Lust Have It! - February 2013

So I received my first ever LustHaveIt! box today.  Normally I'm super excited to receive my beauty boxes (or any mail for that matter~ :P) but I have to say that for a first impression, the February LHI! box was incredibly underwhelming.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I've been subscribed to bellabox for a couple of months (February post coming soon~!! ^^) and even though I wasn't quite as psyched about the second box I received from them, I was still quite happy to give the new products a try.  This first box from LHI! however... I'm pretty sure I'm not going to use at least half of the products.  I was also disappointed that it didn't come in a super pretty box this month, but having received emails from LHI! to that effect last week before the boxes were shipped, it's all good and I look forward to getting it in March :)

Anyhoo, on to the actual products~~

My February LustHaveIt! box

So from left to right, we have:

• Summer Tan by Mancine: Self Action Tan (Dark) -- while I can appreciate the sentiment of trying to maintain a summer glow throughout autumn, I have never used fake tan/ spray tan/ tanning moisturiser or any other kind of tanning product before in my life =/ And given that my skin (unfortunately T^T) tans really easily on it's own, I don't really have any need for it.  Maybe I'll give it to a friend or something~ ^^ I'm also a bit of a klutz so I have a feeling that if I tried to use it it'd end up looking really patchy~ XP

• Lon Vitalite: C9 Crystal Moisturising Hand Mask -- I don't really have all that much to say about this product other than it's not something that I would normally consider using but since I have it, I might as well give it a go~ :) that's the whole point of the beauty boxes, right? ^^  Who knows, if they work well, I may be well on my way to having super smooth baby bum hands~ :P (not creepy AT ALL... >.>)

Timeless Lipstick (Eternity) and Camouflage Colour Nail Lacquer (Brown Plum)

• Styli-Style: L3 Timeless Lipstick (Eternity) -- I am really more of a lipgloss person as I often find that lipstick makes my lips stand out a bit too much, but I was actually really looking forward to trying the lipstick in this month's LHI! as I saw from some other posts (on blogs and the LHI! Facebook page) that they had some really lovely shades.  Unfortunately I got the shimmery nude colour which I have a feeling will make my lips look unnaturally pale =/ Still, no harm in trying it out~ ^^;

• The Natural Source: Camouflage Colour Nail Lacquer (Brown Plum) -- The final item in my box was once again in a disappointing shade of what a fellow LH-ite (?) called the "same colour as poo"... and bad mental images aside, I don't disagree with her in the least :P  I noted that other bloggers got really lovely reds and blues but unfortunately I ended up with a rather muddy brown.  The only plus side is that it matches the nude lipstick (I wonder if that was intentional) :P I think I'll try adding some glitter on top or mixing it with some other colours, but as someone said on Facebook, if all else fails, it could be used for reindeer nails come Christmas~ :P

Overall, not a great month for LHI! in my opinion, especially given the amazing box that they sent out in January.  Unfortunately i missed out on that one (nooooooooooo~ THE BB CREAM~!!! T^T) but it did convince me to subscribe to LHI! I really hope that next month will be better~ :)

What did you get in your box this month?

Valentine's Day 2013, Blogging at Work... plus Bellabox January 2013~

So it's been about two weeks since I last posted an update.  I had been hoping to post about my February Bellabox which should have arrived on Thursday (Valentine's Day!) but unfortunately it appears that there has been a delay with Australia Post and I will be (hopefully) getting it next week *fingers crossed* >.<

In the meantime, I thought I would spend this lovely Saturday afternoon at work (test week~ huzzah~!!) finally getting around to writing that looooooooooooong overdue post about my January Bellabox :P

So the January Bellabox was my first ever Bellabox............. and I must say, I was absolutely not disappointed~ ^^  Of the 5 items that I got, I've tried every single one and bought one of them for a friend~ ^^  This is a pic of my box~ :3

My January Bellabox with lots of awesome goodies~ :D

So from left to right, we have:

• You, Me & Everybody Cool It Aloe Vera Gel --  This was without a doubt my favourite product in the January box.  Aloe vera is so good for your skin and the cooling effect of the gel makes it perfect for summer~ ^^ I happen to have incredibly sensitive skin which can be prone to heat rash a lot so this product is great for me~ at the first sign of itchiness, I just put it on and my skin is fine within a few minutes~ :D  I loved this product so much that I bought a tube for my friend~ ^^ Definitely recommend this product~ ^^

• Natio Pure Mineral Skin Perfecting BB Cream -- So as I mentioned in an earlier post, I absolutely adore BB creams............ but I absolutely hate sachets~ >.< I trick that I learned from another blogger is to empty out the sachet into one of those cute little travel makeup jars so that u can get more than one or two uses out of them~ ^^  Anyway, this BB cream by Natio is quite nice in that it's quite light and doesn't make my face feel all mudgy (yes, mudgy) after application.  Decent coverage but I try not to use too much anyway, once again because of sensitive skin =.=

I'm not 100% about the smell of this cream though.  That's not to say that it smells bad in any way... the smell just doesn't particularly appeal to me =/  After much consideration, I think I prefer Garnier's BB Cream better but this is a good back up~ ^^

• Jurlique Replenishing Cleansing Lotion -- This was a really decent sized sample of a really great product that has definitely made it onto my 'to buy' list~ :D The cleansing lotion is gentle and non-abrasive to the skin and leaves it feeling instantly clean, smooth and springy~ ^^ It also smells absolutely fantastic with its combination of rose and lavender essential oils.  With approximately a $45 price tag for the full size product, it is a little on the pricey side but it's SO worth it~ ^^ Hopefully I'lkl be getting paid soon so I can go and splurge on this~ hehehe~ X3

• Jurlique Purely Age-Defying Ultra Firm and Lift Cream -- I wasn't really sure exactly what this product was supposed to do or why I got it since I'm only 23... >.> (I'M NOT OLD~!!!!!!!! ;A;) But I tried it anyway jsut for funsies~ ^^ I put a bit under my eyes and pretty much instantly felt my skin tighten.  I gather that it would be pretty good for eye bags and panda eyes but since I don't really get either and I wear glasses anyway, I might just give this to my mum or my brother~ :P

And last but not least...

• Face of Australia Mineral Therapy Lip Shine Lip Gloss -- First of all........ IT TASTES LIKE CHERRIES~!!!!!! XD Plus, it smells great~ ^^ It is a little bit sticky when you put it on but it does leave ur lips feeling incredibly moisturised.  I highly recommend this for anyone who suffers from chronic chapped lips or anyone who just wants their lips to taste super kissable~ ;) hehe~ ♪

Anyhoo, that's it for the January Bellabox~ ^^ I can't wait for my February box to arrive~ I also subscribed to Lust Have It! this month so I'm super excited about comparing the two boxes~ ^^

In other news, Valentine's Day was last Thursday~ ^^ I had to work for some of the day -- marking tests and such -- but I ended up going to the movies with Spiffy and Derick~ :D We watched Flight, a movie that came out at the end of January in Australia starring Denzel Washington~ ^^

I actually wanted to watch Anna Karenina which came out that day but I was totally outvoted... those bullies! XP But I suppose that's what you get for going to the movies with guys~ =.=;

Hehe~ in all honesty it was actually quite a good movie~ ^^ I think it was a bit cliche in some places but not so much so that it made you face palm~ :P The cast was pretty great too, no weak links there, and there was a great moment of suspense towards the end with a bottle of alcohol~ but I won't give anything away~ :P  Definitely worth watching~ ^^

Dinner was once again a guy-dominated affair... I guess I can now say that I've had chicken at Nando's now :P  Anyway, overall it was a pretty fun day~ ^^ Oh! And I had a raw tuna salad at Gaijin before the movie~ ^^  I also found out that Derick doesn't like raw fish @.@ Who doesn't like raw fish? :O

In terms of presents, my sudden over-enthusiasm for make up and skincare products led me to get Spiffy a range of skincare products including the Kosmea Skin Clinic Rescue Balm and the You, Me & Everybody Cool It Aloe Vera Gel~ ^^  Unfortunately, the rescue balm makes him smell like watermelon... =/ I hate watermelon~ >.<  Anyhoo, Spiffy got me a super cute Guess bracelet with locks and keys on it~ ^^  He also gave me a pair of awesome boots that I haven't taken a picture of yet~

My Valentine's Day present from Spiffy~ :3 He gave me a pair of boots too but I haven't taken a picture of them yet >.<

Hmmmmmmm... that pretty much wraps up the last two weeks~ ^^ I won't bore you with details about work (which has been pretty hectic of late)~ :P

How was your Valentine's Day?

Did you spend it with someone special or just go out with friends? ^^

Teaching English at Quantum~

hello my lovelies~!!! ^^ how is everybody's weekend going?

I'm currently at work~ :) Since this week is all about revision tests, I don't really have all that much to do :P So I decided to stick to my resolution and post a quick update~ ♪

So... work you say? Tests? :O Is this girl working in some sort of insane science lab conducting human experiments?! :O

Haha~ I wish~ ;P  As some of you might know, I work as an English Teacher on weekends.

I teach Year 5&6 English and Year 7&8 English at a place called Quantum Education Victoria.

Quantum is run by my good friend Aaron so I'm really happy that I can help out and support his business~ ^^  Atm we offer English and Maths tuition for all year levels and After School Homework Sessions~ hopefully soon we'll expand into tutoring other subjects such as Legal Studies and sciences :)

I would really love to tutor Legal Studies~ ♥

Webcam pic of me and Aaron in the English classroom~ ^^

Anyway, I know what some of you are thinking~ :P Tali? Teaching? What is the world coming to?!

To be completely honest, when I first started doing private tutoring, teaching English was simply the easiest way for me to make use of my knowledge to earn some pocket money (I know~ I'm a terrible person!! Don't judge meeeeeeeeeeeee~!!! ;A;).  But once I started doing class tutoring, I actually started to enjoy my job a lot more.  It can be a bit challenging to teach a whole class of students sometimes because you always have those difficult students or the students who need a lot of extra attention to learn effectively... but I like to think that it's all part of the job :)  Things have definitely been better since I started teaching at Quantum though~ The classes are quite small so it's easier to make sure that all the students get the attention that they need.  Plus we actually have a pretty structured curriculum which we devised to make sure that the kids are learning at a consistent pace ^^

As I mentioned before, my students are doing a revision test this week~ :D  I'm really glad that Aaron lets me make my own class material~ no random spelling mistakes for one, and it means that I can really properly test the kids' knowledge :)

Also, I've got my students reading a book per term~ ^^ I think reading is so important to learning English (especially for developing vocabulary) and I think it's a huge shame that a lot of the places that I've worked at don't place a greater emphasis on giving students appropriate reading material
:(

Anyhoo, this is the reading list for this term:
Year 5&6 English: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Year 7&8 English: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

And this is a pic of me holding the Year 5&6 English Test~ :D

Hehe~ can't wait to see how they do~!! ^^ I hope I didn't make it too hard~ @.@

Where do you work?

What challenges does your job present?

New Year, New Blog~

Ok, so I'm running a little late (as usual) with the whole new year thing :P

For those of you who don't know, I'm really quite terrible at any sort of journal keeping activity as I never seem to be able to find the time to post updates =.=; BUT! I shall nevertheless endeavour to at least post once a month on this new blog~ ^^

after all, new year, new me.............. right?! XD

Anyhoo, so far 2013 has been pretty good to me~ Having just finished my university degree (huzzah!!!) I'm finding myself with more free time on my hands that I know what to do with! The end result seems to be a mixture of indulging my slightly (and only slightly!!! >.<) out of control love of shopping and whiling away the days playing Facebook games =/

However, more principled minds will be glad to hear that I've been trying pretty hard to make some serious changes in my life~ ^^ Hopefully by the time I start my PLT (Practical Legal Training) Course in July, I'll be the very image of scholarly virtue~ :P Who knows, I might even manage to stick to my resolution to get more exercise~!!! XP

In terms of non-academic doodads, I've had a lot of reasons to be happy since the start of 2013. As my younger brother and I both graduated at the same time (he just finished Yr 12 ^^ so young~!!) my parents decided to take us on a family trip to Europe~ ^^

{I'll talk about that in a later post (pictarssssss~) so stay tuned~!!}

Another reason for being happy is that after many years of slaving away over law books, I've finally found time for my hobbies.  I'm not sure that many people know this since I haven't really spoken about it much in recent years, but one of my favourite pastimes in high school was creative writing.  I came up with a concept for a novel in about Year 10 and worked on it tirelessly for about a year before I had to put it aside for VCE.  Once uni rolled around, I barely got time to work on it at all :( ...Somehow it still managed to go through about 5-6 re-writes tho~ @.@

Anyhoo, I'm really excited to be working on it again and in the past few weeks I've written about two chapters~ ♪ ^^  Progress is slow --- I'm pretty sure studying law stole my soul >.> --- but I'm getting there! I'm going to sign myself up for a creative writing course on Monday too, so that should be interesting~ ♥

In other news, I've somehow developed a sudden obsession with beauty boxes ^^; It all started when I saw pictures of these super duper shiny boxes in a post by my friend Melludee.  Initially I was looking to get a Glossybox like the one mentioned in the post but before I could subscribe, they merged with Lust Have It! so I decided to postpone and eventually forgot about it until I got back to Melbourne after my holiday~ ^^;

My January Bellabox~ ^^

Anyway, I did some research and caught on to another beauty box subscription called Bellabox which got some really great reviews ^^ I signed up for the January box just to try it out and I was absolutely thrilled when my box arrived with lots of awesome products~ ^^

{Once again, I think that my Bellabox deserves it's own post so keep an eye out, guys~!! ^^}

In the end, I was so happy with my box that I sort of went on a bit of a shopping spree on their online shop and ended up getting heaps of awesome skincare products for le Spiffy~ ^^  I also signed up for the February Lust Have It! box because I was super impressed with the full size BB Cream that they included in their January box.  I looooooooooooooooooooove BB Creams so I was kicking myself for not subscribing sooner~ :P But yes, super psyched about receiving lots of stuff in the mail~ ♪

Hmmmmm~ I think that pretty much wraps up the last few weeks!!

Have a great weekend, guys~!!! ^^

How has the new year been for you?