Holiday Haul

Hello ladies,

I consider myself a pretty patient person. If not, how else would you explain me being able to buy cosmetics and not use it for a while, even if wanting to a lot. I have some stuff that I bought back in November but have not touched because first I wanted to use up some existing things I have, and now I need to take photos before using it. I'm talking about Benefit's Her Name Was Glowla set, but it is not pictured because it is not technically a part of my holiday haul. 

Holiday season is a crazy time for my family because our birthdays happen in December, then of course Christmas and New Year, and then our anniversary is on January 3rd. This year is a little bit less crazy because my husband is away and I'm all alone with cats (and all they care about are some yummy munchies), plus he got a big gift that combined birthday, Christmas and anniversary gifts so I didn't have to think hard about what to get him. So I got some stuff for myself instead haha. Or asked for cosmetics as a gift.

FRONTCOVER To Go set
On my birthday (December 27) I met up with some friends at Bluewater mall but little did I know that it is THE infamous Boxing Day. I was told that it is the equivalent of US Black Friday. Well either way, it is also my birthday and I was determent to do something fun and going shopping is always fun in my book. Even if I had to drive for over an hour and dodge crowds. But anyways, enough of my ramblings. I wanted to try Frontcover makeup for a while, and this set was 1/2 at Boots so I figured I had a right to pick it up. I swatched some eye shadows while getting ice cream with my friends, and we were totally impressed. Now I just need to work up the courage to take more detailed photos and review this, so I could be freeeeeeeee to use it.

 Sigma Complete Kit with Brush Roll in Pink
I got a giftcard from my in-laws... which could only be used in US. This is a whole separate rant that everyone who knows me already heard all about. Anyways, after trying to use it in Bluewater with no success (I had to try!!!), I decided to go the trusted route of ordering something online. Sigma had a sale on their brushes at the time, so I ordered Complete Kit with Brush Roll in Pink, which I probably would have never ordered if I had to buy it myself. Can't help it, as much as I understand the need for good brushes I just can't shell out $80 at one time :( I got the set in pink, but I do not see it on the website anymore so maybe they discontinued it.

tokidoki Robbery Palette
Remember my rant about some websites not shipping to APO addresses? The stuff you see from now one are the ones I really, desperately wanted from Sephora but had no way or ordering them myself. So I gave a list to my brother of stuff I wanted and he got me all these stuff!!!! I think I'll do that from now on, just give him a list haha so he doesn't have to think so hard. :P So here is tokidoki Robbery Palette which I really really really wanted. I don't have any idea who tokidoki is/are, some kind of Japanese cartoon? (speaks the person obsessed with Japan) Nor do I really care. I've heard the name before, but other than that I had no idea about them. But when I came across their makeup range on Sephora I was blown away by the cuteness! The box is metal too! :) And the design is so cute :) Ok, I'm in a cuteness overload happy land right now.

Stila limited edition Travel Palettes
Ever since I saw these I've wanted the Russian palette. Yup, because I have Russian in me. Too bad for me though because it was sold out everywhere except Sephora. I could get Tokyo and Aspen on Ulta.com but why would I order from there when Sephora had 4 of them, including Moscow? So my brother got them for me :) They are sooo cute in person, although smaller than I expected. If I like these enough I will hunt down the other two on eBay, for collection purposes.

Yup that is my kitty trying to steal some makeup ;P

Tarte Bronze Smoky Eye kit
I've been wanting to try Tarte cosmetics for a while, so I just added random stuff to my list. Actually I added a LOT of random items, not necessary Tarte, to have some element of surprise but this is what my brother choose for me so I could finally try it. I don't see this set on Sephora.com anymore so I guess they sold out. So far I'm excited about everything except bronzer and possibly the lip stain because it is very brown. But I'm going to try it and see how it looks on me since I never ever tried brown for a lip color.

 Maybelline Instand Anti-Age primer and Sleek Molten Metal
These are not part of my holiday haul, but stuff I picked up on Saturday. I'm very excited about Maybelline's Instant Anti-Age primer because I also ordered an American equivalent of it. I guess it is part of the Eracer foundation line which just now been released in UK (I went to 3 Boots stores, and 2 Superdrug stores before I found it in the 3rd Superdrug) but it had been released in US for a while. I finally ordered myself one with the primer that comes with it, otherwise I would have bought a foundation too. I'm can't wait to receive it in the mail so I can compare to, mostly because shade names and numbers for foundation are different for US and UK. Call me clueless, but I thought that the shade names and numbers will be the same. Guess not lol.

Next is Sleek Molten Metal which I wanted to try ever since I saw a preview of it in December. I had to go to 3 Superdrugs before I found it too! Not much to say here other than I never used cream eye shadows so it will be a new experience to me. 

Have any of you picked up any good stuff lately?

~ Lyuba

Phoenix FOTD

Hey ladies,

Few days ago I decided to go completely crazy with my eye makeup (as opposed to what I usually do) and give some love to yellow and orange colors from Sleek SUNSET palette. And here is the result:

I decided to go completely UNsafe and ignore the whole statement lips/light eyes rule. I wanted everything bright, the eyes and the lips!

I love how the red/orange/yellow makes my eyes look so much greener! And here is the close up of my lips, I used Bourjois So Delicate Lip Cream. After it dried, it literally stayed on for whole day, even after eating! I was seriously impressed, seeing as when I wore it before it never lasted longer than an hour. Guess the secret is to let it dry completely.

So what do you think?

~ Lyuba

15 Random Facts Tag

Hey everyone,

I've seen this tag going around several blogs, but after seeing it on FunnyFace Beauty I decided that I should do it too. Because I love reading those random facts from  other bloggers, so I'm sure someone will find this interesting.

1. I am addicted... no OBSESSED with kimono. I wear it fairly regularly, and always look for opportunities to wear kimono more often. You can check out my Strawberry Kimono blog, devoted to.. yup KIMONO! Because of kimono I already have friends in many countries, and it definitely helped me a lot when I moved to UK because I already knew several people, and after meeting them in person we became even better friends. I can only imagine what will happen if we ever get stationed in Japan..... ;P

2. Aside from kimono, I'm also in love with all kinds of funky and fun shoes. Irregular Choice would be my all time favorite brand. In fact, just yesterday I bought myself 3 pairs of their shoes on sale, and 1 pair off eBay. Bad, bad Lyuba! My new favorite thing is to wear western shoes with kimono. ;P At some point I had more kimono shoes (zori, geta) than western, but now I'm all caught up and western shoes definitely win. 

3. I love reading and always bring a book with me anywhere I go. Currently my collection consists of Russian, Ukrainian (although they are harder to come by) and English books and I tend to read either fantasy or women/cultural studies or history books. And I don't like sci fi. My all time favorite book is Tarzan, I own the complete series in Russian and currently collecting Grosseet&Dunlap early prints in English. It's a lot of fun to read those books when they were originally published, some words are rarely used now or have a completely different meaning! "He ejaculated his words" is just one of those examples that make me GIGGLE like crazy every time I read it.

4. I'm extremely comfortable with my body. It all happened after I decided to cosplay Red Sonja at San Diego Comic Con 2006. Until then I was very self conscious about my body, thinking I was getting fat and doing all kinds of stupid diets (yes, now I realize how stupid it was and don't have those thoughts any more). After SDCC I realized that hey, I actually LIKE myself the way I am stopped obsessing over things that were not true (like me being fat) and started appreciate what was given to me by parents. My latest costume is Jungle Girl, although I hated the way my wig looked so I went with my natural hair. I haven't posted these photos anywhere yet, so I guess you can say my readers are getting a sort of preview.

Image credit

5. I took photos with a real alligator. Yup, I am pretty proud of it even if the day was kinda ugly and photos did not turn out as well as I wanted them to. But at the same time, how many of you can say that you sat on an alligator, walked away alive and had photos to prove it? ;P You can also see me riding one in this video.Photos and videos were taken at the Alligator Alley in Alabama, which is an alligator farm and rescue. Really cool place, next time I'm visiting in the States I will make sure to visit it again.

6. I have two cats, Mittens and Echo, and they are my "babies". I call them "my little kitties" and anyone who knows me knows that I am a crazy married cat lady and will not shut up about my kitties ;P But they are my very first cats, so I think I'm allowed to cherish and love them right? I'm very happy that I have them, especially when my husband goes deployed I still know that there is someone waiting for me at home. And yes, they do greet me at the door every day and Echo (spotted bengal) even plays fetch with me :) :) :) Oh no, crazy cat lady mode had started! ;P

7. I rarely have a bad hair day, but I have bad eyebrows day quite often. The thing is, my eyebrows are so LIGHT that you can barely see them and I have to fill them in every single day. Sometimes it turns out, sometimes it doesn't. Needless to say, this is one aspect of makeup that I'm looking forward to the least.

8. I refuse to learn how to drive a manual transmission car. It is one thing that I feel is very childish, yet  I do not want to give in. I like my automatic car, I enjoy driving with one foot, and I can wear kimono and drive in automatic. I doubt I will be able to do it in manual. But even if it was possible to wear kimono and drive a manual car, I still refuse to learn. Maybe it's because a lot (not all of course) of manual car drivers, including my husband, look down on automatic cars and it drives me crazy. So I'm making a PRO-automatic car stand lol.

9. Another thing that I refuse to do is listen to any American music. I'm not saying that I don't like it, or that it's bad, but you won't find it on my ipod. Of course, there are few exceptions, but they are so few that I don't think you can consider me hypocritical for it. I only listen to Russian, Ukrainian and occasionally Japanese music. Why? Because when I lived in Ukraine, about 80% of music played there was foreign, and about 90% of that foreign music was American. So now, after moving to US, I want to listen to MY OWN country's music, something I wasn't exposed to growing up and something I would like to be exposed to now. LOL my husband and I argue about this all the time, because he is refusing to accept my reasons saying that he listens to MY music, yet I refuse to listen to HIS music.

10. I am addicted to my phone, it's my link to life. I'm also addicted to texting, but sadly here in UK I don't have as many people to text to as I had in the States, and I miss it terribly. I can't wait to get an iPhone, and get that free texting application that would allow me to text my friends in the States for free :) :) :) Just couple more month, I can do it!

11. I am very particular about being called Ukrainian instead of Russian. And yes, I speak both languages, and speak primarily Russian, but that doesn't give anyone right to tell me that it makes me Russian. People in Brazil speak Portuguese, yet no one calls them Portuguese, they are called Brazilians. Just because Ukraine was under Russian rule for centuries, does not mean that Ukrainian is just a Russian dialect (yup, several people told me that). It just means that certain parts of Ukraine are still primarily Russian speaking, yet EVERYONE in Ukraine knows Ukrainian too. And can choose which language to speak. It is not unusual to see two friends talking, one will be speaking in Russian and another replying in Ukrainian. I choose Russian because my mom's side of family moved to Ukraine from Russia in 1970s, and primary language in my family is Russian. Also, the area of Ukraine where we're from is primarily Russian speaking. Yet when I had a choice of picking my nationality, because mom is Russian and dad is Ukrainian, I choose Ukrainian and I would like people who ask me where I'm from to respect that. Can you see it's a little bit of a sore subject for me?

12. I did not know how to cook until 2 years ago when I got married. I even used to think that maybe I'm a bad cook, but turned out it's not true. I'm a pretty good cook, I just never had a need to do it before marriage. :)

13. I can be pretty bitter about my status of a military wife and all the negative things it brings. Yes, there are some good thing but until we go to Japan I refuse to see them lol. It is not unusual to see me complaining about negative aspects, even if I knew pretty well ( but why no one warned me that it will be a lot worse than I imagined?) what I was getting myself into. But after complaining to my heart content I move on until the next 'down' period. 

14. I miss Barnes & Noble!!! It is my favorite American book store, and so far nothing in England quite compares to it. Yes, Waterstones is nice but where I live we only have a small one so it's not the same. Back in the States I used to go to BN almost every day, and write letters to friends or do homework. Or read manga. It was my home away from home, and I miss that a lot.

15. I love organizing things like trips or events. Back in the States I dragged my poor friends and husband around to all kinds of different festivals or conventions or fairs. Or other places that I could think of. I have a little bit harder time doing it in UK, mostly because I do not have many friends where I live, and all my other friends live too far away. But I still try. :) Kimono de Jack events are just one of the examples that I started in UK (although the idea originally came from Japan) and now my kimono friends are helping me with ideas and organization.

I don't have anyone specific to tag, so I'm just going to tag my readers :) I would like to read some random facts about you.

~ Lyuba

UNE Sheer Lips Balm

Hi girls,

I've been pretty slacking on the review posts, even if these are my favorite to read. Mostly it's my hate of taking and then cropping photos, but I'm working on it because there are a lot of products that I've been using lately that I think deserve a review. 

One of these products is UNE Sheer Lips Balm in S03 which I picked up as my 3rd item during Superdrug's 3 for 2 sale (those sales are EVIL for me, I should avoid them at all costs lol). I've been looking at UNE for a long time, but never really picking up anything to try.

I am not too concerned with everything natural deal, but once in a while I do like to pick something up that claims that "100% of the total ingredients are from natural origin", and that "9.44% of the total ingredients are from Organic Farming". I thought the organic ingredients percentage was a little on the low, seeing as (it seems) everyone is obsessed with organic now, but that's just my opinion.

Why did I pick this up? I'm not a lipstick or lip gloss person, I own them but rarely use. I am, however, a HUGE lip balm junkie, and I constantly have at least 3 of them on me at any give time. This product is a lip balm that promised to "moisturize and enhance the natural color and shine of lips" so I simply had to try it.

The formula is very moisturizing and the color is light enough that I don't have to worry about a mirror. At first I was, but after checking numerous times in the mirror I decided that I don't need to worry as much. In the photos, the very top right photo is the closes to the actual color, but as we all know it all depends on the lighting. This lip balm might look very dark in the tube, but it goes on very sheer and light. Definitely my lips-but-better color.

The first two photos in the swatches are the closest to actual color. And here it is how it appears on my lips.

So will I buy it again? For £7.99 is a little steep for me, especially considering the exchange rate, but if the brand is ever on sale I will definitely get more. You can find this brand in many Boots or Superdrug stores. I'm also considering trying some other stuff, mostly lip products. The rest of the range just doesn't appear to me, because I rarely like the natural look on anything other than my lips.

Have you tried anything from UNE? 

~ Lyuba

When work schedule sucks

Hello everyone,

My work schedule is really not great for blogging. By the time I get off at 11 and get home, and unwind by reading the blogs I subscribe to and cropping photos, I have no energy to write anything  useful. And in the mornings, I'll have to get up pretty early in order to fit in a blog entry (and I'm a poor writer, it takes me forever to write anything!). For past 2 days I was planning on writing a review for UNE Sheer Lips Balm, but I will have to put it off until tomorrow (again haha, but I promise I'll write it for sure tomorrow).

Meanwhile, here is FOTD that I had on yesterday.

I wanted to go for something different to what I usually do, so I only put eyeshadow on the bottom lid. I used purple Collection 2000 felt eyeliner and put a dot of their liquid gold eyeliner on top. Not sure that I like it there, because I thought it would show up better.

I used my trusty Sleek SUNSET palette, and this time I was brave enough to use yellow and orange from it (something I avoided doing before). I love those colors! Especially their combination. They blend so well and stand out so much from my skin. Love, love, love!

I used UNE Sheer Lips Balm on the lips by the way :) Tomorrow I'll post a full review on it.

~ Lyuba