Love at First Scent

This candle is seriously yummy in a warm way. I went with my sister to Target and came across this delicious soy candle. It's called "Harmonize - Tea Leaf & Papaya (Peace And Tranquility Soy Wax Candle)."

Peace and Tranquility is a collection of fine fragrances combining aromatherapy concepts with ancient cultural beliefs. Carefully selected fragrance are combine to balance the mind, body and spirit. Create an ambiance of warmth and serenity, while softening your spirits with scents of the tropics. Tea leaf, a haven of purity with origins from sun-drenched Asian fields, revels in its blend with fellow anti-oxidant, papaya fruit. Bring peace and harmony to your home with this fine fragrance.

TAG Tuesday

Whoa...I'm up at 7 a.m. and I didn't even stay up all night. Full moon?

I was tagged by Alyssa so I thought I'd get this done now.

the rules:
Each player answers the question themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them comments letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve answered the questions on your blog.

10 Years Ago:
1. I was a church girl
2. I was an honors program student
3. I weighed about 100 lbs or less
4. I took my first creative writing class where I met my dear friend Jamie
5. I smashed my face into a windshield when my friend drove and hit a tree in a parking lot (and I hadn't buckled my seat belt yet)...it left quite a mold of my face in the cracked glass

TAG!! I'm It...Who's Next?!

I was tagged !!

Here are the Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on his/her website

Six Random Things About Me...

1. I am what my friend Hannah calls a "Japanophile" - fascinated with all things Japanese. I'm slooooooowly learning Japanese and I really want to go to Tokyo to shop and go wild, haha.

My Natural Look...

Somehow turned into my "beach" look for Ms. Mimi's "Natural Look" contest. (Natural look for a So Cal/beach gal?)

Here are the three items I used:

♥ Dramatic Parfums Dramatic Volume Volume & Curl mascara
♥ MAC Bronzing Powder in Refined Golden
♥ MAC Lipglass in C-Thru

and my freebie item:

♥ Benefit Play Sticks in Jump Rope

Green With Envy

Sooo...earlier this week I bought the Kate eyeshadow palette in green, thanks to Alyssa's blog (which did it more justice than I'm about to)...and here are the results!

It's the sad-girl-looking down look...

Think Pink!!

"Ahh...here it is, here is our answer: PINK!"

I'm actually watching "Funny Face" right now.

Anyway, I came across this blog and loved the idea of WuzzyAngel's first contest "Pink Eye," in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month...so don't laugh, because the camera whore in me felt compelled to toss my hat into the ring and enter!

Surprising, I know...

My Pretty Pink Box Brings All The Boys to the Yard...

I just opened my pretty pink box today and it smells delicious! It's soooo girly, so pink and sweet.


This is one of those times when I love being a girl...so I can enjoy playing with makeup and beauty products, and smelling all sweet and yummy! This pretty pink box came with lots of samples to play with.

i heart Japanese goodies

Warning: Picture overload AND kawaii overload. Proceed with caution.

Yesterday this Japanese + beauty product-crazed gal dedicated her time to doing serious damage at Marukai, Ohayo USA and Nijiya.

I started off with lunch at Sushi Boy inside Marukai, enjoyed a Rainbow Roll and Washington Roll...washed down with candy-flavored apple juice....mmm.

October is...

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and apparently a lot of other things too).

I may be misquoting but I believe Oprah said every hour we lose one out of every eight women to breast cancer. Wow.

While I'm not here to lecture, I just wanted to say that if you don't know, please educate yourself, be aware, show your support for the cause and help if you can. In the spirit of this "Pink Ribbon" month, I'm also doing these two things:

♥ reading A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That
♥ and purchased My Pretty Pink Box

Rice Bran Beauty Review

Just tried the Komenuka Bijin Cleansing Powder...first let me say I was a little put off by how the powder looks when it mixes with water, sort of like dissolved aspirin in your hand (and honestly it kinda smells that way too), but it did feel very gentle on my face and my face felt soft after I rinsed it off. Then the boo factor...I applied night cream and felt a mild burning sensation in my skin again. Nooooo! It wasn't painful but felt like I'd scrubbed my face raw. Bummer. I really wanted to like this product since I love the concept and Asian (particularly Japanese) products but I think perhaps my skin is allergic to one or some of the ingredients. So much for being Asian and using an Asian product. My bank account thanks me though. I hope if anyone else tries it you fare better off than I did. I'm thankful I got samples to try before I threw away $30. I caution those with skin that is somewhat dry or sensitive...everyone should definitely try a sample first!

UPDATE: Whoops! This was actually an unfinished entry (and therefore my very raw thoughts) that I accidentally published while doing my blog makeover on November 16, 2008. If it weren't for your comments, I wouldn't have realized, hehe.

Sadly I've come to believe that rice bran beauty isn't for me. I tried the Komenuka Bijin shampoo and conditioner samples. They had a clean scent or hardly any scent to them, but within 24 hours my hair felt like it had a sticky residue coat to it.

Sweet Sunday

I love sweets...I stumbled across a local cupcake shop today so of course I had to try my first red velvet cupcake! I can't compare it to Sprinkles since I've yet to go but it's nice to find a local cupcake shop. I love cupcakes so much I even own a book just so I can drool over the pictures...and maybe one day when I have my own kitchen I'll try all of the recipes.

Japanese Rice Bran Beauty

Look what this lucky gal got in the mail!!


Those are Komenuka Bijin Cleansing Powder samples!

What's in Her Purse?

It's more like, what's NOT in her purse? First of all, I saw a few other girls doing this blog and thought how fun! I've always wanted to do something like this when I was younger and often saw something similar in magazines, so here it is.

Proudly showing off my Tokidoki Mamma Mia in Citta Rosa bag!

What every girl should carry...the necessities! Keys, cash, and a sh*tload of cards (credit cards, store cards, ID, gym membership card...oh, I don't carry a wallet or coin purse)

You thought I was kidding but I wasn't! I'm a girl on the go...

♥ ipod classic
♥ cell phone and bluetooth headset♥ makeup: MAC powder, eye liner, concealer, mascara, lip gloss, lip pencil, eye shadow quad palette, and mini brush set (because I always think, what if a boy makes me cry or I need to touch up or salvage my face?)♥ hair stuff: hair clip, hair claw, bobby pin, and an extra hair tie♥ Vaseline Lip Therapy in cherry (for soft, kissable lips)♥ pink Japanese tissue (that my sister thinks looks like a maxi pad!)♥ Japanese pink blotting papers♥ sunglasses♥ Hello Kitty band-aids (they were cute!)♥ gum (fresh breath is a must and they clean your teeth...*ahem* morning after for long party nights)♥ calcium chews (to be taken with food so for after dining out)♥ Visine Tears and rewetting drops (I wear contacts)♥ Hempz body lotion (for body, duh) and antibacterial hand lotion (hands only, after washing hands or sneezing)♥ not pictured, my pink JDM camera!

On a tangent, I'm always curious how and where people keep their makeup and beauty goodies (aside from the bathroom, which by the way, is not the place to keep makeup...all the humidity from showers makes it a breeding ground for bacteria in your makeup). I've always wished for (and still do) a nice vanity table, Hollywood starlet style with the big mirror surrounded by bright lightbulbs, a little haven for my goodies and where I can beautify. I'm talking without the clutter of anything else...no papers or pens or coasters, etc., lol. However, I have a small room so I won' have my dream vanity table any time soon...so what I did instead was dedicate part of a bookcase to beauty.

Everything's in front of a window, a great natural light source for me. You can see my makeup brush holder and Merlot™ moisturizers I've blogged about previously, as well as flower vases from Gaby's wedding reception and a JDM makeup bag with my favorite goodies (the pink box is my Sexy Mother Pucker™ gift set)

The left side is all body butters, lotions, favorite hair products, and perfumes

The right side houses my train case with my least used goodies, Pond's Clean Sweep towelettes, travel brush set, makeup remover, Too Faced The Quickie Chronicle palettes, Clinique loose powder, and Benefit blush in Dallas

And guess what? The mini pink drawer holds makeup too!

The top drawer holds my lipglosses...

And the bottom drawer holds miscellaneous eye goodies, like my Darkness falsies

I think I'm a girlie girl but I try to keep the balance between what's necessary and what's luxury or a splurge. I try to be a minimalist but my indecisiveness and love for change makes that quite challenging. After all, I enjoy trying new things but not to the point where it becomes maddening clutter, unused goods, and money down the drain! The beautiful thing about blogging is that I get to *research* new goodies by reading reviews and sharing our opinions and information. =)

Brush Much?

I copied a Sephora-inspired makeup brush holder and made one for myself and also my sister. The vases were $4 at Michaels and the mini gems were $3 at Walmart. You can probably get them even cheaper at a thrift store or 99 cent store.

Moisture Mania Review

Quick review of the new goodies I'd gotten in Moisture Mania.

The Merlot™ Grape Seed Moisturizer is simply wonderful. I was lucky to get a small sample packet at Walgreens to try beforehand. The texture was a bit thicker than my usual moisturizers, and somewhat like a soft, non-greasy petroleum jelly. It absorbed quickly, and my skin was super dry so I reapplied after a few minutes and that absorbed quickly as well (no icky layer of moisturizer over your dry skin). Note though, when I bought the full size jar with the free travel sample, the texture was completely different; it had the light, fluffy texture I'd expected from a face cream. It's advertised as "fragrance free" but has a light grapefruit scent.

Hair Today, Dye Tomorrow

I admit it...I'm addicted to dying my hair.

From the time I was 16, I've had red highlights, purple highlights, and all various shades of brown hair and highlights (sometimes stepping dangerously close to blond or brassy orange-brown). I'm fortunate that I have genetically nice hair butI also have very thick hair, lots of it and long, and naturally jet black hair...so changing my color every other season has its challenges.

Anyway, these days I'm not so fixated on my hair color and opt for a more natural look, close to my natural shade so the maintenance won't be high (yuck to black roots with hair 4+ shades lighter). I also want my hair to stay healthy, regardless of the many changes I put it through, and I don't want the hassle of going to a salon (color charge, tip, fitting your schedule into your hair stylist's, waiting, traffic, etc.) so I turned to box dye...and look what I found.

Moisture Mania

Based on a friend's rave review, I went to Walgreens to buy the Merlot™ Grape Seed Moisturizer and Moonlight Radiance Night Cream. Yay for antioxidants and very affordable prices ($14.99 for the moisturizer, $20 for the night cream, both are 4 oz jars).

Crunch Time Vs. The Holidays

I've been thinking about it all year and now I'm finally applying for grad schools. Applying for an MFA program is different because the most important thing I'll be submitting, aside from transcripts and letters of recommendation, is my writing portfolio. My 20 or so pages of fiction have to showcase that I have great potential as a writer, and basically knock out hundreds of other writing submissions...but hey, no pressure.

The best thing that eases my mind is knowing my friend Jamie will also be applying, so we're doing it together and able to motivate each other and share information and perspectives. That's the way it's been for 10 years with us (we met in my first creative writing class in high school and both graduated from college as Creative Writing majors together) and I'm so thankful to have her. I love you, J!