♡ March Wishlist ♡

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♡ Weekend Trip Away w/ Waifu ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

It is, officially, six weeks today until I am in Sweden to visit Christina!! I haven't been this excited since Seoul way back in 2011 because in all honesty, this is my first out of the country holiday since then... oops!

So I decided to take a small break in between the mundane existence of work, work, a few personal things and oh... more work and since I have not seen Sapphire since my birthday slash Hyper Japan last November, I realised that I wouldn't see her again until Hyper Japan all the way in July... we both agreed that we needed a quick trip fix with each other and as I have not been up to hers for a while now, I went up north to visit her!

Grrr even re-thinking about the journey up makes me all angry about what had happened. Basically, I had purchased a ticket for a seat with specific requirements - near luggage rack, at a table etc but when I had arrived at Euston and went to board my train, I found out that the train had been cut down from 10 coaches to just 5 with no prior warning whatsoever. I honestly tripled checked my ticket and my heart, literally, sank when I realised that my seat and coach didn't even exist so I had to fight my way in an already packed coach to get one, searching amongst the little electronic dashboards to find which ones were available and which ones weren't. After finally finding a seat near a window... I thought I was in luck when we started moving and no one came to sit next to me until about 10 minutes into the journey when, what I presumed my bad, to be a nice elderly lady came to sit next to me and then proceeded to squish me up against the window for the next two and half hour journey... cries. I have never, ever, EVER had a bad experience with Virgin trains before until that journey and the blatant nonchalant-ness of the train people at the station saying "yeah we don't know why either, just find a seat" still makes me rage a couple of weeks down the line. TBH, next time I will just endure a coach for four hours instead...

After what felt like an eternity, I did arrive at Telford Central in one piece and met Sapphire with love and lots of cuddles ;A; we headed over to her mum's house where we literally stuck the kettle and the heating on like a couple of old grannies - no offence to old grannies ofc. We then headed to the shop for some snacking supplies and then went back to order Chinese food, get into our pyjama's and snuggled up to watch movies... that's how we roll. Oh, I did manage to finally give Saph her birthday slash Christmas present after always forgetting about it, with a mixture of not trusting our postal system to lose it. If you want to see what I got her, go check out her blog post about our trip for yourselves :)

On the Saturday, we took our time to get ready before heading out to Birmingham for the day. The weather was cold and really cloudy/overcast but it didn't dampen our spirits! Saph took me to this really cute tea shop called Char Wallah first, I had seen her go previously from an instagram post so I kind of, may have, hinted about going and I'm so glad that she took me! I had a gorgeous fruit tea called 'Old Love' which had delectable things like blackberries, rosehip, rose petals and strawberries in it! Honestly, it was super tasty that I just had to purchase a bag to take home with me as well as another flavour called 'Grandma's Garden'.

After Char Wallah, we headed into the Bull Ring towards Selfridges as we wanted something to eat at this point and I had spotted the cosmetic section so we had a browse around there before doing so. So many brands, so little money! But one brand did draw both myself and Saph towards it and that was Illamasqua. We had heard so many good things about a particular item that we wanted to check it out in person before deciding whether to purchase or not... let's just say I definitely left with a lighter bank balance after getting the translucent loose powder and a foundation that actually matched my skin tone - worth it. We went all the way down to the bottom level and headed to Yo! Sushi for a round of food there before hopping over to Krispy Kreme for dessert. Super full at the end of it but it was all delicious~

We walked around the Bull Ring a good few times as there were shops on all levels that we wanted to check out - Superdrug, Forever 21 and even HMV! It was actually rather nice to just wander around even through all the weekend crowds. After being out for a good percentage of the day, we were both really tired at the end so we headed back home for re-heated Chinese food and more movies. I feel a little bad for forcing Saph to watch something I wanted... but hey she did offer?! Bestest friend ever in all honesty.

On the Sunday, I didn't have to travel back until 4ish so we spent the morning watching a bit of Jeremy Kyle (guilty pleasure oops) before we did each others make-up. I was a little worried about Saph doing mine because my eyes were stinging a bit before she even started and I do have really sensitive eyes so I wanted to see if I could endure it and.... nope. My eyes started to water really badly once she put eyeliner on and I had to take it all off ;AAA; sorry bb! But, I was rather surprised at how well mine turned out on her... again check her blog post if you want to see the outcome! And the style / colours suited her really well.... dammit.

All in all, I had the perfect weekend with my best friend, what else can I ask for? I do hate how far away my best friend is sometimes but it does make the time we spend together even more special and amazing. And I was lucky enough to actually have my designated seat on the way back home to Euston... suck it Virgin I'm still angry at you assholes.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ L'OREAL Skin Perfection Toner & Cleansing Milk ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

Continuing on with Holy Grail products, I now bring to you my favourite toner and cleansing milk made suitable for sensitive skin aaahhh ♡♡♡

Where to even start with these products... well I was actually introduced to the cleansing milk by my mother who had a bottle in her cupboard, had only used it once and then purchased the age renew version of the cleansing milk so thus handing it over to me. I didn't use it straight away as I was already in mid-cleanse from my usual cleanser and toner line (Skin Food Parsley and Mandarin line for troubled skin) so I finished those up before starting on the cleansing milk. Oh boy. I, honest to god, noticed a difference in my skin (literally) a couple of days after incorporating the cleansing milk into my skincare routine and I was loving it!

The fact that I was loving the cleansing milk already without using the toner... well you can all probably guess my reaction to when I found out there actually WAS a toner in my local supermarket. Bang tidy in my basket it went - and it was decently priced as well for £3.99! How could anyone refuse that pricing?! I started incorporating the toner into my routine the very same night after purchasing and the next morning, my skin was super soft with no visible signs of excess oil nor breakouts from using a new product. I think I am in heaven with these two products at the end of the day.

Now, I do apologise for this next paragraph because I will probably sound a little snobbish ;A; but after using Korean skincare products for the past 4/5 years of my life... I was a little sceptical about going back to western skincare products after bad past experiences but L'Oreal have well and truly surprised me with their Skin Perfection line for sensitive skin. I can put my hands on my heart and vow that I have been re-converted back to a western line for now and I can also say that I feel slightly relieved that I, now, don't have to hunt around any more for the "perfect" toner/cleanser products... massive weight off my shoulders there!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Etude House Precious Mineral Magic Any Cushion in MINT ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

I have seen the online raves about compact cushions and I can see why people want these little beauties in their lives so much! I won these wonderful compact in Chloe's Christmas Giveaway last year and ever since this arrived in my life... ugh just ugh where have you been?! 

This compact is just perfect in all aspects and angles it gives. As the mint colour claims to reduce redness and is for "ruddy" skin tone users to make natural / bright skin tone pretty much the three compact colours do the same 6-in-1 things; moisturizing + whitening + anti aging + sunscreen (SPF 50+ / PA+++) + foundation + cooling.

I can agree wholeheartedly with those statements hands down. I have (in my eyes) bad redness on my cheeks and I hate them... but when I use this compact it honestly helps tone down my redness and even makes my skin tone looks like one colour instead of all blotchy. Another point I find tricky when looking for a base cover / primer is sometimes it makes my BB cream look a little bit splotchy and un-even? I don't know if others have this situation either but this is one of the reasons I don't use primers in my make-up routine.

With this pact though, I can use it either on it's own and feel confident enough not to add BB cream on top and just go straight to the face powder as well as using it as a base like a CC cream... I wholeheartedly love this little compact I can even describe it properly. It is, by hands down, my Holy Grail base product and until the day is (sadly) gets discontinued, I will always use this.

I'm not going to do the pro's and con's I usually do when I review items as to me, this product is flawless and... well... yeah. Short and sweet blog post for today c:

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Candysan Haul // Unboxing ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!

I have, certainly, done my fair share of searching around on the internet to find the best deals on Japanese snacks - ebay, Oyatsu Cafe etc - but to put it perfectly frank... none of them have ever really compared to Candysan.

Originally, I was introduced to most of these particular snacks via my gorgeous penpal and the reason why she chose these particular snacks for me is because they were easy to get a hold of online - which is lovely of her because, in reality, I hate pestering people for things >///< A few others are complete first time tries from seeing other bloggers write about them and as I wanted to try them myself, I finally gave in and purchased them! So, without further ado, lets get on with the unboxing!

Selection of Umaibo

L-R; Shrimp & Mayo, Tonkatsu Sauce, Teriyaki Burger, Takoyaki, Yakitori & Pizza flavour

Takoyaki Tei, BBQ Cheetos and Triple Cheese Scones

Calpis Flavoured Marshmallows

Selection of Cookies & Cake

L-R; Country Ma'am Black Chocolate Cookies, Oreo Mont Blanc Soft Cookies & Koi Matcha Cake

Country Ma'am White Chocolate Sweets

Selection of Puccho & Memtos

Memtos; grape and soda assortment. Puccho; Disney, Vitamin Gold, Sweetie, White Grape & Cola

To date, this is my biggest snack/candy haul and oh my days so much! I never realised how much I actually purchased until I got to the checkout counter but even then I didn't realise how bad it would have been until I laid them all out at once... oops!

Don't worry though. I'm definitely not going to gorge my way through all these goodies! I'm going to (extremely slowly) munch through something every couple of weeks, some will be reviewed but others... eh it depends?

Thanks for reading!
xoxo