Sunday, March 22, 2015

[Review]: The Face Shop Green Tea Lotion Package // {P.O.V. + Outfit Pics}



So the past few days, I was cleaning out my room, and I stumbled onto this lotion package I recieved from my mom, months ago, unopened.She got it for me, in NYC, around August of last year (2014), and since then, I haven't personally seen this package in any of the local Face Shop near me.

Since finding these gems, I've been using them, for the last few days, over my usual Bath and Body Works Lotions and been pleasantly surprised and somewhat pleased by the products itself. (◠‿◠)

From this package you get the following items:
-Green Tea Mild Body Gel Lotion
-Green Tea Hand Gel Cream
-Green Tea Mild Body Wash
-A Loofah (not pictured)

At the back label, all of the products are described as "This fresh green tea scented product, makes you feel comfortable as if you take a walk in the forest." In addition, the products are said to have having green tea extract & olive oil within it.

Closeup of Mild Body Gel Lotion.
The description of  Mild Body Gel Lotion is:
"The antioxidant-rich Korean green tea and Olive oil leave your body healthy and glowing. Light texture lotion gets absorbed and provides plenty of hydration and nourishment. Enjoy your bath time with fresh green tea body care."


From the three products, the gel lotion is the only one that is not clear colored and see through. Also, and despite, the name and labelled "gel", the lotion does not have a gel-consistency at all, in a comparison with the other two products.

The lotion, when smoothed out.
In all honesty, I didn't find anything special with the lotion, to me, it's just a regular lotion, like any lotions you can find at the Bath & Body Works Shop.  A thing that I didn't like about this particular product was the fact it had a weird smell to it. Other than that, it was generally okay.

{Overall Thoughts}
❤ ❤ ❤ ♡ ♡

Closeup of the gel hand cream.
The description of the Hand Gel Cream is:
"The antioxidant-rich Korean green tea and Olive oil leave your hands healthy and glowing. Have your hands fresh all the time with green tea hand gel cream!"


Unlike the the body lotion, the hand lotion, is very thick in the gel-consistency, which I love, because it feels great and leaves my hands feeling smooth and soft. Also in comparison of the body lotion, the scent of the hand lotion is very pleasant and subtle.

The one thing that I don't enjoy about this product, is the sizeヽ༼ ಠ益ಠ ༽ノ Since the amount is much smaller than the other two products. but due to the fact it is a hand lotion, it's understandable.


{Overall Thoughts}
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♡


Closeup of Mild Body Wash.

The description of the Mild Body Wash is:
"The antioxidant-rich Korean green tea and Olive oil leave your body healthy and glowing. Abundant and light lather cleanse deep inside the skin and bring out liveliness and energy to tired skin. Enjoy your bath time with fresh green tea body care."


Like the hand gel lotion, the body wash has a nice smell to it. However, while it does have a gel substance to it, its a lot thinner than the hand gel. Surprisingly, the body wash leaves my skin feeling the smoothest and I believe it's most likely due to the fact that when washed under water with the body wash, foam appears. 

{Overall Thoughts}
 ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ♡

If you guys ever stumble upon this package or the products separately, I would highly recommend, the body wash and the hand gel. I would skip out on buying the body lotion because I feel like it`s like any generic lotion you can get anywhere, but just with green tea.


||Places of Vancouver||

If you're a fellow Vancouverite and are a big fan of high tea or a self-proclaimed "foodie", haha, than  you might have heard of a high tea place called Shaktea, on Main St.


Whereas previous high tea places I have been to, have been uber girly and princess-like, Shaktea is unique as it provides a more cool, relax and hipster atmosphere.


Like all high tea experiences, Shaktea provides the opportunity for people to converse and taste the food. However, unlike some previous places I've been too, Shaktea gives off a more relaxing environment, a sort of hangout where you can study with friends. The place even has some old-school board games for you and your friends to play while eating! 

High Tea tier at Shaktea.
Due to the fact that place is not of what a typical fancy and girly high tea would be, it's not surprising that the decorations and plating are casual.

What I like about how they organized the tiers was the the first two platings were sweet desserts, while the bottom plating was savory foods.

The first tier, a plating of sweets.
The second tier, pastry sweets.
The third tier, the choice of a crumpet.
The food that were given, were delicious, my favourite one was the salmon crumpet which was surprising because I have a sweet tooth, I would pick a sweet item over a savory one anyday.

Matcha green tea!
Of course, with high tea, you cannot go without it! I picked my favourite kind, matcha green tea (hmm, fittingly for this entire post, I might add!), and it was so good!

Logo of Shaktea. :)

[Outfits]
Just some pictures of outfits I took recently. 

Cardigan: American Eagle
Crop Top & Black Skirt: Forever 21
Booties: Lucky Brand Jeans

Sweater & Socks: Forever 21
Skirt: Winners
Heeled Oxfords: Payless Shoes

Everything: Forever 21

I'm not sure when I will update next, because this upcoming week is going to be very hectic for me, since I have two papers to do, and two more midterms. :/ (It's going to be a long week).

But I will show you a picture of what I'm excited to review next and hopefully will post about it very soon! :D

Isn't this palette so pretty???

I'm lucky enough that I have a relative who works for Sephora, and was able to give me a discount of Tarte cosmetics' Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte Eyeshadow Palette! I'm so excited to use it, and will definitely write a review on it.


Thanks for reading,
Courtney ♡



Wednesday, March 11, 2015

❥ Adorable Finds ❥

Hi everyone! (⑅˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈  )

Today's post is going to be a bit different from the usual, because for this post, I decided to go ahead and do the typical "Cute Finds" you guys usually see on other blogs. I would say it's an unusual post for me since this is my very first one and I regularly tend to do reviews and hauls, that being said, I'm very excited to share what I found with you guys! ヽ(◕◡◕❀ฺ )ノ

(Note: All the pictures you see here, are not mines and belong to their respected owners. I am also not affiliated with any of these stores).


From an Esty Shop called "KawaiiKiosk", who's a fellow Canadian! :) She makes the cutest accessories and jewelries.


Seriously, the cutest uniform set I've ever seen *-* It's from a site called "Syndromestore", you get everything seen on the picture, the shirt, sweater, skirt and the bow tie.


If you're into kawaii/cute fashion, then you may have heard of "DollyDynamtie" already. I adore these oxford shoes, it has my two favorite combination, pink and bows!


So by now, hehe, you can tell I love shoes with bows. I really like the colour of the heels, brown is a colour you can easily match with anything. These are from a StoreEnvy called "Moooh!!".


What's better than bread with eggs? How about bread with eggs that's a bag?! A foodie and bag lover, ideal gift. From a StoreEnvy, called "hhotaru". I've been following them on instagram, and they announced they are going to look for new sponsors soon!  


A cool and creative necklace, perfect for those who are huge fans of The Legend of Zelda series. This is from an Esty Store called "YellerCrakka", the owner creates a variety of charms and jewellery that are related to games and movies.


I regret not buying a similar skirt like this from Forever 21, it's totally my style! Luckily, Romwe, sells it as well.


Simple, yet an unique tank top. Perfect for a Harry Potter fan, instead the usual 'A', the deathly hallows symbol replaces it. This product is from an Esty store called "PerksOfBeingAWeasly".


I hoped you guys enjoyed my first ever "Adorable/Cute Finds Post", and hopefully I introduced you guys to some cool, unique stores as well! :) And since this post is a bit shorter than I'm use to, I'm going to throw in one of my favourite songs from Girls' Generation/ SNSD! 
(✿◕ ‿◕ฺ)ノ))。₀: *゜
All My Love is For You - Girls' Generation/SNSD

Thanks for reading,
Courtney ♡

Friday, March 6, 2015

Ciate Caviar Manicure in Cotton Candy


March is here (already?! (✿☉。☉)), and so is a new post!

Anyways, hello everybody!

Today I'm excited to share with you guys a new nail tutorial/post. I haven't done a nail tutorial for a while now and in fact, my last nail tutorial was my very first beauty and tutorial post on this blog! And about 2 weeks ago, I reread it and updated it, and oh my god, haha, it was kind of embarrassing (●//////●) because it was such a simple post and there was absolutely no colours on the post, which is weird, because I love using colours, it just brightens the entire blog!

► My very first beauty post and tutorial on this blog, Strawberry nails ◄

Usually, when it comes to doing my own nails, I love doing my own designs, but for this time, I was feeling lazy, so I decided to use my Ciate Caviar Manicure set.

Limited edition set, in Cotton Candy.
I bought this set a year ago, when I was in the States. I believe I got it from TJ Maxx, and for a reasonable price too, because I saw the exact same set at Nordstrom for double the price! The set I got is called Cotton Candy, and fittingly named.

At the back of the box are the instructions.
What the instructions are:
1. Work on one nail at a time and apply two coats of the nail polish
2. Place your finger over the tray and sprinkle the Caviar pearls over your painted nail, while the nails are still wet.
3. Once fully covered, gently press the pearls into your nail bed to ensure durability.
4. Wait for your nails to dry for 15-20 minutes.

NOTE: For me, I found out that waiting for the first coat of the nail polish to dry and then painting on the second coat made the outcome of the nails look better. As well, I found that working on all the nails at the same time when pouring the caviar over was more efficient and the caviar pearls stuck on more. 

The items in the package.

What the items in the set include:
-Caviar pearls in "Cotton Candy"
-Light blue polish in "Ferris Wheel"
-Mini funnel (to put the pearls back in the bottle)
-Clear tray (not pictured)

Now that everything in general is out of the way, onto the tutorial!

First step, putting on base coat for protection.
1) The very first and most important thing I did was put on base coat. With base coat, it will ensure that my nails and nail beds will be protected against the harsh chemicals that nail polishes contain. The base coat that I am using is from a brand called "Island Girl" which I got from the States from ABC stores, in  Las Vegas.


2) After waiting for my base coat to dry, I then put on one coat of "Ferris Wheel" on each nail. I waited about 5-7 minutes for the coat to dry. While the instructions tell you to put on a second coat right after, I felt that waiting for the first coat to dry, will ensure the light blue color would still be shown, if the pearls come off, which has come true, from the previous times I did this manicure.

Two coats of "Ferris Wheel".
3) Once the first coat of "Ferris Wheel" was dry, this was when I put on the second coat. Since the second coat is wet and I don't need to wait for it to dry, this is when I have to pour the caviar pearls on.

Pouring caviar pearls all over.
4) With the second coat wet, this is the time to pour the pearls all over. As soon as the caviar pearls were on my nails, I gently pressed them down, making sure they were stuck on. So unfortunately, not all the pearls could cover the entire nail, as you see some empty spots. This is the primarily reason why I waited for the first coat of "Ferris Wheel" to dry, so I would still be able to see the light blue polish.

{THE END RESULTS}
The caviar are very colourful.
The pearl colours are blue, pink and light yellow.
Closeup of the results.
There's one important thing that I must tell you, if you're ever planning to do caviar nails, is that DO NOT put top coat on. This will ruin the caviar and make the colours run and loose.

Now that I got everything out of the way and over, on another topic, I just watched Kingsman: The Secret Service, with a friend, a few days ago, and ahhhh, it was so GOOD!


If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend, you do so, there was so much action and comedic moments. Colin Firth was great in his role, as Harry Hart/Galahad, I never really pegged him as an action-hero type actor, so he definitely changed my opinion of him. And oh god, I probably going to sound like such a little girl, but when the other main protagonist Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton, came out wearing the official Kingsman suit, he looked so hot/cute, hehe. (ω ) ~♪

Have you watched any movies lately? Would you recommend them?

As always,

Thanks for reading,
Courtney ♡