Review: Samy hair products

Walgreen's had a bogo free sale, and I just couldn't resist. I needed a heat protection spray for when I blow dry or curl my hair (I haven't been using one all this time >_<) and decided to get the ultra-lightweight conditioning serum for free. 

Samy heat guard: When blow drying my hair, this product leaves my ends really smooth. I spray a spritz on the top of my head and 4-5 spritzes to the rest of my hair. I don't have much to hype about it, but I'm guessing it does its job. :)

Price: 5/5 $5.99

Product: 5/5 Smooth hair! Great!
Packaging: Along with the rest of the Samy hair care line, their packaging is colorful and eye-attracting.

Samy ultra-lightweight conditioning serum: I love love love the smell of this. I've been applying it to my hair at night after I shower and I've been waking up to smooth and silky hair. I love this product. Sometimes I even re-apply it in the morning just because it smells good and it really lives up to its name. It doesn't bring my hair down, maybe because I use just a tiny bit of product, like half a pump.

Price: 5/5 $5.99
Product: 5/5 Smells great and works
Packaging: Pretty! And the pump is great!

My no-eyebrows

I've had thin and scare eyebrows since forever due to genetics. When I first started applying make up, it would just be filling in my eye brows, and I believe that started in the ending of the 8th grade. While I'm still waiting for some miracle growth eyebrows for people with naturally thin eyebrows, I'm full of gratitude for having make up that helps me simulate the appearance of eyebrows. Most of the time I draw my eyebrows as if they're tattooed on, mainly because I have a heavy hand and am kind of too impatient to do light and quick strokes to make my eyebrows appear more "natural." Needless to say, unlike others I can pull off the tattooed eyebrow look... imo. 

However, I've been getting lazy to draw them in... so some days I don't wear my eyebrows (lol). I'm going to attempt to grow my eyebrows because as you can see I have over-plucked my left eyebrow and it's been that way for quite a while now. I've been filling it (or more like literally drawing them in) to make them even. And as they're growing, I plan on filling them in a little bit more lightly and naturally. Hopefully I don't give up... D: Below is how natural I plan to draw my eyebrows in. 

Maybe if I feel like taking a walk through memory lane and if I can even find my way to that walk, I'll show you some pictures of what I looked like prior filling them in. 

These are my bare, thin, light, sparse, non, you name it, eyebrows.

First I take my wnw eyebrow pencil in charcoal and lightly draw in a shape. Using this eyebrow pencil creates a textured surface for the powder to stick on because this pencil seems to be made out of wax or a wax-like product. 

Then taking my lovely MAC 266, in light and quick strokes I use Jordana's eye shadow in black to fill them in, and voila... eyebrows! :)

Also... I have horrible dark circles! Well, not as bad as others... but... um, yeah! What are some eye creams you recommend dark circles?

1. Jordana eye shadow in black $0.99

2. Wnw eye brow pencil in charcoal $0.99

3. MAC 266 $19.50

And here is my most recent picture of my tattooed looking eyebrows. I look super hashed because I was up all day since 7:00am and as you can see it's super dark outside. I will show you a picture later on my more natural eyebrows when I take one that's outdoors. 

LOTD: Unfulfilled look...

I say it's an unfulfilled look because I voluminous lashes seems to complete a look/face imo. Unfortunately, lacking thickness and quantity of hair follicles, I can't depend on a lash curler to achieve a desired look. This was just a quick do because I wanted to practice on using loose pigments. While I was finishing, it was time to feast upon dinner for my grandpa's 75th birthday. 

I am loving my Nikon D40. Lol it's been the camera I've been using for majority of the pictures on my blog. Both of the above pictures are unedited... superb, isn't it? Incidentally, I bought it off Craig's where someone ripped me off on the actuations, but tg it's been good to me (after finding out that its actuations were close to its supposed shutter life... omg!)

Products used
Foundation: Revlon color stay foundation in Toast, set with MAC studio fix powder (idk the color)
Lips: Burt's bees lip balm in pomegranate
Eyeshadow base: Paula Dorf eye primer in deep and The Balm cream eyeshadow
Eyeliner: Loreal liquid liner
Contour: Benefit's hoola bronzer <333

Eyeshadows
MAC loose pigment in naked
A random eye shadow from the Philippines in brown (will show you in a later post)
MAC eye shadow in mystery
(I didn't apply a highlight color)

Brows
MAC eye brow pencil in velvetone
Jordana eye shadow in black

Btw, I need to get me a new shade of Revlon's foundation. In pictures it may look like the perfect color match, but when in rl it looks about 2 shades darker from my neck? Weird!

LOTD: Pink Thursday

I wanted to attempt the look of a geisha, but something doesn't look right... I guess it's my complexion! Lol!

Products used
Foundation: MAC studiofix foundation in NC44 set with MAC MSF in medium dark
Concealer: Revlon age defying moisturizing concealer in medium deep
Lips: Revlon cream lipstick... I forgot the color.
Eyeshadow base: Paula Dorf eye primer in deep and MAC's paint pot in soft ocre
Eyelashes: (none)
Eyeliner: Smashbox gel liner in black
Blush: MAC blush in peachykeen
Contour: MAC blush in blunt

Eyeshadows
Almost all of the pinks in the palette listed above. And white for the inner corner and highlight.

Brows

Maybelline gel liner (lol! Too dramatic for me.)

Juicebox (camera) for jusebox

Awesome! I came home to find out I received one of my many online orders during this past month. It’s a 35mm film camera disguised as a juicebox, who better to splurge on such a useless, yet magnificent creation than jusebox herself. :) Another film/toy camera to add to my collection. Where art thou photographic opportunities?

Lol @ the freebie, and what they named it... "Rawwwwwr!"

LOTD: my daily face

It sucks that traffic subsides until 9 a.m, making what's supposed to be a 5-minute drive into a 20 to 25-minute drive just to get to school. Traffic in the morning enables me to think without much attention to the slow-moving cars that surround me. This morning I thought that I should update my blog, since it's been a while (or so my popular saying goes...). Sometimes I run out of things to blog about, or most of the time it's because I get lazy to upload pictures onto my computer.

For this entry, I wanted to show you my daily face, when I do use make up to get minimal effects to seemingly make me appear more awake which in turn makes me "feel" more awake.

Btw, my cheap point and shoot camera, does not capture pictures true to its color. Instead, it makes it look a little bit more fake, yet more visually appealing imo. 

Prior to my make up application, I moisturized my face with Clinique's dramatically different gel. 

Incidentally, the bolded products are my daily beauty essentials, as well as make up staples... forever, meaning these are products I never want to be without. Then again, most of these products are easily duplicated... but you get the picture. 

1) Face

I take a foundation or stippling brush or a make up sponge and apply a liquid foundation on my face. Lately I've been using MAC's studio fix and MAC's prolong wear (which I prefer more for my oily skin). Today I used MAC's prolong wear in NC42 which is a light color for me but I like my foundation that way, to make me appear lighter/brighter. I set it with MAC's MSF in medium-dark. 

2) Eye brows

The products I use often change, but in a cycle. Usually it's whatever product I find first. I used MAC's eye brow pencil in velvetone (it's black... lol. For a more natural look, use studded... I think that's the color). Then using my favorite angled brush to draw in my eye brows (MAC 266) I use my cheap yet effective and reliable Jordana eye shadow in black.

3) Eye lids

Actually before drawing in my eye brows, I primed my eyelids using my fingers all the way to my eye brows using Too Faced's shadow insurance. I also use UDPP. I prime my eyes because it helps my eyeliner stay in place. 

4) Eyes

Then I take Sonia Kashuk's bent liner brush and apply Smashbox's jet set gel liner in black. Then for mascara I used Prestige's my biggest lashes after curling with a regular eye lash curler. I have yet to invest in a really great eye lash curler. :)

Also, in the inner corner of my eyes I put some of MAC's cream color base in pearl using my finger. It brightens up my eyes and make me look more awake. I often do it, using various pearly/creamy eye bases or eye shadows. 

5) Concealer

Using my fingers, I apply Revlon's age defying concealer in medium deep (a recent beauty find... and totally worth it) to cover up my dark circles. It works as well as MAC's studio fix concealer imo. A cheaper product with way more product. However, there are only 4 shades... :(

6) Contour

Using the brush that I came with this product, I applied Benefit's hoola bronzer to add some contour to my face so my cheek bones are more accentuated than it already is. 

7) Lips

A simple lip balm does it for this step. I have many to choose from, but lately I've been in love with Bobbi Brown's lip balm. I don't know how to explain in words, but I just love the way it feels on my lips especially because I love puckering up my lips when I have some lip balm on, all of the time until I have to re-apply. The best way to ever moisturize my lips is to apply it before I go to sleep, because I don't unconsciously pucker my lips, or at least I don't think so because after 8 hours of sleep my lips wake up feeling super moisturized with product still on top. 

And there you have it, my daily make up face/routine.

What are your beauty faves?

Thanksgiving weekend recap

11/25/10 - Thanksgiving: It's become a yearly tradition that we spend Thanksgiving dinner at my aunty's (dad's side) house because a few days later is also my cousin's birthday. She's lucky because she gets to celebrate her birthday every year, and with family too. :) It was the first time we had a lechon pig for such a festivity. Needless to say, I didn't eat it... nor do I eat much of any other Filipino delicacies because I'm such a picky eater.

Prior to dinner, I had gone with my boyfriend's family for a lunch at Aunty Palang's house that was uncalled for. I had just gone to his house in the morning then the next thing I knew was Dustin's mom telling me we're all leaving in 15 minutes. I had no time this whole day to style my hair... so I left it down and as you can see my hair is super flat... and I hate it like that. 

Lol I swear Derby has specific angles that he's photogenic in. Also, my face seems to have the ability to bloat up. Aside from my stomach that bloats when I'm full, my face does it too... -_-

11/26/10 - Black Friday: I camped out with Aunty Eileen at Target. Unfortunately I didn't get what I wanted... so all I got was a jacket and a DVD while Aunty Eileen got all that she wanted. Lol. After that I went to Ala Moana with Dustin and didn't buy anything at all. Either the lines to the cashiers were too long or the items that I wanted didn't have my size. Bummer... -_-

11/27/10 - Saturday: Since I had been up for, I believe it was 36 hours, I slept in. I felt lethargic so I didn't go to work. Instead, for some reason, I had the energy to want to rearrange my room and so I did that for the rest of the afternoon that I got. Do you ever have days where you wake up and decide it's time for change? It happens a lot for me, most of the time dealing with home improvements. I relocated my infamous jusebox sign, and rearranged a few pieces of furniture. I'm not done though because I ended up tagging along with my family to Waikele where my dad bought me some pieces of apparel for the first time in a long time.  I was super thankful for that... :)

Also, see my nail art sampler? I finally decided to trash it because it was so bulky to put anywhere. But of course, I had to capture a photograph of it to keep as a memoir.

11/28/10 - Sunday: Just an ordinary day... with time allotted to update my blog. I hope that you all had a great four-day weekend!