Looking for my new Buff'd shade

The past year I matched the shade Buff from mmu company Buff'd.   In fact I have a full size of it.  This year I noticed that it would turn dark on me everytime I wore it.  I don't think I'm acidic because this only happens with Buff'd.   I decided to get a lighter shade to mix with my Buff one.

Good thing I got the Buff'd shades I needed from a package I got last week full of foundation samples.  Here's a few swatches:

Almond is the shade I need to be (a notch lighter than Buff).  I need Antique to add to Buff to get Almond.  I tried Almond and it is a good match.  I could even get a shade more yellow. 

with flash:

I'm wearing:

Almond in the Concealing formula in 1 layer.

Blush is AwG in Radiant

MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner in Petting Pink

The concealing formula really conceals!  It is more heavy in coverage than the Original formula and I'm still debating which one I'll get.  I have the original formula and that is good enough for me.

 

********

My one shadow EOTD from last week.

I'm using Lumiere Honey Brown and this was taken 5-6 hours after application.  Primer was Artdeco Eyeshadow base.

AwG Blush swatches

All the Adorned with Grace samples of blushes I have.  They're very pigmented especially the shimmer blushes or glows.  The shimmers aren't over the top and they can be used for daytime wear.

These were all applied dry, no primer.  I swatched them a bit heavily also especially the shimmer blushes.

With flash:

Radiant and Beautiful are both regular blushes while the rest are shimmers or glows.  You can see the sheen in the Glamorous swatch which is one of my faves.  Lovely can stand alone as a blush.

No flash, in natural light, near window:

You can get these blushes from their website.  If you also subscribe to their blog (can be seen on the blog roll on left hand side of my blog), you can be upto date on current promos of their store. AwG rarely holds sales because they're prices are one of the lowest among the mmu companies.

Mail Day Haul

The packages that brightened up my day last week:

Adorned With Grace:

The items came prettily wrapped in the trademark AwG heart swirled wrapping paper.  

I got full sizes of Hope 3.8 foundation and the Supreme Smoothing Powder in Golden Tint, some blush samples and their limited edition Grab bag.  

The Grab bag contained 26 samples of blushes and eye shadows in a rainbow of colors.  

These were either discontinued or "oops" shades and are not for sale in the website.  Franchesca kindly included samples of some of the glows which were on my lemming list.

Joppa:

I took advantage of Joppa's free international shipping and got a full size refill bag of the Full Coverage foundation in Medium 2.5.  Also in my pkg were Tish's orders (no photo).

And the last package is from Frond who sent me a ton of foundation samples:  

I haven't gone through all the items yet but picked out the ones from Buff'd first because those were the ones I really wanted and needed.

Will post reviews soon for some of the other products.  Also, I've lined up in draft form lots of future entries (in photos) but haven't gotten around to writing the full articles yet since I'm still testing them or about to test them.  Stay tuned for that.

Netbook Bag

I got my HP Mini-notebook a laptop bag/sleeve yesterday.   I've had a sleeve before but it's for a normal sized laptop and I only got it because I needed one right away when my netbook was new.  

I've seen the mini laptop bags at Powerbooks in Shangrila a month ago but the design I wanted was out of stock and the remaining one was dirty.  I didn't want a dirty bag so I decided to wait for new stocks.  

While waiting for the movie (Monsters vs. Aliens) to start yesterday, we killed time at Powerbooks and I saw new stocks of the Lift bags.  Hooray!!!  The design I saw before wasn't available but I saw another one and it was the last piece.  Priced at a little more than P600 (I forgot the exact price, yeah, I'm forgetful when it comes to prices), I got it.

*Edit--I found the tag and it's priced at only Php649.

Love it!  Sorry for the crappy photo taken from my phone.  This is the Bea model of Lift bags that fits 8.9" laptops and is proudly Philippine made.  My HP Mini fits snugly in it although I can't put in anything else in its numerous inside pockets because of the snugness (uh, is this a word?).  I can still use the free pouch from my other laptop sleeve for the cables and such but I think CDs or USBs and a cellphone can fit in the outer pocket of this bag.  It has a top handle and a removable longer handle for use as a shoulder bag andthe whole thing is well-padded.  

Really cool.

Oh, and this bag can fit into my bigger tote bags LOL!

Aromaleigh Contest

One of my favorite mineral makeup companies is having a contest!  They'll be giving out 5 full sized sets of their Spring Solstice shadows to the lucky winners at the beginning of April.

The link to the LE Spring Solstice collection of shadows is here:

The link to Miss K's blog about the contest is here:

I hope I'm one of the winners.  Aromaleigh's pigments are one of the most beautiful pigments out there...even better than some high-end ones at a fraction of the cost.   Crossing my fingers (and toes)!!!

It's been a crazy week

Yes...I guess life is stressful...has it's ups and downs and so far for me, it's a roller coaster ride.

Had a good weekend.  Saturday was a trip to the dermatologist for an IPL session and dessert of frozen yogurt with mom and DD.  Sunday, we gave our hedgehog his first bath (that was a blast!)

 

and went to watch Race to Witch Mountain in the afternoon with a bit of shopping on the side.

Monday morning we went to the hospital.  My DD had recurrent cough and colds so we had a chest X-ray done for her.  It only showed pneumonitis (which is different from pneumonia) but the pedia put her on another round of antibiotics and antihistamine.  Knowing how difficult it is to make her drink those awful tasting meds we found a better tasting one and she tolerates it now (but it still takes her almost 15 mins. to finish a 5 ml. dose). 

We also had DD's ears pierced because she really wanted them ever since she saw her cousins of the same age with their ears pierced.  She also insisted that the earrings should be violet!  The first hole went well but right after she started crying.  We had to hold her down for the 2nd hole.  At least that's over and she now has lavender studs on her ears.

While we were waiting our turn for the pedia, my FIL called hubby and told him he felt dizzy since earlier in the morning.  Knowing that he NEVER calls for anything regarding his health, hubby was alarmed and told him to lie down first and that we were going straight to their house after the pedia.

We got there after about 30 mins. and when we got his blood pressure it was more than 200/110.  Hubby went out to buy emergency meds and left me with FIL for a while.  His BP was still the same and when hubby came back we gave him some medication to lower it down.  After about an hour with his blood pressure stable, we ate a late lunch at 2 pm then hubby brought him in to the ER to have an ECG just to be sure.

I won't bore you with medical jargon but they went in for a cardiology check-up because of what was seen in the ECG and then he was admitted for observation.  Initial blood results were normal though. 

All the time they were in the hospital my DD and I were left at their house where I tried to find something to do.  I watched a movie (Changeling), read the papers and tried to watch Playhouse Disney with DD.  I was so bored out of my wits that I can't imagine how a prisoner feels with nothing to do.  I tried to go to sleep and dozed for less than an hour I think.  I couldn't watch TV bec. their downstairs TV set had a problem with the cable.  My BIL arrived and I listened to his sob stories.  Early in the evening when I learned that FIL would be admitted, the telephone brigade began with SIL, 2 BIL and all of us trying to find MIL because she was still not home.  Well, eventually she came home and good thing she didn't freak out because she also has high blood pressure.

When everything had settled down and a BIL was staying in the hospital with FIL, we dropped by that night to bring his  clothes and toiletries.  Tuesday, FIL had other exams done like 2d-echo for his heart and other stuff which were all normal.  The next day, my mom went to have a check-up with a pulmonologist because of her recurring cough too.  She was put on a round of antibiotics plus other medications.  My FIL had repeat blood exams which showed that he did have a heart attack but it was a mild one (a small artery was the one affected).  The blood exams turned positive a few days after injury to the heart because it was of a smaller scale.  He was scheduled for discharge with follow-up exams on OPD basis.  

Through all this, I got sick on Monday evening with terrible colds but I'm better now.  Been drinking lots of ginger tea and lemon grass tea with calamansi (our local version of limes).  My happy moment would come later tonight when hubby comes home bearing packages from the PO.  I'm guessing those would be my Joppa and Adorned with Grace packages plus another one either from Toma (Ecotools) or from Frond's RAOK.  We'll see.

Dreamworld Creme Toppings

My HG finishing powder for more than a year now is Dreamworld Minerals' Creme Toppings.

Ingredients: 

Serecite, Kaolin Clay, Silica, Iron Oxides, May contain Silk Powder and Mica

There are 3 variants but I only get the one with Clay and Silica because of my oily skin.  These 2 ingredients soak up oil and keep my face matte for a few hours.  The silica diffuses the look of huge pores and fine lines too.  They can also be used as a powder primer prior to putting your mineral foundation.

These powders are finely milled and a little bit goes a long way.  Not to mention their yummy sounding names!  

I now have 7 shades of the Creme Toppings (I really love them, huh?).  The shades I have are Cocoa, Cafe au Lait, Banana, Butter, Butterscotch (these 5 are more of my skintone), Angel (lavender to neutralize my more yellow looking foundations and to brighten skin tone) and Peanut Butter (to darken my "a bit light" foundation shades).

Here's the latest ones I got from their last sale.  It's the Peanut Butter in To Go size and Full Size of Banana Creme Topping.

The freebie that came with my order:

Dino Rock pigment that is full to the brim!  I think this would fill a 5gr jar or more than half of a 10 gr jar.

with flash

Swatch, with flash, applied dry: 

It's a lovely brownish gold shade that is very pigmented.  (Thanks, Ellie!).

Hmm...I noticed that all the pigments I got as freebies from my recent orders were all in the brown family.  At least it would be easy to use them as I am a fan of neutrals.

  

Nail Polishes To Date

I was organizing my nail polishes a few weeks ago to create more space for them.   I gave away those I rarely used or didn't like anymore.  I found a new container for them which I got at the home department of Robinson's Galleria.  It isn't made of plastic which I prefer and has no handle on top (it was on the side) but it would do.  I bought it for another purpose but used it for the np's instead.

Good thing it can house all of them including the treatment bottles.  And it has room for so much more *evil grin*.

After editing the bottles of polish I was left with less than 30 bottles. Looks so few huh? 

Here they are:

Zoya polishes:

China Glaze polishes:

OPI polishes:

Elianto/ The Face Shop polishes:

Essie, Jessica, Skin Food, Sally Hansen, Caress polishes:

Nail treatments, base coat, top coat:

And that's all I have.