Winners of My 1 Year Anniversary Giveaway

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who entered!
I was really moved and became emotional at one point reading your New Year's Resolutions and comments. Some people really got personal and honest and I was so humbled by that. Thank you!

I wish I could give something to everyone who entered as it always makes me sad that I can't. T.T
But please don't feel discouraged if you didn't win. More opportunities will come in the future and believe me, the more giveaways you enter (not just mine), you will have a chance at winning something. :)

Here is the video announcing the winners. I would appreciate if you watch it since I also share my New Year's Resolution as well.


Now on to the winners.... drum roll please...
I wish I can do a drum roll on this blog post. lol
Btw, it took me a longg time compiling all the entries. I wanted this to be as fair as possible so that's what delayed me.

Blog/Twitter Winner:
Ahleessa

Facebook Winner:
kimcho5

YouTube (E.L.F. Prize Pack) Winners:
melodylinody
amoresarah

2nd Prize Winner:
ssusho

1st Prize Winner:
joanlovesjake

**Winners must send me a YouTube message or email me at iAMminky3 @ gmail . com with their name, shipping address, and (if you are under age of 18) if you received your parent's permission.**

Thank you again for entering and stay tuned for more!! <3

My Casual Birthday OOTD

Hello loves!

Thank you to those of you who wished me a happy birthday! I had a wonderful birthday and it was filled with laughter and joy. :)
I filmed an OOTD for my casual birthday outfit. I didn't dress up too extravagantly or anything because it was just a nice and relaxing dinner with my friends.

Plaid top/dress from A'gaci

Black leggings from Target

Booties from H&M (I realized that I couldn't get a good snapshot of the wedges. T.T)

My purse:

I love green. :)

Balenciaga Velo

I love Japanese food and we went to one of my favorite Japanese restaurants for my birthday.
I'm not much of a drinker, but my friends insisted that I exercise my right to order an alcoholic drink (since I turned 21 today) and so here was my drink.

and my entree for the dinner:

Salmon terriyaki with salad. The picture does not do it's justice! It was sooo tasty!

What a fantastic day! :)
Thank you for reading and watching!

Birthday Makeup Tutorial

Hello lovelies! :)

I finally filmed a video and a makeup tutorial today. I forgot how fun it is to film and make tutorials because it's been such a long time since I last made one.

Today's tutorial is a birthday makeup tutorial since tomorrow is my birthday (January 23)! ^o^

I thought it would be fun to try out a look (kind of like a practice) for my birthday tomorrow. I don't really have any extravagant plans but I am planning on going out to dinner with my friends tomorrow and possibly buying a drink (since I turn 21 tomorrow - legal drinking age in America. LOL).

The look I came up with is a smokey gold/bronze look that is slightly dramatic. I think it could be toned down or go heavier depending on personal preference. I love gold eyeshadows because they are somewhat neutral but flashy at the same time.

Here are some pictures I took:

Products used or mentioned in video:

Revlon PhotoReady Foundation in 003 Shell

MUFE Duo Mat Powder Foundation #201

N.Y.C. Kohl Brow/Eyeliner Pencil - Sable

Urban Decay Primer Potion

Urban Decay Naked Palette - Half Baked, Dark Horse, Creep, and Sin

MAC Eye Shadows - Blanc Type and Wood-Winked

MUFE Aqua Eyes 0L Black Liner

MAC Blacktrack Fluidline

Clinique High Impact Mascara

Ardell Duralash Flare Short Black Individual Lashes

Ardell Lash-Tite Adhesive

Sephora Sculpting Disk

EOS Lip Blam

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick - #070 Airy Fairy

Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System Experiment and Amazing Amazon.com Deal Alert!

Second blog post of the night. >.<
LOL. I just wanted to quickly share this before I wrap up the day.

I am a huge fan and a friend of fuzkittie, a YouTube guru who has amazing tutorials, reviews, hauls, etc.
I enjoy watching her haul videos because it just makes me so happy to see her talk about new products. Recently, she posted a night skincare routine video featuring her new Clarisonic Mia. It looked amazing and so easy to use, but the price is... $149. The price made me gasp when I first saw it. I've heard a lot about the Clarisonic Mia and never really cared much for it until recently. So then, I googled "Clarisonic Mia dupes" and came across a similar drugstore version, the Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System, which ranges from $27.99-$30. This is definitely a price that I appreciate.

Being the curious girl I am, I'm going to be giving it a try.

It doesn't seem to have all the features of the Clarisonic Mia, but I don't mind. The reviews are relatively high for this product and some Clarison Mia owners have said that the Olay one works just as well.

I'm pretty excited! :)

The best price I found was from amazon.com for $27.99 and it would be free 2-day shipping if you're an Amazon Prime Member.

Click Here is a link to the product!

What's exciting is that my friend shared this awesome deal that's going on at LivingSocial (similar to Groupon) and there's a deal where you just pay $10 for a $20 Amazon.com giftcard!

Pretty awesome, yeah?

My $20 amazon.com giftcard code will be coming in tomorrow and I will be purchasing the Olay ProX Advanced Cleansing System.

This means, I will be paying about $17.99 for the system instead of $27.99!!

If you guys want the link to the awesome 50% off deal for the Amazon.com giftcard, I will share it:

HERE

The site is fairly simple to use!

I think there is about 8 hours left for the deal to expire! Hope you all get a chance to take advantage of this deal!

Hope I didn't bore you! I will review the Olay ProX Cleansing System once I've tested it out. :)

Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer Review

Hello lovelies!

Hope everyone has been well since my last post!
I just wanted to post about my experience with the Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer that I had blogged about a couple weeks ago.

For a while now, I've been on the search for a perfect face primer. For me, the "perfect face primer" would be one that doesn't break me out (this is a must!), evens out my skin, makes my skin smooth for foundation application, decreases the appearance of large pores, and controls oil. Most of the primers that I've tried have failed in the "doesn't break me out" category as most primers have silicone or dimethicone crosspolymer, which my skin seems to have a bad reaction to. It's too bad since silicone is what helps with the pores and makes the skin feel really soft.
I really liked the MAC Prep & Prime face primer (w/out SPF) since it made my skin really soft. However, I ended up getting some bad cystic acne on my forehead. I tend to break out mainly on my forehead and occasionally around my nose. Never really on my cheeks.

I went into Sephora determined to purchase another face primer (after trying several and failing) and this time I was set on getting one without silicone. I read all the ingredients carefully for each primer and most of them had the word "silica" which made me cringe and put it down. One of the Sephora sales associates picked out the Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer as she said that it contained no silicone. Low and behold, she was right and I felt ecstatic. I thought to myself that "this may be the end of my search for a HG primer!"

The Tarte Clean Slate is made of all natural ingredients and contains these benefits:

It all seemed too good to be true and I tried some on the back of my hand and loved the consistency of this primer. It came out in a clear gel consistency:

After rubbing it on the back of my hand, I loved the finish as it felt smooth and matte. Perfect for foundation application.

I was so excited to share this purchase on my blog and posted the picture of the ingredients to share that there was no silicone in this primer.

However, after posting, one of my lovely blog readers informed me that this primer does contain silicone as it contains DIMETHICONE CROSSPOLYMER, which is basically a fancy way of saying silicone. When I discovered this, my heart dropped. My high hopes for this primer went down low for me.

Prior to using and purchasing this primer, I've been dealing with some strange cystic acne that I've never really had before. Mainly all over my forehead and for the first time ever, I got acne on my cheeks. If you're a twitter friend, you may have read a few tweets about my skin. The cause of the acne was unknown for me since I didn't really change any skincare routine minus one moisturizer. However, I was using brand new makeup products and it hit me that these makeup products may contain "dimethicone crosspolymer" that may be triggering my strange acne.

The first thing I went for was my HG face powder, MAC Blot Powder in Medium, which I blogged about earlier. I was nervous to look at the ingredients but I bit my lip and checked to see that it contained dimethicone and silica. A double slap in the face for me. >.<

After this discovery, I stopped using MAC Blot Powder altogether, but I still wanted to give the Tarte Clean Slate primer a shot since it was $30 and I had promised to review it.

So the outcome?

The Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer broke me out. Or to be more specific, my acne didn't get any better. Actually, they ended up looking more red and puffy than usual (ewww).

It's such a pity since the primer itself is great! I think this primer won't disappoint those who don't have over-sensitive skin or to those who don't mind using silicone on their face.

For people like me.... you should stay away from this primer!

It's interesting since after I stopped using MAC Blot Powder and Tarte Clean Slate Primer, my skin drastically improved within 2 days. I've also changed my skincare routine (which I will be sharing later in a video and blog post) and my acne has gone down and almost disappeared. It's pretty crazy actually by how fast my skin recovered.

Since I can't use my MAC Blot Powder in Medium any longer, I am planning on selling it on a blog sale or to anyone who's interested. I still have sooo much of it leftover and it's too much of a waste to just not use it or throw it out. The Blot Powder is really a great powder since it even was at one point, my HG powder. If you want to learn more about this powder, check out my blog post about it HERE.

Let me know if you're interested in purchasing it from me. :)

Hope this post was helpful.

Make sure to read those ingredients lists carefully. Don't be fooled like me! LOL

-minky

Quick Post: Pick Up Your Free Bare Escentuals Sample Kit from Sephora

Hello loves!
This is a quickie post, but I got an exciting email from Sephora today saying that they were giving free Bare Escentuals Sample Kit to all Beauty Insider members. All you have to do is print out the email that they sent you and bring it to your local Sephora store and they will give you one kit that matches you.

I picked one up today because... when it comes to free things... I need to go get it!

It's small, but I didn't expect too much since it's free.

It comes with a very-mini kabuki brush, a small tube of BareMinerals Prime Time, and bareMinerals foundation. They gave it to me in the shade Fairly Light.

Also, you can choose if you would like the Original SPF 15 or Matte SPF 15 foundation.

I chose the Matte SPF 15 foundation since it is good for controlling oil on the face (or that's what it claims to do!) I've never tried Bare Escentuals makeup before so I'm curious as to how this will work for me.

Hurry! Make sure to grab one of these if you can because I think they're going to run out fast!

New HG Face Primer? Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer

As many of my older blog readers and friends may know, I've been on the longest search of a face primer that will NOT break me out. I've tried several from MAC to other brands (high and low end) and most of them break me out. The only one that seemed to not irritate my sensitive skin was my Laneige Sebum Control Primer.
I've come to the conclusion that my skin is sensitive to silicone, which was in basically 98% of the primers I tried.
A few days ago, I stopped by Sephora and checked all the ingredients of the other primers I never tried. I was interested in the Laura Mercier Oil-free primer, but of course, silica was an ingredient in it.
The sales assistant suggested that I try the Hourglass Cosmetics Oil-free and all natural primer, but I honestly wasn't going to spend $52 on just a primer.

Many people find no use for a primer and I definitely have been one of those people before. However, recently with my breakout attacks on my face, I've decided to change up my face routine and include a primer that will mattify, control the oil on my face, and make my complexion look better.

Today, I went to Sephora again and purchased the Tarte Clean Slate Face Primer, which the sales assistant said that it is great for sensitive skin, has no silicone, and is made with all natural ingredients. I decided to make a small plunge and purchased it and I have high hopes for this primer.

Initially, I decided to just test it out on my hand and take pictures.  I will have a much more in-depth review once I've tested it out for at least a week.

The packaging looks nice and sleek.

I applied some moisturizer on half of my hand to pretend like it was my "oily" face. LOL. Hope that makes sense? xD

Ewww my hand looks dry. Sorry! >.<

I blended the primer all over my hand. It's nice and easy to blend.

Has no strange residue and feels matte.

There's no scent as well.

Could be a win!

I will keep you all updated in a more in-depth review. Hopefully, it's worth the money.