Review: NEST Fragrances

Hello friends!! Back again!!

So if you’re from the US, you remember that every year there is this one-day event called Black Friday….and if you’re from outside the US maybe you remember it’s horror stories, I am shrugging to myself because I don’t really know what non-Americans think of our consumerism-based holiday haha. So why am I writing about something that happened in late November??? Five months ago??? (It’s crazy how it’s already the end of March by the way).

I’m pretty sure you can already tell why I’m writing about this, but why am I writing it so late, you ask? Dearest reader, it’s because I didn’t want to give you a review of something I hadn’t spent a lot of time with. I have spent a lot of times with these fragrances. They are cute little rollerballs perfect to carry around in your handbag (or pocket, y’know, if you’re a girl blessed with actual pockets and that’s just something you choose to carry).

Verde – this actually reminds me a lot of one of the Ted Baker fragrances that I wrote about last year! It was either Mia or Ella — the black one bottle one! It feels a little forest-y now that I think about it; it’s quite a “mature” scent, it isn’t really fresh or light but definitely stronger. Maybe a little stronger than the Ted Baker fragrance but it could be due to the fact that it’s a rollerball fragrance in a 0.2 fl oz bottle so it is very compacted.

Dahlia & Vines – I actually really like this scent, it’s very fresh and light (quite the opposite of our friend above us haha). It feels summer-y and sweet and all things nice, like if I had to give it a physical attribution it would be pink lemonade if that makes sense. It doesn’t smell like pink lemonade but I was thinking of what color I would give it and I just think of pink lemonade….does anyone else have trouble describing scents?? As you can see, I do…

Indigo – this literally smells like a bath bomb. It smells like the lush store…and a little more lavender.. I think. It also kind of smells like grape Flavor-Ice. If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically the long plastic of ice that people eat in the summer. Sometimes they would provide it in elementary and middle school?? I once got it in college at a fair simply for being a commuter?? LOL. I would smell this to relive the days of childhood innocence but probably not as a perfume..

That’s really all I have to say about that, maybe I’ll get better at describing scents eventually! The size is really convenient and such a great value for only $10 worth (thank you Black Friday!!!) I will see you guys in my next blog post, happy April!! 🙂

Hannah
1 April 2016

 

Review: Bobbi Brown Lip Color

Hi friends!

My aunt gave me this lipstick for Christmas, well more I was with her in Sephora and looking at it so she bought it for my gift but I still got it for Christmas! It took me probably 12 different swatches to decide which color I wanted (this is among different brand though, not just Bobbi Brown) and I ended up choosing it in 32 Rum Raisin.

The packaging is GORGEOUS. I partly chose this lipstick for it’s look and it’s brand name, since I’ve never really had a more high end lipstick. I don’t even own an M.A.C. lipsticks! Not sure if I’ve made a blog post about them, but I’ve only used Rimmel Kate Moss 107 and 08 (I think it’s 08, I don’t have it on me right now, ah!) which are great, but I needed to branch out a bit, y’know. On me, it’s a lighter than I thought it would be after swatching it which you can see below. Maybe I just didn’t put on enough on my lips, but it definitely looks darker on both the stick, the swatch, and on the website.

It’s pretty creamy upon first application with good pigmentation in my opinion, it definitely settles a little drier, not drying though–difference there. I don’t know that this is supposed to be a matte formula?? (I’m checking right now). Ah, okay, yes so I’m looking at the website now and it is described to be a creamy, semi-matte (yay Hannah! look at you with your make-up knowledge). But yes, referring back to what I said about it being lighter on me, I believe it’s one of those lipsticks that you can layer on and it will look alright with each layer. It isn’t moisturizing though, so put your chapstick or lip balm or whatever under before you apply it! Great value for my money (or my aunt’s money) if I do say so myself.

Recommend lip products below! I’d love to hear from you. 🙂

Hannah
8 January 2016

Ted Baker Fragrances | Mia & Ella

Hi internet friends!

Today I’m here to tell you about a new set of perfume that I’ve purchased–as you can tell by the title, it’s from one of my favorite high-end brands called Ted Baker. Ted Baker is a London-based designer that specializes in clothing and handbags. My family has wallets, handbags, clothes, and now perfume from Ted Baker! (But don’t worry it’s not a lot, we just know how to pounce on deals and deductions haha).

 I think this is partly a graduation gift / early birthday gift? I’m not quite sure but my parents let me buy it from the Ted Baker section in Bloomingdale’s haha. There were four perfumes at the counter–a purple (Cate), light pink (Mia) , hot pink (Sally), and black (Ella). After going through all of them, I fell in looove with Mia and Ella and Bloomingdale’s just happened to have a duo box for the two, which also happened to be the last box in stock! I bought the fragrances from Bloomingdale’s for $40 which I thought to be a good deal for fragrances, especially with such a high-end name. The rollerballs from Sephora range from $20 to $30 so this felt good in my mind haha.

On to the actual scents, Mia (light pink) feels as if it has a more sweet or floral scent and I’ve been using it daily as my everyday fragrance. It has a very daytime feel, which is probably why it has the lightest bottle? It also sliiightly reminds me of a more high-end version of Twinkle from P.S. from Aeropostale (don’t judge I bought it when I was in about the 7th grade!) because it’s so sweet but it definitely has a strong scent.

Ella definitely reflects it’s packaging (whoever designed this exact packaging was a genius by the way. the bottles are beautiful!). It feels more sultry but I think it still feels very sweet if that makes sense (haha like scents..get it?). Describing scents are very hard I’m sorry if I’m not doing a great job!

I think both of these perfumes are a good choice if you’re someone who’s transitioning from “younger” scents to “older” scents if that makes sense? For example, I was talking about Twinkle which obviously would be a fragrance for a younger person because it’s light and not too strong. On the other side of that spectrum, I also own Burberry Brit which would classify as a more adult perfume and definitely more potent than Twinkle. Mia and Ella are both good inbetweens of those two different classifications.

Obviously we’re all drawn to different types of fragrances and every person has their own preferences but if you’re looking to try out a new perfume, I would definitely recommend either Mia or Ella. I know that if you live in the UK, you could probably get either of them at Boots for £15 because I found it on the Boots website when I was looking for the names of the other fragrances? Unfortunately you won’t be able to find the duos there, but if you live in the US, you could probably find this in any high end department store near you like Bloomingdale’s or Saks Fifth Avenue or maybe Lord & Taylor.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and try your hand at one of these fragrances! I know I’ll definitely be using these often! See you all in my next post next week. 🙂

Hannah
July 31 2015

Lifesavers | Haircare

Hi again!

Last week I wrote about lifesavers for my skin, and this time I’m going to talk about my hair! I’m writing this on July 18 so I’m not sure how these products will be working for my short hair but my long hair has definitely loved them deeply!

It can be difficult to take care of long hair seeing as there is so much of it, and when you have thick hair like me, not just anything works for your hair. Due to the nature of my hair, I could wash it every 3 days (sometimes even 4 if necessary!) and even though that doesn’t sound right, that was just the nature of my hair! My hair didn’t get super oily super fast, it was thick and there was lots of it and it could last a long time. But of course this wasn’t always the nature of it, for the most part it was, but it had it’s off-days. So to keep it in check I used these products to keep it together for as long as possible!

1. Dove Refresh+Care Volume Dry Shampoo
After countless review searching, I have only tried two dry shampoos and honestly, this is my favorite. It works exceedingly well and doesn’t leave any of those dreaded white flakes or whatever in my hair. It adds lift and keeps my hair from looking oily at the roots. There isn’t much to say about this product other than the fact that works amazing and I have been using it for the past year. If you’re wondering what the second one I tried was, it was the Batiste cherry one. It smells really good but it didn’t work as well with my hair, probably because my hair is so thick.

2. Garnier Fructis Sleek & Shine Anti-Humidity Smoothing Milk
These names are really long dear god. When my hair was long, I often had trouble with it’s frizziness and poofy-ness so I would use this to make it sleeker and flatter. A lot of times it definitely worked wonders! Sometimes my hair would be fine without it but obviously the weather is a big factor in these types of situations also. My hair routine is very specific in the fact that it has to be done at a certain time. I wash my hair at night (usually between 5-7 and maybe 8 if I know I can stay up until at most midnight) and leave it to air dry for as long as possible. Then, I just go to sleep to flatten it out because after I wash my hair it dries slightly poofy which I hate with a deep passion. So I resort to washing it at night and sleeping on it. Never sleep on it when it’s damp though! Wet pillow and your hair might dry with weird grooves in it. I put this in my hair almost after every time I shower (sometimes I forget shhhh) but only when it’s very slightly damp and almost close to being dry. However, you can also put it in your hair when it’s dry because I put so much of it in the day I went to go meet Pentatonix because it was incredibly hot and humid that day! It worked to a point but the humidity was unbearable, so maybe I need something stronger for those situations but it works extremely well for everything else!

Wow, I’ve talked a lot about these two products, oops. They work really well for me personally though which is why I’m so willing to talk a lot about them! If you guys have any recommendations, please leave them below in the comments! 🙂

Hannah
July 29 2015

Lifesavers | Skincare

Hello friends!

I don’t know about you guys but I have a love-hate relationship with my skin. Sometimes it just works well and I don’t have to do much with it because it just does good things for me and doesn’t act up. But obviously that isn’t everyday since I have eczema and am a growing teenager. So occasionally I have these tiny breakouts of acne or areas of eczema that I need to treat and these are the amazing products that keep everything contained!

1. Lubriderm Advanced Therapy Lotion – Deeply Hydrates Extra Dry Skin
I used to use Cetaphil but I don’t know if you’ve noticed but that stuff is way more expensive than I thought it would be, so I switched. I heard many good things about Lubriderm and gave it a try and it works just as well for less money and who doesn’t love saving money. This stuff is great. My skin loves it. IT’S GREAT.

2. Boots Expert Sensitive Hydrating Moisturizer
After I shower, my face gets really dry so I use this moisturizer on my face to keep it hydrated and soft. Works like a dream, it does. It is also just really good for your wallet and even though most beauty gurus on Youtube say that if it’s for your skin, it makes sense to splurge a little bit for it, Hannah doesn’t have that money. This works just fine–your skin and your wallet will thank you. Also, this lasts a reeeeally long time because I’ve been using this for 1.5 years maybe and I’ve only just started using my second bottle recently.

3. Boots Expert Anti-Blemish Night Moisturizer
When my tiny breakouts start to become a thing I put this on the afflicted areas right after I shower and right before the moisturizer. It’s also very hydrating so I don’t usually need to put the other moisturizer over the parts that I put this on. It’s not sticky or thick or anything and you barely notice that it’s on 3 seconds after you apply it, if that’s a concern you have. It definitely helps the breakouts and helps to contain them and put them to rest so try it out. Again, this isn’t extremely expensive and works really quickly so it’s definitely a good item to experiment with.

These products work amazingly well on my skin and I like to think my skin is in pretty good condition so I encourage you guys to try it out if you’re looking for something. I just felt like sharing this information for anyone who has the same skin struggles! Also, if you have eczema, don’t skip out on buying cortizone, that is one thing that you shouldn’t be looking for cheap dupes of. Aveeno has a hydro-cortizone that works pretty well but it certainly doesn’t substitute for the real thing so don’t forget to invest in that! Cortizone also works amazingly well with bug bites, but bug bites can be combated with the Aveeno one just fine.

Oops, I’ve rambled enough. See you all again in the next post!

Hannah
July 22 2015

Beauty Go-To’s

Good evening internet!

It was this year that I decided to get more involved in beauty so I just thought I’d share it with you all. I forgot to include a few items in this picture because I’ve been carrying them around lately, so I’ll list them at the end!

 

Shown Above

1. Burt’s Bees Beauty Bag – I bought this in a set of other Burt’s Bees products (lip balms, a hand lotion and a body wash) so unfortunately it’s not available for individual sale. I use it a lot to carry all of my odds and ends.

2. Too Faced Boudoir Eyes Eye Shadow Collection – This I bought at the Sephora in Times Square two weeks ago! Frankly I have been wanting any of the Too Faced palettes recently and I’m glad to call this one my first! I bought this for $36 (making my total number of beauty points 220 woohoo!).

3. Julep Nail Polish – I loooooove the Julep nail polishes because their packaging is sooo pretty! That’s often how I feel about all things, if there is pretty packaging then the marketing company has definitely swayed me. These are usually a little more on the expensive side but I found a bunch of these at my local Marshall’s/HomeGoods for cheaper and bought it because I’m me and enjoy spending money on frivolous things haha. I bought them in the colors Catherine and Emma for $4.99 each (they’re usually $14!).

4. Maybelline The Falsies Volume Express Mascara – I first got this because I was persuaded by beauty gurus on Youtube (yay Zoella & sprinkleofglitter!) and I am quite pleased. Although it isn’t my favorite mascara of all time it certainly does its job! It can be bought at your local drug store or Target or Walmart for around $6.99 (I bought mine from Target but it varies depending on where you purchase it from).

5. Rimmel Kate Moss Matte Lipstick – Again, I was persuaded by Zoella to try these Rimmel lipsticks and I really do like them! I love matte lipsticks because they just looks so nice and they aren’t overpowering or anything. I bought this from my local Target for $4.99 in the color 107.

6. Wet n Wild Color Icon Collection Eye Shadow Trio – I find this to be a nice product for starters who don’t want to spend too much money on makeup if you didn’t end up liking it (like meeee!). I bought it from again, my local Target for about $2.99 in I believe . . . Walking On Eggshells? It doesn’t say the name on the package but I looked it up online and it’s either that one or Sweet As Candy.

7. Rimmel Scandaleyes Kohl Kajal Eyeliner – I unfortunately bought this in 002 Sparkling Black and I wish I hadn’t because I usually like to wear more shimmery eyeshadows and well . . . you can kind of see where I’m going with this. I would probably like this better if I got it in 001. I bought this from Target for about $4.49. Comment below if you use this product and have something better to say!

8. NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil – I LOOOOVE Nars products! I just wish I had the money for them! This is definitely a more high end product but I feel that it’s quite worth the money spent. I bought this product at Sephora for $25 in the color Bettina. I love it because it is a nice nude for me and matches my lip color quite close so if I don’t feel like wearing some other color I can just swipe this on!

9. Benefit Instant Brow Pencil – I prefer brow pencils over using shadows and a brush, I don’t know why I just do. Unfortunately because of that, I find it difficult to find a brow pencil that I like that will match my eyebrow color. I’m Asian so I have black hair and therefore my eyebrows are black! Hannah needs a dark color eyebrow pencil to match. So I found this little one at the Sephora on Fifth Avenue in New York. I bought it for either $20 or $22 (? I don’t remember I’m sorry it is probably on the website though!) in the color “deep”.

10. Burt’s Bees Beeswax Lip Balm – I love these things man. They’re so good for my lips and also the skin around it. I used to have eczema as a baby and growing up it always appears to come back for me every so often. Lately it has been happening around my lips so I need a nice lip balm that won’t stain my face! I bought it from Target for $2.99 in Vitamin E & Peppermint!

11. M.A.C. Eyeshadow – This is my first M.A.C. product and it makes me very haha. I bought it from this cosmetics store that sold high end makeup at a discount price and lo and behold I found this beauty! They’re originally around $22 or $27 but I believe I got this for around $16 or less. I looked on the website and I don’t think they sell this shade anymore (which is why it is probably sold so discounted!) but I bought it in Frost At Midnight. It’s so pretty!

12. Sonia Kashuk Blusher Brush No. 101 – This is one of my first make up brushes and very nice for the makeup beginners on a budget. It’s so soft! Not the softest but really soft for only $10.99! I know it’s supposed to be used for blush but I often use it for my pressed powders also. This was purchased at Target.

13. BareMinerals READY Bronzer – Now, I got this one free as a free sample from Sephora and I don’t use it too much but I recently used it to fix a tan line on my face (damn these glasses leaving tan lines on the bridge of my nose!) and I found it to work well in my favor. I have it in the shade The Skinny Dip? I don’t know, comment below if you have anything to say about this product!

14. Make Up Forever HD Pressed Powder – I got this from the little travel size boxes in the line to the register at Sephora (they’re so tempting dear god). My aunt who has worked at beauty counters in Bloomingdale’s and and currently Saks Fifth Avenue told me about this brand and how good it was and how she used it all the time. So I bought this pressed powder to set any makeup I use in a day and I quite enjoy it. It’s again on the high end side, it’s only a little travel size but it cost me $20! So spend your money wisely m’friend!

15. Ciate Paint Pots – I love Ciate nail polishes! Their packaging is sooo adorable. Again they’re on the high end side, one full size paint pot costing $15, but I found these also on sale at my local Marshall’s/HomeGoods for only $5.99 (praise!) and just went for it. I bought it in one of my favorite shades for nail polish; it’s a sort of like a sea foam/mint kind of color? It’s called “pepperminty”. It looks very nice after two good coats!

That’s the very last of my usual go-to’s in my makeup drawer but there are about three more things not listed! So I’ll explain those right below.

Not shown

1. Rimmel Moisture Renew Lipstick – I needed a nice berry color and I found this! I LOVE IT! I won’t talk about it too much because I think I’ve talked enough but just thought I’d . . . y’know express my love . . . 🙂 I bought it from Target in the color 500 Berry Rose.

2. Boots No 7 Exquisite Curl Mascara – The packaging is sooo beautiful. It’s so sleek and shiny and ugh I just love it so much. The consistency isn’t heavy or clump-y and it makes for a very natural look (to me at least!) I bought it from Target for $7.99.

3. Sonia Kashuk Small Eye Shadow Brush No. 106 – Just like the No. 101 brush, it’s very soft for a non-high end brush. I bought this also from Target for $4.99. (Can’t you tell I love Target??)

Well that’s all for now! Thank you sooo so so much to my new five followers! I really appreciate that you’ve taken the time to give my new blog a glance even though I’m just starting out! THANK YOU THANK YOU! I hope that I can grow as a blogger and writer and gain even more of you followers! Thank you again!

Until next time internet!

Hannah