ULTA Super Shiny Lip Butter "LA"

Ulta was having a deal for the week where all Ulta brand lip and eye cosmetics are marked down to $4 each. That's pretty cheap, in my opinion, and I love buying from Ulta because all my purchases get me points. I looked at what products they had online first and I found out about their Ulta Lip Butters. I had been wanting to try lip butters for a while because of positive reviews I've heard from other lip butters such as the Revlon Color Burst Lip Butter. I wanted something light and pink for the summer so I decided to go with the color "LA".

Here is the description provided by the Ulta website:

This luxuriously smooth and buttery lip color delivers the shine of a gloss while providing the much desired benefits of your favorite sheer lipstick. The perfect match for on-the-go color and shine and superb staying power. Leave lips looking supple and sweet with one swipe of this buttery sensation! 

Formulated with Vitamin E and a blend of natural waxes to provide a creamy application that glides on effortlessly without any dragging or pulling on the lips. 

Does not contain: Talc, Parabens, Gluten, GMO, Phthalate, Formaldehyde

Online, the color looked very vibrant. Reviews online had also been very positive as a whole. Most people described the product as very moisturizing with an intense color. The negative comments about the product were that it did not last long and they had to constantly reapply to keep the color intense. Still, reviews were positive so I decided to go for it. After all, a decrease in price from the original $8 to $4 is quite significant.

My first impression on this product is that it is very soft, pretty much like softened butter. It feels really delicate and fragile. I didn't want to push the lip butter up too high because I feel like it would easily break. I mean this mixture is super soft. The good thing about it is that it glides very easily over your lips. Since it doesn't have that pointed shape like other lipsticks have, most likely unable to due to the fragility, it made it hard to apply on the outer areas of the lip without, kind of, coloring outside the lines. Although, because it is summer, I could see this easily melting from the summer heat and that would just be a huge pink mess.

However, they were not kidding about the color. This pink is definitely vibrant and intense. The picture above shows the color swatched on to my arm. Unfortunately, reviews were correct in that it did not last long. Above is me patting my lips with a tissue (and I emphasize patting, not wiping) and pretty much most of it came off. What was left on my lips was a dull pink with only a bit of the color remaining. So I'd say this product would pretty much come off with about anything you do with your lips. I do find it more moisturizing than lipsticks, but I would not say it is as moisturizing as my Vaseline Lip Balm or my Burt's Bees Lip Balm.

Well, this purchase was part of my Ulta pink purchase, as I would like to call it. I bought quite a few things in pink, which I will be reviewing. This has been part 1 of a 4 part series. Other items from the purchase include  the Ulta Lip Crayon "Sweet Dreams", Ulta Contour Lip Liner "Rose", and Ulta Salon Formula Nail Lacquer "Baby Doll".

Side note: Today I leave for the Philippines and won't be back until August 16

Super Blender Sponge

This Super Blender Sponge is a knock off of the more well known Glamour Sponge by Makeup Mae, which normally retails for $12.95 on their website. However, that it still a little expensive for my taste. This product from ULTA, which is also available online, is only $4.99. As usual, I always go for the much cheaper alternative.

I don't even know how to describe this shape. It's an odd shape. The reason I bought it was because the beauty sponge I bought from Walmart did not have a wide and relatively rounded bottom that would be good for applying foundation or BB cream. Although this does not have a completely rounded bottom like the beauty blender or glamour sponge, it's the closest I've seen so far. It's most likely due to legal and copyright issues of the shape of the beauty blender and glamour sponge.

Unlike the beauty sponge, at least this came with a bit of instructions. The other one, I was just hopelessly lost in the beginning of how to use it. But yes, the pointed top part is great for those areas around the nose and eyes. However, I believe the Soho Beauty sponge is better for that just because its ends are more pointed. However the rounded bottom is great for foundation and other full face products that need to cover a large area.

I really like this. It's really good with putting on my BB cream evenly on my face. Recommend it for someone else to buy? Most definitely! Check it out at your local ULTA store!

NOTD: Summer White & Gold

I'm really quite proud of the nails I just did. I don't get to wear nail polish or have my nails long often because of school so having them long and painted is such a treat for me. I feel like it elongates my fingers whereas short nails make my fingers look stubby. I really don't like seeing my long nails bare so I always paint them. Usually I get them done at a salon but I haven't had time for that yet this summer so I decided to do something nice on my own.

How to:

1. Two coats of China Glaze "White on White" on all the nails.

2. One coat of China Glaze "Midnight Kiss" on the ring finger.

3. One thick coat of Sephora by OPI "Only Gold for Me" top coat on all other fingers.

4. One coat of NYC "Matte Me Crazy" Mattifying Top Coat on all fingers.

Pretty simple but it looks great, in my opinion. Although, I'm no expert with nails or nail art. I do love wearing gold for the summer. I think it suits the season so well. Still, can't wait to get my nails done at a salon. I need their expertise to shape my nails properly :)

Bath & Body Works Wallflowers

Like pretty much everyone else, I like to have a good smelling room. My current obsession are those cute wallflowers from Bath & Body Works. They have a variety of scents as well as a variety of wall plug-ins to choose from. Sometimes they have the plug-ins in a holiday theme. I don't really get the holiday themed ones. I like the generic ones that I can use all year round. I have this silly goal that I want to try out all the scents. Good thing for their "6 for $24" deal, I can get these items in bulk!

I didn't like "Frosted Cupcake" as much as I thought I would. It sounded good but it smelled weird. "Lavender and Vanilla" smelled great but I have to say that "Fresh Cotton" is my favorite.

The blue wallflower is so beautiful. It's a very pretty bright turquoise. They have a great selection of designs this spring.

I have only ever had one break on me and that was because I kept it plugged in for a long time without changing the empty scent bottle so that's my fault. I haven't had any break since. The scents lasts for quite a long time, in my opinion. It took me a long time to go through my first bulk of scents before having to buy more. They both look aesthetically pleasing and smell great. I'll definitely continue buying these for my room and bathroom.

June: The Food Month

This month in particular, I went out a lot to eat. Like the typical instagrammer, I always took pictures of my food because they just looked so darn delicious. And yes, I am one of those who just must tell the world what I am eating at that moment. I'm a food lover, I can't help it!

Olive Garden
This restaurant is my roomie's favorite so I end up going here a lot when I let her choose where to eat. I always get their raspberry lemonade, especially since it comes with free refills! A lot of places I've been to don't offer that with their flavored lemonades and iced teas. I got the braised beef and tortelloni. Our appetizer were these yummy cheese balls, umm I don't remember what they are called. Then my roomie always gets the chicken alfredo. Not to mention, free unlimited breadsticks and salad!

Sweet Frog
I'm surprised how much this company has expanded in the last few years. Of all the froyo places I have tried (and I've tried a lot), Sweet Frog offers the most choices at the best price. Marvel at my $8 creation, filled with cake batter and vanilla froyo, topped with strawberries, strawberry poppers, mango poppers, and peanuts then white chocolate sauce and hot fudge. Told you they had a lot of choices.

Bobalicious
It's so hard to get good boba these days. This place is ok but my choices are limited. My favorite type of boba is Taro and my favorite place to get it is in the Philippines. It just seems sweeter over there.

Chili's
I was craving burgers that day. I got the Southern Smokehouse burger and added avocados. My friend got the Parmesan Crusted Steak. Dessert was a Molten Chocolate Lava Cake. We were so full from all this food.

Carabba's
Went to this restaurant for an aunt's birthday. For an appetizer, we got calamari and mussels to share. Then I ordered their Sirloin and Steak, which came with a ceasar salad. I went all out with the seafood that day. After all, who doesn't love seafood?

Ford's Fish Shack
We had been trying to get into this restaurant for a while. We decided to go on a weekday where it was less crowded. Apparently this restaurant has really great reviews and I can see why. I tried their Maine Blueberry Soda and Maine Rootbeer, but I liked the soda better. For my entree, I got a pecan crusted trout with a side of chorizo mac n cheese. It was so delicious!

Azur
This is a restaurant in D.C. that is apparently very well known but the only thing I can say for sure is that this place is expensive. The place has a bar in the first floor then the next three floors are for eating. The food is good and their alcoholic drinks are pretty cool looking. I got their Steak Frites and it was so good. The food took a while to get to the table though. They didn't have much of a dessert menu so we ate dessert elsewhere.

Serendipity
Now this place is very well known. The other Serendipity I know of is in New York. If you have never gone, you definitely should go. Their normal food for breakfast and lunch are good, but not the greatest ever. What really makes them special is their dessert. They are best known for their frozen hot chocolate. I usually get the white chocolate frozen hot chocolate but decided to get something different. I got their Cookie Dough Sundae. The rest of my company got a Frozen Hot Chocolate in regular and Mochaccino and also a huge slice of Carrot Cake.

Yen's Cafe
My mom was having a craving for their pan fried noodles. We also got their sesame chicken. I had never tried pan fried noodles before but man, they are really good. My parents got two containers of those pan fried noodles and we did manage to finish most of it for dinner.

Cheesecake Factory
Everyone knows about the Cheesecake Factory. They have a restaurant everywhere, it seems. Ate dinner with two friends from high school. For dessert, we shared an Oreo Cheesecake and a Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake. We decided to get one that is chocolatey then the other fruity. They were a great combination! We would mix the two and it just tasted so delicious.

Other
Just various other things. Some pineapple tarts made by my mom's friend who is thinking of going into the bakery business. Magnum ice cream in regular and double caramel. I prefer the double caramel. A very berry sundae and tres leches cake from Costco. The cake is so sweet. One small slice is enough to satisfy your craving. That's for this month. Oh I hope next month has delicious food to come as well!

Essence Nude Glam

I was looking around ULTA one day, just through their sale rack, where I found this cute little bottle of nail polish. I had been looking for a nice nude colored nail polish, which seems perfect that these were on sale at the time. And they were only 99 cents! I can't pass up such a cheap find. I don't recognize the Essence brand but I'm not very familiar with most nail polish brands in general.

What I do love is that the color definitely is exactly the same as the bottle. Sometimes the two don't match. However, the color is so very sheer. I needed to put on three thick coats to be able to get an opaqueness that satisfied me. I like opaque colors so that was a con for me.  The brush, though, is really wide. I mean really wide, wider than most brushes I've seen. It has the brushes that top coats usually have, so that was weird. Still, for the price, it's pretty good. I don't actually know what color this is, it just says 84 on the bottom of the bottle.  Oh well.

Barbie Diamond 3 tone Grey

I got these lenses because Uniqso was having a deal where per piece was only $4.90, making a pair only $9.80! That was too good of a deal to pass up. I just had to buy these. Plus, I had a pretty good experience with the Barbie brand before so I didn't really have any hesitations in getting these lenses.

The normal price per piece is $7.90, making a pair cost $15.80, which still isn't bad. That's a lot less expensive than most other lenses. The brand Barbie is part of the better known brand Dueba, which sells a lot of other lenses.

Design & Color
The design is very cool and eye catching. It definitely makes your eyes sparkle. There are hints of red and black but I don't really see much of the gray. This is not a lens that is made to look natural. It is very unnatural in terms of the design and the red accents. It is something people will definitely notice.

Enlargement
They seem larger than the barbie puffy 3 tone series I have tried mostly because the lenses are darker, making them look more enlarging. These lenses boast a 16.5mm diameter with a 17.5mm effect. However, I wouldn't at all believe that they are that large. I would say they are about as enlarging as some 14.8mm and 15mm lenses that I have tried before. In dark environments, it looks like the lenses are black and therefore gives you an eerie dolly eyed look.

Comfort
Like all the other Barbie brands I have tried, these lenses are super comfortable. I can wear them all day long and I don't even notice them in. Honestly, I think that if that isn't how your lens feel to you, then they might have something wrong with them. But yes, barely noticeable. It doesn't move or shift around to block my vision or anything.

A similar lens that I wouldn't mind trying is the Dolly Eye (EOS) Ariale Grey. Another lens that is quite similar to these in design also is the GEO Xtra WTB35 Grey or Diamond Grey. I took a chance on these lenses because they were on sale and although they are really nice, I prefer more natural looking designs. These lenses are great but I wouldn't buy them again.