Ipsy GlamBag July 2016: Hot Summer Nights.

It truly has been a long time since I last wrote a review on one of my monthly subscription boxes, well in this case "bags". I wish I can subscribe to every single monthly box that I want...but for now I am content with the few that I have. :)

Ipsy's GlamBag is a monthly subscription in which you will receive 4-5 beauty products every month for just $10 (and that includes shipping and handling!) Michelle Phan curates the bags. You take a beauty questionnaire so that your GlamBag is filled with products that pertain to you! Each month when you receive your bag you can write a review and rate each product which will earn you points that you can turn into dollars when you buy things on their site. Not only that, but with each review you subscription will get to know you better and you should start receiving products that matches you more with each review/rate! Check it out here and get your very own Ipsy GlamBag each month! Oh yeah, and I can't forget! The reason why I say "bag" is because each month your subscription comes in a it's own make-up bag! How fun is that?! :)

You can not miss this fun, bright, shiny, and PINK package each month in your mailbox! My package usually comes towards the end of the month, but I have seen others can get there's in the first week of the month! I guess that's one of the cons of living on a rock in the middle of the ocean...but that's okay because when I do get this little package each month (even though I suck at writing reviews every month!) I get excited. I love getting things in the mail. :)

This month's theme is Hot Summer Nights. Well, it is summer...and it has been ridiculously hot lately!

 

Here is the first glance of everything that I got in my GlamBag this month. I'm excited about the mascara and I can always use brushes! That primer looks super promising too!



 BelláPierre Cosmetics Banana Setting Powder. According to the ipsy website, "the yellow tinge color-corrects to offset redness and acts as a subtle highlight. It's a face of ipsy's contour queens. Works for all skin tones from fair to dark. Helps hide under eye circles. Illuminates and looks transparent once applied" I think that I will like this product very much!

 Befine: Befine Food Skin Care. This is a night cream that "recharges your skin while you sleep." It can "reduce wrinles and prevent premature aging" as well as "improves circulation in the skin for healthier color and tone." Hm...sounds nice!

Too Faced: Hangover Replenishing Face Primer. I LOVE primer! I will always recommend using primer and I just love this product! I can never have too much primer in my make up stash! :) I'm excited to try this out!

 em cosmetics: Lash Gallery Lengthening Mascara. Since moving here to Hawai'i...it's way too humid to wear the kind of make up like when I was in dry California, so my daily wear usually consists of mascara and lipgloss. One occasion I will wear eyeliner...but for the most part, it's mascara for me! And so I am excited to try this mascara out! It's smudge/smear proof...so that's ALWAYS a good thing when it comes to mascara!

 Vasanti Cosmetics: Professional Eyeshadow Brush. I have several Vasanti brushes and I have always enjoyed using them. So I like how I got this one. :)

 This month's bag "was designed to capture the low-key, laid-back vibes of summer." I love the shininess to it...it's like a rainbow/silver iridescent like make up back. At first I thought the design was peppermint candy, but now I realize that they are just umbrellas that are casting a shadow! :)

Overall, I like this month's bag. I know that I will for sure be using 3 of the 5 products: the primer, mascara, and powder. The brush I will eventually use (since I already have a favorite eyeshadow brush that I use), and I can always at the night cream to my travel kits when I travel. I'm not to hot with the makeup bag design this month so I might give that to my niece who I know will LOVE it! But yes, this month's bag was a smile for me!:)

So come join me on ipsy and subscribe to the Glam Bag! you get 4-5 beauty products every month delivered to your door, for just $10. Michelle Phan curates the bags! Check it out here!

Paper Airplanes.

I love paper airplanes. They are so much fun and there are a lot of planes that you can make! I have made it point to learn different types of paper airplanes to make! So you can say that I was pretty stoked when one of my little darlings brought in a book about paper airplanes!

At first I was super excited because I thought it was a book that showed you how to make ONE HUNDRED different kinds of airplanes! But, not it was only four different kinds, but it had one hundred pretty paper to make airplanes from. Oh well....at least I learned 4 different ways to make airplanes.

Since, my little darling brought the book in, as a class we decided that we were going to make airplanes all day long. So I took out scrap paper, crayons, markers, and stickers and told them to decorate paper and I would make it into an airplane of their chose. I let them to two different airplanes and then we talked about the different things that we can do with our planes and then we took them outside and just had a lot of fun throwing and soaring our planes.

In all honesty, I have my favorite way to make an airplane...I think it still was the best one! *laughs* The kids had a lot of fun and so did I. I ended up making more airplanes for them during naptime because they all asked me if I can make some for their brother's and sisters...and I told them that I would...and they can decorate it at home.

It was a very fun day filled with paper airplanes. :)

(The paper airplanes that I made for my darlings' brothers and sisters!)

When I got home, two postcards were waiting for me in the mailbox! I am LOVING all these postcards that I am receiving! :) The two postcards that I got where from Germany (Deutschland) and Taiwan!

The one that I got from Germany was this amazing postcard! I absolutely love it! And you all know why! I love elephants and this is a beautiful postcard with elephants! :) The postcrosser told me that she had gone to South Africa and was able to see wild elephants in their own territory! And I think that that is amazing! I hope one day that I will be able to do that!

 

This is the one that I got from Taiwan. It's a bit scary...but it is cultural..which is cool! 

I hope the postcards keep rolling in! :)

Sacramento.

I am trying my best to like Mondays. I know that I don't have to LOVE Mondays...but I really do try to be more positive about Mondays...even though I don't, or I rarely ever sleep in...even on the weekends...it's always so hard to wake up on Mondays!

It was a good day today...but it was so bloody hot! The weather is confused. I honestly believe that the weather is confused. It doesn't know whether to be hot, cold, windy, rainy, humid...or what! Oh well...because when I got home I got another postcard!! And of all places, I got a postcard from Sacramento, California! I had to do a double look because I thought that I was just getting a postcard from a friend/family member from home! It was so awesome to get a postcard from Sacramento because I use to go there all the time!

I do miss the amazing Victorian houses and Old Town Sac and just being with friends and family hanging out there!

But here is the postcard that I received:

The postcrosser who sent me this postcard is an artist and uses antique photos in her work. She also gives history tours at a local cemetery while wearing a big Victorian dress! That's pretty awesome...maybe one day when I go home I might take a history tour there! :)

Exploring Oahu.

I am just a few weeks shy of reaching my 6th year of living here on Oahu...and there are still a few, well, a lot of places that I haven't visited. I had told myself when I first moved here that I didn't ever want to take for granted the place that I lived in. I don't know the future and so I don't know when I'll be moving to a new place to explore, so I had written out a "bucket list" of places and things that I wanted to do here on Oahu...and I have crossed off a lot of things already, but there are still things that I want to do. Today was a day that I choose to explore some of the historical places in town.

When I told my friend about my bucket list, she told me that she would love to come with me in my exploration of not only Oahu but all the Hawaiian islands...and who am I to say no?! It's always fun exploring with a friend. :)

Our day started early, but not too early...and of course we stopped at one of the best coffee stops (in my opinion!) here in Kailua. Kalapawai Market. You can come here to just chill and grab a (cheap but amazing, SUPER amazing) cup of coffee. My friend actually comes here every morning and just sits out front and just talks story with everyone! I'm not an early morning person so I don't join her...but one of these day I just might...she knows nearly everyone!

Their Hazelnut Kona Coffee is AMAZING...but since today was just super hot already I got another one of my top favorite a Dirty Chai Iced. (Like my hat?! I love it. :))

The first place that we went was The Bishop Museum. Oh my days. I think that I can come here every single weekend and just stay here! I absolutely LOVE historical museums!

This place has several buildings that you can visit...and it was hard to choose which one to go to first! I decided to go to the Hawaiian Hall Complex...and it's a EXTREMELY impressive building!

We went into the Hawaiian Hall Gallery first and I swear that I can stay on each floor for AT LEAST a day per floor! There was so many interesting things to see and read about. And yes, I am that person that likes to read EVERYTHING everything everything. Yep, that would be me. Which is why I don't like going to places like this in big groups because I don't want to be the one who holds everyone up...but since it was just my friend and I and then her daughter ended up joining us when we were only there for about 2 hours...and she loves places like this like me.

This is one of my favorite thing that I saw. This is one of Duke's original surfboard made purely out of Koa! That things just be SUPER heavy! I can't even imagine! That was was a fun thing to see!

I could not get over how beautiful the outside the building was and then I walked inside the building and I was again in awe with the beautiful architecture of the place!

This is one of my favorite things that I read, "So it is with the medicine of Kane, before we use things for medicinal purposes, we asked for it because it was someone elses who made them grow. if we take without asking, we are guilty of stealing. Son't be careles. Do not just go and take, that's the way thieve do."- Joseph Kupihea Kahananui, 1962

 After we explored that amazing place (done for now!) we decided to walk the Nā Ula Kaiwi'ula Native Hawaiian Garden...and it was a short walk, but beautiful and we then we walked straight into the Science Adventure Center...and oh my days, I was greeted by this amazing wall of shiny and a waterwall right next to each other.

I want one! I want both walls in my "dream house" it doesn't even have to be that big! I feel as if I can stay there in front of those walls for at least an hour just watching it! :)

They had a shark exploratory area...they usually have different showcases of different themes every so often...and I was glad to be able to experience the shark exhibit
!

I'm still trying to gather my courage to go into a shark cage to "swim" with sharks out in the ocean! This is a real cage that they use for this activity) according to MJ (one of my friend's that came with me today). She has been swimming with the sharks on several occasions now...and she did say that she would go with me when I am ready to go. I'm not to hot on that open space by my head...I feel like they can still get to me! SCARY!

Other places that I went today:

For lunch we went into China Town and ate here. Amazing dim sum! 100% recommend this place!

The only Royal Palace in the US. The Iolani Palace. I feel like I can write a full on post on this place alone. A beautiful place...historically sad, but and amazing beautiful place.

Across the street we saw other historical buildings: Judiciary History Center and Hawai'i Supreme Court.

We sat here near this little spring just resting for a bit before went to go see the missionary houses.

It was a VERY fun day...and I can't wait to explore my beautiful island again!

More postcards!

I was checking my phone during my lunch break and I got three notices emailed to me that three of my postcards arrived at their destinations! The last postcards that I sent out have already reached their destinations...and at the same time...well, within hours of each other. That's pretty impressive to me! They were sent to New Zealand, USA (Florida) and Germany. I honestly thought that the one that I sent to Florida would have gotten there way before that others did, but yeah, the same day.

The originals that I have sent out to Russia and China are pushing 33 days now. (Well, the one that I sent to Russia was the first one that I mailed out and it has a three day head start from the one that I sent to China. So, China 30 days; Russia 33 days.) I hope that they get there. I would hate to have expired cards placed on my profile because they didn't get there. And those postcrossers are waiting for their postcard! Maybe it just takes a couple more days/weeks (hopefully NOT MONTHS!) to get to their destination.

When I got home, I was also excited to receive a postcard as well! Yay, it's about time the postcards that I am suppose to get start rolling in! :) I got Belarus, Netherlands, Taiwan, and Czech Republic as places where to send my next postcards. I was able to add another postcard to be sent out since I reached the 5 postcard mark to be able to have more postcards to be sent out.

I was laughing at myself while I was choosing postcards for this batch of postcards to be sent out. I am still in amazing awe of this place that I live in and sometimes I feel like I am going to wake up and realize the past couple of years was only a dream. I've had my ups and downs living here, and there have been plenty times where I feel like I couldn't make it (cost of living is ridiculous! To the point of where I have my doubts if I would have moved here if I had known just how high it was!) But I love it here and whenever I think of leaving, my heart breaks. <i>Am I going to stay here forever?! I don't know the future, but I love calling this place home.

I have to admit that I didn't know where Belarus was located on the map and so when I looked up I saw that it is a country in Eastern Europe that boarders Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. Pictures of Belarus look beautiful...lots of green, and gorgeous, gorgeous landscapes! And the water, wow! A beautiful, beautiful blue!

One of this postcrosser's request was for a postcard with an ocean view, so I decided to send her one of the moon rising over The Mokes in Lanikai. It's one of my favorite views here on the island...and I have seen it often. By the time it is the moon rise time, there aren't many people out by the beach, if any. And it's so peaceful and still and an amazing place to go to when you just want to take a break from all the chaos of life. She also mentioned that she loves stickers on her card so I added some on there for her as well as told her a little bit of the stuff that I enjoy doing. She also had a request to "please write 'toland 4ever' on the card." And so I did add that on there. I'm not sure what it even means, but hey, if it's a little thing to make someone smile...then okay. :)

This postcrosser from the Netherlands had resquested for any kind of card to be sent to her.&nbsp; I decided to send a more "touristy" snapshot collage of my beautiful island. :) She talked about the things that she loves and her passion so I decided to send her a quote that I enjoy myself: "Live to the moments you can't put into words." I hope she likes it!

This young lady from Taiwan had requested postcards with a beautiful scenery, and so I send her one of this gorgeous swimming place that was in the movie "From Here to Eternity"...hence the nickname. I told her about a few things about my and my hobbies...and I also wished her a happy birthday since I saw that her birthday was coming up soon!

I don't know how I feel about this, but this gentleman from Czech Republic had asked for his postcard to be blank and to be send in an envelope. He had been collecting postcards since 1968 and has over 2,500 postcards, however they are all blank and not marked with address or stamps. So I did what he asked and placed one of our beautiful Ko'olau Mountain Range postcard in an adddressed envelope. I did stick a post-it on the back of the card talking about the waterfalls that happen to our Ko'olau's during the rains.

I like how she added the time and the weather degrees on there. That is a good idea! :) I also LOVE the stamps that she used...I love flowers! And the postcard of a beautiful building! I would love to explore it and see what it's like inside! It must be super beautiful and full of history. At least that is what I can imagine! :) Check out that impressive ink stamp as well! I love! :)