Lipsticks for fall!

Who doesn't love fall? or as the English call it autumn! Cozy fuzzy socks, boots, leather jacket, chai latte, pumpkin everything..ahhh yes, I could go on and on. I went through my lipstick collection and I've picked my top 4 lipsticks for the fall time! Out of the 4 that I've picked, 3 are from the drugstore. Thumbs up for me :)

New Black, 04, Fabulous Fig, Prolong

17 Lasting Fix Lipstick in New Black

I purchased this not too long ago from Boots on Lisa Eldrige's recommendation. It has a somewhat matte finish which I really like for dark lipsticks 'cause it doesn't move around on your lips as much. The color of this is really close to Rimmel 04 but it's more red. I actually wore this lipstick on Halloween this year and it lasted all night!

Rimmel Kate Lipstick in 04

I've been eying the Mac Yung Rapenxel lipstick for the longest time 'cause I love Azealia Banks! But after seeing this video from DestinyGodley on Yung Rapunxel dupes, I passed it up and got the Rimmel Kate lipstick instead. It's a fraction of the MAC price (my wallet is happy) and even though they're probably not exact dupes, I still really like the Kate one.

Revlon Matte Lipstick in Fabulous Fig

This is probably my faaaavorite out of the bunch probably because it's the most wearable for a day-to-day basis. It's a deep terracotta red that isn't too in-your-face. Despite my pure love for Revlon lip products, I still can't justify their UK price. I bought Fabulous Fig in Thailand for about 4 pounds but in Boots Revlon lipsticks are 7.99, which I think is a bit outrageous. HOWEVER, Thai drugstores don't carry Revlon's dark vampy shades like Va Va Violet or Black Cherry...biggest dilemma of my life.

MAC Prolong Wear Lipstick in Prolong

After months of searching, I still can't find my Russian Red anywhere, so that's why I've put Prolong in this list instead. They're actually very similar but Prolong is a tiny bit more long-lasting and drying. It's just a classic matte red that errrrybody needs in their life.

(From top to bottom) Prolong, Fabulous Fig, New Black, 04

Are you guys sporting dark lips this fall? Give me some recommendations 'cause I definitely need some more :)

Haul: I'm too excited for Christmas.

This is gonna be a super long one since I haven't done a haul in quite some time. A lot of these purchases were, of course, influenced by the usual youtubers that I've mentioned numerous times before - Lisa Eldridge, EssieButton, etc. If you read my last post, it's probably no surprise that the first thing I did yesterday was dropping by a Lush store to check out their Christmas range for 2012. Yes, I did get quite a bit of stuff but surprisingly, I didn't get as many things as I thought I would. Most of the other stuff that I got mostly are from Boots as they are having their 3 for 2 sale for autumn. So, of course, I had to take advantage of it.

Oliatum Cream

Since it's getting pretty cold here, I desperately need a good body lotion. I went for the Oilatum cream 'cause I don't like my body stuff to be scented. The consistency is really thick, but it does the job. I slather this on my legs at night and when I wake up, they are super soft and smooth.

Batiste Dry Shampoo in Tropical

I love Batiste dry shampoos but I wouldn't repurchase this simply because the smell really bothers me. I was hoping the it would be a nice sweet coconutty scent but when you inhale some of it, I can taste the bitterness in the back of my throat. No-no.

L'oreal Elnett hairspray

This tames my frizzy hair and doesn't give it a crunchy feel. Thumbs up.

Yankee Candles in Happy Christmas and Creamy Caramel

I already burnt Lavender Vanilla so I can't show you that one. I didn't want try get one of the really big ones 'cause I'm someone who gets tired of a certain scent really easily. These sample size candles burn for 15 hours, can you believe it? I need to get Christmas Cookies 'cause that one is just YUMMY.

Sally Hansen Polish Remover

I've heard SO much about this from the UK beauty bloggers/youtubers. After using it for a couple of times, I'm really impressed, even though it doesn't take 1 second to remove the polish on each nail as it claims to do. 

Boots Cuticle Remover

I got this since Viviannadoesmakeup and Essiebutton mentioned it in one of their posts. It has little beads that help exfoliate the cuticles and it does work.

Maybeline Ceramic Blue

This is EssieButton's favorite nail polish, so I had to get it to see what all the fuss is about. You need about 3 coats to get it completely opaque, but you definitely still can get away with 2 thick coats. What I really like most about this polish is the brush! Not too big or small..it's the perfect size. I wish I had discovered this in the Spring time though 'cause it would be perfect for that. 

Rimmel Metal Rush Polishes

Out of the two, I like Pearly Queen better. I never try wearing these alone 'cause I think they work best as top coats. They give your plain old polishes an oomph which is metallic and they also look different in certain lighting.

Models Own Ibiza Mix

This, I really like. The formula isn't too gloopy and you get a good amount of glitter pieces with one coat. I have yet to try to layer this on different polishes to give you my thoughts on it.

Models Own Ibiza Mix

(Natural light)

Rimmel Pearly Queen 

(Natural Light)

Obviously my attempt to show you how pretty this nail polish is just fails. Go to Boots and look at it in person!

Now, on to the fun stuff. LUSSSHH! I've had these goodies sitting on my shelf for 2 days now and my room pretty much smells like a Lush store...which I like. Because I live in a dorm, I don't have a bathtub. LMAO. That's right, I do not have a bath tub but I still bought bubble bars and bath bombs. Freaking psycho, I know. So yeah, I don't know when I'm ever gonna use these bath stuff but come on how can you resist these?!

TIP: take a tiny chunk of any bubble bar and put it in the laundry to give your clothes the a nice scent. Obviously if you use something like Christmas Eve with white clothes otherwise, they're gonna turn blue, so be careful! A Lush girl gave me this tip, but I still have yet to try it!

North Pole Soap

The best way that I can describe the scent is:

 Candycane Soap+Porridge Soap without the oats = North pole

I was bummed when I found out Lush wasn't bringing back Candy Cane soap this year but this is almost just as amazing!

Snowcake Soap

This soap is supposed to smell like marzipan. I have no clue what marzipan is but it smells really clean and almondy to me. Definitely a thumbs up.

Ponche Shower Gel

Lush's description: "orange juice with a shot of tequila". That's right, it's a shower gel that is made out of tequila. haha. It's so bizarre, I had to get it. Even though it doesn't smell like tequila (which, for me, is a good thing), it has a scent of a really fruity cocktail. 

Cinders bath bomb

I got 2 of these last year and I had to get one this year. It has popping candy on top that are supposed to resemble the sound of crackling open fire. Mmmm. A bad thing about this bath bomb is the fact that it turns the bath water sort of a urine color. lol. If you can get past that, then this one is the way to go!

Santa's Sack bubble bar

I admit it, I only bought this because it's so darn cute. Just look at it, super adorable right? I'm not too crazy about the scent but i don't mind having it lying around my room. It has this autumn scent that's spicy and soothing.

Father Christmas bath bomb

Again, how can you not get this one? It's a Santa Claus' face shaped bath bomb. COME ON. Its main ingredient is mandarin oil but honestly I don't really smell oranges. To me, it has this nice floral scent with a touch of fruitiness to it.

Christmas Eve Bubble Bar

I love this one because it's super relaxing and soothing, the scent just makes me wanna sleep. It has jasmine oil and ylang ylang oil in it. I don't even know what ylang ylang is but Christmas Eve is one of my all time favorites!

17 New Black Lipstick

It's fall time, so I had to get a vampy lipstick just to go with the season. I've seen tons of fall lipsticks video, so I had to jump on the bandwagon of awesome dark lips. Lisa Eldridge recommended in this video, so I needed this.

Revlon Fabulous Fig, 17 New Black

Liz Earle Deep Cleansing Mask

This purchase was influenced by Amodelrecommends and she said this is one of her favorites. I've only used this once so I can't give you my thoughts on it yet, so there'll be a review coming up! Basically you leave it on for 10 minutes and wash it off with the little handy dandy sponge. I've been watching so much of Amodelrecommends videos, I must get GLAMGLOW and Alpha H Liquid Gold! 

Have you tried any of these stuff? Let me know what you think of them!

An-An

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Yet another haul (Lisa Eldridge Edition)

Hi guys!

If you are a beauty junkie like myself and you've never heard of Lisa Eldridge, I suggest you look her up right this second. I saw in one of the comments on Youtube that she's like the Mary Poppins of makeup and I think that's a pretty genius description of her. I love her skincare philosophy, makeup tips and her extremely soothing voice. She did makeup for a bunch of celebrities like Emma Watson, Kate Winslet, Eva Green, Cheryl Cole...the list goes on. So yes, most of the products that I'm featuring in this post are recommendations that I have gotten from Lisa Eldridge.

A majority of the things that I purchased are from La Roche Posay, which is a French skincare line that Lisa Eldridge highly recommended. It's a brand that a lot of dermatologists use as a treatment for their patients with a wide variety of skin types. I've been using these for a week or so now, which I know isn't enough time for me to give a review right just yet. But, so far I'm in love with them! 

La Roche Posay Eau Thermale
This is essentially a facial spray made from mineral spring water. It's really hot at the moment in Thailand, so the mist is really cooling and hydrating. What I love about this product so much though, is the spray nozzle. It spritzes out a really fine mist that covers your whole face evenly. BUT I can't say that it does anything remotely different to my skin to drinking water in a spray bottle. 

La Roche Posay Physiological Soothing Toner
I'll do a separate in-depth review on this later so stay tuned! But let's just say that ever since I've used this in combination with the Effaclar K, I haven't gotten a breakout since so yay :)

La Roche Posay Sensi White Cream
This is targeted towards people who have sensitive "Asian" skin. It's a whitening cream that's supposed not so much to completely white out your face, but rather to even out your skin tone and brighten your complexion. Again, I need more time to test out this to give you a good review.

La Roche Posay Effaclar K
Not that I'm saying that this is a miracle product or anything but I noticed a quite remarkable difference to my skin overnight. It's smoother as well as brighter. It's suitable for oily and acne prone skin which I don't have, however prior to purchasing this I got some serious breakouts on my forehand and cheeks. So I gave this a try. But we'll see how it goes for about another 2-3 weeks.

La Roche Posay Anthelios XL Extreme Fluid SPF 50+
This is a product that Lisa Eldridge recommended in her sunscreen video which you can watch here. Again, review on this on a later day!

Bioderma Solution Micellaire
Because Thai drugstores have gone completely mad, they are charging about £8 for a 50ml bottle of Bioderma that's supposed to only be £1.5 *sigh* All in all, this is a product that lives up to the hype for me. It's a very soothing and gentle cleanser that removes makeup really well.

Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage in SC5

I've seen Lisa Eldridge use this in a lot of her videos. I've heard that it's a very dry concealer and I would agree that it is, but the coverage that it gives is insane. It covers everything and does not budge throughout the day. Definitely a thumbs up for this one.

If you want to see things that Lisa Eldridge uses on herself and her clients, just have a peek at her website here. Click "search" and see her recommendations of amazing goodness there :)

Have you tried any of these products? If so, let me know if you like them!

An-An

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Real Techniques Brushes!

Hi everyone.

This isn't so much of a review of the Real Techniques brushes, it's more of an expression of my love for these Real Techniques brushes. Real techniques is basically a line of brushes created by a beauty blogger, Samantha Chapman aka half of Pixiwoo.

I purchased the RT brushes from a Thai online shop because they are not readily available in Thailand. Surprisingly, the prices of these are quite similar to the UK price considering that almost every beauty things we get here in Thailand are so overpriced. I probably would love these even more if they have the US price tags haha. I find it kind of strange that these brushes originated in the UK but they're cheaper in Ulta. Whut?

How often do I use these? Let's just say that after I've bought the RT brushes, I never had to clean my MAC brushes ever since. I think that says a little something. The bristles are made from synthetic hair which are crazy soft. I've washed these brushes multiple times and so far, they have not shed a SINGLE hair. They also dry really quickly!

These are my favorite RT brushes out of the whole range. I'm not gonna go into details today and explain each one, because this isn't a review. If I had to pick 5, I would choose the powder brush, stippling brush, blush brush, buffing brush and the setting brush. Again, for the price of these, you really can't go wrong.

Pros
- inexpensive considering the quality of them
- do not shed a single hair
- dry quickly
- cruelty free
- fantastically soft bristles
- work well with both cream and powder products

Cons
- not readily available where I live :(

What are your favorite RT brushes? 

An-An

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A little indulgence

Hello everyone!

This is probably the last haul you'll see in a long time but I'm not promising anything! Partly because I'm moving to the UK in 19 days. Not gonna lie, I'm a little scared to pack all my stuff 'cause let me tell you, I have a LOT of crap that needs to come with me to college. I still have no clue how to fit everything in a single suitcase. I'm screwed. 

Revlon Flirt - £3

China Glaze Dress Me Up - £6

China Glaze Luxe and Lush - £6

China Glaze Luxe and Lush

I knew I had to get something from the Capitol Colors collection simply because I love the Hunger Games Trilogy. Luxe and Lush was the first one that caught my eyes. Look at it, it's just SO PRETTY!

 China Glaze Dress Me Up

(natural light)

Another nail polish from Capitol Colors. This is apparently from District 8 which represents textiles. Now, I don't recall any names from District 8 'cause it's been quite a while since I read the books. But this color is a beautiful dusty rose color which I like. Also, the formula isn't too thick nor runny. Definitely a thumbs up!

Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creme in Stockholm - £5
Nyx Soft Matte Lip Creme in Abu Dhabi - £5

I have quite a lot to say on these lip cremes, so stay tuned for a review!

 Kiehl's Clearly Corrective Dark Spot Solution - £44

I've heard a lot of great things about this product so I finally decide to give it a go. The formula isn't at all oily. I know the price tag is quite extravagant but I caved! I haven't been using this religiously, so I can't say anything about it just yet.

Fringe necklace from Forever 21 - £5

Believe it or not, I do not own any clothing items from Forever 21. I can never find anything that I absolutely love from that store as I do from stores like Zara. But this fringe necklace is gorgeous!

Evil eye ring from Diva - £5

Again, I don't normally shop in Diva but ah this ring. I've been looking for an evil eye ring for ages! I've been wearing it everyday since I bought it. The silver has worn off quite a bit but I don't care.

Bone necklace - £10

Turquoise beaded necklace - £5

Fringe necklace from Forever - £5

Beaded bracelets - £4

Beaded rings - £1

The rest of these accessories were purchased from a local store here in Chiangmai. This little store is, I believe, owned by a hippie. But I'm not sure.The lady there said that the bone necklace is made from a cow's skeleton...which is kind of gross and bad ass at the same time. So I bought it. She did also say that these animals died of natural causes, so it's good to know that no animals were tortured in the process.

Cow skeleton necklace

The little shop mentioned is called junjun.

What kind of posts do you enjoy reading? Let me know!

Have a great day :)

An-An 

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NOTD - Yin Yang Wilderness

Ahoy!

It's been a while since I posted a beauty-related post, so here is a little NOTD for you. I did them myself and I got inspired from a few pictures on Pinterest. May I say that Pinterest is probably one of the coolest websites I've ever come across. If you haven't joined Pinterest, I suggest you do now! 

Products used:

- Revlon Bare Bones

- Acrylic paint

- Paint brushes

And that's pretty much it! This took pretty long to do since there's a unique design on each nail but it wasn't overly complicated for a beginner like me :) So, you should try this out too! I think it's funky and pretty cool. 

What are your favorite nail polishes at the moment? 

An-An

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July 2012 favorites

Holy moly, it's August already? Time flies by way too fast. It rained quite a lot where I live since it's some kind of monsoon season. or not. I don't really know, but it did rain a lot. 

Biore UV SPF 50 sunscreen: For a sunscreen that has SPF 50, this one is extremely light-weight and easy to wear. It's not greasy and oily at all. I picked this up from a local supermarket and it costed me about £5. Highly highly recommend this!

Maybeline Baby Lips in Protecting Berry: For some reason, my Baby Lips doesn't come in the fancy pants packaging that you normally get. However, the lip balm is still nice and moisturizing!

Shu Uemura Cleansing Oil: Best freaking cleansing oil that I've used period. It removes makeup like a dreaaaam.

Bobbi Brown Creamy Concealer Kit: Even though the price of this product is quite outrageous, you need the tiniest amount to cover the under-eye circles. It works like magic. Really.

Cetaphil Cleanser: This doesn't strip the natural oils in the skin and it's very gentle. Definitely a go-to cleanser this month for me.

Benefit Girl Meets Pearl: I got this in the Benefit Project Flawless box and this tiny little thing has lasted for ages! It's a beautiful highlighter, but I'm scared to buy the full-sized products because I will probably never finish it.

Too-faced Shadow Insurance: This does what it claims to do and it's amazing. Not sure if I like it better than the Urban Decay Primer Potion, but they both work really well for me.

Mac Harmony: This is just an all around nice contour color. It's not too light nor too dark, it's perrrfect.

What are some of your favorite products in the month of July? Leave them belooow!

An-An

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Revlon Matte Lipsticks!

Hi, I'm back to my good old blogging routine. It usually happens around 1-2 am in the morning when everyone in my household is asleep.

 I'm pretty sure you have at least one of the Revlon lipstick in possession...simply because they are crazy amazing. 

Packaging. They don't look cheap and gimmicky, I'm a big fan of these. Unlike the Revlon Super Lustrous lipsticks, the scratch marks are barely visible on these since the exterior packaging is matte. 

I have Fabulous Fig, which is a deep reddish wine color, and the oh-so-famous Smoked Peach which is a muted orange.

As you can see here, these go on completely matte. I would say it is comparable to Mac matte lipsticks. The Revlon ones are smooth, creamy and so moisturizing! They do not drag on your lips at all. The color range is spectacular for a drugstore brand, I'm quite impressed.

I give huge thumbs up for these and I highly recommend them! Just go to a drugstore and pick up one to try out. Revlon has become of my favorite brands because they put out products that aren't disappointing. I don't love these just because of the amazing quality but the price as well! I bought mine for about 150 baht (3 pound), you just can't go wrong with that. Every time I buy a MAC lipstick, I feel guilty that I'm spending 16 pound for just a lip product. (Yes, we pay 16 pound for a MAC lipstick here in Thailand. Stupid taxes!) Revlon actually makes me feel dumb that I'm still purchasing MAC lipsticks and paying for fortune on them when you can get these for a fraction of the MAC price. Idiot. 

 If you don't already have these, pick one up now. Go, RUNNNNN!

What are your favorite lip products? Let this girl know.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

An-An

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Bangkok Haul

Hellooo.

Here is my collective haul from both trips to Bangkok. A lot of these stuff were on sale 'cause I'm just cheap like that. Hah. Even though I bought all this stuff from Bangkok, I'm gonna convert them to pound just because my followers are mostly from the UK.

Topshop - £18

Zara - £10

Zara - £10

Zara - £24 from £40

Necklaces from Accessorize - 70% off - £2.5 each

Gold ring from Topshop - £4 from £10

Pink earrings - £4 from £10

Ring from thrift store (Bottom right corner) - 6 P

Sorry, I don't remember prices of the rest of the items :(

 Batiste dry shampoo - £5

Muji spray bottle - £2

Muji little jar - £1.5

Muji face brush - £5

 Zara - £24 from £40

Pena House - £3

This was a plain T-shirt that I cut off the sleeves and the bottom part.

Pena House - £4

Zara - £18

 Zara - £18

I don't know what the material is but it's super soft and comfy. 

Zara - £40 (I think)

Kiehl's face wash - £19

Kinokuniya - £9

Brava for me for not buying any makeup! So yes, that's the stuff I bought from 2 trips to Bangkok. 

If you live in the UK, leave a comment telling me whether the stuff I bought are cheaper over there!

Hope you're having a lovely day!

An-An

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