Toy Nerdiness: Toy Con 2013

June 14 and 15 was all about toys! I went on the first day with my friend Jaja and her friend KC (Aleq told me to go and find my sonic screwdriver before it was gone), and then I went on the second day with hubby Aleq so he could experience it too. It was a blast! Here go the pics.

Somebody looking for the AllSpark?

Aleq and I found it. 

First purchase of the first day 

Makeup Madness: Up Close - Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Wild Watermelon

In a past life (a very recent one, heh), I used to do beauty product reviews (among other things). It was the best job ever, since I got products to try out for free and write about them to boot. However, it was also what it was - a job. I sometimes got entire collections of products and I had to swatch them and try them all. I had to give everything that passed through my desk a fair chance.

Now though, I can do whatever I want, yay! I can just talk at length and rant and rave about one product at a time or acquire just one lipstick out of an entire line because it's the only one I want. I don't have to worry about not being too technical (cold, warm skintones and all that jazz). I can choose to write about all the components of a single look, or buy and talk about an entire collection if I want to.

So I'm starting off the makeup madness with a rave about my newest lipstick - Revlon's Colorburst Lip Butter in Wild Watermelon. It's one of the four new colors that Revlon released for the summer (along with Juicy Papaya, Sorbet, and Pink Lemonade) and I've been on the lookout for it ever since I found out about the new colors from YouTube's Missglamorazzi. When they finally arrived in the country, I took a look at the four shades and still decided on Wild Watermelon. I've recently had my fill of orange lipsticks so I've been looking for a red one for regular days. I couldn't wait to try it, so I don't have any decent pics of the lipstick in its just-unwrapped glory. I just took a couple of hurried pics in the car before putting it on.

Makeup Madness: A Neutral Experiment Products

Hi! I haven't updated in a while, but that's because I'm working with somebody on the design for this site, among other things. I remembered just now though, that I never talked about the products I used in A Neutral Experiment. I promised I would ramble on in detail about the products, and I will, just not today. For now, here's a quick rundown of the main stuff I used in that look for those who want to know.

Dior Addict lipstick in Beige Casual
This is my favorite my-lips-but-better lipstick.

Origins Liquid Lip Color Duo in Pink Sands and Sangria Shimmer
I used the Pink Sands tip only for the look. This gloss provided a bit of shine to the natural, neutral color from the Dior lipstick.
 


Wet n Wild Eyeshadow Palette in Walking on Eggshells
This is one of my favorite everyday palettes!It just gives a natural, no-makeup look.

Shoe Love: Nike Dunk Sky Hi Mesh in Total Crimson/Bright Mango

I got me some Nike Dunk Sky Hi Mesh wedge sneakers in Total Crimson/Bright Mango! I love them to bits. They were a completely unexpected find, but in a way, this purchase was expected too. Here's why.

I've always been a sneaker girl. When I was a kid, my favorite shoes were blue Mighty Kids, white World Balance high-tops, and Converse dinosaur Chuck Taylors. When I grew up, I got into flats, heels, wedges, boots, and other kinds of shoes, but I still had sneakers. I would troop to the annual Converse sale every year with friends just because it was fun to snag something from there (like these blue lace-less slip-ons and these white rainbow low-tops. Some really pretty Pony sneakers once served as a bonding moment for me and my close friend Emz. And my then-boyfriend now husband and I once gave each other classic black high-top Chucks for our anniversary. I also have a pair of pretty pink Keds that I wear very rarely and cannot find a pic of because of reasons.

What I am not though, is a collector. I'm way into other aspects of fashion - like clothes and shoes and accessories and makeup and bags to - to commit to just sneakers. This is why, aside from the Nike Sister One trainers that I use for the gym, I don't have other Nike sneakers - or Adidas, New Balance, Reebok, etc. for that matter. I figured that had to change, but my rock sensibilities always drew me to Chucks. 

One night however, the husband and I were walking aimlessly around Mall of Asia killing time before the Aerosmith concert when we happened upon the Nike store. He always checks it when he can (like me he is also a sneaker lover but not a collector) so that night was no exception. He didn't find anything he liked though, but I saw these really bright wedge sneakers! 

Now, I really like wedge sneakers. I thought original Isabel Marant ones were fabulous, and back during my stint as the editorial director of a fashion website, I wrote about them tremendously, as well as the first alternatives that popped up. Check out the articles after the jump.

Game On: Lego Lord of the Rings for the DS Lite

Finished Lego Lord of the Rings yesterday! Got it last weekend at DataBlitz Paseo Sta. Rosa. I saw a lot of reviews online that rated it low but I also saw a lot of forums where players discussed how they disagreed with the reviews. 

I loved it. Of course I love anything Lord of the Rings and I even have the Gandalf Arrives Lego Set, so I must admit that I'm severely biased about this. It is simply such a fun game to play! It's fairly easy, though I did have to look up a couple of hints online for some areas where I couldn't figure out what to do. When it gets hard it can get quite annoying, but I've tried games where I could barely finish the game due to the level of difficulty and I hate those. This game only took me three days to finish, and I didn't even go on addict mode and lost sleep and time over it. I like that it wasn't that kind of game.

In story mode, you get to play as everyone in the Fellowship of the Ring. Each character has a specific skill set that you need to utilize to get through certain areas. The character switching can be pretty irritating at times especially on boss levels (watch out for the one of Legolas and Aragorn vs. the Watcher in the Water at the Mines of Moria) but I got the hang of it eventually. Disclaimer: I'm not the best gamer ever so I do think someone with better skills can have an easier time of it. Of course there was Lego-building action throughout the game, which added a totally different dimension to it so it isn't just straightforward RPG.

I also really enjoyed the humor! Lord of the Rings has a real serious story, but the game creators inserted some fun snippets in the cut-scenes in between all the serious stuff from the movie. [Spoiler alert!] The opening scene alone where Galadriel was talking about the nine rings of power was funny - one of the kings dropped the ring and tried to get it back with his foot! The characters also show off their newly leveled-up skills with a bit of comedy -- Aragorn got nicked by his sword Anduril, Gandalf couldn't get his staff out of the ground, etc. 

I do wish the game was a little bit longer, and that there was more stuff to do to get through levels. I've seen the YouTube walkthroughs for the PC/Playstation/Xbox versions and they look a lot more awesome. But hey, this is a DS game, and it did manage to entertain me from start to finish.  

Clothes Spin: Stars

I just noticed that this site is seriously lacking in fashion posts. I'm not a fashionista or anything, but I love fashion and makeup, and I used to be the Editorial Director of a fashion, beauty, and entertainment website. I haven't been posting a lot of outfit posts here because I'm on a shopping ban. I've been on one for an entire year because I feel guilty buying anything non-wedding-related for some reason - maybe because the fiance and I are already spending so much on the wedding that we don't really feel like shopping. When we shop, we shop for wedding stuff. I've been buying personal stuff here and there but they're just little things. I haven't bought any big-ticket items at all, and my closet is seriously outdated. Oh well.

I really miss going on full-on shopping sprees with my friends Cielo and Sheva. We used to do some serious damage to our credit cards and wallets, but since last year, I have largely avoided the mall and when Mango, Zara, and Topshop had their end-of-season sales, I simply looked away. This is why I'm excited to shop for my prenup shoot outfits. I will finally get to shop guilt-free!

However, this post wasn't meant to be a discourse on my shopping situation (or lack thereof). This is about how I will post outfit pics from time to time that I've been collecting in my hard drive for a long time. I'll start with a recent one though, just to keep things current, and then I'll be posting outfit pics from the not-so-distant past.

I took these pics last February, but I wore this outfit for a meetup with my friend Cielo again today.  The weather was crazy earlier, alternating between extremely hot and extremely rainy, so I didn't feel like dressing up and ended up going with a pretty casual ensemble. It was all about stars.

Aldo watch, star ring (I forgot where I got it from), my engagement ring, blue cuff from Cole Vintage, bangles from Greenhills (I think)

Bright blue Miss Sixty shirt, Bench jeans

Black glitter star earrings from H&M

 

Tales of the Culinary-Challenged: Breakfast Oatmeal with a Twist

In my first Tales of the Culinary-Challenged post, I wrote about cooking edamame. For some, boiling soybeans in water is no big deal, but for the cooking spaz that is me, it is. The thing is, I try to eat healthy these days because I'm on my wedding fitness regimen - I'm training hard at the gym and making sure I have a healthy diet. However, I went on a similar regimen like this a year or two ago for a Boracay trip, and I kind of felt diet fatigue then. I rarely cook, and I relied on buying prepackaged stuff or fastfood deliveries, and until now I'm sick of the food I used to eat during that time. This is why I'm now forced to stock healthy food in my apartment as well as learn to cook healthy things I find yummy.

So here's my first try. It isn't cooking per se, but it's preparing food that I normally would not do. I made Overnight Oats - a recipe I got from LaurenConrad.com. The first try, I just made up the ingredient quantities and it came out super wrong. (Hello Julls, did you forget that you're culinary-challenged? You can't just wing it and have it turn out okay like how other people do it!) I tried again last night and this time I followed the recipe to the letter. It turned out yummy! I love that it's super healthy, but it also filled me up so much I had a lot of energy this morning. As usual, I took pics!

2/3 cup Cowhead Lite Low Fat Milk

Half-cup Quaker Instant Oatmeal

The recipe called for greek or vanilla yogurt, but greek yogurt is hella expensivo here, and I couldn't find vanilla, so I just got boring, plain, regular yogurt. It's probably tastier with better yogurt, but I'm making do. 

 

Mixed all the ingredients together and finished it off with a pinch of cinnamon.

The recipe said to put the mix in an airtight jar and leave it in the fridge overnight, but I don't have mason jars so I made do with an old coffee jar haha.

I loved this so much! I'm going to alternate it with my everyday cereal. It gave me the impression that it's super high fiber and high protein though, so just take that in mind. It's so quick and easy too. Mix ingredients in jar, stick jar in fridge, wake up to oatmeal goodness. This morning I mixed in a bit of brown sugar for an extra kick. Next time I plan on putting in some fruit, like a banana or something, plus a little orange honey. Yum!

Recipe after the jump!