♡ February Wishlist ♡

1. SHO-BI Romantic Minnie False Eyelashes in Cute Eye

2. SHO-BI Romantic Minnie False Eyelashes in Dolly Eye

3. SHO-BI Romantic Minnie False Eyelashes in Sweet Eye

4. Luxe Lace Shoulder Jumper

5. AX Paris Red Check Dress

6. Little Twin Stars Polaroid Camera

7. Ash Blonde coloured fashion wig

8. ARASHI 'Popcorn' live dvd

9. Hello Kitty Biscuit plushie

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Non Valentines Day... Stuff ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

So originally for this weekend my plans were to go out into London two days in a row... but on the Friday night I sadly contracted a bug and was up most of the night vomiting my poor guts up (sorry too much information there...) and so in the end I was only able to go and spend a day out in London with Charli.

A small confession... I've only celebrated valentines day like twice in my life and other than those two times I've never really had much interest for it except for the history behind how it was created - unknown fact about me no doubt but I do like history... thanks dad. So I actually booked the day off work so I could meet up with Charli! I've only met her twice - both times at MCM Expo last May and October - and I love this girl to pieces she is seriously such an amazing human being and we had been meaning to meet up for the day since...... ok yeah last May and we've just never had the chance to until now!

The weather was absolutely disgusting that day and honestly the day before... the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Luckily my coat has an extremely massive hood that makes me feel like I'm from Assassin's Creed. As it was Valentine's Day I did decide to be rather pedantic and wear red clothing... well black and red clothing and in all honesty my outfit actually turned out rather well! Oh I've put these two pictures up below because in the first one are the clothes I wore whilst in the second picture are the boots I wore instead of the ones in the first picture... in honesty I shouldn't have worn boots because my feet became extremely sore after a good 6/7 hours ;uuu;

So I met up with Charli in a coffee shop in Chinatown just outside of Leicester Square station, where we proceeded to warm ourselves up with a delicious cup of coffee (I had a hazelnut latte) and had a chatter. Then we headed over to Little Korea just on the other side of Chinatown (towards Piccadilly Circus) for some lunch as we were both rather naughty and had skipped on breakfast that morning... oops. Small confession; I had never eaten in Little Korea before until that day and I regret never eating in there previously because the food is extremely tasty at good prices. Charli and I ordered a soup each, she had fish cake soup and I went with a spicy soft tofu soup, and then we proceeded to share a few dishes between us. We ended up with tempura soft shell crab, kimchijeon, kkanpungi and vegetable gyoza in the end with a couple of side dishes of pickled beansprouts and pickled cucumber... needless to say we were both pretty full by the end of the meal!

After food we headed over to the market where the purikura machines are located. This was the main thing we wanted to do together as we haven't got many pictures of us two and it honestly feels like tradition to me that whenever I'm in London I just have to go and do purikura for memory sake. It ended with about four pictures of me pulling faces... that seems about right to be honest.

Next on our list was going to Covent Garden and despite the fact it was only a ten minute walk away... rain started to downpour at this point so we took the tube. It's silly I know but we were dry and that was the main point for us. I love Covent Garden as a whole because it's got the historic market, the theatre and lots of shops whilst having plenty of restaurants/coffee shops around so you're pretty much sorted for spending a day in that area in particular. The best thing about Covent Garden to me is the Moomin shop and Laduree because the Moomins are from my childhood and Laduree has the most gorgeous sweet treats to offer and their macaron selection is honestly to die for. Sadly this time around we didn't go into the Moomin shop but we did squeeze into Laduree for a box of macrons. I also wanted to go into the Godiva chocolate shop next door to get a box of chocolates for my mam as it's her favourite chocolate ever.

Also I found out that they've recently opened up a Shake Shack in Covent Garden! Shake Shack is an American food chain famous for burgers, shakes and frozen custard and holy crap I was so happy to have one finally open up in London - don't ask me why it's just somewhere I've always wanted to go when I visit America in the future. So yeah, Charli and I purchased a Concrete Jungle frozen custard which was a vanilla custard with marshmallows, banana and smooth peanut butter mixed it and honestly it is one of the most delicious things ever. I had this preconception that it would be sickly sweet (and I really do hate overly sickly sweet things) but it wasn't? It was such a gorgeous blend and just... ugh amazing! Definitely need to go there again in the future!

After mooching around Covent Garden for a while - we went in the Disney store, Apple store and Whittards - we headed into Starbucks for a salted caramel mocha. In all honesty most of the day we spent eating a drinking and that is just fine and dandy with me! On the way back to the station we popped into the MAC store and Charli purchased her first ever lipstick (first lipstick?! GOSH) and I purchased my first ever MAC lipstick for my ever growing lipstick collection. I got the colour 'Ruby Woo' and it's the most perfect dark red I have ever laid my eyes on. I haven't actually got a picture of the lipstick yet but I'll probably take one soon and post it on my instagram!

Finally Charli and I parted ways (boooooo) and I started to head home and by the time I got to Liverpool Street station I started to feel queasy. Normally I have a pretty strong stomach but I had been feeling rather off all afternoon and I instantly knew something wasn't right as soon as I found myself dashing for the toilets and throwing up. Sorry too much information I suppose there...

But thus started the journey of the weekend from hell for me. Like I said in my opening paragraph, I had intended on going back out into London on the Saturday for Sharan's birthday but alas I had spent the Friday night puking my poor guts up and barely got any sleep so I had no energy and looked like complete dogs doodoo. I guess that teaches me for working with children... I'll hopefully get to see Charli again either before expo in May or just a little after... I guess it depends on our schedules and money situations as she is saving for Japan whilst I'm saving for China! I had such a fun day though despite being sick in the end and it was a much needed day away from home and work.

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ Candy Doll Lipsticks in Apricot Beige & Ramune Pink ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

In all honesty, I have never really looked towards the whole Japanese side of cosmetics compared to, well, my obsession with Korean cosmetics. So when I was gifted a couple of Candy Doll lipsticks for Christmas I thought, what the heck? And now I wonder why I have never gone in this direction before?!

Candy Doll is a well know cosmetic brand created by famous Gyaru model Tsubasa Masuwaka (she also created Dollywink eyelashes / eyeliner etc) and the colours ranged in the brand seems to stick along neutral tones within the lipstick and lipgloss range whilst using pretty candy 'pop' colours for cheeks and eyes. Sort of like girly, cute, doll-esque style make-up and it's only recently that the brand has brought out a mature style red lipstick and lipgloss.

The first thing that pops out about these lipsticks is that that are nude lipsticks but one is an orange based nude whilst the other is a pink based nude (I guess the hints are in the names d'oh) and these lipsticks are so hydrating that I didn't need to use a balm underneath these like I had to with other lipsticks/glosses etc. Also the build up of colour is really nice so with one swipe you will have a pretty gloss style look and then when you add more the colour builds up and it really blended with my face make-up I was wearing. Oh and to notice the difference you may have to bring the pictures up to full size because that is when it is more noticeable!

↑↑ Left; Apricot Beige, Right; Ramune Pink ↑↑

I also liked how the two different nudes made my face make-up look different with each picture. The Apricot Beige colour has made my make-up come across warmer whilst the Ramune Pink had made my make-up come across slightly cooler, not much cooler but it's noticeable. 

Apricot Beige; 

Ramune Pink; 

Honestly, I do feel really silly for never trying out this brand before until now but my eyes and my mind have been opened! I honestly cannot wait to try other Japanese brands and seeing what is on offer already... just whew! I'm spoiled for choice!

Pros
↑↑ extremely hydrating
↑↑ vivid colours with either one or two swipes
↑↑ doesn't exaggerate dryness on lips

Cons
↑↑ rather expensive brand in general...

Overall Verdict; ★★★★★

Honestly, these lipsticks are the most perfect nudes ever... and trust me I have been searching for the perfect nude lipstick for what feels like forever! Finding a perfect nude is like finding your perfect red lipstick and I cannot decide between these two on which ones I prefer the most but just by a marginal slide... Ramune Pink is my favourite for now. It's just a bugger that the pricing is just so... high compared to what I would normally spend with my budget for Korean cosmetics etc!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ ETUDE HOUSE Rosy Tint Lips ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

I have been meaning to write this review for a while now but I've never had the right pictures / words for this until now? So major apologies but I hope you enjoy nonetheless! 

I received these as a gift from a friend and I was pretty excited to try these out straight away and when I did... in all honesty I was pretty disappointed. I was expecting something different, something I can't quite explain with words and instead I get a thick, gloopy mess coming out of each tube. Don't get me wrong I wasn't expecting a normal tint that you get in a tube oh no, I knew that these would be more towards the matte kind of gloss you can get... kind of like Lime Crime's Velvetines I suppose? I guess I was expecting too much from these as it is Etude House as I've never had a problem with past products until now.

I didn't like how hard it was to put the tint (heck would you even call it a tint? It's more like a lipstick consistancy?) on my lips and it really clung to all of my cracks and crevasses (damn you dry lips) which did not look at all nice, so I just these to one side and concentrated on making my lips look better. After a mass amount of sugar scrubs, vaseline and tinted lip balms I finally felt ready to try the products again and the second time around... well it was a much better experience than the first attempt.

I actually wore a tinted lip balm (Maybelline Baby Lips in Peach Kiss) underneath when trying out all of the colours the second time around and personally, they came out much better than the first time. I also love that this collection is based on the fairy tale 'Sleeping Beauty' and plus a couple of the colours remind me of autumn / winter as well as beautiful summer flowers. Personally I believe that you can wear a different shade or two per season.

#5 Baby Peony

#6 English Garden

#7 Tea Rose

#8 After Blossom

Out of these four colours... I don't have a favourite one because I do love them all. I love how each colour is so pigmented and the smell (for the first few minutes after application) it really does remind me of being in a rose garden. In the future I probably won't use the sponge applicator as that easily twists off and just stick to using a lip brush when applying the colour... also I will never not use a lip balm underneath when wearing these either as I don't really want to show off my chapped lips when they are bad!

Pros
↑↑ great selection of colours to choose from
↑↑ matte finish
↑↑ extremely pigmented 
↑↑ affordable for people on a budget
↑↑ good for building up colour or for making a gradient / ombre effect

Cons
↑↑ shows off the damage of your lips easily
↑↑ too thick of a consistency 
↑↑ tubing is too hard to squeeze the tint out
↑↑ sponge could be considered unhygienic.... especially if you have members in your family with nifty fingers and likes to use your make-up

Overall Verdict; ★★★☆☆
Again these are perfect for different looks and how pigmented the colours are but I'm just not blown away because these should have been a lipstick or a tint... not a mixture of both? Anyway I will be using them again for sure and not just shoving them in the back of my cupboard gathering dust!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo