June Wishlist

June Wishlist by pilar-kim featuring too faced cosmetics

NARS Cosmetics blush
$28 - nordstrom.com

Too faced cosmetic
£36 - nelly.com

Makeup
€17 - sephora.fr

NARS Cosmetics makeup brush
$52 - bloomingdales.com

Lancôme eyeliner
$30 - lancome-usa.com

Stila beauty product
$38 - macys.com

Clinique beauty product
$37 - lordandtaylor.com

Forever Youth Liberator Serum 30ml
£60 - debenhams.com






Here are a few things I have been keeping my eyes on but haven't been able to bring myself to purchase (yet!) for one reason or another (mainly money). I am still waiting for my NARS order from kissandmakeupny.com where I ordered a blush in 'Gina', but I am still wanting to try 'Orgasm' because just about every blog I look at raves about it and I feel left out without it. I will probably get it this coming Saturday as I am going into Mecca for an event where I get to spend $50 on whatever NARS product I want after my makeover. 


I love the Too Faced natural at night palette but can't justify buying it as I already have the original natural eye palette... I will just have to wait for another Too Faced palette that is completely different to anything I have.


Urban Decay Primer Potions - I only have a tester tube that I got as a gift with another order. I used it up very quickly (duh!) but these are hard to get a hold of in Australia so I am waiting for my next big online haul or perhaps when I go to Canada and NY at the end of the year this will need to be on my shopping list.


I bought a NARS brush in previously mentioned order that I suspect will be arriving tomorrow or the day after and nearly bought this one too but it is not cheapies and I am trying to be good and save my money so this one missed out for now...


Lancome Artliner - Love the way it looks and seems to glide on effortlessly in every youtube tutorial I watch, but, too expensive and too many cheaper alternatives.


The Clinique and Stila BB creams are two that I want to try. I will probably go for the Garnier Miracle Skin Perfector as it is very cheap and seems like a good one to try as a first BB cream to go for. I have read that the Clinique one provides a lot of coverage which is something I would go for as my skin is really acne prone and a bit scarred from my teenage years. I might get it this Saturday when I go shopping depending on how much I can save during the week. The stila one seems to be a bit different to most the rest as it offers a range of benefits but does NOT have an SPF protection as it is built especially to make your skin look good being photographed. Many creams with sunscreen in them will make your skin look shiny or oily in a photo. Not sure if Mecca stocks this one or not but I know it will be a long time before I try this one (if ever) as it is quite pricey and again there are a lot of good alternatives that I can go for. 


Forever Youth Liberator Serum - Woooo! I think you would be lying if you had heard of this and said you didn't want to try it. This is going straight into my daily skin care routine as soon as my current 'age defence' cream runs out. I have a friend who works an a department store that sells this who can get me 'special price' haha so yes this one is just a matter of time. 


Another web/blog/vlog famous item, the coastal scents 88 palette. So many different options to try, looks to create (and re-create from tutorials). It isn't too expensive, just hasn't found its way into any of my online shopping carts. I think it will one day because it just looks like so much fun to use! 


Stay tuned for the arrival of my NARS haul from kissandmakeup! I have been working lots of overtime hours to make up for the purchase...


xx

A New Dressing Table!

Today I went shopping with my old housemate and picked up this gem...

Matching Stool

I got it at Homeart, you can have another look at it here http://www.homeart.com.au/0618.html

It was $179 for the table and $39.99 for the matching stool. I had been looking for one of these for years without finding anything in my price range until this came along. I am so happy especially because now I can use the two side mirrors to check on all my messy top buns and how they look from behind. It has four little drawers for storage too, wee!

My friend Eevee on his new perch

If you are wondering why I am so excited about this or judging me for having a splurge then have a look at what I was using as my hair and make-up station up until now...

So, suffice to say this purchase was more than justified!!

My Mascaras

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently cleaned out my makeup bags. I had a lot of old and terribly crusty items in there, but here are the mascaras that made the cut and remain in my collection. There won't be anything too in-depth here, just a quick over-view...

Left to Right: Maybelline Volum Express Mascara: $10-20 priceline, MAC Opulash Optimum Black: $33 Myer, TOO FACED Lash Injection Mascara: $10.99 ACW, Lancome Hypnose Mascara: not sure where or when I got this one...  

Firstly, I will mention that my eyelashes are very long and thick naturally (don't hate me) but I still like super-lengthening mascaras because I like the look of over-the-top lashes in any occasion. I think lashes are really pretty and feminine (can anyone argue?) and shouldn't be forgotten when creating a look.

I have had the Maybelline one for a very long time and it is a staple for me as it is cheap, easy to apply and effective. This is what I put on whenever I am in a hurry or can't be bothered crafting dramatic lashes. If I ever feel like some eyeshadows and eyeliners look a bit incomplete, I throw this on at the end and it solves the problem. 

I bought the MAC one when I had a gift card and was looking for something a little more 'upper-end'. I asked the assistant in the shop and she said this one would be the best one for me to use, already having thick lashes. I really like how I can 'just keep going' with this one, adding layers and layers depending on how much of a dramatic look I want. I can put heaps on without it clumping (unless I wait too long and then go for another coat). The brush is really big, which I find makes it a little bit tricky to get the inner lashes of my eye, but this doesn't bother me too much. It is super black. The assistant mentioned something about it having 'extra carbons' in it but I didn't take too much notice until I tried it on and agreed it was indeed very black haha!

I recently bought the Too Faced mascara from ACW as it is a lot more expensive in Australia and had been wanting to try it for a while. I was surprised to find it had a 'citrus-y' scent that I found quite pleasant and interesting. I found it very clumpy but I highly suspect this is because it has probably because of where I got it from. I have read some stories of people receiving products that are old or even out-of-date from allcosmeticswholesale. Still, it was very cheap and worth a try, I will be more aware next time I order from this site. 

I kept the Lancome one because it is so small and I thought I might be able to use it whenever I need to travel light like when I go overseas or friends places overnight etc. 

My Eyeliners: The New, Old and Very Old!

I was going through my old make-up bags and throwing out some old stuff when I found a bunch of things that I decided were still useable. The main things I kept were eyeliners and mascaras so I thought I would have a bit of fun, line them all up and write a bit about each one.

From left to right: Lava Gloss Super Glossy Eyeliner in Pitch Black : $8.99 allcosmeticswholesale.com. Mineral Eye Pencilin Onyx : $14.95 priceline. Eyeliner Pencil in Peacock : under $5 ice cosmetics. Revlon Colorstay Liquid Eye Pen in Blackest Black : $10-15 priceline. Korres Eyeliner Pencil in 25 (white) : $29.95 kit cosmetics. Two Mehron Pencils: included in a theatre/stage make-up kit. 

MAC Liquid Eyeliner: $37 Myer

The two mehron pencils came from a huge stage-makeup kit. I am an actor so tend to have quite a few mehron products for my theatre doings. As you might imagine, stage-makeup is thick and defined. It is not supposed to look natural. It is designed to accentuate your facial features so that the audience can see your expression under a billion different kinds of harsh lights and from a distance. The eyebrows are the most expressive features of your face, so this is how I came to keep using these two pencils. I sometimes use the brown one to darken my eyebrows for costume make-up or whenever I want to look slightly more exotic or defined. The black one was from I was a sad clown in a children’s theatre production, and I used it to draw all around my eyes as well as a black teardrop on my cheek. Come to think of it, I actually used the black one as a kung-fu panda and a kitten as well, see the photos below. Both the brown and the black one are thick, greasy and lasting…. perfect!

Some of my stage roles featuring the mehron pencils

I bought the BYS pencil because I remember seeing a girl at work wearing blue eyeliner on her waterline and it looked amazing! I hardly ever wear it because I am not very adventurous in my make-up from day-to-day and prefer just to use black to outline my eyes and make them look bigger.

I use the white korres eyeliner on my waterline quite frequently because it works with a lot of different looks and makes your eyes seriously pop, even with black eyeliner underneath or a dark smoky look. This one was a bit of a splurge at $29.99 from Kit Cosmetics, but I bought it when I was really getting into the store (mainly because they are the only shop you can get ‘Too Faced’ products in Western Australia), and the girl in the shop recommended the brand because it is ‘all natural’. The colour is really solid and the texture is nice and creamy without smudging unintentionally. I have used some cheaper brands of white eyeliner and have been disappointed when you need layers and layers for it to actually come on white. 

The Revlon liquid eye pen is the one I use nearly everyday. I am a huge fan winged eyeliner looks and liquid felt pens make it super-easy for clumsy users like me to create. I can create a super-thin line by using just the tip of the pen or I can glide it over my lids on a slant to make a thicker line. The only problem I seem to have with this one is that when I have a lot of shimmery eye-shadow on, I have to go over the line a couple of times to get a solid black colour because the eye shadows stick to the pen. (I don’t know if this is a fault of the eyeliner or the eye shadows or me trying to put on eyeliner before the shadows have set…)

I bought the prestige mineral eyeliner pencil because well, I needed a pencil to outline my eyes (top and bottom) as well as for the occasions when I wanted a black waterline. I wanted a cheapie. I also wanted one that created a definite line and wouldn’t smudge (lines, not a smoky look). This one lived up to my selections but it is quite rough. It also crumbles whenever I try to sharpen it but I think this is because I dropped it at some stage. 

Last week I went into Myer looking for a liquid eyeliner that wasn’t in a pen. I watched a youtube video where the girl used Lancome Artliner and I was SOLD…..until I saw the price tag. I had banned myself from online purchases for at least 2 weeks (I have to do this because I actually have an online shopping problem) and in store this eyeliner costs $52!! I shopped around and settled with MAC liquid eyeliner. It has the same consistency and applicator as the one I saw in the video and I was quite pleased when I tried it on. I am still not that great at putting on liquid eyeliner so I make a bit of a mess whenever I try to put it on but I think part of that is because it is so pigmented too! (lots of black to get all over my face haha).  

I just received the black lava gloss pencil in the mail yesterday after ordering it from allcosmeticswholesale.com. I LOVE IT! I was worried because I only realised there was a matte and a gloss one after I paid for the order, but the gloss one doesn’t seem ‘glossy’ to be but is a perfect black liner for anything. I have already used it to create a winged look, and it is also smooth and soft on the water line so you can use it to line the entire outline of the eye for a ‘cat-eye’ look. It is creamy so can be gently smudged to blend into eye shadow if you didn’t want a definite line too. I am a big fan of Two Faced cosmetics and this liner definitely didn’t let me down. I would really recommend this as an all-rounder black eye pencil.

Left to right, corresponding to image above

Phew!.... Well that took me longer than I thought it would. Stay tuned and I will list my mascaras in the next couple of days. Have you used any of these eyeliners? Do you agree with me? What are your favourites and do you have any that you would recommend?

Diablo 3 - Love's, Latency's, Lost

I first played Diablo 1 at my friend’s house on her big brother’s super-duper new computery-thing somewhere between 1996-1997. We were little babies back then, and this was less than an appropriate game for us however, fate was involved….


I still remember the screams and running to hide underneath the bed at the sound of the butcher “ahhh, fresh meat!” (Funnily enough, nothing in the game before this point had scared us.) As the years went on, I continued to play, and I welcomed Diablo 2 into my list of favourite games.

oh, the memories... (google images)

So yes, I was looking forward to the release of Diablo3 to say the least. I was one of those people who had a 'bitch fit' when I couldn’t play the game the moment of launch#error37. But I had been patient; I scorned those on the forums who claimed the release was ‘rushed’. I’m sorry, but I cannot consider a game 11 years or so in-the-making ‘rushed’. With the wanting-to-drive-soul-stone-usb-drive-into-head aside, I felt much like this impassioned young fellow...

After the initial rage, I then resigned myself to join masses of others to complain about the online-only status of the game. I do not want to continue the debate here, I have read and considered the reasoning from both sides of the discussion on the forums: I am still not a fan of this aspect of the game. My game was slow, I had an average latency of 600-800 milliseconds (quite bad), enemies kept appearing right in front of me (not teleporting), and people were unashamedly (and ignorantly) blaming my computer specs/internet connection. I was angry like many others and had every right to be.

I'm writing a letter! (google images)

I am quite hooked on roaming the maps, killing things, collecting loot, deciding which items to use and which to sell. I first chose the Demon Hunter as my character, mainly because she seemed the closest thing to ‘rogue’ (my favourite in Diablo 1). I have also played a bit as the Witch Doctor and Wizard characters and am enjoying them thoroughly. I love the game; I just wish money wasn’t such an issue in this world and the game could be offline too so the RMAH (real money auction house) for buying and selling equipment didn’t have to generate funds to support the game severs…. lets not go into that.

My demon hunter with ferrets banner, squee! (screenshot)

I was going to make a little list of things I’d like to see added to the game, but right now I can only think of one, and that is some sort of potion-switching thing. Firstly, I am not a fan of the 30-second lockout on using potions. I can live with it, but I would definitely like to see some sort of mechanism that, when supplies are depleted, automatically switches to other health potions in my inventory other than the one I have set to the hotkey ‘Q’.

I really, really love the 'companion' demon hunter skill. Especially since I can summon a pair of funky little ferrets to follow me around and give me more gold. I have a pet ferret named 'Ace' and he is wonderful and I love ferrets! 

Can you think of any little ‘doo-whackeys’ or adjustments you would like made? Comment here if you do, or if you just want to make any notes about the game in general. Also, my battle tag is Violla#6541 if you want to play!

Hannah's Blog

So, my first entry: What inspired me to start a blog was the fact that I was reading so many other peoples blogs and writing lots of comments on them. I realised that I have a lot to say. Of course when it comes to writing the first thing, I have no idea what to write. 

Hannah is a good friend of mine who has this great beauty blog here. I was talking to her about it and how I wanted to do one but not just on beauty products. My main concern was that my blog would be too random and 'uncategorised' for anyone to actually come and read on a regular basis. With Hannah's reassurance that this didn't matter, and a little bit of spare time this morning before heading to work, I am now up and going.... woo!

How I feel setting this up... (google images)