Point and Shoot Cameras vs. Low Lighting

I haven't acquired any new products to try or anything so instead I'll talk about my camera woes. They didn't really form into woes until yesterday really.

I have a Sony DSC-W120. I did a decent amount of research and decided that the functions and features on this line of cameras would fit my needs the most. It can take 7.2 mp shots, but usually I set it at 5 mp because I just don't have the need for such big pictures. I'm usually just posting them on facebook and here anyways so too big of a picture actually becomes a hassle since the pictures take forever to upload and I have to resize them smaller. Besides, just because it has more megapixels doesn't mean it takes better pictures, it's really more dependent on the lens. So I got my camera used off of ebay for $30 because I'm a poor student and it's been working fine for at least a year, half a year? something like that. (I was skeptical and thought it might break within a week or so).

I won't complain about picture quality because I'm pretty satisfied with that, the pictures that come out look beautiful... well except for this thing where it can't pick up purple and sees it as blue instead (made more upsetting by the fact that purple is my favorite color). What I'm most upset about is the video capabilities.

I didn't think I'd be using video all that much, but I've found that lately I've been attending a number of concerts and it's upsetting to not be able to properly pick up what's going on. The problems are listed below:

1) The video picture is grainy. Even when I put it on the highest setting (fine) it still comes out looking grainy.
2) You can't zoom while filming. Sometimes I want to go in for a closeup during at a performance. You can't do that while filming, you have to stop, then readjust, then resume filming.
3) In low lighting, the camera can't see anything. Well it can, but barely. I went karaokeing yesterday and the room was dim, but bright enough that you could see everything clearly. My camera just picked up dark shadows moving around while my friend's Canon was able to see everything (although, it almost made things a bit too bright imo, but better than not seeing anything)
4) Even when it does zoom in, it doesn't zoom in enough. When I zoom all the way, the faces of people become blurred. When I look at other people beside me's cameras, the faces are sharper and you can zoom in closer
5) Sometimes it loses focus during filming. How upsetting!

I'm not sure if the later models have these problems changed/ fixed, but I feel like I just need to go to a different camera brand altogether. The only problem is that I don't want the picture quality to suffer and I have no idea which is best to get. I read the panasonic is particularly good in low lighting, but some comments say they don't last long and that the faces of people are blurred.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Just because, I'm putting sample pictures and videos up for you to see how my camera performs.
Vid: I did a sampling of dim lighting like that of what it was like at the karaoke place and the second half is what I saw and how I would have preferred if the camera picked up that way.
Pics: They're all taken at 7.2 mp and from max zoom so you can really tell the quality.

My purple lamp is a genuine purple, but on the pictures it shows more indigo. =(

NO FLASH                                         FLASH

Fluorescent Lighting

Dim Lighting

Dimmer Lighting (Where the video was taken)

At Last, I Present to You: Etude House BB Magic Balm SPF 30

I've been using this since I got it with my first Gmarket haul. And I've been telling myself over and over how I have to post a review. The first set of pictures I lost, then I took another set months later, and who knows what happened to those. So today, I told myself, hey! just do it! and so here it is.

On the bright side, it's given me a lot more time to try the product out and make sure I like it.

I started using this most during summer and I've found that results during summer and results during winter are different because of my skin conditions. During the summer, it was hot and my skin would produce a little more oil. Therefore, I'd put on the bb balm and an hour later it looked like I had no makeup on, it melted into my skin. Don't misunderstand though, I don't mean it wore off, I still had the coverage, but I guess the extra skin oil gave it a bit more of a natural-er look. I was wowed.

Winter though, is a bit of a different story, my skin doesn't produce as much oil, so I don't get as much of a melt it effect, it sits on top more, so closer to a foundation I would say. It feels ever so slightly drying too, so now I first put on a little bit of moisturizer beforehand. I know a lot of you do that anyways before makeup application, but I didn't do that under the bb balm during summer.

The balm looks kind of darker so you might be afraid that it won't be your skin color, but that's not true, it's actually very light when applied as you can see from my pictures. And BB cream/ balm is different from foundation as many of you know because it does  tend to adjust to skin tones. This also comes with a synthetic applicator brush which I love. It helps you to get the right amount of product and apply smoothly. You only need a dab of this at a time. Too much and you'll look like you're caking it on- very unflattering.
There's not really any added fragrance that I can detect. It just smells like makeup- like what makes up the makeup. I think..if I remember right, I've had this for ~ 1 yr, and look, I haven't even reached the bottom yet!

I definitely love this, I've exchanged my concealer + powder routine for this because it feels a lot more lighter. I don't care about 100% coverage of my acne scars, but this does a much better job than the Missha or other creams that I've tried. I think it's because it's a thicker balm.

GMarket Korean Lipstick Haul Review

I decided it'd be best to just put all the lip product reviews of the lipsticks/ plumper into one post. I'll try to keep this short.

For all the products i have a picture of the product on half my lips and my normal lips on the other half. It should be kind of obvious so I won't sit here pointing out which is which.

1. Clio Art Lipstick: M020.
- This is a nude shade that I saw modeled in one of the pictures. The texture is creamy and the color is the color of my concealer, lol. The only thing is that I realized I didn't want a true nude color. I wanted something with a more pinkish tone- this one has a more yellow tone =/. Ah well, live and learn. It has this beautiful art piece on the front though, love the idea of putting art on these. ~$17 with shipping. If it interests you, email me at juicedmang0s@gmail.com. I can sell for $13 shipped in the US.

2. Clio Lip Plumper: #01

- I thought this would be more like a lip liner because it just looks like that. Instead, it's a sheer color and has a little bit of tingling. It didn't really plump anything, but I love how it comes with a sharpener! I finally could sharpen my NYX Jumbo eye pencils. I had been contemplating so hard whether or not to buy a sharpener. ~$15 shipped from korea. Not sure if this is worth it =/

3. Etude House LUCIDarling Lipstick: #5

- I LOVE the formulation for these. They're extremely creamy and do cover my natural lip pigment well. There is a faint pleasant scent, but I can't put my finger on it. I think it might be a hint of the peach scent from their peach line. At first I was skeptical because a lipstick with lavender seems hard to wear, but it's surprisingly wearable. It's more pink than in the swatch picture posted by Etude House. ~$9 with shipping.

4. Etude House LUCIDarling Lipstick: #8

-This color was not one that I was planning to buy. I had planned for the #6 peach color, but I thought about it and figured that peach might not look too good on me even though I loved how it looked in the tube. I'm so glad I got this color. It's supposed to be orange. I wear it on days when I feel a little quirky.

5. Etude House LUCIDarling Lipstick: #9

- I have to say I'm most disappointed in this lippie. This was the only one I had originally planned to buy, but it's suprisingly plain and boring looking. I still keep it to wear occasionally, but if you like it and think you would use it more then email me at juicedmang0s@gmail.com. I'd be selling it for $7 shipped within the US.

You can see how pigmented they are from my wipe.

6. Peripera Wonder of Lips Lipstick: #8 (I know the image says #1, but it's 8, I messed up! >.<)

- This lipstick is super creamy. The pink is a lovely gentle pink. The color is more like the non flash picture.
I would love this lipstick except for the huge amount of glitter in the lipstick. I prefer my lips not to be so full of sparkle. It has a nice gentle scent. Quite pleasant, not like the American lipsticks. ~$12 shipped from Korea. If you think you'd be interested in it, I can sell it for $7 shipped in the US , email me at juicedmang0s@gmail.com.

'Til next time!!

Peri Pera Nail Polish

I was looking around and I realized that I've completely forgotten to do reviews of my 2nd GMarket Haul. So I think the easiest to do would be the peripera nailpolishes since the pictures seem to be ready to go.

Overall, These were ok nailpolishes. For <$3/ bottle, I was definitely willing to give them a try. The brush is indeed much larger and if you take care, then you could possibly do a 1 stroke retouch of a coating. The part that may trick you though is that you may be thinking that you can get a perfectly applied manicure with just one stroke on clean nails.- not true. You have to do it a few times to get a non streaky look. I like this better than say E.L.F's $1 nail polish of course, but I definitely wouldn't do a haul just for these or anything.

And yes, the top is 2x the size of the bottle, lol.

I forget the exact colors that I got, but they were in the pastel range. I remember something about a 303, 801, and 901 possibly. The pink is a very very sheer color (Pk01?) which I was not expecting. I thought it was a different shade of pink because I didn't quite like the shades of the pastel pink they had, but I supposed if you want pastel pink then you have to use that color. (It's on my thumb). I gave it away. Overall, I think pastels may just not be for me and my skin tone.

Fish Round... Something

Hihi! Long time no blog. Been incredibly busy with stuff and yea life. But I HAD to share with everyone this one addition to my apartment. Hopefully it survives the year at least, I'll be so sad if it doesn't live until tomorrow.

I named it Fernando. It's a name I decided would be a good betta fish name, except, well as you can see it isn't a betta. I thought about it and betta's natural lifespan is ~2 yrs, and everyone has a betta now, so i decided to go with a black moor. There were two in the Petco tank and the other one was rounder and seemed to not swim as well. Since I wasn't sure if that was because it was fat or if it might be a handicap, I decided to go with the younger one that looked more active. Maybe it'd be harder for me to kill. The guy who was getting the fish asked me how big my tank was, and i didn't know how many gallons so he had me show him in comparison to the tanks they had there. Apparently they aren't allowed to sell you the fish if the tank's not a certain size or something. Mine was a little smaller than that (not by much) but i figured since i'm getting the tiniest, that i can change the tank to a bigger one once it grows a little bigger.

Here's the cutie! I'm planning on adding a filter in tomorrow and some decoration/ cave as well. Not too much stuff, but just a little to keep it from too much boredom.

I'm Going to Give Myself Cavities

     So,..I ended up with a real hankering for making cupcakes. I should tell you that while I enjoy the occasional sweets, I prefer salt over sugar in my diet. If you told me that I could only choose to either eat salty foods or sweet foods for the rest of my life, I'd pick salty.

     This particular baking episode was brought on by me making a pumpkin pie for my aptmate's "Oktoberfest" celebration - no alcohol, just fondue and sweets. I followed the Paula Deen recipe that  has rave reviews. I must say..I got really freaked out. If you know me, then you know that I'm not the greatest of bakers, no matter how much I love doing it. Usually my stuff comes out weird. So when I saw how liquidy that pumpkin pie filling was I really panicked and was close to crying for fear of having ruined an event. The filling was also magically 2x the amount that I needed, which really confused me since I followed the recipe to a T, except maybe skimping out 1 oz of pumpkin mash (they only come in 15 oz cans!). The result- something my aptmate called "Pumpkin Pudding". I was horrified to say the least. I dumped the rest of the filling straight into cupcake tins and baked them alone. BUT, the next day, after refrigeration, I tried the pumpkin pie for breakfast, and it was absolutely delicious!!! I love it so much more than the storebought pies because there's a strong pumpkin flavor there. I could probably do without so much sugar, but still, sooo much better than storebought. I read the reviews online and many people say that there was a lot more filling than needed. Supposedly this is because of the different depths of pans that everyone's using. Apparently the store pie pans that have the crusts in them already are much more shallow. Whew! So it wasn't me!! And the pudding texture- well this is supposed to be a lighter pie, but now I regret not fighting my aptmate harder. I know that the pie needs time to set, but she just wanted to dig right in to a warm pie. GOSH! Making it seem all like my fault.

     So that's what started my pumpkin pie craving all up again. And now I want to bake it again, except this time, to make it less liquidy and a denser pie, I might cut out the half and half, or just use half, cut out the butter (it's pumpkin mash, it won't be too dry), and maybe a couple eggs. And the attempt after that, I might even cut out the cream cheese (gasp!). But I do prefer a denser, less custard like pie, plus cream cheese is a lot of Calories.

     But onto my baking expedition yesterday. I got a hankering for baking cupcakes, that coupled with my strong desire to still try out the chocolate icing from Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life  drove me to madness- well almost. So I pulled out a box of Duncan Hines yellow cake mix- it was on sale this week- and went to work. Making cupcakes from scratch is a little more time consuming, and it was late, so I just went with the box to make sure. Plus my roommate loves yellow cake. 

     The result? I had to make the chocolate icing with granulated sugar cuz I forgot I used all the powdered sugar up last time...I tried to blend the sugar smaller, but yea..,no dice, don't try it. It was terrible. The flavor of the icing itself was heavenly, I'll definitely do it again when I get some powdered sugar. Definitely. Remember, granulated sugar in icing = no. It might work as a sub in certain other uses, but don't try it in frosting.

     Duncan Hines is great, it gives a denser cupcake than some of the other ones. I hate biting into a cupcake and finding that it's so fluffy that the cupcake falls apart. Cakes, I like fluffy, but not cupcakes. There's something about eating a cupcake and being upset at how it doesn't satisfy you because there's like nothing there.

And pics, 

Lipliners: Sephora Red vs L'oreal Crayon Petite

Well, with red lipsticks you have to have red lipliners. I originally got the L'oreal at my drugstore, but decided to also pick up the sephora one when I ordered (to make $50 for free shipping).

The L'oreal, true to it's name, smells like a crayon. It bothers me a bit. This is an automatic lipliner and the color goes on smoothly with no problems. It feels a tidge "stickier" at first but that goes away.

The Sephora Red lipliner is a cute 3". People have expressed how upset they were that it's a brick red as opposed to just a red. Well, I've taken a picture, and see for yourself, which is the brick here?! This lipliner glides on very smoothly with non of the slight stickiness I experienced with the L'oreal. And it doesn't smell like crayons.

They're both relatively easy to remove- although not so easy that they would come off all the time on you. The L'oreal costed me about $8, and the Sephora, $3. I can tell you that I'll be putting the Sephora under my lipsticks. I prefer to keep my lipsticks on the more neutral side, and the L'oreal just takes it too far over to the warm side. It made my MUFE Artist Intense Lipstick in #44, a slight cooler toned lipstick turn obviously warm colored. Which confused me and led me to believe that I didn't like the lipstick as much as I actually do.

I wanted to check to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, so here's the comparison of the two lipsticks layered on top of the two lipliners. Sure enough, just a leeetle bit more brick with the L'oreal.

The Search for Red: Make Up For Ever #44/32 & NARS Shanghai Express/ Fire Down Below

So you may know that i've been on the quest for the perfect red. For some odd reason I never bothered trying out the lipsticks that I had researched online that mentioned colors that were good. Something about how they looked in the tube that didn't satisfy me. They didn't look red enough, they were all brown, or orange or whatever. With the emergence of Make Up For Ever's new 50 lipsticks, I decided to use Sephora's return policy to my advantage. Since I don't currently have a car, going there to test out the lipsticks is hard, not to mention awkward with all the sales people watching. So I decided to order them online and if I didn't like them, return them. Normally I'm against this type of thing. I have the "if you bought the wrong item/ color and use it, suck it up" mentality, the store shouldn't have to lose profits just because you made a mistake. but in this case, I considered it a special time since I had no way to get to sephora to try the colors out. I don't recommend doing this every time you want to try something out. It's just not nice. Go to the store and swatch instead.

So I got 4 lipsticks to try out. Make Up For Ever Rouge Artist Intense #44 & #32 and NARS Shanghai Express and Fire Down Below.

I dislike the NARS tube a bit because I think it's too easy to turn the tube. What if I accidentally turned it when I don't want to?

The MUFE are Satin texture. I was really upset with #32 because I had wanted a lipstick that would give my lips a light/ gentle/ sort of baby pink effect. Instead, it just looked like a shiny version of my natural lip color in a tube.

The #44 is a lovely red. I would say blood red, but it's not quite a blood red. It looks like a true red in the tube, but when swatched on paper, I can see it's actually a little on the cool side. I think it's described as a brown red on the site, but I'm not sure. The texture is not drying and it didn't seem to feather. Of course with all these strong lip colors I worry anyways that they get smudged or something.

NARS: these lipsticks are matte and therefore ever so slightly drying. This can't be helped though due to the properties of a matte lipstick. I feel like it feathers ever so slightly- barely noticeable.

Now you may be wondering what's the difference between the three red lipsticks. Let me tell you, it's really hard to tell when they're swatched on the lips. Shanghai Express is lighter- has a little less rich color than the other two. It's cool toned and more similar to the MUFE one than the Fire Down Below.

The MUFE one is more of a cherrier red than the Fire down below. It has less brown so it's more vibrant looking. Fire Down below is the darkest of the three, but with the little extra bit of brown it's probably the most wearable for everyday life in the morning.

Shanghai Express is again, less intense than Fire Down Below, less brown, and more on the cooler side. It's lighter in color and pops a bit more.

Even though Fire Down below looks really warm toned on the swatch in comparison, when I put it on my lips it turns a bit cool toned when viewed in natural light. All the colors change a bit depending on lighting. Strange how I have fluorescence lights and they all turn a bit yellow.

I can see where people get the idea that red lipstick lets your teeth look whiter. For me, it doesn't look so much whiter as more intense, probably from the contrast.

Turns out I can pull off all three shades equally well.

I'm at a dilemma because I can't pick one!! I decided that I don't want Shanghai Express. I want something that gives impact. The Fire Down Below is more natural a bit.  The step of brown makes it more wearable for daytime. The MUFE pops ever so slightly more (due to less brown and mostly likely the satin finish). I like the matte finish of NARS as well because I don't have to worry about it slipping/ sliding as much.

I like them both equally as much!! the MUFE is $19 and the NARS is $24, I know I should take the NARS back because of the pricing, but I do like having that lipstick that's a little more wearable. What to do... what would you do?

If it's all the same to you and you don't care about slight color differences or finishes then I do recommend the MUFE #44 over NARS Shanghai Express, only because they do look similar and MUFE is less drying and cheaper.

It was REALLY hard to get the color differences to show on camera for the lip swatches. Originally I had swatched them all separately, but then looking at them later I couldn't tell which was which, so I just did one with them all together. The picture only shows the lipsticks in indoor/ flash light. In natural light they look more cool toned. Apologies for the sloppy application, but I originally did a lot of combinations, so no point in perfectly applying them.

MUFE Rouge Artist Intense #32 (irl it's a tidge more coral)

MUFE Rouge Artist Intense #44 (Imagine a color between the two swatches- I know, not helpful)

Cupcakes: Test Drive- Martha Stewart vs Wendy Paul vs Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life

So remember how I had bought a bunch of cupcake books and did a first look review thing? Well I've actually made a few now and can start reviewing for real!

Martha Stewart - I tried the Triple Citrus cupcake

     I think the fact that I only made half the recipe vs the whole thing (if it tastes bad I don't waste so much) caused half of my problems. The cupcake was disgusting. It was indeed a heavier cupcake as others have said due to all the eggs, but that wasn't the problem. The problem is that the cupcake is bitter and too sweet at the same time. The bitter I take full responsibility for. I put in the amount of citrus zest to be for the whole recipe. So I thinking cooking all that amount made it bitter. The sugar though...was wayyyy too much. It was sickening. Maybe mixing the zest with the sugar first would have changed something. like candying the peels or something. I dunno. It was so disgusting I didn't even bother making the icing. No sense in wasting more things since I didn't have a cupcake to put it onto. And it was just so bad that I'm not gonna bother putting a picture up. I still really want to try the ginger and molasses, but now I'm scared. I think I might just find a different recipe online.

Wendy Paul: 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 minutes: Pink Lemonade


     The pink lemonade cupcakes just sounded so cute that I had to make it. Overall the cupcakes were really adorable. Some notes on the cupcake first. The cupcake itself turned out a bit dry. This could be due to a few things. I think we might have left them in the oven for a couple minutes too long. The bottoms were a bit more browned than they should have been, but from the top, when we poked it, it almost appeared undercooked. I think it being a white cake might have added to it's dryness or rather made it more susceptible to being dry. I used the Pillsbury White Cake Mix. Maybe I should've stuck with Duncan Hines, neither was on sale, so I just grabbed one.

The couple drops of food coloring suggested made the most perfect light pink ever. I was considering making them pinker, but I love how it's not so pink that you don't want to eat it for fear of too much food coloring. I'll be keeping the same amount of food coloring for that.

They don't look that pink in the picture, but that's my camera's fault.

Then came the icing. I urge you all to follow the recipe. I caved in to a friend's whining and put in less powdered sugar (less than half as much) and ended up with an icing that tasted like butter. I don't mean with a slight butter flavor, but it legitly tasted like butter. Gross. But she liked it and whined when I tried to put in more. Another problem with doing that is that when you mix it together, it will start to separate. So we had a tray that looked like they had doo doo on it. For the second batch of icing (when you put in less sugar, you also don't have enough to go around), I just dumped in the remaining sugar. I can't say how much that was. At least the same ratio as the first, if not more. We beat it on high, so at least this time, it didn't separate. If I had to do it again, I would put just a little more lemon juice than the recipe calls for to get that little kick. But this time, I added way too much and the icing ended up tangy on the way too sour side. 

But people seemed to like them and think they were ok (I was too embarrassed to take them in to the function by myself because I think these were a disaster taste wise but I'd already promised cupcakes and there wasn't time to make another batch)

I put edible silver hearts on them. I was looking for the silver balls, but I think these work better anyways. Our piper needs more practice -___-;;

Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life: Chocolate Cupcake

I used an online converter to calculate how much butter I would need since it was in grams. The batter was indeed very watery looking, such that I was skeptical if it would even be able to produce a cupcake. When I did it the first time, I looked at the dry ingredients and thought that it didn't look dark enough- I love dark chocolate and wanted it to be darker. So I added more cocoa powder. Big mistake. Once you add in the wet ingredients, it turns pitch black. Thus...I ended up with a very dark cupcake which leaves your mouth dry on account of the excess cocoa powder. I also somehow ended up with enough batter for 24 cupcakes even though I halved the recipe..but being the dumb butt I am, I decided to just fill each of the 12 higher..and ended up with the below. I tried it a second time following the correct cocoa powder ratio but then it was really runny and looked like chocolate milk. So I added a bit of flour..which totally didn't mix in and just floated to the top in small chunks. I hid it with icing. It tasted much better though. I used Hershey's special dark powder because I couldn't find dutch process cocoa powder at my grocery store and this said its a blend of normal cocoa and dutch process.

I really liked this recipe. It wasn't too sweet or anything. I think I'll make it again. I never got to try the icing though, so I can't say how that went.

Overall, hate martha stewart's, want to try the pink lemonade ones right again, and love the taste of the chocolate ones most- because they aren't too sweet at all.

Insight into the Workings of the Tony Moly Lip Tint

So if you'll remember, back when I was reviewing the Tony Moly Lip Tints I was wondering how they work. Obviously it doesn't have to do with the temperature changes. And I tried acid/ base to no avail.

Well...here we are several months later. Today I opened my lip tint to use it because I am quite fond of this product. I hadn't used it over the summer since I couldn't find it. When I opened it just now... I got a really big surprise.

My lip tint is dotted with pink spots! That's really unusual because why are  they all spread out? I only dug from one place. Then as I was examining them, I realized they look unusually similar to little colonies of bacteria or something. on top of the pink dots are these little raised bumps. 

So now I think I know how the lip tint works,  using an indicator that will turn pink when the bacteria or whatever is present. Most likely I accidentally sneezed or coughed on it and they grew over time. 

That's actually kind of funny cuz then I guess it'd just turn colors based on how much bacteria or whatever is on your lips, lol.

Will I continue to use this? Yea probably, there's plenty of bacteria in our other makeup, but we just don't see it even though we still continue to use it. I'll probably take care to avoid the little spots though. High concentrations of anything aren't good for you.

Just note though, these are just my suspicions, it may not be a biological indicator. It just looks that way to me. I didn't actually do any testing on it or anything.

Slice of Life: Getting the Future in Order

I thought I'd share on an experience that I'm going through right now. In order to graduate from college, I need research credits. Unfortunately I don't have a lab. I'd been wanting to get into a lab, but kept putting it off for 3 years, let this be a lesson to all. Well not quite putting it off constantly, I did apply for a research program which would land me into a lab- you apply for the one you want to do research in. But due to some horrible university spam, I missed the email for the interview. I know, you think these things only happen in nightmares.

So then I just never really had time to look through the professors and properly read up on their research to get a sense of what their labs are about. I thought worse comes to worse, I just graduate a semester late. Turns out that's not the case. The teacher for a required seminar that needed a lab contacted me, and basically made it sound like at this point I should change majors- I have one last year, how can I change now!? So I was horrified and freaked out. I spent a couple hours praying and reading the Bible and calming myself before answering his email, hoping that God would give me the words so that they wouldn't kick me out of the department. Well, lo and behold, he contacted me again saying he may have an interested professor who might take me on. I just thought, wow this must be a miracle from God.

He asked me to meet him this morning to discuss and I'm dumb but I'm not dumb. I know when people are doing you a favor and not to look a gift horse in the mouth. So I agreed and went.

But first, of course you know, for these kinds of life or death situations, you have to dress appropriately...hahah!! So I had to figure out what I wanted to wear. I decided that you have to dress cleanly and nice, presentable, but since this is a casual meeting, not business clothes. I went with skinny jeans and a light blue top. Why? because i can't find any of my other shirts, and for some reason, in the industry, it's commonly thought that light blue shows a gentle and open personality. Even though light blue isn't my color.

For makeup, you want to look well groomed and presentable, but not over the top. That might make them think that you focus all your attention on your looks- well unless you work in the beauty industry where that is most likely a plus. I used my Etude House BB Balm with the Peach Pore Skin Pact powdered over. No eye makeup, but since my lips are my best facial feature I decided to play them up with the LUCIDarling Gloss #3. I wondered if they were too shiny for this kind of thing, but figured, ah what the heck. I also used the Etude House Peach Cheek stamp #5. I think I've reviewed all of them except maybe the BB Balm because I haven't had a chance to get good pictures. Funny how everything i used is Etude.

The meeting went well and now I just have to actually contact the other professor about the lab. Please pray that it goes well for me. I'm not sure what I should do if it doesn't.

***EDIT***

woohoo!! I got into the lab, now i'm just praying that I'll live up to my professor's expectations.

Missha BB Cream Samples for Sale! - #21

An old friend of mine has finally ventured into the world of BB cream and decided to try Missha's #21. She loves it and bought the full sized, but she still has some sample packets left over (she bought a handful on ebay). And since she has the big bottle now she won't be needing these sample packets, so if you think this might be something you might like to try email me! juicedmang0s@gmail.com . I might redirect you to her depending on how she wants to do it.

The BB Cream samples are $1.50 SHIPPED! She's not making any profit off of this, it's the price of the sample and of the stamp and a couple cents for the envelope.

Review: Etude House Cheek Stamp Blush #5

Some people say they hate gimmicky things like this, but I love it. It actually stamps onto your face- there's a spring.

At first when you stamp it on, it does look powdery, but once you blend it in with your fingers/ blush, you'll see that it's not. It's perfect. Things that have too much pigment are problematic too because it's easy to mess up. The pigmentation on this is perfect, it's pigmented, but just enough. It's basically a no fail blush, and I plan on asking my friend to pick me up a backup.

Review: Etude House Peach Pore Compact

I have no idea why I didn't buy this sooner. I find myself saying that with a lot of Etude House's stuff.

One swipe and I could clearly see that my pores looked smoothed away. The compact has a hint of peach, like all of the peach line. I wanted to take pictures to show the difference, but it's actually really hard to get it to show. All I can say is, get this. And you're just going to have to trust me on this.

Paint those Nails!

OPI~~~

Wow, I never really understood why ppl liked this brand so much until I bought my first ones this week. I'd been lemming for these two colors and online they were much more expensive than in the store. Oh right, both of these are OPI for Sephora by the way.

The blue is Opening Night- which I saw a youtube vid by Panacea on and wanted. It's more blue than I envisioned, but ok. The brown-red is I'm with Brad, which I saw on a friend and loved.

Both I just swatched one layer, and really messily because...I'm a slob.

I love the formula. It dries so quickly and nicely. At first the I'm with Brad had me scared since it came out sheer, but I just glomped more on and it was fine. Even though you see a lot of red in these pics, the actual natural light look is more like a brown with a red sheen. Gorgeous.

I wish these came in minis because I rarely use this much nailpolish. I still have a bottle from 4 years ago which isn't even halfway used. If any of you has a small nailpolish bottle and would like some of either then I'd be glad to share. It'll probably be $3-$5 with shipping depending on how big your bottle is. Or you can send me the bottle and an envelope and stamps to ship it back to you and I'll just charge a couple bucks for the polish itself. Email: juicedmang0s@gmail.com

I envision using I'm with Brad more since it goes with my skintone more.

OH! and I love the bottles. I love how they use heavy plastic for the top and how the whole bottle feels really solid. That was surprising.

Review: Etude House LUCIDarling Fantastic Rouge Lip Gloss - #3

I had wanted to get this and the lipsticks from the line way back when it had just come out, but I couldn't pull myself together to put that much into a haul. Thus, you've already seen some of this line around on blogs. Still, I don't see many reviews of the gloss, whether it's because people didn't purchase it or because they just didn't see a need to review, I don't know. 

This gloss along with the lipsticks from the line are marketed as having the LED technology. Which I'm not too clear on what that means since I can't read the descriptions, but I think it basically means it makes the color of itself more apparent than your lip color or something because of how it reflects.

The gloss is thick, very different from the peach water glosses. It also has a hint of some scent although it's not strong or that noticeable. I like having the thicker gloss because it stays on longer. And I'm used to it from using the L'oreal Juicy Color Gloss for so long. 

At first it seems like any normal gloss, but when you wipe it away, POW! you notice that your lips have turned into a disco ball. I suppose this is where the LED thing comes from, many many micro sparkles/ glitters. Even though it's glittery, you don't notice it very much when you apply the gloss. It just looks like a shiny gloss. Maybe the glitter is just very finely milled or something. I think the leftover sparkles are kind of fun because if the gloss should wear away for some reason, your lips still have the fun sparkles to give them a little something something. 

The only thing is that if you're a lip licker, I'd advise you not to lick this one because of the glittery things.

I think it's funny how the korean glosses have such scary color pigmentation in the tube, but when you apply them, it's just a hint of color.

Overall I like this gloss. It cost a little less than $7. While that's a surprising price for a gloss, it's a pretty big tube.

The Haul is Here!!

I got my package yesterday but waited to post this because the system wouldn't let me review the items since I missed the delivery, so it said "Delivery Failure" even though I already picked it up. I had to wait until today to review.

Just wanted to go through a couple things I learned this time around.
1) Check the seller reviews. If there are any visible "Dissatisfied"s in any column then that's something to watch out for. Especially when it pertains to delivery because that can hold up your entire order

2) If you have stamps, try the 1 stamp lotto. You can exchange 5 stamps for a 1000 won coupon as a sure thing, but I tried using the 1 stamp/ 1000 won lotto and got 4-1000 won coupons in my 6 tries. I think that's a lot better of a deal. I don't recommend trying the 2 stamps/ 2000 won cuz if you lose then you just lost two. Also, that means look for sellers that give out stamps too, because that will help your future order. Don't convert stamps right away but only when you're going to use them because they do expire.

3) In the US, USPS will try to deliver, and when no one opens the door you either have to fill out the slip for redelivery - at least another 2 days wait >.< - or you pick it up yourself. They don't just leave the package.

4) When making your order, put your entire address on that one line, lol. Since it's printed onto the delivery form that way, I'm pretty sure that's probably why they returned it last time now. Also, GMarket does make mistakes, they left out a number on my zip code- and yes i did put it in right

5) Review the right thing under the right page. I was being dumb and even though I knew it said peach blusher, I somehow ignored/ forgot and proceeded to review a lipstick under that. And there's no way I can remove it. I notified customer service ^^;; So yes, that big block of irrelevant review that sits there staring back at me is mine. I am dumb.

6) You can't use the cash balance to pay first then pay for the rest of your order some other way. If you want to use the remaining money in your cash balance you have to buy something less than that amount- which means more expensive shipping. I chose to go the pay more right now and stick more money in there for a future haul route. $15 shipping for one item just doesn't sit right with me. Especially in this economy

7) Package took a total of 10 days to arrive

Items that I particularly liked from this haul are:

Etude House Fantastic Rouge Lucidarling Lipsticks - #5&8
Etude House Peach Pore Pact
Etude House Cheek Stamp - #5

And I'm still waiting to try the O2 White Mask out longer to see if it actually works.

As you can see, the items are all Etude House. No wonder it's such a popular brand. Next time I'm definitely not hesitating to order from them again since this now makes 2 very good experiences.

I was going to post a picture of the overall haul, but now that I think about it, I don't have one -___- it's all on my camera, and i can't get it onto this computer because the adapter is built into my other computer which is currently being fixed for the SECOND time this summer with the same problem. The first time being when I hauled the first time so there were no pics up then even though I said there were going to be. I'll go back and post those up now i guess, lol. And this haul's I'll do when i get my computer back.

***EDIT***

So apparently once you post a review, it can't be taken off, even by the GMarket ppl X_X. Now my stupidity is permanent.

On a good note, here are haul pics.

As you can see, GMarket really plays down the value of the items. I have to wonder if customs doesn't ever find it really suspicious that this huge box would only have 4 items. 

And If someone could tell me what this box says, I'd be delighted.

 Bet you were wondering what's that long freebie from Etude House. Well, assembled, it's two makeup organizers! Which is really cool, but I only need one. If you would like the other, let me know, I'll send it to you for $3 shipped if you live in the United States.