H&M Loot

When I first moved to Finland from Australia in 2004, I went crazy at H&M when I first stepped in my first H&M store at Forum. I loved H&M.

I've slowly fallen out of love with H&M in these two years mainly due to the quality of H&M which  is getting worse than before. Besides, walking in a H&M store always gives me a headache, literally because they're always so unorganized and sometimes messy. That's another reason why I can't spend more than 5mins in the store. I easily lose my mood looking at their stuffs!

Nowadays, I only stop by their accessories section when I want to buy new scarves. That's one thing that I can't deny, H&M does have some nice designs. I saw they have some new stuffs for their autumn collection so I decided to have a look. I didn't expect to walk out of the store with the following items.


I really like this printed blouse. I got it in EU36 instead of my usual EU34 because I usually like my blouse a little loose. I also grabbed a scarf in similar print. It was the last one in the store.


I first saw this knit sweater on 9to5Chic. Since the weather is getting colder here and I'm getting new stuffs for my autumn/winter wardrobe (that also reminds me it's time to do a round of cleaning, getting rid of stuffs I don't wear anymore).


I was speaking to M earlier and he told me he went shopping yesterday (my husband enjoys shopping in the US and I'm hoping one day he'll take me there just to shop!). I'm so so jealous! ;) Everyone knows Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world, you bet I won't be shopping much there!

I love...

How's everyone's weekend so far? I spent mine at home whole day watching Fringe season 3 and Harry Potter 6 (Part 1) despite the lovely weather outside.

I picked up some I love... products from Douglas yesterday. I've seen them around before but never bothered to try them simply because I've never heard of this brand before! The SA convinced me these are great products and I should give them a try. They smell heavenly! I'm now using the strawberries & milkshake bubble bath and vanilla & ice cream body butter. I'm pleased with them so far. I'm yet to try the mango & papaya lip balm.


Have you tried I love...?

My Marc By Marc Jacobs Natasha bag arrived last Thursday. It is smaller than I thought but is big enough as a casual bag.

Net-A-Porter black signature box always excites me :D



Natasha in taupe. The leather is so soft.



Now I can't wait to take this baby out :) 

Holiday Loot!

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. I spent my entire Saturday morning cleaning and we went for Korean BBQ dinner with some friends. I was supposed to have a session of massage therapy this afternoon but had to cancel it due to my second migraine this week.

We did a lot of shopping in Malaysia. I only picked up a couple of stuffs though. Some nail polish from The Face Shop and Skin Food, My Beauty Dairy Black Pearl masks and Neutrogena face wash which isn't available here. I went to Sephora, hoping I'd be able to get some UD 24/7 eyeliners but the colours I wanted to get weren't available. In the end, I only bought Duo Eyelash Adhesive Glue and SK-II Facial Treatment Essence.

We went to KLCC on our first afternoon in KL. I spent more than 2hrs at Kinokuniya. Looking for Japanese craft books was the only reason why I was there. I love crafting but I haven't had any time for it since last year. I'm hoping I'll be more productive this summer and finish the quilt project I started in 2009!

I also picked up 2 beauty magazines and some cooking books. I do read Chinese but am not good. The cooking books are also in English and with some illustrations, that shouldn't be a problem even for someone who doesn't read Chinese.

We went to Pavilion a lot since it's just next to our hotel. Coach was having season sale at that time. M and I went to check out the bags but we didn't find anything nice for me. All my Coach were bought from the US and UK since they're not available here. I was lucky to find this cross-body swing pack at the airport. It's big enough to carry my Coach wristlet, iPhone, Blackberry ad even my Prada sunnies fit in there.

Essence & Catrice Haul

After reading Yarisse's entry on Catrice, I told myself I must stop by at Rossmann this week. I've read plenty of raves on Catrice's products and I can't wait to try - especially the nail polish!

There are two limited collections at the counter - Enter Wonderland and Urban Baroque. I picked up 2 lipglosses, Pink Show (pink) and Alice's Hatter (coral) and Wonderland Green Card nail polish from Enter Wonderland. I didn't get anything from Urban Baroque. I like Marie Antoinette lipstick (it looks quite close to MAC Ever Hip when swatched) but it is scented (hate that smell). That's the main reason why it didn't come home with me.



I also bought some Essence lipglosses. XXXL Shine in Super Girl and True Love, Stay With Me longlasting lipglosses in I Like Cotton Candy and Trendsetter, I Like nail polish from blossoms etc collection.



I was hoping to find you rock! collection because I really want the nail polishes.

Shoes!

I love shoes. Who doesn't? Good shoes are quite pricey here, not to mention the selection of brands and styles are quite limited. Or maybe I'm just too picky. The only brands I buy in stores are Ecco, Vagabond, Camper and Zara. I got most of my shoes outside the country when I was on vacation, was home for a visit and on business trips (if I had time for shopping!).

I like labels but I'm not willing to splurge on brands like Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo. I'll choose a designer handbag over a pair of designer shoes anytime!

When I knew DH was going to the US for business trip again, I added plenty of shoes to my Endless.com wishlist. That's where I bought my Badgley Mischka bridal shoes from last year. In the end, I had to choose 3 pairs out of the 8 on my wishlist because DH was afraid he'd be taxed by the evil custom when he entered the EU. These are what I got

Yankee Candles

I noticed that Blogger was down before the weekend and my previous post was scheduled to be published on Thursday but it didn't happen?

Anyway, I hope everyone had a good weekend because I did. The wedding was great and we had a lot of fun. Lots of food, alcohol *ahem* and we danced till dawn. DH and I only had a few hours of sleep before we drove back to his parents'.

My Yankee Candle orders arrived on Friday. I love Yankee candles! I usually buy Yankee Votive candles instead of those in jars. My all time favourites are Wedding Day, Clean Cotton and Sparkling Snow. I like how the candles make our home smell so nice.

❤ Louis Vuitton

There are always one or more good reasons or just another excuse to splurge on certain things you like.

I've just received my bonus and a pay rise recently. I've exceeded my target for 2010! Isn't this reason good enough to get myself something nice? :)

Today's Haul

I'm currently obsessed with scarves. H&M has some cute ones and I just couldn't resist them. The one with hearts is cute but I'm probably going to give it to my sister, Christy. I bought the lace dress in EU36 (I'm usually an EU34) but this one fits me fine.

Love Duty-Free, Hate Spring!

I've had a hectic and tiring week but it's so good to be home finally :)

Besides the 1kg Belgian chocolates, I also brought home some duty-free stuffs like Longchamp le pliage 2011 Spring Limited Edition Arbre de Vie and 3 Chanel Coco Shine lipsticks.



I was lucky to grab the last medium size Arbre de Vie as the SA told me they only have 1 size in stock. Well, I guess my sister is the lucky one because I bought it for her!

I fell in love with Coco shine the first time I saw and swatched them at Sephora a few weeks ago. I got myself Boy, Liberte and Aventure. They're so pretty and I know I'll be getting more of these.

I hate spring. My spring allergy came back a week ago and it's getting worse today. My eyes are itchy, I'm coughing and I've stuffy nose! The birch pollen season started last weekend and will end sometime in May. It's my worst enemy, making my life pretty difficult because it also causes food cross-reaction. I can't eat apples, pears, apricots and the list goes on. It sucks to be me... *lol*



Most people love spring, Sandy is spring lover. He enjoys the sun, he'll go to chase the birds in the garden... It's so cute to find my dog 'sunbathing' :)

March Nail Polish Haul

I've a cheap nail polish fever this month. I can't wait to try all the colours especially Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper.

The first time I saw Essence was 5 years ago. The main reason why I was never bothered to check this brand out because the cartoon illustration made it look cheap to me. I bought a few nail polish last year after reading some good reviews on their Colour & Go. What I can say? I was sold! They cost around 1,20EUR - cheap and available in many fun colours. I'm so in love with the new duo chrome colours. They're so pretty.


From left to right, top to bottom
It's Purplelicious, You're A Gold Mine, Circus Confetti, Edward, Right, Girl, Blue Lagoon, Out Of My Mind, Where Is The Party?, Red-Y To Go, Essence Hypnotic Poison, Irreplaceable, Can't Cheat On Me
I don't shop at H&M much. I only go there when I need some wardrobe basics. Their nail polish have never caught my attention. Am still not sure what got me checking them out a few weeks ago. I brought home Miss Stone Heart and Moody Model. I was surprised to see how easy the application was and it didn't chip for days. I went back there and bought more of them. Happy Purple is my most favourite colour. It's dark purple with gold shimmers.


L->R: Hunt Me Down, Moody Model, Miss Stone Heart, Happy Purple

I picked up Essie top coat - to dry for and good to go! from Sephora. They're 20% off for Sephora Club members last week. I've used good to go! top coat before I started using Seche Vite. Seche Vite is a great fast dry top coat but I hate when it goes thick, adding polish thinner doesn't really help.



What's your latest nail product haul?

A Year Older!

It was my birthday yesterday. Hubby took me shopping, massage and dinner. It was a relaxing day :) As usual, I bought myself another designer handbag for my birthday. How original can I be :D



Brought this baby home from LV yesterday. I've always wanted a Speedy 30 but whenever I was at LV, I always walked away with something else! I never knew I'd be in love with Damier Ebene until I bought my Neverful MM last year. Here it is... my new handbag!



It wasn't the only handbag I've received for my birthday this year. My sister gave me a Coach pouch and I've a MIU MIU clutch coming my way from Net-A-Porter :) Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow!

Will put up some pics when I'm back from the business trip next Thursday. I've so many things on my to-do-list. On the top of it is to prepare for my next certification exam in two weeks!

Holiday Haul + Feb Haul

DH and I went on a 2-week vacation in Asia recently. We came back with more than 40kg of stuffs in our luggages. They're mainly my stuffs, you bet! :) Am too lazy to take pictures of the clothes, shoes and Chinese magazines I've bought.



MAC
I found MAC Pearlglide Black Line and Lord It Up at a duty-free shop Frankfurt International Airport (that's where I found my backup for Petite Indulgence Cremesheen Glass last year). They were the last ones. I was really thrilled because Black Line has been my most used eyeliner since I got it last year. Lord It Up was sold out here before I had a chance to grab myself one. I love Pearlglide!

SK-II
Bought this the day before we came back. I paid around 87EUR for this one. I've never spent that much money on a single skin care product. I've been using it twice a day for a week now and I could see some improvement on my skin condition. I'll soon write a review on this product.

My Beauty Diary, My Scheming Beauty and Deary
I've read plenty of good reviews on these masks. Can't wait to try them.

Hair Stuffs
Liese Hair Cocktail, Juicy Shower and Lucido-L Designing Aqua which I use everyday when blow drying my hair. Good stuff.

Other stuffs I've bought are Shu Uemura Hard Formula brow pencil, falsies (Doll Lash and Kiss), Lip Ice lipbalm, fringe grips and some earrings from Diva.

I promised myself I would go on 'no buy' for a month after the vacaton but I couldn't resist the cosmetics sale here! I got myself two Chanel lipsticks - Rouge Allure (Adorable), Rouge Hydrabase (Rose Rebelle), Benefit Party Crasher and Escada Ocean Lounge (from summer 2009) that comes with a cosmetic pouch and 50ml body lotion.

MAC A Tartan Tale Haul

Went to the A Tartan Tale Chapter 1 collection for Holiday 2010 pre-launch event on Monday. The Chapter 2 collection will be officially released here in December only but we got to see/buy them yesterday. I mentioned I was thinking of the lipsticks but I got none of them! They're very pretty in person but when I swatched them on my pigmented lips, they look pretty awful on me.

I got myself Black Line and Undercurrent Pearlglide eyeliners, Passing Fancy and The Swinging Violet Mineralize kit.

I've never bought any eye liner from MAC before. When I saw Black Line Pearglide eyeliner, I told myself  must have it! I'm a big fan of soft long-lasting pigmented eyeliners. I love green eye liner, this one is very dark olive green with gold shimmer. Undercurrent is teal green with gold sheen,  a very lovely colour.

Passing Fancy Dazzleglass Creme is a lovely sheer peach shade. It gives my lips a light peach tint when wearing it alone. I wanted Gone Romancin' but I was a second too late because another lady bought the last one! I hope I will be able to find it in the other two stores.

The Swinging Violet Mineralize kit consists of Bare Study Paint Pot, Earthly Riches Mineralize eyeshadow duo, Icescape Lipglass and a mini Zoom Lash mascara.

It was Earthly Riches that caught my eyes. I didn't have any dark eyeshadows in my collection and this one is so pretty. I've always wanted to try Paint Pot (I only use Paint) and Bare Study looks like the shade I will use everyday.

My Little Haul

... but I didn't pay for it ;) DH's back from D.C yesterday. He's on business trip in Canada/USA for 1 1/2 weeks. He travels to the US a few times a year and he doesn't mind going shopping for me. He knows nothing about women's cosmetics and skin care, all he has to do is to show the list to Sephora or MAC sales assistants what he wants to buy.

He's very supportive with my cosmetics addiction. I've never asked any money from him to buy my cosmetics. He thinks I deserved to be spoiled *lol* In return, he gets books like Million Dollars Consulting from me which is useful for me too since we're both consultants but in different fields.

What came home with him yesterday...

I've been lemming for Clarisonic Mia for a while now. I got the pink one *yay* I can't wait to try it tonight!

My second 187 brush. I'll be using this one for blushes. I love MAC 187! It's so soft and it's the best brush for liquid foundation and blushes (at least for me). Sigma 188 is another favourites of mine for foundation.

I'm running out of my No.1 black eye liner - Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-on Eye Pencil in Zero and MAC Brow Set. I usually order UD from HQhair but Zero's been out of stock on the site for quite almost 2 months now. I don't think I want to wait any longer and I've no idea when it will be back in stock even though it's cheaper to buy from them.

September Haul

It's been a while since I last pampered myself with makeup and nail polishes. MAC was offering 20% on limited items that were launched from Jan-August this year. I haven't bought anything since To The Beach so I decided to check what LE items they still had in store. There were plenty of eye shadows from In The Groove, All Ages, All Races, All Sexes and Spring Colour Forecast.

I was thinking of getting the mineralize blushes from In The Groove. They're so pretty! I had Band of Roses and Hang Loose on my list. I was happy they were still available! I left the store with Band of Roses (it's so pretty!) and All's Good Beauty Powder Blush. I didn't get Hang Loose because the colours don't really show up on me.

I finally got myself a Nars Albatross. I haven't tried it on yet but it does look like a great highlight colour in the pan! It's really similar to MAC Vanilla.

And... My Trans Design ordered arrived a few days ago. I've bought are from China Glaze Vintage Vixen collection - Foxy, Ingrid, Goin' My Way?, Bogie, Emerald Fitzgerald, Riveter Rouge and Hey Doll. I really like this collection, it's perfect for the autumn! Bogie and Ingrid are my most favourites.

Swatches to come.

Benefit Full-Finish Lipsticks

Went shopping with my sister last week ad we picked up a couple of things at Sephora. I picked up a couple of Benefit products including Full-Finish lipsticks in La La Land, Finders Keepers and Creaseless Eye Shadow/Liner in Marry Up.

Finders Keepers is described as warm cinnabar and Nude Rose is nude rose on Benefit website. I love the texture (creamy) and the colours. They both look natural on me. They are long-lasting and do not dry up my lips at all. Benefit lipsticks are my new found love :) I will go back to Sephora tomorrow to pick up Silky-Finish in Nice Knickers tomorrow. I bought one for my sister and I guess I need one too!

April/May MAC Hauls

I told myself I wasn't going to spend more money on cosmetics after our 2 weeks vacation in Asia. I just couldn't help it. May is always my most favourite month of the year because that's when I receive my annual bonus. I've worked really hard last year with no summer vacations and lots of overtime. I only took a week off from work to visit my family in Australia in October. So, I think I deserved to pamper myself (there's always a good excuse/reason to spend money buying MAC *lol*).



TF (the fiancé) was on his second business trip in the US early April. I wrote him a small list what to bring for me. Since he was going to be in Las Vegas for a week, I thought he could check out the CCO for me. In the end, as expected, he didn't make it to the CCO but he brought home Ever Hip lipstick, Pro Palette Blush, Brow Set and Cantaloupe blush.



Ever Hip is my most favourite lippie for spring. It is so wearable and oh so pretty. It's not easy to find colours that look good on my pigmented lips. This is also my first Cremesheen lippie from MAC, I always prefer Lustre and Amplified.

Cantaloupe is a beautiful, cantaloupe warm shade blush. I like it on my NC30/35 skin tone.

MAC Give Me Liberty of London was launched on 1st April. I only had time to stop by MAC after a week and Shell Pearl was sold out in the stores. When I first saw Blooming Lovely, I wasn't sure if I'd ever wear that colour. Like my sister said, it looks like something only Lady Gaga would wear! My MA tried it on my lips and I fell in love with the colour. I'm a blush person, I usually will grab at least one blush from LE collections. Since I already bought Dirty Plum from Hong Kong in February (Riveting wasn't available in the Czech Republic), I only grabbed Prim & Proper. The colour looks similar to Cubic blush, a permanent item but darker. I didn't have any colour like Birds & Berries in my palettes so I decided to get it. I haven't tried it yet though.

I was so looking forward to Pret a Papier collection, unfortunately they would not be available here. I guess that's why To The Beach was launched earlier on 1st May. This is a beautiful collection (love the packaging) but I only bought the blushes - Hipness and Get-Away Bronze. I already have Humid and Shimmermoss and the rest of the eyeshadows didn't really catch my eyes.

I picked up Viva Glam Gaga (my first Viva Glam lippie) and Satin Taupe after work yesterday. I always thought it's overrated. I swatched it and had my MA to try the colour on me, I actually like it!





Swatches to come in the next post.

I think MAC should go on my no-buy list for a while. The next upcoming collection for us is Superglass which I'm definitely going to skip.

China Glaze & Trans Design Haul

I first discovered China Glaze over a year ago. I only knew OPI, Orly and Essie at that time. I was having my nails done at the salon and I saw Ink and OMG display stands on the counter. I picked up Rose Among Thorns, Japanese Koi and Pink Voltage. The nail salon then had 50% off on CG polish and I bought more of them which were from older collection.

One of the main reasons I love CG is because they have a lot of fun colours. Currently I have 18 of them and I haven't found any I don't like. Unfortunately there are only a few places here you can find them and they aren't cheap. I paid my first ones 280CZK each (around 10€ at that time). Yes, they're very pricey. One OPI is approximately 17€ here, and yes, I've paid that crazy amount of money for my OPI!

I used to order my CG from Head2Toe until they stopped shipping them outside the US. I placed my first order at Trans Design early April and ordered 9 polishes, 6 are CG. It was my first and last order from Trans Design. I had a great experience with them but unfortunately they no longer offer flat rate box for international orders. I doubt I'll ever pay over $40 for nail polish that will cost me less than $30. The price including shipping is as expensive as getting them here. They shipped really fast but my order only arrived after 2 weeks due to the volcanic ash issue we had in Europe last month.

I got myself For Audrey (finally!), It’s Poppin, Sugar High, Grape Pop, Heli-Yum and Strawberry Fields. Out of these shades, Strawberry Fields is my most favourite. It's so beautiful and I still don't know why I didn't get it last year (I only bought Raspberry Festival from Summer Days last year). I like the formula from this collection because the polish is so easy to apply, 2 coats are enough and they dry fast.

I'm loving Grape Pop. When I first saw it, I wasn't sure about the colour. It looks kinda different when I had it on my nails. Even TF (the fiance) who always thinks I've scary nail colours thought it's a beautiful one.

China Glaze Grape Pop