Belated Christmas Haul!

Christmas is long over but I'm still in the midst of enjoying my new goodies! To be honest, I don't really celebrate Christmas anymore and I don't even race to the Boxing Day sales either. This year's presents were real great and most of them are very useful so I decided to make a special goodies/haul post! I only got a couple of beauty related things and the rest were more to do with my occupation. Mind you, most of these things I got after Christmas. Might be a boring post! Ha!

First off! Beauty-related items! I didn't get much from online shops because I didn't want to wait forever for things to come and there just wasn't much that I really wanted. Instead I decided to hit up a long time favorite shop of mine: MAC!


I decided to pick up the two Highlight Powders from the new Dame Edna collection. I don't really like Dame Edna but I have a thing for these powders/blushes/bronzers/highlighters. The packaging is as great as the Heatherette one so I just had to have them! I couldn't decide which colour as they are both sheer-ish so I got them both.

This one is What a Dame! and it is a pearlish gold kind of highlighter. Since it's pretty sheer and has a gold kind of finish, it is perferct for making a glowy face. Very nice! The only real thing I have with these highlighters is that the sparkly finish that you see in the pictures are totally gone within the first swipe. I wish it was throughout.


The other one is called Spetacle! which is quite almost like a coral orange with slight tint of red. I don't like using the velvet applicator but a brush so it's somewhat perfect for a light tinted blush. Blends pretty well with the ones I have. Something to put under my MSFs from MAC as well. Same issue with the shimmer layer on the top as the other highlighter.

Now I couldn't get everything from MAC as I have decided that I really only like their lipsticks, lipglosses and blushes. So I decided to turn to another brand I really like which is Bobbi Brown. I don't really own much from BB but I do like flipping through her books and looking at her looks. I find them really natural and very relatable for everyday occasions. So when her Bobbi Brown Makeup Manual came out, I had to get it! It's not that I couldn't just read this stuff online but it's more of a nice reference book to have. She teaches real well in her books and it never falls short on Asians which is awesome!

I took some pictures of the manual so you can see how nice it is!

She goes through everything from skincare to makeup to looks to becoming a makeup artist. I find her real thorough with every single aspect for correcting skin problems especially when it comes to undereye. Here's a picture of the blush page that really catches my eye every single time. I really like the colour she chose for that girl on the left! And the coolest thing is that she even did bronzer on a light skinned Asian lady. It's done tastefully that it isn't too bronze or too orange either.

There is also a specific page for lining the single lids. I don't have a single lid but this page just shows the diversity in this manual and that she really has everyone in mind. Sadly I find that dramatic eyeliner look very ugly looking. It looks more like drooping eye to me.

And finally! This is the back page of the book and it's so nice. A whole two pages of lots and lots of blush. Maybe that's her favorite product too!

Since I was already at Chapters(bookstore), I decided to spend some hard earned cash on myself and buy some books that I really like. I actually have one more book that I bought but forgot to take a photo of. That one is Giada De Laurentiis' Every Italian. Now, you must be thinking.. Martha Stewart?! Believe it or not, her book teaches the very simplest but the most basic things. I have a couple of these "references" cookbooks and they all teach the same thing as Martha but I think it's very nice to have. It's a great housewarming gift too! The other one I want to talk about is the INDULGE book. It's a dessert book written by the pastry chef at The French Laundry which is the restaurant that inspired the Disney movie Ratatouille. It is an awesome-beyond-awesome book! The pictures are beautiful and the recipes are super easy to follow. Restaurant quality yet homecook level instructions! I already made the panacotta recipe already!

The last of my purchases was on Boxing Day. I actually decided to go to the mall on sheer boredom. I was bored sitting at home so I just wanted to go out and actually see the sales. I went into the normal stores that I like and saw that COACH is indeed really good during sales! Basically they bring out the old collections and sell them half price! It's almost like shopping at the outlets that you have to drive to the border. The line and swarm of people(ladies and gentlemen!) was so much that I only browsed quickly to snatch up a bag and two cute makeup bags. Everything in total costed the price of the one cosmetic bag alone! What a steal!

So that's what I got for Christmas!