RiRi Loves M.A.C. Holiday

Hello everyone, hope you're all doing okay. First of all I want to apologize for not being active these past weeks. I had a lot of exams for which I had to learn a lot (think entire book within two days or so) as I fell behind. Even though I had a lot of ideas and posts I wanted to share with you, school had to be my priority. So I hope you all forgive me for that. As I'm typing this I also suffer from the flu, but I just couldn't wait to show you guys what I got from the RiRi loves M.A.C. Holiday collection.

I didn't feel all that well when my alarm went off yesterday, but knew that if I didn't went to the store as soon as it opened I wouldn't have any chance to get my hands on these babies. At 10am I wasn't expecting a line, but unfortunately there was one. Everyone seemed to want the lipsticks, which is why the store only allowed you to buy one of each color. I let one of the salesmen swatch the pink lipstick as I was doubting if I should also get that one besides the other two when I heard another salesman say that the infamous Riri Woo was already sold out. 

*insert cry face*

I immediately ran out of that store (remember that I had the flu and was feverish) onto the next one, which luckily had a shorter line. I immediately asked how many they had left of each color or else I would have ran to the last store in Amsterdam that carried them. Luckily for me that wasn't necessary.

*insert happy dance*

I was able to get my hands on all three colors (the last Riri Woo and the second last of Pleasure Bomb). It was kinda sad though when others arrived asking if the store still carried some as it turned out that all stores' lipsticks basically sold out within 7 minutes after opening the store. 

Enough chit chat, let's look at the goodies

Isn't the packaging just gorgeous?  

From left to right: Bad Girl RiRi, Pleasure Bomb, RiRi Woo

Plain lips 

Bad Girl RiRi

The nude color of the bunch, a very wearable lipstick for all skin tones in my opinion. It's this soft rose cream that just looks flattering and I will probably wear this one everyday. 

Pleasure Bomb

This hot fuchsia lipstick will grab everyone's attention for sure. I like this one although I have never worn a bold lip and I will have to get used to this one. Paired with a calm eye look and due to the matte finish, this can work in daytime as well.

RiRi Woo

A true classic red that suits every skin color. I finally understand why this was sold out super fast every time it came out. For those that missed out I have asked the saleswomen to swatch this besides their regular Ruby Woo and there is barely a difference to them. RiRi Woo is just a bit darker, richer of color but really though I bet no one could tell if you wore one or the other until you compare them side to side.

I really do not regret my purchase even though I had to go outside with my flu and feverish head. I would have never been able to get my hands on them if I didn't unless of course for the ridiculous prices on Ebay. 

Have you purchased anything from the RiRi Loves M.A.C. Holiday collection?

Xoxo WyoniAlyssa

How I Chemically Straighten My Hair

Since I have thick curly hair a lot of people have asked me how I do my hair and/or if I chemically straighten it everyday etc. The answer is no of course, as no chemical substance should be applied to the skin on a daily basis. Some of you have seen Chris Rock's movie Good Hair but still don't understand everything. That's okay though. Some wonder why people use those chemicals on their hair, while they never ask they same thing from blonde-haired ladies. The chemical (bleach) is almost equally as strong as a relaxer and while black people normally do this every eight weeks, I've seen caucasians bleach their hair with an almost equally strong chemical every four weeks. My point is that ALL of those things can do harm if not used professionally and one should never do them if it's not necessary.

I do this every 13 weeks now instead of eight, just because I can handle my thick hair better than before and therefore do not find it necessary to do this as often as I used to.

What I use for the entire process:

• Chemical relaxer: enables you to chemically alter the structure of the hair (I use Organic Root Stimulator)
• Neutralizing shampoo: used to stop the relaxer from processing the hair (I use Maven) 
• Hair mask: softens and strengthens hair after the entire process (I usually mix whatever brands I have at the moment)
• Gloves
• Plastic combs and brush or spatula
• Protective base: to protect the scalp, ears, hairlines from burning (I use Maven)
• Hair clips: to keep hair in parts

I normally start by applying a thin coat of the protective base all over my scalp, hairline and ears. Unfortunately I didn't have enough left, so did it without it this time. Next I divided my head into four square parts (quadrants), braided them and clipped them out of the way. Normally I start in the back, but because I also wanted the length (excluding the ends) of my hair a bit straighter I started in the front to be able to rinse it out in the sink. 

I applied the relaxer on the first two centimeters of hair from my scalp (so on the new grown hairs) on the first quadrant. Immediately after that I applied some on the length of my hair and combed it a bit with a wide tooth comb to get it more straight. As I was doing one quadrant at a time, I kept smoothing the hair with my fingers to help with the straightening process. As soon as my scalp started to tingle a bit, I quickly checked if my hair was straight enough with a fine tooth comb. When this was the case I quickly rinsed that quadrant until none of the chemical relaxer was left in my hair. Next I applied some neutralizing shampoo (left it in my hair) and repeated the same steps with the other quadrants. 

When all quadrants were done I washed my hair once more with the neutralizing shampoo and after rinsing I applied a protein based hair mask for a few minutes. After that I washed my hair about three times more with the neutralizing shampoo until the foam color turned white (the shampoo has a color indicator which shows whether or not there is still some relaxer left in the hair). Next I used a moisturizing hair mask for a few minutes as the shampoo can be a bit drying for my hair. After this long process I just proceeded to dry my hair. 

Important Do's and Don'ts:

Do's:

• Work really fast; the relaxer starts working immediately when you apply it, so this is a must to get uniform results and avoid chemical burns on the scalp
• Keep all of your necessary items for the entire process ready
• Use gloves to protect your skin as the chemical will otherwise sink into your hands and this is unnecessary and not healthy especially if you do this every time
• Shampoo your hair at least four times with a neutralizing shampoo, letting it sit in the hair for 2-3 minutes each time
• Use plastic utensils as metal parts could possibly cause a chemical process with the relaxer and we're no chemists so it's a no no
• Use a protective base on your scalp especially if you have sensitive skin 
• Protect the length and ends of your hair with a silicone and/or oil based substance (I've used Pink lotion and oil over that as well)
• Use a hair mask after as this will help smooth the hair again since the shampoo can be a bit drying

 Don't's:

• Scratch your scalp in the week before your relaxer (I'm guilty of doing this one though)
• Leave the relaxer on too long just for the sake of getting your hair as straight as possible
• Wash your hair with a normal shampoo as this will NOT wash the chemicals out of your hair and scalp
• Use these kind of products if you are not a professional, these are heavy chemicals and one should be cautious  

Note:

This treatment should be done professionally. I have worked in salons for a while so I know how to do this on my own hair. Everyone is responsible for their own decisions and I am in no way telling you to do it the way that I do it. I'm merely informing those who were wondering. 

If you any questions that I failed to answer, please ask them in the comments below.

Xoxo WyoniAlyssa

M.A.C. ESPRESSO EYE SHADOW

So I've wanted to get this eyeshadow for so long, the classic M.A.C. Espresso eye shadow used to define everyone's eyebrows. I wanted it so bad but just couldn't buy it at the time, I mean come on...splurging around 17 Euros for an eyeshadow? I just couldn't do it so I tried to find a cheaper alternative , a dupe as they call it, and thought I had found it with Catrice's (We'll see below if I was right though). 

Anyway this seemed good enough at the time and I've been using it everyday since I bought it, but I'm almost out and felt it was a good time to look at M.A.C. again. Still a bit annoyed about its price tag, I decided to look on eBay and there it was…offered a few Euros less than in-store. Haven't used it yet, did swatch it on my skin though for the comparison, but that wasn't visible enough on camera so for the comparison I've swatched them onto a white paper. Let's have a look...

 

 

Comparison M.A.C. (left) vs Catrice (right) 

As you can hopefully see in the pictures, they appear to be very good dupes. The M.A.C. is a bit lighter and warmer of color while the Catrice seems a bit darker. The latter also looks a bit cooler, ashier if I might say and I did notice this sometimes when I was using the Catrice eyeshadow on my eyebrows. I haven't used the Espresso yet, but I can already tell that it will never look ashy on the skin.

Some important information for those who are interested...

Net Weight: 1.5 grams / 0.05 US ounces

Price: 17 Euros

Ingredients:

Talc, Zinc Stearate, Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate, Isostearyl Neopentanoate, Tocopheryl acetate, Caprylyl glycol, Hexylene glycol, Phenoxyethanol, [+/- Silica, Mica, Titianium dioxide (CI 77891), Iron oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499), Bismuth oxychloride (CI 77163), Blue 1 lake (CI 42090), Carmine (CI 75470), Chromium hydroxide green (CI 77289), Chromium Oxide greens (CI 77288), Ferric ferrocyanide (CI 77510), Manganese violet (CI 77742), Red 40 lake (CI 16035), Ultramarines (CI 77007), Yellow 5 lake (CI 19140)] <ILN29076>

Have you also used M.A.C.'s Espresso eye shadow for your eyebrows? If not, what do you use to define your brows?

Xoxo WyoniAlyssa

NOTE:

You've probably noticed that my font is different than before. The reason for this change is that my former font is not offered on my new computer. I also can't seem to paste my website onto my pictures, but I'll try to figure that out. Photos were taken with my Canon 600D btw. xx

When Everything Seems To Go Wrong

Do you ever get the feeling that you just have some bad luck? 

Could you imagine having that feeling for an entire week?

Well..I can... *insert sad face*

I just can't imagine why this all had to happen at once. I don't even wanna know when I last uploaded a post, but you'll soon know why. I will tell you what happened this past week. (Beware: long post)  

Monday started off quite well although I still can't get over the early classes at school starting at 8:30 in the morning. I mean no one (not even the teachers like that time). This was our last week of school and so the lecturers gave either tips and/or mock exams for the upcoming tests. It was rainy but the day went on well until I remembered that I had to call my doctor (again!). Little background info: I did a test some time ago and was told that the results would be in in three days or so…Well those days turned into weeks and while that's not really an issue at all (if mentioned from the start), it is when you're constantly on the phone with the assistants and they keep telling you to call back in a few more days.

Anywho...Fast forward to past Monday again...I called them to hear that they couldn't find my results at all, that the lab made a mistake and I had to retake the test. Thumbs up for that one right, cause this kickstarted my terrible week.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was working on some stuff for my exchange of course. I have to for example send a so called study plan which basically means that I have to choose subjects and have to explain why I chose them. Went to the bathroom and when I came back my laptop shut down out of nowhere. I thought there was something wrong with the power adapter (was using this solely as the battery of my laptop died in the beginning of the year). So not a good day to say the least, but hey I was going to get a new adapter the next day so no biggie right?

On to Thursday…had class but was running a little late just to do a mock exam in class (still helpful though). Went to Mediamarkt to buy a new power adapter for my HP laptop (yay another 40 euros disappeared). Came home…well not really as I stood before my door finding out I'd lost my keys (this week couldn't get any better right?). After the initial panic came logic…what did I do exactly and where did I need to go or who did I have to call. I phoned Car2go immediately as I'd used one of their cars in the morning. Unfortunately the specific car I had used was located at the other side of town (great), so in order to get there fast I took another one of their cars and drove there. Can you guess what I'd found?…

Yes, exactly nothing, my keys weren't there and I had just spend more money. I asked my boyfriend if he could go to the final stop of the public transport that I had used earlier in the day. This of course again resulted in nothing. 

Lot of bad luck so far right…Well there is more

Came home that evening crossing my neighbor in the street, telling her about the lost keys and you know what… she saw them laying in the street in the morning but left them there as she thought that the owner would immediately run back. Unfortunately I never noticed it as my bag was way to full that day and the keys probably flicked out of my bag when I swayed it over my shoulder. As is was too late I couldn't ask the other neighbors if they had my keys. So finally tested my new power adapter of course only to find out that it wasn't working…my computer still couldn't be turned on. Great…just great...slight panic attack, maybe I did something wrong, I should try it again in the morning was what I was thinking as I was very sleepy. Oh and did I already mention that I had a deadline for a certain subject? (at friday evening…but still)

Friday morning came... couldn't go to school due to losing my keys in the neighborhood and my mom freaking out about potential burglars. Tried to start my laptop again…failed once more. Googled to see if I could find a solution for my problem, didn't work so I called HP. After a numerous amount of minutes where I explained the problems and I had to test it, they came up with a diagnose. Drumroll…it was the motherboard and they didn't have the one for my model anymore. Only thing they could do was offer me a reduction on a new computer

*insert panic attack and sadness now* 

Why so many things all at once…I  work so hard and this is what I get? Now you see I luckily was able to get a new computer on black friday and was allowed to return and get a full refund on the power adapter that I bought earlier. The hard drives of my deceased laptop were saved but I will have to see how an external hard drive works.

To top it all off…I overslept this morning, first time in at least one and a half years. I feel like I should deserve a lot of positivity (and some money) after all of this and I should pass all of my exams as well (LOL and crying)

Have you ever had a lot of bad luck at the same time? How did you cope with it?

Xoxo WyoniAlyssa