DF&CCO and CCO Haul - Feb Edition

What is better than finding classic HG make up or skin care? Finding them at 50% off and taking another $15 off your purchase of $75 or more. =)

This past weekend, yours truly, went back to Beantown for CNY (really just to get some red envelope). I nagged H for the longest time to bring me to Wrentham outlet's CCO, I was supposed to go last time, but my spending urge meter weren't revving that high, so I passed and spare him the 1 hour waitting time. This time, we didn't even go home first and went to Wrentham under my combo seduction and threat, which works great ladies. He's such a trooper for waitting outside with Daisy (no dogs allowed) in the dip 20F weather, it was hard to "hurry up" and I really thought I could use another arm and leg to swatch everything!

without further adieu, my mega haul:


5 items from DF&CCO (all shu):
2 cleasing oils
1 eye shadow
1 blush
1 eye shadow crayons


I only use Shu's cleansing oil to remove makeup, nothing else, I swear. When I went to HK and Japan, I literally bought them in bulks in fear of not able to find them in the US. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the shu cleasning oils on sale for 50% off!!! at DF&CCO. I nearly fainted and almost angry at HOW DARE THEY DISCOUNT SUCH GREAT PRODUCTS! They are $50 per bottle and they are worth every single drop! So I nabbed 2, Fresh for oily skin and the 1960 Original for normal/combo skin. They have all 5 types, anti aging, dry skin and some other ones. Go check your local DF&CCO see if you can get one!

Not sure if I've mentioned the Sierra marble blush I got a few weeks ago (left). I wanted to recreat Karen's glowing bronzed blush look. Shu definitely make the most pigmented blush I've ever tried and it applies so evenly, no need to blend blend blend, the powder is soft and smooth, definitely my HG for blush. That says a lot about a blush, cus usually I hate them. Then I saw the Rose Marble this time and without even testing it, nabbed it too. Just the right amount of shimmer, LOVE IT!


I have never heard of Shu's eye shadow crayon, but when I tested it, it came to be very pigmented and smooth. I thought it was going to be creamy or just a big eye liner, but it's actually powder! The colors are deep green, deep burgendy/purple and icy white, all shimmer. Haven't tried them on my eyes yet, but I have high hopes for them.

Another Shu's e/s. I'm on a deep/forest green trip, this one's not too gold-ish and really shows up as green. A great blending shadow, I think it'll do well with a nice green paint underneath.


6 items from CCO (all MAC):
1 Holiday lipstick/glass set
2 MSF
2 Pigments
1 Lipglass pencil


the MSF's are Northern Light (left) and Gold Spill (right). It was the last Northern Light and I grabbed it in fear of anyone stealing it. It's such a beautiful coral/pink color, it'll do great as a blush or a blush highlighter, but I found some relatively "big" glitter on it when I came home, hmmm.. I'm gonna need to test it one day and see how it turns out. Goldspill is just pretty in everyway possible. As a bronzer or highlighter, it'll be great for the summer to add some glow. I just couldn't resist getting them since they are mentioned countless times in blogs as HG. They are my very first MAC MSFs!

Pigments are Aire de Jardin and Mauvement. I was never interested in pigments. I'm not a makeup artist and not into those crazy bright orange colors, so pigment really serves more as disaster maker and time consumer in my makeup applications (I've heard too many horror stories with spilling pigments). But the color of these two really stood out to me as great neutral colors. I like soft shimmer on my lid and just add eye liners and mascara, not crazy about layering and blending, too much work. so I think these two will be great when I'm in the mood for some pretty soft look for my eyes. I love Mauvement, it's not too grey and still got a big of purple and gold in there. I know my eyes looks the best with purple and grey color scheme, so we'll have to see how I handle the application with pigments.

The lipglass liner is in Pink Edge. I like pairing warm lipliners with warm/gold tone lipgloss. And I have been looking for a perfect pink lipliner for a while now. This one's not too pink and is closer to my natural lip color, plus it's more moist than most lip liner.

I was surprised to see a Holiday set came out so early! It's the PINK lips set. I don't have the colors in front of me, but 1 is a rose under tone pink and the other is a beige with pink shimmer, the lipglass is mostly just beige. I'm not a lipstick person and I want the staying power, so I will definitely be wearing the pink lip stick a lot more.

By the way, I got an extra $15 off the DF&CCO purchase. The outlet has these coupon books you can get if you are a memeber and u can get further discounts. I didn't know, but the SA was nice enough to give me the discount anyways. SCORE!

My way of thinking for buying makeup now is if I'm going to spend money on makeup, I might as well get them on sale. I don't really carea bout the newest collections as long as the colors are nice and I will use them. If I won't use them, what's the point of buying them. I'm not a makeup artist, I'm not a makeup collectors, so I don't need to always catch up with the newest of everything. Also, BOSTON's got a lot more goodies than NY. The CCO and DF&CCO by my work is so small, there is practically NOTHING there. I'm so sick of going there now, I won't find anything anyways.

Hope you enjoyed the post! =)

Beauty Review - Lightful: Lightful Essence

Lightful Collection: Lightful Essence
30ml
$40 (Got it @ CCO for $32)

After some prelimilary research, I understand that this collection was an Asia Exclusive in 2006? Then it was available at the Pro Store. In the Asia exclusive collection, they were other items such as the Protective Hydrator, compact foundation and some other color items. This was just relaunched in MAC store with cleasner, softening lotion, essence and a creme.

I first saw this item in the CCO in Woodbury Commons and was looking for a good sunscreen, when I tested the protective hydrator (I mentioned this in my previous post), it was really smooth, light and absorbed quickly. Also, there is a faint flowery scent that's common in Asian skin care lines, definitely a good buy I say. This is hard to admit, but I don't have a set skin care regime and I rotate my skin care products according to what my skin wants. But the protective hydrator has been my stable since then, that says a lot about ANYTHING in my skin care arsenal.

Now, onto the Essence. I finally bought it yesterday at the CCO by my work. I was feeling down and need some retail therapy, I have been eyeing it FOREVER, every time I tested it, I wanted to get it, but it was $32, that's a lot for 30ml. So I waited and waited. Until the lightful line relaunched, I'm like, why would anybody pay $40 to get the same exact thing they are selling at CCO for $32? F this, I'm getting it.

I'm so happy I did! The Essence is a watery serum texture, it's very light and absorbs quickly, however, it stills feel very moisturizing and relieves my winter "dry-on-top and oily-underneath" skin. I feel like I could use less lotion, which is always good, since they take longer to absorb and tend to make my skin get oily faster.

As far as the "whitening" part, like I said before, I don't care about being pale white nor do I really care about tanning my face. whitening products tend to have high acid content that "peels" your skin, that's the whole concept of whitening, so there is no magical lotion out there that makes you whiter, it just peels your skin to reveal brighter skin tone and probably will turn your skin sensitive.

I do notice my skin turning brighter and I look less yellower than before. My makeup looks great with the protective lotion as a base. the consistency of the protective lotion is lighter than strobe cream and the face primer, so it's more like a lotion and doesn't give me that dried out "my face is a canvas" type of feeling.

All in all, I like the lightful line and I think they were an Asia exclusive line for a reason, it suits Asian skin better. I'm thinking about getting the Creme too, but need to finish my Chanel Precision Hydromax first.

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.

DISCLAIMER: If you are easily offended by Mega Picture-Whoring & Surgical Procedure Pictures, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER! Viewer discretion advised!

This post is in response to the heated topic of Ulzaang (I didn't even bother to spell it right, so whatever that "best face" picture is called"). Well, with the technology now-a-days, you can play around with your camera, the lighting and photoshop the crap out of your picture. Back in my days, pre-2000, there is only webcam and that huge digital camera that saves to floppy disks. Then it came to the time I learned how to GLUE my eyes and do makeup. Then it came the time when I finally got my eye lid done. Yes, eye lid surgery! I had been gluing my eyes for 6 years and finally got sick of it. Along with the eyes, I got my nose done too. Yup, a silicon piece of mold is inside my nose, ewwww.. What else, oh, I plucked my eyebrows too much and got them tattooed. That's all I've done for my face so far. And I feel so much better now, not because I feel prettier, but because it takes much less time to get ready in the morning!



I know it may sound a bit out there that I'm posting this entry. But I am doing this to help those who might be curious of plastic surgery. I know I might get hate comments, and I am so ready sitting by with my cuppa hot tea to read them. For those who might be clicking on the comment button now, I suggest you just read the post and learn a thing or two. Plastic surgery ain't what it blows up to be. Take a look at my post surgery pictures and decide for yourself if you want to go through the pain. Nothing comes for free ladies, and that includes beauty in some cases. So let's start the show~



1999-2000 (eye lid tape and liquid liners, natrual brow tweezed, webcam)




2002-2005 (digital camera, eyelid glue, drawn in brow)


IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN!!!!













































2006 (tattooed brows after 1 yr, a bit faded, post surgery)


1st pic - second or third day after surgery, the first few days, I was high on pain killer and couldn't sleep much cus of the pain, unless I get knocked out by pain killer. The tape on my nose is supposed to keep the silicon mold in place. The stitches on my eyes are still there.

2nd pic - a week after surgery. eye lid stitches are gone and tapes are off. since i couldn't eat or sleep, i think i lost a little weight, and so unhappily hungry, lol.



2006 (weeks after surgery)


1st pic - about 2-3 weeks after surgery. swelling is almost all gone, bruises are all gone, eyes are healing faster than the nose. happier now. =) cus I'm going on a trip to SINGAPORE!

2nd pic - in singapore, about 3 weeks after surgery. I wore a cap for all 3 weeks, and finally took it done that day. friends didn't even notice my nose surgery, bizzard, i think they were just not looking. Wore makeup for the first time post surgery.



2006 (months after surgery)


1st pic - of course this is a low resolution pic, took it on my camera phone with dimmed dorm light. it's about 2 months after the surgery. everything is fine and I had no post surgery complications. the only thing is, I can't do the pig nose. =(

2nd pic - 7 months after surgery, in Japan, you can see the nose swelling was actually still there in the 1st pic, but this pic you can see the shape better. freshly tattooed eye brows!!! no drawn-in.

SuperBowling weekend

Aside from watching my boyfriend Brady getting sacked in the superbowl and checking his bum out every chance I get on HD, my weekend was super booooring (superbowling, get it? corny I know).

It sucked that the PATS lost. I'm from NY and rules for the PATS b/c my boyfriend is their quarter back, I think you guys have heard of him? Tom Brady? Yea, so he dumped that pregger ex of his to be with me and we were so planning to get married after he gets his champ ring, but it didn't happen. Oh wells, at least I will get to massage his soar backs and arms and comfort his grieving soul in the warmness of my arms.

lol. OK, now you guys know about my Brady fantasy. He's pretty hot for an all American boy, but the only white boy that can twist my panties in a bunch is David.... Beckham... *drooool*. I don't know what the B*tch Victoria has that I don't. All that fake tan and plastic boobies, yucks! I bet she does some humanly impossible moves in the bedroom that she learned from her trip to the Mars, and got Beckham on some alien voodoo to keep him hypnotized on her.

Anyways, back to my boring weekend. I went to a World MBA Tour on Sat. and was greatly disappointed that I spent $5 for NOTHING. The hotel hosted the event was so jam packed, I felt like I was walking in a sardin tin. There were about 20 schools there. All 2nd tier, not on my dream list school. What a false advertisement! I got a hold of an NYU alum and chatted up with him for about half hour. We were about a foot away facing each other and I had to SCREAM EVERYTHING I SAY! "HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CLASSMATES?" "WHAT WAS THAT?" "HOW WOUULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CLASSSSSMATESSSS!!!???" "HOW MANY ARE THERE IN MY CLASSES?"

My ears were ringing after I came out of that basement conferenceroom. I felt like a bomb had gone off in front of my eyes and I couldn't hear the world. Sigh, the things you do to make your dreams comes true. Then my friend Benny picked me up and informed me that my ear was bleeding. WHAT?! Oh, that just a pimple I popped. But honestly, I thought my ear drum had popped and bleeding out my ears.

Came home, we made some dinner. He cut his thumb and I got splattered with boiling oil. But I learned how to make gracamoule and corn flaked chicken. Was too tired to even finish eatting everything. Then he showed me his $4000 camera and some of his works. very impressive. All of a sudden, I want to be a photoagrapher. But $1000 for a lense? I will stick to my makeup addict hobby.

SUNDAY was gorgeous. Woke up at 2pm to my radio. "High 52 degrees, currently at 46." WOOHOOO. I put on my booty work out pants and popped on my iPhone. Daisy in tow, we went on a 90 min walk by the waterfront, down to the Pier and up the new constructions. She entertained the kids on the strollers and I chatted with friendly dog lovers. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

I don't want to talk about the Super Bawl. Skip until 11pm. I went out to the supermarket and bought more avacado and lunch meats. Came home, made avacado turkey sandwich. AND left it home this morning. sigh... That sandwich could cost about $8.35 in the city. Since my dumb ass left it at home, I'm gonna have to buy a $2.25 soup today for lunch. ARGH!

The drama at work is dying down. Now I've realized. When sh*t hits the fan, everyone's for themselves. Gives me more motivation to kick ass on the GMAT and get away from this sh*t hole.

Adios chicas. Sorry for the boring post.

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~