August's Luxebox

My August Luxebox has arrived! This is actually my last one, i'm not sure if i want to continue with Luxebox though...I may skip a couple of months and see, at least until i get back from Hong Kong.

FINALLY! A box that is NOT smoooshed!

Laura Mercier- perfecting water- Rich
This is like a toner, it really moisturizes my face and i love it! I'm thinking of getting the full sized product that is actually a spray! Imagine how much product i won't be wasting!

Lip Plumping Treatment- City Lips by City Cosmetics
Don't like lip plumping products and never going to try them. This was a no for me.

Proclaim- Cocoa butter hand & body lotion
I actually quite like this hand cream, it moisturizes very well, but i'm not a huge fan of the smell.

Cheeky Monkey- Nail Polish
Another nail polish! Omg, give it a rest already! Though i never used this brand before, i don't think i'm going to use this. I don't like this color at all it's like a dirty reddish maroon/brown color. This was also a no for me.

There was also a surprise gift in there. A pair of pearl earrings from Sheyna. Very cute! I am pleased.

There is also this new moisturizer I've been trying out and i quite like it! It's a brand called Merlot and i believe you can only get it in the states. I saw some youtubers use it and and i wanted to try it. It's a drugstore product and i think you can get it at walgreens and ulta. I had to get my sis in law to help me snatch one! Apparently, they were sold out in a lot of walgreens.

It came with a sample size of the Merlot's grape seed night cream. They are both made with grape seeds with has antioxidants in them, and it has SPF 15!
I forgot to take a picture, but the day cream is a purple color just like grapes. I wouldn't say the texture is light, but i wouldn't say it's think either. It doesn't make your face feel heavy though and i find it very moisturizing. I've been using Ole Henrickson's Sheer transformation and Philosophy's hope in a jar for a while now but i wanted to see if i can find a cheaper alternative. So far this is working quite nicely.

As for the nice cream, it is white in color and is a thicker consistency. Very moisturizing and leaves your skin feeling very hydrated in the morning. I love it too, and i like how the sample size is very generous in size and i can take it along on vacations =)

Also, i finally picked up the silver shatter! I think it looks so much better than the black shatter, not as harsh. I have yet to try it though. I'm trying to let me nails breathe for at least a month before i start putting on nail polish again. Too much abuse for me nails lately.

And i've recently ran out of shampoo and conditioner and was on the hunt for a new one. I never like to use drugstore brands because they make my hair so dry when my hair is already so damaged from hair dyes. I've tried many different Japanese brands but none seem to really give my hair the moisture it needs.
A lot of bloggers have been talking about the Essential brand so i'm finally going to give it a try.

Got it in a box set! Comes with shampoo and conditioner as well as a full size treatment and a sample of some sort. All this for $34, i think i got a pretty good deal! Can't wait to try it out. I love Asian shampoos the most mainly because they come in pumps!!! =)

Weddings (picture heavy)

Remember when we were younger and we didn't have to worry about anything except maybe some homework from school or what to do on the weekends? Remember back in the days where boys had cooties and your first man crush was probably someone from the Backstreet Boys? Remember your first crush on a boy that you know but you weren't capable of loving because you do not fully understand what it really is?

I remember when I was little and my parents took me to many many wedding dinners and I didn’t understand what the big deal was with all the people dressed up all pretty and a girl in a long white dress with nice hair.

And then as you get older, you start to realize the significance of marriage and how romantic it is. At a young age, you already start fantasizing about your dream wedding and your knight in shining armor.

A girl’s wedding is the most important and most memorial day of her entire life, who here has not fantasized about their own wedding?

This year must be a really good year for lovebirds to get married. It is such a lovely topic and makes me smile every time. I have four friends who got married this year, and I had an enjoyable time looking at their happy wedding pictures and a fantastic time at the weddings that I attended. Aside from that, I have three friends who have just gotten engaged and four wonderful co-workers who are also engaged, to be married before the year is over.

I cannot express how happy I am for them, especially the ones whom I’ve known since elementary school. It’s so heartwarming to see your friends happy and moving on to the next step of their life with their life’s partner. Congratulations!!!!!

And like every girl with their girlfriends, what is the first thing we squeal?

“OMG let me see your ring!!!!”

So why is the ring so important, why is it so special?

It’s a devotion of love, it’s a symbol that your heart belongs to someone and you wear it for the rest of your life. How important is that?

And with that being said, with something being so special that you are to wear it until the day you die, who doesn’t fantasize about their dream ring, or designer dream ring?

I’ve already had my dream ring picked out when I was in my teenage years, but HAH! I think I’ll have to marry a celebrity or a millionaire if I ever want that beauty on my finger LOL.

My dream ring:

Picture screenshot from the Cartier website. 

Isn't it gorgeous????? *sigh*

I see a lot of engagement rings that look like this:

Picture screenshot from the Tiffany&co website

I’m not really into this style because it looks too plain. I know a lot of people loves it for its simplicity, I admit it does look quite nice, but I guess I don’t like simplicity…

I suppose my favorites so far are all from Cartier, Tiffany’s or Chanel (who can deny they look totally gorgeous!)

Here are some more beauties from Cartier:

With the wedding band. So pretty!

Some of my favorites from Tiffany's:

I think this ring looks gorgeous; I love how it looks like an eye. It looks so different from what I usually see.

With the wedding band

And some beautiful Chanel favorites:

Doesn't this ring look gorgeous?

And of course here are some that looks corky and funny and makes you think “who would have thought of that?!”

pictures from google images

I love listening to peoples engagement stories and looking at rings. I loved my mother’s engagement ring, but it was stolen when our house got robbed years ago. It was so sad. My dad soon got her another one but she only wears her wedding band and leaves her engagement ring at home. But I remember the first time I’ve seen it, it was a beauty. She didn’t have much of an engagement story to tell me since hers was an arranged marriage. But I hope mine would at least be somewhere exotic like Vegas or beautiful Caribbean’s *sighhhh* my mind is still on vacation…hahha

Ladies, so what are your dream engagements? And my married ladies, how awesome was yours? Haahaaha I’m so noisy lol.

Yesterday I went to my boyfriend’s buddy’s wedding. The groom looked charming and was marrying his sweetheart of 6 years. The bride looked beautiful, and everything was set up so nicely. It really is so happy seeing couples coming together, I should have been a wedding planner or something since this stuff makes me happy hahaha.

The wedding was at Four Seasons Hotel at Downtown Toronto (we even got valet parking =D ), such a beautiful place and everything was decorated beautifully. It was a mixture of a western/Asian wedding, serving western type food. A very romantic setting and I had an amazing time. Though I didn’t take advantage of their open bar, I was delighted to see many many deserts at the desert table haha. I went up with the other ladies to catch the bouquet but I did not catch it. Lol I never do, it just doesn’t “fly” near me. I also had a great time listening on everyone’s speeches for the night. At one point, the bride got very emotional and started tearing, and I thought that was the sweetest thing ever, it made me so “awwww”!

I had a nice dance to a slow song with the boyfriend, but it didn’t last for a long while. Overall, I had a fantastic time. The only thing that made me uncomfortable was that the people I was surrounded by (my bf’s friends) are all super smart (engineers, doctors, consultants), and all they talked about were their jobs which I didn’t understand a thing, and I felt really left out and at that point I just sort of wanted to drown myself at the open bar. Other than that it was all good, loved the sweet couple! They looked perfect together and I wish them the best! Congratulations you two!

outfit for the wedding

Casa Loma

Has anyone ever been to Casa Loma here in boring ol' Toronto? It's located in the downtown area of Toronto (well...sorta), and i believe it's the only castle in this boring place!
I've been there 3 times i believe, one of them being a field trip from kinder-garden =) It's always so much better going with a loved one.
The bf and i went on a very hot day, and i didn't know the castle didn't have air condition. We were sweating like pigs and it was exhausting climbing stairs and going through tunnels and secret passageways. The place was ginormous obviously, a stable (i think it was 6 horses?) and giant garage (the guy had ten cars), an unfinished swimming pool that i think would have looked so beautiful and grand judging by the pictures. In a way the castle was kind of creepy, with the underground tunnels, the weird statues but i love historic places. My favorite is of course the infamous garden! There was a couple getting married there, they were taking pictures in the garden (poor girl, it was so hot!) and we left when the castle was about to close and we saw that they were setting up the wedding reception/dinner where the library would be. Mind you it's a ginormous room.

The people from the wedding group

Mini Sephora Haul

I wasn't planning on buying anything from Sephora because I've been trying to save for my Hong Kong trip, but they sent me an email for V.I.B's appreciation weekend
saying that if you spend a minimum of $35, you will get a free gift pack. And of course i cannot pass up on these type of goodies because i LOVE gift sets with everything random inside. Lancome, and Elizabeth Arden gift  with purchases always gets me too.

Anyways, i couldn't really decide what to buy since i didn't want o go totally over $35 even though there are SOOOO many things i want from Sephora that i'm not willing to spend so much on at the moment.
I picked up the Urban Decay Primer Potion. Can you believe i still haven't tried this yet? Maybe it's because i haven't been wearing a lot of eye makeup this year. Too lazy to put on makeup when all i'm doing is being stuck at work. No one to impress LOL...sigh... So i finally bought it in their new packaging and tried it once. I really like the formula.

Another thing i got was the mini Urban Decay All Nighter Spray. I've heard so much about this product from Guru's on Youtube and always wanted to try it. But i was a bit hesitant on spraying weird stuff on my face when my skin is highly sensitive and can breakout almost instantly. So i bought the tiny bottle to try and i used it once. It really does keep your makeup on for a long while. I used it on a really hot day when i was outdoors almost most of the day, and although it didn't keep the shine away, my makeup didn't melt away as fast as it usually would under hot weather.

I love how the gift comes in such a cute box, i can imagine putting some jewelry in there.

The gift came with 8 samples, and their size is just too cute!

Nars Pore Refining Primer
Laura Mercier Mascara
Stila Lip gloss
Phytolisse serum for hair
Fat Girl Slim skin firming lotion
Miracle Worker anti aging moisturizer
Benefit perfume
Tokidoki perfume (cute tiny little roll on bottle)

Haven't used ANY of these yet. i'm really bad with samples, especially the cute packaged ones. I never want to use them and want to keep them forever....

Also, i found these at shoppers...

Milk and white chocolate fish and chips! How awesome is that! There are milk chocolate fishes and white chocolate shaped as fries!!! Love white chocolate! <3

Hawaii Love

I've recently won a giveaway from the beautiful Che, also know as Lovefemme. Thank you so much hun, this is my first time EVER winning any type of giveaways and you can imagine i felt ecstatic!
Please check out her page here, she has amazing style, amazing nails and have an incurable online shopping habit like myself =p

Some shadows and a bronzer from wet and wild in very lovely colors! The one at the bottom shattered in the mail i suppose, but it's still a beautiful gold palette.

Mini O.P.I nail polishes from the Katy Perry line. Such lovely colors!

ECOTOOLS brushes made from bamboo. Haven't tried yet but they feel pretty soft.

Wet n wild lipbalm. Love lipbalms!

A double balmstick from victoria secrets. This sort of melted in the mail i guess because the lipstick was leaning towards the cap but i loveeeee it. It makes my lips so soft and gives a hint of color =)

Super cute Hawaii hello kitty keychain and magnet =)

And a matching hello kitty makeup bag. <3

Once again, thanks so much Che! Loved everything from your package!