OOTD: a peaceful day at the garden

I went to walk around a botanical garden today.  I've been to a botanical garden before, but not this one.  The botanical garden I visited was a small local one, which was neat and so well taken care of.  Since it's winter, I obviously didn't see a lot of color.  Just green and brown and no flowers or butterflies, but it was still a nice cozy walk.

black long sleeve shirt from Gap
black coat from Forever 21
navy blue chiffon pleated skirt from Abercrombie
black opaque tights from Gap
black boots from Steve Madden
bright purple purse from Coach

Christmas nails

I'm home for winter break!!!  Which means...... Christmas is almost here!  I am so excited!  Christmas is probably my favorite holiday of all because the whole world (maybe not the whole world) gets lit up with beautiful lights and decorations!  Since Christmas is right around the corner, I decided to paint my nails green, red, and gold.  And of course, I had to add glitter.  I'm pretty sure you've figured this out by now, but I really like painting my nails plain or with a glitter polish over the plain color.  

As you can see, I have just alternated the color.  These three colors are so so so pretty!  The green is a perfect Christmas tree green color with fine green glitter, which is not very visible.  This gold, let me tell you, is probably the most gorgeous gold polish I have ever seen.  It is super pigmented and packed with fine gold glitter.  I actually forgot the bring the red color that I wanted to wear, so I had to borrow my sister's red polish, but that's okay.  This red is just as pretty, but not as dark.  This red color is more of a pinky red with fine red glitter, but the one I wanted to wear was a deeper red with fine gold glitter.  And finally, I just painted the tips of my nails with a glitter polish.  The glitter polish consists of gold, silver, green, red, pink, and blue glitters and they are both chunky and fine glitters.  It matched the theme of my polish a lot, so I decided to top off the tips of my nails with this glitter polish.  

Green polish is called envy (Ulta salon formula)

Gold polish is called high roller (Ulta salon formula)

Red polish is called i stop for nicole (Nicole by OPI)

Glitter polish is called pinata yada yada (Ulta salon formula)

OOTD: Casual Sunday outfit

Today, I went out to buy materials for a nail polish rack that I'm planning to build.  I am so excited to work on this project!!!  Anyway, I wore this simple outfit to shop around comfortably.  And I have to mention that those boots that I got on black Friday are super comfortable.

black long sleeve shirt from Gap

green and brown coat from Gap

black skinny jeans from Ann Taylor

brown boots from Belk's

Annual sale haul from CVS and Walgreens!

I've never been to any Walgreens sales before, so this was a pretty exciting trip for me.  On the other hand, I always find awesome deals during the CVS sales, but unfortunately, this year, I don't think the deals were as good as before.  But I still picked up a few things, which I will show in a bit.  I went to Walgreens on Monday and went by CVS on Thursday.  I'm not sure how long these sales last, but you may want to stop by your local drugstore.  Maybe you'll find better deals! :)

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At Walgreens, I got 6 nail polishes and a lip product.  The four polishes with super cute packaging is the new Sally Hansen polishes.  The Jordana twist & shine moisturizing balm stain is awesome for its price!  It wasn't on sale, but as you all know, the Jordana products are all very affordable; I believe it was 2.99$, but I may be wrong.  The new Sally Hansen triple shine polishes were also not a part of the sale, but it had a promotion of buy one get one half off.  The Sally Hansen crackle polishes were about 2.50$ each.  I've never tried these crackle polishes.  I know I know, I'm super slow on this bandwagon, but that's because I really really love wearing my polishes plain.
In the third picture, I'm rocking the new hot pink lip color and showing off the blue sparkly polish!

At CVS, I just got a seven of these Sally Hansen salon effects nail strips.  I love these so much because they're so easy to apply!  And, they offer so many different cute prints too!  These are originally 10$, but with the 75%, they became 2.50$.  What a deal, huh?  I also got a Kiss nail dress.  This one is more like a sticker and they're just as good as the Sally Hansen ones.  Make sure not to apply top coat with the Kiss, but you can apply top coat with the Sally Hansen ones.  So glad I stocked up on these!
Okay, end of this haul!!  Until next time :)

Black & White polka dot nails

I am absolutely loving this new polka dot polish I got earlier this week!   I know these Maybelline color show polka dots collection came out a while ago; I think it came out in the summer, but I'm not quite sure.  I don't know what took so long for me to try them out.  I also got it in the blue color from the same polka dots line.

This color is sheer with the black and white polka dots.  The dots are different sizes; there are bigger and smaller dots.  If I knew this was going to be a sheer color, then I might have layered a base color below.  Maybe next time, I'll try this out with a very light color underneath.  Oh yes, this is called clearly spotted!  I almost forgot to mention the name of it.  If you are getting bored of the regular glitter polishes, you should give this line of polka dot polishes a shot!  Looks super fun and cool on the nails and in the bottle as well.

gray nudy glitter nails

I wasn't sure if I could post about my nails today because my internet's been down for few days.  Seriously, nothing annoys more than internet being super slow.  That's why I missed my "tea Tuesday" post this week; I'm sorry!  Okay, enough about internet being slow and blah blah blah.  This week, I wanted to rock a nude color because it's finals week so I wasn't feeling any fun color.  This nude color that I'm about to show you is one of my absolute favorite nude color!  I'm constantly looking for similar colors from different brands; I have no clue why because I have this one.  I always do that!  I always look for dupes when I have the product I love... So weird!!!  Are you like that too?  :O

The nude color has a gray undertone which I think looks great against my skin tone.  It's Ulta's salon formula nail lacquer in the color Set the Nude.  And since the nude color has a gray undertone, I thought it'll look great to pair it with this gray glitter polish.  The glitter polish is one of the polishes I got on black Friday, and it's called A Phil's Paradise from Nicole by OPI's Modern Family collection.  It has super fine silver glitter in it and it's such a pretty, fun color!
Hopefully, I won't miss anymore posts.  But I have to say, my internet is constantly acting up.  I'll try my best not to miss anymore posts. :)

OOTD: the fall trench coat look

This outfit is super simple, but looks put together.  I just wore this out to run few errands; I didn't want to do much today because I was so tired from all the shopping yesterday.  Anyway, I totally forgot about this trench coat until now, so I decided to wear it today.  Trench coats are classy.  You can definitely dress them up or down.  Sometimes I tie the straps in the front in a bow like the picture below, but sometimes I tie it in the back.  And hey, I wore my new boots! :)

trench coat from Ann Taylor

navy blue long sleeve shirt from Gap

skinny jeans from JC Penny

brown boots from Belk's

Black Friday Haul!

Black Friday shopping is always so much fun, but also pretty frustrating at the same time.  As you could already tell, I didn't get to do my nails this morning, that's why I didn't post my nails this morning; I was way too tired to do my nails.  Okay, let's get this haul started!

 At The Body Shop, I got quite a lot of things.  I got four of the all in one face base in #03; one for my sister and the other three for my mom.  My mom likes to stock up on powders!  Lastly from The Body Shop, I got the nutriganics drops of youth for myself.  And if you spent 30$, you qualify to buy the black Friday tote bag for 25$!  This 25$ tote was such a good deal because it came with so much goodies inside.  I already took some out  before I took the picture, but I can list everything that was in the plastic bag: camomile eye makeup remover, cranberry shower gel, satsuma body polish, satsuma body butter, vitamin e moisture cream, absinthe hand butter, coconut body oil, coconut soap, and bath loofah.  So much goodies in this "I Heart The Body Shop" tote bag!  All of these are full size products except the vitamin e moisture cream.

 Bath & Body Works was selling two wall flowers for only 5$.  I got the twisted peppermint body lotion for free because I had a coupon for free lotion or shower gel if more than 10$ was spent.  I absolutely love the scent of gingerbread!

 There wasn't a black Friday deal on this Mario Badescu rose water facial spray, but I've been wanting to try it so I just got it.  It's 7$ at Nordstrom, but I'm sure it's the same price elsewhere.  I also got a sample of one of the moisturizers. It's called... Omg I don't remember... This is bad... What if I end up liking it?  I won't know which one to get. :(  I should have wrote it down.

 This shirt I got from Express is super cute on.  It looks really big and baggy in the picture, but it fits nicely.  I'll have to show you in one of the ootd posts one day.  I like the gold zipper detail on the back as well as the settle black print all over the shirt.

 Above is another one of those plain long sleeve shirts that I love to wear in the winter.  This one is dark gray, obviously, and has a line in the middle, down the back.  This one is from Gap.  I really like their shirts because they're so soft!

 This next shirt I got from Juicy Couture, I love so much!  It's a thicker see through lace material and has a chiffon bow in the front.  It also has one gold button closure in the back.

I didn't plan to buy anything when I stopped by Sephora, but that was lies!  Every time when I walked by this Jennifer Aniston perfume, I've always thought "ehh, it probably doesn't smell good."  But, I was totally wrong!  I only smelled this because it was on sale for 12$.  I'm not sure how to really explain the scent, but it definitely is floral but a bit settle.  It smells amazing!  I love this scent so much!!!  Btw, I only buy roller balls now because I can never ever finish the full bottles.  

Look how cute this bag is!  It can be worn cross body and it also has a shorter handle.  It's a bright purple color with cold hardware.  It's a Coach bag I only paid 100$ for but was originally 300$ at Dillard's.  I know it was still a lot of money, but too good of a deal and too cute to pass up.

 At Belk's, there were tons of boots stacked up for black Friday.  I picked these up this year; I always buy a cute pair at Belk's every year.  Last year, I remember, I bought a Steve Madden pair.  I always find cute ones at Belk's.  These were 30$.

 Yes, nail polishes are a must.  I couldn't resist when I saw nail polishes on sale at Ulta and TJ Maxx.  The Nicole by OPIs are from Ulta for 3.50$ or 4$, I can't remember exactly.  The two dark colors in the back are OPIs from TJ Maxx for 8$.  They came together in a pack, so two for 8$!  And the Essie colors are also from TJ Maxx for 5$ each.  I'm in love with all of these new colors.  Definitely can't wait to wear these!

And last but not least, these last two pictures are pet beds.  The first one is for my dog at home, my family dog, and the second one is for Mango.  They are so adorable and so fluffy.  They're such good quality for so cheap.  The first one was 20$ and Mango's bed was 16$.  Get your dog a cute fluffy bed at TJ Maxx!

I also got some bras at Victoria's Secret, but I'm not going to share those.  I don't think anyone would really care what I got from VS. 

So, that wraps up everything I got yesterday!  I hope you all also found great deals. :)

OOTD: black Friday shopping outfit

Black Friday shopping was great this year!  I just got back from shopping, and I am just so exhausted!  I went to two different malls and both of them were very crowded.  All of the stores had great deals, but I didn't go as crazy as last year.  Last year, I feel like I bought a lot more stuff, which was bad.  So this year, I decided that I only get what I really wanted/want.  I will definitely share what I got sometime this weekend!

 navy blue jacket from Ann Taylor
burgundy long sleeve shirt from J. Crew
chiffon scarf from JCPenny
jeans from Maurices

OOTD: cute, but cozy & comfy thanksgiving outfit

Happy Thanksgiving!!!  I am having a wonderful one so far!  I'm going shopping soon, and I'm so excited.  I just wanted to show my outfit real quick before I go to bed and wake up in about few hours to go shopping.  I'll probably share my shopping outfit tomorrow.  And, of course, I'll share what I get tomorrow too.  Haul post coming at you soon!  I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving and be safe shopping tomorrow/tonight! :)

 If you're wondering why the background is different, it's because I'm home for Thanksgiving break!  And I also got a new camera, which I'll probably write a post on soon.

cream color cardigan from Hollister
super soft plain black long sleeve shirt from Gap
black skater skirt from Charlotte Russe
thick winter black tights from eBay
Super cozy and comfortable, but also cute!  And since the skater skirt has a stretchy waist band, I could eat a lot!

Tea Tuesday! Blood Orange Fruit Tea

It's tea Tuesday!!!  Today, I'm going to share a fruity tea.  It's called blood orange fruit tea from Harney & Sons.  I promise I'll be doing a haul post of what I got from Harney & Sons.  I bought a bunch of sample sized teas from harney.com few weeks back; the sample sizes are only about 2$!  Some are more expensive than 2$, usually the oolong teas cost more.  Anyway, this tea is also an herbal tea.  It tastes so good! SO GOOD!  It's not as herbal-like as the Dr. Stuart's skin purify, which I did a tea Tuesday on last week.  I can definitely taste the orange.  My goodness, this is a really great pick me up kind of tea.  I've never tried, but I think this would taste good cold too.

This is what the sample size packaging looks like.  It's a nice zip lock bag and individually labeled.  The zip lock locks very securely, so you don't have to worry about it going stale too fast.

This loose tea looks so pretty!  It smells amazing.  It tastes amazing.  I totally recommend this tea to all of you who love fruity-ness. :)

Sparkling Red French Tip Holiday Nails

For my nails this week, I wanted to do a French tip but I didn't want to do the typical white tip.  So, I decided to to red tips!  White tips look more clean and professional, but it's fall!  I like to wear darker and more muted colors in the fall and winter as much as possible because they don't look as pretty when the weather is blazing hot in the summer.

This red tip is the same red as the one from two weeks ago.  I did a post on those nails; the blog post is called "blood red cold weather nails."  Check out the beautiful color if you haven't already!  It's the OPI's got the blues for red.  The base color is the Wet n Wild's sugar coat.  I love this color as base for everything; it's the best base color I've ever tried.  I wear this color so much!  I wear it so often!  It works really well for my skin tone, which many light colors don't.  And last but not least, I layered the gold glitter, which is Nicole by OPI's Kissed at midnight from the Selena Gomez collection.
I think these colors layered like this look pretty festive!  Perfect for the holidays coming up!!!

Tea Tuesday! Dr Stuart's skin purify

Beauty starts from within!  Clean, detox, and purify your body, girls!  I started drinking this tea about 3 months back and I really like it.  At first, the taste and scent was a little intimidating, but I got used to it after the second cup.  It has a very herbal scent and taste, which isn't horrible at first, but weird.  Once you get used to it, it tastes amazing!  I'm addicted!  It actually tastes quite refreshing.  It tastes great hot or cold; of course it's extra refreshing if it's cold.  I'm not sure if it actually helps breakouts or reduces them, but I feel like my skin does look more radiant if I drink this everyday.  I don't really drink this everyday because I have other teas that I want to drink, but when I first bought it, I drank it everyday.

This tea has red clover, nettle leaves, dandelion leaves, burdock root, chamomile, lemon balm, lemon peel, and natural lemon flavor.  I bought this online on Amazon for about $6.  I can't find this in stores anywhere in stores!  I think it's because it's a product from England.  I definitely will continue to drink and order this tea.

It comes in a tea bag like this in the picture above and 15 individually packaged tea bags in a box.  I recommend this a try if you're wanting more glowy, radiant skin!

OOTD: cozy sweater Sunday

I'm planning to go to the library in about an hour to write papers for my classes.  Dressing comfortably is the key when you're going to the library, or at least I think so.  I usually just wear a comfortable jeggings and a big oversized shirt.  Since the weather has gotten a little more chilly, I decided to bust out a nice cozy sweater!  I love wearing sweaters in the fall because you can dress them up or down.  Staple piece in every girl's wardrobe!

cream and navy blue stripe sweater from Juicy Couture (so warm and cozy!)
jeggings from JC Penny
black Uggs
Alright, I'm off to the library! :)

Do my nails look like dinosaur eggs?

Polka dot nails are so easy to do and it's super cute!  I wear them all the time because they don't take too long to do.  In the summer, I'll use more brighter and fun colors and in the colder months, I'll use warmer tones to do the polka dot nails.  You don't even have to use any tools.  Paint your base color, then with your polka dot color, just dab lightly onto the nails.  The dots don't have to look perfect; I think it looks cute that the dots aren't all the same.  Finally, seal it all with a top coat.  How easy is that?!

Base color I used is called wet cement from Wet n Wild Megalast and the polka dot color is milky pink from Tony Moly.  The base color is a gray like color with some muddy brown; it's a hard color to describe, but it's really pretty on the nails.  I used a very light baby pink for the dots because the base color has a pinky undertone.  Goes very well together!
By the way, do my nails look like dinosaur eggs?  I don't know why, but they remind me of dinosaur eggs... Weird!

Tea Tuesday! Adagio.com tea haul

I'm going to start off tea Tuesday by sharing what I purchased from Adagio.com few weeks ago.  I decided to get the winter holiday set called stocking stuffers to get all cozy and I also got a summer like tea called sweet Thai coconut to remind me of summer in the winter.  These are all black tea so I add a little bit of milk to it to make it creamy.  I can't drink black tea without milk!  Is that weird?

The stocking stuffers set consists of 6 different kinds of teas: candy apple, pumpkin spice, cranberry, chestnut, candy cane, and gingerbread.  Each of these tiny tins has 5 tea pyramids in them.  And on the right is 3oz bag of sweet Thai coconut loose leaf tea.  

As you can see, the tea bags are made of good quality mesh in pyramid shapes.  I like these pyramids so much more than the regular tea bags.  The pyramids have bigger pieces of tea leaves in them than the bags, so they taste better, I think.  But of course, all tea is delicious!!

Since this is just a haul, I won't go too much into details about each tea.  I will surely do a review of these teas soon! :)

Review: Tarte emphasEYES waterproof Amazonian clay brow mousse

I have recently picked up something new for my eye brows.  It's the Tarte emphaseyes waterproof Amazonian clay brow mousse!  So far, I really like it.  It really does stay put on your brows and doesn't move around at all, which is awesome because I don't want my brows dissapearing from sweat or oil during the the day.  I applied a little bit of the brow mousse on my hand, and the product didn't get erased when I ran my hand under running water.  But, when I rubbed very lightly, it erased when my hand was wet.  When I rubbed when my hand was dry, most of the product stayed on.  So this product doesn't erase when it's under water or when it's dry, but it erases almost completely once you rub it under water.  I can't wait to try this next summer when it gets extremely hot and sweaty.

I love how it comes with an angled brush with a spoolie on the other side.  Both sides of the brush are awesome!  They work very well.  The color I have is in rich brown, which is the darkest of the three colors and it matches me perfectly.  I like how it doesn't have a red undertone.  The packaging looks like gel liner packaging.  It contains 3.4g/0.1oz.

Looks like this on my hand.  Left is applied with the angled brush it comes with and right is applied with my ring finger.

I know this is a bad picture and I need to get my brows done and all, but I wanted to show what it looks like on the brows.  It looks nice and natural on the brows all day.
So, this concludes my review of this brow mousse!