Gorgeous Lipstick Alert!

I had a chance to try out the ZuZu Luxe Lipstick *Gluten and Lead Free by Gabriel Cosmetics! (not affiliated, honest opinions!) Here is my story:

I wasn't expecting much because I'm pretty much an anti-lipstick girl, plus this lipstick is a bit on the pricey side at $18.15 ...

The packaging sort of boring - still wasn't impressed at this point ...

I tried the colour in Dollhouse Pink ...

Wow! What a pretty pink, however, I was instantly reminded of my Maybelline Pink Please lipstick, sigh. What the heck I thought, so I slathered on some Burt's Bee Lipbalm followed by this lipstick ...

Holy crap! This picture is what it looked like on my lips, but as a noob of lip swatches (how do you take pictures of lip swatches girls?! tips?!) it really doesn't show what it actually looked like in person. It was an AMAZING bright baby pink! It did not taste/feel/smell waxy which is usually my concern with lipsticks. It felt amazingly moisturizing on the lips and extremely pigmented on my natural reddish lips. I couldn't stop looking at my lips after my application! They have 24 shades to choose from, check it out!

So there it is, baby pink lips on a very pale skin girl ;)

The Weekend After Exams!

Saddest day ever on Saturday when I found out my comfy moccasins I bought from AE last year had a hole!! I've never had this happen to be before SIGH! Good thing I have a backup pair from Walmart!!

When I first tried out Burt's Bee's Lip Balm, I didn't like it, so I decided to give it another try with Pomegranate Oil since it was on sale at SDM. My all time favourite at the moment is still Vaseline or Strawberry Banana Lip Smackers :)


I finally had a chance to see "How to Train Your Dragon"!! It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I'm a big fan of animated 3D movies and this one is a must-watch! I won't ruin it, but you're going to want a dragon after watching this ;)

I saw these "Sushi Chews" while I was picking up some bedding for my hamsters and thought it was pretty funny :D haha

The delicious Sunday dinner - chinese style stone bowl with mushrooms, sausage, and chicken. This stone bowl could probably feed 4 people and this was only 1/3 of the meal between my boyfriend and I. Ate WAY too much but it was MMmm MMmm good!!

Lastly, the final season of The Hills starts tomorrow! The show is pretty bad now, but what the hell, I've watched every season of The Hills since it started. I also want to see Heidi post-surgery, there are snippets of it in the trailer - watch it here!

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well :)

Happy Earth Day!

Here are my 5 Earth Day Actions I'd like to share! I will:

1. Use cloth bags instead of plastic bags for groceries

2. Use more earth friendly cleaning products

3. Turn off my unused lights in the house

4. Unplug unused electronic devices

5. Shop more at my local farmer's market

What are some other good ones?!

On another note, I'm finally done with my finals! I will be officially graduating in June and starting a certification program in Clinical Research in September :)

DIY Mario Badescu Drying Lotion

In my search for flawless skin I came across Mario Badescu Products, hence my post about free samples from them. I first heard of their infamous Drying Lotion through juicystar07 on youtube and apparently it is used by many celebrities in Hollywood. I went to their website and saw that some of their main active indredients towards acne were calamine and salicylic acid. Pink = Calamine Lotion! So I randomly googled - "making your own mario badescu drying lotion". And indeed there were others who had the same thought process as me (I'm not as crazy as my boyfriend claims I am). You technically can make your own drying lotion for probably a fraction of the cost. Here's how:

1. Purchase Calamine lotion from your local drugstore (~$3)
2. Purchase a 2% Salicylic Acid astringent (like Clean & Clear ~$6)
3. Pour the salicyclic acid astringent into a smaller container
4. Take a q-tip and dip into the Calamine lotion and then dip into the salicylic acid

Voila! You have your own knock-off of the Mario Badescu Drying Lotion :p

If you really want to make it cool (two phase) looking as the Drying Lotion, you can allow the Calamine lotion to settle, pour off as much liquid out as possible and use the remaining settled particles to transfer to a separate vial and then add in salicylic acid astringent.

So does it actually work as well as the Drying Lotion?!

Sorry, I really can't answer if it works the exact same way as the Drying Lotion but I have tried it as a spot treatment (not all over your face like I read a user did, and claimed he looked like Edward from Twilight) and it certainly does a good job of drying out minor pimples without your skin flaking off as severely as benzoyl peroxide. But of course, you'll still be able gain the special effect of looking like you're breaking out with pink chicken pox from using either one ;)

Try it out if you're desperate for a cheap acne solution!

Lancome Goodies, Everyday Minerals and AE!

The quick cloudy Saturday morning shopping goodies! Two simple T-shirts from AE (2 for $30) and Lancome Artliner ($36) + gifts. AE has the best t-shirts - great fit, perfect length, and super comfy! What ISN'T comfy at AE though?! :)

I've wanted the Lancome Artliner for a very long while now and when I saw that Lancome was having a GWP event at The Bay (Canadian Department Store) I couldn't resist! I couldn't justify spending $36 on a liquid eyeliner but somehow I made myself feel better knowing that I'd get a cosmetic bag + 7 gift items... There are 14 gift items you can choose from (click here to see) and ends on May 9th!

I bought the Artliner in Black and have not used it yet, but I'm looking forward to! Review will come once I use it a bit more and summarize my thoughts about it. I'm hoping I will fall in love with it :) Has anyone else tried this?

Last thing I wanted to mention is the "Try Me Free" samples at Everyday Minerals. I wanted to try their mineral foundation and realized they give out free samples (3-5 uses, 1 gram each) and all you have to pay is shipping (which was about $3 for me). I believe you can only order one bundle at a time though for this offer. I've also ordered some samples of coral matte blush that's on the way! I love how they are in mini sifter jars as well. I've used it about 3 times so far and it has pretty good staying power, semi-good coverage, and has not been breaking out my skin. In addition, the regular price of Everyday Minerals products is not bad at all.

Anyways, I still have one exam left on Wednesday and instead I decided to go shopping. So back to the books for me :( Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Tag: Me in Threes

I stole this idea from Kimber Doll, who also sent me a package of beauty goodies from a giveaway a won from her. I also want to thank Charlene-Ann and Kayvona for awarding me with an "I Love Your Blog Award"! Thanks girls! Please check out their blogs! :)

Here we go in threes!

Three names I go by:

1. Jen

2. Jellybean

3. PITA (aka Pain in the Ass, haha)

Three jobs I have had:

1. Sales Associate at Jacob Connexion

2. Cashier at Michael's Arts and Crafts

3. Research Associate at various research labs (me scraping a big piece of gunk off a filter, oh the memories...)

Three places I have lived:

1. Hong Kong, HK

2. Ottawa, ON

3. Toronto, ON

Three favourite drinks:

1. Green tea with honey

2. Timmy's steeped tea

3. Strawberry Fruitopia

Three TV shows I watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy

2. Gossip Girl

3. Top Chef

Three places I have been:

1. Yellowknife, Northwest Territories

2. St. Johns, Newfoundland

3. New York City, New York

Three places I would like to visit:

1. Athens, Greece

2. Paris, France

3. Tokyo, Japan

Three people who text me regularly:

1. Alex (boyfriend)

2. Liem (best friend)

3. Winny (sister)

Three favourite old TV shows:

1. Sailormoon!

2. Carebears

3. The Magic School Bus

Three favourite dishes:

1. Stone bowl

2. Pad thai

3. Unagi sushi roll

Three makeup products I cannot live without:

1. Clinique Lash Building Primer

2. Lip Smackers in Strawberry Banana

3. L'oreal Bare Naturale Mineral Blush in Pinched Pink

Three things I'm looking forward to:

1. Finishing undergrad

2. Watching "How to Train Your Dragon"

3. Going to Disney World :)!

Three people I'm tagging:

1. Rainy Days and Lattes

2. Glamour Buzz

3. Karen

And of course everyone else who would like to do this as well! I'd love to find out more about you in threes ;)

Highlighting your hair?

Gosh I'd die to have hair like Lindsay Price! She's been my hair idol since I've watched her on Lipstick Jungle, I just can't wait until my hair grows longer! And on the topic of Lipstick Jungle, why did they cancel that show anyways?! I loved it a lot!! SIGH

Back to HAIR. I'm looking forward to a haircut after my finals because I haven't had a cut for 7 months. My profile picture is actually an old picture of me when I still had long-ish hair. Back in September I decided to chop my hair super short (as in above my shoulders short *cries*) so I've been holding back on cutting my hair since. My hair is looking a little dull right now and is in need of some OOMPH. I also want to highlight my hair...

I recently came across L'oreal Touch-On Highlights and decided to watch the application video here. What's with the special "Innovative Control-Touch FingerTIP"? Why did they always have such lame names that make it sound so sketch? Have any of you highlighted your hair at home successfully? If so, which product did you use? Please let me know!

I just had to show this to you guys because it's SO SUPER ADORABLE! You can get them here if you'd like, but pricey! I was pretty amused though, imagine sticking that into your usb drive - lol!

Okay last cute picture for this post sent to me by my friend for my love of cooking mama games. Pretty clever huh? Anyone else a cooking gaga fan? ;)

Jewelry Bar Prize, Lauren Conrad, Hotel City.

I won this beautiful necklace from a giveaway held at Roxy Shops from The Jewelry Bar arrived a few days ago, and I absolutely love it! Check out Yoon's Etsy store, she has amazing talent!

Lauren Conrad is in my Glamour magazine! She is so damn gorgeous! I loved watching her on The Hills, and when I heard she wasn't going to be in the show anymore I was pretty sad. Read the article here at Glamour. I actually haven't read it myself, my bedtime read ;)

I've been playing this new game by Playfish called Hotel City, let's just say...I'm totally addicted. I've also been played their Restaurant City game for a while now, and was ecstatic about their new japanese cafe theme that came out today. Anyone else addicted to facebook games like me?

Taylor Swift, Ray Bans, and Marc Jacobs.

Taylor Swift with straight hair in the new April cover for Elle! Although I love her natural curly/crimped hair, she looks so great with straight hair :) You can see her behind the scenes cover shoot by clicking here. Love her and love her music!

Rachel Bilson is always so stylish and bohemian chic. I wasn't too comfortable with the idea of the Ray Ban wayfarers when they first came out, but now I've been seeing them in magazines on so many celebrities. I think I want them this year. Birthday present :D?

I've recently seen Marc Jacob handbags at Aritzia and I really want one! I usually only see these handbags exclusively at Holt Renfrew in Canada. The ones at Aritzia are pretty basic classic MJ style handbags, the ones I'm really attracted to. It must be that signature plaque. Want it, need it :)

Anyways I just wanted to share what I'm loving at the moment, and I'll leave here with a picture of the CUTEST bunny I found :) It's got that "HMPH" face down pat don't you think? Happy Easter Monday everyone!

Maria Galland and Walt Disney World!!

This is the latest product I've been using on my face - The Maria Galland Gentle Soothing Cream. I'm not sure if its widely available but if you have seen this brand before I've been loving it :) This is perfect for my thin and sensitive skin that is thick enough to be moisturizing but also quickly absorbs into the skin! It also smells divine MmmMmm.

AND this girl just booked a ticket to go to Orlando with the boyfriend to go to Walt Disney World :)! This is for our grad trip because we haven't gone on a vacation for a long long time now due to school and coop occupying our summer break. We're staying at a Disney Resort and planning to visit all the theme parks as well as Universal Studios. I've never been there so I'm really excited!

Finals are coming up, so guess what I'll be doing for the next few weeks. Yep. Studying. :(