was it a steal at stila?

the stila sample sale waaaaassss....fruitful. i guess after standing in line for almost 2 hours, you HAVE to pick up something, don't you think? smh. oh man! the line inched really slowly and it felt like waiting for a bus that you have NO IDEA when it would actually arrive, so you wait and wait worried that if you give up and leave that it will magically show up just as you turned the corner. yup, that's my long version of saying we waited so long, we HAD to be "all in."

here's some "while we waited in line scenes" which was quite interesting since it was held at our local roller derby training facility. can you spot "ghetto stilleto" or "gori spelling?" muhahaha.

.....and back to the sale. needless to say, organized mayhem. lots of full boxes held by folks stocking up. perhaps to be given as gifts, to be resold at another venue, cuz their mugs be needing it? there was everything you can think of, eye shadows, blushes, foundation, eyeliners, brushes, etc....but you really don't need all that, right?

i went a little crazy, but not THAT CRAZY. a lion's share of the budget went to buying gifts. it's the little make up pouch and set of lip glosses you see on your left. i'm giving them away as a christmas set. for myself, i purchased the products on the right: lip gloss set, glitter eyeliner (yes, i am way too old for that), liquid liner, eyeliner, mascara, a small bottle of foundation, an eyeshadow brush (not pictured), and some lip liners. if they rock, i will blog about it. till then peeps, have a super wonderful, safe, and beautimous holiday!!

Stila sample sale, ftw?

How glorious is technology to be able to blog in line...a horribly long line, in the cold (god this better be good). Hello stila sample sale!

If I purchase anything, I will post. Also I'm on vacation for 3 weeks! It's totally ok to do dumb crap like this. Totally?

a healthy bite of apple!

there are some things you wait long for. like looooooong. for me, waiting to get an iphone is up there with waiting for hell to freeze over. ok look, not trying to be dramatic here, but ever since i anted up to pay for a smartphone and the subsequent outrageous phone bills that the move entailed, it was CLEAR to me that i was going to end up with an iphone sooner or later. it only took 2 years, 2 months, and a cracked droid screen later for me to finally get the phone that i've always wanted.

helllllooooo white iphone 5. i know i already dropped you once right out of the box OOOOPS, but baby, i'm going to encase you in the rubberyist, most protective phone condom ever so that you don't get brain damage like my old droid up there. besides, i used up all my piggy bank money on you so i'm committing myself to a looooong ass relationship. do you love me? cuz i really, really, really love you.

and you know what is the best part?! I can finally blog on the go too! ecstatic! like this post!

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.

THICK SKINNED

ambiguous rant. yes siree. bear with me.

i loooooove how i volunteer to do a job for people but folks rear their ungrateful heads and complain about how much i DIDN'T DO FOR THEM. the last time i checked, i did quite a lot and tried my darndest to be informative and HELPFUL to folks, but of course, people who only know how to complain are also the same people who think that what i did should have been easy and uncomplicated. ok, sure...why don't YOU go do it. no takers? yah, not surprised.

talk about the number of extra hours i spent in meetings, nagging THE LAZY ONE, and making phone calls to multiple people just to get an answer to ONE QUESTION (and golly there were a lot of questions)....questions apparently that you don't think i did a good job of getting the answers for. a whole year people, a whole year of this shit and you still think i 1) targeted you and was unfair 2) didn't think i knew what i was talking about so you didn't believe me 3) was hiding information from everybody 4) was rude to you 5) was lying and making up shit 6) that i was oblivious to the side convos you had about me. six words to you: FUCK YOU AND THAT'S A WRAP.

you can smack talk me all you want, but i sure did my best. i was transparent and honest and absolutely had integrity and fairness in mind when i took up these extra duties. the true lessons i learned this year were 1) people who don't like you will NEVER like you, no matter what you do because their view of you is tainted like dirty underwear 2) i should NEVER apologize to anyone who cried in my presence just because i felt bad that they cried and especially when i didn't do anything wrong IMO...i cannot help that your spine is weak and you get special treatment because you're a crybaby...and too bad for you that confronting you with the truth makes you tear up you dumbass 3) friends who are on your side will always be on your side because whatever you do, they always trust that you won't wrong them. thanks friends, i didn't wrong you at all. in fact, i went ABOVE AND BEYOND the call of duty because i was mindful of the stress level everybody experienced and worked hard to keep this year FAIR and all you TOTALLY INFORMED. seriously, you think anybody that was ever in this post WOULD EVER do as much as i did for you guys this year?? the answer is a big ole HELLS NO.

i also learned to be THICK SKINNED to eek me through these last months of this volunteer work but apparently, thick skin won't come about if i keep using this clarisonic. gawd i love this clarisonic. so good for your skin, makes you feel like you walked out of a facial.

for a tad over $100 (though i paid $30 more at that time to get this cheetah pattern, teehee i am such a sucker for packaging) you get an oscillating brush head that thoroughly cleanses your skin. actually, here's the clarisonic blurb.

• Removes 6X more makeup than manual cleansing
• Leaves skin feeling and looking smoother
• Cleansing helps products work more effectively
• Gentle enough to use twice a day
• Reduces oily areas, dry skin patches and blemishes
• Minimizes the appearance of visible pores

but per my sis-in-law who use to work at a dermatologist owned beauty spa, overusing products like these thins out your skin which is a huge no, no. so though i love the way it feels and the way my skin looks after 5 months of usage, i limit myself to 2-3 times a week just so i won't cause any skin thinning...besides, after the horrific year of volunteer work i did, i definitely learned that i should be THICK SKINNED, not THIN SKINNED. so YAY to clarisonic and a big ass BOO to some cray cray folks i dealt with this year.

rant over.