August 8th, 2008 / 3 Comments » / by Mimi
Now that putting on makeup has become a must before I leave the house, I’ve decided that it was time to upgrade my old worn out brushes and invest in some quality ones. I’ve heard and read about all the rave with MAC brushes, especially #239 since I focus primarily (if not only) on the eye when applying makeup. However, it hurts me emotionally (and financially) to think about the fact that each MAC brush is at least $20 and that I’d be needing at least the basic few. If I were to invest, there goes $100 out of my pocket. Not much when my internship is currently paying zilch. :(
So I was looking the house and came to the drawers I brought back from college but never bothered putting away (what’s the point when I’m just going to have to pack again when school starts?). Lo and behold, I find 3 double-ended makeup brushes in there that I bought a while ago from CVS. They felt really nice compared to my old brushes and were made of authentic hairs and fibers, so I thought, heck, why not?
Now it’s been a month since all of that happened, and these brushes have been absolutely amazing. They’re by Essence of Beauty, and you can only buy them at CVS stores. I got the 3 duo-ended brushes in a set for less than $10 I think, and they’ve been so amazing that I went out today and got crease brush duo set ($5) and a duo-ended smoky-wide eye brush ($4). So again, that’s 4 brushes with less than $10. :D
My favorites so far are the blush brush and the brushes I got today. Like I said earlier, I only do eye makeup. I don’t use powder or foundation or anything like that, so I haven’t gotten around to trying many of the other brushes yet. But the blush brush is very soft and picks up my Nars blush quite well and gives my cheeks a nice subtle color. And it feels so soft on my skin! 
As for the crease duo brush and smoky-wide eye duo brush, they are amazing. I tried them out with my MAC pigment samples today, and a little goes a LONG way. The crease brushes pick up the colors extremely well, and I used the smoky-wide eye to blend, which it did beautifully. So I couldn’t help myself but to take a picture of these lovely brushes and blog about them! :P
Posted in: Fashion & Beauty
Tags: essence of beauty, MAC, makeup, makeup tools
August 8th, 2008 / No Comments » / by Mimi
One of the best summer vacations I’ve had without going out of the country was my trip to New York. It was a two day and one night trip, and we took the bus from Washington, DC all the way to Chinatown, New York. We spent most of our first day in Chinatown, which to me is almost like revisiting Taipei all over again. They have some awesome hair salons and lots of shops that sell cute trinkets and Asian fashion. We got a haircut at one of the salons, and my hairdresser was absolutely adorable. I’m tempted to go back to New York just so I can get my hair styled by him. :P But in all seriousness, he did do a great job. Of course, there was some shopping and eating done, and for the night, we stayed at the Marriot Marquis by Times Square. Needless to say, the city night lights were beautiful and the hotel was awesome.
The next day was spent at Times square and the surrounding areas, where we shopped some more and took some pictures, and then we headed back to Chinatown in the early afternoon to take the bus back to DC. We wanted to avoid rush hour, which is absolutely crazy in NYC. -_-
If you’re interested in visiting New York yourself, or maybe some other cities in the States, please check out Trusted Tours & Attractions for a complete list of online travel guides. Not only can you find a list of things to do in New York (for example, like visiting Madame Tussauds wax museum in the Big Apple), you can also find a list of things to do in Las Vegas and other major cities in the country!
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Posted in: Travel
Tags: New York City
August 6th, 2008 / 7 Comments » / by Mimi
My MAC pigment samples came in today, so I thought I’d post some pictures and share them with you.I haven’t tried them out yet, but I will post more photos once I do.
The colors I bought are: Aire-de-Blu, Chartreuse, Dark Soul, Fairylite, Naked, Naval Blue, Nocturnal Plum, Pink Pearl, Vanilla, and Silver Fog. They also gave me Silver Glitter Brilliants as a gift. 
Thanks Katy for sharing the site with me!
Posted in: Fashion & Beauty
Tags: MAC, makeup, pigment samples, shopping
August 4th, 2008 / 3 Comments » / by Mimi
Are you in need of debt consolidation, debt relief, debt help, or the need to consolidate debt? Sure, there are a lot of online resources that can help, for example, like Bills.com, but why not start with the very basics so you can avoid falling into debt? Simple, you can start with saving money!
I’ve been doing exactly just that lately, and it feels great because now I don’t need to worry about how to pay off my bills all the time, or where I’m going to get that money from. Besides, it feels good to have lots of extra cash sitting in your bank account. You never know when you might need it. :P I’m going to list a couple of ways that I use to save money:
- Open a free checking and savings account in the same bank. I have both with Wachovia, and it’s great because they automatically withdraw $100 from my checking account every month, and every time I use my debit card, another $1 will be transferred to my savings account. The interest is extremely high for savings, so it’s a good way to grow money (literally). Bank of America has a similar system where they automatically round up your debit card purchases to the nearest dollar, and the extra change will go into your savings account. Bank of America will also deposit however much you saved in the first 3 months into your savings account as a bonus! If you’re interested in opening an account, please email me.
- Avoid using your credit cards. It’s easy to spend more than you can afford when using a credit card, but when the bill comes, that’s when you start fretting where you’re going to get the money to pay it off.
- Make a habit of recording your expenses and incomes. That way you’ll always know how much money you’re spending and how much you have left, so you won’t spend more than you have.
- Make a shopping list. Don’t buy things on impulse, but instead, write the things you want on a list, and wait a couple of days. If you still want it or feel the need to get it, then go buy it. Often I buy things on the whim only to realize that it’s useless.
Talk about a waste of money or time.
- Turn the shopping list into a budget list by listing the prices of the items as well. That way you’ll know what you can and can’t afford, and you can better decide what you should/want to buy first, and what you can save for later.
- Use sales to your advantage. You’d be surprised at how much you can save if you shopped in the clearance section vs the full-price section. My motto is: never buy anything at full price unless it’s absolutely worth it (like a Tiffany jewelery). :P
I hope you found these tips helpful, and if you have any you’d like to share, please leave a comment. Thanks!
Posted in: Tips & Tricks
Tags: finances, saving money
August 4th, 2008 / 2 Comments » / by Mimi
There were some issues going on in the family concerning my grandfather’s second wife and how much of a prick she’s being. My immediate reaction after my mom told me was “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, and I was totally ready to get back at her, with interest too! Of course, she had to remind me that this wouldn’t be the way God would’ve wanted us to take care of things, and by doing that, we’d just be sinking down to her level. Yes, I realize all this, but the fact that she’s sleeping around with another man, stealing my grandfather’s money, and charging my uncle to take care of HER husband just makes my blood boil. D<
I was totally ready to pray to God to have her die a horrible freak accident, or at least get her back for being an ungrateful whore, since we can’t do much about it ourselves. Then I was reading my evening devotions and I came across this short story:
Two of us were chatting with Sadhu Sundar Singh in my office one morning. The Sadhu had just arrived in London. We knew little concerning him, and my friend was anxious to find out if he knew the doctrine of that “perfect love” of which Saint John speaks.
“Does he understand?” asked my friend, turning to me.
The Sadhu smiled and quietly said: “When I throw a stone at the fruit tree, the fruit tree throws no stone back, but gives me fruit. Is it that?” Then he went on to ask: “Should not we, who love the Lord Jesus, be like sandalwood, which imparts its fragrance to the ax which cuts it?”
Right then and there I wanted to kick something, because I knew that was God speaking to me and telling me that no, I shouldn’t pray to Him about having that lady die a miserable death or anything bad. After all, it is easy to love someone who loves you (or at least respects you) back, but it is when we love our enemies too that we are set apart from the rest. That is how others will see Christ in us.
Posted in: Quiet Time, Stupid People
Tags: loving others, Quiet Time, Stupid People
