Sunday, November 1, 2015

Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Nail Idea Using Milani's Sugar Burst

Time flies and it's already the end of October. I wanted to post this Pink Breast Cancer Awareness nail idea at the beginning of the month and do another halloween themed nail art at the end of the month but sadly didn't have the time.

pink-nails-for-breast-cancer-awareness.jpg

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month so what's better to raise awareness than doing a pretty pink nails design.

This is a very simple nail design that looks pretty and can be easily done by yourself.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Shall I Keep my eye out for Becca's Champagne Glow or The Balm's Manizer Sisters

Was randomly browsing through the allure website and came across a limited edition holiday palette that will be released in november at Sephora.

I find that the palette resembles the Balm's Manizer Sisters Luminizing palette that was recently released last August and I had been eyeing it ever since.

Monday, October 5, 2015

Sephora Gives You A Surprise with Beauty Shakeup


From now until October 22, you can play their beauty shake up game daily to win either a deluxe sample, 10% off, 150 extra beauty insider points, or 3X points on your next online purchase.

I will be listing the codes that I won here for my own reference.

I don't know if the codes will work for you, but you could try them.

I think the 3x points is most useful
my favorite sample of the bunch





thanks for reading,


Thursday, October 1, 2015

The Proper Way to Highlight and Powder Your Face to Achieve a Dewy Look

I randomly came across this video on a webpage. The reason why I am doing this post is because I wasn't able to save the video nor find a link to the video that I can reference to in the future. The video appeared on this glamour page.

I really liked the tips from the makeup artist Cyndle Komarovski who was giving tips on how to achieve flawless foundation. I didn't care for the foundation tips but I like her highlighting and finishing tips.
Using a liquid highligher, draw little triangles underneath your eyes and short dabs along your cheekbones.
She recommends the YSL touche eclat highlighter because it has sheer shimmer that looks natural.
Then make a line down the center of your nose and a dab on your chin

blend

Then apply concealer where you need more coverage like under your eyes, corners of your eyes and along the sides of your nose.

Finally set your makeup with powder using a puff instead of a brush because a brush would leave residue on your face.
With the puff, use it with a rolling motion all across your face.

I always have trouble with using highlighters because my face is usually oily. Highlighters seems to accentuate the oiliness. And when I use powder, my face always look too matte.

Right now I am using a powder brush to powder my face. I am wondering if that's the reason why it looks to matte. However, I never really considered using a puff because I feel that it would trap more bacteria than a brush since I can wash the brush more easily. But if I wash a puff, the puff would not be usable a second time.

I might try out powdering my face with a puff next time.  Does anyone know where I can find quality puff like hers that doesn't cost me a fortune?

How do you normally powder your face and where do you apply your highlights?

credits to the original uploader on glamour and Cyndle Komarovski. I only made the gifs using their video to share the tips.

Thanks for reading,

VanillaDreamCream




Thursday, September 24, 2015

Best Golden Nail Polish Selected on Get It Beauty

Haven't wrote a post on the top products from Get It Beauty because the show didn't have a best product section for the last couple episodes. I started getting bored out by the show after not seeing the best product selection so I didn't watch the show for awhile. I am glad, they continued their Top Product Section.


On episode 11 of season 2 of Get It Beauty they rated the best golden metallic nail polish. 

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Daily Essentials Haul for Tax Free Weekend

While others were queueing up at Wrentham outlet buying branded goods and pushing their new TV set out of Best Buy, I was running my daily errands and stocking up on my daily essentials during tax-free weekend.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Orly Nail Polish in Chica Boom Review

I picked up this polish as a duo on sale from Marshalls but didn't end up using it until now. It was left to collect dust with my other polishes.

orange-yellow-orly-nail-polish-duo.jpg

I had planned to go the beach with the kids so decided to put on a nice bright summery color. While rummaging through my box of nail polishes, Orly's Chica Boom jumped out at me.

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

The Japanese Konjac Sponge Review

Review of The Japanese Konjac Sponge in Cherry Blossom Puff

While continuing on my journey to find a longterm Konjac Sponge that I can use everyday, I came across the Japanese Konjac Sponge on Amazon. This brand calls themselves the "original Japanese Konjac Sponge" with 100% natural konjac fiber that is handmade in japan.

japanese konjac sponge

On their own website japanesekonjacsponge you can find a variety of different colors and sizes that cater to different skin needs. There are 6 different types of konjac sponge  - Bamboo Charcoal, Cherry Blossom, Green Tea, Pure White, Wild Mint, and Citrus Fruit-and they come in two shapes- a face puff and body sponge.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Top Five Violet Blush for Spring 2014 in Episode 10 of Get It Beauty


Top Five Violet Blush for Spring 2014 from Blind Test on Episode 10 of Get It Beauty

Because asian have yellow skintone, the contrasting color to it would be violet which makes violet a nice color that pops on asian skintone.






5th place is number Espoir Fabulous Blush in #Winky 7g $20
oil controlling ingredients to make it longlasting
online:4
experts:4
better girls:5





4th Place The Face Shop Lovely Mix You & Face Blusher in #03 Purple Fantasy 4g for $4
less pigmented
online:5
experts:3
better girls:4






3rd Place Shu Uemura Glow On in #M sofe mauve 225 4g for $30
Pigmented color
online:3
experts:2
better girls:3






2nd Place Tony Moly Crystal Blusher in #4 Milky Violet 6g for $5
online:2
experts:5
better girls:1







1st Place Mac Powder Blush in #Full of Joy 6g for $30
Creator had asian skintone in mind when creating this color.
online:1
experts:1
better girls:2




What's you favorite Violet Blush?

Thanks for reading,

VanillaDreamCream


Monday, March 2, 2015

Estee Lauder Collaborates with Andre Courreges for a New Limited Edition Makeup Line for Spring

Estee Lauder Collaborates with Andre Courreges for the released of 13 limited edition makeup products that was inspired by the iconic Courreges mini dress and The Space.

While I was reading the march edition of Allure, my eyes was drawn toward the product Estee Lauder Courreges Lip Visor.
It seems like the new trend is to create lip glosses/ lip balms that are round ever since the success of EOS. 


As I was mesmerized by uniqueness of the lipgloss, it reminded of a lip gloss that I have seen on my favorite blogger's site before.

I did a quick searched on her site and found the post.

Back in 2011, musingsofamuse posted her review of Mark Main Squeeze lip gloss and it looks exactly like Estee Lauder Courreges' Lip Visor.

Image credits to musingsofamuse

Musingsofamuse bought the Mark ones for $10. I believe Mark has discontinued the lip gloss now. Estee Lauder Courreges is selling theirs for $26.

The two product looks exactly alike. Can't wait to see how the formula of Estee Lauder Courreges Lip Visor will be when it comes out.

Check out the review of Mark Main Squeeze on Musingsofamuse.
Other images and more info of Estee Lauder and Courreges line credits to Temptalia

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Dreams: In A Theater Meets A Relative, Trapped on a Haunted Island, Meets George W. Bush, Attends a Funeral of a Rich Man

How do I dream of these things. My dreams have become even weirder now that I have been blogging about it.

I find myself in an auditorium. I get the feeling that we are in an aquarium waiting for a show/movie to start. I am sitting with my Aunt. There is no space for my mom so she looks for another spot. I hear another aunt talking loudly. Then suddenly a procession start and we find that we are in a funeral for a rich man. We wanted to leave but people are right ahead of us. They start some funeral ritual and carry candles. Someone's shirt get's on fire and I get up to stop the fire. Then they are throwing sparks in the air as a ritual. The sparks hit me and I get burned. Everyone then heads to a church and being pushes by the crowd I am in the church. When we get out I walked for a long time but there was not  a single person around and it was dark and cold. I see a man picking trash he tells me that I am on a haunted island and nobody is able to leave no matter how far they walk. There is a hotel that I decided to stay in but everyone working there turns out to be spirits. Then morning comes and I get the feeling that I am rescued. I wake up to my mom yelling.

I fall back asleep and have the same dream but this time George W. Bush is sitting next to me in a funeral.  As we leave, his entourage ask if I want I ride but I decline knowing they will never be able to get out of the haunted island. I end up going to the same hotel and later they also show up. Next day I try to leave however there are boats and trains taking people away but I get the impression people will get killed riding on those. I wander into an amusement park and ask for a job to assimilate with them however they discover that I am human and I run around the park trying to hide watching others sliding through tubes having fun.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Dream: Someone massages my back, cancels sovereign account, poor people are shooed, and me cleaning toilet

Last night's dream was pretty fuzzy.

I am over at my uncle's new house the three twins are playing but one falls. Nobody cared about them  since they always cry. I go over to take a look and ask her to move her hands but she can't because he wrist is twisted/broken. They had to take her to ER and she got a cast. 

I'm back at the house another uncle is massaging my back but then seems to be scratching a patch on my back. He has to pull down my shirt a bit in the back and my red bra is revealed and I felt a bit embarrassed since my entire family was around but he seemed to be treating me back. 

I then needed to go to the bathroom where a cousin directs me to the bathroom however, another cousin didn't want me to use it so shuts the door. I find another entrance and goes to the bathroom but that cousin pops in and gets angry. So after using the bathroom, I clean the toilet with lots of care. This was vivid because I remember myself tearing lots of toilet paper to wipe it over and over again. Then in the midst I found out that cousin didn't want me to use the toilet because he eats out of it. Then I get disgusted and left roaming around the neighborhood. It was a nice area. I was at a high place sort of like a cliff and was able to see a nice ocean view. I rent room near that area.

Then it get's fuzzy and I am trying to cancel my sovereign account that I had opened with a boyfriend or that the boyfriend gave me. I go inside and there is a poor person causing a scene in the bank and wouldn't leave. The banker asks if I had my card with me since it would be faster if I had the debit card. I walked outside to look inside my purse for the card and finally found it after a rummaging for a while. While I was sitting outside, the people causing a scene was waiting for her relatives to come for something and the banker tells them to stop causing a scene because it's disrupting their business. I get my account canceled successfully and then leave. 

As I am leaving I am passing through a college gathering. Then I don't know what happened.

I don't get this dream at all. There doesn't seem to be anything that connects with what I am doing. As for the twin, the parents cares about them a lot while I am usually indifferent to them. However is this trying to say subconsciously I really want to be a caring protective person?

not sure

Monday, February 9, 2015

My Entire Lip Balm Collection Review List

Lip Balm Collection Review: At A Glance

From best to worst


  • best night time lip balm. This is what I use everyday before I go to sleep and wake up with nice soft moisturized lip.
  • Colorless. Not waxy or like petroleum jelly. Goes on smoothly.
  • Moisturizing Level: 8 out of 10

original eos lip balm in lemon drop
  • lemon drop one is the best out of all the flavors
    • has SPF
    • colorless
    • has a thicker more "goopier" consistency that I find is ultra moisturizing and protective.
    • nice lemony scent
    • Moisturizing Level 8 out of 10. In my original post I said it was 6 out of 10 but probably because I had it for so long now, it has a melty texture which is goopier and I feel is more moisturizing than before when it's texture was harder and less easy to spread.

burt's bees tinted lip balm in hibiscus
  • natural sheer tinted color 
  • does not highlight dry flakes as much as other tinted lip balm
  • feels like it is sinking into my lips and renewing my lips
  • Moisturizing Level: 7 out of 10

eos visibly soft lip balm in coconut swirl
  • colorless
  • texture is soft compared to original EOS but less thick than lemon drop.
  • feels like it is over-drenching my lips but I get the feeling that it doesn't absorb-like it's just lying on top of my lips
  • Moisturizing Level 6 out of 10

eos lip balm
  • colorless
  • harder texture compared to lemon drop so less likely to spread
  • lightweight and give a tiny bit of moisture-perfect for the summer
  • Moisture Level-5 out of 10. 
Maybelline Color Whisper Color Sensation Lipstick-Cherry on Top-Bright Pinky Red color
It's a lipstick but I think of it as a lip balm because it doesn't have this smell that lipstick has for example, Revlon Lip Butters.
maybelline color whisper lipstick in cherry on top
  • medium color that can be builded
  • highlight any roughness and flakes.
  • I love this lip product as a lip color-love, love, love. However, you can not use this as a lip balm. It provides absolutely no moisture. Even in the summer, it does not provide enough moisture for my lips and I need to layer it with a lip balm. But I love the color of this and because I'm lazy and  don't like to layer it over a lip balm, I only use it for the summer.
  • Moisture Level-1 out of 10
I will continue to update this list as I review my entire collection of lip balms.

Share your favorite lip balm with me below.

Thanks for reading,

VanillaDreamCream

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Burt's Bee Tinted Lip Balm in Hibiscus Review

There's a snow storm going on outside and I am stuck at home. So what's a better time to do a review or than now. The other day I swiped on my long-time favorite, Burt's Bee Tinted before I braced for the cold headed out the door and not only did it moisturize my lips, it also gave my dead face a bit of color.

burt's bees tinted lip balm in hibiscus review

Burt's Bee Tinted Lip Balm comes packaged in a dainty cardboard container. I have to tell you that the main reason why I purchased this was because of the outside cardboard box. The cardboard container does absolutely nothing for the product and most people would toss it out after opening it but I think it's so cute. When you pull it open, there's even a message on the side. The actual lip balm on the inside looks nothing stellar-just a normal plastic tube of lip balm.

burt's bees tinted lip balm ingredients

Burt's Bee is known for their 100% natural products. I don't care whether it's natural or not as long as the product works and doesn't harm me. The natural is just a plus for me. 

What I like about this tinted lip balm is that it gives the perfect amount of color to brighten my face up. I may not always put on makeup but if I don't have any lip product on, my face just looks dead. This lip tint in hibiscus give me a natural rosy look. The lip color is sheer and glides on your lip smoothly. Right now I have very evident chapped flaky lips, but even with those conditions this lip balm doesn't highlight those flakes as much as other lip colors. I think it's the color that is more on the warm nude side, so it doesn't highlight flakes as much.

burt bee lip balm review

Moisturizing level is about 7 out of 10. When I have this on, it feels like the product is sinking into my lips as opposed to just lying on top of my lips like the EOS Visibily Soft lip balm does. I get the feeling that this lip balm renews my lips and helps decrease flaking by moisturizing it well.

swatch of burt's bees lip balm hibiscus

The color itself looks dull in the tube. However on your lips, it is a nice natural rosy color I like- not too overdone but yet not too dull. There's no shimmer particles and leaves your lips with a nice sheen. It rubs off easily and wears off in 2-3 hours. It does leave a tiny bit of stain on you lips after it wears off.

While I was doing this review, I just realized that it doesn't have SPF. Since I don't put sunblock on my lips, it one of the most places that I neglect sunblock and it would have been nice if they had included  some form of sunblock. The lack of SPF is nothing major and does not deduct any points from my review since it does such a great job moisturizing my lips and gives face some color. In the winter, I like to layer it with EOS lip balm in lemon which contains SPF and is colorless to give it even more moisture and the needed SPF.

If you need a tinted lip, this is the one to get and I highly recommend it. 

I have a condensed version of all the lip balms I have reviewed here.

Thanks for reading,

VanillaDreamCream




A Beauty Survival Competition Makes Me Realize That I Dream in Color

Yet again I had two dreams last night.
First one I don't seem to recall. I remembered it this morning but remember it anymore.



The second dream started out as a beauty competition then turned into a group knowledge competition. I was standing with other contestant but we are divided into two groups where the opposing group is facing us. The female judge and my trainer is on my left side.  I was considered leader of my group since the person who trained us thought of me as her best alumni. However I heard the judge tell my trainer that I looked too nervous for being such an experienced competitor. It was the session where we are tested on our ability to answer questions. The person right next to me stumbled. The next person asked the judge to repeat that same question. So my trainer jumped in and said the questions slowly so we could all hear. By the time it was my turn I had already heard the question three times so I was prepared to answer the question and was satisfied with my response. I felt that the first round was an individual competition just like in Miss Universe.

The second round we divided in teams and our team had young boy about 10 years old who was exceedingly smart. We were asked to name displays shown and answer by raising our hands. This is like testing our vocabulary. It's funny how all the displays had the asian theme. The first one was like a oriental temple looking structure with a buddha like figure inside. I had no idea what it was but good thing a girl on our team answered it right. One after another displays were shown but I had no idea what they were and couldn't answer any of them. Then came a dulcimer but I had no idea if it was a dulcimer or not since there were many different chinese instruments and I didn't want to give a wrong answer. I proceeded to ask the boy next to me but he went to the bathroom. When he came back he said yeah it is and I raised my hand but another team answered it. Then came a section where there were lots of tiny items circling around us like a sushi conveyor belt. The ones I could remember was a opened bento box but in which I was hesitant in answering but what made me so assertive that it was a bento/lunch box was there was a yellow egg-like food in the middle. This is also the reason that I know that I dream in color  since the egg-like food was so vividly yellow. There was a panda cartoon and a cartoon character with thick brows. There was a dish with roast pork and broccoli. I said roast pork and broccoli but the judge said I was wrong. Another guy from another team said a more descriptive name and got it right. Then I saw this malaysian cake dessert that I am pretty certain off (馬拉糕) but as I was raising my hand to answer the question, I woke up.

I think what's caused me to have this dream is the recent beauty competitions-miss universe etc and a children knowledge competition that I've been watching called Kid Genius where they test the kids on many different aspects and award the child that wins with a scholarship.


Thursday, February 5, 2015

Snakes , Crush, Cookies in my Dream

Two night before I had two dreams.
Don't remember which one came first.

I saw a small snake about 1 feet long in my bed. Startled, I crawled into my parent's bed only to find out there was a gigantic snake, about 8 inches in diameter and 12 feet long on the bed. As I was scrambling to get away, the snake saw me and lunged at me, and I woke up.

Second was the sweeter one. I was at some sort of cafeteria. My crush (cool tall bald guy in college)was sitting at another table directly behind behind with his back toward me. The cafeteria sold lots of pastries and one of the ladies I knew came to give me a cookie. It was a christmas tree sugar cookie. Disappointed I went to look at all the pastries and saw there was a sign that if I signed up for the couple getaway sweepstakes I get another pastry. I was eyeing the lemon puff pastry. Even though I didn't have a boyfriend, being greedy, I signed up thinking that there was no chance for me to win but regardless I am able to get a free pastry. Why not? While I was signing up, other people in the cafeteria started to find out about the deal and started signing up also. My crush happened to sit really close right next to me and kept on looking at what I was writing since he didn't know how to fill out the form.

That's it

Thursday, January 29, 2015

My Nightly Dreams

My Dream on 1/29/15 wednesday night. I went to sleep after watching marathon of the tv show my sunshine. Didn't study for naplex yet again. My naplex is the coming thurs in a week.

I currently don't have a job, so my sleeping habits have been going out of control. I've been waking up at two in the afternoon and going to sleep at 5 in the morning. Sometimes I sleep 12 hours and sometimes only get 5 hours.

I have realized that I have been getting lots of peculiar vivid dreams that feels almost life like. I wanted to see if my daily life has an effect on what I dream so decided to be posting my dream on my blog from now on.

I read somewhere that people only dream when they have a lack of sleep and the dreams happen when you are almost waking up.

They say that most people don't remember their dreams and if they do, they are lacking lots of sleep. Also most people's dream are in black in white. Only a select few people dream in color. I want to say that I dream in color but when I think hard, I believe my dreams are in black and white.

I have been deciding what blog to post my dreams in but since I feel vanilladreamcream is my personal blog, I have decided to post my dream here instead of in my entertainment/drama review blog @ dramadreamland.wordpress.com

So now off to my first dream post.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Get it Beauty ep 9 Boy Group Idol Makeup

Korean Boy Group Idol Makeup

We have seen a trend in makeup where boy group are wearing lots of dramatic makeup.

In episode 9 of Get It Beauty, it shows tips on getting makeup that male idols wear.

The most noticeable makeup the guys usually have on is eyeliner. Once you say eyeliner, G-dragon's name comes up.
g dragon eyeliner demonstration on get it beauty

However there are also lots of other male idols that are known to put on eyeliner such as
male idols with eyeliner
Exo's Baek Hyun          Infinite's Sung Gyu           Shinee's Key                 Block B's Zico
In this episode, SPEED were special guest and they demonstrated the eyeliner look on one of the boys. I forgot his name but he looks so cute.


After the makeup, he instantly became cool.


The makeup artist took a chubbier black eyeliner and lined the eyes in the front and end of the eyes, keeping the center unlined. Then blended. Repeated the same underneath the eye.




The second type of makeup they demonstrated was Exo's Xiumin's shading makeup
It was just blending beige eyeshadow and giving her strong eyebrows



Then they demostrated Exo's Baek hyun's burgundy eye makeup



first use a burgundy color under the eye, darker near the ends and gradually getting thinner near the middle.
then use a darker burgundy color to line the eyes and give more contour.
the most important part is gray colored contact lens.

burgundy eye makeup on SPEED



Lastly the most dramatic makeup seen sported by male idols were the vampire makeup seen on Vixx.

The tip here was to tightline the top and bottom eyes entirely with a black liner. Then using a normal flat paintbrush, cut some bristles away so it becomes jagged. Moisten the brush then dip it in black eyeshadow and draw it across the top part of the eye and out. Instant drama.



I don't know about anybody else but I was expecting them to do a blind testing. I basically watch Get It Beauty to see which item they find is the best in their category but for the past two episode, the show didn't reveal any Blind Test. Wish they would bring it back. :)

What boy makeup trend do you think you would try?

For me, I think the burgundy makeup would look pretty nice on me.

Thanks for reading,

VanillaDreamCream