Sunday, July 20, 2008

FOTD and MAC Power Kohl Test Run

Holla mis chicas. How was your weekend? NY was so hot and humid, thank goodness we didn't go hiking again, as the temperture was in the 100's! What we did do, instead, is lounge by the pool again, making good use of my the mortgage and maintance fee I pay every month.

Pure bliss.. though it is a waste of property, building a pool in such a prime location with a view of the city. Hey, I ain't complaining.


On to the more important things... FOTD! yipppie.. I tested out the MAC Power Kohls in this FOTD. But here are what I used...
Face:
MAC Prep and Prim
MAC Studio Fix in C35 with EDM Flat Top brush
MAC Blush in Peachkeen
MAC MSF in Golden Global
Eyes:
VS Liquid Shadow in Stay Delicate
Hard Candy e/s Palette, a gold/yellow color
MAC Power Kohl, Feline for upper liner, tightlining and water line, Orpheus on lower lash line
Shiseido Lash Base
L'Oreal Volumious Natural
Shiseido PN Eyebrow pencil
Lip:
MAC lipstick in Syrup
Lancome Juice Tube in Autumn Jasmine (Maharani Jewels collection, review coming soon)



We went to Flushing for some pho, then headed to Nordstrom to check out the Anniversary Sale. Believe it or not, I didn't grab anything from the beauty department except for the new Chanel mascara, Exceptionnel De chanel, which is the king daddy of sucky McSuck of all macaras I've ever tried, more on that later.
Taken 5 hours after I first applied my makeup. The lip you see is by MAC lipglass in Prrr.. Which I'm thinking about getting for my B2M. You likey?
EDIT: DOES ANYONE THINK PRRR LOOKS TOO PALE ON ME? How does Prr and Nymphette compare? They look similar but I didn't like the gold shimmer in Nymphette, but Prr has too much silver, which in turn makes my lips too pale.

this is how the Power Kohl held up for 5 hours.. in my opinion.. not very good. It has transfered onto my lid 2 hrs after application and everythnig on my lower lash line and water line is GONE. i'm sorry to report that MAC Power Kohl is not the answer to your waterproof eyeliner prey. It is, however, an exceptional great tool to create the smokey eye look. The e/l went on so soft and smooth, that I was able to smudge it and wing it a bit with an e/l brush (anything that you'd use with a gel/liquid liner). If you want that dark sultry cat eye or smokey eye look, I believe this power kohl is a must have in your book, but as far as hot summer nights are concerned, this little baby doesn't hold up the power.
I'm still keeping my purchases, I know they'll come handy in fall.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Friday treat

The new m&m ice cream bar is pretty good. A free sample of ice cream
bar on a hot muggy NYC afternoon is even better. TGIF!

This week's haulage

After hiking Bear Moutain (came back half way b/c someone's knee was hurting.. *ahem* H) We decided to treat ourselves and dropped by Woodbury Outlet, which was half hr away. I was feeling sweaty, dirty and fat, so didn't even look at any clothes. But this wallet from YSL caught my eyes.
I think I've mentioned before my IT bag for 2007 was the YSL downtown, which I saw in the silver color leather in HK TST and stupid ol' me didn't get it. Now it's sold out and so out of style, b/c everyone and their mom's got one in different leathers in NYC. Long story short, my lemming for a new wallet was kicking, I have been nagging about getting a new long wallet for a while, hoping to let my LV Vernis Continental take a break.
The wallet is designed after the Downtown in my favorite leather finish, silver calf skin, I remember a SA told me that silk were infused in it. Sounds interesting, but whatever, I just like the metallic silver with a hint grey. It's big, roomie, got enough compartments for my cc, cash, ferry tickets, train tickets, bus tickets, coins and can even fit my IPHONE IN IT! So on lunch breaks, I don't have to juggle my iphone, wallet and ID card, everything fits in this little baby.
Original price as told by SA is $530, got it for $239. Actually H got it for me, tehehehe... a payback for backing out of hiking half way.

How can one go to an outlet w/o hitting the CCO. Nothing interested me too much there, as I have WAY TO MUCH OF EVERYTHING in my house. Plus I rarely wear makeup these days.
Here is what I got: Pigment in Sweet Sienna, Blush in Emote, Studio Fix in C4 and the Microfine Refinisher scrub. There was a free gift with purchase over $60 and I got the Bobbi Face Kit, which includes travel size lotions and eye cream and a trael size foundation brush.

I have been putting my makeup in a ziplock bag these days, b/c I get so frustrated with finding the right GWP makeup bag to fit everything on a trip. I came across this little beauty at LeSportac and thought it was just big enough, had 2 layers and cute designs on it. Nabbed it for $28.

A fanny pack for future hiking trips.


Ok. here are the goodies from the SAKS Brushes with Greatness event. There were many counters that had facial, eye brow wax or make overs, it was a huge event spread throughout the store. IT WAS A MAD HOUSE! I over heard an European guy asking the MAC SA to pick out $300 worth of stuff for his gf. He didn't care what they were, what they are used for, just throw them in and put a bow on it. Hunnnieee!!!! You seee~!!!!
The GWP is for purchases over $150. I bought 2 Jo Malone cologne for my coworker, who's getting married this weekend, I picked a scent for her and her new hubby, so that's $100 out the door. I went back there again after work to spend the last $50 to make the GWP mark.
The gift. I put a MAC MSF next to it to let you see the size of this Stephanie Johnson makeup bag. It's huge! I love it!!! I love Stephanie Johnson make up bags!
There are about 20 goodies in there. Maybe you can see it better if you click on it to enlarge. Aside from the decadents and travel size shampoos, there were a full size MAC Lipstick in Syrup, Full size Lancome Lipstick in Vintage Rose, Ted Gibson hair sheet, Chanel Sublime eye cream in deluxe travel size, LM powder Eye Kohl in Black Ebony, and many many more. Every counter threw in some of their best sellers in deluxe size, it is not your average GWP size stuff, which made the $150 seems not so bad.
To make up the $50 I picked up the 3 Power Kohl Eye liners from MAC Starflash Collection, which they had out for just that day. I've always heard about Feline and how it was the blackest black. It didn't disappoint and I picked up 3 out of the 4. Sorry I didn't pick up any e/s, as I'm not a e/s person, but I heard the e/s for this collection had a special texture, which i didn't even get to swatch for you guys, sorry!!!
There was Feline, Mystery and Orpheus and another color that had red/pink shimmer, I skipped as I don't use any red/pink e/l. The color from above, left to right: Power Point in Prussian, Power Kohl in Mystery and Orpheus. I LOVE ORPHEUS! It's so soft and shimmery. It's a gold-ish bronze color. Love how it just shines!

Left to right: MAC Power Kohl in Feline - Lancome Le crayon khol in Raisin Noir - L'Oreal Carbon Black Pencil Perfect - Giorgio Armani - MAC Nightsky Softsparkle eye pencil
I totally see how black it is and the texture of this pencil is really really soft and smooth. I haven't tested it out yet. But from experience, soft pencils usually runs like a mofo. But then again, some people say Feline stay on their waterline all day. So I'll have to see about that this wknd, when do I some FOTD.
Mac Lipstick in Syrup. It's a Lustre texture. Pink Mauve -ish color. Not bad. I'm going to play around with this color and some lipglosses, might be a HG, who knows?
It is Friday!!! WOHOOO! the boss is working from home today. So I'm out of here by 5pm. This wknd, i have nothing planned. I just want to sit and relax by the pool. Do some FOTD. Go to Nordstrom to check out the sale, maybe? What's on your agenda this wknd?
ciao~

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Mario Badescu - 52nd street between 1st and 2nd ave

Hello from Daisy. This picture is for Mimmi! Hi Mimmi! Your reply made me realize how precious life can be and I don't want to ever imagine Daisy leaving me. She woke me up today by jumping on my chest and started smelling my face, must be the new cream I used from Mario Badescu. She's all like "what's that? Smells different. Mommy, you are using a different crap on your face today? Wake up!"

So how's everyone's Thursday going so far? Mine's alright. I'm working out of Jersey City office today. The office is located right on Hudson River, so I can take a walk outside by the river during lunch. Niceeee....


Mario Badescu is located at the first level of an appt building on the East Side. Quiet and typical East Side neighborhood feeling. The signs on the outside will leads you to the reception area.

When I arrived at 6:45pm for my 7pm appt, it was a big crowded in there. At least 8 customers were waitting by the waitting area and about 3-4 receiption/facialist at the front desk sending off and welcoming customers. Busy, but what did ya expect? It's a $65 facial with a well known brand name skin care line. I sat down with a copy of their product guide to pass time. I noticed they had a cosmetic line too. But there were no name on the packages and they seem to be very very old display. The lipglosses had that funky old grandma smell. ewww.. Ok, that just completely killed my desire to grop them. The walls are lined with celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and Cher's "Thank you" head shots. I told myself to keep my hopes not too high, as I've read some pretty bad reviews on Citysearch.

10 mins later, my name got called and a receiptionist escorted me to another apt across the hall. I guess that's where they have the extra rooms. Yes it's dingy, yes it's outdated, especially the wall papers, oh god. But I didn't think it was unbearable, maybe I'm just used to the Chinese facial places, and you know those places can really think of ways to cut cost (I went to a facial place that had neon lighting, hmm.. questionable.. but it was so cheap!).

My facialist, Louis, welcomed me by my name. Asked me to get in a robe (very plastic-y feeling robe, doubt they ever wash it) and lay down. She asked me a few questions, do you do facials, is this your first time, what are your concerns? I told honestly, my first time here and just wanted extraction and clean up the little bumps on my forehead.

She had a very cold and hard hand. Instinct tells me, man, this is gonna hurt like a bitch. She went on to remove my makeup, cleansed and massaged my face, neck and shoulders. Steam comes up, she went on to massage my hands and put them in a hot pouch, hmm... feels gooood... While I rested with steam on my face and hot mittens on my hand, she turns off the light and said she'd be back soon.

5 mins went by, she comes back in and turned on that bright ass magnifiying glass/light. At this point, I already know, there is no turning back. She patted my face dry and said "I know this part is not the best part, but you will thank me later." I cracked a smile.

Turns out, the extraction wasn't bad at all. She used finger gloves and her nails to squeeze out the black/white heads. She squeezed a lot of black head out of my nose, omg, I could totally FEEL IT coming out. Had about 2 pimples, which she popped. But it really isn't bad at all! It hurted, yes, but not to the point where I had tears coming out. Believe me when I say I have had worse. I have been bruised by extractions before and had a scratch on my nose for weeks, which ended up to be a dark spot and eventurally went away. But she wasn't bad and it only lasted about 15 mins I think. I have had extraction done for 30 mins and seriously, I thought my fake nose was going to pop out b/c they would squeeze it so hard and deep.

She looked at my skin carefully and said she'd recommand a glycolic peel and a seaweed mask, which are extras. They are $35 and $45 extra on top of the $65. Sure, add it, I'm here, might as well. I knew my skin was in really bad condition.

The peel stung a bit. And the mask was really cool and I totally passed out while doing the mask. She removed the mask and patted on some cream, eye cream and lip cream, and dotted some drying cream on spots. Then she sent me out to the receiptionist, who's going to give me a consultation (sell me some shit I don't need).

My skin wasn't red or bloachy immediately after the facial and felt refreshed and glowy. Happy with the result. I wanted to buy the Silve Powder to try at home, since I've heard a lot of bloggers talk about how good it is at removing black heads.

Went to the receiptionist, she just told me the total. I know it was 8pm, but dang, that girl had her running shoes and bags ready to go, like she's ready to run out of here. I ask "i thought you were going to give me a consultation?" she replied "Do you WANT a consultation?" I'm thinking, bitch, i'm giving you a chance to run your mouth and make some commissions, what a freaking idiot. So I said "i'm interested in the silver powder". She told me, the silver powder only works to bleach the black head, it doesn't do anything to remove it. Then she went on to shove a few more samples my way. Cucumber Tonic Mask, Whitening Mask, Toners, more masks. I give up. I paid and I went on my way.

Overall, I'd say I'll go back again for a basic facial with nothing added. It's pretty good at basic deep cleansing and extraction, which is what I need anyways. Plus, I didn't pay Louis any tips, she never asked. $140 well spent, I say.

Then aftewards, H picked me up and we went to this Tibetan Rest. in LES. But them waitter did not want to serve us, so I threw a pissy fit and left. Guess where we went instead???? that's right, IPPUDO!!! so yummmy. I had the same one as last time sans the pork (I'm trying this detox/cleansing thing now) and omg, the broth.. is so freaking gooood!!!

what a great way to end the day.

oh yea, by the way, I sinned and went to Saks and bought $150 worth of stuff and got my free bag. There is a full size MAC lipstick in Syrup and at least 20 other samples, a LM Powder Eye liners too i think. Well, I'll post pictures. I haven't really opened anything yet. FYI, I bought stuff from the MAC Starflash Collection, which isn't out until the end of Aug, but SAKS had it out just for yesterday. Can you guess what I got????

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Saks brushes with greatness beauty event

Saks on fifth ave. Purchase over $150 will receive this bag filled
with samples.

Release NYC

Colon Hydro Therapy aka Colonic. A colonic is the infusion of water into the rectum by a colon therapist to cleanse and flush out the colon. I believe it is helpful with detoxing the body and eliminate the waste/toxins that your body cannot do on its own. My goal to doing colonic is not to loose weight, though it is one of the common after effect. I wanted to detox and cleanse my body. I am always bloated, feeling heavy and fat, and I don't go to the bathroom regularly. All of these have made me feel emotionally and physically drained, tired and flat out miserable.


We made an appt at 6:15pm Tuesday and I dragged H with me. R u kidding? getting a garden hose shoved up in your butt hole is the coolest thing, how I can leave him out of it all! Release is located on 40th and Lexington, right by Grand Central. Once you walk in the door, you are welcomed by the burning incense and a receptionist. The place is pretty nice I gotta say, very relaxing. It's like u r visiting a friend's apt. There are these healthy vegan diet, body detox and yoga class panphlets everywhere.

This, my friend, is a gravity colonic machine. You are looking at the magnificent creation of Tom, the owner of Release NYC. He was a partner at Chakra 17 before he started his own studio. You can find more information for Release NYC here. Anyways, we made an appt with Tom. He was recommanded by the coworker who got me into all of these. We had a colonic and infrared sauna session. Before we started, Tom showed us the instrument of insertion (not shown here) and the theory behind this gravity colonic machine and how it works.

The water tank, obviously, holds water. You may add lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to it but most people just leave it bland. The small tube and the big tube is connected to the insertion instrument and then they plug the other side to your a-hole. The idea is to let water flow in through the small tube go into your colon and naturally comes out of the big tube. The reason that this is better than the many machine operated ones you see is because, all the movement in your bowel is created on your own by your colon. It is a colon awakening process. The machine will fill your colon with water and sucks your shit out for you. Therefore, it could create dependency and frankly, fucks up your colon in general.

H's insertion instrument is about the size of my ring finger (hence, very small, i have a size 4 ring finger). Mine on the other hand is the size of my thumb (size 6/7 i believe?) You ask why the bigger hose? Not b/c I told him about my pearl necklace fetish, but b/c I told him I was feeling gassy and bloated. He said this would help me to eliminate the gas better. hmm.. ok, i'll pretend I believe u.

First you need to empty your bladder, aka, go pee. Take off your panties and leave your shirt on. Lay on your left side on the bed, so your butt is facing the water tank, and drape your lower body with a sheet. Once you are settled, he will being in the instrument and lube it very generously. Take a deep breath, and it will slide in. Then he connects the tubes and release the water from the tank. All I felt was warm water coming in my butt and that's it. I didn't feel any pain or discomfortable. You wouldn't even know there is water going through your body.

The treatment is to have your shit loosen up from the walls and eventurally get flushed out. Tom will control or "help" the shit get loosen up by pinching the big tube or stopping the little tube. Most of the time he will fold the big tube (the going out tube) with his fingers quickly. This will create a "stop and go" motion in your colon. The force will loosen up the shit on the colon or intestine walls. Sometimes, he will hold on to the tube, so your stomache will literally blow up. It will hurt a bit, b/c it feels full and bloated, but he will release it once it reaches a certain point.

Now, let's talk about my feelings. I felt the thing going in my a** and felt a little bit of ripping, but it's nothing more than squeezing out a big log of hard shit. Once the water goes in, it actually feels really good! Then he will do the pinching thing and it's ok, not too bad. But the entire time, the entire 1 hour, you feel like you are taking a shit. It's like you are taking a never ending crap laying down. When the water fills up your stomache, it feels like your stomache is so bloated, you are about to rip a nice one in the room. but he says, let it go. If you feel like u gotta shit, shit, u gotta fart, fart. it all goes in the tube. He will tell you if u fart too, b/c u can see the gas in the tube.

He massaged/pressed my stomache in order to loosen up the intestines. and at one point, I felt like something POPed in my stomache. turns out to be a big fart or piece of shit. No joke, my stomache deflated 2 inches in that one instant. I was carrying that bloat with me all day and finally just pooooof.. pppssssshhhhhhh... all out.

Tom talked me about healthy diet all throughout the treatment. Can you believe this man was drinking some veggie juice that looked like shit while he was doing the treatment? How can you eat or drink when you do colonic for someone? Ain't it gross? ewww.... he was very down to earth and real about everything. Never once did he say shit about what I ate, he just encouraged me to have a good cleansing diet, so that my bowel movement can catch up to my mouth movement, with all that food coming in my mouth.

I think talking about healthy diet should be another post, b/c there is just too much info. Anyways. after you are done. He asks u to take a deep breathe and pulls out the instrument. THEN THE SHIT WATER CAME FLYING OUT OF MY ASS! jk. Your butt muscle holds in the water. But You need to go to the toilet. He will put out a small bench for your feet, so you are almost in a squating position (which by the way is better position to take a dump, than sitting down). THEN... you can release yourself. Shit, water, pee, whatever you name it, it just flys out into the toilet. Seriously, it's like your shooting water out of your ass. But it feel sooo good. like take a real good shit. Then after you are done shooting water out of your ass. You are done.

The treatment was 1 hour and damn, that was a long 1 hour. I felt really clean afterwards. but I wouldn't say LIGHT. I didn't feel any skinnier. Nor did I look any skinnier. But clean, yes. We went across the street and had a 16 oz veggie juice. I wasn't hungry at all and felt... ok.. normal.

Now it is the second day. I had a veggie juice for breakfast and ate some veggie and rice for lunch. So far, I feel pretty good. R u going to see difference in 1 treatment, maybe not. But with continuous treatment, you can acheive a healthy digestive system and improve your colon health.

Tom was 200 lbs at one point, after he became a colon therpist, he gave himself colonic on a daily basis (don't ask how), and he weighted in at 120lbs at some point, which made him realize it was way too thin. But it was all done without excerise, just veggie and fruit diet and colonic.

He gave us a chart of food pairing. Veggie with meat, or veggie with rice. No Rice and Meat. Different fruit, what they are, how to pair them, how to eat veggie and not having to throw it all up afterwards. All good info, which I will elaborate later on.

All in all, it was a great experience and I'd do it again, even if it's $95. Well worth the money. =)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Comment replies

jie jie said...
Thank goodness you're feeling better now. I blogged years ago and felt closer to my blogger friends than my RL friends, because they just didn't blog and we lived so far apart. I had a feeling, I think it was just me, that my real friends are getting tired of my whining and bitching. After hitting depression at its worse, I shut everyone out. Though I still minimize myself from exposing too much emotion, both in RL and online.. Errr.. not exactly cos I pretty much expose myself in other people's blog thru their comment section. Hehe.. you're one of my victims. I guess you can't help it when someone is truly open about their thoughts and feelings. One can't help but worry, relate and understand how you must feel. LOL on "Can't wait to get dirrty dirrty and make monkey love to H in the jungle." that's only good in fantasy hun.. j/k.I've been seeing some swatches lately, and Gentle is the one I'm eyeing most.. well dainty but it seems to light on me. Maybe I'll wait for more FOTDs.


Hi Jie Jie, thanks for always visiting my blog and leaving comments. Believe it or not, I always look forward to your comments, b/c it's more than just a "nice picture" reply, but u actually go in detail with your inputs. I'm glad to be one of your victims. =)

I think I've mentioned on my blog before that I experienced depression as well. It was derived from anxiety attack. Anxiety attacks landed me in the ER a couple times, sometimes it gets so bad, I rarely slept in 36 or 48 hours. The Dr. asked me to go see out patient psychiatrist, but I never went. One thing is just I'm afraid to be seen as a "mental patient", another is me thinking I'm strong enough to deal with anything. I had friends around me but I know none of them knew what I was going through. Even though they listened to me, but it's hard to let others feel what is going through in your head. I shutted them out. I know they care about me, but that doesn't really help with being depressed. The only thing that can save me is myself. I needed to see things differently and get out of the black hole. No one could help me, except for myself. So I ended up spending a lot of time alone and start this blog. Believe it or not, it felt a lot better after I started the blog. I felt like I could express my feelings better and my readers kept me going on about what I'm passionate. It's like always having a listener there. I didin't have to go out of my way to search for someone who'd just listen to me and telling me how I should live my life.
Anyways, completely going off of a tangent. But I wanted to let you know I read your blog too and I apprecaite your comment. =)

Anonymous said...
CuttiBebe:I have been reading your blog for a while, mainly because of Daisy, reminds me of my own pet. I agree, mac's gentle is so beautiful!I also get anxiety attacks once in a while, is very scary and my family thinks I am just weak minded and need to be monitored...it is sad..because I am perfectly fine unless those moments come...I wish they understood that is something we can overcome. Along the way i read your blog. Hugs!Mimmi.

Hi Mimmi! Is your dog a Shih Tzu too? I love doggies, can u send me a picture of him/her? Daisy would love to meet her blogger friend.

I went through the same thing with my family. When I first mentioned to my mom about those weird feelings, she told me she had those too. It feels like a heart attack, you can't breath and feel like u r going to die. It's an intense feeling of fear and depression, it's like the world has come to an end and you are going to die. It has a spiral effect as well, the more think about it, the lower you go and it continues on, it's like an endless black hole and you are just falling.

When I used to have those feelings, I'd always be alone. Alone on a flight, alone in a car, or alone at home. Then I've discovered, my problem is being alone and I feared lonliness. I'm a single child, u'd think i'm used to being alone. Not really. I had my first anxiety attack at the age of 10. As years went on by, I had some here and there, just minor anxiety, so I pushed it aside. Until one day I was home alone while my parents were overseas, I got into this uncontrollable anxiety attack. I called my bf who was 250 miles away and told him I can't breathe. This went on for hours, I finally went to sleep at 4am after I called a friend over.

Dr. prescribed some Xnanx for me, but I felt it only made me sleepy. Yes it calmed me down quicker and made me relaxed and sleepy. But I didn't want to rely on medication. I still carry it around with me even after almost 1 1/2 yrs of not taking it (I only took it twice, just to get some sleep, then I ended up taking sleep aid for that). it's just the thought of having it with me, made me feel better. Sometimes I'd have attacks on the bus or walking on the street, that's when I need to find a place to sit down and drink some warm water with sugar. Low level of blood sugar can trigger anxiety too. I think I've scared enough people on the street, when I'd just turn paper white, breathing really heavy and having cold sweat in my palm.

As time goes by, I learned how to control it. Most of the time, I know when I'd get those feelings. So it's not an "attack" anymore. I can easily trigger myself into anxiety. I just need to think about all the sad things in my life and it'll come. But I can "talk myself out of it too". I need to tell myself I'm doing ok. I won't die. Nobody dies from having an anxiety attack. The feeling will go away. Sometimes I'd feel like shit all day or all week. It depends on the intensity. Somedays I can't really work, b/c my mind's occupied with so many thoughts. I can't stop it. I guess it's a form of Obsessive Composive Disorder. But I'd say it's very mild, b/c I am conscious of it.

I suggest that u do some research online. Spend some time with yourself to find out what triggers it. It's like someone with clostrophobia, if u had anxiety attack in a certain situation, the next time that situation happens again, it will trigger another round of attack. Last but not least, GET HELP IF YOU NEED IT. You can't possiblity fight off emotional illness on your own. I wish I had gotten help, went to therapy, but my unwillingness made me suffer a lot. Remember, NOBODY on this earth feels your pain, except for yourself. So why torture yourself and deny the medical attention you need? You don't see a diabetic denies him/herself from insulin, b/c they can "fight" it off or they are not strong enough. It's a condition/illness/disorder, whatever it is, you need someone with a professional opinon to tell you what to do next. You family wants the best for you, healthy and happy, but they are not fit for giving medical advises. Likewise, you don't tell your sick mom/dad to just suck it up and don't take medicine for the cold.

Please read here about my past experience and a very interesting article written by Dooce.