Hello! The Blue Purse is on holiday break at the moment (life is pretty darn hectic this time of the year) but I just had to make a quick post because this is all about tomorrow, New Year's Eve!
Stacked love rings and bangles from Forever 21
I was planning on glittery nails this year for NYE, but I went with metallic instead. Orly Rage was just too pretty to resist! I've been obsessed with rose gold for a while now, as well as mixed metals, so the polish was simply perfect.
I had my nails done at David's Podium earlier and found this shade randomly. I need to get my own bottle because I'm obsessed!
I'm using my phone to post this entry and my phone camera didn't capture the color that well. I'll post a better picture taken with my camera in daylight sometime.
My first impression of it was that it would be a delicate sort of orange, which is why I got it in the first place. I have a ton of strong orange lipsticks, and I thought one in a lighter shade would be a nice change. I was right. It's a pale shade of orange indeed -- a cheery, peachy-apricot color. It's different, which I like because it throws people off, heh. Some people might find it too strange to wear though.
I acquired the Maybelline Color Tattoo 24hr Eyeshadow in Audacious Asphalt awhile back, but I somehow never got around to posting a review of it. Well, I'm getting to it right now.
The Maybelline Color Tattoos are creamy eyeshadow pots that are long-wearing and highly pigmented. The name says it all, actually. Wearing them is like tattooing your eyes with color for 24 hours. I've never tried wearing eyeshadow for 24 hours straight, but so far the Color Tattoos have never faded or smeared on me even after hours of wear. My first Color Tattoo was Bad to the Bronze, and I loved it so much that I got more shades.
Audacious Asphalt is a silvery gray shadow. It's shimmery, dark, and looks like it's really meant for smokey eyes. It looks intense in the pot, but gets lighter when applied.
As promised, I'm trying to get through all the reviews of the products from my most recent beauty hauls! These are way overdue so please bear with me.
I'm starting off with the Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Strawberry Shortcake, because the lip butters have been out for a while. (Check out my previous posts on the shades Tutti Frutti and Wild Watermelon.) I got Strawberry Shortcake when I went drugstore beauty shopping and found the Revlon Lip Butters on sale. It was around the time when I realized that I needed some girly pink in my life because my lipsticks and eyeshadow palettes were all neutral or strong colors.
Hello Monday! I feel like talking about beauty today, so I'm finally blogging about some purchases that I made the past few months. Like I said before, I haven't been buying much makeup and beauty stuff, but I do buy things I need from time to time. I decided to just do a collective haul of all the new stuff I picked up recently in stores or things I bought from friends from way back in October to just this December. Here we go.
L'Oreal Paris Smooth-Intense Anti-Frizz Leave-On Serum - As mentioned in my Hair and Makeup Tool Haul, my hair's due for a rebond so it's wild and crazy right now. I need this to keep it in check.
Revlon 24hrs Colorstay Foundation in Sand Beige - I am always rushing my makeup time so I have been loyal to my MAC Studio Fix powder for years, but I thought I would try liquid foundation for those times when I want to make more of an effort. This has been a favorite among my friends, so I'm trying it out.
Elf Blush Brush - This is another one for my first set of proper makeup brushes. I only need a couple more brushes methinks.
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe - I have been loving the Color Tattoo eyeshadow pots for a long time. Maybelline Philippines still hasn't released the line here though, so whenever there's an opportunity to get a new color, I jump at the chance. My friend Sheva from Beauty by Berrymix ordered some makeup online, so I bought this new pot from her.
My husband and I love coffee. He pretty much can't function without it, and he would be such a grump in the morning if he can't have his regular cup of joe. He almost always has a cup of coffee beside him whenever he works, whether he's in the office or at home. I, on the other hand, live on chocolate and not coffee, but I love it as much as tea. To me it's a comforting drink, made for long conversations with friends, intimate talks with my husband, or introspective alone time.
That is why when we got married, we really wanted a nice coffeemaker. We wanted a Keurig Brewer specifically, because we have tried it several times at A's aunt and uncle's place (who are big coffee lovers too) and we loved the taste of the coffee. We liked the sleek look of the machine too, as well as the large variety of fun K-cup flavors. I have also encountered it in several YouTube videos (which I had A watch), and these further made us want one.
Keurig Demo by Ingrid (MissGlamorazzi) and Luke (LukeConard) | DIY: At Home Coffee and Tea Bar by Blair Fowler (juicystar07)
The Keurig is a single-cup brewing system that brews your coffee or tea or hot cocoa for you in under a minute. That's about 3 minutes (rough estimate) including the time to heat up the water. You load pods called K-Cups into it, it punches a hole in the pods, and then you have a fresh beverage. With it, you don't have to deal with the mess of filters and pots and such. You just fill up the water tank, push some buttons, put a mug on the drip tray, and that's it. Also, it makes coffee, tea, and hot cocoa, as well as iced coffee or tea. For iced, you just need a cup filled with ice and an iced coffee/tea K-Cup and you're good to go.
The problem was that Keurig isn't available here, but A's aunt and uncle, who were also principal sponsors at our wedding, offered to buy it in the States for us as a wedding gift. Of course we said yes! So they went, and they got back from the US a while ago, but they shipped their stuff to the Philippines and the box took some time to get here. (Thank you Mama Punk and Papa Choity!)
It eventually did, but we had to find a place for it in our apartment. We also needed a cart for it, plus a power transformer. Last night, we finally put our Keurig together! I'm usually a nerd when it comes to these things, so I did a full unboxing, like I do with gadgets I love. I'm not going to do this for microwaves and other appliances, but if we get a juicer or something like a Blendtec one day, you can bet I'll unbox it!
First brew!
Before I get to that though, let me tell you about our first cup! We chose a flavored K-Cup for our first time -- the Timothy's Kahlua Original from the variety pack that came with the machine. A and I chose to share a medium mug because it was midnight when we finished reworking the apartment. As expected, it was excellent. It had the sweet, distinct Kahlua flavor of rum, caramel, vanilla, and coffee.
The thing is, this particular coffee was supposed to have a sort of light roast only, but it had me feeling wired the entire night and aggravated my insomnia. I fell asleep at 5am! Coffee usually has an adverse effect on me -- it makes me sleepy -- but last night it was the opposite. No more late-night Keurig sessions for me. The husband, however, who pretty much has coffee running in his veins and is probably immune to it, had a good, sound sleep. Okay, let's backtrack to the unboxing!
I haven't been paying much attention to makeup and beauty lately, but I have been randomly buying stuff that I know I need. I guess it's my subconscious self telling me not to let myself go, and to still pay attention to my daily upkeep!
Some of my recent purchases have actually been beauty tools. I picked up some hair stuff because it's that time of the year before my hair needs to get rebonded again. Since I don't have the time for it yet, I got some hair things to keep it as manageable as I possibly can (it's almost impossible to tame my natural hair). I also got more brushes. I figured I really need to stop using my mini brushes as well as the useless brushes I get in compacts, so I'm buying professional brushes now. I am not investing in expensive brushes yet though, because I want to practice with cheap ones first. Here's the haul. Details after the jump.
Remember that charming little e-book called All's Fair in Blog and War that I blogged about a while back? I'm writing about it again because it now has a print edition! The author, Chrissie Peria aka Kaoko of Kingdom Cow and Kitchen Cow just so happened to be one of my longest online buddies, so we ended up doing a meetup up at the Starbucks in Evia Lifestyle Center, Daang Hari, so I could get my hands on it. We came with our husbands, plus their dog and baby, and had a lovely time discussing the book and other adult stuff. We haven't seen each other since 2007, when we were still single girls who had all the time in the world to obsess about Japan and make bento. We definitely had a lot to catch up on!
Chrissie + me + her adorable poodle Cooper at Evia
All's Fair in Blog and War is a novella about love and blogging. It's actually local chick lit with a sprinkling of international flavor. It gives you a lot of fun Philippine tidbits, but it also takes you to the old world-new world streets of Macau. It's a story about travel bloggers named Five Cuevas and Jesse Ruiz who don't like each other but were forced to go on a trip together. Now that makes it seem like it would be predictable, but the book is all about the journey, not the destination, and what a wonderful journey it was. It was pretty cute! I got really kilig with it.
I had Chrissie sign my copy, of course!
This has become one of my favorite local novels and I don't even like that many. Check it out when you need a new feel-good book to read.
