Rini & Misa's Giveaway - yes entering another giveaway.... .-.

Filler post! Yay!

Nah actually, got legitimate posts scheduled, I'm just procrastinating from my assignments Dx

Anyway, visit this new giveaway at either http://www.misaraisu.com/2014/05/hello-summer-giveaway.html or http://www.rinicesillia.com/2014/05/hello-summer-giveaway-international.html

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Isla Vista Shooting - a perceptive and critical analysis

Hi everyone,

Recently I have had a lot of assignments and other uni work due, so I have unfortunately had to hold back on social media a bit. However, I am appalled at the public response to the Isla Vista shooting. Whether it be screenshots on tumblr (http://snowrii.tumblr.com/post/86952733640/im-not-empathizing-with-the-killer-nor-are-his-actions ; http://snowrii.tumblr.com/post/86777039275/chaostearkitsune-knifefarty-but-nah-its), discussions within MY OWN UNI on a group facebook page, and the media coverage around the incident, all of it has been disappointing beyond words.

I would express how I feel on the matter (and in fact I did do so on the facebook thread in my uni), but I thought this article which my friend shared on FB worded everything I want to say far more eloquently than I could. If you are interested, please have a read.

http://qz.com/213553/what-isla-vista-shooter-horrific-manifesto-my-twisted-world-says-about-values/

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Prizes from Ly's Bad Gal Giveaway!

Eep!!!

This is the first time I have EVER won a giveaway omg. And I am especially excited because I super love the prizes!

Funny story actually: I often get packages from buying online and whatnot, but this time it was a written package, and from Europe. My mom was really freaked out that I receive packages from friends on the net QAQ

She's one of those paranoid Asian moms, so I understand where she's coming from but omg, I wouldn't give out my address to some suspicious creepy person. She doesn't understand the whole blogging community and culture online, and I don't think she could (or will want to) anyway so I'm just going to avoid the topic and get packages sent to uni or something in the future ><


Now, onto my prizes!

My first pack of Diamond lashes! Haven't had the chance to try these yet but I love them! <3

TBH I am always a little skeptical of the worth of these Japanese brand lashes that are hella expensive and don't have many pairs in a pack, but the design really is quite nice! QAQ

I think bottom lashes are better value for investment, since top lashes can be stacked to produce different looks but bottom lashes can't really be stacked and Ebay doesn't have that many nice designs of lower lashes (and who has time to snip sections of lashes together? nopeeeee).

Black Diamond's first CD (I think?)

Legitimately like track 3 and 4 more than 1 & 2. (3 & 4 are without their singing). The amount of autotune is painful, but the composition is really energetic ne~

XIII mesh cap! (Worn in my outfit at the bottom of this post)

First item from XIII. I don't wear much ora ora so this is a brand I don't really follow, but this cap is really nice for kuro/oraora styles! *v*

Don't know what happened with my camera here. These are the fluffy legwarmers!

The bototm half shows the color more accurately I think. They're not very yellow at all! My camera must have capture mid-exposure-adjustment? I don't know how my camera works at all QAQ

Gold cross ring!

I kept putting this ring the wrong way. One ring hole is bigger than the other and I kept getting it stuck on my hand LOL

And a lovely letter from Ly <3

Honestly I think my favourite part of receiving parcels (that I didn't buy) are the letters I get! So sweet :')


Thank you so much Ly for hosting this giveaway! Check our her blog for rokku/onee/tsuyome styles!

Pulled from my Tumblr

Oh yes, follow my Tumblr for high quality images of gyaru and lolita styles with the occasional rare PC text reblog! I don't spam that much, but I definitely update there and on Twitter more than my Instagram :D


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Pastel dolly outfit

Generally I don't blog my outfits...after all, everything from instagram gets sent to Tumblr, so why put it up on here right? And I've made a board on my Pinterest for outfits, but so far I've been pretty lazy with updating that too...

However, this was the first time I have dressed in a pastel Harajuku style in a while and I really liked this look. It definitely deserves a blog post of its own, even though it's from a week ago. Also, it marks the moment I started using Tumblr on a regular basis so woot!

I actually wore this just because I wanted to work out how to wear my new brown hair pieces. In the end, I decided it's not going to stay the way it is, and I will be buying hair extension clips to sew into these to make them stay. A review of these hair pieces and accessories will be in my taobao haul post next week :)

Can you tell I like filters? And my little twin stars phone case is super cuteeeee <3

Why are photos from instagram so yellow QAQ

Again, from instagram

Yep, got some work to do on these hair pieces, but I am super happy with how dolly they are! No teasing needed to achieve the 'big hair' look woot woot! <3

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~Dear Dollies 2nd Giveaway~

Found 2 new blogs today! *yay* honestly looking around for giveaways is the best way to hunt down cute beauty blogs <3

Click ^ to visit the OP!

I am sooo keen to try out some more DollyWink lashes! The only ones I've had are the #01, which sadly died pretty quickly even though I was really careful with them. It seems the more I try to take good care of my lashes, the more likely I am to tear them wtf. Murphy's Law!?

Also in this giveaway are My Beauty Diary masks (never tried this brand before), Etude House items (nor this brand...), and Canmake cream cheek (wtf haven't tried this either). I'm such a fail beauty blogger OTL

Actually I just don't try many Asian makeup brands. I feel like at the prices they're sold in NZ, I may as well go and buy a high brand makeup that I trust (in terms of chemical component and quality/results).

Anyway, will be keen to try these brands out if I'm lucky enough to win!


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First impressions of Depot Eatery

Today I'm spending my entire day at a training and examination event for LabVIEW (it's free!) which unfortunately starts at a grossly inhumane 8am.

Seriously, why are these out-of-uni events always so damn early!?

I hope I don't fall asleep -0-;;

Since I got here half an hour early, I decided to grab a coffee near the skycity convention centre where the training is held. *THANK YOU NZ BUSSES FOR BEING INCONSISTENTLY UNRELIABLE* (#｀A´)

There's a really awesomely deco-ed 'murican style diner next door to the Depot, but I wondered if they had good coffee since everyone inside appears to be eating. Plus, good coffee in a diner? Hmmm idk...never had good coffee in North America...

So I ended up at the Depot!

I made an absolute fool of myself ordering coffee lmao. They don't provide a coffee menu or anything! And the cashier is where you order, but the cashier is facing the barista area, on the right when you enter so I totally didn't notice wtf. The barista lady must think I'm dense since I tried to order from her. Especially as most people here are in suits, and I'm in my fluffy pink poncho, leopard chiffon skirt, LizLisa bag, pastel bookcase, and pastel phone .-. Not out of place at all.

The Depot actually looks pretty awesome. The rustic setting with open kitchens is really nice, definitely something homey, chill, and all-round different from the corporate offices all in the CBD!

Cool rack of wine bottles and various artifacts like fish skeletons, old tins, and random old stuff I don't recognise, to complete the look.

The one thing I find a bit strange is tap wine.

Yes. Tap WINE. Haven't heard of that before have you?

Behold. I wonder if the taste of wine in the pipe is compromised...

My coffee turns out to be quite good, surprisingly. I have no idea how much it costs (upwards of $4 for sure), but it's definitely better than the coffee at any of the uni cafes~

I told the barista I wanted to have it here, but she still stuck it in a takeaway cup. I see how it is. >>

All in all, I've heard good things about the food here so I'll definitely visit again in the evening sometime. Unfortunately this place is too far out of the way to drop by before my 9am starts at uni.

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D.I.A online store

OK every time I try to google this, I get no results fml.

Today I finally went through DIA's ameblo and fished out this link.

Putting it here for future reference!

DIA online: http://web.mbkr.jp/brand/dia/id/1475

The store has a tiny stock, but who knows it may expand in the future. No loss in keeping an eye on it ^^

Thank you Agehye (http://vanity-xxx.blogspot.ro/) for telling me about it ages back, before my comments were lost! >< 💕

Also, I have half a dozen reviews lined up! I want to type them up right now, but pretty much my entire semester's work is due in the coming fortnight so I'll have to put it off till early June T_T

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Revisiting Milse - disappointed! :(

Last Sunday, LY organised a meetup to celebrate her birthday (even though she didn't want us to sing happy birthday we ended up cornering her against a locked door and singing it in the train station hahahaha)

I didn't get many photos unfortunately, but I managed to snap some of the food since other people were taking food pics too ^^

This is just copied from my instagram post (@snowrii).

We had dinner at The Conservatory in Wynyard Quarter. It's my first time eating over there, and my second time in Wynyard Quarter since it opened in...2012 or 2013!? LOL I am so behind ~.~

The restaurants there all seem pretty nice, at least the view and ambience is great! The only downside is that the restaurants don't show their name very obviously, so I walked into a random restaurant before finding The Conservatory. Awkward.

Just a quick review of our dinner - the lamb (18"?) pizza was delicious! They cut it in huge slices and I felt so hungus, but omg it was so yum. Chips seasoned with rosemary is also quite nice! They didn't prepare it very crispy unfortunately (same goes for the calamari), but the idea of rosemary and chips is new to me and I love it! The garden platter was pretty average, the cabbage wasn't fresh enough and the artichoke heart was average. I wonder if their chef took a day off yesterday?

Now on to Milse! For those of you that follow Confetti, you will know that I had posted about the store several times (first review, second documented visit), mostly favorably. TL;DR on the links - when we first started the blog, Cora and I had a little celebration reviewing the store and it was truly lovely! Then, the verrines became much smaller than they used to be. This time, it was even worse!

Macarons of all different shapes and sizes, messily displayed.

Beautiful shot capturing the ONE giant macaron sandwich and the sloppy presentation of the green tea gateaux, courtesy of JY.

Let me just number them to make it easy for reading:

1. The presentation is inconsistent and sloppy - macarons were all different sizes, placed inctheir rows messily, and some were almost half a size bigger than others! If you think I'm being picky here, please visit my first review of Milse and you can understand why I have my expectations.

2. The cabinet was unkempt, even though it was a Sunday and they were really only moderately busy. Considering all the tarts sit directly in the cabinet, I would think that cleanness should be of high priority?

3. Macarons (the only thing I bought this time) varied in quality. The salted caramel JY bought was just as good as I remembered, but the other 3 that we shared (including the 2 in my photo collage at the top of this post) were very crumbly, hollow, and hard. Inconsistent, yet again.

Unfortunately I didn't try verrines or tarts or a gateaux this time, so I can't comment on those, but at least the presentation of the gateaux was pretty bad just like the macarons.

It has only been just over a year since they opened. I am honestly quite disappointed, and probably will not visit Milse quite as often as I used to.

Just FYI.

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Review: Neutrogena Pore Refining Exfoliating Cleanser

Hiya!

Thought I should probably post something of actual use in the beauty world once in a while haha

I received this product as a member of the NZ beauty review site beautyreview.co.nz and thought, why not review this on my blog where I can actually review it in detail!

TL;DR at the end of the post!

Usually I'm not a fan of drugstore brand products, but Neutrogena's makeup remover is the only one that works well for me at a reasonable price so I have a soft spot for Neutrogena *^^* the price is $15~$20, which is a LOT cheaper than my go-to shiseido products.

Pore refining exfoliating cleanser pretty much sums up what this is supposed to do. I have no idea what the alpha and beta hydroxy formula is supposed to do, and they don't explain it so I'm assuming that's just bs to make the formula sound unique.

Listed benefits:

Removes dead surface skin
Smoothes rough, uneven skin
Reduce the appearance of pores
Overall- leaves skin clear, smooth, more toned with less visible pores.

First of all, the product itself does not look appealing at all out of the tube. It looks like white snot, no!? Or I imagine how the foam coming out of a rabid dog's mouth looks like ==;

The microbeads are super small. You can feel it on your skin when you massage the cleanser in, but it's really hard to see on the photo. The beads are hard, and don't appear to disintegrate at all.

I have the biggest gripe with this product's smell. This is what it smells like:

In a sense, I liked it for the first 0.25milliseconds because it immediately brought back memories (of my childhood lol), but the smell certainly is not pleasant nor what you would expect of a facial cleanser today.

In terms of results, it does make my skin feel smoother , and the uneven skin has gone down a bit! Very marginally, but I can feel it!

I don't know what the long-term effects will be, but the product recommends daily use so I'll try that for a while and perhaps revisit this post in a few months :)


Final rating!
Texture: 4
Scent: 1
Absorption: 4
Effectiveness: 4
Overall: 3


I will definitely be using it regularly! Out of the exfoliating type cleansers I have used in the past, this is definitely one of my preferred ones since it works. I just wish the microbeads were a little softer, the smell a little more pleasant, and the texture to be either bubblier or creamier but NOT both!

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