Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift + StrawberryNet.com Review

Greetings loved ones!!


   Today is Friday, a wonderful day today here in Greece and the weekend is just around the corner!!!

   Today i decided to write to you about a thing that my heart desired for two years now and got the chance to hold it in my hands just last week. The Wonderstruck perfume by Taylor Swift. I also have mentioned it in this post, and i wanted to own this perfume the day it came out. I think it was October 2011. Well now this time came!

   Whenever i tried to order it online (they don't sell it here in Greece) i found out that the sellers, didn't ship either to Europe or to Greece in particular.... (unfair!!). The only site i fell upon that stated they had world wide delivery and sold this specific perfume was strawberrynet.com .

   At first i was sceptic about this site as it wasn't well known to me. But i decided to take the risk. Comes out that everything went perfect!!

   They state that deliveries arrive within 4-6 working days in big cities, 7-10 other places. They also state it may take up to 14 days for certain delivery. And in any case you can contact with them in any way, for them to help you trace your delivery. I didn't need to use that service. My delivery arrived on the 11th working day (the day that i made the order included). Not bad! (even though i consider the city i live in as a big city :/  )

   The price was 45euros for the 100ml bottle. They always charge a 10% on the total value if you order only perfumes (something with airport regulation and fees) but at that point that i made my order they had a 10% off on all perfumes, so i didn't have to pay the extra ''perfume fee''. ALSO they have FREE DELIVERY worldwide. (apart from various extra fees as above)

   What's more about this site, they try to keep good costumer trust and devotion. That's why on every buy, if you buy with the same contact information they give you some percentage off. More here. It was my fisrt buy though, that's why i don't have an opinion on it. What i know is that for every new costumer, you get a free full sized gift!!!

   Gifts change almost everyday (i enjoy visiting the site daily and watch silly things as such). At that time, when i placed my order, i could choose between a a face primer, a foundation (i don't use either of those) and a lip gloss....... Here you have it. My choice was the lip gloss. It was by Calvin Klein and the only colour that was left was a black one. I didn't prefer it but something is better than nothing. Right? So i chose this one. More details later...

   So, not to long story, here is how the box came in.

Excuse my hand, it is there for practical reasons, to hide my personal information and address.

As you can see for yourselves, it came wrapped up with this beautiful purple ribbon. Nothing special, but it's little details like that, that make you feel happy.    :)

More pics of the box

Top

Side

Inside

And the content of the box.

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The perfume was brand new, the box of it wrapped with the classic transparent thin plastic, that all new packages are wrapped with. And over that, the people at StrawberryNet.com wrapped it with this beautiful pink wrapping paper.

More pics of the bottle

   What can i say........ Perfection..............

   The bottle feels heavy and sturdy in your hands. Also the cap closes firmly. The charms are heavy but you can easily tell from touch that they are faux.

   The bottle reflects the daylight nicely and takes different colouring according to lighting. At some points ,again according to lighting, you can see the level of the perfume inside, and at others you can't. The bottle becomes opacifying.

   Moving on to the scent, the scent is reeeeally weird. Sweet and fruity at the beginning but the more you wear it, it  becomes salty, even like oriental spices. It is a mixture of sweet saltiness...... Not very helpfull right? I may be wrong though and this might just be my own opinion. Who knows, maybe you'll think different of this scent.

   Nonetheless is a rich and bewildering smell. A smell that you can't easily get rid of.

   The only ''dissapointment'' from the whole experience from buying from StrawberryNet.com, was that the cap and star charm came a little defective.

The cap was scrapped on the top

It was like this from the moment i opened up it's box

And the star charm was broken a little at the tips

I don't hold grudge against the site, as i know the bottle wasn't used. It came firmly closed with the trasparent plastic as i stated before. The defectiveness must have came from the long trip.

Also i noticed that the star charm is a little too sensitive. More tips got broken since the day i got the perfume.

One last pic with the whole ''family''

And now about the gift i received with the perfume as a gift for my first purchase from StrawberryNet.com

The Calvin Klein lip gloss!

The shade is called ''Black Diamond'' and as you can see for yourselves, it is a black colour with silver shimmer. Honestly i would NEVER buy a black lipstick or lipgloss. It looks scary from the packaging, doesn't it? But when i placed the order, it was the only colour available, so i picked it perforce.

Proved out that i was wrong. Black lipgloss isn't a bad choice after all.

It doesn't come out black on your lips, as i thought at first. In fact what it does is to give a deeper hue either of the colour of your lips, if applied alone, or of the lipstick you are wearing. I will give you an example bellow.

Bellow follow three swatches. The first is the lipgloss alone, second is a swatch from my red lipstick "Russian Red" by Mac and the third swatch it the two of them combined. Russian Red by Mac topped over with Black Diamond by Calvin Klein.

As i hope the above pictures make clear to you, what the black lipgloss does, is to make the colour of the lipstick more dark and intense. 

Cool right?

It's like with only one product you can renew all your lipsticks and like so ''double'' your collection. You can now have dark lipsticks without having to actually buy them. You can darken the ones you already own with this lipgloss.

   I didn't actually search up on the net the price for this product but i'm sure it's going to be kinda pricy as it is from a well known brand. Meaning i would never have thought to buy it on my own. So thanks go to StrawberryNet that gave me the gift alongside the perfume.

A little more feedback about the lipgloss, it doesn't smell anything and is a little bit sticky. That is good though because it makes it more longlasting.

SO DEAR CAT READERS, how did you find my buy and review? Hope i didn't tire you.

Till the next time loved ones,

kisses and a paw

Book Corner: Goosebumps haul N4 + Book Bazaars haul N1

Good afternoon cat readers!!!

How are you doing?? I hope excellent! :) Thursday is the day and what's better than a book haul!

   Again i borrowed some Goosebumps from my local lending library. I never got the chance to read them all when i was young so now i am on a personal goal to read all the Goosebumps that my library owns, so as to fullfil my childhood unfinished try. Back then , don't laugh, i got really scared of Goosebumps thats why i read only a few of them. Now that i am older they are really boring to read and don't have the same sensation but i force my self to read them as to fullfil my goal......


   Moving on, this time's Goosebumps:

 Books from left to right and top to bottom are:

Goosebumps N9 : Welcome to Camp Nightmare
Goosebumps N30 : It Came From Beneath The Sink!
Goosebumps N32 : The Barking Ghost
Goosebumps N47 : Legend of the Lost Legend
Goosebumps N50 : Calling All Creeps!


And from behind:

   To add something  more to this post, yesterday i visited a ''book bazaar'' that takes place in my city. The words ''book bazaar'' are in brackets as the owner does it for a living so it isn't just a temporary event. I just used the words ''book bazaar'' because they sound more interesting.

   In general i have visited other book bazaars in the past and i really enjoy them as i can find cheap, interesting, new books that i hadn't in mind to read. From these past visits i have bought quite an amount of books that i plan to show you in next posts.

   For this time's book bazaar haul, the bazaar consisted of old, weird, used books that their prices were mostly between 2-3-5 euros (according to their size). Some other books that were bigger in size, cost 10. The owner said that book are easy to be sold, so they are renewed really often. That means that i will pay this place visits more times than once.

Here are my choices!

Front

And from behind

From left to right the title, author and price are :
The House of Sleeping Beauties , Kawabata Yasunari , 2euros
The Red Pavilion , Robert Van Gulik , 3 euros


   Kawabata Yasunari, as the book says from behind, is the only japanese author to ever be awarded with a nobel price in literature. I also happen to own another book of his called ''Snow Country'' where it says inside that Kawabate commited suicide. Only to know this detail gives me the chills and makes his book even ''deeper''. I only read a few pages from Snow Country (i will finish it sometime) and felt the heavy atmosphere of the book.

   This one, The House of Sleeping Beauties, says in a description on wikipedia "The titular house is an establishment where old men pay to sleep besides young girls that had been narcotized and happen to be naked, the sleeping beauties. The old men are expected to take sleeping pills and share the bed for a whole night with a girl without attempting anything of "bad taste" like "putting a finger inside their mouths". Eguchi is presented with a different girl each time he visits the house because of the short notice of his visits. He discovers that all girls are virgins which somehow compels him to comply with the house rules. Each girl is different and the descriptions of his actions are mixed with the dreams that he has sleeping besides the girls."

Interesting right?



   The second one, The Red Pavilion, as i understood from the description behind the book, is about solving the mystery behind a series of murders that take place on the ''Paradise Island'' ?! A detective story in other words.


   In case you didn't already notice, i am really drawn to asian books, books that have to deal with asian culture.



   That were my choices from this bazaar. I also have books from previous bazaars that i can't wait to share with you!!!


Till the next time,
kisses my loves

Essence and H&M make-up haul / review

Goodmorning everyone!!!

   Today it's Saturday. For some a relaxing day for others not as much (me included). On Saturdays we usually do house work, clean and stuff like that, but still i found some time to write this post that i was meaning to write for some days now.

   Almost a week ago (previous to last Friday), i went on a little shoppings spree. I bought myself some stuff, among them a bag of cheap make-up goodies from Essence and H&M. I am always a sucker for cheap make-up products........

   For those of you who don't know, Essence is a German brand with a big variety of cheap AND quality products.

   Moving on, here is the haul/review of what i got.

H&M

Essence

Name Listing and prices

H&M (from top to bottom)

• Reb Blusher in Autumn Flower , 6g weight , 3.95euros
• Liquid  Eyeliner in Purple , 3.5ml , 2.95euros
• Liquid  Eyeliner in Blue , 3.5ml , 2.95euros
• Liquid  Eyeliner in Green , 3.5ml , 2.95euros
• Metallic eyeshadow pallet , 7.5g (i suppose all eyeshadows together) , 4.95euros
• Lipgloss in You Make Me Smile , 5ml , 3.95euros
• Lipgloss in You And Me , 5ml , 3.95euros

Essence (from top to bottom)

• Glow tinted lip balm in 03 Brighten Up! , 1.9g ,  2.89euros
• Glow tinted lip balm in 01 Light Up! , 1.9g ,  2.89euros
• Gel tint in 04 Pink Exposed , 5 ml , 2.49euros
• Metal Glam Eyeshadow in 08 N'ice Frosting , 2.7g , 2.99euros

Up close one by one

Nice colours but mediocre payoff. Not thaaat bad ( i have another pallet form H&M called Shimmer which is way worse, very little colour payoff ). With primer i hope to have better results.

The lip glosses now. They are very pigmented and thick in consistency. Nice colour payoff as well. They are sticky on your lips , a feeling that i am not really fond of. Nonetheless i try to endure it as it makes the lipgloss more longlasting. Don't expect miracles though. After some hours the lipgloss just disappears from your lips (even though you still feel the stickiness).

Don't let my review frighten you. I would repurchase this product as the colours are amazing and come out exactly the same on your lips.

I love H&M liquid eyeliners. The applicator isn't that handy but still.

I already had 4 older colours ( deep purple , gold , shimmery brown , and a weirdish green) and i super loved them. They were waterproof , stayed on aaaall day , amazing colours. So as soon as i saw these 3 new colours i went ahead and bought them all.

From my little experience they are the same good quality as their predecessors. Just a little tooo fair colours that makes them harder to use but who cares. I'll figure out a way.

What can i say. I was a fool for the nice packaging. I knew this product was gonna suck but still i bought it. 

The blush itself is really soft to the touch but it should be used with GREAT attention. One little dub on your cheecks and you already look like a clown and what's worse than that is that you cannot blend it away. Once the brush touches your face you have a red mark that won't move. The only solution is to "calm the colour down" but applying powder on top.

Another fun fact, the shitty brush underneath smells indescribably bad. Like petroleum......

General Impresions : H&M make-up products are not always the winner. Some of their products are really good others not at all. You should buy carefully and not be tricked by the low prices and cute packaging (even if it requires great psychic strength).

Lastly the Essence products

They are supposed to be lip tints that moisturize your lips at the same time (lip balms). From my experience this is true. They feel moisturizing when you put them on. As time passes, nevertheless, they start to feel chalky on you lips and you need either to reapply or use a lip balm of your own.

Colour payoff nothing too extreme.

This gel tint is supposed to tint your lips while leaving a gel finish. It's true. And the colour is buildable. The more you apply the more intense the colour becomes. And it stains your lips for good as you can see from the last picture. The last picture was taken AFTER i wiped my hand with make-up cleaning wipes!!! 

And lastly the essence metal glam eyeshadow. Really soft to the touch and impressive on the eyes. Not easy to swatch as pigmented as it shows on my finger but you can definately built it up. As i said above, this colour looks really nice on the eyes and in the inner corner more specific.

That was all dear cat readers. Hope i gave you new ideas of products you may wanna try out and hope you liked my mini reviews.

Till the next time,

many kisses loved ones