Review: Tarte EmphasEYES Waterproof Clay Shadow / Liner

Hot on the tails of the new year and the good old, "Out with the old, in with the [new] makeup" -- I noticed that my staple L'Oreal HiP Studio Secrets Professional Color Truth Cream Eyeliner had dried up a bit and rather than trying to perform resuscitation on it (whether by microwave or adding glycerin), I decided to use the other eyeliner that I had in my stash. 

Back in 2011, I almost missed picking up the Tarte Shining Stars holiday collection but luckily I found it at an Ulta. I didn't get around to using any of the pieces that I had picked up because at the time I was already using a full sized version of the mascara and my L'Oreal cream eyeliner was still on full duty. So now, I finally had the chance to try it out.

In comparison to the cream eyeliner or any of my e.l.f. liners, the Tarte comes off much lighter (on my face as you'll see in the swatches below, it appears almost as pigmented as anything else I have in my eyeliner bag). It came off almost like a dark gray on me and my assumption is because of my undertones. After applying it, I had to go over it with my NYX eyeliner in order to really get that black to pop out. I'm definitely not discounting the abilities of the Tarte liner though. It glides on smoothly -- application was great and it was quite easy to get the cat eye I was looking for (albeit not in the colour I wanted). The lasting power was great and while there was minimal bleeding, it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed quickly.

If you take a look at the image on the left, I swatched it against some of the other ones I have in my bag. From left to right:

• Tarte EmphasEYES Waterproof Clay Shadow / Liner
• e.l.f. Essential Liquid Eyeliner
• NYX Retractable Eye Liner
• Stila Convertible Eye Colour
• Sephora Nano Eyeliner
• Sephora Smoky Kohl Eyeliner

While these are all different in nature (ranging from creams to liquids and pencils in between), I figured it would be useful to compare strokes and pigmentation. The clay eyeliner (Tarte) was applied with the brush while the others were a bit more controlled with the exception of the kohl (which I haven't gotten the hang of just yet).

Overall, I like it -- it can't replace the pure black pigments that the L'Oreal one does, but it's good on it's own (probably because it's formulated without parabens, mineral oil, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate, synthetic fragrance, and triclosan which is a trade I'm willing to take (well, especially when I have so many other eyeliners that can help reinforce it).

If you take a look at the image, I started with Tarte, did a quick layer of NYX along the top and the bottom, then finished with the Tarte again. The edges of the cat eye were pretty faded before the night was up, but still, I like it because it's formulated without the bad stuff which is a trade-off that I'm okay with. Plus I have a lot of other eyeliners to makeup for the reduction of longevity in another.

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Product: Tarte EmphasEYES Waterproof Clay Shadow / Liner
Price: While it's retailing at $24, I got this one through the Shining Stars Holiday Collection (2011) which retailed for $30 for the whole set.
Would Recommend? It's going to depend on you (see the notes below).
Takeaway: It's not as pigmented as others that I've found, but pairing it with other eyeliners will help it out. Since it's a more eco-friendly product than other competitors, it comes down to preference.

Black Sneakers

Okay, before I decided to wear more colours, my standard outfits were black, gray, and white shirts (or any combination of those colours) with blue jeans. For a while my custom Converses (in those colours) worked out very well except that the padding isn't very good on Chucks. So I decided to upgrade a few years ago and opted for the Nike Air Force One's in all black. They were certainly awesome, but I started to take the advice of my friend Leo who mentioned that I should try to replace them every 6 months (or a year, which ever came first). 

It came time to replace them and I wanted all black sneakers again since it was easier to coordinate with them. Since I bought my North Face Hedgehogs off of ShoeBuy, I figured I'd try there first. I ended up coming upon the Kalso line of shoes and sneakers which looked really interesting (aside from seeming to have a food philosophy).

I did check around some more and ended up purchasing the Earth Exer-Trainer 2 Sneakers from the Sierra Trading Post. Upon receiving them, not only was the "negative heel" (basically there is a 3.7° incline), I also noticed that the soles were biodegradable which made me very interested in trying to stick to more eco-friendly options. So when it came time to replace the old shoes, I looked to the Kalso line again.

This time round I decided on two: Kalso Earth Exer-Walk Shoes and Kalso Earth Prosper Shoes. Now I haven't tried out the Prosper shoes just yet but I have been wearing the Exer-Walk shoes since I got them and I love them. They feel a bit more sturdier than the Exer-Trainers -- though we'll see how it pans out in the future.

Overall, I really like the Kalso Earth line (although the branding confuses me since sometimes they are listed as: Kalso Earth, Earth, and Earthies. You can check out the website to see everything that they have and it's a pretty good selection. The Prosper shoe is actually vegan, which is nice.

Just a note: The Exer-Trainer didn't have good reviews but I still sprang for them anyway since I it matches my wardrobe much better. They were great so when I saw the reviews for the Exer-Walk, I wasn't deterred and frankly, they've been great (even better) than the Trainers.

And don't forget to check Ebates! I purchase almost all my sneakers online and I always go through Ebates*.

* Denotes a referral link.

Sephora + Jasmine

I just caught this on Sephora's Facebook feed and I am so excited! Jasmine is one of my favourite princesses (I was a bit sad I didn't get to have my picture taken with her at Disney on birthday) so I'm happy to see that she's up next for this year! I can't wait!

Over to the left is one of the promotional images provided by Disney Bridal. You can also see a few shots of the collection on BeauteZine.

I hope that I can add the nail polishes, compact mirror, and eyeliner set to my collection!

Blast from the Past: Calgon Get Juiced Lip Shimmer in Juicy Nude

I seem to collect lip balms and I've amassed quite a collection. So I apologize if lip balms aren't your thing but I've got a lot to get through. So here's a random but important thing about me: I really enjoy finishing products. I don't generally loose lip balms or lip glosses but I always make it a goal to finish a tube. This kind of makes my reviews a bit complex since I need to finish them before I can move on to the next. The reason why I say this is that this particular tube, albeit small, has been in use for months... I've also had it for years (just didn't get around to using it till recently).

I'm not really sure where I got it from -- I think it was a gift from Devi but my memory is fuzzy on that bit. Back when she first moved to Canada she would send nifty items that weren't really seen in the States and I think this was one of them. Mostly because whatever information I could find about them states that they were a limited edition that was packaged with other bath products and I'm pretty sure that back in 2007-2008 I was unable to find Calgon products in general. 

That gives you an idea of how old it is and to create a bit more context, I didn't start using it till late last year (2012). It actually does hold up well -- the scent and shimmer is very good. I didn't use it when I first got it so I don't have a "past" to compare it to. As a new product that just happens to be old, it works out decently enough. I say decently because I wasn't a fan of the texture as it was a bit chalky which is to be expected from a 4 year old lip balm.

What I accidentally did do one day was to leave it behind my laptop and upon it warming up, the scent came out a lot more and the chalky texture disappeared. As a result, I always leave it near my laptop so that it's not just within reach, but also so that I can get that vibrant fruity scent and an easier application. Overall, the scent and even the taste is slightly tropical and while it gives off a lot of shimmer, there is luckily no colour. In terms of moisturizing, it's not the best as I find that I have to reapply often. 

You can still find tubes of these floating around on eBay for a range of $3-$5 dollars. 

Preparing for Disney World

I've been meaning to write this post for a while but... life happens. Anyhow, last month for my birthday, my boyfriend and I decided to go to Disney World. My parents were super awesome (yes, super awesome) about it and after we booked our flight and car, they actually gifted us their timeshare to use. For context purposes, we purchased our tickets in August and then I promptly spent the following months immersing myself in all things Disney.

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The Tickets

We ordered our tickets online through Undercover Tourist and had them shipped to us. They arrived in a timely manner and we had no issues at all with them. We should have opted to get our Islands of Adventure tickets also from there but at the time, we were still on the fence about whether we were going to go or not. The website says that you should allow up to 10 business days if you're in the United States and a few days more if you're not within the States, so make sure you plan accordingly (or be prepared to pick them up in Orlando).

The Restaurants

We waited till September to start booking the restaurants. Truth be told, I might have skipped this step entirely (and found my hopes dashed) if I wasn't paying attention to the Disney subreddits. Around that time, news about the Be Our Guest restaurants was coming out and when the first day for reservations started, that particular restaurant was booked immediately. I decided that it would be in our best interest to book in advance and I'm awfully glad we did. 

Through the DW Dining Reservations, we picked our restaurants and since we didn't have Park Hoppers, we knew that we'd be in particular parks each day. Which meant that our picking of the restaurants dictated what parks we'd be in. Luckily we knew that of the restaurants we chose (for lunch and dinner), only two actually had a no-show fee whereas all others ask that you cancel out of kindness to other guests (rather than just not showing up and not cancelling). 

Day	Park	Lunch	Dinner
Sunday	Magic Kingdom		The Crystal Palace
Monday	Animal Kingdom		Rainforest Café
Tuesday	Epcot	Biergarten Restaurant	Coral Reef Restaurant*
Wednesday*	Hollywood Studios*	Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater*	The Hollywood Brown Derby*

For any asterisks present, that means we ran into some issues with the planning of this. Let's start with Coral Reef -- sometime after we booked the reservation, we also realized that Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party was happening and it was on the day of my birthday. So we decided that we'd do it (even though it's a separate entrance fee) but forgot that we had a dinner reservation that night. Well... that night we ended up eating cookies, hot chocolate, and apple slices for dinner at that party.For Wednesday, due to some mishaps with trying to meet up with my cousin who lives in the area, we ended up switching everything to Thursday. While the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater was easily able to accomodate us on Thursday without advance notice, the Hollywood Brown Derby has a no-show fee (the other restaurant being The Crystal Palace to have the same fee) so we called them on Wednesday to try to get it switched and they were greatly accommodating. It turns out that if we tried to cancel it, we would have had to paid the fee, but switching it to another day circumvented that fee.Pin Trading
So something I've always kind of wanted to do since my previous visit to Disney World (and subsequent trips to Disneyland) was to start pin trading. But back when I was 15, my parents either said "You're too old," or "This is a phase," or "It costs too much," which all seemed like legit reasons. Even during my last two trips to DL, I found myself saying the same exact thing. But then I realized that Stitch was a pin mainstay and he's my favourite character of all time (not really, but he's pretty up there). Now when I first got my Stitch Starter Set back in July, I kind of just figured that I'd be trading at DL the next time that we went. Getting started at Disney World is... well, let's just say I wasn't prepared. But then I wasn't really sure what to expect. Overall, it was a lot of fun albeit frustrating at times due to the scrappers. I ended up just purchasing whole packs such as the red version of the Stitch starter set.Toward the end of the trip when I was able to trade for a Storm Trooper pin, I ended up giving it along with a few tradeables for my boyfriend to get started. Which made the whole "hunting down pins" thing a bit more enjoyable since we were doing it together. He ended up getting quite a few pins that really commemorated the trip.Souvenirs
I'm not going to talk about the souvenirs that we brought back, but rather some of the ideas that was floating around before we went (and even some thereafter). While we got a few ideas from Mouse Savers, we took great care in trying to preserve all our maps, pamphlets, and tickets. In addition to the basics, we got ourselves our "commemorative badges" right away. While my boyfriend got his "First Visit" badge, I got the "Birthday" badge and we wore it every single day. We also played the game of trying to see who got the most reaction out of the badges. Whereas I won that one, he won the "most compliments on clothing" one. :)Back to that point of preserving maps though... while you can order a free planning DVD from Disney, I think the greatest thing we got in the planning phase were some customized maps. We didn't take these maps with us, but we did keep them at home and recently we found a frame for them. Now part of the problem is that they are double sided which means you'd likely have to order them twice if two of your favourite parks end up on the same side and you can only order them every 6 months. But they are quite beautiful and now we know that we have two sets (the fancy ones we got customized or the ones we actually used in the parks) if we ever feel like switching them out from the frame.

Hues of Aquaria

I figured that while I was waiting on my "Last of the Time Lords" order from Lucky 13 Lacquer that I'd give the blend Aquaria a shot. Of the Humble Indie Bundle, there's just a few I haven't tried and Aquaria was one of them (the others being Cosmos and Machinarium. Aquaria is described by Lucky 13 Lacquers as "a light blue jelly base, fine copper square, and medium teal square glitters."

While Lucky 13 Lacquers has a lot of lovely nail polishes up, the Humble Indie Bundle nail polishes only seems to be available when the actual Humble Indie Bundle (for charity) goes up since a portion of the proceeds goes to the charity.

Two coats of Aquaria over two coats of
Sinful Colours "Let Me Go."

Sinful Colors "Let Me Go" (322) is a silvery colour that morphs between metallic green and lavender. The hue of blue in Aquaria accentuates those hints of purple and really makes a strong light blue.

Jelly Sandwich: Two coats of Zoya Frida, two coats
of Aquaria, and one final coat of the Zoya Frida.

 Zoya Frida (ZP640)  combined with Aquaria is a gorgeous "jelly sandwich" blend which kind of reminds me of being near the water. I think it would make a great Bioshock background for nails.

Two coats of e.l.f. Royal Purple and two coats of Aquaria.

I love the colour purple and for this blend, I like how that very light hints of blue in Aquaria accentuate the purple.

Two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Going Green
and one coat of Aquaria.

In this "mix" the hint of blue jelly and teal squares somewhat disappears into the green -- which isn't too bad but you will have to depend on the copper squares to come through a lot more.

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Lucky 13 Lacquers are $8 a bottle however for this particular bottle, it is only sold in the HIB set. Both Sinful Colors and e.l.f. nail polishes costs ~$2. Zoya bottles costs $8.

H&S Meets Pawalla

On Wednesday I got my first monthly subscription box ever and of course, it was not for me, but for my little minions. (The only other subscription box I subscribed to was for my boyfriend and that was the Loot Crate*, which maybe I'll review later). I've always kind of been on the fence about getting one for myself (even though I am around a monthly subscription all the time) and the closest I'd ever gotten was narrowing it down to the Conscious Box. But when the kittens arrived, I decided that now was the time (partially because I wanted something that could keep them occupied).

While there is a few different pet subscription boxes, there are very few intended for cats. Which strike me as odd since I'm trying to find a way of getting my kittens new toys every month or so to keep them entertained. There is Pawalla*, Best Friend Box, and Spoiled Rotten though. After I decided to try out  Pawalla and my roommate decided to give Spoiled Rotten a shot (I only mention this because when I was deciding, I didn't even know about Spoiled Rotten).

What swayed me to try Pawalla over Best Friend Box was because I don't really want treats in the box. I would definitely prefer to have a box with some foods (not a lot, but a mix of wet food and dry) but I specifically want more toys. The bright side though is that if I ended up getting things that none of the three cats liked, then we could likely donate them to the shelter. So what really made the decision a bit easier? FloppyCats. Seriously. Here's the reviews for Best Friend Box, Pawalla, and Spoiled Rotten that all feature the adorable Trig and Charlie.

As for myself, I loved the presentation on the Pawalla box -- everything is nicely packaged and it's such a great experience just opening the box. The kittens were all over the box... well, because it's a box. Upon opening it though, they were entranced. 

Now as they are still young and still unfamiliar with a lot of sounds, I was actually able to check everything that arrived before they got wind of it actually being their belongings. In the January 2013 box we received:

• Loopies Stripes Stick
• 4 Lotus Natural Foods Canned Pâté
• Cat-Man-Doo Life Essentials Freeze Dried Chicken
• Stella & Chewy's Carnivore Crunch
• Petchup Meowstard
• JMK Litter Bags

Impression? I love it. The kittens took hold of the Loopies Stripes Stick immediately which allowed me time to review the content of the box.

As for the food, my boyfriend and I are trying to balance the kittens diet with wet food and we are specifically looking to keep them on a grain free diet. When they got sick the closest stores that carried kitten wet food only had Iams Kitten Premium Pate Canned Cat Food which while we didn't want to give them, kind of had too. Shortly after we made a haul of canned food and ended up getting a bunch from Lotus (and a few cans of Science Diet Kitten Tender Chicken Dinner).

The Freeze Dried Chicken was an absolute hit. We've been trying to figure out how to give them treats (especially since they are so young) without allowing them to overindulge. This fits the bill perfectly.

I'm still on the fence about the Carnivore Crunch and the Meowstard. The Carnivore Crunch explicitly states that it's for dogs but I read from various places online that it's good for both cats and dogs. I'm probably going to double check with Pawalla just to be on the safe side. The Meowstard is an interesting concept that I'm kind of excited to try out but I don't know how they will react (since they seem to love their Halo dry food quite a bit). I'm not ready to try it out just yet since the kittens are still taking L-Lysine supplements and since they are just getting better from their ailments, I'd rather not introduce entirely new things just yet.

Pawalla costs $26 a month, Best Friend Box costs $30 a month, and Spoiled Rotten (by PetFlow) costs $25 a month. If you know of any more out there, let me know because I'd love to explore more options for the kittens.

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* Because I'm terrible at conversions, those links are specifically referral links. But let's be real, you aren't going to click them anyway.