Hao Goes Outside pt. 2

Back in March, I went to the San Diego Zoo with my boyfriend and did that hike in Torrey Pines. I haven't been to the SD Zoo in years but I did go to the San Diego Safari Park a few years ago with my family and it was awesome. It was definitely huge and not a one day trip unless you have strong feet, but I highly recommend seeing it.

I'll leave some commentary throughout the post, but I'll let the pictures do most of the talking!

Oh yeah. The above photo. What can I say? I like turtles (high five if you get the reference!)

Hao Goes Outside pt. 1

I was shocked to learn that it was possible to go outside. 

Just kidding, I have sensitive eyes and couldn't deal with the sun without my sun glasses.

When I took a small blogging / life break, I decided to go "hiking" and to the zoo with my boyfriend! Part one is just going to be for the hike and part two will be the zoo to keep the rambling to a minimum. 

The trail I went on was the Torrey Pines State Reserve in La Jolla, CA and as a fragile blob, I couldn't have gone on a better trail for my first hike. The path is pretty flat and if it's not, there's only a low incline or stairs. 

My boyfriend and I hiked for 2 hours and wasn't able to get through the whole thing. I did feel really good the whole time, but we got pretty hungry and went and got KBBQ instead. 

Honestly, it was a good thing I stopped since I haven't done anything physical for about 2 years. I ended up taking a nap after KBBQ and woke up with my legs totally dead. 

Look at me trying to be artsy fartsy and failing because it's just landscape. 

I'm weirdly very proud of the above picture. I took my handy dandy Glossier Balm Dotcom with me not only for my dry lips, but also for any dry skin emergencies. Even though it was so gorgeous outside, it was kind of windy since I was so close to the water. 

Again, the sun is my enemy.

I'm planning on going on this trail again sometime soon because I really want to see the rest of the view. The end is supposed to be even more gorgeous than what I saw in the beginning and so I can't wait! 

Anyway! One last note before I end this post. My Etude House giveaway did end and a huge congrats to Emily P! I've already contacted her and will be sending out the package soon. 

I will be doing another giveaway in May for my blog anniversary and so look out for that!

Hao Are You #13 // Preparing For Winter

Or aka - more food shots because all I do is eat. I have actually been trying to cook and eat healthier, but I do treat myself whenever I'm out of town. When it gets cold, I also get really lazy to cook and just like to get hot pot / shabu shabu instead. I've also been busy and so it's great just to be able to get some food with friends and loved ones during the holidays to catch up!

Here are some places I've been visting!

Piatti // (pictured above!) My boyfriend looooves Italian food and we recently discovered Piatti while scrolling through Yelp. The food itself isn't unique, but it is still quite delicious and the location is really nice! The atmosphere can also be romantic for a quick date.

Yakitori Yakyudori & Ramen // Ramen is one of my top choices for winter and Yakitori Yakyudori & Ramen is amazing. They also have small dishes that you can order (the middle picture is Takoyaki) and I can't wait to go back to try even more of them. The line was super long, but the food was worth it.

iDessert by Jean-Philippe // I also found this ice cream place while scrolling through Yelp and was surprised to find out that it was in Little Italy! Even though I've been to San Diego many times, I never realized there was a Little Italy there. This ice cream had a meringue shell and the ball on top contained syrup that you could squeeze to either fill the ice cream or to be a topping. I personally don't like the texture of meringue, but everything else was great! You could order with a cashier, or with any of the iPads through out the store. I thought the second option was great because I was able to take my time choosing without the fear of annoying the cashier. 

Sprinkles // I really don't need to do any introduction on this company! I just wanted to show their adorable Gingerbread and Peppermint cupcakes they had for December. I'm a huge fan of both flavors in general and so I could not skip out on these.

Fig Tree Cafe // My sister is really into brunch (as am I) and so we had a double date at Fig Tree Cafe. I had their Stuffed French Toast (amazing) but I also stole some slices of my boyfriend's pizza. They had huge portions for really reasonable prices and the store / workers were really welcoming. I'm cranky in the mornings and so this was a great place to start the day. I can't wait to go back to try their eggs benedict as well.

Mokkoji Shabu Shabu Bar // One of my good friends introduced me to this place. It's a bit more expensive than my go - to choice, Boiling Point, but I preferred eating this way so that I could cook the food the way I wanted to. Boiling Point usually serves hot pot all in one pot ready to eat, but you cook your own food at Mokkoji. Even looking at this simple picture is making me crave hot pot again. 

What are your favorite foods to eat during winter?

Also -

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I was going to do a Christmas based post, but not everything celebrates Christmas and that includes me. My family has always been low key about Christmas and I even get anxious when people give me gifts during this time. I do really enjoy this time of the year though. Everything is happier and more lively. 

I hope you all have a great holiday! 

Hao Are You? #12 // Sick of Being Sick

Doing another update!

I haven't done one since before I cut my hair and that was right after I graduated around June. There's been a lot... but also nothing happening to me because I'm super boring. I really wanted to cut my hair when I dyed it back to brown, but my mom wanted my hair to be long for my graduation pictures. Once that ceremony was done, I chopped everything off and then cut it again like 3 months after. I'm trying not to cut my hair again until march of next year, but the dye has faded so much out of my ends that I rather chop that off again than dye it over with more brown dye. 

When my hair is straight, it's about 2 inches past my shoulders and so it flips out all weirdly. I feel like my shorter hair looks the best when it's curled and so I like to just quickly curl it using a 1.5" curling iron in the mornings. It only takes 10ish minutes and I never leave the iron on too long.

During this time, my boyfriend and I also celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We did celebrate it a month or two late since there were so many things happening at the same time though. Because of so many transitioning moments like moving, graduating, and starting work full time, we had to push back some celebrations. We ended up getting an amazing dinner from Flemmings to celebrate everything at once!

& I definitely need to show some other amazing food I got recently!

The first three you can read about on my Instagram (click the banner at the top of the page!), but the fourth picture is when my boyfriend and I made bacon covered chicken stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese. It's one of the tastiest things we've made and we were so proud of it! I'm trying to cook more and I'm also trying to teach my boyfriend how to cook and this recipe was perfect for both of us.

During September, my family came to visit me and we ended up going to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I've already went there before with my boyfriend, but it was still a good experience to go again! Also, this seal was my soul animal. Just look at its face!

I also can't remember if these are manta rays or sting rays, but I will just call them sea pancakes.... I think they look so hilarious from below too. The area the aquarium is located at is also super cute! There were so many surrounding shops and restaurants and I really recommend stopping by there if you were to ever go through Long Beach.

By the way, my subtitle for this post is because I got super sick recently. I'm not sure if it's a cold or flu, but I just feel terrible and lame. This post is going up a couple of days after I'm actually writing it though since I have some other makeup posts I want to put up first, but there may be a slight lag because I wasn't able to take full face pictures lately. Daylight savings has messed up my lighting even more and my sick face is definitely not going up on my blog D: 

What have you been up to lately? How do you stay healthy during winter because I'm apparently very weak?

Hao Are You? #11 // The Big Life Changes & My Bad

Hello! It's been a long time since I've really sat down to think of a post. I've mentioned in some past posts and comments to other people, but I've been really busy with life. I had to take a step back from blogging and focus on work and my personal life. 

For the past year, I've held two research assistant positions (one paid and the other unpaid) along with being a full time student with two majors. I also had a job at Ulta for a few months, but had to quit to focus on school. I did not get latin honors like I wanted, but I did end up getting an overall GPA of 3.5 and joined the Anthropology Honor Society! Honestly, I am going to brag and say I'm proud of myself! I worked hard and even graduated a quarter early (but walking the stage on June 12!!!!!). 

After finishing in March, I went back to my hometown for 2 weeks and then San Diego for a week to visit my sister and be with my family. It was nice to not worry about school and take a much needed break. Right after getting back to my apartment, I started to seriously job hunt. During February and March, I did look for jobs but most places wanted me to be graduated already so that I could work full time.

In early May, I went back to Northern California for my boyfriend's sister's wedding! It was really small and everything was so beautiful. I loved how intimate and low-key everything was and it gave me a lot of inspirations on what I would want my wedding to be like in the faaaaar future.

I am wearing heels in the above picture and the dress was still too long...

A day before I went back to NorCal, I did have a phone interview AND THEN AN IN PERSON FOLLOW UP INTERVIEW A WEEK LATER. I was so surprised because I feel like I'm horrible at interviews. I ended up getting that job and I couldn't be happier!

Since I've started working, I also started to spend my weekends in San Diego to visit my boyfriend and sister. I'm so nervous during the week since I'm still new at my job and so going away is like a nice mini-vacation for me.

My normal days go from 7:30am - 5:30 pm and so I don't come back until the sun is almost down. I've been trying to take pictures in the few minutes I have before it gets dark, but it's been really hard to take decent shots. I also don't like taking full face shots when I come back because I look so sweaty and tired. 

I kind of have some post ideas and I would love to get some feedback on what you would want to read about first!

- Work / Interview Makeup aka Updated No-Makeup Makeup Look

- Cover FX Custom Coverage Drops
- Clinique Cheek Pop Blushes in Cola Pop and Fig Pop

- Dior Addict Lip Glow
- Lipstick Queen Frog Prince Lipstick
- Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper

- Memebox Orange Bloom Palette
- The Blush Addict Tag [I'm waiting on a blush from Etude House before I actually do this, but I can get started on the other blush stuff while I wait]
- Urban Decay Nail Color in Gash
- Miscellaneous posts including skin care routine, favorite shoes, food/restaurant features, recently watched shows / movie talks, etc.

I hope you're all doing well and sorry for the lack of posts! I can't promise that I'll stick to my normal schedule since of lighting and work, but I do really want to keep up with my blog and the friends I've made here. Talking to you all is really so much fun since a lot of my friends in real life don't really understand my love for makeup.

By the way, most of these pictures are on my Instagram. You can follow me by clicking here, or just going to the top of my blog and clicking on any of the pictures.

Hao Are You? #10 // Weekend Getaway & Giveaway Winners

Two weekends ago, I went to San Diego just for the weekend! It was a very impromptu trip because I just finished most of the bigger assignments / exams until finals. I also posted some pictures on my Instagram about it!

Even though it was very short, I had a really nice time with my boyfriend and my sister. I haven't gone to San Diego in a few months and so it was a nice change of scenery. I also totally forgot what the UCSD campus was like and it's a lot bigger than my own school's campus. I'm so glad that it only takes 10 minutes to walk to my classes while it takes my boyfriend and his roommate around 20.

& for the giveaway! I'm going by the names on the Rafflecopter widget and the winners are Areeba and Sara C. ! I already e-mailed them and will be mailing out the packages soon (:

I want to say thank you to everyone that entered and also "Hi!!!" to all the new followers. I'm very close to 200 followers now and I'm thinking of maybe doing another giveaway at 250 followers. I was originally planning on doing it at 100, but I immediately passed that milestone during the giveaway. I also want to space out giveaways so that they're not constantly happening.

Lastly, I want to say that my finals are coming up in about 2 weeks. My posts will probably be more sporadic and then I'll be spending 3 weeks away from my whole makeup collection. I'll be in my hometown for 2 weeks and then in San Diego again for 1 week with my family. I'll try to queue up posts and write reviews beforehand though!

How have you been?

Hao Are You? #9 // New Schedule, Makeup, and Piercings!!

The lighting is making my hair and skin look so incredibly off

Schedule!

I'm going to change my schedule by a day and start posting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and maybe Saturdays. I usually try to keep the update posts and non-makeup related posts for weekends, but I didn't have time. I spent all yesterday re-doing my resume and I forgot how stressful it is! I finished for now and so I'm feeling a lot happier. 

I tend to procrastinate and my course load this quarter is very text based and so I'm going to spend a lot of my weekend studying / catching up. I wanted to give myself another day to put up a post instead of sleepily writing one on Sunday night instead. I'm posting this on a Monday so that I can still post something else on Tuesday. I love my blog, but I might be neglectful for awhile since school is my priority right now. 

Makeup!

In the above two pictures, I was texting out new makeup but these are the reject photos. The left one was actually just a selfie I wanted to send to my friends. The one on the right wasn't showing the blush and eyeshadow colors correctly and I couldn't color correct them, but I still wanted to post both of these somewhere. I started winging out my eyeshadow recently and I really like how it looks. I would put a color in my crease and extend it to make more of a point. Because of this, I haven't been adding any product besides mascara on my lower lashline area. 

Some of the new products I was testing out in the above (and below) pictures are SugarPill Sparkle Baby Palette, Makeup Geek Foiled Eyeshadow in Grandstand, and ColourPop Lippie Stix. The ColorPop Lippie Stix are showing up beautifully on my lips, but horrible in photos though and it's annoying me so much. I got Bull Chic and it looks so patchy and uneven in pictures enough though it looks super opaque and amazing in real life. 

Piercing!

I went to the mall with my roommate recently and I got some new earrings. I also get a third lobe piercing!! I just got it at Claire's because there was a discount on piercings. I also do buy a lot of earrings from them though because they're one of the few places where my sensitive ears don't react negatively to. I got the KatyCat earrings from the Katy Perry collection and I think they're so cute!

Food!

I also had to include some food pictures! I went on a date with my boyfriend and we got Red Robins... Yum! I can't help but hear the jingle whenever I say the name too. I've mentioned it before, but I upgraded my phone and I'm so in love with the picture quality. Way less grainy than my iPhone 4. 

How have you been?

I love hearing updates! (:

Mini Target Haul! & Quick Updates

I went to Target the other day to forget about going back to school for a little bit. I saw some new products (the lipsticks!!) and it was hard to resist buying more. I also wanted to try the Wet 'n' Wild Take On The Day primer because everyone I talked to said this primer was amazing. I've tried all of the products right when I got them, but I'm still doing some wear tests. 

& now onto the products!!

Maybelline ColorSensational Rebel Bloom Lipstick in Rose Rush - In the tube, the color looks like just another red. I had a post bashing a Maybelline lipstick, but then my perception of them changed after getting Touch of Spice. The color for Rose Rush is a warm red that sometimes looks pinky and sometimes looks orangey. It's bright, but it's still wearable. 

CoverGirl Colorlicious Lipstick in Delicious - This color looked so unique in the tube. It looks like a medium mauve purple, but swatches differently on my lips. It becomes more pale and lavender like. It is definitely not my color, but looks better when mixed in with darker shades. I'm still testing it out, but it is currently a regret. 

Wet n Wild Fergie Take On The Day Eyeshadow Primer - I asked some people on reddit for a new primer recommendation and the top two were this primer and the NARS one. I wasn't going to drop ~$20 on a new primer and so I decided to just try out the Wet n Wild one. 

Wet n Wild Fergie Shimmer Palette in Rosé Champagne Glow is exactly how it is described. It's a perfect balance of rose gold and champagne. It's not as fine milled as some other highlighters, but I'm still playing around with it. It is extremely gorgeous though. 

Simple Cleansing Micellar Water - Cleansing waters have been extremely popular for the past few years starting from Bioderma. I'm in the States and Bioderma is really expensive to get here. The Body Shop has a makeup remover that I love that is pretty much like a cleansing water, but I wanted to try a specifically named "cleansing water." Simple is a more natural brand that targets sensitive skin, and so I wasn't sure if it would work that well. I tried it and it's not the best for taking off all of my makeup, but it does help take off the bulk of it. 

Read on for my life update, but feel free to stop here since I'll be done talking about beauty. Leave a comment below telling me what product you want me to review first! 

I also have a review on the Mally Bulletproof Essentials Starter Kit coming up soon. I just need to write it up, but the pictures are all done. 

Hao Are You? #8 // Exciting and Scary Times

Please excuse the apple in the middle picture. I was wearing a top that showed my stomach and for some reason, I feel embarrassed about it now. I also love apples and thought might as well use an apple sticker to cover that area. 

What have you been up to?

School just started back up and I'm a lot busier than I thought I would be. I got a job at a makeup store (eep!) and I'm so excited about it. Weekends were supposed to be my break, but I couldn't help but apply because I love makeup. 

I'm trying to figure out how my blogging will work from here on out because most of my days (and sunlight) is spent at work or school. I prefer natural lighting for my pictures and so I'm having trouble finding time to take swatch pictures. 

If you didn't notice, I'm also lightening my hair. I can't decide if I want to go blonde or lavender / silver. Right now, it's really brassy and orange though. It's starting to grow on me and reminds me of Hayley Williams and so I'm not sure what I want to do. I do look slightly ridiculous because my roots are more yellow then the rest of my hair. 

What are you looking forward to?

I'm super nervous about working at a new place, but I'm so excited too. It's obviously something that I'm interested in, but retail is so much different from what I'm doing now. The socks on the third picture are the socks I wore to my first day and they're from one of my best friends. They make me laugh and so I wore them to have a little bit of an inside joke to keep me more calm throughout the day. 

My boyfriend also transferred to a UC and now we're 1.5 hours apart instead of 6 hours. We get to see each other a lot more and it makes me so happy. He's been my best friend for 16ish years and my boyfriend for a little over 3 years and so it's great to be able to see each other more than once every 2-3 months now.

How have you been?

Hao Are You? #7 // Reunited and it feels so good!

What have you been up to?

I've previously mentioned that I have a boyfriend and now here's his debut! We're in a long distance relationship and he came to visit so that we could celebrate our 3 year anniversary. We've actually known each other for 13 years before we started dating because we met in kindergarten. 

We celebrated twice because I have work and classes during the week days. We had the most amazing dinner at Houston's in Irvine and the service was the best I've ever had. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants to have a more fancy dinner. The treatment I get at higher end places is always lacking because I'm young and well... I look younger than I am. The service at Houston's was incredibly welcoming and even those who weren't at my table were incredibly friendly. 

My boyfriend and I also went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. They have discount tickets at night and so we took advantage of that. We went a bit earlier than the starting time to check out Long Beach and the area we were in was a really cute. 

What are you looking forward to?

I'll be going to San Diego again soon because some friends from my hometown will be visiting. They're still currently planning what we're doing, but I haven't seen them in awhile so I know it's going to be fun regardless of what we end up doing. 

As for blog updates, a new indie store called Life's Entropy just opened up and I ordered their blogger pack. I will be rolling out the reviews starting this week, but it will take me awhile. There's a lot of stuff to try out and because I have a bit busier with my boyfriend's visit, I haven't really had time to put on makeup. I also had a pretty bad cold sore this past week (I blurred it out in the above picture. Sorry!) and so I didn't want to try out any lip products either. I also misplaced my camera for a couple of days. I was planning on posting a review up today, but I couldn't finish reviewing and taking pictures by now. 

Some other products I've recently purchased include Etude House Play 101 Pencils! They're multipurpose products and I got a red and a rose gold, which is incredibly typical of me. Whoops! But at least I'll have other products to compare them too!

How have you been?

Hao Are You? #6 // And I'm Back!

What have you been up to?

I took 2 weeks off to just relax, but I ended up writing some reviews and posts so that I could start publishing them soon! I have some skincare and makeup reviews and I also have a lot of orders coming in soon! Some are from Asian Brands that I've been wanting to try out, but I also bought some makeup from a newly launched Indie Company called Life's Entropy. I found out about them on Reddit and they had a blogger pack, sale, and interesting products and so I decided to make an order. 

Btw, doesn't all the food above look so good?! The top left is from Confetti Italian Ice Cream in Costa Mesa and it's so good. The store is super cute and has an old fashion ice cream store feeling, but they sell frozen custard and italian ice. I got the Sour Bites Worms flavor but without the custard. Their small is so much that I can never finish it. The top right is some homemade spring rolls my roommates and I made. The sauce in the POM bottle is a fish sauce / lemon / sugar / garlic sauce that my mom made. It's great for spring rolls, but also with other Vietnamese dishes. The bottom left is from Berkeley Dog in Irvine. It's probably my favorite hot dog place, but it can be a bit pricey. The flavors they have are very interesting though. My favorite was lemon pepper chicken, but they stopped selling that one. The bottom right is from Veggie Grill in Irvine and it's Thai Chicken Salad. My friend gave me some of her sweet potato fries and they were amazing. 

What are you looking forward to?

I'm finally finishing up my first session of summer school and I'll have a few days off before I start the second session. My boyfriend is coming to visit and we're planning on going to Long Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego while he's here. We have some friends we want to visit and it'll also be our 3rd anniversary on the 5th of August. I'm super excited about next month in general but also nervous. I'm moving soon and I still need to prepare a lot of things before I move. 

How have you been while I was gone? What did I miss?

I tried to keep up with as many beauty blogs as I could, but I always miss some. Feel free to leave comments below!

Short Hiatus! // Taking a Break Off For Midterms, Work, and Life

I usually have at least one or two queued blog posts and I've been pretty good at posting 2-3 times a week for the past few months, but I'm going to need to take a short break. I've been really busy lately and I don't want to sacrifice the quality of the things I do. I'll be taking at least a week off, but it might be 2-3 weeks. 

In the meantime, you can take a look at my tumblr to see what I'm up to and what I'm interested in. 

I'm sorry for suddenly taking this break and I'll be back soon!

Hao Are You? #5 // Weekend Getaway

What have you been up to?

I missed my Monday post this week, but I ran out of queued posts and I went to San Diego this weekend to visit my sister. My sister and I try to hang out at the beginning of my school quarter so that I don't have to worry about being too busy. I was in my first accident (really small fender bender), but I got really scared because of it. I think my sister knew that I was really stressed out from that and starting work this week and so she planned a spontaneous weekend for me. It was really fun and just what I needed. It was kind of too much excitement for one weekend for me though because I usually stay in my room doing nothing. 

What are you looking forward to?

My paycheck! I'm half joking about that, but mostly serious. Even though it's just a part time job, I want to be more financially independent. I've had small jobs here and there, but they're better than nothing. I'm becoming so busy, but it's still fun to me. 

Summer school at my school involves 2 summer sessions that are about 6 weeks each. At the end of the first session, my long-distance boyfriend is coming to visit me and I'm so excited for that! 

By the way -  I'll be posting up reviews L'oreal's Miss Manga Waterproof Mascara, Urban Decay's Perversion Mascara, and Givenchy's Ombre Couture Cream Shadow in Rose Dentelle soon! I'm currently writing them up and finishing some swatch photos and so come back soon to see those!

How have you been?

Hao Are You? #4 // Let The Fun Begin!

What have you been up to?

I finished my finals and so summer has started for me! Kind of. I'm taking summer classes and I'm going to have long days for four days a week. Fortunately, applying and interviewing for multiple jobs paid off and I'll be starting work on the 30th. I'm pretty excited about it and hopefully it'll help me decide what I want to do in the future. 

I recently dyed my hair again, but I put it on all of my hair. I only had one box and didn't want to buy anymore and so there's a slight gradient from super pigmented purple to brown. The bleached parts also took in the dye more and so the bottom parts are a brighter purple. I really do love it and I'm probably going to continue dying it like this. Like in my hair dye post, I added more conditioner to the dye as I went lower. 

What are you looking forward to?

I have one week of summer and I'll be going out as much as I can to make the most of it. I'm also going to spend more time with my family since I probably won't see them again for awhile. I'm kind of sad that I'll be so busy this summer, but I'd rather be productive than completely bored. I can also catch up on some shows! Orange Is The New Black just came back and I'm so excited. I watched some episodes during my study breaks. I like the first season more, but the second season is good too. 

How have you been?

Hao Are You? #3 // I'm meeeelting

I'm meeelting! (Cue the Wicked Witch's voice) This week has been 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit and it's only going to get worse as summer comes. I'm so happy that my rent includes AC because my roommates and I have been blasting it non-stop. Some of my friends keep wanting to go to my apartment too so that they could use the AC. 

Now, let's start with the questions!

What have you been up to?

If you didn't know, I have a tumblr and I've been doing #100happydays, which you can find out more about here. The pictures above are from that "challenge." I'm mostly motivated to do it so that I could get the photobook at the end, but I also wanted to start documenting my days. Even though I'm only halfway done, it's been fun looking back on what I've done. I started to get back into baking, but it's hard trying to try out a lot of different recipes since I don't want to make too many things at one time.  School is going pretty well and I'm not as stressed out anymore because I got a research assistant position.

What are you looking forward to?

I've been waking up around 5:40AM 2-3 times a week for the past 3 weeks and Monday will be the last day this school quarter that I have to do it. I'm so happy that that will be done soon. There's about 3 more weeks of school and I can't wait for my week break. I'm taking summer classes and so I won't have a lot of time to go back to visit my friends and family. 

What product have you been loving?

Since it's so hot, I've been really relying on sun screen. I recently bought Lancome's Bienfait UV 50+ Sunscreen during Sephora's Chic Week sale. It's oil-free and very thin and so it's great under makeup. It's hard for me to put on 1/4 a teaspoon of sun screen on because all of my other sunscreen is way too thick. I've also been using Clinique's Acne Solutions Clinical Clearing Gel twice a day for the past two-ish months. It's not a miracle worker, but it is working. It has1% salicylic acid and salicylic acid tends to work better on my skin than benzoyl peroxide. I would put a thin layer all over my face and if I have a huge pimple, I would use it as a spot treatment too since the directions suggest using it both ways. As you guys know, I do not have the clearest skin and so the combo of these products are working well for me. One prevents / treats acne and the other prevents the scars from getting darker or worse. 

The products are slightly blended out on the bottom image

How was your week? 

ps. I'm also thinking about splitting up the life update portion and the product portion to be different blog posts. I try to keep these posts more concise, but if there were two posts, I would include more products. What do you guys think about that?

Hao Are You? #2

My apartment complex got therapy animals for the residents during finals week.

Whoops. I've been away for long time again. I got too caught up with applying with jobs and school that I haven't been able to just sit down and write blog posts. I've still be binge shopping (tsk tsk Hao!) but time just slips away from me. 

Sadly, my skin has also been terrible lately that I haven't been wanting to take any pictures of myself. For some reason, I've just been buying bronzers and contour products nonstop. I want to include face pictures of the products in action, but my dark spots and acne just brings me down. I know, I know. Acne isn't the end of the world, but since these pictures are going to be forever once I upload them, I just want to wait till my skin gets getter. 

Btw, on the topic of skin. Do you guys have any skincare recommendations? I just bought Benefit's Skincare Sampler pack from Ulta since I loved the Facial Moisture Cream and wanted to test the rest of the products. I think I'm going to write a review for those products, but I'm going to wait till I've used up all of it. 

On to the questions!

What have you been up to? 

I just finished another round of finals. I really slacked off this quarter, but I think I'll be okay. I took a Race, Gender, and Science class and it was so fun. It is one of my favorite classes that I have taken so far. I'm on Spring Break right now and so I'm back in my hometown in the Bay Area. 

What are you looking forward to? 

Honestly, sleep. I've been having sleeping problems and so it'll be nice to just sleep the day away. So unproductive, but I really need to catch up on some rest. Some of my friends got me some books for my birthday last month and I finally have some time to read them. I'm so excited! 

What products have you been loving?

My sister got me the Naked 3 for my birthday and I love it! I'll be writing a kind of casual review for it soon. 

I recently also bought Benefit Hoola Bronzer and MAC's Sculpting Powder in Sculpt. I told you I was on a bronzer/contour product kick! I like using Sculpt to bring out my cheek bones and Hoola to warm up my complexion. I was surprised that Hoola works on me though. I always though I was too dark for it. 

Left to Right: Benefit Hoola. MAC Sculpting Powder in Sculpt. The Body Shop Honey Bronzer in #4 Deep Matte. NYC Sunny Bronzer. NARS Bronzing Powder in Laguna. 

Blog updates -

I'm planning on writing more causal reviews for any future palettes I review by pointing out the pros and cons and of course, including swatches. I found that I was spending too much time on palette reviews and never publishing them because I wasn't satisfied enough. They were too wordy and boring and so I wanted to switch writing methods so that they would be interesting for everyone involved. As always, the comment section is always open in case you have further questions. I'll probably call them "Palette Praise: _____"

Hao Are You?

I went to Christmas in The Park with my parents during Thanksgiving Break.

Hello! So far, my blog has mostly consisted of beauty related things and my face. (I also have a baking blog that I try to update as much as possible.) I want to change it up a bit to include tidbits of my life to show what I've been up to. By doing this, I also hope to create a discussion with the people who read this blog. If you didn't know, my name is pronounced like "How" and I thought it'd be soooo punny to have that as the title. (:

What have you been up to?

I just finished my finals! I am beyond excited for the next three weeks. I've been so swamped with final projects and exams. I just declared a second major and so I'm going to get even busier now. 

What are you looking forward to?

I'm so excited for some home cooked meals and to see my family and friends again. I go to a school in Southern California and my hometown is 6 hours away. SoCal is so much warmer than where I'm from and so I'm not looking forward to that. It does give me an excuse to buy more cute sweaters though.

What products have you been loving?
I just bought the NARS x Guy Bourdin One Night Stand Blush Palette and I am in love. I was intimidated by the bright pink color, but it looks great if I just put a tiny bit on my cheeks. I was thinking about reviewing it, but it seems too late now. Some of the colors are permanent so I might just review those as if it was a standalone blush.

I am also loving my NYX Ultra Pearl Mania Pigment in Mink Pearl. It is a beautiful rose gold (but more gold) color that is perfect for the holiday season. Rose Gold has been one of my favorite colors lately and this isn't too pink.

& How are you guys?