NYC Vacation Snapshots

Hey all! These are just a few snapshots  I took while in NYC. Be forewarned, these are mostly pictures of food, more specifically : ramen. Anyway, enjoy!

That's it! I decided to go easy on the camera this time around so these are all cellphone pictures (if you were wondering why the quality of the pictures is so great :p) Anyway it was a great trip! Cannot wait to go back. We did so many great things ♥

Get to Know Me Tag : 21 Questions

Hey all! I have a tag for you today that I saw on another blog. It's a really old post from Le Beauty Girl. I thought it was fun so I decided to give it a go! Basically, these are 21 questions that will help you get to know me a little better! I tag any of you that would like to do it as well! Link yours in the comment if you do it! I'd love to read your answers :)

1. Are you named after anyone? I don't know, but I don't think so!
2. When was the last time you cried? I rarely cry, so that one would be very hard to answer. A few weeks at least, but I couldn't say for sure.
3. Do you have kids? Nope
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? Is it just me or is this a really odd question? I guess I would be. I try to keep positive values and that's a trait that I appreciate in a friend. Is that weird? It feels weird... anyway!
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Yup, its one of my favorite forms of humor :)
6. Will you ever bungee-jump? Definitely not. I'm really afraid of heights so I don't think I would ever willingly  jump off anything.
7. What’s your favorite cereal? Reese Puffs!
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? That's a really good question. I never really paid attention to that. Couldn't really answer it.
9. What is your eye colour? Dark green, but everyone says it looks brown.
10. Scary movie or happy endings? I get really traumatised by scary movies so happy endings for me all the way!
11. Favorite smells? Coffee beans, lilacs, vanilla, roasting garlic and freshly baked bread.
12. Summer or winter? Neither :/ Summer is too hot and winter is too cold.
13. Computer or television? Computer
14. What’s the furthest you’ve ever been from home? South East Asia
15. Do you have any special talents? Don't think so
16. Where were you born? Canada
17. What are your hobbies? Blogging, Makeup, reading, video games (lately I'm playing Final Fantasy XIV a Realm Reborn and Atelier Ayesha), watching shows on Netflix and traveling.
18. Do you have any pets? yup, I have three lovely feline friends ♥
19. Favorite movie? The Lord of the Rings and How to Train your Dragon
20. Do you have any siblings? I have two brothers. I'm the middle child :)
21. What do you want to be when you grow up? Happy! 

Well that's it for this tag, hope you enjoyed and don't forget to link your in the comments if you decide to do it too! :D

Huge NYC Beauty Haul, Project 10$/Week Update + 500 Posts

First up, I'd like to say this is my 500th post! Woohoo! Who knew I'd get to 500? I certainly did not expect that! I'm so happy with what this blog has become in the last few years and looking forward to many many more blog posts! So this 500th post will be a haul, hope you all enjoy :)

So we went to NYC last week and I did a little bit of shopping there. There were quite a few good deals and I found products I just cannot get my hands on here. We went to Ulta and the Elf store as well as other drugstores and beauty supply stores. Here's all I got :

While we're at it, why not make this a Project 10$/Week update as well! This is the equivalent of 16 weeks of makeup (I know I've been super bad T_T) which brings us to 43 weeks. I'm a little indebted on my total right now, but I think I've had my fix for a little while so I'm not too worried about sticking to it!

Other than that, my other goals were to :

1) Avoid buying Lush until my birthday or I ran out of all my products. Status : Failed
I couldn't resist getting fresh masks every now and then, oh well!

2) Avoid buying Bath and Body Works until my birthday or I ran out of all my products. Status : Success
I have since gotten a few things, but not before my birthday :)

3) Wait until after my birthday to get the Alex 9 Drawers from IKEA. Status : Success
Still haven't got it, but I'm planning to do it very soon! My makeup needs a new bigger home. :)

That's all I got for you all today. Are there any of these products that you would like to see a review on? Let me know and I'll be happy to oblige!

---

Don't forget to follow me and like my Facebook page for more posts like this ♥

Project 10$/Week 2014 Update and Haul - Weeks 24 through 27

Hey everyone! As promised, here is my latest project 10$/week update! I'm still on track and very proud to be :) This is weeks 24 through 27 of my resolution. Check it out :

 Haul

• Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner (7$) : I strongly regret this purchase. It's my first project 10$ purchase that I regret and I'm kicking myself for not researching my purchase before getting this liner. I hate everything about it, it's way too matte, it cracks, it's hard to apply because of the fat pointy hard felt tip brush and you can't get a nice even line with it. Looks like 1 week gone down the drain, oh well :S Hope I've learned my lesson now.
• Tony Moly Party Lover Liquid Liner (7$, on sale) : Now this is what I'm talking about! This liner is the bomb and it's quickly becoming a favorite. The brush is super thin, the formula dark and opaque and it's really budge-proof. <3 It reminds me of my dear E.l.f liquid liner, but I think I like it even more!
• L'Oréal Infallible shadow in Tender Caramel (3$, on sale) : Just like my Amber rush shadow from the same collection, I adore this! Great pigmentation, beautiful color and amazing metallic finish!
• Tony Moly Crystal Jelly Cheek Pot in 07 (7$, on sale) : This cream to powder blush has a really odd consistency, but I've been wearing it non-stop. I love the natural finish and this color suits me quite nicely I think. These Tony Moly products are really great so far, I'm thinking of getting more!
• Maybelline Babyskin Primer (12$) [Not pictured] : I don't have it with me in Montreal at the moment so I haven't had that much time to play around with it yet. I do think it's quite expensive though. Not sure about this yet, but I really wanted to give it a try!

Price total : 36$

Week equivalent : 4 weeks

Swatches

from left to right : Revlon Colorstay liner, Tony Moly Party Lover, Tony Moly Crystal Jelly Cheek Pot in 01, L'Oréal Infallible Shadow in Tender Caramel

In case you haven't been following my project 10$/week since the beginning of 2014, here's a recap of the products I have gotten so far :

Project 10$/week recap :

• NARS Orgasm & Laguna Duo and Urban Decay 24/7 Glide on Pencil Trio = 80$
• Katy Perry Meow perfume and Bourgeois Healthy Skin Serum = 50$
• Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Trio and Urban Decay Naked Basics palette = 100$
• Maybellin Babyskin Primer and L'Oréal Infallible shadow in Tender Caramel = 15$
• Revlon Colorstay Liquid Liner = 7$
• Tony Moly Partylover Liner and Crystal Jelly Cheek Pot in 01 = 14$

Total : 26,6 weeks = 27 weeks

Next purchases : 

My next purchases are a bit of a dilemma right now. I feel like I have too many options to choose from. I want a few Elf things and I would also like to try the Essence brand. I also really want a MAC palette but it's incredibly expensive (~200$ yikes). I definitely want more Tony Moly products as well as more Korean cosmetics (especially a BB cream!). Finally, I'd like to put some of my budget aside to be able to get stuff from the Sephora Christmas collection since they always have a bunch of really nice gift sets. I'm really unsure about what I should choose. Let me know what you would do if you were me!  It would help me a lot to get all of you guys' opinions. <3

That's it for this update! Hope you all enjoyed it! Let me know what I should get next in the comments and also any post or review request :)

Mexico Vacation Recap

Hey everyone! I know I haven't been around much lately and I'm super sorry about it! I've been on vacation and right now I'm doing an internship in Montreal which means I haven't been home in over 3 weeks. I find it very hard to blog out here, but I'm trying to put a few things together for you all in the mean time.

I tought I would do a quick recap of my Mexico vacation first. We went for a week to Playa Del Carmen in an all inclusive resort. We don't usually enjoy resorts all that much, but this time we had lots of fun. We mainly wanted to rest and recuperate from the long school year so the choice was perfect for us.

The Rivera Maya drink, so yummy and really festive looking <3

Relaxing in the adult-only jetted pool. It was really worth getting the upgrade!

I really love this outfit! I got the shorts at Simons for 28$, great buy!

The resort we went to was an eco resort and there were tons of animals on the property. Look at this cute little fella :D

Loved the white sand beach <3

Enjoying drinks on the beach :) good times!

The adult-only pool was great :)

We went on 4 scuba dives during our one week stay. The diving in Riviera Maya is pretty expensive, but it was totally worth it! This is the dive shop where we booked our two cenote dives and the two beach dives (we saw sea turtles whooo!)

The view from behind the lobby bar. There was entertainment there at night :)

Hope you enjoyed these few pictures of my vacation to Mexico! It was a lot of fun and I would totally go back. I'm itching to go backpacking now though. As much as this vacation was relaxing, I'm ready for a bit more exploring and adventure now :D Hopefully I'll be able to go backpacking soon! I have a short roadtrip to the US planned or the end of the summer, which should be fun as well. Let me know if you'd like me to blog about it <3

Are you planning any vacation/trips in the future? Let me know! I'd love to know about it :)

Makeup Vanity Reorganizing

Hey everyone! Today I thought I would share a quick before and after of my makeup vanity reorganization. I haven't got tons of new makeup since I'm on the 10$/week project, but I did purge quite a few things back in may. Also things were getting a little messy and I felt like the setup wasn't working that well for me anymore. Also, if you have the MALM vanity from Ikea, you probably know that the drawer doesn't pull all the way out, making products placed at the back of the drawer quite hard to reach. There are tutorials online on how to fix that problem, but you have to be a little handy and have a couple tools which I have neither. There were a few products I found hard to reach which was annoying so I tried to figure out a way that all would be easily accessible. Check out the results!

What's changed :

• I no longer keep my falsies, medium palettes and lip balms in the drawer. It was starting to get out of hand and it was hard to find what I was looking for.
• I purged a LOT of mascaras.
• I divided my single shadows, cream shadows and gel liners using a ice cube tray to help me see them more easily.
• I rearranged the baskets to ensure maximum use and a minimum of products in the back where it's hard to reach.
• I added 2 primer baskets, one for face and one for eyes (which also holds my two brow products).
• The hardest products to reach are the lipglosses, which I don't use a lot and my less used/not my color right now foundations. Even then, because the baskets aren't high, they're pretty easy to get.

Close-up

I'm really pleased with how it looks now! Everything is easy and quick to find! Hope you enjoyed this quick before and after update on makeup organization system! Let me know which of the three your prefer in the comments! :)

---

Don't forget to follow me and like my Facebook page for more posts like this ♥

Projet 10$/Week 2014 Update n3 and Haul

So the resolution is still going strong! I must say I'm very proud of my restraint! Here are my latest purchases! 

- Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Palette (67$)
- Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette (33$)

Total : 100$ (10 weeks)

Since I had accumulated 500 points at Sephora, I also got the 500 points perk. It's a Laura Mercier kit that includes an exfoliator, a gloss (it smells heavenly!), a highlight powder (super potent!), and a deluxe sample size of their famous foundation primer and tinted moisturizer.

We're now up to week 22 of my new year resolution and we're doing well! I'm really excited about all of my purchases so far and super happy that I've been keeping up with this resolution. It's hard for me to stick to anything (except this blog, I guess I've been doing a pretty good job of sticking to that for the past few years when I think about it), so I'm especially impressed with my self control. Anyway, I'll update you all again in a few weeks with my future purchases. Let me know if you'd like to see reviews of any of these!

---

Don't forget to follow me and like my Facebook page for more posts like this ♥

Projet 10$/Week 2014 Update and Haul : Recent Purchases

Hey all! Today I'm doing an update on my new year resolution for 2014. Basically, if you haven't seen my new year resolution post, I decided to allow myself a budget of only 10$ per week for makeup throughout 2014 in order to encourage myself to think more about what I'm buying, to make myself wait for things that I want, and to be more sensible in general with my makeup purchases. In other words, I wanted to break my impulse buying habits as far as makeup is concerned. This rule does not apply to product repurchases, meaning once I run out completely of an item I use frequently (or if it goes bad, for example mascara), I can replace it and it doesn't count in my 10$/week budget. I also decided to lay off Bath and Body Works as well as Lush until at least august (which will be my birthday, so I may allow myself to indulge then) or until I finish up all my products, whichever is quicker (probably the former).

Today, I thought I would update you all on how it's going since I have made a few purchases recently. I guess we could call this a haul, although it's really tiny.

Bath and Body Works 

Status : I haven't even been in there for months, let alone buy anything. I'm doing good progress going through my hand soaps and candles, but ultimately I think it's unlikely I will run out of everything before august.

Lush

Status : I haven't been into a Lush store since December 2013. I still have body lotion and a few other bits and bobs to finish which are products that are difficult for me to finish. I'm really starting to crave a bath bomb now, but I am motivated to keep going.

Makeup

Repurchases : I have repurchased my favorite mascara because the ones (yes I have more than one tube) I have are getting old. I haven't broken into the new tube yet, but I'm keeping it as a backup so that I have it as soon as I toss the other two. I also got an Avène Thermal Water Spray which I use as a setting spray after my makeup is done. I have used many different products for this in the past, but all of them are finished now so I needed a new one.

New purchases : I have been lusting over this Bourgeois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation for a long time now. While Bourgeois is easily accessible here, it's quite expensive so I have waiting for the right moment to get it. It was 27$ CAD. (Therefore I'm counting this as 3 weeks) I also got a new perfume which I hadn't counted on. Initially, I hadn't thought about perfumes when I made my nye resolution. However, since I believe this was by no means a necessary purchase, I decided it needed to be included in my makeup budget. The perfume I got is Purr by Katy Perry and it was 20$ (representing two weeks of budget).

That's it for this update! I wasn't expecting it to be so long winded, I hope you all don't mind! Let me know in the comments what your recent beauty purchases were and if I should think about including them to my list of products to get in 2014! Have a good day everyone ♥


Don't forget to follow me and like my Facebook page for more posts like this ♥

Spring 2014 : Life and Updates

Hey everyone! Sorry I have missed a few days of blogging in the last week! I hope you all weren't looking forward to posts by me too much *probably not, lol*! I've been busy with end of trimester exams and a trip to Toronto, so I'm a little late on blogging! Since I'm already late in posting and since I don't have time to blog right away yet, I tought I would quickly update you on how I've been doing. I haven't done that in the longest time it seems!

On the school front, I'm now almost done with my third year of pharmacy. (well not quite, since I have a full summer semester ahead of me, but you know, more than halfway done :P). We've had our grad pictures taken, and almost all theoretical classes are done. We have a lot of internships to do now and it's keeping me quite busy, but I do love it very much! I had exams this weeks and I will be finishing this trimester with three weeks at a local hospital. I'm very nervous about it, but it's going to be interesting as it is the first time I'm going to be at the hospital.

On the personal front, well I don't have time to do much since I'm working in a pharmacy part time now (I love my job! I have really great coworkers!). We went for a week end in Toronto recently, which was fantastic! I got to see my closest friend Frederika from French Gypsy (loveeee ♥) which I hadn't seen in forever, so that rocked. We also went to a electronic music event (that's just a fancy way to say we went to a rave :P)  where many of my all time favorite artists were dj-ing or performing (Force, Darren Styles, Jenna, Mc Whizzkid and Fracus). It was incredible and we had lots of fun! (it was called Heart of Gold 3 in case anyone is interested). Frederika who is also an amazing photographer did a mini photoshoot for me while I was there featuring a makeup look that I did. The photos came out pretty amazing if I do say so myself! She's really incredible, you should check her out!

By far the best ramen I had in a long time! We went for lunch at a ramen shop in Toronto and it was out of this world

Yummy takoyaki we had in Toronto

I told you Frederika was great right? amazing picture, I loveee it!

My cat keeping me company while I study ♥

That's pretty much what happened recently. Not exactly a ton of stuff, but yeah, I've been super busy with school so that's taking most of my time! Hope this was interesting! Let me know if you'd like to see updates more often!

Black and White Living Room Home Decor Ideas

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting on here lately. If you follow my Facebook page, you probably already know that I had a summer trimester for university and the finals are this week. I'm super busy studying and getting ready for my impending move to a new appartment. I'm really quite excited about the new place. I'm going to have a walk in closet *dream come true*.

Anyway, the other day while I was procrastinating I decided to do a little collage of ideas I have to decorate my future living room/home office. I'm going to go for a modern black and white theme, with lots of patterns and shapes.

Most of the stuff is either from Ikea or Walmart, but there is also stuff from Pier 1, Cafe Press and Target (which opens here in Quebec in the fall of 2013 - can't wait!). The idea for this theme is built around my black leather sofa (in the middle of the picture), which I find difficult to match into other color schemes. I thought If I went all black and white than it would sort of blend into the room. Anyway, let me know what you think!

That's it for today. I need to get back to studying, I'm already running short on time! Hope you enjoyed this, let me know if you would like to see before and after pictures of the apartment once I decorate it. :)

Talk to you all soon ♥

Recent Snapshots : Christmas, Fishing, Dressing up, New Camera, Nails and more

Hey everyone! :) Long time no post! Sorry about that. I have been quite uninspired lately so I haven't blogged much since Christmas. I thought I would ease myself back into it with an easy picture spam post and an little bit of an update at the same time.

I had a great holiday season in Montreal with my family and I got a new camera for Christmas from Mathieu which I am super excited about. We went fishing on ice and to Las Vegas for a week. I have since  started my winter trimester and things are going well so far. We had a few dressed up events in the last month and I got a few dresses for that which was exciting. Basically, nothing major has happened recently, only a few good times with friends and family :)

Oh and I learned how to make gradient nails using makeup sponges! I'm kind of addicted and can't stop making them with different color combinations :P

So here are a few snapshots of recent events and random other things! The picture quality should have improved in comparison to my old camera, at least I hope it did! Sadly the lighting in my house is still horrendous (no worries, we're moving out of here soon!), but other than that the photos should look a lot better. ♥

Cheesy mirror picture with super dirty mirror :P I love that shirt though

Downtown Montreal during the winter time ♥

Having fun with closeups with the new camera :D

Selfie :)

Fishing on ice

My favorite dog breed ♥

Our room at the Aria Resort and Casino in Vegas, that bed is the coziest thing I have ever slept on!

The parmesan truffle fries from Gordon Ramsey's new restaurant in Vegas! Delicious:)

And probably some of the best burgers we have ever had!

Godiva cheesecake from the Cheesecake factory. OMG!

Little present I got myself while in Vegas. I absolutely adore it :)

Current nails

Amazing surprise Christmas gift from the boyfriend ♥

Been super into making loads of salads lately, this one was particularly yummy

Anyway this is pretty much what I have been up to lately. I have a February favorites coming up soon, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for that!

Hope you all had a wonderful beginning of 2013 so far :) See you in my next post!