Favorites: May 2016!

Compared to past posts, I've got quite a few favorites for May! I've kept on going on shopping sprees recently and so it was kind of hard to figure out what were my actual favorites and what I wanted to be my favorites since they were so pretty.

Review & Swatches: Soap & Glory Multi Color Blush Brick in Peach Party

I went insane when I saw that Soap & Glory makeup was available in Ulta. Their bath and skincare products used to be at Target, but then went away for years. I got a couple of things from them, but the one I immediately used was Peach Party. It is a "Multi-Colour Blush Brick" that contains peach, gold, copper, and pink shades to create a beautiful bronzey peachy glow on the cheeks. Peach Party contains 7.5 grams / 0.26 ounces of product and retails for $15.

Haul: Asian Beauty ft. Beyond, Pony Effect, K-Palette, and Etude House!

Another day, another haul because I have a problem...

This time, it's an all Asian Beauty haul! I got some bits and pieces from different retailers, and I'm excited to use all of them.

Review & Swatches: Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Water Foundation in Light-Medium Honey

The Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Water Foundation in Light-Medium Honey is my latest foundation purchase. The claims include being a lightweight, full coverage foundation that also helps hydrate the skin. There's a small amount of SPF (non-chemical SPF15) in the foundation and so I wouldn't wear just this in the summer for my only sun protection product. There is 30 mL / 1 fl oz of product and it retails for $39.

Review & Swatches: Lancome Juicy Shakers in Wonder Melon and Vanilla Pop

The Lancome Juicy Shakers were one of the launches I was the most excited about and they are bi-phase pigmented infused lip oils. As you know, I'm a huge lip oil lover since I have dry lips. I've also been into sheerer lip products lately as they're easier to wear at work. It was hard to just choose two, but the two colors I got were Wonder Melon and Vanilla Pop so that I could try one light color and one dark color. They each contain 0.25 fl oz / 6.5 ml of product and retail for $21.

Review: Etude House Bubble Tea Sleeping Pack in Strawberry, Green Tea, and Black Tea [Pink Bird Box]

The latest Etude House Pink Bird Box included the Bubble Tea Sleeping Packs! It's the first only skincare Pink Bird Box that I've received and they're incredibly adorable. There are three "flavors" and they are Strawberry, Green Tea, and Black Tea.

If you were to buy them individually, each sleeping pack retails for $13.20 and contains 172 grams of product but you can also buy them in a 3 pack for $39.60. You can buy these or any of their products on the Etude House global website here!

Each sleeping pack targets certain skin care concerns, but they all have the same concept to give your skin more moisture and elasticity throughout the night. For fragrance, I was expecting them to smell strongly of their respective flavors but it was more subtle and it was mixed in with a more stereotypical "skincare" smell. 

Collection Clear Out: Foundations

I've somehow collected quite a bit of foundation and I'm not sure what happened. I was pretty good for awhile and only had 2-3 on hand for when the seasons changed or when I wanted a specific finish. I only have one face and so I definitely need to cut back. Some of them have also expired and so those definitely need to be dealt with.

Oh yeah, I should probably address the variance in coloring and what I match. I'm about a MAC NC35, but with more yellow tones. I have the Pro Longwear Concealer in NC35 and it's a bit too beige to be a perfect match. My best match is probably between the L'oreal Infallible Pro-Matte Foundation in 105 Natural Beige and the Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation in 54 Beige. I tend to buy foundations a bit lighter because it's easier to adjust them darker than to adjust it lighter but I also apparently play it risky and buy foundations online.

Review & Swatches: Life's Entropy Loose Eyeshadows in Socially Awkward Plasmid, Coral Polyps, Immortal Jellyfish, and Inglorious Bonds

On Earth Day, Life's Entropy had a sale and so I decided to pick up some stuff from their newest collection - Genes & Memes. If you haven't heard of Life's Entropy, they're an online indie makeup shop that is based on science. When they first opened in 2014, I wasn't particularly impressed with their loose eyeshadows but their other products wowed (and continue to wow) me. I'm going to say it right now in the intro - they've come a long way since the beginning and now I'm also very impressed with their loose eyeshadows! Full sized loose eyeshadows retail for $6 and samples are $1.50. All of their products are cruelty free and vegan as well.

In this post, I'll be review Socially Awkward Plasmid, Coral Polyps, Immortal Jellyfish, and Inglorious Bonds.

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!)

[GIVEAWAY CLOSED] Happy Birthday, haodoyoungo!!

Four years ago, I started blogging and actually quite badly. I couldn't figure out my camera and so there was an overly cool or warm tone in every photo and I didn't know how to edit. Well, I still don't know how to edit but at least the colors are more true to life now!

Because of blogging, I was able to get many interesting opportunities like the Etude House Pink Bird boxes and I also "met" a lot of beauty loving people as well. I don't have that many beauty obsessed friends in real life and so meeting you all through blogging has been amazing. 

To celebrate, I'll be doing my biggest giveaway with some stuff I've been collecting since around Thanksgiving of last year! I was originally going to do a giveaway at the end of 2015, but I was still waiting on some stuff to get in the mail and so I pushed it back to be a blog anniversary giveaway instead.

All of these products are personal favorites and so I'm very excited to be giving these away to a lucky reader!

Onto the goods -

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipstick in Unicorn Blood

Tarte Smooth Operator Amazonia Clay Finishing Powder [mini size]

Benefit Hoola Bronzer [travel size]

Kat Von D Tattoo Liner in Trooper [mini size]

Sugar Pill Pumpkin Spice Pressed Eyeshadow

Blackbird Cosmetics Pressed Luxury Matte Eyeshadows in Fire Pledge and Atlas, Finishing Powder in Del Sol [sample], Magic Trick Super Powder in Violet [sample]

Life's Entropy Loose Pigment samples in New Horizons and Coral Polyps

All of the stuff I'm giving away are brand new and never used, but I did swatch the versions in my collection so that you can see what they look like. I no longer have the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner, but the color is just a standard pitch black.

L to R -

Jeffree Star Unicorn Blood 

Benefit Hoola Bronzer

Sugar Pill Pumpkin Spice

Blackbird Cosmetics Fire Pledge and Atlas

RULES 

1. Must be 18 or older to participate. If you're younger, you must have your guardian approval because I will need your address.

2. You must be subscribed to my Bloglovin' Profile (for haodoyoungo) and the other entry options on the Rafflecopter Widget are optional.
3. For the Instagram repost, you can repost it once a day but remember to go back to the Rafflecopter widget to add in the entry!

3. THE LAST DAY TO ENTER IS MAY 31, 2016 AT 12:00 AM. I will e-mail the winner directly from haoareyoutoday@gmail.com.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And the blog post is up now! 😁 Doing my biggest giveaway and you can click on the link in my bio to find more info!

A photo posted by Hao N. (@haodoyoungo) on May 5, 2016 at 7:15pm PDT

Good luck and thank you reading my blog! :)

Review & Swatches: Jeffree Star Cosmetics Velour Liquid Lipstick in Gemini

Even though I wasn't planning on it, I managed to snag a few Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lipsticks during one of the recent restocks and the color I'm most excited about is Gemini. It is described as a terra-cotta warm-toned nude on the Jeffree Star website, but it looks like more of a warm rosey nude on me. There is 0.19 ounces / 5.6 mL of product and it retails for $18.

Favorites: April 2016!

During April, I wasn't that creative with my makeup but I did a massive amount of it. All of the sales were too good to pass up and I ended up picking up a lot of stuff that became instant favorites. I'm sure you'll see some more stuff that I hauled in May's favorites post as well, but these are the ones I could not stop grabbing for.