I seriously need to stop with the nail polishes...

esterday, one of my favourite bloggers, Carolina from Closet Full of Nothing, twittered how she had a serious obsession with nail polishes. I can totally relate because lately that's all I've been buying. Maybe it's due to the fact that I gained a little bit of weight so I don't want to buy clothes anymore? Just yesterday I added 2 more polishes to my collection- OPI's Tickle My France-y and Essie's Merino Cool. I'm wearing Tickle My France-y today and I'm loving it! It looks so elegant and it makes me look really polished.

Here are the 2 lovely colours. They lean more towards the taupe-y, nude, lilac side.

This one is Merino Cool by Essie. It's from the Fall 2010 Collection. I haven't tried it yet so I can't say how the formulation is, but I think I'm going to love the colour.

OPI's Tickle My France-y. This is from the La Collection De France collection.

Look how gorgeous it is!

I'm wearing 2 coats.

On another note, I'm really excited about tomorrow. I'm going snowboarding for the first time since 2008. I was an avid boarder and went almost every weekend with my husband and friends. That was the pre-baby years. It's really hard getting people to go because most of my friends are married with kids and those who aren't don't really board. I've also lost touch with a few people that I've gone boarding with back in the days. Tomorrow, I'll be going with my younger sister and her husband. I know that sounds lame because I'll be the third wheel, but I don't care. I could have invited my friend who always wants to go, but she's a beginner and I really just want to board tomorrow. I don't feel like giving lessons. My younger sister is a beginner too, but she has her husband to teach her. Keke.

So I got all my snowboarding gear out just now because I'm cool like that. ^_^

2 years ago (can't believe it's been 2 years already!) I bought new snowboarding pants, but I still have all the tags on it because I haven't gone yet. My younger sister also got the same pair because we went shopping together. We'll both be wearing it tomorrow!

I got it on sale for $50! It was originally $100. They are Burton. Sweet!

I love cream-coloured snowboarding pants so I couldn't resist buying these.

If I could, I would wear these pants out. Not to go snowboarding. They just look so cool on.

Here's my snowboard. They are by Forum.

I love the illustration and the colours.

A close-up.

Here's the back side.

My Salomon boots.

I'll probably be a little rusty on the hills tomorrow, but I'm just ecstatic that I'm going.

Queen of my heart

or me it takes a long time to make a decision to buy something. Even things that are $5 takes me a while. I'm not one to go into a store quickly and buy the first thing I see. My husband finds this really annoying because I take forever deciding what to buy. That's why I like going shopping by myself.

Lately I've been eyeing the Alexander McQueen Skull-print silk-chiffon scarf in red and sand. However, at $240USD (even more here in Canada!) it's not something I will go and buy on a whim. Today I went to check it out at my local Holt Renfew to see what it looked like in person, but I couldn't get the courage to ask the sales person if I can try it on. I knew that if I did and I fell in love with it it would be hard not to purchase it. It was even more gorgeous in person and I'm just itching to get it. Maybe I'll see if my husband will buy it for me for my birthday? Or for Valentine's Day???

On a side note, I saw that Hautelook was carrying Rock & Republic's Cosmetics this week. I saw Jen from Frmheadtotoe do a review on it and declare the eyeshadows and blushes as her HG product. I was debating whether or not to get it for a few days and even had it in my cart last night. But then I bailed at the last minute. However, I couldn't stop thinking about it all day today and since tomorrow is the last day of the sale I decided to go ahead and purchase it. I'll show you guys when my order comes in on mid February.

I love a great find

few weeks ago I was visiting my cousin's store to sell my jewelry and she happened to be displaying my rings on these really neat porcelain mini hands. I've been looking for vintage porcelain glove molds for a really long time since I first saw them at a photographer's studio, but the ones that I found were really expensive. The one I saw at a photographer's studio was used to hold mail which I thought was a really neat idea. However, when I saw the mini ones at my cousin's store I decided I liked these better. Plus, I thought it was a brilliant idea to display my rings on here. I asked her where she got the hands and she said she got it in NYC. They were a bargain at $5 each! She's in New York a lot to go to trade shows so I asked her to pick these up for me the next time she went. I saw her today at my sister's birthday party and she brought these for me. I couldn't wait to go home and show you guys what they look like. I think I'm going to use one as a display above my shoe shelf and use some for my bookshelf where I display all my June/July/August jewelry.

Now everyone can have a Birkin!

t's the most coveted and elusive bag of all time. The symbol of wealth and status. The majority of the population will never own one because of the hefty price tag. What is it? It's the Birkin bag of course. But now all of us can have one... How? Read on.

I came across 2 brands- Banana Taipei and Thursday Friday a while ago and since then have considered buying one of their products. They're not exactly fake designer Birkins. It's actually a play on the Birkin. Basically both companies print the original Birkin bag on their canvas tote bags on all sides, but it's obviously a canvas bag. I saw Misslovely with the Banana Taipei one and fell in love. Since then, I've seen another company, Thursday Friday, with their own version. I'm liking the Banana Taipei one better because it looks like it's better quality. I have emailed banana.tpe@gmail.com to see if they can ship it to me. Apparently it is $49.99 + shipping. *UPDATE* It's actually $69.99USD + $20 shipping. They are taking orders on February 15 at 12pm GMT+8. The one I'm eyeing is the one in Tiffany Blue:

The front. I love how the handle of the canvas tote is coloured to make it look like it's the continuation of the handle of the Birkin. The Thursday Friday one doesn't have coloured handles.

The backside.

The side.

The other side.

Even the bottom is printed. So ingenious!

Here's the Thursday Friday version:

Cute, but definitely not as pretty as the Banana Taipei.

It arrived!

y Sigma order came in the mail today. That's one thing I like about ordering stuff online. Yeah, it's a pain waiting for it to come, but once it arrives it's like Christmas!

I placed my order on January 4 and it arrived today- January 20. Not bad. Not the quickest shipping, but not unbearable. I had my packaged delivered to my work because I'm never home. I was dying to open it and look at everything, but I decided to wait until I was finished work.

As soon as I came home I unwrapped the contents.

My brushes came in a red, mesh pouch. One thing that hit me when I opened the package was a very strong chemical smell. I guess it's from the manufacturing process, but it was quite strong.

I got a free travel-sized E25 brush with a silver handle. It is tiny, but it looks like it's good quality.

Here is the brush in context to my hand.

I think this is one of my favourites of my purchase. It's the Princess Grace Retractable Kabuki Brush.

Here is the brush with the lid off, but with the protector over the brush.

And this is what the brush looks like. It's soooooo soft. Soft like the Sigmax brushes I ordered. I can't wait to try this when I'm out.

My order came with many reading materials. I didn't get a chance to look through them all, but it explains what each brush does and cleaning instructions.

My 4 eye brushes and 2 face brushes. I can't do a proper review until I have tried them, but they look to be good brushes. Way better than Quo brushes.

The F80- I'm dying to try this brush. I haven't seen one negative review yet on the Sigmax brushes. I was using the MAC 187 brush, but I find it very prickly. This one is super dense.

I think this was the softest brush I have ever felt.

The F84- I think I'm going to try using this to apply cream blushes. Again, so soft.

I mean, look how dense it is! I wanted the F82 as well, but when I placed my order that one was out.

The E40- This one is a little bigger than what I imagined it was going to be. I'm going to be using it to blend my eyeshadow out or to use to apply the highlight colour to my brow bone.

I think the brush is too big to apply the crease colour. My eyelid isn't that big so I don't want to get a big area with this brush.

The E70- I don't have a brush like this. I'm going to use it to apply the darker shadow to the outer corner of my eye. I was using the MAC 239 brush.

I like that it has an angle so I have more control in applying my darker eyeshadows.

E45- I'm going to try using this brush to apply the crease colour to my lids. I think this will be a good brush to create the cut crease look.

One thing I noticed about this brush upon close inspection was that the point was not perfect. It was a little wonky. I'm hoping it will go back into shape after I wash it.

The E65- I wanted to have another angled brush to use in applying gel/cream eyeliner.

This one is a little thinner in width than the one I have from Quo.

Wow, I really feel like in the past year a half I have really expanded my makeup collection. I constantly want to learn more about makeup and try different products. Please recommend any makeup products that you can't live without. I'm always curious to see what people are using.

BTW, I got a call from Sephora telling me that the Hello Kitty brush set was in stock at my local store. I went to check it out at lunch and was disappointed. It was expensive- $62CAD and the brushes were teeny. Plus, they didn't look to be of good quality. The Hello Kitty brush holder/figurine was cute, but I'm not forking over $62 for it. Sometime I wish I lived in the States so that I can pay a little less for makeup. It's so much more here...