Afternoon tea anyone?

emember the tea cups that I bought a few weeks ago on sale? Well, I was finally able to display them on a shelf that I put up today with the hubby. I bought 2 EKBY JÄRPEN/ EKBY BJÄRNUM shelves from Ikea and mounted it in my breakfast nook. I love displaying pretty things on shelves. It's almost a waste to buy pretty cups and have it stored in a cupboard, don't you think?

It was so much fun grabbing things around my house to display alongside my cups. Overall I think it turned out quite nice.

Here are the pretty cups close-up. On the left is a box of English Afternoon Tea that my sister got for me from her trip to England back in May.

Another view.

And these are 2 shelves from far away.

Gap haul

AP is having a sale right now. And a pretty good one too. It's 25% off on top of the already reduced sale items. I happened to be in the store a couple of days ago returning something and I couldn't pass up getting these 2 items. I thought it was a good deal already, but I didn't realize at the check-out that they were an extra 25% off. Score!

I realized that everything I buy are things that are on sale. Unless they are pretty cheap I don't buy anything regular price anymore.

This bag also came in a copper colour, but I'm in love with this gun metal colour. I was actually interested in this bag when it first came out, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw that it was on sale. The inside has a copper lining and the handles are made of chain. It's actually pretty well-made and I feel like it's a knock-off of a designer bag, but I can't pinpoint which one.

The regular price was $59.95 and it got further reduced to $27.99 + 25% off. So I actually got it for just a little over $20. Amazing, no?

I also was interested in these flats when they first came out, but I didn't get it. I think it's made of leather so it's pretty good quality. The cool thing about these flats are that it folds over so that you can carry it in your bag with you. It came in a wide range of colours, but I got the pink one.

This is the little pouch it came in.

It was originally $39.50 (which I think it pretty reasonable) and it was on sale for $24.99 + 25% off for a total of $18.75! I think that was a steal.

I love how cute they are. I wore it 2 days in a row.

Costa Chic

right lips have been my obsession this spring/summer.

I've been looking for a bright orange lipstick for a while now and I'm so glad I found MAC's Costa Chic lipstick. You guys saw it in my haul previous to this one, but I can't stop looking at it. It's nothing like anything I own and I wore it on Tuesday (photo above). I paired it with a bright green top from Forever 21, gray shorts, and cobalt blue flats (not shown). Let's just say I'm colour obsessed this season!

I also tried a simple thing on my hair. Usually I wear it down and straight, but I tried twisting a section of it and pinning it back with 2 hair pins (criss crossed). I wore it 2 days out of this week and I love it!

Beauty haul (photo heavy)

ust a few random beauty things I picked up over the past few weeks.

Some were things I got from work and others were stuff I picked up for myself because I had heard lots of good things about them.

Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in #61 Bonheur. This is my first Chanel lipstick. My co-worker gave this to me to try out. The colour isn't photographing true to colour, but it's a sheer, but buildable reddish berry colour with some gold shimmer. It's actually quite pretty. This formulation is super hydrating and leaves my dry lips very moisturized. I'm quite impressed with this product so I would love to try out more.

MAC's Love Nectar Lustreglass. I first heard about this in Sandra's YouTube video on her favourite MAC lip products. It's a beautiful neutral gloss with gold shimmer. It goes on a little sheer, but when I wear it alone on my lips my lips literally look so plump and delicious! I can't explain it. I love how it looks on my lips. I've been wearing it religiously on my lips for a few weeks now.

I picked up another product from MAC's Surf Baby! Collection today- Strange Potion Lipglass. It's a repromote from the 2010 Venomous Villains Collection- the Evil Queen. It's a pretty coral colour. It's very pigmented and almost goes on like liquid lipstick. I definitely can wear it alone, but I bought it to wear over my next lip product.

I dropped by MAC today to actually pick this lipstick up. It's called Costa Chic and it's part of their permanent line. I heard about this from a few beauty blogs and I knew I had to get it. Lately I've been obsessed with bright colours- especially corals. Unfortunately it's not photographing true to colour, but it's a bright coral in a frost finish. I absolutely love it!

Here are all the lip products swatched on my hand. From left to right: Chanel's Bonheur Lipstick, MAC's Love Nectar Lustreglass, MAC's Strange Potion Lipglass, and MAC's Costa Chic Lipstick.

Shu Uemura eyelash curler. I was using my Shiseido eyelash curler for the longest time, but I decided I needed a new one. It's very comparable to the Shiseido one. I'm not sure which one is better because they both work equally well on my eyes.

Revlon's Blue Mosaic nail polish. I got this today from work and I can't wait to try it! It reminds me a lot of Deborah Lippmann's nail colours.

Revlon's Starry Pink nail polish. I was most intrigued about this one because I've never seen a grayish purple nail colour with glitter like this. It's much more beautiful in person.

OPI's Mermaid's Tears from the Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection. I also got this from work today and I can't wait to try it. It reminds me of a darker version of China Glaze's For Audrey.

If you guys have dry lips like me you MUST pick up Jack Black's Intense Therapy Lip Balm. I got mine at Sephora (not sure where else you can get it) and it's AMAZING. I heard a lot of good things about it already and I can see why. It was about $8 and it's in the men's beauty (is that the right word?) section. It comes in Natural Mint (which is what I got) and other flavours. My store only carried the mint one and Lemon & Chamomile, but online I see many more flavours. I really like mint and how it makes my lip tingle so that's why I got this one. The tingling sensation may be a little too much for those who don't like that, but I love it. There used to be a lip treatment that I used to use when I was in my teens, but they discontinued it. I forgot who it was by, but this one reminds me a lot of that one. It is a gel-like texture and it feels almost oily, but once it starts working it really make my lips feel so soft and hydrated.

I picked up Maybelline's Mineral Power concealer in ivory 2-3. The shade is a little too light for me now since I've been out in the sun every weekend, but I really like it. I'm no concealer connoisseur, but I think this is a great concealer that is great for spot treatment and has light reflecting properties. I think it would also be great for under the eyes. It has a doe-foot applicator and it blends really well. I was using MAC's concealer (the one that comes in the pot), but I find it too thick in texture and it doesn't look great near the end of the day.

I saw Hard Candy's Fox In a Box at Walmart and I was interested in trying them out. It reminded me of Benefit's blushes, but for a fraction of the price. I think I got mine for just under $6 each. The first one I got was in Spicy & Sweet. It's a mosaic blush with a bronzer. You can see the individual swatch above with a final swatch (at the bottom) with it all swirled together. It's actually quite pigmented so I have to be careful not to grab too much with my blush brush. It comes with a brush that is on the inside lid of the packaging, but it's really cheap and useless. It's better to use your own brush. I use a combination of my Tokidoki blush brush and my MAC 109 brush.

Next I got Truth Or Dare. I got this one because I wanted to compare it with the Benefit blush I already own.

The one I have from Benefit is Thrrrob and I love it. The packaging is very similar too.

The left is Thrrrob from Benefit and the right is Truth Or Dare from Hard Candy. The Hard Candy has a bronzer on the left. The Benefit one is a little more blue-based and a bit lighter.

Here's the swatch of the Hard Candy blush. It's really hard to tell in this photo because the colours are so light. The left is the Hard Cnady bronzer, the middle the Hard Candy blush, and the right is Benefit's Thrrrob.

I've been trying out MAC's MSF in Give Me Sun! I use it as a bronzer because it doesn't have any shimmer. I have oily skin so I hate anything with shimmer. It's a little ruddy looking for my skin tone, so I've been using it very light-handed on my cheeks.

This is my favourite liquid eyeliner of ALL TIME. It's from the Sephora line and it's amazing. The SA was telling me that Sephora reformulated this eyeliner so I should try it. I had used the previous one in the past and I hated it. This one dries almost instantly and the black is so intense and long-wearing. It doesn't flake like some other liquid eyeliners (i.e., the Lancome Art Liner) and it looks matte, not shiny (i.e., L'Oréal Lineur Intense). The brush is not that flimsy so you can draw a thin line or press down harder to draw a thicker line. The only con is that because the black is so intense you really do need a steady hand.

I just love this eyeliner that I bought a back-up. I'm surprised I don't hear much about this eyeliner because it's sooooo good. It's also very affordable at $12CAD. I want to buy the brown one too.

I want to show you guys how black the Sephora eyeliner is so I compared it to my Dolly Wink eyeliner that I picked up a couple of months ago. The Dolly Wink eyeliner got a lot of raves, but I think the Sephora one is better. The 2 bottom lines were drawn with the Dolly Wink eyeliner and the top 2 is the Sephora one. You can see that the Sephora one is a lot more intense. I still like the Dolly Wink and I mainly use it to finish off the flick when I draw a cat eye. I find that the felt tip of the Dolly Wink is much easier for control than the Sephora one.