As you may or may not know, my skin is extremely temperamental. If it doesn't like a product, give me three days and I will break out in cystic acne all over my t-zone and cheeks. That's why I'm always careful to use the same products for my face. I've decided that most Korean skincare products don 't match well with my skin, especially any Missha, Innisfree and Etude House skincare items. The makeup works well but skincare, not so much. But one thing that I love, which isn't Korean, but that's where I got it, is the Body Shop's Tea Tree Oil Facial Toner. Sorry for not flipping the picture. I managed to get this is Korea, but found out that they sell this in the US as well. Foolish of me but I also bought the foaming cleanser in Korea as well. The cleanser is ok, but the toner is something special. Every time I break out, I wipe this over my face after washing, and no more new pimples. The existing ones don't look as bad, and sometimes decrease in size. I don't know if there is a difference between the one in Korea and the one in the US, but I am willing to give it a try whenever I run out. Yes this has a strong scent, but it doesn't tighten my face or dry it out so if you are sensitive to scents, this may not be for you.

Nail Polish Rave

Quite the boring title, huh. I've been changing my nail polishes like crazy, and trying out how to make the old ones look interesting again. So going through my stash, I found a gem. This will brighten up any polish and give it a bright shiny sheen, and make dark polishes look almost, unable to find the right adjective, futuristic and metallic. On pinks an neutrals, it looks nice, but when paired with a darker color, that's when you feel like ah.. got my $8 dollars worth.

As a base I applied skin food in GR901, and it does look nice in the bottle, and the colors looks the same when applied.
Then add a light coat of Happy Anniversary by OPI. Yes this is the magic stuff. It is fine silver sparkles.

And now BAM. It instantly makes this look more silver then grey and adds more of a sheen to the color. I love this stuff.

By the way, I'm going on a vacation, guess where based on first photo, and may not do as much. It's not like I do much now, but ok...

Hair Dye Part 2

After the non existent hair color incident that happened last time, it was time for round two. But guess what, it never happened. My mom had some extra hair dye boxes lying around and I decided to steal it from her. She got it from her hair stylist friend, who swears by this stuff. Lucky for me, she got the wrong shade for herself, but lucky for me, it was my kind of color. So I'm sneaking it out of the house when my dad sees this and goes, hey you know your going to go blind using that stuff. I just say okay dad and run off. I go to a corner and eye it calling it my precious. I look at the wonky eyed squid and threatened "if my hair comes out messed up, I will stab your beady little eyes straight out of the box". I don't know if he listened, but I think I got through. Since I can't dye and reach all of my hair, I enlisted the help of my private hair stylist, called my sister. She has been home dying my hair for years. I mentioned dad said as I was leaving and she tells me that his little joke is actually true. I look at her and aww snap, she is not joking. If you don't know, I have thick lenses for my glasses even after I press them, so the thought of getting thicker ones really did not appeal to me. So I slowly put the dye down and in the end, did not dye my hair.
But seriously, look at the color, and its promises to not damage my hair. It states,(sorry for the busted Korean translation) that is is a manicure for the hair. My mother uses this and tells me that it really isn't as damaging as boxed drugstore dyes, but shes moved on to henna. Sorry for the long unnecessary post, and it feels like talked a lot to say nothing. But I'll get back on track for the next one, promise.

Cargo

Whee! Freedom. I've been stuck with an unwelcome house guest that has overstayed their welcome and she is now gone. I mentioned previously about the camping trip, well luckily it got cut short. Picturesque, huh? Nope it was a little slice of hell. Not only did I get a stomach virus that had me lurching over the communal toilet, but my sister got pink eye and no one left happy. Enough about that, lets get to the makeup.

This is the Cargo color palette that retails for Sephora for $10. With 3g of eyeshadow a piece, it is double the size of a MAC shadow, and the outiside packaging is sturdy and heavy. But wait, as soon as I tipped it over to read the back, BAM! The palette falls out of its case.

All that's holding these shadows in, is a minuscule amount of glue right in the center. OK, break out the crazy glue, and plug these back in.

As for the eyeshadows themselves,(sorry for the crappy paint numbering that I did) they are soft well pigmented but honestly, I wasn't impressed by the colors. Number3, the yellowish white one, is a blatantly ugly color and none of these really stand out for me. Only the last number 4 (the lighter brown) looked good. The others looked like something that I already have.

Maybe it's just me, but there was nothing impressive about these. Sure the coppery color looks nice, but I know that on my skin tone, coppery red tinged browns do not look good one me. So, yeah they are a good bargain, but if you really don't need it, or it looks like something you have, then skip. Go buy yourself a nice iced coffee and ice cream treat instead.

Brushes

I never really interested in makeup brushes as much as the makeup itself. I only have two MAC brushes that I rarely use, and since I'm not really a professional or do much heavier looks, I never thought that they were very important. I still would rather prefer buying an eyeshadow over buying a brush. However, there is one brush that I recently fell in love with. It is one from the Sonia Kashuk line that looks like a pencil brush. TADA! It doesn't look like much, but to me this brush has so many functions. It is a bit longer and thinner than some pencil brushes, yet sturdy and still so that it still retains its shape when I use it.

I use this to smudge eyeliner, put some color on the inner tear duct and can even use this to place color into the crease. Since I have smaller eyes, and a lot less lid space, this brush is really useful since it's not that wide. I've really been using this brush a lot, and when on the go, I only use a shader brush and this brush for my eye makeup. SO convenient. If you see one and in the market for a decently priced brush, try it.

I hope everyone will enjoy their July 4 weekend and to let you know, I will be camping with family for three days and four nights in a tent with no water or electricity nearby. I've tried pleading, begging and even bribing people to let me out, but have not succeeded. Let's see if I come back home sane.