Etude House review pt.1

Hi Sweethearts,

I've been asked to do a review of the products from my last blog post (Etude House haul) which I love doing...I've definitely got the reviewing bug!

I'm going to this is 3 different parts as I want to create a couple of different looks with the items, and then a separate review post for the skincare items. (That way it's a lot easier to read than a massive, long, probably tedious post) 


So here's my look from today:

I chose a smokey look for today, as I was attending the Edinburgh Tattoo Convention with a couple of friends, and kept it quite casual.

My grey shadow blends into a cream coloured shadow at my brow bone, but my fringe is covering it in the pic....since I was running late I didn't remember to take a picture with my fringe pulled back, Sorry!

So, starting from the eyes, I chose shadows from my w7 In The Nude Palette (you can see my review of that here: http://kasumihime.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/w7-in-nude-palette-review.html) & added a light dusting of MUA Black shadow to give the shadow a greyer tone.

I decided to use the Black (shade 1) Play101 pencil from my Etude House haul for my eyeliner today, as a change from my usual liquid. 

Here's a screenshot from the Etude Website, showing you what the pencil looks like, and the price!

You can pop the back of the pencil off to reveal a mini sharpener for the eyeliner, for creating super fine & sharp lines although I decided not to use it this time. 

I don't really use pencil liners as my main liner much these days, so it was nice to change it up for a softer effect. 

Initially, I applied this liner with a slight flick at the end of my eye as I do with most of my daily looks, and then applied it in a solid thick line halfway under my eyes from outer corner to middle corner.
 The website lists this specific pencil as "creamy" and the consistency really is as described as it just glided on perfectly first time!
  I decided to test out how well it smudged by using it quite thickly under my eyes, and then smoked it out with a brush. As you can see from the picture, once again it smoked out really easily with minimal effort to create a nice blended look!
 Again, I used this to line both my upper and lower water line to add to the smokey, sexy look (although I don't look sexy in the slightest today - one can't master a selfie whilst rushing out the door!) 

I'm really impressed with it - it lasted all day without smudging or running down my face, even after I spent a good 10minutes crying with laughter at a silly story!

Next up - cheeks! 

Continuing on to my blush/cheeks, I chose the Sweet Recipe all over colour in Peach for this look as I wanted to keep my blush light and natural so as not to clash with the eyes or lips. 

This is what the all over colour looks like in the tin - a lovely pinky peachy colour...and it's even peach scented! I could have just eaten it, it smells that good!

I applied a very small amount of this to the apples of my cheeks with my fingers to give my face a lovely fresh, healthy glow.
 The all over colour has the consistency of a creamy lip balm, and blends to a lovely, natural dewy look. You can apply this either under or over your powder with out it looking cakey or removing powder - it feels really light on your skin too.
 This can also be used as a lip balm or an eye colour - whichever you prefer or all of the above! In my case, I bought this specifically as a blusher.

You can layer this up for a stronger look without any issues too - with some cream products, it can remove or move around the previous layers eg. foundation and cause patchiness, but this definitely doesn't. (I added an extra layer later on in the day to test this) 

I really love the natural look of this, and think it's going to be perfect for my spring/summer looks where my makeup will be lighter to complement seasonal outfits and warmer weather. (Though I live in Scotland, where summer happens for 2 weeks at the most...so who am I trying to kid with 'warmer weather' >.<)

Lips

Back to my other Play101 pencils!

I picked shades 23 (dark red, Glossy) & 50 (Brown, Creamy) as I spied it on the Korean Etude house website as a complete lip look and fell in love with the combination.

I love ombre/gradient lips, and have done ever since I was a teenager in my Goth phase, so this was harking back to a more rockier style choice and I couldn't resist!

Now, I have to say, once again both of these pencils just GLIDE on! They apply so effortlessly, and make blending really easy. What I also love about these in regards to lips, is that they're pencils as opposed to big chunky lipsticks, so it's far easier to create a sharp, defined lip.

In regards to staying power, these do hold pretty well &, although I don't find the red at all kiss-proof - you will get some residue from it, though that doesn't affect the colour on your lips. This is due to it being a glossy texture I think, the brown was pretty kiss-proof and no residue came off on my drinking straws at all.
 It did come off a good bit whilst I was eating my dinner this evening, though this was after 8 hours of wear...and the fact that I was eating a massive hotdog, in a manner much akin to a starving Barbarian that hadn't seen food for days! 
Had I been more ladylike in my approach to eating, then it would have stayed a lot better...but how can you eat this in a ladylike manner? 

Haus Dog with gherkins, mustard and a big coating of Sauerkraut! Also some seriously amazing proper chips with cheese on top & a vanilla raspberry shake! Nomnomnom! Thank you Burger Edinburgh, my dinner was extremely delicious!  


So this concludes part 1 of my Etude House haul reviews, hopefully this was helpful to you all!

If you have any more questions, or have any feedback for me then please drop me a comment in the box provided below!

Love,

Kasumi x

Etude House - Korean Cosmetics Haul!

Hi Sweethearts,

Sorry for the delay in getting this blog post to you - I've been hard at work lately and feeling really tired so haven't been able to focus properly to sit and write, sorry! >.<

I got a wonderful parcel from my super lovely and pretty friend Sah, who had been back in Korea and picked me up a surprise mix of Korean Cosmetics from Etude House! 

Those that know me personally, know all too well that I wax lyrical about Etude House, and get ridiculously excited every time I get some new products from them.

The reason?

The products are FABULOUS! Seriously, the quality of their products is amazing, especially given the extremely budget friendly price tags - and the packaging is ADORABLE!
    Etude wants to give ladies the Princess experience, and make applying makeup fun again, and not so much like a daily chore, and they've definitely got that down to a tee!

( C'mon girly girls - all the packaging is pink, cute and super feminine...what's not to love?)


I've recorded an un-boxing video to complement this post, which will be going live on my YouTube Channel later on in the week, once I've finished editing/clipping & removing all the terrible bloopers!
This is more of a general, show&tell, haul post, but I'll be going into details about the products with example looks that I've created using them over the next few posts - so please stick around for that!

So, let's get to it! 

Here is the package that arrived for me (I tore out the addresses, so no dodgy mail sending opportunities folks!) and I was SO EXCITED when the Postman arrived with it - I ended up running to the door with a yoghurt in one hand and the spoon in my mouth frantically trying to sign the electronic pad.

 I received this on a Thursday, but didn't have any time to record a video until Sunday, so I faced the super hard challenge of not opening it for a few days...I'm not quite sure how I managed it! >.<'

Packaging:

This is where the magic starts to happen! Sah also included the Bag that Etude pack your items in when you buy in store - and it's so cute!!!! It's an Etude House, House Bag...and it's pink & white!

One day I'll definitely travel to go into a real, physical Etude Store as they look just like their packaging!  Have a look at some of their stores on their story page:

http://www.etudehouse.com/index.php/brand/etudestory.html

I mean, seriously? How can you not find this utterly irresistible? 

Inside the Box:

The first thing I saw inside the box, was a cute Blue Rose, that I ended up clipping onto my jumper (sadly I didn't take a photo, but you can see it in the video) - it now lives on my living room table ^_^


Next up are these awesome looking Pomegranate Face Masks!
I haven't gotten round to trying these yet, but I'm looking forward to trying them out when I get some "me" time. Pomegranate is really great for you, and these masks are the cotton sheet variety which means they won't be a nightmare to get off (unlike other masks I've tried) which is even better!

This is the 2nd type of Face Mask that I got - Dr. Ampoule Dual Mask Sheet.

This is a 2 part face mask, where you first apply a serum to your face before applying the mask.
There are a few variants of this, but this one is the "Lifting Care" mask which I am really interested in trying out. I'm in my mid 20's, so I should really be paying more attention to my skin and doing my best to prevent the age related sagging/wrinkles that are already making an appearance. Unfortunately I'm really lazy with keeping up a proper routine, so I'm hoping these new products will give me the motivation I need to keep myself in check!

The last Skincare product from the box is the Baking Powder BB Deep Cleansing Foam.
 This one was actually a free gift that came with everything, so plus points for a freebie!

I've been looking for a cleanser to try and deal with my skin and properly remove makeup, so this looks promising. It's meant to be designed to remove BB cream from what I know, which is pretty hard to remove at times, so hopefully this will take off my inch thick makeup and shrink my pores a little.

Onto the Makeup Section!

First up on the makeup front is this adorable Dear My Wish Liptalk lipstick in a Coral colour (See top of box - OR201) 

This looks super adorable in its' pink container with a little bow in the middle where it opens! This is totally princessy and right up my street. Before I discovered Etude House, I didn't think such cute makeup was available - I definitely fell in love at first sight!
 I have a look in mind that will fit perfectly with this, so please stay tuned for it.

Also from the "Dear My" range is the Crystal Gloss in shade CPK001 which is a lovely sparkly pink colour.

I'm a huge lipgloss fan, so this is a perfect addition to my collection. From previous experience, I've found Etude's glosses to be great quality and lovely coloured, so I believe this will be no exception.
 Layering lipsticks and glosses is something that I like doing quite a lot, so it will be interesting to try this out and see how it goes.

Following on from the Lip specific products, this is the Sweet Recipe All Over Colour Cupcake in OR202 - Peach Sugar Cake.

This is ridiculously cute! Packaged in a mini cake box, the all over colour is in a cupcake decorated tin that's easy enough to pop into your purse and take with you.

 I absolutely love multi-purpose products, and I've had my eye on this for a long time now. As it says on the packaging, it's an all-over colour - so you can use it as a blusher (which is mainly why I picked it) a lip balm, or eyeshadow. It's pretty much the whole package.
 I've given this a little try, and it's defintely fast becoming something I'm going to use most days. It's a light creamy product, much like a good lip balm, but blends really well and feels completely weightless. I had wondered if it would be sticky, but it's absolutely perfect and gives me a wonderfully natural glow.  

These are the Play 101 Pencils, which I first heard about from a friend in Korea last year.
Play 101 Pencils are much like the All-over colour Cupcake, in that these can be used across your entire face/makeup look.
They can be your eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, blusher, lipliner, lipstick, eyeshadow - the choice is yours!
I will go on about these in a specific post, because after trying these I am completely in love. Seriously, these things are absolutely AMAZING!
 With 50 different colours/textures to choose from, you'll never be bored or out of inspiration!
I got these 3 in the photo below, 2 of which I intend on fusing together on my lips, after seeing a look on the main Korean Etude site, and a black as I had ran out of my last black liner pencil
Some of these products, whilst versatile, are slightly more geared towards certain elements of your makeup look, but they can still be used anywhere.

Having sampled these briefly because I couldn't help myself, I can honestly say that I need to collect all 50!

Lastly, I got a couple of eyeshadows from the Look At My Eyes range.

On the left is the from the Jewel Range, in shade GR705 which is a cool, minty green pearly shade.
The right hand side is also from the Jewel range, the shadow sparkly and a deep purple - shade: PP505.
 What's really sweet about these single shadows, is that the pressed shadow itself has little heart details on it! I tested out the mint one, and wow it's sparkly! It does require you to prime your eyes with either a primer, concealer, white eyepencil etc to give it something to adhere too and allow the colour to really pop, but they're such pretty colours and only a couple of pounds each so it's well worth experimenting with different colours.(there are loads to choose from!)

Final Thoughts: 

Phew! -_-' That was quite a lot to go through, right?

I am actually so grateful to my lovely friend for bringing me these back - I'm so excited to take some time to pamper myself and try out some really sweet new looks with my goodies!

Please stay tuned & subscribe to my YouTube Channel for the Unboxing video of me going through this for the first time - expect squealing, bouncing around and general excitement. (I get a bit over excited and sound like a small child...I promise I can be mature sometimes >.<)

I hope this little haul run-down has been good reading for you all, and maybe you've seen something you'd like for yourself? Please also stick around for the looks I create with my new supplies, including more in depth details about the products!

What products do you like best? Have you tried Etude? Let me know in the comments!

Love,

           Kasumi x

Mini High-street clothing haul (including the Bank closing down sale)

Hey Sweethearts,

So this week, I'm going to chat about another little clothes haul, but this time from right here on the high street!

I met up with my Mum last week for coffee & a girls day out, and we went bargain hunting on the high street (Scotland, UK).

I'm a sucker for sales and love bargains, but who doesn't, right?

We walked through the main shopping area and I spied a sign saying that Bank fashion is closing down, so I popped in for a look.
 For those who can't get to a store, the website is http://www.bankfashion.co.uk though if you pass by a store, the items will vary depending on what they have left in stock.

I've always found bank a bit hit-or-miss for me when it comes to my personal tastes, and it's usually way out of my price range, but when I spotted a good sale I couldn't resist dragging my Mum in for a nosey.

I didn't actually think that I'd find anything that I liked enough to buy (I like a lot of different things, but realistically I'd buy them, wear once, then into the cupboards they go) so I was really pleased when I stumbled across some lovely, spring/autumn type jackets at the back of my local store.

This comes with it's own set of problems though....

I said above that I tend to wear things once, then put in cupboards, remember?

Well....I seem to have accumulated 35 jackets/coats over the years. Yup, 35...plus the 2 new ones makes 37 of them. I have a little bit of a problem (read: I have a massive jacket obsession) >.< I will be aiming to half my jacket collection in the near future, so that's my justification...and because they were super cute!

Here's what I ended up buying:
This Jacket is by the Pink Soda brand that I came across in Bank-fashion. It's a soft, dusky pink, faux leather jacket with wool on the inside. 
 I thought when I first saw it that the material would be pretty stiff and hard, but it's actually pretty soft - the wool on the inside makes it lovely and warm too! 

If I remember rightly (this one isn't available on the website any more) this jacket was £65 originally, or there abouts, but in the sale I paid £20! 

This 2nd jacket is also from the Pink Soda brand.
Again, this is a faux leather jacket in pastel pink. This one is a more biker styled, cropped jacket with plenty of attitude. I really love the black accents on the zips, and the overall shape - it really caught my attention.
I've been looking for some fresher styled jackets that fit in with my style a lot more, I'm not the girl that can wear black constantly any more so a lot of my black jackets will be going to new homes soon.
This one is still available online, and is reduced from rrp: £50 to £25 http://www.bankfashion.co.uk/products/pink-soda-pastel-biker-jacket/152534

          

This trip also re-enforced why I'm not that bothered about dress sizes in clothing. The first jacket is a UK8, and the 2nd is a UK10 - both from the same brand, but there was no way I'd get into the 2nd one if it were a size 8! It all very much depends on the cut of the clothing, I've seen myself wearing a size 16 lingerie waistbelt before from h&m that fit me perfectly!

Speaking of H&M, after my massive £75 saving in Bank, I headed on over to h&m to see if I could find myself a cute jumper or some new jeans.

Unfortunately the jeans didn't happen, but I did pick up this super cute jumper!

I absolutely fell in love with this jumper when I spotted it! It's (again - I think we're starting to see a colour pattern here) pale pink, with "Amour" spelt on it - so cute!
It retails at £12.99, and I chose to get it in the biggest size they had in stock, which was Large. I really wanted this to be quite casual and baggy, as I'm really loving oversized jumpers at the minute. They really feel quite Spring-y to me.

Of course, I had up pick up some cute Hello Kitty socks too! They were £7.99 for a pack of 3 in assorted designs - they're really thick too, so perfect for wearing with boots or around the house to keep your tootsies warm! ^_^

What do you think? Are you feeling the oversized cute jumpers? What is in your Spring wardrobe?
Love,
          Kasumi x

My first order from CutesyKink - Japanese Fashion Store

Hey Sweethearts!

You all good?

I'm a massive fan of Japanese Fashion (as if you couldn't already tell! >.<)  and have been looking at buying pieces from UK based stores for a while now, though for some reason I've never actually gotten round to purchasing anything.
 (I suppose I'm pretty wary when I order things online from somewhere for the first time.)
This week I really want to share my recent purchases & experience shopping with www.cutesykink.co.uk 

I've always loved the range of clothing from CutesyKink (their website is also really cute!), and finally got round to placing an order.
 It took me a good few hours to pick out an outfit that I wanted the most, though- they have so many things to choose from, I was like a crazy kid in a candy store!
"OMG I want this and this and this and...uwaaaaaaaaaa that's adorable! I have to have that too!"    However, I think had I given in and bought everything that I wanted, my bank card would have been left whimpering in the corner!

Ordering:

Ordering from the CutesyKink website was really easy as everything was well laid out, and I could pay via Paypal - that's a massive decision-maker for me when I purchase online, I find Paypal the easiest option, and it's also secure. I tend not to buy from places if I can't use Paypal.

Shipping:
 I ordered pretty late at night, but my items were shipped the next day. Usually I expect a couple of days before items are shipped out as I run my own online store, I understand that order volumes can mean that it's not always possible to send out items the next day, so I was really pleased!  Shipping was done via Hermes, and my order had a handy tracking code from them so I could see where my item was at all times.
 The email from Hermes said to allow for 2-3 working days for my items to reach me, and my items arrived on the 3rd working day - delivered to me in the morning by a really nice delivery man that chuckled at my dishevelled yet totally excited face!

Shipping cost just over £4, which I think is reasonable given the great service and 24h tracking abilities.

Unwrapping:

This is what my parcel looked like on arrival - all pretty in pink with the CutesyKink label! 

Once I opened the package, neatly packed inside were my new clothes! It came with a kawaii business card, and a little gift of cute nail art slices with it! 

Clothes:

I got this sweet floral print top from the "Cute Girl" section, and it was labelled as Vintage Gyaru style.

I love how girly and romantic it is with the off the shoulder fit and ruffles, but at the same time it's made from a fleece-type material so it's pretty warm too! I really expected this kind of item to be a lot thinner material-wise, so I was really pleased that it's actually quite thick! This means that I don't need to wait until summer to wear it around.
The bow on the top is held onto the top by broochpins instead of being sewn on, so this means I can adjust it a little and there are no stitches that could come loose in the wash.

Size-wise, it was marked as Freesize, which is quite common in Asian clothing, as opposed to here in the UK. I'm a UK8 on top, and tend to wear heavily padded bras so I wondered how well it would fit on the bust(I won't lie, I wasn't blessed with breasts, so I cheat!) but it fit me really well. It's quite a loose style, so it covers my wobbly tummy bits, but it's also really quite stretchy with elastic at the top, bottom and wrists which make for a super sweet shape. I reckon this could stretch to a UK10.

             Price: £8 (on sale)

To complement the top, I picked a pair of cute shorts! These are a lovely beige colour, and again are made from stretchy yet pretty thick material, with a lovely shimmer & lace leg detail - and also a cute belt!

I was really hesitant about buying these if I'm really honest. I loved the way they looked online, but as a pear shaped girl with a pretty large bum & thighs, I wondered if it would actually fit due to the differences in Asian sizing and body type.
 I picked a size M going by the measurements/waistsize given, but I know that my bum can pose a problem despite that! (I usually have to try on jeans/shorts/trousers before I buy them, I can fit anywhere between a uk8-12 depending on brand/cut/fit - big butts are a nightmare....'and I cannot lie' :P) 
I tried them off with an air of panic, but breathed a sigh of relief as they actually fit over my keester, and didn't dig into my thighs at all!

They are short-shorts though *who wears short shorts?I wear short shorts!*  so I couldn't wear these without tights, as I don't have the legs for it. They'd definitely look cute without tights as well, for ladies with more body confidence than me!  

Price: £8 (on sale)

Here are some photos of the outfit when worn! Photography by Louise Cantwell Photography, something a little fun before I morphed into an ethereal being later in the day.

Wig: Ebay (I really wish my hair were naturally like this though! I'm growing it in hopes that one day it'll be long and kawaii XD)

Verdict: 

Overall, I'm super happy with my order from CutesyKink (as you can see from my silly faces)! Everything arrived great and super quickly, so I'd most definitely order again...once I can make a definite decision on what I want to buy next XD

Check them out: cutesykink.co.uk

Love,

          Kasumi x