Review: Tokidoki Love From London Palette + Swatches

As with the Airways Palette, the Love From London palette was marked down from $42. However, this retailed at $25 rather than $19, I suppose because the Olympics give people more incentive to purchase English-y sorts of things. This is also Sephora exclusive and limited edition, I believe.

Aww! You can see the characters on the lid from the front and the back!

Packaging: Needless to say, ADORABLE. All the flags, the red telephone box, the iconic Tokidoki personages, and the bright colors just give this so much character. It's made out of the typical thick, stiff cardboard, so it's reasonably sturdy, and although not becoming of a $42 palette, it's fine for a $25 palette. The little Mozarella keychain with the hat and rifle is just too cuteeee!

Sloane Square (matte soft pink)
Baker Street (matte nude)
King’s Road (shimmery nude)
Park Lane (matte pale yellow)
Berwick Street (iridescent brown)
The Strand (shimmery blue sky)
Savile Row (pearlized brown)
Carnaby Street (shimmery royal blue)
Parliament Square (supposedly a bronzer, but waaay too pink. Definitely a blush)

Shadows: Silky, minimal fallout, and they just glide on. There's a variety of shimmery and matte, colorful and neutral shadows, but they all work together, which makes it a great palette. Again, the shimmery ones are shimmery and not gritty or glittery. The sole glittery one (Berwick Street) has little to no fallout. They are all just gorgeous! Park Lane and Sloane Square are a little disappointing in terms of pigmentation, but Carnaby Street is so ridiculous it more than makes up for that.

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Swatches! No primer- just bare skin and two swipes of shadow, applied with fingers. My camera loathes swatches, as you can probably tell.

Left to right: Sloane Square, Baker Street, King's Road, Park Lane, Berwick Street, The Strand, Saville Row, Carnaby Street, Parliament Square

My favorite of the lot is definitely Berwick Street (although I love Carnaby Street too!). The photos don't do it any justice- it's a warm brown with a vague green duochrome and blue glitter. It looks fantastic and really quite unique in actuality. Parliament Square makes a lovely blush as well (what were they thinking when they called it a bronzer?).

Verdict: Definitely a hit. I love almost all of the colors!
---Sunny

Anyone Can Be A Baker and Icing Roses

Shockingly enough, I'm not bad at baking. Thus, I am of the firm opinion that anyone can be a good cook (in my mind, baking = cooking). There are far too many people who are too lazy to learn how to cook, and try to hide that laziness by saying, 'Oh, I'm so bad at it. I really can't cook'.

Proof: I am way too impatient in the kitchen. I hate measuring. I sight-measure just about everything, and I toss in random things that the recipe might or might not call for (unless my little sister is there to stop me). The other day, I was too lazy to find a recipe for apple pie. So I made it up as I went along. That sounds dangerous, but it's actually quite easy and turned out well. I tossed sliced apples in a pot with water, arrowroot powder, lemon juice and sugar (of course, not measuring a thing -_-), and boiled the mixture until it was quite thick. Then I poured it into a vegan pie shell and baked it for 20 minutes. After it was chilled, it was super tasty, and the jello-y texture was very nice with the apple flavor.
Et voila! Oh, and it was vegan too. I also can't stand people who say that it's impossible to make some things vegan. AHFKGDSDJ DEAR GOD. The ridiculousness of that accusation is just... ugh. There are vegan souffles and vegan 'meat'. Jeez. ="=
Aaanyways. Here's some cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread I made a while ago (vegan! And is it falling apart or burned or anything? NO).

Also, my dad's coworkers commissioned an almond cake from my sister and I, so we spent half the day baking, icing and decorating.

Forgive the uneven lettering- my hands were super shaky at that point! It's a double layered cake filled with almond buttercream and sliced almonds. It was a pain to set every single almond slice on the sides, but we managed, somehow. Also- FROSTING IS EVIL. We had to wash everything with shampoo to get it out.

Review: Tokidoki Airways Palette and Swatches

I love Tokidoki.
Their cosmetics are beautiful, but really bloody expensive. My only previous purchase was a tiny Adios solid perfume keychain, and that was $25!! However, since they're leaving Sephora for good I was able to get the Airways palette for $19 (marked down from the original price of $42). It's Sephora exclusive and limited edition, so pretty soon it might be impossible to find!

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Packaging: Adorable and relatively sturdy! The metal is a little on the thin side, but it definitely beats the typical cardboard palette. The images on the box extend around to the back. It's nice that the it can be reused when the shadows are finished. I especially love that they included the little Donutella keychain! She's one of my favorites, so cuteee~

Sorry for the blurriness! My camera HATES focusing on anything close.

Paris (sparkling soft pink)
Los Angeles (sparkling lavender)
Tokyo (iridescent purple)
Hong Kong (pearlized lime green)
New York (pearlized olive green)
Rome (matte chocolate brown)
London (pearlized toffee)
Hawaii (matte vanilla)

Shadows: I love how they're named after the top world destinations!! Sephora claims, "the collection of eye shadows are infused with hydrating Japanese rice lipids and vitamin B to ensure the rich formulas glide on beautifully smooth and provide long-lasting color". All of them have varying degrees of shimmer, but there's nothing gritty or glittery about them. They're silky soft and ridiculously pigmented, and every color is just gorgeous.

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Swatches! Please note that my camera hates me. Also, I didn't use primer, so this is how the shadows look with two swipes on bare skin.

 Aren't those colors pretty? Los Angeles and London are my favorites! The photos don't do London justice- it's a very shimmery taupe with quite a bit of depth.
Verdict: If you can still get this palette, do. It's fantastic!!!
---Sunny

Mini Post: Wagashi!

I love Japanese grocery stores~ Here are some of my favorite sweets!

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Mitarashi dango (rice balls with a sweet soy sauce). It's much better than it sounds!

Mochi (chewy, soft rice cakes with sweet red bean paste)

Monaka (wafers filled with sweet red bean paste) The anko in monaka is much sweeter, smoother, and jellier than the anko in mochi!

I also adore yokan, but I didn't get any this time~

Haha, I hope you enjoyed this little post! At the very least I hope you're inspired to try some of these~
---Sunny

Life Album Tag

First, everybody should listen to this song. Everybody.

Life Album Tag Rules:

1. Answer with only one (IMPOSSIBLE) at least one song per question, and provide a short explanation.
2. For the year songs, go up to your age (so go from 6th grade-whatever year you’re in now). You can also group them if you’d prefer (one song for multiple years)
3. Tag as many people as you can afterward!

-Your childhood theme:

God's Away on Business by Tom Waits. My childhood soundtrack, from infancy, was a very odd mixture of Tom Waits and Enya (on cassette tape, no less! And it took me three tries to spell 'cassette'). Also, from the age of six I had a very unchildlike interest in embroidery and hand-stitching and suchlike. I desperately wanted to live in a world like the one detailed in The Mists of Avalon. Of course, being a fairy ballerina princess also would have been nice.

-A theme for your first year of middle school:

Renaissance Man by Heather Dale. The song pretty much explains itself.

-Second year of middle school:

You're Going Down by Sick Puppies and Lies by Evanscence are definitely the dual themes of that year.
That was when I started loving gore, death metal, and extreme body mods. I listened to a lot of Marilyn Manson, Evanescence and Within Temptation, as well as assorted metal bands of various genres which I mostly can't recall. One example is Avulsed's Let Me Taste Your Flesh (I'm just the best little vegetarian ever).

-Third year of middle school:

Dear Diary by Pink. The start of my transformation from serial-killer-in-the-making to sparkly pink holographic rainbow unicorn princess.
Just kidding (maybe).

-First Only year of high school:

So What I Lied (Uncensored) by Sick Puppies. Disillusioned with a lot of things, perhaps even starting to grow up a little. Also, Herr Drosselmeyer's Doll by Abney Park, because I threw myself body and soul into ballet.

-First year of college:

She's Country by Jason Aldean. After creepy little goth girl and holographic pegasus unicorn, that's the third facet to my personality. Once upon a time I took it upon myself to hate anything western with a passion, but that was before I learned that my dad's family is rife with cowboys and that my own cousins ride in the rodeo and hunt deer with shotguns.

-Your love song:

Blue Caravan by Vienna Teng (even if I'm not quite that crazy). Also, it is one of the most exquisite and breathtaking songs I've ever heard.
And, um, Grow a Pear by Ke$ha. Because it seriously describes every guy I've ever met.

-Your friendship song:

Shelter by Corrine May and Hunter by Heather Dale. I really am a lucky girl to have so many wonderful friends.

-Your song in times of trouble:

Indestructible by Disturbed. YESSSS LET'S GO KILL THINGS.

-Your personal theme song:

Primadonna Girl by Marina and the Diamonds. No further explanation needed. :P

I TAG EVERYONE WHO READS THIS.

Haha, here's a quote from an awesome conversation I had with Cami-chan on Tuesday. I know I oughtn't quote myself, but...
"If I had to describe myself... well, I'd be the child of Barbie and a cowboy who was also a closet serial killer". Which pretty much sums me up perfectly.
...
As you can see, I am insane.
---Sunny

Leave Your Heat Anchored in Dust (OOTD)

I warned you, didn't I? After staring at lust-worthy photos of gorgeous styles involving Litas for days on end, I was about to go insane unless I got my very own pair. Fortunately, Ebay is extremely kind to designer knockoffs. They're like friends with benefits.

Please excuse the dark circles- 5 hours of sleep is not kind.

I love these cream ones~ They're so gorgeous and feminine! I'd love to pair them with lace tights and frilly ankle socks.

For some reason (maybe it's my sister's wacky camera) a lot of photos came out hazy. It's only like 79 degrees!
Aaaaanyways. I'm off to my Japanese class (3 and a half hours of torture because I already know the stuff they're teaching and I have the attention span of a caffeinated squirrel).
Love you all~
---Sunny

Sometimes Simplicity is Underrated (OOTD)

Once upon a time there was a girl. On this particular day, it was extremely warm, though by no means hot. However, she was unused to even this small amount of heat. Thus, she looked very sulky.

However, there were trees to provide some shade.

There were also deliciously scented flowers! The girl was then semi-pacified.

 She was completely happy when she went home and ate pecan ice cream, and was then no loner sulky, but bouncing off the walls from an immense sugar high. Of course, that was before she went into a sugar-induced coma and was consequently forced to eat large amounts of nuts to save her from an insane hypoglycemic mental state. And she very much disliked nuts.

And that is how I spent my day. ^ ^ How about you?
---Sunny

At Lightspeed Can We Last for Long? (OOTD)

Summer move forward and stitch me the fabric of fall
Wrap life in the brilliance of death to humble us all

How sweet is the day
I'm craving a darkness
As I sit tucked away with my back to the wall

Summer move forward and leave your heat anchored in dust
Forgotten him, cheated him, painted illusions of lust
Now language escape, fugitive of forgiveness
Leaving as trace only circles of rust
~Drought (Vienna Teng)

Floral bodycon dress- Forever21
Floral boots- Dr. Martens
Hat- Forever21
Bracelet- thrifted

I'm so happy I learned how to do a bridge! And lookbook.nu is a frightening thing. It will worm its way into your brain and make it do funny things, like ordering a pair of Lita ripoffs. I didn't do something so ridiculous Oh yes, I did. They'll be here sometime next week, and then I'll have lots of fun proving to skeptics that I can handle myself in 5.25 inch heels. Pointe prepares you for that sort of thing, you know.
---Sunny