Empties: Vol. 1

Product empties are one of my favorite topics to watch on youtube and read on blogs.  It feels so motivating to read about how other people can use up so many products so quickly!  I've finally saved enough products to do an empties post, along with a short review of each of the products!

Walmart Fall 2014 Beauty Box

Earlier this month, Nouveau Cheap posted on her blog that Walmart is coming out with a seasonal subscription box service.  The box itself was free, but shipping was $5.  I thought that was a great deal since the promotional picture for the box included a full size Secret Clinical Strength deodorant which is definitely worth more than $5.

Things You Might Forget for College

Last week I talked about some things that you might not need for college.  This week, I will be talking about some things you might forget to pack for college.  Since most people are busy packing extra underwear, school supplies, etc, here are some things that you will most likely need some time during the school year.

So while you are packing for school, don't forget these items!

1. Cash.  This is simple but always have some cash on you!  You might not need to carry it with you all the time on campus, but it's useful when you do need it.  Its really helpful when you're going out with friends and are splitting the bill.  Also helpful if you don't want your parents to know where you are spending your money at!  
2. Formal, Semi-formal, party outfits.  These outfits are very important to have around, even though you might not wear them at all during the school year.  It's nice to have a formal attire in case you need to interview for a job or some position.  Semi-formal attires are good to have around for fraternity or sorority recruitment events.  Party outfits... I think that's self explanatory.  
3. Water Heater/Boiler.  Perfect for quick tea, or instant ramen.  I loved having one around and its helped me prepared so many fast instant noodle meals!
4. Over the Door Hook.  The hook is quite a space saver.  It'll help you organize some things in your room because you now have a place to hang up worn clothes and/or jackets.  I personally don't like to hang my worn clothes back into the closet, so its helpful to hang them on the over the door hook.
5. Umbrella and Winter Coats.  Even though school starts at the end of summer, there is still a chance of random rain showers or cold spell before winter actually approaches.  Its really helpful to have an umbrella and a coat when just in case something like this happens.

So what are some of the items you think are necessary that some people might forget to bring?

Monthly Wishlist: September 2014

I am always lusting over things I don't have and my wish list is over a mile long.  I thought I would share some of it every month.  Sooo... here are the items in my wish list for September 2014:

Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask.  This product has been raved by every other youtuber and blogger.  I honestly don't know anything about this product besides that its pretty thick and makes a great overnight lip treatment.  I've heard the metal packaging can be difficult to deal with as well.  Currently I believe you can only get this at Sephora for $26.  I don't think I will be getting this for a while because I have a product that I love for my overnight lip treatment and I am happy with it.  If I ever feel fancy and find myself with a spare $30, I will pick it up; but until then, I won't be losing sleep over wanting this product.

Too Faced La Creme Lipsticks.  I swear I've heard almost every youtuber I've subscribed to rave about Too Faced La Creme lipsticks.  I honestly didn't really care for it since the price tag of $22 is a bit steep for me.  However, there are some shades I've been lusting and I wouldn't mind trying them out when I have a bit more disposable cash on hand.  Some of the shades I've been lusting over are: Sweet Maple, Divine Wine, Bumbleberry, Loganberry, and Teddy Berry. 

Sephora Collection Kiss Me Balm.  I remembered seeing this on musingofamuse's post and after seeing her swatch of the shade Soda Pop, I knew that had to be in my possession one of these days.  I believe eleventhgorgeous also featured these in one of their sephora haul videos a few months ago.  You can find these for $8 at sephora and I have a strong feeling Soda Pop will be mine within the next year or so.

Too Faced Melted Berry.  Holy cow!  This particular shade was literally love at first swatch for me!  Last week I had some spare time so I roamed around Ulta swatching things, like usual.  For some reason I ended up at the Too Faced counter and decided to swatch their Melted lipsticks.  I remembered being disappointed that I didn't like any of their original shades but this time I came across the new shade Melted Berry.  I don't follow high end makeup brands as closely as I follow drugstore brands, since I can't afford the high end brands as easily, so I wasn't aware Too Faced came out with new shades to their melted lipstick line.  (I thought the new shades were limited edition shades for the Holidays...)  Anyways, I came across Melted Berry and decided to sheer out the color for my swatch and fell in love with the shade!  I probably would have purchased it that day if they had it on the shelves, but luckily for my wallet, they didn't.  I will say I am most likely purchasing this during sephora's VIB sale later on this year and I can't wait to sport it during the holiday season.  I honestly think $21 is a pretty good deal, especially for me since I will only wear a sheer layer of it so it should last me quite a while.

These are the products I've been lusting over, some longer than the others.  I didn't think my first wish list would be all lip products, but it just happened this way.  I honestly can't wait to have some of these in my hands to play with in the future.

Have you tried any of these items before?  And what are some of the things you've been lusting on?

Things You Might Not Need For College

Some people, like myself, tend to overpack for everything.  When I packed for college I ended up bringing almost a full mini-van of things, half of which I didn't even end up using or needing.  So I figured I can put together a list of things that you might be able to get away without, especially your first or second year of college.

So here are some things you might not need for college...

1. Car.  I can say from personal experience, you definitely don't need a car to survive college.  Without a car, you don't have to worry about money expenses that comes with owning a car: car insurance, parking permit and gas.  You also don't have to worry about giving rides to your friends, finding parking spots, and worrying about someone breaking into your car.  I will admit there are perks of having a car at your disposable, but you can get around by making friends who have cars.
2. Printer.  I definitely love having my printer with me at school but once again, there are ways to get around without a printer.  At my alma mater, all the computer science and engineering students get free, unlimited printing from the department.  I'm pretty sure it is like that at most schools with certain degree.  If you happened to be the unlucky few that aren't privileged, you can make friends who are the chosen ones.  Also in some schools, the dorms provide a limited amount of free printing pages per semester for the students.  For my sister, her dorms provided her with about 200 pages of printing per semester and I always encouraged her to use those pages up before using our printer (partially so that I can keep our laserjet printer at home for a bit longer).
3. Refrigerator.  Chances are high that if it's your first two years, you won't be doing much cooking.  Heck, you probably won't even have access to a kitchen so you won't have to worry about having groceries.  The only time you might need a refrigerator is when you have some leftovers but you can always temporarily store that in a friend's mini-fridge or in a communal fridge.  
4. Microwave.  Microwaves are such a handy tool for college.  You can make a handful of meals using microwave, but you definitely can live without one.  My sister's school does not allow her to have a personal microwave in her room, so I know you can survive without one.  Instead the school provided a communal microwave to each dorm for the students to use.  It can be a bit inconvenient, but you will survive.
5. Bookshelf.  I actually didn't realize how helpful bookshelves are until I didn't have one.  I found it really useful to have a place to store all my books and binders when I'm not using them, rather than transferring them from my desk to my chair to my bed.  Now even though it's useful, you don't need your own bookshelf.  Most schools would provide you one somewhere in the room; during my college years, I had a bookshelf in my room for my freshman and sophomore year.  I brought my own for my remaining years, but that might be because I lived in an on-campus apartment.  
6. *Bonus* Textbooks.  This one is a bit controversial but I believe you don't need a textbook for every single one of your class.  There are some classes where you can get away without buying a textbook, but there are others where you will need one.  For instance, if you're taking a math class and your professor assigns homework problems from the textbook, it would be a great idea to get your own book.  You can most likely borrow a textbook from your school library for several hours but if you are going to be using it often, it is better to just have your own copy.  On the other hand, I had a Microbiology course where the professor would tell us what our required readings from the textbook was.  For each midterm, she would assign several pages of reading to do from the book and she will include some questions specific to the reading.  So for that class, I would go to the library to xerox those pages to read before a midterm and read it before a midterm.

So what are some things that you might have overpacked for college?

Overplayed Songs on the Radio - Vol. 1

I love listening to the radio whenever I'm in the car, mainly to and from work or some weekend hangouts.  During my drives, I usually listen to 3-4 different stations that are popular around the area.  I love the songs that are on the radio (the top whatever songs on the itunes) and I love some of the DJs on the air too.  Recently I've noticed that there are some songs that all the stations play every other five songs OR all the stations play the song at the same time.  These songs are great when they first came out but I have grown tired of these songs because the radio stations have played it so much.  Whenever these songs come on the radio, I tend to change the radio station to avoid hearing these songs.

Please don't take this the wrong way; I loved these songs when I first heard them but after hearing it for the millionth time, I am definitely tired of hearing these songs now.

Katy Perry - Dark Horse
Disclosure - Latch
Nico & Vinz - Am I Wrong
Magic! - Rude

These songs have been on the radio for a while now and I can't wait until more new songs come out on the radio.  I am noticing that there is a new batch of songs that the radio stations are starting to overplay so I'm sure I'll be talking about those songs soon.

What are some of the songs you guys are tired of hearing recently?

College Tips

September is here and most people are heading back to school, if they're not back yet.  My sister started last week but I know most public schools in California don't start until early October this year!  So I thought I can share some of my tips for surviving college, the academic side for now, since I've been through it myself and I feel like I'm going through it again with my sister currently.

So here are some of my tips for college...

1. Attend classes.  I know this may seem straightforward, but there are people who don't attend classes (and I was one of them once upon a time...).  Attend your lectures because you are paying your professors to teach you things and to explain concepts to you that might be too hard to learn yourself!  Depending on the subject, your professor might take attendance and have that be part of your final grade!  If not, professors sometimes will hint at what topics will be covered in the upcoming midterms, or even cover materials that are not included in their powerpoint presentations.  So it is very helpful to attend your classes!  Plus, do you know how much money you are wasting when you skip ONE lecture?  
2. Office hours.  While I was in school, one of the tips I kept hearing from my relatives was to attend office hours.  And when my sister first started college, one of the first things I told her was to attend office hours.  Office hours are a great way to interact with the professor in a smaller group setting.  If you don't understand certain things they went over in a lecture, they'll be happy to go over it in more details with you in office hours.  Sometimes professors will hold study groups during their office hours to help you prepare for their upcoming exam.  Its also a great way for professors to put faces to the names they see on their roosters and the test scores.  Attending office hours can only benefit you; at the end of the semester when they are calculating your final grade, they might boost up your grade in your favor if they see that you've attended office hours and put in a lot of effort in their class.
3. Strategic schedule.  Know what kind of time frames you prefer and try to schedule your classes around that.  Personally I love to have my classes in the morning/early afternoon and labs in the afternoon so I have my nights free.  If you have trouble waking up in the morning, then schedule your classes in the afternoon so that you won't have trouble waking up for the classes.  Also it is good to know if you prefer breaks in-between your classes or if you like having back to back classes.  I personally enjoyed back to back classes so that I won't have some random gap in my day where it's too short for me to go back to my room but too long for me to just bum around on campus with nothing to do.  Choose class times that will be the most efficient for your productivity. 
4. Pick the right load.  Do not spread yourself too thinly.  From personal experience, I would suggest to everyone that they only take two "hardcore" classes at a time.  Chances are you will be taking up to four classes per quarter/semester and out of those four, I would suggest that two of them should be an easy A/B classes where you don't have to spend the majority of your time studying for those classes.  You want to focus your time on your classes that are going towards your major, since they will most likely be more challenging.  I know this might not always work out in your favor, but try not to take too many hard classes at once.  It will only burn you out faster and damage your gpa in the long run.

Hope everyone has a great school year ahead and if you have any helpful tips, please leave them down below!

Monthly Mission - September 2014

Happy September!  Holy cow, three quarters of the year already passed by and the holiday season is just around the corner!  Each month I want to start having five little monthly goals/missions that I want to work on, along with five products that I want to focus on using.  I figured this would be a good way to improve myself each month and a good way to incorporate something new into my daily routine.

So without further blabbering, here are my five missions for September 2014:

1. 30 Day Challenge.  More specifically, 30 day abs challenge.  I started something like this back in April but I didn't finish all 30 days.  I believe back then I got up to day 24 or something and I stopped.  Recently, I've been feeling a bit bloated, and I've noticed that my eating habits have changed (I've been eating out a lot more and eating random junk food in-between meals). I really want to tone my abs area, and if I get abs, that'll be a bonus!  I'll be combining two different challenges (abs challenge & beach body challenge) since I noticed that when I did the abs challenge by itself, I did not see any sort of results until after 20+ days.  This time, I am hoping that by combining these two I'll get to see the results faster, making the challenges a bit more rewarding.
2. Read one book a month.  I really enjoy reading but lately I've noticed that I haven't made time to sit down and open a book.  Recently, I started listening to various audiobooks and I found that it is a lot easier to just listen to audiobook as I'm going about my day rather than finding time to sit down and read.  This month I want to make some time to read a physical book along with listening to different audiobooks.
3. Take vitamins daily.  I have a bad habit of not taking vitamins daily.  I think it is starting to affect me because I feel like I don't have enough energy to carry me through my whole day.  I have the pack of gummy multi-vitamins from Costco and I haven't really touched it in a long time.  Hopefully this will start a habit of taking daily vitamins for the rest of my life (or is it a wishful thinking..?)
4. Make lists and schedules.  I think I have a lot of random thoughts in my head and I need to dump it all out somewhere.  I've read somewhere that some people take certain amount of time in their days and have a little brain dump session.  I think that can be beneficial to me to get everything on paper so that I'm not constantly afraid of forgetting to do something or forgetting some new ideas.
5. Blog schedule.  I want to into the habit of incorporating blogging into my routine.  And in order to do that, I really need to start setting strict schedule to myself and start planning ahead of time for me to achieve what I want to achieve with this blog.  Hopefully this month will allow me to get into the swing of things.

And now the five products I want to focus on this month:

1. Clean & Clear Moisturizer.  I've had this moisturizer for a while now and I need to start using this more now that I finished using up my Garnier gel moisturizer.  
2. L'oreal Lash Out Mascara.  This was so hyped up when it first came out a few months ago and I totally jumped on the bandwagon and fell in love with this mascara!  It is definitely my favorite mascara I've tried so far and I want to use this up so I can try some other ones I've purchased recently.  (plus, I have a few backup that I got a while back)
3. Elf Liquid Lipstick in Perfect Pink.  When I first bought this shade, I was a bit scared that the pink would be too blue based for my skin tone but I was decently surprised to find that I like how it looks on me.  The formula is a bit sticky but it does leave a nice sheer tint on my lips.  I don't think it's pigmented enough to be called a liquid lipstick but it is a decent lip gloss for $1.
4. EOS Lip Balm in Strawberry Sorbet.  This lip balm just won't quit!  I've been trying to use this up for the past several months and I can't wait to use it all up!  I don't remember taking this long with my first EOS lip balm but I am slowly getting through it.
5. Jergen BB Body Cream.  Another item that was hyped up in the beauty world, and I fell victim to the bandwagon.  I will say it has a nice scent to it and it does leave my legs nice and soft.  I don't think it leaves my legs looking magical but it does make a good daily moisturizer for my legs.

So these are my goals/mission for the month of September.  I hope to accomplish these and make these into habits to help me with my every day life.  

Sooo, what are some of your goals for this month and how do you plan to accomplish them?