Forever 21 Haul

A couple of weeks ago, Forever21 Canada had a 30% off sale items sale. 

I was totally eyeing the sale section online, but having no money and to get free shipping you have to spend over $60, I didn't want to pull the trigger to buy a couple of items. But once I got an email that there was an extra 30% off sale items, I just had to order what I was eyeing, and a bit extra. 

The dirty box that my order came in

I didn't take a picture the clothes I ordered. All I got was a pair of athletic shorts, a emerald green v-neck shirt, and a blue dress (the blue dress and shorts were items I wanted the most).

My favourite purchases were the bags. On the left is this giant white duffel bag. It is HUGE! I decided to buy it because it was cheap (as was ALL the items in this haul) and it can fit so much! If I needed it for a impromptu trip somewhere, I can fit everything and anything in this bag!

On the right, the blue bag was labeled as a "camera shoulder bag". I was excited for a smaller bag to carry around my compact DSLR camera, but once I received the bag I realized it can only fit a point and shoot digital camera. Irregardless of the fact that my camera won't fit, love this bag. I have been using it daily ever since I got it! It fits my small wallet, coin purse, and my the front pocket fits my cellphone. It is great quality, and I am so happy that I decided to buy this!

Lastly, I decided to haul some accessories and nail polish. I bought some sunglasses because my parents wanted some, they were around $4 each so I bought two pairs, one for myself, and the other for my mom (although I am giving her some of my older pairs since they have recently discovered the importance of sunglasses). I bought two nail polishes because they were 70 cents each, and I wanted to try the formula. I have tried them but I don't know I feel about them just yet, a future review will come.

Lastly I bought some hair clips! My hair has been so plain lately that I really wanted to add something to make it pop!

If you can tell, I have been into the turquoise, blue/green colours. I haven't had a chance to wear the hair clips yet, but I love them, and can't wait to wear them once school starts. 

That will be my last haul for a while! I have to get a new laptop because my old one is slowing me down and heating up extremely fast. On top of that I am buying a coffee machine for my family (although it'll mainly be me using it, hahaha), and starting to save up for a (proper) DSLR. 

Next post might just be a life update post! That or a makeup review. 

I'm actually looking forward to going back to school, I'm entering my final year of university so a (majority) of my courses are ones I actually want to take. After taking a year off learning Japanese, I realized that I want to go back to classes with a little more... substance. 

Although I am sure I will regret that sentence within a week of school starting, but right now I'm happy to be doing something with my life, instead of my lazying around home and going to my part time job. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the last of their summer! :) 

Mascara Reviews! Maybelline Turbo Volume Express, Canmake Gokubuto, Kiss Me Heroine Long and Curl

While I was in Hong Kong during April, I stopped by Sasa to pick up some mascara since I had to look "dolled up" for an party with my friend. My previous mascara I threw out, since I didn't think I needed to wear makeup at all during my travel (all I had was concealer). 

In Hong Kong, I picked up a lot of face masks, skincare, and the two mascaras that I will blog about here.

Please keep in mind that all the mascaras I use are waterproof. They are the only type that will hold my curl.  

The first thing I picked up was Canmake's Gokubuto mascara. 

I only chose this because I heard that Canmake makes really good cheap makeup products. While I, unfortunately, didn't pick up any other makeup items by Canmake, I decided to choose this because mascara is VERY important to Japanese girls. 

My opinion: I didn't like it at all. Doesn't hold a curl and it smudges. The product gunks up on the brush so defining my lashes made it difficult, I had to clean the wand with a paper towel several times. Even after I cleaned it, the product quickly began to stick to the wand.

The only way I continued to use this by layering it over waterproof mascaras. 

When I realized that the Gokubuto mascara was horrendous, I went back to Sasa and bought the Kiss Me Heroine, Long & Curl mascara. I've heard fabulous things about the Kiss Me series, and I was not disappointed! 

My Opinion: Holds a curl, does not smudge, defines my lashes, it was amazing!

The wand is great, the product barely gets on the wand, and it's super flexible making it easy to reach the upper and lower lashes. 

I recommend this, and if I was to ever get a Japanese mascara again, it would be from the Kiss Me series! :)

After I came back from my Asia adventure, I returned to using my Maybelline Turbo Volume mascara. I love trying all the Maybelline mascaras because they are amazing. After my previous mascara post where I tried the Maybelline Colossal mascara, I wanted to try all of the Maybelline mascaras!

My opinion: As expected! Maybelline makes fantastic waterproof mascaras. Defined my lashes, kept a curl, and it didn't smudge! The wand is very simplistic, but it was still extremely easy to reach all of my upper and lower lashes. 

If I was to choose though, the colossal is my favourite Maybelline mascara though. This one isn't bad, but the colossal made my lashes look much better. I would still recommend this though. 

Right now I am on my second tube of the Kiss Me Heroine, Long & Curl mascara. It is amazing, I wish I had yet ANOTHER tube of it. 

Next on my mascara posts is the sample tube of Benefit's They're Real! I have also been using a non-waterproof version of L'oreal's lashblast volume. Basically, I don't like it. It does add a lot of volume to my lashes, but it doesn't hold my curl. Probably because it isn't waterproof. :( 

What mascaras does everyone like? I would love some recommendations! Right now I have more Maybelline mascaras to get through since I bought some during a sale at Shoppers. 

Etude House Haul

Slightly mentioned in my previous Korea skincare haul, I said my sister might pick up some items from Etude House for me (since after looking at blushes online), I realized I wanted to give them a try! Once again, I didn't get a lot because I personally don't need more makeup.

Overview of everything I got

Blush!

I picked the lovely cookie blusher in raspberry tarte and carrot cheesecake. The packaging is cute, but personally I would never use the puff. I haven't opened them yet, but I chose the colours because orange is really in and I wanted a cheap orange blush. And the raspberry tarte because it was bright and different. 

Water color blush in apricot

I really wanted to try this blush because I read it'd be perfect for my oily skin! I found this might be really good to layer under the orange blush from above.

I shouldn't have been too shocked, but when I grabbed it out of the bag I was shocked at how tiny it was! I decided to compare it to a roll of scotch tape. I haven't tried this either.

Last is the two items I received as a freebie. The wonder pore freshner trial glove and a hair tie! Haven't used them either!

Another thing that I just remember that I forgot to photograph, but it is included my haul photo, the "I'm blooming sebum control mist"!

I was trying to explain to the sales associate that my skin was oily, and I wanted a spray. I bought the aloe vera mist as a refresher, but this one I didn't get because I didn't think I'd use it. However after coming back to Canada, my skin has definitely got some oil control problems (probably just adapting to the different climate here). I haven't tried it here either but it worked really well when I tried it in Korea. 

Obviously, reviews of products will come! If anyone has any specific requests, just comment below! I can't wait to use the makeup, but I haven't really needed to wear makeup and I recently went hiking and got a mosquito bite on my face.... haha!

South Korea beauty and skincare haul!

As previously mentioned in my short update post about beauty associates in Korea, I now have a haul from South Korea to post! Korea was my last stop on my trip around Asia, by this time my suitcase and luggage was quite heavy and I didn't have space to buy a lot. Irregardless I managed to stuff as much cosmetic stuff in my bags as possible. Things that I did not take a picture of were face masks, nail polishes, some face powders and one eyeliner. I bought quite a bit of face masks because they are presents for my family and friends. 

While I absolutely love makeup, I was more on a skincare haul because they were (slightly) cheaper. Personally I don't feel the need to increase my makeup collection, so I didn't buy eyeshadows or mascaras. Although after I left, I did send a note to have my sister buy me some blushes because I love blush (not too sure if she got them for me though). 

ALSO, I apologize for the horrible quality. I took this on my iphone4 and it was late at night (I was still incredibly jet lagged when I was unpacking all my things). 

Onto the pictures!

Everything I got, including some of the free samples!

My 3 BB cream, and 1 CC cream haul

 I held back and only bought 3 BB creams and 1 CC cream. From left to right it is: Skin fit original from the Saem, CC Cream from tony moly, perfect cover BB cream from Missha, and precious mineral BB cotton fit cream from Etude House. 

Skincare goodies from Etude House and Nature Republic

 From left to right: Wonder Pore Freshner (toner) and Black Head healing deep clean gel from Etude House. And a pore and blemish cream and bee venom pink spot lotion from Nature Republic. 

Random goodies, I got a cute bunny pocket face mist and a lip and eye makeup remover with two lip tints from Tony Moly, and a aloe moistfull face mist from Etude House.

I have used the BB cream from the Saem already once or twice, I still want to use it more before giving my full opinion or review. 

The aloe moistfull mist is very nice, despite the fact that I have oily skin I still use this to refresh my skin if it is feeling dry, or irritated in any way. Sometimes I use this as opposed to a moisturizer in the morning because it's lightweight and soothes my skin before I apply any makeup. 

My favourite makeup store in Korea has to be Nature Republic. Every store I went to, no one really followed me around like the other stores, and even though one store was extremely busy during a sale in the store, when I asked some questions they tried their best to help and explain it correctly to me.

Not to mention they were the store that was the least stingy with free samples. The one that was most stingy was the Saem, the lady explained that because I bought stuff on sale, she can't give me anything. She promised that the next time I come in I will get more, and I said I was leaving soon and she said: "Oh, sorry." Not that I need more samples, but I was disappointed, I really wanted something from the store since G-dragon was promoting there!! 

My second favourite has to be Tony Moly. Cute and good quality items, but every time I went in they didn't have a sale and things were slightly pricey. However they gave me a lot of free samples, despite having bought everything cheaper items and things that were on sale!  

Reviews on items will be coming! They probably won't be for a while since I don't have my good camera and don't have much of a chance to wear makeup. 

Also I think I will do a small haul of things I got from Japan, because I did get quite a bit of makeup from Japan as well (even though it was expensive). 

Ridiculous things I've been told in South Korea beauty shops.

Just a small update, it has been months since I have updated this blog.
I am currently traveling around South Korea for 3 weeks, I'm a week in so I only have 2 weeks left!

Being a makeup lover, I absolutely adore looking through all the cute shops selling makeup and beauty products in Korea, however the things that salespeople have said to me just... baffles me.

I was looking at cheap nail polish, and ended up choosing only two colours because I didn't want to spend that much. I was led into the store where the girl kept trying to persuade me to buy some face masks. This is how our conversation went:
Her: But face mask cheap, very good present. Only 30,000won for a pack of 20! Very cheap.
Me: That is cheap, but I don't need face masks...
Her: You don't need for you? OK, that's OK. Buy as present for friend.
Me: It's ok, I already have lots of face masks from other countries.
Her: But... you need to buy face mask.
Me: No... no I don't.
Her: Yes, present for friend. You need! Good price!

The conversation kept going in a circle because I was telling her that I don't need it, and she kept telling me that I do need it. So I eventually gave up and bought something else just so she would let me leave the store.


The other thing was I stepped into another makeup store and was looking at BB creams. The salesperson kindly applied some on the back of both of my hands. The first thing I noticed, SUPER light. One was extremely light, and I was really hesitant. I told her it's too light, even on my face. I looked in the mirror and realized the store had extremely bright lighting, bringing up my natural face colour. She kept saying it's light on the back of my hand, because my hand is darker (true), but then kept telling me: "BB cream colour is made to fit your face. It'll fit your face."
...... Just because a BB cream is designed to fit your face colour, does not necessarily mean that it will fit your face colour. She just kept repeating that and I was constantly disagreeing.
Of course there might of been a translation error or something, as the sales girl did not speak good English (lots of uhh, sorry. I'm sorry!).

I also find it hard to trust someone's makeup advice (especially when it comes to face products) when they have such a thick layer of makeup on! It's quite off putting and honestly, I am all for looking flawless, but I don't want to look like I'm wearing a ton of makeup!