Let's get Real

leeza from Stylist & Literate talked about these brushes being available for us Canucks at Walmart. I've wanted these brushes ever since I first heard about them watching beauty videos on YouTube. So last Saturday, while I was out running errands, I drove around several Walmarts looking for them. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find the Core Collection (shown above). I saw several of the Travel Collection, but I wasn't interested in those ones because I have lots of brushes similar to those. I was most interested in the contour brush and the buffing brush in the Core Collection. Finally, I was able to get these brushes at a Walmart near where I live (I should have gone to that location first!) and they had several of these on display. I got this set for $18.97CAD.

Here is the back of the package. 

I love the brush handles.
I was a little skeptical on the quality of the bristles as the brush set is pretty cheap, but
I was surprised how soft they were. 

As an added bonus the set came with a travel case. 

The draw string on the travel case can be tightened so make a stand for the brushes.
What a clever idea!

See how it stands up so that the brushes stand upright?

I can't stop looking at these brushes. They are so pretty.
I want to pick up the individual brushes (with the pink handles) later on, but I don't believe
they are available at Walmart. I think I will have to order it online at Amazon…

The front side of the buffing brush.

And the back.
These brushes are multi-purpose so I'm sure you can use this brush to apply liquid
foundation, apply blush, bronzer, etc.

Look how dense the buffing brush is. I'm going to be using this to set my liquid foundation
with powder.

My favourite brush in the set- the contour brush. I don't have a domed brush this size
so I'm super excited about this brush.

Here's the back.

The bristles on the buffing brush.

The foundation brush. I find this brush too small to apply liquid foundation. Plus, I don't
like these flat brushes to apply foundation. I prefer the flat-top kabuki-style brushes to
apply foundation. I plan on using this to apply concealer under my eyes.

The back.

Here's how the bristles look.

Lastly, the detailer brush. I think it's meant to spot conceal, but Aleeza mentioned you can
use this as a lipstick brush. Good idea!

Here's the back.

And the bristles.

Aleeza has a more detailed blog post on these brushes as well as a YouTube video so you should definitely check it out if you're interested.

A little beauty haul

had to go to Sephora yesterday to pick up my holy grail liquid eyeliner- the Sephora brand Long-Lasting 12HR Wear Eye Liner. I've talked about it here in a previous post. Of course, it never ends up being a quick grab and dash whenever I go to the mall. I picked up a few more beauty items. Nothing too crazy, but I'm really loving everything I picked up. I also picked up a few clothing items which I will talk about in my next post.

I've been curious about these hair ties when I saw Kendall Jenner wearing them on her
wrist on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. I always have 1 or 2 hair ties on my wrist
at all times. I always end up giving 1 to my sister or friends when they need it. Also,
since I have long hair, hair ties are a must. Especially with 2 little ones to care for.

Here's what one looks like on my wrist. It's super cute. I've also tried using them to
tie a pony tail and it holds up pretty well. It was $10CAD for a pack of 8. They also
had a different colour set with more neutral colours, but I thought these were more me.

Although I have a ton of nail polishes I realized I didn't have any glitter polishes that are

gold or rose-gold toned. I do have a very fine gold glitter polish, but I wanted a polish

with chunky glitters. I've been obsessed with Amelia's nails on her blog and she loves using

glitter polish as a top coat so I immediately wanted to get this polish at Sephora. It's

the Sephora by OPI top coat called Traffic Stopper Copper. It's a rose-gold glitter top coat
with multi-sized glitters on a clear base. I was also eyeing the gold version called
Only Gold For Me and a purple one called Mauve-ie Star In The Making.

This was $12CAD. I wanted to try 1 before getting the others. I might have to pick up
the others now because I love it.

Here's what it looks on my nails. I did use a nude colour as a base. It's Going Nude, Eh?
from Sephora by OPI. It's no longer available, but a ton of other companies make similar
nudes.

Another view.

So this is what I went in for. It's my go-to liner. I'm sad that they raised the price.
I remember it being $12CAD, but now it is $15CAD. It's still cheaper than other high-end
liquid eyeliners so I'm fine with the price increase. I get the 01 Black. For those of you
who are interested this liner it also comes with a brush tip. It has something like 'High Precision
Brush' on the side of the tube. I don't like that one. Make sure you get the one that doesn't
have that on the tube. The brush on that one is very flimsy. This one has a felt-tip so
you have more control.

I didn't get this on my trip to the mall. I ordered this off of eBay. I normally get the Dolly
Wink liquid eyeliner at an Asian mall where I live, but it is quite expensive. I think it
comes out to almost $28CAD with tax.
I decided to check out eBay to see if it would be a bit cheaper… and it was. I paid $17.48USD
with free shipping. Here is the seller if you are interested- terry_yuen72.

They changed the packaging from when I last bought it. I don't like it as much.
Apparently the formula is better now? I'll have to test it out.

And here is the felt tip. It's very fine and well-made. The felt tip is much sharper than
the Sephora brand one. 

Here is the old packaging. Much cuter, I think.

Here's what it looks like on my hand. The top line is with a thicker stroke and the bottom
line is a thinner stroke. I like using this liner to make the flick on my cat eye because you
can make a very sharp and precise flick because of how fine the felt tip is. BUT,
I don't like using this to make a general line on my eyes because I don't find the black
is as intense and pigmented as the Sephora brand liner.

Here is the Sephora brand liner below the Dolly Wink liner. You can see how intense
the black is. I made a thicker line and a thinner line. The Sephora brand liner is not
that great making a wing because the tip of the felt tip is not that fine. I like my wing
on my cat eye to be very precise.

Stay tuned for my clothing haul. Hope you guys are enjoying your week!

Pacific Mall finds

ike my new iPhone case and phone charm? I Instagrammed it when I first got it last week. The reason why I picked up another phone case (or phone cases for that matter…) was because my Kate Spade phone case that I blogged about a while back broke :-(

I ordered it from eBay and the quality of it was really cheap. I'm pretty sure it wasn't an authentic Kate Spade case because it shipped from China and it was only $20, but I didn't expect it to break so soon.
I almost always buy my phone cases in Asian places (i.e., Pacific Mall) because they have tons of options and the price points are really affordable. I got 2 cases that were smooth at the back because I wanted cases where I could stick my Sucker Stand that I got. I still love my Melt case, but because the back is not smooth the Sucker Stand won't stick…
Now, I saw the Céline phone charm on one of my favourite bloggers- Stephanie Sterjovski's website a while back so I made a mental note to pick it up at Pacific Mall the next time I went. I couldn't find the one she had, but I really liked this cobalt blue one with the yellow zip detail and logo.

The first iPhone case I picked up was this Kate Spade (probably not authentic) case.
This one is a much better quality than the Kate Spade case I bought from eBay.
It was also cheaper. I think I paid $12 vs. $20 on eBay.

The inside of the case has a quote- Have Courage. So cute!

The backside of the case has white polka dots.

The reason why I like this case was because it fits the Céline phone charm plug.
I got another case (which you'll see later on) that doesn't fit the charm plug.
You can also see that the case has a hot pink side.

Here's a close-up of the Céline phone charm. It's really well made.

This was the package it came in. The charm was $15. Totally affordable, in my opinion.

The backside also has details.
It also came in a soft pink, an orange and another colour (I forgot). I liked this one best
because it had contrasting details with the blue and yellow. The pink one had the same
pink-coloured zipper so I didn't think it popped.

This is the other phone case I got at Pacific Mall. I know it doesn't look like much, but
I like the simplicity of it. It was only $5 and it came in tons of colours. I settled with the
mint green because I think it goes well with the Céline phone charm.
It's hard to see in this photo, but the backside has a frosted finish so that it shows
through the back of the iPhone. 

Here is the case on my iPhone. I stuck the Céline phone charm in, but it's not completely
in. Because the hole is small on this iPhone case the charm doesn't go all the way in.

Here is the frosted back that I was talking about.

I like that is shows the Apple logo because of the frosted transparent back.

My husband borrowed my iPhone headphones last week because he broke his. I decided to give him mine and get new ones at Pacific Mall. 

I've never heard of these headphones, but they were so cute that I couldn't pass on them.
I think they were pretty affordable too at $10 a pop.
The ear buds have a Chiclet gum design. It came in a variety of colours, but I got the
pink one.

The headphones came with a cord keeper so that you can wrap your headphone
wires around it. I love that! I hate my headphones getting tangled up in my purse.
It also came with extra ear buds (in small, medium and large) that you can swap out.

Here's a little photo of how you can wrap the earphones.
I've used the earphones and the quality seems to be pretty good. 

Another reason I wanted to go to Pacific Mall was to get a mouse pad for my husband's office. He's been needing one ever since he got his new laptop last week, but I told him I would pick one out for him. If I left it up to him he would pick out an ugly mousepad that had a horrific design on it :-S

I know this mouse pad looks simple, but I liked that it was a light gray and small.
It was only $1.99. However, I realized when I got home that it had a peel back with
a sticker to stick onto your desk surface. I didn't want my husband to stick the mouse pad
on his desk so he ended up throwing this out.

Don't worry. This one isn't for my husband. Keke.
I got this mouse pad for my office desk. Isn't it cute? It's a very soft pink, almost white.
It also came in a hot pink.
I got this on sale for around $12?

I can't read the back because it's in Japanese.

Here's the mouse pad on my desk. I love it!

This is the mouse pad I ended up getting for my husband. He thinks it's too cute-sy, but
it beats the others I've seen at Best Buy, Walmart and other electronic shops.
I wish the end of the thought bubble was pointing to the left though… So that it points
toward the laptop. This was $6-7?

Here is the mouse pad on my husband's desk.