Month: June 2016

MUJI to GO! [+ Giveaway!]

~ stashy ~ 75 Comments

[THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED]

Exactly a week ago, I had the pleasure of attending an intimate Open House at the MUJI Canada HQ in Toronto. Imagine my excitement to get a behind-the-scenes look at where the busy bees make MUJI happen! And how timely, since I’d just visited MUJI in Japan, the mothership! 😀
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The Open House was focused on introducing us to the MUJI to GO concept, which is all about travel essentials. Myself, along with 4 other Toronto bloggers and YouTubers, were given a hands-on demonstration of the MUJI to GO products.

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Tarte Tartelette Tease Review

~ stashy ~ 81 Comments

I’m finally in the position to do a review on this palette, since I used it exclusive for the entire 2 weeks I was on vacation, as it was the only eye shadow product I packed with me. 🙂
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The Tarte Tartelette Tease palette normally sells for $25 but I bought it during the April VIB sale for $21.25. It contains 6 shades, each weighing 0.85g for a combined total palette weight of 5.10g

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Winners Finds – May 2016

~ stashy ~ 49 Comments

I’m really back-logged with my posts as you can see, as this was meant to be posted before I left for vacation, but I didn’t have time to take photos. Ah well, better late than never! 😉

So I wasn’t really planning on doing much makeup shopping before my trip but I’ve been finding some AMAZING stuff at Winners! I just couldn’t NOT buy this stuff:
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Burberry! Armani! Nars! Paul & Joe! Nail polishes from the newest collections! I couldn’t even fit everything into the frame.  😀  I’ll start off with the craziest (aka the best!) things:

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Body Shop Flash Sale and Clearance Haul

~ stashy ~ 41 Comments

This post is sooooo late. I posted about the Body Shop Flash Sale back on May 11th – it was a one day sale for 50% off on makeup. I bought the makeup items that same day but didn’t get around to posting it until now… only 6 weeks later! 😛  Last week I also got 2 more items as they were having 50% sale on clearance items. So in total, these are my recent Body Shop purchases:
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Yup, more nail polishes, what else is new? 😆  More details on what I got…

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Avon Calling – June 2016

~ stashy ~ 45 Comments

I’ve fallen into the trap of ordering Avon again. They’ve got the cycle down pat: when I receive my items, they always include the latest Avon catalogue – and of course, I always flip through the catalogues – who doesn’t like to look through a mini magazine of makeup? Here are my recent orders:
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I ordered these in May and received them when I returned from my trip.

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Lancome Haul – May 2016

~ stashy ~ 63 Comments

Ok, back to regular programming on the blog for a bit. I’m really backlogged from my May posts. I did a bunch of makeup hauls right before my vacation that I need to catch up on before the end of the month so I can get back into my groove. 😛

Lancôme isn’t a brand that I normally get too excited over, and I’m not sure why. But one fateful Sunday in late May right before my vacation, I went into Shoppers Drug Mart to buy some shaving gel for the SO and stumbled upon a beauty event where there was a live DJ and mocktails being served. They were having a bonus points weekend and there was also a gwp at Lancôme. So I ended up with these:
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Yes, yet another palette! What’s happening to me?!  This was a completely unplanned beauty purchase. I blame the lychee mocktail they plyed me with. 😉

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Japanese Makeup Shopping: My Experiences

~ stashy ~ 82 Comments

Today I’ll discuss some of my observations and experiences in shopping for makeup in Japan. Hopefully this will help someone out there who might be taking a trip to Japan.
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First thing. There are SO. MANY. BRANDS.
It’s overwhelming! In an average Canadian drugstore, there may be about 8 key brands. In Japan, there’s at least double that amount. And some of them look so similar, it’s hard to distinguish between them (cue joke about how all Asians look alike 😛 ) I spent some visits in the beginning just surveying my options and noting down potential buys without buying anything – I didn’t want to buy things I’d regret. As far as I know, there are no returns on makeup in Japan.

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LOFT Clothing Haul Spring 2016

~ stashy ~ 27 Comments

Taking a pause from a Japan post today. 😛 I haven’t shopped at LOFT in ages. After the closure of my previous wardrobe staple store, JACOB, I turned to LOFT for my a lot of my clothes.  Last week, while killing time at the mall waiting for a friend, I decided to stop into LOFT and I walked out with 4 pieces. 🙂

Berry Shirred Utility Blouse – $69.50
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People always comment that I don’t wear enough colour so how about this vermilion shade? 😛

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Japanese Makeup Haul!!!

~ stashy ~ 106 Comments

Yeah you were all waiting for this, weren’t you! 😛

Personally, I didn’t think I went completely overboard with makeup shopping. For one thing, I was supremely worried about wandering around Tokyo at night by myself to go shopping. Why I had to go shopping in the evenings was because my days were filled with sightseeing! And then, by the evening, I was so tired from walking around all day, I didn’t spend too much time shopping.  Also, I was shopping rather critically: lots of Japanese makeup is super sparkly and sheer. If it wasn’t something I’d truly use, I passed on it – so that left me with a more narrow band of items I’d spend my money on (not to mention, haul home).  Here’s what I got:

CANMAKE
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• Marshmallow Finish Powder in MO Matte Ochre and MB Matte Beige Ochre
• Cream Cheek in #05 Sweet Apricot and #14 Apple Cream Red (I swear I had another shade in my basket but it didn’t make it home with me!)
• Gokubuto mascara (volumizing)
• Gokunobi mascara (lengthening)
• Colourful Nails polish in #33 Pink Glitter
• Lasting Multi Eyebase WP (eye shadow primer)
I had some ideas of brands I’d want to look at when I was in Japan. I originally glossed over Canmake as being too girly for me. But it turns out their products are quite well reviewed and very reasonably priced! I ended up researching a lot on @cosme awards (which seems to be the Japanese makeup Bible) to find out which items to try and several of these were award winners. I do wish I’d gotten more cheek products – they have so many cute ones to choose from.

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More Japan Trip: Food and Culture

~ stashy ~ 75 Comments

Japan is such an interesting place to a foreigner like me. No matter what you hear about Japan in the media, it doesn’t prepare you for what the reality is.  Here are some photos and observations I took note of during my trip.

Food

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Sushi was very fresh. They do not offer any rolls with avocado (so no, there are no California rolls).

I had already been advised that sushi is not the mainstay food in Japan. In fact, I only ate sushi 3 times while I was there.  The food we came across the most were:
• ramen
• donburi (beef rice bowls, think Yoshinoya)
• “curry” (which is like a brown gravy with a little bit of spice)
• tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlet)
• yakitori (chicken skewers)
• tempura
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