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I had wanted to blog about this much earlier, but just kept getting sidetracked.  When Lisa/MMBB added skincare items to her line, I ordered some samples.  Have yet to test all my samples, but I did finish using my samples of the AHA cleanser and moisturiser.

First, my AHA cleanser came with beads in it, which confused me, as the ingredients for that did not include anything which seemed like beads to me.  I wondered if the sample I had could be the jojoba exfoliating facial scrub instead?  So I asked Lisa, and she said there are two versions of the AHA creme cleanser, one with jojoba wax beads and one without.  I had the one with beads, the AHA exfoliating creme cleanser.  The jojoba exfoliating scrub is clear and foaming, while the AHA creme cleanser is a non-foaming cream.

The AHA creme cleanser is nice!  I used it on a very wet face at first, then wiped it off with a wet microfibre cloth, as that's how I usually use my cleansers, and that didn't seem to remove makeup well.  Despite that, for a general facial cleanser, not makeup remover, this has a very mild fresh scent, and leaves my face feeling nice and smooth.  And I love that it has no animal ingredients, parabens etc.  Found out later that the proper way to use this cleanser is to apply it on a dry or very slightly damp face, leave it to sit for a while if preferred, then add water and remove with a damp microfibre cloth.  Lisa says that for her, it gets all the makeup off this way, have yet to try this method to remove makeup as I ran out!  So I had to get myself a big big bottle of this.  Though the beads feel nice and massagey when rubbed around on the face, I picked the one without them as I usually wash my face at the sink not the shower, and I like to massage my cleanser all over and don't want to get beads in my eyes.  Whether it works as a makeup remover or not, I really like this as a cleanser, and the price is good, just can't pass up the chance to get one with the 20% off vox sale now on!

And, I got myself the AHA moisturiser as well.  I love that too, it moisturises very well, has a very very light fresh scent similar to the cleanser, and is not too rich for my combi oily T-zone/dry skin.  I'm pretty used to acids and don't really feel any stinging from either product.

Then, I had to add on samples of the jojoba creme and exfoliating scrub too.  And finally, after all this while, I'm getting some samples of the liquid foundation, having never tried anything like that before, curiosity finally got the better of me!  Lisa's been extremely helpful giving advice on what shades to try etc.  Prices and shipping are very reasonable.  It is a very pleasant experience to shop with MMBB.  Just pm Lisa and she'll be happy to answer all your questions.  Sale has been extended till 11 July and she now has a new referral programme.  MMBB's official site is here but refer to Lisa's vox blog for the latest news/products.

I placed an order with Dreamworld some time back and received them in pretty good time.  I wrote to Ellie for recommendations for a match.  She made some suggestions but most of them ended up too light.  She also offered to throw in some foundation shades she thought might work but was not up on the site, but I think she got busy and it slipped her mind.  I wasn't bothered by it and have not informed her, as I wanted to try out the shades I had first and then feedback to her and get more recs hehe.  And after all, she'd generously offered to throw in those samples for free.  I'm sure so many people write to her asking for recs that it is hard to keep track, and she is formulating new things and shades as well, so I can imagine how super busy she must be.

For a dollar, you get alot of product, which is great if u need to experiment with mixing to match.  I've been mixing to try to get my colour (no conclusion yet), so it's cool that I have alot to play with heeee!  And with the e/s and blushes, these generous samples will last a long time :))

I did wet swatches with my DW foundation samples (wonder if dry swatches would show a colour difference??)  While mixing the various foundations with water, I found that Lili was right, Lumiere's foundations don't mix well with water.  They didn't seem to 'melt' in water, and was difficult to swatch wet.  DW foundation mixes very easily with water.

I really like the feel of DW foundation, coverage is good and it feels light on the face.  So out of the samples I got, my preliminary findings are that Themis and Athena are a bit dark n yellow for me, and the rest are too light.  Athena is super shimmery!!   I started out mixing the lighter shades with Themis due to the shimmer factor in Athena being not to my liking, but feel that Themis may be a little olivey or something for me, so now I'm trying Athena mixes.  I was happiest with a mix of 1:1 Athena/Minerva, it is a pretty good match for my face, maybe needing a tiny bit less yellow n a bit more peach, and is a little light when compared to my chest.  Am thinking I should try out Athena/Brighid too.  There are so many more yellowish shades on DW's site I can try though.  Just have to sample more or do more mixing experiments to get a match!!  And yeah I'm not too motivated to have to test so many shades lol, so I've been putting it off....

Btw I remember Ruby said Chang-O is what Ellie made to match Naughty Manx?  I think I did try Naughty Manx before, but don't remember it being so light, my sample of Chang-O was sooo light! 

Dw foundie swatches

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pics were colour corrected but might still be off as I'm lousy at this hehe.  Baggies were placed on white paper.

Here's a car I caught sight of at the Vivocity carpark in Singapore, twice on two consecutive days.  Oh my I just had to take pics of this amazing car but my phone couldnt get good pics of the inside due to the reflection of lights on the window.

Kitty car front2

Kitty car back2

There was a Hello Kitty steering wheel cover, and parts of the steering wheel were blinged, but I don't think it's very obvious here.  Now the strangest thing was, my friend thinks she saw the driver, and she claims they were two

guys!!!  Can this pink and red car really be owned by a man???  I didn't see the driver, but the car had one of those really loud modified engines/exhaust and speeded past with a vrrrrooooomm.  I have to say that in my experience, girls seldom drive such loud cars.

One explanation we came up with was that perhaps the guys use this car to pick up girls haaaaaaa!  Certainly it would be very interesting to girls.

Doggie shop

The other interesting thing I saw was this jewellery brand, Loang & Noi.  Now I've been to Vivocity many times, but have never really paid attention to this shop on the ground floor, except to notice that they had these little cream-coloured doggie-shaped stool thingeys.

Well as I bought myself a new mobile recently, of course I was playing with the camera (and that's why we have those kitty car shots!), so that day I took a photo of the doggie stools.  Or at least I think they might be stools, maybe they're display pieces haha.  I would love to have these!

Doggie stools

The jewellery is very pretty too.  I prefer silver and white gold, and anything related to dogs waha.  The first photo below is, if I'm not wrong, baby dinosaurs.  I thought they were teddy bears or something when I took the photo, but now I see the card behind which says they're baby dinosaurs.

The other photo is of the doggie cut-out pendants/medallions.  I wanted to take more photos of doggie jewellery but my friends were waiting... :(  This shop looks expensive, I didn't bother to go check out the prices.

Some of you may have noticed I had some posts up about my testing of Dayna's Minerals.  But I think what with the different testing times and different lighting, I'm sounding confused!  So I'm gonna keep all my confused thoughts for my own review, and post a summary here instead.

On the whole, Dayna's foundation feels very nice, smooth and light on the face, with medium coverage.  Esp with a wet application, which I feel is the best method for this foundation.  Unfortunately, all the samples I tried are not really a good match for me.   Though I can still get away with Dayna Light applied dry, it seems just a touch light and not yellow enough.  Vely and Lili New are too light, and Dayna is a bit too dark/pink/brown.

Do you ladies find that with a wet application, it is much more obvious whether a shade is a match or not?  I'm finding that applied wet, foundations seem to stay more true and not change colour, and pores are diminished, while applied dry, the colour looks a bit different compared to a wet application, and they sometimes darken as the hours pass, and the pore-diminishing effect is not there.

For the glows, I use these sparingly, too much and they add too much sheen and colour.  Illumination seems to make me look a little brown/pink.  Peachy Sheen is lovely used as a natural-looking pinky-peach blush if you like a blush with sheen.  Golden Zephyr, this is my fave.  It adds a nice touch of yellow for yellow-toned, gals, and gives a nice glow.

There.  This sounds much better haaaaaa.

Let us pledge to fight animal cruelty and help those who cannot speak for themselves.

I came across Pure Luxe's post on mmm forum about them selling a shadow to raise funds for a breast cancer survivor friend.  All proceeds from the sale of this shadow go to her friend.  I thought that was a really nice thing to do, so I hopped on over to look. 

From their website http://pureluxecosmetics.com/LE_BENEFIT_COLOR.html

"This special VERY LIMITED EDITION color was designed especially for my friend, and breast cancer victim
Anita McDonald - AKA "Tinkerbell"

She was diagnosed 3 weeks ago with a very aggressive form of breast cancer, and less than a week later, had her breast removed to save her life.
Since the mastectomy, she has developed a horrible skin reaction to the tape, and is now dealing with dying skin on top of the surgery pain and depression.

Tink has been a long time planner and hostess for many biker sponsored charity events, including The American Cancer Society, March Of Dimes, and Diabetes Foundations,  just to name a few.
Tink has a very giving nature and helps everyone, now it is her friends turn to help her."

"TINKER PINK
is a light pink, leaning a little into lavender in the jar.
The base is highly pearlized, and applies with just a whisper of pink in the pearl finish.
I added 3 different SUPER expensive mica shimmers, violet, sapphire, and teal.
These shimmers are so fine, you cannot even feel the shimmers in the powder, but they are like jewels exploding when the light hits it. 
The sapphire and teal shimmers are actually color changing ones, similar to the Kaleidoscopes.

TINKER PINK looks like magical fairy dust. 
Lets all make magic and help Tink in her recovery."

I bought one (and of course threw in some blush and shadow samples too), and send healing thoughts to Tinkerbell, get well soon! 

I just tried all my Joppa samples.  And nothing matches :((  I think the best match was French Toast, but would prefer it to be a little bit lighter and a brighter yellow.  Prairie Wheat was too white and slightly pink.  Both of these are Simple Radiance foundations.  I do prefer the full coverage regular foundation.  It covers better, doesn't emphasise my flakies, and doesn't feel dry even with the kaolin.  But light #1 is too pink, light #2 is slightly too peachy/orange, light #3 is a little too light and maybe a bit too olive?  And of course med light #2 is too dark and peach/orange.  Hmm.  I don't think Joppa has a match for me.  The undertones are just not right.  Have not tried the blushes, but many of the samples look v pretty :)

But definitely a thumbs up for Joppa's speedy shipping and generous foundation samples!

I've always been very happy with companies who are willing to send via first class international, the cheapest option for internationals.  My orders have never gotten lost (knock on wood), and have all arrived in a timely fashion.

I do know that first class international is very slow for some, and that packages do go missing.  The one time I really got worried about my package was when the Lumiere pre-buy brushes were all being sent out, and people in my country who'd ordered around the same time as I did, were getting their brushes, while mine were still nowhere in sight.  One reason I felt so worried was that I had no expectations of Lumiere replacing my package if it really was lost, as it is not their fault, as long as they can tell me that they have their own records of it being sent out.

There are some companies who happily replace lost packages or items damaged during delivery.  I'm always very amazed that they will send out a complete order again, especially a large one, because it does absolutely mean that they lose money on that order.

One such wonderful lady is Markey from Garden of Wisdom  She is so cheerful and sweet!  She's always willing to accomodate and help out.  I once asked her what oil I should use if I wanted to add green tea infused oil, and she very kindly offered to infuse the oil for me, so that the leaves would have soaked in the oil for a week or two, and be ready for use, once it arrived (I was in a hurry).  She is also great about adding stuff to my order, as long as it hasn't been sent out.  I do try to avoid doing that though, think it messes things up for them.  If I have any items missing or damaged in my order, she is quick to send a replacement without asking questions.  And for my last order, I sent an email asking her to please pack my items in as small a package as possible, as they were going through a 3rd party forwarder who was charging me by volume.  Guess what, my items were all packed real neatly into the very smallest box they would fit into, and there was a note on my receipt saying tiny package lol!  I've read several times about Markey resending an entire order out when her customer did not receive it.  And Markey even said that if that lost package reaches someone else, she would be happy as long as that someone else enjoys it!  Isn't she unbelievable?  I don't have such a rosy view of human kind, there are some people who'd order and say they did not receive it when it actually reached them (not pointing fingers at anyone at al, just a general statementl), just to take advantage of her generosity.

As a customer, I love vendors who do this, but on the other hand, I totally understand when vendors decide not to ship first class, or opt for other shipping options esp for international shipping, which give them more protection.  These are small companies who can't afford to keep sending out replacements, and mail does get lost, or they may meet dishonest people.  I remember Valerie Beauty had such problems, and that's why she changed her shipping rates for international.  Also, Milan Minerals might have had problems at one point too, iirc, and that was why during that period Candace did not offer international shipping while she tried to figure out what to do.  I think she said she could not afford to replace lost packages or missing items for international shipping, and that it was happening too often (don't quote me on that though).

Lumiere has also expressed recently that they can't afford to replace lost mail/missing items, esp for internationals.  When you work so hard and have to keep replacing orders and see your efforts result in not a profit but a loss, that sucks big time.  Now I wonder how many of those lost packages/items are genuine, and how many are not?  Kim said she took in an almost $3000 order from Israel and later the cc co. said the cc owner denied ever making that purchase.  And with first class and priority mail, there is no confirmation of delivery for international shipping.  What can you do in a situation like that?  With $3000 worth of Lumiere items, is this person planning to sell off the Lumiere products???  There really are all kinds of people in the world.

The option Lumiere chose was to state that they do not replace or guarantee delivery for any shipping option other that USPS Express, for both domestic and international.  However, they still offer the other shipping options, just don't expect a replacement if it doesn't arrive.  Out of curiosity, I hopped over to Lumiere's site and checked out the rate.  I put a Valentine's Day $19 sample kit in my cart and checked out.  All the regular shipping options were there.  With the addition of USPS Express International shipping.  It is a whopping $25!  Again, just wanting to know, I checked out what Express would cost in the US.  $20!  And I just noticed these with insurance options, for orders damaged during the shipping process....

What I'm wondering is, I thought USPS does give delivery confirmation for domestic packages??  Doesn't that give Lumiere some sort of protection in the case of people claiming they did not receive their order?  And even if USPS gives only delivery confirmation and no proper tracking for domestic mail, UPS offers affordable domestic rates with tracking, don't they?  So that should be a viable option for US orders??

I once ordered products from a vendor who required me to be a verified paypal user.  She said that she has had problems with international customers claiming they did not receive their order, or saying they did not order and stopping payment after she'd sent the order out.  And she is only covered if the customer is a verified paypal user.  I don't know much about that, is it true?  Now wouldn't it be great if all that is required is that the customer is a verified paypal user, and payment was made through paypal, and the vendor would be covered?  I believe some ebay sellers require the delivery address to be verified as well.  I did get verified because of that, and it cost me nothing.

Another option I thought Lumiere should have looked into was registered mail.  In order to solve her international shipping problem, Candace from Milanminerals opted for insurance with priority mail, or in addition, registered mail.  Registered mail is $10.15, an expensive option.  (Why is it so expensive anyway?  In Singapore, registered mail is about US$1.70 or thereabouts??)  But combined with first class shipping, it is probably substantially cheaper than express international.

From USPS:

"Registry service provides security and limited indemnity protection for First-Class Mail® International and Priority Mail International Flat Rate Envelope items..."

"...All destination countries have an indemnity limit of $43.73 and a registry fee of $10.15. For detailed information about Registered Mail, see the International Mail Manual."

"For each registered item a mailing receipt is issued by the office of mailing and a record of delivery is maintained at the office of destination. Indemnity limits are much lower for registered mail than for insured mail. In the United States registered mail items are handled separately from all other mail and are kept in a secure area with restricted access. In destination countries registered mail items are handled according to their own internal procedures."

Limited indemnity, but may work for orders below $50?  And it sounds nice and secure, yes?

As for priority mail with insurance (which covers lost mail), that works out to $18.50 for a less than one lb package (not the flat rate envelope, which doesn't qualify for this), + $2.40 for insurance up to $50.  That's a total of $20.90, just a little bit less than that $25 fee for Express International.  Hmm.  I would opt for registered then.

I see that shipping is a real headache.  Now I understand why Victoria's Secret and Abercrombie etc etc charge such ridiculous international shipping rates, so they're protected.  Okay all that mail stuff is totally boring me already!  Sorry for this long boring post.  I guess I will just have to risk my Lumiere package getting lost and my $$ disappearing into thin air in future.  Express International is way too expensive for me, except if I have a $3000 order ahahhahaah.  But then, even before this, I never felt comfortable with the idea of any vendor bearing the cost of replacing my order if it went missing.  If they can assure me they sent it out, I really don't expect them to replace my order, though I would appreciate a discounted replacement deal ;p 

Heard from Sim on Monday night that Joppa has free international shipping, so I immediately hopped over and browsed their site yet again haaaaaaa!  As I was still not too sure which shade to pick, I emailed them and they recommended, as matches to Lumiere's light med gold or med beige FF, lightest2, light2, light3, med light2, and prairie wheat and french toast in simple radiance formula.   WAHAAAAAAAAAA no one has ever recommended their lightest foundation to me, though it seems that Joppa runs dark, but still, looking at lightest2, it kinda looks like meow's naughty angora?   I have this feeling the pics on the site look different from the real thing.

Anyway, I forgot all about ordering as it was Chinese New Year's Eve last night, and of course we were getting all geared up for the big festival, new clothes, reunion dinner, cleaning and packing, snacks and goodies for visitors (and ourselves too!) during CNY... okay...I admit it, I'm not the one doing most of the work!  We had yummy yummy home-made self-wrapped popiah (or spring roll) for our reunion dinner.  Our whole family was there of course, we had a reunion (oops lameeee!)  I love popiah, but we only get to eat this once a year, it's quite alot of work to prepare.

I don't really stick to the tradition of buying new clothes for CNY, but this year I have a new shopping buddy (who's doing too much enabling imho, lol), who invited me to go shopping with her last week and so... I have new clothes!  Heeeee!  Nothing fancy or formal though.  I'm mostly a very casual gal ;p

Joppablush

Ahem back to Joppa.  So as I was saying, I forgot all about ordering, and suddenly woke up and went *#&@(#&!!  The free ship ends on Wednesday at midnight!  And I don't know what time zone Joppa is in!  I jumped up and quickly ordered!  I got three of those foundation sample kits.  And I couldn't resist the blush sample pack, though I really didn't plan on getting that... (wanted to just get a few blush samples at 1.50 each, but the pack is $8 for all of them!!!!) and then I threw in some e/s samples, just a few, they're just $0.50 each haaa.... erm yep that's all... Yay!!!  More samples I don't need!  Gee I need to stop sampling :((  Oh maybe just Dreamworld, then that's it....

So ladies, anyone who's still wondering about Joppa, quick, make your order, free shipping ends soon!  Joppa is in Quincy, MI... Michigan?  And don't forget the code TEN for another 10% off ;p

http://www.joppaminerals.com/

Now that that's done, I'm gonna go catch a few more winks before people start appearing at my home!

A very Happy Chinese New Year to all!  May you find HGs and more HGs in the new year！

恭喜发财，万事如意！(Which means wishing you prosperity, and may all things go according to your wishes!)