The funny things you read in blogs

I love blogging and all the fun comes with it. I can learn about first hand experiences in everything, which is fantastic, given the writer have no conflict of interest in anything. However, what I enjoy the most are the personal blogs, people just randomly blabing about their lives.

I like them because they are so real. I see a bit of myself in every blog I come across and think to myself "god, I feel like I just went through that!" Especially the ones in college or near high school graduation (not so much the latter, but I can remember a bit of the SAT horror stories). Koodle to those pushing through this competative world; it ain't easy out here, whatever that you hear about the working world is true.

HOWEVER, let me just say this w/o being too critical, if you think you know everything while still trying to tackle the SAT, then you are dead ass wrong. The little internships or "work experience" that YOU think you are getting is *excuse my language, I know I'm talking to minors here* BULL FUCKING SHIT.

There is nothing annoys the hell out of me than little bitches thinks they know every single fucking thing in the world because they spend their daddy's money on designer bags and clothes and worships Lauren Conrad with a shrine of all episodes of "The Hills". Just think of "My Sweet Sixteen" girls and their constant nagging of "daddddddddddyyyyy.... more money...... dddddaaaddddddddddyyyyyyy...... give me a car........ shut up mom, no one's talking to you... dadddddddyyyy... i want a Rolex..... dddddaaadddddyyyyyyy can you tell mom to shut up?"

I've met my shares of international students in my college, filthy rich Middle Eastern oil heirs who probably own half of the country, Japanese princes who's got limos dropping him off at school, and worse of all, turns out to be, my own kind, Chinese mainlanders. Mind you, I grew up with a fairly comfortable lifestyle, but the thing is, my parents are very humble and modest, therefore, i turned out alright, i.e. I did not have a brand new Benz as my very first car. I was like a normal kid and drove a Honda.

It just fucking annoys the shit out of me seeing these little kids 16 or 17 years old, spending $300 on a pair of shoes and talking about they earn their own money. Give me a fucking break and stop lying about your McDonald $5/hr pay. what did these kids come from? seriously. you know, you can't blame them, they came from a broken family and their daddy's fucking someone else in China now, while their mom have no jobs here and sole purpose of being here is for this good for nothing kid. yea, ya really can't blame those little fuckers being fucked up in the head.

They should just go sit in a corner, wipe their tears with pages of Vogue and call their daddy to send more money, so they can pack their bags and go back to China for a summer. So they can see their "friends" who grew up as fucked up as them, and praising each other over the whatever name brand shit they've got dripping over their bodies.

True story: Chinese mainlander international student, went to the same college as me, didin't go to work immediately after college, instead she spent 1 yr studying for the GMAT. In that one yr, she lived in an expensive neighborhood in Boston ($2500 per month rent), paid by daddy, GMAT classes paid by daddy, got a live-in boyfriend that daddy didn't know about, for one whole damn yr. And guess what? Still got 500's in GMAT, decided to fuck MBA, and go to work. Worked for 1 yr, lived in NYC, her salary wasn't bad, yet she still needed daddy to pay for her $3000 a month rent, and the salary she earned? Burberry, Chloe, Chanel, Anna Sui, every single fucking store in Soho knew her on a first name basis. After 1 yr, she decided working is too hard, too boring, not getting paid enough (her salary was in the 50's), quits her job. Goes back to Beijing and chills there for 4 months, got some kind of hook up from DADDDYYYY.. and went to Columbia for grad school. Her explanation? Daddy told her working is too hard, she shouldn't work. So daddy got some connection with the National Normal University or something that had a program being taught in Columbia, and she took the offer to go study, hmm.. in what you ask? urben city policy? WTF does that have to do her work experience? (she's an accountant). Needless to say, she's almost done with her "master's" now and she's wondering again if she'll ever be happy working or go back to Beijing and find someone to get married with. But oh wait no, she probably wants to stay here ,cuz of all the true religion jeans and YSL bags that's easily obtainable.

I'm still great friends with her. I don't think she knows how fucking annoying she is and she's blindsided by all the fucking $$$ she sees everyday. I'm cool with that, cus to me, I pity these kind of people. Who will never find passion in their lives and live an empty life filled with money. I even went to her Beijing house and chilled there for a day. She's got a personal driver, courtesy of Daddy, a cook, a maid, and a big ass house with no body in it. I met her parents and we had dinner, but I felt that she was so much closer to the maid and the driver. Her parents doesn't even know who she is.

all her parents did was, here, take the platinum card and buy what you want, go to Sanya for a week, relax there, take whoever you want, i won't be home for the next month cus I have business trips all over the place, but you can use the driver and the maid. i will tell my assistant to book you a ticket if you want to go. by the way, i kept your studio in NYC, i don't want you to go through the agony of finding another one once you go back (god knows when), so yea, you don't have to worry, ok? I love you.

fucking pathetic. well, ok, i can't bash her that bad, my parents gives me plantinum cards when i'm in china too, and yes they do buy me plane tickets to go places, and yes they do tell their assistant to go shopping with me, lol. but that's only in china. and plus their assistant is my cousin, so that doesn't count.

anyways, back to bashing - these people will never know what it is to have a dream and chase that dream, they will never know the joy of having a dime or the pain of losing it, cus daddy's got them covered. they think they live in vogue and can copy cat Devil Wears Prada, so fucking sad! But the thing is they will never know how pathetic they look.

Just like my parent's friend, who's living in the biggest freaking townhouse in ShenZhen and own the biggest real estate there, billionares, have everything in the world, gold plated everything in the house (which is really tacky by the way), and yet they are so unhappy. they tell my parents how thankful they are for helping them through hard times, yet they ask us how we can be comfortable in life, though we have so much and yet we can manage to keep it to ourselves. Why don't we get 3 Mercedes, we can afford it. Why don't they buy me a loft in NYC, cus my parents can afford it. They ask us these question and I think they are just being fucking ridiculous, WHY DO MY PARENTS HAVE TO GIVE ME ANYTHING??? I'M FUCKING 24 YEARS OLD, WORKING IN AN INVESTMENT BANK, EARNING MY OWN MONEY, WHY DO THEY NEED TO DO ANYTHING FOR ME?

Sometimes i think these people don't deserve to live, but then again, what a great comedy watching them living out a pathetic life. Life wouldn't be so fun to live if you can't watch them idiots living out a black comedy right?

aaahhhh... what a great afternoon pick-me-up. Thanks for reading. I might delete this once I get home, cus my hunnie will say I've pulled out my shot guns too many times. lol.

The world of finance..

Not sure if any of you are into the finance market, but there are a few big outbreaks in the last week or so. It affects my life because I work for a bank, so the volitility of my job goes with the market. I'm a very risk adverse person, so big ups and downs are not my type of thing. But you gotta play if you are in the game right? In the 1 1/2 year I have been working full time, this is the first time I felt the ripple of the shock happened in the market.

It's probably too complicated to explain the subprime crisis and how it triggered the credit crunch, but basically, the US market is weak because the rate of return on investments (ROI) are too low, so people stopped borrowing and investing. Now, to make people start investing, the Fed is dropping the rate, so that you would borrow on the cheaper side and start the economic circulation. Anyways, it's a long story of what happened and even I can't precisly explain it. The street (Wall Street) is doing bad and that means no body is getting off easy.

Lehman is the 4th largest bank on the street, mainly dealing with fixed income bond trading. The 5th one is called Bear Sterns, often compared to us because we are in the same line of business. Last week Friday, Bear announced that they are going to get emergency help from the Fed and investors started freaking out, withdrew $17Billion fund!!! in one day!!!! that's like sucking the entire firm dry!!! In one day, the 5th largest bond house in the US announced they are on the brink of bankruptcy. JPMorgan and the Fed offered to inject more fund into the firm and help them off of their feet. All was on the upside, until Monday morning, the news broke out that JPMorgan bought Bear for merely $2 per share (Bear was worth $160 per share at one point last year, and was still worth bout $70 before being sold for $2 a share). Can you imagine a billion dollar house being sold for $287million????

Rumors broke out on Monday following the Bear fire sale (means when firms are sold for way under value) that Lehman was going down too and we are going to be the next one up on the chopping block. You could feel it, in the office, it was dead slient, everyone's on Bloomberg following the news. Our Director came to our cubes and talked to us and calmed us down. She reassured that we are not going any where and that we have more than enough liquity to cover for any losses. However, our stock was plummeting, down 30% at one point.

Yesterday, our Q1 earnings were out. Above analyst expectation and Moody kept our triple A credit rating. 10AM was the conference call for the earning reporting, the CFO gave a very optimistic view of how our firm is performing. Although our year to year income dropped 54%, but that's common on the street with all the firms writing off billions in bad loans. Stock price rose back to what it was day ago. The market started to look much better after hearing that Lehman and Goldman's earnings are all above expectation, though net income were down 50% something for both firms. But in this kind of economy, this is considered good.

During the first quarter, Lehman cut 11,000 jobs. Our department is on the cost side (we don't make money for the firm, we get paid to perform a service for the firm), so obviously, they are going to let go some of the positions. 2 people were let go in my department, though they said it's a 5% cut rate across board, but I'm sure the FID and IBD departments are suffering more. One is a AVP and another is SVP, i know the SVP quite well and he's a very nice man. I wonder how he's doing now - he has a daughter still in high school, will he be able to pay for her college tuition? My coworker's dad, who's been with the firm for 20+ years was let go too. 20+ years!!! and he's gone just like that. I wonder how does it feel to come to work and planning on attending a meeting, and never making it...

At this point in my life, though I'm frustrated with my job and don't like what I do, I am grateful that I still have a job and can pay for my mortgage. It's cruel world. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. Just keep your head on straight and do your best.

I haven't been studying for my GMAT. I seem to have lost a lot of motivation. I guess it's the uncertainty in my life and where I want to go next, that I'm lossing sight of what I really need to do. I'm not quite sure if I can be happy, even if I have an MBA.

Beware - Boring entry

NYC is blanketed with snow this morning. When I woke up and looked outside, I thought I'd just stay home and catch up on some dvds. But noooo.. Since I'm a responsible adult now, I gotta go to work. No snow days allowed. So I got to work, late, I didn't have to, but I took this opportunity, because I know everyone's gonna be late, so why come in early if I don't have to?







And guess what? Nobody came in late, THEY JUST DIDN'T SHOW UP. So I signed up online, everyone's either taking a personl day (snow chicken) or working from home (code for "I'll send a few emails and stay on IM to make it look like I'm working, but really I'm watching tv and having a beer"). So here I am, in an half empty office with the 2 analysts. At least they came in, otherwise I'd be pissed and just get up and leave. Actually, one of them came in at 10:30 and lave at 3pm, why did she even come in? just stay home.








since it's quiet and i have nothing to do. here are a few pics of my boring corp america life. this is my desk. i used to have a cube, but since we moved, everyone just have a "desk", even the higher ups, well, VPs still got their offices. I like my pink bobbing head doll, the only thing that keep my day going. thats my gmat book flipped open to page 4. lol. yea... let's not even talk about how much i've studied.




me in the bathroom, showing you guys how boring i look in my work clothe. black, grey, dark blue, dark green, brown, and sometimes white, are the staple colors. i wore a pink cardign to the office once and everybody took a double look at me. i wore my shoes without stocking once, and i was told by my manager that i was dressed inappropiately. in this pic, my pants are so damn short, shrunken by dry cleaner. crotch is way too tight, can you see the camel toe?




I wanted to take a pic of my face to show you guys my "office look". and this is the best of the bunch. i just seem to have this face when i enter the building. i was cracking up looking at this picture, just had to share with you guys, lol... watch "the office" and you'll understand...



To make this entry somewhat beauty related. this is my office 5-min makeup bag. i usually do my make up at work, just to save more sleep time at home. here are the usual steps:


1. conceal eye bags and dark circle with YSL gold pen thingy


2. lightly powder with EM foundation or sometimes the palgantong powder i got from hk.


3. useing the KATE spicy line palette shown in the pic to do my eyes, using my middle finger, spread the pink powder all over lid, and line eyes with the deep dark brown in the palette.


4. curl lashes with the golden shu lash curler


5. line the upper water line (tightlining) with Lancome Le Stylo Waterproof(this smudges) or the japanese New Born Gradation W liner (it's too hard) or the TARTE emphasEYEs(way over priced little pencil.





here is Daisy when she had longer hair. i took her to the groomer last week and told them to cut it short since i hate having to brush her and comb her everyday. she hates it too. now she's all clean cut.

Ramblin'

Howdy! How was everyone's long weekend? It's always good to have an extra day off, though I have no idea what President's Day's supposed to celebrate.

Sat was hectic for me. Reminds me a bit of my senior year..
8:30am - wake up, wash up, no time to shower, put on my yankee cap, feed daisy.
9am - drop off daisy at the groomer, ask them to clip it short, i'm not in the new mom mood anymore, i hate brushing her and it's just less torture for the both of us.
9:10am - while driving back home, i saw the bus i'm supposed to take is behind, so i sped up and raced home, parked the car, grab my bag and ran to the station.
9:45am - in the train, the wrong damn train to my first GMAT class. WTH? why does some trains runs on weekend and some doesn't? i'm not a tourist and i can't even figure out the new york subway.
10:10am - 10 mins late to the first class, they are already talking about Data Sufficiency. Just like in college, I never make it to class on time.
1pm - 3 hours of number properties, data sufficiency and ADBCE (if you are taking gmat, you know what i mean). let's see, where is the volunteer event.. ASTORIA, QUEENS? that's like another planet! V train, uptown, 7 stops. Anything that's over 3 stops away is ungodly. ARGH.
2:20pm - I'm late.. again.. but can you blame me? try to find 36th street at 35th ave in astoria queens and you will know what i mean.
2:30pm - i'm supposed to meet my mentee at a museum. it's a group event and our second time meeting. but she's no where to be found.
2:41pm - 2nd time going around the entire museum
3:04pm - I will go pair up with someone else just to get over it. I came all the way from NJ to meet some freaking high schooler and she ditched me?
3:40pm - it was nice meeting you. where is the door?
4pm - waitting for my roast beef sandwich at a local general store. I haven't had a bite the entire day and i'm not sure if I'm still hungry.
4:30pm - dozing off on the bus.
4:46pm - walking to wards my car. slowly. i put the key in the ignition and just left it there. the smell of my roast beef sandwich is caling me. i inhaled half of it down.
508pm - traffic traffic traffic. on a freaking sat.
5:23pm - daisy looks like a shaven baby lamb. still cute though.
6:12pm - no matter what happens, don't wake mommy up. passed out until 9pm.
10pm - my friend linda came to visit. we decided we need some good spicy food.
12 midnight - 2 kalbi, 1 yukaijung later. we are back home. playing with daisy. showing each other our new clothes (makeup in my case). and she got me a beauty book! DON'T GO TO THE MAKEUP COUNTER WITHOUT ME by PAULA (the lady behind Paula's Choices)



..... me pass out in the couch......in and out of conscious.......




4am - sometimes during the 4 hours. linda left my house and henry came in. i was sleeping in the weirdest position ever. leg up and the drool. aaahhhh.. finally, my day ended....

Sunday was mellow. We had dimsum and shopped for food to cook for our Valentine's Day dinner. I was the cook for the night and totally messed up my dish. I havent cooked in god knows how long. From now on, I hand over the wok to H.

Monday was Ikea and Bed andBath day AKA H's Hell Day. This consist of him pushing the cart following me to every isle, taking down things that's 10 feet high, asking him to pick out the heaviest things and tell him to put it back, carrying humanly impossible things back to the car and back up to the apt. =)

this is why i love him.

Oh and we had White Manna's Burger, OMG it was so good. No wonder it's feature on Food Network. If you are in the Metro NY area, consider dropping by, afterward you can go shop at RiverSide and see if you can bump into Lil'Kim.

I started studying for the GMAT and so far so good. I think I can handle it. I was too scared before, now I just feel like, oh wells, not a big deal, as long as I study steadily, I should be ok. Manhattan GMAT class is definitely helpful and it's not as boring as the Kaplan one.

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2008 is the year of the rat, which is my sign. I will be 24 this year and it's not supposed to be a good year for me. My parents are back in China experiencing the worst winter in China in 50 years, all electricity and transportation are suspended. But they are ok since they went to my grandma's house in the country side, where they have electricity and use coal as source of heat.

There is much to be accomplished for me this year, but for some reason, I feel like nothing is going to go the right way. I'm gonna need to wear a red bracelet or something to keep the evil away.

I didn't clean my house, or cut my hair or wear new clothes for Chinese New year. Just because I don't feel the "mood" here. I dind't even know it was Chinese New Year's eve last night! Argh, whatever, at least Henry's here spending time with me. Otherwise I'd be sad as hell again, like last year.

Anyways, I hope everyone will have a healthy and prosperous New Year!!! =)

oh, what a week...

This is exactly how I feel like this morning... Hence the 20 oz dunkin donuts coffee, I hope it'll last me until at least 2pm. It's rainy and gloomy in NYC. Wet, slippery and depressing. I washed Daisy last night and was happy to finally sleep with her in my bed again, cus she's clean. Then what happens at 6:45am? She had diarreah all over my bed and was barfing up 3 inches away from my face. What a nice to wake up. I washed the sheets, clean the mattreess (yes it got stained too), took her out, fed her, washed her again and blew dried her. I was dragging my feet out of the door at 8:15am and was feeling like death by the time I made it to the office.

Me and rain don't mix. Especially when it's been like this in NYC for the past 3 days. My feet is feeling weird (arthritis, maybe) and my stomache feel like having a disco party in there. I'm tired and have the chills. Not sure if this is a cold, but I know my monthly's coming up. Usually I feel like Shit McShitty 2-3 days before. I hope this all goes away soon.

oh and on top of this, my coworker had given me a free ticket to join them for a pre-view of Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show. I appreciate the gesture and everything, but I just don't feel so hot right now. Of course, the peer pressure is on. If I don't go, they probably won't invite me to anything anymore, maybe won't even talk to me anymore. Office girls tend to be all group-ie. Plus they are both single, living alone, no sick dog with diarreah at home. I probably have like a bathroom full of brown water to clean up once I get home, but they can just lay down and have a glass of wine. But I used Daisy as an excuse way too many times. I get the whole eye rolling thing if I mention my dog again.

What to do, what to do. It'd be easier to hang out with them if they didn't talk about boys every other sentence. I'm younger than them and yet I am more settled. Own a condo, having a steady boyfriend, no exciting ex stories, not out clubbing and getting drunk. Boring it maybe sound, but I'm more focused on life. There's a lot more I want to achieve than just drinking and meeting boys. I want to be a more knowledgeable person, see the world, meet more INTERESTING people (boy talks doens't entice me anymore, maybe when I was in 11th grade.)

Another thing I hate is when people talk about themselves and ONLY themselves. I zone out every single time and seriously don't give a crap about 99.99% of the shit that comes out of her mouth. Talking TO me and talking AT me are 2 completely different things. I happen to be a single child, so I don't do well when people talk about themselves. In my world, only me exist. So if you didn't ask me about my life and talk about the thing I want to talk about, I probably don't want to talk to you.

But yet I hang out with these loser because I HAVE TO. I need to form my little circle of alliance. After all, I am in a war zone. Corporate life is brutal and depressing, but you gotta learn how to survive. I am learning.. and surviving... by tieing myself with the chatter box and admin of my group. You see, chatter box is important, because she will tell me everything and anything I want to hear. Her sole goal in life is not to make friends, but to say everything she wants to say and just none stop talking. She talked to me for 3 weeks when I started and I never knew her name. She talked to me like we were old friends, yet I already feel like why we were "old" friend, cus her big mouth won't shut up and my ears are bleeding. Then the admin, well, you need to friends with the admin in the corporate world. That's the #1 rule of the game. You have to and you need to, at all cost, be your admin's closest friend and you will survive ANYTHING with office politics. You get to hear everything first and you know everyone's gossip.

So should I go hang out with my fake friends or should I go home and blow them off? They are all like "YOU HAVE TO COME! when was the last time you hung out with us?"

Every single fucking day, biatch. If i see you, i consider that hanging out. small talk, that's hanging out. If i hear you or see you or smell you, I noticed your presence, i am hanging out with you.

work/life balance is not balance when i see for more than 8 hours a day.

I hate corp. life.

To blog or not to blog

Read this first...

I'm sure a lot of the fellow beauty bloggers have already voiced their opinions about this controversial article posted by New York Times. However, from a new blogger point of view, I feel like NYT really is just catching the head birds of the forest, while ignoring that there are many many many beauty bloggers out there who do not get free samples and still blogs about the latest, all at their own expense. I don't know about you, but to me, those are the real bloggers.

My first encounter with beauty blogs started late 2006. I was working at my first full time job and lord knows when you just start, nobody notices you even exist and forget you all alone in your little cube. That's when I started reading Glam.com blogs. I was blown away at how fabulous these girls are! Wow, I knew I liked beauty products, but these girls are just over the top glam and girly. I loved it! allaboutthebeauty, makeupbag and themakeupgirl were my first obsessions.

I started to feel OK about my addiction to beauty products. I never knew there are people just like me out there! Then somehow I came across RougeDeluxe when someone mentioned the Inuind (sp?) brand by Dick Page and how it was the 8th wonder of the world and disappeared in the dark dark space. Then she led me to believe that I was right when I told everyone of my friend that Japanese beauty brands are the best for Asian skin. Despite the face that they are expensive and hard to get, we are Asian, therefore, we should use products geared towards Asian skin. Then I met THE MUSE. Oh my god, is she a ball of fire coming at cha. She's always armed with the newest, cutest, and the most exclusive product on the block of Tokyo. She'd tease us with all the shimmer and glitters and make us bite our bottom lips when we find out we can't buy it in the US.

THEN..... comes the Nov. of 2007. I was looking through my xanga site and how it documented my life from 2002 to 2006, then it all ended when my battle with panick disorder took over my life. I wish I could have continued with my xanga, but it wasn't worth at that time. Most people stopped writing and everybody started using The Face Book, which is not solely used for blogging.

cuttibebe.blogspot.com is only 3 months old but it's one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I could already tell that by reading blogs, writing blogs and communicate with my fellow bloggers. I am more engaged in life. I am more in sync with the world. By reading everyone's life, the ups and downs, it made me feel ok that I am blue at times too. I didn't feel lonely anymore and felt that all of my fellow bloggers are my real friends.

With that said, my knowledge of beauty products is so much in depth than before. I learned that not everyone likes sticky lipgloss and that not liking a new product is ok, even when everyone's raving about Cetaphil's lotion, it's ok that I hated it and felt betrayed by the reviews on MUA. The path to flawless skin and beautiful makeup is a long road journey filled with trials and errors. And I am glad I've got company on the road to castle filled with beauty secrets.

I don't think most of us get free samples by blogging. Maybe the ones in Beauty Blog Network, but not us average blogging -for-fun type of people. Most of us drive to 5 different CVS's in the middle of the night looking for the new H.I.P paint, go home, swatch all of MAC paint and compare it to the H.I.P ones. Most of us plow through the internet and find the hidden promo code, so we all can get a silver clutch filled with samples when spend $50 on sephora.com. Most of us just do it so that we all can be educated with the product without spending the extra dime, and simply help out the girl next to us find the best mascara that's clump free and keeps the curls, OR just for pure joy, splash our newest loot from MAC across the table and take a picture of it, so you can see the color with flash, without flash, in day light and indirect lighting.

DO WE GET PAID FOR THIS? NO. DO WE GET PARIS TRIPS FOR THIS? NO. DO WE CARE? HELLS TO THE NO. All we care is that our readers are thankful for our effort and look to us for answers when they can't get the Angel on Bare Skin scrub to mix (MUSE know this one). As a reader of beauty blogs, I am more thankful than ever to have finally find the real blog without the pefect promo pic of the newest product by Lancome. As a blogger, I am grateful for my readers to just stop by and say hi and that they like my blog. These, to me, are the greatest joy in the world.

Thank you for reading.. my fingers are so tired.. I need to go get my lunch now..

Ciao~

Go away winter...

By the way, did everyone had Monday off??? Your truly was lucky enough to enjoy the "Bank" holiday. I never knew that there were so many holidays! My friends were so envious of me that I got Monday off, but then again, I feel kind of old that I am one of the fews who have MLK day off (most people that get "Bank" holidays off are more "settled").


Anyways, it's not like I went anywhere or did anything fun. Thanks for the cold ass winter weather. All weekend, all I did was shop for home stuff move stuff around to put in the extra home stuff. The joy and pain of owning your own condo.. sigh... But with the help of my hubby (the sarcasm only he'd understand), I now have a vanity!!! I can't wait to put all my makeup in the drawers and place my pretty perfume bottles and jeweleries on top. Now I need to look for a mirror with lights, for easy makeup application of course.


Since much of my time is constrained to being inside, I made sure I do all my winter bath rituals.


Did y'all ladies catch the L'Occitane sale that started before the new year's? Well, I nab the extra volume bottles for the sale, since it was 50% off of those DELUXE sizes. I've heard much talk about the Almond Shower Oil, and decided to give a go, but instead of paying full prize for the regular size, I picked up the 13.5fl.oz one. Along with the Almong Milk Concentrate.


Almond Shower Oil
8.4 fl oz. - $22
13.5 fl oz. - $28 (Sale)


Website says: A customer favorite. Transforms into a lavish, softening foam-- original and unique in texture--that leaves a satin-like softness all over the body. Rich in almond oil and nourishing lipids. Cleanses. gently to impart a delectable perfume. Keep handy in bath or showeras an extra-pampering alternative to Shea Butter Soap and our fragrance soaps. Suitable for men and women


For $6 more you get 60% more. But for a product I've never tried and have nothing to leverage off of, I was skeptical about my purchase.


The shower oil is like nothing I've tried. I knew about the in-shower lotion and tried the body wrap creme, but the shower oil was a surprise for me.


A good surprise. The oil goes on thick, and warms on contact (I felt warmer, maybe it's just me). You kind of massage it over your body and can feel some what exfoliated, since the oil is so thick. Once you rinse off, it emulsifies and turns milky white and leaves skin very supple, not greasy and you can't scratch up those oily gunk with your nail (those happens to me with salt oil scrubs, yuck, i hate those!). It'd compare the experience to a cleasning oil, but for your body. I'm a loyal Shu Cleasing Oil user, I don't use anything else to remove makeup. So I'm quite used to that to my face, but not for my body. The Shower Oil is thicker though, which is sooooo nice to calm down the itchy winter scaly skin.


I'd say this is perfert for the winter. I felt clean and my skin wasn't tight after showering, even with the piping hot water I like to use. The scent is better than average. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE ALMOND. I hate nuts in general, but almond, OMG, the smell and the taste just drives me off the freaking wall. But with this one, surprisingly, I LIKE IT! It's light and refreshing, quite comforting too. Which is really weird, I'm suppose to hate it. But, whatever works right?


I've got the Deluxe size of Almond Milk Concentrate too. $48. 13.5 fl oz.

I'm still on my last 2 scoops of the 20% Shea Butter, so I haven't cracked into this baby yet. But it looks promosing when I tried it on in store. It's very light and absorbs quickly. It says to firm the body too. Oh well, we'll see about that. I don't believe cellulites can actually go away, but I guess it'd be nice for a little tighting since I'm trying to loose some winter weight.

One more thing ladies, if you've purchased anything ON SALE from L'Occitane, it is UNRETURNABLE OR UNEXCHANGABLE. I wanted to trade in this huge tub of creme for the smaller size and got denied. =( Boo hooo.... Once I've gotten over my impulse, I've realized $50 for a freaking lotion is INSANE! But then again, I've learned from my mistakes. At least I'll have Almond smelling yummy supple tight skin right?


Oh! I checked out the YSL Spring limited edition POP BLUSH in Nordstrom yesterday. But that needs a post by itself. I'm getting off work ON TIME (5:30pm) and heading to Vong's with my hubby for NYC Restaurant Week. If you are in the NYC area, make a reservation quick! I've got 2 dinners and 2 lunches booked. Can't wait! I will be posting Foodie entries. Stay tuned....

2008

T'is the first post of 2008, I will do a little mixing of recaps of 2007 and a resolution for 2008. I will be 24 this year, which for me is such an important year. I feel like this is the year where I really need to know what I want to do with my life and finally stepping away from being a 20-something person (though I'm still 20-something, but it's closer to the scary 25!!)

2007 - Goals achieved
1) Got a better job with an internaitonal investment bank. Great career move on my part, not because I like my career, but because this company can get me further than my last.
2) Bought my dream condo and finally moved out. My condo's very close to NYC and right next to the Hudson River, also comes with a nice view of the city. Great neighborhood and love the river front walk way.
3) I got Daisy! She's such a good dog and I'm so happy I picked a happy and easy going puppy. Though she might not know this, but she means the world to me, and got me through some really rough times. I love her to death and can't imagine life without her.
4) I've learned so much about makeup through beauty blogs! I've always thought I'm the only crazy one who's obsessed with makeup, who knew?? there's a whole network for crazy people like us! I love you all and I'm so glad I met you!
5) My relationship with H grew stronger and he's so much closer to my family now. It is our 2nd year together, which is a critical year concerning that I've never gotten over a 2 year mark with any of my exes. But he's still here, stronger than ever. He is my rock and I can't live without him.

2008 - Resolution/Goals
1) Score over 600 on GMAT. I need to. I have to. I will do anything. I must!
2) Apply to MBA programs that truly interests me in what I want to do, and not is going to impress people. So what if no one has ever heard of Bentley College? I am a proud graduate and have never been happier with my degree. I'm glad I didn't listen to my mom about going to BU. Look at me now, I still made it to the investment bank in the middle of Manhattan.
3) Take better care of my condo and decorate it more. I am planning on having a cleaning session twice a month and buy more painting to hang on the walls. I need to get over the fact that there will be holes and scratches but nobody sees it but me.
4) Learn more on my job. This will be hard to do, because I don't like the nature of my job. There really isn't anything wrong with my job, it pays well, hours are good and it's a very respectful job (corporate world and all), but I just don't enjoy doing it. But I will learn more about it, because there is no harm in learning anything.
5) Take better care of my body. I'm not going to say I will be hitting the gym everyday, I know and everyone else knows that won't be happening, but I will definitely try to go 3 times a week and eat more healthier. That means cooking more and bringing lunch to work.
6) Read more books. I like reading, I just don't like reading in my house, cus the lighting is not good. Ok Ok, fine, no more excuses. I will read more.
7) USE UP MORE MAKEUP! I need to use up SOMETHING this year, I promise. Makeup is hard to use up, but skin care is easier. I need to stop buying makeup if they are just going to sit there. Seriously now, I spend $500 a month on makeup/skin care/body care, do you really think I need another bottle of primer? or another highlighter?
8) Take Daisy to the dog park. She's never been to one and I feel bad. maybe I should take her to another puppy class.
9) Spend more "couple" time with H. We barely go on dates now. I don't want to loose spark with him and I need to take more initaltive to go out with him.
10) Last but not least, to balance my mind and body, so that I can finally combat panic disorder completely. I haven't had a relapse for 4 months now. Even when I do get a little nervous, I was able to calm myself down quickly without taking any medication. I believe I can battle it with my mind only, but I promise if it gets worse, I will go to therapy and won't cancel the appointments anymore. I see all these "I will eat right and exercise" resolutions on everyone's list, while we want to take care of our body, I don't know why people don't think they should take care of their mental health as well. The earth will be a happier place with happier people, don't you think?

Ok. that's all the blabs I have for now. I'm heading back to NJ tomorrow with H. Sigh, back to the grind. Happy New Year!

back in the days

These pictures are circa 2003. Oh good lord, I should never keep old pictures of myself with horrible makeups. But it's interesting how I've moved on from mile high brows, thicks ass liquid liners and clownish eyeshadows.

I have these 4 palettes of Hard Card e/s that I just loved using, I still do, but just in a different way. I remember my favoriate was Maybelline eye liners and mascaras. Never wore any blushes. Never used a brush, fingers only. Had no idea how to put on foundation, I used a wedge and smudged it on, not patting, just smearing it all over my face. Had no idea what under eye concealers are.

Oh those were the days. Bad makeup, blonde highlights and even worse skin. But here I is, girls, exposed. Aside from maturing with better application skills and learning more about makeup, and of course, these wonderful blogs, I had got a few more helping hands.. I will mention that in another blog. Good night y'all.