WEDDING SERIES: When you know it's RIGHT

When I was having a meeting with one of our wedding supplier and he was asking me questions about us, one of his question was "how long were you together?" so I answered him directly without any hesitation. I think he wasn't expecting my answer. He was absolutely surprised well, most of our suppliers do, but I have a simple answer to them when they I ask me if I'm sure with my decision.. my answer is

"I know it's the right thing because I am happy"

Well how will a person know when it is the right time for him/her to settle down?

Some people say when you met someone, or if you are financially stable or if you're on the right age or if you're mature enough But how will you really know? or let just say what if you met someone but you're financially unstable or if you're still young and immature? Do you need to perfect all the criteria before jumping into marriage life?

I am 27 years old.. some say i'm still young.. some say i'm on the right age.. my opinion.. im happy.  Am i financially stable?, I can buy things I want, I have savings and I have a stable job. Am I mature enough? I decide for my own and i face every consequences of my decisions pretty well either good or bad. It is a continuous learning.

Now why we decided to tie the knot?

It wasn't like we love each other so much so let's get married. Loving someone so much wasn't enough reason at all, If it is.. then there shouldn't be growth of annulment and divorce rate. Christian and I love each other so much but it will never work out just by loving each other first thing, we differ in so many ways: in attitude,in point of views, in likes, favorites but we learn to enjoy each differences that we have and we accepted it however we worked it out it wasn't like a day and everything was fine... NO, it took us years to worked it out. Most especially my being organized in the house. He accepted that never will I give up on being organized and be messy like a man so he did some adjustments by keeping the house tidy as much as possible. So am I, I understand that he will never ever be like me. When it comes to his favor the only thing I can't break was his love with volleyball and hobbies, He already justified that he needs an outlet after a stressful week + he truly enjoys it. So instead of arguing with him because im a home buddy and never hugged sports in my life.. ever.. I just support him on his games until I realized that he enjoys it so much so why I kept on stopping him. There's a lot of things we argue about and we worked out and this will be a very long blog if I will go to details so let's just leave it like that. We survived because we ACCEPT each other and we RESPECT each other. 

ACCEPTANCE is the key to less argument..I say... based on my own experience not understanding.Understanding is just like for recent situation, It was like okay i understand but tomorrow will you? but once you accept it, it will be permanent because you already understood the situation in every way you can and you accepted it. It was like an end effect to understanding. Both of us had past, positive and negative, just before our lives crossed so we accept that as well and our own families of course.

RESPECT I say "the most" important formula in a relationship or in every relationship. It is very hard for me to define respect but we apply it in ways not to hurt each other like choosing your words correctly. People when angry tend to throw words that are completely inappropriate that cause your partner to feel bad about him/herself. Always remember that words come out quickly and can be hard to take back. If you think you're wrong then why not accept it. If he/she made his/her point and you realized you're wrong then no need to prolong the argument.. just apologize. Honor each boundaries is what we always...always.. forget. but as days goes by we eventually learn to accept each others boundaries. We both learn to accept and understand personal boundaries like we're not crossing each other's line or we're not abusing each others lenient way of giving some "me time". We have rules and limitations and we respect it.

These factors what brought us to our decision. We love each other that we accept each other and respect each other and we are happy together and we know that no matter what happen , whatever comes that we can face it and work it out like what we did. No matter how long you were together even a year or two or 10 years it doesn't matter as long as those factors are present. You will know when it is right when you can see your future with him that no matter what, you will be willing to do everything for him/her so your relationship will work out and of course make sure that your partner feels the same way too.

*Post from My Wedding website I made for our wedding.

NOT A BEAUTY THING

A childish thing I got now 

My Husband saw this video on facebook feed and I just love this! I want this and I will find this :) That's how crazy I am now with this toy.

We bought love Despicable Me probably because of the Minions.. Toys r us are selling this  for 39.99 usd unfortunately which always happen to me I just look for some stores who can ship this to this country because not all products that are in US are available in every country even though we have Toys R Us here.

If some of you knows a store where they can ship this little cuteness please please please lemme know :)

chel 

Credit: Justin Jayubo for the video 

PART 1: REAL TECHNIQUES BRUSHES

I finally got my hands on some brushes to try from Real Techniques by Samantha Chapman. I had been watching and loving Pixiwoo for a very long time and was so curious with their line of brushes. I'd been using Sigma brushes and Bobbi Brown for so long now and I'm so excited to try the Real Techniques.

They claim you'll be pixel perfect even in harsh light I don't about that yet, We'll see in a few months after using it. Their brushes are made from synthetic taklon bristles and hand-cut. When you brush it on your face you can feel the softness of the brush specially the blush brush and the powder brush. Their brushes comes in pink, yellow and purple colored that I'm so drawn because they're nice colors not the usual black and silver. It has aluminum handles that are so light and comfortable to hold. Pink are for finishing like blushers, bronzers, powder for everything you do for perfecting your look. Now the Yellow are for the base which are foundations, primer, moisturizer and concealer. The Purple are for eyes like eyeshadows, eyeliner, base eyeshadow, eyebrow and everything that will make your eye makeup perfect.

 I ordered it online from drugstore.com last Thursday 13th of June and received it through Shop and Ship by Aramex last tuesday 18th of June. It was pretty amazing how fast they shipped my orders, that's why when I want something I ordered it from drugstore.com. There's a promotion going on for buy one get the second 50% off so I grab the opportunity and ordered the brushes. I ordered the Travel Essentials set, Starter Set, Shader Brush, Stippling Brush, Powder brush, Blush Brush and 2 Expert face brush.

I will be giving you my impression about the brushes in 2 parts. First the sets and for the next entry it will be the individual brushes. Let's start with the sets.

Here's the packaging of the Travel Essentials and how they look like when you opened it. It consist of
3 full size brushes and a black panoramic brush case this is a well thought of case because it can stand on it's own when you pull the string in the case. It cost USD17.99 in drugstore.com but I bought it for 9USD after the 50% off.

The brushes are 
Essential Foundation Brush (yellow handle)
Multi- Task Brush (pink handle)
Domed Shadow Brush (purple handle)

On this set I'm more excited about the Multi-task brush and the Domed shadow brush because they're so flexible when it comes to how you use it. The domed shadow brush I can say is too big for my crease so I think i'll use it for concealer application or for cream eye shadow base. For the multi-task brush is great for bronzer and blusher even powder it's very flexible you can see it on how it's shape and designed. I don't like the foundation brush that shape like that because I'm having a hard time when it comes to application I got streaky result when I use it but the texture is so soft that it might give you a better result.

(left-right : Essential Foundation Brush , Domed Shadow Brush , Multi-task Brush)

With the Starter Set it comes with 5 full size brushes most of them are for eyes and the panoramic black case. It cost USD 17.99 and bought it for the same price. It claims to have high definition application for your eye make up.

The Brushes are: (all with purple handles)

Deluxe crease brush

Base shadow brush

Accent Brush

Pixel point eyeliner brush

Brow brush

On this set I'm caught in all of them. When it comes to brushes I love to explore on eye shadow and foundation brushes so this set is very interesting for me specially the Accent brush because it's something unique and because its small its nice for putting eye shadow near your bottom lashes smudging eyeliner or a highlighter on the tear duct area. Going on with the other brushes on this kit, the Deluxe Crease brush is like a feel of the E25 from Sigma one of my favorite brushes so I'm pretty excited to use that as well however it feels a little bit stiffer than the Sigma one. The Base Shadow brush is a very flexible one for me you can use it on application of your eye shadow in every way you want it's good if you want a more heavy application on your lids because it can pack up colors so well. Also I noticed that the Pixel Point Eyeliner brush was kind of bigger than other eyeliner brushes which I think will be difficult to use when your doing a fine line on the inner corners of your eyes. With the Brow brush i can't think of anywhere to use this brush than on your brow I was hoping I can use it as a liner brush but I think it's thicker to use it as a liner brush. On the brighter side, this is perfect for me because I love thick bold eyebrows. The advantage of this brushes I think is since it's synthetic it's easier to clean when you use it with products like cream base eye shadows compared to using a natural hair brushes.

(left - right: Base shadow brush, Deluxe Crease Brush, Accent brush, 

Pixel point eyeliner Brush,  Brow brush)

 On the black panoramic case

Hope you guys enjoy this. I can say you must try buying this kits because it's so great and soft. Downside of this is you can't buy this individually so if you want another Multi-task brush then you have to buy the whole travel essential kit. However it's still way cheaper than the other brushes so you have to consider that as well. If you're someone who wants to buy cheaper alternative for makeup brushes that works good as well then give this brushes a try.

For some individual brushes that I bought from Real Technique I will be posting that soon so watch out for that, follow my blog if you wanna see it.

SEPHORA WHITE CARD

I'm so excited with this Sephora White Card when I got it 3 weeks ago from Sephora in Al Whada Mall, Abu Dhabi. I was repurchasing some items and checking out if Huda Lashes is out in Abu Dhabi and when I was about to pay this very nice lady offered me the Sephora White Card so glad she did. Basically with this White Card all you have to do is earn 200 points to get the Black Card, It's a Loyalty Card from Sephora that offers you so many good things. They offer this card in other countries so it's a good thing that they brought it here in the Middle East. It's available in at all Sephora in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.

So how do you earn the points?

With every 10 dhs worth of purchase from Sephora you will be getting 1 point. So if you buy a 60dhs product from Sephora you will get 6 points. So the 200 points will cost you 2000 DHS. 

What do I get with white card?

Once you have your white card they will send you an email. You have to print that welcome email with the barcode below so on your next visit you can present it and you can receive a gift from them. 

After accumulating 200 points what will happen next?

So you have 200 points on your card yay to that! You can have now the Black card and on your next visit to Sephora you have to present the voucher to get a more prestigious gift.

With the Sephora Black card you can get so many things like a gift from them on your birthday, you can earn point s and bonuses, you will get invites for exclusive events and VIP Access to private events how cool is that? I'm so excited to this Black card hopefully I can get one soon :) And if you're a person who loves to buy at Sephora this is a something for you so you won't be wasting that points. 

PRODUCT REVIEW: MAC Face & Body Foundation

I had been trying and researching so many foundations this past few years and kept on looking for something new to try. I had been a fan of Laura Mercier, MAC, Make Up Forever and Neutrogena when it comes to foundation but i don't like all of their foundations I had few that I kept on grabbing and using. 

Since it’s summer... and usually during summer I often go for powder foundation or tinted moisturizer because I don’t want to feel greasy all through out the day given the fact that I’m living in Abu Dhabi where the temperature can go up to 55 degree Celsius can you imagine if your wearing layers of foundation? 

So I was visiting MAC last week to check what new products they have and I  saw this Face and Body foundation (which was so popular and was released for a very long time).  It claims to be a lightweight foundation, sheer application and water resistant. So I ask the the girl on the MAC counter to try it on my chin. However I’m wearing a full makeup that time and don't want to ruin everything but luckily I'm wearing MAC Studio Fix Fluid which perfectly match my skin tone. She match me with C3 which blends like the foundation I’m wearing, so that really helps a lot because I don’t want to spend money..again.. (which always happen to me) to buy the right shade for me because the one I bought was shade lighter or darker than me. Here in UAE they don’t have a good return or exchange policy when it comes to makeup products so if you bought the wrong one you’ll end up spending again buying the right one, just make sure on your next buy it’s the right one you pick. The price of this foundation is 159.00 DHS. 

The formula was a liquidy and runny not thick like your usual foundation. If you apply it on your face and start working it out the texture starts to thicken and give you more coverage. The best way they recommend is to apply it with your fingers to warm up the product before blending it out. I bought the small bottle which is the 50ml not the 120ml so it wouldn't be a waste if I don’t like it. 

So it’s been 2 weeks now and was wearing it for the whole 2 weeks in different ways. The first day I apply it the way I normally do with my tinted moisturizer which is moisturize my face and apply the foundation with my fingers then top it with a powder (Rimmel Stay Matte). It lasted the whole day seriously amazing! so I was impressed. The next day the usual again but I think I put less moisturizer that day so by 1 pm I grabbed a mirror and checked it and I saw dry patch under the eye area near my nose and on my chin. So the next day I moisturize well and after powdering I used F84 Sigma Brush (angled kabuki) to buff everything out and I don’t see patch by 1pm and it lasted for hours. Then the 4th day I used a strobe cream after my moisturizer then  the foundation, concealer, powder and buff it with F84 it's still fine. I continue the routine alternating the moisturizer and the strobe cream before applying the foundation. 

FINDINGS:

BTW my skin is combination to oily and so far no breakouts.

So far I’m impress with this product. It wasn't heavy at all. It gives you a very sheer coverage enough to even out your skin tone and dewy finish. It lasted the whole day, it stayed for 7hrs and after that I need to blot and powder my T zone but the rest of my face it holds up pretty well. The longest was 12 hrs because after office hours my husband and I went to have dinner outside. You can also see pictures below where I'd been sweating a lot when we went for a trip to Al Ain which that day the temperature was 43 degree celsius and the humidity is so high so I grab the chance to test the foundation. I’m happy with the coverage it gives. If you’re looking for a heavy coverage then this is not for you because you can build it up to medium and that’s it! If you have good skin and just wanted to even out your skin then this is for you. If you’re a fan of Tinted Moisturizer then try this one in comparison with my Laura Mercier Oil free tinted Moisturizer when it comes to coverage I can say that the Laura Mercier gives you more coverage than the Face and Body in just one layer of foundation.

 APPLICATION:

after application no powder yet (1:30pm)

with a light application of make up (2:10 pm)

After sweating in a 43 degree celcius museum (6:41 pm)

as you can see my nose is oily but the rest of my face was still the same

Just before I took a shower at (12:12 am)

I blot my nose once when we arrived at the hotel for dinner around 9:00 pm

As you can see it's still the same except for my oily nose

Hope you find this guy helpful.

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LUSH LIP SCRUB

Visiting Lush was fun specially with my sister who's a big fan of that store. I love trying new things so when I saw this lip scrub on the lush counter I bought it. Since lush is know for it's natural handmade products you can expect good ingredients packed in this item. This product consist of peppermint oil, castor sugar, organic jojoba oil, vanilla extract, tagetes oil and limonene. 

So my experience with this, what I do is I used it after brushing my teeth at night 3-4 times a week or whenever I feel like exfoliating my lips or doing it. My lips by the way tends to dry sometimes but most of the time it's normal. So after scrubbing my lips with this products my lips looked plump and red like it was so nice and soft. It leaves you with a feeling that there's butter on your lips.

Now the smell and taste, when you open the jar you catch a smell of mint chocolaty goody it's the yummiest smell ever for me because I love mint chocolate so I enjoy smelling it while using this product. For the taste since it's natural you can actually lick whatever products is left on your lips. Yes it's edible :) but all you can actually taste is the sugar, it just taste like sugar not any hint of chocolate.

So my findings now, This is a good but not great not an HG product for me. This by the way cost 60AED which in my opinion is overpriced for a small jar of sugar. I will not repurchase the product when I emptied it because you can use a homemade lip scrub without spending 60AED there's a lot in google just search what works for you and will give you the same result. 

MAY FAVORITES

So i’m back again for my monthly favorites which i’m so always good in not doing it every month because of the wedding preparation and the wedding itself. Hopefully by the upcoming month i’ll be posting every month(crossing fingers). 

1. MAYBELLINE Define a Brow in Dark Brown - I almost forgot about this one because I’m so in a mood of a quick look so I often use my Missha Brow kit. But when I’m in the Philippines i brought it and started using it again and I noticed the difference of doing a more define brow than a trashy quick one. Unfortunately when I went back to UAE and was planning to buy more it was phased out. I think everyone hate it and feel so angry when they found something that works so well with them and suddenly the brand will phase them out. I hope Maybelline will realize that.

2. MAC LIPSTICK in Sweetie - This is a lustre finish from MAC. The color was described as ultra-sweet pink. I love this shade of lipstick it brings out a simple pop of Spring to  your face. Specially for an everyday look which I always like because I don’t wear much color for work. Plus pink gives you a youthful glow so for now this is my everyday-go-to lipstick. It’s also moisturizing which I love about Lustre finish but the downside of this mostly of Lustre finishes is less pigmented compared to other finish from MAC so you tend to apply more.

3. BENEFIT They’re Real Mascara - Usually when it comes to mascara I often grab from drugstore brands like Maybelline, Covergirl, Loreal and Revlon beacause I think it works so well compared to high end brands plus, I can’t justify buying a high end mascara and throw them after a month or so. This mascara was so loved by most of the Guru’s so I get so interested with it and just before our vacation I grab one in Sephora to try. It cost AED120.00 so it’s twice the price of the drugstore one. The result is pretty good but i’m not amazed. Will do a review on it soon. 

4. MAC Studio Fix Powder in NC 40 - When it comes to foundation I always comes back to MAC because the shades really blends do well  with my skin tone. Most of the other foundation either made me look gray or too pink for me. I’m trying to avoid liquid foundation during this time of the year when all sweat is coming out of my body so I always stick with powder foundation or concealer and just powder. Since this is a powder foundation it’s good in absorbing oil on your face and it feels light compared to liquid or cream foundation. You still can see that it covers up some light skin discoloration but not a very dark one you still need concealer if you want to cover up dark discoloration.

5. ZOYA NAIL POLISH in Piaf - I started to practice doing my nails so I can change my nail color whenever I want to. So there’s a new nail salon called Nail Symphony across our villa and they’re selling some brands aside from Essie which I adore. They told me to try Zoya because it’s organic and safe for pregnant woman though I’m not pregnant yet I think this will be useful when I am so I tried it and I swear it’s so amazing ans so easy to apply. Usually a polish will stay on my nails for 3 days and will start chipping but with Zoya it stayed for a week with no chipping. It really wowed me and will try some more shades soon.

6.UNIQLO Women Leggins - I’m a super fan of Leggins because of it’s comfortable feeling when I wore it. When we went to HK near our hotel in Causeway was this shop called UNIQLO and was so attracted with the colorful design and prints. When bumped into the leggins section I was caught by the texture and thickness of their leggins and sometimes when it comes to leggins I wanted to grab every color I can but thinking of our allowed luggage I can’t so I grab 4 colors. I’ts so soft and so nice to wear. I just love em! If you have the same store on your place try their line and have fun.

Hope you guys enjoy!