july 2015 empties

hi guys! i used up a bunch of small things this time! ~Lin-chan ^.~

1. burts bees herbal blemish stick
2. too faced primed & poreless primer
3. tree hut coconut lime sugar scrub
4. simple cleansing facial wipes
5. shiseido facial cotton -- these are a great value for the money. yes $9.50 is a high initial cost, buuut there's 165 cloths inside. and they hold up really well with micellar water.
   repurchase? yes, already did!
6. body shop pink grapefruit body wash -- smells like you cut a fresh grapefruit for an instant..then smells extremely artificial...works well but not for me.
   repurchase? nah
7. body shop vineyard peach body wash -- smelled like peaches but, again, artificial. weird. i do like the tangerine a lot though.
   repurchase? nah
8. caress burnt brown sugar & karite butter body wash -- this is a really yummy diabeetus scented sugary goodness..but i'm not totally sure that i want to smell like it.
   repurchase? maybe
9. caress white peach & orange blossom body wash -- i picked this up not realizing how floral it was..and this is not a me type of floral. at the very least, the scent faded fairly quickly
   repurchase? no
10. yes to cucumbers soothing facial towelettes -- these were pretty nice, the scent was pleasant and it fairly decently removed even eye makeup. but it did burn my eyes a little bit.
    repurchase? no
11. urban decay ink for eyes -- i love all things liner in urban decay perversion......or so i thought. most of my issue is with the felt tip. the formula is awesome. the application is not so much. it's short, which makes it difficult to work with, especially if you're using the tip all of the time. that said, it also wears out the tip a lot faster than you'd want. anyway, this guy is getting that sticky feel to it, like when you apply it. so i'm just ready to let this one go.
    repurchase? no
12. gilette satin care with a touch of olay shave gel -- this was pretty good. i actually tried a mini of this last year when we went on the cruise and it was ok then too. i still prefer the aveeno shave gel.
    repurchase? no

[not pictured]

1. candles by victoria tiffanyd soap
2. pantene sheer volume shampoo & conditioner -- got a giant liter from sams. i love pantene, and this one's no exception.
   repurchase? yes
3. loreal voluminous miss manga black angel in extra black -- i honestly don't see much difference with this mascara compared to others. it doesn't create the same type of separation as the original miss manga, but it's still really nice and i enjoyed using it.
   repurchase? maybe
4. maybelline matte + poreless powder in translucent -- this is a really nice powder. it feels great and lightweight and keeps me fairly matte. i'm not sure how i like this in comparison to the rimmel stay matte, but it's pretty close. this one compact lasted me about 4 bottles of the corresponding foundation, applied once daily.
   repurchase? maybe

july hauls

here's a few things i bought this past month! and teh paul came back from europe with some foreign lindt goodies! ~Lin-chan ^.~

germany somewhere....lindt yogurt strawberry rhubarb & strawberry panna cotta

makeupgeek: they were having 10% off mug products so i went ahead. marlena's always raving about the gel liner in immortal, so i got one. then i wanted a second soft dome brush, and i've been wanting to get baby face eyeshadow. also, i've been wanting to get a vera mona colorswitch, so i bought a solo from them as well.

babyface, immortal

ulta: urban decay naked smoky palette -- i was good and waited for it to become available on the ulta side...because i had over 1000 points ($50 off) accumulated..and so this palette was basically free =D

sephora (multiple orders): bite beauty limited lab release lipstick for july (snapdragon), becca x jacklynhill highlight in champagne pop, kat von d tattoo liner in trooper (5th anniversary limited edition packaging), ardency inn modster eyeshadow in rose gold, boscia luminizing black mask, [not pictured shiseido facial cloths], [freebies with codes or points: boscia pore purifying black magic set, too faced born this way in vanilla, formula x minis in white matter & riotous, alterna caviar repair heat protection spray, becca shimmering skin perfector poured in opal], and i renewed my vib status! eeeeeep!

champagne pop, rose gold, trooper, snapdragon, so rouge

bite snapdragon

marc jacobs so rouge -- is it bad that i really like the color and fomula of this? 买到所有的东西！

1. beyond the rack*: they sent me a $15 off $30 code..so i had to use it, and they just so happened to have michael todd on sale at the time, so i got: tropical fruit enzyme exfoliant scrub, charcoal detox deep pore gel cleanser, and wild berry exfoliating peel
2. ulta: essence gel-look plumping gel topcoat & lip liner in soft berry
3. walmart: burt's bees targeted spot treatment
4. amazon: l.a. girl matte pigment lip gloss in dreamy

becca opal--poured, dreamy, soft berry

la girl dreamy--it sticks to your teeth at first (as shown). but once it's dry, it's great!

essence soft berry--can you tell i'm tired after a long day at work. yep......

colourpop (2 orders): lippie stix & pencils in button and frida, shadows in nillionaire, on the rocks, to-a-t, and summer lovin, ultra matte liquid lipsticks in solow & midi

solow, midi; button and frida; summer lovin, nillionaire, on the rocks, to-a-t

solow

midi

button pencil, button lippie stix over button pencil

frida pencil, frida lippie stix over frida pencil

aromaleigh cosmetics: ok, so after courtney (phyrra) posted this amazingness, i had to try. yall know i'm not a pigment girl, but these were too beautiful. so i got: theodora (full size), this is my design (sampler) set, sample baggies of krampus & hydra, and a mini jar of phylira. she also threw in a few freebies in sample baggies (including one blush) and a mini jar of shadow (grazie mille). swatches to come later, because holy &!@#$^ that's a ton of baggies! [see swatch post here]

photo with size comparisons; plus freebies

this is my design set

july 2015 favorites & regrets

hi guys! july was a kinda hectic month for me. teh paul finally came back from his eurotrip adventure and then we moved!!! and craziness man. so that's why i don't have a ton of favorites, but anyway here you go!~Lin-chan ^.~

favorites:

blushed nudes palette (top 1, 3, 5, 6; bottom 3); amaze, summer lovin, rose gold, baby face, trooper

1. maybelline blushed nudes palette -- this one's a surprising one. i bought it on a whim, even after seeing many reviews, but i need more rose gold palettes, right? anyway, compared to the naked3, this is not that great, but for a drugstore palette, it is freaking fantastic. granted, i keep gravitating toward the same 5 shadows and not really the rest of the palette, but it's still really great. it takes a little more effort to pack on color, but it blends very nicely.
2. kat von d five fearless years tattoo liner -- i already mentioned her tattoo liner on here, before, but omg the packaging on this one. yes it is more expensive than the regular packaging, but it's limited edition and contributes to a good cause. so whatevs. anyway, i'm loving going back to this liner!
3. ardency inn modster manuka honey eyeshadow in rose gold -- this is so freaking pretty. this has been on my sephora list for forever since it's been out of stock (like over a year?, with email alerts), and i ordered it when i got the chance! someone i follow on youtube a loooong ways back was talking about this particular shadow, and it is soooo freaking pretty. it's not exactly my definition of rose gold...but it's still super pretty.
1. ps, this is magnetized into the container, so it's super easy to depot!
4. colourpop super shock shadows in amaze and summer lovin -- we already know that i love their shadows......anyway, these are really pretty (i'm on a gold or rosy gold kick right now, can't ya tell?) and i'm super glad they brought back summer lovin (i think was limited edition again, when i got it)..
5. makeup geek baby face eyeshadow -- this is basically my skintone, but that's why i like it. and it's matte.

random favorites: the new apartment! what else!? so as i've mentioned a few times already, we've moved! we're actually just down the street from where we were before, since this is where the larger 2 bedroom apartments are. eventually, when i actually have time.....i will try to post pictures, once we're done. (and i have yet to bring all of my crap from my mom's here, my rough deadline is my cousin's wedding on halloween, so that relatives can stay over.)

regrets: revlon colorstay oily/combination in 200 nude -- first off, i have no photo because i bought this and returned it two days later. i had a couple issues with this product, despite hearing great things about it. first off, the color. i tried my best to research the color and grab other foundations to compare through the bottles.....this one is actually darker than how it appears in the bottle, or at least that's my impression. with that, it was orangy on me. secondly the scent. i have no idea why they'd put a fragrance/scent in the foundation, but it's no good, didn't like it. i will say that the staying power was about what i expected or wanted, but the scent was off-putting enough that i didn't want to trade for a lighter shade.

target back to college beauty boxes

hi guys! sorry this is a bit late! i sent these to the in-laws' because of the move! anyway, here ya go. these were $5 each. the theme was back to college, and the boxes were "head of the class" and "honor roll". ~Lin-chan ^.~

honor roll box ($5)

1. bathery delicate pouf (ret. $1.99) -- it's a shower pouf...what else is there to say?
   repurchase? probably, i always use these.
2. john frieda luxurious volume 7-day treatment (1oz--mini, ret. $8.99 for 4oz [$2.25]) -- i got a free sample of this from the target sample page a couple months back..haven't used it. i might pass it to a friend and try the other one.
   repurchase? probably not
3. covergirl outlast all day primer (1oz--full size, ret. $9.79) -- i've been eyeing this primer, but didn't want to shell out $10 at the drugstore for it...thankfully it was included here so i don't have to, and i do have a lot of primers in my stash to go through still......... it has the watery lotion-y type texture and doesn't have the silicone-y slip that i like, but we'll see how it performs.
   repurchase? maybe
4. nyx butter gloss in strawberry parfait (full size, ret. $4.99) -- i think i'll give this one away. this isn't a me color.
   repurchase? not this shade
5. goody ouchless elastics (3 elastics, (price varies) ret. about $4.59 for 37 count [$0.37]) -- more hair ties!
   repurchase? maybe
6. burt's bees white tea facial wipes (10 wipes--mini, ret. $5.99 for 30 wipes [$2]) -- got these in one of the boxes around christmas time, and i thought that these were only ok....
   repurchase? nah
7. olay white strawberry body wash (3oz--mini, ret. $4.99 for 23.6oz [$0.63]) -- this has a really nice scent. it says it's strawberry and mint..but i think it leans more strawberries and cream with a hint of something extra. this is something else i've been eyeing, but i don't need to buy more body wash right now..
   repurchase? maybe
8. card with product info & $3 off $15 beauty purchase coupon at target

approximate product value: ~$22.02

head of the class box ($5)

1. hollywood fashion tape (6 strips--mini, ret. $8.89 for 36 strips [$1.48]) -- i already love this brand of fashion tape. it works so well and lasts pretty much all day--or at least long enough for your event. they also have hem tape, which i'm interested in trying to see how well that holds up. if you adhere them to your skin for prolonged periods of time, you might get irritation (i did).
   repurchase? probably, i always keep these on hand.
2. wet n wild max volume plus mascara in amp'd black (full size, ret. $4.99) -- always interested in a new mascara!
   repurchase? maybe
3. herbal essences wild naturals dry oil spray (2.8oz--full size, ret. $5.99) -- it has a very nice fruity-floral-y scent. can't wait to try it!
   repurchase? maybe
4. bathery luxury pumice stone (ret. $1.99) -- it's a pumice stone..what else should i say..? the blue part is more of a foamy thingie..
   repurchase? probably not, since they last forever and i have some in use already
5. goody ouchless elastics (3 elastics, (price varies) ret. about $4.59 for 37 count [$0.37]) -- more hair ties!
   repurchase? maybe
6. yes to cucumbers facial wipes (10 wipes--mini, ret. $2.99) -- i haven't tried anything yes to yet, and i've been wanting to try these. tried one out, and they take off makeup pretty well, but aren't super great on stubborn eye makeup. slightly burns the eyes a bit, but has a cooling effect on the skin. smells like cucumbers!
   repurchase? maybe
7. card with product info & $3 off $15 beauty purchase coupon at target

approximate product value: ~$17.81

week six!

hi guys! more training yadda yadda. also, when i get a chance, and when everything's set up, i'll post some pics of the new apartment. sorry that i never got around to it at the last one, but we were there 4 years and it was kinda a mess. ~Lin-chan ^.~

monday: i spent most of the day working on taking notes from the w3schools html tutorial site. for lunch, because we moved over the weekend, i didn't have time to make lunch, so i ordered through that website i mentioned before. the one that delivers to our office at noon.. so it was a local cafe/sandwich shop, and i got a panini with prosciutto, apple slices, and a cheese that i've never heard of before and don't remember the name of.... think crumbly like feta, but melts a little. and it came with a honey mustard sauce, but i had it on the side..and that was a good idea. it was a lil spicy for me and i don't like mustard in general.

tuesday: i took more html notes, then i went over the css and javascript tutorials. afterward, i started to play with the the new software that we downloaded. it's basically a gui for writing code and you can split-screen it to preview what you're doing. it's similar to this program we used in my classes. the person our supervisor introduced to us gave us some challenges to work on--making an app is the first one. for lunch, we went to sam's monday night, so i made a nice salad. leftover rotisserie chicken, mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, sweet peppers (the little bell peppers), and mushrooms---yum!

wednesday: i spent more time playing with the programming gui thing and my cr-app, and referencing the javascript tutorials. the past several days, i haven't been getting adequate sleep, so i've been useless most of the morning until after lunch. it's pretty bad for productivity....... and for lunch, because i got all caught up in swatching some haul stuff that's been waiting to be touched on tuesday night...i forgot to make something. so i went with everyone else to the seafood cafe place that i got the crawfish & crab pasta that last time. this time, i got catfish with some sort of sauce and crawfish on top, fried okra, and green beans. it was teh yums! after work, we finally went car shopping for teh paul. we went over to carmax to hassle-free test drive a couple of his options. we're acutally 99% certain we're going to get him a new car just because of availability and new price relative to used price (they're 2014-15 models). afterward, we checked out home goods...because a few of the youtubes people talk about it occasionally and i wanted to know what it was all about. think tj maxx or marshalls home and kitchen departments..but wayyy expanded. and that makes sense because it's part of their parent company..so yeah. we didn't end up getting anything, but it was nice to check it out.

thursday: ya know that productivity discussion we had for wednesday... yeah it ended up being the whole day. i was useless the entire day. for whatever reason, i didn't get back into the swing of things even after lunch. super lethargic and not enough sleep. i went through more of the javascript tutorial and changed like 2 really minor things on my app.... for lunch, wednesday night, i somehow gave myself enough time to make another of tuesday's salad. and it was yums again. yay!

friday: i finally made progress on my app. i got it to round my currency converter correctly, and i got it to correctly invert any inputted text. neato. it still looks like a crap basic website though.... haven't totally figured out how to manipulate it for our needs and look super nifty and app-y. and that was kinda the whole day....hard to concentrate. for lunch, thursday night i made baked salmon (also from sams) with some zea's thai sauce on top, onigiri with shiso and ebi furikake, and "northwest blend" veggies (frozen, from sam's) in some coconut oil. anyway, car shopping tomorrow. we might get the one tomorrow. i'm leaning toward the mazda3 (compared to corolla) because for about $1500 more, i'd rather not have the road noise. that's just me and that's a near negligible amount when buying a brand new vehicle.

hope you guys had a great week!

my first week with the bellabeat leaf

hi guys! today i bring you my first week's impressions of the bellabeat leaf*! this is a health tracker, and it looked nice, like a piece of jewelry (which is one of it's marketing points..smart jewelry....), and i wanted to give it a try since i suck at everything health related. it came with a bracelet and necklace. last month, they emailed us about getting an extra necklace (different design) for being an early adopter. for whatever reason, they chose not to include it in the package without an explanation that they would be sending it later (i emailed them asking about it).

i could be crazy, but i feel like i read somewhere that they were going to include the special screw driver so that we could change the batteries...didn't see that in the box and i'm not too sure that everyone would have the means to unscrew this guy... the screws have a similar star pattern as the ones in my iphone 6, but slightly with larger heads.

it did take me several tries to figure out how to use the bracelet. even after reading the user manual, i was still kinda confused. so just try it a few times til you get it right!

the app
first and foremost, the features of the app that i have not used are: contraceptive reminder alarms, breathing exercises (or whatever they call it..), wake-up alarm (it seems like the phone has to be bluetoothed all night), and alarm (idk why you'd need a separate alarm....).

i do know and acknowledge that this is a brand new product, so the app is not perfect and has bugs here and there, but here's the issues i had with it as of now.

when you first download and open the app, it asks for your birthday, weight, height, and date of your last cycle. not that this totally matters, but my birthday for some reason would not save correctly. it would change it to a couple days before....so i tried a couple days after, and it finally stayed right... weird. [don't forget, i'm supposedly going to be an app architect once all my training is done--oversights happen. LOL.]

synchronizing the leaf with the app -- this works via bluetooth, and it's only ok. after the initial sync to the app, the app remembers your device (if necessary, you can un-pair and re-pair it with your phone). the thing i'm iffy about with the sync-ing is that, after hitting the sync button, it asks you to double tap the leaf unit for the app to "find" it. sometimes i would double-tap the leaf for like 15-30 seconds before the app would respond. so hopefully that'll be something that gets fixed or something.

the sleep quality/monitoring aspect isn't perfect, but it's pretty close--if you want, you can manually adjust the time that you were asleep---it was off by about 2 hours the first night. the cycle tracker seems pretty accurate, it estimates when your next one is. needless to say, mine feel within the past week or so, and i had to manually adjust the day that it actually started; i think it came a little later than usual because of the stress from moving. (tmi, i know, but hey it's fairly close!)

i've got extremely mixed feelings about the pedometer and inactivity alarm, which go hand in hand. i wish the setting for the inactivity alarm was a little more intuitive. 1 to 5 levels of activities means crap to me. because apparently a 3 is like not moving around for 3 hours??? or something. i don't really know. one day, i was sitting at my desk at work, and shortly after coming back from the bathroom it started to vibrate for the inactivity alarm---uhhh i just took a short walk. wtf. other examples......... we like moved apartments and stuff. the day that my family came to help us move, sure maybe i did do 13000 steps. that's logical. but on a day that teh paul and i moved 3? car loads in and out of two different apartments, and running up and down the stairs--i only had 4000 steps? and this was including the steps i took while at work that day. i'm 99% certain that the way you wear the device depends on how effective the pedometer is. the 4000 steps day was the necklace, and the 13k moving day steps was clipped to my shirt (as shown in my instagram photo). and the day that the inactivity alarm went off shortly after coming back from the bathroom--that was the bracelet. so i really am not sure what is going on with this....

the verdict
anyway, overall it's been an interesting experience. i'll still keep using it and testing it out, it is a first generation! anyway, aside from my uncertainty with the pedometer/inactivity alarm, i've been enjoying this. i've even gotten compliments on it---"oh i like your necklace!" thanks! it's a health tracker. "what!?" yeeeep. ^_^ was it worth the $100 i paid for it (i had a coupon code, it's regularly $119)? yes, i think it was.
~Lindsay-chan ^.~

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