A Glance at Allure October 2012

This month's magazine is especially thick. As with the previous glance at Allure posts, it will not contain pretty pictures. Just ones for illustratory purposes.

I've never been a fan of Blake Lively. It's not that I hate her (don't know her, how could I?), just not especially interested. Heard she got secretly married? Congrats I guess?

Lancome La vie est belle: There's a certain youthful sophistication to this scent. Perfumy scent (not cloying), with a hint of sweetness underneath.

Is it bad I wish her a haircut instead?

One of the most irkful things are homewreckers. Just the idea of them gets me so mad! Really don't understand the "Beauty by Numbers" title of this page. There is nothing beautiful about a third wheel.

There's so little of the sample you can't really tell how much "lifting" it does. Texture is ok. My skin is still a bit dry. Doesn't smell very nice- like chemically/ unscented.

These are cute.

For some reason the Musts are more appealing than the Lusts. Except for that bag down at the left and the shoes on the right.

Eyes shot right to the top left.

Such cute bags. The tangerine color was more for summer though, we're moving into fall with the cobalt blues now. Maybe this is pumpkin colored for October? Favorites are the Tory Burch in the upper right, the Miu Miu right below, and the kate spade at the lower left.

Givenchy Dahlia Noir: Such a lovely scent. Unintrusive. Just as the description says, my first impression is that it's graceful and sophisticated. There's a certain power with that grace. More passive aggressive than aggressive. Elegant. This floral would be a night scent for me. Later in the magazine it says that this is named for a flower without much of a scent, but instead smells of roses and irises. 

This little article was surprisingly an interesting read. I personally don't know much about alcohol. It's sad that an effective pickup technique is to go through the target's friend. The friend must feel so used. And you would pay $26 for a Long Island Ice Tea?

Jimmy Choo Parfums: This one made me giggle for some reason. It says "Imagine Femininity, luxury and style... Bottled". Definitely feminine. I got the "I'm on the prowl" message from this scent. It smells like someone out to have fun, flirt, whatnot. Don't really know how to describe the main scent, but it has a hint of fruity undertones.

L'oreal Magic Skin Beautifier BB: I'm purposely leaving this in here until I can review it this time! Last time I took it out, and now it's disappeared. Look forward to the review in the next few weeks.

Marc Jacobs Daisy: MJ makes the cutest packaging. My friend recently got the Daisy Marc Jacobs and I've been wanting to take a whiff. Daisy Marc Jacobs is supposed to be "Sunny. Happy. Free". Smells like a simple floral. light. I found Daisy Eau So Fresh to be hilarious. It's supposed to be Exhilarating, Bubbly, Playful, but it smells like one of my hair dyes instead. Maybe the John Frieda one.

Most people don't pull off extreme hair color well. It's mostly "might as well" or "just feel like it" (nothing wrong with that I guess)

Katy Perry on the other hand, pulls it off beautifully. Her hair is extreme, but it always looks like hair with a purpose- polished, not sloppy. Love it. Kudos to her and her hair stylist.

The Best of Beauty. I was wishing that they would do swatches of the items, but on a separate page far away they have the master list of products with photos. I'd really like to try the Bobbi Brown Gel Liner. This Coastal Scents one is smudging like crazy.

I absolutely love the Ponds cleansing wipes. The little nubs help me to really scrape off (if necessary) makeup. They're also gentle enough to use for the eyes, and take off waterproof makeup nicely as well. ^^. Oh look, Givenchy's Dahlia Noir is on the Fragrance list.

Loving the hair and makeup.

...this may be one for child services.

Somehow this one is not ok, and yet ok at the same time.

Toodles!

A Look at Allure September 2012

I had something I wanted to say beforehand, but as usual I forgot it all =P. EDIT: I remember! So something that I didn't realize annoyed me is when you mention a friend in a facebook post, then they tag someone else, then that person tags a whole bunch of other people. I know this sounds so silly and petty, but I can't help but think "dude! I don't know you! stop tagging all these random people!" Then again, I am a pretty private person.

Well, they're still sending me these darn magazines to fill up my recycling bins with. This is just a quick browse so the pictures are not going to be amazing and will have random flash spots (I just want to point things out).

Giorgio Armani's Acqua di Gioia is actually quite nice. It's an energetic scent. What I found most interesting is that there is a hint of mint! haha.

I'm actually liking the Vince Camuto Must better than the Peter Som Lust. The bag however has to be Alexander McQueen. The structured silhouette has my eyes fixed firmly (if only I had the money!). I could care less for the DKNY bag.The Derek Lam Lust is intriguing (although not on me, on a tall person), and the Alexander Wang boots are where it's at. Forget about these Nine Wests.

I squealed in delight at this pretty page of heels. They're all lovely, but I keep returning to look at the Derek Lam. Without the ankle strap, it would look a bit retro and dowdy for my tastes, but the strap puts and interesting spin to the shoe. I want it in a different color. That green is too hard for me too pull off, haha.

Love her outfit and the statement pieces!

Loving this dress. I do smell the citrus and florals in Isaac Mizrahi's Fabulous. It's a nice fresh clean scent. 

Chloe does indeed smell clean, sophisticated, chic- in a gentle way, not in a disgustingly cloying perfume way. It kind of reminds me of how asian cosmetics and skincare/bath items are scented. I'd get it if it weren't so darn expensive! Body lotion and shower gel are $50 a piece. Can you make a $20 rollerball version of this too?

Ah! I haven't even tried out the newspaper print manicure, but these barcode nails sound interesting. I will have to try them out.

My favorite part of Allure. LOVE the dresses and the coats.

Loving the Dior dress on the left. I'd need someone to donate it to me and somewhere to wear it to.

LOL!!

Oscar de la Renta's Live in Love made a sample appearance in this issue as well. It's definitely growing on me. I guess that's what separates good perfumers from the layperson- the scents they make just start smelling better and better. Personally I would use this as an evening scent, but I can see how it would work as a day scent for many out there.

That's it!

Oh, and there was a sample of L'oreal's BB cream Illuminator, so look forward to a review of that. It's in Medium though so I don't expect much from the color.

Hodge Podge

This post is going to just be a mix of things.

Firstly, congratulations to Amanda Cook for winning the Birchbox giveaway! ^^

Secondly- Wow. I had an interview, so to tame all the random frizz I put on some of the Oscar Blandi Jasmine scented hair oil. My hair looked so polished and put together after, haha. I may just invest in buying the full sized. Speaking of interview, I uh... kind of messed up on all the important parts X_X. So keep me in your prayers because I really need a miracle.

Third- Thanks to all who made my Free Things sale a success. New homes were found for most items!

Fourth- even though the customer service person I emailed said that they canceled the Allure subscription for me, I got the June issue >.>. Ugh, at least I got the rebate. It's just that 80% of this magazine is advertisements, so really getting these month after month is annoying and more work to throw out. If you're bored, it's not bad to look through. Let's take a look.

The Covergirl lip product below I've just always found weird. It initially sounds cool, but ehhh not digging it too much.

THIS I thought was a cool nail effect. Almost makes me want to buy the two products to try it out. Love how the gold glitter fades out.

I honestly never knew you could insure body parts.

After colored pants, it's now colored clutches. I wouldn't mind having a couple of my own.

This surprisingly smells nice. Both scents. The male scent is sharp, crisp, business like. I really like it- if there were another guy on the elevator with me, I'd want him to smell like this haha. The female scent is less sharp with a hint of sweetness. I wouldn't mind having this scent, but it's not making me obsess nonstop. Neither have that "hollow" scent that quite a few perfumes seem to have these days (not complex enough scent), so that's good.

This is the fattest sample I've ever seen in a magazine. Thank you John Frieda. Something about Repair. I'll have to test it out- it comes out in drops apparently.

Admittedly I'm enticed. And now I'm trying to find a way to get to Kohls to check out Vera Wang's makeup collection.

Essie has a few of these themed ads in here. The setup is different to showcase the respective colors.

@.@ Pretty.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to try, but I'm kind of tired of trying out tints. I have a couple that I like and that's good enough for me. (yay tony moly!)

These photos in the back are the reason why I go through Allure mainly. The spread in the very back for this issue had a model that I wasn't really interested in, but the shoot below is lovely.

It's mousse themed. Yes, I'm from the generation where girls went around in high school with the exact same  blonde beach wave perm (exact size, specs, everything. they might as well as have been wearing wigs), and slathering on mousse for a constant wet look. Personally, I'm for the natural curl look. I would curl my hair and put just enough mousse in to hold my style without adding any crunchiness. It looks really nice and natural (like the photo below). Seeing this is a bit surprising because of that. My hair had that "perfect curls" effect and once a friend (who I saw every week for 3 years) came up to me and asked if I were wearing a wig. She didn't believe it was my natural hair.

Love the eyes especially in the shot below. 

This is a gorgeous shot. The earrings rock! It says they're " Brass and rosewood earrings by Herve Van der Straeten". Couldn't find how much these earrings are, but the matching necklace is $835.

And they tell you how to achieve the effect

It's almost Monday, so Happy Monday!