regarding skin.

One thing I have noticed the last few months after I turned 31, is how much elasticity the skin on my face has lost. My eyes seem more hollow and my skin looks kind of dull.

For years I've sworn by La Roche Posay products, specifically the Toleriane Riche face cream, but I'm just not sure it's doing the job for me anymore.

At the tail end of winter, I picked up a face mask/cream from L'Occitane (lured in by their free hand cream samples) and received a schwack-load of samples and a free mini set as well.

Tonight, as I was washing my face and lamenting at how disgustingly dry my skin was (along with its dullness and saggy-ness), I decided to look at the mini set I got from L'Occitane again and opened up the Immortelle Precious Cream.

Usually, due to my dry, sensitive (prone to eczema) skin, I stay away from scented creams, but my first thoughts on the Immortelle are positive: it's not greasy nor heavy, the scent isn't overpowering, and it smoothed out my dry patches pretty well. How my skin will really react remains to be seen in the morning, but since this cream is from the same line as the mask I picked up, I don't think there will be any ill effects.

Have you noticed any significant changes in your skin as you've aged? What have you done to combat it? I would love some suggestions!

red lips and irony.

last week, i came across this photo of mary-kate on fashion canvas (a good source for bits of daily inspiration) and was instantly reminded that i own a tube of red lipstick that gets way too little use.

remembering the concealer tip from this xsparkage tutorial, i proceeded to paint my lips red, but the finishing touches were really the "ironic" glasses from asos.





wearing: vintage men's shirt with an assortment of jewelry (more deets below).



clockwise from top left:
- spitfire sunglasses
- forever21 ring
- sterling silver "pisces" ring my friend gave me in highschool
- silver ring my grandfather made for my sister when she was a toddler (i wear it on my pinky)
- h&m necklace (hacked; large oval plate removed)
- vintage shell necklace
- vintage sterling silver ring

my day.

i got a bit obsessed with playing with the settings on my camera, so here's a little photo documentation of how i spent the last day of july...

a heaping bowl of chinese herbal medicine to get rid of that nagging cough...


...with some haw flakes to get rid of that bitter taste.

i also went a bit crazy at the library last week...


knocked off "hickory dickory dock" a few nights ago, and i've got a couple more chapters to go with "peril at end house." i doubt these will be finished by their initial due date!

(that strip of outdoor beauty in the above image is from a failed photo of a new headband i was sporting that day. i will try to take better photos of me wearing it soonish.)

thanks for all your lovely comments on my makeup! (i hope to return them all by the end of this week!) most of what i've learned is from gurus like xteeener on youtube. there is a serious treasure trove of awesome tutorials on youtube! god bless the internet!

magic's in the makeup.

i'm really far behind on posts 'cause i've been battling a cold on and off for half of july. this past week i've just been coughing so bad, i've really not enough energy to do much posting. (i'll return comments over the next few days; promise! i'm behind on reading blogs too...)

anywho, just a quick post with some eye makeup i did for the no doubt concert a couple weekends back. the main colours i used were honey, fishnet, and graffiti from an urban decay deluxe shadow palette.


(i should make a bigger effort to photograph makeup before going out - not after sweating through a concert and sitting in the back seat of a drop top at night with my hair whipping my face.)



source: google images
well, the concert was awesome, of course. no doubt was just as amazing and energetic as i would've expected them to be if i'd the chance to see them 10 years ago. (gwen stefani is as stunning as ever.)


source: google images
colours enhanced in photoshop - this picture just makes me laugh!

truth: i've loved no doubt since "don't speak" (i still remember the first time i heard it and it was only a tiny clip from their video on tv), but i found out about the tour dates via paramore (which practically made me shit my pants) and i am, presently, a bigger paramore than no doubt fan. so, with a twinge of guilt, i will admit that i was more excited to see paramore than no doubt, but of course, no doubt just blew my mind.

i've already seen paramore live, and while i think they perform like seasoned veterans even though they are only in their early 20s (actually, zac farro, the drummer is still just 19, i believe), i was a tad disappointed that they didn't mix up their live act a bit more. honestly, a lot of it sounded like their live album, which really bummed me out. but, hayley williams is just a little fire ball of energy - in some ways, she reminds me of gwen stefani. (the concert performance of "stand and deliver" with both gwen and hayley on vocals was too awesome for words.)

not to be forgotten, i did find bedouin soundclash rather fun. i only knew one song and they really got crapped on in terms of stage setup and lighting, but they still delivered.

okay, so this wasn't as small a post as i thought it'd be. i ramble too much.

ps - i've read some reviews of this no doubt tour and i do not appreciate those out there who've been labelling paramore fans as twilight teenies, because
a) i am not a teeny; i'm in my mid-twenties, thanks
b) i don't even like twilight (i have recently borrowed the first book though, so we shall see if i may be converted), which brings me to
c) i couldn't possibly be a fan of paramore because of twilight. i've loved paramore since '06, which was years before paramore and twilight had anything to do with one another.
/mini rant.

pps - happy bc day! hooray for long weekends!

uber geek alert.

remember how i wrote about wanting to be bellatrix lestrange for the harry potter and the half-blood prince midnight showing? clearly i would never look as awesome as helena bonham carter, but my own interpretation wouldn't hurt. actually, i didn't really end up being bellatrix - more like a cross between a slytherin and a wannabe-death eater.



watch out! that might be the aveda kedavra curse i am about to perform... (i evidently have too much fun dressing up.)

the eye makeup was actually what was left after crying--- um, i won't spoil it for those who have not read the book or seen the movie.


an impromptu review...

i generally far prefer a book to its movie counterpart, but i still get excited to see a live-action interpretation of literature. what i enjoyed most about the half-blood prince was tom felton's portrayal of a tormented draco malfoy. the extra focus on his part of the story for the movie was quite flawlessly done and i think, a sound addition.

i am usually wary of actors being cast for roles that don't entirely fit the characters' descriptions, but i enjoyed jim broadbent as professor slughorn very much - he is a great actor and always a positive addition to a cast. jessie cave as lavender brown was fantastic as well. i'm also happy the director/writers chose to throw in an extra scene for luna lovegood - evanna lynch portrays her so well.

my biggest gripe of the movie was how much the 'blooming love' story arc was played up and how awkward it was. it just felt a tad too forced. there was also a superfluous scene or two here and there, which i thought could have been scrapped to focus on certain parts of the book that are rather significant - or at the very least quite interesting.

but, all in all, i did enjoy the movie. it's not my favourite of the franchise, but certainly a step up from the previous one. (i'm not sure why i disliked the order of the phoenix so much... it has just been my least favourite of the lot so far.) i await the last (two) installments eagerly and impatiently!

hp-geek signing out!



ps - i don't love slytherins; i just think the "dark" characters are always more fun to dress up as than the overtly goody-goody. truth be told, i was sorted to hufflepuff in "a more accurate harry potter sorting quiz" (as opposed to the "less accurate" one that used to be on the harry potter site, i suppose.. which sorted me to gryffindor and i think i agree with the hufflepuff sorting more than gryffindor.)

sharing is caring!

of course i should be sleeping or i'll be dead tomorrow at my contract job. but alas, i am too excited!

first off, if you haven't heard of the 8-year-old fashion plate yet, please check this out.

and anyone hoping to own a piece of rodarte heaven without the exorbitant prices, may want to set their countdown clock to the release of the rodarte/lippmann nail polish. (sorry for my tardiness in reporting.)

next, aren't these alice+olivia for payless shoes amazing?!



i seriously hope i can locate a pair in vancouver.

lastly, i leave you with this wicked(ly cheap!) cardigan:



norma kamali batwing cardigan. yes, wal-mart. the store you wish you could wholeheartedly hate.

'k, i'm off to bed! 'twas a full day of work and screaming (and filling my belly with poutine and pomegranate cider) at the vancouver giants vs. spokane chiefs game. (yaaaaaay giants!!!!!!!) tomorrow/today, i will rock my canucks jersey and eyeshadow. wish me luck on finding the proper nail polish! (or would that be too matchy-matchy? heh)

makeup.

about a month ago, i decided to photograph some makeup i'd recently purchased (for this blog) and i ended up doing a few product shots of my makeup collection favourites. ironically, none of the photos i'm about to share include the makeup items i set out to shoot originally. instead, i've decided to share why these are my favourites. (and i've since added a couple new items from my last sephora jaunt in seattle, but i'll save those for another time.)

i am huge on eyes and nails. my makeup collection has very few lip products and i don't use blush. i just feel that i can have the most fun with eye shadows and nail polishes. that's what makeup should be about anyway, having fun.

nail polish
i don't do my nails too often (maybe an average of once every month or two) and i usually go for pretty bold colours. the pink polish i got from a dangerfield sale bin in melbourne, and the wine/burgundy polish i got from cotton on body in geelong for $1. neither of these polishes are great quality, but i love the colours, and they are my favourite cheap nail polishes in my collection.




sephora colorful duo - duo no.3
i bought this shadow duo because i'd wanted to have canucks-themed eye makeup when i went out to see a game once, but realized i was lacking a nicely pigmented blue shadow. the first time i used this duo, i wasn't sufficiently impressed, but after some more experimentation, i've come to quite like it.




benefit creaseless cream shadow/liner - pre-nup
this was a freebie from sephora. i haven't used it much, as i'm not big on pearly pink shadows, but i do love this because it really is creaseless! i'm also a sucker for the packaging.




rimmel three-sum - breath taking
this is my go-to shadow trio. if i don't have time to fuss about my shadow, i throw on the gold and pink (and that's pretty often).




too faced - pearl necklace & oscar
i bought these for about $5 each from nordstrom rack in seattle. (if you don't mind hunting around and possibly rubbing elbows with many people for deals, check this place out!) i became obsessed with finding the perfect gold shadow shortly after mac released their holiday 07 collection. i don't think i have the porcelain skin needed to pull off the gold-leafed-eye look from that advertising campaign, but i still like to play around with golds and whites. these are nice colours that i don't use often enough, but i absolutely adore the packaging!