When it comes to perfume, everything matters

Hi!!

It has been quite a while since I have blogged, I am currently away from Hong Kong and am now in New York City!!!!! Isn't that exciting?? I know it is! Well at any cost, I came baring gifts. I have recently made a few perfume purchases and there is one that I would really like to mention here and maybe it might inspire you into getting it for yourself. Other purchases will be on another blogpost later on.

Just not long ago, I paid a visit to Sephora because they had a V.I.B. family and friends promotion where you can get 20% off any purchases between a period of time and I said to myself: "When else could it be a better time to get something than this??" and I know I certainly was correct about going to Sephora.

I had my eyes on the Marc by Marc Jacobs new perfume, DOT. It has the cutest bottle design of a ladybug and it was just so ADORABLE like other Marc by Marc Jacobs perfume bottle. Yet when I saw the price of the 3.7 Oz bottle, I decided that I would probably be able to get it in Hong Kong so I looked away with such reluctant until something on the other side caught my eye..... the LADY GAGA Black Fluid perfume.

If you don't know about this, I have a very weird liking towards anything that is interesting and weird and the ONE specific thing that caught my eye about this perfume was that the perfume liquid itself was actually black. I know this probably would sound silly but when I saw the name of this perfume in an advertisement I thought it was just another random name people give it to their products and never have I thought that it would be such a literal reflection of the perfume itself.           The question anyone would ask next is: "How would or does the LADY GAGA perfume smell like?" When I first smelt the perfume, I actually smelt it from a magazine ad, the ones which you can actually peel off and the scent just somehow rushing through. I still remember the first reaction was: LADY GAGA wouldn't smell like that! And the next was : hey I actually quite like the smell. But then when I gave it a whiff at Sephora, I was like: ewww what the hell is this? Did they do a false advertisement just to sell the perfume *shock face*? But knowing me and my love of weird things, I just can't stop myself from getting a bottle of this suspicious black liquid and so I picked up the smallest bottle hoping that would do despite the great fondness I have upon it.

The reason why I said they were doing bad advertisement was that the perfume smells totally different from the nozzle of the bottle than it was sprayed out. It smells like orange medicine or the felt tip pens which claims that they are orange scented; yet when it is sprayed into the air, it has a strong feminine scent to it. In my own words, I think it has strong floral scent to it but it is more like the Chanel No. 5 kind of floral and not Marc by Marc Jacobs Daisy floral.... if you get what I mean. But yeah I loved it  :)

 And then..... I FOUND MY JACKPOT!! A LADY GAGA perfume gift box!

This gift box costed just a bit more but not only did it come with a medium sized Black Fluid, it also came with a roller ball version of the perfume and a temporary tattoo. (I honestly am okay with the set without the tattoo but I think it really does give a LADY GAGA touch to the gift box)

 This is a picture of the actual perfume bottle itself and doesn't it look amazing?? I love gold and I love the classic combination of black and gold together. The coldness of the black being balanced out by the warmness of the gold just really pleases me visually. And the interesting architectural design of the bottle cap gives it a totally GAGA touch, I wasn't expecting any less from a GAGA perfume bottle design.

This is a photo of how it looks when the cap is off, and it has LADY GAGA FAME written in it and this also shows really clearly that the perfume itself is black and not the bottle itself. I AM NOT LYING OKAY!!!  

Talking about this perfume and as a side note:

The brand United Nude, my absolute adored shoe brand, has created the shoes that LADY GAGA wore to promote her perfume. Although these shoes might be considered to not be the most outrageous shoes GAGA has ever worn but I really think that it ties the whole idea of the perfume and the color matches too!!! I just love it so so much! Don't you just love how men are climbing up to her? Especially when they are gold and naked *wink wink*

Well that is it for now and do look forward for later posts which hopefully will be coming VERY VERY soon. With that said, you lot take care and love life!!

With love,

Why not??

Hey beautifuls,

For all day today, I have been browsing on the internet, looking at different websites, going through youtube and all of a sudden, I had an epiphany, I really don't know much about Hong Kong!!!

Though I wasn't born in Hong Kong, I have spent over 18 years in this place and I have to say, if you ask me anything about local temples and tourist areas that aren't shopping places, I have to say, I KNOW ALMOST NONE!! At least not start off my head, embarrassing I know. Therefore, to make a change in my life, I have made a decision...

I WILL BUY MYSELF A GOOD TOURIST BOOK ABOUT HONG KONG AND VISIT ALL THE GOOD RECOMMENDED PLACES!!

My mission:

1. Believe I am a tourist and know nothing about Hong Kong,

2. Be curious about all things.

3. Try my best not to use taxis (and hopefully learn how to ride buses around Hong Kong)

I can't believe I am doing this.. and I honestly wonder, is there anyone out there that actually thinks like me?? As in they have been at some place all their lives and then realize that they don't really know that place well.

Anyway, other than hoping that this promise actually happens, I wish you all best of luck and stay healthy.

With love,

Janice <3

New nails!!!!!

Hey beautifuls,

Just finished a new set of nails and would like to share with you guys =]

Just a french manicure with a more exotic choice in color 

These are the polish I used if you were curious

From left to right:
1. Essie - feed me base coat
2. OPI - RapiDry top coat NT T74
3. OPI - Right Lights Ahead... Where? NL H61
4. OPI - DS Illuminate DS033


Anyway, hope you all best wishes ^^

With love,

Janice <3

New shoes!!!

Hey lovelies!

As much as I am embarrass to say this, my room is... or should I say WAS literally the messiest room anyone has set foot in. Not because I am unorganized but more because I has way too many things that it is just impossible to fit all of them in one little room. Very recently I became very fond of a pair of shoes which my friend has as well, I told my mom about it and she made a deal with me which if I clean up my room and the half of the dining room which I have occupied for over a year, she would let me buy anything, the longer it is kept clean the more I can buy. So for the last week I locked myself up at home just to get these shoes and IT WAS A SUCCESS!! I am so happy that I really can't bare not showing these to you guys!!!

To me personally, I think they are the best thing in the world!!! Just the right amount of spikes and bling combined :)

Anyway, just a little update on what I have been doing, hope you all the best and enjoy the rest of your summer days!!

With love,

Janice <3

New nails!!!

Hey guys,

This is my new nail design I've done for fun :D

With love,
Janice <3


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Obsessive Collection 1

Hey hey,

I don't know if you have ever went through your room and realized that you actually have SO MUCH of a particular item(s) and think you might actually believe it have grown into a collection?? This happens to me quite often and I have recently found quite a nice little collection that I have which I would like to share with you guys!! And they are beautiful notebooks. Instead of just my full notebook collection, I have decided to separate this particular brand of notebooks and call them another collection since I have quite a few, I would also just talk a little about this one as well. 

The brand I am talking about is..... LA DOLCE VITA

They are amazing because you can actually fit them in your two-ringed binders!!

Quite a stack you see....

After just a little sneak peek of my full collection, I shall break it down a bit into a few different categories of the designs. As you can see, there is a photo on the cover of each of these notebooks and ALL OF THEM ARE JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!!! And this is why I love them so much. I know that there is another collection which has something really similar but then they are mostly black and white and colored photos appeals to me way more than black and white ones even though I have to admit some of the others are quite romantic looking.

So the notebooks are generally split into two big categories, the desert category and the animal category.

These belongs to the desert category, I personally love the one on the very right for I am the biggest fan for cream puffs and any sort of berries!!! 

I know you can't deny the fact that you are drooling over these notebooks, if they are even scented with whatever food the photo is, they would be UNBELIEVABLY IRRESISTIBLE

BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES BUNNIES!!!!!!!!! 

(\__/)

~(='.'=)~

(")_(")

These are my favorite ones, I have a special love for fluffy animals which has some sort of pointy face I think... like bunnies too!!

Hm.... Dont' remember why I got these, they are cute but I think they aren't cute enough....

This is the end of my collection, hope you have enjoyed it and I believe I would be bringing up other collections so if you are interested, keep checking out for more!!!

STAY HAPPY AND HEALTHY!!

Ps. If you are interested to get these and you are in Hong Kong, you can actually get these at Citysuper and Swindon bookstore, I get mine from these two places but I am sure you would be able to find them in other stationary stores that are near you!

With loads of love,

Janice <3

Stud earring storage =]

Hey you all lovely people,

Have you ever had problems with storing your studded earrings?? Like having them in a small box which makes it hard to finding the perfect pair, or when you drop them and have studs flying everywhere?? 

If you do, then this post might be something you would be interested in for I will show you a great storing method which would make it easy for you to find the right pair and also prevent them from losing.

I still remember when I was a bit younger, I have once had these racks with metal mesh on it and you can pock your studs through them and display them out, I honestly thought that they were the best invention then cos they are just so cute and it was like the thing that every girl wanted. But then through out the years I found out that I kept on losing the back studs of the earrings because it is hard to unstud them from the mesh and back studs end up flying everywhere. I then went through the stage of the container and that was a nightmare until one day I thought of this idea where I was actually inspired by stud vendors who sells stud earrings individually in Mong Kok.

What I am going to teach you guys is an easier and more personal way of storing these earrings but just like how the vendors do it. The whole process really only takes up around 15-20 minutes of your time depending on how big or how many you are making, it took me about 10 minutes to do mine for my container was relatively small. Instructions would be rather brief but at the same time quite self explanatory so if you have any questions, feel free to comment below and I am more than happy to answer them for you.

So let's get started!!

1. Get materials and tools that you would need:
    Materials
   - any container of your choice (best if it is relatively shallow but still deep enough for fit an earring vertically)
   - sponge that is big enough to be able to cut and fill the container (best if it is as dense as ones you use for cleaning)

    Tools
   - a pair of relatively good scissors
   - a pen
   - measuring tool (tape and ruler are both good)

2. Measure the dimension of your container: you would want to measure the width, the length and the height of the container, you would want to make the height of the sponge around 1cm shorter than the container to give room for the earrings.

3. Make the measurements on the sponge and cut it out: this is really the easy part, all you have to do it mark and cut the sponge. One good thing about this method is that you don't have to be very precise because sponges have air in it and it would give way even if the sponge is cute a bit too big for the container (it would obviously fit the container if the sponge is smaller than it)

4. Add the sponge into the container and start organizing your studs: at this point what you can do is just poke the ends of your studs into the sponge and they would sit there well and the sponge would reduce the chances of the earrings falling off too much if you drop the container. With this method you would need to find another place to store the back studs but then there really are only THAT many pairs of back studs that you would need because you won't have that many piercings. As you can see for my container, it has a few different levels and what I do is that I store all the back studs at the very bottom layer so when I am taking the container around, I would avoid moving the bottom layer so I won't lose any of them =]



Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this post and hope this post would have helped solving some of your problems!! TAKE CARE EVERYONE AND LIVE HAPPY!!!!

Until the next post, stay happy!

With lot's of love,

Janice <3

New season, new nails =]

Hello all you beautifuls,

As it is getting HOTTER AND HOTTER in Hong Kong, it makes it really hard for me to deny the fact that.... SUMMER IS HERE!!!

What is a better way to start the season than to do a new manicure to pamper yourself??? 

This is what I have done to begin my long agonizing humid hot Summer  ||:( Hope it will inspire you to create one for yourself!!!!

This is the design I went for, a warm orange base with glitters on it. As Summer is arriving, bright colors and pastel colors are always the way to go; and since the sun rays are up and shining, glitter polish is another great thing that you can fish out from your collection. To glam up your ordinarily opaque and creamy nail colors, spice it up with a glitter polish of your choice (best if colors match your base nail color); for this manicure, any base color and glitter polish would work well, no matter if they are big chunky ones or if they are very fine ground ones, this way you can show off the glitter with the bright Summer sunlight while making it easy for you to take them off when you are trying to remove your polish (if you have done your nails before, you would know that there are some glitter nail polishes that are very hard to remove and by having a base nail polish, it makes it relatively easier to remove because the gap between the glitter and the nail surface is larger, remover would be able to dissolve the nail polish in between easier).

The two nail polishes that I used in this manicure is the M.A.C. Ravishing and the deborah lippmann Happy Birthday. 

In case you are not familiar with these nail polishes, the MAC Ravishing is a nail polish that came out with the FASHION SETS collection which are still in stores at the moment. The collection has sets that contain a nail polish, a lip stick and a lip gloss of the same shade of color which you can buy either the full set or individually. The color Ravishing is a very creamy orange, something like a mixture of bright orange and pastel orange. This particular polish is very creamy and opaque, I love the formula of this but then again I can't promise that all the polishes for this collection has the same consistency as this polish for the color and how it's suppose to look like really does effect the formula of the polish. Overall I do like M.A.C. nail polishes for the colors are just so irresistible. 

The deborah lippmann Happy Birthday is a glitter polish with a transparent base polish with chunky glitters of all colors. All deborah lippmann nail polishes are named after songs and the polish would also be related to the song or the name of the song, I truly believe that all of their nail polish does reflect the nail of it. I chose this glitter because I just love all the different colors and it really does go well with a large variety of colors and COS IT MAKES ME HAPPYYYYYYYY!! I MEAN COME ON! WHO DOESN'T LIKE BIRTHDAYS??? Right?? O.O

deborah lippmann nail polishes can be on the pricier side but I personally think that the Happy Birthday is a MUST HAVE!!

In case if you are wondering what base and top coat I have been using, I use the OPI base coat and the OPI Rapidry top coat. The OPI base coat I have already been using for ages because you really only such a little amount of it each tim you do your nails, this is my second one and I believe I have already had around 70 to 80 sets of nails done with this bottle and I am not even close to finishing half of it, it dries quite fast as well so you won't have to worry about doing your nails right after you've applied your base. 

As for top coats, since I am such a frequent nail painter (sometimes even twice a day) I tend to lean on using fast drying top coats. I have used the Seche Vite as well as the Sally Hansen Insta-dri before and I loved both of them, the reason why I am using the OPI one now is because I have had it for quite a while as a gift and I was curious about how it would work so I gave it a go. One big difference with this top coat and the other two is that this one doesn't really dry like gel, if you have used the other ones before, you would have realized that they are comparatively thicker than normal top coats and it gives sort of a very glossy and gel nails finish, also if you don't paint the whole nail you would have a line forming for the nail polish would dry into its shape. With the OPI one, it is more fluid and it dries fast enough, I had 4 layers on nail polish on and it dried within 4-6mins. I have to say that it isn't as glossy as the others and if you are using glitter and you want a smooth finish, the other top coats would be something you would prefer more, if not, this works just as well so feel free to use this one if you can't get your hands on the other two top coats.

***One little tip I have for you guys about fast drying top coats is that it is better to apply a relatively generous layer of it because: 1. you would want your nails to look shiny and pretty, a generous layer would give it a better coverage making it prettier and 2. to my understanding, I believe they have a higher percentage of thinner in it to make it dry quicker after applying so when you are applying the nail polish, it might dissolve the nail polish you have already on your nails, to prevent it from ruining, you would want to keep the bristles of the nail polish brush as far away as possible and the generous layer really does reduce the chances of ruining and it also prevents the brush from picking up any color which might lead to contamination of your perfectly clear top coat.***

Well I hope you enjoyed this FOREVER GOING blog post and got inspired by this manicure idea!!

Wish you all the best in what ever you guys are pursing and stay healthy!

With lost of love,

Janice <3

Happy Birthday Papa!!

It is my dad's birthday, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Does it not look like someone bit on the bun???? 

Impress Manicure

Hey lovelies,

I have been in NYC for quite some time already and I have visited quite a few drug stores. They all carried a lot of different nail products so I took the liberty to do some research on them and try them out. The first one I got to try was the IMPRESS press on manicure.

It is obvious by the name of the product, these are press on fake nails. I personally really am not a big fan of fake nails after the years of getting gel nails at nail salons, you don't really get to change it around a lot and I like variation so it really isn't my cup of tea. After doing some research, I have heard a lot of people raving about them and saying that they are wonderful and it really did arouse my attention towards them. I have to say that they were't really very affordable so it did take me about 4 times of persuasion until I have really decided to get one for testing. 

To be honest, I think press on nails are just simply very a like to each other, they are always going to look like they are just a bit away from your actual nails and look kind of fake, these do look fake so if you don't' want fake looking nails, I would advice you not to get them. They are better than quite a few other ones because they at least have a plastic tab you can pull off before you put them on instead of some which you get glue on the outside and it might stick onto other things before they get onto your nails. You do get a lot of different sizes from the pack but one thing I think is a bad advantage is that the largest size is relatively quite small. I know a lot of people who have nails larger than me and the largest piece in the back doesn't fit my thumb perfectly, the good thing is that they actually show you the largest nail on the outside of the packaging and you can just refer to that one and see if they are good for you, if they are not then I would advice you not to get them.

I would still have to try them out for a few days and see how long they will stay and all that, but they are so far so good. Would I say that you have to get them?? No. Are they worth the money? Not really. Do I like it? For a person who hates stuck on nails, yes I like them.

 Hope this benefitted you all and also for the people who were planning or wondering on getting them. Enjoy!!

With lots of love,

Janice <3

Going to NYC!!

Hey you all beautiful out there,


Today wasn't really much of a long day, took the 9:20 a.m. plane and got off at around 1 at noon New York time. Didn't get out of the airport till almost three, that was quite sad really...

Got myself a little plane ride companion since I didn't bring toys with me this time >.<

After I landed I got to my uncle's and prepared to head out for dinner. Unfortunately, it just somehow decided to go to New York City on the same day that Obama came as well so traffic was really bad, hence no good food for me tonight other than home cooked meal.

Can you see all the cop cars there? As well as the huge traffic at the far back of the picture.

New York does have some fine weird cherries don't they??

Anyway, that really is all I did today and it really was just chilling around at home doing nothing, but tomorrow I have decided to go get some shopping done!!! Can't wait!!

With lots of love,

Janice <3

All about NAILS

Hello to all the lovelies out there!!

Before revealing the most embarrassing nail polish collection in the world I thought that giving you guys a little bit of nail art related information that I highly recommend you all to try out.


I know this has been quite the buzz for a very long while, but it feels like I really need to tell you how good they are since I have tried different that are avaliable out in the market and they are the stick-on nail art stickers. Although I have tried a lot of different ones, there are two types that I would like to talk about, the first one are the metallic ones  which you would have to peel off and stick it onto your nails. I have tried different methods of applying them and none of which seems to have made them look amazing, another problem I have with those stickers are that my nails are quite rounded so they don't really go on my nails without creasing and it really defeats the whole point for them being metallic. Another one I have which I am happier with are ones that act like temporary tattoos where you just soak them in water, peel the nail polish part out, place on your nails and let them dry out and they would stick onto your nails,it would stay on way longer if you apply another layer of top coat onto them. I have a few photos to show you the one I have recently used, quite a few nail artists even thought that they were sprayed on nail art which would have cost way more than these stickers which were around $20HKD.

The nail stickers looks exactly like temporary tattoos don't they??

 

Another information is that I found a new brand of nail polish which I am very happy about with the pay off of their nail polishes. This brand is called LAKA and they created the best nail polishes regarding color range, they have almost about 400 different colors and it is really hard for you to decided between one and other since they are all so beautiful. They are also very pigmented and all you really need is one generous coat of nail polish and you are good to go, I have had mine on for about 4 days now and it have not chipped a bit. One last yet most important thing is that they are not super expensive, they are $98 per bottle and it does seem like they are quite expensive, but they have promotions where you can get them cheaper if you buy in bulk and also I personally think that they are really good because the outcome is sometimes even better than high end brands like Dior, Chanel, Essie and OPI regarding color pay off. 

I personally recommend you to go check them out if you have problems finding the perfect shade of any color you are looking for or you need something that is super opaque that you would like the color to show after only one or two coats of polish!

LAKA, Windsor House, Causeway Bay Hong Kong

That is it for today and thank you for reading!! I will be heading to New York tomorrow where as my friend Kelly would be going to Finland!! If you like, subscribe to us for more lifestyle/ beauty/ fashion blogs that my friends and I will be bringing :)

With lots of love,

Janice <3

Very Easy DIY: Flower accessoires

Hello to all the lovelies out there,

After reading my friend Kelly's post, I wondered why not do a DIY blog post for you guys too?? We actually went together and shopped for all these amazing materials in SSP (Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong) and had so so so much fun. Since I went and purchased a lot of fake flowers  I realized that it would be great to show you how I did a few of my pieces.

This would be perfect for people who aren't really crafty yet still want to make something special for themselves or a friend because the process of making these accessories are as simple as gluing things together.

So these are the four different items that I have created with the fake flowers I bought (and I still have quite a bit left) with around $200HKD along with the accessory pieces which means that this is not only just an easy process but also very affordable. 

All the materials you would need:

1. A pair of decent scissors (normal paper cutting scissors would do)
2. A glue gun
3. Glue sticks for the glue gun
4. Fake flowers (both with wire or without wire would work perfectly fine)
5. Any accessory piece that you would like to make

Since I don't want to make too long of a blog post, I would show you the two different methods of how I make them instead of the step by step of every piece since it is really easy.

So first one is the flower comb accessory piece. 

As you can see, this piece only requires a comb accessory base and wired fake flowers, you can always use the comb bit that came off from a previous accessory piece and it would work just fine. The tips and tricks for this accessory can work on any piece which has holes in it and that you would be able to conceal the wires when the whole piece is done.

As you can see in the picture above, I literally just twined the wire onto the top of the comb and seriously this is ALL you have to do. Just two things that you want to pay attention to:

1. Twine tightly - You don't want to do the twining too loose or else the flowers would not be secure and they would move around
2. Hide ends of wires - You would also want to make sure the ends are hidden in the twines you created or else when you put it on the ends of the wire might catch your hair and might ruin your nice hair do.

So this is the finish look!!! 

The next method is the only method I use for the rest of my accessories and basically what you do is GLUE everything on.

All you need to do really is either apply the glue onto the accessory or the bottom of the flower and place the flower onto the accessory. As for my own preference, I tend to put it on the bottom of the flower so it would be easier for me to control in where the flower would go. Three tricks that you would want to know:

1. Trim your flowers - You would want to trim the bottom parts to make it easier to stay on a flatter surface, also if you like, you can trim the petals a bit so they can look the shape you want them to be.
2. Cover all traces of glue - I chose to glue my flowers facing both directions so it would give it a fuller and more packed feeling to it. But if you are looking for something more simple then you can just have the flowers facing upwards, just make sure you really trim off all the access bottom bits that you don't want.
3. Vary from flower sizes - This is a little trick that I would use when I am using relatively bigger fake flowers because they tend to have gaps in between them no matter how hard you try to fit them together, the outcome won't look good as well. This is where the smaller flowers come in, you would first place the bigger flowers onto the accessories at where you want them to be first and then you use the smaller ones to fill in the gaps, this would give the accessory more dynamic and you won't have weird holes in between which the glue might be seen.

So these are all the tips and tricks I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed this little DIY and would have inspired you into making little things of yourself and maybe even being a last minute gift you make for your amazing mom since you have no clue what to make!!

With lots of love,

Janice <3

Holiday = DIY time

Hi everyone. Since it is the very first piece, I'd like to start the blog with something personal-- my hobby of doing DIY accessories. I'd been collecting picture of LizLisa's and Fairy Kei accessories for my reference. (LizLisa is my favourite Japanese brand, in wearable Hime Gal style~)  Here are some of them:

All of them are so pretty~~but too expensive for me. T^T

So after exam, I started making my own accessories:

Fairy Kei bracelets x 8

Beads were age-old stock, because I used to do beading (串珠仔) back in primary 6.

I am supposed to throw them away when I move house, but lucky I haven't XP.

Floral bracelet

Originally, I want to glue all 10 large flowers on to the bracelet base to make it really packed,

but I later found that using smaller wired flowers seems to be a better choice. As I can always change damaged flowers away / adding other colours~

Laced ribbon 1

(Well, my friend asked if the inspiration was Indian Princess = =" Of course not!)

Laced ribbon 2

(Thanks for starring, USAKI~)

Floral Headband

This time, the flowers were glued. I don't own any hot-glue-gun, so I visited my friend who has to make it. It looks way better than using needle and thread. But I find that LizLisa use much larger flowers to make...Perhaps I should re-do it~

Bunny ears clip

Although it's not Easter, any girl put on bunny ears still looks cute right~ See Hikari on Popteen (May2012) also wear bunny ears~! I think it should match Fairy Kei style clothing~

I really enjoy making DIY stuff, both alone and with friends around, best with a soft music background and some Earl Gray tea~ Especially good when you have overspent for the month yet want to have some new accessories for mix&match~(Yes, that's me XP)

That's all for now~ my drawer for accessories is too full for more...See you next time! ^v^ /''