronic tea drinker - but I can say that light transferring aside, it did last through one large mug of tea. With a noticeable colour still on my lips at the end of it. Sadly...it was all off by the end of cup 2...

Shade comparison wise, I'd say it's closer in tone to Revlon Cherry Tart than Wild Watermelon Lip butter.

Price wise, it's a really affordable $13 (including p&p)

Overall, I'd say it’s really worth giving these a go, although it does come in only 8 shades - especially given how easily they are to track down on ebay!

Korean / Japanese sticker hauls! Thanks to Ebay, Hot Dollar, and Morning Glory

Following me getting a proper planner from kikki.k instead of relying on DIY, I fell into indulging in getting stickers to use as planner embellishing - easier to show a haul as I tend to embellish for the day as I go along...

The trouble is, most of the stickers on sale seem to be a bit “thick” - so it turns out that my ideal stickers are the really thin plastic kind from Japan/Korea, following my discovery of a couple I loved at Morning Glory stationery store.

Initially, I looked in on Morning Glory, which then led me into looking up Kawaii stickers on ebay; a pretty decent success rate on locating mini ones that would fit perfectly in the “day” squares on the monthly spread of my diary - leading to a quick look in the Hot Dollar Store to see if they had any cheap stickers as well.

hot dollar and korean / japanese sticker haul:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLxMgeLHehg

It turned out that most of the ones available in Hot Dollar are a little thick too - so it was back to Ebay for more searching.

With the Shopping Gods on my side this time, I had a very successful haul from a couple of online Korean stationery stores - although l did have to wait 3-4 weeks for them to show up…

korean sticker haul july-september, marshmallow rabbit, joo zoo, cat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxDrEjDocOg

How I use my kikki k planner financial year 2015-2016

This is my very first attempt at making a youtube video...Basically a trial practice for the one I have to make for my class assignment.

my kikki.k financial year planner review

Essentially a way to share my love of planners...

Basically, I'm a huge fan of all things kikki.k and I've been into journaling since high school. In my bid to be more aware of my day-to-day activities, I figured investing in a decent diary might be the way to go.

I chose this one as it's the only one they have this year in the ‘financial year diary’ form that has a monthly spread.

I've been a sucker for youtube planner hauls since Dec last year, so it seemed like a good idea to invest more in one myself. In this case, what I love to share is my stickers hauls for the planner rather than any "plan with me" as I like to decorate as I go along rather than any full pre-plans...

Anyone else a big fan of planner decorating?

Crochet Flower Rosette Brooch

http://www.instructables.com/id/Crochet-Flower-Bud-Brooch/

​

I love to crochet flowers and leaves but I tend to have not many ideas about what to do with them...so one way in which I use them is to make Flower Brooches using crochet designs and hot glue.

You will need:

• ·         hot glue gun
• ·         hot glue sticks
• ·         fabric paint
• ·         mini paint palette
• ·         Mini paintbrush
• ·         8 ply wool
• ·         computer with internet connection
• ·         7 mm crochet hook
• ·         Brooch back findings

Making flower rosette & leaves

create crochet rosette following along Yolanda's amazing video instructions

• ·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJFgCscRylE

create crochet  leaf X 2 following along Yolanda's amazing video instructions

• ·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sK9a6mDy9A

Embellishing

1.       squeeze fabric paint onto palette

2.       use paintbrush to paint along the 'edges’ of the rosette petals

3.       use paintbrush to paint along the outside 'edges' of the crocheted leaves

4.       wait for the paint to dry

Assemblage

1.       squeeze a strip of hot glue along a brooch back finding

2.       press on one leaf to glue it to the finding

3.       repeat steps 1 and 2 for the other leaf

4.       squeeze a blob of hot glue on the back of the rosette

5.       press the rosette to the middle of the brooch back in the middle of the leaves

6.       wait for the glue to dry

May Empties 2015 - Hair, Face and Body

Admittedly, there is a lot of pretty much the same stuff when it comes to Empties with me, as I like to use a lot of my products on rotation. Pretty much so that my hair and skin doesn't get too acclimatized to the product, which makes it stop being effective.

Biore Pore Strips Ultra X 3 - pretty much my holy-grail item for my nose as I have a lot of while sebaceous filaments and it's the only stuff that gets rid of them in groups at a time. Priceline $7-ish although I like to buy them from Chemist Warehouse for about $6-ish whenever I drop by

Batiste dry hair shampoo X 2 -As I have classic perma-straight Chinese person hair, this does leave a heavy layer of white powder whenever I spray it on. It's pretty easy to make less noticeable just by running my fingers through my hair. It also has the added benefit of making my hair look puffier! Priceline $10-ish

Body shop Coconut Cream Body Scrub (50ml) – got in a gift set at Body Shop, I like how it feels on my skin and is somewhat moisturizing so I will buy the full size when my honey scrub runs out.

Herbal Essences Naked (Sulphate free) shampoo - According to my friend Amy, this shampoo's claims of being sulphate free is actually move of a marketing gimmick as it foams up quite well in my hair when I use it; which indicates that it actually has sulphate in it. Otherwise l do enjoy how clean it makes my hair feel without making it squeaky clean, and feels like it does a better job than the Organics brand shampoo I buy at Woolworths. It is averagely priced at Chemist Warehouse at $5.99

Schwarzkopf Ultimate Oil Elixer - conditioning hair mask - Luckily l was able to sample this at $2.99 by finding it at Top Bargain because I'm not 100% sure how well my hair responds to hair masks, despite being recommended to use them more by the hairdresser-and occasionally to wash my hair with conditioner only. My hair did respond quite well to the mask by using it in place of my conditioner so l think that I may buy more tubs of this again.

Palmolive Naturals -Intensive Moisture Conditioner (for dry hair) (coconut cream & milk) – l also got this at Top Bargain for $3.99. I quite like most of Palmolive brand products - I pretty much grew up on using their body washes as my Mum kept buying them whenever they went grocery shopping. 1 like using this conditioner much more than the ones made by Organics, despite the price as my wire-like hair does feel a lot softer after using these (but obviously not as soft as when l use hair masks as conditioner). Usually about $7 per bottle.

Australian Face Mask Review...

February Empties...

Things I Regret Buying...

November Empties!!!

As far as I understand it, part of the ‘pan’ system is to use up a minimum of 5 products per month, but I also bought way more than 5 products, so I don’t think I quite got the hang of it yet… on the plus side, quite a bit of the 20-odd products were intended to be Christmas prezzies so I guess I’m kinda ok there…

Herbal essences conditioner – will buy again if on sale, which I did re this bottle at the supermarket. One thing I did learn from using this though, is that although my hair pretty much behaves the same whatever I use, there is a tiny noticeable difference when I use hair products that isn’t homebrand…

Green tea mouthwash was bought on a whim and seemed to have been like any other regular mouthwash – just with the taste of green tea.

Cotton pads – I use it all the time to remove my eye make-up, but I’m not too fussy about what brand it is

Batiste dry hair shampoo – this is pretty much the only brand of dry hair shampoo that I use. As I wash my hair every other day, it works pretty well in making my hair nice and fluffy and keeps it from getting too oily. It can make my hair kinda white, but it works out well once I run and rub my hands through my hair.

Candles – my 3^rd of the lily and rose woolworths candle, which I will continue to buy when I’m desperate for candles and there are none on sale. The first of the glade candles in Hawaiian breeze, turns out I didn’t have too much trouble with it in feeling hungry and smells delicious, so will definitely buy again when on sale…

 

October Empties and Other Products

So it turned out that October was quite a big month for me in terms of the amount of empties and other products that I threw out…

I am very fussy about the stuff I use on my lips as I love a bit of colour, but I hate anything that is too thick, drying, sticky, or difficult to use…so most of these were simply part of me following my dad’s advice in throwing out anything that I didn’t like using, as it meant that it would just be sitting around and that I’m never going to use it ‘one day’.

I have been thinking about picking up another of the yes to carrots tints in soft plum though, as the colour was good on me but I’d contaminated it by using it when I had a cold sore. I’m also considering picking up another of the burts bees glosses, but this one has been carrying ‘odd’ memories for me with it. It applies with a nice sheer wash of colour that looks gorgeous on me, but just a shade on the sticky side…

Actual empties of October are made up of my essentials that I will always need. I’ve been pretty lucky with my hair in that it turns out the same with whatever shampoo and conditioner I use so I think the alberto balsam shampoo was pretty decent – definitely smelled like what it said on the bottle…

I’m never going to buy simple face wipes ever again unless I can help it, as that brand of products always plays havoc with my skin. Pharmacy care brand face wipes are part of my overlooked heroes as they work pretty well in removing non-waterproof make up and is pretty gentle on my skin – so these I will keep on repurchasing, so cheap at $1.35 per 25 pack.

my studex earring collection: diamond studs

Right now, the majority of my earring collection is made up by earrings made by studex as they’re both cheap-ish and good for my sensitive ears.

Much as I’d like to think that I’ve outgrown being over influenced by my fan girl-ism, it’s clearly something I can’t escape even though I’m not a child anymore.

After watching Black Swan starring Natalie Portman, I was obsessed with the idea of having my own pair of diamond earrings.

So I jumped at the chance to buy a round pair from my local pharmacy, but after a while I realised that I really didn’t like how they framed my face in that they kinda stuck out quite a bit to the side.

I was really chuffed when I discovered that Priceline also has studex earrings, especially a square pair exactly the same size that look nicely big and are also nicely ‘flat’ so that they don’t ‘stick out’.

used up cotton pads and l’oreal waterproof eye make-up remover

So far, the only product I’ve finished is a 100 pack of round cotton pads. That said, they’re an essential part of my daily beauty routine in that I always use them to remove nail varnish and especially my eye make-up.

When it comes to eye make-up removers, my all-time favourite and go to product is the l’oreal gentle make-up remover which works great for removing waterproof eye make-up as well as not irritating my sensitive eyes.

What I do is put a few drops on the cotton pad and then press it against my eye for 15 seconds. I got this method from the youtube guru, Elle Fowler - which works in that it gives the product time to soak into the make-up as well as reduces the need to rub the cotton pad against your eyes.

The really great thing about this product is its effectiveness to price.

When I was in high school, my dad gave my mum a Lancome eye make-up set which was a tube of mascara and bottle of the bi-facil eye make-up remover. As I was the one who actually uses make-up on a regular basis, I convinced my mum to give me the bottle of bi-facil which I loved using.

Once the bi-facil was used up, I did some googling and discovered that l’oreal is the parent company of lancome – which means that products under both brands have similar formulas. Due to this little factoid, I realised that the l’oreal eye make-up remover was likely to be similar to the awesome bi-facil.

My haunch turned out to be correct – I’m now onto my 4^th bottle!

Floriade Duck and Chilli Pepper Earrings

Last weekend, I went with my friend to Canberra’s annual tulip flower show, Floriade.

Ironically, the highlights for me was not the flowers but the free reptile menagerie that lets you pat the ‘pets’ there and the ‘rubber duck’ that was set up in their ‘duck pond’.

 

The other ‘highlight’ of Floriade ever year is their ‘markets’ which lets crafty people showcase their things for sale. I was in the mood for some pretty but unusual earrings, so after remembering that I’d seen this pair of glass chilli peppers at one of the stores about 2-3 weeks earlier at their nightfest, I finally decided to indulge in the urge of me constantly thinking about them and gave my credit card a good work out.