J'adore NAF NAF

I've been to Paris twice. The first time I was there, I stayed for 2 weeks and stayed with my friend who was there for an exchange program at that time. During one of the shopping sessions, I fell in love with a shawl like jacket in NAF NAF, but I didn't get it for whatever reason I had in my head that day. 2 days before me leaving this wonderful city, I made my friends search for the store again. After 2 hours of walking, I finally own the item. The second time I visited Paris, I went with my family on a tour. I purposely skipped Louvre to go shop at Lafayette and to buy some macarons from Laduree at Printemp. NAF NAF and I reunited again in Lafayette, I was so glad to see multiple markdown tags waiting for me. It was the best 2 hours in that trip. It's magical how your brain can map out how the roads look like even after one and a half year. Zooming by the Paris roads, my mind led me the right direction to meet all of my loves.

I present you, one of my favourite stores that I don't have access to in Canada :(

NAF NAF




*Pictures taken from http://www.nafnaf.com/fr/blog/

Some cute things I found on the site:





Miss you.

IPSA x Ella

I just found this video and decided to share with all my Cantonese readers. I've always been a fan of Ella because she's so cute and pretty! I never tried IPSA products before, but have seen their stores in Hong Kong here and there. My 3 best friends all use IPSA's concealer and they swear by it. I never tried so I can't tell you how it is. From what I remembered, they are quite pricey, and I'm not sure if they're worth it. This video definitely makes me more interested! Enjoy :)

You hear yourself singing in the weirdest times

One of my best girlfriends came to visit from Hong Kong for a brief few days. It was a bummer that we only got to meet up once, but it was nonetheless really fun. It seems like she never left us, it was just like old times :) Definitely a nice night out shopping, having dinner, bbt, and gossiping! Heehee


I got my belated bday present and I absolutely love it! My first ever Chanel!!! I literally screamed when she handed it to me lol :P It's a makeup palette with eyes, face, lip products plus a mini mascara. I was actually considering on getting something Chanel (cosmetics wise) using one of the gift cards that I received during Christmas, but I couldn't decide!

Btw, I was wearing my faux fur Anthropologie sweater. I'm easily drawn to anything faux fur, but I try to keep myself away from buying because I find them difficult to incorporate into my daily life. I couldn't help but snatch this piece a few weeks ago when I visited Anthropologie with my mom since it was on sale. And yes, I did trim my bangs! It was done by yours truly ;P I just couldn't stand my hair anymore so I picked up some scissors and started cutting away! Hope it turned out alright.


The gorgeous and moi! Can't wait to see you next time! Hopefully soon :)


Just like old times :)


Fabbrica (inside Shops at Don Mills)
49 Karl Fraser Rd., Toronto

I just realized recently that I really enjoy going to Italian restaurants. You can almost always count on them for awesome food! We chose this restaurant called Fabbrica just because we wanted to venture into the stores at Shops at Don Mills (mainly Anthropologie) right before dinner time. Awesome thing is that each of us came out from Anthropologie with a bag in our hands :D Just love that store!

pinkstrawberrielove's giveaway :)

Enter pinkstrawberrielove's giveaway here!!

More 2010 Beauty Finds

I've been thinking for the past few days after I posted my last blog post about beauty tricks and I came up with more beauty finds that I've used in 2010, and here they are:

1. BB Cream
I jumped onto the BB Cream bandwagon in mid 2010 after reading numerous reviews on different brands. Originally I wanted to try the Lioele BB Cream, but I was skeptical of buying online so I checked out Pacific Mall in Toronto and ended up buying the Skin79 Super Plus BB Cream. You can find my first impression of the product here. Here's my full review on the product.

Skin79 Hot Pink Super+ BB Cream - 40g
($32 on the website, but I got it for $23 on the 2nd floor in Pacific Mall)
*I'm using my old pictures from half a year ago because I'm too lazy to take new ones...

The product claims to have 3 functions: whitening, UV protecting (SPF25 PA++), and wrinkle free.

I absolutely love the packaging (It was the factor that sold me at the first place -_-) Other than the fact that it's hot pink, the packaging is very sturdy yet not heavy. The pump is extremely easy to use, you can control how much product you want to use each time without making a mess. The one disadvantage is that the whole bottle is opaque so there's no way you can tell how much product is left in it.

I feel like it does what I expected a BB Cream to do. It has a greyish tone and might be a bit ashy; however, it blends well with the skin and you can barely notice the colour a few minutes after the application. This BB Cream will not give you full coverage, but it does give a dewy finish and makes your skin looks more balanced and healthier. The texture is on the thick side. I don't like to use it in the hot summer days, but I find that it's perfect now that it's the winter! I also feel that it's a little bit sticky so sometimes I like to apply powder on top of it so my face can feel more fresh. There's a slight scent to the product, but it's not prominent and it doesn't bother me.

Price: 5/5 Very affordable and the amount of product will last you for a while
Coverage: 4/5 Not full coverage but I really like the finish that it gives. I don't generally like to have full coverage anyway.
Texture: 3/5 On the thick side, powder sometimes needed for skin to feel fresh. It's more suitable for winter or people with dry skin.
Repurchase? Probably, but I do want to tryout BB Creams from other brands, or BB Creams from the other lines under Skin79 (such as the Diamond line).

2. Dry Shampoo
My Klorane dry shampoo has been a major life saver for me in 2010. I don't like to wash my hair everyday so sometimes I wake up finding my hair way too oily for work. I'd quickly spray some on and you know how the day would instantly be better with fresh clean looking hair right? :P One downside to this product is that it leaves white residuals on your hair if you don't brush it out thoroughly, and it can be pretty prominent if you have dark hair like me. I know newer dry shampoos already improved on this, and I will give those a try after I'm finished with my current bottle. You can read about my rave about my dry shampoo in this post.

3. Q-tips
Can you believe it? I never used Q-tips before 2010! It's definitely another life saver considering the fact that I will always bring one or two with me wherever I go. I'm always scared that I'll have black liner running down my face lol. I now use Q-tips every time I put on make up to clean up any fallouts under my eyes and to apply false eyelashes.


Another thing is that I have started using Twitter!!! I actually own this account since summer of 2009 but I never really bother using it until now.

Follow me @lalaofsurprises if you want :)

Favourite Tricks and Products of 2010

I'm sharing some of my favourite beauty tricks that I've used throughout 2010. They've worked wonders for me, and hopefully they'll work for you girls as well. Let me know how they turn out for you, and please share some of your favourite tips and tricks as well :)

1. The lipstick blush
Why waste money on cream blushes when you already have tons of lipsticks in your drawer? Apply your BB cream, while your face is still moist, dap your favourite lipstick on the apples of your cheeks, rub it to soften the colour, continue with your makeup routine (eyeliner, mascara, and such), then after you're done, just powder your face. I guarantee your face makeup would look very natural and pretty :)

2. Black eyeshadow over eyeliner
If you use a pencil liner or cream / gel liner, you might notice that your liner would smudge after several hours (depending on the quality of the liner). And everyone knows that it's not cute to have black running down your face. Padding a black e/s over it seals the liner nicely, your liner will last for so much longer.

My favourite eyeliner is this sample size Lancome Le Crayon Khol in Black Ebony that I got as one of the GWP last year. It has the longest staying power I've ever encountered for a pencil eyeliner, not to mention how black it is!

3. Lipgloss before Lipstick
I have insanely dry lips. They're extremely chapped most of the time. I need to apply a lip balm once every few hours, if I don't, then I'll most likely have bloody lips by the end of the day. With this horrible lip condition, it's virtually impossible to have any lipstick work for me especially during the winters. One thing I'd do is to instead of using a lip balm before applying a lipstick, is to use a lip gloss because it's even more liquidty.

4. Stippling brush to buff, not to apply
Maybe I'm not using the right products... but my stippling brush never worked for me, at least not to apply liquid foundation. It eats away the product and I end up using a lot more product than I'm used to. What I like to do with the stippling brush is to buff my liquid foundation to achieve the flawless look after applying with my fingers.

5. Sample perfumes on the go

I got these along with a perfume gift from my friend a while back. I love to take one with me when I'm having a night out to freshen up. It's also really convenient to take with me when I'm traveling :)

Holiday Haulage

This isn't what I wore today, but wanted to try on my new top and earrings that I got today :) Loving the pale purple colour! I always try everything that I bought once after I get home from shopping! Not sure if that's just me, or if other people do the same thing too! hehe


I went to the mall today with my mom to return some boots. We decided to go into Mexx afterwards to check out their sale because it was 50% off the original price in the entire store! I don't think I've ever gotten anything from this store before cause I always thought the style is more mature for my taste. To my surprise, I got 2 long sleeve tops (I always have a hard time finding nice flattering long sleeve tops) and a pair of earrings. These earrings are gorgeous!!! I fell in love the moment I saw them. They're a nice twist to the ordinary hoop earrings. Definitely the first pair of dangly earrings that I absolutely love because it's also hard to find a nice pair to fit my face shape.


This is the pair of boots I ended up returning today. I bought this pair online last week online at Aldo. They were on sale for $41.99 and free shipping. I was extremely excited to get my hands on them. Shipping was super fast, it came in a day. They looked nice on but they were oh-so-uncomfortable. I could barely walk in them. Probably because it's made of synthetic leather, the whole boot felt very stiff. Really sad to let them go because they do look nice and the price was unbeatable. Hopefully I'll find a similar pair soon that's good quality and cheap!


There's a funny story with boxing day / week shopping this year. I decided not to go on boxing day thinking that I wouldn't want to deal with waking up early, shopping in an overly crowded mall, having to fight for deals. That's all fine and dandy until I met up with some friends at Fairview Mall on the 27th and had a quick look around the mall. I quickly regretted my decision and persuaded myself that I missed out big time by not going on the 26th! Needless to say, my original choice of not going backfired because when I went to Yorkdale Mall on the 28th, I bought 3 jackets! FML


The most awesome part of this coat is the oversize hood. You gotta try it on to understand how awesome it is! I got this in black and it's a great addition to my wardrobe since my other black jacket is more formal, and this one's more casual. Original price: $129, Sale price: $99 @ Zara


I got the a shorter version of the previous jacket in navy. It has double breasted buttons. And again, it has the awesome oversize hood! I really couldn't help but to get both of these coats! haha Original price: $109, Sale price: $89.99 @ Zara


I've actually been eyeing this jacket for a while now, but I thought it was way quite expensive. My friend Steph showed me that she bought this jacket on the 27th because it was on sale so I knew I needed to get it too! Original price: $295, Sale price: $195 @ Aritzia. The funniest thing is that all the other jackets were on sale for $15 less than their original price and literally everyone was fighting over those ones while leaving this one alone :S


Tease / Shameless
My mom brought these back for me from my uncle's place from Maryland. Remember I told you guys that I took advantage of the sale on the R&R website and got them shipped to my friend in NY? I ended up checking the site a few more times afterward and saw the blush Tease being available again. I knew they were going to be sold out fast if I didn't act quickly. So I bought 2 more and got them shipped to my uncle's place since my family was going to visit them during the holidays! First impression of these blushes? AWESOME!

Getting Fresh, Getting Better

2010 has definitely been a year with lots of changes.

The last term of school
I had the easiest courses during my last term since I had all my core courses done and dealt with before that. It was lots of chilling, watching shows, and enjoying my last few months being in school. Odd enough, I really like being in school! I was in a co-op program so I would have to alternate from a school term to a work term every four months. Every time I get to be in school, I feel more free and I'm happier. Of course, that's until the workload gets in the way! haha I was also really worried about the future at that time. Having a few unsuccessful interviews really added to the stress. Getting a job lined up before I graduate was one of the things that I wanted to accomplish, and not being able to achieve that still pains me inside a little bit.


Bday clubbings


Grad Ball with my dearest roomie :)

Post-University
After I moved back home from my university residence, I had a really hard time coping back to living with family. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I was so used to living on my own and doing things my own way that I found it a little hard to come back. To be honest, I still do, but it's been gotten better. I was studying day and night for 3 weeks after I moved back to prepare for an exam in mid May. It was extremely exhausting to see people enjoying themselves in the summer while I was always stuck indoor. I later on found out (in July) that I passed :) My summer officially start after mid May, and I enjoyed my first free summer ever since I started university!! I went to Ohio for a roadtrip to visit Cedar Point, went to 2 cottage trips, short trip to Niagara Falls. Last but not least, I went to Europe with my family before I started working in August cause I did secure a job in June :)


George visiting from Germany! (my hair used to be so long @_@)


Convocation


July cottage trip


August cottage trip


Europe trip with family

Work Life
I'm glad that work is so close to home, and it's not too busy most of the time. People there are really nice. Not much complaints overall :D I guess the most difficult part is to learn how to sleep early and wake up early! haha I did do another exam in November which I didn't pass :( Hopefully I get better results next time!


2011 New Year's Resolution
1. Spend less on make up - I seriously have enough to last me for a while and I don't even wear that much make up on a daily basis!
2. Only buy things that I will wear so I can afford higher quality stuff, stay away from buying too much F21 clothing.
3. Have a plan on when, how, and where I am going to move out to.
4. Pass exams.
5. Be active - start going to hot yoga again!
6. Eat more healthily - less meat, more vege
7. Worry less, complain less, fuss less!!

Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2011 will be a great year :)
*Holiday haulage to follow soon! teehee