Delightful Illusions

          Two days before my birthday, I was at the mall and strolled around Watsons and rummaged through some of the makeup products. By the way, there's this Lipstick Sale going on in SM where most lipsticks are on sale until September, in honor of the Lipstick Month. I didn't get any lipsticks because I have a lot already. Haha! Anyways, I bought this Ever Bilena Brown Eyeshadow Palette because a lot of Pinay beauty gurus, vloggers, and bloggers are raving about these products. I got this for my birthday because I wanted to see if this really nice as what these people are talking about. I'm not gonna talk about the quality of these shadows because I will be doing a separate review post soon. This palette is being sold for Php 150. 

          Then I got this Moonlight Magic Body Mist from Bath and Body Works which was given to me by mama's friend. I met her like 2 months ago and she already have given me gifts for my birthday. What a nice lady! I'm really thankful that she thought of giving me a present. :) Anyways, I sprayed this quite a lot of times and I like the smell. The type of smell that I like; It's kind of sweet but not overwhelming, like something a lady of my age should smell like. Haha! 

          Then, she gave me these plaid or checkered handkerchiefs from brands Pierre Cardin and Armando Caruso. I love collecting hankies! I don't have multi-colored hankies in my collection, so these would be nice addition. Thank you so much for these gifts! :D

          Of course, I have had a makeup shopping in order to celebrate fully my birthday. Haha! A week before my birthday, I browsed Zalora's website to see if there were great sales on the beauty section because I wanted to try the brands I've tested before. I was actually waiting for my birthday code, they send me coupon codes every year, so that I could have had some shopping spree. The code wasn't sent until 4 days before my birthday. So, I couldn't wait for the code and just ordered right away because I cannot miss the July in Christmas sale.  

          My package a day before my birthday and I was so excited to see the products I bought. I appreciated that Zalora had packed the things I purchased in a bubble wrap. To be honest, I'm really impressed by the way they pack the makeup products they have shipped to me. My last experience with them is kind of not so good. Haha! :) I only got three things and 1 of them is for my mama. 

          One of the things that I bought is this Touch In SOL In the Skin Renovation BB Cream. The main reason why I got this BB Cream is for its discounted price; it was Php 600+ down to Php 206.40. Quite a bargain, eh? I think that this  is already sold out since I couldn't find this on the website anymore. I have tried this a few times already and I'm liking this BB Cream so far. Not the most compatible for oily skin, but not a bad one either. 

          The best thing about this product is that it comes in a gigantic tube with pump applicator. It doesn't look cheap and has a lot of product in it. This is a legit Korean BB Cream and I recommend you try this one. I'm not gonna go into details because I will reviewing this as soon as I can have my concrete and precise thoughts about this product. :)

          The next thing I bought is this Slogan Range #SELFIE Palette by I Heart Makeup, which is actually a baby company of Makeup Revolution. I love how they packed this with a bubble wrap on its own. Yay! 

          It comes with a mini glittery eye primer which I think is so cute. I haven't really tried this product yet so I can't tell much. I will be doing a review on this palette as well and I hope you stay tuned for that. 

          The packaging of this palette is quite heavy, especially the mirror that comes with it. As you can see in the photo, the cover is in like a holographic picture, which changes when you flip it up and down. What do you call that thing? I forgot! Haha!

          When you open this palette, there's a plastic with the names of the shades covering the eye shadows. Don't they have cute names? I've swatched this once and I can say that they are one of the most pigmented eyeshadows in the whole world. The metallic shades are so pigmented, jam-packed with glitters and is reflective. Oh my gosh! I can't play with this palette and show you the swatches. This retails for Php 550. 

         Lastly, I bought this Maybelline Color Sensational Lasting Lipstick in 625 Are You Red Dy. This lipstick is actually for my mama. She is running out of red lipstick and so I thought of buying. My mama only uses red lipsticks and I was thinking that she would love this shade. She told me it was too red for her when she applied it on her lips though. Haha! This is Php 299 if you are wondering. 

          The last thing I received was this Cotton On The Scoop Shirt in the Surf The Web (royal blue)  from my cousin. I love this so much because this is my favorite color. This just your basic tee that you could almost pair with anything. It's so comfortable to wear on and I recommend checking this out. This particular color is still available on Cotton On's US website and it's on sale for $5. What are you waiting for? Buy now! :)

          I turned 24 last August 7, 2016. My birthday's celebration was simple; my mama and cousins cooked some dishes for lunch and we had cake, ice cream and a dessert for snacks. To be honest, I wasn't expecting a celebration at all since I'm now jobless for two months and celebrating my birthday was kind of expensive. Haha! I was fortunate and very thankful to my aunts and mommy who sent me money for which was in time for my birthday. I wasn't even expecting a cake for my birthday since I didn't have any plans at all. Anyways, that cake from the top was sponsored by my aunt from Manila. She sent my mama money and told her to give me some so I could buy some food for my birthday. So, there's the cake. :)

          A day before my birthday, my granny gave me two native chickens (which she has bred herself) and told my mama to cook Binakol (local chicken soup recipe) and Adobong Manok. You know guys, native chickens are much more tastier than the chickens from Manila. Try visit Iloilo sometime and look for these food. ;P Then, my cousin in-law cooked the Pancit Bihon (local noodle recipe) with stir-dried vegetables and squid balls. Yumminesssssssss! He also cooked the pork barbecue. This was like the best lunch I ever had this year! It was my family's recipes and they're all home cooked. Felt so nutritious! :D

          My cousin bought me Mango Cake from Red Ribbon which was so good; it wasn't so sweet and it was perfect. The other cake, which I featured above, was a Chocolate Cake from JoyCakes which is being sold at Bread & Butter. Then, that coconut with gelatin you see is a local dessert called Buko Pandan. You have probably heard about this but you've tasted one so good you won't stop eating. Out of all the versions I've tasted, my mama's recipe is still my favorite. I'm so proud! :D 

          Then, I also bought an 2-in-1 ice cream in Cookiies N' Cream and Double Dutch flavors. These are my favorites flavors of all time! I'm about to blow the candle in this picture. :) As you can see, there's nothing fancy in my outfit and it's not enough for an Birthday OOTD post. Well, I just stayed home all day during my birthday and there's no point of dressing like I'm going out. Haha! 

          This is the most exciting part of my 24th Birthday ever! It was already 5 pm and I was replying to the greetings on Facebook when the owner of a local restaurant/bar messaged me to get my free pizza at The Main Street. I was like: "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?". I couldn't believe an owner of restaurant will give a free pizza on my birthday. I was happy and thrilled because this never happened before. OMG! Haha! I logged out immediately and went to To he Main Street, waited for 20 minutes for the pizza to be cooked, went home and ate a slice for dinner. What a happy tummy I had! :D I don't know what flavor or creation they gave me but it was one of the best pizzas I've ever eaten in my life. I'm not even kidding. It has this meaty and garlicky taste with hams, mushrooms and milky cheese sauce. It's all greatness! #pizzaislife

          For my birthday look, I opted for brown smokey look. It was inspired by a vlogger that I used to watch years and years ago; the vlogger made a party look where she out dark brown shadow all over the lids and a light beige shadow on the crease. I thought it was pretty and unusual from the looks that I have seen so I tried it for my 24th birthday. 

            Most of the products I used are the makeup items I included in my Products I Want To Use Up in 2016 Challenge. I used the Elf matte brown shade for my transition, a shadow from the Revlon Shadow/Liner Palette in Naturally Glamorous for the crease, and a dark brown shadow with gold glitters from the The Balm California Autobalm Face Palette for the lids. Then, I used a kind of burgundy shade for my lower lash line, a highlighter pencil from Essence Cosmetics for the waterline, a brown liquid liner from LOL Cosmetics for the upper lash line, and the San San Thick Lash Waterproof Mascara for the lashes. 

         I used a matte peach blush and mixed it with the Elf blush in Tickled Pink. I love the combination because it showed up on the picture. Nice! :D For the lips, I used the San San Lip Liner in Pink as a base, then dabbed the Revlon Balm Stain in Sweetheart Valentine on my lips, and topped it with the Clinique Different Lipstick in a Different Grape. 

         This is the look that I came up with. I apologize if my photo is washed out; I only use natural lighting. This look looks good in person and I mom complimented me for it. Haha! If only I have a good camera for tutorials, I will definitely demonstrate on how I achieved this look. :)

          Over the past few days, I have received coupon codes for my birthday sent by companies stores that I'm currently subscribed to. Since I don't have all the money to splurge for my birthday, I was thinking maybe I could give away my codes so it won't go to waste and I could make somebody happy. So, here I am, giving away my discount codes. :) Click the store's names for the links. 

        P.S. Some of these codes might be good for 1 use only. If the code doesn't work anymore, it means somebody might have availed the discount already. :) *means it's a referral link. 

          Those are the things I wanted to share about my birthday. I can never thank enough my family, boyfriend, friends, workmates, readers, and everyone who loved and supported me all throughout my 24 years of existence in this world. Thank you for always being there for me and your continuous support is always appreciated. This is one of the best birthdays I had in so many years! <3 :d="" p="">

          I will be posting my birthday haul soon and I will be introducing a site that I know you all will love. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy this post. Your thoughts, suggestions, reactions and requests are welcomed by leaving a comment down below. I'll talk to you next time. Have a great day. Stay safe! XOXO

           Hi, guys! Today's post is about the outfit I wore today on my niece's birthday party. It's her 7th birthday celebration today; a Frozen-themed party. All of the decorations were colored either blue, white or silver. Anyways, I wore something comfortable (as always) yet still colorful and youthful. 

           As you can see, I'm chubby right now. Haha! I have been eating a lot the past few months and I honestly didn't care. For my dress, I chose this high-low cut, flower-printed short dress that I purchased from Boracay. I though this was so suitable for the venue which is on the beach. My cousins wore maxi dresses, but I didn't want to trouble myself being uncomfortable on the bus. I cannot explain the specific style of this dress; it has cinch on the waistline and has this overlay fabric of the same print on the neckline. See this picture from Instagram to see what I mean: Colorful Dress.

           I layered my dress with a cropped, light wash denim jacket which I got from a thrift store in Baguio. I have big arms right now and I don't feel like exposing so I have to cover them. This jacket seems to have matched with my dress pretty well. What can you say? I was actually inspired by Demi Lovato to pair girly dresses with denim jackets. Remember the Camp Rock 2 days? Her outfits were so cute! 

          Then I chose a brown sling bag with studs and fringes from Stradivarius. I cannot find this bag on their online store anymore but here similar ones on this page. This bag is spacious enough to put my wallet, sunglasses, earphones, small body mist and makeup at times. 

          To spice up my outfit, I wore this some sort of a connector ring; one band one the middle part and the other band on the bottom connected by a chain. Please tell me what do you call this type of ring because I clearly do not know. Haha! 

          For shoes, I chose these brown sandals from the brand Spring Fling which I bought online at Zalora. Fortunately, you can still purchase this online on this page.I think that these pair of flats went well with the rest of my outfit. These have put on a bohemian vibe on the overall outfit, together with the bag. These shoes are so comfortable to wear on and looks unique compared to other strappy sandals I've seen. 

       This was my outfit for today's family occasion. I loved this overall look because it's cute, youthful, and vibrant. I felt like I was a teenager again. I think that it suited pretty well for a children's party. It's comfortable, simple yet playful at the same time. Did you like my outfit as well? Let me know by leaving a comment down below. I enjoy making posts about this because I like sharing my style with you, guys. I hope you stay tuned because I will share my favorites next. Thank you so much for visiting. Have a great day. Stay safe. XOXO

          Hi, guys! I am going to share to you today about my disappointing experience on an online purchase; it's way of packaging and the time I waited for to be delivered to me. This post will be composed a lot of rants and some cursing to express my emotions. If you don't like this type of posts, you can click the close button for this window right now. :) I do not intend to this to get attention, be famous, bash the website, or anything. I just want to share my experience as this is the first time that this was happened to me. 

           Last December, I decided to order a pair a shoes from Zalora PH to match some of my outfits for the upcoming holidays. I ordered the shoes on December 13, 2015, 7 days before we leave for a vacation in Manila. I was confident that I will be receiving my order on the 18th at most; Cash On Delivery (COD) transactions for provinces usually arrives 3-5 working days after they have shipped the orders. So, I waited patiently for my order as I was expecting that I will be putting it on my luggage when I start packing. Friday came and my order didn't arrive. I said to myself that maybe my package will arrive the next day. I wasn't worried so much yet. 

          As you can see on the picture above, Zalora verified my order the same day I ordered the shoes. It's good that they post tracking of orders on their customer's account. 

          We can see on the picture above that they have shipped my order the following day, December 14, 2015. I have one question though; when they say shipped does that mean my order is already on its way to my house or it has been given to the courier to be shipped out? Usually, couriers ship packages on the same day if the transaction has been made before 12 noon. Am I right, guys?

            Going back to my story, I actually did not receive any package. I went on vacation without the shoes I ordered on my luggage. I was already disappointed because Zalora haven't delivered my package super late. They have been true to what they say that orders to be delivered on provincial areas will arrive 3-5 working days after they have been shipped. 6 working days have passed and I still haven't received my order. On the 20th of December, we left for vacation. What I did was that I left my payment to my grandmother. I told her if LBC comes, she should just get my package and give my payment to them. 

         My grandmother called us to say hi on the 21st; I asked her if my order has arrived already because it's already Monday. She said that LBC hasn't come yet and delivered anything. I just said: "Ah, Okay". I thought that maybe there's a lot of orders and a traffic on the shipment of packages considering that it was holiday season. I shrugged it of because I was thinking that the package will arrive that week.

         When we got home on January 3rd of 2016, my grandmother handed me over the package. I was excited to open my package because I wanna see what the shoes look like in person. My grandmother said that my order arrived yesterday, January 2. I was like: "Whaaaat??". That was too long already! Anyways, before I go to my ranting, I want to share with you the pictures I took as I opened my package. 

          As I said, I was excited to open my package. When I opened it, this is what I saw. Look at the picture above, that's what I exactly saw. My reaction was: "What the fuck is this!? Did someone open this?". Who could do this? I'm not sure if the courier did this thing because the package is sealed and has the Zalora tag on it. If LBC opened my package, the plastic should be ripped off. The plastic wrapper was not ripped off in any form and I couldn't see any opening. The thing that pissed me so much was the box. What the fuck is that? A reused box that looks like it has beaten. Who the hell is Jay Ann Hernandez? What does the numbers mean on the box? I am so sorry for cursing but this is so disappointing. Don't they have the decency to give their customer a decent box? 

          Orders from Zalora comes with an envelope containing the receipt and return form. I was even more shocked that when I opened the envelop, I was that the papers inside were already folded in a messy way; like somebody opened this first, read the contents, folded it and put it back on the envelope. Who the fuck opened this envelope? If you have to sneak into someone's order, make sure you leave no evidence. What the hell!

           When I opened box, I saw that the shoes were still there. Good thing, huh? I have noticed that the silica gel that usually comes in shoe box is not on this box. Did somebody took it? I was even thinking that maybe somebody tried this is on and just put it back in the box. Like these items were already used before I even received them. I was so mad that time I wanted to mail Zalora right away and curse them for their negligence. Yes, I call this negligence. My items were on sale but that doesn't mean they won't give the proper box I deserve. I may be nobody to the blogging community, but I don't think I deserve this mess. I don't know if this is Zalora's fault or the courier. One should have done, Zalora should secure all their packages. When the shipment to the courier has done, it doesn't mean that they won't track leniently anymore. I made orders from the site before but this is the first it has happened to me. And I tell you right now, I am not really happy about this. I was thinking to just move on with my life but people should know my story. People deserve this story because they must be aware of the consequences of buying online. 

         I feel bad for saying all of these, but I can't just sit here and keep this experience to myself. There are lots of dangers on shopping online. I realized that even grandiose fashion website like Zalora can never ever guarantee the safety of products we buy from them. I just don't feel like buying from them any time soon. This is so disappointing. I am so sorry for the curses I have said but I need to let this one out. I will understand if you will be turned off with this post. This is my story and I just want to share it. Anyways, thank you much for reading. I feel like people will react to this post and leave some comments. I will answer them but I won't be back at home until Thursday. I will go for a work travel tomorrow. If you have anything to share to use regarding this matter, feel free to comment. I hope you still read my blog after you read this posts. I will talk to you soon. Have a great day. Stay safe.