like a fairytale


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congratulations to kate middleton and prince william!
they look so beautiful together. like something out of a fairytale


almay smart shade makeup

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Almay has a new version of this called “Smart Shade Balance” that I haven’t tried, this is the older version. Its a pretty cool idea, It comes out as a greyish-ivory liquid with black beads that slowly disappear as you rub it out and it “changes” into your skin tone.

ass3Ta-Da! This is what the formula looks like, straight out of the tube.

Coverage is very, very light you really can’t tell that its there. I don’t believe it transforms specifically into your skin tone though, I mean really, how can it sense that? Plus, there was some product that was left on the tube, which is white and it still dried to a beige color.

ass2 (It photographed darker than in real life)
If the formula was really selective to the shade of skin, how come it dried to beige even though its never been in contact with skin?

Therefore I conclude that it doesn’t transform into your skin tone, it just dries into the shade that you selected (light, medium, etc.) and because the coverage is so light, it looks like your skin color. My pet peeve about tinted moisturizers or very light coverage foundations is that you could just buy a full coverage foundation, for the same price, and use less of it or mix it with your own moisturizer to make a low coverage foundation. Full coverage foundations can be used as concealer too , so why buy a light coverage one?

I’m not sure what they changed in their new version. I think “Balance” was added because while I was using this version I wondered since foundation is used to even out skin tone, if this transforms into the tone of the area you apply it to and that area happens to be slightly darker or lighter than the rest of your face or if it “converts” shade as you spread it wouldn’t it just change into the shade of your dark spots at your dark spots and your skin would look exactly the same? What I did was I swirled it around my cheeks until it changed color and then I spread it out. Problem is it really didn’t make a difference, I tried applying it to one side of my face and not the other and by afternoon I had forgotten which side had this foundation and which side didn’t and I couldn’t tell which side did. There was no different of side, no extra oil control, nothing that I could tell. The only plus for this is that it has SPF 15. Other than that, it doesn’t do much of anything in my opinion, I hope the new one is better but unless it really is I’d say try something else. 

earth day


We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.  
- Native American Proverb

April 22 is the one official day of the year for celebrating our planet and to recognize our role in the environment of our home.  Everything we take, create, use, consume and throw out stays right here on earth. We use so much we don’t need, so much of what we happily could have gone without, so much of what takes us no where and it all doesn’t go anywhere else. All our garbage, our air pollution, stays right on and in the atmosphere of our planet. Plastic takes thousands or even millions of years to disintegrate, the garbage trucks just take it somewhere else for it to stay for the next millenniums. Everyone only needs to use a little for it to add up to being a lot. 

A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose.
Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it. - greenfeet.net

It can be hard to believe but there are 7 billion people living on earth, people who need to eat, breath, space, and resources. People who will have children who will need the same. People who will need the earth just as much as we do. We have been using too much of what has been doing too little for us. How much do you throw away? Do you know where it goes? Do you know how long it will be there? Do you know how much more there is for you to take? With constant awareness and we can make this common knowledge and being green a habit to save our habitat.   Here's what you can do, lets make it right, lets do it now.



stop buying bottled water
29 billion plastic disposable water bottles are produced a year using up 17 million barrels of oil annually.
Tap water is actually safer than bottled water, regardless of what the corporations have been telling you, because it more closely regulated. Spring water or bottled water actually isn't always inspected. Attach a filter to your tap if your not convinced instead of buying water, the plastic can be recycled but it also takes a lot of energy to recycle it, just as it takes a lot of energy to produce it.

Don't buy CDs/DVDs, instead rent or download
Over 1200000 CDs and DVDs end up in landfills every year. DVDs and CDs are both unrecyclable.

Read Newspapers, Magazines, etc. online
10 million tons of unrecycled newspaper are thrown away every year, if half of that was recycled 75 million tress would be saved. Every 20 seconds a tree is cut down and each year important rainforests like the tropic rainforest in Brazil are dramatically reduced in size. Forests are so important, the diversity of animals and plants living there should not be touched, the cure to cancer may be hidden in a forest and if we keep destroying forests we may loose.

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use a laptop instead of a desktop computer
laptops use up to 70% less energy than a desktop computer,
plus their smaller size means they take less material to make and will take up less room in your compartments


Buy a used car

Used vehicles are even more efficient than purchasing a hybrid vehicle because of the electricity and materials it takes to make the vehicle.


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Go vintage
Wearing pre-worn clothes helps the earth more than buying clothes made out of organic fibres or thread. Again, it takes a lot of energy to manufacture items.


Eat less meat
Cattle farming is the #1 cause to deforestation. Most of which is to raise beef for fast food restaurants. Try to have a meat free day once a week or as much as possible!



Quarry_Lake_by_OhEmGe3
Protect the earth. 
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thrifting

After seeing annie's (whatanniewears.com) post about thrift store shopping and seeing that she got an incredible looking blazer from a thrift store I have been itching to go to one. I didn't get to do any vintage shopping while I was in New York! There just wasn't any time.  Today I discovered that thrift stores in Vancouver aren't too bad…in fact I really like vintage/thrift shopping now!
 
vv1 vv8vv2
The last time I went to a thrift store was back in elementary school where the teachers took us there as a "field trip" to find costumes for our "Music Through the Ages" musical. These two necklaces were the only things I bought that day, I think my total was around $6? We were too busy being a ruckus for the teachers but a friend of mine did get some cool stuff. 

vv4vv3Today, less than $8 bought me a hoodie  that would have cost me over $85  last year at Aritzia. I really wanted this sweater last year and I got it today for about 90%off! Other than some pilling it seems to be in great condition. I haven’t found any stains yet.

  black-boyfriend-blazer-黑色西裝外套-1What I’ve Learned About Thrift Stores
  1. It isn’t that hard to find things. Everything is organized into categories, then into size and it looked like the shirts were organized by color too. Basically there are a few sections that would suit you so you don’t have to search the whole store but its a good idea to poke around the other areas too. Clothes could have shrunk or stretched or a designer might have had a different idea of what “size small” or “size large” was.  Basically its just the same as Winners or Marshalls, only the things have been worn and they’re cheaper. (btw – The changing rooms similar too!)
  2. Not everything is old. Today I bought an Aritzia Parklife 2010 Vancouver Olympics Whistler Hoodie (shown in photos). They do have a lot of stuff that looks like its been there since the 60s but there’s recently made items too. You might even find something with the tags still on it, you never know!
  3. Yes they do have expensive brands. Just about everything is branded, a lot of them in the Old Navy - American Eagle price range but there’s also True Religion, Topshop and Diesel, you just have to hunt for it. 
  4. Yes most of the clothes have a worn feel to it. The fibres in the fabric aren't as in tact as new ones are and some of the clothes have stains/pilling. Most of the clothes I saw though were in good condition.
On the right is Annie in the blazer that she bought from a thrift store. Amazing right?


Best thing is… Designer jean hunting!
vv7vv6vv5

Your not supposed to take pictures in the store, I snapped these before the manager came to give me a chat (embarrassing but worth it to get some photos) but I’m practically advertizing them so I think they’ll forgive me. Today I spotted William Rast and Diesel, the Diesel jeans looked pretty new and they had a gorgeous wash but they weren’t my size. The William Rast jeans were a bit faded and also too big for me. If you want them they might still be there... This was the Victoria drive Value Village location in Vancouver.

snack time

snacks are bliss. anything with chocolate, I must have. I love trying out new snacks, especially ones that are well designed. most of the snacks I've tried are Asian, imported snacks, trouble if they find out something went wrong in production and there's poison in them (they practically are poison anyways) because the companies aren't big enough to make the news all the way here in the Americas.  The good thing about asian snacks is that they're not as sweet, even the Asian hard candies are much milder than american ones.  

the goodies:







bought from T&T, each cookie is individually packaged, horribly wasteful in my opinion and tedious since each cookie is very thin and eating just one is nearly impossible.
the cookies were good though, chocolate drizzled on the front and chocolate coated on the back. the cookies weren't dry and stale (props to the individual packaging). finished the box in half a week, I couldn't stay away from them.






strawberry-flavored icing filled biscuits with cute koala bears printed on them.
these are very popular, you'd be able to find them at most asian supermarkets/grocery stores. the icing is dry (but not hard) and not "jello" like as it looks like in the picture. the icing only fills up halfway, the other half is ... air. still their a nice crunchy and sweet snack









these are 3 layered, chocolate coated, cake covered mochi snacks called Qmochi.  I got these from Rice World/China World in Richmond. They carry a ton of snacks. I like them! The cake part is nice and soft, the mochi glutenous rice filling is very chewy and the chocolate coating adds a slight crunch. They aren't too sweet either. 

what are your favourite snacks?

new york, new york

I'm back! my flight landed in Vancouver today around 2am, its nice to be back home where I know where I'm going (getting lost = not fun). New York was different than its said to be and I like for different reasons than I expect to. I can see myself living there someday and I really hope I will.
The Manhattan skyline taken on the first day from a bus.

One thing that was true to word was that new york is full of taxis. In fact, I believe manhattan is the only place in the world where there are more taxis than there are (normal) cars. Taxi fare is still pretty expensive though, it starts at $2.25 but a 10 minute drive will cost you $25.

 
Time square! at every corner there are people handing out flyers, mostly for tour buses. the streets were busy but not as crazy as in the movies. time square was also more tame than I thought it'd be. well I guess after shanghai everything seems more tame.

My first meal in new york! Yep mcdonalds, over the trip I doubled the amount of fast food I've ever eaten in my life. Mostly because mcdonalds standardizes its prices throughout their locations while most of the other stores around time square and other popular places where the rent is expensive, double or triple their prices. We wanted to save money to buy other stuff.

Unluckily, when we arrived in NYC we caught the stream of cold weather, it even snowed! The weather was a lot like Vancouver throughout the trip. We still did catch a few sunny days though.

Watching the sunset at the top of the empire state building. One of the most beautiful scenes I've seen in my life. The view is just spectacular! Most of my photos turned out blurry though, my camera does not do well in night lighting and the flash doesn't help with landscape photos.


“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think.
Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different.
But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’
Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”

                                            — Lewis Carroll