July's Luxe Box by Loose Button

I know I'm kinda late on this post but better late than never =]

I will assume that you all know that Luxe Box is a monthly subscription that delivers 3-5 deluxe beauty samples in a pretty box for $12/month, $36/3month or $120/year, currently only available to Canadians and that you can purchase your Luxe Box hereeeeeeeeee ;)

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I was just thinking that I might be creating a lot of waste if I were to receive a Luxe Box per month for the next while because they are heavily packaged. So I kindly emailed them to ship my July Luxe Box in the bubble wrap envelope only and skip the box, ribbons, tissue papers and the sheet of cotton even thought I know  we can completely recycle all these materials with the help of some imagination and creativity but I just wanted to try this out for a month and see how it goes. Let me tell you, it's not as exciting opened a Luxe Box WITHOUT the box and all the other goodies so I will be requesting my future Luxe Boxes to be shipped as it used to be and I will recycle the materials myself =] (will make a post in the future on how I reuse these boxes, tissue papers, ribbons and cotton =]).

This month, I was away from home so couldn't open my box until a week later so I spoiled my own surprise by searching it on YT and google. 

• I was kinda sad that we were getting another polish because I'm not a polish girl. 
• Kinda sad that we were getting a lip liner cause I never use a lip liner.
• But glad that these were full sizes =].
• Kinda sad that there was a fragrance sampler because I'm not into perfumes.
• Kinda sad that there was another oil treatment sampler since we already got one from Joico last month
• BUT THEN, THAT'S JUST ME... Don't even know why I still love them soooooooo much when I dislike so many types of beauty products, I think it's the surprise we get each month and the fact that we can really find things we love or hate just so we know what to buy and what not to buy in full sizes.
  
  
  
  *I got some different products than what is listed above, so keep reading to find out more =]*

Super small packaging compared to what it used to be

Greeting Cards, description and price of the full size products (just wished they would include how big the full sizes are)

Not too appealing to the eye without the box is it? =P

I got four things this month and no chocolate =[, perhaps it's because of the hot weather? I would love to see some sour candies as a substitute *yumm*

This box includes:

• 2 eye cream and 1 moisturizer sample from Consonant Skincare
  Full size eye cream retails for $36, moisturizer retails for $54
• (Full Size) Essie Nail Polish in Formal Affair (Red with tiny reflexes)
  Full size retails for $8
• Stella In Two Peony fragrance sampler
  Full size retails for $56
• (Full Size) Trucco Pro Eye Pencil in Sebastian 7094
  Full size retail for $20

Consonant Skincare

Consonant Skincare
3 small samples, haven't tried these yet but I think I will love it because I  loved the natural soap bar and the foaming face cleanser that I received in past Luxe Boxes

Stella In Two Peony
Love how it looks but didn't really care for the scent. It's too woody, and heavy for me. 

Essie Nail Polsih
I HATE RED! lol, already got a red China Glaze polish last month so I don't really need another one =[

Formal Affair
Applies sheer
needs 3-4 coats to get get it opaque
has tiny gold reflexes
looks like a coral-ly/orangy if you only apply one coat

Pro Eye Liner (bottom: swatch and top: blended)
Very smooth and moisturizing
Feels like a melting lipstick
Colour suitable as a cheek stain or lip colour
I might be able to use it as an eyeshadow/base/primer by for now I think I will only use in on my lip because its too moisturizing for my oily eyelids

Overall, I still like this service and the idea behind it so I renewed my subscription for another year. July's box wasn't really for me because I was really bummed when I saw a red polish but the rest of the box is workable, not loving but workable.
However, I did love almost all the products in my past Luxe Boxes, if you'd like to check those out then feel free to click the followings:
June's Edition
May's Edition
March's Edition

For those who have bought this month's Luxe Box, did you find anything you love/hated? Let me know by commenting below =]


Want more of these services? Try GLYMM BOX, it's a little different but I will explain it when I get my next box arrives but feel free to explore their website to find more about glymm box. I am currently subscribed to both LUXE BOX and GLYMM BOX so I'm supper excited to see what's in my August edition and how they compare =]

**Alx**

Review: ELF Cream Eyeliner (requested)

Fine fine fine.. I'll post something!!.. even if I'm super mad at blogger for not showing my updates on dashboard for the LONGEST time!! a month or so already? T_T.. anyone else experiencing the same problem? How can I resolve this? A fellow blogger told me that I can't fix it =[, does that mean it will always stay like this? =`[...I'm totally unmotivated to blog =[

Moreover, I have to pick out my courses for next year and it's pain in the tush! because it's my last year and I can't mess this up! I need to make sure I have the right courses and the right amount of credits so I've been slacking off a WHOLE lot......But I am pretty active on Twitter. Follow me there if you want small little updates, giveaways, freebies, awesome sales like 60% off ELF, food posts, mini hauls and quick tips and tricks on how to beautify yourself. Tweet me and I'll make sure I follow back =].

Okay, lets move on with this post. Tiffo wanted to know how I liked the  ELF Cream Eyeliner when she saw it on my ELF haul here. Yes, it was a month ago!!!, I really am lazy, no? So here we go, read the captions below each picture for the Review =]

ELF Cream Eyeliner in Black, comes with a mini angled brush which I love!
Buy it here
$3 (but never checkout without a coupon code!)

*Ignore the other swatches, focus on the black liner please =P*

One layer of swatch, went on smoothly, dried quickly and it was very pigmented
Using the brush provided, you can easily line your eyes as well as tight lining you upper lash lines
With an eye primer, this eyeliner will stay better but still smudging a little
Without an eye primer, this eyeliner will smudge like no other, you will end up with a raccoon eye

*Sorry about the bad photo quality, I took it with the front camera of my phone*
After 5 hours: oily eye lids, hot and humid weather
The line is already less pigmented, needs touch ups if you want a sharp and define line
However, if you want a more natural and softer look then this eyeliner would be great because throughout the day, it will get less intense
*Wearing L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black on upper lashes only*

With a primer: I used ELF's $1 eyelid primer, maybe it will stay even better if I used a better primer?
Hope you can see a small amount of smudging on the lower outer corner of my eye, not too visible but it's there.

Without a primer: Yes, I went to school with one eye primed and not the other, came home having one raccoon eye =P
You can clearly see how badly smudged this cream eyeliner is without a primer! So make sure to use a primer of any kind! Even the $1 ELF eyelid primer helped a whole lot =].

Overall,
PROS:
- The formula of the liner is very pigmented, and creamy therefore making the application super easy
- The brush that it came with is very soft to the touch but stiff enough to perfect a line of any thickness (maybe not a super thin line but still loveable to use it to tight line)
- Can easily do a winged eye-look
- Can easily reverse a mistake by wiping it because the staying power is not that good
- Affordable and suitable for beginners
- Would repurchase it just because it's so user friendly, inexpensive and works fine with a primer
CONS:
- Does not stay long
- Easily smudged
- Cute but over packaged product
- Brush is very short and tiny, can't be easily found in my makeup bag

Has anyone else tried this cream liner before? How do you like it? Any inexpensive primer alternatives (I just ordered their mineral eyeshadow primer which I heard is a dupe to the urban decay primer potion)?




Hope my problems gets resolved quickly or else you all might not see me smile anymore =[




**Alx**

Guu Izakaya

I was so excited to try Guu (a Japanese sushi bar) for the first time. It was such an impulsive decision, my friends and I were playing around with their DSLR (yes they all had one except for me..one of my friends brought two DSLRs so he lent it to me^^). After a few hours we were so hungry that we wanted to quickly grab something to eat at Timmies but I was like "I WANT GUU!!"... soo we all just went to Guu to suprisingly find no line-ups! Maybe because we went around 6pm and we went to their new location on Bloor Street.

Guu was a hit and a miss for me.. I loved the atmosphere and the service but some of the food are not worth the bucks! I will indicate which one of the following pictures of the food I thought it was worth it and a must try! These dishes ranges from $6-$10 (not sure about this because I was way too hungry that I just let my friends who have tried Guu before order the food, I don't even know what they were ordering (which is why I exactly don't know what the price were and the names of the dishes>< SORRYY).. I was practically there to sit and wait for food to come to me =]. We re-ordered a few dishes because we really didn't get full at all.

The captions are COLOUR coded for a clear overview of what kind of food I would recommend or what I would re-order if I were to go back again:
GREEN: Will order this again!
ORANGE: mmm, maybe, probably not
RED: No way!, rather save up those bucks and order a Big Mac!

Octopus Balls?
Did I say we were hungry?, yet we ate right away and forgot to take any pictures!!
Tasted very good but nothing too special that I can't get elsewhere for cheaper

Jellyfish Salad?
This was very very good, a MUST
Pricey but worth it because you can't find it elsewhere

Beef Udon
Their udon are so good!!, also a MUST
Very chewy and tasty, wish it came more in that plate LOL

Large Sweet Shrimp
Very fresh, big and meaty
A must, even if it's pricey but it's way too good to pass on this

Baked Oysters
Yummmmie.. but made mostly out of mayo, cheese, and fillings like potatoes, mushrooms. Oyster itself was very small. For the price, I can get better oysters elsewhere. Best if it's raw oysters!!! I recommend DIANA'S SEAFOOD for the freshest and cheapest seafood s2.

Scallops
Ahhhh.. soo blurry, oh well... This was average but not bad, only came with 3 medium scallops and some mushrooms. Would recommend this but I can totally make this at home by grilling it with butter and season it with salt and pepper

Grilled Cheese
I disliked this even thought I LOVE cheese but I don't like eating sweet things so the dressing on this was not my thing. Also dislike fried food so that's another no no

Spicy Tuna
Taste good, but nothing special and very small portion

I think this was salmon sushi and tuna rolls
This was so good, much better without the mayo but this is a MUST =]

Creamy Udon with Bacon
We were way too hungry still so we ordered more udon, this was the one with bacon and again we dig in so quickly because we were THAT hungry LOL. Very creamy and chewy, another MUST =]

Fried Fish
This dish was alright, only had 3 pieces of fish on a bed of fried fish bones. Not worth it at all, not that yummy either =P

Black Cod
This was sooo good!, I think it was black cod but all black cod taste just as good. Wished this piece was larger too =P. Recommend this too even thought it's so pricey. It's a MUSTx100

Salmon Sushi
This one is a must too, it's suppose to be 3 different flavours but we had 5 people so we each only had half a piece  LOL. We did re-order another set of these but I don't think it taste that much different. All I noticed was that two of these were partly grilled.

Partly Grilled Salmon?
This was goooddd tooo!. Another must =]

Beef Sashimi
Nop, this had NO taste at alll!!!!, very disappointed. Do not recommend this dish at all.

Almond Tofu
Their dessert was sooo yummy, I told you guys I don't like sweet things right? So, if I think this was good then it MUST of been very good. Very soft and fresh tasting maybe because it was cold? Also loved it because it had a very strong taste of almond and its not super sweet at all. LOVE one of the best thing of the night =]

Overall, I love some dishes and hated some. Dishes were small, pricey and made out of too much sauce, mayo and dressings. However, I loved the freshness and quality of food also loved the atmosphere and the service they provided. This is one of those places where you would only go once in a while rather than going very often because it's very pricey and it's not filling at all. The bill came up to $40 per person (we had 5 people, and we weren't that full but we were satisfied). The washrooms were very clean and spacious, loved how they provided things like toothpick, mouth wash and pads!! haha never seen other places like that, so I love it. Next time I go, I think I need to order more udon and sushi/rolls in order to get full =P.

Have you guys tried GUU before? Do you LOVE it or HATE it... or in the middle kinda like me?...I don't think all the hype is needed around GUU, I mean it's a wonderful place to enjoy authentic Japanese food and drinks with great service and atmosphere but if you're gonna need some McDonalds right after then why not save up that $40 and go else where that still has very good atmosphere, nice Japanese food and services? I don't know maybe because I hate it when I eat and don't get full =P. I would recommended WATAMI, it's not own by Japanese but they serve some GOOOODD sushi, trust me... and at reasonable price s2!

**Alx**

Nails x 3.5 + Blog Award s2!

Just sharing with you all some painted nails I've done for the couple of weeks. You can see how much my nails have grown during these past weeks because I like wearing the same coloured nails for a long time rather than always changing it up because I don't like removing the polishes with acetone. Such a big dilemma, I want to do different nail designs but I don't want to use nail polish remover them -_- how does that work? Do any of you know any other type of nail polish remover that are less harmful or even something natural?

Anyways let me start with one of my favourite!, A nude colour by REVLON called Gray Suede

Revlon-Gray Suede (3 coats)

Added some dots to one of the corners of my nails to change up the look in just a few minutes =]

China Glaze - Sexy in the City

This was done by one of my gf because we were bored, that's why I have no idea what colours/brands she used. I loved it when she helped me file my nails to get a better squared tip than my nails in the first picture above.

So my nails have grown a lot and every time I have long nails I would do a French manicure. Usually with the typical white or pearly colour but this time I've decided to do something different =]. I simply painted these on free handed (I didn't use tape or other helping equipments but feel free too if you want a more even and clean design)

Love this colour. China Glaze Agent Lavender. Applied one coat only!

One coat looks nice in real life but if you look at my nails under the light you can see that the polish isn't 100% opaque but I'm ok with that because under normal lighting it looks opaque and smooth =]

The colour should look a little bit more purple than baby blue, it's just that my camera won't pick up the true colour..sry!

As you can see, I'm a very simple girl. All the designs I made are simple, easy and quick to do. You can really see the deference between the designs my friend made and what I made =P. Let me know if you'd like to see more simple nail designs and which nail above did u like most? =P

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Stylish Blogger Award s2

The lovely Joann from LuckyDuckyLoves tagged me with this stylist blogger award and I was like WHAT??? REALLLYY???? no wayyyy!!.... AHHHHH thank you sooo muchhh hunnnn!! s2 ^^.  Please check her out for some awesome product reviews =]

The Rules

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you.
2. List 7 things about yourself that you haven't mentioned before

3. Tag 7 people and let them know you done so!

7 Things About Myself (This one is so hard as I've already made a few posts in the past talking about myself lol, but anyway, here we goo......)

1. I prefer lipbalms over lipsticks/glosses, only 100% natural ones won't further chap my lips.. Burt's Bee are
    a no no for me....
2. I eat lemon with salt, loveeeeee!
3. I love sports like skiing, snowboard, rollerblading, skating, biking, skateboarding, riding a scooter,
    badminton, ping pong, jumping ropes and playing the hula hoops (is this even a sport? lol).
4. I'm 5'4'' (this one is soo boring! lol)
5. I love watch Criminal Minds, The Big Bang Theory and Moderm Family and have rarely/never watch
    shows like gossip girls, pretty little liars... I just don't wanna deal with all the drama -_-, it's too frustrating
    and negative sometimes that I don't want to bring all that into my life.
6. I don't like eating sweets, I'm more of a savoury or sour-taste girl
7. I'm only 22 years old but I have major laugh lines, frown lines and crows feet when I smile/laugh =[

7 People I Tag

1. Ash: http://araeofstyle.blogspot.com/
2. Haze: http://iamheizl.blogspot.com/

3. Jiawa: http://www.closetvoyage.com/

4. Julie: http://www.popchampagneblog.com/

5. Leigh: http://thelibertybelleblog.blogspot.com/

6. Lisa: http://lisalovescoco.blogspot.com/
7. Lolita: http://augustalolita-lolitaslife.blogspot.com/

As always, these fellow bloggers were hard to pick out but I really like their styles,
hope you like them too =]

**Alx**