totally tokidoki

i first noticed tokidoki during their collaboration with lesportsac. they designed a ton of these bags which became crazy popular. i personally wasn't a huge fan because the bags looked too busy but i can see why people were enamored by it. if you look closely, the characters are pretty cute and the colors are vibrant.

even though tokidoki means "sometimes" in japanese, an interesting fact about this brand is that the artist is italian and the brand developers are american...nothing about tokidoki is japanese except for the name and the inspiration behind it. they sure fooled us with that one now didn't they?

other than the bags, i also began seeing tokidoki makeup and makeup accessories at sephora. i always steered clear from them because i thought it was pricey and "kiddish." but apparently, sephora will be parting ways with them and is currently having a huge sale right now to get rid of inventory. if you slash their prices, i'm gonna totally be all up on tokidoki's grill. here's a few things i picked up at sephora before the items go poof.

makeup bag. i really don't need another one, but this was so cute and in purple too! i am such a whore for cute packaging. the front of the makeup bag is clear with passport stamps printed on it. there's also cute details like that heart skull and crossbones and the zipper.

the back of bag is solid white with lots of colorful characters.

i also picked up trio of glosses. again, the packaging was cute. you slide the glosses up to get access to them, but the gloss itself is ok at best. sticky and gloopy. not the best quality gloss out there, but for a sale item, oki toki. i got the ones in "pink" and i'm determined to use them.

fyi, after a quick convo with a sephora employee, i learned that their makeup wasn't profitable enough for sephora to continue to carry in their stores because their make up quality is just "ok." most people buy tokidoki for their design and not necessarily for the quality of their makeup. after swatching their makeup and using this gloss, i totally get her point.

i really, really wanted these brushes though. totally not practical because of the big headed figurines on the top and no support for the synthetic brush tips at the bottom but i got them anyway because they were cute and on sale. the packaging here totally rocks. super duper cute!

there's a few more tokidoki items still left on the sephora website if you are interested. i also think the brush set and the bag is available so if you want to grab them at their sale price before they go, i say do it now!

loubs and a rant about prince charming

these are the christian louboutin cinderella shoes which he created to celebrate disney's release of cinderella on blue-ray disc this fall. even if you love it, lust after it, and are currently caressing the screen with your cheeks because you adore it, they are not for sale. BUT, 20 pairs will be given away as part of the promotion which means 20 freaking excited ladies or 20 pairs found immediately on ebay after receiving them. i tell ya, everyone is always out to make a quick buck.

of course its met with some criticism. people are disappointed that it's not "glass-like" which really means using materials like plastic/ pvc to give that glass effect if you even want the shoe to be wearable...not like these loubs are really wearable with those sky high stilettos...but i digress. but let me point out ANOTHER THING...the original cinderella story before its translated version described the shoes as furry!! i don't know how legit that rumor is either, but i remember reading about that once so i suggest that you google it if you really want to know whether cinderella was rocking beautiful glass slippers or a pair of UGGs that fateful night.

anyway, louboutin's material of preference here is lace and swarovski crystals which can be seen on the back heel as well as scattered throughout the sides. let's not forget that there's a prevalent butterfly theme going on here a la mariah carey. i'm gonna bet on the fact that she's going to try to secure herself a pair. i would...if i had loads of money and like to buy shoes that i don't wear of course.

the sparkle is crazy intense. methinks a perfect shoe for a bride that wants to feel like a princess on her wedding day.

but seriously, let's talk about prince charming. i think the idea of romance and fairy tale loves were spoon fed to us as early as infanthood. we were brainwashed! look at all the love tales produced by disney. did these cartoons set us up for romantic failure because what they portray and what is reality is not remotely connected at all?

love is actually 90% work. it is a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. we don't get to see cinderella and her prince charming arguing about "going out" with friends too much versus spending quality time together. we don't see snow white and her prince arguing about having opposite sex friends or hanging out with an ex. neither do we see beauty and the beast disagreeing about money problems, sexual frustration, wanting to get married, or wanting to date other people. we have been brain washed to believe in fairy tale romances so every single girl looks for prince charming when in reality, what she should really look for is mr. good guy, mr. right, mr. you fit me the best. one that can still sweep her off her feet, but is also capable of providing her with the commitment and love to enter into a relationship that at the end of the day, is STILL about 90% work.

the days of kissing toads to see if they're really princes are over. the only thing you'll get from kissing a toad is a wart.

before you start wondering about the source of my rant, let me just tell you that i've been engaged in some matchmaking and listening to people's lists and their ideas of perfection...lordy that doesn't exist. there's always an achilles' heel to every dude/dudette you meet and if you can sit there and tell me with a straight face that your significant other is PERFECT, then i'm totally not going to pull you out of your reality. good for you.

but for all us regular folks, we know that people are not perfect. love and relationships take compromise, it demands that we don't get stuck on the LITTLE things, it's about empathizing with and for your partner and knowing when to support, when to guide, when to advise, and when to forgive. it's about commitment and a genuine passion to grow the relationship into something strong, beautiful, wonderful, and lasting. but most importantly, pick the right person for yourself and go all in. a successful relationship = love, effort, attraction and lots of freaking luck.

love deep, laugh hard, be good to yourself. talk to you laterz.

the fountain of youth

you can probably find the fountain of youth at a VERY GOOD plastic surgeon's office. one that spouts out all kinds of solutions and botox to keep your face wrinkle free and will also give you small ninja cuts to the face with tiny scalpels to immortalize your visage. but if you are anything like me, you probably just want to age well right? look younger than you are? make it hard for people to guess your real age? maybe even get carded for alcohol FOR REALS rather than as a consequence of a company's policy...yeah, i'm talking about YOU, trader joe's.

i love how this picture looks like the next victoria secret campaign. ha!

being that july is my birthday month coupled with spotting a few more wrinkles and hyperpigmentations to remind me of my advancing age *sob* i started researching skincare products that could help preserve my skin short of embalming it. this task is doubly hard due to my prone-to-break-outs-combination-skin. ugh. let's just say, i always had bad skin as a teen and never became interested in skincare because it seemed futile...and now it shows and i'm hoping it's not TOOOOOOOOO late. *sniffle*

i tried a slew of products for the past few months and will blog about them shortly (aka don't hold your breath. blogging takes so long! i wish i had the time to be a professional blogger and not just a blogger enthusiast) and i've finally discovered a routine and some products that works for me *high-five*

1. cleanse and tone
find a good cleanser to rid your face of all the dirt, makeup, and sunblock. then use a good toner to take off any remnants of dirt that somehow escaped your cleanser and also to prep your skin for serums/moisturizers.

2. exfoliate
exfoliate your skin regularly to rid yourself of dead skin cells. the right method/products will reveal smoother skin...dare i say, as soft as a baby's butt but not as stinky?

3. corrective serums and creams
there are tons of eye creams and serums that claim to correct some damage to your skin. some are more effective than others. the whole point of course is to CORRECT something wrong with your face right? (man that sounded mean). hyperpigmentations? fine lines? wrinkles? puffiness around the eyes? huge pores? etc....don't tell me you want that on your face cuz i sure don't.

4. moisturize
depending on the climate, the season, your genetics, we can all use some form of moisturizer though it may vary by brand or thickness. the bottom line is that dry skin makes your face look like beef jerky...look at clint eastwood for instance. doesn't he look like he's crying out for a tub of le mer or vasaline or something to moisturize his mug? dry skin really accentuates wrinkles so if you don't want to look like a prune, then i suggest regular usage of some type of moisturizing product.

5. preventative serums
these are different from the corrective serums because they "PREVENT" THAT ANNOYING THING THAT HAPPENS WITH AGE from happening too early. i'll talk a little more about this on a future post.

6. PROTECT!!
use sunblock religiously to insure that you're doing your best to slow down sun damage and all the consequences of it. i was never a regular user of sunblock which totally explains why i now have to deal with all the stuff that's not so dandy about my skin.

so after spending about 3 hrs in the bathroom doing all that stuff to your skin to insure that you don't look a day older than yesterday, then you can finally crawl into bed or head off to work. so that's that. i'll share a few products that works for me in future posts. but overall, my skin has gotten a lot smoother and my pores are diminished after i implemented this routine. in my book, that is like totally rad and definitely a keeper. ahhh, the things we do to look young.....

good night.