June Prive Topbox : Estee Lauder and wrinkles?

I actually received this on June 17th which is around a week later than their original timeline, targeted for June 10/11th. Overall, I think the box is not bad but given my trial with topbox for the past four months, I've decided to leave topbox and offer my subscription to someone else. Before I go into why I unsubscribed, here's my last topbox review for you all. 

What's inside: 

• Idealist: Even skintone illuminator. The man purpose of this serum is to reduce the look of uneven skintones, including redness, acne marks, dark spots, sun spots and discolorations. Out of all 3 items, I look forward to this one the most mainly because of its ability to reduce redness in the skin. 

Estee Lauder Idealist Even Skintone Illuminator

• Perfectionish [CP+R] Wrinkle Lifting / Firming Serum.  The serum's main selling point is fast results by adding collagen to your skin.  I'm honestly not a big fan of any of these anti wrinkle products. I'm 24 and I've tried these anti aging products and trust me. In the long run, you'll be much better off without it.  I've tried to use those products for two weeks straight and right after I stop, my skin became loose. Much looser than before... maybe because my skin was so used to have products to keep it's shape that it's forgotten how to do the work itself! If anyone says that hey you need anti-aging! I would save it for when your skin has natural wrinkles (wrinkles when you're expressionless). That's just my two cents on anti-aging products. I mean.. of course they're going to sell you anti-aging, they're always $60+ versus your daily moisturizer priced at max of $50. As someone once told me, if you get wrinkles when you smile, those are happy wrinkles and they're there to stay for a reason. 

Estee Lauder Perfectionist [CP+R] Wrinkling Lifting / Firming Serum

• Advanced Time Zone:  Age reversing line / wrinkle creme broad spectrum SPF 15. Another one of those wrinkle creams... it says that it helps skin boots its natural production of line-plumping hyaluronic acid by 182% in just 3 days. Honestly, I'm not too into these anti-aging, aging skin products. Would much prefer them sending me their moisturizer! Again, this product would work great if you are over 40. I'll probably pass those wrinkle creams over to my mom. I think she'll enjoy them more than me! 

 

Estee Lauder Advanced Time Zone

What's great about topbox?

1. Customer Service: They should take pride on their customer service. They are very responsive to requests via Twitter, Facebook and email! 
2. Try out underground products:  Topbox often brings on board these new and underground makeup and skincare products. What's great is that maybe you'll discover a gem that you've never heard of! 
3. Great packaging:  The packaging really makes this whole process a breeze, they fit inside condo mailboxes too so you don't have to take your parcel slip and pick it up at your local post office. 

Why I opted out of topbox?

1. Value for money:  Personally, if you are always on the web and looking around  at beauty products, you will have an idea of what's good and whats bad. Given the subscription of $13 after tax, I feel that more than half of the products aren't what I'm looking for... or if even close... 4 months x $13 = $78. With $78, I could've gotten a Nars Blush and Bronzer Duo + maybe squeeze in a good lip gloss. Instead, I've received sample products and if I'm lucky, then I'd get one product out of 4 that I enjoy.
2. Samples are free:  Did you know that if you go to Sephora or The Bay or any beauty counter, you can actually ask for free samples? These samples would be very similar if not similar to the ones you get through topbox and guess what! No commitment and absolutely free! 

Those are purely just my own thoughts for topbox. 

Thanks for reading everyone and what are your thoughts on Anti-Aging cream? or on beauty boxes.

Did you know that a lot of anti-aging creams have ingredients that are similar to botox? Shocker! 

my room. vintage rustic look.

Snippets of my new room. 

Bed: Ikea (here) / Bedding: Target  similar (here) / Cushions: Home Outfitters / Bedside Table: custom made 

Closer look at my bedside table. I like to replace picture frames with cut outs when the season changes and it's a much cheaper alternative than to buy art.  The "eggling" purchased from West Elm Market is very cool. My egg will actually have daisies growing out of them. I haven't cracked it open yet but when I do I'll post my little plant.

Picture Frame: Home Outfitters / eggling: West Elm Market / Lamp: vintage / Bulb vase: CB2

 On the side of my dresser are two of my DIY creations.  I repainted the mirror with white paint and the green frame on the right is actually a DIY chalkboard from an old picture frame. I have yet to find the perfect quote to write on it so for now it'll have to be blank.

to finish off the post. Here is my little one. Meet Milly. 

Little One: Milly (not for sale and cannot be bought online)

A girl's five motivation

Even though, I blog about make up and shopping sprees there are 5 things that keep me together and give me a little bit more focus. I call this post, A girl's five motivation and hopefully you can relate to it too.

1. Every bag as a story (Assets):  Bags are expensive so to make it count and give it a story. Set a goal or a success story behind every bag so that every time you use it, it'll remind you of your accomplishment and your efforts to get you there. For myself, it would be a job promotion or a graduation present. Forget about glancing over the table and checking out that other Prada bag! It's much more meaningful to own one when you've given a meaning to it, rather than to spend your savings 'just because every girl has the neverfull bag'.

2. The natural makeup look (Appearance): Such a contradiction to this look.Instead of trying to achieve the 'natural make up look', go for the natural look. I always say skincare over makeup and one day you can go out in 5 minutes because you can skip the concealer and foundation. Mascara, eyeliner and you are ready to go! Now that is the natural look.

3. Be Knowledgeable (Education): Everything you learn serves it's purpose. (It really does). Being educated not only helps you get a job, but it can give you the foundation to be cautious in the world and school gives you that safe environment to learn your lessons. Also being able to talk about graphic design with a random person is also pretty awesome as well.

4. Work your butt off (Success):  Literally get down to it and work. There are no shortcuts in life (at least it never happened to me). Everything I do, there's work involved, be it for work promotions or this blog.  If it weren't for the efforts at work or the efforts to keep this blog alive and to interact with all of you, I wouldn't still be here :) Thank you guys for commenting and interacting with me! Means a lot :)

5. Be adventurous (The Mind): Your mind can take you places. It really can! Never close yourself off from any positive opportunity because every chance you take, you learn and take away from it. Being open minded also makes you an interesting person.  I'm always thinking of what the next step could be! A wedding planner, an event planner, professional interior designer or even just keeping this little blog alive. Just because you are employed and settled, doesn't mean you're stuck!

Photography: grace (yours truly) at Waterfront, Vancouver 

Thank you everyone who've left a comment and made an effort to follow my blog. Means a lot that someone reads my little blog :) I've made it to 100 followers.

Would love to hear what your motivations are as well!

May Topbox 2013 Review : Regular box, regular expectation

This month, I decided to opt in for the regular Topbox because the prive boxes either required an additional payment or they were repeats of the last few months. For people who have subscribed to Topbox, repeats are really a bummer but if you are new then it's a great opportunity to get those prive boxes since it's back again.

I received the following items: 

Left to right: Benefit Cosmetics POREfessional / Cuccio Colour Nail Lacquer / Yaby Eyeshadow / Lise Watier Lip Gloss

Benefit POREfessional 

(sample 7.5 mL vs full size 22mL $34) - $10 value sample 

I haven't given this a try yet but in the past, benefit cosmetics have done more harm than good given that my skin is very sensitive so I will give this a try. 

Cuccio Colour Nail Lacquer / Shade: so so sofia 

(full size $10 value) 

Honestly when I saw this, my first impression was, "yes! a full size nail polish!" but when I tried it... my thought changed.  I've never heard of this brand so I am coming in with a very honest review.  This is definitely not my favorite nail polish.  

• Consistency: between thin and goopy
• Ease of application: semi difficult because of its uneven distribution
• Coats required: at least 2. 3 to get an even coat

The challenge with this nail polish is getting a even distribution. Most nail polishes nowadays does a fantastic job of having the varnish spread evenly without the user manually trying to get an even coat. With this one, you really need to 'patch up your work'.  

The color I received was a nice creamy color but because it was sort of a yellowy, creamy, color I got tired of it easily because it made me feel boring :( rather than the "elegant" feeling that you're suppose to get. I think partially it's because of the tough time I had with application.

Yaby Eye shadow (full size palettes $127)

one word: smooth! this is probably the smoothest eye shadow I have ever encountered! Great color payoff and the application is a breeze.  I'm not too sure about the price tag but I do think that this is a great eye shadow.  I'm really not much of a dark color eye shadow person on a daily basis so I might end up using this for my brows because it's got a matte finish :) 

Lise Watier Lip Gloss (full size 6 mL at $23) 

Lise Watier Haute Couleur High Coverage Lip Lacquer

The lip gloss is comparable to all other semi-drugstore / low end premium cosmetic brand products. There isn't really anything unique or special about this lip gloss.  The intense color is accurate that the color is very intense, definitely not a sheer gloss.  After eating a meal I can see that the gloss did come off, though expected for a gloss. If this came in a lighter shade then I think I would love it more.

Sad to say but I probably will not purchase any of the item included in this month's topbox. I think I will give topbox two more tries and we'll see how things go! 

Back in my March Topbox, I got to try the L'oreal Mythic Oil and guess what, I actually purchased the full size! Thanks topbox for including the Mythic Oil sample!

Must clean must unpack must get furniture. *pulls hair 

Moving moving moving

Been lacking on my posts recently due to moving and re-decorating as well. 

I still don't have a proper computer set up yet 

and

I've been living off of my laptop for 3 weeks now. 

Mother's Day flowers 

Hiking in North Vancouver - Quarry Rock

fuzzy dog

selfie - jacket : Artizia / Top: topshop

I just received my May 2013 topbox a few days ago and will be revealing it this week! 

Plug: please follow me on http://www.bloglovin.com/ouihui or GFC ♥