Catch up & Etude House Review

Long time no post! Forever neglecting this blog but not for long (I hope) since I have a nice camera now! I received a Canon EOS 600D the other day as a gift from my father because he thought it would be useful in my career. I love him so much（´・｀ ）♡

I didn't have a nice camera before so it put me off from taking pictures often. I like my photos high quality and to be able to show true colour and detail, and with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus, colour and detail is often not possible. With the addition of a DSLR, hopefully I can post more!

Speed catch up! I'm in Hong Kong at the moment (Leaving in a two days -sobs-). That means, cheap(er) Japanese and Korean cosmetics yayyy!

Cosmetics and lenses @ Laforet (Causeway Bay, HK)

I finally picked up some Etude House products since I have always wanted to try them out. Mong Kok has an Etude House store now (Along with a Skinfood and Holika Holika). The other Etude location I know of is in Causeway Bay near Sogo and Laforet.

What did I buy?
- Precious Minerals BB Cream Bright Fit in W13 Natural Beige
- Lovely Cookie Blusher in Raspberry Tart
- Dear My Blooming Lips-Talk in Thrilling Red

*For reference: my skin is combination (Oily T-zone, normal everywhere else with some slightly drier spots).

 

Quick LA and AX2013 Recap (IMAGE HEAVY)

It's been a month oh my god. As previously mentioned, I traveled to Los Angeles for Anime Expo 2013! I'll just do some quick recaps because I've uploaded pictures onto my Ameblo blog already. Super delayed but here it is anyways!

My trip was from July 2nd - 8th. AX was July 4th - 7th.

Day 1:
- Arrive at LAX around 10:30AM, wait for friend from Vancouver who arrived an hour after
- Check into first hotel (Stayed for one night only)

Daiso swag from my Vancouver friend

- Roamed the area we called 'Downtown LA to the left' (Read: slightly ghetto) and downtown LA
- Went to massive City Target to buy some booze and bathing suits. Left with $120 worth of junk food, and some booze

Sprinkles cupcake I decided to eat before kbbq

 - Ate Korean BBQ for dinner (Which was really good, had an awesome server)

- Random explosion outside our hotel??? Probably fireworks
- Lazed around cuz we were tired.

Day 2:
- FREE BREAKFAST! Pancakes, but no maple syrup...just regular syrupヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ
- Rented a car, then checked into the JW Marriott!

Our view of the LACC!

The bootiful room

Obligatory hotel bathroom selfie

- Went to Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. It was so delicious *(*´∀｀*)☆

Best fried chicken + waffles NA

 - Walked around The Grove (Bought stuff at F21 OTL)

 - Killed 6 hours walking along Hollywood Blvd. Stared in awe at Hollywood and Highland

- Got back to JW (With many GPS troubles lol) around midnight
- Ordered margherita pizza from room service because hungry and lazy
- Worked on cosplay while watching the first episode of Free! 

Day 3 (AX Day 1):
- Got changed into Morgiana cosplay

Morgiana + Inori!

- Waited in line for 3 hours to get pre-reg passes (」゜ロ゜)」
- Visited friend at Funimation booth
- Went back to hotel to change into galaxy seifuku because too sweaty from waiting in line

- Roamed dealer's room for a bit
- Met up with people for dinner
- Worked on cosplay...again

Day 4 (AX Day 2):
- Changed into OTT gothic lolita coord (Unfortunately, no photo of this one > <)
- Went to LIZ LISA, Tralala and LIZ LISA Doll fashion show for a bit

Sorry about the shit picture, couldn't get close enough @_@

- Went to Cosplay Photographer's booth to visit friend
- Ate lunch at the Pantry Cafe
- Walked to City Target to buy more stuff
- Went through dealer's room thoroughly
- Met up with people and we got bombarded for pictures when we walked together
- CHANGED OUT BECAUSE TVXQ CONCERT AHHHHHHHHHHH 

HOLY SHIT THIS IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING

MY TICKET AHHH pleasedon'tlookattheprice

HOLY SHIT LOOK HOW CLOSE I AM

HOLY SHIT THEY'RE REAL

THEY'RE REALLLLLL

- Went for dinner and then worked on cosplay againnnn

Day 5 (AX Day 3):
- Woke up late and ran to George Wada's Attack on Titan panel

Lol at the folder names

- Went back to hotel to change into Mikasa cosplay
- Get pictures taken at Cosplay Photographer's booth

Mikasa cosplay!

- GOT A PICTURE WITH THE TALLEST COLOSSAL TITAN 

DREAM COME TRUE

- Change out because IT WAS TOO GOD DAMN HOT
- Dinner with new LA friends
- Tried to look for room parties and failed OTL (It sucks not knowing many people in a different city)
- Got haircuts in our rooms from new LA friend???

Day 6 (AX Day 4):
- Change into Ayanami Rei cosplay and checked out

With a Shinji!

- Dealer's room, BOUGHT THE $50 OFFICIAL K GUIDEBOOK TO MEET KANAME
- Went to Evangelion photoshoot, then left because I lost my phone OTL OTL OTL
- Found phone and then met Kaname and took a picture with him

MY FACE WAS TOO DERP OTL

- Last minute dealer's room shopping
- Closing ceremonies
- Bummed at new LA friend's place, went to awesome Korean cafe for dinner
- Watched Karneval and Cabin in the Woods

Day 7:
- Caught a cab to LAX early in the morning :(
- Flight to San Fran gets delayed 3 hours
- Get to San Fran, connecting flight already left
- Get rebooked to 10:00PM flight back to Toronto
- Flight to Toronto gets delayed to 12:30AM due to flood and rain

Day 8: Finally arriving home after almost 24 hours OTL OTL OTL

THE SWAG

K Official Guidebook: A MEMORY OF KINGS

Look at dat Mikoto

Cute Korilakkuma headphones!

Okita Souji figurine <3

I didn't really buy much because I already spent too much money...

And that's it pretty much.
Last weekend was Atomic Lollipop so there will be a short post about that soon!

Harajuku-kei inspired makeup & Hapa Izakaya eats

So today I tried out the new eyeshadow and pen eyeliner I got yesterday! I'm really happy with how my makeup looked today

It's hard to tell but I used the wine pen eyeliner and the the pink rosey eyeshadow on the lid and lower lashline, combined with a chocolate brown for depth for a Harajuku-kei inspired look, maybe channeling a bit of cult party with the amount of eyeshadow and the colour on the outer third of the lower lashline.

Excuse the bits of my bangs you see on the side of my face; this was the only way to see my eyebrows!

I wore this out on a girl's night out dinner with some friends at Hapa Izakaya today! Hapa had a deal on Groupon: $30 for $60 worth of food for 4+ people. This was my outfit (●´∀｀●)

I forgot to take more pictures of our food, but if you ever go there, you MUST try the Lobster Motoyaki! IT IS ABSOLUTE HEAVEN. Pardon my language but I think I jizzed my pants when I took the first bite. It's a steep price at $18.99 for a small serving but trust me, it is worth every bite. I only took two photos of our food (⌒_⌒;) From what I remember, we also ordered a Negitoro, Kobe Steak Bites, Ishi-yaki, Kinoko Ishi-yaki, Pork Belly Lettuce Wrap, Ahi Tuna Steak, Duck Poutine...and that's it?!

Ahi Tuna Steak

The wasabi dressing? Puree? I'm not sure, but it came with the Ahi Tuna Steak and it really makes this dish. It's not super spicy but the full wasabi flavour is there and compliments the tuna extremely well. The tuna is also very tender. A lovely dish indeed! I could eat the wasabi part by itself, that's how good it was!

Kinoko Ishikaya

In the end we (Five people) ended up paying roughly $7 each...which we flipped out about because we held back from ordering more because we thought we were at $20 per person. My friend clearly was not calculating correctly (´･_･`) We felt really bad and we almost told our server to take back the bill so we could order more food, but we settled on grabbing some froyo in the end.

Hapa also has Hapa Hour (Happy hour) where they have half off tapas! It's a separate menu and they also have a drink special during that time too I believe! It's from 5:30PM-6:30PM and I definitely want to give it a try!

New goodies (AKA haul)

Whoop! A haul post! I'll keep it nice and simple!


My red lenses finally arrived from Pinky Paradise! I ordered a pair of Vassen Dolly Plus Red lenses. I believe they're also known as the I.Fairy series? (Correct me if I'm wrong!)

Bottle-view

I ordered these for my Rei Ayanami cosplay (School uniform, not advanced enough yet to make the plugsuit OTL). I've also been wanting a pair of red lenses and from pictures, these seemed the best! They look absolutely stunning on! I'll make a separate post reviewing these when I get the time to wear them out properly haha!

Here's a not-so-good quality photo of them worn. I was just trying them on with makeup that day.

Red doesn't show up well in this lighting though :(

Next up, I bought two makeup items today ☆

A new liquid eyeliner pen! I already have my beloved Missha one (Which I still love to death) but this one isn't black. It's a wine coloured eyeliner pen! Super super fine brush tip makes it a dream to work with! How it wears, I'll find out in the following days when I wear it out!

Product name: CANDY★SHOP Professional Pen Eyeliner in #3 Wine

I also bought a new eyeshadow today. It was on sale for $2? $3? It's a slightly frosty rose/pink with a hint of maroon. I'm hoping to use it in some harajuku/cult party kei inspired makeup looks (*´・ｖ・)

Product name: Beauty Credit Lovely Eye Color - Dazzling Purple

Colour is a tad darker, must be the frost particles reflecting!

Here's a quick swatch of both products:

EXTRA: I haven't painted my nails in a while (´∇ﾉ｀*)ノ

Essie First base base coat

ORLY Liquid Vinyl

Essie Stroke of Brilliance (Luxeffect polish)

Seche Vite Dry fast top coat

Anime North 2013 Recap & Anime Expo prep

And I said I wasn't going to neglect this blog. Whoops!

Well in the time that has passed, I have graduated from makeup school (Yay!) and went to Anime North 2013! (●´∀｀●)

It's not going to be a long post because my entire AN2013 weekend was basically: changing into cosplay, walking around in cosplay and getting pictures taken, walk around artist alley, AWOI AND UMBRELLA, Sunday showcase. Pretty much.

To start off, Friday and Saturday morning I cosplayed Morgiana from Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.

Photo: Viewtiful Design

My favourite picture because 1) it's a nice photo and 2) it looks like I'm kicking some guy's ass!

Saturday afternoon I cosplayed default skin Caitlyn from League of Legends along with my friends. We had a group of about 8-10 people maybe? It was awesome! We got so many pictures taken! At one point we were stuck outside the Congress Centre in one spot and booked it out when we saw an opening!

Sadly I don't have a full outfit shot of myself (´Ａ｀。) Too busy doing other things and I had to change out quickly for the AWOI and Umbrella concert.

Photo: Noznom Media Expressions

Picture-less rants about Jrock stuff (Skip if needed):

As for the Awoi and Umbrella concert...IT WAS AMAZING. Ahhhh I suffered such a bad case of post-con depression because of these guys! Basically after the concert, I left my card key in my hotel room and the only other person with it was at the masquerade. My friend needed to go home and had left her stuff in my room so we sat in the lobby waiting. Shou from Awoi came out in his bathrobe + PJs (And red crocs...he has no shame). He ended up pulling a chair next to us and we chatted for while. Turns out he also left his card key upstairs and was also waiting for someone to find him!

Later on that night I ended up going back and forth between rooms (5th floor/12th floor) and gathered up my friends who needed to practice dancing for the Sunday Pop Idol Dance Showcase. Our 12th floor room was next to the bands' rooms so we kept running into each other in the elevator at 2AM (They were getting wasted obviously). We decided to practice in the lobby...where they were winding down from their party. Basically Jrockers watched me and friends dance Kpop in pajamas in a hotel lobby. Awoi's manager kept talking to us because she likes Kpop and got Shin (Awoi) and Hal (Umbrella) to join us and they tried to dance with us! It was the funniest thing in the world haha!

On Sunday, after the Q&A, I retreated back to our hotel lobby to have some noms. Both bands came back to the hotel to take off their makeup and such. Shou could recognize us from a mile away by now OTL After coming back down to the lobby, Shou came over to chat with us again, followed by Ryo shortly after. My friend showed off his yoyo skills (He's a yoyo player) which amazed Shou and Ryo, who ended up calling over the rest of the band members! We were in a massive circle just freaking out in Japanese and English. Hal came forward and asked to try, to which he started whipping out all these yoyo tricks! Turns out he was a yoyo player for 15 years! 

You learn interesting things about people in these situations!

END OF JROCK STUFF RANT :3

By the way, here's the link to the Pop Idol Dance Showcase videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PopIdolDanceShowcase


I performed Like This by Wonder Girls (As Yubin) and I Got A Boy by Girls' Generation (As Yoona)

ANIME EXPO 2013

Now this year I took a leap and decided to go to Anime Expo! Flights and hotels have been booked, 4-day pass has been bought, and now all that's left is to wait (And finish cosplays)!

I'm planning to bring Morgiana to AX2013, as well as Rei Ayanami (School uniform ver.), an OTT gothic lolita coord, and hopefully Mikasa Ackerman from Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan). Hopefully because I haven't started and I really need to! ヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ Money is just tight from the flight and hotel expenses so I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish it by then.


Wish me luck!

Finally, a post! Haul: Holika Holika, Real Technique, China Glaze, Circle Lenses

So I've made a couple posts here before but coming back to it a couple months later, I decided I wasn't satisfied with them. Therefore, I have decided to start anew and in the time I have spent neglecting this blog, I think I finally decided what this blog will be about.

Okay, kind of not really, but I generally will be talking about beauty (Yes, I will be an addition to the 19234820+ beauty blogs out there), music and interesting bits of my life. By interesting bits, I'm not talking daily life blog, but things like conventions, special events, interesting finds, good food and maybe some lolwut posts.


Finally, here is the first post to the blog! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧彡

To start off, I have a haul here and some small reviews on the haul items. I recently went to Pacific Mall to pick up contacts for myself and a friend and while I was there, I picked up some things from Holika Holika and Phoenix Beauty Lounge. I returned to Pmall today to grab a two more things, a China Glaze polish and a new pair of shoes!

Onto the items!