Soap & Glory Sexy Mother Pucker and No7 High Shine Lip Gloss (and other stories)

Visited Boy's nan and granddad yesterday for her birthday (and early Christmas dinner) and stayed over for a night. Unfortunately, we broke down on the A1(M) on the way there and it took around 45 minutes before we got going again. And we need a new front splitter or whatever it was that was broken off the bottom of the front bumper. *feels poor*

Anyway, since it was a special occasion, I tried out a couple of lip glosses that I bought ages ago. The one I ended up using is Soap & Glory's Sexy Mother^TM Pucker in Plum (RRP £8.00).

Surprisingly, it really did work in plumping up the lips. The pout is more defined in a beestung look compared to when I only wear normal, non-plumping lipgloss (No7 High Shine Lip Gloss in Happy, RRP £9.00, also new, as below). Some close-up comparisons:

Top: S&G Sexy Mother^TM Pucker in Plum; Bottom: No7 High Shine Lip Gloss in Happy

Quite a significant difference, don't you think? I'm also loving the colour S&G's SMP is giving me, and cheaper than Lancome's Juicy Tubes. The No7 HSLG I got for free, so it's a good deal for me, but admittedly it didn't really give much colour to my lips and just looked like clear shiny gloss. I like it because it keeps my lips looking nice and hydrated for work where I don't bother with makeup, but I might try a more vibrant colour next time and see if it makes enough difference to spend money on it.

Am tempted to get S&G's SMP in another colour to see if the colour's as pretty. :) It smells great too, even if the tingling sensation (plumping action) felt really strange to start off with. Loving lip glosses at the moment because they keep my lips hydrated, and I'm still not sure where I stand with lipsticks which gives a much more opaque colour.

Speaking of pretty, Boy's grandparents gave me a John Lewis fluffy spotty dressing robe for Christmas. It's tres cute and very comfortable. Even Boy is tempted, except the spottiness is too girly. :P

A bit of an update on Kitt, henceforth called Percy (after the cat on Sinfest.net). He's insanely cute but also a little bastard at times. When he's in a feisty mood, he leaves a lot of destruction and blood trails behind him. But when he's in a cuddling mood like, he's the cutest thing on Earth. Except he also likes to sit on my laptop which also makes it pretty difficult to get any typing done.

He didn't like the snow we've had but was very curious about it anyway. More pictures here. It was pretty funny because from what everyone's told me, none of their cats fancied going out in the snow either even if they're dying to do their business. :P

Oh well. We're hoping to get a puppy soon as well, so Percy will have some company, even if it might be company he doesn't approve of. I don't know if he will, actually, because Percy's acting a lot like a dog sometimes... maybe they'll hit it off? Doubtful though. Heh.

New stuff.

Yep, so I have been super lazy with updates. It's almost a month! Where did the time go?

I've got a raise! It's starting on the 1st of August. I damned well should've gotten it ages ago, but life happened not to want to work my way sometimes. Annoying. Anyway, seeing that half the country doesn't even have a job, I suppose I should be glad that I not only retained my job, I even managed to secure a £4k/annum raise (works out to be around +£2/hour). And I am likely to get another raise in Q4 (that's January-March).

I've grown yet again so my clothes don't fit now. My red shirt that I wear for work tend to unbutton itself to reveal my bra, so that needs replacing. And I have a lot of winter jumpers which is not at all suitable for this temperature. And that leaves me with one black shirt to wear to work. Ugh. I dropped by Next and their sale was not that great. Tesco seems to have swapped all of their workwear to beachwear. So I gave up and decided to do online shopping instead. And for once I wanted to get something from Bravissimo and they seem to have not come up with any new smartwear since everything that is work-friendly that is on there seems to have at least half the sizes sold out.

So this is my stash of new clothes (if I don't decide to return them):

Think I spent around £80 altogether. But they're the cheapest smart(ish)wear I can find that is not ugly or only come in disgusting moldy green colour or comes in size 8 only. :| On another note, damn M&S models (first three) look so pale and skinny I'm almost scared for them.

Birthday treats

H advised me to treat myself to a pair of sexy heels. Unfortunately, I don't have many places to wear heels to. So I spent the money on buying lingerie. :P

In 25 years, I've never had matching undergarments before. :P Or pretty ones, even... I've always bought sensible, plain T-shirt bras for everyday use. Mainly due to cost as well, because pretty bras tend to cost more, and matching shorts or thongs are usually around £9-£15 a pair. And I always have to either go to specialty stores or online because department stores, La Senza, Ann Summers, Agent Provocateur all don't do my size. :( Neither does Victoria Secrets, but that's pointless anyway since there doesn't seem to be any VS stores here. Hehe.

So I treated myself this time with some of the pretty bras on "up to 50%" sale at Figleaves. Ordered it less than 48 hours ago and they arrived today morning, w00t!

The pink one is from Vanity Fair range, black one is from Midnight Grace range, and the chocolate one is from Pour Moi? range. The nicest one, I think, is the Vanity Fair set. It's so cute and girlie and very comfortable on as well. All in all, good buys, methinks. All of them fit really well too, so no complaints (was a bit nervous about the VF set because VF is an American company, cup sizing can differ with UK sizing quite dramatically). If I have the money, I'd get another VF set. Hehe.

If you're wondering why I did not order it from my usual favourite online store Bravissimo, their estimated delivery at the moment (peak summer season) is 10-14 days for a lot of their catalogue! I won't be here in 10-14 days, I'll be in Malaysia! It's a pity though, because I had my eye on a couple of those pretty dresses they have...

So how did the rest of the day went? I opened my birthday cards yesterday and it was awesome. Got £40 from Boy's parents, which was very nice of them since I wasn't expecting anything. Boy got me a card and a teddy. Say hello to the latest addition to the menagerie:

Went to the post office to collect the overdue post (eBay seller got on my nerves, took 6 weeks to dispatch an item to me!), then to the bank to cash in a cheque from Cex (where I sold my old phones and some DVDs), and then to Co-op to buy ingredients to make myself a birthday cake.

I know, why am I making my own birthday cake? Shouldn't someone else do it for me? Well, I like baking, and I haven't had the chance or the excuse to do so for a long time. So I'm seizing this opportunity to brush up on my skills and use Brother #3 and Boy as guinea pigs. Plus, homemade means you can add stuff like alcohol and extra chocolate chips that bakery tend not to do!

Had a lot of fun mixing the batter, knowing that it will turn out to be some chocolatey goodness after spending some time in the oven. Here's the result of my "fun":

Double Chocolate Brownie Cake

I didn't get chocolate fudge to ice the cake because I thought we a) don't need all those extra calories and b) it will be too sickly, especially since I added extra cocoa and chocolate chunks in the cake (as well as almond slices and 1/2 cup Mint Bailey's). I dusted the whole cake with crushed hazelnut and icing sugar to hide the massive cracks in the cake. XD This is the first cake I've baked in years! It didn't turn out too badly, very rich and moist even without fudge icing. It's just the cracks, really, that is the problem that ruined the presentation. I know what I did wrong - I was lazy to cook it in two batches so I decided to use all the cake batter in one 9" pan and overfilled it. Tasted great though! The whipped cream was a bit weird as well - I really should've chilled the can and the cake before I started decorating it, but oh well. Lesson learnt!

Brother #3 and Boy seemed to like the cake, which is good, because Boy is usually not a cake person and I don't think he ate any of his own birthday cake (was there one?). I know he wasn't keen on his brother's birthday cake either when we went and bought the cake from M&S last time. We still have 5/8 of the cake in the fridge though, and Boy said, "I feel fatter just opening the fridge and looking at it."

Roffle.

Birthday photo with Boy!

Went to Ask for food tonight again like last time, am a bit disappointed with it, but oh well. Service was good as usual, but my calzone was burnt at the bottom! :( But pics of food that we had tonight:

Half-eaten starter to share...

Boy's food, at my recommendation. Pollo de la Casa or something like that.

Brother #3's food, spaghetti with tomato and black pepper and basil or something like that.

And my calzone, as before, but worse this time around. :(

Ah well, nevermind. Life eh? The waitress was kind enough to tell us that they do have 2-for-1 vouchers online, but I don't actually remember the name of the site she mentioned. Oops.

Anyway, last bit of camwhoring as I tend to do:

Why am I not rich? :(

Jonathan Kelsey Decoy Peep Toe Shoe

So pretty. I want. :( Unfortunately, it's £195 (down from original RRP of £429).

Anniversary gifts and more

Some stuff that I haven't posted yet even though I really should've some time ago... mainly because I'm so lazy nowadays. :P Mostly photos though of things I got or things I bought because I don't exactly have many things interesting that is going on in my life, just Boy's life is always more dramatic than mine! But that's his story to tell.

What Boy got me for our anniversary almost 2 weeks ago (as stated before):

A teddy bear (and a card, not pictured).


Camwhoring with the Elizabeth Miller white nappa leather jacket.

I was lusting after the jacket for weeks and Boy decides to buy it for me. He was also the one who suggested getting a white one instead of a black one. The black jacket looks too much like Russian military, apparently. :P Haven't had much use so far since it's been rather summery most day and the jacket is definitely made for colder weather.

Other than that, I bought myself a new pair of work shoes, which were on sale in my size. My old Earth boots that I wore for work was wearing out on the linings and rubbing the back of my feet raw. :(

Black Asgi low-heeled mary janes.

Not much else to say so far, so I'll end the entry with one of my new high-calorie addictions, thanks to work keeping us fed with these things when we do exceptionally well:

Cream-filled Belgian bun.

Damn, they're good. And yes, I know they don't help with the whole weight-loss thing either, but I have no willpower. :( And yes, that means that I haven't actually lost any weight since I joined the gym... :P

Gran Torino

Just got back from watching Gran Torino. It was great! A bit cheesy and predictable in some places, but it was still a pretty good film and it did made me tear up a bit.

Despite the name of the film, it really doesn't have much to do with the car, though the existence of the car in the movie is probably what that kicks the plot off. I'm not going to go into the plot of it, but it has a lot of tones of family, honour and the (lack of) power of justice in one person's hand. Whilst I've said that it's predictable, it doesn't have the shameless happy endings that Hollywood likes to market for most of its films, which is good because it wouldn't have worked with this film. The film does make you think of why things happen the way it does, and sometimes life is shit the way it is through no fault of your own, and you'll just have to deal with it the best way you know how. As hard as a man tries to be an island in his own world, in the end he is still going to be affected by the actions and behaviour of those surrounding him, and he makes a choice to make a sacrifice not for his own benefit, but for the people he cares about who cares about him.

I thought the movie was engineered quite brilliantly, though some may beg to differ. I particularly liked the parts where Clint Eastwood's character Walt Kowalski have his banter with the barber guy. XD It was hilarious!

Earspirals

I found something really cute that I want. I got to know about it when one of my work colleagues came in wearing one of them and got a lot of curiosity as to how on Earth she puts them on.

Earspirals! :D Have you heard about it? Apparently it originated from San Francisco... it's an earring you can't lose (whilst wearing it)!

Is that cute or what? That's one of the "Californian convertibles", ie you can change parts of it. There are some static ones as well. But I just think they're the greatest! They're not cheap though... -_-

Does anyone feel like buying me a present? :P

Still working on pictures of Tunisia... will be up as soon as I find time to sort it all out. :P I'm sure you're all dying to see them... not! Heh.