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Showing posts with label bath and body works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bath and body works. Show all posts

Monday, July 7, 2014

The Shopping Diaries (4th of July Special): TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack, J. Crew, GUESS, Bath & Body Works

Hey all!

It has been about six months since I've last posted anything on this blog ><. I know I'm such a terrible blogger but I hadn't been inspired for some reason. I don't know. I feel like I'm going through this odd phase of not really knowing what I want or what I want to do in life, even though I enjoy fashion. I am attempting to get an online associate's degree in fashion merchandising from SNHU, so hopefully by taking these courses, I'll feel something that'll help shine a light on the path I want to take :). There are other personal reasons that have been plaguing me, but let's not get into that.

I must say that I have to give myself a pat on the back for not shopping in over a month. I would've liked to have extended that but the sales were absolutely RIDICULOUSLY good for the weekend holiday. The first two items were bought by my mom, but the rest was bought by me. Let's get into it! 


White Laser Cut Cover-Up: This was something my mom saw and thought was super cute (hence the reason why she bought it for me). To be honest, I don't go to the beach and I haven't swam in at least 5-6 years. This is supposed to be used as a cover up for your swimsuit, but when I tried it on, I thought I could still wear it with some leggings or a nude slip. I think this is a great, airy summery dress, especially for Hawaii weather. The cutouts are really delicate and feminine, which is something that I usually don't gravitate towards, or at least right now. It was originally $40 and TJ Maxx listed it as $24.99. The brand is Solitaire Swim.


Palm Island Shea Butter Soap: Once again, my mom found this and saw that there were two, so she got me one ^^b. The reason why she got these soaps was because the scent was freaking amazing! The scent is Grapefruit Ginger and while I don't like to eat grapefruit, it works as a soap. When I smell this soap, I think of a luxury tropical spa, a perfect setting for Hawaii I think! This was originally $10 and listed price was $4.99.


Embroidered Black Bralette (TOPSHOP): Nordstrom Rack was having their Clear the Rack sale, which was amazing because you got an extra 25% off of red-mark clearance items. So of course I had to check out the long lines of sales racks. Because I'm such a big fan of Topshop, I'm always subconsciously searching for their items whenever I'm here. Was I ever so surprised to find this bralette AND in a size 2! I definitely remember this from last year, but hey I have no problem getting it more than a year later for $11 (say wuuuttttt?!?!?). Yes, you read that correctly! This was originally $40, then was on clearance for $14.97, and with the extra 25% reduction, it was $11.34. I couldn't pass up this great deal hehe!


Hazy Floral Print Top (TOPSHOP): This was another amazing find that I almost missed. I had just gone down one side of the rack and thought that was it, but then quickly realized I had another section to browse and that's where I found this top. There was a sheer lavender floral peplum top that I was tempted to purchase too, but as a size 4, it was a little flowy and loose, which I wouldn't have minded, but I got a second opinion. That's all right because to be honest I felt more strongly about this top rather than the other. This was a size 4 and this too was much more flowy but it wasn't as loose. Another reason why I couldn't pass this up because it was exactly the same price as the bralette. This was originally $44, reduced to $14.97, then extra reduction to $11.43!


Black Straw Hat (J. Crew): I've been on the look out for a chic black summer hat to protect my face from the harmful sun rays. J. Crew was having an amazing sale. I usually don't go into this store because it's quite pricey, but they had an extra 50% off on their sale items. I must say there were a lot of cute items that I would've loved to take home with me, but I was able to resist. Plus, I was with my mom and she's a real Debbie Downer lol. Anyways, this hat was on sale for $24.99 (orig. $34.50), so this meant I only paid $13.40 tax included for this hat! I was incredibly happy and now I own something from J. Brand hehe :P


HW Bleached Cutoffs (GUESS): I went into Guess the previous week and my eyes immediately zoomed to this pair of shorts. I just really loved the bleached effect and I already knew that Guess high-waist shorts were the perfect pair of sexy-cute without being desperate if that makes any sense. Plus, they covered the bum, which is the most important part! I hadn't purchased it then, but I did end up getting it! I consider these mid high-waist because you can still see the belly-button, so I need to pair it with some mid-length crop tops to balance it out since I don't like showing a thick band of stomach. If it's just a sliver, then that's fine for me :).


Simple White Wallflower Burner Plug (B&BW): My last stop was at B&BW because I needed another wallflower plug since mine had burned out. I think that's the one annoying thing about these things is that they easily burn out after using 4-5 wallflowers. That's about how long mine lasted. I don't mind repurchasing these because I think it's a better way to scent your room instead of using candles (tho now I have a butt-ton of candles that I still need to burn lol). I don't mind burning candles every now and then, but having to not worry about fire hazards is really convenient. I was tempted to buy the cute plugs with the sailboat or koi, which were $8.50, but I figured if these don't have major longevity, there's really no point. I love simple white items so this was perfect. I had a 20% off coupon off one regular priced item that my mall was having for the weekend, so I applied this to my purchase. The simple plugs are about $4.50, so I ended spending $3.60.

Here ends the shopping haul for the weekend. This was an eventful 4th of July weekend if I do say so myself. I went to the driving range for a bit and spent the rest of the day in Kailua to wait for the fireworks display, which was really lovely. You can catch a video clip of the fireworks if you click onto my instagram. Then the next day was shopping with my mom. The day after that, I saw How To Train Your Dragon 2 with my dad. While I wasn't into the first movie (actually I never make it past 10 minutes), I thought this was really good. There were some heart wrenching parts that I wasn't expecting, although for the first half hour or so, I kept on thinking how did Hiccup lose his foot since I never finished the first movie lol. But overall, great movie.

I do hope to continue blogging. I had prepared some other pictures for future posts, but never got around to it. I'm hoping now that I'll be inspired to post more. And if I'm feeling really adventurous, I may post in my cooking section if this one recipe that I'm going to attempt to try works out! I won't say what to keep it a surprise, but if it fails, I'll mention it in a future post :P

Thanks for reading!
Lauren

Monday, August 19, 2013

The Shopping Diaries: Bath & Body Works, PINK, Sephora, Longs

Hello all!

I went on a little shopping spree at Ala Moana where I met my friend Sam for the day. I was having a really tough week and continued to struggle afterwards, but I was really happy and grateful that I got to spend time with my dear friend.

I had some birthday coupons to spend since my birthday was on the 14th! Even though it can be kind of irritating when you continuously get a whole bunch of emails from stores that you give your address to, I think it's still worth it to get the birthday incentives :). Now onto the haul!


Lakeside, Autumn Bay, Black Pepper Bergamot, Sandalwood Citrus: I didn't get any coupons from B&BW, but I was initially interested in their 2 for $15 mason jar candles that I saw in my email. I asked one of the storepersons about it and he had no bloody idea what I was talking about, so I just shrugged it off thinking that I may have been mistaken. It turns out I was correct because as I was walking outside of the store, I saw a big sign advertising that sale. Anyways, I think I came out with the better deal hehe. When B&BW had their 2 for $22 3-wick candle sale a while ago, I had considered purchasing Lakeside, but I felt that I had a candle that was already similar to the scent. I decided to get it this time around because all their previous season 3-wick candles were 50% off. I really love the slight musk with a hint of citrus scent. It turns out that I really like candles that have either a musky or clean scent to it, which is why I picked out these three minis: Autumn Bay, Black Pepper Bergamot, and Sandalwood Citrus. These three minis are from the new batch of candles for Fall. If I'm able to burn through a good bunch of the candles that I already have, I will definitely get these in the bigger size!


Fresh & Clean Body Scrub: Victoria Secret sent me a $10 coupon to use on anything and I decided on this body scrub since I was interested in getting underwear. It was originally $18 but in the end I paid $8 plus tax. I actually didn't recognize the scent until I smelled it. The reason being is that the last time I got the lotion form, it was still in its old packaging and this was the first time I saw it like this. Instead of getting the lotion, I decided to try the scrub. It smells like how it is named so I really enjoy it!


Meet for Drinks, Metro Chic, Dance Til Fawn: Sephora was having a 3 for $10 sale on their O.P.I nail polishes. I was hoping to get an undercoat as well since I barely had any left, but they were out of any base or top coats. I had come in with a list of polishes that I was interested in getting, but they literally had only one of the colors that I wanted, which was Metro Chic. But I'm still happy with the two other colors that I got. I think these colors will transition nicely into fall and continue to be a nice fall staple. Meet for Drinks is a deep, shimmery maroon color that I'm absolutely in love with. I have a red shimmery polish that I got from VS during their annual sale, but I really prefer this shade due to the sultriness of the red. Metro Chic is a pretty taupey color with a purple undertone, which I'm totally in love with. Lastly is Dance Til Fawn which is much truer to a taupe shade. I love my taupes hehe!


Perfect Truth CC Creme Sample & Birthday Pack: I received a sample of Ole Henriksen's Perefect Truth CC Creme and I must say, for a Western BB cream, it's not bad! The coverage is still on the light side and it's not as great as my Korean BB creams, but it's still pretty good. I tried it and thought it did a good job of covering some of my acne blemishes albeit going over some of the spots again with my Korean BB cream. Would I purchase this? No, but it's quite good for those who prefer Western BB creams.

I love Benefit's they're Real mascara and I was really happy to have a mini version to carry around. Then I got the mini Watts up! highlighter. I think highlighters go really nicely with fairer-skinned girls, but with my skin tone, you can't really tell I applied it on lol. I'm still fair but I do have some coloring. Perhaps I'm not applying it on very well?


Green Tea Cleansing Tissues & Multi-Care Base+Top Coat: I was in the market for a new make-up cleansing wipe and my friend suggested epielle's Green Tea Cleansing Tissues. So far, I really like it and it gets off A LOT of make-up and it leaves my skin feeling nice and soft. I still go over it with my Clarisonic afterwards, but I'm hoping that with both products it'll improve my skin. Also, my friend pointed out this multi-care base and top coat from Revlon so I'm excited to try it.

Sorry for getting lazy with my posting hehe. I have so much material in draft form, but I'm slowly getting my motivation back, so hopefully I can get out my next posts every other day. So stay tuned for the next episode!

Thanks for reading!
-LAUREN