MAC Glamour Daze Collection Haul!

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry the blog hasn't been seeing a lot of love lately, but the weather here has been awful and I haven't really been able to find good lighting to take photographs. Luckily though the weather let up for a little bit today and I snapped some photos of some products I picked up from one of MAC's new collections, Glamour Daze!

- Easy Manner Blush

- Evening Grey, Stolen Moment, and Round Midnight eyeshadows

- Catch My Eye Fluidline

- Talk Softly to Me and Deliciously Demure lip glasses

- Innocence and Outrageously Fun lipsticks

- All for Glamour Touch Up Kit

I am in love with the packaging for this collection! Though the items in this collection are quite expensive, especially with the face kits, I think that you can really see where your money is going in terms of packaging. Some of the other eyeshadow kits didn't interest me because even though the packaging was beautiful, the quality of the eyeshadows themselves were just not worth it, in my opinion. I'm really excited to test all these out and will definitely try to have reviews up as soon as possible!

And since we were on the topic of the weather earlier, I just want to wish all of you east-coasters good luck in the face of the hurricane. Stay safe guys! <3

Perfume Haul!

On my way back from Japan, I was perusing the aisles of the airport shopping mall and found some things that I really liked! Having bought so much makeup already in department stores and small Japanese boutiques, I wasn't really looking for more makeup. However, I found three perfumes that I really loved and have been wanting to try.

Ralph Lauren Polo for Women #2 is one that I've been wanting to buy for a while. I first tried it out about a year ago and have loved it ever since. I was debating between getting this one and #1 but when I found the Ralph by Ralph Lauren perfume I decided on the one that I bought because Ralph and #1 smelled somewhat similar to me. Both have a very fresh fruity scent while #2 is much sweeter.

I also bought Fame by Lady Gaga. I fell in love with the packaging on sight and was really intrigued by the black fluid in the bottle. While the scent is not one I would have expected from Gaga (it's surprisingly subdued), I love it! It's fruity and sweet and fades into a really comfortable scent on my skin after a few hours. I haven't opened my box yet but I did try it at the airport. I can't wait to open my box!

The last perfume that I bought is Jo Malone's new fragrance, Blackberry and Bay. This smells so yummy, I can't get enough of it! My mom pre-ordered this for me a couple weeks ago and it arrived yesterday, so I haven't used it yet either. Still, I've sampled it at the store and it is incredible. Such a great fall scent!

Reviews to come soon, guys! Hope you're all doing well :)

Japan Day 2: Food + Shopping!

So I suppose the recaps of my Japan trip continue with this second post! Hopefully you guys don't get tired of me posting about my trip and all the things I'm eating and buying, but I'll have some reviews up in a bit so my page won't be completely covered in all things Japan-related.

Today my mom and I spent most of our time shopping along Omotesando, which is a really big street in Tokyo that has a lot of adorable boutiques and small restaurants that are really yummy! Omotesando is also the area that boasts a lot of the American name brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci, and it has a massive MAC store that had so many things I had never even heard of before! The first place we stopped by was the Samantha Thavasa store, which I believe is their flagship store here in Tokyo.

My mom and I first discovered the brand about five years ago when we visited Tokyo and have loved their bags ever since! They're definitely not cheap but I think they're really worth it - they're very well made and they last for ages. I remember buying one back in 2007 and it's still in fantastic condition and I use it for nights out! I bought one bag this time and I can't wait to show you guys what it looks like - it's my new baby for sure!

For lunch we picked a random restaurant that turned out to have really yummy udon noodles! My brother ordered miso ramen with tempura while my mom and I decided to order the ramen with spicy miso and ground beef. Too delicious! I wish I could tell you guys the name of this place but unfortunately I can't read/type Japanese, so I can't :(

 

After eating my brother wanted to go look at shoes, since he's a huge Jordans fanatic. If you're looking for sneakers (limited edition or otherwise) and are willing to spend a little more money on them, I highly recommend Kicks Lab or Undefeated, which are the two shops we went into and they both had a great selection of sneakers, mainly for men. Undefeated also has a nice selection of t-shirts that my brother really liked, I think they'd make great gifts if you're in need of some! As for department stores, my mom and I had a really nice time looking around La Foret, which is a medium sized department store that hosts a bunch of cute little boutiques. The style is a little quirky so it might not suit everyone, but they do have a Kitson store there that has a lot of more typical clothing as well.

We also ended up stopping for crepes, which were so yummy and unique! They boasted a wide range of crepes, from chocolate banana crepes to cobb salad crepes. I opted for a matcha cheesecake crepe that was super filling but totally worth the binge.

We then dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed over to Takashimaya, which is one of the largest chain department stores in Japan. We had a really nice time shopping around the cosmetics counters since a lot of the brands were either cheaper here or not available in Hong Kong, so I ended up buying a lot of things that aren't available back home.

The two items in the picture above are probably the strangest out of all these purchases. I bought the squeezy bottle for my brush cleanser because I think it's easier to apply with a tube like that, and I'm familiar with it since it's what we use in AP Chemistry to hold distilled water when we're doing titrations (if that didn't make any sense to you, I'm sorry!), and I just think it'd be really convenient for cleaning my brushes. As for the spray bottle, I just felt like I could use one just in case. You never know when one might come in handy! As always, reviews will be posted soon. Most of these items are already out of their packaging because I'm really excited to try them out already!

Okay, that's all I have to say for now. Sorry if this post completely bored you out of your mind, I'll be posting something non-Japan related very soon! Hope you guys are having/have had a fabulous Saturday, see you soon :)

Japan Day 1: Recap + Haul!

I'm very happy to say that I'm now officially on fall break and I'm so lucky to be spending it in Tokyo, Japan! Of course, I won't get to spend the whole week here since I have to go back to Hong Kong and prepare for my first time taking the SAT - wish me luck! Japan isn't very conducive to studying, but it IS extremely encouraging of eating and shopping :) I just wanted to share a few things with you guys from today.

My family and I arrived in Tokyo quite late, it was around five o'clock by the time we reached the hotel and about six when we had all freshened up and started to head out for dinner. We're staying at the Peninsula which is an absolutely gorgeous hotel - I'll try to get some photos to post tomorrow. It's also very conveniently located near Ginza, which is a district here in Tokyo known for its little boutiques and large shopping malls.

 

We had a really lovely sushi dinner and walked around for a little bit before heading into Lumine, one of the larger shopping malls in Ginza. Japan's streets are really unique, at least in my opinion. The back alleys don't seem like alleys at all, and everything here is so pristine and just has a very Japanese feel to it, I think. The culture is infused in so many different things and places, it's really such a calming experience to just walk around and look. At Lumine, I ducked into Skin Food and LUSH and bought some really nice things that I've been wanting to try!

LUSH came out with a makeup line just a short while ago and since I first heard about it I'd been dying to try the lip colors and the eyeliner! I've heard so much about their gold liquid liner so it was the first thing I picked up when we were there. I also had my eye on this bright pink lipstick so I got that too! I love the packaging, it's so quirky and reminds me a lot of a science lab which I think is really cute.
I also got the Argan Oil from Skin Food, which I haven't really heard much about but I absolutely love argan oil and it seems to be the only thing that works to hydrate my dry ends, so hopefully this works out as well as my beloved Moroccanoil.

I got really caught up in the skincare area of Skin Food so I also bought their Black Sugar Mask, which the lady at the counter recommended to even out my rough, problematic skin. It smells delicious and feels really nice on the skin, not too abrasive but not so gentle that I can't feel it doing anything, so that's really nice. I also bought the Black Raspberry Su Serum, which she also recommended to me, and it felt really nice and smooth on my hand and sunk in quite quickly, so I have high expectations for this. But in addition to skincare I also bought a cream eyeshadow palette from them, which has three colors inside that I picked myself, and their All Over Muffin Cake Finish in #4. It's a really pretty pink and white baked powder and when I swatched it in the store it turned out to be a really gorgeous highlight color! I'm very excited to try this out on my face.

That's all I wanted to say for now! I'll have reviews of all these products up soon hopefully, and I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on my next few days here. I have so much I want to share with all of you and I hope you enjoy reading these! Hope you're having a fabulous weekend so far :)