I am a consumer whore

My quest for Korean and Japanese cosmetics may be dashed. One of the girls asked the TAs if there was a touristy section of the island, which is exactly where I wanted to go to find that stuff. The overwhelming majority of tourists to Guam are Japanese, so much so that many of the hotels and shopping centers' websites are only in Japanese. Because of this, I've heard that you can find Asia-exclusive products and brands in Guam. The TAs told her that there is, but it's lame and boring so they wouldn't want to take us there. D'aww :( Dior did an Asia-only re-release of the Iridescent Leather quint* and I might not get my hands on it. I am a sad panda.

So today we went and saw all the sites we'll be working on and, despite layering on a bunch of physical-blocking sunscreen, my arms and shoulders are burned to a crisp. I guess reapplied SPF60 isn't good enough, so I'm going to go get some 85 as soon as possible even though it'll have to be a chemical block in that case. I've never seen a physical one over SPF65.

But since I'm already burned, I'll also need some aloe and antioxidant products (both of which I own but didn't bring) and some long-sleeved shirts which I also didn't bring with me. Why do the solutions to all my problems always involve buying things?

* Christian Dior is famous for their eyeshadow quints, a small palette with five sparkly shadows in it. They're probably one of the most popular cosmetic products in the world. For the holidays a few years ago they sold a quint called Iridescent Leather, which was full of cool brown neutrals-- a set of shades that are surprisingly hard to find in high-end makeup. It was a smash hit and sold out everywhere. Now it's one of the most sought-after and hard to find items for makeup enthusiasts like myself. Though the quints usually retail for $50, this one can be sold on Ebay for... Well, let's just say substantially more. If you put an IL quint up for swap (a deal through Makeup Alley where users trade makeup/skincare products they don't want, probably the best way to get discontinued/hard to find products) you could probably get whatever you wanted for it.

Piggybean

Check out my newest impulse buy. I have dubbed him Piggybean.

Piiiiggybean, Piiiiiiiiggybean, looks like a piggy and a bean




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone because I am a consumer whore.

Shu Uemura Discontinues US Sales

I'm not sure how many of you care about this, but beloved cosmetics brand Shu Uemura is going to stop selling their products in the US sometime in the near future. No exact dates or explanations have been given, but this sucks. Dong.

Love the 'Stache

I have a fever, and the only cure is more 'stache.

Not your style, you say?

Well, how about these?

You win again, LVHM

Okay so after I bought almost all of the nail polishes I want (still need China Glaze's Wizard of Oz and new spring stuff, plus OPI Alice in Wonderland and then I'll be set, so I think I'm still like 7 polishes short of having everything I want) I moved on to wanting millions upon millions of lipsticks. I think it started when YSL had their first ever sale and the lipstick I wanted sold out before I got it so I started looking at all the other colors to see if there was another one I could use. It got worse when Sephora decided to stop carrying Cargo and their Plant Love Evangeline lipstick disappeared forever before I managed to snag a tube. Somewhere in there I was shown, by my boyfriend's roommate of all people, this video. Ignore the pandering of "CHEMICAL FREE" makeup (which makes me want to punch unicorns) and just watch her put on that lipstick. Yes.

So now I want lots and lots of lipstick in pretty orange and peach and whatnots. So much so that last night I had a dream. I dreamed that I went through my closet and it was filled with EVERY LIPSTICK EVER and they all looked good on me and I was so happy. Then in my dream I "woke up" and had no makeup so I went to the store but all they had were eyeshadow palettes and I haaate eyeshadow palettes. What more all the glitter was rubbing off onto everything and it was a big mess and uhggg it was horrible. That's my version of a bad dream. Really.

Oh wait I just realized I also want the LA Girl Rockstar polish set and a few from China Glaze's Rodeo Diva set, so I'm more like 15 polishes short of having all the ones I want. Kay.

See there are lots of people with weird makeup obsessions on Makeupalley, and they make me feel better about this because they are all much, much worse. For starters I don't own near as much of ANYTHING as they do and I actually use all the makeup I own. Here are some of the things that were posted today that made me feel like I can buy as much as I want and still not have a real problem... You might need to be a member to view these links but I recommend making an account so you can search the reviews there, they do reviews of bath/skincare/makeup and it's a really good way to find out of something is good before you buy it.

Anyway, this person bought more eyeshadows in one single internet order than I own at all. They're NYX so they're all only a couple of dollars each, but sheesh. This is a post of someone's lip product stash that honestly makes me very jealous. I had more than that in my dream, but still that's awesome. This stash is JUST eyeshadow palettes and nothing else. Every single one of those containers has 4-10 eyeshadows in them. This is like the sad part of my dream, actually-- they were all in a black cabinet like that and I couldn't tell what was in any of them. Psssh, palettes. You're so boring.

I told them about my dream and one girl said this week she dreamed she applied false eyelashes perfectly, something she's still trying to do in real life. I'm not alone :D

Things Hawai'i Needs, Part 726

Okay guys, fun fact. I love nail polish. LOVES IT. But apparently nail polish is very hard to ship since it gives off fumes and is flammable and whatnots. For this reason most e-tailers only ship within the continental US. This makes me the sadness. Zoya had a holiday promo where if you bought two polishes they would send you five for free. I was soooo excited and I had picked them all out and everything before I realized they don't ship here. BLAST. Same for Urban Decay's holiday polish set.

So then I should just go to a store, right? WRONG. There are no Ulta, CVS, Duane Reade, or Sally Beauty Supply in HI. The only store I've found here that sells any pro brands is Trade Secret, and they only have a teeny tiny display of OPI and Essie with only reds and pinks. I want China Glaze and CND, damn it! And I want blues and purples, too!

I mean Sephora has their OPI collection but it's pretty boring, honestly. I only like a few colors and I already own most of them. Meh.

I did manage to snag Midnight in Moscow and Smitten with Mittens at Trade Secret, though. So I have cool black/maroon fingers right now. Still though, frowny face :(


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone because I am a consumer whore.

psOH SNAP!!

It has only just now ocurred to me that the game I have been waiting to play for months-- no, YEARS --has been out for two and a half weeks and I have yet to even look at the case. This is madness, you guys, on Spartan freaking levels. I have been waiting for a new Phantasy Star Online since the Dreamcast network went the way of the Virtual Boy, if you catch my drift.* And who is to blame for this? Why, it's Dr. Geoff White, professor of Pacific cultural anthropology. And for this offence I will leave a flaming bag of dog poo on his metaphorical porch. The bag will read "PHOTON BLAST"

Oh man if I can't feed my mag fluids to make it evolve into two wing-shaped devices that float behind me in PS0, I am going to be SORELY disappointed.

Speaking of nerdy video game times, L and I found copies of Kid Pix, The Incredible Machine, and The Amazon Trail at Goodwill today. YES HE WENT THRIFTING WITH ME, u jellis bbs? And hells yes I use Oxford commas. Anyway we got Amazon Trail and played it. Hit the slow one! Noooo that's a log! AAH THE HARPOON BROKE.

I had thanksgiving dinner with L's family. I think it was the first time I've ever had thanksgiving without my mom's family. They brined the turkey and put it in this kooky kamado grill that looks like a depth charge and it was GOOD. The rest of the food was all local, which was weird as hell but interesting. As it turns out there is no variation of sweet potatoes that I can eat without feeling like I have a mouthful of damp, half-dissolved sugar. L and I also watched Jackass 2 and discussed how much we do/do not want to try to avoid an angry bull on a giant seesaw.



*You know, since the VMU went the way of the console cartridges.

P.S.
I posted this with my newfangled iPhone. Haw haw.

iPhones are the sheezy

Gateway House at night

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

ATTN: Single ladies

Ladies I have fabulous news for you. Local guys here will not only ask to go shopping with you but they will help you find what you're looking for AND THEN offer to hold your purse when it looks like you need both hands to dig through a rack.

This is amazing and I cannot get over it.

Also ATTN: Standup comedians, you now have one less piece of ammo for your bits about relationships. Hah hah.

Promises of photos

Okay so all those photos I promised before I put this thing online will be coming shortly. I mostly haven't taken any photos because I don't want to look like too much of a haole taking photos of everything until I have enough of a tan to claim I'm local. Anywhoo.

I'm going tide pooling with another anthropology major this weekend (could it be I have finally found another outdoorsy type??) which promises lots of photos of, I donno, barnacles and stuff*. I went to the beach finally last weekend and took my camera with the intention of taking new Facebook photos... I'll wait while you laugh. Done yet? No? Okay I can wait...

...

... Alright that's enough. Anyway I decided against it because I went by myself and as the beach was crowded I knew at least half a dozen people would notice me setting a timer and then running away and then running back again. I didn't feel like looking like a loon that particular day, so there are no photos. And I wasn't going to just hold the camera out to get just my face and a smidge of background because this is FACEBOOK, guys, not MYSPACE. Sheesh.

I have temporarily satiated my desire for a full back koi tattoo by getting a tank top from T&C Surf that has an almost identical design on the back. I also got a tank with wings on the back from Papaya but that didn't affect my desire for wing tattoos, so I'll have to come up with something more creative. Like henna.

*Stuff is the technical term for limpets and algae and mussels and starfish and sea urchins and little fishes and crustaceans and a whole assortment of other little sea animals. Would I say I have a plethora of sea animals? ... Yes I would.

I am a pretty pretty princess

Went shopping with my Freshie friend for SEVEN. HOURS. today for some reason. We were going to go the beach but it ended up being rainy and cloudy. I actually didn't spend very much. Most of it was watching her hunt around for an elusive pair of denim shorts, which by the way are all gone now because the fall lines are coming in. In Honolulu. All the shorts, sun dresses, sandals, etc. are going to clearance and are being replaced with boots and coats. No, really. They are.

In other news we won our pre-season game this last Friday (WARRIORS WHUT WHUT). Then on Saturday I went sailing with a dude from the team. I haven't been added to the roster yet because it requires about a metric crapload of paperwork (the list of types of forms I have to fill out has about a dozen things on it) and I'm hoping that it's not too late because I actually enjoyed it after I got over my fear of being eaten by a shark. That fear comes back when you capsize, by the way, which we did twice.

In other news, sea water tastes awful.

Thanks to everyone who sent me cards and presents. I stuck all the cards up on my gross looking cinder block wall so it's much nicer now. The less you can see of those walls, the better. I think they may have used to be white but I'm not entirely sure about that.

Owww, my tendons...

SHIN SPLINTS. I HAS THEM.

This is like the lamest thing ever what the crap why is it that my feet/legs are so damn delicate. I love using public transportation but clearly I am not built for it, what with the constant blisters in New York and the muscles separating from the bone here. I wore flip flops almost every day all summer, only after I got here I was suddenly walking long distances. First the tops of my feet got sore, and gradually it moved upwards. Eventually my shins started to get sore when I picked up my feet. I figured it was just muscle soreness in general but after a few days of it I asked beauty_101 and they were all IT'S SHIN SPLINTS WOMAN GET BETTER SHOES BEFORE YOUR LEGS BREAK OFF. So tomorrow morning I have to get up at 7:30am to make an EMERGENCY SHOE SHOPPING TRIP to Sketchers before my big long day of classes. I find this to be lulzy. It'd be a lot more lulzy if shin splints didn't hurt to make and/or didn't make it so easy for you to get stress fractures in your leg bones.

Apparently as they progress they get more and more painful until it's constant and/or your leg breaks. At the level mine are at now it doesn't need medical attention, just better shoes and rest. Possibly some ice packs. My problem now is that to keep flip flops (oh I'm sorry, slippers) on you have to constantly bee raising your foot such that your toes are up and the heel is down. The muscle that does that is precisely the one that gets them shin splints. So wee. Another girl on B101 said that she got them when she first moved to Hawai'i, too.