what i got for christmas!

hi guys! so here are some of the things i got for christmas! some i asked for, some were given, but since we've got the new house, we got a ton of house stuff! i decided against photographing those items because they're random household things, like kitchen stuff, organization stuff, new home owner-y things. there were some decor items too which i will probably photograph at a later time, when the walls are less barren. ~Lindsay
so let's start this on a totally fun and awesome note. my uncle found this at a candy store in a local outlet mall, and knew this was perfect. and i was pretty impressed and surprised by the find. it's a it'sugar crave japan snack box, and it's pretty great. it came with a card with some descriptions of each item, each item has a translated nutrition facts label, and it came with a discount card, $5 off 'your next subscription' at cravejapan.com, code: DINOFUEL (exp. 3/25/18). i am kind of sad that 5 or so items are chocolate, but paul can enjoy those. either way, i thought it was pretty cool to try a bunch of snacks i've never seen in stores before. so far, i've consumed the melon ramune, kanro pure gummies, and uha shigekikkusu soda candies. melon ramune is one of my favorite flavors of ramune, and the pure gummies were really good. the soda candies were kind of weird, like they reminded me of pine brothers throat drops in texture and i was pretty indifferent about the taste.

next, let's go to the random side of things. i asked for a few (4) pairs of smartwool socks. and i ended up with not four, but NINE pairs of wool socks. i think i won't need new ones for a while...

ok, i lied, but only a little. decor. my mother in-law went to target and got two bird armies (sets for each of us) because $2.50 each. uhh yes. also, sidenote, they all have names on their tags. so cute!

so, the things you may be here for. the actual makeup/skincare things.
first and foremost, because they're in the photo... my brother in-law bought me a slidebelt a few years ago because i thought they'd be cool, and i wanted to get a different color this year, so he got me this one! second, T got my ReLife because it's amazing and the manga is amazing, and (mini rant and sidenote) how are they going to do the finale in only 4 episodes?! ugh. anyway i can't wait til they're released. and lastly, sky organics (kids) bath bombs, because the adult set was nice and i want to be a kid again, lol. no not really, but i think i'd be more inclined to like these scents because they're more kid-friendly. not only that, i'm interested in the pokemanz toys that are inside. 😆

a few makeup-y things that i asked for were the em cosmetics illustrator collection, which is their new eyeliner set (pencil, felt and brush tip liquid liners). i also got a few makeup geek eyeshadows. i didn't swatch havoc below because i'm pretty sure i've got swatches of it a few times in random posts on here, and the swatch photos on the site are pretty good too. from sigma, i'm running low on sigmagic which is actually pretty good, despite feeling kind of underwhelmed by it initially. and i also got the 3DHD brush because it's massive and intriguing? lastly, we've got some mineral fusion nail polishes, a top coat and the shade brick.

em pencil, brush liner, felt liner; mug sand dollar, pillow talk

autumn 2017 walmart beauty box -- trendsetter

hi guys! so let's talk about the walmarts... i haven't decided what i want to do exactly -- if i want to keep this subscription or not, but i haven't been too thrilled with them the past few months. ~Lindsay
if you'd like to subscribe, you can sign up here for $5 a box per quarter.

first off, there was the email faux pas. in september, i among a few(?) others got stuck in a lovely email loop, where i was receiving 3 emails per minute at a grand total of 205 in about TWO HOURS until they stopped the job. these emails weren't anything important either. 'please make sure your mailing address is correct.'
200 times. my phone practically died from all the ringing, until i finally found where they hid the fetch setting. STAHP ALL THE EMAILIN'!

Anyone else subscribed to the @Walmart #walmart #walmartbeauty #walmartbeautybox and received over 90 emails (and counting) in 30 minutes? Because apparently I’m stuck in an endless loop, getting about 3 per minute.

A post shared by LindsayCH (@lindsaydamodel) on Sep 26, 2017 at 10:13am PDT

i took to a few social medias and emailed them with basically a WTF, and all i received was a boring: 'well you'll only be charged one time when the box ships.' why thank you, i thought i'd be charged 205 times, today! they didn't even provide a status as to why i got stuck in the email loop, and it took them more than a day to send an apology email. and thankfully, there was only one of those! 😉

secondly, this is BS. (screenshot taken from: https://beautybox.walmart.com/how-it-works/)

if you recall (or click the handy post tag), the last time i received a walmart beauty box was in JULY. this box arrived in early december, maybe 3 weeks ago. this is the FALL box. i feel like every box over the past maybe two years (have i had this subscription that long?), every email for each box, and each box for that matter, came two weeks to a month after when i would expect, considering these supposed dates.

anyway, rant complete. onto the products!

1. plackers flossers -- these are pretty cool. my mom probably has a mountain of these somewhere, but i don't.
   repurchase? may not need to.
2. hello whitening toothpaste -- i'm 90% certain they sent me one of these in the past. if not, that 10% of doubt goes to a target box. either way, i'm not a fan of the hello toothpastes, because maybe 15 minutes after i brush, my mouth doesn't feel clean anymore.
   repurchase? no
3. body fantasies mix and match body sprays -- i don't really use body sprays anymore because where am i going, who am i impressing? people in my high school had like two or three these and sprayed them multiple times a day. blehh. anyway, this is getting passed along.
   repurchase? no
4. gold bond ultimate hydrating cream radiance renewal -- i think it's because of the coconut oil, but this smells like sunscreen and it's kind of weird. i don't really associate coconuts to moisturizer.. anyway, i think i'm going to pass this along..
   repurchase? no
5. soo ae donkey milk sleeping mask -- i'm very interested in trying this out. it's basically a nighttime moisturizer and it's asian, which is cool.
   repurchase? maybe
6. tresemme extra firm control hair spray-- this is the good stuff! i do and don't appreciate this being included. i don't in that, i've gotten these before, but i do in that travel sized hair sprays are what i need since i don't hairspray.
   repurchase? yes
7. shea moisture shampoo and conditioner sample in coconut & hibiscus -- i haven't used these products from this brand before, so i'm interested in trying them!
   repurchase? no
8. nivea lotion samples -- these will get passed along, i'm probably not going to need lotion for a long time......
9. olay toner sample -- this will get passed along. i'm happy with my current skincare routine.

december 2017: sephora play!

hi guys! it's late again, but i'm trying to catch up here today and tomorrow. anyway, my sephora play! arrived less than 2 weeks ago and here are my initial thoughts. note - i only kept 1 item because i don't typically use these kinds of products. (theme: the 2017 play list) ~Lin-chan ^.~

1. smashbox cover shot shadows from the golden hour eye palette (turned on & psyched) -- the sole item i kept from this bag! i'm not sure which shade is which, but they're both pretty. i'm not sure i like using them both at the same time though because they kind of blend into one another. either way, i really like the formula and color of these!
   repurchase? probably not
2. drybar triple sec hair texturizer -- i like never use these. i don't really need/want volume.. so it got passed along.
   repurchase? no
3. laura mercier eye basics (primer) in wheat -- this was a fairly neutral shade, slightly tan for my skintone. honestly, i'm not huge into tinted eye primers because they sometimes change the color of the shadows applied over it, and i have plenty enough eye primer that i decided i probably don't need it.
   repurchase? nah
4. peter thomas roth 24 karat gold lift & firm cream -- passed this along because i'll never get around to using it..
   repurchase? no
5. anastasia lip gloss in vintage -- passed this along because glosses, and online swatches didn't seem to match me anyway.
   repurchase? no
6. tom ford black orchid perfume sample -- passed this along, don't remember the scent but i think it was a pretty strong one.
   repurchase? no
7. 'coupon' for an extra 50 points on the next in-store purchase
8. info card - i really liked how they had random facts about the sephora play! subscription. it's kind of neat to know how many people are subscribed from each state, and other random facts!

cyber two weeks and other recent hauls

hi guys! so online shopping is a bigger thing this year, and a lot of places were doing sales for like "black friday week" and "cyber [monday] week" thus...two weeks of sales. also, a few items snuck into a few late/last minute photos i was taking....so we're just going to rename this post to 'and other recent' hauls..... 😉 ~Lindsay

cyber deals
popsugar must have sale -- i can't remember the exact deal, but it worked out to be 3 boxes for about $60 (august through november 2017), which is awesome considering they're $40 a month. i ordered two for me (october and november), and another as a gift.
beautylish black friday bioderma sale -- they've done this for the last year or more, where you get a free travel size with each 500mL bottle you buy, and it's $30 to get free shipping, so i just got the 3(6) pack for $45ish? something like that. i won't need micellar water for a loooong time!

october, november

tarte tarteist pro glow to go palette

sephora sent out coupons to everyone. this year's rouge coupon was $25 off $50, so i ordered another fenty foundation in 140 and a nude beautyblender. i also redeemed points for the new beautyblender pro cleanser bar because it's $45 for a 5oz bar! that's crazy! but maybe it'll be awesome? who knows..
while i was at it...i bought more sponges! all of the blenders! i got a set of lamora sponges from amazon for like $13. i was also at target and got the blue sponge for $5, not sure of the brand because there were only two stickers on the container: the barcode and the price, and i tossed it. for those interested, i found these sponges on an endcap in the makeup section with other minis, and i approve! i also got two nugg masks, one for the face and their lip mask. the lip mask is only ok, it's basically blistex ointment in a pot for more money..? idk. then, at walmart, i saw these soo ae masks and needed to try them!

PlannerStudio on etsy was having a black friday deal 30 sheets of mi'me's for $30 in skin/hair colors of choice. uh heck yes. not only that, she allowed for 5 keywords to cater the random pulls. there are a couple duplicates, but for the most part, she was spot on with some sheets that i wanted, which was super exciting! her shop is definitely worth the wait! (note: these sheets are about the size of a baseball card)

other recent haul things
sephora -- saw tracy and stephanie talking about this sephora favorites set at jcp and had to get it! as mentioned earlier, buy all the beautyblenders! i love all nighter and tattoo liner, smashbox primer's pretty good, and three other things to try? heck yes! then, makeup forever appears to have repackaged (reformulated too??) their artist eyeshadows, so i got 3 (M532, ME912, ME840) and a large pan to try! (you get some kind of discount when you buy them with cases..) and i don't recall how i redeemed them, but i also obtained a mini tom ford lipstick in indian rose and too faced milk chocolate soleil bronzer.
makeup geek was doing a 12 days of christmas sale, and i had been eyeing their nude palette for a while now, but couldn't bring myself to buy it because i already had half of the shades in it. when i saw that they were offering the always quad with the 4 new shadows, i jumped on it because these were what i wanted from that palette!

stila patina, tarte stunner

M532, ME912, ME840, so pale, buffed, creased, dark roast -- swatched over primer

tom ford indian rose, too faced milk chocolate

ulta -- these guys have been ridiculously awesome this year. all of the crazy awesome brands that they're now carrying, in a week or two they're going to announce their new tier of membership (which will likely be akin to rouge status), and of course the points become dollars off your purchase. yes. anyway, they sent out yet another 20% off everything including prestige... and i'm about halfway down my tarte maracuja eye cream, so i decided to get another, and get a backup it cosmetics bye bye under eye corrector in light. i also got two tony moly sheet masks, and they were offering mystery bags, which i'll probably give most of away because i'm not going to use it. but awesome nonetheless!

OWML 2nd anniversary box -- sooo many goodies!!!

OMWL & TCMC december/end of year stickers

another 2 weeks of hellofresh

hi guys! we ordered hellofresh again. this time they sent us a coupon for $50 off two boxes. so we decided to reactivate again, and also give them our new address so they'll stop mailing our apartment which will no longer be ours after this month. anyway, here's what we got this time! ~Lindsay ^.~
for those interested in the recipes below, please visit my google drive folder.

so, as i sit here modifying a copy from my post from earlier this year, i see that i talked about how the packaging changed, well guess who took pictures of all the aforementioned changes this time because a coworker was inquiring about the service...?
🙋

week 1 meal choices:

1. Lemongrass Chicken Legs
2. Crispy Cheddar Frico Cheeseburgers
3. Fig & Rosemary NY Strip Steak

Lemongrass Chicken Legs
paul made this. despite how simple this was, this was a quick and easy recipe. and it was delicious! the chicken had great flavor and it was nice to have bok choy again! we need to figure out where you can buy lemongrass. i'm sure you can get it at like whole foods... maybe one of the local international markets carries it too?

Crispy Cheddar Frico Cheeseburgers
i made this. this is the first time i've ever made burgers. granted, this recipe was literally take the meat and mold it, salt and pepper both sides. so i didn't do too much there... but this was a lot easier to make than it thought it would be! and we'll definitely make this one again!

Fig & Rosemary NY Strip Steak

i made this. i have developed an appreciation for fingerling potatoes. they're so cute and small! the sauce was really good for this, and i somehow managed to cook our steaks perfectly! we normally get thinner cuts, so i'm not used to cooking a thicker cut like this. anyway, this is another that we'll be making again!

week 2 meal choices:

1. Creamy Dill Chicken
2. Saucy Thyme Steak
3. Moo Shu Pork Tacos

Creamy Dill Chicken
paul made this. this was ok. i'm not huge into chicken breast, but the dill sauce made it better. and potatoes and green beans are potatoes and green beans..?

Saucy Thyme Steak

i made this. so i'm not sure i'd almandine my sweet potatoes again... but this dish was otherwise freakin awesome. the only problem with recreating this one is that we don't know what's in the beef demi-glace, maybe you can buy this in the store.. or there's probably recipes for it online somewhere.. anyway, it was really good!

Moo Shu Pork Tacos

i made this. this was super simple and easy to make! the hardest and most annoying part was chopping the mushrooms..which in hindsight, i probably could have put into a food processor.... anyway, this recipe was supposed to be like for 4 tacos, they sent us 6, and there was definitely enough filling to make two more, for a total of 8. no judgement. also, as someone who doesn't like mayo, hoisin mayo is really good, but maybe that's because i love hoisin already! but it was really good and we probably will make this one again too!

overall, these two weeks were pretty awesome. we picked out things that were relatively simple to make and we enjoyed pretty much all of them. so i'm very happy with these and now we've got some new recipes for later!