♡ Versatile Blogger Award ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Good evening everybody! How be you all on this fffiiinnneee winters day? OK it's not fine here the weather is disgusting and despicable as per usual... I love winter but the rain is officially becoming too much especially when it comes to walking my dogs GAH! So anyway I was (lovingly I hope) awarded this award thingy... majig... by my best friend Sapphire over at Little Owl Diary (go follow her otherwise I'll kill you) and I don't think I've ever done this one before... nope doesn't ring any bells so honestly thank you baby it was a lovely surprise! So onto the rules of this award;

 Thank the person who nominated you.
 Include a link to their blog.
 Nominate 15 bloggers you've recently discovered.
 Write down 7 facts about yourself.

Right so here are my ten nominations... I actually don't really have fifteen blogs that I've recently discovered and so I've just added a few of my favourites in this as well (except for Sapphire's because what's the point...)

 Sample Hime

 Pink-Sugarrr

 Pinkoolaid

 Mango RabbitRabbit

 Lara Lizard

 Emily Marysia

 Kawaii Beauty Corner

 Misaraisu

 Beauty, Miscellany

 Chewiee

Seven facts about myself;

 I drink at least 13 cups of tea/coffee per day...

 My favourite colour is red but I have a massive soft spot for pastel colours
 I can't eat natural sugars like honey, maple syrup and golden syrup etc
 My best friend means the world to me... I honestly couldn't live without that girl alongside a couple of other friends whom I'd give my life for
 I get birthday and christmas cards from my pets
 I am learning Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Russian... very very slowly!
 I find cooking / baking extremely therapeutic especially when I'm angry

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ January Wishlist ♡

1. Creer Beaute Oscar Impact and Cool Eyes Liquid Eyeliner in Black

2. Scoop neck jersey swing dress in light grey

3. Paper Doll PV Cosmetic Case in medium

4. ETUDE HOUSE Dear My Blooming Lipstick in PK010 and OR204

5. Prima Donna wig in Opera Red from GLW

6. Sanrio My Melody ceramic mug (comes with wooden spoon)

7. Sanrio My Melody matching ceramic bowl

8. China Glaze nail polish in Adventure Ready

9. Leather cut out chunky wedge boots

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ ETUDE HOUSE Minnie Kissing Lips Lipsticks ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

After reading Misa's review on the bubble pink lipstick, as well as a few other reviews, I have been itching to write my own and give my own opinions on these lipsticks.  Now I did get both colours as I honestly could not decide which one to go for as the promotional posters makes the colours out to be a retro style cherry red and a pale-ish bubble pop pink... like a strawberry milkshake colour pink!

First impressions were directed at the pink lipstick... I was disappointed not going to deny it because it was obviously that Etude House lightened the promotional pictures quite a bit which I do find rather cheeky in all honesty. After a while; the actual colour actually grew on me because it is such a lovely colour... I do just wish it was what it was meant to be y'know? Oh well moving on;

Aren't the packages cute?! The sketch drawings on the front definitely suck you into purchasing straight away. Also I love the different colours used to match the lipsticks... kind of makes them stand out just that little bit more. The bar codes on the bottom of the boxes are even shaped like Minnie Mouse's head! 

I also love the different contrasting tube packaging for each lipstick as well... it was certainly different to have one plain with the sketch of Minnie whilst the other was just white with pink dots. Having these different contrasting tubes kind of makes it easier to pick up which one is which if they weren't in their boxes or if you didn't want to keep the outer boxes at all.

In all honesty, from first judgements I do prefer the packaging of the red lipstick because it appeals to me more style wise plus with the fact red is one of my favourite colours it just wins there.

#01 Minnie Red

This colour is simply the most perfect Minnie Mouse red you could ever get... exactly the colour of her signature red dress and bow. The best feature I find about the lipstick is the fact it has a lot of moisture so it doesn't make my lips look all dry and it slicks on easily with only a couple of swipes.

#02 Bubble Pink

Like I said... disappointing that this colour isn't exactly like the one in the promotional pictures but it's still such an amazing colour to wear. Again, very moisturising and doesn't dry out my lips nor does it stick to some of the creases and cracks I still get on my lips during this harsh winter despite the endless amounts of sugar scrubs and vaseline.

Pros
↑↑ extremely moisturising colour
↑↑ only need a few swipes on my lips for full coverage
↑↑ affordable
↑↑ extremely pigmented

Cons
↑↑ different colour to the promotional pictures

Overall Verdict; ★★★★★
It only loses the one star because of the colour but other than that these lipsticks are pretty perfect for different looks whether they be day or night, natural or extreme style make-up.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Diamond Lash Celebrity Eye ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

I'm keeping up with my end of the bargain about bring out at least one blog post per week... I now need to decide on a specific day to bring said post but until then voilà! Second post and the first (of probably many many more) review of the year.

Diamond Lashes are pretty much the only brand I had been using (until SHO-BI came into my life) since the first day I've worn lashes and they've never failed me yet. I love how each individual style brings dimension to my eyes (as I feel that my eyes are my best feature) and how pretty much nearly all of the styles can be suitable for everyday looks. My wonderful friend Rachael was kind enough to purchase me a couple of boxes of Diamond Lashes whilst she was out in Japan for a whole month so I asked for my usual Glamour Eye lashes and the Celebrity Eye from the Volume series;

What drew me to the Celebrity Eye more was the thicker parts in the middle of the lashes... normally you see this kind of thing on the outer lashes to help create a cat eye effect but this style called to me and it was definitely the right choice to go for. I think one of the main reasons I go for Diamond Lashes more than other well known brands is the amount you are getting for your money... five pairs of lashes for around 1000 - 1200 yen? C'mon that's practically giving them away if you compare the pricing to say... Dollywink. Now I'm not hating on Dollywink at all that's just one of the obvious ones when you compare right? There are also certain Eyemazing series if you'd like another example.

I love how the lashes are arranged in the palettes but it does scare me when I want to take a pair out because I'm worried that I'd bend it wrong or something... if I could keep them in their boxes forever I would but alas I love them on my eyes too much.

Comfort; the one thing I love the most about Diamond Lashes is the invisible band... it is so flexible that it makes it feel like that I'm not even wearing lashes and that is such a major plus for me as I do have rather sensitive eyes

Durability; one thing I learnt the first time I tried to take a lash out of the packaging is that you have to be so so so careful when doing so because of said invisible band it makes them feel rather flimsy and once you bend them out of shape... you can't really re-shape them to the original style properly which does suck but hey you learn from your mistakes for sure

Design; this design is just perfect... it gives off a dramatic flare as they are quite thick in the middle with rather feathery, natural lashes on the inside and outside of the band. It makes the whole design pretty and the inside lashes don't irritate the inside of my eye...

Overall Verdict; ★★★★★
These lashes get full marks from me as I literally cannot fault them... I can fault other designs from Diamond Lash but these ones it just feels like that they were made for me! It sounds silly I know but they are indeed my favourite style and I haven't stopped wearing this style since I received the box.

Note; I do apologise for the atrocious photographs that have gone with this post... but what with the weather being extremely here and there it's hard to take decent pictures... so hence the overload of lightness that has gone with these ones. Hopefully it shan't happen again any time soon!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ あけましておめでとう! ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Welcome to my first blog post of 2014! Did you all enjoy your Christmas, new year and other celebrations to whatever you celebrate for? For once; my family and myself have actually enjoyed a relaxing holiday! Normally we're running around getting everything ready for other family members to show up, eat the food and then disappear again but there was really none of that this year and it felt so so so good to do things at our own pace and just relax. My family only came over on the last Sunday before New Year so it was all good... lots of food consumed and lots of regrets afterwards as per usual! I was also surprised at how much I actually received present wise... I honestly was only expect like 3 or 4 small gifts so I actually cried at how generous my parents were. Now it's pretty obvious that it is the 1st of January and already I have seen many resolutions that people have been posting about and just... well I've decided against 'resolutions' but instead... well I suppose they are resolutions but they are goals that I shall officially conquer in the year 2014;

♡ Get my drivers license
♡ See every single Marvel film released this year in the cinema. If I have to seem them by myself like I did with Thor 2 then so be it.
♡ Travel into London at least once a month
♡ Post a blog at least once a week
♡ Take one of my cookbooks and make every.single.recipe in that goddamn book
♡ Start pen paling again and bring in box swapping as well

I only have a few goals because the less I have... the more inclined I actually am to do it if you get my drift. I'm not going to put "be this amount lighter" because losing weight is something I have been doing since halfway through last year and also putting "save this amount each month" is pretty pointless as well since that has been happening throughout the past year also. Plus the reasons why I am going in 2015 now is no ones business but my own so to the people who will probably read this and become all bitchy and snide about it... fuck off you don't know what's happening offline in my life.

Okay bitchy moment over I'll get onto the... ehhh I want to say good stuff but more or less it's just average stuff really. Like I said above it was a pretty chilled out Christmas for once which was rather handy as I had a disgusting cold that kept me in bed most of the Christmas period so I was pretty relieved not to have to act and be sociable with people. But before the cold happened I actually went to my work Christmas meal... I've been there four years (between university) and this was only the second time I had been because previously... well university got in the way but I'm glad I went because the place was divine and the food was absolutely delicious. I have to admit... not having a sweet pudding was a wise choice and I think my colleagues now officially know of my cheese addiction because after this I did receive a cheese basket that a parent had brought in for us (what we do is we bring all the presents together and then divide it up equally if that makes sense?) Cheese is good... cheese is amazing... sorry I do love cheese though.

So fast forward a couple of weeks as the meal was literally at the beginning of December and my baby girl Rachael came over to mine for the evening... our schedules are so crazy opposite that finding the time to chill out with each other is becoming so increasingly sparse so I think both of us jumped at the chance to spend time with each other. Like the losers we are, we headed over to KFC and picked up some grub there as we had promised to do so when one of our favourite k-pop groups VIXX had their first win and they DID have their first win so we celebrated (as like other Starlights probably did) with a feast of fried chicken! I hadn't eaten KFC for a good three years so I was pretty stoked to finally get some in my belly.

Oh and this girl... this sneaky so and so girl... had purchased me Jaejoong's 'WWW' album as a late birthday / early Christmas present and even though she had told me about it... it was just so overwhelming to have said album in my hands and seriously it is just one of the best albums ever. I honestly cannot stop listening to it that is how good it is.

And so after that wondeful night with Rachael, and as I only had a few more days of work before it closed for the holidays, literally the day after I had finished my last shift BAM... cold central for me for good week. Normally when I have a cold, I work through the bugger and keep on truckin' but this time I actually stayed in bed and just basically slept, ate toast, drank tea and caught up on all the anime / dramas I had fallen behind on without being bitched at for being lazy. It was a pretty sweet week actually if not strange that it was something I'm not used to doing. So anyway whilst most of my friends had their decorations and trees up (at what seemed) the earliest they could possibly put the stuff up without seeming weird... we on the other hand didn't decorate our tree until the Sunday before Christmas. I wasn't at my best at that point but it took my mind off being sick for a good hour.

Oh on actual Christmas day... I couldn't decide between matte red lipstick or a nude lipstick with a gloss over top so I asked on instagram / facebook which looked better and the matte red won! It's shocking actually but I'm glad and well... I like both bold and nude colours so either way I think I would have been happy;

Christmas for me just consisted of;

Oh and some really bad ass presents that I was not expecting as well as expecting... wow that hurt my brain a little bit;

And finally for New Years Eve... like heck I went out. I did that last year and I hated it so so so much that all I could think about was my nice, warm bed so this year my mam and I have a pizza and movie night as my poor daddy had to work ; n ; but he luckily came home early enough to watch the film with us!

Oh and on New Years Day (today!) my brother and his girlfriend popped over for lunch as everyone (except for mam and myself... yay for the childcare industry!) has work this evening... boo to them. But all in all I've had a pretty chill out end of the year. I still have a few days off work... or maybe even another week I have no clue it does depend on numbers but either way it means I can start sorting shit out you know? I've already made plans with Sharan to go and have dim sum and check out the rest of the sales so get in to already hitting one of my goals!

What 'goals' or 'resolutions' are you guys planning on hitting this year? Oh if you want to become my pen pal or do a box swap then just leave a comment and I'll be happy to talk details with you! Also my blog is turning 3 this year... how crazy is that? So basically to celebrate that I'm thinking of doing a giveaway of my favourite cosmetic / beauty products of 2013 and a couple of extra surprises... what do you think to that? Happy new year guys and I hope 2014 brings you all the joys and wonders life has to offer you ♡

Thanks for reading!
xoxo