Sydney IMATS Haul 2011

Heh I bet you've seen so many of these IMATS haul posts by Sydney bloggers in the past fewer days as IMATS just happened over the last weekend! I also DID attend IMATS as a part of the ABBW (Australian Beauty Blogger Weekend) and I did write about it in my previous post.

Ok. So let's start this haul post!

I honestly don't remember which stand did Tezza, Alice and I visited first. I think it would've been either the Make-Up Forever stand or the MAC stand, but seeing that it was a tad crowded, we went for a round and decided to come back later.

We passed the Serge Louis Alvarez (SLA) stand and they had a "3 for $30" deal on their lipsticks from an old collection! Together with Tezza, I picked up these two lipsticks which has no given name ~.~

Yes! An orange and a pastel purple coloured lipstick! Even though I've been loving bold lippies lately, I honestly won't ever wear that pastel purple lipstick out and about! I love it though!

I've been eye-ing Lime Crime's pastel purple and yellow lipstick for a while now... so now I'm on the search for a yellow lipstick. If you have any ideas (besides Lime Crime), please tweet or comment me!

And then we passed INGLOT where I made a purchase on three eyeshadow refills in matte black, matte blue and matte yellow. They were $7 each with their 30% off deal!

I actually don't wear eyeshadows. I personally think it makes me look a tad older than my age, but I DO enjoy doing funky inspired or crazy make-up looks sometimes. For $7, these eyshadows are crazily pigmented I tell ya!

After that, I made my way back to the MUFE stand but it was so crazily packed, so I just left after swatching a few of their HD blushers. I went around to find a stand which stocked their HD foundation for $42 (a few dollars cheaper) with no long queues, so I just grabbed one in #123 which hopefully is my shade!!

HD Foundation. Checked. Inglot Eyeshadows. Checked. Lipsticks. Checked!

Initially, that was all I wanted from IMATS, but since MAC was having a 20% off, I thought I'd check out what they have in store.. I ended up purchasing their Mineralize Skin Finish Natural in Medium Plus for $37. I always wanted a powder which gives off a dewy finish so I wanted to give this powder a try, because I saw Pearl Tam using it and it gave her such a nice and dewy look!

And then Ben NYE! I was so excited to visit their stand, but too bad they are just a 'presenting' stand, so we had to find other stands which stocks Ben Nye products which was Scotty's Make-Up & Beauty and bought a powder blush for my sister in Fresh Coral which was $10! So cheap!

And last of all is this awesome Special Effects Master Bruise Wheel by Ben Nye!!! I've always loved special effects! I'm so excited to use this wheel on someone's face heh! You could see that I already started playing with it :P

One thing I don't understand is why do they have a yellow and muddy green in the wheel? *confused*

However, on a similar note, Amanda, a friend who couldn't attend the earlier half of Day 1 decided to bring us some Sportsgirls goodies as a gift! It was so sweet of her! You really didn't have to Amanda!

She included two lipsticks, two eyeshadow trios and 1 blusher for all 3 of us :D Awww! Happy! I'm now the happy owner of 5 Sportsgirls lipsticks which motivates me to write up a review for them soon!

Please stay tuned!

Sydney IMATS 2011 & ABBW

Over the weekend, I've actually participated in the first ever Australian Beauty Blogger Weekend 2011 and I'm just SO excited to share with you guys the wonderful experience!

I have to thank Jacie (http://www.youvegotnail.com/) and Kimmi (http://theplasticdiaries.com/) SO much for putting in so much time and effort to organise this event, and also a big thank you to all the sponsors of the event!

The very first event of the ABBW was IMATS! A make-up artist trade show in the early morning is just perfect, I tell ya!

Tezza and Alice and myself headed to Novotel first to register and pick up our name badges and a lovely gift from Garnier and proceeded to wait outside the Hall for everyone to gather!

Heading inside, there stood many many many make-up stands and I could tell you that I was extremely excited to see Make-Up Forever and Ben Nye there! However, I'm actually quite disappointed with the MUFE stand as there were only fewer store people and the long wait to get served was just..... Bleh!

And Pursebuzz's class!

And later on, we actually got to meet Elessa! She is gorgeous and so sweet too! She gave us a heart-warming hug and a bow on me head :)

I actually spent around $200 at IMATS and I will do a seperate haul post for you! I also met Pearl and I was also looking forward to meeting Dommique and Melinda, but I missed them at some point at IMATS sadly! I saw Ailing there too!

After IMATS, we headed back to Novotel for some bloggers' event.

We then had a break and waited outside till we collected our goodie bags from Kimmi and Jacie!!

After that, we headed to the Establishment for Dinner, but Tezza had to leave because she felt quite sick. Everyone was dressed up in dresses, heels and all... only Alice and I who were still in the same clothes as we live quite far away from the place and didn't bring a change of clothes! *cries

We felt so casual and left out to be honest! :'(

Heading upstairs before dinner, it was an event hosted by Maxted Thomas PR which stood many beauty and haircare stands such as Burts Bee, Nivea, Remington, ORLY and some fragrance stops too! We were allowed to collect products so I am looking super excited to try the Burts Bee products I picked up!

Amanda couldn't attend earlier in the day, but she made it to the later event so yay! I actually didn't recognise her when she approached me... because Alice wasn't next to me at the time and I'm extremely bad with faces! Woops!

And that was the end of Day 1 for me, as I had to leave early.... my house got broken into while I was at ABBW! So I had to leave before dinner started to see if Mummy was okay at home.... She's okay though and everything at home has settled down. I was quite upset that I couldn't be there for dinner though, and the fact that I bursted into tears and I felt like I ruined the mood for anyone who saw me tearing up at the event! :'( Sorry guys!

Day 2 of ABBW

Day 2 of ABBW started off with breakfast at Novotel which was followed by a keynote speaker session with Alpha-H! I've heard so much great things about Alpha-H and to get to know their brand more, it was just SO interesting! We also received a Liquid Gold goodie pack which I'm extremely excited to try out too!!

After that is lunch break and then Face Of Australia's Masterclass which I was super duper excited for! I've been desperate to meet Tina who is the Brand Manager of FOA!

Lining up outside and ready for FOA's Masterclass!

FOA's Goodie bag!!

Learning how to contour face shapes...

I actually promised to do a post on contouring and highlighting face shapes for quite a while now... Sorry guys!

A snapshot with Tina and Alice! She is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty x1012323! Hahahhaha! Tezza, Alice and Amanda knew so much I was excited to meet Tina!!!

And the day finished off with a keynote speaker session by Bahar Etniman, founder and editor of RESCU who gave us many tips of what to do and what NOT to do. During that last session, I got sick because Novotel decided to blast their air-conditioner on full blast or something along the lines of that!

My ABBW weekend ended like that... lotsa goodie bags, a mindful of professional blogging tips of what to do and NOT to do, a handful of business cards and a valuable experience to remember!

I also forgot to mention that I've met a few bloggers who I've always tweeted and I feel so bad because they had to approach the girls and I! I'm extremely sorry, but I just couldn't fight against my shyness and I'm so bad with faces that I wouldn't recognise anyone unless they'd mention their Twitter handle or blog's URL. *sigh

I hope everyone enjoyed their time at ABBW and I promise I'll man up next year! I only gave out 10 of my 250 business cards! *cry*

Hello hello!

Hey lovelies! I've haven't posted anything person and non-beauty related for such a long time... so here it is!

Thanks for the awesome comments on my previous post. Some people found the way I expressed myself very amusing and some even think it's an awesome post... hahahhaha.

Honestly, I felt like a bitch typing that post up. I thought it'd be too rude and offensive! Oh wells...

Moving on...

So.. today, 7/11 (a petrol station) held a 'BYO Cup' day where you bring your own cup, pay $2.60 and you can fill up your whole cup whether it's small or large.

So I went with a few people and bought our cups to fill up of course.

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HAHAHHAHAHAAHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

Bro, might as well take the whole machine home with ya.

I'm just kidding, neither photos are of my friends. I found those photos from Facebook and thought I'd show you guys. Heh.

I DID go to 7/11 to fill up my cup though... which was a mug :) I couldn't finish it thoughhhhhh :(

It looks so colourful and pretty! :)

On another note, I recently received my blogger business cards from Vistaprint for this weekend at Sydney IMATS and ABBW (Australian Beauty Blogger Weekend)! I designed it first, and then re-designed my whole blog template to match it! I'm quite proud of myself to be honest (hehehe).

What I'm unhappy about is the font size of the business card. It's so so so small which makes it a tad hard to read. What do you think? My biz cards look so kiddy LOL. I wonder if anyone would want to take them if I hand them out!

The last breaking news is that I've finally been able to rock red lipsticks! Can y'all believe? I never wear red lipsticks because it makes my teeth look yellow and puts emphasis on my acne scars. But I had a full face of make-up done today and left the house with this red lipstick!

Meh, it doesn't look very intensified in the photo.. but it's actually a gorgeous red-coral by Rimmel London in Tell No One from their Color Show Off range.

Finally been able to jump out of my comfort nudey-pink zone. Hahaha. I still love my pinks though! I might do a post soon of my pink faves!

Hope you've had a wonderful day!

Products I DON'T like!

I've came to realise that I've always talked about my favourite products, but never so much of the products I don't like!

So these products are dusting in my 'unusable items' box and I wanted to overview them briefly before they are altered to a better use [which may not even be make-up related].

Let's start.

*Almay Smart Shade Make-up is number one on the list, I definitely do not recommend to anyone. This is harsh, but.. how can anyone like this product?

Retails for $30, claims to give a beautiful and natural coverage yet offers no coverage at all (not even a sheer/light coverage) and oxidizes to be quite orangey shade on the skin. Nuff said.

Oh.. hang on! It also claims to transform to your skin colour too!

Does it? Yes it does, but you don't pay 30 bucks for that amusing bullsh*t k?

Now that I got my biggest missed product in history out of the way, next!

*Missha The Style Perfect Pen Eyeliner ($8.99)

This was one of my first eyeliners when I've started out with make-up and I have to say that I did like it at first when I bought it home.

What made me grew to dislike it is that, I could only use it for roughly around 10 applications before I needed to replace it. The felt tip would eventually become worn out and not keep in shape which makes it difficult to use.

Adding to that, the colour 'black' isn't black, but rather a blue-ish grey and the formula is not fade-proof, smudge-proof or water-proof.

Hah.. I think I just described the perfect crap eyeliner.

*Napoleon Perdis Long Black Mascara ($35)

This was my first NP mascara and I gotta say... it doesn't lengthen [my lashes], offers very little volume and doesn't hold the curls of my Asian lashes.

What's a mascara like this for? Darken my lashes? Pft. Every other mascaras do that and also volumises and lengthens better.

P.S. They won't be costing a whopping $35 too.

*KleanColor Mascara 101 Washable

This was a tag-a-long with my make-up kit when I studied a make-up course, so I have no idea how much it costs. But this is very similar to the Napoleon Perdis Long Black Mascara (no length, no volume and doesn't hold curls), except it offers a tad more volume when applied.

So I guess if you're looking for a dupe of the Napoleon Perdis Long Black Mascara, you should check this out. *giggles*

*New Eyecurl II

I think I picked this up for about $21? I'm not enitrely sure, but I do find this curler to perform its job well.

What stopped me from using this and gradually abandoned this is its battery usage. It uses AA battery and it uses up the batteries SO quick! I'm not willing to purchase batteries every week for this little thing since batteries are quite expensive here. I might need to get my hands on a Panasonic [heated eyelash curler] or one by Manicare and see how that goes.

One more thing about this is its bulky packaging, though it's not heavy... it's still quite annoying and ugly.

*L.A. Colors Liquid Eyeliner

No idea whether this was a bad one or not, but it is quite clumpy so I never looked at it after trying to use it once. The formula is quite wet and 'runny' so it doesn't dry immediately and I don't digg that.

However, I do find that it's quite water resistant, but in the end, that's useless for its clumpiness.

*Revlon Mineral Lipglaze (~$17?)

Unlike the products mentioned above (basically a miss for anyone).. this product is a matter of personal preference.

This lipgloss doesn't favour me because of the overwhelming coconut scent which is oh-my-god! I hate it! I tried to use the gloss WITH the fragrance, but the gloss is actually quite sticky, feels heavy on my lips and has the tendency to smear.

So overall, I personally dislike this lip gloss.

*Revlon Matte Lipstick in Nude Attitude ($21.95)

I bought this lipstick way back when I first started make-up, because it looked SO gorgeous on xteeener & bubzbeauty! It's actually not that bad., but I still don't like it though.

This shade is much of a peachy/apricot nude which doesn't quite suit me.

Makes me look like a dead fish, BUT I'm not complaining about the shade. The formula is unforgivable for how it accentuates the dryness/flakiness of my lips... and my lips aren't even dry to start off with! I do try to save this lipstick by priming my lips with a lip-balm before application, but it stills bring out as much dryness! Poo!

I find that the only times that this lipstick will work is when my lips are in perfect conditions (not overly moisturized or dry). Till then, it glides on very smoothly! Still makes me look dead though.

At the end of the day, this is more of a miss for me though I know some of you probably digg it. Sorry, but I'm not willing to wait and only use this for everytime my lips are in perfect condition. It's okay though. I have to admit that this is the better miss out of the bunch since I can use it to when I need to fake being sick or in a special inspired make-up look.

Hope you found this post helpful! Your turn to share!

Which products have you considered 'forever a miss'?

Saturday/Sunday Steals #12

I'm so excited to show you guys what I got from the markets in the last two weekends. I somehow always lag my post till about a week after! But seriously, blogging seems much more fun at night... Usually the same concept applies for games (the Sims 3! Yay!).

Okay so... I had no idea why last week's markets had so much "arty-stuff" such as paints and canvases. I bought a total of 8 painting canvases for 50 cents each with a free one ^-^!

These canvases are cost $2 to $4 at bargain stores, so they're actually not that pricey.. but hey! It's never a bad thing to get them for even cheaper. ;)

I also bought some 'bargain-store' acrylic paint in red and blue from the same seller, a bottle of [creamy white] craft paint and a tube of neon yellow craft paint -- all for $1 each.

For your information, I'm not much of an artist and I hate theoretical art. But I love abstract painting [because it doesn't need to make sense]! I used to paint in highschool for my Higher School Certificate project and I do have them pinned on my wall now :)

Besides the crafty stuff, I did also thrifted these two jackets!

This one [below] is by Bardot, I have no idea how old it is, but I think it's really cute! The bottom part there can be unzipped off turning it into a cropped coat/jacket! However, I think the arms a little too flared though... Oh wells! $4.

Also this skeletal print hoodie! It's a Size M, so it's a tad too big for me... but I love oversized hoodies! Considering that I wear tights all the time :$

Now.. more nail polishes! They were just so cheap and I couldn't resist :P

Chi Chi polishes (Shopaholic, Cat Fight) and B Collection polishes (Vancouver, Cologne)

Revlon nail polish 'Teak Rose', 'Geenie In A Bottle' by Glam Nails Manicare

Rimmel's 60 Seconds 'Portobello Pink'

The nail polishes above AND these two items before, I got altogether for $15! Cheap right?

A Max Factor lipstick in Bewitching Coral and a Revlon Colorstay eyeliner (crayon)

This Lancome quad which I believe, only comes with gift packs! I've always loved collecting these because of their handy packaging and decent pigmentation.

More thrifted polishes! Ulta3 in 'Lolly Pop Lilac' and 'Envy'. I LOVE frosty/foily nail polishes! I think it is amazingly pretty, but unfortunately, my local pharmacy doesn't stock these pretty frosty/foily picks :'(

And bangles! :S

Last but not least, I did come across this lady selling Clinque and Natio skincare and a few make-up products. There were toners, moisturizers, eye creams, lip balms and a whole other lot! I wasn't too interested, simply because the products she had doesn't suit my skin-type and conditions.. But then I saw that she had the Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel for $7!

I decided to round the sum up to $10 so I also purchased the eye cream she had by Natio :)

I'm actually in need of an eye cream for my dark circles so yay!!!!

Overall, I'm super happy with what I've purchased, considering that it's sooooooo cheap! I spent around $40 for all these stuff! I love markets!

Have you guys hauled or thrifted anything lately?